41 posts tagged “mom”
This weekend was one of the few (ever!) that I (gasp!) actually had nothing on my calendar. I know, it's shocking. It was fantastically wonderful to not have anywhere that I had to go!
Friday night Mike and I met up with Sean and Erin to celebrate Sean's sister's (Sarah) 30th birthday. We went to sushi.
I'll pause to give you a minute to catch your breath.
Yes, you read correctly, I went to sushi. Did anything remotely fishy enter my body? No. But I did make it through a sushi dinner without barfing on the table. One small step for mankind. It was actually a lot of fun. Sushi is surprisingly pretty (at least Mikuni's makes it pretty). I had the chicken teriyaki, which I have to say, was fantastic. A fun time was had by all (especially those that did saki bombs).
I had decided that Saturday was my day to tackle the yard. Yes, I've been keeping up on mowing my lawn, but that's been pretty much it. My garden and shrubs all seriously needed some attention. Mom came over to help me... I have some beautiful but tricky lilac vines growing that she had great ideas about. We also made a trip to Lowe's. For those of you who don't know, the office supply store and hardware store are two of my favorite places to shop. I especially love the hardware store because there are all sorts of fun things that I have no idea how to use but totally want to buy because they look cool. I am now the proud owner of my very own Black & Decker 17' Coated Steel Hedge Trimmers. These things are fantastic! By the time my two large bushes were done, I was looking for bushes in the neighbor's yards to cut! My mom is a saint... we had the best time and my yard looks beautiful!
Sunday was my offical lazy day. Mike and I had delicious blueberry pancakes for breakfast and then took Shadow for a little hike around Lake Tabeaud (prounounced like "taboo"). Shadow had the time of his life! We hiked for about an hour and a half, during which Shadow got several opportunities to swim. He's a ball of mush this morning - totally wiped out from his busy day yesterday! The rest of the afternoon was spent watching cycling (Mike) and napping (me). It was fantastic! Around five, Charlie (Mike's brother) made it back from Newport Beach with their brand new fishing boat! The boys have been looking for a while and finally found one they loved... and it's a beauty! It has a cool little cabin that you can sleep in (with a bathroom and little stove) and is going to be GREAT for fishing!
I've been trying to find a delicate way to blog this...
I have been told for years by my singer friends that the neti pot is the way to go. What, you ask is a neti pot? Click HERE to see. Basically, it's this little genie lamp looking thing that you fill with warm salty water. They come in a few different sizes and materials (some are fancy clay... mine is cheapy plastic). You then take the little spout and stick it over one nostril. While leaning over a sink, you tip your head and let the water run into your nostril, through your sinuses and out the other side. You then gently blow your nose and repeat on the other side. As Eva put it "Isn't that like waterboarding?". It sure did sound like it to me, but when you have the burning sinuses from hell, you'll do just about anything to make them stop. It is a little awkward and kind of an uncomfortable feeling. My advice is to make sure you're breathing only through your mouth (Mom, don't try this...). I've been doing it twice a day and it defintely does make a difference!
In other news, Shadow got a bath today... which is always hilarious. For some reason, the instant he's done he has to run around the yard like a crazy dog for about half an hour and then roll in the grass. Apparently the whole ordeal was a lot for him because he's been taking a nice long nap for the last half hour. Oh to live the life of a dog!
Well, I did it! Yesterday was my Lasik surgery and I'm already super happy with the results!
My appointment was at 9am, so of course, I was there right on time. And, of course, my actual surgery wasn't until about 10:15, which left me about an hour and 15 minutes to totally freak out. Thank goodness my mom was there... she talked to me and distracted me so I was less worried than I would have been if I was alone! She was awesome yesterday - she hung out at my house all day, helped me with emails and even brought me In-N-Out! Then the doctor took me into a room to look at my eyes one last time, talk me through the procedure and answer any questions I might have. He's a great guy (I totally recommend him - Dr. James Abrams at the LasikPlus Center) and even made a couple jokes to keep me relaxed. Once we got into the surgery room, they laid me down and had me stare up at the first laser... this was the one that cut the flap. They put numbing drops into your eyes first - so you really don't feel anything through the whole procedure. He then puts this ring on your eye (it helps keep your eyelid open) and they start the first laser. This is a total of about a minute per eye, but the scary part is that your vision goes black. Once they're done with that, they swing the table that you're on over and have you look up at another laser. This one is a red and green light - you're supposed to focus on the red light. When he moves the flap (because this laser has to do it's work under there) all the lights get all swirly and psychedelic. I would assume this is what drugs would be like. They count down from 10 and your eye is done. They put in some eye drops and repeat on the other eye. At this part there was a faint "burnt hair" smell (those of you who have had laser hair removal know the smell). It was a little gross to me because I knew it was "burnt eyeball" smell, but then the whole thing was over.
The receptionist had asked if I wanted some Tylenol PM and I'm really glad I took her up on it instead of waiting until I got home. You see, as the numbing drops wear off, you get what they say is a "slight stinging" sensation. Let's not lie... your eyes burn like hell. Granted, it is only for about an hour, but it sucks. Yes, for those of you who are thinking about Lasik, I would do it again... it's not THAT bad. Just like you're cutting onions times 10. Once the Tylenol kicked in I was able to nap and when I woke up it was gone! The rest of the day just felt like I had an eyelash in my eye.
There are tons of eyedrops that I have to put in... I seriously feel like I'm doing it every 5 minutes. Every hour, on the hour I have to put in tears (lubricated eyes are healing eyes). Then 4 times a day I have to put in steroid eye drops and antibiotic eyedrops. It's quite the regimen! Finally, I have some great sunglasses that I have to wear 24x7 for the first three days to keep from touching my eyes. They're quite sexy!
The only real side effects that I'm feeling are that everything still has a little bit of a haze (more of just a glare), I see halos at night, and it's hard for me to look at the computer for a long time. I also have some broken blood vessels on the whites of both of my eyes. All of these things are supposed to go away in the next week or so. Not to shabby!
Last night was trippy - as I was getting ready for bed, I actually thought "I need to take my contacts out". It's so weird to not have to do something that's been such a habit for such a long time! It was great to wake up this morning and to be able to see the trees outside!
I know it's been an obnoxiously long time. Very sorry. Lots has happened! Last Friday I made the decision to have Lasik surgery. My appointment is for tomorrow morning at 9am. I'm utterly terrified and totally excited all at the same time. I think I just need to mentally get through the two or so hours that I'm going to be there. Everyone that I've talked to that's had it says it's the best decision they've made and that they wouldn't go back. I can't wait to open my eyes Saturday morning and not need to put glasses on or contacts in! More details later this weekend, but think happy thoughts for me tomorrow!
Last weekend was pretty insane. On Saturday night Kati, Brigitte, Amber, Kristine and I went to see Britney Spears. I was pretty disappointed in the show. The Pussycat Dolls opened for her and were pretty good (I've seen them before). In between, they had circus performers come out and do their thing, which was pretty cool (the title of Britney's latest CD is "Circus"). I was really disappointed in her actual performance - she was clearly lipsynching, which I had expected. But if she was gonna lipsynch, I wanted to see some serious dancing and all of her moves were halfhearted. I honestly don't know if she'll be able to pull off another tour.
We got up bright and early Sunday morning to head to the Bay Area for Easter and to celebrate Oma's 80th birthday. On the way there, we saw a terrible car accident happen... a lady clipped the car in front of her while changing lanes and they went spinning and flipping off the road. Mom pulled over and her, Kati and I went over to help. The lady's car had landed on it's side in a ditch with the other car on top. We were able to get the couple in the top car out but the lady and her passenger were stuck in the sideways car. I could tell that the passenger wasn't breathing, but couldn't safely get to her. It was beyond frustrating. All I could do was talk to the driver, tell her help was coming and try to keep her calm. She told me that the passenger was her sister. When we got home, we found out that the passenger had died.
The rest of Easter was fun - we spent time with the whole family at Oma's house, including the much loved "throw eggs over the house" tradition. I have some great pictures posted on Facebook (I'm too lazy to upload them here today).
That's right, I survived my very first half marathon! Today was such an amazing day - I'm still floating on adrenaline! I was super nervous this morning... if you know me, you know how I get. I'm cranky and, well, a little bit on the bitchy side when I'm really scared about something. So you can only imagine the sorts of things I was saying to other drivers on the road who cut me off at the exit.
My good friend Susan left me some great advice on Facebook last night... she said "the challenge in marathon running is getting to the starting line, knowing what lies ahead and having the guts to start. The rest will take care of itself." Honestly, it was so true. I was so freaked out until I actually started the race. Once we took off, it was "just run"... like every other run I've done for three months. Amazing.
And, of course, my fantastic family was there to support me! Adam and Eva brought some "flair" with them to make sure that our family was the loudest most visible group on the course:
And cheer they did... I know some of you are skeptical, but let me tell you, I was happy to have ANYONE cheering for me. My friend Jess also came to cheer... it was so amazing having all that support! Here's the family and I before the race:
The weather could not have been more perfect - it was cold, but once I started running, it was enough to cool you down without cramping your muscles. I started out pretty fast (hooray for adrenaline). My goal was to run 10 minute miles, which would have given me a final time of around two hours and ten minutes. Instead, I ended up doing roughly nine minute thirty-three second miles which gave me a final time of two hours and five minutes. I'm so super proud of myself! Towards the very end of the race, I seriously wanted to cry. I'm not sure if I was just that tired or if I was overwhelmed by it all or both. The only real pain I have going on is some seriously screwed up feet. I spilled some water on my shoes at one of the aid stations and managed to get it to soak through my socks... leaving me with some great blisters. Other than that, just the normal soreness!
Mike was stuck on a fire all night but was still sweet enough to drag his tired self down to catch what he could of the race. I honestly didn't think he'd make it, so I was blown away (and probably a little delirious) when I saw him standing at the top of the stairs. Here's us (don't I look great after 13.1 miles?):
After the run we headed over to Mom and Dad's for a delicious lunch (trust me, today I'm ready to eat just about anything!). I then went over to Betty's for a little going away party for one of our CERT members, Cheryl, who is moving to Texas. We did an offical "couch picture" for Cheryl to remember us by:
I spent the rest of tonight working on the pictures and catching up on some work... I think I'm just about ready for bed! For those of you who are wondering, yes, I'm still contemplating doing the full marathon, although I'll need some time to think about it. Here are the final stats for this run:
Half Marathon Final Stats
First Day Training: January 4th
Race Date: March 15th
Final Race Time: 2:05:08.3
Total Miles Logged: 178.6
Well, tomorrow at this time I will have just started my first half marathon. Yup, I'm a little nervous. No idea why - I've done 12 miles for the last two weekends, so I'm pretty sure that the extra 1.1 miles won't kill me. Oh well... today I'm heading over to Mom and Dad's to hang out - the whole gang is here! Adam, Eva, Mom, Dad, Kati and Oma are all there ready to chill and BBQ later tonight. It looks like it's supposed to rain, which is a little bit of a bummer, but nothing I can't handle!
Ok, off to carb load! :)
Marathon Update
Miles This Week and last: 27
Total Miles: 166
Well, this weekend pretty much sucked. I had some pretty cool plans with Mike for Valentine's Day on Saturday (hooray for wine tasting), but somehow managed to come down with the flu. Fantastic timing, right? Let me rewind to the one cool part of the weekend...
Dad decided to surprise Mom and fly in for the weekend, which was awesome. He had to fly into Oakland late on Friday, so Kati and I drove to pick him up. Mom had no clue (despite some pretty terrible lies on my part) and was completely surprised. It was awesome! I got back to my house at about 1:30am and went to bed. I had been feeling pretty tired that whole day, but I was figuring it was from my 10 mile run. Saturday morning I woke up with a fever, a rash, and a headache. Definitely not Valentine's Day material. As much as it killed me (and those of you who know me know it killed me) I stayed home in bed. I pretty much slept the whole day, went to bed at 9pm and still slept until 8am on Sunday. Crazy. Kati was awesome and made a delicious Valentine's Day meatloaf and we watched movies together until I passed out. The good news is that the fever is gone now and I'm feeling a lot less tired. I spent all of Sunday at Mom and Dad's house relaxing and most of today reading and napping. I guess my little body needed some rest! Shadow was a trooper... he was more than happy to hang out in bed with me and take lots of naps... I have to admit, it was pretty relaxing!
Marathon Update
Miles This Week: 19
Total Miles: 101!
Friday was a pretty nifty day... I ran seven miles, which for some reason (along with 26.2) just sounded like a lot to me. The mileage went really well... the legs are holding up and so far I haven't had any repeat performances of the disaster from last Monday. The best part of my run (besides it being lucky number seven) was that I discovered the wonder that is GU. Let me preface this with the fact that I suck at eating and drinking while I'm running. I'm getting better with water, but I have a very hard time with sweet stuff, such as sports drinks. The problem with that is once you're doing this kind of physical activity, you need to replenish your carbohydrates, electrolytes, and calcium levels (along with a ton of other stuff that helps with recovery). I was terrifed that this stuff was going to make me barf... it's pretty much got the consitancy of snot. The good news is that it comes in like a zillion flavors (I picked up Chocolate Outrage, Vanilla Bean, Tri-Berry, Espresso Love and Strawberry Banana as testers). I decided that my inaugural run should be something I would think I would like, so I went with the safe choice of Chocolate Outrage. Around mile 3.5, I popped the packet open and sqeezed it into my mouth. It was like eating chocolate frosting... and seriously, after about 3.5 miles, who on earth doesn't want chocolate frosting? A few minutes later, I no longer focused on my legs hurting and focused more on how I could squish that last little bit of GU out of the packet. And sure enough, little energy boost. I spent the rest of my run pondering whether it would be safe to have Mike hook up a GU IV.
Saturday I did some EMT work in the morning - there was a kids duathlon out at Folsom Lake. It was a blast - some of these kids were so tiny that their bikes got stuck when they tried to go off curbs. Fortunately, I had no patients and just had to deal with the chilly wind. After the race I headed out to Back Wine Bar for Jessica's surprise party. It was loads of fun - in fact, Andrea brought her twin boys out (they're six months old) and we got to play with them! Then Mike and I headed out to see "Gran Torino" starring Clint Eastwood. Now, I'm not a huge Clint fan, but I have to say, this was an awesome movie. Until the very end when he sings for the ending credits. Imagine his rough sounding voice talking. Now imagine that same voice singing. Yeah. But seriously good movie... I think it's going to win awards!
Today Mom and I headed out to the Home and Landscape Expo... it was a blast! They basically had all sorts of contractors, vendors and demonstrations on how to improve your home. Of course, I love all of the little gadgets! I did buy some awesome flowers - they're plumerias (the ones that they use in Hawaii to make leis) - this San Diego based company was selling a bunch of different varieties. They smell great - so I got the yellow and the fuschia. They are bare root right now, but should bloom in 8-12 weeks. I can't wait! We also found what I've been looking for since I moved into my house... a key rack that makes sense:
For those of you that don't know, I have these great little frogs that live in my backyard almost all year. They jump up and stick to the screen door and all over the side of the house. Shadow loves to chase them and tries to eat them. They sound beautiful - my own personal symphony - when it rains!
You might notice that that's a very clear and crisp picture of the frog key rack. Well, that's because I finally got my new camera today! It's the Canon PowerShot SD790 IS. I absolutely love it... I still have some reading through the manual to do, but it's super easy to use and takes amazing pictures:
I'm so excited to have a new camera - my old Sony was good, but it's been fading over the last couple months. The picture quality definitely hasn't been there and the battery hasn't really been holding the charge. This new camera also takes video, which is something I wanted again (it came in handy in Europe!).
I plan to spend the rest of tonight totally relaxing... I've done all of my running for the week, all of my blog/Facebook updating and am going to take some time to just chill and watch TV!
Marathon Update
Miles This Week: 16
Total Miles: 48
I'll start with an update on the marathon training. I'm proud to say this week I logged 14 miles... not bad for my first official week of training! I did a five mile "long" run on Saturday. Now, that's only a couple miles more than my daily short runs, but for some reason, it really pooped me out. I definitely need to work on building up my endurance! The good news is that I survived it and will be adding mileage this week. My feet are sore today (those darn second toes hurt!) but nothing else hurts too badly. I am a little nervous - my friends who have already done marathons are talking to me about rolling sticks and ice baths. I had no idea that there was this much to it - I just thought I had to get out there and run! We'll see how sore I get and if I end up resorting to any of that!
Friday night Kati and I met up with Brigitte and Alyse for a little catch up dinner at Red Robin. It's been a crazy few months for all of us, so it was nice to sit down, have some drinks and chat! Saturday I went to a CERT outreach meeting (we're doing some really cool stuff this year) and then over to Mike's to watch "The Godfather". Yeah, I know, I should have watched it a long time ago (ironically, Kati claims we did... I don't remember it though and I'm pretty sure you don't forget the horse head scene). I do have it say, it's a great movie! I really want to watch the next two and Mike says the book is great, so that's on my list of books to read!
Today Kati and I went into full house cleaning mode and got everything clean in the morning. It's so nice to have a helper now... it's amazing how much faster it goes! Then we met up with Mom for brunch and ran some errands. I did a little yard work and now I'm getting ready to try out a Coq au Vin recipe for dinner. "24" starts tonight, so I wanted to make something yummy and have a nice night in!
Well, the last few days have been pretty cool... I had a fantastic birthday. I celebrated my birthday with Mom, Dad and Kati on the 1st because Kati had to work on my actual birthday - we went out to dinner at the Olive Garden and had a wonderful time! On my actual birthday, I had the whole day to do absolutely nothing, with (this should be a HUGE surprise) I actually did! I stayed in my pjs until almost 4pm! Mike came down to take me out to dinner but wouldn't tell me where we were going. We went downtown to The Broiler Steakhouse for a fantastic dinner. Well, the waitress did try to poison me with mushrooms, but I managed to survive! :) After that, Mike took me down to the Community Center Theater to see Stomp! If you ever have the chance to go see them, DO IT! It was a great show! We did have a pretty funny dude sitting in front of us... he was a super loud laugher and laughed at weird parts of the show that weren't funny! All in all, it was an awesome night! Mike rocks!
Today we went ot the Bay Area to visit Grandma and Aunt Sandi who were up in Washington over Christmas. It was so good to spend some time with them and see them for a while!
Tonight has been a super relaxing night - I've been chilling on the sofa with Shadow watching Season 1 of "ER" - I'm a happy girl!
