One Foot, Two Foot

So, I did it!
I joined a running group AND signed up for a 1/2 Marathon in December! I have been running with the running group on saturday mornings for a month now.... yes, I have gotten up at 5:00 every Saturday for the last five weeks and went running! Hubby thinks I am an alien being who is just a substitute for his adorable, sleepy, grumpy in the morning wifie.
I must say, I am actually addicted to running now and love chatting with new friends while I am out on those longer runs (only up to four miles, but hey - race day isn't until DECEMBER!). I love the running group so far and have learned a lot of new things about the sport. The typical Saturday morning routine is:

• arrive at 5:30 and stretch for 15 minutes with the instructor while people are trying to pry their eyes open. My trick is to just use the toothpicks to keep them open - thank you Tom & Jerry, you did come in handy! (although the coffee does help! :)
• Walk / Run for the determined amount of time per your own customized training schedule (some people are just crazy and are doing the whole marathon, and everyone is at different skill levels). The running group uses the Galloway Method, which is walk 3 minutes, then run 2, repeat for duration of run. Every week we switch the minutes walking / running until we are running 4 minutes, walking 1 for recovery. It's great, I always thought you had to RUN, no wonder I always got frustrated. It's nice to be able to enjoy it and breathe!
• Finish at local Trader Joe's who provides us with bananas and water.
• Cool down walk back to the Sports Club.
• Stretching and more stretching while a local fitness professional gives a lecture and hands out tons of samples! Yay! Love this part! We have listened to a Kinesiologist, Physical Therapist and Shoe Store Owner Guy. Who knew there was so much to running?!
• Home just in time for little ones to wake up and start the weekend!

I went and bought new shoes last week, got a gait analysis done and Shoe Store Owner Guy recommended totally different shoes than I have been running in.......

I now have blisters on the backs of my heels and muscles hurt from running that haven't hurt before. I guess it's my first dissappointment with this new sport and I am irritated. Now I need to drive all the way across town and complain about how my fancy shoes that the gait machine told me would be perfect for me don't like me. Shoes that cost that much moola shouldn't eat your feet for lunch. Just sayin'.

I really don't want to lose my momentum and let this get me down. After all, this is what I am doing for ME AND ONLY ME. This busy life of mine can be exhausting and frustrating and running has become my outlet. So, rather than be grumpy, I guess I should drive back to the shoe store and try new shoes tonight so that by our run on Saturday I am looking forward to the run and can pry myself out of my comfy bed and into friendly, cushy, spiffy new shoes!

So, to end on a positive note - I will focus on the fact that I have logged 30 MILES this month and I'm just getting started! I have noticed my shape changing and tightening and have lost several pounds, so what if I have a couple of blisters. They'll heal, and I'll run!

Forever and Always

I looked up "Infiniti" in the dictionary.

It said "Laundry".

I swear.

Literally.

Ya win some, ya lose some....

Paid off our vehicle this month. YAY! No more car payments for a while. Good thing, because....



We are going through this weird phase that happens every few years (to everyone, I hope.)



Every weekend for the last two months something has broken. Here is a little synopsis:

• Brakes on Expedition -$300


• Pump on Pool - $400


• Air Conditioning in Expedition - $800


• Washing Machine not spinning - $free$ loose something-or-other tightened!


• Battery on Expedition - $150


• My bedside lamp - $20 (I know that one is odd, but my night-time ritual demands that my lamp works - it's a quirk.)
• Pool Cover (child protection cover) - $65


• Grand Am - today's finding - will need two new tires $200-ish I'm sure.

That's all I can remember for now, but isn't that enough people?! I am so grateful for my handy-dandy husband who has done all the labor and has the brain power to fix all the above for free! Yes, the dollars you see are for MATERIALS only. Yikes.

Hubby is working towards a new guitar (I tease him that in 5 years he will have put in enough labor hours to earn his dream Gibson Les Paul) but I say for now he has enough things to do around here, mister.

I love him. He is my fixer and he has cute muscles, too! He DOES deserve a Les Paul - if only I could afford one. It seems I just spent all my money.

Gilmore-isms

Attention all Readers!!!!!

Customer Service is still alive and kickin'!

Shout out to Best Buy!

The girls and I went to Best Buy today to pickup the 4th season of The Gilmore Girls. This show came highly recommended by anyone and everyone who has possibly seen it.... so I borrowed the first season from a friend, and the Qcrew is HOOKED! I promptly went and bought the second season and we burned through it in a mere month (we have a family rule of no TV during the week when school is in session, so our viewing was limited to friday and saturday nights for a bit...) then bought the third season and the monkey on our back had to be fed!

Anyway...

We spotted the fourth season, and then Rose found a set of ALL THE SEASONS IN ONE CUTE PACKAGE!!!! Wait. We already have Seasons 2 &3. hhhmmmmm,

Teaching moment.

Talked about the math with the girls, yes we own season 2 & 3 already, but we need 4, 5, 6, 7 and 1. So, for the story problem of the day: is it more economical to buy the 5 seasons that we don't have OR buy the box set? Which saves you more money?

Meanwhile......

Cute little old man who works there saunters by and suggests that we look online to see if it is cheaper there, he is so nice and offers to look it up for us while we do our "Math in Action".

Answer - the math is actually a wash, so we decide to buy the set (small, cute package & size is everything when you have a houseful of kiddos!) and we can donate the two seasons we own to the library! We kinda wandered the aisles for a bit while I waited for Cute Little Old Man to return with the price on-line but finally decide he is not returning, and we head for the check-out. Oh, we spot him! Coming toward us with a big stack of papers in his hand and a grin from ear to ear that says "Mission Accomplished!" He proudly announces that indeed, BestBuy.com has it for $10 cheaper, BUT THAT AMAZON HAS IT FOR $30 LESS! Quandry. Do I put it back (do they not know the need for instant gratification that a shopper in the actual store holding the actual box set has?) or do I just eat the thirty bucks and buy it?

But, alas! Cute Little Old Man says, "Just go over to the counter and let the cashier know that it's selling on amazon.com for $30 less and they will give it to you for that!"

Gracias, Kind Sir! I Esteem You Highly! AND, then he handed us his stack of papers that he accidentally printed out, which was a synopsis of each episode! WooHoo!

Gotta go, don't want to miss a minute of the first episode of the fourth season of the most sarcastic, entertaining, endearing, feel good show on earth!