Running and Weekend Update

Well this is still by definition a running blog. And so perhaps one of us should talk about running instead of baby things.

Jason is running the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon on Sunday. We both signed up for this race back in April when we were trying to get pregnant but didn't want to not do things or sign up for things just because I *could* be pregnant at the time. This goes for the super cute super skinny jeans that I bought too. Yeah, I got like 3 weeks of wear out of those guys. ANYWAYS. I am obviously not running the 1/2 marathon on Sunday but Jason is.

His training has been....eh...well yeah. eh. He has a pretty loose time goal and we have been busy this summer and he has been enjoying running with me, even though I'm slow and so probably didn't do all of his runs at the paces he should have done them at. He's missed some training runs but has consistently gotten in the important speed workouts and long runs. His 12 mile run on Sunday went really well coming in at about 9:30 min/miles which should translate to about a 2hr 1/2 marathon. Hopefully it's not too hot this weekend and he can go out there at a quick but comfortable pace and enjoy himself. This is the first time that he has raced without me and I'm sad that I won't be running with him.

As far as my running goes, I've been enjoying these lower ligament stretching pains which seem to come out more when I'm running. They annoy me to no end. And I miss running far and easy so much. I now walk quickly to the lakefront path. I think it helps to get my heart rate up and moving before I start running, then I just run a mile out and a mile back. I think I could go three on the path but it was really warm on Sunday morning and I get worried that something could go wrong and I would be out there without any support. Jason will be able to run with me more starting next week when he doesn't have training runs to do and so that should help a bit.

I was super busy last week and so I didn't run at all during the week, and so just ran on Sunday. Hoping to do better this week. We are walking home from work today, tomorrow we have dinner out, Wednesday I have a knitting class....SO maybe I'll do Thursday and Saturday. Then I have to get ready to cheer and chase Jason around the course on Sunday.

Had a great weekend. Got to see friends on Friday, stayed up till 2:30am (!!!!!!) but I still got up at 6:30 in the morning. After breakfast we went and checked out the Newberry Library Book fair, stumbled home because guess what.....I can't get 4 hours of sleep anymore! My cousin came by and picked up some stuff, and then when they left I tipped over on the couch and slept for 3-4 hours. Jason and I realized we hadn't seen each other for most of the week and so decided to stay home and be lazy for the rest of Saturday night. I got a ton of knitting done on a fair isle stocking I'm making (fair isle knitting is really fun and tons easier than I thought it would be). Pictures of the finished product to be featured.

Sunday we went to Indiana to visit with my mom who is in town for the week and her husband's family. His son lives on a farm near Fowler, IN and wow, is it funny when the city mice visit the country mice. They have a ton of animals and I am hoping that next summer when I'm not pregnant they could teach Jason and I how to ride horses.

And thus it is Monday. Happy start of the week.

First Half of the Last Half

You know...that part. You've crossed the half marathon point and you are all, "Whoah I'm halfway done!" Then you run another block and you go, "Holy hell, I'm only 1/2 way done." Then you put your head down for the next 6 miles or so and look out for that 20 mile marker where you can feel like there could be a possibility of an end in sight.

I hate that part of the race.

I got better at racing it as the years went on, but I never enjoyed that part. Especially in the Chicago marathon as miles 13-17 are not the most exciting parts of the race.

So I just finished week 22 of this pregnancy, so I'm finding it very similar to that point in a marathon. Wow, it looks like she'll never get here! I know I know we have a ton to do and the time will fly and blah blah blah. But that doesn't make it seem any less endless right now.

My friend Corey once told me that when she was pregnant she just missed wearing jeans and drinking coffee. I totally feel that. I have two maternity skirts and a couple of pair of shorts. AND I'M SO SICK OF THEM. I want to wear regular jeans. I know it's stupid. But I love jeans. I love MY jeans. With buttons, not elastic. And coffee ooooh the pots of coffee how I miss them. With all the extra work I've been doing and classes I've been taking I could use more than one cup of coffee....and I might have mentioned it here before, but they say that excess caffiene lowers head circumference and birth weight. Now looking at what I need to do in the 18 weeks or so, those seems like two good things. Especially with the head size that runs in my family. Perhaps Lucy will have her father's perfect normal size head.

So yeah, for me being in the first half of the last half is a little annoying, but then last night I had my hand on my stomach and Lucy gave me a nice big kick. Which was nice.

Hey Little Lucy

How's it hanging in mom's uterus? Good? Comfy? I know you don't like sour filled twizzlers or when I sleep on my back so I'm trying my best to stop the sleeping on the back thing. Wow do you know how to cause some pain little girl. I know it's not you...but rather you sitting on all my vital organs. Don't worry I still like you a whole lot.

So I'm guessing you are wondering why we are naming you Lucy. Well actually your full name will be Lucille Jean, and those two names come from my grandmothers. Now you are going to say,"But Mooooooom that name hit it's peak of popularity in 1910, don't you know it's a century later." To which I'll respond, well the Cubs haven't won the World Series is *over* a century, so consider yourself lucky. Also the name Lucy is making a comeback as it's currently listed at number 112 in popularity, so you'll have that going for you. Plus you get lots of cute nicknames : Lu, Luce, Lucy, Lulu, and of course when you're bad the full on Lucille will come out. But you are never going to be bad so we won't have to worry about that. Right now your Dad and I are enjoying calling you Little Lucy.

I am enjoying being with you very much these days. They say that the 2nd trimester is the best part of the pregnancy and I have to agree with these people. I have a ton of energy and doing all kinds of things. I'm working late hours at the office, taking knitting classes, meeting friends for movies in the park and all kinds of other exciting things that fill most hours of the day. I like when you let me know you are in there, it's such a strange feeling but I really enjoy it.

This weekend your Baba will be home and she will for sure be talking to my belly (well she'll be talking to you *through* my belly...which at this point I say is still just at my belly and kind of weird). Then in two weeks your grandpa and grandma Sue will be coming home to stay with us for awhile. They will be with us for about a month and then they'll just be living about a 1/2 mile away. You'll be seeing a lot of them in the upcoming year.

Alright, well my 30 minute build at work has finished and so I need to figure out if my changes are the things that were breaking things last night.....probably but I don't see why they would. Alright, kiddo enjoy the rest of the day!

It's an X, so a gal is next

Hey Lucy* -

Your mother just called me over to the fridge to look at your first baby picture. Do you remember? You were 8 weeks old and not quite two centimeters tall (long? wide?) and now you're so big you make your mother's ligaments stretch and force her to make the occasional old lady noise.

Wait, what's that? Oh, right, the name. Yeah, you're a girl! We just found out today! I guess I just assumed you knew, but I suppose it's dark in there and you're probably not coordinated enough to feel around. Plus, sex ed isn't until 6th grade, so you wouldn't even know what a boy part or a girl part is. Well, you have the girl parts and so you're a girl. YAY!

Now that we know what you are (and as it slowly sinks in), it's getting really exciting. I like to think about all the things you're going to do while you grow up. You can put on routines with your cousins at family gatherings (3 hours of preparation, 30 minutes of arguing, 14 seconds of routine). You can dance around the apartment to whatever crap pop music 11 year olds listen to 11 years from now (although if we have our way, you'll just listen to the oldies like your loser parents). And, of course, you can go to Cubs games. Just like your mom when she was a little girl.

It's going to be a blast.

One interesting little fact is that, if our 3D ultrasound is to be trusted, you look exactly like your mother. I'm not sure about the eyes, but everything that below is exactly your mother. You have her nose, mouth, and chin...but hopefully not her teeth. You know, you could do a lot worse. As it just so happens, your mother is quite the looker, so you're already off to a good start already.

Oh, and the Cubs won on your Gender Day, so you've got that going for you. Which is nice.

Pictures of you:


(* we're 99% sure you're a Lucy, but reserve the right to name you Mabel or Mirabelle should you look like one of those name)

Today is the Day

Well, littlest one...in about 2 hours we'll know if you are a boy or a girl and if you are a healthy one of those. Last night you suddenly got a lot more real, because I said to your dad, wow tomorrow we'll have a son or a daughter.....which sounds like it takes a lot more responsibility than I'm pregnant with an 'it'. I don't know why, but it had me freaked out a little bit.

Our appointment is at 8am, and I know you don't love to be awake in the morning, so if you can make sure that your important parts are facing the right way so that we can see what you are that would be great. Also if you could give you mom a little dance that also would be appreciated. While I don't think you are a weeble wobble anymore...I would still like to see those arms and legs moving. Yes...you read that right, when I wasn't feeling you move I thought you were a weeble wobble, that might be mean, but your dad responded to that bit of crazy with well that's not going to be fun to play catch with. You'll see. He's really funny.

Alright, well I am off to give you some honey nut cheerios, and start drinking some water as apparently they need a full bladder for this deal. Can't wait to see you!

2 Weeks later...

means that I'm at the 20 week mark. oooooh baby! 1/2 way there. I'm feeling the best I have felt yet in this pregnancy and finally starting to enjoy it a bit. The baby is wiggling around in there and so that's been fun. Jason can even feel it if he touches my stomach. He'll say, wait was that it, and I'll say...yeah I think so, I felt something too.

Running has been good....or maybe "good" is the right word. I went running on Tuesday for 4 miles and had some pain and annoyances during the last mile so I had to run and walk. Today I went three and felt a lot better so I might shortening my runs down a bit. Jason's runs have been fine. He hasn't been on top of the training as maybe he should be, but he's getting enough runs in. He had 10 miles today and I guess it went pretty good.

Work has been busy for both of us which makes the weeks go pretty fast.

Today Jason is 30 (! 30!!! people really live that long) and he's currently playing Fallout 3 on the new Playstation 3 that his awesome wife organized to get for him. Yay for fun kid presents when you are an adult...and an old adult too!

My Dad and stepmom come home in 26 days (that's almost here!) and I can't wait for them to get here. My Dad is planning on running the Chicago marathon in 2010 and he's already really jazzed up about it. He's been running down in the islands and hasn't had any muscle stiffness...how about that for a 59 year old man. Oh yeah....his birthday is today too! It's been fun reading about his runs. He's up to about 30 minutes now, and when he started about 2 months ago, I think he could run for a few minutes. Like I always say...just move that stick slowly and you'll get there faster than you think. Look out for a joint father daughter running blog in the near future.

Thursday is our 20 week ultrasound and so we'll get to know a) that everything is ok with the little one and b) find out the gender!!! I am so so so excited about this appointment. We weren't going to find out what was in there and then realized that 40 weeks is a long long time and so finding out was a nice thing to look forward to. Plus with all the knitting that I've been doing lately I want to knit some gender specific clothing.

So that's all from JasonLeahRun land.

Well...that was Busy!

With a capital 'B'.

This weekend was chock full of all kinds of crazy things. On Friday I went to loopy yarns for their Friday night knit along. My cousin is having a baby *any* day now and the baby blanket I'm making for them has to be done by the time I head down to their area for the holiday weekend. So I got a ton done on that on Friday and actually just finished it up last night. Just have to bind off, weave in that last end and it'll be done. And by it being done it means my biggest project to date will be done.

Saturday morning we woke up at 5am because I wanted to go downtown to take some pictures in the early morning light. The photoblog is in the process of being revived, although with the holiday weekend I'll probably miss some more days this weekend. This weekend postings, if you missed them, were these two:

Modern Wing

Tiny & Swiss

Ok, so before we went downtown we were sitting in our living room contemplating actually going downtown at 5am when someone started tring to get into our apartment. We were like...um...hello? A girl was like, yeah I need to go to the bathroom. I was like...well OK, but we can't really help you with that. She said she was looking for the bacherlette party, and I told her that our apartment wasn't it. She started to go upstairs were I knew there wasn't going to be that kind of party either. I asked her if she was in the right building she said she was and went back downstairs. Turns out she was just confused as our downstairs neighbor came and apologized last night. Kinda funny though.

OK, so then downtown. Pictures and breakfast at Yolk and then I was suddenly inspired to finally rearrange our living room with some ideas I had awhile back. So it was back home and, since we got up at 5am, it was only like 8:30am. So we moved all the furniture around and took things off shelves and found a *great great* arrangement for everything. Giving us more space even though we added a desk unit to the room. We did, however, have to run out and get some things from Home Depot and Best Buy, so back to the red line, south a few stops. Walk all over there. Then back home. Then finishing putting things away, and then whew it was all done at about 3pm. At which point the Cubs were on, so I layed down to watch them and was out instantly for like 2 hours. Wow! Saturday night we watched a movie and just relaxed in what seemed like a new apartment.

On Sunday we got up early again. Jason had a 9 mile long run and I had my usual 4 miles. I don't know if it was all the walking/working/moving on Saturday but my run did not go well. I kept looking at all these couples running together and all these girls that were really thin and fit, and since my run wasn't going so well I just felt like a big fat whale out there. I know I know, I'm pregnant and this time is so "magical" but I wasn't feeling the magic. I miss running with Jason and I miss running fast and I miss being able to fit into my clothes. Maybe if the baby was moving more or something I would all, "ooooh being pregnant is magical". It IS moving I think.....but I want it to move like all the time and that doesn't happen. Plus I move so damn much and walk so much it probably isn't getting a chance to move or at least let me know it's moving. I did feel a lot of something when I was reading a Lee Child book last night...maybe the baby just likes Jack Reacher...just like the rest of it's family.

Anyways. I was done before Jason and he came over and was like, "OOOOH YOU LOOK SO CUTE" He thinks it's funny because when I face him when he's running towards me I don't look pregnant at all, and then I'll turn to the side and he says my stomach is like a door opening. He came up to me and was like, how'd it go? And then I started crying. Just a little crying though and then he gave me a hug and we walked back home.

Sunday was the Gay Pride parade and we went to our usual place to watch it. It's a bar that we used to hang out at *a lot* when we were 21-22 years old. Everyone that went there then comes back for the parade so it's always a fun day with a lot of, "HEY, so how was your last year?". We watched the Parade but holy hell is it long. Doesn't seem so long when you're a few vodka lemonades into the day. We saw all of our favorite floats, but missed the school that was marching this year for the first time. I was surprised that they weren't towards the front of the parade. From the parade we walked to the lake to sit for a few minutes. Then, realizing how hot and exhausted we were, decided to walk back home - first going another 1/2 mile or so North to hit a grocery store. So we got some foods and then walked back through all the crowds. We got home at about 4pm. I layed down on the couch...and what do you know. Fell asleep for about an hour.

So whew. I'm kind of exhausted just writing that post. Time for me to get ready for work, and Jason to proof read this (ed note: done). Then work time! Short week this week because of the holiday and the 4 days (!!!!) at my Aunt's lake house! I can't wait!

Betting on the ponies

Hey, it seems that I get to celebrate a new holiday now. Yay! That holiday, of course, is Father's day. And so, on Father's day Leah, our little in utero baby and I went out to Arlington to lay a few bets down and win the baby a college fund! And to be clear, that would be Arlington Park, not Arlington National Cemetary. I'm pretty sure gambling is illegal at the cemetary ("alright, I've got five dollars on Patton to rise from the grave in 2012").

I'd never been to the race trace before, but it was awesome! It's a lot different than I expected. It was a really pretty park with lots of areas to walk around and lots of greenery/flowers. It definitely had the feel of something out of an older time. Or more southern time. Or something. But we were there to play the ponies, not tree-gaze, and play then we did. And we were serious about it. For all our races, we studies the program up and down, compared it with the paper, and made our picks. We had theories. Theories based on facts and science. We were betting animals.

And we won! In a sense. I mean, we basically won. That is, by the end of the night, I had winnings in my pocket. 16 big dollars and 20 cents were ours to keep after 8 races. Woo Hoo! And yes, we had to bet 80 dollars to win 16, but that's still a return on investment. It's not technically a positive return on investment, but I think it still counts.

Oh, and all those 16 dollars go towards the baby. Congrats, baby, you're in the money.

I just hope you're okay with a state school.

Oh, and I also ran yesterday in what I would call an oppressive heat. It was 90 degrees out when I got home from work and I had 8 x 400 speedwork to get in. Guh. But I did it, although somewhat slower than a couple weeks ago. I may not be getting in all my extra miles, but I'm getting in the speed work and long runs and I think that'll get me through the race in August.

Heartbeat! Running! No Moving :(

So yes as you saw in our last post we amazingly got to hear the heart beating. It was so great to hear it right away and not have a problem finding it. Makes me calm down *a little*. Not a lot mind you, but just a little. I am really looking forward to the 20 week ultrasound where we can make sure that everything in on track development wise as well as find out the gender. I care more about the first part of that, and the gender will just be a nice little bonus.

I haven't felt the baby move yet. I know I know, it's early and why would I assume that something is wrong when everything else looks good. It's not that I think that something is wrong, I would just like to be assured that everything is fine. Plus it might be moving at night and I am a really really hard sleeper and so I might not wake up when the thing is most active. But where are the damn "bubbles" I'm supposed to have. GRR.

Even if the baby is lacking on the active, I've continued to be active however. I ran 4 miles 3 times last week and ran about 42 minutes on Saturday which is the best it has gone for me since the pregnancy started. I wonder if it's like training. I'm mean I'm not "training" but I'm running about the same distance and so I would think that the training and the weight gain will offset each other for awhile and so I'll be able to keep on running well and feel more comfortable as time goes on. Eventually of course this will not be the case and my mileage will probably be cutting back/I'm going to slow down a bit. But until I feel really bad I'm going to keep on keepin' on with the 3-4 miles, 3-4 days a week.

Jason's training is going pretty well. Since it's not a race he particularly cares about he's not as strict about runs as he would be if the race mattered (needed it to qualify, working for a PR). That way he can drop some of his run and run with me if he wants to. I like when he runs with me, especially with the weather getting warmer I feel better having him next to me. Plus it's more fun.

It looks like summer has finally come to Chicago with degrees in the 80s for the next 10 days. I love summer in this city and so I welcome it and the heat with open arms.

Two senses down, three to go

...although touch, smell, and taste will have to wait for another five months or so. And I'm not so much looking forward to smell. Guh.

Oh, yeah, I'm talking about you, baby. We heard your heart beat today! 160 amazing beats per minute! It went whoo whoo whoo (not to be confused with a train, which goes choo choo choo). But before I get too carried away, let me back up a bit.

Today we had our 16 week appointment where, once again, we were going to try to hear your heartbeat. Last time, as you may remember, you were not terribly cooperative. I don't know if you were hiding behind a bowel or something, but we couldn't get any reading at all. And your mother...didn't take it well. Given this, we were naturally somewhat nervous going into this appointment and I was a bit concerned that your mother might be facing another slight freakout (really, a teeny tiny freakout. hardly worth talking about). But this time the doctor lubed up your mommy's belly and threw down the little wand thingy and...

WHOO WHOO WHOO

"A little front and center diva," remarked the doctor. Yep, you were happy to comply this time. Probably because you didn't want to make your mother worry this time.

(thanks)

In other news, this doctor - the third in the practice we've seen so far - was fantastic! She was so nice and you mother just clicked with her. Combining the great doctor with the great heart noises and we just had a great doctor's appointment. Good stuff.

In four more months we're going to find out if you're a boy or a girl, but I think you already know. If not, just take a look down. If it's an innie, you're a girl. Outie and you're a boy. And don't get fooled by the umbilical cord. That's a common mistake. Okay, now, if you're a boy, blink once.

Did you blink? Wait, try it again.

Wait. This isn't working.

Damn. I guess we're just going to have to wait four more weeks.

(and sorry for saying damn. Daddy said a bad word)

Happy developing!

-Dad

Maternity Running Clothes!

My stepmom sent me some running clothes for preggo ladies and for the first time since this pregnancy started I thought I looked cute when I looked in the mirror. I love love loved the clothes and I'm excited to have more specific running clothes to accommodate my growing belly. The official belly picture (which has really changed in the last week...although it might be the pose + the different shorts) with the usual outfit can be found at smugmug, but I wanted to show off the running clothes here.

Also. I wanted to show off me being crazy because fun is fun and wacky is wacky and I'm both. I think the kid will like it's mother :)

Baby's First Art Fair

This morning I opted out of running to try to get over this cold that is plaguing my system. In super exciting news (ok, it's not exciting at all unless you're me....or your pregnant and understand the waking up in the middle of the night), I slept through the night...FOR TWO STRAIGHT NIGHTS! I think I needed to get some good sleep so that my body could fight the cold and it seems to be working. So I didn't run and instead reshut my eyes on the couch while Jason ran.

After he got home we both got ready to go and walked out to the Wells street art fair. We were talking about how next summer we would have a baby with us (that's you in my tummy right now!) and how much fun that would be. We stopped at Fleet Feet on the way and pushed around the baby joggers that they have. Wow are those pricey.....but I know the little nugget would enjoy the ride in it. I mean the thing had shocks on the wheels. I think that's something that you don't want to skimp on either. Especially since we'll be using it A LOT next summer. I think that's the only thing I have really thought about getting for the baby....I mean diapers and stuff sure....but running jogger = #1.

So to the baby...

We are right now sitting on our back porch and your Daddy is blowing on the charcoal to try and get it to relight. You'll think it's normal to use a bottle of lighter fluid when you grill and I'm here to tell you that when there is a fire 5 feet tall coming out of a grill that is only like 1 foot in diamter that's not right. We gotta find those damn matchlight charcoals.....

The people upstairs from us are a really great older couple who have a puppy named Murphy. The man is from Brazil and they are always outside enjoying the city. Right now they are playing some really good music and asked if it was bothering us. I said no way we think it's great! I hope we become like that when we grow up. Yes your mother is almost 30 and still wonders what's she'll be like "when she grows up".

We were talking about you today and how excited we are for your arrival and how much fun you are going to have growing up in this city. Sometimes it'll get to you, I'm not going to lie. But we are going to make sure we take lots of camping trips so that you know there is a big world outside of this big city.

You are 16 weeks along today. which means that we'll all get to meet you in a short 24 weeks. Wel that doesn't sound short at all...but it's now less than a half a year so it's an improvement. We go see the doctor on Wednesday and your mom is hoping that she's a big calmer this time around...or at least is planning on talking to the doctor about dealing with my nerves when I'm there.

So I hope you enjoyed your long walk today. I probably over did it...I mean it was 8-10 miles..but until you complain louder, I'm going to say it was ok.

Alright, enjoy your development in week 17. If you feel like giving me a big ole' kick go for it! I can't wait to feel you moving around in there!

Grr. I love sharing but

...did you have to share your cold?

While Leah's cold rages on into week two, it seems that I've managed to pick it up as well. Thanks, babe! On the plus side, I'm not pregnant (we think), so it's not such a big deal. Just annoying. And unlike Leah's new pregnant-lady immune system, mine will hopefully actually do something.

(*fingers crossed*)

So, since I last wrote, my training went a bit wonky. I still got my speed-work in and most of my runs, but I did miss my long run and a couple of mid-week runs. Boo. I hate missing long runs. But, there will be others (eight miles next week) and, as I said, at least I got in my speed work. Last night was 7 x 400 and it went just fine. Wait, hold on...

Sorry, had to cough up some phlegm. I'm good now.

Anyway, that's about it as far as my running goes. Leah's been running as much as her cold has allowed, cranking out another three last night. And let me just tell you how impressed I am with her dedication to keeping it slow. We all know Leah's need for speed, so she's making a real sacrifice with the whole slow and steady thing. Yay, Leah! Way to be responsible!

I can't wait until the baby's out and we can stop acting like responsible adults.

Baby's current status: Hiding behind a uterine wall.

Sweat it Out...Really?

I must be an athlete from the 80s because after having a horrible day at work feeling like crud, and ending up really cranky I decided to go running when we got home thinking I could maybe sweat the sick out. And actually....I feel a ton better. I don't know if it was just a week of laying around feeling crappy and staying indoors was making it worse, but I think that the sweat it out might actually do something.

So Jason and I ran together for the first 2 miles and then he went ahead of me and did another 2 miles at faster than a snails pace and I kept nice and slow for my last mile or so. I went a bit over three miles though, probably around 3.5 or so. We won't run tonight because we are getting our hair cut. But we'll be back on it tomorrow. I'll probably do an *exciting* three or so miles and Jason has a 7 x 400m speed workout going on.

So I'm 15 weeks + some number of days pregnant and I have been doing the belly photos after our runs on Sunday. I only started doing it at 13 weeks because really there wasn't anything to show before then. So you can check out my smugmug gallery to see the pictures so far. And I'll make sure to post them here in the future.

Still Pregnant..But

SICK!

What the hell. I have now been sick with some kind of head cold or something for a week. I never get sick and when I do I get better in about a day or two, and now I'm STILL sick. I don't find it frustrating at all. Grr.

I guess I can't heal as fast as I usually do when I'm sick when I'm pregnant? I don't know but it's utterly and totally irritating. Jason started feeling sick this weekend as well but he was already feeling better this morning.

Even with being sick all weekend we still fit in a lot of stuff. On Saturday we went to The Melrose for big breakfast and then walked to Oz park to check out the chalk festival which was pretty cool. I think a lot of people opted to not show up because of the forecasted rain, but it was still amazing to see what artists can do with sidewalk chalk. I can draw like a rainbow and a hopscotch board and that's about it so I'm always amazed by artists. Later Saturday my good friends popped by with their two little kids to say hi. It's always fun to see those kids and when they come over I am always reminded about how un-babyproof our apartment is...good thing there is a lot of time to get that together.

Sunday my aunt came over and we went to the Printer's Row book fair where Jason and I bought about 5 books..usually we don't find anything because there is just too much stuff but lucked out and got some books we've been looking for at used prices. After the book fair we headed back to our apartment and watched Wall-E on blue ray and had some bbq dinner. although our charcoal was totally ruined (how does rain get into a plastic tupperware thing) and so we had to cook the meat on the stove...ah well it was still all delicious.

No running for me since I've been feeling like poop and looking forward to feeling better so I can get running again! well that and so I can stop feeling like poop. Did I mention I hate being sick.

Full Weekend

Well kids, it looks like LeahC is back (well....almost I guess) to her pre-pregnancy fighting self. As I'm sure we all remember before the ever expanding tummy came to be I would be busy and have a million things planned on our weekends and we would go for epic long walks just to have stuff to do. Then the first trimester came and everyone asked, "Where did LeahC go?", as I would be asleep on the couch for most of the weekends, and forget doing anything after work.

Last week I finally finally started feeling better. It's like when you are sick and you think you'll never get better and then when you do it's like...oh wow, the cloud lifted and I'm all better now. Very similar feeling to entering the 2nd trimester...at least for me. And while I still don't feel like myself, it's a ton ton better.

This weekend was full of good stuff. On Saturday morning I got a facial at a spa in Wicker Park and from that Jason and I walked downtown where I had a knitting class at 1pm. It's such a good walk and one of the things we miss the most about living over on the west side was how easy it was to walk downtown. On the way we stopped at the Blommer Chocolate factory and picked up some treats and holy hell does that place make a good chocolate. Jason and I both highly recommend the dark chocolate covered pretzels.

After knitting (where I finished a sock! yay me!), we took the train back home and got ready for dinner and then took the bus back to the bucktown area where we met some friends for dinner at Club Lucky. Fun kids to hang out with and hoping to hang out with them more in the future. We got home at like 11pm (I know! It's like I'm up with the big kids!) and Jason had a few martini's with dinner and wasn't feeling the get up at 6:30 to race a race that doesn't really matter. So we scratched the race from our Sunday dance card and started watching Terminator 2 (we are on a Terminator kick in preparation for seeing the newst movie).

We still got up early on Sunday...ok ok, I got up early on Sunday and the proceeded to jump on the bed until Jason got up. We went for breakfast at Ann Sathers (always delicious) and then headed home and decided to read on our back porch. As soon as I sat down in our papazon chair on the porch with the sun hitting me, my eyelids suddenly weighed a few tons and I was out for the count. So we each took some naps. After which Jason decided that since he already blew the race he might as well blow it totally and decided to run with me for my slow 4 miles. Feeling better in general makes for feeling better as I run as well. I wonder how long I'll be able to run in this pregnancy. I hope for the whole thing as I just feel so so much better when I'm running.

After the run we went for a walk to Lincoln park to enjoy the weather and then we were sufficiently all walked out. We had a relaxing evening at home, watched the Cubs get pummled by the Dodgers, tried to not throw things at the the TV in annoyance at the ESPN announces. We know, we know, they are the best team in baseball, they score the most runs in the national league....BUT really....Mr. Morgan? You think that Juan Pierre is a better player than Manny Ramirez and would rather have him in the line up. They kept talking about his first at bat...how about the second where he struck out in 3 pitches (that's the Juan Pierre I remember from the Cubs). Seriously it was just a Dodger love fest for 3 hours....well I'm assuming they continued the same behavior because we gave up on them and watched some recorded DVR instead.

It's rainy and crappy Monday today and I'm happy that the crap weather held out until Monday and let us have a nice weekend to play in.

Wednesday Speedwork

Yesterday Coach Leah and I slowly made our way out to the lakefront, cruising at a nice warmup pace. Once we arrived at the lakefront, we...

Hey, where's Coach Leah going? LEAH! Oh yeah, she's heading home to finish out her run and get dinner started (dinner which she's going to eat! How exciting is it that Leah has her energy and appetite back? Very) and I'm being left out here by myself to do my sprints. I was like a man abandoned on a desert island, but instead of a volleyball, my best friend was a women's Timex watch (forgot the garmin, had to borrow Leah's watch. Looks good on me, though).

So I did my sprints. 6x400 at about 5k pace. I tried to speed it up a bit from last time, which was my first outing, and I think I was successful. My times were still about the same (~2 minutes), but the course was a bit longer this time which is what extended the time to 2 minutes (well, I'm saying it was anyway. If not, something is seriously wrong with my pace recognition because I know I was going faster). The only down side of the sprints was they were BORING. Yeesh. Run out real fast...trot back...run out again...rinse, repeat. Blah. Way more fun running them with Leah. Oh well.

But the long runs are still fun by myself. I did 6 miles on Sunday and it was nice. For some reason, time still flies on long runs and I don't find myself getting bored. Speed work's just a whole different ballgame (maybe it's soccer. That would explain the boredom).

Coach Leah signed me up for a 5k this weekend, my first ever (woo! PR!). That should give me a better idea of what pace I should really be shooting for in the half and I can base some of my run times off of that.

Any baby news on the horizon? Not too much, really, other than the fact that Leah is feeling sooooooooo much better. See ya, first trimester. Don't let the metaphorical door hit you in the metaphorical ass on the way out (metaphorically speaking). The little fella (that's gender neutral, right?) was about the size of a medium shrimp on sunday and, if my calculations are correct, will be heading off to college pretty soon.

Okay, that's all from here. Time to get back to debating whether or not to find out the sex during the 20 week ultrasound.

Go Cubs.

What's That? Hunger? A Taste for Something?

I was so excited last night because the first time in a long time I was excited for dinner.

We went for a run last night and Jason did a "recovery" or run slower than slow with me to keep me company and I went an extra 1/2 mile because that's what his plan called for. So we did 3.5 miles in a long amount of time. We ended our run near a grocery store and got some food for dinner and somehow made it home before it started raining super super bad.

We got home and we made one of those caesar salads that come in the bags with all the parts that you need. I added some grape tomatoes and went at it. And holy hell did it taste good. I mean I don't know the last time that I was able to eat dinner AND be excited about it. It's been more force feeding myself to try and get some protein into my system before bedtime. Jason then made tostadas which were also delicious and I was really proud of myself when I ate the whole tostada (and almost cleaned my plate...couldn't quite finish the rice). BUT the point is that I ate dinner and it's a big deal and I realize that this post is all about the fact that a 29 year old woman ate dinner, but it's more that she was also excited and hungry to eat dinner. And since it's my blog I can talk about whatever I want to talk about. :)

Work is going good, and got to learn some new stuff yesterday on sending html e-mails and hope to finish off that project today. Running tonight includes just 2 miles for me and Jason is doing a 6x400m speedwork out so he'll do that and I'll do some regular running and then we'll see how spaghetti sits with me as it's on the menu for tonight!

I might be a bit faster than I thought

So, as I mentioned in the big announcement post below, I'm training for this Rock and Roll Half Marathon by myself since Leah is busy growing people. This is a new experience for me as I've always had a run partner, Leah (in case that wasn't clear), and she always took care of the details. She'd schedule the runs, set the pace, and make sure we hit all the milestones.

Well, she still takes care of all the scheduling and motivating in her new capacity as Coach Leah, but I have to pace myself. The problem is, I haven't run seriously since Chicago, 2007. Yep, that's a long time. We had a few half-hearted attempts at training, but mostly we were busy drinking at Sheffield's and being lazy. And then it was winter...and we still drank and were lazy, but now we had an excuse. It was too coooooooold!

But now there's no excuses and we're running again. We did three miles together (4 on sunday) at a slow pregnant lady pace up until it was time for me to start training which, while establishing a nice base, didn't give me much of an idea as to what pace I could really run. Having started up again, it seems that my legs are a bit ahead of my breathing. A "comfortable pace" for my legs is definitely somewhere in the 8 minute range, but my lungs have generally disagreed.

But today for my pace run, in which I was shooting for a 9 mile pace, my legs and my lungs lined up. I started out with an 8:45 mile in which I was kind of all over the lap. I'm not used to running with a garmin (Leah's always handled that end of things) and I got kind of caught up in the pace reading. I'd look down and it'd say 9:30 and I'd be all "oh shit" and then I'd look down and it'd say 8:02 and I'd be all "oh shit". Lotta shit that first mile. But then I got to the lakefront path and settled in nicely. My second mile was 8:10 and my last mile, when I tried to slow down a bit, was 8:20. A bit faster than I expected but I wasn't tired and it didn't feel that fast (yep, I know what you're thinking, that was 90% because of the nice weather. And you're right).

So I'm going to just live with the faster pace. Looking at McMillen, it seems that a 24 or 23 minute 5k will get me to around a 1:50 1/2, which would be nice. So I think I'm going to shoot for that. I have a 5k coming up in a bit and that should give me a better idea of my expected pace. I'll probably try to keep a comfortable 9 minute mile pace for my long run tomorrow and then go from there. Of course, when the weather gets hot, I'll get a lot slower, but right now the weather's perfect and I'm going to keep my legs turning over as fast as I can.

Oh, and I'm tracking my runs at the excellent running site Run. Track. Run. You should check it out. I'll have Leah show me how to get the graphs posted on here so I can show my milage graphs each week.

When You Can't Race....Coach!

So I've been missing the ramp up to marathon training and I am already thinking about the summer and how long slow Sunday morning runs are going to be short slow Sunday morning runs...which is fine because really at the end of this I get a little baby....however, that doesn't mean that I'm not missing the racing and marathon training.

However, I have found that I get to coach all the people in my life to run the races they are training for. Ok...all the people in my life is Jason and my parents, but whatever it's enough. I'm trying to get my mom motivated to walk 3-4 days a week and so I call her on the days that she should walk and ask if she's gone walking. She tries to pull the "But I'm too tired when I get home from work". To which I respond, "Um...I've been running throughout this pregnancy and when I get home from work I literally could fall asleep right as I walk in, so that's no excuse". Of course it isn't an excuse anyways, so she's getting there and walking more.

Jason as you know is running a 1/2 marathon on August 2nd that I am also signed up for but I don't think we need a 20 week pregnant lady running a 1/2 marathon. So I layed out his training program and it's fun to watch him train on his own. He has only ever run with me, so I think this is going to be a great opportunity for him to learn the little things about pacing yourself (instead of just following whatever pace I'm setting), and using the Garmin to your advantage and not too obsessively. He's been a lot faster than we thought he would be which is great. Maybe that year and a half of lounging paid off. Who knew?

The last person I'm working with is my dad. He's going to be running the Chicago Marathon in 2010, the year he turns 60. Wait...how is he going to train for the marathon when he lives on a sailboat you ask? That answer to that question deserves it's own post so stay tuned for that. In short my Dad and Stepmom will be in Chicago from August of 2009 to January of 2011 (yeah you read that right...a year and a half!). So while they are here he'll have plenty of time to train. I have decided to train with him for the 2010 marathon as I'll just be finishing up pushing a giant thing out of me and probably don't want to jump into tons of training and speedwork and 8 minute miles. More to the point I probably won't be able to. So Dad and Daughter are going to train together and it's been really fun thinking about how to structure that training, because it has to be a bit different that my last few years of training. So I'm already on him to get some running in on the beaches down in the Caribean which I think he's doing. He'll be back in Grenada in the next couple days and I think he'll be able to do some more consistant running while there before he gets back to Chicago.

So with all that going on, and my own slow 3-4 mile runs I've been keeping my running brain active. Although....doesn't make me miss the training any less. In good news this is the best I have felt starting some new training in a long time. I have no leg pain and my breathing is good...oh wait...because I'm running 11 minute miles you say...yeah that's probably it...but still it's nice.

Here's the Lot of Them

Like I mentioned in the post yesterday Jason and I have been writing secret blog posts for the past 12 weeks and as now everything is out in the open we are publishing them tonight. To get to just the posts about the pregnancy you can go to this link:

http://jasonleahrun.blogspot.com/search/label/pregnancy

And for them to make sense I would read them from the oldest to the newest, although you can do whatever you like...I mean if you like to do things out of order and it doesn't make the little vein in your head pulsate like mine would, that's your choice. :). I like order, leave me alone. ...and yes, you even have to click for older posts because there are too many for one page!

We went for a 3 mile run today and I didn't feel as good as I have in the past. I think that I have a really hard time running two days in a row and so I just have to try and do my best to avoid that in the future. So that's all from here. Enjoy the posts!

We Got a New Running Partner

Why has Jason had to start training alone for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon?

How come Leah can't beat Jason in a sprint anymore?

Is that Leah wearing two sports bras?

The answer to all these questions is yes! Wait. The answer to the last question is yes. The answer to the first two questions is

Because Leah's Pregnant! YAY!
(pause for effect)

Yep, for the last 12 weeks, Leah has been running for two and at a much slower pace (gotta take it easy, you know). About, oh, 14 weeks ago we decided to try for a baby and 2 weeks later - well, you've seen Look Who's Talking - and two weeks after that: pink line! Holy Crap! Didn't really expect it to happen so fast (that's what she said).

As so now we are taking a new turn in life as we try to deal with bringing a baby into this world and not ruining it once it gets here. So answers to questions you might have:

• Yes, Leah's already starting to show a bit, although it's the kind of show that's much more visible in the evening than in the morning (which we don't understand at all, but over the past few days even that's starting to change)
• Yep, she's still running. The doctor cleared her for 30-45 minutes of easy running. The rule is that she has to be able to talk. So she's been doing 3 miles 3 times a week and 4 on Sunday at about 11 min/mile or as Leah likes to say a lot slower than her normal comfy pace of 9 or less.
  
• No, Leah isn't runnning the 1/2, but Jason is. And, while he's sad to be training alone, he's surviving. Luckily it's only a half. Leah is now just Coach Leah and tells Jason what to do (insert joke here).
• Is the baby a boy or girl: yes
  
• We are in the 12th week of pregnancy and so just getting out of the first trimester, which is awesome.
• At 8 weeks we got pictures from the ultrasound when the baby was only 1.87cm long. Now the baby is the size of a lime. That little guy (or gal) grows fast! We think it looks like a gummy bear at this point. Which is good cause we know how much we love our gummy bears. Here are some blobular photos (there will be way cooler photos in the future...I can't help how blob like it is at 8 weeks!):
  

So yeah. Baby. Should be fun.
-----------------------------------

Leah speaking now:

Yep, we are oh so excited about this new turn in life. When we got back from our trip to Zurich we thought well we could start trying to have a baby because you know it's going to take a few months to get things going and by that point we'll really be ready and so on. Turns out it didn't take quite that long and 4 weeks later we had a positive pregnancy test. So yeah, we were a little shocked with the pink line (I might have taken 4 home pregnancy tests).

Jason and I have been writing secret posts (which I accidentally published a few of over the past 8 weeks or so, so you might have gotten a sneak peak if you were on your google reader on time). I am going to publish all of those in a day or so and you can read them all, by filtering on pregnancy, and I'll include a link when I let those out. Of course these are going to be in reverse order of when things were happening and we highly recommend you read the earliest post first and work your way to the most recent. There is a lot of them, but they are pretty funny (at least we think so). There will also be a lot more posting in the future, it's hard to not talk about something this fantastic and so that's why there was such a slow down in our posting.

We hope you enjoy the posts, and we hope you enjoy reading about this next challenge in our lives. I am going to continue running for as long as I can, so that should be an interesting experience and I know I'll be looking for tips from any women out there that are currently pregnant and running or have been pregnant and running.

Enjoy!

12 Week Visit

Baby-

You are going to be shocked when you get here and realize that your mother is a complete maniac and your father is a nice calm perfect man. Ok perfect might be stretching it...but not too far, you'll see.

Today at our 12 week doctors appointment they took my blood pressure and it was a bit high. And it was high because the nurse was terrifying and completely unfriendly and I want to ask her how she expects my blood pressure to be when she's just a terrifying robot in a nurses uniform. So that had me a little freaked out and the the doctor came in and gave me some tips about dealing with these fantastic headaches I've been getting lately. Turns out I need to drink more fluids. Apparently my blood volume is going to double (!) during the duration of your life in me and I just need to drink more fluids. I guess it's true that my headaches are a lot worse when I drink less, so there is probably something to that.

Then she used this little doppler machine to try and find your heart beat. The first thing she did was let me hear what my heartbeat sounded like and she was surprised because it was racing (I wasn't surprised) then she started looking for your little heartbeat. And she looked and looked....and I started to panic, and I might have cried a tear or two. She said it was totally normal and went to get the ultrasound machine. Your dad tried to calm me down which didn't work because I couldn't believe that I couldn't hear what you sounded like and yes....you'll find I tend to panic for no real good reason.

So she came back in with the machine and we got to see your very strong and beautiful heart beating and I had an easier time seeing it this time around. You currently have a *huge cranium* which is expected as I guess right now you are 50% head and 50% body. Then I was sad because you were sleeping in there and you wouldn't wake up....until I started laughing. I laugh a lot, so maybe you like when I laugh....I have a good loud laugh, I think you'll like it.

So everything looks great with you in there, and your mom is just manic and your dad is going to be your calm stable go to guy. You'll see, he's really the best.

Hey there, you are now somewhat less tiny!

Hey baby -

Today you Mom (or uteral-exterior-mass as you know her) and I had a twelve week visit with the doctor in the hope of hearing your heart beat. Turns out, no dice. We couldn't hear anything.

But don't worry! You have a heart beat! Geez, I bet I scared you there. You were all, whoa, are things not working, I bet. Actually, that's not true. You actually were probably thinking "what's a heart beat? I'm only 12 weeks old." Or maybe you were thinking "hey, I can't read. How did I know you said anything about a heart beat?" I will accept any of these as valid answers. But anyway, let's get back on topic. We didn't hear a heart beat because you were hiding your heartbeat from the nice doctor lady and her sonar machine. She tried for a bit to get a signal, but no go, and finally she gave up and went to get the real ultrasound machine. I probably don't have to tell you that your mom got a little upset and panicky when the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat. You know how she is.

Wait, you don't? Well, you will soon enough.

But with the ultrasound, we were able to see your itty bitty heart flutter and see you hanging around in there. Turns out you were actually sleeping and wouldn't move. The doctor kept pushing at your uterin home, but you wouldn't wake up. Perhaps a good sign for you future sleep-deprived parents? But finally a couple laughs from your mom woke you up and you started to move around all crazy like. Actually, it looked kind of like me dancing at a wedding.

Sleeping and a bad dancer? Maybe you really are my child.

See you in 28 weeks,
-Dad

Fun Things For You To Know

Hey there Baby. Well I'm feeling better which I'm excited about. Thank you for not making me feel like I'm coming down with a flu every day, it's the small improvements.

We went for a 3 mile run without your Dad last night. Dad is starting to train for a 1/2 marathon that's on August 2nd and he can't be running 11ish minute miles with us if he wants to finish the race in any kind of reasonable time. So we three ran together for 5 minutes and then your Dad took off. This was fine except without him next to me, I wasn't sure if I could have a conversation and hence I didn't know if I was going too fast. I think I finished a bit faster than usual, at about 31:30 instead of closer to 33:00, but still not too bad.

I've decided that I'm going to train with your grandpa for the 2010 Chicago marathon. I'm guessing you'll be going on a lot of those runs with us, hope you like your baby jogger!

So I thought I was over the tired, and into the feel better phase, but after the run last night and a yummy dinner (that's right! you get to eat dinner cause my evening nausea has passed) I thought I would pick up some knitting and work on a blanket I'm trying to finish. Instead I was curious as to what would happen if I tipped over on the couch and it turns out I would fall asleep. 8pm Baby. You made me fall asleep at 8pm. At about 9pm, your Dad suggested we go to bed so I stumbled into the bathroom, brushed my teeth and feel asleep in bed in about 5 seconds flat. Yeah. Then I slept till 6:30. I hope that this sleeping pattern continues for you after you arrive.

We are currently in our 12th week, which I think marks that we are exiting the danger zone. We have a doctors appointment in a week where your dad and I are hoping to hear your heart beating.

I'm feeding you some coffee this morning. Don't freak out, it's going to be a bit more than you are used to. That's because as you'll find out that "small" doesn't really mean small, it means 12oz and that's the edge of the edge of my limit for coffee. Yeah that's right...I'm drinking coffee after sleeping 10 hours. I just find the taste to be delicious!

iMeow....Meeeeeeeow!....Naughty Kitty

So I've been so flippin busy these last five days and so I'm finally getting around to blogging about an awesome new iPhone app that you should try.

A couple months ago I was talking to my boss and mentioned that a screaming cat is a really funny noise and that I would pay $0.99 for an iPhone app that would make said noises. After that I started working on it in the studio and this past Friday it was accepted in the app store. First try too!

A big thanks to Turner, Nate, Jake and Roy for all their help with getting the app up and running and then submitted to the app store. If you are interested in having your own iMeow cat, check out the app here : iMeow (iTunes link)

It's a funny and silly good time. Enjoy!

Finally Food You Seem to Like!!!

Baby JasonLeah you have the best Dad in the world.

You've been making me not want to eat anything. Daddy will say to me, "Do you want some .... um...pasta for dinner". And Mommy will glare back and him and say, "Does it freakin' look like I want pasta" as my eyes droop down, and tear up as I realize I'm just so sleepy that the effort to eat food is above and beyond anything that I can handle right now. Add to that fact that all food sounds super gross just makes me mad because I know I have to give you all kinds of good food to grow well in there.

Lunch has been a continuing problem as I thought Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches would be a good solution, until last week when I looked at said PB&J sandwich and wished I could just stomp on it rather than eat it.

You Dad has been trying to come up with combinations of food that I will think are delicious and tasty and he did it for lunch today! He grilled up some chicken last night, and made me a sandwich out of it. Add some pepper jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo and mustard and I have a really happy belly right now. I think you like the spicy because I always seem to be able to get that down without a problem.

So enjoy your sandwich and we'll talk soon.

Running Long...or should I say "Long"

Hey there Baby.

Today I decided that we were ready to attack a 4 mile run. I was told by the doctors (you'll be meeting them in a short 30 weeks) that I could run for 30-45 minutes. Given how slow I've gotten lately, 4 miles should take me between 40 and 44 minutes, so given that it's Sunday (your Dad and I's usual long run day), I thought we should give 4 miles a try.

So off we went. I wore shorts and a white tank top and I'm noticing the belly you are giving me more and more. I especially notice it when I'm running. I'm wondering if you expand when I'm running...I don't know but it's weird for me for sure. I *might* look at myself in windows when I'm running and these days I'm like holy hell what is that below my chest...oh that's you!

Anyways. off we went. The test for if I'm running too fast is if I can keep a conversation going. Your dad has been great in slowing me down when he notices that I'm laboring a bit to tell some super boring story so he lags back a bit and forces me to slow down. I got a bit of a side stitch and so I had to walk for about 5 minute, but finished up the 4 miles in 44 minutes. SO our goal is to run 3 miles Monday, Wednesday and Friday and then 4 miles on Sunday.

Well that's my plan. Your dad is going to start training for a half marathon next week and so I'll just be running on my own, which makes me worry about the talking test as it will just look like I'm a crazy person talking to myself, but ah well, I'll just be one of the many in this great city. I'm going to miss training with your Dad, as I'm realizing this will be the first race we won't run together. I'll be coaching him though and making sure that he sticks to the plan. And I'm guessing I'll be making him some running mixes to put on his iPod during the speed workouts which I suspect will be more difficult for him to do on his own. Your Dad's really tough though and so he'll be fine.

Alright, well I didn't let you take a nap yesterday and so we'll say that it's you who got really cranky last night and as we don't want that happen again, I should probably go get in a nap.

Being One of the Only

I get it. I'm a girl in a field that's dominated by men and I have been for a long time. I do think that software development is even behind the physics community which is saying something. I'm still on some Fermilab mailing lists and the other day I saw an e-mail about a "Women Scientists and parenting" meeting/users group or something to that effect. My question was immediately why isn't there is a group for men scientists and parenting. It always feels like the science community looks at women who have children and they wonder how they can do both, and yet they don't give that regard to men. But I'm not in physics anymore and that's one of the reasons that I decided to leave.

In software development so far it seems that the Woman to Men ratio is even smaller than in physics. I don't actually have a problem with this 95% of the time because I've always been a tom boy, gotten along better with men (Did you know Jason and I were good friends for about a year and a half before we started dating). I can totally hang as "one of the dudes". It's been joked about at my company, Obtiva, that I'm more of one of the dudes than the dudes themselves given my love for any kind of sporting event. Many times, I've been all, "Did you see that great catch Reed Johnson made last night" and I get the "What's a Reed Johnson" look. I laugh and they laugh and we move on. The guys at Obtiva are a great bunch of dudes and I've never felt uncomfortable around them and we can do the give and take thing and everyone is fine and nothing is over the line. So, right, 95% of the time, I'm totally fine.

Then there is the other 5% of the time. The times when a client will say something to me that would never be said to man or similarly say a "funny comment about some hot chick" and everyone will laugh and I'll be like, "wait, I don't get it" or, more to the point, I totally get it but I realize that I don't get to be part of the joke or, at that point, part of the group.

Recently there was a talk given by Matt Aimonetti at GoGaRuco which had images of scantily clad women. Read: a few soft core porn scenes. The first slide has the title of the talk, with a woman's butt in a G-string next to it. Don't believe me? Go here and you can see that slide plus a few others....a full on porn scenes etc etc. (Probably NSFW as I discovered when I started looking through the talk). There has been, as you can imagine, a lot of internet buzz going around about it. I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to find all that, because I don't want to get into the back and forth about who said what and rather I just wanted to discuss how this made me feel.

I didn't know about this when we sat down for our weekly studio meeting at Obtiva and when it was brought up I was very very upset. It's not that I'm a prudish kind of person, but Jeezus could you be more unprofessional? The conference organizer said that if anyone at Google, Apple of Microsoft did anything like that they would be fired immediately. What's the most disappointing, I think, is the fact that higher members of the Rails community are all for it. Hell yes, let's use the power of sex to get people to pay attention. Or wait...how about just sharing knowledge without it being gimmicky? Be funny and clever because you are...not because you are going to one tried and true thing that might work because you know 95% of your audience will respond the way you want and that's really what you care about...getting to the majority of the crowd.

This post is getting too long and I even waited 12 hours before writing it so it wouldn't be ranty and long and all WOMEN POWERY. In the end, it's like those awkward moments. It's part of that 5% of the time that I don't get to be a part of it. Put naked women on slides at a talk, have it approved by the conference, make jokes about it and I can laugh because I get what the joke is, but it's another time that I'm not actually a part of it. I have to stand on the outside of the inner circle and realize that not yet are women really invited to be a part of this community. I'm not ok with that.

As I said earlier the employees of Obtiva have an attitude that is 180 degrees from that behavior. I am happy that Todd Webb brought it up at our meeting because even though that behavior is not present at Obtiva, I think it's still good to say, "Oh hey by the way, we should be aware that this happened and we aren't ok with that". Thank you to Tom Kersten, Jake Scruggs and Dave Hoover for their blog posts in response (apoloiges to any other Obtivians who have posted and I haven't seen it yet).

Hi

Hi Baby Inside Your Mommy's Belly -

It seems that you've been letting up a bit on your mom recently, which is nice. She stayed up all the way until after 10 on Saturday and she's been up until after 9 on multiply weekdays now! It's really very exciting! We're like Britney and K-Fed with our new nightlife (are they still together? Is that reference about 11 months out of date?).

We've been wondering a lot recently whether you're a boy or girl. Everyone seems to think you're a boy, but I have to admit I go back and forth. I'd say I'm about 50% certain you're a boy. Yeah, that's about right. But what I hear is, if you are a boy, your testes (heh) are going to start making the testosterone. I don't know why, but I think it's absolutely bizarre that the little sleeping grey blob we say inside your mom's belly is going to start making testosterone if you're a boy. I guess, just in case, now's when I should tell you that wrestling isn't real and no, I don't know where to find the nearest monster truck rally.

If you're a girl, I'm not 100% sure what would be happening (presumably no testes). I didn't read that part. It seems to me that, at least in the womb, what you don't have is more important than what you do have (you'll note that they always say, "there's the penis" or "nope, not a penis to be found" and not "oops, no vagina. It's a boy". And, of course, you're a baby so I should have said Hoo-Hoo and Pee-Pee. I've got a lot to get used to before you arrive). I don't really think that's fair.

I'm not sure that I had a lot of point in this post, other than to be amazed at the fact that, inside that womb, is not a thing but something that's trying to becomes a baby boy or girl. That's crazy. So Congrats on the continued development of body part and good luck in your quest to have a gender.

3 Miles Monday, Sunshine Cleaning Tuesday

Monday we stuck with our every other day running to get aggregated to training ... well every other day, and did a nice three miles on the lakefront path. We've been running south because I really love the path between Belmont and Fullerton.... kinda monotonous, but so pretty and fun so it's ok.

Yesterday we decided to walk a bit even though it was kind of cool outside, and as we were walking we realized that we were really close the the River East 21 Movie theater. I took out my handy dandy iPhone, using the app Showtimes and found out that Spring Cleaning was playing in 30 minutes. So we stopped at a Dominicks and grabbed some pizza slices and headed over. It's a good movie, and just fun to randomly stop at the theater.

Tonight we are going to run...yep you guessed it...3 miles! And actually we'll probably do that again tomorrow because on Friday we have dinner plans at Pizza Grinders! Yay for pizza pot pies.

Other than that...just work, running, oh...and the big knitting project I'm working on needs to be completed (try to be anyways...) by next weekend. AND I'm reviewing a book which needs to be done by next weekend...but that's really this weekend because my Mom is flying in for Mother's Day next weekend. So. Right. Good thing we aren't doing anything else this weekend.

Oh and I think we'll hit up Yolk again this weekend. So right...that's about it. Happy Mid week all.

Do You Like Running?

Hey there Baby, so your Dad and I have been running... although I suppose you can't tell if he's running but I'm wondering if you can tell that me and you are running. Do you bounce around in there? Are you holding on to things going, "What the What is this woman doing?" I feel better if I run, so I'm assuming you like it. I've slowed down quite a bit, but I'm still trying to run 3 miles 4 days a week. I'm thinking I've got much more slowness to go as the time goes on but even if I can continue with slowing running/walking 12 miles a week I'll be happy. We also took you for a 7 mile walk on Sunday, which I think you thoroughly enjoyed.

In other news around your world, I like to think that I'm starting to feel better, but you've made me very tired these last few days and yesterday while I was at work, I'm pretty sure I was sleeping with my eyes open at times during the day. You also made me throw up in a dirty alley downtown on Saturday morning...although I'm not blaming you for that. I'm a pretty smart lady as you'll find out...but I took some vitamins before I ate anything....and then rode the el downtown to meet cousin Lisa (you'll really like her, she's fun!) for breakfast. So that one is kinda on me...but wow, that wasn't a good time. I think your Dad was laughing at how mad I was at the situation...I'm hoping he wasn't laughing *at* me, but I'm sure he actually was.

We get more and more excited to meet you and are already planning your first summer, along with trips to visit your Baba in Florida and your Grandpa wherever his boat is. We are going to be running the Chicago marathon in 2010, so you'll get lots of long rides in your baby jogger next summer. So....right, I think you'll think it's fun. Do you think I'm kind of crazy for planning things a year+ in advance? Most people do, but that doesn't stop me...you'll find out I like having things planned :).

I hope you're enjoying your Week 10.

Great Weekend Depise Some Showers

Another great weekend for your fearless duo. Friday night through Sunday night were exactly how summer weekends in Chicago should be. Friday night we got home and grilled out for the first time this season. Jason made his delicious hamburgers and I made potatoes and asparagus (which...I'm sorry, we just can't seem to get right...we put them in the steamer and it's just they are too finiky with how long they need to be in there). We spent most of the evening on the back porch and when we were done eating we walked to the Dairy Queen that is about a mile from our house. Apparently between 8 and 9 pm is when you go out and walk your dog/push a stroller. It was just one of those great Chicago nights where everyone was out.

On Saturday morning we met my lovely cousin Lisa and her husband at my new favorite breakfast place, Yolk, downtown. We had a great time with them as usual, and then from there we walked a bit north and jumped on the Red Line at lake, and back home. From there we threw on some running clothes, went out for an easy breezy three miler, took some naps and then headed out the Des Plaines to hang out with my friend Jean and her husband.

Sunday looked like it was going to be a stinker. I didn't sleep that well and still got up really early. I was craving some french toast and so I made some, and was really impressed with how easy they were (has to be as it was one of my Dad's staple meals...although with kraft dinner...ok it was one of two meals) AND delicious. After eating breakfast I promptly fell asleep on the couch. After a short cat nap, we ran to the jewel as we were getting low on supplies, came home, watched the Cubs...napped (shocking!!!). After the game, the rain stopped and I checked weather.com and noticed that there was no more rain in the forecast. So we went on one of our usual long long long walks and actually found a route that we hadn't walked before. We walked north on Sheffield to Montrose, over to the lake, all around the harbor and back. I clocked out how far we walked and it was almost 7 miles. No wonder our feets were screaming by the time we got home.

Finished off the weekend with a delicious dinner, some DVR and a movie.

I just love weekends where you don't exactly do anything...but it seems like you did everything. Awesome. Summer is here in Chicago (I hope!)

Not Knowing What You Are Good At

What are you good at? It seems like an easy question right? You get interested in something in college (or earlier) you take classes in said topic and get a job in said field. Or maybe you are so overly enthusiastic about the field you go on to get an advanced degree in said subject (ok maybe you just wanted to see if you can push the start button at the biggest particle detector in the world).

Sometimes you end up realizing that aren't that enthusiastic about what you got your degree in, or start poking around in another field that has some similarities and start moving your life in a new direction. Maybe you just think you aren't good at what you are doing.

I was talking to my Dad the other day and he laughed and said, "Leah, you've never thought you were good at what you were doing at the time." I laughed with him and agreed. I always look back on things I have done and with the usual 20/20 hindsight (I might have just said,"Jason what's that word...you know like back vision". How that man is still in love with me is beyond me) and realize that I was good at whatever it was I was doing, even though I didn't feel it at the time. Hell I was good at selling shoes at Sportmart when I was 16. I mean that's just like a PhD in physics right? No? Ok maybe not.

My new (not that new anymore, but still pretty new) job has taken me on an even stranger path than I thought it was going to when I accepted it. I was in a mathematics, physics, sciency, engineering career for over 10 (!) years and so moving into software development with no previous formal training was a scary step for me to take. When I decided to go into software development it was because I thought could take those logic skills that I had developed over the years and apply them to programming and become a better more organized programmer in the process. Only I've found myself being in positions where I've been applying design to websites and getting frustrated at being put in that role because, Damnit I'm a physicist! I dropped out of the one art class I took in college how can I be good providing any value saying that the brown looks better and should be all of the background instead of two colors. Or, wait, what if we do this with the design instead which would make things a bit easier for the user to follow.

I had a talk with one of my bosses a few days ago about how the apprenticeship is going and we talked about my level of design ability. Not that I am saying here that I'm a designer by *any* means, but I can get through enough to provide value. I mentioned that it's frustrating that people think I'm good at the design when I have such a strong mathematics background and I don't really know how that's possible. He laughed and said, I don't know but you are. I've been thinking about that conversation for the last few days and even while I was in physics, my designy self stepped in frequently. Now it might have only shown up in my talks, and the graphs I would make...but I was able to make plots, and talks that were well designed, looked good and got the point of what I was trying to say across very clearly. Well that and I talk *really* loud when I give talks, so the point gets across :).

For those of you that have been following my photoblog you know that I've been getting pretty deep into photography and while I like to think that I've always had the eye for the picture, I've never been so good at the developing of picture. I've been teaching myself to navigate through photoshop for the sake of my photos and I keep thinking about it as my off work hours hobby and it doesn't really apply to work things. But in these last few weeks, I've been able to provide value to my company because of that ability to navigate through Photoshop relatively quickly, and add some nice design elements to whichever site I'm working on. It's nice when your personal interests and your job start to merge together.

After talking to the aforementioned boss, I've realized that I don't have to be frustrated at doing something I might be good at just because it's not what I have focused my energy on for the past 11 years. Maybe for once I should just breathe, think about the value I'm can add and enjoy it. We also talked about how I don't want to get shoved into a designer roll only because I can do it with some competence but to move around and learn all aspects of software development. I might not be able to jump the highest in graphic design, given my lack of ability to actually draw anything, but I really enjoy that I can add value on a consistant level and get the fun pieces of design in place.

Yesterday for example was a great day: I did some great pairing on some backend work on a small site we are developing, worked through a funny failing spec problem with Jake Scruggs (ok, I watched him figure it out but I learned not to ever do what the problem was. I'll discuss that problem over here on the Software Apprentice Tips blog shortly) added in some new design elements to that site, helped out with our company's webpage (using a photo I took as one of the style points on the page) and did a bit of photoshop work on another application I am working on. A little bit of everything helps the day move along, and I get to flex the small muscles I am gaining in the designy stuff.

It's not about forcing yourself to be in a box. It's about looking through the windows of the box, seeing something that could be interesting and charging forward. If you stay in the box, and continue to be mad that you aren't interested in what's in the box, and you're frustrated because you aren't yet great at what is outside of the box...well that just makes for a long and boring life. So step outside the box AND enjoy it. As my Dad says, "Life's good. Good and short." Get as most of it that you can, and have fun doing it.

There you are

Hey little blob thing -

So yesterday your mommy (you know her. She's the one you're slowly trying to kill by sucking out all her energy. But don't worry. It's totally different than being a parasite...in some way) and I got to see you through the magic of sound and some sort of wand thingy (don't ask). And you know what? You look like a gummy bear! I'm not sure if that means you look like your mother or father, but either way I think it's a good sign.

But regardless, no matter what anyone else says, I think you're cute. All curled up in your little bag of waters, probably desperately trying to suck your thumb except that you don't have a thumb...or the ability to suck. It's terribly adorable.

So anyway, it was really nice to meet you. We're really excited to see you at the next ultrasound when we'll be able to hear your heartbeat and see some arms and legs and stuff. We're also looking forward to when you stop stealing all your mom's energy. We've forgotten what prime time TV looks like.

Have fun swimming in the amniotic fluid!
-Dad

I See You!

Hey Baby!

We had our first ultrasound yesterday morning and your Daddy and I got to see you in there. You have a very tiny flickering in the center of your body, which is apparently your heart beating. I had to stay laying back on the table and I kept wanting to lean forward to stick my face right in front of the screen to see it but the Doctor kept telling me I had to stay relaxed. But I saw it, and your Daddy really got a good look at it. Right now ... well yesterday morning you were 1.87 cm long. I wonder how much you grow in just one day....

You Daddy and I think that you look like a gummy bear, and don't worry that's not an insult to you because as you'll learn in your life we *love* candy and gummy bears are right at the top of the list...well maybe after sour patch kids and lemonheads, and we are glad you don't look like a lemonhead. We also think you're kinda cute, and look like you're sleeping and when we look at your picture it makes us smile.

You are still making Mommy *very* tired. Yesterday we walked to the doctors office and then all the way to work and I felt like I was dead for most of the day. I could barely keep my eyes open when we got home which made me sad because we were going to go for a run. Well maybe we'll get a run in tonight. I hope I'm get back my full "LET'S DO EVERYTHING" attitude when you get here, or at least in a couple of weeks!

The weather in Chicago is changing for the better. Two days ago it was 30 degrees, and today it will be in the 70s and 80s tomorrow. You'll grow to love Chicago as much as your parents, although I suspect you'll hate March and April as much as we do....well April starts the baseball season and so it's a step above March.....In my opinion March could just be deleted from the calendar. Although....I suppose you were conceived in March and so I take it back, it's my favorite month!

Alright, well it's time for your mommy to go to work.

Very Cool iPhone App

I follow quite a few photo blogs, and one of the ones I follow (greyscalegorilla) has recently made this ShakeItPhoto iPhone application. It uses the iPhone camera to take a picture, but then develops it as a Polaroid. My dad gave me a Polaroid camera when I was a little kid and I loved it. Not only is it funny in that you can shake the phone to make it develop faster, but the photos seem to have been developed to look more like how the polaroid film looked like. Careful though, as I was demoing the shaking feature to Jason yesterday, I shook the phone right out of my hand and into a revolving door. No shattering yet though. Here's some photo examples from it. Enjoy!

Just When I Thought I Was Out...They Pull Me Back In

And when I say "they" I mean the nugget and when I say "thought I was out", I mean out of the tired arena of pregnancy. (Also the sore chest...but my dad reads this blog so let's just say the girls were not happy two nights ago at about 2am. At. All.)

Nope. I went to bed at 8:30 last night. For real, like I couldn't stay up one minute longer and so had to go to bed. I am such a rock star. I also then slept until 6:30. I feel really good in the mornings though, so I got that going for me.

Today marks the end of week 8! Which is good cause nothing terrible has happened yet. On Wednesday of next week I'll be getting the first ultrasound which both Jason and I are looking forward to. I'm tired of thinking there is no baby and he's tired of hearing me tell him that I think there is no baby, so we'll be happy to really see it in there. I'm thinking this whole thing will just get a little bit more real at that point.

My good friend from high school is also pregnant and so that's been a lot of fun for both of us I think. She's about 9 weeks ahead of me and having a good pregnancy so it's been really really fun talking to her about working while pregnant, the fun wake ups at 1 or 2 in the morning. She's a chemist and works in a male dominated field and with me in software development...well right, there aren't many woman (read :none) so it's been great having her available for pregnancy comments/questions. AND she gets to go through it all first.

I've been running...although slow and steady. Now that it seems that the weather has made a nice 180 degree turn, it should be easier to get out there every other day (that's my basic plan). Jason and I run 20 minutes out, then 10 more minutes (total of about 3 miles) and then finish by walking home. Starting on May 11th, Jason will start training for the Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon that is on August 2nd and I'll be trying to think of ways to help. I'm probably going to try and ride my bike with him for his long runs until I can't lean over my belly anymore, and I'm sure we'll be clever with some other ways to keep me involved as his coach. We live across the street from a track and so I'm going to sit on the side and cheer him on while he does his laps for speed work. Whatever it is we'll figure something out.

So Right Week 8 Done. And Done. I will be publishing all of these probably in about a week or so. I just want to get through the ultrasound before I post anything. I just would love to hear from other women who are pregnant and runners and see how they are getting along in the process.

Here We Go Again

Apparently with the random posting. Sheesh, it's been forever since I posted on here last night. Things have been busy and kind of crazy in the JasonLeahRun household these last few weeks, thus putting the posting into a stalled state. The running however has not been in a stalled state. We are just working on getting back to running 4 times a week and for now we are just running for 30 minutes at a time. We seem to have finally hit a rhythm which is a nice feeling.

Work has been busyish as well. I'm working on some new pages for Obtiva's web page which has been an interesting ride in making some IE-6 pages work. Finally got it though, even though it might be a bit of a hacky solution.

So that's all from here. I'm taking a day off today because my brother-in-law + family are here and I'm going to play with my nieces instead of playing with software so that should be a good time.

Listen Here Baby

So I'm tired. Tired. Tired. Tired. I take naps on the weekends that could rival some people's nightly sleep times. Then I go to bed at 10 and bang on the alarm at 6 and still sleep for another hour. I am not one to sleep that much in general. I'm usually one to be, "HEY LET'S GO DO SOMETHING". Even if the weather is crappy out I always up for a movie or shopping or WHATEVER. Yesterday we thought about going to see Sunshine Cleaning and stopped at the Jewel for some lunch food before hand. I got all hot and tired and bothered at the store and so decided to stick at home for the rest of the afternoon.

So Baby, I love you and I am hoping that I'm making a nice home for you to enjoy for the next 7 months and 1 week but I gotta say that I'm looking forward to getting out of this first trimester so that I can have a bit more energy. I think your dad is also looking forward to getting out of this first trimester as I think that he wants his fun loving wife to come out from under this sleepy woman that has invaded his house.

I hope you are doing ok in there. When you get to know me, you'll understand how hard these first few weeks were. The not knowing things makes your mother crazy. But apparently you are forming your mouth and throat right now, and I'm just hoping beyond hope that you are going to get your father's teeth and jaw structure instead of mine as otherwise you are going to be in for a lifetime of annoyances.

Drugged

That's how I felt last night when I went to bed. I was asleep just about when my head hit the pillow..

*side note: Jason and I went from being relatively hip, to going to bed hyper early and watching VHS movies on our old box TV. Now....right now we are watching the orignal Star Wars movies. I think in most people's eyes my stock would have fallen a little bit, and my nerd level would have gone through the roof. In Jason's eyes however, holy hell did my stock rise. You mean you WANT to watch Star Wars. Awesome!

...ok so I got through like one space fight scene and I was out. I didn't move all night and woke up when my alarm went off at 6am. I seriously was so out of place that I thought it was Saturday which is quite the disgusting thought when it's only Wednesday morning. I went to the bathroom and climbed back in bed feeling like I had only slept a few hours. I didn't work out yesterday but did go for about a 2 mile walk....really that much activity knocked me out? I wonder how I'm going to feel tonight when I go for a 3 mile run. I might also try to go to the gym and lift a weight or two depending on the weather and if we could walk back from the gym without freezing out asses off.

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment just to talk about dos and don'ts and get a medical history type thing. I'm a fairly healthy person and so that's all good news, and the practice seems really good, AND I'll get to deliver at a brand new hospital right downtown. Whee! Jason and I are both looking forward to the ultra sound that will come on April 22nd. Have I said that before? Probably. Note...I like to know that everything is ok, and the fact that there is a black box in my uterus right now is driving. me. crazy.

So we wait, and read more books about the fact that the baby right now is about the size of a grain of rice and hope that it's a grain of rice with a forming brain.