Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Nannying Dilemmas

It's been raining for what feels like forever but it's really only been since Sunday.  I checked the weather last night and there were thunderstorms predicted for every day this week until Sunday.  I sometimes like rain (like when I'm sleeping or napping) and I know we need it, we've been having a lot of trouble with wildfires because of a drought... but rain messes up all of my plans.

1.  I can't run outside.  Treadmills are boring.
2.  I can't do stadiums outside.  Stair steppers are boring and I sure as heck am not going to be running like I do when I do real steps that aren't moving under your feet.
3.  When I nanny, I like to go outside.  Parks, pools, backyards, walks, etc.  When it rains, we're stuck inside and I reeeeeally don't like to put in any movies while I'm there.  So... more boring.

BUT the sun is out today so I'm guessing those predicted thunderstorms just mean that we're in the summer afternoon thunderstorm routine.  I can deal with that.

Tuesday
Stayed inside all day with this little guy


Who is obviously not very photogenic.  He makes this face every time I pull out the camera. 

This child is the smartest little 18 month old I know.  He can speak in 2-3 word sentences, knows his colors, can count to 5, can poop on the potty and a whole lot of other things 18 month olds shouldn't be able to do. 

I had planned to run early in the morning before work but folded laundry instead.  I ended up at the gym a little before I had to teach ballet class so I ran a few slow miles on the treadmill while watching Ellen.  I've decided that if Ellen is on I can stand the treadmill.  Why can't she be on all the time?

 My feelings about the treadmills at this particular gym...

If I stick to my running plan tomorrow I will have hit an all time monthly running high of 161 miles!!!  Not sure how that happened but I'm excited about my total for the year if I'm able to keep up this kind of mileage this easily.

I was supposed to be nannying today but I was never told a time to arrive and can't get a hold of my employer.  Day off?  I hope so!

I need some advice.  I've been watching this family's kids for about 5-6 years so we have a very sort of casual working relationship.  I think it's so casual that I sometimes get taken advantage of, which I actually don't mind too much cause I love them to death.  Anyways, sort of beside the point.  Every week I watch the kids for about 3-4 hours.  We have a specific day set aside that is "their day" - we usually do similar times each week but the time does change a little bit from week to week (usually starts around 9-10).  My employer texts me sometime prior to our pre-arranged day to tell me what time to come.  However, a lot of the time she doesn't send a text until late the night before.  Recently she  has been forgetting to send a text at all.  What should the protocol be?   I usually send her a text asking her what time I should be there.  This week her cell phone is broken so I can't text so I called her around 9 asking if we were on for today.  It's 10, she hasn't called back so I'm assuming I have a day off?

I guess I'm just wondering if it's okay for me to assume I'm not working when I haven't received a text from her or if I should bend over backwards to make sure I get some kind of confirmation from her (ie: calling/texting/fb messaging).  On the one hand I don't feel like it's my responsibility to find out what time she needs me and that if she doesn't tell me a time then I shouldn't have to show up... but then I worry that she's expecting me and forgot she didn't give me a time and that she will be upset that I didn't ask what time I should come if I didn't know a time. 

Anyways, if you're a mom or just have an opinion on the subject I'd love to hear it.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Happy Tropical Storm Memorial Day!

I'm back home and enjoying having all of my personal belongings in the room with me.  There's nothing like realizing you used all of your clean clothes and don't have the time to make the trip back home to get more.  Or forgot your ballet shoes and have to teach 3 ballet classes.  Or forgot your phone charger at home.  I guess I'm not a great packer?  I either pack nothing... or this happens

Yeah...

I have nothing planned for today and it is wonderful!  I work most weekends which means I rarely have a whole day off.  Originally, I wanted to do something OUTSIDE like beach, pool, long bike ride, some trail walking/bike riding, etc BUT all of my outside plans have been derailed by Tropical Storm Beryl.  It's not always fun living in Florida.  Hurricane season is upon us which means lots of rain. 

Rainy day means I've spent a good deal of time in bed, slept in, finally woke up to make it to circuit training.  Ran a couple of treadmill miles after class and have basically done nothing else but lay in bed reading and drinking coffee.  My kind of day :) for one day anyways.

Last week I had a great time getting in my daily walks cause I got to walk on this beautiful trail


I love running alone but I get out of my mind bored while walking by myself, but not when I get to walk trails


I did not enjoy running last week though.  I thought it would be great, since I was closer to where I work, I thought I would have time to run outside and I was really looking forward to it. 


Well, I found out that when I run unfamiliar routes the miles seem much longer to me.  So, a 6 mile run feels more like 8.  I think maybe that's why races seem so much harder to me even though I usually run slower than my training pace.  

After my crazy week I was SOOO looking forward to this long weekend to just kind of rest and recuperate.  Saturday was my birthday and I had a nice, low key day.  Birthdays are one of the few occasions where I can convince the family to come with me to fun local restaurants.  We tried out a place I had never been to before called Civilization. 


Everyone decided to get something different so we could try a little of everyone's dinner.

I ended up with two appetizers:

Pakora Chickpea, fresh spinach & onion
fritters."Served with cilantro chutney

And

Chole! (Chō - lay) Curried chickpeas & tomatoes
with fresh cilantro and flatbread.

The pakora was soooo good.  I really liked the chole too but would probably not order it again.

My sister, Rachel, got the sweet potato enchiladas.  I think her meal was my favorite of all the meals that we ordered. 

Sweet Potato Enchiladas Sweet potato,
spinach, avocado, cheddar, & rice baked in a flour
tortilla. Topped with tomatillo cream sauce &
served with black beans.


My dad ordered one of the specials for the night so I don't have a description but he ended up with Pumpkin Lasagna.  It had a mixture of pumpkin and butternut squash as the filling.  The dish had cheese so it was not vegan but I'm pretty sure if we go again and they are offering it as a special I should just order it and pretend it doesn't have any cheese.  It was mouthwatering delicious.

My mom ended up with roasted veggies and fried polenta.

Roasted Vegetables with Fried Polenta
Fresh vegetables marinated & roasted in olive oil,
balsamic vinegar, & herbs over crisp fried polenta
cakes. Topped with house made tomato caper
sauce & broiled mozzarella cheese.


Very very good.  Difficult to choose what you're going to order if you don't get to sample some of everyone else's meal.

I will definitely be back.

Good food, good company = good birthday :)

Monday, May 21, 2012

It's Monday!

Today's Workout:  Stadiums followed by 1 hour Circuit Training class


This week I get to hang out with these guys.  


They follow me all over the house.  


 Once again, I'd like to point out my stellar camera skills

I think they're trying to tell me something but I can't figure out what it is.  Probably that they want more food... which I can't give them.  I feel bad for animals, how would we feel if we could only eat one scoop of food in the morning and in the evening? 

House sitting/pet sitting is probably one of the easiest jobs around.  You basically do your normal routine while living at someone else's house and then get paid for it.  But for some reason I don't enjoy it?  I have a hard time sticking to my normal routine.  It's like suddenly I'm on vacation and just want to sleep.  Hm, I wonder if this says something about my bed at home.  Like, it's not a very comfortable bed so it's easy for me to get up in the morning?

It doesn't help that my house is just 10 minutes away.  I end up being super lazy and not packing anything except for enough clothes for overnight and the next day and then stop in at my house everyday to exchange clothes, pick up anything new I need, drop off the stuff I'm done with.

So, every Sunday I get kind of dressed up for church.  As in, during my normal everyday life of babysitting and teaching dance I basically don't wear real clothes, so on Sunday I try to dress up in real people clothes.  Since this is such a big event for me I started taking pictures of myself every week.  The idea was that, if I was in a rush and wasn't feeling creative enough to pull together an outfit from scratch then I could just look at all the pictures of all of the previous Sunday outfits and then just re-wear an already assembled outfit. 

Lucky you, since I have these pictures of myself looking like a real person, I'm going to post them on here.  If for no other reason than to balance out the massive amount of sweaty post workout pictures I post of myself with no make up on.



Happy Monday - make it great! :)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

That thing between your two ears

Well, it's been a good long while since I wrote one of these things... blog post?  Is that what they're called? 

I honestly can't promise that I'll be consistent, I haven't in the past so why would I be now?  BUT I would like to be.  Goal is one post a week, so we'll see.  Maybe it's just me but trying to gather all my scattered thoughts and brief moments of insight into a concise post is not the easiest thing to do.

If you're wondering, I'm still obsessed with running.  I've finally gotten to the point where I'm not as vocal about it and don't feel the need to post every single mile I run on facebook.  It's sad that not posting running mileage on facebook is a proud accomplishment for me.  But I've finally kind of gotten over that excitement that I had a few years ago when every long run was a new distance that I had never run before or even imagined myself running.

I'm not saying that running isn't exciting for me, but it's become kind of more a private excitement for me.  It's something that I love but it's not something that I need to share with the whole world anymore.  It's for me and for my enjoyment.

With that said, I'm sure it will still appear in my blog, but I'm hoping to (usually) keep it to a picture and distance/time, none of this talking about it for paragraphs and paragraphs.  I know that gets old :).

So, today I wanted to talk a little bit about that thing between your two ears... yeah, your brain.  Last night I went to bed early really excited about running.  I had randomly planned an 18 miler.  No, I'm not training for a marathon (yet, still have a few months before that starts) I just wanted to run 18 miles, cause I can.  But when I woke up this morning, feeling completely rested and not sore for some reason I didn't even feel like running 1 mile.

I looked out of the window and noticed it was grey and cloudy and quickly thought about skipping long run Saturday for a week.  After checking the weather and discovering that there was a 10% of rain throughout most of the day I decided that wasn't really an option and I needed to get out of my head about whatever it was that was making me not want to run and just get out there.

See, after a few years of running I know that even when I don't feel like running at all, once I'm out the door the battle is mostly won.  Within 1-2 miles I usually perk up and enjoy a nice long run.  And if I don't end up perking up, I can turn around and I've at least done 4 miles.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I've discovered that most of my "I don't want to do this, I can't do this" is all in my head.  I've learned to conquer my mental battle where running and exercise are concerned and I'm beginning to do the same in other areas of my life. 

I was talking to a good friend a couple days ago and she was surprised to hear about some of my insecurities, telling me that the person I presented to the world was strong, confident and sure of herself.  It's weird to think that others only see the girl who is unsure of herself if I let them.  The battle that takes place in my head will only continue to get easier and easier each time I am successful in putting down thoughts that don't belong there.  Insecurities are only as big as we let them be and whatever doubts we have about our abilities are probably mostly all in our heads.  We really are capable of so much more than we believe of ourselves.

Get out of your comfort zone, keep growing

Get out of your comfort zone, keep growing

That's where life happens.  And I want to experience some life.



Post run sweaty goodness.  I believe I was trying to show you my shoe.  Great camera skills I've got there.