5k With Family = The BEST!

This weekend was an emotional one for me.  All the emotions were not necessary because a normal person would not have stressed thyself out like I do on a regular basis.  Friday night at 7pm, I ran in a 5k.  I signed up late in hopes of it happening and my missing it.

“Oops, I forgot all about that race that happens every year that Dad is the race marshal of”.  

It wouldn’t have flown.  My sister would have called me out on it and I knew it so I signed up, late, but I signed up.

What’s the big stinkin’ deal, right?  Well, my dad was always involved in this race for as long as I could remember.  He and my mom would volunteer and they’d be so cute.  They’d be handing out race packets and race shirts to the common folk.  Joking, of course.  My parents are very down-to-earth good people.

In honor of my dad, my sister got a lot of my family to sign up to walk it.  My mom, aunts, uncles, cousins, my sister and my brother-in-law were all there.

The fellow on the left wearing jeans is my uncle Dave. Before we ran, he jokingly said that he couldn’t decide if he was going to run or walk the 5k. I asked him he knew what chaffing was….. Yoouch!

EMOTION = SCERRED…Friday came and the weather was nice.  Should have been a lovely, right?  Not for me.  Everyone walked it together.  Everyone but me.  I would have had an anxiety attack watching the other people in our town running if I would have walked it.  I knew I had to run it.  I felt like I was up against a bunch of Kenyans and our lives depended on it.  I can run miles and miles with an average of 8 to 8:45 mile/minute.  I did my 1/2 marathon last September with an average mile/minute of 7:48.  Now if I could run 13 miles with an average mm of 7:48, you would think I could run 3 miles fast, right?  Wrong.  I cannot run fast.

Once the gun went off, I was off…. spitting….snorting….stomping my feet with horrible form.

I ended up getting 3rd in my age group with a time of 22:39 (mm 7:18).  I could have done better, I think,  if I would have started out more in front of the pack.  I ended up getting behind slower people so I had to maneuver around them.  I was so worried I’d get in peoples’ way so I figured I needed to start out in the middle of the pack.

It’s just a silly 5k and my time shouldn’t have been what mattered.  This run was for my dad.  I am happy to say that I was able to keep my emotions in check enough so that I didn’t cry.  I miss my dad.  We all do.  He was watching and he was smiling.

EMOTION = LA-LA-LOVE…I loved being with my family for this event. Once the race was done, any additional time with them was just bonus (doing shots of whipped cream vodka is totally acceptable).  Love you all…

I didn’t do any running Saturday.  I think that I pulled my right quad a little from running with crappy form.

EMOTION = DIZZILY SELF ASSURED…Last night Mick and I met up for drinks with friends.  It was Cinco De Mayo so we had to drink.  I danced so hard (no pain as I was a little tipsy).  I looked hot!

Today, I wanted to run but I procrastinated as I always do.  To get me in the mood to run, I went shopping with my daughter (copper ring, octopus earrings (I’m really into octopi right now) and Billabong jean shorts) .  We also enjoyed some Noodles and Company (Pad Thai = yummy).

Finally, my daughter, Who Girl, suggested a run into town as long as we stopped for an ice cream cone.  A serious runner would say “no” so I said “okay”.

We ran 1/2 way, enjoyed strawberry soft serve ice cream cone and then walked/ran home.   It was a lot of fun.  I’m thinking we could have run all the way home if we would have skipped the ice cream but that wouldn’t have been fun, right?  Altogether, we logged 7.62 miles with an average mile/minute of 9:35.

So that’s that.  Weekend gone.  Back to work tomorrow.

EMOTION = TIRED….Need sleep……

Zumba!!

Yay.  I got my CEP compression socks in the mail.  I wore them today when doing the treadmill for 6.5 miles (61.46 minutes).  I’m not sure if the socks helped or not but I’ll keep wearing them because I don’t think one wear is enough to decide.

My whole family has been sick since Monday.  Stomach flu.  Gross.  I don’t need to say anymore.   My husband and 2 boys had it for about 2-3 days.I can’t stand the smell of Lysol anymore.  I think I caught the same virus but I think it affected me milder than them, if that’s possible.  With not feeling my best and the gusty winds, running outside has not been an option to me.  I haven’t worked out since Tuesday so running today, even if it was on the TM, felt really good.

After running, I made taco meat for nachos and tacos for the family.  I was so excited about the taco salad I put together for myself.  I got clumsy and dropped the bowl, and taco meat went all over my new socks and newish Saucony shoes.  BALLS!  Clumsy, clumsy, clumsy.

Earlier today, Brucee had two basketball games with about an hour and a half in between.  My mom and I went over the Women’s Expo just to waste time.  I wasn’t planning on buying anything but I ran into the girl at the Zumba booth.  I’ve always wanted to try Zumba.  I need new moves for the dance floor, ya know.  Anywho,  I bought a punch card for 10 Zumba drop-ins for only $40.  Nice.  Good deal, right?  Well four hours later, I noticed that the drop-in’s are on Monday and Wednesdays and I’m not free on those nights (Mon = practices and Wed = work late).  I do the most din-a-ling things on a regular basis.  The card doesn’t expire till June so I’m hoping I can use the card sometime before then.  If not, I guess it was a nice donation to the Zumba girl…

With a weak stomach, I invited my mom for a Margarita at the local Mexican restaurant.  My mom said “yes”.  Once my daughter and I got to my mom’s to pick her up, I started having second thoughts and asked my mom if getting ice cream might be better.  She opted for ice cream to my relief (and confessed she’d already drank a glass of wine before my invite).  I’m so weird.  In one breath, I’m complaining about the cold and then in the next breath, I’m asking for ice cream.  Good stuff.

Ebay or Gamestop?

I’ve only made purchases on Ebay and it was always successful… too successful. 

The boys decided they want the PS3 and the Wii gaming systems.  In turn, they want to sell all their Xbox 360 games (at top dollar, of course).  Everybody’s gotta make a buck so Gamestop was going to give them $5 for most of their $60 games. 

Before we “give” the games to Gamestop, I’m going to try to sell them on Ebay.  I’m nervous because I don’t want to spend $ to sell them.  Being I don’t know what I’m doing, I very nervous I could do just that.  I’m taking it easy and I’m starting small (very, very small).  I’ve only listed 2 games to see how it goes (Stuntman Ignition and Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe). 

Today, I wore my Banana Republic skinnies with one of The Who’s shirts she purchased from Marshalls.  My hoochie shoes are from Journey’s.

I just realized that not only am I going to be lost when my little girl goes back to school because I’ll be missing her company but I’ll also be missing her clothes.  I’m being double-dinged.

Since I felt crippled after yesterday’s 16.61 (every hundredth counts), I went for a nice walk with The Roo (not really cause he was belly achin’ the whole time).  Brucee had practice so it was a perfect evening to walk.   Before he’d agree to go with me, Roo made me demonstrate how fast we would have to walk if he was going to accompany me to Cold Stone Creamery.  He thought he could handle it.

Well, the selfish boob sweet darling couldn’t.  He was at least 10-20 feet behind me the whole time.  I’m sure we looked like quite the pair. 

After I secretly took the above pic, he demanded, “ERASE IT”.  I emailed it to myself as quick as I could so he could see me erase it from my phone.  Roo does not want to be blogged about.

I asked Roo to take my picture by the fountain.  He said “no” four times and finally did it.  What a nice pic, huh?  Off center, water shooting out of my penile belly and I look pregs. 

It was only 3 miles but because I wore my Reebok Easytone’s, my legs felt crAAA Zy.  I seriously felt like I had RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome). 

I sang to the children allll the way home.  I love family time.

Unproductive…

Woke up today not feeling right.  I think I indulged too much yesterday.  Slept in.  Decided today would be a good day to take off from running. 

As long as I don’t lie around the house like this everyday, I figure it’s okay to chill today.  My two sons, Brucee and Roo (13 and 15 yrs old), on the other hand, lay around a lot.  Funny though because the other day, I could hear my two boys outside on the other side of some big pine/evergreen trees.  I yelled to them, “what are you doing out there?”.  Roo replied, “going for a walk”.  I almost fainted at this exciting news.  Well, it was short-lived because within 15 minutes, those little boobs were driving up in our yard with their grandpa’s golf cart.  Normally this would be just fine with me but I knew their grandpa was out-of-town so no permission had been granted…Arghhh!  Not cool, they had to return it immediately.

Can’t complain too much because Roo got up around 7:30 and went to work with his dad  for a few hours.  Brucee, for a small fee, took the Golden for a walk. 

Today ended up being a good day to watch True Blood, Season 3.  Can I just say that I cannot stand the “Tara” character.  She’s stupid.   Can I also say that all the vampire guys and Alcide the werewolf are all hotties on that show (aye, yii, yii…..).

Ate a deelish dinner (although not a pretty one) — pork loin, sweet potato, carrots and onions.  Found a dress that I wanted for a wedding we’re going to this weekend but cannot afford (Anthropologie $188)…

Enjoyed ice cream w/the boys. 

Sorry but I had to post the 2nd pic too because we both look like dorks..

I had Coconut Chocolate Almond.  Yummmm!

Home, home, home to watch more True Blood.  I’m so driven to get through the whole season in seven days. 

SR said something about joining twitter and I forgot that I have an account there too.  Duh…..  Mine is @shellyinmi

Weeds, Weeds, Weeds….

NO work all week.  I originally took off this week because we had a cottage rented on Lake MI.  Well, we’d rather go on a cruise later in the year so I had to let the cottage go.  Money’s tight so we couldn’t afford to do two big vacations. 

Since I didn’t have work, I set my alarm for 6:40am.  I was nervous because my stomach was giving me strange signals so I didn’t know what I’d be able to accomplish running outside.   Started running at 7:20 and completed 6.1 miles.  This wasn’t a solid run.  I did have to stop at the grocery store (you know, to look at…..it doesn’t matter).   My average pace was an 8:33 minute mile.  The temp was 59 degrees (nice).   Listened to the Gerry Rafferty station on Pandora again but not as great as yesterday…

Came back to transfer my running data from my Garmin to my laptop and noticed that I actually created  a recovery station for my royal self…

-towel to catch the massive amounts of sweat falling off me

– frozen corn for my right knee

-remote control to watch the prerecorded MTV show, The Rivals

-bowl of watermelon, strawberries and blueberries

-super slow laptop and Garmin trying to connect & transfer my run data  (which takes forever sometimes)

-cell phone to catch that important call (didn’t get a call or a text)

After having some fruit and a bowl of my favorite cereal, Autumn Wheat by Kashi, I went outside to weed.  Our yard is about 5 acres and it’s all landscaped with all kinds of beds and berms.  I weeded for  two hours and barely made a dent.  Usually, Mick will go through the yard w/a big tank of Roundup and kill off a ton of weeds.   Work is good for Mick and that’s not always the case so he has no time for our yard, NO TIME.  It’s all on me.  I’m dying too because my Toro is in being repaired right now — it’s been gone for 2 weeks and I really miss that stinky gas guzzler.   I get mad at the neighbors when they don’t mow their lawn and ours is looking pretty bad right now.  Patience, patience, Mick says I need to learn patience…

After finally finishing up the Big Love, Season 4 DVDs, asked Brucee to accompany me on a little leisurely bike ride to the ice cream joint in town.  With Little Brucee, it has to be a very, very leisurely ride — he blames the clunker bike we gave him (hand me down from his sista). 

Swatting at biting flies and taking pictures as we were riding, we were on our way.  No worries, I’m a professional so I’m really good at riding and taking pictures.   Brucee kept telling me to pay attention and to ride with both hands but he hasn’t been riding his bike since age four like I’ve been. 

Two and 1/2 miles and an hour and half later (not really), we arrived at the Dairy Pimple for some more of my favorite black raspberry ice cream cones (just went w/my daughter on Sunday).

Now for a Momma shot…OOOh, this pic makes me want botox again…

Brucee felt gypped cause what he really wanted was a large blizzard w/a bunch of candy in it (which he’d toss 3/4 of it away if I got it for him).  More pictures.  Brucee commented on how much enjoys all the pictures I’ve been taking lately.  Hee, hee….

Oh and here’s the footwear I chose for this special trip… (Nike Rifts)…

Took a detour through the local park on our way home.

 

Don’t worry, Little B made sure we were only going 5-10 mph.

 

Used to bring the kiddees to play on the wooden playground equipment…Good stuff!

When I was about seven, here’s where I dropped my prized Ellie the stuffed bean bag elephant in the water fountain.   You can’t see the fountain but it’s there — I was devastated.

 

It’s funny because when I was taking the picture above, some lady in a clunker had pulled up to two boys on their bikes (mom to one of them).  She was yelling out her window at the boys.  Among all the screaming she did, she told them to get their butts home.  This IS WHAT I GET to appreciate IN my small ToWn….Classy stuff.  Bruce didn’t want to have anything to do with the ruckus so he trucked way ahead on his bike and left me behind.  He says everything is “awkward”. 

To wrap things up, Brucee, Who Ha, and I went to a pizzaria to meet up with family.  My auntie and uncle from Myrtle Beach were in town visiting.  As usual, I ate way too much.  It was so nice to visit with everyone.  I was so wrapped up in visiting, I forgot to take pictures — Dumb it!