Who knew 5th graders had so much energy?

Not me, that's for sure. Today was the first Girls on the Run that I was able to attend. We have twenty girls participating in the program at our school. They are really cool kids, but after an hour, I was so tired it wasn't even funny. I'd forgotten how excited kids that age get about the little stuff. It was fun to watch.
Today's lesson talked about keeping promises and being true to yourself and your word. A very good lesson to learn, although I think that it went right over some of the kids' heads...especially the part about respecting others and listening attentively. They could all repeat the GOTR Promises back, but as soon as they were done reciting them, they were immediately filed away in some dusty corner of the brain. Maybe as they get used to the program they'll remember some of these Promises and do a better job of following them?!!?
The running portion of the program consisted of two miles with a partner around the track at the school. Most of the girls ran, but some of them didn't quite make the two miles, as they were more interested in picking grass and catching up on the socializing. That's okay though, as long as they had fun. It looks like we've got a couple of real runners in the group though, including one kid who's planning on doing a children's triatholon this spring.
It was an interesting afternoon, and I'm glad I've decided to get involved with it.

This week has just flown by

So, first things first...how the heck did it get to be Thursday already? Not that I'm complaining, I'd love all of my work weeks to go by so quickly, but I really have no idea where this week has gone.
I've had quite a few good runs this week. Namely, yesterday's and today's. Granted they were only three miles apiece, but they really went well. For the past several weeks I've been so incredibly tired by the time I get halfway through my run that I've really had to struggle to finish them. But the past two runs have gone very well. I'm tired afterwards, but not exhausted. That's a good thing. It must be the new shoes. I saw that Sports Authority had my Asics GT2110s on sale for fifty percent off. So I bought a much needed new pair. That's probably the only good thing about model changeouts, is that the pair I've been using gets drastically marked down. I only bought one pair even though they had several because I figured my feet might widen out with the pregnancy and then the extra shoes would be worthless. I wanted them in lime green, but somehow they only had one lime green shoe out of the pair they had. I'm not really sure how that happens.
We told my parents about the baby on Sunday. They were over the moon to say the least. My mom is already talking about the shopping spree she's going to be going on. This is gonna be one spoiled baby. I told my godmother and grandma's on Monday. My godmother and mom's mom were psyched. My dad's mom, not so much. I really think that she thinks I'm too young. I don't think she realizes that I'm going to be thirty in just over a year. (I'm pretty sure there's some undiagnosed dementia there somewhere.) Her exact response to the question how would you like to have a great grandbaby was: That's nice, how's Max (the dog)? Yeah, you're totally thrilled, I can tell.
I told my boss today, and he was suprisingly nice about it. I even managed to convince him that it would be much more economically feasible for him to allow me to roll the remaining fourteen days of vacation that I have coming to me this year into next year (my hire date is August 1st) and use them as part of my maternity leave. So it looks like I'll be getting seven weeks PTO and three weeks non-paid. What a relief. I thought this was going to be a huge battle!

What a busy weekend

This weekend has been a whirlwind of activity. Friday was my husband's birthday, so after work we went out to dinner. Friday while I was at work, he had been at the car dealership talking to them about trading in his car for the Mazda Speed 3. It just so happened that they were pulling the exact car he wanted off the freight truck when he got there. Since there will only be 5,000 of these cars shipped to the US this year, we decided that he should go ahead and do the deal. So Saturday morning, we spent two and a half hours at the car dealership. I have no idea why buying a new car takes such a long awful process, but I've really come to loathe doing it. But now we've both traded in our old rides for new ones in the past twelve months, so we shouldn't have to do this again anytime soon.
Then Saturday afternoon we went down to the Fox Theatre to see Stomp. It was awesome. I'd seen it before, but this was the first time my husband had seen it. It was definitely money well spent, and our seats were awesome. My only complaint was the fucker next to me, who although he was a tall guy, was not a fat or muscular guy...he spent the majority of the production sprawled into my leg space, my arm space, and just generally being a little too close for comfort to me. We then went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I had the mahi mahi, hubby had the cashew chicken and we took home some coconut creme cheesecake. Yum!
Today he got up early and painted the room that we're turning into a nursery. It's a pretty shade of yellow, almost goldenrod. He had the paint custom mixed to match the border. It turned out very nice, now we just have to put furniture together (the crib and changing table arrived Friday afternoon). Then we went to our favorite deal an AM movie for four dollars a ticket. We saw Breach, about Robert Hanssen and the FBI. It was okay. Nowhere near as entertaining as last week's Hannibal Rising. But for a total of eight dollars you can't hardly go wrong.
The afternoon was spent running, cleaning house, paying bills, organizing crap, and various other assorted chores. We're supposed to head over to my parent's house for dinner in a few minutes. It's supposed to be the celebration of hubby's and my mom's birthday and we're planning on sharing the news with them. I'm sure they'll be excited, but I can also see my mom getting really pissed off that we waited this long to tell them. Oh well, you can't please everyone.

Ughhh and yeaaaa

First the ughhh part of this post. I am violently ill...still. I feel as though I'm never going to stop puking. I actually had a streak of about four days where I went without puking, but today is the third day in a row that I'm back on the throwing up every two or three hours train. This sucks. I have to keep telling myself it'll be worth it in the end...
On to the yeaaa portion of the post. Valentine's Day was pretty awesome, even though dear husband had class and we didn't really get to celebrate. He did send me some pretty flowers to work though, and all of the baby's bedding arrived on my doorstep yesterday. Baby shit is so freakin' cute. We picked a green and yellow set (since we-or at least I, want the gender to be a surprise)with a circus theme, I love the little monkeys (of course). My inlaws, who live out of town sent us a really cool gift as well. They sent a very sweet card saying how excited they are for us and a monitor to listen to the heartbeat at home. I've been playing with it, but so far haven't been able to find the shrimp's heartbeat. I'm not concerned though, as the instruction manual states that you should be a bit farther along than we are before attempting to use the monitor.
On the running front, we got four to six inches of the white powdery crap (no, not that white powdery crap) on Tuesday morning, so our first GOTR meeting was cancelled. We tried to reschedule for tomorrow, but the kids are off school, then next Tuesday half of our girls have a mandatory orchestra practice, so that's a no go as well. At this point it looks like we'll be getting things rolling a week from tomorrow, so I'll be missing the first session. I'm disappointed with that, but what are you gonna do?
I've been running a bit, only three miles five or six days a week, but that's plenty. I'm still having some plantar fascitis like symptoms in my right foot. Some days it feels normal and other days it hurts like hell. I keep trying to convince myself that I just need to treat it already, but I keep finding excuses why not to do it. Enough already, right?

Best movie ever...

Well, that might be a slight exaggeration, but it's certainly one of the best movies I've seen in many, many months. And considering that there was a time during which we saw at least one movie a week, I should say that there was some stiff competition.
The movie in question is Hannibal Rising, the story of Hanibal Lecter's boyhood. It rocked. That's really all I can say about it. It was by far the most entertaining movie we've seen in the recent past.
We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the AMC theater at Chesterfield Mall, which we normally don't go to, because we have to drive past three other theaters to get there, does a really cool deal. If you buy tickets for a movie that starts before noon on any Friday, Saturday, Sunday or holiday, it only costs four bucks a ticket. You really can't beat that...now, if they would just cut us a deal on the popcorn...

Not nearly as much fun as I thought it would be...

Damn you smart bloggers. Yeah, I thought this would be a fun way to tell my secret...but the Good Doc managed to out me in just under ten minutes. What a freakin' record. Either I'm not as stealth as I thought I was, or you guys are way to intuitive.
For the record everyone guessed right. The newest member of the family will be joining us in August. We're stoked. Now if I could just get past this feeling like I'm going to rolf every five minutes thing...
Needless to say, not only is my spring race been wiped from the slate, but so has any chance at a repeat appearance in the Windy City this fall. I'm okay with that though, I really was feeling burnt out on competition, and I really did get a big ouchy on my foot when I attempted to up the mileage in December before finding out that we were expecting.
I wanted to tell weeks ago, but thought that it would suck if something not so stellar happened. Now that we're past the first trimester (as of today...go me!) and we've heard/seen the heartbeat I'm feeling much more confident. So, there you have it.
I think I'm going to name the baby Stepnesonaner....after my so smart blogger buddies. Think I can convince Dear Hubby of that?

Wanna play a game?

You know you want to. There's no prize for winning, unless you count the satisfaction which comes from gloating about your supremacy over the other players. (Which is always my favorite part of any game anyway.) This game is called I've Got a Secret.
We've all got secrets, and I've been sitting on a huge one. I don't think I've given away any clues in my recent blog posts, but then again, a very astute reader may beg to differ with me.
Some of you already know my secret, and you are not allowed to play...just up and telling is not allowed, and will earn you the unrivaled wrath of K-Jo, so if I already let you in...keep your outh-may ut-shay! (I love Pig Latin...I think we should all use it more regularly.)
Guessing may commence...


NOW!

I am so sick of snow

Just when the old stuff gets just about all the way melted, in comes another load. Last night I was watching television...live not Tivo'd, and the weather guy came on saying that there were flurries in portions of the western viewing areas. I thought he was making stuff up. Then I took the dog out, yep, color me stupid, apparently it'd been snowing for quite awhile, as there was about a half inch of powder on my deck.
I wouldn't mind snow if I didn't have to go to work. I just don't like driving in it, even though I'm only four or five miles from work, and I have four wheel drive. You can never tell what the other clowns on the road are going to do.
I've had a busy week, but I've managed to get all of my runs in thus far. I've only been doing little three mile jaunts on the treadmill, and I seem to have ruined my ability to get out of bed and get my run in before going to work, but at least I'm geting it done. I've been having additional problems with my right foot, again. This is different than the pain I had early though. Different location, different type of pain. I think I might just need new shoes.
I'm enjoying my time on the treadmill so far. It's amazing how quick those miles fly by. I don't really have to focus on them, and I've not been finding as many excuses to not run as I was when I was trying to run higher mileage.
I recieved my school assignment for my Girls on the Run team today. It looks like I'll be coaching 3rd through 5th grade at an elementary school in Chesterfield. There are two other women coaching with me. So far we've got ten girls signed up, we're hoping for fifteen total. I'm excited. Hopefully it'll be a fun experience, and who knows, maybe next year I'll try to get a school started out in my neighborhood. How cool would that be?