Freezing in Houston!

This has been the craziest, longest winter in my life. What is even crazier is the snow we've gotten two years in a row. This is a picture from December 4, 2009.

"Since 1895, it has only snowed 33 times in Houston, about once every 3½ years on average. Until 2008 and 2009, it has never snowed two years in a row. In 2008, it snowed on December 10 and 24, in itself a rarity, with the first one setting a record for the earliest ever. This was quickly broken the following year by a major storm on December 4." - Wikipedia.org (Climate in Houston)

So today it didn't snow after all just north of downtown, as forecast, but it did in some of the more northern parts of the city and up in Huntsville. I picked up the kids from their after school program and we made a quick stop at the grocery store for some juice I had to buy for a teacher appreciation breakfast tomorrow. When we got off the truck we saw some little bits of ice falling. It was exciting for about a minute but we quickly realized it wasn't going to turn into snowfall. That's okay, it was cold enough.

We've been going through a lot of changes in the Ruiz home this week. I have believed in co-sleeping for a while now, and I still do when the children are younger, but we had gone a little over board I think and I hadn't been able to get the kids out of our bed. Last week my husband decided that enough was enough and that maybe at this age we were doing the children more harm than good.

So on Thursday the children moved into their own beds and room permanently. It's been painful for them and they are still waking up during the night and telling us they hear noises, but they are doing it. Even last night my little one came into our room and told us that he was hearing noises. I was ready to scoot over to make room for him, but my husband told him to go back to bed and I was shocked when he did. I was so sleepy I just turned over and kept sleeping, but in the morning I was amazed to see that he was sleeping soundly in his bed.

We are also putting them to bed earlier and I only read a little bit of To Kill a Mockingbird to them tonight. I am hoping that by going to bed earlier they are less tired after school, especially my son. Some evenings he's so cranky it makes it hard to go the gym. I go anyway but there have been a couple of times that he is just crying and carrying on OR that he falls asleep on the short ride from his after school class to the gym. This SHOULD help my working out! It's already helping my writing because they've been asleep since 9:30 and that gave me some extra writing time.

My husband just kidded with his Anglo friend, who has been shocked by our chidrens' bedtime and sleep culture, that we have finally acculturated and our kids are now officially non-Hispanic. (LOL) He told him that they've been asleep since 9:30 in their own beds and in their own room.

On another note, I met with my soon-to-be editor today and she's agreed to look at more of my novel. I'm excited! Forward on! Leap fearlessly! I can't wait to start getting more feedback from her. I told her that I am going to have to edit prior to her editing, kind of like I clean house before the cleaning lady. But knowing that I have to send it to her for editing will force me to edit. I'm excited!

Lots of changes! More to come soon!

Leap Fearlessly

Kindle by Amazon.com

I made it to the gym again this week! Thank goodness! I even went at the end of a really bad day. Believe me, it was extremely difficult to do it, but somehow I made myself go and I did it. I'm working on building myself back up to running. I didn't want to just jump right back into running after missing my workouts for a couple of weeks. So I've been walking and building back up. I think today is the day I'm going to start back on my 90/60 running again. I was already running longer than I was walking and I set myself back. No, I can' think of it that way. Any move is a move forward.

I'm having lunch at my desk, a cup of Progresso Light chicken soup. I'm going to resist the Girl Scout cookies that are sitting on my desk right now and I'm going to eat an Adkins peanut butter fudge crisp instead of the very delicious peanut butter patties that are calling my name. Yes, this peanut butter fudge crisp is just as delicious! Yum!!

I've included a picture of the Kindle for y'all to check out. I'm sure most of you have seen it before or may even have one. These are really popular and so are the Sony Readers. I am moving forward with my plan and I have a lunch meeting with my prospective editor next week. She's my former journalism teacher from high school and she's retired now. She's agreed to take a look at a couple of pages for me and to give me some feedback. Then she'll decide if she can do the editing and we'll go from there. I'm scared and excited all at the same time.

I keep telling myself to Leap Fearlessly. I'm scared to make big changes, but I have to do it. Now is the time.

Forty and Goal Setting Time!

It's finally official! I am FORTY YEARS OLD!! I seriously think I've been experiencing a depression in disguise for the last couple of months. Turning 40 has been weighing heavy on my mind for the past month. On top of this big milestone I've been going through a lot of other stressful state of affairs in my life and in my career.

But that was then and this is now. I am moving forward and I am taking back the power. I refuse to be the victim in my career changes and I will be proactive and I will do what I need to do to take care of ME and my family.

I finally made it back to the gym, which was much needed. I broke in the new Nike running shoes and I JUST DID IT!

I've also made a huge decision for myself. I have decided to self-publish my first novel! It is a huge step to make and I will be very busy editing what I wrote three years ago. It feels great to make a decision like this one. It gives my life even more purpose. I finally have a goal as regards this book and I'm looking forward to working towards that goal.

Speaking of goals. There are three times when I make and review goals in my life. The New Year, my birthday, and Fall, when the school year starts. I'm two days into 40 and I haven't reviewed my goals yet. As a matter of fact, I didn't make any this past January. All I said was that I would do what I had to do and not what I shouldn't. That worked for a little while and then I slacked off.

So now it's time to review my life goals, my goals for the next five years of my life and my goals for retiring. Crazy as that sounds I hope I'm retiring in the next 20 to 25 years. Twenty years fly by as has been proved since my high school graduation. THEY FLY! I will be 60 in just 20 more years. Unbelievable.

Turning 40 also makes me really take stock of my life and what I'm doing. I found an awesome artist, Kelly Rae Roberts, this past week while working. I came across her work while out on sales call and I was blown away by her work. She has such inspiring quotes on her work! I bought a little art frame that reads, "Leap Fearlessly." This will become my motto. It applies to so many aspects of my life, but especially my career.

I promise I will start blogging more often. I’ll let you know how my goals are going and how the book publishing idea is going. My goals are definitely tied to my exercise and eating goals!