I didn’t forget last week, I was just stuck in Richmond due to a huge hail and rain storm.  I was supposed to get home last Thursday but instead I got to spend another night with Connie*, this time at the Chicago Airport. Last week I was going to be thankful to be home and in my bed, but that didn’t happen, so I was actually thankful for my American Express Corporate card

This week? I’m thankful for BIG HUGS.

Watch. You’ll smile. Promise.

*Anyone get the Mad Men reference? LOVE that show.

Today I’m thankful for my Mom friends that I met because of Lucy.  I talk to some of them every day and I don’t know what I would do without them.  They help keep me sane.

Two in a row! 1.10.11 and 1.11.11.  How cool is that?

1.10.11 was a wonderful day and today is shaping up to be just as good. Loving life!

Last time we met, we were trying to get Baby Loaf out. That night, Megan and Luke came over for burritos and Lucy implored Baby Loaf to come OUT!

It worked and Baby Loaf is here but I’m waiting to tell you any details until Megan has a chance to share her story.  It’s a good one and it’ll be worth the wait.  I will tell you that he’s a boy, he’s cute, his name is awesome, and I’ve cried happy tears many times over the last few days.

Lactation Cookies, Mac N’ Cheese, and Stuffing Bombs are on the horizon

I captured many cute videos this weekend, it was a great weekend.  Here’s Lu cooking Mommy some “rice and sauce”.

Her repertoire has broadened to include “meat” and “mac n’ cheese” but I didn’t get that on video . I think someone has been watching Mom in the kitchen.

It really was a wonderful weekend, I noticed on Friday night that I was talking very sternly to Lu a lot.  I decided to shift my frame of mind and to approach things differently with her.  I’m a control freak and sometimes I just need to let go.  She needs to behave and listen but there are ways to get her to do that without me talking sternly or getting upset. I tend to push, push, push to get her to do things my way even when there are other ways to do things.  If I just sit back and let her figure it out, she’s happier and I’m happier.  Ever since making the decision to approach things differently, I’ve only spoken sternly to her once and it was completely appropriate for the situation. 

Last night she completely shocked my by saying “L-U-C-Y. Lucy!” Clear as can be.  We’ve been spelling her name with her every night before bed with the letters on her wall since she was 6 months old.  She’s never tried to spell it out but then yesterday busted out with it perfectly.  As part of our bedtime routine, after we spell her name she lists out other people in her life and we spell those.  Tessa is always spelled right after Lucy.  Apparently, according to my sister, Lucy has taught Tessa that her name starts with “T”.  I had no clue!  She’s a smarty pants, that one

Today was day 9 of yoga. If anything, it’s shifting my frame of mind and I’m much happier and peaceful.  I’m loving this challenge!

Last night, even though I said I wasn’t going to any more, I yelled at Lucy. She was mad at me and hit me hard and I yelled and then I felt really bad and then I made sure to breathe.  I sat down with her and said that it was not okay for either of us to show our anger in the way that we did.  She is not to hit and I am not to yell. We can say “That makes me mad.” But we do not hit or yell.  We hugged and went upstairs, where we saw a beautiful pink sunset.

That picture doesn’t even BEGIN to do it justice.  It was gorgeous.  Lu and I went out on the balcony and enjoyed the amazing sunset.  It was a nice moment.

I’m human and to be human is to err, right Alexander Pope? I learned from my mistake and I hope Lu does too.  It also made me appreciate my daughter a bit more as she was able to forgive me and move on.  I’m learning to do that more. 

I’m thankful for Lucy, she is a great teacher.

I’m a big fan of resolutions.  Remember the 30 I made last year? I hit 23 of them.  I did not hit 7 of them.  Oh well, eh?

Even though I didn’t hit all 30 of my goals last year, I call it a success!  My personal growth last year was huge and I am in a much better place this year than I was last.  I’m so much happier and that’s what counts.

I think maybe it was a bit too ambitious to make 30 goals.  This year I have 3:

1. Love myself unconditionally.
2. Write in my journal EVERY day.
3. Train for and compete in the half ironman in June.
3. Do something active at least 4 times a week.

As a family we have one resolution:

1. Live lean and pay down as much of our debt as we can.  We can almost become debt free by the end of the year if we really put our mind to it.

Lucy has one resolution by the end of the year:

1. Get potty trained!

We’ve all already been working on these so I think they are doable!  Number 1 is going to be the hardest one for me but it’s worth the fight.

It went much better than last year!

She needed Mommy with her but at least there were no tears shed.  What did she say she wanted from Santa?

“A cookie.”

Can do!

It has been COLD and snowy here in Boise.  The coldest I’ve seen is 1* on our outdoor thermometer and we’ve had snow on the ground since Monday. We woke up today to more snow!  There was a Christmas parade and the Farmer’s Market in Downtown Boise this morning so we bundled up and went!  Call us crazy

Lu in the car, ready to go!

Don’t the girls look happy?

Wouldn’t you be ecstatic if your Mom dragged you out to watch a line of Minis?

No? How about a snowman! On a Harley!

Really?  Are you having fun yet? Maybe not:

(I think my dear daughter is thinking “EFF YOU MOM.  This SUCKS!”)

The marching band that made both my sister and I start crying-they always do-WTF is up with that?!?!?!

Dancers…sort of dancing…

Isn’t this fun? Well at least there are candy canes!

(“Really Mom?  Really?  Even this candy cane can’t make me smile.”)

Cool old car:

These people said “EFF IT!” and put up there hard top.  How awesome is this car?!?

This float was so sad.  The characters were all falling over because of the snow

Horse-in a a blizzard! (not really)

We ended up going to a Vietnamese place for Pho and watching the rest of the parade from the window.  We saw Santa, sorta…The girls said they had fun or something like that…

  While we were doing that.  Daddy was out mountain biking.  No really!

He had a blast!  So did we-no really we did!

I’m loving the seasons here.  We’ll see if I say that in January or February or March….

First, before I get to exercise, I’ll share an awesome picture that the photographer at my brother and SIL’s wedding got of Lu, as a flower girl.

[source]

There’s a few more pictures of the wedding at http://www.danieljireh.com/blog/.  I can’t wait to see them all.  I love that picture.

Now, exercise! In the past year I haven’t exercised as much as I used to.  I stopped because I was having disordered thinking about it.  I was exercising to burn calories.  I wasn’t having fun, I wasn’t enjoying it-I was exercising to eat more. No bueno.

What I’ve come to realize is that I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like to exercise.  It makes me happy, like REALLY happy.  Got that yet? Exercise makes me REALLY happy . I no longer use a heart rate monitor to track how many calories I burn (I haven’t in about 5 months) and I exercise because I want to. 

As I mentioned yesterday, I’m doing The Artist’s Way and one part of it, are the “Artist’s Dates”.  Artist’s Dates are 2 hour chunks of time where I’m supposed to do something for myself with myself (and no one else) that foster’s my creativity. Some of my dates? Going to get my make-up done and getting a lesson (and buying said make-up).

A recreation:

Going shopping for myself and only myself.  Wandering the aisle’s of art stores to see if anything catches my eye, trying soccer for the first time, RUNNING.  Yes, running.

When I run, it’s my “me” time.  It’s when I reconnect with me and talk to myself.  A LOT gets done in my head when I run.  It’s one of the reasons I love doing it so much and by myself.  I really like to run by myself.  I like being stuck in that ‘ol brain of mine

How about you?  Do you like to exercise?  If you don’t, do you do it anyway? Do you find other ways to be active?

Oh man is Lucy at a fun age.  Even when she does something she isn’t supposed to it’s cute.

On Thursday Lucy didn’t take a nap at daycare.  On Friday, she was at my sister’s house with our sitter in the morning.  I went to pick her up for naptime and the sitter said that she was REALLY tired (not surprising).  I brought her home and she DID NOT want to nap.  I rocked her for 10 minutes and she was still wide awake.  I put her to bed and she babbled for 40 minutes.  I went into her room and told her it was time to go to sleep (in my sternest voice) and rubbed her back. That seemed to help but as soon as I left the room she started babbling again.  Finally at 3 (I put her down at 1:30) there was silence and I thought, “Success!” 

I was working away when about 25 minutes later I hear light knocking.  I ignored it thinking it was just my house making noises.  About 2 minutes later I hear more knocking.  I get up to go answer the front door and as I pass by Lu’s room I hear the knocking coming from HER room.  I open the door and there stands my 2 year old on her stepstool in front of the door.  Apparently she had been trying to get the door open.  That silence?  Well that was her getting out of bed (which she has never done before without either Shaun or me in the room), taking her stepstool and using it to get her blankets and books off of her shelves and then to try and open the door. Oh yes, and to get into the vaseline.

I didn’t notice at first that she was covered in clear goo.  I brought her upstairs to Shaun (who was home sick) and asked him to watch her for a little bit longer so that I could finish up work.  I came back upstairs and notice that she’s VERY shiny.  I asked, “what’s on her?” and Shaun said, “I think it’s spit.”  I go to wipe it off and know IMMEDIATELY that she had gotten into the vaseline.  The picture above is after I tried to get it out.  Lovely, huh?  And she’s so dang proud of herself too!  Luckily she only got it in one place in her room (on her rocker) and after a good bath her hair is mostly back to normal, albeit a little greasy.

In other Lu news, yesterday she told me, “Mama, behave!”

It’s a good reminder

~~~~~

Food and Exercise Update

I did my first Zuzana workout on Friday and OMG, I am very sore.  I’m going to get out and do a run later today and I hope that that will help the soreness.  A girl can hope!

Yesterday, I went a did a big stock up grocery trip and I made hummus, pumpkin date oatmeal bars (still perfecting the recipe but they are GOOD), and raw almond butter (it is so much cheaper to do it at home, vs. buying it at the store!).  It was a good day!

“You are beautiful. You are strong.” That was my mantra while running yesterday.  I went into the race with a goal of running 12 minute miles.  I finished with an average of 12:02 minute miles.  YAY!

Here I am before the race with Shaun and Lu:

and Luke and Megan:

I was confident I could do it but worried about my hip.  I had started to have some twinges of hip flexor pain on the left side earlier in the week.  The last time I ran a half marathon without swimming and biking beforehand (Half-Ironman Distance Triathlon) I hurt my right hip flexor.  I got bursitis and tendonitis in my right hip after the 2005 Nike Women’s Half Marathon and was in physical therapy for months.  I thought I’d never get to run again. Of course I did run again and even did the Ironman 2 years later. 

Running exclusively has always been hard for me and I’ve learned that I can only run 3 times a week.  The rest of my training has to be cross training or I hurt myself.  I’ve attempted to train for 2 marathons and both times, I hurt myself.

ANYWAY, I was worried.  I did a ton of stretching and tried to think positive thoughts.  I didn’t think about my race much but the morning of I started really worrying that my hip would fail me.

I tried to put that thought in the back of my mind and lined up to race!  First, let me say that this is the smallest race that I have ever been a part of.  We drove up and parked right across the street.  I got there 45 minutes early and I could have arrived 15 minutes early.  It was crazy how cozy and not stressful it was-CRAZY.  At about 8:55, they announce, we’re starting in 5 minutes, make your way over to the start!

Start we did! There I go!

My first mile was my fastest and most painful.  My hip REALLY hurt and I was feeling VERY discouraged.  When my phone announced that I ran the first mile in 10:50, I decided to slow down and massage my hip a bit.  By the 4th mile I was feeling pretty good and by the 6th mile I was in my groove.  The course started off pretty, then was UGLY, then was really pretty again.  Around the time that it got pretty again (mile 11) I was starting to feel it.  I slowed down (and had my slowest mile at mile 12) and got discouraged again.  Then I told myself that ANYONE could run 2 miles and that that it was less than half an hour of pain.  Thankfully my awesome cheering squad (Luke, Megan, Lissa, Tessa, Shaun, and Lucy) had set up camp just after I heard that I had run an almost 13 minute mile.  They almost missed me because the girls were having so much fun playing.

I saw them yelling and running towards me and I though “Ha! Those people almost missed the person they’re cheering on. That’s funny. OH wait, those are MY people!”  They came running and I got cheered on by some of my favorite people in the world.

Here’s Lu and Megan cheering on other runners and giving them fives:

They were seriously at the right spot!  It was all I needed to light a fire under my butt and make me run!

When I hit mile 13, I started crying-they were happy tears.  At some of my lowest times after Lu was born and I was being so hard on myself, I thought my racing days were over.  They’re not!  I finished strong and my cheering squad was right there at the finish line!

Stats:

Mile 1: 10:50 min/mi
Mile 2: 11:36 min/mi
Mile 3: 12:09 min/mi
Mile 4: 11:56 min/mi
Mile 5: 12:13 min/mi
Mile 6: 11:48 min/mi
Mile 7: 11:50 min/mi
Mile 8: 12:08 min/mi
Mile 9: 12:06 min/mi
Mile 10: 11:58 min/mi
Mile 11: 12:33 min/mi
Mile 12: 12:50 min/mi
Mile 13: 12:33 min/mi

Finish time: 2:37:41 Average 12:02 min/mi

I mentioned above that I “heard” my pace and that my phone “announced” how fast I was going.  My Garmin broke about 2 months ago (it won’t turn on) and I downloaded a free app for my phone called Endomondo.  It’s awesome!  It tells me at every mile how fast I went and how long I’ve been running.  I just put it in one of the pockets on my fuel belt and I have a great training partner PLUS if I get in trouble, I have my phone to call home.  I will not be getting a replacement for my Garmin!  You can also set a “goal” time and it will tell you if you’re going too slow.

Look at the cool readout it gives me online:

I highly recommend it!  It works with: Works with: Nokia, HTC, iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, HP, Eten, Palm, Motorola, as well as Garmin devices.

So, there you have it.  I did it!  I’m really proud of myself and can’t wait for the next race!