Happy Birthday Little Fox!

Little Fox is 5 today! He asked for a Minecraft birthday party.

I googled a LOT.  For those of you who don't know, Minecraft is a video game in which your character, Steve, gathers resources in order to build his house and such. In more "advanced" modes, there are also creatures that you have to defend your self against such as creepers. Everything is made of cubes/blocks, and therefore looks pixilated.

I made Little Fox a shirt with a "Creeper" face on it, with a 5 on the back. I also printed a Steve face and put it on a bag as a mask.

For food, I chose blue jello cut into cubes to represent water, pretzels for sticks, licorice for TNT, chocolate coins and green jolly ranchers (gold and emeralds in the game), and coloured creeper faces on bottles of punch.

I set up the table, and also a smaller table which I called the "brewing stand" for coffee and tea (in the game, you can brew potions). I used sugar cubes to keep with the "cube-ish" theme. Also, square plates, square-ish mugs, a box with tea bags, and I scattered cubes that I cut and taped together which had game-related items such as bricks, TNT, ice, rocks, and ground/grass. 

We played creeper bowling (green pop bottles with creeper faces):

This is more like "creeper smashing", but I loved this shot of cousin S!

And I had Little Fox and his friend "craft" their cake. In Minecraft, there is a crafting table which you put your resources on to build, or craft, an item. In order to build their cake, they had to first gather sticks and rocks to make an axe. Then use their axe to gather lumber to get a pickaxe. Then, using the pickaxe, they mined iron to make a bucket. Once they had their buckets, they "mined" gold and emeralds, carried them in the buckets to the farmer (Red Fox) to buy cake ingredients: wheat (flour), an egg, milk, and sugar. Then they brought the ingredients to the crafting take and "made their cake" (which was a replica of the cake used in Minecraft).

Then we blew out the candles, ate, chatted, opened presents, and just hung out. He got a wagon from uncle Alex (the wagon we used as kids, which he refinished), a new bike from grand dad, a tent, some puzzles, some toy motorcycles, and more! He also got a t-ball set from us. Thank you everyone for helping make Little Fox's 5th birthday a great day!

See that Steve painting? That's from his cousin! Awesome!

In the 2 pics on the right are his 2 best Minecraft buddies.

Preschool Check-up

Today we met with the public health nurse for a little check-up for Little Fox. It was his pre-kindergarten ear/eye/speech test. The sight test was the typical chart test, but with shapes instead of letters. He had 20/20 in each eye (poor thing, that will change in time!). The hearing test consisted of wearing a set of headphones and waving at us when he heard the tone. He got each and every one on the lowest setting. The last "test" was a flip book of pictures, and he had to say the word. The words incorporated all the different sounds, like L, R, th, sh. She said he passed all tests with flying colours, and was impressed that he could read the word "yes" as the end of the flip book.

Then came the "bad" news. He needed 4 immunizations. He was on track based on the Nova Scotia program, but in PEI they give HepB shots to babies and preschoolers, where as in NS they do it once they reach school age. So we chose to do one HepB shot and the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox) today, and he'll get the other 2 in 5 months. His last needles were when he was 2-ish, so he didn't really know what to expect. The look on his face was pure shock, and then he cried, but only for about a minute. The nurse was awesome and was super quick about it. She then distracted him with a cool tractor sticker, and he was then free to go play on the slide in the waiting room.

Then we took him for ice cream. :)

14 km cross training (and 100th post!)

I haven't been running since the Blue Nose, and I wasn't really feeling it today either. So I went for a bike ride. I had my route planned, and it was 14 kms. I don't think I've EVER biked that far, and I knew the route would be really hilly. I wasn't sure if I was going to make it!

I also wanted to try out a new app I downloaded called Runtastic. I have a trial version of Runtastic "Pro", and there's a colour-coded map showing my speed along my route. That map has me fascinated, and I actually want to buy the full Pro version, just to have access to that map! The plain old free version gives me the image below, which is still informative. The blue line on the graph shows my speed... the really low spots are when I stopped for a drink. Oh, and between 3 and 5 km, there were a few logging trucks that I got out of the way of! The grey line/area is the elevation. lots of up-hills! My legs were like dead weight when I got home!

Wuh-tatoes

Yesterday was "wuh-tato" planting day in the field next to our cottages. There were big trucks, trailers, tractors... a little boy's delight! When I said that we could go outside to see, he's never put his boots on faster.

We watched from our yard, and then the farmer bent down to meet Molly (who was barking her fool head off). He invited Mackenzie over to SIT IN THE TRACTOR. 

 How awesome of this farmer to take a few minutes out of his day to make some random kid's day!

Those are his "happy hands". He always does that when he's excited. 

Bye! Have fun planting! Fank you!

This morning he asked if we could go pick some potatoes!

Blue Nose Weekend Recap

This is a long one!

I just got home from Halifax. It was a pretty great weekend!

Saturday morning I met the driver at her place, we all squeezed into the car and off we went. They are all friends, and I didn't know any of them so I felt a little awkward and out of place. We stopped at Mic Mac Mall (bought a running shirt to match my skirt) and then went for lunch. We were quite a large group at one big long table. Once again, I was the only "outsider". I was also the only one doing the 10k. One woman was doing the 5, and everyone else was doing the half.

After lunch we headed over to the Expo to get our race kits and browse the goods.

 I talked to the people at the Team In Training booth, and she asked what I was running. I said, "Oh, only the 10k" and she said "There's no such thing as ONLY a 10k". I mean... I know that, and I've said that to lots of people... but when you're at a MARATHON with people running halfs and fulls, 10k seems minor! Anyway, the Team In Training sounds awesome, and I'm thinking about signing up. How cool would it be to run in some other country?

I listened to John Stanton, the guy who started the Running Room, talk about running in cold weather (wear a garbage bag) and running hills (shorten your stride).

After getting a few little free things, I went over to visit my brother who was in Halifax for a teachers conference. Coincidentally, my cousin Mer, who I stayed with, worked at that hotel, so I walked home with her after her shift. We made spaghetti for supper, and I drank lots of water.  I went to bed at about 9:30, because I knew I'd be up way before my alarm.

5am. Up an hour and a half before my alarm! Showered, and dressed. Ate 2 muffins, put some vaseline on my toes and borrowed socks from Mer.  Gathered all my things, and fretted about what to wear because it was about 1 degree outside. I ended up wearing my jacket down to where Mer would turn off to go to work, and then I gave it to her. I put on my garbage bag and headed to Scotia Square for a bathroom stop where I ran into the girls I did the learn to run class with. They looked at me REALLY strangly when i walked in wearing a garbage bag! but John Stanton said to do it, it MUST be valid! I was going to meet up with them anyway, so it was a lucky coincidence. We made our way to the start line, but we couldn't see any pace bunnies anywhere. So we basically picked a spot and waited for the gun. I literally couldn't SEE the start line unless I jumped.

The gun went, and we... stood still. It took us 3 minutes to get from our spot to the start line, but then we were off. It was a HUGE crowd, and there was a lot of jostling for position. I was running with Jen, staying one or 2 steps behind so that we weren't a block to people behind us trying to pass. Once we started running, I warmed up and the weather turned out to be perfect. We turned the corner to go down to the bridge, and there was Mom, with my bib number painted on her face, and she had a blue nose with a red spot in the middle (red to represent PEI mud!). I stopped for a few pictures, and lost sight of Jen. Boo. I continued, and as we went down the hill toward the Bridge, it was amazing to see the sea of people in front of me. I took a few pictures as I ran along.

It was really exciting for me to run across the bridge. I loved it! I didn't even notice the slight incline! The slight decline was noticeable  though, and I let myself go on the downhill. Then came Nantucket... the hill I was dreading. I followed John Stanton's advice, and shortened my pace. I focused on the shirt in front of me (a Hope For Wildlife shirt) and made it all the way up the hill, no stops! I couldn't believe it!

The rest of the race seemed to go by quickly. The first u-turn in Dartmouth was a surprise to me, I didn't think we had gone far enough! On the way back I kept looking for Nantucket which would let me know how close I was to the second u-turn. But apparently I missed my cue, because there was the second turn! Running through the residential area of Dartmouth was pretty nice... people were sitting out on lawn chairs watching. Kids holding their hands out for high fives. Bands playing, and radios blaring. Bells and noise-makers and cheering. One lady handing out kleenex.

And then the wonderful downhill toward the bridge again. Once I crossed the bridge, mom and Scott were there to take some pictures. I had no idea how much of the race was left. So I just kept going... I don't remember any specifics from this part, other than wondering how much further we had to go... we turned a corner and I was surprised to see the red finish line! I didn't give any last heroic effort... I didn't pick up my pace or anything.

Official Finish Line Photo

When I crossed the line, I slowed to a walk because it was REALLY crowded as people made their way around the corner to the medals and the Metro Center. I thought this part of the race was a bit of a disorganized mess. It was slow, crowded, no water in sight, and everyone was being shoved through this narrow bottle neck of fences. I got my medal and made my way into the Metro Center, because the crowd carried me along... once inside, I was like... "what now?" After a few frustrating attempts to call mom (note to self: when headphones are plugged in, the sound will only come out of headphones... Holding the phone to my ear and saying HELLO?! wont work. duh). Finally I got out of the MC (a good 10 minutes) and met up with everyone at Grand Parade. I called Red Fox to find out my time, and was pleased to hear that my chip time was 1:03:33. That's 6 minutes off of my Run Without Borders time! My official time is just over 1:06. I'm super pleased!

After the race, I went to lunch with Mom and Scott, and then went back to Mer's to charge my phone. I went over to Alex's hotel, and then met up with Dennis, a friend from Acadia. We had a great visit with lots of laughs and a big giant step out of my comfort zone: sushi. We went for sushi. I tried everything, and liked some of it! We had seaweed salad (like chewing rubber bands, but tasty), some sort of soup (good!), octopus (kinda freaky, tasted good, a little chewy), different kinds of seafood in tempura (half was good, half I didn't like), and I ordered some sushi off of the veggie menu, thinking there wouldn't be any fish involved. I forgot that they use seaweed to wrap it, so it was still very fishy tasting. :(

I was stressed out last night and early this morning because I hadn't heard from the lady who was driving me home. I tried texting her, but didn't get a reply until about 7:15 this morning. I was going to give her until 7:30 and then I was going to call! We had a quick trip home, until we were about 10 minutes from her house when BAM... flat tire! I called Red Fox and he picked me up while they waited for CAA to arrive.

I had a really good weekend. Although, I wish I had a close friend or family member who runs and could go to these things with me. I would have hung out at the expo for much longer, but I felt awkward following around the girls I was traveling with... if I lost them in the crowd, I wouldn't have been able to get my suitcase or even get in touch with them. I'm glad I stayed with Mer and visited with Alex and Dennis so I could relax a bit!

Overall, I thought the race was excellent. Water stations well-placed, great crowd, awesome volunteers. As I said, the post-finish-line was a bit of a congested mess, but I supposed there is limited space. Can't wait til next year! Maybe I'll run the half next time...

Race weekend anxiety

I have a serious case of race anxiety!

I'm getting a ride with someone here in PEI. A car full of people I don't know. I have no control over where we go and when. I don't like not knowing when I'll arrive at my destination, especially when someone is waiting for me! I know they are going to stop for lunch, which is something I was hoping to avoid... I was planning on taking all my meals with me. But I want to be part of the group, so I think I'll eat my lunch, and then get something small at the restaurant. Also, I'm worried that I'll pack too much and we'll have trouble fitting everyone's things in the car... I know, ridiculous things to worry about, but... it's what I do!

My cousin Mer is letting me bunk at her place this weekend. Which leads to more questions... will I have a key to get in and out? Will I be bothering her or her room mate (if there is one...?) when I get up super early for the race?

My mom is planning on coming to watch, so I'm concerned about her driving into Halifax after arriving home from BC just hours before. I worried that we won't be able to find each other, or that we won't see each other as I run by. I think I'm going to ask her to be at the Halifax side of the bridge... that way I'll pass her twice, therefore doubling my chances of seeing her!

The weather is throwing a wrench in my not-well-laid-out plans. I had my running clothes all figured out, but now it's supposed to be cold, so I might have to change it up... OR find something in my small collection that I can use as throwaways. I wish I had something super bright and exciting to wear so that mom will be able to pick me out of the crowd.

I made my muffins yesterday, and today I'll make a batch of spaghetti sauce. We'll have pizza for supper so I can take a slice of that with me too.

Also, I haven't run ALL WEEK. It's been cold, rainy, busy, and we have company. Excuses, I know, but... I gave in to them! I'm not overly concerned. Its not like I'm trying to WIN the race. I'm not even going in with a goal time or pace. I might go for a quick run today, especially if I change up what I'm going to wear, and I got a new app on my phone I want to try out.

I have to remember my ereader, my phone, charger, ear buds, arm band, etc.

Busy Week

It's been a few days since my last post. We've had a busy week!

Monday I worked all day and then went to Yoga. Yes, Yoga with a capital Y because I love it. After that, we all went out for groceries. I know that's mundane, but I really love grocery shopping.

I saw the dentist on Tuesday about my jaw pain. He said that based on my giant jaw muscle and the fact that my teeth are (get this) "pristine" he thinks I'm a clencher. A bite plane is 400 dollars, and because of our dental coverage, I'd have to pay this all up front and then get reimbursed, assuming they cover it at all. So that's a wait and see thing, and for now I'll try to focus on not clenching my teeth during the day. If I do it at night, well... not much I can do for now.

Tuesday evening was Little Fox's introduction to kindergarten night at his school. First he had to find his name on a list of name tags and then get his "passport".

There were a bunch of stations throughout the school, and he had to get a sticker at each station. The stations included the health nurse and library, and then he visited each of the 3 kindergarten classrooms for play dough, crafts, and letters.

And THEN... ta-da! A bus ride! He seemed to get very subdued on the bus ride... he says it's because everyone was being loud, but... I think he was overwhelmed. Or disappointed that being on a bus wasn't as exciting as he thought it would be.

That brings us up to today. Some friends from Acadia are coming to stay in PEI and are staying in one of our cottages for 2 nights. I'm super excited about seeing them (they live in the states now, boo)! I'm worried that they will be cold in the cottage (we can't get the fireplace to "start"... probably no propane). We have a space heater in there to see if that will help, and if not, the guest room is waiting for them!

Only a few more days until the Blue Nose in Halifax. The weather forecast keeps switching back and forth from warmish and sunny-ish to cool and rainy. Fingers crossed for no rain!

I think I'm switching up what I'm going to wear. I haven't decided... I'll take a run in my "option 2" and then decide!

I have a few things to do before leaving for Halifax. I'm going to take my own food in order to keep the cost down... I'm taking banana muffins and leftovers... (spaghetti sauce, pizza and chicken breast with veggies) so I have some cooking and baking to do!

Mothers Day

I shared my Mothers Day "within reason list" with Red Fox at supper last night.

For Mothers Day, I personally want a nice long run (gah, it's gonna rain), a nice long hot shower, french toast for breakfast. I'd like to visit someone, (A and LA, perhaps?), and have Little Fox eat his supper without complaint (yeah right). And to top off the day, I really want some chips. I haven't had chips in a LONG time, and I've been craving salt for a day or 2 now.

On my big wish list is (along with all of the above) a Garmin running watch, and to go grocery shopping and fill our fridge with lots of fruits, veggies and meat without worrying about the cost.

Now, on my dream list. Not for me. For other moms.

My mom. I wish I could see my mom every day. I wish I could tell her about EVERY light-bulb moment I have with Little Fox that make me realize everything she did for ME when I was a kid. I wish I could go back in time and give her the whatever she wanted for every Mothers Day. I would clean my room, not slam my door, eat my food, get off the phone at 9 pm, talking nicely, give her a big hug and then leave her in peace for a while to do her own thing. Thank you Mom. I love you. I wish I could give you the trip of a lifetime around the world. That's the only thing I can come up with that wouldn't make me feel like it's not enough. You are a wonderful mom and a fantastic Nan.

My Mother in Law. I couldn't ask for a better mother in law. I totally lucked out in that department. I wish I could give you whatever it is you need to feel comfortable enough to retire.

The wonderful women who helped raise Little Fox as if he was their own: Tracy (dee-dee), Lynn, and Jessica. Thank you. Thank you for your advice, your daily communication, photos and crafts, and for being second moms to our boy. He loves each and every one of you, and talks about you on a regular basis. I'm so glad we found such great women to take care of him.

All my mommy friends (in real life and online), who have been an awesome support system. I hope they all have a day full of love and recognition. I hope they get to sleep in and wake up to a magically clean house, happy and healthy kids, and their favorite snack.

I wrote all of the above last night before bed. This morning Little Fox woke me up at about 7, so I got up and had a little snack and some water, and got ready for a run. I didn't REALLY feel like running, AND it was threatening to rain, but I went anyway. It rained the whole time. And it was windy. But it was a GREAT run. Maybe my best ever. JUST under 10k (I decided against that last hill, so probably 9.5k) in an hour and 12 seconds. 12 SECONDS. That's almost 9 minutes better than my last 10k. I walked MUCH less, ran the hills easier, and just felt good. Only complaint is a blister on my toe. I think from the seam in my sock. Minor.

So now I'm showered, dressed (wearing my cashmere sweater), make up is on, and I'm heading downstairs for some french toast and coffee. So far, so good. :)

Saturday

I'm trying SO HARD to have a good day, but things just keep getting the best of me and I'm grumpy.

It started off well. Little Fox and I went to the flea market in Kensington. I got a new-to-me purse and a Far Side book, but my best buy was a running skirt for 2 dollars! I was chatting with the woman who was selling it, and she asked my name. When I told her she said, "Oh! Is your last name Fox?" and I was like... um.. yes...? "Guys! guys!" (gesturing to the 2 ladies next to her) "This is Erin Fox!" "Oh! Erin Fox! Hi!"  It was very strange! I felt like some sort of celebrity. They had just seen my name on some running related emails and had been wondering who this new person was.

When we got home, Little Fox broke the dvd player.

The plumber came to open up the cottages, so yay, I can do more laundry and cleaning! haha

I took Little Fox into Kensington again this afternoon to go for a bike ride on the trail. He's having trouble catching on to biking... but apparently it's because his bike isn't working right (Sorry Dad!). It was a gift from my dad, and it seemed to work fine last summer, but this summer there's something wrong with it, and it's making it hard for Little Fox to pedal fast enough to get his balance. So while we started off hopeful...

 (Yes, I did have my helmet... I just hadn't put it on yet)

We were a little dejected on our way back.

On the way home, we saw the baby boxes, so I pulled over and got a few pics with my phone. I'd like to get some pictures with my real camera cause they are just so cute!

3 babies

mama fox and 2 of the babies

We also stopped to check out the boats. We pass these boats every day, but never really got close to look at them. 

Little Fox had lots of questions and was kind of amazed that the boats have a "below" and that people can sleep there.

My mom is on her way to BC to visit my step-family. I hope they all have a good visit, and I hope the girls like the gifts I sent!

Wine Run

So I sat down for supper tonight and I'm taking my last sip of wine when I remembered that I was planning on running this evening (you can tell what my priority was tonight!). So I waited a bit and ran anyway. Just a quick 4k. Long run planned for this weekend.

I test-ran my planned outfit for the Blue Nose. Home-made running skirt with home-made shorts underneath. And my newest addition to my Home-Made collection, a new arm band to hold my phone.I LOVE this arm band. I found the tutorial at Fehr Trade and when I read through it, I couldn't visualize how it worked. I made a cotton mock-up to be sure I was doing it right, and when I made the spandex one, it was PERFECT. OK, maybe a tad bit loose, but not loose enough to fall down, and having my phone in it tightens it up enough to make it just right.

My next problem to tackle is that my ear buds keep falling out. It was fine in the winter cause my hat/headband kept them in. I think I'll just make a simple narrow hairband and wear it over my ears instead of behind. I'll also be able to tuck my braid in it too, to keep it from whipping around.

Also, I FINALLY got confirmation that I have a ride to the Blue Nose! YES! So relieved! And excited. :) Can you tell? :)

I love this Island

I know. I'm a bluenoser at heart. But this Island is so beautiful. I went for a bike ride at 7:20 this morning. I biked down Cape Rd, which is partially a red clay road, and from which you can see the ocean beyond the fields. The sky was just starting to cloud over, so it was bright blue with white clouds, with some dark ominous clouds in the distance. The green grass and the red fields seemed so bright relative tot he dark clouds behind them.  I saw a fox, too, just to top it all off.

The best part of PEI is that as soon as the snow melts it is immediately colourful. In NS, I found that there were a few weeks of drab, grey limbo between the brilliance of the snow, and the green-ness of spring. But not here.

Every time I go out, I wish I had my camera. I'll see the view and think "My God, I need a picture of that, it can't possibly get prettier than it is right now" and then I see the same thing the next day, and it's just as pretty. It's one of the reasons I run. So I can see this Island. Sure, I see the same view every time, but it's always different in very subtle ways, which makes it impressive every time.

Edit: After I wrote and posted this, I drove into Kensington to pick up some mail (Running Magazines from Courteney!), and on the way I saw a bald eagle in the marsh along River Road. It was so close, and it looks GIANT. It was guarding it's meal of seagull, and the crows were dive-bombing him. And then a little further along, I saw the family of foxes that live in a grassy ditch beside the road. The babies are so fluffy! I am never leaving this house again without at least my phone for photos!

Short mid-day run

I went for a short run during my lunch break. I was going to wear one my the shirts I (re)made...

but when i stepped outside, it felt a little cooler outside than I thought it was. I changed into a tshirt, and about 1.5 k into my run I realized I should have left the blue shirt on! It was hot out! I thought it would be windy along the river, but it wasn't bad, and I ended up rolling my sleeves up.

Do any of you girly runners have any suggestions for keeping my hair up? If I wear a typical ponytail, my hair gets SO knotted up from swinging around during my run. If I put it in a bun/messy bun, it falls out and I have to keep stopping to re-do it. Annoying.

Up and Down

I'm worried that I'm going to crash and burn. I seem to go through this cycle of exercising, feeling good about my self, wearing make up and keeping the house clean, and then crashing... and then the laziness and disappointment in myself start and last until I get so pissed off at myself for being lazy that I start up again. And Usually have to start again from scratch.

I've been running pretty consistently since August of last summer. Even through the winter, I ran. I'm honestly shocked that I've kept it going this long... and that's why I keep registering for races, so that I have to run in order to be prepared for the race. Otherwise, I'm sure I would have given up by now.

I'm eating better. I'm trying to eat less bread/pasta, I'm eating more fruit and veggies (current favorite is roasted broccoli), and I'm paying attention to my body in terms of my hypoglycemia; eating a high-ish protein snack BEFORE my arms and legs get shaky so that I don't end up eating spoonfuls of peanut butter in a panic to get my body back to normal. But eating well is kind of time (and money) consuming, and difficult with a family to feed as well. I'm afraid I'm going to get lazy one day, take the easy way out, and get stuck in that rut of chicken fingers and fries. (Little Fox would be SOOO happy!).

I really hope I stick with the yoga. My problem with "classes" is that I have trouble getting ready and getting out the door... I dread going until I'm actually there. I really hope I don't give in to that "dread" and stop going.

Anyway, I guess my point is that I've been feeling so good that I'm just hoping I can avoid the "crash" part that typically comes after the feel-good part. I love the up part of the cycle so much, and I HATE the down part... so, why do I let myself get to the low point?

OK. I jumped on the bandwagon.

I decided that I'd join the rest of the world in the yoga studio.

I was VERY skeptical of yoga. You might laugh, but I thought it was going to be all "spiritual" and ohmmmm and auras...  ok, maybe not auras. But I definitely thought I'd be rolling my eyes.

I also thought I wouldn't like it. I thought it wouldn't be as "work-out-like" as I wanted it to be.

I was wrong. I LOVED IT. It was the perfect work-out for me. My favorite part of any workout is stretching (because I'm good at it!). And while I knew that yoga improved flexibility, I didn't realize that it would take strength to stretch.

I loved that it was an hour during which I was focused only on ME. When I run, my mind wanders, and I still mull over the things that worry me. But in the yoga class, I had to focus on the poses and the breathing and making sure my hips were pointed in the right direction. Nothing else slipped in.

I'm much more flexible than I thought. I've been stretching at home, and I felt about half as flexible as I used to be. But the class made me see that I was expecting myself to be freakishly flexible, which isn't necessary!

I have been in such a good mood since I got home. My body feels the same as it used to after 3 hours of gymnastics. That wonderful exhaustion.

Anyway, loved it, and I'm can't wait to go back next week!

Weekend Recap and Race Mini-Recap

What a fantastic weekend.

On Saturday morning, we went to see the sheep. It was haircut day for them. The girl doing the shearing was amazing! She was whipping those sheep around like they were stuffed animals. She got them into positions I didn't think sheep could get in to. The newborn lamb made an appearance too, and Mama Sheep was looking much better after a haircut.

Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? This one had about 1 bag full. 

Newbie with mama

Mama was VERY leery of me. Didn't take her eye off me the whole time. 

This little guy is my favorite.

Caught one trying to escape.

Red and Little checking out some of the wool.

After lunch, Little Fox and I made our first trip into Charlottetown sans Red Fox. This was big for me, because I don't like driving in "new" places. We found our way to the Running Room to pick up race kits and to do a little browsing/shopping/birthday-list-making... *ahem... Red Fox/family.. garmin...*

 I got a small water bottle for my DIY hydration belt (a work in progress).

After that, we found the drug store that our friend works at and dropped on a birthday invitation and bought some make up.  They were doing a fundraiser/awareness thing for cancer, and I got a lot of free samples, and Little Fox got a cupcake. After that, we went shopping at Old Navy (found my favorite jeans on sale for 5 bucks!).

When we got home, we had pizza and a movie. I rented How to Train your Dragon for Little Fox, but it was super scratched and we missed most of it. :( After bed time, we watched Life of Pi. I thought it was beautifully done, and pretty thought-provoking. Red Fox and I discussed  it twice today.

Sunday morning started with a 3k race with my niece J. It was a "birthday" race for the Running Room. Unfortunately, only about 12 people registered; there was a lot of race activity this weekend. It was a nice warm, sunny day; perfect for running. The race started at 9:30 and J was off like a rocket. I caught up to her and joked about how she was pushing me out of my comfort zone. She gabbed and gabbed the whole time we ran... I could only gasp and pant in reply. LOL But we finished in 19 minutes (J finished in 18:59, and I finished at 19:00). It was pretty fun to have such a big cheering section, and I'm really proud of J and glad we did it together. :)  (Note: My niece isn't really faceless. She has quite a pretty face, actually. But I didn't want to post photos of her online without her and her mom's consent!)

Hmm... where are the other runners? (See our cheering section?)

Oh. Here they are. All 6 of them. 

Here we come! I wish you could see the grin on J's face! :) 

After lunch, Red Fox's mom (who is visiting for the weekend) took Little Fox to Summerside and to visit some friends/family. While they were out, I sewed and sewed. I hemmed a pair of tights into shorts, made a pair of shorts from scratch, and almost completed a new running shirt. Photos to come when it's complete (Mom, I might need your help/direction to finish it off). I also got my bike out of the barn, tweaked the breaks and went for a few short rides to test things out. Cross training!

A great weekend all around.