The Postman Rang Thrice...

Actually, it was the postman ringing once...

The UPS driver ringing once...

And the FedEx guy ringing once.

I knew what was coming... and I was so excited when it came!

If you've been paying attention this past week, you know that my husband left me.

He went to France to work with an amazing photographer... on the beach... at a naturist place. He says he's coming back. I wonder, though. He did leave me with a pile of money and a credit card... for emergencies, he said. But possibly, quite possibly, it was hush money. Leave the wife home feeling secure and financially taken care of for just long enough ... so as not to arouse suspicions. Hmmmm.... I hadn't even thought of that until I started writing this post... 

Anyway...

He often buys things without checking in with me. Starbucks, a burrito here or there, a new wallet... a really nice camera... or two... or three... and all the crap that you need to really use a really nice camera... or two ... or three. Oh, and in the old days... all that film processing and developing and printing that went along with creating an awesome portfolio and shareable body of work. Right. 

Me... grocery shopping. New school clothes and shoes for the kids. Toilet paper. Those are the things I buy without checking in. Until this week.

Remember what I said the last time he went away?  While the husband's away, the wife will play. Only this time it wasn't playing = working out.

This time... I bought stuff.

a super sweet new camera!

A new running bra!

and a new Garmin!!!

Seven Wonders of the Boob World bra

aka the Juno bra from Moving Comfort

...in green!

I liked my blue one a lot... 

still plan to write a review of that awesome support system :)

Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-TX10

tiny, waterproof, dust-proof, shock-proof, takes good pictures and video...

perfect camera for a running mom on the go!

my doodoo phonecamera will have to deal with 

its neglect issues on its own.

Garmin Forerunner 305

timing, GPS thingy to let me know how far and how fast...

no more piecing together distances with google maps or by driving around in my car...

no more gauging my pace by how fast I went from my mailbox to the lightpost 

halfway around the development...

unless I want to do it that way... 

which I might :)

Add to those super cool arrivals, my silly game from yesterday that became my all-time, second most-viewed post in less than 24 hours, skyrocketing me to fame and fortune for all of 10 seconds, and it was like Christmas or my birthday or something. 

And I'll tell ya, after getting my goodies and some attention, I feel a whole lot better about holding down the fort. Even if the attention was super contrived :P

Have you gotten anything fun recently? Do you have any of these things? How do you like it?

Remember to enter my giveaway for the Hood to Coast Movie DVD... contest ends Monday!

And you can still play the Match the Rack game from Boobs I Follow... that one ends Tuesday. There will be prizes for the correct guessers!

Hump Day Happenings...

It is the biggest Hump Day ever... for me, that is.

Yes, it is Wednesday. Yes, that is Hump Day for everyone. But for me, today is the Hump Day of single parenting. I am very grateful that doing this all by my lonesome has a definite endpoint... and that the endpoint is near.

My husband has been gone for 5 days. In that time I have:

• not washed the skillet he fried fish in the night before he left. He made mention of the fact that it would still be dirty when he returned home...
• not washed the stupid plastic storage containers that can't be washed in the dishwasher...
• not folded any laundry... 
• let all the kids sleep in my room with me...
• oh, and not made the beds :P

What I have done:

• gone running twice
• ridden my bike three times
• done four P90X workouts (core, plyo, and stretchingx2)
• stayed up way too late
• watched a couple of really lame movies (and I am not picky about movies... so they were bad)
• rediscovered peanut butter mixed with vanilla ice cream

Working out has been a challenge. The kids exhaust me and there is no back-up. Single parents, you are amazing! My eleven days solo is such small potatoes compared to what you all do.

I should probably get my butt off the computer and get crackin' on some of this housework...

Or not.

Maybe there's a workout calling my name instead. All the kids are elsewhere. Woooo hoooo... moms gone wild... bust out the running shoes, charge up the iPod!

And remember to enter my Hood to Coast Movie DVD giveaway! Click here to check out the details!

And don't forget to use the promo code "nuunplatuun" at checkout when ordering Nuun online... save 25% on your purchase!

No more Pleasantville...

Friends who come visit me always remark on how my neighborhood looks like Pleasantville or the set from The Truman Show. Everything is "perfect"... manicured lawns, neatly-trimmed hedges, house colors all go well together, no cars up on blocks...

It always looks empty... except for the hired gardeners keeping the properties toeing the HOA's 'perfectness' line. My husband and I joke about how we never see anyone because they all are part of the Federal Witness Protection Program. In fact, I was so surprised to see evidence of life the other day that I took this picture... trash collection day and there are cans in front of every house! Trash=people, right?

I've written before about how this makes it feel safe to run at night. Sure, there is the olderwalkingcouple... hardly a threat. And once there was the hooptycarguy... but that concern was addressed. Since my husband left me... temporarily... my running and biking needs to happen at night. Usually not a problem. But as Murphy's Law would dictate, this past weekend night running saw its share of surprises!

Saturday was Dogs on the Loose and Party Central.

I started out with a run... and within moments was accosted by two free-roaming, yapping, fluffballs who almost took me out! They weren't biters, but they were trippers. Thankfully, I was able to leap over them. But after the last three weeks of mishaps, I was concerned :P A bit farther along, a very large, excited, and again, free-roaming golden retriever spied me running and wanted to 'engage.' I stopped dead in my tracks. As I said... after that series of silly mishaps, getting bowled over by a happy dog was the last thing I needed. Thinking The Force was working against me running that evening, I headed home and hopped on the bike.

Why did I think that would be safer? 

Some teenagers were having a kegger. Sharing the loop road on a bike with drunk kids driving cars... way safer than happy dogs... not. And then more dogs jumped out at me. All of this freaked me out. Maybe the fact that it was late (after 10 p.m.) and had been a long day played into that. I headed home and hopped into the shower.

Last night was single mommy hell before I even set foot out the door.

All the kids were going to have a slumber party in my room.

Why did I think that was going to work? 

After giving it an honest go, one person was banished... in tears, of course. Screaming, of course. And it wasn't me :P I needed to wait until the dust settled before I could start... 10:30. Yes, I went outside at 10:30 p.m. to get my workout on. You do what you gotta, right?

No one was out. It was awesome. I rode my bike the speed limit for 30 minutes. don't be too impressed... 15 mph  And then something surreal happened...

I decided to video it on the second pass instead of a taking a photo because I was worried the flash would startle him... sorry for the poor quality, but it was very low-light conditions....

I have no idea what was going on there. Maybe he was just getting his bike on, too? Maybe he wants a training partner? Maybe I should have followed him and asked?

***** dang it, that video is so dark you can hardly tell what it is... it is a guy riding a trike and wearing a headlamp!


***** and remember to enter my Hood to Coast DVD giveaway... click here! 

My husband left me...

For real.

see him?

 waving 'good-bye' to the wife and minivan full of children all screaming at and pinching and squishing and annoying each other and basically not paying attention to the fact that daddy is leaving... 

and do you see how he is smiling? 

Well, it is only temporary. In theory, anyway.

He went to France. I know... again, right? Yep... again. This time without us.

It is the trade-off for me getting to go run in the Hood to Coast Relay at the end of the month as a part of the awesome Nuun Platuun.

Sounds fair, right?

Eleven days on the west coast of France for him... on the beach with no phone or internet access... taking photographs with a fabulous artist and teacher... relaxation and creativity will abound... in exchange for four days in Oregon for me...40 hours in a van with 6 other people... sleeping sitting up or on the ground or not at all... eating out of a cooler or a paper bag... running a lot... winding up on the beach...

Hey!

We both get to go to the beach! Well, that makes it Even Steven!

Go ahead... you can say it....

I am the best wife ever.

Ehhhhh-VERRRRRRR.

Keeping the kids from driving me crazy... oh, wait... let me take responsibility for my feelings...

My Sanity Protection Program includes:

• older three kids in camp from 9-4 every weekday. YES! *fist-pull from the sky*
• two-year old in preschool three days from 9:30-3. Heck YEAH! *both arms thrust upward like I scored a fricken touchdown*
• physical therapy, massage, and acupuncture on those three two-year-old-less days
• working out while kids are out of the house and/or in bed at night
• going to bed early (this is the one that will be tricky for me :P)
• bribery

I think this plan may work. Nonetheless, it looks like I picked a tough week to kick crack.

Heading to the zoo this morning seemed like a good alternative to hard drugs and booze.

They didn't bicker the whole time...

But the joyful picture at the frog area was marred by this guy getting in the way...
yo, dude... I may just be shooting with a craptastic phone camera, but these are still my family's moments to record and cherish... look before you step in front of someone looking like they might be taking a picture.


Some moments were downright sweet...

Baby X and Miss C always seem to get along.

Big G is becoming a more engaged and kind big brother.

In some ways, his maturity blows me away.

Here he has just made the following painful observation,

"Gosh, there are so many ignorant people here!"

which was based primarily on the fact that the people clustering around the gibbon enclosure kept referring to the ape as a monkey...

and not so much on their general behaviors and conversation...

but still...

We went with a dear friend and her little girl who adores Baby X and is roughly the same age as Miss C.

She thoroughly enjoyed some surrogate big sibling time!

For awhile, our little friend had a blast playing this funny leg-kicking game with Big G and Baby X...

This prompted another very mature observation from Big G:

"Boy, she sure is a handful! I don't know how on earth her mom copes!"

I eagerly look forward to the day when these new, mature observations lead to a new, mature way of treating his younger siblings and helping out around the house :P

I just may survive this brief stint as a single mom.

Now if I could only figure out how to get Q-Man to stop screaming at me about his dessert... without resorting to duct tape.

While the husband's away, the wife will play...

My husband is out of town again, and I am home alone with 4 kids... again.

And on Thursday, I ran late again... start time: around 9:30 p.m.

The plan for the day (or night, in my case) called for 6 miles with eight 90-second accelerations at 5K pace or thereabouts. Someone suggested I just round up to an hour. I liked that. I liked that he assumed I would do 6 miles in less than an hour!

And I did.

6.6 miles in 1:00:37.... 9:11 pace. woo hooo

But not entirely consistent :(

I was able to pretty much hold onto just under 9 min pace for the first half of the workout... and then kind of did a series of stair-stepping nosedives... until I pulled her back up for the last mile and finished it off in style... last 0.6 miles was at 8:27 pace.

Part of the overall slowing down happened because I decided I wanted to focus on maintain the speed in the accelerations... keeping them even from one to the next... and I did that, only vacillating 4 seconds between the slowest and the fastest (I worked over distance based on the first 2 pieces). I am feeling pretty good about being able to gauge and keep things evenly-paced at the higher 'speeds'. It is a valuable skill, or sense, to have.

And I need to use a slightly slower pace for my base. We've talked about that. The whole "reining it in" thing. (And yes, it is "rein" as in you rein in your horse when he's going to fast. "Reign" is to rule... like over a kingdom).

I was done shortly after 10:30... wandered around the dark streets in a daze... then found my house and went in to eat cold fish and a popsicle.

I miss my husband.

***************************
The excitement of yesterday's announcement as to who is running which legs for the Nuun Hood to Coast Relay team overwhelmed me... in case you didn't see yesterday's post on this... I get to run the anchor leg! Really just beyond excited. There are sentimental reasons why in addition to anchor just being fun... you can read that in yesterday's post, too :)

The P90X Workout for Moms

My husband follows the P90X program. I often watch and listen while he works out, and I have heard them refer to this particular episode... the one my husband does the least... as the "The 'Mother' of all P90X Workouts".  I have asked my husband why he rarely does this workout. His answer: it's mostly for legs and his legs are fine. shhhhh... but I think it's because they call it a workout for moms.

Well, since I was home alone with 3 kids and it was raining, going for a run yesterday or last night was out of the question
but after the comedy-of-errors morning I'd had, I was needing some sort of something to soothe my soul... or something...
So I decided an evening consisting of a casual 'Mom Workout' that focuses on legs was just the ticket to end my day right :)

I figured it'd help clear my head, get a couple of lonely endorphins kickin' around maybe help them find a few friends, be a semi-substitute for the run that was on the schedule...

What is this 'workout for moms'?

it is

plyometrics

Gonna do a lil'
ply.O.

But first I needed some o' this...

Monday's Gadget Pie

I have single-handedly eaten all of that which you see is missing.

After filling my pie-hole with ... well... with pie, I put the kids to bed and suited up.

Time for a lil'
ply.O.

There is a guy in the demonstration group who has a prosthetic leg... meaning he is doing the workout with one leg.  ONE.  I think he can be considered a nail.

It took about 45 minutes to do the workout, including the warm up and the cool down.  It was really hard.  I had the most trouble with the regular jumping jacks... but that is not fitness-related. Remember, I've had 4 kids... next time I just need a pad or something... but only for that exercise. I did my best and left the rest.  Then I needed some more pie.

The P90X Mother's Workout gets my vote.  But... is this cross-training?  I really didn't want to do any cross-training... might wreck my image.  I might start looking ... serious.



***************
Do not forget to vote!  If you haven't heard the news, the competition is really heating up.
Fidel and I are up against a sex addict, a plastified old lady and the flippin' Berenstain Bears!  
Vote for US and you may win $20 worth of something :)

Creepy guy at 9 o'clock

I know, you're thinking, "Dang!  That woman has a night life!  She went out bar-hopping, got to hang out with her best buds, see and be seen..."  No.  This is not referencing some code to a girlfriend regarding a skeevy scammer at a bar or party...

It was 9 o'clock at night.

I had been running for about 23 minutes... not loving it.

I had set out in a conflicted headspace.  My husband is out of town and I really wanted to go for a run.  I talked with my older kids about this (the oldest is 11 and a half).  Would they be comfortable with me going out for a run after the youngest two were asleep?

"You're nuts!" you say.  "That's illegal!" you reprimand. No, it's not in California.   "That's just plain stupid," you think.

Hold the phone... don't go callin' CPS on me just yet...

Remember where I run.  It is inside The Gate.  The entire loop is 0.6 miles, so with the cross-streets, I am never more than a quarter mile from home.  The only people out EVER are the olderwalkingcouple and the occasional dog-walker ... oh, and once there was a group of kids skateboarding on a pole contraption ...but none of us ever speak... except me who always shouts out "hi" and waves to everyone.

So I feel like it is super safe.  And my older kids wanted to watch a movie anyway.  And I was taking my phone and set a timer for them to call me 3 times... at 25 minutes, 45 minutes and 50 minutes (at which point I would be walking in the door).  If I got no call, I would go home and find out why... and I could be there in a maximum of 2 minutes.

So it was 9 o'clock.  I had been running for about 23 minutes (I knew this because my kids had not yet called but did shortly).

As I finished up the backstretch and headed into the last turn of the lap... right near my house... there was a car.  It did not fit with the profile of cars in the enclave.  I am not being snooty just real.  It was way hoopty.  And the guy in it was a wreck.  And it was parked on this weird angle on the corner... totally not in keeping with the HOA regulations ;-)  I know this because we have been ticketed and towed for our hoopty truck not parking within said rules.  


I looked ahead, trying to not look like I was noticing but like I was some superstar badass fast runner who could kick the crap out of any dingdong who tried to mess with me and then out-run their car as they tried to mow me down in retaliation.  This was not funny... like the Drunken Bum episode was comical.  That was in the daylight... this was night.

So I looked ahead and realized there was a second guy.  I passed him and he broke into a trot.  He was big and unkempt.  Okay, so yeah... ummmm... I was freakin'.  Fuh-reekin.

Just then I saw the olderwalkingcouple.  Not like they could fend this big dude off should he decide to take all three of us out... but they could be witnesses.  Or something.

I kept running.  The kids called.  I told them to go lock the door.  They did.  When I finished that lap, the hoopty car was gone and so were the guys... and I saw the olderwalkingcouple... still walking... still alive.  So I continued.  Still a little nervous and very wary.

When I was done running, the olderwalkingcouple was coincidentally right in front of my house, finishing up their walk.  They actually talked to me!  (no, you have no idea... no one ever talks to anyone in this enclave... seriously... you cannot strike up a conversation with a neighbor... canNOT)  They said how impressed they were with my running as they see me all the time.  And how they noticed I was nervous about those guys.  Apparently, the hooptycarguys are tenants of the olderwalkingcouple.  They needed to meet up for some rental-related biz.  "They are very nice people... just they have had very hard lives."  So the creepy guy only looked creepy.  Whew.  Glad I was so lucky.

And I made friends with neighbors.  Who'd've thunk?

Do you ever run at night?  Outside, I mean.

Are you friendly with your neighbors?

A Different Kind of Petting Zoo

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to actually play a tuba?  Or a cello?  Or a harp?

In our community, there is a school for children in grades 4 through 8 that specializes in music education.  The kids learn "regular" stuff and also play their instruments for hours every day.  Every year the school sponsors a Community Music Day, which includes an instrument "petting zoo."

At the instrument petting zoo, you can try out the trumpet, trombone, french horn, TUBA, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, harp, flute, piccolo, clarinet, piano, harpsichord, and a wide palette of percussion instruments as well.

Baby X plays the harp, and her teacher invited her to be one of the "teachers" in the Harp Room.

My husband was out of town and the logistics were going to be a little tricky, but it was decided that she would participate.  I am so glad it was a rainy day because otherwise I might not have dragged all the kids on my own to the event and we would have missed out on this unique opportunity.

I had always wanted to try a tuba, and I got my chance!  Lots of lung power needed to make that sucker sing!  I had tons of fun trying a few things out, and the kids had a blast, too!

I wish I had gotten more pictures that I did, but the raininess of the day led to a mobbed-ness of the event, and being on my own with four kids in a jam-packed, small school filled with delicate instruments necessitated my full attention be on the kids being in the right place with their hands (and the rest of their bodies) not bugging anyone or anything.  Not to mention that my help was needed to hold some of the larger instruments (tuba, for example) while the kids tried them out.  But I did get a few.  And here they are...

Q-man doesn't usually wear a tie.  Though maybe he should.  He was very well-behaved while wearing it.

Motivation and Opportunity

Seems like it is hard to get these in sync sometimes.  When I am highly motivated to run, squeezing it in is often difficult.  When I have time unfettered by children, I often feel exhausted and sluggish... running is one of the last things I think I want to do.  Anyone else feel this?

Right now I feel like I am in a groove.  Last week's "long" run was great!  I had two decent, shorter runs during the week.  I want to go running now!  But.... the husband is out of town.  And it's raining.  The rain doesn't bug me at all.  But it means I can't get the kids easily on their bikes and the baby in the stroller and make them come along.

Think.  Think.  There has to be a way.

I'll let you know!