Monday, May 6, 2013

May the Fourth Be With You: My first half marathon

I am going to take a minute to be a bit more "motivational speaker" than I normally would be, but I just want to post about running my first half marathon.  Perhaps some of you have been annoyed by my (or other people's) Facebook posts about running/working out, but it was important for me to share the journey and see the encouragement of my friends...even through those simple Facebook likes. I had many friends start doing the C25K programs while I was training and it was inspiring to me to see other people starting a journey with running and to think that maybe my posts had a very small roll to play in that decision. And I just want you all to know that I did it. I finished my first ever race and I didn't even catch a tiny glimpse of that, "you're going too slow so you need to get on now" bus. It wasn't easy. In fact, it was downright daunting at times. But as is commonly said, it was worth it in the end.


If you aren't a runner, you might not know that running is largely a head sport. Obviously, there is a lot of physical demand to running, but I run slow and was never pushing to run a 10 minute mile or even a 12 minute mile. I started running with a Couch to 5K program which gradually built up how much time you ran with stretches of walking in between. So when the program had by starting me off running for 30 seconds with 90 seconds of walking in between, it was difficult but very doable.  But once you start running for miles...once your time running starts being measured by the hour and not the minute...things can start getting pretty difficult to deal with mentally. Your brain starts to tell you that you can't do it, so you should just give up. For me, bad thoughts would start creeping in about past failures and unpleasantness. On race day, it was just that I wasn't going to finish...that I had come all this way, and there was no way I could do it. Those thoughts started creeping in around the 7 mile mark.

I got a bit of a boost as we came out of the Speedway and the water station was Star Wars themed. May the fourth be with you, after all!  Darth Vader spurred me forward in my Princess Leia shirt. I was at the 9 mile point when I asked my Facebook friends to tell me I could keep going and got overwhelming encouragement which I could feel in my phone (though I obviously wasn't checking it regularly). But the constant buzzing let me know people were behind me, so I ran on.  

At mile 12, things got more complicated. There was a bridge that had to be crossed to get back into downtown. As soon as I hit the bridge, I started to feel like I was going to faint. I was lightheaded and I started to hyperventilate. I don't know what brought it on, but all I could think was, "I'm not going to finish. I got to mile 12 and now I'm not going to finish."  I decided it was best if I start walking until I could get a grip so that even if it was way slower than I wanted, I would finish.  I wound up walking about half a mile. At the point that I could see the gates, I started up a run again and when I got to the cheering crowds, I started my sprint to the finish. I was glad to be able to finish strong.  

As I was heading through the last bit, I was searching the crowd for my friends and family. As soon as I found them and heard them cheering me on, I started crying.  Once I crossed the line I just started sobbing. My husband, poised in a perfect spot to take pictures, called out to me and I went and gave him a big hug. I LOVE this picture he captured of me breaking down after the race.  Perhaps it is silly that I cried, but it honestly just felt like a HUGE accomplishment that I had come so far and crossed that line. 





Because here's the thing. I'm not the (physical) type of person who would be accused of being athletic. I weigh more than I should. I am fatter than I'd like to be. I don't look graceful when I run. I don't run as fast as I'd like to. I don't run fast at all. But I run. And I keep running. Over 13 miles of running over the course of a few hours. And that's something. Because I could have just as easily said, "Nope. I'm too fat to run." or "I'm too slow, so I'll never make it." or simply "It's too hard!" But I pushed beyond that and I accomplished the goal I set out to accomplish. 

I hope that some day, I'll run it faster. I hope that some day, I'll wear a smaller sized pair of running pants. I hope that some day, running 13.1 miles is just something I like to do a few weekends a year.  But mainly, I just hope I will keep running. 

And truth be told, I'm glad that I accomplished this at a time when conditions weren't perfect. Back in 2003, I had planned on running the Mini. I was 24, in pretty good shape, and thin. I started training, found it very hard, and then found out I would not be in town that weekend anyway and gave up training. After that, I just decided it was too hard and that I probably couldn't do it. So to achieve at 34 and 70 pounds heavier, what I didn't achieve 10 years prior...that felt big. And it just goes to show that it is largely our own mind and attitude that keeps us from achieving our goals. 

I am writing this out on my dusty old blog because I want to remember what it felt like. I do hope that if anyone reads it, they might be inspired to do something great. Something they've always wanted to do, but were afraid to try and fail at. (Or maybe you're afraid to succeed!)  I hope it will help you realize that you don't need to be perfect to start. Start where you are. Do what you can. Your persistence will pay off! 

Lastly, I just want to share a few short things that were awesome about the race on Saturday. 

1) The running community. I trained alone. (Technically I trained with one of my best friends, but he lives an hour away, so I ran alone.) My only experiences with the running community were in online forums that seemed largely filled with snark and condescension. But running with others. Wow! Friendliness, encouragement, smiles, and good will. I LOVED it!

2) The number of people I saw out there walking or running that I wouldn't have expected to see. Women who were clearly 4-7 months pregnant. Men and women in their 70 and 80s...some (no, many) of whom were faster than I. People who were younger and fit and who probably could have finished a great deal faster, walking with a slower loved one to keep them company and cheer them on. And even a couple who were doing their first half marathon together (holding hands while running at times) and then going home to get married later that afternoon. 

3) A man named Charlie who was standing next to me as we waited for the start. He talked to me from the time I took my place until we crossed the start gate. Charlie had recently celebrated his 70th birthday and had been running the Mini for the past 4 or 5 years and also ran it a few times back in the early 90s. He was so kind, helpful, and encouraging. I wanted to ask if I could get a picture taken with him, but I was too shy about it and didn't. However, I sent myself his bib number so I could check his stats after. He finished about 20 or 30 minutes before I did. How amazingly inspiring! So, to Charlie, though you'll likely never see this, thank you for being an inspiration and a comfort to a nervous 1st timer. You made a difference in my day. 
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Thursday, March 7, 2013

Ebay, Etsy, & Amazon...Oh my!

I have to admit, there are times when this stay at home mom thing is hard.  To go from having a career and contributing to your family's monetary needs, to staying at home with a tiny human, it causes some culture shock.  As a way to cope, I decided to try and sell some stuff for friends on Ebay, find vintage goods to sell on Etsy, and I'm considering the possibility of selling on Amazon (though I haven't jumped on that ship yet).  It's been fun, though not lucrative, but I learn a lot and it makes me feel better in that respect.  If you are a SAHM, do you do any work from home to make money or have you become one with your inner mom and let go of the need to earn income?

If any of you are interested in my wares, I deal mostly in plus sized clothing and jewelry on Ebay at my store:



My Etsy store is mostly vintage goods:


Please check them out. If you like anything you see, you can help support at least 1 stay at home mom.

Friday, February 22, 2013

I'm the Doctor. Doctor who?

The hubby and I, being huge geeks, were destined to become Whovians in the end. I couldn't go on Pinterest without seeing all the Doctor Who memes on the geek boards, and with all that coming at me every day, it couldn't be long before I gave in and watched the show.  We decided to start with the first season of the relaunched series and quickly fell in love with Christopher Eccleston. But we are now on to the 3rd season and both really like David Tennant in the roll as well.  I thoughroughly hated him in Harry Potter, as well I should, so it has been fun to see him in a good guy roll. I also love that he seems to be a real life geek...somehow it makes him more relatable.  I've been reading some interviews he's given and loved the quote in the meme below from this interview.  Because I honestly thought he was short (though I knew he was Scottish), I figured that I would make my first ever meme and help him spread the word.  He's 6' 1" according to Wikipedia, in case you were wondering.


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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Mr. Waffle Head



Watching my little bean learn and grow has been so amazing.  He is continuing to learn how to feed himself, but it is usually a little messy.  Somehow, he got a piece of waffle on top of his head and I just loved his expression here. So silly!
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Thursday, September 13, 2012

Super Mario Party Theme


For my son's 1st birthday party, we decided to go with a Mario theme to match his nursery. And maybe also because we are geeky enough to have really wanted to throw a Mario themed party.  I thought I would share some of the ideas I came up with.

Super Mario Brother's Party Invitation

I enjoy creating my own cards and such, so I decided to try and make my own invitation instead of using a stock one from online. The above is what I came up with.  I had this picture of my son in his overalls and it reminded me of the Mario overalls. His shirt was brown, but that was easy enough to change in Photoshop. I added the G to the front of his overalls and found a picture of the Mario hat online and added that as well. I also took out the background (my husband and our living room) and added the Mario hills.  I downloaded several Mario-ish fonts from the internet and used those to create the text on the side. I wanted to keep it fun.



These were so much fun to come up with and create. I've seen so many of those 2-Liter labels on different sites, but never Mario themed soda. So I put my thinking cap on and started coming up with ideas for the names.  Mountain Boo is my favorite...hehe!  Once I came up with several ideas, I selected my favorite, found Mario art online and got to creating. I used a Word document set to landscape, inserted the Mario art, and used a Mario font to add the names. I printed these out onto 8.5X11 paper and used double sided tape to stick them onto the bottles. You may need to crop off some of the paper to make it fit on some of the bottles, depending on the shape.  They were very easy to make, but I think add a lot of fun.



A simple star balloon that I found on Pinterest.



I just used primary colored card stock to make this banner. To make the letters, I used one of the Mario fonts again and printed out the words onto primary colored card stock and then cut them out and attached them to the banner with double sided tape. I used red yarn to string the banner.



A friend who has a cake business made this cake for us. The mushroom on top is a cupcake. We used it for the smash cake.  The cake was tasty and so cute!



The smash cake.



I made a onesie for him to wear. I just bought the plain white Gerber onesies from Walmart.  I used the freezer paper method to make this...I printed a picture of a 1UP mushroom onto freezer paper, cut it out to make a stencil, ironed it to the onesie, and then used fabric paint/paint pens to color in the design.  I also added "1UP" below the mushroom but forgot to get a picture of it.  I used the Mario font and freezer paper method to add it.



For door prizes, I decided to do a "Guess how many" game.  I used Cinnamon jelly beans (readily available at Easter time), Swedish Fish, White speckled malted milk eggs (Easter time again), and Marshmallow bananas (and also an Easter candy).  Not sure what happened to my picture of the other 2 jars.  I used the same method as above for the 2 liters to make these labels. I used cleaned out sauce jars to hold the candy.

Fire Flower Seeds - jelly beans
Cheep Cheep Chews - swedish fish
Yoshi Eggs - malted milk eggs
Donkey Kong's Banana Peels - marshmallow bananas

Guests placed their guss of how many candies were in each jar and the closest guess got to take the jar of candy with them.



Sticking with the theme, I made labels for some of the food items. We made some buffalo chicken dip and called it Bowser's Blazing Buffalo Chicken Dip.


I hope you enjoyed these ideas and that it has inspired you to do your own Mario party. I love seeing the different ideas that people come up with.  If you do a Mario Party, I would love to see your pictures.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Yoshi Egg Sugar Cookies



So it has shamefully been many months since my son's first birthday. We did (unsurprisingly) a Mario themed party for him and I thought everything was awesome. I am no party planner, but besides using many ideas found on Pinterest, I also came up with several of my own ideas for things to make within the theme.  I am going to try and blog about some of these ideas soon, but you know how that goes. For now though, I figured I would start with the easiest.  This was an idea I came up with and delegated to my MIL. She did an excellent job and I wanted to share the end result with you. These cute cookies are certain to be a hit at your party. Be careful though, you can't eat just one. :) 

For the cookies:

Ingredients
  • 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Directions
  1. Cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. 
  2. Cover, and chill the dough for one hour or more.
  3. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  4. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Use an egg shaped cookie cutter. My cookie cutter was approximately 3 inches long.  Place cookies 1 inch apart on cookie sheets. I line my sheets with parchment paper, but it is optional. 
  5. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven.
For the icing and garnish: 

Ingredients

         2 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese
            1 cup confectioners sugar
            1/4 cup milk
            1 tablespoon vanilla extract

            1 package dark green candy melts or M&Ms 

Directions
  1. In a mixer, add the cream cheese. Beat until it is light and fluffy.
  2. Beat in powdered sugar until fully incorporated.
  3. Add milk and vanilla. Beat until smooth.
  4. If icing is too thick, add milk one tablespoon at a time unti desired conistency is reached. 
Decorating:

Once the cookies are completely cooled, frost with the icing.  Garnish with green candy melts or green M&Ms. You could also use blue, yellow, or red candy melts/M&Ms to make the different colored Yoshi eggs.  
You could also use green Spree candy, if the kids are old enough that it wouldn't pose a choking hazard. Or you could dye some icing green and use a piping bag to make the dots, if you want to take the time to do it. 

Note:  My son's birthday is in the spring and Easter Egg cookie cutters were being sold in most stores.  You will likely be able to find an egg shaped cookie cutter at craft stores year round, or you can always order one online.  

 




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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Our Super Mario Nursery

A collage of photos from our Super fun (if I do say so myself) nursery. You can go back through the blog posts to see in progress pictures.
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