Gone Fishin'

Today we caught up with Pop while he was fishing for the ever elusive and highly delicious baby Goldfish.

Who Says White Elves Cant Jump!?

Who says white elves cant jump!?

Elfing it UP!

Here is our elf 'Pop' enjoying the Florida weather with some waterskiing with Tonka fireman before heading back up to the North Pole to see Santa!

Do you have a soundtrack?

Are you all sick of hearing about my first 5K yet? Okay, good, because I am not tired of talking about it yet! :)

Although I have been told that "runners" don't listen to music when they run because they are "in the zone", I absolutely rely on my tunes to keep me chugging along. What's better than hitting a tough moment in your run and then all of a sudden Ke$ha comes flying through your ear buds and gives you that musical push you need? Yes, she may be covered in glitter, and I may be covered in sweat, but at that moment Ke$ha is a lifesaver and we are soul-sisters.

So, in honor of my adventure at the Womens Running Magazine Half-Marathon and 5K here is my soundtrack from the race:

• "Ready to Go"- Republica
• "Typical Situation"- Dave Matthews Band
• "Club Can't Handle Me"- Flo Rida
• "Now That We Found Love"- Heavy D and the Boyz
• "Waking Up in Vegas"- Katy Perry
• "Stronger"- Kayne West
• "Empire State of Mind"- Jay Z
• "If"- Janet Jackson
• "Your Love Is My Drug"- Ke$ha
• "Everyday"- Dave Matthews Band
• "Stone Cold Yesterday"- The Connells
• "Paparazzi"- Lady Gaga
• "Right Now"- Van Halen

These were all great tunes and the only one I would have changed was "Ready to Go" by Republica. Its a great song to get pumped up to, but its over 5 minutes long and got boring after a bit.

What are your favorite work-out or running jams? Leave me a comment and let me know.

My first 5K was, um, crappy!?

This weekend I ran my first 5K in the Women's Running Magazine Half Marathon and 5K-- yay me! The race itself was amazing. The pre-race smearing of another runners feces all over my clothes was not. Yes, you read that right, ANOTHER.RUNNERS.POOP was all over my jacket and pants moments before the race began. What in the holy hades happened you wonder? Well, sit tight and keep reading--and maybe grab a trash can to hurl in if you have a weak stomach. Here goes:

For my 5K I wore black spandex capris, a white t-shirt and a light pink Lululemon zip-up jacket (it was cold when we arrived at 6:30am). Palm Tree Dad came to the race with BB and CC to cheer me on-- such troopers because it was EARLY... like really, really early when we woke up at 4:50am.

Before the race started (around 6:45am) I told Palm Tree Dad that I needed to use the restroom because I was nervous-- I always have to pee when I am nervous, doesn't everyone? There were TONS of people in those lines for the zillion porto-pottys so after waiting in line for 10 minutes or so it was my turn.

It was pretty dark in the porto-potty and didnt smell particularly good, but no big deal, right? Its a porto-potty. WRONG! I squatted/hovered to pee and when I stood up I thought to myself "Oh man, I smell poop. Like fresh poop, new poop. WTF!?!?" Then I saw it... on the inner lid of the porto-potty there was poop (diarhea-y poop) and I had it all over my light pink jacket from squatting over the potty, and now all over the ass of my pants from standing up, and a TINY TINY bit on my WHITE shirt from when I stood up. I fought the urge to burst out of the porto-potty and hunt down the mad-crapper and kick her ass.

Meanwhile, its still pretty damned dark in the porto-potty and I am trying to clean myself off with shreds of cheap toilet paper/sandpaper before I walked out to (not even kidding) 100+ women who are waiting to use the potty before the race. I was panicked and considering quitting the whole damned thing right then and there. I was literally covered in another persons shit and not happy about it at all.

When I got myself figured out enough to leave the porto potty I ran to Palm Tree Dad as fast as my little untrained legs would carry me (after I warned everyone else in line that this potty was OUT OF ORDER!) and with tears in my eyes I explained to him what had happened, showed him the damage and ordered/begged him to get the baby wipes out of the baby bag (I knew those kids would come in handy at some point, LOL!). I could hardly hold it together and I could tell he felt terrible for me. He knew I was already super nervous for my first race and to have this happen on top of my nerves was a nightmare.

We were able to clean me off as best we could with the baby wipes and Palm Tree Dad dumping water down the butt of my pants--and literally reaching inside my pants to scrub the poop off them so I didnt smell like it during the race. He was a hero.

I am pretty sure I didn't leave a wave of poop-smell when I ran but I didn't exactly poll my fellow racers to check. "Do I smell like poop?" isn't exactly a question you ever really want to ask people in social or competitive situations.

The race itself was a life-changer for me, seriously, but thats another post for another day.

Can I make a suggestion?

For those American friends and followers next week is Thanksgiving, right? Well, round about the Sunday after Thanksgiving you are going to get a feeling that if you eat another leftover turkey sandwich you are going to sprout a beak, grow some feathers and fly right off the roof. You also might get violent if your family requests that you make them a full meal that isn't leftovers. I promise. You will. It happens. No shame in it. I have the solution. You're welcome.

Check out our friends over at Everything Mom and their amazing list of freezer meals, pick a couple of simple recipes, make them and shove them in your freezer until November 27th, 2011.

Seriously though, who wants to start back up cooking full meals a few days after cooking all day for the Superbowl of all cooking events, Thanksgiving dinner? So stock up your freezer with a couple simple recipes and voila! Healthy prepared meals that arent turkey, stuffing, yams, mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce! Enjoy!

It Could Only Get Worse if There was a Creepy Santa.

Tonight Mr.PTM got home from work and asked that question that puzzles me every Friday night "What are we doing tomorrow?". Tonight I had the answer ready and waiting--- PALM TREE FAMILY CHRISTMAS CARD PHOTO SHOOT!!!! Whoo hoo!

We havent yet picked the location and the only guarantee is that we will get lots of 'outtakes' and 'blooper' photos. And now I will share with you some of the outtakes from last years photo shoot:

I mean is his face priceless or what?!

Two toddlers on the beach for the first time was NOT

the best choice for a Christmas card photo shoot. FAIL!

So we moved to the pool in our neighborhood to try that instead. They had been to a pool before, it wasnt scary. They even kind of liked it, kind of.

Okay, so BB was less than thrilled with our "Kids in the Jungle" location.

Okay CC hated it too! Jungle background-FAIL!

Off the the pool we went, hoping for better luck!

This was in October, in Tampa, Florida. So while it wasnt freezing, it also wasnt super warm. That apparently doesnt stop die-hards in our neighborhood from frequenting the neighborhood pool. Who cares, right? It makes for some HILARIOUS pictures. Like this one:

Dude has bigger boobs that I do. Thank goodness

Campbell is facing the camera or she might have tried to breastfeed.

So this is the best picture we got from the pool location--- Christmas card worthy?

No we didnt think so either.

How hilarious is CC's expression?

As you can tell by the kids expressions they were done and so over the photo shoot. Not awesome at all. Just as I was thinking I was going to have to pull out the Santa hat and throw it on the dog I was able to snap this picture of the kids in their Thanksgiving outfits:

And BOOM--Christmas card photo!

Lets hope tomorrow goes much MUCH more smoothly! Does anyone have any funny stories about taking the family Christmas card photo? Please leave a comment and share. I love them!