jump up and down

thirty-three

 I turned thirty-three this week. Since my birthday is so close to the New Year, I often find myself reflecting on the past year and what I want for the next year a little later in January. My thirties started out on a pretty rough note, but I'm happy to say that they get better every year. Feeling defeated by many things that were out of my control encouraged me to take on some challenges that I could control - like running a half marathon a year and a half ago and then taking a class that previously seemed daunting to me. And most recently, I am feeling super blessed to have finally lost my baby weight - a little over 20 pounds that I've been hanging on to for almost four years (when I'm not here for a few days, I'm probably exercising. My Wii and I are really tight:)). I've never lost more than 5 pounds ever, not even when I ran that half marathon. It's got me wondering what else I never thought I'd do is around the corner.

p.s. I made that cake stand with a $1 candlestick, a 50 cent plate, and bit of E-6000. It became a little unstable as the cake got cut and it's weight wasn't distributed evenly, but it was easily remedied by putting the knife on the empty side of the platter. I think I'll try to look for some candlesticks with a larger base and try again, but it was fun to have this cake stand for my birthday - it made me feel special!

milestones

The boys and I have been working on some things.  I started running again - today was my second day.  I hadn't run a step since the half marathon five months ago.  I started my vein treatments shortly after that and just finished the last one right after the new year.  When I took to the road yesterday, I hoped that I could feel a difference, and my oh my, did I!  When I was training for the half, every time I ran it took at least five minutes before my legs didn't feel like lead.  Yesterday, that feeling was gone! I just started going and it was no problem.  My legs were so much lighter and I was able to complete my twenty minute run without a hitch!  I'm so excited!  It's a bit cold, but I just put on my mittens (the first pair that Cayenne knit for me) and it's not so bad.  I don't have lofty plans this year - running that half last year was so worth it, but it took so much time to train for it.  I'm going to save those long runs for later when my kids are older.  I think I want to work up to a 10K this year.  If I can get my distance up soon enough, maybe I'll try to run the series of 10Ks that our city holds - I think it begin in May.

Ned gave up his binky, with only a slight amount of encouragement from us.  Apparently, he's ready to grow up a bit because all we had to do was tell him that he was a big boy and he didn't fuss much.  I had a goal in my mind to have it gone by the time he turned three, so I'm glad we are a few months ahead of schedule.  Now, we just need to tackle potty training!

And Peter's speech abilities are growing by leaps and bounds.  He might finally be having one of those language explosions that people have been telling me forever that he would have.  He's talking all day long, saying things in different ways, (i.e. "Mommy, I want some more lunch...10 seconds later..."Mommy, I'm hungry."..10 seconds later...."Mommy, I want a sandwich."  Maybe you would be annoyed if this were your 4 year old, but I am amused and oh so grateful.), quoting books, singing songs, initiating conversations with all of us in the family and even some of his playmates at preschool.  He especially loves talking to Ned - probably because Ned is at just about at his same speech level.  Hooray!!!  Now if we could just get them to play together better - they have been fighting so much the past week or so, usually over toys.  I did capture a moment today when they were happy together, cutting hearts.

race day

Saturday was race day - all 13.1 miles of it!  And I made it!  I'm so glad I was able to do this and so thankful to Tricia for being my faithful training partner - I could not have done it without her and I mean that!  The one week I tried to do a long run (11 miles) without her, I just about died and it took me forever.  It was fitting that we crossed the finish line with an arm each around each other's shoulder.

The past two years have been some of the most difficult I have had so far.  After Ryan's graduation, we had a few anti-climatic months of unemployment.  Then we moved to Idaho and have had a really difficult adjustment - even after two years here, I still don't feel like I belong or feel like it's home in any sort of way.  I do finally have some great friends (hi friends!  thanks so much for being my pal!) that I am so happy to have.  Right after we moved here, we started treatment for Peter's speech delay and sensory disorder and have waded through all sorts of tests and worries about other possible diagnoses (which thankfully we don't worry about anymore, at least not much).  We have struggled financially and I have struggled spiritually and emotionally.  It's just been a difficult two years of nothing dramatic or terrible, but just some hard stuff. 

This run was either going to be one of those things that I set out to do and didn't accomplish, again, or it was going to be the beginning of a change.  I'm happy to say that it's the beginning of a change.  It felt incredible to cross that finish line and think of all the hard work I had put into it and have the affirmation that I have the ability to do the things I say I'm going to do and I don't have to be blown around by the things in my life that I don't have control over.  I think it was fitting that I had Tricia with me the whole way through - really there's not anything you accomplish all on your own.  It's all been with the help of friends or family (thanks to Ryan for always happily watching the boys while I ran) or God, or all of those.  And that's a lesson I've needed to learn as well. 

I would have posted sooner, but I kept waiting for a free download of my finish line photo to be posted and it's not up yet.  I'll probably amend this post later for those who are interested.

6 x 18

I ran six miles on Saturday morning - I still can't believe it.  To make a long story short, I had to take about a week off from running and had previously made it only to 3.5 miles in my half marathon training.  I needed to catch up and I actually felt better after a week off, so I decided to just go for the six after I'd had a few good short runs earlier this week.  And I did it - I ran six miles and I still can't believe it.  Oh wait, I already said that.  Anyway, I'd like to thank these 18 songs for helping me do it:

1.  I Want You Back, Jackson 5
2. Sealion Remix, Feist
3.  Brian Wilson, Barenaked Ladies
4. In Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel
5. I Feel it All, Feist
6. The Remedy, Jason Mraz
7. Amsterdam, Guster
8. Closer to Fine, Indigo Girls
9. Galileo, Indigo Girls
10. Check Yes Juliet, We the Kings
11. Satellite, Guster
12. Breakthrough, Hope 7
13. I Did It, Dave Matthews Band
14. Past in Present, Feist
15. Clocks, Coldplay
16. Hey Ya, Outkast
17. Mr. Blue Sky, Electric Light Orchestra
18. The Sweet Escape, Gwen Stefani

Special thanks goes to song #7 for being the perfect song to accompany my runner's high, which hit just as it started.  I think I just might make it to the half marathon!

ready to run - a resolution review

I thought this was an appropriate photo for today's post - we all need a little help with our resolutions.

It's time for a little resolution update from me.  You can read my original resolution post here.  I guess I only shared three of my resolutions with blogdom - I did make a  few more.  I'll have to go look those up now and see how I'm doing.  Ummm...just looked...I'm doing OK, but I definitely I have some work to do.

Anyway, back to the three goals I shared with all of you - I just wanted to give you an update on one of them - the half marathon.  I have to say it's going well.  Thanks to my running buddy, Tricia (yes, she's the one who also helped assemble the paper cake) and the weather finally warming up a bit (although it's supposed to snow again today), I am doing A-OK on this one and am set to run a half-marathon on September 20 (e-mail me if you'd like to know which one).  Yes, I realize that is about 5 months away, but that's how I like it - lots of time to work up to it.  Not that I have ever done this before, but I'm not a girl who likes to be overwhelmed or underprepared.  And thanks to my handy Mac, you should all be able to see our training schedule.  Most of the schedules we found were for three months of training, you needed to be able to run about three miles to start, and you never got to the 13 miles before the race day.  We had a little more time so we are working up more slowly, reaching the 13 miles about a month before the race and then backing off until the race for a "recovery period."  I'll let you know how I like it in September when I've tested its merits.

And for those of you who are interested in continuing to read, I think it might be helpful to share my history with running.  I used to think that you just had to be a born runner in order to run.  I thought I wasn't a runner - no one in my family ran and every time I ran I got winded in about 10 seconds.  I was that kid who always finished last and walked half of it when we ran the mile for the Presidential Fitness Challenge in elementary and junior high.  I started running my first year in college.  My first roommate was a cross country runner and the first person I met who ran long distances who I didn't consider to be crazy.  In high school, there was a boy who had a crush on me (I know this because one time he told me he was going to marry me - he didn't) who ran, but he always talked about how horrible he felt afterwards - not so motivating.  So, my first college roommate showed me that running could be an enjoyable challenge and I've ran a little bit ever since then.  I've only ever ran a 5K before - I usually end up running one a year, so I'm definitely not a serious runner, but I'd like to be.  I've got some things against me, mostly family history:

• Like the fact that I will probably get rheumatoid arthritis sometime in the next 10-15 years - both my Mom and Grandma have it and I think I may have had my first "flare-up" on Monday night.  But, I just read in the paper about a woman who has had rheumatoid since her 20s and is now in her 40s and training for marathons. 
• My mother is under 55 and has had both hips replaced.  I think I might be OK here - I can still sit on the floor with my legs crossed - something she couldn't do at my age.
• My baby is almost two and I still feel like I had him a few months ago. Is this normal? I bounced right back from Peter, but I just feel like I'm dragging here, and it's not just the weight - it's the lack of circulation, tiredness, etc.  This is definitely a motivating factor for me - if getting in shape can't help me feel better, then I know I've got problems.
• This is not really something that's against me in terms of running, but another big motivation for me is that there's every sort of cancer and heart disease in both sides of my genealogy.

So, I guess what I'm saying here, is  if you want to run, keep a positive attitude and give it a try.  Start slow and just keep going.  It took me about 10 years to get to the point where I wanted to do a long run, but I really think any sort of running is beneficial.  Even though I haven't always been consistent with my running, it's definitely been a positive aspect of my life, something to keep working on, and I'm looking forward to September!