He's Alive!!

11 days ago we dropped Zachary off at camp. And that was the last we have heard from him. Camp Kennolyn has a system called "Bunk notes" in which you can send emails to your kid, but it is one way only. The camp also posts tons of pictures daily on this site of kids doing various things. Peter and I have been diligently scanning the pictures daily, looking for a glimpse of Zachary. Nothing. Where is he? Do they not take pictures of the kids crying in the corner? Did he run away from camp and no one noticed? Where is my baby?!!

Then, it came. A letter on Tuesday!!! Woo hoo!! Sure it was brief, and his writing looks like a serial killer, but no matter. Sounds like he is having fun, right?

Finally today, we found a picture of him. This looks like his junior ropes course. Do you see him poking his head up?

Do you think he looks thin? Has he been eating?

I miss you Zachary!!!!!

The Big Race!!

Race day!!! I was a nervous wreck the day before. I was having a bit of pain in my foot still, so was not sure if it would hold up for the race. I decided that I would try no matter what, and drop out if it was too painful. We picked up our shirts and numbers at the expo the day before. It was so exciting!!

Here is a map of the run. It loops around Central Park, then comes out at 7th ave, turns on 42nd street, then goes along the Hudson river to Battery Park. It seemed to be an easy course given the huge hills I am used to running at home.
I woke up at 5 am on Sunday for the race. There was an incredible thunder and lightening storm outside. We had an awesome view from the 59th floor apartment. I loaded up on motrin, had Pete tape up my arch, put on my arch compression socks and got dressed. We could hear the rain outside. The starting line was about 1.5 miles away, so we decided to walk.

Pete and I went to our seperate corrals (based on estimated time of finish). The race started at 7 am. The rain stopped right before the run started. It was about 75 degrees out and 90% humidity. I had no idea what that was like to run in. It was like running in a sauna. I felt like I was suffocating the entire time. My foot was really hurting the first mile, but I wanted to give it a bit more time, so kept going. It actually got better after that, and remained as a dull ache the rest of the run. I struggled more with the weather than anything!

This was the view coming out of the park onto 7th avenue. There really are no words to describe the feeling of running through the streets of New York. It was incredible! We went through Times square, then onto 42 nd st.

I actually had to break down and walk a couple of times between miles 11 and 13. When I saw the 800 yards sign I seriously wondered if I was going to make it. But I did. My official time was 2 hour 8min 34 sec. Not bad considering my foot, and I had to stop and wait 5 minutes for the bathroom at mile 5. I found Pete at the finish and found out he struggled with the weather as much as I had. His time was 1 hr 37 min. Apparently he crossed the finish, then laid down and was unable to get up for 20 min.

Here we are right after I finished. We don't look too bad here.

Then we both fell apart. I ran to the porta potty with the worst stomach cramps and diarrhea. Then Pete did. Then it was my turn again. And so on, back and forth. We were basically stuck there for an hour, too sick to get on the subway and head back. We finally stumbled to the station and made it back home. We spent the next few hours too sick to do anything. After a few hours I started feeling a bit better, but Pete still looked awful. We needed to hop in a cab and get to the airport, but we were not sure if we could. Do we go home? Go to the ER? That was the sickest I have ever seen him and I was getting scared. We decided to head home, and if he was still sick when we touched down, he would go straight to the ER at home. Thankfully he came around a bit in the airport and was able to eat a little. Our plane was delayed in NY, which made us miss our connection in Utah. We had to stay overnight in Utah, and finally made it home the next day.

Things I learned from this experience:

1. Drink more water!! I tend to get side aches when I drink, so will have to work around that.

2. Consider Immodium before my marathon. For me the diarrhea started before the run, and I even had to stop at mile 5 for it.

3. If traveling for a run, give ourselves the day to recover before hopping on a plane.

4. No connecting flights!!!

5. It really is the humidity, not the heat.

6. And finally, if you have diarrhea so bad that it makes your butt bleed, thong underwear is not comfortable!! Pack regular undies next time!!

Despite this experience, Pete has signed up to do the San Jose Rock-n-Roll half-marathon in October. You go Pete!!

The Big Apple

We are in New York!! We arrived last night and went out for a great Mexican dinner. We are fortunate to be staying at my Aunt Dede and Uncle Harry's 59th floor apartment at the Trump Tower. The view is awesome!! Today Pete and I had an incredible time hanging out in the city. We tried not to do to much walking so we don't tire out our legs for the half marathon tomorrow. Also, I am still trying to take it easy on my heel.

First we started out at the Bodies Exhibition. This is a display of dissected humans and different organs showing all the bones, muscles, and blood vessels. It gave Pete and I flash backs to gross anatomy lab in medical school! It was fascinating and we couldn't help but think how much Zach and Joey would have liked it.

Here is an image of one of the specimens. Yes, these were all real bodies.


Next we headed over to the World Trade Center site and museum. This is Pete and I in front of the site.
The museum was much more intense then I had anticipated. The wall of missing people posters and wall of photographs of the victims left me in tears.

This is the site now.
My uncle Harry and Aunt Dede arrived this afternoon. We all went out for a great dinner at an Italian restaurant (whose name I can not remember) right across the street from Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately Dede has aggravated an old foot injury and will not be able to run with us tomorrow. I am hopeing my foot holds up for the race tomorrow!

Injury Report

Check out my marathon training blog, The Road to 26.2 miles, to read about my new injury. I am heart broken!!

I want to go to camp!!

Today we dropped Zachary off at Camp Kennolyn for 2 weeks. This is his first year, but Contini cousins have been attending this camp for many years. I almost wondered if Christopher was sensing Zach would be leaving because he was very cuddly with him today.

One of the traditions is to stop at Carpo's restaurant for lunch before heading into camp. This year cousins Peter, Gregory, Mary, are attending at the same time.
Here we are!!
Holy cow!! This place looked awesome! This is the main square at camp. There was also a pool, fencing arena, archery, ropes course, and tons of other stuff we did not see.
Zach claiming the top bunk!
He is in Big Creek cabin. Drop off was pretty quick. Their trunks get brought to their rooms later and the counselor's help them unpack.
Zach with his counselor, Alec. I had to resist the urge to tell him how lucky he was to have such an awesome kid in his cabin. I reminded Zach to take a shower on occasion, we gave him a kiss, and we were off! Zach seemed excited and happy to see us go.
Have an incredible time Zach!! You deserve it!

Cousins!!

One of the perks of marrying into the Contini family are all the awesome in-laws!! Pete is the youngest of 7, so there is no shortage of family. The boys have tons of cousins to hang with on a regular basis. Tonight we had a get together at my mother-in-law's house for our nephew Stephen's 13th birthday. Below is a picture of most of the cousins.

Yum!! Ice cream cones!

C.S.I. Contini

I came home last week to my backyard looking like this:



It looked like the scene of a brutal mass murder with outlined bodies all over!

The perpetrators, I mean artists!

The Contini Fish

My boys love the water!! We are fortunate to have a pool in our backyard, so the boys spend most of the summer swimming. Christopher is probably the biggest fish of them all. You really have to keep an eye on him or he will just jump on in!


Vincent and Christopher jumping in
Zach, Joey and Vinnie with the neighbor boys
Joey at our friends community pool in Davis, jumping off the diving board
Zachary coming down the Davis pool slide. It took me 4 shots to finally catch the top of Zach's head. Darn delay on the digital camera!
The following nearly gave me a heart attack. Mom, consider yourself warned! For the record, he loves it!

Another Contini First!

We have had our first trip to the ER for stitches. Not a first I am happy about. Vincent built a "bridge" from the couch to the coffee table with pillows. Christopher was standing on the couch and stepped on it, falling through face first into the coffee table. I grabbed him and saw the blood coming out and freaked. It was even coming out of his eye like tears. I am pretty much useless as a physician when this type of thing happens to my own kids. The tough part was deciding what to do with the situation. Initially it looked superficial until Peter pulled on it and it came gaping open. Peter suggested getting some glue from his office and just gluing it. I was afraid it would split open, and then would not be able to get stitched. This is one of those situations I find a bit difficult as a mom and pediatrician. Where do you draw the line? How much home treatment is too much? We really had to step back and ask ourselves what we would recommend to a patient in our office. The answer was stitches. So off to the ER we went!

Bad picture, but the split was so close to his eye. I cringe thinking about what would have happened to his eye had it been over just a bit.
Here I am holding the topical numbing medicine on the lac. He is saying "cheese" in this picture:
We opted to not sedate him, but just to papoose him. ( well, Pete opted for that. He didn't want to have to wait around for 4 hours) He tried not to cry which just about broke my heart. I did cry a bit myself.
The ER doc did a great job and was pretty fast. He did some stitch that looped under the laceration with only a knot on either side
Christopher was a trooper! He was smiling and chattering in the car on the way home.

Zach's half birthday party

No, we did not have half of a birthday party! Zach is 9 1/2 years old. Since his birthday is 1 week before Christmas, we typically have his party on the half birthday (loosely speaking. We have had a busy summer so we are a month late. The beauty of the half birthday is, it doesn't really matter!) For the first time we went with a slumber party. It went great!!

First we had some swimming:

Then we had pizza for dinner. After dinner the boys tie-dyed (is that right?) some t-shirts and pillow cases. Fun, but MESSY!! When I was busy helping the boys, the ones that were done started filling up rubber gloves with water . Needless to say that turned in to the next project!

Zach with his shirt and pillow case:
They turned out great!!

Zach requested a football cake. After the pirate cake for Joeys birthday, I must think I am the next Martha Stewart! I was pretty happy with it though. I made home made cream cheese frosting and colored it brown. The brown looked more like baby poo then a football. Clearly it would have been easier to just use chocolate frosting!! The trim and lettering is rolled fondant.

Zach and I burned some CD's of his favorite songs. When I asked Zach which songs he wanted to use, the first one he said was The National Anthem! What a crack up! I used itunes to print up the insert for the CD case, then printed up a label for the actual CD. The CD serves as both the take home gift (along with their tie dye creations) and a thank you card.

Lest anyone thinks I am ultra creative and brilliant, I am not. The pillow case and CD idea I borrowed from Chanel, and changed it slightly. I had the boys tie dye instead of paint, and I turned the CD into a thank you. Thanks Chanel!

Good job Joey!!

Joey had his karate testing tonight, moving from a green belt to a green 1 belt. I rarely get the chance to watch him because of the time of his classes. He was awesome!! It is a crack up because he is so small compared to most of the other kids, but he can really hold his own.

Proud big brother Zach tying on his new belt:
With head instructor Master Penner:

Living with Al Gore

Zachary is currently going through an "energy conservation, save the earth" phase. This has been preceded by both the "bible thumping" phase and the "lock every door in the house before he goes to bed" phase. Recent conversations with Zach go something like this:

While watching fireworks:

Zach: "Is the smoke from those fireworks bad for the environment"

Me: "No Zach, it is OK"

Zach: "How do you know? What kind of smoke is it? Where does it go?"

Me: "Hmmm... I am not sure"

While sitting in the van with Pete while I run into store:

Zach: "Dad, Is there anyway to play the radio without leaving the car running. You are wasting gas and that is bad for the environment"

Upon hearing we are getting solar for the pool (but thinking it was solar for the entire house)

Zach: "When is the solar coming? We waste too much electricity in this house!"

He was very disappointed when I explained it would only be used to heat the swimming pool.

He has also been quite upset when seeing news coverage of all the fires. He worries about the effect of all the smoke on the environment. Socially aware and responsible child? Or early stages of OCD and anxiety? Time will tell!

4th of July, Shadowbrook style!

Fourth of July is quite the big deal here in Shadowbrook (our neighborhood)! Our morning starts out with the Fun Run, a friendly little 1.5 mile run through the neighborhood. The winner of each category gets a certificate. That is all I need to get my competitive juices going!! Pete and I have each won our category each year we have tried (ie, not pushing a double stroller or running it while 7 month pregnant). Pete was kind enough to push the stroller so I could kick some neighbor butt! I did just that in the female 30-39 yr category. I also made note of who won the 40-49 yr category to see who my competition would be next year. I think I am pretty safe unless we get some new neighbors! Zach was disappointed to not win his group, but announced he would practice and win next year. That's my boy!!

My adorable boys after the run:
After the run there is a pet parade, which we don't take part in. (We did consider dressing Christopher up for that, but decided against it) Following the pet parade is the kids' bike parade. Unfortunately this year the fire truck took a wrong turn and did not go past our street, so I don't have pictures of that.

Here is Zach returning on his bike
Joey just learned to ride with his training wheels off, so was afraid to take it on the parade. He opted for his scooter instead
We then hung out with neighbors at the community pool, followed by a BBQ and fireworks at the Tenczar house. Here is Zach on their swing:
Last but not least, the firework show:

Hope everyone had an awesome 4th!!

What rocks your world?

Last week Pete was listening to the radio and the DJ's asked people to call in with the most embarrasing or funny song on their ipod. Pete called in and admitted that he had Hannah Montana, 'The Best of Both Worlds" on his list. I can confirm this as I have listened to his ipod before and it came on. I am sure it is normal for a 43 year old man to listen to Hannah Montana, right?

It got me thinking about my ipod playlist. When I am running, a good song can really pump me up and give me the extra push to keep going. I think I have a relatively eclectic playlist, so thought I would post it. Here is what is on my ipod right now:

"Message in a Bottle" -- John Mayer

"Melissa" -- Allman Bros

"The Sweet Escape" -- Gwen Stefani

"Pictures of You" -- The Last Goodnight

"Move Along" -- All American Rejects

"Who Knew" -- Pink

"Chasing Cars" -- Snow Patrol

" Shut your Eyes" -- Snow Patrol

"How Far We've Come" -- Matchbox 20 (Ooh, Rob Thomas...yummy!)

"Waiting on the World to change" -- John Mayer

"First Time" -- Lifehouse

"Hanging by a Moment" -- Lifehouse

"Whatever it Takes" -- Lifehouse

"American Idiot" -- Green Day

"Holiday" -- Green Day

"Blvd of Broken Dreams" -- Green Day

"Wake Me When Sept Comes" -- Green Day

"Island in the Sun" -- Wheezer

"I'm Still Standing" -- Elton John (He is awesome!!)

"I Don't Wanna Go On With You Like That" -- Elton John

"Funeral for a Friend/ Love, Lies, Bleeding" -- Elton John

"Capt Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy" -- Elton John

"The Real Slim Shady" -- Eminem (NOT the cleaned up version)

"Lose Yourself" -- Eminem

"How to Save a Life" -- The Fray

"Viva La Vida" -- Coldplay (even though Gwenyth annoys me)

"Enter Sandman" -- Metallica (throwback from my rocker days)

I usually play it on shuffle mode to mix it up a bit. Pretty wild of me!