Finding an Old Friend

  Recently I started doing something that I tried to do a few years ago, running.  I was training for a half marathon when I got pregnant with Allison. Between morning sickness and the winter, I became lazy and stopped running.  After Allison was born, I just couldn't find the time for the longest time.  When I finally found the time, I got back to running 4 miles while pushing a stroller, and then I got pregnant again!  I was determined to not be so lazy, but we moved to another state.  I was without my running gear for a month, and by the time I got my stuff unpacked, I decided I rather sleep than run.
  After Mary-Kate was born, I was just too busy to do anything.  Now she is a year, and I'm finally finding time to run/exercise.  I'm actually surprised how easily running is coming back to me.  I can already run 3 miles.  Now, when I "run," I actually  mean I run 1 minute and walk 30 seconds.  It's the Jeff Galloway method, and it works great for me.  I can go so much further doing it this way. 
  My goal is to eventually not need to walk and can just run a certain distance.  Right now, I'm slowly bumping up my mileage.  I run 3 days a week:  2 days, the same mileage and 1 day, a long run.  Like this week, I'll run 3 miles on Monday and Wednesday and then 4 miles on Saturday.  My long term goal is to be able to run 5 miles easily on Mondays and Wednesday and then on Saturdays run anywhere from 5-8 miles.  I also plan on running a half marathon someday, but I don't want to commit to one right now.  With my busy life with a moving coming in 5.5 months, I don't need the stress of a huge race. 
  Brandon is starting to run too.  In fact, we ran a race together over the weekend, just a 5K (3.1 miles).  I should say we ran in the same race.  His mph is 4 minutes faster than mine.  Brandon finished a little over 23 minutes and placed 13th.  I ran it in 30:36 and placed 61 out of 130 people, so I was happy with that since I had only been running for 2 weeks.  We're hoping to run a race together every month.  On our 5th anniversary, we're going to run a 5 miler and then in July hopefully a 10K.
  One thing I like about running, that it's great for this competitive non-athletic girl.  Running is something I know I will never win at, so that takes a lot of pressure away and lets me just enjoy it.  I'm seriously competing against myself.  Every morning that I run, I run the 3 miles a little faster.  Anyway, I can't think of a good way to end this post b/c I've been up since 4:30 and am completely brain-dead.  It's time to go play outside in the sprinkler with the girls and wake up.

Her 1st Chore

  I'm big on giving kids responsibility, but every once in awhile they show you what they like to do.  Mary-Kate loves the cloth diapers!  I try to hang them on the clothesline before she wakes up in the morning or wait until her nap, but sometime she's with me helping along the way.  She hands me clothespins and whatever else she can find on the ground. 
  One morning I couldn't take enough pictures or stop watching her.  I was running late on washing the diapers, so they didn't finish until she was already up and ready for the day.  She decided to help me. :)

  This was a Monday, so there were a lot of diapers, around 38.  She pulled all 38 liners, 38 inserts, and however many rags out of the washer.  She then proceeded to put all of them in the basket and unfortuately pulled them all out of the basket.  She decided she was done and moved on.  I think I finally got them outside by 1 in the afternoon.

Pop! Goes the Popcorn

No breaking news here, but I made popcorn over the stove today. I found a 2 pound bag of popcorn kernels at the Commissary today for $1.49 and thought, "Why not! If nothing else, I can make noise makers out of them.". Well, it worked great. A 1/3 cup popped about 5 cups of popcorn. There were no burnt kernels or anything. I guess I have good shaking skills. This will save us lots of money bc Allison wants to eat popcorn everyday, and now this is a cheaper and healthier way. Next time I'll have some melted butter on hand for my bowl.

What I Live With

After Brandon walks into the kitchen and seeing my jamming mess, I said, "if you want to live on a farm, you'll be seeing a lot of this."
His response, "we're not going to live on a farm. We're going to work at a hospitality house."
Me: "Do I ever get a say in our future plans?"
Him, laughing: "Silly woman. No."

While lying in bed with Allison last night, she suddenly yells, "Apples!" a few seconds later she yells, "Oranges!" and proceeds to slap me. Apparently it's a new game bc she then did it again but to her kitty and then me again.

Frustrating but Sweet

  Don't let this sweet picture of a baby sleeping in her daddy's arms fool you, but Allison's bedtime has been annoying lately.  Since last week, she has refused to go to bed.  Refusal so bad that she will scream bloody murder until her sister is awake screaming her head off too.  We pushed up her bedtime to 7:30 now hoping that would help.  It did for 2 days.  Now we are back to this, rocking her to sleep.
  Yes, it's sweet, and we should cherish times like this.  But, she has NEVER done this before or anything close to it in her short life.  She (and her sister too) has always been good about going straight to bed.  Allison has even been our party trick when we have company over.  We tell her it's bedtime, and she runs to bed and tucks herself in. 
  On top of having to rock her to sleep, she is now coming to our bed in the middle of the night.  Either she gets rocked to sleep again or gets in bed with us.  The few times I've rocked her, I've ended falling asleep with her, so I just let her get in bed with us.  She only wants to cuddle with me in the bed, so I'm sharing my small side and pillow with her.  The good news with all this is that she is sleeping longer than she has in a long time.  Which means a very happy cooperative 2 year old during the day.
  The bad news is with all this rocking and bed sharing, I'm getting nothing done and little rest.  I'm exhausted from being up so much and then sleep in with her so that she'll stay asleep.  I don't like feeling rushed all the time.  I'm really hoping this is just a short phase.  We are moving Allison to a twin bed, so I'm hoping a bigger better and better mattress will help.  I think her crib mattress isn't very comfy, so I really hope this move will correct everything.
  Well, I'm off to bed b/c I might be in a few hours rocking my 38 lb baby.

Back at It

Today I went couponing for the 1st time in a long time. I did well. I spent $45 on all this. Saved $56. Not too shabby since I only had coupons for 5 of the items. Just taking advantage of sales.

Backyard Babes

  The weather lately has been so nice that every afternoon after Mary-Kate's nap, we go outside and play until dinner.  The girls love it.  Sometimes we blow bubbles, kick balls, go for walks, or do all the above and more. 
  Today Allison decided she had to play with some water since the puddles in the road from yesterday were gone, so I emptied some toy buckets and filled them up.  The girls did not hesistate getting into the water.  I have a feeling we are going to play with the water every afternoon for awhile. 
  This week we should have a lot of fun because the weather will actually be warm enough to play outside in the morning.  We've been stuck indoors in the mornings because A) it's too cold, B) it's too wet, or C) everything is covered in yellow pollen.  Well, I think all three things have been cured by mother nature.  I haven't let the girls play outside with the pollen everywhere because MK does nap 3 hrs everyday, and I did not want to have to bathe her and change her clothes more than once a day.  I know, lazy mommy.
  If you have any fun ideas to do outside, let me know.  I'm not the most creative person.