Tonight Dennis had to work late, which meant that I was on solo dinner, bath, and bedtime duty for the kids. So I thought that the kids and I would do something special together! Our dinnertime is usually at 5:30, so the first special thing was that we played outside until 6:15 -- craziness! ;-)
Then we came inside, and Oliver helped me fry some shrimp. He mixed flour, garlic powder, salt, red pepper, and black pepper in a ziploc bag, then he added the shrimp and shook it up to coat it. [For reasons probably obvious to you, I wasn't able to take pictures of him helping me.]
This is our finished product! Trust me, it makes up in taste what it lacks in visual appeal. :-)
I had shrimp, pasta, and tomatoes. Mmm, doesn't that look yummy?
Oliver and Buttercup enjoyed their dinners, too. Buttercup had pasta with spaghetti sauce (in case you can't tell from the sauce smeared all over her mouth), shrimp, and fruit.
And Oliver had pasta with butter and cheese, shrimp, fruit, and carrot sticks.
Oliver saved his strawberries for later, but Buttercup ate hers with dinner -- stems and all. Oops!
The kids really seemed to enjoy our dinner date. Several times while we ate, Oliver said, "Mama, I just love you," and even the Princess was very calm and ate everything on her plate. We'll definitely have to do this again! :-)
I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Oliver loves to work. About every other day, he wakes up in the morning and says, "Mama, it's time to get to work!" It seems like there's always something broken that needs to be fixed, or something that is fixed and needs to be broken. His theme song is the tune from Bob the Builder -- "Can we fix it? Yes, we can!"
So it was no surprise that, after his nap today, he wanted to get straight to work (after spending some time talking to Wendy, that is). Buttercup was still napping, so he and I went outside to get our chores done.
First up: raking leaves and hauling them to the other side of the yard.
Oliver took a brief rest to look at some of the roly polys he unearthed.
Then we moved on to shoveling sand.
And guess what? We found an empty snail shell!
And the last job before we had to go in: sweeping off the patio.
I'm glad he hasn't caught on that other kids get paid to do this stuff. ;-)
Like most cats, one of Wendy's favorite places to sit is on the windowsill. She especially likes Buttercup's windowsill.
Isn't she pretty??
The kids have been really gentle with Wendy and love to share their days with her. When Oliver woke up from his nap this afternoon, Wendy jumped in his bed, and he told her all about his tools, how high he swung at the playground, what he planned to do in the afternoon, etc. Very sweet!
And after Buttercup (or, "Buttercupper," as Oliver likes to call her) woke up from her nap, she talked to Wendy for a little while (though I haven't a clue about what she was saying, other than "meow," "kitty," and "love"), then she played peek-a-boo with Wendy by putting her PJs on her head.
Where's Buttercup???
There she is! 
After I swam at the YMCA this morning, it was too close to lunchtime to go anywhere else, so we just headed home. The weather was so nice outside, and we ended up bringing the big basket of blocks out on the patio to build in the shade. It was such a good idea! I can see us doing it many more times in the future. :-)
And, last but not least . . . this morning, the three of us were in the kitchen while I got our things ready to go to the YMCA. Buttercup was playing peek-a-boo around the island with me, and Oliver ran around the side of the island at the same time that Buttercup ran toward me, and they bumped heads pretty hard. Buttercup was crying, and Oliver jumped up and gave her a huge bear hug. It was just such a sweet moment, especially from my little guy who doesn't normally care for hugs and other outward expressions of affection! I just love these two kids so much, they are the absolute best!!
Oliver has really liked the alphabet crafts that we've done for the 2 weeks, so I've decided to make it a weekly thing for us. It's a fun way for him to learn how to write the letters, and learn new sounds and words. He loves it!
Oliver is really into jackhammers right now. His love for tools/heavy machinery started about 2 years ago, but lately he's really been interested in jackhammers. We've been reading The Magic School Bus: Inside the Earth daily, mainly because the kids use jackhammers to break through the rock inside the earth. And Oliver even made himself a jackhammer from his connecting blocks.
So I decided that our next alphabet lesson would be J is for Jackhammer. Unlike our previous crafts, I didn't have a template, so I had to wing it.
First, I drew a J, and Oliver copied it. He is doing really well with writing his letters! I am so proud of this little boy, he never ceases to amaze me!
"Hey Mom, is my J bigger than your J? Is it the biggest J in the whole world??!"
Meanwhile, Buttercup finished up her breakfast and cheered for her big brother. Yay!!! What a sweet little girl!
Then we got started on the craft. Like I said, I didn't have a template, so it's not as cute as the tractor or firefighter crafts. But Oliver loves it, and that's all that matters. :-)
Official Results
Finish time: 44:27, 7:10 pace.
1st in age group (out of 86 women)
10th woman overall (out of 484 women)
67th runner overall (out of 1,001 runners)
The 10k (6.2 miles) is not my favorite race distance. I like it because it's not quite the lung- and leg-burning effort as the 5k (3.1 miles), but still it's not long enough to really get into a groove and run at a comfortable pace. In other words, you don't have to run as hard as in a 5k, but the hard running lasts for twice the distance. The first 3 miles are fine. I love the first 3 miles. I always feel strong and like I could run at that pace forever. It's the last 3 miles that are the problem! By that point, my legs are tired and I'm ready to slow down or quit, but there are still about 3 more miles to go.
My last 10k was in October, on a flat course. I had been doing (almost) weekly speed work at the track all summer, running about 35 miles per week, and finished the race in 43:07, which was a PR by over 2 minutes. Since the marathon I ran in February (2010), I have done speed work exactly 3 times -- once at the track alone, twice at the trail with a group of runners -- and my running mileage has topped out at 18 miles per week. But I've also been swimming laps 3 times per week, which I think has helped my fitness. I've been feeling faster and stronger on my runs, so I signed up for a 10k, partly to see how slow/fast I've gotten, and partly to see if I could PR again.
I chose the Texas Roundup 10k. Why? Because the timing was right. But . . . it's a hilly course. See how hilly? (blue = 5k, red = 10k)
And it was very hilly to me, because I'm used to mainly running on flat roads and trails. I haven't done any hill sprints or hill repeats or hill intervals or hill anything in over a year. Oh yes. The hills definitely got to me this morning.
We woke up early and I was pumped and ready to run fast. See that scary look in my eyes? That's determination. Or too much coffee, perhaps?
Oliver and Buttercup ate their breakfast on the way downtown. Oliver was adamant about bringing his binoculars along so he could look through them and watch me running. Such a cutie. I just love these kids!
Going into the race, I had a plan of averaging 6:45 min/miles for a 41:30 finish. I would run 6:45s on the flat parts, 7:00/7:15s on the uphills, and make up for lost time on the downhills. Sounds perfect, right?
The end result? I managed 6:40-6:50 pace on the flats, 6:10-6:20 pace on the downhills, and 8:30-9:00 pace on the steep uphills. OUCH.
What did I learn from this race?
- that I need to start doing some hill workouts;
- that I should probably be more consistent with speed workouts, too;
- that, surprisingly, I do have some self control and I was able to not go out too fast with the pack of 5k runners (this was a huge deal for me, because I have a major tendency to get caught up in the adrenaline rush and go out too fast!);
- that I might be capable of running a 6:45 pace 10k on a FLAT course.
All in all, I'm very pleased with the race from this morning. I ran relatively even splits (if you factor in the hills), I didn't go out too fast, and I finished feeling strong but that I gave it all I had. And -- even though I ended up almost 3 minutes over my goal time -- I still ran my 2nd fastest 10k road race this morning.
And the best part? My prayer was to run it to the best of my ability, have fun with it, and just enjoy the gift that God has given me. And that is exactly what happened. Praise His name! :-)
Official finish time: 44:27, 7:10 pace.
Splits:
- mile 1: 7:06
- mile 2: 6:38
- mile 3: 7:21
- mile 4: 6:59
- miles 5 and 6: 7:21 average (I was apparently working too hard going up another hill and didn't notice when I passed the mile 5 marker)
- final 0.21: 7:00
"Mom, I looked for you with my binoculars, but I couldn't see you." "Can you see me now?" "YES!"
Will I run this race again? Hmmm, maybe. But only if I do some hill training first. :-)
