13.1? DONE!

Disney wine and dine weekend!! WAAAHHHOOOOOO!!!

The moment we'd been waiting for since I stupidly given my credit card to Disney in April and booked our hotel room! Ma was in town to hang with the kiddos and pups, UP was finally finished with class, a work dinner and was at the house and we were on the road!

I'd booked us a hotel on property at one of the value resorts. I knew we'd only be spending a few hours in the hotel and I wanted something we could take the bus to and from the start/finish line, so All Star it was.

The drive seemed to take FOREVER! Even though it was 3 adults and we passed the time listening to/watching stand-up, I wanted to just wiggle my nose and be there. We opted to not stop and eat so we could just get there, only to discover that the food court closes at a certain time (aka about 15 minutes before we checked in). We ordered a pizza and headed up to the room. A couple of slices later and we were all tucked in, ready for a good night's sleep.

The next day, half-marathon day!!, we headed over to the expo. I had no idea what to expect. We parked, and started walking. We stood in a not-s0-bad line and were ready to check in, get our bibs and be official!

Except for one little problem.

I'd filled out all the paperwork, and I SWEAR I would have caught this, but I had all of our "what we're called" names put on our bibs. That's great for me (who goes by my real name) and UP (who goes by his middle name), but not so great for Hubs (who goes by a nickname of his real name no way incorporated on his FL drivers license).

And the blood pressure rises...

We all flash our ids and the problem started. It's not the name on the list! This name doesn't match! I'm not sure.....

OH NO. You can NOT tell me that we (well, the boys) have been training so hard for this, and now, because of a southern nickname, Hubs isn't going to get to run!??!

Luckily, the "cast member" sitting to the left of check-in gal, had a name tag with her city clearly visible; Charlotte, NC. Come on, southern lady! Help us out!

She sat nodding in agreement the entire time we were checking in, and eventually, the official check-in girl deemed us "legal" to accept our bibs. We crossed the tag check, verified our names and ages and off to pick up our swag bags!

I must say, our bag was quite nice! A clear bag for our checked stuff, some gu, some samples and a sweet little wine and dine running shirt. We decided to walk around the expo and that might have been the biggest mistake we made all day. I just wanted to get a Wine and Dine something to remember the weekend by. What we ended up getting? 2 wine and dine wine glasses, 3 bags of apples, a pair of chiquita banana sunglasses and 2 tattoos, a new pair of headphones for me, a new powerband for Hubs and a set of Cutco knives. Yes, we went to run a half-marathon and bought a new set of knives.

After impulse buying our way around, we headed to downtown disney for a late lunch/early dinner/last meal. Then, it was back to the hotel to rest.

And since I was with 2 of the girliest guys, we also had to pick out and try on our outfits. After our ensembles were assigned, we pinned on our bibs, drank some water, packed our after-race bags, drank some water, filled out our emergency contact information, drank some water, charged our ipods, drank some water, packed our gu and gatorade, drank some water and got dressed. And then we hopped on the bus! At 7:45! Yay for early arrivers!

One of my biggest stressors was knowing there were going to be about 200 port-a-potties and knowing there was about a 200% chance I was going to have to use one at some point during the evening. If you were paying attention in the above paragraph, you might have noticed we were drinking a LOT of water. So it should come as no surprise that after we checked our bags into the u-haul, grabbed another bottle of water and found a spot on the lawn to enjoy the preparty, I had to pee. NOOOOOOO!

Off to the line of port-a-potties we went. Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew ew.

Although....

I must say there is a really big difference in using a port-a-potty at a Dave Matthews Band concert, lawn seats, and using one just before a half-marathon. People might as well have been walking in, flipping the lock and pouring bottled water into the hole filled with blue water. Not too bad at all!

But we still had two hours before the race started.

So we danced, watched some crazies jumping around, met up with UP's friends, and I finally faced my other fear and ate a cliff shot block. Ew. I wanted to vomit, but I couldn't because it's like the shot block adheres to your stomach lining and there's nothing to puke. We then shuffled into our corral.

Somehow, we managed to get assigned to corral C. Right in the middle! The national anthem was performed, we all waited excitedly and BAM!

Fireworks!

Cheering!

Confetti!

And about a minute later, we shuffled forward and repeated the process.

Finally about 12 minutes after 10, we were off. I mean, really off. The boys wanted to run together, and I was feeling a little wheezy so told them to go ahead and I'd see them at the finish line. They took off, and I started to try to pace myself. And then, something amazing happened.

I passed someone. Then another person! Then another group of three! And a few more people!!! I'm running in a half-marathon AND I'm running faster than someone (well 9 someones!)! If I can manage to not get picked up by the bus, I'll officially check my half goals off my list!

I clopped along down what felt like the longest road ever and finally came to the first mile marker. By the second mile marker, I could tell I was not running my best and was SO going to have to do one of these stinkin' things again. I kept trying to push myself a little harder, but kept getting caught up in the same group of slowpokes and could not get around.

The race was awesome though, and there were parts of the electrical parade all along the way, music blaring, character spots, it was great! And just when I thought I was never going to get there, I ran under the Animal Kingdom sign! YES!! Finally the first park!

And if I hated that park with a double stroller in 100*+ heat, it was 15 times worse at night with thousands of runners. I'd finally gotten up to a good pace and was feeling in the groove. I ran under a bridge, up a hill and knew the tree of life would be in sight at any momen---AHHH!

Well, the park is the same running. Just when I thought I was home free, the chick running in front of me (at a part where we were in a straight line) comes to a full stop, pulls out her camera and takes a picture of the tree.

I almost slam into her, manage to hop around her and the 12 others doing the same, and keep going. I kept telling myself, "You hate this park! If you stop now, it's going to take you that much longer to get out if it!" and somehow, I kept running! I made it past the point where the relay swap was happening, through a back lot and out into the parking lot, around the parking booth and I was on to the next park!

And somewhere around mile 8, I was running over a bridge and people were honking and I had to wave and smile. I was doing it! I was actually doing it! I was RUNNING a half-marathon! Oh if coach Sherman could see me now! The girl who could give everything for that one stupid mile it took to make the soccer team, complaining the whole way, was running a half marathon!

And at that point, it became a blur.

There was a green army man screaming at us as we climbed a hill to Hollywood Studios, my mind tried desperately to figure out where I was and suddenly I was at the Tower of Terror, I thought back to the race map, trying to think how much longer I had to go, and I was at mile 10. I was pushing, but had to stop and laugh at/with a cute couple next to me. I'd pulled my earpiece out of one ear for the water stop and I hear her say, "This. was. the. dumb. est. idea. I. ever. had." to which he replied, "Come on, baby! You can do it! We're at 10! Just a 5K left to go!"

Just a 5k! Shoot me now!

But suddenly, I was on the boardwalk then I could see parts of Epcot and before I knew it, I could see the finish line! THE FINISH LINE!! I knew the boys had finished way before me, so I slowed down a little to look around, hoping to see their smiling faces somewhere in the crowd. Not seeing anyone familiar, I pushed it on across the finish line, threw my arms up in the air and slowed it to a jog, then a walk. I went over to some awesome volunteers who put the (heavy!) medal around my neck. I did it.

I. did. it.

And because I needed to know, I looked back and saw a gaggle of people behind me. I did it. I wasn't last, the bus didn't pick me up, I finished. At that moment I wanted to cry. And throw up a little. And get some water. And pee. And sit down. And lie down. And find the boys. But my jelly legs just kept going where I picked up a bottle of water, grabbed a bag and some gatorade, a banana, a cliff bar, and some other stuff. Before I knew it, I was standing in line to get my official post-race picture taken. I did it! I'm holding my medal and I finished and I look great! (nope! No mirrors! I saw the picture, I looked like a sweaty mess.). I started to make my way over to the bag claim area and I saw them! The boys had finished, beating the 2 hour mark (amazing!), Hubs was 3 steps away from losing a toenail (which he nicely texted a picture of to me) and they were ready to party! We grabbed my stuff, changed (large open tent where I was pretty sure when I took off my shorts, I WOULD fall over) and headed into the wine and dine party.

This was the one disappointing part of the night.

It's the WINE and dine. And what do they hand me? A skunky beer. Boooo. But they did give us all a $10 gift card, so we wobbly made our way around the world to Italy where I was able to get myself a glass of wine and the three of us could pose for a picture with the epcot ball in the background.

We did it! We actually did it!

And I must say, the bling at Disney is so fantastic, I think we're hooked. Counting down the days until the next wine and dine! I think it's an annual thing now.

What has 2 thumbs and buys new shoes the week before a half marathon?

This gal!

(and the above shirt is available at zazzle. Where I found the pic.)

So Hubs bought himself a new pair of shoes (and some gu and a shirt or 2 and maybe some socks) a few weeks ago. I was toying with the idea of splurging and buying ME some new shoes, but just hadn't gotten around to it.

But there we were, having lunch at a pizza place with Nugget on a random Wednesday and the running store we love happens to be next door. My phone had a full charge (which meant a solid stint of angry birds for Nugget), so after eating, Hubs convinced me to stop in.

Our store is owned and operated by runners. They know their stuff and are awesome, but they still aren't full of themselves enough to look at people like me, roll their eyes and push the most expensive shoes in the store. I sat down and kicked off my flip flops and fully admitted that my current running shoes were purchased solely because they were on sale and had the hole in the bottom where I could put my Nike chip. Store dude gave me a sympathetic smile, equivalent to a pat on the head, and gave me a pair of neutral shoes. He then lead me to the treadmill, set my pace and told me to start jogging.

I then ran, with my jeans rolled up to my knees (with a belly full of lunch, mind you) for about a minute. And if that weren't awkward enough, we THEN got to watch a video of my fat calves and flat feet slapping the belt.

Sweet!

He determined how much my ankles rolled and what negative arches I have, excused me to the chair and disappeared into the back. He appeared moments later with an armful of boxes and let my piggies play goldilocks in some new kicks.

I narrowed it down to two pairs. One was a puma that was so ugly, I'm convinced they would have made me run faster purely so people would not be able to look at my feet. But they felt like I'd shoved my feet into giant marshmallows.

The other pair was a delightful pair of brooks that felt a little like heaven and guaranteed that I'd never set sock in my nikes again.

And the boys all waited, ever so patiently, as I ran around the store in the first pair. Then the second. Then the first again. Then the second. Then the first on my left foot and the second on my right. Then the other way around.

Oh this went on for what I'm sure was hours in annoying-customer time until I finally decided on the Brooks' and went up to pay. It was then that Hubs pointed out the (as Nugget would say) ginormous poster behind me of Store Dude. Running. In the olympics. Nice.

They told me I should be fine as long as I put about 20 miles on my shoes before the 1/2, so the challenge was on.

And the next week (as in the week OF the 1/2), I went back into the store to get Hubs a few shirts to pick from for the weekend. He, not shockingly, didn't like the majority, so back to the store I went! I decided since I was already there I might as well treat myself to a little something.

Like a new pair of shorts.

And if you give a mouse a cookie...

20 minutes later, I was decked out in a comfy pair of shorts, a sports bra and running tank.

As I ran around the store in my new wine-colored ensemble, I struck up some half-marathon chat with running chick. She'd done Disney before, so she had some great advice.

Running Chick: Oh! You are going to love it!! Disney races are so much fun!

Me: Oh good! This is my first so I'm pretty excited!

RC: First half?

Me: Yup! And first 5k and 10k...

RC: Whoa!

Me: Yeah, I'm an idiot. So any words of wisdom for a first timer?

RC: Yes. Smile, enjoy yourself and smile for the photographers. They are all over and pretty easy to spot. Plus there's all the character picture spots, too!

Me: Yeah, but if you stop for a picture, your time keeps going right? I mean, if I stop to take a picture with Mickey, and it takes 5 minutes, that adds 5 minutes to my time, right?

RC: Yeah. But can I ask you something?

Me: Sure!

RC: Are you going to win?

Me: What?

RC: Are you planning on winning the half-marathon.

Me: Umm. Probably not...

RC: Yeah, so what's a few minutes for a picture?

OUCH! Umm. I'll take my purchases and go now. Thanks for the pep talk!

The F-word

Strip is my talker.

If I pick her up from school (or in our previous life met her at the bus stop), by the time we get to the house, I know what everyone had for lunch, was wearing that day, what color they were on and then some. I can get a verbatim play-by-play of the entire 8 hour day, usually in one breath.

Nugget? Not so much. He will talk and talk and talk, but gives me NO information about what's going on at school. How was school? "Good." What did you do? "Nuffin'." What was your favorite part of the day? "Snack" (which I pack him). What was your favorite part of after school? "Eatin' lunch" (which I also pack him). What was your favorite thing about school that DIDN'T involve food? "Goin' outside."

So, I had to really control my excitement when, after getting in the car, Nugget said without prompting:

Nugget: Oh! Mom!! GUESS what happened at school today?!

Me: Hmmm Captain Jack sailed the Black Pearl onto the play ground?

Nugget: Noooooo You'll never guess!!

Me: Ok, what happened?

Nugget: I said the F-word for de WHOLE CLASS!!!

At this point, I am trying my very best not to drive the car off a bridge and also not freak out. Nugget thinks everything is hilarious, and the last thing I needed to show him was some crazy-freak out reaction to a four-letter word as to encourage him to say it again.

But my mind is racing.

No one said anything to me, but car pick-up doesn't lend itself to chats with the teacher, and another teacher put him in the car, so there wasn't really a chance to talk. No one's called me. No one emailed me...yet.

But more importantly, how does he KNOW the F-word, and on top of that, how does he know to refer to the F-word as "The F-word."

Stay calm.

Me: Really Buddy?

Nugget: Yeah, I said it really loud and good for de whole class!

Me: bracing myself Can you say the F-word for me?

Nugget: Sure! Fffffffffffffffffffff-ARM! FARM is an F-word!

Me: YES! YES IT IS! FARM IS A GREAT F-WORD!

Whew!

It turns out that the letter of the week that week was F. And when they introduce the letter of the week, they write letter words (in this case, F-words) on the board and the kids get to help think them up. Nugget had raised his hand and come up with "farm" on his own (no teacher hints like, "Old McDonald had a....), and the teacher was SO proud of him. She doted on my little buddy and it was right before pick-up, so it was fresh on his mind.

So glad I don't have the potty-mouth kid in school and will not have to write multiple letters of apology to all of the parents in Nugget's class!

Bad News Bears

***Warning! This post contains offensive language! ***

This year, part of Strip's homework is to read at least 10 minutes per day. So that's like requiring Hubs to watch college football every Saturday. CAKE! But, something about the pressure of recording every.single.book was getting to me.

We were plowing through her bedroom library and she's rocking the AR tests, so when we met a friend at the local library to grab some soccer hand-me-downs, I told Strip to grab two books. She went off on her own to find what she wanted, and I grabbed Stone Soup and a beginning reading book for her to buzz through that night. The beginning reading book was The Berenstain Bears' Family Reunion.

As I've said, Strip is a great little reader. Her only problem is that when she's tired, she just makes up the story based on the first letter she sees resulting in sloppy reading. We try to do tested reading earlier, but she just loves to read before bed and REFUSES to write a book that Hubs and I read her in her reading journal. She sat on the kitchen floor reading the first half of the book while I cooked, then insisted on reading the rest before she went to sleep.

So here's a tired Strip on a Thursday, eyes rolling back in her head, reading to me.

Strip: We SHIT, we..

Me (interrupting): Whoa whoa whoa. Let's try that word again. What's at the beginning?

Strip: S-h. A blend. SHHHHH.

Me: Good! covering the s-h and what is that word?

Strip: Out.

Me: Great! Now just put the blend at the beginning...

Strip: Ohhhhh! Sorry. We SHIT OUT..

Me: SHOUT! SHOUT!! We SHOUT!

And while I tried, unsuccessfully, to hide my hysterical laughter, she asked, "What's so funny?!?!" Nothing, I replied. You just make me so happy!

Polar Opposites

Strip is a thinker. And because she is a thinker, she is a worrier. That child worries enough for our entire extended family and then some. Nugget, on the other hand, is totally my kid. Not a care in the world, does what he wants doesn't care what anyone says, does, thinks. It doesn't even occur to him to worry about anything!

I signed them both up for soccer and it starts this week, so we were talking about the last minute things we need to get before practice. Nugget got a football jersey from Ma for college game day (woo hoo! Welcome back fall!), and wanted to know if he could wear his #3 jersey for soccer.

Me: No, buddy, you can't wear your football jersey. But I think they will give you both a special soccer shirt.

Nugget: Can I be #3?

Me: No, I don't think so. They assign everyone the numbers, so I don't think you get to pick.

Strip, AKA worry wart: Umm. Do they give you the numbers based on how good you are?!

Me: No, sweetie, they just give out the numbers.

Nugget: I wanna be zero.

Oy. Maybe they will rub off on each other and even themselves out a little!

Wanna be OCD

Yes, I realize the correct phrase would be, "Want to HAVE OCD," but the "be" just flows better.

And yes, I have a pinterest board named that :-)

PaPa and Ma were visiting for college game day weekend and took the kids to their first "college" football game. I use the quotes because the team was Ma's alma mater, not mine or Hubs, so it doesn't really count :-)

The kids had a blast. Nugget was convinced that HE was going to get to play because he had a jersey. Strip started having a panic attack the minute that saw the teams warming up asking UP, "Won't they get hurt when they run into each other like that?" UP pointed out all of the pads and the helmet and she seemed to be OK. Nugget, still convinced he was going in, warmed up with team then promptly fell asleep near the end of the second quarter.

The kids enjoyed the game and since it was a holiday weekend, Papa and Ma grabbed the kids for a night on the Bus, leaving Hubs and I home alone!

What to do?!

Impromptu date night on the town? Nice dinner out and a movie? Go have coffee somewhere and chat?

Nope!

I cashed in some Bed Bath and Beyond coupons earlier that day, so while Hubs was watching football, I put the laptop on the kitchen counter, started streaming a little Netflix and reorganized my pantry.

Yup. Impromptu date night, and I'm organizing rice noodles!

Like I said, I want to be/have OCD, but it's always been a swing and a miss. I stumbled across a blog of a woman whose junk draw makes the most organized spot in my house look like Hoarders. So I channeled my inner neat freak and got to work.

First off? I HATE our pantry. Yes it's much bigger than the one we had in our old house, but it has wire shelves (which I hate) and it's just wide and awkward and full of wasted space (which I hate).

Second, I'll show you the before and afters, but keep in mind, the before picture was probably the WORST it's ever been. We'd been in and out of town, and the pantry became the dumping grounds. So please imagine that my pantry's before picture is kind of like the latest weight loss girl's before picture; kind of chubby, but you can totally tell she's sticking out her belly in the before and sucking in for the after.

After checking expiration dates, shuffling noodles, flour and sugar and arranging things by height, I finally had as close to an organized pantry as I was going to get.

Drumroll, please!

Before:

AHHH!! We're hoarders and there are probably some animals in there!!!!

And after:

You can hear the angelic voices singing from their acrylic pop lid containers!

Now what's the over under on it STAYING like this!

Adding to our kids' stability.

It's not enough that we rip our kids out of their lives every 2 years and move, once we settle in the place Hubs says is for good (or at least a little while), we take them out of school the second week!

Yup, Summer came and went and life was just crazy. We were shopping for #2 pencils before we knew it and we really hadn't spent much quality family time together. Because of work schedules, we had a certain window we were aiming for to get away, but we also knew we couldn't monetarily travel too far or stay somewhere too crazy. So when some dear, dear friends said their beach house was retable for a week, we jumped. When we found out it was the week after school started, I hesitated.

We were going with our friends T and J and their kids L and A (Strip's BFF). They had no problem going that week because they homeschool! As much as I hated to miss an entire week of school before it was even September, we had to weigh the pros and cons. Sure, it's Nugget's last year of preschool and Strip's in 1st grade, but how much are they REALLY going to do during that second week? Especially when the first week isn't really a full week? And yeah, we could always plan ahead and go next summer, but next summer, we wouldn't be going with Nugget and Strip. We'd be going with kindergarten Nugget and second grade Strip.

So we got the week's worth of school work (which Strip finished in 5 minutes), packed up the car and headed for paradise.

And OH was it paradise! Secluded beach, plenty of room for all 8 of us (and then some), private pool and no reason to put on anything other than a bathing suit and some SPF.

Hubs and I have taken quite a few trips, but we've always had one problem. Any time it's just a relaxing vacation, he gets very sick and/or has to visit a doctor. Honeymoon? Lost 20lbs after eating sushi in Mexico and I thought he was going to die. Ski trip? Totally fine. Family reunion vacation at the beach? Loses a tooth eating a Milkdud at the movie theatre resulting in an emergency dental visit. Huff and puff through Disney World? A OK.

Hubs had been traveling the week+ leading up to the beach, so when he said he wasn't feeling too well, my response was, "Don't EVEN start!" I told him to up the OJ and try to get more sleep. When we got to the beach, he upped the brews and we stayed up late playing cards.

So, a few days into our trip, he said he REALLY wasn't feeling well. My loving response? "Yeah, well, you're probably dehydrated and need more sleep, stop complaining and drink some water." Later that day he asked me to look up where the nearest urgent care place was, to which I said, "Umm probably back home. We're in the middle of nowhere!"

But it looked like the Public Health Department was taking walk-ins and wrote out the address for him. And before ANYONE throws the "Bad Wife" card at me, need I remind you that I drove MYSELF to the emergency room while in anaphylactic shock.

During a blizzard.

Off to the PHD he went and a few ivs and an antibiotic later, Hubs came back and crashed for the rest of the day and most of the next.

I'm thinking I should go ahead and book us some high impact something for Punta Cana. Otherwise, one of us might not be coming back!