I've never claimed to be a runner. Actually I don't really enjoy running at all. However, a group of us decided it would be a good time to run a half marathon last year so we did. We picked the Disney Princess Half Marathon and it was a blast. I did not run the entire 13.1 miles but had a great time. So I decided to do it again this year, but maybe run a little bit more. I did a 5K in November and did ok but have not run an inch since then. Today I decided to go out and run. Walsingham Park has a 6 mile trail that I love to do (I usually just do 3 miles though). Today I decided to see what I could do and I surprised myself. I shaved 3 minutes off my 5K time and did 5 miles in 1:01:31. I am beyond stoked! I think I might be in good shape to have a drastically better finish time this year compared to last year! So now its time to work a few runs into my schedule before the Half (which is in 3 weeks....scary).
~JRC~
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Monday, January 31, 2011
Jogging
St Pat's kicked off Catholic Schools Week with their annual Jog-A-Thon. And let me tell you....it's come a long way since my St Pat's days. We never had a DJ (that I can remember), we never got free popsicles afterwards (that I can remember) and I'm almost positive we did ours in the afternoon, not in the morning when its nice out. But I digress. Noah's participated in the Jog-A-Thon last year but its not the same as this year. He was just an imposted PreK kid. This year he is a true St Pat's student. It was surreal for me to watch my own child do the same thing that I did growing up in school. Here's a couple pics that I took as I manned the First Aid table (which later turned into the PreK babysitting table).....
All in all, a great time and a success. Noah completed 19 laps and raised $70 for his (our) school! I'm so proud of him!!!
~JRC~
*Next on my list of things to do.....figuring out Picasa, photo editing, and changing the blog around a little bit*
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| So excited to start jogging |
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| Noah and his 5th grade buddy |
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| In the very front to start off the Jog-A-Thon |
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| Action shot |
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| Some of the teachers (and me) doing the Cupid Shuffle |
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| Most of the school gets into the Cha Cha Slide |
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| Me and a very tired Noah at the end (pic taken by a 4yr old) |
~JRC~
*Next on my list of things to do.....figuring out Picasa, photo editing, and changing the blog around a little bit*
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Zumba
For months now, a few ladies at work have been trying to get me to come to Zumba with them. It was just too much for me to try to get away from the kids while I was in my last semester of school. But now, I really don't have an excuse for not at least trying it with them. My mom has done Zumba in the past and loves it so I knew I'd have fun. So I went last night and let me tell you...it was awesome! It was a mix of Latin dancing, belly dancing, with the concepts of line dancing (and we all know how much I LOVE to line dance!) It was a lot tougher than I thought too but the good kind of tough. I felt so good afterwards (even ran my way home). My hips are even a little sore today (I haven't shaken my hips like that since my ridiculous Ybor days way back in my college years). Can't wait for Monday's class!!!
~JRC~
~JRC~
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
DOG!!!!
Dog.
A simple word.
Music to my ears.
I might fall a tad bit on the paranoid side when it comes to the kids. But they are my kids...why would I not be paranoid about them?
We never really thought that Noah's quiet nature growing up was actually a sign of his speech delay. I just thought I had the most amazing, quiet child. He didn't really make too much noise when he was playing. He did a lot of whispering to himself. My pediatricians insulted me when the wanted me to fill out an autism questionaire on Noah. They pushed and pushed about a hearing test until I caved. His hearing was perfect so off to a speech evaluation we went. The SLP had the audacity to tell me there was something wrong with my child. She used the dreaded "D" word in association with my perfect son....Speech Delay. I was in denial. Noah was not delayed. He was just quiet. So we started speech therapy after his second birthday. Ms Barb came to our house every Tuesday to work with us. Noah did a lot of animal sounds but not a huge amount of words. He did begin to learn the rules of conversation and looked forward to Ms Barb coming. Then when we moved, we got a new SLP, Ms Jeanie. And boy did Noah love her! Turns out she was married to one of my cousins and when I was very little, we would be at family functions together. What a small world! Well from the first moment she spoke with Noah, she nailed it. He had apraxia. Pretty much he had/has difficulty planning and producing the movements that are required for speech. His tongue, lips, and jaw don't work as quickly as they should. She gave us exercised to do to stretch out his facial muscles. Noah LOVED them. It was part of our bedtime routine and to this day, he'll occasionally ask to do his exercises. In the short months that we worked with Jeanie, Noah's speech improved. On his 3rd birthday, we had to say goodbye to the woman who brought Noah's speech out. She gave me a boy who has the most expansive vocabulary. Some of the words he uses I never imagined a 3 year old to say. He still has some work to do. He has problems with certain letter sounds and he does something funny with his tongue but I also have to remember he's only 4.
So why bring all of this up? Emmy is at the point where she needs to be talking. You could definitely tell the difference between Noah and Em as a baby. Emmy is never quiet. She's talking no matter what she's doing. Our house has been filled with noise and babbling from the moment she learned she could make noise come out of her mouth. A drastic difference from Noah's baby period. Well now that she's almost 18 months, I find myself freaking out that she isn't really saying words. Noah was only saying maybe 6-8 words by this time so I've been a little paranoid about Em. But this week she has blossomed into a talker. She's routinely saying words. Her vocabulary includes: Mama, Dada, No, Hi, Where, Wow, Uh-Oh, Chest (she says this when she's trying to say Chester...our cat), down, go, and my favorite....Justin. She sees a cat and says "Chest" and we have to remind her that not all cats are named Chester. But Monday was the greatest. I kept saying, "Where's Uncle Justin?" and she would reply either "Where" or "Justin." He even heard her say his name!
Today, this is what I walked into her room and found.......
She's pulling every book off of her bookcase, stops with the dog book, and flips through the pages screaming "DOG" every time she sees a dog. Can you imagine how nice it is to hear this and see this??? As much as I love peace and quiet some times, I love that she is already talking! When I became a parent, I never imagined I'd have a child with a delay of any sort, especially a speech delay. It took us 3 years for Noah to be able to truly communicate with us. It's been music to my ears listening to Emmy make her first words without having to struggle the same way her big brother did.
I'm so blessed and can't wait until my house is filled with squeaky little girl words!!!
~JRC~
Every day I am thankful for the Early Steps program for providing us with weekly speech therapy at no charge to us because most insurances do not cover speech therapy. Because of this program, Noah is back on track with his speech. I am also grateful that Easter Seals was able to provide us with the most amazing Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) (Jeanie) when we moved to Seminole. If you are thinking about donating to a local charity, please keep Easter Seals in your thoughts. They provide services to children and families living with disabilities.
A simple word.
Music to my ears.
I might fall a tad bit on the paranoid side when it comes to the kids. But they are my kids...why would I not be paranoid about them?
We never really thought that Noah's quiet nature growing up was actually a sign of his speech delay. I just thought I had the most amazing, quiet child. He didn't really make too much noise when he was playing. He did a lot of whispering to himself. My pediatricians insulted me when the wanted me to fill out an autism questionaire on Noah. They pushed and pushed about a hearing test until I caved. His hearing was perfect so off to a speech evaluation we went. The SLP had the audacity to tell me there was something wrong with my child. She used the dreaded "D" word in association with my perfect son....Speech Delay. I was in denial. Noah was not delayed. He was just quiet. So we started speech therapy after his second birthday. Ms Barb came to our house every Tuesday to work with us. Noah did a lot of animal sounds but not a huge amount of words. He did begin to learn the rules of conversation and looked forward to Ms Barb coming. Then when we moved, we got a new SLP, Ms Jeanie. And boy did Noah love her! Turns out she was married to one of my cousins and when I was very little, we would be at family functions together. What a small world! Well from the first moment she spoke with Noah, she nailed it. He had apraxia. Pretty much he had/has difficulty planning and producing the movements that are required for speech. His tongue, lips, and jaw don't work as quickly as they should. She gave us exercised to do to stretch out his facial muscles. Noah LOVED them. It was part of our bedtime routine and to this day, he'll occasionally ask to do his exercises. In the short months that we worked with Jeanie, Noah's speech improved. On his 3rd birthday, we had to say goodbye to the woman who brought Noah's speech out. She gave me a boy who has the most expansive vocabulary. Some of the words he uses I never imagined a 3 year old to say. He still has some work to do. He has problems with certain letter sounds and he does something funny with his tongue but I also have to remember he's only 4.
So why bring all of this up? Emmy is at the point where she needs to be talking. You could definitely tell the difference between Noah and Em as a baby. Emmy is never quiet. She's talking no matter what she's doing. Our house has been filled with noise and babbling from the moment she learned she could make noise come out of her mouth. A drastic difference from Noah's baby period. Well now that she's almost 18 months, I find myself freaking out that she isn't really saying words. Noah was only saying maybe 6-8 words by this time so I've been a little paranoid about Em. But this week she has blossomed into a talker. She's routinely saying words. Her vocabulary includes: Mama, Dada, No, Hi, Where, Wow, Uh-Oh, Chest (she says this when she's trying to say Chester...our cat), down, go, and my favorite....Justin. She sees a cat and says "Chest" and we have to remind her that not all cats are named Chester. But Monday was the greatest. I kept saying, "Where's Uncle Justin?" and she would reply either "Where" or "Justin." He even heard her say his name!
Today, this is what I walked into her room and found.......
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| She's so smart. She can read upside down!!! |
I'm so blessed and can't wait until my house is filled with squeaky little girl words!!!
~JRC~
Every day I am thankful for the Early Steps program for providing us with weekly speech therapy at no charge to us because most insurances do not cover speech therapy. Because of this program, Noah is back on track with his speech. I am also grateful that Easter Seals was able to provide us with the most amazing Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) (Jeanie) when we moved to Seminole. If you are thinking about donating to a local charity, please keep Easter Seals in your thoughts. They provide services to children and families living with disabilities.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Blonde moment of the day
Being a nurse makes you a little crazy about washing your hands. I have hand sanitizer attached to everything....purses, keys, backpacks, strollers, diaper bags....you get the picture. I'm washing my hands a million times a day with either soap and water or the hand sanitizer outside of every room while I'm at work and it's the same at home. My ring has taken a beating because of it. It's not the biggest of rings (but it is absolutely perfect for me) but I get disappointed when the sparkle disappears after days in a row at work. I've scoured the internet trying to find a good way to clean my rings that doesn't involve a trip to the jewelers. Low and behold, I found my solution, thanks to Michelle, aka The Real Life Mom. I tried both of her suggestions and prefer the woolite way better (again just my opinion....my rings came out sparkly-er)
About every week or two, I get my supplies out and get my ring back to sparkling condition. However, today, I did not get the result I anticipated. Note to self (and anyone who might try this)...plastic solo cups CANNOT withstand 2 minutes in the microwave.......
I don't know why I had a HUGE brain fart but I did. I guess I can blame it on my blonde hair, right?!? Only good thing that came out of this is my microwave smells Snuggle fresh now ;)
I am fortunate enough to know Michelle before she was The Real Life Mom. She was the Real Life Graduate Nurse/Registered Nurse/Newlywed when I worked with her way back when. We were pregnant together (via Facebook) with our girls. Her lil lady is a week younger than Em so I was lucky enough to have fellow pregger to talk to who understood what I was going through/feeling at any given moment. Her blog is absolutely amazing and she was my inspiration for starting my blog back up. I do blame her for my blog obsession because I have been completely/totally sucked in to the Blogging World. I'm so proud of you Michelle!!! Your blog is phenomenal and you are such an inspiration!!!! Check her out at The Real Life Mom!!!!
Let's see if I can get through the rest of the day without melting anything else.....it is my night to cook ;)
~JRC~
About every week or two, I get my supplies out and get my ring back to sparkling condition. However, today, I did not get the result I anticipated. Note to self (and anyone who might try this)...plastic solo cups CANNOT withstand 2 minutes in the microwave.......
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| The cup on the left was what I ended up with. I put it next to a non-melted cup for effect...this makes me a dumb dumb! |
I am fortunate enough to know Michelle before she was The Real Life Mom. She was the Real Life Graduate Nurse/Registered Nurse/Newlywed when I worked with her way back when. We were pregnant together (via Facebook) with our girls. Her lil lady is a week younger than Em so I was lucky enough to have fellow pregger to talk to who understood what I was going through/feeling at any given moment. Her blog is absolutely amazing and she was my inspiration for starting my blog back up. I do blame her for my blog obsession because I have been completely/totally sucked in to the Blogging World. I'm so proud of you Michelle!!! Your blog is phenomenal and you are such an inspiration!!!! Check her out at The Real Life Mom!!!!
Let's see if I can get through the rest of the day without melting anything else.....it is my night to cook ;)
~JRC~
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Happiest Place on Earth!!!
And I truly believe that!
My family just adores Disney! John took me there for the first birthday I celebrated after being with him. We ate in the castle and had an amazing time. When we moved to Orlando, we went to Disney or Downtown Disney all the time. We looked into getting married at Disney. Our kids have gone to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party every year since they were born. I've run in a Disney sponsored half marathon (and really have to bump up my training since it's in a month). We took our first family vacation to Disney. We have annual passes. We go just because. People think we're crazy for going to Disney so often but who can say no to a land full of imagination, fantasy, and Mickey Mouse?!?
So of course, we took the opportunity to spend the day at Disney for Noah's birthday. We hit up the same rides we always do (Noah's big into the rides), rode the train for the first time, took the kids to the Country Bear Jamboree for the first time, and just had fun. The kids love it, John and I love it, and we love being surrounded by the excitement!
The weekend of my half, we're going to Disney without the kiddos. It will be a nice little adult getaway. My parents, Tim and Sharon will be up with us. Sharon is running the half with me. So John and I are looking forward to enjoying the adult side of Disney.....Epcot, Hollywood Studios (which will always be MGM to me) and enjoying some time together. Yes, I'll miss the kids desperately (and think about them every minute and bug John with my wondering if we should have left them at home) but I'm looking forward to hanging out just the two of us.
Here are some pics from our fun trip!!!
~JRC~
My family just adores Disney! John took me there for the first birthday I celebrated after being with him. We ate in the castle and had an amazing time. When we moved to Orlando, we went to Disney or Downtown Disney all the time. We looked into getting married at Disney. Our kids have gone to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party every year since they were born. I've run in a Disney sponsored half marathon (and really have to bump up my training since it's in a month). We took our first family vacation to Disney. We have annual passes. We go just because. People think we're crazy for going to Disney so often but who can say no to a land full of imagination, fantasy, and Mickey Mouse?!?
So of course, we took the opportunity to spend the day at Disney for Noah's birthday. We hit up the same rides we always do (Noah's big into the rides), rode the train for the first time, took the kids to the Country Bear Jamboree for the first time, and just had fun. The kids love it, John and I love it, and we love being surrounded by the excitement!
The weekend of my half, we're going to Disney without the kiddos. It will be a nice little adult getaway. My parents, Tim and Sharon will be up with us. Sharon is running the half with me. So John and I are looking forward to enjoying the adult side of Disney.....Epcot, Hollywood Studios (which will always be MGM to me) and enjoying some time together. Yes, I'll miss the kids desperately (and think about them every minute and bug John with my wondering if we should have left them at home) but I'm looking forward to hanging out just the two of us.
Here are some pics from our fun trip!!!
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| I just adore the castle! |
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| Playing with her pirate gear |
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| Ready to make Dumbo take flight |
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| We love Disney!!!! |
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| Love Love Love |
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| In line for his first roller coaster! |
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| Winnie the Pooh is the best ride to wait on. They have play areas for the kids |
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| Talking on her pretzel phone while Daddy and Noah wait for a ride |
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| You can never have too many pictures of the castle! |
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
You saved our lives. We are eternally grateful
I just love the little green aliens from Toy Story.
Noah has been obsessed with the Toy Story movies since we took him to see Toy Story 3 when it was in the theater. We have anything and everything Toy Story. So it was only fitting that his 4th birthday party be a Toy Story themed one. I'm also on a big cupcake kick so I decided to take on the task of baking cupcakes instead of our usual Publix cake. But the question is, how do I top the monkey cupcakes????
Answer.....green alien cupcakes!!!
Thanks to my favorite research tool (google) I found the best recipe. Easy to make and oh so fun to look at!!!!
I'm also obsessed with buttercream frosting from Publix. I've been using this amazingly delicious frosting ever since I laid eyes on the container of it at the bakery. Who would have thought that you could buy the same frosting they ice their cakes with?!?! So task number 1, the perfect shade of alien green.
I'm loving the way everything came out! I've gotten so many compliments on my aliens that I think I'll end up making a batch for work soon. All in all, our party was a success and so were my cupcakes!!!
Next up....our Disney celebration for Noah's birthday!!!
~JRC~
Noah has been obsessed with the Toy Story movies since we took him to see Toy Story 3 when it was in the theater. We have anything and everything Toy Story. So it was only fitting that his 4th birthday party be a Toy Story themed one. I'm also on a big cupcake kick so I decided to take on the task of baking cupcakes instead of our usual Publix cake. But the question is, how do I top the monkey cupcakes????
Answer.....green alien cupcakes!!!
Thanks to my favorite research tool (google) I found the best recipe. Easy to make and oh so fun to look at!!!!
I'm also obsessed with buttercream frosting from Publix. I've been using this amazingly delicious frosting ever since I laid eyes on the container of it at the bakery. Who would have thought that you could buy the same frosting they ice their cakes with?!?! So task number 1, the perfect shade of alien green.
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| Note to self...don't take a pic of green icing in a green bowl with bad lighting :( |
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| I'm not good at icing yet. Don't hold that against me! |
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| Sour Patch Straw antennas, Mentos eyes, and sour candy ears |
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| I'm in love!!!! They came out so great (if I do say so myself!!!) |
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| My Toy Story table. Noah's toys came in handy! |
Next up....our Disney celebration for Noah's birthday!!!
~JRC~
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