28:26 with no falls

I'm back to running after a short stint away due to a few issues... I ended up in the hospital the first week of January due to heart palpitations, bradycardia (slow heart rate), dizziness, exhaustion, falling and a slew of other symptoms. Well, after 2 days in the ER and hospital, multiple tests (CT, MRI, MRA, etc.) they diagnosed me with vertigo and a slow heart rate and set me free.

Interestingly enough, the day after, I went back to my doctor for a follow up and to start my "vertigo" physical therapy and he does a quick test and says "you don't have vertigo". Okay, back to square one. Followed up with my Cardiologist and he concurs; "it's not vertigo". He really thinks there is something going on with my heart. Between the mitral valve prolapse they found when I was pregnant 2 1/2 years ago and the new bradycardia (my heart rate is as low as 40 bpm at times), he isn't convinced that all the symptoms are for nothing. He thinks I have "neurocardiogenic syncope" which simply is a fainting disorder of sorts that is controlled by being able to recognize the symptoms and take measures to prevent an "episode" as they call it.

Well, as you can imagine, this put a bit of a hurdle in the middle of my quest for running greatness (i.e. finishing the Long Island 1/2 Marathon on May 2, 2010 - note slight exaggeration on the "greatness"). However, I was determined to get back to running as soon as possible. I had already signed up for the Winter Run Series and missed the first race so last Saturday, 1 week after being in the hospital, I decide to run 3 miles in my neighborhood to see if I can finish the race scheduled for the next day. Doc says I can run as long as I don't feel dizzy so I was all for it. 2 miles into the run I suddenly fall. I don't know what happened... maybe I missed a step or I blacked out. I have no clue because it happened so quickly. What I do know is I was right on the side walk in town on Main Street and there were a ton of people watching. So, I peel myself off the ground and keep running, hoping no one saw me. No one said anything but I know they were thinking "idiot". Now I'm running (or rather limping) along and finally make it home 1.1 miles and 15 minutes later. That was the slowest 1.1 miles I've ever done (I think). My whole side hurt where I fell and my foot, my good foot, the one that never hurts was killing me. Another episode of... plantar fasciitis! How exciting!!! I ice all day and night and still can't really walk in the morning. Missing another race in the series was killing me. But again, I was determined to make it the next week, with no falls.

Fast forward to this Saturday, I ran 3.1 miles in 30 minutes - not too bad. My foot hurt but I iced it and did the tennis ball stretch (rolling a tennis ball under your foot with pressure to loosen up the tendon). This morning, I was ready to go. Bundled myself up in my new gear that my wonderful husband bought for me for Christmas and drove myself all the way to Caumsett State Park on the north shore. It was cold but nice out until it started to drizzle. I started out pretty good, even faster than I thought. My first mile was 9:18, second mile was at 18 something and then the third mile was at 27 something. Finished the race at 28:26, my best time ever. I'm very excited and hopeful for all the tests I have to do this week to show that my "episode" earlier this month was just a passing issue.

Tomorrow I have an Echo-cardiogram, Tuesday - blood tests, Wednesday - Endocrinologist for Thyroid, Thursday - Stress Test... it's going to be a busy week!

Picktails!

Welcome to 2010!

Livvy summed up our new motto for 2010 with this hit...




Happy New Year Everyone!!!

Getting Ready for Santa at School

Cotton Eyed Joe

This is classic...

-s

New Active Gear Site

I often visit steapandcheap.com to see what gear is 50% off at the time. This site has one item on sale at a crazy discount until they sell out. For example, one time they had a pair of women's hiking shoes going for $1! Well anyway, J called me today and told me he found the best site ever... it's http://www.cleansnipe.com/. It pools all the great deal sites like steapandcheap into one portal so you can see what's on sale at that very moment. It even updates automatically! I'll be keeping this one up for the remainder of the year at least. :)

happy shopping!
-s

Can I Borrow Your Christmas Tree?

Every year the weekend after Thanksgiving, we go up to Jones Family Farm to cut down our very own, one of a kind Christmas Tree. This is a tradition from J's family since he was young so we continue it with glee each year. Also, every year since he's had his own Christmas Tree, J has had a competition with his dad to find the VERY BEST Christmas Tree. So we typically take about 2 hours to find the best Christmas tree and then have to search around for where we left our gloves to reserve the other "Best" trees. This year we had a great time as it was very warm. Less frost, the better I say!

Now back to the title of this story. Since the rivalry has continued it is always a topic of conversation. This year is no different. Who's tree is nicer, who's is fuller, who's has better shape and on and on... IMHO - our tree has way too little branches at the top and could be a bit fuller but has a great shape while my in-law's tree is very full but looks a bit short and stumpy. There's no such thing as a perfect tree!!!

Well, yesterday we went over my in-laws to decorate their tree (another tradition) as we're finishing up dinner and the kids are running away from the table, Livvy walks over to her grandmother and says. "Mandma? Can I borrow your tree?" We all look at her and wonder what the heck she's talking about. So Grandma says "What tree do you want to borrow?" and Livvy walks over to the Christmas tree and to her dad's disappointment says "This tree. I like this tree."

Well, enough of the arguing the "Christmas Bush" as J has dubbed it due to it's short-stout nature, is the best tree this year. I don't mind because I decorated both trees and had a great time doing it.

Merry Christmas everyone!

-s

Tidbits

I have about 10 minutes to write this morning until my next meeting so this will be quick. Here are a few tidbits from the past month...
- I started flossing twice a day since I went to the dentist... now my gums hurt and I get food stuck in my teeth every time I eat! What the heck! That's just not right.
- We decorated for Christmas this weekend and Livvy helped. She was excited to see everything go up. Then the next morning she took a look around and said "Mommy, you done decorating?". I said "Yes I am. Do you like it?" and she said "It's pretty Mommy". How cute is she?
- I finished my Christmas cards early this year and sent out 100 cards... Unfortunately I forgot a few folks and now have to order more cards. Annoying. Well at least Livvy looks cute in them!
- I got new glasses and sun glasses for driving which are great but expensive!... I showed them to J yesterday. He said the sunglasses look like those glasses old people wear to cover all their eyes... great waste of $500 bucks!
- Livvy is excited to see Santa Claus at the mall. She keeps saying she's going to ask him for Happy Feet and then says she's going to tell him please and thank you.
- J has gone away on business a few times in the past month and each time Livvy tells everyone at school that daddy went away on a rocket. Then when I asked her "is daddy on a rocket" she told me "you silly mommy, daddy is on a airplane".

So that's a tidbits for now... I'll follow up with something more substantial when I have a chance!

-S

Backyard Makeover Part 2

I guess my previous blog on this subject didn't make someone happy. I believe it was the "renovation nightmare" comment that thrust him into action because it's just over a month later and things are really looking up!

For one, the backyard is looking mighty nice! Here are some shots from this afternoon...















Secondly, the bathroom is just about done. We've been using it for over a month and I love it. Just needs some final touch ups (tile saddle for the doorway, a cover for the baseboard heater, and molding for the door) that will probably take us forever since the holidays are coming. But I'm okay with that since I can shower, dry my hair, brush my teeth, do my makeup all before coming out of the bathroom! And - the bedroom is much less messy since I don't spend so much time getting ready in the morning in the bedroom. I'll work on getting some up to date pictures soon. Just need to clean it as Livvy just took an hour long bath in there and it's a wet mess.

Lastly, we also worked on some additional upgrades. Livvy's room now has a big-girl bed and new furniture, we have a new dining room table with 6 (yes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) chairs (we only had 2 before), and we have new sheets, lamps and a comforter in the bedroom.

Still some more to go but things are obviously looking much better than September thanks to my open minded husband who has embraced change like it was his best friend. Alright, enough kissing his @$$. I'll post more pictures when we have a chance... but here's a cute one of Livvy and cousin Immanuel on Halloween...















-s

How to Make Meatballs

I know it's been quite a while - over a month since I've posted last. If I actually had followers of my blog I'm sure someone would have cared! However, since no one noticed... lets move on shall we? :)

Today was a busy day. I ran a 5k this morning - 2nd annual Run for the Warriors. Unfortunately my time was more than desired. I think it was 30:20 but I can't remember as I was running too fast and thinking about how I didn't beat my last time. Sucks... I know! Well, it could be the time I had to take off of training due to plantars fasciitis or could have been just out of shape. Not sure, probably both caused the slip in time. I'll work on it. Trying to get to the Long Island 1/2 Marathon on May 2, 2010. I think it will happen.

Well enough of that.. on to the meatballs. Tonight J and I decided to make a few meals for the week. We don't prepare so nicely this often because we typically don't have much time to do it but today, we found the time. One of the meals we prepared was my mom's meatballs. The recipe is on her blog here. I've made my own meatballs before and they've been really good but to tell you the truth, none of them compare to my mom's meatballs. We followed the recipe exactly (didn't stray at all) and voila! Perfect Meatballs! Best part is that we have enough to freeze for later and they heat up in about 1 minute in the microwave. How awesome is that?! Anyway, I thought I'd share this info with my loyal followers... if there are any. I'm going to eat now... see ya!

-s