What a Day!

So this weekend has been full of fun, kids and drama....it all began on Thursday when both of my kids stayed at a friend's house. So having the house to myself was a bit lonely so I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie (which I was not a fan of in case anyone was wondering). The next day I slept in until 9am, went to the gym for 2 hrs and off to my favorite store - Walmart! It is pretty sad that it takes so little to entertain me these days. Anyway the kids came home soon after and brought their friends with them to stay the night. They are the same ages as my kids give or take a few months so they get along good. On Saturday the weather was actually really good for a change so we walked to the park for a watergun fight. After that we headed down to the beach which is close to our house for a few hours. Apparently when the temp gets above 70 that is what people do here. So we packed a lunch and beach toys and headed to the water. The water was very cold, around 50 degrees, so I stayed nice and warm on the beach blanket with my book, but the kids ventured off and got their feet in, but that is about all. It was surprisingly warm and we all even got a bit of sun. From there it was off to a BBQ for a few hours before returning home to crash. But that is when things got a bit interesting.....

Savannah and her friend Caitlin decided to cut Savannah's hair sometime before I woke up. I thought I had the scissors put away in my filing cabinet where they could not get to them, but obviously I was wrong! Caitlin has a short bob with bangs so they decided to give Savannah bangs. She came down the stairs and I was on the phone with Donnie and I could not believe what I saw. Luckily Caitlin did the cutting - she is 5 (like that makes it any better) and at least kept them semi-straight and they only cut her bangs. So after we dropped the kids off at their house, we headed to the salon to get her bangs fixed. She does look kinda cute I will admit but her hair has been growing for 4 years with the exception of regular trims so I will admit I was devastated. But she thinks she is too cute so I guess it is OK, that is until the growing out phase begins.

The weather is pretty crappy today as usual so the kids and I are headed to Tyler's room to play Tomb Raider on the XBOX 360, which is one of my favorite games. We have had it since xmas so it is about time we give it a run. Speaking of running, I am very excited to be able to start running again this week. The dr. told me no running for 2-3 weeks and tomorrow makes 2 weeks so I figured I waited long enough. I have been at the gym everyday either on the elliptical machine or the bike, but it is not the same. Who would have thought the girl who hated to run would actually miss it once it is gone. I am looking for another race to run so maybe I have become a runner.....

Anyway here are a couple of pics of Vanna's new do....those of you with little girls beware.....this is in your future!

Doesn't it look like trouble??? She must get it from her dad :)

Dr. Drama

So Vanna and I went to the Dr. yesterday to go back on our allergy medicine. I really thought we had licked it since coming to Washington, but much to our dismay - they are back in full force. So we each got our monthly supply of Claratin and I also got some groovy cough medicine w/ codine in it!! While I was there, I had the Dr. look at my heel, which has been giving me trouble for about 3 months now. Turns out I have pulled my achilles tendon which explains the pain I have been in. I had to explain to him that I did not come to see him prior to the race because I knew he would tell me to stop running, which was definately not an option. Sure enough...he told me that achilles tendon injuries take a really, really long time to heal and I can't run for the next 2-3 weeks. I am also supposed to ice it at night and I have to wear an ankle brace (or hightops so I think I will stay with the ankle brace). I also have to take an anti-inflammatory pill for the next 2 months. It kinda sucks because although I had planned to take it easy for a bit, now that I can't run - I want to. So I am confined to the elliptical machine for the rest of the month. Could be worse I suppose. There is another marathon in August I am thinking about but I guess it depends on my heel. But I definately think I am going to re-run this race again next year to see how much better I do.

Here is a picture of of the flowering trees that line the streets of my neighborhood.

This might explain why we can't breathe!!!

Mother's Day/Marathon Weekend

So the big day came and went and I am still alive to talk about it so I guess that is a good sign. My friends and I completed our marathon adventure Saturday morning. It all began at about 4am when we rose to put on our oh so cute running attire and matching jackets then at about 5:30am we were packed in the car and on our way. For some odd reason, we parked about a mile or so away from the finish line to avoid traffic after the race, however we did not take into account that the city of Tacoma is a bit San Francisco like and the trek would be an uphill battle after running for so long....but what is a few more hills after running for 3 hrs - piece of cake. I have to say this was a very interesting experience and one that I will probably try again next year. The weather was cool and overcast with some rain (it is Washington after all) which I preferred since we would be running for so long. The first 10 miles were not bad - we ran thru the city and the parks and in spite of some short hills, it was a relatively smooth race. Then came the trip up over a bridge and along the water front. The hill was really big but it was a nice way down to a really, really, really long flat stretch of the course by the water which you would think was nice, but oh so boring. I was dealing fine until I realized that racers were coming back the other way and that led me to believe that all those hills I had just forced myself thru were going to revisit me in the opposite direction. And the worst part was that there was no way of getting around it. By the way, the training schedule has the farthest run prior to the marathon set at 10 miles - the actual half marathon is 13.1 miles. It doesn't sound like alot but those 3.1 miles were the hardest miles I have ever ran in my life.

So the last 3 miles were almost completely uphill and not just a nice incline, but UPHILL. Now the website for the race said to train for hills, but there would be a nice, leisurely downhill stroll to the finish line, so I kept waiting to find the downhills. After every mile marker I passed from 10 miles on it seemed like nothing but another hill. We finally made it back to the city and I thought great almost done, but with every corner I turned was another hill and no finish line. The last hill was literally the steepest and the volunteers for the marathon showing the way I'm sure were cussed out a time or 2 when they directed runners up this hill at the very end of the race. At the top was another flat run down a street and then around the corner was the finish line which was downhill for about 100 feet (not exactly the leisurely stroll I had pictured). But we all crossed the finish line alive and still breathing. After the race there were booths set up to hand out water, fruit and other goodies but in order to get there we had to go down about 30 steps. We finished at 2 hrs and 45 minutes which equates to 12 minutes a mile - a far cry from the 8 minute miles I ran in high school. But considering the last 2 weeks have been filled with sickness, stress and an injured foot, I guess it is not so bad for the first race and for not feeling 100%. I will post the pics when I get them from my friends.

After the race I went home and took a hot bath and packed up the kids and the dog and went to stay at my friend's house who also ran the race with me since both of our husbands are gone. But my lovely husband did send me flowers which came while I was home and are beautiful. He is very sweet like that. We had plenty of intent to party once we got there, but our party turned out to be short-lived. We had maybe 2 drinks and watched a movie and were asleep by 9pm - PARTY ANIMALS!! We were pretty sore and stiff the next day so we went and got a spa pedicure which was fantastic and then vegged out for most of the day. After we got home it was back to bed to catch up on some much needed z's.

I feel much better today outside of the fact that allergy season hit last weekend so breathing has been a bit of a problem and OTC medicines don't seem to help. So back to the doctor tomorrow for some relief although I thought I had the allergy thing licked since moving to Washington, but because my neighborhood looks like an advertisement for a floral shop due to all the flowering trees, bushes and weeds, I'd say the odds are stacked against me.

Overall it was a really good weekend. The kids made me some home made gifts from school which were really nice and I even got a massage from Dr. Tyler and his nurse Savannah. I have to say I am glad the marathon is over because it was alot of hard training, but I definately will race again to try to improve my time but maybe I will choose an exotic location next time or even the Disney marathon which includes running thru Cinderella's castle...who knows.

Officially Done

So my grade for my last class posted today and after alot of stressing and hard work, I got an A in my final class which means I will graduate with a 4.0 for my masters degree. I am pretty excited about that. I missed graduating with honors for my bachelor's by a one hundreth of a point so I was determined not to repeat that.

I also found out today that we are allowed to run with music for the marathon. They have to post no mp3 players allowed for insurance purposes but they allow runners to wear them - completely cool!! So this has been a good day all around.

Last Day of School!

So today was my official last day of class....I have turned in all assignments and now I am just waiting for that A (hopefully). It has been a long time since I have had an extended break from school so I plan on enjoying every bit of it. I don't start law school until September 9 so I have about 4 months of time to fill. I'm sure once Tyler is out of school it will go quickly. It is a weird feeling to know that tomorrow I have nothing to do....Who am I kidding, I have a marathon this Saturday.

On that note: So as you know I have been sick with strep so I have not run in about 10 days. Well yesterday my friends and I went to the Nike outlet to get some cute outfits for the race - this would be so I look halfway decent when I get to the hospital :). So last night I took the kids to the school so they could play on the playground and I could run the track. I thought I was going to die after just 5 miles. Hopefully my body will remember what we have been training for over the last 4 months and not go into shock Saturday (in all honesty, I think it will be just fine but I just like to make jokes because this is so out of character for me). But I am feeling the stress of it though. We are leaving at 5:30am Sat morning and I am praying the weather holds up. I can deal with the cold, but the rain doesn't work for me. And on top of that we are not allowed to listen to music while we run! Apparently it is a law for safety issues which makes no sense to me because the traffic is being stopped for the race. So for a few short hours I will be hating life on Saturday, but I will be looking forward to celebrating Saturday night.

Tyler had to make a drum for school this weekend. He had to create a design, decide what supplies were needed and give that info to his music teacher ahead of time and then create the instrument based on his plan, so this weekend we made a drum. Here is a pic of him and his finished product. It is amazing what you can do with flower pots and orange duct tape.

Getting Tech Savvy!

If some of you have been to my myspace profile recently, you can see that I have been experimenting and I am quite excited about it. Now I am trying to incorporate my newly found skills on my blog. I will even admit that I started a blog under Donnie's name just so I can practice and not mess up my own blog - sad but oh so true. Now this may not seem like a huge accomplishment for most of you technically brilliant friends of mine but it is "One small step for mankind and one giant step for Shelle!"