Monday, December 12, 2011

Happy Happy Christmas!

Okay, the 2 job, maintain a happy healthy marriage while raising a child thing was rough and is (thank goodness) basically over.  At this point, I'm really only doing about 1.25 jobs and it's fairly manageable for the moment.  Things slow down a little during the holidays, so that's made a huge difference and I am finally starting to get the hang of the new job, so yayyy...that said, I am still probably going to end up wasting 3-4 days of vacation this year and that just hurts my heart. 

First World Problems.  I has them.

We did the Turkey Trot here and I did about like I expected (not good, but about as good as I expected).  I finished in 26:26 for the 5K...which is about 3 minutes off my PR.  I figured I would do just under 27 minutes, so yeah, right on plan, but not good.  I keep saying I'll get faster and back to where I was, but to do that, I will actually have to train properly...and right now, I'm not.  Blah!  Tommy walked with Anna in the jogging stroller...he fell down the stairs (twice) earlier in the week and his ankle was all jacked up. 

Then we did Thanksgiving with our wonderful friends Tiffany and Harold at their camp on the coast...it was us, Anna, our two dogs, Tiffany and Harold, Harolds mom, their 4 kids and their 3 dogs.  To recap, thats 5 adults, 5 children and 5 dogs.  Hahahaha.  It was wonderful - we wish we could see them more often!

We went to Cancun for vacation, which was marvelous (although, a little cold for our tastes).  I got caught up on my reading (The Hunger Games, a couple of chick lit/romance crap, and some comedy...I ran the full gamut).  We did a lot of beach sitting, even though Anna HATED sand, eating delicious seafood, drinking margaritas, playing cards and watching movies.  The water was too rough and we couldn't swim in the ocean, but Anna loved swimming in the pool (I did not swim in the pool...it was freezing).

Here is a photo bomb of our last few months.  And yes, these are the just a small selection of pictures.  We took 320 pictures over the weekend alone.  Trust me.  I've toned it down for you.  It could be much worse.  Much, much worse.

I'm 7 months old!  Hooray!

A Preview of the Teenage Years
And you thought YOU had bad hair days.

My friend Jodie came in town and we had a girls lunch and then we went and "played" at Kristins.  Playing mostly consisted of the other babies taking whatever Anna was playing with (eating).  It was very amusing.
Mom.  Seriously.  Stop it with the camera.

Anna and her pals. 

The girls!  We survived lunch!

Cupcake! 
This is when we realized that we should have dressed her as Gene Simmons for Halloween. 



First trip to the zoo.  Petting a goat.  It looked and felt a lot like Donny the Dog.  She was not impressed.

My mom and sister came in town and Tommy and I went to a wedding and then spent the night in a hotel...there is nothing better than waking up on your own on a Sunday morning.
Thanksgiving at our friends new camp!
 And then we spent the week after Thanksgiving in Cancun - we spent the first 5 days alone, just the 3 of us, and then we packed up and moved to another resort for a friends wedding for 3 days.  My family was there and it was a blast. 
Mommy realizes she may be showing too much boob for a wedding.




Baby Anna will cut you if you take her banana.


Dancing with Daddy

This is the moment that she realizes that sand is going to kill her.

Yayy Mexico!

This is how we do vacation.  Napping baby, cards, beer and paella...on the beach.

What up?!?


Practicing for the swim.  Ironbaby!

The storm that rolled in from Cozumel the day of the Ironman...

Splashing is the best!


Yes.  She is almost 8 months old and we still swaddle her.  Dear lord.

I love swimming!  Even when it's freezing cold!


The view from our room.  We are spoiled!

My family!  Nothing better than a wedding where you are barefoot and can have a mimosa during the ceremony.

Monday, November 07, 2011

Excuses!

I am seriously just one giant excuse after another.

But here is my Top Ten List for Why I Haven't Blogged Since Before Kim Kardashian Got Married:

10.  I got a new job (yayyy!)
9.  But I still have my old job (boo!), so I get to do two jobs...and only get paid for one.
8.  I got a subscription to US Weekly (also known as the greatest publication of all time) and therefore for one night a week, I am busy.  Reading about the Kardashians.  And the Real Housewives of Whatever City.  And the Beiber.  GLORIOUS.
7.  I have this rugrat who requires inordinate amounts of attention and prefers to be outside with the mosquitoes.  And it's hard to play on the computer when you spend 100% of your time batting mosquitoes away from your child's face.  And then she STILL looks like an assault victim.  And then we both spend the next two days walking around swearing that we just ran into a door...our husbands did NOT beat us.
6.  I am running.  Or biking.  Or lifting weights.  Or TRYING to do some form of calorie expenditure. 
5.  I am lounging on the couch, watching the Beibers, Kardashians, and Housewives with my cute husband who moans and groans the whole time, which means that I have to rewind and re-watch, which means that we all get double the time with the Kardashian family.  Winning!
4.  I've been sick.  Which is sad.  And means that I walk around with kleenex stuck up my nose.  Lucky for me, Tommy finds women with kleenex hanging out of their noses irresistible.
3.  Anna is hysterical and wild and still isn't taking naps.  Which means I am not taking naps.  And when Mama don't take naps, ain't nobody happy.  And ain't nobody having no time to blog.  I just bought a book about how to get your baby to nap.  Basically, it's all puppies and rainbows and "just love your baby to sleep" and makes me want to hurl the book across the room.  If love put the kid to sleep, she'd be freaking Sleeping Beauty.
2.  I apparently have arthritis in my feet and am wearing old lady shoes.  From the ugly shoe aisle at DSW.  I don't respect myself.  At all.  But man, these puppies are comfy.

And the number one reason why I haven't blogged since Before Kim Kardashian Got Married:

1.  I just haven't felt like it.

Quick update:
Tommy and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary last week.  The traditional gift for 4 years is fruit or flowers, so I got him an Edible Arrangement and he planted flowers in our garden in the shape of a 4.  We are so cute.  My mom is coming in town this week to hang with me, since Tommy is going to Amsterdam for work and then when he gets back, we are going to a friends wedding and staying at a hotel for the night while Nana hangs with the nugget.  I plan on taking 14 naps before I head home in the morning.  Ha.

The Don is doing SO much better.  He has been diagnosed with Addison's disease and for the small price of $400 a month, he is healthy and happy.  Don needs to get a job.  But seriously, Addison's is a very dangerous disease, but it's similar to diabetes in that it is deadly, but VERY manageable ($$$)...so we are managing it.  And Anna will have to pay for her own college, but that's an entirely different issue.

Work is seriously kicking my butt.  I miss blogging.  But then again, I also miss having a waist, so it just goes to show that we can't have everything.

Okay.  Love.  And puppies.  And I'll get back to it eventually. 

Monday, October 03, 2011

The Don

I got this furball of a dog in college against my parents will (shocking!).  I lied to the shelter saying that I would be living in a house with a friend (when I really lived in a tiny efficiency apartment) and had her pretend to be my landlord when they called to confirm this story.  (Why is adopting a shelter dog so freaking hard?!?!) 

Anyways, I picked up The Don on February 14, 2004.  He was assumed to be about 8 months old (birthday of June-ish 2003), and was part-Newfoundland, part-Chow, part-Lab, part-Any Other Giant and Furry Beast You Can Think Of.

He was giant and furry and adorable.  And probably the best dog ever.  We had our moments of course, but overall, he was potty trained and crate trained when I got him, so other than the fact that he took a giant dump in the middle of my BFF's house on his first visit there, he was a perfect gentleman.

I was a sloth-like, overweight college senior (also shocking!) because I ate predominately french fries coated in melted cheese with a side of Jack Daniels and Coke while playing as much dominoes as one could handle.  It was a fairly glorious victory lap (also known as the 5th year of college).  But, when I got Don, we started running because you can't keep an 80lb Furry Beast in an efficiency apartment without also giving him sufficient exercise.

And so the endurance athlete was born.

Over the next year, Don and I moved to Houston for work, into a slightly larger apartment (I got him his own bedroom) and started training for my first half marathon.  I lost 40 lbs, started eating well (although, I have never lost my adoration for cheese fries and Jack and Coke...and dominoes), and Don and I were running fools. 

He was a man-magnet at the park - even though running in Houston summers is not the most attractive activity in the world - he scored me dates on a regular basis.  He and I would run our loop or 2 and spend the next hour chatting with fellow runners.  He and I could run up to about 13 miles together in the winter...the summers were a different ball game though.  Nonetheless, I ran my first half in Houston in January about a year after I ran my first mile.  I ran my first marathon a year after that.  And my next marathon the year after that.  And then a triathlon.  And then Ironman.  Donny created an evil monster!

Donny used to be TERRIFIED of men.  He would hide in the closet, under all my clothes, until the man left.  Until I met Tommy.  Tommy showed Don that all men weren't evil and now he is just the sweetest puppy you ever met. 

He doesn't get on the furniture, he doesn't really bark (unless we are being robbed), he doesn't run away, and he doesn't dig or really do anything else mischevious.  His only tragic flaw is the EXTREME shedding.  And he went through this phase of hiking his leg at other people's houses for about 6 months.  Otherwise, BEST.  Dog.  Ever.

This brings us to today.  Don is getting old.  For the last few years, he has been struggling with his hips and has been on medicine as needed, but overall, wasn't very bad off.  However, when Anna was about 4 weeks old, he fell down the stairs and he hasn't really been the same since.

We got carpeted stair treads and got rugs for the entire downstairs so he wouldn't slip or struggle.  It helped a little, but he didn't come upstairs as often and kind of generally stayed in one place.  We would take Dixie on walks, but Donny couldn't really go, so he would whine at the door until Dixie got back and then he would run out into the field in an act of defiance.  It has been really sad to watch him.

Early last week, we noticed that he hasn't been eating as much (if anything).  He has never been much of an eater, so him skipping a meal or two is not alarming...so who knows how long he hadn't been eating.  We took him to the vet on Tuesday of last week and they ran some tests - told us to go get a drink and come back in an hour - and they found what looked to be like Kidney Failure.  He had lost 6lbs in a month. They gave him fluids and some different pain meds for his hip (the other medicine may have caused the kidney problems) and an antacid to help him eat something. 

We tried to get him to eat anything - we gave him treats and wet food (that smelled good enough that I considered trying it), we made him chicken and rice and sushi, we gave him cheese and peanut butter...nothing.  He ate nothing. 

Then Dixie ate it all and shat her brains out all over my rug, but that's a different story.

He was still very pitiful and feeling awful.  He didn't wag his tail.  He didn't get up.  He didn't go outside.  Nothing.  It was awful.

We took him back in for more tests on Thursday - there was another disease that they needed to confirm or rule out that often presented itself like Kidney Failure.  He stayed at the vet all day while they took more blood, gave him more fluids and ran the tests.  Confirmed.  He didn't have kidney failure, instead he has Addison's Disease.  Addison's Disease is less dire than kidney failure and is often managed with treatment, but can still be quite ugly.

Addison's Disease is basically a failure of the adrenal gland to produce the stress hormone that we release to combat stressors in life.  Without it, your body has no way to cope and will ultimately collapse and go into crisis...and die.  Donny's body does not produce this hormone which is why he was feeling so awful.

Treatment is a shot of steroids every 28 days and daily doses of prednisone to keep levels of the hormone where they need to be.  He got his first dose of the steroids on Friday and was doing much better on Saturday - got up to greet me when I got home and ate a few pieces of a treat.  But then on Saturday night, he woke me up at midnight, barking to go outside (of course, I was home alone with a sick baby).  I went downstairs to let him out and I found the crime scene...bloody diarrhea everywhere.  I spent the next hour cleaning and emailing my vet (who is AWESOME btw) and then I slept on the couch, because Donny needed to go outside about once every hour and a half.  He continued to poop blood for most of the next day until we picked up the RX my vet called in. 

He is now on 6 different medicines, one of which has to be dissolved in water and shot into his mouth an hour before the other meds.  He still can't really go up the stairs - he will whine at the bottom until you come and get him (let's remember that he weighs about 70lbs).  But he is wagging his tail and getting around a little bit better.  The vet says the meds will make a huge difference, but I'm skeptical.  He is definitely on the downhill side of things and I think we are getting very close to having to make a decision.

I keep hoping that he will snap out of it and get better, but at the same time, I know he won't and I don't want him to be miserable.  We are playing the wait and see game...and it's not particularly fun. 

Added to the sick baby, our house is one giant stressball.  My mom is coming to visit tomorrow...her arrival will either easse some stress because we will have more hands around to help or increase it because you can't release your stress anger when company is around...we will see.

Keep Don in your thoughts...he has lead a good life and I don't want him to be in pain or miserable.  I love that giant mutt.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Hook Brings You Back.

So I had this boyfriend in high school.  And by boyfriend, I mean this boy who liked me and I kind of liked him, but thought it was creepy that he was a senior and I was a freshman, so I didn't really want to go out with him.  I didn't know how to say no (or sure that I WANTED to say no), so I asked my mom if I could go out with him...knowing she would say no for me.  She's a good woman. 

If I had really wanted to go out with him, I would have just gone out with him.  I was difficult that way*.  So of course, mom said no because she is a rational human being and when your 14 year old daughter wants to go out with a 19 year old boy (he was old for his grade), you ALWAYS say no.  Even if you know she will go anyway.  At least then, when she gets impregnated, you can say "Nanananana, I told you so"...and then you can go about raising her High School Love Child.

For the sake of the story, we will say his name was Eagle.  This doesn't really protect the innocent at all, because his name was another bird...which totally didn't help his cause.  He was a nice enough guy and I DID like him...but only kind of.  He was into cars (which I SOOO wasn't)...and into low-rider cars (which I was even LESS into than just regular cars)...especially since I didn't even have my drivers permit.  He was into really loud music in his car - you know, like the BOOM BOOM BOOM music that makes you want to kill people as they zip through your neighborhood or stop next to you at an intersection (this is probably why I am deaf today).  But is probably also why I was not a teen mom (he knocked up a couple of girls shortly after our "relationship" ended).  See mom?  I DID make good decisions.

Anyway, we used to spend the afternoons hanging out on the bed of his truck in front of my parents house.  The fact that this was fun to a 19 year-old was baffling to me and only furthered his creepiness factor.  I mean, I felt SO cool that I was hanging with a 19 year-old, but seriously thought it was wierd that he thought it was cool to hang with me.  In my parents yard. 

Alas, we had unrequited love.  And therefore, he sent me love letters**.  Of the handwritten/cologne doused variety.  They arrived regularly in the mail...and made every other piece of paper in the mailbox stink to high heaven.  He must have wasted bottles of cologne on these letters.

Fast forward to present time:  We just had a re-orginization at work.  I have a new boss who shows up in a meeting the other day wearing a familiar scent.  I immediately placed it and the hook brought me back man.  I could totally see myself sitting in my parents yard (with straight teeth because I wore my retainer all the time back then), with my friend Eagle listening to Satellite by DMB in the bed of his truck...

To sum up:  My boss wears the same cologne as my high school "boyfriend".  Not sure how I'm supposed to get through my yearly performance review without dying.

*Let's hope Anna inherited my hair and nothing else.  The less she is like me, the more likely that Tommy and I are to survive her childhood.

**I also recieved a recorded-from-the-radio cassette tape of Careless Whisper by Wham.

Update:  It has been brought to my attention that this story would be significantly better if my new boss was my old boyfriend, so for the sake of hilarity, we will say it is so.  Done.  New boss = Ex-Boyfriend.  (But in reality, they only smell the same...)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Maternity Clothes = Increased Revenue

I am finally, FINALLY starting to be able to fit into my regular clothes.  I know they say that breastfeeding just melts the pounds away.  Well, THEY can go suck a pickle, because I can guarandamtee you that it did not melt the pounds away.  Mostly, breastfeeding made me want to eat the couch.  And possibly the coffee table.  I would wake up several times a night STARVING.  Like, could eat a whole large pizza, STARVING, not "oh, maybe if I just drink a glass of water my belly will stop growling".  No, this was RAVENOUS, you must feed me now, I think I may die, or my growling belly will wake the baby kind of hungry.  No wonder I couldn't lose weight.  I was eating for about 2 million.

Nonetheless, the point of the story is that YAYYY regular clothes!  HOWEVER, elastic waistbands rock and I miss them already.  No only are you ALWAYS ready to eat a big meal, but you save so much time in the bathroom.  I mean, with regular pants and all their buttons and zippers, you better have a few seconds to spare when you get to the toilet...but with maternity pants, you can cut it real close because all you have to do is pull those suckers down.  They are just efficient. 

I may do a six sigma project on it.  Maybe I can get my company to invest in maternity pants for all it's employees.

Maternity pants = Increased Productivity.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

No Apologies.

I SHOULD be apologetic, and I DO feel a little guilty, but alas, life has once again gotten in the way of me spreading the word.  And by "the word", I mean "verbal diarrhea" and by "spreading", I mean "like herpes".

Nonetheless, thanks for everyone's concern at my absence.  I've just been busy, pre-occupied, and just generally playing about.  We have implemented Margarita Fridays at our house (we make margaritas and sit in the driveway like the classy folks we were raised to be), and therefore I spend most of my week dreaming about 5PM on Friday...which leaves little time for blogging.  Tommy mixes up a batch of sugary goodness, we take the exersaucer to the field and everyone relaxes and enjoys life.

What's that you say?  You live in Texas and it's about 237 degrees outside right now?  Yeah, this does not stop us from field sitting.  Anna is only happy when she is about catch on fire, so out to the field we go...with margaritas.  For us.  Not her. 

To recap the exersizing in the last month-ish:

I re-injured myself running.  Shocking.  I was doing really well running 3-4 miles and then when my running club started up for the season running 6/8/10 miles, I was all, "Hey yeah, I can totally run 39 miles with you guys tomorrow.  No prob."  And lo and behold, I hurt myself.  I should know better, but I got caught up in all.  Oops.  Soooo, now I'm back to 3-4 miles with walk breaks....it's going eh.  I'm having fun though, so I am trying not to care too much.

Due to my injury, my race at Bridgeland Sprint Tri went sub-optimally.  That said, I would have won the Athena division had I remembered to sign up for it (idiot)...instead I got like 9 millionth place in my normal division.  Which, by the way, doesn't feel as good as first.  In case you were curious.

I swam okay (as expected...can't expect great things when you swim twice a year), biked okay (it took me 5 miles to warm up...and in a 13 mile ride, that's too long!), and ran pretty crappily (mostly because I walked most of it).  So, eh. 

I took about 2 weeks off (you know, kind of...) of working out and it was pretty glorious.  It was probably the first time off I've taken in a few years and I really enjoyed it.  I didn't feel guilty and it was good.  I don't have any races until the spring, so there's no real reason to push the envelope now.  I felt like I needed a break and I took it.  GLORIOUS.  And during that time, Tommy and I were able to run together for the first time in about a year - it was great to be able to do that again.  Now that the weather is cooling off (it's only 168 today instead of 237), I'm hoping we can take Anna out for runs together.  

Point of the story is that I:
A.) Am alive
B.) Am well
C.) Have about 37 blogs started but not finished from over the last month
D.)  Am wishing that each day had about 3 more hours in it
E. ) All of the above

No one likes all of the above.

And, of course, gratuitous photos of my adorable nugget, whom we have nicknamed NuNu (it's short for Nugget.  Duh.)


First Trip to the Beach.  Lovin' Life.

Best.  Party.  Ever.

A Daddy and His Girl!

Baptism Day!

Friday, August 05, 2011

Post About Nothing.

So, unfortunately, I don't spend as much time surfin' the net like I used to...not because I don't have the time but because I choose to go to bed at 8PM on a regular basis.  This is the bedtime I have always dreamed about but never indulged in.  I am a morning person, but due to social norms, for years I have been forcing myself to stay awake at least until the sun goes down.  But having a baby gives you the perfect excuse to do just about anything you want. 

Want to talk about vaginas all day?  Sure.  You just had a baby.  Want to cry for no reason?  Yeah, that's normal.  You just had a baby.  Want to talk about poop and vomit while others are eating?  Why not?  You just had a baby.  Sweating profusely?  It's the hormones.  You just had a baby.  Want to go to bed at 8PM everynight for the rest of your life?  No prob.  You just had a baby.

As a kid, my mom would tell me that I couldn't get out of bed until the numbers on the clock matched this piece of paper she taped on the wall that 7:00.  Unfortunately for me, at my tender age, I didn't know that 6:59 came before 7:00 and that 7:01 came after...so I remember sitting in my bed, staring intently at the clock, just BEGGING the numbers to match and knowing that if I looked away for even a second I could miss 7:00. 

It's the little things that really eff up your kids man.  It's the little things.  She also gave me a phone book and a pair of scissors so I could entertain myself.  I spent most of my childhood cutting up phonebooks.  That's a life skill I have yet to need.

Back to my point.  My original intent was to tell you why I haven't been blogging...which, if you follow the logic, can ultimately be blamed on my mother.  So thanks mom for screwing up my blog.  I'm sure that when you gave birth to me, you were planning on savings lots of money for some serious therapy sessions down the road (for you or me or both) and you had no comprehension of this newfangled virtual world where I would type up my diahrea of the mouth for everyone to read.  I think we can ultimately blame dad for that one though.  I'm sure he had something to do with it.  And if not, feel free to take your angry out on him anyway.  You just had a baby after all (I realize I am 30 years old so the excuse is getting a little tired, but until he capable of pushing a baby out of him, I say just go with it).

Sidenote since my mother has now started reading my blog:  I love you mom.  But all those times you told me I looked terrible in lavender really messed me up.  I don't own a stitch of purple clothing for fear of upsetting the color wheel.  But really, I love you mom.

I wish I had something exciting to write about, but the point is that I don't. 

Mmmmm...Nachos is good for me.

Cooking up a nugget for dinner!
So in lieu of actually writing a post, I started a special savings account for Anna's future therapy, which frankly, I feel that her future self should pay for...but since I am the one who styles her hair that way (because OMG, it cracks me up!), I will do what I can to offset the financial strain of years and years of therapy.  Here's a quarter sweetheart.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Only Babies Can Get Away with That.

Me and my pal Roggs took our beasts to dinner on Monday night.  She had just gotten back from vacation and I had just eaten most of the food in the world, so we went to Ziggy's Healthy Grill.  It's a health conscious place (most everything is cooked healthy oils or no oils if possible...the fries are sweet potatoes and the salads are DIVINE)...but they don't really offer up nutrition information (which I find bizarre - and probably means the stuff isn't as healthy as they like to promote). 

Nonetheless, we took the beasts to dinner...but there was no one else at the restaurant...which was good because screaming babies didn't bother anyone but us, but bad because there was no one else to drown out my screaming baby.  Ha.  (Roggs' baby didn't scream so much as squeal...she is just a loud one!)

When the waittress came over to take our order she lurked for a minute too long before addressing our table.  It was just a little wierd.  But hey, we were in Montrose.  Weird lurking people are pretty par for the course 'round those parts.  But when she did finally decide to talk to us, she apparently told us about the specials...but I could barely hear her because the giant booger in her nose was talking louder than her.

I'm telling you, it was the biggest booger I have ever seen in my life.  Ever.  On anyone.  It was so big that I wasn't sure if it was a booger or if it was a nose ring.  It was THAT big.  Huge.

I didn't hear a single word that she said about the specials.

I asked Roggs if she knew what the specials were and she said, "No, I couldn't hear over the booger."

Yeah.  I'm telling you.  Biggest.  Booger.  Ever.  Only babies can get away with boogers like that.  The good news is that, unlike my adorable booger filled child, this chick is capable of picking her own.  When she came back, it was gone.  Apparently booger shaped nose rings aren't as fashionable as I had once thought.

I ordered the salad.

*********************************
In exercise related news, my race in 3 weeks away - ahhh!!  I have been picking up the running mileage - I am now at a respectable 4 miles and a pitiful 5 miles, but I'm getting there!  I'm gonna shoot for running 6 again this weekend at a normal pace (I went way slow last weekend just to make sure I got it done). 

I am feeling good, but my legs are pretty wasted.  I ran 6.5 on Saturday, took Sunday off (because my BFF was in town and we went Owling - ha), did 5 and weights on Monday, biked 20 and ran 1 on Tuesday, 5 and weights on Wednesday, and now, after 2 hours of sleep, I am trying to get motivated to bike at lunch today...but truthfully, I'm not sure if my legs will hold out. 

I will probably take it easy the week of my race - not because I really need to taper before a sprint tri, but because I've increased my volume so much in the last few weeks that my body will probably just need a break.  

For now, I'm hoping to swim in about 12 minutes (500 meters), bike in about 40 minutes (13.5 miles = 20-21mph), and run in about 32-33 minutes (3.65 miles = 9 min/miles). 

The swim will be a crapshoot.  You have to actually train on something to have a vague idea of how it will go...and I have been in the water once since before Anna was born (we are going on about 5 months now).  And that was at my last race.  Ha.  Oh well!  We are going to swim this weekend (swimming is the sport that is REALLY hard to do with a baby, FYI - it just takes too much time!) and then I will have a better grasp of what I can do on race day I think.

I'm relatively confident in my biking ability - I've been KILLING it on the trainer.  I haven't been biking outside, so I don't actually know how fast I've been going, but I've been feeling good and sweating a lot. That's got to be a good sign, eh?  Or I could just be really out of shape.  We will find out!  (It's definitely hard to find time to bike outside, but finding time on the trainer is pretty easy)

On the run, it will just be about willpower.  I know I CAN do it....it will just be a matter of MAKING myself do it.  I'm gonna wear The Green Silence (my racing flats), so that should motivate me to run faster.  You can't wear racing flats and dillydally.  It's just wrong.

I am so excited!  I love racing!  I wish I was gonna look better in my spandex, but alas, this is the squishy body that I was given.  Avert your eyes!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Owling About Town.

For those of you who don't stay home all day and watch tv, I've got news for you.  Owling is the new planking.  And for those of you who are saying, "what the hell is planking?". Well, I've got news for you too.  You are behind on the times my friend. Behind the times.

Planking is all the rage.  Mostly for teenagers.  Or adults hopped up on caffiene.  It's also apparently dangerous.  Whic is ridiculous because according to Wikipedia, it's alternate name is also called the Lying Down Game.  Lying down is probably the safest of all activities in the world.  But you know, if you lay down on your roof, you're an idiot.  Nonetheless. 

This picture has inspired me to take pictures of Anna planking.  I bet planking is a SIDS risk.  Tragic. 

Somebody give that baby a planking!
BUT.  Planking is out and Owling is in.  Thank goodness I have friends like LD and Tater who fill me in on these things now because my daytime TV watching is lacking and I miss it.  I know I said that Brooke Sheilds at The Addams Family was irritating, but I miss.  You don't know what you've got till it's gone.  They took paradise and put in a parking lot.

Since my pal Amac was here from Dallas (yayy for friends visiting!), we owled about town.  We went on a run with our friends on Saturday morning and finished it off with breakfast at Yale Street Grill (home of the crispy hash browns...yum!).  (Sidenote:  I ran 6.5 miles!!  HOORAY!)
Tater, owling it up on the newspaper stand.

After running and post-run calorie consumption, we took naps and went shopping on Westheimer (home of the clothes that are too trendy for me) and then took the Anna to dinner at our neighborhood bar and grill.  Tommy took Anna home early so Amac and I could party like it was 1999, so we ordered a 2 liter bottle of wine (because they apparently sell those there) and consumed it.  Then called Tater who joined us for some beers and some late night owling. 
Late Night Owling.  Burns more calories than Taco Cabana.

Then, because we are old and I just had a baby, we left at like 11PM because, let's be honest, I cannot party like it's 1999 anymore.  I tried though, I really did.  We came home, watched Ferris Bueller (SEE?  We were really trying for the 1999 thing...)    Then on Sunday, we met Janelle and Thomas for breakfast at Coco Crepes (home of the delicious bananas foster crepe) where Anna worked on her Jackie O impressions.
Anna and Aunt Amac.
Oh, and BTW, this morning on the radio, Rod Ryan was talking about how owling is the new planking.  We are so trendy.


Thursday, July 14, 2011

Quick Updates...Only Because It's Been Forever Since I Last Blogged.

I'm really glad I bought semi-stylish maternity clothes.  I had no idea that I would STILL be wearing them.  My entire outfit today is maternity.  Stretchy pants rock, but I kind of miss belts.

Apparently, I can't remember to put on deodorant anymore.  This is the third day since I've been back at work that  I've forgotten to put it on.  Thank goodness for my gym bag.

What to do when people make TERRIBLE spelling mistakes on Facebook?  Not just a typo, but like, the wrong word all together?  Should you help them?  I hate seeing my friends get dummer*. "Conscience" and "conscious" are not the same word.  FYI.  Nor are "affect" and "effect".  And don't get me started on "irregardless". 

Since my belly button is so freakishly deep now (it was freakishly deep before...now it's even worse...if you can possibly fathom that), it is collecting all sorts of artifacts.  I wouldn't be surprised to find a dinosaur fossil in there.

It's Anna's 3 month birthday!  Happy birthday Miss Anna!  I'd buy you cupcakes (because any excuse for cupcakes is a good one), but I can't wear stretchy pants forever and I can't afford a new wardrobe, so Project Weight Loss is underway.  And in case you didn't follow, Project Weight Loss does not include the consumption of cupcakes.

Dear lord mom.  That outfit...[shudder]...
We started giving the beast bottles pretty early on (which was awesome, btw)...and we couldn't figure out why sometimes she would choke and sputter and drool and splatter milk everywhere.  Then one day, I was like, "Hey Tommy, some of these nipples have numbers on them".  And Tommy was all,  "Hey, let's google it".  And we determined that we had been feeding her with nipples fit for a 3 year old.  No wonder the kid couldn't keep it all down.

Lucky for me, newborns are not quite as fragile as they appear to be.  There are just too many damn instructions to read - no one could keep up.  No pregnant woman knows what to read and no new mom actually has that kind of time...soooo, my house is kind of one giant booby trap.

The best thing about being back at work is morning talk radio.  Oh, how I missed morning talk radio. 

Had my first hangover on Saturday morning.  Learned my lesson!  Hangovers and babies do not mix.  Nor do long runs in the heat of the day or massages.  All of which I did with a hangover.  Not optimal.  Game night was fun...Things in a Park that start with J??
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Workouts are going GREAT!  My running group started up for the season and I quickly realized A. how much I missed working out with people and B. that running while talking is hard.  I will attempt to run 6 miles on Saturday with them (and my BFF who is coming in town to play!)...we will see how that goes.  It is a 50% increase over my longest run lately.  I think we can safely say that that is higher the recommended 10% increase. (not to be redundant for you math geniuses out there) Ooops.  Bridgeland Sprint Tri is in 3 weeks...and since I forgot to sign up for the Athena division (CRAP!), I will attempt to be more competitive so I don't embarrass myself.  Probably should have thought that through a little more.  Probably should go to the pool.  At least once.  Probably.

*Yes, I no that's not how you speel it.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

International Travel

Did you know that infants need passports?  Yeah.  They do.  Which is ridiculous, by the way.  Because we took passport pictures of her and we travel in 7 months...which means that she will look nothing like she does now.  Totally NOT a waste of my time.

Nonetheless, you have to have a passport for an infant and we are going to Mexico for a wedding in December, so the beast will have a passport.  Unfortunately, taking a picture of an infant who cannot hold her own head up is like pulling teeth (and hysterical...unlike pulling teeth).













We are highly amused by these.

And then we got to hang out at the passport office for 2.5 hours with an infant.  What an awesome system.  Luckily, I think she left some crap  (yeah, like actual crap) on the floor there.  Payback is a bia!

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In other news, I started back to work this week.  In very un-momlike fashion, I enjoyed almost every single minute of my first day.  That said, I spent a good portion of my day looking at pictures of her on my phone (don't tell my boss how much they paid me to do that), but I loved being back at the office, talking to people, solving problems, using the non-babytalk side of my brain, and having a reason to brush my teeth. 

I loved staying home with her (WAY more than I thought I could/would) but I was definitely ready to get back in the work force.  I took 11.5 weeks off - which was right about what I needed.  I started getting really antsy at about 10 weeks and then I had another week to get my ducks in a row...it was perfect.  3 days in, I am tired but overall, work is work.  Some parts of it are good, some parts of it are bad...but as an engineer, I CRAVE routine and schedules and spreadsheets.  And there are only so many spreadsheets you need for an infant (and I didn't actually have any).  I considered making a spreadsheet of her sleep and awake cycles, but since she doesn't sleep during the day AT ALL, the spreadsheet would have been quite short.

I've given myself the week off from working out.  But since my office has a great gym, I was able to get an abs class and some weights in yesterday and toda, I woke up early and got 25 minutes on my bike trainer and there is a quick class at lunch again that I will take.  So the week won't be a total wash.  Next week I will start to try to get workouts in before work  - it will be an interesting balancing act, but since Tommy and I are the masters at schedule juggling, I'm sure we will figure it out.  AND next week Tommy and I will start alternating middle of the night feedings...right now, Tommy has been doing it because I was pumping in the middle of the night, but that has stopped now that I am back at work.  Hopefully the beast will start sleeping through the night soon and life can get some sort of routine!

AND (so many changes!) my track workouts with my group start next week.  I cannot wait.  It's been a LOOOONG time since I've done speed work...and while I am terrified, I know it will be worth it in the long run.  Hooray!