the Life of Olena

Warning: Motivation is contagious! Looks as if my running determination has inspired a few others out there in the world...my SIL is running laps around her yard, a dear friend from the other side of the country is considering a cold Thanksgiving in Michigan so that she can run with me (which I cannot even begin to tell you how excited that makes me) my BFF has decided to try and get healthy too, not by running, but she has been riding her bike for 5 miles a day, which for her is a HUGE improvement! I LOVE IT! I am just beaming with excitment and joy! Who else is interested? Today was my second day of training. I needed to complete at least 10-15 of running, which was pretty tough, I couldn't do the entire thing all at once but I would run for as long as I could, then speed walk until I gained my strengh back and then would run again. I made sure that my total running time was 15 minutes though. I somewhat feel like I cheated by doing this, but I swear I couldn't run 3 ...

Well today was the first official day of training for my 5k marathon run, and boy am I in for a long journey...and I thought the adoption process was hard! Holy cow, I thought I was gonna die, but I didn't . I survived, just so that I can do it again tomorrow...and the day after...and the day after that :) Today was what they call a cross training day. This is to help build up your endurance. Instead of going to Olena's school after work to pick her up, I went home, enjoyed a few brief moments of silence. I stretched to warm up, hooked up the bike trailer and hit the road. I rode around my block twice to get my blood flowing, and then I bolted for her school. I rode that bike like I was being chased by the mob. It was exactly 2 miles there so I huffed it as fast I could, and made sure I never stopped pedaling. When I got there, the teacher was looking at me like I was some weirdo, I was all sweaty, panting and my legs were wobbly. But I got Olena's things told h...

Ready for a day of training :) She loves this leo! I think it is quite flashy and fish like if you ask me, yet I share the same love. As for Nina....she hates it. (I call her fishbait because she reminds me of a fishing lure) Warning: wear protective eye wear when exposed to sunlight.

My wonderful coworker Adriana told me last week that it is her goal to run a 5k marathon in about 3 months. I was happy for her but didn't really give it much thought. She is fit, a work out fanatic during her wedding, and a pretty healthy girl - so I am sure it is something that she will be able to complete successfully. Well today, Jason worked until 1:00 and Olena was with my mom so I was lucky enough to spend the entire first half of the day alone! for some reason I started to think about the marathon and I chuckled a little bit because I thought to myself, "imagine if I could do that" :) after thinking about it for a few minutes, it hit me - why can't I do it? three months...three miles...you know what? I can do it! Today I have decided that I am going to run a 5k marathon at the end of November! For those of you who know me personally, you know that this is something major. Jason, laughed when I first told him! but after listening to me and realizing tha...

The title sums it up... today's my birthday. 30!! I am having just a tinie problem with it. I don't know why, but it seems so old right now. Maybe tomorrow it won't be so bad :) but it was a pretty good day. I woke up to my cutie baby girl singing happy birthday at the tops of her lungs. It was the best birthday present a mommy could get. And boy was she excited. She LOVES birthdays. Daddy and Olena sent me 2 bouquets of flowers to work ~ which was a very pleasant surprise. Then this evening my parents took us all out to a very nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants . As expected, it was amazing Bad hair cuts. Lets just say at 30 you must start to get dumb. I wanted to try and save a buck so I took Olena to a new hair salon that just opened near my work. They were have a grand opening sale for 4.99. I figured you couldn't really mess up her hairdo so I took her to get a well needed cut. The beautician (we'll call her that for now) did a...

We had a great week! Rickie was finally able to spend a few days with us, it has been weeks since we have had "girl" time. It was nice for me to have a friend around and Olena of course was beside herself with excitement. My parents went mining for diamonds in NY last week (pretty cool huh?) and my mom is my sitter on Th-Fridays. So since she wasn't available Rickie stayed with us and watched her while I was at work. Then over the weekend we traveled to Windsor and spent all day Saturday at Greenview Aviaries. It was AWESOME! It is a small quaint park/zoo in the middle of nowhere (about 1 1/2 hours north of Windsor) Super clean, only $12 per person and Olena was free. The park had a slash pad, a huge pool of balls, a big sandbox with about 20 different tonka trucks, 2 big play scape's, 3 different trampolines, a "mini" village where you could feed the ducks and fish, a Merry-go-round, slide, 2 boat swings, and a zip cord...which I am proud to announce...

Isn't this the cutest thing you ever heard? It is a toss up for my favorite...the M-N-O-P or the W?? Tough choice :)