Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving week y'all!!!!!  Let's just get into it as this will be short and sweet.

We decided not to go to Huntsville to race and that started off our week sad.  The rise in COVID cases in our area and throughout the USA plus the fact that we have had 0 time to work on cars made the decision a little easier.  We will miss everyone terribly and can't wait to see everyone on the live feed racing.  With most classes having between 15 and 25 cars per class, should be awesome racing with lots of lower mains to race out of!

I did get a few runs in during the week.  I didn't think rain was in the forecast, but it hampered by desire to run at the beginning of the week for sure.  We headed out in short sleeves and shorts Tuesday night and got caught in rain and dropping temps on our way back home.  Luckily drowned rat aussies dry pretty quickly.  

Turkey day turned out super nice and we got 6 miles before we had to get back to help. I am part of the deviled egg crew and head of the cleaning crew while my hubby does 99% of the work cooking and making the BEST food ever.  

Since we had no turkey when we decided not to travel, we signed up for one at a local BBQ place, as well as a few sides, just in case we couldn't find everything.  We still found sweat potatoes and my hubby made my favorite chicken and dressing and gravy, and last but not least, cranberry in a can :)

We did our long run on Saturday.  I wanted 12 miles but the excitement of wanting to watch our kiddos race in Huntsville through the various FB live videos won out.  We ran as quick as we could and got 10 and cleaned up super quickly, so we could cheer them on.  I will say here lately, my runs have felt SO good. I think it's partially because I am a for sure winter weather runner, and also because my body likes just running 3 days a week and getting a nice big break from a never ending training cycle.

I decided to run Sunday to try and get back to four runs a week and also to burn off some stress.  I awoke very full of anxiety and kind of sad honestly for missing out on several things lately.  I know I have it much easier than most, other than the full lock down I have been able to live my life pretty much as normal with mask on my face and sanitizer at the ready.  I have nothing to be sad about, but sad can hit anyone no matter where they are or what they are doing.  I tried a major deep cleaning of my house and while I got a lot done that hasn't been done in way to long (thanks race season and training for races), it didn't help my mood.  I went for a nice 4 mile run and while it was super windy, it helped me mentally so much.  I also just got in my car and drove around a bit looking for eagles and talking to my mom.  I came back home with a much clearer head and a much better mindset.  I am glad I could shake the funk and move on.  

Have a great week!!!!!  I am ready for some real winter weather running and I have heard the S word in the forecast!

  

Better news?

To follow up my previous post on bad news, I thought I would give a bit of good news to start out.  Here goes.  Again GIRL TALK AHEAD.  You have been warned.  If you don't want to hear about lady bits and lady problems, stop reading now:)

You have been warned.  Here goes.  I got a lot of my tests results back and everything seems pretty normal.  Mammogram was normal, no new lumps to investigate, old lumps have not changed.  The new digital mammogram is the bomb.com, but still hurts like a mofo when they do the side shot.  OUCH.  Pretty sure that even though she is super quick when she does the shots, I didn't breath the whole time she was doing side shots, and she had to in fact remind me a few times to breath.  HPV test came back normal, which I figure it would on that one.  Pap came back normal as well so big sigh of relief on that one.  Still waiting for the imaging clinic to call me back, but at this point there is no point in rushing into a surgery.  While I wouldn't mind a full hysterectomy, with the COVID spikes around here I wouldn't mind putting it off till next year spring or even later.   Grumpy cat is also feeling much better and we still have no clue what he got or got into.  We are starting to let him have more freedom because super grumpy cat was getting a little bit too much to handle.  

We did get a few runs done during the week.  We are having second summer (or is it 3rd at this point?) complete with some warm temps and some CRAZY wind.  Welcome to the prairie where the wind comes whipping down the plains LOL.  One day we had 50 mph wind gusts and I seriously though the shop was going to be ripped apart.  Lucky for us, it mostly dies down at night.  We did a 5 together and then I did a 4 solo in 75 degrees.  Let's just say it's been weird to go from shorts and tanks to full winter gear and then back to shorts and tanks.  

And I am a super bad mom.  I noticed that they were doing an Ecto-1 from Lego to celebrate the new Ghostbusters movie.  Well, my kid is obsessed with GhostBusters, see below.  He draws the movie, thinks the movie, plays the movie, talks the movie, and would be the movie if he could.

 I had to buy the set for him and was thinking this would be an awesome Christmas present.  Well....I couldn't contain myself and hold off another monthish, so I gave it to him early.  I did tell him it was a part of his Christmas, but I am sure he will forget, as will we.  He has already in one night put together half of it!  

He amazes me with his mind and his ability to hyperfocus.  He worked from the time he got out of school till I made him leave the shop at 9:00 so we could read and head to bed.  I was really worried about this set as when it came it claimed it was for 18+, but thus far he hasn't even had one question or needed help.  I want his brain when it comes to spatial things!!!!

Just a couple of nights later he finished it!  This build had over 2,000 pieces and he did the whole build without any help from Tony or I and all the moving parts move and work correctly.  

I did a longish run on Saturday post hubby getting off work.  One of the roads we run on was closed and then I had an encounter with a strange man picking up recycling on the side of the road, so I was happy to get what I got and be done. I wanted 10 but the universe wanted me to get 9 so 9 it was.

Then my birthday celebration began.  I wanted to do five things: long run, have soup and fru fru coffee at Radinas, go to Eclectic Charm and look at antiques and handmade goodies, spend my gift certificate at the Manhattan Running Company, and then finish the day at Manhattan Brewery having some good brews.  

 

Mission accomplished!!!  Got some hand made items from Eclectic Charm that were SUPER cute.  Spent my gift certificate (thanks MOM!!!)  on some needs including new Balega socks, new Mizuno winter running tights, and new hat since most of my look pretty gross.  Ended the night at Manhattan Brewery where we had some tasty beers, watched KSU get their butts beat in a blow out, and played all kinds of board games.  They even played a few Prince songs so we could "dance" before we left.  I am ready to tackle 43!!!

Have a great week!  Might get another short run in today but wanted to get this posted before I started cleaning the house and being uber productive.  

Bad news?

 WARNING!!!!  MAJOR GIRL TALK AHEAD.  LEAVE IF YOU DON'T LIKE THAT SORT OF TALK.  You have been warned:)

The week started out with warm temps and bad news.  I had my yearly well woman exam complete with flu shot.  My doctor had been concerned the last time I had my pap, as I had told her I was having some pretty heavy crampy/clotty periods.  We had pulled a hormone panel and all checked out just fine, not even in perimenopause.  This year almost two years later, my uterus looked enlarged, there were cysts on my uterus, and my cervix was friable and bled pretty quickly upon scraping.  I was instructed to quickly get some more imaging done, to wait for the results of my pap before freaking out, and to not borrow trouble.  Sigh.  I am the queen at borrowing trouble.  She also found what appeared to be some lumps in my left breast, but she said that area was common to be lumpy and that I shouldn't worry (REALLY??).  I do yearly mammograms and nothing has ever come up on that side, and I have my next mammo scheduled for next week, thank goodness.  On to happier news right?

I finally bit the bullet and ordered Noxgear for Stella and Boom.  I like the concept, lots of colors and visibility.  What I am not digging is the fact that the chest strap goes across and not in between her legs.  While the strap does sit up higher on her chest, I am still not sure this harness style is going to work for her.  I put it on over her normal harness just in case, but ended up clipping to it in an effort to keep it from sliding off her shoulders.  I feel like I have it as tight as it needs to be in the girth area as well as the chest area, but that big light source is heavy and when she isn't pulling it moves over on top of her shoulders.  I want to try it on Boom to see if his wider body style suites it better.  Based on hers and Boom's weights 48-51 lbs, I ordered a large and had to pretty much adjust it all the way down.  

I didn't put Boom's harness on underneath when I took him out in the Noxgear and trusted the clip and strap would hold and withstand his pulling.  The light source/battery pack did stay a little better on him with his wider shoulders, but still had some play to the sides when he wasn't hooked up and pulling.  Not a deal breaker as neither dog wouldn't not run with it on, just not sure how feasible it would be to do a longer run and not have issues with chaffing or shoulder pain.  I think if I ordered again, I might try going smaller and adjusting the whole thing out as far as it would go rather than the size I ordered and having to adjust everything down.  

We did do a really awesome photo session with Andrew and his cars.  One of our track families included their cars in their family session and I just loved the idea. I reached out to our favorite local photographer and she went wild with some crazy photo shots.  I can't wait to see how they turned out!  We started on a long winding gravel road, took some pictures up by the river bridge, then went to a parking lot and did some shots with fog and colored lights.  

Afterwards since he worked so hard and put up with all of our crazy ideas, we had steak and asparagus and LAVA CAKE!  Y'all, not going to lie, I have been eating my two shakes a day, but come my one meal a day, I have not been super good about staying under my calories.  Yes, I had several bites of this amazing lava cake, plus a sweet potato that had butter and sugar.  Sigh.  I am not gaining, but I am not loosing and I need to get back on that train.  I still have a long way to go, probably around 17 lbs that I would love to get off before my next training cycle (if I get a next thanks to possibly surgery keeping me from my next 50).  

It was also a super stressful week at work.  We had some unique situations come up with service clients that kind of made me loose faith in humanity.  Why lie about what is going on and put my guys in bad spots?  My electricians had to make some tough unpopular calls and we still have not gotten paid by a contractor we have been doing LOTS of work with (going on 3rd month now of no pay).  We had planned on heading to KC to the dirt track to see several of our quarter midget racers race sprint cars, but in the end we worked late, got pizza and beer, and went to bed instead.  

Also this week, just to add on to all of the craziness and bad news, our kitty got super sick.  We still don't have a diagnosis, but he got to spend a night in the vet's office being observed and we got the  bill for it :)  As of typing this he is back to eating and drinking, but we have NOT seen him pee or poop in his litter box, which is NOT good.  Even though his blood work came back completely normal, we are treating this like and infection and he is on doxycycline to try and combat whatever is making him run a high fever.    I do feel like he is low fever/fever free right now, however I have not taken his temp because sticking a thermometer up a cat's butt just doesn't seem like a good time to me.  

As always, I had grand plans of running Saturday and Sunday to get back to 4 days a week of running.  As always, that plan fell through when hubby had to work with the crew on Saturday.  Oh well, Andrew and I slept in,  had fun cleaning the house in our PJs, and watched Christmas movies (check out Jingle Jangle, LOVED it).  Sunday I woke up around 8, fueled up, and headed out about an hour later.   

I was brave and took both dogs.  My running partner has been dealing with some injuries and hasn't been joining me, so it's a little easier to manage both of them.  Boom is a super puller, so I felt like our pace was just a bit faster than  I really wanted to go.  I let him and Stella off when we got out in the country, but Boom decided listening was optional and got put back on the leash pretty quickly.  I need to take treats with me again to remind him coming back has a lot more value than cow patties that the farmers have just used to fertilize their fields with.  Sigh.  After he tired out a little and we were past the feedlot, I was able to let him off for the rest of the run and he listened.  

I think that was boom's longest run.  I need to include him more in my runs as I am not sure a) how much longer Stella's body will let her tolerate long distance running since she is coming up on 10 years young b) how long I will be down and out from surgery, and c) he needs to blow off steam too even though he goes to work with my every day.  

Have a great week!!!!  This next week has my birthday in it and i can't wait to turn 43 :)  I need some new winter running tights and I love Mizuno winter gear so may ask for a gift card to our local running store.  

Lost and found motivation

I really thought with the fall temps returning and some sort of semblance of regular schedule that I would find my motivation to run this week.  

I was wrong.  I had planned to get back to at least 4 runs this week, but several late nights and stress over stress caused me to not hit my mark.  

While one big stressor in my life calmed down, another couple reared their ugly heads.  Then don't get me started about this crazy election.  My hubby and i have had it on 24:7 after the first night and I just want to know who our next president is one way or the other.  

We did get a couple of runs during the week in the pitch black dark.  I was even brave and took both aussies one run.  They had so much fun running loose on the country roads and it made me smile.  

We also made the tough decision to start the redhead on some meds for his ADHD.  I have done some live videos on my blog page on FB about the journey and the decisions we made.  He took his first pill on Friday morning and boy was that an experience in itself. I don't remember at what age I took my first pill, but he was terrified to have to swallow, even with the help of water and applesauce.  Our first try resulted in him freaking out and puking it back up.  Sigh.  The second try went better so fingers crossed tries after this go equally as well.  

I've been collecting memes from the week and this is probably one of my most favorite.  There were so many good ones.  

We had our end of the year banquet for our Topeka Quarter midget club and I am SO proud of my little ginger racer.  To go from racing one car to two, to go from a much slower car to a much faster car, to go race a car he had only run 2 laps in before the race, to passing several of his friends, we have seen so much growth in this kid.  Yeah, he may not be winning checkered flags yet, but the improvement is amazing.  

I love this picture so much.  I gave a talk as our outgoing racers handed our president whose term is up end of December gifts of appreciation.  I am so glad I didn't cry because it was super hard. She has meant so much to me and while she still will be around, I will miss her being in the tower with us.  I still feel I have so much to learn but she has taught me so much.  

I love his awards and hope they motivate him to work even harder next year.  He finished 7th out of 8 racers in Jr Honda and 3rd out of 5 racers in Jr Animal. He will have another year in Juniors to work on lots of skills like lines and passing and another great year of being part of a racing family.  

I ended the week with a sort of long run.  I had hoped for 10 but a late morning and not a great night before with having a couple of beers meant 7 was a good number to end on.  We had some crazy winds too and battling it coming out of the south just wasn't in me today.  Hoping for a better week next week but come what may, we shall tackle it with grace and humor and realize it is what it is.  

Post Nationals Hangover

 I honestly did not feel like running all week.  Not only was I tired and super stressed from some drama in my life, but we had winter park it's big old butt on our week.  Not nice mother nature, not nice!  I like a gradual transition, not an abrupt change.  We had snow and ice pellets and slick streets to start out the week, and then howling winds and plunging temps to go with it.  By the weekend things got better, but we had a two day race and Halloween trick or treating meaning not the greatest running week ever.

We ran finally once the ice stopped on Wednesday night and that was my lone run.  I LOVE winter running and loved getting my running vest out even if I sweated a little bit.  Stella was a big spaz the entire run smiling from ear to ear the entire time.  It did feel good to be back out and the fire to run and train is slowly being lit again.  

I did see my chiro this week and boy did she work out some horrible knots in my shoulders.  When I am super stressed, I carry all that stress there and boy did that HURT to get it worked out.  Now I feel like a million bucks, but the cupping kisses I have are quite amazing.  I highly recommend cupping if you have not had it done.  It seriously keeps me on the road running and helps with not only muscle pain but any and all nerve pain.  I didn't realize how bound up my shoulders and neck where till they weren't.  Stress and traveling will do that to you!

The one positive for this week was Andrew was the student spotlight student for the week.  While every student gets this honor, I loved the pictures he chose for his board.  He got to pick 6 pictures and they were all of his race cars and his race friends.  SQUEEEEE :)

The school allowed the kiddos to dress up in their costumes, which I thought was super nice.  Andrew is Sans from the video game UnderTale, a game that we don't even own, but he is in love with this character.  I am just glad the kiddos get some sort of fun this year, since most everything else has been canceled.  

Our town had it's downtown trick or treating with lots of precautions taken.  We went later to hope to avoid the crowd since even with the longer times and early start time, I knew there would be a ton of people.  Andrew decided that he didn't want to be Sans, which meant race car driver was our only option.  Many people commented on how authentic Andrew's costume was LOL!!!!!  Andrew did a great job of staying 6 feet away most of the time and the face shield stayed down and I was masked the entire time.  

We had our last weekend of racing with a double race weekend on tap.  Saturday was racing as normal with the winners winning pumpkins and Sunday was the 100 or 50 lapper for the Sr and Jr honda kiddos.  This was not a point's race, just a fun race.  We had a chili cook off planned as well as trailer decorating and trick or treating again.  

Unfortunately Andrew had a horrible wreck in his black and green car and flipped.  While he was okay, the car was totaled and the whole thing shook his confidence.  Once we realized he was okay and nothing was broken or bruised, I tried to get him back in his other car for the last race.  He was really scared, really did NOT want to, but I kind felt like he needed to get back on the horse again so to speak.  

He of course went out and got a solid 3rd place in his Junior Animal car with some pretty fast laps.  I was SO proud of him to get back out there.  

After racing they got to pick their pumpkins, do some trailer treating, and we had a chili cook off (the chicken chili was AMAZING).  On Sunday we had a gender reveal (one of our club members is expecting) and the 50 lap race for the Jrs and a 100 lap race for the Srs.  Tony worked hard all night to pull the motor out of the black and green car and put it into Andrew's burgundy car.  While it wasn't perfect, it was good enough to get on the track and finish 6th thanks to three cars wrecking out.  

While he still isn't super duper competitive, he is making gains every week and I love it.  I can't wait to see how he does next year with a year of maturity on him and hopefully a little more competitive fire.  We have one more possible race or two if we want to travel.  I am really going to miss my track family.  They have seriously taken care of my kiddo and my hubby while I work in the tower.  We wouldn't have made it through this year without them helping us with the car and with advice and help.