Brothers Don't Shake Hands, Brothers Gotta HUG!

A 20 week update:

So far still no strangers have asked if I'm pregnant and nothing has happened with my little psychology experiment with the class for adults I'm teaching (I haven't told them and am waiting to see when (if?) they'll ask!) so I guess I still look mostly like I'm getting a bit chubby from my lack of running.  But I do think my belly popped out a bit almost over night on Sunday night.

Speaking of running - sorry if this is a lot less running blog and a lot more pregnancy blog lately.  When there are posts at all, that is.  But I do promise a running update soon.  Spoiler alert: I have been running SOME.  But not a lot, and rarely more than 3 miles.  It's a bit disappointing.  

Back to the task at hand.  We had the big 20 week anatomy ultrasound yesterday and everything looked GREAT.  What a relief.  Going 4 weeks in between appointments is a LONG TIME when you're worried and not sure if you're feeling the baby move or not.  I feel weird things that MIGHT be the baby or also might be digestion / hunger pains / gas bubbles / all kinds of crazy crap.  The doctor said in a few weeks I'll be 100% sure and I'll say that those feelings definitely were the baby.

The baby has all it's parts - everything looks normal, good measurements, etc.  Baby is measuring in the 75th percentile for size so I hope hope HOPE that means it will come early and NOT that it will be a super-sized baby!  It even seems to have inherited JMan's weird toe trait (his 2nd toe is oddly long - longer than the big toe!)!  

We also found out for sure (we'd been told once tentatively and another time more definitively but now it's OFFICIAL!) that it's a....

The Transformation of a Mess to a Nursery

Does anyone else have a secret room in their house where all of their junk goes to die?  No?  Just us?

Well we definitely have one of those.  We live in a cozy 3-bedroom home and our room and our guest room stay pretty "clean" (this is a very relative term for us) most of the time.  But the office.  Oh, the office.  This is truly the "dumping grounds" of sorts.  It has undergone renovations several times and been clean and livable at certain times, I think as recently as summer 2012.

But then I got a new job, and the office I'd had for 5 years filled with TONS of papers, books, and seriously BOXES of dissertation data needed a new home.  So it simply got transported from my office to the house and dumped in this room.  Then Christmas happened, and any new items were also dumped in this room.  Finally, we had a few guests come to stay, so any extra clutter throughout the rest of the house was also discarded here so the rest of the house would look cleaner.

So, yeah.  A picture says a thousand words:

This is embarrasing.

So thus began the very horrible task of transforming that complete mess into a lovely, peaceful, serene, livable nursery. 

Maybe even something kind of sort of like this (found on Pinterest of course):

source

But there's a long way to go to get to that.  Let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Step 1: Move the actual office-related mess to a new area of the house.  This:

Became this:

Step 2: Move other stuff to the new shelves in our bedroom we built in December:

Step 3: Take a RIDICULOUS amount of stuff to Goodwill.  Hello tax write-off.

Step 4: Never give up, and never surrender, even though this task seems to take up your entire life every weekend for a month.  This is mid-way through the process:

Step 5: Relish in your accomplishment and all your hard work!!!

And yes - we bought a crib!  Our first big purchase awaits in that big box. 

Whew.  Apparently we belong on that show Hoarders or something.  Anyone else have secret spaces where they stash all their crap inappropriately?  Also, who wants to come over and help us paint?! 

One Moment That Can Change Your Life

It's strange how in one tiny moment your life can COMPLETELY CHANGE.

There has been no other one moment in my life that was like that.  While finding the one and dating them and getting engaged and then getting married are of course HUGE decisions that of course change your life, they happen over such a long course of time that you never really have that one moment.  I already knew I wanted to marry JMan before he asked, and I had no doubts at our wedding.  So it wasn't anything like this.

Anything like this moment:

I want future Ricole Jr. to know that he / she was wanted.  They were NOT an "accident".  Buuutttt, it was also DEFINITELY a "surprise" at the same time.  

**Disclaimer.  The following is likely way more than you want to know, so if you're my Dad feel free to stop reading now.  

Although in October we intentionally decided to no longer prevent pregnancy, due to uterus activities that are probably way past your interest level in my life, I had long deemed that it would be VERY difficult for me to get pregnant should we ever actively try to.  We both assumed that doctor intervention would be necessary in order to conceive.  This was just the given that I had known for years, it had been supported by doctor opinion in the past, and I had actually always assumed adoption would be involved down the road, and was very okay with that. 

So when we decided to stop preventing pregnancy I did not think for even ONE TEENY TINY SECOND that ANYTHING would come of it.  I assumed (and was fine with!) that it would still be years down the road.  In fact, I had plans for this summer!  ULTRA RELAY PLANS PEOPLE!  Going to Europe for two weeks with JMan plans!  Running Hood to Coast plans!  Running a marathon plans!  Jumping on trampolines and eating deli meat and drinking delicious Blue Moon seasonal ales and going wine tasting plans! 

But life doesn't work out the way you think or plan.  So when it happened in the very first month, to say the word SHOCK might be an understatement. 

 At the Mustache Dache, just 1 measly day into knowing I'm carrying a life inside of me.  SO weird!

But no matter how shocking, how crazy it seems that we are going to be PARENTS, how weird it is to carry a living thing inside of me, how could we ever think anything but how incredibly lucky and blessed we are to have that one moment that changed our lives. 

Keeping the Biggest Secret of My Life

So the word on the street is out.  The biggest secret of MY LIFE finally got let loose this week.  FINALLY.  Cooper is going to be a big brother!  I'm a little over 17 weeks along, due July 18. 

When I first found I was pregnant, I immediately knew I wanted it to be kept a secret.  But I did not realize in the LEAST how incredibly difficult that would be.  Keeping this secret was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

But what I knew more than anything, was that I absolutely did NOT want to get people's hopes up and then have them face that dissapointment.  There were a few people who I really wanted to tell who I probably could have.  But my parents, my in-laws, and some of our friends who I knew would be so excited and I just didn't want to let them down (Rachael and Leandrea - I'm talking to you!). 

It didn't help that my very first doctor appointment wasn't for MORE than THREE WHOLE WEEKS after I found out with those little blue lines. 

Why yes, I did take not 1, not 2, but 3 tests.  And yes, I did take a picture of them.

The waiting seemed like an eternity.  I even kept questioning - is there really a baby in there?  Even though I had about a billion pregnancy symptoms (um, hello fatigue and food aversions), I kept questioning if they were just "placebo" effects!  Yep, I'm crazy.

There were certainly times that were harder than others to keep it a secret.  We went through Thanksgiving AND Christmas with our families without telling them.  I ran the Mustache Dache, the Seattle Half Marathon, and the Christmas Rush 10k knowing I was pregnant but somehow not telling the running buddies!  Others around me were pregnant and talking about their's and I was DYING to share and especially to ask questions.  There was the work holiday Christmas party where I was one of the only people without a drink.  Michelle kept telling me to enjoy her favorite beer for her and I couldn't!  Yep, keeping secrets isn't my strong suit.

But FINALLY I got some proof that there was a baby in there after all! 

Isn't it adorable?!  :-)

So I am SO happy to finally finally FINALLY tell the world that yes, I am indeed, "in the family way".  I finally told my boss, we bought a crib, and major works on the baby's room are underway!  This is happening people!  Whether I'm ready or not... 

The REAL Reason I Haven't Been Blogging...

Surprise!

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

So it's been exactly one year since I started my little blog. 

It's also been exactly one month since I blogged!

Coincidence?!?!

I honestly don't know why I've dropped off the face of the earth.  I blame the cold, dark, and SAD.  

There's so many things I need to catch you up on!  Don't you wish you could write blog posts directly from your brain?  Then I wouldn't be such a blog failure.  I swear I actually write posts, lots of them actually, but actually transferring them from my brain to the computer is a whole other story! 

 This about sums up what I've been up to!  :-)

There's my 2012 recap that still needs to be written, my 2013 resolutions, all about my lovely Christmas and winter break, the great books I've read lately, etc.  There's an update on my hamstring, which is better, but I also am rarely running except on the weekends thanks to the cold and dark and my hatred for the treadmill.  And maybe I will write these post at some point?!!?!  I sure hope so.  

Hope you had a lovely Christmas!

But in the meantime, I just wanted to say HIIII and that I haven't forgotten you all!  I hope everyone is well, running healthy, and staying warm!  

Now who's going to make me a blogiversary cake?!?!  Anyone??  Anyone?? 

What I've Been Up To

Oh heeeeeyyyy.  How are you?  What have you been up to lately?  Sorry I've been so MIA.  Just not much to report around these parts.  So just to catch you up, here's the Cliff Notes version of what's going on (which is nothing!):

I did, miraculously, actually bake a few things for Thanksgiving this year.  I made pretzel brownies and s'mores bars thanks to Michelle's great ideas.  Like usual, and unsurprising, I f-ed it up though.  I know I know, you're far from shocked.  The in-laws have a fancy oven and unknowingly I used the "convection" oven setting, which apparently cooks things faster.  Buuuutttt I didn't alter the cooking times.  Story of my life.

So the brownies were kind of overcooked.  The s'mores bars were still awesome though, I highly recommend them.  What's not to like?  Butter?  Good.  Chocolate?  Gooood.  Marshmallows?  Goooooood.

Let's see, what else?  We saw Skyfall and Breaking Dawn Part II.  I fell asleep during Skyfall and thought Breaking Dawn was just as bad as all the other books / movies.  But we all know I'm not a reliable recommender. 

 

I went to yoga.  A LOT.  I bought a Groupon for hot yoga and decided it was my new method of fixing my hamstring.  Although I really liked it, and could feel it doing lots of great things for my body, I actually think it was making my hamstring WORSE.  All that direct stretching of it.  So my new method is to avoid putting any stress on my hamstring whatsoever.  I NEVER try to touch my toes.  I'll let you know how it works out.


I ran some races.  You already know all about those though.  Though I haven't "raced" any of them thanks to my bum hamstring, in the last 4 weekends I've done THREE races.  That's ridiculous!  The Mustache Dache, the Seattle Half, and now the Christmas Rush 10k.  Whew. 

I saw this amazing sunrise last week when I was headed to work.  I told you, I don't have that much to report!

We actually completed a home improvement project.  Our weekends used to be filled with these but we haven't done one in a LONG TIME now so I was proud we did anything.  This awkward space was in our bedroom and we finally added some shelves.  I kind of wish we'd done 4 shelves instead of 3 but those are NEVER coming out of there.

I read Reached, Wild, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower. 

Reached was the 3rd book in the Matched trilogy (more young adult dystopia fiction, the story of my year), and NEVER start a trilogy before all three are published.  I could not for the life of me remember what the previous ones were about. 

Wild was VERY interesting and I HIGHLY recommend it.  Very hilarious the true troubles Cheryl gets herself into when she hikes the Pacific Crest Trail without EVER training, wearing hiking boots before, or ever putting on her backpack.  Kind of like Eat Pray Love but better.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower was okay.  I look forward to seeing Hermione in the movie. 

     

And last but not least, Cooper is still precious.  I know you won't find that surprising at all.

And how's Runcember going for you?  I've been struggling, I won't lie.  Last week was crazy busy for me with something work-related every night, and I was just so exhausted that convincing myself to walk even a mile was tough.  I hope this week is better.

We have some people who are just straight up DOMINATING though.  Seriously, Robyn did 50+ miles in just the first week!  Don't forget to enter your mileage!

So what's new with you???

Christmas Rush 10k Race Report

Oh hello.  Did you miss me?  Probably not! 

I've been doing a lot of nothing resting since the Seattle Half.  Although Runcember is kicked off and running (and I'm kind of regretting it everyday I have to force myself off the couch just to get in that mile!) it had seemed December would possibly be RESTcember as well.  As in, let's fix this freakin' hamstring once and for all, shall we?

Anyway, so although I deemed the Seattle Half the end of 2012's running season, I was technically signed up for one final race: The Christmas Rush 10k.  This would be my 4th time running the race, it's one of my home-town small-time favorites, and I didn't want to miss, but I figured I could just walk the 5k instead if necessary. 

So anyway, there we were, Saturday morning in the crisp cold air ready to "run" a race.  Kerrie, Erika, and Jennifer joined Jordanne and I, and all of a sudden, unready as usual, we were off! 

There's not much to report about the race itself, especially since it was far from a "race".  It was flat and they made it a loop this year instead of an out-and-back which I LOVED.  The race seemed to have doubled in size since last year though, it better not become too big for its britches!

I stayed with Jordanne until about 3.5, when I was dying for a walk break, so I forced her to go on ahead.  I walked again through the 1 water stop and ashamedly again with less than a half mile to go.  Some lady passed me during this walk break and was like "COME ON WE'RE ALMOST THERE" and I can't believe how much I hated her in that instant.  It reminded me of all the times I've said similar things with ONLY the best intentions!  Ugh, I was shooting daggers at her with my eyes.

Thanks to Kerrie for the pics!

But even with the walking I still somehow managed to get in in JUST under an hour.  Squeaking it a little close with a 59:51. 

And the hamstring?  It actually felt okay!  I don't want to get my hopes up just yet though.  I was focused heavily on taking short steps, and obviously the walk breaks.  Please let this continue. 

And NOW my 2012 racing season is officially over. 

Runcember Has Begun!

Today marks the start of RUNCEMBER!  So get our there and run or walk your mile today and every day of December!

I know you can do it!

Sadly, thanks to my hamstring that is never-ever-ever-getting-better it's looking like it might be more like No-Run-Cember for me, but I plan to DOMINATE Walkcember!  GO SIGN UP HERE!

SO HOP TO IT!

A Seattle Half to Remember

Sunday dawned dry (after the downpour that was Thursday and Friday) but COLD.  Seriously, seriously cold, at least for me.

Not only just cold, but foggy too.  I couldn't decide what to wear, I went back and forth about wearing more layers, but I ended up with seriously the PERFECT amount of clothes.  For once in my life.  I was cold for the first mile or so but then it was just perfect, and I never took off my arm warmers, gloves, or ear warmers.  That's how cold it was.

After a 4:50am wake-up call (OUCH) and getting the carpool together - we were OFF to Seattle.  There was actually little traffic and parking was a breeze, so we had plenty of time to mill around.  

This was especially the case since the half marathon started at 7:30am but the full marathon didn't start until 8:15am.  Why the full starts after the half instead of vice versa is beyond me.  I decided at the last minute to be a rebel and start with Amy and Jordanne so I could run the first 5 miles with them, so we bid Good Luck to Luke and then we kept waiting around some more.  I just seem to love putting myself in situations where I get near last place!  It happened again this time with this move!

Most of the pre-race pics didn't turn out so well

I'd be lying if I said this course wasn't hilly.  Though with a total elevation gain of 994 feet, I've completed hillier races.  Most of the hills weren't really that bad, except that "Ouch" hill that went on-and-on-and-on in mile 8.  I definitely walked most of this.  I tried my best to run the others, though there was definitely one other that I walked. 

And will I EVER do a race that doesn't end with an uphill??!!

After I left Jordanne and Amy at mile 5 I passed about 1,000 people, thanks to my 45 minute late start.  That was fun!  They were probably wondering WHAT THE HECK was going on though.  I tried to remain sufficiently uncomfortable while still feeling comfortable, if that at all makes sense.  My hamstring was bothering me from the start so it didn't really matter what I did in terms of that.  I actually have a hunch my recent yoga fetish had the opposite effect of what I wanted. 

By mile 10 I REALLY wanted to be done.  Like REALLY.  I'm actually really proud of myself for not walking more because I wanted to walk so bad.  My legs were stiff and, hello, I've ran like 4 times in November.  So it makes sense.  But I finished in 2:05:44 and called it a day.
1st half: 1:05:08    2nd half: 1:01:37   Negative split, woot woot!

I am SO proud of both Jordanne and Amy.  Jordanne finished her 3rd marathon and her 2nd marathon this year (remember Seattle RnR? well she beat that time!).  Amy ROCKED her first marathon ever and dominated her goal of sub-5-hours.  

They're both my heroes.  I wish I could have ran the full with them!

The whole rockin' crew:

And half marathon #12 #13 is in the books, as is essentially my 2012 running year.  The End. 

Runcember

Sometime after I stuffed my face with stuffing, mashed potatoes, the best pear pecan salad in the world, and corn muffins, the cousins and I had a revelation.

As you may or may not know, JMan ran EVERY-SINGLE-DAY in October and lost about 15 pounds along the way.  It was very impressive and I'm so proud of him.  So we were all talking about that and how impressed we are, and we decided that December would become our RUNCEMBER.

After this decision we may or may not have found ourselves at the nearby track in the PITCH BLACK SCARINESS at 8:00pm Thanksgiving night timing our 400's.  This was AFTER having eaten a huge amount of food people.  It wasn't pretty.  And of the 5 of us, I got last with a 1:39.  I wasn't impressive.  

These were are 5 400 times and our cumulative time.  JMan got 2nd with 1:16.

But I digress.  You don't have to pre- and post-test your 400 times like us.  But you are more than welcome to do that if you'd like!  And you are also ALL invited to participate in what will go down as the legendary RUNCEMBER! 

Rules of Runcember:

1. The first rule of Runcember is you don't talk about Runcember.
2. The second rule of Runcember is YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT RUNCEMBER!
3. You must run or walk at least one mile every single day in December.  No, you cannot run 31 miles all in one day.  Yes you can walk.  No playing basketball / Zumba / Soccer doesn't count.  It's called RUNcember people (or WALKcember), not SOCCERcember.
4. You must log-in to the spreadsheet and enter your mileage.  
5. You must be honest!

And that's it!  There may or may not be prizes, we'll see what I come up with.  It seems rather likely.  There also may or may not be prizes for both completing the challenge (i.e., everyone is eligible) and for "winning" the challenge with the most miles.  

So - how do you play?  Just go to the Google doc and sign up!  Then RUN!  Or walk.  And enter your mileage!  That's it, easy peasy. 
Here's the link to the spreadsheet.

Who's in???

A Very Thankful Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!
I hope you're enjoying some rest from work, about to eat tons of delicious food, and maybe even got in a nice little turkey trot run.  That pretty much sums up my ideal day right there.  Run, eat, rest.

I'm thankful for so many things this year.  I'm so lucky and blessed and I so appreciate all I have.  So I thought I might shout it from the rooftops.

I'm thankful JMan and I have been together a whopping 11 years this week.  Shocking, right?  I know you think I look waaaayyy too young to have been with ANYONE 11 years.  Plus - I'm very thankful JMan has put up with me for this long.  He deserves an award, that's for sure.  Here's to (at least!) another 11 years together!

 Look how young we once were!

I'm thankful to have the best family in the world, both in terms of my own parents and my in-laws and extended family.  They are all so supportive, loving, and fun to be around (well, at least when my mom's not calling out my procrastination on my dissertation-writing!). 

What an adorable family - right??

I'm not thankful for my hamstring.  But this is a positive post, so moving on...

I am SO thankful that I got lucky enough to have THE BEST DOG EVER.  Seriously, how lucky was I to actually choose the absolute best dog in the whole world out of all those puppies???  I'm not sure.  Cooper continuously makes my life that much better and I can't imagine life without him. 

I'm thankful to have finally finished Gone Girl so that I can get back to my normal life instead of just listening to that book 24/7.  I don't want to give anything away, but although I was OBSESSED with this book the last 1/4 of it kind of let me down a bit.  Let me know what you think about the ending!

I'm VERY thankful to have a 4.5 day weekend!  I'm also thankful for my new job that allows this, that I both love and find constantly challenging (in a good, although sometimes stressful, way). 

I'm also thankful to have some of the best friends in the world.  I APPRECIATE YOU!  And you know who you are.  Thanks for being awesome.  I'm also thankful to have found this wonderful blogging community of runners, all people who I think are awesome. 

Just a few of the people who I think are awesome.  

And I think a theme of the pictures in this post is that I miss summer??!!

Finally, although I'm not thankful for my hamstring, I AM thankful that I did have a pretty great year of running.  Even though it turns out my hamstring will bother me for nearly half the year, I trained and ran a marathon, ran the Mt. Si, Ragnar, and Hood to Coast relays, completed my very first triathlon, ran my first trail race (a 30k to boot, even though it wasn't a 50k), and ran 3 (soon to be 4) half marathons, including the Disney Princess race.  Seriously, I have so much to be thankful for both running-wise and otherwise. 

And that's a wrap.

What are you doing this lovely Thanksgiving?  What are you thankful for?