Run Heidi Run!!

Back in February when our frozen tundra was finally lifting and I was coming out of my gumbo, chili, and potato soup coma I decided that this year....2011.... was going to be the year that I get into shape.

Like real shape.

Like when I blow dry my hair my arm flags don't slap me in the cheeks and my behind gets back to it's natural resting place, you know off the backs of my legs.

I've always enjoyed walking and can walk for miles. The problem is walking doesn't really do for me what I need to be done. Another problem is I don't like sweat or sore muscles or pushing myself hard or at all for that matter.
So what does a person that doesn't like any of those things decide she is going to do?

She decides to become a runner....

Your laughing with me, RIGHT??

This is (as is most things) all my husbands fault. The man is one of those effortless looking runners. Only I know it's not effortless. I know the pain he is in, the ice bathes he soaks in, the blisters he shaves off his feet, the leg spasm isms he has, but still while he is running, he is smooth, and graceful and he makes me want to punch him in the face. He pushes through everything and always keeps on going.

I've tried for years to run. My knees hurt, my back hurts, my ear lobes hurt, you name it and it hurt.
Never once did I think, well, it is RUNNING and it ain't suppose to not hurt!!

But for some reason I decided this year was going to be different. No matter what body part hurt, I was going to keep trying.

And I have....
And I'm doing better.

It's not pretty at all, but I'm not quitting. The first week in June I started doing a boot camp, three times a week and that has motivated me even more. The first week was rough but I feel better and stronger at the end of each week. And not only better and stronger in my body but in my mind. I'm pushing myself harder than I ever have, lord help me I'm sweating like a whore in church on a regular basis. I have 3 running days a week, and I'm learning that my progress is only going to go as far as I allow it.
I really am the captain of my own ship Mr. Morgan Freeman!!

I told my girlfriend the other morning (the same girlfriend that I talked into doing the butt crack of dawn boot camp with me :) I don't know what's going to kill me first, being a 35 year old college student or trying to be a runner. But just like my first semester at school, yes it was hard, yes it sucked some times. But it was all worth it when I registered for my next semester of school. And not for any other reason other than I accomplished it. I know it's silly, but silly seems to be my new middle name.

Oh and did I mention I signed up to do a half marathon in November?? There was no alcohol involved when making the decision and I'm actually really excited about it. Probably more excited about my 13.1 magnet that I can't wait to sport on my car :)
I'm up to 3-4 miles straight, at an eleven minute pace, like with no oxygen masks or ambulances involved!
I know I have a long way to go but I'm ready, well at least I think I'm ready.

I'll keep you posted.........

my own paradise

For some reason my imagination takes me away in the summer time.
I start to think, could we really move to a beach/ocean front area? Where my kids go to school shirtless with sand between their toes; surf during lunch and say things like hang ten and dude?
Could my hubby and I set up a little tiki stand and sell smoothies and sophisticated frozen beverages to the locals and have cool names like Leilani [lay lah nee] and Mano [mah no]? Could I trade in Ann Taylor Loft for a swim shop and walk around in a bikini and not worry about cellulite and stretch marks everyday?

I think I enjoy the laid back aspect of summer more than I realize. We all have activities going on all through the summer (boot camp, track practice, swim team practice). Sleeping late means 6:30 in our house and our days are full; but there is no homework, no last minute supplies needed, and dinner at 9 o'clock with a side of watermelon is fully acceptable.

More than anything I like that I get to enjoy the longer days with my kids. By the end of some days I'm ready to strangle all 3 of them but I couldn't imagine it any other way.

Could I trade in suburbia for paradise? Nah, I'm a city girl through and through, but a little day dream never hurt anybody. Or an afternoon cocktail for that matter, excuse me while I enjoy my summer :)

That's What Thinking Gets Me.

I thought this year they (or one) might complain about yet another tradition.
I waited for the moans, for the REALLY mom, I'm so not doing that.
I prepared myself for the heartbreak to come if (the one) offspring decided this was the year that he was done.
I rehearsed what I would say and how I would remind him of stretch marks, and leaky bladders and dammit just do it and like it!

But instead of all that, I got this....

No arguing, no eye rolling, and by lord there were even a few compliments about color choices and patterns that were thrown out there. I just sat back and listened and didn't say a word.

That boy and I have been dying eggs together for 16 years, and I'm so glad he isn't sick of me yet :)

Does That Make Me CRAZY?!!

We're now ending the second full week of our kitchen remodel and I am S L O W L Y losing my mind. Or maybe after you read this you will say, "um hun you have ALREADY lost it."

We have had 3 different delivery dates for our appliances, each time it has been pushed back by a week or so and the two appliances that I need in order to have my kitchen at least half way livable are of course the ones that are STILL on back order.

I haven't seen my husband in what feels likes years. Between his travel, the activities of the 3 humans that wrecked my bladder and my classes, I don't think I could pick the man out of a police line up.
I informed him via text message the other day, that I am in need of hotel sex.

Preferably with him.

If he was interested to make arrangements and write it on fridge calendar. I then began answering some other texts that I had gotten that day.
A short time later I got a message back saying "he looked at his calendar and he couldn't make the first one."

All righty then.

Then another message that said, "he was right on it."

"Right on what?" I messaged back.

"Making hotel arrangements for the race", he said.

And that was when I realized I messaged my girlfriend, that I wanted to have hotel sex with her(and she hadn't seen it yet); instead of about 2 races we were talking about doing, one in which we needed a hotel room.

Thank the lord our husbands work together and she knows how crazy everyone has been lately. When I spoke with her later she told me she laughed so hard and so long that she peed her pants and couldn't stop.

Then she said, "so then should I cancel the room I booked us?"

God I love my girlfriends!!

ID please

I have never been a fan of the library.  I've always thought it was like this secret club for all the smart kids. Where you have to knock a certain amount of times and I can never remember it's 2 or 4  and then the librarian gets aggravated with me (quietly of course) and says, "ID please"and after its been scanned they point me over to the Nancy Drew books and say, "well good luck with that."

After I had my first child I embraced the library; we would go to story time twice a week and check out numerous books every visit. I never ventured past the young readers section, and I was totally fine with that.

My first semester at KSU dropped me right back into the knocking 2 or 4 times dilemma. I needed the library for a project on South Africa, most of my sources came from on line sites but for the sake of presentation (and my grade) I needed a "real book" source. When your not familiar with libraries in general, having your first real experience in a college one is a little nerve racking.
Which floor are the TR books located?
Why are the references books always so far away from the bathrooms?
And where in the hell is the card catalog?!!

This semester my English class has been as hard core as they come(well for a non-English major anyway). We've had a paper due every week, sometimes 2 in a week. 40% of our final grade will be based on a 4 page-10 source annotated bibliography that's due on Monday, followed by (a few weeks later) a 12 page research paper on a topic that we had to come up with based on the book the Omnivore's Dilemma, that we've been reading this semester.

Needless to say, I've had to find my "hidden inner love" for the library. The first time I ventured in to get some research done, the kids at the information desk were a tremendous help. They might of been laughing at the old lady with all the questions but they at least pointed me in the right direction and NOT towards the Nancy Drew books.

I found myself today needing to add a quote to my paper that I found in one of the millions of reference medical books that I've looked through in the past month. I walked to my aisle, dropped my bag on the floor right in front of my book, popped a squat and started writing. When I was done I looked around and chuckled to myself. I laughed because, the old lady was feeling pretty good in the old smart kids hangout. I realized that there never was a secret knock, it was (once again) my own insecurities holding me back all these years.

Then I looked around again to make sure no one was watching me because getting down on the floor that I was now so comfortable on, was so much cuter than getting up off of it :)

Herding Cats

The very first time I heard this I thought to my self, what a cute little catchy phrase. I immediately googled it to make sure that my interpretation of what I had just heard was indeed the correct one.
Herding cats as defined by Wikipedia is -  a saying that refers to a task that is extremely difficult or impossible to do, due to one or more variables being in flux and uncontrollable.

When I heard this saying years ago my kids were little and cute and 2 out of the 3 could barely talk. As time has evolved, my children have slowly started turning into those said cats that were in the saying I heard years before.

No, they don't walk on all 4's or purr and hiss at people.
No, they don't potty in a litter box, then walk in it, then walk all over my counters and furniture.
And no, they don't lie around and paw and lick themselves all day either. With puberty on the horizon though, who knows how long that last one will stay an untrue.

15, 11 and 8 are my offspring's ages as of today. A teen, pre-teen and a wanna be teen are the (task) part of the definition. I also believe that those same three ingredients could stand for the one or more variables being in flux and uncontrollable.

I'm not saying by any means that my kids are unruly and uncontrollable. But I do feel sometimes that the pulse that I thought my finger was just on, jumps around on me when I'm not looking and I need to re-position the fetal monitor to find it again. In plain mans terms, right when something starts to fit really well, the size changes on me. 

In recent days 1 child has acquired a driver's permit and now believes it is his job to take out every single curb in my neighborhood, 1 child that is starting to have girls ask him out and he JUST DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO, and another one that wants me to make her division flash cards and quiz her just for kicks :)

Herding ANY amount of children is a challenge. Trying to keep up with their everyday lives and living to tell about it, is the stuff that legends are made of. In the end if I don't feed them to many trans fats and give them a little less material to tell their psychologist about then my job will have been done, RIGHT?  And after all is done and they still like me after all the herding is finished and Brian and I get invites every week every so often for coffee and Sunday dinner; then that my friends is whats called Lagniappe. And Lagniappe is what any good ole New Orleans girl is all about.

economy pack

Maybe this is why I've had to add Pepcid AC - 100 count box, to my grocery list.