Busy day and busy week

This week I feel like I am cramming a months worth of studying, errands, and misc stuff in.  Today was a fun day however.  There was misc. adult stuff that had to get done, but in between I took the kids to Eagles Nest playground for the first time, Snuffy's malt shop, and the aquatic park.  Needless to say mom needs a nap.  I am happy after all of that I still ended the day with a 6 mile run around Lake Harriet. I am getting closer to my 10 minute miles.

The kids are getting big way to fast. One month from today they will be 2 and I am so not ready to give up my babies. I saw a small baby today and I totally wanted to snuggle her and smell her head. Bad me!

On the more personal side I have a job interview on Thursday. Even if I don't get the job at least it is good practice as I have been out of the field for 4 years now.

Freckles and a little surprise

 The other morning I was cuddling with Danyal on the couch when I realized something. He has freckles! Just below his left eye he has a small patch of freckles that have appeared. I don't have a single freckle. I looked at Mr. Husband and he has a similar patch of freckles. I am still going with his gets his freckles from his godmother. She is a redhead and has enough freckles for all of us.

In addition, I wonder if it is time to start potty training Sara.  I was reading to Danyal and looked up to my shock, Sara had removed her diaper and pants as normal. Then she went pee on the floor!! Oh my dear heavens. You have to be kidding me. I fear this day as I she doesn't actually want to use the potty. Only time will tell what will happen.

As for running, I have gotten a few in this week but I have come to a realization.  If I don't run at least 4 miles I don't feel like I have worked out. I am sure this is not normal. Well at least not normal for the old me.  I attempted a run outside yesterday while pushing 60 lbs of kids.  That was rough! I think was made it even more difficult was stopping every 3 minutes to pick up a shoe, sock, elmo, blanket, cup, or other item that they decided to throw. What made it funny was that once Sara had her socks and shoes off she dove over to remove Danyals.  Oh she is my instigator!

Rain rain go away

I love a great storm but after what seems like forever I want to get outside!!! Per Sara's picture below I think she agrees.

The kids have been all to cute and good lately I am starting to get to a point in school where it is all about to get crazy. I am starting to write my 3rd thesis in my life. One for my B.A., one for my first M.A. In 2006 and now this one. Oddly, I am a actually excited to write this one. I am about 3 months ahead, all my research is done. Either I really want to be done or I really like my topic. I think it is a bit of both.

I guess it is all leading somewhere and I have an interview with a company next week. I haven't had an interview in a really long time. We shall see what happens!

Tuesday fun day

Today was a busy day in our house. It started off perfect for danyal. There is nothing he loves more than to wake up and have gaga get him out of his crib. Being that this happened he was a happy man.

My best friend is in town and won't be called out for a while so she stopped by. Sara is slow to warm up to everyone but she remembered Auntie and was sitting next to her in no time. Danyal was on auntie the minute he could get to her.

These kids have so many people around them that just adore them. I think this makes up a huge part of their mostly sunny dispositions.

One thing that did make me laugh is we have worked a lot on hand holding. Now when we are upstairs when the kid want to run they want to hold hands with me or my mom. I think they wore grandma out.

Meeting grandpa

Today was a long overdue trip to visit my dad and his parents. I have never officially taken the kids to meet their other grandpa and figured it was time. It was really nice to go with my mom and see how much they love her.

It makes me sad to know that Sara will never meet the man who is the reason for her middle name and who she shares a lot of his stubborn qualities too!!! Danyal would have been my dads sidekick, I can see it in his personality. I hope they hear stories through life and can find more pieces of grandpa in them as they grow.

I won't lie though. It still makes me mad as hell that he didn't care enough about those around him to take better care of himself and quit smoking. I pray my kids never pick one up.

A few days off

I feel off being that I haven't run since Thursday. My knee was bothering me do I backed off. It is feeling so I will give it a shot again tomorrow.

Tonight, tonight I start classes again. Here is to being one step closer to done.

Long overdue

Last night a girlfriend had two tickets to the Twins game. I have not been to a game in ages! In fact the last time I saw a game was at the Metrodome, on my birthday, in .....2001!!! I guess it was time to check out the new outdoor stadium.

I have to say the new stadium is great! Food every 5 feet, better bathrooms, and to watch a baseball game outside. Long overdue! It reminded me how I actually do enjoy a sporting event or two a year and should go. Not enough to be a season ticket holder, but enough to remind myself that these are my teams!

I do have to say watching the sunset in an outside stadium is so much better!

The end is near

I love learning. I can't help it, it is how I was raised (with the exception of not enjoying math at all). My dad used to say " an education is the only thing people can't take away from you."

That being said I start classes again on Monday after a nice 3 month break. It wasn't planned the courses I needed just were not offered then. Usually I don't look forward to every class I have to take but since revising and creating my own M.A. Program due to some odd circumstances I am looking forward to this. Partially because now I know I will be done as of March 2013 It feels like I have been in the program forever and in reality I have been with 2 long delays. I took off 2 years due to a lot of bedrest while being pregnant and then helping my mom out when she found out about that nasty little thing we call cancer. Now that everyone is great (mom is cancer free) it is nice to see the end of this program come close.

I won't lie. I will be sad when it's over. As my mom says, I am a forever student. I love to learn and love the atmosphere and arguing points with others.

It took a while

It took a little longer than I ever planned, but I have finally lost every pound that I gained with being pregnant. Those last 8lbs just refused to go away until I started running. I came to a realization though. Something happened when I had kids. Maybe it's because my dad is gone and I never want that to happen to my kids. I am in the best shape of my life after having two kids and it honestly feels great. At the end it wasn't about the weight, it has now become about running my next race. I love running now. It is a perfect time to clear my head though somedays it can be a struggle.

The kids have now started putting together 7-10 word sentences.  Those two could talk all day and it is so cute.  More than that I love watching them and on occasion seen the "twin" moments when they do the same thing at the same time. Or as the BFF calls it "twin power"

Fun at the Zoo!

In our house we love Dinosaur Train. Danyal will wake up and ask for it. They don't get to watch it except for when I make dinner. I have burned dinner one to many times to try and wrangle two kids and cook.

The MN Zoo has a new exhibit called Dinosaurs. I figured Danyal would love it. He did, but not as much as Sara!! That girl was roaring her head off and had a great time. The best part was when Sara roared and every person around us started cracking up.

Overall, a fun day all around for myself, the kids, and my mom.

My first 5K

I finished my first 5K and I think I am now an addict. I came home to try and find more races! It was a fun run but harder than I thought.

The first mile wasn't to bad. I saw the 1 mile marker and thought, ok I am still running, I haven't walked and my heart rate is decent. I decided since it was a turn around course I wouldn't even allow myself the option to walk until I hit that point. I now understand why 60 degrees is the ideal running temperature. Running in 80 degree temps is just to much! 

I hit the turn around marker and ran for another minute or so. By now it was really hot and my heart rate let me know. I was at 194 (normal for me) but I needed to get back down to 185 so I walked for a minute. I managed to keep going and hit the 2nd mile marker and things were feeling good. Until all I could breathe was smoke!! Someone in the area had a bonfire going at 9:30am and with a headwind it was in every runners face for about 2 minutes.  It was way to hard to breathe the smoke and run so I decided I would take the time and walk through it. 

By now a few of the people I know are catching up to me and we are nearing the finish. I decided to try and run with them and realized this was a HUGE mistake.  They both do half-marathon and run a 7.5mph pace, I am nowhere near that! It brought my heart rate up to 204 (yes I was still walking, breathing and fine).  I slowed down with another runner I had met earlier and we decided we would finish together. We saw the finish and I knew I had 20 seconds to come in under 35 minutes. I barely made it (34:58), but I did! 

It was a good run for a hot day and I felt like I accomplished something for myself. When you are at home with the kids you don't often feel that way. Maybe that is why I have taken such an interest in running. 

I have 4 more runs ready to go for the year and I need to find one more to add. I am so addicted!

Fun for all

Today there was a bit of fun for everyone.

The day started off early for me with a 6am run around Lake Calhoun and it was beautiful. I finally managed to figure out my pacing and ran the whole lake. I am amazed I did that. Tomorrow is my long run day with 6 miles outside and we will see how it compares to today.

After the run I met up with a bunch of twin moms in the area for a park playdate. It was great to actually see people and catch up after winter. The kids had a great time. As you can imagine Sara climbed everything possible and Danyal ate sand and spent most of the time trying to walk up the slides.

On a different note we need to figure out how to keep clothes on Sara. She is forever taking them all off. The kicker today was when the husband went in to get her and she was naked and had taken a very dirty diaper off. Wow. I think duct tape might be the answer.

I did it!

It has been 4 years since the last "foot" surgery.  I never thought I would run again, oh how wrong I was! Not only did I run my longest distance ever today, I did it pain free.  That is if you don't count the burning quads. I have been told I will never run more than a half marathon, we will see about that.

I decided to test my limit and see if I could actually run an entire 5K on the treadmill and I did, in 33:48.  My original goal was 36 minutes so not bad! Now if I could figure out how to transfer this to the outdoors and pace myself better life will be great!  I do have to say that having a really upbeat playlist has helped a ton.  I have Jason Derulo (Don't wanna go home) and Flo rida/Sia (wild ones) mixed in a few times as they always get me going.

After I finished the 5K I walked for a few minutes and decided to run again.  Overall I ran 53 out of 60 minutes and ran a total of 4.8 miles.  For a newer runner I will take it! To top it off I have a crazy heart rate when I workout.  My heart rate never went over 184, for me that is amazing.  I can run and talk at 194.  For that I have to thank Marathon Mom for telling me how to breathe while running and my trainers for how to get the most CO2 out possible and lower my heart rate asap when running.

It took a year to walk without a limp, a lot of working out to be able to do so pain free, and now I ran 53 minutes! It was a really long 4 years if I do say so myself.

Well I did it

I moved my running to the great outdoors. I will not say it was a great run but it was decent. I know that I really need to work on pacing better as I was all over the place. My legs are now screaming at me but that is ok.

My nephew turned 1 an had his birthday party today. Total chaos!! 13 2 years olds and about 30 adults. Needless to say I have a splitting headache still.

Love my new Polar Toys

So I decided to upgrade my polar watch. I moved up to the FT60 as it works with a foot pod or GPS. I haven't heard any decent reviews about the GPS so I am sticking with the foot pod for now.  I did a test run to calibrate the foot pod (after I forgot to turn it on the first time) and it is really accurate. I cannot wait to take it out tomorrow morning for a test run around Lake Calhoun.

My first race is a week from tomorrow and I am actually really excited. Running has become easy, or easier for me. Who am I? What the heck happened to me? My friend Crazy Running Girl (Marathon Mom) mentioned at lunch last week that running straight away is sometimes easier than doing a run walk.  Tonight that was so true, 2 miles later!! I cannot believe I can do that! I guess if you really want something and you work for it you can do it.  Best advice given to me by Crazy Running Girl  was sign up for a race then you have a goal. It really got me moving! Thanks CRG!