Training for Vegas: Week 1: Epic Fail

With our Vegas race being 12 weeks away, and the weather supposedly starting to "cool off," this past week was supposed to start my training.

Be prepared for lots of excuses.

I had actually planned on starting the weekend before while we were in the cool temperatures of the White Mountains, but my breathing (or lack thereof) prevented that from happening.

I thought I would blog about my weekly training - for the accountability.  Week 1, as you can read from the title, was an epic fail.  Check it out, the second row indicated what I was supposed to do (according to Hal Higdon) and the third row, very honestly, states what I did.

So what happened?  In a word: life.  In another word: work.  I blame the kids who don't turn in their homework actually.

I remembered on Tuesday afternoon at 2:55PM that I had after-school PRIDE duty (that's our cool way of saying "detention") which pushes my leaving back from 3:31PM to 4:45PM.  Then of course it's straight home for dinner, bath, and bedtime.  That lasts all week long (except Friday) and that is my main excuse for this week.

My second excuse is that Stevie was out of town from Friday through today which means it is all me - the cooking, cleaning, wiping (and there's been a lot of that these days), soothing, back-petting, etc.  I love every single one of my mom-duties (even the excessive wiping) but it doesn't leave a lot of time (or energy) for much else.

I really should be doing my running in the morning.  But .... (ready for another excuse?) I already wake up at 4:45AM everyday.  If my calculations are correct, in order to get a 3 mile run in before a school-day, I would need to wake up at 4:05AM, run from 4:15-4:45AM, then get myself ready.

Ready for the best part?  This upcoming week really isn't much better!  I have an after-school meeting on Wednesday, then parent-teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday, which are both long and exhausting.  And of course each week of training gets progressively more time-consuming.

Before I sign-off from this depressing post, I'd like to share a conversation between me and Stevie that occurred a few weeks ago:

ME:  "By the way, I printed your training plan.  I printed you the Intermediate and me the Novice II"
STEVIE:  "What?!?  You just took away the one part of training that I am successful with: printing the plan.  Why would you take that away from me?"
ME:  "Because I'm a ninja."

Oh Harpey! You are too much!

Just a couple of my recent favorites!

Pretty Toes!

As part of my new "I'm worth it!" campaign, I am getting fairly regular manicures.  The other day I really needed to get it done and I was able to leave work 30 minutes early so I jumped at the chance.  Securing my nomination for Mom-of-the-Year I bought Shyla a giant bag of cheetos for her to eat while I got my nailed done.  The lady offered to do her toes for $5, so of course I took it and this is the result:

totally cute toes on totally cute feet with a tint of pink left on her left pinky toe from birth.

Pinetop Trip! Whoop! Whoop!

We just got back from spending the long weekend with my family at the cabin in Pinetop!  So, so many good memories here - and we are all relishing in the new ones being made by the kids.

In all honesty, it was a weekend of ups and downs.  It is possible that the downs may have outweighed the ups.  However, when you are with family you hardly notice the downs.  And even a bad day with family in the mountains, is better than a great day without them.

Everyone else went up on Thursday, but we went Friday after work.  We hit the road right at 4:30PM, promising Shyla McDonalds in Globe (the halfway point).  Unfortunately, we learned upon arrival, McDonalds has been leveled to make room for an identically sized one located about 15 yards to the left.  Anyway .... never fear - we grabbed some lunchables and milk and got back on the road, arriving around 9:30PM.  

On Saturday we went to Hawley Lake.  No one caught any fish but the big kids all got to ride in Grandpa's boat, Pancake tried to kill a squirrel and a dog that was supposed to spend the night with us, Shyla learned to go "farmer girl."  She also fell in cow poop within 5 minutes of getting out of the car and we ended up driving 25 minutes away with Mike's keys in my camera bag.  Chelsea burned her face, and it literally seemed to get more red by the minute and Harper got mad at anyone who foiled her plan of walking directly into the lake.  It was an awesome day!  Seriously.  It was.  The kids all had a great time and that is truly all that matters.

Back at the cabin, there was lots of fun to be had!  We also spent a few hours at the rec center - which is really cool now and will be a great resource in the years to come.  Here are a few of my favorite pics from the weekend:

Mike brought uber-delicious designer cupcakes that may have derailed my weight-loss.  Smores cupcake?  Come on!

We got all 4 babies in the tub together!  And managed to take a few pictures before the screaming started!  (BTW - this bath was after the day at the lake and the water was DISGUSTING by the end!)

The big kids watched The Lorax together.  Their giggles were a beautiful sound.

This little one started wearing a ponytail for the first time!  It's so nice to be able to see her beautiful face!  Harper - not surprisingly - was the best traveler and the best sleeper.  We rarely heard a peep out of her in the car and she slept well both at nighttime and at nap-time.

We had some races before the car ride home!

And some big smilies on the porch!

Zac's face cracks me up in this one!  I wonder what Shyla just said/did to him...

And then there's my Shyla, asleep in the car.  She is only 3 and I need to keep reminding myself of that fact.  She had a tough weekend, behaviorally.  There was a lot of crying, tantrums, and generally "out-of-sortness" with her.  I'm not sure what's going on or what I can do about it.

Pancake had a great weekend.  Here she is in the car - standing - just like she did the whole trip!  Thankfully she got along with Baxter just fine, but Claire's dog was another story.  I am still convinced that she doesn't like female dogs and she doesn't like big dogs.  Claire's is both - Baxter is neither.  But in any event she got a lot of love and a lot of walks this weekend (her two favorite things).  She also got to explore at and in a lake, and ride on a boat.  We are glad to be able to give her a good life!

This last picture got out of order - it should be at the top with the lake pictures.  I love Shyla's face in this one - both of my girls just adore Lilly!

We are already checking our calendars for another long weekend to spend in Pinetop.  It is probably one of my most favorite places in the world.

La Jolla Family Portraits

As I mentioned, while in La Jolla we had family portraits done.  Kirsten set the whole thing up with the photographer that did Dan and Erin's wedding: Meurer Image Photography.  She was fantastic and worked so well with the kids!  She also did a lot of work on the photos to make everyone look good.

Please have a look and enjoy!

Bye-Bye Binky (take 2)

You may remember a good number of months ago Shyla went through "Binky Bootcamp" in which she was only allowed her binky for sleeping.  She did great and we celebrated at Peter Piper Pizza.  Well, over the last few months the binky has crept back into the picture.  She is well over three now and she told me that no one else at preschool uses a binky.  Thus, we decided it was time to stop putting off the inevitable and say "bye-bye binky."

Something had me feeling very crazy brave yesterday so we collected all the binkies, allowed her to choose her favorite, and loaded up the car.  Destination: Build-A-Bear Workshop.

 Here she is outside of the mall, favorite green binky in hand.

She chose a giant, purple Hello Kitty, even with Stevie and I gently persuading her toward something (anything) else.  She rubbed the fabric heart on her nose to make it come to life ...

And she stuffed the heart AND the favorite green binky into the kitty!

She gave kitty a bath, then picked out a t-shirt, panties, and tap-shoes for her to wear.

Created her birth certificate on the computer.  Official name: Hello Binky.

And left the store full of smiles with Hello Binky in her arms.

And on her head.

And later buckled into her carseat.

And later in her arms again.

We had talked a lot about the activity and what it meant, but she was no one near prepared enough.  She kept asking me to "squeeze it up again" which I later determined meant to open the stitch and remove the binky.  When I refused, she tried to do it herself (thank you Build-A-Bear guy for stitching her up really well!)

Last night was rough.  But it could have been worse.  She cried for her binky for a little over an hour, but we stayed strong.  Thankfully her crying doesn't wake Harper up (I credit daycare for teaching my girls to sleep through anything).

The thought of, "let's just let her use it for sleeping" definitely entered my mind.  But I kept remembering how that set-up didn't work last time.  So we were forced to stay strong and wait out the storm.

I hope she will keep Hello Binky forever and I hope she will someday (soon) forget why she even liked using a binky.  And I also hope last night was the worst and it will only get easier.

Bye-bye Binky.

Harper gets Ear-Tubes

There are no pictures with this post.  Sorry.  But Harper just got her ear-tubes and I need to document it.

Here is the chain of events:

• When I picked Harper up from school last Monday, they told me she had been fussy and teary and had a low-grade temperature.
• Stevie stayed home with her on Tuesday, then Shyla and I met them at the ENT for a previously scheduled appointment.
• Her ears were both infected.  But, she wasn't showing any hearing loss.  They were scheduling surgery for mid-September, but there happened to be a cancellation for this Thursday.  We took it.
• She was still feverish on Wednesday at 2AM.  After giving her a bath to bring the temp down, I knew I would need to take Wednesday off, so I started writing sub plans.
• We fought her temperature all day Wednesday, then prepared for the surgery on Thursday.
• She did great!  She was out of my arms for less than 15 minutes (12 to be more precise) and when we met her in recovery she was smiling and all the nurses were loving on her.
• That smile would last all day!  He was able to drain the infection so she got instant relief.  We had a great day together; we played and she also slept well!

Thank goodness for modern medicine!