Monday: Swim

May I just tell you that I have been under a deluge?  My work schedule tripled to accommodate for my upcoming trip out of town, final preparations for my trip are piling up and, I was literally writing reports until 11:00 PM for the last three nights.  I am running on low sleep and deep deep irritability.  I just read a facebook post from a great girl who was in my triathlon swim class, and she just ran a 23 minute 5k at 5.5 months pregnant.  She really is the greatest, but it gnaws at my soul.  I would be lucky to hit a 27 minute 5k right now.

Anyway, on Friday, I had a pretty good swim, before heading to work and then staying up until all hours to finish my report.

On Saturday, I worked from 10 until 2:30, I came home and ran 5 miles, then parked myself at the computer and wrote reports all night.

I worked on reports all day on Sunday, then went for a run and a swim, then went shopping for the most comfortable possible shoes to take to Spain, then ate too much pizza for dinner. Also, potty training went so poorly and my husband and I stepped in so many urine puddles that we were alternately slipping and shrieking Ivan's name at the top of our lungs.  It was emotionally trying to say the least.

Today, there was continued potty training drama, as there is nothing like standing in the checkout line at the grocery and noticing that you child is standing (seemingly quite contented) in a puddle that is quickly beginning to run across the apparently slightly slanted floor.

I had a great swim this morning, got in 2500 meters, and had an amazing watercress, avocado and bacon salad for lunch.

I again wrote reports this evening and am heading to work tomorrow for my final session of the week.

Will I survive???

Thursday: Day Off

So Thursday was my day off, because it was Ivan's last day of nursery school, a whirlwind of errands, a sushi run, and early pick up for Ivan.  It was a zoo.  When Ivan had his impetigo sickness, I felt like we were trapped in the house, bored to tears and staring at each warily.  On a day like today, I longed for that slow of a day.  Once ready to leave the house, I hustled Ivan off to nursery school with no time for dwaldeling or playing with the automatic door or chatting with the nursery school moms.

I hurtled downtown for a doctor's appointment, then off the the knit shop to pick up a project to take to Spain !!!!.  (Just so you know, it is very hard to take something like needlepoint on a plane, but when you take a bit of knitting, it is quite portable.  On an overseas flight, you have to have something to do with your hands, as you can only read for so long.) After knitting, I filled up the car with gas and then headed to the grocery store.  I cannot help but notice that every time I take Ivan to the grocery store, I spend at least 10 more dollars than necessary on things to placate Ivan and things to relieve my stress.  Also, I stay there for what seems like HOURS.  Ivan complains and wants to look at things, and the trip is ALL OVER if there happens to be a lobster tank.  Ivan can waste a good hour in front of a lobster tank, and if he happens to get away from me by crawling out of the cart or wrenching out of my hand, he runs straight back to the lobster tank.  He loves a lobster tank.  Balloons are also a problem, and overall, I think that my three year old is just not a very focused shopper.

So, I was able to knock out grocery shopping, before hitting my sushi place.  I am sushi-ed out and looking forward to swim tomorrow!!

Wednesday: Swim and Back to the Doctor

So this morning, we Sloans were up early.  I am not sure why we were up early or why it was necessary.  There was a little too much reading yesterday evening, Cornelius Vanderbilt (The First Tycoon) just put his son, Corneil, into an asylum after disinviting him from the family trip Europe on the custom made steamship, and having him imprisoned for borrowing money based on his father's name.  Also, I am afraid the American government is not going to give Cornelius the mail contract for San Francisco.  It is evident that he is the best man for the job, BUT I feel the government distrusts him.  Aaahhh Cornelius, I am worried for you, but I I know it is going to work out for you in the end.

Anyway, we were to swim on time, but still a little late to the swim deck as there were some potty training issues.  While Ivan did successfully use the potty at the gym before I dropped him off and we had a successful car trip, things apparently devolved when I left the scene.  It is always terrible to see the nursery workers charging across the pool deck to tell me of some trauma going down in the nursery.  Anyway, when Cameron charged down the pool deck today, she only wanted to let me know that Ivan had gone through all his clothes and Thomas the Train underwear, and was now happily playing in diaper and red sandals.  This was fine with me, though it thwarted our trip to the new Whole Foods.  I am always a little sensitive as being perceived to have a redneck baby with his diaper showing itself all over town.  When Ivan is wearing little shoes and a diaper, he looks sort of tough, like a street kid that won't be bothered with no indoor plumbing.

AND ANYWAY, after swim, I ended up taking Ivan back to the doctor in his diaper and sandals for a closer look at his impetigo progress and his swollen lymph nodes.  We were there forever, and it was decided that if the lymph nodes were not un-swollen by Sunday, there would have to be a heavier round of antibiotics or the impetigo might come back.  Bless it!!  How often will I see these doctors.  I have talked to one or another of them every other day for the last two weeks.

At swim, I got in about 2500 meters and meant to get a Gilad workout at home, but my day was all shot to pieces by the visit to the doctor's office.  Hopefully it will happen tomorrow.

Bleh

Tuesday: Run and Yoga

Now yesterday, I reported that I really had nothing to report.  This was so untrue.  Two deeply emotional occurrences have happened since Sunday afternoon, and I have been remiss in not reporting them.

FOR ONE, my sister broke the news to me that Yogurt World has closed forever.  Now, I have not been a frequenter of Yogurt World for some months, but I was about to get back in the swing.  I was at a consistent two times a week there for a while.  My absence could, in fact, be the cause of their demise.  Anyway, the only other self-serve yogurt purveyor is farther away from my house.  It concerns and saddens me.

TWO, Ivan has sort of decided to potty train.  Now, I am not saying that we are home free.  I am just saying that someone is wearing his Thomas the Train underwear and using the potty approximately 5-6 times a day.  I will say that it is sort of funny the aspects of potty training that you do not expect to have to explain to someone, but actually need to be explained.  For instance, if you are wearing underwear, you must pull them down to use the potty.  A few times, Ivan made it to the potty and just sat down in his underwear and proceeded with bathrooming.  We had to talk about all the steps that you take before actually seating yourself, and I will admit that I had no choice but to clean up some most unfortunate messes.  However, even while cleaning terrible terrible things off the bathroom floor, there was joy in my heart, because for every attempt, I feel that we are one step closer to the end of diapers.  There may be a time in the future when someone just gets up and goes to the bathroom and there is no bother about it.  If Ivan uses the potty consistently for a week, we are going to get him a bike with pedals and no training wheels.  THRILLING!!!!


In other news, I dropped Ivan at nursery school, came back home, sprinted three miles and then hurled myself into the shower to get ready for Ivan's nursery school performance which lasted all of 3 minutes.  Now, to my horror, after the show, we were supposed to sit and watch all the other children up to pre-kindergarten graduation.  Hard times.  I gave in to full on selfishness, and pulled Ivan and we all went to Chic-Fil-A for lunch.  I enjoyed my Chic-Fil-A Arnold Palmer (tea/lemonade) much more than kindergarten graduation.

At home, Ivan had a nap, we had left overs for dinner and I got in a much needed yoga practice.  Every time I take the time to do yoga, I have to reprimand myself for not doing it more often.  It is so wonderful, it is energizing, and I love it.  I am sort of determined to somehow obligate myself to a yoga class in the future. Of course, I feel like pilates and pure barre and hot yoga are also things things that I am greatly desirous to accomplish.

Swim tomorrow!!

Monday: Swim and Gilad

So, you know I am a more likable and pleasant person on a great night's sleep.  We had smoothies and were slightly late to swim, but I got in a good workout, Ivan was pleasant, really nothing out of the ordinary happened.  Workout as follows:

• 400 warmup
• 6 x 75 swim
• 4 x 100 swim
• 6 x 75 swim
• 4 x 100 swim
• something else that I can't remember
• 400 kick

It was pretty good.  Ivan and I had a trip tot the grocery afterwards, and I have heard many times that you you should never take children to the grocery store, and it is totally true.  Today, for instance, I bought both gummi worms and chips that I absolutely did not need.  They were Ivan purchases AND, I totally engaged in eating them.  They were completely unintentional, and it is is most unfortunate, as I am pretty sure that gummi worms have NO FOOD VALUE.

At home, I neglected to write thank you notes and then got in a Gilad workout.  

I am the dullest!!

Sunday: I Meant to Do Something Aerobic, but It Just Did Not Happen

Ivan at Monkey Joe's

So this morning, I had a bad case of the tiredness, and it never fails that my child wakes up on such mornings like a firecracker.  I always wish we could just sit on the couch, and work out our respective morning issues with morning beverages.  This never happens, and I should stop thinking about it.

Anyway, we trotted off to church, and normally, Ivan is a lamb at church.  He loves the organ, the singing and walking up to take communion.  Today, however, he climbed under the pews, and I could not get him. I could not grab him, and when I finally popped up the aisle, and grabbed him by the ankle, he writhed and yelled "No, Mommy".  It was the worst, and I sometimes wonder if his poor behavior is somehow proportionally related to my shoe choice.  As soon as I put on a pair of heels, you can count on Ivan to sprint away, and I am left helplessly tottering around as if on stilts attempting to catch him.  It seems that I can most count on his good behavior when I am wearing running shoes.

After young Sloan was muscled down for his nap, I put in earplugs and covered my eyes with a peeper sleeper and took a nap myself.  It was very nice, and, I will say that a Sunday afternoon nap makes most things better.

Upon waking, I shuttled myself off to a baby shower where I ate so much fruit and gluten free cake.  It was all quite delicious.  At home, I am biding my time until I hit the sack.

Swim tomorrow!!

Saturday: Run, Toddlers and Trikes, Monkey Joe's, Lunch and Shopping and Harry Potter

So such an eventful Saturday.  At 6:15 this morning, my friend Kennette (the great), met me at 6:00 AM, at my house for a 6 mile run.  It was not my fastest.  My speed is dripping away steadily, and I am taking a ridiculous amount of bathroom breaks.  Anyway, once the run was accomplished, Ivan and Elliott and I loaded up and headed over to the Toddlers and Trikes triathlon around the corner.  It was pretty great.

There was a bike leg, a run leg and a "swim" leg where the kids ran through sprinklers.  It was the cutest and we really debated as if it really mattered whether Ivan should ride his trike or his coaster bike.  We ultimately decided on the tricycle, because Ivan seemed to have the most control over the situation when his feet were squarely on the pedals.  Ivan pedaled hard, but the big bikes beat him out,  his run was pretty great, and it was so chilly this morning, that he went to great lengths to avoid getting touched by the sprinklers.

After the triathlon, we sprinted across Franklin to Monkey Joe's which is really a huge room of about 6 bouncy houses, and there is a large scary lavender monkey (Monkey Joe!!) wandering the premises.  Ivan was initially terrified of the Monkey Joe's Mascot, THEN he was obsessed.  Poor Monkey Joe has never had so many high fives and hugs as he received today.

The bouncy houses were amazing and filled with huge slides and all sorts of inflatable bounciness.  He was overwhelmed by fun, and let me just tell you that leaving was so difficult.  There was tackling, threatening and muscling out to the car involved.

At home, I got ready and headed out to have lunch with my siblings and then some shopping.  It was great and so much fun.  I ate good food and learned that white jeans are not going to be my friend this summer.  

At home,  my long wait to see the first part of the last installment of Harry Potter is almost complete.  We received Harry Potter in the mail from Netflix, AND THEN, our DVD player broke.  It was pretty tragic.  Today, the DVD player was replaced, and I am on the couch totally engrossed.

Thursday/ Friday: Run, Gilad, and Swim

So yesterday, the blog site was down the whole day, and there was no blogging to be done.  Maybe best for all of us, as Ivan had to stay home from school again today with his impetigo, and I had nothing but bitterness and woe to impart.  We had a massive cue-tip disaster that ended in tears and time outs and great sadness for all concerned.  I would just like you to know that it takes almost a full hour and a half to make a three year old clean up 1000 cue-tips that he explodes from a zip lock bag.  It seemed though, that the importance of teaching my three year old to follow through with a clean up task was worth the time and effort it took to stay on his back and have him clean.  It always seems that the most time consuming pieces of parenting happen when you can least afford to give up the time.  Cue-tip explosion happened, of course, when I was in the midst of a phone conversation with our director at my office.  We needed to accomplish things, and when I turned around from my phone call to find that Ivan had unleashed an army of cue-tips.

Anyway, when I gleefully deposited Ivan in his crib for a nap, I got in a Gilad workout and then played out side with Ivan until his father arrived home and I could get out for a run.

This morning, it was raining torrentially, which is hard times in my life without a garage.  I just resigned myself to being late to swim and waited for a small break in the rain to load Ivan into the car and head to swim.  Ultimately, I only got in about 1600 meters or 1750 yards.  This is pretty pathetic, but it is just one of those things.

Ivan and I went to Whole Foods for lunch, and it was most pleasant.  I had forgotten to take his diaper bags and snacks to swim today, so I guess he was pretty hungry when we arrived at Whole Foods.  He chose his lunch from the hot bar and sat in a chair and ate and had conversation like a real little person.  Normally, I am somewhat fearful about taking him anywhere that he is not completely restrained, but maybe I figured out the key today.  Maybe, I just do not feed him for at least two hours before we go anywhere.  Is that really my strategy though??  It sounds a little Oliver Twisty to me, especially in the face of a child who never eats at all.

Anyway, we hit swimming lessons in the afternoon and headed home to spend some time outside!!

Ivan has his first triathlon tomorrow!!  Exciting times.  The "swim" is running through a sprinkler!!

Wednesday: Day Off, Run, Swim, Impetigo, and Computer Crash

So yesterday was my day off inadvertently, because Ivan had to be toted off to the doctor at 8:30 AM, because he had what appeared to me to be leprosy behind one of his ears.  He had scabs that were the thickness of a quarter that were crusty and scary and gross.  It sent us into a frenzy of hand washing and antibacterial scrubbing.  While the scabbiness did not seem to be making Ivan sick, it was definitely terrible looking. It was not the kind of thing that you could let go without taking to the doctor.  So, at the doctor I was with my teeth unbrushed and a headband to hold back my gross morning wispy hairs.

You know that when I walked into the doctor's office with perky little Ivan who incidentally had two rancid scabs that involved hair loss on his head, everyone was terrified.  Dr's offices are filthy enough without throwing contagious skin looking lesions into the mix.  Anyway, his doctor was 95% sure that the spots were impetigo, AND she said to call her back if Ivan's head became covered in lesions and his hair started falling out in clumps.  MMmmmmm, really? You know, if that happens, I will be beating down your door with a sledgehammer, I will not be calling you back if my child's head is covered with lesions and his hair is falling out.

So after that, I went to the drugstore, picked up meds, picked up treats at the grocery, washed every bed linen in the house.  It took Ivan 30 full minutes to take 1.5 teaspoons of amoxicillan.

In the afternoon, I made dinner for someone in my Bible study recovering from surgery and then got ready at warp speed for a birthday party from which I arrived home too late to blog.  THEN, even if I had wanted to blog, my computer crashed.  CRASHED.  SO, I am now without a computer, but most things were saved, and I have a borrowed laptop, so I will survive.

Today was a whole new day, while Ivan could not go to swim nursery, I made good use of my time.    I ran before breakfast, then cleaned all kinds of odd places in the house and continued my bed linen washing rampage, I made beet pancakes for Ivan, and cut up a watermelon.  I taught Ivan how to dead head the rose bushes and water the other flowers. In the afternoon, I finally gratefully headed out to work.  I was able to hit evening swim!!  3200 meters!!

Swim was great.  I rarely get to go to Wednesday night swim, as I can't usually get there in time if I am working.  Wednesday night swim is always really crowded.  Last night there were seven people in my lane, and we sort of fought for position all night.  Workout as follows:

• 100 warmup
• 4 x 150 (Kick/drill/swim)
• 8 x 50 (odds fast/evens slow)
• 300 pull
• 200 pull
• 100 pull
• 100 easy pull
• 4 x 50 (first 25 fast/ last 25 even)
• 8 x 50 (odds fast/evens slow)
• 300 pull
• 200 pull
• 100 pull
• 100 easy pull
• 4 x 50 (first 25 fast/ last 25 even)

Yogurt World was closed on the way home, so I came home and ate some watermelon and a pushup pop.  

Monday: Swim and Gilad

So this morning, I felt like a new person when I woke up.  I feel that my sleep caught up with me in a bad way and when I got plenty of sleep I was right as rain.  I had a Green Magma orange juice, which is my new detox thing that I learned from Dr. Perricone.  It is basically like a wheat grass shot, and you must click on the link and read about it.  I have often longed for my own personal wheat grass shot machine.  You cannot put wheat grass in a juicer, so you have to grow the wheat grass and then buy this THING that you screw to your countertop, and it is all too much work for words.  To receive maximum benefit from wheat grass you need to have a shot like 5 times a week, and I just cannot drag Ivan to Whole Foods for a wheat grass shot every day of the week.  However, now that I can mix up my Green Magma situation, I feel that complete detox health is within my reach.

You know, the more I look at what I eat during the day, (for instance, today I had a little white bread meltdown at work which resulted in my consumption of one biscuit, half a chess square and a turkey bagel sandwich.  Ooooh, and a small Cheeto meltdown.) the more I realize that Green Magma cannot really detox that.  It is one thing to have a little bit of chocolate and QUITE ANOTHER to submit to a full on bleached flour apocalypse of the digestive system.  Aaaah well, I did have a fabulous smoothie for breakfast AND a spinach with grilled chicken and avocado salad for lunch.  Things apparently get out of hand after 5:00 PM at my house.  Do movie stars have more discipline than me or can they just hire someone who refuses to allow them to have a 5:00 PM meltdown?  Aaahh, questions I will one day ask my currently non-existent movie star friend.

Now, I made it to swim on time.  I swam 3200 meters.  I forgot to take a picture of the workout, so I will try to remember it for you.

• 200 swim
• 200 IM
• 8 x 50 swim/drill
• 8 x 25 1/2 fast/ 1/2 easy
• 4 x 200 descend @ 3:30
• 4 x 100 descend @ 2:00
• 4 x 50 descend @ :50
• 500 pull
• 300 kick

At home, I got in a Gilad workout, got ready for work and got home a little later than usual.  

Now tonight, I had the luxury of watching the FULL 29 minutes of the Beastie Boys new video, and I am in love with most of it.  I am linking the five minute version for you.   It is rife with cameos and Elijah Wood totally outstrips his role as Frodo to play Mike D.  I think he plays Mike D anyway.  It is fabulous, and I love it.  It will make your day to see that the Beastie Boys have still got it.  

Finally, I received my new Vanity Fair today which I am pretty excited about.  Vogue usually leaves me feeling a bit inadequate, but Vanity Fair feeds my nerdiness.  FOR INSTANCE, this month's feature article is the marital history of Blenheim Palace which is Winston Churchill's family seat.  How thrilling is that??  It is so thrilling!! 

The downside of this month's Vanity Fair is that it has three Polo Cologne adds and it smells like my seventh grade gym class which was always nauseating with sad adolescent boys wearing so much awful cologne.  

Bleh

Busy day tomorrow!!

Sunday: Mother's Day

So the plan for today was church in the morning and then Mother's Day brunch and then swim in the afternoon.  I woke up, however, to a sore throat, raging headache and a general sense of malaise.  I feel that this is the result of a sleepless week, and I will say that after I puttered around this morning and then got back in bed and slept for HOURS, I felt remarkably better.  Now, I really did sleep ALL DAY.

When I woke up for a couple of hours, I watched Rosie Pope: Pregnant in Heels.  It renewed my understanding that ANYONE can have children.  ANYONE.  ANY OLD PERSON can reproduce, give a baby life and transfer everyone of their insecurities onto that poor bundle of seven pounds or so.  Though, whatever my criticisms, I do wish that I had Rosie Pope's shoe collection and also her legs, which are long and lovely.

In the evening, I ate a few Kashi oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (read 8) and had an apple and a piece of breakfast casserole before attending to my toenails and getting ready to crawl right back into bed.

Assuming all is well tomorrow, I will head to swim!!

Saturday: Run!!!!

So my day began at 4:00 AM today when Ivan ended up inexplicably in our bed.  This never goes well, and my husband went right back to sleep, but I could feel two small eyes boring into me and then Ivan started softly saying, "hi, hi, hi Mommy", then he went to sleep, and I stared grumpily into the darkness until my alarm went off.  My alarm went off at 5:45 AM and I popped up to meet my running group.

I have to say that things went remarkably well on my run.  It was a perfect day, I got in 11 miles, and though mile 11 was super slow, I felt great about my mileage and may even bump it up a bit next weekend. Starting at 6:30 AM works well, because I can get in three-ish miles before the main run.

At home, I inquired into exactly how Ivan ended up in our bed and apparently, horror upon horrors, he has learned to unzip his crib tent.  He woke up in the middle of the night and softshoed himself to my husband's bedside, where he we was summarily hoisted into bed so that no one had to wrestle him back into his own bed.  I am seriously concerned about Ivan being able to climb out of his crib.  This could mean that sleeping through the night is compromised for all of us.  Ivan is too young to have a digital clock in his room and be threatened within an inch of his life if he come out before 7:00 AM.  I feel a deep concern about the direction our sleep situation is taking.

Following this dark dark realization, we headed to the farmer's market and bought some plants for our garden and all sorts of great breakfast foods!!  It was lovely.

Spent rest of day watching the Derby and needlepointing.  My pick finished last.

Friday: Swim and Run

So this morning, I dragged myself from bed in a housekeeping frenzy.  After making smoothies and cleaning about the house, we were late for swim, but not so big a thing.  I have no idea what I did at swim. I think there were some 300's, some pulling and there were most definitely some long kicks.

Someone left a ziplock baggie of oatmeal cookies on the bleachers, so I ate them all.  Thank you that they were not laced with arsenic or some sort of weed killer, because honestly, where did they come from and why were they there.  It is not atypical of me to note that there is free food lying about and eat myself into some sort of food coma.  Never invite me to a buffet, I will shame you and possibly fistfight you for the maximum portions of smoked salmon.  Sample day at the grocery store or Cosco is honestly a fearsome place at which to find me on a Saturday afternoon as I am usually eating like a competitor in a Japanese eating contest. Eating out of a random ziplock bags is however, a bit beyond the pale even for me.  They were reasonably good cookies, and hopefully, that ziplock bag full of cookies will be replenished on Monday, and it will be like a fairy tale of hunger satiation.

Anyway, at home there was some lunching, napping and a run that somehow ended up being a jog stroller run.  In my current condition, I will say that pushing the 16 pounds of jog stroller plus the 32 pounds of no longer a baby Sloan is quite a load.  He was quite keen on eating a popsicle and sitting in the jog stroller while I ran, however, and so run we did.

Going to bed early, not going to bail on running tomorrow!!

Thursday:Day Off

So today, it was all kinds of nothing for me.  I visited and ate a turkey sandwich while walking about the local Kroger.  Ivan played in the yard, I ironed myself to a frazzle and parked it on the couch with my evening Cheetos.  It might be my second bowl, and I may not have even have put my Cheetos up after the first one, because I knew that I would be back.  Aaaah, Cheetos.

Wednesday: Swim and There Was Much Unfortunate Behavior

Sometimes it is 9:30 PM and I do not even know how I ended up on the couch eating Cheetos.  I know I came home from work and I remember eating an apple and complaining on the phone (honestly to anyone who would listen, and it was for sure more than one person) that I felt ill and a bit uneasy, and then I was needlepointing and then Cheetos happened.

You know, once my husband's grandmother had a few of us for dinner and I was sitting in her Florida room staring at her ginormous man-hating parrot, Buckwheat, and she came out with a tray of champagne flutes and a bowl of Cheetos.  Let me just tell you, it was the best night ever, though I find I should be careful with champagne.  Aaaahhh, champagne.

Anyway, Ivan and I were on time for swim.  It was miraculous, and I swam 3500 meters including 700 yards of IM.  I actually felt pretty rugged all morning and throughout swim and though I did not time any of my intervals, I was swimming next to Brian and he swam so much faster than me and SO much faster than I remember him swimming, that I think I was swimming so slow I was like a sea slug.  AND, normally if I swim for as long as I did today, I get in 4000 meters and today it was 3500.

I tried take Young Sloan to story time at the library, where he ran about, sprinted through the rows of seated toddlers, punched the stained glass windows of Tennessee animals and flowers, and overwhelmed a small barely walking infant in a smock suit to tears.  When physically intercepted, Ivan had a full melt down, and as I was muscling him out of the room he shrieked "Don't take me to the bathroom and pank me."  I will have you know that that has only happened once when we were having brunch in Birmingham, and it was the same morning that Ivan stuck a wet lollipop in a sheep coat which we were then forced to buy, and it was just a terrible day all around.  I had no intention of "pank"-ing anyone today, I just knew that we needed to leave before the situation headed any farther South.

So, we went to Whole Foods where I fed myself and just felt even worse and the whole day just devolved into me sitting on the couch eating Cheetos.  Bleh.  Definitely taking tomorrow off.

Tuesday: Run and Yoga!!!

So today, I felt like I darted about on a rampage, but then I feel like that is beginning to be the story of my life.  I was pretty organized too.  I packed Ivan's nursery school lunch last night; I prepared my breakfast last night.

So, Ivan headed off the nursery school, and I sprinted down to the hospital to visit with my cousin and her newborn son.  He as a doll and the visit was a lovely reminiscence of birthing stories, and I say that sarcastically.  Does anyone have a really great birthing story?  Does anyone roam into a delivery situation and just love it.  I really do not have one good thing to say about my own except that I am now mother to a lovely child.  The rest of it was just misery and pain and a veil of tears and the sad sad knowledge that if I had had to give birth in a covered wagon, I would have surely died.  I am no pioneer.

Anyway, from the hospital, I flew to the gym and ran a quick three miles on the treadmill in front of a news channel covering the news of Usama Bin Laden. from there I flew to pick up teacher appreciation gifts and then home for a lightning quick shower before heading to pick up Ivan at school.

At home, Ivan got to watch his Sesame Street episode while I cleaned the house, and then for a special treat we made brownies together and NOT JUST ANY BROWNIES.  I made Deceptively Delicious brownies that involved one-half cup of spinach puree and one-half cup of carrot puree.  Now, I know that they may sound a bit dubious, BUT they were amazing and I feel like Ivan got a couple if vegetable servings and all is well with the world.

Tonight, I am watching Tony Takitani, a Japanese film about loneliness and shopping addiction.  Will I make it through??

Monday: Swim and Gilad

So today, I arrived at swim on time and got in 3000 meters and even got out of the pool a bit early. However, there was no reason for this not to be the case, because I have been awake since 5:00AM.  While I accomplished more today than I did all weekend, I am exhausted and feel ill-used by the world.

I am not sure what happened this morning, but at some point around 4:45ish, my husband placed Ivan in bed with us, and my husband went promptly back to sleep.  Ivan proceeded to talk to me, pat me and crawl around and ask me inane questions until I gave up and dragged us both out of bed.  I turned on Sesame Street and blearily worked a crossword puzzle until I had my tea and made some breakfast snacks.

We of course got to swim on time because I literally had HOURS to get ready and load us promptly into the car.  It was pouring rain, so traffic was terrible and we still arrived at swim on time.  It was nice, except that I was bitterly tired and puffy of eyes.  Workout as follows:

• 600 swim
• 200 IM
• 6 x 50 descend @ 1:00
• 8 x 25 breakout @:30
• 6 x 100 free @ 1:45
• 8 x 50 build @ 1:00
• 6 x 100 pull
• 100 kick

At home, I pureed vegetables, herded a beside himself tired Ivan in to the bed for a nap and then headed out to work.  Am collapsing into bed before 9:00 PM.  Let's keep our fingers crossed for a great night's sleep!

Sunday: Worthless Weekend

Do you ever have weekends where you wonder where the time went?  On Saturday, when my alarm went off, it groggily occurred to me that some members of my running group were running the Country Music Marathon and Half-Marathon, and the ones who were not were going down to watch the others run.  So, I thought I would take the opportunity to sleep in and run on my own in the afternoon.

I lounged on the couch eating breakfast, and watched the Today show version of the Royal Wedding.  I liked the BBC version better, as the Today show version spent more time with the crowds and some of them were honestly seriously nutty.  I liked the history and such on the BBC better.

Anyway, after losing three more hours of my life to the Royal Wedding, (I mean honestly, I spent as much time watching the Royal Wedding as I spent planning my own wedding)  a friend came for a visit, by which time it was 4:00 PM.  See what I mean, I lost the whole day.  Gone.  I will never get it back.  NOW, I meant to run after my visitor left, but my neighbors were having a party, and I went there instead.  Then it was dinnertime and THEN, I went to bed.  NOW, I have not had a day off this week, and taking Saturday off was no big thing, I just wish I had been productive.

Today was the first day of open-water swimming, but the water was 65 degrees, and since it was thundering and lightning at my house it seemed that swim was most likely off, so I again stayed in bed.  We did head to church and I ran in the afternoon, pureed some vegetables, made tomorrow night's dinner and researched the benefits of coconut oil.

Swim tomorrow and determined to utilize my time correctly.