Favorites from Easter

I am slowly learning that as a mom, you have to let go of a little bit of control.  For instance, when you want to dye eggs like Martha Stewart does and your child just wants to use a jillion Hello Kitty stickers on them, SHE WINS.  You do not.

My mom made this scotcharoo bar cake.  In the shape of a bunny.  Which she would like me to inform you IS NOT the playboy bunny, no matter how much you insist that it is.  (It stopped looking like the playboy bunny after willa covered it in gum drops, but it still tasted, um, sinfully good.)

This may be in my top 5 favorite pictures of all time.

Bummered. Big time.

Willa started playing soccer and it is hilarious.  There is always at least one kid on the ground, one kid picking their nose, 4 kids running the wrong direction, someone crying, and 2 kids refusing to play.  So entertaining.  At home, she seems to understand the basic idea of soccer, and of competing with the other team, but as soon as she gets on the field, she kind of just runs around, kicking the ball when it has accidentally been placed right in front of her.  Oh, well.  At this point, I'm just glad she is willing to go!

The thing I am bummed about isn't related to soccer really.  Its just that I emailed the Lincoln Track Club to change my registration from the full marathon to the half.  I was doing pretty well with the training up until I needed to do an 18 and 20 mile run.  And I didn't do them.  I could give you a list of reasons why, but they would sound whiny and generic and make me feel more pathetic than I kind of do right now.  So I won't.  I AM very excited about the half, though.  I think I can shoot for a pretty decent time, maybe taking 10 minutes or so off of my half PR. which is 2:08:40.  I think I am making a smart decision.  I still plan to run the full marathon, for sure.  If I wait for Lincoln, maybe in 2 years.  I spent my night shift last night writing out a sort of "bucket list" for myself, and qualifying for Boston may or may not have been (but probably was) on it.  So I guess it would be best not to butcher my first marathon the way I did my 16 mile run:)  So, if you plan to be a spectator at the marathon on Sunday, look for me in the first 13 miles.  And then look for me later to be drinking margaritas, as Sunday is also Cinco de Mayo.  And, tequila does NOT contain gluten.  But that's a fun story for another day!

A fantastic helper

Our church serves dinner at the Matt Talbot Kitchen once a month, and we were finally able to help out last month.  What a fantastic place!  Even Willa got to help, by carefully placing a bun on each tray so we could make sloppy joes.  We are looking forward to helping again next time and are very grateful that our community has such a place.

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.