Category Archives: My Life

The State of the Thompsons

It is a big day here at the Thompson house!

  1. I already have our Halloween decorations down! YAY!
  2. Cub is at daycare, meaning I had time to take the decorations down without tripping over a sippy cup.
  3. I put creamer in my coffee. That’s right folks! Living large today!

Ok, really, I know those are non-important things that you don’t care about, but my point is that we are status quo here at the Thompson compound, and I  couldn’t be happier about it. Chas’s season starts on Thursday, and being at status quo going into that is an accomplishment with a 16 month old. Oh by the way, he thinks he is two and throws temper tantrums like it as well. In fact, I took him to school this morning, and before I could even walk out of the room, he hit his teacher. I bolted like I was on fire. I already suspect that they don’t like him there, simply because I spend half of my day not liking him some days.

My goal for November is to work towards a more regular week so that I can get more done. I spent last night creating an hour by hour list of how my day was going to go, and I am happy to report that in hour 3 of the day we are on schedule. Yes! The whole motivation for trying to start November differently is that I have some big personal goals in mind that I want to have time to work on. I recently went to a conference where the hashtag #StayHungry was used. I really like that hashtag for multiple reasons:

  1. I am always hungry, or hangry.
  2. It’s certainly motivating.
  3. It gave me something to write on my white board instead of a grocery list that consisted of diapers, toothpaste, and paper towels, all of which I finally just subscribed to on Amazon because I forgot every time I went to the grocery.

While I would like to continue to tell you about what I have in mind, I am on a schedule, and with only 4 minutes left in my “writing a blog post ans drinking coffee hour”, I have to wrap this puppy up.

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and a great start to November!

A lovely weekend and a lucky girl

Can I brag a little bit? Who am I kidding? OF COURSE I CAN! This is MY blog!

This weekend I had the opportunity to go back to my first Kansas home down in Parsons. My father-in-law, a long-time College Wrestling Coach and mentor, got inducted in the Labette Community College Athletic Hall of Fame. And to be perfectly honest, he should be enshrined in a bronze statue out front. That place would be nothing without his contributions.

It was incredible to see the wrestlers that came back to show their support for him and the wrestling program. He touched so many lives throughout his coaching career, and I believe it is probably safe to say that Kansas wrestling would not be what it is today if it wasn’t for Coach T. If there was a wrestling genealogy chart for the state, Jody would be at the very top with all the little lines stemming from him.

The best part is that in his actual genealogy, I get to be one of those little lines. Even though I am just married in, my son has his blood coursing through his veins, and that drive, passion and heritage will undoubtedly get passed along to him, as it has my husband. In terms of role models, I couldn’t have found a better one to lead my family. Between him and my own father, the amount of drive, pride, accomplishments, and dedication that have gone into their life endeavors is truly tremendous.

I am a very lucky girl, and this weekend proved that to me once again.

The Unsexy Side

home-with-picket-fence
When I look back on my life prior to marriage, kids and mortgages, it is amazing to me how different actual life is compared to what I thought life would be back then. I used to see the white picket fence, kids running in the yard, and the perfect dinner waiting on the table for the family. I never thought about the Kansas wind blowing the fence over, or the stretch marks from carrying multiple kids for way to many months, or the millions of grocery trips needed just to get frozen chicken nuggets and a salad on the table by the time my husband gets home.

The day-to-day struggles that make moms pull their hair out exist much more than the happy, calm, relaxing moments you dream of as a youngin. That’s not to say I am not happy or don’t love my life. I love it very much. You just don’t expect to be peed on or step on a Hot Wheels car in the middle of the night, or have your husband suddenly exclaim that he has friends stopping by and they need a feast brought before them.

I have been struggling with my fitness since well before Cub was born, and it is still a struggle today. I am trying to get better about planning it out to make sure it happens, but its hard to wake up at 5:30 am when you have had a kid kicking you all night long. With wrestling season just a week away, I know that it is going to be harder than ever to get back to where I want to be, but I have 3 months until I have the honor of getting inducted into the Milton-Union High School Athletic Hall of Fame, and I’ll be damned if I don’t look right for that. The blood, sweat and tears are the unsexy side, but they are the side that makes it all worth your while. I would have the opportunity to even be in the hall of fame if it wasn’t for them.

Life isn’t as sexy as it seems. Kids make a mess. Dogs make a mess. Husbands make a mess. Fences need painted and real food needs to be cooked, with love of course..

Brown Sugar Sour Cream Coffee Cake

 

This is a great recipe I just tried for the first time. It makes a HUGE 13 x 9 coffee cake, so it would be perfect for a family holiday or bunch with a lot of people.

 
PREP TIME- 30 mins
COOK TIME- 55 mins
TOTAL TIME- 1 hour 25 mins
Serves: 14-16
INGREDIENTS:
Cinnamon Sugar Topping:
    • 1¼ cups sugar
    • 1½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
    • 1 ½ tbsp. cinnamon
    • 1 stick butter, melted

Brown Sugar Filling:

    • 1 cup packed light brown sugar
    • 1½ tbsp. cinnamon
    • ¼ tsp. nutmeg
    • 3 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
    • ¼ tsp. salt

CAKE:

    • 1½ sticks butter, softened
    • 1½ cups sugar
    • ⅓ cup packed light brown sugar
    • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
    • 3 large eggs
    • 3¾ cups all-purpose flour, sifted
    • 2½ tsp. baking powder
    • ¾ tsp. salt
    • ¾ cup sour cream
    • 1½ cups milk
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray a 13×9 with nonstick spray, or grease with butter.

Cinnamon Sugar Topping- Whisk together the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir in the butter and set aside.

Brown Sugar Filling- Whisk together the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa powder and salt. Set aside.

Cake-

  1. With an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until very well combined.
  2. Add in the vanilla.
  3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after adding each one.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
  5. In another small bowl, whisk together the milk and sour cream until well combined.
  6. On low speed, add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the batter.
  7. While mixing, add ½ of the milk mixture.
  8. Add ⅓  more of the flour mixture.
  9. Add the rest of the milk mixture.
  10. Add the remaining ⅓ of the flour mixture and mix until well combined, scraping down the sides of your bowl.
  11. Spread half of your batter in the bottom of your prepared pan, making sure to spread it to the edges.
  12. Sprinkle your brown sugar filling on top of the batter.
  13. Dollop the rest of your cake batter on top of your filling, using a spatula to spread the batter across the pan.
  14. Using a butter knife, gently swirl the filling into the batter.
  15. Top the cake with your Cinnamon Sugar Topping .
  16. Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool before serving.

#TheStruggleisReal

I have been fairly upfront about my struggles getting back into running post baby. Between working full time, wrangling Cub, keeping our new HUGE house clean and organized and all the other things that a woman has to do and worry about on a daily basis have been overwhelming to me over the past year. Summer seemed a lot better when I could lean on Chas more, but now that school is back in session, I am finding my days to be more cluttered, the work to be piling up, and the rage in my belly showing itself much too often.

donald

Our new house, which I love, but takes a year to clean!

For those of you who don’t know, when you have Ginn genes, you have the temper gene. Mine is quite explosive, like my father’s (even though he will never admit that), and there are time when I have to set Cub down, walk away and move to something else to keep myself from going off. I am very lucky to have self-control when it comes to people, but inanimate objects sometimes take the brunt of the anger.

I don’t remember many more calm times in my life than when I was training for a race. My first marathon training fell during a particularly difficult time in my life while I was coaching a college volleyball team full of a bunch of assholes. I remember running every morning and letting my mind just drift away from the problems that I would be facing later that day. Being able to focus on my podcast listening, or the gnomes adorning the old woman’s yard on the corner of Corning and 32nd St. makes other things just melt away.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Not running for the past X number of days is really creeping up. The last 3 days I feel like nothing can plug up the steam coming out of my ears.  But worst of all, I am so tired that I have no desire to get up and try to solve the problem by going out and hitting the pavement. My Friday’s are screwed because I am up til 3 am making sure our website is running properly and that all the cogs are doing what they are supposed to be doing. (Oh and someone always forgets to tell Cub that mom needs to sleep in on Saturday so that she doesn’t lock him in his playroom for half the day.)

Take aways from this article:

  1. I don’t beat my kid.
  2. My husband is a saint.
  3. I don’t get any sleep on weekends.
  4. I hold a lot of emotions inside.
  5. I need to run more.

Next week’s goals:

  1. Run
  2. Relax
  3. Kiss my husband

Parenthood, Rio and other things on my mind

The last 3 weeks of my life have been what I would call an emotional roller coaster. Parenthood is so different now that I have a walking, talking tornado named Cub in my house. He goes upstairs, downstairs, cries, yells, kisses, hugs, loves and screams. He is just something else. On Tuesday, he started day care, which is a miracle really. I was so nervous (still am so nervous), because he is too little to tell me if something bad happens to him. It scares me that he is not in my control for 8 hours a day, twice a week. But this week seemed to go well, and he came home to a rested mommy who had almost everything checked off her to-do list. Just being able to spread things out without someone’s sticky fingers touching and tearing them is a victory!

With Cub at day care, I have been able to normalize my workout routines, which has made me more than happy. Honestly, just getting a run in 2 mornings so far this week has made me more mellow. I feel like I can process thoughts and actions better, which is why I was so surprised when I freaked on Cub this morning. Well, let me put this into context with a simple math equation: (clearing my throat) Toddler+iPhone+Toilet=Disaster. That’s right, I am without a phone for the next 24 hours. UGH! But in the grand scheme of things, I freaked out less than normal, so PROGRESS!

I am having major Olympic withdraw. I miss my good morning cry when NBC would show a heart warming story about how someone gets inspiration from their dead mom. I made an executive decision that Cub will be the Decathlon gold medalist in the year 2032. He could be an Olympic wrestler or a setter/libero on the volleyball team and I would be ok with that too.

Work is nuts with a new school year starting, but I am feeling empowered to make decisions, get things done and continue to make Prep2Prep great.

Oh, and I haven’t told you about our new house! AWESOME! It is totally awesome. There is more room that I know what to do with, and I can easily send the boys downstairs to get them out of my hair. We are very happy here, and I am excited to move into fall and decorate for Cub.

So just a small update today, but with more free time, more posts are to come.

Change is a comin’

Change is of course inevitable. Over the past 10 months, Cub has grown and changed more than I could have ever imagined. He waves, kisses, laughs and cries. He loves brushing his teeth and feeding Goldfish crackers to the bulldogs. He is such a fun kid… when he is in a good mood anyway.

As a family, we decided to make some changes that would be beneficial, one of them being our location. While we have no intentions of leaving Hays in the near future, we did feel that our family would be better off by change where we lived, so we decided to try putting our house on the market. We worked so hard for 3-4 straight days sorting through closets and decluttering everything. Much to our surprise we easily sold the house in just 2 days. And even more to our surprise, we found a house that met almost all our criteria in a very desirable neighbor (and well within our price range) almost just as quickly. So July 8th, we will be closing on 2 houses and moving to a place that will allow our family to easily grow with no problem at all.

We are so excited for this new transition, and the best part is that the week before we close, we get to go celebrate at Walt Disney World for Cub’s 1st birthday!

Day 96/366- Driving Ms. Emotional

For about 2, if not 3 years now, I feel like I have been a woman posing as a runner. My stats have been atrocious, my runs few and far between. Becoming a wife and a mother, moving halfway across the country from beautiful, sunny Northern California to windy western Kansas and dealing with sleepless nights and so much time without Chas during wrestling season has put a damper on my athletic spirit. In my mind and heart, I am a runner, but in actuality, I am a fraud.

Last week I ran twice. It was so refreshing to wake up before anyone else and know that while everyone in Hays, KS, was still fast asleep, I was working hard and showing the world my perseverance. Morning runs are really about putting one foot in front of the other. I generally have just nursed the baby, and instead of crawling back in next to my husband, I opt for the cold, windy tundra that is Main Street at 5:30 am. I run an out and back usually, trying to complete one leg faster than the other. Pounding the pavement that earlier makes a person ponder big things, future goals, the meaning of life, etc. In a way, it makes me feel superior, the fact that I can do this, that I have the will power to do it, even if just for my usual 2 mile stretch. When I walk back in the door, I am no longer free or powerful. I am mom, Marketing Director and chef, but I feel more empowered in my daily activities, and more patient in my handling of crying babies, dog messes, and dumb emails. A run can certainly mellow a Type A personality like myself, but at the same time makes me feel more secure in who I am and what I am doing.

Besides my running lately, I have been playing in a rec volleyball league and working on some Nike Training Club workouts. On Monday, we played a team that had 3 former collegiate players on it. By former, I mean just graduated. Being 11 years out from my playing days, I am confident in my ability and skills, but am most certainly a step behind where I was when training was my life. We lost the game on Monday, and I left the facility feeling embarrassed and angry. They other team was cocky, stuck up, and not fun and light to play like most of our “Rec” league opponents. I hate that feeling. But then I started thinking about my NOW self as opposed to my 11 years ago self. When I was in the same position as the cocky girls we played Monday night, I am sure I was similar, and enjoyed beating up on older people. But I will tell you why they should be bowing down to me:

I am 11 years out of my volleyball career and I still was blocking the crap out of them.
I have the guts and moxy to put myself in that situation knowing that I am not the same 100% I used to be.
Those girls don’t know what it is like to be up all hours of the night nourishing a human being.
I created a human being with my own body!
I can work a 50+ hour week, cook, clean, and nurture my family while still looking to maintain my health and the health of my boys.
I am setting an example for my son, showing him that anything is possible and fitness is forever.
Those girls aren’t up at 5:30 to make themselves better.
Oh, and they certainly don’t know that people may not remember what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

I am a mom, a fit mom. A mom that is continuously trying to make herself a better person, wife, employee, and human. I know everyone is fighting some kind of battle, as I am. I know that there were probably days when I acted like them, but now I see the world in a different light. Someday they will too.

Day 89/366- Another year bites the dust

I am just 3 days into my 33rd year of life, and I am happy to report I am still alive, something you could probably tell by the fact that I wrote this sentence. I like having a March birthday, because I feel like it is another new year. I can reflect on my first three months, and even attempt to reposition my focus once again. As always, running plays a major part in this, and my actual birthday was an almost perfect representation of what my life seems to be like and the challenges I am facing right now. #RenewYourselfhappy_33rd_bday_to_me_magnet

I started the day waking up at 1:13 am to my screaming son in the next room. As always, I stumbled out of bed to go get him, and ran myself straight into the door frame (I am blind as a bat without my glassed. Plus I had a little cold and my face felt rather swollen… still no excuse). This was the 3rd of 7 times that I would get up with him before 6:30 am. I even let him cry himself back to sleep twice, but the kid just won’t sleep. #GotheF*cktoSleepgtfts-960x400

I had every intention of getting an early morning run it, as I thought it would be a great way to start the day. Well, that wasn’t even close to happening. After not sleeping, and finally just getting up with Cub at 6:30 am to watch 2 episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse which we have seen umpteen thousand times, I needed coffee, #Stat.

Around 8:15, my husband had finally gotten up and moving, so we packed up and went to Starbucks on campus so that I could get my fix and us my birthday reward, which I was much looking forward to. Chas got sick on the way there. He had to sit down in the student union. I proceeded to get my Vanilla Chai Latte, but was told that they “didn’t do birthday rewards” at this particular Starbucks. #WTFtumblr_n1u73g5kic1qfdua2o1_500

I took Chas back home where he slept soundly on the couch and Cub finally took a nap. I, however, did not get to rest. I, instead went to get my eyebrows waxed. #Superfun

The rest of the day consisted of the usual work stuff, more Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and preparing for the trip to Chas’ brothers house the next day. My husband did take me out to eat that night, and Cub was kind enough to sleep through 3/4ths of the meal. Nothing extravagant, but it was the epitome of a normal day at the Thompson house. #JustAnotherDay

I have no problems with my birthday being just another day, but the problem is that I really wanted to start my 33rd year off with a run, but it was almost impossible to get that accomplished. So Chas and I have moved onto scheduling workouts for me. Yesterday was the first day since the schedule started, and I got in 2 good workouts with no problem. It’s not always going to work, but if it will help me get some good alone workout time in every now and then, I think I can live with that.

The best of intentions- Day 80/365

No parent finds out that they are going to have a child and says to themselves, “I am going to do everything in my power to screw this kid up.” I truly believe, well at least hope, that all parents have the best of intentions. They may not be happy about the situation they are in at the time that parenthood comes along, but no doubt their intent is to provide what is best for the child. The biggest problem is that no parent can teach their child things that they don’t know. If kindness is not the parent’s strong suit, there is a pretty good chance that it won’t be the child’s either.

Well my situation is pretty much the same. I have the best of intentions in raising Cub. I want him to be strong, articulate, smart, athletic… you know, a lot like his mother. But I have a fast temper, I am impatient, and I like to get my way… and so does my son. He is only 8 months old, and he is an exact replica of me. Poor guy. He is so smart, super fast, sweet and fiery. He has a lot of unnecessary rage in his future. I know from experience.

We are almost 9 months out from Cub’s birth, and I am as close to normal as I can get. I am back to my pre-baby weight, my hair is finally growing back, and (fingers crossed) weening will commence very soon! But lately my baby joy has turned to baby sorrow. I went through a spell of depression over the past few weeks as I sort of realized what my life is now. I am a slave to another, and my lack of productiveness, my instant rage at moments, and the lack of get up and go that I am now strapped with is overwhelming some times. Chas has been gone alot lately, the perks of being a coach’s wife, and the survival mode that must be initiated when he is gone makes for an exhausting few days. Plus I always miss him like crazy. Now that wrestling season is over, I am hoping to start working on some of the goals I have for myself, namely in fitness. I want to schedule a race, but have been hesitant to do so because I have to make sure schedules align.

There is certainly no shortage of excitement in our lives right now, but the new normal is taking some getting use to.