Second 5K wrap-up

Today two of my strong running mama friends and I ran a 5K in my neighborhood. It started and finished at SkyWalker's elementary school. I had been hoping to finish in less than 30 minutes, but my primary goals were to run the whole way, not pee my pants, and to do better than I did in my last race. I did not finish in under 30 minutes. But I ran the whole way, I stayed dry, and I did better than my last race. I think the last one was 33:18 and this time I came in at 30:52. There weren't many people running so it was easy to start running right away. Too easy. I started out way too fast and then couldn't keep it up. A few times I wanted to just stop altogether, but I didn't, and I think I'm happier about that than I am about not finishing in under 30. I came close anyway. And I had been under the impression that my Nike+ needed calibrating again since it told me I ran 4.9 miles last Sunday and I was sure I had only done 4.5. But it was exactly what it should have been, which means I ran 4.9 miles on Sunday! That's only a mile and change away from a 10K. 

I'm pleased with the results even though I really wanted to do less than 30 minutes. My friends totally smoked me and finished in 27/28 minutes! 

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So what about...?

The Princess:

When I was 20 weeks pregnant with the Princess I had an ultrasound to see if there was anything wrong with the placenta because of the partial abruption I had with SkyWalker. The placenta was fine, but they saw dilation (backed up fluid) in the right kidney. That was roughly 3 1/2 years ago and we have been dealing with it ever since. She's been on antibiotics every day since the day she was born. She was taken off after her first surgery but developed reflux and got a UTI within just 2-3 months and put back on them. 

Today was her latest ultrasound. There's still some dilation around the ureter they fixed, but it looks exactly the same as it did 6 months ago. Not better, but also not worse. We finally heard the words we've been waiting to hear--she can go off the medication. We'll have to be super vigilant about preventing UTIs from all the other ways little girls get them--holding in pee too long, not wiping correctly, etc. I am sure I will be more paranoid than ever now. I think I'll probably get those at home UTI test kits so I don't have to drag her to the doctor every time I panic. She'll have yearly ultrasounds to make sure that nothing is changing but other than that she should be okay.

*************

SkyWalker:

We had some bad days and got into some serious altercations, but for the most part it's been great having SkyWalker home. I almost don't want him to go back to school. Our problems always stem from the same thing--he makes some kind of mess or does some crazy thing and then when I tell him it's time to stop he refuses to listen and is disrespectful and rude and doesn't take me seriously. Until I explode and then he's hysterical. How quickly it takes me to explode seems to vary a lot lately. We've been doing pretty well recently. And when I put things in perspective, we only have these blowups at home, never in public. When we are out he is always very well behaved. He's a great big brother. How many almost 6 year olds do you know who willingly take their 3 year old sisters outside and push them on a swing? With a smile? He's always coming and getting Chewie out of the dishwasher and taking her to her toys and distracting her so she'll stop crying. He loves his sisters and I know I can always trust him with them. 

He has huge tonsils and probably huge adenoids and will see an ENT in September who will probably recommend surgery. This will royally suck since as we all know surgery sucks, but more so because he will be a big baby about the recovery. And this is the first time I have a kid having surgery who can actually say the words "I don't want surgery." So that's fun.

*************

Chewie:

She walks. I fought it, but she walks. She doesn't run and she still crawls more than walks, but she is putting one foot in front of the other on a regular basis. She also screams. She makes sounds and can say Mama and Dada and Nana and bababababababa. But for the most part her preferred method of communication is "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" very loudly. She can hear, she copies her brother's humming and singing, and she sometimes follows directions. She is just LOUD. Perhaps when she has me all to herself she will find her inside voice. It must be inside of her somewhere. 

*************

Running:

I had to cut down to 3 times a week, which is the funniest thing I think I've ever written. I have yet to do any yoga and probably won't. I do have a weight lifting routine that I will start after my race this Saturday. I am training for a 10K in October, but since I am pretty sure SkyWalker's surgery will be in October I'm kind of doing it for the training and expecting to not actually do the race. Whatever happens, happens. I ran my longest distance (4.5 miles) last Sunday and thought "I only have to do 1.5 more" not "holy crap how am I going to do 1.5 more?" So that's good. Oh! And my girlie problem turned out to be nothing more than some low-down cramping so I just have to take motrin 800 and I'm all good. It won't interfere with my running at all. 

*************

Working:

I've been thinking a lot about when I have to go back to work when my last baby is in school. I have no desire whatsoever to go back to work. But I'm sure Vader will have a heart attack if I say that. If I could find a library job that will let me work 9-1 that would be great. I want to get the kids off the bus and be here when there are here. I don't want nights or weekends. I just don't want that anymore. Ideally, I would like to find a job that will let me work from home. Even though I get paid crapola from the examiner I've been doing lots of articles. I'm trying to build up a resource between that and my book blog and establish my presence online again. If I can do some kind of freelance writing or even librarianing (I know that's not a word but I like it.) through the internets I think we'd be okay. Vader's school loan is paid off. Mine will be paid off by then. We won't be spending money on diapers. The only debt we have is the van and the house. And by the time the last baby is in school SkyWalker might be old enough to start mowing lawns. So, if you haven't been reading my examiner articles or going through my book blog to get to amazon, you're dead to me.

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Help a sister out

This is not about running.

FYI, I'm making lots of changes to my book blog. I'm now an amazon associate, which means that I will make a tiny bit of money if you get to amazon through me and then buy something. So if you're addicted to amazon like me, stop at my book blog first. Thanks!

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Coming out

I'm coming out.

Of the closet.

The running closet, that is. 

I know. I've been doing this running thing since March, or well, really since September when I started (and failed) the Couch to 5k. And I know I ran my first 5k in June. And here it is, the last week in July, and I am just now coming out. When I first started in September I did it because of my friends was so happy, so in LOVE with running, that I wanted to experience that. But it wasn't the right time for me. Chewie and I were still struggling with our routine (i.e. naps) and school had just started. So I quickly failed. But I kept getting on that treadmill. Then in March when my happy running friend organized a group of moms to train them to run a 5k, I thought it would be good to try again and it would help in my friendship quest. I followed my directions and ran what I was supposed to run (for the most part). I did the race, peed my pants, and decided to keep getting on the treadmill and going outside for my weekly Sunday run and I was proud of that. The last few weeks I've been doing less mileage because I have a MILLION things to do and just not enough time. And I was okay with that. And then. 

And then.

Last Thursday night I went for an evening run with my strong running mama friends. It. Was. Awesome. I ran 3.5 miles (okay, 3.49) and it was great. It was nice to run without the sun shining in my eyes, but it was more than that. It was so nice running with these people. They pushed me to continue when I would have given up on my own. They made it fun. They made it awesome. 

Since then I have registered to run another race (in my hometown! in August), I've upped my miles on the treadmill again, I've researched yoga for runners and am waiting for my Yoga-teacher sister to get me a plan so I can do some cross-training to help me improve, and I've reached out to people to find a running partner closer to home. Through the magic of the internets and social media I have actually found one and will be doing a run with her on Sunday. (My strong running mamas don't live in my town and while I would definitely drive to where they are again, it's nice to have somebody right here so I don't have to add a 25 minute drive to the time I need coverage for the kids.)

And I realized that I am, without a doubt, a Runner now. If I were to get pregnant tomorrow (which I am absolutely not) I would still keep running. That is HUGE for me. I want to have some more time and get some more miles in so that I feel absolutely comfortable running while pregnant, so I won't be running for two anytime soon. That's okay. I'm having fun running for one. For me.

I have a MILLION things to do, who doesn't?, so I need to rearrange my life/schedule a little bit. I go out every Sunday morning for a run on my road. This past Sunday I also wrote my examiner articles for the week so all I had to do was publish them. I'm planning on running Monday, Wednesday, Friday and then doing the yoga and some strength weight training on Tuesday, Thursday. I need to get up earlier in the morning and make better use of my evening time so that I can devote my nap time and not feel overwhelmed because of laundry or dishes or the dogs. I fritter a lot of time away during the day, 5 minutes here and there checking facebook and whatnot because I think it's only 5 minutes. But it adds up. That's 5 minutes I could fold the laundry still sitting in the basket in my bedroom. I think that if I stay on target I can make this work. And if I can't, well, don't look at my toilet when you pee in it because I'll be running and not cleaning it.

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One foot in front of the other

I swear this isn't turning into a running blog. Remember when all I blogged about was poop? I could do that again. 

I've been doing pretty well sticking to my running plan of fewer miles but more often. I've been doing decently with my speed, but it's a little easier for me because I'm doing lower mileage. I can't keep it up for very long... but I'm not in training right now and if I'm honest I probably won't run another race until next year's Freihofer's. I'm okay with that. I'm not really that competitive with other people. I do enjoy running with my friends (and am super psyched to be going out for an evening run tomorrow night with them!) but I don't have any racing itches. My biggest obstacle is myself so as long as I keep plugging away I'm happy. 

Which is why I'm super happy today. I ran on Sunday and Monday, and would normally run today (Wednesday) and Friday. We're doing a group run tomorrow night, so I could have not run today. I got my monthly girlie "friend" so I could have not run today. I should clean my house for my mother's visit so I could have not run today. I thought all of this as I laced up my sneakers, grabbed my strong running mama bracelet, reset my iPod, peed for the 10th time, and headed for the treadmill. I took it slow and easy. I ran 1.5 miles in a wee bit over 15 minutes (not much). Slow, but steady. Those 15 minutes were awesome. I had no pain. I just ran. I was going to run for 20, and then when I noticed how late it was I said I'll just do a mile, but when I got to 10 minutes I didn't stop. I just kept going. And when I got to 15 I didn't stop. I did stop at 1.5 miles but if I hadn't had to shower and get ready for children I would have kept going and going. As I stood in the shower feeling like I was having a baby all over again (yes, the pain is that bad, and yes I'm going to the doc next week) I contemplated getting out of the shower and going on the treadmill again. 

I'm looking forward to running tomorrow evening and may even run Friday again. I'm not really pushing myself so I don't think I need that much rest time.

My sister said she doesn't even know me anymore. Which reminded me of two funny running related things I forgot to put here--months ago, before the race, my Happy Runner mentor was telling her husband about my goals and progress and he said something about me being an athlete in high school. That's what he thought! I'm pretty sure I said "somewhere my brother and sister just fell out of their chairs laughing and they don't know why." HAHAHA. And then, just after the race when I took the girls for their birthday checkups one of the nurses randomly looks at me and says "do you run?". I looked behind me and there was no one else so I said "yeah." I was like, holy crap, do I look like a runner now?? And then she said she had seen me running in the city. 

Quiet time is sadly over, as is napping time. Which means my free time is over as well. I am sitting on the couch with an ice pack on my girl parts and for the first time regretting having to walk up stairs to get this baby. 

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Clicking

I woke up this morning with a slight headache that was made much worse by the Princess screaming and crying because I wasn't holding her hand down the stairs. Of course I was supposed to guess that she wanted me to hold her hand. We had plans to go to an art museum across the river so I really didn't want to start the day on the wrong foot, but alas, she did not cooperate. We managed to leave the house on time, then I drove past the 1 way road I was supposed to take and had to navigate other 1 way roads to get back. So we wound up 10 minutes late. Not that it really mattered since the art museum was kind of a bust. It was nice to see our friends, but the entire time we were there there was a staff member following us so she wouldn't miss an opportunity to say "Don't touch that!". Apparently the signs with the text explaining what the exhibit is was just as valuable as the actual exhibit. Whatevs. We found the playroom and the kids at least got a chance to release some energy there. I was venting about everything I had to get done today, or wanted to get done, because I had "lost" a day yesterday. We had an awesome time at a state park halfway between here and LI and met my family there. But it meant that I didn't get my article written yesterday and I had really wanted to get a 4th run in today. And my house was a mess. I was lamenting that something was going to have to go today. Not really complaining, just lamenting. 

We got home early, made lunch, I did the lunch dishes as the kids were still finishing up, and then got them all upstairs earlier than usual because Chewie was tired. She fell asleep around 1, I read to the other two and almost fell asleep myself. When I got back downstairs I started working on my article. I got it done relatively quickly and heard... silence. Chewie was still asleep. There were no loud dangerous noises from upstairs. It was almost 2:30 and I didn't know how much time I had left. It had been a couple of hours since I had eaten which is not ideal running conditions for me. I think I really do have a fast metabolism. I need to eat constantly. But I needed to try to get a run in... I couldn't let this opportunity pass! I had a spoonful of peanut butter while I restarted my iPod (I have to restart it before each run in order to hear the Nike+ voice feedback) and then a banana while I tried to find something to wear. All of my running clothes were in the washing machine. Well, not all, but I wasn't wearing pants even if I do have air conditioning. The good thing about a treadmill in your house though is that no one sees what you are wearing. I mostly wear just sports bras and I found an old one, and then I grabbed a pair of "shorts" that are really some kind of boxers but did the job. I got my shoes, grabbed my "strong running mama" bracelet that I always run with, and headed downstairs. I had been trying to run 3 miles each time (or run/walk it) but that was eating up so much of my free time... so I decided to cut down on my miles but run more often. Which is why I really wanted to get my 4th run in (the run I did at the park to get clean underwear for the peeing Princess didn't count.). I've been aiming for 2 miles this week, but it was so late when I started out today that I figured I would just do a mile and be happy with it. Since I was just doing a mile I thought I'd try to push it a little and really make it a good one. I got it done in 9:29 which was really good for me. 

I couldn't believe that I got to write an article AND run during the same nap/quiet time! But wait, there's more! 

I showered, including shaving my legs! I got the clothes from the dryer and put more in the wash. My article was the most popular one on the website for a short amount of time. By then it was 3:30 and that's when quiet time is over. Chewie woke up, SkyWalker came downstairs and told me that the Princess had fallen asleep! Great Odin's Beard! The Princess had fallen asleep! Unfortunately Chewie had just woken her up and the Princess was now crying about... something. We had snack, I did some online research into DVD recorders, and then I put them all in the pack n play and trained the dogs. I've been having problems, particularly with Isaac, getting the dogs to listen. It's not enough that I have to constantly tweak my parenting skills with my damn kids, now I have to work on the dogs too. There was a time when I didn't even have to use words. I made hand motions and Isaac just did what he had to do. But that time is long gone. In an effort to reassert my authority, since I'm the one that's home with them most often, I'm going back to the beginning and spending a little time each day "training." By training I mean telling them to sit or lay down or stay and giving them treats. Isaac did really well, better than Haze even, and Haze is usually my good listener. After I did all the treats I did one more command and then I brushed each of them. We don't really do that because they don't have an awful lot of hair, despite how much is all over my house. And then while the kids were still in the pack n play I swept! Without babies crawling in the dirt! It was awesome. 

SkyWalker had made a big mess in his room during his quiet time and I was expecting problems but while I was "making" dinner (Fridays are frozen pizza and salad) he went upstairs and cleaned it up! And the Princess's room! They went a little nuts during dinner, but I can't really blame them. It's hard to tow the line all day long. You've got to let out your inner crazy at some point. 

It was one of those days when everything just clicked into place. I had been anticipating not being able to get anything done and instead I got everything done. (Well, okay, not everything. My bathroom is still disgusting & I have to pay bills, but the important things were done today!)

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In which my nosiness pays off

For the past few weeks we've been getting phone calls for a particular person. At first I thought it was just a wrong number. But when more than one company started calling looking for the same name we got a little concerned. I had told them they had the wrong number but then other companies started calling and I thought maybe someone was trying to pull a fast one on us (although logically I knew that identity theft would not be someone using our phone number with a different name, it still bothered me). The other morning we received yet another call from yet another company. I explained to the woman how we had been getting phone calls and I was concerned and asked her who she was from and was this all related. She HUNG UP ON ME.

Then I got pissed. 

So I called the 800 # that was on my caller ID and was greeted with a message saying "Your phone # is listed with an account ending in 8568, is this correct?" which kind of freaked me out but I was still in pissed mode. I just hit random numbers until I got a human on the phone. I explained the situation and it turned out he was from HSBC. He was much more helpful than the lady who just hung up on me. He said it wouldn't be identity theft and that it was most likely an incorrect phone number that this lady was giving out. I asked him to confirm the name and he did and then he even spelled it for me which was so helpful. The name sounded like, well, it sounded like it could be on a terrorist list. But when he spelled it I realized that it was not. He removed our number and assured me we wouldn't be called again. 

Then I got curious.

So I looked in the phone book. And there was someone with the last name living in my town. I figured, what the hell? I called the number and got an answering machine with a woman's voice (the phone was in a man's name). I left a message saying that I had been receiving calls for a Blank-Blank and I wanted to make sure that she wasn't missing out on these calls. Blah blah blah. I tried to make it sound like I didn't want her financial info to be messed up, but really I was just letting her know that if this was the first step in anything I was on to her. I didn't say my name or leave my phone number. Half an hour later the phone ran. 

It was her.

She must have caller ID too. Long story short (too late) she's out of work and apparently in debt and they're trying to track her down and are calling old numbers. She had our number roughly 10 years ago. She said she's been getting the calls too, so I would bet that she's ignoring them and that's why they're calling us! Hopefully it will stop now, but if it doesn't I have her new number to share. 

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