Easter, part 2

Easter morning.  A time for...small children to wake up whining that they want to get outdoors before the sun is up to find what the Easter bunny had left in the yard for them.  Nice.  Too bad Mommy and Daddy forgot to put out the Easter stuff prior to the girls waking up!  Cue Daddy taking them into their room after breakfast, reading a story to them, while Mommy frantically gathers up all the Easter stuff, runs outside, and hides everything in "obvious" places for the kiddies to find.  Whew!  At least it worked out.  The girls had their Easter egg hunt by 7:30am, LOL.

Then, more playing with the kids.  Brunch for about 30 people at the husband's grandparents' house.  Chasing children around.  Packing up stuff to drive home.  Driving home.  Cue children falling asleep (yay!).  Cue arriving home and having two energetic children (boo).  Then, at least we had time to sort of relax and unwind for the rest of the day.  Early bedtimes for all!

"Come ON, it's 7:00am and WE WANT TO FIND EASTER EGGS!"

Off on the hunt!

L finding eggs, wearing her new kick-butt shoes.

E finds an egg on the ground.

The Easter Bunny was super tricky and hid one of L's eggs in a tree crook.  Grandpa had to help get it down.

How do we make sure each girl gets the proper egg?  Glad you asked...and no, the dyed eggs never made it in the yard.

E finds more eggs.  Successful year - the girls found all their eggs!

Me enjoying my niece-ling, with my SIL in the background.

Hello, handsome nephew S, looking for eggs?

L in her Easter dress.

Me holding E in the house.  I like this picture because it's the first one in ages where I've been able to look at a picture of myself and think "wow, I don't look like a fat@$$!"  I know, I know...bad self image...

My absolute favorite dish from Easter brunch - asparagus and portabella mushroom, rolled in ham, wrapped in a tortilla.  It was beyond yummy - it was AN EXPERIENCE.  *drools*

E happy over the Easter gifts she got from her great grandparents

Easter, part 1

We drove up to Phoenix this morning to start our Easter weekend celebrations.  We had a brunch with family, napped the girls, played with cousins, walked to the park to play, colored Easter eggs, and had a great time just hanging out with everyone.  Easter tomorrow!

Pretty flowers in the front yard.

L, the princess Barbie girl.

5 kids at the kids' table (and one grandma!).

My nephew S is adorable!

My niece V and I.  She's GORGEOUS!

E wanted to hold V, so here we all are.  She called her "my baby."

L dyeing the Easter eggs (with help from Auntie V)

Such concentration!  Such a work of art!

E took a sink bath since she didn't want to shower.  She was so pleased with herself.

Jogging - YAY!

Today was my first run since the half marathon on Sunday, and BOY did it feel GOOD.  The girls and I went 2.5 miles, visited the horse ranch, and they serenaded me with their singing.  It was just perfect outside for a run (~60F and sunny).  When I finished, my body went "hey, that was a great warm-up, now what are we going to do?"  HA!  Wish I could have run more but that'll have to do for now.  :)

What's next?  Well...

- June 1st = 5K
- September 2 = 8 miler
- mid October = 5K (part of a sprint triathlon, goal = < 25:00)
- October 20 = Get Moving Tucson Half marathon (including A Mountain)
- mid November = Half marathon?
- December 8 = Tucson Half Marathon?

Still trying to decide about the last two.  Honestly, I'm leaning toward not doing the one in mid November and doing the December one.  We'll see.

The right attitude

I had a chat with one of my students tonight about his progress in class.  He's borderline failing, and I told him there's still an opportunity to withdraw from the class.  Most students in this situation would drop the class, stop showing up, or just throw in the towel in some way.  This student?  His only question was "what do I need to do in order to pass?"  I told him he needed to earn a C or D on the remaining tests, retake the first test (that he never took), and turn in homework.  He said okay, see you Tuesday.

I like his attitude.  :)

An open letter to the MVD

Dear MVD of Arizona,

Thank you for having no wait time at the emissions testing center at which the girls and I visited this morning.  The guy helping us was very nice, very quick, and we were in and out within five minutes.  That's outstanding service!

However, the not-so-great service comes from that fact that you notified me on March 22nd that I had until March 31st to do this emissions test.  Why would you only send me an email ten days before the deadline?  Also, why didn't I receive anything in the mail regarding this?  Are you so low on funds that you can't send out an email at least two weeks in advance of a deadline?!?? 

Also, have lollipops at the emissions testing centers - my children would love that.  ;)

Me

An open letter to my cat

Dear Cookie,

I realize you are a "special" cat.  By "special," I don't mean that you are one-of-a-kind, super wonderful, and/or occupying a space of honor for some reason in this household.  By "special" I mean you are mentally retarded.  I know that people can be like this, so I'm assuming that animals can be like this too.  There have to be smart animals and slow animals to make the average exist, right?  You, my dear cat, are at the bottom of the spectrum.

I don't usually hold this against you, unless you do something so far out in the realm of Ridiculous that I have to punish you for the act.  For example, cats that use the litter box always cover up what they have done.  It's a survival instinct - if a predator can't smell or find it, they can't find you.  You?  Never cover your litter-box deeds.  In fact, most of the time it looks like you get sidetracked while using the litter box and start to leave while still mid-whatever-you're-doing.  Like last night, when you exited your box while you were still pooping.  I almost laughed when I saw the poop on the wall right outside your litter box.  You know, a ha-ha-silly-cat moment.  Then, I got upset when I could trace the exact path you took after pooping by poop stains in the house.  First, you went and drank water (poop mark on the tile by the water dish).  Then, you sat in the middle of the kitchen (poop stain on the tile, again).  THEN, you went upstairs and laid in the middle of the freaking bed where you know you're not supposed to lay (she has a sheet on one side she can lay on).  Poop stain on the comforter.  Lovely. 

I don't appreciate poop anywhere in this house from you other than the litter box.  If you can't poop there, don't poop.  Seriously.  If you explode from holding your poop in because you're just too damn arrogant to use your litter box, well, sorry about that.  We've provided several litter boxes around the house for your use and you have ignored all but one of them.  Why?  Heck if I know.  Then, you poop by the girls' rooms.  You poop on the landing.  You poop on the stairs.  You poop by the dining room table.  You poop everywhere you're not supposed to.  Just...stop.  Did you know that the husband is counting down the days until you're no longer living?  Morbid and horrible, yes, but it's completely your actions that have brought his feelings toward you to this.

Put all your poop in the litter box.  I'm much more likely to be affectionate toward you if you can do this.

Me

Spring pictures of the girls

Since the girls have their Easter dresses, I wanted to get nice pictures of them wearing them, so I made an appointment at the photo studio for them a few weeks ago.  Our appointment was this morning.  We got there early, got dressed in the bathroom, waited for the photographer to show up, and had a great, relaxed session with some nice shots.  I can't wait to get physical copies of most of them!

My gorgeous E. 

My beautiful L.  How did I get so lucky as to have two gorgeous girls?

E and L lounging among the fake bunnies.

My favorite of these two silly geese.

Dancing in circles together.  E kept falling on her butt.

My lovely girls are growing up way too fast!

AZ Distance Classic Half Marathon 2013

Today was the day!  I woke up bright and early at 4:55am after a night of tossing and turning and not being able to shut my brain off.  Crap.  Top that off with the thermostat reading that it was 48F outside, and it wasn't even dawn yet.  Double crap.  Got ready, got picked up by my friend C, stood outside in the freezing wind (I literally went to the bathroom so that I could hide in the porta potty for more heat!), stretched, got lined up to run, and then had to listen to the blather of all the important race officials.  One cool thing was that when they started playing the national anthem, we all turned east toward the flag...and the sun chose that very moment to crest over the mountains.  The murmur through the crowd was AWESOME.  Then, wheelchair athletes are off!  Then...we're off!

C in the truck prior to us getting out and freezing our butts off, around 6am.

Pre-race yoga.  It was about the warmest place to be prior to sunrise.  

Look at aaaaalllll those medals!

My view while waiting for the gun to go off.  So many people!

Honestly, most of the race is a blur to me.  When your race is 13.1 miles, you start forgetting exactly what happened when.  However, just for my own posterity, I'm going to try to put down here what I do remember.

The start - hey, cool, there are pacers in this race!  They all had balloons tied to them with their intended finishing times.  I positioned myself just behind the 2:15 balloon, figured out who had the 2:30 balloon (so that I could try to stay ahead of them), and ran off to one side of the huge amount of people in order not to get tripped up.  Turning on my iShuffle, I had to laugh because Maroon 5's Payphone was the first song that came up - I was just telling my husband last night how weird it was that I find the song super motivating when I run.  There was just enough of a breeze in my face for the first few miles that, if I got too close behind the 2:15 pacer, her balloon would bounce off my head.  Lol!  So cold at first too - my feet and hands were frozen, but luckily they warmed up after just a mile (like I expected).  Also, as soon as the gun went off, I thought "wow, I have to pee."  Um...crap.  There were porta potties at every water station, I just thought "there's a line right now, I really can't wait and go," so I just kept bypassing them until I...just...lost the urge.  Hmm.

The hills were not as bad as people made them out to be.  Maybe it's just because I've been doing a lot harder hill training, but the gentle rolling hills were a bit challenging because they were longer, but they were totally do-able.  I saw a quote the other day that said "use hills as an opportunity to pass people," and boy did I do that!  So many people walking once they got to the hills.  The police presence to guide traffic and runners was phenomenal - I couldn't believe how many cops were out (but with 2000 people running, I guess you need a bit of crowd control!).  The people watching and cheering were great too!  I saw my friend C about a mile ahead of me when I was at mile 6 and she was at mile 7 (we passed each other since I was approaching the turnaround point and she had passed it already).   WAVE!  Lol.  I made it almost 5 miles before I felt any need to start hydrating, so my plan to super hydrate the past few days worked out awesome.

I didn't have to walk until mile 8.  8.  How awesome is that?  And even then, I got into the habit of slowing to a walk when I got to a water station, taking both Powerade (GROSS) and water, drinking it (while walking), throwing away the cups, and then going back to running.  The 20-30 second walking breaks every 2 miles really helped me feel like I could make it to the end of the race.  I did, however, take a walking break in the middle of nowhere just after mile 9 - it was uphill and I was getting fatigued.  I'd had an energy gel but it hadn't kicked in yet, so I was just...tired.  However, after that, I was able to just keep going.  Turning the corner for the final half mile of the race, I was actually able to sprint to the finish.  SPRINT.  Okay, sprinting after running 13 miles make me go from a 10:00/mile to a 8:00/mile, but still!  So pleased with that.  The girls, my MIL, and the husband were cheering for me and I saw them!  Made me happy.  Also, the very last song that came on my iShuffle as I came toward the finish line?  Maroon 5's Payphone, again.  Ha!  What a way to round out the race.

Look, I'm levitating!  I also beat every single one of these other runners to the finish line.  :D

Just noticing the girls and my MIL off to the side cheering.

I crossed the finish line with an official time of 2:12:43.  WOW.  My goal was to finish in less than 2:30, and I had secretly hoped I could finish closer to 2:10.  I did it!  Wow, I did it!  I can't believe I just ran 13.1 miles - I've never done that before!

***I would also like to note that the 2:15 pacer finished ahead of me.  See my time?  See the time the pacer was supposed to finish at?  I have some choice words for the ladies, because they finished probably a full 3 minutes ahead of me.  Why be a pacer if you're not going to keep the pace?!??***

As soon as I crossed the finish line and stopped moving, the pain set in.  My calves were on fire, my right knee was having problems bending, and my right hip was aching something fierce.  One lady pointed out the medical tent to me, but I figured I could just walk this off.  Collected some water, my medal, food, and exited out to find the family.  Found them as well as C and her family, and then I needed to walk.  After other races, I walk just to cool down.  Today, it was more of a if-I-stop-moving-I-feel-like-I'm-going-to-die feeling.  It was not. good.  Even walking, my calves still hurt really badly.  Stretching wasn't helping either.  I felt this rising panic that I was going to have some super painful cramps in a few minutes, which brought on nausea.  GREAT.  I don't know what did it (I'm leaning toward the banana I ate), but my muscles finally started to feel normal again after about 10-15 minutes.  Oh, thank goodness, I could finally sit and relax a bit.  The athletic tape I had wrapped around my big toe before the race to prevent my callus from rubbing in my shoe had created an opposite effect - a blister on the toe it rubbed against!  Crap.  Oh well, at least it didn't hurt.  With my knee and hip still hurting, it was walking with a limp on the menu!

It was about time for L to do her kids' race.  I finally figured out where she needed to get her registration stuff done about 2 minutes before the race started, and then we went to line up at the starting line.  She did the shortest distance - 1/4 mile - and did it with me, her friend B from preschool, and a slew of other kids.  As my husband puts it, L has no impetus to run fast.  She runs like she's out to smell the daisies at the park, not like zombies are after her to eat her brains.  Still, she enjoyed it, and she loved the medal she got for the effort.  (for the record, when we were halfway done, I could hear her panting.  Panting!  And she hadn't even gone that far or fast!  Lolololol)

Walking to the start line, L holds my hand and B's hand

Okay, L, now we have to RUN! Run after the other kids!

Me:  We're dead last, aren't we?  L:  Lalalalala, feel the wind in my hair!

Hey, L, focus, we need to finish the race - I know your Ng-Ng and sister are over there cheering for you, but FOCUS here!

Phew, after all that running, we need a water break!

L and I compare our medals.

Goofy L and I with our medals. 

It was a fun experience.  I realize now that a full marathon will never be on my plate, and that's totally okay.  A half marathon is about the maximum of my abilities, and I find it quite fun.  Now that I've done one, I have a few ideas now to better my next one in October.  I can't wait to start training for the next one!

Hello nerves

It's just freaking running, and yet here I am, feeling nervous.  All I have to do tomorrow is get out there, put one foot in front of the other, and complete the course.  How hard is that?  The husband has commented that I've been really "out there" and "off" all day, which I'm assuming is from me feeling a little out of league here.  I can do it, I know I can, but how well can I do it?  I don't want to be last.  :(   My goal of finishing in less than 2:30 (that's 2 hours 30 minutes) seems incredibly daunting now.  A week ago, I was arrogantly thinking that 2:10 might be plausible.  Ha!  Yeah right.  If only I felt 100% as well, then maybe I wouldn't be so anxious.  Lololol, maybe the doctor was right and maybe I DO have some sort of anxiety disorder! 

Breathe.  I've come a long way.  When my friend C presented me with my 12-week training schedule at the start of the year, I almost choked when I saw the mileage I'd need to put in.  The first week ended with a 5-mile run.  Holy crap, could I do that???  And then it just built from there.  I haven't run 13.1 miles before, but I've done 12 once and 10 multiple times.  I have to just trust that my base is there and I can do this.  Counting up all my miles from walking and running, I've put 200 miles toward this (198 to be exact).

So, tomorrow morning.  One foot in front of the other.  Breathe.  Focus.  Enjoy?

E modeling the shirts I got for this race.

In and Out time

After picking up my race packet for Sunday's half marathon, and running a Best-Buy errand for the husband, we decided to have lunch at In and Out today.  Random, not super healthy, but fun nonetheless.  I'm glad we get to spend time together as a family, because it truly is my favorite thing to do. 

Sitting by the window, enjoying the spring weather.

Mmm, food.

E is waving her arms around like she just don't care.

Goodness gracious, will that FIT in your mouth, little girl?!?

Being a silly goose while eating.

L watching other patrons in the restaurant.

Husband trying to avoid the camera.  HA.

My college student: a lesson in trying harder

I have a college student this semester that I will simply call A.  A sits in the back of the room, is always tardy, never asks any questions, and seems to constantly be doing something other than what he should be doing.  At the start of the semester, I thought it was arrogance and a haughty attitude.  It really got to me, so I finally talked to him during week 5 of class, after he failed to show up for his test the previous week. 

I approached it by asking A if everything was going okay, was he enjoying class, was there anything difficult about it that I might be able to help him with?  It turns out he thought he was the worst person in the class.  He didn't understand all the material, and so it made him shrink into his shell even more (he appears to be very shy and timid), and so he didn't come to the test because he was "sure" he'd fail.  I was shocked that he would think that of himself - doesn't everyone deserve to think the best of themselves?  So we talked about strategies to get him to the place he wanted to be in class.  How could he improve his playing?  How could he improve his music reading?  What kinds of things could I do to help him?  I reminded him that he could always ask me for assistance during class, but he had to ask me and I couldn't read his mind. 

Over the next few weeks, A showed up to class on time.  He started being on task, even though he struggled to do what most everyone else in class was doing.  Whenever I would listen to him or walk by and ask how things were going, he would actually ask me a question:  what is this?  where do my hands go for this?  is this right?  I can't tell you how excited and pleased I was that he was getting involved in class.

Tonight, he showed up for the second test.  He forgot to practice one of the three pieces he needed to have prepared, but the others were definitely C level.  I was very pleased with what I was hearing, because it showed major effort, practice, and improvement on his part.  Yes, it was hard, and yes, it wasn't perfect, but I didn't care - here was A learning!  And I think he enjoyed it too.  I asked him after his test what he thought of his playing and he said "not bad."  For a guy that was so negative at the outset, I think he's come a long way.

Way to go, A!  I hope the other half of your test next week goes just as well or better.  Either way, you've made me realize that sometimes I just need to give people more of a chance to be better people instead of just assuming I know what's going on.  I can't wait to see how you progress through the rest of the semester!

Telemarketer

On Monday, a telemarketer called around 11am and asked for my husband.  I replied that he wasn't available, could I take a message?  She said no, no message, when was a better time to reach him?  I said that he would be home after 5pm.  She said thank you, we said good bye, and I hung up.

On Tuesday, the same telemarketer company called around 11am and asked for my husband, again.  I told the person that I had told the lady yesterday that he wasn't available right now, could you please call after 5pm to reach him?  She said she'd make a note of it in the system, apologized for the inconvenience, and said they would try back later.

Today (Wednesday), at around 11am, the same f*ing telemarketer company called around 11am asking for my husband, AGAIN.  They chose a bad week to call me - with everyone sick and me PMS-y, I wanted to reach through the phone and choke the person.  Still, I tried to be kind.

Woman:  May I speak with ---HUSBAND---?
Me:  This is the third time your company has called this week asking for my husband.  This is the third time I'm going to have to tell you he's not available.  Is there a note in the system regarding our number?
Woman:  Oh, let me see...*reading aloud* "Call after 5pm."
Me:  Oh, I see, so it does say call after 5pm.  Maybe we're in different time zones.  It's 11am here, what time is it where you are?
Woman:  ...1pm. 
Me:  Ah, okay, so...it's not after 5pm there?
Woman:  I didn't see the note until just now and...
Me:  So you don't do any research on your calls before you make them?  That seems really inconsiderate if you're calling to get information from someone.
Woman:  *hangs up*

I really, really hope they don't call back anymore.

Also, happy Solstice day!  Balancing eggs on end today and in September is awesome.

I thought it was SO cool!  I showed the girls and they didn't care.  :/