Weekend Wrap Up!

I ended up having a SUPER long "weekend" thanks to several buildings in our district having air quality issues. I was off Wednesday-Monday. That's right. No school today. Yes, we will have to make up the days we missed. But for now, I'm just trying to enjoy and make the most of this little extra taste of summer!

I was up so late on Thursday night. What kept me up? Big Brother message boards, Wikipedia, and party mix. Due to all the fun that was happening well into the early morning hours, I slept forever on Friday morning!

Paul and I decided to go on a fishing/running date at Pinchot Park. I ran 6 miles in the scorching heat and then cooled off in the lake. It felt great!

So much laziness occurred the rest of the day. Couch + CBS All Access = our evening. We are near the end of Big Brother 5- an old season from 2004 that we are watching on CBS All Access. If you like Big Brother and want to watch an old season, I highly recommend this one! There are lots of people to love and lots of people to hate.

Chrissy did some relaxing and self care as well...

I felt like running, but I knew my muscles needed to get torn up, so I went to Planet Fitness to lift back. On the way home, I stopped at Good Will and Community Aid and TOTALLY SCORED in the puzzle department!

Needless to say, I spent a lot o the evening working on a couple of these bad boys while watching Jodi Arias interrogation videos.

We also nearly finished Big Brother 5. Tomorrow, for sure. BIG GOALS!!!

Sunday was horrible, but I can't get into details. I didn't get out for my run until around 1:30. The pace of my 5 miler clearly reflected my sorrows and how I felt like the weight of the world was literally wearing me down.

What does one turn to when they are sad? I suppose in my case it is running, sweets, diet soda, and puzzles.

I hate ending on a bad note, so I will end on a good note. I forgot to mention that Chrissy had a wild and crazy Saturday night. Paul accidentally left a glass of milk on the counter and Chrissy managed to down 3-4 oz of it before we realized it. Milk does not make Christmas sick. He loves it. What a great night for him! (No we don't give him milk on purpose... okay sometimes I give him a few licks from my cereal spoon...)

Do you have a favorite old season of Big Brother?

PSA: If anyone local ever wants to borrow a puzzle, I have MANY for you to choose from and would be happy to lend them to you!

What is your fur baby's favorite "people food"?

Friendship! Pissed! (Paul Health Update)

On this season of Big Brother, there is a contestant named Paul who I have liked ever since the beginning of the season. (Note: I will call him BB Paul so you are not confused between him and my husband Paul.)

BB Paul has a lot of catchphrases. He says "friendship" when he describes things that are good and "pissed" when he describes things that are bad. So for instance...

Running = Friendship!
Hansons = Pissed!
Oreos = Friendship!
Humidity = Pissed!
Hillary Clinton = Friendship!
Trump = Pissed!

You get the picture?

Oh, here is BB Paul with his beard and without his beard...

Beard = Pissed! No Beard = Friendship!

So Paul and I have been weaving BB Paul's Friendship/Pissed catchphrase into our vocabulary. The other night on the way back from DQ, I rolled the car window down and yelled "Friendship!!!" out the window as loud as I could. I really like Blizzards. When Chrissy peed on the TV stand out of spite because he was hungry, Paul shouted "Pissed!" (But not too loud as to scare Chrissy.)

Okay, onto the "Paul's Health Update" portion of this post...

When last I left off, I shared that the radiation and chemo he went through this past fall was really working, and the new tumor growth they were targeting was GONE (it was now dead tumor cells) and the part of his tumor that is inoperable got a little bit smaller! All SUPER good news. Lots of friendship. We felt like we had a new lease on life when we got that news!

Where we went from there was that Paul continued chemo for a couple months- 5 days on, 25 days off. Not too bad. He wrapped up his last round of chemo in July.

That brings us to Thursday. Paul had an MRI and an appointment with his doctor at Hopkins. I wasn't nervous about this appointment until the day before... when I realized I would be the one taking him. Originally, his dad was going to take him because I had work and we're not allowed to take off during the first week of school. But due to Moldageddon 2016 (aka air quality issues at the school!) I ended up having off work on Thursday. So of course I would take Paul to his appointment. THAT'S when I got nervous.

I was really nervous to go to the hospital again. I mean, you never know what kind of news you are going to get when you go there. We have gotten our fair share of crappy news and of course good news as well. It's one of those places where when you walk in, you never know if your life is going to be completely changed by the time you walk out.

First he had an MRI. Luckily, he wasn't nervous for his MRI because he hasn't been having seizures lately. Normally, MRIs are like seizure machines for him, but this time he wasn't worried. he even swiped me a pair of MRI socks I love...

He accidentally got the Premier Pro Extra Large! It's all good, I don't have any in grey yet.

MRI socks = FRIENDSHIP!!!!
Ps. Doesn't this pose/angle make me look like I am missing part of my body????

Then we waited for his appointment with his doctor who would discuss the MRI results with him. I have actually never met this particular doctor because he was one he saw during radiation and his dad usually took him to those appointments. Since Paul was used to seeing the doctor himself, he said he was okay just going in alone.

I felt selfish for not going in the appointment with him, but he truly didn't care. I know if he cared, he would have asked me to come in. I don't like seeing the brain scans- in fact, I can't look at them. They make sick in the stomach. (Because it's his brain.) I also don't like waiting to hear news from a doctor. I just can't take that shit anymore. So finally Paul went into his appointment and I stayed in the waiting area. I tried to read my book, but I kept reading the same page over and over again because the words were not computing.

When Paul came out to the waiting area twenty minutes later, I asked, "Friendship or pissed?"

"Friendship," he said calmly.

I was not convinced. Paul tends to see the bright side of things. If his tumor had grown back, but had only grown a LITTLE bit, he may have called that friendship. So I fished for more answers.

"Is the tumor still gone?" I asked.

He said yes, and that the dead tumor cells were shrinking... a sign that the dead tumor cells may stay dead forever. Oh, and you know that pesky inoperable part of the tumor? It got a little smaller.

HOLY FREAKING FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I held it together until he said that his doctor wanted to start lowering his meds since he hasn't been having many symptoms. That's when my tears started flowing. Paul is on so many meds. They have never been reduced. Only increased. Until now.

WE ARE SO HAPPY!!!!

THIS IS SUPER DUPER FRIENDSHIP!!!!!

Tell me something that is going on with you right now that is FRIENDSHIP!

MGR's Workout Recaps!

Okay, I think I finally got my workouts posted on the correct day- Saturday! This is when I will be posting them from now on. 

My main reason for doing this is because I know that not a lot of people read my recaps. (I don't blame you. But I still write them because I love to have record of what's going on in case I ever need to look back.) 

Due to the odd timing, this recap includes more than a week of workouts... 10 days, actually! But I am finally on track and from now on I will only share a week with you at a time!

Wednesday- 5 miles before work. I wanted to do 6, but my knee was hurting so I called it quits. Freaking annoying.

Thursday- I woke up with very prominent pain in my left heel! It went away after I walked around a bit. This is how my PF started back in the beginning of the summer. Freaking A! If this is the beginning of PF, how the hell did it happen? I have only run 40 miles in the past 16 days. That's only 2.5 miles per day on average. 

WHAT THE HELL DID HANSONS DO TO MY BODY????? (By the way, I will officially be blaming Hansons for anything and everything that is wrong with my life from here on out. Just kidding. I will stop complaining soon, I promise.)

My plan was to lift that day anyway, so it's not like the heel pain altered my plans, but it was still annoying! I decided I would lift the next day too, just for good measure and reevaluate the situation on Saturday.

Friday- My heel did not hurt at all today but my ITB was KILLING ME. Absolutely KILLING ME FOR NO GOSH DARN REASON!!!! I lifted before work in my sun room while I watched CNN.

Saturday- I ran 5 miles and felt pretty good. Why does my body feel better on running days than non running days?

Sunday- Another 5 miles... feeling good.

Monday- 5 more miles... feeling good.

Tuesday- I went to Planet Fitness and lifted back before work. Back days are the days I have to get up the earliest... 5am! It usually takes me around 1.5 hours to complete my whole workout. I didn't feel great because I got my period that day.

Wednesday- 5 miles. My runs have been hovering between 8:15-8:25 pace. Much faster than I was doing while marathon training. I feel like I am BACK to my normal "la la la" pace.

Thursday- I lifted chest at home. I almost skipped it but I didn't!

Friday- We still had off work due to mold issues in our buildings, so Paul and I went on a fishing/running date at Pinchot Park. It was so freaking hot and humid that it was borderline dangerous. I stayed near my car so I could grab water and shade when I needed it and/or bail if I needed to. Since my body felt great, I ended up doing 6 miles.

How were your workouts this week?

Runfessions!

Today I am participating in Marcia's Runfession's link up! Be sure to visit her blog and check out some of the other bloggers who are Runfessing today!

I don't have a whole lot to Runfess, but let's see what I can pull out of my ass today...

Runfession #1: For years and years, 5 miles was the shortest distance I would run for a workout. When I was doing the Hansons plan, I never ran anything shorter than 6 miles. Now that I ditched the plan, I have switched back to having 5 miles as my base running distance. It sort of messed with my head the first couple times. 5 miles seemed so short. But now I have embraced it! I am honestly ready to be done after 40-45 minutes of running.

Runfession #2: Yesterday I worked out at home and did sit ups on my stability ball. As I was doing them, I suddenly became terrified that my stability ball would pop and I would go crashing to the floor! Do you ever worry about this when you're on a stability ball? I was convinced I'd hit my head and be knocked out.

Runfession #3: I wish I had quit marathon training sooner. I am so happy and I feel good physically. I can't believe I wasted my whole summer being unhappy about that situation. The cool part is that my brother is running a half marathon on the day I was supposed to run my full. And the day before that, my other brother is running a trail race and has stated he is going to WIN IT. (I am inclined to believe him!) So I am extremely happy that I get to spend the weekend cheering on my brothers!

Runfession #4: You know how they say that one way to curb late night snacking is by brushing your teeth so you don't eat anything else? Well, last night after I finished my Blizzard (second night in a row for Blizzards!) I not only brushed my teeth but I rinsed with mouthwash. No more snacking, right? Wrong. About two hours later I got out the party mix. I can just brush my teeth again, duh!

Do you have something you want to Runfess?

Mold Day!

On the second day of school, the students got dismissed due to air quality control issues... aka... MOLD.

On the third day of school, I got a 5:43am phone call informing us the entire district would be closed. Hours later we got another call telling us school would be closed Thursday too.

What a way to start the school year!

Yes, we will have to make up these days... which is why I don't feel bad about sharing with you what I did on this surprise day off. I may as well make the most of it, right!?

After a stinky run (trash day in my hood), I went to hang out with Katrina at her pool. Katrina teaches phys ed at our school and we have become pretty good friends over all these years working together.

Let's drink to mold!

  

Paul was there too but he didn't want to blind you with his pasty whiteness!

We don't go out to eat much, let alone on a weekday, but we decided to splurge that evening and have sushi.

The one bad thing about sushi is that it doesn't matter how many times I wash my hands, they still smell like sushi for the rest of the night.

When we got home, Paul and I watched some TV. Look at my little baby! He looks a little concerned in this photo.

You see I am drinking a diet soda. I am DEEP in a diet soda hole right now. For some reason, I decided to buy a bunch of 12 packs and now all I do is just drink diet soda all day long. I can't stop! I don't want to stop! But I want to want to stop... if that makes sense.

The good part about having off tomorrow is that I can take Paul to his doctor appointments in Baltimore. He has been doing monthly rounds of chemo pretty much all through spring and summer. Tomorrow he gets an MRI and meets with his doctor to see if things are going well. I feel like they are. He doesn't have as many symptoms as he did before.

I'm gonna wrap this up so I can go stir up my Blizzard before we watch Big Brother. That's right, we went to DQ. Don't hate.

This is the song we like to blast on the way home from DQ...

Do you like Mika?

What's your favorite Blizzard flavor?

What do you like to do on a surprise day off?

I'm not cut out for this whole "menstruating" thing

Yesterday was weird, and it really wasn't the greatest day.

First of all, I got my period that morning, and on the first day of my period I basically feel like I have the flu. Tired, back ache, other aches, light headed... It's not fun. I went to the gym to lift anyway. Not a good idea. I felt very apprehensive and "fluttery" as I was lifting. I think from now on, unless I'm dying to go for a run or something, I'm not going to workout at all on the first day of my period. It is just not enjoyable.

I was all proud of myself because last week I stocked up on lots of toiletries so that I could keep the things I need to shower in my gym bag. Sounds nice, right? Except I forgot to pack one of the most important things... UNDERWEAR. I was not going to work in a skirt without underwear, so I had to quick go home after the gym to grab a pair. I only ended up being two minutes late for work since I saved some time by not putting on makeup. Don't worry, I put it on at school. I didn't want to be scaring students on the very first day!

There was just enough time to drink a cup of coffee before my first class arrived. As I was assigning seats, we got an announcement from our principal that all teachers were to check their emails for an important message. It turns out that our students were going to be dismissed at 10am (one hour into the school day) due to an "air quality control" issue. School would be closed Wednesday as well.

CRAZY!

Teachers were allowed to either stay in the building or go to another building in our district and do work. I wasn't really sure what work I'd be able to do in another building, so I just stayed in my room. Apparently we were "safe" as long as we don't have allergies or some sort of immunodeficiency.

So I spent the afternoon picking out chorus music and making copies. Definitely not what I thought I'd be doing on the second day of school! I was so tired though. Sleepy tired. All I wanted to do was lay my head down on my desk and take a nap.

After school I taught piano lessons, but as soon as I was done, I ate two bowls of Honey Nut Oaty O's (generic Honey Nut Cheerios) and went to bed when it was still light out.

My period really kicked me in the ass.

Does mold freak you out?
Did you ever forget underwear?
Does your period kick you in the ass?

$10,000

The other day, Paul and I were bored watching commercials on CBS All Access while we binged on old seasons of Big Brother. In one of the competitions, a contestant was tempted by $10,000. She could take the money, but it meant the whole house (14 people) would have to eat only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a week. Spoiler Alert: She took the money!

During the commercial, I asked Paul if he would eat PB&J for a week if it meant a stranger would get $10,000. Then I started to come up with all kinds of questions with the "for $10,000" temptation.

Here's what I came up with... and my answers!

1. Would you eat only PB&J for a week if it meant a stranger would get $10,000? Yes, and obviously I would hope the money would go to someone who really needed it and not someone who was a millionaire!

2. Would you eat only PB&J for a month if it meant your BEST FRIEND got $10,000? Yes! Eating PB&J for a month would absolutely suck, but if doing it meant one of my best friends got the money, it would be worth it. I'd like to think they'd do it for me...

3. Women: Would you shave your head for $10,000? Again, YES!!!! I am sure I would not care if my head were shaved while I was VACATIONING IN HAWAII!!!! (Because that is totally what I would do with a lot of that $10,000!)

4. Women: Would you shave your head if it meant your BEST FRIEND got $10,000? Sure! As long as they knew I did it for them so I would get lots of pats on the back- hahaha!

5. What's the longest you would go without running for $10,000? I'm thinking 3 months.

6. What's the longest you would go without working out at ALL for $10,000? Ugh... 1 month????

Please answer some or all of these questions in the comments! Or steal for a blog post!

Note: To me, $10,000 is a substantial amount of money! If $10,000 isn't a lot to you, just imagine an amount that would be a good chunk of change and use that to gauge your answer to the questions!