Girls Weekend - Mom & Daughter Style

Shopping - Defined as visiting shops for purchasing or examining goods; Also a means of acquiring items one needs (or on some occasions, doesn't); a favorite pasttime; a bonding ritual between women. The first definition is from dictionary.com; the other 3 are my own.
And boy did mom and I shop this weekend. We brought to life all 4 of the definitions above. We purchased and examined many goods; we acquired items we need (and quite a few we probably didn't); we engaged in a favorite past time; and we bonded.

Skating - This year is the 25th anniversary of the Smuckers Stars On Ice tour. Mom and I are ice skating watching nerds, and when we found out that several of our favorite skaters were coming back to the tour and it was coming to a city within easy driving distance, we decided we had to go. So we bought tickets back in September to see Kurt Browning, Ekaterina Gordeeva, Todd Eldridge, and the rest in Pittsburgh this past Saturday night.

Silliness - There is always some silliness involved when my mom and I are together. We laugh at each other and with each other. One or the other of us is always doing or saying something that will send the other into fits of giggles. Makes the life interesting, and oh so fun.

So this weekend was a weekend of shopping, skating and silliness. It was Girls Weekend - Mom & Daughter Style.

Not so random random pic of the week

Kurt Browning

Stars on Ice 25th Anniversary Tour

Pittsburgh, PA

March 26, 2011

An accidental 8 miles?

The Accidental 8 Mile Run

How do you run 8 miles by accident? Get lost? Miscalculate your route? Possibly, but neither were the reason for our 8.29 miles tonight. This time it was pure stubbornness.

I have a very fluid and flexible running schedule. If i feel like running 2 miles on a 6 mile night or 7 miles on a 2 mile night, I'll do it. I had an 8 miler on the schedule for tonight as a challenge. I liked the look of the number on the chart, so I stuck it on there. We ( my husband Marc and I) have been talking about running long miles this year, and i thought now is the perfect time to start. Also, I had set a mileage goal for the week and knew I wouldn't make it without a long run tonight since I'm heading out of town this weekend. (mom/daughter girls weekend - more on that later)

So the schedule said we were doing 8 miles tonight. Marc wasn't all that thrilled with it because it was cold and windy and a long way to go. His reluctance made me want to do it all the more. I tend to be pushy when it comes to our running, getting out there more often, longer and farther than he would go if it were up to him. Kind funny coming from the girl who used to say I wasn't made to be a runner.

What I wasn't going to tell him was I wasn't feeling all that great and wasn't sure I wanted to do the whole 8 either. My plan was to go out and see how it felt and let the run go as far as it wanted. Since we run laps around our neighborhood, it's easy to cut it short if we want to. We're out there running and Marc's commenting on how cold he was or how many more laps we had to go. I told him he could stop at any point and i would finish on my own. But he wouldn't. I'm thinking my stomach is hurting and not feeling that great and almost dreading the next laps. But i wouldn't stop either.

So there we were. Me going on because i had been making such a big deal out of going the 8 miles and not wanting to wimp out on him. Him going on because he didn't want to wimp out on me or make me run by myself. So we accidentally, or maybe it should be stubbornly, did all 7 laps for a total of 8.29 miles.

We didn't really want to do it, but we did. And despite it all, we felt pretty good after what turned out to be our longest run on the road. A little tired and sore, but it's a good kind of tired and sore. And i have a major sense of accomplishment that i pushed myself and met my planned goal, even when I didn't feel like it.

Weighty Thoughts

Tonight, for some unknown reason, I stepped on a scale for the first time in months. How much i weigh has never been a concern for me. It doesn't really matter to me what the number is. Maybe because I've been thin all of my life. I was the knobby kneed skinny kid; the slightly less knobby kneed, but still skinny teenager; the thin twenty-something and the thin thirty-something that gets envied. Until recently, i was never athletic, just naturally thin.


I've never been concerned about my weight, but others seem to feel free to voice their concern for me. It seems every RA in every dorm i lived in in college had a floor meeting about eating disorders, always giving me pointed looks throughout the presentation. I know one guy who tells me i need to eat a sandwich every time i see him, Just yesterday, i was told that i looked "itty bitty".


I'm thinking that those people would be incredibly surprised to find out i've actually GAINED weight in the past few months, rather than lost it. As a matter of fact, I was surprised to see the number that I did on the scale. (a very healthy number, with a healthy BMI, but a surprise nonetheless.)


I took up running about a year and a half ago to get stronger and fitter. In my running journey, i have discovered a few major things about myself. I'm stronger and capable of way more than i thought; my body seems to prefer longer distances over shorter ones; and running those long distances makes you hungry!!!!!


I'm guessing the weight is just distributed differently and is in muscle form, causing people to think i look "itty bitty" when in fact i weigh more than i have in a long time.


So i will continue to run, continue to eat, continue to not care about the number on the scale. All i, and the rest of the world, need to know is that I'm healthy, happy, and having fun

Not so Random Random Pic of the Week

Muddy Shoes

1st trail run of the year on the 1st day of spring

March 20, 2011

Happy Birthday Bree!

It's my puppy's birthday. I have always and will always call her a puppy even though she has now reached the grand age of 11. She's the bestest little buddy a girl could ask for. It's been 11 great years.. And we're hoping for quite a few more.

They call it puppy love. Her second day home. 5/2/2000

Hangin' with "mom". Christmas Eve 2007

"Snoozin' on a Sunday afternoon"

Too cool for school; Summer 2010

Flyin' after her frisbees; Summer 2009

Birthday girl; 3/3/2011