Spring Fever

A week ago we were in the midst of a blizzard. Today, it is 80 degrees and sunny and no snow in sight. I had to dig out summer clothes for the boys so they would not get heat stroke at the zoo today. There is nothing like a sudden and dramatic shift in the weather to make you realize how much your children have grown in the span of a few months. And grown they have. I am so amazed when I look at them and see not only their growth in inches, but their growth in development. Just last night Liam was sitting at the kitchen table READING a book. He was figuring out all the words and reading away. It amazes us with how quickly (seemingly over the course of a few weeks) he has become a full blown reader. It is very exciting for us and for him.

Beanie has also morphed into a full blown boy overnight. His hair has grown and has a tendency to curl when wet (just like his Daddy). He is also chattering up a storm and playing more "pretend" games. He is trying to ride a little tricycle (legs still don't reach quite yet) and he has shown a keen interest in Tatum, the 18 mo next door neighbor. Just yesterday he was walking and holding her hand and even shared his "Tiger Baby" with her. He is definitely smitten.

Ugh.

I apologize to the 2 loyal readers I have for not posting more the past week. The only excuse I have for my lapse is I am just plumb tuckered. Crispy Fried. Done. I ran my last long long run yesterday (22) and it was all I could do to make it back. I had a very tough training week and work was hectic as well. My body is complaining and like normal, I choose to ignore it. When I finished my run I was so disappointed with how I felt. I emailed my coach and she told me in a nutshell, the reason I feel so beat up is because I AM beat up. The next few weeks of taper I will rest and recover and be ready to kill it on race day. I hope. I woke up this morning battling a sore throat and some major body fatigue. Liam woke up with a runny nose and little appetite. Round 2 of the house o' ills. Hopefully I can fight it off and get back to feeling healthy. Liam seems to not be affected too much by his sniffles--(maybe it is allergies?) He has a pretty tough immune system and typically doesn't get too many colds these days (knock on wood). His Spring Break is this week and I believe Emily has some big plans. The weather has once again tilted back to gorgeous--a nice week for them to be on break.

Spring Blizzard

Living in Colorado means things are consistently inconsistent. You never totally pack away the summer gear or the gortex and fleece. Wednesday I was out running in tank top and shorts and sweating profusely in the intense sun. Today, I am bundled up and soaking wet after shoveling a foot of wet and heavy spring snow out of our drive (note: normally my wonderful husband does this for me, but he is traveling so that honor is mine today. Hopefully his flight will be on time tonight). We heard the weather could potentially tank late yesterday afternoon--but the bulk of it was supposed to fall after nightfall when we were all safe and sound at home. I managed to get in my 8 miles of running in (6 @ pace or faster) just before the sunny skies turned to rain. I had literally just finished my run when the rain started to fall. And then two hours later the rain had morphed to snow. Heavy, fat flakes that blotted out the sky. I gathered up my work gear, collected files to bring home with me and set out. To say I was shocked at how quickly the weather deteriorated was an understatement. To say everyone else was too, is also an understatement. The snow was falling about 3" an hour. Cars were piled up inthe ditches, stuck on inclines, and spun out in wrong directions. It all fell way too quickly for the snowplows to get out and do their job or for the people holed up in their offices to notice it had gotten so bad, so quickly. It took me nearly and hour and a half to get home (I live 10 miles away). Poor Emily didn't get home until after 9:00. When you see snowplows off in the ditch, you know it is bad.

So today I am snuggled in with the lads. They canceled school and my office is closed ("work at home" day). I have to try to figure out how to get some work done over nap, but I am not going to worry too much about it, afterall, it IS a snow day. I am enjoying being slothful (minus the hour of shoveling) and cuddly with them. Their excitement about "snow day" is contagious. Beanie is enthralled with watching "Burddiees up in TREE! Burddees in da (s)NO Mommie!! Hi Mr. Burdee! HELLLOOOO!" and Liam is enjoying laying around on the couch doing word searches. I plan to not do too much today other then hang out with them and enjoy every rare minute of time together, drinking in their deliciousness. We might bake snickerdoodles. We might play Candyland. We might all go out again and shovel some more. I am not sure yet. The beauty of a snow day is you don't have to plan anything.

T minus 4 weeks (hopefully)

Four weeks from right about this minute (Eastern Standard Time) I will (hopefully) be toeing the line at Boston. I will (hopefully) be healthy and (hopefully) feeling much more rested then I am today (hopefully). The weather will (hopefully) not be too cold/wet/hot/windy/ and/or icy and my stomach will (hopefully) not be too cranky and/or nauseated. I will (hopefully) run a smart race and all of this training will (hopefully) pay off.

And then I will never, ever have to do this race again. But of course I will still qualify for it ((hopefully)).

Your Daily Liam

Liam to me: "Wow. Sammy sure does have a lot of 'stuff', doesn't she?"

Me: Yes she does.

Liam: "Does she have more stuff then me?"

Me: Yes, and that isn't necessarily a good thing.

Liam: "Why?"

Me: Well, just because you have lots of stuff and get every toy you want it doesn't mean you are any happier. You have *plenty* of toys and even better still, you have a great imagination!

Liam: (excitedly) Yeah! You're right Mommy! I can always just imagine playing with new stuff!

That works for me buddy.

And another one down.

Beanie is sick. He woke up with a horrific chest cough, runny "boooogie" nose and a low grade fever. You wouldn't know it to watch him however. He is running, jumping, and pushing the boundaries as usual. The only time his "ick" shows through is when he stops to cough a rib rattling cough, spit up mucous, then resume playing as usual. He isn't eating all that great, but so far his mood has been thankfully spared.

Just to mix up the germ pool even further, Liam came home from school today with the warning from his teacher for all of the kids to "wash up real good when they get home" because Jordon threw up in the middle of class today, and Truman was puking last night and Adam threw up a few days ago, etc. etc. A daisy chain of vomit. Lovely. I am hoping beyond hope that Liam's immune system can fight off the double assault of school and home germs...

Me? I am still feeling ok. Besides, I don't have time to be sick and have yet to meet the mother who does.

Mommy, You Happy?

Lately, my little bunny has started talking and asking a lot of questions. The question he asks more then any other, many times a day is "Mommy, I a good boy?" and I always answer "Yes, baby. You are a VERY good boy (most of the time, when you are not sneaking into your brother's room to destroy the Lego airliner that took him three days to build or trying to give your mom a heart attack by base jumping off the top of the stairs...). This answer always makes him smile and snuggle in closer to me. He then always immediately asks "Mommy, you happy?" and it always makes me catch my breath a bit, because he is so sincere in his question, so curious to know whether or not I am content. I then will hunch down and look into those gorgeous big blue eyes and answer, "YES baby. Mommy is happy." And it makes my heart smile because I can honestly say this is true.

An Island in a Sea of Sickies

Everyone at my office is sick. Four people were out sick yesterday in my (small) department alone and that is not even counting all of the other sickies out in other departments. At home, my husband has been battling some sort of nastiness that is kicking his otherwise healthy and active butt. The bug appears to have no borders. I called my parents yesterday back in Ohio and my mom is sick as well. My dad is also recovering from a milder version of the "ick." I pray that the boys do not get it.

Everyone has told me, "You better not get it! Make sure you wash your hands! Take your vitamin C!" and that is normally sound advise. But here's the thing...I have a freakishly good immune system. For someone who rarely sleeps, trains hard and (according to my husband, not me) does not eat enough, I seem to be alright in the immune department. And there are times I must admit, I have thought that getting a bad cold wouldn't be such a bad thing. A bad cold would mean I would have a justifiable reason to stay in bed all day and do nothing. No work. No workouts. No cleaning up pee from little boy beds. Legitimate Slothfulness...sigh.

Of course I realize by writing this I am probably dooming myself to wake up tomorrow with some sort of nastiness like Swine Flu or shingles or scurvy... (ok maybe not that last one) but as long as my healthy streak can hold for another 42+ days I will be happy. Because running the Boston marathon with a fever and bronchitis has SO been done before. By me. (How 2004!)

This year I would like to be original and run it healthy.

I've Lost That Loving Feeling

I know that I may have possibly, maybe, once or twice, mentioned my immense dislike of speedwork. I am fairly certain my body was not created to run many, many times at an all out pace around a track or on a treadmill. There are many, many bodies who ARE built for such things...streamlined for speed. Like a racecar. But my body is not one of them. I am built more for running a long, long time at a comfortable pace, like a semi-truck. Or a tractor. I like to ease into my runs aerobically verses suddenly being submerged into an anaerobic hell of lung burning furry and damnation. I prefer running for hours over running all out for 10 to 20 minutes, looking longingly at my watch willing the seconds to tick away faster.

Yesterday I had to do 10 one minute all out sprints with a short recovery in between with a one mile warm up and cooldown. On paper, this always looks easy-peezey. "Ten minutes? That's it?!! Seriously? No problem!" But then the reality sits in when I start off on my first sprint...and the lungs start burning. Suddenly "no problem!" morphs into "oh-my-god-how-can-one-minute-take-so-(expletive)-long-I-hate-this-so-(expletive)-much-and-I-have-to-do-TEN-of-these(expletive)-things?!!!"

So until Boston is done and behind me I will keep repeating this mantra:
That which does not kill (or maim) me will (in theory) make me stronger. Possibly.

Take the time and check this out...

I learned about this site through Communication Arts Annual Interactive Awards. The photography, the story, and the documentation of love is hauntingly beautiful... http://www.dayswithmyfather.com/

Somebody Call Child Services

It's a hard knock life, for Liam. Apparently, he "HAS TO DO EVERYTHING AROUND HERE!!!". We hear this outcry from him nearly once a week, usually after we ask him to do something outrageous like put his shoes away. The poor little lamb is forced to set the table at night and pick up his toys. O' the horror! Last night I was being selfish by asking him to put his clothes away that I had just washed, dried and folded with tender loving care. He looked at me and said "No thank you. I really don't feel like it..." as if being polite in his refusal would make it more acceptable. I replied , "Ok sweetie. That's fine. I'd hate to over-tax your already heavy workload. I'll put them away. Oh! And just to let you know, tomorrow morning when you ask me for breakfast I am 'not going to feel like it' either." He then put his clothes away without comment or delay.

Score one for the Taskmaster.

Great Expectations

Sigh.

It occurred to me the other day that I am a constant source of self disappointment. I make all of these grandiose plans in my head (usually while I am running. Or at work. Or rather, when I am supposed to be at work but am secretly making plans to not HAVE to work) and nothing pans out. I have come to realize that while I think I am a great multi-tasker, I am really nothing more than a mediocre doer. I get by, and often, just by the skin of my teeth.

Sadly I approach most days like triage...attending to the most critical of things and everything else will just have to spend a few days loitering around in an increasingly crowded waiting room. The most critical items: Kids are fed, bathed, dressed, read to and otherwise shown that they are loved? Check. Work is done? Kindasorta, check. Training run completed? Check.

The things that are stuck in the Waiting Room of Eternity? Paintings started? Negative. House cleaned, floors mopped? Double negative. More then 6 hours of sleep in one night? Negative. Finishing my story to submit to a publisher? uh, negative. Figuring out how to redesign this blog page so it doesn't look like a non-designer did it? Not even close.

Again, le sigh.

I guess I should try to look at the glass half full as opposed to half empty. Take solace in the fact that while I am not succeeding, at least I am not totally failing everything. Mostly. Maybe good enough really is good enough?

Nah. I don't believe it either.

Things that do NOT help a migraine...

In case anyone was wondering, I have compiled a list of things that do NOT help a migraine.

• A 2 yo waking you up at 4:30 am announcing he's "all done 'teepin" does NOT help.

• The same 2 yo screaming in your ear because he does not want to go back to bed at 4:30 am. Does not help.

• The same 2 yo accidentally kicking you in the head while he tries to climb in bed with you at 4:30 am. Not so much help.

• A hot shower beating down on your pulsating head doesn't hurt a migraine, but yelling at the 2 yo who sneaks into your art supplies while you are in the shower does, in fact, hurt.

• Refereeing the two boys who are fighting over a mostly deflated birthday balloon. Does. Not. Help.

And lastly,

• getting into your car as you are late for work and realizing you do not have gas...no help at all.

Consider this my little public service announcement. You're Welcome.