Hot outfits

The hot outfits continue. Particularly annoying because there is a very short sandal/skirt/dress window in Seattle, & I'm unable to partake, due to my awesome shoes. :-)

Outfits:
Me, last week during training. Yes, I cheated and wore flats one of the days.

Details:
Navy tank top with small crystal beads - Gap
Sheer white sweater - Loft
Dark jeans - Dojo/Seven
Silver flats - Chinese Laundry/Ross

And today, I'm rocking *new* sneakers. I know, please try to contain your excitement.

Details:
Silver & white striped shirt - Nordstrom
Dark jeans - Dojo/Sevens
Black sneakers - New Balance
Tired look - courtesy of the weekend

And, for fun, here's a picture of the boys, after a bouncy house/swimming event.

Yes, Sam styled his own hair. :-)

Workouts:
And, on to the fitness element of this. Yesterday was my rest day, but I had a hardcore, 70 minute pool workout on Friday, a quick cardio workout on Saturday, & 30 minutes on the elliptical + weights on Sunday. Followed by a family bike ride. All in all, I'm on track for my 5/week workouts, which is my goal.

Food:
Eating was good, but not excellent. I was highly motivated by my looming vacation (we leave on Thursday), which helped keep me in check despite the holiday weekend. I had dinner with friends on Sunday, and we ate late, which means I'm starving & have less self control than if I eat at my normal, early-bird special time of 5:30. (My kids get hungry at that time, and starving children are like untamed animals.) I did super well yesterday, but then ate some completely unnecessary candy. I wish I would have blown the calories on something more fun, like a homemade strawberry shortcake at our street fair, but I'll survive.

I love reading random trivia on all of your blogs, so here are 10 things you may not know about me.

1. I'm a Washington (state) native. Except for one brief year of college in California, I've lived here my entire life.
2. My favorite candy is Starburst. Yummmmmm.
3. My kids are 13 months & 1 day apart. I found out I was pregnant for the second time on my first day back from my maternity leave. Yes, we were using preventative measures. No, they clearly did not work. My OB was shocked, as were we. :-)
4. I'm obsessed with salt & pepper pistachios.
5. We do 95% of all of our grocery shopping at Costco. The average weekly bill is around $100, and a typical list looks like this: spinach, mixed greens, grape tomatoes, roma tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, a melon, apples, pears, mandarins, cucumber, baby carrots, bananas, milk, eggs, and whatever other non-weekly items we're out of. We're produce freaks.
6. I'm extremely anal & list-oriented. For example, I have a running inventory of both of the kids clothing (how many shirts, shorts, etc) in my purse, along with anything they need (size, color, etc) so I can always be on the lookout for a deal when shopping.
7. I get pedicures year-round. I try to do it myself, & I'm tragic, so I shell out the money to have it done.
8. When I went back to work after having kids, I hired someone to help us clean the house. We cut other items out of the budget, and this is the best money we spend.
9. We have a beach house at the Oregon coast. Going there is incredibly relaxing, and my favorite thing to do.
10. I played the following sports growing up: soccer, swimming, tennis, volleyball, track, softball (one very sad & pathetic season). I grew up in a small town & you could be on any team you wanted. :-) I used to be referred to in my family as "Jack of all trades, master of none" :-)

And now, please share random trivia about yourselves. I love hearing more about you guys!

having a great day

Here are the reasons why today is awesome:

1. My kids are ridiculously into the 4th of July. Our house looks like a party store has exploded inside of it. Decorations. Everywhere.
2. It is gorgeous in Seattle. First nice 4th of July weekend in five years. It was 85 degrees outside today.
3. Our neighborhood has tons of festive events for the holiday weekend, and I took the kids to see a clown today. He was both creepy & hilarious, as clowns often are. ;-)
4. I'm at the fittest I've been in at least six years. My clothes fit, I have energy, & I feel great.
5. I'm going on vacation on Thursday! Las Vegas with Michael & my parents. My parents are incredibly excited, & I'm so happy we can do this for them. We are spoiling them with a totally over-the-top, fancy, vacation - on us.
6. I'm going to be rocking my bikini next week, & feeling fit & fabulous.
7. I've been working out 5x/week, meeting with my trainer, and I'm actually losing weight - despite the broken foot. Will wonders never cease.
8. Last night, I discovered a pair of gorgeous shoes that I can wear on our vacation that don't hurt my feet. And, they are not sneakers. Because, I just can't rock sneakers with my little tiny Las Vegas dresses, no matter how *fancy* they are. ;-)
9. I had one of the hardest workouts of my life yesterday. 70 minutes in the pool with my trainer. I came home & laid on my bed & didn't move for like 30 minutes afterward. It made that 12 mile run in the freezing cold rain feel like cake. The pool is vicious! In a good, body destroying kind of way. :-)
10. And, the kindness of blogging friends. This lovely lady sent me a care package today, & it made my entire day. Plus, magazines + gummy bears are perfect for my flight next week. Seriously though, the support of this group has helped me stay focused and not lose myshit when dealing with a very long & painful injury. You have no idea how much I appreciate you!

Plans for the big weekend? Fill me in!

I don't have any pictures from today, but here's Nick last year on the 4th, with my sweet father-in-law. And yes, that is a firecracker/USA headband he's wearing. He's very patriotic.

I did it!

Sorry for not posting - I'm in all day training (8-5), so between that & the kids, I haven't had much free time.

But, just wanted to share my excitement. . . I did it! I have officially lost all of the weight I gained when I was pregnant with my kids. It only took me 4 1/2 years. :-) YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

Now, on to the 14 pounds I gained in grad school.

And, I've lost 19.4 pounds since January 1st of this year. It's been a long haul, but slow & steady is the only thing that's ever worked for me.

So professional

Yes, this is my very liberal interpretation of a work look. It's pretty limiting to have to wear sneakers . . .

I feel like a tool wearing the shoes with my skinny jeans, but I still need to get my new jeans hemmed. Such is life. :-) I know - I'm high fashion these days.

Outfit details:
Black sweater - Express
Pink tshirt - Loft
Skinny jeans - Gap, Always Skinny
Sneaks - New Balance

Sam has recently started dressing himself, and loves to come out of his room in the morning fully dressed, yelling "Surprise!". It's hilarious, mostly because of the outfit combinations he puts together. Too bad it's 50 and raining in Seattle today. . .

I think he gets his fashion sense from his mama. :-)

And, parenting lesson learned this morning. Michael is a pretty disciplined guy, and feeds the boys the same breakfast every morning: eggs, 5 varieties of fruit, and a few bites of a bread - generally banana, zucchini, etc. Whenever Michael is out of town, the boys ask for things like waffles, pancakes, etc. Nick asked me last night if he could have waffles for breakfast, and I foolishly answered, "Sure, but you need to get up early tomorrow so there's time to make them." He was up at 5:00 am (on the dot this morning), staring in my face while I was groggily trying to figure out what was going on. Asking for waffles. Lesson learned, people. Kids have a very broad definition of the term "early".

Food:
I'm doing pretty well with the eating - knowing that I'm not going to be running for a (long) while, I've been keeping the calories in check.

Breakfast - coffee, fruit, bagel thin with a soy sausage
Snack - mini luna bar before my workout
Lunch - protein smoothie + salad
Snack - hummus + Dr Kracker
Dinner - (the boys begged to go out last night) mini cheeseburger & a handful of sweet potato fries
Snack - raspberries

Workout:
My personal trainer puts my standard workouts to shame. My arms are so sore today that I could barely hold the straightener while doing my hair this morning. Holy glutes! And triceps! I did 15 minutes on the elliptical before she tortured me for 50 minutes.

And, today was a triple coffee day. I try to limit myself to 1-2 espressos per day, but some days . . . I just need another. Are you a coffee drinker? Tea?

Big weekend plans? I have the boys by myself this weekend, so we're going to squeeze in a few fun activities - maybe go see Cars 2, go to a bouncy house party, etc. Looking forward to it!

Less than a pound of "baby weight" to go, peeps! Great motivation for me to stay on track this weekend. :-)

I am officially the Bad News Bear

That's how I feel today. I went to a foot trauma/orthopedic specialist to find out why my minor fracture isn't healing and why I'm still in a lot of pain after 4+ weeks. I had my foot x-rayed again, and the minor fracture is pretty much healed. Yeah! Then, the doctor poked & prodded my foot, asked a bunch of questions, & decided that he wanted to do a more inclusive weight-bearing x-ray that would allow him to see the bones on the bottom of my foot. . . And, bingo. There is a fairly large break and a small piece of displaced bone on the bottom of my foot. Hence the pain. And, why the boot was hurting my foot to walk in. I'm back to wearing extremely supportive sneakers, and he dropped the mega/atomic bomb - likely no running for six months from the time of the injury. That means November. Anything could happen, & I could certainly heal faster, but yeah. . . I cried in the elevator at the hospital, & I'm getting all teary just thinking about it.

The muscle should theoretically start pulling the bone back together, but he's unsure if I've made progress (my initial doctor obviously didn't x-ray this portion & didn't even see this break), but I'm going back in four weeks to see if it's healing on its own. If not, there's a slight chance of surgery. *fingers crossed that doesn't happen*

He also recommended these as an alternative to the sneakers.

Will someone please shoot me? My grandma called, and she wants her shoes back.

I do have to give major props to Michael for today. One of my incredibly vain complaints with all of this drama is that I look frumpy & unprofessional every day - I have all of one pair of sneakers & one pair of jeans hemmed to wear with flats/sneakers. He obviously can't fix the major issue of no running for six months, so today he went out & got me a few pair of super cute jeans that I can have hemmed & a new pair of shoes. It's the little things, people.

I also had an ice cream bar for lunch. It slightly dulled the pain of the news. I envision myself cuddled up with a bottle of wine tonight. . .

I ate well yesterday & all that jazz, plus worked out. No workout today - don't want to interfere with the wine & ice cream doing their job. ;-)

Funky Town

I'm in a funk this week, hence the lack of posting. I think realizing that it's been over a month since my injury & I'm still not running (and - still in a lot of pain) is getting me down. I also feel like I spend a huge portion of my day trying to squeeze all of the necessary appointments in (physical therapy, personal training, follow up doctor's appointment to meet with a specialist), and it's stressing me out with work. The boys summer school got moved to a different elementary school due to last minute construction, so I'm now adding an addition 30+ minutes each way on to the day to make that happen. Not to mention that Nick's been sick, Sam's had multiple hearing checks due to a concern about his hearing, dentist appointments, etc. Sometimes it just feels impossible to juggle everything.

Add in the fact that I am just generally frustrated with my foot & not running, & it's rough. I made an appointment with a specialist, & I finally get to meet with him tomorrow. I'm very excited to at least get an opinion from someone who completely understands the injury, versus my general practitioner. Wish me luck.

Enough moaning & groaning in this post. I do not have the balls to post my current outfit picture, because it's just too tragic. I only have one pair of jeans that I can wear with flats/running shoes (I'm out of the boot until I meet with the specialist tomorrow & he can determine what's causing the pain), & I wore those yesterday. Which means today, I'm wearing a pair that is all gather-y at the bottom. With running shoes. At work. Which I am not a fan of. I feel like I don't look pulled together or professional. Anyway, here's what I wore yesterday. . . the fashion disasters continue.

Outfit:

Details

• Pink sweater - Jcrew
• Blank short-sleeved shirt - Loft
• Mixed metal necklace - Nordstrom
• Jeans - 7, Dojo cut
• Shoes - New Balance

Workout:
I did manage to work out yesterday, & did 60 minutes on the elliptical + 25 minutes on the bike. My trainer is sick & had to cancel today's session, but I'll be doing cardio + weights.

Food:
Yesterday was a good eating day - I'm obsessed with the protein smoothies at the gym, & get them as my reward when I work out. I know, food should never be a reward, but whatever. I need the motivation, folks. :-)

• Breakfast - sauteed spinach & egg on a bagel thin + fruit & coffee
• Lunch - protein smoothie + salad
• Snack - hummus, carrots & a handful of mini Dr Krackers
• Diner - 2 mini burgers + corn
• Snack - grapes

Yeah for life! Because I'm in a funk, I'm going to make a list of all of the things making me happy right now.

• The sunshine. Finally. In Seattle. Perfectly timed for the first day of summer.
• That my youngest son (Nick) didn't cry this morning when I dropped him off at his new school. He had a hard time with the transition to a different place/different kids/different teachers yesterday.
• I'm going on vacation with my parents & my husband in a few weeks, and I'm so excited. One thing I've noticed about having kids is that it's really hard to have adult conversations, so my parents rarely get a chance to talk to us and/or spend any adult time together, and we all get along well. Can't wait.
• We're taking the boys to Disneyland this summer! I've been dying to do this, and so happy that we finally got the dates worked out.
• My weight is the lowest it's been in 6 years, and I only have 1.6 pounds of baby weight left. Almost there!!
• That I'm FINALLY seeing a foot specialist tomorrow. First step on the road to recovery & running again.
• I'm going on a girls trip mid-July, and I could not be more excited about it. My sister, my best friend, + me. Sitting in the sunshine. Drinking adult beverages. Enjoying the cabana. Eating at fancy restaurants. Dressing up. Laughing. Having time to spend together. Yes!!

There is more, but I'll start with that. How do you cheer yourself up when you're in a funk?

Father's Day Weekend

We made the drive to the beach last night, stopping along the way to see my parents & capping off the night with a Costco run for supplies. It was actually a relaxing drive, and with 2 kids in the car for four hours, that can't be said very often. :-)

The boys are officially done with "preschool", and they'll be starting "summer school" on Monday. We headed to the beach to celebrate the end of school, Michael's birthday, & Father's Day.

I had another vomit-inducing workout with my trainer yesterday - she is hard core! I ate well, and all that jazz. Today I'm hanging on to 1600 calories by the skin of my teeth, and using all the self-control I possess not to have a s'more. Wish me luck. I did have two glasses of wine on the deck in the sunshine + a goat cheese appetizer, so life is good.

We went to the state park across the street from the beach house and rode bikes (minus me, with the fractured foot & all), climbed san dunes, & enjoyed the sunshine. . . Today in pictures:

Sticks are necessary for climbing to the top of the san dunes. . .

Can you see the two boys at the top of the hill? They weren't sandy *at all* by the time they rolled down. . . ahhhhh, summer vacation :-)

A gorgeous day at the beach. . .

Michael - relaxing at the beach

Yeah, I have pretty awesome beach hair going on here. You're envious, I know. :-)

Outfit details:

• Crazy hair - courtesy of the beach weather
• Sunglasses - Coach
• White hoodie - from a combination grocery store/all purpose store on a cold day when I was stuck without a jacket

Glamorous, I know. :-)

Life is good, and, as usual, I'm completely enjoying the beach experience. It's always relaxing to be here. I'm hoping to get in a strength workout tomorrow, but I must admit that today would have been the PERFECT running day on the beach, & I was a little sad that I was missing it. Oh well, plenty of time for that. I did hit the bumper cars with the kids, and that's totally a calorie burner. Right? ;-)

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend!! Anyone racing or doing long runs this weekend? Let me live vicariously through you!