We gave away Willa's best friend

Isn't this little guy just the cutest?  He was hanging around our house a few weeks ago, when we got all the snow and really cold weather.  And he looked pretty unloved, dirty and matted fur.  He was obviously some sort of cruel dump job.  I really wanted to bring him in the house and take care of him until we could relocate him to a shelter or a new home, but the cat of the house, Stickers, was not a fan of that idea.  Anytime he could hear the kitten, or anytime we opened the back door to let Bailey out, Stickers would hiss and puff up all his fur and seem so angry!  So, we made the kitten a box with old towels, and gave him food and water.  He/she really seemed to like it!  It was so tempting to keep the baby, but we had to remain loyal to Stickers and also the little guy really needed some veterinary attention, at least to make sure he didn't have any funky bugs or anything, so Brad put an ad on Craigslist for a free kitten to a good home.  In a matter of minutes, he had several takers and that evening he delivered the kitten to a nice family with another cat, a small dog, and a few kids.  We had not even touched the kitten yet, as I was a little freaked out about the possibility of (eek!) worms or something, and certainly hadn't named the thing, but when Brad left with the wandering friend, Willa lost it.  She cried soooo hard and for so long and was so mad at us.  She just kept saying over and over "I want my best friend Puffball back."  Apparently, she had grown very fond of the cat living on the back steps, and had named it.  It just broke my heart.  Every few days or so, she still tells me that she wants Puffball back.  And that the family that we gave him/her to is so mean.  Please, oh please.  Don't let anymore stray animals into our yard.  The meltdown over Puffball has been traumatic.

Sometimes I wonder where I go

And then I'm like, look!  Here I am!  A few months ago, Tosha and I took our better halves (cough, cough, choke. Hahahaha) out for a night on the town.  To include sushi, drinks and intelligent conversation.  When I was checking on the blogs tonight at work and realized how long it had been since I myself had updated my blog, I decided to share this picture and blame Tosha entirely for my lack of blogging.  Not Tosha so much as Purely Maid.  I love my business.  I love cleaning.  I love (nearly) all of our clients and (nearly) all of their kids and pets.  But seriously!  When we get extra, super-duper busy, it seems to come in spurts and right now...we are massively...um, spurting?  To the point that we have very little time for things like sushi, drinks, our other job, sleep, cleaning our own houses...I think you get it.  It will start slowing down now a little.  I think.  After this next week maybe.  At least enough to get in one last, good long run I hope!  (The marathon is less than a month away now.)

As for a marathon update, I did a little work on what I'm going to wear.  Isn't it nuts that I would stress about that?  But I do, and I wanted to be able to wear everything a few times before that day, to make sure I knew how it was going to perform.  I got some new shoes and shorts.  Kinda surprised myself on the shoes, as I've been loyal to the New Balance Minimus for a few years now, but these are waaaay comfortable.  And my choice of shorts was largely determined by cuteness, brand loyalty, and number/size of pockets.

Why? Why do I kill plants?

One of the mini-goals that I set for myself in 2013 was to keep a house plant alive.  Sort of as a pretest to myself for gardening this year.  If you will remember, I tried to garden last year and pretty much failed.  Brad keeps saying I can blame "The Drought" and blame him for not helping, but I really think I am cursed when it comes to growing plants.  And its such a shame, since they are my favorite things to eat.  I have read a few books all about families who grow their food for the year in their own yards and these people amaze me (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Quarter Acre Farm).  I could totally eat the food they eat and be perfectly happy, I just suck at growing stuff.  

So, it delighted me when all the fun design blogs and modern home furnishing stores were pushing succulents this year.  I mean, they are related to cactuses and cactuses have got to be hard to kill, right?  Plus, I just think they all have such a unique look to them.  I had a gift card to Campbell's from my loving brother and the adorable hanging pot from Valentine's Day, so I set out to meet my mini-goal.  Once at Campbells, it was very hard to choose a plant.  They were just adorable and tiny and they each seemed to have a personality.  Weird, I know.  So instead I picked 4.  I put one in the hanging planter and three in this cute little bowl.  And I was in love.  I have been giving them a little water every week or week and a half.  They seemed happy.  Then today, I noticed that the tiny guy in the front was looking all wilty and squishy and weird so I kind of played around with him and he just mushed right off of his roots. Casualty number one, and just a few weeks in.  I really don't want to lose the rest of my new friends so I have been doing a little research and the problem is either over-watering (I kinda doubt that one) or improper drainage.  So I think I will look for a new home for the remaining 2 friends and resume eating cereal out of this bowl.  Maybe put him in more direct sunlight as well.  Fingers crossed that I can salvage the other 2.  The one in the hanging pot in the bathroom seems to be ok so far, but I probably just jinxed him...

Marathon training update

Yes, that is a picture of Willa demonstrating how best to use a blood pressure thingy.  No, it has nothing to do with me running.  I think my ADD is getting worse as I get older.  And also, I don't take pictures of myself running.  (And as a side note: do you guys have the Vine app yet?  Because the video I posted on there of Willa playing doctor that day makes me almost pee my pants every time I watch it.  And she gets so mad...Did she swallow the giant marshmallow?  She needs to barf it...I even laugh when I type it:)  

Back to running.  Let me start by telling you that I am still very much looking forward to the marathon and am still planning to run the full thing.  That being said, I was very mistaken about how exactly that happens.  What I mean is, I really thought in my mind that a person could just run and run and run for any amount of time, but they would just feel tired or slow down significantly.  This is the belief I had after running a few half marathons in the past, and doing a few training runs that were in the 10-13 mile range.  Last weekend, I had a good chunk of time and the schedule called for a 16 mile run.  The weather was perfect.  Cool and a little rainy.  Just right for a few hours worth of running.  The first 10 miles were awesome.  10-13 were very, very slow.  At around 14, my body stopped moving forward.  I stretched a lot and made it go to about 15, and then I walked half a mile.  Then I resumed running till I got back to my car, but I'm pretty sure that "running" was actually slower than the walking.  It hadn't occurred to me that my body could just decide it wouldn't run anymore.  I had made a few vital mistakes.  I think the most major of mistakes was not having anything along on the run to eat or drink.  When I left my house, I hadn't intended to do the full 16 miles, so I didn't take any portable snacks with me, and all I had was a big cup of water.  It would have been really inconvenient to run with a cup and straw.  Duh, Allison.  Pretty sure you are supposed to replenish carbs and electrolytes AT LEAST every 60 minutes during a long run like that.  My second major mistake is that I just plain haven't been running enough.  I have been hitting almost all of the long runs, but almost none of the midweek, shorter runs.  I think that would really help.  So, from here on out, I am going to make sure to run at least 4 times a week, hit the long runs, take along one of the many gu packets I stocked up on and maybe some dates, and ideally have a buddy who will ride a bike to carry my water.  And a banana. And me, when my legs stop working.  

There were a few other minor issues with my 16 mile run.  The first is that I ran on the Mopac Trail, which takes you almost immediately out of town, but you only come across one porta-potty on the trail and it is about 3 miles in.  Whattayado when your big cup of water attacks your bladder half a mile in?  Well, you could tiptoe into a cornfield, only to realize that on the other side of the cornfield is a country club.  Or you could keep on running until you come to a horse trail that is pretty tree-lined and just stop caring what other people think.  The second issue was a tiny spot of underarm chafing.  I wondered just how necessary runner's lube would be.  I got my answer.

The holiday of L-O-V-E

I feel like we kind of made Valentine's Day a big deal this year.  I think it was because Willa got to celebrate at preschool and that got her kind of revved up for it.  Usually, aside from my love of the colors red and pink together, I'm not a huge fan.  (If any of you reading ever lived in Babcock Hall from the years 1998-2000, do you always on Valentine's Day picture those cut-outs in the bathroom that were from "the magazines"?  With the strategically positioned construction paper flaps?  I do.)  

Anyhooters...this year was fun!  On the Monday before Valentine's Day, we had a family date downtown.  First, we got coffee at Indigo Bridge, then we made stuff at Paint Yourself Silly, then we had ice cream at Ivanna Cone, and then we had dinner at Bison Witch's.  All fun stuff.  Lots of good food.  I swear Willie was having more fun than it looks like she was having.  She painted herself a little duck and also helped with Brad's pencil cup.  I think she has figured out how OCD I am about certain things, as she didn't even ask if she could help with my spoon rest.  She knows I would freak out if she painted out of my lines.  And today, she wouldn't let me play Monopoly with her, as she said I would make her play it "the right way."  Damn straight, child.  

Wednesday night, we made brownies.  And we ate a lot of frosting.

Thursday night, Brad brought home Noodles and had flowers and wine awaiting us:)  Note that he has learned that I do not think that roses are pretty flowers.  No picture, but I bought him some spicy garlic sauce from BW3s.  And some pink sea salt.  A tasty gift, but I did feel a little lame when another gift arrived for me the next day and it was this little guy that I have been wanting and wanting and he cost much more than wing sauce...

See?  Cute little guy.  Ready for a cute little plant, when I find the one that I am imagining.

All in all, it was a very nice holiday.  But Easter is my favorite and it is next.  And again, I have sworn off excess/refined sugar from Valentine's Day through Easter.  So Friday morning, I gave away the leftover brownies and have been saying no to all my favorite things ever since.  No, that was pretty dramatic but I did order black coffee at Scooters while Willa ate red velvet cupcake ice cream with M & M's on top the other day.  And today while we were snowed in all day, I may have mixed a lot of unsweetened cocoa powder with peanut butter, honey and banana and eaten it like yogurt.  I'm really blurring the lines of what is acceptable, natural sugar and what isn't.  Honey?  Really?!?  I was desperate.  Brad is giving up soda.  I am so proud of how well he is doing.  We stocked up on many flavors of green tea to get us through.  Tosha gave up meat again.  She is discovering the joys of Trader Joe's Meatless Meatballs.  We are all suffering together:)  Except Willa.  She is getting a really sick kind of pleasure out of my inability to eat candy.  She went so far as to rub my back with a little bag of Valentine M & M's the other day, singing to me about how they are made of sugar.  Mean, mean little creature.  Its fine.  I'll get her back on Easter Day.  The Easter bunny might bring her a basket with only candy wrappers.  Wrappers from reece's eggs, starburst jelly beans, and sweet tart bunnies and chicks.  I really like Easter.

Guys, here's how to please a (vegetarian) lady.

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The title of this post is indeed a shameless attempt to get to the 10,000 views mark.  I admit it.  I bet that gets googled a lot, don't you?!?  Especially around Valentine's Day.  But don't be scared, I am not about to share any faux-fur lined handcuffs

Yes, this is what (soft core) porn looks like to me:)

Just this recipe for vegan chocolate avocado pudding.  This might be even scarier than the handcuffs.  You're thinking that I have lost my mind, putting the words "avocado" and "pudding" in the same sentence.  My mind is still just as together as it was before I found the pudding recipe, whatever that means to you.  This stuff is so good.  If you have an aversion to coconut, as about half of the world does, you can leave it out.  And you can use any type of milk.  Also, I used honey in place of syrup, and really not very much of it.  Tastes so much better than any pudding you can buy in the store and its pretty darn good for you!  Please try it.  Even if you think you don't like avocados.  Which if you don't, you should not be reading my blog.  Its like saying you don't like Willa.  That's how close avocados and I are.  We may be closer, as an avocado would have hurt A LOT LESS coming out of the birthing canal.  I've also never had an avocado yell in the library that she "can't find the damn dog" in the Where's Waldo book.  But at the same time an avocado never tells me I'm pretty or snuggles with me at night.  Its a toss up.

The pictures really make us look like alcoholics. Eh.

Last weekend, I laughed a lot.  Thanks to these girls.  Girls that I have known and loved since grade school (except for brooke.  Wait that sounded like maybe I don't love brooke.  I do, but only since 6th grade.  Not that she was really horrible before that.  Well, maybe she was but if she was then she was being horrible in Worms, Ne and not Grand Island, Ne.  Get it?)  For the most part, we have stayed in a pretty close proximity to one another since high school, and made sure that we saw each other regularly.  Then, Amy went and moved to Lawrence, Kansas.  Which as it turns out is not that far away and is a great place to go on a little road trip!  

On our road trip, we ate waffles, went shopping, drank beer, played cards, drank wine, played cards, had dinner at a brewery, took shots, painted our nails, ate brownies, injured each other playing cards, talked, laughed, cried, and drank peach schnapps smoothies.  I think it was a weekend that we all needed.  

I am so, so very thankful for these girls.  Our lives have all gotten so hectic, and the miles between us has grown, but we still make time for each other.  We can still sit around in our pajamas and eat junk food and talk about boys/stress/kids/401k's/books/pretty much anything and feel completely comfortable.  I am already excited for our next girl's weekend.  I also have an itch to start planning some sort of tropical vacation.  Maybe for our 40th birthdays?!?