I am...

the Queen of No Willpower. How do I "celebrate" a rest day off from running/the gym? With a Spicy Chicken sandwich and small fries from Wendy's, of course! And it was damn good, too :D

This rain needs to stop...otherwise, my running shoes won't see the light of day until Friday, if they're lucky.

Mulch Monday=great success. I got 7 of 9 bags spread while Jason cut the grass, he put out one bag while I admired the coating of mulch dust+sunscreen covering my limbs, and took care of the last one plus the four bags of pine chips we got to go under the top part of the deck today. Pictures to follow, when I get around to taking them. What I SHOULD have taken a picture of is the hot mess that I was following the fun of Mulch Monday. When I say "coating of mulch dust+sunscreen", I mean COATING. Talk about disgusting. I swear, nothing makes you appreciate a shower like being stickyyuckydirtygross.

Once we got clean, we took Georgie to the toy store (aka Pet People) to get some new bones and food, stopped at Rita's on the way back, and ended up cooking out with our friends Chad and Bev. Mmmm, food. And yes, we got Rita's BEFORE dinner, because that's just how we roll.


Now, a funny from school today, courtesy of one of my third grade girls...

A: "Guess what, Mrs. S?"
Me: "What?"
A. "I'm wearing a BRA!" (mind you, I see no problem with third graders wearing bras if they actually need them...this particular third grader does not.)
Me: "Oh, really? That's cool."
A: "Yep, me and my mom went bra shopping this weekend...I'm going to be JUST LIKE Hannah Montana!"
Me: "Sweetie, that's great...but your dad isn't Billy Ray Cyrus." (Someone has to be the realist here.)
A: "No, he's not. He can't sing at ALL. D'you think he'd grow his hair like Hannah's dad? Wait, never mind...I don't think he has enough hair for that."

Believe it or not, I'm really going to miss these kids :D

Maybe, just maybe...

I don't have a black thumb after all! Meaning I haven't killed any of the above flowers yet (even though I really haven't touched the roses, those were there before we moved in).

Plus, I got to wield the electric hedge trimmers and tone down the bushes that line our deck.

And played in the yard with Miss Georgie.

I also bought a new vaccuum and tested it out by sucking up all the dog hair I could, picked up pruning shears and a sprayer for plant food, washed all the bed linens and towels (the dog is now currently leaving more hair on the bed by napping on my pillow, darn her), pruned the dead parts off the rosebushes and played with the dog some more, and am in the process of doing more laundry. All in all, a productive day. And I still have a speech eval and IEP to write up for school on Tuesday. Yeeha!

Check back soon for an account of Mulch Monday.

I'm bad.

Really, really bad. I am a horrible blog mommy, please forgive me :D Here's the recap of the last few weeks...the (semi) short version, at least.

The Pig-went great! I emerged free of major injuries, which was my main goal, and finished in 2:01:02. My very lofty time goal was 2 hours flat, so I'm really happy with my time. The funny part is that my sisters did this same 1/2 marathon 2 years ago, and both finished in 2:01:01. If only I'd hauled ass a little more!

Georgie-is the greatest dog ever. She is currently sleeping in our bed at night and not in the crate...turns out she's a little bit of a bed hog, but no worse than Jason :D Speaking of J, he thinks she's ready to leave out of the crate when we leave the house, but I just don't know if she's ready yet. She still hasn't had any accidents in the house or chewed up any of our stuff (except for bits of mulch and sticks off the bushes), so that's a good sign. She has also gotten over her fear of very large dogs and doesn't growl at them anymore unless they're playing, so that's GREAT. Hooray social skills! We are having a fabulous time spoiling her rotten.

House-also great. I got some impatiens and gazanias planted a couple of weeks ago, and have impatiens and a little herb garden in hanging baskets off the deck...and they're not dead yet! We DO need to mulch...meaning Jason needs to call Mr. Mulch to see about getting some delivered. Plus, we have quite the laundry list of stuff that NEEDS to get done ASAP-getting fencing estimates and fencing in the back yard, putting another railing on the deck steps (there's only a railing on one side, and there needs to be one on each side), powerwashing and staining the deck, putting in paver stones for the fire pit, and buying patio furniture. First and foremost, though...WE NEED LIVING ROOM FURNITURE. Why the urgency, you ask? Well, some people decide to celebrate their first anniversary with a nice quiet dinner or weekend away with their spouse. Not us. We figure, what better way to celebrate an amazing day topped off with an equally amazing party by...having another party! So, in the event that we can get the house party ready in two months, we will be having a housewarming/first anniversary/for shits and giggles celebration. That's IF we get all this done. I think this weekend is going to be "tough love talk" time with the hubby...with us working opposite schedules (he's usually off Mon/Tue/Wed, and I'm off Fri/Sat/Sun), we NEED to have a game plan.

So...let the fun begin!

Wow...really?

This time next Sunday, I will have officially completed my first half marathon. Ho.ly.shit. It's been this far off THING, for lack of a better word, but it's really coming. And will be here next Sunday. I think I'm ready, training wise. I followed my training program to the T (well, with regard to running what distance what day, except for the week after Easter when I was fighting off my sinus infection). However, there is one way in which I am NOT ready...what am I going to WEAR for the race?!

You can stop laughing now. This is actually something I worry about. I know what shorts I'm going to wear, what socks, what shoes (duh), and what long sleeved shirt I can bear to part with when I get too warm. I have it narrowed down to two sleeveless tops, and whichever top I pick will determine which sports bra I wear. It's either going to be pink top with white sports bra, or vice versa. Decisions, decisions...

At least the weather is supposed to be glorious-long term forecasts are predicting high temp of 69 for race day, and low temp of 53. Seeing as the race starts at 6 FUCKING 30 IN THE MORNING (aaah!), I figure the race time temps will be closer to 53 than 69. At least, I hope so.

Regardless of how I do and how sore I am or am not, I am SO glad I took next Monday off work. Because if I AM sore, the last thing I'm going to be able to do effectively is chase kids around and make them talk all day.

In other news...Georgie is PHE.NOM.IN.AL. Seriously, greatest dog ever. No pottying in the house, no more keeping Mommy up at night (fixed by moving her crate into our bedroom), and slowly improving social skills. Meaning, she didn't growl at ANY of the BIIIIG dogs (those are the only things she growls at) yesterday. We met Shannon, her husband Bryan, and their dog Oakley at Antrim Park and Georgie did fabulously with allll of the doggies she met, regardless of their size. Then, we met Jen at Highbanks Metropark for a walk today, and she did great with all the doggies there again :D YAY Georgie! Who, I must say, is exhausted. She's probably relieved that Mommy goes back to work tomorrow, and she can go back to taking it easy with Daddy again.

More news...we still have not really tackled any of our big yard projects yet. I planted a herb garden in a window box that hangs off our back deck, so that's a start. We have a variety of projects that won't be hard to do, we just have to get our butts in gear, go to Lowe's, and buy some shit. So, yeah.

Aaaaaand, that's all I've got. More to come after the Pig next weekend! (assuming I don't keel over)

Seriously?

So, starting last Weds, I had five days off to look forward to. Had a little sore throat at work on Tuesday, but no biggie. Between getting Georgie Weds night and not getting much sleep that night and the next, my sore throat escalated into a full on cold. Snot, coughing, whole nine yards. Once we got Georgie's sleep issues under control (thanks to moving her crate into our bedroom) and I started sleeping more, I started feeling better. So what do I do? Run nine miles on Saturday. Hey, I've got a half marathon in three weeks! Still, not the greatest idea. Feel tired, but better all day Saturday. Get up Sunday, go to church and then brunch. Diane (Jason's mom) comes over after brunch to meet Georgiegirl, we go on a walk, then I take a nap.

THEN the fun starts. I wake up from my nap with serious chills. No bueno, seeing as I had on a sweatshirt, jeans, and socks, and was burrowed under a blanket. So I try to get up and move around, and put some laundry away. No problem, until I find myself depositing the rest of my brunch into the toilet. The chills were replaced by a lovely fever, topping out at 104.something, which is SO not like me at all. Poor Jason was freaking out :P We got the fever down, I called off work this morning and went to the nearest CVS Minute Clinic. Diagnosis=sinus infection. Got a 10 day dose of amoxicillin and headed back home.

Why this has to happen WHILE I'M ON VACATION, I'll never know. Such bullshit.

On the upside, Georgie is a great snuggle buddy :)

I haz a dog!

Excuse me, I mean WE haz a dog. As in Georgia Sue. Aka Georgie. Aka Peanut, Pudding Pop, Sweet Girl, Puppy Girl, etc. The dog has more nicknames than she has days spent at home with us.

So far, things have gone REALLY well. We got her from Second Chance Humane Society in Johnstown, and since she was a stray brought there we had no clue what kind of life she'd had prior to coming to the shelter. However, it wasn't hard to figure out that whatever life she had, someone taught this sweet girl to sit, shake, and go potty outside. So far, no accidents, she LOVES her toys, and smelling all the new smells on walks in our neighborhood. Georgie is also a couch potato-she loveloveloves to snuggle on the couch with Jason or I. She is not yet a HUGE fan of her crate, but will just whine for a couple of minutes every half an hour or so. This kept me up half the night, but Jason slept right through it, the bastard.

We haven't fenced in our yard yet, but will be very soon. In the meantime, she's digging being out on the 30ft cable we have anchored in the yard, and would sit out there and rip yellow fuzz off her tennis ball if we let her...but only if one of us was sitting outside with her :D

In a nutshell, she's pretty great. So far, it looks like we got REALLY lucky here, and are totally head over heels in love with her. I mean, how can you NOT love this face?

I's a slacker

Wow, Feb 22nd was the last time I posted? Shit.

So, what's new, you ask? Not a whole lot, hence my lack of posting. Let's see here...

Work-three weeks 'til spring break, yay! I took the Weds and Thurs off that week, so I'll only have to be in the clinic Mon and Tues and then have five days off. It's going to be glorious, especially since...

WE'RE GETTING A PUPPY! Probably in the next month, but not 'til after I/we get our taxes done. We'd like to time it up with my mini-vaca, so hopefully that'll work out. We were thinking of doing invisible fencing, but I go back and forth b/t thinking it's a good idea and feeling bad for the poor doggy when it gets zapped :( So, we'll see about the fencing. It's definitely going to be a shelter/rescue doggy, probably some sort of beagle and or lab mix...preferably lab, as beagles can be major food whores. But either way, we'll be happy.

What else? Hmmm...week 5 of Pig training is pretty much in the bag. This week was 5k race weekend (it was supposed to be next weekend, but I couldn't find any 5ks in town...so I moved it to today). This means no long run this week, YAAAY! I did the Flannagan's 5k, which I did with Alli and Julie 2 years ago while they were training for the 1/2 Pig...and actually got a new PR! 24:55-HOLY SHIT! I am more than thrilled with my time, seeing as this was the first race I've actually done by myself, meaning without Alli or one of my friends dragging me along. So woohoo! Next week's long run is 6 miles, which is a distance I've done before so I don't anticipate it being horrible. After that, I get into the 7, 8, 9, 10 mile runs, which is farther than I've ever gone so it's probably going to suck big fat donkey balls. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Things have been pretty quiet around here-Jason just started bartending at the restaurant he's been serving at, and is already making great money (more than he made bartending at the place he used to work at). So that makes him happy and therefore makes my life easier :P The only thing that sucks is that he's now working more nights, and as we all know I work days. So we don't see each other all that much (awake, anyway) during the week. But we've been through that before, so it's not so traumatic.

OMG I love HGTV. I may not get off the couch all day.