March In Review (and February too I suppose)

I can not seem to get caught up this year. Maybe its just the craziness of getting Garrett to and from school, getting workouts in, feeding everyone, keeping summer occupied, working, and just generally surviving from one day to the next. Our days have been filled with lots of fun, but I haven't really taken that many pictures. Trying to be in the moment with the kids, but I KNOW I'm going to miss having this to look back on down the line.

Let's see . . .
We had a cold snap. Haylee must be getting old (which she really is, she turned 10 in March, which is CRAZY to me) because all she did was bury under the blankets and refuse to move.

Aspen, on the other hand, chose to attempt to swim in the lake during one of our coldest days. Rotten dog.

Nana and Papa came for a visit. I'm sad to say this is the ONLY picture I took with my camera while they were here. Garrett and Summer loved having them here to play with.


Valentines day.
We made darling super hero valentines. Garrett got a kick out of making them.

He also made lots of sweet little art work. This was my favorite though, made with the bottom of a celery stalk as a stamp.

My dad came for a visit. We hit the beach and went to the Everglades. Its been a while since he's seen the kids. Everyone had a blast of course.

We did fun things like make robots out of toilet paper roles. Don't ask about Garrett's face here . . . .I think he was acting like the robot.

I ran my first half marathon on March 4th. I'm so annoyed that I haven't managed to post about THAT in the past month. It was an epic weekend, my friend Amanda from TooTallFritz came for the race. As I mentioned before, we've been online friends forever but have never met in person, and she was one of the people I could always ask for help when I got stuck on my running journey. It was so fabulous to meet her and her mom--they were kind enough to let me hang out with them the night before the race to save on some serious pre-race jitters!
Not to mention a beautiful evening on the beach:

Brad stayed home with the kids so I'm sadly lacking in pictures of the actual race. But we had so very much fun! I finished in 2:49, which was under the goal I had set for myself. Next time I hope to run the whole thing, I ran faster than I should have in the beginning and had to do intervals the last half. It was so incredible though.
And I can't forget the sweet good luck flowers Brad got me before the race :-)

Spring Break was fabulously busy . . .

We used the awesome pop bottle science kit Leanne got Garrett over Christmas to do some fun experiments over spring break. We made a volcano.

We also blew up balloons using the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. We have a long standing tradition of making faces on our balloons--Summer did such an awesome job on hers (with NO help) that I had to take a picture.

We went to the Childrens Museum with the Falconer clan. The kids had a blast--Summer and Ava hadn't played together in a while. The Pirate Island Exhibit there is amazing and the kids loved it. Garrett had also been wanting to try the rock climbing wall there for a while, but we always kept forgetting socks and close-toed shoes. He had an AWESOME time climbing the wall. If there is one thing I love more than anything else about the way we live our lives, its that living an active lifestyle has given this boy the idea that he can conquer anything. I love that he doesn't blink at physical challenges that would have made me, as an adult, cringe in the past.

Silly girls!

We played in the mud on the last day of spring break, just because getting dirty is so much fun.

Somewhere in there was Dr. Seuss's Birthday. We had tears on this day, ACTUAL TEARS, because Garrett's school told them they could wear Dr. Seuss shirts and I could not find one. As he's crying because he is worried he will be the only one without a Dr. Seuss shirt, I decided to be creative. The result turned out pretty darn cute, and he loved it. Saved by the Sharpie Markers and the stash of plain shirts sent to us by Grandma Sherry.




St. Patricks Day cuteness:
At the end of March we received news that Garrett was admitted into the charter school down the road from our house. I struggled for the entire week (we had to decide by March 31st if we wanted to enroll him) with what we should do. I really like the school we are currently at--the principal and staff are amazing, and it is such a small school that you can't help but feel at home. But in the end, an established Math/Science program and the ability to bike/walk to school won out over everything else, and we'll be switching schools at the end of the year. Hoping that it will make our lives simpler and that it will be a good fit for my crazy boy.

And, last but not least . . . a picture of Summer at the beginning of April 2011. I can't get over how much she has grown. She has been driving me bonkers lately--she is truly not an easy child and STILL isn't fully potty trained (we've been to the Dr. more times than I care to count in the past couple months, trying to sort her out). But she is growing up so fast and really becoming a big girl.

Why January 2012 wasn't awesome and the rest of the year is going to ROCK.

Okay, so catch up time. I may never post Christmas pictures. And I haven't taken that many pictures so far this year. A run down of the not-so-wonderful January we've had, in 100 words (I hope) or less:

My mom came for a visit, had to be admitted to the hospital next day with chest pains. No heart attack, but diabetes. No big shock, but hopefully motivation for a change for her.

It occurred to me (with some prompting from my best bud Allison) that things were not as they should be with Summer. Her sleep pattern was too erratic and she still wasn't potty trained--after some serious thinking, some time with the doctor and six vials of blood, and a two week test period of a gluten free diet, we reached the following conclusions: We needed to move up her bedtime, she DOESN'T have Celiac disease, but she does seem to have very strong gluten sensitivity. As in any form of gluten upsets her stomach so much that she complains of a tummy ache and then loses control of her bowels. Don't I feel like mother of the year for not picking up on THAT sooner.

So we've spent the first bit of February adjusting to the whole idea of having a child with food sensitivity in the house. Its so, so very weird for us--we usually eat well and clean, but we make a lot of our own baked goods and do eat a lot of wheat. So its been an adjustment. Its hard to eat gluten free on a budget, so we're adjusting there too. Summer has to adjust to not eating some of the things she loves, and we have to adjust by FINDING a way to substitute the things she loves with something similar.

We've been blessed with family coming to visit--first my mom, now Brad's grandparents, and my dad is coming on Saturday.

But here's a list of why the rest of the year is going to rock.
Now that we have a handle on her stuff, Summer is acting much more like the brilliant little girl we know she is and hopefully we REALLY WILL be done with potty training too.

I'm running my first half marathon on March 4th. Not only will my friend and neighbor Jess be joining me, but so will my long, long time internet bud Amanda. Amanda and I have known each other since my pre-kid days. We both have weims. She always let me pick her brain when I started running--she is a freaking amazing endurance athlete. So to have her down here for my first half makes me excited beyond words. She's been on my top 5 people-to-meet list for quite some time.

April includes a trip to Maryland to see my very best high school bud, Sandra. For a baby shower no less. We haven't seen each other in 5-ish years, but Sandra kept me sane through the disaster that was high school. I'm so excited for her to embark on the journey of motherhood, there aren't even words for it :-) On top of that little bundle, who's ETA is June, my best bud Allison has a bundle with an ETA of July. Babies, babies, everywhere! A summer-long trip to the Northeast may be in order . . .

May brings a surprise from Hubby--tickets to Nickelback's Here and Now Tour. They will be playing with Seether, My Darkest Days, and Bush. I had no clue Bush was still around, but the other 3 are absolutely off the hook rock bands that I love. And listen to on an almost daily basis while I work out. Then my big boy will be turning 6. And then the summer baby boom discussed above.

So, January was terribly stressful. But I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings. Probably less blogging from me, since time is always in short supply. But I'll still try to bring the highlights. HOPEFULLY!!

Sherry's Run

Yes, I realize the entire month of January went by without me actually posting anything other than catch-ups from December. And that I STILL haven't posted pictures of Christmas Day. Suffice to say 2012 has been INSANE so far. I promise my very next post (which I am going to write and schedule) will closely follow this one. But yesterday I participated in something note-worthy and wanted to document it here.

Its no secret that since Summer was born, I have become a bonafied runner. I was never athletic, was called sloth in gym class in middle school, and used to watch people running as I drove in my car eating fast food thinking "I could NEVER run." But its grown into a part of life for me. I was recently discussing fitness/weightloss/etc. with a friend and dug up some old pictures of the "Old" me. I can't even really remember what drove that person--I wasn't a foodie, I didn't run, and I didn't have the same amazing circle of friends I do now. So I'll take the new me any day of the week. The me that thinks anything is possible. The me that is running a half marathon in 3 short weeks (SO excited!).

Anyway, one of the running blogs I follow is Shut Up and Run. SUAR blogged about her cousin, Sherry, who made national news after disappearing from her morning run in January. In addition to Sherry, many women step out their doors for run and never go home. Sometimes the what ifs can be terrifying. SUAR organized a virtual run in Sherry's memory, which I was glad to participate in on Saturday. It serves as a reminder that we can never be to careful when we step out the door each day, and that every day truly is a gift. Stop by Too Tall Fritz to read some great safety tips, in memory of Sherry and every other runner that didn't make it home.

Monday Mayhem - Bring on a new week

This past week was insanity. I chalk it largely up to Brad having been gone for 4 days last week and then having 2 meetings in the first half of the week. Add in soccer practice and our produce day and it made for a very insane first half of the week.

Add in the following factors (AKA the bad stuff):
*Garrett hit a classmate at school on Wednesday. Grounded for the rest of the week. No TV, no friends, no fun to be had at all. As most moms tend to do, I took it personally that he would make such a bad choice. Sigh.
*I saw a dog get hit by a car on Wednesday during my run (you really have to know how much of a dog person I am to get why this would be so upsetting to me) . . . we stopped to help, and hopefully the poor thing is recovering well. Of course, I couldn't bear to let my dogs out of my sight for a couple days . . . logically, the entire thing shouldn't have affected me as much as it did, but I'm in this weird stage where I am terrified of losing my dogs and that really didn't help.
*Brad has been sick
*The boy refuses to sleep in his own bed after midnight, which means I haven't slept well in days.

The good stuff:

*Downloaded a chore chart from Motivated Moms on Monica's suggestion, hoping that will help me with the whole balance thing. Because if there is one thing I am TERRIBLE at its cleaning my house.
*Coffee and a nice chat with Shelah on Friday, because darn it, it had been that kind of week for us both.
*We had to break out a lot of the 3+ Discovery Toys this week for Summer. Little girl is getting big, which is both sad and super exciting. Here she is doing the Busy Bugs.
*My boys made me a wicked cool butcher block cutting board. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT (and Brad made the bread too!)
*Girls Night Out at the Winery. There was a lot of dancing involved, which made me a happy camper!!
*I managed a 20 mile week, and with all of the insanity, I can say that in the fitness department it was a REALLY good week. 2 short, relatively fast runs, yoga, a long bike ride, kickboxing, zumba, and two FABULOUS weekend runs on Key Biscayne.
*The weekend runs on KB get their own bullet point--14.5 miles in 2 days. A gorgeous sunset on Sunday to help me get all nice and centered for this week. Explored some of the trails in Crandon Park on Saturday, saw a spotted eagle ray jump out of the water, and just generally let go for a couple of hours. Absolutely beautiful weather. I honestly have NO CLUE how I remained sane before I became a runner. These two weekend runs have made me feel all nice and centered and ready to tackle whatever comes next.

I am so very glad to be starting a new week. I really hope it is better than the last one.

Race Report - the Budget (Almost) Half Marathon that just wasn't meant to be.

Today was my scheduled to be my Budget Half Marathon, run in conjunction with my friend Amanda's half in Illinois. My friend Amanda is FAST. As in, she finished 13.1 in 2:00:25. Yes, folks, an almost 9 min mile pace over a half. But anyway . . . This is the kind of day when both the pluses and minuses of doing a budget race, rather than an actual organized race on a predefined course, reared their heads. I have been very much under the weather for the past few days. As in barely-able-to-stand-up-without-falling-over sick. Last night I took a ton of cold medicine to knock me out so I could sleep.

The ORIGINAL plan for this half was to run it first thing in the morning at work. THAT plan was ruined when Garrett got an AWESOME opportunity to do Ocean Kids, a really great educational program held at UM. So I didn't go to work, and I had Summer starting at 7:30 when they left. But the second plan was that I would go early AT HOME, and be back in time to take Summer so the boys could go. THAT plan was ruined by my copious use of cold meds. I'm pretty sure running 13.1 miles with medicine head just isn't the best idea . . . and really, I'd rather not find out the hard way. Soooooo, I ran when Brad got home. This is the plus side of budget races. Flexibility. And had I decided I was still not feeling well enough to run, I wouldn't have been out the $50-$90 race fee. So, yay for budget races, right?

I made the HORRIBLE mistake of not mapping my course out before hand. In hind sight, I should have known better. My Nike + has been giving me issues as it has been off on distances here lately. I KNEW this, and yet I went out planning to just run based on the distance on it. I just went wherever my little heart desired. BIG mistake. 10 miles (according to it) and 2.5 hours later . . . um, wait, a 15:00 min/mile pace?? REALLY?? I was annoyed, I was tired, and damn it, I did NOT have another 5K in me. I could have made myself run it if I really wanted to. But I was tired, I was BORED, and darn it, 3.1 miles would have sucked. I could have done it, but I would have hated every minute of it. And I probably wouldn't have run again for weeks. So since I was coming off being sick anyway, I cut my losses, turned off my Nike +, and walked the mile home. This is where the boo for budget races comes in, because A: I never would have quit with other people around and B: I would have known, as I do now, that I had actually ran 11.5 miles and I would have found 1.6 WAY more doable than 3.1.

Anyway, I came home, mapped my route, and found it was 11.5, which averaged to a ~12:30 min mile, which is doable for me. I just hope Laura C over at the 500 miles in 2010 blog won't type a huge FAIL next to my half marathon, and instead will descreatly draw a line through it and put Angela's 10-miler instead!! :-)

So, at any rate, I don't consider it a failure. It was a long run, it was fun right up until the end, and I was coming off being sick . . . so no regrets. I AM fighting the urge to throw my Nike + in the trash. A garmin is definitely on my dream big list . . . there was one on sale for $125 on Amazon and I am seriously kicking myself for not buying it. But oh well. Next time I will DEFINITELY map out my route before hand. And hopefully run it at work. Because ocean views and multi-million dollar mansions are way more interesting than the scenery around here. And I can also like running without music for at least part of my run out there, something I haven't been able to pull off at home. Live and learn. And not a penny spent in the process :-)

Oh, official stats . . . or, er, my best guesstimate anyway:
11.5 miles
2:24:46
12:35 pace