TGI blankin F

What a week. So much stuff happened.

We'll start with the most exciting - I had a good week at work! I'm working on a few projects right now that I'm super excited about. I have a wellness program for the school system in the works. If you didn't know, planning a wellness program for such a big group is a bit of an undertaking (nothing this CHES can't handle, mind you, but kind of a huge deal :)). There will be lots of walking and eating better in a few educators' futures. One of the parts of my job is to lead a community coalition dedicated to improving health disparities in our county. One of the areas we work with is chronic disease prevention, which includes fitness and nutrition. Using a grant, we'll be providing pedometers, walking logs, monthly newsletters, food journals, and lots of quality health education to the participants. I'm hoping for about 1,000 people to be registered, so it's really exciting. I'm also working on coordinating with the local community college to get some nursing students a public health rotation as part of their ADN. Usually, ADN students don't get the benefit of learning about health departments while they're students, so this is really great. (For those of you reading this out of NC, the health department system here is run a little differently than most places. Local health departments run full clinics - adult health, child health, family planning, immunization, etc. There's also a health department in most every county, where in some places it's a regional thing. In a lot places the health department is really just where people who need a vaccine or an STI test go. In NC, it's a low cost care option for those who might not be able to afford to go to a doctor). Anyway, I'll be able to help these students get some experience. Do you think "adjunct off campus professor at local community college" is pushing it for my resume update? I mean, I'm technically not teaching them a thing, but I think I can spin it like that...

I got some pretty shocking family news this week too. I don’t really feel right going into the specifics of it all and I don't pretend to have the perfect marriage (though I feel pretty good about mine right now), but I just feel like if you marry someone, you owe them the respect of communication and a conversation. If you stand up in front of everyone you love and tell this person it's forever, you at least owe them that. I guess it made me realize what a good thing I have. I'm not perfect, and neither is my husband, but we do pretty well for ourselves, if I do say so myself. I can't really imagine my life without him.

For Terrance’s birthday, I told him I would watch all the Harry Potter movies. He likes him a lot. The books, the movies. He’d be the grand marshal of the muggle parade during the quidditch cup if given the chance, in a heart beat. I’m not a Potter fan. I’m, to my surprise, enjoying them. I finished goblet of fire last night. It was good.

A few months ago, I asked some of the girls at work if they wanted to run a 5K. I wanted to get back into running and we were all in need of a goal, so we formed a little running group. It's great. We were of all different ability levels when it came to running, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Our training started out running 60 seconds straight. We're now on week 9 and we're up to 30 minutes. I'm so proud of us - we'll be running in the Susan G Komen Race for Cure in Charlotte on October 3. If you're in the area, you should come out and cheer for us. I'll be the one with the really red face who looks like she's having some sort of major cardiac event. Pretty.

OK, I better go run! 5K aside, I have the motivation that we’re leaving for the beach in 15 days. I’ve got way too many lady lumps for a bathing suit right now!