If I had a million dollars

The kids' guilty pleasure is to watch America's Funniest Home Videos on Sunday nights. They crack up at that show (and that show solidifies my fears of my neighbor's trampoline that doesn't have enclosures). Sunday night's show gave the winner $100,000. I asked Ashley want she would do with that money, and she said she would become a pop star. Evidently she thinks you can buy your way onto Radio Disney. Forget talent (although some of those Disney stars do not have talent, just saying).


What I would do with $100,000, taking out the need to pay off a home or cars or send the kids to college?

• Go to a personal trainer regularly.
• Run a race every month of the year in various parts of the country. Should probably hire a running coach for all these races so I don't injure myself again.
• Go to Disney Land in California with the family. Go to Disney World for a 2 week vacation with the family. What, are you shocked?
• Buy every cooking gadget I want.
• Buy one of those running skirts (I just can't spend $48 on something I run in, shoes, yes, but a skirt? Can't do it. Yes, I am cheap.) in every color.

And that would probably be all the money.

My funk just got bigger...

I had typed out a post, only to have blogger eat it. Good times.

I was bad last week, and only worked out once. Not good for me. Even on days I don't run, I normally do the 30 day shred DVD (Audrey really likes working out with me, if that's what you call it). So last night I headed back out to the gym and did hill work on the treadmill. I can no longer just run on the treadmill, I use it for intervals or hills. Otherwise I get bored and don't last.

Let me just add a side note on the gym. We belong to a Lifetime Fitness, and pretty big gym that is a nation chain. I go at night after the kids are in bed, so I see some interesting stuff sometimes. Like last night, the guy working out in jean shorts. Really? And then there are the women that I swear just come to the gym for the steam room and sauna. I never, ever see them in the workout area. Although now that I think about it, maybe they just swim. Who knows.

Last week was just crazy. Ray had something every night, and then he was gone Thursday through Saturday. Ashley entered her first science fair, so Thursday night was spent at her school for math and science night. Saturday the girls and I ran errands (Ashley is signed up for swim team and we had to go get her $50 bathing suit...) and yesterday was a birthday party for my friend's 3 year old. I also attempted to get organized for our street's yard sale on Saturday and clean the house, and I failed on both parts. I only partially cleaned and got nothing organized for the yard sale. So I guess I will be working on that a little bit every night this week.

Let's hope I get out of my funk sometime soon...

A Rare Event

A picture of me and Audrey from the zoo on Saturday...

Reason #4,295,852 why we are glad we moved from VA to NC

No offense to those still in Northern Virginia where it would take me 90 minutes to get to work 20 miles away, and here the same distance takes me less than 30 minutes. At 8:00 in the morning.

That was reason #1 why we are glad we moved from Virginia.

Another reason that we didn't even know about was how great the YMCA's were here, and the YMCA Guides and Princesses program. The Arapahoe Nation in our area is the second largest in the nation. Basically it is a program for boys and girls 1st grade through 3rd grade and their Dads where they meet twice a month for activities and such. Yes, a lot like Girl Scouts (which I am a troop leader for Ashley's troop), but it involves the Dads obviously.

This past weekend was their "spring outing" where they go camping at a campsite on a river near the coast in North Carolina. There were cabins for the kids and Dads to stay in, activities such as a zip line, archery, fishing and then bonfires and fireworks at the end of the day. I don't know all the details of the weekend, but Ray and Ashley had, in their words, the best weekend ever.

Audrey and I held up the fort just fine at home. I took her to the zoo on Saturday, and then to the movies on Sunday. I got a quick 4 mile run in on Sunday thanks to Ray's brother watching Audrey for me (I averaged 9:34 pace for 4 miles, I am getting steadily faster!!). Needless to say, both kids (and Ray) were exhausted last night. I was not and got sucked into that darn Hoarder show on TLC until 11:00pm. Tell me again why I watch this stuff?

Virginia Tech

Everyone is a Hokie today.

More events in the future

Ashley is interested in doing more duathlons and triathlons in the future. Luckily, there is an organization here in Raleigh called Kids in Training that holds events like these for kids. I am hesitant to sign her up for a triathlon until she does more swimming (I am signing her up for the swim team in our neighborhood this weekend), but I am sure we will do one eventually.

On a completely unrelated note, Audrey had the hiccups for hours last night. Seriously. I picked her up from school and she had them, and then they went away at some point while we were waiting for her sister at dance. Then as soon as we got home from dinner, they started up again (about 7:00pm) and they didn't go away until she (and I) fell asleep around 10:00pm last night. Ray was in Myrtle Beach, so I let Audrey sleep in my bed (bad, bad parent, I know) and she had them so bad her whole body shook! Luckily she woke up this morning without them.

Do the Du Duathlon

Ashley did it! She completed her first Duathlon. There was no timing for this event, which I think is fine since it's kids. There were probably only about 30-35 kids running the short course of this event with Ashley. They ran .5 miles on a paved path around some baseball fields, then a 2 mile bike in a neighborhood, and then back on the paved path for .5 miles more. Here is Ashley at the start (in the bright pink shirt, glad she wore that so I could see her from far away):

And here she is coming into transition to pick up her bike. She ran the entire .5 miles, and I think she was excited to get on the bike.

And here she is in the transition area....first rule - get your helmet on! Then they had to walk their bikes out of transition, which is hard for kids. They just want to get on and ride.

Here she is coming at the end of the first lap of the 2 miles on her bike. The guy in the yellow shirt is her escort. I was worried about her as the neighborhood she had to ride through had a ton of parked cars on the side of the streets, some hills, and she just didn't know the area. I was not the only psycho parent requesting an escort for their kid. It kind of sucked though, because the last part of the loop was uphill and in the middle of that, the kids had to stop and get marked saying what lap they were on. This meant they lost momentum.

And here she is crossing the finish. They had a "tape" for the all the kids to run through which was cute. Her friend Alyssa is right behind her. Funny story though, as they were both taking forever on that last run part. Alyssa's Mom ran to see if they were okay as Alyssa had pneumonia earlier in the week and Ashley was having allergy issues and a sinus infection. Of course they were fine, they had just stopped to pick dandelions. Yes, you read that right. They finally got running again when Alyssa's Mom reminded them they were in a race. Oh, and Alyssa's Mom is the one I ran the half with a few weeks ago, so that was kind of cute.
And here the two of them are at the finish. Yes, they are the same age. Ashley is not an amazon, she is just a little tall for her age, and Alyssa is a little short for her age.

Surprisingly, Ashley did not crash after this. In fact, the race was held at a park, and we spent another hour playing there and then Audrey had a birthday party to attend at a park later that afternoon where the two of them played for another 2 hours. I asked Ashley if she was sore this morning, and she said only a little. Now she wants to do a triathlon....

Psycho parent

Tomorrow Ashley is taking part in a duathlon (of which I have a hard time pronouncing for some reason...) where she will run for 1/2 mile, bike 2 miles, run 1/2 mile. Originally, Ray was going to be allowed to accompany her on his bike during her bike portion. Well, now they are saying parents are not allowed to ride along as they don't want the course too crowded. Which is fine and all, but I am a worried parent and not that I don't think Ashley can handle the bike portion, I am just afraid of her falling or getting lost.

Because I like to worry.

So I emailed the race director, and Ashley can be escorted by a race volunteer if I think she needs it. I am going to drive the bike course tonight (it is a one mile loop that she has to do twice) and see if it is hard or hilly. And I may position Ray or his brother on the far part of the bike portion just in case.

Because I am psycho.

I plan on taking tons of pictures of Ashley's first duathlon, but it's not her first race. She has already done a mile run, and she is going to do the Race for the Cure in June with me. And she seems to think she will run the entire 3.2 miles. I think she needs to start training. We might start going to the track one night a week for her to train and for me to get some speed work in. I royally failed a "tempo run" this week where you warm up, push the pace for a few miles, and warm down. I thought I had picked up the pace and when my Garmin beeped at mile 2 and let me know I was actually running the same exact pace, I was pretty pissed. And defeated. I guess I will try again.

A nice color of yellow

Everything here is a nice shade of yellow due to the pollen. We rinse the deck off or the playground, and 10 minutes later it looks like we didn't do anything to it and it is covered in yellow again.

Audrey and Ray have had seasonal allergies for years. Audrey has been taking Zyrtec since she was one.

And now we can add one more of our family to the list of allergy victims - Ashley. She has been stuffy for weeks, and last night spiked a fever. A quick trip to the doctor this morning, and she has allergies and a sinus infection.

So her and I are having a nice day off today.

All Grown Up

Since my office was closed on Friday and the girls did not have school, we decided at the last minute to head to Myrtle Beach for the holiday weekend. Warm weather was on tap, and we did actually get some beach time in.

The other exciting thing?

Both girls got their ears pierced.

Audrey came home from preschool on Thursday saying she wanted her ears pierced. And a note - Audrey has my threshold of pain, pretty high. Ashley - her threshold of pain is like Ray's, meaning it's nonexistent. Seriously. We told Audrey she could get it done, and Ashley said she wasn't interested.

And then Ashley waffled up until the last minute, at which I think she realized if her sister could do it, so could she.

Ignore the face painting.

Ashley didn't even cry, while Audrey cried long enough for them to give her a lollipop, then she was fine. And Ray was in charge of taking photos, so he's to blame for none of Audrey on my iPhone. Both girls sat in my lap for the "procedure", so I could not take pictures.

March Recap

So for the month of March, I ran exactly 60 miles. This was my second highest mileage month since I started running last June. My other highest month was October 2009 and I logged 70.3 miles that month in preparation for OBX Half Marathon.

I am going attempt to keep up with 60+ mile months and start seriously training again in July for a fall half marathon. Any tips on keeping motivated while not specifically training for something would be greatly appreciated!!

Great Wolf Lodge

I have a kid who is is afraid of loud noises, having nightmares, bees and spiders. But afraid of a roller coaster that goes upside down? Nope, she will ride it all day long. Afraid of water and some scary surfing thing? Not at all. Here is video proof...



Yes, she didn't do too well, but she didn't cry. In fact, she walked right down and shrugged her shoulders and said, "At least I tried it". I think kids her size and age are just too light for this, they need to be heavier on the board.

We had a great time at Great Wolf Lodge. We actually went to the one in Williamsburg, VA instead of the one in Concord, NC (they are equal distance from Raleigh) and I liked the water park better at the one in Williamsburg. And lucky for us, they weren't sticklers for the height requirement because Audrey was still a few inches short of the 42 inch requirement for the family raft ride, but they let her ride it anyway. Carry her up a couple flights of stairs about 25 times was not fun though.