Happy Birthday to my Little J!

I can't believe I have a TWO-YEAR-OLD on my hands. Where or where did those last two years go??? It's been an amazing journey becoming a mom, one I wouldn't trade for the world; even on bad days :-). I still can't believe we forgot to change him out of his "play-in-the-snow" clothes. Oh well :-). At least we have him in his birthday shirt during his kid party.

"Are these mine, Mom?"

I stayed up way too late making these puppies. It was worth it to see all the kids full of red icing. Moo ha ha ha ha. I'm sure the other moms in the group loved me :-)

I think he was confused or shocked he actually was allowed so close to fire!

Having fun being a silly boy.

Can you believe this is my munchkin last year??? He no longer looks anything like a baby anymore :-(

And here's a video from today. He has cried every time we sing Happy Birthday...even when my brother sang it to him over the phone. But likes to sing the song; he runs around saying "Happy, Happy, Birthday." Ahh, I love my boy!

Horrible Football

Holy shit. What a not-so-good-game. Seriously. The Vikings deserved to lose that one; but they still had me stressed out the entire time. The sad part is they should have one that game. But with FIVE FREAKING turnovers what do they expect? Sloppy playing.

And I'll be running extra long tomorrow to make up for my non-running stats this weekend. And to work off all the pent up energy and anger I have towards the team :-). Seriously. I really wanted to watch my team in the Superbowl. Grrrr!!!!!!!

Feeling Better

I finally got out on the roads today and did an almost-six-miler. It felt so freakin' good to get outside and back to running, albeit slow. It seems the lack of running was good for my knee but bad on the 'ol system. Oh well, I'll get it back. I need some kind of goal to work towards; maybe it's just shooting for a total mileage per week?

I have some big goals outside of running. I actually think I am going to FOR SURE cut back to running 5 days a week and then lifting and/or yoga the others. I am so weak right now and not loving it. Time to pump some iron :-) I bought the lastest Oxygen mag and I think I am going to follow the current workout they have on their 3-part serious. Seems easy enough for me and I can do most of the exercises at home since we have weights; juts incase I can't get to the gym. Now I just need to figure out the schedule!

Onto non-running news. Well, not really news...more of discussion. We move a lot due to the hubster's job. Our next move has us going overseas, either this summer/Fall or next summer/fall. Part of me really isn't ready to go overseas. I'm kind of settled and comfortable here. I mean, I don't love, love, where we live, but it is nice. We have "lots" of possible locations to choose from, but most are not so nice. The main three we are choosing from happen to be Brussels, Rabat and Cape Town. Let me go back a bit and say that it isn't even for sure if we would get any of these three. But we need to be sure how we list them so that we are happy with what we might possibly get. There are pros and cons to all and it comes down to selecting the one that has the most pros, but it doesn't always seem that simple. Especially since we don't even know if we're ready to move! Part of me really thinks we are ridiculous for even thinking about passing up on these locations. Decisions, decisions. Can we just go back to Kindergarten?? :-)

funny

just a minute ago

Me: "MMMMMmmmmm, Open-Faced Fig Sandwiches with Arugla and Parmesan."

Jon: "umm, yuck."

Some things we just don't agree on!

Awesome Documentary

Just watched the documentary Food, Inc., and WOW, what an amazing show. Seriously....everyone needs to watch this if you haven't already. I have some thoughts about it but most are kind of the obvious kind. It's basically an in-you-face approach (like many documentaries are) about how our country has gone to shit in food production. It really makes me want to run over to the Congress and say WTF are you doing to change the way we produce and eat food.

Not Motivated Lately

I just haven't been motivated lately. At first it was because I could only run between 3-4 miles before my knee started to act up. Then I just got so freakin busy and Jon wasn't home so I had no time to run. Then we went home on holiday break and I just got lazy. I couldn't get up in the morning to run because my sister and her boyfriend were still sleeping and the treadmill would wake them up.

My goal was to run every day this week because Jon was home and not working the morning shift. Yup, didn't happen.

I admit I am one of those runners who likes to have a goal on the horizon. Without a goal on the horizon I lose a lot of motivation to run. The only goal on the horizon is to get pregnant. Being pregnant and "racing" don't seem to go well together in my mind. But after reading a few blogs of pregnant women I know I can still "race." OK, maybe not really train really hard, but I can still train to run. And it gives me something to work towards. I think it'd be a lot easier for me if I had a running club to run in. I'm trying to inch my way into the neighborhood group.

And hopefully...I might meet up with DC Running Mama this weekend. That is if she's up for a SUPER slow run. :-)

What's going on with my body?

I didn't think I should put this in the last post since it isn't related. I was really hoping we'd be able to actually try for number two this month and was pretty bummed to learn hubby had a last minute business trip...again. He got home at the tail end of the trying period and I didn't think we had a shot but since we had a snow day, well, ya, we tried anyway. :-)

I took a test 4 days before and it was negative and then that night I got my period. I never get my period 4 days early. It was also heavy and usually only lasts a few days. It's still there and I've been cramping like crazy. So the only thing I can deduce is that I might have had very early miscarriage. I haven't called my OB because I don't think there is much they can do. I'm still crampy and the tylenol isn't helping. And yup, hubby isn't going to be home again this month. I'm trying to stay in a good mood!!

I did get out for a run today. Felt good to be outside running instead of on the treadmill. I can't hack longer runs pushing the stroller when it's this windy outside so I'm just happy to stick with some 5 milers. Today was about a 4-miler and that's good enough for now. At least the IT band didn't hurt!!! Step up in that department!!

Exciting Parts of Our Vacation

The Ugly:

* Flight madness: We were supposed to leave on Saturday but rescheduled our flight on Friday to Sunday because we figured all flights were going to be cancelled from the incoming storm. We got to the airport and i realized I forgot Jackson's winter jacket. Great job! I freaked out and Jon says he's going back to get it. We are soo dumb. He gets back just in time to check in and we barely make it to the terminal on time to find out it isn't leaving for another 30 minutes. We get on the plan and sit there for TWO HOURS without moving away from the gate. We finally left, Jackson slept for a little of the flight and get to Chicago. We got delayed again for an hour and finally land at 10:40 at night. Worst part: they lost THREE of our bags, to include OUR CARSEAT!!!! They didn't have a loaner seat and all I can say is thank God for 24-hr Walmart! We had a three-hour drive ahead of us and needed a carseat! We didn't get home, home until 4 am. Phew....long day!!

* A set of family who came over failed to tell us that they all had the 24-hour flu over the last couple of days. Thanks. Jackson totally got sick. A puking almost two year old is not fun to deal with. I felt so bad for him. He woke up at about 11 and I went to check on him and I didn't know what was wrong at first. Then I smelled it. Then he said "mess, mess." He then threw up about oh, 10 more times and finally had his last bout at 2:30 in the morning but he just wanted water and we didn't give him any until about 4. He finally went to sleep at about 5. Long night again. Thankfully my mom has plenty of old towels because that's all we used for him to throw up in. Phew. Hopefully that is the last time we have to deal with that this season!

The Bad

*Long nights, busy days, and lots of food eating led to only working out once. Oh well. I think I kind of needed the break. I had planned on cross-country skiing a lot but no one wanted to go with me. Kind of bummed about that!

The Good!

* I ate a lot of food, as I wrote in the last post. I soo needed that!!! My aunt made my fave caramels and peanut butter balls. Oh joy! And my mom made these new almond triangle pastry things. Oh. My. God. I couldn't just eat one. I ate three each time :-)

* We saw plenty of family and I think I have turned into my Dad. I used to love having everyone over (when I was younger). But i think that was because I received LOTS of gifts from my aunts and uncles since they didn't have kids. But my Dad always liked the quiet. I'm totally digging the quiet now. I told Jon next year I just want it to be us three :-)

* Had lots of fun playing cards, watching movies and playing. Jackson had lots of fun with my brother. At some points my brother told me he needed his space :-) Jackson was pretty much his shadow the entire time we were there

Holidays are great but it is great to be back home in my own bed. But not so great doing the grocery shopping, cooking, etc. To top it off, Jackson didn't want to sleep on his own while we were at home and now he's spoiled. I tried to let him cry it out last night but he freakin' climbed out of the crib for the first time because he got so pissed off. I guess I should say he fell out of the crib since he didn't catch himself. Tried it again tonight but he climbed out again. Since he won't stay in I had no choice but to put his crib on the floor tonight so he wouldn't climb out. Seems to be working so far; he only cried for a few minutes and then he laid down on his bed.

Hope you guys had a great holiday break!!

Still Alive

We made it back to Minnesota after a super fun-filled travel adventure. I only checked my email twice thanks to being busy and dial-up internet (no patience for that!). I didn't even attempt to access any blogs. So I have a lot of catching up to do.

Oh, and did I mention I managed to gain 5 pounds while on vacation?? :-) Thanks, Mom, for baking like 6 different kinds of cookies. And making the kinds of food I usually don't eat :-). Oh well, since I'm not training for anything at the moment it gives me incentive to get my ass out there and workout! I had great intentions of running at home since my Mom just bought a new treadmill. I hit that baby up once. Bad. Soooo bad!

Anyways, will write more later. I'm in the middle of a bad game of Wii Golf. My hubby just lost to his mom. He's the worst loser. Ever!

Happy New Year's everyone!!!