December 22, 2013

Mousie and Ella

I woke up today feeling completely drained. I thought about Mark all night long, and even though I spoke to him via FaceTime yesterday, I just kept hearing him saying that he wants to go home. I knew my parents were going to visit him after church today, so I hoped that they would tell me good news, that Mark was feeling better.

I had intervals on the schedule today (7 x 400), and I planned to do them on the treadmill. I got dressed to run, and the treadmill all set up. I ran a short warm-up, and then set the treadmill at 9.0 mph for the first 400-meter interval (the same setting as last time). However, as soon as I started running, something just felt "off".

It was only the first interval, but I was having a hard time getting my legs to move quickly, and I felt clumsy and awkward. I only ran about a tenth of a mile before I decided to forget the intervals, and just run a tempo run, so I dropped the speed to 7.5 mph. After about a half-mile of that, I dropped it down to steady-state pace, about 8:30/mi. And finally, I dropped it to easy pace, 9:30-ish.

I think that yesterday just drained all of my energy. Right now, I feel like I do when I'm going through bad bout of depression; I just don't have much energy at all, and I have a pit in my stomach. I finished out three miles on the treadmill, but it was hard, even at an easy pace.


When I was done with my run, I turned on the Wii Fit U to go through my strength training routine. After the first time I did it, I was super sore! It actually hurt to run the next day, because my shoulders and chest were sore. But I am committed to doing it twice a week, and hopefully I won't get so sore this time.

I can't really say that today felt much easier, but it felt like it went by faster. I still like doing the games the best, but the yoga is definitely the hardest for me! My muscles shake so badly when I try to hold each position.

While I was finishing the strength routine, I got a text from my mom, who was at the hospital with Mark. She said that one of the nurse's aids went way above and beyond her job to display a whole bunch of Mark's cards. I was speechless when I saw the picture:


That was SO nice of her. She stapled as many cards as she could fit to a bed sheet, and then hung the sheet on the divider curtain. I'd been trying to think of a way to display his cards, so he can look at them more easily, and this is awesome. I'd like to bring her a small thank you gift or something tomorrow when I go visit. My mom said that all of the nurses were coming in to check it out, because they'd never seen someone get so many cards!

Speaking of gifts, Jerry and I decided to give the boys their gerbils yesterday, instead of waiting until Christmas. We tried to get creative in how we were going to present them, and first, we asked the kids to take out the recycling. There were lots of boxes in there from the gerbil supplies we bought, and we thought it would interesting to see if they noticed it, and discussed among themselves why there were gerbil items in the recycling bin. They took the recycling out, but didn't even notice all the gerbil stuff! So then we went with Plan B.

We put one of the gerbils in the clear plastic ball to let it roam around the house. The boys were in their bedroom, so I put the gerbil in the living room, and it was running around on the floor (inside of its ball). Then Eli came out, and it took him a while to notice, but then he started giggling and sneaking glances at me to see if I was going to say anything. I just acted like I had no idea that there was a gerbil on the floor. He called Noah in to see, and then they got really excited and gave us hugs. Jerry brought out the cage with the other gerbil, and the kids spent some time getting to know them (the cats were locked in my bedroom to avoid disaster).

Noah named his gerbil Mousie

Eli named his gerbil Ella
Jerry and I voted to name the gerbils "Duck" and "Chick" but the boys didn't go for it ;)

I thought Estelle would go NUTS for the gerbils, but she hasn't shown much interest at all. She's terrified of the gerbils when they are in the ball, wandering around the house, so she runs and hides--haha! Chandler, believe it or not, has shown more interest than any of the cats. We had the cage set up in Jerry's and my bathroom until we gave the gerbils to the kids, and Chandler squeezed himself onto the counter and just sat there, terrifying the poor gerbils watching.


Thankfully, none of the cats has even tried to mess with the top of the cage. Paolo has no interest in the gerbils at all, Estelle is scared of them, and Chandler and Phoebe just like to look at them. The gerbils are actually really interesting to watch!


Don't forget, tomorrow is Motivational Monday! I hope to see some great stories to boost my mood :)  If you have a photo you want to share about a health/fitness accomplishment, you can email it to me at SlimKatie (at) runsforcookies (dot) com, subject "Motivational Monday", with a short description, and I may include it on tomorrow's post!

10 comments:

  1. I LOVE the display of cards! God Bless that nurse!! My card is on its way but probably won't be there until around Tuesday or Thursday since it's coming from CA. There is a little treat in it for Mark. Those gerbils are cute. We have guinea pigs and they are hysterical. I know the boys will love their Christmas presents. Hopefully THEY'LL be cleaning the cages, and not you (good luck on that one!!) Merry Christmas, Katie :O)

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  2. The gerbils are so cute! I hope you keep us updated on them. And I love that Mark's getting so many cards!!

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  3. That is so nice of that nurse! Maybe a gift card to Starbucks or something like that?

    We used to have a hamster that would escape from its cage to go eat the cats food. Ahna (the cat) would just come and meow loudly at me until I followed her back to her dish to remove the hamster so she could eat. I have silly animals.

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  4. Katie, you have such a caring heart! And that nurse did an amazing job creating that display for Mark. My card should be there soon! I would have seconded your vote for the names (I am seriously jealous that I never thought to name my pets after Friends) - those little guys are adorable!!

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  5. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security with the cats and gerbils. Our poor sprinkles, after a 15 month truce with our 19 year old cat Flash lost an eye! She actually lived another 4 months, but just wasn't her cute self (think toy story scary baby!)

    AND take care of yourself - If it feels like depression ACT NOW and do what you can to pull yourself out! I know from experience - Don't dwell on things you can't change (Mark's illness)! God has a plan; Mark is loved and he knows it.

    You are a GREAT MOM!

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  6. That nurse is amazing, simply amazing! I keep forgetting to get a card, but I still want to! Hopefully I can remember! You are such a good person for this too :)

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  7. As much as I'm sure you hate having an off-feeling run, it makes me feel better about mine today. I knew before I even stepped out the door that I wasn't up for it, and boy was I right! Just one of those days! I can only imagine how excited your boys are about their new furry friends! And I'm so glad Mark has such nice people looking after him :)

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  8. What an awesome young lady to show such kindness to Mark, best thing you can do is tell her boss! I work in a hospital as a nursing assistant in an Intensive care unit, they base our raises on job performance and the "gem" program its when people let them know were doing a good job.

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  9. I've got my card ready to go out. Nurses are angels, but so are you! What a great friend you are to Mark. My heart goes out to you because I know it is not easy. You all are in my prayers.

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  10. I absolutely love what that nurse did. I was out of town when I read your post, but I've purchased a card and will be mailing it soon. I also posted about this on my blog.

    What you're doing is very sweet and I hope our cards can continue to bring joy to this special man.

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