That is the question....

More than ever, I have this debate with myself whether or not I want kids. A lot of my friends have kids and they seem to enjoy them... but they also seemed to enjoy kids prior to having kids...

I like kids... in small doses....

I like kids... when they are quiet...

I like kids... when they go home...

I keep telling myself that if I have kids, it won't be for another two years or so... which seems to be a far enough out in the distance that maybe I'll like kids then... I do think raising kids will be fun b/c it will be a challenge... but I'm not sure I have the patience, stamina, energy, patience, kindness, thoughtfulness, did i say patience yet? for a kid...

But in my mental dilemma, I enjoy the company of two kids on a weekly basis. Most of the times I look at Nate and say, "if I have a kid, are they going to be like this?" and he says, "yes, all 5 year olds are like this"... Oh dear... so then I ask my mom, "mom, what was I like when I was 5?". Because if my parents had 5 kids and they survived, I must have been a breeze to deal with b/c if I wasn't easy to deal with, then they would've been nuts while I was growing up.... Oh dear....

So, it'll still be 2 years until I think about having a kid... Time to go buy some stock in Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Trotting for Tukey

I have been running more and more with my two little spastic puppies and decided to run another 5k this year. I ran one in the beginning of September, and it was really fun so I thought I'd sign up for another. I had convinced Nate to run with me. We were going to have a non-stop action turkey day of running, surfing and eating. However, two Sundays ago, Nate decided to put his foot in front of someone kicking a soccer ball, sprained his ankle badly and is black and blue from the ankle to his little toes. So, he got out of running the 5k with me. Unfortunately for him, the Atlantic Ocean has turned into a large lake in the New England region so I got out of surfing with him!

There were 1,500 people signed up for the Seacoast Region Turkey Trot. It was pretty cool to see so many people out running on Thanksgiving day. It was in the high 20s in the morning so it was rather chilly! I think it might be the coldest weather I have run in so far.We started on an island off of Portsmouth, headed over a bridge and then ran through the city a bit. Nate rode his bike b/c his ankle is so bad and carried all my warm gear that I stripped off 3 seconds before running. He had to wait for all the people to get over the bridge before he could start riding. I didn't see him until at least 1/2 way through the race.

Since it was my second 5k, I was a little more excited about how fast I could go. It definitely was apparent with my splits. I went out WAYYY TOOOOO fast and my first mile was 7:08, the next mile was 7:35 and the last mile was 7:41. Since last week, it was the first time I had paced under 8 minutes, I was psyched to be running fast, but when I heard my first mile pace of 7:17, the only thing I could think was, 'oh dear.... what did you do to yourself!' My overall time was 23.19 which I am really, really happy with. I was 10th in my age group and 167th overall!! For my second 5k, I'll take that!!




Here are some pictures of my run:

 

Waiting to start

And we're off...

 

Making strides...

 

Heading back to towards the river and dying....

 

It's so disheartening when you get passed and you can't do anything about it!! 

 

Finishing!!! 

I convinced my friend from work, Anna, to participate in the 5k too. It was her first 5k and she had only been running for about a month. She pushed a stroller with two youngens and I'm soo proud of her for finishing. Here are a few pics of her and her two year old daughter ZJ running:

 

ZJ posing for the camera as a runner! 

 

ZJ pulling up her pants and putting her feet to the ground.

 

Anna, her husband Michael and ZJ right after they finished!! Congrats Anna on finishing your first 5k!! 

New Appreciation

I have a whole new appreciation of parents, pre-school teachers, janitors or anyone who has to clean up vomit on a regular basis!

I went mountain biking with my friend yesterday and I thought everything was all good as we headed home. My friend looked at Oakley and was like, 'hmmmm.. Oakley looks like she got into something'. This is no big deal, Oakley ALWAYS gets into something. Then we looked at Scout, and he had a little funk on his nose. Again, no big deal. Scout tends to get into stuff too. I got the dogs in the car, started heading home and pulled onto the highway. Then, not a big deal turned into a bigger deal. Scout threw up. I looked back and it was a funky color, but in doggie fashion, Scout started eating it up. Again... no big deal... THEN... the smell... it started taking over my car... and it wasn't your normal smell... it was BAD!!!!! When my friend pointed out that Oakley had something on her head, she thought that it might've been poop. When the smell wafted up from the back of the car... It was MOST DEFINITELY POOP!!! I drove home for a good 45 minutes with my hood over my nose so that I didn't have to smell it. He ended up throwing another time in my car and another time on the rug in the family room!!!

This morning, I got to clean up all that... (I was not going to skip my date last night to clean up vomit, but I did put some carpet cleaner on it to nutralize the smell... a bit...). It was ALL over the carpet in the back of my Vue. It was all over the spare wheel and underneath the spare! It was FANTASTIC!!!

But it's clean now!! and I'm SOOOO happy that it's over!! And I will do whatever I can to keep Scout from eating random stuff from now on!!!