Saturday, January 30, 2010

Team in Training

Hey Everyone!
Please go and check out my web page with Team in Training! I have signed up to run the Rock N Roll Marathon on June 6th and I will be raising money for the Lukemia and Lymphoma Society!

CLICK HERE TO HELP ME OUT!!!

I will post information about training and funding on here and my page above. Please keep me in your prayers while I try to raise $5,000.00 dollars and train to run 26.2 miles!

Thanks!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What a day

My mind seems to be all over the place today. I have never been much of a writer, well I like to write, but my grammar is not the best. So, be nice to me if you actually read the whole thing and you find typos!

It is only 1:30 and I am trying to look back on the things accomplished so far and feel, well... accomplished!

Every day is different, as much as I would like to say that I have a pretty normal routine, it has been hard to get back into it since I have been sick. I feel normal today, but I am still "removing" mucus from my nose/mouth.

I have been reading a book called, "Toddler Wise." By the authors of "Baby Wise", a book that Colin and I read right before Kellen was born. It is fairly similar in that it talks about routines and habits that help raising a child a little less crazy. One of the chapters talks about writing out a schedule for your child of what his typical day should look like, (knowing that some days it just might not happen). This usually helps a child understand expectations and routines. For example, Kellen wakes up at 8 am and has a sippy cup of milk, I change his diaper and then wait about 15-20 minutes before we head down stairs to have breakfast. When he is a little older I will teach him how to make his bed and get dressed (when the toddler bed comes). After breakfast he usually plays in the living room while I clean up breakfast and then some days he will follow me around while I clean parts of the house especially if I am vacuuming, he LOVES the vacuum.) We may go on some adventure to the store, riding the bike, or for a jog. By noon he is eating lunch, and 1pm he has a nap. Around 3pm he is awake and has something to drink, maybe a small snack and gets to play with his toys in the living room. If I am in the kitchen he usually plays with the Tupperware or the serving spoons. Between 5 and 630 we eat dinner at the table (no TV) and then around 730 we head up for a bath and no later than 830 he is in bed. His bed time routine includes pj's a story and prayer time with mommy and daddy and then we turn on his fan, turn off the light and tuck him into bed.

There are obviously a ton of gaps in between his schedule and the book actually suggests several different activities to fill it with, some are cool while others are well... interesting. Some of them are:

-Mommy and baby time- playing on the floor or somewhere with your kiddo.
-Toy time: on a blanket with ONE toy, and he can't leave the blanket until you tell him to (usually only 5 minutes and then the time can increase as he learns to stay focused on one toy for a little while longer). I guess this helps when you want him to sit and read a book with you without destroying the pages, or just sit period.
-Outside play time- on a bike, or playground etc.

These are just a few that I remember.

Today, his routine, well, didn't seem very fun for him. He woke up and drank his milk, got dressed and then I brought him into my bedroom so I could finished getting ready. (Most of my morning routine is finished before he wakes up). After breakfast he was engaged in his toys near his table for a few minutes while I cleaned up and then I decided to bake a cheese cake. We have a TON of cream cheese from the holidays and I figured I would use it before it goes bad. SO- smart one made a home made crust (for regular pie, oops, I'm sure it will taste OK any way). I baked the cheesecake and now it is resting in the fridge. Kellen of course was pretty much in the kitchen the entire time.

THEN, we headed upstairs and vacuumed the entire upstairs, and I vacuumed the bathrooms and cleaned the toilets, sinks, mirrors, trashcans, and bath tubs. Again, Kellen pretty much was fine with following me everywhere. He stopped off in the office to bang on the keyboard, I seriously need to get him the toy I've been searching for that is a kid-keyboard. We headed back downstairs to finish up in the last bathroom. I found him lying on the floor as I was bringing everything down, and he had the hose wrapped around him!


Any way, we had lunch, and the darnedest thing happened (other than meals being the only "scheduled" thing in his day so far.) I gave him cut up string cheese, bread and leftover pull apart pork. I also made a sandwich with almost the same thing on it for me. He ate all of his cheese, but left everything else on his plate. For those of you that know Kellen, he doesn't really leave anything on his plate by the end of meal time. He did the same thing last night with his dinner. He ate his potatoes, but left the chicken and other items on his tray. Last night we gave him a spoon and wouldn't you know it he finished the rest of his dinner with the spoon. At first, Colin was putting the pieces on the spoon and he would put the spoon in his mouth. Then he would take the food off the spoon and put it in his mouth. It was odd, but he ate his food and we were glad. SO, today when he refused to eat his pork and bread, I tried heating it up, eating a piece and then putting one in his mouth, and almost forcing it in his mouth so he could taste it (this works with Oranges, I squeeze the juice in his mouth, and then he realizes he likes the taste and eats the rest of the orange). That didn't work. Almost giving up and letting him have only cheese and milk for lunch, I remembered last night and the spoon. THE SAME THING HAPPENED! The little booger ate all the pork and bread on his plate! He would hand me the spoon, I would put a piece of meat or bread on it, and he would eat the food, and then give me back the spoon to do it again!

Combined with him being a little cranky, he didn't survive very long after lunch and it was time for a nap. The thing that I feel weird about is the fact that he had pretty much ZERO routine today (other than food). How bored he must have been watching mommy clean and cook! I attend Bible study once a week and Kellen gets to play with other kids during that time, and then also on Sundays at Church. Other than that he doesn't have much play time with kids (oh, and on Wednesdays I watch my nephew so he plays with him). I wonder if I should have more scheduled activities for him, or if it is OK for him to just aimlessly play at home; sometimes with his toys and sometimes with non-toys! I know I don't have to schedule EVERY waking moment for him, eventually he will get bored and will have to learn how to entertain himself sometimes.

I guess I just wonder if I am doing an OK job at this mom thing. We don't really watch a whole lot of TV, even though this morning I discovered EXERCISE TV on Fios on Demand and it was FREE and SUPER COOL!! (email me if you want to know more, since no one is probably going to read this, I don't think I will get any emails!). Any way, sorry, tangent. I just want to make sure that he is learning and I am doing what I need to do to make sure that he is able to do that!

Well, blog world. Thanks for listening...
Mindie

Thursday, January 21, 2010

REALLY MOBILE NOW!!

So about a month ago my cousins got to spend some time with Kellen and they tried to get him to start walking to them. I swear we worked (they, while I tried to video tape) for about two hours and he maybe took two steps. We haven't really pushed him since, he's taken steps a few times but nothing major.

Until today... it is official. This is just one of a few videos already, but Kellen is a walker now!! It is kind of weird how he just started doing this yesterday, he took about 6 steps to me and then was kind of over it for the day.

Today he started to do it again, but I had a witness this time. Colin saw him do it too. I had to find the camera that usually sits on top of the counter. And we decided to video tape him after he had done it a few times. Now, he just gets up and walks whenever he feels like it! Usually he will pull himself up first onto a near by object and then just start going! It is so cute! His arms are out in front of him to help balance. All that work finally paid off!!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Southern California Half Marathon

So I did it... another half marathon behind me. My first half marathon back in October was MUCH different from this event. This race was located in Irvine and began a little later at 8am. I was familiar with the area, was not running late, and knew where to find an unused bathroom!

The course was very flat, and pretty fast. I had to start out slower than I liked since the crowd was there when I began. This was a good thing because it forced me to start out at a normal pace. My first mile ended up being my slowest mile (and I didn't turn my GPS watch on until .7o miles into the darn race!!) Thankfully there were clocks at each mile. Each runner had a time chip to give them accurate race finish times. I was about 27 seconds behind the clock. I didn't feel like I was going faster than my last race, but each mile was faster than Long Beach. It was hard not to discouraged because people were passing me. Then I hit the second mile at 16:15 and realized that I was running under my goal pace, so from then on I knew I needed to ignore the people around me and just run. Occasionally I would pick up my pace, or "surge" as they call it. And by the last mile I was about 3 minutes ahead of my goal pace.

Then it happened, I took a small swig of water at mile 12 and had an INSTANT cramp. It was awful! I knew I was ahead of my goal time, but did not want to walk or slow down. I pretty much pushed through the last mile trying to breath and get over the cramp. The only hard part about the end of the race, was not knowing how long I had left. When I finally saw the finish line I booked it to the end!

My official results were a time of 1:45.02 (7:47 mile pace). Improving six minutes and forty six seconds over my last race and almost 30 seconds per mile. I was 332nd out of 3,832 runners over all, 54th female, and 14th out of 141 in my age group (24-29 years old, I am 29 now). There are quite a few pictures of me from the race. I wish they weren't so expensive to purchase! http://www.backprint.com/view_user_event.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=62139&PWD=&BIB=1069

This was a real nice race. I am looking forward to signing up for another half soon. I may also run the Carlsbad 5000 in April and then train over the summer for a marathon.

So, I beat my goal of 1:45... I think my next goal will be under 1:40.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

New Year's Resolution

I think it is just the American thing to do... what will you change for the year 2010?

My husband and I have not officially sat down and discussed our goals for the year. We usually talk about our Spiritual, Financial, Physical and Family goals.

What will you change and grow in the year 2010?

The first usually is a physical goal for almost everyone. My first official goal jumps on that band wagon. My dominant physical goal is to complete a marathon. I am pretty sure my time will not be worthy of anything, but to be able to say, "I ran a marathon," just sounds cool. The competitor in me won't allow myself to just run, I will be racing. But, I doubt it will change the world. :)

Here's to a new year! May you bless God with your time and talents!