video clips

Training Tuesdays

Published September 11, 2012 | By Rachel

*Let’s take a moment to remember those who lost their lives 11 years ago today. We should all say a special prayer for those families.*

Well, I’m not really training for anything at the moment, but since training never really stops…

I want to continue my swimming and biking and running, but marathon season is upon us, once again.

I will most likely be racing the Mercedes Half Marathon in February, so I need to get my mileage back up before my training plan is set to start.

I am serious about the sub 2:15 half… we are making it happen is 2013.

I did want to share that J went to the pool with me before my Tri and I had him watch my stroke and tell me what I can improve on. Hopefully it will help one or some of you…

Trust me, if I can swim like this, then anyone can.

I was swimming 50 yards in about 53 seconds and J gave me the goal of 45 seconds… this is me making it happen in 43 seconds. Too bad he stopped the video before I shrieked in the pool over the time.

I have a decision to make. Since my Garmin 405 crapped out, I can pay $70 to get it fixed or the new Garmin Forerunner 10 for about $140.

I have a hard time working the 405. I don’t use it to it’s abilities and the bezel and I don’t get along very well.

The downside to the 10 is that it will only show total distance and time on one screen and you have to click over to see average pace– which is a runner’s best friend.

The plus side is.. it comes in pink.

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Help me decide what to do!!

What are you training for?

Do you have any upcoming races?

Posted in swimming, training, triathlon, Uncategorized, video clips | 6 Comments

Reaching goals…

Published August 8, 2012 | By Rachel

I am a task oriented person. Let me write out a To Do List, and I will break my neck to make sure I am able to cross it off my list.

My 30 before 30 list is no different…

So, when 2012 rolled around, I took some of those goals and put them with more goals for the year. Let’s review how I am doing, shall we?

Run a sub 2:15 half marathon. This isn’t happening, since I’m done running halfs for the year, but maybe next year?
get ripped. Meaning.. workout with weights. I am regularly working out with weights, but am not ripped.
be able to hold a handstand for 30 seconds.. possibly do a handstand push up. Done. And I have the video to prove it!
Run 1,000 for the year. Yep. I said it! Roughly about 21 miles a week. Not happening.
make J tiramisu. Done and it was delicious.
grow an herb garden and possibly a small garden for veggies. Haven’t done this..
become a superstar at time management! I feel like my time management skills are pretty rock star.
I have several photography projects– a project 365 in Instagram, continuing on my Project 52, and a 10 on 10 project. I dropped all of my photography projects when I went back to work full time. Too much stress!
Pay off our remaining credit card bill– it’ll be tough, but it’s nice to have goals, right? Probably not gonna happen…
I want us to live on a serious budget for two months.. that’ll be a hard one too! I feel like we are more serious with our budget.
I also want to either run a Sprint Tri or a Warrior Dash/Muddy Buddy type event. It’ll be gross, for sure! Completed the Sprint Tri on July 21st.
To push myself.. I tend to be lazy and quit when the going gets tough. I need to learn to push through the pain… Right Jana?? This is still an ongoing process.
We need to learn to do things JUST for the girls. Not when it’s convenient for us. This is an ongoing process too.

Here is the proof of my handstand… I think J needs to work on his videoing skills, such as telling people when he hits record, and giving people time so they know if they can do it before their arms fall off.

(I added a video, but for some reason it won’t embed.. so here is the link for the YouTube video.)

I also feel like this photo should count for pushing myself… a solo 4 mile run in which I crossed the intersection I most hate in town.

The intersection on 278W where I had my wreck. I literally cringe every time I drive by, and I have to travel this way to go to my mom’s house.

7 years later, I still hate it.

P.S. I also crossed it on my bike a couple of weeks ago… maybe one day, when I get a real road bike and clips, I can attempt to cross it that way too.

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Posted in goals, Uncategorized, video clips | 4 Comments

The Girls.. In Video

Published July 15, 2011 | By Rachel

I found a video of Addy the other day when she was Claire’s age. You could only understand about every 4th word she said, but I started crying. I don’t have a ton of my girls on video. Pictures? Of course. Oodles. But video of their sweet voices? Nope. I vowed to change that.
Starting with Addison’s very first joke that she learned from Nana.

Untitled from Rachel McPhillips on Vimeo.

Here is another one of Claire talking about eating hotdogs and going to the Zoo.

Untitled from Rachel McPhillips on Vimeo.

Posted in Addison, Claire, girls just wanna have fun, video clips, zoo | 3 Comments

Addison Sings… Again

Published August 13, 2010 | By Rachel

Happy Friday!

Addison Sings… Again. from Rachel McPhillips on Vimeo.

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Busy Week… for our Doctors

Published June 16, 2010 | By Rachel

Sunday afternoon was just like any other lazy day. We had just come in from the pool where Addison and Claire both had a blast and really, FINALLY, started swimming. Claire has gotten into this new habit of stealing Addison’s shoes that are haphazardly laying around and sticking them on her hands. It really peeves Addison and she always uses her Mommy Voice, “Cwaire, do NOT do that Aaannyyymore!”, which consists of lots of clipped tones and words. As John and I were enthralled in the Man Vs Food marathon that was on the Travel Channel, we hear they thud. The one that let’s us know that Claire has taken a spill. John looks at me and says, “I don’t understand how she just falls randomly.” After a few seconds, Addison looks at us, who has been watching the whole thing unfold, and says, “Uh OH! Cwaire have blood!” We immediately jump up, John gets to her first. And sure enough, blood is coming out of her lip at an alarming pace. We get over to the sink and start to clean it up, and John is asking, “did she bit through it? what about her teeth?” And about that time, blood starts coming out of her nose and I start my investigation on whether it’s broken or not. We get the bleeding stopped and decide that she does, indeed, need to be checked out “just in case”. Which, I hate doing, simply because it’s a $35 co pay down the drain. Normally, they just check you out, say, “Oh she’s fine! Just keep doing what you are doing!” and then I’m $35 poorer. But, I was worried her nose was possibly broken or she was going to need stitches, so we went to Urgent Care. Her nose was in fact, NOT broken and the doctor would do stitches for the fact that it’s inside the lip, but it looked really bad.

So, that was our Sunday evening. Monday goes off without a hitch, with me going to Huntsville to get my car serviced and Tuesday morning is no different, with Addison crawling into my bed around 6:30 as John is on his way out the door. Claire wakes up around 7:30 and I get up with her. Addison sleeps until about 8:45, which she NEVER does. When she woke up, she was BURNING UP. Like, she’d been sleeping wrapped in a heating blanket all night. I give her a few minutes, to cool down, thinking it was just warm under my covers and she tends to radiate heat anyway. I take her temp. It’s 104. I take it a few minutes later and it’s 103.5. At this point, I decided to just give her some Tylenol and see what that does to her fever. Over the next few hours it brings it down to around 101.5 and after her nap it’s 103.5. So I load the kiddos up and take them to Urgent Care again. They recognize us, and I assure them that it’s the other child this time. The lady takes A’s temp and it says 99.6. I said No Way. She takes it again. 99.5. I just decide that she doesn’t know how to take a temperature.

So, they do a strep test and it’s negative, but all signs point to strep, so that’s what we are treating. Strep Throat. Great.

After one dose of medicine, she was already feeling better and after the second dose, she is pretty much back to normal, just a not as hungry version of herself. Which, has been kind of awful, she is still contagious until tomorrow afternoon. So, we can’t go anywhere. Boo.

Anyway, here is a picture of her with chocolate on her face and a video of her dancing and singing to Lady GaGa, who is her very favorite.

Addison Sings Lady GaGa from Rachel McPhillips on Vimeo.

Hope You Enjoy!

Posted in daily life, sickly, video clips | Leave a comment

Addison cuteness

Published January 23, 2010 | By Rachel

Lately, I am starting to get a glimpse of what the next 15 years are going to be like with Addison. She is all attitude! She is really into knowing what the names of songs are and who sings them. She has been cracking me up with some of her quotes lately and I feel I should share with you.
I was vacuuming the other day and she said, “Mama, you’re being too loud, I can’t check my e-mail.”

She told John the other day, “That’s not the truth!”

Yesterday morning, we were having another drama filled morning and I told her that she needed to stop arguing and talking back to me and she replied, “…but… it’s sooo hard to not to.”

Tonight she exclaimed, “We did it, dawg!”

I will leave with a somewhat long video of her singing some of her favorite songs, which include, “Hey, Soul Sister”, “Party in the USA”, “Sweet Escape”, and “Fifteen”.

If you don’t like cute kids singing and talking, then you won’t like this.

Posted in Addison, cuteness overload, daily life, video clips | 5 Comments

Your Welcome

Published January 21, 2010 | By Rachel

Just because I love you… here is the video John did from our trip to the BCS National Title Game. Yes, we snuck our camcorder in. We are high maintenance in the fact that we want HD quality footage from this game. Enjoy and Your Welcome!

RTR!!!!

Posted in Alabama Football, vacation, video clips | 4 Comments

All Hallows Eve

Published October 31, 2009 | By Rachel

Happy Halloween, Ya’ll!! Here is a super cute vid of the girls from yesterday… Addison is shaking a shaker in Claire’s face and she is lovin’ it!!!

Hope you enjoy! I am starting to transform Addison into Tinkerbell and she is stoked! Happy Haunting and be safe tonight!

Posted in Halloween, video clips | 2 Comments

An Obsession with Dragons…

Published October 5, 2009 | By Rachel

Not really sure how you can go from saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” to talking about scary dragons, but Addison seems to know how. I tried to translate as much as I could, but the cutest thing is the fact she says, “I pledge allegiance to THAT flag”. And the scare-scare dragon part is because of Sleeping Beauty, where Prince Phillip kills Maleficent with the sword. She is obsessed with dragons now. I found her “Little People” dragon in my linen closet the other day. It’s so cute. I swear, I just could eat her up with a spoon.

Other Random Thoughts by Addison Marie:

- She wants a Strawberry Cupcake party. I’m not sure if she is related to Strawberry Shortcake, but that is what she is getting.

-She has started telling me she loves me to the moon.

-She informed me tonight that I am her favorite person to play with at school.

-She loves for me to sing “twinkle twinkle little lump, go to sleep don’t be a grump.”

-She calls Claire “Sweet Pea”.

I swear, if Claire is half as cute as Addison is, then we have it made.

Posted in Addison, cuteness overload, gotta love it, update, video clips | Leave a comment

Just something to brighten your day…

Published September 19, 2009 | By Rachel

Do you certain things that are guaranteed to make you feel better? Maybe it’s getting a pedicure or your hair done. Maybe it’s a new outfit. Or a good movie. Or dancing in the kitchen. All of those things always make me feel better. But nothing is a guaranteed laugh like Anjelah Johnson. She is this awesome comedian. Maybe you have heard of her? Anyway, she is a YouTube hit!! Check out this hilarious videos!