Having a supportive spouse is KEY with this new active lifestyle. Because, while I love it when we can go out together, it’s more often that he and I oblige the other their workout time by tending to the family in their absence. During the summer, the kids and I spend a lot of Saturdays alone as he trains for his races. Lately – he has weekend wakeup duty while I head out early for my long runs.

Many of you have commented to me that you don’t have as supportive of a situation. Maybe because your partner doesn’t believe in the necessities of your workouts, maybe because you’re alone and you have to depend on other family/friends to help out with the kids making it very difficult for you to find time to workout.

So I make sure to appreciate my situation. Because it’s more than just cooperative parenting that helps…

• He understands why I pay almost $2 a pack for hyped up gummi bears, when I may eat 2 packs on a long run.
• He encourages me to buy replacement shoes even though the last pair is only 3 months old.
• He doesn’t get grossed out by the black toenail threatening to fall off my big toe.
• He also doesn’t get too grossed out by my dirty clothes. Which, when mingled with his in our “workout clothes” pile can smell quite disgusting.
• He googles stretching videos for me when I’m having IT band problems and teaches me how to use the foam roller.
• He humors me while I discuss my latest miles earned and reciprocates by discussing his last bike ride.
• He doesn’t laugh at me running with blinky lights all over me. Although he really wants to. He hasn’t quite jumped on the blinky bandwagon like I have.
• He just understands that when I’m having one of those days, just getting out and running is what I need and he accommodates that. He just gets it, you know? And because I’m so prone to guilt issues, I need that encouragement to balance out the instinctual guilt that will inevitably rise when I make a “selfish” request.

I appreciate what I have and know that none of these lifestyle changes would be possible without a teammate.

Especially a teammate who loves me, otherwise the smelly running clothes would surely be a lot harder to tolerate.

BACK OFF KID…I KNOW YOUR TRICKS.

But lately, man…he has had some great hysterical moments of cuteness. I wanted to try to document them for posterity and to share them with you so that you can see what I’m dealing with over here. PURE, UNADULTERATED EVIL. Some of these statements or questions seem innocuous when you first read them, but imagine them spoken by an adorable boy with giant blue eyes and big blonde girls and you’ll see exactly what I’m dealing with over here.

• “Nikki! You are not old enough to dance sexy like that!” While watching his sister dance during GLEE. She wasn’t ‘dancing sexy’ for the record but I have gotten on her for that before.
• “We don’t say, ‘What the hell?’” At family dinner. Of course.
• “Momma, you look beautiful.”
• “Did you have a good run?” Another variation: “Did you have a good boot camp?”
• “I’ll rub your head for you…” In response to my regular headaches. His headrubs are actually quite good.
• “When I grow up, will I get boobies too?”
• “Nikki! Come see Momma’s big muscles!”
• “Momma…I don’t really like wereworlves.”
• “Can I have some privacy?” When he feels like he doesn’t really want company in the bathroom with him.

You go first. How are you doing?

FINE. I’ll go first. Let’s get the bad out of the way. My eating habits have not been adjusted like I had hoped they would. Do you like how I phrase that? Like it’s some sort of thing I’m hoping will just happen as opposed to something I might have failed at. I like to divert responsibility when at all possible.

IN MY DEFENSE…I knew this would be a rough time, the first part of the year. I knew with all of my theatre volunteer obligations (There are TWO shows being worked on at this very moment and E is in both of them and Nikki and Wes are even in one of them) that I’d be busy and a bit stressed and we ALL know what Kim does when she’s stressed. SHE EATS EVERYTHING IN ALL OF THE BOXES.

It’s been a rough four days especially. Non-stop eating and this time it wasn’t the usual 3 peanut butter sandwiches and bowls of cereal. This time I’ve been doing some REAL anxiety binging. Due to some unfortunate shopping decisions I’ve had cookies and chocolates and due to some birthday leftovers we had ice cream and cheesecake last week. I hate THREE pieces of cheesecake for LUNCH one day. Anxiety eating insanity? Has reached previously unknown heights in 2012. I’m setting new standards for stressful calories gained in one day! GO ME!

Gained a few pounds but you know what’s great? Today is FEBRUARY 1st! Perfect day for someone like me to “start over” and let February be a better month than January. WHO IS IN?

Now…my fitness on the other hand? Going well. I’ve had to miss a few boot camps due to babying of my IT band, but I’ve stayed pretty consistent with my running. I made my goal of 100 miles a month and did 106 as of yesterday. I’ve done a chunk of trail miles in all of that – some really tough ones that week including one stretch that was so steep it had a warning sign at the TOP (when I finally made it there) warning of the “Dangerous Descent” ahead.

And then yesterday I killed a hill workout at boot camp. This hill in the picture (which it seems is not that impressive to some people who look at the photo…but I’m still proud) elevates about 130ft over a 1/4 mile. It’s not super-steep, but it’s a long steady climb and I ran it SIX TIMES during our workout. Up and Down. Up and Down. SIX TIMES. I was super-proud of myself. Not only because I did it six times, but because it was kinda…well…easy. I mean, I struggled, but for the first time since we’ve been doing that workout I didn’t once consider walking. NOT EVEN ONCE.

So…100 miles for a few pounds of anxiety eating. I guess I can process the trade-off and still call it a WIN for 2012. Mainly because I’m so proud of those six hill repeats that I can’t stand letting my nightly stress eating take away any of that. SIX TIMES!

I’ve always stood by that there are no magic transformative moments, it’s a lot of baby steps forward, and baby steps backward, before you see real change. 2011 still saw me in the “IMPROVED” column and I’m planning on the final report of 2012 to say the same thing. Even if there are a few late night cheesecake binges scattered throughout the successes.

Then E turned me onto Daily Grace. And that’s when I discovered that there are people who create fresh content regularly on their own YouTube channels. WHO KNEW? It’s just like blogging, but with videos, which is why the cool kids call it…VLOGGING.

Now, I’m not buying tickets to VidCon or anything yet, but I am now subscribing to enough YouTube channels that I have something fun to watch pretty regularly. So, you know, I thought I’d share that with you. Evidently, if you have gmail, you kinda already have a YouTube channel. Mine is here and embarrassingly maps out all of my interests so clearly that I can not even try to pretend I’m cool anymore. It’s basically: Running exercises, Glee, Gay Rights, Glee, Darren Criss, Glee, Math, Glee, and Nerdfighteria. Oh, and Glee.

So…you could look at my channel and see all of the videos I’ve liked and favorited and whatever, or you could just stay here and avoid seeing that embarrassing display of Kim’s Obsession With Glee. I’ll show you some of my favorite channels without it looking like I’m a 14-year old girl!

As I mentioned first, there’s Daily Grace. Here is one of her epic cooking tutorials. By the way — Her language is probably NOT SAFE FOR WORK. She bleeps most curse words out, but STILL, watch with headphones.

Next up is the lovely Michael Buckley. I guess his main/popular channel is the What The Buck Show where he talks sassy pop culture. Man. That is the worst description ever. He talks Pop Culture with Snark and Sass. That sounds a bit better. Anyway – he loves Glee, Revenge, and Pretty Little Liars so I can overlook his love for all of those housewives shows. And while I love his WHAT THE BUCK shows, I actually like his Second Channel better. He’s more casual and he does fun stuff with his friends and we get to hang with him and his dogs. It’s just an assortment of entertainment. My favorites lately have been when he and fellow YouTuber Dan go on random adventures or do random things together. Like Gay Crafting!

Of course, you know that my channels would not be complete without my newest obsession: NERDFIGHTERS. The Vlogbrothers consist of The Fault In Our Stars author John Green and his brother Hank Green. They do great videos with one basic motive: To Rid The World Of Suck. They are currently on tour promoting the book and this has been my favorite video so far of their exploits.

And then, of course, my first ever YouTube crush (before I realized you could subscribe to channels): Vi Hart. I can not explain her in a way that does her justice, but mostly she just makes being a math geek look like the most AMAZING THING ON THE PLANET.

Now…I guess I should also point out that a certain TV show about a showchoir also has a channel where you can see behind the scenes clips and whatnot. You know…because I only favorite EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

I know. I know. I’m a lost cause.

What YouTube channels do you subscribe to? Who am I missing out on? Do they like Glee?

(I’ll save my bitterness about him dying at the hands of a painful cancer later.)

He often complained about things hurting as he got older. Knees especially. He said that he really only had one pace because faster or slower hurt him more. But did he ever go to the doctor about it? Nope. He just attributed to being someone who ran a lot, and who was getting older. He didn’t think any treatment or shoe or brace or tape would actually give him pain-free running. He didn’t believe that was possible for someone his age who ran regularly. He just accepted pain as fact and pushed through it.

(I’ll save my bitterness about this SAME QUALITY being what also made him miss the chance at an early diagnosis for his cancer. I mean, there are some levels of pain you should just SEE A DOCTOR ABOUT ALREADY, DAD. Jeez.)

Dad never even bought “fancy” running shoes. He’d go to Shoe Carnival or some such place and try on a few $40 pairs of shoes until he found some that felt okay and then he’d leave with them. He probably replaced them once a year or once every 9 months or so. And for a long time this made me quite cynical about how the running shoe industry seems to insist we all have special shoes (and sometimes those special shoes are “free” in order to similar barefoot running) and they usually cost AT LEAST $100. And you should replace them every 300-500 miles or every 4-6 months.

WHATEVS, dude. That’s ridiculous. I wear shoes until the tread on the bottom starts to smooth out. THEN I’ll replace them. And I’m not getting on your stupid treadmill so you can analyze my run. Just give me the cheapest pair you got and I’m OUTTA HERE.

Well…Sometimes Dad wasn’t right about everything. When I first started getting in shape in early 2011, I had a pair of Nike Pegasus 27s that I wore to boot camp most mornings. When I started training for the Cotton Row that May, I decided to get a new pair of running shoes. I went to Zappos and ordered the cheapest ones I could find. They did me okay, I guess, but I got tons of blisters and black toenails and was too stubborn to admit it was the shoes.

I donated those at the Warrior Dash in September and used my Nike Pegasus 27s to run in for awhile. I was surprised how little problems I had. Still a few blisters periodically, but nothing major. I started thinking Okay. Maybe there’s something to this whole “right shoe” thing. I was running up to 10 miles in those Nikes and not having any problems. Then, one long run in late September, my hip started hurting.

Maybe there’s something to this “lifespan” of a shoe thing, too. I mean, I had about 9 months on those Nikes at that point in time and probably a couple hundred miles plus 200+ hours of boot camp. I decided to just buy the SAME EXACT shoe again. Turns out? They had moved up to the 28s in that time so I bought those. The only color they had at Fleet Feet of those shoes in my size were Purplish and Orange. Brightest shoes I’d ever owned and ended up LOVING THEM.

They saw me through the rest of my training and my half-marathon. Then, a couple weeks ago I started having issues with my knee/hip again. I’ve just been paying special attention to my IT band to try to relieve some of that, but I also decided to calculate the miles I had on those shoes. 300+. Which is the lower end of the range they give you before a shoe breaks down. But if you consider I also do boot camp in them 5 hours a week? That’s probably the equivalent of 400-500 miles on those shoes. I finally started thinking, FINE. Maybe I do need to be good about replacing my shoes when they tell you to!

I ordered the next pair from Zappos because Fleet Feet didn’t have my size and it would take 1-2 weeks to get them. Zappos got them to me in less than 24 hours. I still chose an obnoxious color because I find I’m hooked on obnoxious shoes now. The new ones are on the left with the pink highlights. You can just see how the shape changes after 300+ miles of running in a shoe. I wish I could photograph the INSIDE of the orange one and show you how worn parts of the inside are. It’s hard for me to look at the tread of a shoes and not see it too worn and still believe that the shoe needs to be replaced, but I guess it’s what’s on the INSIDE that counts. It breaks down before the tread does and it is the key part in keeping your legs happy.

The moral of the story? Don’t be a cynic about EVERYTHING. I still don’t trust every little thing everyone tells me. I still believe some levels of pain are just part of getting older and living an active lifestyle. Hell, my knees hurt for the first few months we lived in this house because I wasn’t used to stairs. I wasn’t even running or anything yet. At least now, when I hurt, I can know it’s because I’m kicking ass as I’m getting older.

But I’m also finally willing to admit that maybe the $100 running shoes are better than the $40 shoes if you run as much as I do. And maybe replacing them every 300-500 miles is a good idea after all, even if you do that in 3-4 months. (I ran 100 miles in the month of January and that was WITH a hurt kneed I babied for a week. ONE HUNDRED MILES IN ONE MONTH HOLY CRAP I’M AWESOME.) I mean, it may have taken me a whole year to finally believe this – even when people have been telling me it all along – but, at least I finally started believing it. It’s nice to know my stubborn cynicism does have limits.

Source: FOX

I’m not a dancer. WHAT? I know, you’re totally surprised. But I love to watch dancing. I absorb every routine on So You Think You Can Dance every summer like it’s crack. I have my favorite choreographers (Wade Robson and Travis Wall) and my favorite dancers (Mark Kanemura and Mark Kanemura). So, of course I notice the dancing on Glee and in my personal, untrained opinion? Zach Woodlee, the show’s lead choreographer, is Glee’s greatest asset.

Mainly because most of these kids are not trained dancers. With the exception of Grant Gustin, Heather Morris, and Harry Shum. Yet he puts together these great ensemble numbers that I just ADORE. My most recent favorite was the Troubletones’ Section performance which incorporated a type of street dancing called waacking:

They released video of another ensemble dance number from this Tuesday’s Michael Jackson tribute. Again – he made a bunch of untrained dancers look GREAT both dancing through the halls and in a library. Two things that must complicate any routine.

I just love what he does with these kids in these environments. I love how he incorporates Artie’s wheelchair and I love how he still showcases Kevin McHale’s mad dance skills even as he’s confined to that wheelchair. I just love it all and I hate he doesn’t get as much press as he deserves. And then…of course..he’s just adorable. Look at this great Behind The Scenes clip of he and Chris Colfer.

Or this special Behind the Scenes footage featuring him doing his thang during season 2.

I just love him so much. I can’t wait to see what he does in the rest of the Michael Jackson tribute episode on Tuesday.

It seems this week that the balls I’ve dropped have fallen more towards the more severe end of that spectrum. And let me tell you – it sucks donkey balls. (OH MY GOD. Why do I keep saying, “balls”?) I have convinced myself somehow that there is no shittier person on the planet than me. And while – logically – I’m fairly certain it’s not true. (FAIRLY…) I still have made myself sick stressing out about my screw-ups this week.

I was wondering if you could make me feel better by telling me about YOUR big screw-ups. I’ll tell you about one from my past so you can appreciate the severity of the similar ones this week: Once, when I was working on my biology degree, I lost the notebook my professor used to keep track of his data in. He was monitoring certain birds near our school and he wrote down his observations in a notebook until he could log them digitally. I lost several weeks worth of his data. Now…think about the severity of that. Luckily, it was a college professor I’d never see again. Imagine the same level of severity with your best friend. That’s where I’m at this week. BIG. GIANT. OOPS.

So…what is your story? What is a mistake you made that had you feeling like the scummiest of all pond scum? I’m hoping your story will help me feel less crappy. Or at least let me know there are other people out there as crappy as I am.

Don’t let those big blue eyes fool you. He’s pure evil with big floppy blonde curls.

*************************

I mentioned recently that Wes’s behavior been SO MUCH BETTER as he gets closer to the age of 4. I even took him to his first rehearsal for “Alice in Wonderland” the other day (He and Nikki are playing heart children in E’s play) and I was TERRIFIED that he’d be awful. But he wasn’t! He obeyed first time and amped up the “cute” factor so much that the director of the play had to coach the cast and remind them, “You will have to hold for quite some time because the audience will be Oooooh-ing and Aaaaaaahh-ing over the kids.” He was perfect!

I also mentioned there was not enough wood to knock on for that entry. THERE WAS NOT.

I went to pick him up from daycare and there was the dreaded Incident Report waiting for me. I hate those things because 9 times out of 10, my child is the one causing the incident, as opposed to the victim. Sure enough…”Wes bit one of his friends today…”

HE BIT. We stopped biting years ago…HE BIT.

Evidently this friend was at the computer and he wouldn’t give Wes a turn. So he BIT HIM. *sigh* Of course, because he is almost 4, the first thing the entire class did when I walked into the classroom was say, “WESLEY BIT SO-in-SO!!!!” Because they’re all plenty old enough to understand the severity of the incident and want to TATTLE TATTLE TATTLE about it. So, just a few short months after we (hopefully) finally lived down the reputation of having the kid that talks about the proper names for private parts ALL DAY LONG, all of the parents are now going to know our kid as The Biter.

Just wanted to share the story lest you think we were out of the woods. We are obviously not.

There are a few regulars in my running group who are substantially faster than me. When they need to worry about speed, I notice that sometimes they run earlier and faster before we meet. But when they get with the group? They just run the pace of the group. Sometimes a faster group will break out like last night, but most of the time we stay together. And sometimes someone says, “This is too fast,” like I did last night and we slowed down.

I want to reinforce this because I know that I was scared about running in groups for a long time. I’m too slow! I don’t know anyone! How do I get started? I know many of you have told me the same things. But I want this to be the most important message: Running groups have made me a runner. They have helped me learn to love to run…to depend on running. And I am no longer scared of finding new groups to join.

I think the turning point was the first time I met a group and it was just me and someone SUPER DUPER FAST. They slowed down a bit and I sped up a bit and we did 4+ miles together just fine. I was definitely dead at the end, but we did it. And I learned to no longer worry about the speed of other runners because they don’t show up if they’re concerned about that. I kept saying, “If I’m going to slow, feel free to run ahead…” and he would politely reassure me that we were fine. I know now that if he wasn’t comfortable with a slower pace? He wouldn’t have been looking for people to run with.

On my mid-week runs, my groups usually run 4′ish miles. Sometimes I end up doing that at a 8:25 pace, and sometimes I do that at a 11+ pace. It just depends on who I run with and how any of us were feeling. Last night I was the one asking to slow down. Sometimes it’s someone else.

There’s a Facebook group set up for runners in my city. They post weekly runs, and other runners make requests for groups in certain areas of town. I also have other groups that have formed from training programs at Fleet Feet. I rarely have to run sans people and the question of their pace as it compares to mine? Never matters. I meet the groups because I want to run with them. And if they have to slow down for me? I know they don’t mind or else they wouldn’t show up. It’s taken me awhile to be comfortable with that. And I’ve met a few groups that were substantially faster than me and I struggled during the run. One, I even ditched early because they were too fast. But you know what? That’s okay. I still got some miles in and it’s good to be pushed faster once in awhile.

I just don’t want any of you who might be like me – prone to enjoy group running – to be too scared to give it a try. You might be too worried about slowing people down. But it won’t matter. There are runners just like you out there, trying to find people to run with. I’m thrilled with the peer group I’ve made running, and I want everyone who could benefit from the same thing to try to find the same group. Give Facebook a try. Search in your area. Call your local Fleet Feet and see if they know of any organized runs (Our Fleet Feet knows about most of them) or see if they know of any local running groups on Facebook. If Huntsville has one, I’m sure other cities do as well.

I just know what a huge impact it has made on my life, having running friends. I don’t want anyone else to miss out on that opportunity because they’re too worried about slowing people down. My running friends hold me accountable and understand my struggles. I want you to find the same people in your life. They’ll run the same races you do because they’re local. They’ll be able to recommend doctors and local gear shops. The best thing they do is introduce you to new places to run around your city. I have several new areas I’m comfortable running in now. Last night someone led us in a run that took us right under the Saturn V rocket at the Space and Rocket Center. I would have never known about that route without a group to meet.

And then you might find other things in your group – like people who watch the same TV you do, or read the same books. It’s amazing the other connections formed within my groups. I consider most of them friends now, not just running buddies.

Just don’t be afraid to try. You might still hate it. But you might find some people who push you to be the runner you know you can be. And if you don’t know you can be that runner, they will and they’ll help push you there if you need it.

E’s birthday went well and he was beyond thrilled with all of the Twitter birthday messages from you guys. Thank you so much. My favorite gift TO him was a puzzle I made at Shutterfly from a photo that one of his Photographer friends took. The downside is since she took the picture, she wasn’t in it and she’s a good friend. But, apart from stalking them and photographing them myself; (Can you say “Creeper Mom”?) it was the best I could do. He loved it, but the puzzle itself isn’t that great. The pieces come apart fairly easily. It’s still super-cool and he loves gluing puzzles together to hang on his wall after he’s completed them, so it won’t matter in the end. It’s just a little frustrating while he works on it.

I ran 8 miles Saturday morning – by myself. I haven’t done a long run by myself in MONTHS. It just didn’t work out that I could run with any of the groups and still handle my busy weekend. IT SUCKED. I used to run by myself all the time. I mean, I even did my first 13-mile run in my half-marathon training by myself, but that was back in October. Now, it BORES THE SHIT OUT OF ME. I want someone to talk to! WAH. But I did it, and my knee did okay. I think it’s just a thing I’ll have to deal with now, that knee. I’ll have to work on my IT band more but I’ll live. I just don’t want to run alone anymore. I NEED MORE RUNNING FRIENDS. I definitely thinking finding a good group to run with is what has kept me active. And it doesn’t matter that on paper we’re different speeds. When you’re trying to get miles in, you’ll run with just about anyone. I’ve done 5 miles and averaged 8:27 pace, and I’ve done 5 miles and averaged 10:35 pace. I’ll take either over RUNNING ALONE.

I made four different kinds of cake poppers/truffles for the tea party this weekend. I did the standard Red Velvet cake, then I did Strawberry Cake and pink vanilla covering, then I did Funfetti with a bunch of different colors covering, and then I did Oreo Truffles pictured to the left. (Heard of them from Sarah who, of course, found them on Pinterest.) I am officially Poppered-Out. If I never ball up another bit of dessert again, I’ll be happy. It ended up totaling over 300 of the damn things. But they were a hit! As always. I just won’t be making them again for a VERY LONG TIME. But – for the record? Several people now think the oreo truffles are their best over the Red Velvet. And the oreo truffles? Are about 90% LESS effort so, you know, WIN/WIN!

This guy was perched on our fence this weekend and he just hung out there while we all got very close to him, taking his pictures and examining his features. He’s a Barred Owl (My lovely husband might have been a bit shocked that I knew that. Sometimes he forgets that I did get a Biology degree where I studied a lot of Ecology and dreamed of being an Ornithologist.) and he seemed completely apathetic about our presence. He hung out in the yard until later that night when Donnie “saved” a bird that was stuck on our screened porch. The second the bird got out, the owl ate him. Circle of life, and all.

Of course, I posted his picture on Facebook and everyone made the Harry Potter references I so wanted to make myself. Nice of them not to let me down.

The Tea Party went really well. We made a decent amount of money, not as much as we hoped, but the value of having that event to force us to get costumes/makeup/hair ready this far in advance of show week (in 2+ weeks) made up for any unfilled dreams of profit. The little kids loved all of the characters, while I think Tweedle Dum was the BEST. There were only a few errors during the day, most of them due to my lack of sleep as I was up until 1am that morning wrapping Tea Cups as party favors. (Then I ran my 8 miles at 6:30am. I WIN ALL OF THE AWARDS.) My brain does not function well on minimal sleep so I’m more prone to errors. But none of my errors were catastrophic so…Why cares! Successful tea party!

Sidenote: I feel I should explain my dependency on instagram lately. Over the last year the frequency of my photos being used from flickr for Orkut Fakes (Hard to explain, if you’re curious just Google it) got out of hand so I’m depending on Instagram from now on. The resolution is crappier so they don’t steal those. That’s the same reason why I had to dump a lot of Facebook friends if I wasn’t 100% positive that I knew them and they weren’t stealing my photos. I’m sure I dumped some harmless people too, but I was so sick of it all the day I cleaned that I just unfriended over 200 people in one mass fit of anger. I also made almost all of my photos on flickr private. Sorry for that to those of you innocent victims in all of that purging. Hope you can handle the instagram for awhile until I think of a better solution.