Uneventful

I'm still here. Life has just been uneventful.

I'm not sure if the world of blog readers cares to hear about the monotonous things I do from day to day, especially when they don't really involve anything pertaining to the mission statement of this blog. I could reference back to my blog post entitled, Things I Haven't Done and kinda do a repeat of that. I just haven't done much of anything lately to note.

Running: The last time I have run was at The Anything Is Possible 5K. That was 2 weeks ago. My body is going to SERIOUSLY hate me when I get back to it and I'm going to feel like a total novice again. Actually, speaking of novice, I was considering going back and trying out Hal Higdon's 5K training again. You know, actually do it and do it well. I'd really like to work on endurance. I know that most people want to work on speed after they have run as many races as I have, but I really just want to be able to run non-stop, without walking at all throughout the duration of a 5K. I think I may have to settle for treadmill runs until I get a grasp on the work and school schedules going on in this house!

Weight Loss: I have, yet again, stopped counting my calories. I will say that I have not been putting quite as much trash in my mouth, but that's not saying much. I really think that my weight loss was going better before I decided to become a "runner." I wouldn't take it back. I have really enjoyed the races and the fun that comes with them (except for the half). I am going to get it together, though.

Zumba: I really miss doing Zumba. It goes right up there with a lack of motivation and a serious case of the lazies. It's not like I have to go anywhere other than my own living room to do it. I have the DVD!!!

Plantar Faciitis: My foot still hurts. It hurts a lot. I can reference back to the blog post, Excuses and go on another pity fest. Psychologically, I think that my foot hurting has held me back from doing a lot of the things I am not doing. I'm afraid that I will hurt it more or that it will hurt forever. On the days that I tape it up, it feels worlds better, but after a few days, the constant taping starts to irritate the bottom of my foot and it gets sensitive and itchy. I know, I know...more excuses!!

Reading: I am in a reading funk. I finished up, Arch Enemy by Frank Beddor and just haven't picked anything else up. There are a couple of books out that I have really been anticipating and a few series I have been wanting to start, but I just haven't.

I think it all boils down to some serious "me" time. I have been diligently trying to juggle too many things. The dieting, the running, the work and school schedules, the reading and keeping the house clean, even the blogging. I think I may have tackled too much (I will NEVER admit it again) and I just had a huge burn-out. I think what I really need to do is slow things down a bit and take them on again slowly and gradually. I am too stubborn to give up, so please bear with me. I know that there will be days again when I don't blog, but I am still here and I don't have any plans on going anywhere.

P.S. Thanks for listening to what seems like my never-ending pity party and endless excuses! 

Halloween and the Next Race

Halloween was a busy day! I took the kids to school and dropped them off. They were having a fall festival which started at 10:30, so I had 2 hours to kill before returning for the fun. I spent those hours gathering up the necessary items for my Halloween costume. I had to scrap my original outfit due to non  fitting tights and the weather being colder than expected.

At 10:30, I went back to the school and enjoyed all of the kids in their costumes, playing games and collecting candy. Then, we had a pizza lunch and packed up to head home. 

Once home, we didn't have too much down time since I decided to take Gabriel to martial arts early. There are two classes daily and we usually go to the later class. He was very excited because he was cleared to test for his next (orange) belt!! We're so proud of him. He's been doing a really good job and I think it's been helping with his focus. He still has a long way to go, but it's movement in the right direction!

After martial arts we headed over to a friend's house for trick-or-treating. We also had a pizza dinner!! (gasp!) Trick-or-treating was a lot of fun for everyone. Well, except for my feet! All that walking around in boots will do it to ya!

We definitely have plenty of candy in the house now!

This is loot from school AND trick-or-treating.

My next race is coming up this weekend. It's going to be run when the time changes at 2am. Therefore, you finish the race with a negative time!! It's going to be cold, but fun!! I can't wait!

Also, here's a tidbit from Swagbucks:

Just in time for the holidays, Swagbucks has brought back Expedited Shipping on all of the Amazon Gift Cards in the Swag Store. Starting November 1st, all you have to do is order and verify your gift card by 2pm PT to get it the next business day, select the Expedited Shipping option and chip in an extra 50 Swag Bucks! It's super simple and if you haven't verified your account it can be done easily via cellphone.

Hand Foot and Mouth Equals No Fun

I have spent this week recovering from the half marathon. I am a lot less sore, but my left small toe is still swollen and bruised. It also hurts. I think I may have actually either jammed or broken it. The week was, basically, business as usual (without the running). I dropped the kids off at school on Monday and got some things done around the house. When I got to the school to pick up the kids, however, Gabriel wasn't running around very much and he immediately ran up to me (something he rarely does). I could tell just by looking at him that he wasn't feeling well, but I was assured that he had an OK day. I like to give them time to run themselves a little ragged on the playground so that they burn off any excess energy before going home or going to activities. Gabriel just wasn't playing. In fact, we didn't stay on the playground long because he ended up laying across a picnic table. Just laying on it. I picked him up and gathered up his sister and we headed home.

When we got home, I laid him on the couch while I went in search of the thermometer. Once I got him settled down and checked his temp, it was almost 102 degrees! I covered him up and put in a DVD. I had to tell him that he was definitely NOT going to martial arts. I had to wake Shane up earlier than usual so that he could watch him because it was Evelyn's first day of dance. I got her dressed and we took off for the studio for an hour. I'll just say that I don't know that I'm cut out to be a dance mom. They aren't terribly friendly to new people and they hogged up the viewing windows the whole time. However, she had a great time and is looking forward to going back next week. When I got home, Gabriel was lying in bed and according to Shane, had been throwing up for some time. I dosed him with some meds and got him into a bath to cool him off. It seemed to help a lot, so I just sent him to bed for the night.

Gabriel was still feeling bad on Tuesday, so he didn't go to school. He stayed home with his dad while I dropped off E at school and also when I went to pick her up in the afternoon. After that, I had to go to work. When I got home, he was feeling a little better, but still not 100%. I remained hopeful that a good night's sleep would have him up and going the next morning. On Wednesday morning, I woke the kids up and checked G's temp only to find that it was still near 100. I was told on Tuesday that one of the kids in his class recently had strep, so I checked the back of his throat for spots. It looked NASTY! I still planned on dropping E off at school and going to work. The pediatrician doesn't open until 8:30am, so I was calling them on my way in the car. The soonest appointment they had was at 9:20, so I called in late to work. We went to Chick fil A for some breakfast and he was actually hungry. Of course, I had given him some Tylenol that morning, so his fever was down. It was good to see him eat. He hadn't really eaten anything since Sunday.

When we got to the doctor, they checked him out and gave him a strep test. We waited for a long time! Finally, the doctor came in and asked us questions and did an exam. She didn't seem to think it was strep, which was good. She took one look at his throat and said immediately that it was hand, foot and mouth disease. You should have seen the look on Shane's face! He didn't know how to process that! She explained to him that it's just a virus and he was almost over it. In fact, if we could keep the fever down, he could go to martial arts that day! (Shane decided against that in the end) So, I went to work and the boys continued their day. He was still in pretty good spirits when I arrived home that evening!

He finally got to go to school on Thursday and I was off from work and Shane was awake, so I came home and mowed the lawn while he went to help a friend move some furniture. Then, we met up for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. It was almost like a date day!! Later, we picked up the kids. I told Gabriel's teacher what he had and she told me that she thought E had brought it home to him and I agreed because she had a fever last week. Apparently, there was a child in her class with hf&m LAST WEEK and the parent JUST told the school about it. They had to sanitize EVERYTHING. I truly hope that my children didn't spread the disease to anyone else, but at least the school knows what's going on. Some parents are just irresponsible! 

We have managed to go to martial arts every day for the rest of the week to make up for Monday and Wednesday. Hopefully, life will be back to normal. I was thinking earlier this week that I would have to take a second week off from running, but I feel good enough that I believe I will commence 3 mile runs starting on Monday after I drop off the kids. The great thing is, I don't have to worry about weekly long runs and I don't have to take time off between days to recover. Now that the half is out of the way, I plan on focusing on speed and also watching what I eat again. My diet became HORRIBLE when I was training. I am a stress eater and life was really hectic for a while there. I know it is going to take some time to get back to eating well and within portions, but I have done it before, I can do it again!

Sorry that I rambled on and on tonight, but I had a week's worth of life to fit in. I will leave you with a happy picture. I ordered a 13.1 sticker for my car and it arrived yesterday!! I had Shane take a picture of me putting it on the car! I know I said I was going to get a really fun and pretentious sticker, but I opted for a very gender-neutral one to be fair to Shane, who drives the car as much as I do.

OK, I might look a little too happy in this picture!

I FORGOT My Shoes!

We have been as busy as ever here getting ready for school to start back. We went to Target and bought all of G's school needs. I still need to get shoes and dance supplies for E.

On Thursday, we went to Stone Mountain again to catch the laser show before the end of summer break.      I am happy to report that it did not rain and we also rode the train! We met up with one of my co-workers and her family there and made an evening of it. I think the kids had a great time! Unfortunately, my camera battery is still dead from vacation (shame on me), so there are no pictures. In fact, that's why there have been no pictures in my posts lately. I'll get back to it, I promise!!

Today, after work, we went for our usually Saturday walk/jog. We cut our time so close last time with the time that Shane had to be at work that today, I wasn't concerned with going a certain distance, just going for X amount of time. Well, that would be a whole lot easier if I hadn't left my running shoes at home (an hour away)!!! My life has been so scattered these past couple of weeks that I just left my shoes at home. I wasn't going to let it stop me, though. I was actually willing to go in my work Mary-Janes. Lucky for me, my running buddies had just gone to buy new shoes and there were some old shoes in the car that fit me!!! (LOVE MY FRIENDS) So, despite the fact that they were old and worn out, it beat trying to go 6 and a half miles in MJs! I can tell you that my feet DO hurt, but I'm grateful to get the training time in since training hasn't been going as steady as it should be.

Source

I have actually started and finished an entire book since my last post. The name of the book is Beastly by Alex Finn. It is (yet another) YA book. I really liked it! It's a modern re-telling of Beauty and the Beast, but not the Disney version! I thought it was well-written and not too angsty. It has several sequels, so I imagine they will be my future reads for a little while.

The End of Summer

We arrived home from the "mini vacation" last night around 9:30. I am happy to report that I managed not to get painfully sun-burned!! I'm glad that the kids had a chance to spend some time on the beach one last time before school started, but I am more than happy to be home. I won't go into details, but it is really difficult to enjoy yourself when you are constantly undermined and disregarded. Oh, and apparently I "don't know how to have fun" and I'm "too serious all of the time." Wow. Seems like someone doesn't really know me at all. Hmmm....wonder why? Sorry to be ambiguous there, but I just needed to anonymously vent for a minute.

There are two weeks before school starts, four weeks before dance starts for E, and three weeks before the half. I am REALLY looking forward to the start of school because it means that I can drop both kids off at school on Mondays and/or Tuesdays and go for a run. It also means that I will have Monday mornings all to myself since Shane will be sleeping and the kids will be at school. Sounds like a recipe for trouble (or a whole lot of Facebook and Pinterest)!!

This is also my last week of vacation time. I am barely working at all this week!! Instead, I will be focusing on getting everything ready for back to school and re-stocking the house with groceries. Hopefully, we'll also be able to squeeze in a play-date along the way!

I actually forgot to pack my Nook for the trip, so I haven't started a new book yet. I'll post when I do. I should be back to regular-type posting soon (hopefully with pictures).

Hamstrung

I'm going to start this post with the story I didn't tell yesterday. It was National Kite Day and every year Gabriel's school celebrates by going to the park across the street and flying kites. It's always a fun event. Almost all of the parents take off and we bring a picnic lunch and blankets to sit on. It is a nice, relaxing time to socialize and let the kids play. Gabriel didn't start out by flying his kite. In fact, he played on the playground until almost everyone had left for the day and then he decided to fly his kite. It was actually great timing because he could keep it up for a pretty good stretch (Wednesday was not so windy).

See? It's up in the sky. I was so impressed!!

Since we had such a good day yesterday, we decided to take the kids to the local froyo shop. I ate more than I usually do, but it was super yummy and a lot less calories than DQ.

This morning, as planned, I had a parent-teacher conference at the school. We actually arrived at the school before any of the teachers did, so we waited around a bit. It's nice to hear how your child is doing academically because you never really get to see that side of your child. Aside from some attention issues and a recent string of behavioral issues, he is doing great super FANTASTIC in his school work. He seems to be very math-minded. That should make things interesting for me, because I am more language arts-minded (not that I have a hard time with math, it's just not my favorite thing). He is more than ready for Kindergarten and perhaps even first grade.

That being said, let's move on to the rest of my day. I stand 99.99% of the day at work. That is no fun when you've hurt your hamstring. I mostly hobbled about today. I'm going to read up on some stretches that might make it better. I iced the muscle yesterday after the treadmill and then, later, I took a hot bath, but it still hurts a lot. I really, really need this to feel better by next Tuesday when I start running again. I am aiming for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday runs with Saturday being both outside and the "long" run for the week. This Saturday, I am going for a walk. I don't know how long it will be, but I hope it's a nice one.

Oh, one last thing. We had some cameras on sale at work today in the clearance bin, so I bought a mini digital keychain camera. I am hoping that I can take more pictures to throw up here on the blog. I figure it will be easier if I always have a camera with me. I'm not guaranteeing that they will be high-quality pictures, but it beats none at all and it means that I don't have to run with my nice camera and risk it getting lost or broken. 

Tomorrow is the last pizza lunch for Gabriel's school, so at least I will have pizza eating out of my system until August, which is perfect for the half training!!