Home, Sweet Home

Well - it is ours now (or will be after 30 yrs of payments....).

But now the work really begins. I am excited, but also a little overwhelmed thinking about the work and the move. We aren't really good at finishing projects. We tend to get them almost done, but not quite really done. Hopefully our track record in this regard will change. Also, I am not so sure that I have the necessary skills to complete a lot of tasks, so that means I will be doing mostly cleaning, painting and things that won't take a lot of precision or use of power tools (at least that is my thought). The to-do list is pretty long and it is hard to even know where to start and how to attack it when there is that much. I'll try to put some "before" and "after" pics as we start to get some work done.

And hopefully we will still figure out how to fit in some fun stuff like this too:

Zach tearing it up on the track.

Jake in his gear.

Going Home

I will spare you the nightmare travel details - lets just sum it up to lost luggage and painful flight delays - but last weekend we went Home (at least Home for me). Or really as I think more about it - it isn't "home" but the place that I grew up. I am just on the cusp of having lived other places longer than I lived there. The weird thing about going home is that the home that I grew up in (yes, I lived in the same house from the time I was born until I moved out after college) is no longer in our family. When I go home, I actually stay with my sister so it isn't like I am going home to my childhood room. Regardless of the how much things have changed (new houses, stores, bigger/changed roads) I still feel like it is a familiar place. I still mostly know my way around but of course am always surprised when I drive past what used to be something else or where there was an empty field there is an entire housing tract or shopping mall.

The reason we went home was for my cousin's wedding. I am really happy that she has found someone so special and she looked so happy - seemed like she just couldn't stop smiling.

My family is relatively small and I wouldn't describe us as especially close. As we have gotten older, we have spread out and we get together as a family a lot less often and very rarely as a whole family. Even at the wedding, we were not able to all get together. I sometimes wish that we were closer - both geographically and emotionally. J's parents and Grandma moved across the country to be with us and our boys (the grandkids) and I wish that my parents (or any part of my family) had such a special relationship with the boys. But all that aside, it was nice to see my family. Like any family we have our ups and downs and little family dramas, but it was nice to get together and celebrate one of the "ups".

Speaking of rude, inconsiderate things.....

Let me start by saying that I was (and will be again) a dog owner - I love dogs. But I don't love when their owners do things that are rude and inconsiderate. I see this all the time and it makes me so annoyed - dog poop on the sidewalk. Not off to the side in the bushes where you can pretend you didn't see it, smack dab in the middle of where people are supposed to walk. Um, not only is it just gross to leave your dog's feces in the middle of the sidewalk but it is the law to clean up after your pet. Does that dog owner really want to walk by other piles of crap left by other rude dog owners? or even by the pile of crap they themselves neglected to pick up? I would also imagine that these people do not walk or run with a stroller. I'm sure that they do not even consider that it may not easy to maneuver a BOB dualie around such an obstacle without going off the curb.

I realize that this probably won't make a difference but it did make me feel a little better. Today on my run, I realized that I had a piece of sidewalk chalk in the stroller so when I came across the inevitable pile of poop, I stopped. I wrote a little message "Please clean up after your dog". Sorry, I didn't take a picture - 1) I didn't have a camera with me and 2) I don't think I really want pictures of feces on my blog. I am hopeful that the rude, inconsiderate dog owner will pass by my message on the next walk with his best friend and think twice about being a responsible and considerate pet owner. And as a bonus, maybe some other owners will walk by and see the message and they too will remember to bring their plastic baggies.....

And don't even get me started on why there is no laws about cleaning up horse poop.....

Weekend Rituals

So while most weekends in suburban housing tracts, you hear lots of lawn mowers and weed whackers, you will not see that at our house. At least not until after a bike ride. We are "those" neighbors who don't have a truly terrible yard, but don't have as nice a yard as everyone else. I can't say we have ever worried about the lawn being green enough - in fact, we would prefer to water just enough that it doesn't die and we don't have to mow too often.

Most weekends J and I will go for a bike ride - often on our tandem bike. The bike was a wedding present from his parents and our honeymoon was spent riding from CT to PA. This picture is from our honeymoon (almost 12 yrs ago) - sorry for the poor picture quality - it is actually a picture of a picture I just don't have anything better on this computer.

Our weekend rides are kind of like our weekly "date" with each other and nice time alone without the boys. Like most parents, most of what we seem to talk about when we are away from our kids is the kids. Our weekly ride is about 40 miles round trip with coffee/breakfast at the halfway point. Riding the tandem is nice because it is easier to talk to each other (Please do not ask if I am pedaling in the back - because Yes! I am!). I also like the tandem because I can look around a bit more and don't have to pay much attention to where we are going (however, J is more daring in traffic, so sometimes I get a little tense not having any control as we dart through an intersection). But sometimes I will close my eyes. I can see the patterns of light on my eyelids as we go from sun to shade and feel the wind as we cruise along the road. The tandem is great when you are working together - we can do 20-22 mph easily on a flat road - not something I can do so easily on my single bike.

Unfortunately today, after our ride we did have to mow the lawn. A lawn that has not been mowed in many weeks. And even more unfortunately, I did the mowing (normally J does it, but he was doing some other projects, so I volunteered to do it). There are lots of great things about living in Northern CA, but year round lawn mowing is not one of them.

Say, in the dark? In the rain?

Would you in the dark?

Could you in the rain?

Would you, could run in the dark and in the rain?

Not in the dark

Not in the rain

I do not like to run in the dark and in the rain.

I will try and you will see

If I try it will you let me be?

I have been blowing off more runs than I have actually accomplished lately and I was really close to doing so again, but I decided that I really needed to do it anyway. I tend to have this all or nothing view of things. In my head I think that I have to do it all (run, bike, lift, eat well, go to bed early, be super-mom, please the hubby (wink, wink), organize the house, solve the health care debate). Well, maybe not that last one, but might as well add it to the list, given how unrealistic my mental list is anyway. So in my head, I have the whole list of things that I "must" do, but in reality I give up when I can't do it all. This kind of thinking really sabotages my ability to actually meet any goals. Plus it just becomes a downward spiral - I can't do it all why try?

I'm glad that I did get out. It was only about 3 miles (not following the 10% rule because 10% of zero is still zero). It felt longer than it should have but thankfully the rain had stopped. I didn't pay attention to my pace or heart rate. Since I don't have a plan and am not actively training for anything, I didn't have a goal for this run. The goal was just to get out. So I considered today's run a baby step in the right direction. Just have to keep taking those steps and not trying to make the giant leap of doing it all, all the time.

Say, I DO like running in the dark

and in the rain

I will run in the dark and in the rain

because it is so good, so good you see

thank you thank you Sam-I-am

(OK, I am a day late for the Dr Seuss parody)

5 a day

Well, that is what you are supposed to eat right? I have been getting a CSA box every other week for about the past year from Farm Fresh to You. The one I get is "mostly fruit" but comes with a few veggies - mostly things that you use to make a salad. I know that my husband thinks that I am throwing money away on this stuff, because I always seem to be throwing away produce that has gone bad in the fridge. I thought getting this great organic produce delivered would inspire me to eat more and different things. Yeah, that hasn't quite worked out as planned....

This is the contents from this week:

Do you think I can eat it all (with help from the family....)?

Failing to plan.....

or is it planning to fail....

I am not really a big planner, however, I am finding that without a workout plan, just doing "whatever I feel like but trying to get in a couple runs and a long bike ride in" just isn't cutting it. I really do better with a race/event goal in mind and working backwards from there. But the catch is that it can't be a goal that is too far out - then it doesn't hold my interest. I do remember when I just worked out (often 2x/day, plus epic weekend mtn bike rides) just because, it was just part of the routine. It was social too (lifting w/ J, biking with friends). Not sure that I would have considered myself a "gym rat" but working out was a priority. Of course I have to admit those days were long before kids and before moving to CA (even if CA is more conducive to year round outdoor exercise).

You may notice that I do have some goal races noted on the sidebar. But I have yet to put into place the plan to get me there. I will be joining the Vacaville Fleet Feet training group to prepare for the Fiesta Run. Having the group expecting me for those long weekend runs helps a lot in getting me out of bed. Plus doing weekly speed workouts with others who may be a hare faster than you really gets you going. I hope that the rains will subside too (because although CA is great for year round running, after a few years you find yourself becoming a bit more of a "fair weather" runner than you may have been on the East coast). Then I will need to sit down with some other training books or some websites and figure out how to squeeze some biking and weight training in there. If I am really ambitious maybe some core work..... hmmm, maybe I am getting too far ahead of myself now.

Oh, and did I mention that we are moving to a house that will involve lots of home projects and I am increasing my work time to full time too.....