From Babi to Baby

We had a fairly interesting weekend and I'm not sure the cats will ever recover. We had Friday off, and we've been Babi-sitting this week (my friend Aymen has a kitten named Babi) so we spent a couple of hours over at the house looking after her. We decided to take Fernie over there as we've always joked that she is scared of kittens (she is, but Babi is a little bigger.) This time Fern was the good girl and Babi HATED her! It was funny. Aymen said she was trying to socialize Babi to other animals and I wish her luck with that. Babi was really angry but by the time we took Fern home and came back she was fine and didn't get even slightly upset. It was pretty cute, but it was pretty funny.

Saturday was spent on the wedding invitations. For more fun on that, see our wedding blog. It was a pretty interesting time and I am very worried that our invitations aren't "neat" enough. I tried my best but I really have terrible handwriting. I wrote as slow and as carefully as I could, but my lines are all curvy too. I just don't want our guests to think that I slopped them off in an hour-it took me all day and they still look bad!

Sunday was spent baby-sitting a real baby! My friend Murthlyn's daughther is 6 months old and I watched her while Marc and Murthlyn went to her home inspection (she's buying a new townhome). Ava is just the cutest and sweetest little girl. She was really well behaved adn seemed very interested by the cats. Lily was not happy to have someone getting her mommy's attention, and Fern just kept coming downstairs and screaming at us. Ava loved it. She was smiling really big and putting her hands out so the girls would come to her. Fern did and she seemed pretty well adjusted. Which isn't usually how we decribe her!

Watching Ava really got me thinking. Marc and I have a timeline for children and we both completely agree on it. Its so scary though. You can't get up and go to the bathroom when you want, I didn't get lunch until 3 pm, I was dirty as heck after 5 hours with a baby (I do not like spit though I can tolerate it I need to cleanse big time when spit-time is over) and I can't imagine ever getting chores done! It was crazy. A lesson to the men and women of the world. DO NOT HAVE A BABY UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO "HOLD IT" FOR 5 HOURS! I had to tinkle so badly, but it wasn't an option, as she slept for an hour, but during that time I was doing the laundry. Its just a riot, but I had a great time and can't wait to do it again.

Marc is in Chicago until Wednesday. I'm going to clean up the house really nicely for him and I'm sure he'll keep it clean while I'm gone. I can't believe that I only have two more weekends here, and both of them look to be pretty busy!

Recommitment

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Weight Watchers. I've lost 62 pounds to date on the plan, and hope to lose more. I have been very frustrated and I find myself slipping into my old habits, especially since the race. I find that I am just wolfing my food again and not waiting until I am legitimatly hungry to eat. There is some legitimacy to my eating though-I feel hungry all of the time and just want to keep eating. There have been many nights that I've said, "ok, no more food" and then I am just starving all evening. I decided to put a list of reasons to recommit to Weight Watchers and my motivation for doing so (many would say the wedding is enough!)

• I have never felt better about myself then on the days that I eat healthfully and exercise. I get such a "high" from following the rules and exercising.
• I'd really like to get down to a size 8. I feel I deserve that.
• I'd like to not just "lose weight" but get "fit". I'd like to see some muscles peaking out (or just blatantly obvious)
• I'd like to complete a marathon this year. I'd like to do so in a reasonable amount of time
• I'd like just one person to say "wow, I wish I had a body like Kate's" that's such a silly thing to wish, and yet I'd like to feel that feeling. Just once!
• I'd like to get my eating habits under control. No binge eating, no junk food. I'm pretty good about this, but I'll find myself eating a can of olives, for no particular reason.

This list of goals didn't really come out how I wanted it to. My motivations are simple. I'd like to have that same good feeling I used to have when I first started losing weight. I honestly feel heavier today then I did 62 lbs ago-and I realize that is just crazy but don't know what to do about it.

I just don't want to be fat anymore. I look fat in all the pictures on this site, and that picture of my running was a real wake-up call that I am still quite heavy.

Happenings

Nothing too exciting going on in my life lately. I'm trying to work back up to three miles a day (I'm not sure what happened but my stamina is GONE) so I can do the hospice 5k in two weeks. I am afraid of being dead last, but we'll see what happens. I think my motivation is just gone because I'm fairly upset with how poorly I did in the half marathon!

I am worth $1,881,706 on HumanForSale.com
Did this little "Human For Sale" thing out of sheer boredom. I didn't bode very well. I think I'm worth more dead (I have good life insurance).

Marc and I gave blood today. It was as though we were at the amateur night at the blood bank. They messed him up pretty bad and then when I went they indicated that my blood was clotting. I said "is that normal" and they clarified and said that I "actually had a blood clot that went into the bag". What the hell does that mean? She acted pretty worried about it, like I had something wrong with me, though she told me I was ok. I know that your blood can clot in the bag, but that is definitely not what she told me. At least I got my t-shirt. That past several years I have been unable to give blood because of low iron. No problem today. In fact, I talked to the guy and he said "Have a bowl of Total" before you donated blood and you'll never fail the iron test. Nice info.

I have a lot of work to do. Well not real work. I have a lot of work to get done for graduate school. I am in a course that is just so time and labor intensive. Its killing me. My other class isn't too difficult, but we have a fairly lenghtly (10-15 page) paper due in a couple of weeks and I have started! There is just so much work in the other course that I don't give much time to this course, which is the one I actually like.

Lots of wedding stuff to do this weekend too. We've got to get the invitations done as they'll be going out in a few weeks.

I really want to change the template for this blog, but I don't know how else to do it. The standard templates are all ugly and I'm not cool enough to know how to make up my own.

My Victory!!

Today was a great day! I ran the second leg of the Lower Potomac River Marathon on a relay team with my fiancé Marc. Our team was PC Load Letter (a little joke from Office Space) and all of our training really paid off. Marc did a fantastic job, leading our team through the first leg of the race and I brought up the tail and crossed the finish line, as seen in this marvelous picture (seconds before I sort of melted into Marc's open arms.)


I'll tell you how the race went. First of all, it was very stressful waiting for the handoff point. There were a lot of people there, warming up, stretching and looking much more athletic than me. But there was also a greatcamaraderiee, all of these people were so supportive and so positive that I couldn't help but have a great time. Marc came around the bend (in his bright orange t-shirt) and he handed our team baton (actually a ribbon with our name on it) to me and gave me a big sweaty hug and kiss. It was so great to see him and it really bolstered my run.
I ran about two miles without a lot of trouble but it was very hot and very hilly on the course. I checked the weather when I got home and it said it was 75 degrees at noon and that was towards the end of my run and it was definitely hotter before that! It was unseasonably warm and a lot of other runners were also complaining that it was a bit too hot for a long race and the sun beating down on us was really taking its toll on our energy stores.

There were a lot of great volunteers manning the water stops and I have a new love for Ultima Replenisher. There isn't any sugar in it and I could really feel a difference in my energy after the water stops. I ran much more of the race than I expected to, though I wish I had run more because my time was far from fantastic. My portion was really hilly and I made a deal with the devil that if I ran through all the level portions I could briskly walk up the hills, which I did on the second half of my loop. I was also getting plagued with a leg cramp, but I ran through it because I knew every step was one step closer to Marc, the tv, beer and a comfy place to rest my bottom. I also knew that Marc, along with our friends Chris, Josh and Robin, were manning a water station at their home (which is on the route at the very end) so I had to get to them and I had to look good while doing so.

All in all, like I said, I wish that I had done better but I did my best, for once in my life I put in 100% effort and although my time was long (I'm not sure how long, I think my GPS said like 2:35 for about 11.6 miles, but I'm still pleased with myself because it was HOT), I had a lot of obstacles to overcome during our training and I think that I did. As of this Monday I had strep throat and I had to go to the doctor again on Friday for even more antibiotics (that really made me sick as they were in such a high dose) so I still feel successful despite my illness and poor training along the way (as well as the horrible knee pain I currently have). I see this as the first step to my running "career" because I really enjoyed the race atmosphere, the people, and thesatisfactionn I felt upon completion of my goal! I also enjoyed the pizza we got for dinner tonight (I was too hot to be hungry for lunch) and the smile on Marc's face when I crossed the finish line! Without him, I'm not sure I would have even done this!!

Hopefully soon I'll be reporting on more races because I had a great time and I want to make this a part of my life!

Mardi Gras Baby

Oooh I forgot to mention that I definitely took part in "Fat Tuesday" I feel like a blimp. That darn King Cake is so yummy with its cream cheese filling (I had another piece today that was homemade and even better). Yesterday in my first piece of King Cake I found the "baby" in the cake, which simply means I am supposed to host the party next year. I probably should, I ate my weight in King Cake so the least I can do is provide next year's cake. People kept saying "its means you're going to have a baby." No thank you, not this year...or next.

Just thought it was funny as I looked at my computer and saw my little plastic naked baby sitting there. A little lewd, yes, but pretty funny.

An Update

Its been awhile since I last updated the blog, but I have just been involved in a flurry of activity. The wedding planning is going really well. In fact, we're done with so much of it that we're starting to feel confident and my nerves are getting a lot better. I was pretty stressed there for awhile, but I'm calming down and finally sleeping again (that was a rough two weeks). As for running, things have been going well, but not famously. The 1/2 marathon is in a week and a half, and I'm not ready at all, though I'm still looking forward to the challenge and maybe I'll surprise myself. Marc is definitely ready, but he has a healthy amount of anxiety about the race as well, as this will be the first time we've ever partcipated in a race.

This weekend we finally checked out the course over in Piney Point. It is a disaster! Marc's portion is nice and flat, but it winds all through the brush on little single car roads (the roads will not be closed). My part is very clear, nice wide shoulders on the road, but its pretty hilly. Dueling banjos come to mind though in this area...its a little "rustic" and "just plain scary". Marc said he was glad we hadn't decided to split up and run our separate parts because it wasn't a place we'd like to run alone!

We also had an interesting movie watching experience this weekend. We watched Grizzly Man, which we feel is a frightening trip inside the mind of a very strange individual. There were some really interesting scenes, wonderful shots of beautiful wildlife and majestic scenery, but all in all it was quite a disturbing movie. I certainly don't think that he got what he "deserved" but when you play with fire you often get burned so his death (as well as his girlfriend's death) should not be a surprise.


Not much else to report. Oh wait, I do have some really fun news. I just got contacts again after a 5 year hiatus this past Friday. I can see so much now, its wonderful. On Monday night I took out my contacts and felt a little bit of stinging, but it wasn't a big deal. Tuesday morning I put my right contact in and ALMOST DIED of the pain. I literally fell to floor in pain and I was unable to open my eye for several minutes. Finally I got my eye open and I tried to get the contact out but I couldn't. I just put the other one in and made my way to work. All morning it was in big-time pain and I couldn't see very well, but I still couldn't get the contact out. At lunch I went home and finally got them out, despite the horrible pain, I felt a little better after they were out. I couldn't keep my left eye open though so I called the doctor. She saw me immediatly and said that I had (are you ready?) sliced through my cornea with my fingernail (eww gross, I know!) She said it was one of the worst she'd seen and she gave me a couple of prescriptions to hopefully heal me. I was so worried that I'd be a pirate bride, but my eye already feels somewhat better, though far from perfect. I felt a little guilty because I skipped my run last night, but I was kind of afraid of getting something in it and it still really hurts. I'm going to cross train tonight, but its kind of hard to drive b/c my right eye is my good eye and I can't wear correction (don't have glasses anymore) so its a little blurry.

Marc is in the UK but he gets home tomorrow night. I'll be glad when he's back so he can be my seeing eye fiance.