shameless bragging

my daughter - what can i say? she has so much talent. visit her photo page here.

she has an amazing "eye" and her prices are reasonable. buy something - help support my college student.

we are both going to run in the schweizer frauenlauf bern on june 10 ( if all works out!). probably just the 5K since we'll be jet-lagged.

mark your calendars:
may 20 - my #1 daughter graduates from W&M
june 2 - my #1 son graduates from ISB.

my inner MOMness

i enjoyed my run yesterday. it was good. i felt really virtuous to be out there in the bad weather. it was blowing and snowing. luckily it had warmed up earlier in the afternoon and alot of the snow on the trails and sidewalks was gone, so really, there was no reason not to go.


i was feeling kinda down though. our daughter and her friend left tuesday at the crack of dawn to go back to school. it was really fun having them home for spring break. it's always sad to say good bye to her. the run was just what i needed to cheer myself up. i managed a bit over 4 miles in 56 minutes, including a one mile warm-up walk, and a few walking breaks. not too shabby for an old lady.



so, my number-one-child left tuesday. today is thursday and i hadn't heard a peep from her. so of course i complained to my best friend that i'm worried. ctclady tells me it's ok to do my MOTHER thing and call her. so i called the child. i called her dorm. i called her cell phone. i didn't get an answer, so i sent a text message via internet to her cell phone. i just wanted to know she was back at school and was ok. my daughter IM'd me not long after and said i called her during class and that no news was good news. well....not always. i needed NEWS. so there. she's still breathing. now i can relax.



but chiiiiild, please.

creeping crud

no running today. the weather is wild. crazy windy, then hailing, then snowing. hmmm.

my son woke up sick at the crack of dawn. he has the creeping crud and can't keep food down. poor bubba. mr. kicky is also complaining that he is feeling a little "off" today. yikes!

today is my daughter's last day at home. she is running around with her friend now looking for treasures in the 2nd hand shops we love. i'm sorry she has to go...but it's time to finish up and get ready to graduate! i'll go attend her ceremony in may. can't wait!!

in the meantime...wish us luck....i'm trying to keep the cooties away from me and the girlies! so we don't get sick too. they have to leave the house tomorrow before 6 am to get to zurich in time for their morning flight.

special thanks to my blog friends who stop by and leave me encouragement. i really appreciate it!

wednesday-ness

downtown bern, switzerland

hey yall. just a quick stop by the ol' blog. i'm having a great time with the girlies. my daughter has purple-blue hair. she says is "blurple." she has the most amazing color of strawberry blond hair that ladies pay the big bucks for. gotta love it. at least it's gonna wash out. kids today. sigh.

yesterday the girls and i went out for our runs. the girls did their thing. i did mine. i dropped my mp3 player in the dirt a few minutes into my routine and it turned off. ack. i didn't want to muck about figuring out where i left off on the couch to 5k workout, so i just winged it. i put on some rockin' tunes and went for it. i figured i'd run one song, then keep going 'til i needed a little break, then run some more. the trail i was on was mostly uphill for about 1.5 miles. most of it was runnable. one patch where they've been logging was too mucky, stumpy and treacherous so i had to pick my way through those areas carefully. no way was i gonna attempt to slog through that mess with a healing foot!

i made it all the way up the schupberg into schupfen (the next village over, on the other side of the forrest.) i was able to make the trip up easily enough, having to stop once in a while to give my screaming hams a break now and then. at the end of the trail, on the edge of schupfen, nina and i turned around, and enjoyed the long winding path back down the trail. the schupberg is just a "little" mountain. i did about 3 miles in 50 minutes, including the down time in the deep mud.

we're having amazing weather this week. i thought about running today, but took it easy instead. the girlies and i met Mr. Kicky in berne for lunch at a cute spot called "café des pyrénées" and had sangría and "tapas" for lunch. after much joviality, the hubby returned to work and the girls went on to investigate einstein's home and the einstein exhibit at the museum of natural history.

sigh. life was good today.

today in the news

Hart Bridge

(aka the BIG GREEN MONSTER)

Jacksonville, Florida

my pal ctclady totally rocked her 15K yesterday at the jacksonville gate river run. not only did she finish TEN MINUTES FASTER than last year, she was able to run up that huge bridge without stopping! (the racers call it the big green monster. ha.) i'm so proud of her!! my friend, she's amazing!

in other news, i did my piddly little work out yesterday - week two of the couch to 5K program. but, let's face it, i rocked that too. i did the workout going up hill on the trails in the forrest near my house. it was a beautiful spring-like day! i had to skip some of my favorite trails though because they're logging back there. (Timberrrrrr!) once i finished my workout, i turned around and run most of the way back home, only stopping a couple of times to carefully step through some deep mud, and once to get out of the way of a car. i love the down hill part - my little reward.

and in family news, our daughter is arriving tomorrow for her spring break! looks like we'll have pretty good weather while she's here too. she's bringing a college girl friend of hers, who i call Mirambo (for fun). Mirambo just finished a tour in iraq. i'm so glad she's safe and sound. i'm looking forward to spoiling both the girlies.

in other family news, i just got the funniest email from my mother in florida. i have to share it:

I have a funny story to tell about working in the yard. Thursday
morning I was up in the middle of the seagrape tree on a ladder, thinning
out little branches. I want it to look a special way, not trimmed up
drastically as the "men" want it. Anyhow, someone is always giving me
lip about trimming the trees and climbing around in them. (I plan to
do it as long as I can.)

I heard a loud gruff voice say "GET ON THE GROUND....NOW!" I'm thinking Who's speaking to me THAT way?" When I peek out of the tree I see a police car at the corner and a cop screaming and pointing his gun at a big black truck on the road near our driveway. Finally the man in the truck gets out and acts
smart, so the cop is really screaming now. All at once 5 police cars roar up and
suddenly the man decides to cooperate. ha ha Anyhow, he gets arrested and placed in the back of a police car, and a policeman gets in the truck. That's when I see Billy the Karate Kid cat....in the truck.....and acting like there's catnip
there. So, I'm yelling, " WAIT, let me get my cat," as I scramble out of the tree. None of us could get ahold of him, but finally I went toward the house, and
called, "Billy, come get your medicine." That brought him running....as he loves that hairball Rx and always wants more and more. Everyone left in a hurry. The
neighbors are teasing us that things certainly get quiet around here after
we leave.....Well, I guess so.

billy the karate kid

I'm BAAAACK!

well today for my birthday....i got up early and had coffee with bubba before he went to school. then i went back to bed and slept until 11. then i got up and watched "the young & the restless" in french, and then watched ""the guiding light" in english. by then it stopped raining, so i laced up my running shoes and took nina out.

today i decided to start back running. it's been 4 weeks since i hurt my foot, and while it still hurts, it doesn't feel like $%#-it's-broken anymore. i've been only able to wear my running shoes. my "girlie shoes" still hurt.

first i walked to the fields i love so much. that's just about 1 mile. then, i started back at week one on the couch to 5K thing..but WOW! i felt awesome and so strong. i not only did the 8 60 second runs, i "hauled ass," "whoooosh!" just like everyone said i would. it was wonderful!! after that workout, i jogged/walked back home (1 mile). i have a new pedometer now. it says i went 4 miles today walking/running.

i feel like myself again. i'm back, baby!

keep moving. stay flexible. don't push too hard.

my daughter's empty bedroom

although life in general has been "ok" lately, i just sent my daughter back to college. :( (trust me! i'm way better at letting her go than i was freshman year!)

and remember my saturday workout? i hurried out the door in the morning to knock it out before we took our little lunch trip to france. turns out i did a number on myself.

my previous injuries? - blackening my big toe nail by running in shoes that were too short. i dealt with my sore toes issue by getting new shoes. that has easy to deal with once my best friend (thanks ctclady) gave me a CLUE. (duh)

and the pain i've been experiencing at the back of my right heel for the past year is probably achilles tendonitis. it started before i was learning to run, probably agravated by the amount of walking i did last year. so..it hurts. if i keep that tendon stretched out, and only run about 20-30 minutes, then it doesn't flare up. but, i get competitive with myself, and during a run when i'm feeling great, i go too far.

slow down. don't push.

on my workout last saturday - when i did the first workout of the 4th week of the couch-5k program i'm following - i ran along neighborhood asphalt sidewalks, through our little town, then along the road that leads into bern. i knew it was about a 2 mile route, and i wanted to see how far the program run was taking me. the last half of the route is an easy elevation, but elevation none the less. the workout went fine. i had no trouble cardio-vascularly, but my lower calves felt tight. i kept lightly stretching, and figured that when i warmed up, it would subside....so i kept going.

by the end of the workout, i had indeed passed the two mile point i had envisioned, so miz nina and i turned about to walk the 2 miles back home. i was warmed up, feeling great...and tempted to jog back at intervals. but i didn't. no need to push, right?

so...how come the last 1.5 miles home, my lower left calf started to HURT! dammit! what was THAT about? was it a muscle spasm? did i rip something to pieces and not know? what the hell WAS that? ow. ow. i kept stretching lightly, but couldn't seem to move my leg into a position so i could stretch out a cramp (if that's what it was!). crap. i was not happy. and then! i had to pee!

(i had 2 cups of coffee earlier that morning and i know caffeine does this to me, but i neeeeeed my coffee, right? ugh!) so i had to peeeeeee and my leg hurt...and i had a long walk ahead of me. then Mr. McKickerson (yeah the hubby) drives by me and gaily waves. he was going to gas up the car. i was thinking, how great it would be if he gave me a lift home. ha! but i was almost home by then - only 0.5 mile to go to the house. i listened to the red hot chili peppers and tried to keep my mind off my dilemna.

the rest of the day, that pain in my leg remained. it really hurt. the ride in the car, and sitting still probably wasn't the best for it. when i was sitting, it felt ok. when i went to stand up from sitting, it would start screaming again..and of course, walking around colmar was painful. after about one hour of gentle strolling the pain began to subside, so i think i must have given myself some mother of a muscle spasm....probably in the accesory soleus.

so, what have i learned?
(1) don't drink coffee before a workout
(2) i'm not a morning runner (tendons and ligaments are
naturally longer later in the day!)
(3) with my issues, i need more than a 5 minute warm up. i need a 15 minute warm up.
(4) if something hurts, stop.
(5) it's best to run a loop and end up where i started. :)

yesterday was supposed to be a running day for me. my goal: monday, wednesday, friday, and then either saturday or sunday (schedule permitting). i didn't get my run in. yesterday my lovely college senior daughter went back to the US for spring semester. i'm always really bummed when she leaves. i accompanied her to the airport to see her off - which meant we left at 0530 after not sleeping all night. we had time for café and gipfellis (swiss croissants) before she boarded. i've already heard from her - she's back safe & sound on campus. but i miss that girlie! but i always go into withdrawal symptoms everytime she leaves. i'm going to keep moving. stayed warmed up. stay flexible. when i sit around, everything tightens up and hurts worse, right?

after i saw the daughter off, i took myself on a nice gentle walk around the old town of zurich. took lots of pics with my new digital camera she got me for christmas. this walk was all i did for exercise yesterday. i adore zurich. i kept myself entertained and didn't feel too sad until later in the afternoon. although living overseas has many advantages, one of the biggest disadvantages is that i miss my daughter, my sister, my parents, my best friend, etc. . i don't get to see them often. wow. pity party for me! ok. all done.

today is a new day! it's cold out. i still have a son at home - a high school senior.

no snow yet although some may be forecast? i want to get outside and do my 2nd workout. i'll go out there and see how it all works and feels today.

swans on the limmat river, zurich