Alpine Tunnel

On Sunday we headed up to the Alpine Tunnel with our babysitter and two of her kids. It was a long and rough ride but worth it. The Alpine Tunnel lies above Pitkin, Colorado. It is an old train tunnel built back in the mining days. It has since caved in but the drive was fun and a bit scary. Joe has never been to the tunnel but he has always wanted to go. A very long time ago I had visted the tunnel with my family when we were on vacation out here (I was in elementary school is how long ago it was!). We had a great time and most of these pictures are for my dad. He will be very excited to see these.

This is a picture of how narrow the road was. I am glad that I was not driving.

These are pictures of the view from the car to the valley floor below. It was a long way down.

Lily just hanging out. She was a tropper.

Mikayla enjoying the ride.

We made it.

Isn't this high alpine valley beautiful. We were at 11,500 feet and the mountains around us had to be at least 13,000.

There is not much to see anymore.

A friendly marmot. I love these guys and they drive the dogs nuts with their high pitched squeaks.



This is on the way down from the tunnel. The rock outcropping was where we were at one point in the drive.

This is a rock wall built by hand.

4th of July Crested Butte, Colorado

For all of my Colorado blogger buddies, if you have never experienced a 4th of July in Crested Butte than you must get away next year. It is full of family fun activities and a blast. The day starts with the 1/3 Marathon (8.75 miles) Run, Walk or Crawl from the town of Gothic down into Crested Butte. I have run this race 2 times and cannot to wait to run it again. If you don't feel like running you can help raise money for our local fire fighters by buying some of there yummy pancakes at their pancake breakfast from 8am to 10am.

The parade is the most fun and starts at 11am. This parade features very untypical floats. You have the students from the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic parading down the street in "Skunk Cabbage" instead of clothes just to give you an idea. At the end block of Elk Avenue the parade turns into a huge water fight.

We really did not want to get wet but we did enjoy some of the water.

Who would not want to watch a parade with this in the background?

After the parade Elk Avenue stays closed and people can enjoy music, street games and great food. We had a blast and a super fun 4th of July.

Where Oh Where Have I Been

I am sorry that I have not blogged in sooo long or read your blogs in so long. On Sunday night I got hit with the world's worst cold. I had no idea a cold could put me in bed and make me call in sick to work 3 days in a row. I have never in my whole life called in sick 3 days in a row.

Monday I spent the day in bed, Tuesday I made it to the couch, Wednesday I tried to go into work but came home after 2 hours and Thursday and I was finally able to go to work. Even child birth was easier than this because it was over in 24 hours. Thank heavens for daycare and being a working mom. There is no way I could have taken care of the girls if I was a stay at home mom.

Yesterday, I had the day off for July 4th and I arrange for Joe to have the day off as well for a late birthday present. The plan was to go to Crested Butte, enjoy a wonderful heart pumping hike, have lunch and then pick up the girls from daycare. We did all that but down played the hike since I am still recovering from being sick. We headed up to Crested Butte and origianlly wanted to hike Yule Pass where we went on our first date almost 12 years ago. We had heard some people saying that you cannot get up to Yule Pass yet due to too much snow. So instead we did Daisy Pass.

We drove north from Crested Butte and turned left onto Slate River Road, then we continued on Slate River Road for about 6 miles into the townsite of Pittsburgh. At this point we parked the car and got our feet really wet as we walked through Slate River (more of a large creek at this point). We headed up a beautiful jeep road with wildflowers everywhere. The dogs had a blast. It is was a nice, easy road with only a little incline. We also came across 2 beautiful, huge water falls. Check out this link to read about some guys kyaking the falls. From Daisy Pass Road we could look way up above us and see the Yule Pass trail. There really was a lot of snow still up there. We also saw a huge waterfall come down from the snow. I love being able to go up into the mountains and see where the creeks, streams and rivers start. We hiked about 45 minutes and then turned around and headed back. I wanted to keep going but I was worried that I would get too tired on the way back.

After the hike we headed back to Crested Butte and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Maxwell's. It was wonderful and relaxing. I feel like it was my birthday present as well as Joe's. I am sorry I don't have any picture to post because the hike was gogorus, but we forgot the camera, like always.

Learner's Bib Giveaway Winner

I really apologize for being so late in getting the winner posted. I was so sick this week - I have never been this sick in my life. I never knew a cold would throw me into bed for 3 days straight.

The winner is Bitsy of Mommy Tried It.

Free National Park Day

In order to promote our National Parks the Park Service is hosting one free weekend per month between now and the end of August. We live about 1 1/2 hours from the Black Canyon of The Gunnison National Park and Joe decided that for Father's Day he wanted to go to the Black Canyon. We loaded up the car about 9:30 and had a nice car ride down. Lily was excellent (normally she is a handful in the car!). Because of Green Style Mom I learned about the Junior Ranger program. Mikayla picked up a packet of activities and they completely age appropriate. She was able to do some of them on her own and a few with my help, a couple of the activities were too old for her but the program is designed for ages 3 to 5 so it made sense, and she only had to complete 4 activities. She had tons of fun with the booklet and she earned her junior ranger badge. I do have to say though she was so tired at the end of the day she really did not want to talk to the ranger too much but that is ok because I knew she had learned a lot.

Joe is already talking about the next free weekend in July 18 and 19th about going down to Mesa Verde. I will have to remind his though how hot southern Colorado gets in July!

Overall we had a great Father's Day.

***Don't forget to check out my Learner's Bib Giveaway below***

Baggino Diaper Bag - Learner's Bib - GIVEAWAY

Root and Sprout is a parenting network/blog that I belong to. Grow Together is an off shoot of Root and Sprout. Both sites are excellent resources and the best part about both sites is that they are driven by the people who participate. You can participate as much or as little as you want. You can become a featured writer and make money, you can particiapte in giveaways, you can meet parents from all over the country. It is a wonderful site with tons of features. I have been involved with this site from the beginning and I really wish I was a more active member of it.

In March I signed up to review this diaper bag from Baggino:
This diaper bag is pretty cool because it takes the hassle out of finding what you need and the outside of the diaper bag turns into the changing pad. I can never find my changing pad in my diaper bag.

They also sent me this awesome bib (which every mom and dad in the world needs):

Giveaway - Win one Learner's Bib from Baggino.com. Please take a minute to check out my review, the Baggino Website and Root and Sprout. In order to enter this giveaway please leave a comment related to the product, my review or root and sprout. Also don't leave a comment like "Enter Me" Love the bib," please add some depth.

You will receive extra votes by 1 - blogging about this giveaway on your site with a link back to my and also leave me a comment that you did so and/or 2 - becoming a follower of Colorado Mama.

This contest closes on June 26th and I will draw a name that weekend.

Frustrated

A week ago I went for a two mile run and my foot felt pretty good. So two days later I did 3 miles and then two days later I a 4 mile run. I was feeling some pressure sometimes but not all of the time and I was not in pain. On Sunday I was feeling my foot a bit but I was really wanting a nice long run. I headed out to Hartman Rocks and did 5 miles. It was a slow 5 miles because I was not ready for all of those hills but it was great. I felt great all the way from my head down to my ankle. Yup, not my foot my ankle. After about a mile it started acting up again but since I really wanted that run I kept at it. Sunday and Monday it was super sore. I even wore my tennis shoes to work on Monday for extra support. I am so frustrated that after a month it is still not better. I called the doctor and she is out of town for 2 1/2 weeks. I made an appointment for when she gets back to talk but I have also decided until then I am going to keep running, since not running is not helping it get better. Today I did 3.2 miles and it felt great.

Why I Live in Gunnison, Colorado

Joe and I think about living this small town all of the time. Usually because we could make a lot more money if we were to move to Denver. I have done the math and I could easily be making $10,000 to $15,000 more than I am making currently and trust me that would help a TON financially. Even as I am writing this I am thinking about moving to Denver.

While we have thought about moving we always end up staying. We like the idea of living in a small town where everyone knows everyone. This will be helpful when the girls get older because that means that many more people who know what they are doing! We love living so close to hiking, mountain biking and skiing. Joe cannot wait for the day when Mikayla is in school and the teacher asks "So, Mikayla what did you do this weekend?" Her answer is suppose to be "Dad and I did some sick downhill."

While living here is financially a strain it is also hard to be away from family. I just have to remember this is one of the reasons we live here:

Sorry this is not in better focus but I took this picture from inside. I was scared that is I opened the door to get a better picture I would scare them away. Also, one of our creeks is right below the deer and our two ducks who we like to call Fred and Ethel were hanging out in the stream.

Colorado Mama's Food Blog

I have created a new blog in order to keep all of my recipes and restaurant reviews in one place. I will not posting my Sunday recipes on this site but I will be posting everything on my food blog. I will let you know whenever I post a new recipe on my food blog.

Please take a minute to check it out: http://colorado-mama-foodblog.blogspot.com/

National Donut Day

I really did not need to wake up, turn on the computer to find out that it is National Donut Day. Maybe they are trying to compete with National Running Day that was on June 3rd. Did you go for a run? I did 3 miles and my foot felt great the whole time!

Back to Running - Neuroma still there??

It has been a month since my last run so it is now time to test it out. Yesterday, I went for an easy 2 mile run. It felt great. I really do love running. I am not confident that once I am back to running a normal week with normal mileage that my foot will be pain free. This is because after my two mile run I had pressure, no pain just pressure. That pressure was still there this morning.

I did decided not to run today and I went swimming at our new rec center. The pool is brand new and I had fun swimming laps. I am going to try another 2 miles tomorrow and see how it goes.

Exhausted But Happy!

To make a long story short on Sunday we unexpectedly ended up watching our babysitters kids all day (10 hours) and she has a total of 4 kids, 2 - 9 year old twin girls, 1 - 5 year old boy and 1 - 1 year old boy. Of cource in addition to Mikayla and Lily. They were great kids and super easy to watch but boy am I tired. I also never knew how much food 6 kids and 2 adults will eat. I don't even want to think what her grocery bill is like!


The kids had fun. We spent most of the morning outside playing in the sandbox, running around, and fishing. I then took the four older ones to a house that I said I would clean today. Again the kids were excellent. We came home from that errand and had lunch. After lunch we has quite time in front of the TV and then headed outside to play hide-n-seek and take a walk. Joe decided to put the babies in the bike trailer and ride them around the neighborhood. Then he had to route because all of the kids wanted a turn and while he rode as fast as he could they would run after him. Everyone got a workout in!


After they went home I still had to finish cleaning the house I was hired to clean, get ready for Monday morning and then do the books for Joe's office. Let's just say that I have not been this tired in a long time!

Roast Chicken Receipe

I love cooking a chicken. It is super easy and it tastes and if you have been working hard all day when the oven did most of the work! Another thing I love about this is the price. The chicken is only $3 to $4 then you add veggies and rice. You also get many meals out of one bird (unless you have a big family).

Recipe:

1 Chicken

3 big ones or a one to two handfuls of the baby carrots

1 onion (chopped into large pieces)

1 small lemon (chopped into 8 slices or so)

5 cloves of garlic

2 Tbs olive oil

Salt and Pepper

Rosemary and Thyme (fresh works best but you can use the stuff from the spice aisle as well.

Thyme

Water

Pre-heat the oven to 350. Wash the chicken and remove the "guts" (heart, liver, etc...). Dry the chicken off. In a large pan place the washed celery, carrots and chopped onions on the bottom of the pan.

This way the chicken is not sitting on the bottom of the pan and it also allows the heat to move around the bird easier. Next set the chicken on top of the veggies. Then stick the lemon and garlic into the bird. Rub the entire outside of the bird with the olive oil and then sprinkle the salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme on top of the bird.

This is what it looks like right before I stuck the chicken in the oven. (Sorry it is a little out of focus).

Put a little bit of water in the bottom on the pan (about 1/2 inch deep). Place the chicken in the pre-heated oven for about 2 hours. The internal temperature of the chicken should reach around 180. Remember to baste the chicken every 15 to 30 minutes.

When you take the chicken out make sure to remove the garlic and lemons from inside the bird.

Gravy:
Strain off all of the extra veggies pieces, fat, spices, etc... Place the remanding liquid into a sauce pan and add about 1 to 2 TBS of flour. Whisk this constantly until the mixture thickens and now you have a wonderful, yummy gravy. Serve brown rice or mashed potatoes along with your favorite veggie and now you have a wonderful meal.

What's For Breakfast?

We all have heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But what you are eating also counts as well.

I was never much of a breakfast eater, coffee was good enough for me until lunch time. Then I got pregnant with Mikayla and breakfast became a necessity if I did not want to get sick. At that time I found my love for cereal again, Fruit Loops, Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles and my favorite Lucky Charms! After I had Mikayla and was done breastfeeding I gradually stopped eating breakfast again. Then I became pregnant with Lily. This time I made smarter choices, mostly because I did not want to serve Mikayla Lucky Charms. It is amazing how we will choose not to feed our children sugar filled foods but we will choose those same foods for us. Since I did not want to load Mikayla up on sugar filled cereal I started buying much healthier cereal, Cheerios, Kashi, Special K.

Since I had Lily I have kept up the habit of a bowl of cereal every morning and I try to choose cereal that has at least 10 grams of fiber per serving.

Here are two different types of cereal that are in my cabinet. Let's compare them.

The first is Oatmeal Crisp, Hearty Raisin.

The Oatmeal Crisp has 270 calories per serving (with a 1/2 cup of skim milk), 4 grams of fiber, 1 gram of soluble fiber, 20 grams of sugar, 5 grams of protein, 2.5 grams of fat and .5 grams of saturated fat. When I bought this I must have been in a hurry because if I had noticed that it only had 4 grams of fiber in it I would have put it back. I must have been thinking "Oatmeal is good for you". That is one reason why it pays to leave the kids at home while you go grocery shopping and READ the labels.

I can tell you that the Oatmeal Crisp is very yummy, I loved all of the raisins but it did not fill me up. I am usually hungry 2 hours after I have had this for breakfast.

The second is Fiber One, Honey Clusters.

This cereal has 200 calories per serving (with 1/2 cup of skim milk), 1.5 grams of fat, NO saturated fat, 13 grams of fiber, 3 grams of soluble fiber, only 6 grams of sugar and 5 grams of protein. This cereal is a much healthier cereal, with more fiber and less sugar and less calories. It is not as exciting and yummy as the Oatmeal Crisp but it is not boring either. I would choose this cereal again. The Fiber One has only 200 calories and it will keep me full from 6am to 10am.

There are many cereals that are just as healthy as the Fiber One. I normally like to buy the Kashi Cereals but they are a bit more than the Fiber One. The past few months I have been searching the cereal aisles for something that has a lot of fiber, is yummy and not too expensive.

What do you like to eat for breakfast?

Creamy Broccoli Soup with Cheddar and Chive Toast

Doesn't that look yummy!!!

Welcome to Sunday Cookin. On the weekends I like to spend the time researching recipes and coming up with something different and super yummy.

This week I made Cream Broccoli Soup with Cheddar and Chive Toast. I would love to say that I came up with this meal but it is from Rachael Ray’s 365: No Repeats Cookbook. One thing I love about Rachel Ray’s recipes is that they are easy to make substitutions and also easy to make. One thing I have noticed is that I cannot make a Rachael Ray meal in 30 minutes. Maybe if made this recipe many times I could get quicker at it but this time it took between 45 minute to an hour.

Recipe:
2 tbls extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 slices of bacon, chopped (We hardly ever cook with bacon so I used more!)
1 large yellow onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbls fresh thyme (I did not have any fresh time so I used rubbed thyme)
salt and pepper
Hot Sauce (I did not put this in.)
2 10 ounce boxes of frozen chopped broccoli (I used fresh broccoli - about 3 to 4 cups)
1 quart of chicken stock (I forgot about this until the last minute so I used water and about 1 cup of chicken stock
½ cup of heavy cream or half and half (I never use heavy cream due to calories and fat so I used 1/4 cup of whole milk and 1/4 cup of whole milk)
8 slices of baguette (I used whole wheat sandwich bread)
1/4 cup cup parsley
Zest and juice of one lemon (I used the juice only - I was lazy)
1 cup of shredded sharp Cheddar
3 tbls chopped fresh chives

Heat a large soup pan over medium heat and add the EVOO. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Remove the crispy bacon and let it drain on a paper towel. (I added bacon to the soup as well as the bread.) Add the onions, garlic and thyme to the pot and season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Cook, stirring frequently until the onions are tender. Add the broccoli and heat thoroughly. Transfer the onions and broccoli to the food processor with ½ cup of chicken stock and puree until smooth. (I wanted a hearty soup with chucks so after everything was cooked I took a hand mixer and pureed it lightly.) Add the pureed mixture back to the pan and then add the remaining chicken stock and cream. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
While the soap is simmering, toast the bread slices until brown, sprinkle the cheese, bacon and parsley over each slice and return to the boiler or toaster oven until the cheese is melted.
To finish the soap add the lemon zest and juice and stir to combine.

Dish up and Serve. I have no idea what the calorie content is on this but if you used extra lean turkey bacon and substituted skim milk for the heavy cream this would be a very healthy recipe.

Couch to 5K Running Program in 9 Weeks

Since I have started this blog I have had people ask "How did you start running?" This is my normal answer. I have been running for over 10 years now and I started slow. Running 30 seconds and then walking for 30 seconds to a minute, and then repeating that. I also started running very slowly. I eventually worked up to my first mile and I still remember how excited I was when I ran my first mile. I was 19 years old, in the workout room at Western State College, it was my evening workout on a treadmill in front of these huge windows and boy it felt great.

My longest run for many years was the Gothic to Crested Butte race. It was a 1/3 marathon, about 8.75 miles. The first year I did that I trained for it, I ran the whole time and I finished. I was so proud of myself for doing that.

For many years I was stuck in that I was about an 11 minute mile (on a good day) runner. It was not until I started training for a marathon that I finally picked up the pace and miles. Now I can complete a 10 mile run and on my shorter runs I can keep my pace to 10 minute miles or less and I am still working on getting that pace even shorter.

The reason I am telling you this is that you too can become a runner. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE can run. (Unless your doctor told you no or you have horrible knees or something.) I would encourage everyone to give it a try and see if you like it. BUT do not give up after the first run, give it some time and eventually you too will find yourself enjoying the time outside, away from the kids, just you, mother nature and maybe some I-tunes.

Here is a Couch to 5K Running program I found that looks pretty good and was recommend by Active.com. This is from www.coolrunning.com.

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

Pick out a 5K race that is about 9 to 10 weeks away, start training for it an then go do it.

Here are some other great sources for running.

www.active.com
www.runnersworld.com

Pictures of My Beautiful Daughters

Here are some pictures of the girls.

Here is one reason I am glad we moved out of the old house and into our new old red house. The yard. The backyard at the white house was dirt and this is what happens when you give a 4 year old and a 1 year old a dirt back yard.

Here is a picture from Mikayla's 4th Birthday party this weekend. The weather was perfect and everyone had a ball.

We went for a quick hike on weekend. Here is my little model.

This is a picture the babysitter took one day and then photoshoped it.

While I was busy packing up the white house Lily decided to go into the laundry room and mop the house!

Running and Mountain Biking

Due to my foot I have been told no running for one month. The past two weeks it has not been an issue - I have not had a free second to consider a run. Every day on my lunch hour I have been cleaning the old house and in the mornings I have been busy packing and unpacking. Now that we are settled I am ready to exercise. Today I did a wonderful mountain bike ride at lunch. It was tons of fun - I do love mountain biking. I am missing running but I am really trying to be good to my foot. I hope that on June 3rd I will be able to go for a run and not be in pain. If my runs still hurt I will be seeing a foot specialist in Denver. I don't want to drive to Denver - it is over 3 hours away.

This week my plan is to mountain bike, swim and focus on my weight workout. That reminds me - gotta go work on those abs!

Computer is Up - Back to Blogging

The house is put together and the computer is up and running so now I am ready to get back to blogging. I have really missed it.

Here are a few of pictures of our new old house.

This is where I am blogging to you right now and this is my view from the computer.

This is our living room. We have a long living room. This is looking from the kitchen into the living and our bedroom and Lily's bedroom are at the other end of the living room.

This is the view from our bedroom, down the living room and into the kitchen. (Notice Skylar still sitting there. I told her to sit and stay and she did - for quite awhile.)


Here is Mikayla's room. She has a super big room so it is also the playroom.

Here are a couple pictures of parts of our yard.

Birthday Party, Moving, Biking and Fox Family

Sorry I have been away for so long. We have completed our move and the old house is nice and cleaned (I have been busy cleaning it in my spare time – what spare time!!) We also had Mikayla’s 4th birthday party on Saturday and it was a success. It was so much fun to see all of her preschool friends at our house having a blast. The weather was WONDERFUL. 80 degrees, sunny and very little wind – what more could I have asked for!

I have also been slacking in the exercise department as well. I have tried not to be too hard on myself because I have been packing, unpacking and cleaning which all burns a lot of calories. I was exhausted every night. I did head out for a 35 minute bike ride early this morning. It was great and I even saw a fox family with a very cute baby fox that was so tiny!

Win a Laptop and a Carrying Case

Head over and visit Metropolitian Mama and leave a comment so you too can register to win a Toshiba Portege M750 laptop computer AND a Small Phantom laptop bag from STM Bags. Also check out her blog while you are there. I LOVE it.

Recipes

My husband does most of the cooking in our house. I find it hard to come home after working all day, tired, still have to get things together for tomorrow, straighten the house, do laundry, get the girls to bed and cook dinner. Joe is also wonderful at opening up the kitchen cabinets and throwing together a meal. I keep telling him that he needs to go back to school (when we can afford it) and become a chef.

Don’t get me wrong I enjoy cooking. I love watching Food TV, or going through recipe books and planning wonderful, healthy meals. On the weekends (especially if we are having friends over) I love to cook dinner.

That said I am going to start posting meals that I have made with pictures and share them with you on a weekly basis. Maybe (if I can get Joe to share his recipes with me) post his pictures and recipes from his meals as well. Since we are in the process of moving this week I have not had time to post the recipes that I had wanted to this week. Hopefully once we get settled in this weekend I will be able to post some wonderful dinners I have made lately.

Tomatoes

One of the attorneys that I work with has a great sunroom in front of his house. His wife decided to plat a bunch of tomato seeds. Because this sunroom has lots of sun (and she has a super green thumb) they all took and she gave me four of the starters.

I have a large window in our living room that faces East and gets a ton of sun as well. The four tomato plants have doubled in size and yes that is a Poinsettia from Christmas in the picture as well. It loves that window too! Next year I won't have to buy a Poinsettia at Christmas time.

I cannot wait until these tomatoes plants are producing tomatoes. Once we move into the red house I plan on re-potting them into larger pots for hopefully that many more tomatoes. We will see.

When I wrote this blog entry about a week ago this is what my tomatoes plants looked like.

Now in less than a week this is what they look like!!!

The abs, the abs are so not the same.

I am now down to 135, only 2 pounds away from my pre-baby weight. It has been a long and hard journey and it has taken me longer than I thought to get here. I have not been running or working out much the past 8 days due to my foot and the funny thing is, is that this was when I lost the last 2 pounds! I think when I am running I overeat because I know that I need more calories but I eat too many.

Now that I am getting closer to my pre-baby weight I am really noticing that my stomach is not the same. It looked much better at this weight after I had only one baby than when I have had two. I don’t remember from before I got pregnant the first time – that was too long ago.

I guess I really gotta up my running (slowly and carefully – maybe through in more cardio with more mountain biking) and MORE ab work in order to get a flatter belly.

Frogs Croaking, Birds Chirping, Streams Trickling

Today I headed out for my one mile run to see how my foot would handle it. My foot did great and the run felt wonderful. It was great to get that heart pumping again.

In Gunnison there are ditches everywhere. These ditches carry water from the rivers to the ranchers hay fields for irrigation. (The Island where our Red House is located is created in part by these large ditches. In the City of Gunnison there are much smaller ditches (maybe 1 foot across and 1 foot deep versus 4 to 5 feet wide and 4 to 5 feet deep) running in your front or back yards parallel to the street. When the City turns the ditches on you can water your lawn from this water for free.

The reason I am telling you about our ditches is that this is time of year when they turn them on and some of them are flowing. The run I went on today is a trail that is only a few blocks from my house and I have never run it this time of the year. I had water flowing on both sides of the trail and I could hear the frogs croaking, birds chirping and the stream trickling. The sun was out it was warm and wonderful. I could not have asked for a better run.

Wanted: Good Long Run - No Pain

I can't run, can't mountain bike, can't even walk the dogs. I am going stir crazy! It is Spring and getting beautiful outside - I just want to get out and enjoy it.

I tried taking the dogs for a walk this morning and after about 10 minutes my foot started getting sore and I had another 10 minute walk to get home. I am telling myself to take things easy for a few more days but I just want to run. As I drive around town I see people running all over and get jealous. Then I hear a favorite running song of mine on the radio and I just want to run.

The doctor told me to wait a week before I tried anything so on Wednesday I am going to go for a one mile run and see how it feels. Of course I will let you know. Until then I will go sit on my bum - oh yeah and do some physical therapy. Tomorrow I am going to do my normal weight workout.

Mikayla is Turning 4

Mikayla will be 4 on May 7th and Joe and I have only talked a little bit about what we should get her for her birthday.

When she turned two we got her this:She hardly rides it and says she has trouble peddling it.

When she turned 3 her grandparents got her this:

Which loves and she goes on all of the time. Even in the winter when she needs snow pants, boots, hat and mittens on. Her and Joe spend a lot of time jumping the evenings away.

We have considered getting her this for her 4th birthday:

But I really don't think she is ready for her first bike yet. She tried to ride a friend's bike a few weeks ago and did not like the peddling part and quickly gave up.

We are considering this:

At preschool they have scotters and she loves riding them around the playground.

We are considering this:

As I was looking for the bike trailer above for Mikayla I found this for Lily:

I would love to have the bike setup with Mikayla on the back and Lily in the front.

Finally as I was cruising around around Amazon.com I found some Arts and Crafts for Mikayla. She loves coloring, stamps, drawing, making necklaces - any kind of art project that I bring home she is all over. I found this:

Also, I love Melissa and Doug products. They are high quality for a great price. I found this stamp set.

Or this puzzle. We have an undersea puzzle like this and love it.I do have to decided very quickly what I am going to get for her birthday because it is next Thursday! Oh boy - what am I going to do.

Books Books Books

When Mikayla was a baby I read to her every night before bed. I would often read her to sleep at night when she was Lily's current age, 15 months.

I never really got into reading to Lily. I have tried but instead of sitting there and listening she would grab the book, turn the page, get fussy, etc... But lately that has all changed. I bring out a book to read to her and she starts to laugh because she gets so excited! Also, in the past when I get her up from a nap or in the morning she wants to cuddle, now she looks for her books for me to read. She won't me read for long but I am excited that she now looks for the books and she wants to read them.

Not Healthy

Who this this girl looks sexy? Everyone who thinks so raise your hand up high!

I was browsing the Internet the other day and came across this article with this picture. I was so disgusted. Not only does she look like her average daily calorie intake is oh about 100 calories a day but she looks like a perfect actress for a WW2 movie about the Jews in a concentration camp and to believe that she is Miss Australia. She needs to check into a health clinic and put on about 20 plus pounds! This is not the type of role model I want my daughter to see.

Morton's Neuroma

Yesterday I decided to go ahead and have an MRI to see if I have a stress fracture in my foot. It is just not getting better. This week even riding my bike bothered me a lot more than it did last week. Today I met with the doctor to see what was going on with me foot.

Well, it is not a Stress Fracture it is a neuroma. Take a look at the link. Basically it is the swelling or enlarging of the never that runs between the toes along the ligament that connect all of the toes or bones. (Does that make sense?).

It is very common in women because most women wear high heel and narrow shoes. That does not apply to me. I have a couple of pairs of shoes with maybe a 2 inch heal but only one pair is narrow. My shoes of choice are very comfortable, roomy and flat. It is the running that caused it. The doctor I saw this time is Gloria Beim. She wrote The Female Athlete's Body Book, she has been the team doctor for the US Cycling Team as well as the US Olympic Team. (She knows her stuff!)

Dr. Beims says I have two, one is where it is on the picture and a smaller one is developing on the other side of the same bone towards the outside of my foot. She knows I really want to run a marathon and get active as quick as possible so she is treating me aggressively. She gave me a cortisone shot today and I see the physical therapist tomorrow. She said to stop doing anything at that hurts (but I can still ride my bike to work since it is .75 of a mile each way). Dr. Beim said in about 1 week to try running a short distance and see how it feels. If it hurts, stop if it feels good then the next day try to go a little further.

Dr. Beim also said that I might need 2 or 3 shorts of the cortisone and the worse case scenario would be surgery to remove the nerve all together. For now I think I will hit the pool instead of the road and the trail - at least for the next week.

Red House

We have decided to move back into the red house. The house we are currently renting is under contract and closing on May 14th. The renters who were under a lease option decided they need a bigger house (I thought 4 bedrooms and 2000 square feet would be enough!) but they also have a house in Colorado Springs that has not sold as well. The renters are moving out at the end of April so it is perfect timing for everything.

I really have enjoyed many things about our rental, forced heat with a programmable thermostat, great windows, 3 houses down from preschool, fairly new, less than one mile to work, 1/2 mile to the grocery store and rec center.

But there are MANY things that I love and do miss about the red house, privacy, large/HUGE yard, river, large kitchen, personality, beautiful yard. I cringe every time the girls go outside in our current back yard to play. It is dirt and just awful. I can't wait until they are running around the beautiful lawn that Joe has spent many hours getting perfect and playing in their sandbox. I will have to keep a VERY close eye on Lily because she is an explorer - Lily will be outside before I can count to 2.

My biggest reason for not wanting to move back into the red house is how expensive the mortgage is. It has been great financially. I did tell Joe that he is going to have to work hard at either selling houses this summer or finding a part time job. I am already cleaning his office on the weekends and doing some of their books part time. I am also not looking forward to winter in that house because it is colder and since it is bigger that means it takes a lot more time to clean.

I really can't wait to grow my summer garden in a spot just a few feet away from this picture. Lettuce, carrots, garlic, onions and potatoes.

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was great. Saturday we had friends over for dinner and they have a little boy a few months younger than Mikyla. The two 3 year olds played and Joe and I got to hang out with good food and adults!

On Sunday we decided to head over to the Salida Hot Springs Pool. We have a number of hot springs within 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours from us and Salida is my favorite with kids. It is inside (which really helps with kids when it is super cold or snowing outside) and the pool starts at 0 inches. This way Mikayla and Lily can sit and play in the super shallow section and we don't have to hold any kids. Lily was great on the drive over (which for her is huge - she is not a car baby), swimming in the pool, out at lunch and then on the way home she slept for about 45 minutes. Overall it was a great weekend.