Just Keep Swimming

Well friends, things have been going smoothly here in the Holton household. During our week down in Eugene this month Ricky officially began his new career. Woohoo! I had planned on being productive with my time while we were there but I realized it was just too soon to look for housing/employment for me, so instead I played with friends.

September brought with it an unusual allotment of sunshiny days here in Seattle. I keep waking up in the morning expecting to need a coat and boots but I keep being wrong. I don't like to be wrong and I don't like to be too hot outside in autumn. Yes, I am probably one of very few souls who actually prays for it to cool down, be overcast and act like the PNW that I'm used to. Along with those too-blue-for-their-own-good skies, September brought a new season of football for our Ducks as well as the start of Ricky's LAST term in grad school. I like both of those things. I am so proud of my dear husband for plowing through his program with such rapidity and for doing so well.

This time of year tends to seduce many of us northwesters into over-zealous lounging and eating. When it (usually) starts to get cold and rainy and dark we sit around, eat cookies and watch reruns of our favorite tv shows. I personally tend to bake more and grow sedentary. If I'm going to put on extra weight, now is the time of year it will happen. Fortunately we are going to break up the monotonous weather with a trip to Hawaii (which I know I've mentioned once or five times) in December. Unfortunately I don't want to have put on my winter layer just in time to put on a bathing suit. So, I've taken up swimming. Swimming is exactly the low-impact, whole-body work-out I need. But I suck at swimming. Seriously, I was really self-conscious on the first day because I was convinced that the life guard was watching me more than other people because she thought I was going to drown. I don't really blame her. I feel like I look like a sloth that is just doing everything it can not to sink before it gets to the other side of the pool. Okay, maybe I'm not that bad but I'm definitely not related to Michael Phelps. Anyways, I've been swimming three days a week at the local pool for the past two weeks and I plan on keeping it up. It's difficult but I'm going to keep doing it. Check me out in 2.5 months, hopefully I won't look any fatter. ;)