The End of One

I'm officially putting this blog to rest.

It was a decision I struggled with. One that I talked about with D for many hours. You see, I wrote a post or two that people at work read too much into. They made assumptions. Crazy ass assumptions, but assumptions nonetheless. Work is an integral part of my life (I spend so many hours there) but I learned that if you write about it in the veil of vagueness it leaves too much for interpretation.

So I just abandoned this blog. True, earlier in the year I tried to do a few posts, but my heart just wasn't really in it. It still stung from what I felt as betrayal. That people would make assumptions instead of just asking me directly. Oh well. Lesson learned. It was a tough decision and I took the cowards path by just  not writing at all.

But lately, I realized I missed the writing outside of work. I like to write and I need that passion back. So, I've started up a new blog: Run. Eat. Read.. I'm distancing myself from Karma (but I still believe strongly in karma and know what comes around goes around.)

So, the new blog will not touch any part of my professional life, it will stick to my passions: my family, running, eating, wellness. You're welcome to read it, if you like. I'm going to play around with the design, have some fun with writing again.

It's sort of like a mission to re-find myself. Bring it on.

Joy

Life offers us lots of simple pleasures.

• The feeling of accomplishment when you cook a nutritious meal for your children and they actually like it.
• Seeing the goofy smile on your sons' faces when one of their favorite songs starts to play and they dance their hearts out.
• The plea for one more kiss good night (even if it is to delay bedtime just a little longer). 
• Crossing a finish line ... and cutting at least a few seconds from your time.
• The taste of a perfect cup of coffee. 
• The sip of a delectable wine. 
• Laughter shared with friends - especially laughter that can't be held in. 
• Being surrounded by family who love you, who give you small and big gifts because they appreciate who you are.
• Getting a compliment when you work your arse off, so it feels even more fulfilling.
• Reading a really good book, curled up in a blanket. 
• Sitting outside with your boys as they chase bubbles in the wind. 
• Planting a garden and cultivating a healthy approach to life in your children. 

The list goes on and on ... each day I am eternally grateful for the precious gifts that I have to look forward to each and every day. 

The Road Ahead

... it's a 5-miler. Yep, that's the road ahead. As in, D's and my next race. I don't know why I registered us for 5 miles, especially when there was a 5K option available. Crazy I guess. And of course, it's been wicked cold here, so training has been near to non-existent. Except for my cross-training (plank challenge is ridiculous).

So, tomorrow begins 9 days of vacation for me ... and I hope that equates to me getting lots of time to run, yoga and have fun with my boys ... because the race is a week away. At least I have the great green socks in honors of it being a St. Patrick's Day race.

Speaking of 9 days of vacation. I cannot believe it's spring break time. Since O is still really to young for us to go on any crazy trips, we've decided on a nice plan for the week ahead. (Besides the awesome joy of just having mom around the whole week, of course.) Each day one of us gets to choose what we do. So, on O's day he gets to direct the plan. Same for K, and D and me. I can't wait to see what the boys ultimately decide to do on their day. I am thinking it will probably be even more fun than a trip ... at least for now!

Where Socks Go Missing

I'm sure you've had this happen if you ever do laundry. That random sock whose lost it's mate ... never to be found again. Well, yesterday, I learned where those random missing socks go.

I always do laundry on Sundays. I am a bit anal retentive about this. I focus on getting all my laundry done so that we can start the week with all our clothing available. No need to try to do loads during the week. I just work around any other errands and get it done. And I'll admit, folding laundry is "me time" where I get to catch up on a show that I watch by myself ... so not a bad deal. 

Yesterday, as I went in after my second load of laundry ... I discovered the floor had an inch of water. (Real nice to walk in socks and then get sopping wet.) I assumed that maybe I just loaded it wrong and somehow the door didn't seal. So, I put the next load in and started it. Then I was putting the wet load in the dryer. The next thing I know water is gushing out of where the soap dispenser is on the dryer. 

Thank you Google. I did a quick search and, of course, there were some people who had similar issues and provided suggestions on how to fix it. I called in the reinforcements and D and I set off to tackle this big machinery together. He did the heavy lifting, and I did the directing (and the additional research when we had to confirm how to remove certain pieces of the washer.) We couldn't get it done in time before K's lesson. So we knew we'd return to this task afterwards. I was not yet freaking out about not getting my laundry done in a timely manner.

D took K to his lesson as I had some work priorities to tend to. When he returned he quickly tackled the problem (after experiencing how to take everything apart the first time with me.) Within a half hour, he had fixed our washer. I learned that he called a friend during K's lesson and his friend confirmed what we needed to do. 

Now my washer is fixed, laundry was done and still done on Sunday ... and I just have more confirmation that D and I make a great team when we work together to solve a problem. And fortunately, we saved some money by doing it ourselves and not having to make a service call.

Saturday Crazy and New Monthly Challenges

Today was a crazy busy Saturday. K had his last basketball game of the season at 10, then off to a Lego event at noon (where O even won a prize!) and then K had DI at 2. Yes, it was busy, but good. I think we got two days worth of activities crammed in. And now they boys are relaxing by playing Legos ... all over the living room. Oh, well. At least they are entertaining themselves.

I am trying to squash a cold. It hit me Thursday night ... and has just progressively worsened. Unfortunately, I have a lot to get done, so I really can't afford the cold at the moment.  I've actually had to breakdown and take cold medicine. Something I rarely do.

Since today is March 1, it also means the day for new strength training challenges. I did a special cross-training challenge in the morning for February and a squat challenge in the evenings (yesterday, I capped the month with 250 squats ... yep!) But I am starting to actually see a difference in my muscle tone ... so it's motivating enough to keep it going. So this month, my morning challenge is supposed to be 100 push-ups. I am going to break it in half and do 50 in the morning and 50 in the evening. And then in the evening I am also doing the 30-day plank challenge. You start out only doing a 20 second plank and work your way to the end of the month doing a 5 minute plank. Rock hard abs are sure to come, right? We'll see ...

Healthy Eating

Selecting healthy foods for our family has definitely become a job. Every day something else comes out about what you should avoid. Basically, we practically down to completely whole foods eating. The newest book I am reading is all about protecting your brain ... and it talks about how our bodies don't need any aluminum (unlike other metals like copper, iron and zinc that your body does need) but yet there is aluminum in our food. Take for example, baking powder. So went and looked at our baking powder ... and yep. aluminum!

Ack. So a trip to the co-op to get some aluminum-free baking powder and a few other more natural, whole food products. We picked up some kale (it hurts in the winter to buy kale from the grocer, because in the summer we have such an abundance of it from our own garden.) and I made kale chips for the boys. I love that I am fortunate enough to have kids who like things like kale chips. They  haven't quite acquired the taste for almond milk, but at least I can sneak that into the baking and cooking. 

Other things we've eliminated lately that have made it fun for the boys and me ... food coloring. Yep, no food coloring, which means a lot of their favorite candies. Fortunately, we discovered World Market sells the European equivalents of a lot of their favorite candies, and since those don't include food coloring we can enjoy those. We eliminated HFCS and hydrogenated oils a while ago, so those aren't new. (But yes, my son will always ask to read the ingredients when someone else brings a snack and if he sees it listed, he won't eat it. I had to watch this at soccer practice often ... I can only imagine what the other parents thought!)

D is also now no longer buying anything that just lists "natural flavorings" since there is no regulation for what that exactly means. Yes, our cupboards, refrigerator and snack drawer are definitely looking different. But I am hoping that this due diligence is for a good thing. Healthy, happy kids and a long, healthy lives. 

Enough

This winter has been rough. Yes, I probably say that about every winter. However, it's always the current winter that is the hardest. The kids have had school cancelled due to absurdly low temperatures ... and today, school was cancelled to the dumping of nearly a foot of snow. And since the roads were so horrible, there was actually a no-travel advisory ... so I worked from home. (I consider myself fortunate that I have a job and work for a company that is supportive of working from home and provides me the right tools to do so.)

But really. I've had enough. This last dumping of snow was ridiculous. It was a heavy wet snow, D and I had to tag team to get the driveway done. I gave up toward the end due to freezing fingers. D admitted a neighbor came over with a high-powered snow blower to help him with the end of the driveway. (Yay for nice neighbors.)

O's swimming lesson was cancelled. I've never seen the guy so upset. So, I guess he may be my swimmer. (K likes swimming, but I don't think he'd become distraught if his lesson was cancelled.) Unfortunately for K, both his basketball game last night and his practice tonight were cancelled. He was upset about that, poor guy.

The only good thing about a snow day is that it sort of gives you an excuse to chill ... if you were a different family. Since I was working, D held "school" for the boys, and they had to work on school work and do workbook activities. They did get some good outside time though earlier in the day when it was a little warmer and we now have a 4 foot snowman in the front of our yard.

Now, we're sitting by the fire, watching movies and chilling. Finally ... but, I'd like the snow to melt before my next race (or at least the temperature hold steady above 20 degrees.)

Cross Training Fun

This year I've made some new running goals, a couple longer distances ... with the first one coming up in a month. So, I've been incorporating a little bit of weight training exercise in my morning and evening routines. 

In the morning, I am following a regimen a work colleague introduced me to. It's one of those that I am sure you've seen if you are on Facebook. You do X number of X, X number of X and progressively increase the reps throughout the month. I like this one. It's called February Fives and the exercises change every morning, so I don't get bored ... but I will say they are progressively getting tougher. Today, whew, it was definitely a core workout. But that's okay, that's what I need. 

In the evening ... I am tackling Athleta's 30-day squat challenge. Now this has me progressively adding reps to squats ... with a rest day every fourth day. Today, I conquered 155 squats. Now the positive of all this weight training is I am starting to see some new muscle definition. No real weight-loss, but at least I am building strength. 

On a separate note, K scored a basket today at his basketball game. We were so proud. You see, K is awesome at defense and is great at assisting ... but he gets performance anxiety about actually trying to score a basket. So whenever he gets the ball near the basket, he tries to quickly pass it to a teammate. Yesterday, D and I talked to him about confidence, relinquishing his fear of failure and just going for it. Our little pep talk must have had at least a little bit of an effect, because today he played with more confidence, went after the ball and ... scored! Yay. 

Al-in-all, a good day. 

Five Finger Rule Dilemma

Most of us have heard the phrase "five finger discount" as the slang terminology for shoplifting. Today, I learned that K has a "five finger rule" at school for their library ... and that he's been cheating the system. And that is exactly how it was presented to me by D and K. The conversation went like this:

D: Did you see the book K brought home from the school library today ... it's like 500 pages long.

K: Beaming and showing me the book. 

D: But he cheated the system to get the book.

Me: What system? What do you mean cheated?

K: We have a five-finger rule that we have to use to get to pick our book. 

D proceeds to explain that the students have to read a couple paragraphs (about five fingers wide) to determine if a book has an appropriate level of difficulty for the library extracurricular. If they can read the passage perfectly ... the book is not difficult enough. If they get more than five words incorrect, the book is deemed to difficult. (Keep in mind this is an extracurricular book for them, it's not part of their regular curriculum where they use a much more scientific, assessment-based methodology to determine their books.) Because K reads at at least a 6th grade level ... there are few books that would trip him up ... so he's been intentionally messing up his words so that he can get the books he wants.

K and D think this is hilarious. I am at a dilemma. The kid reads so much, and the books he is picking are books that easily fall into the 3 - 5th grade reading levels, so I just want to continue to encourage him to find books he finds interesting. However, I am a bit troubled that at the age of 7 he is already learning there is a system and it can be manipulated. But when he's reading 200 pages plus in a day or so, maybe the system isn't advance enough for him. 

Fortunately, his second grade teacher has been a good partner with us this year in ensuring that we are building good habits and challenging him. It's all about the village, and keeping him enriched and motivated. It won't be long before he's writing some award-winning thesis. 

Running and Cross-Training

The problem of getting out of the habit of posting updates on a blog ... it's really hard to get back into the habit. I fully intended to post about our race on Saturday ... but didn't.

It was cold. I have lots of layers on. I decided to try a run without the glasses to see what it was like. Probably not the smartest move to choose a run where I would need to keep my eyes on the road to watch for ice patches. Lesson learned. 

I actually felt pretty good for the first part of the run. Found a pace I could maintain, my lungs weren't burning. I staked out my secret pace partners. We were in it all together. Other than the ice thing, it was a model race. And then that damn hill right before the two-mile mark. Now, I remember the hill from last year ... but you sort of forget how bad things are. I just don't remember the hill being as steep as it actually was. My favorite was the woman next two me who commented, "that was a long two miles." I responded, "Especially when it ends going up hill." She laughed, we carried on. 

I kept my 11:30 minute pace for most of the race (I totally walked up the hill), and according to my GPS finished in about 37 minutes. Not my fastest time that is for sure ... but considering that I can't really train like I want to in the winter, I'm okay with it. But speaking of training, I am doing some cross-training type activities in the morning and at night. We'll see if that helps. Because, in a month ... I'll be running my first 5-miler. Yikes. 

Hiatus

I took a short hiatus from the whole blogging thing ... for a couple of reasons. But I'm back now (hold back your excitement.)

Since I didn't do the obligatory New Year's post, I'll just sum up how I started the year with this:

Yes, that's me at the end of our first race of 2014. It was -10, my feet didn't thaw out until probably the 2-mile mark. After the race, when we got coffee, my gloves stuck to the door. Running in the winter is hard, because the only time I can run is on the weekends, because I don't run in the dark and I don't belong to a gym. (Let's be honest, this girl couldn't run on a treadmill anyway.)

Tomorrow, D and I will tackle our second race of the year.

The shirts are super cute (much better than last year's.) I've been focused on doing some cross-training this month, so curious to see how it affects my running. I am hoping it changes it for the positive ... but tomorrow will be the test.

We're tackling some new distances this year and adding a trail run in June. It should be a good year of racing ahead!

A Milestone

I have almost let the whole month fly by without a post. Crazy. Sorry. No excuses, just busy, busy. D and I ran our last 5K of the year the first weekend of the month. It was cold. Like, bloody, ice cubes in my eyebrows cold. (No joke, I pulled ice cubes out of my eyebrows.) D got first place for his age bracket. I was a very proud wife. My time wasn't that bad ... not a PR, but respectable. Can't believe we did such a grand year of races. So happy of the example we're setting.

Holidays. Where do I even begin. With the shortened period between Thanksgiving and Christmas ... definitely feeling the crunch. We have three people left to get gifts for ... and I am totally stumped at what to get two of them. Hoping inspiration will come to me in the next couple days.

And my baby turns four tomorrow. Oh, I can hardly believe it. He's such a big boy (and he will tell you that, too.) I love the little personality he's become, and I love that I can still scoop him up and snuggle him. K is getting to the point where he's almost as tall as I am, hence making it very hard for me to scoop them up.

I have the next ten days off and I am looking forward to lots of family fun and loving my boys. So if I don't get to posting ... know that that is what I am doing ... enjoying my family to bits and pieces!!

Like the Movies

Have you ever watched one of those holiday movies where the family gathers, and you think wistfully for a day where you might live that moment? Today that moment was mine. It embodied everything that makes Thanksgiving my favorite holiday.

We started the day out with both boys and did the Turkey Day 5K.

This was both boys first 5K. O got to sit back and enjoy it via a stroller ride, but K had to run it. No shock that O took a leisurely nap throughout the whole thing. We started out running all four of us together ... K made it almost the whole first mile before he decided he needed to walk. We let D and O split from us and we conquered that last two miles. It was tough on K, he told me how much he hated it and hated me for making him do it. He got encouragement from me ... and random strangers. D met up with us again for the last quarter mile and helped me cheer K in to run it home. So proud of him, even if he didn't enjoy the whole thing. It was a perfect way to start out the holiday, with 15,000 other people who wanted to give it a go.

Then it was off to home and getting the meal prepped. My youngest sister and her husband arrived first, about an hour before we planned to put out noshy food. The boys love them, and like to hang out with them. They had a good time. As the rest of the family arrived, we got our "tide you over" butternut squash soup served. Then while we waited for the food to cook, we played a rousing game of Apples to Apples. K and I have wanted to play this game for a while, we've just never had enough other people available to play it. So, fun was had by all as we enjoyed the game.

The food was fantastic ... I'll try to remember to come back and add photos later. D gets to take credit for a lot of it. (We were up yesterday prepping, prepping, preppy) but it all turned out well. We had good conversation over dinner (no TV!) and just enjoyed each others company. It was so grown up, but there were young kids at the table, too.

 Between dinner and dessert, K had the family read this Thanksgiving play from school. And everyone but me (I had dish duty) participated. This kind of thing would not have happened in the past ... it was one of those movie-kind-of-moments. Just crazy good.

Then we had delicious cheesecake and pumpkin pie for dessert. The family rested, more conversation. It was just delightful. I asked K how he felt the day went, and he said it was fantastic, amazing, wonderful! I can only hope that all his Thanksgivings are this good!

A Night of Pinot

Last night was our last Wine Club outing of the year. December is just too packed for all of us, so we agreed to take the month off an start it back up in January.

I hosted ... and it was one of my favorite red wines: Pinot Noir.

Our spread

A French bleu cheese, Pecorino, Spanish Goat Cheese and a Cranberry Cheddar

Chips and Salsa Verde and Roasted Vegetable Salsa 

Nut Thins (We sort of joke, we always serve these :))

Cranberry Bruschetta (this is sooo good)

Mixed Nuts (roasted, with yummy Brazil nuts)

Smoked salmon - three ways (plain, peppered and Gravlax)

I forgot to take a picture of the dessert, but it was a yummy pumpkin parfait. The middle layer was sour cream, maple syrup and pumpkin pie spice ... crazy how good it was.

For the wines ... we had six different wines that spanned the Old World, the New World, and the really New World of wine:

We started out with the old world and a French Burgundy. It was very mild, pleasant. For those who like bold wines, it was considered too week ... but I think it is a perfect wine when you have a lot of food and you aren't sure what to pair it with.

Our second wine, is what is considered a Bang for Your Buck. It's supposed to be reliable, cheap and drinkable. You've probably had it. 

Personally, I'd rather put my $10 toward a different bottle, but if you are in a pinch, it's a slightly bolder Pinot. 

The third wine was the second ringer. The Beaujolais Nouveau for the year. There's a lot of adieu about this wine. It is released the third Thursday of the year (so one week before Thanksgiving.) It's the fresh grapes of the year. It tends to be a bit sweet, and it's cheap. This year followed the same pattern. It's fun to have a wine tradition like this ... but definitely not one you'd bring as a hostess gift. 

The fourth one was my second favorite. And it was from the New New World of Wine. Frankly, I've just become a huge fan of South American wines (Malbec anyone?) so maybe I was partial since I knew it was from Chile. It had a slightly bolder finish, a nice aroma and was a good medium-bodied wine. Definitely one I would get again. 

The fifth wine was our other ringer. A good ol' Beaujolais that is not of the Nouveau variety. This was a pretty lively bottle. Went down smooth and represent the region well, while holding it's own against the Pinots. 

Our final wine is what I anticipated would be the favorite (and I was right) since it hailed from Oregon, and that region gets a lot of love for its Pinot. You can't go wrong when you go with a classic. 

Oh, Pinots, I still love you. But you are getting some tough company from some other reds.

Namaste, Groceries and Wine

I have waxed ecstatic already about my love for Bikram Yoga. There is something about the sweat pouring off your body, the small shakes as you hold a pose for as long as you can, and then the moment of relief when you let go of all your worries. Fortunately, for the rest of the year, I can get my hot yoga fix at least twice a week, instead of just on Sundays.

I have decided to take the brilliant action of taking every Friday off for the rest of the year. Mainly, because I have a lot of vacation banked and so I don't get too freaked out as I stress about finding holiday gifts, etc. Granted, my workaholic self will probably have a hard time with this, but I will work my way through it.

Anyway, today's class was small (since it's my first Friday class, not sure if this is normal or not) but it meant the yogi was able to ensure we all were posing optimally, etc. It was brutal, hot and delightful. I pushed myself in plank. I will look forward to starting out my Fridays like this for the rest of 2013.

After class, I met D and O at Target to do our grocery shopping. Of course, it wasn't a normal trip. We were buying our essentials for Thanksgiving and the stuff I need for Wine Club tomorrow (I'm hosting). So, I knew the bill would be bigger. But thanks to a lovely mobile coupon, Cartwheel and our frugal ways ... the pain wasn't as much as I was anticipating.

After that trip, I had to head over to Whole Foods to get the remaining items. I got to do this trip solo ... ahhh. I love grocery shopping. And I was able to find the Snickerdoodle and Pumpkin Pie Larabars. I have only tried Snickerdoodle so far ... and it is everything I could want in a delicious treat. Yum, yum. I enjoyed the solo trip (but it was so busy.) So busy, that I decided not to amble at any other area shops. I wanted to head home.

I did have to make two quick stops. Korean grocer and wine shop. Of course, I had to pick up my Beaujolais Nouveau. It will be the ringer for tomorrow. So excited to try it.

I hope the rest of my Fridays are as appealing as today was. If so, I will be ending 2013 on a high note. (P.s. it helps that I have great family, friends and co-workers who can make it all happen.)

Running Around for Two Good Reasons

I have been horrifically sick for the last week. As in, my voice sounded like Kathleen Turner after smoking a carton in one day, sick. Each day I forced myself to go to work and be productive. Hoping that playing a mental game of I will not let this get me down would work. After trying every form of medicine ... as a last attempt I tried herbal cold tea. And that is what worked the best. Oh, I am still sick, but I was "okay" enough to do this today:

Running the Unleash the SHE 5K to help fight against ovarian cancer.

My sister C ran the race with me. It was the first one she ran (and she did great, only 4 minutes behind me ... super awesome.) I did okay, not a PR, but considering I could hardly breathe, I am not disappointed in my performance. I just need to really up the ante if I plan to add longer distances in 2014.

It's hard to believe I only have two more races this year. D and I made the executive decision that the boys are going to do the Turkey Run with us. K is not so excited. O will be relaxing on a jogging stroller, so I am sure he will find it very enjoyable.

The afternoon, I ran with K to the U of M's annual Science and Math Family Fun Day. We've attended this event for a few years ... and attendance just continues to grow. This year, I think it really blew their expectations out of the water. K and I didn't get there until noon, and they were already having to break out their back-up activities on some of the more popular events.

K enjoyed it as he usually does, learning about science, but having fun and running into his best friend makes learning easy. Spending my afternoon with my little guy is always a treat and so I consider this a rather perfect day.

A Busy Few Weeks

The last few weeks have been full of a lot of love, fear, joy, angst ... so basically, they've been full of life.

My kid sister was married last weekend. The wedding events were far enough away that we stayed in a hotel for the weekend. It was kind of nice to get a weekend away with my boys, bunked out in a hotel room. It was a quaint little boutique hotel, with a nice little coffee shop (which was a huge win with D.)

The rehearsal was lovely. O was the ring bearer and we made him practice multiple times. I was reading the first scripture, so determined the route I would take to get to the microphone. We had a lovely dinner and mingled a bit. Getting the boys to bed at an at least somewhat reasonable time would be critical for the next day to be successful at all.

I started my Saturday with a lovely 4-mile run in sweet little Northfield. It was a perfect day for a run, I had a decent pace and was proud of myself for pushing to do a longer distance than I've done. The last mile was spent doing intervals, but at least it was pushing myself.

The wedding was lovely ... well, except for the part where O refused to do his duties as ring bearer. My sister has great friends and I think they all did a lovely job supporting her. I did my reading ... which was so long, and I shook quite a bit on my too high heels, but D said I did fine. My sister looked absolutely amazing, her groom looked good, too.

The food was good ... D and I had to switch entrees because the dish I ordered had breading on it so I couldn't eat it. But the fish I had was good. The cake was from Nadia's (gluten-free :)) and was great. I selfishly could have asked for another slice ... but I didn't.

The boys loved getting on the dance floor. And actually competed for the attention of the little girls on the dance floor. D and I couldn't believe what we were seeing. They just wanted to make sure they were the center of attention. It was a tad bit embarrassing. They even got the DJ to play "What does the fox say?" by Ylvis. The song d'jour. But still. They loved it. In their eyes, this wedding was the ultimate party.

About an hour or so into the dance, I was resting at our table and D brought my attention to my grandpa. He said he didn't look well. I looked over, and noticed people were surrounding him. Then I noticed the right side of his face was drooping. He was having a stroke. While I know this is the last thing anyone would want to happen at their wedding, it was fortunate that my sister did get married that night and that we were all together. It meant that he was with family when the stroke happened and we could get him medical attention quickly.

The man is the strongest fighter I know. In less than a week, he's had a good recovery. He's started to say a few words, he's getting mobility back in his right arm. I went to visit him in the hospital on Thursday. It's hard to see someone you love be so frustrated due to factors outside of their own control. He wants to talk ... but he only can form a few words right now. The frustration is so very clear in his face. I want to hold him and tell him it will be okay. The man has such a strong will. I think he's keeping up the good fight for my grandma. He doesn't want to leave her alone. I just wish for him as full a recovery as possible and that all of us do a better job giving him all the love he more than deserves.

Here's to both the joys and fears of life, may each step make us better.

Playing with Monsters

D and I ran in the Monster Dash today. It was perhaps the craziest race we've run in all year. Yes, it even beat The Color Run for crazy ... and I'm not talking the costumes. There were more than 16,500 runners. Needless to say, I think it took us almost ten minutes to get to the starting line and I think I spent another ten minutes at a bottleneck at the finish line.

There were so many people, that I probably spent more energy weaving through all the walkers/joggers than I did running straight (so, I am guessing I added at least a half mile of distance with all the weaving.) But it is another race under my belt, another monthly "health" date with my hubby, so I can't complain.

If people ever doubt the benefits of running ... I have to say ... D and I are always in a really good mood after the race. (Granted, if traffic is crazy, we may be grouchy before the race.) I don't know if it's the endorphins, the proof of our commitment to healthy living to each other, the feeling of accomplishment or just the relief another is over.

My parents came down to watch the boys at the race while we ran. It's always nice to having a cheering section ... but there were just so many people, they didn't even see me at the finish!

We then went to the pumpkin patch this afternoon to pick the perfect pumpkins ... so we'll get some carving in. The boys want to do it tonight ... but I am hoping to convince them tomorrow will be a better day :)

Wine, Books, Movies

I love the colder weather ... the warmth of wine (it's not quite fireplace time yet), the soft snuggle of a good blanket, a hot cup of tea, watching movies (and all the good fall TV). 

Yes, this is my kind of season. All though, it is going rather fast. It's already past mid-October and we haven't made it to the orchard yet. I am hoping that we can get there tomorrow morning before my ultra busy Saturday begins. 

K had MEA (okay, it's not called that anymore, but everyone still refers to it as MEA) weekend, which meant he's been out of school since Wednesday. They've all just been living the leisure life. Which gave them ample time to pick out a movie for movie night. Unfortunately, the ample time did not correlate with the quality of their choice. Which makes me grateful for the class of wine next to me to get me through the movie. 

Here's to fall!

Living It Up October Style

I love Halloween. I love cheesy, family-friendly Halloween movies (Disney channel or ABC Family, please.)

Now I have the perfect beverage to accompany one of my favorite months:

Now, this is not my typical type of wine. It's super fruity ... practically juice, really. The base wine is a Syrah, but then there is fruity plum and strawberry. It's the kind of thing that you could serve in a punch bowl and people would keep going back and refilling their cups ... and end up way more drunk than they had intended. I only purchased one bottle when I was in Door County, so I decided to open it up mid-month for Halloween. I'll have to see if it's available for purchase anywhere in Minnesota, as I think it may  have to become an annual treat.

Tonight D and I are watching World War Z. Since it's classified as a horror in the description, we can chalk it up as a good Halloween movie. I also have This is the End from Netflix, so we are getting the whole apocalyptic world thing going on.

And I just happen to be reading Help for the Haunted by John Searles. There couldn't be a better book to be reading right now during the month of October. And that was unplanned. So, while the house is only moderately decorated (can't get D aligned with a full out and out approach quite yet ...) at least I am infusing the appropriate Halloween-ness as much as I can.