Run 2 Rescue & Llano Wine/Clay Festival

Today Chris and I participated in the 1st annual Run 2 Rescue. Their goal is to raise awareness about human trafficking and raise money to help stop it! This year they raised over $15,000 and there will be more donations coming in within the next week. It was a great experience, it was my first 5K and Chris' first 5K since high school (I was a sprinter in high school, only crazy people ran long distances!). Chris and I ran together for the first half mile then I needed to walk a bit. Chris continued running the whole 5K! GO CHRIS!!! I did run/walk intervals since that gave me time to catch my breath and I'm still getting into the whole running thing :-)
Here is our pre-race photo:

Chris' basic stats are:

Distance: 3.06 miles

Total Time: 30:45

Avg. Pace: 10:03min/mile (he was hoping for 10 flat as an average but I still say he did great!)

Here is the link to his full info:
https://motoactv.com/public/show?workoutActivityId=CnwyQX87SqCbsUUZw16DDg%3D%3D&activity=1

Mandy's basic stats are:

Distance: 3.07 miles

Total Time: 34:19

Avg. Pace: 11:11min/mile (I was happy to be lower than 11:30 as an average!)

Here is the link to my full info:
http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/arpepper/1amnp5o92tegsucn

Here is our post-race photo:

After we made our very own peanut butter cup blenders and relaxed on the couch until our good friend Liz texted us and asked if we wanted to go check out the Llano Wine/Clay Festival. We decided to go check it out and there were some AMAZING works of art there. Clay, glass, beading, rocks, painting, and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting. The pottery work was amazing and we saw plenty of things that we wanted to take home! Afterwords we ended up running out to Pheasant Ridge winery and tasting wines out there. There wines overall really are drier than Llano but they're good and Chris liked them so that means that they can't be too dry ;-) They're decently priced and I'm sure that sometime we'll run out there and get a bottle or two!

Finishing a 5K and drinking wine with friends makes for a GREAT Saturday!

Little Learning Moments

Chris and I we had just finished skyping with mom and dad and were talking about how i was feeling stressed (no the two are not related). It was the end/beginning of the month which meant bills, and my advisor was back in town which meant more work added to my to-do list. It was all feeling overwhelming and I felt like last year we had started making financial progress but this year I've felt like we were in a vice grip and couldn't quite figure out why, it was driving me nuts, making me feel like I've been wasting money. It was bothering me so much that I couldn't get comfortable and fall asleep. I was feeling like a profound failure and on top of that still trying to figure out what I want to do school/career wise later in life. I finally did the math of what we made last year and what we're looking at for this year and realized that we're down to 82% of what we made last year. I thought, ok... I'm not crazy! Yay!!!

But it did nothing to ease my feeling of stress and my anxiety. I still was having a hard time falling asleep and my next thought was to pray about it. I know people have been able to "pray away" asthma attacks, life-long dizzy spells, cancer, etc. So I prayed for clarity in my future and peace about our finances, a release of my sadness that Chris was going to be leaving again and for a sense of calm, knowing that I needed to get up early the next morning to take care of my mice. When I was done praying I felt the same, and actually a little more anxious, it angered me. I thought, "If someone can pray about and be released from any of these other ailments, why can't I?! I do my best to thank God every chance I get for all the things that he's blessed me with, why won't he answer my prayer for my needs?" Chris even said to me, "Mandy, I can't fall asleep." To which I answered, "I can't either." I finally fell asleep, feeling angry, useless, and still full of anxiety.

It wasn't until the next morning, when i got a call from dad, that I realized that my anxiousness wasn't for my needs, it was for my mother. Her blood pressure had skyrocketed and dad took her to the ER where they ended up giving her nitroglycerin and then admitted her to the hospital for testing and observation. I talked to dad, got the facts and then took care of my mice. It was while I was weighing out their feed that I realized that I was so focused on myself and decided to just be angry that I didn't say, "God, what are you trying to tell me?" I didn't feel like a failure then but thought of Samuel, "Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, 'Here I am.'" (1 Samuel 3:4, NIV).

Next time I feel my anxiety overwhelming, especially after praying about it I'll think to ask, "What Lord?"

Turns out her thyroid is messed up, so they put her on thyroid meds and that should help everything.