The Starting Line Looms (a running update)

I haven't been blogging about it lately, but we have been running!

Alan has been doing very well.  He did 7.5 miles in an hour and a half a couple days ago and lived to tell the tale.  He's also been tracking all his stats on an extensive Excel spreadsheet and driving around clocking the miles of various routes.  He recently determined that a Half Marathon is equal to running from our house to Cascade Park in Bangor and back.  I wish he hadn't told me that.

Meanwhile, I have been hiting the Rec Center 3 days a week, adding laps a little at a time.  So almost every run is a new first for me. Today I ran 2.6 miles!  I, too, track all my stats in an elaborate Excel spreadsheet, except mine is set up like a calendar and it also counts down the weeks til MDI and adds up how many times I go to the gym (I'll get a discount on my next renewal if I go often enough) and is generally more aesthetically pleasing than Alan's.

But the big news is that we have chosen our road race debut and it's only 20 DAYS AWAY!!

We're registered for the Healthy High 5K sponsored by the Alcohol and Drug Education Program at the University.  It takes place at 4:20 on 4/20 (a reference to cannibus culture). (No, I didn't know that, I had to look it up). Conveniently the race starts and ends at the Rec Center (which is across the street from my office).  The route circles campus, passing our house and my parents' house before returning to campus via the (uphill) entrance by Alfond Arena.  Did I mention that my office is in a building called "Hilltop"? Yikes!  Also, did I mention that I have yet to run outdoors??  I'm hoping to try that for the first time next week.

So, I'm a little freaked out about our first race coming up so soon, but I'm also excited to really begin my running life.  Anyone want to join us?? I'd also really love it if people came and cheered us on.  It's just a little race in our own backyard, but it's a very big deal to me.

Welcome the New Addition

or

Out With the Old, In With the Previously Owned

All went well with our weekend long test drive and (more importantly) the financing for our sudden acquisition of a new used vehicle.  On Monday evening we dropped the kids at Music Man rehearsal and went to sign the paper work and finalize our trade-in. 

James wrote a note to the old Windstar:

And we said "Hello Sienna"!

In case you're wondering, although the kids requested such colors as purple or RED! (not red, but RED!), we apparently had a choice of silver, silver, or possibly silver.  Naturally, we defied all trends and opted to replace our silver minivan with a silver minivan. 

We're so wild. 

I Had a Dream...

...that one day--on a day or our choosing--we would trade in our minivan for a newer, cleaner, nicer, more modern minivan.

...that one day--on a day of our choosing--we would do consumer investigating as to the make, model and year of minivan we would want and might be able to afford.

...that one day--on a day of our choosing--we would get a babysitter and go test drive minivans of the makes and models we had researched and probably laughingly call it "date night".

...that one day--on a day of our choosing--we would fork over hard-earned savings set aside for the down payment for our new minivan....

And then I woke up to the reality of a radiator leak.

As Alan puts it, "the button popped out on the turkey to let us know that it's DONE".  And so our weekend turned into emergency vehicle shopping.  This time, we could at least drive the vehicle we wished to trade (which was NOT the case the last time around), although we did enjoy the lovely aroma of burning anti-freeze all afternoon. 

We DID manage to farm the kids out to three separate adult-supervised locations on Saturday and spent several hours test-driving two vans, talking with sales people, getting CarFax reports, and making logistical telephone calls regarding said vehicles and child care arrangements (mostly the latter). 
Also, I had done a bunch of research a few months back so we did have some ideas about what we did and didn't want.  However, we really wanted to test drive a Honda Odyssey but apparently--due to the recent recall--you CAN'T test drive them, and won't be able to for a month or so, so I guess we didn't want one of those anyway! 

In the end we managed to commandeer a strong contender--a 2006 Toyota Sienna--for a weekend long test drive.  Margo is one smart sales lady: she might as well have put a kitten in our hands and dared us not to fall in love.  Despite Toyota's recent "media activity", we've heard many good things about the company and the Sienna in particular, so we're feeling pretty good about this.



Meanwhile, our smelly old Windstar (which served us well until the end) is sitting at Linnehan's in Brewer with nothing in it except two gallons of water, a jug of anti-freeze and hardly any gas in the tank. 

On Monday we'll see what they came up with for financing (we're hoping for something good since Alan's old college buddy works in the loan department!).  Most likely the "kitten" will have found a home.

My new dream?
Of a minivan that remains free of french fries and cheerio's and melted crayons and trash...

Alan says that's pretty ambitious.

Procrastaccomplishing

Verb. 

1. The fine art of accomplishing minor achievements while putting off doing other (more important or pressing) tasks.

Example:  Nancy, shamelessly procrastaccomplishing, caught up on her blog, although she herself had proclaimed a family-wide cleaning day.

Madeline's 10th Birthday--The Jungle Party

Started this post weeks ago and am only just now getting around to adding the photos [which for some reason is an extremely frustrating process involving windows shutting down on me every 10 seconds while I'm trying to upload photos.  AAAAAaaahhhHG!]...

We decorated the family room with jungle vines, leaves, tropical flowers and every jungle-dwelling stuffed animal in the house.  The tablecloth had vines drawn all over it.  The cake was covered in fondant leaves, and  James, Nancy and "Aunt" Stacy transformed all the kids into jungle creatures using face paints.

Jeremy's 6th Birthday--the WALL*E Party

I'm finally catching up, so here's a post about the fabulous WALL*E themed party.

[If you haven't seen the movie, you should.  I don't care who you are or how old or how young or where you live....you should see this movie.  It's adorable and charming and quirky and cute and manages to let you feel hopeful even while leaving you more than a little uncomfortable about how much garbage you put by the curb last Friday. Also it helps to be in on all the little details.  One family came to the party and later told us "We rented WALL*E last night and the kids really 'get' the party now."]

The Cake in early stages of construction (note the nutty bar "treads"):

The Cake finished. Note that Nancy braved fondant.  Also the eyes are binoculars, the neck and arms are carboard covered with fondant.  Everything else is (was) edible (and therefore eaten):

The Cake WALL*E in all his glory surrounded by cuttings the kids planted in boots [not only does the precious little bean plant get carted around in a boot for the whole movie, but this also furthers the recycling theme since our boots came from the Good Will and the plant cuttings were from a friend at the office whose ivies needed trimming]:
















We made craft foam collages:

We played "Pin the Cockroaches on WALL*E"  (Hi Sonia!):

The Marks children decorated a tablecloth with all the characters from the movie (here are some of my personal favorites):

Here is Jeremy opening presents with some of his entourage looking on:

Also featured at the party: smoothies in Buy N Large cups, favor boxes that looked like little lunch coolers with rubber duckies in them, and Twinkies (which our kids had never before experienced)!

It was a fun party and it was great to have several parents plus Aunt Tacy, Nana Mary and Sara & Ed Ferguson on hand to enjoy the festivities and help with the activities.

Finally, a special gift was a new quilt from Nana Mary.  It matches last year's CARS theme which is still very much a Jeremy favorite (as you can see from the coordinating outfit).   The smile is fake, but the joy is genuine! 

Jury Room

Please come see my play!

It's part comedy, part drama, and very entertaining.

Opening weekend went really well--a few fumbles but the whole ensemble worked through it together so the audience hardly knew. 

What an amazing bunch of cast-mates!  They are all so professional and a ton of fun to hang out with.

This weekend is going to be incredible!!

And don't you like the poster I made?

Life, Un-caffeinated

Mommy is cranky.
Mommy is stressed.
Mommy is largely non-functional.

Mommy is a good Christian who gave up Coca-Cola for Lent.

Yay to Mommy for setting such a good example for her family.


Daddy?? When will it be Easter?????

First Mile[stone]

Today I ran ONE WHOLE MILE--ten laps around the track, consecutively!!!

My first mile ever.

Before today, the most I'd run in one stretch was two laps.

I think I was inspired because I ran into Emilie & Co. on the way in to the Rec Center.
I was so proud of myself afterward that I considered showing up on the pool deck and shouting "Hey Emilie, I ran my first mile!" but I thought this might be embarassing for everyone involved (after all, I work here...) so I took a shower instead and skipped across the street and back to my office feeling really good about myself.

8-)

Dinner, Biggest Loser Style

Since the whole family is now obsessed with the show, I went out and bought the Biggest Loser Family Cookbook. It appears to be a nice assortment of not-so-bad-for-you foods prepared in appealing and healthful ways--not too gourmet, but also not totally fat-, salt-, sugar- or taste-free.

For our inaugural meal, I made "Contemporary Peppered Chopped Steak". Not only did it look remarkably like the photo in the book, but James, Madeline and I all thought it tasted GREAT (and Yes, we had green stuff with it, too, in addition to the brown rice on the plate).


I'm notorious for altering recipes even as I try them out for the first time, but I managed to keep myself in check this time. My only substitution was to use cranberry-pommegranate juice instead of grape. It's what we've been drinking lately, and I think it was brilliant.

Meanwhile, Alan had a regular burger and made a miniature one for Jeremy (that's not really a lot of ketchup, it's just a very tiny patty and a trimmed-down slice of cheese!)...



...which he apparently loved looking at so much that he hardly ate any of it.
He's been sick, though, so I'll give him a break.

Countdown to MDI

Most of you have heard by now, but here's the official announcement:

ALAN AND I ARE REGISTERED TO RUN THE MDI HALF MARATHON!!

We have a countdown timer on the blog (hopefully it's working) and one on the desktop pc at home [246 days and counting], and I have clever little motivational posters at work and at home that read:

Less than

[36]

WEEKS

until we run the

MDI Half Marathon

I'll switch to days once it's below 100.

I added photos, but didn't have anything remotely athletic looking of myself so I used these:

Nancy's Brave Plan

I don't feel very brave as I type this, but since Alan let the cat out of the bag by telling Jenn our ambitious running plans I'm feeling pressured to finally write this post, which I've had percolating for several weeks now. So here's my plan:

Goal 1: Become a "runner", specifically, someone who can run 1.5 miles 3 times per week by April.
Method: Hal Higdon's 30/30 plan
Additional tools: HH's Beginner Runner's Guide (arrived in yesterday's mail), new sneakers (Alan and I bought them for each other for Christmas), new sports watch (birthday gift from Alan)...do you sense a theme here?

Goal 2: Run a 5K Memorial Day Weekend (or thereabouts--still looking for a local race around then, or maybe Alan and I will just set a date to run that distance by ourselves and let our weekend house guests baby-sit/cheer us on).
Method: Hal Higdon 5K training plan, beginning April 4th (which is why I need to be able to do goal #1...).

Goal 3: Run and/or walk the MDI HALF MARATHON in September (I can't believe I'm actually saying this! I'm anxious for the online registration to become available so I can't back out!)
Method: Hal Higdon Half Marathon training plan starting in late June; run the Fourth of July 3K as part of training.
Additional tools: Alan, Emilie, Jenn, everyone supporting me along the way...right guys?!?

Goal 4: Run the Turkey Trek on Thanksgiving Day.
Method: Try not to be in an air-cast, and get my baking done ahead of time!

And it's not just talk and buying stuff: I did the 30/30 Monday, Wednesday and Friday last week and I'm actually excited to clean off the bulletin board and post my training calendar!

Well, that's it folks: my first ever training plan and my first ever blog about running.

Yikes.

What Do You Love About Your Family?

On December 26th, we had "potluck take-out" at our house with the family. Ten people graced our table for the third day in a row, but unlike Christmas Eve or Christmas Breakfast, this meal was unhurried, and less fussy--no good silver, take-out boxes, and several people already in jammies--so, I sort of invented our own version of one of the Dinner Games.

I asked James to pick up his napkin ring and say one thing he loves, or is proud of, about himself. Then the napkin ring was passed around the table and everyone else had to say something they love about James.

Then it was the next person's turn. By the end, everyone's napkin ring had made a complete circuit around the table and many wonderful and funny and loving things were said about everyone.

The most memorable part, though, was very polite, 2 1/2 year-old Sam's contributions. When asked "can you say something nice about cousin James?" her unhesitating reply was "thank you!".

We laughed and continued on.

For everyone, she had the same nice thing to say with varying degrees of enthusiasm based on how engrossed she was in her toys or how much reaction she was getting from the crowd.

By the time we made it to the last participant (yours truly), I think she was a little keyed up, because my "thank you" turned into a general, wordless, gleeful exclamation: "aaaaaiiiiiiyyyyaaaaaah!"



I love that about me, too, Sam!

Christmas in 20 pictures

1. Everyone was ready for Santa, even Fin.

2. We enjoyed Christmas Breakfast Casserole,

3. Breakfast Bread (a loaf each of brown sugar & pecan, and chocolate),

4. and fresh pears. Mmmmmmm.

5. There were light-up cups from Great Aunt Betty for Samantha...

6. Jeremy...

7. James...

8. and Madeline.

9. James got an electronic drum set (percussion with volume control--Santa's a genius!).

10. Samantha enjoyed monkey pajamas...

11. and tickles from her dad.

12. There were action figures for Jeremy,

13. a hand-knit scarf for Betty,

14. two santas in the house,

15. and four cousins!

16. Samantha watched old home movies with "the Gumps".

17. Helen and Mum reviewed pix while Rich waited patiently.

18. Thee was a staring contest,

19. cuteness,

20. and relaxation.

Creche: December 24

Christmas Eve BABY JESUS and WHY WE CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS

And here's our complete nativity scene: