Womble Rumble

This Saturday was the Womble Rumble run that I had signed up to do. It was a 5k and 10k race and I had signed up for the 10k. I've been doing the 5k-10k trainer app for my runs to help get myself up to running more miles. It worked the last time I did it, and it's been working this time too.

Since I've been running every day doing my runstreak (day 92 today) I do the trainer for the most part. Unless it's a day when I'm really tired or I have something to do and I'm just getting my run in real quick, then I usually just run a mile. I'm on week six now, so the longest run I've done so far is forty five minutes. Which is not bad but a 10k usually takes me an hour and ten minutes or so.

I started watching the weather early in the week because there was rain in the forecast. Looked like I'd be running in the rain. Saturday morning it was pretty much a given. 100% chance of rain. Pooo

I was going to the race by myself since Scott isn't into running races lately and had decided to go work in San Jose for the day. Originally I was going to go to lunch with my friend afterwards but she had to cancel because she had an appointment she had forgot about.  No worries. I decided I'd go run the race and then go hang out with my mom afterwards for a bit. 

I drove to Lodi and it was raining the whole way, and windy! Rain is one thing but wind really sucks. When I got to the point of checking in I decided to change my race to the 5k instead of the 10k. 

The race didn't start until 9:00 because they had 2 kids races before hand, a 1/2 mile and a 1 mile. Kids races are so cute but I was standing way back under an easy up trying not to get too soaked. Eventually it was my turn to race and I, along with about 50 kids wearing black plastic garbage bags were finally off racing. 

I spent the first mile dodging all the little ones who came in buses from local schools. They were cute running but I was afraid I was going to trip over one of them when they would dart in front of me or suddenly stop. I was glad once I got past them and had a little extra space around me. 

The race course was a pretty nice course winding out and around the lake mostly on paved surfaces that were now covered with leaves and big puddles. I'd like to go out there and run some other time when it's not quite so wet! I was glad once again that I only was doing the 5k when I noticed that the 10k was just 2 laps of the same race (not my favorite kind of course). 

The race didn't have chip timing so I kind of wish I had lined up closer to the front in the beginning but I was happy to see the clock was really close to 30 minutes when I got up close to it. My official time ended up being 30:13 which is WAY better than the last 5k I did (34:42). I didn't walk one bit this time although I really had to talk myself out of walking at the end.  Now to just get back to my fast time of 28 minutes! I know if I keep going I'll get there again soon.

I came in 4th out of 14 women in my age group, and 26 out of 120 women (which includes a lot of little kids). Oh and I forgot to mention that the money raised from the race goes towards building a new track for the high school that I went to. "Womble" was one of the PE teachers and track coaches. 

I was standing around waiting to see if the race results when I spotted my friend that I was originally going to go to lunch with. She had a little time before her appointment so she had come down to see me race. She missed me for that but we went to Starbucks and she bought me a coffee :)

I thought that was super nice of her. I've never had anyone other than Scott just come to see me run and support me.

After we got our coffee she had to run off so I went over to my mom's and ended up just hanging out and spending the day with her. We went to Sizzler for their salad bar lunch and sat talking forever. It was nice! Plus they sure have a great salad bar there. I wish we had one close to my work.

Now to decide what I'm going to to for December. I'm thinking I'll most likely do the run that is down the street from me that I did a few years ago. It will only take me 5 minutes to get there and the money (and donated toys) goes to Brighter Christmas right here in our town.

No Sweats Here

I totally ate a granola bar yesterday. I’m only partially sorry :wink: That shit was goooood. Isn’t it funny how when you haven’t eaten things for a while, they taste so much better?  Plus it was totally fuel for my forty five minute run yesterday. Yep, yep, that’s what I’m telling myself.

I went out and did my run before making dinner. I had on shorts, my running tank and since it’s a bit colder another tank top over the top. When I was starting out my neighbors were chatting and the neighbor lady said something like “look at her and I’m here in my sweats with the fireplace on”. I said “well if you ran around the block you wouldn’t need sweats either”. The guys were like “oooooo” and then I was like “shit that so didn’t come out like I meant it”. I felt bad for a bit but oh well. I don’t think she liked me anyways, probably really doesn’t like me now lol. All I really meant was that if you are running your body heats up and you aren’t cold. Too bad it didn’t come out that way!

The sun was just starting to go down a bit when I started running, so I got to see the sun set while I was out. I had to pause to take a picture of the lake. I just love the sunsets on the lake.

Trevor was actually riding his bike with me but I lost him somewhere after I took the sunset picture. He was home when I got there, I think he was just cold so pedaled faster and left me in the dust.

After taking a little cool down break when I got back I got busy making dinner. I made this recipe for Ginger Mushroom Kale Stir Fry. It turned out pretty good. I made rice for everyone else but I just had mine with my salad. It was ok but I probably wouldn’t make it again. Just not my favorite flavors going on. That’s the first time I’ve cooked kale and man does that stuff shrink up!

After dinner I was playing around on my phone and found out that an onlinefriend’s little girl passed away. She’s been waiting for a liver transplant and it never happened. So incredibly sad. It’s amazing how you can feel so connected to someone that you have never met. I’ve followed along on their little journey for about a year. I can’t even imagine the heart break that they are going through. Rest in peace Little Miss Magic, I'll miss your sweet smile!

 

Cook Your Family Dinner

A girl came into the lunch room today. She was like "oh I have left overs because I finally made dinner and then my kids wouldn't eat it". The she went on to say how they wanted McDonald's like they usually have. I was like do you get that for them every day? She said 2 or 3 times a week (I'm guessing it's more the way she paused before she answered) and started to talk about how she was trying to cut down because one of her three girls is a little thick.

I was like "well you know" (I'm sure everyone likes it when I start talking like that) just because your other girls aren't thick doesn't mean that it's good for them either. I had this same conversation with another girl one day at work too. People have this false sense that if their kids are thin they can eat junk. Pretty sure that junk food is just as capable of making a thin child sick as it is a thick one.

I think it's amazing how many people don't cook anymore. I know that having both parents working and then the children in multiple programs after work are a big contributor to that happening. What's the answer? Maybe scale back how many activities you have going on or do some make ahead or crock pot cooking? We have scaled way back on how much the kids do and I think twice before letting my kids sign up for things now. Sure, that sport might be good for him to go out and get fresh air but it's also going to involve a lot of family stress. I know a lot of people aren't going to agree with me on this but our lives are so much more calm without the constant running to and fro everywhere.

When Scott was working two hours away EVERYTHING besides his work fell on me and honestly it takes a lot of time and effort to do everything. School, band and one sport take up enough for our little family and that's just Trevor.  I can't imagine adding more in now.

Back when the kids were little both girls played softball, both did Girl Scouts, and then also at one point we had Trevor in baseball too. I felt like a ping pong ball bouncing back and forth all over town. We ate out a lot then.  It was a struggle to even be home in time to eat before everyone was starving, let alone cook something.

I much prefer the calm of being home after school and making dinner. We can all go ride our bikes or run around the block for some exercise.

Another Day Another Salad

Well I made it through another day yesterday without messing up my diet. I did however eat a sausage with my BBQ chicken for dinner and I’m wondering if that could be the cause of my gain of half a pound this morning. Darn it! I swear I’m the only person I know that can follow a plan and then not actually lose any weight. So annoying. I’m still going to stick it out though. I’m almost half way through, I can do it! After this is over I’m going to change a few things but try to stay away from the processed foods and sugar still. 

I know for sure I’m going to add back in some snacks. One between breakfast and lunch, most likely nuts, that’s what I used to do and it worked fine, and one after work before dinner. That’s the time I call the starving hour. I generally eat lunch around 11:30 so by 3:00 I want to eat like no body’s business. We used to eat dinner really late but now that Scott gets home earlier we can eat around 5:30 or 6:00 if I get it done on time. Maybe I’ll also some kind of healthy snack after dinner. I don’t think eliminating having snacks is a very good idea. I like the idea of several small meals instead of eating 3 larger ones. I think saying “eat until you’re stuffed” like this one does is not such a great idea.

The other day I was doing laundry out in the garage and I was thinking to myself about how I’ve finally managed to get the laundry under control and how I feel so much better. Better than what? Well better than I have felt for months. I knew I was depressed before but now that the fog has lifted I can see just HOW depressed I was. Which of course was a big reason I gained some weight back this year and kind of slacked off on my running and working out. When all you feel like doing is laying on the couch not much else gets done eh?

Anyhow, I’m so glad I started doing my runstreak. Today will be day 85 and I don’t even feel like quitting yet. It was rough at first but now I look forward to my runs even though sometimes it’s a pain to change my clothes and go out. If I don’t feel like running a lot I’ll just run a mile. Knowing that something is only going to take me 10 minutes or so makes anything bearable.

Saturday Food, Fire and Friends

Woohoo! I finally made it a whole day without messing up my diet. It's a miracle. I was rewarded this morning with a small drop in weight and a lot less belly.

I stayed home all day yesterday and just puttered around the house. When Scott got home we had dinner and then went for a run. I'm doing the 5k-10k trainer again. Last night was tempo runs, which used to seem like torture but I actually enjoyed it last night. Scott and I started off together (he's doing some couch to 5k work) and I ran ahead a bit. My plan was to run back to him while I did the tempo run and then turn back again and catch up with him. Which, all happened but the last part. I never saw him again so I just did my own thing and met up with him at home. I guess at least we started off together, right?

I felt so invigorated after my run. Like I totally ENJOYED my run, which hasn't happened in quite awhile. I'm so glad I keep making myself go out there even when I don't feel like it. Following a plan really helps too, especially when it's something different every day.

After I got back home my friend Traci invited us to come over and sit around the fire pit at her cousin Nancy's house (which is next door to her house). I debated on going a bit because they are always drinking wine and have great snacks. I decided I could be strong (hopefully) and took a bottle of water and put some gum in my mouth. I totally made it though everyone toasting marshmallows and making s'mores (probably because I'm not a huge toasted marshmallow fan) and only drank my water. Score! The gum totally helped me from sticking food in my mouth.

I stayed until 10 when I was either going to climb into the fire pit to get warm or go home. 

In other news yesterday I cooked my first butternut squash. I bought a bunch of different squash to try last week. I poked around Pinterest a bit and found this recipe for roasted butternut squash. I've never had butternut squash before. It came out tasting a little bit like pumpkin. I think it would have been good to cut it all up after it was done and then sprinkle more spices on it. It was good in small quantities.

My turkey burger on the other hand was fantastic. Sadly we didn't have any left overs. I do have some left over turkey that I didn't cook yet though so I might make some for lunches this week.

I don't have any plans for today. Someone needs to go to the store at some point today but I'm hoping it's not me ;)

Killing The Diet

Well I'm a little disappointed in myself. I drank beer last night and had a chicken strip and a few fries.  Back to the grind today though!

It's so hard to go out with friends and be like "I'll just have water" when you are at a bar. I'd "just have a Diet Coke" but I'm trying not to drink that either lol.

I look like crap in this picture

Ahh well it's not the end of the world and my stomach still does not look as bloated as it did before I started doing this diet so I'm enjoying that. Since I am not eating any dairy I wonder if that is the cause of my big belly issues or if it could be a gluten type thing since I'm not eating that either. The weird thing is that neither makes me sick (unless I drink full fat milk but I think that's more of a no gall bladder issue) so I don't have any other "allergy" symptoms.

Stuffing myself on salads and eating meat for lunch every day doesn't seem to be agreeing with my digestive system either so who knows. Maybe I should just be a vegetarian after all. (This is where Scott freaks out). I do like to eat meat though, just not the whole idea of it. If I had to kill my own I would definitely never eat it. I feel bad killing a mouse that's shitting in my cabinets.

I'm up the .2 I lost earlier in the week and it brought it's friend .6, but I guess it could be worse after drinking beers!

Scott is working in San Jose today. He's been working almost every weekend for one day with his old employer to help him out. I guess I'll spend my day puttering around the house cleaning some more. My room is still a nightmare. I did just clean off most of my computer desk while I was sitting here though so it won't take much to have the living room looking cleaned up now.

Ohhh last week I also bought a little vacuum to try on the couch too. The dog hair is just so hard to get off the couch so we'll see how well it works. I used it a bit on the recliner when I first got it but the battery died really quick (it's a cordless jobber) so I had to charge it up.

You know your life is exciting when you are looking forward to vacuuming the couch!

No Crack Diet

I started a new diet on Wednesday.

I’ve been pretty much all over the place with my eating lately and I’m up about 20 pounds from my lowest, which is really like 10 pounds up from where I was for the most part of last year.  I keep trying to get my shit together but other than running every day I keep falling into cake, cookies and wine.

My mom has been on her South Beach Diet kick again (she does that on and off) and is in the full blown “I’m doing awesome phase” and is talking about it constantly every time I talk to her. Which, is kind of depressing when you are muffin topping out your (size bigger) jeans and eating a cookie to console yourself.

I guess my step dad brought home this “other” diet program from work and they started doing that instead of the South Beach Diet. It’s called the “New Mayo Clinic Diet”. It’s kind of out there but they’ve been having great success with it.

Last weekend I went to my niece’s birthday party and my brother and his wife have been doing it too. I had him send me a copy of the diet plan just to check it out. I went over and decided it sounded do-able so I started it on Wednesday.

Tuesday night I did some meal prepping by boiling some eggs and cooking up some bacon. I made a pack of chicken thighs and salad for my lunches.

Breakfast this week has been two hard boiled eggs, two slices of bacon, and a cup of grapefruit juice. I always thought grapefruit juice was disgusting but now I actually kind of like it. Probably because it’s about the only sweet thing I’m eating or drinking.

Lunch was another cup of juice (you have it at each meal) a salad and two chicken thighs, which wasn’t enough food. I was still hungry, which led to me eating a bunch of random stuff when I got home. I almost felt a like I was binging a bit, if you can binge on half a spaghetti squash, two eggs and a banana. I had that frantic feeling of needing to eat though.

For dinner I made chicken fajitas and minus the tortillas and put it on top of my salad, which was really good and totally filling.

Wednesday I had the same for breakfast, left over dinner for lunch and pork chops and this stir fry veggie mix I cooked up in some butter for dinner. 

I felt a little fuzzy after work so I ate a banana after I got done grocery shopping and drank two cups of coffee when I got home (with sugar free creamer-my one bad  habit I haven’t kicked yet).

 

Today I weighed myself and I’ve lost a whole .2 pounds. That is a bit disappointing for passing up cheesecake, ice cream, cupcakes and cookies yesterday at work BUT my stomach doesn’t look as bloated as it usually does so maybe that will work out.

This is just a short term plan that you are supposed to do for twelve days and then take a two day break, and then you can do it again if you want. I know I’m not going to stick to it 100% because I need to eat some carbs to be able to run. I’m just going to try and mostly get those from fruit at this point. The whole diet sounds super silly but I figure if it gets me off the crack sugar and back on track to eating less junk than it will be worth it.

Monterey!

The day after Scott's birthday we went to Monterey.

Well first I went for a little run to get that done for my runstreak.

And then finally we were on the road to Monterey. It feels so weird to go there now without Jessica there or with us. I think the last time we went was for the Big Sur Half Marathon last year. Jess moved herself home from college so we didn't even drive up there for that.

We took the kids so we didn't take our bikes. Riding bikes there is really my favorite place to ride. That coastal trail there is just so beautiful. I think if we were rich we would move close to there, we both enjoy it so much.

We ended up going to the Sand City beach again. If you go on the left side of the hotel there there are less people (we learned that by accident last time we were there). It was kind of windy when we first got there but after a bit I didn't even notice it.

We all had fun combing the beach for treasures. I found some sea glass, which was cool. 

This sign was all in Spanish with no English version near by. So weird. I think it says if you don't speak Spanish you might drown but I'm not sure.

We figured out that where the big clumps of sea weed stuff is, that's also where all the treasures are.

No idea what this is but there was a bunch. Some kind of sea critter.

We had a lot of fun until Scott started checking his fantasy football scores. Then he was all depressed and grouchy. REALLY? We drove 2 hours so he could pout about football.

After we left the beach we stopped at Target where I ran in and bought Trevor a change of clothes. Probably should have paid attention to the fact that he wore jeans to the beach. 

Melissa and I waiting for him to change in the car....

Then we went down to Fisherman's Wharf. Scott really wanted to go get some of that fantastic cheesecake we had last time we were there. We walked down to the restaurant and then noticed it wasn't even the same name anymore. Total bummer.  

Instead of cheesecake we ended up trying another new to use restaurant called Abalonetti Bar and Grill. I noticed they had some happy hour drinks so I had one of those while Scott was still pouting about his cheesecake and fantasy football. 

Trevor ordered the shrimp cocktail . Then half an hour later asked what was for dinner lol.

I went for bad and got the fish and chips.

After lunch we walked down to Cannery Row. I have a few pictures over the years of the kids and Scott with the Hoffman Ave. sign down there. 

Looking the other way..

While we were walking Scott popped out of his depressed mood and then couldn't understand why I wasn't all happy anymore. Sheesh. 

It really was a beautiful day there though. I wished we were spending the night but we all had work and school the next day. We're going to have to plan another trip so that we can ride our bikes again!

Worms and Eyeballs Dinner

Last weekend there was a dinner down at the club house. Our club is turning 70 this year so they are having a bunch of little parties. It was also the weekend after Halloween so they had a "Worm and Eyeballs" dinner. My friend Traci that has moved out here really likes to go to the dinners and parties so I've actually been getting myself over there for them.

I thought they had some stuff for the kids to do so Trevor and I went down there early. Apparently we missed all the kid stuff. All my friends were sitting in the bar, which he couldn't do so we walked around outside a little bit. Look how pretty the lake was behind the club house.

Eventually it was time to sit down. There was just enough room for us to sit with my book club buddies.  They did a good job decorating the tables.

Scott made it just in time for dinner. He had went to work in San Jose that day to help out his old boss.

L-R we have Scott, Traci, Carol K, Carol T and then the other side of the table in the back is Bud Carol T's husband and Tom Traci's husband

and Trevor hiding his face :/ Damn kids.

DINNER! Scott insisted that changing the color of the noodles makes it taste different lol. I'm not too sure on that but that was a lot of spaghetti. There were "finger" bread sticks on the table too.

Desert was whipped cream and pistachio pudding.

Our waitress, one of Melissa's friends.

Her grandma did the cooking (along with some other ladies)

In the hall they had set up a table with old pictures. I found my house on an aerial one from 1948! I think the main part of my house was built then and then they added on the bedroom areas.

They had a DJ in the hall and a raffle for some fun stuff! There wasn't all that many people there so there wasn't much dancing. I didn't dance because there was someone I don't like out there and I didn't want to dance with her (everyone was kind of all dancing together). 

My friend Traci won one of the raffles for Bass Pro Shop ($75!) and then the 50/50 which was like $45. Lucky!

Scott had taken Trevor home after dinner because he was bored so we went in the bar afterwards and hugn out a bit. Fun little night!

In Between

Well in between those scheduled posts I guess I'll update on my day yesterday.

I cleaned. ALL DAY.

Things are looking much better around here. The laundry is pretty much caught up, although I'm sure there is at least a load from yesterday's clothes. So today I won't have to keep trekking out to the garage to change that over and take time to put it away.

I went through our movie cabinet and reorganized them back into alphabetical order (ahhhhh) and pulled out a bunch that no one is interested in anymore (Mary Kate and Ashley VHS movies anyone?).

And I'm not scared to get into the bath tub today so that's an improvement.

Hopefully I can get my room cleaned up a bit today! My room is the catch all place. and boy has it caught it all.

At this rate maybe I can even let someone in the house or over for dinner soon!

Salmon Festival

Saturday I drove out to Knight's Ferry for work. One of my employers (I'm a contract employee so it's weird) helps put on the Salmon Festival. I worked it last year and took the kids out the first two years to check it out.

It's a "festival" but really it's really a bunch of educational booths. This year there was one vendor there selling butterflies made out of recycled plastic that were beautiful but other than that it's all stuff to learn, mostly focused on little kids.

Which seems kind of weird to me. I'm like heyyy festival, where's all the crafty booths and delicious food? And they are all heyyy here's some dead animal carcasses to look at and some bugs under a microscope.

So yeah. Mostly just worked our booth which was to paint little wooden fish. They got some different ones from last year so this year we had the "wiggly" fish and the laser cut salmon fish with a magnet on the back.

The kids seem to have fun painting them and I spent most of my time wiping up after them, refilling paint and moving the finished fish over to the drying table.

Oh and there WAS one food booth where you could get a salmon lunch so that is what I got.

This year they also had it on the top side of the river so I never even walked OVER the river bridge that goes to the other side. I was by myself and I've seen it before so I was just like eh, I bet it looks like last year. Things aren't as much fun when you don't have someone to share it with.

I made it about 3 hours and then called it quits. It's an hour drive one way to get there so I was pretty tired when I got back home.

Catching Up!

I'm off today (Monday) and Tuesday for Veterans day. I get paid for Tuesday but I just took Monday off so I can enjoy some time at home. And you know, do something exciting like clean the toilet.

So far I've just been accumulating a list of things to do in my head. I'm sure they are going to get done real well that way. That's the difference between a man and a woman though. A woman has a day off and she spends the day cleaning. A man has the day off and he spends it in the recliner. Well at our house anyways ;)

I'm going to attempt to catch up on some of my blogging until I get a kink in my neck or feel guilty for sitting here too long!

Melissa has school today but Trevor has it off (they go to different school districts, you'd think they would coordinate with the larger one) and Scott has to work so it's just snotty Trevor and I here today. And the dogs who will probably have to go out to pee 1000 times today.

Alrighty! I'm going to schedule my posts for during the week so make sure you come back ;)

Ava's Princess Party

My little niece Ava is already 3 years old! I swear these kids grow so fast. She had a princess party and even had a visit from Cinderella! Lucky kid!

She however is three so refused to wear her pretty Cinderella dress, cried for the first hour of her party and had to hold onto mom while Cinderella was there. Kids lol.

I'm not Ava's favorite person so I mostly spent time hanging out with the twins.

Emma

Vincent with my sister in law's mom

Zoe the best GS ever

Cinderella singing happy birthday to Ava

My niece Adrian who is 5 (front and center) was TOTALLY into Cinderella lol

Vincent trying to get his big brother's hat. (my mom holding him). It got super hot towards the end of the day.  Go figure, hot in November but in April when I have parties it's raining and windy.

Selfies with Emma

Another Vincent. He went to the dr that morning and has an ear infection and chest cold.

Melissa making a crown with her cousins

Trevor had to miss the party because he was sick and Scott went to the Raiders game so it was just Liss and I there. Kind of weird!

The party was fun for the kids and I had fun playing babies! Next thing we know they'll all be grown up.