My Life has Exploded

I'm looking at the disaster area around me...this really needs to change - our lives are busy, I don't have time or energy to clean. It's disgusting. Hopefully when I can start running again I'll get some energy back so I can get the house back on track.

This week has been really exciting. David decided to potty train this week which was a welcome gift! I received a phone call from daycare on Tuesday saying David wasn't feeling well. So, off I went to pick him up and when I got there he was crying hysterically (not like him at all). We got home and it became clear very quickly that the issue was severe diaper rash. Since we were home I took off his pants and let him run. Trying to get it to clear up as quickly as possible I figured it was a good move.  After a couple accidents and putting him on the potty he just picked it up and has been great since. Only one accident at daycare!

I haven't been running at all this week from what I suspect is a knee sprain. I've really missed it since it has become a really great release and escape for me. Plus, there is only 22 days until my next 5k and there is still a lot of training I need to do. My goal is to be under 33 minutes and comfortable running that distance by the time it comes around.  I was just getting to that point last week before I had to take a break for this damn knee.

Dan is incredibly excited to do some work on his mini-truck this winter. He's acting like a little kid in a candy store telling me about all his projects and the stuff that he is going to do. I'm excited for him and David really enjoys spending time with Dan in the garage and taking rides in his truck so it will be good for both of them.

Oh, and one of my exciting projects is this years Halloween party. I've been slacking the last couple years so I'm excited to go all out this year. If you have any ideas let me know!

Day 33 - 3 Miles

After Monday's run my knee was really bothering me so I decided to take at least an extra day of rest. Yesterday my knee felt good so my Mom came over and I headed out. It was still drizzling and a little chilly but it felt good after the first quarter mile. All in all it was a good run, it was hard but I was proud of my time and that was basically the only thing that kept me going.

My knee is going to hurt today...I can already tell so I think I'm going to take 4 days off and see if I can get this thing healed.

Day 33
3.02 Miles
33:16 (11:02 Mile)

September 15th

In some sick way I look forward to this day. It gives me the opportunity to reflect and realize how proud my dad would be of my life. The life that Dan and I have built for ourselves is something to be proud of no matter how much we struggle or succeed; we built it by ourselves for ourselves and no matter what happens we should be proud. Sometimes that sentiment gets lost during the year and I’m sure it is like that for a lot of people. Sadly, it is today that it all comes back to me.

I’ve come a long way in the past 3 years. Everyone grieves differently. When my Dad passed away the next couple weeks were a complete blur. Trips to the airport to pickup and drop off family, visitors at the house, phone calls from friends, every night we were out surrounding ourselves with people we were close with. Then I found out I was pregnant with David and my full attention was diverted to pregnancy and getting things ready for a baby.  For the first year I never had the opportunity to think about the fact that my Dad was dead, gone, in heaven, and I would never see him again. The next year was bad. I took it hard, harder than I think anyone expected me to and I internalized a lot of it. In hindsight it probably made the process a lot tougher than it needed to be.

It wasn’t until last year, probably around this time, that I could think of him being gone without getting the mental image of his last day. Every time I saw an ambulance tears would come to my eyes and I could literally see him and remember the feeling of sitting in the room watching him. The fear I had running through the hospital only to open the door and hear the worst sound in the world. No matter how hard I tried to think of the good times I couldn’t get past the sights and sounds of that day.

This past year has been a lot better. The passing ambulance still makes me think of him but not necessarily a tearful one. I’m capable of talking about him without getting choked up, laugh at some of the dumb jokes he would tell and being able to imagine some of the funny things he would say in response to some stuff that goes on in my life.  More often it is ‘Ha! If Dad was here’ rather than ‘I can’t believe my Dad is gone’.

Each day gets better and one day I’m sure that I will be able to make it through September 15^th without reliving every minute of that day 3 years ago. For now I’ll just remind myself that he would be proud of me and the life that Dan and I have built together. For now I’ll just remind myself that he was an awesome Dad and that I was lucky to have him while I did.

The Broken Chain

We knew that morning
that God was going to call your name.
In life we loved you dearly,
in death, we do the same.
It broke our hearts to lose you,
you did not go alone;
For part of us went with you
the day God called you home.
You left us peaceful memories,
your love is still our guide;
And though we cannot see you,
you are always at our side.
Our Family Chain is broken,
and nothing seems the same;
But as God calls us one by one
The Chain will link again.

-Unknown-

RIP Dad 

10/1/44 - 9/15/09

Ah Vacation!

Cancun was wonderful…for the most part. We made it to the resort around 1 pm on Sunday and immediately went out and investigated the grounds. We spent the rest of the week eating, drinking, sleeping and relaxing. The staff was unbelievable. Everyone was in a great mood, very nice, accommodating with anything and everything we could possibly need.

The grounds were immaculately kept. I don’t ever think I saw a piece of trash anywhere. Matter of fact, now that I think about it, I don’t think I ever saw a leaf in the walkway or grass or dirt! They came and checked your room twice a day. I think Monday we woke up and went down to the beach. When we went back to the room the bed was made and the room clean (they even lined our shoes up). We took showers, took a nap and headed out to the pool. When we got back to get ready for dinner the bed was made again, shower cleaned and new towels.  It was like we hadn’t been there earlier in the day. Crazy! The room service was included and provided around the clock. Good food, very quick and awesome staff.  The food overall was only okay. Very bland and pretty boring. The drinks were great and the bartenders were wonderful. My favorites were Miguel and Jonathan down at the lobby bar.

They had entertainment and activities daily that kept Dan busy and allowed me to lay by the pool soaking up the rays. Every 30 minutes to an hour was a new activity. They had beach soccer, beach volleyball, water volleyball, races, trivia, water aerobics, cornhole and a ton of other stuff. Dan seemed to enjoy it all but was upset he never got a t-shirt from any of the activities. They also did a Michael Jackson show on Monday night that was great. They had a Mexican Michael Jackson who lipped synched and everything.  There was a dinner show on Tuesday night but unfortunately we missed the show since I ended up with some type of food poisoning. Hit me right around 8 pm and had me up until 3 am. By morning my stomach was feeling better and we were out on the beach again.

Overall, the trip was great. The weather was beautiful, no one got horribly sunburned, the flights weren’t too bad and the length we were gone was perfect. I was happy to get home and see my little boy and get back into a routine.  We would go back in a heartbeat – maybe in a couple years we’ll be able to take another getaway vacation.

Day 30 - 3 Miles

It has officially been 1 month of running! I can't believe I'm still at it after a month since I really disliked running in the past I thought for sure I would give up after a week. There has been a couple times where I was ready to throw in the towel but I had already paid to run the 5k in Baltimore with Brandy so I couldn't quit!

Dan has decided to go back to the gym so when he got home at 7:30 I was walking out the door to run. I decided to run straight up Main Street since it had sidewalks and while it was light out I didn't feel safe running on the road. At 1.7 miles, when I turn around to head home, it was dark! The sidewalks and roads here aren't well lit so I headed back and tried to keep as far from the road as possible.

Overall the run was pretty easy. My first 2 miles were easy breezy so I tried to pick up the pace for my 3rd and boy did I feel it! On another note, my knee had been sore from my run on Saturday but felt good yesterday (even through the run) so I was hoping it was just a little stiff from not stretching enough. I could barely walk on it this morning. *sigh* It is feeling better this evening but I'm going to take an extra day rest in the hopes that it heals itself quickly.

Day 30
3 Miles
36:22 (11:58 mile)

Mile 1 - 12:20; Mile 2 - 12:11; Mile 3 - 11:24

Day 28 - 5K

I've been in Cancun since last Sunday. I was scheduled to run Monday and Wednesday - both times 2 miles. The resort had a gym on the first floor so Monday morning I got dressed went down and jumped on the treadmill. First of all - everything is in km not miles. Which would be fine if I was running a full 5k, but I wasn't so as I'm running along I have no idea how far I have to go to hit 2 miles and how fast I should be running. The windows were all closed, I was the 5th treadmill going, and there was no air conditioning. After a little over a mile I called it quits never to return.

Jump to yesterday morning. My first 5k, I'm running with my sister who has done a few of these before, and I'm freaking out a little. I haven't run in a week and I've never run 3 miles before. The farthest I've gone is 2 miles at this point. My goal was to hit 35 minutes...well really I would have liked to be at 33 minutes but where I was in training that goal was not realistic. The beginning of the run is going okay, we got caught behind some walkers which stunk but we got through the majority of them within the first 1/2 mile. That's just about the point where I realized I should have gone to the bathroom prior to starting the run.

First mile was a breeze, I wasn't breathing hard, our run pace was steady. The next mile was still good, we were running in the sun and it was getting hot but my breathing was still under control and my pace was fine. Once we hit the third mile I was having to convince myself to continue running. I had to go to the bathroom so bad, my pace was still pretty steady but my legs felt like they weighed a million pounds. At about 2.5 miles I couldn't take it anymore and stopped for a potty break. When I came back out my shoe was untied and of course I had to stop for that. After that happened my concentration and drive was gone. I got moving again and finished but missed my goal of 35 minutes. I was pretty down on myself for the rest of the day when I shouldn't have been. I finished my first 5k!

Day 28
3.18 miles
37:49 (11:58 mile)

Student Again

I've been saying for years now that I would go back and finish my degree and it hasn't happened...until now. I'm proud to say that I have bit the bullet and enrolled back in school. I have quite a few credits sitting out at UMD and they will continue to sit there while I collect some cheap credits from the community college that I can transfer up. I'm hoping to only have to take about 40 credits once I enroll at University College or whatever 4 year I decide to go to complete my degree. That should save quite a bit of money. Plus most of the online programs won't graduate you unless you take 30+ credits with them.

My first class starts Oct. 15th and I'm hoping that I can get this done in 2 years. Wish me luck :)

Still Couponing

I have backed off a little from couponing. I still go every week and stock up on some freebies but haven't had the opportunity to really have a good trip out. I did do CVS and Walgreens this week. I didn't go grocery shopping since we will be gone and I don't want to waste the food.  I don't have a picture of Walgreens stuff so I'll skip that for now but here is CVS:

Transaction 1
(1) St. Joseph Aspirin
(2) Visine

(1) -$1/1 St. Joseph Aspirin
(2) -$3/1 Visine

Total Before Savings: $14.07
OOP: $2.41
ECB Reward: $2.00

Transaction 2
(4) Visine
(2) Aussie Shampoo

(4) -$3/1 Visine
(1) Free Aussie Product
(1) -$1/1 Aussie Product
Used -$4/$20 CVS
Used $2 ECB

Total Before Savings: $29.62
OOP: $1.74 (the f'd up my transaction and I lost a $3 Visine Coupon!)

Transaction 3
(2) Dawn Soap

(1) -$0.25/1 Dawn

Total Before Savings: $3.54
OOP: $1.84
ECB Reward: $10 Gas Card


So all added up I paid $5.99 oop for a $10 gas card and got $47 worth of stuff for free!

Day 21 - 1.5 Miles

Yesterday was my "easy" day. I knew that this journey wouldn't be easy per se but shit...how long do I have to run before 1.5 miles can be considered easy! Off the jump I felt like I was running too fast. 5 mph is slow but its comfortable for me right now. I could probably have run 3 miles on Monday night at that pace. I say that in anticipation of how ridiculous this will sound but yesterday I was at a 5.3 mph pace. HA! An increase of .3 mph and I thought I was going to die at the end. I don't understand it! What's my issue? Maybe its because I ran at night on Monday and in the morning on Wednesday? Maybe I don't warm up well enough in the morning? Who knows - all I know is that 1.5 miles shouldn't be harder (for me, in my particular case) than 2 miles.

Seeing how tonight goes maybe I'll run tonight rather than tomorrow morning and see how it feels. I think my next run is another 2 miler...

Day 21
1.5 Miles
16:48 (11:11 mile)