More sister issues

So remember this post that I wrote a little bit ago about my sister and how I am upset at her lack of interest in her only niece? Well, the story continues.

(I should pause to say that in a way, I am lucky that this is why I am having issues with my sister. I know that there are bloggers out there with much deeper sibling problems...but having said that, this still upsets me.)

In September my sister and her boyfriend went to Africa for a vacation and while they were there, they got engaged. I am very happy for them because they have been together for a while now. When they got back we had them over to celebrate. My sister barely acknowledged Izzy and the entire conversation was basically about planning for their wedding. I realize that non-parents would not be excited about milestones and all but Izzy had just started pulling up on furniture which you think they would have noticed that suddenly she was up and off the floor but they were too engrossed in their cell phones and/or talking about their wedding.

Anyway, so they started talking about their wedding and possibly having it next fall...which wouldn't really jive with our January frozen transfer as if it worked my due date would be right around the wedding. My parents tell us not to base anything on their wedding date, but CP and I discuss it and decide to push back the frozen transfer date so that we can make sure we are at the wedding. Turns out it is not that big of a deal as now my sister's wedding will be in 2016 because they couldn't find a venue big enough that had any dates next year.

So last week I send out an email to my parents and my sister about Thanksgiving and Izzy's first birthday party on the 29th (Saturday). My parents will be there but my sister will be with her fiance's family in WI since they won't be around for Christmas. Fine. At least we won't have 5 extra people sprung on us (her fiance's family) coming for Thanksgiving like last year (the day before my c-section no less). But as far as Izzy's birthday? Well, they "will try to head back from WI" to make the party.

Am I being an asshole for thinking that they are assholes if they can't make Izzy's birthday party? The world does not revolve around my daughter and her life but they barely see her as it is and they can't even commit to coming to her first birthday party?

*sigh*

I promise that I don't stew on this all day (who has the time?) but when I do think about it it gets me riled up!

15K complete!

It was only 26 degrees when the race started which made for a cold wait for my corral to start and a cold first half mile or so. The organizers had a corral go off every four minutes to try to spread everyone throughout the course which was nice. But yeah, waiting for Corral N to go off was brutal. I was running the race myself but ended up finding my boss and his wife who happened to be the same corral as me so we chatted as we waited for our start.

Running with a whole lot of people

I had planned on seeing my boss and his wife quickly distance themselves from me (since usually my boss is faster than me) but they ended up starting the race off slowly and so I jumped ahead of them. My plan was to take a brief walk break every mile or so (and try to time them for water walk breaks as well). The first part of the race we ran through a tunnel that smelled like poop. Yes poop. Not sure what was going on with the sewer system on Sunday but it wasn't pleasant. Thankfully that lasted less than a mile before we were on regular city streets. I tried not to go out too fast in the beginning (something I did in the half marathon) so that I could save some energy for the last part of the race. 

For the first 2.8 miles both the 5K runners and the 15K runners were on the same course which frankly was a bit annoying because there were a ton of people to have to weave in and out of. I also kept seeing people with corral letters after N which was really annoying because they clearly jumped up corrals. Other than the weaving, I felt pretty good and didn't walk until mile two, where I grabbed some Gatorade from an aid station.

Miles 3 and 4 were nicer because the streets were fairly open since it was just the 15k runners, but I was struggling a bit mentally because I kept thinking about how much farther I had to run. I just kept thinking that I had to push through because I was currently beating my boss! At some point during mile 4 there was an "aid station" for strawberry flavored marshmallows. I decided to eat whatever they had on the course because it may give me a bit of energy that I would need later on (NO ONE at the expo the day before was selling Gu, Jelly beans, or anything and I didn't have time to hit up a running store so I had no fuel.) It was gross but I ate it anyway. (I use quotation marks around aid station because marshmallows aiding running? Debatable but I ate them anyway.)

In between mile 5 and 6 there was a section of the course where you ran north up a street about .5 of a mile then turn around to run south back down the same street. I thought this would be a good chance to see how far behind me my boss was because I hadn't seen him pass me (that I knew of). As I ran past the turn around and didn't see him I was on a big high because I realized that I was pretty far in front of him! I finally saw him right before I turned to head towards the lake which meant I was about a mile ahead!

Waving to him and the knowledge that I was beating him fueled me for a while but right around mile 7 I was starting to want to walk more. There should have been a tootsie roll "aid station" at some point but I guess they ran out. They would have been hard to eat while running anyway.... I did partake in the chocolate marshmallow "aid station" though. :-) It was right around this time I calculated that I would have to run 2.3 miles in the next 22 minutes to make my goal time which de-motivated me a bit. I just knew that I didn't have it in me at the end of this long race....but I did my best to try to speed up (which made me walk a little more).

Miles 8, 9, and the last .3 I was trying to use the downhill on the course to make up time while also trying not to ruin my legs. I knew I couldn't make my goal time at this point but I was going to try to push it if I could.  

I "sprinted" through the finish line and was very happy to be done with the race.

My splits:

Mile 1- 10:49

Mile 2- 11:04

Mile 3- 11:31

Mile 4- 11:04

Mile 5- 11:09

Mile 6- 10:52

Mile 7- 11:50

Mile 8- 12:05

Mile 9- 12:11

My first 15K time: 1:48:56 for an average pace of 11:42/mile.

So I missed my goal time of 1:47 but I knew that it was going to be a stretch. I am still very proud of myself. Two miles less than an 11 minute/mile and most of the rest in the 11 minute/mile range even with walking is good. By the time the race was over I had run/walked over 20,000 steps according to my Nike Fuelband!

After getting my medal, I grabbed my gear bag and threw my coat on because I was sweaty and getting cold.

My new bling!

I swear it was another mile of walking before I hit up the after party. The hot chocolate was meh but the fondue with the marshmallow, banana, and pretzels was delicious!

Mmmmmm chocolate fondue

I didn't get a nap in later that day and I wanted to kill Buster at 3:19am early Monday morning when he woke me up for no reason what-so-ever to pant and keep me up for the next hour, but I haven't been as sore as I thought I would be. My next race (with my mom!) will be the Santa Hustle. It's only a 5k but you get a Santa beard, a hat, and a sweatshirt. :-) 

For the winter months I'd like to keep running but most likely shorter distances. The long training runs by myself are for the birds. But I may try to do the Soldier Field 10 miler next year if I am not pregnant/cycling.

The 15K is finally here

In just two days I will be lining up to run the Hot Chocolate 15K, my longest race since the Amica Half Marathon in 2011. Life has certainly changed a lot since then. Buster is no longer a puppy who we just brought home and were working on potty training, CP is no longer working from home and is now traveling like crazy across the world, we no longer live in CT, and the biggest change is obviously Izzy.

A couple of those changes have made setting time aside to do weekday runs and weekend long runs aside much more difficult. My commute in CT was 10 minutes; here it is a 35-40 minute train ride and then a 10 minute walk to work each way. That doesn't leave me much time to workout on the days that I go into the office so I depend on my work-from-home days to get my runs in. But some weeks I only worked from home once a week or I had other things that I needed to do during lunch/after work- like cleaning, running to the grocery store, etc. All things that are much easier to do before picking up Izzy from daycare.

The long runs on the weekend were all over the place- sometimes CP would be home, once I took Izzy to the gym daycare, and then the other times I had to get up early to run the long run prior to work (like the day before we left for Santa Fe). I am fairly proud of how I did in fitting in runs with CP gone so much for work- while I didn't always hit three runs a week, I did complete all of my long runs by just somehow making it work. Completing the long runs by myself and not with a group (like I did for the half marathon) made me realize that I don't like running by myself much past 6-7 miles. Even if I am not talking to someone during the run, training is much more enjoyable just knowing that there is another person next to you feeling the same pain. :-)

So the big day is Sunday. My goal is to finish within 1 hour 47 minutes which would be an 11:30 pace. I believe that I can do this as I ran my 8 mile run with an 11:36 pace (in 1 hour 32 minutes) after drinking some wine and being out late at a Halloween party. I will be happy to finish with less than 1 hour 50 minutes though.

Sadly, CP is still in Thailand so Buster is going to be boarded Saturday night so that Izzy and I can stay downtown with my parents so that I don't have to get up as early and so that my parents can watch her while I am running. Grandparents for the win!

Wish me luck and I'll let you know how it goes on Monday!

Garage re-do

You may remember when we bought our house over two years ago just how gross and nasty it was. I look back on those pictures and shudder. Now there are a couple of things that I would change, but it actually feels like our house and it is comfortable and I love it. 

Remember when we re-sided the house last summer and it made a HUGE difference? Well, we never ended up siding the garage because it would have been too expensive. We kept talking about painting the garage ourselves this summer but with CP heading to Thailand all the time it wasn't going to happen while he was gone and when he was here, we were trying to do fun, family things.

Thankfully we were able to put aside a little money to hire someone to do it for us! The garage didn't have the crappy aluminum siding like the house did- it had wood so all it needed was some paint to match the house and boy did it make a difference!

BEFORE
(Unfortunately I realized that I don't have any good before pictures, but you get the point with this one- it was a light blue siding that looked awful because the seller had vines and other things growing up the side. You can see the difference between the garage and the siding in this post)

AFTER

AFTER

The old basketball hoop that was on the front of the garage ruined the wood a bit so we do need to put something decorative on the front, but otherwise I think it looks great! I'm just happy that it finally matches the house. :-)

Almost Wordless Wednesday- Halloween Edition

I'm a monkey and I love bananas!

Torturing Izzy with a homemade pumpkin bumbo

11 months!

(Posting 6 days late)

Height: Not sure

Weight: A little over 24 pounds

Milestones: The main milestones are centered around walking. She is cruising all the time now and easily pulls herself up on coffee tables and furniture. Izzy will hold our hands and walk on her own. She also has a new toy to help her with her walking- a dinosaur that is both a walker and a seated toy. She is a big fan.

Another funny thing we noticed this month was when we say "no" she will shake her head. We don't shake our head and we actually try to save the word "no" for special situations (mainly around safety) so it must be something that she is picking up at daycare.

Language: Izzy used the sign "eat" this month, but only a few times. She still responds to our signs more than she signs herself. She understands the words Izzy, milk, Buster, Daddy, water, Mommy, up, and dog when we say them.

Teeth: She still has 6 teeth- four up top and two below so no change from the previous months. She is drooling, putting more stuff in her mouth to chew and has been having a harder time falling asleep so I think she is working on more teeth- I just can't see anything yet.

My thumb is in my mouth more often these days

Favorite Toy: Her book on dogs. She sits in front of it forever turning the pages, kissing certain dogs, and giggling at it. It is adorable.

"Reading" her favorite book

Can Buster be considered a toy? She is definitely more aware of him. I pick Buster up before Izzy after their respective daycares and as soon as she gets in the car, she looks for Buster and giggles when he licks her hand. He has learned to lay down right next to her high chair to wait for dropped food, but recently she will hold out her hand with whatever she is eating (in the picture below it was a spinach dish and baba ganoush) and he will lick it, causing her to throw her head the other way and giggle. It's awesome. 

It's fun to feed Buster.

Buster and I both like to play with this light-up squeaky ball.

I still love my blocks!

Sleeping Habits: Still a good sleeper although she is having more trouble getting to sleep these days. Recently it has taken her 20 minutes or so to fall asleep (see possible teething). Going to bed around 7:30 and sleeping through the night. I have officially given up on a second nap for her. We generally get one solid (1.5-2 hr) nap on the weekends. At daycare she usually only gets one nap for about an hour a day.

Eating:  Izzy no longer wants us to feed her with a spoon. She wants to put everything in her mouth herself which makes meals quite messy.

She is still drinking four 6oz bottles a day with more solid food. She is obsessed with strawberries and I recently blew her mind by puting peanut butter on a banana. If she could eat fruit all day every day she would (not surprising as all that I craved during pregnancy was fruit and ice cream).

She is now a pro at drinking from different sippy cups- either cups with a spout, no spout (where she has to press down on the lip and suck to get the water), and from a straw.

Diapers: Seventh Generation Size 4 diapers during the day and Pampers Overnight Size 4 before she goes to sleep.

Clothes:  Due to Izzy's belly, she is solidly in 12 month clothing and wearing some 18 month clothing! Izzy also got her first pair of shoes!

Illness: Izzy had an eye infection but it cleared up quickly with meds. She also had a few regular daycare colds.

Other highlights: This month was Izzy's first time at the Shedd Aquarium, her first time at the zoo, her first time playing in leaves, and the first time overnight without me or CP (while we were in Santa Fe). Izzy tried Indian food for the first time. She is also getting better about not putting everything in her mouth and eating it- about half the time she will hand us the object (usually a leaf). 

Wary of the leaves

At the zoo! Her favorite animals were the monkeys and apes because they were so active

Trying mango lassi at the local Indian restaurant (she loved it!)

Microblog Mondays

Halloween was a lot of fun on Friday. Our next door neighbors had a party and I dressed up as the female version of Where's Waldo (aka an easy costume). CP was supposed to be back from Mississippi in time, but unfortunately due to the crazy wind/snow/hail we got, his flight was cancelled. Instead, he drove from MS home with three of his coworkers and finally arrived around 12:30am Saturday.

Remember when I first moved into our house a little over two years ago and when drinking beers with my new neighbors, I met one of their friends- who happens to be a fertility doctor that is in the same practice as my RE, but just in a different location? And instead of being a little sensitive due to the nature of his profession, he was the opposite?  

Well, he was at the Halloween party dressed as Dr. Sperm. Okay I get it. It's a play on your job. While he was at the party, he was making jokes with two of our neighbors (who are definitely fertile) about things that keep him in business. And how he makes a lot of money in his business.

Ugh. Maybe it's not even the fact that he makes me uncomfortable because I don't want to out myself (at least not yet) to our neighbors as being infertile. Maybe it's simply the fact that he seems like a douche. He clearly thought that he was in a group of fertile people (I think he saw me carrying around Izzy earlier because he said "congratulations"- that or else he knows that I am a patient which makes everything that he said even worse) so making jokes about people's issues is good for "party conversation." Maybe I am just being a little sensitive because the closer we get to the consultation appointment with my RE, the more worried I get about the frozen transfer next year. I don't know..maybe all doctors make jokes about their patients?

All I know is that in the two times I have met him, he has left a bad taste in his mouth. I am certainly hoping that I never have to see him during any of my infertility procedures.

Want to read more Microblog Mondays? Go here.