I have a new love and I’ve tossed my old love like a pair of worn out shoes.
My new love gives me the support that I need.
This new love of mine causes me to become hot and sweaty, but doesn’t make me weak in the knees.
My new love gives me exactly what I want and can go the distance.
I love my new running shoes.
After my Sunday run, I felt a familiar pain in my knees. I rested for 2 days and swore to myself that I would only run if I bought a new pair of shoes. Since I had reached 300 miles in my second pair of Kensei, it was time for a new pair of shoes.
Yesterday, I loaded my two pairs of old running shoes and children (DD#1 home from school yesterday with strep throat) into the Black Pearl and headed to The Running Center, because momma needed a new pair of shoes.
While the gentleman inspected my gait and two pairs of shoes, I told him that I wasn’t completely happy with the performance of my newer shoes compared to my first pair of Kensei. There was some weird rubbing going on inside the shoes and the shoes felt narrower, which I suspect have something to do with the new asymmetrical lacing.
After listening to my complaints concerns (price included), he recommended the Asics Kayano and the Brooks Infiniti, which were both in the same price range. To me, the Kayano had a lot of the same support and cushion as the Kensei, but the side of the shoe hit me in a weird spot on my ankle, which is what my second pair of Kensei did. Then, I tried the Brooks and the shoes fit like a glove. I was sold!
The Infiniti are very similar to my first pair of Asics Kensei 2. When Asics changed the laces on the Kensei to an asymmetrical lacing system, I swear it changed the fit of the shoe. The Brooks Infiniti may not have all the high-tech, gel-cushion of the Asics Kensei, but it certainly feels like it does.
Today, I ran 4 miles in my new Brooks Infiniti and LOVE them! I feel bad that I dumped my Asics for my new love, but I guess since we hit a sore spot in our relationship, it was time for me to move on.
During this holiday madness, many of us drag our children to visit Santa at the mall. This year, I’ve decided to eliminate this task from my list of Christmas chores and I also omitted it from our Advent calendar activities.
With joyful fondness, I remember my childhood years sitting on Santa’s lap while my mom photographed us. Years later, my sister and I would giggle over our toothless grins, obnoxious hair-dos and outlandish fashion statements. Pictures with Santa are truly a happy childhood memory for me and something I wanted to recreate for my children. However, over the years, I have grown such a strong distaste for our local mall Santas.
During my motherhood years, I shuffled my children off to the mall dressed in holiday attire to sit on Santa’s lap. I would start snapping photos only to be told to refrain from taking pictures by an angry Santa helper. Despite an angry elf hollering at me, I continued snapping pictures.
Then, last year’s experience ended our annual visit to Santa. After another scuffle with an angry elf, I discovered an uncooperative Santa had photobombed my pictures by not looking at the camera. Thanks for your fine example of the Christmas spirit, Santa.
Christmas 2007
After our disappointing Santa experience last Christmas, I had an a-ha moment and drew a line in the sand. The Santa spot is simply another kiosk in the mall trying to sell you something, which is no different from the perfume kiosk or the beautiful hands kiosk. The mall Santa is a cleverly crafted marketing scheme by the shopping mall Scrooges and photography studios to squeeze money from consumers. As a result, we spend year after year getting sucked into the holiday madness with must-have Christmas toys, jolly Christmas merchandise disguised as a spontaneous new traditions (such as the latest hideous craze, the Elf on a Shelf) and photographs with Santa as to not miss out on any of the holiday version of keeping up with the Jones.
Growing up as a child, the department stores offered Santa as a service to the community. Of course, it was a way to draw customers, but a visit with Santa was free and you could take as many pictures as you wanted without an angry elf or shop owner telling you otherwise.
A few years ago, on our visit to the U.K., we stumbled upon a department store Father Christmas, who happily chatted with Allana. He graciously smiled and posed for photos. After our chance encounter, he gave Allana a book as a gift. No purchase was necessary to enjoy a visit with Father Christmas or the book.
Father Christmas at Jenners 2004
Nowadays in the U.S., everything is about ways to get people to spend money. The cheapest portrait with Santa is approximately $16. Why should anyone be forced oreven coerced into buying a photo of their child crying in Santa’s lap which will only be shoved into a pile with other tacky and useless portraits, like school portraits? (At least school portraits are a fundraiser for the schools.) If I choose to snap my own Santa photos, it costs the portrait studio nothing to hit the delete button.
Hiding behind the gigantic, twlinking Christmas trees is the Santa kiosk with a very short line and a sign that states, “Please refrain from using your personal photographic equipment”.
How can this mall justify the expense for an extravagant light show, which included paying the rights to use the music of Trans Siberian Orchestra and the astronomical electricity bill of said show, but can not budget the cost to hire their own Santa as a service to the community?
When visiting Walt Disney World or Universal Studios, a cast member will gladly snap a picture of your family if asked. There’s no guilt or shame involved and certainly no high pressure sales pitch to purchase a portrait before you leave the theme park.
Grinchmas 2003
Every mall in our area is owned by a number of large corporations and could easily afford to hire their own Santa or fleet of Santas to work throughout the holiday season. The malls could allow parents to take their own photographs, but also offer portrait packages as an additional service without the high-pressure sales pitch from an angry elf. Perhaps, the elves could even offer to take pictures, like a Disney or Universal cast member.
In my perfect little Santa Workshop, a sign would suggest monetary donations for a local homeless shelter. No purchase would be necessary to visit with Santa and the Santa helpers would happily offer to take family snapshots with your personal photographic equipment. If you choose to buy a portrait, then a portion of each portrait sale would be donated to a local homeless shelter. Near the Santa Workshop, visitors would find a toy collection box for needy children and another collection box for a local food bank.
In this scenario, the true spirit of Christmas would be evident. Feeling the Christmas spirit, visitors, like me, would be more incline to give a $20 donation to feed and clothe the homeless rather than buy a useless portrait of their children. It would be a green,charitable Christmas for me, saving the fate of a few trees from becoming printing paper while giving more green to those in need.
Why during these trying times are we seeing more Grinches and Scrooges when more families feel like Bob Cratchit?
I had hoped that our local malls and department stores would have a change of heart this season. I know I have had a change of heart by refusing to take part in the mall Santa experience.
More families cutting back on frivolous spending could explain the shorter line to visit with Santa. Or perhaps, more people, like me, are choosing to remember the true spirit of Christmas. Hopefully, the mall Scrooges will remember their Christmas pasts and the Grinches of the corporate world will stop trying to steal Christmas.
Where are you Christmas? Why can’t the malls find you?
Without hesitation, I ran 18 miles on Sunday and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. It was no different than any other hurdle I faced in the past, except that I wore my shnazzy SPIbelt with a sports bar tucked inside to refuel at the 13 mile mark. My pace was decent, but I didn’t try to set any new records with my time (3:39:30).
It certainly was an interesting run. Tiffany and I saw two doe, two deer, two female deer, which funny enough was followed by ray, a drop of golden sun as we ran into the sunrise. This led to me, a name I call myself, and Tiffany singing “Do-Re-Mi“. We’ll do whatever it takes to make it through, because we certainly had far, a long, long way to run. (Thanks for the inspiration, Tiffany.)
Then, after our first water break after a 5 mile run, a fast walking gentleman passed us and made a comment about our water bottles. “So, you’re the ones with the bottles?”
“Yes, it’s us and we need to rehydrate”, I replied in a sing-song voice.
Then, I looked at Tiffany with a puzzling look. “Is he the one who pinched our bottles a few weeks back? Do you think he’ll return them since he knows it’s us?”
I really do miss my 12 oz. lovely ergonomic sports bottle. *sigh*
Along with my usual running, this week’s plan also includes a hunt to find new shoes. My once new shoes are now shot and I am beginning to feel that familiar pain in my knees. Hopefully, I can find a reasonably priced pair this week. I need to break in a pair in the next few weeks before I can even think about running in new shoes in a marathon.
This week’s Five Minutes for Fitness was inspired by a GNO a few weeks back. We were celebrating Faith’s 30 Birthday (I know…I know…My girlfriends are so young.) when Beyonce’s Single Ladiesstarted pumping in the club and we I demonstrated my fabulous ridicuolous Bootylicious moves on the dance floor.
You know, you don’t see enough jazz hands these days.
Now, put your hands up and get ready to pound out the beats with Beyonce. This chick has an amazing body and its not because she is sitting on her bootylicious badunkadunk. Personally, I think she should have used a bit more jazz hands in this video.
And if you want more, try these Destiny’s Child dance moves. Think of it as core training. Can you handle this? I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly. I don’t think you’re ready, ’cause my body is too bootylicious for ya baby.
One of our Christmas traditions includes an advent calendar. Behind each door, my girls discover two Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses and a note with details of fun Christmas activity for the day. The excitement in my girls’ eyes each day always makes this a memorable event.
Christmas 2007
Here are some of the activities I tucked away inside the Advent calendar for my girls:
Write a letter to Santa.
Eat at Chick-fil-a for Family Night and enjoy the Christmas lights.
Make popcorn and gumdrop garland.
Go for a drive to look at Christmas lights and sip hot cocoa.
Make paper snowflakes to hang in the windows.
Make paper hand wreaths.
Sip hot cocoa and read Christmas stories.
Visit a Christmas tree farm and buy a wreath for the front door.
Visit the new Wiregrass Mall to see the Christmas light show.
Buy a new ornament for the playroom Christmas tree.
Make a paper chain for the playroom Christmas tree.
Hang mistletoe and remember to kiss everyone who walks under it.
Light the Menorah to celebrate the start of Chanukah.
Go for a Christmas light stroll and count the Santas and snowmen in our neighbors’ yards. Graph the results.
Have a Christmas music dance party.
Make reindeer dust.Remember to set out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.
Santa arrives!Merry Christmas!
You may have noticed that there are more than 25 Christmas activities. I like to stuff extra ideas in box #25. During the holiday season, I chance upon a fun event in the neighborhood, which would take the place of one of the filler activities. In that case, I simply remove a note or move notes around in the box and my girls never know the difference.
But, like a bad mommy blogger, I forgot to take a picture of my girls opening the box on the first night, however, I did snap Day #2 pics and Day #3 pics.
If you live in the Tampa Bay area, the Chick-fil-a on Waters Ave is definitely worth the trip, especially on Tuesdays for Kids Eat Free Family night. Make it one of your must-do activities this holiday season.
Emmalynn playing in the Chick-fil-a "snow".
Chick-fil-a on Waters Ave in Tampa
Advent calendar Day 3
The girls make Christmas mice candy cane ornaments.
Since we began the Advent calendar this season, Allana has suggested some of her own ideas for our Christmas activities, like a Christmas treasure hunt. Next year, I think it would be fun to include her in the planning process of the Advent calendar.
For years, I have tried to capture a nice family portrait of my family. I have plenty of lovely photos and snapshots with a variety of combinations of each us, such as just Allana and Emmalynn or Allan and the girls or the girls and me. But trying to capture a family photo of the four of us has seemed like an impossible task. Something always seems to sabotage our family portraits.
At every portrait sitting, Allan refuses to smile and remain quiet during the photo shoot. He also loves to annoy me by repetitively saying, “CHEESE!” which causes him to squint and look like he is squeezing out a shit having a bowel movement.
Then, there’s Emmalynn’s inability to cooperate and her compelling need to make silly faces.
And then at some point, Allana begins acting like a drama queen in the middle of picture taking.
All of this leads to me becoming incredibly pissed off angry and completely ruining the mood.
Now Christmas card season is upon us and once again, we strived for I wished for the perfect family Christmas portraits. But this year, I had a new approach: Wing it.
See, I am not a fly-by-the-seat of your pants kind of gal. I meticulously plan every detail and constantly roll over each decision in my head. For each photo shoot, I run around town searching for the perfect outfit. I try to squeeze in a hair appointment to color and cut my hair. Everything has to be perfect. After all, we are I am trying to create the perfect family portrait. However, all this emphasis on the perfect family portrait has created very opposite results.
This season, I decided to not allow myself to stress over the small stuff. Facing two marathons in the next couple months, I can not stress over nonsense, because the anxiety will leave me vulnerable to illnesses. So in keeping with my “wing it” philosophy, I avoided running all over town to buy a new outfit and I didn’t color or cut my hair.
My sister bought beautiful Christmas dresses for the girls. I purchased the girls accessories during a regular weekly visit to Target. Allana wore her Christmas shoes from last year, which surprisingly still fit and Emmalynn’s shoes were found on a quick trip to Payless. We also included the American Girl style petticoats, a gift from my MIL, because snapshots of the girls wearing the coats will be one of our Christmas gifts for my MIL.
On the day of the photo shoot, I still hadn’t decided what I would wear, which as mentioned before is not my usual style. Following my new “wing it” last minute motto, I decided to wear jeans and a red blouse to match the girls. I knew Allan would happily wear jeans as well and I didn’t care what shirt he wore. I swear.
Then, just to be a thorn in my side, Allan wore a UT baseball cap to our photo shoot at the University of Tampa. Maybe he wanted to show his school spirit for his alma mater or perhaps he thought hat head would be a nice addition to our family portrait. More than likley, it was his attempt to frazzle my cool composure. Fortunately, Kelly, our fabulous photographer, discouraged Allan from wearing it.
As usual, Emmalynn wouldn’t cooperate.
Allana complained about being hungry, but I skirted her hunger pains by bribing her with hot cocoa and ice cream for dinner if she smiled.
During the whole process, I just breathed and hoped it would all work out. After all, Kelly is a very talented photographer magician.
Tiffany injured her foot on the massive hills during the Turkey Trot and was unable to join Lori and me for our Sunday run. Still hung over from my foma, I don’t think I would have made it if Lori didn’t guilt motivate me into running on Sunday. Although, this week’s distance had me running 16 miles, my lack of drive thought 10 miles would be sufficient.
Then about mile 3, my adrenaline kicked in and I decided to go the distance. I hurdled over my wall at 13 miles and felt suprisingly well. I knew I could finish last 3 miles strong. Keeping my pace at 11 minute miles, I completed 16 miles in 3:10.
Like last week, I felt some soreness but with some stretching, I felt fine. I didn’t have enough nerve to try an ice bath, but maybe after my 18 mile run next week!
With the holidays fast approaching, I’ve reviewed my training schedule and I’ve decided to modify it a bit. Like I mentioned before, I plan to run 18 miles because this Sunday allows the time to do so. The following Sunday, we have our Moms on the Go Christmas party in the morning, so I will have to run in the late afternoon and that will be the week I arrange to do a step-back run. On the 21st, I will run 20 miles. The week of the 27th, I will be vacationing in North Carolina for New Years, and I anticipate running in the snow covered mountains. We will return on Jan 3rd and I plan to run 8-12 miles on the 4th, which will put me back on route with my training schedule.
I apologize for my absence. Once the tryptophan finally dissipated and I awoke from my foma (food coma), I spent the next few days in a self-induced shopping coma.
As much as I love shopping on Black Friday, I lacked the same enthusiasm in previous years. This year, I only visited Wally World to score a $9 Kung Fu Panda and some $4 fleece pajamas. I suppose I could have stayed in bed and slept off the trippy tryptophan feeling, but I love the excitement of Black Friday and the crowds.
Over the years, I have learned to stay clear of overly cheery Black Friday freaks fans. These ladies wear their merriest holiday ensemble. You will hear their jingle bells as they run you over with their cart to grab the last Wii bundle.
This year, I spotted a herd of ladies dressed like Christmas cheerleaders. They wore red holiday tees bedazzled with “Shine” in sparkly letters across the front. They completed the look with shimmer red and green headbands that looked an elf exploded on their heads. Although the outfits were a riot, I found their conversation even more comical. In true Target Lady fashion, they made comments about every little item as they shopped.
“Well, isn’t this lovely?”
“Have you ever seen anything so cute in your life?”
“And you can’t beat the price!”
This holiday version of the Target Lady made it worth getting up at 6:00 a.m. to shop.
In past years, I would find myself waking up at 3:30 a.m. to begin a marathon day of shopping. Around 8:00 a.m., my girlfriends would make a pit stop at my house to refuel with a hot cooked breakfast prepared by my DH. Then, my family and I would head out for round two of crazed crowds in shopping malls.
But this year, my DH needed to work on Black Friday and so my mall shlepping would be trimmed.
After Wal-Mart, I continued my holiday spending spree with some on-line shopping. That’s when I found my moment of Zen. With no screaming, fighting or crying children begging me to buy every fuzzy and shiny object, I shopped at 6 different stores all at the same time. My children happily played while I loaded my shopping carts. It was fabulous.
For this Black Friday, I saved my sanity as well as a few dollars.
But then, this morning on the news, I heard about a relatively new retail phenomenon: Cyber Monday. WHAT?! More rock bottom prices?! Once again, I shopped till my eyelids dropped searching for bargains and all from the comfort of my ass home. I have a new love.
Move over, Black Friday!Cyber Monday is serving up deals with no lines and no waiting!
KATHLEEN! Winner was selected using a random generator from random.org
There were 11 items in your list. Here they are in random order:
Kathleen
Maria
Daphne
Denise W.
Tracey
Julie
Lori
Kathleen
Daphne
Susan
Denise W.
Cecilia
Timestamp: 2008-12-01 20:46:47 UTC
Congratulations, Kathleen! You can expect your SPIbelt shortly. Thank you to all the ladies who participated in Run DMT’s 100th Post Shnazzy SPIbelt Giveaway! And a BIG THANK YOU to SPIbelt for sponsoring this contest and extending the free shipping offer until December 31.
So, if you are still interested in purchasing your very own shnazzy SPIbelt, simply visit SPIbelt.com and use the coupon code ship08. It makes a great stocking stuffer or Chanukah gift!
You can expect your SPIbelt shortly. Thank you to all the ladies who participated in Run DMT’s 100th Post Shnazzy SPIbelt Giveaway! And a BIG THANK YOU to SPIbelt for sponsoring this contest and extending the free shipping offer until December 31.
