achy muscles

i ran today, faster than normal i think. man my leg muscles were achy!  i'd love to find a massage therapist, or maybe just take some classes, get a license and look for message therapist jobs! except then I  couldn't get a massage, i'd be too busy giving them.  

My side muscles are sore too from zumba this morning. The lady that leads it does more muscle group focused zumba than dancing. I like it because my obliques hurt! Last week she did one that worked out my arms like crazy!  (i'm not very good at dance moves so this type of zumba is better for me.:) )

Homeschool coop

We joined a home school co-op. Today was our second day, they meet once a week. The girls love it. Caylee ends up coming to find me once or twice a day, but that is amazing considering she doesn't even like to go into nursery at church on Sunday mornings!  They are having a blast and learning a ton.

Lexi especially is learning, well it's easier to see her growth. She comes home talking about presidents and saying rhymes or singing songs that get stuck in your head like commercials for www.wholesaleinsurance.net http://www.wholesaleinsurance.net/. They are learning a Bible verse per week, it's from a CD called Sing through the word. It's actually something we are (or will be) doing in school at home once we get the cd.

Something crazy has gone on with fedex I think. They said they delivered our package a few weeks ago but they delivered someone else's here instead. i called twice, and delivered the package to the right address, hoping I'd find mine on their doorstep. but I didn't. So Sonlight resent my order... and I'm still waiting to get it. it's annoying doing school when you don't have all the stuff you need.

Oh well, I'm sure it will show up sometime. Oh I'm also waiting to find out if my shoes that were broken and I had to mail back to arrive at the store so they can mail me ones that aren't broken! I really hope they show up!! I would love to run in a pair of shoes that don't have holes. :)

Sleep

Sleep is a rare gem in this house lately. At least for Eugene and I. Eugene has been busy working on Battleground stuff and last week I was busy almost every night working on his nieces wedding cake. (which by the way I think turned out beautifully) so things have been kind of crazy, and Josiah has been acting weird during the night. Now he has a stuffed up nose, which never helps him sleep so I'm not expecting tonight to be much different.  Today at nap time I was honestly half wishing I had an iphone or one of those tablet netbooks so I could just lay down and watch some tv while getting him to sleep. instead I ended up falling asleep myself! It actually felt good, despite the fact that I knew I had work I should be doing.

My weeks have become more busy and two days of the week I now have to get up and get us all out the door around 8am.  We've joined a homeschool co op, which pretty  much consumes all of Tuesday. I like it and am happy for the opportunity. The girls both love it too. Then Thursday mornings I go to Zumba and Bible study at church, i get done at 11ish, so that's not too bad. The other days are pretty much normal household stuff with school with Lexi, cleaning, cooking, laundry etc.

Hmm... seeing as tomorrow is Tuesday, maybe I should go over my math lessons for co-op!

Holloween or not holloween.

We're not fully set on whether or not we will take the kids trick or treating or not.  The past 4 years we have taken them some years, and not others. I personally love dressing up. I always have, and I love to have a reason to dress up. I'm not into the sexy bunny costumes or anything, but I have a friend who's whole family dresses up as a theme, last year they were Peter Pan characters. This year they have something else fun planned. I just think it would be kinda fun to pick a book or classic movie and each of us pick a character to dress as! Think of how cute it would be to all fit in together and walk around as a family getting candy. :)

I just wish there wasn't the evil behind it, I don't like having to explain to my kids why there are scary looking decorations, or people dressed up as witches, vampires and other scary things! Not to mention the bad dreams they have just from seeing some of the stuff that they see in stores.  So who knows what we'll decide this year.

The Cost of Running

When I first started running way back in 2009 (2008?) It was purely because I needed to lose the weight I had gained during my pregnancy with Caylee (and Lexi) and we had no money for a gym membership. Running was free. Slip on some old clothes, some sneakers and get out on the road.  I hated running. I had NO intentions of running in a race of any sort.  I had no desire to buy fancy "running clothes" or even good shoes. My new balance sneakers were ok and worked fine.

At some point in late winter/early spring of 2009 the running bug hit me a little. I decided (mostly because my sister ran) that I'd run a race. I thought a 10K would be a good challenge, but I found an 8K close by that looked good enough for me.  I started training. I had never run 5 miles before and didn't know if I'd make it. My sister decided to run with me, she flew down from Maine to run my first race.  I enjoyed having her with me because I knew NOTHING about racing. I had no clue that you'd get caught up in the gun fire and take off at speeds you never dreamed of, only to make it half a mile and die. Luckily she was there to keep me running when I wanted to walk.  I finished my 8K in 48 minutes or something like that. I was just glad I was done. I never wanted to run again.

Almost  a year later I decided I needed to lose weight. We were going to a church where there was a huge group of young married people who ran marathons, half marathons, triathlons, even iron man competitions.  I thought I'd try  my hand at running again. I asked for advice. They all said the same thing "just sign up for a race, pay for it, and you'll have to train because you've already sunk your money into it". I got a little caught up in the moment and decided a half marathon would be fun. 13.1 miles. Sure, I can do it. I found one and signed up. I thought we'd make a vacation out of it and decided Virginia beach would be fun. After all, the race was one of the cheapest I found (Dismal Swamp Stomp) and started training. It was crazy to me to think I paid $40 to run. (Now I realize that $40 for a half marathon is CHEAP). The first week of my training I had to run 5 miles. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to run it. I could just barely do 3, and it took me a month to get to 3. Much to my surprise I ran the whole 5 miles. 

I still wasn't going to buy fancy running clothes. My knees were hurting though and I had to buy some better shoes. I got sticker price right away. $100 for a pair of sneakers that will only last me 6 months? YAH RIght. I did it though. $100 was cheaper than knee surgery.  By the time my race had come around I had lost 30lbs. my clothes were all falling off of me, I broke down and bought a few running shirts from Target and a pair of capri's from old navy. It felt good to have clothes that fit and were made for running. I was starting to see how running could be expensive.

By the time I finished my race I was in love with running. I was planning on taking a few weeks off and then found out I was pregnant and ended up taking about 9 months off. I could not wait to get the all clear from the doctor saying I could run again after he was born. I got the all clear, started running and had all sorts of knee problems. I ended up having to wait about 3 more months before I could start up full force.

Now I am about 6 months into my running, I had to buy a new pair of shoes, but found a pair that were discontinued for less than half the price.  I'm down about 40lbs from my "normal" weight, and about 10lbs from where I was when I got pregnant with Josiah. I've had to break down and buy a pair of running capris too. I could have easily got caught up in the cute running clothes this time around had we had extra money. I run with group of women and the pressure to look cute while running is stronger than when you run alone.

The main cost of running that I've noticed is races. I haven't run a ton, and the ones I've run have been cheap ones, but it's hard to find races (5K's) under $20. So it would be easy to spend a lot of money on running. I try to keep it on the cheap side, but it's still money being spent.

Aside from the monetary cost there's also the time cost. It either takes away from my sleeping time or my family time for me to go run. I think that it is good for me to get out and run though because it's a good stress relief for me. I am a much happier mommy when I run. It also cost me almost 40lbs. but I don't care about that cost! :) 

First Day of school

We finally started school. I've been holding off because we're missing 2 things we need, but I decided to try to do what we could get done. The day went very quickly and smoothly. I'm almost afraid I did it wrong! Lexi didn't fight me or  give me a hard time. Of course she pretty much knew everything, it seemed like a lot of review for her, so that was nice. She hesitated a little bit in the end when I made her practice more of her handwriting, she's forgotten a lot of form and how to write the letters. So i wanted to review a little more.  Caylee even sat down a little bit and practiced some handwriting. It was kind of humorous, she is in no way ready to start school. She will be getting some education through the co-op we are going to be a part of this year, I'm hoping it will spike some interest in school and learning so we can do a little bit of fun stuff at home.

On a completely different note, There are new babies all around me! I knew a bunch (like 9) women who were due in August, and although I don't see too many of them in real life it's still fun to see pictures of all those new babies!  I saw a cute picture of a gift basket new mom would appreciate. Instead of being geared toward the baby it was geared toward the mom and pampering her!  Sounded good to me!!  Seems like pregnancies go in cycles, in fact I think i only know 1 or 2 pregnant mothers right now- dropping from 9 that's a bit low!  I do know a few ladies trying to get pregnant that I hope will be added to this list of pregnant moms soon!! (NOT ME! it will be a few more months before I start thinking about another baby... I'm still content with my 3)