Running Pregnant

Well I am 15 weeks pregnant now! I'm still enjoying good workouts, although I haven't been able to go as hard as I used to. I really scaled back during first trimester and only did hard workouts on days I felt great. But now I am back to feeling fairly normal, although still if I do a hard workout I will need the next day off. So far I don't feel any difference (besides fatigue) but I figure I have a month or so window to be somewhat normal until I begin to get... impaired :)

I ran 10 miles Wednesday, it felt awesome. I just can't explain the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a long endurance run. It gets addicting and you just want that number to go higher each time. The longest I've run was about 17 miles once, and several 13+ mile runs. But being pregnant I am happy with 10 as my upper limit, unless I do a slow half-marathon (it would be cool, but there are no options right now unless some friends organize our own). Besides, I have a 2-hour childcare limit at my gym and I was 5 minutes late! (my actual run was 1 hr 48 mins, but I take a lot of bathroom/stretching breaks!)

Then today was a 10K race. Here are some photos from that. My time was 69 minutes, about 10 minutes slower than I ran it pre-pregnancy. After the race, they did a 1-mile fun run which Rychen P. joined me for. The winners are based on accuracy of predictions, and the runners can't wear watches. So it was actually pretty fun to predict your pace and adjust it for certain paranoias... I ended up 20 seconds off my prediction and got 2 place. Rychen had to run fast to try to keep up with me (and couldn't anyway) and ended up running a 12-minute mile which is awesome for him, his other times have been closer to 14 minutes.

I am headed to Las Vegas for a few weeks and it's my goal to go to the YMCA 4 times a week to workout. I have to stay in shape for the church triathlon next month. Looking forward to it!

1-mile fun run

Little entrepreneur

Copied from Rychen's birthday/memory book today:

Rychen,

Yesterday and today you have spent 2-3 hours on the front corner sidewalk selling lettuce! It's so interesting to see how excited and involved you get with it. You are SO CUTE! You are such an enthusiastic salesman, waving your sign and pointing to the lettuce, even calling out "Fresh picked lettuce! One dollar!" even though the cars can't hear you J  I'm just amazed you  haven't gotten bored. You continue to wave your sign around and consider each passing car a unique future customer!

You  have been a little entrepreneur now, whenever you get a chance. You make bookmarks and sell them but the sales are a bit slow with those. We are all surprised at how successful you are with the lettuce. You've earned $20 so far, and the garden isn't even half picked! We got this idea when we saw some people selling cherries on the side of the road. We were handing out lettuce to our neighbors because we had so much. So I told you "If you pick the lettuce and bag it, you can set up a stand on the sidewalk and sell it." So we made a sign on cardboard and I guided you in writing out the letters. We are selling quart ziplock bags with lettuce mix for $1.

This is a great opportunity for you to learn about finances and business. You have seen me do my business and wanted to be a part of it. So now you are learning about gross income, paying tithing and expenses, and then net profit.

I've been so proud of and impressed with you lately. Yes, you still refuse to share, you don't clean your room, I nag you to practice piano, and you won't read aloud to me! But you are so cute and witty, we share jokes and fun stuff together. You are so smart and helpful. I've just had to learn to work with you and give you as many choices as possible so you retain your independence. For instance, you will help do chores but only your preferred jobs, which are mopping the floor, sorting Tupperware, dishes and garbages. You hate doing laundry!

The other day you said you wanted banana ice cream, but I was in the middle of something so I said wait. But when I came out, you had already gotten the heavy juicer out on your own and were putting the bananas through! You also thought to put some cherry chunks in. The ice cream was delicious! We served some banana ice cream at Logan Davidson's birthday party and you enjoyed being a "restaurant server" so at home you wanted to do it again. You asked for our orders and happily gave us what we wanted. It's so fun to see you getting interested in certain things. So now we know you like salesmanship, and you like serving food!

On the Willamette

Rychen P. has been bothering me to go out on a boat but I didn't know if I was forward enough to ask people (with a boat) to take us. We were so lucky to get into a conversation with someone in our ward about his boat, and he offered to take us out the very next day! It was a blast, the weather was perfect. It was so fun taking the kids out for their first time. They love when the boat goes fast. Elisabeth hated the life vest but she was a good sport (thankfully, cosidering her recent tantrums!)

Rychen tried out water-skiing and wake-boarding for the first time since he was a teen and did OK

Rychen's Restaurant

We had the job of making and serving banana ice cream to guests at a friend's party this weekend. Rychen P. had such fun being the "waiter." Today he requested banana ice cream for lunch, and had the idea to put cherry chunks in it (hooray for cherry season!). I had to do some quick things first, so he said he will just take care of it. I came out to find him doing this, and he said my number is 78. He wanted to call a number, "like they do at Baja Fresh."

a perfect soft serve!