Team Christmas Card

This is my team's holiday card.

Taken on the beach in chilly Florida!

Speed

I feel like I'm on a roll right now with increasing my pace. Today I ran two miles at the gym and finished at 21.48, which is a 10.74 minute mile! My goal was to run 11 minute average pace and I'm exceeding that goal. I'm stoked! Marilyn said I would be running a 9 minute mile before long and maybe she's right! The trick is sustaining it for long runs. Not going to worry about that now though. Just working on speed for two mile runs for the next two weeks.

Christmas Family Video

Madison had the Christmas Family Video that's at the top of my blog on her blog and it was soooo good that I wanted to share it with you! It's my Christmas gift to all of those who read my blog. Enjoy!
Go HERE to see the video if the above link is missing. The video above is a little off, so go to this link to see it in good detail.

Florida Training

I was in lovely Florida this past week for a week of training at Meg's house. My brain blew up only a few times with all the information we went over, so that's a good thing. The weather was cool, but Florida is very beautiful.

Had lunch one day at a restaurant on the beach!

My new team!

Amber and me on the catamaran

Me, Amber and Lisa chillin' on the net at the front of the boat.

I think this is Tucker. Meg & Kim have two bull dogs and a little fluffy dog.

Turkey Trot

Randy ran the Fresno Turkey Trot at Woodward Park with me today :) Well, he started out with me than ran past me, waaaay past. He came in at 30 minutes and I came in at 35 minutes. I checked my watch and my average pace was 11.10, which is AMAZING for me! In fact, I think it was even faster than that, because I noticed my watch was still timing after I stopped it. I ran a 14.45 average pace at the half-marathon in May and while I don't think you can compare the two, because of the mileage, 11.10 is a DEFINITE improvement in my time. Happy Day!

After the trot!

We were FREEZING waiting for the race to start!

Almost ready!

Ran, for a moment, with Tracy. She's uber fast!

We did it!!!!

Running New York Style

So my next movement goal was to run in Central Park.  The route is 6 miles and so I was gearing for that, but Madison hadn't run in over a month and Randy was recovering from hurting his knee. I just want to state for the record, because this will probably be the last time I'll be able to say it, I out ran both of them! I ended up running 4.6 miles. Mad and I ran together and we started with 4/1 splits, then went to 3/2 splits. We were going pretty fast, some 9s, 10s and 11s. It was a beautiful day to run, crisp and glowing with the fall colors.

New York! New York!

We had a great time in New York this past week with Madison and Dan. We accomplished an amazing amount of things in one week - church with Maddie & Dan, went to see Jersey Boys, Promises! Promises!, The Adams Family, the Rockettes' Christmas Spectacular, an opera, toured the Subway Museum in Brooklyn, went on the NBC Studio tour, shopped at GAP, Forever 21, Bloomingdales, ate at S'macs, Serendipity, the vendor stand in Times Square, Roxies' Deli, Ellen's Stardust (singing waiters), Rosie O'Gradys and Patsy's Italian restaurant. My heavens we did soooo much! Thanks Mad & Dan for hosting us and joining us on some of our adventures.



After church, in front of the Hudson river.



Central Park - beautiful!

Randy in front of Central Park.

Randy at Rockerfeller Center.

Delicious mac & cheese at S'macs in the Lower East Side.

Me and Madison at Jersey Boys

Randy and me at the Jersey Boys - loved that play!

Tried to take a picture in front of Promises! Promises! marquee.

At Radio City Musical Hall after the Rockettes' Christmas performance.

After the NBC Studio tour.

In Brooklyn at the Subway Museum.

Sharing a frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity in the Upper East Side. And ya, it's yum!

Friends

Me and Christy

I am blessed to be friends with some of the most outstanding women. When I announced my new position with Emeritus, Christy offered to get a few friends together to celebrate my good news. I dubbed the event, a Cindy party. While we ate, Christy had everyone share a Cindy story, how they met me or something they knew about me. There were some pretty funny stories shared that night! Thank you to all who came! Christy, Jen, Jacquie, Renee, Lisa, DeAnn, Joylynne, Susan, Kelly and Shayna. You girls are the bomb!

Jennie & Me

Jen & Kelly (who get to work together!)

Renee & Lisa

Shayna & DeAnn

Lisa & me (who I got to work with!)

Me & Joylynne

Shayna & me

me & Christy

me & Renee

Jacquie & me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my friend

Thank you to everyone who came and everyone who digs me, just the way I am. I love you!

New Travels

You know how this year my theme is the Year of Movement and how movement has taken different forms, such as running at different events this year: Bay to Breakers, Alzheimer's Awareness 5k, half-marathon in Boston, 10k in Bass Lake, and around and around the neighborhood, and travel: Utah, Boston, NC, NY, San Francisco, Texas, Mexico, and work travel: to the Central Coast and south valley on a regular basis?

Well, I have a new adventure coming up that will involve a hecka amount of movement! I accepted a position with Emeritus Senior Living and as their California Sales Trainer I will be traveling throughout CA to their 44 different buildings putting on training sessions for their Executive Directors and their Community Relations Directors! To begin with, I will be shadowing my National Sales Director, Meg, as she and the rest of the sales trainer team travel the U.S. doing training, so I can learn what I am to do. This is the schedule (as I understand it right now) for the rest of the year. The week after I get back from vacay in NY, I will be flying to NJ, home for two weeks, then to FL for a week, then a week somewhere in the south and I think a stop in Philly at some point. The Mexican cruise comes at the end of the year. Whew!

I'm really excited about this opportunity and see it as a huge blessing in my life. I begin on Monday when I drive to Merced to complete paperwork and pick up my laptop and cell phone. Life is good :)

Maroon 5 Concert

 I've been wanting to see Maroon 5 for about two years, since I first learned about the group. Finally, they came to Fresno and I was able to listen to their music LIVE!

Great concert! Adam Levine, front man, has tremendous energy that he displayed throughout his set with dashing from one side of the stage to the other. His cute, skinny chicken legs were like rubber bands as the seemed to fold on themselves and do high jumps. The band sounded great live and did some of their music a bit more acoustic at a certain point.   Adam did a lot of sing-a-longs and rounds with the audience  to get everyone involved and feeling the music. Tif and I had a great time and I was able to visit with Jen and Jacqui between sets.

Bruno Mars and One Republic opened for Maroon 5 and I'm digging Bruno! Just got done downloading his Doo-Wop and Hooligans cd. I already had his song Nothing On You he did with B.o.B., which is my favorite song. Just the Way You Are might be soon be second on the list. His song Count on Me has a Jason Mraz feel. Check him out!

Tiff's Shower

The Loot!