TMI

For those of you who don't frequent any online forums that use "internet-speak," TMI means too much information. Usually that means that someone is about to talk about their sex life or their poop or vomit. I will leave all of those things to your imagination. It may also be used in IMing, but I don't know how to do that so I can't comment.

Thank you, Dorothy, for reminding me that I was supposed to have done a 15 month check-up for Dagny. So, belatedly, here are the stats:

Height: 32 inches (80th percentile and exactly the same as Annika at this age)
Weight: 22lb, 11oz (38th percentile, down from 57th at the last visit - I thought she was looking thinner. That's almost 3lbs more than Annika at this age)
Head: 18.5 inches (69th percentile - still a pea, but not as much as Annika)

It's very interesting to see how little their body shapes resemble each other - Annika is thin and slight and Dagny is sturdy. When I was little/adolescent, my Grammy told me (to make me feel better about not being thin) that I was sturdy. Oooh, I hated being sturdy at the time, but now it makes me happy. I hear/read "sturdy" and I think "kick-ass."

In other news, Doug bought us a new scale because ours was getting a little erratic. Doug was having 8 lb weight shifts in 24 hr periods. I said it just needed a battery, but now we own a body composition monitor which tells us our weight, % bodyfat and % water. How's that for TMI?

Party at My House!

Doug is going to the hockey game tonight with some friends and after I learned that the running will not fit into my schedule this afternoon, I thought to myself - cool! What are we going to DO? Just as if it were my parents leaving me alone for the evening.

So, chick movies? drinking the mom-and-dad-not-homes? breakfast for dinner? everyone sleeping in my room? prank calls? bras in the fridge?

Who knows, the world is our oyster. Dagny and I will hit the Trader Joes while Annika is at school to see what we should get for dinner because, let's face it, Doug usually makes our dinner. Maybe this won't be so much fun after all.

Not So Deep

So, I wrote a whole post about the nature of intelligence - based on Doug and my observations of the "Top Chef" season finale and the seminar that I attended at work this week. Alas, my two little friends called me out of the office and my post was lost. Regardless, I was rooting for Sam and when he didn't make the finale - for Marcel.

In other news, I discovered this week that the guy at my favorite running store is also using (loosely) the same running plan that Virginia and I are using. His race isn't until April, though, so he is much looser than we are. Anyway, this week we were to do 3x1600s, a 5 mile tempo run and a 10 mile long run. I was so excited about my tempo run that I almost posted about it on Tuesday - see what a little hubris gets you . . .

Tues: 6.18 mile tempo run at the park at an 8:10 pace. This is the best run that I have had since June or July. I actually ran my comfortable running pace - it was so uplifting. After 3 miles, my knee stiffened and I revised my plan to only go for 4 miles. Then at 4 miles, it felt OK so I just kept going. Thank you, Doug, for coming home early so that I could run in the afternoon.

Thurs: 3.01 mile hill/speed run (sprint up, walk down) at an 8:54 pace. I got to leave work early this day (thanks again, Doug), so I ran in the afternoon. I was truly sucking it at the end - felt like my lungs were trying to heave out of my throat to get some 0xygen. And, since others were awake, I had to run on the side of the road instead of the middle. Still, an improvement over last week. My plan to go 4 miles was abandoned due to the aforementioned sucking.

Sat: 4.02 miles at a 9:38 pace. I had planned to go 8 miles this morning at a 10:00 pace - set my Garmin and everything. My knee was stiff and I nearly quit after the first mile. Fought through it and kept running through miles 2 and 3. Then I had to go potty and decided that 4 was it. I was very depressed at my knee crapping out like that, but when Doug told me the temp when I came inside (24-26 degrees F), maybe that was a good enough excuse. I'll have to meet with my pal Billy in the morning as penance/punishment/make-up, though.

Beauty

So, I drove to Savannah for work last week. That's right, 8.5 hours in the car for a 40 minute meeting and lunch. But, the meeting went well and they didn't need much of my legal expertise during the discussions (always a good thing), so it was a successful day. Along the way, I noticed how beautiful Georgia is. You don't always think about it, as you pass all of the piney woods and kaolin mines on I-95 and I-16, but this state is lovely. And Savannah - even the slums are gorgeous. If you ever have reason to visit the federal building in Savannah, please note that they do not have a lobby or bathroom that you may access without the presence of the party you plan to meet. No good after a 4.5 hour drive. There is, however, a lovely coffee/dessert shop just down the street (Walnut St, I think) that had good coffee, yummy scones, delicious-looking sandwiches, clean potties and all manner of chocolate, including chocolate thongs. I did not point these out to my colleagues when we returned for them to use the facilities, but I did buy a chocolate bar with chiles and nibs in it for Doug. No dice for him, but I have really enjoyed it. Yum. Please also note that if visiting Savannah, you need to take change for the parking meters or buy some stuff at the aforementioned coffee place so that you have enough to cover your time.

In other news, our training program called for Virigina and me to run 4x800 speed repeats, a 4 mile tempo run and an 8 mile long run this week. Viriginia and I found this program independently and are following it loosely to train for the ING race. I am following it more loosely than Virginia since it's not my first half (loved writing that, by the way) and my knee is still touchy. So, here is what I did this past week:

Tues: 4.02 mile tempo run in the flats at a 9:11 pace. This was not a hard run. I've not done any tempo runs since August, so I was pleased to get the four miles without my knee crapping out.
Thurs: 3 miles of hill repeats (sprint up, walk down) at a combined 9:18 pace. This was very difficult because it was cold, the hills are hard and I had a lot of phlegm. I was definitely sucking it at the end.
Sun: 6 miles at a 10:00 pace at the park (the flat one, not the Rec). Not hard, I probably could have run further but I didn't want to hurt the knee.

Pretty good, if I do say so myself. I've not been looking much at the training program because I'm so far off of it - especially the tempo part. To train based on my regular 5K pace, my tempo run should be at an 8:27 pace. I didn't even do the math for the speed work, and cross-training, forget about it! I'm off to a good start for this week, though, so hopefully the next post will be all about that.

Also, a friend of mine just found out that her baby may have a heart problem. They don't know how serious the problem is yet, and the baby won't be born until spring, but say a prayer for them please.

P says pppp

It's P week at Annika's school this week. For that reason, they are wearing pajamas to school today, having popcorn and a movie for snacktime and a pizza party for lunch. For breakfast, we even had pancakes. I'm out, though, and can't think of any other "p"s to have for dinner except peas. Any ideas?

In other news, I finally came through on my promise to Dorothy and gave blood yesterday. They were having a drive in the office park at work. The participation was low, but overwhelmingly female. You would think that the men would be more likely to give, but not this day. It had been 8 years (I had signed up to donate one other time, but had to cancel when I got pregnant with Dagny) since my last donation, so I am surprised at how punk I feel today despite not feeling light-headed at all yesterday (usually I do). Maybe it is a consequence of getting old. If you want to give, here is the site to make an appointment. You can search by your zip code for a convenient location and make an appointment online.

Patience is a Virtue

Patience is a Virtue. One of Mike's sisters mentioned this in a comment over at Hollandsenieuwe. My mom used to tell us this (in the really annoying sing-songy voice) when I was a kid and boy, did we hate it.

So right now, I don't have any patience. I knew that something would fall through the cracks when I started my permanent job (that's right - the temporary, part-time gig turned into a permanent, more-hours but still not-full-time gig). When I started the temp project, birthday cards fell off my plate. Until last year, every cousin, aunt, uncle, other relative or friend got a birthday card on or near (except for Tara, whose birthday has always confused me) their special day - and most got a handwritten "message" from Annika. No more, after July of 2006 we terminated the cards because I never got around to buying any in August and we just slid downhill from there.

Anyway, despite Doug's herculean efforts around the house (relieving the sitter in the afternoon, cooking outrageously good dinners, helping me pack lunches), I find myself losing my marbles on an increasingly frequent basis. I'm going to have to work hard to find something else to lose so that the patience can stay on my plate and I won't yell at Annika because she has antagonized Dagny for the seventeenth time of the morning or just not gotten dressed when asked.

This short temper could be related to my crappy training. Natalie asked how my training for the ING half-marathon was going - in a word: badly. I don't know how long one is supposed to "recover" from a half-marathon, but I'm pretty sure that I've exceeded that time and have moved on over into either complete sloth or just re-injury. Because I ran my race at my training pace, took Tylenol and fueled as Joe recommended, it was not challenging cardio-vascularly and I didn't feel used-up at the end. However, my knee was toast. I have only run 7 miles each of the last two weeks (hopefully more this week because I have a date to run with Virginia this afternoon). That darn IT band just doesn't want to cooperate with my plans.

However, on Thursday I was able to run the loop around our block by running the uphills and walking the downhills. Since I haven't done any speed or hill runs since September, the loop was a challenge - I was actually sore! Maybe today will be the beginning of something good.

Now, if I could just find something else to "lose". . .

Speaking of which, I just noticed that I lost both Jason and Camille from the sites list during my change -you guys are clearly not paying attention either!

Oops!

I just noticed that I had accidentally dropped Corinne off of the blogs list. She is back now. Rest easy.

In other news, while I cleaned up after dinner today my amazing husband made chicken salad for me and the girls to take for lunch tomorrow. From Paula Dean's recipe that he looked up on the internet.

Walt Disney Half Marathon Race Report + photos

At long last, here is my race report with photos of the girls from our visit to Disney World last weekend. The first is Dagny wearing Annika's Minnie hat. Then, Annika inside the mouth of one of the sharks from the Nemo ride at Epcot. This was originally an informative ride about the ocean, but now it is an informative ride with Nemo and friends. Dagny and Annika LOVED it. At the end was a cool play area (where the shark is) filled with cool shark facts and children. Next, Annika with her face painted as "princess kitty" - her choice. She wore the face paint for two days until it wore off (after we were home).



Last, Dagny gets to know (or pounds, whichever) Eyeore at the Crystal Palace restaurant. If you go to Disney World, this place is great for lunch because (1) the food is good, (2) they have the Pooh characters, and (3) it is very close to the baby center, which has clean changing tables for use and baby supplies for purchase.

Lest you be disappointed at the lack of running photos, the following links show me at the race finish and post-finish with my medal (not beautiful - I'm not Miss Photogenic). Please note that in the finishing photo, you can clearly see the reason that our friend missed me at the finish (Doug was off placating Dagny, who had lost her marbles).

On race morning (Saturday), I woke at 2:58am. It was two minutes before I planned to get up, but 10 minutes before the alarms. I took some Tylenol and started my coffee in the coffeemaker and my oatmeal in the hotpot. After showering, coffee, and as much oatmeal with soymilk as I could manage, I got dressed and left - without waking Doug. I was to meet our friend Joe at 3:50 so that he could drive me to the race. He volunteered to do this so that he could scope it out for his marathon on Sunday. Alas, we left one important part out of our plan - WHERE to meet. He wasn't in his room and I had no phone. After a moment of adrenaline panic, I banged on our door and woke Doug up so that he could call Joe on his cellphone. Bless him, Doug called Joe for me and we were on our way!

Race morning was warm and damp. Florida is quite humid. Disney does not skimp on any aspect of their race, so I was able to take care of "business" no less than three times before we even got to the starting area at 5:30am. I also ate some more Tylenol before the start (Doug's advice). The start of my race was on the road just beyond the Epcot parking lots. The wheelchair racers started first, then the fast folks (wave A) and then my group (wave B). Wave C brought up the rear. I thought that I was in the middle of the wave, but perhaps was at the back. Mickey, Donald and Goofy started the race for us and shot fireworks for each starting group. It was slow going at the beginning and shortly before the mile 1 mark, the folks next to me dropped to a walk because we were essentially running in place. After we ramped down to World Drive, the crush eased a bit and we were able to get to a better pace. Miles 2 and 3 passed without significant speed as we all plodded along in the dark. I realized how slow the first miles had been and gave up all hope of keeping to my 10 min per mile goal pace. As we ran, I found and chatted with Brittany Brown from Kansas, who I had met as we stood in line to get our numbers at the Expo on Friday. Go Brittany! At each mile volunteers dispensed water and gatorade in appropriately colored cups and there were portopotties.

As we approached the Transportation and Ticket Center (could have been Magic Kingdom), there were cheerleaders chanting and clapping for us and then two divergent paths with music (country and rock). The sun was starting to rise at this point, but I still didn't need my visor yet. Joe had advised me to fuel after 40-50 minutes of activity. He trained hard for his marathon and read a lot about fueling. Because of my knee, I hadn't done any training runs long enough to require fueling and really if the point of exercise is to burn calories, why would I consume extra ones (other than beer?). Seriously, other than water, I had consumed nothing while running. So, because the local Target has Sports Beans (made by Jelly Belly) and Joe said that they weren't horrible, I packed those in the key pocket of my shorts. As we came into the Magic Kingdom, I busted out the beans - because of the danger of hurling, Joe advised consuming water at the stops before and after eating them. Because of the humidity and my lack of experience at this distance, I consumed water everywhere. I munched on my delicious jelly beans as we ran through Tomorrowland, past Space Mountain (and the real potties), the Teacups, and the Carousel. I stopped eating to pass through Cinderella's castle (they take photos there, you know) and finished them up on the way out through Frontierland. At this point, the race volunteers were handing out bananas. I almost passed them, but ate a few bites of one as I ran just in case the beans were too "hot" for my tummy. The beans might be harder to consume if one were running at a faster pace - for a first-time racer, they were perfect. I wasted a whole mile concentrating on eating my beans one by one without dropping any.

The sun was fully up by this time and I realized that I was making better time as we passed miles 6, 7 and 8 out of the Kingdom, past the Grand Floridian and the golf course. This guy said that this was the difficult part of the race because of the boring scenery, but I loved it - so green and relaxing. Also, as I exited the Kingdom, Annika appeared in my headphones, yelling "Go, Mommy, Go!" Doug had secretly taped her with several different uplifting messages and uploaded them to my i-pod. I laughed out loud and then got misty. What a great husband. He also put my tunes in a good order, which I didn't realize and messed up because I started with Whitesnake instead of Christina Aguilera. Anyway, after mile 7, I decided that a potty-break was in order so I waited until the mile 8 marker since it was over halfway and past any distance that I had ever run before. At mile 8 there were two potties facing the road and about 8 facing away. I ran to the "away" ones and there was NO line. Marvelous.

Lighter and with a spring in my step, I continued down the road, listening to my tunes, taking my earphones out to listen to the marching bands and the steel drum band and the DJs who liked the road. It was so much fun. I didn't stop smiling the whole time. At mile 8, prior to the potty break, my left foot started to hurt. I thought perhaps my shoes were askew and tried to stretch it as I ran. The knee was OK - a little stiff but nothing bad. I decided that I could start running faster. Miles 8-10 passed without incident, though I did figure out that the Team-in-Training coaches were running ahead on every mile and then waiting for their peeps to come by before sprinting ahead again - those TNT folks and their spectators were great. I made a mental note to require all friends running in the ING race to wear matching shirts (a joiner, I TOLD you). At mile 10, I figured that I was close enough to the finish to run at racing speed. I tried to keep up with this beautiful woman (dark green singlet, dark skin, single long braid, a very tall, good-looking man passed her in mile 10/11 and gave her a kiss) because she was running so well. She passed me, though, on the flat part of the highway as we went over the overpass. Because we were on the highway for the last 3 miles, there was a big crown in the road. Inclines of all kinds seem to make my knee hurt, so I ran a lot in the grass. There was less pounding there too, seemed like. Anyway, there was another food stop at mile 12/13 where volunteers dispensed Cliff Shot Bloks. These were sour apple flavor and smelled heavenly. However, it was nearly mile 13 - who needs calories there? Not me. I sprinted past the beautiful woman in the green shirt, into Epcot, around the Christmas tree and straight to the finish. I had the best time. It was so much fun - I couldn't stop smiling all day. This was the perfect first half-marathon. No water/fuel/potty worries, plenty of music, cheering, distraction - so much fun! I definitely would do this race again, if finances permit, but I would save the park visiting until after the race and after the other kids are back in school to avoid the crowds.

New Look

I'm a joiner. I admit it. Any group that I think might be fun or exciting, I'm in - tennis team, track club, golf group, casserole ministry, mom's group(s), alumni association, etc.

So, after Anne and Dorothy updated their layouts with the new Google Blogger, I had to do the same. I like blue better than green anyway. It makes me happier.

I lost some of my links when I made the layout change so if you think there is a cool blog or link that I should show, let me know.

Qwack, Qwack, Qwack

So, during one of the many Christmas festivities last month, my sister related a story to me of how Annika told her that her eyes were cracking. "Ha!" we taunted, "your eyes are cracking!"

Yesterday, Annika told me the same thing. "Mommy, why are your eyes red?" she asked. "Because they are tired," I replied. "I think they are cracking" she chirped, "like eggs."

Please note that each instance of the letters "r" or "l" is either silent or sounds like a "w" - "Mommy, why are youw eyes wed? I fink they awe cwacking."

Garmin's Results

For my half-marathon at Walt Disney World, here are Garmin's results by Mile number, in minutes and seconds. Clearly I should have moved towards the front of my corral, but perhaps the slow start allowed me to finish as easily as I did:

1. 11:48
2. 10:47
3. 10:52
4. 10:28
5. 10:05
6. 10:08
7. 9:31
8. 9:56
9. 10:10
10. 9:53
11. 9:15
12. 8:51
13. 8:25
14. this wasn't actually a mile, but 0.41 miles in 2:53

I'm not sure why Garmin thinks I went farther than 13.1 miles. It could be that I forgot to press stop at the finish or did it late - I don't know. Please note the negative splittage is marred only by my visit to the porto-potty in mile 9. Stopping at all but one of the previous 9 water stops made this necessary - it was humid, folks! I'll post a full race report later (maybe later in the week) with some photos of the girls at Disney.

Results

Displaying 1 to 1 of 1
Unofficial Race Results

STEPHANIE BACHMAN Bib #28120 Age 34 F
START
5K
10K
15K
FINISH
6:15:22 AM EST
34:54
1:07:12
1:39:13
2:13:15
TIME
Chip Time: 2:13:15
Clock: 2:28:01
Pace: 10:09
Placement
Overall: 2683
Gender: 1039
Division: 165

Questions? Please contact ChampionChip USA

So, you probably can't understand any of that, so I'll explain. I started my very first half marathon (DisneyWorld 2007) on Saturday at 6:15:22 am. At the 5K mark, my chip said that my time was 34:54, at the 10K mark I was at 1:07:12, at 15K I was at 1:39:13 and finished at 2:13:15. My pace was 10:09 minutes per mile and you can see the placement.

What you can't see is that the Disney Half is a lot like the Peachtree Road Race. There are a zillion people. For the first 3-4 miles, traffic was very congested but after that I was able to find places to run. I'll post my mile splits later, but I had a great race. I stopped for 10 of the 12 water breaks and one potty break plus the slow start and still finished in a decent (if not record-breaking) time. It was really fun and I am so looking forward to the ING Georgia half in March.

The Best Party

So, Doug and I are not much for New Year's Eve parties. We had one here the year after Annika was born, which was fun but usually we do something low-key and frequently don't make to the ball drop before falling asleep.

Last night was no exception. We invited some local friends (and by local, I mean 5 miles or less) over, with kids for tapas and beverages. The kids got sparkling apple juice (not a hit), macaroni and cheese and little cheese pizzas. Sara brought a delicious cookie cake and we had Bellinis. Doug kept refilling my glass so I might have been over-served, but it was a lovely evening. We did a haphazard clean-up after everyone left and were asleep by 9:30pm. Gotta love the bring-the-kids party. We will be having a lot more of those.

New Year's goals/resolutions:

(1) Have more patience for my children.
(2) Have more empathy for my family.
(3) Run more races.
(4) Faster.

The Christmas Gauntlet

My brother-in-law coined the title to this post to describe the four day traveling extravaganza that was our holiday.

Friday, we drove across the city to see the relative who suggested that I get a sitter and come without the girls. Since a sitter was out of the question, I left Doug at work and took the girls over there three hours early so that Dagny could nap. It worked out fine because I helped with the party preparations and got the girls home at only one hour past their bedtime. If Annika hadn't woken back up, we would have been golden. Saturday, I gave Doug a pass and took the girls to my Grammy's house in Griffin for lunch. Dinner was to be at 6pm and that would NOT work with Dagny's nap (3-5pm) so I thought lunch would be better. When I arrived at the house, they told me that "dinner" was at 4pm so if I had known the actual time, I could have stayed home in the morning, brought Doug and actually done the official party. Whatever. Grammy is hard of hearing, so it was better to be there before the crowd anyway. Sunday was cold, but I got to run and go to Mass before 8:30am. We shopped in the morning and then Doug took Annika to church with his family in the afternoon. Everyone returned to our house after church for food and excitement. It was very pleasant and easy. Monday was beautiful. Santa got up early and repaired the seam of Dagny's rocking lamb while Doug made a lovely breakfast. We had to wake Annika at 7:40 because Dagny was screeching for her. The girls had a marvelous time and we played outside in the freezing rain until lunch. My family came for the ultra-controversial Christmas dinner. They may actually be speaking to me again now (despite the fact that it was not I who demanded any change in plans), but maybe not. Regardless, we made beef, asparagus, risotto and lobster tails for dinner. Except that my risotto was done well in advance of everything else, the food was good and I think everyone had a good time.

Yesterday was to be my running day. We did some size-correction shopping in the morning and I was going to run in the afternoon. Then came the rain. I put Dagny down for her nap and noticed that the drops were covering the driveway. Sorely tempted to stay inside, I came down to check the weather on the computer. Sigh - no sign of stopping and no indication of any rain on the radar. However, Natalie had sent me an email about my race, which spurred me back into action. I donned the foul-weather gear and sallied forth into the mist . . . hoping to get to 8 miles. I ran the first two miles in the 39 degree rain. After that the rain stopped and I even saw another runner. I got to seven miles without pain, but then my hurt knee began to ache. Knowing that further running would make me lame, I stopped at 7 and counted myself lucky. This will be my last long run before the big race. I may not make good time or even get to run the whole way, but I think I can finish. Thank you Nat, for getting me out of the house. It was the best run I've had in a long time.

Oops

I finally made the Outrageous Peanut Butter Cookies that Anna wrote about last week. One of the cookies broke as I was transferring them from the cookie sheet to the cooling rack, so I had to taste-test. "Hm," I thought, "tasty, but a little buttery." I wondered if the peanut butter added extra fat so that it overwhelmed the flour. Maybe I needed more flour. I consulted the recipe for further muddling. All of a sudden I noticed that it called for 1/2 cup of butter. For those of you who are not baking fools this week, that means one stick of butter. I used two. Oops.

They are still good, just a bit pecan-sandieish in texture. Good thing I have extra chocolate chip cookies from the garbage guys' batch, which (by the way) start with two sticks of butter.

It would be silly if I hadn't done this to the sugar cookies just last week.

In other news, I ran six miles yesterday. It's a new world record. Not really, but it is the farthest I've gone since August. No knee pain at all, except for where I strapped my knee brace too tightly and hurt the back of my knee, which I didn't notice until I removed the brace upon finishing. I did learn that the whole wheat pancakes and grapefruit were not bad pre-run food, but maybe less of them would prevent them from threatening to reappear. The run certainly helped my endorphin shortage. I was beginning to feel a lot like the grinch with my soul being "an appalling dungheap. . . ."

Heck

I love grapefruit. Annika and Dagny love grapefruit. For lunch, I cut the grapefruit into smiles (wedges, for those of you without toddlers) and we eat them all up. When Annika eats her smiles, or anything else, for that matter, I exclaim and praise her.

So, when she ate her grapefruit smiles recently, I said "wow, Annika, you are eating the heck out of that grapefruit." Yes, I said heck. I probably should have phrased this differently despite the obvious lack of bad words.

"Why?" you say. Because now Annika thinks that the inside of the grapefruit is called the "heck." "Mom, I ate all of the heck out of this grapefruit." "Dagny left some of the heck in her grapefruit." Either that or Annika is using Larry the Cable Guy as her speech role model.

The Ugliest Cupcakes and other disasters

Doug's birthday was last week. We went out for dinner to a fancy-schmantzy place inside the perimeter (I had a gift certificate). Since we left the girls with my mom, Annika and I made cupcakes the next day to celebrate the birthday with the family.

Because a cake mix makes a million cupcakes and I'm not a terrible baker, Annika and I decided to make the cupcakes from scratch, using the Small Batch Baking cookbook. We made the fudgy chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing. As the cupcakes finished baking, I tested them with a toothpick to be sure they were done. No problem until the cupcake deflated as I removed the pan from the oven. That has never happened to me before, so I crossed my fingers and hoped that I could just take the ugly one. Nope. Soon enough, all four cupcakes deflated, leaving a crunchy burned rim around the top of the pan and sunken centers (like the craters of volcanos). Crossing my fingers, I whipped up the peanut butter frosting. It tasted lovely, but my spatula broke off in it. Sigh. I frosted as best I could and you can see the results. Annika had one cupcake and enjoyed it, but the others were a loss. Doug didn't even taste them. I spent two days beating myself up about not being exact enough to bake in small batches before tasting (in a fit of hormone weakness) the monstrosities and realizing that they were AWESOME. Doug missed out.

A week prior to this event, we went to a bring-the-kids party at which I was to bring dessert. After contemplating the chocolate flan cake and nixing it as too "flan-ish," I consulted with Tara (who suggested some lovely desserts) and Anna (who suggested a red velvet cheesecake and a three-layer cheesecake). Since it was a party, I went with the festive cheesecake. It wasn't a difficult recipe and turned out very nicely with delicious topping, but no one at the party touched it. No one, until I begged for opinions (and then only two of us tried it). Let that be a lesson - at a party where people are chasing kids, finger food is better. Then, we dropped the remainder of the cake on the neighbor's driveway on the way home. Oops. Hope that it didn't stain.

This past Sunday, I went to a work party. Mindful of the untouchable cheesecake, I planned my dessert selection around what the other dessert-bringer was doing (Buche de Noel from Gabriel's). Thinking that something simple would make a good foil for the cake, I baked banana bread with peanut butter chips and walnuts and pumpkin bread and paired them with chocolate chip cookies and some leftover oatmeal cookies. No dice. My desserts tasted and looked pretty marvelous (if you ask me), but no takers. Everyone ate the cake (except for Steph, who doesn't like cake) and left the breads and cookies.

I was only able to run 2 miles yesterday (sore knee) and today's cold/low-grade fever are making my appointment with the Billy Blanks CD unlikely. So, I've wasted two 18 packs of eggs and a lot of effort in the last two weeks for nothing except to expand my own waistline. I love the holidays.

A Nice Thing

I'm full of good stories to post, but a bit short on time these days. So, instead of the photos of the cupcakes we made for Doug's birthday or the numerous attempts at Christmas card photos, I'll tell you a nice thing that happened to me today.

I took Annika to "church school" this morning and went to Mass. Doug had Dagny and they went shopping. Dagny is sick and has bumps on her head and nose from our outing yesterday so it was better for them to be alone together. Anyway, during Catholic Mass, when you say the "Our Father," everyone holds hands. It's a relatively new thing and a bit hippy-dippy, but a good community-builder. So, I extended my hand to the woman next to me and into the aisle (because I was on the end) and was denied. The woman at my side had her hands folded in prayer and was not going to share my cooties. No matter, I get the germ idea so I wasn't angry. It is good form to extend your hand across the aisle but it's unlikely to be taken, so I resigned myself to empty-handed "Our Father"ing. Whatever - no big deal.

Then, a woman that I know from our neighborhood reached across the aisle from one row back and grabbed my hand. I know it's sappy, but it really made my day. Hopefully she didn't notice that it made me cry. Maybe I'm spread a little too thin these days or maybe it was because I was up three times last night with Dagny or maybe I'm still not feeling that I'm actually a part of the congregation yet, but that little gesture meant a lot to me. Thank you, lady - I hope that I can hold out my hand to you when you are having a bad day.

A Different Life

Natalie mentioned in her blog today that she wishes that she had run in high school as her gymnastics coach had encouraged.

While I ran on Sunday, I was thinking about the same thing - how would my life have been different if I had run track my freshman year as I had wanted to. Unfortunately, that year I was grounded from the world from January until spring because of the sneaking-out incident. So, I was barred from track that year and just never bothered again. Would I have stuck with it if I had joined the team? Could I have kicked ass at the hurdles (the way I did in my mind's eye)? Would the stronger/thinner/faster/smarter/taller endorphin high have helped me actually buckle down and learn something in high school instead of worrying mainly about boys? Would I have appreciated the nice boys who liked me instead of pursuing the "bad" ones? I don't know. If the running and discipline did not create a character change, it is likely that I would have just given it up. I was pretty darn shallow then and had no perspective. I like to think that I was a larva (or a pod person) - lacking in actual human qualities.

So, in light of the spitting incidents and nastiness at school, I am wondering how we can instill empathy, consideration and perspective in the girls so that they aren't like larva. So far, we are still working with the "we control you" system that I mentioned last week, with a little "Santa is watching you" thrown in for good measure. I don't know where to begin to bridge the transition from "we control you" to "you are a good human who can make choices." Doug insists that team sports are a good first step. So, even if Annika and Dagny are REALLY DARN BAD, they will still do the sports. We will just have to think of some other thing to deny them or make them do for punishment.

By the way, my sister mentioned to me that a call from Santa might not be a bad idea for the unruly kid - a "I hear that you might not be acting like a good girl all of the time - better shape up" call. We haven't resorted to that, but it is definitely an option.

If I Didn't Know Better

One Christmas (8th grade), I received a giant hershey kiss from a female relative - with a card that said "your first?"

Then, last week at Thanksgiving dinner, after I explained why I put Uncrustables sandwiches in Annika's lunch box (so she will eat something, anything, at lunch), the same relative said "you lose your mommy card for that!"

Then, today I got an email from the same woman which said you are invited to XX event at XX location on XX date, "around 6 or whenever it is good for babies. Or, if too hard, how about a sitter?"

So, I know that I was hypersensitive in middle school, that being my fat period, the time of hormones and the fact that I had indeed never kissed anyone. Bless her heart, she meant it as a joke. You can even hear the "hee-hee" after the quotation marks. Heck, the card probably even SAID "hee-hee." You'd think that with teenagers of her own and having been a pubescent girl at one point, she might have been sensitive to these issues, but no.

The Thanksgiving thing was also a joke - "oh ho - you lose your mommy card for THAT! ha ha ha!" She has no way of knowing about the First Meals book or the time I spent making baby food and ensuring that no sugar or other junk entered Annika's body. Or the fact that Doug and I now silently and covertly rejoice together if Annika puts a single bite of anything in her mouth.

And the latest, though not a joke, is an attempt to be accomodating after ignoring my sister's polite request for a child-friendly time. She is probably just trying to make sure that the time works for the folks who work in offices - with no idea that it's usually the kids that are the bigger lure, not the dinner.

Anyway, the nutshell is - please, please promise that you will all ridicule me when I start to say stuff like this. Or at least pull me aside for a private discussion on thinking before speaking.