Quick Update...

I did take Emma to the doctor's yesterday, she has fluid in her ears that is pink, but not quite totally infected yet.  The doctor heard some wheezing, but she sounded ok otherwise.  Nose and throat were good!  The doctor gave me a prescription for Augmentin in case things get worse.  We are to do her breathing treatments twice a day!!  But knock on wood, she seems pretty good this morning, no fever and she seems happy.  So we'll see.  I'm praying that it doesn't follow the course that her last couple of sickness have followed.  I really don't want her to get pnumonia ever again!!  But we have the antibiotic prescription with us, so I feel better about going to the Outer Banks on Saturday.  The doctor did say that as long as she doesn't have a fever we can head to the pool, so that's good!! 
We have a couple errands to run this morning, thankfully, it's cooled down outside considerably so getting in and out of the car won't be so awful for my girls!!  If they are good while we are at the stores this morning then we will come home, eat lunch and then go to the pool for awhile. 
I have a little cold now too, so I slept in this morning.  I'm going to go to Zumba class tonight.  I love Zumba!!  It's so fun, I feel like a total fool, but it's fun and I'm getting the hang of the routines.  I just can't shake my thing like the instructor can, I sometimes feel very white and very old!!!  But if you get a chance, I highly recommend trying it out!!  Like I said, it's very fun!!!  My plan is to ride the bike tomorrow morning and then on Friday get up and try for 6 miles!  I need to talk to Seth that I will take longer than usual, hopefully he is ok with that!!  I will try to get up earlier than usual too. 
As much as I'm running, I wish the scale reflected my efforts more!!  Oh well, I need to remember that I'm probably the healthiest and strongest I've been in a really long time!  I need to drink more water, I know that, but I don't really like drinking water.  But I'm trying!!! 
Well, I need to get the girls ready to go and start our day.  I hope this trip to Target goes better than our last one.  Have a buttercup day!!!

Just not sure...

The alarm went off at 5:45 this morning and boy, did it seem early.  I snoozed once and got up 6:00.  Even though I went to bed at 9:00 last night, I felt really tired.  I got ready to go out and once outside I felt better.  The air seemed cleaner and crisper, the thunderstorms yesterday must have cleared out some of the humidity, it made it much easier to breath.  But I had a tough run, I actually think I walked more than I ran this morning.  But I still was able to go 4.7 miles this morning, which made me happy.  I reached a new level on the Nike website, I'm orange now, only 123 miles to the next level.  I've gone 32 miles since I started using it!  YEAH!!  Also for one of my challenges of going 56 miles by July 15th, I'm ahead and only have 23 miles left to go. If I keep running at the beach, which I plan on doing, I should be good!! 
I'm not sure what to do today.  I had wanted to go to the pool, but I'm not sure.  Emma's fever is gone, but now her cough is back and she is sneezing like crazy.  I worry about her so much.  Not sure if I should take her back to the doctor's yet or wait another day. Not sure the pool is the best place for her.  I'm just not sure about anything this morning frankly.  We leave on Saturday for the Outer Banks, I would hate for her to be sick at the beach.  We are doing her breathing treatments twice a day now, she's not coughing a lot but when she does it sounds awful.  It's actually not looking like very good pool weather at the moment, but it's going to be at least 90 later today.  Maybe we'll go after lunch.  Maybe I'll call the doctor and leave a message and see what he thinks.  Those sound like reasonable plans for the day. 

Milestones!

We had a great weekend.  Sarah's party was a lot of fun, she had a great time!  She is probably the most enthusiastic person I know with such an incredible love of life!!  She didn't mind that it was a smaller party than usual and that Seth and Emma couldn't be there too. She loved having her friends over and playing with them!  Emma still had a fever so Seth took her on an adventure of their own.  I thought it was a great party, everyone seemed to have fun.  But I missed Em and Seth terribly.  My friends that came were such a great help and I appreciated it tremendously!!  Later that day we went to the Orioles game, it was also a lot of fun.  The girls were kind of cranky at first but then they really got into it, cheering along with the crowd.  It was wicked hot, but fun anyway and as a bonus, the Orioles won! 

It was a really long day, but it was fantastic!!  We all fell asleep quickly when we got home and I was hoping we would all sleep in on Sunday morning, no such luck, but that was ok!!  Even though I was tired, I got ready to go for a run.  It was SO hot out.  But I had a great run, great songs on my Ipod and I love running around the little pond by our house.  A cardinal flew right in front of me and I smiled.  I wanted to try for 6 miles, but it was so hot, I didn't quite make it.  But I did reach a new distance, I ran 5.38 miles in 68 minutes.  It was a new milestone and I am really proud.  Although later in the day after I had showered and cooled off I wished that I had kept going, which I took as a good sign, that I felt good enough that I could have continued.  And this morning I feel good, not sore at all.  YEAH!!  I'm going to try for 6 miles again on Friday! 

This week marks a couple very significant milestones in my life - happiest and saddest in my life!  On Saturday, my beautiful baby girl turns 5!!  I can not believe it.  She has brought me more joy than I can ever express!!  She amazes me every day, with her love of learning, her amazing artistic talents, her humor, her seemingly fearlessness and her INCREDIBLE enthusiasm for all things!!  She is a wonderful, smart, beautiful little girl!!  She is a great big sister to Emma.  I look at her and wonder sometimes how she got the way she is, she sometimes seems SO different from me.  I see some of Karen in her, not sure if it's because they are both first children or not :)  She teases Emma in ways that I remember Karen teasing me :)  Regardless, I couldn't be more proud of her and I know that she will flourish in kindergarten in the fall.  She loves school!!  I love this incredible being who came into my life early one Sunday morning 5 years ago!! 

Linked forever to one of the happiest days of my life, is the saddest day of my life, the day we lost Uncle.  I can not express the sadness of him passing away the day before Sarah's 2nd birthday.  He was so much more to me than an Uncle, he was really like my big brother!!  I hope and pray that he knew that I felt that way about him.  And even after 3 years I still ache, I miss him terribly!  But after 3 years, I can say that there are many more happy memories than sad! I think of him every day, there are so many reminders of him every where I look.  I think there is something of him, in every room of my house :)  I don't want to make him out to be a saint, because he could be a giant pain in the ass, his sarcasm could be biting. But he did with a quirkiness that only he could get away with.  And now even those moments make me laugh!  Like when I said my feet hurt at 11:00 at night, after we had spent the day walking all over NYC, he told me that maybe I had worn the wrong socks.  I was so pissed at the time, but now I think it's hysterical. 

He only met Sarah once and I'm so thankful for that.  I have so many wonderful memories of that weekend!  It makes me so sad that he never met Emma, the other most wonderful being in my life!  They all would have had so much fun together.  He would have loved taking Sarah on some roller coasters!! 

So like I said earlier, on Friday the anniversary of my beloved Uncle's death, I'm going to go for a run and try for 6 miles.  When I'm running, I truly feel that he is with me and sometimes when I feel like I want to stop, I really feel a hand on my back pushing me to keep going, so I do!!  In the afternoon, our babysitter is going to come over to watch the girls so I can pack and have some quiet time. 

We leave on Saturday for a week in the Outer Banks.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I'm excited for all the 4th of July festivities and watching the  fireworks on the beach!!  I'm also excited to run with the ocean breezes in my hair. It will be a good week, I love our annual trip with our good friends!

He should be here! For so many reasons and so many people, he should still be here. I'm doing my best to keep him alive in my children's memories and I love it when they talk about him! I want them to know him in all his quirky best!!!   He really is my inspiration for training and running this 1/2 marathon in October!  And I'm so touched by all of your wonderful support in my journey!!  You all are going to help me to keep going so that on October 16th, I can run/walk it for my Uncle!!  Thank you so much!!!

Quite a week....

Here is just a quick recap of the week in no particular order:

Highs:  Going to Pump It Up with friends and having a great time; Taking the girls to Toy Story 3 and having a great day out with my girls!!; Going to the Disney Store, having the girls pick out new beach towels and new stuffed animals from Toy Story, Em got Buttercup and Sarah got Dolly - both SO cute; Running my farthest distance in my best time so far (5.14 miles in 61 minutes - yeah!!); Going to the pool, watching my girls be fearless in the water!; Running 3 times this week and going 13.08 miles; Making the Happy Birthday banner with Sarah and Emma: The girls having a great dentist appointment; Seth leaving work to go look for Emma's Buttercup unicorn; Having trouble getting up this morning, but still was able to run almost 4 miles; Seth saying that he would take Emma out to see a movie or doing something special during Sarah's party so that she won't get the other kids sick and her party can still go on

Lows: Emma being sick with a fever for 3 days, Motrin brings her fever down and she seems like herself, but when the Motrin wears off, her fever goes back up and she is very clingy and whiny. She just wants to sit on my lap - very sad; Feeling like I should be doing other things while I'm holding Em;  Losing Emma's new Buttercup unicorn at the store and not having time to go back and look for it because we had to go to the dentist; Feeling like I didn't have enough time this week to write while all this was going; Missing Zumba, Missing running errands by myself; Having a couple disagreements with Sarah, hearing from her that when she has kids she is going to let them ........;  Worrying about how to handle Sarah's party since Em has the fever; Hoping and praying that Em wakes up fever free tomorrow morning!!!!!!

What I learned about myself: I felt really strong while I was running this week, I think that riding the bike this winter has really helped strengthen my legs!; That I can not yell when we are getting ready to leave the house, even those it's really tempting; That I still really enjoy just holding my baby, Em; Is glad that the girls are old enough that I can take them places by myself and it's ok; I really enjoyed seeing Toy Story 3, even if it scared my girls some, I got teary at several points while watching it; Just how truly blessed I am to have 2 beautiful healthy girls and a wonderful husband and to have my health so I can go running!!; I figured out that even when I want to roll back over and hit the snooze, I always feel better after I've gotten up and worked out, especially going out for a run

What I learned about the group:  That we really do all work better with a planned schedule; that Sarah has been really sweet to Emma while she hasn't been feeling well; Reminded what a wonderful father Seth is - leaving work to look for Em's Buttercup and taking her out so that Sarah's party can still go on and many other little things throughout the week; that I need to have the kids help with the grocery shopping, having them help with the list and having them look for items makes it a much more enjoyable shopping trip! 

So that about sums my week.  Tomorrow is Sarah's birthday party, it will be a smaller group than usual, it will be really fun regardless, but we will miss Em and Seth!  After the party we are heading to an Orioles game, it will be another busy day!   Hopefully life will slow down a bit and I can write more about things, but this was a good quick overview :)  of what has been going on here.  Really looking forward the party.  I can't believe Sarah will be turning 5 on July 3rd!! 

Thanks for reading my ramblings!!! 

Busy, busy days ahead...

I wanted to get up a bit earlier this morning so I could run 5 miles again, but I just couldn't quite get out of bed at 5:45. I hit snooze a couple of times and finally emerged at 6:05. I was able to run 4.12 miles in 53 minutes, I was pleased with it because I'm really tired. Once I got started I felt pretty good. For some reason, my little guy's voice who tells me how far or how long I've been going, wasn't working. I'm not sure if it's because I did a custom time, but I tried it again once I got home and he was working. Anyway, I missed him a bit, I find his little voice helpful :)

I finally realized how to change the Nike website to miles instead of kilometers, that helps my brain considerably. One cool thing is that over 3 runs, I have run 13 miles in 2 hours 46 minutes, and this is just at the beginning of my training. It's just so awesome to see that on the screen. I realize it will be considerably different running 13 miles at one time, but it helps frame it in my mind to some realistic goal.

The girl's baptism was wonderful and very special. Sarah did really well and wasn't shy at all. Emma got very shy and buried her face in my neck. It really was a couple of incredible moments for me. I had been thinking about it for a really long time and yet I was so surprised at how nervous I was and how moving it was for me.

Sarah is feeling better, but I think we are all overtired. They both had huge tantrums in Target this morning. It felt like I was running the half marathon as I walked out the length of the store with both of them screaming at the top of their lungs in my face. It was so awful. It was pretty out of character for both of them, so I'm not entirely sure what's going on. I thought for a moment about giving into them, but then Emma broke the chain on my favorite necklace and I knew that even though it was absolutely horrible, I was doing the right thing. OMG, I was SO angry though. Things have recovered nicely since we got home, they are playing really nicely in the basement right now, as if the tantrum never happened.

Sarah's birthday party is on Saturday, so I'll spend a good chunk of time this week getting ready for that, cleaning, shopping, cooking and wrapping. It should be fun! I'm going to have them help me make the Happy Birthday banner, if we can find some good Barbie stickers. Cake is ordered, I need to order the deli tray and then shop for the rest of the food. I have my To Do list right next to me. I always struggle with goodie bags, I really don't enjoy them. I'm hoping to find just one cool thing and just give that out. It takes to much energy for me organize different items for the goodie bag, I don't like just giving out candy. It just stresses me out. After her party, we are headed to a 4:05 Orioles game with friends. It is going to be an incredibly long day, but incredibly fun!!

Once all that is over, then I need to start thinking about shopping and packing up for our trip to the Outer Banks. I'm really looking forward to spending the 4th down there. I hoping we can watch the fireworks on the beach. And I'm really hoping that there is a parade somewhere down there to watch!!! I LOVE parades.

I'm really going to need this vacation once it gets here. And along with all of this stuff going on, I need to just do our daily stuff. I need to keep up with my running and biking. I need to find time to rest and time to have fun!! We have a playdate tomorrow at Pump It Up (it's a big warehouse with a ton of inflatable moon bounces) and then on Wednesday when it's going to be wicked hot here, I thought I would take the girls to see Toy Story 3, Thursday we have a dentist appointment then we might hit the pool. I really think we are much busier now than when the girls were in school.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, I do appreciate it. I haven't quite figured out all the editing stuff on the blog so forgive my picture being in kind of a weird place.

My girls....

Sarah told me the other day that she doesn't want to run, do Zumba, do any races or ride the bike because she does not want to be sweaty!! I told her that for most of my life I had tried to avoid being sweaty. I took Orienteering in gym class in high school, so I wouldn't get sweaty. It was just very funny. I'm fairly sure that my girl Sarah is going to be fairly athletic so the comment was even funnier to me!

My girls are getting baptized tomorrow. I'm very excited and a bit nervous. We are meeting the minister at church in a little while to show them what is going to happen. I have been searching for a church since I moved down here almost 11 years ago. And I finally have found one that feels like home! I love going there! Going to church every Sunday was such a huge part of my growing up and I want to be able to give that to my girls. A friend is going to take pictures tomorrow, so I'll be sure to share them!!

90km by July 15...

So on the Nike+ website, you can set up all sorts of goals for yourself and there are many challenges you can join. Most of the challenges to join are over a year's time, and I need more immediate results.
So I set up a goal of 90km by July 15. It's a pretty big goal, but one that I thought on my current training schedule that I can achieve. We'll see. So far I have 75.5km to go! HA!! But that's after only 2 runs. So right now I'm ahead of my goal. Like I said, we'll see.
I'm really looking forward to running in the Outer Banks in a few weeks. I really started running there last year. It was fantastic. So I'm anxious to get back and try it out!! But I'm also on vacation, so we'll see how it goes!
This morning I ran 5 miles in 63 minutes. That is the longest that I have ever gone. And I still feel good even almost 3 hours after I finished.

On a seemingly unrelated note...

I am not a gardener, I do not have a green thumb, in fact it may be a black thumb. I have very bad luck with plants and flowers, I try, but sometimes I worry that I try to hard. I have these two planters on our deck that 2 years ago held Gerber Daisies. They were pretty while they lasted, but that was not long. Since I have had such poor luck, I just left these planters out on our deck full of dirt. I didn't give them much thought at all.

Last summer, amazingly flowers started growing in one of them (along with a bunch of weeds). I wasn't sure what kind they were, so I looked them up. Petunias were growing in these abandoned planters of dirt. I had not planted them, I'm not sure I've ever had petunias anywhere. Then a few days later, petunias started growing in the other abandoned planter. They grew and grew, they were absolutely beautiful and I had really nothing to do with them at all. I watered them occasionally, but I just sort of left them alone. And they flourished!!!

OK, so I like to think that my Uncle had something to do with it. Now I know logically that sounds pretty crazy. They started blooming as I was starting to run last summer. I like to think that it was him giving me a little sign. I know what you are thinking, why would he send petunias as a sign. Well, I can hear him so clearly calling me "his little petunia" and it wasn't always said as an endearment, sometimes he said it pretty sarcastically, like if we told him that we were tired from walking all over NYC and wanted to take a cab he would say "Maybe you wore the wrong socks, my little petunia" (Something he actually said to me at 11:00 at night after getting into the city at 8:30am and literally walking all over NYC).

Anyway, seeing these flowers reminded me of him and I thought it was just him telling me, he thought it was great that I was running. They bloomed all summer and I thought of him every time I looked at them. I was sad to see them go when fall arrived.

I didn't really think much of them this summer, but the planters are still sitting on my deck. The day I registered for the marathon, I looked out on my deck and the first petunia bloom was there again in these abandoned planters. I'm so glad that you are with me on this marathon adventure Uncle!!!

There are now several blooms on these flowers that I had nothing to do with. I wish all my plants did so well!

I'm loving it!

I was so excited about the Nike+ Ipod Sensor. On Monday, I had it all set up, it appeared to be working. I got up at 6 and headed out. I had a fantastic run, I felt great. I looked at my Ipod several times and it looked like it was working. I ran really fast in burst, I walked some, I ran at different paces. I was so looking forward to looking at the data that was being collected. I finished and when I got home, I looked at my Ipod and nothing had been recorded, I was so pissed. I told Seth that I wanted to know how I had done and he said the sweetest thing, he said "You already know how you did, you said you had a fantastic run" True, but I wanted the numbers!
I had no luck trying to figure out what had gone wrong, so I wrote to Amazon and they were so great. They overnighted me another one and gave me a prepaid return label to send back the defective one. They were so nice about it.
I had a couple of glitches with the new one, but finally it was connected and I couldn't wait until morning to get up and try it out. So my alarm went off at 5:55, I got up and got ready to go. I started my run at 6:20. As I started out, I was worried because I wasn't feeling that great. My calf hurt and I got a cramp in my side. I probably shouldn't run after going to Zumba the night before :) I was worried that the data collected wouldn't be that good. But once I got to our little lake, I started feeling better. A good song came on and I was off. I ran some and walked some. I did some fast bursts and I was feeling great again!! And in my ear, every 5 minutes there was a voice telling me how much longer I had to go, I thought that would be annoying, but I found it very helpful.
I ran/walked 6.37km in 50 min and 22 sec. I love having that information. When I got home I connected my Ipod to the computer, it sent more info to the Nike website. I liked looking at the at my info there, the calories burned, my pace, my best km. There are challenges you can sign up for and training schedules there. I'm not trying to be a spokesperson for Nike or anything, I just love having all this data and I think it is highly motivating to me. I set up a 4 week challenge for myself. And in a week or so I can set up the formal training for the 1/2 Marathon and it will keep me on track. I think this technology is just amazing!!
So tomorrow is a cross training day, so I'll ride the bike and then I think I need to go for a 5 mile run on Saturday. So week one is going very well! So far, I'm loving it. I just have to remember how I'm feeling now so that in week 8 or so, when I might get discouraged, I'll can remind myself how far I've come and great I feel!
Thanks for reading my ramblings!

And so it begins.....

I never really considered myself a runner, in fact, I think I spent most of my life trying to avoid running. And if you had ever told me that I might run a 1/2 marathon, I would have told you, you were crazy. And yet, yesterday I came home from seeing some friends and registered for the Baltimore 1/2 Marathon on October 16, 2010. It still seems alittle crazy to me, but everyone I've told that I wanted to try, has been incredibly supportive and encouraging. I've been very touched by the support of my friends and family Facebook.

I will be running it in honor of my Uncle Peter, he was a true marathon runner. He ran this same race the day after our wedding with my cousin Jessica, in honor of Seth and me. It is 6 years to the day that they ran it! I miss him terribly, I wish he was here to help me train for this race. But running it in his honor is giving me my inspiration for this adventure!

I ran quite a bit last summer, but I hurt my Achilles Tendon and was told to rest it and not run for awhile. So I took up riding the stationary bike, I didn't think I would like biking, but I really enjoy doing it now. A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to sign up for the Susan G. Komen 5K race in DC, I thought I would really enjoy doing it, but I would have to walk it. On Memorial Day weekend, we went up to Seth's Dad's house near Syracuse. I went out for a walk, I'm not sure why, I think I just wanted to see how I would do, so I started running! And it was glorious!!! It was a beautiful day, in a beautiful setting and I have fabulous music on my Ipod and I felt strong. I felt fantastic when I finished!! I felt like my Uncle was right there with me!

I didn't run the whole time during the 5K, but I ran alot of it! And again, I felt fantastic after I finished! So, I had this little voice in my head to sign up for 1/2 marathon, I knew that I wouldn't run the whole thing, but even walking it, I was confident that I could finish it! I mentioned it to a couple of friends and to Seth and they were so encouraging! The voice in my head got louder, I was looking at the marathon's website every day but I wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger. When I got home Saturday afternoon, I picked up the computer and before I could change my mind, I registered for it. Now I have the added incentive to keep up with the training!

I told my Aunt Susie about this adventure and she told me I should start a blog about my training. So here it is! I'm sure in the next several months, there will be plenty of highs and plenty of lows. I will learn alot about myself and alot about family and friends. I will try to record them here.

My Uncle's favorite quote was "It does not matter how slow you go, so long as you do not stop" by Confucius. He helped alot of people get their start in running, he would run at their pace and be nothing but encouraging. I never ran with him while he was alive, but everytime I run now I feel like he is with me. I would give anything to run with him, just once!

I'm not sure how long it will take me, but I'm confident that I can finish and I'm confident that he will be right there with me. He would just love this!