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!

Audrey's dance recital

Conversation with Audrey

Last night while tucking Audrey into bed:

"Mommy, let's talk about when I'm a teenager."

"Okay, what are we going to be doing when you are a teenager?"

"You might die. And if your hand is bigger than your face, you will get cancer."

Mother's Day and Birthdays

Mother's Day weekend started off on Friday at Audrey's preschool where I enjoyed Muffins for Moms for the last time there. I am very happy not to be paying $1,000 a month for preschool and Audrey is ecstatic about not wearing uniforms any more, but it was sad to be the last event like that. She has been at that school since she was 4 months old, and what it really means is she is almost a kindergartner. Very scary.

So anyway, she had to answer some questions about me...see the picture.
And let me just clarify #7. It says my favorite thing to do for fun is to "have a party Friday nights". Which is partly true. Ashley and 3 other girls on our street have dance class Friday nights (which yes in fact that does suck and I will never sign up for a dance class on Friday night again). So while they are in dance, the rest of us get together for a happy hour of sorts. And since Audrey isn't in dance class, she hangs out with us.

In other exciting news, Ray got some new shoes. Specifically these:

Yes, he is going to try vibrams to see if that helps his knee pain. He spent all weekend walking around the house in them.

So I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day and Happy Birthday to my Dad today!

This is the beginning of a crazy month...

I finally bit the bullet and got a real running coach to do a training plan (it's in plain sight at my desk at work) for me (versus finding random training plans online that weren't customized to my paces). And it is awesome (although running 7 and 8 milers during the week scares me). Go check Tonia out and give her some words of encouragement, she crashed her bike this weekend and is out of commission for a bit.


So running is back full force and for the first time, I am going to try and keep up with strength training as well. We shall see how that goes.


Audrey's dance recital is on May 14th; Ashley's dance and piano recital is on June 4th. Between Mother's day, birthdays, and in general craziness, we have started on a crazy month. I am looking forward to getting away to the beach Memorial Day weekend.

I realize I need to post about the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, but first a picture

Audrey waiting to go into dance class...

another head cold...

I have another head cold this week. Maybe its part of the "taper madness" of running. I skipped my speed workout on Monday, only ran 2 miles. I did 3 last night, will do 12 tomorrow. And then hopefully 4 on Sunday. My hip is still bothering me after I run, but not enough to cause issues.

I haven't run much this week due to my head cold and the fact I spent Wednesday driving to Virginia, sitting in a court room for most of the day, and then driving 4 hours back to NC. Let's just say the court system works. I was a character witness for a family member's custody battle, and he won full custody of both of his kids. It was a long and emotional day, not one that I want to repeat ever in my life.

Today was wear your favorite team shirt in Audrey's school, so of course I sent her in a Virginia Tech shirt. And since we live in Raleigh, there weren't many football shirts being worn for Green Bay or Pittsburgh, just tons of UNC or NC State stuff. I told Audrey not to play with any kids wearing NC State or UNC or Duke. I was joking (sort of). Audrey is really sad though because her favorite teacher is leaving next week. Which sucks since she only has a few months left at this school (she graduates on June 17 and starts kindergarten the beginning of July). When her teacher told the class she was leaving, Audrey cried, that's how much Audrey likes her.

She's Five...

There are a few things that mark your 5th year, memories of some things that make me and your Dad laugh out loud sometimes.

You love to perform, whether it's singing at school, dancing in ballet class, doing all of the cheers your sister learned this past year. Your eyes shine and your face lights up.
And then there's your absolute fear of some things, like when we "made" you go on the Tower of Terror at Disney World, or just this simple kid ride at the fair....

One second you are terrified, the next, you are all smiles. It is hilarious.

You love our dog Tootles, you love snuggling with me early in the morning (most mornings you come into my room between 5 and 6am and go back to sleep while laying on top of me). You love candy and cupcakes and playing with your friends. You give the best hugs on earth. I joke and tell you your hugs have healing powers, but I really think they do. You are almost always happy, but when you cry, it's heart breaking, gut wrenching. You definitely know how to cry. There are times when you are so tired, you just cry and can't tell me why you are crying. We get you to laugh and you are all better.

You love dance and gymnastics. You did well at soccer, but you don't want to play it this spring. Maybe in the fall you tell me.

You wake up everyday happy and never complain about going to school, although you look forward to "stay home days". You could watch the Ramona and Beezus movie over and over and over again. You told us last night you are in love with Justin Beiber, although you think his name is Beaver. You can write your whole name (and for those that know us, you know our last name is long). You have started to learn how to read and take great pride in that fact.

We tell you often that we love you, and you respond "I love you more".

You can't wait to start kindergarten in July, but I surely can. I think I will need a few drinks that day.

Happy Birthday Audrey! And I love you more....

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!

H-E-L-L

Audrey is definitely the most loving child between her and her sister. She hands out hugs and kisses all the time and still snuggles with Ray and I. (I think Ashley thinks it is not "so cool" to do those things anymore, and yes, she is only 7.)

This morning Audrey was snuggling in bed with me before I got up as she had come in our room at about 5:00am and had gone back to sleep. I told her I loved her and she told me she loved me more, and that she loved me to "hockey sticks, heaven, Mars and the moon and back". It took a second for me to think what the heck hockey sticks was.

I don't cuss a ton at home (aw hell, yes I do), but I do say "God Bless America" instead of sh*t and "H E Double Hockey Sticks" for hell. So yes, Audrey loves me to hell and back.

I realize most of the United States is cold right now, but DAMN it's cold. At least my van started this morning unlike yesterday morning. I am doing all my runs during the week at the gym and will attempt my 20 miler in the cold on Saturday morning. I am thinking I will be wearing multiple layers of clothes. This is really not normal for this time of year in NC. I hope it passes soon.

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...

First Day of Pre-K

Audrey had her first official day of Pre-K this week...and yes, Ray and I are counting down the days until we no longer have to pay for her school and she goes to kindergarten. She wears a uniform to Pre-K which I am hoping makes my mornings run just a little smoother.

Notice the white croc...Ray took Audrey to the pool one day last week, and sprayed her with sunscreen with her shoes on and it turned her shoe white.

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

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.

The Pool

I am going to say my streak is still alive considering I carried Audrey up the steps to the top of the slide at our pool once on Sunday. Which that is an accomplishment as I seem to have caught some sort of stomach thing where my stomach is pretty pissed at me. As soon as Ray got home from working his open house last night, I raised my white flag and went to bed.

So the pool. Audrey loves the pool now. She wears her life vest and will go down the slide, jump in the deep end, go off the diving board, have fun in the lazy river (yes, our pools in our neighborhood ROCK).

But yesterday she decided to fight her sister over a sea noodle Ashley picked up out of lost and found, despite the fact that she didn't need it to keep her afloat. So at break time, she threw a fit which included her hitting me. So we left (and lucky for Ashley, her friend was at the pool and her family said she could stay with them so I could take Satan child home). I carried a screaming Audrey out of the pool and to the van. At that point, she realized what was up, and completely calmed down and said, "I am ready to go back to the pool now. I calmed down."

I told her hitting and having a temper-tantrum (my friend who has a 4.5 year old right now is going through the same temper-tantrum stuff with her son)(I still say and this is proof that the halves are worse than the wholes) was not acceptable and we could go back to the pool another day. Which of course this brought on more crying until we got home. To which she decided as we got out of the van that she was going to walk back to the pool (about 3/4 of a mile, or more, I forget). I go inside and watch her through the front door. She stands there, acts like she is going to walk down the steps, then she peers back into the front door. And then comes in, saying sorry.

She was tired and hungry. We both got changed, and she hung out with me on the couch. She may be small, but no one is ever going to mess with this kid. She can throw one heck of a tantrum....