Colorado Baby Shower

My friends threw me an amazing baby shower last Saturday! I felt so loved and blessed.

Because of the snowstorm, we moved the shower from our church to my friend Carrie’s house. The roads weren’t bad at all, which made me happy since we had been unsure of whether to postpone the shower until the next day.

All of the decorations were so cute – and my friends made them!

There was more food – I just took this picture before everyone had arrived.

Is that not the coolest cake you’ve ever seen? LOVE IT.

They even bought us Biscuit books, since that’s what we call Emma.

We played 3 games:

1) Guess the number of jellybeans in the bottle. The best part about this game was that I got to take the bottle home! Mmm… sugar.

2) Guess how many ounces of water a newborn diaper will hold before leaking. I guessed 9 oz, and the answer was 10. I ended up winning that game! (which I kind of felt bad about, since I was already getting so many gifts! but they insisted… and I could tell the gift was Toblerone and who am I to turn down chocolate?)

3) Tear a baby out of paper. I got to choose the winner. There were a lot of great choices, but I had to go with Sue’s baby because she included a teddy bear:

Once again, Travis and I were so blessed by the generosity – we got more baby bath/hygiene stuff, soft pillows and blankets, pictures for the nursery, crib and pack n play linens, books, adorable outfits… the list goes on. We even received a few gifts after the shower from people who weren’t able to make it. I plan to post a nursery tour soon and you’ll get to see a lot of the great stuff people gave us then – and how I re-purposed the shower decorations too!

The wonderful ladies:

So much fun!! Thanks everyone for celebrating this special time with us!

The blessing continued yesterday at work – my co-workers threw a small shower for me (aka, ice cream cake in a conference room) and gave us the stroller we registered for! I am very grateful for everything, and really overwhelmed by how generous people have been. Emma is a very blessed little girl already.

 

Minnesota Baby Shower

A week ago, I flew out to Minnesota for a baby shower. I got in around 3:30 pm on Friday and we had some time to kill before having dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. I was still searching for a shirt to wear for maternity pictures so we went to Macy’s at Southdale Mall. Their maternity selection was awesome! It was about three times as big as the maternity selection at the Macy’s in Denver. I found 3 shirts I liked – one I wore for the shower that weekend and another I’ll wear for maternity pictures in Florida. And with that, I think I’m done maternity shopping. Thank goodness.

My parents and I had dinner with my brother and SIL at a restaurant called Faces and then we drove up to their cabin about an hour north of the Cities. We stopped at the grocery store on the way and even though I was exhausted by the time we got to the cabin, we turned on the first episode of Downton Abbey (my parents haven’t seen it). I slept through pretty much the whole thing.

The next day, we slept in until 9 and then had French toast for breakfast. It’s especially delicious when you put blueberry pie filling on top. Mmm… Then we just hung out. I helped my mom put together a simple website for her business (using WordPress), we ate lunch, picked up the centerpiece and groceries for the shower on Sunday, got a pedicure, and then ate dinner at Pizza Pub in Pine City.

Sunday morning, my mom woke me up at 7 am because we had an issue – the cabin plumbing had frozen where it leaves the house, meaning we couldn’t use the shower or toilet. Enter Plan B. Luckily, my brother is nice and was willing to let us take showers at his place. So we packed up all our stuff, grabbed breakfast at McDonald’s and hit the road.

After getting ready at Chris’ house, my dad drove my mom and I to Travis’ aunt’s house where the shower was. It had started snowing/sleeting and there was a lot of slush built up on the road, making the drive a little sketchy. We started to wonder if people would decide not to come, or if we should even cancel the shower. But that seemed so sad since I had flown out just for the shower. So we decided to play it by ear.

An hour later, the snow was really coming down:

I think it ended up snowing around 5-6 inches, which isn’t too bad for Minnesota, but it was the slush that made the roads so treacherous. Nonetheless, everyone who RSVP’ed for the shower showed up, minus 4 of my college friends and one of Travis’ aunt’s. I was very appreciative to everyone for venturing out in such weather! My aunt Sharyn even drove all the way from Rochester (about 2 hours away)!

Once everyone had arrived, we had some coffee and punch while chatting and then played games. For the first ‘game’, everyone had to say their name, how they knew me and give me either parenting advice or a story. There were lots of great suggestions!

The next game, my mom had packed my diaper bag full of essentials for a newborn to 3 month old and we had to guess what they were. Whoever guessed the most won. I got a lot of good ideas from the answers, but didn’t even get close. My friend Brittany, who isn’t a mom herself, actually tied with my cousin-in-law Laura (a new mom herself) for the most right!

Another game we played was matching things in our purse to the first letters of Emma Grace. Brittany and my aunt Sharyn won that one!

The final game we played was a word scramble – all the words related to baby stuff. It was actually pretty tough! It didn’t help that my brain seemed to have stopped working.

After the games, we went upstairs and dug into the goodies.

Gourmet cupcakes from Cupcake in St. Paul

The candy bar

The awesome diaper cake (made out of diapers, so it’s not edible) that my MIL made – she did a great job! I even brought it back to use at my Colorado baby shower in March.

We also had cucumber sandwiches (one of my favorites), cheese and crackers, fruit and dip, and a delicious, easy punch – raspberry sherbet and ginger ale. Try it.

Once we were full, it was time to open gifts! My very generous family and friends gave Travis and I lots of great stuff, including:

Diapers

A cross-stitched blanket made by one of Travis’ aunts

Plus a carseat, diaper pail, pack-n-play, swing, bath tub, baby outfits, blankets, baby monitor, baby bath stuff, and some picture frames for the nursery. I was able to fit everything in the two suitcases I had brought along, minus a box of diapers, the diaper pail and the bath tub (the other big things were shipped directly to our house). My parents will bring the stuff that I left behind with them when they drive out when Emma is born. We won’t need it before then anyway.
The group

By the time we said goodbye to everyone and packed everything up, it was past dinnertime and we decided that driving all the way down to Rochester just to drive back up in the morning was a little ridiculous. So we rented a hotel room, had dinner with Chris and Meg again, and then hit the hay. I was so relieved to not have to sit in a car for a couple of hours. My back was hurting. (Though I know a lot of it is my own fault – I have even worse posture pregnant than I normally do!)

The next morning, I was able to meet up with my 4 college friend who hadn’t been able to make the shower on Sunday. We met up at Panera and it was so fun to see them and their kids!

It was a little more chaotic than the previous day’s shower but all our church friends have kids, so Travis and I are pretty used to the mayhem. It was so much fun to see my college friends. My friend Jen gave me handmade burp clothes, plus a bunch of other baby stuff. Katie gave me a really cute little outfit, Samm bought us loads of diapers, and Holly gave me stuff for breastfeeding plus baby care. We’re getting closer to having everything we need!

After everyone left, we had an awkward amount of time to kill. My mom and I shopped for some baby clothes at Carter’s next door (so much fun!) and then we just hung out at Panera until it was time to go to the airport. Despite the weather, my flight was on time and the airport was pretty much dead, so it was a breeze checking my bags and getting through security. I arrived back in Denver around 6 pm.

It was a great trip! My parents made the weekend so special, and it was fun spending time just the 3 of us, knowing that it’ll probably be the last time for a very long time!

………………….

Speaking of trips, Travis and I leave for Florida this coming Sunday!! I probably won’t be posting much (or at all) the week that we’re gone, but I’ll be back with lots of pictures and stories once we’re back.

 

4th Annual Camping Trip

This past weekend was our 4th Annual Care Group Camping Trip (at our church, we call small groups ‘care groups’). Just like last year, we went up to Twin Lakes on Friday night and stayed until mid-morning Sunday. And just like the past 3 years, a good time was had by all. Travis and I are really blessed to have such great friends.

We accidentally brought along our smallest tent so it was a tight squeeze with 2 people + 2 dogs but we made it work. And it actually turned out really well because our tent got really warm at night and I slept great. Usually when we go camping, I sleep horribly because I’m freezing all night and can’t wait until it’s light outside. This time, we slept in until after 7 both mornings!

Rocks and dirt provide an endless source of amusement for boys.

Lots of marshmallows were roasted.

Saturday morning, we drove up Independence Pass and hiked a little at the top (Travis went fly fishing instead).

Gorgeous views.

I love wildflowers (darn that camera strap sneaking in there!).

After lunch back at camp, I read The Autobiography of George Muller for a couple of hours. I would’ve loved a nap but it was too hot in the tent.

Then we hiked the Colorado Trail down to the lake.

Boys love throwing rocks into the water.

Charlie was pooped! Katy was hot.

After dinner, a roasted marshmallow got a little out of control…

Charlie made a new friend, Logan, who also loves to play rough. They played for hours the first night and again some more on Sunday morning (Saturday, Charlie was too tired from our hikes to play.) Doesn’t she look ferocious in this picture?

Sunday morning, we had a little worship time.

Then we took a group shot (even though some of the group left early), packed up and headed home.

Good times!

11 Things

I was tagged by Candice from Forever is Composed of Nows for the blog-tagging extravaganza of the year. So here goes:

RULES

1. Post these rules.

2. You must post 11 random things about yourself.

3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.

4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.

5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.

6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

11 random things about myself:

1. I ice skated for two years and got to skip the “Snowplow” levels because I had awesome skills good balance.
2. I am horrible at remembering what year or age things happened in my life. The ice skating? Maybe 5^th and 6^th grade?
3. I once ate an entire Chipotle burrito and a banana split from DQ in one sitting.
4. My favorite thing to get at DQ is a Blue Raspberry Mister Misty Float.
5. I ended up with a bloody foot on my first date with my now-husband (from a rogue flipflop).
6. I laugh every time they say “Rogue Robots” on Wall-E.
7. My favorite movie genre is animated.
8. I refuse to join Pinterest, Daily Mile and Twitter. It’s the principle of the matter.
9. I refused to join Facebook for 5 years and then caved in 2009. ;(
10. I still secretly want the outfit matcher Alicia Silverstone had in Clueless.

11. I hated sushi the first several times I ate it, but now I love it.

11 Questions from Forever is Composed of Nows:

1. What is your biggest and/or hardest goal for 2012? Finishing my book? Running a marathon? Getting pregnant? Time will tell…

2. Vegetarian or Meat-eater? Meat-eater but I don’t really like meat and could give it up in a heartbeat. But my hubby’s a hunter and we have a freezer full of meat.

3. Would you rather write something down with pen/paper or on a computer/cell phone, etc? Depends on what I’m writing. I journal and make to-do lists on actual paper, but when I’m actually writing thoughts and need to edit/revise/delete, I will always choose a computer. I hate typing on my phone.

4. Dog or cat person? Dog but I love animals.

5. What is your favorite season and why? Fall – nothing beats a brisk fall day with leaves changing color.

6. If you could live anywhere other than the place you currently live, where would you live?  Minnesota.

7. Do you prefer Facebook over Twitter or vis versa? I don’t have Twitter and only go on Facebook once a week, maybe. So neither?

8. What is the longest run/race/workout you have ever done? 14 mile run, 30 mile bike run (not on the same day)

9. If you could only read one book over and over, which one would it be? The Bible

10. What is the biggest risk you have ever taken? Moving to Denver without a job

11. What motivated you to start blogging? Wanting to get better at writing.

I tag the following: Winners Wear Yellow, Chic Runner, Diary of a Slow Runner, The Runner’s Plate, She Collects, B. in the Know, Butler: Party of 2, True Things, Cow Spots and Tales, Enjoying the Journey, run.around.aroo

My 11 questions:

1. What do you think is the most annoying blog trend?
2. What is one thing you wish you liked, but just don’t?
3. How long were you friends with your best childhood friend?
4. How many blogs do you read on a consistent basis?
5. What’s your favorite fro-yo topping?
6. Did you go to college? If so, where and why that school?
7. What’s your all-time favorite TV show?
8. Did you have an invisible friend growing up?
9. Is there any social media that you refuse to adopt?
10. What is one thing you see other people doing that makes you say, “You couldn’t pay me enough”?
11. What is the first thing you do when you get up in the morning?

Remember to tag 11 more people to keep the blog chain going!

Five Randos

1. I had my second physical therapy appointment this morning. I was dreading it because I thought I was going to be get poked with needles (I even had a blog post title of “Pins and Needles” thought up). But luckily, since I told the therapist that my lower back felt fine still, he said he would leave it alone. Woohoo!

But I still had plenty of unpleasantness to deal with. I told him that my upper back between my shoulder blades was still sore/tight so he cracked that area again, along with my neck, and then proceeded to massage/poke/pull my shoulder and upper back tendons as I turned my head to one side, then the other. That hurt. A lot. Not like the sharp pain of a needle but a deep muscle-y pain – like how your tight IT band feels when you massage when it with a foam roller. My shoulders are sore now, which he said might happen.

He also showed me some exercises I could do to strengthen my lower back and hips. I’ll demonstrate and post them soon, since they’re beneficial for all runners/athletes.

What I’ll demonstrate now is how to lower your keyboard:

With a keyboard tray! It took me until this morning to realize I could push the tray in (I just had it installed yesterday). Before, it was sticking out from the desk by about 8 inches. At that rate, I was going to need glasses from squinting.

Anyway, lowering my keyboard will prevent me from shrugging my shoulders so much – your upper arms should be perpendicular to the floor when sitting at your desk.

2. Lots of TV time this weekend. Tomorrow is the Olympic Marathon Trials coverage (2-4 pm MST – we’re the same as central) and the Broncos game. Go Tebow! I might have to go buy a Broncos shirt tonight…

Sunday, I will be watching My Fair Wedding because fellow blogger Danica’s wedding will be on. It’ll be cool to finally see everything she hasn’t been able to show on her blog.

But I’ll balance that TV time out with two runs – my long run of 7 miles on Saturday and my tempo run of 4 miles on Sunday (moved from yesterday because I ate too much for dinner and would have puked if I tried to run…one of those days).

3. I seem to be a running anomaly. I’ve input several times into the McMillan Running Calculator: my half marathon PR back in 2007, my most recent 5K time, and my most-likely-never-to-be-duplicated 5 mile run in the Denver RnR Half Mary Relay. Those times are all over the board and produce quite the varied results.

With the 3 different times, my predicted marathon finish time could be (respectively):

5:17:58

5:20:24

4:54:08

I’ll take the last one, thankyouverymuch.

Also according to the calculator, my long runs should be run at a pace around 12:45 to 13:15 per mile. Lately, I’ve been comfortably running, without challenge, an easy pace of 11:15/mile for my long runs. But apparently, that should be the pace for my tempo intervals, which I’ve been running at a 9:55 or 10:00 pace (those paces aren’t even on the chart).

So I’ve concluded that while the running calculators may give me a ballpark of +/- 30 minutes for my marathon time, I should just use my long runs as a judge for my goals (and obviously the runs that are closer to the marathon distance, not the 8 miler I just did last Saturday). I’m also planning on doing Yasso 800s for my speedwork during Weeks 10-16 of my marathon training plan. It’d be cool if it really works to predict your marathon time (click the link to read more details).

4. I’ve been waiting for Friday all week long. Regardless, when I woke up this morning, I was surprised that it was already Friday. Which means I have to clean my house because we’re having people over for the game tomorrow.

5a. My favorite lunch as of late has been big salads, thanks to my friends leafy romaine lettuce and Caesar croutons. If it weren’t for those two, I wouldn’t be eating salads. They have changed my life. (For some reason, I get sick of spinach every now and again and won’t eat it to save my life…unless it’s in a smoothie.)

Yeah, I scrimped a little too much on the lettuce for that salad… but I also eat the lettuce first and this was halfway through the salad.

5b. We got new dinnerware for Christmas from my parents. The dishes we got for our wedding were really cute ones from Target but since I am a dish-breaker by trade, we only had 4 big plates left and all of our bowls (minus 2) had giant chips out of them. We are really enjoying our new dishes. Thanks Mom and Dad!

They are the Platzgraff Java pattern.

It’s even prettier in person. They’re still on sale at Shopko if you need new dishes!

What’s your favorite thing for lunch? Do the running calculators predict your speeds correctly?

A Christmas Trifle

I got to start my Christmas weekend early by leaving work at 1:30 on Friday – there was hardly anyone in the office and I had nothing to do. So why stick around?

I stopped by Walgreen’s on my way home to buy ingredients for what I prefer to call Triple Decker Brownies (call me old-fashioned) and happened to see the cutest sparkly pink nail polish (called A Cut Above). So I spent the afternoon watching Lifetime Christmas movies and painting my nails.

That manicure lasted a whole 6 days.

Friday night, we had dinner and played Catch Phrase with our friends D and Doug. D and I dominated Catch Phrase by winning every single round.

For dessert, we had lefsa (a Norwegian tortilla made out of potatoes – we warm up them up and top with butter and sugar) and Chocolate Angel Food Trifle. I had attempted to make Chocolate Rolled Angel Cake… I even took pictures of combining the ingredients (box of angel food cake + cocoa ) and whipping the angel food batter into a poofy mess with my pretty white Kitchenaid mixer. I had the parchment paper in the pan. I had the baked cake upended onto a towel dusted with powdered sugar and rolled up all pretty. I had my whipping cream whipped, with what I would imagine were stiff peaks.

But then I made my crucial error. I was making this cake the day before we were going to eat it. The recipe said that you could only refrigerator the assembled cake for 6 hours so I decided to wait to assemble it until the next day.

The next afternoon, after I had painted my nails sparkly pink, I unrolled the towel and found that the cake was stuck to it. I tried to gently unpeel it and the innermost curl broke off. No biggie, I thought. I’ll somehow reassemble it. I painted a white stripe of melted whipped cream down the biggest chunk. But it wasn’t going to work. I couldn’t even get the big piece of the cake off the towel.

Ok, on to Plan B. I knew that the combination of the delicious angel food cake (I had sampled it), raspberries and whipped cream was going to be delicious, no matter what way I served it. So I decided to make a trifle instead.

I tore the sticky, gooey angel food cake into bite-sized pieces and placed them at the bottom of a large decorative bowl (I don’t have a trifle dish). Then I sprinkled on half of the raspberries and a layer of cool whip – I had discovered that my whipping cream was more of a liquid at this point than a cream so I used a small tub of cool whip I happened to have on hand. I repeated those layers one time – cake, raspberries, cool whip. And I topped the trifle with a few reserved raspberries. Voila! A Christmas trifle. And it was absolutely delicious, even if it wasn’t was I had initially planned.

Have you ever had a recipe go awry? How did you salvage it?

A White Christmas in Denver!

Well, it definitely snowed! Last night, when I got home from my women’s group, I told Travis that we should go on a walk in the snow. So we did.

I love going for walks in the snow.

So do the pooches.

We were very snowy by the time we got back. It’s still snowing this afternoon and so far, we’ve gotten about a foot. It was a little hairy driving to work today (because CDOT only has 75 plows for the entire Denver metro area!) but we made it! I was sooo tempted to call in because there’s hardly anyone here today (and there will be even fewer tomorrow!) but our VP ordered in lunch from Qdoba for us, which was nice and fun. Tomorrow is going to draaaaggg by though.

…………………………………..

On a brighter note, this weekend is Christmas!

I am so ready for some time to relax, hang out with Travis and friends, and eat delicious food! This is what we have planned so far:

• Dinner and a movie with friends Friday night (Christmas Eve Eve)
• Dinner with friends and their family on Christmas Eve
• Special breakfast and dinner on Christmas day, just the two of us
• Church on Christmas morning
• Relaxing on the day after Christmas, before we go back to work

We haven’t decided when we’re going to open presents yet, but my vote is Christmas Eve morning – then we don’t have to wait!

Other than going grocery shopping tonight after work, I’m all ready for Christmas, which has meant a very relaxing, enjoyable week. It’s been so nice to drive home, knowing that I can go lay on the couch the minute I walk in the door, instead of running around doing errands or workouts.

I was just thinking yesterday as I drove home, that taking this week off from training was probably the best decision I could’ve made. Instead of stressing out over how to fit all my workouts in and wondering how I’ll ever manage with marathon training, I’ve been building up excitement and anticipation and will start marathon training ready to tackle the beast of 26.2.

The slower pace has also allowed me time to reflect on the amazing-ness of Christmas and quiet my heart, which is what I’ve been wanting! Come, Lord Jesus!

What are your plans for Christmas? Are you done with preparations?

Christmas Festivities, in Pics

I finally remembered my camera! So here are the pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Christmas Tea

I found these picture holders at Kohl’s for less than $4 each. These were the guest gifts.

Christmas Decorations

Same as last year

Our mini tree

Christmas Carol 5k

Sweet shorts, huh? (Thanks for the pics D!)

About the race…

It was being held in City Park and didn’t start until 9 so we met D and Doug at our house around 7:45. We got down to the race site a little after 8, parked, got our bib and stood around drinking coffee. The temperature was in the high 20s but besides my feet, I wasn’t really cold at all. Ten minutes to 9:00, we did a quick 1/4 mile warm up and stretched – but we didn’t start running until 9:13. Since I went out too fast last year and ended up walking in the middle to catch my breath, my goal for the race was to do negative splits and beat my time from last year (33:40).

Finally, we were off. For the first mile, I focused on maintaining even breathing and even though we had to weave around people, I tried to not be too ambitious. We reached the first mile marker at 11:03. I was a little bummed because it felt like we were running faster than that, but I was happy that if I maintained that pace (which felt doable), I would definitely beat my time.

The second mile started off with a nice little downhill stretch and a run by the Denver Zoo. It ended with a brutal uphill stretch. But because I was running with Travis and D and didn’t want to fall behind, I kept pushing, telling myself that it would be downhill in a bit. We reached mile 2 at 21:15 – a 10:18 pace. So that’s why I feel ready to collapse. Seeing that motivated me to keep pushing, even though I felt completely out of breath.

The third mile was a mental battle. Just like during the Rock n Roll Relay, I keep telling myself that the pride and accomplishment of setting a new PR will be worth the next 10 minutes of agony. Finally, I could see the finish line. We passed the third mile marker around 31:45. As we got within 100 feet of the finish, I actually felt a little dizzy/nauseous. We crossed the finish at 32:52 – a 10:36 pace. Even though my time is still pretty slow, I feel good that I really pushed myself. The only bad part about this PR is that now I have to run even faster to beat it!

We were funneled into a chute, where the race timers were collecting the tags off our bibs. We were a little confused at how they determined the times that way, since there were 2 chutes, but oh well. We grabbed some water and bagels, our goodie bags, stretched a bit and headed over to Denny’s, where I had their new Bread Pudding French Toast. It was pretty good – not as good as real bread pudding, but close.

As for the race itself…

I thought that A Christmas Carol Classic (5k/10k) was a fairly well-organized race for its first year. There were 425 runners in the 5k and 264 in the 10k – impressive for an inaugural event. They had a lot of volunteers telling people where to park, registration/check-in was organized and quick, and they had coffee and pastries for runners before the start. The goodie bags were pretty decent (they included chocolate milk), they had bagels at the finish, and the course was well-marked (though the markings were sometimes hard to see because of the crowd). The race also sponsored the Denver Children’s Home, which I liked.

But I think it would be better if they used chip timing. My official time was 33:43 (40/82 AG, 193/425 overall) but I don’t feel like it took me almost a minute to cross the start line. And because D ducked under the rope into the other finish chute because the line was shorter, her time was recorded as 34:09 even though she crossed at the exact same time as we did (granted it was her fault, but that’s the downfall of bib tag timing!).

Also, even though the website said something about having carolers out on the course, they didn’t. (They did have them at the finish, which was nice.) I wish that we would’ve gotten more race swag for our $30 (like a shirt, towel, medal or something) – you could buy a shirt for $15 but they weren’t that cute. I just hope that most of our race fee went to the charity.

Finally, if I had been doing the 10k, I would have been a little annoyed. They started at the same time as the 5k and just did 2 laps of the same course. So the 5kers were finished and leaving while the 10kers were still running and we were actually walking on the course to get back to our cars.

But overall, I enjoyed the race and would do it again. I like that the course is all in City Park, so you don’t have to worry about traffic or sidewalks.

……………………………..

We’re heading back down to City Park tonight for Zoolights at the Denver Zoo – we’ve never been and apparently, it’s pretty cool!

Have you gone or are going to any holiday lights shows?

Training Recap: 12/12 – 12/18

Aside from several hours on Saturday spent freaking out and raging on my poor husband, I actually had a very wonderful, relaxing weekend.

Friday, after shopping and partying with my co-workers, I went home at 3 – which was very helpful to my Christmas shopping! I stopped at Massage Envy on my way home to buy a Christmas present and then at Walmart to see if they had tulle that I could use to make a tutu for the race. Instead, I found some sweet-o boxers for both me and Trav – elf for me, Santa for him. (I’m lucky to have a husband willing to dress up with me.) Travis got home from work early too so we got to work wrapping presents and preparing gifts for mailing. We also finally baked our sugar cookies and figured out our race outfits.

Saturday, the race was a lot of fun. I’ll tell more details later… but I will say that I finished in 32:52, which is 48 seconds faster than last year! I will also say that 5K is my least favorite racing distance ever.

The rest of Saturday was spent by me freaking out about all the stuff I had to do: make an elk roast for dinner, go grocery shopping, buy one last present, mail/ship all Christmas presents, clean the house, and take a nap (ha!), all in 5.5 hours. And you know what? I did it. But not in style. Or niceness. Better luck next time.

After a short 30 minute “nap,” we had friends over for dinner, which was very fun and worth cleaning for. Shortly after they left at 8:45, I read for a while and went to bed.

Sunday morning, I read before church – I started Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts. Oh.my. I cried reading the first chapter AND have already called back to mind several things I read. I fully expect this to become one of my favorite books.

After church, we came home, ate lunch and napped/watched both the Packers and Broncos lose! Boo! (I am not a Packers fan BUT I will cheer for any team with a perfect record. I am now done cheering for them.) During the Broncos game, we took the dogs to the dog park for a bit and then drove up to Evergreen to get our skate on. I wish we would’ve remembered to bring Trav’s hockey sticks and a puck, but we didn’t. It was still fun skating around – Evergreen is a great place for skating. There’s a ton of ice space so you never feel crowded. But the ice was a little sketchy/ungroomed this time – maybe it’s not thick enough for the zamboni yet?

We ate dinner at The Woodcellar, a local bar/grill. Our food was absolutely delicious – I had the Hot Avocado Melt on Ciabatta bread with sweet potato fries. The fries were amazing. They had a seasoning similar to Arby’s curly fries. Mmmm… (And because Travis would give me crap about taking a picture of my food, you’ll have to use your imagination.)

Then we drove around our neighborhood looking at Christmas lights and what these houses lack in class, they make up for in quantity. The best most decorated house we saw:

It was seriously impressive how much they managed to fit in their yard. When I see houses decorated like this, I have 2 thoughts: Where do they store all that stuff? and How much money did they spend buying all that? 

When we got home, we attempted to watch Elf but weirdly, Travis was falling asleep after 20 minutes (that happens maybe 2 times a year)! So he went to bed and I stayed up for another 45 minutes before I figured I should probably go to bed – as today is Monday and all. Looking forward to two 4-day weeks coming up!

Now, on to the training recap:

Monday: Half mile repeats on track at Rec (4:14, 4:24, 4:30, 4:30) – 2.7 miles total

Lately, I’ve often been noticing that the thing holding me back from running faster is my lungs. That was definitely the case during this workout, as well as the 5k I did. Oh, silly little lungs.

Tuesday: P90X Yoga (1:20:00)

I almost made it all the way through the workout (it’s an hour and a half long), which is very exciting for me. The first time I ever did YogaX, I did the first 30 minutes and turned it off because I was so sore. This time, my shoulders were still a little sore the next day, but not bad at all. This is what I love about all exercise – seeing your body adapt and being able to do things you weren’t able to do before. The next thing I want to master in this workout are the balance poses after Warrior 3 (Standing Splits to Half Moon to Revolved Half Moon) – holy crap they’re hard!

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: 3.66 mile sleeprun (43:31, 11:53/mile)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 5k race (32:52, 10:36/mile)

Sunday: 45 min ice skating

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have canceled any formal workouts this week in honor of my mental sanity and a week of relaxation before marathon training starts in a week! I pretty much went straight from my triathlon schedule to my base-building schedule so I just want one week off from having to fit workouts in and then it’s go-time. It also works out that it’s Christmas this week. Although maybe it’s not so good, since I need exercise more than ever to cancel out all the extra treats I’m eating!

Back with pics tomorrow, I promise hope!

Christmas Festivities!

I tell ya, even when you try to not get too busy during the holiday season, it happens anyway.

Here’s our December lineup:

Nov 30: Operation Christmas Child (Ok, not December, but it’s related to Christmas!)

Dec 4-5: Minnesota trip

Dec 10: Christmas tea at church (set up in morning, tea in afternoon); baking sugar cookies, putting up Christmas decorations, and watching A Christmas Story (I’ve never seen it!) with Travis

Dec 11: Christmas party after church

Dec 17: Christmas Carol 5K in the AM; Dinner with friends in the PM

Dec 18: Going up to Evergreen as a birthday/Christmas/done-with-grad-classes celebration to go ice skating and have a nice dinner; hoping to watch another Christmas movie I’ve never seen like It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street (I know, it really is tragic that I haven’t seen these classics.)

Dec 20: Zoolights at the Denver Zoo after work with friends

And then it’s Christmas! Since we’re not going to be with family, I’m voting for just staying home to do a whole lot of cookie eating, movie watching, and game playing on Christmas instead of going to any big gathering. Relaxing sounds absolutely wonderful right now!

Even though we have lots of fun stuff planned, for some reason, it’s been harder for me to get into the Christmas spirit this year than others. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas and I don’t know why. It’s probably something to do with feeling exhausted from being on the go and also the fact that we still don’t have our Christmas decorations up! I’m really hoping to get that done tomorrow. In the midst of the frenzy, though, I am striving to keep my focus on experiencing and savoring this season, not just viewing it as one giant to-do list.

What fun things are you doing this holiday season?