Halloween 2013

This is kind of a disappointing post if you're looking for some cool costumes and lots of fun.

Over the weekend, the girls got in trouble.  They played with the fingernail polish, getting it all over the floor.  Then they refused for 2 days to clean up Isabelle's room so I could move our old bed in there.  After many, many warnings, they were grounded for the week.  No Fall Festival at school and no Trick or Treating.

I know.  I'm a mean mom.

I, of course, had to work today.  I rarely dress up for Halloween myself, but had the idea to do something this year, so I wore my Animal hat.



Everyone at work loved the hat, the patients got a kick out of it, too.  Only one other person dressed up and one person had on Halloween scrubs. 

Unfortunately, the gray band on Animal is a little tight for my head.



I looked like that for a few hours after I got off work.  I had intended on wearing it all day and night, but it was such a relief to get it off after work, I couldn't stand the idea of putting it back on.

The girls tried every thing they could think of (other than the one thing that would have worked - actually cleaning or picking up after themselves) to convince me to take them Trick or Treating.  But when you make a punishment you have to follow through.  I did let them wear their costumes and we went shopping.



They did get candy, too.  Just not bucket-fulls.  Isabelle was a flower fairy.  Zoe was a cat... it was just a dress with a cat on it and ears.  I tried to talk her into a better costume, but she loved it.  I really wanted her to be a bumblebee... she'd make an awesome Bee Girl (from Blind Melon's No Rain video).  Olivia was Skelita from Monster High (I've never seen her in an episode, but I can't say I've paid that much attention to them).  She refused to wear the tights and gloves (which made her look more like a skeleton) or the mask.  So she just had on a funky dress, pretty much.

I decided to take them to the movies and we saw Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2.  Cute movie.  Then the girls had Chik-fil-a and the night was over.

So, yeah, they didn't get to go Trick or Treating, but it's not like they had to sit at home and pass out candy watching all the other kids have fun.

While we were out, I got some yarn to work on my Sunday Run hats.  I made a list of all the hats I want to make... mostly animals, but some cartoon characters as well.  I can't wait to share, but I need to work on my turkey hats first.

I hope you had a great Halloween! 

She drives me crazy

Oh, my Isabelle...

We've been butting heads lately.  A lot.  She's like a mini-teenager, and I swear if anyone tries to tell me it'll be even worse then, I'm going to shove a dirty sock in their mouth.

So, as usual, she was pushing ALL my buttons this afternoon.  Making me so MAD.  It was all I could do to try to deal with her calmly instead of going all demon-possessed on her.

But, just when I thought I had all I could take, she came into the room and stood in front of me.  She held up an index card with "I love you.  Do you love me?" written on it.  The she set that down and held up two more index cards:  "Yes" and "No".  I pointed to "Yes."  She smiled and sat the "Yes" card down.  Then she took the "No" card, tore it up, and shoved it in her mouth.

Hours of being a brat, erased in 5 seconds of sweet and goofiness.

~~~~~~~

So, my sister and I are planning on doing a Gobbler Run on Thanksgiving morning.  And I thought, if we're doing a turkey run, we need turkey hats.  I sent her pictures of two different kinds of turkey hats... a cute cartoonish turkey and a roasted turkey.  She and her friend liked the cute, unroasted turkey variety.  So I guess I'll be starting on some turkey hats.  =)

That led me to another idea.  Since I have another half-marathon lined up in December, and one in March (and possibly one in February, but that will require some hubby-support and I haven't mentioned it to him yet), I'll be doing long walks/runs on Sundays throughout winter.  And I thought it would be fun to try to make a different hat to wear each week.  I love crocheting hats, and my kids have a ton of them and never wear them.  So, I'll make them for myself to keep me warm while I'm out in the cold.  And hopefully bring a smile or two to the other poor souls out freezing their tushies off on the trails.  =)

Now... do I want to go start on a turkey or go to bed?  My big, marshmallow-y bed is really tempting me right now...

I'm beat.

It's been a busy past few days.

Saturday, of course, I had the half-marathon.  I felt pretty good Sunday after that, other than the blisters on my feet.  I read up on some ways to try to help prevent them in the future, so fingers crossed...

Well, Thursday, my ancient dryer kicked the bucket.  We got it used over 8 years ago, and it was ancient then, but it worked fine.  My husband had to replace the belt a few months ago, and I knew it was just a matter of time by the way it had been sounding lately.  I went to go take a load out and they were cold.  It was still tumbling, but no heat.  RIP old dryer.

Friday I dragged the kids out to buy a new one.  My first new major appliance purchase.  =)  The sales guy said it would take up to 5 days for delivery, and I already had a mountain of laundry to do, so I opted to pick it up Sunday.  Bill went and got it and I had to help him drag the old one out, clean the floor (wet dryer lint is nasty.... I gagged), and then we had to get the new one inside andinstall the power cord.  Seriously, next time I'll wait and just hit the laundromat.  Bill dropped a screw down the back of the washer and we had to take the entire back off.  The kids were all trying to "be helpful."  It was not fun.  But I have a dryer that works again.  Wheeee!

And, on a tangent... why don't dryers COME with power cords?  Why do you have to buy that separately?  Is this common with all appliances?  I mean, you can't exactly use it without a power cord. 

Then today, Bill and I drove out to my parents' to pick up their old bed.  They decided to get twin beds and asked if we needed a new bed, which we did.  We bought ours before we got married and we've been married 11 years.  They bought this bed just about a year ago after their apartment fire.  It's nice... a queen size sleigh bed.  =)

While we were there, my parents took us to lunch.  We went to Perkins.  When we got there, I remembered that the last time Bill and I were there, we ran into my Grandpa.  After we sat down, the guy sitting directly behind me started talking and I swear he sounded almost exactly like my Grandpa.  Maybe that was his way of saying "hey, I'm thinking of you, too..."

After lunch, Bill and I loaded up the bed and rushed home.  We were a little later than we needed to be... the girls get home around 3pm and we were cutting it CLOSE.  A little TOO close, in fact.  They got home before us, couldn't find us, and went down to my sister's house.  My brother-in-law was home and called when they got there.  We were literally pulling into the driveway.  At least they had somewhere to go, thank goodness.

Bill actually drove to and from my parents' house (a little over an hour away), which is very rare.  I fell asleep on the way up there and on the way home. 

So, we moved our old bed into Isabelle's room and set up the new bed.  Threw some sheets on it and threw myself down on it.  It feels like a marshmallow!  So soft.  =)  I'm really looking forward to crawling into it soon because I am exhausted.  Walking a half-marathon, moving appliances and beds.... that'll wear a girl out.

Soaring Wings Half Marathon

My second half marathon is in the books!

Soaring Wings HM benefits the Soaring Wings Ranch, a Christian youth home.  They are totally privately funded by donations and events like the half marathon.  A good cause.  =) 

We (my sister and I) had signed up as runners, but walked the entire race.  Runners can walk, but walkers can't run.  Not that we ran any, but we could have.


For a few minutes, the white haired lady to the right was the only other walker in the corral with us.  The results showed 85 people registered as walkers, though.

This was a completely different experience than the Little Rock Half.  Much smaller, for one.  1749 people total.

I had someone to walk with, which was different.  I really enjoyed having my sister with me and she pushed me.  I probably would have been much, much slower without her.

The course was TOUGH.  The Little Rock half was fairly flat.  This felt like we were going uphill the whole time, which of course is impossible, but that's how it felt.  And we were on the side of the roads, which wasn't always level.  I stopped to stretch at the first water station after the halfway mark, and a lady asked if I was OK.  I told her I was fine and she said "Oh, you're just preparing for Bay Hill?"  I thought, "Sweet baby Jesus, a hill with a name?  I'm going to die."  It wasn't THAT bad, but all the hills were very tiresome.  And the downhill near the end was killer....  you wouldn't think going downhill would ever be hard.  Try walking 12 miles and then take a steep decline.  It's harder than you think.

Another different experience... blisters.  I didn't get them until I got my new shoes, and let me tell you... I had a blister on top of a blister on top of a blister on my left foot when I got home.  It was about the size of a half dollar.  That made the downhill at the end so bad.  I'm surprised they didn't pop.  I did eventually pop them myself at home.  I never do that, but it had to be done.  I need to figure out why I keep getting them with my new shoes, because it sucks.

And, lastly... I didn't train as well for this one.  I think the past two weeks, the only walking I did was my long distance walks.  I really could have been better prepared, but I don't feel any worse than I did for the last one, other than the blisters.

Our official time was 3:45:00.  10 minutes longer than my time for my first half, but I'm not complaining.  Like I said, if I had been alone, I probably would have been pushing 4 hours.  We were 1715 and 1716.  Only 1735 finished... 1 didn't make it to the halfway mark and 13 quit after the halfway mark.  I feel bad for them.  =(



The medals are nice and heavy!  My second medal, my sister's first!  I'm so proud of her.  She had been talking about doing the Little Rock Marathon 10K next year, but now she wants to do the half with me.  =)  It's so addicting.  My next half marathon is December 14.  Not very far away.  I am going to work on training to run part of it.  =)

It was like Christmas!

3 more sleeps!

I am starting to get a little excited.

Today I went to pick up race packets for myself and my sister.  I had to drive all the way to Conway (45-60 minute drive depending on traffic) to get them.  =P

The packet was chock full of stuff.  Several ads for 5ks, but all in either Conway or Russellville (which is another 45 minutes from Conway).  I will drive a good distance for a half-marathon, but not a 5k.  But there was more than 5ks in the bag!

The Mississippi River Marathon.  It's February 8 and there is a half!  That's about 2-2.5 hours away. 

Run The Line Half Marathon.  It is in Texarkana and is in both Texas and Arkansas.  It's February 16 and about 3 hours (?) away.

Half-Marathon in Fabulous RussVegas.  April 26 (Isaboo's birthday) and in Russellville.  About 90 min-2 hours away. 

But that's not all!

This is the best part...

Outback in the Ozarks.  A 200 mile team relay race.  OMG...it's like a Ragnar Relay!

I could increase my half-marathon from 3 a year to 6!  I'm not sure I can swing all those registration fees, and two of them are back to back weekends.  I think I may just do this RussVegas one, since it's closer.  This year anyway.  I need to set up a registration fee savings fund.  =)

But the relay race!  I showed my sister and she was excited about it, too!  There are a lot of logistics to figure out (like 10 other people to do it with us) so I don't anticipate being able to do it in 2014.  For one, there's a 36 hour time limit, which averages out to less than an 11min mile, and I'm barely hitting 15 min miles.  So pace is an issue, unless we found some super fast runners to team up with LOL.  And the registration fee is understandably steep.  But still....  so much fun to think about right now! 

6 More Sleeps

Did you forget that I have a half-marathon coming up?  You may think I did since I haven't been talking about it non-stop like the first one, but I have not.  I've been doing my long walks every week (well, almost every week...) and today was my last one.  Saturday is the Soaring Wings Half-Marathon!

This has been a completely different experience training.  No mental barriers to knock down, in fact, I am not anxious or excited (yet) about it.  I do still have that "but I'm only walking it" mentality, probably because I did want to run this one.  I've gone from running it to running part of it to just walking.  I guess that's a big source of the almost-disappointment.  The first half-marathon was SUCH a big deal to me, and this one is like "meh".  Deep down I know it's still a big accomplishment running or walking.  But yes, yes, I am disappointed in myself for not hitting that goal of running it.

But that's OK.  I have two more on the calendar and the weather is cooler and I WILL run part of the CASA Half in December.  Maybe not a lot of it, there's not an awful lot of time to build up much distance, but I will.  I really thought about running some today, but this close to the half, I wanted to play it safe and not risk being really sore or hurt after today's walk.

I just remembered that last Sunday I took pictures during my 12 mile walk to take you guys on a walk with me via my blog.  And I totally forgot to write the post!  I will work on that this week.  Promise. 

Today was only a 6 miler... it's taper time.  It was a nice walk.  I needed the fresh air and the time alone.  It's good for the soul.  I walk along the Arkansas River Trail, different parts at times, it depends on the distance, really.  I prefer one location for shorter walks, another for the long-long walks.  I started thinking about my 37 while 37 list (which is pitifully not nearly complete and my birthday is less than 2 months away) and one of the big things on it was to walk the entire River Trail.  It's a 14 (or 17, I've seen both numbers used...) mile loop that runs through Little Rock on one side of the Arkansas River, over the Big Dam Bridge, through North Little Rock on the other side of the river and back over the Clinton Bridge.  I've gone back and forth over whether or not to actually do it, because I can't tell for sure if the whole thing is complete by the maps.  But I really, really want to do it in between my half-marathons.  I just need to do some more research.  I think I'll take a Monday off of work... Bill will be home and can come rescue me if need be and the girls will be in school.  I would walk it at a leisurely pace, not my normal race pace.

OK, enough babbling.  I need to go sew.  =)

Nosebleed

***  Thank you all for your really sweet words!  It really means a lot to me to have people who take the time to read my babbling and you guys made me feel really good!  =)  ***

I've been on my meds for a few days now, and I have moments of feeling spaced out and moments of feeling really antsy or borderline high, but it's better each day, so I think it will all even out. 

I had a phone call yesterday at lunch.  I didn't recognize the number, but it looked familiar and I thought it was someone at work (I went out for lunch).  It was the pharmacist from Walgreens where I get my prescriptions.  She asked me if I had ever taken Zoloft before (yes) and how I was feeling.  I have never, ever had a pharmacist call me to ask how I was doing on a medication.  And it's not like some Mom & Pop little pharmacy where they know me or something.  It's Walgreens.  I thought that was odd, borderline concerning...  is there something I need to be looking out for?  Weird.

Anyway.  Enough about that.

A few weeks ago, my sister sent me a text asking if I wanted to go to the Bon Jovi concert with her.  There was a Groupon deal, so it was cheap ($17 or $22) and her husband was offering to babysit for me.  I haven't listened to Bon Jovi's last 5 albums or so, but I do love their old stuff, plus it was a night out.  So, of course, I'll go!

I haven't been to a concert in YEARS.  I'm not a fan of crowds.  Or live music for that matter.  But a Girls' Night Out is necessary every once in a while, especially one that doesn't involve people under 5 ft tall (unless you're under 5' but over 18, I guess I should say LOL)

I had heard on the radio that the show should start at PROMPTLY 7:30pm, no opening act, just Bon Jovi.  I also heard from other people that they only play about 4 old songs.... and other people said they play a lot of covers.  I really didn't have high expectations, but the tickets were cheap, and it was a night out, darn it.  I don't care if they sing Mary Had A Little Lamb.

The arena has two upper levels, and we thought buying the more expensive tickets meant we'd be in the lower upper level.  

That was not the case.  There were only 3 rows behind us.  We were so high up that I was dizzy for about half an hour.  It was scary.  I don't know where the cheaper seats were... outside maybe?  And the catwalks blocked the jumbo-trons.  So  really, we couldn't see a damn thing.  Oh well.  I think Jon Bon Jovi is hot and all, but with his hair short now he reminds me of an old friend and it kind of skeeves me out.

(my sister's friend, my little sister, and me)

They did NOT start promptly at 7:30pm.  It was more like 8:10.  =P  

All in all, the concert was really good.  About 1/3 of their old stuff, 1/3 stuff I have heard but wasn't familiar enough to sing along with, and 1/3 new stuff I didn't know at all or covers.  He did some Conway Twitty, Rolling Stones, other stuff.  Mostly fun stuff, though.  And he had an awesome Mick Jagger impression.  He had the moves like Jagger, for sure.  LOL  It was over 2 hours, so I think we definitely got our money's worth, even if they were little ants to us from up in the clouds...

That's as zoomed in as my phone could go.



They hadn't been to Little Rock in 20 years...  and they had a pretty packed house.  Lots of 30-40 year old women ;)  But there were plenty of guys, too.  And the girl next to me was probably 17 or so.

I had fun.  I might be willing to go to another concert in the near future....  if the right band came along.