What a Difference a Year Makes

I've been running 5k races for one year now.

The Pine Beach 5k was my first race last year and I ran it again this year on Sunday.

I've been saving all of my numbers. I probably have at least twenty or so. These are just the ones that were tacked to the back of the basement door in my kitchen. There are some in the glove compartment, in my nightstand, in pockets of various backpacks. I've been planning to display them on some cool clothesline across our home office-- but that's just another low-priority item on my lengthy to-do list.

Here's a shot from last year's race-- my first one. Finished with a time of 33:19.

And here's a shot from this year's race-- exactly one year later. Finished in 29:34.

Let's do the math, shall we? Four from nine, borrow from the three... there's a three minute, forty-five second differential. Not to mention the 12-inch difference in the length of my shorts. A little confidence can go a long way and a lot can happen in one year. Just think what my progress would have been if I hadn't spent December through February on my couch eating chocolate.

Speaking of one year differences, here is a pic of Will from last summer. He was excited to be husking corn for the first time and he just couldn't wait to help out. Notice how seriously he is taking the job...

And here he is, last year, having his idea of a good time-- being silly and willingly mugging for his momma behind the camera.

Fast forward to tonight, one year later. He wasn't nearly as excited, but I convinced forced him to help out.

And here he is 30 seconds later... or not.

Apparently, husking corn is "not fun". It was just me and Pikachu, who quite honestly wasn't too much help. (I mean, really, he just layed there on his face the whole time.)

Instead, Will was more excited to be practicing his hockey moves...

And here he is, this year, having his idea of a good time-- being annoying and trying to decapitate his little brother.

What a difference a year makes.

Kitchen Counter, 2 AM

The other night, at about 2 am, I found myself face down in a pile of drool on my couch. I've been falling asleep on the couch lately. I'm not proud of it. As a grown adult, I should know about the importance of a good night's sleep.

But the house is so quiet when everyone else is sleeping. There's no crying or whining. No fighting over firetrucks or sofa spots or chocolate milk. I can read or relax or watch television without any interruptions. There's no Transformers to transform or diapers to change. No noses to wipe and no legos to fish from a mischievous toddler's mouth.

So I attempt to fight off sleep... conk out on the sofa well before midnight... and collapse into bed in the wee hours of the morning. I am, therefore, cursing myself roughly four hours later when the kids are ready to rise and shine.

I snapped this photo the other night, in one of my drowsy stupors. I like how it captures some of the things going on in my present day life.

First, in the foreground, we have Bill's watch and keys along with the mail he was reading that evening. We actually have a place for all of these things, but why bother when it's just so easy to toss them on the counter. Ahem.

Next we have the big, red, frat party plastic cup. After years of listening to me nag about our carbon footprint, my husband still insists on buying and using these hideous things. Although they are technically disposable, he never actually throws them out.

In a sweet attempt at romance, there's the glass of wine that Bill had poured for me. Sadly, you can't drink wine when you're sound asleep. You also can't fulfill all your 'wifely duties' and you will be reminded of this repeatedly the next day.

There is a container of cookies, leftover from an earlier playdate. I will need to either hide these, toss these or bring these to another playdate in order to avoid eating them.

Nearby are the paper towel roll and baby wipes. Nothing soothes a cranky toddler like a paper towel roll. It's like magic. And with two messy kids, we have baby wipes in EVERY room of the house.

On to the sink full of dishes. When your kids are up by 6 am, there's plenty of time to do the dishes. Enough said.

Then we have the dreaded sippy cups. They have this 'no-spill' technology which translates as 'pain-in-the-ass-to-clean'. Generally, I put off cleaning them so often that I am frequently rinsing out rancid milk and regretting my careless ways.

In the background is my water bottle, which I carry around all day, telling myself, "You're not hungry, you're thirsty. You're not hungry, you're thirsty. You're not hungry, you're thirsty." Then, at some point, I am inevitably shoveling M&M's in my pie hole.

Note the fresh pineapple in the background. I love fresh pineapple. It's sweet and it's juicy and it's a real time-suck to cut up. I buy it, I stare at it, I promise that I'm going to make the time to prepare it and then I wish that I had just bought apples instead.

There's my Keurig and a full container of Cheerios which are must haves with a sink full of dishes and a 20-month old who is up at the crack of dawn.

Lastly, there's a garbage bag in the bottom corner of the photo. Due to kitchen-size constraints, we have a tiny garbage can under the sink that is forever overflowing. It seems as if we're always taking out the garbage leaving it on the floor to be dealt with tomorrow.

Someday, when my house is quiet and my kitchen is clean, I think that I'll look back on this photo and smile. Life is exhausting and messy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Planet Goes Missing

We fear that Liam has eaten Mercury.