Doggie Rescue

Not only do I say hi to everyone I see while running, and wave at all the cars that pass by, but I've also started rescuing dogs on my runs. Apparently they are drawn to friendly runners like myself.

On Monday we rescued our second dog while running. This fuzzy little black friend ran right up to us. He would not have done well on his own out in the wild. James scooped him up, and did his best to hold the little wiggle worm still while I tried to read his tag to call his owner. We connected with his owner, and returned him to his very thankful mama. Walter was thrilled that we brought home dog smells.

In other running related news, I was going to go on a quick run last night while my boys played in the backyard and our dinner baked.

I told James there were only 24 minutes left on the timer, so I was just going to run 2 laps (booooooooring). His response, "you can't do that in 24 minutes." My response, "did you really have to challenge me to do that???" He just smiled.

So I set out to run my 2 laps under 24 minutes. I am happy to report that my 2 laps along with 1 quick calf stretch break, a short walk break, and a stand there and look at the javelina eating out of the trash can break in addition to a wait for them to get out of my way break, I returned home 22 minutes and 54 seconds later. I was huffing and puffing and wanted to barf, but I did it. Then we uploaded my run to the computer and compared it to the time he ran two laps in 21:17 and I really wanted to barf. And go out and run it again in less than 21:17.

I think it might be better for me to stick with rescuing dogs, James is getting too fast.

He Calls Me Mom

My sweetie pie Zacky boy, who is not yet two, is beginning to call me mom. I feel like I should still be mama! Or mommy, which he seems to be skipping right over!!! He's too little to be using such a grown up name for me! And, when he calls me mom, his voice seems much lower than it is when he's calling me mama. This has got to stop, he's growing to fast!

James, however, is still dada and Dadddddddieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Cutest thing ever. I just might have a crisis if this whole mom thing doesn't calm itself down. I would like to be mama for a little while longer. Thank you for your participation, Zackary.

Car Buying with a Toddler

We bought a new car. Well, a used car. But it's new to us.

James has been driving the same 1997 Nissan pickup truck that I started driving my senior year of high school, too and from work every day. It was a dandy little truck, and got the job done. It came in handy when we needed to buy a Christmas tree, and for hauling other miscellaneous stuff that doesn't fit in a trunk. But, after 15 years of loyal service, it was beginning to show it's old age.

Poor James was a victim of it's old age. One day, while whizzing down I-10 at 75mph, he overheated. Our trusty mechanic, Lenny, got the truck back working once again. For a day. And then James overheated again. James was actually able to get the truck working again. However, for fear of the truck breaking down and costing us more in repairs than it was actually worth, we decided it was time to bite the bullet, and buy another car.

We headed to the car dealership on a Friday, fully prepared to not buy a car that day. We were going to take all weekend to get the best deal possible. Since we didn't think we were going to buy a car that day, we took Zack with us.

Well, we ended up buying a car that day. This is how car buying happens when you have a one and half year old with you.

Zack runs in 832 circles around the dealership, yelling "car!!" "geen!!!!" and "truck!!!!!" every time he sees a car, a truck or anything that he interprets as being green.

Zack stands by the fountain out front of the dealership, getting the mist in his hair.

Zack runs in more circles, around the green car, exclaiming "car!!!!! GEENN!!!!"

Zack rearranges the furniture in the cube where James was negotiating.

Zack yells "car!!! Geennnn!!! TRUCK!!"

I tell James "I think we need to be done." The salesman doesn't want to lose a sale, and gets us a good deal.

We wait forever and a day to talk to the finance man.

Dinner break by the fountain.

Zack yells "CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! GEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNN!!!! TRUCK!!!!!!!!!!" and runs 18 more miles around the dealership.

We talk to the finance man. Zack sits still for 8 seconds.

Finance man busts out money to buy fruit snacks for Zack.

Zack eats 3-4 servings of fruit snacks.

Zack says "wow! Truck!!"

Zack declares the evening to be done, and stinks up the finance mans office with a dirty diaper.

Finance man gives us an even better deal.

So, after around 5 hours of "car, geen, truck!!", 20 miles of running around the car dealership, 1 large pack of fruit snacks, and 1 dirty diaper, we drove home with a red car.

We now own 2 Toyota Corollas. We have matching cars. One silver, one red. I feel so old.

Exciting News!! (Cont.)

No, I'm not pregnant.

Remember the other exciting news I've blogged about before??? About how the house next door to us is finally on the market?? A quick re-cap if you're confused. The house next to us has been vacant since the summer of 2010. James and I don't really have all that exciting of a life, so I definately call him and tell him things like "James, there is someone doing yard work next door!!" or "there are painters next door!!!!" and we get pretty excited. One day, this empty house had a for sale sign put up out front. We went outside and looked at it as a family, that's how huge this is in our life.

Well, the house is still on the market, and has been since October (and is anyone really surprised by this?? Ummmmm, no). Plenty of people come and look at the house, and being the good wife that I am, I report these visitors to James. Generally it's Walter who announces that there are people next door. Lets say 100 people have toured the house next door. Out of those 100 people, Walter has probably howled at 97 of them. He was probably asleep or eating when then other 3 were in the backyard next door. He enjoys saying hi to new people, he's just a friendly beagle!!

Well, the people touring the house today got a real treat from Walter. You see, Walter really enjoys dirty laundry. James and I are pretty good at getting the dirty stuff into the hamper, but on the rare occasion that I'm a bit behind on laundry and the hamper is over flowing (this has probably only happened 1 or 2 times since we got married...ok, I confess, it's always happening), Walter can be found in our closet, happily rolling in the dirty clothes. He has 2 favorites: running clothes (they are extra stinky) and underwear. From time to time he manages to get a pair of underwear or some running shorts around his neck. We laugh every time this happens. Well, today, Walter happened to find an overflowing laundry hamper, and delighted himself by rolling in it. He emerged from the closet wearing a pair of boxers around his neck. I laughed at him, but at the moment I was doing something else, so I didn't take these boxers off the dog's neck. Sometime goes by, and I hear Walter in the backyard, doing his usual howl at the people next door.

Then he comes in and I see this.....

My dog sure did howl at the people looking at the house next door, while wearing James' underwear around his neck.

But, the reality of it is, if you are going to live next door to us, there will, from time to time, be a beagle in the backyard wearing running shorts or underwear around his neck. Eventually he will get used to the neighbors, and won't howl at them. However, he will continue to air our dirty laundry as long as we've got it.

Why Are We Having This Argument???

The other morning, while I was making breakfast, Zack was sitting at the table coloring. And by coloring, I mean he was dropping the same two crayons over and over again, victoriously claiming that they were both green (picture it, lifting the crayon up over his head, and declaring loudly "GEEEEN!!!"), and occasionally scribbling on a piece of paper.

This is how the conversation between the two of us went.

Zack: Geeeen!! (Holding green crayon up over head)

Me: You're right, that crayon is green!

Zack: Geeeen!!!! (Holding red crayon up over head)

Me: Green is a pretty color but that crayon is red.

Zack: Geeeen!!!!!!! (Still holding red crayon up over head)

Me: Zack, that crayon is red, it's pretty.

Zack: GEEEEN!!!!! (You guessed it, red crayon in hand, up over head)

Me: That one is red. It's not green. Red, can you say RED??



And this is when I asked myself....why are we having this argument?? He's not even 2, he has no idea of red vs. green. He just loves to say green. And, if something isn't green it's because he has decided it's blue. And, it's crazy cute when the kid is telling me (loudly) that something is GEEEEEN!!! or BEUUUUUUUU!!!! Someday he will know all his colors, and say green and blue, and I will miss the times when he was at the table declaring loudly that his red crayon was geeeen.

I think I need to go give him a ridiculously huge hug, and ask him what color my shirt is.

Or, I'll let him sleep. That's probably a better idea for all parties involved.

The Stinky 5.5

James, Zack and I went for a run today. We started out at the baseball fields, and ran along a portion of "The Loop," which is a path that eventually will create a loop all the way around Tucson. Anytime that I've ran on this portion of the loop with James, we've gone to the right. Today, we went left. James has done this portion of the loop a few times on his own during his marathon training and has never had anything wonderful to say about it. But, since he likes taking me on runs where I've never been before, we went left at the baseball field.

The run started out pretty ugly. We were in between 2 chain link fences. What they were fencing off I'm not sure (it looked like a huge, random assortment of junk/stuff). After running about a half a mile through these chain link fields of glory/whoknowswhat, the path lines up with I-10. There were approximately zero trees (give or take zero....), 18 different species of desert weeds, an assortment of random bicyclists and dirt. And man holes. Or, as they were labeled, "Sanitary Sewer." When we stopped to stretch we were greeted by a horrible stench. Then we noticed one of these lovely sewage stank traps nearby. We stretched for about 8 seconds before the stink caused us to forgo being loving to our leg muscles.

We continued along our run and continued be greeted by bursts of sewage stink every so often. James only complained about the smell making his eyes water once.

Then, we got to the halfway point, and turned around to be greeted by a breeze in our face. This breeze wasn't too noticeable when it was at our backs. But, when you are pushing a jogging stroller, breezes feel more like gusty winds that want to push you over backwards. These breezes also helped to transport the sewage stink to us far before we actually reached the man holes. Picture this for a moment. Me running, pushing the jogging stroller into the wind using only one hand, and using my other hand to pull my shirt up over my nose and hold it there in an attempt to keep some stink out. Did I mention we were going uphill, too? Barefoot! In the snow!!

Ok, so there was no snow, only a few hills, and I was surely wearing shoes. But this area of "The Loop" needs to be renamed "Sewage Row." I will avoid it in the future. Peeee-uuuuuuuuuuuu.

Uh-Oh

Uh-oh happens to be one of Zack's favorite expressions. He says it all the time. Right now, I'm having an "uh-oh" moment. BSF is starting up again next Tuesday after our Christmas and New Year's break. I was going to call all of my ladies today to remind them about this, but when I went to go find my folder with all of my information I couldn't find it....I'm fairly certain the smallest member of the family has something to do with this. But he's napping right now, so I can't ask him where it is. I fear he may have thrown it away. When he's not saying "uh-oh" he's saying "way" and taking something to the garbage can to throw it away. Every time that we've caught him throwing stuff away it has all been appropriate stuff. But, of course, the one time you don't catch him is the time he's throwing away something that's quite necessary. Once he wakes up I will ask him where my blue folder is. He will most likely shake his head no at me and ask for some milk. But I'm still going to try. Then I will look in his room. Who knows what will show up there. My search so far has only turned up one snack cup in the hall closet. That's not where we keep snack cups.

Thankfully, I have every one's phone number saved in my phone and I was still able to make my phone calls. I would still like to know where that folder is though....and we should probably get back into the habit of locking the pantry door to help prevent a certain, sweet boy from throwing too much stuff away.