SPT: Give Me a Break

I have been hitting the trails again now that spring is here--my favorite form of therapy. Today was just a stroller walk but I've been running (wogging, really) on my favorite trails and I am determined to feel like a runner again. Sigh.

Running is my natural Prozac.

The trail of zen.

(go to Lelly's blog to join in on the Self Portrait Tuesday fun!)
Lelly, you're Lelly-licious! xoxo

Deck Me.

{Secret Note to Self: This post shall take no longer than 10 minutes to write. No more 90-min long posting! You will be finished by 11:30pm or you will run 15 extra punishment minutes tomorrow morning. In the cold.}

Below is the non-secret portion of today's post.

As of three days ago, I have begun decking the halls. It is a compulsion for me to begin the minute after Halloween is over.

I admit that as I answered doors to trick-or-treaters (a grand total of 3--story to follow in a coming post), the Christmas storage bins were waiting in the wings--brought up from the basement but hidden behind a closed door.

I have been secretly listening to Christmas music since the first chill in the air. I have been grinning-and-bearing my way through Halloween and will now reward myself with lights and glitter and garland and (cue the Sesame Street Grover Voice).....sprinkles!
Sweetie Jack was given a candy cane to keep him satisfied and subdued while Mimi & I dove into the frenzy. This was Mantle Decor, Day 1. I've been dreaming up a white & silver mantle, so I started with a huge silver frame and added a white feather boa. The frame has been in my basement Frame Stash for who-knows-how-long (that is an interchangeable term for "approximately how long I've been married"). The boa was from Mimi's chicken halloween costume 3 years ago.

While impatiently waiting for a socially acceptable time to Deck the Halls, I've been avariciously reading The Nester. She opened my eyes to shopping the house and using what you have to decorate, so I've been looking at all my stashes with new appreciation.

Below: I added lights and a few jars filled with white snowball-y looking ornaments. This is all stuff I had from my Endless Christmas Bins.

Mimi has been waiting all year to decorate this little white tree. Well, actually not. As my fingers were typing that sentence my subconscious self remembered the day in June I found Mimi & the cilantro-partner-in-crime decorating the tree with all my blown glass candy ornaments. *&$#@!%!! Seriously. With an fair amount of broken glass on the cement floor.

But she got a second chance and did a good job. {I am now 8 minutes past my deadline. Crap. Why can't I be a fast writer?}

I'm pretty sure she's got visions of sugarplums already.

Here is the mantle about halfway into the process.

The candy cane sugar rush did not deter Jack from going to bed. Here is the little mama about to take him upstairs. Isabelle loves to put him to bed, snuggle him in, arrange his blankies just so around his face, pet his feathers and say goodnight to him.


A day later, I added the mirror--also from the basement. Everything is just kind of thrown up there, but it sparkles so I like it. I'm going to do a fun candy theme on the upstairs mantle where the kids congregate, and I'm not sure about the mantle in my room. I'm just glad we are here in this house to see another Christmas, so I'm having fun making it cozy. We've got a tenuous grip on life with even more tenuous finances. I plan to drown my sorrows in sprinkles.

{20 minutes past the deadline...I'm going to be so sore tomorrow from punishment minutes.}

***Edited to add: Post finished at 11:55pm. Dangit.

I've Switched my Running Persona

I went running outside last Saturday and as I was leaving the house Mike said, "You look like Hancock!" He was totally right! You may remember from this post, this post, this post, this post, this post and this post that I've said before I am a Forrest Gump runner. Well now I think I may be a Hancock runner. If only I could run like Hancock. Alas, my running style more closely resembles Izzie Mandelbaum:

Even running as slow as Izzie, I was proud of myself for dragging my thunder-thighs out on a VERY public street. I pulled my hat way down & told myself no one could tell who I was. After a very long time, I stumbled up this wee little hill--more of an incline, really--and staggered into my car and thought, "HOW AM I GOING TO DO A HALF MARATHON IN 8 WEEKS???" I'm an idiot. Heaven help me. "Run, Crystal Run!" (said in Forrest-esque voice)On another note, I've been uncharacteristically unproductive lately; I just kind of stumble through my day in a daze of survival. My to-do list doesn't get one thing checked off and my structure feels...well, just off. I'm really going to strive to get back on my game this week. I was thinking today how I need to be blogging more consistently. I view my blog primarily as a journal & documentation of my family's life, yet I only write once a week. That's no good. So my goal is to post daily for a month and see if that gets me in the habit. I like looking back and seeing the little day-to-day details that make my life mine.

Details like this:Isabelle reading to Jack. (Or Baby Joe, depending on who you are in the house.)


Mimi making Baby laugh with her silly dances.


Max & Jack, chillin'.


Baby fell asleep while Mimi & I were doing school.


Jack's cute little button-nose profile.


First solid food!

Mimi modeling her long "dog ears."
That's what we call pigtails in our house.

Goodnight.
Sleep tight, everyone.

"I like running because it's a challenge. If you run hard, there's the pain--and you've got to work your way through the pain. You know, lately it seems all you hear is? 'Don't overdo it' and 'Don't push yourself.' Well, I think that's a lot of bull. If you push the human body, it will respond."

- Bob Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers general manager, NHL Hall of Fame.

Euphoria

This morning I drove up to my secret trail and ran for longer than I thought I could. (no official time, no official distance....remember, I'm a Forrest Gump runner!) I did not run on the Beast of a Trail--do you think I'm crazy?!? I went to my little, mellow, sloping up-&-down trail--location undisclosed. I admit I was a little creeped out because NOBODY was up the canyon at that time of the morning. Who was going to save me from bears? I'm thinking I will stick to my irrigation canal path due to the following:
* Bears
* Bruises on the balls of my feet (i don't have trail shoes!)
* Bears
* It's November & it's freezing at 8500 feet altitude!
* Bears
* My secret path will be covered in snow in about 5 days
* Bears

This is me snapping a phone-photo so that I could prove to myself that I ran today. It is my theory that having pictorial evidence of exercise increases the satisfaction by 80%. (This is not physiological, mind you.) I'm trying to smile in this picture as I run, but I'm huffing & puffing so hard through my smile that I look like I'm baring my teeth & growling! Maybe the bears should be scared of ME.

Gasp! Heave! (and maybe a little bit of Hurl)

Hoo Boy. This afternoon I headed back to my new favorite running trail, the North Fork Road in the canyon. I was eager to run farther than I did on Friday and headed up today sans family.

Um, the trail is a tad bit steeper the farther up the canyon you go. Imagine. On Friday, my sweetly perfectly sloping trail looked like this:
And today, as I explored farther, it turned into THIS beast of a road: (!!!)It doesn't look like much in the two photos, but I assure you that IT WAS. I barely dragged my butt up and certainly didn't make it to the top. There were many off-road motorists ($#@%&) who were, for the most part (fie upon you, white Suburban!), very courteous to moi on foot.

I was gasping for breath in great gulps of air and finally gave in around Dutchman Flat. And I'm not going to reveal any names, but someone almost hurled. It was at that point that I decided to turn around and run down, trying very hard not to lose control on the downhill and run like Phoebe.

Bliss

Yesterday's run was up North Fork Canyon and it was a true delight. I left my house with my brain bouncing in my skull like the cube on The Office screensaver and returned after-run happy and peaceful. This is the best running path! I can't wait to go back today!(photo courtesy of utahmountainbiking.com)

I dragged the whole fam up with me because I didn't know how deserted and freaky it would be, so I couldn't run as long as I wished. This surprised me, because on the website it is described as a road with "a steady climb that requires a bit of muscle and stamina." Woot! I came home proud of myself. (And I think there may have been more bionic tissue forming on the iron lung...) The return run is mostly downhill, which is hard on my shinsplints so I had to run even slower than my usual grandma-shuffle. This is now one of my very favorite running paths; it is so gorgeous. While I'm shuffling, I have God's grandeur all around. I hope to get back this afternoon and go for a longer session! The ward halloween party is at 6pm though; I don't know if that leaves me enough time to get back home and shower, get ready, etc. Should I go as Forrest Gump?

Woot!

Yesterday I took advantage of the *perfect* October weather and went for a run. I ran and ran and ran and never got tired! (70 mins!) I felt invincible! I think I formed an iron lung whilst running in the high altitude last weekend, where I was at 8500 ft altitude for 1 hour, uphill half the time. So when I went for my run yesterday, I just kept runnin' like my hero Forrest Gump.

Of course, not tiring may also be due to the fact that I go at an inordinately slow pace. And yes. I had my phone with me. You may roll your eyes. I like to take it on this rather remote and lonely trail; it gives me a false sense of security. Alarmingly, I was also texting myself notes for my blog since I now compose posts in my head all day.I need to learn how to operate my ipod without stopping dead in my tracks, so I was practicing and came within a foot of running right INTO the irrigation canal! No kidding.At one point, I was doing my signature shuffle-run and got swamped by the high school women's cross-country team. They rushed around me on all sides and blew me around like a leaf. The coach was at a crossroads timing them and I told him this was going to give me a complex. Then I shuffled off.This is the amazing view! I love this running path. Lately, whenever I feel like my head's going to explode from stress and worry, I throw on my running shoes and just GO. If I push my body hard enough, my brain stops jangling.

This is the next place I'll be going, hopefully this week:
This lovely spot is called the "Julie Andrews Meadow." That's its official name! Looks like something straight out of that breathtaking scene from "Room With a View."

These are not my photos, thus, the bike. I don't have the leg muscles required for biking!

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn."
- John Muir


I'm suspecting that going on a run twice in a day is slightly overkill, but this afternoon I needed nature's peace to flow into me. I drove to my secret running path up the canyon, as seen in the first two pictures. The last two pictures are from the drive on the way down. Not bad for a phone camera!

(p.s. my legs hurt.)

A Forrest Gump Moment

Here are some photos of my mid-morning run. I slept through my early alarm and woke up barely in time to get Max & Isabelle to school! So Mike watched Mimi & worked at home while I went to the gym. I was driving home, couldn't resist the weather, parked and jumped out of my car to run one of my favorite routes. I had my camera in my jacket pocket. You can see in one of the pictures that I darted out into the street & snapped a quick one.

Today's Therapy

Had to slip out this morning for a dose of therapy. Seems like lately I'm only tranquil when I'm doing my morning workout. And the earlier I workout the better, because I'm more braindead! I liked how the sunrise was glowing pink on the mountain across the valley.
This is my favorite running path. It goes on and on and ON. I forgot my ipod today! Quelle horror! I was forced to run to the singing of birds and peaceful sound of quietude. Surprisingly, I liked it.

Meditation

And that was this morning's run!