F.Y.I.

This came from Houston Fit's Coach Patti...I attended something like this at Fleet Feet sponsored by Brooks and it was muy bueno!!!

It's Girl's Night Out at Luke's Locker!

Join Nike and Luke's for Ladies' Fitness 101

April 30, 2008 (7-9 p.m.)

Let Luke's Locker and Nike pamper you with wine, chocolate, Nike discounts, massage and a little talk about our favorite topic: fitness!

Come to Luke's for a panel discussion with a personal trainer and a nutritionist, enjoy great camaraderie and a special Nike shopping night with discounts galore!

If you are interested in fitness and fun, this is the night for you!

Also....

Unofficial Group Morning Runs Saturdays and Mondays at Luke's Locker (routes will be announced the morning of the run/walk)

Found your running shoes in the closet and want to run/walk a few miles? Then meet at Luke's Locker each Saturday, May 3 - May 24, at 6:45 am. The workouts should be finished by 8:00 AM. The Saturday morning runs are intended to help runners and walkers to prepare themselves for the May 31st kick-off "6 miler" for the Fall Marathon Program but all are welcome. These runs are unsupported so bring your hydration of choice.

The Monday Morning Bagel Run is back!! Meet at 6:00 AM and get in an easy run to start your week right, followed by a hot bagel!!

My how time flies!

I just realized that I am almost at my 2-year "blogiversary"!

It's hard to believe that time has just flown by! When I started this blog, I was training for Chicago '06, studying for my PHR and the GMAT.

Since then, I have started and almost finished grad school, run several 1/2 marathons (as I vowed no more full ones until grad school is done), I got a new job, got knocked up, bought a house and met a bunch of awesome people through blogging (many of whom I now consider friends!).

Hopefully, my next year of blogging will bring more running, more races, less school nd more friends. :-)

Hopefully, before the next blogiversary I will have finally changed my header back to the regular one. LOL!

Oh, and to Margo and Tiggs...yes, we will have to do a blogger-girls margarita night out!!!!

Babywatch 2008

Well, the weekend has passed and still no baby. I did get a voicemail from a friend telling me that her friend, who happens to have the same due date as me, had her baby over the weekend.

Yeah, good for her.

So I am at work, tonight I have Ethics class, tomorrow is my MIS final...oh joy!

That's about it...I'll keep ya'll posted.

Still here...

I had my regular weekly dr's appointment yesterday.

There's no new news..she just did her thing and said, "Yeah, I'll be seeing you again next week." So that's it...another stubborn baby. Well, that or I just have a stubborn cervix/uterus/whatever. So, it looks like I will be taking my MIS final as planned next week...although after reviewing my notes and study questions, I am sooooooooo not ready. Let's see if I can perform a miracle over the weekend with some heavy cramming. Damn, and I can't overload on caffiene in my state for those late night cram sessions! Ugh!

Lemme tell you, once this baby is here and my semester is officially done, this girl is having one of those Cyclone Anaya-sized margarita's! I think it will be well deserved!

Just a follow-up to the earlier post...yes, Holden and K I moved up North! Not exactly in The "real" Woodlands, but about 5 minutes southeast of there. :-) It sounds like I am in good company!

Barbara, I didn't even realize that Champions Fit was that close! But, I have to admit, it may be even closer to go with Woodlands Fit...you know I value that 5 extra minutes of sleep.
;-)

Looks like I have more options than I thought! Cool beans!

Here I am..

just feeling a bit in limbo...ready to have this baby, but still so much work and school stuff to do! Yes, I realize I will never have everything done...but, I'd like to be as close as possible.

Naturally, I am excited to finally meet the little guy I've been carrying around all these months. But, the other thing I am really excited about is working out again!

Not the pansy ass little neighborhood walks...I'm talking REAL WORKOUTS.

The legs and arms like jello, achey muscles the next day, kick my ass kind of workouts. :-)

I am undecided on the running though. My 1st goal will be to lose the baby weight. Sure, running will help me burn calories and all that, but I also want to focus on strength training and getting my core stronger. Before I found out I was preggo, I was having a lot of issues with my lower back...the PT hottie said it was all about building a stronger core. I really want to vary my workouts though - some bike, some swimming, some running. To be honest, I miss my bike more than I miss running. Probably because it was still new to me when I had to stop...kind of that "honeymoon" phase. The running had gotten old...partially because I was burned out from the same old routine and not having enough time to really dedicate to it. The good news is that as of August 16, I will be done with school (not that I'm counting the days or anything)!!!!!!!! Yes, I will have an additional child, but I will have a bit more time to dedicate to working out again. Wooohooo!!!

So, I am up in the air - join a gym? get a trainer? try a new home routine (maybe the P90X? TurboJam looks fun too.)? With the recent move (and the increase in gas prices), I am tinkering with the idea of joining Woodlands Fit....although, I'll admit that the entire time I've been in school I've been wanting to try Kenyan Nights (the morning program doesn't work with the hubby working nights) or a Bootcamp at Memorial Park in addition to Houston Fit. I dunno, I guess I'll wait and see. I may have to eventually change the name of this blog though. :-)

ETA: Just for Jamoosh, I changed the comments so that you no longer have to worry about the word verification...which, as he pointed out, it pretty pointless when your blog is password protected. So now, my 1.8 readers have it easier! :-p

Boston 2008!

Today's the day...Boston Marathon day!

Last year, I swore I'd be taking today off just so I could watch the live coverage on TV. Little did I know I'd be saving my PTO for maternity leave. :-) Oh well, there's alway's next year! I'll try to sneak in a little of the on-line coverage throughout the morning if I can.

Good luck to anyone out there in the blogosphere who's running!

Whew!

I think the symptoms mentioned in the last post were just a fluke. After a good night's sleep, I have developed a stuffy nose, but other than that I feel fine. Thank God!

The good news is, I am almost finished with that lovely 20-page paper. Mine is actually more like 17 pages, but I'm not too worried. Any more pages and I would be including too much BS. And, the topic for my Ethics paper is going well too. Thanks to Viv for the link to a very helpful PBS special! I want have some library time on Saturday morning, so I can knock out both papers. That way, I can avoid looking at them for a couple of days and then go back and read again with fresh eyes. Then, I can just concentrate on my MIS final and those daunting 18 essay questions. Ugh! Fortunately, several of us in the class have gotten together and divided up the essay questions, so that none of us has to do all 18 questions on our own. Divide and conquer seems to be a reoccurring theme in grad school. :-)

In baby news, the bedding set for the crib has finally arrived! Now I can start with the real decorating. I was beginning to worry that the baby would arrive before the room decor. I'll post a pic as soon as it's done...well that and after I dig through more boxes to find the cable to hook up my camera to the computer. :-) Oh and the hubby's Hapkido instructor wants him to take his 2nd Don (i.e. 2nd degree blackbelt) test on May 3rd....ummm, that's 2 days before my due date, so it all depends on when the baby decides to make his grand entrance. If we're still waiting for the big arrival, I intend to go watch the tests. We'll see!

Workout Stats
Wednesday, 4/16 - 25 minute neighborhood waddle

Dammit

These constant changes in our weather are driving me crazy. Not that I am not loving the cooler temps....but, once again I find myself with a sore throat, flushed face and sneezing, which is usually a sign that I am getting sick. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....

I simply do not have time to get sick dammit. Nope, it can't happen.

It hit me

Between work, school, family and getting ready for the munchkin, I have way too much to accomplish and not enough time to accomplish it. This simple fact may result in my 3rd B in a grad school class...yeah, call me a slacker. I hope that's not the case, but while everyone else has until May 10th to complete their semester, I am trying to wrap everything up by April 29th. I hate it when I feel like I have so much going on that none of it is being done as well as I would like. The whole mediocrity thing bugs me...but a girl can only do so much, ya know?





I just received the official review questions for the MIS final and our topics for our final paper in Ethics. The MIS questions are going to be a total PITA, but the Ethics paper doesn't sound too bad. I think I can easily use what I learned this semester to do a moral analysis on Wal-mart and determine whether Wal-mart is a morally good company, how I can make it morally better, etc. It's either that or examine my own employer and I'm not going there. Sounds like a stimulating topic, don't you think?

Speaking of Ethics...last night we discussed moral marketing. This led to us watching about a 1/2 hour of Super Size Me. After seeing that, I don't know if I ever want to eat fast food again. True story.

Showers, Hockey and KFC

I am beat. I wished I had stopped at Starbucks this morning, because I am soooo sleepy.

This past weekend will hopefully be the last crazy, back-to-back activity filled weekend before the baby is here. I do have tons of school stuff to take care of, but I want to relax as much as possible over the next couple of weeks.

Saturday was nutty! I had class in the am, then had to head home to change and get ready for another baby shower for the munchkin. It was awesome! This one was mostly family with a few friends mixed in. The munchkin received lots of cute clothes, diapers and even a few items that didn't even exist when the kiddo was born! It's amazing how much things have changed in 3 years. The kiddo even received a few gifts from her grandparents...lemme tell you, we found out on Saturday that the kiddo is a natural born entertainer. I wasn't going to bring her to the shower, but I am so glad I did! She helped me open the presents and put on a little show for the guests between each gift. I'm talking about dancing around the room with tissue paper, doing "ballet" turns and just being silly. Talk about comic relief..she had the room rolling.

Afterwards, several family members came by to check out the new house. Then, the hubby and I were just sitting around with the kiddo on the back patio when my mother-in-law asked, "Are ya'll still going to the wedding?" We looked at our watches and it was 6:25....my friend's wedding was starting at 7 pm! Thank God, I was pretty much ready, the hubby can get ready pretty quick and the location was not very far...we made it to the wedding with about 3 minutes to spare. We did get home in time to relax a bit. We watched American Gangster, which I had already seen. The hubby liked it, but apparently not as much as I did.

Sunday was pretty much just as crazy. Grocery store in the am, followed by a birthday party for one of the kiddo's school friends at Monkey Bizness, followed by the Aeros game with the GSA (Graduate Student Association, not the Girl Scouts of America...hehehe) from school. In between, there was a little time for sorting through baby clothes, decorating the nursery a little, but that's about it. Last night at 10:30 pm, I finally got to sit down on the couch and do nothing. Then, I realized that I should probably just go to bed. :-)

Today is work and then school. We're supposed to be getting our final paper topics in my Ethics class, so my goal is to get to work on it asap. I have two other assignments due in that class before the final, so I hope to get all 3 done by the end of this weekend. In MIS, the prof gave us 18 sample essay questions to help us prepare for our final. The final will have 7 of those questions and one "wildcard" essay question....we're supposed to write 4-5 pages on each essay topic! Ummmm, 32 pages to write in 4 hours...I can't wait. Not. Ummm, yeah, so much for the relaxing thing I was talking about at the beginning of this post.

By the way, did I ever mention that my prof looks like Col. Sanders of KFC? True story.

Workout Stats

Friday, 25 minute slow walk in neighborhood

Update

Well, I went to the doc today for the 1st of my now weekly visits. Everything is good...no sign of any progress being made, the doc isn't worried about the size at all which means no 37 week ultrasound, and I actually LOST 2 lbs! Considering all I've been eating lately (pretty much anything in the fridge that doesn't have mold on it), I don't know how in the hell that happened. So that's it. My doc is actually out of town next week, so I don't even have another "weekly" appointment until the 24th. I am so ready for this child to get here. The 1st time around, I was still enjoying being pregnant at this point. This time, I have been ready for a few weeks...of course, now that the doc is going out of town, I guess the baby can wait a little longer.

Honestly, I sort of wished she would have said, "OMG, this baby is ready to come out...you start your maternity leave tomorrow!". LOL. Seriously, I get tired out early every night which makes doing homework after the kiddo is in bed very difficult, I am having trouble concentrating while at school and work, I get sleepy in every meeting and class I have (and even sometimes when driving home)...I just feel so out of it and soooo inefficient. Not to mention the crotchy pain, round ligament pain, crappy sleeping due to the hip pain, the fact that my feet barely fit into my shoes, and all that stuff. Sigh.

Sorry, the intent of this post was not to have a big pity party. I'll stop now.

In other news, my preggo hormones are making me one mean, ol' biotch on the roads. Probably due in part to my new triple the distance, double the time commute. Seriously, people on the roads have been pissing me off lately, so here's a little vent:

• Look lady, the speed limit is 65 on the toll road. Why are you in the left lane doing 50 when there's no one in front of you? Move your ass over to the far right lane! Better yet, take your ass to the feeder road.
• Dude who insisted on tailgaiting me yesterday...traffic was bumper to bumper and moving at about 50 in all the lanes. I'm sorry, but I simply cannot go 80 if there are cars in front of me and on both sides all going 50, now can I??? So why, why, why do you insist on riding on my ass? Yes, that's right...you keep doing it and I will slow down to 50 and maybe even 45 mph.
• Okay mo-fo's, there are signs MILES back telling you which lanes go to which highways in which direction. So why in the hell do you insist on waiting until the very last minute to try to merge in front of me? People like YOU are the reason the traffic is backed up for miles in the 1st place. Oh, and when I am nice and I do let you in, you don't even have the courtesy to wave a thank you! What happened to common courtesy anyway? That's it, I'm not letting anyone else in. Screw you.
• Lady on the cell phone - I have nothing against people talking on the cell phone and driving...IF and ONLY IF they can stay in their lane at the same time. Apparently you can't, so you need to get off the road or get off the phone.

Well, that about sums it up. I feel better already. :-)

Workouts

What workouts?

Ever since I was having those lovely BH contrax a week or so ago, I've been a little scared to do too much. So, here are my lame workouts over the past week:

Wednesday, 4/2
25-ish minute walk with a 1/2 hour stop at the playground in the middle

Friday, 4/4
25 minute fast walk around the mall getting very last minute shower/bachelorette party gifts for that night

Sunday, 4/6
Another not real workout - walked around the block while the kiddo rode her bike..approximately a 1/2 mile, but I was uncomfortably bent over her making sure she didn't ride off of the sidewalk...that has to count for something. LOL!

Monday, 4/7
Trying to stay awake in Ethics class...does that count? It takes quite an effort!

Tuesday, 4/8
Walked up and down stairs what felt like 100 times taking the baby gifts from the living room to the nursery. :-) Hey, I was exhausted afterwards!

March Showers...

Bring many goodies for the munchkin!



My awesome co-workers hosted a shower in honor of the munchkin yesterday. Talk about some great co-workers...check out all the food and loot. Oh, and check out my big buddah belly. :-) This is the 1st time I've seen myself in a picture since Christmas...let's just say I will be purchasing a more flattering outfit for the shower that my family is throwing this weekend, lol!

Here's me...hey, don't mess with my food!

The cute cake that goes with the baby's safari-themed nursery...

A basket made of diapers, with all kinds of cute baby stuff...

Woohooo, diapers and butt paste...the 1st time around, I wasn't sure how to use this. Now, I'm an "old pro"!

The Countdown Begins!

I am due 1 month from today!



Of course, if this little guy would like to make an appearance a teeny, tiny bit early I would have no problem with that. :-)

I have about 10 more pages to write for my MIS paper, a term paper for Ethics (only 5 pages) and my MIS final. Plus, we need to finish getting everything ready in the nursery...looks like the month ahead will be a busy one!

Hello Cankles...

Ahhh, the joys of pregnancy!

My feet and ankles have been swelling a little here and there for the past couple of months, but nothing too severe. Usually it occurs at the end of the day, so it's no big deal. I've still been able to wear my regular shoes, although I've switched to pretty much wearing only flats or really low heels.

Unfortunately, in the past couple of days the swelling has started a little earlier in the day and has gotten worse. So now, heaven forbid I wear a skirt or dress to work...the lovely cankles are out there in front of God and everybody. And, it seems like the more water I drink, the worse it gets! I thought it was supposed to be the other way around!?! Yesterday, I was going to take the kiddo for a walk, but it started raining...probably a good thing, because I wasn't really sure if I would be able to squeeze my feet into my Saucony's!! Hopefully, I will not have to resort to wearing sandals to work everyday...although that would give a good excuse to get a weekly pedicure! :-)