Running Commentary

Worse Than A Poke In The Eye With A Shakey Stick April 24 2007

Brendan and Noah were dishing to us about their friends down the street. Their Mom is nice and we get along fine, but she has always struck me as the “fake” mom. She all over protective and crazy attentive to them when you’re looking, meanwhile when they are out front on their bikes they rarely have helmets on and when it’s sunny and hot they never have hats on…you know the type.

either way they are decent people and I don’t mind the kids playing together. However, the middle child is a wack job (I am a middle child…shut up) and does some strange things when he feels like he isn’t getting enough attention.

Today Noah played with them and when I went to pick him up to walk to school he was just climbing off the TRAMPOLINE! (I have a very strict NO TRAMPOLINE rule in my house, as I believe they are springy death traps…our ER here in town was hugely busy this weekend due to trampoline injuries!Proving my point all the more) and he was running for his life because middle child and youngest child were throwing rocks at each other.

Over dinner while Noah retold this story for the 100th time Brendan piped in and said one time when he and oldest child were jumping on the trampoline (HELLO? NO TRAMPOLINE!) middle child was pissed that he wasn’t allowed on it with them and dumped a bucket of water on it and then? Threw a bucket of dry wall mud at them.

He has issues.

Clearly.

ANYWAY, Brendan also told us this story about how middle child threw a stick at his head…it only hit him in the neck but that’s besides the point. The point is the stick.

He called it the shaking stick.

Chris and I wondered what the hell the a shaking stick was.

Well it’s a stick that shakes.

What colour is it?

Grey

Is it pointy?

Kind of…well not really pointy but it has a tip.

How big around it is?

About this big (___) (you get the idea)

What do you mean shakey?

You push a button and it shakes…kind of…more like…….

Vibrates?

YES! 

!!

That’s right. Middle child hit brendan in the neck with a fat, slightly pointy plastic vibrating stick.

At this point Chris and I blew chicken and basmati rice across the table.

(!!)

also, ew.

oh great…another phase April 20 2007

It seems that spring is here. HURRAY for +20C. We like that.

I washed and hung all the bedding on the line yesterday it was SO nice to go to bed in such fresh smelling sheets and duvet covers lastnight.

For the entire 1.5 hrs I got to enjoy it that is.

Then Noah came in, and couldn’t settle down in our bed. So Chris took him back to his bed, where he whimpered and pouted and refused to lay down. I could hear Chris beginning to lose patience with him so I went in and sent him to bed (I make that sound so saintly and selfless when in reality and I stormed in there and shot him a look and hissed at him “speaking to him through clenched teeth is NOT going to help. MORON. Get out!” ahem).

I crawled in beside him ( under his fresh smelling sheets and duvet cover) and he immediately curled into me, SOBBING.

He was crying about all the bugs outside and how terrifying they are. Houseflies! Bees!  SPIDERS! AHH!

I let him know that there weren’t any of those things in our house and certainly not in his room and he would be safe.

He quieted and we dozed. Hours or minutes or seconds later he was whimpering again, asking me if  I would smash all the bugs I see outside with him. Yes…of course I will.

Will you keep me safe from the houseflies too?

Of course I will, but houseflies don’t hurt us.

What if they come and take my blood? (clearly kids at school are talking about bugs)

Well houseflies don’t like blood, they like garbage and stinky stuff, you aren’t stinky enough for a housefly.

But, how do they get your blood? HOW DO THEY GET YOUR BLOOD OUT OF YOUR BODY?

And then he curled into me again and we went back to sleep.

then he punched me…and kicked me…and nudged me…and punched  me and snuggled right into me.
And we slept in a single bed.

At 8am he woke up, looked over at me and said

“What are you still doing here?”

OH Mr Sun! April 19 2007

It’s beautiful and sunny and warm (almost HOT!) here today.

I’ve washed and hung all the sheets on the line.

Plotted out our new veggie garden (ambitious I know, but maybe something will grow this time who knows)

Today is good.

I’m finally menstruating so I’m no longer all “I’m fat and lazy and I can’t run. boo hoo…I’m fat” while i shove fistfulls of chocolate into my face.

It kind of snuck up on me this time (I know..I’m a moron, I’ve only been doing this for what…20 years? Think I should get the hang of it by now) and I was all bitchy and cranky and bloated and mopey.

But see yesterday I finally ran…not a great run but not a horrible one. And when I came home I went to change and HELLO!There you are my moody friend!

DUH!

Jesus change the subject already, who wants to read about my friggin PERIOD, again.

In other news, I am quitting my pain in the ass job next month (after my birthday and I get my gift certificate and buy all my summer clothes for 50% off) and I will make up for my lost pennies (literally) buy selling my stained glass pieces on ebay…or maybe etsy or something. I dunno…I don’t care if anyone buys them I just want to do it them and not have to send my kids with my loopey father inlaw during the summer.

Plus I get the sneaking feeling  that we will be out a manager again soon and I will not fill those shoes this time.

So there.

i’m off to drag noah inside for lunch and then it’s OFF To SCHOOL with him.

Hope it’s sunny where you are.

Shut up & Run…can I get an AMEN? April 18 2007

So I shut up & ran.

It was hard. And F-ing hilly as this part of the country tends to be.

But it was good. And my legs are like jelly.

I did 5k in about 43 minutes, not stellar…but it’s done. And i feel pretty damned good about it.

Of course half way through my run and up my 2nd hill I started to feel really depleted and I thought WTF? I mean I know I’m out of shape but COME ON.

And then I realized. Yeah.

It was 12:45 and I hadn’t eaten a bite all day.

Tea? Sure.

Water? yup.

Food? NO.

Why? Because my mother called and invited Noah over for lunch today. Which was her famous (and famously UNhealthy) newfie fish cakes. These things have made me actually vomit when i was pregnant JUSt from being in the same room and them while they were being prepared.

So obviously I was not going to eat a fish cake…pre-run.

Anyway…I was a hungry hungry hippo.

But I finished it anyway.

tuesday in the sun

Yesterday was gorgeous for the most part.

Noah and I went about our usual morning business, breakfast for him, copious amounts of tea & honey for me.

I nibbled a pb & nutella sandwich and browsed some blogs.

The drapes were open to light the livingroom, FINALLY light that isn’t reflected off the snow.

We decided we would hurry and leave early for school (he doesn’t start until 12:30) so we could play at the park.

Somehow that idea blossomed into LUNCH. AT THE PARK!

I searched the kitchen for picnic fodder and came up only with egg salad sandwichs, apple juice boxes and tea biscuits.

We packed it up and started towards the park.

The park backs on to our street…well kind of.

It backs on to a bush that backs on to our street (and Noah’s school backs on to the park). So on clear and dry days (and most of the wintery winter) Noah and I cut through the bush to get him to school in less than 10 minutes.

So the bush with it’s natural piles of large boulders is where we (and by WE I mean Noah) chose to have our picnic. He loves nothing better than a picnic. We ate egg salad and sipped out drink boxes.  Noah climbed from rock to rock to rock to rock. It was lovely.

After lunch we went to the park where he ran himself into a snizzy, so happy to be outside and warm in a fleece jacket only. The equipment was finally puddle-free (for now anyway), black flies have not reared their ugly heads yet (come on heat wave!) and the bears are too busy finding the dump to bother us in our bush (so far).

To Noah it was the best lunch EVER. It may as well have been filet mignon. He told everyone about the fabulous picnic he had for lunch on the rocks.

After school, I brought him a rice crispy square, we stopped on our rocks again and he had his afternoon snack.

This time he was slightly more subdued and took the time to point out to me which rocks he has peed on from to time when nature calls while he is too busy at the park with his Dad (of course!) to make it up the street to home.

Nice.

If I had been smart enough to charge the batteries in my camera I would have even taken pictures of our picnic…but I’m certifiably brain dead these days so….no such luck.