Exciting News!

Oregon Stories
            As some of you may know, I am an enthusiastic adopted-Oregonian. Though I was born in San Pedro, California, I have mostly lived in Oregon since I was 16. Well, a while back, Ooligan Press was accepting submissions for their compilation book, "Oregon Stories," and I submitted a few hundred words on MY Oregon story, entitled "Destination: Home." I guess it's not a huge deal, but they accepted it and it is on page 34 of the recently-published book! Yay! So, if anybody is out there reading this and wants to read my blurb, you can check out the book. Here's a picture of the cover:

My Two New Loves
              Ah, don't get TOO excited! I'm talking about a love of HALTER TOPS and KIMONO ROBES. That's right. I am currently, madly in love with both sewn and crocheted halter tops and deliciously silky satin kimono robes. I am one sick lady! BUT let me explain:
              Since losing all my weight, I am pretty sparse on top. I used to be Buxom, Curvy, Beautifully Rounded with a decolletage worth bragging about. NOW I am laughingly described as an "A minus" cup size. Now, this is not entirely a negative thing. For one thing, running is a LOT easier. For another, I can now wear HALTER TOPS to stay cool in the summer without worrying about my business popping out accidentally and scaring dogs and small children. Thank you, Goddess!
              SOOOO...I found a halter top pattern from the 1970's on EBay and I am really excited to sew a few for those hot summer days we have coming up! And I found THIS top at JCPenney's and I had a flashback to my sister Tanya's bathing suit from 1977:

Kazowee! I am such a hippie chick! 

Another Fabulous Halter

                Michael's was having a sale on Lily Sugar'n Cream 100% cotton  worsted weight yarn for $1 a skein. I made a halter top using a generic bikini cup crochet pattern I found on the Internet and embellished it with a 3-double crochet stitch pattern I made up as I went along. This top cost a Grand Total of $2 to make using an F size crochet hook and 2 skeins of Lily Sugar'n Cream cotton yarn in the Country Stripes colorway. Bear in mind, I didn't have to change any colors while crocheting at all--this is all built into the yarn by the way it's dyed:

I'm really happy with the way it came out! It's fairly lightweight and very comfortable! I plan to make more with some wacky colors--like orange and fuschia, and maybe play around a bit with a lacy apron-front made of Berka Shells or something like that! Nifty!

Satin Kimono Robes
                My old fluffy housecoat just wasn't cutting it anymore. For one thing, it's warming up out there--and being smothered in layer after layer of hot pink polyester fake fur just isn't as appealing in April as it is in November! For another, Mother's Day is coming up and I wanted to feel *pretty*. So I found this robe on Amazon.com from Old Shanghai and I got it in Peacock, a lovely teal shade with golden embroidered bamboo leaves. Here's the link:
Old Shanghai Brocade Kimono Robe
                It comes in 6 different colors, and the hemline is exactly the right length! At 5'2", I usually have to hem most clothing by 3 or more inches. (I have a pathetically short inseam). But this robe is marvelous and fits perfectly! It feels substantial, keeping me warm without the bulk of my winter fluffy robe. And it has unleashed my Inner Geisha. All I need now is a twirly parasol and a pair of geta sandals and I am set! Here I am, wearing my new robe and looking sort of zombie-like because I am zoning out while crocheting:

                 As you can see, my gigantic 18-ounce pastel green cup of coffee has yet to be consumed. It is resting near a half-used skein of Sensations "Beautiful" yarn that I was thinking about making into a fluffy bikini top just for kicks--but they've discontinued that particular line and one skein won't be enough, I'm afraid. Oh, well. And I refuse to contemplate a fluffy pink G-string, so don't even ask.
 Nate's Doing Better!!
                 We got the news today that Nate can start putting weight on his foot again! His pain is almost completely resolved and he is responding well to ibuprofen, and he is supposed to wear the walking cast for another week before switching to a regular shoe. He has lost about 2 centimeters' worth of muscle in the right leg, from not using it, but the doctor said this is well within norms and a few weeks of using the leg again and doing the special exercises should restore his leg to it's former glory. Nate was really perked up to be able to go to school and actually put weight on the foot, and his teachers were also very happy--it was such a pain to use either the crutches or the wheelchair, and now those days are mercifully OVER! Here he is eating cereal and dreaming of putting weight on his foot again:

This Week's Epic Long Run
                To baby my right Achilles tendon, I've been doing a lot of treadmill running, flat running, stretching exercises and cross-training. I realized that running my long run on the treadmill was going to be horrible, boring and excruciatingly awful (GREAT attitude, Heather!), but my training schedule called for 14 miles this week, and I didn't want to chance any hills with that kind of distance. SOOO...I went into it ready for a long, hard slog.

 I had two of these all filled up with fresh, filtered water: 

 

I had my trusty Zune all filled up with zippy music:

Mmm--SMUDGY!!
AND I had an array of mental imaging techniques, affirmations, mantras, and various methods to keep my brain entertained while my body did this incredibly difficult and monotonous THING.

How did I fare? Well...I did just fine for the first 3.5 miles when it occurred to me that I REALLY should have stopped by the ladies' room BEFORE hitting the treadmill. The Thud, Thud, Thud of my body hitting the rollers was impossible to ignore--I was hard-pressed to distract myself from the fact that I needed to pee REALLY REALLY BAD!! I hopped off the Dreadmill of Doom and ran to the ladies', returning minutes later Refreshed and Ready to continue on my Run! It was much nicer after I took care of that little problem, folks!

Still, I had to keep psyching myself up for the remaining 9.5 miles every few minutes, telling myself how great I was doing, how good it felt, and how I wanted to keep going--that I was really, actually DOING IT! I was accomplishing this thing and if it took counting my steps in sets of 12 (about the number it took to go 1/100th of a mile), constantly reworking my pacing, thinking about Nathan Fillion in the buff (yes, you read that right!)--well, heck--I was going to keep on until I met my goal! By the way, here is a picture of Nathan Fillion artfully posed, but, as previously mentioned, in the buff:

(I am a totally pathetic and sad Firefly Browncoat Fan-girl. But it got me through the run. That's all I care about!)

I made it going a pretty good pace--an average of 9 min. 16.7 seconds per mile, though when I plugged in my Nike + sensor I could see that I maintained an 8 minute mile pace for the first 10 and then flagged for the last 4. Gotta work on that consistency! I'll do better next week. TTYL, all!

Projects!

Boy, have I been busy since I last updated! I have been working full-time at my job as a night shift women's health RN, and I finally got my taxes done (TWO days early, so SCORE!!), and I have a number of knit and crochet projects that I've been working on. PLUS this last week I ran my longest run ever--13.5 miles!

Here is an illustration of how I felt after that run was complete:

 

Here is a link to the activity that I wanted to do as soon as possible:  Guess What??


I'm really excited because I got a Nike+ Sport Band to help me work on my pacing. (I got the pink one!)  I don't have an iPod (ohmygosh--the blasphemy of it! I have a Zune), so I haven't been able to use the microchip technology that would give me a more accurate fix on my pace as I'm going along. The Sport Band is the perfect solution, especially since my poor watch (a really awesome Citizen Eco-Drive that I got as a "Getting Out of Iowa!" gift to myself) was getting wrecked from constant sweat exposure. Yes, I sweat when I run. Perspiring is for sissies.

The Nike+ Sport Band functions as a watch, and tracks my calorie expenditure and the time it takes for me to complete my run. You just press the button for 3 seconds to start recording, do your run, then press it again to turn it off. You pop the built-in flash drive right off the band and stick it in the USB port to download the run info. The only thing I worry about is accuracy--for the calibration run, which MapMyRun.com says was 3.2 miles, the Sport Band recorded as being 3.64 miles. Hmm. That's quite a difference, and might give me a false sense of speed when I'm really not going as fast as all that. We'll see if the accuracy improves over time.

Here's the link to the product description, although it's been my experience that the Nike website runs kind of slow:  Groovy Nike+ Sport Band

On the Autism Speaks fund-raising front, I've been doing a bit of research and I came up with the idea to give a free leather training bracelet to charitable givers who donate $50 or more to Autism Speaks. I am currently working with an artist that I discovered on  Etsy.com (a very cool site where artists and crafters can sell their wares) to design and test out the prototype.

It's going to be a unisex dark brown leather band, to fit a wrist between 7 and 8 inches, with a riveted, shiny nickel plate on top that says,"AUTISM SPEAKS. Will you listen?" She is going to send me the test model soon--I can't wait! I will post pictures of it as soon as I can. I think it will be a real incentive and a way to spread the message that autism is a growing problem that we need to focus all our efforts to untangle.

(Still haven't figured out how to set up the whole Paypal thing, but I'm working on it!)

Now on to...KNITTING PROJECTS!!

Okay--if you knew me in real life, you'd know that I have a ball of yarn where my heart should be. And not just any yarn. It's Noro Silk Garden worsted weight in the #252 colorway. Here's a pic: Yummy Yarn!

Anyway, I've been so busy that I haven't had much time lately to devote to sitting in front of the TV knitting. But HAPPILY, I did get some time last week and here are some pictures of me knitting an eco-friendly, reusable grocery bag:

PURLING

MORE PURLING

THIS PURLING IS KILLING ME.

AHH--A shot of the AWESOME (and thankfully cheap) LILY brand Sugar'n Cream worsted weight 100% cotton yarn in ORIENTAL OCHRE with which I knitted the following FABULOUS bag:

Hurray!!

So that's about it for now, blog-followers and friends. The plan for today is a 6 mile run this morning, then a search for the perfect built-in bra to put into a halter-top I am crocheting. Didn't you just die of excitement upon reading that?? I know I did! Till next time.

Secrets of My Success

Having been a single mom for 5 years, I thought it would be neat to write about some of the things that have definitely contributed to my success in that arena over the years!

Nate, who is 16 now, has a number of food intolerances and prohibitions, mainly driven by his sensory issues with the textures of certain foods. Some of these things are completely RANDOM. Prior to the age of 7, Nate would both eat and apparently enjoy chicken. Then he saw the movie "Chicken Run." Here's the link on Wikipedia: Chicken Run!

Okay, no more chicken! From the second he saw those stop-motion chickens shivering in fear of "the CHOP," Nate absolutely refused to let the Colonel's crunchy goodness touch his lips. And since pork, beef, GROUND beef, hot dogs, lunchmeat, and other forms of animal protein also presented problems for him, I was left to flail around for vegetable sources. Cue the split peas, lentils, beans & rice! Ah, but how to prepare them?

YES! Strawberry Pig loves my Crockpot, and SO DO I! I learned that I could throw a 1 lb. bag of split peas, 10 cups of water, some baby carrots and potatoes and a bit of salt and pepper in there and 8 hours later serve up hot, steaming bowls of protein-rich soup that Nate would devour like a starving man. Sometimes I'd even hide some secret bacon in there, or diced ham (I'm not a Spy for nothing!).

Some people are domestically gifted, such as my sister Erika, and love the work of making a household into a home. This includes cooking and baking. But for me, her far-less-talented older sis, I struggled for years with my hatred of La Vida Domestica. My heavy weight, with its accompanying sleep apnea, chronic pain and subsequent tiredness, just made cooking another horrible chore at which I was mediocre at best. Thankfully, in the last few years I have not only gained a tremendous amount of energy, I've also found the tools to help me to do the most efficient job in the least amount of time in the kitchen. To wit: My veggie chopper!

I love this thing! I found it at Target years ago and it is so cool. You rough-chop your desired veggie, place it over the metal grid, then SLAM the white top down and the chopped veggies fall down into the clear plastic receptacle underneath. I use it all the time--to chop veggies for stews, or to add zucchini and summer squash to spaghetti sauce or even chili (I know it sounds weird, but try it!). For someone with my lame hand-chopping and slicing skills, it is a life-saver!

I've been gradually working at re-introducing chicken to Nate over the last several years as well. He seems to be okay as long as the chicken is not in a recognizable form, so I do a lot of shredded chicken breast. I am not ashamed to say that I use Chicken Helper on a regular basis. Martha Stewart may have a heart attack, but dammit, sometimes ya gotta go with the quick meal choice!

I fill out the meal by adding a bag of frozen vegetables to the skillet while it's cooking--usually a stir-fry asparagus or sugar-snap pea mix that you can find at any supermarket--and both Brodie and Asher like a bit of shredded cheese sprinkled and melted on the top. Nate, for reasons of his own, is a non-shredded cheese kind of person.

For the RUNNERS: Here's a couple of pictures of me doing stretches and incidentally attracting the attentions of our cat, Pumpkin Jack:

And here is what I look like AFTER the run, which was 8.58 miles at an 8 min. 16.5 sec. mile pace:

HOO-Boy! SEE--Heather exulting in the amazing fast pace that she's never accomplished before! FEEL--her incredibly gross sweatiness and the utter gratitude she feels for that bottle of water in her hand! KNOW--the thrill of victory!! Huzzah! And the complete and all-encompassing RELIEF that the run is OVER! Ahhh...

Today I noticed that my left achilles tendon hurts a bit. Yesterday's run was 8.94 miles with a LOT of uphill in Portland's Western Hills, up by Dosch, Fairmount and Talbot Rd. I was running along a particularly arduous uphill slope when I spotted another runner up ahead. She had STOPPED and had her cell phone out and was calling her husband to come pick her up! She was 'way thinner and looked faster than me, so I felt a little dip in my fighting spirit just then. But I just kept running.

My achilles was a little sore at the end of the run, but I didn't think anything of it. This morning, however, definite stiffness and discomfort. So, as any runner knows, it's time for ICE and cross-training to give the tendon a chance to heal. Here's a pic of my ice-pack:


Strawberry Pig is also a fan of my ice-pack. Which doubles as part of a nutritious, delicious meal!  AND on that note of La Puerca Fresa's definite approval, I shall sign-off for another week. 'Bye for now, folks!

Just Starting Out!

I'm really excited to be starting this blog so I can share my experiences as a single mom of kids with special needs, as well as networking with other runners who embrace charitable causes. Maybe I'll even inspire some donations for Autism Speaks, a terrific organization for parents, kids and the larger scientific community that focuses on helping families to find the best services and therapy for their kids. They're also funding research into the causes and treatments for Autism Spectrum Disorder, an increasing problem, especially in developed countries. Here's the link so you can read more about them if you want: http://www.autismspeaks.org/

We recently got back from a trip to California to see my dad, Dr. Thomas F. Wales, and my sister, brother and old friends. I have been in Oregon for so long that I really do consider myself to be a native Oregonian, webbed feet and all, but it was very nice to get to experience California sunshine, beaches and delicious ocean breezes once again! I haven't seen Dad since Mom's funeral 3 years ago--it's been tough to get the money for a trip together--and he was very surprised by how different I looked compared with 2007! Sometimes I forget how much I've changed, especially since most of my work colleagues only know Fit Heather.

Nate and Asher, my two sons with ASD, had a bit of trouble with the change in routine occasioned by our week-long vacation, but most of the wrinkles could be smoothed out with a bit of quiet talking and reassurance... They all seemed to rally when we went to Disneyland--Nate especially went NUTS for Space Mountain and the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad rides! It was great to see them enjoying themselves.

On our final day of vacation, we went to Hangar 18, an indoor-climbing gym, with my sister's church group. Unfortunately, one of autism's most common traits is a lack of danger awareness, and while I was busy filling out the liability forms and watching my youngest, Asher, hurtle around like a little racehorse, Nate snuck to the back of the building and attempted to climb the wall without helmet, safety gear, or anything at all.

No one saw the accident, but from what I could gather from Nate, he climbed up, slid down, and then fell the rest of the way, landing on his right foot and breaking it in two places. Luckily, my sis knew where the nearest hospital was, so we were treated to excellent, speedy care at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, CA. I think it kind of helped that as a nurse, I knew the lingo and the plan of care, and THEY knew that I knew--so Nate was treated and streeted with very little fuss.

He's been to see the orthopedist and the second set of X-rays showed a small gap between the metatarsals that shouldn't be there, but we're going to follow up in two weeks to see if surgery will be necessary after all. Hopefully Nate will be able to get away with a mere 6-8 weeks in a walking cast--though he is forbidden from putting any weight on the foot for at least 3 weeks. I would hate for him to have to suffer through surgery!

All 3 boys were real troopers on the drive back from LA to Portland. We stopped in Red Bluff, CA, overnight, and made it back home by 1pm the next day. All in all, a very eventful trip! Here's a picture of the climbing gym:

And here's Nate with his temporary cast, resting on my sister's couch:

 Now a short blurb about my running (yes, I know you are all cheering!):

I downloaded a training schedule from Runner's World using their SmartCoach feature and I am eager to do my 7-miler today. I use MapMyRun.com to figure routes and mileage--aside from the iPhone ads, it's a great resource for any runner, especially if you don't want to wear a big old clunky Garmin GPS on your wrist!

I have signed up for the Foot Traffic Flat Half-Marathon on July 4th, and of course, the biggie is going to be the 2010 Portland Marathon on October 10th. That, I am running to raise funds for Autism Speaks, and to honor my mom, Jo Wales, who ran her own marathon at the age of 42 in Palos Verdes, CA, just to see if she could do it!

Mom's death from cancer in May of 2007 was a horrible blow--she was my support and my confidante when the stress and strain of coping with the responsibilities of my life and household just got to be too much. So that's why I am running, folks! It's a great stress-reliever, a chance to listen to my tunes, and a way I can actually help others. Yay! 'Bye for now, all.