Goal in the Works - Turkey Trot 5k

As I mentioned earlier, I made an attempt at my first run since hurting my leg and it did not go so well, but I finished. 24 miles to go before I complete my 30 miles before I'm 30.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent Thanksgiving with my Dad this year. Vivian and I flew in yesterday on a quick 2 hour flight. Boy that was nice. I'm so used to flying across the country with her and it taking nearly all day. And of course she would never sleep once she started walking; there was so much to see and she would want to go running down the aisle. So thank goodness for shorter flights! And surprisingly, the flight was only half full. I found that kind of strange for the day before Thanksgiving but I'll take it.

Anyhow, this morning I tried my first 5k since my little injury, the Miami Turkey Trot. I actually signed up to do the 10k but since it was my first time running in a month I thought I would take it easy to not hurt myself again. My mom has been training as well so we did it together with her boyfriend. I started off at my mom's pace, run 30 seconds walk 30 seconds. I was doing pretty good until we approached the 1st mile mark when my leg started to act up. Vivian, Don and I walked to the end while mom continued on the 10k route. We had to wait about a half hour so we made ourselves busy by eating the post-run snacks that were out. We decided that there had to be at least 20,000 bananas that were being passed out. There were 5,000 registered runners, fan clubs of the runners and children being pushed in strollers. The staff was handing out 2 bananas per person. So with my simple calculation, that is 20,000 bananas. Sorry about the off topic tangent about bananas. I was proud of my mom for completing her first 10k but bummed I couldn't even do the 5k. I got kinda sad watching everyone run. I guess I have more healing time in my future.

We got to the race very early. I woke Vivian up at 5am. She was a trooper though!

 Waiting in the sea of 5,000+ participants. We were toward the back.

Inching closer to the start line. Still hundreds in front of us.

 

 Mom and Don running it in.

Vivian and I met Derrick, who flew in this morning, back at Dad's to get ready for some turkey love. And so commenced a very large Gili Thanksgiving.

  

The evening was great, full of food and laughs.

We're missing a few people but here we are.

Thank you for continuing to be patient!

We've been very busy packing and moving and now we're off on a whirlwind 2 week adventure. Please continue to be patient and there will be lots of updating when we get back! Thank you!!!
Nicole

Goal in the Works - Act of Kindness #7

We moved...again. So the story goes like this:

One of Derrick's co-worker's contract was terminated, which meant he would have to move to take over another contract in Houma, LA (about an hour west of NOLA). Derrick told me the story over the phone on his way home. I felt bad, the co-worker and his family had just moved into a new place and their son just started school. They have been in NOLA for a few years so they were well established and comfortable. I kept thinking to myself, maybe Derrick can volunteer to take his place. But I wasn't sure if Derrick would go for that because I wasn't really sure how it would effect his job and our lifestyle (not that it's lavish or anything but I do love the ability to stay home with Vivian).
After dinner Derrick asked me what I thought about moving...again. I was game, there was really no question. Although there is a great deal of things to do in NOLA, we had no ties to the city. The only issue was logistics. Would the company even let us? When? How? Where?
Well the company saw no problem with the switch so we began planning and negotiating terms. And here we are, in Houma, LA, a small town supported by the oil industry. I wonder what we've gotten ourselves into?

P.S. Houma is home of Swamp People. Apparently a popular show on cable.

Tough Princess Ain't So Tough

Bad news....I sprained or pulled a groin muscle. I haven't ran in nearly 3 weeks. I went to the doctor to make sure there wasn't a blood clot or hernia. I won't try running again until next week. I hope I am healed up by then. Wish me luck!

15 Months

Vivian is now 15 months! She is full of milestones. Here's the breakdown...

~ We've been practicing throwing. We use playtime with Dyno to help us. I showed Vivian how to count to three and then throw Dyno's ball. She caught on rather quickly. Although she is not correctly saying 'one, two, three, throw', you can tell that's what she is trying to say by the rhythm and the inflection of the vowel sounds.

~ We live on the second floor of an apartment and we also have a couple of steps inside so Vivian gets lots of practice going up and down. She recently got brave enough to go down the couple inside with no hands. I, on the other hand, am not comfortable with her doing it on the big flight outside.

~ With her new found lack of fear of heights she has also figured out how to climb onto the desk when I am working at it. She just can't stay away.

~ We got Vivian a bunch of chunky puzzles for her birthday and she loves them. She is really quite good at matching the shapes and animals to their correct spot.

~ Without a doubt we have a reader on our hands. She loves to read and to be read to.It's the one activity she can focus on for long periods of time (15 minutes).

~ With all the puzzle practice and books we read she has learned a new array of words. She is able to recognize animals, shapes, colors and every day items. Every once in a while she take a shot at trying to say one or make the sound of an animal. She likes to pretend to be an elephant.

~ Derrick and Vivian have discovered Sesame Street songs on YouTube. The ones that feature real musicians and the characters. This is one of their favorites.
 

~ This is probably the cutest milestone. Vivian has learned how to blow her nose. It took a lot of modeling of fake blowing my nose and a lot of wasted tissues.

~ Words of the month are cheese, leaves, please, up, help and eggs. She actually says 'up please' but it sounds like 'pu pee'. Once she got the hang of the long e sound she quickly began to mimic other long e words like, cheese, leaves, trees. 'Help' usually sounds like 'up' and 'eggs' sounds like 'kgs'. No obvious words yet. If you just walked in on a conversation you would probably not know what she was saying. But nonetheless, she is practicing very hard.

~ Thanks to bath time she now knows where her belly is. Thanks to her poking at our face she knows where all of her facial features are. Thanks to putting her shoes and socks on to go outside she knows where her feet are.

~ Big milestone alert. Vivian has mastered, though not always very gracefully, feeding herself with a fork.

So like I said, she has been a busy girl learning how the World works around her and how she fits into the World. I am so thankful I get to be home with her to have these experiences with her.

Happy Halloween!

We knew we were going to dress up as a family this year. We were contimplating a few themes but finally decided on Red Riding Hood. My MIL was kind enough to make Vivian's Little Red Riding Hood costume. I spent 3 bucks on fur to cover some cat ears I had. Derrick hit up the Salvation Army and scored his nighty half off for 2 bucks. I say we looked pretty darn good for a budget Halloween. It took a minute for Vivian to recognize me with my heavy eye makeup and fluffy ears but she was completely put off by Derrick's costume. She didn't recognize him at all and wouldn't let him old her. Thankfully she wasn't scared, just cautious.

A couple of weeks ago we drove around to find a good area to trick-or-treat in but then it was suggested to us by a neighbor that we go to the Imperial Woods neighborhood. WOW! They do Halloween like most neighborhoods do Christmas. The decorations were top notch complete with scary sounds being pumped into the street. The roads were blocked and there were about 10 cops on foot, bike and golf cart on each street.

Vivian's bedtime is 7:00 and we wanted to beat the high school crowd rowdiness so we arrived about 5:45. When we parked we didn't see any other families but as we were getting Vivian in her costume a couple came out with their little ones. Every house had a table set out in front with candy and and the families were dressed to match a theme. Amongst the amazingness was a Star Wars house that had life-sized characters, an Incredibles house that had the movie playing on their garage door, and an authentic NOLA house that was serving jambalaya. Giant spiders on the sides of houses, fog, shrilling voices, skeletons dangling from trees. It was right out of a movie.

We walked about two blocks. Vivian walked the whole way holding my hand tight and on high alert. She was very serious, looking at everything and everyone. At each house she took the candy and then dropped it into her candy bag that I was holding. She didn't take her eyes off the person giving her the candy to put in the bag. I'm pretty sure she was confused as to why nobody looked like a person anymore. They looked like witches and fairies and superheroes; Mommy and Daddy didn't even look normal. Although she was suspicious of everyone, they all thought she was the cutest thing. She is pretty adorable even when she's serious.

It was a fun evening and I look forward to going back next year!

Goal in the Works - Trick or Treat Smell My Feet

The Pinterest craft I did for October is Vivian's footprints turned into witches. I got inspiration from a few different ideas. 

Here's wishing everyone a safe and fun Halloween! 

Goal in the Works - Act of Kindness #6

Today we had to stop by Apple to see what is screwy with my phone. That store is always a mad house! While I was waiting to be helped I saw a young boy, probably 9 years old, walk by crying and looking around. He walked to the front of the store. I could see other people watching him but no one was doing anything. All I could think of is how I would feel if I were a kid and couldn't find my parents. I think I would have a panic attack. So I approached the boy to find out that his dad left him in the store while he took the sister to the bathroom. I guess they had been gone longer than what the boy expected. He was very scared. I asked him if he knew his parents phone number and he didn't. I reassured him that his dad would come back and that he needs to stay in the store. Then an employee came over to see what was happening and he went to get a manager to take over. The manager sat him down at an iPad and got a game for him to play. I kept my eyes on him to make sure he was ok. His dad finally came back after about 20 minutes. I felt like I was on the show "What Would You Do" but the host, John, didn't come out to thank me.

A couple of things from this experience stuck with me. First, the look on the boys face. I wanted to cry with him. He was so scared. Second, he didn't know his phone number. I feel like he was old enough to know it. Maybe he did know it but was too distracted with panic to recall it. So here's a solution, a phone number ID bracelet. Make your own from beads at a craft store or order one.

My Ears Froze But I Did it Anyway

Our first real cold front came today. The high was 65 with frigid gusts of wind. We mostly stayed inside except to walk Dyno. I love the smell of fall and winter and even the refreshing air but the cold part I can do with out. In my opinion, it shouldn't get any colder than it was today. Unfortunately that's not how the seasons work. At least it will be better here than it was in Portland. Boy, I do not miss running in Portland fall and winters. Freezing + Rain = Miserable Nicole! My least favorite part is when my ears get cold. Even when we used to go up to Timberline on Mount Hood my ears would freeze like popsicles. It hurts, I feel like they're on the verge of frostbite. Yes, I wear a hat. What can I say, I just have sensitive ears.
Anyhow, I did another 3 miles this evening. It was 53 degrees with a 15 mph head wind. Brrrrr. I still walked for about a minute and a half about half way through. I managed to complete my run in 30 minutes 12 seconds! I was so happy to get inside when I was done that I kept running to get home faster.

Super Run!!!!!

Yeah baby! I haven't run 3 miles in 2 weeks when I did the run with my mom. Don't get me wrong, I have been training but haven't done 3 miles until today. And I did it in 29 minutes 28 seconds!!!! I only stopped once about half way through! I am so pumped! I think I was a little discouraged after the 5k we did so have been a little timid about doing it again. The run was tough but I've got my mojo back now!

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

Vivian has mastered another sign this week. BANANA! One of her favorite foods! What a smarty pants!

A True Saints Fan

We saw this yesterday on our drive (before the toe incident).

A true Saints fan, through and through!

Narly Toe - Warning: Gross Picture to Follow

Since Vivian fell asleep in the car after breakfast, Derrick and I decided to drive through some of the pretty neighborhoods in our area. We admire and dream. If there's a house for sale we check the stats. And so we did. We came across a house for sale and it had some flyers out front. We stopped and I ran out to grab one. On my way back to the car I stubbed my toe. Well more like ripped the tip of my big toe. I'm pretty sure it hurt worse than when I broke my arm. We were still a little ways from home and we needed to stop by Walgreens to get some gauze and bigger band aids. My toe hurt awful and looked disgusting. I started to get light-headed, I turned pale and got nauseous. Finally, about a half hour later we made it home. Derrick had to carry me up the stairs while helping Vivian climb them. I was crying and grunting. Derrick said I was a big baby. What does he know, he's never ripped the tip of his toe nearly off. So Derrick patched me up and now, I don't think I'll be running for a few days.

Warning: Gross pictures of my now ugly toe! 

  After we cleaned it up.         A couple of days later.

     Turns out I did more than stub it. It was pretty jammed. I could barely bend it and the top of my toe below the nail got all bruised. Next time I'll put my shoes on before getting out of the car. Although I wonder, if I had put my shoes on would it have been worse? Like a twisted ankle?

Still waking up!

Oh my! It was an early morning today, I'm still trying to wake up. Usually after a trip it takes a few days for Vivian to get her sleep back on track. Unfortunately she still hasn't figured out that before 7am just is not acceptable anymore. This morning she was up a 4:30. After a few attempts to get her back to sleep and it not working, we decided to try a car ride. That didn't work either. So off to breakfast we went. Luckily we know of a 24/7 breakfast diner.

Here is Derrick and Vivian chillin' at breakfast. She cracks me up!

Breakfast was good and Vivian fell asleep on the way home! Finally!

Zoo Trip

Derrick had the day off today so we took a trip to the Zoo. We love the Zoo!  It was perfect weather, not too hot so all the animals were out and it seemed like we were the only ones there. Vivian ran all around from exhibit to exhibit. The Zoo is very big so we can't do the whole thing in one day with Vivian. We decided to do everyone's favorites with a couple bonus exhibits like the seals and the reptile house.

Vivian's favorite is the elephants.

Derrick's favorite is the monkeys.

My favorite is the pink flamingos.


 

Goal in the Works - Act of Kindness #4 and 5

Vivian and I made some pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies yesterday. The texture of these cookies are amazing; soft, light, fluffy, and perfect. The taste however I wasn't as impressed with. Don't get me wrong, they taste delicious but I was expecting more of a pumpkin flavor, after all, it is a pumpkin cookie. Nonetheless, they were good enough to give to others so we did.

Yesterday, while the cookies were still warm, Vivian and I took a stroll to the front office and delivered a dozen to the property manager. Boy was she excited.

 

Then this morning we took a very early drive to Derrick's work and delivered a dozen to the pilots and their customers. They were very grateful! One pilot asked what they were for and I happily replied that it was just a selfless act of kindness, just enjoy.

Pumpkin Painting

Yesterday Vivian got her first pumpkin from a pumpkin patch. Today she painted it! It was such a beautiful day, we had to be outside so we took everything out to the gazebo. I was clever and used a 6-muffin muffin tin to hold the paint. I also laid out the giant thick sheets of paper from our last move that our large pictures and mirrors were wrapped in. Derrick of course thought I was crazy but I can see into the future and I knew exactly what they would come in handy for - messy play. It made for easy clean up, just fold it back up and stick it under the bed. We were all set and ready to watch Vivian go to town on her pumpkin.

First Vivian checked out the brushes while we got the paint ready. We had about 8 different brushes and sponges. Some skinny, some fat, some with handles and some without.

When the paint was ready we showed Vivian how to put the brush into the paint and then on to the pumpkin. It wasn't that hard for her. She has been working on mastering using a fork when she eats and scooping corn in her sensory bin so it wasn't a totally new concept.

So from paint to pumpkin, switching out brushes, she went. We did have to do some damage control because she kept wanting to eat the paint. We just kept repeating put the paint on the pumpkin. In fact we said it enough for her to learn how to say pumpkin (her version is 'pump').

Vivian's Pumpkin!

It now sits outside our door. Every time we leave or come home she sees her beautiful masterpiece, stops to look at it and says 'pump'. That's right Love Bug, that's your pumpkin. great job!

Pumpkin Patch

Today we went to Mrs. Heather's Pumpkin Patch in Hammond. It's about an hour drive so it was a perfect opportunity for Vivian to get her morning nap. We pulled in and as I saw all the cars in the field, I told Derrick that it was like Disney. It was packed! There were lots of fun activities including face painting, see-saws, a petting zoo, wagons, pumpkin toss, giant hay bails to walk across, zip line, upside down trampolines and of course the pumpkin patch. It was quite a good deal, we only had to pay for Vivian and the $7 entry included a pumpkin. However, there was no where to purchase anything to eat or drink. We stayed only about an hour, Vivian is still a bit young yet to enjoy everything. Next year she should be more aware of everything and we will definitely bring a picnic lunch.

 What a work-out! This may be the perfect pumpkin but boy it's heavy. Errrr.

 Goin' on a Wagon Ride with Daddy.

 See-Sawing with Mommy

 Derrick on the inverted trampoline.

He looks like he's trying to be Chris Angel by levitating.

 

 Like a kid in a candy shop, Derrick was so happy on the giant trampoline. 

And he looked like a giant jumping on it next to the little kids.

Me on the inverted trampoline.

Happy Fall Everyone! 

Love, The Family

Tomorrow we will spend the day decorating Vivian's pumpkin and watching football. Perfect Sunday!

Chillin at the Park

♥ There are no words! ♥