Check one off my bucket list

This weekend was one of those really good weekends - we didn't have much planned, the weather was great, and we enjoyed good friends and good times all around.


Friday nights Ashley has dance class with a few other girls on our street, so right after dance we all headed to our local watering hole in the downtown part of our town. We were able to get tables outside so we enjoyed relaxing and eating and the kids didn't have to be on their best behavior since we were outside.


Saturday mornings are my long run mornings and I got to run with Carmen and another new-ish neighbor to our street. I was doing 10 and they hung with me for 6 miles which was great. And the new neighbor has twins (a boy and a girl) who are Audrey's age, so we set up a playdate for later that day. After the run and eating lunch at home, Ray headed out with Audrey and I headed out with Ashley. Since Ray had been on two weekend camping trips recently with Ashley, we figured some bonding time with the girls was in order, so he took Audrey to a park and I took Ashley ice skating (I had purchased a groupon months ago that was about to expire for ice skating). We headed back home in time for Audrey to have a playdate, and for Ashley to have a friend from school over as well.


The other local bar/restaurant in our town was having "Rocking at the Crossing", with bands playing, bounce houses and such. After dinner we headed there and Ashley's friend's parents met us there. We hung out until after 9:00 at night. On the way home, Audrey looked like this:

But I have saved the best for last! Ray's company helps with marketing and selling houses in a neighboring golf community in town, and they were having a family festival on Sunday with a 5K race. Ray, myself and Ray's brother Sean were all signed up to run. Sean had been mouthing off for the past month that he was going to beat me and that he was in better shape than me. Ha!


I won 1st place in my age group (35-39), was 4th female overall AND I beat Ray and Sean.


Yes, it was a very small race. I would have never won in my age group otherwise. There was only about 150 registered, and I think less than that finished. It was hot (92 degrees at the 2pm start time) and crazy hilly. I saw one lady taken away on a stretcher. Not good.


But it still counts as an award. And not just any award, $20 to a local running store. Yippee!

Slightly obsessed with the Instagram app on my iPhone...

Grandma bought Ashley high top Converse shoes last week....and yesterday Ray bought her pink shoe laces to go with them.

I still have a ton going on....

Next week my youngest turns 5. I am still uncertain to where the last 5 years went, but she is excited. Why? Because she knows going to kindergarten is really, really close. I actually get to register her for kindergarten on her birthday. I will save my sappy post for Tuesday about her, but she is such a happy kid that she makes everyday shine.

And yes, Ashley makes our days shine too. We had a month or so a few months ago where every.little.thing was a battle with her. Thankfully it was a stage and she has been very loving and sweet and helpful lately (although she still has her moments). The only thing the two girls do that drive me nuts? They fight with each other, and it seems like they fight all the time although that is probably an exaggeration. But some days, I swear it sucks the life out of me.

So next week will be filled with birthday dinners, birthday parties, doctor's appointments (for Audrey) and the ever present running. I am in the middle of the highest mileage weeks of my training cycle. I will wait until near the marathon to post my thoughts on my training cycle, but I think I will be embracing the taper weeks at the end. 12 miles and 8 miles for my long runs? Shockingly, those sound like a piece of cake.

The longest week of the year....

Yes, I realize it is only the first full week of the year, but the first week back is always tough. Ashley had been tracked out of school for a month, so it was especially hard for her. But she received a new alarm clock as a present, and every morning she gets up at 6:45am and starts to get dressed on her own. This is so much better than the previous mornings sans alarm clock where I would have to bug her and bug her some more to get up.

And I am back on track with running. I did 8 miles of speedwork on the treadmill last night at the gym. It was torture, but really doing mile repeats makes the miles go by pretty quickly. 20 miles is on deck for the morning. My first of two. The marathon is getting closer and closer. I have visions of how I want to do, but since it is so much of an unknown, I really don't know what to expect. And that is a little nerve-wracking.

I continue to check the girls' heads every night for lice and I probably will until they turn 18. I never, ever want to deal with bugs in our hair again.

Audrey turns 5 in less than 2 weeks, and I am just getting to her birthday party invitations today. We are doing it at a Build-a-Bear at the mall. I just hope the mall won't be crowded that day.

Runs and Resolutions

After two weeks of no long run, I finally got out there yesterday for a long run of 14ish miles. I say 14ish because my Garmin was dead when I started, so I put in on the charger while I ran a little over a mile then waited out a rain storm while it charged. I headed back out for 13 miles where I got caught in another rain storm, but I was too far from home to stay dry. At least it was warm outside.

I will attempt my first 20 miler this coming Saturday.

In 2010, I ran 715 miles...pretty good considering between April and June I barely ran any. I don't want to say I can do 1,000 miles in 2011, but I think I can.

The only races on the books for this year are the Austin Marathon next month and the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in April (yes, I got in!). I think I may do the Historic Marine Corp Half Marathon in May and if my first marathon goes well, I would love to do the Marine Corp Marathon in October.

The only other resolution? I need to cross train. I have been really lucky (knock on wood) to stay healthy this training cycle. I plan on trying to cross train with either work out DVDs at home or hit the gym for more than just running on the treadmill.

All is well in our house finally. I did what I hope is our final chemical treatment for lice last night. I didn't see any eggs or nits in the girls' hair, and Ray checked my hair. I don't with lice on my worst enemy. And everyone went back to school today fairly easily. Ashley went back after being tracked out for over a month and she even got up on her own with her new alarm clock. I had to actually wake Audrey up which was new, but she got ready fairly easily as well.

And for tonight? Wings, a deep fried turkey and some beer to watch Virginia Tech hopefully win over Stanford. Wearing my lucky VT shirt and socks!

A Change

Warning - this post is a lot of randomness....

Next week, I will be working for Ray and his business DreamLiving Realty. Without divulging too much information about my current job, I am beyond happy about this.

5 days until my half and I am a huge stress ball. I don't even want to talk about it. I just don't know what I am capable of. I guess I will know on Sunday.

I am completely impressed with the effort that Ashley has been putting in for her cheerleading competition (heck, all the girls on her squad are putting in a huge effort). She hasn't complained once about the practices (the past two weeks they have practiced Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday). She is excited when she comes home to tell me how well she did in practice or what they worked on. I am keeping my fingers crossed they get first place on Saturday. They are only competing against 2 other squads, so their chances are good.

A little bit of cheer...

Ashley's cheerleading competition is one week from tomorrow. I got to her practice a few minutes early last night and got to finally see the routine. Last year her squad came in 4th place - out of 4 teams. Everyone was disappointed. This year they have a new coach (the coach whose squad won overall at the competition last year) and they look so much better already and they still have 4 more practices to go. I am keeping my fingers crossed they will do much better this year.

And even more cheer? Virginia Tech won their football game last night.

And not so much cheer? I couldn't find Audrey's coat this morning, and I think I lost a check reimbursement from work for about $260. Grrr. I really need to organize at home and at work. It's driving me nuts.

I am running at lunch today, and of course I forgot my Garmin. Luckily I can go over to a path that has the miles marked, but still. I hate being that forgetful.

Pictures

I gave up a few years ago on getting the girls photos done at one of those places like Sears or Portrait Innovations. I was spending a ton of money of some good, most not so great photos as we were cattle-herded into one room while screaming children waited for their turn where we could see. Not the best situations to take pictures in.

Luckily I have a good friend who takes photos and takes them well. We get an outside setting (or inside like for Audrey's birthday party last year) and the girls are at ease. And I get pictures like the ones above - they really capture the girls. I love, love, LOVE that first photo.

If you live in the Raleigh area, her website is here...

One year older...

I realized today that as of my birthday this past Tuesday, I am now in another age bracket in most races. Which of course doesn't really mean anything because I will never, ever place in my age group at any race, but just makes me feel that much older. And yes, I realize I am whining and I am not really old at 35, but some days I feel old. And the gray hairs on my head don't help.

I am on target to run over 100 miles this month, and I hit 500 miles for the year a while back. I still can't shake these last 5 pounds I want to lose though and I am thinking I need to add some cross training. I did the P90X Ab Ripper video the other day and I was so sore the next day it hurt to breath. I might try it again tonight.

I ran at lunch downtown again today and I didn't trip in front of the Krispy Kreme this time. I was amazed at how hilly downtown Raleigh really is.

Ashley has a performance at school tonight for the second graders. They are singing patriotic songs which I find odd. Why not Halloween songs? Before that, I have her parent-teacher conference which is always enlightening. She does well in school, but the teachers always have some funny story about her.

Labor Day Weekend

We are lucky enough to have good friends who bought a beach house in Oak Island, NC this summer. We celebrated the last long weekend of the summer with them at their beach house. There was a concern at first for hurricane Earl, but considering it didn't even rain in Raleigh, we figured it was safe to head to the beach for the weekend. We left early Saturday morning and we were on the beach at noon. I will say that the waves on Saturday were huge - the biggest waves I have seen on a North Carolina beach. The kids could really only play in the waves near the shore and couldn't really boogie board. Sunday was calm and clear (as you can see from the pictures below). We were on the beach for over 6 hours on Sunday. Yes, the kids love the beach as much as I do. And our friend rented a paddle board for the day too. All the kids took a turn trying it out. It is basically a huge surf board with a paddle and it was so much fun. And it was also one hell of a workout.

Here is Ashley the first time on it. That's our friend helping her out. He's the master surfer.

She's getting the hang of it.

I just like this shot with the boats in the background...

And she finally grabs a hold of the paddle. I am not sure how much she used it, but at least she tried. In the end, she caught a wave while she was sitting in the middle of the board and it was like watching it in slow motion as the paddle board took a nose dive and sent Ashley face first into the sand. But she was okay after some crying and went back on it later. She just didn't want to ride any waves in on it.

Audrey just hung out...but don't worry, she got a turn too.

She wouldn't let go of my arm. She lasted only a few minutes, but still, she did it!

And then it was my turn. And this is the only photo that was okay to post....all the others were not flattering to say the least. My quads were burning when I got off the board. And yes, I am wearing a weird hat as I forgot my sunglasses. Actually it is my Virginia Tech hat, and no, I am not ashamed to wear it even after we lost to Boise State.

Running update

I promise pictures of Ashley cheering at the high school football game last night will be posted tonight (that is mostly to appease my Mom...).

I get kind of bummed when I read some running blogs that preach and preach about the benefits of running 30-40 miles a week. I think that I am not doing enough and it will affect me in my races.

But then I step back and realize a couple of things. First off, I ran my first half marathon last year without taking my mileage over 17 miles a week and I had a pretty respectable time. Then I ran another one without going much over 15 miles a week. So I am hoping that my 20-30 miles I am running a week now will be an improvement.

And I am busy - working full time, two kids in multiple activities, a husband who owns his own real estate business with wacky hours some days, a husband who is also training for the half marathon, and I lead my daughter's brownie troop and am team mom for cheerleading. I am doing what I can to get the miles in, and it's enough.

So this week has been all about squeezing in runs when I can. Monday night after the kids went to bed I hit the gym for 5 miles of speedwork which I hit all my paces (yipee!). Wednesday morning was a 5 miler and it was an adventure. It was hot as I got started around 8:30am after the kids were at school and I got snapped at my a HUGE turtle and I almost stepped on a snake. I hate snakes.

This morning I got up at 5:30am to get 4 miles in before the kids got up. I will do the same for my 8 miler in the morning. I normally run at lunch time on Fridays, but it is supposed to be 97 here today and we have a lunch event at work today and Audrey will be with me at work since her school is closed for a teacher workday. It was really nice to get up and get it done. I can see why Ray likes getting up early and running. And I stayed away from the path around the pond by our house as I didn't want to encounter anymore snakes or turtles.

Ashley and Audrey have been invited to a Camp Rock 2 movie party tonight which they are extremely excited about. It's a perfect way to start the holiday weekend.

Dinner Games

We often play the Family Time Fun Beginner Dinner Games because the girls like it (my kids like to talk) and it's often better than the how was school conversation.

Last night we drew a card where you got to wave around the magic spoon and say three things you would wish for.

My wishes:
1. A running skirt
2. A new van (And really, I'm not sure why I said this as our van is only 2 years old and perfectly fine. I think the girls had me frazzled demanding I answer so they could.)
3. And I never got to say my third one as mentioned above, the girls got a little anxious about saying what they wanted.

Ashley's Wishes:
1. For everyone to take care of the Earth (very nice of her and frankly I was shocked by the fact it wasn't a material item.)
2. A horse
3. A scooter (Yes, there are some kids in our neighborhood who drive around on their scooters, and unless a Grandparent is willing to buy her one, she is never getting one from Ray nor I.)

Audrey's Wishes:
1. To get hugs from Mommy all the time (I always tell her she gives the best hugs)
2. To never die. (Yes, she seriously said that. Hmm.)
3. To go to Marbles, the local kid's museum

Sleep

I have posted many, many times I am sure about sleep issues in our house (and I don't feel like going back through the archives and finding those posts).

Old sleep issues seemed to have been resolved, only for new ones to rear their ugly heads.

Ashley has always, always been a great sleeper once she decided at 18 months to sleep through the night. We had some hiccups along the way, but at least since she was in preschool she would go to bed at night and be asleep before her head hit the pillow. And she would stay that way until morning, although sometimes that morning was a little earlier than I wanted.

But lately, it's a different story. I don't know what's up with her. She is having trouble falling asleep. I often go upstairs after I put the girls to bed to find her up walking around. And yes, part of the problem is that Audrey is up walking around, but I will get to that in a minute. A few nights ago, it was after 10 before she finally fell asleep. And she is waking up in the middle of the night and doing God knows what but every morning I find her bedroom door open. By Friday, she is so tired she's toast.

Audrey just needs to not nap at school. She naps, she doesn't fall asleep until late, then is tired, then naps again at school. The weekends are great because she falls right to sleep. I can't do anything about it though. I am not going to tell her teachers to keep her awake, that's not her job. She is obviously tired because she isn't falling asleep until late, so it's just a vicious cycle. One more year and she's off to kindergarten and no naps.

So any suggestions for Ashley would be helpful. I feel so bad when I have to wake her up in the morning when I know she is tired. Maybe it's an age thing?

Time

The bus came on time yesterday, go figure. Although I am pretty sure enough of us called/emailed/faxed or whatever yesterday to make sure that our kids didn't get home at 4:00pm again. We shall see what time the bus comes today.

First week of training, so far so good (sort of). I was supposed to do a tempo run on Monday, and I figured I would do it at the gym. It was supposed to be 1 mile warm-up, 3 miles at 9:43 pace, the 1 mile cool down. Using the treadmill conversion, that meant I was running the 3 miles at 6.4 which isn't too bad for me.

But 2.5 miles into it, I was done. I don't know if it was dinner, too much water, my stupid underwear riding up my butt the whole time or what, but I took the pace down and then only did 4 miles. I made up the other mile on Wednesday where I did 5 instead of 4. And it was a glorious 5 miles since it was actually only in the 70s and overcast for the run. I hadn't done one of those in months. And today was another 4 at lunch where it was about 90, but not as humid and I ran a shaded trail. 8 tomorrow to round out the week at 21 miles.

One week almost down, 11 to go until OBX.

Tonight is a jazz class for Ashley. Yes, we actually have an activity on a Friday night, but there was no way around it with her cheerleading schedule. And she really wanted to take a jazz class. And three of her friends are in it with her.

I realized this week that I have taken absolutely no photos of anything this month. Pretty pathetic. So my challenge for this weekend and next week is to take pictures. Audrey has a birthday party to go to tomorrow, and next week Ashley gets to cheer at the high school football game on Thursday night. So plenty of opportunities for pictures.

Why can't they just get it right the first time?

So Ashley normally gets off the bus around 3:15pm. Just in time for her piano lessons on Thursdays at 3:30pm and enough time for Ray to get her off the bus and go get Audrey from school and then to Audrey's dance class at 4:00pm on Tuesdays. Yes, it's cutting it close, but it works.

Until yesterday. The bus didn't come until after 4:00pm. Not only does this screw us up, but I am pissed for the fact that we literally live less than a mile from the school, and Ashley sat in her classroom and then in the office when her teacher left for 45 minutes after the final bell.

The problem is the traditional calendar schools started yesterday here in Wake County, and our bus driver has a middle school route prior to our route. And she said that her middle school route takes her an hour. WTF? So my kid sits in school for almost an hour waiting for the bus to come get her? She could walk home faster than that.

So I have called the school and emailed and called transportation. Hopefully this will get changed, otherwise I am screwed on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Plus, it makes for a long day for Ashley. She gets on the bus at 7:45am. So if she doesn't get home until after 4:00pm, that's over 8 hours.

GAH! This stuff stresses me out. We were on a perfect schedule for the past 6.5 weeks that we have been in school.

Texas

We miss our friends that moved to Texas...Ashley still talks about her best friend Catalina everyday. Hence the poem she did for homework last night....

Another neighbor was lucky enough to go and visit them last week, and brought me back a shirt.

And no, I am not switching loyalties to Texas. If you recall, the last time Virginia Tech played Texas was in the Sugar Bowl my senior year of college (which was *cough*cough* many, many years ago) and Virginia Tech won.

But I will wear this shirt proudly. On non-football playing days. Go Hokies!

Oh, and THANK GOD ITS THE WEEKEND...that's all I have to say about this week. Let's just say it started off with me wearing my shirt inside-out to the bus stop on Monday morning, and it has just never stopped from there.

I have no title for this post

I hate having projects unfinished, and Ashley's room was a project that was unfinished (and actually still is until Ray hangs her curtain rod TONIGHT). The big thing left to do was to paint. And paint we did. Her room is now a "brave purple" color. Ray did some of the painting, and I finished up on Saturday morning while Audrey was at a friend's school's festival and Ashley was at a birthday party. I know, a kid free Saturday morning, and I spent it painting. I would have much rather spent it at a coffee shop reading a book, but oh well. Next time. And I guess I could actually take pictures of the room...add that to my to-do list tonight.

Prior to the painting, I did 7 miles bright and early with my friend Wendy on the Tobacco Trail. There were a ton of runners/bikers out Saturday morning, even at the 6:30am hour we got started at. I am guessing all the fall marathon training schedules have started. I officially start my training next week on the 23rd. This was my sixth straight week of around 20 miles or so, and my legs were feeling it. They were just tired. I think I might step it back a few miles this week before I get back into an official training schedule next week.

And speaking of training, I used the Smart Coach application (or you can find it on Runner's World) for my training plan for both the half marathon and the full I am doing. Keep your fingers crossed it gets me a PR in my half marathon in November. And because I am psycho about spreadsheets, I am still tweaking the schedule today. We have our Disney vacation in September and I have a weekend trip in October that all need to go into consideration when looking at my training schedule.

Last week, Audrey started soccer and holy crap, she loves it. So unlike her sister which we endured two seasons of intro to soccer of Ashley playing in the dirt instead of actually paying attention to the coach. She did start to melt at the end, but it was over 90 degrees and she was hot. Yes, pictures of this to come soon as well. As soon as I remember to bring a camera to practice.

And speaking of practice, she has practice on Thursdays from 5:45 - 6:45pm. Ashley has cheer leading from 6:00-7:30pm that day as well. I drop Ashley off at a neighbors for her to hitch a ride at 5:30pm, then take Audrey to soccer (Ray last week had a realtor event, this week hopefully he will be home because getting them both fed and ready was not fun). This Thursday? It is also Ashley's open house for school as well at parent's night out at Audrey's school (where we would have had free childcare for 3 hours, guess we will get it next time) and the open house at their dance school. Luckily they both know their dance teachers, but I still want to go to Ashley's open house. What is it with everything being on the same day?

The fighting....

Little did Ray and I know that having two girls 2.5 years apart would create two human beings who would rather fight with each other over every.little.thing than actual be nice for a few minutes.

The fighting seems to never stop. Ashley touches Audrey, Audrey hits Ashley back. One is sitting in the other one's way, one gives the other one the stink eye.

Yes, really sometimes they fight over stupid stuff. I am shocked, I know.

Most of the time the arguments are created over competition and Ashley bragging that she gets to do something her sister does not. Like who gets their vitamins first in the morning. Who goes down the stairs first. Who takes a shower first.

But then we have a morning like this one. Audrey announced she was line leader, Ashley wanted to ride piggyback down the stairs (yes, she is too big for this, but if it would get them downstairs and eating breakfast, I am willing to ride a skateboard down the stairs...). Audrey then saw she was missing out on riding on my back, and threw a fit. To which Ashley said her sister could do it instead of her.

Then at the bus stop, Audrey actually gave her sister a hug. To which I said I needed to write this date down, a day when they were actually nice to each other. So this is me writing it down.

Running and exercising with kids

I don't boast fast times when I run, nor do I run 30-40 miles a week. I try to hit 20 miles a week, and at best, I come close (although my new training plan that starts this month for the half marathon in November and the full in February have me running 20+ miles each week). I work full-time, have 2 kids, and I could go on with the list of other things I am involved in, but I would just bore you to death.

I do try to keep my workouts at night after the kids go to bed or incorporate the kids into my workouts (Ray takes the early morning shift running). Like yesterday. I took the girls to see a movie, then we went back home where all they wanted to do again was watch TV. Since for the first time in 2 months it wasn't 90+ degrees outside and I needed a measly 2.5 miles to get my 20 miles for the week, I took the kids to a local track at a middle school. Ashley biked, Audrey biked and ran/walked. I ran and the girls had fun watching me for my last 2 laps.

I also wrote for a great website, Diets in Review this past weekend. You can check out my article here....

Quick Recap

Ashley's birthday party was a success. I took her and some of her friends to see the Ramona and Beezus movie on Saturday. Great movie for girls (Ray was utterly bored with it) but warning, it has some sad parts in it. Audrey was sobbing at one point over something that happened and Ray had to take her out of the theater for a few minutes.

Her present from us and the Grandparents was a new bed. I found one I liked on Ikea's website, and it was even available to order online (or so I thought). The closest 2 stores to us are in Charlotte, NC or Woodbridge, VA (both 3 hours or more away). So I went to order it Sunday and I could add the bed to my cart, but then when I went to pay, it said the bed was not available online. Nor was it available at either close store.

Next option - a discount furniture warehouse place nearby. I found the perfect bed, and the price was $399, but it said "any reasonable offers accepted". So I offered $299 and got it. Ray was pissed as he of course thought I could have talked them down to $250, but I am just not good at that stuff. New bedding from ebay has been ordered, and now she just needs to pick a room color, and her new-ish room makeover for her birthday will be complete.

I did get a run in Saturday morning with Ann again on the Tobacco Trail. We only did 6 this time, and it went by fast. It made me realize that training for the Austin Marathon in December and January by myself is going to SUCK A$$. I might have to pay people to run with me.