New Old Sewing Machine

Last night we finally got my sewing machine set up in C's room.  I got a whole bunch of spools of thread from my mom.  C was so excited to start sewing.  She's 7.  I told her I would be up there in a few minutes to get her sewing.  Before I knew it, she said she got it going.  Sure enough, she had threaded the thing and was sewing 2 pieces of fabric together!!  My mom has a small sewing machine for the kids to use that she's been teaching them on.  C was so proud of herself!  She made 2 beanbags filled with marbles.  She even wanted to sleep with them!  Then L got in on the action.  Keep in mind that he's a 10 year old hockey player.....he sewed 2 sets of 2 squares together and said he's going to make a mini quilt.  He wanted me to get the iron going, so that he could press the seams flat like I do!!  So funny.

I cut out squares the other night for a quilt I want to make for a friend.....tonight hopefully I can start sewing on them.

Been Awhile....

Wow, it's been awhile.  I've been slacking......  I haven't run since the Fall 50.  I figured out this week that it's 20 weeks until the Oshkosh half marathon.  So, I found an 8 week 5K plan and a 12 week half marathon plan.  I'm going to start tomorrow.  I really don't want to, but I know I have to.  I've probably gained 5 to 10 pounds, I'm feeling fat.

In the meantime, my mom and I have been making a quilt.  It's almost done.

This is before we sewed it together and added the borders.  My mom has quilted the top, except for the borders.  Hopefully we can finish that this weekend, then we'll just have the binding left.

Today we have 2 of L's hockey games.  It's been 2 weeks since he had a game, we've been kind of lost!!

This is all over the place, but back to working out.....I also want to do some resistance/weight work on the days I don't run.  I'm going to find some kind of workout online that I can do at home, just using my own body weight.  I figure if I write it on here, I'm more accountable to myself.

AND, I want to start a new quilt, to give to a friend for her new baby due in January.  I'm going to set up my sewing machine in C's room, since she doesn't sleep in there!  My mom got some new quilting stuff, so she's going to give me her cutting table and cutting mat!  Woo Hoo!!  Hopefully I can bring them home this weekend. 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!

5 Days

5 days until The Fall 50 relay in Door County.  I can't wait!  I'm doing legs 5 & 8.  Leg 5 is about 4 miles, with a big hill at about mile 1.5.  Leg 8 is about 6 miles.  I just feel bad that I'm the slowest one on the team.  Not sure why I beat myself up about that.  I did my last "long" run on Friday - 6 miles.  It was such a nice night....

I stopped to take a picture of a bunny, too, but that one didn't turn out as well!!

My hubby's out of town, so I'm stressing about how/when I'm going to get a run in this week.  Maybe I won't.  Tonight is all errands....haircuts, pants shopping, hockey shopping, grocery shopping.  Sounds like an expensive night, too!!  Then tomorrow night and Thursday night are hockey and Wednesday night is dance.  Then we leave after work on Friday for the relay.

Every Monday I say that I'm going to start eating better again.  I haven't gained any weight from the 30 I lost, but I'm really not eating the greatest.  I'm all about convenience right now, which translates to poor choices.  COME ON, GET IT TOGETHER JULIE. 

8 MILES

Friday night I mapped 8 miles out from my house.  It was very windy, so I asked/told my husband that I was running 8 miles, WITH the wind, so he needed to come pick me up at the end.  L was going to a birthday party, so I told hubby to leave after dropping L off, follow my route and he should pass me.  Well, apparently he thought that I was going to text him when I finished.  I get to my destination, which was the Grignon Mansion, around 6:30.....just when it's starting to get dark.  I also had missed a turn, so I ended up going an extra 0.4 miles.  My hubby had never passed me and wasn't hanging out waiting for me.  Take my phone off my arm to see that he texted me 30 minutes before asking if I was almost ready.  Since my phone was on my arm, I wasn't really checking texts.   About 25 minutes later, he got there.  I was FREEZING, and kind of creeped out.  I was kind of nervous running down the hill to the mansion.  It's pretty deserted around there.  There's a quarry right there, too.  Not many houses.  There were some cars parked on the road, I figured they were fishing somewhere around there.

Shortly after arriving home, the kids and I went to my parent's house, where I told them about my run and waiting there, etc.  They inform me that a woman runner had been murdered there several years ago.  Nice....  Obviously I wouldn't have ended up there if I had known that!!

Although it was kind of a bad ending to my run, the actual run went really well.  I averaged 12:30 miles and did 1/1 run/walk intervals the whole time.  My hip was a little sore at the end, and I think I tweaked my hamstring a little.  But, my hamstring isn't hurting now, so nothing to worry about.  10 days until the Fall 50.  I just need my hip to hang in there until then.  I have a 6 mile run for Friday or Sunday.  Saturday is hockey day in Madison!!

Run Down

It's been a busy week.  Started Saturday morning....up at 530 for my parents to pick me up at 6:15 to head down to Madison for the Badger game.  Got to the bar at 830 to tailgate for 2 hours before heading into the game.  My brother has awesome seats for the games....

You can't ask for better seats than that, can you??  The Badgers won, too, which was a bonus.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  The only bad thing was that I didn't bring my sunglasses into the game.

Sunday morning, my kids and I volunteered at the gel station for the Fox Cities Marathon at mile 22 for the marathon or Mile 9 for the half marathon.  So, we were out the door at 7 a.m.  That was fun.  And so inspiring!  I couldn't believe how fast the leaders were - men and women!  The woman who won the marathon, she was so far ahead when she passed us.  She actually started walking a bit when she passed us.  Afterwards she said that she walked quite a bit the last few miles.  I saw that she only won by a little bit.  AND, it was only her 2nd marathon!  CRAZY!!  Some day, I'm going to do a half marathon.....

I must've been inspired by the marathon.  In the afternoon, I had to do 4 miles.  I kept an eye on my watch and did a 5K in 36:55, which would be a PR by over a minute.  I did the 4 miles in 48 minutes, which means a 12 minute pace, which is great for me!

Then, on Monday, I'm sure from lack of sleep, etc., I started getting a sore throat.  Uh oh.  It STILL hasn't turned into a full fledged cold, so maybe it's allergies.  But, it's bugging me and my head feels like it's going to explode.

Last night was a beautiful night -- 62 degrees, hardly any wind, no clouds.  Went for a 3 mile run.  I had to walk the last 1/2 mile.  I just felt crappy.

Look at how nice it was, though.....  At least I was out there.  Tomorrow, I have a 7 mile run on my schedule.  Not sure how that will work, but I'm going to try it.  We have a busy weekend planned....hockey and Packer game.

Cheers to the Freakin Weekend!!

I'm kind of late with the update from the weekend.....

Friday night started with me doing a 6 mile run/walk.  I've really been focusing on my breathing - taking deeper breaths.  It seems to help me from getting too winded.  I was able to do the entire 6 miles, maintaining 1/1 running/walking intervals.  I couldn't do that on my 5 miler the week before.  So, I was pretty psyched about that.  The weather was great for me, too.

I wish every day could be like that!!  Today it's not even 60 degrees!

Saturday morning we left for the northern Chicago suburbs for some hockey games.  L's team played 4 games throughout the weekend.  They lost all 4.  L had 4 penalties in the first game.  Luckily he didn't have any more for the rest of the weekend.  C and I pretty much hung out all weekend.  We skipped the second game so she could swim in the hotel pool.  Then we drove around and found a nice beach on Lake Michigan.  Again, the weather was beautiful.

We were able to stay at a friend's house Saturday night, which was fun to catch up.  I did drink a little too much wine, though.  Gotta do that once in awhile!!  Except I paid for it on Sunday....I couldn't get enough to eat all day and food was the only thing that made me feel a little better!

The highlight of the weekend, though, was how good C was for me ALL weekend.  I told her that several times.  When I thanked her on Saturday night for being so good, she said that she was going to be good tomorrow, too!  And she was.  She is so much more fun to be around when we're not arguing!!

Planning on a 3 mile run tonight, hopefully the rain will hold off.

2 Weeks

We're only 2 weeks into school.  Why does it already seem like there was no summer vacation??  I'm already pulling out my hair!!  I've had 389 arguments with C already about doing homework.  She's told me at least 5 different lies about things that have happened at school or that her teacher has said.  In these 2 weeks, we've had 4 football practices, 1 football game and 5 hockey practices.  Tomorrow we go down to Chicago for 2 days for 4 hockey games.  I'm tired just thinking about it all.  Luckily I'll get to see a few college friends while I'm down there.  That should break things up a bit.

In the midst of everything, I'm training for the Fall 50, which is a 50 mile running relay in Door County in October.  There are 5 of us on the team, so I need to be able to run about a total of 10 miles, broken up into 2 legs.  Tonight I'm doing a 6 mile training run.  I still am a run/walker, so I run about half of the time.  Maybe someday I'll be able to just run......

I recently lost 30 pounds.  I need to lose another 20, but I'm kind of at a self imposed standstill.  I determined that I needed more food to run/walk.  So, while I'm not losing right now, I'm also not gaining, so that's a win in my book.

I've started several blogs in the past, but just never kept up with them.  I'm hoping that this can be a place where I can talk about my struggles and successes with parenting, running, losing weight, eating, and anything else in between!