I posted a lonnnnggg time about my sister and brother in law and their amazing weight loss journey. Anyone remember that, they were actually on the Today show b/c they lost a combined total of like 300 lbs. Both have done great jobs keeping it off and changing their lifestlye. Especially the brother in law Tim, he is like a new man. He now loves to work out and is a total food nazi, don't get anything near him with high fructose corn syrup or partially hydrogenated oil in it people! Well, anyway they both lost the weight without a ton of working out, mostly just food changes. But he started going to the gym pretty religiously a year or so ago and she started working out in the last 6 months and is loving Zumba and pilates classes. I am so proud of them both, but Tim, Tim is running! Yes running! He can now run 3 miles at a time with no issue. My sister emailed me today and said he mentioned something about maybe doing a marathon someday. I'm sure he could. I suggested a half for him to give a shot. So I have my fingers crossed that he will join me for a fall half marathon in my neck of the woods. I am super geeked to help him tailor a running plan and stay motivated and it will help me b/c I will be starting over basically and it'll be a long road from baby to half marathon considering I have run consistently since Jan (the horror!). I suggested the Cleveland Clinic River run, Towpath Half or Fall Classic. hope I can get him on board.

So I redid my blog, not sure I am in love with it, it very well may change again soon. I can't for the life of me find any blog skins that have like people running or running shoes in them, which is what I really wanted. And how do people get headers with their own photos in it. Grrr.

What's happening bloggy friends? I have been thinking a lot about a good title for this blog, but can't come up with anything. I am going to work on my redesign soon b/c I doubt that I will have time when the baby is here. If anyone knows of any good sites to get html skins from let me know.

I am 36 weeks pregnant and miserable. For reals. I must say that the first 8 months of my pregnancy were pretty pleasant, it made me think it was no big deal to be preggo. Then things got a little funky between weeks 32 and 35, but for the last week I have just felt down right awful. My hips are popping out of socket, my back hurts, my legs and feet are swollen with extra fluid that has started to come in to prepare my body for labor. I am having practice contractions, my head is stopped up, I don't know if I am going to throw up or poop my pants, my boobs are all hot and itchy, none of my clothes fit. It's a good time let me tell you (insert sarcasm). I have such a hard time believing I will make it to my due date April 22. I have all the symptoms of pre labor. But pre labor can last weeks, a month even. Statistically most first timers are a week late. So, there you go. The odds are against me. Plus I have found out that I am measuring small and the baby is on the small side, so I really don't want to go early now. But I wish I could just stay home and not be at work. To say that I am irratable would be putting it mildly :) I can't wait for next Wed, just to be in the month of April will be a relief.

Seriously how nice has this weather been! It is just what the doctor ordered for a 35 week pregnant woman. Gary is loving it too as he has gotten out for a few bike rides lately, so jealous! I took the dogs for a nice brisk 3 mile walk last night. They don’t even know how they got so lucky. They had such short walks all winter b/c the sidewalks were icy for so long I had to walk in my big old snow boots and it was dangerous for me. With them it takes us about 50 mins to cover 3 miles. Which isn’t too bad considering I have to stop and clean up poop a few times! Walking has really become my main form of exercise at this point, I haven’t been to the gym in forever. I am trying to walk at least 10 miles a week. But I am not stressing about it. I have 5-6 weeks at most before this baby arrives and I am trying to relax, spend time with the dogs and husband and get the amazing amount of stuff we need done around the house done. When you couple that with a 9pm bedtime (which is about as late as I can make it) and a 7am wake uptime (which is as early as I can handle and still function) there aren’t many hours in the day! I should be picking up the weights though, I need to remind myself to at least do my stair pushups and coffee table dips more often. I’m sure carrying around an infant will get my arms back in shape quickly enough. I hope! I am 35 days away from my due date, which just seem like forever and nothing at the same time. Next week I start weekly doc appts. I better start getting my work stuff in order!

I had a great baby shower this past weekend. I am so blessed to have such great friend and family. And you know what, quite a few of those friends were made from blogging. A lot of people don’t get the whole internet thing, but it is amazing what great friends can shake out of it. If it wasn’t for running, I wonder who I’d be friends with! I love my running buddies. I cannot wait to get back out there! I am not even dreading how hard it is going to be b/c I know it’ll take me at least a month to be able to probably run 1-2 miles straight, but at least I’ll be doing it. I need to get the running jogger out of the basement my friend gave me and look it up online. I need to figure out when I can put a baby in it and see if there is some sort of infant seat for it, I sure hope so! Although I am super lucky that I will have Gary home with me the first 6 weeks, so if I can get back to running after a few weeks, I should get 3 good weeks of running in before I have to worry about taking the baby with me too. Soooo much is going to change. I am scared, but ready. I am feeling so much more at peace now that the nursery is done and everything is put away.

Check out http://sarahdbelle.wordpress.com/ to win a copy of Jillian's Michael's latest DVD.

Also just for fun - check out Christopher Walken's twitter, it had me laughing, I don't know if it's really him, but it's funny-http://twitter.com/cwalken

I have names on the brain. Do any of your bloggy friend have any good girl names you want to suggest? We aren’t going to pick our daughter’s name until we meet her. But I am keeping a short list and am sooooo open to suggestions b/c I am in not in love with any of them: Elanore, Ruby, Adelaide, Mallory, Lillian, Violet, Chole or Zoe. Names Gary vetoed that I love – Piper, Roxy and Harlow. Oh well.

Also – I have been maintaining 2 blogs for awhile, this one and a baby specific one. Obviously I haven’t been updating this one very much, but after the baby I plan to abandon the baby blog and come back to this one to chronicle my battle to get back in shape. Unfortunately I have not maintained my fitness level at all and will have a lot of work to do. Anyone have a good suggestion for a new blog name? I won’t be changing the address, too much trouble, but will change my masthead. Something about being a mom, running, getting in shape, etc….

I am actually really geeked to get started on my weight loss. I know while I am nursing I won’t be able to diet per say, but I will be able to overhaul my eating. I shouldn’t have been eating so badly as it is, but unfortunately cereal, grilled cheeses, peanut butter sandwiches and ice cream are the only things that really taste good to me anymore! Vegetables and I do not get along, most make me physically gag. So I am looking very forward to getting back to protein smoothies for breakfast, big salads for lunch, eating 3 meals and 3 snacks, etc. Not to mention sweaty workouts. But I found the most perfect snack at the store this weekend. It’s a little pricey, but so good I still plan to stock up. I only bought it b/c it was on sale for $1 a pop, it’s more like $1.50 when not on sale. I tried the lemon verbena and cucumber dill and both were delicious!

That weather last week was just what I needed. If felt so good to get outside and walk/run and stretch my legs. I got in 3 days where I walked 3-4 miles. That's a lot for me right now! The dogs didn't know what to do with themselves, they were so tired. Then on Sat I met Sherri and Salty at North Chagrin reservation. THey ran, while I got to push Salty's little peanut in the stroller. He was an angel and sletp the whole time despite the rainy conditions. Don't worry there was a cover on his stroller. Then we had some yummy pancakes at yours truly. Perfect Sat morning! I become more and more exhasuted everyday. My body is definitely making me slow down whether I want to or not. I'll be 34 weeks on Wed, per my doc appt this morning, she has her head pointing down now. It won't be that much longer. Yikes.

My sister came to visit this weekend and she painted a tree on my wall for me! The tree is done in paint and then we took different scrapbooking papers and made the leaves. She cut them out with a template and I ran them through a little adhesive machine. As an afterthought we decided to add an owl to the tree and I begged for 3 more to put over the closet. I have an owl theme going on, I have a really cute nightlight and bookend with an owl on them. So she made 3 more and they went above the closet. It all turned out sooooo freaking cute!