Bits and Pieces - the Survival Edition

1.  Let's start with Eloise.  She's given up sleep.  I think it's just teething.  Or a growth spurt.  I actually have no idea why she's gone back to sleeping only 2 hours at a time, but it is HARD ON A MAMA!  Whew!  I like to believe I am super tough.  Tougher than tough.  As a man thinks so he is, right?  Right.  But let me just say, after 3 weeks of this I begin to break down just a little.  There are nights I feel slightly close to tears.  I usually pray at that point for stamina, strength, and patience.  I take a deep breath, tell myself I am okay, and continue rocking or bouncing or feeding or whatever I'm doing to get Baby Bit to sleep.  On the flip side of this, she has now become a great napper!  I guess she has to be.  So I often take the morning nap with her and even if I don't, I tell myself I can.  Just having the option makes me feel better, even if I don't take it.  I also drink copious amounts of coffee.

2.   I'm still training for the half-marathon in March...if you'd call it training.  Sometimes I think of it as merely surviving, but I guess I'm surviving fairly well.  I've managed to run every day this week and do my Jillian Michaels video about every other day.  Each day I wake up and tell myself I'll take a rest day and that it is no big deal if I don't run, but then the opportunity shows up and I tell myself I should probably take it. 

3.  My husband makes amazing cookies.  He whips them up from scratch and throws a few chocolate chips in mine.  Plain chocolate chip or peanut butter chocolate chip... I eat them warm out of the oven and they are delicious.  This could very well be the culprit of the last few baby pounds hanging on for dear life.

4.  I accidentally got sucked into two shows the other day and I love them.  Bunheads and Switched at Birth.  Bunheads cracks me up and Switched at Birth... well, I just like it.  The best drama is teenage drama where your boyfriend doesn't like you anymore and you have to figure out how to go on.  I can handle that.  I cannot handle shows where the writers feel the need to target children.  We usually watch Bones on Monday nights but when I saw that the bad guy went into the baby's room, I told Jason no way and changed the channel back to Bunheads.  I even got my mother-in-law laughing at it as we enjoyed Jason's homemade cookies, so he was outnumbered. 

5.  Speaking of TV shows... I'd like to say I just don't get it.  What is with all the terrible, awful, no good, very scary junk on TV these days?  I absolutely HATE that stuff.  I don't often use that word, but I am using it now.  I hate the previews.  I don't want to see them. I don't want that stuff in my head.  I am so ready to quit DirectTV and throw our TV out the window (even if it means I must give up my beloved Bunheads).  Why is killing and hurting people entertainment?  Why?  Who is writing this junk and why are we paying to watch it?  I hate seeing people hurt, even if it is make-believe.  And when they write children into the script I want to pull someone's hair out and maybe pinch them too.  It is not entertainment!  It is not cool to watch it.  It is not good to have all of that horribleness in one's mind!  We are going to ban guns but we are going to allow that stuff to continue to stream right into our homes every day.  That makes complete sense.  And why are they allowed to show the awful previews on channels that children are watching?  My response will be to stop paying and stop watching altogether.  If everyone would do that, things might change.  Maybe.

6.  Health Fairs!  A much happier note, to be sure.  And my business has been invited to THREE of them!  Running Start, LLC went to one last week at a research company here, and next week I will have a booth at the UAH Health Fair and the Riverside Christian Academy Health Fair.  I love it.  I'm hoping this will bring a few new clients my way.  I feel that I've finally gotten my coaching model ironed out, things are going smoothly with my current clients, they are meeting their goals and staying injury free... and I'm ready for more!  In February I'll be working with 2 groups training for 2 different 5ks and I am very excited about that. 

7.  I am absolutely in love with my daughter.  It has got to be beyond sickening.  I want to warn people not to ask me how things are going unless they are ready for an endless string of gushy mushy cheese.  I absolutely adore Eloise Jane.  She smiles all the time.  She makes hilarious noises and squeals.  I have discovered her ticklish spots and the funny faces that make her giggle and I do it all the time (even at nap time when she should be sleeping... but in my defense it is such a precious sound!).  She is growing like a WEED, right out of all her precious tiny outfits and I love it but at the same time I want to put on the brakes and savor it just a bit more.  So that's what I spend my days doing.  Savoring her.  Staring into that precious face and that toothless grin and making the minutes last as long as possible.  Maybe I should view the sleepless nights as a blessing...ha!  More time with Eloise!

8. We just watched the end of Rudy.  Gets me every time.  Now THAT is quality entertainment.  And if that little guy can go through all of that again and again and again... surely I can run my 10 miler today on the sleep I've gotten...

9.  Jiff all natural peanut butter is amazing.  I could eat it every day. 

10.  Diapers are expensive. That's not very interesting but I figured I needed one more point to make an even ten. But they are!  Diaper people KNOW we have to have them!  It's the same with baby formula.  Why is that stuff so expensive?  Too bad I can't make that too.

Have a GREAT week, my friends!  Get some sleep for me, turn off the TV, and hug your kid!  If you don't have a kid, hug your pet.  And if you don't have a pet.... get a plant or something.  Read a book.  I wonder if there is a book about Bunheads...