The Next (drumroll, please)

I've relaxed on the couch since the marathon. I was pleased to find that after day three, I really wasn't sore anymore! Then I went for a run a week after, just a little 2-mile run, and let me tell you....it was ugly. I felt SO uncoordinated, SO stiff, SO slow, and just really out of it in general. And then I was very, very sore the next day. Like painful-sore. So I have rested some more, not all that unwillingly!

But I have decided I need another goal to keep me running/working out/not sitting on the couch all the time doing nothing but eating Halloween candy way before Halloween.

I found my next goal:

Some runners have the mistaken belief that the 5K is an “easy” race because of its relatively short distance. If you have run a 5K at the best pace you can you know that statement is very far from the truth. Performing well at the 5K distance requires a mix of speed, speed endurance, strength, running economy and mental toughness that can only be obtained through a well structured training program.

[from runningplanet.com]

I feel like I have a pretty good grip on the endurance thing. But speed endurance? Speed itself? Oh, no, speed is not my forte. So I'd like to get faster, and that is what I will be trying to do when I run a 5K in January. (Am I obnoxious yet? This running stuff/goal-setting stuff is addictive!) We did the 5K all the time in cross-country, and sadly, my very best time was something like 32 minutes. (3.2 miles....this is a ten-minute-mile pace) I'd be really happy, though, to get to that pace again, as I ran the marathon at an average pace of a 16-minute mile! Don't get me wrong--I'm proud of what I did. I just want to become a little faster now. And I am SO ready to have shorter training runs. No more 4-hour Saturday mornings for me.

Oh, and in case my glaring status on Facebook wasn't enough, do note that I posted on my photography blog today. It's here.

By the way: Have I mentioned how much I have loved all your sweet comments on my marathon post? You fill my heart to bursting....:)

Food Math

Six huge pieces of cheesecake over two days = five pounds

No, Camilla, I can't eat that much cheesecake with impunity. :)

Back to the treadmill after my long, languishing break.

Soupy weather and cheesiness

The snow that surprised us all here in St.George is long since melted and it was a reasonable 44 degrees today, but I'm still cold! It's the kind of weather that makes me crave soup, so I tried my hand tonight at this broccoli cheese soup from My Kitchen Cafe. It was marvelous, and very easy!

Tonight I'm going to make cheesecake for my very first time (this one, actually). I accidentally bought blackberries instead of blueberries....so I'm not sure what will go over the top--maybe if I like the taste of the blackberries it will be a delicious blackberry cheesecake. Or maybe not. In any case, wish me luck!

Oh, and notice how I am decidedly not posting in a New Year's fashion today? Going against the grain just for the sake of doing so.....but I'm sure a resolve-heavy post will follow soon enough, because really I'm just like the rest of you! :)

Picture of a picture-taker's family: Attempt I

It is infinitely harder (for me, at least) to take good family pictures of my own family than it is to take good family pictures of someone else. (Did you get all that?)

First, I make the huge mistake of building this perfect, beautiful image in my mind, prompting me to exhibit incredible crankiness as I dress the kids before we go--already buckling under the pressure I've put on myself.

Second, I almost never choose the right outfit for myself. Sure, my children might look darling, Phill might look dashing as ever, but me? I forget all the things I like about great photography, and I wear something that almost inevitably reads horribly on camera. And third.....

....third. Once everyone else is positioned and ready, and my finger has irrevocably hit the shutter button--it happens: I do something weird. Or dumb. Or awkward. Like.....oh, draping my arm over Phill's front, making it look as though my limb is as big as my head. Or smiling so hard that my cheeks look like they're full of a squirrel's winter supply. Or completely block out another person's head with my needs-to-be-thinned Hermione-big hair. OR jumping into the weirdest spot as if I have no time before the picture is taken, then freeze, not knowing how to change my position, even when I have a leisurely ten seconds still left. It's quite frustrating.

I don't know why I forget that it sometimes (often, Rae, OFTEN) takes more than one attempt when we're doing our pictures ourselves. I like taking them myself, because I love doing photography, and because when they turn out well, I'm very proud of my work....(go ahead and say it, I'm proud)....but then I give myself the burden of trying to be not only a good photographer, but also a good subject. And unfortunately, the good subject part eludes me until somewhere around Attempt III, and sometimes the good photographer part just doesn't kick in. Add to that difficulty my desire for family portraits that are colorful, demonstrative of our personalities, and maybe even a little imaginative, and that's one big job.

I'm posting this here so that I can look back and remember, when I'm annoyed, yet again, that I'm attempting to do something that may take some time.

Do all good things take time?!

It ought to comfort you to see just how normal we really are, should you subscribe to delusions that we are pristine and perpetually positive. (I don't intend to paint that false picture.) Savvy demolished the bow I had in her hair. DEMOLISHED it. I mean--took off the metal barrette part, pulled apart the ribbon--DEMOLISHED to the point that it wasn't wearable. (Take that, Mom! I'll show you to girly me up!)

When I did manage to do something halfway normal, I blocked out Reed's head a little or had to pretend it wasn't hard to keep squirming Savanna in my arms. :) Would you like to see some of our hilarious results of today? Actually, the ones of the kids were pretty cute, if I do say so. (And I do.) Used some of Pioneer Woman's *FREE* actions, which are WONDERFUL! Enjoy the blooper reel, first off.




Ah, well. I can't look at those smiles and feel that I didn't get something good out of our first attempt tonight.

If this is vain, well, then call me vain. :)

To those who have already seen these on all the other forums of which I'm a part, I apologize. When I take what I think is a good photo of myself, I tend to feel like it's a bit of an event.....

I've been meaning to practice self-portraits. I'm proud of these. :) These are as of today, and I feel like I look healthier than I did just a couple months ago.

Photos galore!!

I have tons of photos that I should have posted--several times I've had tons of photos I should have posted, actually! So I'm playing catch-up. First off, I had two newborn shoots (oh, how those sweet little babies just beg to be held!!) recently.

But I haven't posted them because.....*drumroll*.....I've been working on a photography blog! So far, it's not looking the way I want it to (help, Lara!), so I'm still working on getting those posted. And my website is still under construction, through no faults except my own. I just can't make up my mind about what to post. Argh...wretched indecision!

So for now, I'll post some photos from tonight. We played in the front yard, and I decided to bring my camera out. Although it wasn't ideal light, we did take some in the garage (perfect light in there) and the photos still turned out in a way I love! They're full of authenticity and joy, and lots of times that means more to me than coordinated outfits or technical prowess or incredible clarity and color.

And Reed has been showing more and more of an interest in photography--meaning taking his own photos. (I actually have two folders on the computer of just his photos.) It started last November when my aunt, uncle and cousin gifted him with two disposable cameras, which he enthusiastically used in about 7 minutes. (That's my boy!) Well, now he asks to borrow my camera, and I usually let him, provided he wears the strap and lets me shadow him. I think it might be a bit heavy for him, though, as this following montage of photos demonstrates. But still! Still, look at his composition in the first of the four! Ah, that boy. :) I'm thinking about a good lightweight camera for him.....complete with in-depth How-to-Care-for-Your-Camera lessons from mama.

His photos (in the last one, he actually directed us to put Jaxon in the photo....):

Finally...(click on picture to see it bigger)

Not many words for now--just photos. Using a few of my rare spare minutes.