M+B=E2O2

Potpourri

Now that I am looking back at the photos I put here to help me remember what I wanted to share, I realize just how long it has been since I last blogged! It is pretty random, so I will apologize for that now! So first I will go though and comment on the photos, then see what else I can say to get everyone all up to date on my version of reality.

I made my first brined turkey for Thanksgiving.

!

Every year I make both cranberry sauce & cranberry relish. The relish is the family favorite- so yummy!

I made a batch of pierogies. This is the heart clogging goodness that those bits of heaven get smothered in.

 

I managed to keep my training going on cold foggy mornings. Actually, I kinda like running in the fog, though I had to laugh at the dogs, my lab would see a post or bush emerge from the fog and his fur would rise and he would prepare mentally to either protect me or pretend to be tough enough to do so, until he'd realize it was a post or a bush and pee on it.

 

We were lucky enough to have good friends stay the night with us the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Our boys have hot sauce eating contests every time they get together. This is the aftermath.

Love me some friend time. 5 hours away is just too far.

My pretty turkeys. (The brined one is in the front)

My handsome husband.

Getting the group shot on Thanksgiving. Thankfully he was able to hold the wall up at the same time.

I have the bestest running mates. They are very unimpressed with the continually grumpy Mr. Cranky Pants and with the boorishly lame couple that begrudgingly says hello. (Well, he has yet to, and she is not happy about it but does so anyway).

Sunrise on my long run.

Beach people are funny. Funny weird, not funny haha.

Love seeing all the holiday decorations going up.

 

Mr. O had some fun editing photos.

I have discovered the joys of ice baths. This was my first, and far too cold. After a bit more reading up on it, I switched to a full tub, cold water bath,with a small bucket of ice added once water was filled enough to cover my legs. Brrrr.

I love the kids feet during piano. Everywhere but where they should be.

The kids made felt Christmas trees for our December nursing home visit. Unfortunately, I was begining to get sick so I could not go inside with them. They went in with friends though and gave them out, sang some songs and played the piano.

I thought I was getting a bit of a head cold, no big deal...

Then Thursday rolled around and I was feeling a bit worse. I was pretty sure Pasole would help, so using my best Jedi mind control I managed to get my mother-in-law to invite me over to learn how to make it. :-) It was very yummy, very easy and did make me feel better. Unfortunately I didn't get any better. As a matter of fact, I got worse. Friday I lost my voice completely. I really didn't feel bad, just had no voice and a little bit of a cough. No big deal.

Meanwhile, we had our first real run inthe rain. It was lovely.

Our friend Franklin came over for a visit one night. Reina has a very strange small dog/animal anxiety problem. We have to keep her on leash and we have even sedated her to help calm her. This is something we are working on. She did pretty good on this occasion, crying a bit if Franky moved about too much, but all in all it was a good visit. :-)

This was from earlier in the day, its hard to really tell, but the surf was huge. The tide was just right for me to get some running in on the sand. This was my last long run before my half. 10 miles & my longest continuous run to date. I felt great (aside from the no voice, head cold, sorta coughing thing).

Started my Christmas cookie baking.

Is anyone else confused by this??

The best early Christmas gift ever! My husband is the best!!!

Playing with my new camera with all my balloon animal friends.

The Big Day!

What a great race! I started in the back of the group. I should mention here that I was on my 4th day of antibiotics. Ben had decided I had bronchitis. I was feeling significantly better and had made all sorts of promises to all sorts of people aboout taking it easy on the race, stopping if I had to. As it turned out, I hardly coughed at all and I felt really good throughout. I did have to stop at mile 7 to pee, that was my worst time split. I managed to pace myself at a very consistant 11:01 min/mile pace. I even caught up to and passed the 2:30 pace group. Honestly, when I started training, my goal was to start (and finish) with this group, but when I ended up with bronchitis I just hoped to come in under or around the 3 hour mark. My finish time was 2:24:15. I didn't negative split the first & second half, but I blame that on my mile 7 pee break- I had a slight headache before the race and realized I was under hydrated so I made up for it by drinking lots of water before the start. oops. That said, the first half was 1:11:46, the 2nd 1:12:29. I was 88th out of 132 in my age group and I was 995 out 1473 overall. Yay for being in the top 1000! LOL!

Now, let me tell you about the awesomeness of this race. The organizers did a superb job making sure that we had support thoughout. There were commuity/neighborhood cheering stations, plenty of water stations, bands, and then there were the runners. Costumes were fantastic, fun and festive. The people were friendly and happy to be there. I talked to a number of friendly folks along the way, gave lots of kids high fives and thanked just about every police officer and volunteer that kept traffic at bay and made sure we were safe. Oxnard PD was fantastic. If ever you want to run or walk in a well organized, local event, this is for you! It was amazing. I will be there again next year! I am already thinking about my costume :-) Pancake tutu? I think so! I know a fantastic designer that I plan on brainstorming with this summer. If I am not gonna win the race I am all for winning the costume contest!

Ben and Evan ran the 5K. (Evan had already left by the time I finished). They both did great and had fun. Ben was 2nd in his age group and 15th overall. Yay Ben!

Just a few days before the race I had stopped by one of 3 local coffee shops that I frequent (depends on what end of the county I am in when I am in desperate need of coffee, but I have found 3 locally owned, independant, shops that have great coffee, great service and make me feel good about supporting local business). Latte 101 is one of the 3 and as it happens they have peanut butter syrup. If you have never had a peanut butter latte, I suggest you go out and get one. Now. They are that good. But then again, I am a peanut butter freak. I mentioned that I was doing the Santa to the Sea and it turns out they were one of the vendors. The owner (I am making an assumption here, I don't know for sure that he was the owner, but I am prettty sure) said that he would bring the PB syrup just for me! :-) Only a local business would make that kind of effort! Both Ben and I had one and it was awesome).

Now, have I also mentioned to you that the race also happens to fall on Nutcracker weeked? For me this means that the week before the race is production week at the theater. I have the unofficial/official job of taking backstage candid photos. I absoultly love that I have the privledge to do this. I take photos through out Satuday rehersals from October until the production. I think this is my 3rd or 4th year doing it, I'll have to go back and look at my photos and see. It has been so fun seeing the dancers grow and change.

Saturday we go to the show as a family. We have been going to this particular show since Owen was 18 months old. We had no idea that when our girls started ballet, they would be with this production company. To be a part of it from both the front of the house and the back is just awesome.

Sunday (raceday) is the day that I voluteer and hang out backstage. I was a little worried that it would be really hard this year, but let me tell you, the runner's high you hear about is the best! It was 10 times anything I've felt before. I was flying high for at least 4 hours post race. The last hour of Nutcracker was where I was starting to feel tired, but the really amazing thing that happens duing the last hour of Nutcracker on the last day of production, is that all the tension, anxiety and nervousness that the girls have starts to drift away. The smiles get bigger, the laughter backstage increases, the happy energy flows. So as my runner's high diminished, my Nutcracker high increased. Such a perfect pairing. I am already looking forward to next year.

The week after Santa/Nutcracker my two eldest children had belt testing. My big girl earned her 2nd degree yellow belt! She is transitioning from ballet to tae kwon do. I think it is a great fit for her. She still loves ballet, but it has been over a year since she has been able to take a technique class, the schedule just hasn't worked in her favor. She does take a floor-barre class once a week though and loves being involved. TKD will have it's challenges for her, but she is definately up to the task and our school is incredibley supportive, from the instructors to the families. She is having a great time and is very dedicated to trying her very best. She is also quite lucky to have a black belt as a brother! He has been very helpful in working with her.

Speaking of Owen, he also had to test. He is on track to earn his 2nd degree black belt, hopefully in May 2013. The 1st degree black belt students have to take 3-4 "credit" tests in order to qualify to test for their 2nd degree. Owen just earned his 3rd credit. We just watched a video clip of him taking his 2nd degree yellow test, my how he has grown!

Buka and Reina wanted to be festive since we finally started decorating for Christmas. They are not embarassed at all. Really.

The kids little tree :-)

No sooner did I get the tree skirt in place, did Buka make himself at home under the tree.

Owen wanted to try and put our angel on the tree this year.

It was more challening that usual. In the end we had to put her up as a decoration off to the side. We had to buy a smaller angel to work with this tree. This is the first time she has not worked. We have a different type of tree this year, we usually get a noble, this one is something else that starts with an "N", but I can't remember what it is. It looks a lot like a noble, but is a brighter green. The branches are as thick, but a bit softer somehow. The top was just not strong enough to hold our angel. I need to get a picture of our alternate angel.

The kids, ok honestly just the girls, helped make pretzels for our cookie bags. The boys made a few, but were just not really into it this year.

I am really into ginger right now. From Moscow Mules to Kumbatcha to adding it to my morning smoothies, I am loving it. So I really wanted to make a ginger snap type cookie to add to our cookie bags. (The standard for our bags consists of chocolate chip cookies, russian tea cakes and peppermint chocolate dipped pretzles). It took a bit of experimenting, tweaking recipies from the internets, but I did come up with a variation that I quite like and hope to put it into the bag from now on. I even wrote down the recipe so I can make them next year.

My cranberry infused vodka is done!

Because I have not used cranberries enough this season.... I made sugared cranberries a couple nights ago. Sooooooo yummy!!! Today we had them with water crackers and brie. Pretty much amazing.

 

So there you go. Almost all caught up with my crazy life. A few more bits about running, then I'm off to bed. Remember The Nag. Well, MapMyRun pulled a fast one on their users. The voice feedback feature they rolled out in October became a monthly fee feature in November. In the update notes they did not indicate that the paid features would be ones we were already using for free. I felt th price ($6/month or so) was a bit high, but did a 3 month subscription because I was scared to let go of a training tool that was really working for me. In the mean time I dug out my GPS watch and looked into other free or one time only fee apps that did what MMR was doing. One of the things I discovered was that MMR was way off in tracking true distance. Really off. I was not happy! I have found another app that is much more accurate (Runmeter), but I still have another month of MMR so I am alternating using it and taking my actual milage off my GPS watch. (More on all this in a future post).

I have also continued to pass the lovely cranky people off and on and they continue to be lame. I am pretty sure that the cranky couple have their own inside jokes about me- the Crazy Running Lady. I quite literally laughed out loud at them one day. I was near giggling as we approached one another, then I said my cheerful hello, he of course did not give me the slightest look or indicate that he heard me, she scowled and said hello. I couldn't stop myself, I burst into laughter. When we crossed paths again, they both smiled and said hi. So yeah, they must have a joke, but I don't care, I won a round finally- he looked and she smiled. So there.

Of course that was a few weeks ago. This last week when I saw them I happened to be the one feeling a bit cranky. I managed to get myself irritated and worked up about these Not Friendly Morning People long before i saw them, so when I saw them coming I decided I was over being the nice one. I brought up my most lovely post bronchitis cough as they approached (into my elbow of course) and then looked at The Lady with no expression as we passed. She did the same. I was all geared up and ready to scowl openly at them the next pass, except I haven't seen them since. Oh well. I really should go back to being friendly, but after 4 months I guess I'm a little tired of being the one that has to try, then that optimistic person in me wants to play nice, because surely it will make a difference. Then I get cranky and worked up and plot all sorts of diabolical plans about how to Show Them. I'm pretty sure I have issues. And maybe alternate personalities that should have their own names.

Ok, as much as I would like to share more fantastically weird stuff about myself with you all, it has taken me over 3 days to get this all written out and hopefully properly edited to make sense. There are more bits about running that you all must know and I am sure I have many other fascinating stories to share that I just don't have the time to write, however I am going to post this and move on!

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Someday

Someday I will blog again.

But not today.

Soon.

Really soon.

Because my life is interesting like that.

Big Bear Birthday Fun

We spent another 4 days in Big Bear.  This was our second trip up there, last year we went mid April.  There wasn't much snow that trip, but it was a peaceful & fun-filled and had us eager to return.  This time we really wanted to go when the mountains were snow filled so that the kids could really have a chance to *know* snow.  It ended up working out that we were able to go the weekend before my birthday- not a bad present!  We were able to leave Friday afternoon, however it was not quite early enough to miss LA traffic.  It got dark before we got to the bottom of the mountain, so we opted to just spend the night in San Bernadino, there were a few sections of 18 that had snow showers, and being non snow drivers it just seemed like a good idea.  The kids are always up for a hotel sleep over so they were happy to stop. We had dinner at Denny's and were seated next to two nuns.  My kids love to eat, so restaurants are not much of a chore for us.  They are well behaved more often than not which is nice.  As we were leaving the nuns stopped me and complemented our family.  It really just made my day.  (After 4 hours of driving in LA traffic with them- well- sometimes it is nice to see them through the eyes of others!) 

Saturday morning we hit up IHOP for breakfast then hit the road.  Olivia tends to get a little green after a while if the road is too curvy.

She asked for some sunglasses as we got further up the mountain.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of her.  Not too long after this shot we put the headphones on her and she fell asleep, thereby skipping out on motion sickness. (FYI if you didn't know, listing to music on headphones can help out). 

We had the privilege and honor of using my friend's family cabin for our stay, it was home away from home without a doubt.  More on that in a bit.  We got our stuff in the house, shoveled the icy snow off the driveway and had some lunch.  After lunch we went on a mission to find someplace to do some sledding.  We found a little spot with some little hills and had some fun.  The snow was soft enough to make some snowballs (if you look close at the photo in the top right corner of the collage you can see Owen throwing a snowball- Daddy and boys had a grand time having snowball fights!) 

Evan 's primary objective was trying to fall or crash, he is such a ham!  Olivia loved the sledding, as evident by the look on her face.  Emma made friends with a mom on the same little hill as us. She is the owner of the green and yellow inflatable Evan was using and the snowball makers that Emma is using.  She spent quite a bit of time making the snowballs, but she didn't throw any of them, she just wanted to make them! All and all the kids had a blast and could hardly wait to go to the "big" hills for some snow tubing!  Saturday night we ordered some pizza to be delivered and just had a quiet night in.

Sunday we had breakfast at the house then went to Church.  It was a beautiful, beautiful church, really lovely.  The service, however, left us missing our home parish!  By the time Mass was over it was lunch time and my parents had arrived for the day.  We had some lunch with them then Ben & I went and got some stuff we needed from the store while the kids hung out with Gramma & Poppa.  My Mom had also brought a dinner for us all so we got to enjoy another nice evening in. 

Monday we took the kids to "Snow Play".  It was next to empty which was awesome!  The kids had an absolute blast on the hills.  Evan and Olivia were required to ride with Ben or me, but they were ok with that and were just fearless.  We were there for 2-3 hours I'd say.  Even though they have that "magic carpet" lift it was still a lot of work!  The kids were hoping to go back Tuesday, but that was our departure day so it was just not in the cards for them.  I can't wait to have them try skiing or snow boarding! It has been years since I have done either and I look forward to getting a chance to go again.

I put squirrel food out the very first day we arrived, but it took the squirrels a couple of days to figure it out.  The blue jay's found the peanuts right off though!  This little squirrel cracked me up, he finished off the seed in the other feeder first, one that didn't require him to put his head all the way in.  The kids got a real kick out of him sticking his head inside the bird feeder to pilfer food.  It was too cute and so much fun to watch.

The Home.  There is just not enough that I can say about the home we stayed at.  A few years ago my friend had mentioned that her family had a cabin in Big Bear and that should we ever want to use it to let her know.  I knew that a few other friends had used it and just raved, so when we had decided to use Ben's days off to go play in the snow I contacted my friend and as luck would have it the cabin was available.  The family does not rent the cabin out, it is just for family and friends of the family.  I can not tell you how honored I am to be included in her circle of friends.  When we arrived the kids were thrilled to find a few sleds in the garage and a small  pile of snow on the side of the driveway to slide down.   Let me just tell you about my favorite things.  First I have to say, it felt like we left our home only to come home.   There are knick knacks and photos, personal touches that clearly let you know you are in a loved place.  In the above photos are some of my very favorite things.  Cross stitch samplers done by my friend's mom.  The village that overlooks the kitchen, and of that my very favorite were the nuns coming out of the photography studio! The picture that was above the TV (bottom right corner). That picture just made me smile every time I looked at it.  I also just loved the arrangement of crosses that greeted you as you came up the stairs into the family room/dining room.  My favorite cross is the one singled out above.  I loved lighting all the candles each night, I don't do it enough at home and I now want to figure out just where I can put lots of candles to enjoy.  There were so many little details in the decor that just made the house so special, such a home.  Best of all, rather than take any payment to offset any costs to the family, they ask that if you have enjoyed your time that perhaps you'd like to like to make a donation to Habitat for Humanity.  We had the opportunity to spend time together in this amazing home and we get to help others achieve the dream of owning a home.  Nothing short of inspiring.  We have dreams of owning a cabin in Big Bear someday and I am more inspired now than ever.  What they have done, what they are doing is exactly what I would love to be able to do as well.

And finally my birthday.  We left Big Bear on my birthday.  Kind of sad in a way, but it was nice to come home to family.  I'm not really a cake fan, however I do love angel food cake with strawberries.  So that is what Ben got for me.  The gift of spending 3 days with my family in such an inspiring and beautiful place was the very best gift I could have received.  I am blessed with 4 beautiful children who inspire me to be a better person every day.  My husband is my best friend, I don't know  how I got so lucky.  I have a circle of friends that grows continuously. One thing Facebook has shown me is that good friends are always there- even if nearly 20 years has gone by since we last connected.  I love that. 

A few of my favorite things

Olivia's toes...

My boys happily looking at a book together....

Quiet study....

Emma building with her favorite blocks.... (it is a boat in the making)

The little pink bike....

Great Pacific Morning

Great Pacific Morning, originally uploaded by ourlibertybeach.

How lucky am I to live next door to this?  I love the smell of the air, the sound of the waves, the colors of the morning sun on the clouds.  Daisy and I have gone on our morning walk here the last two Saturdays.  Makes for a great workout- even a casual stroll is tough in the semi soft sand and I fall in love with the ocean again each time I get so close to it.

This is the cold

that never ends. it just goes on and on my friend.  one day I started sniffling not knowing what it was, then continued sniffling and coughing just because, this is the cold that never ends.....

74%

74%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

I guess that is better than 100%.  How addicted are you? 

 

Random Weirdness

I recently came across a sailors blog that I ended up adding to my Google Reader.  It is often humorous and I have learned a few things to boot.  Not too long ago he posted about pointless blogs.  He gave a couple of examples that I thought I'd share here.  One I find totally intriguing.  It is a log of the change this guy finds.  He had been keeping track of the pennies, nickels and dimes-  sometime dollars, that he has found since 1998 I think.  I think it is pretty cool that someone would take the time to do this. But kinda weird too.

The other blog has me thinking of it  every time I write (with a pen or pencil that is).  Seriously I can't write a simple word like, well, simple with out a brief pause.

Random Weirdness, I imagine there are all sorts of blogs out there like these.  Fun to come across, but I don't think I'll be adding them to my GR list anytime soon.

I Accept the Challenge

I'm doing it.  I am cleaning and reorganizing my garage. I am entering the challenge at orgjunkies blog. I took the before pictures a few weeks ago, then thought I wouldn't get to do it because of the work we need done on the house.  As it turns out it is looking like  we should be able to get it in shape. 

I spent the better part of today working on it.  Ben came out and helped as well.  He was the muscle in the bigger stuff.  I took a huge load of stuff to the rescue mission- HUGE.  I have several large bins empty and ready to fill and put on a shelf.  I am also getting all our Christmas stuff out  and hope to get them up in the next few days.  The large Frosty the Snowman is already hanging out on the porch- one less item taking up space in the garage!  I plan on spending more time out there tomorrow.  It looks pretty bad tonight,but that is always how it seems to be when doing a major reorganization.  You take a trashed garage, trash it up some more, then eventually you have a sparking clean and organized space.

So now I will share the before.  It is pretty bad.  Maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture of the mid point.  Since I know there will now be an "after", I feel ok (sort of) about embarrassing myself with this crazy space!

The Good, The Bad & The Plumbing

The good news is that it only took the plumber 2 hours to fix our downstairs bathroom.  The bad news is that it has only just begun.

We had bought a new shower head and thingy deal (true plumbing term honest) that turns the water on.  It matches the existing spigot in the sink.  Turns out the new stuff has different valves than what we have in the house.  Ok no big deal we thought.  Hire a plumber to change the valves - viola-  a lovely matching guest/downstairs bathroom.

Not so when the former owners of the house did all their own work reconstructing the bathroom and did a crap job on the tile.  It looks as though we would have to rip out all the pretty tile, to make room for pretty hardware. 

Not gonna happen.  So the plumber put in a new valve that will make our existing cheap-ass hardware work, and we will be talking with him and the contractor about the path of least resistance in getting better quality (hopefully prettier hardware) without the need to re tile.

**Note to future home buyers-  If the work in your potential house was done by the sellers- really look closely at the workmanship- all the details.  Some stuff in this house is done well- really well.  Other areas were out of their league. *sigh*