Month: September 2011

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Worth at least a couple thousand words

Ever have one (or more) of those weeks where you just can’t seem to get caught up? That’s how I’ve felt since we got back from Colorado the other weekend. I’ve been doing a lot of exploring of and venturing farther out into the social media/networking world, and have set some pretty lofty goals for myself with this here little blog, which has ended up taking up much of the time I usually use to dedicate to my posts. Hence, the lack of pictures for you.

Until now! I finally picked out the ones I thought best summed up our awesome trip. The wedding was beautiful, the scenery was divine, and the company couldn’t have been better. Besides D’s illnesses, it was fantastic. Congratulations again to my sister M and now brother-in-law C – may you enjoy a long and happy lifetime together!

I made the photos small again since there are so many, so please click on any to make them bigger:

Get me!
R pretending he's freezing on an "ice cube" chair at Coors

Continue reading “Worth at least a couple thousand words”

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Mommy fitness

So instead of working on getting all the pictures together that I owe you, I’ve been checking out a lot of new blogs lately. Sorry. (i swear, you will have wedding pics soon!)

But this morning I found another great one. Check out Robin’s post today over on PureNaturalMom. It’s awesome! This is exactly what I needed after D was born – a simple, broken-down way to make me realize I could still fit exercise into my post-baby world, no matter how daunting that seemed (or how little i really wanted to do it).

Yes, I now am able to get a couple runs in a week (and by a couple i mean 1-2. i’m not being outrageous here), plus usually a weekly workout with my trainer and another day of maybe a walk or bike ride, but dudes, D is now almost 14 months old (holy what!? what’d you just say? how’d that happen??). I’ve had time to ease back into the exercise world and try to maintain a routine again. Those first couple months, though, hoo boy. Working up a sweat was definitely not high on the priority list anymore. Unless you count the sweats I broke walking up and down the basement stairs doing countless loads of laundry. Which, actually, do count! So there you go.

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but going for walks with D those first couple months turned out to be essential in getting back some cardiovascular endurance. I couldn’t tell at the time, since my first walk post-delivery was maybe 1 mile total and about did me in, but looking back they were immensely helpful. And before baby I viewed walking as kind of fake-exercise. Yeah, it put me in my place right quick.

So for all you new moms and moms-to-be who have been used to being gym rats, don’t sweat it now. Literally. You’ll get your groove back, all in due time. Enjoy your time with a new baby without worrying about burning your usual calories (and if you’re breastfeeding, you shouldn’t be counting calories anyway!). And if you really need to sneak in some exercise, use that new little bundle – he/she will be getting heavier by the day and building your biceps for you!

 

p.s. run stats – last night i ran 3.84 miles in 33:52, for an 8:53 pace. not bad. this was a longer run that i hadn’t done yet this season, so i was happy to finish without walking.

 

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Our girls

Is anyone else out there with daughters scared shitless about raising them in today’s world of over-sexed, under-dressed, unsupervised, and generally grown-up-too-fast youth? I am.

I’m horrified by some of the things I see girls younger and younger doing, wearing, saying, and experiencing, and I whole-heartedly pray that I will be strong enough to raise D with unwavering morals and values.

I want her to be proud of herself, love herself, respect others (including her elders), and love having me and R as her parents.

I want to give her a childhood full of innocence and happiness, warm summer days and nights playing outside, cold winter ones snuggled in close, and memories filled with laughter and love instead of micro-minis, stilettos, and make-up.

I want her to fully enjoy being a kid, where her biggest worries are learning to share toys and riding a bike, not whether her clothes are from the right store or if she has the perfect body or, god-forbid, the best cell phone.

I want to foster her confidence so she grows up strong enough to respect herself, not feel like she has to do whatever it takes to get the boys’ attention or that of the mean girls.

My hope of hopes is to give her the best foundation possible early in life so that she grows into a wonderful woman in her own right, ready to take on the world with a good head on her shoulders and a positive (yet not naive) outlook and attitude. I know that may sound uber-cliche, but that’s what I want.

I don’t want to be her best friend (although i’m sure that would be great, but my job is parent).

I don’t want to give in to every whine and beg just because everyone else gets to do it.

I don’t want her to have a cell phone when she’s 7 because I think that’s ridiculous; she can have one when she’s ready and able to pay for it herself (read has a job and can fund her own plan).

I don’t want her to be on Facebook until she’s well into high school, if not college, or ever (wouldn’t it be great if we could actually raise our kids to talk to each other, not online chat??).

I don’t want her to start dressing like a college student in grade school because that’s disgusting.

I don’t want her to think she’s entitled to everything just because every other kid appears to be.

I want her to address adults by Mr. and Mrs.

I want her to say please and thank you and excuse me and may I.

I want her to be able to use her imagination to make up games and stories and make-believe playlands.

I want her to understand and appreciate money and not throw a fit when there isn’t a Bentley wrapped up with a bow in the driveway on her 16th birthday.

I want her to be caring and giving, not selfish and absorbed like so many kids I watch today.

I want that amazing sparkle in her eyes to always be there, never fade.

I guess I just want her to be a good person, and I want to have the strength and wherewithal to get her there. Is that too much to ask?

I found this wonderful post today over on Clover Lane, and it’s exactly everything I’ve been thinking about and wanted to say. I don’t want D’s childhood cut short either, so I hope I’m a good enough mom to make hers long and pure.

 

 

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I.O.U.

Ok, I know I’m way behind on my picture posting. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to work on them this weekend either, so you’ll just have to keep waiting. So sorry.

But this weekend was fantastic. We headed down to my mom’s house Friday after work, because we were going to the Badgers vs. NIU game at Soldier Field in Chicago on Saturday. So we caught a couple trains into the city Saturday morning, met up with all our friends at one of their friend’s condos, and trained it back downtown to get into the stadium shortly after kickoff. Our whole group sat together in a section full of NIU fans, but they were quickly silenced as the Badgers dominated, winning 49-7. Oh yeah, Bucky!! Plus the weather was absolutely perfect for a game day – right around 70 and sunny. So awesome.

Here’s a teaser pic from the game. Sorry for all the peeks. The full photographic run-downs will be coming soon. Promise.

Thanks, C - I borrowed your photo! 🙂

 

 

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I’ve got the Twitters!

So I finally caved and joined Twitter. Please come follow me!!

Click on that Follow Me tag over there on the edge —–> and press the Twitter button to find me.

I’m not sure what I’ll have to tweet about, but it’s been fun playing around on there so far. 🙂

Thanks!

 

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I’ll admit it again, I’m addicted

To Starbucks, that is. I always hated Starbucks for its big name, invasive presence, high price, corporate crap branding, but dudes, if I haven’t had a complete change of heart.

I was standing in the little Starbucks near my office this morning, waiting for my usual iced venti nonfat light-ice chai latte, and I realized that I just love the place. There’s something comforting about the warm coffee house feeling in there. It’s like each one is a little community in its own right, inviting and welcoming to all. You have the newspapers for perusal, corner tables and couches to snuggle into for reading or computing, larger seating areas to meet and chat with friends… It just feels good being in there. And even though I hate the taste of coffee, I do love the smell of it.

As much as I’ve been sucked into the Starbucks mega-opoly (a new word i just created, feel free to use it ), I do like to try to take my patronage to local coffee houses and test out their chais when possible. And I have done this often near my office – there’s a little coffee house about a block away from where I work that I used to frequent much more often than the Starbucks. However, they have raised their prices to almost match Starbucks’ now, and the quality of their drinks really isn’t all that great either. I used to think they were far superior, but they’ve changed some of their ingredients, which, coupled with the increased pricing, really doesn’t pull me in as much over Starbucks as it used to. So to the famous green lady logo I usually head now.

Now I’m not one with a daily Starbucks habit; I can’t afford that. But rarely a week passes where I don’t pop in at least once or twice on my way into work. And it’s not all that uncommon to find me stopping by the one near our house if I’m out and about on a weekend either. I’ve mentioned before that I started walking up to the Starbucks in our neighborhood with D after she was born last summer for a little exercise, and that is where I got hooked on these chais. Before then I would have it as a Friday morning treat at the office with a group of girls, but never otherwise. But now I seem to get my morning caffeine hankerings pretty regularly.

Ah well, I guess there are much worse things that I could be addicted to. Am I right? Thought so.

 

p.s. run stats for the week… so i ran tuesday and thursday nights this week, and i really need to go more than just a day in between runs when i haven’t run for a while. last week i didn’t get any in with the wedding travel and all, so hitting the pavement this week felt a little rough. my times were pretty good though, so i was happy. tuesday i ran 3.23 miles in 28:32, for an 8:49 pace. last night i ran 3.24 miles in 28:19, for an 8:44 pace. i was especially pleased with last night’s run, because i pushed d in our bike trailer that converts to a jogging stroller for the first time, and holy shit was that hard! i had no idea how taxing pushing something while running would be, but i was completely out of breath after 2 blocks, and still had the whole 5k route left to go (i did the same route as the 5k i ran in our neighborhood back in may). i thought for sure i wasn’t going to be able to finish, but surprisingly i made the whole thing. and i was less than a minute and a half off my time from the actual race earlier this spring, which blew me away.