The Pros and Cons of a Bathroom Remodel

Right now, this is what my master bathroom looks like:

So, there are a lot of obvious cons to such a remodel -- I mean, c'mon, I have a table saw sitting in my bedroom -- but I am trying to focus on the positive, so I figure I can list a few pros to the situation:

• Interesting conversation piece. Who doesn't want to talk about toilets?
• It means I only have one bathroom to clean.
• And because the constructions spills into our bedroom, it's pretty pointless to clean in there as well.
• Norah thinks showers are fun.
• Picking out all new stuff. In some ways, it's a pain trying to decide on every detail, but in other ways, it's also kinda fun looking at tile, fixtures and new tubs.
• The end product.

I'll keep you updated as the construction moves along, and in a few weeks, when everyone wants to line up to take a bath in my new tub, you'll have to pick numbers.

In the meantime, while Jerry is getting his workout in chipping up tile, I have been doing the usual: running. Yesterday, I snuck an afternoon 3 miler in between thunderstorms -- we got approximately 18 feet of rain yesterday -- and it really was the only 30 minutes of the day that it wasn't raining. Tonight, I plan to do something in the range of 5 miles. Now that I don't have night class, I have my evenings free and that means I have the opportunity to run sans Norah and the jogging stroller, and I'm looking forward to doing something a bit longer than the standard 3 miler that I always run with Norah in tow.

Lastly, I know I have largely been absent from regular commenting on your blogs. What can I say? I've been busy, but I've also been taking afternoon naps. But in my brief break before the start of the fall term, I hope to get back to some regular reading and commenting. So the crying and hair pulling can cease.

Happy Birthday Norah!

It's hard to believe that August 10th is Norah's 1st birthday: Every cliche that people tell you about the time flying is true -- it goes way too fast, so it's tough to believe that it's already been a year. A year ago, I had a small baby who seemed to be no bigger than a loaf of bread; today, I have a walking, talking toddler who is pushing her own "babies" around in a stroller! In this sense, I can't help but think: Can it be possible that it's only been a year?

I mean, look at how much she's changed and grown:

Birth

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months

But, I have to say that the other cliches are true too: Having a child is one of life's greatest joys and this has certainly been a wonderful year with Norah. She's such a sweet, easy-going girl, and it has been so fun to watch her grow, develop, explore and discover her world.

Of course, parenting is not all joyful. At times, it has been challenging, difficult, tedious, and frustrating, but in all ways, having her in my life has made my existence richer and more fulfilling. Sure, she's pooped on me, puked on me, sneezed in my face, made a mess of my house, put a dent in our bank accounts, and woken us up at all sorts of terrible hours of the night, but when she laughs or gives me a hug or one of her trademark wet kisses, all of those small difficulties become meaningless. And even though I know there are lots more challenges ahead of us, I look forward to the years we have in front of us, and I can't wait to see what kind of person she'll become.

So, happy birthday Norah! I love you very much!

And the Winner is...

As you may remember, a week ago, I posted a giveaway opportunity for my "Running Drawer Leftovers" and today I randomly picked the winner using the random number generator from Random.org. So, without further ado, that person is:

Jess!

No, I didn't pick myself; that would be counter-productive. It's Jess from Run Girl Run!

So, Jess, email me at tygress422@yahoo.com with your mailing address and I will look forward to stalking you! No wait...I meant "sending" you your winnings...yeeeaaahhh, "sending" not "stalking"...

My other important, breaking news can be expressed in 3 bullet points:

• I ran 3 miles this morning. At this point in my streak, I'm basically a well-oiled running machine.
• Tonight is my last night of summer class!
• Tomorrow is Norah's actual birthday. Expect a rather sentimental post marking the occassion.

Rest? I Don't Need No Stinkin' Rest!

Today's 4 miler ushered in my 50th consecutive day of running. I honestly don't have any plan for how long I plan to continue streaking, but all I can say is this: Once you start streaking, it's kinda hard to stop.

Norah's B-day Party

This morning started at 6 am when my alarm went off and I got up, had a cup of coffee and went for a run. I knew it was gonna be a busy day and that I wouldn't feel like running this evening, so I wanted to make sure I got it done early. I was glad I did because after that, the morning consisted of party-prep, and then the afternoon was party time!

Here are some pics from the celebration:

It was a great party, we had a wonderful time, Norah has some very thoughtful and generous friends and family, and now it's 7:15 and everyone, but me, is asleep -- Norah's in bed, Scooter crashed out in his bed after everyone left, and Jerry has fallen asleep on the couch -- so I guess that as I was the first one up, it's appropriate to be the last up to go to bed!

Three Things Thursday

1. My toe feels much better. I would say it's 99% healed. See? Ignoring things does fix them. So, Norah and I ran 3 miles this morning and the toe felt fine. Still waiting to see whether a bruise is gonna form or not.

2. Tonight is the last night of one of my night classes (my other class ends Monday, Aug 9th), and I'm pretty ready to be done. Students just have to take their final, which I can grade via scantron, and then we're finished. I should actually be home by 8 pm tonight -- wahoo!

3. Norah's 1st birthday is next Tuesday (August 10th), but we're celebrating by hosting a b-day party for her this Saturday, the 7th. Thus, the gifts from family, who live out of town and won't make it, have been rolling in the past few days (needless to say, this has made Scooter a hot mess since he hates the UPS, FedEx, and PO trucks and delivery people -- he has exhausted himself defending me against them). Look at this pile of loot already! Makes me glad that we decided to just buy her 2 small things and then make a significant deposit in her college savings because it looks as though she's gonna have enough to open!

But, I don't even know if I want to give her any presents since she bit me earlier.

It was shortly before I put her down for her nap, so she was getting a little fiesty, but what started out as a hug ended in her chomping down on my shoulder and it REALLY hurt! In fact, for a second, I thought she may have broken skin (she didn't, but it may bruise). She's bitten me before, but those were more like little tooth-testers; this was the real deal -- maybe she's been watching Shark Week when I haven't been looking? -- and I told her that if she wasn't nicer to me, I might keep all her presents for myself!

Biters don't get birthday presents.

Wordy Wednesday

My toe was feeling much better this morning -- still a little tender but not nearly as swollen or red -- and because Norah woke up at her more normal time, we were on the road by 7:40 for our run. So today, I wanted to make sure I did 3 miles. And that we did. Felt good to get a run done that felt like a "real" run, and the toe felt fine during and after, so that's good too.

I still can't quite figure out what it's dealio is -- is it bruised? is it infected? I don't know -- it's a Toejury Mystery. Either way, it seems to be on the mend, and that's what counts.

Lastly, in non-toe related tales, I have to share this Norah pic with you guys: Lately, she has begun to mimic me in nearly everything: She wants to eat what I eat, do what I'm doing, and wear what I'm wearing. So, no, she doesn't want to wear her own sunglasses; she wants to wear my sunglasses.And, who needs pants when you've got a pair of shades?

Of Two Milers and Toe Talk

This morning, Norah slept until 7:40! Well, actually, she got up at 6:15, but Jerry convinced her to go back to sleep and then she slept until 7:40! Which was awesome for me, but bad for timing our run. It was a quarter to 9 before we were ready to run, and with a still-sore toe, I decided once again to trim the run down to a 2 miler instead of 3.

The 2 milers help maintain the streak but they don't do much in terms of producing a satisfactory run. So I haven't yet felt this week like I've really run, but hopefully as the week progresses, the necessary timing and toe-healing will fall into place and I'll be able to run a little further and the runs can then feel a bit more meaningful, instead of merely supplementary.

On the toe front, some of you mentioned in your comments yesterday that the toe-injury, which from here on out shall be dubbed the Toejury, may be the early signs of a bruised toenail. And you're certainly right: That could very well be the case here. I've had blackened toenails before and have lost the other big toenail before, but it was several years ago (like back in 2006-2007) that I last had a toenail jump ship, so my memory of that experience is not so crisp, but in that memory, I never recall having my toe swell or be quite so painful preceding the nail's discoloration.

We'll see. That's partially why I'm keeping the polish off right now, so I can monitor it better. But, it certainly looks odd. I had a student last night ask why I had one toe un-painted, and I simply said, "Because something's wrong with that toe." No one asked any follow-up Toejury questions, so I took that to mean they were enthralled with the poetry we were studying and had no time to think of my Toejury. So we discussed paradox instead.

Toe Woe

Saturday evening, before I headed out for a 5 miler, I noticed that my right big toe was a little red and swollen and was a bit tender to the touch. I shrugged it off, put on my socks and shoes and ran my 5 miles. Then, on Sunday, I noted that the toe still felt tender and was a bit uncomfortable. Still, I ran 3 miles last night and it didn't cause me any pain, so I thought nothing of it. But, before going to sleep last night, it seemed to throb a little more than it had before, and then at 2 am, I awoke and it was truly painful.

So, this morning, I gave it a good inspection, and had Jerry take a look. I even went so far as to take off the polish (my last resort) to see if there was something wedged beneath my nail. Nothing. Neither Jerry nor I could spot a sliver or scrape of any kind, yet my toe looked like it was irritated and possibly infected:When Jerry left for work, I was almost certain I would be headed to a doctor soon after to have it examined. But then I thought about it, and my best guess is this: Saturday I walked into our newly destroyed bathroom barefoot and there were certainly shards of broken tile in there. Tile is like glass, so a small sliver may have pierced my toe and while it may not have been enough to cause me any pain, it may have been enough to let a little bacteria get in and the skin is inflamed because of a minor infection. Now, what's a doctor gonna do? There's no visible shard or sliver to remove, so an MD would probably just administer a prescription for a general anitbiotic, like amoxycillin.

I'm not anti-antibiotic, but I think sometimes the body can fight things off on its own, so I decided to take a "let's see what happens" approach. I took 2 Advil, and it felt better, and I figure I'll just monitor it in the next few days. Trust me, if it gets gross, and if my toe looks as though it's threatening to fester and rott off, then I'll go to the doctor.

In the meantime, yes, I still went running this morning. I only did 2 miles because I figured it wouldn't hurt to be conservative and not irritate the toe too much, but I wanted to do something -- thus, Viva La Streak! 44 days now. I can't let a little toe infection impede me now, can I?
Truthfully, I am ashamed to admit such a superficial truth to my "pain" here, but I think I may be more bothered by the fact that I now have 9 pretty painted toes and 1 naked one than I am by the tenderness and slight swelling. Like my flip flop tan line?

*If you missed yesterday's post on the giveaway, go check it out and leave a comment if you'd like a chance to be entered to win.

My Bathroom's Demise is Your Unexpected Surprise!

Last week, I noticed that the wall next to the shower in our master bathroom was "squishy." I told Jerry to take a look and, sure enough, that part of the wall had water damage. No problem, he figured he needed to replace about 6 inches of sheetrock, re-putty, and paint. A few days' worth of work. So, yesterday morning he tells me he has about "45 minutes worth of work" to do in there to finish up, but then about 15 minutes later, he calls to me: "Can you come here a second?" And this is what I found: Ummm, clearly this is gonna take more than 45 minutes, isn't it?

Turns out, upon further inspection, the ruined 6 inches of sheetrock were just the tip of the iceberg, and water must have been dripping down behind the tile, because while the tile looked fine on the surface, Jerry discovered rotten sheetrock behind it and some mold on the cement behind that. No bueno.

So, we figured, hey, if we're replacing that tile, why not just re-do the entire bathroom? Yeah, that's how we roll. Actually, we had planned on remodeling this bathroom -- just not quite yet; we'd actually hoped to remodel our guest bathroom first because it is in more dire need of it, but sometimes life just doesn't work out how you plan it.

The downside to this is the timing -- a big project that just falls into your lap always feels more stressful than a big project you had been planning for. But the upside is that we have the money for it, and the end product will be a new master bathroom! Just may take awhile; turns out, remodeling with a kid around isn't very easy.

However, this remodel works to YOUR advantage as well! Because, this morning, I had to clean out the bathroom cabinets and drawers (good lord, there was a lot of stuff in there for such a small room!), and I got rid of a lot of expired aspirin, etc, but I also discovered that my "running drawer" had some superfluous items, items that I haven't used at all, and I figure I'm not gonna use them. Thus...a giveaway!

The giveaway includes: 1 Honey Stinger gel, 2 Clif Shot gels, 1 bottle of Nuun, 1 Peppermint Cooling Leg Gel by The Body Shop, 1 Peppermint Leg and Foot lotion by Burt's Bees, 1 shoe wallet, 1 Bengay patch, 1 Nike sport towel, and 1 pair of Nike shoelaces that say "Shut Up and Run."

The items are one packaged giveaway, so if you want one item, you want it all. If you'd like your shot at winning Jess' "running drawer leftovers," you need to do just one thing:

• Leave me a comment in THIS POST indicating that you want it.

That's it. No need to be a follower or to become a follower or to be my best friend on Facebook. Just leave me a comment on THIS POST telling me you want it. All comments desiring this giveaway must be left by midnight, August 6th. That's this upcoming Friday.

Then, early next week, I'll randomly choose a winner, and I'll notify that winner here on the blog and will then request further contact info from the winner. So, you want this stuff? Tell me so.

July's Totals

31 consecutive days of running (which brings the streak's current total to 42 days)

100 miles

Now it's time to begin thinking about August...

Foto Friday

Our recent doings:

Running, of course. Reading.

Cuddling.

Being little devils.

Defending Elmo against Scooter attack.

Chores.

Play area.

Park. Where Norah prefers to go UP the slide rather than down it.

Testing out how it feels to wear shoes. So far, Norah is with you barefooters -- she'd prefer to go without the shoes!

Trading Mileage for Sleep

Norah slept until 7:05 this morning. Which was awesome, but it meant that we didn't get out the door for our run until 8 am. Normally, we aim to be out there running by 7:30 when the temp is merely a billion degrees. By 8 am, the temp is somewhere near a billion and a half degrees, and it feels unbearable to run in. You wouldn't guess that 30 minutes would make much of a difference, but it really does.

That's why we did 2 miles today instead of 3.

Okay by me, though. I'm willing to trade a mile for an extra hour's sleep!

Motivation

I'm glad I only have 2 more weeks of my summer classes; this schedule is beginning to wear me out. I'm at home all day with Norah (a full time job in and of itself), and when Jerry gets home at 4:20, we exchange the pertinent info and then 10 minutes later, I'm out the door and on my way to class. My classes are good classes, and I enjoy the students and the material I teach, but I don't get done until about 9 or 9:30, so I'm not home until 9:30 or 10.

In many ways, it's a long day.

And it starts all over at about 6:15 the next morning. So, there are certainly days when I don't want to run, don't want to continue this streak. Some days, in my mind, I have a little hissy fit that goes like this: "I don't wanna run! I'm tired! I've been running for the past 37 consecutive days! I deserve a day off!" Yes, very whiny, I know, but in my mind, in that whiny moment, my excuses feel legitimate. I think many of us feel this way, and I think that's okay. We can all have those internal hissy fits, and even sometimes succumb to them (we're human, not robots, afterall). But, what helps me move beyond the childish thinking and lace up my shoes and tackle that daily run even when I don't want to?

Habit, mostly.

But also? I think of this Nike ad:The type is kinda hard to read, but it says, "Someone who is busier than you is running right now." Usually, this sort of emotional provocation in advertising does nothing to motivate me, but I saw this ad in Chicago's Nike Town 3 years ago, and for whatever reason, it has stuck with me ever since. I literally think of it every time I want to bail on my run because I feel as though I have either too much going on or have too little motivation or desire to run.

Thinking of this ad just helps me put running into the level of importance that I want it to have in my life. I'm busy being a wife, mother, and teacher, but no matter how busy I am, or how tired I may sometimes feel, running is important to me, so I have to make time for it.

We all have something that provides us with this same kind of motivation. Maybe it's an ad. But, probably it's something else: What do you think of when you're dragging your feet about a workout and struggling with the inner hissy fit?

6 Down, 19 to Go

This week's goal is very simple: Sure, I'm still streakin', so I'm still running everyday, but right now that's a given, not the goal. The goal is to run 25 miles this week so that I can round out July with 100 miles.

I don't think I've ever had a triple digit mileage month in the summer before*, and I owe this largely to the streak, which has prompted me to get out there on a daily basis. While keeping the streak alive is easy on some days, it is tough on others when I really don't feel like running. Today was one of those days.

But, then I got encouragement from an unknown source. This morning, as I was running with Norah, a runner came up behind me and announced that she was passing me. I moved over to the edge of the sidewalk, and as she went by me she said, "You're doing an excellent job! Keep running, Mommy!" I don't know this runner, and have never seen her before on my route, but for some reason, her words felt so uplifting. I needed to hear that on a Monday morning when both my legs and my determination were a bit stiff. So, "Thanks Unknown! I appreciated it!"

*I may have very well run a triple digit mileage month(s) during the summer of 2007 when I was training for the Chicago Marathon. But, I'd have to go back to my log to look and, well, I don't feel like doing that.

Storms: Both Tropical and Toddler

Yesterday, Tropical Storm Bonnie formed over the Bahamas, and while it isn't directly affecting our area, we are still getting the indirect effect of tropical storm conditions. Which really just means lots of rain and wind.

So, our usual morning run got rained out. Despite now owning the weathershield, I wasn't going to take Norah out in the torrential rainfall, nor did I feel like going out in it myself. But, by early afternoon, and rain all. day. long, tension in the house was running high. I was feeling irritable and impatient. Scooter was annoying the crap out of me (I don't know if the storm made him nervous or what, but every time I turned around, he was right underfoot). Norah had only napped a total of 40 minutes all day and she was a royal crab apple: I could not muster up the energy for the 20th reading of "But Not the Hippopotamus" and she dissolved into a shitticane of tears.

If I didn't figure out something soon, our house was gonna transform into Thunderdome.

Thankfully, at about 2 pm, the rain abated. The clouds still looked omnious, but I decided to take my chances. I needed a run.

So, I got in running clothes, loaded Norah into the stroller (made sure we did have the weathershield with us), bid Scooter "adieux," and we were off! As soon as we got out there, I knew I'd made the right choice: The rain stayed away the entire run and we certainly both needed to get out and get some fresh air. However, just because we stayed dry, doesn't mean the run wasn't without its unique trials.

It wasn't too hot -- the rain all day kept the temp moderate (although, it was still in the 80s) -- but it was VERY humid, and VERY windy. At one point, my route took me head-on into the wind, and it required a two-handed handling of the stroller. I felt like I was running in place! Still, despite those challenges, I race an average pace of 9:56 per mile -- I guess I had some pent up Mom-anger to get out!

It was a good run, and I definitely needed it. When I got home, I felt better and was able to be a better mom to Norah and Scooter. And, without that run, the rest of the afternoon would have almost certainly involved a throwdown of some kind because Norah really tried my every last spec of patience I have in me today.

Thank god it's Friday, and I don't have class. That means that it is now 6:12 pm, Norah is in bed, and Jerry and I are ready to start our Friday night. Which, I'm gonna be honest, is gonna revolve around draining this little baby:If I drink it out of a race glass, that makes it healthier, right?

Our other exciting plans for the night involve a pizza, which has been ordered and is on it's way, and a movie from On Demand. Who needs to leave the house on a Friday? We have keg beer, pizza and movies here at home!

Running Errands

I drank about half a cup of coffee this morning before it dawned on me that it tasted funny. What can I say? I'm slow to wake up. The usual culprit in a bad tasting cup o' joe is expired milk, so I went and gave the milk a sniff. Yup, spoiled. Crap on a cracker -- it still had a few days left! Oh well, occassionally, I suppose bad moo juice happens.

So, I decided to make a trip to the store part of Norah and I's morning run. Publix is just a slight detour off our normal route, and it only adds a few minutes and a little extra distance to run the errand as we're running. Plus, it was nice to have a reason to go run -- always by about this point in the week, my motivation begins to run low, so it's good to feel as though I have to go run. In this case, I had to go "run" an errand.

3.2 miles later, we were home: Run, done. Milk, aquired. Now, as Norah takes her morning nap, I can enjoy my coffee WITH unspoiled milk. Tastes so much better :)

Stroller Speedwork

I deemed it too hot yesterday afternoon to attempt to finish the rained out run from earlier in the day, but thankfully, I got done early with class last night and was home by 8:30. So, I quickly got in my running clothes and headed out at 8:40 to finish up that 1.6 miles I had remaining. I told Jerry I'd be back in 15 minutes. Not only was I true to my word, but I was even a few seconds ahead of schedule: Obviously, running by myself affords me the opportunity and ease to be a bit faster, but as I was running this short run last night, I thought about my slow speeds with the stroller and figured that in some part, I'm just being lazy with my pace when I run with the stroller. Granted, it IS harder pushing a jogging stroller -- with Norah, it adds about 40 lbs of resistance that I'm pushing (although, the BOB's design is so good that it doesn't necessarily feel like you're pushing that much weight); however, that doesn't mean I can't work hard on some runs to pick up the pace. Besides, about 90% of my runs are with the stroller, so if I can't figure out a way to do some speedwork with it, then I'm never gonna fit it in.

So, as I finished my 1.6 miles last night, I resolved for my morning run today that "picking up the pace" would be this run's primary goal.

Generally, with the stroller, I have been running a 10:30 min/mile pace. So, before we headed out this morning, I decided I wanted to aim for an average pace of 10:00 min/mile, which would mean really making an effort to move my ass.

In the first half a mile, I was chugging along at the standard 10:30 pace, but I was running in to a headwind and I figured a half a mile's warm up was necessary (my hammies have been a little tight the past few days). But after that initial half mile, I tried to consistently pick up the pace and in each mile I was a bit faster:

Mile 1: 10:24
Mile 2: 9:58
Mile 3: 9:47

Total time: 30:12

Average pace? 10:04 min/mile. 4 seconds slower than I was aiming for, but c'mon, see that 3rd mile? That's a speed-demon pace for me and the stroller! Overall, I was happy with the run, and I proved that I can go a bit faster with the BOB, so I guess that means that I need to make such an effort a more regular part of my weekly runs. Clearly, speedwork can be accomplished at the helm of the stroller, so I don't have any excuses to avoid it.

Rained Out. Again.

This morning, Norah and I were a little more than half mile into our run when the skies opened up and poured. It wasn't a downpour. It was a deluge. I quickly turned us around and ran as fast as I could back home, but within minutes, I was soaked, the stroller was soaked and poor Norah was soaked. But, thankfully, I didn't breed a complainer, so even though she got pretty wet, she didn't seem too upset with me about it. Her expression below seems to say, "Eh, I got wet. Good thing I'm not made of sugar." So, since this is the 2nd run in 2 weeks that's been disrupted by rain, after we got dried off and cleaned up, we went and invested in a weathershield for the BOB.

It was less than $6, and it's basically just a big plastic cover for the stroller that looks like this once it's unveiled:

Norah inspected it

and gave it her stamp of approval.

So, I folded it up and stowed it beneath the carriage, and we'll be certain to always bring it along on our runs. That way, I may still get soaked, but Norah can stay dry and comfortable and I can at least finish a run.

With the rain disruption, our run only totaled 1.4 miles, and I'm feeling a bit dissatisfied with that. So, I'm considering a hot afternoon run of 1.6 miles so that I can at least log 3 miles for the day. It's in the 90s out there, but I'm telling myself: "It'll only take about 16 minutes. I can do 16 minutes out there." I guess I'll fill ya in later on how that works out.

30 Days

With the completion of this morning's run, I have run 30 consecutive days. And at this point, you can probably guess that I don't plan on stopping now.

Officially, I want to continue the streak through the end of July, which is 12 more days.

Unofficially, I don't see an end in sight.

Foto Friday

So, Marlene had a great idea to showcase our running medals: She posted pics of where she keeps her race medals and then pointed out a few favorites and then challenged her readers to do the same. I thought it was a fun idea, so I went ahead and took some pics of the bits of bling I've earned from running. To begin with, here is where I keep them: On a hook on the office wall. Jerry and I have talked about, maybe, creating a special place for them or at least buying a shadow box for the special ones, but so far, no action has been taken to draw more attention to them or make them seem more significant.

They look shinier in a jumbled pile, anyway, don't they? There are 12 of them here.

A few favorites are from Miami and A1A. A1A is probably my favorite HM and this year's medal, which opened, was pretty dang cool. And for Miami? Well, who doesn't love the "spinning palm" design?

But, my absolute favorites are those from Disney's series of events: I have the Marathon, Princess HM, Race to the Taste 10K, and Women Run the World 15K.

I think that, ultimately, it'd be fun to earn all of the medals in Disney's endurance series, but I'm a long way from even considering Goofy (but, that does total 3 medals!).

Lastly, there is a significant medal that is missing from this pile: 2007 Chicago Marathon. Which I trained for and DNF'd. For those who recall, the 2007 Chicago Marathon was cancelled in the middle of the race because of dangerous heat and not enough liquids on the course. Afterward, the RDs offered all of us, who had failed to finish, a medal and they called it a medal for the Chicago "Fun Run." Bah. I did not take it. That race was not fun, and I didn't want a medal for something I had failed at.

Runners' race medals symbolize the hard work and dedication it takes to train for and complete a race; to have Chicago offer runners that "fake" medal was insulting. Anyway, its absence is important to me, and I think it deserves noting here since medals are a tangible representation of what we earned, and I believe it's valuable for me as a runner to think about those instances where I have not enjoyed success. In some ways, the missing medals from my wall are just as significant as these beautiful shiny ones.

If you haven't already followed along with Marlene's Medal Mania (that's my wording, not hers, but don't you think I am clever, now?), go ahead and post some pics of your race bling, give some highlights of your favorites, and tell us a little about your Precious!

Day 26

Still running.

And, that's really all there is to say about that. Hmmmm, a streak gets kinda boring to read about, huh? Thankfully, I'm not bored with the doing, so that's good.

Since I really don't have any good running stories today, I can share one brief post-running anecdote:

After a run, I need a shower. Stat. And, like many moms out there, I take my child into the bathroom with me while I shower. Typically, Norah entertains herself by playing with a few toys I bring in there with us, or by pulling underwear out of the hamper or by pounding on the shower glass and hollering for me to hurry up. But this morning, as I was shampooing, I noted that she was oddly quiet.

Not a good sign.

So, I opened the shower door a smidgen and saw her standing by the toilet having a grand time splashing in the water.

While her fascination with toilet water is charming, it's not new, and we've become accustomed as of late to make sure that toilet lids are down, but I must have forgotten earlier and there she was treating it with the same joy she would a water park.

Oh well. The toilet water was "clean" water and aside from soaking her shirt, her splashing was doing no harm, so I returned to shampooing, rinsing and repeating, but I hope that if she one day becomes a high-paid plumber who makes $300 an hour fixing a toilet in the "off hours" that she appreciates how I'm the one who nurtured her early career.

Off and On

When Norah and I headed out for our run this morning, there were dark clouds in the distance, but I was hoping we might be able to out-run them. However, less than a mile into the run, it began to sprinkle, nothing too heavy, though, so we continued on, but right at 1 mile, it began to really rain. Not a downpour, by any means, but a heavy enough rain that I turned around. I don't have a weathershield for the stroller and while the canopy does a decent job of protecting her from the elements, it doesn't completely enclose her.

So, we ran the mile back home, and by the time we got there, it had stopped raining entirely.

And that seems to be the pattern so far this morning. After the run, I showered and Norah had a snack and then we headed to a nearby park for some outdoor fun. The rain clouds were still ominous in the distance, but I figured any time at the park is good time (anyone with kids can back me up on this: any time outside playing = good napping), so we played and the rain stayed away for about 35 minutes, but then the skies opened up and we were outta there.

And, by the time we got home, again, it had stopped raining entirely.

With the rain clouds following me in this way, I'm feeling a bit like Eeyore this morning!