Random Photo Friday

It's still Friday! ;)


In the hallway leading to the women's bathroom.

Conversation in the van

Driving home from school with the boys today, this is what I heard.

LittleMan (age 7) "Mom, why do you poop out babies?"

Me "I don't poop them out!"

LittleMan "Oh yeah, it comes out your va-china"

M "No, it's the bagina"

LittleMan "oh yeah, bagina"

Me "no, boys, Vagina"

LittleMan "haha, yeah boys have a penis and girls have a va-china"

M "yeah, girls don't get to wiggle their agina"

LittleMan "I like to call it a weiner"

M "but if they think you have a weiner, they will want to buy it and eat it"

this is where I started giggling louder and they stopped talking :)

To do list

I'm totally stealing this idea from Becca :)

Things I need to do over Thanksgiving break.

Laundry
Summaries from Neisser (tells you how behind I am when I can't think of the books title, just the author, lol)
Start running again so I can talk myself and Stu into a June marathon , he wont run it but he will support me if I'm going to do it ;)
Linguistics final
Deaf Culture research paper x2
LANG 3000 annotated bibliography
Interpret Unit 6 and post 5.3, 6.3 so behind!
Get over this head cold or whatever illness it is.
Keep the kids from killing each other over the break.
Visit my side of the fam on Thanksgiving.
Black Friday, woot!
Go try a Chai Tea Latte at Becca's coffee shop, just out of support for her, yeah that's it.
Knit this adorable scarf that really wants me to knit it.
Groceries.

that should be enough, we'll just pretend nothing else needs to be done, yeah.

Short

I'm trying to post more regularly but I'm tired, and stressed, and nervous, so forming cohesive thoughts aren't always easy ;).

So I'm going to post 5 things I'm grateful for.

I'm grateful my Grandma is doing ok after falling and breaking her neck on Sunday.
I'm grateful for cell phones so my family can keep me updated.
I'm grateful for a husband that mops the kitchen floor and does the dishes.
I'm grateful for friends that support me through the tough semester.
I'm grateful for chocolate and stretchy pants.

Random Photo Friday

It says "Just Hiched"

I just love it when people write on their windows or other peoples windows and spell things wrong, makes my day :)

Well hello there

You are now reading a post from a passer of the NIC written test! I am half certified to interpret for money, hehe. I studied for weeks, paid way too much money, and probably added many gray hairs, but I passed!!

Also, I am not* officially a mom to a teenager, I took 2 midterms, Halloween, interpreted for the first time in a real life situation. Just a relaxing October for me, haha. Oh and the little run I did at the beginning of the month ;)

*now (oops)

Also, for Halloween, M lost his costume so we had to come up with one with five minutes before school started. Now that was fun :P

STG marathon photos

Here are some photos from the race :) Totally random and out of order, too lazy to fix it, hehe.

First up, the big blister, I have a couple better shots but maybe I'll spare you the goryness, both feet looked about the same.


I was walking away when I realized my cousin was taking this pic, I had absolutely no balance, my legs were just done.

Running the finishing shoot with some of my fam and my friend Lisa with her fam.

Right after the fam joined us, I cried of course :)

My cheering crew, minus Lucy who was taking the pic.

Mile 24, red, hot, and sunburned.

One of my favorite signs, hehe.

Truer words were never spoken.

Being silly the night before.

Start line!

Thanks for looking :)

St. George marathon race report

I contemplated shutting this blog down, but then I couldn't post my race report if I did, lol.

This year has been crazy busy for me, so my training for this, my second marathon, was seriously lacking. I wanted to run this one for fun, since last year was so miserable in the rain and wind and all alone. I ran this with Lisa mom extraordinaire, she is my hero.

We decided to go ahead and get on the early bird buses, try to win a prize and get the fast pass massage. So I found myself, at about 3:45 sitting on the bus on the way up to the start line. Lisa got me some sweats and shared her blanket with me as we sat up in the cold around the bonfires. We chatted with different people to pass the time, though I was really tempted to try and nap. It took us about 9 minutes to pass the start line and then away we went. Lisa wanted to prove that she can go way faster than she says, when I had to slow her down a few times ;). The adrenaline just gets to you, so I can't blame her :)

By mile 3 I was already sweating, not a good sign for me. I haven't been able to train in any sort of heat in quite awhile now, so I was worried about the expected upper 70's at our finish time. I brought some salt with me to take in case I started having problems.

Veyo hill is actually a welcome site for me, it's huge but I know once we are over it, the biggest one is done. I wish people would mention the hill on mile 18, that one isn't as big but it's late in the race and just sucks out my will to live :P. So we get up and over Veyo, passing many people on the way, that was an ego boost for sure.

Oh and Lisa's huge family, or part of it anyway, were at Veyo cheering her on, that was really cool. They all had matching t-shirts and they had signs, such a sweet family :)

At the halfway mark we were already behind about 15 minutes, not good, but we were feeling pretty well and just kept plugging along. I started feeling the dreaded blisters at mile 8 and just tried to ignore them the best I could. We did get a bit more downhill at this point and picked it up a bit, that was good because the sun was out and I was getting nervous.

At mile 15 I couldn't stand the blister pain anymore so I stopped and took off my shoes to glob on more vaseline, that is when I found out my right foot had a huge blister and the left hurt more but the blister was smaller. The aid station only had one moleskin so I decided to put it on my right foot. I got back up, sadly already tightening up, and away we went.

Mile 17 I have cell phone reception and I had several texts waiting for me, that was awesome. My hamstrings were yelling at me for quite awhile, I focused more on downhill than uphill and it came back to bite me, hard.

Mile 18ish, I thought that maybe I could count down to mile 21 or so, where more spectators should be, maybe Lucy and Keera would be there. My knee was mad, though I was really trying to hide it, and I was just so very tired. I got some cliff bars around here somewhere and ate one, plus some orange slices and a banana, that really helped with the energy.

Mile 21 we had yet another potty stop, we both were plagued with problems for the first part of the race, but poor Lisa got hit hard for the last 6 miles or so. She was so awesome pushing as hard as she could though, such an inspiration. I got a text here from Lisa's husband saying they were at 23 and would be ready and waiting. I also got a text from Stu saying they were at the finish and would be cheering us on from there.

Mile 23 and there are Lisa's family, her sister? Karen joined us here and I can't thank her enough, I was struggling bad, just having someone able to talk and help us count down was amazing.

I got a huge surprise at mile 24, there were Lucy and Keera, which I was expecting, but my Dad and Mom, sister Natalie, and her 4 kids. They all had smiley face signs for me, I of course cried, hehe. Things were really tough for me at this point, I was hot, I knew I was getting a sunburn on my face and I just wanted to be done.

Mile 25 ish Lisa had to make another potty stop and my knee decided that it was, in fact, finished, so I tried stretching and walking in place to warm it up, no go. I cried from here on out, it just hurt. I ended up using my hip to pull my leg along, which wasn't good but I needed to be done. We turn the last corner and there is my whole family again, including Stu and the kids. I got to run it in with Stu holding my hand as my hip decided to try and leave my body :P, my kids running around me, as well as nieces and nephews. I totally ditched Lisa at this point, it was either go or just lay down and give up :P. I know her family ran it in with her, so I dont' feel so guilty, hehe.

Oh, a quick funny, Lisa wanted some sports beans and I had some in my pack but the zipper was stuck, Karen said she would help get them so I just ripped off the pack and threw it at her, haha. I feel bad now but I was done. She was nice enough to carry it in the rest of the way.

I finished in 6:15:53 surrounded by family and friends, the support was amazing. Lisa and I cheered on the volunteers and spectators through most of the race, I know we were slow and they were tired, but we wanted some cheers, lol. The finish line spectators were awesome though, so loud and encouraging, just what I needed.

I got a free massage, that was pure heaven, and some much needed quiet time while i waited, I was just too tired to speak.

My feet hurt more than my legs and my knee is still angry with me, but I am planning on running another one, this one with better training though ;). So it must not have been too bad, hehe.

I know this is disjointed and poorly written, but I don't care, hehe.

Thanks to my family that came and my family that couldn't but thought of me and cheered me on from wherever they were. Also to my many friends that supported me as well, it really helped :)

Hello there

Remember me? Yeah, didn't think so :P

I'm so cheating though. I am going to my family reunion this weekend, so hopefully I'll have some blog fodder soon. I just had to share this link with you all gospel that should be read by all and say Amen, Sistah!

Happiness is....

Chocolate muffins from Costco....






(yes, they were staged photos, but who cares when chocolate is involved? lol)

Yippee!!

I got into St. George again this year, I decided that I needed to run it again since last years weather was less than ideal. I was able to talk Lisa into registering with me so we'll get to go on a 26.2 mile party, woot!

Let the training begin, I'll see you again St. George on October 3rd :D

happy birthday LittleMan

My baby is 7, where did the time go? His birthday was on my last day of the semester, with the final that I have been dreading. I took the easy way out and let him decorate the cake, which means I'm the most awesome mom ever, hehehe.


This is his "what? it's my cake, I can do what I want!" look, lol. (and yes, that is my saggy butt behind him, hehe)



And the promised missing tooth shot from long ago :)

If one more thing goes wrong...

I quit!

This year has been super hard thus far, I'm ready to throw in the towel.

I have one more paper to write for my ASL literature class and the dang DVD wont play! I need to memorize a poem for my final on Thursday and I found out today that Stu got laid off. LittleMan has a nasty cough that wont go away. L ran away from home, thinks we are horrible evil parents (she is home now and is following the rules, mostly). Luckily M is being pretty normal right now.

Calgon, take me away.

Busy

I want to blog more, but I'm busy so I can't make any promises right now. I'm at the tail end of bronchitis, I'm hoping! It has really thrown me for a loop, 2 weeks I have been sick and I'm ready to be done!

To all of you complainers, you know you are jealous that you didn't have your own poop bucket to dispose of, so you should be thanking me for sharing my joy ;). I had the camera on the ground with the automatic picture taking thing turned on. It was frozen so there wasn't much smell, luckily for me ;).

things I will blog about at some point....

LittleMan lost one of his top front teeth, too cute!
M got elbow and knee pads and Stu took him to the skate park, much fun was had.
L is officially registered for Jr. High, got her shots and everything.
I am putting my hat back into the crazy world of marathoning, entering into the St. George lottery again :)
One month of school left, busy busy busy.

I will be back. Eventually ;)

Update on plumbing

If you remember my plumbing post we had some troubles with our plumbing. I went out of town for 6 days with the kids and in that time, the blockage just got worse. Stu ended up calling a plumber once sewage started coming out of that pipe, sick! I didn't know that the sewage was coming out, so once I came home and helped cap the end of the pipe...


I saw the bucket, lucky for you, I didn't get a picture of the full bucket. You can thank me with money donations, lol. Anyway, I got mad that it was left for me so Stu got a submersible pump and pumped all the liquid out he could and then he took the "solids" outside. Also lucky for you, they froze so it looks just like muddy water. But we all know what it really is, lol.


I put on my "gloves" and wrapped up the bucket then took it out to the garbage can. It was garbage day the next day so I took the garbage out to the street just in case the bucket thawed, we wouldn't have to worry about spillage taking the garbage out later. I know, I'm brilliant sometimes ;).


And another shot of me wrapping up the bucket, just because.

I'm back :)

I went running today for the first time since mid December. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I got out there. I've lost a lot of fitness but boy did it feel good pushing myself again. I'm also going to do the 100 push ups challenge starting on Monday. I want to try to get into the St. George marathon again this fall, so I need to get back into shape. If I don't get into the marathon I'll pick another one for the fall.

Here's hoping tomorrow my muscles will be pleasantly sore :D (yes, I realize I am strange, lol)

A new profession for me?

For some reason, there is an open pipe in the crawl space under my house, it was attached to a sink the previous owners installed in the garage, but now it's just hanging out down there. I just ignored it because it was out of the way and causing no problems. Until a couple of days ago....

Now it looks like this when I do laundry....




And this was my attempt at fixing the problem...


And this is what happens when you just make the problem worse...
(that's a towel soaking up the flood in the laundry room from that pipe backing up and shooting out the drain, better than a toilet overflowing I guess ;) )


Jealous? I thought so :P

(I just tried drano to see if that's enough, stay tuned.....)

Edited to add....FAIL



I guess we get to stimulate the economy by hiring a plumber :P

Overcrowding

I park in the free parking at school, it's about 1/2 mile to the school, which isn't too bad. I do ride the shuttle bus if the weather is bad, otherwise I just walk. The first time I rode the shuttle, I was one of the last ones on, which meant I had to stand and hold the bar overhead. Not a big deal for most people, but I'm short and along with that are short arms, lol. I ended up having to stand between some guys legs the whole time. Oh so enjoyable for me :P. so I've only ridden it twice since then, lol.

Picture proof, sorry for the crappy photo, it was with my cell phone while we were moving.




If you look at the arm with the two white stripes around the bicep, that is a girl that is probably 2 inches taller than me, can you see how stretched out her arm is? Yeah, rude that guys don't give us shorties a seat!

Easily amused.

I found out about pandora.com from a friend and fell in love with it right away. I currently have three "stations" on there, country, Enya type stuff (so soothing, love it), and today I added a Bon Jovi station. It has been so much fun listening to all the "hair bands" and love ballads that I constantly listened to in High School and beyond :).

I guess I needed some cheering up after waking up to the mountain of clean laundry needing to be folded and the snow falling outside, arg.

I do have 3 posts planned in my head, so hopefully I get around to them soon :)

Putting an end to the worries

I have been getting worried emails from some family members over some weight I have lost. I am a muscular person, always have been, always will be. I weigh much more than most people think I do, which is fine by me :). Anyway, I took a couple of photos of me to show that I still have my muscle and my big butt, so stop worrying ;).

And sorry for the blurr and dirty mirror, it's cold in my house so I was shivering a bit :P



Edited to add that I'm not mad or anything, I hope it doesn't come across that way. I just want to make sure everyone knows that I'm fine and am taking care of myself the best that I can :)

Update

I spoke with M again and we discussed ways to deal with teasing and he spoke with his teacher. I also spoke with his teacher and she spoke with the class about respect. M has had two good days at school, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Thanks so much for all of your advice and support :)

In need of some advice.

M, my sweet, rambunctious, doesn't stop moving, loving, sensitive, little 8 year old boy is being teased at school. I don't know that we are at the bullying level yet, but I just heard about this last night so I need to delve further into the situation. He said there is one girl and one boy that pick on him all the time, they tell him his ears are dirty (poor guy has lots of ear wax, always has), his fingernails are too long, or that his hair looks funny.

I told him that sometimes people make fun of other people because they don't like themselves but that didn't fly with him. So I told him that he can play with other kids and he said this is happening in the classroom. He said he told his teacher that they are being mean but it hasn't stopped. So I told him to tell her again that they are being really mean to him and can he please move. After school today I plan on talking to him more, seeing if anything was better today and then I guess it will be time for a conference with the teacher.

What else can I say to my sad little guy? He cried when he got out of the van today, that's when I knew it was worse than he let on yesterday. I know this is part of life, but it doesn't mean I have to like it and I want to better prepare him to deal with it. He is quite small for his age too, so I'm sure stuff like that will be used against him in the future as well.

Mama bear wants to go beat up the kids and their parents, lol. Help.