2019 Goals- how did I do?

Let's check in on my 2019 goals!

1. Eat at least one vegetarian dinner every week. 

I don't really have control over this as CP is the person that cooks every night, but we did very poorly with this one. I would like to push for this in 2020.

2. Lose 25 pounds this year. 

Well unfortunately this fall I backslid into TERRIBLE habits when I couldn't run anymore and while 
I definitely work out more working from home, my daily step count is terrible. It has

turned into gaining weight....so now I have even more to lose in 2020. :-(

3. Work out for at least 30 minutes at least three times a week. 

This has gone pretty well. I started Morning Meltdown 100 (MM100) through Beachbody this

fall and all of the workouts are less than 30 minutes. Even when I travel I can do the workouts

that don't require weights so I should hit workout #50 TODAY! 

4. Continue monthly dates with CP.

We probably hit this.

5. Get our credit card balance to $0 this year.

Done! We hit this halfway through the year and have continued this even through 

Christmas. Woo hoo!

6. Get a new job. 

Done! I love my new job!

7. Continue to be politically active whether it is writing postcards to voters, contacting my

elected officials about things that are important to me, or participating in marches.

Still doing this. Will likely step up my game in 2020.

8. Run in at least three races this year including the Soldier Field 10 miler.

Done! This spring I did a 10k, Soldier Field 10 miler, and a half marathon. On Thanksgiving

Day I powered through a turkey trot 5k which left me in pain from plantar fasciitis for days (I did

not run at all before the race). I have new shoes (Hoka One One) but still find myself in pain 

because I do some jumping in MM100.

9. Run one race with Izzy this year.

Izzy sprained her ankle right before Thanksgiving so we couldn't do the turkey trot together (I

had signed her up for it). Maybe we can do a race next year?

My 41st birthday

Let me tell you all about my annual pretty princess day this year (aka my birthday) on December 10th. CP was in MA for a work trip and I was working from home. The day was pretty normal and boring until I got a call at 2pm from a local number. Turns out it was the nurse for Izzy's school. She proceeded to tell me that Izzy was in her office and that she was sorry she was going to ruin my day....but that Izzy had lice.

OMG. I felt absolutely TERRIBLE because Izzy had been itching her scalp for the previous two weeks or so but lice didn't even cross my mind. She has eczema issues so I chalked it up to dry scalp and had started to use Head & Shoulders on her for a few baths. It turns out she was in class and PULLED A LICE BUG OUT OF HER HAIR and told her teacher about it. OMG OMG OMG.

I IMed my boss and coworkers about the call to let them know that I wouldn't be working the rest of the afternoon and headed over to the school to go pick Izzy up. I felt like a TERRIBLE mom. How could I not have seen bugs in Izzy's hair? I brush and put a braid in her hair almost every day!! The nurse could not have been nicer and told me that the buggers are actually pretty fast and hide from the light. She gave me a bunch of tips and was even nice enough to check my hair to see if I had lice too. Izzy and I immediately went to the drug store where I bought the hair wash and a comb that zaps the bugs. 

I spent the next two hours working on Izzy's hair. I put A LOT of the treatment into Izzy's hair vowing the seriously kill the f*ckers. After the requisite amount of time, she got in the bath and we got to see the carnage. I counted at least 30 adult and teenage lice bugs and then felt even more terrible that I didn't catch this sooner. Izzy started to get freaked out that there were so many dead bugs in the bath with her so we switched to a shower. Afterwards I then spent a long time combing out her hair to get all of the nits. She has pretty long hair so it took a while. I also gave myself a treatment just in case before we went to pick up Wes. 

We were supposed to go out to dinner that night but I nixed those plans and we had leftovers. I also started loads and loads of laundry. The highlight of the day was listening to Izzy sing the Philadelphia Eagles fight song for me (she just needed help spelling at the end).

For the next week or so I would go through Izzy's hair at night. Thankfully CP was able to come home a day earlier than expected (Thursday instead of Friday)- after the lice issue in addition to an urgent care visit Sunday night (only a few hours after CP left) for Wes after he split open his chin, all I wanted to do was tap out on parenting.

Let's hope my 42nd birthday is much better than my 41st!

Winter fun

Holiday pictures

Decorating our Christmas tree. We intentionally did not buy a huge tree this year.

Making gingerbread houses at a friend's house.

Going to see the model trains at our library. Wes was in heaven.

Light show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Light show at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. We brought glasses that make lights into gingerbread cookies, candy canes, reindeer, etc. It was great.

Check out this humongous inflatable in our neighborhood! The kids are so tiny compared to it!

Izzy turns 6 (a month ago!)

 IZZY TURNS 6

Morning birthday balloons

Height: 48”. Surprisingly enough she barely grew between July and her birthday.

Weight: 62 lbs

Physical milestones: Izzy is super strong as evidenced by the fact that she can pick up my mother (who weighs 120 lbs). She continues to be fast and won first place in the Healthy Kids Running Series in the spring (50 yard dash) and placed third this fall in the K & 1st grade division (1/4 mile). She is a better swimmer at this point and didn’t use floaties this summer. She had been doing karate this fall but we found that it is simply not enough exercise for her so we have enrolled her into an obstacle-course class which she is LOVING so far. It’s 45 minutes of climbing walls, monkey bars, pushups, situps, etc. Next month she will also start basketball classes through the park district.

Language/Reading: Izzy has a good number of sight words and likes to try to read things. She is very curious about words so if we use a word that she doesn’t know, she will ask us what that word means. Izzy doesn't quite have the "r" sound, so rabbit sounds like "wabbit." I'm told it's normal and she will grow out of it.

Loves: Unicorns, glitter, sparkly things, soft things, puzzles, art, the Eagles and the Cubs (Woo hoo!)

Personality: Izzy is still super competitive. She is also still fairly emotional and gets upset (cries) quickly. She can be smug at times and often wants to parent Wes and tell him what his punishment should be for doing something wrong. LOL.

Favorite Toy: Izzy has been big into games. She is fairly obsessed with Mancala and every time we pick her up from her after-K program she is playing. She also really enjoys Monopoly Jr, Scrabble Jr, and Ticket to Ride.

Favorite Book: She is making her way through an illustrated version of the first Harry Potter book with CP that she got for her birthday.

Enjoying some pizza before the Chicago Red Stars game

Sleeping Habits: These days she goes to bed around 8-8:30 and wakes up around 6:30-7. There is no more nap and we basically have stopped with required "quiet time" upstairs in her room. Our bedtime routine is to get her upstairs to change into pjs and pullup, brush her teeth, and read her 1-2 books or 1-2 chapters of a book. Generally she is in her room with a flashlight looking at books for a bit before falling asleep.

Eating: Izzy can eat A LOT of food if she is hungry. Her favorite is still mac n cheese.

Teeth: Izzy has lost FOUR teeth so far (all on the bottom).

After her most recent tooth loss two days before Christmas

Potty: At 6 Izzy has no issues during the day, however she still needs a pullup at night. I'm pretty sick of buying pullups so I'm hoping that the chemical in her brain switches "on" soon.

Clothes: Size 7/8 or usually a M. Size 1.5 youth shoe. She loves to wear athletic leggings and continues to wear a lot of dresses with leggings underneath.

Sickness: A few months ago Izzy turned her ankle and got a high ankle sprain. Unfortunately her doctor said that she is likely to have it happen again because of the type of sprain...so I taped her ankle like I remember physical therapists used to tape my ankle when I would sprain it.

Mommy's first tape job

Also, she had lice (that's a story for another post).

Treating Izzy's hair

Media: We have relaxed our tv standards a bit as the kids usually get a show or two each weekend day and sometimes we will do Friday night movie night as well. The kids do not get any iPad time, nor do they get to play with our phones. We'll see how much longer that lasts....

Big sister: At a recent wine night one of my friends was complaining about the fact that she has to "pretend play" with her daughter. All I could think was, man I'm so glad that my kids pretend play together. The only thing the kids ask me to do is be the "mommy monster." DONE.

Pulling Wes

Birthday: As usual, Izzy's birthday turns into at least two weeks of celebrating Izzy. It started with her shared birthday party with her best friend (third year in a row). This year they went to a nearby climbing gym. Then it was Izzy's actual birthday the day after Thanksgiving. All four of us had the day off so we went to the Field Museum in downtown Chicago to check out dinosaurs and finished the day by going to dinner at a spy restaurant with the most ridiculous dessert. Finally, the Sunday after Thanksgiving we had a family birthday for four of us that have November/December birthdays (me, Izzy, my BIL, and my dad).

Family birthday party

Birthday party with friends

Ridiculous dessert at the spy restaurant

We love our energetic, smart, athletic little lady and can't wait to see what she does this year!

Fall fun

We have been very busy on the weekends with fall activities.

Every year we head to my parent's house in MI and go to a local farm to pick out pumpkins and go apple picking.

To make sure that the kids are getting lots of exercise, we got them out to a local woody trail so that they could run around under the beautiful changing leaves.

CP had a work trip and it was nice enough for pumpkin carving to do it outside, so Wes mainly drew on his pumpkin with markers, while I mostly cut Izzy's pumpkin for her since I couldn't find the kid-friendly pumpkin carving knives.

The day of Halloween the snow started early and didn't stop until about 6pm so we ended up with cold and snowy Halloween! Izzy went with her current obsession, a unicorn, and Wes had a scary glow in the dark skeleton costume....but refused to wear the mask and opted for a hat.

Day in the Life- Fall 2019

Day in the Life- Fall 2019

Thursday, October 17th

CP is 43, NSC is 40, Izzy turns 6 in one month, Wes is 3.25. 

Marshmallow and Cocoa are ?

It has taken me two weeks to edit this and post it. Such is my life these days.

3:30 am- I wake up to Izzy crying. She had a bad dream and wants me to sleep with her. That is not going to happen so I rub her back and talk to her about good things she can think about before she lets me go back to bed.

5:30am- my alarm goes off and CP gets out of bed to shower and have breakfast. I roll back to sleep. In my dream I am super pregnant and about to have a baby (uhhhh not going to happen).

6:30am- CP wakes me up by turning on the light in our room and does the same for the kids in their rooms. I get out of bed to go to the bathroom but need to wait for Izzy to finish peeing. Wes is still hiding in his bed. Izzy runs back into her room to put her clothes on but starts crying because the pants are too tight. I check the label and they are last year's pants so I get her another bigger pair. Wes is yelling for me to help him get dressed so I head into his room while telling him to ask nicely. I get him dressed and then kids head downstairs with CP to get some grapes. I put in my contacts and get dressed quickly to head downstairs.

6:50am- CP is unloading the dishwasher and I tell him that he should leave. Kids give CP hugs, I give him a kiss goodbye. Kids start fighting over stickers (eye roll). I make the kids get their shoes on and jackets as we are heading to school soon. I text my neighbor that her daughter can come over whenever she is ready. I get the kids out the door and turn on the car to warm it up a bit. Today is the first day our neighbor's daughter will drive with me to school and she is hesitant. Her mom has to walk her over and I try to pump her up by saying that she can sit in the back with Izzy and that we have cool sliding doors (this is her first time being in a car with anyone that is not family). I cringe at the mess that is my car but I guess it could be worse?

7:10am- We eventually get her in, everyone gets buckled up and I slowly drive the girls to Kindergarten. Wes talks nonstop.

7:25am- I drop off the girls and then deal with Wes' crying fit because I won't pick him up to walk to the car. I finally get him in the car after refusing to pick him up and we drive to his school.

7:40am- Drop Wes off, see friends on the way out and head back to my house. Make a cup of coffee with Sugar Free Peppermint Mocha creamer, make eggs and eat on a corn tortilla with a little bit of salsa. Spend too much time reading the news (Elijah Cummings died- oh no!).

8:15am- I head upstairs to turn my computer on. Check email and start to get settled into work.

9:15am- I check my schedule and realize that I should work out now so that I have time to shower before I have to get on camera for a later meeting. I head downstairs to do Day 10 of 100 Morning Meltdown (Beachbody). Thankfully it is re-vibe which is a stretching day. We did a lot of leg work and lifting yesterday so this feels nice.

9:40am- I'm walking up the stairs when my colleague calls and we have a quick conversation about our onsite visit to a community next week.

10am- First scheduled phone call of the day.  I'm mostly lost in the conversation as it is around work plan management on our contracts so I mostly just listen.

10:40am- Decide to quickly shower in between calls. Usually I try to work out and shower and then start my day a little later but that didn't happen today.

11am- Another call which is scheduled for an hour but ends up only lasting 15 minutes. Woo hoo! I do other work.

12:15pm- Downstairs for lunch. Salmon, butternut squash soup and a little 4 bean salad while I read The Daily 202 from the Washington Post. I do the dishes.

12:45pm- Back upstairs and working again. Since it's after lunch it's time for Marshmallow to start bothering me because the cats have now eaten all of their dry food and are DESPERATE FOR FOOD. FEED ME!

1:25pm- I'm a bit tired so I head downstairs to make some hi-caffeinated black tea to warm me up AND wake me up!

1:30pm- Our internal team meeting starts and we weren't going to do an on-camera call after all because two of the team members are gone, but one team member just got an adorable kitten so we turn on our cameras to ooh and aah. Marshmallow is close by so I pick her up to show her off too. A quick 30 minute call.

2:45pm- I go into my candy drawer and eat a bunch of Skittles. Damn. Afterward I pop a stick of Watermelon sugar free gum into my mouth to try to curb my sweet tooth. I work on a presentation for next week and print out some documents.

3:45pm- I hear a squirrel squawking outside, possibly at me so I open up the window so that the cats can hear and see the squirrel. They get very interested in watching him race up and down the tree outside and end up jumping on the windowsill for a closer look.

4pm- I order a 12 cup bundt pan for pick up at Target in a few hours for my mom's birthday tomorrow (we are headed up to MI). I grab a few pretzel thins for a snack as well.

4:30pm- I need to get out of the house so I take a quick walk a few blocks away to mail a letter. I start listening to the newest Pod Save America podcast on the debate but end up calling CP to figure out dinner. I have a late call and CP is headed out with a friend tonight so we decide that after CP picks up the kids, he will pick up Subway on the way home. I head upstairs and find out that you can order Subway online.

5pm- I jump on a call with a community on the West Coast. Looks like I will have to fly out there in mid November.

5:40pm- CP texts to let me know that kids are crying. There may have been something that I was supposed to attend tonight??? I have no idea what he is talking about and hope that he is joking.

5:55pm- Off my call and head downstairs to feed the cats before the crying kids come home.

6- Izzy is crying because we missed something to do with dodgeball and dinner? (I found out the next morning that we were not receiving any emails from the enrichment director and we did miss something the night before.) The kids and I sit down to eat Subway and are halfway through dinner when CP's friend arrives from the train (they are going out for dinner and drinks).

6:28- I rush the kids out the door and drive Izzy to Girls Scouts. It's nice to be able to drop her off so that Wes and I can run an errand. As we leave the church, I ask Wes if he needs to go to the bathroom, he says no. As soon as I have him buckled in the car, he tells me that he has to go to the bathroom. Seriously?!?!? So we head back inside to the bathroom.

6:40- Off again and headed to Target to pick up the bundt pan. When I am walking through the self-checkout area, a woman is having trouble (English is definitely not her first language), so I help her check out.

7:25- Wes and I are back at the church and find Izzy in the gym holding a can of root beer on her knee. I guess she banged her knee but as soon as I arrive, she starts running around with her friends so she is clearly fine.

7:40- I wrangle the kids in their jackets and we head home. I get both of them upstairs and start with getting Wes to use the bathroom, put Wes' foot in a water bath then slap a Compound W bandaid on his wart on the bottom of his foot, and then brush his teeth. 

We head into his room to put on his pajamas while Izzy brushes her teeth and puts on her pajamas.

 The kids fight over what book I should read but finally settle on Marlon Bundo (the John Oliver book). Their dialogue is hilarious as at the end, the two boy bunnies marry- Wes-" How old are the bunnies? I think 5 or 6." Izzy- "You have to be older to marry. Bunnies don't marry."

I ask Izzy to head to her room while I put Wes to bed. I say good night to Wes and tuck him into his blankets. 

I head into Izzy's room and she is worried about having bad dreams again tonight. I tell her a few things to think about as she is sleeping.

8:21- I head downstairs and change a load of laundry and scoop the cat litter. While watching Grey's Anatomy I make soup. 

The cats start licking each other which means they will be fighting at some point tonight. 

I then take out the recycling.

9:40- I finish making the soup, Grey's is over, and it's time for the cats to play. I start This is Us as I wash dishes. 

10:10- I package up the soup to put in the freezer.

10:30- CP gets home. I bring the soup down to the freezer. We talk for a bit and head upstairs. I change into pajamas, brush my teeth, take out my contacts and get into bed. I kiss CP goodnight and the light goes off at 11pm.

Should have known better

Ugh. I did something really stupid about two months ago. We were invited over to a friend’s BBQ and impromptu soccer game (they are Costa Rican- I think they called it a milangro?). I started out the soccer game wearing sneakers but the game was being played in their side yard which had a slight hill to it and my sneakers tripped me up a few times. My friend noted that people are supposed to play in bare feet, so I took my shoes off. BIG MISTAKE.

My feet didn’t hurt during the game...in fact it was nice to run around in bare feet for once. But as soon as I woke up the next morning I knew I had made a huge mistake and my plantar fasciitis had reared its ugly head again. Since then I have tried running a few times and even set out to start my 15k running plan but decided that it wasn’t worth the pain.

So I am currently signed up for the Hot Chocolate 15k early next month but won’t be ready for it. I dropped down to the 5k this week since I could run that in my sleep (albeit slowly). I really like running the race and would feel weird wearing around the gear if I didn’t actually run....

What a bummer. I’m sick of PF being a constant in my life and always messing up my ability to run and enjoy it.