Double Edge Sword

One of my favorite parts of running is that it gets me my "ME" time. It gets me out of the house, away from "mom mom mommy mama momomomomomomomomom" and various decibles. I dont care about my kitchen, my laundry, or anything else. All I worry about is putting on foot in front of the other and making sure my garmin going.

One of my least favorite aspects of running is that its not something I can do with my family. Well, I guess I can, but my jogging strollers wheel was destroyed by sandburrs and hasnt been fixed yet so that takes the boys out. Stinkerbell can make it .16 miles before freaking out about it being to cold. And Shawn, well, he could do it but is his words "doesnt want to".

My example: Warrior Dash is coming to Nebraska!!! Im soooo freakin excited. I have wanted to do a Warrior Dash since I first heard about them a few years ago but the closest one was in either Southern Colorado or Kansas City. Now, this year, we are getting ein an obscure town I have never heard about waaaay off in the Eastern part of the state might well be Iowa. Its June 9th....life will have slowed down a bit by then.....calving will be done, brandings done, haying shouldnt have started yet so he doenst have the "work" excuse to not run.

Warrior dash is 3.3 mile mud run with obstacle courses....mud pits, rope courses, fire pits yes fire pits....and its only 3.3 miles.  I know to someone who isnt a runner, 3.3 miles sounds like a marathon but really....when you toss in 10 obstacle courses, I'm willing to bet 3.3 goes by pretty darn fast. Plus, FREE BEER at the finish line. What about that doesnt sound awesome?? Gotta love races with beer sponsors!!!

According to my husband....none of it.  I even tried the "your just scared your wife will school you" and that didnt get a flicker of interest.  So even though we hunt together and snowmobile together.  Really...he can totally do it. He can scamper through the hills after critters, he can run a Warrior Dash.  Apparently running together isnt going to happen. Not gonna lie...that bums me out. Since he doesnt run with me, he is the obvious poor fool choice to stay with the kids. For most, that means yay...free babysitting p.s. not babysitting when its your own kids but to me it means no one at the finish line. No one to celebrate my accomplishment with. No one to empathize over pain and bad runs with.

Ok, that last part isnt entirely true....I have an AMAZING group of running friends friends who run and they get it. I can comiserate with them about injuries, pace, distance and whatever all I want, but Im still kinda jealous of the people who can train with their husbands and wives. It would be so good for Shawn, who has a family history of heart problems, to get into better shape. But I cant seem to drag him out of the house. He was hitting the dreadmill several mornings a week but that seems to have stopped also. We have a month before calving starts so thats his excuse now....why get started when in a month, he wont have the time to give to running.

Im not totally giving in yet.....I may sign him up, throw him in the car and pretend we are going to the Casino in Iowa, with a stop along the way to run the Warrior Dash.  He might want try kill me....but whatever motivates him to run after with me in the race is great......he has to catch me first ;-)

Old

I have come to a conclusion.

I'm getting old.

Not just oldER but old. I am OK with oldER but old....not.so.much.

Case in point....today while I was getting ready to for quick run around town after picking Stinkerbell up from school I did the following:

-Put a compression sleeve on my left leg (to help an aching left calf)
P.S. I run IN compression tights.
-Rubbed Theragesic on my right knee and my left shoulder
-Took compression tights off as I forgot to do the Theragesic on my knee BEFORE putting them on. Again. Memory is the first thing to go.
-Took 3 ibuprofen.
I used to do that as a pre-emptive strike against the hangover Gods....now its a pre-emptive strike against aching joints.

I would have stretched alot but I did 50 minutes of yoga earlier so I felt pretty stretched out.

Ran 4 miles and I kinda want to go soak my aching back quads shoulder calves body in a warm bath. To bad my 2 year old just figured out how to open the bathroom door. Grrrr.

Really.....I'm 32. Not 82 (no offense to any 82 year old readers I may not have).

Perfect Timing

Its been one of those weeks.  I don't really feel bad or sad or anything like that....I'm just kinda....there. 

We are working on some spurs this week so Shawn has been out in the shop every free moment he has all the time.  Which means I'm on mommy duty all.damn.day.  That sounds terrible, I know.  I'm well aware....I have mommy-guilt coming out of my ears because of it but really....these 2 are driving me up a wall.  Up and across a wall.  Up and down the great freakin' wall of China. 

My afternoon replacement player has been coming in and leaving again a few hours later...which sends HIS children into a tail spin, which they then drag me into.  They miss their daddy and don't handle it well when he comes and goes and comes and goes. 

Its not that I don't adore my children.  Its not that I don't love them and want to spend time with them.  I love watching them play together and learn new things.  Sage has come MILES in just the last few weeks.  He will count to 3 and show me with his fingers at the same time.  He has the color RED down and BLUE sorta down (gets it mixed with GREEN sometimes).  That may not seem like much but for my preemie who is about 6 - 9 months behind other 2 year old....that's a big deal. 

Thankfully, without even knowing, my running friends suggested some afternoon running around town.  I'm not usually an afternoon runner....I prefer morning runs but more then that, I enjoy running with humans not just canines and bovines.  I skipped my Monday morning run in favor of Jamie's invitation to run around town.  Katie joined us, we headed out for 4. 

Run was good but Jamie struggled with her breathing a bit.  She was pissed annoyed frustrated and bummed about it so she said she would give it another go today after her husband gave her his not-so-helpful advice.  I told her I would be there and meet up for our second afternoon cruise around town.

Apparently it was exactly what she needed as we kicked that run in the ass (she averages a 10:00-10:30 as a comfortable pace and we came in at 10:11....AWESOME!!).  My legs were sore since I was on my 3rd day of running in a row totally didn't care so I was very happy to not be racing anyone or anything...just a nice, easy pace around town. 

Also exactly what I needed.....a break from my kids.  While they still drive me over the edge faster then anything else I have to sit back and celebrate them.  And the fact that for some reason my friends know exactly what I need, when I need it.  Call it karma.  Call it fate.  Call it whatever the hell you want.....I needed afternoon breaks from my kids these past few days and thanks to them, I got them.  Seriously, without Jamie suggesting the afternoon running I may have spilled the wine that I had perfectly balanced in my left hand, while holding off Sage with the right hand while Bran attempted STRESS ATTEMPTED to climb up the foot rest of the reclining chair I was sitting in.  THAT would have been tragic.

Run with the WInd

It's official. 

I have lost my mind.

35mph winds with gusts to 50+ but my long run was scheduled for today, so I had to get it done.  So I consulted weather.com, determined which direction the wind was coming from and had Shawn drive me 5 miles in that direction.  If I was going to run outside and deal with Mother Nature's attitude problem I was at least going to use what I could of it to my advantage.

Shawn did point out that I was crazy out of my mind loco nuts and, as if I didn't already know this, felt it necessary to inform me that "even the stupid cows were standing on the downside of a hill....out of the wind."  Thank you, honey, for informing me I was stupider then a cow.
It was a great run!! 

Couple big hills to climb, that I really need to run more often to get my hill work in.  Some cross winds that I was able to keep a good pace through (thanks to curvy roads, that didn't last long) and a Manic Mommies podcast about setting goals and achieving them, I didn't even really think much about the wind.

I did start to think about my aching right knee.  Time to start some icing.  I'm really hoping its just getting used to the new shoes and that I wont have to switch out of them because they don't have enough support.  It does make me really happy I didn't drop $180 on the Newtons I really thought I wanted.

Pinterest Recipe......Round 1

To say there will be a round 2 to MAY be a bit premature.  Judging from the not-so-splendid aroma coming from my oven...I may call it quits with Round 1.

Obviously you can tell I caved to the pinterest-pressure.  Love BTW!  Almost immediately I found some amazing looking goodies, one of which included these.

Rest assured, mine will look NOTHING like this.

Of course, I called my mother in law and said "HEY, we have work to do on buckles tonight....ill bring my new recipe!!"  That may have been what pissed off the cooking gods.

First clue things were not going to go well....when I couldn't find the wonton wrappers at the grocery store in town.  Not in our little town, I knew they wouldn't have anything that exotic, but at the slightly bigger store in the next town over.  The very nice stocker guy did help me find something that we thought could work.....pre-made pastry cuppy-thingy!  From the picture on the box clue #2 they looked perfect.  I even checked to make sure they could be baked (props from the cooking's Gods...you can pat my back now.  Really, that's about as successful as this adventure gets.)

Fast forward, time to start baking.....get the beef all browned (that I can handle, do that alot) get out the perfect little cups......W.T.F.  They are the size of a quarter. 

A Q.U.A.R.T.E.R. 

How is the H-E-double hockey sticks am I going to make a pastry shell that doubles as a bed for Thumbalina work as the wrapper for my lasagna cupcakes??

Ill tell you how.....I'm not....but I had already started and I didn't have any regular lasagna noodles so I was screwed so I wasn't going to back down.  I crumbles the delicate little cups up (each one filled the BOTTOM of the cupcake holder, in case you were wonderidng)  And started layering.

Ran out of ricotta cheese so I added in some cottage cheese.  I'm sure I have made lasagna with cottage cheese before....sure of it.

Ran out of mozzarella.  Thankfully had some leftover in the fridge....still good (Ill take the pat on the back back, thanks)

Opened the oven to find I hadn't moved the racks....and couldn't find an over mitt.  FYI - make sure the towel you use in place of missing over mitt ISN'T thin and DOESN'T have holes.  If he does, don't grab there.)

Got the 24 lasagna cupcakes into the over, forgot to top with Parmesan cheese.  So I added it.  Ever spilled pram cheese all over the inside of your over.....not.pleasant.

I just took them out of the oven.  They do not look like the picture, but they don't look as terrible as I had imagined they would.  I cant get them out of the cupcake pan as without a wrapper, I'm afraid they will fall apart so pan and all is headed down to Karen's house for supper.

She has salad and wine....if my lasagna falls apart, it wont be a total loss!

Hammer and Wrench

Ya know the saying that someone put a "wrench" in your plan/day.  Well, I have a wrench and a hammer.

Hammer is on the left, Wrench on the right.

They are 1 and 2, cute (lucky for them), and today are into more Trouble then I can keep up track of.

And I do mean Trouble with a capital T.

So far today my little tools have locked themselves into a locked kitchen cupboard (still not sure how that one happened) after they emptied the contents.  Have given each other a black eye (hammer) and bloody scratch on cheek (wrench).  Bran aka Hammer cause he breaks or crashes into everything, just handed me a knife he got off the counter in the kitchen, that Sage (wrench) helped him climb onto by opening all the drawers and showing him how to climb.  They have dumped sissy's tooth brush in the toilet (again) after stacking magazines from our "reading material" in front of the bathroom counter and scaling that.

Did I mention last night we moved B out of his crib because while Sage can climb in and out of that, no problem, Mr. Uncoordinated would get half-way up, get stuck and start freaking out.  Then Sage would feel the need to "elp" and "ix" the situation but removing Bran's white-knuckled death grip from the railing of the crib.  I swear, you could feel the house shake then that 33lbs of boy hit the floor and probably hear the screaming in Kansas.

They have busted into my bedroom, pulled out dresser drawers, emptied said drawers so that they could climb into the drawers and wrench then climbed up another level to the top of my dresser and proceeded to throw everything from up there onto his brother, in the drawn below him.  Hammer  then relocated all objects to the floor.  Which was actually a good thing because when he fell out of the drawer, he landed on the stuff so he didn't get hurt.  I'm telling ya....no coordination on that child what.so.ever.

After banishment from my bedroom, I foolishly sent them to play in their own room I had to send them somewhere and with 15 degrees and 50mph winds, outside wasn't an option.  Well it was but I'm still going for runner up Mom of the Year where they cant get the drawers of their dresser open. 

They can, apparently, use the diaper stacker as a climbing wall.  Which they did.  It now sits on the porch in multiple pieces.  Lucky for me I think they emptied the contents onto their beds before proceeded with their climb.  Unlucky for me, after the crash, they wanted to play on their beds...which meant everything that had been on their beds was now on the floor dresser EVERYWHERE.

To top it all off, I have a big test in my class tonight that I really need to study for and a house that looks like a bomb went off and two buckles to design.  Piper is playing at halftime of the HS girls basketball games both Thursday and Friday, which is great for the kids, but I cant promise the tools will make it to both games.  I may need a break and their dad, head screw-driver, may have to wrangle them at home so I can go cheer for Stinkerbell in a hot, crowded, loud gym.  But I wont be chasing them so Ill take it!!!

AND, I DVR'd the season premiere of Justified last night and had to stop it 1 2 3 times because of THEM.  Now I cant find the remote control to watch it.  Messing up my room and theirs is one thing, keeping me from a Raylan Givens fix is completely uncalled for.

Do you see a theme here.....CLIMB.  Or as the wrench (aka Thing 1 and occasionally, Sage) would say "Imb! Imb!"

No, nap time is not near.  Yes, I have wine.

Braaaaap!!!!

I love snow.  I love cold.  I LOVE WINTER!!

I thoroughly enjoy the burn of cold air hitting my lung and the sting on my face.  Don't ask me why, I'm from Michigan.....its how I grew up.

Last year I went on my first snowmobiling trip with Shawn, Jamie and her husband Shane.  ADDICTED.  That's all I could say I LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!! 

We just came back from our first trip of this year, to Snowy Range Mountains in Wyoming. 

Beautiful Scenery



Yes, that's the parking lot.

Top of the Glacier.
First day started slow.....because of a couple breakdowns, and Jamie and I being on new sleds that made our rides from last year seem like toys for our kids.  It took sometime to get used to them, but we did!!

Climbing the Glacier
We climbed a Glacier, turned circles, got buried, ended up on our sides, pushed  ourselves sleds past our fears and to 50 mph (me) and 60mph (Rockstar Jamie).

Success!!
A couple of near disasters not involving us and a near disasters that did involve us me.

Oops!
No photos of my disasters but I can tell you that I ran over Chris' leg and almost crashed into a tree Shawn's sled which Iwas riding after flipping mine over.  In the same spot.  The leg and crashing/tree issue were not at the sametime.  Chris stayed out of the way after the leg thing...smart man.

Sunday, my confidence was MUCH higher then Saturday and I wish we could have had more time but the whole parental duty mommy guilt was calling.  I was actually starting to get it and wasn't afraid that Shawn would sell my sled because I was not worthy of riding it anymore (which I was pretty sure he was thinking when we first got started). 

Jamie and I
We have another trip planned for February to one of my FAVORITE places....Deadwood South Dakota!   The Black Hills are calling and hopefully they have snow.

Lots of thanks to EVERYONE who helped us out this weekend.....Mat and Lindsey (who doesn't ride like she just started last year AT ALL), Mike and Tina, Shane and Jamie (she may have as many rides under her belt as I do but she is a rockstar and watching her helped me push myself), Chris (who I probably owe alot as he did keep helping me out even after I ran him over....just after I was off the sled), and of course, Shawn, who didnt revoke my sled privileges was very patient with me most of the time and the fact that I was crazy intimidated by the skill of the people we were riding with.

 Break time (aka, digging someone out).
 

Shawn attempting doing snow-doughs


Once again, Great times with Great friends!!  Happy Sledding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shall I Pin??

Pintrest.  I have no idea what it is.  Really, I dont.  And for the most part, Im ok with that.  Till this last week when my curiousity has been peaked by several friends talking about "pinning" and a podcast that mentioned someone's husband and his newfound addiction to Pintrest. 

Curiosity killed the cat, ya know....and my husband might take me out if I find one.more. place on the internet to distract me from cleaning my house  occupy my time.

Just as I had convinced myself to stay away, far, far away  Heather put in her two cents AND blogged about it.  Being the supportive blogger friend that I am, I had to read her post.   

Oh SHENANIGANS!!!  I thought I could resist, but then I read that and find myself all curious-like AGAIN.

So, I took a poll (aka posted on facebook) only to find out that several of my friends think Im crazy for NOT checking it out and the other thought I already had.

So I ask....do I pin or not-pin??  Is this place going to give me all kinds of fantastic ideas that I cannot wait to start, so I will purchase ridiculous amounts of "supplies", start the project and it will sit for 3 years before Shawn looks at me and says "we could have spent that money sledding"?  Be honest....lot of you know me personally.....will pintrest cost me my sanity?

And no comments about that already being a long gone TROY!

Stay tuned this week for a full recap of the snowmobiling adventure in Wyoming!  Super fun time but Jamie has all the pictures since forgot my camera and phone so I have to wait for her to download them.

5 Things Friday

Whoohoo, I'm on a roll!!

1. I'm missing my running mojo.  Its the perfect time really because we are headed out to Wyoming to go snowmobiling for the first time this season today after the basketball game.  Sounds awesome....would sound even better if Wyoming had some snow.  Hmm...how do we SNOWmobile without SNOW??  We probably don't, but I'm sure we will consume copious amounts of adult beverages which is a good replacement right?

2.  I down graded my phone.  I'm sure I'm not the first person but I couldn't figure out why THIS stay at home mom needed to have the computer travel with me when I was away from it.  It was the first stop in breaking my addiction to facebook. 

3.  Bran has 2 new words...."cracker" and "out".  Sage has one..."shit".

4.  I'm gonna be in my brother's wedding....yay!!!!!

5.  Piper pulled her own tooth yesterday.  She informed me she had to (it was loose anyway) because she was worried "about getting hit in the face with the ball, knocking her tooth out and swallowing it, making it very hard for the tooth fair to collect and deliver."  She is a dork clever.


Here is my motivational photo for the weekend, my new favorite!!!!

Mode + Reset

Just came as close to have a full on panic attack as I would ever like to be.  Might be a little dramatic, I agree, but all the obsessed dedicated Garmin Forerunner users will sympathize understand exactly what I am talking about.


First of all, my running plan got a little screwed up when Pippa's basketball practice was cancelled because the gym was set up for a funeral dinner tomorrow.  Didn't know that till I got the phone call so my plan to run in town while she was practicing was foiled did I really just say "my plan was foiled" oh goodness, its time for wine.   Went home and had all the intentions of getting a run in before it got to dark. 

Changed my clothes, found my iPod, grabbed my Garmin and turned it on....and nothing happened.  No beep.  No locating satellite.  NOTHING. 

Blank screen. 

O.M.G.

I tried plugging it in at another outlet.  Nothing.  Tired plugging it in to the computer.  Nothing.  Tracked down the box with the directions in the rements of a tropical storm my bedroom.  No help there. 

My heart rate started to increase when I went with the tried and true solution finder.....Google.

Much to my dismay it seems that this is a common problem with the Garmin's.  Occasionally, they get overload and just stop.  At least I knew I wasn't alone and the racking of my brain trying to remember if I had dropped it or spilled something on it was for nothing....I knew I wouldn't let anything like that happen to my Garmin.  My cell phone, yes...but not my watch.

After much searching for 2.5 minutes I found a reoccurring theme.....push "reset" and "mode" at the same time, hold for 10 seconds and try to turn it on again.

So I held my breathe not really, but it adds to the dramatic effect, right....AND I HEARD THE BEEP!  So happy, I could have done a happy dance.  I may have done a happy dance.  Oh hell, I totally did a happy dance!

The Garmin is now charging quietly on the counter.  Totally missed my run time because I am a big, fat baby and scared to run in the dark by myself  but for the sake of my Garmin, I'm OK with that not really but I have the dtreadmill I can still go spend some time with the idea of drinking wine sounds much MUCH more appealing.

Code ORANGE

I'm in crisis.  Not really but in my happy world, not having appropriate listening material during my runs definitely qualifies for crisis standard.

Code Orange (a busted Garmin or blown out shoe would be a Code RED, just so you have perspective here).

I recently started listening to podcasts while running and LOVED IT!!  Another Mother Runner was my first and so far, only choice.  Listening to Dimity and Sarah gab and talk through mommy running issues helped push me down the road and on the dreadmill.  It was like having a conversation with my running buddies but  didn't have to contribute (not to say I didn't contribute to the conversation....I may or may not chime in but you cant hear me so...you cant make fun of me). 

I downloaded ALL the podcasts from Another Mother Radio, was a faithful little stalker follower and subscribed to their iTunes page so when they upload a new episode, it automatically goes into my page and VOILA....Stupid, Simple Podcast downloading.

Then I ran.  And I listened.  And I ran again and listened again.  Then I found myself listening to the same conversations I had listened to the week before.  *GASP*.....I ran through all the podcasts.  Oh well, I will find something new. 

Not. So. Easy.

I download a few of Jillian Michael's and liked them but I didn't find myself joining in the convo like I do with Sarah and Dimity.  I thought I would go for something non-running/fitness related and see if that would switch it up for me.  I stumbled upon "Stuff You Should Know" and thought, some of those topics look interesting.  Clicked on a few, without looking at the titles, synced the iPod and went out the door.

So yesterday on my 5 mile run I learned about the "Curse of King Tuts Tomb" and "What Happens in Your Brain when your Orgasm".  In that order.  There was some reference during the King Tut episode of another podcast regarding aliens and acupuncture....not sure I'm ready for that one just yet.  Hmmmm....not that those topics weren't interesting (who knew there were so many medical studies about what happens in your brain during sex....not I.) and they did keep me thinking about something other then how far I was from the house and how far I still had to go to get back home....but not exactly what I was looking for.  I have a couple more downloaded but I will check the titles before I head out the door. 

So here is my challenge to all of you....SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!!!!!  Before Code ORANGE turns into a Code RED.  It's obvious that I need some help...this isn't shouldn't be difficult but look at what I managed to track down when I ventured out on my own.....King Tut and Orgasms....obviously I cannot be unsupervised. 

Protection

Serious post now...hopefully one that will help all of us, and prevent any more social networking postings like this.

From: Sammy

‎Jamie,  Heather, Tara ..... maybe we really need to seriously think about carrying that gun while we run!

Scary right?!?!?!

I know that most of you run in fairly populated areas, but for us chickies who lives in no-mans-land aka the Sandhills, we run solo 90 95 98% of the time.  We live in areas where we don't lock our doors (seriously, I JUST installed locks in my house a month ago), we tend to leave the keys in our cars, parked in the parking lot, street and driveway and often times, running.  We run down the road, headphones blaring out the sound of the little voices in our heads calling us names for not staying in bed traffic.  I personally have been running and had a neighbor in a ranch pickup (which are not typically quiet vehicles) pull up right behind me and end up honking the horn because between the wind and my music, I couldn't hear anything. 

It would be scary simple for anyone to pull up behind me, grab me and voila.  I don't run on a main road but Jamie and Heather both have the highway so I worry about them more then myself.  Even if I did drive the 17 miles to Jamie's house yesterday and not see a single car on the way....it only takes one sociopath to ruin a perfectly good run.

How ironic that the linked article was posted the same morning that Heather, Jamie, Sammy and I were all talking about running with small firearms.  All 4 of us shoot, 2 of them run the highway.  Sammy and I are both off the highway but still run alone.  While it was a serious topic, there was some joking involved regarding fanny packs and will we get matching guns for the 1/2 marathon (to match our skirts, of course).  Only a few hours later, Sammy posted the link to the article and said "Maybe we should seriously consider carrying guns?"

Maybe we should.  I know Jamie already is, and I think that's great.  I have several one that I could run with, but it is bigger and the holster is bulky.  I would need to take the CCW (Carrying Concealed Weapon) class but really, that's not a bad idea regardless of if I carry when I run or not.

So, the question I have.....how do you protect yourself?  DO you protect yourself?  Is your protection a 120lb German Shepherd (which would be my first choice, but I have a 40lb cow dog instead)?  Do you carry a taser or semi-automatic 9mm with 20 rounds in the magazine?  I'm for both, hubby is convinced I would get pissed at the dog after he trips me and tase him but the gun is option 1. 

Do you carry identification when you run?  I don't.....I should, but my out and back for 5 miles takes me 2.5 miles to the corner of my mother in laws house and back to my driveway.  If I get hit by a car, its probably someone who knows me or at least knows who I belong to and they could get help and ID.  If nothing else, soon I will be a member of the EMT team, surely someone will know know if THEY have to respond to an accident involving me.  I'm willing to bet everyone on the team knows me now.....our town has a population of 150 people.  Everyone knows everyone else. 

Do you run with your cell phone?  Again, not me.  Damn am I a headline on CNN waiting to happen or what??? I don't time myself with my phone or use it for music.  So I don't take it with me.  There isn't a signal for a good part of the run, so I always figured why bother with it.  Now, I have it set up for 911/SOS so maybe I should take it with me, just in case the sociopath shows up behind me when my podcast is to loud and my dog has run down to play with his friends at my mother in laws house??

In all seriousness, safety should always be my top priority.  I stretch before I run so I don't pull a muscle.  I trade out my shoes before I wear them down and they don't give the support I need.  Why don't I worry about other aspects of my safety?  I'm not going to say I'm going to run with a gun every time I leave the house but I am saying I may have to invest in a small one with a few rounds for when I run on the highway and getting into training and longer distances, its gonna come to that.  I'm not going to go all heavily armed look at me crossed eyed and your a dead man and I will still stop to give someone directions, should they ask.  I wont live in fear.  But I will live in reality and protect myself if necessary. 

Its a fine line, I realize that.....but one I am taking a look at.  In the meantime, please pray for Sherry and all her friends and family as they face a very scary, trying time in their lives. 

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday Shawn and I did what happily married couples should do...spent some quality time together.  HOWEVER, we don't do this like normal people.  We don't go to the movies (its 45 miles to the closest theatre that shows 2 movies at a time), and we don't go out to supper without kiddos (again, 45 miles to the closest place with more then 10 items on the menu).  We have to find stuff to do together, minus children, right around where we live.  Since we live in the middle of nowhere and are highly outnumbered by 4-legged critters, the "what to do" answer is obvious.

We went called coyotes together.  Yep....we went an hunted coyotes.  As Jamie so eloquently put in her recap of their calling contest she entered with her husband yesterday, coyotes are a gigantic pain in the ass for all ranchers.  Nothing cute and cuddly about them.  They may start out that way, but I promise, get a  few calves in your yard and they will be everywhere.  They are scavengers and really don't care of the baby is just born, or even DONE being born, in which case, you lose the baby and the momma.

Yep....its time to shoot.

For the people who are thinking "how can you shoot one...they don't get close enough to bother humans...they are scared" blah blah blah.  Please see this picture:

December 13, 2009 - My house.  Yep, they never go near a house....let alone ON their house.

I have had my own issues with a coyote this year, which thankfully had been taken care of a month ago.  While to some people thought the idea of a coyote pacing me as I ran past the pivot was cute, or him sitting on top of the hay bale supervising was adorable, there comes a point when they have to go.  They are predators, end of story. They eat calves.  We also have a mange issue (which is a skin disease that they have which results in loss of hair) which then means they they freeze, starve and THEN, they really get dangerous.  So yep, Wylie yes, I named him had to go. 

Anyway, I love to shoot stuff so hunting is a new passion of mine.  Going out to call coyotes seemed like a great idea.  Then the following conversation happened a few weeks ago:

Shawn: I'm going to take you out next week sometime and TELL you how its gonna happen when we hunt. 

Me: What do you mean? Hmmm....did he really just say TELL, as in, he might be channeling his inner cave man.......

Shawn: You have do to things right, coyotes are not stupid they can smell you, hear you and see you from far away.  This is going to be alot of work.

Me: What do you mean?  I call, they come, I shoot, they die.  That's how its gonna work, right?

Shawn: No.

Apparently, his main concern was in my inability to be quiet.  Like really quiet.  As in keep-your-mouth-closed-don't-even-breath-if-you-can-help-it quiet.  Hmmm....that part could be a bit challenging because I am really good at talking.  BUT however good at talking I am, I am crazy stubborn and once my wonderful father-in-law also started giving me grief about not being able to be quiet, I knew....it was GAME ON.  I was going to find a way to keep quiet even if it killed me.....I may end up thrashing around on the ground trying to bite my tongue off but I would be quiet while that happened.  No way would I would my husband AND his dad be right....not gonna happen! 

So we went...and yes, I was quiet.  Quiet.  Quiet enough that we were able to call in 3 coyotes and get them within 50 yards of us and they never heard me.  To the stupid smart coyote who got away, it was because he saw us Shawn moving.  I was in high gear frozen statue mode (remember that game....I was a champion frozen statue player, who knew it would serve me so well in my adult years).

Calling was fun.  It is a bit frustrating when they are not following my plan of "I call, they come, I shoot, they die" but when they DO play by the rules, its awesome.  Even just sitting on the side of the hill, with the wind blowing in your face, looking and waiting for a coyote to pop up over a hill or out of a ditch is a rush.  Definitely a new favorite hobby of mine!  I'm sure Shawn will be is thrilled.  We have the SAME HOBBIES.  We can spend quality time together all the time.  Just what great marriages are made of.....total commitment too together-ness.

Wonder if Jamie wants to ditch the boys and go call coyotes??  We will only go places that have service wont get lost....you have an iPhone!!!

Moments in Time

My favorite Christmas gift this year is a picture frame with 2 4x6 photos in it.  Both of my dad and I.  One is from when I was 3 or 4 year olds, and he is holding my hand while teaching me to ice skate on the lake at my grandparents house.  The other, is from this past November, and its him and I sitting together with deer he shot this year at our house.  It was his first buck.  Ever.  After 48 years of hunting in Michigan, he came out to my house and within 45 minutes, he had checked that one off his bucket list. 

Being a part of the moments in time with your kids is one thing.  Being a part of those moments in time with your parents is different.  As parents, we spend so much time our entire lives around making our kids dreams come true.  About helping them achieve all they want and sometimes, more, but we dont often get to sit back and watch our parents achieve the same type of goals.  Getting to reverse the roles and help make my dads dream come true was very exciting and special.

This year, I was lucky blessed enough to sit in that situation with my dad.

Thanks for letting me be a part of that moment with you daddy.  I will never forget it.

Thats what Friends are for

Everyone who knows me knows that I am fairly allergic in the metaphoric sense of the word to a few key things in life:

1) pink

2)  cheerleaders

Cheerleaders in pink really push me to consume excessive amounts of alcohol over the edge.

BUUUUT...since I started my journey into running, I find myself looking for bolder, BRIGHTER colors when it comes to shoes.  Why...I don't know....maybe because I want them to look as sassy as I feel after a run.  And lets face it...there isn't any sassy looking about me sweating, out of breath, and gimping from an aching muscles somewhere between my collarbone and ankles.  Yet my shoes will ALWAYS look good after a run. 

I've decided to back off a little from the "full" shoe but didn't want to go completely natural...I still want some extra stability. Plus, $175 for a Natural shoe....ummm, no, especially if I have to replace them at least once before the half.  $85 for a semi-natural sounds much better..and yes, that is exactly how I presented it to hubby.

After much debating, I am going to give the Asics Blur33 a whirl. 

1 - I love Asics!  They are my standard, go-to, beat the tar out of shoe.  I know they hold up to what I want to put them through so why not stick with at least the brand I know. 
2 - The minimalist runners were complaining that they were not a true minimalist shoe....YAHOO...exactly what I am looking for.  A transitional shoe...not as much as a full shoe, lighter, but still with the heel support and stability I want to keep for my aging aching back.
3 - BRIGHT COLORS...just so I don't get "advice" about picking a shoe based on color...I didn't.  I like the aspects of the shoe...the colors are an added bonus.

Unfortunately for me, I couldn't make a decision on the color I wanted.....yellow/orange/white or *GASP* bright, freakin' PINK.

Yes, PINK. P.I.N.K.  Go head and sit down mom, I'll wait while you catch your breath.....


For 3 days, I debated....do I want to go with a more subtle, bright color of yellow/orange combo OR go seriously crazy and get pink/black?  I did what any decision-challenged female does when she can't make up her mind....I emailed a friend and had her pick.  I told myself that if she replied back and said PINK that was it....it was a sign from the running/fashion Gods (aka Jamie) that wearing pink shoes is stepping out of my box and the way of 2012. 

PINK IT IS! 

Give me 3-5 business days and I will give you an update or exactly how RIDICULOUSLY PINK they are in person....and how much I love them.  Hating them is not an option.

Weekend Recap

'This weekend was a blur.....in a good way (I think). 

Friday was nothing special....oh wait, I ran 3.5 in 30:11 (an 8:37 average)...self-proclaimed ROCKSTAR status.  Hey...gotta give yourself props after a great run, right ;-)

Saturday included an all day EMT class in Og.  Not exactly the way I wanted to spend New Years Eve but since I completed enough assessments to check off MOST of my requirement list AND passed the 2 really big State Assessment tests I had to take, I'll call it a success.

Saturday night was great.  I love our little bar in town most of the time, I love our waitress all of the time who loves us enough to make our standard chick drink of choice the way it should be make and increase our blood alcohol levels in a single shot (Washington Apples.....MUST HAVE).

Please read Heather's recap of NYE....I'm not sure exactly when I held her down and force fed her the shot, but it must have been before she and Kris climbed on Jamie's truck and recreated a music video from the early 90's.  If I really was a terrible friend who would force feed someone a drink, I would also post the photo of recreation of the video....however, I am a nice person so the photo is safe on facebook for now.  And Kris looks a little scary silly in that photo and I'm kinda afraid of her ;-)  Just remember, Kramer, don't make me post that picture!! 

Good times, great drinks, good music (when they played), GREAT FRIENDS (Old and New "HI NEW FRIEND KAYCEE!!")

Pretty sure this is post shot....she doesn't really hate me.

The last half of the night is about a blurry as this photo.

Great times with Great friends!!

All was going well until my baby-sitters mom, who was at the bar also, came and told me her son (who was also hanging out at my house so he wasn't home alone) called and said my baby-sitter got sick.  So there ended our night, but I'm really OK with that.....if I had kept going, I probably wouldn't have been able to do Yoga AND run a little yesterday.  I felt great, except for sounding like a chipmunk.

Today, we are headed to the airport (much to my bowl game loving husbands dismay) to pick up Stinkerbell after her Christmas in Michigan with her dad and his family.  Tomorrow, after school, we are doing OUR family Christmas.  Maybe I should go wrap the presents.......