Growing up Rylee…

Despite my best efforts to the contrary, my kids insist on growing up.  No where is this more evident than Rylee becoming a senior.  There are some senior milestones that Rylee has looked forward to:

The Senior Jeans:

Opening of $60 million stadium by shutting out defending state champs:

And getting asked to Homecoming:

Rylee’s cutest boyfriend had these labels custom made and has been waiting on them for weeks so he could ask her to homecoming.  If you know my family’s obsession with soda, you know how perfect and thoughtful this was.  She is on cloud nine.

You know that saying, happy wife = happy life?  Multiple that exponentially when your kids are happy.

P.S.  Donnie got a new watch for working out, a MotoActv by Motorolla.  And by Donnie I mean me.  Can’t wait to try it out on my next run.

 

 

 

 

I’m famous…

Try to contain your jealousy but I was on Fox News tonight.  My town celebrated the grand opening of their $60 million high school football stadium.  The 18,000 seat stadium is only the 4th largest in Texas (go figure) and is amazing.  Rylee was marching in the pep rally so I took advantage of the opportunity to see the stadium  first hand.  My favorite part of the event was when the coach introduced the managers of the football team, 5 special needs adults who were high fived, hugged, or chest bumped by all 100 members of the team.  These 5 guys lead the players through the tunnel onto the field every game.  I love the lessons these high school kids, who are adored in this football town, learn by their interactions with these special souls.

 

 

Sr year and blog stalking…

In keeping with North Texas high school tradition, Rylee and her BFF crafted some senior jeans to wear at home football games.  She is worried they are a little plain.  I think the homecoming mum will dress them up a little.

This morning I was supposed to do a track workout with my coach and some of my running group.  At 1:45 in the morning, still awake from thunder storms and my snoring 9 yr old (who may or may not have been sleeping with me because someone let him watch Adrift – 42 days with sharks on Shark Week), I sent a message to my coach letting him know I wasn’t going to make the 5:30 am workout.

When I woke up this morning I got online and went to my running idol’s blog (hungryrunnergirl.com) and saw that she was in labor.  Um, yesterday she may have run 8 miles and the prior week she logged 45 miles.  I felt slightly guilty (but not guilty enough to actually do my workout).  Her hubby has been posting updates on her blog and I have taken blog stalking to a new level by checking every 5 minutes, waiting for news.  That’s normal, right? Since I haven’t heard anything for a while, I’m taking the kids our for our nightly Shark Week treat.  I think we’ll get some FroYo in honor of Janae.

 

All kinds of crazy…

 

I would like to apologize to America for the poor showing of the men’s gymnastic’s team, the beach volleyball team of Gibb/Rosenthal, and the 4th place finish of Ryan Lochte.  I did not wear my lucky Olympic shirt (pictured above).  I will repent of this and wear it every night for the duration of the games.

Part of the reason I declined to wear my shirt is that I was on my way to take my 9 year old to his first full pad football practice of the season (he has been conditioning for the past 3 weeks).

As beautiful as the shirt is, I did not think I could survive sitting outside in such a thick T-shirt.  I thought nothing of having my kid wear 50 pounds of gear and run through drills.

To round out the crazy, I did send out an email to the team reminding parents to hydrate their boys and that the color of urine would indicate if they were well hydrated or not. As you can tell, I live to serve.

 

U.S.A., U.S.A!!!!!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (or every two years).  I love, love, love the Olympics.  A lot!  I was only 4 when Dorothy Hamil won Olympics gold but I remeber my mom giving me the Hamil haircut and going to see her at the Ice Capades.  My first real memory of Olympic Glory was when Mary Lou Retton nailed a perfect 10 on vault.  From then on I was hooked.  Shannon Miller, the original Dream Team, Greg Louganis, Carly Patterson.  I could go on and on.  I usually have tissue at the ready because every time I hear The Star Spangled Banner I cry.  I may also sing along at the too of my lungs.  More than once I have scared my kids by screaming and shouting as if the world were ending.  Jax got his first taste 4 years ago when Michael Phelps won his 8th gold medal (as well as medals 1-7).  The same happened when Carly Patterson, Nastia Liukin, the Magnificent 7 won their gold medals.  However, my favorite story is that of Derek Redmond.  Tomorrow some of my best friends will come over to rewatch parts of the opening ceremonies and some of the events.  I’ll tone down my celebration so I don’t embarass the hubs.  But I’ll be wearing my lucky Olympics shirt and screaming on the inside.

Let the Games begin!

 

What A Rack…

The hubs and I have kicked around the idea of getting a smoker for a few years.  A few weeks ago I forced him to buy an electric smoker.  So far we’ve done pulled pork and for the first time time ever baby back ribs.  Oh. My. Goodness.  They were so amazing.  I got so excited for the ribs that I kind of forgot about side dishes.  I pulled cherries and a bag of spinach out of the fridge and called it dinner.

Jax fully appreciated the meal.  Rylee, on the other hand, is recovering from wisdom teeth removal, probably has dry socket, and was sucking down a shake instead.

I had a great run this morning.  I LOVE my running group – it makes training through the Texas summer so much easier.  My mileage is finally getting back up –  this week I have 20 on the schedule.  I’m also back to cross training – lifting weights 2x, doing a boxing class 2x, and pilates 2x.

 

 

Running joy…

I took my son shooping for back to school shoes.  This was his one opportunity to splurge and get any shoe in the entire mall that he wanted.  We went to a store that had tons of kid’s athletic shoes and he looked at Reebok Zig-somethings and Nike Frees.  Then he saw these bad boys and it was all she wrote.Yep, those are a pair of Brooks Pure Flows.  He picked a legit pair of running shoes on his own.  He even made sure that he got them a little big for when his feet swell when he runs.  I love my boy and love that I get to share running with him.

I also love new running clothes  .After my visit to Philly last month, I had been jonesing for some Eagle’s running gear.  I finally ordered these bad boys and I’m pretty sure I’ll be PR’ing my next half while wearing these.

Do you think it’s tacky to wear these while running the Dallas Marathon?

 

Vacay Observations…

My kids and I, along with my daughter’s best friend, are on day 10 of a 13 day epic road trip.  After an amazing phase 1, visiting my daughter and SIL in DC, we were ready to just lounge on the beach.  Tropical strom Debby had other ideas for us.  When we arrived in Destin it was windy, rainy, and the beaches were off limits.

We spent the first 1 1/2 days sitting on the balcony.  I was resigned to the fact that for the next 5 days we’d be stuck inside.  Then, unexpectedly, on Monday morning Debby cried uncle.

With this as my view, running has been a breeze.

A few things I’ve observed while on this epic road trip:

1)  There are moments in time where I wish I could throw the car in reverse.  One of those moments occured when we saw a young man rolling/pushing a cross across the country.  Not sure what he was trying to accomplish but more power to him.

2)  After 2700+ miles on the road, 11 states plus the District of Columbia, Hawaii remains the Holy Grail of the license plate game.  Also, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

3)  The really need to sell eye bleach next to the sunscreen.  There are some things I’ve seen on the beach that I will never be able to unsee.

4)  We in Texas have a lot of pride.  So much pride that we like to display it on our cars.  If you happen upon a vehicle that looks like this, 9 out of 10 times it will be from Texas.

5)  I have the coolest friends ever.  I have the best kids ever.  I still like them, even after all of our together time.  I have the best husband ever.  I have missed him tremendously and I can’t wait for him to join us on phase 3 of our road trip.  I can’t imagine doing this alone.

 

Magic Mile…

Today was an abosultely glorious day, simply for the fact that my half/full marathon training program started.  I woke up at the freakishly early hour of 4:30, threw down a waffle with peanut butter, and met 30 other crazies.  We began the program by doing the magic mile, a Jeff Galloway race predictor (http://www.jeffgalloway.com/resources/gallracepredict.html).  According to my mile time, I should complete my next half at the end of October in 1:46.  That’s pretty ambitious but I am excited to push myself.  I am also so excited to be back with my training group.  It is so much fun to be around like minded people who motivate you to do more than you would on your own.  I’ll be on the ultimate road trip for the next 3 weeks so I’ll miss the next 3 Saturday runs and I’m kind of bummed about that.  Then I remember all the awesome places I’ll get to run and I get stoked again.

P.S.  I’ve worn my new Newton’s for three runs now and I don’t have any calf soreness.  The first time I wore Newton’s I had sore calves for about 3 weeks while I broke them in.  This was due to changing from a heel stike to a midfoot strike, something the Newton’s helped me accomplish.  Not having any soreness despite running in a different shoe for the past 6 months gives me hope that my foot strike has been re-trained.  Yeah!

 

 

New kicks…

Right after I finished my full last November I decided I need to try a new shoe ( I was really mad about my time and it felt good to blame my Newtons).  So I broke up with my trusty shoes and tried K-Swiss.  I PR’s my half while wearing them so you think they’d have my loyalty.  However, when I went to buy shoes for my next round of training these beauties kept calling my name:

I tried them on and my feet were just happy.  I guess you could say I subscribe to the elemtary school phiosophy when it comes to shoes, the prettier (or more obnoxious) they are, the faster they make you run. I can’t wait to start breaking them in.

P.S.  I am happy to report that for the first time in 4 weeks, my muscles are sore from working out & running; not the so sore you can’t sit down on the toilet sore, but just enough to let me know they are finally working again