Running, Running!!

Well, I'm trying to accustom myself to running long distances. I ran thirteen miles last week, and today I ran "the hills." (Or tried to.) These people that I run with are tough holy honkeroos! Our normal route is six miles, but the nut jobs in "the fast group" tack on an extra five or so (I'm not sure what the actual mileage is) in the hills. This Alton people, have you seen those hills?! I've not tried it before. I always had the excuse of having to get home to get the kids up to get ready for school. And I was quite happy to have the excuse. Well today that excuse was gone. So, when they said "Do you want to do the hills?" I went. That was really really hard! They pretty much ran up Broadway till they got a mile or two away from our normal route, then they ran up and down every hilly street on the way back, then they tacked on the hills from the Challenge of the Bluffs run. I really don't think that I'm ready to hang with these guys. Will I attempt it again on Thursday? Will they ever ask me again? I proved that I am a wimp in comparison.

EELYAUHC!

1: Check out this slug that was right by my back door last night!

2: This morning I was lying in bed, and a one year old with a stinky diaper came in and hit me in the head with a wet toilet brush. Then I got a kiss that covered my face in snot.

Summer Vacation Begins

Well, the kids' summer vacation has officially begun. Yesterday they went to school long enough to pick up their report cards, then they were done for the summer. Sigh, this part is always bitter sweet for me. The beginning and end of a school year always reminds me that they are growing up. Lydia will never be a third grader again, Ross will never be a first grader again. Lydia is moving on to a new school. Sigh, sigh, sigh! I even decided that it was time that I told her about the female cycle. She listened, but didn't say much. She is such a wonderful girl! Always VERY helpful!

Anyway, I've decided to take the summer to teach some responsibility to my children. It's past time that they should be pulling their own weight. So, we are going to do some good things this summer. First off, we are signing up for the library's summer reading program. Therefore they will have to keep their reading skills sharp. We are going back on our TV control program from last summer. I've also been doing a laundry thing that's been helping out immensely! I haven't gotten stressed out over my laundry in 2 months! As that was a huge problem before, this is wonderful! It is pretty simple, everyone has their own laundry basket. I wash it, and when it comes out of the dryer, I put each person's stuff in his or her basket, and they are responsible for folding and putting away their own cloths. It's great because I don't have to hunt for half an hour every morning so we can get dressed. They have to fold their stuff at least once a week, and even if they don't. They can still find their own cloths. I'm copying Amy's bean jar idea. They have to keep their stuff cleaned up, their rooms clean, their laundry folded, stick to their TV charts, and do one household job everyday. They get beans for doing their stuff. They get to buy back their toys from me with their beans. (I have practically a whole roomful of confiscated toys that didn't get cleaned up.) Anyway, so far it's been great! (It's only been two days.) I love it when I have their help. We can get so much more done! Yesterday I cleaned one bathroom, Lydia cleaned the other, Ross did the dishes, and Mark vacuumed all at once! Do you know how much time it would have taken me to get all of that done?!!

A furniture store near us burned down yesterday. It was a HUGE fire. It happened around noon, and they were working on it into the night. In fact, there were firemen there at around 11:00 this morning when I was out. Bruce drove by there on his way home from work today and said that it is still smoldering. They had traffic diverted all day yesterday, and the neighborhood had no power until about 4:00 this morning. (The fire took out a power line.)
We had such a nice evening though last night! Its amazing how we let TV and things like that keep us from enjoying each other. I walked to Taco Bell with the kids for dinner last night. That was fun to go for a stroll. Then we came home and sat on the porch lit sparklers ate marshmallows, read the Friend by candlelight and told stories until 11:00. It was such a wonderful night. We all thoroughly enjoyed each others' company. Well, I'm getting long winded, so here are my recent pics:

Mark at his last Thursday School Graduation

Someone left the peanut butter out

The kids working together today

Justice helping Lydia make her bed

Emotions

It's amazing how many emotions one person can feel in one day. Today truly has been an up and down day. A good friend of ours lost her only child today. He was in his early twenties, and himself a dear person and friend. Words cannot express how my heart aches for Beth. I wish I could help! I can't seem to pray enough. Such Sadness.

Today was a beautiful day outside. I dropped by the hospital. The family wasn't there at the time, so I just dropped a note and a tear or two. Then I went home and blew bubbles outside with my two youngest who weren't at school. I treasured them all today with new appreciation. Such Joy.

Bruce totalled our van yesterday, and today we got the rejection letter from a company we were hoping to get hired from. Darn! I haven't figured out why, but the Lord apparently has some reason for which He keeps us just shy of complete poverty. It's a true testimony of tithing how we always manage to barely scrape by. But He hasn't failed us yet, and I have faith that He won't fail us now. We've always had just barely enough, but no extra. And that's all we really need. So, I'm okay with our new batch of financial worries. We'll be alright. (I just wish that whatever lesson I'm supposed to be learning from all of this scarcity, I'd hurry up and learn so it could be over.) There are worse things than being poor. I've been happy so far. Oh well, such is life.


This evening, Justice was squatting down in the kitchen with that look on his face that any parent would recognize as the "I'm pooping" face. I said "Are you pooping, Justice?" He continued on about his work. When he was done, he popped up, threw up his hands and sings out "Ah Duh!" Just like "All Done!" We all laughed!

Well, I have pictures to post, but I just don't feel like it. And it doesn't feel right to put up happy pictures on such a sad day. It can wait for tomorrow. Here's a hug for Beth O! We love you bunches! We'll miss you Nathan.

Playing In The Puddles

Boys will be Boys, and Dogs will be Dogs!

Dueling Prayers

Mark has a friend called To. To is four years old, lives just down the street, and comes over nearly everyday. He is often here for lunch, and on occasion has offered the prayer. The last couple of times that he has prayed at our house, he has asked Heavenly Father to bless the "dinosaurs and dragons."

Tonight when Mark said the family prayers, I had to fold my lips to keep from laughing out loud when Mark said this: "... and please help To to understand that dinosaurs are all dead, and that the dragons are just pretend."

Bulimia

Okay, don't freak out anyone, I'm not bulimic. I just sometimes sympathize with this disorder. You'll have to forgive me, this is going to be a bit of a different sort of post than my usual happy posts. I'm having a total insomniac night! I'm sure that tomorrow, well today, I'll really pay for this. I don't do well on not enough sleep.

So, back to bulimia. I've been sitting here doing nothing in particular on-line. Spending money that I really shouldn't at Deseret Book online and pigging out on M&Ms. I feel all yucky in my tummy now. I always do when I eat junk food. I admit that it is tempting, sometimes really tempting to go and barf it up. I'd probably feel better. I have never made myself throw up, and I've promised myself that I never will. I kind of know that if I did it once, I'd have a real problem with it. It would start out once in a blue moon, just to not feel like I'm feeling right now. (Which is YUCKY!) But before I knew it, I'd be doing it more and more often, until it was an everyday thing. I know better than to get started, so PLEASE don't worry about me. I really do have enough sense not to do it. But sometimes I feel really tempted.

Well, the reason for me posting this is that I just had a light bulb moment. I was lying in bed, trying to fall asleep, and wishing that I hadn't eaten those darned M&Ms, and so wanting to barf! But, I said to myself "That's just not something that I want to start." Then I realized bulimia is a two fold disorder: binging and purging. I had already done the binging. That's the part I don't want to start! That's the part that I need to work on controlling! If I can work on telling myself "That's just not something that I want to start." a little bit earlier, I won't ever have to feel this way again! I'm halfway bulimic already, I do the binging, I just don't purge. Binging is a very unhealthy thing too, that's why I'm feeling so yucky right now! No, I'm not saying that I might as well purge, in case anyone is thinking that's where I'm going with this. It's about not getting to the point where I want to purge. Not nipping the problem in the bud, as I have been doing-- but pulling the roots right out of the ground! Do you follow?

Alright, I need to try to get some sleep. I wonder if this will seem like a really stupid post when I'm not so tired! See you!

A Day At The Zoo...(Finally)

Bruce and I took the kids to the zoo yesterday. My in-laws buy us a zoo membership every year. This gets you free parking, into the children's zoo, onto the train, the carousel and things like that. We used to go pretty often. Last summer my children decided they wanted to get a membership to the magic house, so they pooled their money and saved up until they had enough for a basic membership. Since then, we've been going to the magic house more, and not so much to the zoo. This year's zoo membership expires at the end of April, and if you don't use all of your tickets, they are gone. I wanted to take them on their spring break, but the weather was bad all week, so we went to the magic house again. Anyway, we had 44 tickets to blow in one day. We spent the day at the zoo, and the only animals we saw were goats. That's kind of a shame, but oh well, we had a good time. We rode the train, the carousel and went to the children's zoo. We also had a good time giving away tickets. It was fun to see people's faces when strangers get them in for free. Here's our pictures, I couldn't decide which ones to put up, so I just put up a bunch. (It takes forever to upload a bunch of pictures!)

On the carousel:

Bruce had to prove that he could still pick up his whole family at once. Since our last picture like that was taken at the zoo (without Justice), this seemed an appropriate time to take another one. (It's just too bad Amy wasn't there to take it!)

Lydia being goofy:

Here's us at the water squirter things in the children's zoo. Justice was a bit apprehensive about the water shooting up from the ground, but curious, none the less.

Petting the goats:

Ross trying to be a goat:

At the playground: (I'll have to put my funny story about this hippo in later.)

In the water:

Well, we didn't see many animals, but we did have a good time. Next time we go, we'll have to make sure that we actually see the animals.

Okay, here's the hippo story: We were at this playground a few years ago. I was hiding inside the hippo's mouth. I was all scrunched up in the back, so couldn't see out either side, and I couldn't be seen either. I motioned for Trent to get Ross to walk in front of me so I could jump out and scare him. Well, just as Ross was walking by, I lunged out and yelled "RAARGH" Only, right exactly then, a dad type person walked in between Ross and me, so it just looked like I was jumping out at him. He gave me such a funny look- like "What is wrong with you!"

I'm POOPED!

I've been getting really tired of this whole remodeling thing happening in my living & piano rooms. It's been going on since about early February, and it's still not done. There is still a lot to do. Mostly painting now which isn't hard, except that I can't do it unless Justice is taking a nap. (You saw what happened with the dry-wall mud.) So anyway, I've been killing myself with it lately, trying to get it done. I have managed to get my fans made over. I'm really pleased with the way they turned out. I totally copied off of this lady:

http://www.onewomanslife.com/home/2005/12/as-promised-photos-of-my-ceiling-fan.html

I had wondered if you could successfully paint your ceiling fans to change the way they look, and I figured that somewhere out there, there must be someone who had done it, and would have some helpful insights. I turned the blades over and painted the whole thing with Rustoleum's anodized bronze oil based paint. I also bought new glass things for mine, as the old ones were hideous. I did two fans this way. So, here's the before and afters. Well, in reverse order. The paint was about nine dollars, and the glass things were twenty four (I only replaced the glass on one of the fans, the other one wasn't bad.) Total cost for two made over fans: about $33. Not bad! I can't wait until the rest of this whole thing is over! Here's how my day today went: I got up at 6:30, got the Lydia & Ross up and off to school. I then put some tiles up in my entry way. Went for a 5 mile run which is shorter than usual, but I was pushing Mark & Justice in the running stroller, so I think that counts as extra. Shower, feed lunch to the kids, and paint part of the ceiling while the J-Bird was contained in his high-chair. I went to Walmart, made it back just in time for the big kids to get home from school. Painted some more while Justice was napping. Rehung the ceiling fan -which took forever! I don't know why it took so long, but it did. Did last night's dishes & made dinner & helped Lydia with homework & got Ross to take his shower all at once. All the while Justice was climbing into the dishwasher and pulling the dishes out. So, at 8:30, (half an hour past normal bedtime) we finally had dinner, to which Ross totally turned up his nose and wouldn't touch a bite. He made himself a PBJ. Mark sat there with his untouched food and politely asks "Please pass the peanut butter and jelly." Lydia picked at it and then covertly covered her biscuit in jelly and pretty much just ate that. Chloe, our dog, had a feast because Justice threw his all over the room. Why did I bother? And what is wrong with lasagna, it was fine to me. I piled tonight's dishes into the sink. I'm too pooped to care about getting them done tonight. I read stories to the kids and collapsed. I fell asleep in Justices room for a few hours, and here I am. I think I'm getting up at 4:30 tomorrow to run. We'll have to see. I'm not saying all of this to throw a pitty party for myself, I'm just pooped. Well here are those pictures:

After:

Before:

On another note, we took Mark to kindergarten round-up last night. He starts school in the fall. I can't believe he's that old already! He was so cute, and so excited about everything at kindergarten round-up. We got to play on the play ground at school. He thought he was big stuff, because he was already very familiar with the playground & the school's layout, having been there many many times with Ross & Lydia. We got to have cookies and milk in the cafeteria, visit the kindergarten classrooms, and meet the teachers. But the part that he liked the most was getting to go for a ride on the bus! He was sooo excited! He knew from his siblings that the back seat was the best, so to the very back of the bus we went, where the bumps are the bumpiest. Such excitement! I'm really going to miss having him around in the fall! Man, what a great kid! So sweet!

Me & My Lydia

Went on a field trip with the 3rd graders today. After a week of not-so-great-rather-be-inside-kind of weather, today was wonderful! Awesome weather! Had a great time. When we were getting on the bus, Lydia patted the seat next to her and said "Mom, sit here!" I was very happy to know that my daughter still prefered to sit by her mom! Yay! What a sweet girl she is! Can I just say that I am very lucky to have her! Always helpful! Everyone should have a nine year old girl to help out, especially if you also have a one year old. What a great kid! Not spoiled by the world yet. She has been saying "I'm almost a teen!" a lot lately. Hang on kid, not too fast. Let me savor this a while longer! Ahh, I hope I'm doing a passable job of mothering her. Here she is on Easter. I forgot to bring the camera along today. Darn!