Life is Grand

Today is going to be a perfect day...I can just feel it! Tanner has calmed down about 10 notches and is behaving much better.

I ran the 5k that I'm going to be running on Canada day. It was harder than I thought. I did much better than I thought I would. I thought I'd come in at around 45 minutes...nope, 38:35. I'm pretty happy with it. There's still a few more weeks to train for it so I'm going to kick my butt into high gear and practice it more.

I hope everyone has a terrific day! I know I will ; )

5 for what...Friday already!

Where in the world did this week go?? I cannot believe that this week has flown by.

5 successes this week.

1. Biting my tongue when I was livid (look it up in the dictionary) at a certain someone for being treated blatantly unfair. It took me a lot of biting but in the end, it just doesn't matter. All I have to say is whatever (insert eye roll).

2. I purchased my first iTunes gift card and used it. I downloaded fru fru songs (more HSM...lol) but I love them and they make me smile and want to dance around and better yet, Tanner can listen to them and I don't worry about words or messages that could be inappropriate.

3. I ran without getting shin splints. My Chiropractor put this kinesiology tape on my legs that is supposed to help with that. My legs felt amazing! The only down side to it is that I have to keep it on for 5 days, (Dr.Bridge didn't tell me this until it was already on my legs) so that means I have to wear a long skirt on Sunday because it would be a little awkward to have blue tape showing on my legs at Stake Conference this week. So for those of you local friends/stalkers, if you see blue on my legs, no, I do not have some weird disease.

4. Matt and I were totally calm with Tanner when he had his temper tantrums this week (it was 99% of the time over the Wii). Sometimes it's hard as a parent to bridle that strong negative emotion when your child is being not so cooperative/kind, but we have managed to remove the source of the frustration.

5. Finding my charge cord to my iPod. You may not think this is a success or even important, but it is to me. I have a hard time running without music and if I need to zone out for a little while, my music is what I plug in. So in order for me to feel successful in running or be able to have the ability to be a calm person, I need music. That is why it was a successful thing for me to find my cord.

I had lots of failures this week, but those aren't important because tomorrow is another day and I can always try again tomorrow to improve and be better. I feel like I am better able to manage my time and that I can do what I need to.

For now, I'll leave you with a picture of Tanner's "best smile"



P.S. Those shorts are a size 4-5 (he's 6 and a half) and they are H-U-G-E. My Mom, thankfully, fixed them. Mom's are great! I don't know too many people who don't think that their Mom is the best Mom in the world. I know my Mom is for me.

Happy weekend!

Scarlett red

This Sunday and last Sunday were the best Sunday's I've had in forever! I went last week and this week to the ward that meets at 9am because Tanner's been sick and so I wanted to make sure I got to take the Sacrament but then I got there and everyone was so welcoming so I decided to stay for all the meetings. What a great treat! I wish I could do that every Sunday but I don't think I'm allowed....am I?????

Tanner has Scarlett Fever. It's basically strep throat on his body...or so I've been told. So today is his last day of isolation at home and then tomorrow he gets to go to school. YeaH!!! We are all very excited. He LOVES school and is quite sad when he has to miss it. He's been on an antibiotic since Thursday night so thankfully that has helped him. You know, I'm all for natural, holistic care but I do believe that there is a time and place for "real" medicine. I try not to run to the doctor for a prescription at every little cough or cold. Tanner is more susceptible to respiratory things because he had RSV when he was 12 1/2 months old, but we've been pretty fortunate so far. He's in pretty good spirits and was only really miserable on Friday. Well, not miserable, but grumpy and "naughty"...for lack of a better word.

Side note: Yes, Jamie, poundage is a real word...it's MY real word ; )

We attended the 4H basketball tournament on Thursday night and then I went on Friday to watch our senior boys loose. I will not discuss my opinion about small town sports on my blog because I have to live and work here. Let's just leave it at that. If you really care to know, then e-mail me ; )

I ran in the Moonlight run on Saturday. I did not train AT ALL for it. I haven't been on my treadmill for about 2 months and boy did I pay for it! My legs were so sore that I could barely walk yesterday and today. Luckily I have a great Chiropractor that adjusted me and now I feel like a human being and not a robot walking blob. Anyways, my time was 52:48. Not as good as my last one, but all I wanted was to come in under an hour. I did it mostly for fun (even though now, I am thinking it wasn't fun because of the pain...but that's my own fault). I knew lots of people who ran in it this year and I am so proud of them...especially Sharon and Susanne. They did awesome and it was so nice to share the night with them.

Well, I think that's about all for now. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

kidney beans and stars

What does the title of my post have to do with each other???? They don't. It's just what I wanted to name it because of 2 different things I was thinking about.

First, kidney beans are killing me! Not in the literal sense but they are killing my arms. When I'm warming up on my treadmill, I use cans of kidney beans for my arm exercises. It is quite intense some mornings but I'm learning to manage. I don't have dumb bells so I have to use what I have and that something is cans of kidney beans. It's the same thing right? I'll get the same result, don't you think? lol

Stars...oh man, I LOVE doing my paper route these days because I get to see a sky full of crystal clear stars. Millions and millions of them. They are so beautiful. On Monday, I almost fell off my bike because I was busy gazing up at the stars. Such a blessing to be able to see them so clearly. We don't have the light or air pollution that Calgary does so we see them much clearer here.

If any of you are looking for a good FHE lesson, this week I read the book "Mister Penny" (it's about working together) and then we cleaned the house. I don't think I can remember a time when Tanner was so excited to clean. He wanted to empty the garbage's all by himself (normally Matt helps him do this) and actually did it. He cleaned up his toys quicker than he ever has before. Anyways, it was a great book and taught a good lesson.

Some of you might have noticed that my blog is not private anymore. I've decided to open it up again for a little while. That is why the comments have to be moderated now. If any anonymous people want to comment they can but I get to decide if their comments are going to be published. I was just feeling really uncomfortable, previously, with having unknown people make rude comments. I feel like this way, if they want to remain unknown to the public but want to (they don't have to) tell me privately who they are, then they can still remain anonymous/unknown to the public while still enjoying my blog. I hope that makes sense. I want everyone to enjoy my blog but I don't want it to be a source of contention or back biting between my commenter's like it had started to become before I made it private. Anyways, I hope that my blog will something that people want to read and find enjoyable.

To end my post I'll end with a quote that came in a local newsletter

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

Here it is!

Here are the details of my very first timed race. On Friday I went to pick up the package and found that we got a chip to put on the bottom tie of our shoe. For those of you who don't know, the chip is an electronic timing device that catches your time as you go across the finish mat/line. So this was explained to me not even more than a month ago so I was happy that I knew what it was. They did have a little explination of it in the race package but I already knew what it was.
So on Saturday, we had a pretty relaxing day. Nothing to exciting happened. Then my wonderful, great, amazing friend, Sharon, came and got me for the race. Sharon is and has been training for a 10k and suggested that I work toward this 6k run and run with her in it. I was all over that. It's nicer to be able to work towards something and not just run to run...if you know what I mean. Plus, it so nice to run with someone else. Anyways, so we get there and I joked earlier about being like a heard of cattle and she told me it was just like that. I didn't believe her at the time, but...that will come later.
So we get there and we're kind of wandering around, waiting for the race to start, looking around, seeing if we know anyone. Sharon ran into about 4 people she knew but I only saw one other person I knew. So we're outside waiting for 8:15 to come around. So the 10k runners start gathering and they sing O Canada and the American national athem...which can I just say, I highly doubt that races in America give us Canadians the courtesy of singing our country's national anthem but we give that courtesy to them. So the gun goes off and the 10k runners are off. We're just waiting around, waiting for our turn. It's getting closer and I actually start to feel excited/nervous. And let me tell you, it is just like being herded like cattle into a gate. You all have to squish together and get real close and personal. So we sing the national anthems again and the gun goes off. And we're off. We were a bit slow to start. Well, you can imagine with 1700 people running the 6k, it's a little crowded. We get to the top of the hill to go down into the coulee and I just want to go. Like fast. But I restrain myself becuase I don't want to use all my energy at the beginning of the race. I thought I'd try to pace myself at about 15 minute intervals when I first started, but then I was running and didn't want to stop. We had been running for about 5 minutes and I was boiling hot. I had on my workout shirt, my running jacket (it's a lightweight one) and my sweatshirt. So I slow down to take off my sweatshirt and I drop my glove!!!! I actually stopped to turn around and get it but then everyone told me to keep running. Man, I was not happy about that. So we're running and my shins are killing me, but I don't stop. I keep going. Finally, I think my legs aren't going to be able to carry me any further and I have to slow down. So I walk for maybe 5 minutes. Maybe less. Then Sharon tells me we're going to start running again when we get to a certain tree. So I gear myself up and we go again. We run for about 5 or more minutes and I begin to think I'm not going to make it. I didn't realize how unforgiving the pavement is. I knew it was unforgiving but I didn't realize just how much. My shins are killing me. So I slow down a bit, I keep running but really slow. Then we get to the water station and I'm NOT stopping. I am not even slowing down. I have my water bottle in my hand and I don't need water. So I'm running super super slow. I could probably walk faster than I'm running but I don't want to loose the momentum. I don't know where my friend Sharon is...I assume behind me, not to far, but then I have to take a 30 second walking break. That's when Sharon catches up because she didn't know I hadn't slowed down for water and she actually slowed down thinking that I was behind her. Then we see the bottom of the hill to go up and we run to that and ran a litte ways up the hill. The rest of the way we walk. Sharon has told me that I am going across the finish line first and she'll come behind me as we were running and so I knew once we got to the top of the hill, I'd have to start running my butt of. We got to the top of the hill and there was a traffic light and Sharon tells me we're going to start running when we get to the light (Sharon's great at motivation). I say that I'm ready now so we start running. We go around this corner and the finish line is there. My shuffle FINALLY has a really great running song on it and I'm pumped so I start to just go. I mean, I ran and pushed myself as hard as possible. I even thought that I was going to throw up because I had been running longer than I thought I could. So Sharon gives me a little nudge and I ran across the finish line and I'm done. I can't believe I'm done! I did it! Wow! My time was 47:52. I hoped that I would come in at around the same or a little better than the jingle bell ran, which we walked and came in at, I think it was 48 minutes. So this was great. I thought "I'll be happy just to be done in any time under an hour" and I was. Man, what a great experience. I have to say a big thanks to Sharon though. I feel bad because I feel like we should have hugged but there was just so much going on. But I have to say thank you for motivating me and pushing me and encouraging me and for running with me...the slow poke. It really meant such a great deal to do the race with someone I value very much, so thank you. I know I'll be on my own for the 5k on Canada day but I am going to work towards a 10k for next year. And next year, we are totally running the hill.
I feel great. My legs were complete jell-0 when I got home last night and I honestly didn't think I'd be able to walk today, but I did some really good, long stretches and my legs didn't hurt at all. I can feel the effects of the run, but I'm not in any discomfort or pain. I'm totally and throughly exhausted, but I just ran my first race and I don't even care. You know at grade 12 grad, when you're out with all your friends and it's 5am and you haven't slept since the night before and you know you should go to sleep or go to bed or lay down or rest, but you can't because you're having so much fun and you feel so great and you're so happy??? That's how I feel. Except it's just me and Sharon at that party. But it feels great. I am so glad that I was able to do this with someone else and that I wasn't alone.
You could just feel and sense the energy of everyone there and it really helped to maintain energy levels. Even today, I can't believe that I did it. I am so excited for the 5k one for Canada day. I think I need to take a step back in terms of distance. I need to run a whole 5k before I attempt a 10k. So I'll keep going and work up towards that.
Anyways, that's it for now. Thank you for everyone's well wishes and good lucks. I hope I made someone proud...other than myself...lol.

Just a few comments

I wanted to get these written down before I forgot. Tanner left one of his precious Cars in my Aunt's vehicle last week when we went into Lethbridge with her and we went over last night for an early birthday dinner for her and when we got there he said "Mommy, can you do something for me" and I replied "what do you need" and he then told me "I need to you to tell Aunty Elaine to open her door to her garage so I can get my car".

Then today, he was informing me that he has Speech at school today (as if I didn't already know) and I said "you have speech with Reegan today?" and he said yep. Then I reminded him that he also has speech up in Calgary next week and he said "I like Allison the best because she plays games with me".

For lunch we had soup and he asked if it was still hot and I said I didn't know. Then he says "I better stick my finger in and check".

He was playing on the snow banks while walking home the other day and I said "be careful Tanner, I don't want you to fall" and he said "you always say that to me"

On another note, I ran for 21 1/2 minutes straight this morning. I was really really tired and thought I'd just run for 10 minutes and be done but then I was on the treadmill and thought "this is easy. If you can run 10 minutes twice with only a 1 minute walking break, you can run the entire 20 minutes...no problem". So I just did it. It made me feel really successful and like I accomplished something. I have also decided to keep my mouth shut for a while when conversing with other people because I feel lately like every time I open my mouth, I say the wrong things or I stick my foot in my mouth or people look at me like I'm stupid. So I'm going to "talk" on the computer and not verbally when I have something to say. Well, that's it for now.

Five for Friday

Stolen from Kelly....AGAIN!!!!

1. Who's the best hugger you know? Tanner is the best hugger by far.

2. What were you doing at midnight last night? That's classified information

3. What's something you cannot wait to do? In this lifetime- get a house, In the next life-Meet the Savior and see my Dad again.

4. Have you ever donated money for a good cause? Yes, Hurricane Katrina, MADD, Cancer and I think a couple others.

5. What's the last piece of clothing you borrowed from anyone? I was walking to Sharon's to get on the treadmill and silly me, wore my crocs so my socks got wet and so when I got there, she lent me a pair of her socks to run in. Thanks Sharon!

I know you're all dying to know how my run went today. FAN-FREAKIN-TABULOUS!!!! I ran for 2 minutes after my 6 minutes last set, at 6km!!! It was really fast but it was great. So that was 6 minutes at 5.5km and then 2 minutes after that at 6km! My legs are a bit sore, but it was so worth it.

Tomorrow I am going with some friends to the movie P.S. I love you. I'm really excited to be able to go. Plus, I heard that it's a really good movie.

It's really nice out today. Tanner was able to play outside and he loved playing in the puddles. He found a stick....why do all boys love sticks????....and splashed in all the water he could find.

Well, that's about it for now. Have a great day!

P.S. SPELLCHECKER IS BACK!!!! HORRAY!

8 minutes and Pictures

Normally, I really, really detest posting pictures on my blog because I get a bit nervous of people figuring out all my information and kidnapping my child, but this one was too cute to pass up. I had a friend ask my where I hang my clothes when I dry them because I don't dry my clothes in the dryer...except my towels and underclothing. So this is where I hang my clothes to dry. I usually dry the pants on the following.

I got this at Canadian tire a couple years ago. It's perfect for all the stuff I have to wash and dry. I use liquid softener in these loads that I hang so my clothes are soft. You can use one side to lay things to dry and the other side to hang if you have just a little load to wash and dry. I normally have both of my clothes drying racks up together. So, if you're looking to hang your clothes to dry, this is what I do. It works great.

And I hang my tops on this. If it get's full, then I put Matt's work shirts in the half of the closet in the guest room that doesn't have any clothes hanging. The 2 sides extend and it lowers down so you can put it in your closet and keep it there.

I've had a very interesting morning. Last night Matt was telling me that the owner of SRI homes died and that they are selling the company to someone else. Which means the senior employees got to keep their jobs but everyone else got laid off. Then this morning I was talking to my Aunt and she was mentioning to a friend of hers that Matt was having a hard time in his job because his boss is not a good boss. Well, her friend, who knows Matt's boss, said that they were not surprised! Apparently he has a bad reputation. Which is too bad that Matt got the short end of the stick but a blessing in disguise because if Matt stayed at SRI, he would be out of a job. So we are grateful for that but sad that he is being treated so poorly. Anyways...

My run this morning was AWESOME!!!! My last set (I'm running 6's this week) I ran for a whole 8 minutes and 15 seconds!!!!! It was such a rush. I felt amazing after. Next week I'm up to 8 minutes so I thought I'd better try it out and see how much of a push it will be. It's not too bad. I find it's especially easy to run when I have a great song playing the last 2-3 minutes of my run. It really gets my pumped up and going. My favorites are pump it by BEP and Piece of me by Britney. Those are the best songs, so far, that I have found to run to and get me going. A little less conversation is also a good one.

Last night at work it was crazy! We were so steady with customers that I couldn't do any of the cleaning list until about 9pm. I was SOooooo glad to see one of the managers at about 9:15 because the bathrooms needed cleaning and I couldn't clean them while there alone so she graciously cleaned them for me. Thank you Christine! But just I would start on a cleaning task, someone would come in and I had to stop my cleaning. I ended up doing most of it after I closed at 11, which meant that I didn't get out of there until 12:15....45 minutes later than what I was supposed to be done. Usually it takes me about 20-30 to close but not last night. I didn't even sit down once. Not even to eat. I had to mulit-task. Oh well!

Well, I think that's it for today. Enjoy the day!

Holy fastness

Today has been a very very busy day! I walked Tanner to school (20 minutes...I walked a little slower than normal) and then halfway there I realized I forgot my shuffle for my daily run. So I after Tanner's at school, I walk home (~10 minutes) and get my shuffle and walk (5 minutes) to Sharon's house. Then I get on the treadmill for 22-25 minutes....depending on how much I feel like I need to push myself. So that's not all! This week I'm running 3's. Which in my world translates into running 3 minutes at a time. I walk 1 minute and then run 3 minutes x5 sets. So on my last set....wait, wait....usually I walk at 3km/h and run at 5. But today for my last set, I ran at 5.5 km/h for 5...yes, that's FIVE minutes!!!!! MAN!!! It felt so good. Anyways, then I walk back home (5 min) shower and get dressed in a record 5 minutes, walk back to Sharon's to babysit her sleeping children and then go and pick up Tanner from school. Normally I walk back to the school and then back home again but today, there was a vehicle available for me to go and pick Tanner up. Then we had a great lunch at Sharon's and then went to pre-school. After pre-school, we got home and I went to work for 3 hours and then came home, went back to Subway for supper for Valentines day and then rented some movies. So today has gone by super fast. I am really anxious for my run tomorrow. I don't know what I'm going to do to top what I did today. I just feel like I have so much determination and focus when I am on the treadmill. Like I just want to go. I love it! It feels so great. So, though I don't have anything thoughtful or meaningful to say or write about, I just wanted to share my excitement in my accomplishment, that's all.

My 5k

Today I ran my very first 5k run. Okay, I sped walked the whole way, but at least I was in a run for a good cause. My friend was looking for someone to go with and I've always wanted to do one so I offered and off we went. She's a runner and I'm not so much. She can run up to 28 minutes (I think that's what she told me) and my max is about 7 and a half minutes. I'm such a slow poke. Anyway, we didn't run because she had her little 3 month old in a snugly and it would be hard for her to run with her. That's okay, though. I didn't mind. She would have been done the race 15 minutes or more earlier than me if she didn't have her little one. It was a pretty good day. Not overly cold but not warm by any stretch of the word. Anyways, we came in at 46:02 which is good for me since it was my first time doing something like that. I'm just sorry that she couldn't get a better time because of my lack of ability to run. Oh well...I'm going to train for a 6k in March and we'll go together and do it. I'm looking forward to it. I've always kind of secretly wanted to be a runner and do marathon's and stuff but didn't have the guts to do it alone. Now that I have a 'partner' I have more motivation to get in shape.

I am looking at an insanely busy week. This Wednesday is Tanner's 4th...yes 4th birthday. It's hard to believe that time has gone by so quickly. I have baking to do every day this week. I will try to remember to breathe and relax, but there are no guarantees. I am really excited for his part on Saturday with the family. It should be fun. I'm mostly looking forward to my family coming down and seeing them.

This week was just an okay one. Nothing extreme happened...okay that's a total lie! On Tuesday night, Tanner was in the bath having fun, and I don't normally supervise him because he's old enough to be in there on his own and I can always hear him. Anyways, he has some toy buckets in there and he likes to fill them and dump water on himself. Well that night for some random reason, he decided that he was going to dump at least 4 big bucket fulls out of the tub and onto the bathroom floor before it clicked in my brain what he was doing. I thought he was just splashing around but nope. I went in and told him to get out of the tub and go to his room. He asked for a towel and I said "no, just get to your room right now and I'll talk to you when I clean up this mess". So I cleaned it up. Then I went in to talk to him and I told him that I was disappointed that I couldn't leave him in there without him making a big mess and that he was not allowed to have a bath for a very very very long time. Maybe until he was 10 years old. I told him no more baths with Mommy or Daddy and only showers. He said sorry to which I replied "I'm sorry that you won't be able to have baths for a very long time because I know how much you love them". He didn't cry about it, he just got dressed and went back to playing. So tonight when Matt had a bath, he of course wanted to get in and we told him he couldn't. He was not happy about that but we are standing firm in not allowing him to have baths for a long time. This is not the first time he has made a mess of water on the floor and we remind him every time he gets in the bath that water has to stay inside the tub. So, that was Tuesday. Not the best night but at least it could have been worse. I recognized that I stayed in complete control of my frustration about the situation and was amazingly calm about it. I didn't raise my voice at all and when I sent him to his room, I asked him nicely (I actually said "Please go to your room right now!). So, that's a positive thing.

We made cookies on Thursday. Tanner LOVES to help bake things, which I do on a pretty regular basis. Weather it's bread, or cookies, or squares, it's a weekly thing. I usually give them away except for a small amount for us. I like baking and giving it away, but I like eating it more so I have to be careful. I have to watch how many treats I eat because of my pre-diabetes. It's something that I have to watch more than before. Plus, I can't eat enormous amounts of food. When I go to a buffet, I take one spoonful of each thing I like instead of 2 or 3 spoonfuls. So if you want some baking, let me know.

It was a pretty windy week this week so we didn't get out too much. Luckily, I had the car for about 3 days this week so that was really helpful in preventing long, hard bike rides to school or to the post office. It's kinda funny that ever since we moved here, my life is about walking or bike riding everywhere. I'm really lucky to have the car. In Calgary, it was the opposite. Matt was lucky to have the car because I ALWAYS had it. I like walking everywhere. It seems kind of silly to get in the car to drive 1 or 2 blocks to go to the store or to a friends house. It makes me realize how lazy people can really be...including me when we lived in Calgary. It was really funny because if I offered to walk anywhere that was a distance, people would look at me like I was crazy. I remember I walked to my Mom's house with Tanner in the stroller one time and it took me 2 hours and 45 minutes. I could have taken the car (which would have taken me about 15 minutes) but I wanted to walk. It was a beautiful spring day and I was up and needed the exercise. I was tired at the end but I enjoyed it for the most part. Then we got bikes and everything changed. And we got a double bike trailer for Tanner to go in that converts into a stroller so it's really handy. And it glides through snow like butter. So smooth and nice.

So I've had a physical 5k and a 5k kind of week. Slow but now at the end.

So these are my random thoughts for tonight. I don't have anything deep to say. No opinions on anything in particular. But that's okay. This will be an 'easy' post. Not a 'hot topic' post.

Well, I think that's it for now.