Birthday-Marathon weekend!

What a weekend.
I took a couple days off of work just prior to my planned marathon. Since I dropped to the 1/2, I felt as if I won the lottery. I didn't really need the days of rest prior to a 1/2 but I enjoyed every minute. Allison had a surprise half day on Thursday which was very stressful timing wise. I schedule each day to the precise minute. This was the plan: wake up, make breakfast for the the girls, clothes, hair, make lunch,double check backpacks. Oh yes and coffee for me. Walk Allison to school then come home and play with Laureate. Drive her to school, head across town to work out with Brent. Speed back to pick up Laureate then Allison....Then the half day creeps in and wham-How do I juggle that? First I thought it must be a mistake. I have all the days off and half days in the calendar so how'd this one get missed? So I called the school...yup 1/2 day. Dismissal is at 12:10. What are the options?Cancel with Brent? Nope-can't with less than 24hr notice. Have someone else pick up Allison? Nope-husbands out of town, sitter has an appointment. Well I made magic happen and picked up Allison from school a 1/2 hr early to make it to Brents on time, and just then he calls and slides me into a 5:15pm spot. All that chaos and it seemed to have worked out. So Allison and I have a couple free hours alone-this is a precious rarity.

Marathon Obsessing

We have arrived...Its marathon weekend. Its something I've looked forward too all summer. The training, the not training, the thought of never running again, the running again, the honor and privileged to be able to downgrade to the half, the sadness of not running with my two favorite partners, the happiness that they can still be together. The panic when Julie says she wont be able to go, the sadness of all her training being wasted. the joy of having Phil run with me again. Its been a process of up and down emotions.

Since none of us were able to run a marathon this year, we are eager to sign up for another.After obsessing over the perfect marathon to sign up for, I have made the decision…Its so exciting huh?

I was debating, for exactly a month, between the Rock n Roll D.C Marathon,

 

Just another day

I'm well taken care of even when my husbands out of town!

It was Julie's and Christians Anniversary, so I offered up my babysitting skills so they could have dinner alone. Without a second thought they took me up on it. I got home from work on time for once and had some alone time with laureate-I swear she soaks up every minute. We headed to the school to pick up Allison and had a lovely walk home.

 Even though she is 7 going on 13 she still holds my hand every so often. I'm never letting go. 

My two favorite transformers

I had my third visit with Dr. Gomez, and confessed my ambitious running over the past 5 days. I showed him where the pain was and he could feel the hard bulge right away. I laid face down in the usual fashion and closed my eyes. It's so relaxing after a long day of work, to just be. He began rubbing my shoulders finding all the sore spots along the way and then up my neck. "Have you been having headaches?", he asks. "Nope, I mutter as I’m totally relaxed." "Well your neck is out," and snap, he pops it right back in. Ooooh that’s much looser, I had no idea. He works his way down my back with a million snaps along the way. Now onto that darn leg. He finds the spot right away and I wince. He rubs it with strong long strokes and then says, I’m going to do this 3 times. I held my breath and my eyes filled with tears…Ouch. #1 done and onto #2, I’m not ready but here we go I brace myself and take a deep breathe in. For the love of god is he trying to break it? And before I could process more than that we are on #3. He’s done I’m in shock and he rubs the whole calf fast and it becomes all warm and happy again. 

The next day the typical pain is gone but definitely sore to touch. I’m sure I’ll have a bruise. He says I'm doing great and can only come back on an as needed basis.

Starting off too fast?

I absolutely love that I'm able to run again! Just two weeks til my marathon, well my downgraded 1/2 Marathon!! Its so exciting that I get to run at all. I did ten miles at an easy 10 min pace with my favorite running partner Julie.

Perspective

I've been so consumed by my own schedule and my injury and trying to solve my problem that I haven't been in touch with my favorite blogger that I follow. So after a month or so hiatus, I checked up on her. I know she has a marathon coming up and her goal was to hit a sub 3hr marathon....super amazing right?! I'm sure she's getting excited.
I had a free moment and logged on. Oooh nooo!! I found out she's sick. She had some GI issues, bad enough to prevent her from running. All that training all that hard work and just like that she's out of the race. My heart broke. My eyes welled up and my breathing quivered. I continued to read and she's all positive thoughts, full of inspirational optimism . Her training wasn't a waste because there's another race, at another time, that she will run, after she's healed and better.
I immediately thought of myself and my shin problems. The roller coaster of emotions I have felt throughout this process came to light. My goals and aspirations were put on hold, and although it has been quite frustrating, it has been even more enlightening. My leg is healed and it's time to start training again. I found the problem and am able to fix it. And she will too.

Finally this injury is paying off...and Fall is the best.

Annnd this is why I absolutely love fall:
Finally we have a weekend free. We had an impromptu fire at our house last night. Set up an open invitation for any and everyone to come join us. This ended up being our favorite family of 8, The Johnson's and  3 other groups of friends. The kids played hide and go seek in the dark, glow sticks made it extra fun. Had caramel dipped apples, and of course s'mores! Besides the caramel covered windows and door handles, I call this a success.
We woke up with Saturday morning snuggles and I knew the day would be great. After breakfast we started a new chore routine, we'll see how it works. I put the various chores in a bowl and had everyone pick. Allison picked vacuum, Laureate picked laundry (lucky for her it was already washed and folded-she just had to put it away), Phil picked bathrooms, and I got dusting! I feel like I won that transaction. In about 45mins the house was beautiful. Hopefully next week will be just as easy.
I have fond Saturday morning memories cleaning the house while my mom danced around to blasting music.

Since we are being spontaneous, how about a trip to the apple orchard?

Crack me up

My journey with Brent continues...
On our first visit he gave me the name of a Chiropractor that he works closely with and suggested I see Dr. Gomez right away!
I don't think I have to remind you that finding time is difficult for me. As with a lot of things I don't necessarily want to do, I tend to procrastinate. Then I get a very direct text from Brent...

So I did. I try and squeeze in appointments without the girls in tow, because life is so much easier when you don't have to be 'on mommy duty' in a doctors office. However, this time I had no choice. If I wanna continue down this path towards success then I must listen and do as I'm told, for once in my life. (It only took 34ish years mom!)
Per my normal routine, I ran out of the hospital to grab the kiddos from school and headed straight to Dr. Gomez. There was lots of complaining in the backseat, What appointment? How long is it going to take? Why cant we just stay home? (Alone? not a chance). Clearly my choices to better myself have terrible effects on my kids.
So I did what any good mother does, I whipped out the secret weapon (Nabi, and Nabi Jr) to appease the incessant whining. Just to seal the deal I followed it up with, if you're good we can go out to dinner. YaaaaY!!! One picked McDonald's, she always does, and the other picked Applebees,  which completed our transaction.

Dr. Gomez was all smiles, clearly he has kids because he wasn't phased by the girls shenanigans...the Nabies didn't work this time. They were much more interested in spinning in the cool Dr.s chair or using the foot massage or getting water from the water cooler. Lets just say we got through it.

Stolen pic from internet!