enjoy this winter by having at least one "fulfilling and new" experience in January, February and March

For once, I’m going to keep something to myself. I’ve definitely experienced something new and fulfilling this month, and hopefully I’ll be able to write about it soon!

Last night, Ray and Andi joined us as we took Audrey to Chuck E Cheese’s for the first time. She had so much fun, she was just beside herself the entire time. I’d never been before either, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Audrey was already old enough for just about every game and ride they had.

I think her favorite was the big climbing/tube crawling/slidey thing. It didn’t have any stairs to enter, you had to pull your way up via a platform system. Audrey was almost too short to get up, but Andi helped her figure out how to grab the netting with her little toes for leverage. She was so proud of herself and climbed up over and over again. Towards the end, she figured out how the token system worked and had a blast putting the tokens into the machines all by herself.

Another highlight was watching Ray and Eric turn into big kids in the midst of air hockey and various other fun games. I think they spent more tokens than Audrey did!

of course :) Running my first half-marathon. The fulfilling and new experience wasn’t at the finish line, though. It was at the start line… thousands of people waiting for the race to begin, and then the human river spreading in the road as far ahead and behind as eyes can reach. The feeling to be part of the flow that was gradually waving its way ahead :)

After I was done I stayed around to watch others finish, and watching so many dedicated determined people was something by itself. I have to run a marathon some time :)

Running the 10k was definitely new and fulfilling. I like that distance, the 5k and the 10k are good distances. Since yesterday was the first day of spring the half-marathon won’t count for March.

My biggest new and fulfilling experience for February was definitely The Shins concert I attended with my wonderful girlfriends Andi, Alicia, and Lisa. It was a perfect trip up to the city filled with amazing conversation, a tasty dinner, and a truly excellent concert. This is one of my favorite bands, and I’d been wanting to see them perform live for years. They did not disappoint.

Went to a local theatrical theater to see a musical production of Grease. I also have plans to drink some green beer at the local pub!!

In January, my daughter Audrey and I started having Thursday-night girls’ night out together. My husband gives guitar lessons and likes to have us out of his hair for an hour or two so Audrey and I have started hitting the town. We’ve done Borders, Barnes and Noble, the mall, had a play date, and the fun things are just limitless. These have been some of the first times we’ve gone out and about just the two of us (daddy always seems to be with), and it’s becoming something very special.

And it’s right up my alley so I hope you guys don’t mind me joining you for winter and spring:)

update is long overdue :) The highlight of my February was that I got involved in writing a book chapter for an instructional text on the things I’m doing. It’s quite a different writing experience, as it shouldn’t be too technical (the format I’m more used to), but the opportunity to organize things and to give it a reasonable flow is something I’m enjoying. It’s not finished yet, but I’m hoping I can do a good job on it.

I would put running 13 miles this past Sunday as my fulfilling and new experience for March, but I’m saving it for running the ING half-marathon in two weeks :)

I wrote about this in my triathlon done. I’m so proud of myself.

Way cool. It was fun, but a bit tough for me. I didn’t get hardly any sleep last night and was distracted by some other things a couple days before.