Kristi Brausch

At the beginning of December I started running.  For the most part I was really enjoying it.  I even lost a few pounds.  But right now I’m feeling very torn between running and just walking to get a little exercise.

Reason number one.  Whenever I ran I would feel so guilty and selfish.  Spending all that time and effort when I can’t even get around to cleaning my bath tub more than once a month.  Also, the reason I had started running was so that I could go to Utah next year and run a half marathon with my sisters.  Just thinking about all the time and money that goes into that trip.  It’s also likely that my husband and kids would be stuck at home while I went on a trip just to go run a race.

Reason number two.  I mentioned that I lost a few pounds.  Well, right after Christmas I had a cough for about two weeks and wasn’t able to go running.  In those two weeks I GAINED 10 POUNDS!  Now, I can chalk some of that weight up to the food I ate.  But I don’t want to start running again if I’m going to gain 10 pounds every time I take some time off from running.

Advice?

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Yesterday night I ran a mile strait! 

So far I’d run 1/2 mile at a time then walk a little and run 1/2 mile again.  But for the first time I ran a mile strait.  It totally whipped me out though.  It took all I had.  I came home and went strait to bed.  Then slept most of the day today, (I also have a cold).  But it felt great!

I took my dog running with me for the first time yesterday.  I can’t decided if she made it easier for me to run that mile or if I could have ran farther without her.  It was fun to change it up a little though.

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I’ve been really good this year, Santa came early to our house. 

The boys think it’s really cool to watch the clothes spin around.

I got a cute little, gently used, front loading, washing machine.  It’s so great!  The clothes came out so clean and almost dry.  I’m used to having the clothes dripping as I hang them up. 

I’m in heaven!

(The dog isn’t a big fan of the washing machine.  She used to sleep in the laundry room, but now she gets to sleep outside.)

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When you walk on a treadmill if you get tired after a mile you can push stop and get off the treadmill.   If you’re walking outside and you walk a mile you have to walk a mile back. 

I used to prefer walking on a treadmill when I was out of shape and didn’t really want to exercise.  But I really enjoy walking outside and having to return from that mile. 

Depending how you look at it that could be a good thing or a bad thing.   Now sometimes because of weather you have to walk on a treadmill indoors.

What’s your opinion on treadmills vs the outdoors?

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Today was one of those days where the kids were crying about everything, the sink has a bottom-less amount of dirty dishes and nothing goes right.  At the end of the day I just wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.  We decided to watch a movie instead.  I had just downloaded It’s A Wonderful Life.  I love that movie!  It was just what I needed.  After watching it I felt so grateful for all my dirty dishes and crying children.  I am so blessed!

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Today I didn’t run that much farther than a few days ago.  But it still feels great to run even 1/2 mile farther than last time.  I love that feeling of achieving something new, even if it is a small achievement.

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Tonight the kids didn’t want to stay at home while I went running.  So I strapped Peter to my back and just went for a brisk walk instead of running.  I went a half mile with him then came back and took Jimmy for a half mile too.  The kids really enjoyed it.

It feels so great!  

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I’ve been thinking about running all day.  Tonight after I bathed the kids and got them ready for bed it was only 7:00.  I thought, “this is it…this is my window….run!”  So I put the boys in their room to play and told James that I would be back in an hour. 

Instead of running around the neighborhood I decided to run around the nearby soccer field.  No cars or barking dogs, I figured the softer ground might help too.  It was great!  I think the lack of distractions made it easier to zone out and just go. 

I started running about 1/4 mile then had to walk.  When I started running again I would get to my starting point and think, “I could go around one more time.”  I did that for about 1/2 mile.  It was so great to just kinda get into a rhythm with my breathing and foot steps etc.  I went back and forth 1/4 mile walking, 1/4 mile running the last part of the hour.  I went about 2.5 to 3 miles.  I love how much easier it was tonight.  I’m excited for tomorrow!

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So after I woke up early and ran (a few days ago) the next day I was sore and tired and just not sure I really wanted to do it.  I made one excuse after another why I couldn’t go running.  But then I saw this picture of my sister.

I wanted to look as good in a swimsuit as she did.  So YES, I really do want to do this!

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I did three loads of laundry today…by hand.  I have carpel tunnel and at the end of the day my hands and wrists were sore. 

I was about to say my prayers and I thought, “I should pray for a washing machine.” 

But then I looked down at my hands and thought, “no, I should thank God that I have the physical strength and ability to wash three loads of laundry by hand.” 

I am truly blessed.

I do have my fingers crossed that Santa will bring me a washing machine for Christmas. 

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All of the things I thought I hated about exercising are the things I like the most.  The feeling of my muscles hot and being “pushed”, getting my heart rate up, breathing deeply.  I realized that I was always so self-conscious about breathing too deep and sweating too much that people would think that I was really fat and ugly and, and ,and…  But this time I just let go.  It helps that no one’s around when I run around the neighborhood.

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Ever since I decided to start running I’ve been a little, I don’t know, afraid I guess.  Afraid of getting hurt, of failing, of succeeding, the unknown, doing something out of my comfort zone…  So I’ve just been walking the last few days.  

I actually ran with the kids a little yesterday when they rode their bikes around the neighborhood.  I really enjoyed it, but was I enjoying the time with my kids or the physical activity?  That was enough to get me curious, I decided I just need to close my eyes and jump.  

This morning I DID IT!! I woke up at 6:30 and went walking/running!!  I went about a mile and a half and probably only ran 1/4 of the time.  Even though I walked more than I ran it was great to know that I was getting started.

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My sister Amy recently ran a half marathon.  She said it was amazing.  She said, “It’s just like having a baby, it’s so thrilling and exciting and you forget the pain soon after”

She challenged me the other day to run it with her next year.  At first I thought, “yeah, well, that would be nice.”  But then I thought, “hey, I’m not in too bad a shape.  With a year to train there’s no reason I couldn’t do it.”

But then how to begin.  I don’t know anything about running (that sounds funny…but you know what I mean.)  My husband, however, used to be a runner.  So he gave me a few tips like wearing good shoes, running every-other day in the beginning, stop running if your ankles start to hurt, drink lots of water, etc.

So here I go…the only dilemma I have now is when to go running.  I hate waking up early, and I love the “grown-up time” in the evenings after the kids go to bed.  I’m sure I’ll figure something out though.

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Thanksgiving was great!  It was my first time cooking thanksgiving dinner, it turned out pretty good.  Mom, thanks for the gravy help. …I’m still full…I love Stove Top Stuffing!

I actually made a Thanksgiving casserole.  Mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, chicken (turkey is really expensive here), stuffing and gravy all layered.  It was so yummy!  I’m going to make it again for Christmas.

We sat around all day watching Thanksgiving Specials, Charlie Brown, Garfield, Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny, even the Simpsons.  It was fun.

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A big piece of chocolate birthday cake and a tall glass of milk make the world a better place!

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I almost cried at the grocery store today. I had been waiting in line to buy a candle for Peter’s birthday cake, that’s it, a single candle. One of the guys saw that I only had one thing and opened up a line to quickly let me through. When he waved me over the two ladies behind me seriously ran and… cut me off. All I could do was stand there…I knew that if I moved I would cry.

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We just watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks. The boys loved it. They thought it was fun and silly. It reminded me of my Mom. Love you Mom!

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I have the song from Saturday’s Warrior stuck in my head, “Will I wait for you? Why, Walley Kestler, you should be ashamed of yourself…” It made me think of Amy and Sean. Which made me think of Uncle Rusty and ex-lax brownies. Oh, good times…

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Right now I’m eating crackers with mayo, mustard, cheese and pickles. It totally reminds me of when me and Jen would sneak into the kitchen at night and eat all the balony and cheese on crackers. Or even one time when we ran out of balony and cheese and just ate crackers with mustard.  We were so silly…but it was a lot of fun.

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I just cooked up some zucchini and it reminded me of my Mom. I remember all the times we would eat zucchini together. Love ya, miss you!

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My boys let me sleep-in ’til 9:00 this morning!!  For about the last month they’ve been waking up at the crack of dawn, around 5:30 or 6:00 it was driving me nuts. I finally put cardboard on the top half of there windows and doubled up their curtains. Over the last week they’ve been sleeping later and later. It’s been great!

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We watched Big with Tom Hanks the other day. It made me think of Amy. I remember she had a crush on him.

…ice cream soda pop, vanilla on top, OOoo Shalita, walkin’ down the street, 10 times a week, I met ‘er, I set her, I stole my momma’s credit, I’m cool, I’m hot, sock you in the stomach three more times. I’ve had that stuck in head since we watched it….now it’s stuck in yours. 

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Halloween was fun this year.  The kids were old enough to get excited about it.  I made them Tyrone and Pablo costumes from the Backyardigans.

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I’m carving papayas with the kids. You can buy pumpkins down here but they’re $10! So we tried papayas and the kids didn’t even notice the difference.

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I totally have a craving for my Mom’s green cottage cheese jello.

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I’m having one of those crazy emotional days where you feel like crying all day but there’s nothing to be upset about, it’s just stupid hormones.

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My friend Joalea tagged me. Here are the rules:

1. go to your my document/my pictures
2. go to your sixth file
3. go to your sixth picture
4. blog about it
5. tag six people

This picture is from June 2008.  Some friends of ours (a missionary couple serving at the Costa Rican Temple) asked us if we wanted to go with them to some ancient village ruins near Cartago I think…maybe Torrialba.  Anyway, it took a few hours drive to get there.  The boys were 1 and 2 years old at the time.  When we got there the village was actually a mile hike away.  So James and Bro Buzby went and took the cameras while Sis. Buzby and I stayed at the visitors area with the boys.

This is a caterpillar that was along the trail.

I tag: Amy, Mom, Tami, James, Jen, Robin

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It’s been awhile since I wrote.  If you look back a few posts on March 17th I wrote about riding my bike and how much fun I was having giving my kids rides in the basket and proud that I was in shape enough to do it.

On March 18th I had Peter in the basket and it fell off.  Peter hit face first on the pavement.   We went to the hospital in Managua.  He had a CT scan, about 10-15 stitches in his lip and gums.  Thankfully he didn’t have any fractures or any major damage.  A week later he had to have one of his front teeth pulled.  But by that time…only a week later…you wouldn’t have guessed that he was all bloody the week before.  He healed up so fast!

The day of the accident

One week later…the day he got his tooth pulled

Because I was the one riding the bike I blamed myself for a long time.  But accidents happen.  I think I just thought that I jinxed myself with writing about my bike the day before.  I was afraid to blog about anything else, thinking that something bad would happen again.

But things don’t work that way.  Stuff just happens sometimes.   Especially to boys…just kidding.  It’s all apart of being a Mom.  When I told my Mom about Peter she told me about some of the crazy things we did as kids and how it’s hard not to blame yourself as the Mom.  You’re the mom…you’re supposed to always protect your kids….but, things just happen sometimes.

This life is a test… right?

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It normally rains every day from April to November in Costa Rica…sometimes a little…sometimes a lot.  But it hasn’t rained for the last few days.  It’s been kinda nice.

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I’m flying on an airplane in six hours and just watched an episode of LOST…it was even the episode where they crash on the island…not helpful…

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This is our new little doggie Lluvia (jew-via or you-via). She’s so sweet and mellow. The boys love taking her to the park.

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I woke up at 5:00 this morning and my boys slept in past 8:00. They haven’t slept in that late in a long time.

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My boys just asked me if they could go to school (it’s 9pm).  They love school.

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I remember out first week here in Nicaragua.  It was so hot.  I remember thinking we were crazy to have moved to a place so hot.  But after that first week it wasn’t so bad.  I think it had cooled down a little, but really we had adjusted to our new climate.

It’s amazing, a few weeks ago it was 77F. degrees and I felt cold.  Where as I remember a year ago in Costa Rica dying of heat at 78F. degrees.  Our bodies amaze me.

I have to say though, it was really hot today (95F.).   We moved here in November so we haven’t been here for the summer yet.  I hope we continue to acclimate as well as we’ve done so far.

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A lot of people are expressing their dislike of the snow.  Would it be mean of me to complain about it getting hot down here?  It’s in the 90’s!

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Yesterday James and I watched the last episode of Battle Star Galactica (if you haven’t seen it stop reading.  I spoil the ending.)

For those that don’t know the story I’ll do a quick recap.  Four years ago there was a big war between the machines and the humans.  The planet was no longer inhabitable so the remaining 50,000 people went in search for another planet to live.  While they also continued to run from the machines (the Cylons) and would have battles.  Last season the Cylons and humans came to an agreement and joined the search for a new home.  Anyway, in this last episode they found a planet.  It had a few tribal people on it, but for the most part was empty.  But it was full of animals, plants and beauty.

They decided not to set up any government or large cities.  Instead, the remaining 30,000+ people spread out over the globe.  Left to do whatever they wanted, live alone, live with others.  But there was this huge world open and free for them to explore.  A “clean slate” they called it.

They brought all of their supplies with them but they flew their ships and technology into the sun.  Everything was now…..simple.

As I watched the end of the episode I found myself being jealous of them.  There are so many rules and governments and restrictions now-a-days there really isn’t anywhere you can go that is truly free anymore.   Maybe one day….

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A little over a month ago our landlord brought over a bicycle, (it was actually on my birthday that he brought it over.)  just out of the blue.

I had been wanting a bicycle so it worked out great.

We live on a hill, not a really steep hill, but steep enough that I couldn’t ride my bike all the way up it.

But for about the last week I’ve been able to make it all the way up the hill.  It’s pretty exciting.

Yesterday the boys wanted rides on the bike.  So I put them in the basket on the front of the bike and one at a time took them for a ride.  I had already come up the hill twice before I gave them rides making it four times up the hill for the day.  When I was done my legs felt a little like jello but I was so proud of myself.  After resting for a few minutes I was fine.  I was expecting to feel sore for a few days.  But I’m not sore at all.

I’m totally a stud!

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I commented to James as we were walking home from preschool with the boys, “it’s nice to have little boys now instead of little babies.”

My boys are so great!   They feed them selves.  Only one is still in diapers…Peter’s not far off from being potty trained though. They go to preschool.  They’re getting so big.

I’m loving this phase!

Kristi

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About a year and a half ago I was diagnosed with endometriosis.  It was only in my c-section scar but when I had my period my scar hurt like I had just had surgery all over again.  I did a treatment for six months that helped while I was on it.  But all the hormone changes led to carpel tunnel so I had to stop the treatment and the endometriosis flared up again.

I am now able to start that treatment again at a lower dose.  This month my scar was a little tender but that’s it!  My carpel tunnel is doing fine too!  I’m so excited!

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I love nap time!  I don’t know what I’ll do when they stop taking naps….I’ll probably start screaming and pull my hair out which will scare them enough to spend a few hours in their rooms

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