I need some hocus pocus and some focus

Our house has been hexed and I need some magic to turn our luck around.

A week ago, we learned that our credit card number had been stolen and used to make several fraudulent Internet purchases. I was alerted to this problem when my credit card was denied trying to make a purchase at WalMart. (It was a first for me, I am sure that it was the millionth time for them. I was more mystified than embarrassed...)

The credit card thief went on a little shopping spree for us which was very thoughtful. He/she purchased Internet/cable/phone service for us (from the same provider we already have), set us up with some system cleansing vitamins (a subscription nonetheless), and proceeded to set up their own account at an online gaming service. I spent several hours convincing customer service reps that these were not my purchases, nor my husband's, nor anyone else in the house (although I could not speak for the cat and although Captain Destruction is very capable of this kind of deviousness, he does not have access to our credit cards for just this reason!)

If things could not get any better, our septic system overflowed and failed. Just a little gross if you ask me. Apparently, it is not a good idea to go 6+ years with 6+ people in the house without having it pumped.

Next, our washer suffered a debilitating, but fortunately not fatal injury. A new part needs to be ordered because the band aid fix will only last so long.

We are now at 3+ nails in the front passenger tire of the my vehicle. Two have been removed. One is still in there just waiting to cause catastrophic failure.

Today, I spent 50 minutes wait time on hold (after being told it would only be 10 minutes) to fix a problem with I-Pass and our alleged failure to pay three tolls in the state of Illinois, one from 2007. Apparently, they were not able to cross reference our license plate to our I-Pass account as the customer service representative that I gave our new WI licence plate number to transposed the numbers upon entering them.

Oh, I almost forgot, this morning Captain Destruction and the Cheese flipped my oldest son's birthday cake onto the kitchen floor today, top side down. This was after Captain Destruction had licked a large portion of the frosting off.

My training has not been spot on either.

Due to some scheduling conflicts and a scheduled 4+ hour power outage while our electricity was being "upgraded", I had to run at night this past Wednesday. I left about 7:30 p.m. for my 45 minute run. I run in my neighborhood which is rather secluded, not much drive through traffic. I wore a head lamp so I would be visible and as always, I ran on the white line facing traffic. I was almost done as it became nightfall. Upon my return home, I had a run in with two vehicles.

The first was a truck flashing his brights several times as he approached me. I was unsure what the purpose of this action was. Did he want me to dive into the drainage ditch? There is little to no shoulder in my neighborhood and we have no sidewalks. There was no traffic on the other side of the road, so crossing over into the other lane of traffic to safely pass me was no problem. His actions only served to blind me, making it more likely for me to "stumble" into the path of his vehicle.

Then to add the cherry to the inconsiderate sundae I was just served, the car that followed behind the truck, lined up on me and gunned it, shifting over to the other lane just in the nick of time. I returned home furious, exclaiming that jerks like those two drivers was the reason why I run at 5 in the morning. Those types of drivers are still hungover in bed at that hour!

In addition to vehicular chicken, my training has been compromised by my physical therapy. I had my fourth session on Tuesday, and it brought tears to my eyes. I know that it has been beneficial, but this week my shoulder has revolted. The story I have been telling myself is that the muscles are finally realizing that they have been slacking and now that I have been trying to get them to fulfill their responsibilities they are throwing temper tantrums like my children. Whatever the reason really is, on Wednesday I could not even do my physical therapy exercises let alone swim as my shoulder ached and felt as if it was swollen. I have not swam since Monday and I am actually going to try it on Saturday and see what happens.

The shoulder has not only impacted my swimming, but has made my running slightly uncomfortable and it was very difficult to get comfortable on my long trainer ride.

Despite not making all of my workouts, I have been eating like I am training 24/7. I have broken almost every nutrition goal I had set for the past couple months. I know that my workout time and calorie expenditure is increasing, but my goodness, I have no self control. I can eat a balanced dinner and be hungry 45 minutes later and eat two serving of chocolate ice cream with toppings. I can eat cereal with milk at any time and anything sweet (with the exception of candy -- have not broken that one yet!) is consumed in the matter of seconds.

I really need to focus on eating smaller portions more often and include some more "healthy fat" in my diet. When I look at what I eat, I tend to gravitate to low fat/fat free foods which perhaps explains some of my incurable hunger. Today is not a fat free day, however, as it is my oldest son's faux-birthday* and I ate the balance of the frosting that remained after I re-frosted the cake and we went out to Red Robin for dinner.

I hope by clearing my mind, I will also be clearing the air and the black cloud of ugliness that is residing in our house will be gone! I hope that it does not visit you next!

*Faux-birthday: my son's actual birthday is on Easter this year. We are going down to my in-laws for Easter and a birthday celebration, but not only his. We will be celebrating his 9th and the birthdays of two of his cousins, one who is turning 3 and one who is turning one. Guess who will be getting most of the attention? Fairly sure that three cakes are not going to be made and the nine year old will not be the center of attention. I felt bad that 1) his birthday fell on Easter 2)he had to share his actual birthday with two others and 3)he never really has fun at Grandma's because he is the only boy other than Captain Destruction and we all know that Captain Destruction is always busy with his superhero duties. In order to make my son's birthday special we decide that today would be his faux-birthday complete with presents and cake.

the real meaning of PT

I guess in the back of my head I always knew this, but this week's PT session really cemented the true definition of PT -- Pain and Torture.

Is it really a bad sign when your Physical Therapist is kneading (oops I mean massaging ) your arm trying and hits a rock hard muscles and says "Oh, that's not good"?

Let me tell you, no amount of Edy's Loaded Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup ice cream (5 servings) could melt away the pain from Tuesday's session.

My next session is on Thursday. Good thing I go grocery shopping on Monday. I'm almost out of my pain medication.

I guess I kneaded this....

This past Tuesday I had my first appointment with my Physical Therapist for my “swimmers slouch”. After a brief conversation as to the reasons for my visit, problems/pain that I have been experiencing, the PT asked me to do several simple tasks such as look up at the ceiling and bend backwards. At the conclusion of the tasks he stated, “Yeah, you are going to need several visits”.

My therapy then officially started with the reasons why this happened. He suggested that in addition to swimming competitively, a sure fire way to get "swimmers slouch", I may have a mild case of scoliosis, having a curvier front to back S than I should. The therapist outlined what the first course of treatment will be. Then treatment began, I laid on my front on the table and had my back/shoulders kneaded as if it were bread dough for a very long time and then I flipped and had my pectoral muscles and some muscles that are in my armpit (very technical I know. Thank goodness I was wearing deodorant that day.) kneaded for a very long time as well. There were two occasions in which tears were in my eyes, but all in all I think I sucked it up fairly well.

After the kneading was done, the physical therapist gave me some daily exercises. I do bridges to activate my muscles. Next I drape myself over a rolled towel with arms overhead. I stretch on the wall and then I do the most difficult and humbling exercise of all. I do a “wall sit” and make a snow angel on the wall. The purpose of the exercise is to re-teach my shoulder/back muscles how they should move. I am fatigued after 6-8 movements and achy after my set of 5. It is quite humbling to be beat up by a wall angle on the same day that I rode 25 miles and ran 7. After the kneading and the humbling, I had electrodes attached to my weak back and shoulder muscles and they were stimulated for 15 minutes. When I left, I felt like I had swam 10, 000, 000, 000, 000 meters. The drive home was a bit of challenge!

I have appointments weekly now and I faithfully do my daily exercises as I know that it will eventually get better and I will most likely reap some benefits in my training from finally being properly positioned. Even if it just not being in pain, I’ll take it!

On the training front, I have a ½ marathon coming up the first weekend in May and I am super excited about it. I have several friends running in it and several friends coming to cheer me on. I have put my husband up to giving a protein/carbo loading party afterward. Hopefully, it will be warm enough to grill. I have not yet decided on my goal for the race. I have never done a ½ , so any result will be a PR. I am leaning towards going all out as my next race is not until the middle of June (plenty of time to recover) and an all out result will give me some ideas as to what to reasonably expect for my two HIMs.

Whatever my decision, I know that I will have fun because I will be running with, cheered for, and surrounded by family and friends! (and we give killer after parties!)

putting me through my paces

Throughout my running career (running for fitness, running for cross training, running for training for marathons and triathlons) I have had, at best, two running speeds – normal pace and fast. Although the training plans for my marathons/triathlons indicated different running paces, I generally ignored them or half- heartedly attempted to adhere to them within a run always ending up at either my normal pace or doing sprints.

Last year, I was sidelined most of the season due to a foot injury. As a result of the injury, I have become very conscientious about running: not doing too much interval training, utilizing recovery running, and listening to my foot and taking a day off when necessary. This caution has extended itself into actually following the assigned paces in my training plan.

The training plan for my HIM has several types of runs including foundation runs, tempo runs, long runs, tempo runs with fartleks, and tempo runs with striders. In an attempt to find appropriate minute per mile paces for these runs, I hit the Internet. One site (McMillan Running) lists paces for recovery jogs, long runs, recovery runs, steady state runs, tempo runs, tempo intervals, speed workouts, and sprint workouts. Much to my dismay, only two of the terms, tempo run and long run, overlap. In search of the elusive foundation run pace, I visit the Runner’s World website and find minute per mile paces for easy runs, tempo runs, VO2 max runs, speed workouts, long runs, and suggested 800 speeds. Once again there is no foundation run.

Although, I had no pace for the foundation run determined yet, I did have ranges for my long run earlier in the week. Committed to follow the correct pacing, I set the treadmill for the correct mph for my 10 mile long run and ran really, really slow for a really, really long time. As my time on my treadmill lengthened, I began to wonder what other things I would be able to do while doing treadmill long runs. Could I fold laundry? Can I catch up on blogs? Can I write my blog? Could I read magazines? Correct homework? I was having a hard time at keeping my mind on my run as I was not mentally taxed by my pace or intervals. I wasn’t wishing time to go by quicker because I was physically taxed. I was wishing time would go by quicker because I was bored. I could have kept at that pace for much longer than my assigned mileage. (Yes, I know that is the point of that pace).

Because my brain was able to do other things, I decided to rename some types of runs, so I can get a better handle on the correct paces for me.

Run Paces as defined by a rather bored Spie

Long Run – the multitasking run. Go ahead, fold laundry. Read. Correct Homework. You’ll be fine. This is almost like walking.

Steady State Run – This is more like it. It is what running used to be.

Tempo Runs – I guess I can handle this pace as long as I don’t have to do too many miles.

Speed Workouts – I think that I will throw up if this goes on much longer.

Sprint Workouts – I just threw up.

Now, that I have these paces firmly embedded in my mind, I know that I will do a better job of trying to stay on pace.... except during the elusive foundation run*.

(*Foundation run defined in my plan as a continuous run at moderate aerobic intensity. Because I have devoted far too much time to researching the appropriate pace for this run, I am renaming it Steady State run and calling it a day.)

bad math

PLUS

IS BAD NEWS.

In my house, quiet is never good. Vaseline is very difficult to remove from bedding, furniture, carpet, and clothing.

Now for an overdue blog update.

My triathlon clinic was really interesting. During the swim portion, they analyzed my stroke and gave me some pointers to enable me to have a stronger swim. I needed to get my hand more under my torso during pull portion. After every one's analysis, we did a lot of drills - a lot of one armed drills.

The run portion was the most informative. The first part of the run clinic I met with a cross country coach who instructed us on fluid stretching, plyometrics (Have you every seen a bunch of grown adults skip backwards? It is quite funny!), and static stretching. He also had a ton of FUN(?) therapy stretching tools such as foam rollers, the STICK, a BOB, and many straps and bands.

The second part of the run portion was a gate analysis and specific drills to practice to improve the speed and efficiency of your run. This is the part of the workshop that was startling to me. We were to run on the treadmill and wait for Lauren (pro-triathlete and coach) to come analyze us. I was last and was observed after 35 minutes of running on the treadmill. She apologize for getting to me so late, but frankly, I would prefer to be watched when I am tired. That is when my bad habits always show up. I was given a few pointers such as to try to run quieter on the treadmill and to turn my left thumb up. Then she asks me to get off the treadmill so she can talk to me about something not directly related to running, but she really needs to bring it up. Being the people pleaser that I am, my first thought was "My gosh, what did I do?". She then indicates that she is a trained physical therapist and is very concerned about my posture.

I used to competitively swim in college and as a result I have the swimmers slouch (a muscular imbalance in which my pectoral muscles are so tight that they never release and cannot fire properly and my back muscles are stretched to the max, hardly touching and communicating). I was aware of my problem prior to her bringing it up and had talked to my husband about PT or massage or something as I always have shoulder pain (Always as in every day. Exercise or no exercise). What she proceeded to tell me next really alarmed me. She indicated that if I do not take the time to correct my problem soon, it will result in bone loss and I will eventually become one of those caved in old ladies that look like their chest could be used as a basket. This prophecy was enough for me to take action and now I am investigating physical therapy.

The last portion of the clinic was a two hour spin clinic which was a compilation of suggested drills, cadence work, and question and answer session while exercising.

All in all, including posture prophecy, the workshop was very informative. I did achieve most of my goals (Goals 1-3 were met), but I did not make a triathlon training friend. Unfortunately, the other workshops that were to be offered are cancelled as Lauren is training for IM Brazil and will be quite busy in the upcoming months. I am a bit disappointed as I was most interested in the nutrition workshop.

Finally, I need to make my March challenges public in order for me to have more accountability. Now that I no longer snack off my children's plates and eat dry cereal during the day,I am throwing down the gauntlet and attempting not to snack from the ingredients of dinner while I am preparing. This will as difficult as the children's plate snacking as I broke my resolution yesterday, but I have tasted (or not tasted) success once before and I know I can persevere!

Web of lies

This past week, my youngest daughter, Cheese, and Captain Destruction (with her encouragement) created a web of yarn that ensnared four chairs, the trampoline (doesn't everyone have a trampoline in their living room?), two tables, a toy fire truck, my bike trainer, stretched over three rooms, and used up two skeins of yarn (over 200 yards of yarn). I initially had thought that Captain Destruction did this on his own as he is very capable and very devious. I promptly scolded him, informed him about his lack of treat after dinner, and had him sit on the stairs for his time out. Then, as I was unwinding and wondering how many calories an hour rage burned, I started to notice the workmanship of the web. The delicate placement of the yarn on the items and tight areas in which the yarn was woven demonstrated fine motor skills that were far beyond the fine motor skills of a two year old. My wheels started turning and calories from rage started a burnin' when I realized what actually had happened...

Cheese made the web and let Captain Destruction take the fall for it!

I promptly called Cheese and she confessed to the crime. Her punishment was to spend the rest of the afternoon in her room up until dinner and was to go bed promptly after dinner. For Cheese, time away from me is a fate worst than death!!!

Other than my little spiders, things around her have fallen into a loud routine. Training is going well, only a few more weeks of making it up as a go along until I actually start a plan. Things will get a little shaken up this weekend however as signed up for a triathlon training clinic. The clinic is focusing on HIM and IM distances. Sunday's session is the second session. I missed the first one about choosing/creating a training plan.

Sunday's focus is "Technique - The First Building Block"

Here is the itinerary:

15 min - Introduction, explanation of importance of technique work
75 min - Swim - freestyle technique work in the pool
15 min - Changing time
60 min - Running form drills and discussion of good running form, short run
15 min - Changing time, set up bikes
120 min - Bike workout including technique drills

I am super excited about the information that I am going to gain from the clinic, but scared to death to go as I will not know a soul there. I am going to focus on my goals for the clinic and try to keep my fears and feeling at bay (i.e. mild social anxiety disorder).

Goals:

1. Gain valuable information on how to make me faster and/or more efficient in the swim, bike, run.

2. Get a good work out.

3. Receive semi-individualized instruction from a local professional triathlete and coach

4. Meet people (make (a) friend(s)?) that share same interest and possibly find a training partner or two (three hour bike rides are pretty lonely on your own).

There are two more sessions in the series that I hope to go to as well --Building a Strong Athlete -with the focus on strength training (ba-bing!! one of my weaknesses that I want to address) and Nutrition and Hydration Planning (something I totally need as I have raced most of my sprint distances and marathons on empty or fruit snacks!)

I will attempt to report after my session. I know it will only be positives and all of my goals will have been met.

I hope that your weekend will be a success as well.

There's a foul on the plate..

As I become more embroiled in the “multi sport” lifestyle, I find myself gravitating towards certain things.

I search for leaner sources of protein such as ground turkey. I am buying more organic items. I have contemplated buying bison and almond butter. I eat more fruits and vegetables, and have the desire to do yoga in order to build core strength, promote flexibility, and prevent injury. I pour over my sport specific magazines and intently read various training books to see how they are different than the plans I am using. I am informally researching coaches and planning my seasons years out as I serious consider attempting an Ironman the year my youngest is in kindergarten.

I also avoid things.

I don’t drink soda. I try to avoid caffeine. I don’t eat chips, candy. I rarely partake in fried foods. I avoid "scary" food such as hot dogs, chicken nuggets, patties, fast food. I don’t stay up late.

I did not know all of the ramifications of such decisions. Sure, I am gaining strength and speed in training. I am able to rebound quicker from hard workouts. Yes, I know that I am not packing on the pounds during the hibernation months. But, my recent discovery is too much….even for me.

It all started going awry a few weeks ago when I made chocolate chip cookies for my in-laws visit. My FIL likes all courses of the meal, including dessert. Chocolate chip cookies were quick and easy and the dough is good (only in moderation – see a previous post). Not able to resist a cookie (or 10), I had a few. The evening the in laws arrived we went out to dinner to a buffet. My FIL loves a buffet. I ate conservatively: salad, baked potato with a little bit of chili, and some soft serve ice cream. All these I considered to be safe foods. Throughout the night, my pipes were cleaned out. Okay, I reasoned, it must be the chili.

The next day, I had more cookies (let’s be honest, my son and I finished off the cookies) and homemade lasagna for dinner. That night, the pipe cleaning occurred again. I rationalized that my problems were due to left over affects from the chili.

Fast forward a week. Mr. Spie was invited to a chili cook-off party on Saturday. Friday, being a good guest, I made S'mores brownies to bring. Brownie batter is good too and the brownies were delicious. I will just leave it at that. What do you think happened overnight again? Yup.. Roto Rooter came a knocking. This time I could not possibly blame the chili.

Now, I am aghast (or a gassed). Have I turned my body against baked goods? Could it be that I can no longer enjoy (within moderation) chocolate chip cookies, brownies, cake, apple crisp, pancakes???? (Yes, pancakes caused distress the other night.)

The scientific part of me wants to bake a few things (chocolate chip cookies and brownies) and test for distress. The rational part of me is saying that there must be some other explanation. Your body just doesn't decide to reject baked goods. The nutritionist/triathlete part of me is saying "WooHoo! Another temptation gone!"

What to do, what to do? Has anybody else ever experienced this? What did you do?

PSA

Concerned about all members of the blogging community, I have decided to issue the following public service announcements.



PSA #1
Remember as a child when you watched a sitcom and someone put too much soap in the clothes washing machine and soap suds spilled out everywhere and you wondered if that really happened?

IT REALLY DOES.

PSA #2
If your two year old finds you and tells you that he "Put soap in the washing machine for you. Welcome!"

BE ALARMED. VERY ALARMED.

Cereal killer

I have officially come up with my February lifestyle change challenge. I had tentatively planned to focus on strengthening my core three times a week, but this past week have brought to a head a much bigger problem of mine.

"Hello. My name is Spie and I am addicted to dry cereal. "

I snack on cereal morning, noon, and night. I guess that I am fortunate that I have somewhat healthy cereals in the house. I currently have been eating boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats like they are going out of style. The Golden Grahams were golden, golden, gone. I have banned Cinnamon Toast Crunch and this past month I realized that I cannot buy granola. (A half cup of granola packs as much calories as one whole cup of mini wheats -- who can eat just 1/2 cup of cereal? Certainly not me.)

So, in the month of February, be it resolved that I, Spie, will NOT snack on dry cereal during the day...light hours.... OH, all right. I, Spie, will not snack on dry cereal. Period.

In other news, I skipped my swim this morning. I participated in an indoor triathlon on Sunday and have been feeling tight and tired ever since. I decided that I have not been doing a good job listening to my body and so I slept in and tried some yoga this morning to loosen up some of the muscles. I felt there is no sense in pushing myself to the point of injury and fatigue during the month of January when my first event is several months away.

However, doing yoga made me realize that I am inflexible.

Right now, Mr. Spie is screaming out somewhere "I could have told you that".

I had difficulty sitting on the floor with my feet out in front of me. As I watched the lady in the On-Demand exercise video easily contort her body in half from a torturous pose called Plow Pose, I recognized that I need to work on my flexibility or as the intensity of my training increases the likelyhood of injury will increase as well. Hopefully, I will get a yoga dvd, mat, and some blocks (yes, I am that inflexible) for Valentines Day as I sent a blantent hint to Mr. Spie in the form of an internet link.

Perhaps the month of February will have to have two challenges.

Good thing that the month is only 28 days long.

Lessons Learned

I have learned several things today that I would like to share with you.

1. I don't know if you can be too rich, I know that you can be too thin. I also can ATTEST that you can eat TOO MUCH chocolate chip cookie dough.... YUCK.

2. I get "geeked" up about weird things.

The prospect of possibly finding goggles that don't raccoon, the perfect water bottle, and this race. I am super excited to be asked to be part of a team and to run!

3. Participating in said race will be a test. -- Not a physical/stamina test, a mental test.

To be clear it's a try to get over being a "parenting control freak" test.

It will be the first time that I am away from my children (overnight)with the exception of giving birth to another child. (To give you an idea of how tight I have my apron tied, I begged and was released to go home 24 hours after the birth of my last child -- no 2 day hospital stay for me, no siree!!) There is no one that can parent my children as well as me. I am not saying that I am flawless, I think that I am marginal at best, but I KNOW that I LOVE them BETTER and MORE than anyone else can.

I am coping with the idea of the race fine now (we may need to revisit closer to the actual date) because I know that my husband will be there to parent -- My second in command, schooled in the Spie method of parenting, familiar enough with the house rules to know when they are broken, capable of feeding them the nutrition that they are accustomed to, etc.... He's not me, a fair substitute at best (joking!!!-maybe..), but am I still somewhat comfortable with it. After this test, we will see if I can cut the apron strings enough to have a grandparent parent for a weekend. (Right now the answer is still a resounding NO!)

4. I have little or no motivation to do my tasks that need to be done today. The in-laws will be here on Saturday for a weekend visit and my house is in shambles... and I am sitting here blogging, because I really do not want to clean. There is clean and then there is in-law clean and I cannot managed to rev myself up to tackle that task yet.

5. Finally, coaching/lessons may actually work...

I complained, maybe publicly --definitely to Mr. Spie, that I did not gain much from my recent swim class. The skills that were taught were beneficial, but they were small changes from my previous stroke. Nonetheless, being the academic pleaser that I am, even after my class was over, I continued to key in on and practice some of the tips that I thought would be the most beneficial. Today, at the end of my swim workout, I had planned to swim a 200 negative split. I decided to time it to check progress. I swam it at a comfortable pace, increasing speed on the last 25 (this was my negative split -- I was tired and the first time in the pool all week after my daughter's flu ravaged the entire family, including me) and whaddaya know??? I came in 3 seconds faster than my previous best, not sprinting/racing, or lets be honest really trying... WHO KNEW?

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

I know that I haven't updated for a while. I am sure that it is a grave disappointment to my 1 reader. However, I have a few moments now, so I am going to do a brief update. Basically I can categorize my thoughts today into three areas...

GOOD:
1. Today is my daughter's 7th birthday. Yea!

2. I talked myself into completing my 1.5 hour continuous run.

3. We are half-way through January. Only 3.5 more months of winter until Spring! (I live in WI and use a realistic seasonal calendar)

4. I made it 5 days thus far without snacking off my children's plates(see previous post). This is a huge accomplishment when you consider that last night my two year old left uneaten sirloin steak on his plate. (mmmm-steak)

BAD:
1. Today we woke up to -13 with a windchill of -30.

2. Because of the windchill, school was cancelled (back when I went to school that NEVER happened)... All of the urchins are home.

3. The birthday girl threw up this morning and promptly told me this is the WORST BIRTHDAY EVER!

4. I tend to agree with her because my plan was to shop for her presents while she was school, so as of right now, she has no birthday presents from her siblings or parents except for funderwear (fun underwear), but what kind of present is that?

UGLY:
1. She didn't make it to the bathroom.

2. It is currently -7 and feels like -26 -- enough said.

3. Tomorrow doesn't look any better. At 6 a.m. it is predicted to be
-8 and feel like -26. I am scheduled to get up and swim at the pool at 5 a.m and the kids may be home again.

4. I have an appointment to get my brows waxed on Saturday. I have never, ever, had this done. I am terrified that I will come out either looking like a scared clown or that this decision will cost me month after month due to upkeep. I think that I was possessed when I made the appointment.

I hope that your day is filled with more GOOD than BAD and UGLY and if you live somewhere warmer than 30 degrees, please wish some of that toasty weather my way!

If it takes 21 days to make a habit.....

how many days does it take to break a habit?

These past few months, inspired by some blogs I read, I have given myself some 30 day challenges. Each month is a challenge that promotes a healthier lifestyle. I planned to carry over each challenge indefinitely each month.

In October, I gave up candy and chips. -- (check)

In November, I began to eat 5 fruits and vegetables a day in addition to continuing October's goal.-- (check)

In December, I gave myself a break and decided to just maintain October's and November's goal. (mostly check -- I missed one day of 5 fruits/veggies getting only 3 and I succumbed on two different occasions to peanut butter balls and truffles)

In January, I have given myself the goal of not snacking food off my children's plates.

I broke that January first at 10 a.m. when I was cutting Captain Destruction's waffles. The next day I broke it again when I snacked off his plate at dinner. Again the next day, and the next day. It is now January 7th and I have still not made one day without snacking off my child's plate!

What is wrong with me? Why can't I keep my hands off my children's food?

(I would like to note that I am not stealing the food out of their mouths. With the exception of the waffle incident, I "sample" after it is apparent that the food no longer interests them and I am not a "you must clean your plate" parent)

Perhaps I am acting out unconsciously because there are starving children in 3rd world countries that could be eating that food.

Perhaps, I am being frugal because I do all the shopping and I know how much that meal cost and throwing away food is like throwing away money.

Perhaps, I am saving a trip to the kitchen for a second helping because it is sitting right there on my child's plate, leaving food for my older children to take in their school lunches the next day saving me the "I don't know what to pack in my lunch." drama.

Perhaps, I just have no self control....

What, that can't be me?! I have self control. I drink water not soda or coffee. I don't eat chips or candy. I eat at least 5 fruits or vegetables each day (usually in their natural state). I exercise 6 days a week, usually at 5 a.m. I follow my workout plans. I don't kick puppies. I like old people. I follow Meg's rules for society -- I don't cut in line and I don't steal Christmas trees.

I HAVE SELF CONTROL...

Well..... considering that outburst coupled with my last post,

Perhaps, I don't.

Confession.... Actually, I know that I don't. I buy the little lunch bags of chips because then I will not eat them. I will not open a new bag of chips. I don't buy cookies -- (notice that I have not given up "baked goods" yet -- just keeping my options open) An open package of cookies is like a $20 bill in the middle of the sidewalk. You snatch that bugger up and pocket it before anyone notices. I have excellent covert mid-day cookie snacking techniques.

I know that I just need to get a couple of days under my belt of non-child-plate-snacking and I will be on the road to recovery. Unfortunately, there is no 7 step program nor patch that I can use. It is all on me.

Who knew that this would be the hardest challenge yet?

Wanted...

WANTED

Baklava

Buckeyes (Peanut Butter Balls)

These two desserts have committed serious crimes against proper nutrition. If you see them, please do not approach. They are armed and dangerous with empty calories and the lure of deliciousness. Once you have interacted with them you will be under their power, unable to make rational and appropriate fueling decisions. If you see them, please report it to me and I will digest (I mean arrest) them immediately!


Hope your holiday celebrations were as "full-filling" as mine.

Here's to much success, many adventures, and a myriad of joy in the new year!

Merry Chaos-mas

I love Christmas. The giving of gifts especially to the kids. I love their excitement about the day and enthusiasm about every present they get. This year should be good because Santa was really listening!

The house is still in chaos from the remodel. The stove, microwave, and dishwasher are still in the living room. We do have the tree up although it is quite naked. This does make it a better fort. I have yet to unearth the stockings, but they eventually will make it up!

We are looking forward to one set of grandparents joining us for a low key Christmas (I serve pizza, salad, and cookies. Christmas for me is about family and not spending time slaving in the kitchen!). Mr. Spie's brother may join us as well. Then on Friday we take off to spend the weekend Christmasing with the other set of grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. Mr. Spie and I are hoping to get a date night (free babysitting) and connect with our long time friends who will be visiting the area as well. I am hoping to be able to run outside as it will not be dark, below zero, and covered in 17+ inches of snow! (That will be a present to me!)

Wishing all of you a restful holiday, a Merry Christmas, and a blessed New Year.

You think you've got a package...

Mortification.



Every parent has experienced it and every parent pays it back when their child is a teenager.



I have had many mortification moments. Here are some of my most memorable ones:



We were on vacation in Branson, MO with my two oldest children. At the time, they were 3 and 1. During the middle of the night the fire alarm kept going off. The resort sent a security guard to assess the problem. My son (the three year old) looked at the security guard and said quite loudly to his father. "Dad, that is a big, fat, black man." Embarrassed, we ignored the comment. He repeated the same offense during a trip to a restaurant as he described the waitress, who was within earshot, as really fat. (She got a really fat tip for that meal.) To my son, those words were no less offensive than describing a cheese cracker as orange and square. BIG, FAT, and BLACK were descriptors. Nothing more. Unfortunately, as we get older, words are connected to feelings.



My oldest son is not the only one who has given me a "mortification moment". My oldest daughter, once when we were shopping, upon seeing a person in a wheelchair, asked quite loudly what was wrong with that person's legs. I quietly explained that their legs didn't work and it could happen for a variety of reasons. We talked about abilities/disabilities at length, turning the "mortification moment" into a "teaching moment".



I am not the only one that has experienced mortification. My friend recently had her children at the pediatrician for their "Well Child" check. At the check up the doctor always states the same questions year to year. "Does any one in the house smoke? Do you always wear a helmet when you ride a bike or scooter?... Do you have any firearms in the house?" I am not sure about the origin of the last question. I attribute it to the fact that we live in Wisconsin and as you may or may not know deer hunting is quite popular here. My friend answered all of the questions appropriately. "No, no one smokes. Yes, they always wear their helmets. No, we do not have any firearms in the house." Then, her 8 year old daughter called her out. "Mom, what about the BB gun?" Busted and embarrassed, she sheepishly admitted that she had forgotten about her husband's firearm purchase.



On Wednesday, I was mortified once again. This time it was my youngest, Captain Destruction. I was upstairs when the doorbell rang. My son beat me to the door, opening it for the Fed Ex delivery man. As I rush down the stairs, CD is standing in front of the storm door (which is only glass and screen) in his BIRTHDAY SUIT. As I pushed CD out of view, I opened the door and really did not know what to say other than sorry. My jaw was hanging open. I was completely speechless. I collected my package, CD and his package, and quickly shut the door.



Note to Self: I eventually will be able to pay him back... and it will be a doozie.

Fighting Dragons

A dragon has appeared during my workouts.

I don't think it is coincidental that he appeared during our descent into the middle ages while we are remodelling our kitchen. I think that they travel hand in hand.

The first time the dragon appeared was during a swim work out. I planned to do a main set of 3 sets of 5 x100s on descending intervals. The dragon started lurking in the pool during the drills prior to the main set. Doubt that I could conquer the beast started to grow. As the dragon grew larger, my resolve grew weaker and the main set began to change. As I changed the number of repeats and swam recovery 50s (backstroke) between sets, I had to talk myself into completing my "modified on the fly" workout. I finished all but 200. The dragon did not win entirely, but it was a fierce battle which left my confidence shaken and gave me some battle scars.

Exhausted from battle, I did not workout for the next two days. On Monday, I jumped back into the deep end to do battle again. I choose to do a workout that I successfully battled before. The main set was 24x50s on a constant interval. Even though I have had success with this workout before, I saw the shadow of the dragon lurking on the bottom of the pool. This time I kept my resolve, he was held at bay, and victory was mine.

On Tuesday, the dragon reared his ugly head again. I had to run on the treadmill due to darkness and my fear of black ice. I planned to run a 10 minute warm up and four 1 mile sprint repeats with 3 minutes recovery followed by a 5- 10 minute cool down. The warm up and the first repeat went well. There was no dragon in sight. During the second mile repeat, the dragon nudged me in the side. Then, he stomped on my foot. I was caught off guard and not prepared to battle. Once again my strategy was to modify my workout and drop the pace. The dragon was relentless and soon I was running at a recovery pace for the duration of the workout. I completed my run defeated. The dragon definitely won this battle.

Today, I decided I was going to take the battle back to the pool. I had a win against my mighty foe on Monday and feeling a bit cocky, I pulled out the workout in which the dragon first appeared. Armed with knowledge with that my attitude was my greatest strength or weakness, I resolved to do battle and take down the beast once and for all. My battle strategy was to look at the sets individually and tackle each group of five like it was my only set for the swim. My plan worked. I did see the dragon lurking at the bottom of the pool. However, my determination made it undesirable for him to approach.

Soon, I will need to do battle again on the treadmill, but I think that I will bask in the glory of my pool victory for a little while longer.

Mid-evil times

What could be so difficult about remodelling a kitchen? (insert ominous laughter).

We are about midway through the remodel and it has not been rainbows and ponies. Every single one of our remodelling projects has come back and bit us in the ....., but like childbirth, we seemingly forget the pain and jump into the home improvement deep end again and again. (Remember, we do have four children. Apparently, we have the collective memory of a gnat.)

Construction began on Friday. I loaded up the kids and left for a friend's house for a three day Wii fest. My father and the husband of the friend arrived at my house for the construction. We were gone from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. When I returned home, they were still working and they had only placed TWO cabinets. (deep cleansing breath -- perhaps most of the time was spend planning. They have a system now....The rest will be a cake walk.... I will not panic) In placing the one cabinet, the stove was removed from the kitchen and joined the new refrigerator and old dishwasher in the living room. Our kitchen's amenities were slowly moving towards the middle ages. No running water, no storage, no heat (to cook).

My disappointment was apparent in my face. Mr. Spie said, "I bet you thought that we would have more done" (No duh!) Then he proceeded to tell me that his parents were coming up for the day to help. I thought that he was joking. I looked on the faces on my father and friend for a twinkle, a smirk, something. There was nothing. It wasn't a joke. His parents had told us that they were coming. Then, they told us that they weren't coming. Apparently, now they were coming for just the day. My thoughts wandered to our food situation (my MIL and FIL are sit down 4 course meal types of people). I had bought only enough take and bake pizza for 3 possibly4 men and there were no sides. Mr. Spie indicated that they were bringing food and I needed to come up with jobs for his mom to do while the men, including Mr. Spie's brother worked on the kitchen. I came up with a list of jobs and we went to bed.

The next morning we awoke and decided on doughnuts for breakfast (no cook, no mess, plates are optional). I left with the kids once again for Wii fest and eagerly anticipated a kitchen to materialize when I returned that evening. During the morning at my friend's, I was watching the little ones while she took the bigger ones to her kid's bowling league. This is when it all started going wrong. My daughter first complained of a stomach ache, then a headache, then she threw up all over my friends living room carpet. I cleaned up the mess and tried to keep all the other littles away from her while I waited for the others to return from bowling. The true friend that she is she did not kick us out upon her return and my daughter said that she "felt better." As lunch was being prepared, my daughter threw up again. This time all over my pants. This sealed my decision to come home. I brought my littles home and left the biggers there for the festival to be brought home at some later time by some undetermined person.

As I walked into my home carrying the ill one (who urped in the car on the way home as well!), I am met by a house abuzz with activity. The refrigerator wall of cabinetry was almost up and my BIL and FIL were working on the plumbing for the new dishwasher. I dropped the ill one into my room and brought in Captain Destruction to complete his nap. (He fell asleep in the car).
I walk into the kitchen to have a bomb dropped by Mr. Spie. The water has been turned off in the entire house. Our descent into the Middle Ages is now complete!!!! The Cheese (my ill daughter) who desperately wants a glass of water cannot have one. No working toilets. I am covered in urp and I cannot shower or wash the offending clothes.

Dinner is a problem. There is still no stove. Drinking is a problem. There is only soda and milk. There is work problems. Too many opinions. (A word of advice to those who are remodelling with friends and/or family. Go to the bank and get a couple of Visa gift cards. Then, when a worker on a project needs an item. HE can go to get the item rather than sending someone who doesn't exactly know what is needed and consequently will have to take three trips to the store to purchase the correct item.) Things are not going well. There is no light at the end of the tunnel.

At 7:30 p.m. the Cheese is feeling better. I look at the opinions, the lack of progress, and the chaos and decide that I am going to be the undetermined person who is going to pick up the biggers at a later time seeking refuge in my van for the hour long round trip. When I arrive at my friend's house to save her from my kids, I am informed that we now have water at our house... just not hot water. GREAT. I pick up the kids and drive home. As I am ordering the kids to bed, I pull my dad aside and state that the priority tomorrow is to put in the cabinets that are needed to be placed so a stove can be in the kitchen. I don't care about water, the dishwasher, the peninsula. I NEED A STOVE. I hated to pull out the "Daddy's Little Girl" card, but desperate times require desperate measures.

On Sunday, I take the stinky family to church and Mr. Spie stays home with my dad to tackle the kitchen. After church, we drive home quickly change and return to my friends for the final day of the festival. During the brief layover, I discover (joy of joys) that the stove is IN!!! We are slowly returning to the world of the modern living. We returned early afternoon to find all but three cabinets installed. My BIL was also returning to the house to retrieve a forgotten camera which we decided to hold hostage for hot water. Things finally were looking up. We had the take and bake pizza for dinner. The hostage negotiations went well as hot water was returned to the household.

Despite three solid (?) days of work, we still need to place three cabinets. Two are imperative as they need to be in place in order to have the kitchen measured for the countertop. We have to redo some electrical work in order for the micro hood to be hung and the drainage for the new dishwasher is a complex problem that needs some serious attention. This weekend, we are imposing on another friend to help. Hopefully we will continue to progress forward and not regress back into the middle ages.

Today is my birthday.


I am now one year closer to a decade change.


I am not going to mention which decade I am going to enter next year (if I don't talk about it maybe it won't happen), but if you care to formulate a guess using the number of children and years I have been married, you can probably figure it out.

I have been struggling with my next birthday. I have tried to put various spins on it including denial and looking at age group results in the bracket up for races that I want to participate in. My thought was that if I had to go up an age group, maybe I'll go up in results as well. Sadly, my new group is as fast, if not faster than the one I am leaving. (Don't those women have jobs or something else to keep from training?)

My newest strategy involves trying to reflect upon my current decade, as I have one more year in it, and celebrate all of the things that have happened to me during that time.

My list is topped off by the addition of my four wonderful, beautiful, smart, almost always (well sometimes, maybe) well behaved children.

We moved to Wisconsin where we have made friends that will undoubtedly last us a lifetime.

I have had the ability (privilege) of being a stay at home mom where I can witness many milestones and moments from the life of my kids that I would have missed if I had continued working.

We have had the opportunity to take vacations and spend time with long time family friends creating many fond memories for ourselves and our children -- a present that will last them forever.

I became involved in endurance sports (marathons and triathlons) and as a result I have met many great people and am in the better shape now than in the beginning of the decade.

Although my list is currently only up to five, I think that it is good start. I am planning on dwelling on the positive and celebrating what I have accomplished rather than rue a decade change. I think my new approach is much healthier than denial and drowning my sorrows in a bagful of Swedish Fish, Jelly Bellies, chocolate chips, or all three (kind of an unhealthy trail mix).

KITCHEN UPDATE!!

I currently have NO kitchen. As you notice in the pictures, I have a refrigerator and a stove. My kitchen counter is a old door (which is the color of the cabinets prior to me painting them green) and saw horses. No dishwasher. No sink. So far, no problem. We are using as much paper products as possible and I wash dishes in the bathroom sink.

All of my new kitchen cabinets are stacked in order in my garage. My new refrigerator in my living room and my new range, micro hood, and dishwasher are in the other half of the garage. Installation weekend is the Friday after Thanksgiving --

Who needs big sale savings when I am going to get my KITCHEN partially back?

(We have to reuse the old counter top until the new counter top is measured and installed)

Woo Hoo!!! Let the carpentry begin.

Let the insanity begin......

Today we started the kitchen remodel. I am quite excited by the prospect of a new kitchen. I have always hated my cabinets and we were constantly changing things to make the kitchen work for us. Here are some of the fabulous "features" of the old (current) kitchen.


The first thing that probably strikes you is the color. Believe me when I say that my paint job is a real improvement over the color they were when we moved in. As you will notice the floor is a honey oak color. The walls are painted white accented with a light avocado green. The cabinets were stained dark -- like the color of baker's chocolate. It made the kitchen look like a cave. After a year living in the cave, I decided that I could not stand the color of the cabinets and I painted them a light green and "aged" them with wood stain. When all of the doors were replaced, light finally shown in the kitchen. We were no longer cave dwellers. The paint however could not hide the fact that the framed doors were coming apart and paint could not repair the poorly functioning drawers.

This is a picture of the interior of the workspace. This peninsula has been the bane of our existence. When we moved in this was a breakfast bar. The counter top extended about 8 inches on the other side. At that time, we had two children ages 2 and 6 months. We would not sit them at a breakfast bar. The breakfast bar also limited access to the backyard. If you notice, there is a sliding glass door along the wall on the other side of the peninsula. The breakfast bar in a combination with the kitchen table made using that door almost impossible. Similar to the "fix" of the color, we "fixed" the counter top as well. We dusted off the circular saw and cut off the breakfast bar making more room for the kitchen table and giving access to the backyard through the sliding door. Another feature to note is the garbage can under the counter. The overhang is a little of the left over breakfast bar. We could not see losing the counter space. Prior to the garbage can residing there numerous "right height" children gave themselves some nice goose eggs on the overhang. This part of the kitchen coined the famous phrase in our house -- "It's not a party until someone throws up, there is blood, and a head injury."


I know this is a repeat of the first image, but I forgot to point out an important "non -safety" feature of my kitchen. Note the stove, it is right next to the doorway. I have always been paranoid that I will have a handle of a pan sticking out over the edge of the stove top, into the door opening and a child will whiz by and send food sailing and (most likely) send a child to the hospital for burns. It is obvious that the kitchen designer did not have kids. (We did in fact have a pan fly, but it was a husband, not a child that caused the demise of that dinner -- I think that it may have been on purpose as he was quick to suggest pizza after he cleaned up the mess). The stove will move over to the right and a small cabinet will been added to the left of the stove for additional storage and safety.

There is something "off" about this picture. Did you notice it? It's not the mess. It is the fact that the sink is not centered on the window. As Mr. Spie and I were standing in the kitchen talking about what we would like, I said that I would really like to have the sink centered on the window. He said that he never really had noticed that it wasn't centered on the window before. (We have lived here 6 years). Now, he says it bothers him. -- The sink has been centered on the window in the new kitchen plan.

Wait? What is that ringing? Do you hear the telephone? Where is the telephone? Why can't I find the telephone!?!You can't find the telephone because it is in this wall of cabinets. The "bat phone" as we lovingly call it sits behind door #1 in the middle row of cabinets. The cabinets are only 13.5" deep so they do not hold much bigger than a box of cereal. The top row of cabinets I used to hold food. The middle row held the telephone and telephone necessities, napkins, kitchen linens, etc. I had small appliances, which you can see, in the bottom row. This made the Fry Daddy very accessible to Captain Destruction. He is also the reason for the missing cabinet door. As he was climbing the cabinets to get his own "snack" the door broke off. We had repaired at least three other cabinets after they met the same fate.

Our new cabinets will not be green. My stove will not be a safety hazard. The view will be the same from both sides of the sink. I will have functioning drawers. All cabinets will have doors and the "goose egg maker" over hang will be no more.

Up next -- pictures of the interim kitchen.

a questioning blog about nothing

1. Is it right to feel guilty about missing a workout during the off-season?

Last Monday, Mr. Spie left really early in the morning (3:00 a.m.) on a business trip. Sunday, in preparation for his trip, I made him get the dreadmill out of hibernation as I will not be able to run outside until his return. (What a waste of daylight savings time ending!) Monday morning, shortly before my alarm went off (5:30 a.m.), Captain Destruction was wandering around the house. I captured him and snuggled with him until he fell asleep again. This action, however, did not leave me enough time to get my run in before I had to rouse the troops for school. I need to get over feeling guilty over a missed workout -- especially a missed workout during off season.

2. When do you cross the line talking about an athletic event you participated in?

In my swim class, there is a woman that talked incessantly the first day about the marathon she had just completed. (most likely the Chicago). Every sentence was "When I was in mile 20 of the marathon..." or "I am still so very tight after the marathon", "My foot hurts still after running the marathon" I completely understand the excitement of completing your event.


On Sunday, a week later, the marathon continued..."I was so elated to get out and run this week. It was the first time that I ran since the marathon." "It was a great run, a little slow though because I just did a marathon". I listened in silence as she talked to her friend, but my in head I was thinking "Enough already!" I am torn between making a comment like "I know. After I ran my first marathon it was hard to get back into the groove, it becomes easier after subsequent marathons" or tracking how many weeks that she will continue the marathon talk.


3. Is it wrong to anxiously await the arrival of your Ebay purchase? Does this giddiness become weird if the purchase is new set of Carmichael training dvds?


On Tuesday, I discovered in the most unfortunate way the Captain Destruction had gotten a hold of my one and only trainer dvd. It is (was) a time trial work out and as I was in the middle of the final "power interval" of 5 minutes sustained at 100+ rpm. I was staring at the clock, intently, wishing that time would go faster than it was. Rather than going faster it stalled, then stopped -- at 1:46 of the interval left to go. I kept pedalling waiting for it to correct itself.

Pedalling. Waiting. Pedalling. Waiting. Still pedalling. Still waiting.

Oh, Tatar Sauce!!

Finally, I stop, get off the bike, fast forward the dvd a few seconds, get back on the bike and complete the never ending interval. I needed to replace this dvd. I love being told what to do in training and at 5:00 a.m I am not creative nor motivated enough to do a real intense work out on my own. An Internet shopping trip was in order. So, Happy Birthday!! early to me, I now am awaiting 5 new dvds!! Four of which I will use. The fifth is a mountain bike workout that I intend to convince my husband to use.


4. Is remodelling your kitchen the during the holidays pure insanity or a great way to keep company at bay?


I am at T minus 18 days before we are ripping out the kitchen cabinets. At best I am looking at 1 month without a complete kitchen. The appliances are expected to take residence in my garage on the 19th and installation has been scheduled for the Friday after Thanksgiving. I am excited about the new kitchen. I have to admit that I am even a bit more excited at the prospect of not having to entertain during the holidays. No kitchen = no food + no cleaning, because why bother!


5. At what point do you write a letter to a store manager?


Tuesday is my grocery shopping day. After I drop the two oldest off at school, the two youngest and I drive to the grocery store with list in hand. Our school does a grocery store gift card fundraiser, so I shop that store to give money to the school and get a discount on my tuition. I arrive at the store and am greeting by signs that indicate that due to a system upgrade starting a four a.m. and until further notice, they will be unable to accept gift cards and debit cards for shopping purchases. We walk in and stop by the service desk to see if the upgrade is still going on. It is and now I cannot shop there because my methods of payment (gift card and debit card) are now eliminated. I gather the kids and return to the car to shop at a different store as we are desperate for food. As I drive the 15 minutes back into town, I wonder why advance notice could not have been given about this upgrade. I could have moved my shopping day, planned in advance. Surely they must have known this ahead of time. I am not the only person in the world that shops once a week am I?


Upon arrival at grocery store number 2, my children indicate that they would like to ride in a truck cart. We examine 3 truck carts before we find one that has both steering wheels. I have two children riding so I need two steering wheels. The drawback to the cart with the dual steering wheels is that there are no functioning seat belts. I decide that the steering wheels outweigh the seat belts and I will deal with the consequences of my choice as they appear. Shopping goes fairly smoothly. The two year old (Captain Destruction) is doing fairly well. He pops out of the cart when I stop, but gets in when I request him to. Near the end of our shopping adventure, he starts to get a little antsy and starts to climb the outside of the truck cart. I am not driving fast. I am stopping frequently to put items in the cart, so I am not too concerned when he rides on the sides of the truck cart, but am adamant that he will not ride on the roof and stop and request that he get off and back in the cart when he attempts to "truck surf".


I am in the last aisle, searching for the elusive last item on my list and a gentleman approaches me. He is the operations manager of the store (as indicated by his name tag) Here is our conversation.


Operations Manager --"I just wanted you to know that it is unsafe for him to ride on top of the truck" (Mind you that the cart is not moving at this time and I am standing still looking for my last item -- CD must have climbed on the truck while I was searching for the item)

Me -- "I understand that you are doing your job, but understand that I am just trying to get my grocery shopping done as quickly as possible"

Operations Manager --"But, if he should fall...."


"If he should fall, I wouldn't dream of holding the store responsible"


Operations Manager --"Just as long as we have had this conversation" -- and he walks away.


Now, I am a little upset (insert a nastier word to get the real emotion). I find the elusive item, with CD in the truck cart and see the Operations Manager talking to a wine vendor. I stop by him and wait for him to finish.


Me "I just wanted to let you know that part of my problem is that this cart's seat belts are not functioning. If they were, my son would be belted in."


Operations Manager -- "I doubt that that would stop him from climbing on the top of the cart"


Me "I don't think that you have ever had a precocious two year old and he would be belted in"


Operations Manager -- "I have had my share of precocious two year olds"


Then I walked away. As I waited in line, because I needed the food, I seethed. Then the lady behind me jumped line in front of me and when I questioned her about it she wasn't even apologetic.


Fortunately, it is not a tale all of woe. A cashier from heaven appeared and took me immediately, helped me bag my groceries, and I was out of the store before the tears appeared and the line cutting lady even had her groceries on the belt.


NOW, after all this questioning and contemplation, I still have no answers and have realized that I have a lot more to remodel than just my kitchen. I obviously need to remodel my attitude and most significantly my parenting skills (according to the operations manager at my local grocery store).