I kid you not. We’ve lived here for 10 years now and one of my favorite parts of spring is when our Bradford Pear tree blossoms. It only lasts a week or so from when the blossoms appear, to when they all fall off in the wind. In just days it will look like it’s snowing flower petals in the front yard.

This week, it got warm. 70′s and 80′s and lots of sun. And we started to notice that once the sun really kicked in for the day, the front yard reeked like dead, rotting fish.

I said, the tree blossomed, it can’t be the tree, can it? Maybe there’s something wrong and the tree is dying? My husband said we should look under the bushes because probably something died under there. My daughter said at recess they were playing near a bunch of trees like ours and it smelled like dead fish there, too.

So last night my husband and I split the list of things we ought to google and he looked up the stinking tree.

And here’s the link he found.
http://treegrowersdiary.com/bradfordpearfacts.html

“Flowers.. Abundant large white, early spring. The blossoms smell like rotten fish. Some years this is worse than other years. Some years it’s so bad we can’t open the windows or go outside.”

It took 10 years, but now the whole outside world stinks like dead fish to me. And when I go run at the park, they haven’t kept up with cleaning the porta potty and when that sun hits it with these warm temps, the entire park smells like, well, pee. So my whole outdoor world reeks of dead fish and urine right now. Such a happy, pretty spring.

I was considering buying a bunch of febreeze and trying to air freshener the front yard to death, but I don’t think that’s gonna work.

I just signed up for my first 5k.

I’ll be running the Piece Walk & 5k on May 1st, benefiting the Oklahoma Family Center for Autism. After the race, my daughter will get to dash around the bases at the ballpark. How awesome is that?

I was going to call this “day two” but I’m really, REALLY not going to do this to you every single day.

But it is day two of being back on with healthier living and I’m down 1.3 pounds today. That’s a good way to start things off.

I ran 3 miles this morning. It’s warm but overcast out. So nice running early in the morning without being cold. I love it! After running 3 I decided to stay and walk 2 more. I really need to take a day off from running tomorrow. If it’s not raining I may go and walk before carrying on with other activity.

This afternoon we ended up having lunch out. MacAlister’s Deli and I ate as healthy as I can there. Then I came back and tried MizFit’s Muscle Minutes. What a great workout. Fast and easy. I used my 3lb hand weights that make me feel like a wimp because when you aren’t used to using them, they’re heavy man! It took just 15 or 20 minutes, but the time passed quickly. It felt much faster. My body feels strong and good and more relaxed. My arms may hurt tomorrow. It was easier to commit to doing this than it is for me to walk into the sun room and use our silly bowflex. I don’t know why this is for me, it just is. I may try to coax myself out there tomorrow… but for today this was a great extra. Here’s the link so you can watch the video and try it too. http://mizfitonline.com/2010/03/24/mizfits-muscles-in-minutes-the-video/

Tonight will bring a little karate with the munchkin. She needs the workout and I could use some kicking myself. And she needs more balance work, so we’ll stretch and stand on one leg for awhile.

I have new goals in my head. I want to shed 10 pounds by my birthday at the beginning of May. I’m already a pound into it. I think if I keep working hard, I can do this. I’ll be hopefully running my first 5k on May 1st as well, so it’s a good week for a first goal. After that I’d like to remove another 10lbs by the end of July. That will put me back to a reasonable weight that I felt pretty good at.

Beyond that, it’ll be nice to lose yet another 10 by the holidays… that would put me around my original goal weight from where this all started a couple of years ago, and only a couple pounds lower than I managed to reach last year.

And after that I’m going to just keep at it and lose the rest. A year from now I should be a pretty thin and fit person. A year from now I’ll likely be about to run the half marathon I wasn’t ready for this year. Next year I will be more than ready.

I realize that life is life and that all of these goals are subject to change, and that I’m human and therefore subject to totally mess up. And that’s ok, too. I will get there, and I’m not giving up.

Today is day one of trying to get fully back on track with this whole “healthy lifestyle” not a diet thing… Trying to eat mostly the right foods, in the right amounts. That’s typically the hard part for me. It used t be easy but it just isn’t anymore, so I’m going to be struggling with it.

I ran 3 miles this morning. I wanted to run more than that, but my legs complained too much. Tomorrow I will aim for more. I think it was due to the 4 days off from running. I was running just fine 5 days ago. Tonight we’ll do a little karate, and tomorrow night is our yoga class.

I can do this.

This week I took the munchkin to visit my family in Connecticut. We had a really nice time.

The highlights:

The Connecticut Science Center. This place is awesome! Science girl loved it.

Gillette Castle. I don’t know how I’d never been there but I hadn’t and we loved it. Beautiful.

The beach. This one is a given for me. I’m glad we got to walk on it and see it again.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians (she’s now reading the entire series as fast as she can absorb it)

Shopping (finding awesome workout clothes was good for me)

Running in the warm sun around the streets I grew up on. Even ran to the house one of my oldest friends grew up in, wonder if her parents still live there. They probably do. Ran past my elementary school a million times. I love places with sidewalks. If I had sidewalks in my neighborhood I’d run my own streets instead of the park.

The parties. We had tea/hot chocolate parties. Many. We even had a birthday party for a stuffed lamb. Cannoli and other Italian pastries as well as other goodies, all for a stuffed animal’s birthday party.

My family. ‘Cause that’s the point, really.

The lowlights:

I hadn’t spent a single night away from my husband in about the past 4 years and it really sucked. Don’t know that we can do this again. So they’d better work on better airfare prices in the future.

Here are the pictures. The first few are things I photographed before I left of things I was going to miss while I was gone. Then you can see our whole trip, from the flights to all the things we did and the flights back home again.

http://picasaweb.google.com/goodfairyofnewyork/SpringBreak#

Now back to enjoying a long weekend with the family before school goes back on Monday. I’m glad to be home.

I have to tell you the amazing thing I did today.

I haven’t run in almost a week because I had a pulled muscle in my leg and I was being a good girl and staying off of it. Started walking a couple miles at a time the other day, and yesterday I did a couple on the elliptical with no problem.

So this morning at 48 degrees with the sun shining I was ready to go and test my leg and see how it went. So I went out there in my shorts and t shirt and made up my mind that I was going to start running and once I started I was not going to stop until I’d run a full mile. No more of these running/walking intervals. And so, mind over matter, I ran a mile. Took a little break to stretch and have water, then ran another full mile, then a break, and then a 3rd. I ran the best 3 miles I have ever run. Then I walked 2 more miles in the sun to cool down and stretch my legs back out.

Today I feel awesome! Today, I feel like an athlete! I am so proud of myself.

This morning when out shopping I realized something. I don’t want any clothes anymore that aren’t workout clothes. I want comfy shirts, hoodies, shorts, yoga pants… and that’s really it.

I’m the girl that’s lived in jeans her whole life, and I now hate wearing jeans. Or any other clothes I can’t work out in. I think with all the exercise I do, it’d be easier to just BE in those clothes all the time.

My life right now: the grocery store, exercise, pick up kid at school, sleep. Mostly, anyway. I see no need for real clothing in there. My yoga pants with a hoodie is a class act next to the other moms in their ratty pajamas. I will NOT wear ratty pajamas out in public. In fact, any pajamas I have are not even ratty because I just end up sleeping in my yoga clothes instead.

I guess it’s a strange change in attitude considering I decided a few years ago that the nicer I dressed, the more positive a response I got from people, especially at the school. But really, I’m so tired of all those people… I don’t need any response.

This morning’s clearance rack purchases: adidas I heart cardio tee, and red adidas shorts that match absolutely nothing except that red adidas hoodie I’ve been wearing all winter. No other clothing spoke to me of the need to spend money on it. It never does anymore, and I tend to be willing to pay more for quality athletic clothing than I am for just crappy clothes to wear when I’m done exercising.

What’s my point? I don’t think I have one.

I’m sure in a few months I’ll be so sick of shorts and tees and wishing I had some real clothes, like jeans and button downs or something…

Also, at some point I’m going to write a blog that’s actually interesting for a change. For now, it’s all just random thoughts floating around.