Ali Blah Blah

I did it! My first half marathon. Two hours twenty-one minutes. 99% running, 1% waiting to go to the bathroom. 10lbs lost over six months and nearly 200 miles of training runs. It has been an amazing, exhilarating and crazy journey.  The icing on the cake was feeling good and being able to enjoy the whole race, having friends cheering from the sidelines, and then running across the finish line with Anna and Lucy. What a perfect way to spend Mothers Day weekend.I'll write more when I...

Anna's School TriathlonThis was the setting for Anna's school sports day on Friday. Not a bad backdrop I think you'll agree. I didn't get to participate last year, but as her school is a 'progressive' school, being an 'involved' parent is encouraged, so I was there in my standard Mum black capri yoga trousers at 8:30am looking both helpful and sporty.That proved to be my downfall.The first event was the run. The little kids would start first, followed by the 'big ones'. Anna's teacher was...

Orchard to Ocean 10k - March 2012 It's the beginning of the month, a chance to start something new, so here's a little inspiration for any would-be runners out there (thanks to Radmegan for sending some my way!). You can do this. I started from scratch and you can too.These are just some of the things that have worked for me in my journey towards my first half marathon. It's now less than two weeks away *yikes*!Mix it up - I run three times a week. Thirty minutes twice a week with a longer...

Last week I Heimlich'd a diamante heart out of Lucy and she started breathing again.I couldn't write about it for a while, because it was so shocking and surreal and such an incredibly close call. We'd just come home from work/school/preschool. The 45 minute loop from my office to their respective schools to home is hard to do at the end of a long day. I love picking them up, learning about their day, who pushed who (Lucy) and how baby zebras can tell their Moms by their stripes (Anna). It's...

It took six flights to get us to and from England:Santa Barbara to PhoenixPhoenix to PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia to ManchesterThe first time I saw that itinerary I thought Expedia was having a laugh. Who flies to the UK via Phoenix and Philly, except people who can only fly through cities beginning with P'To say I was dreading the flights would be a massive understatement. Last time we flew home, two years ago, we also had six flights. But then we also had an Icelandic volcano and a one year old...

This is the weather in Santa Barbara a couple of days before we flew off to England:As you can see in the following photo, all was not quite what it seemed. It was a freak snowfall, and only on the top of the mountains overlooking SB - and even though my girls are wearing quite a fine array of Old Navy fleece, they are in fact gloveless and completely unprepared for real snow.Here I am herding them towards a patch of snow, iphone in hand, desperate for that 2012 Christmas photo...Anna said...

 One of the great things about living in this town, is there's no shortage of gorgeous places to go for a run. Plus you can't beat the weather (it's actually raining as I write this - but that's the exception that proves the rule).One of my favourite runs takes in the ocean, a bird reserve, a zoo, a world famous hotel and many multi-million dollar properties. You also run past a graveyard on a hill, which is excellent motivation if you're feeling a little winded.There I was the other...

My daughters are prolific artists.This is a real-time shot of our kitchen table where I'm writing this post. The Valentines factory is in full swing. We have feathers, glitter glue, markers, jewels, multi-coloured paper - even some flowers LK brought home the other day.It's hard to know what to do with this 'embarrassment of riches' - every project is a window into their souls. Every pen stroke a Rembrandt.We have an 'art wall':and we've even framed some of it:It just keeps arriving by the...

Hello! Happy New Year!Let's pretend it's not been an entire month since my last post, and I'll try and create a bit of momentum here.Christmas was a blur. My parents were in town and were endlessly entertained (and vice versa) by Anna and Lucy, leaving LK and I with some rare time on our hands to unwind, and actually leave the house by ourselves...Sadly not all of our Christmas plans came to fruition. I had been planning for weeks to have the girls' big 'Santa present' be a trampoline in the...

As any Expat knows, there comes a time when you have to embrace your new life for what it is. Yes, your heart may long for better chocolate, bread, or television, but this is the new normal and you'd better just get on with it - but more than that, make the best of it.Don't ask me to eat Hershey's though.The same is true with migraines. I was really ill last year. I don't think I realized how sick I was until I started feeling a tiny bit better. I was having serious migraines at least three...