Tuesday Coffee Chat

What's new with you?

That's the prompt for this week's Tuesday Coffee Chat. Hmmm ...

My life feels pretty ordinary and mundane most of the time without much change. But as I think about this I guess there is some "new", at least to this season.

Now that Spring is springing and we have the annual Girls on the Run 5k the first weekend in May, I have hit the pavement again easing myself back into running. This time I have a partner in Eli because he decided that he would like to run the 5k instead of the 1-mile fun run. And Brynne has issued a challenge that her and her two friends are going to beat him. So he and I pulled out my Couch to 5k app and are training the right way. I could get out there and run 3 miles right now, but it sure does feel good to be doing it slow and steady instead. Plus it's fun to see him get better with each run.

I am going to be a Nana in 25 weeks! And we get to find out the sex of the baby next Wednesday. That's certainly something new, shifting from mom to now grandma, too. It's fun to see my baby growing a baby.

We are planning for a couple of trips coming up. In two weeks the little kids and I are taking our best buds from Oklahoma to Florida with us for a 10 day trip. We are going to Atlanta to go on the CNN Student News tour, driving through Selma, Alabama, to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, spending about 6 days in Pensacola to go to the beach, see the Blue Angels, and tour some forts, and then ending our trip at the WWII Museum in New Orleans. That will be a full educational vacation, and I am hoping we get in some down time for some reading!

Look at how sad we were after our last vacation ended with our friends.

At the beginning of May we have a weekend trip to St. Louis for the kids' annual state bowling tournament. While there we are going to hit City Museum and the zoo.

They were Missouri state champions two years ago.
Look how tiny they were!!

Then at the end of May Rick and I are taking a 3 night trip to Puerta Vallarta to celebrate our upcoming 15 year anniversary. We haven't taken a vacation for just the two of us in a long time so we are hoping for some relaxation, adventure, and us time.

I have already read 14 of my 25 book goal for 2016, and that doesn't include the read alouds I do with the kids! It has been a great reading year so far, and I am still going strong. There's just nothing better than a good book. You can follow me on Goodreads if you would like to see what I am reading. My profile is under Nicole Taulman. Come be my reading friend.

Warmer temps also mean getting out in the yard and starting Brynne's softball league. We are having a garage sale in a couple of weeks and Rick and I have plans to completely gut and purge our garage soon. Before you know it we will be on our summer school schedule with camps, book clubs, and lots of swimming. I am really looking forward to that this year. We have had a full year of learning, and I am ready to scale things back a bit.

So what's new with you?