Never A Dull Moment

Well, plans have changed and I decided to run a marathon that is closer to home. I will run in the Kansas City, MO marathon that takes place on October 17, only a weeks after Chicago. Training is still progressing normally. I did two of my runs this week with the kids and while I was running Luke yelled, "Hurry, hurry, hurry, Mare. Faster!" If that isn't motivation, I don't know what is! I am also running races on the weekends to put my time to good use while Reid is traveling and better prepare myself for the "big" race. My first of these is a five mile race on May 3. Hopefully I won't finish last!

Luke, the little boy I nanny for is quite a talker. He can repeat anything with his impressive 2-year-old pronunciation, which is quite cute. Two days a week he attends a mothers-day-out type of school. He loves it and on those two mornings we always talk about his teachers, Miss Meredith and Miss Jeananne (Luke pronounces the names: Mereda and Deanne). Because I had only heard Luke say Miss Jeananne's name, for the past two months I have called her Miss Deanne when talking to Luke about school. It never seemed to puzzle me when he would look at me and continue to repeat her name. Poor guy, I wouldn't get it right and he would give up, annoyed I am sure. When I finally learned the correct name from Luke's mom, he would still repeat her name until I said it incorrectly again. At the incorrect name he laughed. Moral of the story: even a 2-year-old can make fun of me! One week, I made him chicken fingers. He wasn't interested in eating so I tried to make it fun. I pulle...

I am excited to tell you I will finally be visiting Salzburg , commonly known as my "mother ship." For those of you who aren't lucky enough to know why this place is so amazing, it is because of a little musical called The Sound of Music. My obsession with this movie began at three, I saw the Broadway production at age 8, and I still sing along with the soundtrack while driving around Dallas. To explain how obsessed I was as a child I must share a story. I was at a gymnastics birthday party when I was three, and at this time was watching the movie three times a day (morning, afternoon, and evening). The gymnasts that were helping with the party were going to leave for Austria the next day. When I heard them mention Austria I told them I knew people who lived there. My reply to them asking me who I knew there was, "The von Trapp family." Cute, huh? Needless to say my mom cut back on the number of times I watched the movie. So, there is a reason why I get to go ...

If you have been reading my blog for any length of time you are aware that my mom has Alzheimer's Disease. Because the disease causes brain degeneration over a period of time (the length of time is different with each case), she is losing the ability to care for herself. At her current stage of the disease's progression she needs help with everything from bathing, to getting dressed, to having someone prepare food and help her eat. Now, where it becomes tricky is that she understands she must shower, get dressed, and eat when it is brought to her attention. These are all things that she enjoys...they have not yet become a battle. However, her brain cannot communicate what steps she must take to accomplish these tasks on her own.  With that background, you understand that someone must care for her needs. Even those that seem the most basic and instinctive. I always knew my dad, Jim Bain , cared deeply for our family and that he loved my mom. Our family joke, with my mom being hi...

Just got my new marathon book in the mail today! It is supposed to be "The Ultimate Training Guide" by Hal Higdon (Editor at Runner's World Mag). I have been looking forward to the arrival of this book for over a week and Reid told me I should go run more instead of whining about my book. Thanks for the motivating advice. Not!  I am excited to see what advice the book offers about diet. I always get bummed because it takes me a while to notice weight and inch loss with any type of exercise (due to the fact that I ruined my metabolism on a crazy diet in college). So, I will continue to run with the hope that my body is slowing jump starting my shape-up! I have upped my water intake to over 100 ounces a day. I still needing to cut back on the carbonation. An interesting discovery I made this past week is that I have migraine headaches as a result of eating corn syrup. Also, many people struggle with bad reactions to this substance, but do not ever attribute it to such an ab...

Leave it to me to think everything I heard on the news yesterday was a joke. After further research I discovered that it was very true. There is a marathon at the North Pole. I can barely run four miles in a "cush" gym and these fools are running out there- with ice clips on there boots! Boots? How can you run 26 miles in boots? As Luke, the little boy I nanny for would say, "Santa better bring all those boys and girls prizes."