Holy Cow, It's May!

source

Actually, for my smarty pants seniors, they won't have finals but for the rest of you - may the Starbucks be triple and the curve be ever in your favor.

In all seriousness, how in the heck is it May already?  My kids have less than a month of school (really only about 2 weeks since they are exempt from exams) and I'm wrapping up my school year.  Five observations for this Friday:

1.  In just over 3 weeks there will be graduation ceremonies and then graduation parties.

2.  There will be trips for orientation and planning trips to visit kids (and why the heck doesn't Southwest book November thru January until after May 14???).

3.  My kids will be moving away from home.

4. When someone told me Senior year goes by in a flash, I didn't believe them.  Maybe that was because we were in the throws of an endless winter or something, but still.  Dang, it really has flown by!

5. My goals for the next 4 months?  Try to stay sane and drink all the Starbucks.  Somehow also getting back into my skinny jeans (I'm down 5 pounds so it's a start!). Anyone want to buy me a coffee, or better yet, a beer?

30 years

How has it been 30 years?

I was 14 when Mom died.  A freshman in high school.

I didn't even realize what day it was until I was watching the Broncos game last night (sorry, Mom, I know you were a HUGE Cowboy's fan) and saw the date on my phone. It hit me that Monday (today) would be 30 years since skin cancer took my mom.

December 8, 1984

She never got to see me graduate. 

She wasn't at my wedding. 

She wasn't there when her twin grand babies were born. 

She won't see them graduate in May.

Cancer fucking sucks.

I miss you, Mom.

#TTT Three Things Thursday: random thoughts

1.  I'm having a very hard focusing lately.  Chalk it up to taper crazies or just having too much going on in my life or sleeping like poop.  Speaking of poop - I think my stomach already thinks it's race day. Sorry, TMI and keeping it real.

2.  Saw a video on Facebook from the Detroit Marathon page this morning and had a mini freakout.  I can't get the video to post but you can watch it here. Then I went searching youtube for more course videos and I found this one.



It's long, like a marathon, but shows the entire course.

3.  I'm wearing heels today, because what else would someone with foot problems do 10 days before her goal marathon?

At least I look cute :)  Also - I really need to clean that mirror.

Happy Thursday, people!

Old School Blogging: Summer! #OSBlogging

Mixing things up a little bit here at LLRB and joining The Miss Elaine-ous Life in her Old School Blogging.  I haven't done one of these memes in forever and when she put the shout-out on Facebook I said "sure!"  This month's theme is SUMMER. Hard to believe it's already mid-August and up here in Michigan, some of the trees are starting to change.  Le sigh.

Ready to get started?

1.  What was your favorite thing you did alone this summer?  I've actually been enjoying my weekend uber-long runs.  Taking 3 to 4 hours to myself every weekend has been a great time for reflection.

2.  What was your favorite thing you did as a family this summer?  D and K are entering their senior years in a couple of weeks and both of them were very busy with sports and music camps, so we didn't do a family vacation this year.  (We also went away for Spring Break to Charleston, so another trip so close wasn't realistic.)  We did manage a trip out to Lake Michigan early in the summer, plus we went as a family to visit MSU.

Requisite picture in front of a lighthouse.

3.  What books did you read this summer?  Is it bad to say I haven't read much of anything?  I did read The Fault in Our Stars in a single afternoon (through the Kindle app on my phone) and I'm working on a book on running right now.

4.  What do you WISH you had done this summer?  I wish I would have made a few more trips to the beach or hit up an amusement park.  Those are two things we've done almost every year and this year it just didn't happen.

5.  What movies did you see this summer?  In the theater, saw The Fault in Our Stars and 22 Jump Street.  I guess 22 Jump Street was also a "family" activity and I have to say, seeing a racy movie with your teens can be a bit awkward.  I watch a ton of older movies on my computer every week, so those would be a pain to list.

6.  Where did you travel this summer?  I actually traveled a few times this summer.  My favorite trip, hands down, was to Savannah, GA for FitBloggin14.  This weekend with new and old friends in one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen was the highlight of my summer.  I also traveled to Chicago for the day to meet up with a friend for lunch and do some shopping.  The latest trip was a 200 mile "road trip" up the White Pine Trail as part of a 200 person relay :)

Scenes from Savannah

7.  What was your favorite treat (as in dessert) this summer?  Sangria.  Summer means sangria to me.  Since going paleo-ish, I've really cut down on the desserts but if I had to choose, my favorite summer dessert would be ice cream or fro-yo.

Best sangria in Savannah - and I was able to take it "to go"!

8.  What did you celebrate this summer?  My twins turned 17 last week (how did THAT happen???) and in a couple days, I have a birthday.  Not sure I'm celebrating it this year.  Last year I took myself to Disney World for my birthday and anything this year would pale in comparison.

9.  Did you grow anything this summer?  Yep (although the garden really isn't my thing).  Zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, green beans, jalapenos, green peppers, cucumbers and about a bazillion tomatoes.

10.  What is a favorite post that you wrote this summer?  Good question.  I feel like my blogging is in a bit of a rut lately so none of the posts have been spectacular.  My favorite recently was probably my Fred Relay recap that I just posted on Monday because the experience and weekend were so much fun.
11.  What is a favorite photograph that you took this summer?  I took a bunch of great photos in Savannah.  This night-time shot is one of my favorites.

12.  What do you want to do next summer?  I definitely want to go somewhere with the kids before they head off to college.  I also MUST make it to Denver for FitBloggin 15 because I can't go 3 years without seeing my friends again.

Do you want to play along?  Feel free to steal the questions and link up with Elaine.  If you don't want to write a whole post, pick one of the questions and answer it in the comments below!

TTT: burgers, speed and Grease?

Three randoms for Thursday

Burgers are best on a bun and with fries,
2 things my kids had last night
that I didn't.

I woke up at 5:45 this morning to bust out 2 miles.
Bust out I did.  Can't remember the last time I saw 9:30s.

I'm getting my hair colored tonight at a beauty school. I'd received
a free service for attending a GNO event and could choose btwn
color, cut or facial.  No way I'd let them cut my hair and facials make
me break out, so color it is. Just please, God, don't let me end up
looking like Frenchy.

I've had the "Beauty School Dropout" song in my head for days now.  Have you ever had your hair done at a beauty school?  

Friday Funny Frozen Lipsync

So, you guys might have seen this floating around already but I'm a bit slow on the uptake.  The week hasn't been the greatest but it's turning around (I hope). I had a great run last night, not too much pain this morning, and then this....

Super hot baseball players lip syncing to Frozen's Love is and Open Door.  The dude singing the girl part? I died. And then watched it a couple more times.



Any fun plans for the weekend?

Three Things Thursday: randoms that made me smile

Three things this week that have helped make a rough week better.

Sometimes after a rough day, you just need beer and pizza.
Sucks that 2 pieces = +2 pounds on the scale, but it is what it is.

So proud of my girl. After a rough season last year, she's jumping again.
In her first meet back, she jumped 14'4" and beat her next closest teammate by a foot.

I went back to yoga yesterday.  It was a much needed 75 minutes.
This studio is amazing.  If you live near me, you must go.

What's made you smile this week?

Thankful Thursday: girls night, sangria & hidden talent?

A month or two ago, my friend Karen suggested a GNO at a Wine and Canvas event. These are hosted locally at a few places and the one she chose was at one of my favorite restaurants, San Chez Bistro.

You can't go to San Chez without ordering the carafe of sangria.  I went with the red/white mixed and the other girls had red.  So yummy!

San Chez is a tapas restaurant. I ordered a wilted spinach salad (which was incredible but did NOT photograph well) and the seared ahi tuna.  So good!  After dinner and drinks, we headed across the hall for the painting!  We could even bring our drinks and they had wait staff available if you wanted to order anything else.

I loved the step-by-step process of the instructor, although at times she seemed to be going too fast for me.  

I'll admit, at first I wasn't sure I was going to be able to pull off anything that didn't resemble something a 2 year old would have drawn. At this point, I still wasn't sure.

I love how my water turned out.

Having grown up in Michigan I knew when I saw the subject of the night's painting, I had to participate.  The Mackinac Bridge plus a sunset? Yes, please!

The bridge was VERY hard to paint but I'm thrilled with how mine turned out.  Walking around after and seeing everyone's interpretations was also very fun.  Even though we were guided through this, no 2 paintings looked alike.

We definitely had a great time and I'd love to do this again.  It was a very pricey night, between the class, drinks and dinner, but also worth getting out of the house for some girl time.

I only knew 2 of these ladies at the start of the night but had great conversations with the others as well.  One is even running the half marathon I'm working at next weekend!

Have you ever participated in a Wine and Canvas night?  What did you paint?

Three Things Thursday

Three completely random thoughts for Three Things Thursday:

God, I hope so!

One of the teachers brought in a big bag of fortune cookies.  I might have had one for breakfast. Don't judge, it's been a really rough day so far.

epic fail on the packaging since I cut my thumb 

The Advil Cold and Sinus is no longer working.  Sucks that I have conferences again tonight and I'll be at work until 7 pm.

so cute

Playing with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head with a 3 year old is always fun.  Playing with Baby Spud is even better.  Remembering Disney every day when I have my coffee is the best.

Did you know there was a Baby Potato Head?

Would you rather....?

I've been in a bit of a blogging slump.  This seems to happen at the start of every year when I run out of "recap" posts or when I'm on a running "break" and don't have a training plan to write about.

I saw this on Kimberly's blog yesterday and thought it looked fun, so I borrowed stole it.  

>>Would you rather run in a thunderstorm or a snowstorm? 

Since I've done both, I would have to say I actually prefer the snowstorm.  The snow, while beautiful and full of badassery, slows me down and that's frustrating.  But you aren't likely to die unless you fall in a snowbank, never to be seen from again (or until the snow melts in April).  Thunderstorms, with their accompanying lightening, scare me a little.  Now, if we're just talking a downpour on a warm day - the rain wins hands down.

>>Would you rather breathe through your nose or breathe through your mouth? 

Nose.  But if we are talking running, I can pretty much promise I'm breathing through my mouth.

>>Would you rather do 100 squats or 100 crunches? 

100 crunches.  There are lots of different styles so you could mix it up.

>>Would you rather have a baked good for dessert or an extra serving of your favorite entree? 

No brainer.  Dessert.

>>Would you rather run on a treadmill for an hour or run around the same street block for an hour? 

The street block for sure.  I really get bored on the treadmill and at least running around the block the scenery would change a little.

>>Would you rather have a headache during a run or a side stitch? 

I'm with Kim on this one.  Headache. Side stitches are awful.

>>Would you rather have a rest day on a work day or a day off? 

My rest days tend to always be on work days.  When I take them.  I try to do something everyday.

>>Would you rather be a race director or a race volunteer? 

I volunteered at my first race this year and it was so fun.  I think being a race director would just be full of headaches.

>>Would you rather spend your money on running gadgets [HRM, GPS watch, Headphones] or running shoes? 

This is a really hard call.  I'm all about the gadgets, but I have most of what I need.  Shoes need to be replaced often, so I'm going with shoes.

>>Would you rather run in a relay or do the run portion of a distance triathlon? 

Relays are so much fun.  Gotta go with the relay, but if someone wanted my slow ass to run the run portion of a triathlon, I probably wouldn't say no.

What about you?  Pick one or two of these and tell me what you'd rather do.

Three Things Thursday: BMI, Beer & Idiots

Drive by blogging in the form of three randoms :)



One of my friends posted this to Facebook this morning. After yesterday's blog post, I found it really funny & true.


I made the most amazing Broccoli Beer Cheese Soup last night. The Bellaire Brown from Shorts was PERFECT. I should post the recipe next week.


Last weekend many of my friends dominated the Chicago Marathon & this coming Sunday a bunch more will take on the Grand Rapids Marathon or the Detroit International Marathon. I have other friends training for races still to come this year. I love these special kinds if idiots :)

I was 2 years ago yesterday that I joined the special idiots ranks. I can get healthy, I hope to get re-initiated next year. Any suggestions on which marathon I should run?


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Friday Funnies

Several months ago I backed into that light pole. Apparently others have as well because it now has lights. Granted, it was broad daylight when I did it so the lights probably wouldn't have helped.


My cat is losing her sh*t. She always sleeps in that box that we put in the bed she would never use. Yesterday she dragged it all away from the wall and started crawling under the box. She's 15 and I think a bit senile.



I have a bunch of friends running the Chicago Marathon this weekend and the Grand Rapids Marathon next weekend.  Having run one full marathon (which of course makes me an expert) I can relate with every one of these stages.  Wishing my friends fast feet and I've heard the race directors have removed the wall from both courses so you all should be great.

Give me a funny - what made you laugh this week?


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Thankful Thursday: lunchtime randoms

Off the cuff blogging. It's lunchtime and I have a few minutes to give thanks. In no particular order other than the order I pulled the pictures off my phone...

I'm thankful for trying speed work again after a couple months off. It wasn't pretty but good enough (meaning not too painful & improvement noted by my PT) that I've been given the go-ahead to start ramping up my miles. I have guidelines, of course, and it scares the crap out of me, but I'm trusting my PT. At least for now.



Yesterday my boy was inducted into the National Honor Society. 3 AP classes, marching band & a good-sized role as Lennox in Macbeth this fall means he's crazy busy but still willing to do all the extra service hours for NHS. Proud momma night.


My girl is having a great diving season. She's also in a bunch of honors classes and marching band. More proud momma moments.



What are you thankful for today?
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Three Things Thursday: Randomness and a Recipe

First off, I apologize to all the bloggers I've been neglecting this week.  I promise I'm reading your blogs but with school starting and insane craziness of life, I've been reading mostly on my phone and it's a PITA to comment.  Know I love you and thank you for reading my blog and commenting when you can.

Now, 3 totally random comments for today:

1.  I love my job.  I'm so fortunate to have a career I'm passionate about and this week I learned that my administrators really have my back even though things are insanely messed up right now.  That's a great feeling.  I also love that I have an intern this year who is proving to be an asset - and we are only into the 3rd day of school.

2.  I'm all over social media today.  You can find me profiled at Another Mother Runner here (so cool!!) and I'm writing at Shrinking Jeans today on what happens when you need to take a break from running. Sucks that I'll be taking my own advice on this one since my heel isn't really feeling much better and I haven't run since last week, Thursday.  *insert uber sad face here*

3.  I found the most amazing salad dressing recipe.  It's a tangy version of Italian and I'm loving it more than anything I've ever bought in a store. It's actually paleo and I had everything in the house to make it.
Paleo Italian Salad Dressing Recipe

There you have it - three randoms that I threw together as I ate my giant salad with that yummy dressing.  Now I'm off to check on my friend's doggie and then back to work.

Do you love your job?  If not - what would be your dream job?

Biking: An Open Letter to Parents

Dear Parents,

I'd like to introduce myself.  My name is Bari and I'm a (poor) cyclist - as evidenced by my 2nd tip-over of the season today - and (sometimes) triathlete.  I ride a road bike that I happen to be physically attached to via my shoes.  I'm not super fast, I usually average around 14 or 15 miles per hour with top speeds around 20 mph, but that's fast enough to cause serious damage when I crash into your child who isn't paying attention as they bike in front of/next to/around me.  I can't simply stop on a dime and jump out of the way.

First the good - all of your children out biking today were wearing helmets. Great job, parents!! Now, I can't say the same for you.  I think (this is a guess and we know I suck at math so it's probably way off) that only about 20% of you were wearing helmets.  Just so you know, your brain isn't any safer than theirs.  In fact, you are farther from the ground, will fall harder, and are less likely to recover from a serious brain injury than they are.  Put your brain in a bucket, too.  Set a good example for your children and you might even be around to see them grow up.

That's if I don't accidentally kill one of them first.

During approximately 7 miles of my 14 mile ride today, I had at least 4 children try to kill me.  Or themselves.  Most likely themselves because if I sent all 150 pounds of me and bike into your 4 year old at 15 mph, I might end up with a couple broken bones but your child is going to to be killed.  Just saying.

Do your kids a favor and PLEASE teach them to be aware of other people around them when they are biking.  All of these kids (with the exception of the kid learning to ride while his dad roller bladed right behind him) were far enough away from you that you couldn't have warned them to stay to the side.  This also includes that little 4 year old on her tricycle.  I had 2 (probably 7 or 8 year old) boys riding toward me while watching the side of the trail as opposed to where they were going.  When they saw me they both turned TOWARDS ME. WTF???? I hope your kid uses that f-bomb I yelled as I swerved out of their way and you can explain to him why I said it.  These two were definitely old enough to understand the rules of the road.  Seriously.  The 4 year old is another story.  She had no clue what she was doing and turned around directly in front of me.  Thankfully I sorta know how preschoolers think and was unclipped and slowing down, but I still only missed her by literally about 6 inches.  The final boy - the one learning to ride with his dad - at least dad was trying to keep him to the side, but holding onto the back of his shirt did nothing when I said "passing" and he turned in the direction of my voice.

Bottom line...we ALL need to share the trails.  This means teaching your kids to be safe and courteous to other riders.  This also means I need to be aware and expect your children to ride like idiots.  Otherwise, someone is going to get seriously hurt.

Signed,

A pissed off cyclist/triathlete who would not like the guilt of killing one of your children and is ready to hang up her bike because it's just not worth it

Thankful Thursday: 3 randoms

After a very rough first 2 days back to work this week, I felt I needed to find some good (besides the fact I have the next 5 days off before I have to work again).

Here goes:

My trail - I had a great 8 mile ride this morning to shake out the cobwebs and the legs. (Yes, I took this while going about 16 mph).

My great, new YMX by Yellowman top. Perfect for the ride this morning - even though it's long sleeve it's so light that it isn't hot. Plus, it just looks cool.

Most important thanks - Dad is being discharged from rehab today and going home from the hospital. He's been in for almost a month after 2 back surgeries and is very happy (albeit nervous too) about going home. Prayers please that the doctors figure out some better pain management because while his mobility is better his pain is not.

What are you thankful for today?

ps - don't for get I have a giveaway going on for a great 8x10 canvas print.

Motivation Monday: Forrest Gump

Sometimes it's just plain hard to get up and run (or whatever your workout of choice is) in the morning.  Forrest had the right idea.  He just ran.


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Monday Miscellany: good, bad and ugly

This weekend left me feeling like I need a weekend to get over my weekend.

First the good. We finally did something about the mess of Blu-ray movies that have been piled up next to the TV.

before - attractive, huh?

after - M still needs to do something about those CDs

I need to decide whether my OCD about the picture and cabinet not being centered is enough to drive me crazy. Either that or I move the cabinet over and we lose an outlet.

Now the bad (or good depending how you look at it).


My van hit a huge birthday last night. Yes...the OCD is strong. I had to drive a couple loops around my neighborhood so I wouldn't leave the house this morning, forget to look at the odometer and be pissed when I got to work and noticed it said 100002.  It's pretty crazy that we've been looking for a car for the kids to share and a few we've looked at have less miles than my car.  Hardly seems fair.

And now the ugly...I was *almost* the victim of a Craigslist vehicle scam but thankfully my BIL is much smarter than me and saved me $1600. All that really got hurt was my pride.  My kids were pretty disappointed, too, to find out the car we were buying for them really didn't exist.  Had this message been on the Craigslist app (it only shows up when searching via a web browser), I might not have ended up feeling so stupid after sending some asshole personal information about myself and getting excited about a vehicle that was just a stolen picture off of a real eBay listing.


I'm still trying to decide whether to write about what happened and share the emails/scam. Maybe an example of my stupidity could save someone else the embarrassment and potentially a lot of money. Needless to say, I lost quite a bit of trust in humanity this weekend. I think it's even affecting me physically because my neck has been all jammed up and I'm sleeping even worse than usual.  Huge lesson learned - just because you consider yourself to be a fairly intelligent, well-educated person doesn't mean you can't be fooled.

Thoughts? Do you want to read the emails and what my BIL taught me about scam artists? Have you ever been taken advantage of like this?

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Cinco de Mayo

We were pretty low-key around here. No new recipes to post.



Chips, salsa & sangria



Princess Bride with Spanish subtitles.
"¡Hola! Mi nombre es Iñigo Montoya. Tú mataste a mi padre. Prepárate a morir."

How did you celebrate?

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Three Things Thursday: outside

It's been a beautiful week to be outside - so far :)  Michigan apparently decided to jump straight from winter to summer with morning temps in the 60s and afternoon temps in the 80s. It's crazy and I'm sure I'll start complaining about the heat/humidity very soon, but for now it's been a nice change.

Family of deer on my morning run on Monday.

Finally some decent weather for a track meet on Tuesday - this ended up being K's 1st and only home meet because the others all got cancelled. She made finals in Long Jump, but no clue how she placed. Our girls beat the other 2 teams at the meet though!

Enjoying a cuppa on the deck this morning.

What are you enjoying today?