Little Victories

This was my run today:

Tiffany Snedaker ran 13.12 mi on 5/31/2010 at 12:08 PM with a pace of 11'18"/mi
http://go.nike.com/07alel4p

I did have to stop for about 30 seconds the last mile because I thought my body was going to give out on me. I have no idea how people run marathons. Took me 2 hours and 28 minutes to do. I think I'm ready for my half marathon on the 12th. I'm amazed at what I've been able to accomplish the last 11 weeks. Mind over matter. Gotta love the little victories.

Cincinnati

Last week the whole family headed out on a blogger trip. It was really short notice, but we were flown out to Pamper's Headquarters in Cincinnati, OH. If you are mom, and read/watch any sort of news, you'll have heard about the controversy over the new Pamper's Dry Max diaper. It's a thinner, better Cruiser that they came out earlier this year. Some parents have been complaining of rash and even chemical burn, which I think is crazy since we've used the diapers without incident. I do feel for babies when they have rashes and that they are hurting. We've had plenty of diaper rash with both boys to go around. Normally if your baby has a diaper rash, you just switch diapers, right? Well since we have this fabulous world of social networking, parents can unite and have done so against the new dry max diaper. I could go on and on, but there is so much background to the whole situation it would take a while to explain. Instead, you can read my other blog when I get a post up within the next week.

So Pampers wanted to discuss the issue at hand, and was gracious enough to fly our entire family out for an overnight adventure. A car picked us up nice and early at 6 am on Wednesday and took us to the airport. We got there wayyyy too early and were at our gate 2 hours early.
We spent the next few hours chasing Rowan around the airport. Chandler is so mellow these days compared to Rowan, but I'm sure that comes with the age.
Once we boarded, I was a bit disappointed to find out that the plane didn't have tv's on the back of the seats. I was thinking they would have them as they did on my flight to New York last month. No such luck.



Chan was pretty cute as the airplane was taking off and said things like, "Wow, it's incredible!" and "Isn't this so amazing?" Rowan slept for the first hour of the flight and then was up the rest of the time. Since it is close to 3 1/2 hours, they ate a LOT of candy and watched Mickey Mouse more than a few times on my iphone. Rowan also had a death grip on my hair at least 2 hours of the time, and pulled out more than a few strands of hair. That boy and hair.

When we landed, there was a car there to take us to our hotel.


Then it was off to dinner at a nice restaurant with some of the people from Pampers/P&G. I got to meet the 3 other bloggers they invited and had some great conversation with the people there. Thankfully Rowan slept almost the whole time so we didn't have to chase him.

Thursday morning, Marshall and the boys headed off to the children's museum for the day while I went to tour Pampers. It was definitely a very enlightening day and I came back with a lot of knowledge.

3 minute lapse with Pampers vs. Huggies. The Huggies diaper still felt wet, Dry Max was dry and absorbed.

Pulp and gel in old Cruiser (right) vs. Pulp and gel new Dry Max (left)

20% thinner than old diaper

It's funny to see the cynics out there, as a PR article came out the next day about how we were "bought out." Yes, P&G was very gracious to fly us out, and yes they are concerned about the issue and parents. But my child's safety and my opinion are not "bought out" by a 1 day trip. I wouldn't continue to use a diaper that I didn't feel was 100% safe for my child. There was also an article from the associated press that was good, and you can find it here.

Other bloggers I met - left to right- Stephanie, Renee, Kate, me

Bloggers with some of the Pampers team.

We headed back Thursday night, and luckily Rowan slept a good 2 hours of the flight. It was a fun but VERY fast trip and I'm glad that Marsh and the boys got to come with me.

Boys and Bugs

We went for a walk today. The weather was beautiful! Along the way, we found a huge pile of ants, and of course the boys had to stop and get a closer look.

Remembering

The other day I was looking back at pictures and videos of the boys a few years ago, or even just a year ago. I feel like I don't get as much video as I want, and I don't feel like I can remember Chandler when he was a baby or even 2 or 3 years ago. It's always fun to tell about them, but I thought I would interview Chandler and ask about some of his favorite things so you can hear it from him. Plus, I have this new video camera that does hd and I need to start using it!

Playoffs

It's playoffs time for the nba, and that can only mean one thing. Lots of basketball at our house, especially the Lakers games. Marshall has been a fan since middle school. In fact, I remember him wearing a Kobe Bryant jersey in Jr. High when I was crushing on him. :) I found these shirts at Old Navy for the boys and couldn't resist. Marshall will be proud to see them. GO LAKERS!

Green Thumb?

As far back as I can remember, when the summer months approached, my mom was ALWAYS looking at flowers and buying them. Her huge yard has never been anything short of amazing, especially the back. We had a huge garden growing up and flowers upon flowers. I remember dragging my feet because WHO wants to go look at flowers? And then the weeding. What kid likes weeding? I never understood how my mom could spend hours outside weeding. Then yesterday came. I have one nice sized flower bed outside my home. It's the only thing that I have to work with, and yesterday I thought about how sad it looked with the few bushes and overgrown weeds.
So I did what any newbie would do, I consulted someone who knows it all....my mom. I ended up getting orange marigolds, pink geraniums, and magenta and white petunias.


I also got some sidewalk chalk and bubbles in hopes that the boys would stay somewhat entertained outside. I spent the next 3 hours weeding and planting. I probably planted about 50 flowers. The bed doesn't look great right now because more than half the flowers don't have blooms., but I imagine it will be pretty in about a month. I can't believe that I actually enjoyed digging in the dirt....for 3 hours. What's happening to me? ;)