Disney Days

We're Here! Actually, we have been here since Sunday but today is the first chance I have had to get on the Internet.

Packing on Friday and Saturday was torture! I think I did about 30 loads of laundry, and we had to squeeze Charlotte's birthday in there. She turned four on Saturday and was happy with the presents and fun, but would rather just stay three...she wants to be my baby forever...aw!

We left on Sunday morning with my three girls plus my two nieces for a seven hour drive. The drive was actually pretty good - at least I couldn't hear any major fight over my ipod earplugs! Thank goodness my car has a DVD player in it - a lifesaver for long drives with kids.

We arrived at our hotel around four and within the first two hours of being here the fire alarm went off and the hotel had to be evacuated! Delaney is a bit of a nervous nelly so she immediately wanted to go home...she didn't care if it meant another 7 hour drive. We convince her we were okay though and spent all day Monday at Disneyland - got there first thing in the morning and stayed until after the fireworks...lots of tired girls.

Coolest thing - you can now make customized mickey ears. Each girl picked their own base hat from basic black, pink, fur, metallic, etc. - their own ears in another cornucopia of selections, and patches. It was really fun! They all have there custom ears on here with Mickey.

Tuesday we went to California Adventure - 15 minutes into the first show we were watching an earthquake hit...only we thought it was part of the shows special effects, so we didn't realize that the earth was really rolling until they opened the doors and told us to evacuate the building! Poor Delaney was really freaked out now. We hung in there and most of the rides were reopened within a few hours - and there was still lots of other stuff to do, so we still had fun.

Today we are resting before our final day at the park...just hanging in the hotel, coloring, swimming, watching TV, catching up with work and blogland...actually my girls have devised a ramp off the bed with cushions and are using their paddle boards to surf down the pillows.

I haven't ran this week at all and I missed my long run last weekend. I might run on the hotel treadmill today...and I might just hang by the pool and drink some cervesas with my hubby.

Random Nonsense

Four days until we leave for Disneyland, three days until Charlotte turns four. My laundry isn't done, haven't packed a wink, haven't bought Charlotte's presents yet, have lots of stuff I need to get done at work before I leave....AAAHHH!

A new gym opened up 5 minutes from my house and I joined - yesterday was their first day open and I went twice I was so excited. I did a 4 mile run on my first trip. Twenty minutes of an elliptical/stair climber and weights on my second trip. Yeah me!

Funny thing though, I live in a fairly rural clean-cut area but this gym is located right next to a one of those special "day spas" that only men frequent. It got busted last year and was suppose to be cleaned up with new staff. Well, when I got there for my second visit to the gym at 9:45 pm I noticed that the day spa was still open (Odd), and the middle-aged, clean cut, fellow that pulled in next to me in the parking went past the gym to the spa...hmmm. Shortly after he went through the doors, the neon sign switched from open to closed (and he obviously did not work there)....double hmmm. While I was working out I noticed him leaving solo, looking much more relaxed. I talked to the owner of the club and she said she has noticed this too, only men go to this day spa, and she called the sheriffs department and said they may want to check in on the spa again. Small town drama!

Monday Mellow Drama

Aren't they cute! When there are sweet moments like this, it makes up for having to tell them three times a day "Don't look at each other, don' t touch each other, don't talk to each other, don't even breath on each other if you can't get along!" They are actually fighting as I type this, I just said IT again, (sigh)!

Today's plans: I usually go into the office on Monday's, but my family is a little under the weather today so I'm working from home so they can take it easy. Today is not a scheduled run day for me so I will be doing some cross-training instead...probably elliptical and some strength training.

I watched a great movie this weekend, "The Station Agent." It was actually made back in 2003, so many of you may have already seen it, but I hadn't and I loved it. It isn't action, not a chick flick, I don't really know what it is about. Well friendship would be my best guess. Three people who are kind of in solitude, have nothing in common, become friends...and the friend Joe is just adorably cute (good looking, but I mean he has a really cute personality). It's a quirky indy film, which I like. Anyway, I highly recommend it if you haven't already seen it.

Well I hope everyone has a great day, back to breaking up the chicklet fights for me....and I need to start getting ready for Disneyland! We leave this coming Sunday.

Lessons Not Learned

I did my long run on Saturday and I was up and out of the house by 6:30am, which is huge for me! But lets just say I wasn't very well prepared for my run and there are a lot of things I need to get through my thick head to make these runs go better.

• Planning for a long run involves more than just putting it on your calendar.
• Drinking a few glasses of wine the night before is not the best way to hydrate for a long run.
• Garmins need to be placed on a charger to actually have enough juice to make it through a long run - let alone even making it on your wrist.
• If you feel like you are walking out of your house without something, you probably forgot your ipod and you will be doomed to hours of running with nothing to distract you from dwelling on all the thoughts that pass through your stressed out head.
• Maybe if I actually stretched before running I would be less likely to get the foot and knee pain I've been having.
• The cute little water bottles that go in your fuel belt get moldy if you sit them on your dresser half full and forget to wash them...and don't notice until 10 minutes before your run...so you have to carry a big bulky bottle.

I think I need to spend a half hour each night preparing for the next day...whether it be work, home with my girls, or running...things would run so much smoother. I have my doubts I'll actually make this happen, but it sure would be a good habit to get into.

Time to Pull Up My Socks

The past two weeks my exercise has been crap, my diet has been crap, and my attitude has been crap.

The smoke didn't help, but things have cleared up...but I actually sat on my couch Saturday and cried, for no real reason at all other than I just feel like I am doing a crappy job at everything.

And now my husband is down too, he has been laying in bed until 11 or so the last few days. Doesn't he know it is my turn to be blue! What is wrong with us!

My weight loss has been stagnant lately (see paragraph one)...and I was feeling so great last month, this definitely doesn't help with my mindset at all. It just pisses me off knowing, overall I eat pretty healthy, I'm pretty active, and there are people out there who eat worse than me and never exercise and have great bodies. Waaah!

So I set my alarm to get up at 5:45 this morning and run...I woke up at 7, and ran at 8...but I did run. Tomorrow I hope to get up a little earlier to get my butt in gear and quit feeling sorry for myself, because my life is really pretty great.

Needless to say, I have been contemplating things a lot lately and my approach to life. I am hoping to make a bit of a transformation in the next few weeks in how I can have more of a positive impact on my kids, my family, my community and live a healthier, cleaner and simpler life and not feel so frazzled.

Blah, Blah, Blah...

On the brighter side, finally some decent shows are coming back to TV this week.

I would have to say The Closer is my favorite TV show of all TV shows right now. Just love Brenda and the whole cast of characters with all their flaws and grumpiness (I really like grumpy TV characters, hmmmn)...and it came back Monday night, yah! I have been looking forward to this season for months, and the first episode was pretty good!

We also enjoy Monk and Psych and they start up again this Friday. They aren't necessarily the smartest shows on TV, but they are cute and fun and everyone in the family can watch them...and again great characters.

Ahh, the things we look forward to when we are old and married with kids.

Smokin' Hot

Required running gear here in NorCal
The air is a hazy grey, thick...it smells like a campfire you can never escape due to all the wildfires going on right now. To top it off it is triple digit temps all this week...112 today.

Thursday Thoughts

24 days until we leave for Disneyland! Our big vacation this year. It will be hot. It will be crowded. But dammit, we are going to have fun! Delaney is five and Charlotte will be turning four and we can no longer put off their childhood right to stand in line after line at the happiest place on earth.

• I need to get serious (again) on my weight loss plan. I did pretty good in May, okay in June...but now I need to step it up again. I'd like to lose another 5 to 10 pounds before Disney - gotta look good for my main man Donald Duck (I like him cuz he's grumpy, Mickey is just to perky for my taste). So I guess I better put all that wine I just bought in my cellar (uh, little refrigerator), stick to my exercise schedule, and update my goals.



• My foot hurts. It was hurting pretty bad Monday and Tuesday so I have been laying off the running. My foot feels much better today, just a twinge, so I think I'm going to try a light run today. Hope I don't aggravate it again.



• OK, tmi ,but I either have IBS or I am lactose intolerant...it is time for me to deal with this properly cuz it just ain't fun. I'm going to try cutting out dairy first to see if that helps at all. I don't eat much dairy anyway (mostly just a limited amount of cheese and ice cream), so it shouldn't be that hard.



• I am going to start researching switching our house over to solar. Our energy costs have gone through the roof the last year, and I can't figure out why since our lifestyle hasn't really changed. Anyway, I'm going to check into it - we'll see, it may just be too expensive to be worth it. I like the idea of being a little more self-sufficient and greener like Kermie though.



• My boss left yesterday for a month long vacation to Ireland and Switzerland (where he owns his own Chalet - disgustingly rich) - whew! Now I have a month of being able to get caught up at a nice steady pace instead of frantically trying to get 3 projects done at the same time, that he wanted last week. I needed this vacation!