Fuel Belt

It seems as though I am not the only runner (can I call myself a "runner" yet??) who has had the question/problem of: "What do I use to hold my hydration when I run? Everything sucks!" So, as promised, my review of my new fuel belt: Nathan Speed 4R

Overall: i love it. I recommend it.

The deets: I went for a 3 mile run today with it, and had 2 bottles filled (there are 4, 10 oz. bottles.) I did get a little bit wet on my left leg pretty early on in the run, so I don't know if it was not fully closed or over-full at that point. I didn't mind though: it was hot so it felt good. However, I don't want to waste my hydration! It didn't last throughout the run so it was probably due to one of those reasons.

The belt also didn't bounce around during the run at all. I finished the run with it in the same place as where it started. yay!! The bottles are easy to remove and replace, because they are held in by a hard plastic holster. They are also pretty high-flow so you really don't have to "try" to get any liquid out, which I really like. The construction of it is great. The belt is elastic and is closed by velcro, which allows you to really get a good fit. The sizes though (S, M, L) really do matter, which I didn't think it would. i didn't go running with the large but as soon as I put on the medium, I knew it was a million times better! So pay attention to that! If you click on the link, you'll see the two water bottles in the front have "race caps"...well mine doesn't. I don't even know what that is but none of them have it...so I don't really know what that's about! I like having the pockets as well - a smaller one on the side with the velcro and a bigger one in the back. Has been really nice to put my keys in, and you could put in you SmartTrip card or even iPod and not have to worry about it. The big one also has a clip in it which I like to attach my keys to, just because I'm paranoid, not because I think they'll fall out. Oh, it also has reflectors...safety first!

Pretty sweet pic, no? ;) Note the Garmin, too!
Perhaps I should review that too?? (it's amaaazing)

I also have this one, the Nathan Triangle...and it sucks. I'm glad some of the money I spent goes to Susan G. Komen, so it wasn't a complete waste. i do use the water bottle a lot though (throughout the day, and at the gym - not when I'm out on runs.) It bounced around like there's no tomorrow. i actually had to hold it in place. Needless to say I only ran a mile on that run!

Anyway, hope this helped :o)

Happy trails!

I also have a cute kid story that I didn't feel like creating a separate post for...
The story: He's 5 years old and I keep thinking possibly on the spectrum, but not diagnosed. Anyway, today I decided to target a little bit of social language. he's a grabber so we were practicing asking for a turn while blowing bubbles. (rough job, eh?)

We had some good back and forth going on after I modeled a few times, "Cute kid, it's my turn please!" and "how can you ask me nicely for your turn?" Well... after he had a few turns with bubbles, I said "OK Cute Kid, now it's Miss Sarah's turn please!" to which he responded, "No thank you, Miss Sarah!" Well... OK then.

Later, when I did finally get a turn, I blew an especially large number of bubbles and he said, "Ohhhhh nice!! Nice Miss Sarah! Good one!" Awww. Thank you, cute kid, for brightening my day.

This is not the cute kid. This is a cute kid I found in a search on Yahoo! Images.

Happy Birthday, Dad!!

Day, I hope your birthday is filled with lots of love & fun, and that all your birthday wishes come true!
Sending you lots of love on your day!

Another One Bites the Dust

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I Miss You, Pa

If roses grow in Heaven,

Lord, pick a bunch for me.

Place them in my Grandfather's arms

and tell him they're from me.

Tell him that I love and miss him,

and when he turns to smile,

place a kiss upon his cheek

and hold him for a while.

Because remembering him is easy,

I do it every day,

but there's an ache within my heart

that will never go away.

-Author Unknown

Can't believe I've been missing you for a year...

I love you, Pa

Cute Kid Moment of the Week

I know it's only Wednesday but I don't think any of my kids tomorrow can trump this cute kid moment. Let me set it up for you:

He's 5 years old. I'm seeing him for expressive & receptive language. It has been hotter than H-E-double hockey stick this week but also gorgeous and sunny! So, I've been doing a lot with water this week. I have a bin that is filled with water (maybe 1.5' long, 8" wide, 7" deep or so) that has all sorts of goods in it....squishy, stretchy lizards, squirty ducks, dolphins, mermaids, watering can, etc. You get the idea.

Ok so we're outside on the deck baking in the sun but really enjoying ourselves and having a water fight. The spanish-speaking only Nanny comes out with a nice tall glass of ice-cold water for me and a sippy cup of the same for cute kid. I get up to grab it from the Nanny so she doesn't have to come out in the heat and I hand him the sippy cup and I get ready to take a sip from my glass and.....

he tips his glass to me and says, "Cheers Miss Sarah!"

Happy Father's Day!!!

Any man can be a father, but it takes a special man to be a DAD!!

Happy Dad's Day to all the Dad's out there, and especially mine!

I love you so much!!
Thank you. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.
It's nice to know I always have someone in my corner supporting me!
Wishing (as usual!) that we could be home with you on this special day.
Miss you tons!!!

Yesterday was a really good and BUSY day!!! In the morning we completed our first 10K (6.21 miles!) It was really fun & was a good course too! Lots of hills but what goes up must come down! I LOVED running with my Garmin Forerunner! I had it set for a certain pace and it has a "virtual partner" where it shows "him" running and "me" running and tells me how far ahead/behind I am. That's a really awesome feature! Helps so much since i'm trying to increase my speed.

Anyway, luckily the race started at 8am so it beat the heat, somewhat. I finished in just over an hour (9:48/mile pace) and Chris finished in 55 mins or so (8:34/mile pace - WOW!)
We were really pleased with how we did for our first 10K and hope to do another one sometime in the near future!

We're trying to find a race for July (so far we've done one in April, May, and June and have one planned for August -- "Bolt for Babies" again, and we'll probably do Clarendon Day 10K in Sept then the half in October!)

After the race it was off to kickball playoffs! It started at 11 and we all assumed we'd be done by 12 since we only won 1 game all season (well technically 2, but it was because the other team forfeited.) To our surprise we won the first game...and then the 2nd...making it to the final 4! Then we played the purple team who kicked our butts last time we played them but we got an early lead. Long game/story short, we ended up tying the game up at the end, putting us into overtime. A few innings later, they beat us by 1 run. Gah!! Oh well, I (and everyone else) was fine with it since it was so HOT out and we were in the sun in the middle of The Mall for hours and hours longer than anyone expected! (from about 11am to 4:30ish...yikes!) It was a nice way to end the season though!! I really had a lot of fun playing kickball this season and I'm sure I will miss it!

PS- our "kids" turned 2 on Saturday! (6/19)
I miss these days when they would BOTH cuddle up with me! Luckily ClareBear is still a cuddlebug :)

FenBaby Oct 19,08 March 09; Oct 19,09...

wish we had one for Clarey but her size just isn't quite as..."impressive"

My SLP Wish List

My super fun SLP wish list. This is more for my good than yours. But there are some toys work materials that are on my "to-buy" list.

• Hokey Pokey Elmo...ANY Elmo, really. Every SLP's gotta have an Elmo!
• baby doll that is ALL plastic.. no fabric parts! Harder to find than you'd think!
• Bowling set
• Farm
• Tea Party
• Mega Bloks!
• L.L.Bean Tote - XL

Hey Mom & Dad - do we have any of this stuff at home? :)

So in other big news... I've been at my job for one year. Did you know that's never happened before? Also, June 16th marked my official 2 years of working as a Speech-Language Pathologist. After 2 years of marriage you're technically no longer considered a newlywed...so does 2 years of working in the field mean I'm no longer a newbie? :)

Also, I completed my 100 mile running goal! Now I get to buy my beautiful Garmin Forerunner!! Less than 4 months til the Half Marathon! (Holy crap!)

TGIF
(tomorrow)

Katie Visits

We had a great visit with Katie over the weekend! She flew in on Friday afternoon and when we got back here (from balto) we went to the pooool! It was really hot this whole week(end) so it felt so nice! That night we all went out to dinner and just relaxed here.

Saturday was pretty busy! And let me tell you, Katie was a trooper in the heat! It's really tough on you if you're not used to the heat & humidity, but it didn't stop her! We went into DC and walked around a LOT and saw all the sights since she hadn't been here in years. We went to the Pentagon City Mall on the way home and both got a couple things. After such a long day of walking & sweating, we hit up the pool again later in the afternoon, until the clouds rolled in. Luckily the rain stayed away!

Love this tree in the sculpture garden

this little house plays crazy tricks on your eyes!

Katie representin!

i didn't do a very good job taking this pic!

from the Rose Garden

yummy dinner @ Capitol City Brewing Company in Shirlington

Two random pictures for you:

our kitkats who loooove their carrier!

team photo of Here 4 Beer at our last game (playoffs on Saturday!)

i'm gonna miss those pink shirts!

Is that a pool in your tent, or are you just happy to see me...

We got back today from another wonderful weekend of camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains! We went back to the same place we spent our anniversary last year, Mathew's Arm Campground. On the way there we passed through a couple of quick, light sprinkles...nothing to cause us to worry. When we checked in with the Ranger, she told us the storms were over and we were in the clear. Yay!

She lies.

We got to our site, A17, and started pulling out the goods. The first thing I hear after I step out of the car was thunder. Off in the distance, just a low grumble. Ok. Let's just get this all set up! Just minutes after we set up, God unleashed a storm with all His fury! Holy. Crap. The wind! The rain! The thunder! The lightning! Ohhh, the lightning! Not only did we not get to have a campfire, but we didn't even get to cook dinner! So we chowed down on a box of Cheez-Its...no, that's not a complaint! So after "dinner" we settled down to some reading. Chris rolled over and said, "Oh fuck dear!" (hehe) My first thought was, "WHAT! Did we get struck by lightning?!?!" No. WORSE! We've sprung a leak and we're going down like the Titanic!!!!

That's right. Our BRAND NEW tent... out on its first camping trip.... an hour or so into the trip... You've got to be kidding me. We can't stay in the tent because we'll drown. We can't leave the tent because we'll drown then get electrocuted. So, we waited it out, crouched in the opposite corner of the tent (which also started to spring a leak eventually) until the storm passed. Then we got a towel to sop up the mess.

Kinda hard to see, but if you click on the pic it should get big and might be easier to see

Anyway, we survived the night and came out on the other side. On Saturday we went for a long hike to the 93' waterfall. I really did bad with picture taking this trip. It was a really good hike though, and pretty tough at some points.

Cliff - waterfalls were off to the left. Never got a really good view, bummer!
part of the trail

And guess who we saw again this year? Our friend Yogi Bear! In the past year he has grown up a LOT! Hard to tell from this picture, but it was BIG! Just hanging out behind our campsite.

It rained again Saturday night and cut our campfire a bit short. It was ok though because we didn't have much wood left anyway! As would be expected given our Friday night shenanigans, we were a bit pessimistic about how our tent would hold up against the rain again. But this time, the tent won. It didn't rain very long though, or very hard. We thanked our lucky stars.

Heading back, down Skyline Drive

Despite the tent snafu, we had a great weekend! It was a good start to hopefully many more camping trips this summer!