Highs and Lows

The past two long runs have been hard... like, really hard. It took everything in me to just keep going, putting one foot in front of the other. I couldn't stop thinking about how not enough air was getting into my lungs, each mile was so tough, etc. I felt physically and mentally drained.

Then I have amazing, earth-shattering runs, like the one this morning. By mile 3 my legs kicked in and running felt effortless. My heart rate was down, my breathing was regulated, I felt like I could run forever. I went 8 miles and then it was time to get home so I could get the kids ready for an Easter egg hunt. I'm not sore. My lungs feel great. Runs like these remind me again why I really love running. Yes, I have to endure some nasty runs that make me question my little 'obsession' but then I have runs like this and I realize I'll take the bad runs, just as long as I get runs like this every once in awhile... and maintain my buff calves. ;)

Doctors, Hospitals, and Babies

Yesterday I took Josh to the doctor. I had a feeling he had, yet another, nasty ear infection. Last week his nose became runny, then the cough came, then the restless sleep, then the ornery behavior, then a 102 fever yesterday morning. At 3:15pm it was confirmed that he does in fact have an ear infection. The dr also mentioned he had bad wheezing and asked if he had ever been like this before (only when he is sick.) So he was given an albuterol treatment, which helped a little. Now he is on this lovely antibiotic that makes his poop turn red, and he was prescribed an inhaler. Poor guy. The sickness hasn't helped with his potty training. He had one accident yesterday and another this morning. Oh well. It's bound to happen, right?

Then a friend in the ward had her baby girl on Sunday. Then my cousin's wife had her baby girl Monday afternoon. Then another friend from our days at the U had her baby girl on Monday night. After Jake got home from work, I went to Pioneer Valley Hospital and IMC Hospital and saw two of the babies, Samantha and Lexi, and oh were they adorable! Little Lexi is in the NICU, born 6 weeks early, but she is doing great with all the tubes removed besides one. They said there is a small chance she might even get to come home this weekend. Crossing our fingers. Congrats to Lisa & Scott, Samm & Shilo, and Amber & Adam!

31 and He's Still Got It

I thought I would take a lesson from Jake and write a post similar to what he wrote for my birthday last year (yes, he is the creative one and I am not.)

So, let's start with famous celebrities born on March 22: Reese Witherspoon, Bob Costas, Andrew Lloyd Webber, William Shatner, and Louis L'Amour.

March 22, ...

1349 Townspeople of Fulda Germany massacre Jews (blamed for black death)
1733 Joseph Priestly invents carbonated water (seltzer)
1790 Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State
1841 Cornstarch patented (Orlando Jones)
1903 New York Highlanders (Yankees) tickets first go on sale
1903 Niagara Falls runs out of water because of a drought
1922 British court sentences Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years in prison
1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt makes wine and beer with up to 3.2% alcohol legal
1946 The first U.S. rocket to leave the Earth's atmosphere (50 miles up)
1958 Liz Taylor's 3rd divorce (Mike Todd)
1972 Yankees trade Danny Cater to the Red Sox for Sparky Lyle

Of course, the best thing of all to happen on March 22nd, Jake was born. He is an incredible husband and father. We are so lucky to have him in our lives. To celebrate, we had hot dogs, hamburgers, and dessert at Jake's parents' house last night. This morning the kids and I gave him a Kindle from Amazon. (Thanks Mom and Dad Call, and Mom and Dad Schip for going in on it!) He can't wait to try it out when he gets home from work tonight. The kids and I are going to take him out to lunch, and tonight we are having steak and shrimp (Jake's choice.) Happy Birthday, babe. We love you!

Potty Training Rockstar

Josh is now on Day 6 of potty training and is doing awesome. (I really can't believe I just typed those words!) The first day he had 5 accidents, but actually peed in the toilet twice. Day Two he had a couple accidents (#1 and #2), but peed in the toilet a few times as well. The next day he had two accidents (#1 and #2). Wednesday he had ZERO accidents, and even pooped in the toilet twice! Thursday he had two accidents, once at the gym (I didn't take him right before I dropped him off and should have), and once during his nap. Yesterday he had one poop accident and it was my fault. He said he needed to go and I didn't rush him to the toilet fast enough before it was already out (TMI, I know.) Today there have been ZERO accidents. He woke up completely dry this morning (which he has done the past three nights), told me when he needed to poo and actually went and did it, and when I say it's time to go potty he says "OK." He walks to the bathroom, takes off his pants, steps up on the stool, sits down, and promptly does his business. This is AMAZING! Neither of my other two kids were this easy. You know, I really feel deep down that I earned this. ;) After having one really hard kid, and one semi-hard kid, it was time to get one of those 'easy' kids you hear about from other parents but don't actually believe they really exist. Jake and I are so proud of Joshie! He's turning into such a big boy.

PS After dinner tonight I found Josh on the toilet, going #2. He went in all by himself, turned the light on, took his pants off, sat on the toilet, and started going. Are you KIDDING ME?! I'm lovin' this boy. ;)

My Big Girl

I took Emma to Target this morning to get her 5-year pictures taken. It's hard to believe my little girl really is 5 and will be starting kindergarten in the fall. I was looking through her old pics today and just had to post them. My baby isn't a baby anymore, but turning into a beautiful girl. Love you Emma.

NOT my most favorite part of parenting...

Potty training. Just the very words send shivers down my spine and make my blood pressure rise. You would think I would be a pro by now, with this being my third child. Nope. Every child is so different and I have yet to find that magical little key unlocking the mysteries of the Potty World. If I do in fact find it this time around, I will let you know. Don't hold your breath though. (The picture above shows our bathroom set-up. The Spongebob toilet seat keeps Josh mildly entertained. The big Yellow M&M is actually a candy dispenser. The lever on the side of the recliner, once pulled, releases sweet goodness out the bottom of the recliner. I inherited that from my grandma when she passed away. I'm sure she is smiling down at us now, happy that her little M&M guy is bribing her great-grandchild to become a 'big boy.' ;) The picture below is of Josh's train sticker chart. I found it online for free and thought 'why not?' Josh seems to like it so that's all that matters.)
I decided to potty train Josh on November 11th last year. Why do I remember the exact date? Because I was diagnosed with pneumonia just 3 days later which caused me to throw the whole idea out the window (something I have NEVER done before.) In the past when I felt it was time, I just did it and did not look back. I told Jake I would start again once I was healthy. Then Josh was sick off and on for a few months with ear infections, colds, the normal winter yucks. Then I told Jake I would potty train him once Josh was healthy. Well, he has been healthy for about a month now. Then I decided once his Costco pack of size 4 diapers were gone, it was time. (Yes, this was my way of procrastinating, because I do in fact despise this stage of parenting. It is frustrating for both the parent AND the child, the constant power struggle taking place between the two. Also, it's a time the parent has to become totally dedicated to that one child, no distractions. That gets hard the more kids you have. You have to literally check-out of life for a few days (hopefully not weeks or months!) to get this thing done. Thankfully, I have two older children who are constant reminders that children do eventually become potty trained and with perseverance I will win this war!) Anyway, Jake reminded me a few days ago that there were only 10 diapers left. I did the math and realized that meant Sunday morning, March 14th, would be "the day." No turning back.

So, I gave Josh a little pep talk last night. Pulled out his 20 pairs of dazzling toddler underwear, sporting characters from Cars, The Incredibles, Nemo, WallE, and Sesame Street. He seemed to be very excited, almost like the night-before-Christmas excited. I thought to myself "Could this really be THAT easy?" When he woke up this morning I reminded him that today was the big day and all of a sudden that joy and excitement I saw in him last night quickly turned to horror and terror. Oh no. Here we go again...

To be honest, today actually went pretty well (knock on wood.) After fighting him to put the underwear on, he slowly became excited about his Mr. Incredible underwear, and then started racing all over the room pretending he was Dash. He asked to go to the bathroom once, had about 5 accidents, and actually went pee in the potty TWICE. I'm not saying it's been a walk in the park, but today was actually the best "first day" between my three kids. Hopefully Josh becomes my little 'potty man' and proves all my theories wrong. So far, he's doing it. (Now let's just pray he doesn't decide to have a bowel movement during the night!)

Foreign Service Political Register

Yesterday we found out Jake finally made it onto the Political register. His security clearance went through a week ago and after passing through Final Suitability, he was added to the register. With his score of 5.57 he is ranked 59 out of 150. The first round of calls went out for the May A-100 training yesterday. (They usually invite about 20 from each register.) We figure the May class is most likely out of the question, but are crossing our fingers he gets an invite to the June, August, or September class. It's hard to believe we've actually made it this far, and that we could possibly be in DC in a couple months. We're so ready for this new adventure!

My New Baby

I'm in love with my new baby. I told Jake last summer this was all I wanted for Christmas. It was hard waiting for it, especially when I could have used it so many times last year as I trained for my half marathons. I remember coming back from a long run a few months ago and Jake asked how far I went and what my pace was. I said "I don't know exactly. If I had my Garmin, I would know for sure." Then I gave him 'the look' and he just laughed at me.

For those who don’t know, the Garmin Forerunner 305, is a watch-styled GPS for runners. It tracks location, distance, pace, heartrate, time and probably 50 other things. The really cool thing for geek runners is that you can upload all of the data to your computer so you can maintain a running log without even writing anything down.

Before I had my Garmin, in order to figure out distance, I had to either drive the route beforehand with my car, or try to use mapmyrun.com (which isn't always super accurate.) And forget being spontaneous. If I wanted to run a particular distance, I had to run the route I planned, no matter what. I couldn’t change my mind and run a different route, unless it was one I had already plotted.

Then came my Garmin. Now, I can run wherever I want and know exactly how far I have run. Not only that, but I can see my pace while I’m running, not just after. You can set the Garmin to “auto-lap”, which means every mile it marks a new lap. Then when you view the uploaded data, you can see how long each lap took.

The Garmin also tracks elevation changes. Really nice when you see mile 3 took you the longest, and oh, look at that, it’s because there is a giant hill at mile 3.

Different models come with different options, mine is the 305, so mine came with a heartrrate monitor. I haven't wore the strap yet, but I hear it is very useful for seeing how much farther you can push yourself. I plan to use it soon.

You can upload your data to www.motionbased.com, Garmin’s site. Now you can also upload your data to www.runningahead.com, a running website which has a really cool running log and great forums.

Anyway, I love my Garmin. If you are a runner, I recommend getting one. It has made my runs so much more enjoyable, and is a great tool to help me be a better runner. Just yesterday I ran 8 miles. I was able to keep checking my Garmin and make sure I was going the pace I aimed for. I could see if I was starting to slow down, and that it was time to pick up my pace. I could check my distance at any given second and know exactly how far I had gone. I could also see how many calories I was burning each mile, etc. Such an awesome tool, and for me, definitely worth the $139.99 (plus free shipping on Amazon) that Jake paid for it. Thanks baby for an awesome Christmas present. I love it!

March 1, 2005

The day my daughter was born. Hard to believe Emma turns 5 today! She is such a sweetheart and a great helper in our home. Jake was gone at a work conference the past couple days and when he was gone I told the kids we were going to have a 'cleaning day.' I went downstairs to fold some clothes and Emma came right down and asked if she could sweep the kitchen floor and clean the sliding glass door with windex. Funny she even had to ask! ;) She's very thoughtful, and a great big sister to Josh. She loves being his second mommy.

Emma has had a pretty good birthday so far (her exact words, "today has been a HAPPY day!") After I got home from the gym I made her and everyone else pancakes. She was ecstatic, getting pancakes on a school day. Grandma and Grandpa Call in Oregon both called her this morning, wishing her a happy birthday. Before we took Ben to school she opened the present they gave her, a remote control Bratz doll on roller skates. She loves it (and so do Josh and Ben.) They can make the doll do the splits and run into things, which they find very humorous. Then great-Grammy and great-Grandpa Call came over to wish her a very happy birthday. After that I let her pick where we would eat for lunch and she chose McDonald's. She told the cashier excitedly that it was her birthday and he gave her a huge ice cream cone, on the house. Then we went to Gateway Mall downtown and she used her birthday money she got from Grandma and Grandpa Schip and Hannah, Isabelle, Mel and Ryan, to buy a bear from Build-A-Bear. It was the very first time we have ever bought anything there and she was in HEAVEN! She picked out the carcass, helped pump it full of fluff, put in a sound box singing "Happy Birthday" and a little red heart, gave it a 'bath' brushing all the extra fluff off of her, picked out an iCarly outfit and high heel shoes to match, then printed out Polly's birth certificate. (She said she loves the name Polly and heard it on the movie, Underdog.) Anyway, the bear has become a new permanent appendage. She will not part with it. After we got home, Emma helped me put together a poster she is going to show her preschool class tomorrow when they celebrate her birthday. (Of course, she's bringing Polly too.)

Tonight we are having Emma's favorite dinner... beef stew. Then we will unveil her big present from us (a dollhouse Jake Garlick, our brother-in-law, made for her.) It's huge and awesome, custom built for barbie. I'm sure she will love it. More pics to come...