Spotty Posting At Best

So here's a brief recap of last week:
I got a new (potentially permanent) contract freelance job. It is a three month on-site assignment that pays really well. The downside...I have to be exercised, showered, dressed up and out of the house by 7 am. So my days are shifting to much, much earlier awake times as well as bedtimes. Grandma Karen is now in charge of the A.M dropoffs. Emily brings Liam home and I grab Sawyer on my way after work.

The official "get the house on the market" campaign has begun. Expect much chaos for the next month and change as we paint, stain, de-clutter and stage our home. We've been looking at some really nice homes--but first we need to sell ours. Fingers crossed.

Sawyer and I spent Friday night in Urgent Care. It turns out the little guy had two ear infections (no fever no complaining of ear pain, etc. Only a raging cough). Not the best way to spend a friday night.

I am still trying to finish up some freelance projects in the evenings after work. The sooner I can get them done, the sooner I can get some free time back.

Oh, and marathon training is officially under way, although I am seriously considering the sanity of this...

So all that being said, blog postings will be few and far between for the next month. Check back every now and then and I'll see if I can't get something posted.

Until then...

The Storyteller

My child may very well be the next Mark twain. Or Stephen King. Or  Leo Tolstoy. Liam loves to tell stories--long, complicated and intricate stories that last weeks (not days!) and involve lots and lots and LOTS of physical reenactments. He will start one of these stories and continue to talk for as long as I will allow him. One day, after 30 minutes of continuous tale telling (in which you can not distract him with ANYTHING. I've tried. Not the promise of candy, or legos or anything. The boy is committed to his craft.) I decided it was time to employ "the timer". While I want to encourage his creativity, I also want to remind him that there are limits to the amount of time people can devote daily (hourly) to being his audience.

He seems to understand and respect the limitations to the time allotment. "This will be a 'clift-hanger' Mommy." We have LOTS of "clift-hangers".

The other day when we were out walking I was shocked when he said, "And then they all laughed. The End." The story that had started a few weeks prior and had involved much bridge crossing and wilderness foraging and ice crystallization of enemies had finally reached a conclusion. I was speechless.

I looked over, shocked, and said "Really? It's finally ended??!!"

"Yes" he said. "And if you would like to hear more you are going to have to place an order."

Age six and already a shrewd business man.

Yuck. And yuck.

Excuse my continued absence. I am under the weather, yet again. Our entire house has been exchanging a cold bug over the past two weeks. It started with Beanie, then on to Liam, then over to Grandma then back to Sawyer and then to Daddy and on to me. I normally don't get colds and I find this one particularly annoying. Sunday I woke up with a touch of a sore throat (the cold had been trying to affix itself to my person for several days prior) but nothing too bad. Enter "the Freaky long Run"...

Sunday I met up with my coach and some other speedy ladies for a nice 15 mile run. Normally I eat very little pre-run due to my inability to tolerate anything in my gut/GI tract but that day, since we were meeting at 1:00 I figured I had better eat. I had peanut butter on oat bread two hours prior to the run. About half way in I noticed my stomach was protesting, followed by some unkind words from my intestines. We stopped for a quick refuel and I ran into the bathroom and felt a bit better. We started back up again and as the run progressed, my stomach felt worse. We finished up and as I was going to my car I just felt "off". I drove on over to the grocery store to pick up a few items that Ken needed for a dinner party we were going to that night and as I stood in the aisle looking for "Smoked paprika" I felt my skin crawl. My neck and face began to itch like crazy and I could literally feel the hives erupting. I started to scratch and scratch and I thought I might throw up. It was all I could do to not pass out in the Whole Foods spice aisle. I paid, got into my car and my stomach started to cramp so bad I wasn't sure I could drive home.

But I did. I ran inside and went upstairs got sick and proceeded to feel really, really lousy for about an hour. My eyes even had welts. A physician friend of ours was at dinner that night (yes, I still went to the dinner party--it was Med night!) and he thought it sounded like an exercise-induced food allergy. I have had it happen one other time before (not nearly that bad) but I cannot for the life of me remember if I had eaten anything before. Apparently cold weather, intense exercise and sometimes ibuprofen combined with the trigger food can cause a reaction. All I know is I am going to go back to eating very little pre-long run. I feel really, really bad for anyone who has to deal with food allergies (or any allergies for that matter) on a regular basis.

So today, three days later I feel pretty crusty. The allergic reaction "episode" drained me of all energy and now my cold is being a jerk. Hopefully today will be the worst of it and I can quit complaining already.