CVX Half

My sister, dad and I had planned on running this race together after my mom passed away. My dad had been running and training but then hurt his knee and had to have surgery and wasn't able to run. My sister and I originally both were on a lets try to break 1:50 goal. Her goal then switched to 1:45 and then finally switched to a super high goal of breaking 1:40.

In my head, I wondered if I really could break 1:50. My training had been pretty good, but I really didn't do to much "speed" work. And then race day came...

We woke up early (4:30) to eat some breakfast and headed out around 5:15 since it was over an hour to the race. About 5:45, a deer ran out across the road and we hit it. What could possibly go wrong...K and I each called our sleeping hubbies back at the house in a panic as my dads car was leaking fluid. He was heading back to town and we were trying to get the boys to drive out to meet us and swap cars.

A little after 6 we were back on the road, with K driving like a mad women wondering if we would make it to race start. We had multiple plans for what to do once we got there...hop out pick up our registration so we would have our bibs and timing chip. That way if we didn't make it to the start right at 7:30 it would be ok.

We actually got to the race with some time to spare, it was 7:20 as we were picking up our bibs. Then wait in line for the port-a-potties. Then right before 7:30 while we were still waiting, a volunteer told us the bridge across the river goes up automatically at 7:30 so we might want to go across now and use the ones on the other side. Off we go and ran further to the potties as they were saying 2 minutes to the horn. As we were running back from the bathroom they sounded the horn. K and I got our music ready, said good luck and ran off at the back of the pack.

I actually ran the first half really controlled, which is surprising since my heart was racing. I hit the halfway mark (turn-around) at 55:15. Thought to myself how I just had to pick it up just a little to break 1:50. So I just started running hard. I have no idea how I managed to really pick up the pace and run that last half hard. I kept thinking of my mom and her strength and how whatever little pain I was going through would only last for so many minutes and how I could suffer that for her. And then crossed the finish line is 1:48:37.

What an almost magical race to me. I really felt her with me and was thankful we made it to the starting line. My sister used all her powers and ran 1:39. Both of us had probably one of the best races of our lives (in running sense). Perfect race course, perfect temperature...What a beautiful day.

Two Funny Things

First up, my department chair sent me this video last week. So funny, cracked me up:

Then my sister shared this with me this morning...a story about picking your battles and a large metal chicken. And this story is just so freaking awesome!

Getting Sick

Piper picked up a stomach virus over a week ago. Although she never had a fever or anything, just straight up poop everywhere for a week. For the first few days we thought it was the fact that we were mixing formulas to try a new formula, so we stopped but the poop did not. We gave up the cloth diapers after a couple days (so sorry to EZ for he dealt with most of those) and switch to just disposables until it passed.

It was so bad we were doing a load of laundry a day just to keep up with all the sets of sheets we were having to change after diaper explosions during naps and to wash towels from taking a few baths a day just to get the mess cleaned off her. Fun times. Worst up was the explosion while sitting in her highchair eating. There was no where for the poop to go but up her back and she ended up sitting in a pile of gooey poo. Oh good times.

I think we are done with it now, we are back on eating somewhat normally again and not refusing food which is good. And she seems much happier. I will say, I think she is getting ready to get a couple new teeth too (FINALLY, she still only has the two bottom ones).

Some other stats...so still only two teeth. Still not really saying any words but will sometimes repeat mama or dada but definitely doesn't say mama or dada to either of us specifically. She does do a lot of babbling and pointing at things. And she will point or look at things if you ask her where certain things are like the fan or clock or belly button. She also knows a lot of her toy names, like ball and Winnie the Pooh Bear, ect. I have worked for 5 months on trying to get her to wave but she wont do it. Oh well. In due time right!

In other news, we bought a fancy new camera! It just came and here are a few photos from the other day:

Memorial Day 2011

We headed up to meet some friends that will be moving overseas for a few years. It was a brief trip to Petersburg, VA to some playground where we ate lunch and hung out and talked. Meanwhile Ashley took some great photos of Piper with her great camera (totally inspiring us to buy a camera which should arrive soon). Here are a few of my favorites










I will post some slide pictures in a few days!

GF Bread

I haven't ventured out too much in the realm of GF baking but I finally got my act together and went out and found some of the products I needed and found an awesome bread recipe here.

What I loved about this recipe is that you can make it into whatever you want. She has a basic bread recipe with a liquid amount that could be anything you want. She also gives some suggestions. I first tried this bread as a blueberry lemon bread and it was yummy. It just so happens when you buy a can of coconut milk (which she recommends in the recipe), it will leave you enough for another loaf. So I then tried this bread a banana peanut butter chocolate chip and it was good too. EZ liked them too. While they were a little more dense and crumbly, they were both still super moist and had great flavor.

I am super thrilled about this recipe as it leaves me with lots of possibilities and I used Bob's Red Mill GF flour since I couldn't find some of the specialty ones she talked about if you want to use your own, and it was super easy to make. And you can turn them into muffins if you want to. What a great recipe! Will be making this one again and again. Once my zucchini come in in the garden, I think a zucchini chocolate chip one will be in order!

Fearless

We have had some fun times over the last week or so with little P. First up, we have decided that the playground is lots of fun. Loves climbing around on the contraptions, crawling through tunnels and loves going down the slides, even the fast ones!

We also have been heading up to the pool now that it is open. And wow, she loves the water. It is so cute to watch. She runs all through the spraying dragon and plays with the water sprouting up from the ground and actually likes putting her face in the water. She actually tries to swim which is so cute. I just hold her on her belly as she moves her arms and legs and puts her face in and takes it out. It is a lot of fun watching her take on the water.

We got the bike trailer hooked up to EZ's old mountain bike. I went on a 5 mile bike ride this morning with her and she seemed to do ok. I did stop half way through to go to the playground for a little bit. She doesn't seem to like it as much as the jogging stroller. At least not yet. Here are just a few photos. (Sorry we don't have any from the pool we have forgotten the camera each time we head up there).


Trying on the bike helmet


Very into Climbing on things


Fun crawling through the tunnel


Oh, and for updating milestone purposes...We are now able to standup to walk without holding on to anything. And as for words, EZ and I think she says dada and means it. (Although she calls other things dada). She does try to say "kitty" when she sees the cats, and in the past week she also has been trying to say her own name, but she just does the "p" sound. We think she has also said "ba" a couple times for ball. Sadly she doesn't show much interest in saying "mama".