I busted off a Quarter Marathon this past weekend. 6.55 miles, according to the event organizers. My garmin, however, lets me know that I ran 6.68 miles. Next time I'm going to hug the corners as tight as I can. I finished in 1 hour, 3 minutes. I figured I would be able to run 10 minute miles, therefore I was counting on finishing around 1 hour, 5 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised to finish faster than this. My overall pace was 9:34. This was the longest run since Alison arrived. And fastest. And earliest in the morning. And coldest....I couldn't feel my hands until the 2nd or 3rd mile. Brrrrrrrrrr.
I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty impressed that I actually did this. Had I not paid for it back in September, there's NO way I would have done it. But, I felt like skipping it would have been a waste of money, and it helped me get back into shape! And, I ran it on a whopping 4 hours of sleep. The night before I finally went to bed at 10, was up from midnight until 2am with sweetie pie pooping Alison, then slept again until 4:45 when my alarm went off. Tired mama, for sure.
James wins father of the year for loading up both kids and coming to see me at the finish line. It's a lot of work to get out the door, by yourself, with both kids. Then, once you get in the car you are generally serenaded by a crying Alison (seriously, the girl is all smiles in her car seat until you click it into the car. Then she just wails, complains, and has a fit). The man is a champ!
Sunday afternoon Zack wanted to go to the playground. Alison was asleep, which meant one of us had to stay home. Zack asked me to go with him, so off we went. Apparently I inspired him, because he wanted to run to the playground. So we ran. Every few houses he would look back at me and say "We're running! You're not wearing a hat!!" and then continue on, running. Apparently I need to always wear a hat if I plan to run. It was about this time I realized that my legs were tired, and already sore. But, I suppose running to the playground was good, helped to loosen things up!!
Now, I need to find another race to sign up for to inspire me to continue to get out the door and run with my two little hooligans, and my most handsome husband.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Saturday, February 23, 2013
What Was I Thinking?!?! And, some progress
Back in September, when I was 100 years pregnant, not running, and eating every 30 minutes, I went ahead and registered myself to run a quarter marathon at the end of March (read about it here). At the time it seemed like a pretty good, and only somewhat wild, idea. The run is in 4 weeks. And it's officially a wild idea. Seriously, what was I thinking?!?! I'm still sooooooo out of shape!!
Well, I was thinking that I would be able to head out for a run in the afternoon, a few days a week. Sadly, our double jogging stroller sits in the garage, waiting for it's maiden voyage....and a car seat adapter that is compatible with our car seat. Said car seat adapter was supposed to be released in September of 2012, only to be pushed back to November of 2012, which was then pushed back to February of 2013. February 18, 2013, to be exact. Well, February 18th has come and gone, and I have yet to find a place that is selling this adapter. I stalk REI and BOB's website on daily basis. Once we do finally acquire this lovely adapter, we will see how little Miss Alison does in her car seat, in the stroller. She generally wails when we place her in the dreaded car seat. It makes for some joy filled car rides.
So, with the lack of a double jogging stroller, I am unable to simply head out the door for a quick afternoon run. (Never mind the fact that I have 2 children, and I will never again "simply head out the door" when I've got both of them tagging along.) I could hop on the treadmill, but if both kids are asleep, at the same time, I don't dare hop on for a quick jog simply out of fear of waking Alison, who is still sleeping in the master bedroom, which is where the treadmill resides.
Thankfully I have a wonderfully supportive husband (who did, by the way, suggest I do this race). When he comes home he is more than willing to watch/wrangle both kids while I go pop off 3 quick miles. Only I no longer "pop off 3 quick miles." I drag my feet and suck wind for 3 miles.
Today, during nap time, I went out for my "long run." Long being 4 miles. I managed to run 4.15 miles in about 44 minutes. My average moving pace (seriously, I LOVE my garmin) was 10:23, per mile. I compared this to my first run after Alison was born. In that run my pace was 11:47, for less than 2 miles. I was encouraged to see that I've made a ton of progress.
I'm still not all that confident about the actual race. I know I will eventually finish it. And I'll probably finish it wearing a sparkly running skirt that will make me feel super fast. But it's not gonna be pretty! (well, the skirt will be, but my running won't.) And poor Alexis, she is probably going to have to walk in order to keep up with my pace!
Baby steps...slow and steady isn't going to actually win this upcoming race, but it surely will finish!!
Well, I was thinking that I would be able to head out for a run in the afternoon, a few days a week. Sadly, our double jogging stroller sits in the garage, waiting for it's maiden voyage....and a car seat adapter that is compatible with our car seat. Said car seat adapter was supposed to be released in September of 2012, only to be pushed back to November of 2012, which was then pushed back to February of 2013. February 18, 2013, to be exact. Well, February 18th has come and gone, and I have yet to find a place that is selling this adapter. I stalk REI and BOB's website on daily basis. Once we do finally acquire this lovely adapter, we will see how little Miss Alison does in her car seat, in the stroller. She generally wails when we place her in the dreaded car seat. It makes for some joy filled car rides.
So, with the lack of a double jogging stroller, I am unable to simply head out the door for a quick afternoon run. (Never mind the fact that I have 2 children, and I will never again "simply head out the door" when I've got both of them tagging along.) I could hop on the treadmill, but if both kids are asleep, at the same time, I don't dare hop on for a quick jog simply out of fear of waking Alison, who is still sleeping in the master bedroom, which is where the treadmill resides.
Thankfully I have a wonderfully supportive husband (who did, by the way, suggest I do this race). When he comes home he is more than willing to watch/wrangle both kids while I go pop off 3 quick miles. Only I no longer "pop off 3 quick miles." I drag my feet and suck wind for 3 miles.
Today, during nap time, I went out for my "long run." Long being 4 miles. I managed to run 4.15 miles in about 44 minutes. My average moving pace (seriously, I LOVE my garmin) was 10:23, per mile. I compared this to my first run after Alison was born. In that run my pace was 11:47, for less than 2 miles. I was encouraged to see that I've made a ton of progress.
I'm still not all that confident about the actual race. I know I will eventually finish it. And I'll probably finish it wearing a sparkly running skirt that will make me feel super fast. But it's not gonna be pretty! (well, the skirt will be, but my running won't.) And poor Alexis, she is probably going to have to walk in order to keep up with my pace!
Baby steps...slow and steady isn't going to actually win this upcoming race, but it surely will finish!!
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Hilarious Zack-isms
Zack makes me smile. And laugh. He warms this mama's heart.
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Me: Zack, you're a cool cat.
Zack: Meow
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Zack: We made it!!!! (said anytime we get to where we are going, such as the grocery store, Bible study, Grammie and Papa's house, etc)
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Zack: She's filing (smiling, that's how he says smiling) at me!!!! She loves me!!!! (said anytime Alison smiles at him)
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Zack: Green means go! Let's go mama!! (said half a millisecond after the stoplight turns green)
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Me: Did you know God loves you?
Zack: Uh huh (while nodding head yes)
Me: Who else loves you?
Zack: Mommy does!!!
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Zack: Hi Fweetheart!! (or Fweet Pea, or Fweets-as he runs by Alison)
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Me: Zack, can you do a burpee??
Zack: [super loud fake burp noise]
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Me: Zack, you're a cool cat.
Zack: Meow
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Zack: We made it!!!! (said anytime we get to where we are going, such as the grocery store, Bible study, Grammie and Papa's house, etc)
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Zack: She's filing (smiling, that's how he says smiling) at me!!!! She loves me!!!! (said anytime Alison smiles at him)
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Zack: Green means go! Let's go mama!! (said half a millisecond after the stoplight turns green)
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Me: Did you know God loves you?
Zack: Uh huh (while nodding head yes)
Me: Who else loves you?
Zack: Mommy does!!!
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Zack: Hi Fweetheart!! (or Fweet Pea, or Fweets-as he runs by Alison)
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Me: Zack, can you do a burpee??
Zack: [super loud fake burp noise]
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Flaming Sponges
I have the best husband in the world. Really, it's true. He's quite amazing.
For as long as I can remember, I have primarily been the one who does the dishes in our house. James surely does help, but I am generally the one who ends up washing them them majority of the time. And I'm fine with this arrangement. James works all day long, while I do my best to stay afloat at home with the kids. Back when we just had Zack, James would play with him after dinner while I did the dishes and got the kitchen back in somewhat order. It's a pet peeve of mine to wake up and have a dirty kitchen. It seriously puts me in a bad mood.
Now that sweet little Alison is here, there is significantly less time for things like doing dishes, laundry, showering, etc, etc. Our after dinner routine of James and Zack playing while I cleaned the kitchen went flying out the window at warp speeds. But, James, being the wonderful man he is, has started helping me out majorly with the dishes. If I'm entertaining the kids, or feeding the wee one (which seriously is happening all the time....), he will do the dishes for me. Without even being asked. (I told you he's amazing!)
Well, apparently James has a highly developed sense of smell. And you know how the kitchen sponge can get a little stinky if it doesn't get wrung out after every use?? Well, he can detect a stinky kitchen sponge long before I can, and every time he does the dishes he says the sponge smells.
This past weekend he could handle the smell no longer, and took maters into his own hands. He decided to put the sponge in the microwave to fry any stinky stuff that may have taken up residence in said sponge. Here is how things went down.
James puts damp sponge in microwave. Turns microwave on for 5 minutes.
Karen-"You put it in for 5 minutes?! I only do 2 minutes! There are a lot of bubbles coming out of the sponge."
James, assumes Karen reset microwave for 2 minutes, rather than 5.
Karen does not reset microwave, but goes about administering Zantac to baby. Looks up at microwave, sees sponge ON FIRE.
Karen, running the other way, with baby in arms, "the microwave is on fire, it's on FIRE!!!!"
James, runs to kitchen, opens microwave, starts blowing out flaming sponge.
Karen, "do I need to call 911?!? Don't you need water to put out the fire?!?!"
James picks up pizza sheet from stove top, scoops still flaming sponge out of microwave, takes it to sink, douses it with water, extinguishing the remaining flames.
Karen, "we should take a picture."
We were left with a VERY smelly house, and a crazy stinky microwave. We opened all the doors and windows and aired the house out, but the following day still had a smelly microwave. A combo of baking soda and water, then lemon juice and water, and finally lemon juice, water and cloves, all microwaved, has rid our microwave of the burnt sponge smell. Now it smells like cloves, but whatever, cloves is waaaaaaay better than burnt sponge, trust me.
And the irony of it all-Zack was watching Fireman Sam for the duration of the flaming sponge incident. He barely looked up from the screen to see what all the commotion was about.
For as long as I can remember, I have primarily been the one who does the dishes in our house. James surely does help, but I am generally the one who ends up washing them them majority of the time. And I'm fine with this arrangement. James works all day long, while I do my best to stay afloat at home with the kids. Back when we just had Zack, James would play with him after dinner while I did the dishes and got the kitchen back in somewhat order. It's a pet peeve of mine to wake up and have a dirty kitchen. It seriously puts me in a bad mood.
Now that sweet little Alison is here, there is significantly less time for things like doing dishes, laundry, showering, etc, etc. Our after dinner routine of James and Zack playing while I cleaned the kitchen went flying out the window at warp speeds. But, James, being the wonderful man he is, has started helping me out majorly with the dishes. If I'm entertaining the kids, or feeding the wee one (which seriously is happening all the time....), he will do the dishes for me. Without even being asked. (I told you he's amazing!)
Well, apparently James has a highly developed sense of smell. And you know how the kitchen sponge can get a little stinky if it doesn't get wrung out after every use?? Well, he can detect a stinky kitchen sponge long before I can, and every time he does the dishes he says the sponge smells.
This past weekend he could handle the smell no longer, and took maters into his own hands. He decided to put the sponge in the microwave to fry any stinky stuff that may have taken up residence in said sponge. Here is how things went down.
James puts damp sponge in microwave. Turns microwave on for 5 minutes.
Karen-"You put it in for 5 minutes?! I only do 2 minutes! There are a lot of bubbles coming out of the sponge."
James, assumes Karen reset microwave for 2 minutes, rather than 5.
Karen does not reset microwave, but goes about administering Zantac to baby. Looks up at microwave, sees sponge ON FIRE.
Karen, running the other way, with baby in arms, "the microwave is on fire, it's on FIRE!!!!"
James, runs to kitchen, opens microwave, starts blowing out flaming sponge.
Karen, "do I need to call 911?!? Don't you need water to put out the fire?!?!"
James picks up pizza sheet from stove top, scoops still flaming sponge out of microwave, takes it to sink, douses it with water, extinguishing the remaining flames.
Karen, "we should take a picture."
We were left with a VERY smelly house, and a crazy stinky microwave. We opened all the doors and windows and aired the house out, but the following day still had a smelly microwave. A combo of baking soda and water, then lemon juice and water, and finally lemon juice, water and cloves, all microwaved, has rid our microwave of the burnt sponge smell. Now it smells like cloves, but whatever, cloves is waaaaaaay better than burnt sponge, trust me.
And the irony of it all-Zack was watching Fireman Sam for the duration of the flaming sponge incident. He barely looked up from the screen to see what all the commotion was about.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Tales from the Battlefield
Alison is now almost 3 months old (and I started writing this when she was 8 weeks old....apparently I've been busy). I can hardly believe it. The past months have been so incredibly wonderful, and so.incredibly.HARD. at the same time.
Alison was not the happiest of babies. It was quite the shock to us, since James and I are such delightful people, we weren't too sure how we ended up with an unhappy little lady. Alison was oh so very cute and wonderful, but also quite demanding. She wanted to be held 100% of the time, and was a very restless sleeper. She had multiple nights where she had me up for hours on end, pacing with her. She would be fed, have a clean diaper and would finally fall asleep in my arms, but once I would put her down she would come to life, crying and wriggling and just acting so unhappy in general. There were multiple nights where I would wake James up so he could take a turn with her, because I was just too exhausted to carry on.
Days weren't much better. I would put her down long enough to go to the bathroom, and make a PBandJ for Zack, and even on occasion change his diaper.
Then came the day where I needed to go to Target. Of course, this day came after a night that was particularly rough, as in I got maybe 3 or 4 hours of very broken sleep. Alison was in quite the mood as we ventured to Target. She cried the whole way there, and continued once we arrived. I finally broke down and got her out of her car seat and attempted to carry her (crying the whole time), while pushing the cart and trying to keep Zack happy. I undoubtedly had not showered for over 24 hours, was probably in stretchy pants, and had very bloodshot eyes. A lady gave me a look that said "oh my goodness, you poor thing." I nearly started crying. James came home from work early that day. Otherwise I might not have survived.
After a couple of very bad nights (and days) in a row, I started to wonder if maybe something I was eating was causing her such distress. Looking back at my diet I realized I had eaten some dairy filled meals, and those seemed to precede her extreme misery. So I stopped eating dairy and we had a completely different baby. That night she slept, it was amazing.
But she was still demanding (she is a baby, after all....they can't do much on their own). We continued to have rough nights, and the days still involved holding a baby almost all day long. And she demanded to be held upright. None of the sweet cradling a baby in your arms, and gazing lovingly into her eyes while she cooed and smiled at us. Oh no, cradling the baby made her an angry baby. One day, I came to the conclusion that it would be easier to teach Walter (the dog....the OLD dog) how to speak Spanish than it would be to get Alison to sleep. I had already eliminated all that is delicious from my diet, and was eating the blandest foods that even a toddler would approve of. We finally decided that it was time to take her to the doctor, cause watching what I ate, burping her really well, and holding her upright for 30 minutes after eating (more like 3 hours....) still left us with an unhappy, and uncomfortable baby.
The doctor thinks she has reflux, and prescribed her some Zantac, and predicted that it would be life changing for us.
God Bless the creator of Zantac.
We had a completely different baby within a few days. Incredible.
Then came her 2 month check-up. The girl was growing in length, and her head certainly is huge and growing, but her weight was not moving along as quickly as it needed to be. Supplementing with bottles would be necessary. I somewhat welcomed the change. Bottles=freedom for mama. But, the girl is little miss sensitive we would have to give her hypo-allergenic formula. Dairy clearly does not agree with little Miss A, and 3 ounces of soy based formula created an absolutely awful diaper situation that resulted in the complete loss of an outfit. Hypo-allergenic formula smells awful, is outrageously expensive, and corn syrup solids is the first ingredient. (Now, I'm not against formula at all. Zack was a formula baby and has been quite healthy and is a very happy kid. But the first ingredient in his formula was milk, and milk is normal....corn syrup solids?? Not something I want to eat.)
So here we are today. Alison is gaining weight like it's going out of style. I nurse her, and then she gets a bottle of either pumped breast milk or formula. She is 100 times more excited to slurp down the breast milk, but also mostly tolerates the formula. It's kind of a pain to nurse her and then give her a bottle, but breastfeeding is free. Might as well give her as much as I can. She still has some pretty rough days that involve a lot of spitting up, back arching and crying. And she still prefers to be held upright, but it has been over a month since she has had an all night long crying session where James and I took turns pacing with her. She's even had two nights where she has slept through the night. Zack was 9 months before he did that....
Surviving the day at home alone with two children is quite challenging most days. My day isn't complete unless both kids are crying at the same time on at least three separate occasions. We are all very, very happy to see James when he gets home every night.
Even though the past couple of months have been crazy hard and beyond tiring, I'm still not 100% convinced that we are done having children. James seems to be a little more certain that 2 children just might complete our family. He says a lot of things will need to change in order for it to be a good idea to have a third child. And I agree, our house is quite cozy and there is no way a third car seat will fit in the Corolla. And then there is the whole "do we have enough time to devote to a third child?" question. But we love and adore Zack and Alison and surely have room in our hearts to love another child. For now, we are just going to do our best to survive and love on these two sweetie pie children that God has blessed us with.
Alison was not the happiest of babies. It was quite the shock to us, since James and I are such delightful people, we weren't too sure how we ended up with an unhappy little lady. Alison was oh so very cute and wonderful, but also quite demanding. She wanted to be held 100% of the time, and was a very restless sleeper. She had multiple nights where she had me up for hours on end, pacing with her. She would be fed, have a clean diaper and would finally fall asleep in my arms, but once I would put her down she would come to life, crying and wriggling and just acting so unhappy in general. There were multiple nights where I would wake James up so he could take a turn with her, because I was just too exhausted to carry on.
Days weren't much better. I would put her down long enough to go to the bathroom, and make a PBandJ for Zack, and even on occasion change his diaper.
Then came the day where I needed to go to Target. Of course, this day came after a night that was particularly rough, as in I got maybe 3 or 4 hours of very broken sleep. Alison was in quite the mood as we ventured to Target. She cried the whole way there, and continued once we arrived. I finally broke down and got her out of her car seat and attempted to carry her (crying the whole time), while pushing the cart and trying to keep Zack happy. I undoubtedly had not showered for over 24 hours, was probably in stretchy pants, and had very bloodshot eyes. A lady gave me a look that said "oh my goodness, you poor thing." I nearly started crying. James came home from work early that day. Otherwise I might not have survived.
After a couple of very bad nights (and days) in a row, I started to wonder if maybe something I was eating was causing her such distress. Looking back at my diet I realized I had eaten some dairy filled meals, and those seemed to precede her extreme misery. So I stopped eating dairy and we had a completely different baby. That night she slept, it was amazing.
But she was still demanding (she is a baby, after all....they can't do much on their own). We continued to have rough nights, and the days still involved holding a baby almost all day long. And she demanded to be held upright. None of the sweet cradling a baby in your arms, and gazing lovingly into her eyes while she cooed and smiled at us. Oh no, cradling the baby made her an angry baby. One day, I came to the conclusion that it would be easier to teach Walter (the dog....the OLD dog) how to speak Spanish than it would be to get Alison to sleep. I had already eliminated all that is delicious from my diet, and was eating the blandest foods that even a toddler would approve of. We finally decided that it was time to take her to the doctor, cause watching what I ate, burping her really well, and holding her upright for 30 minutes after eating (more like 3 hours....) still left us with an unhappy, and uncomfortable baby.
The doctor thinks she has reflux, and prescribed her some Zantac, and predicted that it would be life changing for us.
God Bless the creator of Zantac.
We had a completely different baby within a few days. Incredible.
Then came her 2 month check-up. The girl was growing in length, and her head certainly is huge and growing, but her weight was not moving along as quickly as it needed to be. Supplementing with bottles would be necessary. I somewhat welcomed the change. Bottles=freedom for mama. But, the girl is little miss sensitive we would have to give her hypo-allergenic formula. Dairy clearly does not agree with little Miss A, and 3 ounces of soy based formula created an absolutely awful diaper situation that resulted in the complete loss of an outfit. Hypo-allergenic formula smells awful, is outrageously expensive, and corn syrup solids is the first ingredient. (Now, I'm not against formula at all. Zack was a formula baby and has been quite healthy and is a very happy kid. But the first ingredient in his formula was milk, and milk is normal....corn syrup solids?? Not something I want to eat.)
So here we are today. Alison is gaining weight like it's going out of style. I nurse her, and then she gets a bottle of either pumped breast milk or formula. She is 100 times more excited to slurp down the breast milk, but also mostly tolerates the formula. It's kind of a pain to nurse her and then give her a bottle, but breastfeeding is free. Might as well give her as much as I can. She still has some pretty rough days that involve a lot of spitting up, back arching and crying. And she still prefers to be held upright, but it has been over a month since she has had an all night long crying session where James and I took turns pacing with her. She's even had two nights where she has slept through the night. Zack was 9 months before he did that....
Surviving the day at home alone with two children is quite challenging most days. My day isn't complete unless both kids are crying at the same time on at least three separate occasions. We are all very, very happy to see James when he gets home every night.
Even though the past couple of months have been crazy hard and beyond tiring, I'm still not 100% convinced that we are done having children. James seems to be a little more certain that 2 children just might complete our family. He says a lot of things will need to change in order for it to be a good idea to have a third child. And I agree, our house is quite cozy and there is no way a third car seat will fit in the Corolla. And then there is the whole "do we have enough time to devote to a third child?" question. But we love and adore Zack and Alison and surely have room in our hearts to love another child. For now, we are just going to do our best to survive and love on these two sweetie pie children that God has blessed us with.
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