Four

What a great feeling it is to be four. When you are four, the world is at your fingertips, life is one big piece of monkey cake and then you wake up crabby from a nap, and everyone is out to get you. I wish life was that simple to me still.

The birthday cake is gone, the decorations are all on the floor and with Wall-E in his Leapster, James could not be happier. He woke up in the middle of the night to check and make sure he was still four and that life didn't play a mean trick on him to make him 3 again. He is so proud of being 4.

A day centered around family fun with James. The morning at Bonkers and roller skating. A nap and an afternoon of bowling, cake and presents. Life is Good!

Brushing the cobwebs off

Just wanted to stop in and clean up a bit since my last post was last year. So I am still on the bench after the chicago marathon. I have plantar faciitis. I'm on month 4 and I don't think it will ever go away. I miss a good hard run- it was 57 today and I was really wanting to go for a run. Instead I decided to pulled out the bike and pick James up. Oh well, it could be worse.

Tomorrow is James' 4th Birthday. He is such a weed. He told me, "tonight is my last night driving in my car bed as a three year old." Ugh I just want to freeze time and keep him as a cute 3 year old who says goofy things and tells me I'm beautiful. It doesn't take much to impress a three year old! We made his monkey cake and cupcakes for daycare. I has hinting toward a pirate or tractor cake, but he reminded me it was his day.

At this rate, I'll pop back in in July... ; )

What are your kids reading?

As an avid word eater myself, I find I have book "piles" everywhere-
In the living room:
YA chapter books for my classroom
Best Practices Texts for my classroom
Parenting books
Texts for my Reading Specialist degree
Guilty Pleasure texts- like Chelsea Handler, that hot mess Tori Spelling and a new fave David Sedaris
In the kitchen:
Cookbooks, magazines and favorite recipes
Upstairs in my craft room:
idea magazines, old teaching materials, art project ideas for James
Next to my yoga mat:
Triathlon and marathon training books
Next to the couch:
current magazines from Triathlete, Runners World,, Mailbox Preschool, Taste of Home and Us (gotta see what Britters has been up to!)
In James' room:
ABC/123 books, board books, pop-ups, well worn books, books that make us giggle, poetry books, Golden books and creepy books that make us wriggle...

So I guess if it's one thing I want to pass on to him, it's this love/passion I have for language. We went to Borders in the mall yesterday and if you have ever been to a Borders in the mall, you know how jam packed the space is and how hard it is to move with 1 other person in the children's section... so we played w/ books and walked away w/ 2 new favorites:



He loves interactive books right now. Pop ups, lift a flap, googly eyes, etc. The bus w/ wheels was one we left behind- shhh. So here's my big Q of the day- What are your kid's favorites? James has 4 that we reread constantly. He will "read" them with me when we are out on a walk or driving to school because he knows them by heart.
I could have made a list of 20, but made myself quit.

I'm alive I swear...

Coming up for a quick breathe of air...still training for Chicago Marathon...need to get in longer long runs. Must get 2 more hours into each day...

Ok- I'm a little stressed, things are calming down though- love my new job. It is a little demanding though. I'll survive.

Insert end of static Fuzz here...

It's been so long...
Sorry work called last Monday...I tried to pretend not to be home, but!!!!

Triathlon Update:
That night I realized something- I forgot my shoes, running skirt and socks @ the venue. Luckily I tracked them down and have to go pick them up. When? I don't know...

Also I celebrated the big 3-1. After this one, I've realized something. I put way too much thought into my husband's birthday. This year he too will be getting a card that says, "Happy Birthday, go buy yourself something." How easy is that?!? So I sang silently to myself, then made James sing to me, too.

Drum roll please....

So here is my recap-
I'm in the red suit in the back.
Can you spot me?

500 yard swim: 15:25
My buoy mantra worked really well. I did stop @ 2 buoys to fix my goggles that were kicked off my face. If they were cheap, I would have ditched them. I spent a lot of time breath stroking- WTF? I hate that stroke. I think I did it because I had so many issues siting. I'll work on that more.

T1- Swim to Bike 3:18- Pretty slow. I had to dry off and put on socks, shoes and clothes. Many others just hopped on sans shoes and clothes...I was afraid of a wedgie. Nearly tripped over my bike running it out because I forgot to start the Garmin. Why aren't they waterproof by the way?

12 mile Bike- 44:12- pretty flat, rolling course. I averaged 18 mph according to the bike computer. Was passed by only 1 other female. She was on the same bike as me. I really need to learn to push myself more. I get into a "comfortable" pace that I could do all day and never really hit race pace. I dismounted the bike and ran it into transition for T2. No whistles- no penalties!

T2- bike to run- 1:21 Hung up the bike, took off the helmet and traded it for a hat and grabbed my water. Glad I did- it was pretty steamy.



3 mile Run: 27:36- Who put the led balloons around my ankles? Here I am passing Matt my #1 supporter. I reminded him to call mom and let her know I was outta the water. Whoops- sorry Ma! They lady behind me was 65- there were a ton-o-Senior Citizens in the race. I remember telling myself the last mile, "This is a race Granny, move it." There are some bad a$$ SC's out there. With the help of fellow runner Tom(57)- who huffed and puffed the last mile w/ me we averaged 8:39 . Most of the run was in the sun. We went up and over the bridge and turned into the finish line.

With that I walked around, picked up the bike, showered, grabbed Matt some cookies and posed for a picture with the bike. Note to self- drink Gatorade after running in the heat, I finally feel better now. I drank a lot of water...but just not enough I guess. Overall, I'm happy with my finish. I spent most of the time dreading the swim, the swim time dreading the swim and the bike and run beating myself up over how poorly I swam. My nemesis...

Final Results
6/8 in my division
53/82 females
1:31:49 finishing time. My goal was 1:40...can't I be satisfied?

Make-up Tri--CHECK

So I finished my tri today- I'll do a full recap of the event when my official time posts, I'm guessing 1 hour and 30 minutes. Here is a pic of the transition area and my my dangling bike- Triathletes are as superstitious as baseball fans- how wacky...