My Adorable Girls!

Bennington Daze Race Results 26:33

So, I did it! I got my first official race under my belt, and let me tell you, it was so gratifying! I didn't finish with the best time ever, and I didn't run the whole thing, but I felt so great afterward. This was exactly the motivation I needed to keep going with the C25K program.

The race was at 8:00 Saturday morning, and I think it was at least 80 degrees with high humidity, but we've been training in the heat during the evenings. The morning heat didn't seem nearly as miserable. This was a small race, with probably about 100-150 people total. About 60 of those ran the 5 mile course, while the rest of us did the 2 mile. My main goal starting out was to at least finish before the first 5 miler finished. I accomplished that goal by about 3 minutes. My official time was 26 minutes 33 seconds. It's crazy to me that someone finished the 5 mile run in like 29 minutes!

Shannon, Lisa, and Michele ran with me. It was fun to have them there too, even though we all didn't stay together the whole time.

Lisa, Shannon, Michele, and me

I've been thinking about doing another 2 mile race before the 5K in August, but I'm not sure yet. We just finished Week 4 Day 2 of the C25K program, so we are officially halfway through. It's getting a lot harder, especially with the 100 degree heat we've had the last few days. I am definitely feeling stronger, and I can tell my endurance is greatly improving. I'm a little disappointed that I haven't lost much weight since starting this, but I'm guessing that's because I've gained some muscle weight.

In the next few weeks, I will start making goals for the 5K. At this point, I don't know what are realistic goals so I'll wait on that.

Lots going on!

So life has been crazy lately, and I just haven't stopped for a few minutes to update my blog. I went to bed at like 9:00 last night because I was just so exhausted from being on the go constantly. I've been busy with my kids and my nanny kids lately. We've been to the pool, the splash park, the Children's Museum, the park, and open gym at the community center in the last week. Here are a few pics of the week's highlights:

Swimming at the Valley YMCA

Dressed up as a car at the Children's Museum

Awesome Sesame Street exhibit at the Children's Museum

Swimming at aunt Kris's house

Madison has also recently restarted swimming lessons and gymnastics. She's doing swimming lessons at Montclair Community Center, and I am not impressed. The water is freezing cold (it's indoors), and the class is structured really poorly. We have 4 more classes left, and then we're done with that. She's back at Premier for gymnastics, and she's loving it. I was able to talk them into letting her be in the 3 year old class with Ethan. She has a little problem with listening and following directions, but when she does listen she does an awesome job. She really is a good little gymnast!



Last Sunday Macy was baptized into the Catholic Church. We only invited my mom, Cory's dad and his wife, and my friend Keri (Macy's Godmother) and her family. There were 15 babies baptized that day, so it was a little crazy. Macy was not happy when the priest poured the water on her head. She screamed! She looked beautiful in her dress. It was the same one that Madison wore for her Baptism 2 years ago. We all went to lunch at Wheatfield's afterwards and had a nice time.


As everyone knows, the CWS is going on right now. I have been working for a friend of my mom's at the Hilton hotel downtown selling baseball gear. The Southern Mississippi players and fans had been staying there until they were eliminated from the tournament. This has been a great experience for me and lots of fun. We also attended the Opening Ceremonies for the CWS last Friday night. Madison LOVED watching the fireworks. It was so much fun to watch her eyes light up! I think she's going to have a fun 4th of July this year.


Saturday morning I will be doing the Bennington Daze 2 mile run along with my friends, Lisa and Shannon. We've just finished our 3rd week of training for the 5K, and we kind of want to see our progress and get real race experience. We don't plan to run the whole 2 miles, but I really think this will be a positive thing for us. Hopefully I'll update with my time and race photos later this weekend. Wish us luck!

Potty Training Nightmares

So, since Madison has to be potty trained by August to go to her new preschool I decided to start trying again. This is the third attempt (3rd times a charm, right?). The first time we started was last September or sometime around then. She ended up with a UTI so we quit trying. Then we started up again in January. I thought she was pretty well trained, but then a drastic change in her life happened - a new baby sister. I wasn't with her constantly to help her. While Macy was in the NICU, Madison was shifted around between my friends' houses and grandma's house. Despite their huge efforts, the inconsistency just really put a hault on things. I finally gave in and started putting diapers back on her in April.

Last weekend Cory and I came up with a great plan of using a sticker chart reward system. Each time she pees on the potty she gets 1 sticker and for poop she gets 2. After she gets 15 stickers she gets to pick a prize out of the prize basket. After she is 100% potty trained she gets a new bike. I already bought it, and I have shown it to her in hopes of her really wanting it.

We are now on day 5 of no diapers, and guess what I did this afternoon? I broke down and put a diaper on her. I was so fed up with her blantantly peeing her pants. She is smart enough and totally "gets it", but she is LAZY! She is also extremely strong-willed. I don't have enough patience for this right now, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. This has been the most difficult part of motherhood thus far.

I've read tons of potty training methods and have tried a few. None of them actually force your kid to not pee and poop in their pants. I've decided that this is going to be something that the professionals' methods aren't going to work for. This has to Madison's idea, and she'll do it on her own time. Frustrating!

My new adventure

Friday night after a margarita (or 3) with friends, I told them I had been contemplating doing something I never thought I'd do - start running and run a 5K. I asked if anyone was up for joining me, and my friend Lisa said she would. So we talked more seriously about it after we had both sobered up a little and decided we'd give it a go.

I found a program that supposedly helps you go from couch potato to a 5K runner in 9 weeks with some strict training. There's a 5K I'm aiming to run in August so this is perfect timing. Last night I went out and bought some new running shoes because I knew I needed to prepared to start this journey. After I got the kids to bed I went out to Standing Bear's trail and started my quest. The first part of the program is to walk briskly for 5 minutes, and then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes. This doesn't sound too hard, right? Wrong! I seriously thought I might die during the last 5 minutes. Luckily, my van was within sight by that point so I had something to aim for.

The program doesn't have me running again until tomorrow night so I have some time to recover. For some reason my abs and ribs feel like I've been kicked in the gut. I'm hoping this pain will be gone by tomorrow.

The reason I've decided to do this is because I feel like I need something to do that's my own. My life revolves around my kids (which I love, obviously), but I feel like I need something else to define me. I'm not sure how else to really explain this. I also have been having trouble sleeping, I need to lose weight to fit into a bridesmaid dress in July, and I just want to feel better all around. I have some naysayers (my husband being #1), but these people are motivating me even more. Now that I've officially blogged about this, I plan to follow through, and I will have pictures on here of me at the finish line on August 15. Wish me luck!