Yep...I'm a Bad Ass

Honestly I'm really not but I like to pretend that I am!!

But I did a pretty darn good bad ass thing this past weekend though.

I am officially a Tough Mudder

It was amazing and honestly the biggest physical accomplishment of my life (seriously, having my kids were way easier)!!

In the couple weeks leading up to the Tough Mudder I was VERY nervous. I feared the Mudder!

We drove up Friday night to Tahoe City.

Luckily, the Mudder was help at Squaw Valley which was maybe a 15 minute drive from the house we rented.

Amazingly, I slept like a baby Friday night.

So good in fact, that I snored Matt right out of the bedroom. It was a combination of the dry altitude and the reminence of my cold that I had a couple weeks ago.

Sorry babe!

I rolled out of bed at about 8 Saturday morning feeling relaxed and rested.

I took a shower (I know, pointless, but I had some legs to shave), threw down a big bottle of water and chomped on a banana.

Pulled my hair back, applied a little bit of gloss and totally failed at the act of putting on deodorant. But hey, my lips were a nice shiny pink. Who cares if I was stinky cuz there were thousands others like me!!!

We pulled up at Squaw Valley (absolutely beautiful)!! I headed off to check-in, get my bib, and my number written in sharpie on my forehead (sexy much) while my friend and my hubbs went to Starbucks...jerks! Well actually, Matt went to Starbucks and I made my friend go with because I was totally lost.

Found where I needed to go, only to realize that I left my ID in the car. So back to Starbucks to get the keys from Matt then ALL the way out to the car I go, then ALL the way back to check-in.

I finally hooked up with my dear friend, the ringleader of this event, and we set off to join our team.

The Team (from left to right) - T, me, Q (the super tall one) I and A (ringleader)

By this time, it was about 10:30 so we hung out in the parking lot and tailgated.

By tailgating, I mean, we indulged in obscene amounts of water, banana's and GU gels! Oh we saw others, others that partaked in beer and whatever else they had. But when you aren't a young pup, and just getting ready to set out on a 12 mile hike up and down very steep ski slopes (easily 8 miles up and 4 miles down) which had about 24 obstacles scattered through the course, beer wasn't a priority!!

Before you knew it, the clock struck 12 noon, and we headed to the starting line.

Don't we scream tough!!

My awesome sister and her hubbs drove all the way up there to support us and cheer us on. Love her!!

About 10 min prior to our start time, we recited the Mudder pledge, the National Anthem, and did a little dance to Eye of the Tiger.

Then off we went through a haze of orange, stinky, choking, smoke!!

It wasn't long before the, oh shit...what did I sign up to do, set in.

At mile 0.25 (yes 1/4 of a mile into this) I rolled my ankle and fell face forward. Thank you to gloves and UnderArmour, I was only sore and bruised...but no blood!!!!

After dusting myself off, I charged on and up and up and up and up. I kid you not, we literally ran up ski slopes. And these were not easy peazy trails either. The path was made out of horrible, easy to roll your ankles/fall and break your neck, rocks. Folks, ski slopes are made to come down, that is why there are chair lifts to take you up the mountains. But nope, Tough Mudders charge straight up the face of the mountains!!

So at about 2.5 miles, we come to a bit of a flat landing. We regroup to our group of 5 and go to charge on up and up and up...again. As we start our jont, I notice a sign, signaling an obstacle. It was appropriately titled The Devil's March. WHAT...The Devils March is just NOW starting!!! What the hell did we just run up?? It was at that point that I knew the creators of this course were probably sadists!!!!

After we marched for hours (or so it seemed like), we took a nice dip in some ice water. Yes, ice water. So much ice in fact, you could not get to the side in order to pull yourself out!!! After numbly pulling out of the ice, we somehow managed to work our way to the next obstacle...Mount Everest!!

At this point, we met back up with hubbs, my friend, my sister and her hubbs. My sister was pumped...bless her heart. Our conversation with something like this...

Kim: OMG...I'm so proud of you. I texted everyone, told them we are going to get a team together and we are all going to do this next year!!

Me: WHAT

Kim: Next year Kerri, we are going to do this next year!!!

Me: The hell I am. I'm never doing this again.

Kim: Oh come on!!!

Me: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo

At that time, my lowest point, I saw my hubbs, my rock, my biggest supporter ever! I gave him a hug, muttered some unintelligible words into his shoulder and fought back tears of defeat! Like any awesome husband, his words of encouragement went something like this "I know you can do this hun!! You are such a strong amazing person and wife! Mudder up and move out because we (him, friend, sis and her hubbs) are going to go to lunch". Nice...A+ for support jacka$$!!

At this point, we lost I to the crazy demands of the hills. A and Q went on ahead (cuz they are awesome) and that left T and me to fight this beast side by side.

We went up and up and up and up. We braved more obstacles. We chewed some Cliff Blocks. We fought off leg cramps. We watched others literally fall clutching their calves or pulling of their shoes in pain. We saw grown men peeing on the side of the trail (oh to be a man at this point. hello...no porta potties on this trip).

At some point we came to The Plank. A mere 15 foot jump into a nice "refreshing" pond and a no problem swim to the banks. Awesome, I had to pee, and what better place to do it than in this pond. So after literally pulling myself up to the top of the plank (because this is the Tough Mudder and they had to put the 2x4's in which you used to pull yourself up 6 feet apart). The first attempt at the jump was a fail because I realized just how high it was. The second attempt, I went balls to the wall...nose plugged and all!

Finally when I resurfaced...I realized my legs wouldn't work. I could not kick my legs. They were so tired. PANIC!!! So as I was doggy paddling, with just my arms and probably looking like a Yellow Lab flailing in the water, some awesome person announced that there was a rope in the water. All kinds of awesomeness!!!! I grabbed the rope, pulled myself through the water and up onto the shore...score, I didn't drown! BUT...I forgot to pee also.

As you were coming out of the pond, there was a water station there for hydration. And some food, but that was all gone. I patiently stood in line waiting my turn for the water when I could not ignore the constant push on my bladder anymore. I looked down to confirm that I was still dripping wet and went right there in line. YES, I pee'd in the water line and I bet you anything more than half those peeps who did the Mudder pee'd there too! Don't judge!

At some point close to this (I think) it was downhill from there...literally. We trotted on down. Much of T's and my conversation at this point centered around food. What we wanted to eat for dinner. What are favorite food was. What we would do at this point for just food other than Cliff Blocks or GU. As this conversation was happening, some dude next to us looked over and said "I just want me some effing Chicken McNuggets". Those sounded good too!!

Finally, at about 5:45 we reached the bottom of Squaw. The end was in sight. BUT there were three more obstacles to face. We had to roll across a net. Easy. Except the net was more tough then I thought. But all was good.

It's obvious Matt needs some work focusing on the SLR.

Then, it was a balance beam, on 2x4's over super cold water. And the beams were so long that they swayed back and forth in the middle. Totally dry at this point, I was sorta mad about getting wet again. Oh I knew I was getting wet because I have the balance of a drunken sailor. Sure enough, halfway through, I plunged into the cold murky water.

Then finally, finally the very last obstacle. It was 6:30 ish. Six hours of HELL, with no food (real food), and having to pee in a water line, I was at the end. I just had to get through the electric wires. Charged with 10,000 volts, was a slew of hanging wires in front of me. Luckily, they were spaced far enough apart to maneuver through without getting shocked. As I was picking my way through, my lovely sister begged for me to "touch just one so I can get a picture". Whatever...seriously if I got shocked I would have been so pissed. And probably pissed too.

And that's it folks. I crossed the finished line, got my orange Tough Mudder headband, got another cliff bar, got a t-shirt and a free beer. Six tiring hours, $150 later (all money goes to the Wounded Worriers), bruised, battered, hungry, cranky...I pre-registered for Tough Mudder NorCal 2012!!!

By far...one of the most memorable experiences EVER!!!!!

P.S...I walked in the house where we were staying, went straight to the bathroom, took a 45 min bath then a shower. Had steak and potatoes for dinner. Washed it down with a Washington Apple, went to bed and slept like a baby...minus the snoring (I think).

Funny Stuff At The Mudder:

Ha...even Dino survived The Mudder

Ooops...I think he lost something

No caption needed

Some athletes come home to city parades...I came home to this:

And that made it a perfect end to a perfect weekend!!!







Take Me Out To The Ball Game

When it comes to MLB...we may disagree.

But when you bring it home, and bring it Triple-A, we are right on!!

I had the wonderful opportunity to take Elizabeth, her BFF H, and my wonderful sis, Kim, to a River Cats game.

You see, Kim and I are seasoned River Cats attendees!

This, however, was Elizabeth's very first ever sports event. Her bestie H, had been before, and helped me pump Elizabeth up for all the exciting goodies the game brings!!!

Kim, myself and Elizabeth

Elizabeth, her bestie H, and their pink mini bats and claws!!

I think her smile says it all!

The Highlights:
1$ Hot Dog and Dessert night
Dinner for three only cost me $12 bucks
The tickets were free
We could actually see the game and could have actually caught a ball
I had a sister date
The Seventh-Inning Stretch
Those sitting next to us were not unruly
A certain 8 and 6 year old smiled constantly ear to ear
Oh...and the River Cats won

The Hurts:
A large Popcorn and two waters had cost more than dinner
I had to buy a mitt because I was afraid that a foul ball would viciously hit us in the head (well, me at least)
It took an inning and a half for my sister to get us drinks (alcoholic of course)
The ATM machines were down...see above
Nobody started the Wave (um...isn't this a baseball must??)
Elizabeth cried the WHOLE way to the car because she was cold

Pink mitt...of course :)

How cool is the Tower Bridge in the background of Raley Field!!

Just a night view

This was...one of my best nights...EVER!!!

LOL...my hubbs in an engineer at this building so I kept texting him all night about seeing smoke, lighting issues, broken windows...you name it, I irritated him ;)

Back to School

Well the girls have been back in school for 13 days now...not that I'm counting! Both, LOVE it! Maybe not so much the work, but the new clothes, backpack, lunch boxes, folders, school lunches (gross), and most of all...their friends!

Elizabeth FINALLY got excited for the start of school! OMG...second grade!! The Friday before school we found out who her teacher was. She got the teacher she really wanted so I was very happy for her. She has about half her friends in her class, but she can at least see and play with them at recess.

I got a little nervous at back to school night. They expect so much out of them in the second grade. Honestly, waaaaay back when I was in the second grade, I think we were still coloring by numbers.

First and Second grades, the school day is broken up into Early and Late Birds. Early Birds are for the less strong readers while your Late Birds are your more experienced readers. I was bummed. She placed as an Early Bird again. We worked hard this summer going to the library, reading regularly at night. I know she is young. While most of her classmates are, and have been for sometime, 7...she will be 7 toward the end of October. I did start her early, so I know that plays a hand in it.

I admit, I am an over achiever and I expect the same with Elizabeth. She, not so much. So, most of our nights doing homework end up in all around tears. I don't know how to be stern with her, and get her to understand the importance of completely understanding her work without tears and major frustration on both our parts. Oh well.

First pic - day 1 of homework, the next two - day 2

Meghan seems to like school to. She is going to preschool this year. It is the same one that she started when she turned 3 in March. Finally, she is getting on her schedule where she is not completely falling apart in the morning when we wake her up. Because she goes to this special education preschool, and she has to have her rescue seizure medication on hand, she gets picked up and dropped off everyday by bus. yes, a little yellow bus again! She is one of the first kiddos to get picked up, so she leaves at 7:20 AM!!! So much for overly using the snooze button! She is home usually by 11:10 or so!

Matt and I went to her back to school night as well. She has The.Best.Teacher.EVER!!! She wanted us to bring Meghan and Elizabeth for that fact with us at back to school night. Obviously her back to school night is not as formal as Elizabeth's was, but I was like, seriously! She really loves the kids. Really loves them which is so amazing to know as a mom.

Meghan is one of four kids in her class. She is the only girl!! Ms. Marilu, her amazing tearcher, shared with us that she loves to play teacher when she is there. She grabs the teacher stick and will point to the different pictures on the wall demanding the attention of the others. She even goes up to the kids and will use her sign language for them to sit down. Hmm...little miss bossy, wonder where she gets that from!!

I wasn't able to get a pic of Meghan getting on the bus, but there she is driving off to school!

Wishing everyone a happy beggining to school! 

25 Things You Might Not Know About Me

Hi Folks!!

I stole this idea from an awesome gal and blogger that I follow! I tried to keep it fun and interesting. All is 100% true!! Some might be TMI, but oh well, for those who know me anyway, I always naturally find myself in TMI territory!

1. I was in a Nascar commercial (still have the VCR tape of my 15 milliseconds of fame).
2. When I was in 6th grade, I had Bells Palsy and for 9 months, the whole right side of my face was paralyzed (no, I do not have pictures).
3. I was .01 away from graduating college with top honors (funny now, they have changed the scale and I would NOW be able to walk Summa Cum Laude).
4. On a less spectacular academic note, one of my high school freshman progress report cards came home with a stellar GPA of 0.76 out of 4.0.
5. I used to play the Clarinet (but Bells Palsy put a stop to that. Maybe I shoulda switched to the flute...oh well).
6. I worked at Burger King for 11 years. 11 years of fast food folks!! I still have nightmares dreams weekly about The King.
7. I have a sick fascination with weather. On first encounters of meeting new people, if I give a weather update, they really think I'm a meteorologist. Ha, no, just an insurance girl!
8. On one of my many days of working drive thru at Burger King, some man walked up to my window and tried to give me his baby. Well at first I said no, I can't take his baby. Then I got scared and another coworker of mine went after him for fear of the little baby's life. In the end, the cops came, took the baby, arrested him, and the baby was reunited with her momma!
9. I am terrified Terrified TERRIFIED of fire! I can't even light a match.
10. My only ticket I have gotten was due to running a red light (stupid cop).
11. I came to the conclusion that it was time to leave my 4 year junior college stint one evening when my economics teacher asked me to dance with him at a club !
12. My husband...Matt, was first, my oldest sister's nephew (perfectly legal folks. Perfectly legal CA law abiding here).
13. I have blown a total of 5 tires due to either hitting potholes or running over curbs. None of them were my fault tho...mom! One of the said curb incidences was because a spider was on my windshield and I was trying to decipher if it was on the inside or outside. As I was working on that task, the car swerved and bam, there goes my tire. See mom, spiders fault. Oh, the spider was actually on the outside and got away.
14. I have mastered Zumba!! Well, maybe with some unintentional solo's. But if you remember what happened last year and my experience with Zumba, Zumba Fail, this is a phenomenal achievement!
15. I will always be a mom first to my kids over being their friend first (wow...that was deep wasn't it)!
16. I <3 reading.
17. I have bunions on both my feet. I have ingeniously named them Paul and Babe.
18. Since I happened on the foot subject, my second toe is abnormally long. It gets very annoying because I either I hit it on random things or it has a tendency to hang out over the top of some sandals. Thanks to both Paul and Babe AND my freakishly long toe, I have to wear shoe a half size bigger to accommodate my feet (no, there will not be picture posting of this).
19. When I was 4, my favorite movie of all time was Amityville Horror. Don't judge people. I turned out just fine!
20. I am a very very very impatient person (well maybe most of you already knew this).
21. When I was little, probably 4 years old again, I looked exactly like the little girl in Poltergeist. Once again, don't judge people!!
22. I do, and will always, censor the movies my kids watch (even tho I turned out fine, I don't think children need, or should be, exposed to a lot of movie material that is out there).
23. I still count on my fingers!
24. I was once on a first name basis with our old UPS man. Steve was an awesome person! We had many a meetings out at my car so I could secretly intercept the package, place it in my vehicle until Matt took a shower, then I would sneak it in. Because of these shenanigan's I can spot the break sound of the UPS truck a mile away!
25. And Finally...I used to always count how long it would take me to pee (chew on that for a last fact folks).

Have a great weekend all!!

Hugs,
Kerri

Sleep Troubles

Nights have been so bad lately for Meghan, which obviously affects us too. Ah, what I would give for a solid, undisturbed night of sleep. Someday hopefully, one can only dream :)

This is, and has been Meghan's sleep pattern for about a month consistently now. She goes to be at 9:30, no later usually. She will typically wake up between 12:30 and 1:45. She gets up, opens her door and stands at her gate. Matt and I get up, put her to bed and she goes back to sleep. Then, anywhere usually in the 3:00 hour, she gets up and does the same thing. However, this time when we put her to bed, she will act very fractious. She will, whine, flip over and just wring her hands. We attempt to settle her down then head off back to bed. At this time she will continue to get up over and over again. We can put her back down anywhere from 5 to 15 times and she just wont settle down. She will outlast us by over 3 hours. So...skip this part if you are a serious hardcore parent that wont give in to your children...we bring her to bed with us. Actually, she comes to bed with me and Matt goes into her bed.

I am not against co-sleeping. I did with both the girls the first few months after they were born. I know how easy it is to instill bad habits by giving in to their demands. But, we have to function. We have to get up everyday and go to work, take care of the house, take care of the kids, grocery shop, pay bills, yadda yadda yadda, and when you average 4 hours a night over a long period of time, something needs to give.

Last week I was constantly emailing Meghan's Neuro. In July when she went in for her last appointment, we told him that she gets up through the night (but she always went back to sleep). He suggested giving her some sleep medicine. I disagreed. The poor girl is on so much medication as it was, I couldn't do that to her. So, last week, I emailed him..."I need you to call Meghan in some sleep medication as soon as possible!!!". I was desperate for 6 hours of sleep at the very least and besides, what's one more medication...right! He jumped right on that, we got the prescription, gave it to her, and settled in for a peaceful nights sleep...wrong.

It does nothing for her. Absolutely nothing!! I bet you anything, I could take that medication and be out for 12 hours (I will not confirm nor deny that I medicine share with my child). I don't get it, is it stubbornness or what.

So needless to say, I once again emailed her Neuro and said that I was adjusting her medication back to how it was before she started becoming so fractious. I did not ask for permission I emailed him due to the fact that I did not want to have a face to face about what I had done two months from now when she goes back.

Last night was our first night of going back to our medicine regime, and she was actually less fractious (in scientific terms, her Valporic acid was elevated due to the reintroduction of the Depakote). She did end up in bed with me and Matt did end up in Meghan's bed, but overall, I think I slept 6 semi undisturbed hours...and I feel FRYK GREAT!!!

Disclaimer regarding this morning: So Matt was sound asleep in Meghan's bed and I heard Matt's work phone ring. Um, I wasn't about to jump out of bed to eagerly deliver him his work phone (which was more than likely a call needing him to come in to work). Oh, I chuckled to myself, closed my eyes only to be brutally shaken by the house phone ringing. As Matt went off to work, I was left awake, sitting on the couch, at 6 am, with a very rambunctious 3 year old. Lesson learned...I will throw Matt his frykn work phone next time!

Sleep troubles or not...I would find a way to walk to the moon and back for this sweet child. She is my heart!