July was a month that we had

By far, the highlight of July was running my half marathon! Back in September 2019, I read a book about setting goals and dreaming big and it made me finally decide to train for and run a half marathon. I had considered it for a long time but was afraid of committing because what if I said I was going to do it and then failed? I got four friends on board, signed up for a race in April, and in October I started training. I ran over Christmas break in the freezing cold and high altitude of Utah, woke up early and ran in the dark, and ran on plenty of rainy mornings. A month before my race, coronavirus started shutting things down and with only three weeks to go, my race was finally canceled. At first I was still running a little bit though not sticking to my training schedule then I fell off a ladder and cut off a large chunk of skin on the sole of my foot and had to stop running for a while. In May, I finally realized races weren’t going to be rescheduled anytime soon and that if I was going to do this I needed to just commit to doing it by myself. I mapped out how much more training I thought I needed to do and scheduled my race for July 4. One of my race buddies even said she would virtually run with me while on her vacation in Utah! I jumped back into my training and even pushed through having my highest mileage training week be in Utah while we were there for my brothers wedding AND stuck to my mileage and pace despite the altitude. On race day, Andrew and the kids dropped me off in Walnut Creek near the start of the iron horse Trail. Matthew ran with me for the first hundred meters and got me started with a great pace. I promptly thought it would be a good idea to change course from what I had mapped out the night before, thinking he had found a more direct way to get to the trail, and got slightly lost. I ended up going in a bit of a circle but eventually found the trail and settled into a nice pace between 8:45 and 9 minutes per mile feeling awesome. I saw Andrew and the kids around mile eight and felt good really good. They gave me a little water and I kept on. Around mile nine, I hit a wall and my pace dropped from 8:45/9 down to 10 or 11 mins per mile. I hadn’t brought any food or water with me to give me a boost. In hindsight, after reading about how to fuel for a half marathon, I realize that I did a very poor job but I pushed through and made it to my “finish line”. The funny thing was I used two different apps simultaneously to track my run since they are always a bit off from each other and I wanted to be sure I ran the whole distance. So I stopped the first app at 13.1 miles and then ran another half mile to get the second app to 13.1. Because of my accidental detour, I finished about a mile before the planned spot where Andrew and the kids were waiting. After uneventfully finishing alone in the middle of Danville, I called Andrew and told him I was done and could he please come pick me up. They greeted me with sour patch kids, caramels, and thankfully more water. I felt a little bit like a crazy person running for two hours by myself in the heat and yet I think it’s the most proud I am of any of my accomplishments and I’ve birthed four kids – three of them without any kind of pain meds. My time was either 1:58:15 with a 9:01 mpm average pace or 2:03:22 with 9:25 mpm average pace depending on which app I listen to. I wanted to run it under 2 hours, so I don’t actually know if I achieved my goal or not! My plan was to run another one before the end of the year-in an official race-to get another shot at it, however, it doesn’t look like California is going to be open for anything like that through the rest of the year. Instead, I made a new goal to run a 5K in under 24 minutes by myself and that’s what I’m working on now. It’s at least a minute faster than any of my high school XC 5k’s, so I have my work cut out for me.

I have really fallen back in love with running, and especially running much longer distances than I ever did. I constantly think to myself that I feel so bad for my track and cross-country coaches from middle and high school because I really did not give it my all back then. My mental endurance has improved so much and I am able to push myself a lot farther than I could before. I also used to complain SO much. Sorry coaches and also thank you for everything you taught me so that I can love running and be making progress today.

My cheerleaders

And now in other news...actually, I have no idea what else we did in July, so here come the pictures to remind me.

No idea. My guess is they were playing hours and Michael was their baby.

Fort building

Everyone was being a little crazy, so I pulled out the paints and cavases for a reset.

While having a little game night on zoom, Alex took off his diaper and basically got poop all over his room. We called carpet cleaners the next day, and the kids loved camping out in the living room while it dried.

Our friends got puppies and they are just the cutest! My kids had so much fun helping them get used to the water and loving on them.

Praying mantis whisperer

Oh yeah, I started painting the kitchen! While at my SIL's house in June, she showed me the bathroom cabinets that she painted, and by the time we got back home I had talked myself into painting the kitchen. After settling on a color, I did this wall to test it out. Then I didn't love the texture so I sanded it all off and started over. HA! The texture was only marginally improved after everything, which at least meant it wasn’t worth trying so hard on the rest of the kitchen. I did almost the entire project by myself (hanging cabinets alone did not go well at all). Andrew and I do not work well together on projects-it's just true. We approach everything differently, see a different sequence of necessary steps, and I could go on. But, it was fun to have a project that was mine and that I got to do on my own time table. I mostly worked during Alex's nap time while the big kids listened to audio books, or just when they were involved enough in whatever they were playing that they didn't notice me. They also got to watch a few movies, which is a rare treat for them.

So many messy days!

I was being stubborn about how much mess I would really make, and this was the result. Andrew was home working in the bedroom throughout this whole project and when he came out to see things like this, we was generally shocked and slightly annoyed.

I even painted all of the shelves! That part took for-ev-er, but I think it was worth it. Hopefully it lasts!

This little boy is so stinkin' cute all the dang time. I don't know how he manages it.

During one of my many trips to Home Depot, I also picked up some plywood and made a couple shelves for a closet and cabinet.

Before

After

A perk my family enjoyed during this adventure was getting to eat out a couple nights when I was too exhausted and the kitchen too messy to make dinner.

Our tomatoes plants have struggled so much this year and we have been so bummed since we have the awesome planters. The few tomatoes that have grown so far, have all been picked by Alex before they were even close to being ripe (and the bell peppers).

Rainbow rice! There is an unfortunate story here that I somehow completely forgot about! When cleaning out a cupboard to prep for painting, I discovered that we had a mouse visiting us. So then I had to pull everything out to track down where it was coming from and catch it. It took almost a week to catch it, and it was super frustrating to have to empty even more cabinets than just the ones I was currently painting. Not only that, but I had to empty, clean, and put everything back extra times than just what the project called for. Anyway, the only thing that the mouse appeared to have gotten into was a big bag of rice. So naturally, I turned it into something for my kids to play with? Idk y'all, I can't really explain myself, but they've had a lot of fun with it.

He is seriously so handsome.

and so naked. He takes his diaper off all day long lately. It probably means he's almost ready to potty train, but it's super annoying.

I walked in on this spontaneous nail painting sesh

When it's too hot and you don't have a pool, you have to get creative.

This was the day I finally committed to the mess and inconvenience of this project and took off all the doors and hinges.

Oh I have to tell you about these doors. First of all, they are hollow with just two very thin pieces of "wood" glued to a frame. In many places, these had warped and had come away from the frame, so I started by slowing gluing those back together. Also because of being hollow, most of the previous knobs had made huge holes in the front of the doors where they had been pulled on and just ripped through the wood. After some brainstorming and calling my dad, I decided to drill two half-inch holes in the spots where I'd eventually screw in the new handles and then glue in half-inch dowels. Once those had time to dry, I filled in with Bondo, sanded them smooth, and finally started priming. They were such a chore! When my kids played in the garage and knocked over two of the finished doors (they were waiting on the hinges which got lost in shipping and were late) they busted out some of those dowels and I almost lost my mind. It was hard to put so much effort in only to have to (almost) start over.

Finally got to see the hardware with the paint color and I was loving it!

Ready to see some changes

I was so filthy during this whole project. I asked Andrew if I could just pull it off as a tan.

Lemon cucumbers finally growing! I've had to pollinate by hand to get any to grow, but they are so yummy, I don't even mind that much.

Watermelon plant and basil looking good! The zucchini is an imposter-it looks so happy, but has never had male and female flowers at the same time, so no zucchini.