RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

We're in for another long week of hard rain here. At least my birthday weekend was fantastic! As I mentioned, I ran 5 on Saturday with my old ultra group. That was great. On Sunday I had some solo time and tackled some ginormous hills in my new neighborhood that took me to what the Peanut calls "the BIG beautiful park" . . . so cute. Here is the view from the big beautiful park:

That is Folsom Lake in the distance

This park is really nice and has a playground just right for the Peanut and some "exploring" areas that we had visited earlier in the day.

Hey follow me mommy!

Cheese!

She ended up playing mostly on the swings because as usual, most of the playground was wet from all the rain we have been having. Boo.

Higher!



With the holidays upon us so quickly after the move, the settling in time has been a bit slow. I do have a new dining room table that I am SUPER excited about. I'll have to post some pictures of it. Yes, we replaced the one that bit the dust on Thanksgiving Day.

One nice thing about moving during the holidays is that all your holiday decorations are already out and waiting to be put up. I've had ours up since Thanksgiving because I didn't want to store the boxes only to pull them out again a week later.

  

Festive!

Other than that, I skipped Monday morning's workout because the Peanut woke up at 12:30 in the morning and when my alarm went off at 5 am I was toast. I redeemed myself today and headed out onto the elliptical and read my new birthday present from my Step mom aka Jersey Mom . . . she got me a year's subscription to Trail Runner magazine! Sweet! I felt like I was actually running on some trails while reading from my boring elliptical this morning.

I need to figure out which box my free weights are in so I can get back on that band wagon too. I was doing very well and was very consistent for a while before we moved. Vans packed the weights and I have no idea where they or my stability ball are right now. Easy excuse huh?

Even though the rest of this week calls for rainy nights we have a few holiday adventures planned. Apparently the big man himself, Santa Claus goes through the neighborhood on a fire truck a few nights this week making the kids super excited. We plan to figure out exactly where he passes and head out to see him. Then, we also plan on hitting up the Folsom Zoo as they do an enchanted forest of lights apparently with music and other fun stuff for the kids.

I do love the holidays despite all the craziness moving has thrown at us lately. Vans, the Peanut and I are all home on Christmas Eve so I am looking forward to relaxing with my family and prepping for the next day's celebration.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO ME!

Yup, today is my birthday. So far so good. It started with a hair cut last night which was loads of fun for all (fyi, it had been since March that I cut my hair. Um, yeah I needed it).

Proof: The Before Photo

(nice wrinkly forehead)

Before Part 2

Peanut enjoyed some frozen yogurt while we waited

Then while I was "drying"

the Peanut got her own hair done!

She was really well behaved during the whole thing. Vans showed up about half way through and then my hair dresser wanted to do the Peanut's hair. She was the hit of the salon. Her hair was so cute.

Clearly way cuter than mine:

The finished product.

She did it super straight and way more sleek than I could ever or would ever do but it was nice not to have massive roots and dead ends showing. 

After the salon we went to our first holiday party where the Peanut had a blast. She made friends with two twin 5 year olds and we barely saw her all night. Wonderful.

Fast forward to this morning, my actual birthday and we all woke up flying out of bed and racing out the door. Vans and the Peanut were headed to a 5K race near Van's work. They did this event last year as a father/daughter team. It was extra special this year because the "big man" himself was there.

AND he had candy canes. 

Putting on her race number

Ready to race!

Vans is a bit sore, the old ankle isn't quite healed yet but when I asked the Peanut if they "won" she said "yup, sure did!" haha

While they were out racing,  I was headed to meet some old friends.

The "old" Ultra Group!

Garmin was there as well as Pigeon, Miss P, Molasses and Boss. The Fleet Feet ultra training group has started up again and most of the old gang is running (minus Garmin and myself). They have a bunch of new people too and it looks to be a really good group. Captain Kirk and Coach Nikon said Garmin and I could come out and run with them. 

I haven't run much in a long while. I've been having some heart rate issues (going too high) but I am beginning to realize that even though we moved to a slightly higher elevation (barely) it might actually be playing into my heart rate issues (not to mention the killer hills around here). Today's run was fun. My heart rate was steady and I ran 5 solid miles. I felt great despite the foggy weather.

And boy was it FOGGY out there!

And like classic Trailmomma, I made a quick stop here on my return.

I missed Pigeon waiting 

outside taking photos though. 

She's in "training" now and too fast for me. :-)

Overall, I had a great birthday morning. After the run the foggy air made for a chilly post run hangout and so I did not hang around long and instead raced home to get in the shower and make some coffee in a nice quiet house. 

Later Vans and the Peanut arrived home with flowers and balloons and we're going out to dinner later tonight. All in all, I'd say a great way to celebrate a birthday. 

DAY TWO

Woot woot! I woke up at 5 am this morning without any problems and hit the old (dusty) elliptical for a short workout. I incorporated a few 'pick-ups' here and there. I wanted to go longer but had to cut it short due to Vans needing the shower for an early meeting. I always prefer showering before him, don't ask me why.

Jo Lynn had asked about Van's ankle and I realize I never really gave an update. He's doing much better. Off the boot and only needs the ankle brace on occasion. He did the Run To Feed The Hungry 5K walk with us and we even ran part of the way. He is doing his own 5K this Saturday with the Peanut (it's so cute, daddy and Peanut race time together) and he has already hit the slopes on his snowboard. The only trouble he has had is when snowboarding as he found that really gave him some pain ankle wise. However, with all this fresh powder Tahoe is getting right now, there is no way he'd sit out from a day of boarding.

Today begins the start of a crazy rest of the week for me. Tonight after my "regular job" I head to one of my part-time jobs at ARCO Arena (GO KINGS!). Then tomorrow night, I head to my second part-time job after my "regular" job (get that? tired yet?). I am excited about tomorrow night's job though because they are going to be talking about this. That's right, my old Ultra Training Group is starting up again! Yea!!!! Unfortunately I will not be joining them on the trails much this year (for various reasons) but I am heading out for their very first run this Saturday morning and I am super excited about it.

What I am not excited about is the fact that I will be missing the Peanut both tonight and tomorrow night due to working so late. Sniff sniff. She's growing so fast these days it is unreal. Her class photos are in and are ADORABLE. I am not going to post her individual photo here . . . yet because they may or may not be used as Christmas gifts this year but I will post her class photo because it is too adorable not to!

Peanut is bottom row, second from left

DAY ONE

Last night on our way home from work (aka our long commute), the Peanut and I met Vans at Lowe's for some returns and new purchases.

The Peanut LOVES Lowe's. She thinks it is the "Christmas Store" because of all the decorations they have hanging all over the place. It is all we can do to just pull her away from it and get the boring household items we came for.

After Lowe's we all drove home and had dinner. Vans had the great idea to go for a walk. Sure it was 7:30 pm and pitch black outside but the weather was cool and crisp and the Peanut was not going to bed anytime soon (she had a lollipop at Lowe's).

So I made Vans wear my reflective NIKE vest and I wore my other reflective vest. Grabbed our flashlights and my headlamp and off we went around the block. The whole trip is only .7 miles around but it has some killer hills and pushing an almost 40 lb kid in a stroller is tough. We had to stop at and see all the homes with Christmas lights. We have a few "Griswald" type neighbors so it is pretty darn cool. Our home isn't very Christmas like on the outside currently because we're in desperate need of more lights and extension cords. That happens when you move from a tiny condo to a much larger home.

The other highlight of my evening was Vans hooking up the elliptical! It is facing a wall currently but it is at least up and running and since I was able to go to work late today, I woke up and jumped on it. I need to prepare myself for a much earlier wake up tomorrow but it felt FANTASTIC to be up early and sweating!!! Oh how I missed it. I took it a bit easy today because the elliptical has not been used in over a year but I think tomorrow I will bust out my old elliptical workouts and really get moving.

And finally, the last "exciting" thing that happened last night . . . the Peanut's new car seat arrived. She's had her current one for SO long and she doesn't do well with change so I was afraid she would not like this seat very much.

Apparently I had nothing to worry about.

She loves it.

HAPPY CIM DAY

Today was the annual CIM (California International Marathon).  One of my favorite days of the year except that this year, I didn't run it and boy did I miss that.

Yesterday, instead of laying low and getting our Christmas tree like we do every Saturday before I run CIM, I worked. It was hard working because every customer that came in was preparing for CIM the next day. I, instead, woke up before I had to go to work with the intentions of running around my new neighborhood.

This is the view from around the block. I didn't get far because a neighbor saw me taking a photo and we started talking. I told her that we had just moved here and she chatted my ear off for a good while. The next thing I realized I was going to be late for work. Needless to say, I did not run very far but it was nice to get the 411 on our new neighborhood.

Today, I had to wake up at 5:30 to get ready to head to the Fleet Feet Aid Station which was almost at mile 9 of the marathon. When I run the marathon I am waking up at 5 am so this morning just seemed like "old times" except I was putting on warm clothes instead of shorts. The one thing DIDN'T that seem like old times was the temperature. My car was reading 56 degrees! CIM last year had a 30 degree start! Figures, this would be the year that it was warm and sunny.

Doing an aid-station takes a lot of work and a lot of volunteers. I have volunteered for CIM in the past which I think every runner should do at some point in their lives. It feels good to give back to those who have volunteered for us and makes you appreciate the race even more.

Handing out water.

I had many friends running CIM this year. Pigeon, Coach Nikon, his wife Miss Lily, Miss P and quite a few others. It was great to see them and cheer them on. The only one I missed seeing was Coach Nikon. He must have been too fast for me.

However, seeing Lily was truly the high light of my day. She was smiling and asked ME how I was doing. When I asked her how she felt she said she was having hamstring issues and that she needed me to push on her hamstrings. So off we went to the sidewalk where she lay face down and had me put both of my knees right where her butt meets her hamstring with all my weight. Apparently, and I should probably take this is as a compliment, I was too light and not giving enough pressure. So I called over Captain Kirk figuring he might have weighed a smidgen more than me or at the very least, I know his knees are bonier than mine.

Captain Kirk to the rescue!

Don't worry Coach Nikon I kept a close eye on him!

 Overall, it was a great day. The weather was fantastic for a marathon making me all the more excited to run CIM next year. I am happy I went to the aid-station and volunteered. I cannot wait to find out how my friends all finished.

Once I got back home, Vans, the Peanut and I headed out to get our Christmas tree and we're spending the afternoon decorating and yes, still unpacking random boxes that we're coming across. A nice little weekend for all!

Happy Holidays!

HERE I AM

Wow it's been almost a week since my last post. I don't think that has ever happened in Trailmomma history. Shame shame I know your name!

My apologies but life has been hectic and well, running has been pretty much nonexistent. That will soon change however.

My first attempt this morning was not successful but I realize now what I need to do in order to make it happen. I woke up at 5:15 this morning with good intentions of running/walking around my (very) hilly neighborhood to test out the whole "morning routine" thing. At 5:15 I woke up and made the mistake of looking out my window. Darkness. Total darkness. There are no street lamps in our new neighborhood and all the homes turn off their property lights probably around midnight or so. I basically just freaked myself out of a run. I have a headlamp and reflectors and a flashlight etc but still, it was freaky!

So this only encouraged me to nag, I mean ask, Vans to please hook up our elliptical and remove the surrounding boxes in the garage so I can at the very least go out and use that in the mornings. My mother-in-law is offering us her treadmill which is ancient but better than nothing. Eventually we'll move that up to our new home and then I can alternate between elliptical and treadmill until daylight starts returning or at the very least being a little less dark in the mornings.

Weekends however, no more excuses. I have to work this Saturday but I know the sun is some what up by 7:00 am so I should in all theory be able to go out and do something before I have to leave for work. Granted, we're still in boxes (garage only) and our master bathroom is fixture-less right now but that shouldn't stop me from putting on my running shoes and hitting the pavement. Baby steps. I have to remember, running makes me happy and keeps me sane and during stress full times like the holidays and with moving, I need it.

The commute is putting a little damper on my evening time. Some days the commute is fine and other days it stinks and we don't get home until 6pm and then we have to do dinners, baths, jammies and story time for the Peanut who is also exhausted. Time. All we need is time to get settled. The rest will fall into place.

This week our after work adventures have been Lowes and Costco. The Peanut adores all the Christmas decorations at Lowes but Costco wins overall because they serve giant hot dogs and frozen yogurt in her two favorite flavors (vanilla and chocolate).

NEW TRADITIONS

Yesterday was our first Thanksgiving in the new house. Today is the first day we have internet. Things are not exactly panning out here as expected. We've run into a few bumps in the road (phone/internet problems, plumbing issues etc) but we're doing our best.

Usually Thanksgiving for us means that we and our entire group of friends gather together bright and early and do the Run To Feed the Hungry race down in Sacramento. This is the largest 5K/10K race on Thanksgiving in the country (or so they say) with well over 20,000 people participating.  It is generally a mad house with runners, strollers, dogs and families.

In years past we used to have our crew gather at our condo and then we'd all make the 1.5 mile walk to the start line. This year various parts of our crew opted out of participating for some reason or another but the REI family joined us complete with new baby and all.

Vans and I had to coordinate a little differently this year since our morning now consisted of a 25 minute drive down the hill for this race. We parked at our old condo and just like old times we ran the 1.5 miles to the start line looking for the REI family.

There we are! Found the Peanut's BFF

Our mini crew this year

The race, as always is a mad house. It isn't the race you want to "PR" in or "win" because there is just no way of getting past the mobs and mobs of walking groups, strollers and dogs on leashes. This is the one "race" every year that most non-runners in the area participate in solely for the purpose of allowing themselves to eat a little more turkey later in the day.

Generally I run the 10K and the crew walks the 5K and we finish almost in the same amount of time (not many walkers walk the 10K). However, this year I opted to walk with my family since our numbers were small and because I have not been running in almost a month. Just the 1.5 mile run to the start had me sweating!

The course was different this year than years past. They had us going through the Fab 40s which is an area of mansions in east Sacramento. Visually that was great, logistically the entire race seemed to stop at mile 1.5 when we made the turn. In all, it took us over an hour to WALK 3.1 miles.

The girls

Father and Daughter

The Peanut was funny and kept asking to 'run' the race. She is so much like me that it is funny. She apparently does not like 'walking' a race either.

After the race we high-tailed it to our old condo (another 1.5 mile speed walk) and filled our car with miscellaneous boxes that still remained in the garage. By the time we made it back home, it was 12:30 in the afternoon and I still had a ton of food to prep and cook and a dining room table to construct (we recently purchased a new table which has been sitting in a box in our garage for a month).

While I was busy prepping and cooking, Vans took the Peanut to a nearby park for some fun.

A duck pond!

The Peanut loved it

There is no way in hell I am taking her here myself

She had fun and they also went to a play ground. She needed to use up a little energy. Unfortunately she's coming down with a really bad chest cold today. Poor Peanut.

Otherwise our Thanksgiving was nice. My aunt came out for dinner and arrived with 2 side dishes which is always a bonus. She also arrived early enough to help us assemble the dining room table. I had spent all day on Wednesday assembling 6 dining room chairs and all that was left was the table.

Well, after the 3 of us lugged the dining top into the living room along with all the additional pieces, we realized that after an hour of piecing together the darn thing, that the table itself was BUSTED! The wood broke clear down the middle under the table and the whole table drooped. I don't think it is returnable at this point (we ordered it a awhile ago) but I plan to call and find out. Otherwise, anyone know of a good handyman who can help fix out table?

Dinner was nice regardless. We ate in the kitchen and watched football and the Peanut and my aunt played all around the house. Although we missed the company of my inlaws and brother-inlaw, it was still a nice evening. I look forward to making more traditions as we go. I even got out our Christmas decorations (well, they were in one of the boxes we brought home) and put some up. The Peanut got super excited.

Vans got excited when he figured out how to make our exterior lights work!

Lights!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you had a wonderful day.