Rock ‘n’ Roll, baby

A few months ago I told you how I had won a lottery – but you know, less of the I’m rolling in the dough kind and more of the My legs have turned to play-dough kind. And as freaky as it was, I was pumped to have Houston as my first half-marathon because it gave me adequate time to prepare [mentally & physically] and I was doing it for a good cause.

Which if you’re interested in donating, The Epilepsy Foundation is absolutely fantastic and can use all the help it can get. I’m sure nearly everyone has known someone [or had one themselves] that has suffered from seizures. Seriously, help us get the word out. I’m thinking for all those that donate I’ll put your name on my shirt I wear in the race as a shout-out – you also may get something awesome from me in the future. :)

More information here – http://www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com/Donate/CharityPage.cfm?CID=371 & if you’re interested in donating - http://www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com/Donate/PersonalPage.cfm?MID=8988&CID=371 and click the “Click Here to Sponsor Me” link.

And while I’m still proud & excited to turn to mush in January as I cross the finish line, I can no longer brag that Houston will be my first. Because turns out – Las Vegas will be.

Yep, that’s right. This girl, this one typing to you right now is going to Vegas to run a half-marathon! A little history : Last year [or was it early this year?], when I started running my Anita made a comment along the lines of “We should run in Vegas!” and me being the underachiever at the time thought that running 13 miles was wayyy out of the question. So I laughed and was like “Uh, no.” And then I started enjoying it more, and she kept bringing it up more, and then she asked me a month ago and I was like “Fuck it. I’m in.” So, I called the husband who said “Vegas? Why are you even asking me – book that shit!” And I did. 

I have actually been to Vegas before. My first time was a few years ago with his sister, her friend & my friend Sunny. Girls trip I guess. I’m not a big gambler so most of our time was spent running up & down the strip finding the best deal on booze. And yes, I still have the boot.The second time we flew in for just a night before retreating to Brianhead, Utah for some snow shenanigans with Al’s dad & his wife. I was 6 weeks pregnant at the time, so there was not so much booze finding that time. And Alfred wasn’t that impressed either. I’m determined that this time will be different [since we won’t be with parents and I won’t be neglecting my beloved margarita boot].

Anita has actually run a half before and she’s a bit faster than me – so I’m hoping I won’t slow her down because all I’m focusing on is finishing at this point. After my 2 week hiatus because of my ankle I’m a little behind on my schedule but it’s not deterred me. I want to go and run the hell out of this 13 miles, drink a beer with my Anita [and actually Sunny is coming along too for support!] and then enjoy the rest of our vacation [yes, I totally justified the registration cost for this as an excuse since this is our vacation.]

I’m not nearly as prepared with a running schedule like I was with my 10k, but I have a rough draft I’m going on & will update soon. I have an 8 miler in the books for this weekend – which is scary for 2 reasons. One: This will be the furthest I’ve ever ran and Two: 8 is the number of legs a spider has and that’s freaky as shit.

But yep, in approximately one month this girl, her manfeet, & her determination are going to run through that finish line. And I can’t wait to share it with you guys.

Unless I poop myself. In that case, what happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas.

Wish me luck, my friends – I couldn’t & wouldn’t have pushed myself as hard as I do if it weren’t for all of your support.

This Weekend, I… [10/29/12]

Linking up with Syn & Sarah for another does of This Weekend, I…

This Weekend, I started the weekend off with BFF time. Emilie & Tanner came over for dinner [Fine, Justin did too – but he had to work & couldn’t stay long]. I made this – photo courtesy of http://goddessofscrumptiousness.tumblr.com/

It was pretty amazeballs. Even the husband enjoyed it and he is not a pasta fan at all. If I were to make it again though I’d add more chicken, less noodles & half the tomatoes before throwing them in. Just personal preferences, but definitely worth your time. Recipe can be found here - http://godofscrumprecipes.tumblr.com/post/21100317594/spaghetti-in-garlic-gravy-with-herbs-and-lemon#.

This Weekend, I  got us all purdied up for a 2 year old’s birthday party. We’re close friends [actually they’re going with us to Vegas in a little over a month – more on that later] and their daughter is only a few weeks older than Lillie. And they get along great – so it’s definitely a win-win situation for all of us. Before we left I forced Lillie to take a picture with me…

And this is the face you get whenever your mom is a blogger.
“TAKE A PICTURE WITH ME NOW KID! I NEED THIS TO SHOW PEOPLE HOW AWESOME MY MAKEUP IS WITHOUT SEEMING LIKE A TOOL FOR TAKING A ZILLION PHOTOS OF JUST ME!”
She did finally cooperate though. Of course, only after laughing at me though. Kids, sheesh.

Between the cake & the stick horse rodeo & piñata & playing bed time she was plum tuckered out by the end of the night. Birthday parties are just plain awesome. [Yeah, the photos suck. My phone is a turdfest, but you get the idea.]
This Weekend, I went to a Gigi Hill bag party. My friend Amy sells them & if you haven’t heard of them they are really great brand & wonderful purses. I usually carry around a wallet. In my back pocket. I know, I like to reminisce about how I’m a 13 year old boy but I bought a bag on sale [it can be kind of pricey] a few months ago and I love it. It doubles as my purse & workout bag and seriously, totally worth it. You can check out Amy’s Gigi Hill page here - http://www.gigihillbags.com/pws/amyhamilton/tabs/home.aspx or you can find her on FB here.

This Weekend, I ran 6 miles. It’s my first 6 miles down since my 10k over a month ago. I should have far exceeded this by now but when my ankle messed up it threw my entire half-marathon training schedule out of whack. I’m trying to play catch-up right now without totally overdoing it. So far, no complaints. And for those of you who have been reading you may be saying, “But Tamara, you said you don’t have a half until January! You don’t need to be crazy quite yet!”  Well, then I’d say to you, “DUDE, I went stupid for a whole minute and signed up to run a half-marathon in LAS VEGAS the first weekend in December and then I went even stupider & bought airplane tickets & hotel rooms & there’s no turning back now!” So, yeah, going to Vegas. I’ll put up a better post about it. But I’m really excited & really nervous. My friend [and bro-in-law’s girlfriend who I’m just going to refer to as my sister since she’s fucking awesome] Anita is running with me. Can’t.Frickin'.Wait.

Random Thursday: All Things Halloween

Doing a new link-up this week with Em, Lin & Sarah. Basically, they give you a topic and you write. Easy motherbeeping peasy. Also, it helps me look more consistent as a blogger since sometimes I’m up the creek without a paddle when it comes to ideas. God bless the blogosphere & link-ups.  And yes, I know it says Random Thursday and here it is Friday…but I do love a good procrastination. [Fun fact: As a teenager I thought procrastination meant masturbation – talk about awk.ward.] So, as you can guess this one is about Halloween. Which is my favorite holiday. I know a lot of people say Christmas [presents!], or birthdays [presents & cake!], or Easter [God Loves Me!] but I like to go with…candy. I mean, how can you go wrong with candy? It’s delicious. Freaking delicious.

But more than candy, I think I love the idea of dressing up. Maybe it’s because growing up I loved me some theatre, or maybe it’s because sometimes my childhood was pretty shitty [moving a lot, alcoholism, blah blah shit shit], or maybe it’s just because I’m fucking awesome. So, when Lillie was set to be born in November I pleaded and prayed that she’d pop out two weeks early on Halloween. No such luck. But we did celebrate her first Halloween in style.

Flintstone style, that is. And yes, those are all totally hand-made costumes [I may love Halloween, but I do not love spending way too much money on something worn once]

And for her 2nd Halloween, she has thrown on a cape and set out to fight evil in the world. Mama’s so proud. Wonder Lillie totally rocked the heck out of Family Treat Night [the girls’ dorms on campus dress up & pass out candy to faculty/staff’s children. South Russell you did a great job!]

And a few years ago, I wanted to go to a Halloween party so badly that I said, “Fuck it. I’m throwing my own.” And it was awesome. I mean, only a handful of us showed up but trust me, bigger isn’t always better. We threw down.

I know,  I know. You are jealous. And it’s okay to feel that way. It is.

So, yeah, favorite holiday for really no other reason than candy & I have a legit reason to get dressed up. But there’s no shame in that.

What are your Halloween plans this year?

We may hit up a haunted house sometime this weekend, but that’s probably the extent of it for us since Lilz has already been trick-or-treating. Oh, and we’ll do pumpkins sometime this weekend because that is a must. 

Halloween Swap

I’ve been deflowered.

Hey, no scoffing. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant it in a blog swap kind of way.
Well, that doesn’t really sound any better. But I swear it is.
You see, a couple weeks ago one of my new reads - http://www.linnysvault.com/ – said, “Hey. Bitch. Sign up and swap shit with other bloggers to celebrate Halloween.”

Okay, fine, she didn’t really say it in those exact words. You caught me in a lie. But, she is awesome enough that she could have and she’d still have had people sign up for it. She’s pretty much a rock star like that.

Since I had never done anything like this – I’m just now getting comfortable reaching out to the blogging community [which is freaking awesome, btw] – I thought why not. And then I got an email letting me know we didn’t have an even number of participants so we were going to do this Kumbaya circle of Halloween awesomeness instead of a direct partnering.

Okay, fine, she didn’t call it a Kumbaya circle of Halloween awesomeness. Geez, what is it with you guys today? Give a girl a break.

Which meant that I would send a package to Miranda [if you’re interested in make up & nails and basically being cool, check her out] and that I would receive a package from Annie. 

And I have to say – Annie, my new friend, you did not disappoint.Oh, what’s that shininess you ask? Why it’s a mother-beeping SLAP BRACELET. I know, you know what they are. SCORE. Coraline [I actually don’t have this movie, another SCORE!] Reese’s PB cups – basically at this point Annie is ranking higher up than my husband. And fingernail polish. I actually think she may have sent me 2 and I only managed to take a picture of one. If so, sorry Annie.

But what I think really made this worthwhile was her note in the card she sent. She said she put all this together with Lillie in mind so we could share something together.

Is Annie not the freaking best? I seriously teared up when I read that. I love my daughter with all my heart so I’m always a little biased when it comes to her, but when other people that barely know me [or know me a lot through this blog] place consideration on my daughter for whatever reason, dude – you.freaking.win.

Also, she said since she was young she wanted to name her daughter Lilly – fate at its finest my friends. 

So, a HUGE THANK YOU Annie. Way to be freaking awesome. And you too, Lin, for making me get off my ass and actually participate in the blogosphere.

Thursday Thoughts 10.18.12

[1] This weekend is the Superhero 5k at Central Texas Marketplace. If you wanted to register, but just didn’t – you still can from 7am-8am Saturday. The 5k starts at 8:30. For those of you wanting to hang out with Wonder Lillie & Batma’am, we’re planning on being there around 8. Meeting in front of Panera. I’ll have my phone too – if you need the number shoot me an email at Tamara0827 [at]gmail.com. Also, if you’ve already registered but can’t do the packet pick-up tomorrow, I can grab yours for you – just let me know. Us superhero’s have got to stick together after all.

[2] I worked out with Moj on Monday and yeah, apparently there’s this thing that’s called Curtsy Lunges. Basically, you get in the position like you’re going to do a curtsy and then you lunge. Dudes, I was Kate mother-beeping Middleton for at least the first 10 but by the end of it I looked like I was going out Gangham style and not in a good way. They hurt so bad I’ve been sporting compression socks for the past 2 days.

[3] Lately, the Lillie has been bringing it on the dance floor.  I mean, I’m pretty sure we’re going to be on America’s Got Talent of So You Think You Can Dance any day now.  Proof:

[4] It’s a 3 day weekend for our students on campus – but not for the staff. So, all day I’ve heard everyone say ‘Have a good weekend!’ but have not been able to participate as I will be sitting in my homely little desk chair all day tomorrow. Not to worry though, I won’t have my cubby mate here so I can  jam like Smucker’s with my tunes. It’s going to be amazeballs.

Happy Thursday!

Fish 1 meet Fish 2

We have a very large aquarium in our office. Like, 200 gallons large. Let me just be blunt about it, it’s a big bitch.

And in this big bitch of an aquarium there are fish. I’d say somewhere around 30.

Somewhere between swimming & eating & staring at reflections something magical happened - two of these fish fell fin-over-fin in love. And the female has finally laid her eggs.

♥ Sigh ♥

Which, I guess, is a big deal because that’s all I’ve heard this afternoon. One of professors is the mastermind behind this aquarium and he came down to witness the growing affection.

Co-Worker: [clapping] She’s laying her eggs! Come look!
Me: Hey, I lay an egg every month and nobody claps for me.

Mastermind: [videoing the hopeful exchange of fish fluids]
Co-Worker: I wish the male wasn’t being so stupid. He keeps eating all the eggs.
Me: Well, who doesn’t like caviar? Am I right?

Three things are clear from this exchange –

1. I may work with Biologists day in and day out, but I am clearly not one.
2. I need more applause in my life otherwise I may resort to snarky comments about a fish.
And
3. I may secretly condone cannibalism.

This Weekend, I [10.8.12]

This Weekend, I wrapped my ankle like a newborn infant in the dead of winter and babied the shit out of it. After going to the doctor on Friday, the actual doctor confirmed what the un-actual doctor [my husband] had already told me – my ankle was all sorts of stupid. No fractures or broken bones though. And for that my mind was put at peace and my foot was put in boot.

Just call me Timberlake, because I’m totally bringing Sexy Back.

This Weekend, I helped out with a local fashion show to help with Breast Cancer Awareness. Lillie walked the stage [she’s a professional model now, don’t ya know] and I was the ‘pusher’ who told the people when to do their runway. It was held at our local community theatre [where I did umpteenth number of plays over my high school career] and brought back a lot of great memories…and a lot of hope that Lillie will one day be up there in the spotlight. [What? I’m not a real parent unless I hope my kid follows in my dreams. Don’t deny. We all do it.]

This Weekend, I enjoyed my husband. We got all gussied up, tried a new restaurant, laughed a lot [bag of potatoes, anyone?], and reminded ourselves that just because we’re parents now doesn’t mean we’re only parents. We’re friends, we’re lovahs, we’re amazing dancers, and we do a mean review of a restaurant [thanks to our addiction to Bar Rescue]. We’re not perfect, but sometimes we can make a damn good argument for it. And this weekend was an argument we totally won.

This Weekend, I did not run in a 5k I had lined up for Saturday morning even though I really wanted too. Actually, my doctor even called me out on it and said I know you still want to do it, but don’t. [Turns out he’s somewhat of a runner and totally understood where I was coming from.] I still planned on it up until I went to bed Friday night when my husband gave me the stank eye that said, Seriously. I hate it when he’s right. I have another one lined up for this weekend, we’ll see how the running shenanigans go this week. I mean, it’s only swollen to the size of a kiwi instead of a grapefruit so that’s good, right?

Thursday Thoughts 10.4.12

[1] Have you heard about those crazy people who say if they don’t exercise they get really pissy and hate the world? I may becoming one of them. [totally weird, right?] I’ve cried no less than 3 times since Monday because of this - Basically I’m reverting back to the cankles I fashionably wore in the last trimester of my pregnancy, but unlike that time – I have no clue what caused this. I ran 2 miles on Monday & did some strength training. Nothing out of the ordinary. I woke up Tuesday morning and it was a little sore, so I took the day off – ice, compression, elevation, blah blah. And it was worse Wednesday. I can walk on it, so I don’t think it’s a sprain. I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning because in less than 2 months I’m scheduled to run 13.1 miles and I’m pissed at the possibility that it may not happen. Not to mention, I have three 5ks for the next 3 Saturday’s lined up. I have some mother-beeping running to do and carrying around a small potato in my ankle does not help, nor does it make deliciously salty French fries.
Anyway, good thoughts if you have any to spare for me, please.

[2] Lillie’s 2nd birthday is nearing [November!] and I never saw it before I had a kid of my own [because kids were really weird, tiny human creatures that had no right residing in my uterus] but man, why didn’t anybody warn me about how freaking smart they are? I’m continually amazed at how much she grasps and puts together and what she picks up on [she may or may not have said ‘oh, sit’ the other day after mama had a moment when she dropped cheesy pizza on the bottom of the oven] Before I know it she’ll have a mustache & her dad will be forcing her to build fence. [3] I’m totally have a ‘skinny’ day today. I think it’s this new belt I had to buy. Like seriously, I needed one because my other one [from this time last year] is too big. Winning!

 The bigger & shinier the belt buckle, the thinner the waist. Am I right or am I right?

[4] My 10 year class reunion [‘02 baby!] was a success! From the parade, to the pasture party, to the family event…it was wonderful seeing people I haven’t seen in forever and talking about people that didn’t show up. Don’t get your panties in a twist – it wasn’t all bad. But what do you expect? I mean, for that weekend we were back in high school again. And you know how us high schoolers love us some gossip. I do have a camera full of photos that range from completely sober to completely drksnksls,s,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,. [No judging, I don’t get out much.]

Happy Thursday Friends!