Blogger Gift Exchange

Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas!  Our family had a busy few days, but it was a lot of fun.   I'll post a few pics from the holidays later.  I had every intention of coming here and posting a "Merry Christmas" post on Christmas Eve/Day, but just never had the chance.

I want to thank my Secret Blogger Santa, Amanda at Run to the Finish, for my awesome gift from the Blogger Gift Exhange.  Imagine my excitement when I saw a box addressed to me in the mailbox!  When it comes to getting mail, I am like a big kid - I love getting mail! Especially when the mail comes in a box. J 

When I opened the box, I found an awesomely cool, super soft t-shirt with the word, “Runalicious” on the front.  On the back, it says, “I ran, It rained, I wore cotton”.  So cute!  Also in the box was a cool sugar scrub in a cute tin and some awesome coupons that I can’t wait to use.  Amanda, I just have to tell you...on the weekends, I live in t-shirts and jeans.  This shirt fits into my wardrobe perfectly!

I love, love, love my blogger exchange gift!

Thank you, so much Amanda for the great gift!  And thank you, Jill, for organizing the gift exchange!

'Tis the Season!

I don't know about you, but I love the holidays.  I really do.  However, it seems that as a Mom, who also happens to work outside the home, who also happens to be "in training", all the duties that come with the holidays just stress me the heck out!

I usually start the Christmas shopping in early November, sometimes earlier if I catch a good sale.  However, this year has been different...with training for NYC, then the trip to NYC, immediately followed by the Kiddo's birthday party and then Thanksgiving, I fell waaaaaayyyyyyy behind!  As I've mentioned over and over, I am a total type A and doing things last minute just drives me nuts.  I have been thinking up a post about this for the past fews days when I ran across a post on this same topic at Mommy, Run Fast!.

Let's face it, when you have to choose between workouts or getting your family's Christmas presents purchased and wrapped, I would imagine that taking care of the family stuff will trump the workouts for most (if not all) of us.  Hmmm, that long bike ride, or getting the Kiddo to Church early for choir practice for the Christmas Eve performance...yeah, the Kiddo wins.  And add a late night out at a work holiday party the night before...ugh. 

On Sunday, I found myself with way too much to do and not enough time to get it all done.  I had presents to buy (that needed to be mailed asap), a photobook for the grandparents that needed to be created (in time to be shipped), gifts to wrap, laundry to fold, a house to clean (before the inlaws come to visit), I wanted to visit a friend who is in town for the holidays, get the Christmas cards in the mail and I needed to get in 1:15 on the bike.  Things were going well - the hubby and I divided and conquered!  He took care of the laundy while watching football and entertaining the kids and he wrapped a lot of presents. I managed to visit with the out of town friend for about an hour and pick up the gifts that needed to be mailed.  Oh, and did I mention the kids had birthday parties to attend?  The bike ride never happened and my house is still a mess, but we made progress, dammit!  Finally, after the kids were tucked in bed (again, a divide and conquer effort), I tackled the photobook - I spent the next 4 hours on Shutterfly and was almost ready to order the book when Shutterfly asked me to log in again and then told me that it didn't recognize my e-mail address. FML.  After a full day of rushing around, the photobook incident just about pushed me over the edge.  I went to bed angry at stupid Shutterfly around midnight knowing damn well that I would NOT be waking up at stupid thirty to run my 4-miler.

And, in the midst of all this, I received an e-mail from Coach telling me that my she would be putting my Monday swim workout in Training Peaks.  I responded with something about how I appreciated that, but that I was super stressed and not sure how I was going to get all my workouts in with all the holiday crap I had to do.  Waaaah, waaaah, I'm sure that was not what Coach wanted to hear.  But, to my amazement she gave me a "no worries" type of response.  She was emphathetic and told me that she didn't want to add to the stress.  Then, she said, "Let's just focus on the run this week.  Let's leave the rest for after Christmas (next week)".  It was that easy.  I don't know what I expected, maybe a "Suck it up, we're all busy" type of response.  I should know better.  Coming from Coach, this made me realize that it's okay to take a little break.  Not that we should do this all the time, but sometimes it just has to be done.  I could have fit all the workouts in - heck, if they are on my training schedule, I will do everything I can to get'em done.  (It's the type A thing.)  But, the result would be a tired, worn out mess of a girl just in time for my 18 miler on Saturday. Not to mention that no one wants to be around a haggard, tired, grumpy Mommy on Christmas Eve and Christmas day!

So that's it...the Holidays should be a fun, enjoyable time of year, not a stressed out to the max crazed mess.  So let's rearrange, relax and enjoy!

How are you doing with juggling the workouts with the holiday frenzy? Or, have you already gotten everything done and just chillaxin' right now?

Holiday time!

Christmas Eve started off our celebration. First was Christmas Eve service at Church. The kiddo was super cute in the children's choir and was so excited to play the bells this year. The Munchkin made it very clear that he didn't want anything to do with the Christmas singing, so I ended up watching from the Narthex while he ran around like a heathen. Ah, two year olds! Next, we headed to my Sister-in-Law's house to exchange gifts and pig out and drink wine eat dinner. We had a great time watching the kiddos open gifts...and a BIG thanks to my teenage, drum playing nephew, Ant, for buying the Munchkin a DRUM SET. My neighbors thank you too.





And, I survived the big Christmas craziness celebration at my house. It was a crazy, hectic day, but still a lot of fun. People starting arriving around 1:00 pm and it never slowed down. As hostess, I hardly got to really visit with anyone...just a "Hi, thanks for coming - you can put your coat here" or a "let me take that side dish" and "another glas of wine please!" or "the drinks are on the patio" or "here's a spoon for that". There were around 35 people, plus 3 dogs. Whew, what a day!

As for Santa, he was good to me this year....

I scored a Nook from the Hubby...which will be sooo much easier to tote on the bus! I didn't ask Santa for the color one. Seriously people, I'm reading books. The non-illustrated kind.



I also scored this cute triathlon necklace. Yep, that Hubster is awesome! (If you like it, check out windydaystudios.com)




The kiddos bought me several pairs of my favorite running socks....



And, they also bought me a cover for the Nook! They're awesome too, I think I'll keep'em!





And big thanks to my parents for the great gift card, my in-laws for the great watch and sunglasses, and my sister-in-law and her family for the cute sweater, scarf and jewelry set. Also, thanks to my boss (a fellow runner) - she bought each person in our department a $50 Sports Authority gift card. (I think I was the only one who let out a little happy gasp when I opened the card!) Yep, it was a good year!

We had a great time watching the kiddos open their gifts too. Playing Santa was definitely the highlight of Christmas. I will never forget hearing the Kiddo gasp with excitement when she saw that Santa had eaten most of his cookies and drank almost all of his milk, lol! It was so cute!

So what was your favorite part of Christmas this year?

Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

We had a great time on Christmas Eve seeing Riley perform with the children's choir at church and then celebrating with my in-laws. Seriously, we had soooo many new toys from my sister-in-law and her family, not to mention from my mother and father in-law, that I was concerned. Concerned about where in the hell we were going to put everything! Santa still had to come and we still had to celebrate with my parents! My dining room looked like a fully stocked Toys R Us. No joke! As usual, my parents overloaded the kids with toys on Christmas Day (as did Santa)...now, we have some serious purging of the old and organizing of the new to do!!! I'm a total type A, so seeing all the clutter and mess in the playroom is driving me crazy already. :-)

Two runs to report...

Thursday, 12/24 - 70 minutes 40+ minutes
Yeah, I was a bit of a slacker on Christmas Eve...I was scheduled to run 70 minutes, but seriously, the kiddos and hubby were at home, my in-laws we visiting and I had a gazillion things to do. I had pretty much talked myself out of running the full 70 minutes before I even started my run. Then, as I started, it felt like one of those heavy legs, no gusto kinda running days. One of those days where I don't like running very much. That sealed the deal. I ran 2 of the 2-mile loops around the 'hood and called it a day. It was chilly (around 50), but not cold. But there was a lady out running geared up in long tights, a jacket, a cap and gloves. And there I was in a running skirt and short sleeves (and sweating). I thought she was crazy, and I'm sure she thought the same of me. I'm not even sure of my pace or time, because somewhere along the way I must have accidentally bumped the button on my watch and turned off the stopwatch. Doh!

Saturday, 12/26 - 12 miles
Saturday I was lucky enough to have running peep, Katie, as a running partner. Katie and I trained for the 1/2 with Woodlands Fit last year and this year, Katie is doing the whole enchilada (the Houston Marathon). I was in luck, because her taper started this weekend with 12 miles and I wanted to get in one last 12-miler before starting my taper.

We had an out and back though The Woodlands, starting at the Y. There were a few inclines sprinkled in, but nothing too terrible. It was pretty chilly when we started (34 degrees), so I layered with a cap, short sleeved technical tee, long sleeved shirt, NYC Marathon jacket (it's light) and full tights. Around mile 2, I decided to get rid of the cap...my head was too warm. Somewhere before the turnaround, I shed the jacket too and tied it around my waist. I really need to learn how to dress properly in this weather. I used to have no problem, but for some reason since having kids, I tend to get much warmer during my runs.

As we were finishing our run, I realized that I felt really strong. As in, "wow, I feel like I could run a few more miles with no problem" strong. Then, Katie told me our pace - 11:30. Hmmm, that might be why I felt like I could keep running. It was about 45 seconds slower per mile than my most recent long run pace. I guess that's not a bad thing, but I am seriously questioning my ability to run the 1/2 at a 10:30 pace. Maybe running the Ten for Texas at a 10:30 pace was just a fluke? I hope not. Of course, I also realize that I will need nice cool temps, the wind at my back and the planets to be aligned on race day too. :-) Certainly couldn't hurt!

A little of this, a little of that

The knee is feeling better...still hurts, but not as bad as Sunday night. I postponed my Dr's appointment and figured I would ice, rest and take some Aleve. Of course, I am not resting enough...I did the P90X "Legs and Back" workout last night! Luckily, none of the exercises caused the knee any trouble. We'll see how I do tonight with a super-easy 30 minute run.

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I'm happy to report that our holiday shopping is complete and all the gifts have been wrapped. We do have to put together the kiddo's dollhouse from Santa, but other than that we're all done! Probably a good thing, since the in-laws are all coming over tomorrow for our usual Christmas Eve gathering. I have lots of baking to do tonight...now if I can just keep myself from eating it! I'm officially down 10 pounds since I started tracking my food on Calorie King, so I think that will be enough incentive to stay on track over the next few days.

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Here are a few of the kiddo and munchkin's holiday pictures...not the best we've taken, but we still managed to get some cute ones. Do you know how friggin' hard it is to get your 7 month old to look at the camera and smile the same time your 4 year old does? Impossible, I tell ya! (oh, and there's also the kiddo's 4-year picture!)

Monday, 12/22 - Workout Stats

P90x - 60 minutes - Legs & Back

Woohoo

The weekend is almost here, baby! Yes, I'm practically dancing in my office with the realization of this. And, the weather is gonna rock. We're taking the kiddos to Discovery Green at some point this weekend....it's the only drawback to kickin' it in the 'burbs - we hardly ever get to the big city on the weekends. Hell, after driving there all week, I don't really want to drive there again on Sat or Sun. Sorry.

Tomorrow is an 8-miler with Woodlands Fit...by the way Coach, what was up with the "Oh my God!" when I said I was running the 10-miler last weekend? LOL! Then, the gang is going for coffee to chat it up about San Antonie next weekend. Damn, it's NEXT WEEKEND! Where oh where does the time go?

Thursday workout - 30 minute treadmill run
Workout went okay...shin splints are killing me! But, I'm picking up my new shoes today at Luke's, so hopefully that will help!

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I'm proud to report that I began my Christmas shopping this morning. I bought DH & I a new point and shoot camera...I will still get that SLR, but I need more time to do some research first. And, I bought my parents a new camera as well. They need one. They have what I think might be a 1st generation Kodak digital camera and it's horrible! I also picked up some stocking stuffers for the kiddo today.

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Okay, so the Madonna concert is next weekend. I have made pretty good progress in losing more of the baby weight thanks to Viv's weight loss challenge. I am down almost 5 more lbs...which is great, since I hadn't lost any weight since returning to work. I refused to buy new jeans, because I know I can get back into my old ones. But, I had to give in and get my "interim" jeans. I decided to make it a super cheap purchase and went to Target for a $27.00 pair of Mossimo jeans. When I get back to my goal weight I will reward myself with some awesome jeans, woohoo! When I loose another 5 lbs I will treat myself to a mani/pedi...something I used to do all the time, but that was before kids. Progress, progress....