Tribabe

Centennial Trail mile 0 - 4 in Idaho now!

2011-12-03T19:10:00.001-08:00

Where have all the blue skies gone?

The goal I set back in August was to run from west end of the Spokane Centennial Trail all the way to the eastern end in Idaho before the weather got too extreme for outside running. My tipping point is below 20 degrees and you can't predict when that type of weather is going to hit so I had to keep at it if I was going to get this done.

We were having a mild enough winter so far, a little bit of snow and temps in the 30s-40s. Perfectly good running weather. No excuses, let's get it on! Unfortunately the doors were locked at the state line rest stop bathrooms so I was in search of some bushes or trees with coverage, all I got were these fancy trees, putting on a show with their fall colors.

I found a suitable spot right before mile one and the highway section, of course, there was a porta-potty right up the road from here.

OK, I have to be honest, I was starting get a little grumpy about this Idaho section. The trail was no longer following the river, instead it was bordering the freeway. The trees were gone. Nature was sparse.

This is not my idea of great trail building. I had been spoiled by the Spokane section and since Coeur d'Alene is such a lovely little town, I had high expectations for Idaho.

This section got away from the highway but there were run down trailers next to the trail instead. Right about here, some beast of a dog came running toward me from one of the trailers, gave me a hearty snoooorch and then went after my dog. Luckily, I had used those bushes earlier.

I'm not too far from Lake Coeur d'Alene, so I'll just have to tough it out until I get to the lake. Just keep running...

Centennial Trail miles 6-1

2011-12-01T15:02:00.001-08:00

This day was one of THOSE days, the kind where you look out the window at the last sunny day in the forecast, and desperately search your schedule for time to get outside and run.

I had to get outside. I asked Liam's sitter to work longer and to drive me to the drop off and pick up points so I could soak up the last bit of sunshine and warmth before winter hit.

It was worth it. So many people I talk to about using babysitters act like its a crime to pay someone to watch your kid(s) to get a workout in. Ridiculousness! It was one hour, my son got to run around outside in the sun with his buddy (the sitter's son) and mommy got what she needed. The world would be a better place if all mommies ran on sunny days.

Four miles to the border to Idaho, I'm going to make it today!

This part of the trail starts to near I-90 so you start to get the noise of the freeway. Not my favorite section although just up ahead I have a great memory of Bill trying to cross a low section of the trail after a rainy day on his bike... he came home with 2 wet feet but I turned around. Winning is in the eye of the beholder when you are married.

At least the Spokane River is on the other side of the trail. Doing these runs has made me appreciate this lovely river. Thank you Centennial Trail designers.

3-2-...

This section needs a little TLC. Must be an old road.

One mile left to the border and there is my child. Next time mommy. We'll cross the border next time.

My kiddo loves to run like his mommy and it was a great day to get out. This effort has been so worth it. It was fun to run in new places, to challenge myself to get out when it wasn't convenient, and to stick with it even though it took longer to get done then I originally thought. Goals, no matter how small, are motivators. When you have a toddler to fill up your heart and your schedule, you need a little motivation to do something good for yourself. Up next: the border crossing, what will Idaho bring?

Centennial Trail miles 10-6

2011-11-10T18:50:00.001-08:00

Mile marker 10 is about 3/4 of a mile from the Mirabeau Park trail head which is pretty heavily used year round. Its near the Valley YMCA so we try to ride our bikes on the trail here to swim in the summer. This is a lovely section of the trail and I have a lot of nice scenes in my memory from these miles.

The trail here passes behind the valley mall and around mile marker 9 you can actually smell Krispy Kreme doughnuts which sits just above the trail. You can't see it, but you can smell it. I like to take Liam there occasionally when we are out riding bikes (he in the bike trailer still) as a diversion. He licks the "chalk-it" frosting off a doughnut and we share some milk and get back on the trail. I love sharing little things like that with my little love, the small things are absolute joy.

I'm behind on blogging but I remember this day, we had been following Ironman Hawaii online and when we left the house the pros had started the run. I was thinking about Raelart trying to catch Crowie and my pace kept picking up as I thought about it. I have an active imagination which is one reason why I don't run with an iPod.

Daddy, baby, doggy running the other way. Mommy got some time to herself. So bittersweet. Bill drops me off at the start and then runs the other direction while I run toward the car to go get him. Or he does an out and back and runs with me which means I have to pick up the pace to impress him. More bittersweet.

The miles are ticking by, we have to pick it up though so we can catch the end of the Ironman race online.

Something to meditate on. Bumps in the road, all smoothed out.

Never in such a hurry that I can't enjoy a good view.

Blue sky, dry grass, pine trees, and the Centennial Trail. That's how I will remember this summer.

Halloween with a 2 year old

2011-10-31T22:28:00.000-07:00

There's this thing about 2 year olds, they are incredibly entertaining and charming while being nightmarish and mind numbing all at the same time. Example: I bought the DVD "Rio" for Liam a few weeks ago and he will watch nothing else. He will point at the TV, all hours of the day, and say "PB! Birdies! Watch! On!"

Halloween presented a problem for me, I had to make a costume for someone who only wants to wear his "Cars" jammies. Inspired by Liam's new obsession with birdies, I bought a glue gun and a feather boa and hoped for the best. "Rio" features a pair of blue macaws and several obnoxious songs that are constantly looping in my head so I had no trouble envisioning a costume while singing "Everybody loves samba, the music is wild and free..."

For his costume, I made a blue fleece hat and glued felt circles on for the eyes. At one point, hot glue got on my finger while I was gluing the eyes on and I whipped my hand around while my skin burned off, losing the felt eye in the process. We searched everywhere for it but didn't find it until bed time when I noticed it was stuck to the side of the dog.

I made the birdie tail out of felt, pipe cleaners, and feathers. I made a belt out of felt and a buckle I had around and then did my best to convince Liam to put it on by dancing around in it myself.

Liam at Kindermusik class with the other toddlers on 10/31/11.

After Kindermusik, we had a quick dinner and then took Liam around the neighborhood to trick or treat. He picked it up amazingly fast, funny how that is. He kept saying, "More punkins!" as we went from house to house. When we got home, he had to show us all of the treats, one at a time, and then show us again. He didn't eat any of them, if he remembers tomorrow, we'll let him have one. He likes a little "Chalk-it". So does mommy and daddy bird.

You Suck at Using the Internet

2011-10-29T23:08:00.000-07:00

Most people suck at using any type of technology. Even people who consider themselves trendsetters use their smartphones like glorified Facebook browsers. Take a look at this list to see if you suck at using the internet:

Your computer is no longer a storage device. Your apps and files should be available regardless of the equipment you are using (virus threats, multiple computers, hardware failures, etc) so get yourself a Dropbox account (or similar internet based backup system) and keep your files centralized and backed up via the internet. If you have privacy concerns, uh, they should have covered that in your special agent training there Special Agent Oso.
Google your name + location and see what you find. You should have an internet presence including a Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn profile. I just Googled a guy who bid on doing some remodeling work at our house and it looks like remodeling might be a side gig for him since he currently shows a full time job selling insurance on his LinkedIn profile. Not hired dude.
Don't waste your time on the same stupid crap when you are on the internet. It's like walking into a gorgeous library with every resource available and ignoring it all to sit in the same corner and read the same magazine. Try social bookmarking sites like Digg, StumbleUpon, or Delicious. I use StumbleUpon to discover new things and Springpad to organize sites I want to visit again. I'm building an amazing compilation of recipes that will insure I never lose those last 5 pounds.
I can be an interface snob so I use smugmug for my photos. You can share your photos on a free site like flickr so you don't have to email them all to me. Please?
Gmail: setup a gmail account that you use for internet shopping and other account setups so the email address you love doesn't get 50 messages every night from retailers.
Unsubscribe from mailing lists once a month. There should be a link at the bottom of every message you get that allows you to unsubscribe. I do this for my husband when he is out of town, oops honey! I don't know why you aren't getting Bike Nashbar ads anymore...

I would love to hear more tips on using the internet, let me know if you have any other great resources.

Centennial Trail Miles 14-10

2011-10-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

The Maringo trail head is the place I go to get through stress and problems. I bring it all to the trail and leave it all behind. It's cheaper than therapy, better for you than drugs, and makes the legs and soul strong. I wish everyone had this gift, to understand what I need to do to keep myself together, it's the most valuable thing I own.

Ahhhh. Peace.

This mile marker is where I end most of the tempo runs I do, little out and backs ending at 13. This is where the damn dog decided to stop short just as I decided to surge for a good mile split. I strained my ankle just before Bloomsday earlier this year. He had been such a good training partner up until then.

This is where daddy and Liam go to throw rocks into the river. I goaded Bill into swimming across the river here, he kept stopping and yelling about how cold the water was. Duh! Keep swimming!!!

12 is at the top of a little hill. The easier that hill feels, the better my attitude gets. Bill has won many a sprint point here. You can see we have a "loving" relationship.

There they are! My training partner and husband, running the other direction. Probably wise, I'm trying to meditate while running sub 8:15 pace.

The usual turn around. I like to try to negative split my runs, I want work toward 8:30, 8:15, 8:00, and 7:45 as an "easy" run. Right now that will give me a high HR, so I'm hoping to get my HR and pace down as the weather cools off.

I can't wait for the fall colors to get here! It's like running in a painting. I don't get people who run on treadmills at the gym. Get outside, it will change your life.

We didn't get on the river this summer, next year! Something to look forward to.

10 miles to the Idaho border, let's keep going! There's a Krispy Kreme doughnuts shop not far from here, we can get some sugar and do this!

Run: 4 miles, 32:46 total, avg pace: 8:11, HR 147, asc: 543, desc: 494

Centennial Trail Miles 19-14

2011-10-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hmmm. This run isn't going to go as planned... Upriver Drive had been closed for weeks while they installed new pipes or something under the road. Things had been closed for a while and I needed to move on with my running so, off I went.

Milepost 18 is somewhere over on the right, next to the area where people should not be running around at. This area is close to our house and I run here all of the time, sometimes running faster, usually slower, but running around here either way, which is really what inspired me to get out and run the entire length of the trail.

Popular rock climbing area next to bike downhill course, this area is a little like a mini X Games training ground, or that's how it seems to someone who does triathlons because moving forward, and not laterally, is the only possibility for someone so uncoordinated.

Bad photo, taken as the sun was getting ready to set. I used to run mile 17-16 at race pace as part of a 5 mile run to get ready for Bloomsday. Lots of pain, lots of growth left on this stretch of trail.

Now this photo worked out better. That rope hanging from the tree on the right is used to jump into the river. I probably wouldn't swim here, its directly down river from a paper mill and Kaiser Aluminum. I could see swimming in a wetsuit, ear plugs, and nose plugs but even then it's probably not worth it.

Bill and Liam were waiting for me here, throwing rocks into the river, so I called it a day and ran the next 2 miles later on. I ended up getting really sick after this run which is why given the option, I try say yes to running, in case the option isn't available the next day.

This section of the trail is on Upriver Drive, a road that has way too much traffic given that its windy and follows the river. Drunk drivers end up in the river multiple times a year here. There are not enough bridges over the river so people end up on Upriver instead.

Here is the view you will get at the intersection with Argonne Rd.

Finally! Off the main road and headed to Maringo Drive, the trailhead we use the most. I am there most days of the week with Liam, who loves running around in the woods and in the fields there. This area feels like home to us so I enjoyed the rest of my runs on the trail on my way to the border with Idaho.

Liam is 2!

2011-10-13T17:07:00.000-07:00

Liam's Grandma Olson has been trying to teach him to say "2" and hold 2 fingers up when someone asks "How old are you?" Liam loves the number 2, he counts 1-2 all of the time, but he will never say 1-2-3. He always stops at 2 and then skips to 7!

So now when Gammies says, "How old are you?" Liam promptly says, "Three!" and smiles and runs off. He refuses to say two. Wish us luck keeping up with this kid, he is full steam ahead on everything, even his sense of humor.

When people meet Liam, they are most likely to say, "He's sooooo cute!" Which is nice, except for the surprise in their voices. Let's try to hide the shock a little better folks, Bill and I didn't think we were Shrek and Fiona embarking on a brood of little ogres! Jeez!

Liam's personality is so much more important and endearing than his sweet little face and cheeks. I am referring to his little tush by the way, which I pat so much he now chases me around saying "Butt!" while he tries to spank me. Ooops.

Liam is outdoorsy, before he could talk he would point at his snowsuit to let us know he wanted to go outside, in the 25 degree weather.

He loves cars! Here he is, setting up a caravan during a camping trip in northern Idaho, summer 2001.

Liam's "siblings" get lots of love and attention. He likes to help feed them and snuggle. One of his favorite words is "Help!" He likes to help mommy make breakfast, do the dishes, laundry, and even sweep. Helping is lots of fun, mommy encourages this and hope it continues for the next 16 years.

Liam spent the summer of 2011 at the pool. He likes the "Big Pool" where mommy and daddy lap swim, we're hoping its a lifelong love for him.

He really is a water baby, don't give him the hose, he will chase you with it.

Liam loves his cousins, and he has a lot of them too! He calls them "Cuz" and they are the only little girls he will let hug him. I'm sure that will change.

Liam loves spicy and flavorful foods. His favorites: spaghetti, chili, and anything Pop Pops (grandpa) cooks.

Seriously, this kid really is cute. He said his first sentence a few weeks ago, "I got it!" in reference to something in his nose.

Mommy is relentless with the outfits and photos.

Mommy and Liam like to go out together with the jogging stroller. We are on the Centennial Trail in Spokane almost everyday. Liam loves to "Run!" which means he runs while mommy pushes the stroller behind him. He will go half a mile or more before mommy tries to persuade him back in the stroller. If we are sitting still, he will literally run circles around me. He loves to run!

Liam also loves trails and will wander along without a thought of where mommy is. We'll cautiously encourage this love.

He also loves the Spokane River and would like to stop and throw rocks anywhere there are rocks and water.

Liam's 2nd birthday party where we had a spooky scavenger hunt and too much cake!

If you're wondering if Liam will get an ogre sibling... time will tell. This child is our love and joy and we would be happy to have another, but if that doesn't happen, we're quite content to chase this one around for as long as he will let us. Given that he told me "Don't!" when I tried to follow him into the play area yesterday, the chasing won't go on long enough. We love you little boy. Please let mommy and daddy chase you for a very long time.

My toddler won't nap so...

2011-09-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful fall day today, I had the afternoon off from work, and Fedex just delivered a birthday gift I gave myself, a set of 70 Unison soft pastels in landscape colors. Heaven! All I have to do is get the boy down for a nice long nap and I can sit on my front porch swing and paint. Is 1pm too early for a beer?

Nighty-nights little one! 10 minutes later I hear some toddler bellowing, "Maaaa MAAAAAAAAA!" No. No no no!!!! I can hear my toddler jumping and down in his crib and by the sound of things, he is not going to sleep anytime soon. Ugh.

He napped pretty well in the Burley bike trailer we bought from a guy on Craigslist the other day. If I can get it rigged up, mommie can go for a ride in the sun and wee one can snooze afterall.

Genius! Within 5 minutes of setting out on the Centennial Trail, the toddler was out and mommie had her peace.

The Spokane River is perfect this time of year!

We got about 8 miles out before he woke up. We had a little break by the river, and then I managed to get him back in the trailer for the return trip home. He wasn't super happy about it so we took another little break at Krispy Kremes for ice cream (you can smell the doughnuts around the mile 9 marker).

The return trip home was great after that!

16 miles on a mtn bike towing a trailer on a sunny day. Precious time with my son. Can we do this again tomorrow?

I stopped just before the Maringo trail head to take a photo of the river I have been trying to capture. I wanted to wade into this calm section so I could get a water level view. So in I went, I had tri shorts on and trail running shoes and before I knew it, I was up to my chest in cold Spokane River water and I was nowhere near the middle of the river where I envisioned the photo being taken.

Then it occurred to me, get a boat, genius. Ugh.

Goodbye Pool

2011-09-27T21:00:00.000-07:00

At the 50 meter pool
There is sunshine
And lane lines
And lap swimmers who---

Kick, pull, flip, and glide

And lifeguards watching from up high

And a toddler that waddles
And a pair of goggles

And water that bubbles
And big kids getting into trouble

And sparkling blue water and a big sky

And space for freestyle, backstroke, breast, and fly...

Goodbye pool

Goodbye sun

Goodbye outdoor swimming fun

Goodbye kicking, pulling,

flipping and gliding

Goodbye lifeguards

Goodbye depression that has been hiding

Goodbye toddler that waddles

And goodbye goggles

Goodbye bubbles

And kids in trouble

Goodbye sparkling blue water

Goodbye big sky

And goodbye free, breast, back and fly

Goodbye lane lines

Goodbye tan lines

Goodbye swimmers everywhere.

Inspired by the children's book, "Goodnight Moon" and the season end at Witter Pool in Spokane, WA.

Denver-Breck-Phx

2011-09-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

Bill and I decided it was time to stop being such losers and to get out and see some friends and family. We booked 3 one way tickets and were off to Denver to visit with Bill's old buddies, friends he has had since jr. high. The guys are all 40+ now, with kids, and of course, VERY lovely wives. Bill got a surprise phone call the first day of vacation: an offer for a job he had been hoping for (and had interviewed for months earlier).

It had been a looooonnnnnggg haul to this job offer, so we were really happy it came through, however, we were on day 1 of a 8 day trip and we had lots of arrangements to make since mommy already works and we have a wee one. So the trip was not without its distractions. Regardless, our hosts were wonderful and we headed out to their condo in Brekenridge with their wee one for a long weekend.

Brekenridge is a great ski town and I'm not just saying that because I was giddy from the elevation (9600 feet) and the great CO beer. Our hosts had borrowed a Burley bike trailer for us to use and we hit the bike paths in the sun. Wonderful!

The guys after "racing" each other up a hill. Ouch.

Liam looking a little spacey, the elevation affected all of us.

The next day we hit Vail which is even cuter than Breckenridge. I would definitely return to both towns again. We walked around the Vail "village" and enjoyed watching the kiddos explore. A day earlier, little miss Madeline had a hold of Liam's hand and would not let go. They toddled around holding hands for quite a while but once Liam got away, he never let that happen again, much to the dismay of the mommies.

Beer and dudes.

Wee one in a tube!

After a great time in Denver, we headed off for Phoenix to visit family. Liam and I felt a cold coming on and in the 107 degree weather, we battled the flu for the rest of the trip. Luckily, the grandparents have a pool so we were able to enjoy that and spend lots of time with them.

I ended up on antibiotics when I got home for an additional infection I contracted and I had to figure out a new work schedule and childcare for Liam. All in one week. But we survived that week and Bill's first week at work. We found great childcare to come to our home and we're both healthy and happy and glad for the trip and we miss friends and family already.

Travel is rough with a toddler but always worth it.

Centennial Trail miles 23-19

2011-09-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

The weather finally cooled off here for a few days so Marshall dog got to join me on today's Centennial Trail run. I checked weather.com before we left, it said 71 and cloudy with a chance of rain around 10 pm. My husband drove us downtown and dropped us off at the northwest end of Riverfront park for our starting point.

These clouds don't look too foreboding, do they?

We ran through the park quickly and I could have spent all day taking photos here.

The first mile went by quick enough, 8:38 pace with a little people dodging. Gonzaga University is across a little bridge from downtown.

OK, the clouds officially look foreboding. The thunder and lightening aren't helping either.

Mile 2 went by a little faster at 8:10 pace, perhaps I was feeling nervous about the loud booming coming from the sky.

Mile 3 is here in 7:57 pace, what are you supposed to do in case of a thunder storm?

Mile 4 went by in 7:40 pace, the rain is coming down harder by the second, and I didn't stop to take any more photos except this one. Just as I put the camera away, my husband pulled up in the car, apparently he had been tracking me. I would have gotten in the car sooner if I had known he was there, but there's nothing like a little storm to get the legs turning over. By the time we got home, it was 53 degrees, it was a great storm.

Run totals: 3.86 miles total: 31:22, 8:07 pace, HR: 144, asc: 435 desc: 417.

Centennial Trail miles 28-23????

2011-08-31T15:43:00.000-07:00

The plan for this run was for Gammies and Liam to drop me off at mile 28, just west of Spokane Falls Community College and run the 3.5 miles into downtown and then through Riverfront Park to Gonzaga University. They were going to hang out at Riverfront Park with the ducks and geese and I would try to hustle because, of course, it was hot and getting hotter.

The first mile was downhill, thank goodness, because a nice hill was coming.

Total run: 3.89 miles (missed turning GPS off and on so section missing), pace: 9:00/mi., HR 148, asc: 878 desc: 778.

Bloomsday's famed Doomsday Hill and if you think it doesn't look that bad, you go run up it with 50,000 other people in May.

Less than a marathon left to the border! Now the trail is now a bike lane along a fairly busy road and through a neighborhood some call "Felony Flats" so you can imagine how nice it is here.

The identifiable portion of the trail has ended and I'm apparently lost, without knowing it. I hit some stop lights and paused my GPS, forgetting to turn it back on... and I can't find the next mile marker.

We're in the city now!

What the? Where did miles 25 and 24 go? After returning home I found that mile 25 is not on the map anywhere so I emailed the Friends of the Trail and I'm waiting to hear back. I will have to go back for mile 24 photos.

What a lovely downtown!

I called it a day at mile 23 since I screwed up the route somehow. I found Liam and Gammies running through the fountain downtown which was perfect since the shooting cold water felt great on my burning quads. This might be better than the river for post run cool down. Now I have to figure out where I went wrong on that route...

Doggie Dip and Wash

2011-08-31T14:28:00.000-07:00

We aren't the types to take our dog to the dog park, he gets his exercise when we get our exercise, well, except when we swim at the pool. Marshall finally got his day at the pool when Spokane Parks and Rec had their annual Doggie Dip and Wash to benefit SpokAnimal's dog park.

Before entering the pool, the dogs are washed by volunteers. Then they are let in and allowed to run amok at the city pool. Liam was disappointed that he couldn't swim with Marshall and I was concerned about some of the over excited dogs getting too close to Liam, otherwise, it was a great time. Especially for Marshall dog.

Bill got Marshall to do some running jumps, but one dog outshined Marshall by jumping off the diving board several times.

I think the dog had a good time. The temps had been hovering around 95 for several days which isn't great for a busy black dog.

Another good day for a boy and his dog.

Centennial Trail miles 33-28

2011-08-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

Oh look, another bathroom along the trail. These Spokane people love their bikes baths and their bathrooms. I'm into it!

So far, I've only been able to get out once a week to tackle running the trail which needs to change, I want to get through the Idaho portion before it snows! This portion of the trail runs through Riverside State Park and has tantalizing views of the Spokane River with no easy access to get to the river. But I came armed with a plan this time: end the run at the river no matter what. It was too warm to not cool off after running.

This run started right off with some hills and I had too much coffee in the morning so my heart rate was elevated for the entire run. Nice. Run summary: 5.09 miles, 9:05 pace, total run 46:13, avg HR 151 asc: 868 ft desc: 733 ft. Click here for map + elevation on Map my Run.

Bill and I have done some mtn biking and trail running here, but he has been injured so we haven't spent nearly enough time exploring here.

All you have to do is scramble down that bluff to cool off.

This road is shared with cars, but there are very few of them and they seem to expect people so I think this area is pretty safe for shared use.

I plan to do a lot of training here in the future. Safety + rolling hills = happy mommy.

There is a bridge over the water here, this is the "Bowl and Pitcher" area where there is parking and lots of tourists. I don't spend a lot of time there but the views are nice.

Getting close to Spokane Falls Community College now and only 3.5 miles to downtown Spokane from here. Incredible! The next run leg means the trail ends and the sketchy neighborhoods begin.

I start here tomorrow. This is about 1 mile away from Doomsday hill, the famed portion of the Bloomsday course that everyone loves. Can't wait to run up it and into Riverfront Park. My goal for tomorrow is to run as far as I can to get to Witter Pool, the 8 lane, 50m outdoor pool I've been swimming at all summer. I am seriously depressed that it is closing for the season.

Until then! Check out the river rat!

Centennial Trail miles 37-33

2011-08-13T16:13:00.000-07:00

Super geek!

Since moving back to Spokane I have spent more time on the Centennial Trail than any other place in town. It's the heart and soul of my experience here, where I walk, run, and bike my stress and anxiety away. The trail is something I truly appreciate, a good idea at the right time. Like a beautiful woman in a great dress, or, even better, midnight at George Clooney's place in Italy with a few empty bottles of wine and no where to go for the next 6 months... oh wait, where am I?

I'm always on the same section of the trail which is ridiculous considering this trail runs 37 miles through Spokane all the way into Idaho. I decided I want to see all of the trail, by foot, one 4-6 mile segment at a time, and document each mile marker for a photo slide show. Yes, I am super geeky.

To prepare for the adventure, I joined "Friends of the Spokane Centennial Trail" who mailed me a map and send email updates about the trail. That's about it for my preparation, I'll figure the rest out as I make my way through to where the trail ends 24 miles into Idaho. I have no timeline or goals, just run the entire 61 miles that make up the trail.

According to the map, the trail starts here at Sontag Park Trail Head in Nine Mile Falls which is north west of Spokane. For some reason, the first mile markers starts .21 miles after the trail head so I enjoyed a little walk in the shade to get started. Today's route info: 4.24 miles, 9:36 pace, total run 40:43 avg HR 142 asc: 600 ft desc: 539 ft. Click here for map + elevation on Map my Run.

Mile marker 37 let's roll.

It was a little balmy this morning and I am still recovering from crazy girl's weekend so I thought I should take it out slow and enjoy taking photos along the route. These first few miles are on secluded road and I didn't see more than 2 cars the entire way. There were some little hills and nice shade in the beginning.

Look at this, already one mile down. This section was lovely, I think there was a remote bathroom along this route which made me think marathon training here could work. Runners will understand that line of thinking, the rest of you, ignorance is bliss.

Is it getting hot or am I running crooked?

Mile 35 and the hills seemed to be getting steeper and the trees providing less shade. Why did I drink so many mojitos last weekend? Another bathroom up ahead, hey, I really should consider a marathon, can they hold it right here because that would work for me.

A nice view of the Spokane River, inconveniently located down a steep bluff. I'm already sweating my pink flowers off.

Mile 34, no shade, entering a residential area which leads toward a section that is a bike lane on a major road which didn't matter because there was no shade and that's all I can think about now.

Horses enjoying the only shade in the area. Greedy horses.

Hey look at that, mile 33. No river in sight but shady. Luckily my husband is here with the air conditioned Jeep. Next time, I will end where I can soak in the river post run. Cold water = instant recovery.

Liam wanted to run-da-run like mommy. Ohhhhh. So sweet. Mommy needs an ice vanilla latte so she can catch a nice caffeine/sugar rush. This is where we will start next time. Perhaps I'll try to start earlier in the day?

Girl's weekend, summer edition, 2011

2011-08-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

We moved to Spokane, WA almost one year ago and I've yet to make any close friends since we've been here. Mostly because I'm lazy, plus, I live with people, do you need more people? I probably need to join a triathlon club or something, it's getting pathetic. Luckily, I was able to convince my gorgeous and hilarious girlfriends from Oregon to come visit me in Spokane for the weekend.

Our plan was to spend 2 nights at my house in Spokane and 1 night in nearby Coeur d'Alene. I reserved a boat rental for the final day so we would have some fun time to unwind on the water before they flew out. The only trouble with the boat rental was that none of us had ever driven a boat or had a lot of recent experience boating but hey, piloting a $50,000 ponton boat couldn't be that difficult, could it?

So I'm not really going to tell what happened during the weekend, we ate good food, had amazing drinks, shopped, danced, laughed, swam, bounced on a water trampoline in bikinis, got a little too wild at times, and managed to drive a boat around without injuring anyone.

My husband did have to rescue us a couple of times, most notably at the end of the weekend since I was too scared to drive the boat back across the lake and gas it up by myself after the girl's left for the airport. He doesn't look too unhappy about saving me.

I know I need to invest in new friends here, but my old friends are just so damn good, I think I'll keep them too. Nostrils girls! Somewhere right now, a duck is farting.

Flathead Lake MT and Lake Coeur d'Alene ID

2011-08-08T19:54:00.000-07:00

Flathead Lake, MT

After spending the morning driving through Glacier National Park, we thought we would drive south and camp out at Flathead Lake since the forecasted temp was 95.

If Liam can throw rocks in the water, he's happy!

There was NO WHERE to camp anywhere near Flathead and not a single hotel or motel room to be had either. So we enjoyed the lake for an hour or so and then started driving south toward Missoula, MT.

The best way to fix spending all day in the car!

We got a terrible, cheap room outside of Missoula but it didn't matter because we just needed to sleep and head out. We hoped to spend the day on Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho the next day but it was so hot we ended up just spending a few hours in CDA before driving home which was only 1/2 hour away.

Trying to coax Liam into chilly Lake Coeur d'Alene.

What kind of mommy wears a "Will Run for Beer" sun visor?

It was a good trip and I think we'll attempt another camping adventure in the few weeks we have left before summer leaves us and we start thinking about snow. I miss our friends in Oregon but we're doing great here and enjoying seeing some new things and let's be totally honest, I don't miss the rain in OR.

Glacier National Park

2011-08-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

Lake McDonald in western Glacier National Park

I knew a trip to Glacier meant that there was a likelihood that it would be cold at night and since it's July, it could be hot during the day. Weather + bears meant this was not the place for an extended camping trip with a toddler for us. I know there are pluckier souls out there and you have my respect but my nerves and need for sleep outweighed a desire for adventure.

So we saw Glacier from the car, which turned out to be nice but short because this park is for hiking! You can see great sights at some of the trail heads and pull-offs, but there is not enough parking at the pull-offs and the road is narrow. You have to be tenacious even if you are just driving through and we weren't so tenacious with a squirmy worm in the car seat so we hit the high points.

Liam loved seeing the snow.

We saw a huge buck with a big rack of antlers trying to dart across the road and oddly, a big white mountain goat and a ram grazing together near the side of the road. But no bears.

Not going to swim here...

Fields of wildflowers all over around here that the camera doesn't pick up but it was lovely.

Bill enjoying lunch in the parking lot with the dog.

It was super windy that day so we were challenged to find a good spot for a picnic lunch. We ended up making sandwiches in the parking lot of the east side visitor's center and I had a great moment with Bill... I was squatting down between 2 cars to shield from the wind and I'm trying to spread mayo on bread that was flying away in the wind when Bill saunters up and declares, "I want tomatoes on my sandwich!"

Oh REALLY? Would you like stone ground mustard, organic lettuce, and salt and pepper on it too? Let me just pick the bread up off the asphalt first and I'll get right on it.

He now says he asked me if I wanted tomatoes on my sandwich so there you go, two sides to every story but I'm the one that writes the blog. We spent all morning driving through the park and decided to try to camp south of the park at Flat Head Lake which will be my next blog...

3 states, 3 massive lakes, 1 toddler, and a million mosquitos

2011-07-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

Liam and mommy lunching at dog beach in Sandpoint, ID on Lake Pend Oreille.

We wanted to get out this summer and see more of the area since we moved to Spokane, WA last year and we haven't been out much. Something about a toddler does a number on ambition... Even after a disastrous test camping trip, we decided to head out to see Glacier National Park with low expectations, in other words, head home asap if Liam decided to melt down.

Bill goes for a chilly test swim before mommy will get in

We had our first pitstop in Sandpoint, ID, about 1.5 hours from Spokane. We grabbed some cheese steak sandwiches and found dog beach where Marshall dog could run free and where we could launch for a little open water swimming. I "asked" Bill to go first since the water is a little chilly to the touch. They have numbered signs on wood pillars in the water, Bill swam to the end and back and reported that the water was rougher than it looked. Hmmmm. I decided to make my swim shorter since he was right about the rough water and I was right about the cold water. But Liam and Marshall were happy and that's what really matters.

We drove up the road a bit further and camped at a sweet little spot for the night outside of Moyie Springs where 2 rivers converged. I slept in the back of the Jeep on a twin air mattress with the baby which worked great, we were warm and snuggled together all night and had only one little wake-up. Tent camping is just too chilly for him so the warmth in the Jeep worked much better.

The next day we were off to Montana with the goal to get to the base of Glacier National Park. the drive through northern ID and MT was lovely. It's amazing here, the rivers, lakes, and trees are stunning. Liam was not as happy with the journey, however, and we had to make some extra pitstops and let him fuss at times since he refused to nap in the car. I found a little trail mix (M&Ms) and some DVDs helped but it was still rough keeping him in his car seat for so long.

We tried to camp outside of Whitefish, MT, a trendy little town that offers sporting opportunities year round, but it wasn't happening, everything was full. I guess we'll try the organic vegan restaurant some other time (MT has it's surprises). We ended up at an RV Park on the road to Glacier, my parents have a converter van so an electric hook-up is nice for them and as long as it isn't by the Hwy, I'm happy. The only trouble here, and everywhere else we went, was MOSQUITOES. Little jerks got Liam and I on our faces, hands, and feet since I had us both dressed head to toe they got what they could get.

Liam and Marshall enjoying the sunshine at Kootenai Falls

We had decent sleep again that night, despite motorcyclists coming and going out of the RV Park most of the night. There is no helmet law in MT and I think every motorcyclist converges there in July to make noise. Up next: Glacier and 2 more massive lakes...

Hayden Lake triathlon

2011-07-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

Two things occurred to me on Friday:

It's mid-July and I should probably train for and do some races this summer
We should do an overnight camping trip with the baby before we go on a week-long camping trip at the end of July

Distracted by my predicament, I started surfing online for races, when I found a race scheduled for the next day at nearby Hayden Lake in Idaho. I managed to rally the troops for an overnight camping trip and by 4pm we were on the road. The only thing missing was the typical training I would do before racing a triathlon.

The camping part of this adventure went well until it was time to go to sleep. The only place to camp in the area was at Silverwood theme park RV camping, right next to the Hwy. It was fabulously loud until about 1am and Liam added to the noise by fussing and not sleeping. He tossed, turned, cried, and moaned all night long, finally crashing at about 4am.

The alarm was set for 5am so that started the pain session. In an seriously sleep deprived state, I stumbled into the transition area at about 6:15 am and found the bike racks packed. Just as I walked in they started setting up a new rack so I snagged a spot but not before a guy started yelling at me, "HEY WATCH IT! YOU HIT ME WITH YOUR TIRE!" What?! I'm totally confused about what he is saying and he keeps yelling and I finally realize that I must have tapped him with my tire when I racked my bike and he is losing his sh*t about it.

Of course I apologized, but I was speechless, sleep deprived or not. I setup quickly, grabbed my wetsuit, and got out of there. Never had anyone yell at me at a race before, that was a little shocking.

The lake was gorgeous but slightly cold for my personal preference for racing. My plan for the swim was to find some feet and draft. The starting gun went off and I went as hard as I could only to watch the lead swimmers fade away while I swam by myself, never to be passed and never to find feet to hold on to.

The bike was an out and back, with a slight headwind on the out. My plan was to do intervals and make it a workout session but the slight headwind said otherwise, it was a workout just cruising. I think I passed 3 ladies and was never got passed until the very end of the bike, right at the transition area.

My hope for the run was to pace around 7:45. I'm recovering from shin splints in May and running pain free but still a little slow as I ease back into it. I started the run and found that my feet were numb and the two sips of Gatorade I took on the bike were sloshing around in my stomach. I was burping and snotting along and found myself closing in on a fast looking lady with a 40 on her calf. I apologized for the noise I was making and commented on her awesome turnover. I told her I was going to open it up on the downhill and that she should kill me on the uphill and that's exactly what happened. She probably beat me by a good 45 seconds in the end. Maybe I shouldn't have opened it up on the downhill. I don't know my run time yet, but Bill thought I was under 23 minutes, possibly under 22 for the 5k.

I think I finished 7 overall female, which was good for my level of fitness. I think the cold water and lack of sleep had my body a little distressed but it wasn't too horrible to get to the finish line. I was surprised by the level of competition at this little sprint, those Idahoans take their triathloning seriously.

I was home by 2pm and passed out on the couch while the Tour played softly in the background. A great day! Pop Pops and Gammies helped with the baby all day and Bill played bike mechanic, support crew, and daddy while mommy had her fun. It was a good day and I'm glad the mood struck to race.

As for any future camping and triathlon plans... I need a good night's sleep, that's all I'm thinking about right now.

I'm going to rip your legs off and feed them to you for lunch

2011-06-13T20:23:00.000-07:00

I was too busy running to ride my bike much this year so with a whole 2 rides in my legs I challenged my husband to an afternoon bike ride. Riding with my husband goes like this: he gets the bikes ready, I show up like a bike riding diva, and then I spend the rest of the ride in the unglamorous position of staring at his backside and holding on for dear life. Lots of fun, if you're a crazy person.

Given that, I think it makes absolute sense to tell my husband that I'm going to rip his legs off and feed them to him for lunch during our ride. We rode on the Centennial Trail bike path (it was supposed to be a friendly ride) where each mile marker offers something special: sprint points! First wheel across the "line" wins but it's game off if there are people near the mile marker.

There were 15 opportunities for points and it was on at the first mile marker. Well, Bill didn't know that it was on, but he eventually realized something was up when I started sprinting. I didn't get many points after the first, but I found that if I distracted Bill right before the mile marker, then I had a chance. So I came up with several Bill friendly topics: Sophia Vargas! College girls! Ironman Canada! All these seemed to work. Points for Erika!

It ended up very close, 8 to 7. My legs were a little fried by the end of what should have been a friendly ride but you can do these things when you don't have fatigue from weeks of training in your legs.

We tried this again a few weeks later and I held my own until we turned around. Then I called uncle and asked to be towed home. I forgot how miserable that can feel. Bill can hold a solid pace for a lot longer then I can. By the time we got to the hill where we live, I was so bonked he kept putting a hand on my back to get me up the hill. Good times!

Autonomy!

2011-06-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out something important and I have to write this down before the brilliance fades, because anything that I think is brilliant, always turns out to be less than later on. So, before I forget and the world moves on, listen to this: a woman needs a bit of freedom.

Autonomy. To make decisions (unchallenged) on occasion. Especially after having a child.

My husband allows me a bit of space (who can blame him) and as such, I literally run around all the time. Mostly on a bike path in a pair of running shoes, without the child in tow. I take an art class, I plan girls weekends. I buy high heeled shoes I might not wear very often. This stuff makes me HAPPY! Because I have a little bit of space and control over my life.

I don't go overboard with it and that is important to note. But this makes me a bit of an outlier amongst the mommy set. I get it, I don't want to spend time away from my husband and child, they are both charming and are my main source of happiness. But I still need to connect to with me so I can be someone I want to connect with.

If you are a new dad, about to be a dad, a long term dad, etc, and you want to give your wife some support, take my advice and make sure she feels some autonomy in her life. She needs it.

Bloomsday 2011

2011-05-01T16:13:00.000-07:00

This morning marked the closest I will ever come to professional runners from Ethiopia as I stood in the corral for second seeding runners waiting for Bloomsday to start. I would guess there were maybe 300 people in our start gate and then 50,000+ runners behind us waiting for the start gun. Nothing like thousands of people preparing to chase you down for motivation to get moving.

I was excited but injured so I adjusted my expectations from race to run for fun and even though it hurt, it was worth it! We had sunny skies but it was chilly before the start, maybe 35 degrees in the shade. I was chatting with a woman who was in shorts and a tee so I grabbed her in a bear hug and shared my body warmth. Hopefully she was okay with that, she looked cold! I wore tights and a long sleeve shirt, hoping it would be one more step in keeping myself together for the race.

My shins flared up about a week ago and I spent the past week on the couch (i.e. not exercising) massaging and icing. It was bad enough that I couldn't walk without pain and running Bloomsday was only going to make it worse. But I didn't run in every type of crappy weather for the past 4 months to sit at home while everyone else enjoyed running in the sun.

Real Runners

Erika looking less... mobile?

So I got my sorry but off the couch and lined up with everyone else, and you know, it was fun to run with no pressure for time. I smiled many times, the PR can come another year and I'll smile then too.

Garmin reports:
Mile 1: 7:38 (adrenalin)
Mile 2: 7:25 (down hill)
Mile 3: 8:00 (some up hill and adrenalin wearing off)
Mile 4: 7:39 (shins are barking)
Mile 5: 8:12 (I used Doomsday hill to take off my long sleeve top, finally warm!)
Mile 6: 8:21 (right hip says "WHAT THE ?!? was that hill about?)
Mile 7: 7:58 (struggling not to fall down from weird hip tightness and trying to keep it under 8 minute miles)
+.6: 4:38 (I must have taken the long way)
total time: 59:45

Just a minute + slower than my 2001 time which was when I first started running. So I am literally back where I started, 10 years ago. That's the problem with running for fun and not for time, you may not like the results 100%.

The post race spread was nice, we had every kind of bad food: pizza, doughnuts, ice cream, soda, coffee... mmmmhhhmm! I was right next to the beer tent and if it wasn't 10:30 in the morning and I didn't have a baby at home... Actually it was my mopey hubby that got me out of there, he's worse off physically then I am and he's been watching all these races and feeling sorry for himself so I didn't hang out long. He'll be back soon enough, maybe then I'll get a beer.

Anyway, what an amazing event, I am so proud that Spokane puts on this impressive race and that I was able to finish. I loved all the bands along the route and spent a lot of time running with a group of fire fighters so it wasn't a bad day to say the least. Up next: lots of icing, massage, and who knows?

Enjoyed my 5k cake today!

2011-04-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

I did the Race for the Cure 5k run in Spokane this morning with two goals:

Honor my friends who have battled breast cancer
Finish in under 22:30 to qualify for Bloomsday elite second seeding

This turned out to be a more dramatic goal then it should have been, all my fault of course, but first I want to focus on the positives before I get into how I am a clumsy, self-sabotaging, dork.

Positives: in December 2010 I ran a 5k in around 24 minutes. I dropped 2:15 from that time by running 5-6 days/week for ~2-5 miles/day since then. I also lost about 4 pounds which was clinging on after having a baby. Consistent hard work pays off! Can you believe that?

I wasn't sure if I could run the Bloomsday qualifying time when I set this goal back in January. Pre-baby, yes! No problem. Post -baby, I was a little chunky and I was struggling to hold 9 minute miles, but today I held 7 minute miles for the race. I'm proud of myself for keeping after a goal I wasn't sure I could make in the short time I had to turn my running around. Today was the last day to qualify for second seeding and I did it! I ran somewhere around 21:45, I managed to not get the GPS going at the start and then forgot to stop my lap watch at the finish. Dork! Results should be out tomorrow.

Another positive, I was able to bring good cheer to my co-worker Cindy who is recovering from surgery following breast cancer treatment. I also ran in honor of my friends Gayle and Tasha.

A side note about the Race for the Cure group, they have a not so nice practice of using donated money to go after small races that use the "Race for the..." name to raise money locally. They also need to do more to support women (with practical concerns) with breast cancer. This is typical of big name fundraising and worth mentioning if I'm going to write about this race.

Knowing all that, it was still touching and emotional to do this race. I am a total sap so I had to keep it together at the start and towards the end of the run I almost crumbled when I overhead a guy say to a girl, "You can do this, your dad would be so proud of you!" Running and crying are not a good combo but I kept it together.

The real drama for me occurred a week ago when I was supposed to be running a nice little steady pace run with the dog but inspired by the sun and my early mile split I decided to push the next mile. I was running like a banshee as the mile marker approached when BAM! The freaking dog stops short to relieve himself (something he has done before) and in my run nirvana I manage to save myself from face planting but rolled my ankle hard. Limping home with my ego and dreams in shambles I vowed to retire my running partner until post race and stick to the damn program no matter how good I felt.

I rested my ankle for a few days and decided to run on the track for the rest of the week so I would have soft, even ground. I managed to have a good track workout, running sub 7 minute mile repeats and felt not too shabby. Things were back on track. But the next day I was having trouble breathing. Allergies? Anemia? Anxiety? Heart trouble? I went to the Dr. and they did a heart test which came back with a blip. I got a referral to a cardiologist.

What? Seriously? The nurse said it was most likely nothing and that I should do my race and not worry about it. OK nurse who probably hasn't had her heart rate up past 100 in a few decades. I'm not getting in for testing for a few weeks so I raced this morning with a shadow of doubt about whether or not I have a heart problem. Not likely per the nurse! Slightly alarming none the less. I watched my HR during the race and monitored myself and I felt mostly good and my HR never got over 170.

So that is my overly dramatic, post baby PR, qualifying 5k story. My favorite part of the day was seeing Liam post race, he had been running around everywhere saying "Run! Run!" while mommy was out running. He thought it was a blast.

Up next: May 1st is Bloomsday! Can I get through that without bodily harm or tears? Not bloody likely.

Race day?

2011-03-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

The baby alarm went off this morning at 6:30 am and I looked out the window to see a snow storm. It's a good thing I signed up for a 5 mile race the night before! Spring starts tomorrow, can you tell?

I put on my big girl panties and my race # and forced myself to go to the race. I'm trying to qualify to run 2nd seed at Bloomsday (this allows you to run toward the front of the race which is excellent when there are 50,000 runners racing) and I needed to run 5 miles in 37 minutes (7:24/mile pace) to qualify. This wouldn't be a problem pre-baby but it's a challenge for me right now so time to get to the starting line! Here's how the race went:

Here's how the race went:

Mile 1: 6:59

Mile 2: 7:22

Mile 3: 7:21

Mile 4: 7:41

Mile 5: 7:41

Total: 37:20

I missed Bloomsday 2nd seed qualification by :20. The girl in the finish shoot ahead of me asked the race official, "Where do I sign up for Bloomsday? I just qualified for 2nd seed!" Ouch. That hurt. Perhaps a little discipline with pacing would have helped me this morning, that was quite a fade at the end.

Live and learn but you can't learn if you aren't out there living!

Races aren't couples therapy

2011-03-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I returned to racing, a little post-baby test of my running legs. I was surprised by my results and realized I should be pushing a little harder in training. Even though I'm still far away from pre-baby form, I can do better and that is exciting. Life post baby! I take nothing for granted.

Anyway, at the race I saw a woman being paced by a fit looking guy. She was going a decent pace, probably 7:30/mile and he was encouraging her. She looked miserable.

This is a pet peeve of mine, this couples racing. It started for me in 2003, yes, I hold a grudge that long against people I don't even know. I was volunteering at Ironman Coeur d'Alene and part of my job was to hand out finisher's certificates the day after the race. I had the box of certificates for people who finished 13 hours and under. A couple approached my table, holding hands and looking all happy and in love, and they ask for their finisher's certificates. They finished one minute apart in a race that covers over 140 miles. Just speculation on my part but they probably spent some time together on the course.

(I'm not with these dudes)

I did Ironman CDA a year later and my boyfriend at the time (he later lucked into the husband role) showed up at various parts of the run course to cheer me on. He had a bike and was cruising around to encourage me. How nice! I think I told him to go to the finish line and leave me alone or he would never see me again.

At the end of a long race, the last person I want to see is my life partner, the person who knows me better than anyone, saying corny things like, "You look great!" when my hair is encrusted with lake water and sweat, my torso is splattered with snot from misfired snot rockets, and I'm really hoping no one can see that I have half peed my pants several times because my body is in shock from 12 hours of continuous exercise.

Some of my favorite moments in my relationship with Bill come from our athletic adventures. Hours spent together training or exploring or even lifting in the gym are our forte. On race day, I'll see you at the finish line. We can go to couples therapy later. And yes, you need to use your sense of humor to read this.

Don't hate me because I telecommute

2011-03-01T20:02:00.000-08:00

It's 3:25 pm and I just finished working for the day. I work part time for Oregon State University but I live in Spokane, WA. It's probably bad, but I'm still in my PJs and I haven't combed my hair yet today. Typically I run at noon and then get dressed after showering post run, but it won't stop snowing today so I'm still not dressed.

There are a lot of fun and positive things about telecommuting, obviously I have more time at home which is invaluable since I had a baby 16 months ago. I also feel like I have more flexibility since I don't have folks watching a clock to see if I leave 5 minutes early for lunch or not. Another little perk is I save time and money by not having to commute to work.

But it does have its downside, which I know people won't listen to, but I think its a pretty heavy downside given the situation with the economy: I lose my connection with the people I work with by not being present in the office every day. A typical telecommuting agreement can be terminated by an employer at anytime, and since I moved to another state, that means I am out of a job if the agreement gets terminated.

When I tell people I telecommute, they get this faraway, grass is always greener look on their face and ask me, "So how did you swing that?"

You won't like my version of how I become a telecommuter either. I worked in the same job for 9 years, during which time I endured 3 leadership changes, several office reassignments, and a whole lot of drama that caused almost every person I originally worked with to quit.

After having a baby, I approached my boss with a telecommuting agreement and he agreed to it. It helped that I had already been on maternity leave and managed to keep things handled while I was out of the office. I think that all of these things combined together made for a sympathetic situation.

Despite all that, I feel that I can lose my job anytime. Things are changing again, we have new leadership and I have no relationship with the new person. I miss having co-workers to chat with and a place to wear nice clothes to everyday. But... I love being home so that the moment my child wakes up and yells "Mama! Mama!" I can go to him, even if I have to hand him off a short time later so I can go back to work.

My advice to anyone interested in telecommuting is to first think of how it will benefit your employer, research company policy, and then approach your boss with a realistic proposal. I think most people just wistfully talk about it but never do anything about it. You never know if you don't ask. If it does get approved, don't waste time, work hard and manage your time with integrity. And never let your boss catch you napping on the job.

I don't want to watch other people have fun

2011-02-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

Bill and I went out to see an amazing group, "The March Fourth Marching Band" in downtown Spokane last night and had a great time dancing together, something we didn't get to do while living in small town Oregon. The crowd was probably half of what it would have been had it not snowed 8 inches but that just gave us more room to dance.

We got there a little late so I was surprised that only a few people were dancing, it reminded me of the first school dance I ever went to where all the kids were standing around looking at each other. Just awful. I don't understand why people go out to see a great band and then sit on their butts watching other people have fun. Slowly the crowd started getting into it and of course by the last song, the dance floor was crowded.

And that is a cheesy life lesson for you: don't wait for the dance floor to get crowded before you start dancing. You are welcome for that one.

Earlier that day, Bill and I went to the Home and Yard show at the fair grounds so as you can see, we are Living the Life here in Spokane, WA. Sadly, I feel like a truck hit me today and my back almost went out when I was dancing last night but hey, I thought I was cute last night and that's what its about people.

This weekend we have ambitious plans to go outside in the 20 degree weather and rebuild our sledding run before all this snow melts. It will probably do my back in completely but it will be worth it.

The baby blues didn't go away

2011-02-23T14:43:00.000-08:00

Sixteen months ago, I was like all new moms: I had the cutest baby on the planet and I couldn't stop crying. Most women OD on post baby hormones and they can't stop themselves from a little daily cry. This goes on for a few weeks and then slowly fades away as the sleep deprivation sets in.

The blues lingered for me, never escalating to the point that I would tell someone but also never really getting any better. I recognized depression, I've had it off and on over the years and treat it myself with regular exercise, a few drinks now and then, and just generally living a nice lifestyle where I pursue my interests and spend time outdoors. The problem was I wasn't enjoying the things I enjoy. I was forcing myself to get through life.

We decided to leave the comfort and rain in Oregon to return to my hometown in Spokane, WA to be near my family. We made an offer on a house there and I was about to resign from my job when my husband got laid off. We decided to do the move anyway, I managed to get a telecommuting agreement so I could keep my job and I thought we were through the worst of the stress.

Settling in to a new place and new lifestyle was a good distraction from the miserable feelings but it didn't cure what was really wrong. I was starting to feel strung out on stress and I had to admit to myself that even though I had everything I wanted, I wasn't grinning from ear to ear happy. Why?

I was having small anxiety attacks so I went to see a therapist who listened to me but then started talking about medications I could take for depression and anti-anxiety. I stopped going to the therapist because that was not what I was looking for, I needed advise on how to cope with life, not medications to blur reality. I was not doing well at this point.

I had been on a stress train for so long, I had tried to get pregnant for almost 3 years, suffered a miscarriage and then an uncomfortable pregnancy before delivering via emergency c-section after 30 hours of labor. Breast feeding wasn't working, I lost the ability to sleep properly, life just uh! It wasn't easy. In fact, the past 4 years have been an anxiety laden roller coaster of emotions. It was time to change things.

We went to Arizona for 4 weeks over the holidays to help Bill's parents get through a surgery. My stress levels peaked to their highest level at Christmas when I was trying to keep up with a tough deadline at work, handle a house full of in-laws and kids, and wrestling with a baby who couldn't handle the new environment so he wouldn't sleep well at night or nap at all during the day. To top it all off, Liam was in a mommy stage so he only wanted mommy and he wouldn't let anyone else hold him and he was about as miserable as I was. I wonder how many people literally lose their minds over the holidays?

By the end of the AZ trip, my nerves were so frayed I was actually worried about my long term mental health. So I came home and did something drastic: I slowed everything down. Bill made sure I got plenty of sleep and had time to exercise everyday. He tried to sidestep me and give me space so nothing would stress me out. I stopped making future plans, stopped obligations, and just lived an easy day to day life.

So far its working. The fog is lifting and I haven't felt anxiety in weeks. Running gives me the best physical high so I try to run 5-6 times a week to keep the good feelings going. Oddly, I think that another thing that helped me is slowing down on caffeine.

I am so much better now and the answer for me was simple: live the way you are supposed to live and things will get better. If things get worse in the future, I will go to a Dr. for medication. But for now, we've got it handled and that is a huge confidence boost. I still cry easily and struggle at times when things get difficult around the house but who doesn't struggle a bit with daily life? I just tell myself living ain't easy honey, but when the cutest baby on the planet yells "Mama! Mama!" the moment he wakes up that keeps things in perspective. Perspective is everything, people climb mountains to get the best view and I get it now. I just needed to rest a bit to enjoy it.

Unconventional thoughts on sleep training

2011-02-23T10:30:00.000-08:00

Life sucks when you don't get enough sleep and when sleep deprivation goes on for weeks and then months, it is a level of pain you cannot understand unless you have been through it yourself. Here are some of the unconventional things we did that worked and also how stupid we were for waiting so long to cry it out. It should go without saying but every child is different and health needs trump everything. Given that, here is what I learned:

Good decision #1: Put a bed in the baby's room for the early months and allow one person to get sleep on the other room.
We mostly had Liam sleeping in his crib while one of us slept in his room with him for those early months. This allowed the other parent to get a decent night sleep and if we wanted to have baby in bed, we could do it in his room without waking up the other parent. We chose not to co-sleep in our bed because we wanted to keep our bed to ourselves and not start baby down the road where he was dependent on us to sleep. I think by 3-4 months we were back to sleeping in our bed together while baby slept in his room by himself so this worked for us.

Good decision #2: Daddy does it!
Once Liam was more established, Daddy split the night with me so we would each get some uninterrupted sleep. Or, he would take the baby early in the AM and let me sleep in. This was good for 2 reasons: I was a wreck and needed sleep but also, Daddy understood sleep patterns and how to take care of baby. This is key because what I am about to say will make some Daddy's skin crawl: I think Daddy should handle the brunt of sleep training. Babies react to Mommy differently and Daddy's are more capable of weening a child. Mommy is so full of hormones and maternal instinct that she will hold on too long and rational thought goes out the window when a crying baby is around. Seriously, when I am in a store and I hear a baby cry, I have to stop myself from grabbing the child to comfort it. I AM CRAZY!

One friend told me about how her husband sat on top of her to stop her from rushing to her child every time he cried in the night. A better method night be to have Mommy take a Tylenol PM, put in earplugs, and then let Daddy take over for a few weeks to get through the worst of the sleep training. Yes I am serious. Otherwise Mommy will drag the process out for months on end and Daddy will have to live with it. If Daddy wants to whine about it, remind him about Single Working Moms who handle everything by themselves. End of discussion.

Bad decision #1: Waiting too long to cry it out.
At 6 months, our pediatrician recommended this cry it out method: 5 minutes of crying then check baby, then 10 minutes of crying then check baby, and finally 15 minutes of crying then check baby. I let this happen about twice before I started making excuses and intervening. 6 months of off and on sleeping went by and Liam was waking up 2-4 times a night to be fed and he was not napping well. I let Daddy take over and within a week the kid was sleeping 12 hours with 1-2 wake up that last maybe 5 minutes. He naps well and we're all doing SO MUCH BETTER. Yeah Daddy! Yeah Baby! And Yeah Mommy for giving up control and trusting Daddy to make decisions. It only took a few days of crying it out to get to this point and I drug it out 6 months longer than needed. DUMB!

Bad decision #2: Taking advice from books.
I read some ridiculous books about sleep training, like the one that advised to pick your baby up every time they cry even if it takes a hundred times a night! Observing other parents was the most informative for us but ultimately I think you have to make a plan and then stick to it. Books can give you ideas but I wouldn't follow any book to the letter because every kid is different.

Other things I would try:

White noise or music and a night light
Bed time ritual every night
Pacifier to satisfy sucking desire (we avoided it initially but I think it really helps)
Journal sleeping habits so you know the real damage
Swaddle wee ones

At 16 months, Liam sleeps 7:30pm - 7am with 1-2 short wake-ups where he fusses for about 5 minutes, sometimes longer. If its a longer cry, we will get him a small bottle but this doesn't happen often. Typically he naps 9:30 am-11:30 am and sometimes 3pm - 4pm. He sleeps in his crib with a pacifier and we are having trouble breaking him of that habit but I'm not worried about that at this point.

Some people are blessed with a good sleeper and we hate those people and their annoying bragging. May you have an awful teenager! Kidding! It is hard to hear those good sleeper stories though when other parents go months or even years without quality sleep. You can't function or enjoy life when you are sleep deprived so the best advice I could give anyone is take all the advice you can get and then have daddy do it! :-)

Single momming it

2010-12-19T12:15:00.000-08:00

My husband left last weekend and I've been on my own for 7 days now and I am Tired. Bill left with the Jeep and the dog to drive down to Phoenix to help his dad recover from knee surgery. He stopped in Park City, UT on his way there to see family and managed to get in on a skate ski demo where he got to test skate skis and get free lessons all day long. The next day he took some back roads through northern AZ and saw some amazing sights. I will be traveling by airplane tomorrow with the baby. I hate flying and I will be flying solo with a 14 month old during the week before Christmas. Joy!!!!

The good news is I will be in Phoenix for four weeks which is awesome, I will get to de-thaw and reboot. And hopefully get some sleep since daddy will be on teething baby duty.

One nice thing about Bill being gone is that Liam took up with my dad for his male attention. There is nothing more sweet and precious than the grandparent relationship. I remember seeing grandparents with their grandchildren out and about in Corvallis during those 3 long years I spent trying to get pregnant and my heart would hang so heavy wondering if I would ever get to see my parents with a grandchild. Now they have 2 grand babies and we live in the same house with them.

On the triathlon training front: I have been hitting the gym hard the past 3 weeks with one big goal in mind: CHRISTMAS COOKIES! I plan to train hard through the holiday season. We joined the YMCA here in Spokane and it has been fun lifting weights again but I miss my old swim buddies. I have been swimming at night and there has been a few times where I am the last one in the pool which is pretty lonely after swimming with a large group all those years.

Where in the world is Tribabe?

2010-12-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Spokane, Washington. We are ankle deep in snow and getting ready to head down south to Phoenix for several weeks to spend time with Bill's family. I have been absent for a while now and Tribabe.com is still closed. My explanation for this is simple: priorities.

Back when I was hugely pregnant and incredibly hormonal, I realized that I would not be able to keep up with the course I had set my life on once the baby arrived and I was right! The one thing I didn't realize was how much lack of sleep would affect my life but no first time parent understands that until it happens. I still have bags under my eyes 14 months later!

Bill and I decided we had to make a change in our lifestyle to be near family once the baby arrived so we started looking for houses near my family in Spokane, WA. We found the perfect house and made an offer on it and that is when everything started coming apart. I had scheduled a meeting to quit my job so I could help ready us for the big move when Bill got a call from his job: he was laid off.

We had to make a decision: stay in Corvallis while Bill looked for work or piece together financing and take the leap to Spokane. We took the leap, a big risk, but already so worth it. My parents moved in to the house we bought in Spokane and Bill's parents helped bridge the gap with financing until our house in Corvallis sells. Nothing like being 40 and relying on your parents!

This might sound like we are defeated or sad in some way but that couldn't be further from the truth. We have a great relationship going with my parents who have unlimited access to their grandchild and both Bill and I have time to spend with Liam right now while he looks for work. I have a telecommuting agreement going for my job in Corvallis and get to work from home here in Spokane.

In one year we went from 2 well paying jobs down to 1 part time job. This is one reason why Tribabe is still closed. That and I just need time to spend with my son. The hours I used to spend in my garage chasing the passion I have for Tribabe.com are now spent hanging out with Wittle Ittles. That is where my passion lies. That doesn't mean Tribabe is over. I plan to re-open in 2011 in time for the triathlon season with some new stuff but for now, I'm just enjoying the downtime after a long and very stressful year.

I would love to share my life with you all again after taking some downtime. Let me see what I can do about that.

Tangent

2010-08-01T22:01:00.000-07:00

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It's the first day of August so I will try to use that as a catalyst to get back to blogging. It makes me nervous to even write that. I'll just write about one thing and then it won't seems overwhelming.

I lost my nerve for riding my bike on the road. So many people I know have had some kind of trouble, crashes or problems with drivers, that I just felt like I was tempting fate by riding. When I wasn't a mommy, it wasn't a big of deal to me. Recently, before every ride I would start to feel anxiety build to the point that I would be on the verge of tears before leaving the house. I would think about my napping baby and what would happen and and and then I would force myself to go but it didn't feel right anymore. So I started mountain biking again where I'm 100% less likely to run into a car but 75% more likely to hit the deck. At least the deck is dirt and not chip seal.

I love mtn biking even though I suck at it but ultimately I knew I needed to do something about the anxiety with road riding. I don't want to live my life in fear. So Bill and I looked at a map and we came up with what we think is the safest area for me to bike on the road. It's about 5 miles out of town on a road perfectly named: Tangent. It's flat farming roads where there are little to no cars. It's like biking in Iowa or what I imagine that would be like. Not exciting but you can see a car coming from a mile away.

Anxiety at ease, sort of. Insert witticism about taking tangents in life here. It's been a while since I've blogged!

Finally! Our house is now on the market!

2010-07-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

Links

Willamette House for Sale

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Description

This Palisch-built home is located in the desirable Willamette Landing neighborhood situated just 3 miles south of downtown Corvallis. Sternwheeler Drive is a quiet street with very little traffic and is just a few blocks from the Willamette River with bike paths to Willamette Park. Amenities of the HOA include front yard landscaping, swimming pools, club house, and exercise room.

This 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom home has a double car garage and an open floor layout on the downstairs level. The entryway opens up to the 2nd story providing a grand entrance to visitors. The kitchen features stainless steel appliances and opens to the dining room with views of the covered deck and professionally landscaped back yard.

The upstairs features 3 bedrooms including one bedroom over the garage that has beautiful custom cabinetry and a hardwood floor that makes for a wonderful home office.

Features

Bedrooms:	3
Bathrooms:	2
Parking Spaces:	2
Year Built:	2002
Subdivision:	Willamette Landing
Lot Size:	4,791
Garage Size:	2
Square Footage:	1380
Agent Name:	Erika Fleck
Broker:	Erika Fleck

Location

3184 SE Sternwheeler Drive Corvallis OR 97333

vFlyer Id: 3478514

What's this?

2010-06-30T15:50:00.000-07:00

What's this? A little boy looking like he wants to crawl?

Off we go! There's no going back now!

A new game has evolved in our house, it's called "Keep it away from Liam!"

Trouble? Who me?

Liam's new favorite toy is Marshall's dog dish. A house full of toys and he wants to use the dirty old dog dish to bang his toys on since it makes the most noise of anything he's found so far. Life is good for the little guy now that he can get around. Except for this:

His 2 front teeth are coming in. But we'll get through it. I just survived 3 consecutive weeks of Bill traveling for business. He gets home tonight and I hope he stays home from more than a day or two this time. Mommy is a little tired and needs some time to herself, preferably while holding a fancy drink and socializing with friends or! Riding her bike in the forest and THEN having a fancy drink with friends. Get home daddy!

Relief

2010-06-27T21:30:00.000-07:00

Recap of last week: allergies tried to kill me, husband was out of town, baby slightly fussy re: teething, mommy needed a break. So! After loading the Jeep with a ridiculous amount of crap for an over night trip, we eventually made our way to the Oregon coast arriving in the afternoon on Saturday. Bill rented us a cabin at a motel near the beach and we unpacked our piles of baby gear and went to the beach. It was gorgeous, sunny, and perfect for relaxing!

For some reason, I thought I could go from a run as soon as I got there. Genius! My sinuses were clearing, but I still couldn't breath as well as I should. So I ran on the beach until I started coughing and then limped back like an asthmatic hippo. I missed exercising all week soooo bad.

Liam enjoyed the sensation of sand on his hands when we let him get to the edge of the tent and we had a lovely day. We tried to go out for dinner at a highly rated thai restaurant nearby and after waiting well over an hour in an empty restaurant for our food, I had to ask for it to go. 1.5 hours later, we were back in the car with to go containers and ate dinner after Liam went down, around 9pm. Long day!

On Sunday, I went for a shorter run and Bill went for a long run when I got back. We reloaded the car with the massive amounts of gear, ate an amazingly fast and delicious breakfast (seafood omelet) at Wildflower Grill and then hit the outlet mall before heading home. It was a simple but gear intensive weekend. My sinuses are clear for now but just give the grass and pollen a little more time to get back in my system and I'll be choking and wheezing again.

That's a foot print on my behind

2010-06-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

I knew this week was going to be challenging with Bill being out of town on business and me at home with a teething baby (top 2 coming in now) who is trying to decide if he wants to crawl or not. When I got a sore throat Monday night I just hoped I wasn't going to pass it on to Liam. That's all I cared about. Tuesday I felt pretty good so we spent most of the afternoon outside doing yard work and playing in Liam's tent in the back yard. We went to the pool after dinner and wrapped up the day by going for a walk instead of a run just in case I was getting sick. I thought I was doing pretty good for having a cold.

That night I was up most of the night with the worst sore throat I have ever experienced. I couldn't find any cough syrup or other medicine, just a lonely bag of Hall's cough drops that were so old they were stuck to the inside of the bag. Fortunately I've had a solid 6 months of sleep deprivation training so getting through the night wasn't too terrible. First thing in the morning I called the Dr and went to the store for cough syrup and new cough drops. I had to take Liam to daycare on his day off so I could go to the Dr. who surprised me with his diagnosis:

Allergies had kicked by butt! The pollen count is through the roof here and we live in the grass seed capital that puts a choke hold on whatever you have left in your system to breath. Apparently there is a steady stream of suffering people thinking they have strep throat heading to the Dr only to be told to stay indoors and take allergy meds. The only thing that is working for me right now is Benedryl which leaves me stuffed up and with a mild sore throat. And, totally sleepy. Great for caring for a baby!

We are discussing going to the coast for the weekend so my system can reset. I haven't been able to exercise all week and I'm getting stir crazy and irritable. A good run on the beach will set me straight. I hope it's chilly and foggy there so I can inhale cold ocean air. phfffffff! I'm imagining it now! Breath for me since I still can't.

1st Father's Day

2010-06-20T22:15:00.000-07:00

This is what we've been waking up to lately. A baby, sitting up in his crib, looking like he wants to stand up and climb right on out of there. I happen to know a little something about that type of activity because I climbed out of my crib and broke my arm when I was a baby.

So daddy lowered baby's mattress and we'll keep on lowering it until it's time to sleep this baby on the floor.

Liam slept in until 7:30 am today, the latest he's ever slept. Probably because we had him out late at a party. We haven't quite mastered the whole "stick to a schedule" thing but he's sleeping solid. Bill was thrilled that we got to sleep in on father's day.

Then baby took a nice long nap while daddy watched soccer and mommy worked on projects. Liam and I bought Bill a new laptop case for a gift, Bill's old case weighed 47 pounds and looked like it was straight out of the 80s.

We had dinner at a friend's house this evening and got the baby to bed late again. We'll figure out this parenting thing by next father's day! We took the day off from exercise today and just enjoyed close family time.

Mud on my face

2010-06-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

After we got back from Phoenix, Bill had to head right back out again for business travel to Vancouver. Liam isn't having an easy time either, he is cutting his top teeth now and is on the verge of crawling so he is frustrated and letting us know about it. This means a lot of low level whining and low level headaches.

Daddy came home and mommy needed a break so I met a friend at the Oak Creek entrance of the McDonald Forest and went for a mountain bike ride in the rain. I don't know what I was thinking, I didn't have gloves (for crashing) or a jacket (for freezing) but I did manage to borrow a jacket from Heather on my way out.

As I was descending into the first switchback and I locked up the brakes, I realized that it had been quite a while (2 years) since I'd ridden a mountain bike and that I never rode on the trails in the rain before. I took every turn and technical section super easy and even walked one steep little pitch. In other words, it was a pathetic show but I didn't crash and the wet tree roots and slick rocks were tempting me toward the ground a few times.

The forest around here has two distinct features: you are either heading up or you are heading down. It's steep. It started raining really hard by the time I hit the descent so I froze my knees off coming back. And I love Oregon because..?. By the end, I was covered in mud, even my sun glasses had mud on them. Sunglasses? All in a 2 hour break from baby!

Cold and rainy

2010-06-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

We left Phoenix this morning, it was supposed to be over 100 degrees there today, and you can guess what I'm going to say about the Oregon weather. It's below 60 degrees and raining. Why did we come home?

Liam enjoyed the trip more than anyone, between the warm weather, swimming pools, and attention from grandpa and grandma, he had a great time. I took myself, my baby, and some clothes and toys, that's it. I left all projects, thoughts, and to do lists at home and just focused on the baby. It was so nice, I really needed to do that. Now I have to let the to do lists slowly back in to my life.

Liam's hair is getting wild as it grows out. More entertainment out of this little guy. The more I slow down my life, the more I appreciate and enjoy him. I have to remind myself that the next time I want to commit to something new. Or finally finish something old.

Liam liked being shirtless like his daddy in the warm weather. Not sure who is goofier? I'm pretty lucky. It was fun to share them with Bill's family and to enjoy their company too.

So warm

2010-06-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Arizona! We had to bring the baby back to see his grandparents, he hasn't been here since he was 3 months old and now he's 8 months old! The times flies, except at 3:30 am when Liam is crying, then time seems to drag on forever. He has been sleeping so much better since we've been back from Maui, I think he is finally adjusted to teething.

There are no photos because I forgot the camera cable, but I have the camera so I'll post a bunch on Tuesday when we get back. Have a great weekend! We'll be enjoying the warm weather, between the hours of 6am-8am and 6pm-10pm. Otherwise, we'll be in the air conditioning!

This is the end my friends

2010-06-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

The good news: baby pulling himself up on his bookcase to find books.

Bad news: baby pulling himself up on his bookcase to find books!

No more leaving baby to play by himself while we do something really quick. He's mobile. He's rolling, scooting, shimmying, everything except crawling. I'm assuming that's next.

In mommy news: I've gone to the dark side. I got my hair colored today and I'm starting to migrate toward the brunette. I never thought I would say those words! This color wasn't dark enough, I can't wait for next time to add more brown in. Strange goings on around here!

As far as my mental status: I took the weekend off from stress. I did short workouts, no work, and spent the rest of the time with baby. When baby napped, I watched "Gone With the Wind" with Bill who had never seen it before. It was a relaxing escape. Bill cleaned the house and took care of me. I need a little more downtime and I think I can get myself back on track. No to-do lists for a while though.

p.s. I had to add moderation to comments because of some spammers.

Dream the impossible dream! 7:20

2010-06-04T22:13:00.000-07:00

I just loaded some photos online from Liam's modeling session a few weeks ago, go check them out! Four different photographers took photos of Liam at Danielle Anthony's studio during a training session on lighting. Super precious and fun.

I had to move out of my office at work this week and help with moving a bunch of other people too, they are remodeling our office again. I will be working from home for the next 4-6 weeks minimum. I plan to go into the office MWF and show my face, otherwise, I will be home. Bill works from home so we will have to split the house somehow so we don't drive each other insane. I have an amazing office at OSU with a wall of windows but I voluntarily gave it up so a full time person can have it. It doesn't make sense for a part time person to have such a sweet office. When I return, I won't have a single window.

My lane mate in swim class sabotaged me today, she told coach I wanted to swim 500 for time before I showed up for class. I was surprised coach called 500 for time until he let it out that someone requested it. Luckily, I seem to be over 500 swim anxiety and I *seem* to be able to bang it out now without freaking out. I swam another huge PR and finished in 7:20 which I was proud of, that's 15 seconds faster than last time. I think if I keep working I should be able to drop some more time without too much trouble. I'm finally starting to swim what I'm capable of, what was I doing before?

What have I been doing anyway? Truthfully, I'm struggling a bit with anxiety due to stress. I'm not getting enough down time and things are piling up on my to do list in unhealthy proportions. So I'm giving myself permission to do that which makes me happy and to not plan for a while. I will get back to this later, I just don't want to dwell on it too much. Sunshine tomorrow will help! We are having record rains here and I'm tired of being drenched.

Focused!

2010-05-31T15:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah that's me eating dessert again. I think we were eating banana cake with strawberries filling and chocolate ganache. I took Sunny down with me this time. It wasn't hard ;) I did use my running outfit for running, rather than eating dessert. I'm hoping that trend continues but I don't know... there are a lot of good desserts out there and I have a drawer full of running clothes. Who knows what I will use those clothes for?

Liam getting some sun which has been rare around here lately. It's killing me to be stuck in the house all the time. The community pool opened on Saturday and I took Liam swimming outside even though it was cloudy and 65 degrees. He loved it! I know it's time to take him out of the water when he stops moving. Babycicle! ;)

I haven't been blogging because I am trying to keep my stress levels lower by eliminating obligations. So far, it's not working. We stayed home this weekend to work on the house, we're still trying to get it ready to go on the market. Right now, the goal is to put it up for sale by July. It's doubtful that I will destress until we've found a new place to live but I'm going to try. Perhaps some dessert while I consider my options?

Pathetic

2010-05-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

I just ate some chocolate ice cream with raspberries and fudge sauce which was awesome but what was really bad was I ate it while wearing a running outfit and I didn't even go running. Pathetic. I hate this time of year in western Oregon. We have had enough sunny days that you start to think summer is right around the corner and just when you think you have survived the rainy season, the freaking rain comes back.

Oh, and it gets even worse. I ate the same thing for dessert last night and I stained my one and only Ironman finisher's t-shirt with chocolate ice cream. Bill tried to rinse it out for me but I think it's done.

It's fun to be pathetic sometimes. I've been wearing the same running outfit since 3pm this afternoon. The baby woke up before I got out the door for a run and then it started down pouring. I would have forced myself onto the treadmill but I spent time with baby and vacuumed instead.

I miss running but I know I won't get back to competitive running until after my next attempts at pregnancy. I plan to keep 10 extra pounds on so I can hopefully get pregnant again and I know I just won't be running fast with that extra weight. Maybe I'll get over it and commit to running again but the risk of injury also concerns me.

I can swim with the extra chub just fine though so no excuses there. It's getting to be about time for another timed 500. Hopefully I won't get BBQ sauce on my swimsuit and ruin that too.

Waaahsuuuuupppp

2010-05-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

Liam's hair after the dog licked him in the car. The dog makes an interesting baby sitter. I didn't blog last week because my brain was paining me. Not literally, just you know, fried egg brain.

Bill was out of town last week so I had the baby by myself and in addition to work and Tribabe business, I was organizing a fund raiser. It was stupid nuts. I learned my lesson. I mean it this time, I have to stop overextending myself.

The fund raiser was a success and I think people had fun at the event. The money raised will go toward research on the effects of healthy lifestyles on aging. I felt good about whatever effort I could put toward the event but it was a wake-up call that I need to slooow down. Slow down. Slower.

Peas please? Real time update, my feet are cold and Cassie just laid down on top of them. Good kitty. Slowwwww down.

After the swim fund raiser we went to a party at a friend's place and didn't get home until after 8pm so after a really busy week, I took no time off on Saturday. There was an open water swimming race that I was thinking of doing on Sunday but I finally wised up and sat on my butt. I don't know if I even left the house on Sunday. I think I rode the bike trainer for an hour and that was my big exercise for the weekend.

With that, I am over being busy. Baby, baby daddy and I will be taking it easy this week. Hopefully I will have time to blog about it. Cheers!

Raspberries

2010-05-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

A theme for this week's blog topics. My tank is so empty right now, I don't know why I'm trying to blog. Guilt? That won't make an interesting topic. Uhhhhhhh hhh hhhhhhhhhh.

I got nothing. I'll try again tomorrow. Banana split anyone? 7 months of sleep deprivation have taken a small toll.

Banana splits

2010-05-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

I might not ever lose these last 4 pounds now that Liam is eating food. Today I fed him part of a banana and kept the other part for a banana split that I'm about to eat. mmmMMM! Regarding the most important news on the planet: the baby has been sleeping better the past few days, only waking up once or twice a night. Today he took his longest nap ever, almost 3 hours. Sweet relief. Let's hope this is the beginning of a good thing, but let's not get too excited, we've been here before.

Liam is eating some finger foods and we added lunch to his day, I think this is what is helping with the sleep at night. Got to keep this boy fueled up.

I'm working on a fund raiser this weekend, a swimming event, and that has kept me distracted but excited. I'm not swimming this year because we have less volunteer support than last year and I have baby Liam to contend with. He's going to help too.

Last weekend we went to a triathlon on Saturday as Tribabe, we had awesome weather and crap sales. People do not want to pay full price for anything right now so at the next event, I'm putting up extra large sale signs. Clearance signs! I need to clear out inventory from last year. The changing economy has been quite an education.

Anyway! Had martinis last week with the girls and then had another girl's night where we went to see the documentary Babies. I've had to diversify my girl's night out options. Having fun! But tired. Still tired.

Ketchup

2010-05-13T20:20:00.000-07:00

Before the week is over, I need to cover last week! We celebrated Bill's 40th birthday with friends on Saturday. Bill rode 40 miles on his bike then played disc golf with his man friends before joining us for his party.

We had great music and awesome friends and the weather was splendid so we were able to hang outside until the sun went down.

Bill wore his birthday present from my mom, a sun visor with fake hair sewed into it. People seriously thought that was his hair and that he was going through his mid life crisis. It was fun and I think a memorable birthday for him.

This week, Danielle Anthony photography asked if Liam would be a model for a training session with some other photographers. She was teaching lighting techniques and we will get some of the best shots for our photo album.

Liam did really well posing and smiling at the ladies. He was in his element, getting attention from ladies is where it's at! I will share photos as soon as we get them.

Where the hell is Easy St?

2010-05-11T21:46:00.000-07:00

I parked behind a car at work today that had a bumper sticker that said, "Where the hell is Easy St?" and that summed up just how I have been feeling since we got back from Maui. Last night I was up with baby at 12:30am, 2:30 am, 5am, and 6:30 am. Teething. I hate that word.

Liam's morning hair. I had a revelation or two during our trip and we're working toward some changes around here. Bill and I have been splitting baby duty during the night, and we were both so exhausted that we weren't talking or getting along with each other. So now I am on night duty Sun-Thur by myself. Bill has the weekends and I get to sleep in on Wed for an extra hour or two. We are already getting along better and now we are alternating tiredness rather than sharing it.

Lack of sleep is keeping me from working out like I want to, but I think I will be able to get back at it again after a few weeks of adjustment. Five to seven hours of broken sleep a night doesn't allow for the energy stores needed to triathlon train. I'll get back it. I just need a nap really bad.

I have a bunch of stuff on my mind right now and too many projects up in the air. Every weekend is planned in May and there is no down time in the foreseeable future. Perhaps I need some directions to Easy St.?

First comes love

2010-05-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day!

Photos by Danielle Anthony

2010-05-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

Is that a Wittle Ittles or what?

Kaanapali Klassic 1.2 mile rough water swim

2010-05-03T01:30:00.000-07:00

I read about this race online while I was searching for master's swimming groups on Maui. I was hoping to drop in on an open water (ocean) swim while we were on vacation which I was inspired to do by the Hawaii girl's blogs I follow (Bree Wee and Sun Safety Barbie). Plus I needed a goal that didn't involve running since I'm still not up to speed, so to speak, after having baby.

Trying not to look intimidated? I read about the race 4 weeks before we left so I didn't have long to prepare but I did enough long swimming to keep myself from panicking about the race. The race was casual but well supported with paddle boarders and jet skis to guide the swimmers. There was a buoy not far out from shore and then an immediate right turn which caused the typical back up. I held back since I didn't want to return to open water swimming with a kick to the face.

We swam around a point and they warned about swimming too far in because of the coral reef. I stayed as wide out as the paddle boarder would let me. It seemed like I was surrounded by little girls, because I was swimming with little girls! Obviously the locals have no problem putting their kids in the ocean for a swim which is fabulous! I hope Liam has those types of opportunities in Oregon.

I'm the pink cap without a kick. The water was pretty clear so I saw plenty of coral and some fish while we were out there. I remember thinking, "I wish I could swim faster" which sounds less than profound but man! I have to work on my turnover and kicking. At one point the current was tossing us around and I could see by the coral that I wasn't making a lot of progress. I tried to find some feet to draft off of but everyone seemed to be going all over the place so I never found good feet to follow.

Before I felt like dieing I saw the final buoy which meant it was time to turn in to the finish. I tried to kick in hard but apparently you don't get instant speed just by willing yourself to go faster. I came out of the water and saw a woman ahead of me with ripped up muscles. I was proud of myself for finishing, flabby post baby belly and all, right behind her. Which left me 3rd in my division, she was 2nd. I don't quite have the competitive thing back yet.

Post race the "Hula Grill" hosted breakfast and awards. The Flecks from Oregon do alright swimming with the locals. Well, a 10 year old boy beat Bill. We might have to come back next year so Bill can beat him. ;) Erika's time: 0:35:43 Bill's time 0:29:48.

Don't eat doughnuts and drink pop if you don't like how your photos look

2010-05-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

Liam's 1st swim the ocean at Ulua Beach. Why are we going home tomorrow? I'm sure it's raining in Oregon and I have nothing but work and more work to do when I get there. Wah.

Posing at the Grand Wailea before our spa appointment. Amazing spa there and totally reasonable prices. Bill saw a famous comedian there, I saw a bunch of random ladies, some of them nude, none famous.

Bill body boarding at Big Beach. Say that 5 times fast. This is where we practiced ocean swimming before the race. It was rougher here (not shown in this photo) than it was at the race so it was good practice.

Another fabulous state park here on Maui, this one near the airport of all places. We had a picnic lunch here after we visited the Iao Needle.

This morning (Sunday) we did the swimming race which I will write about on another post. After the race we drove around West Maui, another winding and breathtaking drive. Tonight we went to the beach to get in some last minute snorkeling and I got stung by a jelly fish as soon as I entered the water. Got my lip, my neck, and my left shoulder. I guess the trip is over. :(

This blog title is courtesy of a conversation with my husband who says that he looks fat in all of the photos. :)

Jennifer Aniston?

2010-04-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston are filming a movie on Maui and today we saw a set being hastily assembled in front of the Grand Wailea hotel while we were out walking. I can't tell you if she is pregnant per tabloid rumors but if I see her I'll ask for you. That wouldn't be awkward. I think the obsession with movie star's pregnancies is total whacked out.

Anyway! There are some beautiful resorts here and I like walking through them but I enjoy staying in a condo more. I feel at home when I can cook for myself and do laundry. I don't want to have to fix my hair to eat breakfast. I tend to measure the success of a day by whether or not I had to put a bra on. TMI?

Photo from the Four Seasons resort. Bill and my mom both had this look on their faces like they stole something while we were walking through the resorts. I don't think either one of them are comfortable with that scene. I think I could adapt to being rich, as long as I didn't have to put on makeup and do my hair. Based on the women I saw strolling around these resorts, I'm not measuring up if you know what I mean. Not too many of them could go braless.

What the heck am I babbling about?

Bill rented a bike today and rode most of the way up Haleakala. Unfortunately the wind was not as his back and he decided to turn around 10 miles from the top due to winds gusting up to 40 mph. Having a kid makes you rethink pushing through crazy things. He managed to get in 70+ miles riding and I'm not sure how much elevation. Over 5000 feet of climbing. I can't ask him because he's napping right now.

I haven't done any swims in the ocean yet and the race is in 2 days so he better wake up soon and take me for a swim before I panic. Too late!

Windy day on Maui

2010-04-28T16:36:00.000-07:00

It was windy yesterday here and there were high surf advisories on the beach so even though we went to the beach in the morning, I never ended up in the water. Well, I went to the awesome aquatic center in the afternoon for a workout so I did get in water, just not ocean water.

Did I mention the community pool has like 20 lanes, is outdoors and is free? Love it! The workout was my final push for this 1.2 mile swim we're planning for Saturday. I swam 4 x 500 as 7:56, 7:58, 8:05, and 8:15. Seems like I slowed down there a bit at the end but by all appearances, I should be able to swim 1.2 miles on Saturday. I found out about the swim 3 weeks ago so I'll just do the best I can, in the ocean, with local swimmers... it might get ugly for me but I'll get there!

Yesterday we had lunch at a restaurant on Kihei (Fred's... a view of the beach, always packed, and OK food) and then went shopping for some souvenirs. Liam charmed his way around the marketplace and the local shopkeepers were falling hook, line, and sinker for his charming smile. He got a necklace from one nice lady so now he looks like a local boy. A really white local boy!

After having an overpriced, not so tasty lunch, we were ready for some home cooking. Bill and I put together a feast for dinner: teriyaki chicken with quinoa and pasta salad featuring local pineapple. I made strawberry daiquiris and while Bill grilled the chicken, Liam and mommy swam in the pool.

It was a nice evening until Bill and my mom started playing Nintendo Wii. Bill loses all demeanor when it comes to sports and my mom is so competitive it gets heated quickly. Right now they are playing baseball and Bill said to her, "Are you pressing every button hoping you get a hit?" and she muttered some about "Ichiro being a dork". I'm not sure how many son-in-law/mother-in-law smack downs there have been in the history of vacationing but I wouldn't be surprised if it comes to blows soon. I think there is boxing on this Wii.

This morning Bill took my parents up Haleakala in the minivan. Liam and I stayed back in Kihei and went for a jog to the local mall. It's about 2 miles from the condo but I got dang sweaty in that short 20 minute jog there. I cooled down at an air conditioned coffee shop and then took baby around to some of the swanky art galleries there. Yes, I was wearing running shorts and a sweaty sun visor but Liam kept the dirty looks at bay. He loves art. And ladies in art galleries. He didn't managed to charm any freebies out of them but he did get plenty of smiles.

I have so much fun just hanging out with this kid. Why didn't we have him sooner? Oh yeah, that whole infertility drama. Seems so long ago and forgotten. Exhale.

The Road to Hell... I mean Hana

2010-04-27T11:25:00.000-07:00

I'm blogging from the deck of our lovely condo in Kihei and if I can get 5 uninterrupted minutes, I will tell you about the drive to hell I mean Hana. Yes even on vacation, mommies get constantly interrupted I have discovered.

The road to Hana is a must drive on Maui, it winds through some of the most breathtaking terrain you can imagine. This was my 3rd, and possibly final time doing this drive unless the good people of Maui set out to improve the road around the south east side of the island.

It probably didn't help that I was in the very back of the minivan and it was Liam's longest car ride ever but surprise! Baby fared much better than mommy. He slept most of the way, even over the roughest and windiest roads. Super trooper!

Meanwhile, I'm in the back of the minivan enjoying lower back spasms from all the turns and bumps on the road. Seriously, I think the roads were "improved" by Capt. Insaneo's Paving Co. It looked like some crazy person patched every two inches of the road for a 10 mile stretch. Never again people. I will not do this drive again until I hear they fired Capt Insaneo and his crew.

The scenery was gorgeous, of course, and I would love to bike around the island but there are too many tourists, one guidebook said 1500-2000 people do this drive every day, and the locals drive so fast and aggressive that there is no way I would risk my life biking those particular roads. Most of it is wide enough for one car only and you've got idiots going both ways and no one paying attention. I actually think Kona offers better biking opportunities than Maui, Kona just isn't as pretty. So biking is probably out for me this week. But Bill will ride up Haleakala, probably on Thursday.

My favorite memories from the day were stopping at Waianapanpa State Park for a picnic lunch and meeting a ferret family who lived next to the picnic table we lunched at. Bill said to my mom, "Your job is to protect the baby from the ferrets!" and my mom says "Are they wild ferrets?" and Bill said "No, they're trained, they do a hula show every hour." HA! Actually my favorite memory was of the black sand beach there, it was gorgeous.

Bill and I got out for a hike together to go see the bamboo forest and we raced each other like kids while my parents watched the baby. Freedom! Delicious! Even though I enjoyed the time, I thought of baby frequently and how I can't wait for him to be big enough to race with us. Soon enough!

If I were to do the road to Hana again, I would stay overnight in Hana and drive back instead of going all the way around the island where the road turns to hell. Those are my conditions, are you listening Bill? I love the area but since I'm still nursing a sore back today, don't ask me about it for a few years.

Today we are going to hang at beach again and do some tourist shopping and tomorrow Bill is taking my parents up Halekala in the car. I'm going to stay back with the baby and swim with him at the pool. There is no shade on top of the 10,o00+ crater and that is no place for a baby. I'll skip the windy road and see it again later when Wittles can race mommy on the trails. Ahhh! I made it through an entire blog post! I think daddy got baby to nap.

Mellow

2010-04-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

We spent Sunday morning on Maui at picturesque Turtle Bay where there were no turtles and poor visibility for snorkeling. We didn't stay long. The water here has been amazing otherwise and I could spend every day just hanging out near the water.

Liam and grandma cuddling near the beach.

In the afternoon we took the baby to the pool and he had a blast swimming. I wish I had photos but I was too busy swimming with him. Next time! Today (Monday) we drove to Hana, I'll write about it tomorrow, I'm exhausted now but we are having a great time.

Aloha from Maui!

2010-04-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

We arrived on Maui Friday around noon and I was instantly relaxed by the warm ocean breezes. The first time I traveled here with Bill we rented a convertible to zip around the island but this trip we had our choice of minivans to rent. Times have changed! After loading up the sweet Kia minivan with our mountains of crap including a car seat, stroller, two large suitcases, two carry-ons, a baby bag, Boppy pillow, biking helmet, and laptop bag... we were exhausted. OK not really, but traveling with a 6 month old has to be higher maintenance then traveling with Paris Hilton.

We are staying at a condo in Kihei but we couldn't check in until 4pm, so to kill time Bill and I went to the aquatic center and took turns swimming 1000 yards each just to shake off the airplane stiffness. The pools here are large, outdoor, amazing and free! I will get a photo next time we are there.

My parents didn't arrive 8pm and Liam greeted them appropriately. We were all exhausted and 3 hours ahead so we made it to bed at a reasonable hour which was good since Liam was up at 5am Maui time.

We spent Saturday morning at the beach with a some nice locals who were getting drunk at 9am. They were friendly drunks so it was cool. We found a spot to setup under a tree which was key because we have to keep this baby out of the sun. So far, so good.

I brought a beach tent but it was so hot on the beach we set it up in the shade in the grass for Liam to nap in. He is traveling really well, he seems to enjoy every new environment and I don't think I've seen him happier. This morning he learned to clap his hands together for the 1st time. Now we can share applause with him. Island life suits the baby!
In the afternoon we drove to west Maui and went to the Lahaina mall (air conditioning) and then to Ka'anapali Beach Hotel for a steel guitar festival. They had hula dancers for some of the tunes and a guy with a beautiful tenor voice. It was a nice welcome to Hawaii, my only sadness was there was not more people there to enjoy the free, amazing music. I will update our trip photos in my online photo gallery daily.

Sleeping pill

2010-04-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Swimming talk first and then we'll get on to the baby pics! Things are going well in the pool even though I usually can't stay for the entire swim due to work and daycare. On Friday we had a 12 minute warm-up and then we got to see how far you could swim in 15 minutes. Of course I lost count of laps (I am sleep deprived if this is your first visit here) but I needed the continuous swimming since I haven't exactly trained for this 1.2 mile swim I want to do while we are in Maui. Next we swam 20 x 50 on 1:00 and I held :45 pace easily enough. I'm not going to say my face wasn't red but I held it together. Today we swam 12 x 100 on 1:45 and I held 1:30 pace for most of the 100s so it looks like there are no more excuses for me to not swim a 500 in 7:30. I just need to find time to do it. It wasn't that long ago that my 100 pace was 1:45, now that's my take off time, so I'm happy to report I'm swimming faster than ever post baby! Yeah!

Last night I took 1/2 of a sleeping pill and went to bed at 9pm since I had not slept in about a week. Even when Liam is sleeping well, I still wake up because I'm so used to waking up with the baby. The past 2 nights he has only woken up once, but the days leading in were brutal. Bill took over for me last night, thank you honey!

If you think this looks cute, you should come over at 12:30am, 2:30am, 4:30am and 6am.

Liam giving his crib a raspberry. That's actually pretty cute.

Playing with a baby doll.

Notice smiley boy's tongue, it's constantly touching that tooth that is coming in. Poor guy!

There are some airplane tickets to Maui burning a hole in my pocket!

Flipping out

2010-04-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

We had awesome weather on Sunday so both Bill and I got our bike rides in and enjoyed the sun. While Bill was out riding I took baby to the park and he sat up on a blanket for about 40 minutes straight. I think he's sitting up pretty well now. I enjoyed watching him look at the trees and try to pull grass and eat it when mommy looked away. The simple things in life are so much more enjoyable in the company of a happy baby.

Too bad baby isn't very happy right now! This first tooth is taking forever to make it's grand entrance and it's wearing all of us out.

Liam is waking up every couple of hours and to make matters worse, he is practicing his roll overs every time he wakes up which makes him even more upset. He's flipping over so much we're leaving him on his belly as much as we can so he gets used to it and stops crying when he does it.
Today we put ice in this little hand-me down gadget we got from one of the Fleck sisters and he seems to like the ice so we'll keep this up even though his little hands were cold from holding the ice part.
He's tired from flipping and fussing all night long. The other big thing we did this weekend is start packing for our trip to Maui! I have been thinking about this trip every night for weeks now and I have a lot of time to think in the middle of the night so I'm ready!

6 months old

2010-04-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

Turn your speakers on and enjoy the slide show...

Liam turned 6 months old this week and just in time for his well baby Dr appt. a little tooth poked through on his bottom gum. Poor kid had to get immunizations, a flu shot, and sore gums to ring in his half year. Daddy was out of town on business the past few days so he missed that and some severe constipation. The good news is Liam has been sleeping better and is only waking up once a night again, well, except last night he woke up 3 times and I'm about dead tired right now but really, I swear, he has been sleeping better.

Despite all the drama this week, he is still the best baby I could have ever dreamed of and I can't believe he is real. If I would have known how wonderful he was going to be and how totally in love we would feel then I never would have worried a single day while waiting for him. Life is a dream right now and it's time for me to go get some dreams while sleeping too!

To all my friends and family out there who have been there through the hard times and supported us when things didn't look so good, thank you.

Blue ceiling

2010-04-15T20:42:00.000-07:00

I sang with a band last night and it didn't go horribly wrong! That blue ceiling is wrong though, I never noticed it until I saw this photo. Yesterday was so busy that I was relieved to just get to the restaurant and focus on performing. And drinking a beer and socializing. I enjoyed myself and I was glad that I challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone to do this. Hopefully I will get invited back to sing with them again. If not, then we'll know how I actually did...

I want to write about Liam but I will make it a topic all it's own tomorrow. We had nice weather today so I got out for a run today with the baby in the stroller again and did a much more reasonable 9:30 pace. I have not gotten out on the bike this week but I did start bike commuting to work. The weather is finally reasonably warm enough to get on a bike first thing in the morning which I really enjoy. As soon as I say that it will start raining buckets and I'll be back in the car in the morning.

I'm with stupid

2010-04-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

I'm with stupid but I'm by myself! You do the math. Last week I ran with baby in the stroller, he was awesome, but I was running 10 minutes miles which isn't quite a happy pace for my goals. After that run I set a goal to run 8:30 pace in the next few weeks which would have been fine except today I put the baby down for a nap and then went for a run by myself. Without the regulator (stroller) I went all out. Since I haven't been running that much I have no idea about pace based on feel. I wanted to run 3 x 10 minutes hard (8:50 pace) with a few minutes rest in between to get my heart rate down. According to the GPS, I ran 7:57 pace for the first 10 minutes and then I died.

I couldn't get my heart rate back down below 100 so I set out running again and within a few minutes I knew I couldn't keep it up. I quickly changed the workout to 2 x 5 minutes and ran 7:44 pace which is just way too fast for my fitness level. I walked home after that. Now that I know what sub-8 minute pace feels like, I will stay above it for a few more weeks while I build some fitness. Stupid workout, I hope I proved something to myself.

I think Liam has his daddy's eyes...

I took this photo at night with a flash, imagine how enjoyable that was for daddy.

See! I am tired, I need some eye makeup remover, and my skin has significant sun damage. I will remain white for the rest of my life. No more tanning! Check out my pupil.

Cassie waiting for dinner (now)

Katty has lizard eyes

Marshall wants to go for another run, I think we can do 7:30 pace.

Regrets

2010-04-12T15:04:00.001-07:00

Darn it. Corvallis hosted the Oregon Master's Swimming Championship this past weekend and I didn't participate. Several people got PRs and I stopped in with Liam to watch on Sunday and it didn't look high stress at all. Shoot! I bet the event won't be back in Corvallis for a while. Bummer. Lesson learned: if there is an event in town I'm doing it.

Which means I have to sign up for the Heart of the Valley triathlon at the end of May. I rode the bike course on Saturday and it's pretty challenging for a sprint triathlon. Hilly! I'll ride it again and report on the elevation. I am just going to have to get over my competitive streak, otherwise I won't be doing any events this summer and that would be a bummer as stated above.

I made some flannel pants for Liam, he keeps growing out of his clothes and I found some fabric for $2.50/yard, so minus my time they are a good deal! They took about 1 hour to make. I will do an overview of the construction when I get some time. Of course Bill didn't get the memo that they are PJs and took him straight to daycare wearing some pants I made that have peace signs on them. Oh daddy. Liam has a Dr appt on Wednesday, I can't wait to see his height and weight measurements, this kid is a beast. One thing I have no regrets about is this kid.

Shark spaz out?

2010-04-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

Dang we were busy last week! What even happened? I don't know anymore but it was busy! Life has been getting in the way of workouts but I'm getting enough in to stay happy. I will total last week and this week tomorrow when I blog. Wittle Ittles went disc golfing with daddy and his man buddies twice last week. I'm just guessing but Liam might be a daddy's boy. I'm going to have to try to keep this baby's attention!

This morning we went to a local park to have our family photos taken. Unfortunately it's allergy season around here so my eyes were watering and baby wasn't too thrilled about being outside in the chilly weather but I think we will have some good shots anyway. I'll will put them on the blog as soon as they come back to us.

Liam likes to ride in his wagon outside with daddy when he goes to get the mail. Grandpa and Grandma brought this the last time they visited. My mom said she has to stock pile toys so we don't get overwhelmed by the sheer number my dad picks up for Liam. He's a little excited to finally have some men in the family. Apparently my sister and I weren't good boys.

Liam insists on feeding himself now. I call it wrestling the baby and it's not easy for mommy to clean up.

Sooooo we are getting excited for our upcoming trip to Maui. Thank goodness for Frequent Flyer programs, I'm totally burned out on rainy spring weather. I saw that there is a rough water swim on Maui (in the Lahaina area) while we are there and I'm seriously considering doing it. I just need to get some long swims in and try not to spaz out about sharks. Bill is thinking about renting a bike and riding sea to sky up Haleakala while we are there. It should be an adventure!

Beaver Freezer 2010

2010-04-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

Erika and Sunny playing the role of Freezing Beavers Saturday morning
(photos stolen from OSU Triclub website since I forgot my camera)

The OSU Triclub doubled the capacity (600 racers!) of this sprint triathlon this year and it still sold out in under 2 hours. It's the first race of the season and everyone wants a t-shirt that says "Beaver Freezer Triathlon" on it. Bill and I had to get up a 5am to setup the Tribabe booth since the 1st heats go off at 7:30 am which means racers arriving by 6 am. We actually had some come up to us at 5:45am and ask where packet pickup was located. Dude.

Bill did manage to race this year and had a poor swim, below average bike, and an OK run which left him in 10th overall and not too satisfied with the day. This is what happens when you have a baby, life takes priority of training time. He'll be back next year though and hopefully he'll have more time train by then. I don't know though, I hear his wife is pretty high maintenance.

Sunny won the female race handily, despite putting on 10 layers of clothes in T1. Some dude we never heard of trounced everyone and even lapped most of the field on the run. Dude!

I had a blast seeing old triclub members and standing around in the cold and rain not selling anything. Sales were about what they were 4 years ago when I had a lot less inventory and nothing on sale. I was selling hoodies for $20 and hats for $10 and didn't sell a whole lot more than that. Cold weather drives people away from shopping post race. Oh well!

Post race we went to a baby shower and then my mom made Easter dinner. We were all asleep by 9:30 pm. Exhausted but finally warm!

Baby's 1st Easter

2010-04-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Liam with his first Easter basket today. He was so excited to grab the eggs out of the basket, we played egg grabbing 3 times today.

Could this kid be any more cute? No he could not! It just isn't possible. We put coins and dried pasta in the eggs so they would rattle when he shook them.

My parents came for the weekend to help us out since we had a busy weekend. I will write more tomorrow, too tired tonight.

Liam playing bucking bronco with Grammy. Precious baby lit up as soon as he saw her. He stayed smiley until she left which is when he decided to get fussy and bored with mommy and daddy. He is this grandma's 1st grand baby and he is loving that role!

Geezered and tribabed

2010-04-01T20:49:00.000-07:00

It's us again! This time in the jogging stroller. Liam has completely adapted to the stroller and had a great time today on our run. He even fell asleep for mommy which was nice considering he didn't nap for very long this afternoon while mommy was out riding her bike.

Today was the one sunny day forecast for this week so I had to get out on the bike even though my only thought was I'm tired. I'm soooo tired. But once I got out on the bike, I felt better, even riding in to a head wind. I rode by myself today which was good, since I'm supposed to be a triathlete. Half way through my ride I got passed by a group of older gentleman, led by one hard core white haired guy who was riding hard with his jacket blowing open in the wind. Not 5 minutes later the fearless leader squirted out of the back of his group, eventually 2 circled back to pick him up but by then we hit a hill and I got to pass the gentleman back on the hill. Sir, you have been Tribabed. Just joking. I love getting Geezered, it happens to me all the time in swimming.

p.s. today was my first brick workout (bike+run) and the first time I looked at my run pace post baby. It was 9:01 pace for 2 miles post bike ride. A place to start, not fabulous, but not terrible either. I'll work with it and look forward to 8:30 pace here in the next 4 weeks. Then... I can't wait to see a 7 on my watch in the pace section!

7:35!

2010-03-31T19:54:00.000-07:00

I went to swim class today with a not so great attitude. I had the day off from work but I had so many things to do, I just didn't feel like working out. Coach offered up a workout that would call my bluff... 3 x 500 as 500, 5 x 100, and 2 x 250. I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to test myself. My lane mate wanted to swim 8 minutes and I wanted a 7:45 which I thought I could get but would still be disappointed with because I know I should swim faster. So I went out hard and kept kicking. When I hit the wall and looked at the clock, I couldn't believe my time: 7:35 is a 10 second PR for me. I wouldn't have believed it except my lane mate was down at the other end swimming towards me, she hit the wall in 7:57. So my time was real. I did it!

Instead of rushing off to the US Olympic Training Center to join the triathlon team, I went home and started back in on my to do list. Baby is sleeping slightly better, still teething, still no teeth yet, and we're still exhausted. Every time I get some sleep, my body says MORE. More PLEASE! I don't think we'll ever get caught back up.

I took the baby and dog out for a walk today and Liam got to sit upright in the stroller for the first time. No more car seat in the stroller for this big boy. I also retired his 6 month old size clothes today after our childcare provider commented on his high-water pants and then offered me 3 bags of hand-me down clothes. All of his bigger clothes are for summer since that is when he is supposed to wear 9-12 month size. I guess layering shorts won't get him through the spring. I can't believe I swam a 7:35!

Me love tickles

2010-03-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Instead of tickling Cookie Monster he's eating him. No sign of teeth here yet and Liam is still not sleeping. I don't know what happened on Bill's shift but I was up with baby from 3:30 am -4 am and then up for good at 5:20 am. Kiddo is not happy. I need to go to bed right now instead of blogging.

When I left for work this morning Liam was asleep on the big couch and Bill was scrunched up on the little couch trying to catch a few zzzzzs. After work I made it to swimming but once again I treated it like a recovery workout. I need to stop doing that and start working harder at swimming. Today I pushed three 200s with decent results: 3:01, 2:57, and 2:55. I can no longer justify a weak 500 time. It's time to do a little time trial and see where I am at post-baby. Perhaps Wednesday?

Speaking of tests, we are a few weeks out from Liam's 6 month checkup. They have a list of skills they want to know if baby can accomplish yet (I know! the pressure is on already) one of which is can baby pick up a Cheerio? Since we aren't supposed to feed baby food like Cheerios, I'm trying to figure why I would be seeing if he could pick one up? Well we tried it out today, I put a Cheerio in front of baby and grabbed the camera. He picked it up and put it directly in his mouth, without missing a beat as you can see in this photo. I tried to pry it out of his mouth before he swallowed but too late! No more Cheerio tests until baby has some teefs to eat them with! Wish us sleep again please, it didn't work last night.

Jaguars

2010-03-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Today was insane. We started out this morning where we ended the night before, with Liam not sleeping well. Bill tagged me off around 3:30 am (he had been up watching basketball in between wake ups). I can't tell you what happened next except I got intermittent sleep and got up with baby at 5:50 am. Then... who knows, I ended up at the grocery store at 8:30 am with a sleepy baby and a long grocery list. We think it's teething that is causing the sleep disruptions. At least we got a few nights of decent sleep.

Bill slept in until 10 am, then I handed baby over to him so I could do Tribabe inventory and finish making 30 Powerdry hats for the Beaver Freezer. It's dumping rain here so I shuffled off to the gym for a quick run and weight lifting. Poor dog didn't get out for exercise today. Honey I can't do it all.

Fat cat enjoying the sun yesterday. Right now I'm working on burning CDs of music I would like to perform with this new band I might start playing with. I think this means I have to rehearse. Or I could just chicken out like I've been doing these past 5 years.

I don't think I could have packed anything else in today. Life fully lived! I hope that baby sleeps tonight, for everyone's sake.

Here are the weekly workout totals:
Swim 1:20
Bike 3:10
Run 1:30
Walk 1:22
Weights :50
Core 1:05

I have to say that I was disappointed with how weak I felt riding Kings Valley yesterday. My memories of that ride are riding strong through several sections, but yesterday I survived or suffered. I am really looking forward to the day when I feel strong again. It might be a while, the rains have returned for the foreseeable future and I'm not too motivated to ride in the pouring rain. Wish us good sleep tonight. We don't need luck, we just need sleep!

Garage nudity

2010-03-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

Several months ago we had to make room for the baby in the house so Bill moved some of his things out in the garage, like his massive amounts of workout clothes. Since then, I've found Bill in various states of undress in the garage because why would he change clothes in the house when the clothes are out there? It's slightly alarming to find him out there like that though. I have another biking story for you, I'll get to it in a sec.

We had nice weather again today and I could see some weeds coming up in the yard so I set Liam up in his Johnny Jump Up on the deck so he could watch mommy in the yard. He seemed pretty darn happy to be outdoors.

Liam working on cutting his first teeth. A couple of days ago I was drinking water out of a glass while holding Liam and he muscled my hands toward his face and stuck his mouth right on the glass and started licking the water with his tongue. I couldn't get the glass away from him so today his daddy bought him a sippy cup. Don't ask me how he figured out how to mouth my glass!?!

Whoa. Sippy cup! He can move it toward his mouth and gnaw on it but he can't quit lift it up yet.

Peas and squash for dinner yum! Now the sippy cup has flavoring on it. And finally, in bike riding news... I rode with my mom friend today, we did most of the Kings Valley loop but Bill dropped us off and picked us up so we could cut out the highway sections. I wore the Garmin GPS and downloaded the data (return of the tri geek) and the stats were:
31 miles
1H 51M
16.9 avg speed
141 avg heart rate
1703 total ascent
1948 total descent

We did a nice mix of chatting and working so it was a good ride on the last sunny day we have in the forecast for a long time. Bill took the baby shopping at Costco and Target while we were out riding so we had groceries when we were done. Excellent. I was thinking about doing the Beaver Freezer triathlon course tomorrow by myself but I think my legs are going to be tired from the 1700 ft of climbing we did today. Maybe it will rain hard and I can lay on the couch with Liam all day? HA! Like the baby would allow that.

I'M BACK!

2010-03-26T08:48:00.000-07:00

That's me this morning, wearing pre-pregnancy clothes that aren't skin tight with the baby on my hips that's baby and not just hips! You will have to forgive me if I enjoy life right now because I don't have all sunshine and rainbow moments all the time. First good news: I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight. After weeks of very slow weight loss, I've dropped 4 pounds in the past two weeks and I'm starting to see a little bit of my old form return. Of course, things are slightly rearranged on my body (hello jelly belly) and I'm no Valerie Bertanelli in a bikini. I'm 8 pounds away from my goal weight and I can see that goal coming into focus in the not too distance future. Thank goodness, I was beginning to wonder if I was permanently damaged from child bearing.

Second, last night I put my brave suit on and went to rehearse with a band. I used to sing, a long time ago, and I have mixed feelings about performing, but last night went great! I brought two tunes to the group, both Suzanne Vega songs: Tombstone and Caramel, and they loved both songs and invited me to perform with them in a few weeks. I'm going to do it but I don't know that it will become a regular thing for me. Believe it or not, I am over the stage in my life where I want to hang out in bars. But spending a Thursday night in a self-made music studio (sweet setup in a re-done garage) with a drummer, bass player, and guitar player was really enjoyable. Just to be clear: I'm no American Idol contestant. I don't slide across a stage or thump my chest like Celine Dion, but I sing clear enough and hit the notes close enough to be passable. I did start singing into a dead mic last night and didn't realize it for a little too long but hey, who needs amplification? I'm just happy to be there.

Finally, my run is coming back. Very slowly, but coming back. I'm starting to get that runner's high thing again and ohhhhhhhh. Running hard gives me a a feeling of power and satisfaction that just can't be duplicated. I feel a Meg Ryan coffee shop moment in my future! I think it will all come together as the weight drops off. I just have to keep at it a few more months. Let's see what happens, sometimes life gets in the way, especially with a little baby, the best excuse ever for not getting things done.

Liam in sweat pants his auntie sent him and a hand-me down rain jacket because it's raining again. In Oregon, it's raining. Who could believe it? I took him to the fabric store yesterday, we picked up some fabric for some baby pants that mommy or grandma will make for him. Let's see who has more time...? Probably mama, my mom is busier than me most of the time. In baby news, the brightest spot in my life right now, our precious boy is finally healthy again and sleeping well. Two nights ago, he slept 7pm to 3:50am and last night 7pm-1am and then 1:30am-6:10am. Sweet relief! Grandpa and grandpa are coming next weekend so Bill and I can do the Beaver Freezer triathlon (he race, me tribabe) and perhaps we will get out on a date. Because I still have a husband, right? Not just the other person who cares for the baby? I didn't say things were perfect, but I'll get back to being a decent wife again here soon. At least he's getting breakfast in the morning. Love you honey!

More pain with a roadie

2010-03-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

We shared dinner with friends twice in two days so that has kept me busy and kept me from blogging. Last night we were up chatting until 11 pm! The dog was hilarious, at 10 he came over and put his chin on my leg and then moved over to our guest and nudged her as if to say, "Hey, it's bed time."
Today was a little insane, at noon I got in a short swim and then rushed home with baby so I could get to the dentist by 2, and then rushed home so I could get myself together for a 4pm bike ride with a friend. As you can see in the photos, Liam and Daddy were busy at work while mommy was running around.

Today's ride partner is a roadie, for the non-geeks reading this, a roadie is someone who rides a road bike which is the type of bike that is used in bike racing. Typically, roadies ride in packs and take turns pulling and drafting. In triathlon, we ride time trial bikes and when riding with other triathletes, we typically don't draft or pull, we ride far enough apart so there is no drafting effect. Riding with roadies is challenging for a triathlete because instead of keeping one steady pace, the riding is more of an interval workout. Good for speed but hard on a triathlete's legs.

Today was a roadie's delight, after a scant 2 miles we turned into a vicious headwind. My roadie girl friend turned up the heat and I tried to stay on her back wheel but it hurt. My heart rate was over 150 and just as I was getting used to sight of her tire tread, it was my turn to pull. OUCH. OH OUCH. Luckily she was patient with me and let me take shorter pulls. About 20 minutes later we were able to turn out of the headwind and didn't face it again until later in the ride. This is good for me, right? I don't know that I've ever challenged myself on the bike this consistently. I hope this work results in a better bike split. If not, I guess I'll just have gained a lot of knowledge about the tire tread on my roadie friend's bike.

Getting wild today

2010-03-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

Whoa it was a wild day, we stayed home and cleaned the house. I got out for a short run, the only run of the week (oops) and we did a short shopping trip. A nice Sunday!

Next weekend Liam is getting his photograph taken. Hopefully we'll figure out something for him to wear and how to get his hair looking decent. He seems to know how to work with the camera.

Liam lost his privileges today. We've always swaddled this boy but now that he's 5 months old he decided he doesn't want to be swaddled and he wrestles around in his crib until he gets free. I found him with his arm hanging out of the crib one day and the next day he was on his belly with a leg hanging out. So it was time for bumpers in the crib but I wanted bumpers that wouldn't increase the risk of SIDS so we ordered these breathable bumpers on Amazon. Liam is trying to figure out how to thwart these now.

This week's totals:
Swim: 1:55
Bike: 3:40
Run: 25
Walk: 25
Weights: 0
Core: 20

Another bad week for core, someone should do something about that. This was intended to be a recovery week but I think I took that concept a little too far. Back on track next week. Que the Rocky soundtrack!

Case of the Mondays

2010-03-20T18:48:00.000-07:00

No Mondays around here! Just a great weekend. Bill went out of town and left us for 3 days earlier this week. I was worried, I'm not going to lie, but Liam is at the age now that we can hang out together and enjoy each other's company. It's less work and more fun and being mommy is turning out to be more wonderful than I thought. I didn't get the workouts in while he was gone but I could use the break anyway.

If only I had just a little more sleep, life would be perfect. Today was another gorgeous sunny day here (so surprising for this time of year!) so I ran out the door this morning to get on my bike and meet some roadie gals for a ride. Once again, I got the hurt put on me. Eventually I will get back into shape but for now it's suffer time. At least the sun was shining! As soon as I got home, Bill ran out the door for his exercise and then as soon as he got home I ran out the door with Sunny to go the the spa for her birthday. We had fancy showers, fancy steam room, fancy retreat room, and then fancy pedicures. When I got back home for the final time, no one was here. That is not a feeling I like anymore. When I was at the spa I saw a woman snuggling her daughter on the couch and it shot straight to my soul. I am so lucky to have a child to share my life with. No bad Mondays around here. Just another great week!

Where did he come from?

2010-03-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

William K Fleck Jr 5 months

William K Fleck Sr 5 months

Baby 5 months

Mommy ~4 months

Before mommy's hair turned blond and her eyes brown. Can you believe I was a red haired blue eyed baby?

Bonus Photos:

Grandma Olson with Baby Erika

Grandpa Olson

Grandma Olson on the left

We'll get some more Fleck baby photos and see but I think Liam looks a little like mommy! What do you think? I love these old photos!

When to buy flowers

2010-03-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

Liam's new fun trick is to yank off his socks and then stuff them in his mouth. He won't let go of the socks either and if you try to say "no no no" he laughs. Well little dude we'll see who the joke is on when we show this photo at your wedding reception!

I took him to the Doc yesterday and he has an ear and sinus infection so baby is now on antibiotics. You would never know this kid was sick if you were around him during the day because he's cheerful and happy. But at night he coughs and cries. I was exhausted this morning from staying up with the baby so I decided to skip weightlifting and running and went to go buy my childcare provider a small bunch of local flowers. Turned out to be a genius move because the meds gave Liam explosive diarrhea right before I got there. She had just finished cleaning him up and he was happy again! He got me later so it wasn't like I got out of anything special!

New topic: Bill and I bought this electric skillet recently after using one at his parents. I love it and find myself using it constantly. This is potatoes with peppers, onions, garlic, and shallots (yummy breath) which we had on Saturday and then on Sunday we had the leftovers in a breakfast burrito with cheese, salsa, and pork sausage.

Our other useful kitchen help is the good ol George Foreman grill. This grease came off pork sausage which was plenty tasty without the grease. I think it had ginger in it. YUM. I am really enjoying changing things up in our food purchasing and diet. Eating less meat and less processed foods has changed how easily things move through my digestive system and I feel better. My body was still messed up from pregnancy for a while but I'm coming around. I am still sketchy with chicken after getting averse to it during pregnancy. I have no desire to eat it unless it's unrecognizable (in some other dish).

I'm off to bed, hopefully the baby will skip the hour long coughing and crying fit we've had the past two nights and sleep like the precious soul he is.

Wilted

2010-03-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

Here we are! I fell off the blogging wagon, I think it started with a bad night of sleep but who can remember these things? Here is what I do know, I went on a bike ride with one of my mom friends today and she put the hurt on me. woo! My face is warm 4 hours later. We hurt ourselves trying to chick this poor guy. We passed him on an uphill like he was standing still, then we promptly died. We deserved it! At least he didn't find out that he got chicked by two new moms!

I'm going to be sore tomorrow, and the next day. Liam looks pretty good here but he's still sick, I can hear him coughing via the baby monitor right now. I am calling the Doc tomorrow, I hate to get him on any meds but this poor kid has been sick long enough.

Liam looking at himself in a little mirror on his hand-me down exersaucer. He just started with this thing yesterday and it looks like a winner. Whatever entertains baby and gives mommy more time to get dishes done. HA HA! Thank goodness I exercise, otherwise, that last statement would be brutal!

First attempts at sitting up. He wilts over after about 10 seconds of sitting up. I know how he feels!

Here are the weekly workout totals: h:mm
Swim 2:10
Bike 3:30
Run 1:20
Walk 1:10
Weights :50
Core :35

Still sucking at core, I don't know what I'm thinking by skipping it, like this belly is going to tone itself. I have lost about 1 pound in the past 2 weeks which seems BAD but I have noticed a change in my body, I'm gaining muscle, so hopefully weight loss is around the corner. Running is feeling better, I can't wait for my first genuine runner's high! It will probably come seconds after chicking my first dude on the trails. ;-) Just kidding folks!

Warm, cozy, and numb

2010-03-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

I'm focusing on food this week, if I didn't make that clear. Wild blueberry pancakes and yogurt this morning, not quite as filling as the other meals this week but tasty. Snoqualmie Falls pancake mix is the best, get it if you have access to it, and Nancy's yogurt too. I'm going to try crepes later this week and see how long it takes, the pancakes are pretty quick.

I had to go to the dentist this morning to get two crowns replaced so Bill took some time off work to watch the baby while I was away. When I came home they were both out in the garage, the baby still in his jammies with one holey sock on one of his hands, apparently as an old sock glove. These are the moments that make mommies feel all warm and cozy inside!

Liam looking adorable wearing a sweater my former boss knitted for him. I went swimming a few hours after my dentist appointment and my mouth was still numb so I had to breath between strokes with part of my mouth since the other part was numb and felt like had taken a ball to the face. A new swim experience for me! Whatever it takes to mix things up.

Wittle Ittles in some knickers I got on Etsy. It was either knickers or a super hero outfit. I think that will be next.

Shadow of my breast

2010-03-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

First, this is not about what you think! I had a meeting at the library on campus today so I grabbed a notepad and pencil and furiously took notes at the meeting. I didn't wear a jacket since it was just across the street and I had on a nice blue turtle neck sweater. I hit the bathroom before heading back to my office, thank goodness, because I saw in the mirror that the pencil on the notepad had rubbed off onto my chest making what looked liked two distinct shadows beneath my breasts. Fortunately, the spots came off with some water and rubbing. But good grief! I am a walking disaster sometimes.

I'm trying to cut back on sugar so I got this "no sugar added" ice cream only to have Bill find that it's full of Splenda, fake sugar. Gross! Not even the wild blueberries would save this for me. Back to full fat, full sugar ice cream for me but once or twice a week. Thanks for the comments on yesterday's post! Keep them coming! I'm breaking out the crock pot soon (thanks sun safety barbie!) for chili.

This morning's breakfast was awesome! Egg sandwich on whole wheat english muffin with avocado on the side. YUM! The contraption next to the sandwich is what helped me kick the latte habit. You put warm milk in it and pump it and it creates frothy milk. Excellent. I have to save money when I can now that I work part time so quitting lattes was a good idea. Still trying to get ideas for breakfast but I could eat today's breakfast everyday.

Dinner! Steak from local organic farm cost $14.99/pound. Expensive but, if we went out to a restaurant we would have spent more than twice that. Eating local and organic will take some getting used to but if we eat less meat then splurging on local meat will even out financially.

In other random, odd, crazy news, I was at the gym lifting weights today and a guy told me I was looking good and that I should call him sometime. Yeah! Except, it was my husband's friend I think he meant I was looking good considering how hugely pregnant I was and that my husband should call him sometime if he ever gets a life again. Context! My life would be so exciting if taken out of context.

Food rampage

2010-03-08T19:23:00.000-08:00

That's it! Food is getting my attention now. I'm working on eating healthy foods and in a way that is better for the environment. Starting with breakfast, I used to just eat cereal and run out the door to go get a latte and I would be hungry again within an hour of getting to work. Now that I'm getting up earlier with baby, the excuses are over. No more lattes and no more cereal, I'm feeding myself a full meal everyday. I could use some new ideas for breakfast though if you have any. Today was oatmeal and a berry smoothie with coffee made with a coffee press and warm frothy milk. Good and filling. I didn't need to eat again until 11am when I had a slice of cheese and some Triscuts before swimming.

We're eating as much organic fruits and vegetables as we can, including frozen for things that are out of season. Even Liam is getting in on the act, helping himself to some organic peas. mmmmm! Yes it is more expensive and yes I know this stuff is a marketed product targeted at people like me who are willing to buy it. But it's better for the environment and we can afford organic so we're going to vote with our dollars.

We watched the documentary Food, Inc last night and it solidified what I was already starting to feel about meat and processed food that is offered in grocery stores. This is not a political blog so I won't get into the politics of food processing in the US, but see Food Inc if you are interested in how things get to your grocery store. Tonight I made quinoa for the first time and planned to serve it with grilled shrimp but when I went to the store the only thing they had was farmed shrimp from Thailand which didn't sound good at all. But I found some frozen clam chowder from a restaurant on the Oregon coast which is as good as local can get. We made the quinoa as a pilaf, if you haven't had it before, you make it just like rice. Quinoa contains a balanced set of amino acids which makes it a complete protein source. We'll have the leftovers with teriyaki chicken tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.

It looks like this food rampage will take some effort, if you have any great tips or recipes to help me, I would appreciate it. I don't have a ton of time to research stuff but I'm really enjoying cooking and I do feel better now with the big breakfast in the morning.

Good day sunshine + date fail!

2010-03-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday night, it's raining now, and we're all tired, but it was a great weekend, thank you sunshine! We are having an amazing spring and we are taking full advantage of it. Both Bill and I got out for a bike ride on Saturday in the sun. Today we did a little walk/run together and right now I'm blogging while watching the documentary Food, Inc. I was already leaning toward less meat and less processed foods but this is going to push me over the edge. I'll get back to on the impact.

We tried to go out on our 1st date Friday night but it was a big old fail. We had a friend stay at the house while Liam slept then we snuck off to see the movie Avatar. Only it was sold out. So we decided to go out for drinks but every dang restaurant we went in was packed. We finally ran into some friends at the gelato place downtown which is where we ended up. I guess we'll go on a date in another 5 months since that's our current pace.

Weekly totals:
Swim: 1.5 hr
Bike: 3:50
Run: 1:10
Walk: 1:40
Weights: 0
Core: :25

Still not getting enough core in. I'm too tired to make jokes about my jelly belly!

Raspberries solve your problems

2010-03-04T19:29:00.000-08:00

Did you know frozen raspberries are high in fiber? Liam practices his raspberries as soon as he wakes up in the morning and he almost has it figured out. I think he's trying to impress an older girl at daycare and today she apparently gave him some smooches so it must be working.

Liam loves grandmas and so do we! We need more grandma time! This is the only thing lacking right now, otherwise, we have adjusted pretty well to life with baby. We're still trying to manage our time better but we're doing well enough that I'm starting to see this kid thing as Bill and Erika's Excellent Adventure.

Whoa baby burrito! Of course, as soon as I say we are doing well, Liam turns up sick. Poor kid! We put him down for a nap this afternoon and he seemed fine. I zoomed out the door for a bike ride and literally as soon as I walked in the door he woke up crying and wouldn't stop crying. I had to give him a bath to calm him down. He was coughing and had a runny nose. Again.

He did manage to scarf down plenty of food despite being sick. Thank goodness our kid is a decent eater. By the way, I shouldn't let him hold the spoon, he bangs it on the table and he actually threw it in my direction last night and hit me with it. Hopefully that wasn't on purpose. That's not as bad as what he hit me with this morning. Motherhood can be quite glamorous!

This is not about how chunky I am

2010-02-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Daffodil time! Every year these come out early and we have a few nice days of weather and everyone (me) goes crazy and thinks its time for summer. Then the rain comes back for 3 more months and we all go truly insane.

I managed to get out on the bike today for 2 hours and oh did I suffer. I managed to talk a man into riding with me (woot) actually he's one of Bill's old friends and in his words, he'd been practicing the luge position on the couch for a while and wasn't in shape. We rode out Bellfountain which is a hilly ordeal that goes past a Christmas tree farm and we turned around at a wildlife refuge so it is a nice ride.

I soft pedaled home in time for Bill to head out on his own ride, Kings Valley, which goes through some of the local wine country areas. Baby decided that he didn't really need to nap today and when I left he was fussing. Bill had to take him away in the stroller so I would leave. It sucked! All was well when I came home, baby was asleep in his crib so I showered and ate lunch and then WAH! Baby was done sleeping for the rest of the day. So we got to cuddle and hang out together. Nice!

Here are my totals for the week:
Swim: 2 hours
Bike: 3 hours
Run: 1 hour
Walk: 48 min
Weights: 35 min
Core: 25 min
I need to do more core work so I will try to focus more on that next week.

Attach 21 pounds of butter to two rubber bands

2010-02-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

There's more than a baby on my hips. I went trail running today and my legs felt like two rubber bands with 21 pounds of butter attached to them. I am 21 massive pounds over race weight right now. The good news is that I don't have to lose all of those pounds yet, only half, because I want to try for one more baby (in a year or so) and it doesn't seem like I can get pregnant at race weight. So 10 pounds to lose over the next 3 months shouldn't be too awful but it feels awful right now! Regardless of all that, right now I'm hauling some serious ass around. Sorry. That's what it feels like.

I did manage to spend an hour walk/running on the trails this afternoon, 4 minutes running then 3 recovery minutes walking. My legs hurt from this effort which sucks, I've been working out for 3 months now, you would think I would be in better shape than this. wah. If you ever think "Who cares about a few pounds?" Go get a pound of butter and rest it on your belly or put it next to your thighs.

Bill enjoying some old Tour de France coverage in his man cave aka the garage. Liam didn't repeat his perfect night of sleep last night, but almost! He slept until 3:30 am and then after a small bottle went back to sleep until 6:45.m. If you didn't notice, baby care is all about how much they sleep.
My husband dresses like a peacock. Worked on me obviously. We are both trying to get back into shape after baby. Of course it will be easier for him and he'll get better results than me but I'm not bitter. No, I'm too sweet to be bitter. Sweetness and sunshine, that's me!

Having a baby in the house gives you a lot of good reasons not to work out so Bill and I are really trying to work together to get the workouts in. I like to go when baby is taking his afternoon nap, that way I miss little to nothing of his awake time. At a minimum, the time juggling and will toughen me up. Too bad your thighs don't get more toned from juggling time.

Sweet potatoes!

2010-02-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

Guess what Liam had for dinner? After having sweet potatoes for the first time, Liam slept from 7 pm - 6:15 am. Of course we were still waking up to check on him but if he can keep this up, we'll get over that! Please don't let this be the first and last time he does this! I was starting to give up on ever sleeping again.

The parenting books and articles say that solid foods aren't supposed to make kids sleep longer but uh, since we've been feeding this kid solids, he has been sleeping better. You do the math. I'll take the sleep!

Our big plans for the weekend are to take Liam to his first kid's birthday party and to get in a bike ride and a run during the one time it isn't raining. We have rain in the forecast from here to eternity. Less than 60 days until our Hawaii trip so I think I will survive the Oregon rain another year.

Hangover

2010-02-24T20:00:00.000-08:00

Now Marshall is using the nursing pillow for napping. Last week I worked out a little too much on Wednesday. After lifting weights I went for an hour long walk/run and didn't drink enough water. The next day I felt like I had a hangover with the bonus of stiff legs and difficulty walking. I was determined not to do the same thing this week so yesterday after lifting weights I only went on a 50 minute walk/run with less running and more walking. Guess what I feel like today? Hungover. This is making me want a table full of martinis.

Liam practicing blowing raspberries. There is a 7 month old little girl at daycare that blows raspberries all the time and now Liam is very focused on perfecting his. As soon as he wakes up you can hear him "mmmbrrmmm".

Baby sporting his robe for the 1st time. His 6 month old clothes are starting to get snug on him. I'm going to have to size up to 9 months on some of his clothes... he's just over 4 months old! Pretty soon I'm going to be complaining about my grocery bills!

Check out the hair line on these two! Liam woke up at 5:30am this morning and I tried to get him to snuggle me in bed for a little extra sleep but he wasn't having it. I said, "Liam, what if mommy cried like you do? What if I said 'Wah! WAH!'" That baby giggled at me. So we went back and forth for a while WAH (giggle) WAH (giggle). I love being his mommy. Even at 5:30 am on my day off.

Good day sunshine

2010-02-22T15:40:00.000-08:00

Liam's first trip to the beach! We are having incredible weather so we spent the weekend taking turns with the baby while the other worked out. Saturday afternoon we drove to the coast after Bill's bike ride. It was a great time except it was during Liam's nap time and he didn't understand what the heck was going on and told us so.

Sunday was another great day for weather so Bill let me sleep in and after a good breakfast I went out on a bike ride with a friend who also just had a baby. I think we rode for 2.5 hours and it was divine! When I got home no one was here. Bill took the baby out for a run, so I had some time to finish up yard work before hitting the shower.

After dinner, Bill put the baby down while I went to the new Trader Joe's in town. It opened a week or so ago and Sunday night was the perfect time to go. I loaded up on goodies and can't wait to go back for more. They were out of a few things, I think it will be quite popular here.

I came home from work to this scene today. The baby barricaded in with daddy no where to be found. Hmmmm....

Liam's first try with bananas. He was totally wound up like a wild monkey after he ate bananas for dinner. This kid gets more awesome every day which really helps with the sleep deprivation. I think the rain returns tomorrow so it's back to the trainer and running in the rain. It was good while it lasted!

The world through prescription sunglasses

2010-02-17T20:24:00.000-08:00

I picked up new prescription sunglasses today that will be awesome for cycling, a luxury I wouldn't normally afford myself except I had over $1,000 in an HSA that I had to spend down in a hurry. I had been squirreling away money ($150/month) to pay for the delivery of the baby but the bill never came. I finally called the hospital and they said, "Your balance is paid in full, there is nothing to pay." This after they quoted me a minimum of $1000 for the delivery back when I was pregnant. Whatever, now I have sweet sunglasses and two new crowns for my teeth that will be installed next month.

I had a plan to take my new shades for a bike ride this afternoon but when I went to get ready I realized my bike shoes were still wet from when Bill hosed me down a few days ago. It's not quite warm enough to bike in wet shoes (low 50s) so I switched gears and took my new shades for a run. By then Liam was napping so I was on my own. I always run with baby in the stroller so this was going to be a lonely but faster run without him.

Yo what up homey? I took Liam to my office today dressed like a gangsta rapper. My old boss is still babysitting him during her lunch hour on Wednesdays. Today I threw some weights around in the gym while he charmed the office ladies.

I wish I could say the run went great, I loved the view with the new shades (trees have leaves? Not blurry blobs?) and started off feeling like Brad Pitt in Burn After Reading. It didn't last though, I'm just too heavy still. It felt like I was running into a headwind but there was no wind. Just jiggle. There's no jiggle on the bike, maybe I will become a cyclist after all.

Eat this, not that

2010-02-16T20:19:00.000-08:00

I picked up a copy of the book "Eat This, Not That Supermarket Survival Guide" at Costco this weekend and I want to recommend it to you for a reality check on what is in the food most of us buy. For example, V8 VFusion Light Peach Mango has 50 calories and 10g sugar per 8 oz while V8 Splash Mango Peach has 80 calories and 18g sugar. VFusion Light has real fruit and vegetable juice while V8 Splash is water and high fructose corn syrup with only 10% juice. It makes you want to read labels even closer.

I don't have any dramatic workout stories to share with you today. I aqua jogged hoping that will help keep shin splints and other injuries at bay. I miss running, real running so much. There is no way I can run again, in the way that is enjoyable to me, until I lose some more weight. The pounds are not just dropping off but I'll get there. And I will appreciate it that much more and I think that is a life lesson I am finally learning.

Baby win swim fail

2010-02-15T20:24:00.000-08:00

Liam Skyping with grandma. It was almost like having a babysitter!

Liam had his 4 month check up today, he is in the 95th percentile for height and the 65th for weight so even though he looks like a chunk-a-monk (chunky monkey) he's actually tall and average weight. The doc cleared him to start on solid foods so we rushed to the store to buy rice cereal. We're hoping heavier food in his belly means a little longer sleep. Everything looks great with Liam, he is a superstar baby which is more than I can say for myself but we'll get to that in a minute.

I mixed some rice cereal with some pumped breast milk (tmi?) and Liam took to eating like a champ. I need some baby size bowls but otherwise I think we are set with adding solid foods to his diet. That was easy!

Now on to his less than stellar mommy and another swim fail. After a 12 minute continuous swim coach politely called 6 x 25 your choicer stroke. I boldly declared that I would like to lead the lane so I could work on fly and have clear water. That went well, I'm still using too much knee to kick, but I was happy with that short bit of practice.

The coach aka Major Pain called the main set:
400 IM
4 x 50 fly
300 IM
4 x 50 back
200 IM
4 x 50 breast
100 IM
4 x 50 free

If you aren't a swimmer and you are still reading this, I can summarize for you: that is one evil main set. I slapped on some fins since I haven't done that much non-free in over a year. Pregnancy puts a damper on fly... but I figured I could keep up with fins on.

The 400 IM went well enough, I was feeling nice and warm until we get half way through the 4 x 50 fly. By now I'm one arming the fly and "focusing on kicking". On the last 50 I was breathing heavy. On to 300 IM. Oh my goodness. That 75 fly took it out of me, I was instantly in survival mode. I made it through until the 4 x 50 breast when I had to take off my fins. Wah! That was the sound of me cracking.

Someday I will enjoy a workout like this. Not today though!

Hubby took a hose to me

2010-02-14T19:24:00.000-08:00

My triathlon bike looked like I was off roading it today after riding after a rain shower. It's been a long while since I've ridden on a day that wasn't sunny. It was great! Today I rode a whopping 1 hour 15 minutes and it felt better than the last time I rode. Cycling is my least favorite of the sports that make up triathlon. I like it because it gets you out in nature and seeing things from a different perspective but even with that it gets mentally tough to be riding for hours on end like you do for Ironman training.

Oregon road grime

After the hose

Tomorrow we take Liam in for his 4 month check-up which means more shots for his vaccinations. Bummer dude. We are hoping the pediatrician clears Liam to eat rice cereal. Perhaps a photo of that tomorrow?