pyjammy’s blog

This one’s all about me

For the past four or five weekdays, I’ve been walking around the neighborhood with some girlfriends. We go at 5:30 in the morning. That’s right, five-thirty in the morning. Yes, I am slightly crazy, but I am loving it! Not the waking up part, the walking and talking for 45 minutes. The 4 activity points I get (for Weight Watchers) daily. That achy feeling in my legs that lasts all day and is a constant reminder that I did something good for myself that morning.

Man, I’m corny, but it’s awesome.

And I found this cool app for my (Android) phone that tracks our mileage, maps it out, keeps track of pace, calories, etc, etc. It appeals to my inner nerd who likes keeping track of that kind of thing. And then it posts it on my Facebook wall, which appeals to my inner narcissist.

So that’s that. Not terribly exciting, but I just wanted to share. Oooh, and next week we’re going to start running a bit. The other ladies are planning on doing the Mardi Gras half marathon in February, so I reckon I’ll end up doing it again too.

Now, can you go vote for my blog? Just takes a couple of clicks! Click here, then once on the next page, and that’s it. :)

Great prizes for a great cause!

My friend Lani (also a triplet mom) is doing a half marathon in January to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. You know I’m a big supporter of LLS ever since I did a marathon with them, and so I strongly encourage you all to go to her blog, where you can win great prizes AND help a great cause.

Here’s how it works. Go donate some money. Say, $20. Then go check out her giveaways. Enter your name to win the prizes you want, and then you have twenty “bonus” entries, one for every dollar you donated. (Donate $50 and you get fifty entries. Donate $100 and you get a HUNDRED entries. Get it?) The more you donate, the more chances you have to win. It’s like a raffle, only, um, more fun.

Look at some of these great prizes…

A 16″x24″ photo canvas (I want one of these soooo bad!)

A $50 gift certificate to buy jewelry from Gretchen Leigh designs (pretty!)

Preschool in a Pinch!

A $120 gift certificate to CSN stores (so much you can get with that!)

And check out the grand prize – a $300 prize package of swoon-worthy accessories.
This ring is part of the package. I want!

That’s not all, not by a mile! There are twenty-one giveaways in all.

So go donate and enter!

Oh yeah.

I signed up to do another half-marathon.

At the end of the month.

(I am absolutely not going back to my entries in early November to see how much pain I was in after the last one.)

Guess I should hit the gym after work today, eh?

Much better!

Last night, we only had to get up once, for Oliver. Of course, I’d prefer we didn’t have to get up at all, but you can’t win ‘em all. I feel like a new woman today! It didn’t hurt that Oliver was being v cute and talkative while we were giving him his breathing treatment. And that he went back to sleep with no problems afterwards.

Am v excited because this weekend, we’re having pictures taken. I think I timed the pictures right, for the day after the half-marathon. Surely I’ll lose 50 lbs on the course, and therefore will look awesome for the pictures. Failing that, I plan to hit the mall to find a black shirt that makes me look decent. (Or, as Kristina and I called it, a “magic shirt”.)

The boys will look cute no matter what. I ordered some long-sleeved white t-shirts with tie appliques from Etsy, that I think they’ll wear with jeans.

And now, I’ll close this post out with some random pictures from the weekend, taken on the ferry.

Miles:

Oliver:

Linus, giving Daddy a kiss. (When you say “give me a kiss”, most of the time, they just tilt the top of their head toward you, as if to allow you the honor of bestowing a kiss upon their head.)

T minus four days and counting…

I know I signed up for this half-marathon a while back, but it only really occurred to me the other day that I was going to have to walk (and run a little bit, just so I don’t get left behind and someone will get to see the back of my shirt) thirteen (point one) miles in just a few days. Hmm.

Thirteen miles is actually kind of far. Especially since I started thinking about the route. It goes all the way up St. Charles Avenue to Audubon Park, around Audubon Park, and then back up St. Charles. And that’s not the whole thing! St. Charles is a long road, people. But at least it’s very scenic. There is that.

And even though it’s not advised, I’m bringing an iPod and planning on filling it with good stuff to listen to (not very loudly, of course. So I can hear the cars honking behind me to go faster!) Some music, some podcasts. I’d really really love to listen to a Bill Bryson book, (he’s my favorite author) but I don’t think that really has enough “oomph” to keep me going. I think Beyonce might be better.

Any suggestions on what I should listen to, musicwise? That will keep me motivated?

Eat my dust, suckers!

Okay, I probably won’t be saying that to anyone at the race on the 31st. That’s true. In fact, I probably shouldn’t even call it a race. Let’s be honest. I’m going to be walking most of it (maybe running a minute every five, we’ll see) so it’s not like I’m going to be leaving much dust to be ingested by others. The only person I’ll be racing is the guy in the cop car at the end, to make sure he doesn’t run me over.

(A small aside: In 2006, I did a small half-marathon that I likewise didn’t train much for. I finished second-to-last. So I do have precedents here.)

That said, just in case anyone does happen to be behind me, I designed this shirt to explain my tortoise-like pace (and shape.)

That’s the back, get it? See? Anyone behind me will read it. Uh yeah. Good idea to be snarky to the three people behind you, Pam. It’ll just motivate them to catch up to you and trip you.

Oh well. It’s all in good fun.

Speaking of my race, I’m only $22 away from my goal of raising $500 for Children’s Hospital. Twenty-two bucks! It’s not too late to sponsor me….

I’d like to thank…you!

For voting for me as Blog of the Year! Woo! Okay, I know I asked for votes, but still. Thanks!

Exciting!

In other news, we have more teeth! (Yesterday’s post was about eyes, today’s is about teeth.) Linus has one of his bottom incisors poking through, and I think I can feel lumps on his gums where the other ones will be coming in. The other two boys don’t have theirs yet, but I’m not surprised. Linus is usually a day or two ahead of the others when it comes to teething.

If you’ll recall, I have a theory about this.

Heh.

We’ll see.

In other news, I’m 23 days and $162 away from the half marathon. Yikes! I really should start training soon. Or else no one’s going to take pity on me when I’m whining on November 1 about my aching legs. Hmm.

Hey, did I post this picture? It’s pretty funny.

That’s Oliver, being all chill in the middle.

Okay, okay, I really need to work on taking more pictures. Will do!

Now I’m in for it.

So, I think it’s safe to say we’ve spent a lot of time at Children’s Hospital. Mostly for the asthma stuff, but there were a few other visits, like Miles’s broken head on Christmas day, and the fun surgery I like to refer to thusly:

[-(tubes+adenoids)]x3

I kind of enjoyed math in high school. Until it got really hard and I had to cry and beg my calculus teacher to give me a C so I could graduate from our nerd school and not have to repeat the 12th grade back at my old high school. Oh, the humiliation! I also had to do this with my physics professor.

Pam + (physics + calculus) = not good.

Best picture ever from surgery day, by the way: (babies on sedatives are funny!)

So anyway. Back to the Children’s Hospital stuff. We have spent a lot of time there in the past year. When I saw that the inaugural Jazz Half-Marathon in October was also a fund-raiser for the hospital, I knew I wanted to do the race.

I’ve done half-marathons and marathons before. Before children. Two marathons, and several halfs. Maybe five? I can’t remember. The last one was the Mardi Gras half-marathon, which I did with my friend Kettie, mom of Henry from the last post. Anyway. Let’s just say it’s been a while.

But I’m nothing if not hard-headed and stubborn, and dammit, I am going to do this race. I am planning to walk it, so don’t panic about my lack of training. I’m going to hit the treadmill as much as I can before the race, but I’m walking it. I’m not worried about finishing. It’ll be fine. I promise. Walk walk walk. I can walk 13 miles, right? No problem.

Here’s where you come in. Help me raise at least $250. It’s not hard. I had to raise ten times that back in 2003 when I did the Marine Corps Marathon for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. $250 is nothing. But let’s try to raise more than that. For purely selfish reasons, of course. Whoever raises the most money gets a fun weekend trip to NYC, and I want that trip for George and I! (Also, imagine the red carpet treatment we’ll get, next time we hit the ER at 2 am for a breathing treatment!)

Anyway. It’s easy. You can donate online here (just make sure you put in MY NAME – Pam Kocke – into the “Name of Runner You Are Sponsoring” box, so I get credit for your donation.) If you’d prefer to write a check, you can use this form. Again, just put my name in the first blank after the “I,_____”. Don’t worry, you’re not committing yourself to running the race.

Thanks, and don’t forget to make your donation! Don’t worry, though, I’ll be reminding you often. :D Mwah ha ha ha ha…

Need a new purse?

I know I do…so when I saw that my friend Lani, a fellow triplet mom, was giving one away (Coach, no less!), I was v excited. So perhaps I shouldn’t be sharing this link. Like I need competition in this?

But…she’s doing this to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Remember, back in 2003, when I ran (okay, walked too) the Marine Corps Marathon? Remember? And I had to raise some ungodly sum of money? And I did? Well, that’s what Lani’s doing, except she’s running her race at Disney World. (Lucky!)

So, not only can you help Lani raise money for the LLS, you can also possibly win that Coach bag! (And give it to me because I would love a red purse.)

And it’s easy – for every dollar you donate, you get an entry into the contest. Sweet! Go check out her blog entry for more details….

Nice weekend

Finally had a nice, relaxing weekend. Because the boys were at their grandparents’. Heh. What can I say? They’re at a busy age. Or something.

Oliver said his first two word phrase (I mean, that I’ve heard) this morning. “My cracker!” Heh. Those boys, they do love their crackers, and are fiercely protective of them. Mmmm, generic Ritz crackers…

So, what did we do? Well, we went out to eat Friday night. And Saturday I slept until 9 am! Woo! Then I did some cleaning, some shopping, some going-to-the-gymming, some “gardening”. (If you count filling a garden with rocks so that nothing will grow in it “gardening”. I do.)

And then I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening lounging around with friends. It was really nice and relaxing. Just what I needed.

Yesterday, after I picked the boys up, I took all three to Whole Foods. While it is, of course, ridiculously expensive, they have nice clean carts that will easily hold up to four kids. How I love it so. We sat and ate lunch and they were good! I guess they knew they had to act classy in a store like that. Heh.

I wish I had some cute pictures to jazz this up…oh wait, I do!

One guess…

This one’s Oliver. Feeling tropical.

Linus, looking curiously at his goofy father:

This week, my challenge is to make it to the gym at least 3 times. I am unofficially training for a half-marathon on Halloween, and even though I’m just going to walk it, I guess I should be in some kind of decent shape, eh? I found out some of my friends do some of the classes at my gym, so I’m eager to try them out. Should be fun.