I am LOVING all the sleepy cat pictures you all have been sending... I think Jerry is tired of me saying, "Oh, look at this one!" I'm so glad that I am making my kids pick the winner, because I could never choose.
Yesterday morning, I spent two hours working on my RRCA certification test. I was nervous about it, because you only get one shot to pass. It was actually harder than I expected it to be, because some of the questions were tricky. But I got this e-mail today:
Yay! I don't really have plans of *actually* coaching right now, but I like having some credibility when people ask me for running advice. Andrea said she'll be myguinea pig first client while we train for the Chicago Marathon, and I'm excited to write a training schedule for her.
During the night, at around 1:00 in the morning, Jerry and I were both sleeping. Then we both were startled out of sleep from a horrible alarm sound. I had no idea what it was, and I was so disoriented from being awakened so suddenly. I may have said some obscenities, and Jerry found the source of the alarms--there were TWO that sounded simultaneously. Our cell phones.
Apparently, we have some sort of setting on our phones that sounds an alarm when there is an Amber Alert in our area. I had no idea that this existed. It took me a good hour and a half to fall back asleep after that.
When I got up this morning, it was still pretty early, so I just laid in bed and thought about what to do with the Rockford Marathon--whether I should do it or not. I made a mental list:
Reasons to do it--I can give it my all, and see my potential for that distance; I can be there when my sister runs her first half-marathon.
Reasons NOT to do it--I hate running longer than 13 miles; training for a marathon isn't fun; I am more likely to get injured; my newly faster pace will probably slow significantly; I don't have extra money to throw around; I'm trying not to travel much without my family this year (which is why I'm not running the Indy half); I really don't care in the slightest what my marathon time is, so improving it is kind of pointless.
When I listed all that, it was pretty obvious what my choice should be. I'm not going to do it. I actually felt relieved when I decided that, which means I made the right decision.
Jerry had to work this morning, so we gave the kids their Easter "baskets" last night...
They wanted fitted Detroit Tigers hats (just like their daddy), so I used hats for baskets--it was hard to fit much in there, but we went easy on the candy, because they really don't need it. They got the hats, a DVD (Life of Pi and Wreck-It Ralph), a chocolate bunny filled with caramel, peeps, and some mini Cadbury Creme Eggs. They were really excited about the hats, so it was a good choice!
They dyed Easter eggs yesterday, and this morning I hid them around the living room, dining room, and kitchen. I counted them before I hid them, to make sure we found all the eggs--there were 21 total. When the kids got up, they had fun finding the eggs. We got down to the last few, and they were having a hard time finding them, so I did hotter/colder to help them.
Well, turns out I had no idea where the last two eggs were. We searched for 45 minutes!! I couldn't find them for the life of me, so they are somewhere in my house right now, just waiting to start rotting and stinking up the place. My house is pretty clean, so it's not like they are hidden amongst clutter--I have no idea what happened to them!
So now that Lent is over (I gave up sweetened nut butters), I got a new-to-me peanut butter to try.
I don't think I've ever come across a peanut butter that I didn't like... until now. This stuff tasted way too oily. Peanut Butter & Co. makes a Cinnamon Raisin peanut butter that is FANTASTIC, so I will stick with that one. I like the idea of the granola in the peanut butter, but the flavor of this just wasn't very good. They have a couple other flavors, but those didn't interest me (one of them has banana, and I'm not a banana + peanut butter person).
Giving up the sweetened nut butters for Lent was pretty tough at first, but I'm glad I did it. I got out of that bad habit of swiping a spoonful here and there and not counting it.
Saving some exciting news for last... Jerry reached his goal weight!!! He started losing weight a few months after I did, and his starting weight was (funnily enough) the same as mine--253. He got down to about 10 pounds above his goal weight, and stayed there for the past couple of years. A couple of months ago, he decided to join Weight Watchers, and focus on reaching his goal weight. And he DID!
In his before picture from 2009, he was 253; and now he's 172--so he's lost 81 pounds! Doesn't he look awesome? :) I'm hoping he'll write a post about his point of view of this whole journey.
Yesterday morning, I spent two hours working on my RRCA certification test. I was nervous about it, because you only get one shot to pass. It was actually harder than I expected it to be, because some of the questions were tricky. But I got this e-mail today:
Yay! I don't really have plans of *actually* coaching right now, but I like having some credibility when people ask me for running advice. Andrea said she'll be my
During the night, at around 1:00 in the morning, Jerry and I were both sleeping. Then we both were startled out of sleep from a horrible alarm sound. I had no idea what it was, and I was so disoriented from being awakened so suddenly. I may have said some obscenities, and Jerry found the source of the alarms--there were TWO that sounded simultaneously. Our cell phones.
Apparently, we have some sort of setting on our phones that sounds an alarm when there is an Amber Alert in our area. I had no idea that this existed. It took me a good hour and a half to fall back asleep after that.
When I got up this morning, it was still pretty early, so I just laid in bed and thought about what to do with the Rockford Marathon--whether I should do it or not. I made a mental list:
Reasons to do it--I can give it my all, and see my potential for that distance; I can be there when my sister runs her first half-marathon.
Reasons NOT to do it--I hate running longer than 13 miles; training for a marathon isn't fun; I am more likely to get injured; my newly faster pace will probably slow significantly; I don't have extra money to throw around; I'm trying not to travel much without my family this year (which is why I'm not running the Indy half); I really don't care in the slightest what my marathon time is, so improving it is kind of pointless.
When I listed all that, it was pretty obvious what my choice should be. I'm not going to do it. I actually felt relieved when I decided that, which means I made the right decision.
Jerry had to work this morning, so we gave the kids their Easter "baskets" last night...
They wanted fitted Detroit Tigers hats (just like their daddy), so I used hats for baskets--it was hard to fit much in there, but we went easy on the candy, because they really don't need it. They got the hats, a DVD (Life of Pi and Wreck-It Ralph), a chocolate bunny filled with caramel, peeps, and some mini Cadbury Creme Eggs. They were really excited about the hats, so it was a good choice!
They dyed Easter eggs yesterday, and this morning I hid them around the living room, dining room, and kitchen. I counted them before I hid them, to make sure we found all the eggs--there were 21 total. When the kids got up, they had fun finding the eggs. We got down to the last few, and they were having a hard time finding them, so I did hotter/colder to help them.
Well, turns out I had no idea where the last two eggs were. We searched for 45 minutes!! I couldn't find them for the life of me, so they are somewhere in my house right now, just waiting to start rotting and stinking up the place. My house is pretty clean, so it's not like they are hidden amongst clutter--I have no idea what happened to them!
So now that Lent is over (I gave up sweetened nut butters), I got a new-to-me peanut butter to try.
I don't think I've ever come across a peanut butter that I didn't like... until now. This stuff tasted way too oily. Peanut Butter & Co. makes a Cinnamon Raisin peanut butter that is FANTASTIC, so I will stick with that one. I like the idea of the granola in the peanut butter, but the flavor of this just wasn't very good. They have a couple other flavors, but those didn't interest me (one of them has banana, and I'm not a banana + peanut butter person).
Giving up the sweetened nut butters for Lent was pretty tough at first, but I'm glad I did it. I got out of that bad habit of swiping a spoonful here and there and not counting it.
Saving some exciting news for last... Jerry reached his goal weight!!! He started losing weight a few months after I did, and his starting weight was (funnily enough) the same as mine--253. He got down to about 10 pounds above his goal weight, and stayed there for the past couple of years. A couple of months ago, he decided to join Weight Watchers, and focus on reaching his goal weight. And he DID!
In his before picture from 2009, he was 253; and now he's 172--so he's lost 81 pounds! Doesn't he look awesome? :) I'm hoping he'll write a post about his point of view of this whole journey.