Fitness Challenge: Week Three

Yep, another week of boring work outs. Boring boring.

Oh contraire, dear reader!

The week kicked off with a family adventure -- the Color Run! Their tag line? "The happiest 5k on the planet!"

My sister flew to Minneapolis from Indiana to join us on this adventure. Runners are instructed to wear plain white t-shirts at the start, and at every 1k marker you run through a cloud of a dyed powder (corn starch, non-toxic). There's a different color at each 1k marker, and by the end of it you're a rainbow.

Near the starting line.

I was happy that my friend Laura joined us for this adventure. She drove to St. Paul from Rochester, MN, just for the event, with her husband and little girl in tow. I have no idea what time they had to leave their house, but we had to get up at 5:30 a.m., and we already live in the metro area. That's dedication! She wrote a post from her perspective on the adventure, if you'd like to read it.

If you can imagine, they had 20,000 runners signed up and ready to run. The race began at 8 a.m. and they let 1,000 people go every 5 minutes from 8:00 until the last runner had gone. We had to wait in queue for 20 minutes before finally making it into the 5th wave -- we were dripping in sweat before we'd even taken off, it was so hot.

Lindsey and Wayne took off running right from the start, while Kristi and I stayed back with Marissa, who ran the first 1k of it but walked the rest. We lost Laura halfway through, as she ran ahead so she could meet with her daughter at the 4k marker and run the last 1k with her.

When we first started Marissa was confused and said, "I thought people would be putting color on us!" She didn't realize they didn't put color on you the entire way, just at certain points.

First orange.

 

Then pink.



Feeling blue!


I missed photographing the last station. At the finish as people crossed they opened up the packets of colors we'd been given in our race packets and threw them all into the air. I dumped mine over Marissa, and then later was given a half-used packet of pink from a random runner, which I also dumped over her. Only by then her glasses were on top of her head.

Rock star!

We miraculously met up with Lindsey and Wayne, considering Wayne had left his phone behind and by this time there were several thousand runners congregating in the finish line area for the festivities, all in rainbows of color that made people unrecognizable.


She had no fun whatsoever.



Our "after" photo.

Fitness is boring.

On a separate note, I was thrilled to have my sister there, not only for this run but for my first-ever "Fit Club" workout on Saturday. "Fit Club" is basically open to anyone who wants to get in a free workout with other people. The coach for that Fit Club picks a workout video from the Team Beachbody suite of products, and people go to town working at whatever level they're at, each of us sweating like never before.

Kristi has lost a lot of weight and toned up a lot since making her decision to get fit over a year ago. I am so incredibly proud of her and of the changes she's made in her life. Thank you, Kristi, for inspiring me!

Geeking Out With Inline Skates

They are finally here. My skates. You know, inline skates? Oh don't think of those things you wore in the 90's. Those clunky black things that weighed 10 pounds each, with the neon laces that you had to tie halfway up your calf to put on?

Not those.

Circa 1988. My friend still uses these. She books it, too.

These are Bonts, the ones the pros wear. Oh, you didn't know that inline skating was a pro sport? Well, it is, thank you. Not that I'm a pro, but I like to think of myself as a pretty good skater. At last year's  inline marathon I realized that moreso than in other sports, equipment matters. You can go faster with better equipment, even if you never train. Add the training factor and look out, you've got yourself one fast skater.

I've always loved skating from my very first pair of quads, the term us skating geeks call traditional skates that were around before inline skates were invented. I used to skate up and down our driveway and all around on the sidewalks, and in the winter I would skate all around our ping pong table in our unfinished basement. You can picture me, right? Long hair in ponytails, glasses (just to confirm the geekdom here), all elbows and knees with skinny legs in between? Yep, that was me.

As a newlywed in 1995 I bought my first pair of inline skates. I remember going skating for what was probably a little under a mile and paying for it the next two days with burning legs that refused to go up and down stairs. But I strapped them back on the next weekend and the next weekend, and used those things for 10 years, through four houses and two babies, countless wheels and a multitude of bearings.

After baby #2 was born in 2005, I treated myself to a new pair and retired my old ones after 10 years of service. The new ones were amazingly light, faster, and much easier to put on. In the early years I would circle Lake Harriet twice in 50 minutes and it wiped me out. I wished I had the stamina to go farther, because I loved the feeling of speed, being outdoors, and enjoying the ride.

Seven years later so much has changed, but still not the skates.

I am still skating on that second pair from 2005, but now I'll cover 10 miles in 50 minutes, or hit the greenway and get 14 or 16 miles in. Last year I competed in my first inline marathon, and finished in 1:58, or an average speed of 13 mph.

It was time to change the skates.

Come to mama!

I finally invested in some equipment, buying Bont semi-race boots with 100mm wheels. The jump from 84mm to 100mm is dramatic -- most skaters take the in-between step of 90mm wheels to get acquainted. (FYI, basic physics here: the larger the wheel the less energy it takes to get it spinning and the more distance it covers with each rotation.) I decided that I probably should've spent the last two years skating on 90mm, so I was going to take the big leap.

Another skating geek factoid: racing skates do not have much padding in them because the more padding there is the more your energy is absorbed by the padding and not transferred to the wheels. The less padding, the more of your physical energy transfers to your wheels, increasing acceleration. Also, the lower the boot the more you can bend your leg, lowering your center of gravity. The lower your center of gravity, the more aerodynamic you are and the faster you go.

Can you tell this is all about speed? And people say I can't do science...hmph!

The skates have a hard outer shell, and they have to be heated to 180 degrees for 10 minutes before you  slip them on. Once you lace them up, they mold to your feet and re-harden in that shape.

I picked them up tonight, and seriously, it's like Christmas in July. I do not remember a time when I was so excited for a material purchase. When I got the call today that they were in, do you think I could wait until the next day to pick them up? Of course not! So after dinner off I went to get them fitted and bring those babies home.

If you've made it to the end of this post, I have to applaud you and award you the inline skating geek fan award. I'll give it to you next time I see you. You'll be at the Minnesota Inline Half Marathon, right?

Fitness Challenge: Week Two

I hit a speed bump this past week in my fitness challenge. I was doing my Asylum workout one morning, the "Strength" one with weights and lots of push ups. At the beginning of the workout my left shoulder was making a grinding noise, but I chalked it up to my typical tension that I hold in my shoulders. (Ask any of my masseuses over the years.) Halfway through I heard a little "pop" and was in sudden pain. Sharp, shooting pain, but only with certain movements. This limited the rest of this particular workout enough that I finally stopped it because I wasn't able to do most of it.

I was afraid I had really hurt something, like REALLY hurt something. I mean, who hears a "pop" in their body and it doesn't mean bad news? So I laid off, took ibuprofen throughout the day and iced it morning and night.

Thursday I had to lay off any workout at all -- I couldn't imagine even trying to inline skate with my shoulder giving me that much hurt at every little jostle. Through this experience I learned that we rely on our shoulders for a lot of movements that I had taken for granted. Putting a shirt on. Steering a car. Answering the phone. Closing a door. And you have no idea how much you turn over in your sleep in the night until it hurts to do so and you wake up every time your sleeping body tries to do it.

Don't take your shoulders for granted, that's all I have to say.

On my drives to and from work (which, you may know if you follow my blog, are often quite lengthy), I massaged it as best I could, often pressing to the point where I had to breathe through the pain.

And shockingly, by Friday morning I was back to my workout. They were workouts that did not have as much shoulder work on them, and whenever push-ups or other shoulder intense activities were required I modified the exercise. But I managed through them.

And Saturday I managed to get TWO workouts in, something I previously thought ridiculous. I mean, once you work out, you're done, right? Oh no, this is the program, welcome to it. So I did my "Vertical Plyo" workout in the morning (which currently sucks, by the way, which means when I finally master it I'm going to LOVE it), and in the afternoon joined my coach Gianna at a Fit Club gathering for a 55 minute "Insanity" workout. We moved. We pushed. We encouraged each other. And we were all proud of ourselves afterwards for pushing ourselves as far as we could go.

I'm enjoying my Shakeology lunches as well. I mean really, what's the difference between a tasteless microwave meal that leaves you hungry an hour later, or a chocolate shake (CHOCOLATE, you hear??) that fills you up for the rest of the afternoon? And in these past two weeks I've dropped 4 pounds, and am noticing, some definition in my arms and legs that didn't used to be there.

In a nuthshell, I'm thrilled.

I leave you with a video I posted to our challenge group's wall this past week. Our coach Gianna has designated Friday as "Fun Fit Friday" and asked members to post videos of how we're incorporating fitness into our every day activities. Gianna's example was a video of her doing squats while brushing her teeth.

This video was my reply, which was met with much laughter and smiles.

My Fitness Challenge Inspiration

So why a fitness challenge? Why me?

My co-workers will tell you they already think I'm crazy. On Monday mornings when people ask "How was your weekend?" I talk about 5ks, inline skates, family fun runs, all kinds of activities. One of my co-workers told me, "I get tired just following you on Facebook!"

So why would I want a fitness challenge, and what inspired me to do so?

I have to be honest. I am inspired by fat people.

I wrote it in that way to jolt you. But in a way, it's true. Not because I'm afraid if I don't do these things I'll become fat. That's not it at all. It's because I see overweight people doing things I would never dream of if I were them.

I've seen overweight people run 5ks faster than I do. I watched a man competing in a triathalon with his knees hitting his belly as he rode in the biking portion of the tri. I witnessed a man crossing the finish line at the Boston 5k with gasps and small steps, to great cheers and encouragement.

I can tell you now: if I were as overweight as they were, I would never have dared.

I would have resigned myself to my fate as an overweight person, destined for diabetes, heart disease and whatever else may follow. But I see these people out there on the trails, pushing themselves beyond their limits.

Here's the thing: they have so much farther to go than I do. And they aren't quitting. They aren't hanging their heads down in despair. They are pushing to that goal with every ounce of their body and souls. My God, what is stopping me when they are pushing themselves so hard?

Every time I see one of these people around the lakes I want to cheer them on. I want to tell them how proud I am of them, how I admire the dedication and commitment they're demonstrating.

But of course I don't, because they might not see themselves the way I see them.

So I silent go on, pushing myself farther and faster to try to keep up with the effort that they put into the changes they are making in their lives.

I am humbled by their will, and aspire to meet it.

That's what inspires me.

This video is only one example of why I am taking on this challenge. I plan to see it through.

The Mystery of the Missing Dog



(FYI, dog is not actually missing. Here's photographic proof.)

When Dax was just a pup, we had a kennel for him in our basement. This wasn't just a crate, it was a large space made out of 3-foot sections of metal fencing, so he had a 9 square-foot area for himself while we were at work.

We bought him a little dog bed, which he promptly chewed up. We bought him another one, which he also decimated in about a day. We then decided to go the blanket/rug route, as he didn't seem to go through those too easily and they were cheaper to replace, anyway.




Finally he stopped chewing on the blankets, and we thought that perhaps the chewing stage of puppyhood was done. So we bought him a bed again, this time something that resembled a puppy bean bag, made out of all fleece and one that dogs could scratch and push into any shape to get comfortable on. Something kind of like this.



Everyone say "Awwww!"

Unfortunately he began nibbling at the seams, but at least it was taking him a while and the dog bed was still usable while he nibbled away.

One day I came home from work and went downstairs to get him out, only to see an empty kennel! I stared in wonder and amazement. Hmmm, the gate is shut, there's no way he could jump over the 4-foot sides, where did Dax go?

The only thing in the entire kennel was the bed ball, which began to move. And move. Eventually a little head popped out of the top of the dog bed. Dax had completely eaten a hole into the ball and wiggled his way in, and that's how he slept in the dog bed.

He slept in the bed that way for some time until he finally opened a seam up so far that all the stuffing came out all over. That was the end of the dog bed ball.

I Didn't Realize the Presidency Was For Sale

This may come as no surprise -- I support re-electing President Obama. While he's become a lightning rod for everything wrong with this country, there is so much he is doing right. and he can only do so much with a gridlocked legislative branch.

I find it frustrating that only one year into his four-year term political pundits were already talking about his chances of being re-elected. Let the man just do his job, instead of campaigning to keep his job, mkay?

I have been slightly engaged in this presidential campaign, signing online petitions, getting involved in social media, but not supporting financially or advocating passionately.

But now I'm getting annoyed and angry at the entire process. At the end of June both Obama's camp and Romney's camp released their financial statements, disclosing the names of their highest dollar donors and the total amount that's been raised. Now that the Republican field has been narrowed down to a single candidate, Romney's camp raised $107 million, while Obama's camp raise $70 million.

That's a whole lotta money. I know a lot of charities that could do some good with that money, change people's lives and all that.

And because I've been involved in Obama's camp, I'm now getting the emails from his side:

"We're being outspent. If this continues we will lose." And then the kicker at the end:

"Paid for by Obama for America."

So...my $3 is going to go towards creating and sending an email that asks other people to donate $3?

If you click through the email to the donation form, you'll see that if you've already given your limit of $2,500 to this campaign, you have several options to support Obama.

Like give to the Obama Victory Fund. Or the joint fundraising committee of the Democratic National Committee. Give to them all until you've giving your $2,500 limit, then find the next super PAC that is fundraising as well.

In the past four years, while the household income of the average American declined by 20%, the income of our congressmen have increased 20%. The disparity between the have's and the have-nots has grown. And now the fact that our leadership can be bought is being made blatantly clear to everyone in America, including people like me, who were asked for a measly $3 to help support the president.

Who else sees something wrong with our political process?  I think I'm going to start advocating hard to campaign reform. This is getting ridiculous.

Fitness Challenge: Week One

It's been one week since I've begun the 60-day fitness challenge that my friend Gianna began. Everyone who is doing this is trying something different, something that is appropriate to his/her level.

For me, that means I'm doing the "Insanity:Asylum" workouts and replacing my pathetic lunch choices (read "Lean Cuisines") with a Shakeology shake.

I was completely intimidated starting the Asylum workouts. If you've heard or read anything about them, you'll know that they are intense. The warning at the beginning of each DVD is enough to scare you away, if you didn't believe what you'd heard.

In my first workout I was gasping and sweating in 3 minutes...and that was just the warm-up. The coach during the video, Shaun T, told me, "If this is making you sweat, you're in for a real workout."

Gulp.

After my first workout I emailed Gianna and asked if she would loan me her "Insanity" for this challenge. I did not think I was up for this. But she convinced me that you do not have to do the first "Insanity" workout to take on this one, and that I was probably already at a fitness level that could handle this challenge.

At the end of the day, as I reflected back on the start of my morning with this workout, I was pretty proud of myself. My muscles were kind of sore but not TOO sore, and I felt like I was going to make myself stronger if I stuck with it.

So I plowed on, day after day. The program is four days of workouts, one day of rest. This is on top of your other physical activities, not in place of them. So if I spent my morning workout time inline skating, that meant that I got to spend time in the evening getting my Asylum workout in.

Speed and Agility. Strength. Vertical Plyo. Back to Core.

I had to improvise in some cases. I can't use the jump rope provided in our basement with 8-foot ceilings, so I jump along and pretend. For the first strength workout I didn't have any weights, so I used a gallon of paint that was half full. I have to keep moving my equipment around in my small little space. Instead of making excuses and saying "I can't do this one, I think I'll sit it out," I found a way to make it work for me.

Saturday came and I was feeling great. So great that when I hit the lakes for an inline skate, I managed to skate 10 miles in 51 minutes, an average speed of 12 mph, in considerable foot and bike traffic. Every time I got tired and thought of slowing down, I heard Shaun T in my head, saying, "Push it push it push it! You've got it in you!" Or if I took a break, I would take short one and hear, "That's enough of a break for you. Get back at it."

I was damn proud of myself, until 3 hours later when my legs seized up. My hamstrings were strung so tight you could pluck them. My quads were killing me and my calves were mooing. It was surprising how my body reacted to this workout after no break for the entire week. Ow ow ow!

I told my loving and supportive husband how sore I was and he said, "Well you stretched, right? You do know to stretch?" in his usual loving and non-sarcastic way.

Uh...yeah, I know that! That doesn't mean I did it, though.

So I put in the "Relief" DVD and did 20 minutes of stretching, along with additional stretches before bed. Aahhh! Much better! I skipped that day's workout and did it on Sunday instead, which was supposed to be my day of rest.

So I'm a week in, and feeling pretty good. I'll let you know how I'm feeling at the end of week two.

Independence Day

Such a strange Independence Day this year, falling smack dab in the middle of a work week, and in the middle of a long and brutal heat wave. It reached 101 degrees on our thermometer at home that day. But we still had to take in the Edina parade, despite the heat. It just wouldn't be the 4th of July without a parade!

Lindsey was happy to be there, despite the heat.

Marissa...not so much.

The parade begins with the presentation of the American flag.

Honoring our veterans.

The bad guy's right next to you! Turn around, Superman!!

Keith Ellison, our representative. Must be an election year.

To celebrate the melting pot that is America, we had sushi for dinner. Actually, it was to honor the melting that was going on in Minnesota. It was too dang hot to cook, too hot to stand next to a grill, and who wanted to eat hot food anyways? So sushi from Lund's it was.

Inspired to Run My Best

This past weekend our family participated in Children Cancer Research Fund's 10th annual Time to Fly. This is a run/walk event with something for everyone: a 10k run, a 5k run, a 5k walk and a 1k kid's fun run. Lindsey decided she wanted to sleep in Saturday after her tiring week at Camp Kici Yapi, so Marissa, Wayne and I went to Harriet Island in St. Paul while Lindsey stayed home with a babysitter.

The temperature was already 88 degrees when Wayne's 10k began at 7:30 am, and it only got hotter from there. By the time my 5k run began at 8:30 it was 91 degrees with 66% humidity. Whew.

Yet despite the heat, I ran my fastest 5k ever. Why, you ask? Because every time I thought of stopping I saw these little signs that were along the entire route.

In honor of children fighting for their lives, or in memory of those who had already lost their battles. Just before the 1-mile mark I spotted the sign that our family had sponsored, honoring Annika, our Duluth friend, who recently fought back leukemia for the second time in her 6 years here on earth.

Every time I got winded or felt my knee tighten up, I looked at those signs and thought about the hardships those children had faced or were facing. The needle pricks, blood draws, chemotherapy, exhaustion, nausea, radiation. They have faced more challenges than most people ever will their entire lives. A little 5k was nothing compared to what they had gone through.

So I completed the 5k in 34 minutes and 16 seconds, only stopping to walk once at the water stop. Wayne and Marissa missed seeing me finish because they didn't expect me for at least 5 more minutes.

I also learned that I can see well enough to run even with tears brimming in my eyes.

Me...Age Gracefully?

I recently had my annual exam, you know, that special exam women look forward to every year. That one.

While I was waiting for my doctor there was a computer playing small videos about women's health, and a video came up about the effects of menopause on women's bodies.

Reduced bone mass. Hair loss. Headaches and hot flashes. And what they described as the "inevitable" build-up of fat in the abdominal area.

That word, "inevitable." Sounds like a challenge to me.

I thought to myself, "You wanna bet?" 

Yet as I've grown older I've noticed that my metabolism isn't what it used to be, even though my activity level is higher than when I was in my 20's. I've creeped up in clothing sizes over the years, and am near the point where my current size is getting a bit too snug.

When I completed the women's mud run a few weekends ago my legs didn't feel it but my shoulders and arms ached for days afterwards. I realized I have no upper body strength -- and why should I? All my sports revolve around running or skating.

So when my friend Gianna invited a group of her friends to a 60-day fitness challenge, I didn't have to think twice.

Beginning July 1 (that's tomorrow) I am starting the Beachbody workout challenge called "Insanity: Asylum," There are 13 of us in total taking this fitness challenge, encouraging each other to push ourselves to the next level, no matter what that level is. Practically everyone in the group is doing something completely different. Some are making diet changes while others aren't. But we are going to  hold each other accountable and see what we can do to improve our overall fitness.

So I am sharing here one of the photos from my "before" photo series. Hopefully I'll be seeing some improvements in the next 60 days that I'll be sharing with you. 

Some women want to age gracefully, but I plan to fight it every step of the way. Not with botox and cosmetic surgery, but with increasing distance runs, inline marathons, squats and push-ups. I will not go quietly into that good night, thank you very much. 

Stay tuned for an update in about 30 days!

Rewind to Father's Day

This year we had probably the most unusual Father's Day of any since Wayne became a dad. We were all supposed to be in Tracy, celebrating my father-in-law's birthday and Father's Day, but Lindsey and I ended up staying back in Minneapolis while Wayne and Marissa traveled to Tracy for the coveted visit. (How that came to be is a blog post for another day.)

Lindsey and I got to spend some special time together, and Sunday she wanted to surprise her dad with a special Father's Day party. We literally spent almost the entire day planning. She pulled out her idea book and decided that she wanted to make it a pillow and pop party. We decided that "pop" could mean soda pop that you drink or the popping sound that balloons make when they burst. So we walked down to Walgreens, bought some individual soda (or "pop" depending on where you're from) for all the family members, and some balloons. Lindsey made a sign, we filled balloons, and made every seat comfy with pillows from our beds.

Wayne and Marissa arrived back home around 7:30 at night, and then the festivities began, including a dessert of fudge brownies that Lindsey and I had made the day before. Not to mention some special beverages to go with Wayne's pop.

Wayne checks out Lindsey's sign.

Balloon fight!!

The evening was topped off with a balloon fight, and homemade presents from the girls. It was a special end to the day.

Showing Support for Pride

As I stated in an earlier post, I participated in Pride this past weekend, to show my support for the LGBT community in working to defeat the marriage amendment that is being brought to Minnesotans this November.

Some of you knew that I was doing more than just showing up and cheering on the parade, I was dancing!

I took part in a flash mob that occurred about half an hour before the parade was set to begin. This was coordinated with the Twin Cities Pride organizers -- since the street was already closed off and there was a sound system in the area, they had given us the green light. Which makes the cop car clearing the street in the middle of the dance all the more frustrating. But regardless, we danced through the interruption and had an awesome time.

Lindsey and I then stayed for the parade, which was one of the longest parades I've ever stood through. Yes, we didn't find seats, we stood the entire 2 1/2 hours. We did manage to get under shade, though, and Lindsey was the only child in about a half a block, so all the candy, treats and goodies were tossed her way, with no competition to retrieve them. She came away with quite a loot!


The Saloon float was accompanied by confetti tossed from the roof of their building.

 It was great to see all the floats and supporters. Many significant corporations including General Mills, Target, Best Buy, Macy's and others, not to mention just about every DFL candidate around. I shook the hand or got a high-five from Chris Coleman, St. Paul City mayor, R.T. Rybak, Minneapolis city mayor, Keith Ellison, District 5 representative in the US House of Representatives, Al Franken, US senator, and just missed shaking the hand of Amy Klobuchar, US senator. Obama had quite a presence as well, though he wasn't there in person. Not unless you count the cardboard cut-out, of course.

Loads of churches, and some interesting ones this year. There were the expected episcopal churches and unitarian churches who have welcomed gays for years. And then were was the Catholics for Marriage Equality group, just ahead of "J Pride," Jews who support gay rights, followed by the Mormon church.

I almost took some photos but decided to spend my time enjoying the parade, not wrestling others for a decent view. So instead I'll quote some of the best signs I saw:

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.   -- Elie Wiesel, holocaust survivor, author and humanitarian.

Sorry we're late -- held up by Mormon church parade participant

Closets are for CLOTHES. Lots, and lots of fabulous clothes. -- held by a gay rights supporter

The message is lost a bit without the visuals, but you get the idea.

After the parade was over Lindsey and I stayed downtown to get lunch and avoid the press of the crowd heading out. We got a table right away at Rock Bottom Brewery, enjoyed a relaxing lunch and then took a pedicab to get back to the car, which I had conveniently parked behind a green dumpster along one of the streets neighboring Loring Park (there are three of them), even though I didn't remember the name of the street I parked on. Well planned. Our cabbie was awesome, he stopped several times and got directions on where the green dumpster was and dropped us off right at the car. He earned himself a super nice tip, especially for winning the race to the top of a hill against another pedicab driver who also had a fare.


Not us, but for those who don't know what a pedicab is.


We had a great time and Lindsey got to see how many people support families of all walks of life. I'll plan to be back again in 2013, hopefully to celebrate the defeat of the marriage amendment.

Sorry I'm Late to the Party

This weekend I am going to be at the Twin Cities Pride parade, showing my support for a group called Minnesotans United for All Families, who is fighting the marriage amendment that Minnesotans will be voting on this November. This amendment strictly defines marriage as existing between a man and a woman and makes it legally prohibitive to allow same-sex marriages.
I was telling some of my family what I will be doing this weekend and was surprised by their reaction, which was "I didn't know you were gay!" While said in jest, it said a lot about why gay rights haven't moved much in this country until recently.

I suspect that very sentiment is why so many straights have chosen not to support gay rights, at least publicly. "Gay" isn't something that is for the most part physically obvious, unlike race or gender. For many of us, fear of being classified with homosexuals kept us from standing up for their rights.

Yet if you look back in history, every time a group that had been discriminated against moved forward in their struggle for equality, it was because of the work of people outside of that group. There was not a single black person in Congress when slavery was abolished in 1865, not a single woman in a seat of power when women got the right to vote in 1920. And the civil rights movement of the 1960s could not have made the progress that it made without the support of whites who put their lives in danger to stand up for the rights of their fellow citizens.

I hadn't really thought about the impact of gays being denied the ability to marry until I heard stories from a good friend who is gay. She and her partner are incredibly committed to each other, as much if not moreso than any heterosexual couple. They own a house and have a child together, all of which has to be done at considerable legal expense to protect their rights.

I took for granted until talking to them the legal rights that I'm afforded in the home purchases my husband and I have made over the years. Buying a house as a married couple is easy -- our earning power and credit scores are pooled together and we own the home together. As a gay couple, they have to produce legal documents binding them financially in the purchase of the home and defining joint ownership. If they haven't already, they will have to take on the expense of having my friend adopt her own daughter, because she is biologically her partner's and not hers. If one of them were to die unexpectedly, the other would have no benefits as a surviving spouse. And don't even get me started on custodial rights of their daughter in that situation.

I suspect that lawyers LOVE same-sex couples and are voting for the marriage amendment -- it'll keep them in business.

I have looked on in frustration as state after state passed these marriage amendments, wishing there was something I could do to help. Now that the issue is being brought to the table in Minnesota, I am ready to stand up for my fellow citizens' rights.

I'm sorry I didn't speak up earlier or make my opinions more well known to support the LGBT community. Minnesotans United organizers encourage supporters to tell others that they support it -- once someone shares that they do, others will finally open up that they are also in agreement. I have a little bit bigger soapbox than others through this blog, so I am making my opinions known.

Sorry I'm late to the party. But I'm here now, so let's rock and roll.

Vote NO in NOvember.

Some People Have a Twisted Idea of Fun

I'm not sure why, but I thought a mud run sounded like a lot of "fun" and I convinced a friend to try one with me.

We drove an hour out of town to the farm where the mud run was being held, only to pull up next to two vehicles full of Lake Harriet moms we knew, who also had this same twisted idea of fun. They, however, had coordinated matching outfits and were 11 people strong. And of course, they had two extra outfits along with matching headbands, just in case they ran into other people who wanted to join their team.

Sure, because you may just run into parents from your children's school an hour out of town at a mud run. We threw the shirts on and joined the team!

The "Muddy Bunch," pre-race.

The organizers of the Lozilu (pronounced LOW-zee-loo) run bills itself as a mud run for women of any fitness level. According to their website, if you could walk a 5k you could complete the course, though the obstacles would be challenging. One of our group was at that level, having never run and only trained by doing a 1-mile walk earlier in the week. Others of our group, like my friend, Gianna, were fitness buffs, and one of our team members teaches tabata, a form of Japanese fitness that I learned about from her.

We decided at the beginning that we would start together and finish together, and we did.

Each obstacle had some silly name geared for women -- the 8-foot high fence below was called "Tan Lines," the swampy mud pit was called "Hot Mess," etc. Most had various levels, from 8-foot to 6-foot to 4-foot high walls for climbing, for every level.

At the "Tan Lines" obstacle.

I couldn't go over the wall that you see me hanging off of in this photo; I ended up walking around. I just couldn't bring myself to swing my leg over at the top of the wall, even though it was as easy to climb down as up.

And the mud pools were, well, muddy. But not just muddy. After all, this is a working farm that some farmer allowed the organization to use for this event. The soil had decades of natural fertilizer (or "organics") sprayed and plowed into the ground. So let's just say it smelled like putting your face into a cowpie. And the mud got into everything. Ugh.

My best and worst moment.

This was the final obstacle of the run, the "Fish Nets," or a cargo net that went 15 feet up into the air. Yes, it's at an angle, but if you don't like stepping onto a ladder from the roof, you wouldn't like this. That's me at the far left on the very top, and my friend Gianna is talking me through where to put my feet and hands to make it over. It was the only high obstacle of the run that I didn't chicken out on. Everything else that involved climbing I either went around or took the easiest option. I was shaky and scared, but proud as hell that I made it over.

"Do I have dirt under my fingernails? Wanna look?"

It took us about an hour and 20 minutes to run, crawl, climb and slide through this 5k. It was truly a ball, and I got to know a great bunch of ladies, most of whom I was meeting for the first time that morning.

It met my expectations of fun.

Bye Bye Big Kitchen

With one birthday behind us and one coming up, it is time for this family to purge our home of the toys and trappings of small children, to make way for the collection needed for a 7 and 9 year old.

And that means that it's finally time to say good-bye to Big Kitchen.

Big Kitchen first joined our family at Christmas in 2005. We shopped around, we considered which elements of a kitchen our then two-year-old would find most fun, and finally we put in our order to Santa Claus as to which one would be perfect for our family.

Santa didn't have time to have his elves put Big Kitchen together, so it came in a large, heavier-than-you'd-expect box, with more pieces than you ever thought imaginable.

It took us 3 hours to put Big Kitchen together on Christmas Eve. I should say, it took Wayne 3 hours, I helped with the little stuff, like taking the pots and pans out of their plastic bags and putting stickers in all the right places, while keeping us both supplied in wine to make it through the ordeal.

Sure enough, Big Kitchen became a big hit, first with the two-year-old, who we couldn't peel away from it long enough to open other gifts that morning, to the then 6-month-old who grew into it.


(Can I tell you how annoyed I am with Blogger that doesn't "get" vertical photos?)

The children grew and grew, but Big Kitchen was always a part of the fun. From playdates to birthday parties at our home, visitors gravitated to the kitchen. It became an integral part of our family restaurant nights, when the girls would make up a menu, pretend to prepare us food and "feed us" for an hour or more, all kinds of meal concoctions you would never encounter in real life. I've been known to pretend to gnaw on a drumstick, accompanied by a single banana, a half an onion and a small doughnut. All finished off with a bottle of beer. (Those bottles have always been pretend beer, not soda -- I don't know why.)

But soon Big Kitchen began to get ignored, and to become a place to set other toys that got played with more often. If we ever cleaned it off it was a favorite again for a little while, but eventually fell back into neglect.

Finally it was relegated to a place in our porch, where it was difficult to reach to play with it properly, and no one asked to have it pulled back out to play with it again.

That was our signal that it was time to retire Big Kitchen.

And so we began asking around if anyone needed a Big Kitchen for their growing family and we got a nibble. This family lives very close to us, and the little boy's older sister is a classmate of Lindsey's. We knew Big Kitchen would be well cared for and played with by this family.

And so one Saturday Big Kitchen got pulled out one last time and the girls helped me clean it up. We culled through drawers and drawers of toys searching for all the kitchen-related items and put them into a bag. And before we could traipse it over to the new family's house, the girls enjoyed one last session of restaurant.

As a family we walked the Big Kitchen to its new home down the street (yes, the girls walked there in pajamas, I don't really care). And we watched a small little boy who had to reach over his head to get to the microwave begin to play.

The family was kind enough to send a thank you note from them all, with an invitation to come visit Big Kitchen any time.

I suspect we'll be doing that.

School Year Rumination

My what changes a year can bring!

It was such a joy to watch Marissa come into her own this year. As a kindergartner last year her friends were Lindsey's friends, and she didn't have many friends her own age. But now that they've spent a year in different buildings, Marissa has lots of friends whose names we hear frequently, and who we are asked often for play dates and sleepovers. She is such a joyful little girl, quick to smile and to hug.

It's hard to believe she struggled so hard to read at the beginning of the year. She and I found some books in her room from nine short months ago and she tossed them aside with her baby books, stating that they were "too easy." And they are.

If asked she'll tell you her favorite subject is math. She has an unusual way of forming some of her letters and numbers, and I don't see a reason to correct her since they are perfectly legible. I like that she has found her own unique method of making the number "6."

She goes all the way across the monkey bars now, over and over apparently, as evidenced by the rows of calluses on her palms. She arrives home with knees and ankles black with sand and dirt, and her shoes contain the Sahara Desert. I take all those as signs of a fun day at school.

I have heard that in 3rd grade children transition from learning to read to reading to learn, and that couldn't be more true of Lindsey. She's always been a strong reader, so from the very beginning of the year she dove into learning. I love her curiosity and her fascination with the world. She'll tell you her favorite subjects are reading and writing first, followed by science, followed by math. She is amazed by science and the natural world, and would come home throughout the year and tell me excitedly about what they had discovered that day.

Lindsey's friendships are important to her -- an argument with a friend will shadow her entire day and be the first thing she tells me about when I pick her up. She's entering that age when girls tend to take sides with each other and switch best friends on an hourly basis. My only advice to her is to stay true to herself and just be the good friend that she naturally is -- friends who enjoy her company will remain by her side.

And oh dear, the boys. She has determined that a certain boy in her class must like her because he throws paper at her when the teacher's not looking, or if she goes to sharpen her pencil she'll find him watching her. He calls her a silly nickname that they all laugh at, and surely that must mean he likes her.

I guess she likes boys.

This post isn't really here to tell a story, but to capture a snapshot of the school year that was, and to let my girls know how very proud I am of them.

I'm a lucky mom.