Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2011

Swimming, Sweets, Sweat and Sheets

I made a deal with a friend that I would take advantage of being on vacation a little more by unplugging if he will get more sleep. So as long as he keeps up his end of the deal, I won't be posting again until the end of next week. So enjoy this. And then be sure to come back because I have an awesome giveaway in the works. Swimming My girls are NOT big fans of the Arizona heat (neither is their mom). But they are huge fans of swimming. And because the pool is in the backyard at Grandpa's and Grandma's, we have been able to do just that at least once, if not twice, a day since we got to Arizona. Sweets Within a 24 hour period, I consumed a strawberry colada snow cone topped with cream from Bahama Bucks, mint ice cream with brownies from Cold Stone, and three cookies from Paradise Bakery. And I had a goal to NOT GAIN WEIGHT while on this vacation?!? I'm back on track today, eating more like a normal person. But those were a yummy 24 hours! Sweat Holy hot. We've estab

On the Go(tein)

I didn't forget about my Gotein giveaway. I've just been busy enjoying the running, napping and swimming. I'm on vacation. Which is also why, in spite of good intentions to post a reminder about the giveaway yesterday, I never got around to it. I spent the day driving to Arizona. This morning, I started my vacation with five miles on the treadmill. You may remember from my Arizona trip last summer, though, that running on my parents' treadmill is a different experience than running on Millie. Their treadmill is in their garage. So even at 6:30 in the morning, it is toasty warm. I just tell myself it's good training in case it is ridiculously hot for the St. George Marathon again this year. Now what you are really here to find out! The winner of the Gotein giveaway (chosen by Random.org) is: Kari @ RunningRicig Congrats Kari!!! Send your address to ihaverun@hotmail.com, and I'll get your Gotein on its way!

Lessons in Potty Training

So the reason I did last week's long run on Thursday rather than Saturday was because Saturday was potty party day for my Bean. The Princess and her daddy had a daddy-daughter day while Bean and I spent the morning potty training her new doll and the afternoon potty training Bean. In my effort to become a diaper-free house, there were some definite highlights. First, Saturday night I showed off my skills as a master seamstress when I turned some toddler undies into some doll undies. I was completely winging it. I didn't have a pattern. Not that it really would have made a huge difference since I haven't sewn anything complicated enough to need a pattern in over 10 years. But I got a sewing machine for Christmas, so I decided to attempt to sew some doll undies rather than stapling them together like I did for The Princess' potty party. Yes, you read that right. But they were DOLL panties. No children were harmed by the staples throughout the course of the January 2009 po

My Run, literally

You know you love it when I recap my long runs. Especially since I do most of them on the treadmill, so the pictures are limited to Millie and me. If you get too bored reading about last night's 12, you can skip back to yesterday's post and enter my Gotein giveaway . Anyhow...I started running after I got my girls to bed. I had my iPod Touch ready to go in case I got bored and needed Netflix to get me through, but the Touch went untouched. My tunes got me through, mostly thanks to the new ones. Some of my new favorites, and I must admit I am surprised, are: Spotlight - MuteMath Remember the Name - Fort Minor River Deep, Mountain High - Glee Cast A few weeks ago, I went shopping for a bra that I can wear by itself (as motivation sort of to get the abs I want) that will make it look like I have two boobs instead of just one. I loved the Moving Comfort Juno, but they didn't have the color I wanted (pink, of course) in my size. Just a few days later, I won a giveaway for a Mov

Things I Love Thursday - Gotein and Giving Things Away

I'm a vanilla girl. I'm not saying I'm vanilla, like as in boring. I just like vanilla flavored and scented things. Milkshake? Vanilla. Hand soap? Vanilla. Candle? Vanilla. So when I was contacted and asked to review Gotein "protein to go," I was not surprised that my favorite is the vanilla. And it is yummy. I've never really been a protein shake drinker, but I've been thinking about adding it to my diet. So the review (and wait for it.......giveaway) were perfect timing. I was a little nervous the first time I poured a Gotein packet into my bottle of water. I tried chocolate first thinking maybe it would be like my post-run chocolate milk. I'll be honest; it wasn't. But it was good. It mixed up completely and went down easy. And it was just the right amount of chocolaty, with no aftertaste. So the next time, I tried the vanilla. Holy yum. And even though I kept forgetting to put some water bottles in the fridge and had to drink it at room temp

Our Definition of summer fun? Painting a swing set, of course

My girls have friends over to play. It is awesome because they are happy and busy. What isn't quite as awesome is they decided to play "puppies." So four little kids are crawling around my house, barking. And if you didn't know, kids have pretty high-pitched voices. Then there's poor Rowdy. He pretty much hasn't moved since the barking started. I can just imagine he's wondering if they are trying to play with him, taunt him or just annoy him. And since he can't see them (he is blind), he figures he'll just play it safe and steer clear of them. So our summer fun today was the playdate, which is actually me watching my cousins kids. But our kids (she has two boys almost the same ages as my girls) play great together, so it is an easy gig. Monday, our summer fun was repainting the swing set. Last time I painted it, I was pregnant with my Bean, so it has been a few years. It looked like this until yesterday: After a little of this: And this (2-year-old

Race Report: Utah Valley Half Marathon 2011

I have put this off because I don't know where to start. I guess I'll go with the Friday night blogger meet-up. It was fun to meet some of my favorite bloggers in person, and I was surprised how many bloggers were there that I didn't know. So now I have even more great blogs in my reader! I have more to say about the meet-up, but it could really be a post of its own and this is about my race, so I'll just finish this part with a pic of all the girls and me: Saturday morning, I got up just after 3 am and got ready for the race. I ate LUNA Bar and drank some water. After debating whether or not to carry my handheld water bottle, I finally decided to fill it with Powerade and take it. The only flavor I can really handle is White Cherry. I'm sure that is valuable information to you. Just before 4 am, I picked up my neighbor who was running it was well. It was her first race. And in case I forget to mention it later, she did great. Finished in 2:10 with a smile on her fa

Happy Girl

A PR and no puke. I'm a happy girl. More on Monday...

I'm So Excited (but I didn't add that song to my playlist)

I have crazy butterflies today. I am so excited for the blogger/runner meet-up tonight. And I am more excited for this race than I have been about a race in a long time. I don't know if it's because I ran it last year and finally broke two hours on a half or if it's because I know so many people running, but I can hardly contain myself. That is why I am blogging instead of napping. I knew it was pointless to try and sleep when all I would do is waste time thinking about tomorrow. As far as tomorrow goes, I already picked up my packet and have my race day outfit selected. I'll be sporting a pink shirt, just as an FYI. My goal is a PR, which means faster than 1:57:18. The course is downhill and they changed it just a little from last year so there isn't an uphill during the last mile this time. I feel pretty good about it. Oh, and I'd like to not puke after I finish, but that isn't exactly a goal. I'm excited to run with the help of some new tunes too, tha

Things I Love Thursday - Learning Things from Cosmo

Normally, the only magazines I read are Runner's World and Entertainment Weekly . Recently I subscribed to two additional running magazines (that I'm anxiously awaiting my first issues of) and received a free subscription to Cosmopolitan . Who knew Cosmo would have so much useful information for runners? Did you know your lady lumps (this applies only to women unless you are sporting man boobs, sorry guys) bounce eight inches vertically as you run? And they move in a figure-eight pattern. There are even statistics as to how much they move each direction!! Fifty percent up and down, 22 percent side to side, and 27 percent in and out. And that, ladies, is "Why Sports Bras Feel So Good." I found the perfect way to use with all those safety pins you bring home with your race bibs. This month's fun fearless fashion in Cosmo said to: "Gather up a small amount of fabric in the middle of a cotton tee and cut off the end of the gathered material to create a hole.

I Spend All Day on the Computer

In spite of The Princess telling her dad last night that I spend all day on the computer (she was mad at me at the time and also said she thinks I want to sell her - for the record I do not want to sell her), I have spent very little time on the computer the past few days. My lack of comments around the blog world and my last post being on Friday are proof of that. I just confirmed with The Princess that I have not been on the computer hardly at all today, so I am good-to-go guilt-free for a few minutes. So here's a quick peek into what I have been doing instead of blog writing and reading the past few days. Virtual 5K I ran my Virtual Race for Autism 5K . I ran 3.1 miles at half marathon pace as part of a short 4.1-mile tempo run today. It's taper week since I have a half marathon on Saturday, so I am taking it easy. Here's my proof that I ran it. And if I can stop being so busy (and sometimes lazy), I'll post a pic of me with my race bib. And if you haven't sig

24.6 days of music

My Bean had a bad dream and woke up at 5 am this morning. Since she decided not to go back to sleep, I am very tired and can't remember any of the interesting things I thought to blog about during my run yesterday. So instead, I am going to share my current running playlist with you. I'm also going to ask you to share your favorite running tunes with me. I need some new tunes for my race next Saturday. I even have an incentive to get you to take the time to leave a comment. The incentive? A $10 iTunes gift card. Here's how you can win it: Everyone who gives me a song suggestion will get an entry to win. Anyone who suggests a song that I actually download will get a second entry. And anyone who suggests a song that I already own but isn't on my playlist already will get a third entry. Blog, tweet, or Facebook about the giveaway and you will get an extra entry as well (be sure to let me know you did this one in another comment) . Now to give you an idea of the kind of mu

Things I Love Thursday - 26.2

Don't you just hate it when real work gets in the way of blogging. Alas, that is what happened the past few days. So instead of writing a play-by-play of my 12-mile run last week or a May running recap, I was learning everything there is to know about the American Concrete Institute Intermountain Chapter. Tell me you're not jealous. And now since it's Thursday, I must focus on something I love. This is quite easy since I have a backlog of Thursday topics. However, the post title might be a little misleading. I am still trying to make peace with 26.2 MILES. However, I am loving my 26.2 APPAREL . I received two pairs of shorts and four shirts for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to me indeed! I have worn all six items but only managed to get a few pictures. Gotta love the sweaty, post-run pics. I LOVE this shirt. It is seriously the softest fabric. I also got a solid pink shirt that is the same fabric that might become an everyday item in my wardrobe because it is so