As it turned out, I wasn’t working on Saturday, so I went for a run with Catherine and Sharron from MBRR. The 5.30am start meant I had to get up just after 4, and after going to bed at midnight on Friday night, it left me really tired. We did a 16km run and then had a coffee, and it was really nice. Comfortable pace and good company, I think I much prefer running with someone over running by myself.

Saturday afternoon saw a really good thunderstorm and while it was raining heavily, we went out and washed the cars. Just showed how long it’s been since they were cleaned; the kidlets were fascinated. When the rain cleared, we walked the dogs.

Today was a barbecue at Petrea’s place, and again, a really enjoyable afternoon. Petrea is still keen to do the Kokoda Challenge next year, so that’s good.  Overall, a great weekend, everything we did was enjoyable. Must admit though, no housework or laundry helped .

I think I’m going to get my iron levels tested again, I’m back to being absolutely worn out by around 3pm and I suspect I’m anaemic again.

Literally. I woke very early this morning, around 4am with my head ticking over, but lay dozing until 6, then Guinness and I headed out for a 10k run. My shin has started to niggle a little again, but I’m religious about stretching my calves and icing it, so hoping it isn’t going to lead to anything. I did a negative split - 32 min for the first 5k and 30 min for the second 5k, I think the only reason for that was that we had 3 poo stops in the first half . One way to guarantee a negative split is to take Guinness for a run.

Trudie and I had our first personal training session yesterday at the Leisure Centre while the kidlets are doing team sports. Very affordable indeed, and Chris really knows what he’s talking about. It was a pretty easy session so he could figure out our level of fitness, but he says next week will be tougher.

The kidlets had better do their schoolwork with a better attitude today, I told Miss 8 yesterday she wasn’t just going to school, she was going to boarding school, LOL. She wants to move bedrooms to a bigger room, and I’m open to the suggestion over the Christmas holidays, but not if she’s going to moan and groan about maths. Talk to the hand.

Quiet day today, tomorrow is dog training and running club, then Friday is gymnastics. I do believe I’m not working on Saturday, two of the nurses have told me but it hasn’t been confirmed by the boss. I’ll have to find out for sure because I’m making plans!!

It’s been an easy few days, with a laid back 6k run at club on Thursday night and a pleasant 14k with Moreton Bay Roadrunners on Sunday morning. Of course, the obligatory vanilla latte afterwards wasn’t bad either.

Just getting back into schoolwork after the holidays, and the kidlets are keen. Helps when I tell them we’re going to the beach for a couple of days in the not too distant future Today was a pupil free day so we hooked up with Kylie and her two kidlets and we went to see Journey to the Centre of the Earth with Brendan Fraser. Very fun film but it looked like it had been filmed in 3D, so was disappointed not to have that option. We’ll have to watch it on DVD and make sure we have 3D glasses on.

I have babysitting for the weekend of the Great Ocean Road marathon organised already, so might have to shake my booty and do some training. I wonder how soon accommodation books out…

Got an unenventful week - team sports tomorrow, and the trainers are putting on a personal training session for the mums at the same time. Theatre production at the library on Thursday and gym as usual on Friday. Master 6 took out the second place trophy for the boys at our recent gym competition and was rapt. It was nice because Miss 8 regularly achieves and was 2nd in her girls age group at the same comp. I’m really starting to feel end of year-itis but only 7 more weeks and it’s holidays again. Yay.

At last I got out for a trail run with Ron’s group, Narangba Runners - it seems every time there’s a trail run at Somerset on a Saturday, I’m working, and I don’t manage to get to the night trail runs for various other family reasons. But, last night I made it! It was worth it. Sheepstation Creek was very eerie in the dark, but I had my hubby’s massive headlight with the big battery pack at the back. I usually run with just a little light but since he wasn’t using it, he suggested I give it a go. Not sure if I’ll use it again, it’s uncomfortable and although the light is good, I can get by with one of the smalller lights.

There were only 6 of us, and it was great that Heleen could come along. I was at the back of the pack as usual, and when everyone was around a corner, it was like I was out there all on my own in the dark, which was really quite nice. We did 7.5km in around 45 minutes, which is quite a bit quicker than I usually do on a trail, but in spite of that, I didn’t take a tumble. Hopefully it will be a regular full moon activity.

I read a recent news report here which suggests that children who own a dog are much less likely to be obese. Yeah, that and managing what they put in their mouth, and how much they sit on their bums.  Mind you, if articles like this lead to children being healthier and more dogs getting good homes, it’s a good thing.

Last Thursday night at Caboolture Roadrunners, Heleen and I did a sort of modified speed session. I’m paranoid about hurting myself again, so we did a 3-2-1 session. 3 minutes easy, 2 minutes hard then 1 minute walk, rinse and repeat 6 times. It’s always more fun with company and I quite enjoyed it. We had a minute or two to stretch and have a drink at the half way mark but finished strongly.

This morning I took Guinness for a run at Redcliffe and we did 16km in 1.41. I had an enlightenment, you know those things… revelation, that’s the word I’m looking for. When I run, I strike with my heel first but when my legs are tired, I tend to trudge. I’m wondering if that’s why the balls of my feet hurt so much, and extrapolating from that, I wonder if I concentrated and tried hard to maintain my heel strike over longer distances, whether or not I’d still get ball of the foot pain. I’m going to try it out over the next couple of weeks and see.

My cousin and her husband are over from Scotland for a year or two to work and I’m hoping to catch up with them in the next week or two. She’s a podiatrist - won’t we have some fun dinner table conversation!

Andrew, if we come down to the Great Ocean Road marathon, it’s not going to be cheap, with travel and dog boarding etc etc, so I’m thinking I’ll be aiming for the marathon and a bit. It’s a long way to go and a lot of $$ for 21.1km, no matter how nice. Whatever you decide to do, I’m sure we can catch up for some red wine.

Guinness had his second session on the sheep last Thursday. This time I was handling him in the pen instead of Lyndal. He was very good indeed and by the end of it, he was going around the sheep and starting to bring them towards me. Lyndal thinks he’s got potential, I wonder if she thinks I have too

I had a hectic day at work again on Saturday.Emma has decided to keep the little Border Collie stray who came in with tick paralysis. He’s a delightful pup. It’s the wrong job if you don’t want to add more pets to the family, LOL.

Next week is back into schoolwork for the kidlets, and Heleen and I will be doing Narangba Runners trail run at Sheepstation Creek on Tuesday night. That’ll be nice, it’s a nice place but I feel more comfortable there with company. Shame we can’t take dogs there. Other than that, a routine week for the most part.

It’s getting hotter quickly this spring, and it’s hard on Guinness to run in the heat. So, yesterday I got up at 5am to head out for our run. Admittedly I didn’t get on the road until 5.45am because I had to have my cup of tea but it was much nicer at that time of the day. Did just short of 9km, nice and slowly. Hubby ran last night at Sheepstation Creek so I planned on getting out this morning again, but I had an Undercoverwear party last night and I didn’t get to bed til after 11. So, slept in a bit. I should have hopped on the elliptical trainer today.

I’ve just been tossing up the idea of getting a treadmill. I’m going to have to increase my distance if I want to make the most of the Great Ocean Road Marathon next May (Andrew, we’re still hoping to come down!!) and with Hubby increasing his runs as he recovers from his injury, there may not be enough hours in the day for both of us to do what we want to get done. Also if we got one with an incline feature, then I could run up some hills. That’ll do me good Anybody out there have a treadmill, or have any suggestions as to brands/features/what to look for?

I’m still pottering on Just Answer and making a decent bit of pocket money, particularly now that the dollar is changing. At about 4pm our time, there are only two or three vets available to answer questions, so there’s plenty to choose from. I’m still building (theoretically) income generating blogs, and I plan on launching a web content writing service very soon. All these online enterprises trade in US$, so I can really benefit from the exchange rate.

Sent the kidlets schoolwork off for last term today and promptly got an email reminding me that next work submission date is 31st October. Sigh.

We’re thinking about changing our internet provider, another company provides VOIP at a very good rate, but we’d have to change all our email addresses. I think I’ll get a domain for us, so we can have as many email addresses as we like and if we change ISP’s again, we don’t have to change all our email contacts again. Not easy coming up with something that sounds like us and is still quite sensible.

Tomorrow morning we’re off to Woodford again with Guinness to give him another run with the sheep, and for him to meet Lyndal’s daughter’s kelpie, Riot. I thought Riot was a big dog until I got Guinness. So it’s going to be a kelpie morning with Riot, Caper and Guinness all having a hoon around the paddock. Then, dog training again in the afternoon, and running club in the evening. Should be a pleasant day.

It was a gorgeous day for a run on the beach yesterday morning. Our 3 x 12k relay team were suitably attired in hula skirts, leis and flowers in our hair. Probably looked fine on Caroline and I, but Hubby was a bit less umm feminine Caroline was back in around 1.13, and I was expecting to take a fair while, not having done much running, but I managed to finish in around 1.23.

It was hard going, on one side there was the ocean lapping at my feet, there was a narrow patch of firm sand to run on then on the other side was lots of soft sand that had been churned up by the four wheel drives. By the end of my run I was running in the water as it was easier than running on the uneven soft sand.

Poor Hubby had the worst of it because for his whole run there was no firm sand at all and he did his 12k in the water. He ended up doing a bit more because when he got out to 6k, they’d taken out the turnaround pole and the fella in front of him had gone too far. Hubby kept going to tell him to turn around; he’d have gone on for ages further.

So, we came third out of three in the relay, but we did win best dressed team. Having said that, we were the only dressed team, LOL. Here’s Hubby looking good in his skirt!

I was pretty whacked for the rest of the day, so took the dogs a walk and   pottered around the house. Watched that new television show “The Mentalist” before an early night.

I had my eyes checked last week because I’m getting sore eyes when I use the computer. Need some stronger lenses in my glasses. Need to actually use my glasses for computer work - I keep losing them on the pile of junk on my desk. Just goes to show there are benefits in being tidy.

Back into schoolwork today but it’s hard, it’s a glorious day and I really fancy taking the kiddies to the lagoon for a swim. May be able to use that as a bribe.

Had a nice night at running club last night, I ran a few laps with Heleen and met her new border collie puppy, Miesje, which apparently is Dutch for little girl. Knee is good. Had a chat with Caroline, our other relay team member for Sunday’s Bribie Beach Bash about costume, and unfortunately, my Hubby has escaped the opportunity to run in black fishnet stockings and a feather boa We’ve got a bit of an idea for a costume, and  I’ll post a photo if we can get one taken on Sunday.

After we got home, we were looking at some music on youtube, including this Bulgarian woman who was singing “Without You”, but she didn’t know the English words so sang them phonetically.

Imagine if your name was Ken Lee, LOL.

My friend Ian came over for a coffee this afternoon. Ian and I used to play in the Redcliffe Scottish Pipe Band together, and he had a new set of bagpipes he wanted to show me. Just stunning engraving on the silver, and it really made me hanker to get my pipes out again and play. He tells me there’s a new pipe band started up just up the road… no, no, no, there are just not enough hours in a day… I’m at the moment fiddling with my practice chanter, trying to come up with a bagpipe score for Josh Grogan’s tune “You Raise Me Up” - I think that would be awesome on the pipes.

Other than that, not a whole lot happening. I still haven’t sorted my laundry, I need to clean my kitchen, and term 4 schoolwork starts on Monday.

Didn’t run today, figured two days in a row not ideal while my knee is recovering, so slept in. Nice. Knee is feeling very good indeed this afternoon so obviously nothing major. I think I need to stretch more.

I’ve been trying to think of five achievements, following on from yesterday’s post. One is that I survived another year’s homeschooling, and both children got an excellence award for their schoolwork at the end of last year.  Must be doing okay somewhere. I finished my first half marathon in under two hours. I guess a third is that I’m managing to have dinner on the table for Hubby coming home maybe 3 days out of 5. I know, not great, but better than it was. My friend said another would be that Hubby and I are still married. So cynical, she is. How many is that? Three.

We’ve got a quiet day at home tomorrow so I might do some more cleaning up and scrub the kitchen cupboards. I’m not usually so domesticated but it really needs doing.