How my Ouch Landed me on the Couch

I'm seriously feeling old here with my achy, creaky body. Last Tuesday, I did my tempo run and had a little trouble with it. I couldn't get my breathing regulated. I couldn't keep and maintain my speed. That sort of thing. On Wednesday, I went and did my regular 4 mile run with my running group (in 106* - holy moly it was hot!), and couldn't run very far. I thought it was just the heat, but the further I went, the more my left hip started hurting. Boo! On Saturday, I headed out to do my "easy" 10 mile run. And easy it was not. My hip hurt SOO bad. I ended up walking most of 8.7 miles and then called it quits. I stopped to do some stretching at the end of my run/walk, and when I went to stand back up, it was painful to stand on. I shuffled back to my car and drove home.

Once I got back home, I took some naproxen, took an ice bath, and then iced my hip and thigh on and off for a few hours. Luckily, my mom and step-dad were here, so they helped me keep the kids entertained for the day. We went to the pool for some easy swimming/playing and then made a trip to Mecca. Er, I mean Toys R Us. We were trying to find Danny a skid steer. The kid is obsessed with skid steers for some odd reason. It might be because his new favorite show is Mighty Machines (on Qubo Channel at 10am here in Texas). Toys R Us showed that they had it on their website, but we couldn't find it in the store at all. So instead, Danny got an encyclopedia of Cars cars. As Derek called it - it's a catalog of all the Cars cars that he doesn't have (Mom! I need that car, that car, that car, that car, that car, etc, etc, on for infinity). It is kind of cool because it gives some back story of all the cars and also includes the characters from Mater's Tall Tales, Cars, and Cars 2. If you have a Cars lover - this would be an awesome Christmas present. Piper got a giant ball with Dora the Explorer on it. That girl loves her Dora! After the kids got their new toys, we headed back home to meet my sister and her boyfriend for some delicious, healthy supper and board games.

By supper time, my leg was killing me again. I took another naproxen and was alternating heat and ice while playing board games with the family. I won two rounds of King of Tokyo, and then my mom won once and then it was midnight and I was falling asleep in my chair! This morning I woke up and my hip hurt still. I took some more pills, more heat and ice, and have just basically sat on the couch all day (other than a quick trip to Run On to try on some new shoes and get some gels). I guess it's a good thing this week is a taper week because I am pretty sure I am out of commission for the next week. I'm really hoping that I'm not in too much pain to run the Hottest Half on Sunday. It's very disappointing to be injured.

From everything I read on the interwebs, it sounds like I have a hip abductor strain/tendonitis, which can be caused by an increase in distance, speed work, and hill work. What? Your aren't supposed to increase all three of those in the same two week period?? Ugh! I am awful at biting off more than I can chew when it comes to running. It's just so addicting and makes me feel so good - yet at the same time, if you overdo it, it can hurt SO bad. Anyway, from what I read, it said that I need to just stay off my leg, rest, ice/heat alternately, take ibuprofen,  and do some light stretching. So that'll be my week this week. Along with play dates and grant writing and starting cheer/tumbling classes for Piper. When did my little girl grow up?

Speaking of little girls, my friend Erin that I've mentioned in previous posts is in Ethiopia right now (!!!) picking up her little girl that her and her husband are adopting. They are actually taking her out of the orphanage tomorrow. I am so, so, so incredibly excited for them and am now praying that their "cocoon" period goes smoothly and that they make a seamless transition from a family of four to a family of five.

Jumping and Napping

Today I met up with my meetup group of mommas and kids and went to Jump Mania out in Plano. The last time we went (which was our first time), the kids kind of stuck near me and didn't really venture out to the bounce-houses very much. This time, though, they were everywhere! Piper mostly played with the cute play kitchen/house/BBQ stuff that they have there, but Danny bounced through every play structure that they had. Twice. He loved it. And I was able to actually talk to the moms (and one dad!) which was nice too. I love my moms group, but I sometimes wish that we had like weekly moms only activities to really get to know the moms a little better. It's hard to interact when one of us is constantly chasing a kid!

The kids both came home tired though, and for 20 minutes, they both napped. It was glorious! I was working while they rested/napped, so it wasn't like I really had genuine time to myself, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I'm trying to work extra this week since I'm not focusing on working out, but that is SO hard to do when there are so many other things I would like to be doing. Namely, not working haha I'm reading the second book in the Outlander series - Dragonfly in Amber. I think technically it's supposed to be a period romance novel, but I think it is so much better than a romance novel! Not that I've really read many romance novels, but I have a ton of preconceived ideas about them ; ) and this book is better than those preconceptions, so clearly, it can't be a romance novel. It has a lot of Scottish history in it too, and I am really liking that. The point is, though, that I am enjoying reading this book and don't really want to put it down. Especially when my choice is reading or working. But reading books doesn't bring in extra money, and working does. I'm a slave to my part-time paycheck. What can I say?

I have been tapering very nicely. And by tapering I mean not exercising at all. Tomorrow morning I'm going in for a one - two hour workout, but tonight, I'm just icing and resting and preparing mentally for my race. Hungry Runner Girl had a great post today about mental toughness and I really thought this was timely for me. I think running half marathons (and I'm sure further distances) requires a certain amount of mental preparation and "toughness" to finish the race. I think that's why I love distance running because it is a mental sport. And I love it.

We're here to PUMP - you UP

I made it to my Body Pump class last night at my gym! I have been trying to make it to this class (on Wednesdays and Saturdays) for about 2 months, so I was glad to finally make it to class. The instructor was really nice and showed me what kind of weights/gear I would need for class and then we began. Holy God! About five minutes into class (and what turned out to only be the warm up!), I was hurting. My legs were screaming and shaking. I couldn't believe that. Six months ago, I could hold my own in a weight lifting class. It's not like I was a body builder or anything, but I could go through class without having to take major rest breaks. Not so this time! I had to rest three times and let my muscles relax. I knew my muscles would be weaker, but I thought I would be a little stronger than that. Just goes to show what six months and no weight lifting will do! I'm glad I did the class, though, and feel better for it. I just hope that Saturday's class goes a little better :)

I had some grand plans to grill this for supper, but seeing as how the Body Pump class was an hour long and started at 5:45pm, I quickly discarded that plan. Instead I got some spicy chicken nuggets and a small chili from Wendy's. I avoided the fries, but still felt slightly unhealthy after a day of healthy eating and working out. There was just no way the kids were going to last if I tried to cook - they were hungry!

Derek came home from work yesterday afternoon (he came in early and completely scared the dirt out of me - I thought someone was breaking into our house!!) with a bad cold/cough. Derek and I were married for six years before we had kids, and Derek was sick exactly one time in those six years (plus the 1.5 years we dated before getting married). Now that we have kids, Derek gets sick probably once a month. I swear sometimes he's sick more often than the kids! Hopefully he'll be feeling better soon and will get to enjoy the weekend. This is the first weekend in almost a month (or maybe more??) that we haven't had out of town guests staying with us. I love company, and I love my family coming to visit, but it'll be nice having the place to ourselves this weekend! I might just sit on the couch and watch TV all day to catch up on some shows. If Piper will let me watch something. She's developed a little girl crush on Diego (Dora the Explorer's cousin) and demands Diego at all times. It's cute, but that show is a little annoying....

Today the kids and I went to Celebration Park again. I really do love that park! We met up with a friend whose husband works with Derek. She is also a stay at home mom with two little ones. We didn't get to talk much because we were each chasing kids and she has a 4 month old who is still nursing, but it was nice just to go somewhere and know someone else. The park was getting new bark put in, and Danny was fascinated with the tractors and front loader. Little boy Heaven. Unfortunately, he kept getting in the way of their work and by the end of our hour and a half there, the construction team was calling out, "Where's Danny?" before they backed up the tractors. I'm just glad they didn't get annoyed - they seemed like they understood that I had two little ones - who of course wanted to go in opposite directions - and couldn't keep Danny out of their hair at all times because Piper was busy climbing parts of the play structure that I'm sure were about 3-5 years out of her age range. She would climb up, pull herself up, and then say, "help mama!" as she dangled from a ladder or some crazy climbing thing. Cute, but made my heart skip a beat or two. Here are some pictures from the day.

The animals at the Zoo

My Dad and Granny went back to Nashville yesterday, and I have to say...those two exhausted me! They got in around supper time on Saturday, so we just sat and chatted. The last time I had seen my Granny was at my Grandpa's funeral in December 2010. We had a lot of catching up to do! I was so happy that my Granny had decided to come with my Dad since she had two back surgeries very recently (she cleared it with her doctor before she sat in the car for the 10 - 12 hour drive), and she's still a little hesitant about doing things.

Sunday, my Dad and I had our indoor triathlon in the morning and then we had some delicious Papa Murphy's Veggie DeLite pizza (love, love, love that pizza!) before heading into downtown Dallas. On the way down there, we had to stop at a gas station because Danny had to go to the bathroom. If you've ever stopped half-way between Rockwall and downtown Dallas (along I-30), you probably know that it's not the best area to stop in. Let's just put it this way: there was a guy "working" the corner of the gas station and I'm pretty sure we saw multiple drug deals going down. Great place to take your kid to pee, but there wasn't anywhere else and Danny was getting desperate!

We stopped at the Convention Center and hung out with some cows and cowboys. And then made our way to Highland Park area. Beautiful homes through there! We found a cute little park with running trails and took the kids to play for a bit. The kids loved their little adventure. I was pretty tired from the triathlon still, but had a great time. We stopped for Chinese food on the way home (it was about 8pm by the time we started eating). Danny had fallen asleep in the car at about 5:30 pm and he stayed asleep for the rest of the night. Until about 3:30 am. When he woke up.  I tried everything to get him to sleep, but it was a no-go. So he and spent the (early, early) morning on the couch watching Wall-E.

We decided that we would spend our Monday at the Dallas Zoo. In Spokane, we didn't have a zoo, and here in Dallas, there are TWO! There is the Dallas Zoo and the Fort Worth Zoo. Everyone keeps telling me that the Fort Worth Zoo is a million times better, but we haven't checked that one out yet (my mom is taking the kids there in May; which is why we didn't go there this time). I wasn't even sure if the kids would like the zoo, but man, they LOVED it. We were able to rent a wheelchair for my Granny so she didn't have to walk so much, and Piper hopped right on and toured the zoo from her lap.

Danny was stuck in the double stroller, but I let him out at pretty much every exhibit.

They had lots of cool animals and a fantastic kids area where Piper went down the slide about 30 times and Danny splashed in the little mock-river they have set up. It was great! We stayed until about 1pm, when the kids started to meltdown (especially Danny - being extra tired and hungry was not a great combo!). We went to the McDonald's by the zoo - which was decorated like a zoo and was incredibly cute!

After that, we sat out in the sunshine at my house and just talked, drank a few beers, let the kids play, and grilled some ribs. It was a great day and great trip for my Dad and Granny. I wish it could've been longer, but my Dad has this crazy thing called work that he had to get back to. My Dad and Granny left early the next morning and made it back to Nashville in a pretty good time. I spent yesterday getting my car fixed (oil change, new timing belt, and some other things that I'm not really sure what it is but it keeps my car running!) and being incredibly lazy. I was so sore and tired from the triathlon and pushing the stroller all around the zoo.

Today I'm going back to the gym and doing a weight lifting class. Can't wait to try it out - if I can make it to the class on time! But before I do that, I need to do about three hours of work. I better quit procrastinating and do it!

Cat Tails

My plans yesterday kind of went out the window. I was supposed to go out with my mom's group, but life got in the way. As always! But, the good news is, I did still make my oven hot dogs. And BONUS - my sister Kristen came over to hang out with me and kiddos and eat the yumminess that is oven hot dogs. Danny and Piper were going crazy bananas so we let them loose outside and they 'mowed the lawn' and searched for geckos. Oh to be a kid again! After that, the kids went to bed and Kristen and I sat up talking about old times. We were some wild kids - oh how I hope that Danny and Piper take after their Dad when it comes to their teenage years...

Today was a busy day. We did a playdate with our meetup group at a Chik-Fil-A toddler time. It was really cute and the kids had fun. It was a little crowded, but the kids still had fun. And they gave out fresh fruit as a snack, which was a nice touch. My kids gobbled one of them up and we saved the other serving (having two kids is really good for getting an 'extra' for later) for lunch.

Just as we were heading home, I got a text from my work asking to do some work-ish things, so I spent the next 3.5 hours creating itemized budgets for a big ol' grant. I just feel like my head is swimming in numbers. But I've put in a bunch of extra hours working on this grant, so now I'll have a nice paycheck to spend on lavish spa days, a vacation in Tahiti, and an Audi TT. Oh wait, that's in my dreams. Really, we're using my extra moolah to pay down some credit cards. Someday I hope to be truly debt free..right after I pay off all those student loans from both undergrad and grad school.....

Anyway, my cats are all piling on me now that the kids are asleep. And they are helping me type. They are really good blogger cats. If I could take a picture I would. But I am using all my energy to keep them off the keyboard. Just picture three LARGE cats putting their tails in my face and stepping on the keys. I love my almost 10 year old cats :)

It's a Celebration

Yesterday my Mom's group met up at Celebration Park where my marathon (in December) is going to be. That is an awesome park and I'm totally stoked that my first ever marathon will be there. Hopefully there will be kids playing on the playground on the marathon day to keep my mind off of the fact that I'm running 26.2 miles! Yesterday, we just let the kids play on the playground and talked whenever our kids were playing near each other. The playground there is pretty amazing. It was a huge play structure with multiple areas that all different age groups could play on. Of course, Piper wanted to chase her brother and try to go down the super tall spiral slides just like Danny. And of course, I was officially the meanest mom ever and didn't let her go down them (she's just so *little*). Danny did pretty good too. He has this nasty habit of seeing open fields (soccer fields in the case of Celebration Park) and wanting to just run the length of them - without me knowing about it. He really only made one or two attempts to run off, so I was happy for that.

I had totally planned on going for a walk around the park after the kids played. BUT, it was 6pm, and the kids were completely red faced and downed the juice I brought for them in about 4.2 seconds and started asking for more (guess I should start bringing juice AND water as it gets hotter out). So, I packed up the kids and convinced my sister that we really, really needed some Mexican food. I had been so excited to move to Texas because of the food: BBQ, brisket, Mexican deliciousness, sweet tea....Really, though, we haven't had too much of those things since we've moved here. Something about being on a budget and not being able to eat out as often as we did back in Spokane *sigh* Anyway, we swung by her place and picked her up and went to a place called Chuy's. I ended up getting the Boom Boom Chicken and a Texas Martini (complete with olives stuffed with jalepenos). It was spicy and oh so delicious!!

We made a pit stop at my sister's and played with her dog (my kids are nuts about dogs) and then headed home. Piper asked to go to bed as soon as we got home, but Danny, of course, wanted to play. If I had just one ounce of that kids energy.....! I ended up putting them to bed and then crawled into bed at 10pm. I was so exhausted!

Today has been a day busy cleaning. We've had pretty much non-stop guests for the last two weeks, and my Dad and Grandma are coming into town for a visit on Saturday. I have cleaned for every person as they get into town (vacuuming, washing sheets, picking up kitchen, etc), but my house is still getting messier and messier and messier. I think every grandparent has brought a suitcase full of toys and treats for the kids, and then we had Easter too. Plus I worked a lot last week. Long story short, despite all my best efforts, my house is trashed and has toys everywhere. I vacuumed the whole house, and washed everyone's sheets, and did all the dishes like normal, but today I went a step farther and cleaned out my fridge and freezer, did some meal planning, *folded and put away* all the laundry I've washed and put into laundry baskets the last two weeks, and even washed the kids' lovies. I'm going to tackle the kids' toys in a little bit. They are out of control!

And my weight watchers has not been going that great. My supper last night was beyond delicious, but when you add in the points that I already had eaten for the day, I ate approximately 91 points. In one day. Yikes! Today, I have done SO much better and am not going over my allotted points, but it's just a little dissapointing to know that I screwed up so royally. Oh well, the past is the past for a reason. You can't change it; just learn from it and move on. Luckily, as I cleaned out my fridge and freezer and cupboards, I discovered quite a bit of fresh fruit and vegetables that need to be eaten before they go bad. So I am planning my meals around those items. And I found a whole loaf of cinnamon brown sugar swirl bread. It is the best!! Especially when you toast it and put a 1/2 tablespoon of peanut butter on it. Man! Totally worth it and reasonably low-point and satisfies a sweet tooth as well :)