Half training for Dummies

Thank you all so much for your kind words on my tribute post yesterday. Between Mother's Day and her birthday and yesterday, it has been a tough week. Also, since I didn't plan ahead and write the post at home, I was basically bawling at my desk. Nothing like a good ugly cry to get rid of all that pesky mascara.

Today is a new day, though and I am feeling much better. You may have noticed that I have not posted much about my workouts lately and the reason for that is because I haven't been doing them. I have gotten in a few runs here and there, but no strength training. I just got myself a case of the "I don't wannas" and let  it drag me down.


I thought this was appropriate

 Oh, and remember that half marathon that I agreed to run for Corporate Challenge? Yeah, that is on Saturday morning. In two days! I am freaking the fuck out, I tell you. What moron agrees to run a half marathon and then doesn't properly train? The would be this girl, right here.

I did attempt use that term loosely to go for a practice run at the course it is being held at. It did not go so well. First off, I managed to select the first day we had 90 degree weather and run at 2:00 in the afternoon. Then, I wasn't sure which trail it actually was because it was around a business park that had other walking trails. I actually stumbled upon it after about 2 miles. I did start off running and I had a bottle of water and a Gu (which I have never tried) to get me through. I don't know if it was the heat or what, but I just could not keep going and ended up walking a majority of the way. I did trek a little over 4 miles, but that is no where close to what I wanted to do. I started to get concerned because my hands started to swell and my fingers looked like Vienna Sausages, so I made it back to my car. My water was warm at this point so I stopped and got some Gatorade. Race prep fail.


 People, I have to finish this race in under 3 hours or I don't get any points whatsoever and it will have all been for naught. I don't want to fail in this. Why this is hitting me now instead of weeks ago is a mystery. I have been reading other blogger half marathon stories to try and prep, but if you have any other suggestions, I am all ears.

I did get up off my butt last night and did level 2 of the 30DS. Man, I was dripping sweat like a whore in church. It felt good though. Then, because I excel at doing things last minute, I busted out a half mile on the treadmill at a much faster pace than I'm used to. I also threw in some sprints for good measure. I realize that I can't squeeze weeks of training into a couple of days, I just don't want to get there Saturday morning and fail... again.

Anyone else have any crazy plans this weekend?

My Mother

I have composed this post in my head so many times, but actually getting it typed out proved to be much harder. Today's post is a tribute to my mother.

Marlene Rose, Senior Picture

My mom was the second of seven children and first daughter born to my grandparents. My grandfather was a minister and an insurance salesman and my grandmother was a homemaker. From all accounts, my mom and her siblings had a pretty happy childhood. She graduated from high school and then went to Graceland College. She met my dad one summer when he was working in Kansas City and they hit it off and got married.

They moved to Bowling Green, MO where my dad grew up and where he worked with my grandfather at his store, Woods Locker and Abattoir. It is now simply called Woods Smoked Meats. My parents had a lot of close friends that they hung around with and did the usual drinking and partying that you do in your 20's. Plus, it was the 70's so I think people had more fun back then. Everyone started having kids around the same time, so my siblings and I always had playmates around.

My parents' marriage fell apart when I was 11 years old and my mom moved herself and the 4 of us kids back to Kansas City. We lived with my grandparents for about 3 months until my mom was able to buy a house. Although she never really talked about it, I have a feeling that she was extremely unhappy during this time period. She had taken a huge risk and moved away from all of her friends and was on her own with four kids to take care of. My aunt Beth moved in with us to help and my mom started working nights and going back to school. She had never completed her degree so when she finally did, it was a huge accomplishment. She was able to start working days again and with a much higher salary.

I do not remember her ever dating anyone after the divorce. Apparently, we were her priority or she never met anyone she considered worth dating. I really don't know. My dad got married about a year later and is still married to my step-mom to this day. When I was about to start my senior year of college, my mom announced that she was getting married. I was floored as I didn't even know that she had been seeing someone. I had serious reservations about this man I had never met. It turns out that he was the best thing that could have happened to her, though. He was so good to her and it was obvious that he loved her very much.


Mom and John

 In April 2006, she discovered a lump in her breast that turned out to be cancer. I was devastated. My mom was the sweetest, most kind person ever and didn't deserve this. She had a mastectomy done and then started on chemotherapy. Even though she lost all of her hair and was sick from the chemo, she still maintained a positive attitude. One year later, she had a big birthday party at a local park. She was looking pretty good and we thought that she might have it beaten. Nope, she made an announcement that they had found cancer in her lymph nodes. Another blow.



Rachel and Mom

This time, she chose not to do chemo and instead chose a more homeopathic route. I'm not sure why she did this, but around Christmastime it was obvious that it was not working. Her left arm had started swelling up because she was starting to retain fluid in the tissue and the doctors could not drain it properly. After a couple more months, it became clear that it was only a matter of time.

Last Christmas with Elsa, the photobomber

My major regret is that I did not spend more time with her. I wish that I had made the time to go over to her house more often or just given her a call once in a while. That is lost time with her that I will never get back.

On her 58th birthday, we had a huge party at her house. She was bedridden at this point and chose to have a nurse come in daily rather than be in a hospital. All of her close friends and family were there and everyone was gathered around laughing and telling stories and she was the happiest I had seen her in while. The next day, she passed away quietly in her sleep.

Yesterday, she would have turned 63 years old. Today is the 5th anniversary of her death. They say that time heals all wounds, but to lose your mother at such a young age is a cut that runs deep. I don't know that I'll ever be fully healed. I still miss her every day.

She had the best laugh and she loved corny jokes. She loved the color pink. She was an amazing seamstress and made a lot of my clothes when I was growing up. She was ridiculously kind and always taught us to be nice and respectful of others. She instilled values in us that I hope I have been able to pass down to my own kids. She was such a strong woman and although she went through a lot of tough times, she never seemed to complain. My worst fear was not my mom being mad at me, but for being disappointed in me. I can only hope that wherever she is now, she is proud of me and my sisters and brother.

After her funeral - don't know how we were able to smile

Car Tag on the Interstate

Today, I am linking up with Holly, Chrissy and Lindsey to share my favorite birthday story. Ironically, today is also my mother's birthday. She would have been 63 years old today. Happy Birthday Mom.

When I was growing up, my mom always did birthdays up big. However, the one and only time I ever had a surprise party was for my 18th birthday. My friends and I had just graduated from high school so my mom thought it would be a great idea to have a big party. My birthday is June 7, just in case you wanted to get your shopping done early.

My sister, Rachel and I had been staying at my dad's house for a few days and planned on driving back home the day of my birthday. My parents lived on opposite sides of Missouri so the 4 hour drive on I-70 was always a treat. We left on time and were enjoying the gorgeous sunny day when I started playing a little game of car tag with another car. Said car just happened to have two cute guys in it. We played this for a while until somehow we pulled off in Columbia and met in a park. (I'm still not even sure how it happened and oh my God, how naive were we?) We were just kind of talking and walking around a park and Rachel was getting super nervous. She, of course, knew all about the party and was freaking out that we were wasting so much time. Side note: this was before everyone had a cell phone so she had no way of contacting our Mom without raising suspicion.

She finally convinced me to leave, we weren't really into the guys that much anyway, and the rest of the trip proceeded without a hitch. I was extremely surprised when I walked into the party (two hours late) and so grateful that all my friends had not left. We had such a fun time and ended up having a huge water fight in the yard. I don't even remember any of the gifts that I got, just that it meant so much to me to have my friends and family there together laughing and having a good time.

Join the linkup! What is your favorite birthday story?

Yo Shorty, it's your birthday

My head is kind of all over the place so I'm going to try and rein it in to get through a coherent blog post. Thursday night, I drove to Topeka to watch Paige's band concert (she's now playing the clarinet). It is an hour drive and I was 10 minutes late (for a 30 minute concert), but the look on her face when she saw me in the audience made it all worth it. She just lit up and was so happy to see me. Cue mom tears.


This kid is the shit

Friday was my baby girl's 3rd birthday. I did have plans to do this whole post on her birth story, but life got in the way and I didn't get it done. Womp, womp. We bought a big cake at Costco and took it to daycare for everyone to share and celebrate with her. I figured there would be about half of it left by the end of the day. Nope. They demolished that sucker and we brought home like 4 pieces. At least it was enjoyed, which was the whole point.


Her "princess" outfit

Saturday, I drove back to Topeka to watch Paige's last soccer game. Their game from the previous week had been cancelled due to bad weather. They ended up winning 3-2 and finished their season undefeated. I think this is the last year that they will all play together since some of the kids will be moving to a new age group next year. They have played together for three years so it was a little bittersweet.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to pick up some cake mix for cupcakes and a few other items like beer. After we got home, we just relaxed for a little while and then Jason fired up the grill for some burgers and steaks and I made the cupcakes. Hannah had picked out Lemon cake and they turned out really well. We didn't really have a huge party since I am the worst planner ever so it was nice to just have a quiet fun night with the girls. They all snacked on chips and veggies while the grill was going and then enjoyed the cupcakes afterwards.

Emmeline had fun opening her gifts and she has more coming from Jason's family. She loved the box of dress-up clothes that we got her and the little pop-up playhouse from my sister. We didn't go super crazy with the gifts and she was happy with everything she got.

Sunday, I just lazed in bed for a while watching Amazing Race. Emmeline rolled all over me for a while until her sisters got up and distracted her. She is not the type of child that will go in her room and play by herself for hours on end unfortunately. She loves to have lots of people around her to play with. Once lazy time was over, we got dressed and headed over to our favorite nature trail to get some exercise. Elsa threw a fit and didn't want to go so I left her at home by herself because I would rather enjoy myself instead of dealing with an hour of whining about why she didn't want to be there. We walked for 2.5 miles in just over an hour over the course and it was a good workout. Emmeline was trying to run to catch up with her sisters at one point and tripped over a tree root and fell on some rocks. She pretty much had to be carried the rest of the way after that. We took turns carrying her because adding 35 pounds to your hike is no joke.

I met my ex early yesterday afternoon because I received a ticket to go see Jillian Michaels speak as an early Mother's Day gift. She did not disappoint, either. It was a 3 hour show with intermission, but it was highly entertaining and informative. Nothing she talked about was earth shattering news or completely new information, but she relayed it in a very relate able way. I refrained from buying any of the merchandise because $40 for a tank top is way out of my price range.



My phone takes crappy pictures

Today is my oldest baby's birthday. Hannah is 17 years old today and it just blows my mind. I talked it over with her and she said that instead of a gift she'd rather just have a day out with me and we could go shopping and get manis and pedis. I think it sounds like a great day, now we just have to plan it.

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all my fellow blogger moms out there! How was your weekend?

Yet another Finish the Sentence linkup

Once again, I am linking up with Holly and Jake for the Finish the Sentence game. I kind of lucked out here, because I am kind of out of blogging material so this it perfect timing.

Unlike my sibling(s) (that I love very much).... I have multiple children. My sister Angie just had her first baby last year, but my other sister and brother are still single and childless. Slackers. I had my first 4 before I turned 30.

My best friend says... that I'm weird, but let's face it. He is a tall drink of not normal himself.

People call me... Manda Panda. It is a nickname that has stuck around since childhood. Actually only my aunt and cousin call me that anymore, but I secretly squee with glee with Jason says it. I absolutely despise the nickname/endearment Boo. Gag.

I most often dream... about all the things I'm going to do and buy when I win the lottery. I have the best imagination ever.

The best part of my day... is late evening after Emmeline has gone to bed and I can just relax. On weekends that I have the girls though, I love sitting around with them and just listening to them chatter.

I really don't understand... Haters and people that are mean just to be mean. Why waste your energy on that?

I get really annoyed... at myself for not working out. That bottle of wine is not going to run my half for me.

There's nothing like a... good round of sexytime to make me happy.

Lately, I can't get enough... sleep. I am always tired anymore and this goddammed cold has taken up residence in my nostrils again. You know that snot man on the Mucinex commercials? Pretty sure his whole family has moved in, uninvited. Assholes.

One thing I am NOT is... a clean freak. Holly desperately wants to come over and clean my house. I can see it in her eyes.

I spent too much money on... food last month. I need to be better about planning meals instead of coming up with them on the fly and then stopping by the grocery store for one or two things. Dinner planning stresses me out.

I want to learn.... well, relearn French. Can you believe I actually majored in French in college and have lost most of it. Student loans well spent, I say.

If I ever met Kimmy, we would... stay up all night braiding each other's hair and laughing at everything. It will happen, oh yes.

I can't stop... this feeling anymore. I've forgotten what I started fight for. It's time to bring this ship into the shore and throw away the oars forever. (If you are now singing that in your head, you're welcome.)

Never have I ever... wanted to be a man. I am extremely happy as a woman.

Reese Witherspoon... is awesome. Who hasn't gotten drunk and said stupid shit? Girlfriend is fine by me.

My PSA for the month

Time is a bitch. It always seems like there is never enough time in the day to get all you want accomplished. If you are motivated, then you make the time for stuff like workouts and food prep if you are into that, but do you make the time for other aspects of your well-being?

I'm talking about going to the doctor. Those regular checkups that can be such a pain in the butt to schedule. If one of our kids is sick, you can bet your ass that we on on the phone to the pediatrician or heading over to Urgent Care. If we are sick, it seems that we, as Supermom, are more likely to try and tough it out. "Oh, I've had a cold for 5 weeks, maybe I'll go to CVS to get some antibiotics".

This past year, I have learned a lot about getting healthy and losing weight. I am not perfect by any stretch of the imagination (we won't talk about the cupcake I had for breakfast yesterday), but I am a work in progress. As part of my healthy goals, I have also tried to get in to see all my doctors. I do not have a primary care physician (a fact that earns me a scowl by nurses every time) but it is currently on my list right alongside a new dentist. I have not been to see the dentist in several years. However, I have seen my eye doctor. That one never gets missed since I have the worst eyesight ever. I also saw my gyno for my yearly check-up, or "Well Woman" visit as they are now called. I was rather perturbed, however that she did not mention my weight loss at all. I mean c'mon, the numbers are right in front of you. I think a 30 pound weight loss deserves something. I digress.

My first mammogram has been taken care of. Not as bad as I had been led to believe so I'll be looking forward to having my boobies squished while I stand in weird poses every year. I also got myself into the dermatologist to have all my moles looked at. Never mind the fact that I drove myself crazy for a week thinking that I had cancer, it all turned out okay in the end. I do have to go back to have some extra tissue removed from one of the moles due to abnormal cells, but it is just a precautionary measure so that these cells do not turn into cancer in the future.

The reason for this little PSA is twofold; my cold has returned so I'm looking to find a primary care physician that I can go to on a regular basis so I don't have to go to the Minute Clinic and an incident that happened this past week.

Jason's mom is the sweetest woman you could ever meet. She is so giving and will do anything for anyone. That said, she fell victim to the Supermom syndrome. She developed a boil on her chin a little over a week ago which quickly turned into an abscess. However, while she was trying to self-diagnose herself on Web MD, it proceeded to get worse and become extremely painful. After being told to go to the Dr. multiple times by Jason and his brother, she finally went to the ER and it turns out she has a MRSA infection. This nasty infection just happens to be resistant to most antibiotics and had she waited much longer to come in, she most likely could have died. I am so glad that they were able to catch it in time in order to treat it properly, but I am so mad that she waited so long to get it checked out. I've already lost one mother and I don't want to lose another.

So, please heed my public service announcement. Get your boobies checked out. Go pee in a cup and have your vag scraped. Have any unusual looking moles examined. Get your teeth cleaned (I need to take my own advice here). We spend so much time trying to look good on the outside that sometimes we forget that the inside needs some help too.

Have you made your regular doctor visits yet this year?

Another 5K in the books

 In the sport of running, I continue to disappoint myself. The Corporate Challenge 5K was Saturday morning at 7:30AM and of course it was 40 degrees and wet outside. It wasn't really raining, but it was misting. I got up with lots of time and had a good breakfast of oatmeal and a protein bar and got my stretching in. As soon as I left, I realized I had forgotten my gloves so I turned around to get them. No way I was going to run without something on my hands. I ended up getting there with a few minutes to spare and walked to the starting line and got in around the 13 minute mile marker. There were actually a ton of people there and since participation points count sometimes as much as placing, there were people of all skill levels.


Pink pants for the PR

Once the timer went off and we all got going, I was feeling pretty good. However, the first half of the race was all on a steady incline which made for a difficult start. If you are familiar with Kansas City, the race was on Ward Parkway between Wornall and 75th Street. I really, really wanted to run the entire thing but I got to the first mile, I had to start walking. I just felt really tired. The 2nd mile I alternated running and walking but when I got to the third mile, I ran the whole way. It helped that it was all downhill, but I was feeling good and wanted to try and finish under 40 minutes. When I saw the finish line, I kicked it into gear and sprinted into the end. My official time was 41:10.
During that second mile while I was walking, I got really down on myself. I was like, "How can I call myself a runner if I can't even run a full 5K? I'm such a fraud". It was very hard to keep motivated especially when an older gentleman wearing Dockers passed me. Seriously, he was wearing khaki slacks. All the volunteers on the side of the road were so encouraging though, and I had my music going and my Nike+ app was behaving so that all kept me on track. I didn't do as well as I wanted to, but I did PR and I can only get better, right?

And because I was feeling way too confident Friday night (and it was the last night to get the lowest price) I went ahead and signed up for the Fort4Fitness half marathon in September. I'm stoked to be able to meet all the wonderful women that will be there, but I am super nervous about running an actual half marathon. Not to mention the one that I'm supposed to run in two weeks time. I'm pretty sure that I'm in denial about it. That one is going to suck donkey balls. As long as I can finish in under 3 hours though, I'm golden.

After I got back home from my race, I found out that the girls' soccer games had been cancelled due to the weather so I would not have to drive to Topeka to pick them up (so excited about that). We just met in Lawrence as usual and then when we got back home, I crashed big time. One minute I was laying on the bed with Elsa looking at something on my phone, the next minute she had swiped my phone to play with it and I was snoozing away.

After I finally woke up from my coma, we decided to go out to dinner and we all went to Red Robin. It was pretty busy, but the wait didn't seem too long and all the girls were on their best behavior. It was really nice to have some quality family time with them all with no drama. After dinner, Jason and I dropped the girls off at home so we could do some birthday present shopping for Emmeline. Fortunately, we didn't have to spend too much time in Toys R Us and found something I think she'll love.



Noms at Red Robin


Sunday was a lazy day, we just lazed around and watched TV while the girls took turns on the iPad. Is anyone else's kids obsessed with Minecraft or is it just mine? I do not understand the appeal of this game, yet they are absolutely mesmerized. It was a short weekend, it seemed but I do love spending time with my girls. Loud as the house may be, it is always more fun when they're around.

So adorable

Could not get her to smile and show her teeth for anything

Paige was peering through the back of my headrest

Elsa enjoying the movie

How was your weekend? Fun activities? Crappy weather? Good naps?