JVG
Family photo Oct 2010
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Lunar Eclipse
I'm a nerd. I'm not ashamed. haha. I was glad that I was able to see the lunar eclipse this year! I feel like anytime there is something cool like this going on it's too cloudy to see anything, but I set my alarm and woke up at the butt crack of dawn to see it. I honestly did it more for the kids because I thought that it would be cool for them to see (because I wasn't going to wake them up for it). It was nice because I could see the change happening, which is so cool! Glad the weather worked out so that I could see it and share it with the kiddos :)
JVG
JVG
New Running Shoes
So... I know I swore up and down that Chicago was going to be my last marathon... but... you guessed it. I'm doing another one. My experience at Chicago wasn't a happy one, but it did teach me a lot. And, I don't want to go out on a race like that. I'm coming to realize that my first marathon was pretty dang impressive and Chicago was still pretty good, but I think I can do better. My friend Amy and I already picked out another we want to do and I am super pumped. I wasn't really that excited about Chicago, but the probability of us getting in was so small and then we did... it was like fate. But, I have to say that I'm feeling a redemption full coming on! haha.
Training and having Gaetan start training too will be interesting, but I think that we can do it. Amy and I are going to Whidbey Island out in Washington. Her friend Erin is going to join us which should be good too! I'm just hoping to 1.) finish 2.) do it under 10 min/mile. If we can do that I will be happy and never run a full again ;)
I loved my Saucony Hattoris for the first full but I got wrecked for this second one. I think that my feet changed during my last pregnancy so they weren't as good for me as they once were. So... my wonderful husband watched the kiddos as I went and tried on a bunch of different brands and types of running shoe. I still really like the idea of the minimalist shoe but I need a little more padding than the hattori's provided. After trying on about a dozen I found a pair that I think will do me very well... and incidentally they are the same ones that Gaetan has! We settled for some road merrills and have already done a couple of miles in them and they are great! I haven't had to lace up my running shoes in a few years but I think it will be ok ;)
Here we come Whidbey Island! This is also on the list of marathons that if you are going to travel for one then you need to do this... so... get ready for Two Asians and A White Girl! (the name of our running team haha)
JVG
Training and having Gaetan start training too will be interesting, but I think that we can do it. Amy and I are going to Whidbey Island out in Washington. Her friend Erin is going to join us which should be good too! I'm just hoping to 1.) finish 2.) do it under 10 min/mile. If we can do that I will be happy and never run a full again ;)
I loved my Saucony Hattoris for the first full but I got wrecked for this second one. I think that my feet changed during my last pregnancy so they weren't as good for me as they once were. So... my wonderful husband watched the kiddos as I went and tried on a bunch of different brands and types of running shoe. I still really like the idea of the minimalist shoe but I need a little more padding than the hattori's provided. After trying on about a dozen I found a pair that I think will do me very well... and incidentally they are the same ones that Gaetan has! We settled for some road merrills and have already done a couple of miles in them and they are great! I haven't had to lace up my running shoes in a few years but I think it will be ok ;)
Here we come Whidbey Island! This is also on the list of marathons that if you are going to travel for one then you need to do this... so... get ready for Two Asians and A White Girl! (the name of our running team haha)
JVG
Portage CC
This was my second year volunteering at the Portage CC invitational and the weather this year is just how I remembered it being when I ran. Cold. Cold. Cold. And windy. The wind was the worst part! It cut right through you! But, it as fun because I got to see my nephew run and I really enjoy being apart of this event! Looking forward to doing it next year! :)
JVG
JVG
Sewing machine
So I received a sewing machine from my MIL last year for either my birthday or Christmas and a month or so ago I finally busted it out. My friend, Nancy, has been remodeling her basement and is almost finished and wanted to make some new pillows to go with the new decoration :) So, get this. She can handle a saw and doing all this crazy construction stuff but won't go near a sewing machine... and lucky for her I had one so I went over there we tried making some pillows! The hardest part was putting the dang machine together and trying to fill the bobbin and all that.. but I did it and even made the first pillow! I think it turned out really well! Looking forward to making the rest of them!
JVG
JVG
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Playground outings
We take the kids to the playgrounds a lot.. and, the result is me taking a lot of pictures of them playing. :) Here is a compilation of our outings.
JVG
JVG
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Zoo Boo
We did the zoo boo again this year. I'm not sure what happened to the month of October but all of the sudden it was almost over! I guess I had been basing everything off of getting my marathon taken care of that after that I kinda lost touch with reality. Oops!
Anyhoo, we wanted to take the kids out and do something but we have been sick for quite awhile and wasn't sure what we could do. But, we figured that the zoo boo was a safe bet and it was a nice way to get out and do something but not have it be an all night thing. I didn't have time to make more costumes so we just used the same dinosaur tails and hoodies from last year... and, they actually fit better! Dude's sweater was a little small, but he made it work ;)
We did get a chance to go with our friend Nancy and anytime you can make the adult ratio the same as the kid it's a winner. It was nice having her with us too because the kids were so excited to have her along for another adventure. The girls were pretty tired and cold so we put them in the wagon and they snugged in a blanket. Lucy was so cute when we walked through to get candy she would just hold her bucket out and say, "trick or treat" as we pulled her past and then put her bucket back in the wagon. Norah I think passed out as we were walking back to the car but she stayed dry the entire time which is always a plus!
We were sad that the train wasn't running because out of all the years that we've gone I haven't yet ridden the dang thing! But, we did get tokens to ride so maybe we will go back and ride it again some other time. :)
I'm not sure what it is but the actual day of Halloween is always so yucky... snow or raining or something. Because when we went out Thursday night it was pleasant (little chilly but it IS the end of October) but on Friday rain rain rain and then snow! Gross. So, I'm glad we went out the night before and the kids could get some candy.
JVG
 |
| The kids 'trick or treating' at Nancy's house before we all went to the zoo boo |
Anyhoo, we wanted to take the kids out and do something but we have been sick for quite awhile and wasn't sure what we could do. But, we figured that the zoo boo was a safe bet and it was a nice way to get out and do something but not have it be an all night thing. I didn't have time to make more costumes so we just used the same dinosaur tails and hoodies from last year... and, they actually fit better! Dude's sweater was a little small, but he made it work ;)
 |
| Me and Norah |
 |
| Waiting in line and trying to entertain Norah |
 |
| The fam |
 |
| Looking at the bears |
We did get a chance to go with our friend Nancy and anytime you can make the adult ratio the same as the kid it's a winner. It was nice having her with us too because the kids were so excited to have her along for another adventure. The girls were pretty tired and cold so we put them in the wagon and they snugged in a blanket. Lucy was so cute when we walked through to get candy she would just hold her bucket out and say, "trick or treat" as we pulled her past and then put her bucket back in the wagon. Norah I think passed out as we were walking back to the car but she stayed dry the entire time which is always a plus!
 |
| Before they did the maze |
We were sad that the train wasn't running because out of all the years that we've gone I haven't yet ridden the dang thing! But, we did get tokens to ride so maybe we will go back and ride it again some other time. :)
 |
| Norah passed out |
I'm not sure what it is but the actual day of Halloween is always so yucky... snow or raining or something. Because when we went out Thursday night it was pleasant (little chilly but it IS the end of October) but on Friday rain rain rain and then snow! Gross. So, I'm glad we went out the night before and the kids could get some candy.
JVG
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Chicago Marathon!
I have been putting off writing this post. Overall: Brutal, but a good experience. I read a blog post about a runner who was at Chicago and she said the same thing. That even though this wasn't our best race and it was in fact very hard, the experience was good. And, for me, I got to spend that time with a good friend even if we did just spent 4.5 hours running.... :)
I'll start from the beginning. We woke up at 5 am (right on time) and everything seemed like it was going well. Got a little something to eat beforehand and everything got packed up and ready to go. We headed down to the lobby a little after 6 to check out and when we were Amy realized that she didn't know where her credit card was. WHAT. Not good. So, there were a few frantic phone calls to try and figure out where it is and she thought she left it at the restaurant they went to yesterday for lunch. She luckily had another card she could use and did, but that was a little added stress we weren't anticipating for the morning. We checked our bags at the hotel and then we were out the door to walk to the start. The start was a little over a mile away so we figured that would be a good warm up. And, there were LOTS or runners already heading there. The weather was a little chilly but that was good because I didn't want it to get too hot for the run. We got through security just fine and into the start area. Since we didn't bring a bag to check we kind of scoped the area out to find our corral and hit the bathrooms and such. We did our energy chews and drinks and stuff and did a little bit of a warm up. We had gotten to the start much earlier than I thought it was going to take which isn't a bad thing. Our corral closed at 7:45 and the race started at 8. We did a mini warm up but we could only run inside the start area because once we went through security I didn't want to run back out and have to go through it again. Also, I didn't want to do a huge warm up because I wasn't honestly sure how my leg was going to hold up. We lined up around 7:30 and tried to stay calm. I wasn't sure when I should ditch my clothes (since it was cold I wore throw away pants and fleece) so I thought that the nice thing to do was put it to the side so that people didn't trip on it. Well, I guess that wasn't necessary. The walk that it took to get to the start line everybody had dropped their clothes right there! So you had to watch out not to trip over everybody's stuff or their trash. It was intense.
After the race started we were a little chilly but it was perfect to start. There were SO MANY people. Not just running but watching too. The entire race was busy and it was like you had to just constantly be dodging people. I didn't love it. You couldn't really get in a groove because you were too worried that you would get boxed in or trampled or that the person was just going to abruptly stop right in front of you and you would have to dodge them. I was hoping that it would thin out as the race went on but it didn't. The entire time, the whole race was just jam packed. :(
Around mile 8 my lungs were not happy with what was going on. I mentally thought that we had to be much farther than we actually where so when we passed the mile 8 sign I thought I was going to die. I just kept telling myself that I had to get to the half mark and everything would be better after that. Well, I lied to myself. At the half way mark I had to pee so we stopped to use a bathroom. After that, it was all down hill. Something about that bathroom stop made my muscles not happy and they started to get crampy.
Although around mile 8 or 9 I did run past Graham Elliot the famous chef! That was pretty cool. :) Anyhow around mile 15 i looked at Amy and told her I didn't want to do it anymore. That I had been mentally spent for the last 7 miles or so and that my body was starting to not want to do it either. I wasn't sure why my body was freaking out so badly but it was. Around 18 it completely shut down. My quads cramped so badly that when we stopped to stretch I couldn't pick my leg up to stretch it. It was honestly a very scary moment for me. And when I would stretch my quad my calves of charlie horse and my hamstrings would cry a little. Unfortunately after mile 20 I had stop every mile or so to stretch as my quads would get so tight it was like they were contracting but not releasing. We did see somebody who was unconscious and they were performing CPR on them while we ran past... that was a little unsettling.
But, I would like to give my utmost thanks to Amy for her graciousness and gentle motivation to get us to the finish line. Obviously our goal of 4:10 didn't happen, although we were doing fairly well for the majority of the race, timewise. She is the reason why I'm still not out wandering the streets of Chicago. I just wanted to sit down on the curb so many times and feel sorry for myself that the race wasn't going the way we wanted, but she was just an encourager and good friend the entire time. She made sure that I wasn't going to permanently damage myself but made sure that we did in fact get across the finish line. There was a bit of a mean joke that the race did. Towards the end at the end of a very long stretch they had this jumbo screen of the race and I thought it was the finish... it was not. In fact, after you rounded that corner of seeing it there was this hill you had to run up. Seriously? What's with people putting hills at the end of marathons. Big jerks. But, we made it to the end of the race together... hand in hand! We did it! I know that Amy could've wasted me and left me in the dust but we told each other that we were going to run it together and by golly we did!
I'm not gonna lie. I cried when we crossed the finish. I'm not sure if it was the disappointment in the race, or all the mental games I had to play with myself to get there and I was just spent, but whatever it was, I cried. again, i was so lucky to have Amy there by my side. We did get free beer though which is a plus! I had to take my shoes off though as soon as possible. My feet were hurting and I had mad crazy blisters. We hobbled our way to the reuniting area where we thought we were going to see Amy's parents but didn't. I sat down for a little bit while Amy walked around trying to find her parents. Since we didn't gear check anything our phones and stuff we still at the hotel so we asked some random if we could borrow their phone. Her parents weren't anywhere near the finish line so we decided that it was time walk back to the hotel. Yes, that walk was horrible. It was painful, but it was probably good because as soon as we got back to the hotel we didn't have much time to change or anything. Her parents were there and wanted to get going pretty quickly. And, on top of that we had to go get Amy's card from the restaurant. So, after all that running we hopped into the car and that was pretty much the end of it. I got a jamba juice because I was pretty hungry but then we were off to take Amy to the airport. It was a whirl wind end of the weekend but it was a good weekend.
I was happy to be home and see the kiddos. Norah was already in bed by the time I got home but the crazies were up. :) I did get some pretty sweet snugs from her in the morning though. :) The kids got me a welcome home and congratulations orchid which I thought was very thoughtful. It was a flower because Dude wanted to get me something and they're blue because that's Lucy's favorite color now. haha I was pretty sore until about Wednesday afternoon. And then magically it just all stopped hurting. It was so weird. But, I was definitely thankful for it! My knees and hamstrings were bruised (how? I'm not sure) but I was glad when that cleared up too. I haven't been running since because I want to give my stress fracture time to recover (that's what I'm diagnosing it as) and then I will be ready to go again! :)
JVG
I'll start from the beginning. We woke up at 5 am (right on time) and everything seemed like it was going well. Got a little something to eat beforehand and everything got packed up and ready to go. We headed down to the lobby a little after 6 to check out and when we were Amy realized that she didn't know where her credit card was. WHAT. Not good. So, there were a few frantic phone calls to try and figure out where it is and she thought she left it at the restaurant they went to yesterday for lunch. She luckily had another card she could use and did, but that was a little added stress we weren't anticipating for the morning. We checked our bags at the hotel and then we were out the door to walk to the start. The start was a little over a mile away so we figured that would be a good warm up. And, there were LOTS or runners already heading there. The weather was a little chilly but that was good because I didn't want it to get too hot for the run. We got through security just fine and into the start area. Since we didn't bring a bag to check we kind of scoped the area out to find our corral and hit the bathrooms and such. We did our energy chews and drinks and stuff and did a little bit of a warm up. We had gotten to the start much earlier than I thought it was going to take which isn't a bad thing. Our corral closed at 7:45 and the race started at 8. We did a mini warm up but we could only run inside the start area because once we went through security I didn't want to run back out and have to go through it again. Also, I didn't want to do a huge warm up because I wasn't honestly sure how my leg was going to hold up. We lined up around 7:30 and tried to stay calm. I wasn't sure when I should ditch my clothes (since it was cold I wore throw away pants and fleece) so I thought that the nice thing to do was put it to the side so that people didn't trip on it. Well, I guess that wasn't necessary. The walk that it took to get to the start line everybody had dropped their clothes right there! So you had to watch out not to trip over everybody's stuff or their trash. It was intense.
After the race started we were a little chilly but it was perfect to start. There were SO MANY people. Not just running but watching too. The entire race was busy and it was like you had to just constantly be dodging people. I didn't love it. You couldn't really get in a groove because you were too worried that you would get boxed in or trampled or that the person was just going to abruptly stop right in front of you and you would have to dodge them. I was hoping that it would thin out as the race went on but it didn't. The entire time, the whole race was just jam packed. :(
Around mile 8 my lungs were not happy with what was going on. I mentally thought that we had to be much farther than we actually where so when we passed the mile 8 sign I thought I was going to die. I just kept telling myself that I had to get to the half mark and everything would be better after that. Well, I lied to myself. At the half way mark I had to pee so we stopped to use a bathroom. After that, it was all down hill. Something about that bathroom stop made my muscles not happy and they started to get crampy.
Although around mile 8 or 9 I did run past Graham Elliot the famous chef! That was pretty cool. :) Anyhow around mile 15 i looked at Amy and told her I didn't want to do it anymore. That I had been mentally spent for the last 7 miles or so and that my body was starting to not want to do it either. I wasn't sure why my body was freaking out so badly but it was. Around 18 it completely shut down. My quads cramped so badly that when we stopped to stretch I couldn't pick my leg up to stretch it. It was honestly a very scary moment for me. And when I would stretch my quad my calves of charlie horse and my hamstrings would cry a little. Unfortunately after mile 20 I had stop every mile or so to stretch as my quads would get so tight it was like they were contracting but not releasing. We did see somebody who was unconscious and they were performing CPR on them while we ran past... that was a little unsettling.
But, I would like to give my utmost thanks to Amy for her graciousness and gentle motivation to get us to the finish line. Obviously our goal of 4:10 didn't happen, although we were doing fairly well for the majority of the race, timewise. She is the reason why I'm still not out wandering the streets of Chicago. I just wanted to sit down on the curb so many times and feel sorry for myself that the race wasn't going the way we wanted, but she was just an encourager and good friend the entire time. She made sure that I wasn't going to permanently damage myself but made sure that we did in fact get across the finish line. There was a bit of a mean joke that the race did. Towards the end at the end of a very long stretch they had this jumbo screen of the race and I thought it was the finish... it was not. In fact, after you rounded that corner of seeing it there was this hill you had to run up. Seriously? What's with people putting hills at the end of marathons. Big jerks. But, we made it to the end of the race together... hand in hand! We did it! I know that Amy could've wasted me and left me in the dust but we told each other that we were going to run it together and by golly we did!
I'm not gonna lie. I cried when we crossed the finish. I'm not sure if it was the disappointment in the race, or all the mental games I had to play with myself to get there and I was just spent, but whatever it was, I cried. again, i was so lucky to have Amy there by my side. We did get free beer though which is a plus! I had to take my shoes off though as soon as possible. My feet were hurting and I had mad crazy blisters. We hobbled our way to the reuniting area where we thought we were going to see Amy's parents but didn't. I sat down for a little bit while Amy walked around trying to find her parents. Since we didn't gear check anything our phones and stuff we still at the hotel so we asked some random if we could borrow their phone. Her parents weren't anywhere near the finish line so we decided that it was time walk back to the hotel. Yes, that walk was horrible. It was painful, but it was probably good because as soon as we got back to the hotel we didn't have much time to change or anything. Her parents were there and wanted to get going pretty quickly. And, on top of that we had to go get Amy's card from the restaurant. So, after all that running we hopped into the car and that was pretty much the end of it. I got a jamba juice because I was pretty hungry but then we were off to take Amy to the airport. It was a whirl wind end of the weekend but it was a good weekend.
I was happy to be home and see the kiddos. Norah was already in bed by the time I got home but the crazies were up. :) I did get some pretty sweet snugs from her in the morning though. :) The kids got me a welcome home and congratulations orchid which I thought was very thoughtful. It was a flower because Dude wanted to get me something and they're blue because that's Lucy's favorite color now. haha I was pretty sore until about Wednesday afternoon. And then magically it just all stopped hurting. It was so weird. But, I was definitely thankful for it! My knees and hamstrings were bruised (how? I'm not sure) but I was glad when that cleared up too. I haven't been running since because I want to give my stress fracture time to recover (that's what I'm diagnosing it as) and then I will be ready to go again! :)
JVG
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)