Disney Princess Half Marathon

In February 2014 I ran my first ever half marathon...and I finished it!

If you're unfamiliar with Run Disney events, Disney organizes races of different lengths throughout the year at both US parks. The courses literally go though the parks, costumes are encouraged, and Disney characters are all over the place.

It was the middle of 2013 when I first learned about these events (particularly the WDW Princess HM) and sent it to my bestie saying we should get in shape and do it "next time". She promptly told me we were doing it this time. It basically went like this:

So, nine months before the race, I stepped on a treadmill and went for my first ever run. I've never run. I've been the adamant "I hate running" chick. But now....while I still hate the treadmill, I'm starting to like running. Sorta. It's a weird sport.

By the way, I suck at running. When I say I'm "running" what I really mean is "I'm walking fast with some bursts of running in between". My average pace is considered power walking by most tracking tools. I am getting better, though! Very slowly but surely.

Anyways, the main event starts uber early, since it needs to be over for the parks to open. We were up at 3am to get into our Princess Woody and Princess Buzz costumes (best friends....princess-themed race...do I really need to explain our decision?) and to the bus with plenty of time to spare. Then we spent an hour or so waiting in our O corral, excited but sleepy.

Finally, it was our turn to start! As each corral starts, Disney sends the runners off with fireworks!

Then the run is on! Because we weren't used to the heat, and we both had a rough start that morning (and I was having...female issues), we ended up power walking most of the race, but still. We finished! The course for this race was more highway than I expected, but hey- it's the Disney highway! And they've got a lot of character photo-ops along the way. We didn't stop, since we were going way slower than we expected, but it was still high energy and fun! Disney runners are the greatest, most encouraging people ever!

Here, have some race selfies:

So, the course. It starts outside Epcot, onto the Disney highway heading past the race track towards Magic Kingdom. The most exciting part is when you turn a corner and realize you're on Main Street heading towards the castle. It's this burst of energy at the half point of the race that spurs you on! After running through Tomorrow Land, you come up behind the castle and there're two heralds blasting their trumpets as you run through the castle! Then you head out the back of Magic Kingdom, back on the highway, and end up at Epcot via back stage Epcot.

Just before you reach the finish line, at mile 13, there's a live gospel choir spurring you on to the end. And at the finish line? Mickey and Minnie are giving high fives. It's super exciting, and then they give you a medal, a cold towel, and a snack box!

That's what I look like after a crazy 13.1 mile expedition that I fully didn't expect to finish! At mile 3 I was certain I wouldn't finish, had a brief revival around mile 6 at the castle, then lost faith again from mile 8 on. It wasn't until around mile 12.9 that I thought I might actually make it. But I did. I still can't fully believe that I did a half marathon.

The night before we left, RunDisney announced a brand new race in DisneyLand: The Avengers Half Marathon!! Guess what we're signed up for?

Also on this trip? Other amazingness. I had dinner in the Beast's West Wing. THE WEST WING! It's forbidden, you know.

Belle had the napkins folded like roses (obviously), We got to see THE rose, and Beast was even home to meet us. Yes, I tried the grey stuff (and, yes, it was delicious).

And, to satisfy my geekiness, I had a butter beer in Hogsmeade after a terrifying broom ride around Hogwarts.

This was such a fun week! Definitely one for the memory bank! 

Have you done a RunDisney race? What did you think?

Aspiring to be Debt Free

It's been on my Bucket List for a few years to be debt free by 30, but beyond making minimum payments (which wouldn't get me there), I wasn't really doing much. Then I finally read Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and got inspired. The updated version with all the stories of real-life people becoming debt free and wealthy (many of them younger than me!) was the push I needed to make a serious plan.

By the way, did I mention I met him once? In Times Square? At Jon Acuff's S**** Book Launch?

In March I sat down, added up my debts and faced the music: at 27-years-old I owed $25,393. That's a big number. A lot of money. No credit card debt (I've been good about using that thing wisely), but between my student loans and my brand new car, it really added up. Now I needed a great way to get rid of it.

So, I started to plan. While I know Dave Ramsey has some great advice, I don't love everything he advises. It just doesn't work for me. I also love Suze Orman, so I kinda threw their philosophies together and created my own plan that would work for me. For example, I didn't cut up my credit cards like Dave says to do. Suze says it's okay for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke to have and use credit cards as long as they do so wisely. And given that I have an irregular work schedule or sometimes only get 4 shifts a month, I like the security of back up just in case. (I also like the bonuses I get from my one store credit card. I only use it when I'm buying something anyways, and pay it off that same week). I also kept more than $1K in my emergency fund, for the same job-insecurity reason. I have one month of spending/billpay in my emergency fund.

I knew I wanted to pay off before I was 30, preferably even sooner, so I started doing some math to see how much I was really paying each year, and how soon I could get rid of all that debt. After playing with the math, I figured two years would be very doable (And it puts me debt free a year before 30!)

Before making this plan I had $50 automatically going from my checking to savings every week. I stopped that and now divert it to my Debt Snowball. According to the plan, for this year, I make all my minimum payments on each debt. I pay and $50 every week. Then I need to pay an extra $414 each month ($96/week). Based on Dave's Snowball technique, my student loan will be the first to go, so the plan is for it to be gone in one year. Then everything I'm currently paying towards that loan will "snowball" over to my car loan. I made a chart to visualize it, but it was too boring.

Now that I had my plan, I needed a way to keep myself motivated. I did the math and found that becoming debt free according to plan would take 244 payments. I started to think about making some kind of coloring page, but that didn't work like I wanted it to. So I started looking at puzzles. I found that Shutterfly makes custom puzzles of 252 pieces, and they were on sale for less than $20! So I hunted for one of my best Living-Life-to-the-Fullest pictures that represented why I want to be debt free. I settled on this one:

Once I had it in hand, I sat down with my boring chart and all the puzzle pieces and wrote $$ amounts on each piece. I went all out: minimum payments, weekly $50, extra $96, the rollover starting next year, every expected payment has a puzzle piece waiting, plus a few extra pieces. I started labeling the edge pieces with all payments for the first few months, so I can have that done quick, then just divided the rest. It was time and brain consuming, but worth it.

Now every week I make my payments and add the appropriate pieces to the puzzle, which is in a nice $3 frame from Walmart, where the glass pops out instead of the back! Now I'm only 3 months in and the puzzle is coming together. Look! I've got an eye and Kathryn's got hair! 

I also keep track of it all in my journal and take a monthly assessment of where I'm at. It's exciting to see the numbers going DOWN in a big way! I've also got the plan listed right next to the tracking page to keep it in front of me.

 So far in three months I've knocked out $1500!! That's $1050 more than making minimum payments would've gotten me!! I've also gotten into the habit of paying an even $100 instead of the $96, which is making a nice mini dent, too. Every little bit adds up! If I can keep up this pace I'll have it all paid up even before the two year goal date!

Grieving the Spirit

I have a wall next to my bed that I refer to as my "Inspiration Wall". It's full of magazine clippings and post-its with inspiring quotes (and a few pictures). When I need a boost, I look at the wall and find the one that speaks to me that day. As I passed by yesterday, I noticed this one from Francis Chan's Forgotten God:

It's a powerful thought from a powerful book. Then this morning I was reading Ephesians chapter 4 when I came to verse thirty: "Do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live."

How often do we really think about if our actions are causing sorrow or joy to the Spirit of God? If you are saved, His Spirit is in you. Are your actions making that clear? Or do your actions cause the Holy Spirit of God, living inside you, to grieve?

It's a question that can stop you in your tracks. And it's a question that leads to others.

What actions in my life bring sorrow to the Holy Spirit?
Does a lack of action cause the Spirit to grieve?
How can I live in a way that brings the Spirit of God joy?

This is a thought I am hoping to carry into the rest of the week with me, to ask myself at various times, "Am I causing sorrow to the Holy Spirit? Am I behaving like His chosen dwelling?" I pray that the answer will be yes.

New Year, New Goals

I realized that we're nine days into this new year, but I haven't shared anything about my New Year's goals! So let's share a little bit. I don't like to make resolutions because I feel like they always get broken. I mean, it's basically expected for you to not complete your resolutions. So I like goals better. Preferably goals that can be measured and have steps to get there.

This picture is from December when I was making my 2013 plan. My wrist was kinda sore from working out and stuff, so I was wearing the brace. I got a lot most of the "how-to" for my plan from this post (disclaimer: I don't agree with or condone the language/lifestyle represented in this blog, but there's also some great goal organization tips!) Now, if you don't want to read that whole thing (or did read it and got completely confused, like I did the first two times), let me describe how I planned my 2013! Note: I changed some of the things from Nicole's blog to better suit me.

First I sat down to reflect. Actually, I did this twice. This whole process of prepping for 2013 took me several sittings because I didn't want to rush into it. So I sat down and thought about my 2012. What were the highlights? What did I accomplish? Where did I fail? I used my blog and Facebook albums to remind me of some things I almost forgot about. And I wrote it all down. I took up a whole sheet of paper with awesome things! 

The post I was using as a guide uses step two to choose a word or phrase to motivate your year. I skipped this. Mainly because I couldn't settle on something! The closest I can come, even still, is "focus". Or "me". Or "passion". See, I can't decide! So I skipped this one.

Then, with the past in the past, I started looking to the future. I looked at my goals from 2012 to see if I wanted/needed to carry any over to 2013. Things like "reach goal weight" and "become debt free" fall into this category. But, before actually writing a list of goals, I made a list of "Life Buckets", or categories. These are the areas of your life that make up who you are, all the important bits. I ended up with 8 categories, such as "External Ashley", "Internal Ashley", "Relationships",  and "Adventure". 

Once you have your categories, make three goals for the year in each one. For example, under my Adventure category, my three year-long goals are 1) Try one new, slightly uncomfortable thing per month 2) Leave the country twice and 3) Learn Spanish. These are big goals, but that's what you want here! Something big but achievable in a year. If you have 8 categories as I do, you should have 24 goals. (I actually have two categories with an extra goal each...shh! don't tell!)

So how are you possibly going to achieve all 24+ of these goals?! Easy. At the beginning of each month (say, on the first?) you will sit down with your list and write one action step for each goal that you will accomplish that month. Which means you will have 24+ small action steps (which are basically baby goals) to do each month. Now, these won't always be done. In which case, you carry some over. But having them on paper is inspiring and motivational! I can't wait to cross things off my list and get closer to meeting these goals!! 

Finally, because I like things pretty, I made these goals pretty! I put my categories and goals on pretty paper, all scrapbook like, to hang up where I can see it every day to help motivate me. At the beginning of the month, I used my journal to record my action steps for the month. I even had space at the bottom of the page, so I will draw a smiley face for everything I complete on my list. Is it weird that that's a lot of motivation for me?! 

We're nine days into the year, and so far my new goal system is going great! I think I am actively working on half of my action steps at this time, so it must be working! To recap this: 8 Categories, with three goals each. Each goal gets an action step every month to get you closer to that goal. Easy Peasy. Good luck! 

Did you set goals for the year? How are you working towards them? What motivates you to keep going towards them?

Goals: The Beginning

So, I've been following a blog for a few weeks that does something I find kinda cool. She posts goals for each month and each week, then follows up at the end of the month/week on how she did with them. Her's are also broken into segments, like do, be, learn...but I'm not gonna go there yet. So, while I don't promise to keep it up, we're gonna try this whole monthly goals thing. And since we're halfway through the month, it will be a little easier- less pressure. Here are my goals for the rest of the month:

• Read and review one ARC in my pile
• Buy a new, whole-food vitamin
• Plan the whole of Missions Month for kids ministry
• Check my FICO Score
• Get my eating habits back under control
• Clean "The Pile" (you don't wanna know....)
• Decide what to study in my quiet time next
• Get a child from Compassion's Longest Waiting list sponsored

I would love for someone else to sponsor one of those kids and tell me about it, so I could feel better, but I think I may have to make some sacrifices and sponsor one myself. I already have one Compassion Kid, but the fact that some of these kids have been waiting for almost a year for someone to love them breaks my heart. Will you love them? Or do you already sponsor a child? Tell me about them!

So there you have it! My goals for the rest of this month. Now I have to do them, or let down the whole internet. Because, obviously, I'm that popular that the entire internet cares what's happening on my little 'ole blog!