a day in the orchard

I’m officially two weeks out from the Marine Corps Marathon!! Last week’s 21-miler did NOT go well at all…a late start and an unseasonably HIGH temperature did not offer up ideal running conditions, but today’s 12 mile run more than made up for it!! Next weekend only eight miles and then I’m finally in the home-stretch.

After this morning’s run, I rushed home, took a quick shower and then was off with the family for some apple picking. Again, a little on the warm-side for this time of year, but there was no denying that we had a gorgeous day for a stroll through the orchard.

Time to do some baking!!!

bracelets everywhere

Our daughter has recently joined the Rainbow Loom craze. It’s entirely possible that we’re the last family on the bandwagon.  I hadn’t even heard of this thing until a friend of my husband was over and showed me one that his daughter had made for him. Then, of course, afterwards I was noticing them absolutely everywhere. It was only a day or so later when my daughter arrived home with one that a friend had made for her.

Eventually, I was given the ‘homework assignment’ (by my seven-year-old) to ‘google’ Rainbow Loom so that I could teach her how to make a fishtail pattern bracelet. Thank goodness for YouTube!! I found a tutorial there and Ashley did a great job with her explanation.

We are now bracelet-making experts…

ballooning festival

So, we moved during my little blogging hiatus. In general, moving is a time-consuming and stressful experience. However, it escalates to a whole new level when you factor in all of the issues that were tossed our way throughout the entire process. It’s only the slightest bit of an exaggeration when I say we had to plow through just about every complication possible…with a ridiculous amount of set-backs on both our buyer and seller’s ends. I won’t even get started on the actual moving process and all of the complications that arose there!

Needless to say, it was by far the single-most stressful experience of our lives and I was so very relieved the day it was all finally over. However, as things so often are in the end…it was completely worth it.

We’ve spent the last two months settling in, decorating, getting the girls used to their new surroundings and I’m approaching the tail-end of marathon training.

It’s been busy, but an extremely good kind of busy! Along the way we’ve had friends and family come to celebrate our settling in, we’ve done some local exploring and already we’ve had some great times in our new home state. The most memorable of which had to be the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning back in July!! I’ve never been to a balloon launch before and when I saw how close it was I decided to bring my daughter along to check it out.

It was fantastic!! It was a gorgeous day and the balloons were beautiful, peacefully floating up into the clear blue sky. My daughter and I both loved it!!

Little did we know that for the rest of the summer (and even as recently as yesterday) hot air balloons would randomly float right over our house in the evenings?! An added bonus to our new home!

brownie bird nests

I had a post in mind that was all about running, but my daughter started spring break yesterday and I got a bit sidetracked.  So, the foodie posts continue, but this time there was absolutely nothing healthy going on in this kitchen!!!

She was supposed to help with frosting the brownies for our Springtime Bird Nests, but she spent most of the time eating frosting straight from the container and sneaking candy eggs when (she thought) I wasn’t looking. ‘Ya know, exactly what kids are supposed to do when they’re helping out with the baking.

 

a valentine kick-off

Just about every year we have company on Superbowl Sunday. Once our daughter was old enough I started inviting some of her friends as well…turning it into a Superbowl/Valentine’s Day party.

I usually set-up a separate table just for the kids and load it up with hearts and pinkness!!

They have crafts that they can work on together…

And during dessert I put out cookie pops for them to decorate. I found Gingerbread cookies at Christmastime and they loved it. So, I was very excited when I found a kit for Valentine’s Day too!

Of course, all of this means that I never…ever…actually sit down and watch the Superbowl. This year I had high hopes of at least getting to watch the halftime show. I even had a new gluten-free beer in the fridge that I was planning to kick-back with.

This didn’t happen. I was probably elbow-deep in dirty dishes at that point. The beer is still in the fridge, but I at least got to sit on the couch for about five minutes during the game. Just long enough to see the players stretching on the field during the power outage 😐

Regardless, when I woke up this morning I was greeted with an email from one of our guests telling me that her kids had a fantastic time! I know my daughter had a blast too…which makes me an extremely happy hostess!!

(fyi…Valentine’s Day Subway Art for the kiddie table found HERE)

in a nutshell

Do you ever not blog for a while and then end up abandoning it because there’s just entirely TOO MUCH?? Yeah, I tend to do that.

The last month of my life, at a glance…

December started with Christmas Dave and it was awesomeness.

Then there was our very first real Christmas Tree. We trekked out into the woods and cut it down ourselves. It was a great time, but getting this ginormous thing set-up in our living room brought about such chaos that it rivaled any National Lampoons movie we’ve ever seen!

There was some touristy sightseeing in NYC…

And my daughter’s first official broadway show, Mary Poppins, which was FANTASTIC!

Then I closed out my 2012 racing with a local 5k Jingle Jog. I ended up placing 2nd in my age group, with a 25:55 PR!  It was a well organized race, a very fun atmosphere and the course was flatter-than-flat, but…it was my first experience wearing this thing…

They handed it to me and to be honest I would have loved to have seen the expression on my face. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it and after hearing that I needed to WEAR it and that it had to be returned so that it could be USED AGAIN…oh my. Well, my germaphobe-nature had sudden visions of me visiting the hospital at some point in the near future for treatment of the flesh-eating disease that I was sure to pick up from wearing such an unsanitary item.

After strapping it (OVER my pants) onto my ankle, I thought to myself that there was no way I was going to be able to run with it. I felt off balance and I was very aware of something being on my leg that shouldn’t. Surprisingly, once I got going I almost entirely forgot I was wearing it.

The holidays were spent mostly sick. My husband was off from work for two weeks, which meant the four of us just basically sat around recycling germs. Fun! At least we were able to admire my new medal rack while we were at home/quarantined!

Fortunately, it appears as though everything has cleared out and we’re finally on the mend.

Well, except for my foot. Four weeks into marathon training (did I mention that I registered for a marathon??????) and I am quite fearful that I have a stress fracture in my foot. I’m not certain of it, but whatever is going on is NOT good. I’ve been trying to rest it since my last run (on Sunday), but that’s not going to well. The most frustrating thing is that I hadn’t even started increasing my miles yet AND I’ve been running about 1-2 minutes per mile SLOWER than my average pace…in the hopes to AVOID injury.

I have no intention of messing around with this, I’m giving it another week and then I’ll reevaluate. In the meantime, I’ve become reacquainted with my spin bike, but hopefully not for too long.

To be continued….

new jersey and new york

Shortly after Hurricane Sandy arrived, we lost power. It was out for almost an entire week. We managed just fine and consider ourselves extremely lucky. By Wednesday night, my husband was able to find us a small generator. It was able to power the fridge, so we could keep the baby’s bottles cold and we also had use of a tv and a light in our living room. Power was finally restored early on Sunday morning. After getting the house back in order, I went for my first run of the week. It was five cold, wet, glorious miles!!

While I was offline, I headed out on a quick-as-can-be trip down to DC for the MCM10k and then frantically rushed home so that I could stay ahead of the storm!! Halloween was canceled in our town, but then a trunk-or-treat was coordinated. My daughter was so excited and ended up having a fantastic time. I found myself disgusted by the insistence of some that the NYC Marathon (I refuse to link them, even now) would go on as planned and then relieved when it was canceled and all of the resources, port-a-johns, food, Gatorade, etc. was sent to Sandy victims instead. Now we have a Nor’easter on the way, which will toss high wind gusts and heavy wet snow our way. Super.

So, there’s been plenty to blog about, but honestly I haven’t felt the desire to do so.  I’ll get back into it eventually, but in the meantime…my love of coastal New Jersey and New York in pictures…

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Sweet Shop on the boardwalk in Pt. Pleasant, New Jersey

A Jellyfish at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, which is now closed ‘indefinitely’.

My daughter enjoying Lido Beach…just down the street from Long Beach in Long Island, New York.

Funtown Pier in Seaside, New Jersey.

The Great Pumpkin Run

A while back I came across The Great Pumpkin Virtual Race. I absolutely fell in love with the medals for both the 5k and the kid’s mini-mile!! So, of course I registered for it…

I ended up putting my medal towards the 5k I ran last weekend…one race, two medals!! But yesterday was the big day for my daughter.

Originally, I was hoping to coordinate a kids run with some of the other members in our Moms RUN This Town local chapter.  It ended up not working out this time, but in hindsight I think yesterday turned out perfectly. We decided to make it a family run. So, both my husband and our youngest came along…

We ended up running just over 1.5 miles!! She was so excited to get her medal…

and of course her swag bag!!

I’m really happy we went ahead and did this. Not only did she have a great time running, but it was also a fantastic way to spend some time together as a family!!

royalty

Time for another break from my typical rambling running related posts! Yup, no running talk in this one. My husband thinks that it’s all I ever talk about, but that’s totally not true. I won’t mention at all about how crummy my 9-mile run was yesterday OR the fact that I am frantically trying to recover from my leg tweak that occurred…not while running…but while rolling. (Foam Roller = 1/Susan = 0) {Seriously. Don’t ask.}

Nope. Instead I’ll talk about sugar and spice and everything…royalty.

My daughter went to a Princess Party over the weekend. The ‘boutique’ that hosted it was so very cute! The girls started by having their nails done, then were brought into a dressing room where they were allowed to pick one of the many available dresses and some matching accessories.

Once they were all dressed-up, they jumped on stage to perform a show for the parents. Singing, dancing, girly-squealing and mass chaos followed.

It was a fantastic time and it further encouraged our daughter’s belief that she IS in fact a princess and therefore should be showered with attention, accessories and cupcakes with heart-shaped sprinkles…at all times.

apple picking

Every year we head over to the same orchard for apple picking. I’m certain that there are plenty of closer options, but I’ve been going to this same place since I was a kid.  So, for nostalgic reasons it’s worth the trip. This year I was starting to think that we might not be able to make it. From now throughout the entire month of October our weekends are literally booked.

As it turned out a last minute change in plans (due to my husband’s recent hand surgery) left us with a free day on Saturday. We jumped at the opportunity to take the girls apple picking!

We had perfect weather. I was worried about going so early (usually we go in October), I absolutely need it to be chilly when I go apple picking. There’s been a few times when we’ve had unseasonably warm weather for it and it makes me a little cranky. Fall is my favorite season and I love a crisp day for when we visit the orchard….and luckily that’s exactly what we got.

I feel badly that our original plans were canceled, but I’m very happy we were able to get out and make good use of our free day!

there and back

We finally arrived home from Florida and it’s official…I am completely done with summer. We’ve had great times in pools and at beaches, but I’m looking forward to some nice cool weather, blue jeans and the smell of apple-spice cake baking in the oven!!

This definitely wasn’t a trip for relaxation. I was able to get about a half an hour or so at the hotel pool and one morning I walked along the beach with the baby for a bit before I headed back for her naptime.

You can’t travel with an eight month old and a six year old and expect a whole ‘lotta down time. Mainly, we went on this trip so that my grandparents could spend some time with our oldest and finally get to meet our youngest. It took a lot of effort. By the time we left we had run our little one (who held up great the entire trip) ragged, but it was without a doubt well worth it!!

On the morning before we left, I was up and out of the hotel room by 7:30 to do my very first vacation run. Our hotel was a block away from the beach. So, I headed towards the water and I was greeted with a whole TON of people. Walkers, joggers, (somewhat dangerous) cyclists. I couldn’t believe how many people there were. Up here I get excited if I happen to pass one or two runners, down there they were absolutely everywhere. The paths were completely and totally flat. The scenery was gorgeous…

It was fantastic! I ended up doing just over five miles and I was back in our room before anyone even noticed I was gone. That will definitely not be my last vacation run!

blue skies

It’s been a crazy last few days. Actually, it’s been a crazy last few months! We’ve been trying to squeeze every last second out of this summer vacation. It’s unbelievable to me that there’s only one week left before schools are back in session.

In addition to a trip to Florida to visit with family…

I’ve also been working on organizing a local running group. I’m really excited that only a few days after announcing it, I’ve already ‘met’ a few new people from the area and they’re sharing some of their favorite routes. I’m hoping that once the kids are back in school we’ll be able to coordinate our first group meet-up.

So, the blog may have taken a bit of a hiatus, but I definitely haven’t!!