Little bit of Missouri

It has been a bit since my last blog post. A lot has happened and JCM is getting so big. After Salmon Falls 50k, we had a big trip planned. We were headed to Missouri, to visit my wife's family. This was a big trip as it would be JCM's first flight and our first flight with a newborn. It was going to be challenging, but we were up for it. JCM did great on the flight, he didn't make a peep and slept most of the flight which was great. The challenging part was the drive. Once we arrived in Missouri, we had a 3 hour car drive to Grandma's house which ended up taking us 4 fours because we had to stop a few times to calm/feed JCM. But other then that he did great.

It was a long journey,  but glad we made it to grandma's house

Grandma and the family were super excited to see him and pretty much couldn't put him. We saw pretty much the entire family while we were in Missouri and there was even meet Baby JCM party. It was a great trip.

Missouri Landscape

The last time I was in Missouri I had mentioned to my wife that I wanted to go to the Fantastic Caverns. Missouri is known for there caves, there are a ton of caves that can be visited throughout the state and Fantastic Caverns just happens to be down the street. What makes this cave system different is it is America's only Ride Thru Cave system. Pretty cool. Well, be loaded up the family and took an adventure. I enjoyed the tour and we saw a lot of cool things in the cave. It was a pretty massive cave system and a few years ago it did flood and it has 2 sink holes. When we go back, I wouldn't mind visiting another cave as I find that kind of thing interesting. 

He has grown so much!

After visiting grandma at their place we once again had a long journey ahead of us. We had a 3 hr drive back to St. Joe, and it took us 6 hours as JCM was having some gas and we were needing to stop to sooth/calm him down. It was a long trip but we made it. He was a trooper. 

All ready for St. Patrick's day. 

Tired little guy from the trip

His overall's which are super cute on him. 

While in Missouri we also went to Jamestown. Jamestown is a historic place and home to the Amish. There is also a lot of antique stores and we walked through all of them and ended up with some pretty cool things that we mailed home.

JCM meet Ma and Paw, great grandma and great grandpa.

I enjoyed taking photos of grandma and Ma and Paw's land. 

Such a handsome little guy!!

Missouri was great, but we were very happy once we made it back home. Once home I resumed my training  as I had a race coming that I was using as a training run. The American River 50 miler didn't go as planned, but I write more on that later. For now, I hope you enjoy the pictures of JCM just as much as I do. 

Taper Time and Remodel Update

It is finally taper time, meaning I bring the mileage down and allow my body and mind to rest and recover so that I can be prepared for the upcoming Salmon Falls 50k on Saturday. This is a brand new race, which also means new trails, that I haven't been running on that much. I have been able to train on parts of the course, but I am still unsure of the entire course.

With tapering comes the doubt that slowly makes it's way into my head. Have I done enough? Did I do enough long runs, quality runs, am I ready? My training for this 50k hasn't been perfect, but what training ever is? I have a newborn at home, I am in the midst of a remodel, which currently my wife and I are doing the work. This means long days as well as long runs followed by working on the remodel and also taking care of our son. One little piece of good news is I am currently on an LOA for baby bonding time so I do not have that stress factory.

With all of that, I can confidently say, I have done enough. My body well remember to run that distance. With each weeks long run in the books, I gained more confidence as my form and strength came back. This race isn't my target race, but a race to help my training for my target race. In the end, what matters most to me on Saturday, is running a strong, smart race and to be able to continue training the next week.

Taper week has played many tricks on me. On Saturday Trailmomma and I ran a nice and easy 8 mile run. Only I felt terrible, my legs weren't working, I was just spent. I internally did a mental check to figure this out and I came up with this conclusion; A, I have been working on demoing, ripping carpet out of bedrooms, ripping tack strips and staples out of the floors, and also painting. B, I am tired due to the face we have a newborn, C, it's life, get over it and move on.

There is nothing I can do about the past but there is something I can do about the future. This week I am making sure that I am resting. I slept in today. I am drinking plenty of water and eating. I also plan on getting a few shake our runs in as well to keep the legs loose. I will ready for Saturday if not then it is the tough runs that I learn more about myself.

Like I said earlier, my wife and I have been working on the house. We have completed a few rooms, besides some minor things like sanding the floors and base broads, which we will do later on down the road.
The first room we completed was our sons room. We ripped out the carpet, wood paneling along the walls and painted. Doesn't sound like much, but it was a lot of work.

Before

During, carpet is gone and next to go is the wood paneling along with the cubby hole.

First coat of paint on

Finished!!!!!

JCM says "Thank you"

The other room we focused on was the office. We gutted this room as well. We removed the carpet, the built in desk which took up a ton of room and painted.

The dogs space and office

The built in desk

Shag green carpet under the built in desk. WOW!!! The entire room before had this carpet

Getting ready to paint

My space. We turned it into a den.

I am so glad that these two rooms are completed. Now we are focused on the master bedroom, organizing the garage and then moving into the guest room. Lot's of work to do, but we are able to make this home our own and that is all that matters.

Confidence Gone

This morning I woke up a bit late for shift change, about an hour late. I have been super tired just as my wife is. We have been doing a lot during the day with our remodel along with loving our son. As she downloaded me with the evening events, IE; he didn't sleep from midnight to 4am besides a little nap here and there and has been cluster feeding it was a pretty good night. Sounds exhausting to me. I took over so that my wife could get some uninterrupted sleep, only I had no clue how it was going to go for me.

Within 15 minutes I had him asleep. Sweet, nicely done, only that didn't last long, long enough for me to down load my pictures I took yesterday, which didn't take long at all. He awakes and I figure I should check to see if he has a dirty diaper, and sure enough it is dirty and wet. So, I change him. Now my confidence had (notice the use of had instead of has) been growing, as he hadn't peed on me in a few days. I have been doing pretty good, with my efficiency during a diaper change. Almost like nascar pit crew, OK so maybe not as quick as a nascar pit crew, but I was getting better with each diaper change.

I was in the midst of changing him, I had a clean diaper ready, wet wipes good to go, this was going to be easy. Then I feel something warm on my arm, crap, he is peeing, but his diaper is wet, is all I could think about. He shouldn't be peeing.

Quick cover it, cover it, I grab a wet wipe as fast as I could and cover it. I quickly clean my arm and hand up with a wet wipe and proceed to change my son. Now, not only do I have to change his diaper he now needs new clothes because of that little incident. He is not a happy camper, he is crying and getting louder and louder, and all I am thinking is "Please don't wake mommy, please don't wake mommy."

I remove the wet wipe and start to clean him up with a new wet wipe, when all of a sudden just like that he is peeing again. How can something so little have so much? Crap, grab something, I am out of wet wipes, so I grab the clean diaper and lay it as fast as I could on top of him. At this point he has pee all over him, on his face, his chest, his back it is everywhere. I quickly clean him up, which means a new out fit and a washcloth bath. Now, he is really crying because he is cold and I am not moving fast enough. Crying and flapping his arms and legs which makes it difficult to change his outfit. Finally I get a fresh diaper on him and a new outfit and just like that the crying has stopped.

Now my confidence has been shot with this diaper changing business. But at least JCM has calmed down and is now resting comfortable in my warm arms. Everyday brings with it new trials and challenges from changing a simple diaper to trying to sooth him during those long dark nights. But with those trials and challenges comes great rewards and love and affection. Those moments where I am holding him as close as I possible can and he giggles. It starts in his belly and works it's way up his body, and I can feel the giggle coming before it happens. Seeing his eyes light up with pure joy and excitement. Those are the moments, the soft unspoken connection when our eyes meet and for a bit it is just me and him in this world.

Nothing else matters, the peeing incident is long gone and forgotten as he rest quietly in my arms.

Let me give you a quick update on the progress of the remodel.

I focused on removing the carpet from the office/dogs room

Wood Floors underneath. I removed the tack strips, nails, staples and base boards too. The plan is to remove the built in desk, texture and paint this room, new base boards. But for now I am just happy that disgusting carpet is gone. 

Yesterday my wife focused on JCM's room. Her primary goal was to get it ready so that we could paint on Friday, and hopefully get his things back in the room. Because right now all his things are in the living room besides his crib. The house is a bit disorganized and I can only handle that for a little bit.

The cubby hole. That is the master bedroom on the other side, so it took up a bit of the master closet

Sheet rocking

Goodbye. Now that the cubby hole is gone, it gives us more options in his room for furniture placement and wall decor.

Taping the area

Mud, then it will be sanded down and I believe ready for paint, unless we have to texture it.

She also textured this wall so it should hopefully be ready for paint after sanding. 

I am hoping that today we can paint. I think we need to sand down the walls. She used wall putty to fill any holes which there were a ton. After paint we can do base boards, or we may wait until we stain. But we should be able to get his furniture back in the room. Then we can move onto the master and spare bedroom. Which we will be removing the carpet and painting. We are hoping by the end of weekend we are done with the carpet removal. I can not believe how disgusting the carpet it. This house was a rental and had maybe 3 rentals in it before me so I can only imagine the dirt and grim in the carpet. We were lucky though and have the wood floors underneath. 

For now, we are happy with how much work we have completed. I can't wait to get the paint on the walls so that JCM can have his room back and us our living room. 

It's Official, Let The Remodel Began

It is official, we finally closed on our home and now we can make it our own. It has been a long 4 months. We looked at a ton of homes, put a offer in on one, but we couldn't come to terms and then we put a offer on the rental home we were in and that was accepted.

The great thing about that is we don't have to move, but we are starting a massive remodel project. Some of the projects we will be doing ourselves (DIY, good thing that is my favorite show) and others we will be contracting out. Talk about doing things backwards.

I mean who gets pregnant, then just before they are due start to look for a home during 4th quarter for me, finally purchase a home and with a newborn start a remodel in the home?

We do that is who, crazy, but exciting at the same time.

The first thing we did when we heard we had closed was take down the 1970 curtains in the family room and dinning room. Boy, did that bring in a ton of light. The curtains we took down were floor to ceiling and disgusting with dirt, stains and who knows what else. By taking those down that made a huge affect to those rooms. We still have to take down the curtains in our master bedroom, but we are waiting until we pick out window treatments.

Talk about out dated, 1970 floor to ceiling drapes

Taking down those curtain/Drapes really brightened the room

The second thing we did was buy a new washer and dryer. Our washer and dryer went out on Monday, we closed Tuesday and that same day we bought a new pair which was delivered today (Wednesday). You can't imagine how much laundry we have to catch up on, ok it is not that much, but I had big plans earlier this week.

space for the washer/dryer, we took that box down as well. Actually it just came down, it wasn't secured to the wall very well. 

The third thing we did was buy paint. This house needs a paint job bad. The paint is so bad that when we would wipe a wall down the paint would come off with it. I can't wait to paint the bedrooms and bathrooms. With all that excitement, today my wife and I decided we would start painting our son's room. Only that didn't happen. What happened instead was a massive overhaul.

Look what we found under the carpet!!!

As I was taping off the wood paneling, (yes wood paneling, the fake kind) I causally said "Hey, I think the paneling will come off pretty easy." and with that simple sentence our little project turned into an overhaul. We took off a panel in the corner behind the door, to see if what I thought was true, and sure enough it was pretty easy, and there wasn't too much damage to the wall as who ever installed the panels only used glue on one wall, so that was a nice surprise.

But of course we couldn't stop there, since we had removed a small section of the panel we decided to see what was under the carpet as we had plans in the near future to replace the carpet with new wood floors. What do we find under the carpet, wood floors!!!! Score, who in their right mind would cover up wood floors. With that score we checked all the bedrooms and sure enough each room has wood floors under the carpet. Another Score

Carpet is gone, wood paneling is next to go!

With the find of the wood floors, we started to rip out the carpet, the tack strips, nails, staples, wood paneling and anything else that didn't belong. When we fully uncovered the floors we were very surprised to see that they were in really good shape. Another score!!!!!

Wood paneling gone.....

So what started as "hey, let's paint JCM room." Turned into removing the carpet, removing the wood paneling (not real wood paneling), tack strips, base boards and nails and staples. A pretty big project, but one that was needed and would have been done in the near future. All that is left to do is repair the glue damage, paint, new base boards, and bring JCM's furniture back into the room, currently that is sitting in the living room except his crib as that wouldn't make it out. It is going to be a pretty big change from what he had when he was first born, but one that will be worth it.

JCM giving us a fist bump for all the work we did today!

Even with closing on the house, and the remodel in full effect I have been able to get in some solid quality runs this week. Monday I took a rest day, Tuesday was hill repeats. I did a mile warm up, then 6 repeats followed by 1 mile cool down and then 200 step ups at the park. The step ups were done on the equipment at the park, specifically for step ups.

I would step up with one foot on the small circle, then pause at the top on one leg and very controlled step down and repeat with the other foot. All of this motion was very controlled and really works my leg muscles. Today, I ran 6 miles and then did 100 step ups. So far this week has been off to good start. This coming weekend Trailmomma and I are doing the Western States Training Run. It is the last 20 miles of States. Looking forward to it.

I can't believe how long he is getting

I am sure you have noticed my blog going in a different direction. I will be writing about my running as well as my family and now this remodel, in hopes to one day share all of our crazy/fun adventures with JCM. Stay tuned and see what else we turn up during this remodel and see how my training is coming along. I have also finalized my race calendar which I plan on blogging about soon.

Sleepy time.......

Until then Run Happy!

4 Diapers Later

Have you ever had one of those moments that you really just can't believe is actually happening? Like, when you close the front door only to realize that the keys are still inside and you had locked the door already? Or how about that moment you get all the way to work only to realize you left your cell phone on the night stand? Or that moment that your son is still going #2 (poop) and you don't have a diaper ready? Yup I am talking about that moment. 4 epic diapers later.......

 It was my shift as we call it around here. Meaning I was in charge, feeding, diapers, burping, cuddling, all me.   My wife was resting and it was up to me to keep the fort down. Up until this point I have been really good with the diapers, he has only peed on me once......um......Ok......maybe twice, or three times, I sort of lost track, but hey, who is counting. Certainly not you, but I bet you are.

Anyways, I decided that I would change his diaper. I went to the changing table and took off the dirty diaper, only it wasn't dirty. (I am still learning) When all of a sudden my son goes #1, and pees. I do what anyone would do and quickly grab the clean diaper (Diaper #1 here) and cover him so he doesn't get everything soaked. Crisis diverted right, nope. As I am cleaning him from the incident #1, he goes #2. Now there wasn't any warning, it just came flying out. It startled me and I screamed a bit. I froze not sure what to do, and then I realized he was still going, so I quickly grabbed a clean diaper (diaper #2) to catch the remaining #2. OK that has to be all of it, right. So I gather diaper #2 up and throw it away and grab a clean diaper (diaper #3) and put it on him, only I didn't realize that I missed the mess on the changing table from the explosion and I had just placed the clean diaper in #2.

Are you laughing yet?

Because I wasn't.

Now I grab another clean diaper (Diaper #4 if you counting) and quickly get that on him this time being sure to miss the mess on the changing table. 4 diapers later of what should have been a simple task turned into a 2 person task as my wife came to my rescue. You see what I didn't tell you was I screamed again and she came in to see what all the fussing was about. She helped on diaper #4 as by this time I had it under control.

4 diapers later he is all changed.

Now I am sure this will happen again or something like it. This was one of those moments that I replay over and over again in my head and say "Did that really happen?" and the answer each and every time is "Yes, yes it did happen."

This is something no one tells you, but that is OK. I laugh at myself just about every day over something. I am learning something new every day and I love it. I don't mind the dirty diapers and the sleepless nights, in fact those moments I am sure will be long forgotten as he gets older.

I am enjoying when he is sleeping and grunts and stretches is little tiny arms above his head and he holds his breath until his face is red and grunts some more and then whimpers just a little whimper but enough of a whimper, then I pick him up and look into his sweet little eyes and he smiles, like ha, I just got you to pick me up. Hehehe. Those are the moments I love.    

A Simple Cup of Coffee No More

It is amazing how routines can change just like that. Change is typically something hard for me, I love routines, I am all about them. Change is tough for me, ask anyone I know. So it is hard to believe I have adapted to my new routines rather quickly and without fighting them since the new addition to our family. It didn't freak me out or turn my entire world upside down or into complete chaos, in fact the new routines were rather simple and something that just naturally developed, a unspoken routine I would say.  

Yawning

 It all started this morning that had me thinking about routines. Typically the first thing I do when I wake up is enjoy a cup of coffee, I look forward to coffee just as my dogs look forward to being feed. It is a constant, something I am familiar with, something that starts my day on the right foot so to say. No, it doesn't have anything to do with the caffeine, just the simple motion, the simple routine of making coffee. It soothes me so to say. That is the best way I can describe it. Soothing.

This morning as I was sitting in the living room having cuddle time with our son, I just smiled to myself, this simple act of cuddling was now my new routine. I look forward to our special one on one time each morning. A time for us to bond and connect over the little things in life right now. Those little things being dirty diapers, feedings, cuddle time, more dirty diapers, and best of all story time and connecting with my son.

Now the first thing I do in the morning isn't reaching for the coffee cup, but rather reaching for my son and soothing him when he starts to cry. We have our morning escape, just the two of us in the early morning hours, just the two of us and eventually when everything calms down and he is settled back in then and only then can I enjoy my coffee, although sometimes I make it, but I don't always get to it on my schedule.

A simple cup of coffee no more, but rather a time to cuddle and connect with our son.  Morning coffee is one of many routines which have changed and I am sure as he gets bigger and older my routines will change again. But for now coffee can wait.