Seven Things - Week in Review

Seven good things last week:

1. My husband and I rocked out making a landmark out of Delaney starting Kindergarten. I took Delaney out for a special mother daughter day. Plus, my husband and I made her a special dinner the night before, pancakes the morning of, and took her out to lunch when we picked her up the first day.
2. Got my bills paid.
3. Got caught up on my laundry…but now I am behind again, and my house completely cleaned…but now it is messy again. Oh well, gotta love those kids.
4. My Mom, step-dad, two sisters and a brother-in-law are visiting and we have had lots of good family time…my house is a little more chaotic than normal, but it is worth it.
5. I went kayaking with my girls on Saturday. I took both of the little ones out with me individually on the lake and let them have a shot at rowing. It was fun, and now my arms are a little sore…I’d love to do that more often.
6. Danced and sang with a bunch of little kids at a birthday party on Saturday night (Saturday was busy). One year olds are funny.
7. Made it to church.

Notice how none of my good things related to diet and exercise? That will change this week, I am ready to recommit, my mindset is there…next weeks list will rock!

Three things I will do this week:

1. Get on a better eating plan.
2. Get all my runs in.
3. Spend one-on-one time with each of my three girls.

First Day of Kindergarten

Char wishing her sister off...

The kindergarten class lines up
A little tentative (or cold)

Her teacher is going through menopause and hot flashes, so several of the students were shivering...the teacher sweetly said "I don't get cold!" I guess we need to pack jackets for the classroom.

There's the door Mom and Dad!

Really! You need to leave!

Pick-up...I'm a star!

A good first day.

Slow Train Back

It is taking me forever to get back on track after our vacation to Disneyland! I am still behind in work, home, diet and exercise...but each day I get a little closer to being caught up, at least that is what I'm telling myself.

Disneyland was lots of fun, we probably spent close to 45 hours in 3 days at the parks. Everyone was exhausted, but we did every ride we wanted to. My favorite ride was Soaring Over California in the California Adventure park...way cool. I had five girls with me ranging from 4 to 15, and they were all pretty good...no major meltdowns (other than my husbands), and no one got lost. Charlotte is ready to go back (she has a list of character signatures she still wants), but Delaney thinks staying at home is just fine since we don't have the earthquakes and fire alarms here that we experienced on our trip.

Now I am ready for a real vacation where I can sit on a beach, stare at the ocean, and drink pina coladas or beers or margaritas...sigh...

My running has been sporadic at best, I have been having a hard time getting out of vacation mode with the diet and exercise. I think I will only be doing a half marathon on October and push my full out to December...otherwise I will probably hurt myself and it just isn't worth it. But I need to do it in December or I will be disappointed in myself. I need to do some more late night trips to the gym to launch my undercover surveillance of the "massage" parlor next door...so far my day trips have provided no conclusive evidence.

Delaney starts kindergarten today...wah! Ask her if she is excited...NO! Ask Charlotte if she is excited...YES (now she gets mommy all to herself when Delaney's at school). We got all of her clothes laid out last night. Got her backpack packed with her supplies and a snack. I need to find a box of tissues cuz I'll be crying in a couple hours when we do drop-off. I'll be updating with her first day pictures later.

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.