I've got a dinosaur on my head

The neighbors have been putting some really random things in the recycling shed lately.

I got a fun package in the mail from my aunt yesterday. It had some new music for the kiddos. They are already obsessed with the song "I've got a dinosaur on my head," or as they call it, "Dinosaur my head." We listened to it a ridiculous number of times today.

It has also been stuck in my head all evening.

She also sent me a potholder for our cast-iron skillet (shown here with my awesome orange potholders that my dad made - we're a crafty family).

I wanted to test out the "burst mode" on my phone's camera, so naturally I used Buddy as my test subject.

We started with a denta-stick.

And then

This picture makes me laugh so hard!

And a happy mutt.

Today was a rest day on my training plan, so I got caught up on dishes (didn't I just do that?) and enjoyed getting to sit down for a few minutes since I'm on my feet all day. I have mile repeats on the agenda tomorrow, I'm both nervous and excited for them!

Now I'm off to get things done so I can go to bed at a reasonable hour - I was just shy of 8 hours last night, according to my fitbit - way more sleep than I have been getting lately!

I need to sleep more

I really need to get better about going to bed on time. I have been getting less and less sleep lately, and I'm starting to feel it.

Maybe it's a matter of getting more organized or maybe I just need to be better about turning off the computer/tv earlier. All I know is I need to do something, because sleep is essential to me still liking my munchkins and staying healthy enough to run.

For some reason, all the munchkins were really tired today too. We spent a lot of time outside in the morning so they (and we) could have space from each other, and they all took good naps!

Somehow, amidst the chaos, I managed to finish up our Mother's Day gifts so I don't have to think about them for the rest of the week.

I set up our new sensory bin during nap today. We're talking about weather this month, so it's weather themed!

It will obviously never look like this again once they touch it, but it's cute right now.

A little late-afternoon grassy playground action. (We have a grassy and a sandy playground. I hate the sandy one)

I had an easy 3 miles on my training plan for today, so I planned ahead and started part of my dinner before heading to the basement. It worked perfectly! There is still hope that I may get to bed on time tonight!

This is what happens if you leave Cadbury mini-eggs in your car and they get too hot. They still taste good!

A little bit of neighborhood springtime.

And springtime with Buddy.

And now a brief video of Buddy being ridiculous this afternoon.

How many hours of sleep is your ideal?

I try to shoot for around 8, but I've been closer to 7 lately and I'm really feeling the difference!

My glue stick ran out

I remembered to take a picture of my bulletin board today. I actually like it less in the picture than I do in person.

Also, something about the lighting made my blue letters disappear in this picture. They're not that close in color in person.

"Getting antsy in TE!"

It was a pretty uneventful day at work, just the usual Monday chaos.

Some of our new play equipment, isn't it cute?

After work was one of those days where I planned on doing so many things and then I barely got dinner made before it got too late.

I was trying to finish up part of a project we are doing for Mother's day at work (because it's impossible to do with the kids around), but my glue stick ran out after I did two of them. Maybe I'll have time tomorrow?

Today was a rest day on my training plan, which is good, because they way the evening went I probably wouldn't have had dinner if I was running.

And let's just talk about my dinner for a minute. Roasted butternut squash, broccoli, and chicken sausage. Really good.

I'm kind of addicted to chicken sausage right now, it's fully cooked, which makes it an easy protein to have on work nights. Plus there are a ton of different flavor options.

I have that nagging feeling that there was something else I wanted to share with you, but now I can't remember what it was. And my alarm that tells me it's time to go upstairs and get ready for bed is going off, so whatever it was is going to have to wait until tomorrow.

I'll leave you with some Buddy pictures.

He hates loves having his picture taken.

What's something you're looking forward to this week?

I have a speedwork session (mile repeats) later this week and I am both nervous and excited for it, I haven't done "real" speedwork in a very long time!

My day in pictures of Buddy

I took Buddy to the dog park this morning. He loves going for rides in the car, and got very excited when we turned in to the park.

There were dogs there that made him look downright tiny. 

After playing for a while, he started to slow down. I picked up his leash and asked him if he wanted to go home - he ran straight for the gate. I guess he was tired!

I had an 8 mile long run today. You know those amazing runs where you want to keep running forever? This wasn't one of them. I was pretty much dragging for the first five miles. It was lame. The last three went alright, and I got all 8 done in the end. I wasn't sure I would when I first started.

Buddy was zonked out for the duration. That's the couch his face is wedged under.

And, of course, he was right there to help me stretch when I was done.

He's a little ridiculous.

Now it's time to hit the grocery store and get some relaxing in before it's time to go back to work in the morning.

Hope you're all having a good weekend!

I made sure to pick my feet up

I stayed up later than I should have, so I wasn't feeling it when my alarm went off this morning at 6:45. But I managed to drag myself out the door and made it to meet up with the group.

As added motivation, I got to try out my new headband. It actually didn't move around during my run, I'm pretty impressed!

The group was mostly speedsters today, but luckily for me, one guy was super sore from the week and was moving more my speed. We ran just shy of 6 miles at 9:58 average pace. He told me I didn't need to hang back with him, but I assured him that I was not going to be moving much faster today.

We ran past the spot I fell last time (my hands are finally almost healed), I made sure to pick my feet up so we didn't have any repeat wipeouts.

Since I didn't have time for breakfast before my run, (I just had an english muffin pb&j) so when I got home, I made myself a tasty meal. An english muffin, avocado, eggs, sriracha, and some tomatoes. The eggs look ridiculous because I decided to flip them without a spatula (for some reason). I was mostly successful.

After breakfast, I headed out to (finally) get my car an oil change. Let's not talk about how overdue that was.

My phone is old. It likes to randomly turn off, won't tell me when people call, and sometimes won't let me type anything. So today I went to get myself a fancy new iPhone. It took a while, but we finally got it sorted out (and I got to keep my old number).

Naturally, I had to test out the camera.

And then I had to spend a while downloading apps and remembering my passwords to everything. I also had to find and add the 9 contacts that didn't transfer over for some reason.

Buddy is pretty cute today.

Oh, and I tried this from my RunnerBox today before my run.

Flavor-wise it was pretty good, but there was something weird about the texture. It wasn't really like a gel, but almost like pudding. Kind of odd. I like the idea, but I'll probably stick to my regular gels and shot bloks.

I was barely home today, so tomorrow I have really exciting plans to only leave the house to go to the grocery store. I'm really looking forward to it!

I failed you

I completely and totally failed you today. I got my new bulletin board up - it's adorable and people already hate me for it (which means it's awesome) and I completely forgot to take a picture of it! I'll try to remember on Monday!

I did take a couple of pictures during nap time inside the classroom though.

These are our bean plants that we started last month. They're doing really well and I don't want them to die, but I don't really have anywhere to transplant them, so I'm still trying to decide what to do with them.

We also "planted" some in ziplocks that we taped to the window. It's really neat because the kids got to watch the seeds sprout and they can see the roots. What's really crazy is we started these the week before the ones in the cups, and they're somehow still doing pretty well. All four of these are actually growing out the top of the ziplock right now. This picture is a couple weeks old.

The lighting of this is messed up because it was nap time, but we made these the other day. They turned out pretty cute.

I was supposed to have a 2 mile easy run today, but I didn't end up getting out of work until a little after 6. Then I had to go put gas in my car (because that pesky light was on again) and stop by the store (because I needed veggies, and snacks...), so by the time I got home and walked Buddy, it was after 7, and I was really tired.

I don't feel bad about missing those miles because I plan on meeting up with the running group tomorrow morning, which will probably be 6-7 miles. On a rest/cross training day. What? Trail running is cross training, right? ;)

I'm actually terrible about cross training, I haven't found something I like to do yet. I know it's important for injury prevention, but I'm still really bad about it.

What's your favorite cross-training activity?

Early day and a tempo run

Hey! It's Thursday, and I'm pretty excited about that fact! Actually I'm really just excited because that means tomorrow is Friday and I pretty much survived the week. I wasn't sure for a little while there.

I am going to have the cutest bulletin board this month. The kids painted these today:

There is an unofficial competition between me and the girls across the hall from me. There's no prize, we just like trying to outdo each other.

I got to leave a little early today. It was kind of awesome, because after yesterday's endless rain, today looked like this:

Buddy and I went on a long walk.  He loves the sunshine.

Then I hit the treadmill (it's just so much easier to do my runs on the treadmill after work). I had a tempo run, so I did a 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at 9:50 pace, and a 1 mile cool down. I was worried I might feel like I was going to die since I took some time off last week, but turns out well-rested legs are sometimes pretty happy. Weird, right?

 And now a series of pictures of Buddy looking pathetic while we were in the basement.

I wasn't good at rationing my broccoli yesterday, so my dinner had a miserably small amount of veggies tonight. It's a dramatic detail about my day that you just had to know.

What's your favorite veggie?