Sooo guilty

I was lazy today, well it is the last day I can use the excuse, I am not training to stay with my parents ;) They are leaving tomorrow morning which always leaves me in a funky mood.
The day didn't start really well since my dad took off with the kids car seats not used to have them in the car so we missed their swimming lesson:( Anyways I was tired don't ask me why since I really didn't do squat all day. A little reading, a little cleaning (gotta get used to it again ahahah) a little cooking.
So tomorrow my alarm clock will be set at 6:15 for an am swim...
The weather has also been less than optimal. It's mid may and I am wearing jeans and a sweater... Oops I forgot May gray June gloom arghhh I need nice blue skies.
My next triathlon is in 8 weeks yikes it is coming up fast! Ah well I'm there to have fun right ;)

Mama....

Mom's I realized are meant to spoil. I spoil my kids and I get spoiled by my mom in return many different ways. I don't know if it is because we only see each other 7 weeks out of the year in bulk but she always is buying me that little top that I really like but shouldn't buy or that pair of shoes.
She also has a mission when she comes to my house; To help us! This means that I haven't started the dishwasher in a month and I haven't done laundry in as many weeks. My closets are never that full and neatly folded.
Today we went to UTC to buy my dad some jeans from Gap, MEC some leggins as she loves those and only want to wear them. I got spoiled with a pair of shoes I was eyeing at Nordstroms.

I spoiled myself with a top from Anthropologie (that store is evil) paid with left over gift card.

I had to resist the temptation to get the cutest tunic which would have fitted perfectly with my dark grey leggin but which was out of my price range of the moment ;)

So today was light shopping. Yesterday I went to my GOTRibal POW WOW and it was fun. Three great speakers were there and it is fun to learn and chat with another women.
After that I met B and his cousin at a little sushi place tucked in the lounge of the Crowne Plaza hotel. The settings was a little different but the food was delicious. Unfortunately a pretty loud abnoxious table of drunk people behind us made any discussion a little difficult.
I took the day off workout and I will try to go for a run tomorrow with B but I may just stay and spend sometimes with my parents. They are taking a flight back to Paris early monday morning.
It will be nice to get back to our little unit but also sad to see them go.... Life is full of those bitter sweet moments ;)
Finally on the cooking front. I am giving the Challah roll another shot, I made banana bread with chocolate chip with the kids and I am trying a new porc loin recipe for a nice dinner... Stay tuned on the food snob channel

Back to the roots

Still no triathlon training posting because I have been really really lazy. I planned a run on friday night and was hoping to be able to go with B, but since we were going out on a date in Encinitas he decided he would go run on his own ;( I was contemplating a swim at the Cove because I really really need to get back in the water before Solana Beach Tri, but I didn't have enought time to get down there, swim and then get to encinitas on time.
So instead I went to the happy hour at work, didn't eat nor drink anything but I chatted with friends.
The evening was pleasantly spent with some friends who are about as busy as we are which means we don't get to hang out with as much as we'd like to.
Today I really wanted to go for 20 miles bike ride. Of course I forgot we had brunch scheduled with some other really cool friends, then the weather was crap. Then I read about this lady who got in a bike accident and that cooled me down somewhat. Finally I had to go do some grocery shopping and gave up on the ride. I am planning on going tomorrow though.
Instead I cooked all afternoon. First we are running out of strawberry and thus I bought 4lbs of them and made another batch. MAC wanted banana bread I think he wanted a little diversity from the awsome chocolate cake and orange cake his grandmother is wipping out left and right. So we made banana bread. Then since I don't really want to go out for mother's day I decided to have a nice breakfast at home and decided to make bread. So I started making Challah bread.
Finally we had a nice dinner, filet mignon, caramelized onions with seared polenta yum yum.
I have to say, with all the events of the past few weeks I have been wanting to go back to the root. Go back to live a simple life, a nice one I may add but yet simple. I would like to grow more of our vegetable, make more of the food we eat buy less consumable. My sister says I am ready to live in Norway or Sweden....
Anyways it is good for me that I love cooking, creating and baking so much. I just gotta get back on my bike. Training starts back on monday with a swim session at 6:30am.

Another guy I know raced with me on sunday, I don't think he expected me to get as close to him as I did. Now I want to keep in his shaddow or beat him... but for that I really have to improve my swimming, and biking! At least it is motivation.

Blah

Jess has asked me to post yesterday afternoon so she has something to read. I couldn't bring myself to write a few lines to distract her during work hours....
So here am I racking my brain for something witty and distracting to type.... Hummmm not much comes to mind ;) not very surprising I may add.

The highlight of my weeks were the following:
- Got back into my 5 days/week workout routine and back in the water.
- Had a very very satisfying run 4miles at an average of 9:18 min/mile and it trully felt good.
- Fixed a bug which sped up some display, I won't say that the cause of this problem was a brain dead if statement. (sorry for the lingo)
- Started studying for my programming exam
- Went to a girls shopping party (yeah me) with a coworker Kim. In short you have vendors selling jewelry, jeans and other item in a friends house. You chat, drink wine... Since I didn't know many people and I don't do too good in crowd that I don't like we escape after an hour, found a nice little restaurant had dinner and chatted. Much more my alley. I came home curled on the couch and watched Bones with my husband... that too is much more alley.

This morning though I have the blues.... dunno why probably aftermath of all my socializing. Yeah I'm weird that way when I reach out to get to know new people, I feel all ackward the next day. I feel like I've intruded on their life forced myself in their free time. Even when I had a great time, actually especially when I had a great time.

I also learned what Introvert, Extrovert and Ambivert actually means. I thought an introvert was somebody very very shy and inadequate when it's more like someone who likes small quiet venue, and activities.... Very much like me and a lot of other people I know.

Today I have to get my bikeride in. I hope the weather is going to cooperate.

Obsessed

Obsessing obsessing on nothing and everything. My next work out, my weight, my home to do list etc....
Finally I did my first workout post half marathon. I went for a little bike ride yesterday to ease my way back into my workout routine. It was really pleasant a little short. I already mapped out a bunch of new rides that I have to just go for.
Tomorrow I start running again, oh boy, I don't know how that is going to feel. Bryan has been running so much lately that I want to keep up. I think we are totally motivating each other which is great!. Wednesday I will finally reconnect with the water and I hope I won't have to start all over again although I will probably have to.
On the art side, someone has asked me to do their wedding flowers after seeing Jess's. I have finally finished framing two painting we bought a while while back. They are ready to be reinforced and hung on our walls.... Things are moving slowy but surely. Maybe I will be able to read my book on the week end without feeling like I have something better to do ;)

A little crazy...

Why do I promise the kids a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting on a monday nigh? Probably because I did promise one yesterday evening and my post run nausea kept me in no mood of cooking.
So when I got home tonight things were a little more crazy than usual. So here I am cleaning the kitchen, then starting the kids dinner and making a vanilla cake from scratch. Making the cake itself is nothing it is just the mess, the kids crying and asking for attention that is a little tough to handle. I didn't make the frosting. Since cake in France don't have frosting I never had to learn and never quite had the time. I will try very soon.
So although I cleaned my kitchen thoroughly yesterday morning it only lasted for about 2 hours and is back to a really dirty state which bugs the heck out of me.

This week's menu is going to be interesting since my trip to Von's yesterday wasn't inspired at all and I didn't even make it to the produce section! ahahah and of course I won't have time to hit the store this week so I'll make do...
We will probably have some fish one night, some pasta probably with roasted onions and porciutto, some tamales from Trader Joes, we will go out or go pick up some sushi and finally we will either have potstickers, raviolis or pirogis with a salad here and there and that will bring us to Saturday when I will go to Trader Joes for my weekly grocery trip
Tomorrow will be interval training which I will probably do in the evening since I have a parent teacher conference for Maia.
To end this random post we need to buy the kids christmas gift since we will be celebrating our christmas next friday and things need to get to the house before then.

Another saturday in paradise...

I know I complain a lot about the weather and the fact that it is like 85 degrees fahrenheit (28 celsius) in mid november. This totally sucks for my running cuz I hate running in the heat and now it is dark super early. However today I sure enjoyed the weather.
We spend some time at the beach. The kids played in the sand and the water crazy!, Bryan surfed of course and I read a little bit.
Today I was way too lazy to go for a bike ride which was partly due to this new chick lit that I started yesterday and I can't put down so I read until like 12:30 and the kids woke up nicely at 7 am this morning :(
Anyways nothing that a nice cup of coffee can't cure, after cleaning the kitchen mess from last night making some banana pancakes from my fav recipe site williams sonoma and ok a 10K project on our backyard auouch we went to the beach.

I started knitting again, I just finished a sweater for Miles and I am hoping to finish one for Maia soon. Sophie in a yarn store is like a kid in a toy store. I think I get more excited than when I go into a clothe store or even shoe store.
I just love the colors, the textures and the creativity.
So anyways I willed myself into buying only what I needed and one pattern book. Miles already ordered his next sweater too cute.

Besides that not too much, I am cooking bolognese sauce since our neighbors are coming for dinner.
Last night I settled for chicken with paprika, wild mushroom and creamy sauce over rice. Yummy but not healthy at all. At lunch I had a lamb burger again yummy but not healty and I am still full.
I feel such like a blob right now but ah well I'll run my 7-8 miles tomorrow and all will be better.
Anyways better help the hubbie who had to deal with the little one falling into the toilet and then peeing on the floor ahahahah. Parenthood is always an adventure ;)

Marathon saturday

What a day... We woke up at 7:30am were ready at 8:15 to all go for our 5-7 miles run which was nice although my knee started bugging me at mile 4 :( and so I had to stop at miles 5, which brings my monthly mileage at 50! Maybe I will reach 60 by the end of the month.
One thing for sure is that I need to start doing yoga at home once a week to strech my legs better.
After a quick shower we headed out for a play date while hubbie went surfing. After a few hours of playing, a few drama back to the house, the kids took nap while I ran to Tradder Joes for my weekly grocery outing to stock up on a bunch of goodies. On the way I stopped at a bike store to 1- buy some bike shorts 2- buy some more of the GU and 3- gawk at bikes.
Tada this is the object of my "convoitise" don't know the word in english on sale from 1200$ to 800$

It would have been cool if the actual bike was that color....
The big question now is am I a good girl and I wait until christmas like I said and ask Santa a bike for my christmas and my birthday, save money over until christmas and have the remainder of the bike as a christmas present or will I be a bad girl and jump on this deal. Anyways I am looking forward to my ride tomorrow, I think I will do the ride I wanted to do last week and who knows maybe I won't have to get off my bikes in the hills!!!!!

After the grocery shopping and my gawking we had a halloween party to go to. Gosh I hate crowds that I don't know. I always find myself sit in a corner wondering when I can leave.
It was really nice party.
In a little bit the kids will go to bed and we will have a nice quiet evening with some wine/beer and a nice episode of Bones. Ahhh I love those evenings at home.

Dilemna dilemna dilemna

Ah the difficulty of being a somewhat reasonnable woman. So I need a very pretty dress for Bunny's wedding and today on Hautelook's BCBG sale I found that very pretty navy blue dress

I have always wanted a navy blue dress, it was at a very reasonnable price of 130$ and I had the approval of my husband. But yet I didn't purchased it... The size weren't quite right and I could not try it on... When deep down I really would like a bike, I just spend quite a lot on glasses and I am simply shopped out.

How can a woman be shopped out? Don't worry bunny I'll have a nice dress for your wedding.

The bitter sweet moments of life

Yes Yes I finally did it. I finally picked up my rollers and started painting my bedroom. I started last week end while the kids were supposed to sleep! Yeah right the naps in our household have been lately wishful thinking. Even Maia decided that sleeping during the day was completely overrated. So here I am firmly decided that I will paint my first wall pretty interesting experience I have to say. It started very well, they both sat at the edge of the plastic covering the ground looking at me in awe ;) commenting on how the blue looked nice etc... Then they moved to the bed were they jumped and jumped. We had a few fights, a few tears played a few counting games and it was all done in about 1H30min.

Since in the evenings I am just not motivated enough to do anything else than read or watch a show. Saturday early afternoon, sunday early afternoon and sunday all evening was spent to paint and I completed most of my bedroomand the beginning of the bathroom. It looks awsome and I am super happy.
Other than that we went to Sears outlet bought a new high efficiency washer and a dishwasher, had a nice breakfast, cooked indian food, went to some friends house for a really nice bbq, went to Julian for lunch and a nice little walk and baked two huge aple crumbles for my uber boss's birthday celebration. I peeled 9lbs of aple ; )
That was a great week end!

Then tuesday came our new washer was delivered and installed. They started it to make sure that it worked well. I did try to reset the settings to not use too much hot water since it was a dry run and found it a little suspicious when I couldn't do it. Since I had to rush back to work I decided not to worry about it. Well at 10:30pm after loading up the washer with all my dark laundry I just couldn't choose the program that I wanted I felt defeated and mad and depressed.
Yes the brand new washer electronic doesn't work!!!! ARGGGGGH!!!!! The pain the frustration.... It lasted until today early afternoon ; )
It is amazing how quickly the feeling of accomplishment and happiness is replaced by utter frustration, depression and anger.
Someone will come between 8am and 12pm on friday hopefully something decent will come out of this ;) I love that they ask you which 4 hours of your day already crazy busy would you like to waste waiting for some service guy who is going to tell you that nothing can be done ;)
In the meantime my laundry is accumulating and I hope to have enough clothes until I have a working washer.
In the meantime I haven't exercized one bit since my last really painful run and will try to get out tomorrow evening.

Lazy me...

Today I could have gone for a 4 mile run with Jessica but of course I still haven't recovered from the locker clean up. What do you mean.... well they warned us that they will clean up the locker room at the gym during the week end and they would throw away everything that was there. Of course I completely forgot to retrieve my belongings so when I strolled in on tuesday to change for my run I realized that I didn't have a towel nor deodorant nor soap.... I still ran and took a shower but toweled with the shirt I ran in.

Today we were supposed to go replace 6 of our 8 tires today but of course we need an appointment so that it could be done during lunch time... So here I am no errands and a planned run... But no I didn't feel like toweling with my shirt again and since I didn't have lunch I basically wimped out of my run ;( But then as I was driving back from Rubios with my two steak tacos with chipotle sauce on the side my new favorite I saw Jessica running and felt like a big slob!!!! I will resume my workout next week... Monday tires hehehe Tuesday run Wednesday Yoga Thursday break/run Friday run/break

But before that I will pack a clean towel and all the needed attire to go for a short run tomorrow ; )

Thoughts on good food.

I love to cook for my family, friends and even myself. I try to cook as much as I can but some weeks I'm just tired and could eat pasta every evening.
This past week we had friends over twice and I have missed having people over for dinner. I find it an occasion to cook a full meal not only the entrees which is what I usually do. We would have with Bryan lasagna his favorite dish but no salad nor dessert.

On thursday we had Jessica and her boyfrien Ryan, I made pork tenderloin with a mustard sauce I found the recipe on Williamsonoma, a salad and lava cakes with poach pears. I feel bad because I usually cook a lot while the guest are here. Luckily my kitchen is really friendly and we can socialize while cooking which I totally love.
Tonight we have a couple of friends that we mainly met at the park with their two kids.... I made lasagna and Bryan made chocolate chip cookies yum!

I really do love food and good meals and I do make an effort to cook most of the time. Bryan left last august for India and even when I'm bymyself I would cook soups from scratch I just like good food.

middle life crisis....

I know I know how can you have a middle life crisis at 33!!!! So maybe it is not a middle life crisis maybe I am a bit sad because I'm realizing I'm not so young any more but I still feel very young.
When I look at my son I see a little boy when yesterday he was a toddler what happen to time. He can recognizes songs on the radio not the wiggles but Maroon 5, Travis, Linkin park.
I love my life I have a great life. I have a great family, I have been very happily married for the past 8 years, I have two wonderful kids, a great job.
But for some reasons I do feel like I should make more money, that I haven't reached where I should be for my degrees etc... Why can't I just be happy why do I always have to feel like I have succeeded.
Yeah life took some unexpected turns... I never quite realize that a 3 month internship in the US (I'm french) would mold my future and it isn't always easy to be an immigrant to be far from a very close family.
But hey that's life and that is what makes me ambitious and wanting more out of life always more. I just have to balance wanting more but also take time to appreciate what I have accomplished....

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.