If it isn't one thing...

Tom is off again for work. Buddy is standing firm at his post by the front door, waiting for Tom to come back.

Since my foot doesn't actually hurt, it just feels a little off, I attempted a few miles on the treadmill. I ended up doing 3 (very slow) miles, not because of my foot, but because I woke up with something pinched in my neck and it seriously hurt.

If it isn't one thing, it's another.

But it was nice to run again.

Buddy was back at his usual spot.

It was supposed to be nice out today, so naturally there was a massive downpour in the middle of the afternoon.

Tomorrow I have some really thrilling plans to run errands, do laundry, wash dishes, and run.

It feels lazy to not run

Happy Friday!

A couple of my kiddos were out of town today, so I only had 6 in my class. It was really nice!

I've been trying to be smart about running since the weird popping in my foot hasn't gone away. It feels really lazy to not run though. I decided that a few missed runs the week before the race isn't going to make a huge difference, and I'd rather be able to run the race next week without hurting myself.

I took a few pictures of the plants on the side of the house the other day.

Things are about to get pretty colorful out there!

Tom is making dinner and we're relaxing/he's packing tonight.

I hope you're having a great Friday!

Fingers crossed!

Just when I was getting used to leaving early, it was time for another 7-6 kind of day. Too many people called out, so they took my afternoon assistant for another class.

As much as I didn't want to work that long, I'm glad I was there. 5 of our 9 kiddos didn't nap today. More than half of them didn't nap. These are kids that take at least an hour and a half nap every day. One of them was my best napper, always over two hours, except today. Needless to say, they were a bit of a mess this afternoon, and I can only imagine what they would have done with just my assistants there. At least this way I know the classroom is in one piece.

Tom's next trip is coming up soon (boo!), but this time, it's somewhere I want to go - London! Since I won't have vacation time accrued yet (I'll have about a day an a half by then), I have to write my big boss a pleading, yet professional, letter to get the time off approved. Fingers crossed!

It's kind of hypnotizing

It was a bit of a crazy morning at work. Any break in the routine tends to make the munchkins a little nuts, so the long weekend threw them off. There were multiple table jumpers, two that kept crawling under the table and hitting their heads, and one biter. But this new schedule makes days like today way more tolerable. I got to leave at 3, it felt amazing.

Getting home before 6 is SO nice! I dragged Buddy to the basement so I could run my 3 miles for the day.

He was really excited.

As much as I was dragging on yesterday's run - that's how good I felt today.

I started off crazy slow because I wasn't sure how I was going to feel and just kept going a little bit faster and a little bit faster until the end of my 3 miles for the day. It was pretty great.

Google+ combined several Buddy pictures into this:

It's kind of hypnotizing.

4 mile warm up kind of day

That was one of the most difficult 10 miles I have ever run. I felt terrible for a lot of it, but not a legitimate reason to stop level of terrible.

I wanted to stop at about here:

It took me about 4 miles to feel warmed up, which is only 3 miles more than usual. And I didn't feel awesome at the end. But I was determined to get my miles in. There were walk breaks. And I don't think I have ever sweat so much in my life (it's in the 80s outside, but was somewhere in the 70s in the basement).

This picture doesn't really demonstrate just how sweaty I was. That's probably a good thing.

The Runner's World quote of the day was something along the lines of "Running is 50 percent physical and 90 percent mental. Or something like that."  It seemed rather fitting today. 

My foot was feeling off for the first little while, but seemed to loosen up after a few miles. Plus the weird popping feeling seems to have stopped for now.

I (finally) have both my lesson plans and newsletter done for June. My boss was insanely busy on Friday, so she wasn't worried about the fact that no one them ready for her. At least we were all in the same boat!

It's looking like summer around here, now I have to get used to being warm all the time. I've never lived anywhere that has an actual hot summer. And don't get me started on the humidity. I'm from the West Coast, I don't do humidity unless it's raining.

 

I slept in!

I slept in this morning. Until 10! It was pretty great, I see what all the fuss is about.

We had a really nice, relaxing day today.

Tom made French toast for breakfast (though it was around noon, so brunch?). It was really good.

There's a chunk missing because I starting eating it before I took a picture.

It was beautiful out today.

We took Buddy for a drive and did a little walking/hiking.

He loves the car.

After our walk, we spent some time hanging out on the back deck. Even Buddy got a chair.

It's rough to be Buddy.

I had a 10 mile long run I was supposed to do today. It didn't happen. I didn't run at all. Between the not eating anything yesterday and the sleeping in, it just didn't happen. And that's ok. I'll try to get some miles in tomorrow since I have the day off, but a missed run or two isn't going to break me.

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Sick, again?

I'm not meant to rest.

Whenever I slow down and actually rest, I get sick.

Yet another weekend day spent on the couch. Fortunately I seem to be able to keep food down now, so hopefully that means I can enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Aside from the sickness, we had a nice movie day.

I also got caught up watching Bones. Does anyone else watch it? It was a super stressful episode - made worse by the fact that I didn't realize it was the season finale until it was over. Television writers are cruel. Now I will impatiently wait for next season to resolve all this drama!

Also: Tom is pretty awesome and brought me "happy Friday" flowers yesterday. :)

What shows do you watch? Ever watch a season finale without realizing it?

The internet says...

Happy Friday!

I had a pretty good day at work today. We try to close early right before holiday weekends, so most of my kids were picked up by about 3:30. It didn't hurt that we only had 6 kiddos all day.

I managed to finish my lesson plans last night, but only got my newsletter half written. My boss was so busy that she didn't care and I get to turn both in on Tuesday.

I've been having a weird "popping" feeling in my right foot recently. It doesn't hurt, and it doesn't bother me when I run. I mostly feel it when I walk barefoot around the house. The internet says I may have a swollen nerve - but those are supposed to be painful, so I don't know.

Since my foot is being weird and I haven't been sleeping enough this week, I'm planning on missing my trail run tomorrow. I really need to sleep in before I make myself sick again. The Newburgh Half is in two weeks, so I figure I'll rest my foot now rather than make it mad right before the race.

We don't really have any plans for the long weekend. It will just be nice to get to spend some relaxing time together before Tom heads out of town again.

This is what it looks like when I try to take a picture of Buddy holding out his paw to shake.

He's so cute.

Do you have any fun plans for the weekend?

I didn't want to die

I have it in my head that I'm a decently slow runner. I always have been. And I'm ok with that.

But I think it may be keeping me from seeing what I can really do.

After not dying on my trail run last weekend, I thought I should try to bump my training up a notch and see how it goes.

So, today was supposed to be a 5 mile run, with 3 at 9:46/mile.

Instead, I did my 1 mile warm up, and did miles 1&2 at 9:14 pace and mile 3 at 9:05.

Aside from being rather sweaty (which I'm sure you wanted to know), it was good! I mean, I didn't want to sing songs from a Rogers and Hammerstein musical or anything, but I also didn't want to die.

Pretty cool.

Now it's time for my (much avoided) date with my plan book.

Do you have/have you had any mental blocks that hold you back?

Art and lesson planning

We made these butterflies at work the other day. We swirled around a bunch of paint, folded them in half and let the kiddos smoosh the paint around.

They turned out pretty cute.

And some kites.

And some pinwheels that don't actually spin because I put them on pipe cleaners (because I already had them in my classroom) rather than spend money on something they will break in 30 seconds when I take them off the wall.

Check out our green beans in the window that are somehow not dead yet.

Friday is sneaking up rather quickly and I (naturally) still haven't made much progress on my lesson plans. Ok, that's not true. I have most of my art project ideas and my circle time books figured out. They're not all written down yet, but I'm counting it.

My lesson plan book has the following headings - Circle time, Story/Language, Music/Movement, Art, Science, and Specials (like cooking, which we do once a month). It's sort of a ridiculous amount of planning for two year olds, but it keeps us busy throughout the month and gives us a little focus for our play.

I have a tempo run tomorrow, I'm looking forward to bumping the speed a bit to really challenge myself.

And then it will be lesson planning madness - again. One day I will get my plans done early. If I keep saying it, it has to happen eventually, right?

Oh, and Buddy says hi!

This is what he looked like after he and Tom went for a walk earlier.

 A tired, but happy pooch.

Rolling down the window

Oh hey, it's Tuesday!

I wasn't really back to normal until after work yesterday. Now I'm back to eating ALL the snacks and drinking coffee. That's right, I didn't drink coffee on Monday, that's how you know I wasn't feeling well.

We had a really nice Tuesday, even with all 11 kiddos. They somehow managed to play pretty nicely (for them) and we only had a few tantrums. You probably don't want to hear about it, but we're also having some serious potty training success lately - it's pretty exciting!

Most people at work sit in their cars at lunch. We have a staff/break room, but I think we all need a break from the building during the day.

Plus it has been really nice out, so I've been rolling all the windows down (do young kids not know why we call it "rolling" the window down?) and enjoying the fresh air.

I had an easy 2 miler today, which went well at a lazy an easy 10:30 pace. Thursday is my next tempo run, I'm trying to decide how fast I want to take it after my speedy trail run last weekend. My plan wants it to be 9:46 pace, but I ran about a 9:04 on the trails this weekend.

It's that time again, lesson plans are due on Friday. Time for some quality time with this book.

And if you don't want to see how awesome disgusting my bruise on my knee has gotten...you should probably stop reading.



I'll give you a minute.

Pretty, no?

The good/weird thing is that it only hurts if I accidentally kneel on it at work. So that's nice.

Also, how is this weekend Memorial day weekend already?

Are you doing anything fun for the long weekend?

Stupid Sunday

Today was dumb.

I woke up feeling not quite right and it went downhill from there. 

Everything hurt my stomach, including water. But since water is kind of necessary, I sipped on some when I could. I also have a fever.

I really need to work on my lesson plans, they're due Friday, but it definitely isn't happening today. Neither is my long run. 

As my mom said when I texted her, "fever is the only thing that keeps us down." We're both very stubborn about acting sick when we are.

Buddy didn't mind keeping me company.

Hopefully I'm back to normal in the morning, or it's going to be a long day.

On a trail

Good morning!

I was up bright and early this morning to meet up with the group. It was absolutely pouring last night, but was beautiful and sunny this morning! The trail wasn't nearly as muddy as I expected it to be either.

My usual "slow" running buddy wasn't there today so the other "slow" girl and I had to work a little harder than usual to keep the group in view so we didn't get lost.

I felt like I was running a race. And according to my Garmin, I ran my fastest 5k today. On a trail.

Speaking of my Garmin, it decided to wait until 2 miles in to start working, so I only have about 40 minutes worth of our nearly hour long run.

This is what the miles it did record looked like:
1. 8:56
2. 9:21
3. 8:22
4. 9:34

ON A TRAIL.

Altogether we ran 6.42 miles in a little under an hour. No wonder I felt like I was working hard!

It feels pretty great to know I can keep that pace up though!

I almost didn't go out this morning because of my knee, but it turned out that it didn't bother me at all!

The bruise is developing quite nicely.

 

Give it a day or two, it's going to be an awesome color.

I iced my knee when I came home just in case it was going to be mad at me for running.

And had an excellent post-run snack.

Tom and Buddy went walking in the woods this morning while I ran, Buddy was very excited and should be pretty wiped out for the rest of the day.

Oh, and one of the moms from work brought in a bunch of stuff from her work for me and my assistant. Wasn't that sweet?

Free things are fun!

I hope you're having a great weekend!

Take that baby down

The munchkin who hated me yesterday is back to liking me today. And being a little possessive. One of the infant teachers came in to say hi and handed me the baby she brought with her. My kiddo was not happy about it. He told me "you no hold that," and to "take that baby down." Too funny.

I did today's run yesterday since I knew Tom was going to be home today. So today is a rest day for me. Good thing too, because my kiddos and a chair worked together to trip me up at lunch today. I hit my knee pretty hard, but I think it is just going to bruise. I think it will be ready to run by my group run on Saturday.

Buddy has the whole house available to him, but he chooses to lay on top of his ropes. 

That doesn't look comfortable.

This is aggressive as he gets.

Watch out for that tongue!

I'm pretty excited that tomorrow is Friday. The weekend is way better when Tom is home - relaxing alone is great and all, but relaxing when we're both home is even better.

Fickle toddlers and a tempo run

Today, the seams of my running clothes were bothering me, and it took three hair elastics, a headband and several clips to get my hair contained enough to not drive me crazy.

But then, the run. Once I got started, I felt really good!

Tempo run day - 1 mile warmup, 2 miles at 9:41 and then 1 at 9:31 because I was feeling great and wanted to go faster, and 1 mile cool down.

Just a bit sweaty at the end.

It was a good day at work today, ten crazy kiddos managed to play really nicely for the most part, and as an added bonus, I only worked until a little after 3:30! I felt like I was getting away with something, even though I worked a full day.

One of my kiddos is in a hating everything/everyone phase, but I am usually exempt. At nap time I got an "I hate you," but it was quickly replaced with "No, I like you, I sorry" when I went to sit by another munchkin. Fickle toddlers. 

I did a little tidying around the house before my run, because at some point (I don't know when exactly because his flight was delayed), Tom gets home tonight! I'll be sleeping, because it will be late, and I have to work in the morning, but that means he'll be here when I get up!

Also, I just realized that the Newburgh Half Marathon is a little over 3 weeks away - so soon!

My trusty sidekick

Totally crazy day today. We haven't had all 11 kiddos in a while (or at least a couple of weeks) and it definitely felt like a full house.

There were several emotional breakdowns among the toddlers (luckily not the staff), and it takes a lot of energy to calm them down when they get worked up like that.

My new assistant came in today! She's a little quiet, but I think that's mostly because she doesn't know what's going on yet. The kids took a little while to warm up to her, but by the time I left (5:30, boo) they were pretty happy to have her around. I think (hope) it's going to work out.

My running motivation was almost derailed by some random traffic on the way home that made my normal 8 minute commute (yes, I'm spoiled, and I like it that way) almost a half an hour. I never saw any reason for the traffic either.

My training plan only called for 2 easy miles for the day so I took my trusty sidekick out with me.

He was ready to be done at about 1 1/2 miles, but we had to get home somehow, so we kept going.

Tired, but he still seemed pretty happy - check out that tail!

I think it's finally time to put my laundry away that I did this weekend. Or I could just go shower and do it tomorrow...

source

Are you a procrastinator?

Isn't everyone?

Buddy's new spot

This weekend went by unnaturally fast.

The news I have been waiting on for months finally arrived today - my afternoon assistant starts tomorrow! That wonderful news means that there is actually hope that I won't be working obscene amounts of overtime anymore!

I decided to put Buddy's crate away since he's free-range now. When I moved the crate I discovered just how messy an eater he is.

He enjoyed cleaning it up!

While I was putting his crate away, he was digging around in his toy bin for his nylabone. He tends to make himself bleed when he has it for too long, so he has to be supervised.

Buddy's new spot - he seems alright with it - the living room looks much bigger now.

I had a weirdly productive time after work today, got dishes done, cleaned part of the living room and took out a bunch of recycling that I have been ignoring for weeks (lets pretend that there isn't still a lot of recycling that needs to go out).

I love when things are clean, I just have a hard time getting motivated to clean things!

Tomorrow we're back to our full class of 11, I should probably get some sleep...

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my amazing Mom! We're overdue for our next adventure!

I had a really good breakfast this morning, and I got to try out the granola I got in my RunnerBox. I made a little yogurt parfait.

Coconut is the best of the Greek yogurts.

 

It was about 50% raspberries because that's how I roll. The granola was really good, though since it was flavored it was pretty sweet. I didn't expect to like the lime flavor, but I would totally eat it again.

It was beautiful out today, less humid than yesterday. Buddy and I went for a walk until he slowed down, neither of us is a big fan of getting overheated.

I think he had a good walk.

Long run day, 8 miles at 11:13 pace. Felt fine, though I was definitely ready to be done at the end.

Buddy decided to block the treadmill belt after I was done, just in case I was going to start running again.

Now it's time to get my laundry folded and get to bed. How did the weekend go by so quickly?