State of the Family #38

Time flies in the summer.  Is June really almost over?  Where did it go? (So, I started this post on June 24th and am just now finishing it.  We have been a tad busy as you will see)

First ever corn on the cob!

  Miss Thumb Sucker has been fighting a nasty cold and cough.  So much so that I even took her to the pediatrician and they put her on a nebulizer to breathe in before naps and bedtime.  It seems to be helping quite a bit.  Mean mommy thought she was doing better, so I didn't give her a treatment before bed last night and we both paid for it (of course her more than me) with her coughing from 2-2:45 am. 

The ornery cousins before their first dance camp class

Miss Firecracker has been a dancing queen lately.  We started her in a dance class here in town and she got to go to a dance camp last week with her Cousin D.  She had a blast.  We went with her for 2 days and then she got to stay at Cousin D's house (where she and Cousin D managed to get into some trouble with clothes, doors and dry erase makers - I'll let you fill in the gaps!) and then at Grandpa G's.  I totally missed my Firecracker by the end of that 3 days and so did her brother and sister, believe it or not.

We had a family overnighter in the tent for the first time as well.  Now, we started off small; in the backyard.  It turned out to be a bit of a chilly night, so the hard core campers we are, ran an extension cord out to the tent and plugged in a space heater.  :)  It was perfect!  Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker loved it and stayed up past 10 pm.  Miss Thumb Sucker was a bit confused and refused to lay down to try to sleep.  So, daddy ended up taking her inside to her bed and sat with her in there until she fell asleep, then brought her back out to the tent.  She started out in her sleeping bag, but by 2 am, she was half way across the tent at the foot of her brother's sleeping bag.  While she was there, Noisy Man evidently got cold and stole a blanket she left behind.    It was a fun time and we will definitely do it again sometime!

We also made a trip to the strawberry farm not too far from our town.  Sadly, it was a pretty disappointing trip this year.  Last year when we went, the berries were huge and you could pick one row and have your basket full.  This year, you could pick all through the patch and barely fill your box with tiny little berries.  The kids were bored within 20 minutes and Miss Thumb Sucker cried for the last 20, while we scrounged up a few more.  Still, we had a pretty good time overall and the kids loved eating the berries we did find.

Another fun family venture was a trip to a Saltdogs game for Father's Day and Grandma and Grandpa Vs 40th anniversary.  It was quite the experience as Aunt J has 'connections' with a high up friend in the organization.  We were hooked up with a sky box suite, food and a special visit from the mascot.  I have no idea what all went on in the actual baseball game since I only got to sit down and watch it for 20 minutes max.  But that is OK, we still had a lot of fun.  There is a playground for the kids, bounce houses, there was a clown making very awesome balloon creatures, and the kids got to run the bases with daddy when the game was over. (I don't have many of those pics yet as my camera battery died and I had to use my SIL's camera)

The barrel ride at Dairy Days

We have just been doing one fun activity after the next this summer it seems as we also got to go to Prairieland Dairy's Dairy Days.  It was a tad muddy since it had poured the night before, but the kids still had a blast.  There were corn boxes (like sand boxes full of corn), face painting, a hay bale maze and tower to climb, trailer rides with a view of the dairy, barrel rides on the back of a lawn mower, 'milking' a cow (not a real one), tours of the milking parlor, a dirt garden to play in, a petting zoo and to top it all off FREE ice cream and lunch! 

Noisy Man and Miss Firecracker have been in a new kind of swimming lessons the last few weeks as well.  They are Float 4 Life classes at our YMCA.  These are tough lessons.  Basically, they teach them what to do if they were ever to fall in the water or get too deep when no one was there to catch them.  It is so hard to watch your children take these classes and I have debated several times why I am doing this, but I know it could someday save their life.  The teacher does such a great job.  She pushes them just hard enough, but never pushes the limits.  Miss Firecracker is not a fan of the classes and cries a majority of the time, but has learned a lot in just 3 lessons!  Noisy Man always leaves during her lesson because he doesn't like to see her cry.  Sometimes I wish I could leave too.  You just want to jump in and grab them.  It is so hard to watch your child struggle in the water (or really with anything) and have to sit there and do nothing.

A fun and messy activity we did one hot morning, painting on a roll of newsprint paper you can
get from our local newspaper for $1.25!!

Mommy and daddy haven't been up to much except all the fun family activities, daddy some fishing and mommy some running.  I ran the 5K in my hometown over Father's Day weekend and was signed up to do the 10K where we live the next day, but I got a terrible sinus and head cold that morning I felt very sick.  Even had a terrible stomach ache, so I opted out of the 10K and just did the 2 mile.  Get this, I won my age division!  Hilarious.  The kids are always asking me, when I get home from races, if I won.  Finally, I was able to tell them yes!  :)  I guess my other news is that I started another blog.  It isn't anything totally impressive or one that I will link up to my facebook page, but if you want to check out what I am learning during my daily quiet times, check it out at www.realpiecesofmyheart.blogspot.com  I have to thank a fellow blogger for this post and giving me the courage to post what I am learning and my feelings/struggles online where anyone can see it.  Maybe the courage to link it will come later.

I am guessing by now, you are tired of my ramblings, so I'll try to post more often than once this month this time!

State of the Family #33

Oi! Not sure if that is a 'real' term or anything, but that is how I feel as I sit to type this afternoon.  Although, I am sure I probably won't finish this until later today or even tomorrow.  I just have not wanted to sit at my computer and type lately.  No desire to blog. . . bad thing for a blogger trying to keep track of her family's 'happenings' who also happens to have a terrible memory.  We'll see where I get.

Miss Thumb Sucker seems to be growing leaps and bounds.  We had to take her in to see the Dr. this week for a double ear infection and she weighed 24 lbs!  This is 5 lbs in 4 1/2 months.  She seems to add a new word or two to her vocabulary every single day.  I think I am going to have another jabber box on my hands.  It is hilarious to watch her read a book to herself or just jabber to me or her siblings.  She is very serious about her conversations, but, of course, most of the time we don't have a clue what she is saying.  She has, however, added 'cookie', 'snack', 'mine' (not the bad toddler mine!, but this is what my kiddos call their little security blankets and she asks for it often and whenever she sees it she calls it by name), she now says 'mommy' instead of just mama and 'puppy' instead of just puhpuh.  And, as usual, there are many more but they escape me.  She is totally into running everywhere she wants to go and it is completely hilarious.  She gets so excited about things and yells 'YEA!" in a very high pitched little excited squeal whenever there is a knock at the door, I tell her it is snack time or ask her if she wants to go downstairs to play among many other things that get her excited.

 

Miss Firecracker, of course, had her 3rd birthday.  It was a huge success and she was completely spoiled by family and friends.  She can hardly believe the day finally came and she is now 3.  She keeps asking me every couple of days "Mommy, am I still 3 today?" She hasn't asked in the past couple days, so maybe she has it figured out that she gets to stay 3 for a whole year!  She has, however already started planning her 4th  birthday party.  I seems she has regressed in the 'staying in bed at bedtime' category and has thrown some award winning tantrums in the past few weeks.  Seriously, you should witness these, they are absolutely awe-inspiring.  Enough to make a mother want to pull out her hair, that is for sure.  Most of the time she decides to get out of bed for whatever reason and then insists that mommy or daddy come tuck her back in.  We have discovered that she very much dislikes not getting tucked back into bed, so we decided that this would be her punishment for getting out of bed.  However, it might have backfired as this is what causes the meltdowns. . . she screams about wanted to be covered back up until she has woken up her brother and sister and made mommy and daddy so angry that it isn't pretty.  So, we have now started lessons on teaching her how to cover herself back up in these situations.  It seems to be working.  We also discovered she is very much into makeup lately.  She has some 'play makeup' that she has received for gifts, but rarely let her  use.  So, if she stays in bed the night before, after she gets dressed the next morning, she gets to pick out a makeup item to wear that day.  Most of the time it is her glittery cheek gel that makes her 'sparkle like a princess."  We have now had 2 successful nights and glitter-dawning mornings!

Mr. Noisy Man is still going through a phase I don't much care for.  Mr. Argumentative would be his new nickname for the time being.  If something doesn't suit his every whim and need he is going to argue it to the death, or until he gets set in time out for talking back or not listening.  Guess which one usually comes first!  For the past few weeks he has decided that disagreeing with just about anything is quite fun and picking fights for no apparent reason is rather amusing.  Not so sure where this came from, as he is usually my easy-going, good listener, the one I have the least discipline issues with.  Not so lately.  Yikes!  I hope this passes quickly.  I have been trying to even sit and play with him in 'boy mode' even more lately to see if he is just needing some more mommy and/or boy play time since he is surrounded by girls most of the time (all of my daycare kids are girls, except one that only comes once a week).  On a lighter note, he is just itching for summer to come and asks at least once a week if it is summer time yet.  I don't think he realizes that summer means no more school, but he just really wants the weather to be nice enough to wear t-shirts and play in the water.  I can't say I don't agree with him.  I am so ready for some warm weather.

Daddy hasn't been up to much.  I feel somewhat bad for him as snow goose season has pretty much come and gone and he really didn't have a chance to hunt at all.  Not for lack of time, but it just seems that the geese aren't interested in being hunted much anymore and daddy didn't seem to think it was much worth his time to sit out in a blind all day and watch them fly overhead.  He has been working a lot on his fishing boat to get it ready for a big fishing trip he is planning at the end of next month.  Yep, that's all I got for daddy at this point. 

Not much going on for mommy either.  Lots of training since I just ran a 10 mile race today.  Pretty excited that I hacked 11 minutes off my time from last year!  See my blog about last year here, Are My Knees Supposed to Sound Like This?  It was a great run this year as I got to run with a good friend instead of by myself like last year, and we finished in 1 hr and 40 minutes!  I also felt a lot better at the end of the run and for the rest of the day this time too.  Other than running I have been trying to keep up with the kids of course, and did a Pampered Chef open house back home during Alumni Tournaments.  It was great to see a bunch of old friends from high school and all of their cutie patooties.  I can't think of anything else going on in my world right now so I think I'll wrap it up.  I'm sure it will be at least 2 weeks before you'll hear from me again!

Word of the Year

I am not one to set resolutions. Why? They only last a couple of weeks or a couple of months as best. I come up with some lame excuse as to why I failed or re-route my original intention. I definitely am not dependable in this area and it really disappoints me. So, I have learned in the last couple of years to not set myself up for disappointment and have gone another route. This year, I have decided to have a word to go off of instead of an actual resolution. I must admit this is not an original idea.  They have been talking about it on KLOVE radio and I know another friend and blogger who does much the same thing (read hers here).  These two things inspired my thinking
My word comes from Ephesians 4:22-24 "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."  Attitude!  That is what it is all about.  If your attitude is right it is hard to go wrong.  And when your attitude is modeled after that of Christ Jesus you're bound to be even better.  Attitude of the heart, attitude of the mind, attitude of life.
This will take some help from the One and Only for me, as many times I need to set myself in the corner along with my children for attitude checks, as we often call them in this house.  But even memorizing these verses myself along with my children will help me 'take every thought (and attitude) captive" and make for a better year.  I know I will need to turn to Him many times for guidance and 'attitude checks' but isn't that what He wants?  He wants us to depend on Him.  He wants us to turn to Him and realize we can't do it on our own.  I am ready for that.
How about you?  Do you have a 'word' you can work on this year?  If so, what is it?  You know my 'word' and can help keep me accountable. 
My other (a little less meaningful) word is run.  I am planning to run the 1/2 marathon again this year, so training will start soon!  But God has words for me in that too "And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith" Hebrews 12: 1b-2a

State of the Family #21

Oh dear. . . almost 2 weeks again and there has been a lot going on around here. God is good and God gets us through that is for sure!!

Miss Thumb Sucker of course had her little mishap with brother, that ended with her arm in a splint. But she had some other fun stuff going on as well. She got to go on her 1st adventure to the pumpkin patch and was quite the trooper. She was along for the ride and hardly ever made a fuss. Which is amazing considering she did not take a nap until almost 3 o'clock that day! She is transferring to the sippy cup pretty well these last few days and only nurses at night and in the morning now. Still an almost walker, but not quite all the way there yet. She will take 6 to 7 steps as long as the destination in mind is relatively close, and of course exciting to get to. She didn't like the 2 days she couldn't crawl at all after she hurt her arm and before she got the splint on. She would be stuck in one spot unsure of how to move and just get MAD. It was kind of cute actually, but pathetic at the same time. She also started saying "puh puh" for puppy and "ba" for ball too. She has 2 more teeth on the top poking through as well, which is what I am hoping the early mornings have been coming from.

Miss Firecracker absolutely LOVED the pumpkin patch and everything it entailed. She was AMAZINGLY well behaved. Probably the best one out of the whole clan of 5 kids! I don't remember a single whine or fit from her at all. She was ready to go and even stopped to take pictures like a pro. She has also been talking non-stop lately. Don't get me wrong, she has always been quite the chatterbox, but the last week seems to be continuous. So far, it hasn't driven me nuts, but I can see if she keeps it up it just might. Right now it is just darn adorable all the things she comes up with. Today it was quite revealing all that she thinks she knows about Heaven and Jesus. . . she isn't naughty there, Jesus lives there, and she is going to go there all by herself like a big girl. There was much more to this little conversation that didn't make sense at all to me or her (when I would try to answer some of her questions to the best of my ability) but heck, Heaven is a hard concept for most seasoned Christians, let alone a 2-yr-old. I need to keep a record of all the crazy things that turn in her little mind!

Noisy Man hasn't had a nap in over 2 weeks. . . I think that covers it for him. OK, maybe not quite. He dropped his sister and cried harder than she did when he realized that she was really hurt. He was truly just trying to be helpful and keep his sister away from the toys he knows can hurt her. Thankfully, both have seemed to recover pretty quickly. He was all over the place at the pumpkin patch and not quite so well-behaved as his sisters. Mostly before lunch though. Pictures were cramping his fun-to-be-had style and he must have been hungry, cuz the rest of the day he was really quite agreeable. It is fun to take him to the same pumpkin patch for the 5th year in a row and see all the new things he can try every year. The first year we took him I think the only thing we did was take pictures of him! He also got to have his cousins come spend the night with him the night before we went and he thought that was great! I am getting anxious for our parent/teacher conference with his teachers this Friday! I hate not being able to know exactly what he is doing every day, and he isn't exactly a wealth of information when asked about his day at preschool. It usually goes a little like this; me: How was your day? NM: good. me: What did you do? NM: Played. . . . and so on and so forth. I think he learned this from my father. One word answers. Drives me bonkers!!

Hunting season (ducks that is) has begun and daddy is in 7th heaven! They have a new spot thanks to some friends of ours from church and they have had a great season so far. He actually shot his limit of birds by 10 am last Sunday. I think this is the first day he has bagged a limit in over 4 years. He has "burn" days left at work and is planning to burn them in his duck blind! He is also continuing to enjoy the treadmill almost as much as me and is getting his endurance up quite well. Maybe by next spring I'll convince him to run the Lincoln 1/2 with me!! Yeah right! He was a trooper as the only "dad" at the pumpkin patch as his sister's hubby had to sit out for harvest and his dad was still laid up by ACL surgery. Secretly, I think he really likes going anyway.

Me, I am still here. Praying through it all. I just don't see how mothers of young children make it in this world without God to lean on! I forgot to add into both the girls' spots that they had croup as well this week. So we have been hacking away around here. I had to say good-bye to one of my best friends after a depressing NE football game on Saturday. I ran a 15K in the Governor's Cup last Sunday and did great until mile 7 where my body decided it had had enough. My legs started cramping (I haven't had a cramp in my legs since High School) my lungs were burning and I felt like the little water I had during the race was going to come right back up. The last 2 miles were not pretty, and the rest of the evening was even worse. I'm not sure how I drove home without having to stop and I spent the rest of the night on the couch. Even got a slight fever. The next morning had a RAGING headache and was very, very thankful for an awesome hubby who took a couple hours off of work to let me sleep in. Then I got to spend the next 2 1/2 hours at the Dr.'s office diagnosing croup and getting Xrays! Not to mention all this time I should have been enjoying myself at MOPS! OK, now I am just complaining. God is good, isn't He! I am thankful I was able to enjoy a full day with my family at the pumpkin patch, able to even survive through 9.3 miles and still be able to walk at the end even though I felt a little worse for the wear. Thankful that my son cares enough about his baby sister to want to keep her safe, and that it is just a splint. Thankful that I have 3 amazing children I get to stay at home with and most of all thankful that they make me want to pull my hair out some days because that means they are healthy, normal kids! God is definitely good!

State of the Family #20

Wow, 20 SOFs. . . OK so it isn't that many, but it sure is fun to look back and see what has all been going on. Now if only I had the time to do that. :)

Miss Thumb Sucker is days away from walking. She is taking a few steps here and there and will stand on her own for quite a while. She loves it when she can grab your fingers and have you walk her around the room, and she loves to push things around. You can tell she is just longing for the day she can chase after her brother and sister. She had a short bout of thinking that she didn't want to chew her food. It seemed that if it wasn't pureed or soft, she decided not to eat it. It would go in her mouth and then, after a couple chews, come pouring back out. Thankfully, that was short lived when she found out she got hungry pretty quickly when she didn't eat. I was glad for this, cuz I do not want to be buying or making baby food forever. Still waiting for some more teeth to come in. She only has four. Maybe this food thing was caused by some teeth troubles. Time will tell.

Miss Firecracker is on a "When I get big. . . " kick. Everything she knows she can't do now she is going to do "When I get big." The quotes become quite amusing as she decides exactly what she is going to do when she does get big. Some examples are not taking naps, pushing mommy in the stroller, drink coffee, and many others I can't ever seem to remember when it comes time to record them. She has also discovered the joy of hand-me-downs. We have been talking about Halloween costumes, and this year she will be an elephant, which is a costume Noisy Man wore a couple of years ago. Evidently, she doesn't want to be an elephant for Halloween and has her own ideas. Every time you ask her what she wants to be her answer changes, but momma will have her frugal way and, in the end, the poor girl will end up being an elephant. It is an adorable costume and I'll be darned if I am going to let it go to waste!

Noisy Man is on a Lego kick. He has had some legos that daddy brought out of hiding from his childhood, but the other day we hit the jackpot at our neighbors garage sale and found a huge box for only $5! Every waking hour he wants to be playing Legos. The kid has some creativity, I'll give him that. But he gets so frustrated when his sisters interfere. Miss Thumb Sucker, obviously, cannot be around the legos, so he has to move to the kitchen table to play when she is awake or put them away. This, of course, is a big inconvenience and aggravates him to no end. To top that off, Miss Firecracker is allowed to play with him, but all she ends up doing is breaking things apart and taking the hats/helmets off all the little lego people. I'm not sure which sister annoys him more in his lego world!

Daddy loves that Noisy Man is so into legos, but he isn't thrilled that they aren't able to play as 'gently' with the contraptions he built as he would like. He is constantly fixing things and putting them back together. He act annoyed by this, but secretly I think he loves it because it gives him an excuse to keep playing legos. The chill in the air and the distant quacking of ducks has daddy itching to get out of the house and into the duck blind. I think their first time out will be this weekend.

I am in 7th Heaven, as my new treadmill was delivered last Friday. It is so awesome to be able to go run whenever I want. OK, so not whenever, but I have many more options of time to run than before. Like, during nap time or after bedtime or even when it is dark or raining outside! It is good to be able to run whenever cuz I am signed up to run a 15K in less than 2 weeks! Yikes! That could be interesting. I have also been keeping myself busy trying to do some of my own freezer cooking. I can't do the regular freezer cooking group during the winter because of Daddy's pickiness, but I know I am totally going to miss being able to grab supper out of my freezer. So, I have been trying to do some on my own. So far, I have done meatballs, Stromboli and cinnamon rolls. Not that cinnamon rolls would make a great supper, but who can resist cinnamon rolls. And, as a side note, if you haven't tried the Pioneer Woman's cinnamon roll recipe you are missing out! It is amazing. I leave the coffee out of the frosting and have used both maple and vanilla to flavor it and they are both great! I highly recommend it and will never use another cinnamon roll recipe again!

Until next time. . .

State of the Family #14

When I started off these SOF's I figured they would be in between other random posts that I made up time in my head that I had to type. . . now it seems I struggle just to get these in here for the preservation of my memories. I am finding this will be a good thing to have in the future as I struggle to remember just what we did over a week!

Miss Thumbsucker's sleeping habits have once again declined. . . but that is enough whining about that. I am sure you all get tired of hearing about my lack of sleep. She is now determined to figure out this mobility stuff. She wants to crawl and stand up so badly. She will lean over on her hands from sitting up and get to her knees, but that is about it. When she tries to go anywhere it usually ends in a nose dive and belly flop. Which her belly is still her least favorite place to be. It is quite comical to watch her in the process of trying though. She also really wants to be able to stand up next to something. If she gets your fingers, she can pull herself up, but hasn't quite got the strength to grab onto other things and get on her feet yet. Plus, if she did, she is still very wobbly and would probably fall over or smack her chin/face on the side of whatever she grabbed onto. She thinks whenever she is standing she is in her jumperoo and can just bounce. I guess she'll have to learn not to do that the hard way.

Miss Firecracker is totally into pretend play the last few weeks. Whenever she and her brother (or any other child) are playing, the scenario always starts off "I the mommy and you the baby." Or some other type of role assignments. She is usually the mommy though so that she can boss whoever she is playing with around. Every once and a while she will decide to be the baby so that they will wait on her hand and foot. She is ornery, but she isn't dumb. I tell you, this girl will be the end of me. I can't quite decide if she is going to be a princess girl or a tomboy at this point though. I really don't think she'll pick either. She is whichever the moment calls for. Princess factor: When getting ready to go to the fair last week, she made me get her a new pony tail holder because the one I had didn't match the bow that was going over the pony. Tomboy factor: She rocked the hay bale jumping at G'ma and G'pa's this weekend along with riding the horse that she refused to get off!

Noisy Man had a blast this last week while cousins Caleb and Lane were in town for the Gage Co Fair. There were cows and pigs and horses and carnival rides and ice cream and swimming and hay bale jumping and horse riding and doing chores with G'pa and daddy and so much more his head is probably still swimming! Speaking of swimming, this kid is going to give me a heart attack. Three days in a row this kid has had 3 different lifeguards on the edge of the pool or lifeguard stand, ready to jump in and get him. Until they see how calm mom is about it and wait just a second more before they actually jump. OK, so I shouldn't be calm about it, but when it happens almost every time we are in a pool and it doesn't bother him at all. . . I don't have too much to worry about when I know I (or someone) can reach him fairly quickly. It really does him a little good to be scared by it just a touch. Now if only he WOULD be scared by it. Lets see, Monday he jumped off the tot dock in the YMCA pool when the swim teacher was out swimming with his sister. I had to yell at her to go grab him. Tuesday, he tried to jump into his swim ring while it was in the water rather than wearing it while jumping in, and missed the ring. I was about 10 ft away so it took me a few strides in 4 ft water with Miss Thumbsucker on my hip to get to him. And Wednesday, he flipped the tot dock over while the swim teacher was once again helping his sister. This is why we are in swim lessons. The kid HAS to learn how to swim before he kills one of us!

Daddy had flashbacks to his very hot fair days this last week when G'pa started talking about Noisy Man showing lead line horses next year. But he had a blast riding the rides with his kids on the midway. . . once again, still a kid at heart when it comes to carnival rides. He has also surprised the heck out of me waking up 2 nights in a row to Miss Thumbsucker's crying and actually going to settle her down for me. It was a very nice surprise!

I have been trying to catch up on housework and laundry all week from being gone so much for the fair and other family activities since everyone from the VW clan was around this weekend. I still have a ways to go. I also majorly slacked in the workout dept. so I am trying to catch up there as well. I am TOTALLY loving my new Nike + system for my ipod though. It rocks! I have successfully upped my running pace to a 10 min mile though! This is up to a 5 mile run, so we'll have to see if I can keep that pace up for a 10K I am thinking of doing next weekend. I haven't done a 10K since the beginning of June so I am excited to get into it again.

Here are some pics from the fair!

State of the Family #13

Another 11 day break from the blog. . . maybe I am not quite up to this blogging stuff. . . or maybe I have 3 small children and don't often have time to sit and type! Especially in the summer when we are outside most of the time. Catch me this winter when I am stuck indoors with screaming children all the time!

Miss Thumb Sucker continues to do decent on her sleeping. She is pretty consistently sleeping until 5 or 6 am! Except for last night when she was up at 115 and 445, but she must have known I was going to blog today and wanted to give me something to complain about! ;) She also has another tooth! #2 broke through this last weekend but didn't seem to give her quite as much trouble as that first one. She is determined to figure out how to get to things out of her reach lately. Watch out world, she will be crawling soon! For now, she tries to scoot around on her butt and reach for things. Most of the time she reaches too far and ends up falling flat on her face, then in true infant fashion, tries to 'crawl' to the item, but as she is just learning usually ends up pushing herself backwards with her arms instead of pushing forwards with her legs. Then she gets mad cuz she is even farther away from the item she wanted in the first place. Either that or she reaches with all her might and falls smack into a table, doorway or some other piece of furniture and has to be rescued. Poor thing has a few battle bruises on her little forehead. Maybe one of these days mommy will remember her tendency to do this and sit her down far enough away from these things so she doesn't hit them when she falls!

Miss Firecracker is cracking me up. Her vocabulary never ceases to amaze me. And so often it all comes in complete sentences. For example she just told me, while lion and bear hunting this morning with 'clubs' (aka plastic bowling pins) that, "Mommy! There are lions all over the place!" Not just all over, all over the place! I need to keep a piece of paper and a pen in my back pocket to write these things down because I can't ever remember what she said an hour after she says it. Yesterday, I do remember that when I first walked into my dad's house to pick her and her brother up, the first thing she said to me was "Mommy, I didn't do anything naughty!" To which grandpa replied, "Not very many things anyway." She also uses words like actually, probably and not quite! I could be in trouble with this one and stories to come!


Noisy Man needs some Ritalin lately! Holy buckets the kid has been wired the last week. It isn't like he has been eating much sugar either. His diet mainly consists of cucumbers and tomatoes with a side of corn on the cob, zucchini and squash. Is there some sort of natural caffeine in these foods that I don't know about. So, naturally he has been quite 'regular'!! (He'll love that I posted that statement 15 years from now!) And, of course, when he is hyper he needs his name changed to Super Noisy Man. I just about can't take it! While quite energetic lately, his behavior has improved due to the full incorporation of our quarter system. We were using one before, but the system just wasn't consistent or visible enough. So now we have decorated jars on our banister and they have to pay quarters for offenses to whomever the offense was given and get to receive quarters if they are helpful, good and remember their manners. It has really seemed to work smashingly with Noisy Man and is slowly catching on with Miss Firecracker. We'll see how it progresses!

Daddy doesn't really have much to update, except that he is itching to go fishing but the weather, working on our deck (that would be and update I guess) and other weekend activities have prohibited him from getting to go. As for the deck, the wonderful man has probably spent more that 50 hours working on refinishing it. A few years ago we put on a color-tinted water sealant. Within 6 months it started peeling off and looking worn. Now, if any of you know my husband, you know that these types of things do not fly with him. So, after a year of dealing with it, he had finally had enough and started the process of trying to fix it. First came the power washer. . . that didn't work so he tried a deck stripper and power washer combo, no luck. Then the poor guy ended up using a belt sander for the entire thing. He even took the entire railing off and sanded it completely off. This guy never does anything half way. I love and hate that about him! :) Then, thanks to our neighbors, we found a paint for the deck that has a lifetime warranty, so he will never have to spend any more time tearing apart his deck. (Hopefully!) It has a funny finish to it, almost like that stuff they put in for pick-up truck bed liners. We are almost done! It really looks great too, almost like composite decking.

I am in toy heaven! Been loving my new ipod touch and just picked up my Nike + system for it yesterday. I ran last night, but didn't have a little pocket thing to put the sensor in so I was too afraid to take it with me and lose it. I ordered a pocket today and will be checking the mail 4 times a day until it comes. I am contemplating running the Omaha 1/2 marathon with the same friend I ran 1/2 of the Lincoln 1/2 with, so the craziness might begin again. I am not sure if I will do the 5 am thing again or not, as the evening runs have been working pretty well for me. It is just a matter of getting my dog into good enough shape to get her up to the miles I really want to be running. My dear, sweet, protective hubby won't let me run by myself. The dog is a requirement.
Until the next time I can escape from my children. . .

State of the Family #12

A little behind. . . things have really not been that busy I have just been productive and other things and just haven't sat down to type! Now to try and remember 2 weeks worth of stuff, that could prove challenging!
Miss Thumb Sucker has been on a upward slide the last couple weeks which is fabulous for all involved. I decided to start letting her 'cry it out' at night and see how miserable it would be. To my surprise it was not bad at all. The first night she woke at 1230 and I let her cry. She didn't even really cry! It was more of an intermittent cry/whine type of thing. After 12 minutes she was back asleep. When she woke back up at 330 I decided not to push my luck and fed her. Then she slept for another 3 1/2 hours til 7 am! I gave her a week of not feeding her before 3 am then pushed it again and now I won't feed her until 5 am. The first night or two she would wake up 2 times before 5, but the last few nights she has only woken up once and both times she 'cried' for less than a minute! Hear the Hallelujah chorus in the background! Why didn't I do this sooner? She has also started this cheesy smile thing that cracks me up. She tips her head back, scrunches her nose and eyes and cheeses it up. I will have to try and get a picture of it, it is adorable! Her first 4th of July also surprised me. She wasn't phased at all by the noise and rather enjoyed watching all the lights.
Miss Firecracker got to experience her namesake for this 4th of July! She really enjoyed all of the fireworks and doing sparklers and all the sort. She claims she didn't like the noise, but for the most part it didn't seem to bother her much. She is proving to be quite the girly-girl/tomboy mix though. As she loves to keep up with her brother and is not afraid of getting the least bit dirty and playing with the boys, but she LOVED her festive pony tail holder I got for her for the 4th and wanted to wear it all weekend. She also insisted on having her toes painted after she realized her last 'pedi' job was wearing off. On a more concerning note, she has been to the dr. 2 times in the last 4 weeks for her ears, both to turn up with another ear infection. I pray we are not on the route back to another set of tubes. I am just hoping we can hold out long enough for her to outgrow it now that she is almost 2 1/2.
Noisy Man is a pyro at heart just like his father. He was all over the fireworks and firecrackers and would have totally been out there with a punk had we let him. He is going to be one of those boys that is going to have to be held with tight reigns over fireworks seasons in years to come or he will end up in the ER due to some experimental thing he tried with the explosive contraptions! I fear for my child, I tell you! Also to my sleep deprived amazement, after the late nights required by summer's hours, darkness and fireworks, my normally up by 645 am little boy has slept until almost 8 am (2 times even after 8) every day this week! (Again, insert Hallelujah chorus here). I just about don't know what to do with myself with all this sleep! Our garden has now started producing 'pickable' produce and Noisy Man is out there daily scoping out the hopefuls. He is not-so-patiently awaiting the 'reddening' of the tomatoes however, which I am afraid he might have another week or so to wait. He is loving the zucchini, squash and cucumbers. Get this! We went to a friend's birthday party the other night and the boy turned down ice cream cake to finish off the sauteed veggies we had brought from our garden! He is a gem I tell you!
Like I said, Noisy Man gets his pyro tendencies from his father. Daddy was like a 12-yr-old boy with the fireworks we had. Which really wasn't that many, but he was having a blast nonetheless. I was pretty much playing parent by myself while there were fireworks going on. Which is fine by me since fireworks really aren't my thing. Daddy has also been enjoying an evening out with friends every week for a while now to go shoot skeet at the gun club. Last week he didn't get home until after 11 pm (btw, if I had been out this late, I would have been in trouble!), but this week he was home by 915! I asked him if all the other guys got in trouble for the lateness of the week before and his reply was, "No, they forgot their beer this week, so they all went home." Too funny. No beer and guys won't stick around to chat and 'shoot' the breeze (sorry couldn't resist that one!). Thankfully, my man is not one for the stuff and would chat with you whenever! I am a lucky woman I tell you!
Like I said before. I don't know what to do with myself with all this sleep going on! I have only had to take a nap once this week. It is amazing how much you can get done during nap time when you don't have to sleep yourself to keep your sanity! I have steam cleaned my floors, caught up on laundry (yes, once again insert Hallelujah chorus), and kept the sink in my kitchen pretty much dish free all week! No small task for the mother of 3 small children and 2 other daycare kids 3 days a week! I have however caught myself up in a book and wasted a couple hours stuck in that. . . It is why I try not to pick them up in the first place. I am terrible at being able to put them down once I get into them. I LOVE to read and really miss the time to do it, but motherly duties call and I don't have enough self discipline to pick washing dishes and folding laundry over reading a great book. I also have that problem with my computer, but that is a subject for a therapy session I haven't been brave enough to schedule yet! ;) My other accomplishment this last week was the 5K I ran in West Point with a friend up there. I ran it in 27 minutes and 26 seconds!! That is just over a 9 minute mile if you didn't stop to do the math! I was thrilled! And that was in the rain to boot!
Here's to hoping next time I don't have to make up for 2 weeks and make this so long that no one has the time to read it!!

Rolling Credits after the 1/2 Marathon

Stealing this idea from my friend Julie. . .
So I finished the 1/2 marathon in 2 hours 28 minutes and 29 seconds (8 minutes more than what I was hoping for) #4698 out of 6116 runners. Considering my condition less than 12 hours before the race, it is nothing short of a miracle. All I can say is that if labor and delivery of my first 2 children without any form of medication is a 10 on the pain scale, I would rate the migraine headache I had for almost 7 hours the evening before the race an 8 1/2. I did have a great time running and it was a wonderful experience. Now I just hope to do it again when I am fully healthy so I know how well I could really do.

All credits go to:

-My hubby. Thank you for. . . sleeping with the kids while I was at the Y at 530 am and for getting up with them if they got up before I got back. For watching them with no complaints during my many long Sunday runs and practice races. For packing the van and getting my race packet for me since I was barely able to open my eyes or stand. For being my nurse and taking care of the kids while I was curled up in a ball on the bed/bathroom floor. For dragging 3 small children around Lincoln to watch me run and finish the race. And for giving me the best hug and kiss when I felt like crying cuz I felt like crap and had such a slow time after the race was done.

-My kiddos for putting up with mommy's crabbiness when I was so sleep deprived from early morning runs. For being good for daddy when I was gone running and for cheering me on early in the morning.

-Julie and her cousin Charles for running slow with me for the first 1/2 of the race so that I didn't have to do the whole thing by myself. You guys did awesome!! I hope I can run the full thing with you next year. -Julie's dad, Dennis, for all the awesome pictures he got of us during the race.

-My sister-in-law, Jen, for letting us bunk at her house the night before and helping Jeff with the kids during the race. And for cheering me on during the race.

-My dad and mother-in-law for coming to cheer me on and watch me race.

-All the other cheerleaders along the way! It was so nice of many of you to cheer on complete strangers. Any words of encouragement were helpful.

-Jill, for the awesome free CASNR shirt that I will definitely wear more than the neon yellow/green ugly thing LTC gave us for running!

-All the volunteers who gave me water during the race, especially those of you who took the time to put lids and straws on the cups! It is so much easier to drink that way when you are trying to run!

-All of my FB friends for their words of encouragement throughout training and before and after the race!

-Jaime for teaching me how to using a timing chip! ;) And the LTC for letting me keep the one from the 1/2 marathon! It will be staying on my shoe for a while cuz (as my friend Julie said and I am the same) I am and geek like that!

-My secret sister from my mom's group for the beautiful flowers and well wishes. I missed the delivery on Saturday, so I didn't get them until Monday, but they were a wonderful reward and make me smile every time I see them.

-My friend Amber, for getting up in the wee hours of the morning to go to the Y with me and chat with me while we were on our treadmills!

-And mostly to God for giving me the strength I needed to do it all!

I'll add some pictures later.

Craziness

So, I was so excited to finish my first 10K with a 10:19 average mile pace. . . until I looked online at the line up places for the 1/2 marathon and discovered that my 11 min mile pace is the LAST category on the line up map. Way to burst my bubble. I just need to keep reminding myself that it is OK to be slow, at least I am doing it! I am just so darn competitive that I feel like a loser going so slow. I need to get over that. There are plenty of people at my same pace and I don't view them as losers, just me. Why is that? Craziness.

A really bad picture posted online of me running the Novartis 10K. . . are my thighs really that big? Wow! I have some work to do! At least the Cadburys are gone now.

I also just cleaned out my fridge yesterday. . . YUCK! All the containers of leftovers that never got eaten could feed a starving nation. I feel terrible when I throw out so much food. Thankfully, none of it was to the "just sacrifice the container so you don't have to open it and smell it" stage yet. I always feel like a super mom when I find containers like that in the back of my fridge. Check all these out - is this not pathetic?

The just emptied milk jug made the picture too. . . look it has a lid!! ;)

Lastly, I cleaned my carpets (well the main section that gets filthy in my living room) yesterday as well. Wow, I had a productive day! I have my own cleaner thingy, which is a must with small children, an in home day care and ivory carpets (yes, I now realize how STUPID I was to pick out this carpet color). I just did this about 5 weeks ago before Miss Firecracker's Birthday party. This is how dirty the water is just after 5 weeks!! Craziness. .

Now, can I have a maid please?

Don't worry, these got taken care of as well. My sink is now sparkling clean. . . well it was before lunch today anyway.

State of the Family Address

That time of week again. . . What have we been up to?
Well, little Miss Thumb Sucker continues to do well with sleeping in her own bed. If I didn't have to get up so early to go to the Y, I would almost get a full night's sleep. I have to wake her up at 445 am to feed her before I go run. Now I just hope she will sleep later than that on days that I don't go! She is also really into her toes right now. She discovered them a while back, but lately they seem to be made of chocolate. It is stinkin' cute! She even grabs the outside one and plays with her toes while she nurses. And every once in a while we could replace her Thumb Sucker nickname with Toe Sucker! Like I said, she thinks they are made of chocolate or some other yummy stuff lately!
Miss Firecracker has been full of TNT the last couple days. I ran into a friend at Walmart who told me to "spank it out of her" now and she would turn out great. Yes, I think this is great advice! Time outs don't phase the girl, spankings do (for the most part anyway). Earlier this week I caught her hiding in the hallway closet with a piece of candy that had been left in an Easter Egg basket. As soon as I opened the door she knew she was had. She looked up at me with blue robin egg smeared across her face and said, "I not want a spankin', mommy!" and started crying. I took the chocolate away, cleaned her up and tried not to laugh. She is going to be the end of me. She has also taken to blaming things on others this week as well. Either her brother or the daycare kids. . . it is a tough one for me. She doesn't seem to quite understand the concept of lying and telling the truth when I sit her down and talk to her about it. But hopefully it will sink in before I pull out all my hair.
Noisy Man is freaking out about me throwing stuff away lately. It is rather amusing! He has had quite a bit of trouble lately cleaning up after himself and his toys. Even if everyone else in the house is cleaning, he finds something else to do to try and get out of it. So, I stooped to the level of saying one of those things your mom always said to you, but you swore you'd never say. I told him I was going to throw away all of his toys if he couldn't learn to clean them up when he was done. I have never seen the kid move so fast in my life. It was funny for a split second then I realized he was almost in tears, so I felt a little bad. "No, mommy, please don't throw away my toys!" "Well, then clean them up like you are told and I won't have to!" (One of those lovely conversations.) It was classic. He also "caught" me throwing away some of his preschool papers (I take pictures of them and then chuck them, cuz I can't stand the clutter. Some of the really nice memorable ones I keep tucked away). So, he dug them out of the trash and I told them he better keep them put away and off my floor or they would go right back in the trash. So, now he is always asking me if I am going to throw things away, but he is doing better at keeping his stuff cleaned up! (oh yeah, the papers still ended up in the trash and he hasn't missed them. One was just his weekly schedule - come on!!)
The hubby has decided he would like to take up a little running as well. . . he has run 2 miles (one mile at a time) in the last 3 weeks. We'll see if he keeps it up. He did have a pretty good idea on how to pull it off though. If I go run my first miles (however far I am going that day) then come back to the house when I have a mile left and pick up him and the kids in the strollers, we can run the last mile together. We haven't done it yet, but hopefully later this week. I figure I probably won't be going too fast for him by mile 6 and his legs are a foot longer than mine so he'll be able to easily keep up. I hope he sticks with it - Family Run Time would be fun!! (and maybe I could stop getting up at 445 am!!)
My new mission in life (OK maybe not in life, but for the time being and until they are all gone) is to unwrap a Cadbury egg without tearing the wrapper. Yes, I need something better to entertain me (like 3 kids of my own and daycare kids 3 days a week isn't enough), and yes, I shouldn't be eating that many Cadbury eggs, but I love them and this is the only time of the year you can get them. I don't think they freeze too well. Have you ever tried to unwrap one without tearing the wrapper? It is darn near impossible, especially if some of the filling has seeped out and the wrapper is stuck to it. I think I only have two left and have only accomplished unwrapping 1 so far (I will NOT confess to how many I have eaten this year, mostly cuz I lost track, but also cuz it would be down right embarrassing and tell you exactly why I the last 10 lbs from Miss Thumb Sucker aren't gone yet). I will probably cry after eating the last one, thus having to wait a full year before getting another one. But my butt will be thankful. I just have to keep telling myself that.
Oh yeah, I did 4 loads of laundry this week and only have 1 left to fold and put away(I won't mention the 3 that still need to be done)!! Just thought you might like to know since all my other updates have given reference to my laundry issues. But most likely you don't really care! :)

Are my knees supposed to sound like this?

Well, I made it. I woke up to a text from my running partner that said she got called into work for a code (she is a NICU nurse) at 1245 am and would let me know her status asap. . . I got ready for the trek to Lincoln to run, and packed dry clothes to change into for after I was done. I got to the edge of town and heard from her that she was just getting off. . . no running partner for me. My very first real race, my very first 10 mile run and I had to do it solo, in the rain. Can I tell you I was overjoyed! I got about 2 more miles down the road and turned around. No, I didn't decide to back out, I realized I forgot my purse! Oops! :) So, now I was running behind and clueless. Got up to the race and no thanks to State Farm organizational skills I found where to go to get my # and packet. Then, thankfully found a friend who would help me with my chip (the device you attach to your shoe that takes your time from finish to start), cuz I was clueless as to what it was. Then, prepared to run. Thankfully the rain subsided and actually stopped for a few hours (Praise you God!!). I took all my stuff back to my car, pumped and attempted to find a bathroom that didn't have a 4 mile long line with no success. Guess I'd have to hold it for 10 miles. Then I heard the line up announcement from the starting line and fell into place with the other 900 runners, ran for 10 miles and crossed the finish line. I really felt pretty good. My left knee and hammy bothered me a little for the last 2 miles but once I was finished they felt fine. Then, I went straight to the bathroom. :) Only by God's grace did I not feel like I had to pee the entire race, but when I was done it all hit me! Then I drove home, drank some water and took a nap! After I woke up I had a pretty decent headache from being dehydrated (cuz I was too afraid to drink too much water while I ran so I didn't have to go at mile 5). But, man, my knees hurt and cracked and popped and yelled at me every time I bent down. I felt like an old woman. Thankfully, today they are feeling much better, but still sound pretty funny. Especially on the stairs. I feel like a box of Rice Krispies. :) But I survived. I ran 10 miles without walking and I did it in 1 hour and 51 minutes! Bring on the 1/2 marathon!!
Oh yeah, yesterday was a fun day of firsts. My first race and Miss Thumb Sucker rolled over for the first time too! Also the first day for me to have cupboards above my washer and dryer as my wonderful and handy hubby put some up for me!!

An Attempt

So, currently I am attempting many new things in my life. . . one being this blog. Not sure what prompted me to start this in the first place. Maybe it was reading all of my friends' blogs and thinking it would be fun, maybe it was reading all the Pioneer Woman's blogs and wishing just a little bit that I could be that cool and funny (yeah right :), but I am hoping that it will accomplish one new thing I am trying in my life as well: to talk about myself less and listen more. I thought maybe if I talked about myself on here, when in conversation with others I would do it less. I am hoping this is the case. You see, one of my Proverbs 31 Ministries email devotionals this week was one of the authors telling her story about how she became so dependent on gaining the approval of others that she lost sight of the only approval that matters - God's. I felt much in her same shoes, so I am going to give it a try myself. So, if you want to hear things about me, you can read them here. I am going to try and talk less and listen more, which will be a challenge cuz I am a talker! There, you have just been made responsible for keeping me accountable to this! ;)
Another new thing is long distance running. In High School all I ever ran were the 100 M dash, 100 M hurdles, 4x1 relay and long jump. . . nothing more than 100 meters! So, now I am training for the 1/2 marathon in Lincoln. That is 13.something miles!! I think I am nuts! Have you seen my legs? Short and stalky, definitely not distance runner legs. But, I'll give it a shot. My goal is to finish, not win! I did start doing quite a big of running after Jeff and I first got married, before kiddos arrived. I never ran more than 5 miles, but I enjoyed it. So, in attempt to get back into shape and lose this disgusting 'stuff' that seems to be hanging out around my midsection after baby #3 I decided to finally start training for the 1/2 Marathon that I had wanted to do for the last 4 years. Tomorrow, however, is my first attempt at "racing" where I will be running the 10 Mile at the State Farm run in Lincoln. It is supposed to RAIN all morning. . . yikes! This could be interesting. Please say a prayer for me. . . I will need it!
And not last and definitely not least (but the last thing I'll drone on about in this post) is the fact that I am attempting to yell at my children less. You see, I have been getting up at 445 am 3 days a week to go run for my training, which means I am tired. This is on top of the fact that my little thumb sucker still gets up usually at least 2 times in the night for a feeding before this time. This means I am even more tired. . . and when I am tired, I am crabby. I was telling a friend that I am glad my kids are too young to be able to have a good memory of this time in the future. Cuz if they did it would surely be the memory that they started with, "Remember that time that mom was training for the 1/2 marathon? Man, she was always so crabby." Thus, I am trying to control my crabbiness and temper that seems to flare when I am sleep deprived. Pray for me about this too! This week has gone well, with the exception of Tuesday. Tuesdays seem to be the worst for me for some reason.
OK that's enough for today. . . have a good one!