Surviving Summer

We are now three weeks into Summer Break and doing fine! Here's how the past few weeks have gone:

Sunday 6/10: Used the solar oven to cook beef stew for Sunday dinner. Oh yum. I love the solar oven! This date 18 years ago I met the man who was to become my husband. His first impression of me was that I looked like a praying mantis. My first impression of his physical appearance was that he was the funniest looking guy I'd ever met -- tall, almost unnaturally skinny and wiry, blond as they come, big round eyes behind big round glasses, round nose, round nostrils, wide curving smile. What impressed me the most (and still does to this day) was the strength and gentleness of his spirit. I felt his big heart and compassionate nature even then and it's what I fell in love with a few years later. It's what I love the most about him today. From that porch in Somerville, NJ 18 years ago to 13 years of marriage and 3 kids, it's been a wonderful adventure.

Monday 6/11: 5 mile run in the morning. The monkeys began tennis lessons, S&O on top of their thrice-weekly swimming. When we came home from our wild and crazy morning, S&O formed a band. This is the picture they had me take for the cover of their first album:

And nothing says summer like popsicles on a porch swing. This was the spontaneous picture:

This one was after I said, "Smile!" Is S approaching adolescence? Yes, I think so.

Chef H chose apples, crackers, and cheese for lunch and pancakes for dinner. We went to "Shakespeare for Kids" at the library ("Romeo and Juliet") and then to the Scera Shell to see "The Wizard of Oz." One of my friends was the Munchkin coroner, and one of S's friends was in the ensemble, so that, coupled with bug repellent and treats, made it a fun evening!

Tuesday 6/12: On account of our late night, we all slept in -- even my little alarm clock H! We weeded the garden. Chef H chose quesadillas for lunch and baked potatoes (in the solar oven) for dinner. O's best friend came to play, and a neighbor girl came to play with H. Tons o' fun.

Wednesday 6/13: 3 mile run in the morning, followed by the busyness of swimming and tennis, followed by a slow afternoon. J worked from home. After dinner I ran errands, going to the grocery store and Costco by myself, which was a real treat! It's the simple things that make life great, right?

Thursday 6/14: Made granola bars, cleaned out the van, prepared food, packed my backpack. Did the laundry, took kids to piano, collected reading rewards from the library. Chorale at night, at which I was completely distracted because...

Friday 6/15 - Saturday 6/16: I ran the Wasatch Back! Separate post pending...

Saturday 6/16: I arrived home from that crazy relay at 7, pulling in front of my house to see J working on a project, the driveway and garage a mess, the house even worse, and the kids not even close to being ready for bed. But they had fun with J, so that's all that counts...

Sunday 6/17: ...except that due to lack of sleep on my part, I was super crabby about getting to clean up after party weekend at my house and in my van. I did get up and make yummy cornbread muffins for breakfast, started the potato salad, and put ribs in the solar oven for dinner. During church I visited with one of my favorite people in the whole world, and I snuck a nap in after church. That helped. Must note that when I don't get enough sleep, the filter that catches inappropriate things from slipping out of my mouth just goes away. It sure made church interesting.

Monday 6/18: Swimming, tennis, S to a writer's workshop at the library, car wash, lunch, conducting lesson, Quiet Time, Shakespeare for Kids, dinner, bed! Somehow we packed it all into Monday! Plus a brief visit with a friend who was in town only for a few days, a quick facebook chat with another great friend that I hadn't heard from in a while, and J home early from work. H chose left-over meatloaf muffins for lunch and angel hair pasta for dinner.

Tuesday 6/19: 4 mile run in the morning. S mowed the lawn and attended the writer's workshop. I took apart the Dyson vacuum that stopped sucking a week after I bought it, extracted the carpet fuzz stuck in its innards, and rejoiced when it started sucking once again!

Wednesday 6/20: Tried like the dickens to get O (aka "Little J") up and at 'em in the morning:

 
It's amazing how much like J O is. (H is on the chair, awake at 6:30AM like his mom, obsessed with technology like his dad.) Most mornings when everyone is dressed, O is still in bed, with the covers over his head. Took the kids to Costco and the grocery store, after which I left them all at home under S's watchful (?) eye to drop by a few friends' houses and restore my sanity. After Quiet Time, S's best friend came over with her bike, so we went to the church parking lot to ride bikes, picking up a few kids along the way. Homemade bean burritos for dinner.

Thursday 6/20: 6 mile run in the morning. Chores done before piano. H's best friend over to play in the morning. H to another friend's house in the afternoon. I tried a new whole wheat bread recipe that's a winner! Chorale at night. Much-needed walk with J once I got home from Chorale. I need music and I love music, but along with music comes wacky-E. Trying to find balance there...

Friday 6/21: This morning I went to watch the boys' swim practice. That scrawny little S has some skinny arms, but when he starts gliding through the water -- holy back muscles, Batman! It's so fun to watch those kids take off like fish! I fussed with the sprinkler system at a rental and came home to find J home from work early! After lunch I lined the kids up on the carpet and with a stern look on my face told them they were in so much trouble. I said, "You kids are the best kids on the planet, so as punishment, we are taking you out for ice cream!" 5 cups of ice cream, 5 coupons, and $0 later:

We are surviving summer really well this year. We even skipped the horrible 1-2 week adjustment period that we've had to go through in the past. We've worked hard, had a lot of fun, spent a minimal amount of money, and played with friends. Quiet Time each day has saved us. We skipped it one day and will never skip it again. It gives us all just enough space that we are happy to be with each other again once it's over. I'm optimistic that we can keep this up for the next few months. Wish us luck!

The Haps

Here is a rundown of what has been happening lately...

We put a great and spacious play set in our backyard. It is a pirate ship, club house, picnic spot, and all around big hit.

J has been working on our garden. It is beautiful in its organization, layout, and function. He is a mad genius perfectionist gardener.

The school year ended. Programs, Pioneer trek, and dance festivals. I walked into the house one morning after a run to my boys having a shirtless dance party in the front room to Taio Cruz's "Dynamite" thanks to not only Scera Park Elementary but also Cherry Hill Elementary. Now H walks around singing, "I'm only gonna break break break break break your heart," S "Pop it, lock it, polka dot it...," and O "I wanna celebrate and live my life..."

School is out. My boys are all home with me for the summer. Bliss and boredom. Fun and fighting. The usual. But all day now.

We met my parents in Moab for a weekend. Toasty fun. Chuck wagon, Arches National Park, hotel pool, Hummer ride.

I ran the Wasatch Back for the 3rd year in a row. I am addicted to this painful, sleep-deprived, exhausting kind of fun.

I will post on these events one by one. Stay tuned...

Wasatch Front...and Back

Our last few days in California, J took charge of the boys so I could run the So Cal Ragnar. These pictures are all courtesy of my sister-in-law, whose first Ragnar (and not the last) this was.

We started at 6:45 AM on Friday morning in Huntington Beach:


Here's Alisa finishing up her first leg,


the merman we saw along the way,


me finishing up my first leg (too bad I didn't have a camera on me during the run; you could've seen pictures of the homeless people sleeping under the bridges I ran past),


waiting to begin our second legs (a sassy bunch of women, if I do say so myself),


a beautiful sight we saw along the way (and we did thank him for running with his shirt off),


another beautiful thing we saw,


and our tats, taken at the finish line on Coronado Island.


It was beautiful, hard, hot, sleepless, exhausting, and fun fun fun! Our van was so much fun, and our team's van 2 was awesome (thanks to Valerie for filling in 3 days before the race!)! Thanks especially to my sweetie who crammed all three boys in the back of a mid-size sedan and played single dad for a day and a half so I could go exhaust myself on the race course and be completely useless for a few days following!
Can't wait for Wasatch Back!

Wasatch My...

Beginning.

We awoke at 4 AM after 2 hours of sleep to drive to the start in Logan. It was cold and dark when our first runner took off at 5:45 AM.

All our runners did an AMAZING job! They conquered uphills, downhills, long runs, heat, cold, dusty roads that kicked dirt into mouths, sunburn, no sleep, tummy aches, vomiting, side aches, no showers, and 188.2 miles.

Finish!


(The medals from last year were bottle openers too. I wonder if I should be opening more bottles...)

We loved it so much, we are already signed up for the Wasatch Back 2011 and the Las Vegas Ragnar in October.

Anyway, I'll post more pictures when I've caught up on my sleep and my stomach stops trying to eat itself.

Don't Think. Just Run!

We're Off...

...to run the Ragnar, the wonderful Wasatch Back!

Tomorrow evening we leave for Logan. Friday morning, impossibly early, we wake up and begin our 188.2 miles to Park City. Wish us luck! Yee Haw!

Inconvenient

To my recently acquired allergies: You have picked a very inconvenient time to manifest yourselves. Don't you know that I will be outside all day Friday and Saturday running 180 miles along the back of the Wasatch Range? Do my 5 van mates and 11 other teammates really want to hear me sniffling, sneezing, and rubbing my eyes? You have 2 1/2 days to clear up. Got it?

Missive to My Left Foot

Left foot. Hi. How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. A bit of fatigue that I haven't been able to figure out. Fighting a tiny cold. Other than that, things are good. Oh yeah, except for one thing -- YOU. I don't know if you heard the podiatrist two visits ago, but I know you were there. You can't have missed the "... a little too symptomatic for being almost 5 months out from surgery..." Even the threat of a steroid shot didn't straighten you out. Now, I love you. We have been together for what, 32 years? You've caused me no end of problems, but you've also really supported me, even when you were in pain. I hate to do this to you, but I thought you might like to know -- I am considering chopping you off and getting a prosthetic foot/ankle. There. I said it. I've almost run out of patience with you. The Wasatch Back is this week. 5 -- count 'em -- 5 more days. As of now, I am scheduled to run 21 miles in 24 hours. My heart can take it. My lungs can take it. My legs, knees, and hips can take it. Can you take it? Please do this for me, freaky left foot. I promise I will take you out barefoot running next week. I know you like my Vibrams. That's right. I am going to begin "The Barefoot Running Experiment" just for you. Just hold on and get me through this weekend. We can do this together. And the whole prosthetic thing? I didn't really mean it. I know we can work this out. We're a team. I'll take my Naproxen. I'll bring Tylenol and ice. We can do this. Do this for me, left foot. Please, just do this for me.

Sprint to the Finish

This is Van #1. They got a little more sleep than we did. Softies...


Here are some pictures of the awesome runners in Van #2. Yeah, we all look pretty chipper -- that's because we hadn't started running yet!


Sara (with husband and baby waiting with her)


Sarah and Charisse


Tom and J


Me and my love.

Our first legs were HOT! Bless the man standing by the side of the road with a sprayer! What saints were our teammates who stopped along the way to shout out encouragement and hand out water! Our second legs, in the middle of the night after zero sleep, were cool, peaceful, and loooong. By then we weren't so chipper! Although, I think I miffed my van by popping in after my 9.6 mile, 1:30 AM run and being too peppy. Bless Rocky for driving so we could sleep! Our last legs were rainy! J and I shared the dreaded "Ragnar Hill." Can you say steep? I ran the first mile or so then power-walked until I saw the exchange. Then I sprinted to the finish. Bless the lady who told me that the end was just around the bend! Coming across the finish line as a team in the rain was so fun! It was an incredible experience and I'm ready to sign up for the next one! Who's with me?

Run Run Run

So you may have noticed that I changed the title of the previous post from "Run Run Run" to the more appropriate name it has now. I figured an 11.5 mile run deserved a title that dragged on just as much as the run itself did. Yesterday's running adventures seemed to earn the "Run Run Run" title better than last week's. I woke up to run 4 miles at 8AM. I ran 4 miles again at 1:30 PM and then ran 5 miles at 8:30 PM. Run. Run. Run. Feeling pretty good today and excited for the Wasatch Back in (count 'em) 2 weeks!!

For my mom's info, I did not call a podiatrist yet, but J and I bumped into two of them on our date on Thursday night. J's podiatrist growing up was at the Purple Turtle in Pleasant Grove, so we visited with him until his son, and one of J's best friends growing up, showed up. We made do some trade with him (computer networking for feet), but so far the new shoes are proving themselves well.

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was J's opportunity to relax. He did many of the things he loves:

Burning things (crazy pyro husband!),


playing his guitar outside with the amplifier cranked up, and grilling.

S spent a lot of time in the tree being"half human, half howler monkey. The human half is half Korean, half American, and the monkey half is half capuchin monkey (Thanks for that, "Night at the Museum") and half howler monkey." Whatever he was, he was very loud!

Then to occupy S and O we turned on the sprinkers and J and the boys ran through a couple of times. Actually, it was more like J running through and S and O shivering and watching. Good times.

I began and ended Saturday with a 30-min run. It's been so long since I've used the treadmill; I had forgotten how much I love/hate that thing! Monday I ran 4.5 miles and today I got up at 5 to run 7. Right now I can't feel my left ankle. I think it's defecting from my body and taking my foot with it. Poor thing -- it's feeling abused. When should I break it to my flat left foot that we're running 2 hours on Saturday, that the Ragnar is 3 weeks away, and that on the Fourth of July I'm running the Freedom 10K? It just might want to divorce me. Maybe we need couseling in the form of a podiatrist. I'll call tomorrow.

It was a great long weekend; when's the next one?

Running Update

On Saturday, I went for a run with some of the Wasatch Back team. I ran 5 miles. Yes, it took me almost an hour, and yes, my knees and feet hurt for the rest of the day, but I did it! I'm not even sore today!

(Thanks, Miz Mooz 'Vanessa' sandal! You saved my feet during church today!)

It's the farthest I've ever run in my entire life so far, so I'm proud of myself. I can feel less undesireable jiggling of certain body parts and clothes fitting in a looser and more comfortable way. Of course, as I sit here typing this, I am eating Easter candy, but that's what tomorrow's run is for, right?

Fear

So, I'm officially announcing that I am registered to do this in June:

http://www.ragnarrelay.com/wasatchback/index.php

Honestly, I am freaked out.

I am not a runner. I am not an athelete. While others were participating in sports in high school, I was sitting -- playing violin, playing bassoon, reading, doing homework, making out with boys -- not running. I fenced, which was cool, but it is not an endurance sport like running is. I must be crazy.

The night my friend Amy called to ask if I wanted to do it, I did not fall asleep for hours. Then I decided to commit. To face my fear. The afternoon she called and said she was signing us up, I felt literally sick to my stomach for a couple of hours. Call my a wimp. Call me a coward. After June 20, if I'm not dead, there will be one less reason to call me either of those names.

I'm ignoring the discomfort my flat feet are causing me. I am ignoring the apparent exercise-induced asthma I am experiencing. Bring it on Ragnar. You just might kill me.