So much to blog about....

Yet, so little time.
I'll just give you the highlights-
Friday, James and I were invited to a pretty cool playdate at a local park. James has no fear when it comes to climbing or playing new equipment. Especially if he sees his friends doing something. He wants to be "one of the big kids" and follows right along. Even if it means giving mommy a heart-attack because he has climbed all the way to the top of the rope tower. I took some great pictures of James playing on the "big kid" equipment, but I can't seem to find my camera tonight. Sorry!
Saturday- I completed my second 20 miler of this training season. This marathon training season is sooo different than the last one. Last fall, I was plagued with injuries and illnesses. I don't know exactly what I'm doing differently, but I'm just really, really glad that my long runs have been strong and that I'm able to keep up my training. 34 days left until the Marine Corps Marathon. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!!!
Sunday- Will and I joined our friends, Tom and Veronica for a fossil/shark tooth dive in Venice Beach. I didn't like getting up early two mornings in a row, but it was worth it. We haven't been diving in well over a month, so it was nice to get back in the water. The sky was clear, sunny and the water was calm and smooth. Perfect diving conditions! I just wish that our luck finding fossils had been better. Oh well, it was still a good day of diving!
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend!

Thankful Thursday

Taking a lead from my friend "Bob" over at Discombobulated Running, I wanted to participate in the Thankful Thursday element of blogging! So here goes......
1. I am thankful for a wonderful husband/partner in life who is so helpful with our new mommy-working-full-time routine. Will has totally picked up any slack that I've missed (and with working long hours and training for a marathon, there has been PLENTY of slack people!)
2. I am thankful for my new housekeeper, Vanessa! She comes once a week and does the floors, vacuums, cleans bathrooms, windows, doors and dusts! I love, love, love coming home on Thursdays after work to a clean home!
3. I am thankful that James is doing so well in preschool and that he likes it there. His speech has really picked up over the past couple of weeks. He says a new word each day, so it's been impossible to keep track of his vocabulary. He is a total chatterbox now! Wonder where he gets that from?
4. I am thankful that I'm healthy enough to keep running and keep training for my Marine Corps Marathon. Yes, my legs are sore and my back hurts and there are the usual aches and pains that come with long distance running/training. But, (knock on wood) I'm not injured and not sick. There is so much talk about "when" not "if" you get the H1N1 virus and students at my school are already infected. The numbers are just scary. I just hope I make it through this year okay! So far, so good!

What are you thankful for peeps?

Settling in...

We are beginning to settle in to our weekly routine with mommy being back at work full time. Oh, what a difference working FULL TIME verses PART TIME. Oh well, I knew it would be demanding. Overall, things are going very smoothly and over dinner tonight, Will and I were just talking about James is adapting so well to his new times and routines.
For starters, I am usually out of the house by the time James wakes up in the morning. I prepare/pack his lunch for the day. Then, it's up to daddy to wake him up, get him dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, shoes on and out the door. James still eats his big bowl of hot oatmeal every morning, but at school, not home. On some mornings, I'm still home when James wakes up. He handles me leaving very well (almost too well!) He will wave good bye to me and cheerfully say "Bye!" And, he never forgets to give me a goodbye smooch! Will and I agree that he likes his morning time with Daddy. He LOVES riding in Daddy's truck to school. And, he doesn't let Will carry him into school, he climbs out of the truck on his own and walks himself all the way into school (unlike stopping halfway and asking Mommy to carry him in over the summer.)
I actually left school on time today (3:00) and got a great run in. (8 miles) I picked James up from daycare and Will was cooking dinner when we walked in the door. After a quick shower on my end (I was stinky from running!), we played "trains" for a little bit, ate a yummy dinner, followed by bath time, lots of reading books and cuddling and then sweet, sweet bed time by 7:30.
It may not be the best schedule for everyone, but it's working for us right now!
I hope everyone has enjoyed their week and is ready for Friday! I'm ready for this three day weekend! Woo Hooo!

Help a Mutha Out!

Hello to all out there in Bloggy-land!
I have a favor. Please take a few minutes to check out my friend's blog. She is a WONDERFUL mommy to her children and her family is going through/has been through a really tough time right now in their lives. Her son's future and well-being is truly at stake here. She's asking for any prayers, well-wishes and good vibes that you could send her way.
Thanks for being the supportive online peeps I know that you are!
Hope your week is going well!

My First Twenty Miler

(of this training season, anyway)
Yes, I had the big 20 miler on my training schedule. But, after having a super stressful week with long work hours, little sleep and little to no running, I was not counting on getting all twenty miles in. I was afraid that my cardio would get the best of me or that my IT band pain in one or both knees would rear it's ugly head and force me to cut my run short. I expressed all of these concerns in a frantic, needing-to-vent phone call to my friend Veronica. She assured me that my previous months of training have been strong, I worked hard to build a good base and one or two weeks of low mileage wouldn't totally upset a weekend long run. I had my doubts, but performed all of my pre-long-run rituals anyway (light pasta dinner, lots of hydrating on Friday, early to bed with heating pad on hamstrings.)
I set my alarm for 3:00 am to have time for my PowerBar breakfast, two drink servings of Emergen-C and loaded in the car for the 35 minute drive out to Fishhawk. I met up with Veronica and we started our run in the wee dark hours of the morning, donned with headlamps and reflective vests. The first 9-10 miles went along pretty well. Veronica and I chatted about everything, as we normally do on these runs. I think that's what makes them so therapeutic! We kept our pace nice and SLOW, as suggested by "the coaching manual" due to the heat, humidity and the fact that we were running twenty miles. If we had anything left towards the end, that's when I vowed to pick up the pace.
Another runner, Sunita, met us at mile 9 for her first 10 miler. She's been working to build up her mileage and likes the Galloway (run/walk) method as much as we do (smart woman!) When Sunita joined us, she continued the conversation chatter and enlightened us on many topics to keep us distracted. After about 10 miles or so, my conversations skills drastically reduce so it was nice to have someone along to keep it going and distract us from our misery!
At mile 18, Veronica was NOT feeling well and made the wise decision to take more walk breaks and run for shorter periods of time. My legs were hurting, feeling stiff, but that's expected. At this point, I was feeling pretty strong and had no knee/it band pain. I wanted to keep running and finish as strong as I was feeling. By this time, the sun was out and it was HOT! All the more reason to get this run over with as soon as possible! So, for the last two miles, I picked up the running pace (negative splits), walked less and was able to run/sprint it in. Sunita was such a trooper! Instead of doing her planned 10 miler, she hung with me for the last two miles and turned her run into an 11 miler! Veronica came in shortly after us, chugged the bottle of Gatorade I had waiting for her and stated, "I had twenty miles on my plate and I planned to finish it!" Stubborn much? :)
It was a good morning for me! After the run, I joined the rest of the running group at Panera for a yummy breakfast sandwich and coffee (I was starving!). The rest of the day involved spending some family time with my two favorite guys. Then, James and I went over to a friend's house for some more playtime and fun. That evening, Will and I grilled out steaks, opened a nice bottle of red and wound down with the movie, The Soloist. All in all, a productive, wonderful way to spend my Saturday!
How was yours?

Bear With Me, Folks...

I'm going to apologize now for being a bad blogger and not having any cute pictures of James to post or any cute stories from our week together. My husband has been out of town for various business trips and I'm starting full-time teaching in the classroom this school year and James' preschool has been closed for a couple of days last week due to Staff Training and I'm still training for this da#m marathon! Needless to say, I've had LOTS on my plate over the past couple of weeks.
Hopefully, once we get back into the swing of things and resume a somewhat normal schedule, I'll be able to post as usual! Good news, James has been wonderful over the past couple of weeks. He's had long days at daycare, been shuffled from babysitter to gym daycare, stayed with friends and has just "gone with the flow" each and every time! My training runs are getting longer and longer. So far, no major injuries to report! Since it is so stinking hot and humid here as soon as the sun comes up, I start my long runs at 4:30 in the morning. When I'm running alone, it really stinks to start out and run for two hours in the dark, but it beats running in 90 degree heat with 100% humidity. Oh well.
I still continue to use the Galloway method (run/walk) during my runs. Some people out there in bloggy land feel that this is "cheating." They feel that running is an endurance sport and that walking is not. I propose that they ask any woman who has completed the Breast Cancer 3 day walk about their endurance. While it's true that walking doesn't require as much endurance as running, there is still value in running (or walking) great distances and taking a few walk breaks throughout to work/stretch different muscles and promote muscles recovery verses muscle damage. For instance, if you are running a marathon (or half) and have to walk part of it or get injured and have to walk towards the end, is this called "cheating?" Absolutely NOT! As an injury-prone "runner", I find the Galloway method very helpful in injury prevention. And, I'm a strong believer in "Plan your Work and Work your Plan." Or, "Plan your Run and Run your Plan." Okay, I'm off my soap box.
I hope all of you out there in bloggy land have a wonderful week. I wish I could come up with some witty and clever comments about recent events and ongoings in my life, but I don't have it in me right now. I'm all about Back to School Welcome Letters, Behavior Logs and lesson plans...

One Little Monkey......

(you guessed it) Jumping on the Bed!

Since Will has been gone all week (business trip), it's been just James and I in the evenings. Tonight, instead of our usual books before bedtime routine, I let him indulge in some pre-bedtime jumping on mommy and daddy's bed. (bad mommy, I know!) But, it was so much fun, I had to grab the camera and try to capture some Kodak moments.This has been such a busy week for us. First, James started back to preschool full-time on Monday. I was worried about how he would adjust to staying there all day, eating lunch and napping there, since he wasn't there full-time this summer. Don't know why I was worried! He didn't seem to miss a beat. He went down easily for naps (and stayed down!) and was totally happy when I dropped him off and picked him up. I'm so glad to have a child who just "goes with the flow" and doesn't have separation issues. Makes for a very happy mommy!

This was all good news for me, because I am going back to teaching full-time this year. This past week, I've been moving back into my classroom, unpacking boxes upon boxes of personal teaching resources and classroom library books. I am really, really, really excited about teaching again. I truly enjoyed my time at home with James, but he is ready for school (preschool, that is) and so am I!

On to more bedtime jumping.....

Pillow-fight!

As you can see, James loved his new bedtime routine. And, it wasn't too hard to settle him back down before bedtime (thank goodness!)
I hope you all are having a great week and getting ready for the weekend!