Ethan has not been sleeping well. This is causing much dishevel in our world as we are so interconnected. I *think* it is his eye teeth torturing him. The other night he was so worked up, he vomited. Not fun for anyone.

Becca has been getting up really early, crawling into bed with me, just after her Dad gets up and sleeping. This is a sweet wonderful thing.

We looked at a few more houses. Nothing that suits our family just so. I am trying to take this opportunity to organize myself, complete some projects and get ready for Halloween and Christmas.

I am making Becca’s costume this year.

I am creating *most* of the Christmas presents that we will be giving this year. I cannot really share much about that since most of the recipients read this blog!

J is into full swing. His second semester of teaching is consuming  a lot of his time. We have been trying so hard the past two weeks to remain on top of everything that we both crash, by 10pm every night (not to mention Ethan not sleeping).

I have been plagued with shin splits (I think, again, grrr), making my runs not fun. Finally last night I kicked ass and had a great run. Much More Than a Mom and Mom on the Run have been posting their work outs at the end of their posts, which I am going to shamelessly copy. This weekend I have a running date! I am actually going to run with another! I am so nervous! However she just had a baby so I should be able to keep up

Ew! Ok the mystery item that included these ingredients .. water, gluclose-fructose, sel, caramel, hydrolyzed soy protein, corn syrup, citric acid, sodium benzoate.<— that is suppose to be Soya Sauce! ew! Instead it should have included soya beans or defatted soya bean meal, wheat, salt and water. We will be watching our labels A LOT more closely!

The air is shouting that Autumn is quickly approaching. I love that we are back in Canada. This will be our first Fall back. I am in awe that we are approaching the year mark. The leaves are still green, however the spiders are out and the geese are flying overhead. It is cool yet comfortable outside.

What is your favourite aspect of Autumn? Is it making its appearance in your neck of the woods?

————————————————-

4.04 km     27:10 min.      6:42 Pace  <– Sweet run. I feel great. Never paused to walk, ran the entire way!

I have been staying up way too late the past few weeks. Making me fogging, cranky and less creative than normal. This week, determined to get back on track, I started to hit the sack a little earlier. I am still a little tired but it totally helped. I have also been trying to be supportive wife and getting up with J in the mornings … ugh it is so early! Need more sleep!

My body is so sore today. I ache everywhere. I also ran the farthest ever last night. I went out for my regular run, I was about to turn back at my spot when I decided to see if I could go further, go beyond myself. It was amazing. Then I got lost. A little scared. I kept running, through the woods, hoping I would see something familiar, a glimmer of hope … finally I spotted the high school and knew where I was. I am so comfortable in this city it is easy to forget that I am still new here! I ran a total of 6 km (2 more than I normally do) in 40 minutes … I guess I need a new goal, although I still have to repeat last nights record breaker.

There are times I get so discouraged. I have lost ten pounds. In FOUR months. ugh. I know it is just a number, blah blah blah … J keeps trying to convince me that it looks like I have lost a lot more. My body is composed so differently now than before I started running. I want more. I want my weight in the healthy range. I do not want winter to come and slow me down. My clothes are falling off, and yet I do not want to buy more till I am smaller.

Oh and I am NOT pregnant. Nor have we made an offer on a house (although we saw the COOLEST house ever today … it is priced a little out of our reach .. boo hoo) … I will give more details once I have them, promise.

It is a long weekend …. we have absolutely no plans whatsoever. How about you? Grand, wonderous plans for the weekend?

Becca is loving her preschool aquatics summer camp! I had regrets signing her up the last week of summer, thinking we were going to miss out on our last chances at the beach this year. Turns out the weather is wet, cold and blustery all this week, so no loss.

It always amazes me how secure and content Becca is. She was my little clingy monkey once upon a time. Now she barely looks up as I am frantically waving bye and blowing kisses. Mind you her cute and cuddly brother is still clinging like a python. Hopefully he too will gain that inner balance and confidence when he is ready. We are going to attend MOPS again this year, maybe Ethan will find his confidence there. I am amazed at what one year can bring …. They were so tiny!

As I trudged through the wind and rain four times yesterday morning, I grumbled and moaned, despising living in an apartment just a little more than normal. Sure I have less to clean (more to keep organized due to lack of space), and less responsibility with no yard and such. However instead I have to navigate to the fourth floor of the building, with children, groceries, my sanity. We have a really lovely apartment in a building that smells of smoke and dampness (not always but enough to annoy the wanna-be house dweller ya know?)

I had an amazing run the other night. I went farther than ever and felt amazing. I realized that my sluggish runs as of late were due to running with emotional baggage, rather than running free. Who knew the weight of my heart could slow me down so much? I had to take down the Nike+ Plugin. My amazing Web Hosts at Laughing Squid caught that the plugin was erroring and sending my information for anyone (any geek) to see and use for evil. If you use the plugin, be aware that is a possibility.

I have some exciting news I can hardly wait to share with you … but I am going to wait just a little longer I know I am such a tease!

How do you build confidence in your child(ren)? Or yourself?

We had a fab time at the lake. Although we totally forgot the amazing lunch I had packed in the fridge, so I cruised back to town to pick it up. J thoroughly enjoyed seeing the kids in the water & sand. I am so bummed that it was probably our last trip to the beach this season! I took a ton of pictures that made their way to Flickr.

Over the weekend my head was intense and I slept more than I have since Ethan was an infant! I felt awful, even missed my Saturday run … grrr. I slept most of Sunday too (although I headed out for a short run afterward).

I now have my runs posted in my sidebar. When I purchased my running shoes, J spoiled me and bought the Nike+ to track my progress and give me extra incentive. Knowing the pace and kilometres so makes a difference! I am running 4k (with a 3k run I have when feeling tired), but I want to work up to 5k eventually. It would be nice to get to 5k before the snow falls, but I can only go as fast as my body will allow.

Becca is bursting with excitement that she will be going to Kiddie Aquatics Morning Camp this week. It starts today. I am all worried and Mother Bear like, she is just happy to play with some kids. Ethan and I will hang out and be able to spend a little one on one time.

The last week of summer … wow … Any plans for the upcoming long weekend? How do you say good bye to summer?

This week has been so much fun! And tiring. And exciting. And busy.

I have been working on a project with J. I am designing his website for work. I am honoured (and free) to be able to work on this for him. It has once again really pushed me beyond my current skills as a graphic/web designer. The challenge always makes me all twitty and happy. I truly am a geek.

The children & I have been hanging out with new-ish friends that we enjoy a lot. It is so awesome to be around someone, that makes me think, makes me calm and afterward I am a better mom and person. Friends are amazing that way. Replenishing your spirit, just by providing their company. We have created humming bird feeders and hit the lake, each day presenting full filled moments.

I swam 1.6 km (a mile) tonight. 64 laps amazing laps. It took me longer than I usually have time to swim (I have to head home to help get the kids in bed), except on Fridays lane swimming is held earlier. I am in awe. When I first added swimming to my training, I had to swim 2 lap front stroke then one breast stroke. Now I swim all out for half an hour (excluding tonight I swam for 43 minutes), hitting 50 laps if I go full tilt the entire time. I feel FRIKING AWESOME> Dudes. I swam a 1.6 KILOMETRES. That ROCKS. I have been experiencing some shin splints while running (grrr bad bad BAD shoes) so I may be adding some cycling to the mix. J has a bike I may be able to tweak to my size.

Quite a few people have asked me how I find the time to do all this training. I don’t. Blogging, photography, knitting, sewing .. have all taken a backseat at the moment to this. I feel like this is my moment. My time. My chance to make peace with my body, learn to love who I am, how I am shaped and be a wicked great role model for the kids. I still get little chances to be creative and to blog. I miss it. My soul hurts when I am not creating. I need just like 5 more hours in each day.

HEY it is a long weekend here … is it there? Got plans?

I am off now to start a Star Wars marathon with my adorable husband! May the Force be with you … hehe I am such a DORK! love it!