Running on Hard Mode...With Fantastic Eyeliner!

It is finished.                    

This week has been rough, running-wise. I've either got some sort of bug, or I'm having an "auto-immune thing." That's what I've started calling the "my glands are swollen, I feel like I'm getting sick, but no one around me is sick," stuff that I get frequently. Either way, I haven't felt awesome. I pushed through it on Monday and did three miles anyway, but the last couple of days, I've just stuck with walking at work. So today, I drug my hind end out of bed and told myself I could just walk. ... I'm so sneaky.

Nine times out of ten, once I start walking, it eventually turns into a run. I did end up walking for ten minutes before decided to see how running felt. I was able to finish out three miles and now at least my legs feel awesome.

I've been a bit hit and miss with my running lately. Averaging two to three three mile runs a week with a four miler on the weekends. While that's certainly nothing to sneeze at, I'm not really working towards anything right now, and I think I get more satisfaction when I have a goal, so I'm thinking about training for a 10k or maybe a half.

Random photos of family fun.

Since having S, and finally getting back to running the last year and a half, I've avoided doing more than six miles because of my weight. While it's been on a SLOW, but steady decline (then flattening out into unintentional maintenance mode the last six months), I'm not quite as light as I'd like to be before getting into the higher mileage. The reason for this is twofold (yup - twofold): one - the first time I tried to train for a half, I was a few pounds heavier than I am now, and once I got up to seven miles, my knees were NOT happy and that was before I had psoriatic arthritis.

The second reason is time/speed. I think, in the back of my mind I've been assuming that as I get lighter, my speed will pick back up to where it was - and let's face it, running long distances REALLY slow take a LONG time.


That being said, I think I'm going to search for a plan that incorporates some speed work with a longer run on the weekends. Brilliant, right? I know, I know, I should totally coach. :O)

Speaking of long run on the weekends, a couple of weeks ago I had some fun and did a test of the new Enduring Eyeliner I ordered. It's supposed to be practically bullet proof, so I decided to test it out on a long run. I put some on my eyes, of course, but also drew a smiley face on my forehead to see if it would stand up to all of the sweat.

The result? My eyes were perfect, not a smudge or smear. They even held up after a shower and a full day of activities, including yard work in the hot sun. I was impressed!

Unfortunately, the smiley face didn't make it. Apparently sweating profusely and then wiping at your forehead was too much, but I suppose that is fairly reasonable.

So, if you are looking for something that will stay on your EYES for a long run, let me know, and I can hook you up with the perfect eyeliner. If you're looking for a way to keep drawings on your sweaty forehead, sadly I cannot help you.

Hope everyone had an awesome run today, or has one in their near future.

Take care,

~Megan

Bad Run Turned Decent Walk

"The only bad workout is the one you didn't do." We've seen this all over, right? Well, let me tell you, I had a bad run yesterday. Don't get me wrong, I'm still glad I did it, but MAN it was rough.

I mentioned in my last post that I'd had in interruption in my antidepressants that led to a seriously unpleasant mood shift. While that is getting better, it's still not quite back to normal yet. That on top of some general life stress put me in a really nasty funk last night. So I decided to go for a run outside. (If you've followed me for very long, you'll know that outdoor running is pretty rare for me).

Whelp...it sucked. I felt like a clumsy elephant. Everything hurt - my muscles were screaming at me, my joints weren't happy, and I felt like I could feel every single extra pound as my feet hit the pavement. So I stopped to walk. I thought, "it's ok, I'll warm up." Noooopppeee. Every time I tried to pick back up to a gentle jog, my body rebelled. I seriously felt like I hadn't been running in months. It sucked. Did I say that already? Well, it bears repeating.

Having a bad run when I needed that run to help my mood also was not good. I almost started crying. But then, I took a deep breath and looked at the beautiful evening and the green trees and perfect weather and made myself smile until I meant it. I reminded myself that I like walking and that there is no shame in needing to take it easy if that's what my body is telling me to do. Once I embraced the walking, I was able to relax and enjoy it. I tried a few pick-ups, discovered that things were not inclined to change, and went back to walking and listening to music. By the time I got home, I was in a much better mood. It wasn't as good as a run, but it worked well enough.

Here's hoping tomorrow's run is better. Talk soon!

Zombie Run and Shameless Plug

Hi all! I suppose first of all I should share some sad news that I forgot to mention last time. Miles, my treadmill, has passed away. After many years and many, many miles, he came to the end of his useful life. He will live on in our hearts.

Here lies Miles, beloved treadmill, forever in our hearts and quads.

This is either a great or tragic segue into my next topic - Zombie Run. I came across this app a few years ago and thought it looked interesting, but wasn't able to try it out at the time. While putting useful apps on my new phone this weekend, I came across it again and (because it was free and now works for treadmill running as well) decided to give it a go. It is awesome! You turn on your playlist and then start the app. I used mission mode and it started me out in a helicopter that crashes outside an isolated town trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. It then tells you that you have to make a run for the town and hope for the best. There are intermittent cut scenes where the tower is communicating with you collect supplies as you go. When your run is finished, you can work on "building" the town with the supplies you've collected - pretty cool.

Unfortunately, I picked a music playlist that was too short and when I changed playlists, the game lost my spot. I think this was because I hadn't completed the registration process, so I'm going to try it out again on tomorrow's run and see if this resolves itself. I was a little disappointed at how long it went between "communications" - about 4 songs (12-ish minutes) for the first bit and another 3 or 4 for the next. Tomorrow, I'm going to set it for a shorter duration and see if the same scenes happen in a shorter time frame.

Incredible view and nice camera on my new phone - yay!

Kayaking fun.

My and my fella

In family life, we had a great weekend hanging out at the lake with my in-laws. S got to play by the water with grandma and run around looking for things in the woods, and I got to go kayaking, so I was pretty happy. Poor Cody got a zillion mosquito bites and I got exactly two. My dad was telling me that taking B12 will keep mosquitoes away, so I'm wondering if my recent love of brussel's sprouts might have something to do with it. That, or he's just tastier than I am. :O)

On to the shameless plug. I've recently started selling LimeLife skincare and cosmetics. If you might be looking for chemical-free skincare or professional-quality cosmetics, check out my store website or Facebook page. I'm always around if you have any questions.

Hope you all have a beautiful Monday!

~Megan

Running at Work?!

I got a huge boost of motivation yesterday - even more today because I'm not really sore. Because of this newfound motivation, I'm kind of wanting to do a bit of a run streak (provided I don't have any bits that start to protest). Unfortunately...I didn't run this morning. Little man was pretty restless last night and I was POOPED, so it just wasn't happening.

Since I didn't make the early morning run, I figured I would just have to be that much more determined to get in a run this evening. Then, I remembered that we are scheduled to go over to Cody's parents' house tonight for dinner. Sigh. Knowing I had a rough night last night, I really doubt I'm going to be able to push through and make myself run when we get home. So... I did a walk/run on my lunch break!

I was hoping to do around 16 minutes of steady jogging if nothing was sore, but it turns out my calves are sayin' howdy, so I adjusted to a walk/run. My feet were all set because I keep a pair of running shoes under my desk in case I'm not wearing walk-friendly shoes and I'm feeling the need to move. The rest of my outfit wasn't necessarily "run-friendly" (jeans, a wrap top, and a sweater), but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?


I ended up doing 20 minutes alternating between walking and jogging. The jogging intervals felt a little faster than normal because my calves were burning and I was anxious to get to the pillar that meant "walk." I then did 10 minutes of walking in the hopes to stop sweating before I returned to my desk. It helps that it's 18 degrees outside, so walking between the offices and the powerhouse was CHILLY.

In other news, I've been approved to work from home every Tuesday. If everything goes well, I might be able to do two days at home every week- yay! Being able to see my fellas on my lunch and breaks is huge. I'm really excited. Since I've done some telework in the past, I have an office set up in the basement with everything I need, so I can start next week. Can't. Wait.

Here's to day 2 of my mini run-streak! I'd like to get to 30, but since I'm not exactly in top shape at the moment, I am prepared to adjust if anything starts acting up. We'll see how it goes.

Happy Hump Day!

2/30

ONE MILE!!!

Last night was magical and the little man didn't wake up at all - woo hoo! I was enjoying the sleep so much that when my alarm went off at 4, I decided to keep a good thing going and sleep for another hour... Of course, S was having none of that, so I got up to feed and change him and then put him back to bed... by then I figured the remaining half hour would be better spent on my treadmill than in bed. So, once again, my tiny person managed to help me get in my run this morning. He's kind of awesome like that.

So, I got on the treadmill and did a five minute warm up, expecting to repeat the 1.5 min/1 min intervals I did last week. I started out at an "easy" pace, thinking I would definitely speed up my next interval...or...maybe I would see how long I could keep going. Somewhere in the second minute I knew I was going to go a whole mile.

It took me 15:47 (I literally used to be able to walk that fast), but it was AWESOME and I didn't slow down at all. I mean, let's be real, it felt like a fat person running a mile, but it was AWESOME. My back felt fine and my legs felt good. I was huffing and puffing, but I DID IT! Even better - I know I'm going to do it again!! It has been well over a year since I've run a mile and to finally be able to do so again makes me feel like I may actually be able to get back to where I used to be. Like everything else in life, it's going to take time and work, but it is possible.

As discouraging as it can be to have to start out this slow, I have to remember that 1) when I first started running, I ran just as slow and 2) I've never run while weighing as much as I do now. Getting this much mass moving takes work! I don't say that to put myself down, I say it to be realistic and to remind myself that, as I get lighter, it will get easier. It is supposed to be hard. Hard burns calories, right?  Hard is what makes it amazing.

I'm sure I have various life details I could add, but I think I will stop there and just bask in today's accomplishment before tackling a new one tomorrow.

Happy Tuesday!

What was your last major accomplishment?

**Shout out to Richard who just completed his first Ultra. Way to go!
**Also congrats to Christy who just became a Marathon Maniac.

You're both insane and inspiring!


1/30

Treadmills fix everything

I have to start out by saying that my wonderful husband fixed my treadmill last night. He's the best! I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous when he started ripping the belt (yes, ripping). I'll explain in a minute.

So, I've had a rough couple of days - which you may have picked up on in yesterday's post. I've been struggling with depression and stress and have been very short-tempered (sorry loved ones!), and feeling like I've turned into some horrible person that's angry at the world. I finally realized that part of the problem is that I don't have an outlet for my stress. Don't get me wrong, I have an amazing support system that will let me vent at a moment's notice and would help with anything they can, but sometimes you've talked it to death and there is nothing left to say. Sometimes you just need a run.

I came to this conclusion on Sunday night so Cody informed me that we were going to fix my treadmill as soon as he picked me up from the bus stop after work. I then (tearfully - I mentioned the depression, right?) proceeded to explain that that wouldn't work because:
1) I had to cook dinner when we got home.
2) Immediately after eating dinner, I have to soak up all the baby snuggles I can before the little man falls asleep - this can be a very slim window and there are tears involved (mine) if I miss my snuggle time after being at work all day.
**Sometimes Most of the time, when I am really depressed, I tend to get really pessimistic and everything seems impossible.

Wow. Different eCard, same runner.

Because my fella knows this about me, he was prepared with a rebuttal:
1) We can afford ONE night of McDonald's.
2) We are taking the little man downstairs with us and you are going to snuggle him while I fix your treadmill. Boom - lawyered.

So that's exactly what we did. As soon as we got home, I changed into running clothes and bundled up the little dude and we all went downstairs. Little man and I settled in to my comfy chair and watched Cody work.

He loosened the belt, flipped it back, and tightened things back up. Then he turned it on and about 10 seconds later, the belt flipped again. He repeated the steps, working the belt a little to the right to try and keep things from catching - but the exact same thing happened again. I was starting to think we wouldn't be able to fix it (feeling pessimistic, remember?) when he looked up at me and said, "do you mind if I trim the belt?" My mama bear instinct kicked in on behalf of my beloved treadmill, but since the next step would likely be replacing the belt anyway, I told him to go ahead.

He made a snip - with nail clippers because the scissors were upstairs and he gets a strange enjoyment from making things work - and then started ripping the edge off. He only took off about 3/8 of an inch and because it ripped along the weave of the belt, it is perfectly straight and you can't even tell. I have to give him credit - he fixed my treadmill with an Allen wrench and nail clippers. Well done, sir.

So, I hopped on to check the tension and make some final adjustments... and then... I went for a run!!! "Run" might be a bit generous, but I got sweaty and out of breath and it was amazing. I made myself stop after 20 minutes to see how my back would hold up, but things felt pretty good. I did one minute walk/one minute jog intervals. My back did tighten up after I sat for a bit, but it feels fine this morning.

I'm pretty sure I was grinning like an idiot the rest of the evening. I slept like a rock (with a minor 3 am baby wake-up) and actually feel well-rested this morning. I can't remember the last time I felt well-rested. I also feel like someone took the chaos in my head and shook it so that things settled into neater stacks of manageable issues.  

I'd almost forgotten how much of a relief running can be. Running has a way of draining away all of my irritation, frustration, anger at the injustices of the world, or fears that I'm not doing all that I could/should be doing. It makes me feel like a better, more patient, happier version of myself.

I told Cody this morning how much better and well-rested I feel, ending with, "treadmills fix everything. Maybe if I run hard enough, money will start to come out, too."

Lastly, I will leave you with a picture from one of my indoor walks last week because I didn't take any pictures of the events listed above. 

Happy Tuesday!!!

Happy Tuesday, My Inner Runner, and Lists

 Happy Tuesday, everyone! I'm not sure why, but Tuesdays are one of my favorite days of the week. I think it just be the fact that it isn't Monday anymore.

Day two of physical therapy exercises seems to be going pretty well. I'm starting out with 10 minutes in the morning and stretching at night in the hopes that I won't overdo it. So far, so good. If my daily walks go well and I'm still feeling good by Friday, I might try a gentle interval run (my inner runner just clapped her hands with glee).

So if the inner runner is clapping her hands and the outer runner can't run - what do you do? Well, being the nerd that I am, I make lists and plans. I have a Project Planner notebook that is full of lists and plans for everything from weight loss to school schedules and home improvement plans. It is delightfully random and gives me a lot of joy. So, of course there is a page for the project "Return to Running." The list looks something like this:

• Morning PT exercises: Do 10-15 minutes of PT exercises  in the morning and 10-15 minutes of stretching at night.
• Daily walks: Continue to walk at work during breaks (1 hour total per work day).
• Add treadmill: After 2 weeks of steady PT exercises and stretching, add 15 minutes of treadmill time in the morning. Walk if necessary, but slowly add gentle running intervals.
• Transition out of PT: Use the 10-15 minutes reserved for PT to do ab exercises, planks, and push ups. 
• Increase treadmill time: After 2 weeks of 15 minute workouts, increase treadmill time to 30 minutes, slowly increasing running intervals until you can run 2 miles nonstop consitantly.
• Start running for distance: Slowly increase distance to 3-4 miles per day with a long run of 6-8 on the weekends.

Under the "Next Steps" section, I have listed my goal to run a marathon by next September (or the first week in October if I have to use my backup race), so I will need to start training by mid May or early June.

Making a plan always makes me feel better about things. It helps remind me that even though I'm not where I want to be right now, I am headed in that direction... however slowly. Fortunately, slow and steady is kind of my jam.

I will leave you with a photo from the weekend that I forgot to post yesterday:

S with his Auntie Erin

What's your inner runner doing today?

 

Run in the Rain and a Blogging Fail

First of all, I have to give a shout out to the best husband ever! I mentioned that I really wanted to try and get a run in after work and he got the pooch and the little man all packed up so that we could go to the park when I got home. He even made us tuna sandwiches so we I wouldn't get hungry and change our my mind (he knows me so well).

Old shoe photo, just for good measure.

So, I had a glorious two mile walk/jog in the rain. It was beautiful. The 1.5 mile track winds in and out of trees and has some gentle hills. It is awesome. I think the last time I ran here was during marathon training. Of course, any self-respecting blogger would take a few pictures along the way, right? Some shots of the path...Me-looking all wet, but happy... The obligatory shoe picture so you can see how awesome my neon green shoes are... How about a shot of my Garmin when I as done? ...Nope. I remember thinking at several points along the way that these would be great photo ops...but did I have a phone or camera? No. I did not. ...Blogging Fail...

The run itself had glimpses of awesomeness interspersed with a knee that was hurting and a body that felt - well, like it weighed 300 pounds. I tried not to get frustrated that I used to be able to walk as fast as I was jogging. I may have to leave the Garmin behind next time and not pay attention to how fast I'm going. Progress will happen, I just have to keep plugging away at it, right? I know the more I run, the fitter (is that a word?) and lighter I will get. The lighter I get, the easier running will be. The bright side? My Garmin says I burned over 600 calories going just two miles. That may be a bit over-zealous, but I'll take it. The celebration that followed involved warm pajamas, a snuggly baby, and a couch. Endorphin-laced laziness is the very best.

In other news, do you know what happens when you tell everyone how well your baby is sleeping? He wakes you up. At two am. And won't go back to sleep. I want to be mad at the little stinker, but then he looks up and gives me a huge gummy grin and my insides go all squishy. Cuteness is the ultimate self-defense mechanism. That and that snuggly baby smell. I don't think most babies would make it to adulthood if it weren't for these things.

I'm looking forward to a four day weekend (thank you Columbus day) with lots of naps, couch snuggling, running, and picture taking -I promise.

Happy Thursday, Friends!

Running Won't Kill You

"Running won't kill you, you'll pass out first."

This used to be one of my favorite quotes. I used it as my senior quote in high school. Before high school I, like many people, viewed running more as something you do only when someone is chasing you. Running makes me feel a little bit special because I choose to do something that is not easy. In choosing this quote, I was identifying myself as a runner... kind of snarky one at that. I felt that it embodied my philosophy of just putting my head down and going the distance, even if you get there last. Then one day, my husband collapsed at the end of a five mile run and stopped breathing. Suddenly this quote seemed a whole lot less amusing.


Now don't get me wrong, I understand that this quote is meant to be funny and many others like it aren't actually suggesting you run/work out until you die - but I think it is important to remember to exercise (no pun intended) a little bit of caution.

In my husband's case, he hadn't been working out much and was dehydrated which led to an escalation that ended in heat stroke in 60 degree weather and a permanently disabling muscular condition. The sergeant that was in charge wanted to punish him for being out of shape, and pushed him to keep going (ah, but that's an angry rant for another day) far past what his body could handle.

The point I'm trying to get to is that sometimes you can push too hard. As runners, I think most of us know this line pretty well. I know that my bad knee will usually hurt for about the first mile, but that it will pass, or that my left ankle gets stiff after a good workout but will loosen up if I walk for a bit. When I used to have trouble with asthma, I knew exactly how hard I could push on a run before I needed to either back down or grab an inhaler. We all have those little things that we are in tune with. I think the danger comes when we venture into uncharted territory - conditions or terrain we're unfamiliar with - or when we allow peer pressure, pride, or someone of authority to override our instincts.


I am struggling with this a bit right now with my pelvis/back situation. I can usually "gut" out a run on tired legs, or when my bad knee is bugging me, but I have no frame of reference for whether pushing past the pain could make things worse in this case. So far, I've been erring on the side of caution and trying to let my body heal after having a baby, but sometimes it's hard. I just want to prove that I can do it no matter what. I've always been proud of the fact that when I set my mind on something, I can just duck my head and keep going until I get there. I have to keep reminding myself that that's not always the smartest move. Sometimes pain means you should stop. Sometimes you have to take it easy - no matter how hard that is :O).

Does anyone else have trouble backing down when they know they should?

So Close... and Yet.../Wishlist Wednesday

My alarm went off at 4:00 am...and I hit snooze a couple of times. Then I lay in bed thinking about how I really HAD to get up and do a run. There was quite an internal debate between Sleepy Megan and Wants-to-be-a-Runner-Again Megan. Lola ended up clinching the decision, as she wouldn't stop whining at me. She can be very persuasive when she's not doing this...

Once I was up, I got dressed and was excited to get started. I had Pretty Little Liars cued up on Netflix and was ready to cruise. My hope was to keep things at a slow jog and see how long I could hang on to that. Weeelll... That lasted about two minutes. So I decided to get real and stick to intervals. I ended up doing 1 minute walk, 1 minute jog because for some reason my lower back decided to act up. Grrrrr... But I was determined to persevere. This lasted for a whole 11 minutes before my treadmill started to make an awful thunking noise. WTF?!?!

I stopped the belt immediately and tried to see if there was something simple I could fix. No such luck. I'm going to have my fella take a look at it tonight and see if he can figure out what's going on. I love my treadmill. His name is Miles. I've trained for multiple 5k's and 10k's, as well as a half, and most of a marathon on this baby. He's been with me for almost 8 years. If he dies I will be forced to go into mourning like some sort of Victorian widow. I would also need to get cool with running in the dark. I'm seriously hoping he magically heals before I get home this evening.

This is the face of morning. It's not pretty and it didn't get a full run.

And now for a few Wishlist Wednesday Items:

1. Freedom Planner. As an avid list maker, I love planners - even though I usually use them for a few weeks, and end up finding a mostly empty planner months later. I like that this isn't just a regular day planner. It is structured to help you outline your goals and formulate steps to achieve them. I've seen other, similar planners - but they seemed a bit too touchy-feely for me. This one seems to have just enough structure to help you get things outlined without being condescending. Life is hard enough without feeling like your day planner is patronizing you.

2. Teething Keys. Okay, this one is more of a "we'll be buying this soon" item. We're pretty sure the tiny drooly one is starting to teethe, but he can't quite seem to get the hang of the couple of teething toys we have now. I like that these can be refrigerated and even if he doesn't like chewing on it, I think he will love waving it around since it looks easy to hold on to. I'll let you know how it turns out if/when we buy these.

3. Fuji Instant Film Camera. Even if we could afford it, I'm not sure I would spend the money, but I've always loved the instant gratification of Polaroids and this seems to be the next generation. This has a neat retro look and feel that houses what appears to be a really decent little camera. There are multiple shooting modes and features such as an adjustable flash and self timer. I'm thinking this would go on a wish list labeled "I can't justify buying, but I want it so bad."


4. Younique Lip Bonbons - Tinted Lip Balm. This is one of those things I plan to save up and splurge on. While I balk a little bit at spending $20 for lip balm when you could just spend $2 on some plain old chapstick, I am also a sucker for good packaging. The metal tube is really high quality and has a really neat feel to it and the lip balm itself has a really nice color without being overwhelming. I think I may add this to my list of rewards for reaching my next weight loss goal.
 **Reminder: the links in this post are for convenience only. I am not currently sponsored.

What's on your wish list?

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions for a teething little one?

Early Morning Run? ...Not so much...

 

...Sooo... let's just say waking up early for a run? Epic fail. But there's a story, I swear...

My wonderful, fabulous husband got up and took little man into the living room when he started to fuss at 1:00 am - this is one of the many reasons I'm keeping him. Unfortunately, the phone was on the couch and when he turned over at 3:15, it activated a previously unknown feature on our phone called "intercom mode." Which apparently translates to: super-loud-God-awful-angry-beeping-noise-that-keeps-going-until-you-find-the-other-phone-and-answer-it. So at 3:15 I sit straight up with one eye open, feel around for my glasses, and go in search of said God-awful noise. 

The noise was soon silenced, but when I looked at the clock I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. My alarm was set for 4:00. In an attempt to fool myself into thinking I still had some time to sleep, I changed my alarm to 4:20 - that's not so bad, right? Riiiiight. When my alarm went off at 4:20, it was immediately changed to 5:00. I'm not sure what quirk of biology makes us unable to open both eyes at an ungodly hour, but still allows us to re-program a cell phone alarm. But I digress. When it went off at 5:00, I hit snooze until 5:20, then woke up an additional 16 minutes later - yikes! Mind you, to make the car pool bus, I have to leave the house no later than 5:53, giving me a lavish 17 minutes to shower, find clothes that match, are clean, and don't have holes in them, and put on a pair of matching shoes - socks optional.

I missed the bus by one minute - grrrrr!!!. But if we're looking on the bright side - I did make it to work fully dressed, socks and all. Maybe if little man goes to bed on time, I can squeeze in a run this evening. We'll see. 

 

 And for some Tuesday randomness - mostly involving the deep thoughts I had on the drive to work:

1. Shout out to Fall Out Boy (because I'm sure they'll read this). While having not the best morning, then missing the bus, the song Uma Thurman came on the radio and totally made me smile. Well done, gentlemen. 

2. Conversely, the song I Go Through by O.A.R. just makes me want to smack someone. I actually change the station when it comes on. I went to the trouble to look up the lyrics, thinking that might clear up what the song is about - still don't have a clue. If anyone can enlighten me, please share.

3. The Sirius station we listen to in the morning has a Question of the Day and before the host reads it, he goes through a spiel (yup, had to look up the spelling) that ends in "as Pooh says, it's time to:" and then plays a clip of Pooh saying "Think, think, think." This makes me smile like a little kid every time.  

4.   My sister was watching the little man yesterday and Cody accidentally fell asleep and forgot to pick me up at the bus stop after work. I ended up having a really nice walk. The weather was gorgeous. 

Ok. This picture is from an event a couple of weeks ago. Picture same street, less people.

Are you a morning person?

 

What random things made you smile today?