Tuesday, May 24, 2011

You take good, you take the bad, and there you have...

The good: I was able to run 12 miles in two days without being roadkill!!! It was slow and ugly but it was accomplished. I ran without a purpose. I ran to run. I ran to give thanks to my favorite kind of weather: sunny with a breeze. I ran because I felt good.

The bad: Waking up to rain so outside workout at 6 am was canceled this morning. It's not really a bad because we are going to raincheck for tomorrow morning.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!!

Monday, May 23, 2011

I have been out of sorts with the internet all week long. My lovely updated our internet and all the settings are not where I was used to them being and my "Favorites" list is hard to find.

Frustrating when the powers that be can't understand we are creatures of habit and to relearn where/how to search the internet is toooo mucchhhh for people before a cup of coffee.

In other news, I ran 6 miles yesterday without dying, crying, or crawling!!! I am so thankful to get to run and just go. I'm learning to not put any expectations on my running.

Today is Zumba and Power Sculpt!!!! I feel a lot better even if my skin looks terrible.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Since I can't seem to motivate myself to exercise these days by myself...I decided to look outside my comfort...

...and went to Zumba and Power Sculpt at a rec center across state line. How did I make it to almost forty without taking a Power Sculpt class?! Because I didn't think I could do it.

It was amazing. I was afraid I wouldn't have the stamina to do back-to-back classes but the kind college guy at the reception was so encouraging, so I tried it.

Fifty minutes of high reps low intensity weights. Fun. I did it all. I had a blast.

I'm going to do this on Mondays.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Happy Birthday




My sweet S.E. turned seven on Friday the 13th. Lovely husband and I can't believe we have a seven year-old.



According to this newly turned seven year-old, he prepared his own breakfast this morning: cereal with milk. When I came out to ask what he would like for breakfast, he told me I don't have to get breakfast for him anymore. He's big now, ya know.



What to say about this kid? He is very sweet with younger kids. He has a lot of patience for his brother. He makes quirky, funny comments that tug at your heart. He is very,very clean. He never smells. His hands and face are clean. His clothes are even clean.



His eyes and chin are my favorite parts of his round, delicious face. He is really good at following paper directions and can build any toy.



He has been such a joy to raise and I can't believe God allowed me to be his mom.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Your Tutorial My Sewing Machine: Baprons

























I love blogs. I love blogs with sewing tutorials. From time to time I will try to recreate their masterpieces. Here's one. I saw this at: www.u-createcrafts.com/search/label/baby-bibs.





So, here's my version of them. My friend just had a baby girl so game on. I have a target, an excuse to make baby stuff and not get the "why are you making more baby stuff?" look from my lovely hubby.




Monday, May 9, 2011

Ahhh. Finally. Both boys can bike without training wheels!!! S.E. has been biking for a month now and Koo has two weeks under his belt without training wheels.

Today was cloudy with rain so I was dreading the long day without bike riding to burn off energy while the lovely is away on a business trip. However, about 4pm today the clouds went away and the sky was a beautiful blue and Mr. Sun was bright and warm so the boys and I went to a trail and while they biked, I ran. We went for two miles!!!

I am so proud of the boys and I was only bummed to not have my camera to get my happy face and the cute boys in their helmets. Maybe I'll remember tomorrow.

Mom

My parents came over on Saturday to check in on me. They are worried because of my recent skin problems and being a mom, the worry never ends. I was lucky to get to spend Mom's day with her. She is absolutely the best.

She told me she had to see for herself that I didn't need help and wanted to make sure I was getting along okay. We are her legacy. She shows by example. She stops everything to help whichever one of us kids need her. At one point, she was sad because this is the first Mom's day without her mom. She was embarrassed by it but I told her I would cry just like that if every Mother's day and more if I didn't have her on earth anymore.

She gave my lovely and I a gift of date night on Saturday too. We snucked away for two hours and watched "Thor". What an awesome movie. I loved it. Perfect casting and although the storylines are not original, it was told well. Can't wait to own it on DVD.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Life Happens

In the past five months, I've gone from running 8 miles to barely able to run 4 miles.

I ran yesterday. 4 miles. 49 minutes. It felt like death. I am out of shape. I was molasses and I huffed and puffed through the first two miles. I did it though. I gave myself a break through this and said to myself "this is where I am today...not where I will be tomorrow and I can't look back at what I did in the past". This made me feel better. I could have cried about how slow or how much of a struggle this run was for me considering I ran a freakin' marathon last October.

Stepping back and not beating myself up, I accept that this is where I am at now. Health issues have kicked my hinny and brought me to a halt. First in January, my knees started hurting and I couldn't straighten them at night after a run. Plus, I started getting really tired. I thought it was because I was up three pounds. So I played the push through it, ice the knees, and pop two Advils. I would take a week off or so and then try again. By the end of February, I thought I was going to pass out on a couple of longer runs. Seriously. I had to turn around and go home around mile 4. I thought I was just out of shape and dehydrated because my body ached and I was so tired.

Went to the doctor in March and found out I had Mono. Mono makes you tired and can cause severe muscle aches. Okay. Stop. All. Gerbil. Activities. Felt better coming into April so I started running again. No more than three miles and started lifting a little. Still felt weak. Then wham!!! Hive-like spots erupted all over my body. Which made the few sores I had in remission flare up again. Why did I get this? The doctors think this is my body's response to all the stress internally from the mono virus. Lovely.

Now, on top of getting over mono, my skin itches and I am on creams, antihistamines that make me drowsy and hungry. After almost a year free of cortisone shots, I had to have one because my skin was so inflamed. In addition, I am on vitamins, naturalpathetic medicine, acupuncture, laser treatment, and skin detoxification twice /week.

Now it's May and I'm up six pounds so I panic and went out for a run yesterday. That's how I went from running a marathon to barely able to run 4 miles. But what I've come to realize in this process is running is a life-long journey. Not a numbers and speed game. It's something I do because when I'm doing this, I don't itch, I get relaxed, and I burn pent up energy. And I want to be able to run when I'm in my 60's. So what's going on with me right now is not all I will ever be able to do.

I didn't want to write this post but felt I needed to because sometimes in order to move forward, I needed to write about when I'm strumbling too. So I can get back up and keep running. If I stop because I'm not where I was, then I will be worse than where I am now.

What in your life gets you discouraged when you can't do it at the level you used to?

Monday, May 2, 2011

As the few that have read this blog know, I was on Weight Watchers for the past two years. I love this program. I am at my goal weight so I don't have to pay to attend the meetings. However, if I want to use their online tools, I would have to shell out $11/month.

Trying to be frugal, I started just jotting it down on paper. However, I really like and got used to tracking online. I had heard about free tracking sites from other bloggers but when I would find them, there was always a hidden fee to maintain.

But, I found one that works well for me. I really like the ease and the large database. Maybe you would like to try it too.

www.livestrong.com

Once you get to this site, you have to create a login and password but that's it. Based on the information and results you'd like, it will create a daily caloric intake for you. I love having this on my side each day to help stop the grazing.

What tools do you use that helps you maintain your weight?
My lovely and I were in bed and we were dying laughing so hard over a story he recalled with the boys.

My lovely husband just sold his 1970 Ford Torino convertible. While he was getting it ready for the new owner to have it picked up and towed six hours away, the boys were "helping" him.

They were enchanted with the hand-cranked window roller-up-thingy. They had never seen one and were amazed that you can turn it and the windows go up and down.

They asked if they could do this over and over. Wow, how far we've come. In fact, I don't think they've ever been in a car with manual transmission.

As he is restoring a 1967 Camero, he told me he's going to keep the manual transmission so we would have a vehicle with manual transmission to teach the boys later on. I remember it was a must to learn to drive stick if we wanted to drive a vehicle growing up. We had a rusty old Toyota truck that I learned to drive stick on and taught my younger siblings to drive.

When did I get so old? Are there things that don't seem so antiquated to you but are almost obsoleted to your kids?