The baby woke up on the crazy side of her crib

Normally, I would never describe Faith as a hyper kid. She hardly ever stops moving, but she will plop down and play with just one toy for 15 solid minutes if the mood strikes her. Yesterday morning, Faith woke up in a crazy mood and thus began a very long day for me.

She's cutting another molar (joy!), so she was alternating maniac giggling and crying with her hands in her mouth. Peanut took a lot of abuse from the baby yesterday:

Please make this stop

She might be laughing, but I'm crying inside

Peanut was her patient self all day, but as soon as the baby went down for the night, Peanut passed out on the couch and didn't budge all night. She was probably extra tired because Faith always wants to "help" Peanut sleep on her bed.

Your kid is trying to moon me

Oh crap, she's getting in MY bed!

I can't live like this

I tried to let Peanut go upstairs so she could get a break, but she won't go upstairs if we're downstairs. She doesn't want to miss out on any of the action.

The baby was acting like she had been given coffee at some point, but I swear I only gave her water.

Gotta hydrate for my run tomorrow

Those kids are out playing! Mommy, take me outside!

Even when I squat, this bottle is empty!

Something to file under the "I'm an Idiot" tab in my file: Pushing the jogging stroller has felt really hard lately, but I assumed I was just tired. Nope, all three tires were just really low. A bike pump purchase later (and my husband having to explain to me how to use said pump), my tires are full again and my run yesterday felt so much easier. If you have a jogging stroller, learn from my ignorance and check those tires. :)

If the bike pump ignorance isn't enough embarrassment for one post, my husband thought these PJs said "Gassy Like Mom" Isn't he just so funny?

Mommy doesn't fart, it's always the dog

The kids in this county have off from school again today due to the storm damage. I can't remember ever getting a day off from school for anything other than snow, but I do remember one day when they canceled school for snow, but it ended up only raining. :)

Did you ever get off from school for something other than snow?


Do you know how to use a bike pump? (Bonus points if at least one person admits they didn't know either)

The Mental Games

Training for an ultra marathon is somewhat unnerving. With my first two ultras, I knew I could finish the 31 miles since I had run a marathon. For the marathon, I was concerned that I wouldn't get a time that I liked, but I knew I'd finish. This 50 mile race in November is the first running event I've ever done where I'm not positive I can finish.

For the past month, I've been running about 50 miles a week. Confession: running 50 miles a week is exhausting. That's a lot of running! Sometimes when I feel tired I think "Holy crap, I'm going to have to run all of this in one day??" It's getting better as I go, or at least I'm getting used to the physical tiredness.

I have noticed that when I feel a twinge of anxiety about the race, I tend to want to add a little extra to my run, like an extra mile today will be some sort of insurance against failure in my race in November. I know it's silly because I'm following a 50 mile training plan that will adequately prepare me and over-training isn't going to do me any favors.

I have "friends" on Daily Mile who are also training for the JFK 50 and some of them run almost 80 miles a week! That is just nuts to me and I know they are training for 100 mile races too, but it still makes me feel like a slacker. It's stupid to compare myself to people like that, but it's hard when I'll be racing against them! Well, I use "race" in a loose sense since my goal for my first 50 mile race is just to finish before the time cut off.

The saying on my Road ID is "It's 98% Mental" and I really believe running is mostly mental and I just need to stop over-thinking my training and trust that if I follow the plan, I'll be ready to rock that race. :)

Yesterday was a great day because it was like the weekend since my husband was home sick from work. He was nice enough to get up early with the baby so I could go for my run. I only do speedwork once a week and my plan said to do 9 miles with 6 miles at a "ten mile pace". I'm not exactly sure what my 10 mile pace would be, so I just aimed for 8:30 miles. I ran 9.25 miles at a 8:42 average and I was pretty happy with that. My run route was a mess of downed trees and power lines, so that added an element of adventure.

We all went for a drive in the afternoon to return library books and ogle the damage.

I did this as part of my weight training plan. Yeah, I'm that strong.

Power lines on the ground are super safe.

This is the most boring drive EVER

Daddy, you're driving like a MANIAC!!

After our outing, we cleaned up the yard of all the fallen branches and then I made some beer bread for our neighbor who gave us ice when the power was out. Edited to add link to recipe! 

I almost ate this all myself instead of giving it to my neighbors

Do you ever fall victim to the mental aspect of running or working out?


Have you ever had beer bread before? Is it not the most amazing thing ever?

Screw you Irene!

Man, what a weekend! Most of the time, weekends generally leave me feeling rested and ready for the week, but not this one. Honestly, I'm just shocked that I have power now. We were told to expect multi-day outages and my neighbors told me the roads were a mess of downed power lines and trees. My husband tried to go out for ice yesterday morning and couldn't get out because the downed trees one way and the flooding the other way.

We got really lucky. We only lost our mailbox and had a really scary moment where the grill got loose and FLEW across the deck (with the propane tank inside!). My husband had to go out into the storm to retie the grill. Also, our basement flooded a little.

This water was about one inch thick (that's what she said)

We lost power Saturday late afternoon and it came on again last night. Getting AC again was the most beautiful thing ever. I took a walk yesterday afternoon and saw some of the damage in the neighborhood:

Lots of uprooted trees

Apparently everyone in my hood has a chainsaw

This was the only tree that I saw that actually touched a house

Good thing they weren't out having a picnic

Irene was my first hurricane and I have to say it was scary! We hardly slept at all because the winds were so loud and we heard all of these thumps and bumps and we were convinced the roof was going to fall off. Also, my husband ate some questionable queso dip and had food poisoning, so it was a very special night of our marriage.

We laughed when we heard on a D.C. radio station that most of the area was spared, except for St. Mary's county which got hit pretty hard (we live in St. Mary's). Our area is pretty messed up, but luckily everyone seems to have a chainsaw and it's getting cleaned up pretty quickly! I guess I should keep that chainsaw thing in mind the next time some dude cuts me off in traffic...

I learned a lot of things this weekend:

• We don't own any board games and staring contests are only fun for a little while.
• Throwing away all the contents of my defrosted freezer is physically painful.
• The baby doesn't care at all about the power being off. All of her toys are battery run.
• My dumbass dog won't pee if it's windy and raining. I tried to walk her because she hadn't peed in 10 hours, but she wouldn't open her eyes outside and wouldn't go.

I'm totally that "Crazy Dog Lady" in the neighborhood

The dog doesn't appreciate me

I am so glad power is back on and we don't have to evacuate to somewhere with power. My main concern was the baby's milk, but our nice neighbor gave us a bag of ice to help keep it cold. I also found out that most of our neighbor's have generators, so that's something for my Christmas list if we're going to keep living here. 

I did get my long run done on Saturday morning. I got 8 done outside before the winds got crazy. We headed back early because the trees were creaking in a scary way and I was pretty sure I could finish on the treadmill and avoid the death risk. I finished up the 14 miles on the treadmill and even after that, I was a bundle of nerves all day waiting for the storm to hit. My husband thought that I was nuts to worry, so I got a lot of "I told you so"s in yesterday. :)

Week 5 of JFK training is done! I ran 48 miles and now I'm prepared to run in some crazy wind and rain! :)

Compressed to avoid the hurricane

Also, I had the waffles from my hurricane prep kit before we lost power, so HA! to anyone who laughed at that. :P

Have you ever been the Crazy Dog/Cat Lady in your neighborhood?

Did Hurricane Irene hit your area over the weekend?

The Weather Channel is like MTV for old people

This has been a banner week for Mother Nature so far! We had an earthquake on Tuesday and last night we had severe thunderstorms with a possible tornado. It doesn't stop there: we have a hurricane on the way this weekend! I usually make fun of my husband for watching the Weather Channel, but I've actually been watching it because we live in a coastal area and I really enjoy a good panic.

I grew up in northern Virginia and I've been to the grocery store before a snowstorm, so I thought I understood shopping madness. About 8 years ago, Hurricane Isabel hit this area pretty hard and the memory of that apparently makes people crazy about this hurricane. I went to Target to get my "hurricane panic supplies" and I have never felt such an air of panic and fear in a store. I wanted to buy bottled water and I was shocked to see the whole aisle was picked clean. Not one to give up easily, I parked the cart and then climbed up to the top shelf like a monkey and found a few bottles at the back of the top shelf. I started to put them in my cart and some dude walked up and tried to take one of them. I managed to persuade him that it was my water and he should just move along. Faith was just looking at me like "Punch him Mommy, FINISH HIM" (Faith apparently plays Mortal Combat). 

That guy messed with the wrong baby

I've never shopped for a hurricane before, so I came home with some random stuff.

Tomato sauce with HFCS? Yes, please.

This water will taste sweet because I worked for it

My husband got a good laugh that I think syrup is a critical storm provision

I also picked up some emergency formula too (which is part of why I wanted the bottled water) since if we lose power, we'll lose the milk in the fridge. We have like 500 diapers, so we're good in that department. My husband was laughing a little at my water hording:

I need water too Mommy!

The state of Maryland has declared a state of emergency, so my 10 mile race for Sunday got cancelled. I'm pretty bummed about that, but it's better to know early than to find out after I drove there. The hurricane is predicted to hit here Saturday night and Sunday morning, so I'm going to do my Sunday 10 mile run today just in case. I'll do my 14 mile run early tomorrow, hopefully before the rain starts. 

On a completely unrelated note, here is a snap shot in how I come up with meal ideas:

On Wednesday night, my husband and I were watching "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant" and laughing at it. One of the women said that she didn't know she was pregnant because her mom made such a good cheeseburger macaroni that she thought she gained weight as a result of her love of the mac. My main takeaway was "Man, now I want some cheeseburger macaroni!"

Last night's dinner:

Fattening enough to make you not notice a pregnancy 

A woman in my neighborhood told me that they lost power for FOUR days during the last hurricane, so I'm bracing myself for that possibility. I'm not really sure I can make it that long without Gchat and Twitter. :) If I don't post on Monday, I'm probably still alive and just don't have power, so don't panic prematurely. I'm still hoping that the storm blows out to sea and we can just laugh about my water hording and Beeferoni purchases. 

Are you in the path of Hurricane Irene? What are you doing to prepare?

What's the oddest dinner idea inspiration you've ever had?

Your life in the eyes of another

Today's post is a very special guest post brought to you by Kari over at Running Ricig. We thought it would be funny to guest post on each other's blogs, so we provided just the pictures to each other and this is her interpretation of a day in the life of Kara:

I don’t believe in the school system here, so I’m starting Faith out early to get things jumpstarted. We don’t have a chalkboard, so I took to the driveway for lesson 1. She was not amused.

I'm farting in your general direction

She was way more interested perfecting her air punching skills. She’s going to be a kung-fu master like her bad ass mom.

I fight with expert timing

After the success of the birthday pony, I thought Faith would love the awkward car, fire engine, rider thing, but she’s yet to master anything other than her gangster lean. Maybe it’s for the best. Drinking and driving is dangerous.

I'm totally fine to drive, I've only had one sippy cup!

The weather has been great here lately. No more swamp stink and, with the exception of the occasional earthquake, running has been pretty ideal. However, running with a napless baby makes things very tricky. Sometimes even stuffing her chubby little hands with snacks and the dog’s leash doesn’t keep her from squawking.

I still managed to fit in a pleasant enough four mile loop by just cranking up my headphones and covertly making sure she was still alive every few minutes.

Snacks! I want more snacks!

Meanwhile, you’d think I was killing Peanut bringing her along for a run. How is it possible for her to be so fat and lazy and keep up on runs? I’m thinking maybe doggy Atkins to slim her down before her first race. Racing weight isn’t just important for people, she better not hold me back. Every man for himself.

I'm conserving energy to smoke everyone in that 5K

I think the only thing that could possibly be funnier than reading Kari's interpretation of my day would be to get my husband to do a guest post. :)

Enjoy my guest post over at Kari's blog!

If someone did a guest post of a day in your life, what 2 things do you think they'd focus on?

I should have listened to the dog

My dog is "special". She has canine epilepsy that is controlled with medication, but she still has her moments when she acts a little, as I call it, "seizure-riffic". Yesterday I was finishing up eating lunch and the baby was playing with her toys in the kitchen and the dog was being a little bitch. She was whining and pacing and poking me and in general acting like she was about to have a seizure. I kicked her outside so I could eat my lunch dessert in peace (Tootsie rolls if you're curious) and then the whole house started swaying and windows rattled.

I am a black belt in the Art of Panic

My first thought was a terrorist attack and then when the shaking continued, I worried a jet had crashed in the neighborhood. I had dropped my Tootsie rolls and grabbed the baby and proceeded to run like a headless chicken around my kitchen. You know what I don't know? What to do in an earthquake! I'm an east coast girl and the concept of an "earthquake" is pretty low on my idea list, right below "unicorn attack".

My thoughts were racing:

Shit, the dog is freaking out in the yard. Should I try to get her in?
Should I go outside or stay inside?
Do I stay under a door frame or hide in a tub? 
Is this happening to just my house?
Is this real life?


The whole thing only lasted about 40 seconds, but it was really terrifying. All the cans in the pantry were falling down and our chandelier was shaking and rattling. I ended up curled up over Faith in the doorway to our dining room. She didn't care about the quake at all, she actually only got upset after it was over and I wasn't holding her anymore:

Mommy, make the house go bouncy-bouncy again!

After it was finally over and I realized that the world wasn't ending, I had to check to see if I had actually peed myself:

All clear

I was surprised how shaken up I felt after the quake. My hands were actually shaking for about an hour after. Peanut gave me "I told you so" looks all afternoon yesterday:

No one listens to me

Yesterday was proof that I'm probably not cut out to ever live in CA. I need the earth to remain still, I can't imagine handling a bigger quake.

Earthquake hilarity: the guy who cuts our lawn told me that his girlfriend was on the crapper when the quake hit and that's a good way to need a post-quake shower. That's a far second to my worst case scenario of being on this bridge during an earthquake:

I sweat more driving over this bridge than I do running

Other than crouching in a doorway and trying not to pee myself, I ran 9 miles yesterday. It was actually chilly in the morning when I got up, so the run outside felt good and then I had about an hour to kill before the baby went down for her nap and then I ran the rest on the treadmill. There was also a cookie break in there too. :)

I'm not going to do 5am runs if I can avoid it because it's rough on my husband. I did it last week because the baby's naps were unpredictable, but now she's settled back into a routine, so there is no need to torture my husband with a 5am alarm and subsequent hour of dog whining. Peanut won't run in the dark, so I can't take her, but that doesn't stop her from crying about it the whole time I'm gone. Sounds pleasant for my husband, huh? The extra sleep for me isn't bad either, but I will try to do some runs early so I can build experience in running in the dark since I will have to do that in the JFK 50.

Have you ever experienced an earthquake? How did you react?


Has your dog ever tried to "tell" you something?

Has anyone considered...

That we earn it? Or that this survey is bull crap?

Shape magazine is just awful. I can't wait until my subscription (purchased from my little cousin as a fundraiser) is finally done. This month's issue told me about liposuction, face creams and how kids will make me fat (see above).

I really hate "fitness" magazines that make having kids seem like some sort of horrible fat trap. If you went by their "success" stories, you'd think going off to college or having kids was a guarantee for obesity. I know you could say that my running is how I've narrowly avoided the obesity trainwreck that is having a baby, but I'm here to tell you a secret: having a baby doesn't make you fat, eating a lot makes you fat. There is nothing about having a baby that encourages extra eating, in fact you have even less time to eat and once you do have more time, you have motivation to eat well since the little monster is watching your every move and demanding a bite of whatever you're eating.

Ah, there. Now I feel better. I swear, reading Shape magazine makes my blood pressure spike. You'd never expect to get all riled up from some fluff magazine you only pick up when you're on the crapper.

Over the weekend, my husband installed new baby proof cabinet locks in the kitchen. Why new locks? Here's why:



I don't expect an iron clad seal on the cabinets, but it has to do better than that! As much as this pains me to say, my kid isn't some kind of genius who has cracked the code here. This is just a really crappy child lock. I think even Peanut would figure it out eventually. We upgraded to the kind that is screwed into the cabinets and when Faith tried to get into her usual areas and was stopped, she was pissed.

But I can see the Tupperware!

Mommy, I can't get that bottle of poison! This is BS!

This is what happens when I don't run for a day, I find things to complain about. Luckily for everyone, today is back to running. This week is a "step back" week in the 50 mile training plan because I have the Annapolis 10 Mile race on Sunday. I only have to run 12-14 on Saturday! That's short enough to do from my house, which will make my husband happy since I won't be gone as long. He might be sad when he realizes that means I don't stop by Starbucks and get him breakfast after I'm done with my run. :)

Do you ever get angry over something you read in a "fitness" magazine?

Are you a Starbucks fan? My husband is a triple venti latte addict, but I'm only interested in their cake pop selection since I don't drink coffee and their tea is yucky.

Turtles don't appreciate me

This weekend began as every weekend in JFK 50 training begins: with a long run! I lucked out on Saturday morning and was able to do most of my long run with other people training for a fall marathon. They did 15, so I only had to 5 more on my own to make it 20 for the day.

6am on a Saturday is party time for runners

We ran over on Solomons Island which was great because it was a beautiful morning and I like having the salty breeze as I run. It's fairy shady too, which is rare around here.

Around mile 12, I made the whole group stop so I could move a turtle out of the road. I had to do it with a stick since turtles have salmonella, but I made sure he was nice and comfy in the grass next to the road before we left. I ran over a turtle a couple of years ago and now I can't run past one without moving it. I felt good as I ran away because at least I had saved that turtle from a similar fate.

I ran with the group back to where we started for the end of their 15 miles. My friend Amy is seriously the best running hostess ever and had pitchers of ice water and watered down Gatorade waiting for us. I took a little stretch break before heading back out.

I'm so skilled, I can hydrate and stretch at the same time!

At this point, I'm just procrastinating on running again

I ran back out the same way as before and as I was coming back,  and around mile 18 I passed by the same spot where the turtle had been. That little shithead had crawled back out into the road and gotten himself killed! I was screaming "I TOLD you to stay OFF the road!!" at a dead turtle carcass, which seems completely normal after over two and half hours of running. My husband told me later that I must have just put him on the wrong side of the road.

I finished up the 20 miles and still felt really good. It doesn't happen often, so I enjoyed not feeling like death after a long run. I even felt good the rest of the day, which is very different from last weekend when I finished up 18 miles and then just sat on the floor the rest of the day and let the baby try to eat my hair.

On Sunday I ran 10.5 miles with another woman. I felt like I could have run at a faster pace, which is good considering that even when you combine my two runs, it's only 2/3 of the distance of a 50 mile run. :)

Other than the 30.5 miles I ran (I really should have done .5 more so I could say I ran a 50K), I just hung out with my husband and the baby. We took Faith to the park on Friday and then out for ice cream. She enjoyed throwing handfuls of mulch into the air at the park and then she demolished her kiddie cone at Bruester's.

It's raining mulch, hallelujah, it's raining mulch....

I'm done here, now I scream for ice cream!

Yesterday Faith had a wild time in her pool, which I thought would be a good deal for me since I'd get to just sit, but she had other plans. See all of those plastic balls? She threw every single one of them out of the pool and laughed. I didn't laugh as much when I had to bend over with sore hamstrings to pick them up and then she threw them all out again!

Hose water and plastic balls?! Is it my birthday?

Let's see if I can make a tidal wave going from side to side...

Hose water is good for drinking, right?

Faith actually puts her face in the water and tries to swim, which is both hilarious and terrifying for me. I'm signing her up for baby swim classes next month and I feel like she's going to love that.

Week 4 of JFK 50 training is done and I ran 53 miles. Only 12 more weeks to go! :)

I love Daily Mile graphs, especially since they round up

Have you ever moved a turtle out of the road?


What did you do over the weekend?