Happy New Year!

I know i'm a little late to the party with this post but so far this year i've been mostly working and sleeping, leaving precious little time for blogging (or anything else either!)

I wanted to do a "New Year" post though because, following on from my last post about my challenges for 2012 i wanted to share my 'resolutions' for 2013.

So here they are:

1. Complete the Great Manchester Run

I know, i know.  Unless you follow me on facebook that will have just come as a bolt out of the blue. I do not run anywhere, ever. So signing up to run 10k (which is, like, a REALLY LONG WAY by the way!) seems a little nutty and definitely out of character.  But i've been wanting to do something a little nutty and out of character for a while, so actually choosing something that is healthy and will hopefully raise money for a very worthy cause is actually probably the best possible outcome of my musings!

And just in case you think i'm bluffing here is photographic evidence of my actual running shoes!

The first pair of running trainers i have ever owned and ooooh they're soooo lovely and purple.  They're also amazingly lightweight, so much so that when they arrived i briefly thought Skechers had fucked up and sent me an empty box! They weigh 4.9oz (according to the tag, i haven't actually weighed them)  I am hoping the prettiness will encourage me to actually put them on and run!

The run is on the 26th May and i am planning to start training on the 18th January which gives me about 4 months to get from a level of fitness where running up the stairs leaves me breathless to a level where i will at least make it to the finish line without requiring hospitalisation. I'm not setting myself a time goal or anything. I'm not a total lunatic!

I am aiming to raise money for two very special children whose story i have been following since i was pregnant with Toby- Findlay and Iona.  You can read about them here:

www.fundraisingforfindlay.co.uk

Or find their page on facebook here:

http://www.facebook.com/FundraisingForFindlay

Their Mum, Charlotte was a member of a pregnancy and parenting forum i joined, and when Findlay was born i started following her journal  and later, when i was pregnant with Rudy, and Findlay's baby sister Iona was born, i continued to be amazed and inspired by their story.

So any money i raise for the run will be going to them, and i have a Just Giving page set up here:

http://www.justgiving.com/Rebaby

It's a little sparse right now but should get more interesting once i actually start training. I was actually considering starting a new blog chronicling my progress but then came to my senses, and realised that between being a full time Mum of two, part-time staff nurse, girlfriend, friend, daughter, sister, cook, cleaner, writer of this blog and now fundraiser and runner too, i probably have enough on my plate?! So i figure i'll just blog about it here and those who find posts about run-times and ankle strain and the such unbearably dull will just have to put up with it ;)

2.  My second resolution is to sort out scary but important stuff such as life insurance and wills etc.  This is not a fun resolution but something that needs doing.  Neither of us have life insurance or a will.  I am in the NHS pension scheme (whatever will be left of it by the time i'm retiring, which probably won't be until i'm 95 anyway the way things are going *sigh*) but even that wouldn't automatically go to Chris should anything happen to me, as we're not married, so that makes things more complicated. It all needs sorting out and this is the year we're going to do it. I've decided.

3.  My third resolution is more lighthearted, to balance things out.  I have resolved that this year i will be getting a new tattoo :) It has been 12 years since my first and only tattoo-

So i think i have waited long enough to know that i'm not just doing it because it's addictive.  It is addictive, i wanted another straight away, but i have been holding off trying to decide what to get and where and now i have some ideas, i'm ready to actually take the leap and go for it again.

So there they are, my resolutions for 2013.

I'm not so egotistical as to think 3 resolutions is all it will take to make me into the most perfect human being on the planet.  There are a lot of resolutions i could and perhaps should be making this year.  I really ought to mop the floors more, and you wouldn't know it from this blog (haha) but i swear like a trucker, even around the kids (gasp) so should totally cut that shit out.  I need to learn to cook, but i tried that last year, with the recipes thing, and it's just not happening.  I should at least endeavour to eat healthier though, but what's the point setting a resolution i know i won't keep?! I could probably do with losing about half a stone, but all the running should sort that out (right?!) Basically there's bunches of resolutions to choose from, some small, some really really big and life-changing, some fun, and some really not so much but i want to keep it simple and give myself at least half a chance of succeeding so those are the three i picked- wish me luck!