I procrastinated my run today – a tempo workout. I had to cut it short by 10 minutes… but I did it and it felt good!

After school today, we went to Mr. Biggs. May met up with us for lunch – D20 is out of school already, and she took her kids and 2 more friends. The boys and I had lunch, then played video games. We bowled one game. I’m a terrible bowler. Lots of gutter balls (the boys get bumpers in the gutters and use the stand). I got one strike midgame, and then more gutter balls. The boys did pretty good and were close for most of the game. Zander got a few strikes near the end and pulled the win. I was the last to bowl, and on my very last frame, got a turkey – THREE STRIKES IN A ROW. Unbelievable! I still didn’t break 100, though. Then Zevan wanted to go to Little Biggtown and Zander wanted to play more games. *This* is why I don’t like to take them on my own.

We left Mr. Biggs and headed to Zander’s well check – two months late. That’s when we found out, to my surprise, that Zander would have to get 4 vaccinations! A new chicken pox booster, Hepatitis A, Polio, and a flu shot. I nearly changed my stance on vaccinations before I told him about the shots. Oh, neither of us were happy about that. Poor Zander. He cried and screamed when he got the shots in his thighs. So much worse when they are older. I felt TERRIBLE, and kept apologizing. He did calm down fairly quickly (10 minutes?) and he was feeling better, although a bit sore in the injections spots.

We came home, and I gave him Ibuprofen, and a popsicle. Then we were off to ArtSports, which made him happy. He’s doing really well, I think. Zevan is, too. They both really get into it now. I’m glad we started this, and that the grandparents will be contribution for their next session there.

Today I recieved a very touching card – and pictures! – from our adopted family (The Solis Family)

I’m such a sentimental sap – the photos just did me in  – particularly the oldest boy, because his school photo is the exact same background as Zander’s last year.

http://www.westsidemoms.org/news/200712adoptafamily/index.htm

I started to open it when I took the boys to Art Sports today, and had to put it away or I would have been sobbing right there.

Now, we’re headed out for my birthday dinner with my parents at Jun – can’t wait!

After school today, we had to meet up with Doug to pick him up after the sale of his car.

Bye Spyder!

That was interesting. We met him at the loan place, and it turned out that he had to accompany the buyer to the bank to get his money. I tried to stop for lunch at Burger King near the loan place, but it was closed! So we followed him over to the bank, and the boys were actually very good for having to sit in the car for so long. After it was all said and done, we found another, open, Burger King and grabbed a late lunch.

Later that afternoon, we had a NAET treatment session with Dr. John. The boys were in rare form – very cute and animated – and they really enjoyed the treatment session. It was actually fun – and funny. And I think it’s really working for us all.

And then I made this Scott Family holiday greeting HILARIOUS!

We just finished a dinner at Red Lobster with Mom and Dad Scott, Tom, Georgiana and Jesse.

Yum! And I got gift cards to both Ross and Macy’s. Score!

Poor Zevan wasn’t feeling well, and I spent a good chunk of time with him in the bathroom, but other than that, it was a lovely dinner.

And then I made this holiday greeting of May, Candy and me.

And now it’s time for some birthday fun with my husband

Well, that was fun!

May and Brad were the first to arrive, a few minutes before 7 PM – neither Doug and I were dressed yet. Our friends are usually late

May looked AWESOME in her dress from the annual party her neighbor throws each year. I was wearing my Cache top from Eve’s Revolution. I had originally planned to wear pants, but since May was so fancy, I was happy to join her frockery.

Jeff and Johanna arrived shortly afterwards. During a discussion of James Bourne vs. James Bond, she gave me a very timely James Bond themed birthday card.

The Jacksons, Schwartzes, Haubers arrived within 30 minutes of each other. Then Megan and Joe came. Good times! Lots of laughing, eating, standing, drinking…

I had such a good time! This was my 2nd annual grown-up birthday party, where I pretty much remove anything child-related from the main level, bring out the candles, booze and nice dishes/glasses for a cocktail party.

Between 11 and midnight, we all started tiring out. Shortly after the last guests left, Doug and I were nearly asleep in the living room. We put away a few key things, and left the rest until the morning.

The boys were at my parents house, so we slept in! That was great. I got up first, feeling pretty good for a night of debauchery. 9 empty wine bottles, 4 empty beer bottles, plus the apple martinis I made.

I started the cleaning, and Doug came down shortly afterwards to help out.

About 10:30 AM, I figured I should go get the boys. I had a nice little breakfast at my moms and came home.

After a while, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my workout was a 2 mi easy run – nice.

And tomorrow is my actual day of birth… sometime after 10 PM, according to my parents today.

Well, I was supposed to have a facial and massage today, but the aesthetician has strep throat, so it was *just* a massage today

Lori is awesome. She just dug right in – where I hold all my tension – neck/shoulders/trapezoid. Then my legs…

When she said, “Wow, your calves are tight.” I had to laugh and say, “Well, I guess running 18+ miles will do that.”

So what I needed.

Then the rest of the day was party prep. Some cleaning, buying food – particularly the dessert – Triple Chocolate Mousse cake from Marigold’s.

In fact, I had a nice little lunch by myself at Marigold’s when I picked up the cake. It was quiet and peaceful and a nice way to have a little time to myself.

Can’t wait for tonight!

So, I got up and there was no snow, even though they were predicting school closures and whatnot.

Got the boys dressed, got my gear together and headed out the door. I started at Goose Gossage north parking lot at 7:50 AM (5 minutes late), and headed north.

May called me when we I was about half a mile from Woodmen Rd, where we were supposed to meet. I had gone about 4 miles when we caught up with each other. Then it was 14 mi to go until the 1 mi recovery walk.

I did the ClifBar pacing calculator which gives you scheduled fuel breaks – for me (5:30 goal finish) the general rule was every 3 miles. I found every 3-4 mi was okay for one Clif Blok Shot plus water/Gatorade as needed.

You can talk a lot during the long runs. We talked about all sorts of things. The kids, of course, running, work, schedules, husbands, road trips… That made the distance go by faster. Except for the last few miles to the turnaround point – it was exposed and cold and windy, so we trudged through the best we could.

I love doing out and backs – turning around is mentally invigorating and motivating. At 18 mi, we stopped for the 1 mi recovery walk. Briskly, since we had lunch plans – for my birthday lunch with the girls.

After the workout, we went to May’s house to shower. And I decided to give the cold bath a try. Which is funny because May forgot to turn the heat on in her guest room suite, so it was really cold in there already. I don’t know what gave me the gumption to then sit in the cold tub and start filling it up with cold water around me. I left one long sleeve running top on, and my running shorts. I let the water fill up until it covered my knees, and then just sat. Shivering. For 5 minutes.

I followed that up with a HOT shower, and felt pretty good.

We made it to lunch at PF Chang’s. Candy was already there. We ordered quickly, with Tiffany phoning in her preferences. It was a really nice lunch. I was gifted with Tiffany’s famous and addictive Melting Moments cookies, and May and & Candy got me a GC for a one hour massage at Tuscany Day Spa & Salon.

The birthday dessert was this awesome banana egg roll with ice cream and caramel sauce – yum!

Afterwards, I headed down to Tuscany, where I had scheduled a massage. I got a message saying that the massage therapist was stranded, so then I changed my appt to the next day and then scheduled a pedicure for today. Which turned out to be perfect. My feet in a hot whirlpool tub – massaged, scrubbed, mask… a nice treatment after a long run!

Yay for me! Let the birthday weekend commence!

I have friends who, no matter what we are going through with each other or in our lives, that I know in my heart of hearts are my lifetime friends.  No matter how long it’s been.  And you both just know.  And when you are together, whether it’s been 5 days or 5 years, you fall into your friendship like it’s been 5 minutes.

True friendship is like true love.  You never know when it’s going to hit you, but when it does, you know it. 

I’m hard on my friends.  I’m an East Coast girl at the core. 

Up until very recently, my best friends have always been men.  Because I’m not in for having to be touchy feely all the time.  That’s not how I roll.  I like to be able to say, “You are so full of shit.  Get over yourself,”  and not have the person I say it to instantly dissolve into tears.  I like to be able to make suggestions to someone without the person immediately getting defensive and oversensitive.

I’m blunt, and I’m brusque, and I don’t always say the “right” things in the most tactful way.  But my friends love me anyway, because they know I’m not being mean or judgmental, that’s just me.  They’ll call me on it, of course, but they never make me feel like I have to apologize for *who I am*, although I will often apologize for *what I’ve done*.

Of course, I can do the nicey-nice thing.  I do it a lot. But it’s WORK, and sometimes I don’t want to always have to work at being friends with someone.  It’s tiring.  And, I’m selfish with my time and energy.

So, it probably sounds harsh, but that’s where I am.  And again, it’s not going to be some big “I can’t be friends with you anymore.”  It’s just going to be a shift in my mind, attitude and priorities.

I have been feeling very stressed about *something* so it’s a relief to finally figure out what has been weighing on me. 

So it’s not heavy on my heart anymore.  It was hard, and now, it’s freeing and revealing.

Through a convergence of many events, I found myself examining the relationships in my life, and came to some very plain and somewhat painful conclusions about some of my “friends.”

So the pain of the realization caused my crazy emotional meltdown, but then that allowed me to be sad about it and now I have made some very clear decisions for myself about where to go from here.

It’s not some big dramatic “I’m not friends with you anymore.” type thing. It’s just that I’m going to be choosier about who I really open my heart to. I’m done walking on eggshells, defending my choices, and feeling obligated instead of doing things out of love and concern. The person that will be most affected by this is me.

I do this in cycles. I feel like I give and give and give, and then – I realize that I’m empty. Which is one thing with my family. It’s a whole other thing with friendships.

The really cool thing is that a couple of my very best friends who have moved away, contacted me during this time and reminded me of what healthy, true friendship is about. It’s never about quantity, it’s about quality.