Thursday, May 20, 2010

a big run, a little blood.... keep going.



on sunday i ran my fourth half marathon. i was really disappointed in my time - but here's why - between mile 6-7 my left foot started hurting. it's quite a bit smaller than my right foot and when i wear traditional running shoes - i get really nasty blisters. my right foot has been really bothing me and without the emergency run to the chiropractor - i'm not sure i would have been able to do the run at all - regardless - by mile 8 - blood was coming out of my shoe - not kidding - it was sick - it continued all the way to the end and for about three hours after the race - nasty.... so nothing like a little blood that will slow a person down - but i sure wasn't willing to quit. i was so happy that i did it - on saturday my friends abby & kelly came down and stayed at our house since the race was in green bay. abby and i have been friends since we were six years old. i don't know if it's because i've known her for 25 years or if it's because we've spent time together in another life - but we just get eachother and have weird crazy things happen to us at the same time - this week - both of us rubbing our right eye because our acuve oasis contacts were bothering us - seriously - just in the right eye - weird. she lives in san diego - with her two beautiful children, her navy seal husband, and her beautiful little dog. she is in beyond amazing shape and finished the race in 1:54 - with four weeks of training - i know gag me but all the beauty that you see on the outside - is so tiny in comparison to what an amazing person she is on the inside. it makes no difference to either one of us that we seriously can not remember the last time we saw eachother because our friendship is honestly timeless. i love that she's in my life - if more people were like her - this world would be a pretty amazing place.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

my mothers day

i'm not one to usually sleep in. i like to get up and get my day started. sometimes getting my day started on the weekend means coming right to the couch and wasting way too much time on facebook, making an extra cup of coffee and watching some dvr crap that has been loading up on my to do list.

today - the phone rang at 9am! 9 - seriously - i don't sleep that late! - i was still in bed. it was my dad calling - saying that my mom, my grandma (his mom) and my dad were thinking about making a trip up to see us - they live about 1 1/2 hours away from us - i can make the trip in 1:10 - my dad takes the back roads. i thought it sounded like a fantastic idea - my dad and grandma haven't been up since the weekend we moved into our house (9 months ago) so i was excited for them to come and see it.

my mom called a little later. she said they stopped in kiel. that's where my grandma grew up for part of her life. she wanted to stop at the cemetery where her mom, dad and grandmother are buried. that made me cry. she's on my top ten list of hero's - i grew up through the woods and over the river to grandmothers house we go - literally - my grandfather built, yes built, a bridge for us to walk over to get to their house. she was born in 1929 - the year the world went to hell. when she was 7 her father fell over dead on top of her - as she was showing him her school work. he was the ripe old age of 33. when she was 16 - her mother died. breast cancer - it was literally eating her alive for years and years. she married my grandfather when she was 18. she had my dad when she was 19. my dad's an only child. she had 7 miscarriages some into the sixth month of pregnancy in the years following the birth of my dad. seven. she has been an amazing source of strength for me during our infertility bull crap. she stayed married to my amazing grandfather and cared for him in their home so he could have his dying wish of dying at home. she tended to his every need. he had a brain tumor - my love for him is a whole different post all together. to say that my grandmother has seen hard times, been through hard times and survived hard times - is an understatement.

today - as my mom (who is also my hero, and also another post) told me that they stopped to visit the cemetery and were running a little behind it was a reminder again - that no matter how old or young we are - if we had a good mom - a great mom - an ok mom - or an amazing mom - we need them for the rest of our lives. i just feel so spoiled rotten that the two most important women in my life came to see me today :)

Friday, May 7, 2010

running update

So I read all the reviews about how it's REALLY important to start off really slow in your Vibram Five Fingers (barefoot running)... and as per my previous post about it - I didn't exactly do that - I have very few regrets in life - this my friends - is one of them. ouch, ouch, ouch - It's fixable, preventable, and I'll keep trucking along with barefoot running as soon as this half next weekend is over - I guess what I did is there are ligaments on the top of your foot that don't get used at all from wearing traditional shoes - and i overworked mine quite a bit - and my poor little feet hurt to walk on - so I've been doing a ton of stretching, exercising and icing in hopes that they just feel good enough for a few more short runs and then the half next Sunday. After the half, I'm really going to focus on running form and making the gradual transition to my VFF's.

I have been super busy lately, which is great and I'm excited that my photography is starting to take off. I don't do well with compliments - and I've had issues in my life not feeling "good enough" (took thousands of therapy dollars to figure out the root and those are the two magic words), with lots and lots of practice, mistakes and redo's - I've been really happy with my last few shoots and I hope that it just continues to get better and better.... here's little baby Griffin - the best little baby I have ever taken pictures of - he was amazing.

Monday, May 3, 2010

video...

Here is the video.... seriously - kiddo's 100% to http://christinameeusen.blogspot.com
I've said this before but if you haven't gone to her blog yet - she has redick talent!!

So I tried it on my mom last night - worked 100%! boy, boy, girl, boy - of course she's thinks I should try it on people I don't know and then find out if it works - but that's my mom - she's all about science and facts and I tend to find myself living in this little land called dreaming :)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

our back up plan

have any of you heard of the necklace game - to find out how many kids you are going to have? i had never heard of it before but last week at the neighborhood wine event - we met our neighbors - that live two doors down - heather is the neighborhood block captain - i get emails from her about once a week - adam looked at her - and they embraced in a hug - i'm not kidding - they grew up together boating - but she has a new last name now, two kids and he hadn't seen her in years - isn't that the sweetest thing? i love it when things like that happen... anyway - they have two kids, i asked her if they are planning on more - she said - we weren't - but the necklace says we'll have another one - i wanted to upload a video of me doing it - but it's not an option right now. grr. there are some video's on you tube on how to do it... at any rate - mine says two kids. first a girl and then a boy. when you do the same test on adam - nothing - it doesn't move. our friends last night... both of them - married to eachother - two kids - both boys - one of whom i watch at my house during the week - it's crazy accurate - crazy. 


here's our plan. we're going to do another two months of gluten free - and send adam back in to get tested to see if there are any improvements. most doctors say that seeing the gluten free results take 3-6 months. we're also waiting to hear back from the insurance company to see if we can go and see an acupunture genius :) if his test come back the same as what they have been - or - not to a point where IUI isn't an option for us - we're 98% sure - we're going to get a donor. 


i know that everyone reaches a different point in their infertility battles when they say that enough is enough. the bottom line for us is that we want to be parents. adam really wants to see me pregnant - three years ago - this was his idea. we've kept it on the back burner and i think it's just time to move it to the front burner and start making our tea. picking out a donor is wild you guys - it's really really wild. if any of you have been through it - have good advise - please send it my way - i'm all ears. 


feels good to have a plan. great to have a plan that we both like and the greatest to know that we continue to be on the same page and in this together.