Ever since we first moved here and I discovered the pathways that run along the river towards the city I have dreamed of running from my house to the city. I thought it was a 16km run and would obviously have to train up to it. I also had to wait for the weather to warm up. The weather has been mildish the last few months, and I've been running longer distances for awhile now, but I tend to get a pain in my left knee that starts around km 5 or 6, and just gets worse the longer the distance I run. When it gets really bad the pain shoots up and down my leg and I stop running for a few moments, try to stretch it out or rub around it, then continue on.  I limp run a bit, and just keep going but obviously my pace is affected. I keep telling myself that I should take a couple of weeks off of running, but my knee never bothers me any other time. After a long, painful run it usually takes a day for it to feel normal again, but it does, and with each run I hope things will have improved. I bought new shoes, hoping that would make a difference, but it hasn't. I assume this minor injury was caused by all the long and steep up and down hills. It is impossible to run anywhere here without running hills. These hills are way longer then any hills I ever ran in B.C and they are everywhere. A typical hill could easily be between 1 and 2km, and going down them is so hard on my knee. So that's where I think this started from. I am stressed about this as I am in the process of training for a half marathon at the end of June which will hopefully lead to a full marathon in October. The last three years as I have trained for half marathons I have developed minor injuries that hinder my progress. I have no idea how people manage to run really long distances without sustaining training injuries. How will I ever train up to a full marathon.

 Anyways, I decided to take advantage of it being a holiday today and Chris being home from work. I didn't run on Saturday as I usually do my long run then, and last week stuck to short runs on the treadmill and to and from the gym. Ideally I try to get 30km a week in, but that didn't happen as I gave myself a two day running break. Obviously not long enough.

The weather was perfect. Overcast, a slight breeze and a little muggy. I headed down from Bowmont park, with some new to me music, that helped set the perfect atmosphere. Andrew, my brother introduced me to this band called Of Monsters and Men I think, and they are amazing! Remind me a lot of Arcade Fire, so if you like the one you will the other. Anyhow, good music is always nice to have on a long run. The path was beautiful. New grass, wild flowers, Aspen trees that have finally grown leaves, and pretty little birds everywhere. I love birds. And of coarse there was the river I was following. It was perfect. Finally spring has come to Calgary.

My run would have been the perfect run to the city that I had fantasized about doing since I moved here if it hadn't been for my stinking knee. I had taken a tylenol, and rubbed Voltaren all over my knee and surrounding leg, before I headed out. It started to throb just before 6km as I thought it would and just continued on from there. I reached the 9th street bridge that leads into the city and to my train home and I was only at 11.5km. I know I could have headed up to the train and gone home at that point as my knee was throbbing and I was running like Terry Fox. No insult intended. I have a huge crush on the man, and I'm sure he ran in way more pain then I've ever been in. That's kind of what pushed me to keep going. I had planned to run at least 15km, so I turned the opposite direction from the train, and continued along the river path into the city. I had popped an ibuprofen several km back and was waiting for it to kick in, but it never did. I ran to 13km, then turned and headed back tup to the train, limping the whole way. I got there just barely short of 15km.

Now for some personalities in pictures:

Miete made a movie called Thom the Zombie and the Missing Foot.

Miete wants to be an imaginationist when she grows up. It's a job she invented in which she teaches people how to use their imaginations. She's written a page of details on this job. I think it's a perfect fit for her.

Imaginations at work. They are acting out a scene from a book

My girls have a ridiculous and sometimes embarrassing sense of fashion
Lilli is always layering miss matched patterns and colors, and Miete likes
to look like pippi longstockings or punky brewster

A winter swim in the living room. These are always Miete's idea

I can't even remember what this game was

Leif continues to love trains, clips, smoozing and
his pink blankie.

Clip trapped in a box

Violet likes drawing on herself. Usually it's a tiger or a mustache

drawing on furniture, and not wearing clothes are also favorite activities

I have so many more fantastic, and adorable personality pictures, but this is getting way too long, so I will save some for an other day. I love my creative, imaginative little children.

I don't feel like blogging very much lately. I think about things I would like to write about constantly, but don't feel like putting forth the effort. I know that very few people read my blog. Sometimes none, so I think why put forth the effort. Well, I'll put forth the effort for myself and for my posterity. Mostly I want to blog about running, and fitness, but that probably bores most people. I also have a lot of pent up, negative emotions inside me that are trying to claw their way through. It is with great effort that I suppress them. If one chooses to write about negative feelings they are generally viewed as complainers, cynics, whiners, or feeling sorry for themselves. It is not very appealing, and often thought of as trying to get attention. Well since becoming more aware of how few people view my blog, I've decided to let a bit of those negative feelings leak out.

 I am lonely, and I've always been lonely. Obviously more sometimes then others. I thought when I was younger that getting married and having children would change that. I adore Christopher and he treats me like gold. He listens, he comforts, and he tries hard to lift me up when I am down, but he doesn't always understand my insides.

 I have very few real friends. Thoughts on this are- am I too boring, not attractive, not smart, funny, clever, rich, too shy, say the wrong thing, too sarcastic, not cool, too immature, too simple. Don't judge me. These thoughts don't come from no where. They come from a life time of experiences. I will write of a few. I am a middle child in a large family. It takes effort to get noticed.

 I grew up very poor. Being poor does not get you a lot of friends. Your clothing is cheap, second hand and old. You can't afford to go on the outings with the other kids. No puffy ISPO jackets, no LA gear sneakers and certainly no cabbage patch dolls. At a young age I was told by my neighbor that her mother said I dressed like my clothes came out of a rag bag. People that are not poor tend to think people that are poor are that way because they are lazy, unless they live in a third world country. This idea is infuriating to me. As a child, and as an adult poverty will always be an embarrassment, simply because of the judgements that go with it.

 Other then the few people I hung out with in high school, no body else remembers me. Not even teachers. I had a favorite English Lit teacher, a year later she couldn't remember my name, and no she did not have Alzheimer's. Last year at a homeschool outing I ran into a girl that I had gone to 5 years of high school with. I had been in many classes with her, and even sat near her. She was very popular and not very kind. When I mentioned to her at this outing that we had attended high school together she had no idea who I was.

 My current friends and my childhood friends continue to keep me as a last resort. That means, we will visit you if we have nothing better to do, we will hang out with you in the summer only if we can fit it around all the other things we'd rather do, and people we'd rather see. Oh, you're moving, too bad we won't be around to spend time with you before you go. That is our vacation time. Oh, you're coming out in a month. I'm not sure I'll be able to spend time with you for whatever reason. Now this may sound dramatic and pathetic on my part but this is a life-time reoccurring event. I remember these things happening when I was a child, a teenager, and early adulthood. So of course my thoughts return to the above: is it because…

 I'll admit that since moving out here and getting an iphone I spend more time on FB then I should. I feel it connects me to home and the rest of the world, however it doesn't connect the rest of the world to me. I get few responses, or comments on pictures. I know this is because my life is dull. There are no vacations, or weekends away. It's me at home or at the park with my children. It goes along with my blog as well. Even those I think to be my closest friends don't read it. I could go out painted purple and I wouldn't get noticed.

 I promise I am kind. I make food for people when they are sick, I send little things in the mail to my friends, I watch other people's children, clean other people's houses, and I compliment everybody all the time, on their hair, their outfit, their yard, their cleverness, their words. I have fantastic manners as well, and I am not a slob. I am very hygienic, and I never smell bad, not even when I'm really sweaty. I smile on the outside all the time. I don't walk around complaining, like I am now. I pick up an out of my way, knocked over garbage can on a run, I clean up litter, I shovel other people's driveways, talk to elderly people everywhere I go, help an overwhelmed parent with a tantruming child in the grocery store. I do my best to put myself in other people's shoes and treat them the way that I would like to be treated.

And yet, I must be missing something.

Strawberry Limeade cake recipe

I've had a few requests for the strawberry limeade cake recipe so I'll do my best to come up with one. Probably a good idea so I have it for future use .
 I just used a box of white cake mix and added a cup of limeade instead of a cup of water. I also grated lime zest into the mix and added the called for eggs and oil. I then scooped a cup of the mix out, and added strawberry jello powder to it. Not a whole box, just enough to give it a pink color and give it a strawberry taste. I also melted some strawberry lime jelly I make and added a couple tbls of that to the pink mix, but you can leave that out. Pour your lime cake mix into a greased pan and then swirl your strawberry mix into it. Bake according to box directions.
I made a filling and then a meringue top, but you don't need to do both if you don't want to. If you are layering your cake and want a nice filling, make a cream cheese, icing sugar, butter icing. (I am assuming that anyone asking for this already can come up with a basic cream cheese icing. ) I then added some of my melted strawberry lime jelly, lime zest and several finely chopped strawberries. You can use regular strawberry jam as well. mix into filling until you have desired consistency and flavor. It is so yummy!
When your cake is out and cool, you can put a layer of this between your cake or use it as a nice icing. I made a simple meringue topping, of egg whites, sugar, and keylime flavor I picked up at Scoop n' Save last time I was in B.C.
 Scoop n' Save is an amazing baking supplies store in Langley. They have every awesome flavor you could imagine. I haven't found a similar store in Calgary yet, but I'm sure there is one somewhere.
 You could add a bit of fresh squeeze lime juice and lime zest to get a nice flavor as well. I am not including meringue directions, because I am assuming everyone knows how to make meringue. Google it of you don't. Also added a touch of green food coloring on kids request. When meringue is stiff, top it on your cooled cake and swirl with a knife to make nice peaks. I then put the whole thing back in the oven at 350 for  maybe five minutes. Keep your eye on it! Only cook it long enough to brown the top slightly.
 I just want to add that when you make a meringue topping don't do it until shortly before you serve it, because it won't look nice hours later, and don't put it in the fridge before you serve it. It will sweat and melt. Of coarse you will have to  refrigerate your leftovers, to keep it from bacteria growth.
 I was going to add a picture but it turns out I deleted it. Good luck with the recipe, it really is quite simple, although maybe not incredibly specific. If anyone has further questions you can message or email me.