Still here -- just bogged down with fundraising. Ack!

Solved part of my problem on Sundays -- eating. The Mr Bento lunch jar worked out great for me and the kid. Paul's got his own lunchbox but just wasn't able to sit down to actualyl eat it. So I think my chronic meal skipper spouse may need to actually have breakfast first!

Next week is easing up a bit so hopefully I can fit my walking in better. Keeping so many plates spinning is def. a challenge.

Landscaper people coming again tomorrow, helping someone move, playgroup meeting. coffee with someone, church work, seeing family.... yargh.

Had dinner with playgroup people last Thursday and one mom who I haven't seen in two months told me I look like I've lost weight.

I have, and it's nice to know it's visible, but I'd like to put on muscle too. And that's not going to happen with no workouts.

• Planned: 30 min walk
• Actual: not yet

Arrange, arrange, arrange.

My whole life right nowis arranging one thing or another. Yesterday?

Estimate for non-toxic lawn care #1.

Organic produce /chicken for Paul delivery.

Talk to various people on the telephone for fundraising.

Play group arrangements -- mod meetings or get togethers.

Meeting at church.

Plus baby care and some random house chores.

Today is more of the same, only I'm hoping to get a little mental break when I go for a playdate and then when Julai sacks out after that I want to get my walk done.

I'm in maintaining mode and hustling to get the fundraisign junk out of my way so I can start my schedule in late July as planned.

Mowed the front lawn. Took about 30 min. Did not do the back -- it's looking all rainy.

I'm really tired too -- It's a tough week this week. A lot going on, and the 4th death in our family this month. Not a relative this time, but a close friend of my mother's. So naturally mom is upset. The wake is this weekend.

There's happy news too -- Ney's getting married, and a new friend just found out she's pregnant.

I'm running around a bit distracted.

I feel like I do "drive by posting" lately. So busy fundraising! and the drama never stops...

Believe it or not... workout today was 30 min walk en famille. Julia in a sling on me. Paul and me barefoot, knee deep in water and armed with cameras.

We had a bad storm and the drains were closed, so we flooded! So we hiked around taking pix for insurance and junk. He had to park his car 1/4 mile away and slosh home. We took a pix of that too.

The landscaper who came this morning to in stall my last bit of sod? I called him first and told him there were kids going by in a raft and what should I do if my sod up and flaots off and he was in disbelief.

Shoot, *I* am in disbelief.

Julia was hooting out the window at the kids "Pool! Pool!" because she thought it was time for her to swim.

Now tomorrow I have to call city draina nd stree people. Grrr.

Amy:

Stitch in side -- walk with your hands up over your head in "stick 'em up!" pose. Looks dorky but helps the stitch resolve itself.

Julia wears Tuga brand swim wear. She has the no print purple "scuba suit" looking one and then a rashguard shirt one to wear with her swim diapers. Check out the clearance page... her plain purple one is on there toward the bottom.

She wears iplay brand reusable swim diapers, hats, and sunglasses. Those I get at Target. She's still wearing last year's Tuga so we're getting two seasons out of it. Yay! :)

Nikki:

How's the online WW going? And the scale thing? Hahaha -- your kicked your Paul's butt for pace while walking! WTG! Now if I can catch up to MY Paul's pace I'll be set for Disney. He's so tall and so long his "casual" walk is 4 mph.

I got two of the three sports bras I ordered from Title Sports. One is encapsulation and the other is compression. I'm going to wear the encapsualted one first... I have a headache, I don't want to walk fast, so the higher support one can wait til tomorrow.

Ok, here's goes....

• What: 30 min lawn mowing

Fast post -- have dinner going and baby wreaking havoc. Aaaack!

• What: treadmill walk
• Distance: 2 miles
• Duration: 38 min
  
• Speed: varied

Another late walk. Watching a movie en famille and Paul tried to keep Julia off to one side of the living room but she kept roaming around making me nervous so I'd slow the treadmill down anticipating needing to jump off and catch her or something.

Once I hit the 2 miles I quit. It was too nervy. I'm going to have to break out the playpen. She has to be asleep or contained while I'm on the treadmill or I just can't concentrate, relax, nor enjoy the walk.

But it's done.

A lot going on this week -- I'm going to have to do some schedule shuffle but apart from exercise at home I want to hit the gym twice.

Back to movie, then shower and bed.

• What: treadmill walk
• Distance: 3.5 miles
• Duration: 1:12
• Speed: 2.5 mph warm-up (6 min) and cool down (6 min), 3 mph walk

Late walk tonight -- Paul took Julia and I popped a movie in and got it out of the way. Easy, but bad socks. Gave me hot foot after a point. Too threadbare. I chucked them into the trash when I was done. Don't want them mixing back up in my sock drawer.

Ordered 3 new sports bras from Title 9 Sports and some new T-shirts (casual) from Motherwear.

Still need new shirts for gym, and then pants/shorts all the the way across the board -- gym, casual AND dressy.

So. Exactly when does your body shape normalize post partum? Geesh.

• Planned: 3 miles or strength
• Actual: Rest

Swapped Friday's (rest day) with today. Not that I actually rested.

Apart from babycare, I scrubbed down the bathroom and the nursery, did 3 loads of laundry and put it away, made double dinner do I don't have to cook tomorrow, and dealt with volunteer work. I'm wiped.

• Planned: 2 miles treadmill walk
  
• Actual: 5 min warm-up and cool down @ 2.5 mph, 2 miles @ 3.5 mph
  

Amy -- second round of Hal Higdon schedule starts 10/17.

Paul got an hour walk in last night watching the pilot to The X-Files. So this was good. I knocked more junk off my list last night and this morning.

Which includes dropping $110 on my gym billing. I'm still pissed off about the billing snafu and my being penalized $50 that I don't think is fair, but as a concession I got 3 mos of daycare free out of the manager I was talking to ($30) so I'll take the net $20 as a loss.

Point is, my gym card is back on, I have kid care lined up for the kid, so there.

I ought to be good for this summer, in a gym whose air conditioning system doesn't bonk seasonally. (Hear that Bally's? ) Gah.

And there's water aerobics on Sat. Whee.

So now I'm trying to finish off my list so I can start the gym thing without naggling little errands.

And we're back with more people at my house... this time painters painting it. Roofer, landscaper, now painter. Maybe we can get general contractor in and out of here too and then take a much needed break from all this house junk!

Walk was brisk -- Deep Throat episode of the X Files. Basically a straight 3.5 all the way through. Wasn't in the mood for intervals.

Debated doing it at 3.8 mph but I'm not ready to go there in this bra. I need to do some shopping for a middle bra. Something in between a snug regular bra (which is fine for very slow walking) and an Enell (which is good for lots of impact, but really not what I want to wear all the time. It's ok when I'm empty but when I'm full of milk... not my fav feeling.

I'll have to cruise the Title 9 catalog and see what's out there in Bra Land.

Today's To do List:

• feed pets
• bills
• dishes
• diaper laundry
• clean kitchen
• post office
• gym billing change
• mow back lawn
  
• bake muffins for neighbors as thank you for house sitting
  
• regular laundry wash
• regular laundry dry
• regular laundry put away
• clean living room
• sort produce delivery
• make dinner
• clean car
• get car detailed

Gah. I know I'm not going to get all this done -- I'm just hoping to get the bulk done so there's less tomorrow.

Over breakfast I did double check my schedule. I still have another month to go before starting. I'm doing Hal Higdon's 12 week novice schedule twice for the half marathon. Which mean I have to start 7/25.

Which means from here til 7/25 I can just repeat week 1 over and over. I'm going to try to just pick it up whenever I get through this chore list. Maybe late tomorrow... maybe Thurs. But here it is:

Mon: stretch & strength (lower)
Tues: 3 miles
Wed: 2 miles or cross train
Thurs: 3 miles + strength (upper)
Fri: Rest
Sat: 30 min cross
Sun: 4 m

Likely I'm going to swap saturday and sunday workouts a lot. I just have too much going on Sundays with church junk to be dealing with long days then. Saturdays are better.

Damn. Just thought of another thing for the chore list. Get batteries for my HRM. I tired to do that before vacation and I couldn't get the back off it to see waht kind of battery it takes. I'll have to get Paul to get the back off somehow.

Man. It's going to take a few days to get all caught up post-vacation. Not thrilled about that. I have a monster headache. Blah. I kid you not -- this whole manage-the-house-care-for-the-kid obstacle is going to be my biggest training problem this year.

I love her but I felt like if I heard a piping little voice go "Mami! Mami!" one more time I was going to scream. To her, I'm all smiles and enless patience. To myself, in the privacy of my own head, I think things like" God, no! Not another freakin' dog!"

(Julia thinks all non-bird animals are dogs, and she feels the need to inform me of their whereabouts at every turn. Given the amount of actual living dogs in the neighborhood, stuffed animals, puzzles, picture books, kiddie clothing, and other nursery paraphanalia, there is no shortage of "dogs" of all kinds around here. Ack.)

Paul got the bank done, and I got the groceries done. Front lawn is done. Called church for volunteer junk so that's done. Called my parents. Done.

Nice thing about groceries was taking a peek at my blood pressure -- 122/67. Rock solid. And I manage to food log AND stick to 2000 calories. Now to just cook ahead for the week...

Never made it to the back lawn so tomorrow that's on my list. Laundry, washing the car, bills, mail, general cleaning, cooking, gym membership -- all on the list.

We're home from vacation. My eyeballs are crunchy and my nose is crispy. Something about the weather in the mountains and then the long drive home in the car has done a number on my body's moisture. My skin? We could play tic-tac-toe on it by just scratching the lines on with a fingernail. Ugh.

But aside from that, we had a very nice time.

It was interesting.... sharing a cabin with most of my in-laws.

Got to meet my grown niece and her kid for the first time. Julia got to horse around with the little cousins. Paul fell out of his canoe into the river and horsed around on actual horses and got his thighs all chafed up because he had no chaps. I sat in the hot tub, shot pool and played basketball. I'd like to ride horses and canoe one day... but not when I'm a nursing mom. Julia's sleep schedule was all crazy as it was -- I didn't want her eating/nursing schedule to go to hell too. so I stayed on the grounds.

Julia got over the cold thing, the fever thing, and the diarrhea thing. She gained three new teeth, stopped the crazy saliva, and put on 1/2 a lb while away. Yay. That teething episode is now over!

Now that we're back, I'll probably be a bit scarce for a few more days as I get the house in order. But then it's back to normal on the fitness front.

My gym membership thing has been sorted out (hurrah) and I'm ready to get into summer training.