Time Flies

I can't believe it's July 2nd. Where has my summer off GONE??? I have to register for classes in 4 days.

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGHHHH

I feel like I haven't got anything done I meant to. And summer's thankfully not over, but ohmigosh what have I been DOING??? I guess some days I'm ridiculously productive, but others less so. And what have the productive days yielded?? My house is still, most days, a disaster zone. Like, you know when someone says their house is messy and not to come over or if you surprise someone and catch them with a 'dirty' house and they're all embarrassed 'cause it's such a mess??? My house is worse, I guarantee it. Even when it's in we-have-company-coming mode it's horrendous. I work and work and work at it and never find any space or clean any surfaces.....I throw out bag after bag after BAG of old clothes, junk, ohmigosh COMPUTER stuff EVERYwhere (Mr. Man - OY).

SO....bllaaaaaaaaahhhhh....

ALL that said, work has been going well this summer, which, being self-employed, is great. :) And we've done some fun things, even, too, which is additionally great. AND I only have a year left. LESS than that. This time next year I'll have already even gone to my super-boring graduation ceremony, walked across the stage dressed like an idiot, smiled for pictures..... I can't WAIT.

There was supposed to be a point to this post...what was it?? Oh yes!! I don't think I've ever told you, but I subscribe to and LOVE Canadian Running. And you're all aware I'm not even all that serious a runner. I find every issue I get just packed with fascinating articles about incredible elite athletes and tonnes of tidbits and information for the less-than-serious runner, and even beginner! It's GREAT.

Anyway, the current issue is probably my all-time favourite - the whole magazine is devoted to running as a means of weight-loss. Yes this is sometimes touched on in other issues, but this issue is written like, specifically for ME. And off the weight-loss topic specifically there's a fantastic review of running/sports bras and men's singlets for those of us who have no idea what the heck we're looking for when we wander into the running section of a sport store... aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (the contented sigh of the newly-all-knowing).

My FAVOURITE article this issue is entitled "Training with Weight" and just cracked me up. Read the whole article HERE but here's my favourite part:

"He handed me a pair of pants and ushered me into the change room. I pulled them on and glanced in the mirror, horrified. The “loose” pants were tight, revealed all and left me looking vaguely like a sausage being squeezed out of its casing. The pants were size XL, which, to me only meant one thing: I was not thin enough to be in a running store. I was not a real runner."

If you've EVER had that or a similar experience, take a minute to read the article (even if not, it is pretty good). It addresses the dressing-for-running problem we all have and gives tips on how to deal with them. AND some great tips on how to get equipped and keep motivated for beginners. LOVE it.

Also...playing with the layout a bit - so please excuse me as I'm under construction. ;) hahaha I'll settle on something sooner or later, I promise!

Something Different

I think you know by now that one of my "secret" loves is scrapbooking, or really paper-crafting in general. I always feel so accomplished when I finish a layout or card and I can't ever get over flipping through my finished work. It's like I have to show it off over and over and over again just to myself. hahaha Weird, I know.

Anyway, recently I FINALLY got down to business working on a book for Little Miss, and I had SO much fun writing to her I thought I'd share. As incredibly off-topic as it may be. ;)

(ON topic, I did yogilates today and have soccer tonight where I'm expecting based on last week's reports we will be short players and I will be on the field for the ENTIRE hour and a half. Oy.)

Hiya, my darling girl!! Oh I LOVE you. I can't tell you how excited I am to be working on this book for you. But maybe I'm a little bit ahead of myself – let me back up for a minute.

I am your MOM (you poor thing!) BUT you're still alive at 21 months so I figure I can't be as horrid a mother as I feel some days – lucky you! I don't want to steal the spotlight here (though your Uncle Jon would argue with that) BUT I just wanted to make sure you know who you're talking to. Or reading from. Or...well, whatever.

AND before you get TOO into your book I wanted to put a little bit of a disclaimer at the very beginning – I did not mean to become a scrapbooker – HA! Crazy, eh? Before you were around I had a vague sort of inclination to do a little bit of what I liked to call 'photo-journalling' – those books could be around somewhere. ANYway, I'd take a few pictures, paste them into a book, and write about the pictures.

THEN when you showed up, I though, hey now. She's special. I want to do something a little bit more special. But I did NOT want to scrapbook – it takes FOREVER and is such a waste of TIME and MONEY. So I bought some cheap stuff at the store and slapped together a few pages about your first few moments in life and thought I was pretty cool. I mean, I'm making a book of memories for my kiddo who won't remember this stuff for herself, right??

THEN through all whatever I ended up becoming a scrapbooking consultant. Now, when I tell you I have to go to work I'm going out to teach people how to scrapbook and sell them stuff to make beautiful books for their kiddos. Crazy, eh?? I NEVER thought I was this much of a girlie-nerd, but there ya' go.

SO....SOME of this book for you, is going to ROCK – knock your socks off. And then SOME.....not so pretty. Like, the page opposite this – 'you are my sunshine' – I LOVE LOVE those photos. I don't know what I was thinking when I put them there like THAT, but there you go.

THAT is the disclaimer.

NOW, let me tell you about YOU! I LOVE you. You are hilarious. You are wonderful. You are BEAUTIFUL. Daddy and I should have called some sort of media agent the moment you were born – we would have made OODLES of money letting people take your pictures for baby-food labels, or you could be a Baby Gap model..... Seriously, people tell us all the time you're WAY cuter than the Gerber Baby. So, kudos to you! We like to think it's because you have good genes....

You were born ON YOUR DUE DATE of all days, on September 7th, 2007. Now, I HAVE to tell you, I was REALLY hoping you would be born in August because MY birthday is in September, too, and I knew if yours was mine would be oh-so-NOT a big deal ever again. But, alas, you came, and took over. It started on September 6th when I went into labour (by the way, you TOTALLY owe me for that – not pretty! We had a doula who did up a labour-book all about your birth, which is WAY too cool, and kinda' gross....) and then you arrived at 5:56am on the 7th.

And you were here, and perfect, and TINY! Your head was so perfectly round which at the time I didn't realize was weird, but I guess getting squeezed through such a tiny space often makes baby's heads kinda'...well, cone-shaped. But you were perfect. Round head, DARLING button nose. The Red* scowl, right from the beginning – only us true-Red*s can do that scowl. Mimi tries to mimic us but it'll never happen. It's quite the scary look you've inherited from your Papa.

Mimi and Daddy were in the delivery room because I wanted all the back-up I could get! Going from pregnant to a mommy is a SCARY thing and I didn't know if I could do it! But after I met you, we found our groove.

Back to basics

Okay, so, the Bravo-challenge is on!! hahaha We busted out the WiiFit yesterday, as I mentioned, and so bright and early this morning I weighed myself again for our challenge updates.

Yeah, somewhere, magically as I slept I lost 3.3lbs.

Do you see why I hate WEIGHT as a measure of fatness or fitness or whatever? It's so....NOT! hahaha BUT I DID read relatively recently in 'Women's Health' (obviously the be-all-and-end-all; forget what my professors teach me, if it's not in 'Women's Health' it CAN'T be true! hahaha Ohmigosh I'm KIDDING folks - geeze!!) that people who DO weigh themselves every day(ish) lose whatever-percentage more weight than those who DON'T because it's that CONSTANT reminder or something like that. They backed it up with some study... let me know if you want a more succinct description and I'll see if I can track it down.... ;)

SO, back to the weighing-game.

TODAY: 167.3 lbs Just glancing back at my previous WiiFit stats it looks like my lowest was 165.3, so I'm only up 2 lbs in however-the-heck-long it's been. Meh. There could be worse things.
ALSO today ran 5km on Optimus Prime after Little Miss went to bed. Mr. Man WiiFitted it, too - two days up for him! yay!

Tactless, thy name be Bravo.

OKAY. So I've been DYING to share this with you since it happened last week but as much as I love the blog it's definitely NOT been a priority of late. Which MAY be the problem, actually....

Last Friday I had a soccer game, as I do now every Friday 'till the end of the summer. I LOVE soccer. And, relatively speaking, I'm good. I mean, I'm no Beckham by any means, but TWO weeks ago I was easily one of if not the best on the field. (Changes week to week - depends on how ON the game I am...)

Well this past week I started and played the first half like CRAP. I was HORRID. It was awful. It's not fun when you play like a bum. Regardless of the score if I personally am playing like a reject then I FEEL like a reject and I don't want to play. It's embarassing. I'm better than a reject-player so I should play better than a reject-player. Does that sound stuck up?

Second half, I was AWESOME. I was SO much better. I was on my game, I didn't let anyone through, I knocked someone over (always a perk, and ALWAYS by 'accident' as in my PURPOSE was not to knock the gal over but to get the ball).... I was better. It was great.

So, AFTER the game there was all this hubbub going on with the family because Bravo, my darling dearest brother, is moving out of his house 1.1km from my house, back in with our parents. And Friday night was a moving-stuff-out night. SO after the game we head over to help and grab some stuff he's getting rid of that's perfectly wonderful and really wanted to come live at my house (like some fantastic end-tables for beside my couch - yay!!)

Somewhere in the moving-stuff-out event Bravo and I got chatting and I was giving him the run-down of the game and how awesome I'm playing and how much I love soccer and WHAT A DIFFERENCE RUNNING has made in my game - 'cause let me tell ya' - OY!! WHAT a difference!! hahaha INCREDIBLE. I LOVE it. I'm the oldest I've ever been while being a player and I have the best stamina I've ever had while on the field.

So with THIS news, that my hours and hours and hours of vigorous training and running and just wowzers-that's-a-lot-of-exercise has actually had an EFFECT somewhere Bravo says "well that's good, at least, that even though your size is staying the same you're seeing some benefits from all that exercise!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

EVEN THOUGH I'm just as FAT as when I STARTED it's good to know I can PLAY better!!

Ohmigosh I almost died. I reviewed the conversation with Mr. Man later and laughed - he tried desperately to put a positive spin on it for me and then finally relented - there really is NOT another way to take that, is there? TOO TOO TOO funny!!!

SO, Bravo. I've taken that as a challenge. I WILL get smaller, gosh darn it!! You just may not NOTICE 'cause you see me too darned much! ;) hahaha

Consequentially MONDAY I went for a good run outside, 6.68km - I ran a whole new route, kinda' spur of the moment - I got to the fork in the road and I HAD planned to go right to a point and turn around and come back, but I last-second decided to go LEFT and do a loop instead - it was great!!

TUESDAY I went for a leisurely 5km on Optimus Prime.

TODAY I did Yogilates while Mr. Man earned 30+ Wii Fit credits - it was kinda' fun to workout 'together' - he used that side of the room and I used that side [pointing].

I FINALLY weighed myself - it's been ages. Ha. And, actually, that information is on the WiiFit. ALL I know is it's up 4.6lbs from LAST time which was like, 73 days ago. SOOOOOOOOooooo... I have NO idea how I've been doing 'cause I haven't been monitoring my weight or my size or whatever. LOOKS like I've gone a little backwards, so let's fix that, shall we?? Prove Bravo wrong... muahaha!!

....................................

I have no words for what to put as a title for today's post. I just read the first post of my friend's blog and it was...surprising. Take a few - read it. Amazing, really. I'm always in awe of people when they see their problems and take them face on. I mean, we ALL have problems, but when you get past the point of lip-service, in any aspect of life, personal, work, health-related, whatever - when you get to that point when you're actually ready to DO something about it, that's the moment that just leaves me....awestruck.

Kudos, my friends. And best of luck. You have lots of love and support over here!!

(Report so far this week - yogilates yesterday while Little Miss did NOT sleep, but did not scream either, so we'll take it! AND ran 4 miles today. Yay.)

Oh, how I loathe 'nap' time.

It literally took me two hours to get Little Miss to go to sleep today. TWO HOURS! Who the heck HAS that kind of time to just throw away in the middle of the day?!?!

Here was the plan: put the TIRED, GROUCHY kiddo down for nap at 1:00 - the SAME time as every other day. The same time that she refuses to sleep for me at and dutifully lies down and falls asleep at for the Baby Whisperer at daycare on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I do the EXACT routine prescribed by the Baby Whisperer (she's not REALLY a baby whisperer - she just looks after Little Miss when I'm in school and now on Tuesdays and Thursdays...otherwise the child would NEVER sleep....) because it works like a charm.

NOT!!

Step 1: determine child is exhausted from an interesting night of....sleeping....or something like sleeping, anyway.
Step 2: feed child lunch at lunch time.
Step 3: 1 hour(ish) later, after snuggling said tired, grouchy child, add blankie and turn on go-to-sleep music.
Step 4: continue to snuggle child for at least five minutes until child relaxes and is nice and calm.
Step 5: lay child down in crib with blankie pulled to cover eyes. Tuck in kiddo so she stays nice and warm and snuggly - the best to encourage sleeping.
Step 6: sit down beside crib and wait patiently for child to fall asleep. Leaving before sleep is achieved will prompt child to quickly STAND up, throw all blankies and snuggle-bears from the crib, including her suckie, and screaming will soon follow.
Step 7: WAIT.....for half an hour.........
Step 8: determine child is asleep. (I SWEAR she was)and QUIETLY and CAREFULLY sneak out of room, closing door behind you.
Step 9: prepare for desperately-needed yogilates practice.
Step 10: Wait...was that Little Miss I just heard?? No, it can't have been - she was sound asleep....
Step 11: finish yogilates preparations. Try to ignore the giggles and laughter and shouts of "MUM" coming from Little Miss' bedroom.
Step 12: complete the first 15-minute section of yogilates workout whilst attempting to tune out child's screams - she WILL go to sleep.
Step 13: maybe she's pooped her pants - better go check..... No poop. Return child to crib, return blankets and necessary bear and soother to sleeping positions. Child nods that it is indeed sleep-time.
Step 14: return to yogilates practice.
Step 15: try to ignore increasing decible of child's screams while maintaining inner focus in tree pose.
Step 16: wonder if child is going to choke on all that crying - she HAS to fall asleep soon!!
Step 17: return attention to inner peace and relaxation of yogilates pose...wait, what pose am I supposed to be doing right now??
Step 18: finish all the 'workout' poses and forget about the relaxation pose - how the heck am I supposed to focus on the skin melting off my face with screaming like that going on??
Step 19: turn off t.v. cover up yoga clothing, go save Little Miss from what is apparently certain death.
Step 20: snuggle your darling baby because you love her and she needs you....and then she falls asleep.
Step 21: wait.....for baby to wake up so you can go buy more diapers.........

And THAT is how it's done!!

At least tonight I get to play soccer. Thank goodness.

The Ultimate Motivation

SHOPPING

That's right, ladies! Do I have your attention yet?? hahaha

On Thursday last week after my morning run and post Mr. Man and I had some time to ourselves. We had originally planned to hit a matinee movie buuuuuuuuut turned out the online listing was incorrect and the movie was playing three hours later than we needed it to - boo on that. SO, being at the mall and having TONNES of disposable income (ha ha haaaaaaaaa... OY!) we went SHOPPING!

There are many 'girl' things in life I really really do not enjoy.

I LOVE shopping. I LOVE new things. I LOVE finding a sale. I LOVE how awesome I feel in my brand-new stuff. It's shallow, it's superficial, it's ridiculous, but I LOVE IT.

Mr. Man bought some time for an online game and we wandered. I had hoped to buy a new pair of shoes and/or flip flops for the summer - my nice leather flip flops from a few years back finally died last year leaving me stumped every time I go to leave the house in the nice weather this year - what DO I wear on my feet??? BUT we wandered in and out of shoe stores and I just did NOT find that pair, you know? I found lots of okay pairs, and some I really liked, but we really DON'T have any money so I was being super-dee-duper picky for a change. Kudos to me.

THEN I said, oh heck, let's go to the sport store and just drool over running clothes. I do only have the one pair of super-sexy Saucony capris Mom gave me for Christmas (which I LOVE, by the way, except I'm sure it's cruelty for me to appear outside of the home in them....SORRY all you bystanders! hahaha) and a technical tee I got free for registering early for the 5K run I did last month. Which makes.....ONE complete running 'outfit'. And I'm a sweater. Like, ew. SO by the end of one run I've completely soaked through my gear and that's only one of seven days down in the week.

Good thing I don't try to run every day. ;) HAhaha!! There's a REASON for laziness!!

ANYWAY, fortune of good fortunes, or....not..... we wander into the store, and SURPRISE! There's a SALE!! A SALE!! Oh, did I mention how much I LOVE sales?!?! I LOVE sales!! 25% off short-sleeved and sleeveless athletic shirts and 25% off SHORTS!! I couldn't believe it!!! I mean, 'proper' workout gear is EXPENSIVE, so 25% translates to a good chunk of change!! I wasn't thrilled about the 'shorts' sale, but figured I'd take a peak just in case, but definitely planned to grab another shirt or two.

Holy CRAP it was fantastic. UNDER ARMOUR - hello, have you ever seen or heard of THAT being on sale?!?! - was included in the sale and is FANTASTIC!!! I even found SHORTS that I LOVE LOVE LOVE and can't believe I've lived this long in my life without them. I ended up with two pairs of FANTASTIC, NOT-freakishly-weird-looking running shorts and two feels-like-cotton-works-like-UA-tees that fit and feel AWESOME.

I've never been so stoked to run in my life, I don't think. I LOVE my new clothes. I got a run in Friday before getting down to the grindstone and working and found an excuse, though no time for a run, to wear one of my new tees to an amusement park yesterday - why be hot in all that sunshine???

I'm looking forward to at least three runs this coming week - a different CLEAN outfit for each run! hahaha

For all the shopaholics out there looking for some motivation to exercise - go splurge on some GREAT gear. None of the fancy oh-I-look-hot-in-this garbage - the functional, comfortable, FANTASTIC stuff you're never going to want to take off. You'll workout JUST to have an excuse to wear it!!