Cleaning Out Your Closets

January 1 - go into your closet and turn all your hangars backwards.  As you wear clothes, wash and put back into your closet, hang the hangars back outwards.  By July you'll know what clothes can be donated to Goodwill by looking at the hangars still hanging backwards.  I do this every year and it makes it much easier to identify what I just never wear.

Parenting Through the Eyes of Your Child

http://www.4kidsormore.com/2011/11/its-all-how-you-look-at-things/

My son (my 2nd child) is one of those kids who would sleep with all the lights on in his room if he could. Currently, he’s got a clock that lights up, a night light, and glow in the dark sheets. And every night, he still asks me to leave the bathroom light on as well. Last night, as he came out to turn it on and then left the door wide open so it pretty much felt like it was noon, I told him that I felt like I was going to get a sunburn because the lights were so darn bright. And he replied, “It might be bright to you, but it’s not to me!”

And that got me thinking. A lot.

I’m familiar with all the sayings that tell you to look at life “through the eyes of the child,” to try to experience it with their joy and blissful innocence, but I think it’s an important note for parents as well. When he asks me to turn the bathroom light on night in and night out, I think about how I was as a kid, how I was scared of the dark, saw monsters in my curtains, and how I too would always ask for the bathroom light on.

But that’s not all. I remember how upset I got when my mom yelled at me for no reason, probably because she (like me) was either tired, or hormonal, or lonely or all of the above. I remember the little things that my parents did, like the impromptu celebrations for absolutely nothing and the cool shoes I had wanted that I found under the Christmas tree one year.

And I try to keep that in my head when I parent. Just enough to not make me feel guilty, but a little prod. A hot poker sometimes, that reminds me of what’s really important when all is said and done. When they grow older, like me, and have kids of their own. What exactly will they remember?

When I think about it that way, the light on (energy saving one, mind you) in the bathroom doesn’t matter. Either does that bill that can be paid after they’re asleep and not when they’re begging me to play with them.

Sometimes it’s the difference between barking at them to clean up the styrofoam peanuts that my sister-in-law insists on packing everything in or letting them romp in them as they screech for joy.

What bogs me down as an adult and parent doesn’t necessarily need to be their burden. And when drop down to my knees and look into their eyes, I’m transported back to when I was their age. And I think that makes me a better, more empathic parent.

- from the blog 4 Kids or More

Workout Recap 11/21-11/27

Monday -  6.2 miles, 58:31, 9:26/avg
Tuesday - Hill workout at the gym 4.5 miles, 50 min.  Was thundering and lightning in the AM so we ditched the run.  I went to the gym instead and set the treadmill for what I thought would be a challenging workout.  In the end I was struggling to finish without using the handles or slowing to a walk.  Killer workout!
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - Turkey Trot!  5M, 37:30, 7:29/mile average
Friday - Sea World, did at least 3 miles of walking
Saturday - Elliptical 45 minutes, abs/arms 10 min
Sunday - 16 miles, 2:32:20, 9:31/avg

3 Years Ago

This was taken 11/21/2008.  Jack and Maddy were 12 weeks old, Gwen was 2 years, 5 months old.  What happened to my BABIES?!? 

Birthday love

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. This is an age that I truthfully forget how old I am sometimes. I find it unimportant. Except for age groups on race results, then it's very important.

We spent the day at Sea World and it was a lot of fun. The park was decked out for the holidays with lights, trees, and constant Christmas music, which I LOVE! It was not nearly as crowded as when we went in July. The kids did great, but we could tell they were worn out by the evening. We finished the day off with Five Guys Burgers and headed home.

Thanks for all the birthday love on Facebook! Thanks to my family for being super awesome!

Turkey Trot 2011

Thanksgiving is a great day for a race, nothing like getting in a good workout to remove guilt from all the eating later in the day.  Jennifer, Christina and I planned to do the Georgetown Turkey Trot, but it was cancelled a couple weeks ago.  We immediately decided to head to the downtown race and do the Thundercloud Turkey Trot.  We had nice weather, sunny and 60.   This year's course started near the Long Center and made a big loop around downtown with a couple killer hills in the first 2 miles.  What was really challenging was the crowds in this race.  Parking took longer than we planned so we started mid-pack with the un-timed runners.  The first 2 miles were a struggle just to keep momentum as we darted around other runners, walkers, strollers and doggies.  I hit a good pace around mile 2 and managed to finish at my goal of 7:32 for 37:38 final time. 

After race we hung out for a few minutes, got water and cookies and went to the parking garage to stretch.  Then we left, or tried to leave at least.  In some insane black hole of time and parking garages we sat in the garage for over an HOUR waiting to get out.  It was the weirdest thing to just ... go no where for an hour with no sign of movement.  Jennifer left at one point to go to the bathroom and when she came back were were maybe  4 feet from when she left. 

Other than the parking fiasco, the Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot is a well organized race.  Good packet pickup support, nice layout of the course and water stops.  They had plenty of food and water at the end.  Now we know 90 minutes isn't enough time to get downtown for this race, or we should have taken the homeless guy's offer of $5 parking, or just parked at my sister's and walked the extra mile - would have been WAY faster.

Thanks to Jennifer, Christina and Christina for keeping me entertained in the car at least!  And congrats to each of you on a great race!

Komen Race and Fund Raising Update

So the Komen race and fundraising are over!  $535 raised which will be matched by Dell.  Thank you to my wonderful sponsors:

Kelly Newell
Jackie Cox
Beth and Casey Alonzo
Linnzi Gillo
Monica Ovalle
Jenna Gray
Bill & Diane Gray
Kristen Gray
Jenny Mo
Barbara Meyer

The race was downtown this year and a new course that wound around the Capitol building.  I rode down with the Malek's (thanks for the ride and the banter).  We had plenty of time to park, pee and loiter around the start.  We were scolded by Jennifer for being lazy and not meeting her at the Dell tent (sorry).  We started at the front of the race this year, which was a good decision.  There were 25 turns on the 5k course route and 8000 timed runners.

Mile 1: 7:16
Mile 2: 7:16
Mile 3: 7:21
Last .2: 6:20
Final time on Garmin: 23:09 for 3.2 miles, chip time 23:07

I did not check my results until later that night and saw that I was 4th place out of 116 in my age group!  I was a LITTLE bummed that I didn't push harder to get 3rd place.  DAMN YOU MARATHON TRAINING!

Thanks to Jennifer for being Team Captain.  Thanks to my very generous sponsors.  If you don't know, we run Renee's Rack Pack for our dear friend Renee.  She received some great news last week that the last round of brutal chemo did it's job and her test results were negative for cancer (that's good!).  So we were all very excited and happy for her on race day. 

Renee's Rack Pack

Running Buddies

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to All and to all a good night... wait, wrong holiday, but Happy Thanksgiving anyway!

Workout summary 11/14 - 11/20

Monday - rest from long run and race
Tuesday - 7 miles, 9:16 avg (this was the insane up at 4:30 day)
Wednesday - El Diablo speed work
Thursday - rest
Friday - 4.00, 37:14, 9:18/mile
Saturday - 17 BIG MILES, 2:42:25, 9:33/mile avg
     *we found a new route so that we can run around Lake Pflugerville and this was an awesome end to 17 miles.  Great run!
33.61 miles total

New Year's Resolution

I've noticed something super interesting about dinner at our house.  The kids have gotten us down to eating chicken nuggets, mac'n cheese, peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta and ... I think that's it.  We do force them to eat veggies and always drink milk with dinner, so I'm still holding on that front.  But the go to list of meals has really dwindled down.  Making dinner exhausts me and having the kids run down to the table to say "EWWWW... I'm not eating that!" is terribly disheartening. 

I resolve to get back to making healthy family meals.  Screw em' if they don't want to eat it right!?!?  Tacos!  Stir-Fry!  Lemon Chicken!  Chili!  Roast Chicken!  Potatoes!  Soup!  YES!  Muwhwahahaha!  As soon as I finish this marathon bullshit I will totally get right on this.

The Freedom of Starting Over

A few weeks ago I was using the ole' home computer putting new books on my Nook.  I got side tracked and when I returned the computer was no longer functioning as it should.  This happens occasionally, so I did what anyone would do, I turned it off and on.  Sadly this did not help and John has been trying to bring the system back to life ever since.  A few nights ago as he attempted to fix it he asked me what files and documents I wanted saved.  I thought about it and decided NOTHING.  Well, other than the thousands of pictures (that were backed up else where) and our music files.  The only thing I really cared about what the Excel file that I track all my race data in, which I had emailed to myself a month ago so I had a recent copy.  Other than that, bookmarks - start over, half completed projects - start over, passwords to websites I never use - start over. 

It's sort of liberating! 

If this happened on my work computer I would cry real tears for an hour and bitch about it for months.  A good reminder to ALL OF YOU TO BACK UP YOUR COMPUTERS!  Not that I would know what the hell to do to with a back up drive, but I assume a nearby tech nerd would know. 

Crazy Running/Mommy/Working Day

Like most days, today I fit in a run with mom duties and work responsibilities.  Today was especially tough because I had to be home from my run by 6 am.  It was supposed to be raining, so I pretty much decided to run at the gym after taking the kids to school.  But I woke up at 4:00, 4:10, 4:15 and when John’s alarm when off at 4:30 I just got up and went running.  I’m pretty sure this makes me insane. 

 

After running I got myself ready, and did the second half of the relay in getting the kids prepared for school.  This involves asking everyone to go potty 3-4 times, putting on Jack’s clothes, cleaning up the breakfast dishes, doing Gwen’s hair, tackling Jack to brush his teeth, convincing Maddy to wear the socks I picked out for her vs. going upstairs for another pair, chasing Jack to brush his hair, doing Maddy’s hair and then the ultimate challenge of getting everyone to put their shoes on without being allowed to help put their shoes on.  Oh, and getting the lunches together, making my coffee and eating something before heading off to school.  It’s no wonder I get in the car and have to take a deep breath to relax. 

 

Tuesdays bring the special challenge of both John and I having work related meetings early in the morning (7 and 7:30).  I ended up joining a conference call while taking the twins into school, giving hugs and kisses and half listening to work issues before getting back in the mini-van.  Then I sat in the doctor’s office parking lot on the call, which is right next to school, so I could go in and pick up some paperwork when it opened.  THEN drive into the office to start work – 4 hours after getting out of bed.  After that its work, work, snack work, run an errand at lunch, drink lots of water, eat lunch at my desk, work, snack and finally pick up the kids from school. 

 

This is my life! Crazy Mommy Running Work Life.  Writing all this makes me want to have a glass of wine or crawl into bed for sleepy time.  Of course, I can hear a little voice over the monitor talking to her horses, so I get to do neither one.  I DO get to see a smiling face as I explain about quiet sleepy nighty night time for the 3^rd time tonight and tuck her into bed again with another kiss.

Komen Race for the Cure 11/13/11 - preview

Bigger update coming later this week.  Early results: distance 3.20, time 23:09, avg 7:14/mile.  Not a PR, but I held myself back a little to avoid complete depletion - I had just run a 15 miler the day before and have another full week ahead. 

Workout Recap: Nov 7-Nov 13

11/7: 4.00 miles, 38:01, 9:30/mile, with JC
11/8: nothing (Jenna's surgery day)
11/9: nada
11/10: 6.20 miles, 57:13, 9:14/mile, with JC
11/11: rest day
11/12: long run 15.01, 2:19:53, 9:19/mile avg, with JC
11/13: Komen 5k, 3.20miles, 23:09, 7:14/mile

I started off the week feeling the beginings of a cold, nothing terrible just a tickle in my throat.  By Wednesday I was feeling pretty tired and was fighting hard to avoid getting worse.  I skipped a planned "BIG WORKOUT" on the schedule and had an extra rest day that was much needed.

Our 15 mile long run was great.  Perfect 50 degrees with little wind.  We chatted the whole time, as usual.  I'm not sure that Jennifer and I have anything left to talk about but we always manage to pass the time and entertain each other.  Jennifer has a new running toy that I am JEALOUS of, a hydration pack.  Maybe I'll break down and follow her lead on this one.  For this week's long run I ate a bagel thin with peanut butter for breakfast, and took in a pack of Shot Blocks and a Gu.  I felt pretty decent about the calories but I'll have to do more for next week.

Happens Daily

Tosh Runs a Treadmill Marathon

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Quote of the Day

"The difference between a jogger and a runner is a race-entry blank." —Dr. George Sheehan

Get your zzzzzz

More Health and Fitness News & Tips at Greatist.

Workout Log: 10/31-11/6

Monday - 6.00 miles, 58:05, 8:51/mi avg, with Christina.  Started out way to fast cause I got up late (again).  I ended up feeling pretty sore by the end.
Tuesday - Track workout, 8x.25m repeats with Jennifer.  5.75m, 52:16, 9:05/mile total
That night I get it on with the foam roller, super sore
Wednesday - much needed rest day
Thursday - 6.70m, 58:39, 8:45/mi avg. Tempo run in very windy conditions.
Friday - off
Saturday - 14.30 miles, 2:14:29, 9:24/mile avg.  Ran 5 with Christina and Jennifer and I did 14. It was 45 degrees but I ran in shorts, I thought that was a mistake to start but I was comfortable after going numb.
Sunday - rest

Total mileage 32.75

Good news is that my Sunday/Monday runs reminded me that warming up and cooling down is essential for running pain free.  Not warming up definitely made a difference. 
Bad news is that my stupid toe has a stupid blister that is driving me bonkers.  It seems like little feet constantly step on it, my shoes rub it and it's making me walk funny.  Not sure what I can do about it, other than complain.

Kid Farewells

Found on Pinterest.  I still remember my Dad saying "See You Later Alligator" and I would say "After Awhile Crocodile" as he put me to bed.

Source: firstgraderatlast.blogspot.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Just the Little Things

Check it out: Just the Little Things

I like #461. Listening to Little Kids Talk.  So true in our house and in the car.  Jack and Maddy are like an old couple that love each other eternally but annoy the hell out of each other too.  At 3 years old they carry on a dialog that cracks me up daily.  In the car Maddy will say "No Jack, it's MY turn to talk" and he will stop down and let her finish (sometimes).  Jack makes sure to point out the car wash every time we drive by, so that Maddy can remind me how it scared her "yesterday" (3 weeks ago).  They sing songs and change the words to crack each other up.  Maddy will say she doesn't want to tell me about her day, she'll let Jack do it.

Nutrition Tips

Source: thinisalwaysbetter.tumblr.com via Amanda on Pinterest

The Ice Contraption

My sister is getting hip surgery next week.  As part of her recovery, they are giving her one of these to use.  A portable electric powered ice wrap.  I snickered for about 10 seconds at the thought of my younger sister having to drag this thing about.  And then I realized that is fricken awesome!  I want one for my own personal use!  ~ Jealous

Motivation

Source: Uploaded by user via Amanda on Pinterest

Race for the Cure

My Race for the Cure Page.  On November 13th I am running the Susan G Komen 5k in Austin.  This is an event I have run 6 times and for the 3rd year I am running for Renee's Rack Pack.  One of my dear friends Renee is going through cancer for the second time.  My grandmother had breast cancer twice and lost her life to it.  My Aunt Susie recently went through treatments.  John's Aunt Beth, two of my mom's close friends... this is something that has touched many lives around me.  This year I put a call out to close friends and family to donate to my race page, and pledged that I would match all donations dollar for dollar.  Our team is a Dell corporate team this year, so they match our entire team's donations dollar for dollar as well. 

I have raised $255 dollars so far!  Holy crap.  I have to admit I did not think so many people would give so generously to support the Rack Pack and my fund raising goal.  But I'm sticking to my word ya'll!   I will be matching the $255 and Dell will match the whole $510. 

Spooky Halloween

School Halloween Party - Maddy loved the PONEY

Work Halloween party had an old school marionette performance.  The kids watched it 4 times

Super Gwen, Jasmine, Rapunzel and Woody

Rapunzel, Super Gwen and Woody pre-trick or treating