Summer Lovin'

This past Wednesday marked the end of the school year as I turned in my badge and keys for the summer. Every part of my body wants to scream and do cartwheels and handsprings. Don't get me wrong - I have a great job. I'm a counselor in an elementary school, and while work is work and I don't care where you work, there will always be areas for improvement, I'm pretty darn lucky with my place of employment. Still....

I have two months to put myself and my family first.

Two months to workout as often as I'd like.

Two months to take my son to the playground or swim in the pool.

Two months to enjoy my daughter's company without having to badger her about homework.

Two months to get my sh*t together and organize suffering areas of my house. (Not that this is incredibly likely, but it is possible.)

Two months to catch up with friends and read and blog and read other blogs.

Two months to .... fill in the blank because I finally have time to do it!

Woo Hoo!!!

I ♥ SUMMER.

To kick off this sacred season, I had a lovely swim Thursday thanks to my new playlist recommendations. A few of you have asked what I finally came up with, and I'm happy to share. I started by taking several songs that were just too slow for running but that I really like and then added some of your suggestions. I actually ended up making two - each just over an hour. I listened to the first one on Thursday and am eager to use the second tomorrow.





My favorite part of the recommendations were all of the references to going "old school." I'm choosing not to focus on the "old" part of that... It was good to just sit for a while and think about songs and of old friends and memories.

On Friday Justin and I went for our first bike ride together. We parked along the W&OD trail at mile 9 (east Vienna) and rode out past Leesburg to mile 35. It was a longer ride than either of us have done before, and without knowing exactly how we'd be doing towards the end, we both agreed not to go the additional 10 miles to the end of the trail before turning back. It was a good decision. When we started out yesterday the sky was overcast, and based on the weather forecast, we assumed that we would be rained on at some point. Instead though the sun came out and for our last 20 miles, it was sunny, 96 degrees and freaking hot! The trail has several places to refill water, and we stopped twice (Ashburn on the way out and Herndon on the way back) for tea, juice, and snacks. I was so sleepy when we got back to the car that we actually needed a Chinese fire drill intervention just to get home!


So far, my summer is everything I've been hoping for.