Big day tomorrow, Father's day and potty training!

As I sit here typing about my big day tomorrow (my first 5K ever!) I am wondering if having McDonald's was the best choice for my "last meal"...all I can say is that I ate it for Stellan and the MckFamily! (was that believable?)

I think everyone doubted me when I said that I was going to run the Father's day race with my dad this year. After all, I have been a little like the "boy who cried wolf" for a few years. Every year since my dad has run this race in Fairhaven (it's been many) I have said to him, "next year I will run it with you dad!" I am so proud of myself that this is the year!

Training this past month has been hard but it was all worth it. I am proud of my determination and perseverance. I honestly didn't think I had it in me!! As I ran I would occasionally think to myself "if you were able to deliver a baby, you are more than capable to run 3 miles!" and then I would remember that I had a c-section! So then I would remember all the hardships that we have been enduring for the past 2 yrs. or so and it would motivate me to keep striving for that finish line. It is in my sight and I am going for it!

As I run tomorrow I will be leaving another bit of the past behind me. It has been long road, one with hills, bumps and roadblocks but they haven't stopped me yet, and they will not stop me tomorrow!

Wish me luck!


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My big girl proudly sitting next to her accomplishment in the "potty!"


Watching her friends use the "potty" at school has helped Erin take a BIG interest in using the potty herself lately. For the past few week she has been having her diaper changed in the bathroom at school and home (at least by me!) and sits on the toilet to "try" going to the bathroom. To me and her teachers it is the first step in successful potty training.

When we are at home Erin will say she needs to use the potty but usually only after her diaper is wet! She is almost always accurate though when she stops during quiet play and announces that she needs to "do poop on the potty". We are waiting to be able to devote a whole weekend to potty training. It will require 2 full days of no diaper on and total commitment no matter what. Once the diaper is off and the undies go on, there is no turning back, it's too confusing. The only time the diaper will go on is nap and bedtime.

I was hoping to be able to devote this weekend to training but along came Father's day weekend! Better luck next weekend! Greg had literally been looking forward to the day when Erin is out of diapers. He asked me the first week she was home how long it will be before she is potty trained! Really, he asked! I can't believe that the time has finally come and I am so glad that Erin initiated this herself, it will make it that much easier for all of us! (especially Greg...he HATES messes!)

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Happy Father's day to two of the best father's that I know!


I love you Dad!




I love you too, Greg!

A lot of jogging and getting no where!

So it's been a week since I started training for the Father's day race on June 21st and I feel like I have been working hard and getting no where!

If today was Monday I would be "not me-ing" about not pushing myself to do things that I am not able to do or not following the advice of my IRL (in real life) friend Mike, who I have reconnected with through facebook. He's the one who helped me with my training goal sheet. He has been running for a while and has learned through his mistakes and is now teaching me what not to do! (I am so thankful, Mike!)

I just want to be good at this and I don't have the patience to wait and work hard for it. Scratch the latter! I AM working hard, too hard and I pushing myself to be somewhere in the training that I am not. I'm not going to be able to run a mile if I skipped adding more minutes to my jog. How will I ever run 3 miles?!

I have been pushing myself because I want to be able to keep up with my dad. I have been wanting to do this race for years now and now that I registered for it, I am ruining my chances of being successful. It's self sabotage!

Today was my long run and I ended up walking/jogging for an hour without feeling horrible. Tomorrow is a new day and I will stick to the plan. Walk less and add a few minutes to my jog. I started to type "by Friday I will be able to..." but I can't do that! By Friday I will continue to do my best and listen to my body, not push it.

This is my goal for the week:

Make Sunday your long day, and try extending the jog to 7-10 minutes. (maybe I will do that tomorrow to make up for the crappy long day I had today)

This week, again 3 minute walk, 10 minute jog, 5 minute cool down walk. Sunday extend the jog to 12-15 minutes.

5K for Father's day

I tell my dad EVERY year that I am going to train for the Father's day race her runs every year in Fairhaven. This year, I am going to do it! I swear! (and I actually do!)

Today I went to the track near my house to "get my feet wet" and discovered that I am going to need a lot of help! I am the type of person who likes instant gratification and as far as training to run 3.1 miles, it's going to be anything but instant!

So with a little help from my friend Mike, I have a schedule to help me out in the coming weeks! I hope I will be able to stick to the schedule this year and actually run with my dad for Father's day!

Wish me luck!

This week, its all about just getting out there. If you have a school nearby, use the track because its nice and flat, and don't have to think distance, just time. Go out for a 3 minute walk, then 5 minute jog, and end with a 5 minute walk cool down. Make Sunday your long day, and try extending the jog to 7-10 minutes.

Next week, again 3 minute walk, 10 minute jog, 5 minute cool down walk. Sunday extend the jog to 12-15 minutes.

Week three. No more starting walk, just do a good job stretching.
Day 1 - 17 minute jog, 5 min cool down
Day 2 - 20 minute jog, 5 min cool down
Day 3 - 25 minute job, 5 min cool down
If you can fit in 4 days, do day 2 twice.

Week 4,
Day 1 - 30 minute jog, or 3.1 miles, with a cool down.
Day 2 - 20 minute jog, with a 5 min cool down
Race Day.

Any Guesses?

On a warm and breezy, sunny day...where did Erin go to play?

Not Me Monday

I am not obligated to plan a non- preschool graduation for June 12th and still only in the "coming up with ideas" stage of planning. Of course the night has been planned down to the food since September and I haven't been dreading this night since I took this position last June!

I have not been dealing silently with my case of pericarditis since September and today, the 3rd echo. I have had since September did not still show fluid around my heart! I am not secretly thinking it is all due to the toe nail infection I have had (untreated) since pregnant with Erin!! Yikes! That could be dangerous!

I have not been visiting my blog daily just to see that I have still no comments since returning to the bloggy world a few weeks ago. Was the first post back really that bad?!! I have not been singing the song that my mom used to sing to me when I complained that I had no friends, "Nobody likes me. Everybody hates me. I'm gonna eat a worm!" in my head every day!

A mom at Erin's school did not approach me and suggest that we exchange phone numbers so that Erin and her daughter get together for a "play date" sometime this summer. Erin is still a baby and wayyy too young for play dates!

I did not have a fabulous time with Erin, all by myself, at little ole' Slater Park this past Saturday and it certainly was not the high point of my busy weekend and this is not the picture I will use to prove my point!





Tag! You're it!

A post written by Erin...

Could you think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning? All of my favorite things...milk trucks, fire trucks, tractors and ...



my daddy!

Mother's Day...**WARNING>>>I haven't posted in a while, so this could be pretty lengthy!

I'm not sure if I am the only one who remembers things like this but I remember the exact day I became a mother. It was May 5, 2006. Now of course you all know that Erin was born on January 19th and not on a sunny day in May so you can do the math (I also remember that my LMP was April 21st) these are just things that I remember. When you are TTC (trying to conceive) for 7 months, you tend to remember things like that. Everything was charted and planned for those 7 months and when it finally happens it kind of stands out in your memory for a while (or 3 yrs.)

Mother's day was May 14th that year and I remember sitting in a little restaurant in my hometown having breakfast with Greg's family thinking, "I could be pregnant. This could be my first Mother's day"...and it was!

I also remember that it wasn't until May 19th that I found out that I was going to be a mother. It was a typical day in May. I decided to sleep in a little late that morning because there was a thunderstorm happening and I hate lightning.

**Back when I didn't have a 2 year old I could do stuff like wake up late on a work day. The only person I had to worry about was me and doing that takes about 10 minutes!

As I said, we had been TTC for a few months and so I had some spare HTP (pregnancy tests) lying around. Not sure what made me take a test that morning but I am glad I did! Greg had been telling me all week that he thought I was pregnant and I kept insisting that he was wrong. I just had a sinus infection and that afternoon I would go to see a dr. and have it taken care of. But he knew...

Of course the test came back positive and the urine test at the dr's that afternoon confirmed it. I was going to be a mother...finally!!

**Ok, this would be the part of the post where I insert all the funny pregnant belly pictures and such, but thanks to the old hard drive on our PC I lost all of those when our hard drive crashed a year ago. Hopefully some day we can retrieve them...

So here I am in my little silver car driving to work on what is now a sunny Friday morning now that the rain clouds pass, I hear a song by The Fray playing on my radio station, Mix 98.5..."everyone knows I'm in over my head, over my head..." Wonderful theme song for the mother-to-be!

I was sick for the first 3 months of my pregnancy with Erin. From morning until night I was full of nausea. I would get home from work each day and head straight for my bedroom upstairs. The smells that were coming from my first floor was making me sick to my stomach and I couldn't stand to be down there for any longer than I had to be. I lived on Cheerio's and Zantac and I couldn't wait to be out of my first trimester once the second finally came around.

While pregnant I went to 3 concerts and visited Disney World. I enjoyed every second of my "special treatment"...not having to set up cots at nap time, eating the rest of Constantina's lunch from Town Pizza (Just to be clear, I wasn't stealing the lunches of my students! Her family owns the restaurant and once and a while she would have her lunch delivered and let's face it, how much pizza and chicken fingers can one 4 year old eat?!)
I brought a HUGE lunch box to work with me and I ate ALL THE TIME! It was heaven. Normally suppress my appetite and now I was given strict orders to embrace it! I can honestly say that the best thing about pregnancy is all the food you eat during your second trimester!! I would get pregnant all over again just to have that healthy appetite...oh yeah, and for the baby too!!

Of course I gained a good amount of weight and wish I had the pictures to prove it. Greg and I had lengthy discussions (or you could call them arguments!) in the parking lot of Target each trimester. He never did understand my need to buy new clothes every 2 1/2 - 3 months. That was frustrating!

I acted like anything but a mother the day I became one. I was such a baby! After many painful attempts to turn my stubborn baby around we scheduled my c-section for January 19, 2007. I was totally freaked out about the whole surgery and I did nothing to hide my fear. My mom sat with Greg and I while I waited to be prepped for surgery. Actually I think they were the only ones who sat because I was shaking like a leaf! The shaking didn't stop until hours after the surgery and hours after I finally decided I wanted to "play with my baby". (minutes after Erin was born I was asked if I wanted to see her or hold her...or something and I told the nurse that I didn't want to play right now. Who says that?!!)

Once the meds. wore off, I was able to use the bathroom unassisted and my milk started coming in, I was sent home and I was finally able to enjoy being a mother. Everything seemed to come naturally and I was less freaked out about having a baby than I thought I would be. I really didn't mind the around the clock feedings once we got ourselves organized and realized that there was some sort of schedule forming (I'm ALL about organization and schedules...really...I am! Visit my classroom sometime just not my home!) Erin slept in our room with us in a pack and play on the side of my bed. It didn't bother me that we had to sleep with the bathroom light on for those early days, something that would normally annoy me. It didn't bother me that she was feeding around the clock and that I would often fall asleep while nursing and wake up when she was finished. I look back on those days and smile. There's nothing like the euphoria that you feel when you have an infant!

I sit here writing the early days of motherhood listening a CD that I made myself just one month after that positive pregnancy test, playing through a baby monitor. I made the CD for myself and my unborn baby and I remember listening to those songs daily in the shower..."Somewhere over the rainbow, blue birds fly,..."Some say love it is a river that drowns the tender reed"...,"the sun will come out tomorrow"..., "everyone knows I'm in over my head, over my head"!

Happy Mother's day! I hope you all take a moment and celebrate my interpretation of Mother's day and not some Hallmark holiday!



I feel like I should be giving you a present today, Erin. I wouldn't be celebrating today if it weren't for you. I love you Bubba!