"Mom, how can a baby get born if there is nobody born before them?"

Whoa! I guess I should be happy she didn't take the question in another direction.

Me: "Uh, no I can't think of any time she stabbed me in the back. Did somebody do this to you?"

Juliana: "Yeah, well this one time, Ella said she would give me her cupcake for my Doritos but then she changed her mind and gave the cupcake to Kai for NOTHING."

The best part of my 13.1 mile run this morning was when during mile 12 a little bulldog with it's tongue hanging out started running along beside me. After a bit I started to wonder where it's owner was so I stopped and turned to see another pony-tailed blonde with sunglasses running after me with a leash and saying, "I thinks she thinks you are ME!"

Good thing I took my ipod off and checked because that puppy was so going to follow me home.

Oh, I guess that's just me.

Some of you already got the play by play via Facebook or Twitter so I'll be brief. We're getting a new car on Friday! Yay! This was put into motion before the old car decided to strand me in the middle of traffic but apparently the ol' cruiser got wind of how we were going to trade her in and decided to be all, "You wanna get rid of ME? I'd like to see you try!" And then proceeded to conk out in the middle of the road. This led to me and two other helpful ladies comically trying to push the car out of the intersection to no avail while other larger and most likely stronger drivers decided it would be more productive for them to honk/yell/give us dirty looks. Now I think I'm a fairly strong girl but I also think that if you saw me trying to push a PT Cruiser you would laugh. The cops that finally came to help me laughed when they saw how close I have to sit to my steering wheel when one of them could hardly even fit in my car.

Anywayz... What makes this story even better is that I was on my way home from the car dealer who had just finished checking out the cruiser for a trade-in when all this happened. I then had to turn around and have it towed right back where they promptly knocked $1000 off of our trade price. Aw, hamburgers.

But I'm ok. I'm actually able to laugh at my misfortune now because if the car was going to die then I suppose it was meant to be that we were already in the final stages of purchasing a brand spanking new one. It's even a hybrid so I can drive around like that episode of South Park where the hybrid drivers wave at each other and self-righteously pat themselves on the back. See? I can have a sense of humor about myself.

I realize that I probably set pretty unrealistic goals for myself. Like during the Olympics when I was obsessed with Dara Torres abs and forgot to consider that it was her JOB to look like that. Not that I'm running in order to whittle myself down to a bone but some of those distance ladies are crazy fierce. I can feel the muscles in my legs changing but I don't think you'll see me donning those little swimsuit buns anytime soon.

Sometimes I think I may have taken up running just so I could get all the alone time where I get to zone out and think. Now that I'm passing the 10 mile mark, pretty soon I'll be approaching TWO WHOLE HOURS of run time on a Saturday or Sunday morning that i get to focus on myself. Scandalous! I have to admit that it's pretty nice now that the girls are getting older and more self sufficient. I no longer have to spend my days and nights wiping up poop, pulling stuff out of little hands and mouths and basically monitoring every second of their lives. Granted, I had a psychotic episode a few weeks ago when I smelled a baby head at the hair salon and got all schmoopy but it quickly passed when I thought about waiting five more years to get this sense of semi-freedom back. People, I'm even thinking about searching for a part time job in the fall- you know me with all my marketable skills like coffee making, general flexibility, and the ability to "sell it" to the person sitting at the back of the theatre. (Not to mention all my enviable knowledge about the pioneers of modern dance.)
Part of it has to do with living in a town where I actually want to do things. I was pretty complacent in the suburbs going for walks around my community of little boxes and eating at Applebee's on the weekends. But now I have these things they all BABYSITTERS and ROCK SHOWS and NON-CHAIN RESTAURANTS and I am smitten. I love my family, yes I do, but there is something to be said for balance. For example, I'm sure this weekend I will be taking the girls to see the atrocity that is "Night at the Museum 2: Escape from the Smithsonian." However, I most likely will also be getting my "Terminator: Salvation" fix as well. And going for a two hour run.

Lakefront Marathon

Soon!

XOXO

Until then, enjoy some Dancing Kim!

"I don't know why the other kids don't just learn how to read when Ms. Denice teaches them how all the time."

Insert an eye roll, sigh and a big "oh mah gawd".

Methinks somebody is getting a big head.

The awful winters here make days like these all the more sweeter.