New Shoes

This past week something HORRIBLE happened. My wonderful VFF Classics developed a hole in both shoes at the second toe. What in the world? I have read that people run forever in these things because they are hard to destroy. And well, it's not like I am running 60 or 70 miles a week in them.

And of course, this was less than TWO weeks before my half and I had already decided I just couldn't face doing a half in 'real' shoes. Heck, I have only run in them once since early April. Regular shoes make you feel like you have logs instead of legs. I'm slow enough without that as an extra problem.

So I started calling around to see if there was a pair of Bikilas in my size anywhere. There was a wait list of around 250 people at the main place that sells them in our county. YIKES! I guess that wasn't going to be the place I could just walk into and buy them. I called REI and they pretty much told me good luck on finding anything as they are just too popular. But then the REI kid told me where he had tried on a pair and I immediately called them. Over 50 miles away there was a pair of Bikilas in my size (or so I thought). They also had a pair in my friend's size, a friend who is on the list with 249 other people.

They usually won't hold things but I told them if I drove an hour up there with 5 kids and they sold them I would be so bummed. I promised to get my kids in the car ASAP and they said they would hold them.

I don't know how many people reading this have been in a running store. (I'm actually guessing the percentage is quite high due to the very low readership of this blog. I'm the main reader so I count for quite a bit.) But there are things to touch there and more things to touch there. There are treadmills quite often which SCREAM to be touched. Please touch me little child. I know your mama tells you to never touch me at home but just give me a little pat on the heart rate monitor. So I wasn't super thrilled to be taking them but I couldn't get a sitter on such little notice. Instead I popped them in the car and headed over to my friend's house to get her dinero for her shoes. As I was leaving she said to me, "Your pants are too big." I knew that but I wasn't in the mood to squeeze into the next size down when I had been eating junk food and feeling its effects.

So off we went. I pleaded with the kids to please be good as we neared our destination. And luckily, they were great. (Well, after a few wandered over to touch the treadmills.) I tried on 'my' pair of Bikilas and then the next size up. The next size up just seemed big. I wasn't quite sure what to do though because I had kind of come to the conclusion that my Classics wore out too quickly because they were too snug and my toes were making them grip where they weren't supposed to. The girl offered me the treadmill and I had to turn her down.

Why?

Two reasons came to mind. Reason one is that I am slow and well, I usually feel like a poser. I feel weird enough buying real runner stuff when I plod along. I've gotten over running in front of strangers that are sitting on their keesters while they drive eating a double burgers. I haven't gotten over waddling in front of real runner people. Reason two is that my pants were just too dang big and I didn't want to try to keep them up (no belt on) while testing shoes, while trying to keep the kids out of trouble, etc. etc. You get the picture. If only I had switched into something more athletic instead of baggy jeans.

So I took the small ones home and then put them on to wander around the house.

They were too small. And as the day wore on and got hotter my dang feet got even bigger and the shoes shrunk (or something like that).

So the next day we headed up again and I got the bigger pair. I'm so much happier with them. I'm hoping I can do the half this next Saturday in them.

And I'll never go to a running store in jeans that are too big again.

Summer Days

So summer has just really begun. We have a month with nothing but violin lessons.

And let me tell you, the good times are just beginning.

We've had meltdown after meltdown. We've had tantrum after tantrum. The only kid who hasn't participated in those activities today is M. The most recent is S. She came up wanting some lovings because C scratched her. Well, it turns out that she tried to pin C under two pillows and climbed on top of them. Sorry, if someone is trying to smother you with pillows then you most likely will get scratched, kicked, or hit. Now S can't be in the basement with the kids today. (It's the rule if you get on top of someone you lose your privileges.) So she gets to hang with me for the rest of the glorious afternoon. I don't know if she'll be thinking she is so lucky.

But I was super calm. I don't know if I will be able to handle myself so dang calmly later in the summer but as for this one I was great.

Cool as a cucumber is the key. It's easier said than done.

Life sans the Garmin

DH and I both had long runs today. He prepped by getting a couple of movies at the Redbox last night and I figured out what the kiddos could eat for the first few meals.

I checked before bedtime last night to see if the Garmin was plugged in to charge. It was. I figured it should make it through both our runs.

This morning DH left at 4 am to start his 15 miler. I slept. At 5:45 I woke up and wanted to go back to sleep but knew that DH planned on being home by 6:30 and I needed to make him and the kids breakfast. So I sauteed the mushrooms (YUCK!) and cooked them with eggs for him. Then I went and saw the Garmin still on the charger.

Strange....

It didn't make sense that he didn't wear it. But I just figured he didn't want it to die on me. So I strapped the heart rate monitor on and went about my business. But as I got closer to my start time of 6:30 I decided I should let if find the satellites. The thing wouldn't turn on.

So I went straight for the computer and tried to do things the 'old school' way with gmaps-pedometer. DH got home and I had an idea of a route.

But then I left and about a mile in to it I was wishing I had planned something that would plunk me down by a bathroom. If you have been somewhat dehydrated for days, it's really not smart to start hydrating like crazy the day before and the morning of a run. Well, maybe it's really smart, but it's even smarter to plan a few potty breaks into the run. But I was determined so I continued. And then I looked into the distance and saw two 'stray' dogs fighting. Oh how I hate stray dogs. There is something about this town and dog owners that don't keep tabs on their pets. So I doubled back and took another route. Let's just say the 6 miles to my destination seemed incredibly long. There was grass about 3 feet high but that just isn't tall enough and well, I don't think I have the skills to pull off that type of activity camping, let alone on the side of the road.

Then, on the way back I decided I didn't want to do a large hill so I headed east. I had no clue how much extra mileage it would tack on but just didn't want to do the hill. And without my trusty Garmin I just had to give it a whirl. I ended up with an extra 1.9. They were super slow as well. It took me about 3 hours to do my 13.9 miles. I am guessing that I would have been a little faster if I hadn't been trying to not pee my pants for the first 6 miles. It also felt pretty warm with the sun up. I wish I could get my 11 minute range pace to last for distances. The most I have kept in the range has been 4 miles. When I know I have to go far I find myself being extra cautious because I don't want to get far from home and be in trouble.

I thought about a few things as I was running. First of all, I kind of like old neighborhoods. They have big shady trees. It's much cooler to run in the shade. They also have a lot of chain link fences and dogs that bark like crazy. That I am not so fond of. It also feels great to run on a road/highway (if it really can be called that) because of the wind generated by the vehicles. Public transportation buses and trucks pulling boats are the best. They do however, fling rocks up at you too. That's not so fun. It's also really great to run past corn fields. The color is a beautiful green and it's super peaceful. Oh and there are also little creatures in the brush. I just kept trying to imagine that birds were making the noise. That freaks me out a bit.

Later that day, DH figured out how to get the Garmin working again. We are both so happy.

What the heck??????

Today is a sad day.



I slept in (so far so good... couldn't get myself up to run. I'll just have to be behind this week.) and then took T to swim team. I found out it was his last day.



WHAT?



My city decided to make some adjustments to law that's what. I went and search their website and it said that in a 'home occupation' type of business you could have up to 7-12 clients including ones own kids in lessons.



I guess the city council changed their mind and now you can have up to TWO including ones own. Of course I believe this only applies to things like swim lessons, karate, dance, etc.



I can understand why they might want this to be the law but you don't let people start a business because it's all legal begal and spend a small FORTUNE (not that swim team has been complaining... but I'm just speculating) and then say, "Oh, by the way, we changed our mind and well, you are out of luck. Just keep on paying those payments on all that stuff you bought."



GRRRRRRRRRRRRR..................



I can see not allowing more businesses like that if you want to curtail that type of activity but heck, I think it's pretty dang rotten of them.



So I got to thinking... (oh and not about the little thing I read on the city's website about how our town is such a fabulous place to have a home business.... BLECH!) If you want to follow the rules you pretty much have to take every truly practicing Suzuki teacher out of business too. All Suzuki teachers are supposed to have group lessons as an integral part of their students training. Two is not a group. If you go to any of the orchestras in the county you will find that the majority of the best string players are Suzuki trained. It's just how it is these days. Do they want to get rid of all of those too?

And of course, if I have to move T to a swim team in another town (next closest thing) I will end up doing my shopping there. I will end up doing all my lessons in other towns and that leaves me with little time to shop nearby.

For now I am going to check in on a nearby pool. They have adult lap swim in the morning. At 7, T is far from being an adult. But how else is he supposed to get the right swimming in. Auditions for the next closest team aren't for over 2 months. Yesterday he had such a good meet. He was speedy quick. And now he has no team.

Anyway.... I am getting over my grouchies to an extent. I wrote a rather wordy letter to the mayor. He probably won't even read it but it felt good to write it.

Surviving and Stupidity

So I managed to survive having anywhere from 9-11 kids over most of the day. I don't know how we kept accumulating them but we did. I knew I would have at least 6 or 7 until dinner... but the others were, um... bonuses.

The funny thing is that I was trying to get some things done. I know, it sounds CRAZY but it's never convenient to get anything done so I was going for it. I was trying to empty some of my 72 hour kids and I found Dinty Moore beef stew of all things that needed to be used up. They were big cans and I wasn't in the mood to make lunch. All 9 kids here at the time claimed to be hungry so I heated some up.

They loved it.

How come it isn't like that when I cook homemade things? When did Dinty Moore upstage home cooking? All 9 gobbled it up and wanted more. Um... sorry, I don't keep a lot of that hanging around.

I was terribly grouchy though so it was a send the kids downstairs to play type of day. Downstairs or out back... it was all the same to me. And S fell apart of course this morning. She screamed at the top of her lungs all the way home from dropping M off at dance. I gave her the chance to turn it around at home and she put forth some effort. I don't think her day was miserable. She did, however, have to clean the seats of the car as she decided to spit all over them when she was angry.

I also got grouchy at DH. He probably wishes he didn't ever call after finding out that S started out rough. I'll try better tomorrow. You'd think after 17 years I would get it right but I guess you just keep on plugging along and learn more.

So stupidity comes in because I only slept about 5 hours last night. Then I intended on taking a nap of some sort today but of course didn't feel like I could do that with 9+ kiddos in the house. And now I'm exhausted and wishing I didn't have midnight movie tickets. If I fall asleep during the movie I will feel so dang OLD! Of course tomorrow I have to be on the ball since T has a swim meet that has warm ups commencing at 8 am. I still need to get a redbox movie for home so the kiddilinks will be good or at least entertained.

So when I complain about being grouchy tomorrow, please call me on it and tell me that it serves me right.

Hmm... I wonder if I snore sitting up. Maybe I could discretely get a little sleep ;)

Back in the Saddle

The kids are back. Did I mention that ;) ?

We had our share of everything today. Did we really have a break? It's so easy to forget. First thing this morning I felt like I could conquer the world. By 11 am I wanted to swear.

M- She ditched the family for dance of course and then came home begging to play with her friend. The problem was she owed me half her practice time as well as her chores and room which weren't done and would take a long time. She hated me for it for a while. Then tonight loved me a bunch and wanted help with her sight reading. There are crazy mood swings in preteens.

T- He also didn't want to work but finally did the buck up little camper thing and got down to business. He tried to convince me he had over 3 hours of Poptropica time when he had ZERO! When I had a neighbor over and sent him downstairs he kept being pesty. Finally I told him if wasn't going to obey he could wash baseboards. The little turkey looked right at me, smiled and said, "Let's have a staring contest." Oh he got me to break my serious mood and I had to smile.

D-He had a hard day. It's okay though. I know he will get back to his normal life. It's the fallout from going to Grannie's. He kept asking me the same questions over and over in hopes of changing my response. I have to ignore it at a certain point and come back after the fact. He wasted a half an hour tonight over whether he could sweep without picking up the toys on the wood floor in the basement. He knew my answer and he knows we NEVER budge. We can't or it'll bite us in the behind. But he was emphatic. Finally I had to tell him to go downstairs and finish his chore (it takes about 3 minutes) and if he came back up without it done I was going to grab something quick for him to eat and send him to bed. (It was time for dinner.) Finally he went down and did the stupid chore. Chances are someone gave in at some point over the weekend. It always fuels this behavior. He did it this morning as well as tonight. Hopefully he will remember tomorrow that it doesn't work and have a great day. He also decided today that he doesn't like krump or the tango on So You Think You Can Dance. I'm not too fond of krump either.

S- She hurt her arm again today. So I know I have mentioned that S is super super smart. We thought that from the get go and her psych and therapist have confirmed it. So why is it that I think it was last week that she hurt her arm trying to jump from couch to couch. Then the next day she tried jumping off a table in the basement and hurt her arm again. Today she tried jumping off the trampoline frame and hurt the same arm again. The learning curve on jumping just isn't there. She actually played pretty nicely for much of the day and didn't do a bunch of screaming. She was helpful and pretty kind to others. I am hoping that's a good sign for the rest of the week. DH and I talked about it and we are finally going to let her take ballet lessons in the fall. She'll be more than thrilled. I just hope she doesn't lose it before dance and have to miss the pricey lessons.

C- I can't even remember what she was saying at dinner that cracked DH and me up. She talks like such a little grown up. Today she was trying to eat a grilled cheese sandwich rolled up like a burrito. It was so icky. All evening she kept saying, "Taca taca stop stop ready go." I guess she listened to me when they were practicing.

All the kids had fun picking cherries off the tree. They don't seem to care that it's a sour cherry tree. We had them with dinner and the kids were happy.

C finally went in her own bed tonight. I bet she still wakes up in M's bed.

Tomorrow is one busy day. The kids have violin lessons starting at 7am. Then I drop M off at dance and bring the other kids home. I am supposed to go to breakfast a little later. (If I can find a sitter for the kids I am going to get one. It's no fun going to breakfast when the kids are never satisfied with how much food they have. I just don't want to be interrupted 20 times with "Is there any more food?" They ask it whether they are hungry or not if the food is good. Then I really should clean my house. (Should is the key word there.) Then, sometime tomorrow I need to get a nap so I can be rested for my night out with friends to see Eclipse. And of course, I should fit in running both tomorrow and Wednesday but haven't figured out how to make it happen with violin lessons and then a swim meet early Wednesday.

I am back in the saddle but wish that it didn't have so much dang baggage.

Ahhhh..............

It turned out to be an awesome weekend. Who would have ever thought that all we really needed was a lot of sleep. Lately I have had a hard time sleeping and often find myself wide awake at midnight or later and then wide awake at five. I still woke up early but then decided there was no reason to stay up.

The car ride to pick up the kiddos was so pleasant. DH and I were able to just chat away.

You can imagine the car ride back.

"Mom, open the suitcase I made pictures for you."

"Mom, I played the wii for an hour today."

"Mom, so and so did such and such a thing."

Mom... mom.... mom...........

Awww............. I guess I am needed.

The kids got a huge compliment in that they had ZERO problems at church. Grannie let them each take something to hold and they loved that. I bet they were in heaven since we don't let them take anything to church. They went to Grannie's school and played in the gym and halls. She braved a store with all of them but T who preferred to stay home with his Papa.

C didn't decide to potty train herself.

I feel like I am back to being able to handle them. A break every once in a blue moon is a good thing. The funny thing is that I thought DH and I would get so much done. But without the kids home we were less than motivated. We did get C's crib taken down. No tears were shed. I'm so over the baby stuff. Let's get it out. The bunks in M's room were taken apart and separated and now each has a bed.

C is still sleeping in M's room tonight. She liked her big girl bed but not enough to actually sleep in it. I guess she needed its twin in M's room.

I'm actually excited for tomorrow to come. After being the tired mama for weeks I can be the well rested mama.

Now how awesome is that?