The Crafts

After a  very tiring run Saturday morning my legs made an appeal to the Sarah Craft Running Executive Committee arguing that my half marathon running schedule is too difficult.  The appeal was granted and my legs win!  Last week my legs, specifically my quadriceps, hoofed it through almost every single run.  I guess they never had time to recover from the previous weekend's 11 miler.  And just about the time they were starting to feel a bit better, it was Saturday morning and I had to head out for a scheduled 13 miler.  Well, during that run my quads really started burning.  I'm not injured, they are just extremely sore.  I also noticed I was becoming increasingly thirsty.  I ran to a water fountain and it wasn't working so I turned around for home and realized around mile 11 I had stopped sweating.  That is a big warning sign of dehydration.  With throbbing quads and lack of hydration I decided to call it quits for the day at 11.67 miles.  A little disappointing but I f

Happy birthday to the sweetest, prettiest, smartest and funniest second child in our house!  :) Today's big event has been celebrated with a swim in the princess pool, a birthday wagon ride parade, a trip to the park and later tonight...cake! I'm so proud of our little girl! Happy birthday, Claudia!!

Kate loves the Disney princesses. But I doubt she has figured out the underlying meaning behind each of the movies...

The Craft girls can never make a trip to Walmart without drama. And this week's shopping trip was no different. We actually went to the Cedar Falls Walmart instead of the Waterloo one, thinking that perhaps things would go smoother.  I hate to say it but the Cedar Falls Walmart is full of college kids, stay at home mommies, sweet senior citizens and people who brush their hair and teeth.   Whereas the Waterloo Walmart is full of people without shoes and manners, and their shoppers are often found wearing clothes that reveal tattoos of Bugs Bunny smoking pot. Sorry Waterloo Walmart, it's just a fact. Seriously. Nonetheless we still found drama...actually WE created the drama. First Kate insisted she leave the house looking like this... Which was really, really cute but it sure drew some looks...especially when the drama was taking place. It started with a girl who had to go potty really, really bad.  So with CJ and Kate in the cart I flew to the front of the store.  Scooped

Three and a half years ago all this little girl could manage was to eat, sleep and make messes. Yet somehow over the course of those three and a half short years she grew up and became ready for preschool. Today was the first day of school. The first day of no longer being a little girl at home. The first day as a big kid...a school age kid. We are so proud of Kate! She had a wonderful 2 hours of preschool this morning filled with a trip to the playground, a snack and story time.  Not too taxing or stressful, obviously. The night before her first day of school however was not a relaxing one for her. She started with preschool open house, followed by some ballet with CJ and lastly, refused to go to sleep until 10 p.m.  Sigh. I snagged a few cute pics of my two ballerinas in the making. It was enough pink to make your eyes hurt.  :)  

Monday was rough. Tuesday was alright. And today?  I have high hopes for today! Wednesday started off with a 7 mile run finished in a very short 58 minutes! I ran a warm-up mile then 5 miles in 8:15, 8:02, 8:03, 7:55, 7:52 followed by a cool down mile. I'm as pleased as punch.  AND it was a gorgeous 54 degrees out this morning.  Boy howdy! I came home jumped in the shower and began our trial run for preschool which begins tomorrow. I had Kate and myself dressed, hair combed, breakfast eaten and in the wagon by 8 a.m. CJ may have been in her jammies but she was at least looking cute in those jammies. After we took our preschool trial run wagon ride we returned home and Kate asked to play pretend preschool. So she practiced her letters and numbers while CJ played with a feather boa.  Yah, that's right, a feather boa. CJ is now down for a nap and Kate is peacefully playing her recorder with Sesame Street in the background. Lovely. Now I want to share with you one of my new fav

Do you ever just want to give up on something? Call for help or lay down and pretend you're asleep? This is exactly how I felt about yesterday. In fact, I woke up this morning with great reluctance.  I didn't want to face what the day may bring. I thought about faking an illness so I could just stay in bed all day.  Pretend I was really, really sick...so sick I couldn't move.  But that would be completely irresponsible of me. Instead I took a deep breath, threw my legs over the side of the bed and stood up...hoping and praying today will be different.  Different than yesterday. Yesterday was one of those terrible, rotten, no-good kind of days. It started off fine.  In fact we were REALLY looking forward to a visit from my sister, Lindsay. I was really excited to catch up with her and play games with the girls and Lindsay. But the girls had a different idea.  And as the day went on the girls' behavior rapidly spiraled in the wrong direction. I don't know if it wa

Despite my lack of posts on the subject of running, I have, in fact, been running.  I have accumulated two weeks worth of running to blog about.  So let's get to it, eh?  Oh, but before I do, let me tell you that I have slept GREAT the last two nights.  Hopefully that poor night of sleep Thursday evening was a fluke.  Hope and pray and wish. Two weeks ago: Monday: 5 miles in 44:32, 8:54/mile average Tuesday: 3 miles (didn't bother to bring the Garmin) Wednesday: 4 miles, tempo run   Mile 1: 9:00, warm-up   Mile 2: 7:57   Mile 3: 7:54   Mile 4: 9:29, cool down Thursday: 3 miles, this was supposed to be a 4 miler but we were on vacation and the air was SO incredibly thick and humid that I just gave in.  Although I did have some beautiful scenery during those 3 miles. Sunday: 5 miles in 44:13, 8:50/mile average Last week: Tuesday: 3 miles Wednesday: 6 miles, Tempo   Mile 1: 9:19, warm-up   Mile 2: 8:22   Mile 3: 8:13   Mile 4: 8:15   Mile 5: 8:09   Mile 6: 9:1

Last night was rough.  I laid in bed without falling asleep until sometime shortly after 2 a.m.  This happened to me about two weeks ago, too.  So frustrating.  The first time it happened I thought it was because I had drank two glasses of sun tea that evening, but caffeine has never really affected me before.  I had nothing else to blame so I went with the sun tea.  Last night, however, I hadn't drank any caffeine since my morning cup of coffee. I think I was a little nervous being home alone with the girls.  I could have sworn I heard about seventeen burglars downstairs.  I even made one trip down and thankfully found nothing.  I finished reading a book, got a drink of water, walked around a bit, checked on the girls to make sure they were still in their beds, tried counting sheep...nothing settled me.  So around 1:45 a.m. I did a VERY selfish thing.  I scooped Kate out of bed and laid her down next to me.  About 15 minutes later I was fast asleep. Of course, CJ is our early

It happens every year.  I promise myself I'll take TONS of pics in Clear Lake. But I never do. So I don't have many photos to share.  Thankfully the Grandmas took a lot. However, one grandma has a Tanzanian pastor living at her house for two weeks and the other is visiting a friend in Wisconsin for a week.  So I haven't been able to collect any pics from them.  All in due time. Here are a few photos from my very small Clear Lake picture arsenal. This is the girls as we are about to pull out of the driveway. CJ started her normal screeching shortly after this picture was taken, and it didn't stop until we got out of the car. BUT, she was tremendously well behaved on the way home so I can't complain.  She is just letting her voice be heard, right? We lived in the pool with a few trips to the beach and the splash pad. We rarely wore clothes, pretty much just swimming suits. And this is us leaving Clear Lake.  I told you I didn't have many pictures. I look terr

We're home! And we are tired! More to follow in the near future...

Although these are just pics from our yard we are really away on vacation...and living in our swimsuits. Awww....summer...

(These pics are from last year's vacation...new photos to come next week.)

We are doing this...

If you run a lot on days with a 105 degree heat index you should hydrate yourself.  You shouldn't just assume that because you ran in the rain or took a shower immediately after running that you have rehydrated and are good to go.  No.  Don't wait until lunch (5 hours after running) before you drink that first glass of water.  You should drink lots and lots of water.  I consumed about 18 gallons of water this afternoon during naptime and immediately after I became violently sick from playing outside with the girls in that 105 degree heat index.  Thank the Lord I was sick from dehydration because I would have cried myself to sleep had an illness ruined our vacation.  Ok, so now I have learned my lesson and I will always, always, always drink buckets and buckets of water.  I'm such a dummy.

The whole family is on a high today. Vacation is right around the corner and you can smell the excitement. Everyone seems a bit more relaxed this morning. Kate and Matt have been counting down the days together. Kate announced to me this morning that there is only 1 more day until we leave. Even CJ is looking forward to it. Here she is reading one of our favorite board books. You probably can't tell what is going on in that picture.  She is 'reading' The Belly Button Book while showing off her belly button.  Here is a close-up of the page... Yep, that page just about sums up what we will be doing over the next several days. Well, I'm off to do some packing and leave CJ to finish reading her book. P.S. - CJ doesn't really read or sit still long enough to read a short board book, but we're working on it. Actually she was just thrilled to sit in the chair by herself.  She thinks she is such a big kid.

I've decided to hang up our modern ways, put on a wallpaper-y dress and live like we're Amish. Naaahh!!  That's not us. Maybe I'll start wearing big red button earrings and hats with a net over my face. Maybe not. How about I start wearing wide brim hats and old school neck scarves. Hehehe...no way! But I did have fun modeling them at the La Porte City FFA and Ag Museum's 2nd annual Style Show. Actually the girls had a great time, too!  We got to walk the runway, twirl on stage and strut our stuff. Super fun!

GREAT WEEK OF RUNNING!!!  Super great week!! Tuesday: 4 miles (this day was actually really slow but I was feeling dog tired) Thursday: 4 miles.  It was supposed to be a 5+ miler day with lots of splits but the day before this run my 'running partner' put my GPS watch on her wrist during the day, turned it on and never turned it off.  I went to start it up Thursday morning and found that someone had been 'running' for over 13 hours and the battery had died.  So I swapped Thursday's run for Friday's and did so without a watch.  Friday: 5 miles   Mile 1: 9:21, warm-up mile   Mile 2: 7:58, my goal was 7:58!!   Mile 3: 7:52, my goal was 7:58 so I was 6 seconds faster   Mile 4: 7:47, again my goal was 7:58 so I was very pleased   Mile 5: 9:29, cool down Saturday: 10 miles in 1:28:20, average of 8:50 / mile I am very happy with my Friday and Saturday runs.  I'm ahead of my goal times for individual work-outs with 5 more weeks to go.  Or is it 4 week

I haven't taken any pics lately.  And when I don't have new pics to share I worry that my blog won't get read.  That you will open my blog, see nothing but words and immediately close it down.  I wouldn't blame you.  Pictures draw me into your blogs, too.  Well, at least those of you who have blogs.  We've been spending lots of time dreaming of vacation.  We leave Wednesday of next week.  We talk about all the things we are going to do...or actually all the thing we aren't going to do.  Most of our long, long weekend will involve living in our swimsuits, eating, playing ping pong and cards, and more eating.  I can't wait! And because I don't have any new photos to share I will simply share some old ones.  Oldies but goodies...