Too tired to cook

Don't be an Eeyore.....VOTE!!!!!

2008-11-04T13:57:00.000-08:00

Eeyore, the old grey Donkey, stood by the side of the stream, and looked at himself in the water.
"Pathetic," he said. "That's what it is. Pathetic."
He turned and walked slowly down the stream for twenty yards, splashed across it, and walked slowly back on the other side. Then he looked at himself in the water again.
"As I thought," he said. "No better from this side. But nobody minds. Nobody cares. Pathetic, that's what it is."
Winnie the Pooh

I can't take credit for this....it was posted on a message board today, but I thought it was a great reminder that no matter what side you are on, get out and VOTE today. It's your constitutional right!

What date is it again?

2008-11-03T04:34:00.000-08:00

November 3? Really? Anyone want to verify that for me?

The reason for my confusion is that we are enjoying some UNSEASONABLY warm weather here in Iowa. Nearly every day for the past week I've had my windows open in the afternoon....crazy!

Today it's supposed to get to 74 degrees and tomorrow to 70. Then we'll quickly go back to "normal" (40-50 degrees). So I'm going to enjoy these last couple warm days.

On my "to-do-while it's-warm" list for today and tomorrow:

• ride bikes with the kids
• hang laundry on the clothesline
• dig up some tulip bulbs that got clustered together and replant them spaced apart
• have a picnic lunch with Andrew
• play at the park after school
• go running

It's amazing how a spurt of warm weather (when there shouldn't be any) will make you appreciate it and want to spend every second outside.

Off to soak up some sunshine....

This n' That.....random happenings

2008-10-31T06:37:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a "mish mosh" post of random things that have gone on around here lately.

First of all, Natalie cracked me up last night. We walked down to my mom's house (we live 4 houses away) to give her a picture that Natalie made. While there I commented to my mom that the elementary school waits until the kids are out of money in their lunch account before they notify parents. Yesterday I got an email from the school letting me know she had 30¢ in her lunch account.

Natalie must have been listening....because then she piped up, "I'm out of money, but I still have cents!"

Mom and I laughed, then I told her if she had sense, she could always make more money.

Next topic....ouchies and booboos. Andrew managed to bite his lip when he hopped up onto a kitchen chair to help me make pizza dough. It bled like heck (why are mouth wounds so bloody?) and he did what any 3-year-0ld would do with a mouthful of blood.....he spit. Fortunately I had run into the bathroom with him, so the damage was mostly confined to my clothes (he was facing me) and a bit on the bathroom floor. His poor lip was really swollen for about 2 days!

Andrew has been practicing to be like the cat in his spare time. I think they both have the "lounging around doing nothing" thing down pat.

Well, I just noticed that this is my 7th blog post for the month of October, making it my highest number of posts in a month since starting this. I really need to work on that. I have lots of pictures taken and the kids do cute stuff every day....I just need to make the time to sit down and write about them more often!

November's goal....10 blog posts.....I can do it!

Yesterday was a GREAT day!

2008-10-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

And do you know why? Well, I'll tell you. Yesterday was great because Amanda was at playgroup.

Now who is Amanda and why do we care if she's at playgroup?

Amanda is an adorable little 3-year old (same age as my son) who goes to our church. Earlier this year she was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia or AML. After enduring 5 months of chemotherapy, she is finally done and her mom said on Tuesday they got the news that her first end-of-treatment bone marrow biopsy came back clean...no cancer.

If you want to read more about Amanda, check out her site at:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/amandaostrem

This is the first time she's been back at playgroup since being diagnosed and having all her chemo treatments.

She had a great time playing with the other kids and annoying her mom.....just being a typical 3-year-old. And what could be better than that?

I'm the meanest mommy in the whole world!

2008-10-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's what my 3 1/2-year-old son informed me today.

Want to know what I did that was so awful?

Did I take away his favorite toy? No.
Put him in time-out? No.
Refuse to let him watch tv? Uh-uh
Make him take a bath? Nope.

What I did was apparently worse than any of those things.

I'm officially the meanest mommy ever because I wouldn't let him eat a lunch consisting of only potato chips.

So if I don't blog for a while....it's probably because I'm locked up in "mean mommy jail."

I did it!

2008-10-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

The marathon was SOOOOOOO AWESOME! I would *totally* do another one someday!

I decided at the race expo on Saturday to sign up with a pace team. Basically it's a very experienced marathon runner leading a team of people who hope to finish in a certain time. The pace leader helps keep the pace steady so you don't go out to fast or lag too far behind in the later miles. I think that was a great decision because I know if I hadn't done it I would have started the race a lot faster and probably had an empty tank by the end.

I ran for the pace group until about mile 21, then I just had to slow it down a tad. My pace group was the 4:30 (four hours, 30 minutes) and I ended up finishing in 4:34.

My family was at mile 13, 22 and the finish. Here's some pics that Alex took of the day:

Mile 13.....that surprised look is because my grandma, who I had NO IDEA was coming (apparently she called my mom at like 6am this morning to see what time they were leaving) was there and she drove over 2 hours just to watch me run. I was so shocked and so happy to see her!

Mile 22....feeling a little tired by then.....go figure!

A few steps from the finish....what a GREAT feeling!

My medal. :)

My new tattoo. LOL! They were handing out pace tattoos at the race expo that showed what your time should be at every mile marker to finish in a certain time.

I just can't say how cool it was. There were tons of cheering crowds along the race course. People were out playing all sorts of music along the sidelines (I saw a tuba player, a few trumpet players, a harpist, some guy playing bongo drums, a couple of violin players, several bands, a drum corps and a few groups of cheerleaders!). The leader of my pace group was running his 143rd marathon!!!!!

The kids had signs that said "Run Mom Run" and they gave me five when I passed by. That really kept me going, especially at mile 22 when I was feeling pretty darn tired.

My hardest miles were mile 22 and 23, once I hit 24 I knew I was almost there and from 25 to the end went by in a flash.

I ran every step from start to finish.....no walking through the water stations and no port-a-potty stops along the way.

I'm dang proud of myself!!!!!!

****************

Here's a start-to-finish recap of the race including weather conditions and how I felt during the run:

The weather was GORGEOUS (at least for us Iowans.....I was telling my friend in Florida about the weather and she thought it sounded a tad cold!).

When I got up at 5:45am the temp was 49 and I think by the time the race started at 8am it was about 51. The weather people called for a "breezy" day which had me worried, but the course was through a lot of older, residential areas with tons of trees so we were very sheltered from any wind for a lot of the course.

Honestly, the first half was a breeze. At mile 13 me and the girl you see running with me in the first pic were about a block or so ahead of the 4:30 pack and we both commented that it felt like we were running slow. Again I'm so pleased that I decided to run with the pace team because I felt in the first few miles like I was plodding along, but it was a nice gentle warm-up for the long hours of running ahead of me.

The course was pretty hilly from miles 3-8 but our pace leader did a great job of talking us through the hills. He'd run this course several times before and knew how many hills were in front of us and would encourage us by saying "only 1 more hill to go!" and things like that.

At mile 12 we took a lap around the Drake Stadium track....very cool since lots of famous runners have been on that track during the Drake Relays. I think we all picked up the pace during that lap on the track.

From miles 13-15 there were some nice long, gentle downhills which were great for a breather.

I chatted along with my pace group and cheered on other runners (there were several out & back spots on the course....one at mile 8 where we got to see some of the elite runners who were at about mile 14 or 15 and man was it fun to see them fly by!) until about miles 18-19 where I finally felt too tired to talk much anymore.

I stuck to what I had done for my entire training long runs which was to drink every 20 minutes and start eating 90 minutes into my run and eat about every 30 minutes after that. It was a little hard to remember to drink in the beginning because I was so caught up in the excitement of the day.

At mile 20 I was still feeling pretty good but remember thinking that every step after that mile marker was the furthest I'd ever run before. Mile 21 was where I fell back from the 4:30 pace group just a bit. I wasn't sure if I should push myself to stay with them and risk running out of gas the last couple miles. In the end I decided it was my first marathon and really my goal was just to finish and to run the whole thing. So I decided the best thing was to slow my pace just a bit and keep running versus trying to run faster and then maybe having to walk some near the end.

Also miles 19-21 took us around Water Works Park which was the most open area the course had been on and we had to run into the wind for a bit which was around 15mph and enough to feel it at that point.

I was getting pretty tired by mile 22 but seeing my family there was a huge pick-me-up. Also shortly after seeing them was another water station and they had gummi bears there. I took a HUGE handful and munched on them.....they tasted sooooooo good!

Miles 22 and 23 were definitely the toughest mentally/physically. My feet hurt, my legs hurt and I could tell that I had missed a spot under my one armpit with my body glide and it was rubbing raw against my sports bra. The crowd was really thin in those areas so there wasn't much to think about except running. That's when I cranked up the volume on my iPod and found a couple fast-paced songs to keep me moving.

Once I hit mile 24 the crowd started getting bigger and I just thought "I can run 2 miles in my sleep, half-dead and there's no way in HELL that I just ran 24 whole miles to take a walk break now."

Once I saw the mile marker for 25 I knew I was going to finish the whole thing without walking. That last mile was the hottest one to run, it was about 12:30pm by then and the course took me from a loop around a lake onto a 4-lane road into downtown. No trees, no shade and the sun beating right down on my head. It was about 68 degrees by then, but felt a lot hotter to me.

I turned the corner and could see the finish line and my family right near it. I got teary-eyed when I saw the huge finish sign. I was just so tired of running and happy that I did what I set out to do.

Honestly, I felt I trained very well for a first marathon where my goal was really just to finish. The fact that I finished within minutes of my "I think I can do it in this time" goal was just icing on the cake.

When (notice I said a definitely "when" not "if") I run my next one if I'm shooting for a better time I will probably try to get in some longer runs (maybe instead of topping out at 20, try to do 23-24 miles at least once before the race) as well as some hill training. I live in the FLATTEST area of the world, we seriously don't have any hills in our town and I know I could benefit from running bigger hills during my training.

M is for Marathon

2008-10-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finally here. The day I've been training for the past 18 weeks. I'm excited, nervous and full of self-doubt (gotta work on that).

My family.....LOTS of my family are coming to watch me run. My husband and kids will be there, along with my mom, sister, grandma and my in-laws. No pressure, but I better finish, huh?!?

I have to give a big, huge THANK YOU to my "Stork Sisters" who posted the nicest encouragement thread on HCTS. I've got it printed out and in my race bag so I can take it with on my run.

I'm not sure what else to say other than if you read this, please cross your fingers, or pray, or whatever it is you do for NO RAIN and NO WIND on Sunday. The race starts at 8am CST and I anticipate finishing between 12:30-1pm. I'd love any thoughts or prayers for mental strength and physical endurance during that time.

I'll be sure to give a post-race update either Sunday night or sometime on Monday.

Here's my marathon training.....by numbers:
• 460 - the number of miles I ran to train for the race
• 208 - the number of minutes my longest run took me
• 50 - the average amount (in ounces) I drink in Gatorade during a long training run
• 35 - my highest number of miles I ran in a week
• 20 - the number of miles in my longest training run
• 18 - the number of Saturday's in a row I've had a long training run
• 7 - the number of miles I've run during this last taper week (and yes, I'm about to jump out of my skin because I feel like I should be RUNNING MORE!)
• 2 - how many pairs of shoes I went through during training
• 1 - more day until race day!

I'm SO not ready for this!!!!

2008-10-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

Well, we're about 2 months into the school year now. Natalie loves Kindergarten and I'm amazed (almost daily!) at the ways she's growing and changing. Everything from her pictures to handwriting to independence has improved since school started.

And she's making lots of new friends. Mostly boys (this is the part I'm not ready for!);

Here's a scenario or two of a typical day when I pick Natalie up from school.

SCENARIO 1: We walk out of school and down the block during which time at least 4 or 5 little boys say, "Bye Natalie!." or "See you tomorrow Natalie!" Some of them shout out the bus windows as we walk past, others are walking like us and one little boy even rolled down the window of the van as his mom was driving past.

SCENARIO 2: Natalie comes marching out of school with a boy carrying her backpack and lunchbox for her.

After one of the days where it was numerous little boys saying their "byes", Naty and I had the following conversation:

Me: So, do you have lots of boyfriends? (said in a teasing tone)
N: No mom! (in annoyed voice)
Me: Just lots of friends?
N: Yeah, all the boys like me.

LOL! I think I can feel my hair turning gray.

Yes, I'm still alive!

2008-10-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

We've been taking our turn with the sickies.....from colds to coughs to fevers and upset tummies. I'm ready for everyone to be healthy so I can get back to life as normal!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts!

2008-09-23T14:49:00.001-07:00

Life has just been *too* busy lately. Our new, busy "we-have-school-kids" lives are in full swing with Kindergarten, Preschool, church choirs and church meetings. Oh yeah, and that little 26.2 mile race that I'm running in less than a month.

This week is my longest training run....I will do 20 miles on Saturday. Once I get over that hurdle, it's a 3-week taper and hopefully I'll have a bit more energy and get caught up with my household tasks.

We got Natalie's school pictures back today.....they turned out really well! I'm still not quite ready to believe that I have a child in school. Guess I better ditch the denial one of these days, huh?

I'm thinking of turning this whole blogging business over to the cat....he really seems like he doesn't have enough to do.

Meet Gabe.....he's 3. He's huge. He pretty much eats, eats, sleeps, fills the litter box. Repeat as necessary.

Small town living

2008-09-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had two "happenings" that remind me why I love living in a small town.

The first was when our "back yard" neighbor came over to tell us that his yard had been sprayed by the the lawn company and to make sure the kids stayed off it for 24 hours (we cut through their yard - with their blessing - on our walk to school 'cause it chops off 2 blocks and at least 5 minutes).

The second was after school when we got Natalie's hair cut. I got out my checkbook to pay and the hairstylist said....."Oh, why don't you just wait. You and Andrew are coming in for haircuts next week, no need to write out two checks, you can just pay for it all then."

Sure, every once and a while I wish we lived in a town with a mall or Target....heck even Wal-Mart. But I can drive to those stores, I'll take my small-town living any day of the week!

460 miles

2008-09-04T04:30:00.000-07:00

That is the number of miles I will have run over the course of my marathon training. I'm following an 18-week training program that has me run four days a week. Right now I'm almost done with week 12.

Isn't it crazy to run that many miles to train for one race?

I don't know what possessed me to add it up. I kind of wish I wouldn't have.

I guess it's one thing that's better not to think about.

Kind of like running 26.2 miles all at once....which I won't do until the day of the race.....and I'm trying not to think about.....too much......

Mmmmm.....tomatoes!

2008-09-03T11:39:00.001-07:00

My tomato plants finally decided to stop tormenting me and now I'm getting bucketfuls of ripe tomatoes (I prefer roma tomatoes, so that's what you see in the pics) on a daily bases. And even my pepper plants are getting the groove.

I have learned that eating 5-6 tomatoes a day can give you heartburn and ummmm.....how can I delicately put this....make sure you're as regular as clockwork. ;-) Despite this I cannot resist their yummy goodness and will continue to gorge myself on tomatoes because I live in Iowa.....tomato season is short and it will be a long, cold winter before it comes around again.

My mom (a fellow tomato-a-holic) saw this picture on my computer and asked if I would print and frame it for her for Christmas. LOL!

Andrew's first day of Preschool!

2008-09-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I had to send my baby off to preschool today!

He had a GREAT time! Alex was off work, so we first walked Natalie to Kindergarten (she has to be there at 8:15) then walked back to Andrew's preschool (he needs to be there about 8:25). I was a little nervous because when I left a handful of kids were having a cry-fest and I was worried that Andrew would get upset, but he didn't!

He talked up a storm about "circle time" and "center time", snacks and his teachers. He's ready to back on Thursday!

I did OK....he was only at school from 8:30-11am and I ran 5 miles, so by the time I ran and showered and got my ebay packages ready to ship it was time to go pick him up.

My big boy!

Natalie had to get in on the fun.

Walking to school

Just arrived a preschool and hanging up his prized Darth Vadar bag.

Already busy playing with all the fun toys!

By the way, both kiddos are wearing my favorite brand Mini Boden. :)

First day of Kindergarten!

2008-08-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

I wish I had something really insightful to say about sending my baby girl off to school. But I don't. She had a great time and is ready to go back tomorrow.

So for lack of anything better to say, this pretty much sums up how I felt today...

Thoughts from the Bottom of the Beanstalk

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jack who was about to climb his very first beanstalk. He had a fresh haircut and a brand-new book bag.

Even though his friends in the neighborhood had climbed this same beanstalk almost every day last year, this was Jack's first day and he was a little nervous. So was his mother.

Early in the morning she brought him to the foot of the beanstalk. She talked encouragingly to Jack about all the fun he would have that day and how nice his giant would be. She reassured him that she would be back to pick him up at the end of the day. For a moment they stood together, silently holding hands, gazing up at the beanstalk. To Jack it seemed much bigger than it had when his mother had pointed it out on the way to the store last week. His mother thought it looked big, too. She swallowed. Maybe she should have held Jack out a year...

Jack's mother straightened his shirt one last time, patted his shoulder and smiled down at him. She promised to stay and wave while he started climbing. Jack didn't say a word.

He walked forward, grabbed a low-growing stem and slowly pulled himself up to the first leaf. He balanced there for a moment and then climbed more eagerly to the second leaf, then to the third and soon he had vanished into a high tangle of leaves and stems with never a backward glance at his mother.

She stood alone at the bottom of the beanstalk, gazing up at the spot where Jack had disappeared. There was no rustle, no movement, no sound to indicate that he was anywhere inside.

"Sometimes," she thought, "it's harder to be the one who waves good-bye than it is to be the one who climbs the beanstalk."

She wondered how Jack would do. Would he miss her? How would he behave? Did his giant understand that little boys sometimes acted silly when they felt unsure? She fought down an urge to spring up the stalk after Jack and maybe duck behind a bean to take a peek at how he was doing.

"I'd better not. What if he saw me?" She knew Jack was really old enough to handle this on his own. She reminded herself that, after all this was thought to be an excellent beanstalk and that everyone said his giant was not only kind but had outstanding qualifications.

"It's not so much that I'm worried about him," she thought, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's just that he's growing up and I'm going to miss him."

Jack's mother turned to leave. "Jack's going to have lots of bigger beanstalks to climb in his life," she told herself.

"Today's the day he starts practicing for them...

And today's the day I start practicing something too: Cheering him on and waving good-bye."

(Author Unknown)

Ready to walk to school this morning!

Walking with Andrew and grandma (my mom)

Along the way we met up with a friend of Natalie's from preschool and her older sister.

The girls laughing at Andrew for being a goof.

Natalie and her friend Sierra (they are both in K, but different classes)

That's Natalie's teacher with her arm around the other girl

They had to partner up and hold hands on the way into class....Natalie had never met this little girl before but said she was nice.

The teacher said to raise their hands if they had someone special to wave to before they went into school.

And in to school they go!

Coming out of school with her Aunt Caitlyn (my "baby" sister who started her senior year today)

And last, showing off the papers she brought home on her 1st day.

On a side note, Caitlyn is ready to go back to Kindergarten after having a long 1st day of her senior year and already has to read 20 pages tonight for a quiz tomorrow and write an essay. LOL! I don't miss high school!!!

Rainy day fun

2008-08-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

My idea of rainy day fun would include a cup of hot cocoa, a good book and curling up on the couch.

But when the kids woke up this morning and saw the rain, they immediately started planning their perfect rainy day activities, which include raincoats, boots, umbrellas and some play clothes. You know....just in case they would get a little dirty.

It all started out very innocently....just walkin' in the rain!

Checking out the puddles.

Andrew couldn't resist the temptation to jump as hard as he could in that puddle. If you look at the splash level, you will see we had to go in the house and change his socks, shorts, underwear and t-shirt....it's all in the laundry with his rain coat right now. LOL!

But who cares, that's what puddles are for!

Top 10 signs you're running a lot (too much?)

2008-08-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

So I'm training for my first marathon on October 19. I'm 8 weeks into an 18-week training program and each week my mileage keeps creeping up.

It started out pretty easy....I run 4 days a week (Tues, Wed, Thurs and a long run on Saturday). So the first few weeks had me running 3 miles on Tues and Thurs and 5 miles on Wednesday with longer Saturday runs ranging from 6-10 miles.

Now I'm up to 4 miles on Tues and Thurs with 7 miles on Wed with my Saturday runs going from 11 miles and up (so far my longest has been 14, but I'm facing runs up to 20 miles long in the coming weeks!).

So....I'm sure you can see that my life is slowly being consumed by running. I decided to compose a "Top 10 List" for your enjoyment. Here it is!

TOP 10 SIGNS YOU'RE RUNNING A LOT (OR PERHAPS TOO MUCH!)

10 - You generate enough laundry to justify an entire load of nasty sweaty clothes and use the special "workout clothes" setting on your washer

9 - Running 3 or 4 miles is like having a day off and requires no special preparation other than tossing on running clothes and shoes and heading out the door.

8 - Running a "long run" takes most of a morning and requires items such as a hydration belt with 40+ oz. of fluid, food/snacks for along the run to keep energy up and a cell phone in case you get lost or so far from home it requires someone to come pick you up.

7 - Vaseline doesn't cut it anymore and you purchase a special "body glide" stick to reduce chafing in sensitive areas.

6 - You experience chafing in areas you didn't know rubbed together

5 - You have 2-3 pairs of running shoes to rotate between, the "almost worn out" pair, the "just right" pair and the "sorta new and still breaking them in" pair

4 - On your long run days you're so hungry you eat as much as you did when pregnant/nursing.

3 - You can mentally plot out at least 5-6 running routes around your town that will take you from 4-15 miles.

2 - You've considered popping in to a corn field to relieve yourself after a little "too much" hydrating yourself (no, I have not done this....yet!)

1 - You start to live for experiencing the next "runner's high" and pushing your limits even further to work toward your goal!

Kindergarten, here we come!

2008-08-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've known the start date for school is August 18. I've known that Natalie is going to Kindergarten. We've talked about it, shopped for it and are all prepared.

But we got her official school registration form and a nice note from her teacher this past week, welcoming her to Kindergarten and talking about Back to School night (the K-6 grade kids go the night before the first day of school to drop off all their "stuff", meet their teachers, find their lockers, etc. so the first day won't be such a stress) and the first day of school.

And that's when it hit me....

In 16 days (well, 15 really since today is almost over) my baby is going to Kindergarten.

I can't help but wonder how 5 1/2 years have flown by in the blink of an eye. And how my baby has gone from this......

to this....

I've come to the conclusion that being a mom is all about these bittersweet moments of being so proud of how your children are growing up, yet so sad to let go of those precious baby days.

A note to my tomato plants

2008-07-31T10:00:00.001-07:00

Dear Tomato plants,

I have planted you, lovingly watered you, given you a nice cage to support your growth and pulled the weeds from around you.

Would it be too much to ask for one itsy bitsy teeny weeny ripe red tomato?

I can see that you have been working hard, as I can count approximately 1.5 million green tomatoes on your vines.

I have suffered major mosquito bites in my almost-daily venture into your leafy midst to see if any of those green tomatoes are starting to ripen. At this point I'd be happy to even see that they are starting to turn red.

Just to prove that you've tortured me enough, these are things I have done within the past two days:

1) Have woken up from a dream involving a hamburger and me slicing a ripe, juicy tomato on top of it
2) Have walked down to my mom's house and helped myself to a ripe tomato from her garden
3) Have refused to share said stolen tomato with anyone else because I wanted the whole thing for myself.

So, in closing, my dear tomatoes.....if you could see fit to turn red anytime soon.....well, I'd really appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Your tomato-crazed caretaker,

Jaci

A day I've been dreading has come....

2008-07-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yep, my darling daughter has seen some of her preschool (soon to be Kindergarten) classmates out and about riding their bikes sans training wheels.

She asked us if SHE could have her training wheels taken off. Alex and I have skirted around the subject as much as possible trying to placate her with sayings like, "Not all kids are ready at the same time" and "I'm sure by next summer you'll be ready." But she'll have none of it. Ready or not, she wants to try.

So......our first try was at home, on the flat street. It was a complete failure. Then Alex got the idea to try on grass, on a hill. For the simple reasons that 1) the grass is soft so when she falls it won't hurt too much and 2) on a hill she won't have to worry about pedaling, just keeping her balance.

While she's still not riding around on two wheels, Alex's method was more successful. She was able to go down the hill several times keeping her balance.

Up next? Working on balancing while pedaling. My guess is it will take until next summer. But you know what? For a kid who didn't learn to pedal AT ALL until she was nearly 4.....we've made some great strides.

Of course "me too" (Andrew) thinks his training wheels should come off as well. Heck, why not? If you can pedal a bike starting at age 21 months I suppose at age 3 you're ready for two wheels.

A conversation with Andrew....

2008-07-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

So my 3-year-old came up to me today and we had the following conversation:

A: Mom, did you know first I was one, then I was two, now I'm three, next I'll be four, then five......(he did every number up to twenty).

(pause)

A: It will be quite a long time until I'm twenty.

Me: Yep, buddy, quite a long time. (and inside I'm thinking, THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!)

A personal best!

2008-07-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

First of all, my blogging has been totally lax lately.....SORRY! We've just been too busy enjoying summer activities. It seems like by the time I round the kids up from a hard day of playing outside, clean them up and get them off to bed.....I'm just too tired to do anything but go to bed myself. (Is that a sign I'm getting old?)

I did want to share that I achieved a "personal best" this week.

You see.....I'm a "sort of"runner. I say that because I never ran a step until college....when one of my roommates coerced me into doing a little running. She even convinced me to do a 20K race (for those of you who don't do the metric system that would be 12.4 miles) one time and I lived through it!

I ran a bit after college, then pretty much took my mid-to-late 20s off from running to have my babies. But now my "baby" is 3.5 years old and for the last year I've been back into running again. I've done a few 5Ks (3.1 miles) and a couple 10Ks (6.2 miles) and even repeated that 20K in June.

On Saturday night I ran Midnight Madness in Ames, IA. It's typically the HOTTEST night of the year (last year when I ran the 5K it was over 95 degrees when the race started) but this year it was absolutely gorgeous, unseasonably cool weather. It was about 70 degrees when the race started and fell into the mid-60s by the end.

I ran the 10K this year and finished in a personal best time of 56:48. Prior to that my best time was 1:01:25.

And now my "sort of" being a runner may just turn into being an actual runner. You know...the kind who thinks maybe she should run a full marathon this fall.

I'll keep you updated......

Fireworks!

2008-07-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

Our town did fireworks on July 5 out at the lake. We went early and had a snack while watching the boat parade, then let the kids play at the playground before dark. It was a LATE night for us (usually the kids are in bed by 8:30 at the latest, but we didn't even get home from fireworks until 10:30!).

This was my first attempt at taking pictures of fireworks. I think I did OK, especially since I'm still using my point & shoot, not a nicer camera. I did take my tripod out to the lake....I don't think I would have gotten ANY shots to turn out without it. I took about 60 fireworks pictures, and these are the only ones that came out worth a darn. LOL!

Watching the boats....

This is an Andrew.

This is an Andrew eating M&Ms.

Moral of the story? ALWAYS carry wet wipes!

The boat parade....

Hope everyone had a great 4th!!!!!!!!

The "Snack Lunch"

2008-06-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

This is a great little lunch that's a staple in our household. It got started back when Natalie was little and has been a favorite of hers as a toddler and now both kids love it and ask for it by name several times per week.

So what is this snack lunch, you're asking? I found these handy round muffin tins that have 6 holes in them. Each cup I fill with a different food for lunch. Some days I do better than others, but I usually aim for a fruit, veggie, protein, whole grain and a nut or nut butter in the lunch.

Top reasons my kids love their "snack lunch":
• It comes in a fun plate/container
• Pretty much everything can be eaten with fingers!
• Frequently there are dips - condiments and dipping are always popular at our house
• They usually get to pick some of the foods that appear on the snack lunch plate

Top reasons *I* love to make a "snack lunch" for my kids:
• Can be prepared in under 5 minutes
• My kids will clean their plates with no complaints
• I can guarantee that my children are getting some of each major food group
• They can have the "same" lunch 2-3 times per week without it being totally the same

Here's a few pictures of my kids enjoying their snack lunch!

No, I don't make my kids wear name tags at home......I can usually remember who they are. LOL! This day Natalie had just gotten home from VBS (vacation bible school).

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?

2008-06-20T17:25:00.000-07:00

Quite well, apparently, especially when we've had entirely too much rain followed by some nice warm (dare I even call it hot?) weather.

I posted pictures of our new garden on my May 29 entry. The lettuce was doing well then but everything else was either not sprouted our my tiny, newly planted tomato plants. Well, here's the difference a few weeks can make....

Everything has sprouted!

These are the green beans (the smaller garden box at the top of the pic is our herbs).

Squash (something makes me think I'm going to have WAY more squash than I can deal with!)

My tomato plants are growing growing growing!

Two tiny little banana peppers!

And the sweet little blossom that promises me some red, juicy tomatoes will be coming soon......yummy.

By the way, for you photography buffs, did I get some good bokeh in those last two pics? I'm still shooting with my P&S (it does have manual settings).....I'd dearly love to upgrade to a DSLR, just have to convince my hubby it's worth the money.

A visit from friends....

2008-06-17T07:56:00.000-07:00

My bestest best friend Tracy, who lives TOO FAR AWAY in Florida came to visit us in Iowa last week. She brought her adorable baby girl Savannah with. Now I have met Savannah once before when I went to visit them in Florida in February. But this was the first time my kiddos got to meet and play with her. It was great timing, Savannah is 8 months old and crawling/cruising around, so she was tons of fun!

The day just flew by too fast (Tracy was in Iowa for a week visiting family, but she just got one day to spend with me), I wish she could have stayed longer!

Here's a few pictures of our day.....

Play ball!

2008-06-12T20:07:00.000-07:00

T-ball, that is. Yep, Natalie's entering Kindergarten this fall, and along with the big step of entering school, she also earns the privilege of getting to play her first team sports. This summer is T-ball and if we survive that, soccer comes next in the fall.

Now, I will preface this by saying that some frequently heard comments in our house include, "Watch out Natalie!", "Be careful!" and "It's a good thing we didn't name her Grace." The child didn't learn to pedal a bike until about age 4. So you can imagine that I was a bit nervous about how playing ball would go.....

I can honestly say that this year of t-ball is FUN. Everybody gets to hit, everybody gets on base and runs all the bases to home, nobody gets out and they don't keep score. The teams play for an hour (3x at bat and 3x in the outfield) and then they're done! Afterwards the kids get snacks and juice.

Here are a few pics to prove that she is DEFINITELY my child. (My mom reminded me during Naty's first game, that I was kind of "spacey" in the outfield. To which I replied that since I could neither catch, throw nor hit well, there wasn't much to do but daydream the game away....)

doin' a little dance.....

chewin' some gum.....

checkin' the time....

Really, she did play well. Imagine my horror when I realized they were actually going to PITCH to the kids (then if they don't get a hit off the pitch they hit from the tee). Natalie (bless her heart) actually got 1 hit off the pitch, the other two times she hit from the tee. Probably better than I could do. LOL!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-06-10T05:37:00.000-07:00

Today is our 8th wedding anniversary. We got married in 2000 (that should be easy to remember the year when we're old and our memories are going, right?) just a few weeks after graduating from college.

Now, here we are 1 apartment, 3 houses, 4 cars, 3 cats and 2 kids later. For those of you who are curious we still have 1 of the houses, 2 of the cars, 2 of the cats and we did also keep both kids.

Alex & I met on September 10, 1997 at an upscale restaurant called The Cottage in tiny Story City, IA. I was a waitress, he was a cook. The first time we met we spent about 2 hours cutting croutons together. We started dating less than a month later and......well, nearly 11 years have flown by.

We've certainly had a few ups & downs - what marriage doesn't? - but we are blessed with a wonderful family and a lot of love for each other.

Rain, rain, GO AWAY!

2008-06-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

(and please DON'T come back another day)

After what seemed like the longest, coldest winter I can remember, I sure have been looking forward to spring. You know, warmer temperatures, blooming flowers, sunny days, letting the kids play outside all day long and burning off all that extra energy.

Turns out my dreams of spring are being washed away in a literal flood of rain. Iowa has been hit hard with rain, thunderstorms and tornadoes this spring. A town near us had roads and businesses flooded as bad as they were in the floods of '93.

After too many "indoor playing days" due to the rain, I just had to let the kids outdoors one nice day. Even though the sun was out, the effects of the rain were still present. Here are some pictures of the kids wading in OUR BACK YARD!!! (**knock on wood** and much finger crossing going on here, but so far we haven't had any water in our basement).

(And I'm sure you can guess that after all this fun the kids had to go straight to the bath - I carried them from the back door to the bathroom. They were sooooo dirty they had to have two baths, the first one to rinse the dirt off, the second with some clean water to actually wash up in. Now THAT'S dirty!)

It Ain't Easy Being Green

2008-05-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

It might not be easy, but I'm trying to add a little "green" to our lives. Now I haven't done anything drastic like change our heating to a geothermal system or add solar panels to our roof. Those are things I would like to do, but they take quite a bit of up-front money to accomplish. So for right now I'm settling for making little changes that don't take much of my time or money.

So far this spring I have:
• Started hanging laundry to dry outside (I'd guess about 90% of our laundry gets hung to dry)
• Planted a garden (OK, I cannot take credit, Alex has done all the gardening planning and planting, he even built the raised beds!)
• Called our utility company and signed up for summer appliance cycling. They installed a switch on our central A/C unit and during peak demand times during the summer will cycle our A/C in 15 minute increments. We get a monthly credit on our bill for doing this.
• Nearly stopped drinking water from plastic water bottles. Instead I'm mostly using re-usable cups or hard plastic (washable and re-usable) water bottles and tap water.

Here's a few pictures of our "green" efforts:

The raised garden boxes - the closest one is narrow and will have herbs (planted but not yet sprouting). The next one has green beans (just coming up) followed by a box with cantaloupe and squash. The fourth box is tomatoes and peppers (yummy, my favorite!) and the last box that the kids are by is lettuce and strawberries.

Natalie and Andrew are helping me pick some lettuce for supper. We have a green leaf, a mixed variety and spinach. Andrew ate a piece of raw spinach and declared it goooooood. Now that's a first!

Now tell me you're not craving a nice big salad after this picture! :)

So why should I blog if I'm too tired to cook?

2008-05-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

Well, for starters, blogging is more FUN than cooking. Plus, my husband is a much better cook than me, sooooo.......

I'm giving in to peer pressure and instead of just reading all my friends' cool blogs I'm going to start one of my own. I have unrelenting "mommy guilt" over the fact that I don't scrapbook or even keep their baby books very up-to-date, so I'm going to record our daily happenings here and then when the kids are older and complain I didn't record their every move in a beautifully detailed scrapbook, I can give them the link to this blog and tell them, "Mommy was more into writing than scrapbooking." LOL!