GREYHAIRED MOMMA: I'm baaaaack!!

It's been a while since I've been here.
If I'm honest, it's because I was scared.
I had begun to look at other blogs and bloggers and found my blog and myself lacking.
I was scared that I wasn't doing enough, being enough, the blog wasn't fancy enough, interesting enough.
And so I didn't post.
But I wasn't happy with that.

I realized that this blog is mine. And should reflect me.
So it's background hasn't been changed in years? So what.
So my posts (IMHO) have gotten less newsy, less meaty, and more photo heavy? So what.
So the pictures and descriptions in the side bar are out of date? By years? So what.
This blog is mine. And it reflects me: busy, sorta not fancy in a flip flop and shorts way, and most importantly, ENOUGH!

And so, here's the plan: I'm gonna get you caught up on all the Greyhaired happenings.
I planned to do so in one post. But that's gonna be too large.
So I'm going to post several -- one for each month -- over the next week or so.
You'll notice that at the beginning of the year, I didn't take many photos. (That whole comparison thing again!)
But that changes as we get further into the year.
Betcha can't wait.
I look forward to seeing you here more often.
Welcome back, dear friend. Welcome back.

January...

CraftyGirl kept busy with Waffles. She loves this rodent. I'm sure Waffles feels the same about CG, though she isn't the most cuddly of creatures. But she's super cute! Kinda like my girl...

And CraftyGirl continued to make her "plushies." She cranks these things out at an alarming rate. If there is a national felt shortage, I'm in trouble.

(Yup. Toaster with removable toast.)

TheBoy had his Pinewood Derby at Boy Scouts. He and MotorMan worked on the car together and modeled it after one of my dad's roadsters.

January also found us back at the Naval Hospital Orthopedics clinic...

MotorMan had to go on a detachment to, ahem, Key West. Being a Marine Aviator is so, so burdensome sometimes. Though he was only gone for two weeks, we were all really glad when he came home. We are SO out of the "daddy's deployed" routine that these two weeks seemed really hard for us all to get used to. Being out of the deployment routine? I'm not complaining. Not one bit! God willing, we will never have to face deployment again.

I ran my second half marathon. Or, I should say, this one ran me. I started having troubles with my IT bands after my last half in November, but paid the pain little heed. Trained and raced through the pain and ended up with severe and debilitating knee pain after this race. Ended up having injured my left patellar tendon after favoring my right IT band for the better part of 6 miles. This lack of paying attention to the pain while training and racing caused me to be down for almost 3 months, and required physical therapy. I'm still working on getting my mileage up now, but I haven't stopped exercising. (More to come in subsequent updates!)

In January, I also began leading a group called Run for God. Run for God is a national program that seeks to align faith and fitness. My group and I participated in the 5K Challenge, which was a 14 week training plan where we did a weekly Bible study and workouts. It was great fun, and a blessing for me. Seeing as how I couldn't run for the first 6 weeks or so of the training, God used the experience to truly humble me and remind me that I need to rely on Him for all my needs.