School Baby Shower

 My classroom aid, Ms. Rivers, planned a wonderful baby shower for me a couple weeks ago at school! We had pizza and cupcakes, visited, and opened presents. Chad and I were overwhelmed at the generosity of my fellow teachers and friends. We received so many wonderful things and can't thank everyone enough! 

This is me opening the most adorable baby book - jungle themed to match our nursery and everything.

Jas, one of my favorite students from last year, is on my left. She came to my shower with her family.

This is the gift from Melanie, another one of my favorite students from my first year- Jasmine's sister.

Apparently, it's a baby shower tradition to wear a silly baby shower hat.

Edible arrangement and flower bouquet from Ms. Rivers - she was so generous in planning and making this special for me.

Baby Shower

 My good friends Jenny and Tana planned the perfect baby shower for me a few weeks ago.  They decided to make it a school theme since I'm a teacher and it was so cute!

 Here's the "chalkboard" sign that was on Jenny's front door.

This is the "schedule" for the day/shower

For "snack time" we had sack lunch type food - sandwiches, individual sized bags of chips, fruit snacks, vegetables, cookies, and water bottles.  We ate using styrofoam school lunch trays. It was all so yummy!

"Snack time" with Kim, Kaylyn, and Andrea

After snack time was "recess" or game time. For the first game, I showed everyone a picnic basket full of assorted baby items and then left the room. Everyone thought they were going to be quizzed on the items that were in the basket, but instead Jenny asked everyone questions about what I looked like/was wearing that day.

Next, we played baby shower Price is Right, which was perfect because that is probably my favorite game show.  Jenny had everyone guess that prices of the assorted baby items from the previous games. I was happy to realize that my guess was way too high and baby things are a little cheaper than I thought.

Tana showed off all of the "Price is Right" Items

For "singing time," we played a fun game where we got into 2 groups and then went back and forth naming a song we could think of that had the word "baby" or "babe". We kept going back and forth until a team couldn't think of a song and then the opposite team won.

Amber, Chelsea, Jillaine, Andrea, and Megan

Kim, Kaylyn, me, Rachel, Emily

 Next was "Show and Tell" when I opened presents. Thank you so much to all my great friends who were so generous. I got so many adorable and useful things.  I can't wait to use them!  Thanks everyone who came - it meant a lot to have so many great friends there!

 Here are some more of the cute decorations by Jenny and Tana.  Thanks again for all of your hard work and thoughtfulness in planning the perfect shower. I can't thank you enough!

Jenny had everyone write a little good luck message or message of advice to us and then she put it in this cute book. Great idea!

Baby Projects

For the past few months I have been working on lots of baby projects to get our "nursery" ready for the baby.  My first project was a baby quilt.  I went with a brown and green monkey theme. This is only the second quilt I have ever made, so I couldn't have done it without the help and advice of my good friends Jenny and Tana. Thanks ladies! 

Here's the completed quilt.

 About a year ago I found a pink surfboard decoration in the dollar section at target and bought it to paint or "do something with" later.  I finally repainted it and turned it into a sign for the nursery door.  I made it to match the baby quilt and valences.

 Next, I made these blocks (also to match the rest of the decor). The first picture is the back of the blocks and the second and third pictures are the front of the blocks.

I also made these window valences to math the baby quilt.  No matter what I did I couldn't get the lighting in the room right to take a very good picture, so this is all I have.

And here is what I look like today - at 37 weeks and 4 days. I am getting tired and uncomfortable and we are going so excited for our baby boy to come! We can't wait!

37 weeks - Full Term!!

Progress: Weeks 12-17

Below are the miles (and now meters too since I started swimming again a few weeks ago) that I have run/biked/swam for weeks 12 through 17 of 2012. 

Week 12: Ran 27 miles, Biked 145.8 miles

Week 13: Ran 45 miles, Biked 141 miles

*Week 14: Ran 37 miles, Biked 60 miles

**Week 15: Ran 11 miles, Biked 133 miles, Swam 5,700 meters (3.54 miles)

***Week 16: Ran 13 miles, Biked 216.9 miles, Swam 3,200 meters (1.99 miles)

Week 17: Ran 31 miles, Biked 149.2 miles, Swam 5,700 meters (3.54 miles)


2012 TOTAL MILES: Ran: 470.5 miles, Biked 2,602.44 miles, Swam 14,600 meters (9.07 miles)

2012 GRAND TOTAL MILES: 3,082.01 MILES


*I ran the Charlottesville Marathon this week, and consequently the mileage in the following weeks for running were lower as I was recooperating.

**This week I commennced my swimming training for the year.  I usually go swimming twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday early in the morning before work.  I go to the Wilson Aquatic Center in D.C. where I get to swim for free because I have a DC ONE card.  It is an amazing indoor aquatics center with an olympic distance pool (on certain days of the week anyways).  I love getting up super early and taking advantage of this wonderful swimming facility I have access to and getting my laps in before work.  I can't think of any better way to start the day.

***Biking mileage was a bit higher this week because I did a century (100 mile bike ride) on Emancipation Day, a holiday that D.C. city government employees get off. 

34 weeks, 3 days

'Nattitude' -- We've got it!

We went to a Nationals game last night and had a lot of fun. We definitely chose the right game to go: we got free tee shirts from an employee who went into the stadium office and found us some extra shirts even though the free promotional shirts were all gone and the game went into extra innings so it was extra exciting. We went down to ground level in the middle of the ninth, thinking the game was almost over but we ended up getting an extra hour and a half of action. The Nats were down for much of the game but made a thrilling come back to win in the 13th inning -- it was epic! I highly recommend watching the video below of the celebration when the Nats won in the 13th; pay special attention to the guy who took his shirt off and is howling at the sky at about 27 seconds.

Marathon in Charlottesville, VA

I ran my second marathon yesterday (my third if you count the marathon at the end of the Chesapeake Man Triathlon I completed) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville was a beautiful place to run a marathon. The 26.2 mile course started and ended on the University of Virginia campus and led us through scenic country back roads, a couple trails, parks, highways, and even some residential neighborhoods.

I finished the marathon in 3 hours and 51 minutes. My goal was to finish under 4 hours, so I am very happy with my performance in the race. I finished this race in about 45 minutes less than the last one I ran back in November. I think the biggest difference between the race yesterday and the marathon last November was that I never ‘hit the wall.’ This is when a runner completely runs out of gas and cannot continue running. Yesterday, I was able to power through the entire race, and most importantly the last 7 or 8 miles even though I was definitely feeling the soreness and tightness in my legs.

To prevent myself from ‘hitting the wall’ this time, I had an improved plan for sustenance (basically I had access to Gatorade and Powerbars) throughout the race and I had also intensified my training regimen in the weeks and months leading up to the race. I was running between 30 and 45 miles a week in the final weeks leading up to the race. These things made a huge difference.

The next races on the calendar for me are a Half IronMan in May and my second IronMan in June. This means I need to modify my training from strictly running and biking to including swimming along with continuing to run and bike a lot. I am really looking forward to continuing to work hard, setting new goals, and hopefully reaching all of my goals by continuing to strengthen my mental and physical strength and determination.

Cherry Blossom Kite Festival

Every year during Washington D.C.'s annual Cherry Blossom Festival they have a Kite Festival where tons of people go to the National Mall and fly kites. There are also contests for the best kites in different categories, kite trick contests, etc. Chad and I didn't plan far enough ahead to buy a kite to fly, but we went anyway and watched everyone else fly kites and enjoyed the nice weather. We couldn't believe how high some people got their kites! As you can see in the first picture below, it looks like there are a couple kites close to the top of the Washington National Monument! Maybe next year we'll bring a kite to the festival and teach our little boy to fly it. I can't remember the last time I flew a kite, but I remember how fun it was running down the street and letting the sting out and trying to get the wind to catch it. I also remember many kites getting stuck in the trees. Good thing we always bought cheap ones!

33 Weeks!

Today I am 33 weeks and 1 day! Time has gone really fast! Chad and I are getting really excited to welcome this baby boy to our family. I am feeling pretty good, but also starting to feel really tired!

Cherry Blossoms

One of the most beautiful signs that winter is over and spring has arrived is the blooming of all the Cherry Blossom trees along the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. The blossoms came much earlier than normal this year because of how warm the winter was. In fact, the blossoms came so much earlier than they usually do that it has been announced that when the actual 'Cherry Blossom Festival' starts there might not even be any blossoms left on the trees. We also heard that last Friday was going to be the last day of 'Peak Bloom,' which meant that there would start to be less of the beautiful pink and white flowers on the trees. We decided to brave the masses of tourists to spend some time walking around the blossom trees and take some pictures.

30 weeks, 4 days

Here's a picture from last night of how big I've gotten. The picture below it is from about 3 weeks ago. I'm feeling pretty good. I think I've actually felt better in the third trimester than I did in the first or second. I'm starting to get more tired though. We are so excited and can't wait to meet our little boy!

30 weeks, 4 days

27 weeks, 3 days

Progress: Weeks 7-11

Below are the miles I have biked/run the past 5 weeks as well as the total mileage for the year so far:

Week 7: Ran 30 miles, biked 163.5 miles.

Week 8: Ran 32 miles, biked 112.8 miles.

Week 9: Ran 34 miles, biked 189 miles.

Week 10: Ran 40 miles, biked 182 miles.

Week 11: Ran 40 miles, biked 152 miles.

2012 miles so far (as of 3/17/12): Ran 306.5 miles, biked 1,756.54 miles.


Note: I did a 20 mile run on Saturday (the 17th). This long run was in preparation of my next marathon that is 3 weeks away. I ran 20 miles in 2 hours and 49 minutes, which is by far my best time and best performance for a 20 mile run. To my pleasant surprise, my legs were not that sore (relatively speaking of course, in comparison to other runs of 20 miles or longer that I have done).