I think I'm back...

I joined the Wednesday Night Bike Ride Group tonight for a midweek ride. It was hilly, but it was GREAT! I think I'm back... I took an extra day off yesterday (of running anyway.. still swam) and I think it's what my legs needed b/c I really loved the massively hilly ride tonight. Of course there was no major headwind today and it was only 25 miles instead of 50. :) The photo above is from out on the course.. there is some beautiful farm country around here. (Jennie, not to bad for being taken during a climb and while riding one handed... :D)

I just hope I can maintain this momentum at least until JULY 7TH! :)

And fundraising for LLS has begun... so go HERE and make your contribution!!!! And while you click that button think of me hauling my butt up those hills and think of Caela and all she has been through. We are still fighting the good fight - be a part of the team!

The weekend is OVER... well for me.

The three hour ride is over... the race is over... tomorrow I sleep! :)



I was hoping for a 1:50 finish, but wasn't sure I could maintain that pace for 13.1 miles so I was just kinda going out and doing what I could w/o totally blowing up at the end of the race. My chip time was 1:45:51... that's an 8:05 min/mile. That's just crazy. I felt it for sure. I'm tired now, but feeling pretty good. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. :)

I think Mom is a bit burned out after this weekend.. it was a long one! :)


After the kids DIDN'T take a nap again today we went to the park.. they walked all the way there, climbed and ran and played some 'soccer' while running all over the place! Lily was red faced and requesting cold water when we got home.

Here they are holding hands and giving kisses!




I realized today that one of the big differences between doing races before having kids and doing them after having kids is that the race isn't the only event in your day! You don't get to go home have a big meal and go back to bed! You don't get to laze around the rest of the day watching TV. You have to chase kids, cook them food, buy more food, do laundry, change diapers, entertain, bathe, brush teeth and put them to bed. ;) You aren't glad the race is over early so you have the rest of the day to recoup you are glad the race is over early b/c it doens't eat into your family time! :) Ah, how things change.

More fun and a lot of photos...

I'm tired and lacking in words so I will write a bit, but post lots of photos. :)

It's finally starting to warm up here... though it was a balmy 50 degrees this a.m. when I left for my ride)... so we have been having some fun outside.

We hit the zoo on Friday....

Jason's favorite highlight was the water fountain and the park:


He charged right up this huge rope ladder:


Lily wasn't so sure:


We were quickly told that the park was actually closed so we had to leave. Jason wasn't too excited about that idea:


Next Lily wanted to climb on the big turtle:


And Jason, of course, had to have his turn:


We tried to take the touristy pictures, but Jason is still in his "no pictures" phase:


After going to pick up my packet for tomorrow's race and hitting Joanne's fabrics for some craft stuff we decided to hang at the house in the yard all afternoon b/c the kids have been drug all over the place lately.. on my schedule. :( oops. When we were at Joannes' Gma bought the kids some bubbles and they were so excited that they decided to skip the nap thing today. They chatted through their entire nap time ... mostly about bubbles.




After that whole thing ran it's course - READ: Jason and Lily used up all the soap ... mostly dripping it all over Mommy and Gma - we moved onto the kid's craft project. I frequently read - and am in awe of - Denise's blog Mom in Madison. She recently posted an adorable artsy project that she did with her boys and I just loved it. She is always exposing her kids to such wonderful things. I aspire to do half of what she does. :) We tried our hand (no pun intended) at her hand print canvases today. My kids obviously can't color in lines so I did the oil pastel part myself and had them paint the canvases w/ watercolors. I was able to stay relatively relaxed about the whole thing... even when they moved on to painting 'other' things - to include Papa.

My little Picasso's:




The closest shot of J's finished-ish:


L's finished-ish:


I'll post photos of them finished (I need to seal them) and hung proudly w/ Uncle Everett's (my Great Uncle) paintings.

And here are some photos of them painting some other things... they really loved it.






I'll be running a half marathon tomorrow ... then dropping dead! ha j/k. Maybe I'll actually nap when the kids nap though. We'll probably hang in the yard again. If it's nice maybe instead of "hanging" I'll just LAY in the yard w/ the dog! (Mom and dad's dog... we did not get another dog.)

PS... those wondering about my fruit. I had to buy more bananas and pears on Thursday (went to Sam's on Saturday) and we will need to hit it again tomorrow.. ONE week. That's how long ... NOT EVEN how long that fruit lasted... w/ three of us. One adult and 2 kids. :) Like any of you care! ha

Thank God for Gma/Gpa and new toys

Gma and Gpa are working hard on their first week here in Madison! They helped Tom w/ the kids this weekend while I was out exercising a half day both days, then dad mowed the lawn yesterday and today while gma and I played w/ the kids. Last night Gma did an impromptu overnight so I could go swim early this a.m. w/ the TNT team, then stayed ALL day so I could run during nap time (which was not used for napping... kids chatted through naps today - guess I did jinx the longer naps thing w/ my last post.) and then we went to the park this afternoon. Tomorrow night they are putting the kiddos to bed so I can go on an evening bike ride, Thursday I'll take the rug rats to the gym in the a.m. to swim and run during their nap, Friday I ride, Saturday I do a 3+ hour ride then run the 1/2 marathon all while gma and gpa hang w/ J and L.. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I couldn't do it with out you.

Jason and Lily are still loving their kitchen and new kitchen items... tools and food.




Dancing w/ Gma in special outfits:


Getting reacquainted w/ the race track from Gma's place in Texas:


Pooping on our potty:


the highlight of Jason's day today was the Bobcat in the neighbors yard: (you can see it in the background)

Would you be worried....

that all of this fruit would go bad!? As I looked at this humongous pile of fruit in my kitchen I thought of the conversation Andy and I had when I was out in Portland. We were talking about nutrition during our training and I was telling him to take a bag of produce to work w/ him every Monday. His response, "it will go bad!"....uh, not if you eat it.

So let's see how long it takes for the Mount clan to go through this enormous pile of fruit! I bet we eat it long before it goes bad.

We had a great day here in the midwest. Super dad watched Jason and Lily while I went for a run out to the Middleton Highschool pool for a work out with the TNT crew. It was just the boost I needed for my mental state regarding my training. I ran far to fast to get out there b/c I was worried I would be late.. I ended up being there 20 minutes early. That's okay ... I had plenty of time to stretch. I got some great tips to better my stroke that hopefully I'll be able to implement. Then I ran home and found Jason, Lily and Super Dad out in the yard playing on a beautiful spring day.


The kids are taking longer naps (did I just jinx it?) so Tom and I were able to spend some time together before he got to go off for a bike ride of his own. Then Gma and Papa Mills came over and we did some shopping and got some dinner out. The kids have changed so much and were much more fun to dine w/ than they have been in the past.

And the big highlight of the day for the kids (and probably super dad too b/c the kids played w/ it while he made breakfast for them)... they got their bday present from gma and gpa a bit early. We picked this kitchen out while we were in TX ... it was on major clearance at the local toy store and I just couldn't pass it up. I've been scoping out kitchens for them for a while and have been looking for a non-plastic variety. I was so amazed to watch them play pretend with it. They have only just started to do any pretend play.

Sorry the pics aren't so great. Best I can do right now. :) I'm sure it will be featured in many photos to come.

Happy Mother's Day to me...

So most of you would be thinking by the title that I either got something REALLY cool or did something SUPER fun... well, I had fun.

We started off a bit rough w/ Jason waking up three times last night.. not sure what that was all about. :( After my long workout yesterday and knowing I had another ahead of me that was a bit rough.

This a.m. we headed to Home Depot (after getting a 'special' Mother's Day coffee) to get a cap for the main sewage line downstairs b/c our old one is useless.. (fyi.. they didn't have any) and to get the materials to build my compster.

When we got home the kiddos had lunch and took a nap and I went out for a 10 mile run... I thought it would be horrendous on my tired legs, but I managed to get it done in under 90 mins... and I didn't feel like total crap the whole time. I was definitely ready to be done when it was over.

Daddy got a 'break' to go out and run some errands.. including getting me some printer cartridges so I can get my fundraising letters out. Jason and Lily and I headed to the park to meet some friends then played in the neighborhood for a while while we waited for daddy to return.

After the kiddos went to bed for the night I coerced Tom into building my composter for me. He wins husband of the year for this weekend. :)

But the highlight of the day!!!!! We were all sitting at the dinner table while Jason and Lily ate their dinner and out of no where Jason is spreading out a napkin on the table and he says, "G&* Da*&(T" (or GD as it's known in the south... and for those of you from the south.. I apologize b/c obviously both Tom and I have said this in front of our children... bad, bad, bad). I about peed my pants laughing. And of course he said it again and Lily joined in. I gave Tom an apologetic look and said, "I guess that sums up my parenting skills." And he said, "He's saying that b/c I said it earlier today when I got poo everywhere changing his diaper." So we can effectively blame each other when it comes up when we are out in public.

And a close second.. okay.. this is better than the GD, but not nearly as funny. (Okay, some of you may not think that was funny) Lily pooped and peed on the potty tonight. She was so pleased w/ herself. She's been really trying the last week. She would say, "poopy on the potty." I would check her diaper... she would have already pooped, but not all the way. She would sit on the potty for a while... do nothing. Put diaper back on and she would finish pooping. The last couple of days I've tried to really listen to her and immediately get her to the potty before that first round come out, but we have had no luck. It was the same scenario tonight, but she was able to wait until she was on the potty to do the second round. I just got her and put her back on a bit later and we read a book... and blam. :) She's been getting so frustrated w/ it... I need to find a new level of patience for this stuff. I asked Jason if he wanted to poop on the potty to which he replied, "Nope!" But he says "no" to everything so who knows where he really stands on the issue. :)

Happy Mom's day to all you great mom's that are reading!

OMG!

Mama Marie tried to kill me today! Today was one big workout. I met the TNT crew at 8:30am for a stretching and strength/core clinic then ran about 30 mins easy w/ them. Went home for about 1.5 hour then went out on my bike. I rode the Capital City trail to get an hour in before Marie and I headed out for a two hour ride (which turned into a 3 hour ride b/c it was uberhilly). Her husband Chris had mapped a route for us out to Mt. Horeb. For those of you that are local... if you wish to go to Mt. Horeb DRIVE! Oh my god that was the hilliest bike ride I've ever done. It was non stop and relentless. What was to be a nice easy three hour endurance ride turned out to be a real ass kicker! :)

Marie was a total rock star though... she plodded along and made it up all those hills and made it look easy. This is only her third ride out! AMAZING! Nice work Mama Marie. She's also kicking my ass in fundraising... she got a $50 donation online and has a $250 check in the mail. I need to get my letters out.

Here's this year's fundraising website for those of you that KNOW you will FOR SURE be getting a letter. Basically... if you are reading this you will be getting one so you may as well pony up now so you don't forget later. :)

http://pages.teamintraining.org/wi/chitri08/lmount

I'm off to eat my weight in whatever food I can get my hands on. Advantage numero uno of riding your bike for 4 hours: 1670 calories burned, 60% fat. BRING It ON!

Have to give quick props to Mr. Mom... Tom was home w/ the kids all day by himself and didn't even complain when I got home. I'm usually rather whiney when he rolls home.

Scott Krupp is my hero!

I called Scott at 8am this morning b/c of our back up. He is the contractor that did our remodel of our bathroom and our front porch. He runs Mascott Brothers here in Madison. I asked him for a referral to a plumber, but he said, "I'll come over and take a look at it and if I can't fix it we'll call the plumber." Scott didn't have to do this. He could have just given me the number for a plumber, but that's not the kind of guy he is. This isn't the first time he's gone above and beyond the call of duty, but this was WAY above.... and it was even his day off!

It took him hours, but it is fixed. He augered out both main lines and they were DISGUSTING!

Thank you Scott!

If anyone local needs work done this is the guy to use!

Ooops

So we might have blown any cost savings we were enjoying while using clothe diapers. Apparently Tom accidentally flushed one of the VERY absorbent inserts for the diapers while rinsing it.... and it appears to be stuck in our sewage line. The photo above is of the drain in our basement that is attached to the main sewage line going to the city line. UGH! So Scott (our contractor) is coming over to see if he can fix it... if he can't he will call the plumber. Who knows how much this will cost. UGH!

So Lynda.. it appears that the leak downstairs was what we thought it was.

So if you are clothe diapering... BE CAREFUL not to flush those inserts on accident.

One year later...

as we get closer to the 2nd bday.. thought it would be fun to reflect a bit.

2007:


2008:


2007:


2008:

Finally some videos

okay... let's hope this works. :)

So today Lily started dancing and singing this song. I had to ask Tom about it when he got home. Apparently he sung it to her once.



And here is a cute one...


Things are well here. Training is busy and we are out enjoying our great weather! I'm keeping it together okay, but will be glad when the race is over and I don't spend half my weekend away from the family.

Lynda came out for a great visit this past weekend. The kids loved spending time w/ her and have been asking for her and talking about her since she left. I only got a few pics from the trip.