December

It's been a bit of an off month for us.  On December 15th my dear father-in-law passed away.  He was 83 and had lived a full and amazing life. He was an amazing musician, playing the violin for most of his life.  He played at my wedding and I walked down the aisle to him playing Pachebel's Cannon. He was also a school teacher among many other things. He was ill and it was just a matter of time but it was still a shock and still sad.  My mother-in-law took care of him for the last several years as he became weaker and more frail.  She will be lost for the next while.  We spent the week leading up to Christmas saying farewell to him and helping her out.  There is never a good time for someone to pass on but this time of year it just seems so much worse.

The hard part was to keep things as normal as possible for the little girls while making sure they understood that Grampa John wouldn't be here anymore.  They are young enough that they don't totally understand death but are old enough to know that things have changed.  While every holiday is about spending time with friends and family and we have always emphasized this, we decided to make it even more of a focus this year.  During the planning and funeral we got to see many family members that we don't see often.  We spent a lot of time with family and talked to the girls a lot about why it's so important to stay close to family.  We talked a lot about the fact that Christmas isn't just about material gifts but more importantly the gifts of the heart.

Grampa John with Adryanna

Grampa John with Christina

Christmas wasn't all grieving though.  We had many laughs and shared many stories.  The girls got to spend a lot of time with their older siblings and got to be silly and be kids.  They waited anxiously for Santa to come and were so excited Christmas morning when the tree had gifts and the stockings were full.  We all enjoyed a day of fun.

Gram with all her grambabies and grampup:)

Now it is time to get ready for a new year.  The girls will start gymnastics for the first time in January and have both been moved up a level in swimming.  I will end this year with the 5k Resolution Run on New Years Eve and will be signing up for the Women's Half Marathon in Niagara Falls in June.  I will continue on this journey and will be a better mother, wife and person because of it.  Here's to making 2014 the best year!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

  

The Weekend That Was

Two more weeks of work until Christmas vacation!!!  Well two weeks and two days really.  I am working the Monday and Tuesday of Christmas week.  I have had to use too much of my vacation time for Adryanna's heart appointments and her surgery in the summer so I don't have quite enough left to take the full two weeks.

This post is about this weekend though:)  It's been a good one if you ask me (which is weird because there was a lot of shopping and I hate shopping).  Yesterday both girls had birthday parties to go to at different times and places.  Christina's was first so we dropped her off and I took Adryanna shopping for the gift for her friend and groceries.  We went to Chapters for the gift.  I got a Starbucks (there may be an addiction there) and then we went searching for the gift.  While we were there we also had to search for Booky the Elf.  He is an Elf on the Shelf and it is fun to try to find him in all the stuff at Chapters.  Thankfully they keep him to the kids section.  It took a while but we found him.  I enjoy taking Adryanna to Chapters because she loves books and loves to spend time there just looking.  She always wants to buy something of course.  She is a fun age to do that kind of thing with now.  She has some great interests and loves to learn so we had a great time.  Grocery shopping is always fun for me because I like to get new and interesting things.  I don't think I got anything new yesterday but it was still fun to pick out lots of yummy and healthy items.  After all the birthday parties were over Adrian and I got to go to the movies.  We had to do the late show which is insane because usually I am in bed before the movie even started!!  I made it through though and it was a great movie!

Today was an at home day.  We spent the morning cleaning the girls bedroom and getting rid of all the stuff they never use anymore.  I discovered that they have so many books that there are some I had forgotten about and some that I didn't even remember they had!  I then decided to run since I missed going yesterday.  I did about 4k which I was very happy with.  I am really stuffy and got quite wheezy today so I didn't push things too much.  Tuesday is another day and I'm sure it will be a better run.  After my run I decided to bust out my Jillian Michaels Ultimate Challenge game that I got for my birthday a couple of years ago.  I haven't used it much because when I got it I was starting my training for a half marathon and after using the game a couple of times I was in so much pain that it was interfering with my running!!  It's good pain but not when you are starting training for something that you aren't even sure about.  Today though I decided I could handle it.  I got stuck in the exact same spot as I did every time before.  The idea of the game is that you are on a mission to get through an evil drug factory.  The factory is working with an evil food company to make everyone sick.  You have to make it though and shut it down.  To make it through there are lots of different exercises that you have to complete and complete well.  It's a Nintendo Wii game so it can detect your movements and if you aren't doing things just right you get caught and have to start over.  I get caught every time.  So today I tried again and got caught multiple times.  I will defeat this game yet!!!  I think I'll to do it on nights that I can't get to the gym or run.  It's good strength training!

So now it's Sunday night.  I'm tired, I've had a great weekend and I'm ready for the week at work.  It's going to be a good week because I say it is:)

Slow and Steady:)

Last night I was feeling a little nostalgic (and maybe a little bored).  I was getting things ready for today's run and started thinking of the fact that it has been a little over 3 years since I ran my first 5k.  I started thinking of all I have done and all the miles I have put in.  I pulled up my Garmin Connect account and went back to my first recorded run.  It was in February of 2011!!  I had been running for a few months at that point but hadn't tracked any of it.  I was lucky enough at that point to get a friends old Garmin because she needed a new one with a battery that lasted more than an hour.  At that point I was definitely not running more than an hour so it was great for me.  The first run I have recorded with it was 4.95k and my "moving time" 46:15. That isn't completely accurate because I clearly forgot to stop my watch when we stopped to stretch and there is a huge chunk of time that I wasn't moving.  Since then I have trained for and run several 5k races, one 10k race and one half marathon.  I haven't run any races in a year and a half and that is very clear when I look at my mileage.  I plan to change that in the next several months starting on New Years Eve with the 5k Resolution Run.

The part that gave me a bit of a laugh was that my time today is very close to all the 5k the times in that list.  My pace has gotten a little better but only by about half a minute per kilometer.  I haven't worried too much about getting faster over my running time but I have focused on doing the distance.  Running for me isn't about winning races.  I started running to get healthy and live a long life for my kids.  I keep running for the same reason but also because it has made me feel so much healthier and happier.  After a good run my body feels better but so does my brain. I feel happier and clearer.  I feel like I can take on the world.  I feel more confident.  Before I started to run I wouldn't speak up for myself, I wouldn't volunteer for anything at work and god forbid I had to talk to someone new.  Now I still have a problem speaking up for myself but I am much better at it than I once was.  I volunteer for many things at work and I will spend tomorrow morning with someone I have never met and will answer a lot of questions.  I love the new confidence I have and I'm so glad I took that first, very difficult, step.

Who knew back in September 2010 that running would be such an important part of my life.  I may not get a whole lot faster and I will never win a race but all the other rewards are so much better!!

Upside Down!

This past few days has been nuts!!  Wednesday night I had an amazing workout at the gym and felt awesome.  Thursday things began to unravel!  It was a very silly day at work.  We took the girls to the doctor to get flu shots after work.  With Adryanna's heart defect we don't take any chances and everyone in our house gets a flu shot to be safe.  The last thing we want is for her to get really sick.  Christina seemed to be getting a cold but he said it was okay because she didn't have a fever.  Well it's a good thing we got the flu shot done when we did because the next day turned ugly for her.  She woke up with a "wonky tummy" and didn't want to eat breakfast.  She stayed home and ended up in bed until yesterday.  I know there are many out there that will say the flu shot is the problem but I really, truly don't believe that.  I think it was a coincidence and that she was already getting sick before.  She still has a terrible cough and is wheezing some.  If things don't clear up in the next day or two I will take her to the doctor.

Sick kids always throw my exercise for a loop.  Sometimes I will still be able to get out and do the usual things and sometimes it screws things up.  Saturday is a great example.  I had to work at an information fair and had to be out of the house by 10:30am at the latest.  I had to look presentable which meant that I needed to do my hair and everything. I knew if I was going to run I needed to be out of the house by 8am or I would not cool down enough to get ready.  Christina was up a lot through the night Friday and I was super tired so I didn't get up as early as I should have then she was so off that I just couldn't get myself ready to run in time.  I was disappointed that I didn't get to run but my family definitely needs to come first.

Yesterday was a terrible eating day and I snacked way to much.  I don't know what it was but I just felt hungry all day.  I was busy running around with my mom in the morning doing the stuff I would normally do on Saturday then Adrian had to move Meag in the afternoon.  I would have loved to go for a run or walk in the afternoon but I couldn't take Christina out since she still wasn't back to normal and I didn't want to leave her here with anyone in case she got sicker again.  This all showed on the scale this morning but I am hoping that today's water intake and better self control will show tomorrow.  I am choosing not to use today's weight as my official weigh in because of all of this craziness:)  I feel like things got turned upside down this weekend.  I'm really hoping that things will turn upside right but I suspect I have to wait until at least Wednesday afternoon for that!