The day I drove to work 3 times

We had some pretty cool clouds this morning.

I managed to drive to work three times today. In the morning (obviously), at lunch time (to let Buddy out), and again an hour later because I got peed on (the joys of working with toddlers!) and had to come home and change before a conference. Good thing I live close to work!

My fitbit app on my phone updated the other day, and it has a new "excercise" feature. Buddy and I tested it out on our walk this afternoon. It uses GPS (like apps like Map my run) but then it syncs all that data with your fitbit. Pretty neat little addition to the app. The GPS lost us for a little while, so the map looks like we took a bee line through a bunch of houses.

I'm taking a rest day today since I did 11 miles yesterday. I am trying to be good about rest days (and cross training) for this upcoming training cycle. I pretty much didn't do any strength training/cross training before my last two races, and I want to see if doing some non-running workouts can help bring my time down. Always chasing that next PR. :)

I'm planning on heading to bed a little early to catch up on some sleep tonight - we have all 11 kiddos in class tomorrow, I will need all the energy I can get!

A berry good idea

Weekends always go by so fast! At least I feel like I got a lot done this weekend.

Buddy and I were up bright and early for some reason, so we headed to the dog park for a bit. His big buddy the great dane was there again today. Mostly the great dane jumps on Buddy and covers him in slobber while Buddy stands there and looks uncomfortable. He doesn't really know how to play sometimes.

After a while, Buddy started to stick closer to me and when I picked up his leash he ran for the gate. I guess he had enough of his crazy friend.

But I think he had fun.

He loves riding in the car.

When we got home, I finished off my lesson plans, did some dishes and headed to the basement for a run.

I saw this while I was deciding what to watch. I think Netflix was confused.

I didn't really know how many miles I was going to feel like doing today. I wanted to hit 10 and ended up doing 11. Not too shabby.

I turned some berries into an ice cream topping/sauce. It was a berry good idea :) (Sorry, I couldn't help myself!)

It tasted like berry cobbler without the cakey part. Really good!

I finally put my suitcase away and folded the mountain of clean laundry that was threatening to take over the bed too.

Watch out Monday, I'm almost actually organized! :)

Lesson planning, cleaning, and berries!

I woke up super grumpy this morning. I'm not really sure why, maybe a little post-vacation blues? It's hard to come back to reality after taking a break.

Lesson plans are also hanging over my head, which doesn't help.

What does help is that I signed up for my next race! It isn't until October, but I like having a race to look forward to.

I had a lot of things I wanted to get done today and was having a serious motivation problem. I ended up setting timers for myself to work on lesson plans and cleaning around the house. It looked like this: 20 minutes lesson planning, 5 minute break, 20 minutes cleaning, 5 minute break, etc.

It was sort of like when I set out for a run and I'm not really in the mood to be running. I think, "Ok, it's 20 minutes, I can do just about anything for 20 minutes." And then I get a surprising amount accomplished.

I managed to get the vast majority of my lesson plans finished and the living room looks almost tidy!

Then I did a little workout/strength training in the form of the full 7 minute workout, which is the normal 7 minute workout, three times through.

I was a little tired at the end and collapsed rested on the floor for a little while.

And then Buddy came downstairs to help me stretch.

Since I was being strangely productive, I even decided to brave go to Sam's Club to get some paper products and an obscene amount of berries. They were so cheap! Now I have to eat berries all day long for several days to finish them before they go bad. I think I'm up to the challenge. :)

Share!

I made it!

I hit a wall today. I was so tired I wasn't sure if I was going to make it until 6.

We had a long discussion in class today about not putting food in your ear. We also listened to a lot of Yellow Submarine (by request) and practiced using our words rather than screaming in people's faces. I also had to remind them that you can't shout "share!" at someone and then snatch things out of their hands.

Toddlers are crazy.

I think Buddy is still a little unsure if I will come back when I leave him, he's extra happy every time I come home.

We had a low-key evening of tv watching. I'm still deciding if I am going to try to make it to my running group in the morning. I honestly don't know if I could keep up, and it probably wouldn't hurt me to get some sleep.

It was really nice out at lunch today, way less humid than yesterday, and beautiful.

It's supposed to be pretty nice this weekend so Buddy and I are planning on getting out and enjoying it. I also have to do my July lesson plans (like, yesterday), so that will take some time too.

Insanely tired and a run

Look how cute this face is.

I had a pretty typical day at work, the usual toddler craziness.

The few days out of town made it so I have to get used to the humidity again. I walked out the door this morning and felt like I was breathing in a steam room. I hate steam rooms.

After work I sat down on the couch - big mistake! I got insanely tired. It took a serious amount of effort to make myself change for a run, but I wanted to at least put a couple of miles in.

I figured I would just do a bit and see how I felt. Once I got started it felt really good and I ended up doing 3 miles.

I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday, I have really exciting plans to sleep a lot this weekend.

Home!

After a very long day of travel yesterday, I finally made it home around 9pm.  The house was really quiet without Buddy around, but since I only had time to shower and go to bed it wasn't too bad.

The munchkins were happy to see me this morning. I got some really good hugs, and one kiddo who didn't even want me to leave the room to go to the bathroom.  He cried until I came back to the classsroom.

My boss gave me the option to leave for a bit and come back, but I was doing alright energy-wise this morning. The kids weren't too nuts either. I got to leave a little after 2 and drove straight to pick up this goofball.

They didn't want to give him back, so I guess that means he was good :)

He seems happy to be home.

The house feels more like home with him back. We're laying low, doing some laundry and relaxing this afternoon. My endless travel and jet lag are catching up to me.

I'm sure you've seen all the crazy Oreos popping up every day so often. Most of them look terrible. Watermelon? Limeade? I think I'll pass. But today I saw one I had to try.

Um, yes. You should buy these, and possibly crumble them onto some vanilla ice cream. I would if I had any.

I bought Buddy a new Kong today since he took a chunk out of his old one.

I think it's safe to say he approves of the replacement.

I'm hoping that I am a little more rested tomorrow so I can get a run in. We did tons of walking while I was in London, so I don't feel too bad, but it's been a while.

The less fun part of travel

I just live in airports now. 

My flight out of London left late because people don't know how to be at the gate on time.  Between that, and the fact that you apparently go through American customs at the Toronto airport, there was no way for me to make my connection. My flight was gone for a half hour before I even got through customs and security (again? I didn't leave a security area).

They threw away my water that I bought after security in London. And they told me about it with attitude, like I was somehow supposed to anticipate the super duper double security. 

Even without my flight being late, it would have been really borderline for me to make my flight. I feel like they need to have a longer minimum amount of time between flights here. They are really, really, slow. 

So now it looks like I will be getting home sometime after 7, and Buddy will have to hang out at the vet until I'm off work tomorrow.

It's been a long day, and it's technically only 2:15 here. 

The Queen's Terminal

I had to get up at 3:45 this morning. It was kind of gross after all the sleeping in I've been doing. 

I successfully managed the cab/train combo to get to the airport and then had to wait 45 minutes for the people to open up the bag drop. Then it was another 15 minutes while they tried to make their scanner work. 

Now I'm sitting in The Queen's Terminal (which she apparently just officially opened yesterday) and drinking a latte. 

Two flights (I fly home through Toronto, which was way cheaper than any direct flights) and a long drive and I will be home. 

I'm hoping to make it up to the vet to pick up Buddy before they close or I will have to wait and get him after work tomorrow. 

That's all the news for now, I hope you're having a good morning!

Sightseeing

We originally planned on doing a little less walking today, and talked about taking one of those hop-on, hop-off bus tours. Instead, we did a lot of walking again. 

We went by Harrod's, which we quickly learned wasn't really our style. 

Super-shopping madness. 

We found some tasty Lebanese food for lunch and ate way too much. It was really good. 

Some sights from around town. 

Part of Westminster Abbey. 

We missed the cutoff to actually go inside, which was a bit of a bummer, but it was cool to walk by anyway. 

Big Ben and the Eye. 

Parliament

We also stopped by Paddington Station to buy my train ticket to the airport. The train I took when I got here doesn't run as early as I need to be at the airport, which I didn't think about when I bought my ticket. 

So I'll take a short cab ride to the train station (early!) in the morning and then the train to the airport. 

Hampton Court Palace

We managed to leave the apartment relatively early today so we would have plenty of time at Hampton Court. 

It was a really nice day for it, and not insanely crowded. The audio tour was free so we grabbed little handsets and wandered around. 

We were pretty much ready for lunch by the time we got there so we stopped for a snack before we got too invested. 

The kitchens

A Henry VIII sighting

This fountain is for wine. Seriously. And they still occasionally fill it up for special events. 

The Great Hall

Some of the flowers in one of the gardens. 

And I got a rare chance to take a picture without people in the way because we were there close to when they closed. 

Lots of walking

The Millenium Bridge 

It just makes me think of Harry Potter. 

Several people told us we had to go check out The Borough Market. They didn't mention that half of London would be there. We wandered through the crowds for a bit and got some food to snack on. It was a pretty cool little open air market, but it was way too crowded. 

Then we sat with a couple of ciders and people watched outside The Anchor. It claims to have been a hangout of Shakepeare's, just down the street from where they rebuilt the Globe Theater. 

And a couple of random shots from around the city. 

We have been doing a ridiculous amount of walking the last couple of days. I think we might get out of the city for a day trip tomorrow. We will see what we feel like doing. 

Feed the birds

Tom let me sleep off some jet lag this morning - I got over 11 hours of sleep! 

We decided to go to the Tower of London today so we walked over. It is about a half hour walk from the apartment. 

We grabbed some lunch and ended up right next to a little parade (we have no idea what was actually happening). 

Next we explored the tower. 

And got a nice view of the Tower Bridge. 

And we walked by St Paul's Cathedral, but Tom didn't get my "feed the birds" reference. He clearly didn't watch Mary Poppins as much as I did as a child. 

After playing tourist, we met up with some of Tom's work people for a few beers. 

Dinner was a Chinese buffet since we were right by Chinatown. It was pretty delicious. (Don't worry, I had some more traditional fish and chips for dinner last night) :)

And here's a few shots of the apartment.