Children's Toys

I would first off like to say that I love my children dearly. And I want my kids to have toys to play with. But toys in our house go through an intense selection/screening process. Especially the ones that make noise.... If it is a repetitive noise, is it something that I can tune out? Or possibly completely ignore all together??? Is it something that has volume control or when the toy still functions but the music/sound/bell/whistle can be turned off?? Now I realize that the sounds toys make are part of the fun, and like I said, we don't "dis-allow" toys just because they make noise. But if that noise is something that is going to destroy what little sense and sanity I have left at 3 in the afternoon on Friday, then No. That toy is not coming into our home.

Which brings me to this gem....this maniacal piece of plasticized engineering genius, this destroyer of homes, this harbinger of evil....the popper toy.

I would like to again say, I don't hate all noise making toys. But this toy is pure plastic evil. The irony here is, two days before Christmas, my husband and I actually had a conversation about this toy. About how lucky we were that our kids didn't have one. About how we would never buy this toy for them, because even as children ourselves, this toy annoyed us. About how much we loathed this particular toy.....little did we know that in one of those brightly wrapped packages under our tree, from family far far away (coincidence? I think not) awaited our doom. 

Come Christmas morning, my nearly 1 year old daughter opens her package from one of "the grandparents" and behold! My husband's face went white. All I could do was laugh. The dreaded popper had entered our home, and there was no undoing it now.

Its now a few weeks after Christmas. The popper is still here. But my daughter doesn't even realize that she has this toy at her disposal. (Oh good you say? No, no it gets much much worse) My daughter doesn't get the chance to play with this toy. Now mind you, she's walking now. And she could probably, in a good moment, make this thing pop a few times a minute. That would be a tolerable level of noise. I could handle that. What I can't handle is my 4 year old son running through the house with this toy, chasing the dog, cat, baby, pretty much anything that will run away. So instead of a "pop pop pop" from time to time, it sounds like an automatic machine gun in a WWII movie. This is enhanced by the squeals of joy from my son and doubled by the barking of terror from our dog, who at these moments I'm sure thinks that his number is up, his time is over, he's taking fire and can't get away! And of course, naturally, my son ONLY wants to play this running/ squealing/ popping game when the baby JUST went to sleep. Perfect, right? I think Murphy has taken up permanent residence in our home.

I have no plans to remove this toy, though my husband has thought up some very clever ways to bring this toy to its demise. As much as it irritates me, I just can't bring myself to get rid of it....yet. That doesn't mean its a free for all, this toy is brought out when I know I can handle what will happen next. That being said, this popper is currently hidden in the depths of my closet today, and possibly the rest of this week. I don't know who invented this toy, but whoever they are, they are/were a true evil genius.

 So I do want to say thank you to the grandparents who bought this toy for our children. Please know that it does bring them INTENSE joy and they are so happy when they play with it. And I know this was the reason you purchased it for them. But I also know you, and I know you too have a mischievous side, and I'm sure it brought you joy when you thought of the nerves being frayed by this popper. So just remember this; Thank you for the toy, Karma is a bitch, you taught me everything I know about pranks, and I love you.

Just kinda rambling...

Every have one of those moments when you feel like you just stepped out of a time warp?! That would be me. What a transition moving from "working mom of one" to "stay at home mom of two". Who knew that one extra set of legs would keep my legs moving so much more! Yeah yeah yeah, all you mothers of two or more, laugh it up, I know I'm just starting to get into the "fun stuff" but for those of us who just made the move from one kid to two, or don't have children yet, its quite the eye opener!

The blog has been in my mind recently, trying to figure out what it is... Is it a "road to workout" blog, is it an online diary, is it the next "new online discovery" that just hasn't been discovered yet?... And I decided to just focus on the title. The title is "Memoirs of Life" and well, life has twists and turns and makes many many changes. And has many different faces. Each change creates and defines us, even the changes we don't expect. Or perhaps the changes we do expect (like getting pregnant) but are completely naive to what that change REALLY means.

And this may sound cliche, but all this blog "soul searching" is happening around the same time as I am trying to figure out who I am too. This is another one of those self-realizing epiphanies, I'm 28 (gasp I just announced my age to the world!!!) and I've just under gone a complete life change. When I was just graduating high school and beginning college I had two visions of myself. Myself the career architect with the high-folutant job, showing all the "good 'ol boys" that a girl can do it better. And Myself as a Mom... Well, the architecture thing kinda worked for a while. And I did show the boys that girls can do it better right up until the point when I got pregnant. Then in the blink of an eye my focus switched from career to family. And I pulled myself out of the working world, fingernails gripping doorways the whole time.

This is the unfortunate thing about not writing in a blog for a substantial amount of time. So many different things happen that you don't really know where to start. In the past 5 months in my life we have had: A death in the family, had a baby myself, an engagement, a pregnancy announcement, farm life adventures and catastrophes, lets not forget adventures with a 3 year old, and the "quick" home improvement projects that turned into the construction zone that never ends.....sound familiar?

So I guess this is where this post will end. Just kinda touching base, admitting to the world that I have not forgotten about you, even those of you who haven't found me yet. And one topic at a time I will touch base on many things. I'm still here, and I'm still running.

This crazy life

So, it's been yet again a ridiculously long time between postings. I know I know everyone always uses the "life gets hectic" excuse. But the truth of the matter is that it does!! So right around the time of my last post I discovered I was/ still am pregnant! Horray for me and my family! But it also pretty much put the cabash on any sort of workout training regime. My Dr suggested that I just try to maintain my capabilities at the time I found out about the pregnancy. Ok, so.... Walking. At least it was easy to maintain for the past few months. So now as I'm expected to go into labor any day now, I've been thinking alot about how I'm going to get back into shape. Especially now that I'll have two rugrats to juggle :) the answer seems clear enough, run.... Or walk for a while and then run. Back to square one, again. Eventually I swear I will get beyond square one, beyond walking. I'd really love to run the Silver Creek Falls half-marathon again. But that might be a little far fetched this year but it is on the horizon. But I'm still here and I'm still running....sorta

Reality Check

Its a depressing thing when I realize that its now May and I have done very little running over the last few months. In my defense I can only say "Life happened." Despite my best intentions and my best efforts, life became very crazy and hectic for a while. First my son became very sick with pnemonia for a month, my daushound who is my best buddy hurt his back and we were afraid it was the end for him, and my job became increasingly stressful and exhausting. I know we've all been there...by the time 8:30 (or whatever your "workout time" is) hits us at night, the kids are in bed (despite the size of tantrum they throw), the dog is laying down and in a medically induced stupor...you kinda want to make a rum and coke for yourself and then just go to bed and melt into the mattress. Thats pretty much what I've been doing. (Minus the rum and coke....most nights.)

But on the flip-side! My son is now healthy, alcoholic beverages no longer hold as much appeal, and my dog is now trained to walk on the treadmill with me. Yes, I said WALK on the treadmill. Thats the other piece of my joyous news...During my son's visit to the Dr., the issue of some recurring knee and ankle pain of mine came up in conversation. My son's Dr. (who is also my Dr.) told me that the reason why my knees and ankles hurt is because I'm running (okay, I kinda knew that) and because I'm overweight. Now here's a quandry! I'm running to LOSE WEIGHT (and reach other goals of running a marathon yada yada yada, but lets be real. I'm striving for that slim, muscular, "runner" figure here) So I'm running to lose weight, because I already know I'm overweight, and now my method of losing weight is causing me pain?! What gives!

After my flabbergasted-ness wore off, I listened to what my Doc had to say. Basically running is a GREAT way to stay healthy, (key word here, "stay") but if you are already overweight the impact of running essentially tears yours limbs apart joint by joint due to the excess weight you're hauling around. She suggested that I continue my exercise routine with walking, yoga, pilates, or some other "non-impact" exercise.

Not going to lie, it hurt a little bit....okay A LOT when my Doc said I was overweight. I know it wasn't any secret, and I had already known this from the beginning...But its completely different when YOUR DOCTOR calls you out on needing to lose a few pounds. She gave me a goal of losing 17 pounds before I continue running. This would place me within the realm of "normal BMI" and thus be safer for my joints and cause me less pain.... outside of the pain running causes anyway. That was 3 weeks ago and I'm proud to say I've lost 7 pounds! (Woo Hoo!) I'm already craving my running...its making me want to push just a little harder and a little bit more to get that excess weight off so I can continue this weird fascination/infatuation of self-inflicted blisters, road rash, sunburn, and listening to the same songs over, and over, and over, and over......

So I'm still here, life does happen, and I'm still running.

Running...a humbling experience.

January 21st, the first race of 2012!! Whoo hoo! Nothing too crazy, a 10k (or about 6.2 miles). No big deal right? WRONG!!! By my account, this run was significantly more difficult than my half marathon. First of all, I hadn't been training nearly as seriously as I should have been. After my half-marathon I sorta kinda totally stopped running for a month and a half....(oops) And didn't even really start to re-visit running again until 3 days before this race. I know, I shouldn't be shocked by my performance, and I'm not.

My thought process during this run was one of self-loathing and name calling (things like "lazy", "couch-potato", "psycho", etc....) Somewhere toward the end of the run, near mile 5, I had a revelation and it was as follows:

"I hate running. This sucks. Its raining I'm cold. I hurt...I'm at the end of the running pack. I think I might even be last. ***turn my head to look behind me*** Okay, nope, not last....yet. Just that girl and Old Man Jeeves back there. (Those of you who have read prior blogs know Old Man Jeeves, his doppleganger was at this race too, I think it might be a requirement that there be one at every race...we will pursue this theory later) So long as I keep running I should be able to stay ahead of them. ***At about this thought my lungs threaten to explode*** Nope can't run, must walk. ***start walking, get passed by both girl and Old Man Jeeves*** Its official. I'm in last place. I guess this isn't all bad. People only care about who comes in first and who comes in last right? So really this is some sort of backwards honor...? It still sucks. But really I just ran 5 miles WITHOUT WALKING and had only run twice in the two months prior to this race. AND had an improved pace from 13:00 min/mile to 11:30 min/mile! Thats pretty freaking awesome! Lets start running again, I can do this!!"

So I continue running and actually caught up to the girl ahead of me and started running with her. We started chatting a little and I thought that theres might be a little more comradaree with the back of the pack vs. the front of the pack. At the back, we're all just trying to survive, not out-do each other. So "Back-of-the-Pack Lacey", here's my nod to you. We even made a pact that we'd cross the finish line together so neither one of us would have to come in dead last. The pact was cleanly broken once we caught sight of the finish line. She left me behind. So "Back-of-the-Pack Lacey", here's where I say UNCOOL!!!

I did cross the finish line with a new race pace personal best for me. The previously mentioned 11 min 30 sec mile. But I also did come in last. Which no matter how you talk to yourself and try to cheer yourself up, SUCKS. It is a good motivator to not do it again though. So with new resolve I will be running more so I won't be dead last again.

I'm still here, and I'm still running.

Race Day and Recovery

And now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for! How'd the race go?.....well it had its ups and downs (ba dum cheh) both figuratively and literally. But before I give you all the details, let me paint the picture for you.

The morning of race day I awoke to rain pounding against my bedroom window and the wind howling between the houses in our sub-division. Yeah, I'm supposed to be running in this in 3 hours?! Oh, and did I mention it was 6am and dark outside?

My best friend is also deranged and is running the race with me. We arrive safely, check-in, and have about 30 minutes to kill before the start, so we kinda wander around and look at people. Runners are crazy. We saw the chick who clearly, this is all she does. Spandex everything, and about as big around as my pinky. She's out in the middle of the field doing weird stretch jumping things that I don't entirely understand the logic behind. Then theres the guy where the orange camoflauge polar fleece kilt drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon. (Seriously people, you can't make this stuff up) It was a little like seeing Dr. Seuss's "One Fish Two Fish" come to life, only runner style. There were old ones, young ones, short ones, tall ones, big ones, small ones, red costumed ones, and mis-matched thrown together ones like us....the ones standing around thinking "Holy %@*# this is crazy" and feeling completely unprepared.

Finally the time comes and over the loud speaker you hear "SCREEETCH!" and then masses of people start gathering at the flags stretched completely straight from the wind that read "Start." We mosey our way to the back half of the pack and wait for the whistle which we hear, but because we're so far back we have to wait for the people in front of us to move...Everyone is so excited the air literally is vibrating. Or maybe that was just me, I think at this point it would poignant to tell you it was 40 degrees outside, foggy, and I already  mentioned the wind.... But I had the stupidest smile on my face that I couldn't wipe off.

The first mile was on a paved road. What a treat! Just enough to get warmed up, run the whole mile, and pass people who had started at a pace quicker than they had trained for and had already burned out. (Not going to lie, it felt pretty good to pass somebody. I learned that this is called in the runner's world a "Roadkill" and can be a method of keeping score with friends of how many "roadkills" you have. Slightly morbid, but it is motivating.) We turned onto the dirt path just before mile 2. Nice path, tall grass, trees, puddles, it was great. And it was fairly flat too, at this point I'm thinking, this can't be so bad!

 I'm not sure how they measured their miles, but I swear that second mile was at least three miles long. IT NEVER ENDED! Finally when the little plastic sign reading "mile 3" came into view, I had to walk. It was beginning to get more hilly, and I was beginning to get a little scared. No turning back now. We caught our breathe, found the "Aid Station" with the nasty little electrolyte drinks and kept running.

Miles 4-6 were great. It was right in my comfort zone, right where I had trained for, but as soon as we hit mile 6, my legs became LEAD. I kept thinking "I've never run this far before....This is new territory" But one foot kept going in front of the other and I felt pretty good. Yeah I had to walk up the really steep hills, but so did "Old Man Jeeves." I use this name because it derives an accurate image of this man. Grey hair neatly gelled into a comb-over with the knee-high tube socks, shorts, long-sleeved tee-shirt, wrist bands, and a sweat head band. All in matching white and very dignified. I knew he had to walk, I knew this because he was in front of me. At first it was my goal to pass him. Then my goal became just to keep him within eye-sight. Finally my goal was just to make it to the finish line before he left this world. There was one GREAT thing about mile 6. There was another "Aid Station", and it had FREE BEER! No lie, it was greatest surprise ever. And I'm pretty sure that was the best beer I've ever tasted at 10:30 in the morning. Truly awesome.

Miles 7-9 were fun and beautiful! I'm so glad I had my phone to take pictures. I had never been to Silver Creek Falls this time of year because its so cold. But WOW! Is it gorgeous up there. If I can figure it out, I will post pictures on the blog so you can see it too.

This is where it got fun. When we were killing time at the start line we saw a professional photographers tent and figured there'd be photographers strategically placed along the trail. We saw one at mile three when we were still fairly fresh and grinning and figured that was it. Then after many hill climbs, stairs, and running behind waterfalls, we began the trek out of the canyon. This was broken into three phases: one steep huge hill, 1/4 miles of stairs, and second steep huge hill. At the top of the first steep huge hill was a photographer...Seriously.....is this a cruel joke? Lets photograph you, as your gasping for air and trudging up the hill? I tried to smile, but I've seen the photo of this point in the race...and you can see the contempt in my eyes! (This too I will post, as soon as I figure out how)

The 1/4 miles of stairs after running for 10 miles I think was just mean. It took all the wind out of my sails, and when I finally breeched the top of the canyon I was exhausted. And still had 3 miles to go! I gulped down the gross salty and undeniably refreshing electrolyte drinks and started running. Those last three miles were the most difficult mileage I had ever done. I had never understood the word "Trudge" until this point in time. I wasn't thinking about finishing the race anymore. It became a matter of just keeping forward movement, keeping one foot in front of the other, and not falling over.

At last the finish line came into view, it was just across the field. I could see it! And then the four little orange cones from hell appeared that were directing traffic to the right, away from the finish line, and up another HUGE @$$ HILL!! I'm pretty sure the people who planned this race were giggling evil little laughs when then they planned that part of the course. But now that I had seen the finish line, I KNEW I could make it there.

That was one of those "moments" crossing the finish line, seeing the flash from the photographer (I'd still like to know how he got from mile 10 to 13 so fast!), and realizing we had done it. I hugged my best friend and was just so excited. We had really run as a team. There were times when she kept me going, and I her. We laughed and took crazy pictures at the different mile markers, and found out we weren't as "bad" of runners as we thought.

As far as the recovery goes? I'm going into my second week of pain. Barefoot shoes are great, when the muscles of your feet are used to them. Otherwise you bruise the bottoms of your feet. And theres not anything you can do about it, except take lots and lots of ibuprofen and try to sit as much as possible. That was my only "injury" after the initial muscle soreness wore off. I'm pretty proud of that.

I'm planning on racing the Silver Creek Falls Half-Marathon again next year. WITHOUT A DOUBT. It was so enlightening and fun and unexpected. Words cannot describe the feeling or the "knowing" of what I had finished. There are three other moments in my life where I have felt that way. 1- Walking down the aisle with my new husband, 2- When I graduated from college and held my degree, 3- Holding my son for the first time. I'm not being over-dramatic at all, it really was THAT BIG OF A DEAL to me. I'm glad you read this and I could share it with you.

So I'm definitely still here. And I'm definitely still running.

Back in the Habit

Okay, no one even needs to say it. Its been WAY TOO LONG since my last post. It seems like so much has happened, but then again nothing at all.

I have come to one no-brainer conclusion however. Running in the rain is hard. (This is where you roll your eyes and say "Duh") Its not only physically hard but its very difficult to convince your primortal self (which has developed to do everything possible to stay inside, stay warm, and stay dry) to go outside in the cold, the wet, and the wind. The wind is the most irritating. THAT is the element that blows raindrops into your eyeball causing your contact to momentarily lose suction and pretend like its going to fall out. This results in you jabbing your finger in your eye to keep said contact in place. Having done this you've successfully kept the afore mentioned contact in place, and have now added untold amounts of dirt and sweat into your eye. And now class, whats in sweat? SALT!! I've done the "Dirt-Salt in the Eye" dance on more than one occassion. I've even thought to just let the contact fall out and become a victim of the run. The only thing this accomplished is I saw two blurry paths where one had been, and saw two blurry trees with low-hanging branches where one had been, and received a decent thump on my forehead as I ducked for the upper of the two blurry branches.... I ducked for the wrong branch.

I actually enjoy running in the rain. Its fun, in a bizzare masochistoic sort of way. It makes me feel like a runner. I'm still having a hard time identifying myself as a "runner."  Runners are those crazy people who run obscene distances for no apparent reason. Or worse, they run long distances on a treadmill which truely "gets you nowhere". Runners sport spandex like their entitled to it. As if their legs and thighs are the ultimate epitome of fitness gods and goddesses. Runners talk about their shoes like they are long lost lovers. You will be told details about their shoes that you really probably didn't want to know to begin with. But you'll listen to anyway because you're a good person. They wear legs braces and compression wraps like they're badges of honor, and taut them as such...Its funny. Even writing this I'm sitting here thinking to myself "I've kinda done that, I'm sorta doing that, I sometimes think that."

You may read this and laugh, but running has a way of changing things. Running 2-3 miles now is no problem. Three months ago it would have killed me. I've run 5 miles to which I said "Good run!" as opposed to "What that *bleep* am I doing?!" I have also developed a sore knee from running on concrete and asphalt. But WOW! I was so elated when I was shopping for my knee compression brace. I felt like I had earned the RIGHT to be injured (even if by my own insanity....)

I have a half-marathon to run/walk this Saturday. Fortunately its at Silver Creek Falls, and not a treadmill or a road race so my knee will be safe for another day. (I'm still wearing my knee brace and ankle brace just to be safe. That and it makes me look legitimate) Unfortunately, its at Silver Creek Falls and those are some BIG HILLS!! I know I can't run the full 13.1 miles. But after many a panic-attack, a few beers, and a supportive conversation I'm still going to complete the race. Run 2 miles, walk 1 mile, repeat until finished. I'm only racing against myself. I've never completed a half-marathon before so I know this will be my personal record :)

I'm beginning to become very excited about my big race. Actually, my first race, period. I've signed up for a 5K and then couldn't race because I was sick. So naturally when a second opportunity comes to race again, its a half-marathon. 4 times longer and harder than the original race! (I see the logic, don't you?) I already have my wardrobe planned. Naturally my amazing "barefoot" running shoes. Shoes that are so ergonomically correct you don't have to wear socks! Thus allowing for your feet to breathe and your socks won't hold moisture to your foot. I've mentioned to you before my love for spandex. The greatest material ever invented. Honestly for running its the best thing that ever happened since I ran my first mile without walked. Right now my spandex is used as its meant to be  used, as a means to be more comfortable running. I don't own the legs of a running goddess........yet.

All in all, I'm still here. I'm still running.