Satisfied with Effort and Results

Today was Windermere Race Day. Even though I had trained for the full marathon, I ran the half. Running the half was always the back-up plan if it looked like the weather was going to be too hot.

I made the right choice for me. I had a pretty good day. I got a PR by 40 seconds and finished under 2 hours. Those were both goals of mine for this race since I wasn't running the full. I did feel my body starting to shut down about mile 10 due to the heat. But since I have lots of experience with overheating during a race, I knew that if I wanted to finish I had to walk little bits. And that's just what I did.

Still feeling pretty good at this point--about mile 6.

Another thing that I did was not worry about what my watch said. I only looked at it one time (about mile 7). I totally wanted to look at it at mile 11 or 12 but I didn't. I wanted to just run according to effort/what my body was telling me rather than pushing for a certain time. Apparently this was just the right approach.

I know I gave it my all--my gut is telling me so! Ha, ha. Now I need to go get my foot looked at and get an official diagnosis for my self-diagnosed stress fracture.

Take this stupid fuel belt. It's irritating the crap out of me. Oh and isn't the scenery beautiful?

Coming up the home stretch. Almost there.

There's the finish line and me almost there.

With my medal and my favorite recovery drink...CHOCOLATE MILK!

Now if I can just find a race that stays in the 40's or 50's for the duration of the race!

Looking forward to the next one.

The Love Bucket is Filled

What a spectacular Mother's Day weekend. First of all, how can it be bad when the weather is so gorgeous? Honestly, warmth and sunlight truly do my spirit, mind, and body good. But even more than that was wonderful time spent with my family.

Friday afternoon Katelyn and I went to get a pedicure and a manicure for Kate. She was getting ready for her senior prom. It was fun to spend that mom-daughter time together doing something that we don't do very often.

Saturday morning was a beautiful morning for a run with my friends. It was our last longish run before our "race" this coming Saturday. My friends are going to be doing the full marathon and I'll be doing the half-marathon.

Then Saturday afternoon was spent just hanging out and watching Katelyn get ready for the prom. She looked absolutely lovely.

And then Sunday was where my love bucket was filled to overflowing because I got the two things that I really wanted. A hot shower as well as the kitchen and bathroom floors swept and mopped. So awesome and I am so grateful to my kids for not using all the hot water and not bickering over who had to sweep and who had to mop.

We finished off the weekend by having dinner with my mom and dad where we were treated to an awesome bar-be-que. It was nice to spend that time with them and my brother, Mike, and his family.

I should be nice and filled up for awhile.

How to: Be a Parenting Genius

Ha! I wish I had the answer then I would have some reassurance that we're doing it mostly right. There a few things that I have managed to successfully learn about parenting. First, each child is different and what works for one child will not necessarily work with a sibling. Second, sometimes you have to totally change things up because what has worked in the past for a child may no longer work as they grow and mature.

That changing things up...that's where I worry that we're not doing things completely right. It necessitates invoking creativity, something that I'm not super great at. But on occassion, I do impress myself with my creativity. This week was one of those times when I thought my reaction to a certain situation was pretty good.

I hope you enjoy this little vignette about our adventures in parenting/disciplining this week...

Early this week, one of the teen-agers in our house got into a wee bit of trouble during class. The teen-ager had the misfortune of being in class with the other teen-ager in our house when the write-up occurred. Of course, the sibling was immediately texting to tattle inform me that the other one had just been written up. "Why?" I texted back. "For not listening, not working, and eating in the costume shop."
Where did the food come from I wondered. Apparently, the offending child had stolen the snacks set aside for the cast and crew.

Now this teen-ager is not a bad kid, just different than the sibling. The sibling would never think of goofing off in a class or trying to sneak something that wasn't theirs. Matter of fact, I don't believe that child has been in trouble since 1st grade. Apparently having to eat soap for sassing a teacher made enough of an impact that acting up was never considered again. We tried many of the same tactics with the other sibling with mixed results.

Anyway, my initial reaction (and Dave's reaction) to the newest infraction was to totally come down hard on the goofing-off teen-ager. Restrict, take away all privileges, make life miserable. But we had already done that the last time and I think we must have sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher "Blahblahblah". Obviously we needed something new, something a little different and creative.

This is what I came up with...

On the way home from work I stopped at the grocery store...I had to go any way as we were running low on essentials. When I got home with the groceries, the in-trouble teen-ager met me at the door and asked "Can we go to the gym now?"

I responded with "I am so sorry and so embarrassed. I had no idea that I wasn't packing you a big enough lunch and that you had to resort to stealing food. Unfortunately, our gym time was taken up by my going to grocery store so I could make sure there was enough food so you didn't have to steal food any more. But when your dad gets home maybe he can take you to the gym."

The teen-ager hung his head and headed to exile in the basement until Dave got home.

They did go to the gym and on the way home, the teen-ager had to buy pretzels to replace the stolen ones. And Dave made it perfectly clear that not only were the pretzels to be replaced, but a sincere, heartfelt apology was to be expressed to the teacher the next day.

I happened to see the teacher the next night. By report, the teen-ager was much better behaved and got right to work, doing everything that was asked.

Here's to hoping the lesson sunk in and the behavior will be permanently changed.

Another "Last"

Tuesday marked the end of Alice in Wonderland  and Katelyn's participation in CVHS's theatre department.

She was a card in the Red Army.

She had to stay in costume for the receiving line


She has had a wonderful time in all of the productions. She's grown a lot as an actress, dancer, singer, etc.

I know she is looking forward to heading off to college and participating there. I am excited for her to have that opportunity.

I'm going to miss being so involved, but it's not about me. So here are some more pictures...

Talking Myself off the Edge

Althernate title: I thought the Universe was trying to tell me something

26-year-old marathoner dies at the finish line of the London Marathon. Two runners collapse and die before the finish line at the Philadelphia Marathon. Another runner dies at the Las Vegas Marathon. The Los Angeles Rock 'n Roll Marathon participant dies of a heart attack during the race.

The risk of sudden cardiac death is associated with marathon running, although the risk is quite small (1 in 50,000).


I'm prone to anxiety, especially when I am facing something I have never done or attempted before. When I get anxious I tend to think really irrational thoughts and try to find some "message" in things that are probably just a matter of coincidence.

Right now I'm feeling a little anxious about my up-coming marathon. When I read all the above mentioned things on the Internet recently I felt sure that those were somehow a message to me that I was going to be one of those stories. They seemingly all were predictions that my fate at the finish of the marathon will be one of tragedy.

Those thoughts caused a particularly emotional day on Friday, especially since I had just finished another not-so-great run. I felt so tired during that run and it wasn't even particularly long...8.5 miles. My friend texted me in the middle of all that emotion after the run to let me know she had just changed her entry from the half to the full. I texted her back and told her she was going to do great. Her responses was that I was going to do great, too. I said I'm sure I'll do great doing the half. And then she said "Shut up! We are going to do this! TOGETHER!! because I'd be scared and lonely without you!

And then I was even more of a mess. She has had some great runs lately and I don't want to hold her back. She's tenacious and when she has a goal set, she just goes for it and doesn't let anything stop her. I admire that quality about her.

So I'm just hoping that all of this emotion and anxiousness is because I'm in my taper and I've heard that tapering can cause people to think weird things. Although, mostly I've heard that people start going a little stir-crazy because they aren't doing as many miles. Maybe my stir-craziness is just manifesting itself as anxiousness.

That's probably it. I'm pretty sure that's it since running is a sanity-saving activity for me.

So deep breath. No more reading Runner's World for the next two weeks. Say positive affirmations every day. Remember that the hardest part--all the training--is done. The only failure is not trying. And courage...for the Lord is on my side.

Crazy Good Negotiating Skills

Saturday saw the end of the car search. It's been a two-year saga of looking, test-driving, nit-picking every little detail, not being satisfied for some small reason, and walking away. Everyone was thoroughly exasperated with my search. I was fed-up with always being dissatisfied with every potential car. And then a lightbulb went off in my head and I realized the source of my dissatisfaction...I was looking for the wrong type of vehicle.

I thought I wanted another SUV since we were going to trade-in the Mountaineer. But I really didn't want an SUV, I just didn't know that. It took me two years to figure it out. Once I had the moment of clarity and realized that what I really wanted was a sedan, the right car seemed to just find me.

I still don't think the guys at Parker Subaru know what hit them. Dave and I went up on Saturday afternoon and test drove the 2011 Legacy that they had advertised. At the end of the drive the salesman asked if we liked enough to spend an hour or two with him. I told him "You have one hour." and then I turned it all over to Dave. It was a whirlwind of activity from that time forward, which is an amazing feat at a car dealership considering most things move at a glacial pace once the negotiating process begins. Seriously why does it take so long? It only makes people irritated and grumpy. Dave and I once walked away from a deal because they kept us waiting...the sales manager was out smoking a cigarette that's how interested he was in our business.

Anyway, Dave has some crazy good negotiating skills. He has a great poker face and he knows just how to say things so he winds up getting his way without the other person really realizing it. He managed to negotiate the price of the vehicle down about $6000.00. He's pretty awesome.

The negotiating process took just a little over an hour. The actual signing of the papers took a little longer because they kept trying to sell us about a million different warranties and factory extras. Honestly people, how many times and in how many ways do we have to say "NO" before you will let us sign the papers?

But like I said, the process was successful and now I'm now driving around in a silver 2011 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited. It has 11,5000 miles. It's a pretty sweet ride.

Look What the Box Man Brought Today

eBag Mother Lode Weekender TLS Convertible Backpack

The UPS man delivered this bag (and one in green) to my doorstep this afternoon.

Now I say..."Watch out Europe, here I come!"

This summer's family vacation will find some of us touring Germany, France and Switzerland while others of us are cruising down the Danube. We'll all meet up in Paris.

I can't believe that I'm going to pack 10-days worth of stuff in this bag, but that is the goal. I don't want to pay the checked luggage fees and my dad swears that it is possible to fit enough clothes in this bag (well the Rick Steves version). The only problem I might run into is this bag is fitted more for someone of average size. I'm not so much of average size...more like on the negative end of the bell curve. Dave says I just can't tip over backwards with the backpack on. I'll look like an up-side down turtle. He also told Carson he better be prepared to carry it for me. But I said I'm not a wimp and I will be able to carry my own bag. Thank you very much.

I still can't believe we are going to Europe. I never thought we'd ever take a trip like this but I'm so excited we are.