I had some success yesterday with regards to my running.  I have been very careful since the sore foot incident (which was never resolved I might add) so I ran for 45min on the treadmill at the gym on Friday.  Saturday arvo took the dog for a very long walk and then last night attempted another 10km.  The circuit that took me nearly 1hr 20min last week took only 56min 57sec last night. 

Very Happy

This coming Sunday is the ASIC 10km fun run.  My ex husband is also competing so there is a little bit of rivalry going on.  Lets face it, he will kick my butt but I love the challenge.

Last night I was set to go for a jog - 2nd one since my mysterious foot injury - and my sister suggested I take her dog Bailey.  Now this picture is from when he was 11 months old (yes don't be fooled by the pink blanket he is a boy) and he is now 7 months old.

So I thought why not it would be good to have the company.  I wasn't sure how he would go with the distance, I had planned to be out for an hour and I don't think he had ever gone that far.

I didn't count on the unpredictability of a puppy.  After half an hour of dealing with him running in front of me to get a cyclists, dogs, ducks, other joggers, walkers and imaginery things that I couldn't see I gave up.

We walked the rest of the time but I did make him go up some fairly big hills to compensate for the jog I was missing out on.  I won't be taking him again for the training run but he was fun to walk with.  Everyone wants to say hello when you have a cute dog at your heels.

Ballet

As usual the weekend was full on.  Mia had a sleep over at Pappa's on Friday night but I had to pick her up at 7.30am to take her to ballet, apparently she wasn't too impressed about being woken up when it was still dark.  Daddy came to watch on Saturday which made her a little shy and she didn't participate as much as she did last week.  Oh well baby steps.

Gift Buying

Afterwards we went to Garden City Shopping Centre for Mia to chose Easter gifts for daddy, pappa and Marie, a birthday present for her friend Jaxon and a soft toy for each of the twins that were born a couple of weeks ago.  More friends to add to the collection.

She was very serious in choosing her Easter gifts, she didn't want anyone to have the same thing it took a long time but she finally settled on 3 very distinctly different gifts and it didn't cost me a fortune which was also a plus (sorry guys if you are reading this)

Good Memory

The afternoon was spent cleaning and playing games with Mia, she loves what we call the memory game.  When we were kids it was played using cards.  All the cards lined up in a grid picture side down then you take turns turning two cards over at a time, if they match you get to keep them and have another turn, if they don't you turn them back over and the next person takes their turn and so on.

These days it is a little more flash, Mia has a Dora the Explora version that she got for her birthday, they are little disks with pictures of dora and her friends.  I always knew that Mia had a great memory but she beats nearly everyone she plays at this game.  Has anyone else noticed this in their kids?

Hey there, finally got a photo of Mia and Zali ready for ballet.  Not sure why but this photo is being posted for the 13th when it is actually Friday the 14th as I sit here and type.  I assume it has something to do with the time settings on Minti? 

Last night I was at a friends place for dinner with Mia and his 3 kids.  We were talking about our favourite thing to do and Tyler's (6yrs) response was "buy icecream" I asked him what his favourite flavour was and he said "lemonade".  I then said my mum's favourite was lemonade as well.

There was a slight pause and Tyler says "But your mum is dead", before I could responsd Mia says "is your mum Grandma Terry"?  I told her yes and she replied with "But she died".

I love the matter of fact responses from these guys, I couldn't help but smile whilst I explained that yes she has died but she did have favourites when she was alive.  This seemed to satisfy them and they moved on.

Saturday morning brought with it the 2nd class of ballet for Mia.  We got up in the dark to get to the 8am class rather than the 8.30am as the group was smaller with less experienced kids.  Can you believe there are less experienced ballet dancers when you are 4 years old.

We picked up another little one (Zali) on the way and it was to be her first time, but my theory was confidence in numbers.  We were the first to arrive and Mia actually spoke to the teacher - a good start.  Her and Zali spent the next 10min waiting for class to start skipping from one side to the other holding hands.

When the class started Zali turned into Mia from last week.  Like a deer in headlights not wanting to move or respond.  Surprisingly though Mia got into it and skipped and pointed her toes with the rest of the class.  It did take 10 minutes to convince Mia to stop holding Zali's hand though :)

At the end of the class as I promised her I took Zali and Mia to the ballet shop to buy them their outfits and shoes.  Luckily I was able to get quite a lot second hand from the ballet school otherwise it would have cost a fortune.  I will post a photo as soon as one is available.

The rest of the day was spent planting new plants in the garden.  The kids helped me put the new soil from the wheel barrow into buckets so I could put it on the flower bed.  We are now the proud owners of some passionfruit trees (which Mia thinks are eggplant trees), a lime tree and some hedging.

Back in the day when I was on Minti last time I was training for an open water swim held here in Perth - Rottnest Channel Swim - it is the biggest open water swim held in the world (as far as number of entrants) 19.2km if you swim in a straight line between Cottesloe and Rottnest Island.

I have completed the crossing in a team of 4 on two occasions but this past 6 months have been training to complete the crossing in a duo.  The training was hard, staying motivated was harder.  To help we went to a seminar held by Shelley Taylor Smith over the Christmas break (marathon swimmer) and she gave us a lot of tips to keep us motivated including the suggested of joining a swim squad.

We joined our local pool and they were a god send. That extra motivation when you are swimming with a group goes a long way - and of course my new favourite mantra - if you don't quit you will make it - I used that alot both before and during the swim.

The event was held on Saturday 16th February and we made it.  7 hours 51 minutes 40 seconds.  Our goal had been to break 8 hours so we were very happy.

So what's next:

Well I am the sort of person who cannot continue exercise without a goal, so we have entered the Bussleton Half Iron Man to be held in May.  The event is 1.9km swim, 90.1km bike ride and 21.1km run.  I am only doing the run part and started my training a couple of days after Rotto.

I am no runner and certainly haven't tried to run in a very long time so I am struggling a bit.  Particularly with sore feet - if anyone has any suggestions that would be great.

The event is 7 weeks away and coming up fast - stay tuned on how training progresses.

It all started on the 30th December 2007 - Mia's 4th birthday.  She was given a ballerina barbie doll which came with a CD with 4 songs from swan lake on it.  Ever since she has been asking to learn ballet.

I must admit I have resisted it as the thought of costumes and dance recitals didn't exactly fill me with excitement + her dad was trying to organise some piano classes and I felt that one thing a week outside of day care and kindy was enough.

Piano classes fell though so with great trepidation I did my research and found a ballet class held on Saturday mornings.

She was so excited counting down the sleeps until her first class.  On the morning of she bounded out of bed got dressed and ate breakfast with no complaints.

We arrived 15min early and watched the class before hers and she was still excited.  All this ended the minute it was her turn in the class.  She did not move.  One of the teachers tried to encourage her but Mia just kept shaking her head with the most defiant look on her face.

So for half an hour all the other kids danced around her whilst she stood and stared.  A few of the other mother's were telling me not to worry and that it is common for them to take a few weeks to warm up.  I was also worried that these mum's would think I have forced her to come.

After we left she was a little quiet but after a while decided she did want to come back next week and would like a ballet dress.  I have told her she can't have the dress until she dances.  I also know that she took notice of what was happening as later that afternoon she was showing me some of the steps that the other kids had been doing...

Seriously she drives me crazy sometimes...stay tuned for the next ballet installment next week.