Mama

"She stopped being a full time mom when I was 13 to go do her own thing" told me someone speaking of his mom. I have been ruminating on that thought for a couple of days now.I know I know it is just a figure of speech one that I must add carries a lot of weight.
Why is the society implying that you are less of a mom when you are working? Is it so bad to contribute to the income of your family. Sometimes couples have the choice and luxury but not always. So why a mom who has to work should feel guilty about supporting her family just because society dictates that she would be more of a mom if she stayed home.
Is that really true.... And what defines a full time mom anyhow? In short I think the term stay home mom versus working mom is more appropriate.

Anyways enough rambling on that subject. Today at lunch I ran my 4mile tempo. I ran a little slower 10 min/miles instead of 9:45 but again I had a lot of trouble after mile 3.2 I even had to stop a little. So since we are not traveling to Montana this week end since Maia is sick I will try to run the long run again same 5.7 miles loop.
I'm going to stick with this regimen for a few weeks... Week 2 intervals and tempo and week 1 long run.
On this note I am starving need to put my raviolis in the boiling water and start an episode of Boston Legal... Love the witty dialog and James Spader is great! Nice relaxing show after a demanding day at work.

IPod 10 Sophie 0

Grrr.... I hate computers, software, mp3 players, smart phone and other not so smart devices. Laugh all you want I know I write software but things don't seem to work for me.
My IPOD and I have this hate love relationship.
I love it when it delivers the right tunes at the right time to get me going on my runs yeah IPOD But then why can't I charge it in the computer and listen to the music without ITune opening and trying to sync. Why syncing means delete whatever is on the device and put what you find on the computer instead shouldn't it mean add to the device what you find on the computer.
I JUST want to add new songs to my IPod from any computer I want without fearing to lose whatever I have on the device.
So I said fine I will buy a charger that I can plug in an outlet and will load up my music and create my playlist at home but then Microsoft updated our version of Vista and now the USB ports are not recognized any longer Grrrr.
So I will have to steal Bryan's Zen tomorrow so I can go for my 4 mile tempo run by myself since my motivator is sick and needs rest.

: ( I still have to go do laundry....

Week 2 day 1

Today was interval training actually no it was yoga but since we are flying to Montana on thursday I decided to run monday and wednesday and do yoga on tuesday by myself.
The intervals today were 10 min jog, 4 x .5miles at 6.7mph with 2 min jog recovery and then 10 min jog to finish. This added up to about 4 miles and was much harder than the intervals of week 1.
Now off to bed....

Time to brag a little or a lot...

I know it may sound funny but sometimes I don't quite realize that I am the mom of my almost 4 year old and my 19 months old... It took me a long time in the beginning with Miles to feel like his mom and not his baby sitter and still to this day the sound of it makes me feel funny.
Today I decided to brag about my son... Here are some of the coolest and funniest thing that my son can do and I'm sure that 90% of the other little boys can do just the same but I don't care:

• Recognizing music on the radio, lifehouse, linkin park his favorite, and travis his other favorite.... No wiggles allowed in our cars ; )
• Start singing Closer... Closer lean on me now from Travis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2hYn_4yuhc
• Singing we all live in a yellow submarine
• Writing his whole name in the right order MILES....
• Drawing cars, trucks, rockets and mama holding a spider cuz he made my left hand with 8 fingers.
• Riding his bike with no training wheels
• Drop kicking balls since he is about 2 years old.
• Telling his dad where he is going to hide while playing hide and seek hilarious moment.

For those who wonder who Travis is... It is an amazing scottish band that we saw at the house of blues a few months back... hands down the best show I've gone too. Anyways the lead singer is Fran Healy and the name of the band is from a character in the movie Paris Texas from Wim Wenders.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkW_SR7SgiE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to8_8z9uu5A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emELbCpxDBA

House ToDo List...

My home todo list is awfully long and since we have two little kids 19 months and almost 4yrs, we both work full time and evening are better spent watching a movie than painting a bathroom here we are with our list:

• Finish to put the shelves in the garage
• Touch up the walls were the guy who put the cat5e cables left big holes which we have been staring at for the past 6 months
• Make roman shades for our bedroom this may solve the problem of too cold without having to repaint it
• Paint our bathroom
• Paint the kids bathroom and make it useable for them
• Clean up and Paint the office
• Clean up the yard front and back and have some one build a flower bed and fix our sprinkler system.

Hopefully when my parents will get there we will be able to do a little more...

Long run

So today was my long run day and I was supposed to run 6 miles. I had a route mapped out a little shorter about 5.6. I tried to drink in the morning but just managed to drink a coffee, a glass of water and 1/2 glass of grapefruit juice and I had a whole wheat french toast with some syrup. Last night I drank a little too much wine and my kids woke me up at 7am!!! I was really apprehensive I think I only ran more than 3.5 miles a few times and that was a loooong time ago.
I have to say that the first 3.5 miles were great. The route started with a small hill and then it was a long slow downhill the last 2 miles are flat with some small ups and downs which I find to be really hard.
I completely ran out of steam at mile 4.5 I had to walk a little then ran until 4.86 and stopped again.
I'm still glad cuz I went eventhough I didn't run the whole thing.. I'll try to eat better, drink better before and maybe try one of the gel thingy at mile 3.5....
Now my body is super tired and I think I'm gonna either sleep while the kids are napping or just knit.
Now that I did the 3 types of run from the training these are my goals: Follow the intervals schedule, increase the mileage of the tempo and the long run slower... For the next few weeks I'll try to run 4-4.5 miles tempo and 5.5-6 miles long run. I'll increase the mileage when I feel confortable running that.
I have to say that I love running and the feeling of achievement it gives me. Yes I felt like puking and pretty miserable some of the times but hey nothing's easy right!!!!
Thanks to Jessica and Carmen for motivating me...

Random Ramblings

So today was the tempo run, 3 miles at a slightly faster pace and I manage to run the 3 miles at the indicated pace without stopping. It was great until 1.8-2.0 where it sucked but then it got good again... the long run is going to be difficult, I mapped out a route for this saturday evening or sunday morning and it is going to be loooong but I hope to be able to finish it.

I've been driving my husband crazy for the past ten years because I use him for rethorical debates... or should I say debate with myself. I don't really want his input but I'm just using him to bounce ideas. The latest one should I or should I not enroll for the La Jolla half.

One part of me would be really impressed if I ran it and I think I would feel good about myself for a tiny period of time for just achieving this race and the other side of me is reminding me that I already have a very busy and stressful schedule and that maybe just doing the training would be an achievement on its own.... here is the question why am I never satisfied with I do. It is very rare that I feel whole I always feel that I can improve a lot... and I'm ambitious which is difficult to deal with at times.

This leads me to my final rambling for the night, oooh it is going to be hard to extract myself from bed tomorrow morning, drawing or should I say painting. My new job as a software engineer for a biotech was the straw that broke the camel's back and I had to stop painting. I really miss it but I had over the past few years to make some hard choices and stopping my painting class was one of them.

My friend has been asking me to post some of my paintings here are the ones that I like the most and maybe this will motivate me to pick up my brush again... I took some figure drawing class about 15 years ago and loved it. When I moved the states I was looking for some art class. After taking a beginning drawing class at the craft center hoping that it will teach me the basics I needed something a bit more gratifying than drawing a pineaple with crayolas. That's when I found the Chinese Brush Painting class and I fell in love with the lose style, the subject matter the whole philosophy behind it and the way it is taught. Also who would not fall in love with instant gratification I can paint a flower and a bird in about 15 minutes hehehe

I miss it and should try to make more time for it between 9pm and 11pm ...

Un pied devant l'autre ...

Today was my first official day of a 10 weeks half marathon training. I am not planning on running the actual race (La Jolla half marathon) at this time because I don't know if I will be able to train properly. However I'll make every effort to fit in 3 days of running in an already pretty busy schedule.
Anyways my goal is to be a lean mean yoga/running machine or at least try hehehe.
Since I hate dieting and I truly believe that one can be slim and still eat a little of everything but need to avoid processed food as much as possible. So to lose my extra weight I'm just planning on eating smaller portions and exercise more. Luckily for me I love cooking and so to kick off those resolution I prepared salmon, spinach and quinoa with a soy sauce, honey, hoisin sauce and orange juice reduction.
It was delicious after the intervals. Tonight I made meat lasagna with a salad which is my husband's favorite meal
Finally we watched two great movies with Billy Crudup "Trust the Man" which was a nice little romantic comedy which I liked a lot and "Dedication" also really good.

Birthday cakes

Somebody brought cupcakes at work the other day and one of my friend was trying to get me to split one with her but I resisted because it was Valentimes day and that I was planning on baking for dinner. Anyways it got me to think about the birthday cakes I made for my kids birthday....

Miles 1st Birthday Monkey with chocolate cake and an orange cake.

Miles 2nd Birthday Chocolate Cake which was only good but really not cute hey I was pregnant ; ) There wasn't even enough of it hehehe pretty pathetic

Miles 3rd Birthday Sheep cupcake with a base of chocolate molten cake. Those were probably really good but also very long to make. I did them between 9pm and 11pm in front of the TV I had to make like 15 of them for all the little monkeys in his class...

Then for his birthday I wanted to make a buzzlighter cake but of course I started the cake about an hour before the party and decided to make a chocolate cake my favorite and just decorate it a little....

Maia 1st Birthday a pretty flower Chocolate Cake I made matching invitation that I painted... pretty insane especially because I tend to do that around 10pm a week before the party hehehe but I'm an overworked mama what do you expect.

So you will notice that all my cake are the same chocolate cake basically a chocolate mousse with butter and a little flour. I don't make my icing although I'm not too proud of that but it is just too much and now I have to start thinking about the next two. My son's birthday is coming up... Maybe a space shuttle.... with a base of .... chocolate cake

Bou diou

I can't find anything interesting to say tonight or maybe I just can't seem to be able to word anything right. So saturday we were supposed to meet some friends in North Park. After killing about 1 hour and half driving around hillcrest with two unhappy kids in the car we called them to find out they cancelled on the cell phone we left at home! So since we were there we tried this place and it was quite nice it is called Aperitivo in North Park. It is a Italian Tapas wine bar... Interesting combo. So the Tapas part is that the portion are small so you get to sample more. The food is good and the prices reasonnable. We had a nice family meal....

Since we are on the topic of food I will post my chicken noodle soup recipe as Jessica requested
Sophie's chicken noodle soup
Chicken tenders

• 1 or 2 bacon strips or prociutto or prosciutto dice thingy
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery stalk
• vermicelli
• spinach
• white wine
• 1 tbs of soften butter mixed with 1 tbs of flour

===================

1. Heat a little olive oil in a pot
2. Saute chopped garlic, onion, and the procuitto
3. Saute the chopped carrot and celery
4. Saute the diced chicken
5. "Mouille" with white wine (which means get the chicken wet with a little wine)
6. Add a lot of water, the fresh rosemary, fresh sage and bay leaf
7. Let cook for at least an hour or until the juice is tasteful....
8. Add the spinach and the vermicelli
9. Add a little more white wine and finally the butter and flour
10. Let it thicken a little more. Salt and pepper to taste.

The longer the soup simmers the better it tastes. I can't never to make the same but it is always really good, my husband approves every time and you know guys and soup

Enjoy!

Role model...

Oprah is the role model of somone I know. This has puzzled me so I decided to learn about Oprah. Who is she to influence someone's life? Well her website and the subject of her TV show didn't impress me at all. Yes she is a philantropist who would not be with her fortune. I was impressed by her biography how she turned around a life that didn't start well and on the wrong side the track. I'll give her that.... So that leads to my quest of understanding the role of a role model and maybe who knows finding one of my own.... Before finding a role model I am left with these unanswered questions: - what does a role model accomplish anyways? - Does admiring someone that much influence your day to day choices? Fabienne Verdier is an amazing woman and artist and I admire her courage for her will to study chinese calligrapgy the way she did. http://www.chris-kutschera.com/A/Fabienne%20Verdier.htm On a lighter note for such a late blog I just watched Little Miss Sunshine which I liked very much. It is definitely on the corky side but with a great cast! It was refreshing... As the mom of a 18 months old I will run away from beauty pageants never been a fan but Arghhhh scary.

Tuesday lunch run

Today we went for a 3 mile run outside at lunch. It was a nice run and it went better than I expected... I didn't stop ;) I ran with two other co-workers and it was fun and motivating. Bryan gave me for christmas a Garmin GPS watch thingy to keep me motivated and I love this little toy. I can't wait to be at a level where running an hour on a trails won't be synonym of death penalty ;) It yells at me when I go too fast or too slow it tells me when I hit the 1 miles mark etc... If you want details on our loop Click Here The few times we stopped were for the lights... just in case you were wondering. Why do I run? I like it I know I'm a bit crazy but I do, I haven't been as consistent as I wished I'd been for the last 9 years but hey I try. I had to adapt and go run at lunch... I have some goals concerning running that I would like to share with you that way you can throw them back at me I want: - to train regularly so 5-6 miles isn't impossible but just a run - try to lose those naggy 9 lbs and get back to my happy weight of 110 lbs for the summer. - to run a half marathon before I'm 35 I'm shooting for the Carlsbad half marathon next january don't forget to throw that one back at me on Dec 30th 2009!!! - to participate in a triathlon in my life... for this one you'll have to come at my death bed ;) My friend Jessica is training for the La Jolla half and although I won't be joinging her in the race I will train with her the days we run together. She picked up this training schedule from the runners world website I believe and it looks doable although I'm not too sure about the 8 miles run at lunch. Week 1:
Tuesday : 4x 400 intervals Thursday: 3 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 6 mile long run Week 2:
Tuesday : 4x800 intervals Thursday: 4 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 8 miles Week 3:
Tuesday : 4x1600 intervals Thursday: 5 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 10 miles Week 4:
Tuesday : 6x400 intervals Thursday: 6 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 6 miles Week 5:
Tuesday : 3x1600intervals Thursday: 4 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 10 miles Week 6:
Tuesday : 4x800 intervals Thursday: 8 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 8 miles Week 7:
Tuesday : 6x400 intervals Thursday: 6 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 10 miles Week 8:
Tuesday : 4x1600 intervals Thursday: 8 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 12 miles Week 9:
Tuesday : 3x800 intervals Thursday: 4 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : 6 miles Week 10:
Tuesday : 4x400 intervals Thursday: 2 mile tempo run Sat/Sun : Race Anyways I just ate back all the benefits of this run so much for goal nb 1 at PF Chang's tonight. On this note I'm gonna crash because Yoga and Running are kicking my butt. I just discovered Yoga and I'm already falling in love but that will be the subject of a whole new post.

Lets do that again...

Like for anything else practice makes perfect so I release to the public Sophie's Blog version 1.0. Yes you guessed I'm a software engineer yeah!
What will Sophie's pen ramble on ooooh mostly running, art, crafts, cooking, movies, books, music and maybe some funny annecdotes.
Lets kickoff this new version by a funny quote by Miles: The other day Miles (our 3 year old) puts on his shirt and looks at his dad and says "This shirt is not pretty". After a pause he adds "Well it is a little pretty and a lot of cool".