Ahhhh!  I do love traveling and I  love spending time with friends and family but there is just something about being in my own home.  It is like a breath of fresh air.  It is like spring daffodils popping through the thawing soil.  It is like…well, home.  The place I have created for myself and my boys is special to me.  It has shown me that I can make it.  For the past 5 years I had a “partner” telling me I couldn’t make it on my own.  Someone who said he believed in me but everything he did showed the opposite.  I realized as I was writing an athlete’s schedule that I had even given up my personality in this relationship.  So I started adding my personality back into my schedules.  Everything is clear as the spring blue sky now.  I am making it, rediscovering myself, and creating a new relationship with the Andrea who has been wintering somewhere warm but far away.  It is good to be home.

I can celebrate other’s accomplishments once again.  Being proud of my friends warms my heart.  Seeing them working hard, having a great time, and accomplishing their goals is truly inspiring and keeps me pushing harder towards my goals.  Sonja ran 100 miles this weekend.  In ONE day.  In 21 hours and change ( and she chicked a bunch of dudes in the process-rock star).  How awesome is that?  Beth did an adventure race with 3 dudes she has never met before.  How frickin’ brave is that?   A bunch of people got to be out there cheering both of these rock stars on in Moab this weekend and all I can think is, “How cool is that?”  How cool is it that everyone who can gets their butt to Moab to help a couple of crazy women accomplish their dreams and goals?  Once again, I am touched by people’s kindness.  It is good to be home.

My visit with my sister was awesome.  I got to trek all over Austin on my Bro in Laws’ fixie.  I got to run on the Barton Springs Greenbelt and at Town Lake in the warm rain.  My sister is an AMAZING chef.  She has educated herself in the macrobiotic philosophy of cooking and living and she and her husband have become very well respected in their community.  She fed me delicious food infused with love, warmth, and a desire for me to be my best.  I am refreshed and rejuvenated and ready after a long reprieve from training to be back in the saddle again, so to speak.  This past 6 months has been a journey for me.  The path I was on came to a dead end.  I didn’t want to make a left or right turn, I wanted to continue going straight because it allowed me an easy way through.  But alas, I have turned the corner and created a new path.  It is a beautiful path.  Along the way I have rediscovered the things that I hold dear to my heart and have allowed myself to put energy into those things and hold off on training for a little while.  At first there was a lot of guilt associated with it and almost a loss of self.  However, I have been filled with yummy food, lots of exercise, and love from my sister.  I am glad to be home.

The coolest thing about coming home this time is that I got to come home to an incredible man.  He is amazing and I fall in love with him more and more every single day.  The past five years of my life have been spent pretending I had the perfect life when the real story is that I had the most miserable life.  I lacked the basic foundation of unconditional love.  With every triumph, with every struggle, with every smile, and every fit of tears the man in my life is there and with me through it all.  My soul believes in people’s goodness and in the true spirit of community.  Living from my heart and soul and not from fear is so refreshing.  It is good to be home building the foundation for my life from my heart once again.  Ahhhhh.