My First Long Distance Race!

Yesterday, I ran my first long distance race....4 miles. This is in line with my ultimate goal to run the half marathon at Traverse City this spring. Mr.Heather has partnered up with me once again as a jogging buddy and we're making great strides (pun intended)! There are a few differences since our last running adventures. First of all, we (as in he) now pushes a double jogging stroller instead of a single. Second, I am now taking advantage of newer technology such as the Nike + iPod Nano which entertains my thoughts and distracts me from my pain, overshadows my heavy breathing, and tracks my pace/mileage. Third, we have actually set futuristic goals (meaning we sign up for races with registration fees) to keep us going and focused. As a result, Mr. Heather and I now have our first official matching running shirts. For anyone who knows us well, we scoff at couples who are all matchy-matchy. We are so hypocritical! Yet, these shirts symbolize our teamwork and what we accomplished together (and it's not like we're going to wear them out in public together!) So...here are some things about long distance races. 1) A typical road can fit approximately 4 people shoulder-to-shoulder. 2) When you pass on the outside, be careful of running into mailboxes. 3) My power song Eddie Murphy's "I'm a Believer" which ironically ends with "I'm out of breath." 4) Listening to "Cheeseburger in Paradise" while you're running is simply wrong. What was I thinking? 5) Passing lots of people on the last mile is kicka**! Trying to make the last 400 meters was painful, but I still had enough in me to kick it up a notch to cross the finish line. 6) Racing gives you adrenaline. I ran most faster than practices. That was a fun surprise! Thanks to Mr.Heather for keeping me motivated, running with me, and inspiring me to run alone on the nights when he was running late, and for supporting me with getting me earbuds that actually stay on my head while I run. He's been great! Plus we had a fun weekend together, he took me out to dinner (Macaroni Grill!), did a little shopping, and we got to hit the hot tub after the race!

Another Kid Quote

"And tonight, after supper, I'm going to make my special recipe. All you need is cheese, Cheerios, and syrup!"

That's verbatim from Zoe!

Race ya!

Thursday morning as we were racing to get ready to leave, Sammy commented, "I beat Mommy" because she had her shoes on first.

So I said, "I beat Zoe."

Zoe looked around and not about to be beat says, "I beat God!"

I stopped in my tracks and asked, "What?"


She explained, "God's lucky, He doesn't have to put on shoes!"

No Toys For Sammy...

Since Saturday.....

She hit me in the head with her light-up toy from Disney on Ice on the way home in the car. It was almost the perfect day!

She asks about her toys, but she understands. Maybe she'll get them back soon!

Sammy's Lesson...Learned????

Tonight Sammy got in trouble. She hit her dad. On the back. With a chair. A folding chair.

It was a miniature chair, but still made of metal and canvas and just because it had a big picture of a smiling Winnie-the-Pooh didn't make it hurt any less. So she sat in her room on her new big bed and cried in time-out. (Our kids' rooms lose all their appeal when we make them stay in there by themselves!)

Last night, Sammy hit Robert over the head with a Barbie and we went through the same thing so it was obvious that a time-out and an apology just wasn't going to cut it. Mr. Heather advocated for a one hour time-out. (He's normally pretty laid back so I was kind of surprised and decided to intervene.) She and I started talking about yesterday's incident, apologized to her dad, and then talked about how hitting was bad. This last part was repeated several times and I made her say it. Then, I told her that if she wasn't going to play with her toys nicely then I would take every toy out of her room and she would not be allowed to play with toys in room. (It might seem harsh, but I never said for how long!) She understood that. That definitely registered. Then, Robert did his time-out (which lasted maybe 5 minutes and didn't hurt her) and she very well-behaved the rest of the night.

At story time, she said (unprompted) that it was OK to hit balls. I agreed. She said she would be nice and went into this whole thing about hitting (basically repeating what I had told her an hour and a half ago)! I was pleased. Robert carried her to bed and she told him too and then said that would only tickle Daddy. Hopefully, we got through to her this time. Guess we'll find out tomorrow! Wish us luck!


Positive discipline requires a lot of creativity and patience. No yelling, no screaming, no spanking. We both agree on this. The only exception is that I will spank if she kicks me and she knows it! It's only happened twice-both when I was trying to get her dressed in the morning and she was uncooperative. Sammy and I both learned that you can be uncooperative without kicking! That's OK, I can handle that.

For Here or To Go?

Mr. Heather decided to spend some Father/Daughter time at the new coffee house in town and as they were ordering, the barista asked, "Is that for here?" Zoe piped up, "No" and pointed to the table she picked out and said, "We're eating over there."

Don't you just love my funny kid stories?

BTW: as a non-coffee drinker, I learned a new word from this story: Barista. Wikipedia says it's English jargon for one who serves espresso-like drinks.

The Barbie Diamond Castle

The girls now have the Diamond Castle. At a family gathering after Christmas, (but still celebrating Christmas) Mr. Heather's grandmother innocently asked the girls if they got everything they wanted for Christmas. "Well, almost," replied Zoe. "Oh?" she inquired. "Yeah, I really wanted the Diamond Castle." Then Mr. Heather's father starts to protest on Zoe's behalf. "Why didn't she get the Diamond Castle?" Aye-karumba!

The real reason was that I thought the Barbie Cruise Ship (with pool and disco ball) looked like a lot more fun and the Diamond Castle got bad reviews on its sturdiness- basically, it's just a lot of purple plastic. However, ever since it came up, we had to succumb to the fact that our household would be one with the Diamond Castle. I looked on ebay...over $200! WHAT!?!?! Then I started checking out department stores. We were on the hunt. In the meantime, Zoe and Samantha oodled over the Barbie brochure (which came with the Cruise Ship) and fawned over the picture of the Diamond Castle. (It's never just the castle...always the "Diamond Castle.")

With no birthdays or major holidays in sight, we set the girls on a quest of chores to earn the castle, just little things like making their beds, brushing their teeth, picking up their clothes and toys, etc. Today, Mr. Heather found the Diamond Castle on clearance for a price we could live with and it is sitting in the living room right now occupied by Barbies (it even came with a princess) plus the Little People nativity characters (including the donkey and camel). The girls were thrilled and even made another Barbie house with the packaging.

Another lesson learned! (Now the girls want to work for the other Barbies featured on the box! Here we go again!)

American Leaders in Washington DC

My friend Tonya sent me this picture because she knew I would truly appreciate this image.
It's not hard for one to imagine though, is it?

Jake Ryan vs. Gilbert Blythe

I just discovered this t-shirt at www.80steeshirts.com among others that are must-haves! Who didn't have a crush on Jake Ryan or Tom Cruise (Top Gun) in the 80s? Tom is out of the running for me (was it his Matt Lauer interview or Oprah's?) But I also had the biggest crush on Gilbert from Anne of Green Gables movies. *sigh* I've just signed up for Facebook yesterday and looking over old classmates from high school as well as joined some of the fans of...clubs and that's when I ran across this shirt from Sixteen Candles. They have another one with the picture of them about to kiss over her birthday cake (my favorite scene that I used to rewind over and over) and is the same pictured elsewhere on this blog. Happy memories from some old chick flicks in my previous life!

Happy New Year 2009!