7.1 Miles and 106 Degrees in Hotlanta!

I'm so sick of hearing about the heat here! I am tired of seeing Facebook posts of people's car dash thermometers. Yes, it is hot! Yes, it is summer!! That being said, it was 106 degrees outside today.

I spent my morning outside on a long walk with 2 of my co-workers. We ended up walking 7.1 miles before it got REALLY hot. We started at about 10:30 this morning and we walked from a parking lot up to Kennesaw Mountain and then on the trails that go up the mountain. We stopped and turned around at 4-ish miles. There were a LOT of hills, so I was glad that we weren't jogging. When I checked the stats after getting home today, we averaged an 18 minute mile. That's actually HORRIBLE, but I didn't think it was too bad considering over 2/3rds of it was uphill! We made sure to have water with us, of course. We also saw 2 baby deer and (we think) their mother!! They were so cute! (Of course, I didn't have my camera, so I didn't get any pictures...shame on me!) They were also not afraid of us, so they didn't scurry off when we stopped to gawk at them. We were sweaty messes when it was all over and it was starting to get quite warm outside. (It was a little after noon).

After changing shirts and wiping off a bit, we went to a yummy Chinese restaurant in the Marietta Square called House of Lu. I haven't eaten there since before Shane and I were married, so it was quite a treat! I think the waiter was a little unhappy with me because I started with a glass of sweet tea, but it was too sweet, so I switched to Diet Coke (bad girl) and then I needed 3 refills during the course of our meal! I was SO thirsty, though. (And yes, I know that Diet Coke is not really thirst quenching, but actually a diuretic, I needed some flavor!) Then, we stopped by work where we purchased some water (Yay!) and picked up something I forgot the day before. (It was also where I had parked my car to meet them)

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things we were out of and was leaving to come home when Shane called to tell me we didn't have any power at home. Right after that, a fire/rescue truck passed me and I can only assume that there was an accident which knocked out the power. I noticed that a few businesses along the way were also out of power and other houses in our neighborhood seemed to be out. Shane and I took the liberty of filling up the kids' swimming pool so that they wouldn't be bored and hot. I think they had a lot of fun!

The power was out for about 3 hours and the kids managed to enjoy playing with their imaginations/toys, so I'll call that a win! About the time that I was going to start working on our "family binder", the electricity came back on. (bummer) I have still refused to turn the TV on. We are having a "TV-free evening." I'm making pizza for dinner and when the kids go to bed, I am planning to load some books onto Jessica's Kindle and maybe shower and go to bed early. I have a sneaking suspicion that I will sleep really well tonight!

I finished Under A Vampire Moon the night before last. I was a great read. It was a little lighter than most of the other Argeanue novels. I'm still trying to decide what my next read will be, but I'm sure I'll pick something soon enough!

Made Me LOL

I really adore a good read. I like books that make me cry and the kind that suck you in and keep a tight hold on you. I also like books that make me (literally) laugh out loud. The book I am reading right now, Under A Vampire Moon, by Lynsay Sands has made me LOL several times. It's a very good read so far!!

Today, I ran 4.1 miles before I went to work. I really, REALLY wanted to fit in the 6 miles that I should have done for the past 2 weeks now. I had a plan. I took the tablet downstairs and went to Fox.com to watch a back episode of this season's Hell's Kitchen (I'm SO far behind). It was going pretty good except the sound and the picture were out of sync. That usually drives me bat-shit crazy, but I didn't mind it because I was in motion and it was doing a good job of keeping me distracted. I find that music doesn't keep my mind from wandering to how far I've gone or have to go or how long I've been going. I digress. So, a little over halfway through the episode, it starts to buffer. No biggie. However, it continues to buffer and continues to buffer and then restarts the episode almost all the way back to the beginning!! It all went downhill from there. I turned to Pandora, only to have it keep pulling up slow crap and it will only let you skip so many times before it becomes unresponsive! So, 4.1 miles is all I got in, but I'll call it a victory non the less.


I'm going to try to get up early to run tomorrow. It's kinda late now, so we'll see how it goes. At least I get off from work at a fairly decent hour tomorrow!

Today It's About Baking and Reading

Aside from this sentence, I am not going to talk about running today.


We had my son's 5th birthday party yesterday and I baked him a cake and cupcakes. It's something I like to do for my kids and I'll keep doing it as long as they let me :) . That being said, he wanted to have an Angry Birds party, so I baked an Angry Birds cake. I decided not to get too complicated with it, so I just did a simple background and used some pencil toppers that I bought on clearance at Wal-Mart.

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 I also made some cupcakes to match the cake (since it was only a round, 1-layer) and I topped them with Angry Bird fruit snacks from the Dollar Store.

The cake was Devil's Food and the cupcakes were a plain, white cake. They both had vanilla buttercream frosting. I didn't have any complaints on the flavor and I'll just have to go with that because I didn't actually have any cake or a cupcake. The left-over cupcakes actually went flying around in the back of the car on the way home and ended up flipped over and a serious hot mess destroyed.

I was a little bummed out by the turnout of his party. I had sent invitations home with his classmates at school the last week of school. Then, I sent e-vites to all of the friends of his that I had email addresses for. I even sent a Facebook message to one of his teachers (who has children his age and go to the same school) and, out of all of that, I only had 1 RSVP. One kid (who isn't even attending the same school next year) messaged to say they were coming. I did know that one of his other friends couldn't come because of the parents being out of town, but really? At least say, "no." So, of course, I felt compelled to spend extra time talking to the parents of the one kid because everyone else there was family or has been in my "family" for so long that they knew each other (more or less). If you don't take anything else from this rant, please take this: RSVP to parties even if you aren't going!!!!!!!

And.....breathe!!!!

Moving on to books. I think I have picked out my next read. It's Under A Vampire Moon by Lynsay Sands. It is the 16th book in a semi-series. I say semi-series because the books do reference each other in a way, i.e. characters and a bit of background, but they can each be read stand-alone. I have read the previous 15 of them, however, and they are quick, sultry reads. You all know how I like my vampire hunkies!! I don't anticipate it being a long read, but it will fill the gap until I find something else that suits me. (I am still refusing to give in and read Fifty Shades of Gray. I just won't be that trendy). 

Busy Day Today

We had a REALLY busy day today. Woke up and drove to a little place in town to eat called Chicken World. I had these amazingly good Chicken Cheddar Fries. 

Fries topped with cheddar cheese, ranch, buffalo sauce, chicken strips and lemon pepper

I am so glad that I have never advertised on this blog that I eat healthy. I definitely do not! They were SOOOOOOOO freakin good!

After lunch, we had to take Gabriel to the doctor for his annual check-up. Poor kid had to get a shot and you would have thought it had killed him. He seems to be doing REALLY well developmentally. Of course, the standards that they set for average children really disturbed me. The doctor asked him to name a bunch of colors that she pointed to. She then asked him to sing his ABC's. Then, she asked him to count to ten and spell his name and tell her our address. Then, she told us to make sure to buy him advanced curriculum books so he doesn't get bored in Kindergarten!! Really??? He can count to 50 and he knows more shapes than I did at 12!! What aren't people teaching their children these days if the standards are set so low? I told her that I don't have to worry about him being bored in Kindergarten since he goes to a private school and his teacher next year is the owner of the school and a speech pathologist.

We next moved on to Party City to purchase some things for Gabriel's party on Saturday. We bought plates and cups and balloons and goody bags and fillers. Then, on to Wal-Mart for more of the same, plus food supplies. I still have a few odds and ins to pick up, but we are set for the most part. While we were at Wal-Mart, we also bought Gabriel's birthday gift, a bicycle!!! (Complete with helmet and other protective accessories)

We spent so much time running around that I really didn't feel like cooking, so we stopped by Little Caesar's for dinner to-go. Gabriel also got a bath since he was feeling a little warm to me.

I've spent the last hour baking a cake and cupcakes for his party. I hate the way the house smells when I do that much baking. It's almost nauseating! 

4 Miles and A Glass of Wine

I ran 3 miles yesterday before work and today I ran 4 miles after work. Surprisingly, I have had some pretty good times the past 2 days. I'm still nowhere close to where I need to be for the half, but it's some progress.

Yesterday, when I ran before work, was my first run after the sunburn I came back from Florida with. It's also the first time I've sweat since I had that sunburn, so when I ran, I noticed before taking a shower that the sweat was all beaded up on me in the sunburned areas. When I touched it to wipe it away, I realized that the sweat was actually trapped under the burned skin!! It was both fascinating and disgusting at the same time! Therefore, when I got home from work last night, I had to have Shane peel my entire back because it itched SO bad!!

Tonight, with dinner, I had a "mini bottle" of wine. Shane and I have been drinking wine with some of our meals lately. I guess it's just something you do as you get older, or maybe we're becoming snobby and sophisticated (yeah, right). Anyway, I had a Starbuck's Java Chip Frapp today at work and I only had about 8 or 9 ounces of water, so I was probably pretty dehydrated to be running 4 miles and I sweat a lot of that out, so that glass of wine has me a little woozy and sleepy!! Too bad we have such a busy day tomorrow, or I'd sleep in!!

Falling Off The Wagon

Vacations always screw my world up. They are much needed, but bad for me at the same time. Every time I go on a vacation, I come back with a serious lack of motivation. I still haven't run since coming back from Florida. I was going to get up this morning and get on the treadmill when Shane got home from work, but I went to sleep at 2am. (I downloaded a new book to read and I had to start it) So, my new plan is, I am going to wake Shane up in a few minutes so that I can run before I take a shower and go to work. I really don't have the luxury of time before the half and I MUST finish that race!!!

I finally mowed the lawn yesterday. It rained the 2 available days I had before vacation, so our yard looked like a jungle! We have baby bunnies in our yard and one of them played cat and mouse with me on the mower yesterday. It was SO cute!! (I probably would have taken a picture of it if I carried my mini camera with me everywhere I went like I should.) We also took Gabriel out to dinner and for froyo for his 5th birthday!! His actual party will be on Saturday, so there will be pictures then.

As I said before, I started a new book this morning last night. It's the latest book in the Fallen series by Lauren Kate called Rapture. It is the final book in a series of 4 about Fallen Angels and the relationship between one of them, Daniel, and a human girl named Lucinda (Luce). I only read 2 chapters last night before falling asleep, but they were good. I was glad that I could remember most of what happened in the previous books and the 2 short stories that go with the series. It should be a pretty fast read. It will be a toss-up to find what I will read after this. I really hate to be "trendy" and read Fifty Shades of Gray. I was also considering Divergence, since I have known several people who loved it. We'll see...

As for now, I am about to go and run. I AM....

Back Home Again

We made it back home. We packed up this morning and then drove to the Krispy Kreme in town so that the kids could watch the doughnuts go down the conveyor belt (they loved it). Then, we set off. It was a slightly different course than the one we took down since we were starting in a different part of the city, but we still made really good time despite stopping for gas and a potty break.

I am happy to be home, yet sad for my time off to end. I cleaned up the house before we left, so it was clean (for us) when we got home. The cats were all ok. My friend, Jenni, stopped by to check on them every day for us and to shove Prednisone tablets down Toby's throat. When we got here, I unpacked our clothes (which were all clean due to doing laundry yesterday) and put them away! I even put away clothes that I didn't have a chance to put away before we left, so I call that a win-win!

Unfortunately for Shane, he had to come home and then go (pretty much) straight to work for the night. I have to work tomorrow, so life picks right up where it left off for us. Also, I plan on completing a 3 mile run on the treadmill tomorrow, so even that aspect of life shall have to pick back up. There was enough room in my training schedule to allow for a week off (not ideal), but not any more, so it's crunch time!!

It's rough to be on vacation if you are staying at someone else's house, especially with 2 small children. It will take my system a little while to "detox" from all of the food we don't normally eat and the crazy amounts of sugar I have consumed for the past 4 days. I am, however, looking forward to taking a nice, warm (not hot because I am sunburned) shower and then climbing into my (own) cozy bed. If I play my cards right, I might be able to squeeze in 10-11 hours of sleep tonight!!

Last Day of Vacay

Today marked our last day of vacation. I feel bloated and yucky and like I have been nothing short of a lazy bum. Don't get me wrong, I really needed the get-away and we have had a wonderful time, but it's time to get back to reality, schedules and accountability.

Yesterday, we went to the beach. We spent a good portion of time there and I, of course, got sunburned despite my application of SPF 50 sunscreen (more than 1 application). We were on the Gulf and there was some really gross, slimy gunk on the bottom of the ocean that concerned me a little. It looks like whatever they dumped into the ocean to clean up the oil formed these slimy pockets of goop. It was VERY disturbing. You would think they would clean up the stuff that cleans up. I mean, what is that doing to the ecosystem on the ocean floor?? The kids had a great time and it made them sufficiently tired to go to bed. (Yay!!!!)

Isn't it disgusting??

This was only a little bit that Shane pulled up from the water

Since the kids were in bed, we had an opportunity to be some of the last people in the world to see the movie, The Avengers. Shane has been wanting to go SO bad and we never have anyone to watch the kids for us long enough to have a "date night." It was an AWESOME movie!!! I really don't care much for the Incredible Hulk, but he really stole the show. Thor, as always, was a hunk of yummy to look at and Captain America finally quit being such a "follow orders" douche. I am anxiously awaiting the sequel!

Today, I went to the movies (again) with Shane's aunt to see The Hunger Games. (I know, I'm one of the last people in the world to see that one as well. See aforementioned lack of sitter.) I read the books before the movies came out and I really enjoyed them. The movie, for the most part, remained true to the books. There were a couple of important plot points that they failed to put into the movie, but it was forgivable.

I know that next week is going to be really hard for me. I have eaten whatever I have wanted to and I have not run AT ALL. I know, I know. I feel terrible about it. I could whine and say that it's really hot down here. (The temp the second day we were here was 105) I really think it's because a) I'm on vacation b) I'm bloated and crampy and c) I have had a serious lack of sleep each night because of "adult time", plus the kids having crazy sleep/wake schedules. I will go back to my runs when I get home. I know this was not optimal in the middle of half training, but I have faith that I can muscle through and pick it right back up.

We pack up and go home tomorrow in the late morning/early afternoon and Shane has to work tomorrow night. I have to work on Sunday, so it will be "life as usual" pretty quickly for us when we get home. Ughhh....it's never long enough!

Vacation Recap: Day 1.5

Well, we made it to Florida with relative ease. It wasn't a bad drive at all. Once we got there and got settled in, the children were running around and getting used to the place. My children have this horrible habit of taking advantage of the fact that we aren't at home. They start losing their manners and running around and just testing their boundaries to the limits. It. Drives. Me. Crazy. What drives me even more crazy is that most of the time, Shane tunes them out and seems to think that he can sit around and enjoy himself. He IS on vacation, after all. Granted, he worked all night on Monday night and we left home when he got home from work at 8am. So, he slept most of the way there until we stopped for food right before the state line.

The kids, however, did not sleep at all on the way there. I figured after all the travel, they would go to bed at a relatively decent hour and sleep pretty good. BOY WAS I WRONG!! They didn't get to sleep until almost 11pm and they woke up at 4:30am and did not go back to sleep. I am one of those people that can't sleep if my children are up, unsupervised in a strange place. Therefore, I couldn't sleep any more and I went to bed sometime after midnight. Dealing with children all day when you've driven almost 6 hours non stop and had 4 hours of sleep equals: NOT nice mommy!!! I refused to let them take a nap today (at a loss to my own sanity). They both tried sleeping in the car earlier and I had Shane wake them up!

Here are the kids in front of a dinosaur made of car parts!

Fun part of the day: we went to the Museum of Science and Natural History. We went there last time we were down, but that was when Gabriel was not even 2 years old and Evelyn was just a peanut in the womb. I took pictures, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow when I (might) feel compelled to plug the camera in and upload them. It was a good time. There was even a playground! Granted, it was 105 degrees outside and a little humid, but it sufficiently wore the children out and they are now sleeping at 10pm. I hope they stay asleep until at least 7 or 8 tomorrow.

Tomorrow's agenda: We're headed to the beach!!!

Oh, running....it hasn't happened yet. I really didn't feel compelled to run in 100 degree weather on 4 hours of sleep. Man, next week's training schedule is going to kick my ASS!!

Why Vampire Men Are Swoon Worthy

In one of my previous posts, I wondered out loud what it was that made me swoon over vampire men. I think I have finally figured it out.

For starters, they are old. Usually centuries old. There is much to be said about centuries worth of experience in dealing with women. It's no wonder regular guys never seem to get it right. They only have an approximate 70 year life span. They probably haven't even spent all of those years with their significant other, so they are just learning the ropes. Vampire men, however, have had multiple lifetimes to get it right and probably with more than one personality type of woman.

Next, they are usually foreign. America isn't very old at all. Chances are, your vampire hunk is from Europe. This implies that he comes with his own "old world" mannerisms and a sexy accent! Not to mention, he will probably call you all sorts of sweet pet names. For instance, in Shadow of Night, the vampire hunk calls his girl "mon coeur" or "my heart" in French. He also refers to her as his "la lionne" or "lioness." Come on, ladies! Tell me that wouldn't make you melt into a puddle of goo right away!!

Last, the sex. You never hear about bad vampire sex. See above about centuries of experience! I think I'm going to leave that right where it is. I'm sure your imagination can take it from there!

So, you see, those are just some of the things that make vampire men so swoon worthy. I know it is the reason I am drawn to read books such as Lover Mine by J.R. Ward or A Discovery of Witches/Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness. I finished it last night, by the way (Shadow of Night). It was, as I predicted, sad to finish it. I don't know when the third and final book will be released, probably sometime next year, but it was wonderful. I really felt swept away in it. I'm also glad I finished it last night so that I don't have to worry about having my nose in my Nook while we are gone on vacation the rest of this week! (Not that I mind, but it's rude).

Speaking of the vacation, I will try to publish posts while I am gone. Hopefully, with pictures. I will probably end up posting from my tablet, though and Blogger Droid just doesn't agree with me as well as the ole laptop. Also, Shane says he is going to run with me while we are gone for 2 days. I'll definitely have to let you know how that goes!!

Still Raining

Well, I didn't get much accomplished today. It was still raining outside, so the lawn did not get mowed. I also did not run 6 miles today. I am having one seriously lazy day. It's pretty much to be expected. It's just time for the lazies. Oh, and one of our fish died. I had really high hopes as these 2 seemed like pretty stable neon tetras. I wonder if the kids will notice a missing fish??

Ok, that pretty much sums up today's post. Let's all hope for a better post tomorrow!!! I should be finished with Shadow of Night by then, so at least there should be a post-reading post!

The Run That Just Didn't Happen

I haven't posted in a couple of days. This is mostly due to lack of things to say, but also because I have been dealing with quite a load of family drama. I'm not going to go into it, but it has consumed more of my time than I would have liked recently.

On Thursday, I ran 3 miles on the treadmill. It was a pretty good run. I ditched the MP3 player and just brought my tablet downstairs and turned on Pandora to the Pop Fitness channel. I have never listened to that station before, but it was pretty good. I skipped songs a lot less frequently on it than I do on my regular player!

Today was supposed to be my 6 mile long run for the week. I didn't get much sleep last night, but we still woke up early. I was planning to run early in the day because we had a lunch date with some friends and their kids and I wanted a chance to shower before leaving for the restaurant (an hour away). We ended up running so many errands before getting to the park to run that there just wasn't time for what I knew was going to end up being an at least hour and a half run, let alone time to get home and shower to leave again.  I was a little unhappy, but I figured we'd just fit it in later. I generally have an ongoing agenda/itinerary in my mind on my days off.

We went to Papi's, a great Cuban/Caribbean grill in Kennesaw. The food is SO good!! It was fun, too because the restaurant hostess set us up so that the kids sat in a booth and we sat at a table across the way from them. The kids seemed to enjoy being at their own table and there were 5 of them to keep each other company, so it left time for the adults to joke around and eat and talk. We stayed for a couple of hours!

There were some things on the way home we needed to stop and get before we head out of town on Tuesday morning, so we got that out of the way. My plans were to come home and mow the lawn before it got dark or rained or both, but I was so full and "run out" that I decided to wait until tomorrow. Hopefully, the rain will hold out and I will be able to, not only run my 6 miles, but mow the lawn and get the house cleaned up and our stuff packed.

I'm about to head off the bathe, read and catch up on sleep. I'm sure I'll have plenty to say tomorrow!!

Today Is...

National Running Day!!!

I started my day by going to work. Work wasn't too bad today. We had a pretty good "therapy" session. It might sound odd to anyone else to hear about work therapy, but there are a couple of people I work with that I have a really easy time talking to. One is VERY much like me (not sure how she feels about that) and the other has a similar lifestyle to mine. Either way, we spend the days that we work together bouncing around the things that make us happy, sad and annoyed. It's very therapeutic! Sometimes, I think I would otherwise blow a gasket or go certifiably insane without them. In fact, I saw a cognitive behavioral therapist for several months and she didn't make me feel even a fraction better than one day of "work therapy." Enough of that, though.

After work, I came home and cooked dinner. We actually ate dinner early tonight because I knew I needed to get in a 4 mile run and I wanted to give my stomach plenty of time to digest before the run. So, after getting the kids bathed and into bed, I played around on FaceBook for a little while and then got into my running gear.

It was a pretty good run. Better than I've had recently. I think it's possible that it's because I was a little emotional during the beginning of the run. I'm still not sure if I was mad, hurt, upset or all of the above, but I spent the first 2 miles running straight through while I worked it all out in my head. I was playing some pretty aggressive music on the MP3 player. I never did work it all out, but I felt a little better. I walked for a few seconds a little after 2 miles and then ran some more. I usually don't sweat much, but I was seriously a sweaty mess this evening. 

Hope you did something fun and active for National Running Day!!

Some Days You Just Aren't With It

Today was one of those days. I think my sub conscience is trying to tell me that it's OK to take more than the scheduled amount of time off after my long runs. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. I took yesterday off. Tonight, it was me and the treadmill and an easy a 3 mile run. I should really be used to these by now since I have been basically running this distance at least twice a week for the last 2 months. You would think it's a breeze. Not the case. The only good thing that came from this run was that I maintained around a 12 minute mile. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to maintain that throughout the half, but if I can get close, it will be great! (It means I won't be out there for the full 3.5 hours!!)

I'm really glad that I took yesterday off. The 5 mile run on Saturday really tore up my stomach. In fact, my stomach has pain and (other) issues after every long run. I did some research on it (of course) and the conclusions are divided. There is a condition called "runner's trot" which accounts for having issues mostly during running, which I don't have. Some people claim IBS and some say it's the lack of blood flow to the stomach. Some people theorize that it is what you eat, some say it's when. The important thing is that I figure out what is causing it and how to stop it before I am miserable every Saturday and Sunday for the next 11 weeks!!

Oh, I finished A Discovery of Witches. It was wonderful great AMAZING!! I haven't loved a book that much in a long, long time. It was devoid of all the teen angst that I have been reading as of late. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend you do so. I really wanted to just crawl into the book and be with the characters. So, of course, I have started the second book, Shadow of Night. It's made me a little bit unhappy, but I think it will work itself out and I'm sure it's because there is a certain character that I already dislike. I should really try to pace myself with this one since it hasn't even been released yet and the third book probably won't be out for at least another year. Ehh...who am I kidding? I'll probably tear right through this one as well!

5 Miles In A Circle

Shane had to work today until 4pm, so I waited until the afternoon to go for my long run for the week. I decided that he and the kids could go with me to alleviate the "safety concerns." So, we headed to the local high school to run on the track.

There is a reason I am not crazy about running on the treadmill. It's terribly boring. You see the same scenery the entire time (although the treadmill is a MUCH easier run). Well, I can say the same about a track. Running in a circle repeatedly SUCKS!!! I had to run that circle 20 times in order to make it 5 miles. It was an outdoor run, though, and I am grateful for that. I would have been more grateful if my MP3 player hadn't died before I finished the first mile.

My pace wasn't the greatest, but I have calculated that if I can maintain a 15:30 pace throughout the race, I can finish in the allotted time. I am not in this race to win any awards or beat anyone else. I am in it to finish it in time and for myself. The only person I am running against is me. I think if I can keep that mentality throughout the rest of the training and in the race, I'll be just fine. I mean, I ran a mile farther today than I did just a week ago.

I'm almost finished with A Discovery of Witches. At this point, it has me captivated. I enjoy it more and more. I can tell that it will be one of those books that I'll be sad about finishing. I'll probably have it finished by tomorrow, the next day at the latest. I don't know what it is about vampire stories that makes me swoon!!