Been Busy...

With my new puppy!...and frankly I'm exhausted. My husband has wanted a dog for a long time, but we were on two extremes --- super huge vs. purse. I had some pretty strong preferences because with all his travel I am really the primary caretaker. After months of discussion we decided on a breed (f rench bulld0g) and the hunt began. All of us are adjusting and it's better at times than others, but we're working through it. The cat is going to be a bit more of a challenge, but I do think they will eventually work out there differences. *fingers crossed*

The good

• She's highly entertaining. I've got to figure out how to take a video of her.
• She keeps me from snacking because I just don't have the time trying to work and keep track of her at the same time.

The not so good

• She's so young. I don't want to do something that creates anxiety for her. I've been pretty much alone this week, so one morning she was just so fussy that I didn't want to leave her to go to camp and think I abandoned her. But we are getting the hang of it and I've got her working toward a schedule that should keep her sleeping until I get back from camp in the morning.
• My lack of sleep. Ugh, it's been challenging, but everyone keeps assuring me that we'll get in a pattern...please let that be soon! 
• It's highly likely that there will be quite a few puppy pictures. 

 

Thursday Thought

If you ever find yourself in TX, or heaven forbid you live here and haven't visited, please go eat at Fuzzy*s Tac0s. It's awesome and one of my favorites. In fact, it was on my mind all week and I just couldn't take it anymore! :)

Shredded Beef Taco

Oh, and there was also some of this:

Chips, Salsa, and a Beer...or two.

Race Day!

I was up at 4:30am to get ready. Of course this morning, the first thing on the agenda was to check the weather. No sign of severe storms, but it was definitely hot, humid, and windy. So I got up and started getting ready.

I showed my outfit to my husband on Thursday and he said, "Hey, that's cute. You are going to look like a runner." *eye roll* My hormones were under control (lucky for him) so I just looked at him and said, "Ya, it's all about the outfit." The shirt is really bright neon yellow, but it didn't photograph that way. It's probably the first time I've ever had on a coordinated outfit for a race, but the top and shorts cost less than $20 combined so what the heck!

Morning fuel: whole wheat toast, peanut butter, and banana. And a bucket of coffee to go! I was going to this one alone, so I left early to avoid any traffic and camped out in the close parking lot to the start getting my gear together and reading my book. Check this out though:

Not even 6am and it's 76!!! At race start it looked like it would stay about this temp with about 85% humidity. I was afraid that there would be 20 mph winds, but it didn't seem like they were going to be that bad.

I didn't know much about the course and with the heat and humidity, I figured it was best to pull back for this race and decided to hang out with the 2:20 pace team. And we were off!

Along the way chatting with others and the two pacers, I found out that the first 8 miles of this race are filled with hills. Ah, the 3 h's - hills, heat, and humidity. Lovely. My race was going well considering, but I was getting hot. Then it starts getting dark and very windy. I was watching two birds struggling to fly against the wind and not going anywhere to give you an idea. I figured we were in for some good old TX rain. Sure enough, it started raining. The rain was cold and did a good job of cooling me off and bringing the temperature down. It rained the rest of the race and the visor did an excellent job of keeping the rain out of my eyes.

Now, there have been plenty of hills the entire route, but nothing like the one before mile 8! There was a race coach on the sidelines there and he was telling the runners you conquer this and you're golden the rest of the race. I looked at that hill and did a quick *OMG* freak out and then said come on you've got this, just get after it. Next thing I know I'm at the top and on my way to the finish.

At mile 9ish, I started hearing sirens and the police on the course were getting us over to one side. At first I thought someone was down on the course, but then I thought that can't be right they should have passed by now. Then I turned and got a glimpse. It was the leader of the full marathon. That guy was kicking major butt and I figured he was kicking a sub-6 pace (that's miles per hour for 26.2 miles!!!!). I made sure everyone around me knew what was happening and we cheered our butts off when he passed!

The water crews were a little taxed around mile 10, but I had to get some gat0rade. I ended up losing a bit of time at the last two stations and had to wait at one, but I knew I needed the liquid to make it in strong. I crossed at 2:23 and was fine with it. In hindsight, I think I could have easily hung with the 2:10 pacers, but a good race nonetheless. I've hit my 2 half goal and received more bling!

Saturday

Saturday went like this:

• Get up at 5am to get my husband out the door for a flight. 


• Attempt to go back to sleep, which was a complete failure.


• Think about how I'd like to go to camp, but need to take the day off because I can't be trusted to take it easy enough with my race tomorrow.


• Start wondering what the weather is really going to be like...changes every 15 mins here.


• Review and finalize my race play list.


• Check weather. Hmmm, warm - race start at 71?!


• Charge devices.


• Select final oufit - version 1.


• Check weather.  Warm, windy, and potentially storms.


• Run and get rain poncho. Add to outfit - version 2.


• Starting to freak out about weather. Delayed reaction I guess. The wind is looking like it could be 20 mph. Good grief.


• At the moment, my hair is kinda long, but not long enough for a ponytail. Rain is going to have it hanging in my face, so I decide I need a visor. Run to athletic store. SCORE! Clearance one. Add to outfit - version 3.


• Nails look kinda raggedy. Run to store again to get these:

 

• Check weather...o.m.g.


• Do nails. 


• Decide that I am going to have to suck it up and wear shorts. Change outfit - version 4.


• Because of the bean incident, make some homemade chili.


• There might have been a small one of these:

 

• Weather, repeat. Weather, repeat. You get the drift, but I want that dang medal!


• What happens? Tune back in to my next post....cause I need more time to write it up!

Er, Friday 10

Cause of Wyatt...uh, I mean Laura. :)

(1) Thank you for the good wishes on my husband's return. You guys are so sweet.

(2) I woke up this morning with a pounding headache and head pressure from allergies. After camp today, I rushed home to get some beans in the slow cooker. I threw everything in and got on with my day. I went to check on them and all the moisture had been absorbed. Uh, I put an ENTIRE bag of dried beans in the slow cooker. Proving that a pounding headache makes my brain turn off. I now have enough beans for the entire neighborhood.

(3) I am sick of doing the garbage. No joke. It's not my job and I got married so I would never have to do it again. I am only somewhat joking, I said to him before we got married, "So, from this day forward, no more garbage duty for me, right?"

(4) While I've been avoiding food, I've been productive. I weeded our entire yard and it's now nice and mulched (thanks to the gardener for that). Here are some of the pots I planted:

(5) This arbor with the climbing jasmine has been my project for the past two years. My husband was free with his opinions, but I told him you just wait and see. This is going to be amazing. That was a lot of bravado on my part, but turns out that the hard work has paid off.

Can you smell the jasmine?

 (6) This made for a cool picture, but something was wrong with this poor little bee. He was on the flower just panting away, but I just didn't know what to do to help him. Hopefully he was taking a rest after a long flight from another flower.

(7) My cat helped me fold the laundry last week. 

(8) I have a few gnomes in my yard, but I am particular about what they look like.

(9) I'm scoping out vacations.

(10) The gnomes have been busy.

Toughing it Out

The last week has been tough. I'm a stress eater, emotional eater, whatever label you want to put on it that's me. There isn't a band or a fix for it and at times I have a tremendous desire to give into these urges. Counseling has provided me with tools, but ultimately band or no band, crap can be consumed!

My husband has been gone for some time. Unlike other times, I have not been able to pick up the phone and talk to him, email him, etc. It has been hard, but I've done OK until the middle of last week. I received a one liner and found out that he was returning to the US earlier than planned. Red flags immediately start waving in my head. This is not normal. There is no shortened trip.

I was on pins and needles as I waited to hear when he was leaving so I'd be able to know when he should be back in the US. Inside I was freaking out. When will he leave? Will he be OK? I wanted to eat crap so badly!

I kept telling myself eating will not help the situation. My husband will not be any safer. It will not make me feel better. It's OK to be scared and anxious. I will not eat crap because of my emotions. But so much of me just didn't care and wanted to eat! And, sure, my em0tional eating has surfaced numerous times over the years and I've navigated it most times successfully and other times not so much, but this was definitely the worst situation that I could remember.

There is a happy ending to this story - whew. My husband made it back to the US safely and will be home later this week. Me, I was able to stick to my normal eating. It was hard and there was some white knuckling involved. I did have to go to the grocery store and I gazed at all that Easter stuff and touched some of my favorite bags...they were glowing and calling my name - for real. Ya, I'm a freak. But now that I'm on the other side of this time, I have to say I am proud of myself. I need to remember this one when I face the urges in the future, because navigating this one proves that I can make it through. Mind over matter.

Here's some of the tools I use:

• Acknowledge the feelings and tell myself it is OK to feel.
• Remind myself how I will feel if I eat (mad, disgusted, disappointed, etc.) and that it solves nothing
• Stop, drop, and roll - OK, kidding, but when urges surface I stop what I am doing and change to some other activity or location. A new location (even inside my house) helps or I've also just left the house and gone for a walk down the block. Somehow for me this breaks the pattern or train of thought. If not, then I just try another tool.
• Give myself a time out---15 minutes to relax and do nothing.
• Stick to my routine for exercise and eating.
• Keep trigger foods out of the house and avoid the store as much as possible (Why make it harder on myself?)
• Telling myself that this will pass and I can do it....repeatedly. :)