Kid Spa Day, Not so Relaxing

Growing up, I vowed to myself, that if I ever had a daughter I would let her grow her hair long if she wanted too. I vowed not to cut her hair into the "bowl cut." Everyone knows the hair cut. My sisters and I all had it. the look where it seems the "stylist" sat a bowl on your head and trimmed around the bottom.

Well, all my vowing was in vain. My daughter, PT, has a new do.

The kids were being so nice and quiet on Tuesday morning. PT had joined the boys in their room and they were all laughing and talking together. Even the Enforcer was adding in his coos. About 10-15 minutes after I heard them all wake up, PT comes in to see me to ask for something. And I see it. Or don't see it. Her hair that was past her shoulders when she went to bed is gone on one side of her head. Yup, chopped off. Not there. And she tells me, "I need to throw my hair away, my brother cut it so no more tangles." Well great.

PT has pretty fine hair which tangles quite easily and I had been asking her if she wanted to make it a little shorter, but apparently the Politician has some persuasive skills of his own. He had gotten out a pair of their craft scissors and chopped off a few inches of his sister's hair on various places on her head. Not such a good look.

Politician's Scissor Skillwork

Kinda like half a mullet

Back after I fixed it. 

So before breakfast we got to fix that up. Luckily I was able to keep some of the length in the back (it's about to the nape of her neck), but she has some pretty short bangs now.


Now, I thought we were done with the spa adventure for the day, but PT had other ideas.

For the first time in awhile I got all 3 kiddos down for a nap at the same time. AND they were all quiet! I should have known this was a bad sign. I went up to check on them and the boys were both resting quietly (the Politician wasn't asleep, but he was reading quietly.)

As I opened PT's bedroom door I heard her scurrying around trying to hide something. She had gone into my room and pulled out pink and purple nail polish and tried to paint her finger and toe nails. Surprisingly, there wasn't paint all over much besides her. She didn't spill the bottles or pour them on herself. I looked like she really had tried to use the nail polish brush.

After cleaning her up with A LOT of nail polish remover, we had a good talk that I'm sure had little to no effect. (Evidence: 2 days later she had found the small bottle of baby powder in our room and poured it all over herself and her bed. At least it smelled nice in there...)

My last spa day was much more enjoyable then the Day at the Kid Inspired Spa...

Can I call myself a RUNNER now?

I feel like I can really call myself a runner now. Even though I'm not very fast. Even though I haven't run a super long distance. NOW I have a running war wound.

Ok, so it's not nearly that bad. But I have to say, I honestly feel like I crossed over some invisible line and really joined the group known as "runners." Just the excitement on the Dad's face when I told him about it, confirmed my thoughts. I am a runner now!

The story is not very exciting, but I am going to tell it. (I'm just so proud of my scraped up knee! haha.)

My running buddy and I were a little less then half way through our run this morning and as usual I had almost tripped over him a few times already. (I was sure this would be the way I earned my first wound, but nope.) I looked up at the street sign to decide which way to turn and did a double take because I thought I was on a completely different street. In the half a second I took to look back at the sign, I rammed the big toe on my right foot into the half inch of uneven sidewalk. And fell. Slammed really. Onto my right knee. It took most of the fall. Lucky I guess, since I was holding my phone and didn't slam it into the sidewalk. That might have made me turn back and head for home the short way. But since it was just my throbbing knee, I got up and slowly started forward to complete my run.

As I was falling, I dropped my running buddy's leash and he came back to stare in my face as I sat on the ground. I think he was try to protect me from the sidewalk rising up and hitting me again. I'm sure we looked great hanging out on the ground. My pants didn't tear, but I was sure there was a lovely scrape underneath and a bruise that was already thinking about the rainbow of colors it would produce on my knee. I thought about heading back towards home, but as soon as I started walking the pain wasn't bad so I decided to finish out. I ran about a mile on my newly busted knee! Slowly, but I did run it!

After the kids woke up this morning, they were asking me why I was walking funny and I told them my injury story. The Politician proceeded to run, fall, and ask for some medicine and an ice pack for his knee. PT brought me her Nemo Ice Pack and told me that it would make my boo-boo feel better. Then she decided the Politician's game looked more fun so they ran together, fell, and put Nemo on their knees. Quite cute those two can be.

As I type, my knee is showing some gorgeous shades of purple around the edges of the pink scrape and I'm sure there are other less appealing colors coming soon. At least the swelling seems to have gone down a bit. That ice was getting cold.

What made you feel like you can really say you're a runner?? Or dare I say, an athlete!? (I guess I feel like one of those too. Why is it harder to say I'm an athlete, then to say I'm a runner?? That's a thought for a different day, the Enforcer is letting us all know his is quite done with his nap this morning...)

OH and PS, my running buddy is our big black mutt, Bear. I don't generally run with people on leashes...

Keyword: Active

Ok, so apparently, I have some really strong feelings about this. I can't seem to get it off my mind recently. It's been something I think about off and on and wonder what I can do to alter the course, but lately thoughts of how to challenge the obesity problem, that can sometimes seem like it's taking over, have been taking up a lot of my brain space.

It's hard to get away from. TV shows are popping up all the time with stories centered on overweight characters or weight loss themes. Biggest Loser, Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition, Ruby, Heavy, Our Big Fat Weight Loss Story are just what popped on a quick internet search and I'm sure the Murray has done more then a few show on the topic. New shows seem to appear every season. Every half season almost. It's all over the television, but know one talks about the issue as it affects them. It's a taboo topic. 

I have heard people say "you can tell someone how gross it is that they smoke, but you can't tell them you think they're overweight. You might hurt their feelings." Yup, you might. But it's a real problem and it is causing more problems. Health problems, social problems, even space problems. Why can't we talk about it? It's like many illnesses, I think. It's hard to talk about things that are uncomfortable. So we bring up the shows we see on TV, how those people are changing their lives and maybe it will spark something inside us and those around us. 

I didn't realize it when I started, but part of having my personal challenge was to get others around me out and moving and talking about moving. To invite my family and friends to join me whenever they could. With 12 races of varying lengths and locations, I hope get a lot of people out there moving! In training for my 1st half marathon, I keep proving to myself that I have the determination to finish what I start, the will to keep moving when I feel like just going home and laying on the couch. My new favorite thing to repeat to myself on my longer runs is "you're still moving faster then the people on the couch." There are so many people who are confined to the bed, the couch, a chair who would love to be out moving and walking/ running/jogging, but they physically can't. If you can, why aren't you? That's a personal question we each have to ask ourselves. Why do we keep making excuses for ourselves? I know my life is filled with so many blessings, I owe it to myself and those around me to be excited and involved in life: an obligation to keep myself healthy and doing what I can to prevent illness and disease. Pulling away from all the distractions that can so easily over run my day (ahem, Facebook and Pinterest... oh my what time sucks) and noticing and paying attention to that which is around me. Being an active participant instead of just an observer. Keyword there being active. 

So whether you're running marathons or taking a stroll around your local park or throwing a frisbee, let's all get out and enjoy what's around us. 

PS - I don't think we all need to be "skinny." I'm all about having different shapes and sizes. But find your healthy size shape, the space where you feel good, where you feel healthy.

PPS -  I have no problem with Facebook, Pinterest, and the like, but I think they should be like a decedent chocolate cake: taken in moderation. And as with cake, it is difficult to walk away from when the rest is sitting, staring, waiting for me to devour it... 

Inspiration is Everywhere. Jeez, that sounds Corny.

I have recently become really inspired by other "normal" people out and about getting exercise and just being out of the house.

My first realization of this new inspiration for me was at the St. Patrick's Day 8K in DC. A father and daughter team, who were running in support of Samaritans' Purse in "Memory of Jack," and I kept about the same pace for a large part of the race. The little girl was about 9 or 10 and her dad was amazingly supportive. It sounded like they had completed a similar distance before and they were trying to beat their time. Gently pushing his daughter to go a little faster if she wanted to, but always letting her stay within her comfort zone. He kept telling her "You've got this, this is your race." There were many times that they were running together holding hands. He also kept telling her how proud he was of her for pushing herself and completing her goals. They were great motivation for every one around them. She had a great attitude as well and I never once heard her complain about a single thing. As we approached the finish line, I told them both how they were inspirational and that I hoped one day to run races with my kids.

Out on my long run yesterday, I ran around one of the local parks where there are a few baseball fields, a soccer field, a basketball court, and lots of open space. On one of the baseball fields a father and son were practicing. The father was batting and the son was running all over trying to catch the balls his dad hit. A little further down the trail, another father was taking a walk with his toddler and she was full of laughter. Racing across the basketball court, a grandpa chased his two young grandkids on their tricycles while his older grandson was shooting hoops.

Out in the woods, about a mile later, there is a nature preserve where I passed a large family group out for a trail walk. I smiled as I jogged past. The three little girls in the group would lag behind to look at something or try and move some sticks and then run back to reach the group. They climbed mountains of leaves and sticks and crossed creaks on sturdy logs.

I was really excited to see so many kids and families out together. It's a sure sign of spring. And I hope spring sticks around.

3 down 9 to go (aka St. Patrick's 8K)

The St. Patrick's Day 8K on March 10th in DC was my favorite race yet! The weather was wonderful (no wind! yay!) and I got to share the day with a lot of family! This was the biggest race I have raced in with about 6000 finishers! I'm sure the nice weather helped bring more people out.

The race started in Freedom Plaza (yup, the site of "Occupy Washington," tents and all) and wove around the Downtown DC streets. At the start, we were racing towards the capitol building which was pretty cool. Seeing the streets filled with people instead of cars is a wonderful sight in a city so full of drivers.

With so many runners there was definitely more to listen to while running. I don't know if people don't realize people outside of their little group could hear them  or not,  but I learned a lot about these three women, their significant others and how those significant others don't do anything except play Xbox and how much the women would like them to "Get out and DO something."They said it twice... in unison... while I kept pace with them.

There was one pair that I really wanted to share their story. A father and daughter racing together. A post on that coming soon. There were so many costumes and interesting t-shirts. One was a green jersey with "Poo Flinger" on the back. I couldn't help but laugh as I ran past. There was also on man who juggled while running. The whole race. He juggled. I don't know if he ever dropped any of his balls, but he must have been juggling about 5. Quite impressive. I also over heard a runner talking about a sign she saw at the Marine Corp Marathon: "You run better then the Metro." That one is almost as good as "Run, Stranger, Run!" I hope to see a few good signs at the Pittsburgh Half.

The volunteers working the course were wonderful in cheering everyone on. One gentleman was singing songs about running to the finish line and he would call out people's bib numbers as they ran past. Crowd support is something I haven't had at a race before and I can't wait to get some more! I wondered if the bag pipers on the course switched off, or if it was the same two guys playing for over an hour...

On to some stats: There were 3601 women and 2408 men registered for the 8K. It was the first race for 617 of them! In my age group, 25-29, there were 1039 women and I came in 796th. I completed the 8K, which is just under 5 miles, in 54:50 with an average pace of 11:02/mile.


We missed the Irish Dancing after the race, but as we walked toward the National Mall for a picnic lunch we discovered the St. Patrick's Day parade was making it's way down Constitution. We saw at least three Irish Dancing Schools, two bag pipe groups, lots of cars, police units, a few marching bands, and 2 South American groups (I'm not sure why they were part of the St. Patrick's day parade.) After an hour and a half of parade watching we were all ready to head back. It just kept going and going!

The Politician meets George Washington on the Nationals!

Great, well put together race. The chocolate cookies were just what I needed after this race. I felt a million times better after getting a little fuel back in me!

What I learned from Race Number 3:
1. You don't get lonely in a race with 6000 finishers, but I found it a little harder to push myself when I was getting tired. The more people around you the easier it is to blend into the pack.
2. If there is a tight turn around, go to the outside to maintain speed. Inside at the turning point, it can come to a slow crawl.
3. According to The Dad, the footfalls of 6000 people make a lot of noise thundering down the street.
4. I should really look up the race map and study it a bit BEFORE the race starts. I like knowing where I am in the race.
5. After about 45 minutes of running, I need to refuel with something more then water. I think it's time to test out those fitness gels.

I would really recommend this race for anyone who wants to push themselves a little harder and feel the exhilaration of finishing a great race. My mom, my youngest sister and her friend race the 8K with me and I cheered them all on as they crossed the finish line. Just remember, no mater how slow you go, you are going faster then the people on the couch!

OH! And I won a raffle prize! A free entry into the July 4th Freedom Run 5K in Fairfax, who wants to race with me??

What's a Little Pee Among Friends

Here's a little laugh for you:

A few of the of neighborhood kids were over in our backyard playing with the Politician and PT while I watched from the kitchen window making dinner. I had the window open since the weather has been AMAZING and then I could hear while my eyes were busy elsewhere.

All of a sudden I hear "WHAT ARE HE DOING?!?!" from the little girl who lives next door to us. I look outside and I see the Politician pulling his pants back up. Yup, that's right, back up.

So I call him inside and he tells me he "just had to pee." Apparently the bathroom, that he past on his way to come talk to me, is too far to walk too. He proceeds to tell me that one of the Dad's friends pees outside and that makes it ok. I assure him that it is not ok to pee in the backyard and send him back out with his friends.

I then call the Dad an relay this story and learn that on their disc golf adventure over the weekend, where the Politician accompanied the Dad and friends around a few courses (most at State Parks,) they would pee in the woods. When the Dad came home from work, he had a nice talk with our oldest son about when it is ok to pee outside. Oh the joys of boys!