This post is like a random list of tweets, but with more detail

I'm afraid of geese.  There are a bunch of them in my neighborhood, and at this time of year most of them have babies, and they are very protective of them. The other morning I was running by a lake, in my own little world, when all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye, I saw this goose started charging at me, with his beak wide open, hissing at me! I literally yelled my head off, backed up, then ran the other way.  There was a woman standing outside her house doing yard work, I yelled so loud, she thought I hurt myself.  Those geese are vicious.

How soon do you sign up for a race? 

I tend to do sign up once I have the cash for it.  In January I signed up for three races, Irongirl Syracuse in August, The Shamrock Run in March, and The Boilermaker 15k in July.  I usually receive money for my birthday from my Mom, and my Mom and Dad in Law, and this year it went straight to registration fees.  I am SO happy I signed up for the Boilermaker when I did, they capped the number of runners at 13,000, and last week it sold out! It will be my fifth year running it in a row, and I already can't wait.

Speaking of cash, why is it that home repairs always end up costing more, and take longer than you expect them to? We had to replace an old sliding glass door in the kitchen, a lovely colony of bees took over the space above the door, and there was rotting wood below the door.  As I wrote the check to pay for the job, I thought how I would much rather have spent that money on a trip to Disney.

At any rate, I need opinions on our doors.  The kitchen door no longer has window panes on it, like the ones in the family room do. Should we keep them as they are, or remove the panes, so all the doors look the same?  It's amazing how much more light we have with the panes gone, but then again, they do offer a bit of privacy. 

Eliza was a clown in her school play this week.  Her last day of pre-school is next Friday, which I find so hard to believe.  I hope Mommy's not going to have a Meltdown.

When I was on the treadmill the other morning, I finally caught the Beastie Boys new video for Make Some Noise....it totally made my run.

Time for some shameless self promotion....Thank You to everyone who has been voting for me on The Circle of Mom's Top Health & Fitness Mom Blogs...help me stay in the Top 25 by voting HERE, you can do it daily : )

And....don't forget my Mega Giveaway, your entries benefit The Children's Tumor Foundation, you can enter HERE.  One person will win items from Nuun, Sweaty Bands, Allied Medal Displays, Wrightsocks, SPIbelt, Tough Chik, Badger Balm, and Inspired Endurance.  I received the necklace this week, so I can show you what it looks like: 

The bead is silver, and it's a nice weight, with the icon of a runner.  It's very cool, I want it for myself : )

Have a great weekend, good luck to everyone racing!

Weigh In Wednesday, Back On Track

Two quick things......anyone still having Blogger issues???   I wrote my big giveaway post on Friday, but wasn't able to post it once Blogger went down. So I re-wrote the whole thing, pictures, links and all, and posted it Sunday.  Then yesterday the old one popped up, so I deleted it.  Just now I logged in, and the old one was there AGAIN.......huh? 

At any rate, please check out my Mega Giveaway HERE, featuring nuun, SPIbelt, Allied Medal, Tough Chik, Wrightsocks, Inpired Endurance, Badger Balm, and Sweaty Bands!

Like several of my favorite Mom Fitness Bloggers, I'm on the list for the Top 25 Health and Fitness Mom Blogs on Circle of Moms.  I keep voting for my favorites, but can you help me stay in the Top 25??  Click HERE to vote, you can do it every day until June 1!


Back to business.  To be honest, I didn't weigh in last week.  I haven't been feeling my best, I don't know if I hit a plateau, but my heart wasn't fully in it.  I didn't eat as well as I should have, and I was worried about my foot again, I even googled stress fracture symptoms.  It's so weird, some days it feels totally fine, other days I'll wake up and it's bugging me.  Jill wrote the other day how she found out that she should be running on her bad heel, in order to strengthen the muscles of her foot.  Which I find interesting.  Why is it that I feel sore after I haven't been active for a couple of days, but once I'm back at it, I feel fine?  Is it because I'm using my muscles, and not losing them?

At any rate, I'm back on the salads, no more chocolate.  I love salads, but I really dislike making them.  Usually I look at what's in the fridge, and throw it all in a bowl, like this one, which was a bagged romaine mix, tossed with "rainbow mix" from Wegmans, which is a mix of shredded red cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots, I added a little cheddar, and slices of roasted chicken.  It was really good, but I would rather have had the pizza bagel I made Eliza for her lunch.  What do you add to your salads? I'm in a bit of a salad rut.

Weighed in this morning, and I thought the scale would have read higher than it did, so I was happy.  Since we started this challenge, I'm down four pounds total, with ups and downs along the way.  I have two weeks to drop those last six....so we'll see how that goes : )

This week's factoid is courtesy of Kathie Lee and Hoda....they had a segment this week on losing belly bloat.  The guest said one way to avoid it, is by being careful about when you eat fruit, you should always eat it on an empty stomach, like at breakfast or as a snack.  Because of the natural sugars, fruit is digested quickly.  But if you eat it after a regular meal, the sugars get trapped in your belly behind the other foods, the sugar ferments, turns to gas, and your belly pops out.  Gross.

Hope everyone has been faring well in your busy lives, have a great week : )

Help me, help The CTF, with this Fundraising Giveaway!

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity ~ Albert Einstein


Marathon #2 is officially on the calendar. This fall I'm heading back down to the region I grew up in, and running the New York City Marathon!  I'm honored to be part of Team NF Endurance, with whom I will be running to raise funds for The Children's Tumor Foundation.

This is Julia. She is the daughter of two friends from high school, and she lives with NF, a unpredictable genetic mutation that causes tumors to develop in nerve tissue. NF is a progressive disorder that affects 1 in 3,000 births and can show up in any family, at any time. NF can produce tumors, bone deformations, learning disabilities, deafness, blindness, malignancies, and chronic pain.

And there is no cure.




In an effort to reach the fundraising goal given to me by NY Road Runners, I reached out to several companies to see if they would be willing to donate products to a Fundraising Giveaway.  I had such a generous response that I am able to hold not one giveaway, but two! Today is the first round, which will be followed by a second round in a couple of weeks, with a different set of running themed goods. 

This is the lineup for Giveaway #1, think of it as a big basket of running goodies, with ONE winner taking it all home.  For all you males out there, don't be thrown off by the girl themed items, I'm sure you have a lady in your life who would appreciate them!



1.  nuun! A four pack of their original flavors, along with a nuun water bottle:

2. A SPIbelt in black/olive green:

3. An Allied Medal Display, your choice!

4. Three pairs of Wrightsocks (they're blister free!), in size M or L


5. A "Run Like You Are Being Chased" shirt from Tough Chik (size L, but the shirts run small).

6. A Sweaty Band:

7. A Running Icon Bead in silver, seen HERE, from Inspired Endurance Jewelry (I can't show the image because it's copy righted).



8. A Badger Balm All Season Face Stick in SPF 30

Whew!  Lots of good stuff!


This is how to enter:



1. Please go to my fundraising page HERE, and make a donation to the Children's Tumor Foundation (mandatory). Depending on your 100% tax deductible donation, this is how many entries you will receive:

$5 = one entry
$10 = five entries
$15 = eight entries
$20 = ten entries

Please leave me one comment saying you donated.......and Thank You in advance.


Of course, there are ways to get additional entries, please leave a separate comment for each:

+1 entry if you are a friend of my blog

+1 entry if you follow me on twitter @MollySBaker

+1 entry if you tweet, blog, facebook, or tell your friends and neighbors

If you follow any of these fabulous companies on twitter or facebook, you receive an extra entry per follow

on Twitter:

@ministryofnuun
@SPIBELT
@tough_chik
@SweatyBands
@BadgerBalmUSA

on Facebook:

Allied Medal
Sweaty Bands
Inspired Endurance
Tough Chik
SPIbelt
nuun
Badger Balm


I will pick ONE winner using random.org on Monday June 6, after I haul myself out of bed and get the kids to school.

I want to thank Allied Medal, Sweaty Bands, nuun, Inspired Endurance, Tough Chik, SPIbelt, Badger Balm, Sweaty Bands, and Wrightsocks for donating to this fundraiser. 

(Insert smiley face here)

This is where you'll find me on November 6th.

Just paid my registration fee for the NYC Marathon!

I'm so happy to be running with Team NF Endurance, raising funds for The Children's Tumor Foundation.

The Game is officially ON!!!!!!



Non Wordless Wednesday

This smoothie is so thick, I've gotta eat it with a spoon!

......and Weigh in Wednesday is postponed until next week.....

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't

This is one of those times where I'm getting close to the edge of that slippery slope where running is taking a backseat to other things in my life.

I actually don't mind, which isn't a good thing. 

I'm dreading Weigh In Wednesday tomorrow.  Anyone want to skip it this week??  Just kidding. Well, maybe not.


This is a busy time of year for me. It's always busy, but for some reason in the spring, there are extra things to take care of, with the kids, with Mike, with the house. A male friend said to me recently, "I just don't get what you DO all day." Instead of dumping my glass of wine over his head, I said, "What DON'T I do all day?"

Take Friday for example:

I'm up when Mike gets ready for work.  I wake up Luke, while Mike puts on one of the clean work shirts that I always have hanging in the closet for him.

I take the dog outside, before even having coffee.

Eliza comes downstairs. I help the kids get ready for school, make breakfast, Luke's lunch (actually, Friday was pizza day, so he bought).  Luke gets on the bus, I take Eliza to school.  I feed the dog and the fish.

Normally I would get online for a while, and either do some laundry, clean the kitchen, vacuum, go for a run, or take the dog for a long walk, or shower. Or pay bills, or make a grocery list, or a To Do list, then do it. If Eliza is home we play, or go to the library, or the park, or bouncy house.  But Friday was our neighborhood garage sale, so I hauled everything onto the driveway, and tried to get rid of as much stuff as possible.

Time to pick up Eliza, started bringing things inside that I didn't want stolen, when my neighbor drove by and offered to pick E up. Yes, thank you!

Mike said he would be home around 12:30 to help with the sale.  He got home at 1:45.

I walked the dog.

Sold some more, then I went inside, took a shower. Went to the grocery store to buy food for Luke's birthday party and for our dinner (salmon burgers with avocado, salsa, and lettuce, with a side of roasted cauliflower).

Came home to see some of the neighborhood kids playing with L&E in the yard.  Sent them home, made the kids dinner, while making my famous red potato salad, and a birthday cake.  While cleaning the kitchen.

Walked the dog.  Fed the dog.

Got the kids into the shower, ready for bed. Settled them down with a TV show and snack. 

Opened a bottle of wine.  Looked for cake decoration ideas online.

Put the kids to bed after their whole bedtime routine.

Finished decorating cake. Had dinner with Mike. He made the burgers, I made the cauliflower.

Remembered that we had to wrap birthday presents.  Mike wrapped.

Went to bed at 11:30, got up the next day and started all over again.

You can see I didn't get any physical activity in, but I was pretty tired by the end of the day.  Luckily I got to go for a bike ride AND a run on Mother's Day, but today I don't feel like doing anything. 

I haven't had a motivation slump in a while, but I've got to snap to it.

Someone give me a kick in the pants.

Please.

3.5 Things for Thursday

Weigh in Wednesday is a day late...this week has been a bit nuttier than usual.  I broke the scale by accident, when I stepped on it to reach up to dust over the bathroom mirror, but only the plastic window covering the numbers cracked.  It's still telling the truth.  Which this week, was a gain of 2 pounds......but it's water weight, and even though I know it will be gone next week, it's still annoying. grrrrr. 

On the plus side, I'm still doing my strength work, as well as working out with Frank.  He's so strong he can pull me across the kitchen floor.

This particular weekend in May is always busy, and this year is no exception. Luke's birthday is Saturday, he's going to be seven, which is insane to me.  I've been looking at him and wondering where this tall kid came from.  

We're going to have some family over, then watch the Kentucky Derby.  I wished I liked mint juleps.  Or owned a crazy hat. Then there's our annual neighborhood garage sale, I'm hoping to unload a bunch of stuff, my closets and basement are about to explode they're so full.  The day after that is Mother's Day, which is extra special because when Luke was born, we brought him home from the hospital on our first Mother's Day together. 

I won't be able to see my Mom, but her card is in the mail, and I'll be calling her to chat.  This photo is from when I was a baby, I've posted it before, but it's my favorite.  Isn't she pretty?

I'm going to squeeze in a run today, it's finally gorgeous out, but since E is home today, it's going to have to be on the treadmill.  Speaking of running, I got my first DNF for Barefoot Neil's I Can't Afford The Actual Race Virtual Marathon.

I took a week off after I hurt my foot, it was the smart thing to do because it feels a million times better.  In a five day stretch, I ran six miles on Wednesday, three miles on Friday, and then 10 miles in my race Sunday. 

I didn't finish the full 26.2, but obviously, it was still fun : )