Monday, December 29, 2008

Signing up.

Just handed my (virtual) money over for the a few races in 2009.

Oh, does it feel good.

Renewed my USAT membership.
Signed up for the ING Atlanta Half Marathon in March.
Almost (then decided to wait for my USAT #) signed up for John Tanner in April.

I decided to start off with some sprints, segue into Olympics and if I feel good and feel like it, a late season half ironman.

Sounds like a race plan to me.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas is over..

I know this.

In my head.

Can someone please tell this to my mouth?

It seems to think that cookies, candy and all that is fattening is still allowed. Ugh. Time to get back on the wagon...again.

Since I am still eating holiday themed mini butterfingers....here are some more holiday themed pictures.


My beautiful Alice ("I call her Allie" -Ella)


Ornaments my mom made for Alice and E. I love these, she does them yearly.



My sister, brother in law, Jamie (in his annual, startlingly ugly, not to mention FEMALE holiday sweater) and Molly the dog.


Heading out for a walk post Christmas gorge, with my mom and sister and the girls.



Mike shocked, just shocked, that E won't take a picture with him.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Pure joy



The sprint from upstairs down to see what Santa brought made our day today.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas...Eve

10:33pm and I just sat down. Might be for the first time today.

Christmas is sure a lot of work when you're the parents (Thanks, Mom and Frank. I can't even imagine it with 4 kids.)..and seems like even more when you leave most of it until the 24th like me and Mike.

Our to do list today was something like this...

Track Santa on norad.org.

Sprinkle the lawn with "reindeer food".

Bake cookies and leave milk out for Santa.

Go for a run. (with loads of holiday spirit, of course.)

Antler-ize Alice.


Dress up in a Santa suit.
Jump around in the attic making reindeer landing type noises.
Run outside without being spotted by the 3 year old in bed with mommy.
Wave to 3 year old who screamed, "I LOVE YOU, SANTA!" from the window.
Come back inside and watch 3 year old open up the book that was "early present that Santa only leaves for really good girls and boys" to be told "I wanted Swimmy Doggy" with a sad face.


(I am SOOOO glad we actually have swimmy doggy or someone would be running around ATL tonight trying to find one!)

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow. Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Home...

....from our trip to the freezing cold North.

Sick...with a cold. Me and Alice both. It is just the saddest thing to see her not be able to eat and breathe at the same time AND have no idea why. Then freak out when I try to use the booger sucker bulb syringe thing to help.

Making cookies for Santa....and making myself sick eating the batter. But, what else is new?

Buying presents....pretty much done. Final run through Target tonight to pick up something for Alice (seriously, what do you get for your 5 month old? we went with a toy she can hit and it lights up..oh, and some books. can't go wrong with a book.)

Enjoying...the song Ella was singing the other day. Went something like this. "Guess who's coming for Christmas? God and Santa! God and Santa!" then repeat. and repeat. and repeat.

Learned...that in the nativity the main players are, according to Ella, as follows. "Mary, Jesus and baby Jesus" Guess Joseph didn't make the cut this year. :)

Sunday, December 21, 2008

More snow...

I can't watch this without crying...

I've watched this three times and everytime, I am a puddle of tears (and my mom and Mike's mom, too). Seriously, Eddie, you're amazing. Thank you for capturing our family.

Check it out here.

And more of Eddie's stuff here. Check it out. Ed Hetherington Photography. He's in Atlanta...does weddings, family photography, engagement shots. Pretty much any big moment in life, you probably want him there to record it for you. I love how natural we all look in the pictures. Not posey, not fake, just us having fun.

Still up in NY visiting with Mike's family. Made the sometimes dicey, oftentimes scary, snowfilled ROUNDTRIP trip up to Providence, RI to visit Mike's Nana yesterday so she could meet Alice for the first time. Definitely worth it. Ella wowed the seniors with her dance moves and piano playing and Alice layed on her Great Nana's bed in just her diaper and smiled.

Getting 5 more inches today, to add to the 8 from Friday. Mike, Kevin and I got about a 40 minute run in it today....interesting. Kind of like running in slippery sand. Definitely a hard workout though.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Acting like 3 year olds...

Snow does that to you...even if you're 34 and 40, like Mike and his
brother, Kevin.

Expecting a ton if the stuff today. Were up in NY visiting Mike's
family and are lucky enough to get to enjoy a real bit of winter...

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

"And Jesus was his name-o"

Yes, Ella's preschool had their Christmas pageant today and yes, the 3 year olds sang a (very sweet) song about Jesus to the tune of Bingo.

"There was a child that was born today and Jesus was his name-o...."

I am not sure if it was intentional, but it was hilarious.

E rocked it. Shouted out her hellos (on stage) to me, Daddy, her Mimi, Alice and her buddy, Connor, in the audience. Broke out into a spontaneous dance. Had me cracking up. Nothing to get you into the Christmas spirit like listening to a bunch of preschoolers sing about the holiday.





Off to pack for our trip to NY tomorrow to celebrate and early Christmas with Mike's family.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Wow.

Our friend (and amazing photographer), Eddie, took some pictures of the girls last weekend and just sent us some of the shots.

He's so talented. I love these. Thanks, Eddie.





Saturday, December 13, 2008

Santa sighting

Yeah, so we got in the holiday spirit.

(I am SO much more of a Halloween person than a Christmas person. Christmas is one of my lesser favorite holidays. Give me a pumpkin over some pointsettia any day.)

Mike and I decided to be good parents and take the family to see Santa. Village Tavern brunch at 8:45 am on a Saturday? Bring it. Thankfully, our buddies, the Riepes were there with their two little ones, too.

Definitely worth the soggy eggs and weak buffet breakfast according to this smile.


The whole fam in our holiday finest.


The cutest elf I ever saw.


Off to decorate the Christmas tree...and hopefully sneak in a trainer ride while Ironman is on TV today. Can't wait for that.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

A run...

and....get this...

A swim!

Yes. Two workouts.

In. one. day.

I am superwoman.

If doing a 5 mile run and a 30 minute swim makes you a superhero.

Nothing amazing in either, but just glad to have found the time, energy and desire for 2 a days.

Have to give proper thanks to Mike who was in the midst of putting two crying, irrational little girls to bed while I was at the pool. Poor guy...was running from one room to the other trying to read to one and literally pacify (with the pacifier) the other who kept spitting it out, then crying.

You rock.

You finish dealing with the girl's craziness to deal head on with mine. :) Our conversation tonight...

(Background -- I want to do a 5k this weekend. The 5k I want to do is at 8am at the Perimeter. We've got reservations to have breakfast with Santa at 8:45 in Alpharetta (20 mins. from the race))

Me -- I can get there in time.

Mike -- (with a large amount of disdain and sarcasm in his voice) Yeah, if you take your helicopter with the shower in it, you can.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

There were four in the bed...

...and the little one said, "roll over, roll over".

Remember that song?

Cute song. Not so cute at 3 am.

In your bed.

Alice usually makes her way into our room around 3 am for a feeding (that her ped said she doesn't need anymore, but she vehemently disagrees). And last night, Ella toddles in around 4 or so, complaining that the rain woke her up. (Um, yeah, there was no rain here last night.)

So...crowded bed. Good thing we have a king.

The upside was that at 7am when Alice was cooing and yelling and mommy was too exhausted to find it cute, Ella was there to entertain her.

Cajoled and bribed my way into convincing E to go with us to the gym today. (As much as I love my new treadmill, I can't have E flat out refusing to go to the gym, so I wanted to try again this AM.) Got in a hard 5.75 miler without hearing the dreaded "Mrs. Parker to the Kids Klub!" over the loudspeaker.

Success.

Only negative being that my skin is so dry (winter, Argh!) it hurts to sweat. Ow. That stings.

I know, I know...toughen up, princess. Right? :)

Friday, December 5, 2008

In need of a plan

Yep, that is me. In need of a plan, for the 2009 season.

I need to figure out what races I want to do.

Then train for them.

Simple, no?

Sounds like it, but training for a triathlon does involve swimming (in addition to biking and running)....in a pool, lake, ocean, some body of water.

I have an admission to make.

I have not been in a pool since I had Alice. Yes, 4 months without a swim. A single swim.

I have to get my a$$ back in the water. And soon.

This is not going to be pretty.

I did get in a brick today though, on a positive note. (45 min bike, 2 mile run) Felt good and strong on the run, always a pleasant surprise. I am feeling a nice ache in my legs tonight. Sitting on the couch, two girls asleep, Mike about to join them....watching "The Life and Times of Tim" for the 6th time since I got home on Wednesday. (Mike is obsessed with this show...pretty funny.) Looking forward to the weekend.

Couple pics of the girls from Naples....

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Home again

A minivan (my mom's) full of girls made the looong trip home from Naples yesterday.

Myself, my mom, Ella, Alice and Annabelle (the 97 lb. golden retriever) AND all of our stuff made it the 11 hours home. (Mike flew back Monday for work.) Thanks for the ride, Mom!

The girls were awesome. Alice was screaming (happily) and hitting, no, make that, punching the caterpillar that hangs from her car seat most of the day, then napping, then eating.

Ella mostly watched Wall-e on the dvd and every few hours would offer an "I grumpy. I know what make me happy! A treat!" Treat=m&m's in Ella-world.

Annabelle slept. What else is new?

Happy to be home. Not so happy to unpack, put away 13 loads of clean summer clothes from the trip, and finish making bows to decorate mailboxes for charity tonight. Ugh. (My bows suck, by the way.) :)