Half Marathon Training

I think I want to document my training for the half marathon that I’m running at the end of April.  Mostly because I think I’ll enjoy looking back and seeing how far I’ve come since these beginning days. (hopefully)  And maybe so others like me, who think there’s no way they could ever run ANYthing, to see that you CAN if you set your mind to it! :)  (hopefully)

How it began:

Now, I am not a “runner”.  I am not athletic.  I never played sports.  Wait, I did play soccer one year when I was about 8 years old.  If I remember correctly, I think I often ran the wrong direction, and sometimes stopped and picked flowers on the field.  After that season, my parents never suggested another athletic team for me to join.  Haha.  I consistently worked out for one semester in college.  Other than that, I’ve gone to the gym sporadically (I can’t NOT think of Clueless every time I use that word), and I’ve started and stopped a handful of workout routines, including The Shred and Couch to 5k.  I never made it past stage 1 of The Shred, and I think the furthest I ever went in C25K was week 5, and that’s a stretch.  My preferred method of exercise, if I do any, is group fitness classes at a gym.  And I love spin.  As a matter of fact, I had every intention of starting spin classes back up before this whole half marathon came up.

Let’s go back to August-ish of this year.  One of my co-workers suggested that a group of us run as a relay team in a marathon coming up at the end of November.  Each of us would have to run roughly 5 miles.  I thought it would be a fun challenge, and a great motivator for me to get off my butt and start exercising, so I said sure.  I had every intention of training.  But then…I don’t know, I never made it a priority.  I went to the gym sometimes and ran on the treadmill.  The longest run I did was 3 miles, and it was a run/walk.  A few of us ran the Race for the Cure in September.  That was my first 5k, first race really, and I just wanted to finish in less than 45 minutes.  I walked more than I wanted to, but I think we finished in about 40 minutes, and I was so happy with it.  Running across the finish line was exhilarating and I had renewed motivation to get with it for the relay.

And then 2.5 months passed, and relay day came and I hadn’t run much at all.  In fact, instead of preparing, I complained about it every day at work.  How much I hated running and I wished I hadn’t signed up.  How running is so stupid and what was I thinking.  Two of my co-workers ended up getting injured and couldn’t run, and I said I wished that I had gotten hurt so I didn’t have to go.  Clearly I an a whiner.  Anyway, when we went to pick up our race packets, the atmosphere was so motivating and fun, that I was actually excited to participate.  (I think you can see my rollercoaster love affair with running.  Although, I wouldn’t call it a LOVE affair really, more like a tolerate affair)  Marathon day was here, and I went out and did it.  I completed just under 5.5 miles in an hour and 12 minutes.  It was hard, and again, I walked (a lot) more than I wanted to, but running across the finish line was even more exhilarating than the first time.  It was awesome and I was proud of myself for following through, even if I hadn’t prepared like I should have.

After the marathon (like immediately after), one of my co-workers, who is much more excitable than I am :), started talking about how she wanted to run a half next year for her 40th birthday.  And with the endorphins pumping, I was all “I’M IN, LET’S DO IT!!!”  Haha.  At work the next day, I told someone about it and he was like “BUT YOU HATE RUNNING!!  YOU JUST COMPLAINED EVERY DAY ABOUT THE MARATHON!!”  Which was so true.  I had complained every day.  Because I didn’t have any confidence that I would be able to finish.  But I HAD finished.  Maybe not with the best time, but it was such an accomplishment for me.  And I wanted to get better.

And THEN, that same day, my fiend Jackie mentioned that she and her fiance were thinking about running the half marathon at the end of April.  This is a different half than the one my co-worker wants to do.  And just like that, I decided that I will do BOTH of them this year.  At some point along the way, I think I drank the kool aid and I’m now hooked.  But this time, I’m serious.  I joined a training group that started over the weekend, and we’ve had 2 runs so far.  I plan to recap those later, this is getting far too long.  Do I love running?  Nope.  Not yet, anyway…I think I might by the end of this though….

Checking In

Let’s have a little life update.

- Jake has made himself at home in our house.  A little too much.  He’s kind of on thin ice right now.  Truth be told, it’s pretty clear that he needs to be an only dog. He is insanely jealous of attention we give to Isabelle and Zoe.  To the point where he storms over and pushes the other dogs out of the way if we are petting or holding them.  Not cool, Jake.  Not cool.  He is also super rowdy, which is fine, but he runs over the other dogs all the time.  Isabelle doesn’t even get out of her cage on her own when we get home because she is scared of him :(  It makes me so sad.  But Isabelle and Zoe were our very first babies and they come first.  We aren’t planning on trying to find a home for him again, but if one presented itself, we would probably consider it.  Poor Jakey poo.  He is a sweet dog.  He just needs a TON of attention :)

- My house is a disaster right now.  I can NOT keep up with it.  So frustrating.  I don’t understand how this happens when we really do have a place for everything.  I constantly feel like I need to re-organize every space because that might help.  And I feel like ALL I do is dishes lately.  Although, I haven’t cooked dinner at all this week (I usually do every night) and there have been WAY less dishes to wash.  Maybe I’m on to something here….

- I am super proud to say that we are almost finished Christmas shopping. I just need to get stocking stuffers and we are all set!  This never happens so early in the month for us.

- Cooper is so wild right now.  And I really think it’s partially due to Jake.  He gets Cooper all riled up and then they go crazy.  Cooper literally bounces off the walls at night.  Literally.  He bounces from the wall to his bed, and repeat until we make him stop.  I have never seen a child with so much energy.  It wears me out just watching him!

- Coop’s language development is so so awesome right now.  The things he says both surprise us and crack us up!  When did he learn some of these things?  Last night he pointed to a Santa and said “Santa Clause. I sit on his lap. I get pesents”  We have never told him anything about Santa or sitting on his lap.  He has gone to see Santa every year, but that’s about the extent of us talking about him.  And he does know about presents, but usually relates them to birthdays, never Santa.  Must be school, although they focus more on the real meaning of Christmas, so who knows.  Oh, he can also “spell” his name: C-O-P-R.  Pretty close :)

- I am seriously counting down the days until I am off for Christmas.  12 work days and counting…

- How’s this for logical: I hate running.  Hate.  I signed up for a relay with my co-workers, which I’ve talked about it.  I had to run 5.5 miles.  I had every intention of training, but I didn’t.  Because I hate running.  I was dreading the race, and complained about it every day at work.  And then I ran it.  And it was so awesome and fun.  My team was super proud of our time.  But I haven’t run since.  And now I’m signing up to run 2 half-marathons in 2013.  HA!  I will be joining a training team this time so that I can actually DO it.  We’ll see how it goes.

An Unexpected Addition

Meet Jake:

  

Two weeks ago, I found him in our neighborhood.  I snapped this picture below, and posted it to our neighborhood’s facebook wall.  Then, I continued on my run. And he followed me.  For almost a mile, he followed me.  All the way to my house.  And since I have a soft spot for dogs, I tentatively asked Lee if we could keep him for the night, because it was going to get really cold out.  Lee begrudgingly let me keep him an a cage in our garage.  And then he brought him bowls of food and water :)  He was a really sweet dog and obviously needed attention.  He went right into the cage and didn’t make a peep all night.  I gave him like 5 queen sized blankets because I was afraid he would get cold.

The next morning I took this picture and made some signs and hung them around the neighborhood.

That night, we let Cooper see him, which was instant excitement for him.  This dog played with him!  He didn’t run from him!  He loved it.

We also let the dog hang out in the house for the evening (after he got a bath).  Until he peed on our carpet.  Clearly not housebroken.  Boo.  Back into the cage in the garage.  Which he actually didn’t seem to mind, but still.

Over the next few days, we heard nothing on the dog.  No owners, no one wanting to give him a home.  Meanwhile, this was happening every night:

He is obsessed with me.  I don’t really mind.

Then one night, we moved his cage into the house.  I think you can see where this is going….

The dog, who we were calling “pup dog” slowly worked his way into our home.  Well, actually there was nothing slow about it.  He basically ran in and took over.  Haha. 

After a little over a week of trying to find him a home, we have decided to keep him.  Mostly because of how much Cooper loves him.  But also because he’s just a sweet dog.  He gets along fine with our two dogs, who are maybe getting a little jealous, but they don’t really mind him being around.  He doesn’t bark. (well, yet)  He loves to cuddle. And he’s catching on to potty training.

We settled on the name Jake this morning, and he’s going to the vet tomorrow to get checked out.  Hopefully he doesn’t have a chip, or else Cooper is going to be one sad boy!  And Lee and I might be a little sad too ;)

I never ever thought that we would have 3 dogs at once.  But he is really no more work than the other 2 so what the heck. 

Although, I’m afraid that Lee will never let me bring home a stray again….

Oh Cooper

Y’all.  My child.  Oh, my child.  He gives me a run for my money, that’s for sure.  One minute he’s screaming throwing a fit because he can’t do whatever he wants, the next he’s being sweet and loving and giving us kisses and all “Mommy hold you”, and the next, he’s being hilarious and trying to make us laugh.

He has started having…discipline issues at school.  No disciplinary actions have ANY effect on his behavior.  At this point, I just have to laugh.  I’m not in the least bit surprised.  Actually, I was kinda happy to hear that it’s not just me/us at home.

So…he has been sent to the office twice in the past 10 days.  Ha.  I mean, I told his teacher to do whatever (and that we would work on more consistent discipline at home.)  My dad picked him up the first day he was sent, and he texted us saying “Wooooo Cooper was sent to the office today, I think even Tyler was a little older than him his first time there”.  Tyler being my brother, who was NO stranger to the principal’s office back in the day.

We have been having stricter time outs at home, but who knows if it’s making an impact.  I have never seen such stubbornness. I really hope this is a two year old/toddler thing, and not an indication of future behavior!

Monday Brain Dump

I have lots of things that I would like to blog about, but they all include pictures, and I continue to forget my camera cord at home.  I have a goal to start organizing pictures tonight, so maybe I’ll remember to get the pictures off of my (REAL!) camera.

We volunteered to host Thanksgiving again this year.  Much better than trying to split between families and driving 3 hours to my in-laws’.  I bought cute little Thanksgiving plates and cups at PBK for Cooper and his little cousin.  I’m also going to get Coop’s little table and chairs out for them to have their own table! Cute!! :)

I can’t believe I’m talking about Thanksgiving already.  Wasn’t it JUST here?!

Cooper has been SO funny lately.  The things he says are just hilarious.  And he loves to make us laugh.  I really need to start writing down the things he says.

I have to run 5.5 miles in less than 2 weeks.  And I don’t remember the last time I ran.  Oh, wait, I do.  I ran 1.3 miles on the treadmill a couple weeks ago, and I had to LEAVE THE GYM because I though I was going to pass out.  So, sounds like I’m in excellent shape for the marathon relay.  Blah.  I thought it would be a good motivator to make me realize I like running.  But I don’t.  I hate running, actually.  Oh well, I won’t have to any more after Nov 18

I have the worst luck with photographers.  Seriously, they never respond to my inquiries.  I emailed one last week, and haven’t heard back.  Granted, I’m aware that it’s a little late to schedule a fall session, but I just asked if there was any availability.  I’m also aware that I’m impatient, so maybe it’s normal.  Anyway, I think my parents are going to be our photographers for some family pics.  I just want a couple of good family shots, anyway, so this might work better.

Yesterday, I ran to Target by myself (!) for a couple of things.  Well, my quick trip turned into almost 2 hours of leisurely strolling up and down every aisle, with an eggnog latte in hand.  They even had Christmas stuff out. It was heaven.

Happy Halloween!!

From our dragon.  Although, if you ask him what he is, he will tell you “pirate ship”.  Haha :)

 

Today Cooper’s school had a bunch of fun things planned, including a “pumpkin patch” that had enough pumpkins for all of the kids, and each kid got to go and pick one out.  I can’t wait to see him and ask how much fun he had.

And yesterday, we talked about how he could wear his costume to school if he wanted and he replied “an dit da tandy?!” (and get the candy)  He is definitely my child :)

 

*This post brought to you by Dum Dums.  Never underestimate the power of a sucker.

The Owie

On Sunday, Cooper fell a couple of times while he was playing outside.  One of those falls resulted in a scraped up knee, but he never said anything about it, so neither did I.

By Monday, it had scabbed over.  Mind you, it was a series of very very small scrapes.  It never even bled.

Still no mention of it.

THEN bath time came around last night. Oh my lord.  He sat down in the tub and immediately SCREAMED bloody murder “AHHHHHH!!! OWIE!!!!! HURT!!!!! BAND AID!!! ICE PACK!!!!!! OWWWWWIIIIIEEEEE!!!!!  ICE PACK!!!!”

Literally, he screamed that for his entire bath. (he asks for an ice pack for everything because that’s what they do at school)  Shortest bath ever.  Then when I pulled him out, STILL screaming, he collapsed onto the floor.  Apparently was no longer able to walk or stand.

At this point, I was hysterically laughing.  I mean, what can you do?!  I have never seen him so dramatic.  And that’s saying something.

He wanted a band aid, then he wanted it off.  He wanted an ice pack but that made it hurt.  It was hilarious.  He was limping around like he had a broken leg.  He refused to put ANY weight on it.  I mean, seriously, you should have seen him limping.

Lee and I asked him several times if we needed to cut off his leg and he told us yes.

He finally got comfortable with the ice pack by laying it on ANKLE the OPPOSITE leg of the one that was hurt.  Ha!  I asked if that made his owie feel better and he said, in between hugs sobs, “yeahhh”.

We finally got him calmed down and I left Lee to put him to bed.  Lee said that the only way he would sleep was on his back with the ice pack over his knee.  LOL.  Normally he is a tummy-only sleeper.  Must have been really bad :)

I do regret one thing…next time something similar happens, I’ll definitely be taking a video!

Weekend!

 

I think it’s safe to say I’ve abandoned the 31 days of blogging challenge.  Don’t even pretend to be surprised. 

This weekend was TU homecoming, and Friday night, I went to an annual event called TU on Tap.  Basically, it’s meant to bring all alumni together so they can drink.  This year it was being held at Oktoberfest (which is really big here actually. The Today’s show even named Tulsa’s Oktoberfest as one of the top 10 things to do in the US in the fall)  And word must have gotten out because I’ve never seen it so crowded.  Or maybe I’m just a lot older.  Probably the latter.  Anyway, it was fun!  I didn’t get home until 1am but it was fun :)

Saturday, I had to deliver some cupcakes to a co-worker early in the morning, so I decided to make a morning of it and get my weekend errands out of the way.  I left Cooper with Lee and headed out.

I went to Panera and made my grocery list while enjoying breakfast.

And then I went to blow my cupcake proceeds on a shellac mani.  I had checked ahead of time and knew there was a salon right down the street from where I’d be, so I drove over and arrived about 10 minutes before they opened.  I waited in my car, and then when I had about 5 minutes left (I am very punctual, haha) a lady pulled up next to me and walked right in.  Ugh!  I walked in and she was already seated and getting a pedicure.  A woman hidden by a plant welcomed me, and I asked if they did shellac.  To which she just stared at me.  Then the woman doing the pedi (way in the back) started hollering at me to “please please wait” for a little while before she could get to me.  I asked he if they did shellac, and she sort of answered, but then I saw the gelish bottles and knew they did.  So I gladly sat down, although I was kind of weirded out.  Well, the lady that was now only partially hidden by a plant proceeded to talk on her cell phone while I waited.  I was confused because I thought she was a manicurist.  Did she not do nails?  After about 15 minutes, I’m now catching on that the plant lady will not be doing my nails.  Which leaved the pedi lady.  Well, a pedicure lasts about 30-40 minutes and I’m not going to sit around and wait when I could just go down the street to another nail place.  I didn’t want to be rude, but I was annoyed and wasting my precious alone time.  So I just got up and walked out without saying anything.  The lady from the back ran out after me! She was screaming “I’ll do your nails right now! Come in and sit down!” I said no thanks, and it was alright.  I mean, she’d have to stop doing the pedicure since apparently she was the only one working.  She continued to beckon me to come in, even after I’d gotten into and started my car!!  She was clearly crazy.

By that time, stores were open so I ran some errands and decided to just drive a little out of my way to the nail salon that I love.  Good choice.  Normal people.  More than 1 worker.  No one hidden by plants talking on their phone.

ANYway, then I ran to the grocery store and headed home.  That night, my parents came over to watch Coopie and Lee and I went to see Jeff Foxworthy.  Haha.  Kind of random, but whatever.  We went to a restaurant in the same venue as the show, just to have dessert.  It’s a nice restaurant, and Lee asked if we could just have dessert when he called to make a reservation, which they saif was fine.  Well, when we sat down, they started telling us specials and Lee said we were just having dessert.  The guy was exasperated and said “at least have an appetizer.”  Geez!  Lee kinda looked at me like, we could… And I was sorta still hungry, so we got one.  Even though I didn’t want to on principle.  It wasn’t even good!!!!  I didn’t even eat it!!!  Anyway, we ordered dessert and the chocolate tower was GIANT!!!  Here is a fuzzy pic:

Front camera pic waiting for the show to start

The show was good, but it was only a little over an hour.  On the bright side, I was in bed by 10:30.  Haha!

Cute little pumpkin on Sunday morning :)

We ended up doing a complete garage clean out on Sunday, which was awesome and much needed!

We are trying to choose a paint color for our bedroom.  Lee said I could paint it teal (!!!) But after trying the bottom left, I thought maybe it was a bit too much, so I tried the top left, which is way too gray.  It almost looks like the gray color throughout our house.  The one on the right is a no for sure.  Lee prefers the more gray, but I think I’m liking the bottom left one. He did say that was fine….we’ll see!

My parents got Cooper this pumpkin for Halloween and he really likes it!  Although he refused to smile for a picture.

31 Days: Day 13

Saturday morning Cooper woke up at 4:30am.  JOY.  Except, not.  I was dragging since I hadn’t slept well the night before (because Lee was gone) and I still had some nausea (from the stomach bug).  Oh, and because it was FOUR THIRTY AM.  I don’t think it’s a secret that he often wakes up that  early, but usually he’s in a good mood.  This morning, he was in a horrible, grumpy mood.  So, finally about 7, I took him to his room and basically made him take a nap.  I ended up napping with him on his floor and we woke up about 2 hours later.  Sweet.

We got up and around and Cooper asked to go run errands (“wun ewwands”), something that he suddenly loves doing.  So we ran to a couple stores (Hobby Lobby and Target), and he was horrible.  Wouldn’t sit in a cart, wouldn’t stay with me, wouldn’t listen.  He literally RAN around the stores and I had to run to catch him.  Oh well.  Such is life.  We made it home with what we left for, so it was fine.

I bought new sheets for our bed!  We desperately needed new sheets, and I have been searching and searching for some, but finally just ended up grabbing some at Target because I seriously couldn’t sleep one more night on our old old sheets that never fit the mattress properly.  The sheets I got?  We LOVE them!!  Seriously, maybe my favorite set of sheets I’ve ever owned.  They are from the Threshold line at Target.  We got the bottom pattern in the front.  They are supposedly gray, but they kinda look sage.  I don’t even care if they don’t match, I love them.  I want to go back and get the top pattern too.

After lunch, Cooper was clearly not tired for his usually post-lunch nap, since we took a morning nap, so we cleaned out my car.  Strange game for a toddler?  Not mine.  He is obsessed with cleaning.  He loved holding a trash bag for me, and helping with the vacuum.

I had a party thing to go to late that afternoon.  Before he asked me if he could go to the OU/TX game, Lee called my parents to see if they could watch Cooper wile I went to the party.  Haha!!  He really wanted to go!  So, I dropped him off there.  It was just one of those sales parties.  Party Lite?  Anyway, of course I found 50 things I NEEDED. 

When I went to pick up Cooper, he was sleeping.  Of course he was. But you know what?  He was sleeping on my mom.  Sad face.  He would never in a million years fall asleep on me.  Seeing as how it was 5:30 by this time, I picked that sweet love bug up and got in a few quick cuddles before he woke up completely.  Oh, when he sleeps?  He sweats.  Like crazy sweats.  I have no idea why, he’s always been like that.  He refuses to sleep in anything other than shorts, ever.  That’s not the point….Sweaty Cooper = Crazy Curly Hair.  He really needs a haircut, so it was even worse than normal:

I seriously have NO idea where he got his hair from.  He has tons of it, and it’s super thick, wavy, grows like crazy, and is often uncontrollable.  It’s part awesome part pain in the arse.

We ended up playing with Uncle Tyler and eating dinner over at my parents’ before heading home for another late bedtime :)

31 Days : Days 11-12

Day 11:

Thursday was my first day back at work after missing 2 days because of the stomach bug.  I still didn’t feel great, but it was kind of sporadic, so not too bad.  I spent the day catching up at work, although luckily not too much happened while I was out. 

That evening, I was hosting a Scentsy party with Megan.  At the beginning of the day, I think 5 people were coming.  About an hour before the party, 2 were coming, and one tried to cancel but I forced her to come with her 2 littles.  Haha.  Oh well.  At least I finally got to meet Aja in person!  I have been reading her blog for a couple of years, and I was so happy she was able to make it!

This weekend I found out there is a stomach bug going around…so maybe I should have cancelled the party?  I thought I just had food poisoning or something.  Oops.  Hopefully I didn’t pass it on.

Day 12:

Yay Friday!!  Although, it was the longest day everrrrr.  I felt like all I did was stare at the clock.

Lee left town that afternoon to go to Dallas for the OU/TX game, so I was single-parenting it for most of the weekend.

When I picked Cooper up from school, he was like “eat some, eat some”, which means he’s hungry, so we went right home and ate dinner.  He kept saying “eat some” all evening, so he ate a lot of things.  Oh, he also started saying “something else” if he doesn’t want what’s offered to him.  So funny.

He asked for a bath, so we did that, an he usually goes to bed after a bath, but he wasn’t tired, so I just let him stay up for a little while.  He watched Mickey, and I worked on a wreath.  I asked him if he was tired and he said “no, Dada home”.  Lee usually puts him to bed, so I guess he wanted to wait for him to get home. I felt bad and said that Dada wasn’t coming home tonight.  He was fine with that, and we just went upstairs to bed.  Except he refused to sleep in his bed.  Mmmkay.  He wanted to sleep on the floor.  They sleep on nap mats at school, and almost every night, Lee and/or I lay or sleep on Cooper’s floor at some point (clearly we have an issue there….).  So, I made him a little bed on the floor and he went right to sleep.

I stayed up way too late.  I hate staying home alone when Lee is out of town.  Hate.  I have to sleep with the tv on and I never do sleep very well.  I’m a huge baby about sleeping alone in a house.  I mean, Cooper’s there, but you know.  He couldn’t protect me from a ghost.  That’s right, I’m scared of ghosts.  Not someone dangerous breaking in.  And it didn’t help that it’s October and every other commercial was for some horror movie.

31 Days : Days 8-10

Okay, so I’m pretty sure that the point of this 31 days topic is to write something EVERYday.  But, clearly that’s not happening for me.  At least I’m sticking with writing ABOUT every day, right?

Day 8:

Monday was an average workday.  Nothing exciting.  Lee was travelling for the day, so my dad offered to pick Cooper up from school so I could go to the gym after work.  So nice :) 

After the gym I picked Coop up and we went home, had dinner, then he wanted to take a bubble bath.  He gets bubbles in his bath every night, so it’s funny to me that he distinguishes it when asking for a bath.  He always says “bubble bath”.  So he had a bubble bath, and then we looked for the moon as usual.

Once he was asleep, I had several things I needed to do, but I couldn’t decide what was most important, so I sat in bed and watched tv.  Makes sense, right?

Lee got home around 11 and we went to bed.

Day 9 & 10:

Tuesday I woke up super nauseous.  After spending a few hours deciding if it would go away, I finally decided to call in to work.  I continued to feel horrible and nauseous constantly for the next 48 hours.  Even throwing up didn’t make me feel any better.  Sorry for the tmi.

Anyway, Tuesday and Wednesday I literally laid in bed all day.  I have never had a stomach bug, so I’m not used to feeling nauseous 24/7.  I mean, it never went away. 

I am also so annoyed that I spent 2 vacation days at home sick.  What a waste. 

Luckily, I woke up feeling fine on Wednesday, so hooray!  Although, I am still afraid to eat…

31 Days : Days 5-7

Day 5:

Friday morning, I chose to start The Battle of Long Pants.  Cooper has been refusing to wear anything but shorts, which would be fine, except the temperatures have taken a sudden drop around here.  I’ve been letting it go, but on Friday, I decided it was time to face it.  It was going to be cold for the next several days, and I figured I should start the fight on a day he has to go to school so I didn’t have to hear it all day.  I so smart :)

And it was a battle.  From the minute I put them on him, until we pulled up to the school driveway, he screamed and cried.  “No pants!” “No pants!” “I takeh dem awff!” “I takeh dem awff"!”  For one hour, folks.  He didn’t give it up.  So, when I dropped him off, I reminded his teacher that he had shorts in his cubby if he kept it up.

I picked him up with his pants still on!  Victory! Of course, he wanted to take them off about an hour later, when he remembered he hated them.

That night, I hosted our 2nd Annual Pumpkin Decorating Party.  No kids.  No husbands.  Just chili, cornbread, wine and some fake pumpkins.

These hussies didn’t even decorate a pumpkin.  They just drank.  In Jackie’s defense, she at least brought a pumpkin.  Sarah didn’t even bring one!  This is why I love them though.

I, on the other hand, decorated six.  Although, only one was completely finished :)

I think we were laughing over Jenny’s burlap/troll pumpkin, Hankenstein.

Love these girls so much!  And the one behind the camera :)

Day 6:

Saturday was a lazy day.  We hung around the house and did laundry/cleaned up the house.  I ran a few errands ALONE.  It was awesome.

I picked up a second paint sample for our master bedroom.  I don’t love either one.  I hate picking out paint colors!

We have chosen one for our bathroom thought!  Score!  And it was on the first try!  Now, to actually paint it….

Day 7:

Sunday Lee had to work for part of the day :/

Cooper and I ran a few errands.  He loves running errands these days.  he is so good (most of the time), although he won’t usually ride in the cart.  He is pretty good at walking with me and saying “no touch” while still touching everything.  Ha.

We celebrated Lee’s birthday with my family that night.  He requested peach cobbler, so I made some that afternoon.

We went out to dinner, where Cooper was a perfect angel.  Unheard of!  he was so good and very excited about his mac & cheese.  He kept yelling for it.  Haha.

Coloring with Poppa:

After dinner, we went to my parents’ house for dessert and gifts.  But first, we had to introduce everyone to Little Red.  Cooper galloped around the living room for demonstration purposes.

 

Then Lee opened gifts.  With a special helper.

My parents and I got him an iPad.  He wanted money for a golf club and kept on and on and on about the club last week and I was kind of thinking, I hope he’s not disappointed that he’s not getting that club….  He wasn’t disappointed!  And he’s travelling today for work so I know that it’s making that more fun :)

We stayed at my parents’ pretty late (for us/Cooper).  I think we got home about 8:30, and Cooper didn’t even fall asleep, which we thought he would do.  I said “Cooper are you a night owl?” and he said “Yes”, and about a minute later he goes “whoo whoo”.  Hahaha!  I started cracking up!  He’s so funny! :)

31 Days : Day 4

Linking up with The Nester

Cooper has been freaking out about his ears when I wash his hair.  Plus, he hasn’t been sleeping well, and Lee said that last night, Coop was complaining about his ears hurting when he woke up.  So, I made a doctor’s appointment to get them checked out.

He got tubes put in last December, after a horrible run with way tto many ear infections in a short(ish) time span.  One of his tubes came out a few months ago, and since then he has had a few infections :/  I was afraid that he would need to have them put back in if he had an infection today.  Thank goodness he didn’t.  The doctor said they looked fine.

Cooper was so cute at the doctor’s office.  It’s so funny to me that he knows exactly what we do at certain places.  Unfortunately, we’ve been to the doctor a lot.  About 4 visits ago, he started getting suckers for being good.  The child does NOT forget that.  If I ever ask him if he needs to go to the doctor, he says “yes. dot-tor. sucka!”  Today, my dad met me there with him, and said that the second they pulled into the parking garage, Cooper was yelling “sucka! sucka!”.

Coop also knows to go right to the scale and step on it, and to hold his arm up for the thermometer.  He seemed like such a big boy today, just doing things all by himself.  He kept asking for a sucker too.  Lol.  That kid has his priorities straight.

He was so good for the doctor.  He let her look in his ears, nose, and mouth.  He looked fine.  No ear infection!  It’s probably his molars, I think.  But she did say that at his age, kids can start having nightmares.  Ugh.  I hate that.  I hope that’s not what this is.  That makes me sad for him.  Even now, at 30, I’m scared of the dark, so I have a soft spot for little ones when that could even be a possibility.  It’s scary!  Truthfully, if he would sleep in our bed, I would let him.  I feel like, sleep wins.  Whatever I need to do to get him to have a good night of sleep, that’s fine.  But, that usually means laying on his floor with him for parts of the night.  He will not sleep in our bed.  I’ve thought about getting him a bigger bed.  Like, and actual bed.  Not his crib converted to toddler.  Who knows if that would even help though.  And, it’s not like the kid doesn’t sleep at all.  he just wakes up once in the night, and then again at like 4am and won’t go back to sleep unless you lay with him.  And to think, he was such a good sleeper as an infant.

I didn’t make dinner tonight.  We had random things.  I has eggs, and Lee went to Bueno.  Cooper had ice cream and chips and queso.  Whatever.  Then, Coop and I went upstairs for bath time.  He has suddenly become obsessed with the moon, so every night before bath, we go into the guest room and look out the window for the moon.  Usually it’s there, but this week, it has moved out of sight of that window.  So, we laid on the bed and played for a little while.  He was being hilarious!  We had the best time.  He was saying all these things that he knows I think are funny.  I wish I had recorded it.  I think it’s so crazy that he knows what I think is funny and says those things to make me laugh.

Oh, one thing that doesn’t make me laugh, but I just think is cute.  Last weekend, I was putting away some of his clothes that he has outgrown.  There were some shoes in there (he is obsessed with shoes) and he started whining that I was putting them away. I explained that we need to put them away because they are baby shoes and he is a big boy.  And that we need to keep them in case he has a little brother or sister, so they can wear them.  Now, Cooper loves babies, but he always says no when I ask if he wants a baby brother or sister.  Except that night.  He said he wanted a baby brother and a baby sister.  And then , he said the cutest thing.  He said “and I put the shoes on hurrrh (her), and I hud (hug) hurrrh and I tiss (kiss) hurrrh”, and he held his arms like he was holding a baby!  I almost died.  It was adorable.  So of course them I start basically crying about how he needs a baby sibling like, right now.  Haha.

Anyway, I made him tell me those things again tonight.  I asked what he would do if he had a baby brother or sister, and he said those same exact things!  So sweet!

However.  He will not be getting a baby brother or sister for a while.  So no one get excited. :)

31 Days : Day 3

Linking up with The Nester

Today was pretty boring.  Went to work, went to they gym, came home, made dinner, bath and bed for Cooper.  I let the dishes pile up in the sink.  Lee used to always do the dishes, since I cook, but now that it takes for.ev.er to get Cooper to sleep, I don’t blame him for not wanting to run down and wash dishes.

Having a child has definitely calmed down my type A personality.  A lot.  In fact, sometimes I feel that I’ve let it go completely.  Haha.  And I’m actually fine with it.

Here was my view while making dinner. 

Don’t be fooled.  He was not tired.  He was crying because he couldn’t stir anything.  He loves to help me cook, which I love, but he gets easily frustrated when he can’t do everything he wants.

He ate all of his dinner again tonight!  I don’t know why he’s suddenly started eating dinner, but it’s such a relief.  Who knew eating dinner would be such a big deal with kids.

Tonight I told Cooper that I like his teeth, because it looks so cute when he smiles, so he started giving me this huge smile, showing all of his teeth, and then busted out laughing.  He kept doing it because I was cracking up.  He is so funny sometimes.  I wonder if he will be funny as he gets older.  My brother was always a funny kid. and sometimes Cooper reminds me of him.

My brother just bought a house.  It’s a fixer upper, and he and my dad are working on it.  They closed last Friday and have already torn the living/dining/kitchen down to the studs and subfloor.  I’m jealous that I can’t be in on the action.  I love that kind of thing.  I’m planning to at least go see the progress this weekend.

I got some letters in today that I’m making for a couple of friends, so I plan to try out some ideas before I decide what I want to do.  I need a few sets of letters (for the etsy shop) that aren’t just painted, so I’m thinking of doing some yarn-wrapped, and then maybe some that are paper-wrapped.  We’ll see.

Oh, HERE is the link to the shop, if you want to go look.  I realized that I never linked it up on yesterday’s post!

Don’t be jealous of my exciting night of crafting.

31 Days : Day 2

Whew.  What a day.  I just got a second wind and cleaned the downstairs.  At 10pm.  Usually 10pm is the absolute latest I go to bed.  We are early to bed, early to rise-ers in this house.  Especially Cooper.  He gives new meaning to the term “early bird”.  4am people.  4am.  Bless my husband, who almost always goes up and lays down with him until about 5.  Even though the child doesn’t go back to sleep during that time.

My blog button is on my other computer…crap…I’ll add it later. 

Today the weather was so nice.  Fall is starting to set in and I love the cooler days.  After work I went on a run around the neighborhood, and Lee took Cooper to feed the ducks.  We have 2 ponds at the entrance to our neighborhood, and one has a bunch of ducks.  They are kind of crazy, in that if you even walk by them, they freak and start quacking like crazy, and run up to the fence.  Looking for food.  Haha.  I met them up there mid-run.  One of the ducks just had some babies.  You can see one in this picture.  They were very protective of the baby.  It didn’t come up to the fence at all.

Cooper kept getting too close and wanting them to eat out of his hand.  Ha.  They are kind of aggressive!  I think he once got nipped on his cheek and after that he stayed back.  Even though he wouldn’t admit that the duck bit him, he had a tiny red mark where something had to have happened.

 

My run was kind of rough.  I’m not a runner, and I don’t like it.  BUT.  I signed up with a team at work to run a relay in the Route 66 marathon.  It’s in November.  We have 5 team members, so each person runs about 5 miles.  Except me.  I’m running 5.5.  Blah.  I chose the leg, but still.  It runs through my college campus, so I wanted to run that leg.  And, it’s the last leg, so I get to cross the finish line, haha.  Anyway, I should probably start running more than once a week so I’m ready.

When I got home, Lee had Cooper doing manual labor.  Oh, you like our door?

It’s a mummy!  Obviously.  I love it!  It’s just crepe paper and tape.  Thanks Pinterest!  And there are spider webs in the windows, if you can’t figure out what that is.  I didn’t do the best job with the spider webs.

We played in the backyard for a little while and I made dinner.  We had breakfast for dinner, and I tried to make sweet potato hash browns.  I did a pretty good job, except that I tried to make them taste like these amazing spicy chipotle sweet potato fries that you can buy at the store, and really I just made the hash browns super spicy. Oops.  Cooper wanted to try them and he was like “bink! bink! bink!” (drink) So yeah, spicy.  But pretty good anyway.  Cooper ate a really good dinner again, and that made me happy.  We have such a hard time getting him to eat much for dinner.  Which is fine if he’s not hungry, but he’s been waking up at night saying he’s hungry, so it’s kind of a problem.

After bath and bedtime, and trying to find the moon for way too long (he’s obsessed with the moon), I caught up on Once Upon a Time and started on a wreath for my friend.  Oh, I opened an Etsy shop!  I haven’t blogged about it.  I should do that.  It’s here if you want to check it out.  Also, I was confused by Once Upon a Time.  I feel like I need to watch it again.  Then, there was a Teen Mom special on.  like, them reflecting on the show.  Clearly I had to watch that entire thing.  Which is probably where that second wind came from.  At least we have a clean house! 

31 Days : Day 1

This month, I’m linking up with The Nester for the 31 days of blogging.  I never do these link ups, but I am (clearly) in need of some inspiration, and I decided, on a whim, to do this.  I decided about 4 hours ago, actually.  And then I realized I had to make a blog button to post on her page.  That was fun.  And now I have a new skill :)  Thank you, Google!

So, the point of the 31 days of blogging is basically to write about one topic for the entire 31 days of October.  I’m choosing to write about my everyday life.  Like a Dear Diary, or journal, of sorts.  When I think about my blog as a whole, my very favorite parts are those days when I just wrote what I had been up to, or what funny thing happened that day.  I want to get back to doing that more often.  So I’m starting now :)  If people find it boring, or monotonous, that’s fine.  I’m doing this for me.  And that’s not to say that I won’t find it boring or monotonous myself!  Haha.  But, I’m vowing to stick with it for the entire 31 days, not matter how boring my days are.

Today was one of those days where I constantly wish I didn’t have to work.  Cooper woke up in the best mood, and when I pulled into the parking lot at his school, he said “no! home!” :( Break my heart.  Luckily, even when he says that, which is rare, he doesn’t put up a fight or cry when he realizes that he does, in fact, have to go to school.

So he followed suit today, and went on into school, Scout in hand (he has a newfound obsession with that talking, singing dog), and greeted his teacher.  He is always one of the first there, and his teacher says that he helps her comfort the kids who come in upset.  I love that about him.  He always wants everyone to be happy.

Once he was settled, I was off to work.  Since it’s the first of the month, I had lots to do today.  I have a lot of monthly reports and analyses to pull together.  It’s not hard work, just time consuming.  Kind of boring, actually.  See, that’s why I often have a hard time with working full time.  I’m not busy enough to keep my mind off of it.  I struggle with it most days, although I rarely talk about it.  It’s not anything that I get upset or cry about, but I do struggle with the fact that I FEEL like I should be home with Cooper.  Maybe not full time, but more than I am now. 

Add to that the fact that we COULD make it work, if we decided to, it’s just hard.  But, Lee has really never been on board with it (NOT that I’m blaming him, I’m definitely not putting that on him, just noting it), and I’d rather not start a fight about something that probably won’t even come to fruition.  So I just don’t bring it up.

Wow.  That was a fun tangent.  ANYway.  Woe is me, I have to work.  Blah blah.

I worked on my reports and stayed at my desk for most of the day.  My co-workers and I chatted and caught up on our weekends throughout the day.  We all sit closely, and we’re in a little pod-like thing, where our cubes open to each other, so it’s easy to have conversations throughout the day.  I like that.  Although I tend to be more chatty than them.  They still let me talk too much, and I appreciate it.  They also let me talk nonstop about Cooper, so that’s nice :)

I ate lunch at my desk.  I’m SO boring guys.  Really.  We are all doing this 30 detox at work, so we eat super boring things at our desks.  Think smoothies, free range chicken, organic veggies.  I have to admit that I’ve ben cheating on it lately.  But they don’t know that.  Well, some do, but not the 2 that are hard core on it.

I only had one meeting today, a one on one with my boss that we have every week.  I am really lucky with my team at work.  My boss is awesome and I have fun with them all.

A friend of mine, Brooke, posted on FB about Thomas the Train coming to OKC, so I texted with her because I thought about taking Cooper over the weekend.  But, then I saw the prices, and I thought it was kind of expensive, and Lee and I hadn’t really planned on it, so we decided to go next time.  I think he comes fairly regularly.  It will be better if we plan to go.  Cooper will freak!  He loves trains. 

About 4, I decided I was done for the day and wasted the last 30 minutes of my workday cleaning out my email and reading a blog or two.  At 4:30 I was out the door.  I work 7:30-4:30.  Lee works 7-4, and he picks Cooper up each afternoon.

Today, I had to go to Whole Foods after work.  It’s kind of a drive from our house, so it’s more convenient (although not actually convenient) for me to go after work.  I always get sucked in by the cheese at that place, but today I did good and only got what was on my list!

When I got home, Cooper was waiting for me at the door.  Lee said that he had not been good, and I figured as much when I saw that none of Coop’s toys were in his playroom.  Cooper’s punishments come in the form of taking away toys.  We’ve tried everything else, time outs, spankings (don’t judge), etc.  Nothing bothers him, except to get his toys taken away.

I held Cooper and asked him if he had been getting into trouble and he said “toys taken away”.  Haha.  Yeah buddy.

I made dinner while Cooper basically whined and cried about every little thing.  Then he refused to eat, so Lee and I sat down to a lovely dinner with the music of a screaming toddler in the background.  We ignored him until he said he wanted to eat.  Then he shocked me and ate broccoli, peppers, and brown rice for dinner.  This child doesn’t eat any of those things.  I told him how proud I was, and he got jell-o for dinner, although he would have preferred a “sucka”.

Then it was time for bath and bed.  I gave him a bath, which didn’t last long because he had a cut on his ankle (from throwing his fit during dinner probably), so he wanted to get out.  He got medicine and a band aid, but he never did stop talking about it, ha!

Lee always puts him to bed.  So I got Coop in his jammies, read one book, then it was Daddy time.  No matter how good or bad of a day we’ve had, I always give a big sigh of relief when I close his bedroom door at night.  I don’t know what that says about me!

Then I worked on making a blog button, and here I am writing WAY too much about my day.  But, that’s okay.  I’ll probably last about 30 more minutes before hitting the hay.  Oh, I dread that 5am alarm….

Cooper’s Weekend ‘O Fun

This boy had a great weekend.  He got to do 3 activities for the first time:

Build A Bear with my parents on Friday afternoon

 

Where he got not one, but TWO animals.  A rabbit and a horse.  Poppa and Nonnie are whipped.

First carousel ride.  Apparently he was holding on to my dad for dear life.

Please meet Habbit the rabbit and Boomer the horse

 

Who wouldn’t be this happy after that kind of an afternoon? (p.s. that is my brother’s creepy tanned hand. He works outside all day)

On Saturday, I took him to the zoo for the first time. (Lee was gone all weekend)

 

He was a little more interested in the squirrels then anything else.  Go figure.  He did like the monkeys (above).  I thought he’d love the petting zoo, but I think maybe he was just confused?  He did think he was funny when he poked this goat.  Please view the sequence of the events, and enjoy the side eye the goat gave him in the last picture.  lol

 

The carousel was his favorite part of the trip.  We rode it 3 times, but he definitely wanted to ride it a lot more.  He rode it with no fear this time.  Poppa taught him well.

And of course, he loved the train :)

 

Oh, we also rode a camel (or tamel as Cooper says).  That was fun.  For him.  Not me.  Ick.  I tried to not ride with him but it made me too nervous.  He loved it though.

  

On Sunday, we went to the aquarium with Jenny, Jeff, and Maddox.  I think he actually liked the aquarium more than the zoo.  He is way into “fissies” right now.

Jellyfish

He loved the “BIG crab”

 

Love this picture of the boys.  Cooper later took a major face plant off of that ledge.  Needless to say, we won’t be climbing up there again.

I’m pretty sure Jenny and I about died of cuteness that they did this.  They ran around holding hands and it was the cutest thing ever.  These are all blurry because they, literally, were running.

 

Checking out the shark

 

The otters were Cooper’s favorite!  They were swimming like crazy and putting on quite the show.

 

We tried to make the most out of the weekend since Dada was gone, and I think we did a pretty good job!