A weighty milestone

159.4 lbs, baby.  And yes, that's even WITH a toddler foot on the scale too!

This is me on a scale.  I haven't owned a scale in probably 5 years because I've been terrified of what it would tell me.  Since I've started running, I've found that it's not so mean to me anymore.  Since I've started eating better, it's even better.  However, with my damn PCOS, it's very slow progress.  The last time I saw numbers under 160, I had just had E and was nursing.  Last week at my weekly weigh in, I saw the scale bounce under 160 and then come back up to 161, but it bounced under!  I was pumped.  This week, with all the running around to take care of the girls since the husband isn't around, I really haven't eaten much at all.  I hopped on the scale this morning more out of sheer curiosity.  The numbers bounced under 160 (yay!), and then stayed under.  To say I was shocked is an understatement.  I really didn't think I'd get to this point.  Sure, my goal was to drop 15 pounds this year , but I didn't think I'd be approaching it after just two months!

159.4.  I'll take that.  I realize I shouldn't be so obsessed with numbers, but I'll admit that I am.  When I was in high school, I was the same height I am now and 125.  In college, 135.  In grad school, 145.  Do you see where this is going?  It would be nice to be back down around 150, so we'll see.  Losing 10 pounds thus far this year just through exercise (training for a half marathon is NOT excessive!) and better eating habits is awesome.  I can't wait to see how the rest of the year turns out if I stick with it!

Continuing with this week's theme

Hey, Monday and Tuesday were photos, why not Wednesday?

My cheesy L after breakfast.

She looks unhappy, but I swear E was in the middle of saying "cheeeeese!"

Playing in the "castle" at the dentist's office.

L is so stylin' with her shades and new toothbrush.  Cinderella toothbrush - score!

L getting her teeth cleaned.

E was much less happy about the whole experience; however, she LOVED her Tiana toothbrush.

L with the dentist getting checked while E gets her teeth cleaned.

Proof that yes, every once in awhile, our family room is clean, organized, and vacuumed.

L showing off her new Easter dress.  It's everything Daddy hates - pink, frilly, poofy, and girly to the max.

Another shot of L's new dress. 

More photos...

Since I'm just plain exhausted already this week, another drive-by photo post seems to be in order.

Crazy post-bath hair!

Bathing beauties from last night.  I apparently made the water too hot, hence the squatting.  :)

Hair trim #2 in her life, and this time just the front.

I really hope the husband didn't need his music player on his trip - it was in L's school backpack.

Miss I-Can't-Be-Bothered-To-Eat-Breakfast-Any-Faster made us late for preschool this morning.  :/

My perfectly fried eggs!  WAHOO!

Monday Monday - a lazy post

Whenever the husband goes on a business trip, I always send him tons of pictures of the girls and I doing our normal day-to-day stuff.  Boring, yes, but he likes seeing us when he can't physically be here.  So, I'm just including some of the shots from today.

The girls watching cartoons in our disasterous family room right now (I'll clean it soon, I swear).

The girls after our 3-mile run around the neighborhood.  I think L was saying something about dog poop, LOL.

L in a short mini dress and heels.  Um...

Time to clean!

With the husband gone until Saturday, I have already started cleaning the house from top to bottom.  My first job was laundry today, which is almost finished, and then we'll start working on organizing stuff, removing unneeded things from the house, vacuuming, and making the house look more like a place where a family lives and not a bunch of hoarders.  The girls find it hilarious that the house looks more like a disaster right now since I'm throwing things everywhere, but it all is a means to an end.  I'm truly hoping that by the time he gets home, the place looks 100% cleaner, more organized, and less dusty.  :)

Shadows

In our household, we have two children.  However, these two children usually occupy the space where my shadow belongs.  I'm not kidding.  If I go upstairs, they come upstairs.  If I in the living room, they come in the living room.  They also feel the need to be within about two feet of me at all times, or on me, with the latter being the preferable way to experience Mommy.  Whenever Daddy is around, they don't seem to care if they're near him.  If Daddy goes in the living room and Mommy stays in the family room, they stay in the family room.  If Daddy goes upstairs, they stay in the family room.  If Daddy goes to Peter Piper Pizza with $1056719034 worth of game tokens, they stay in the family room.  Get the picture?  If Mommy should dare suggest that they go do something with Daddy (e.g. take a bath, go upstairs, go to the store), prepare to hear mega screaming, crying, pleading, whining, and tears.  You would think the guy tortures them whenever they're within three feet of him, yeesh.  I don't get it.  I love that they love me, but sometimes it's (as L puts it) "too much love!"  Goodness gracious, children, let Mommy breathe and go love your Daddy for awhile - he'd adore getting that much attention from you!

Too many tourists...can't cope...

There are too many tourists in town for rodeo and the Match Play tournament, so we're heading north to Phoenix for the day/night.  Haha, suckers!

12 Miles

I ran 12 miles this morning.  I know, insane, but I did.  It was horrible after mile 8 - I couldn't run more than a half mile without having to stop, rest/stretch, and/or walk.  I ran out of water at mile 9, so then I had to stop at the park on the way back to get more water.  My right knee started to ache after awhile, and my calves were just screaming at me the entire time.  My running friend C recommended I practice running hills, and oh my goodness did I have hills on this run.  I think my biggest problem between mile 8-9 was the 95-foot elevation increase!  Also, since it had snowed/rained yesterday, everything was muddy, snowy, frozen (thawing as the morning progressed), and just plain chilly.  I actually had to stop around mile 3-4 to wipe mud off the bottom of my shoes - I felt like they weighed 10 pounds each from all the mud built up on them!  I hope I feel stronger about running that far by the time the half marathon comes along in a month, but I'm definitely glad to have gotten out and enjoyed the beautiful (cold) morning.

My running shoes at mile 10, when I refilled my water.  Muddy muddy muddy!

Pretty view across the area toward the snow-covered mountains, around mile 9.

Snow day

Unbelievably enough, it SNOWED in Tucson today.  About 11am, it started raining.  Just before noon, it changed over to snow.  L and E were watching cartoons when I looked outside and saw the snow coming down.  Omg!  I immediately shut off the cartoons, bundled them up, and took them outside to enjoy the snowfall, however brief.  I've never seen it snow in Tucson - the last time it snowed, it did so overnight and was gone by morning (last year, I think).  This time, it was just...spectacular!

E standing in wonder watching the snow fall.

L watching E in the snow.

Our neighbor across the street is getting so much snow on his roof!

Our backyard.

Belle does NOT enjoy the cold wet stuff falling from the sky.

E in the driveway.

Why is my oleander bush covered in snow?!??  (L is running by too)

Dead palm tree in the snow, and L running on the sidewalk.

After that, the girls were totally soaked from jumping in puddles and trying to "play" in the snow (aka crawl around in the driveway).  So, into the bathtub we went to warm up before nap time.  Then, they were silly naptime girls.

My silly girls in L's bed.

In the evening, the girls went to spend the night with their grandparents, so I was able to catch a video of it snowing when it started up again around 5pm.  Truly beautiful though definitely surprising.

Color me annoyed

Last night when the husband came home from work, I had left out the box of chicken nuggets for him (from the freezer) to warm up at his leisure.  He got annoyed because there was a frozen pizza in the box of nuggets and it was thawing.  WTF?  Why is their a frozen pizza in the box of chicken nuggets?  He asked did I notice the pizza was in there?  I said well, yes, since it didn't belong, it kind of stood out.  He asked why I didn't put the pizza back in the freezer?  Well, it's because I didn't think he'd arrive home 45 minutes later than he said he'd be home!  He was annoyed, I was annoyed, everyone was annoyed, so he went to put the pizza back in the freezer.  This time, however, he decided for some reason to stick it in the freezer in the kitchen instead of the chest freezer in the garage.  Don't ask me what he did, but when he opened the freezer, the five containers of blueberries I had purchased on Sunday all fell to the tile floor, busted open, and frozen blueberries went everywhere.  Omg, everywhere.  I was so irritated.  We cleaned it all up from where we could find it (I still found one this morning in my shoe!), and then he was supremely irritated that some had gone under the fridge.  Did I get them all out from under there?  How the f* should I know, I got what I could!!!!  So he decided to send the girls and I upstairs while he (very unhappily, I should add) got the vacuum to suck out anything under the fridge.  Where were the vacuum attachments with long hoses, he asks?  Um, we threw them away last year when we got rid of the two non-working vacuums.  Cue annoyance from him.  When was the last time we had cleaned under the fridge?  Um, well, the kitchen is your responsibility to clean, so if you haven't done it, chances are VERY HIGH that it hasn't been done in years.  Cue more annoyance.  Why is there so much crap under the fridge, he asks?  Well, SINCE YOU HAVEN'T CLEANED UNDER THE FRIDGE IN SO FREAKING LONG, THERE ARE PROBABLY PACIFIERS AND BABY RATTLES UNDER THERE YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT.  STOP BITCHING TO ME ABOUT CLEANING UNDER THE FRIDGE - IT WASN'T NECESSARY AS I TOLD YOU I GOT ALL THE BLUEBERRIES I COULD FIND.  WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE ANNOYED WITH ME WHEN THIS ALL STEMMED FROM THE FACT THAT YOU PUT A FREAKING FROZEN PIZZA IN WITH THE G*D* CHICKEN NUGGETS?????  Everything else can be attributed to his horrible habit of not following through and finishing a task completely (e.g. cleaning the kitchen top to bottom). 

Then, on top of all that, I come downstairs this morning with the girls and find THIS laying in the middle of the kitchen floor.  The freaking annoying man couldn't even put this back on after he was done complaining/vacuuming.  ARGH!

Look, Ma, I've got the refrigerator bottom thingie!

So, I'm annoyed.  How are you?

Dancing

L adores her new dance class.  Everyone showed up today in pink, which made me laugh, and I love seeing her try hard (but not quite getting it) and get a bit better every week.  Maybe we'll continue next month?  I guess I'll have to ask L again (she said no today).

Dancing - L (the only one in no skirt) with her dance class friends and instructor Miss L

Sports energy mix, take 1

Yesterday, during my 10-mile run, I took an energy/sports drink mix with me.  I drank it over the course of a few miles and started feeling all tingly, but also felt that I could keep going for quite awhile.  Afterwards, it was a disaster.  I wasn't dehydrated, or exhausted, or hungry, but I ended up being nauseated, dizzy, and completely out of it.  The only thing I did different yesterday during my run was the energy drink.  That must be it.

So, I guess I'm not going to go that route to help me sustain myself during the half marathon.  I believe the stuff was called Spark or S---- something (sparkle?  lol).  Next weekend, I'll try the GU gel and see if that works any better.

Also?  Thank goodness the chafing spots are no longer painful and raw - they kind of scabbed over last night.  Eeww, but yay the pain went away!

10 MILES

I ran 10 miles this morning.  I just...can't believe still that I ran 10 FREAKING MILES this morning.  It was just kind of mind numbing to think that when C and I got to our 5-mile mark, we were only halfway done!  Crazy.

Start - Okay, it's a bit chilly, but this is fun!  *chat with C*
Mile 1 - Wow, we're going a bit faster than I anticipated.  I hope we don't keep this pace for the entire 10 miles.
Mile 2 - *chat* *BREATHE* *chat* *GASP* *chat*
Mile 3 - Ooo, look, a HAWK!  Let's stop and look at him.  Oh, darn, he flew off.  Keep running?  ...well, okay.
Mile 4 - Hey, we're in new territory I've never run before, let's keep going and see where this path goes!  ...it's starting to look a bit seedy...holy crap, why did they stop with the paving of this bike path?!?
Mile 5 - Oh, thank goodness, we're at our turnaround point.  Gatorade, energy drink, and a short gasp before we continue running.
Mile 6 - Wow, there are other people out and about at this hour!  Hi, runners!  Hi, biker!  Hi...man who is peeing by the river?  WTF????  I'M SO TIRED OMG.
Mile 7 - More hawks!  I'm tired, how the F* am I going to finish this run?  Holy crap, what is this feeling????  Omg, it's the energy drink, I feel all tingly!  Weee, let's RUN!
Mile 8 - You want to walk now?  What?  I want to dance and spin and run some more!  Bweeee!
Mile 9 - Oh crap, I'm tired again.  More energy drink, more Gatorade, more...just one more mile...GASP...my feet hurt...
Mile 10/Finish - OMG I SURVIVED 10 MILES OF RUNNING.  Wtf, my running app says we ran 9.99...let's just fudge it a bit, okay?  Seriously, I'm not running 20 more feet...are you tired too?  Where the f* is my Gatorade...

Now, I'm off to tend to some severe chafing from my clothing...

Another drive-by picture post

Yesterday, the girls wanted to nap together.  It was quite cute to watch them roll around in L's bed together for a bit before finally separating them in their own respective rooms.  Someday, maybe, but not yesterday.

L and her silly face, with E, in her bed

Oh, these girls...

Run a marathon as a horse! Literally...

I decided today to check out the information for the Tucson Marathon online to figure out when it is, how much the entry fee is, the course, FAQs, etc. for fun.  I'm contemplating doing the half marathon since it's only 6 weeks after the previous half marathon I will have done.  In any case, I noticed a category on the registration form that said "Clydesdales/Fillies."  Huh?  Do horses run in this marathon?  Truly confused.  I looked through all the information online to figure out what it was but nothing was clear, so I decided to email the race director and just ask.  She emailed back:  this was a category for people that "weighed more," and it encompassed men 190+ lbs and women 140+ lbs. 

W.T.F.  Seriously?  Did she just tell me that there's a category for HEAVY people?!?  Now, I realize that most marathon runners are stick people, but SERIOUSLY?!??  I must not have understood her correctly or the purpose of such a category.  So, I emailed her back:  why do these categories exist?  Her answer:  to be able to give out more awards/plaques to more people.  You don't have to be in this category if you're over that weight line, but you might be more likely to win a prize in that category than if you ran in the "normal" category. 

Let me get this straight (and I'll just refer to women here since that's how I'm thinking):  if a woman who weighs over 140 lbs registers for the marathon, she is considered a "Filly."  Even if this woman is 6'2" and her healthy weight range is 156-195 lbs, she's considered "heavy" if she's over 140, no matter how athletic, fit, and/or able she is.  EXCUSE ME?  A 6'2" woman would be f*ing anorexic if she tried to weigh 140 lbs!!!!  What about someone like me, who isn't super skinny but is in shape?  I'm 20 lbs over the Filly limit - am I a fat ass, heavy, and horse-like?!??  WHY THE F* DOES THIS CATEGORY EXIST IF NOT TO JUST INSULT PEOPLE WHO AREN'T LITTLE WAIFS??!?????

I get that it's nice to have more awards to hand out to people.  I get that most people can't compete with the "professional" runners who will be running the race.  HOWEVER, I take great exception to an event actually having a category that is basically deemed for the "fat" runners.  It seriously makes me take pause and wonder if I should be supporting an organization/event that does that.  Why make the distinction?  Why not just divide it up by other categories beyond age group and sex?  I still can't make any heads or tails about this kind of thing.  It's honestly made me feel like a huge fatty fatty fat freak all day, and it makes me feel like my running is worthless.  I know that's not the case, but really?  WTF.

Potty training update on E

The last time I seriously tried to potty train E was in October.  It went well for awhile, so we didn't push it, and then she reverted back to doing everything in her diaper.  Frustrating.  I figured I'd let it pass and then start working on it again after the start of the year.

This week, I've started again in earnest.  I decided to try pull-up-type diapers as an intermediary step before putting her in the same training underwear that L used.  That?  Has been a horrible failure.  No matter if I ask her every 10 minutes if she needs to potty and reward her with M&Ms, E still would pee in her pull-up without fail.  It was like she didn't even notice.  I was so frustrated yesterday.  Today, I said "to hell with this!" and just put her in the training underwear.  I told her that it was not acceptable to pee in these underwear because she would get wet, stinky, and not get M&Ms.  If she needed to go potty, she needed to come over to the little potty or tell me.  I put her in a shirt, socks, and just the undies so that it would be super simple to just pull down the undies.  Did she understand?  E said yes, she understood, and so we started the day.  I put about 5 extra pairs of undies beside the potty anticipating lots of changes.

Wow, was I wrong.  She didn't have one accident during the day.  She did go to the potty about every 20 minutes, but she went to the potty!  E's only time that she panicked was when she needed to poop and couldn't do it on the potty (L was like this at first too, no problem).  I told her no problem, put her in a diaper, she did her business, we cleaned up, and she was back in her undies.  We even went out for about a hour this afternoon (eek!) and she had no issues.  Wow!  I'm so impressed and proud!

Let's hope this continues through the next few days so we can start saying goodbye to diapers.  I'm about to throw all her pull-ups away - what a waste of time and money, ugh!

Crazy daughters

These girls drive me bonkers most days, but I love them.  <3

I just wanted to get a photo of L in her strawberry shirt - however, she made faces...

RAWR

Action shot from the back of E

L with her binoculars (finally!  a shot of the shirt!) and E climbing into the chair sans pants.  :/

Tourists - LEARN TO DRIVE

It's February in town, and you know what that means - tourists.  There are so many different national/international events that happen here in town during the month of February that it's almost insanity.  With so many things happening, that means there are a billion tourists in town too.  Thank goodness MLB spring training left a few years ago - that was even worse!

So, all these tourists are driving around town clueless.  They don't know how to drive properly, make stupid decisions on what to do while on the road, cause huge back-ups wherever they go, and clog the local joints that we use on a regular basis with their...tourist-iness.  It took me 20 minutes to go the 2 miles to Wal-Mart yesterday because some tourist decided to drive 5 mph in a construction zone (marked 25 mph), and then sped up to 20 mph in the normal zone (marked 45 mph).  WTF, you know?  Everyone was gesturing and honking at these random people.  On top of the tourists, the damn blue hairs are going full tilt in town.  GO HOME TO THE EAST COAST, OLD PEOPLE.  Tourist drivers + old people drivers + crappy drivers = ME ANGRY. 

The girls are always asking me what I'm talking about in the car since I talk to the bad drivers.  A simple "what the heck are you doing?  JUST GO!" turns into a five-minute explanation to L about how a four-way stop works.  "I HAVE RIGHT OF WAY, IDIOT!" turns into an explanation about left turns yielding to E.  It's probably a good thing I curbed my cursing a long time ago, because right now?  The girls would have such colorful vocabularies. 

So, tomorrow, when I go to drive L to school and E to music class, I will probably have choice words for the idiot drivers who blow through the school zone, follow two feet behind my car, and drive 15 mph under the speed limit.  Oh, my husband informs me that there is a 60% chance of snow for tomorrow morning.  JOY.  I'll just be hiding in my house crying now...

The closet

Our master bedroom closet has been a disaster since we first moved into the house in 2007.  My husband, being the pack rat that he is, insisted on putting his childhood dresser in the closet along the back wall.  I don't remember now what I wanted to do with that space, but it definitely changed all my plans and space.  Over the years, it's just become a toss-it-there kind of space, with boxes, storage containers, hampers, and stuff overflowing everywhere.  In the past year, it's become hardly accessible.  Sure, you can still go in there to get your clothes, but beware what you're stepping on in the process!  The cat sleeps on a pile of stuff in the back corner, the girls hide under blankets under my clothes side, boxes randomly slide off shelves (I claim earthquakes), and who knows what lurks in the corner beside the husband's dresser and behind his dress clothes.  Scary.

I made a plan back in October to clean out the closet.  It's February and I'm just getting to it.  That's how scary and monumental a task I knew it would be.  I finally couldn't deal with it any longer.  My clothes had been stacked in front of our dresser in the bedroom for months and the pile was just getting bigger by the day.  I wore the same things every week because I couldn't find anything else (seriously).  This laziness had to go!  I tackled it today and boy was it HUGE.  When I pulled everything out of the closet, my husband looked shocked and said "wow, you can walk in there now!"  Then, it was sorting things into the Keep pile and the Donate pile.  Wouldn't you know it, the Donate pile is bigger than the Keep?  Ha!  I condensed a lot of things from multiple boxes to one (e.g. the wedding box, high school box, and college box all got condensed into one), threw out stuff we'll never use again, and vacuumed the crap out of the floor. 

I'm still putting it back together but it is AMAZING what a difference there is now.  Clothes are hanging in the closet again!  You can walk through the bedroom because my clothes are no longer all over the floor!  The board games are all in one nice neat area of the closet shelves!  The Donate pile is so large right now, it blocks one side of our bedroom doors and we can't close it!  I'm so pleased to have finally done it.  Now to finish it and then eventually finish painting our bedroom...

Rain & Running?

Why is it that when I have to do a loooong run (8+ miles), it is always either super cold or super raining?!??  I'm getting tired of running in the rain and cold!  Yes, the mountains are beautiful to look at with the snow on top, but give me 70s and clear blue skies any day over this crap.

There are days

There are days when all I want to do is shake my husband and tell him to grow a back bone.  Instead of just giving up on everything, how about standing up and doing something?  When I ask what's upsetting him, how about he actually tell me instead of saying he doesn't know?  Extremely frustrated tonight.  I wish he could understand that the thing that upsets me most is when he flat out lies to me about something I can obviously interpret/see.  I've told him this, but it doesn't matter.  Apparently, he says he'd rather just suck it up and be "the bad guy" instead of fighting with me.  Why does it have to be a fight?  And why does it always start over something really inconsequential???  There are days when I just want to get out for a little while, do something, come home, and find that everything has righted itself while I was gone. 

Argh.  Thank goodness I have a long run tomorrow morning so I can run this out.

Husband better love me

My husband is a huge Transformers fan.  I mean, HUGE.  One of my friends texted me this week and said that McDonalds is currently putting Transformers in boy happy meals.  So, out of the goodness of my heart, I got two boy happy meals tonight so that my husband could have two toys (he had one, I had one).  Granted, they turned out to be the same toy, but he got two nonetheless.  He'd better love me for sacrificing crap food for him to feed his toy obsession!  *fist*

Cupcake monster

Cupcake monster.  Enough said.

E the Cupcake Monster

Pants frustration

When I first started running (back in August 2011), one of the first things to happen in the first couple months was that I dropped a pant size.  Woohoo!  I was so excited - I bought a couple pairs of pants in the smaller size and was so thrilled.  Then, after about six months, I couldn't fit in those pants anymore.  I was back to the old size.  UGH.  So, I guess I assumed that with more running, more exercise overall, and better diet that I would be able to get back into those smaller-sized pants.  I run 20 miles a week.  I work out five days a week for at least 25 minutes at a time.  I eat a ton better now than I used to.  Those damn pants still.  don't.  fit.  Though I have lost 5 pounds since the beginning of the year, I'm still really frustrated that the scale moves so slowly (and sometimes rebounds!) downward, and that I'm not seeing much improvement in toning.  I refuse to go on one of those crazy drink-only or pill-only diets (that's ridiculous in the long term), so I guess...I don't know what to do.  I'm happy I'm in shape, I just want to see my damn weight go down! 

L's dance class

L started her dance class this afternoon.  She's been so excited about "ballet" that she could hardly nap this afternoon, knowing that she'd be going there afterwards.  L has never shown any penchant for following directions in a group setting, and this was no different.  I hope her instructor saw it as just enthusiasm, but I saw it as L being L - doing her own thing (happily), talking too much, not following directions, and just generally existing on her own planet.  However, she told me afterwards "I love my dance class!" so it must have been okay.  I ordered dance gear for her tonight too, so I hope she enjoys that.  Let's hope class gets better from here on out because I can't sit in the room anymore!

L doing her own thing.

Everyone else is sitting on their butt - why can't L?!?

Running around during a break - notice how E got in on the action??  Lol!

Birthday party

Today was my father-in-law's birthday party, though his actual birthday isn't until Tuesday.  It was great fun to spend the morning/afternoon with him and my mother-in-law indulging in breakfast, lunch, cupcakes, and all kinds of fun with the girls.  It makes me thankful that we live close enough to family that we can celebrate things like this with them, as well as see the day-to-day things go by too.  Happiest of birthdays to you, father-in-law, and may you have many, many more!

FIL blowing out his candles with L and E.

Another funeral

For the second time this year (already!), I went to a funeral.  This was more of a "celebration of life" shindig, and it was very much in line with the deceased's life. 

He was a coworker of mine when I worked at the prison, and he was great.  I worked partly as an assistant for him, helping him keep track of everything that was going on in his department, creating forms, keeping him updated on things, and just generally getting him whatever he needed (my official title, "operations secretary," left my job description wide open!).  He, in turn, taught me so much about the environment we worked in, talked incessantly about his family (I loved that - he had a son in kindergarten at the time), always had on cowboy boots and a cowboy hat, and had a great sense of humor.  I discovered that he couldn't bend at the waist (apparently tight hamstrings in the legs?  i don't know, it was downright hilarious), type faster than two words per minute (hence me typing up all his stuff), and all his hiding places around the facility when I needed to track him down (whenever I'd find him, I could hear a "oh NO, she found me!" in the background).  I've thought of him often since I left the facility and was so saddened to hear of his untimely death last week, at work of all places.  They think it was a heart attack, but he was long gone when they found him in his office.

His wife put together a fabulous celebration at Old Tucson Studios for his "funeral."  He was there, in an urn, surrounded by pictures of his family, friends, work, hobbies, and fun times.  Since he'd also worked at Old Tucson for so long (I think his wife is still there), they had no problem giving the space up on a Saturday afternoon for him.  So many friends, family, and coworkers were there - I estimated between 250-300 - and wonderful memories of him recounted.  I cried when I saw his now-9-year-old son put his head down on the table at one point and weep, and when they put out a last call over the radios for him (correctional officers are also law enforcement).  Just...sad.  However, I was glad to have seen so many people I used to work with there, I just wish it had been happier circumstances.

He was only 56 years old.  Taken way, way too soon.

I also need this trend of a funeral a month to STOP IMMEDIATELY.  I don't think my poor emotional state will be able to handle any more this year.

Running commentary

This evening, as soon as the husband came home, I took off for a 5K run.  Since it was about 30 minutes until sunset, I told myself I'd better go fast so that I could be home before it got dark.  So, I went "fast" (fast for me!).  My typical mile pace as of late has been 9:15-9:30/mile.  Tonight, I was pulling 8:55/mile.  Sub 9:00 - woohoo!  The surprising thing about it was that I didn't feel like I was going to die.  You know what that means?  I could have gone faster.  That thought kind of stuns me.  Faster?  Seriously?  Wow.  I would never have thought that building my endurance to run further would make my shorter-distance runs faster.  Maybe it makes sense to you, but it didn't to me.  Tomorrow, I get to attempt a 9-mile run with a friend - here's hoping I can do it!  All this faster-paced running makes me think that maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to do better than my 59:04 time in my last 10K for the 10K I'm doing on March 2nd, and that I'll be able to run the half marathon!