Are you talking to me?

I was running the other day, when something happened that I didn't expect.

The trail where I run after work is a sidewalk-like trail surrounded by woods and along the river. It's not a loop, so I have to run out and then turn around at my halfway point and come back. It's frequented by bikers mostly, but I also pass runners and some dog walkers. On nice days there are a lot of people out there, but sometimes it can be quite deserted where I don't pass anyone for miles.

Last summer they found a woman's body not far from the parking lot where I park to go run on the trail. That, along with the news a few years back of the woman who was killed on the Silver Comet Trail while riding her bike, has made me slightly paranoid when I run. I am always on high alert. When I bring Alan with me in the jogger, I have a baseball bat in the basket under the stroller.

A few weeks ago, I was running on a nice day. I was at a point on the trail where I was passing several people. Typically when I pass people, I'll smile and sometimes say "hi." On this particular day, I smiled as a biker passed by. He seemed to be slowing down and turning around. I figured he had reached his turnaround point, and I kept on going, expecting him to pass by me going my direction. Then I heard "Hey, wait!"

I slowed down and turned around. He had dismounted his bike and was taking his helmet off. Immediately, my guard went up. I sized him up. He was not much taller than me, so I figured I could take him - or at least run fast enough away that he might not catch me if it came down to it.

He smiled and said, "I wanted to get your number." I wish I had a camera so I could playback the look of shock on my face. That was not at all what I expected.

I have fairly low self-esteem. Especially since I had Alan, I don't think very highly of myself. I'm getting older, and while I have finally gotten back down to my pre-pregnancy weight and fitness, I don't really see myself like I used to. In college, guys would do double takes all the time and hit on me. But I haven't had that happen in years.

I looked behind me to make sure he was talking to me. There was no one behind me. I looked back at him, smiled and let out a little chuckle. "Oh, I'm married," I responded. "Thanks though." I turned back around and kept running.

As short and silly as that interaction was, it really made me feel good. I'm happily married, and Rob will say nice things to me all the time...but he's my husband - he sorta has to. It's the same way with family. They can say nice things about you or to you, but it doesn't seem to have as much of an effect as if someone who has no vested interest in your life say something nice about you or the way you look.

Minute to win it: end of week two

It's the end of week two of my Minute to Win it competition. I've been doing pretty good so far.  I take pictures of the clock when I start and when I end so I don't miscalculate my time.  Here's what I've done thus far.

1/10 - On Tuesday I went downstairs at 7:43pm.  I ran 5 miles and stretched for 10 minutes.  Then I did 14 minutes on the stationary bike.  My total time was 64 minutes that day.

1/11 - I missed working out this day.  Wednesdays are difficult because of Bible study that night.

1/12 - I went downstairs at 6:58pm and did the stationary bike for 60 minutes as I listened to a conference call with some people in Singapore for work.  I took an hour break and then went back downstairs at 8:58pm and walked on the treadmill for 67 minutes while I listened to another conference call for work with the same people in Singapore.

1/13 - Friday we traveled to Phoenix so I could run the Arizona marathon.  I walked through the airport from the Marta to gate D9 instead of taking the train.  It took 20 minutes.

1/14 - Saturday was the race expo.  While I did a good deal of walking, I didn't time any of it because it was off and on, and not constant.  So no minutes to count here.

1/15 - I ran the Arizona marathon in 4 hours and 3 minutes for a total of 243 minutes of exercise.  I stretched for longer than 10 minutes and also had to walk a way to my car, but I didn't time myself, so I'm not counting that.  We also went bowling afterwards.  Rob thinks I could count some time bowling, but again, since it wasn't constant exercise, I'm not counting it.

1/16 - We flew back on Monday, and again I counted the walking from gate D2 to the Marta as 20 minutes of exercise.

1/17 - I took Tuesday off.  I needed a day off to recover from the marathon.

1/18 -  I ran 8 miles on Wednesday.  It took me 80 minutes.  It was a hard run, as I was still recovering, but it was a good one.  I stretched for at least 10 minutes after my run.

1/19 - I got up at 4:41am and ran a 7 miler.  It took me 64 minutes to run.  I stretched for 10 minutes afterwards.  I went back downstairs after putting Alan to bed and did some strength training starting at 8:23pm for 30 minutes.  I did an arm tabata, abs, pushups, and planks.

1/20 - I woke up at 4:51am and did 20 minutes of ab work.  After work, I went downstairs at 8:05pm and did 60 minutes on the stationary bike and 20 minutes of strength.  For my strength workout I did squats, lunges, the resistance band, and the weight bar.

1/21 - Yesterday I set out to run 15 miles.  I got caught in a thunderstorm, so I had to take a mid-run break to wait out the storm.  While waiting under the awning of a random office building, I ran in place.  I had to do that about 20 minutes while the storm passed.  I ended up running only 13.12 miles total by the time I got back to my car - soaking wet.  Oh, well.  At least I still got the full 150 minutes of exercise in.
Last night Rob came downstairs with me and we listened to Luke on the CD player while I exercised.  I did some ab work, my arm tabata, and some butt exercises, which took 53 minutes total.  Then I walked on the treadmill for 15 minutes while we listened to the rest of the CD.

So I didn't meet my goal of 120 mins per day, but I am getting better each week.  The first week I averaged 44 minutes of cardio and 11 minutes of strength each day. The second week I averaged 90 minutes of cardio and 18 minutes of strength each day.

Time to kick it up another notch!

Minute to Win it Day one

I have a feeling that they are not going to believe me when I turn in my tracker for the Minute to Win it challenge at work, so I'm going to document my exercise well.  The Minute to Win it challenge is for 13 weeks starting today.  For every minute of exercise, you get a point.  Whoever has the most points at the end of the 13 week period gets an iPad.  I am going to do everything I can to win that iPad.  My goal is 120 minutes or more of exercise six days a week.

This morning I ran 5 miles this morning in 50 minutes and stretched for 10 minutes.  Tonight after I put Alan to bed, I did an hour strength circuit, five minutes of ab work, and five minutes of stationary bike.  My strength circuit came out of a running magazine and consisted of three sets of each of the following exercises:  hamstring curls, single-leg reaches, single-leg squats, band rotations, posterior reaches, lunges, push-ups, planks, step-ups, biceps curls, and triceps extensions.  I'm exhausted.  Time for bed.

2011 at a glance

Well, it's a new year, which is a good time to reflect on the past year. 2011 was a great year for me. It started out rough, but ended very well. Here is the year at a glance.

January was the first time Alan sat up unassisted. He turned five months. Alan was sleeping through the night by this point, but I was still nursing, which means I was getting no sleep. I took my first work trip out of town, which was a nice little break.

February was a tough month for me. I was signed up for the Myrtle Beach marathon, but wasn't trained enough to run it. I had some rough bouts of postpartum depression mostly caused by frustrations with lack of time and trying to fit running into my new mom schedule. It took me a long time to get back into the swing of things. Alan was sitting up on his own and even took his first ride in a shopping cart.

March brought with it Alan's first tooth....and his second tooth...and teething pain. My little man who had slept through the night was all of a sudden waking up three times during the night. With the pumping in the middle of the night and Alan waking up several times a night, I got no sleep.

April, when Alan was almost eight months, he started walking if we held onto both of his hands. He still hadn't crawled, but all he wanted to do was have us help him walk. In preparation for going back to daycare, Alan learned how to hold his own bottle. This month I started my Couch to Marathon training in preparation for the Outer Banks Marathon in November. I was officially fitting running back into my routine.

May was my 32nd birthday and my first Mothers Day with a child outside of the womb. I ran my first 10k since Alan was born. I missed my time goal by about 2 seconds. Alan turned nine months and learned to crawl this month. He was still walking every chance he could get us to hold his hands. He also cut his fourth tooth. He started running with me in the jogging stroller before work three times a week. Alan also went to his first professional baseball game - the Winston-Salem Dash minor league game during a roadtrip to Amy's house.

June was Alan's first trip to the beach and my first roadtrip with a baby and no husband. Rob stayed home as I went to Myrtle Beach to meet some of the mommas and babies born in the same month as Alan. Alan hated the sand, but loved the lazy river and the kiddie pool. Alan started saying his second word, "uh-oh" this month.

July was the month that I stepped up my training and focused on the marathon. I ran the Peachtree Road Race, but didn't do nearly as good as I had wanted. Alan was crawling all over the place and walking one-handed. He also had his first visit to the zoo.

August was a huge month for both mommy and baby. Alan turned one this month, which meant that I got to stop pumping. I had my first night of uninterrupted sleep in a year. I was still nursing mornings and nights, but I stopped pumping every day that I was with Alan. I could really start to get back to normal. Alan also converted from a diet of purees to table food.

September was Alan's first Braves game. He also started walking on his own. We took a roadtrip to West Virginia for the Luce family reunion. I officially stopped both nursing and pumping when I went out of town for work. I finally had my body back.

In October Alan and I went to Touch a Tractor while Rob was at a football game. Alan started learning a lot more words, although most of them were not understandable to anyone who wasn't around him often. He was able to point at a lot of different things if you asked him where they were.

In November I ran my first marathon since having Alan. I missed my time goal by about 7 minutes, but I could officially call myself a marathon mom. It was the first Thanksgiving that Alan could eat solids, so he was able to enjoy some of the Thanksgiving feast. Matt and Mimi came to visit over Thanksgiving and I ran my first half marathon since Alan was born. That race was very important, since I tried to run it the year before, and had to drop out after mile 5.

December brought with it a language explosion. Alan started trying to repeat almost any word you would tell him to say. Most of them are still not well enunciated, so they are hard for others to understand, but he's getting there. The whole family came for Christmas, and Alan was able to say every one's name. He also was able to help unwrap his gifts and enjoyed playing with his new toys.

2011 turned out well. I can't wait to see what 2012 has in store for us.

Blast from the Past

But not too long ago, although it seems like forever!

I was backing up my documents at work and found this letter that "Alan wrote" back in March. I thought it was too cute not to share. I can't believe how much has happened that I have forgotten already.

March 30, 2011

Dear Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Jason, and cousins,

I hope you are doing well and surviving this winter with all the snow. I saw snow this year because we had it twice! I’m glad that it’s warming up, though, and I don’t have to wear my big, bulky jacket anymore that takes up all the room in my car seat.

I have grown a lot since I last saw you. At my six month appointment, I weighed 15lbs and 7oz. I was 27” long. I’m wearing nine-month clothes now even though I’m only seven months old right now.

I’ve started getting teeth this month! I got my first tooth on March 3rd and my second on March 25th. The first didn’t hurt very much. In fact, Mommy didn’t even know it was coming through. But the second one was horrible! I cried all night long, and my mouth hurt so badly. And now that I’m in so much pain, I don’t want Mommy to leave me alone. I can’t wait for all these teeth to come so I can feel normal again.

I’m sitting up really well now. Mommy can give me toys, and I can just play away on the floor. She can even leave me alone for short periods of time, although I don’t like when she does. I’ve started rocking on up onto my knees a little when I’m sitting, but then my feet come out from under me, and I end up on my tummy. Sometimes I’m okay with that and just play on my tummy. But most of the time, I don’t like being on my tummy.

I’m getting the idea of what walking is like. Mommy holds my hands, and I have started moving my feet, almost taking steps. It’s more like dancing right now, because I don’t quite have control over them yet.

I really like banging on tables and playing with paper. But Mommy and Daddy don’t like it when I put the paper in my mouth. When I do, they stick their fingers in my mouth to get it out.

My menu has really expanded lately. I get cereal and yogurt for breakfast, and cereal and a veggie for lunch and dinner. I have eaten green beans, peas (my favorite), Brussels sprouts, zucchini, asparagus, celery, spinach, carrots (another favorite), yellow squash, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, mushrooms (they gave me horrible diaper rash!), bell peppers, and mixed veggies (carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, and summer squash). Yesterday I tried my first fruit – avocados. I didn’t like it much, but the first time I try a new food, I’m usually not too fond of it. I get to try apples soon.

I can’t wait to see you in April. Have a good trip. I love you!

Love,
Alan

Marathon #6

Last Sunday was my first marathon since Alan was born and my sixth marathon overall. Almost exactly two years before, I had run my best marathon in Richmond, VA in three hours and fifty-seven minutes. That was my marathon PR (personal record), but it had an asterisk next to it - it was before I had a baby. I was hoping to get close to that time during this marathon so I could take away that asterisk and still be a sub-4 hour marathoner.

Last weekend we traveled to the outer banks of North Carolina to pursue that dream. The marathon went well, and I finished, but I missed my four hour goal by about six minutes. My final time was 4:06:49.

I'm definitely disappointed in myself. I forgot my Garmin and there were no pace teams, so I couldn't pace myself well. I went out too fast, and burned out toward the end. I had to stop and wait in line at a porta-potty near mile 18. Mile 22-23 was a monster hill on a bridge over the sound, which sucked the last bit of energy from me. But all these are just excuses. I could have run six minutes faster.

My next try is January 15th where I will run the Arizona Rock n Roll marathon in Phoenix.

Alan's Rookie of the Year Birthday Party

For Alan's first birthday, I decided to go with a baseball theme. Rob wants Alan to grow up to be a "left-handed hitting, right-handed throwing catcher" because he says that is the best way to get into the majors.

Although we didn't have enough time to play t-ball, I was extremely pleased with the way the party turned out and thought I'd post what I did to plan for it for posterity.

The Venue
I wanted a place where I could rent a pavilion and a ball field together. The idea was to have the party and allow the kids to play t-ball on the field. I thought about Pinkneyville Park because I run past there all the time, but when I called they said the little leaguers would have the fields at the time of year we were looking to rent. We ended up renting the pavilion at Best Friend Park. It was actually perfect for a birthday party, and I may consider it for future parties. It had a grill and bathroom, and it was right next to the playground and the baseball field. The pavilion had a wide open space that we were able to set up the play yard with toys so the babies could play.


The Invitations
The invitations were designed by a fellow August 2010 parent, Jeremi Salveston, who also happens to work for Pixel Perfect Graphic Design. I wanted the invites to look like tickets to a game. We had Alan's 10-month pictures done in Braves attire with a baseball theme. I sent Jeremi a few of the ticket invitations I had found online that I liked. He took Alan's picture and the information for the party, and created the perfect invitation. He was very patient with me as I made little changes here and there. I highly recommend his company for any graphic design needs.




The Decorations
I didn't get too fancy with decorations since I didn't know exactly what the set up was going to look like ahead of time. I had never been to Best Friend Park, so i didn't know if it would be easy to hang streamers or balloons. So I kept it pretty simple. Besides, baseball games don't have a lot of decorations anyway.
There were four decorations that I used: a Simon Field banner, a month-by-month picture banner, a Happy Birthday banner, and some baseballs that were posted around the pavilion.

I had the Simon Field banner made at Vista Print. I tried to make the Simon Field part of it to look as close to the Turner Field sign as possible. I left a space between 'Happy' and 'Birthday' so we could use it in future birthdays if Alan wanted a baseball or sports theme.



I made two month-by-month picture banners that we hung up on the fence next to the pavilion. I first found a picture of a baseball using Google Images and put it into a Word document. I put numbers over the picture to represent the months of Alan's first year. I printed them out, cut them out, and had them laminated so they wouldn't tear. I then bought some fancy paperclip tags from Target and hot-glued them to the bottom of the number balls. I bought some white ribbon and drew the baseball stitches on the ribbon with black and red Sharpie markers. I hot-glued the balls to the ribbon. Finally, I took pictures from each month of Alan's first year and attached them using the paper clips.

I wanted something to decorate his high chair a little without being in the way of the mess I was anticipating with the smash cake. So I bought a simple Happy Birthday banner to put up in front of the chair.



The Food

To go with the baseball theme, the menu consisted of concession stand food: hot dogs, nachos, Cracker Jacks, and peanuts. Rob and Al cooked hot dogs on the grill with a little help from some of the male party guests.






For the smash cake, I made carrot cake in the shape of a baseball. I decorated it to look like the ball was lying in the grass.






The cake for the guests consisted of both a cupcake and a brownie formed into the shape of a hamburger. I had a lot of help from my in-laws (Allison Anderson and Donna Davis) to assemble the cakes. I made vanilla cupcakes and cut them in half to use as the bun. I then took a sheet of brownies and cut the brownies into circles to use as the burger. I made frosting in different colors: red for tomatoes, green for lettuce, and yellow for cheese. I cut the brownies in half so that we could put the cheese in between the burger layers. We added the lettuce on top of the brownie and piped the tomato on top of the lettuce before putting the top bun on. I then made sugar cookies cut out in strips for fries. I added some raw sugar to the top of them to act as salt on the fries. Both the mini double cheese burgers and the fries went into styrofoam containers so each person could have individual burgers and fries.

The Favors
I made different favor bags for babies and for kids who had reached the age where choking was no longer a problem. In the baby favor bag, I put a snack container with Cheerios, a baby Mum-Mum, stickers, a notepad, a pencil, and a squishy baseball. In the kid favor bag I put candy, stickers, a notepad, a pencil, a baseball bouncy ball, a temporary tattoo, and a squishy baseball.

Alan's "favors" (or keepsakes) consisted of a yearbook that I made with the ABC's of his first year and a baseball that everyone at the party signed. For the yearbook, I took each letter of the alphabet and put together some pictures for a topic that started with that letter. For example, A was for aquarium. I put pictures of when Alan went to the Tennessee Aquarium. We asked that all the guests sign the yearbook.

The Attire
I had shirts made for Alan, Rob, and myself. The shirts said Alan's Birthday on the front and had our names and ages on the back. It was hard to find Alan's shirt. There aren't many people who make infant sized raglan shirts. I finally found a place in Illinois called H. P. Tops that makes infant raglan shirts, so I ordered Alan's shirt from them. The shirt turned out great, and I would definitely recommend them to anyone. I got Rob's and mine from Cafe Press. It took me awhile to find a place that would do just two shirts. Most places made you buy a minimum of six shirts, but Cafe Press allows you to do only one if you want. I was less than impressed with the quality of the shirts.



All of the raglan shirts came with three-quarter length sleeves. Knowing that it was going to be a hot day (middle of August in Georgia is no picnic), I asked Rob's mom to shorten Alan's and my sleeves. She did a great job altering the shirts.




The Photographers
If anyone knows me, they know that I LOVE pictures! I knew I was going to be too busy running around to take pictures. One of my friends just started a photography business, so I asked her and her husband to take pictures at the party. Their company is called True Photography, and they did an amazing job! I was particularly fond of this series of pictures with Alan playing with the baseball.


Here are some more pictures from the party.

Alan standing all by himself.
Smash cake
The Aftermath
Alan walking
Future Atlanta Braves catcher?

Although we didn't have enough time to play t-ball, the party was a huge success! I'm very pleased with the end results. Thank you to everyone who made the day special!

To see more pictures, go to Alan's Birthday Party album on facebook.