How You Doin' (Part One)

I'm a failed blogger. Regular updates lasted roughly six months. Sounds about right. I really do have a short attention span. But just when I think I've reconciled myself to that fact I get the itch again.

I really do enjoy it. It's therapeutic for me. It's just time consuming. Maybe I need to reevaluate my blogging expectations. Does every post need to be a book? Of course not, but apparently I have a lot to say. And does every post need to have an image that has been edited?  Not really, but it's fun and I'm obsessive.

When asked by friends what I've been up to, I honestly have to think about it for a while. Things have, for the most part, been status quo. I guess that isn't completely true. There have been goings on. And status quo for spring is definitely different than that of summer. Spring ended along with school routines. Summer began bringing with it a desperate attempt to make some kind of routine.

So, in case you've been wondering, I'm going to give you a glimpse into the goings on of my life since spring. Now that I'm actually sitting down to do this, I'm realizing that it's just not going to happen in one, quick blog post, so here is Part One. Not to fear...you won't be left hanging. I'm in sincere catch-up mode. Which I swore I would never do, but that's a different story.

Without further ado, I bring you Part One:

Run You Mother: Yeah, not so much 
Remember how I announced I was signed up to run the Charlottesville Marathon? Well, that didn't really happen. See, I found out that it's really, really, hard training for a race through the winter. Especially when I ended up training solo. And then I got a pain in the butt, literally. Technically I injured my right piriformis (which is in the butt) and hamstring. It made running lots of fun. I was forced to take some time off.

I did end up running the half-marathon injury and all. Not only did I run it - I KILLED it. I wanted my time to be below 2 hours. Not only was I below 2 hours, I did it in 1:56 and placed 133 out of 629 women. Injured to boot. WAHOO for me. It helped that my sister ended up coming from Arizona to run the full marathon. Seeing her cross the finish line was fabulous. What was even more fabulous was that I wasn't sad that I couldn't run the full marathon. I was content with 13.1 miles.

After the race I took about 4 months off to heal. Which didn't work so I went to Physical Therapy. Good times. While I'm not yet 100%, at least I'm running again. Slowly. It's just good to be able to run.

The Little Dirt Diva Sweet Cheeks was on a softball team for the first time this spring. It was so much fun for her to play, and even more fun for us to watch. By the end of the season she understood what was going on, but even then she often found the pile of dirt she was building or something that caught her eye in the distance more engaging than the game. I have quite a few videos of it, which I'll eventually get around to editing.



Stay tuned for Part 2.

At Long Last

They say "Home is Where the Heart is". I've considered Virginia my home for years, but part of my heart is still in Arizona where I grew up. It's been two years since I've been back to visit, but the dry spell is about to come to an end. Yippee!

It's kind of funny because at this point in my life I've lived away from Arizona quite a bit longer than I ever lived there - 9 years, to be exact. That's how long I lived there. And while I was there I wanted nothing more than to move away. Yet even while I was gone I craved to go home to Arizona. To this day when asked where I'm from it's Arizona I claim.

One might wonder why we're making the trek out there now. We being the girls and I. After all, it's not the holidays and school is in session. I've kind of boycotted traveling for Christmas. And summers in Arizona don't agree with me. Yes, it's a dry heat which isn't as oppressive as the 90 degrees with 80% humidity we see here, but 115 degrees and more is just miserable. I'm just saying.

Back to my point - this is the last year before Sweet Cheeks is in school. Next year when she goes to Kindergarten life will never be the same. So I'm taking full advantage. Even if she will miss 2 weeks of preschool.

Truth be told, that is only half the reason. The real reason for going when we're going is RAGNAR: 12 people racing 200 miles in 24-ish hours. The reason we're staying two weeks is because we found a really (I mean R-E-A-L-L-Y) good deal on tickets that just happened to go up significantly if I chose different dates. It's meant to be.

So, Ragnar: My sister Rebecca works for an oral surgeon who is sponsoring a team for the race. Never ones to be left out of a fun race, Lester and I campaigned for a spot on the team. Really they were short a few people, so we were accepted as two warm bodies to complete the required 12 team members.

The oh-so fun part - other than the endorphin kick from the pain of running the equivalent of 3 10Ks and not sleeping in 24 hours - is the three of us will be together in a van that two of our other sisters will be driving. Five of the 7 of us together! In one van! It's going to be so much fun! I kind of feel bad for the other runners in our van.

And this trip gets even better. The last time the seven sisters were together was the last time I was in Arizona. It's looking very hopeful that we'll be together again while I'm in town. Everyone has crazy schedules, so we may have only one day with everyone in Arizona at the same time. But if all goes as planned we'll be together. And that's all that matters.

In mind of keeping things real - it's not all going to be fun and games. It will be for me, but not so much for Otterpop. He will be left at home - alone and abandoned to fend for himself while forced to bankroll our expedition. Well, maybe it will be fun for him too. Alone time is rare, so this just might be good for him. Except...

The really unfortunate part is that he's traveling for work the first two weeks of February, and we're traveling the last two. Anyone for a month without really seeing their spouse and family? Poor Otter. Luckily he'll be in the care of his sister and grandma who will make sure he doesn't go hungry. Sweet Cheeks said "Daddy's going to be spending a lot of time at our cousins house when we're gone." She knows him well. He is and will be sorely missed.

p.s. I cut bangs. Really short bangs. Think something along the lines of this:

Maybe a little shorter. Otter thinks I look like my mom, and one of my friends said I look like a little girl. I'll let you decide for yourself, but I like it. I don't have a good picture right now, but I'll post later.

Toodles.

Tripping Over My Own Feet

I'm a bit of a klutz. I can't tell you how many times I've been walking along and out of the blue stumbled. Not even over a crack in the sidewalk, which would be pretty bad in and of itself. Nope, just my feet.

Not only do I trip over myself, any sport involving balls threatens to give me a coronary. A debilitating lack of eye-hand-coordination - plus the fact that I'm a klutz that trips over my feet - has cursed me since the time I was a girl. I still have nightmares of volleyball in 7th grade P.E. I eventually got over the fear of my feet and proudly call myself a runner. I can't say the same for balls. Overcoming my fear of them, that is.

It's kind of the same with yoga. When I started practicing yoga while in collage I fell over many, many times in the balance postures.  I hated them, yet I found an inner drive that pushed me through. Soon they became my favorite poses. In fact, (tooting my own horn here) I am often one of only a few people in a yoga class that go deep into those postures.

All this has given me inspiration for the new year. Those pesky resolutions and all. You see, there's been a bit of balance lacking in my life lately. The figurative kind. I think I've already established the physical kind has been lacking for years. Most of 2010 was out of whack. I was either in manic mode making sure my life was close to perfect, or a slug. Hence the reason The Blog was neglected for pretty much all of December. Maybe that was just the holidays that got to me. It's gotta be the holidays because I was definitely out of slug mode my then.

I know I'm certainly not the only person that struggles with the concept of a balanced, yet fulfilled life. After all, "Balance" seems to be the catch phrase of our generation. The ideal that pretty much no one can attain. It's kind of annoying. Yet as with all things cliché there is more than a grain of truth.

It seems that we are expected to be perfect in all we do. At least that's what we tell ourselves. Stop me if you've heard this. Yeah, thought so. I won't elaborate. I'll just say that as hard as I try to prevent external forces from derailing my personal progression and happiness it's pretty much impossible.

If running and yoga have taught me anything it's that it takes work to get better, and that you can only be as good as You can be. There will always be someone better and worse than you. So I've made resolutions. Most of which really aren't all that new. All of which will hopefully guide me to the happy equilibrium of self satisfaction with the desire to do and be more.

I have a sneaky suspicion that my list is a bit on the aggressive side which is what tends to get me in this situation anyway. At least it is being viewed with a fresh set of eyes. And that gives me hope.

So heres to a new year and new goals. And no. Overcoming my fear of a ball is not on that list.

Exhaustion and A Bit of Bragging

Whew...It's been a crazy weekend. From the reemergence of Doris (she came back with a vengeance, mind you) to a trip to Oz, mass group couples therapy and a birthday party for my favorite just turned 4 little girl - we were all over the place. And of course my heart and mind was in New York with Lester while she ran the NYC marathon. In 4:07, mind you. She did awesome. I'm exhausted for her.

Although things have quieted down, I'm super, super, super excited. By the way, I recently realized how much I use the word "super" when I noticed Addie-Cakes says it about 9000 times a day, but I digress. Anyway - I'm very excited and I have to brag because of an email I got earlier today. From Ticketmaster. Well, it was a forwarded email from Ticketmaster. Not to be redeemed until June 22nd. In Baltimore. Guesses, anyone? I'll give you a hint:

That's right...I got tickets to the U2 concert in Baltimore. Well, technically Lester got them for us and Otterpop. It's just easier to say I got them.

Let me just tell you, Lester has gone to many-a U2 concerts. She's practically a pro U2 concert goer. Okay, I exaggerate. But she has gone to several and does have a friend who is. Practically a pro-U2 concert goer, I mean. I stole this picture off her FB page that she took in Istanbul. She's a professional photographer, which explains a lot but this just shows how close one can get with General Admission Tickets. Which is what we got.

So my calendar is marked. Wednesday, June 22, 2011 I will be with Otter and Lester in Baltimore. All day. Camping out just so we can get close enough to touch Bono. Yeah, it's happened to Lester so I'm going to fire her as my concert tour guide if she doesn't make it happen for us. Not really.

You are all officially on notice. Anything you might plan in June that could involve us will just have to be postponed to a later date. Or you'll just have to do without us. 'Cause we's gonna be at U2!

A Fly On The Wall

Why is it that I always have ideas for a fab blog post only to find by the time I get my rear in gear to write the moment is gone? Yeah, that's pretty much the story of my life.

It's been one of those weeks, or two, that not a whole lot has happened, yet there's gobs to tell. If you were a fly on the wall in my life, this is what you would have seen:

1) It's official. I'm running another 26.2 miles April 9th. Now I really need to find someone to run the entire 26.2 with me. Or just someone that is insane enough to tag along for the long runs. A few friends of mine are running the half marathon which will be great fun for the first 13.1 miles we run together. But then they are done.  And that's really not helpful to me especially on those long, arduous runs this winter. Any takers?

2) I've realized yet again that I'm all or nothing. The past few weeks I've been an organizing maniac. Label maker and all. The result was a large pile-o-crap, a few tense moments between Otterpop and I while we negotiated what should stay or go. And of course our stuff is a great deal more organized than it was before. Why was it this experience that made me realized it's all or nothing for me? You see, in the time I was going through all that, everything else was neglected. Blog included.

3) Yard Sales really aren't for those who don't have mountains of crap to unload. I'm usually the sale-ee, but a few weeks ago Otterpop's sister's community was having their fall community sale and we tagged along with their sale. We tried to sell the crap from #2, and ended up with $40 in our pocket and a big carload to the Salvation Army. The kids, other the other hand, made $60 on their bake sale. Lesson learned: If you want some extra cash, load a table with goodies on the corner and set your kids out there to sell them. (The goodies, not the kids)

4) But...the trip to the Salvation Army made the scant $40 we got for hours of labor well worth it. You see, Serendipity occurred while I was dumping our junk. Another dump-ee pulled up the same time I did with a FABULOUS round, green ottoman. The kind I've coveted for not a short amount of time. Before I even asked if I could buy it off of him, the man offered to load it into my car. For free. I suppose you could say I was paid $40 to get a fabulous piece of furniture I've wanted for a long time.

5) With the end of the growing season comes the end of our CSA season. Bummer. I've really enjoyed our weekly box. The silver lining is that we now get to be gleaners. Last week I gleaned lots of green tomatoes, bell peppers and jalapenos and made a roasted tomato salsa. It's not my favorite, but it's not bad either. Oh yeah...and I canned it. How industrious am I? Madre y Padre are so proud.

6) Lester visited this weekend, and I was reminded how much I've let myself go this summer. I really haven't been running much, so when I went for a run with her Saturday I felt like a slug. I tell my self lately it's because I've had that nasty lung infection that everyone seems to have. However......I. Must. Run. More.

7) I've also been hearing the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" sung over, and over, and over again by my favorite two year old. Lester got it on video.

8) Halloween is quickly approaching. I couldn't be more excited. While Lester was here I helped her make the patterns for her costume. It's going to be WONDERful. And Otterpop and I figured out our costumes. Last year I was Willy Wonka and Otter was my Oompa Loompa. It was FAB. And a lot of work. Luckily the work is cut in half this year because a friend is letting me borrow a costume. So now I just have to make Otterpop's. CAN'T WAIT!!!!! It's going to be epic.

Oh yeah....the girl's have their costumes picked out too.  But who ever said Halloween is about the kids?

9) Sweet Cheeks started preschool last week. Does it make me a bad mom if I don't bother bringing a camera to document her first day of preschool? I mean, this is her third year of preschool, and she went to the same school last year. So really it's nothing new. Okay. That's me justifying my laziness. Poor kid.

10) Otterpop is out of town. Again. Boo. But...Well, I was going to say there's something good about his traveling this time. Nothing comes to mind. It's another week without Daddy. Hours of Fun for Everyone.

I think that pretty much covers it. I'm trying to force productivity today. That's a pretty silly idea when I just got a book from the library that I've been waiting for over a month to get. You can bet what I'll be doing as soon as this is posted. Till we meet again, wish me happy reading.

Beanie anyone? And for a good cause, too!

I think you all know my sister Lesler. I kinda talk about her a lot. Anywhoo...A while back I told you all that she is running the NYC marathon for charity. It's kinda a big deal.

The thing about running for charity is that you have to raise nearly $3000 (yes, that is THREE-THOUSAND-DOLLARS). The marathon is just over FOUR weeks away, and Lesler is only about half way there. What makes this even a little more urgent is that regardless of whether or not Lesler raises the money through donations, she has committed to donate $3000. They have her credit card and will bill her the difference. Gulp. That could be a seriously expensive marathon.

The charity, TeamContinuum, is a great cause. But we all know NPR doesn't offer those "member gifts" for nothing. So, a la NPR, Lesler is sweetening the pot.

Lesler often says she doesn't have a creative bone in her body. Except for knitting. (I know that isn't true). She has knitted everyone in my little family at least one beanie. We LOVE them and wear them often.

She's putting this skill to use and will knit anyone who donates at a certain level a one-of-a-kind hat. Believe me when I tell you they are totally FAB!

The Beast Rears Its Ugly Head

It's back. I've got the moderately insane urge to spend 5 months of Saturdays running progressively longer distances culminating in 26.2 miles of torture and the accompanying euphoria.

You heard me. I want to run another marathon. When I finished the Marine Corps Marathon last Fall I immediately said I would never do it again. Marathons hurt. Bad. I think the fact that I ran it on a stress fracture had something to do with it. The funny thing is that it only took a couple of weeks for me to say that I might do it again and a couple months to decide that it wasn't if but when.

It's kinda like pregnancy and childbirth. Both take a lot of work to get to the end and there are times you really question why on earth you are doing it. Did I mention it hurts?

Obviously the big difference is that there's no little, red, wrinkled, sweet smelling, crying, bundle 'o' joy to bring home. We normal runners get only the satisfaction of finishing. And of course the oh-so pretty medal. Oh, but there is no accompanying sleep deprivation. See - there are perks.

If the second marathon is anything like the first, it will take me a good 2 months to recover. Hmmmm...it really is sounding more and more like childbirth. Remind me why I want to do this again? I think the pictures from last year's Leesburg 20K at the beginning of this post say it all.

I love running. Especially when the race is over. It's one of those things that hurts so good. Runners get it. It's like this:

Now I'm trying to figure out which race to run. I'm leaning toward the Charlottesville Marathon in April. But that means my long runs will be in the middle of winter. I would seriously be running a 20 miler in February. Brrr...

Lester is trying to convince me to to the P.F. Chang's Rock'n'Roll Marathon in January. This really should be a no-brainer. Being that it's in Phoenix, it would be a two-fer: marathon and family visit in a single shot. But that also means plane tickets that have been really, really expensive lately - x4 and it's time for a heart attack.

So, we'll see. What I know is that there is a marathon in the near future. What I'm unsure of is which one. In the mean time...wish me happy running!

c leslie run

I am a runner. But I wouldn't be without my sister Leslie (often referred to as Auntie Lesler). All because a few years back she convinced me that I needed to run a half-marathon with her.

I finished the 13.1 miles and was hooked. Fast forward a few years and she was determined that the two of us should run a full marathon. So last fall we completed the 2009 Marine Corps Marathon together.

Being a New Yorker, she is now determined to run the ING New York City Marathon. Cool, right? The problem is, something like 50k people are turned away. Every. Year. And it's not like this is a small race. There are about 40-50K people that actually run it.

It's the biggest marathon in the world, and if you aren't lucky enough to win the lottery (literally - it's a lottery to get in) you have to try again. Or run for charity. Which is what she's doing.

And here it is...I'm asking you to help my sister run the New York City Marathon.

Like many of you, we have had friends and family battle cancer. We've seen the awful impact it has not only on the patient, but also the families trying to help that patient survive.

Leslie is running for Team Continuum, a non-profit organization dedicated to taking care of anyone involved in fighting cancer. It provides assistance to patients and their families by filling the physical and emotional gaps of support so the patients can have the strength to focus on their treatment.

So, I'm asking you to give your support. Not only to my sister who deserves to run this race, but to the cancer patients and their families that need the support to fight for their lives.

Every little bit helps. Donate today!