Crossroads

I feel like I’m floundering in my own little corner of the blog world.

I haven’t been very interested in posting lately.  I am hitting “Mark as Read” in my Google Reader more often than I want.  I have officially become a lurker.

I don’t have much to say on Twitter.  Facebook seems a little crazy right now. I can only keep up with so many different social networking sites.

The computer is slowly getting pushed out of my schedule.

I don’t want to quit the blog.  I really, really don’t.  But I feel like I’m not contributing  a lot lately and that makes me feel like a hypocrite…like each post is just a big Fakey McFakester attempt to put something out there so I don’t fade away into oblivion.

Blogging seems like a job lately.  It’s just one more thing on my ever present To-Do List. And I know that’s not how it’s supposed to be.

I need to ask myself why I blog.  Who am I doing it for?

The honeymoon is over, but how do I make it fun again??

You Capture – My Life

Well, my life this week has been kind of all about sickness and ickiness and blech.  I didn’t get the camera out much, but I did get it out during a rousing game of Uno.

Uno is pretty big in this house.  We play a couple of times a week and at least one of those games ends up being an hour long. I wish I were exaggerating.  That’s a loooong game of Uno.  Emma usually poops out after about 15 minutes.

But Dave and Jake, they are in it for the long haul. And Jake wins an more than nay one person should win anything.

You Capture is hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry!

Open letters

Dear throat,

I’m really sick of you not feeling good.  I drink plenty of water, I treat you right and all you do is give me swollen lymph nodes and nasty phlegm.

Get over yourself.

Please get better,
That sick girl

Dear knee,

I’m really sorry if I put too much stress on you yesterday.  I thought you would enjoy the 2nd day of running, but obviously I was wrong.

I didn’t realize how sensitive tendons were!

I hope you like the ice and ibuprofen I got for you! I really enjoy not limping so please get well soon.

Please get better,
The limping girl

Dear Jake and Emma,

I hope that one day you realize I did this for you.

I love you.

Now please clean up the green stamp ink from your desk and the play-doh ground into your sheets. Then stop screaming. Then get dressed. You can have your stuff back when you start listening and doing what I ask you to do.

Have a good day at school!

All my love,
The crazy lady who’s trying not to yell

World Sisterhood EA Sports Run Day

Yesterday was World Run Day 2009 and also our EA Sports Active 5k Challenge over at The Sisterhood.  There was no race in my area yesterday, so I had to come up with own route.  Luckily, there’s a race in a couple of weeks so I just went online and stole the course.

And oh my, it was a beautiful day for running.  It was sunny and mid 60s.  The park was PACKED! It was kind of like being in a race anyway.

So, I donned my GPS and my iPod.  I had my directions all written out (It was 11 turns…I wasn’t about to try and remember all of that.  The directions continued on the inside of my hand, LOL!)

I had my print out bib provided by World Run Day. Click on the pick to see who I was running for.

And most importantly, I had my headband and tube socks. (FYI, if you ever want tube socks in a pinch and can’t find any, red duct tape works WONDERS on a pair of regular ol’ tube socks.)

Why the tube socks?  Well, to promote the newest challenge over at The Sisterhood, of course.  I’ll let you go there to read about it.

And off I went.  I had one goal in mind: to run the whole thing.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.  Stupid hills.  I really hate running on any kind of incline.  I ended up walking for a total of 2:30 (in 3 separate chunks) and had a final time of 35:14. But that’s still 11 seconds off my last race!

I hit 3.1 miles before I made it back to Dave (you gotta love a man who says “Sure, I’ll come take pictures of your fake race!”) which is why I’m walking.  He said I should have run it out to him.

Whatever.

But for the first time ever, I placed first in my age group!!  Whoohoo!!

Fitness Friday!

I realize it’s been a while since I’ve posted a Fitness Friday, but I finally feel like I have something to talk about!

This past Wednesday, I ran 3.1 miles without stopping for the first time EVER!  I’ve completed 2 5k races, but I always had to walk a portion of them.

The key this time?  I slowed down.  WAY down.  When I first started training for these races I was trying to run at 6mph because that’s what I thought running was.  Then I always felt disappointed in myself when I couldn’t finish.

On Wednesday, I ran at 5mph.  It took me over 37 minutes, but I ran the whole thing.  That’s huge.  HUGE!!

I am doing a virtual 5k this Sunday in conjunction with World Run Day and the latest fitness challenge at The Sisterhood.  My goal?  Run the whole thing.  Now, I have no excuses because I know I can do it.

On Sunday, The Sisterhood is starting a new fitness challenge…we are going to log as many miles as we can during the challenge.  You know what that means?  Time for a new ticker!  I’ll be updating my mileage on the sidebar for those who are interested.

If you’re not interested, than I’ll be updating it for myself.

Because really, this is the one thing that should be all about me.

You Capture – My choice!

This week was Photographer’s Choice for You Capture. I always seem to struggle when left to my own devices, but I absolutely loved this shot when I downloaded it.

Seriously, you can’t beat this for a backdrop for soccer.  And I just love how patient Jake looks!

You Capture is hosted by Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry!

Wordless Wednesday – Feeling little, feeling big

For more pics, visit Wordless Wednesday or 5 Minutes for Mom!

Steppin’ out

I’m not sure what I liked the most about venturing out after the rain…

…your fascination with the Mommy Worm…

…or sharing with the world your keen fashion sense…

Not what I expected

One week with no blogging, Twittering, or Facebooking and very limited e-mailing is not at all what I expected.

I thought I would have more free time.

I thought I would have my to-do list knocked at by noon.

I thought I would exercise every day.

I thought I would get through at least one book.

I thought I would play board games with Emma and Jacob until my eyes fell out.

I thought I would be in bed by 11:30 every night.

None of that happened.

The time that I would normally spend on the computer was filled with other stuff that kept me from my to-do list.

Whether the computer is on or off, life goes on.  For better or worse, there will always be SOMETHING that presents itself as an obstacle.

And so, again, it’s all about balance.  It’s all about getting down to the heart of what really matters.  It’s about looking at my to-do list and thinking about what is most important and getting rid of the stuff that isn’t.

So this is what mattered last week:

• I ordered tickets to a pre-Broadway musical (The Addams Family) for Dave and I while we are in the Chicago area over Christmas. It’s our gift to each other because we don’t need more stuff. Oh yeah, it doesn’t hurt that it stars Nathan Lane, Bebe Neuwirth and Terrence Mann.
• Emma and I tried on silly glasses at Target that were too funny NOT to take pictures (seriously, do people buy these?)
  



• We bought supplies to make up UMCOR school, health, and layette kits to send with a mission team from our church who is going to Africa.
• Dave and I decided that we are going to start scheduling monthly 1-on-1 time with the kids.  One Saturday a month on Kids’ Day, we are each going to take Jake or Emma for 2 or 3 hours and do whatever they want.  Even Chuck E. Cheese. The next month, we swap kids. We rarely spend 1-on-1 time with them anymore.
• We are also starting a Family Game Night.  For the most part, I would like it to be electronics free, but even a family game of Wii Bowling is better than every scattering after dinner.
• On Saturday, we spent nearly 8 hours together while Jake had his soccer tournament in the morning and Emma had hers in the afternoon.  Then we went to our friends house after trick-or-treating and let the kids stay up way too late and we ate too much sugar.

Now if I can only get a handle on my online solitaire problem…

Off to read the 450 posts in my Google Reader!!

It’s a Shrink-a-versary Extravaganza

We interrupt this computer hiatus for a very important announcement:

WE’VE BEEN SHRINKING FOR A YEAR!

I seriously cannot believe it’s been a year since I’ve joined up with this amazing group of people.  They’ve been encouraged me during my up times and supported me during my down times.  They are truly, TRULY amazing.

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary, we are doing some wild and crazy things over at The Sisterhood.  Here are the highlights:

• A new weight loss challenge  will run from Wednesday, October 28th until Wednesday, December 16th. That’s SEVEN weeks to shrink, shrink, shrink, and shrink some more!
• Starting November 1st, we’ll have a giveaway EACH AND EVERY DAY, so you’ll want to make sure and stop in each day to enter. You’ll have several chances to win, and each giveaway will end at midnight Pacific time that day. Winners will be announced the next morning. Free stuff.  Every day.  Word.
• Our next fitness challenge will kick-off on November 9th. We’ll all lace up our walking and running shoes and start logging our miles! Each weigh-in (starting November 11th) we’ll report our weight AND our miles. At the end of the challenge we’ll tally up the miles walked/ran by all of our members and the member with the biggest number will be crowned our Globetrotting Champ. Get your striped socks, headbands and wrist bands ready!

I think that covers the basics.  My starting weight for this challenge is 156.8.  I’ve said it before and I guess I’ll have to say it again.  I WILL BE AT 153 BY THE END OF THIS CHALLENGE, DAMN IT!!!

That is all.  Now go.  GO!  Check it out and go get your Shrink on!