Mom Without Baby-A Day in Pics

I am lucky enough that my MIL and SIL live nearby and are usually fighting each other to take G whenever the need arises. In fact, G gets to play hookie from school most Fridays to stay home with her Aunt and she has even spent a few nights away too.

Grammi and G at her first WV Mountaineer game!

But this weekend she left early Sunday morning and didn't return until Monday evening. So-what's a mom to do without a wanna-be-walking, I prefer attention at all times, almost toddler, scrambling up her leg or climbing anything else in sight? Well, here is what I did-in pictures (and captions!) pretty much in order of my crazy (somehow busier than when G's here!) day.

Baked bread!

Make 3 kinds of protein/snack bars!

Made a mess, and then cleaned it up!

4 mile run...

Went shopping for myself, came home with G's birthday dress instead!

Took these goofballs for extra walks-beautiful day!

Hard wood=Hard work!! This literally takes hours!

Rolled coins for G's bank account...while eating ice cream and watching Project Runway! :)

There were a few other things, like grocery getting (ugh!), laundry and general tidying up, but for this Type A chic a very productive and anxiety reducing day!! It was great to knock out some chores but I miss my baby girl. So do the puppies, they are pacing around wondering why G has been missing for so long, it's very cute. She'll be back soon and then the fun can begin again!

Happy G in the stands at the game!

Taking the Plunge

I did it. Finally. I registered for the race I've been talking about...the Disney Princess Half Marathon!!! Ok, I did it a few weeks back, but still-it's done and there's no turning back now! I can't believe how excited I am over something so far in the future-I'm so glad I chose a race like this for my first, it's more of an event than a race and I think the atmosphere will be so much fun that the run itself will be an afterthought!

Seriously, how much fun does this look?

I've also mentioned the Jeff Galloway plan I'm using to train. I made it through the first 4 weeks without a bump. I even finished my first non-treadmill 5-miler without much incident so I figured things would continue to progress steadily (and easily) along.

Princess Pics Source

Wrong. This past weekend we came upon the 6.5 mile run. I woke up dreading it. I haven't been dreading running in quite a while so I knew this was not a good sign. It was also pouring down the rain which meant being confined to the basement treadmill-blah.

I decided to try a similar tactic as the 5 mile run with predetermined walk/run intervals. I think this works much better than waiting until you need to walk. This time I counted steps- 500 run, 100 walk. I only count one foot when I say steps, btw. I've used the step counting thing for a long time to keep my mind occupied. *It's also an easy thing to do when you first start running and actual distances freak you out, or you just can't tell how far a quarter mile or 400m or something like that is. Just get yourself to run X number of steps and then walk X number, increase the running number each time you go.* I also find the pure monotony of listening/counting my steps soothing, I get in a rhythm, so to speak.

Generally a good pace should be about 90 steps/minute (I think I heard this on another mother runner podcast, can't be sure though) so this was only 5-ish minutes of running at a time but I was still barely slogging through each one. It didn't help that I was feeling guilty for leaving G upstairs with her daddy who also had a million things to get done on the one day of the week we were actually home. These two things combined gave me an easy out and I only ran 4 miles in 42 minutes.

Should I enter G in the kids race?

I'm lucky. I'm way ahead on this training plan for my race so repeating Week X isn't a problem. The problem for me is always the mental game. Why was I dreading the run in the first place? Let's run down the potentials...

1. Because I hadn't had enough sleep-no, I get the same 6.5 hours every night (this is the compromise for me to both function and get stuff done!) 
2. Hmm-did I hate doing it on the treadmill? Sure, but I'd better get used to it with winter and looong training runs unfortunately coinciding soon. 
3. Was it leaving G with the hubs? Maybe, I always feel guilty (please don't ask why) about doing that even though they need their time together. 
4. Because I doubt that I can do it and hate failure so much that I tell myself ahead of time that I probably won't be able to do it so that I'll be prepared? DING, DING, DING-I think we have a winner!!

Ah-the psych out. Now here it is the beginning of repeating that week. I have two interval runs before I tackle that 6 miler again. So I have that many days to get myself mentally prepared-this time for the fact that I CAN do it. I need to keep my eating in check-I've noticed almost immediate fatigue when the processed stuff sneaks back in-and practice some positive self-talks during my week day runs.

I've continued to follow the Best Body Bootcamp format for those which means hills this week-yikes! That plan has helped tremendously with not getting bored with the weekday treadmill runs. In fact, even though this is the last 'official' week I think I'm going to turn around and do it for another 8 weeks. I plan an entire post about the overall experience, but it was great and highly recommended.

Here's to positive thoughts this week!

What run/workout thoughts keep you going?

It's My Birthday and I'll Hike if I Want to

So yesterday was my birthday and I'm just gonna lay it out there. I'm 35! I'm not gonna hide it because I feel pretty darn good. In fact, I probably feel (and look!) better than when I turned 25. Sorry 25-year old Jess, but you were overweight and out of shape.

So how did I celebrate? I started my day with Workout C of Best Body Bootcamp-a superset circuit for time. I've just discovered health podcasts and listened to one about body image during this workout. It helped the time fly by and I learned something, talk about multi-tasking :-)

I continued the party by making the hubs go hiking with me. One of the great things about living in wild, wonderful West Virginia is that within a short drive you can do just that, to the top of a mountain no less!

I've been looking for a 10k to run this fall in prep for the half marathon coming up in February (Disney Princess here we come!). I came across a trail run near where we live that sounded way more interesting than a road run. I've never done one before (10k or trail run!) so I thought walking it first would be a good idea. Man, am I glad I did!

What a beautiful day we had to do it. The trail had a pretty steady ascent with some steep parts, and the first half was very rocky:

But up closer to the top it opened up to flat grassy areas. If the entire thing had been like this I would have been thrilled.

Those rocky areas tested me just walking. I am known to be a bit of a klutz, Whoops comes out of my mouth more times a day than I'll ever admit, and turning an ankle seemed inevitable at any sort of speed. Plus, it felt WAY longer than 6 miles. Of course I had a dead Garmin when we went to leave so all we had was a timer and a HR monitor. 2.5 hours and 555 calories later we were very hungry and tired.

I will admit to an ice cream indulgence-hey, it was my birthday!-but overall and healthy, active day. We discovered through text message that G had chosen this time away to start crawling for the first time. *pouty face* I guess that was my birthday gift, so the evening was spent trying to get her to do it again for us! Don't worry, lots of pics and stuff about her up next for her 10 month (gasp!) update.

Like I said, I feel better now than I ever have. Older people always tell you that you will, that you'll find yourself and get more comfortable with who you are-blah, blah, blah. But really, aren't they always right? And don't you always hate it?

Actually, I love it, and it makes me anxious to see what 40 will be like, because right now seems pretty darn good. If it gets better, I can't wait to get there.

Weekend in MI

Wow, it's Tuesday evening already!! Where have the past 4 days gone?! I guess 2 of them were spent on the road so that explains a lot...G is a great traveler. Thank goodness!!

I have been on a family/friend visiting overload! I arrived at my parent's house Friday afternoon and in a few hours my best friend/cousin was making us a dinner full of goodies from her garden. She is way too smart for her own good and is a fountain of information on the effect food has on your body. My mom and I are now armed with some new information that is likely to make the men in our lives cry for their soda and candy! ;-) Sorry guys! Hopefully after I get the chance to visit some of the resources she provided and maybe make some changes I can pass the info on. Needless to say, there was no BBB workout completed on Friday. Oops.

Saturday morning I ran a 5k as my "cardio of choice" workout. It was part of a local event called the Pig Gig, betcha can't guess what kind of cook-off they have! We got a medal stamped with a happy pig running through finish line tape just for participating- awesome!

I hope you realize the goofy pose is a nod to the Olympics!

It was a humid morning, thank goodness the race was on the water so we had a breeze. It was a nice route but I have never been part of such a messy start. They didn't separate runners from walkers and had children runners all mixed in so I spent the first half mile trying to get around people and into a groove. I finished in 31:48, not even close to my goal time. No excuses though, I wanted to stop and walk several times but didn't. I'll take that as a victory.

Saturday afternoon my mom, G and I drove to visit with my old colleagues from Indiana. I literally felt like I spent the majority of the weekend in the car. Good thing I like mine. And apparently so does G. She became a big ham over the weekend. I guess there was a swine theme!

My Dad and I golfed on Sunday morning. I was feeling pretty rusty since I didn't play at all last year (a belly full of G probably would have gotten in the way!) and only once so far this year. It was a really nice course though and we just enjoyed being out there. Then we visited with my brother and family. I got real lazy with the pics on Sunday-sorry!

In between those adventures I had my mom do BBB Workout C and core with me. She's a trooper, even though she accused me of trying to kill her more than once! I love being up there, but it's good to be back and get to my usual schedule, I'm a real stickler for a schedule! I'm excited to be starting the next Phase of BBB and I plan to make some more detailed updates during this one.

Until next time Michigan :-)

Michiganders Invade WV-Part II (MLB Game)

The big finale for Family Adventure 2012 was and MLB game. Detroit Tigers vs. Pittsburgh Pirates. As you can see by the group photo, my little group of 3 is completely outnumbered!

With 4 small kids it's hard to get a good photo, so I set my camera up to take multiple shots at once, hit the timer and ran for my spot. I may have skinned a knee, but look how good we all did :-)

There may have been a few out takes too!!

It was kids day outside PNC Park before the game, but the lines were sooo long to do anything that we headed in after a few obligatory pics. They close this bridge to auto traffic on game days for fans to get over the river. I only had my zoom lens or it would have been a much more interesting photo of my bro and his little men!



We had made sure to watch the Friday and Saturday games in the series on TV. The Pirates took those with relative ease and I was excited to witness a sweep. Of course we had to go on the day Verlander was pitching...

Justin Verlander vs. Andrew McCutcheon-2 All-Stars!

We had great seats in the upper deck above behind home plate. I actually prefer upper deck seats, you can see all the action! And the TV announcers were right ove our shoulders, they throw out great SWAG at the 7th inning stretch; the hubs managed to snag a shirt!

The Tigers got 2 runs in the 1st and then there was a long stretch of pitching duels-yawn. G was very into it though! All the kids got braided Pirates necklaces just like the players wear!

Of course the Pirates chose to score their only runs while I was in line for ice cream. Has anyone noticed that I grab every excuse for ice cream?! So it was a tie game- I got excited and fans started getting out their brooms in anticipation. And then with one hit we were let down. Oh well, 2 outta 3 ain't bad Bucs.

The boys had the opportunity to run the bases after the game, and after standing in an extremely long line in the heat they got their chance. I hope it was a highlight for them since they had hours in a car back home right after!

On a parenting side note, I learned that I am not yet prepared for all day outings with G in tow. I tend to be a minimalist when packing but with a baby you really do need to be prepared for anything. Or at least the regular things...see, I thought I had everything ready; sunscreen, hat, stroller, food, prepared bottles, travel diaper tote...wait where are the diapers? Not a good question to ask when strolling to the ball  park in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh. #new mom failure

Lucky for me my SIL packs everything but the kitchen sink and I was able to borrow (thanks Bethany!) but I still felt just plain dumb. I'll get there with a little more practice!

I have much to learn. But look how far we've come in a year-we went to a game late in the summer last year. What a difference!! I love my little family!

And I love my big family! I have to say that ALL of the kids were great. We are very lucky and I had a great time hosting everyone. It makes me even more grateful every time we're all together. I imagine by the next time it will be even harder to fit in my house since there are bound to me more little ones, and the ones that are little now will just be bigger :-) But I can't wait.

Michiganders invade WV!! Part I

My entire family made the 8 hour drive (well, a few more than that with 3 kids!) from MI to visit us in Wild and Wonderful WV this past weekend. My brother and SIL haven't been here since my wedding in 2008 and we have both added one to our families since then.

I wanted them to have a good time, but not be exhausted when they went home. It was a vacation after all. We chose some good old fashioned putt-putt golf and batting cages for Friday (can I just say that I would love to have every Friday off in the summer-who wouldn't?!)

This guy towered over the course-crazy coal miner!

One cool thing about the putt-putt course was that everything was made from old mining equioment. There were even explanations at each hole to show what the 'obstacle' was once used for. Fun and education all in one! PS-I'm a horrible putt-putter, even though that is one of the better parts of my real golf game :-(

To say my oldest nephew is obsessed with baseball is an understatement so the batting cages were a big hit with him. All 3 generations gave it a whirl, some with more success than others-I'm not naming names.





Generation 1-my dad



Generation 2-my brother



Generation 3-my nephew

 

G hung out on the side lines and played with Gramma Bonnie. I can't resist this litte hat, it somehow makes her even cuter!



Of course we had to follow this with a gluttonous ice cream trip, which I thankfully have no pictures of! Although when the youngest boy discovered how good french fries dipped in ice cream were I kind of wish I had the camera!

Saturday was a stay at home day. My nephew, dad and I made a hike to the little cemetery on our property. I knew it was there but never really explored it.

We counted about 50 headstones, some with names, but the older ones were just upended rocks. The oldest one we could make out was fromt the 1840's. I needed to pull an Indiana Jones and pencil rub the stones to get some more info off them! One of these days I would like to do some research into who these people were, especially now that I've walked all over their resting place!

G got a new pool so we had to give that a trial in the afternoon. It was a hit with the little ones, it was too small for the rest. Although my 13 month old nephew got a little splash happy and scared G, they quickly made up and enjoyed some time together. I can see this getting alot of use this summer.

We also grilled-and I didn't take any pictures of the food because:
#1-my family is not into the 'blog thing' and would think I'm crazy, and more importantly
#2-I ate WAY too much of it.

I've been trying to keep regular workouts since this whole ankle debaucle put my running plans on hold but I think hiking through the woods and chasing kids around counts for something...as for the food-hey I was on stay-cation! :-)

Part II-MLB Game-family style!



Full House

It has arrived...the weekend where I finally get to see what it's like to have this big ole house of mine full. And not just for a few hours but several days. Here are a few of the weekend players...

We have these guys...and their parents-my brother and SIL who I apparently need to take more pictures of!

And these guys...

 And of course my little family...

And yes, G is in every picture, because as a new mom no picture is complete without my baby girl in them :-) This adventure almost didn't happen as the boys are getting over Hand, Foot and Mouth disease...it's way worse sounding than it actually is!! But I do have copious amounts of Lysol on hand just to be safe!

The whole group of them are troopers for piling into one vehicle (with two carseats) and driving 8+ hours to the hills of WV to visit. I can't wait to share all the fun we have!! I think up frst may be putt-putt and batting cages, which can only be followed by ice cream. Sounds like a good day to me!

Weekends-Father's Day

We had two celebrations to make around here this weekend: the hubs had a b-day on Saturday followed by his first Father's Day on Sunday. I got up early on Saturday (ok- I always get up early!) and since I can't go for my usual run I made him breakfast.

Since we're at the point in our lives when you don't necessarily want to advertise you're a year older, that was about the extent of the celebration. I guess I made his favorite buffalo pizza for dinner but it tastes better than it looks so no pics! We have company coming this next weekend so I spent the day cleaning and playing with G.

She visited with her Grami on Sunday morning and there was a flurry of activity around here as we tried to finish up last minute items. I had wanted to hit the Farmer's Market (failed attempt #2!) but I literally did not stop moving all morning. I did manage to squeeze in 30 minutes on the elliptical. My ankle feels good and it's hard to stay off the treadmill but I'm giving it the full 2 weeks rest hoping that will be the end of it!!

In the afternoon we had a few family members over for some simple hot dogs on the grill and letting G entertain us. She got her daddy a gift but was way more interested in the tissue paper than anything else going on.

This was serious business for about 20 minutes! It was a very low key couple of days, which is how I prefer it. We accomplished a lot and were worn out after :-) Mondays always come too quick.

I am looking forward to this next weekend though, because my whole family is visiting from MI-that means 10 people in my house!!! Well, maybe. More on that later.

Weekends & WILT

M.I.A.-that is where I feel like I've been the past week. So-for the three of you that read this, I apologize ;-) I've honestly been a bit overwhelmed lately, I look around and think "I'll never get it all done, so why even start". I had time to blog last night but chose to lay in bed and catch up on Grey's Anatomy (can I just say that I hate season finales?!)

It all started with the weekend, who isn't excited when it finally gets here, right? I got up early and went for a run, I was even happy after that since it was my first 4-miler off the treadmill.*pats self on back*

4 miles

00:41 time

10:15 pace  

And then I got home. And started to limp around. My ankle had been feeling a bit sore for a while but nothing big; then it hurt all day Saturday and I started to worry I was getting a stress fracture-I know jump right to the worst conclusion!

The hubs and I had decided to go on a 'date': early lunch (so early we had to eat breakfast!) and matinee (have you seen movie prices!?). I begged for this one:

Bust. Disappointed. Hours wasted. Adding to my bad feeling for the day. So we came home, did chores and hung out with G.

Sunday I had big plans to take G with me to run to what is the biggest drain of my checking account:

Then to the Farmer's Market and after for groceries. I thought it would be fun. Not so much. G is a good baby, a great baby actually, but she isn't quite big enough to be comfortable in the seat of the cart so she was a bit fussy. In fact she chewed up the Elmo book I had (thankfully) already planned to buy her. Love those Target $1 bins!! :-)

One of the things I had intended on picking up at the Bullseye was a simple collapsible stroller so I didn't even pack our big one. I forgot it, checked out, changed G in the restroom, realized there was no way I could pee without a stroller to put her in-duh, I was supposed to have bought one!

Now carrying bags and a baby I ran back in the store searching the baby department and simply did not see one. I gave up quickly (I had to pee!!) and left. So now the Farmer's Market is out unless I want to carry her around-no. And I'm getting crankier knowing I still have to get groceries. I hate getting groceries. And...I STILL HAVE TO PEE!!! Needless to say, I omitted anything non-essential and got home as quickly as possible.

The saving grace was a family nap where G slept between us after entertaining us by making fart sounds on my arm. This is her new trick and she loves to make daddy laugh with it!

So here's what I learned this weekend: There really is no such thing as done, especially in the world of a new mom. And that taking things in stride is a serious gift. One that I wish I had inherited, but hope to learn instead. Thanks for sticking with me! And yes, I realize that it's Wednesday and I'm just now posting about the weekend. Don't judge.