Yay, 5 miles!

I haven't been running very much in the last several months. I have not run over 4 miles since March 25th! So today I decided to run 5 miles and see how it felt. But as luck would have it, it snowed again last night so I had to go to the gym and run on the treadmill.

But I did it! 5 miles, very slow and tiring, miles!! Woohoo!

A bevy of monsters

Little man and his siblings got some modeling clay from their grandpa. I asked each of them what they were making. L was making people, M was trying to copy her ;) and Little man was making "a bevy of monsters" I said " a waht?" he said "a bevy of monsters."

I tried not to giggle and asked him where he learned about bevy. He said "it means a lot of monsters, mom" like I was a dumb adult :P. L said he learned it from the old McDonalds videos we have. Finally, all that tv/movie watching is paying off, lol.

I taught him that plethora means the same thing. He said this morning "dad, I have a bevy, plethora of monsters!" hehe.

Trans Siberian Orchestra

Stu and I were lucky enough to go to their concert and it was so much fun! Doba, the company that Stu works for, purchased enough tickets for the whole company to go if they wanted to. So we lined up a babysitter and ran out of the house as fast as we could. Ok, so we made sure the kids were fed and in pj's first and we did have a cell phone. But we were both so excited to go.

Here is one of their songs just incase you haven't heard of them before. I love listening to them while I workout.

Sorry, the video decided that it didn't want to work anymore. I'll put another one on here as soon as I find a good one.

Snow

We usually don't get that much snow at my house, atleast not at once. This pic was taken Sunday morning after two days of off and on snow.




And this is what happens when your 4 year old is so excited to play in the snow. He runs outside and falls down the cement steps. The goose egg is ginormous. The pic doesn't do it any justice. Poor kid.

Oh how sweet it is :)

To PASS your math 990 class when you are not smart when it comes to math and half your brain cells are gone since having children.

I needed 70% on the final to pass my math class (dumb rule by the math department) and I got a 70.83% hahaha. I don't care, I'm moving on, woohoo!!!

And I earned every point, especially after my morning. Which I'll post about later today or tomorrow.


Edit: I got a B+ in the class overall, fyi :)

One down, two to go!

Just took the last test for my psychology class, woohoo!!

I have a final review for math tomorrow then the final on Tuesday. And my final for my fitness class on Saturday morning, afterwhich I get to go to the ward Christmas party. Did I mention that it starts at 10am and my class should be over at 10:15am? and I have to run a mile and a half during said class. Ho Ho Ho Merry Stinky Christmas Neighbors :)





Edited to add:

Some spammer commented on my blog, dangit. So I added word verification, I hope thats enough.

Mom, who are those guys?

Me - "They are missionaries."

M - "Oh, missionaries going to school."

Me - "No, they carry their scriptures and stuff in their backpacks."

M - "Oh, I thought missionaries carried guns and were fighters."

I guess we need to have a talk about what missionaries do, though he may not want to be one as badly as he does now ;).

A sad day

My Uncle passed away this morning, in his sleep. He was 52 and has struggled with arthritis for many years. The drs don't know how he died, he has been in the hospital for a week because of a fall which resulted in two broken vertebrae. They think it may have been an aneurism but aren't sure. I guess it doesn't really matter now, he's gone.

Jeff was a strong man, he dealt with his fragile body better than most could have. He was a wonderful man.

I will miss him.

Wow, my faith in humanity is restored!

We have a neighbor across the street and they have a really large tree in their front yard with like a gazillion leaves on it. Last year the owners only raked them up when their driveway was so loaded that it was slippery and the wind blew half of them on our yard, made me pretty grumpy.

The owners sold their home this spring and the new owners came and raked up their leaves from my yard!! How cool is that? And they have really kept up with keeping the leaves at their house raked so we don't have a mountain of their leaves on our lawn :)

I had 4 big black garbage bags of leaves from our own trees to take care of today, so I was extremely happy that I didn't have to add theirs to the mix this year!

No, I'm not crazy.

I'm going to start homeschooling my kids. I have thought about it a lot for the last few weeks. The more unsatisfied I am with the kids school, the more I want to do something about it. M calls me daily and asks me to pick him up, his "tummy hurts", we've done everything we can think of to "fix" it and nothing is helping.

I know I can do a great job and feel like this is the best thing for us to do. I've immersed myself in everything home school related. I have books on how to transition, books on what level they should be at, what the differnt types of techniques are.

I'm going to start Little Man as well. So we'll get all three kids going and catching up to where they should be as well as advancing in areas they love.

I'm excited and ready to go. Though we will wait until January so I can finish my finals and get everything all set up. L can't wait to start many craft projects that we just haven't had time for, as well as baking! M just wants to be home where things can be faster paced and he can wiggle from time to time ;). Little Man has no idea what is going on, haha.

Dear Soldier

My kids PTA decided to have the kids draw a picture or write a letter to send to soldiers serving in Iraq. I told M about this and he decided to write his letter without my help. I'll put it in his way first and then decipher ;)

Dear Sholchrs

I like your figting but can I wach


Dear Soldiers,

I like your fighting but can I watch?

think he plays too many computer games? ;)

Edit: M just told me that I read it wrong, it is supposed to say.....

Dear Soldiers,

I like your fighting but I can't watch right now.

He needs to learn how to write in a fairly straight line rather than all over the page, haha.

Happy Birthday, Pumpkin! (and Halloween stuff too)

Miss L had her 10th birthday this past weekend. Of course I was sick, oh so sick, so our plans were thrown out the window. But she had lots of fun anyway :). Good thing too because there are no do overs, ha j/k.

Here is her "cake" on her birthday. (ignore the mess)




And here is her oh so professional cake that I made the next day.



And now for Halloween pics :) M is the Super Cheetah (same as last year), Little Man is an Elephant Fire Fighter (he wanted to be an elephant fire fighter monster puppy, um..yeah)



Sideways L is the Vampiress on the left, W is her cousin and B is her other cousin :)



Here is a sideways Little Man



And last but not least, a sideways M :)

Happy Birthday Doba!

Stu works for Doba and every year they have a "Doba Spirit Day" where everyone dresses up and other crazy stuff. This is the third "Spirit Day" and it gets better each time!

Here is Little Man as "The Incredible Hulk" according to him, but "Doba Dot Boy" according to many others at work ;)(the "O" in Doba is green, that is why everyone goes overboard with green!)



Here is one of the "activities" the Engineering group came up with....



And here is the back of Stu's head, pretty clever eh? ;)

29:55!

I did it! I finally broke 30 minutes running 3 miles! I've wanted to for so long but haven't quite had it in me. I felt like I was going to puke when I was done, lol. But I survived and I'm so happy :)

Halloween or Christmas?

I've always said that Halloween is my favorite holiday but somehow Christmas has topped the list. Don't get me wrong, Christmas is much more important than Halloween, but halloween was just more fun to celebrate.

I still love seeing all the costumes and decorations. I love my 4 year olds imagination and listening to him tell everyone what his costume is going to be. He came up with it himself and is very proud of that. He wants to be a monster fire fighter, he'll wear his firefighter costume but I'll paint his face green and turn his eyebrows brown, lol.

I come from a pretty big family, there are 7 siblings and now there are 10 grandkids to add to the mix. We do a gift exchange where we pick names out of a hat and buy for that person. About 4 years ago we were in a very tight financial situation, I had no idea how I would be able to provide any gifts at all that year. We were given many gifts and support from friends and family, showing me the true meaning of Christmas. That year I made all the gifts for the exchange and had a great time doing so.

Every year since I have tried to come up with creative gifts, some years it was food and I was surprised at how well some fruit snacks and cookies went over ;). This year I'm going to make everything again and got most of the supplies yesterday. I'm just giddy thinking about making all this stuff and knowing how well it will be recieved because it is personalized and comes from the heart.

Maybe if I put as much effort into costumes, Halloween would be a fave once again ;)

To all my peeps out there.....

I'm sorry that I haven't been commenting, for some reason blogger decided that I don't have an account anymore. I have tried everything I can think of it its not working. I guess its time to call on the big guns, my hunny and get him to fix it for me.

So, for now...I'm thinking of you and hope to comment soon. Kelly is adorable as always.
Jane its good to hear from you again. And I hope little Howie is doing much better today, poor guy.

Yippee!!

I got 100% on my last math test, woohoo!! I guess sitting next to Mr.Pee (he smelled so strong of urine, it burned my lungs!) for the test was good luck ;)

4 year olds are the best!

Little Man just makes me giggle all the time. I thought I'd share a few tidbits of my day.

"Mom, I need milk with my cereal or my eyes will pop out of my head. Hurry, give me milk!!"

"I got it mom, it almost got inside your ear!" (he said that when he was picking up a sticker off the floor.

"I'm so sick off!!!" me giggling quietly "you are what?" him "So SICK OFF!!!" me "oh, I'm sorry buddy, why?" him "Because you want to go to the gym!" I then realized that he meant pissed off, lol.

Pathetisad

I have a few pet peeves that I try to control, atleast in front of strangers :P.

One of which is someone touching and or moving my chair. In my math class we have rows of desks/chairs that touch each other front to back. I usually arrive early so I can move my chair up from the one behind it and move the one in front of it up so nothing is touching my chair (not real noticeable, just a few inches). Anyway, last night the girl behind me kept tapping on my chair with her foot. She must've had a song stuck in her head 'cause it had a beat to it.

I was going completely insane. So distracted I couldn't concentrate! I got very close to getting up and moving, lol.

Teacher "2x + 4y = 17 and 3x - 4y = 6 works.....

tap tap tap tap (me "stop doing that, should I move? will it be too rude to ask her to stop? Can I stomp her foot and get away with it?"

Teacher "addition method"......

tap tap, thump thump, tap "knock it off!! I can't stand it! Crap, what did he just say?"

Teacher "equals 6"

tap tap, "dangit!!"

Teacher "or multiply the whole thing by 2 to make it"......

tap thump tap thump thump thump, tap tap...."NOOOO!!!! ahhh...I can't stand it!"

sweet relief, she leaves early!!

Teacher "4x + 6y = 4 and -4x + 2y = 11 which method would work for this system of equations?"

Me "don't ask me, don't ask me, don't ask me" hehe

Fantastic run this morning!

I will be traveling tomorrow during my normal saturday class time so I had to take my class this morning instead. Stu has the day off of work so he was able to take the kids to school for me. I decided to run to class so that he could have the car and I'd get a workout in as well.

The run was fabulous!! Drizzling rain but not huge puddles or showers. Cold but not freezing. Quiet and dark. Just wonderful!! I really needed a run like this, to help remind me of why I enjoy running.

Then I found out that fridays class schedule is a bit different than saturdays, so I had to run for 30 minutes rather than the circuit training I had planned on, lol. Thats ok, I doubled the run I had planned and survived the bordom of being on a treadmill for 30 minutes stairing at a couple of trees out the window.

Pears, pears and more pears!

A lady in our neighborhood has about 50 or so pear trees in her yard, she has been trying to give them away for weeks. I got 2ish bushels of them at the beginning of the week and gave half away, I then decided to pick some more. I think I got 3 bushels this time, oops. I have already canned 20 qts and 7 pints of the pears and am maybe halfway done. Good thing we love pears.

I'm thinking of drying some pears too, we'll see. I may just drive a few blocks away and drop a bag off on random door steps, haha j/k. L's piano teacher said she'd love some, I may take her up on that ;)

WOO HOO!!

Freaking woot!! The season is over!! I have one more day of cleaning at work and I am finished! I'm so excited I could scream :)

I get my evenings back. No more smelling like smoke and grease. No more listening to my psycho boss put everyone down one minute and praise them the next. No more watching him suck up to the owners and general managers while following them around like a lost puppy.

No more dealing with a certain teenage employee that likes to mouth off, and finally on the last day of the season, get his butt whooped by a game spectator, ha.

No more getting yelled at because of high prices, hello!! Everyone has high prices now :P

WOOO HOOO!!!!

Oh beautiful day!

Yesterday was cold and wet, not very fun! But today is gorgeous out! I love fall weather :)

And I canned 5 quarts of peaches, I forgot how much I love looking at freshly canned peaches. I can't wait until tomorrow when I get time to can some pears, woohoo!

My job is almost over (have a double header today, sigh)and I couldn't be happier. I've learned a lot about baseball and enjoy it more than I used to, but can't say that I'd pay to go to a game yet, lol.

Allergy season should be winding down soon, atleast I hope so. I'm miserable and so is little man, poor kid.

I am enjoying all three classes this semester, very surprising to me. So that is making it more fun :)

M lost two teeth in about a week! He feels very grown up and much richer :P

L also lost a tooth and is starting the fun hormone stage, wee!

Little Man gets to meet his speech therapist tomorrow, I sure hope he is nicer to her than he was to his last one ;)

Stu got a promotion at work, he is super busy now and seems to be thriving on the change of pace. He is getting to do things that he loves, teach. He is the new education person, so he trains employees and clients, perfect fit for him.

The end.

Talk like a pirate day is coming....

September 19th, arrr!

My pirate name is:

Captain Mary Flint

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

I'm bossy and controlling, nice ;)

I'm here.

I'm alive and surviving.

About two weeks of work left, working almost nonstop the whole time, but its all good.

School is going well for all three of us.

The house is a disaster.

I have a cold sore the size of my head.

Allergy season is among us.

The End.

For Shame!

I am tired of my messy desk, so I decided to shame myself by posting a pic of how it normally looks. I hope that it will help keep me motivated, lol.



My first project that was tackled while the older two kids were gone all day.



Lets see how long it lasts ;)

Woohooo! Freedom!!

And it is here! The older two are off to school and will not be done until 2:15, woot!



Little Man decided that he has to stand next to me all day "I don't know what to do, I need to play on the computer" So much for one on one time :P

ETA: I am also excited that I finally found pants to fit L. Miss long skinny legs is so hard to dress. We never find pants long enough and slim enough for her, look at that great fit, woohoo!

School!

Wednesday is the big day. I'm so excited for school to start and my kids are too! M is starting 1st grade and can't wait. He gets to eat school lunch, lol.

L is starting 4th grade, how in the heck is it possible for me to have a 4th grade? eek! She is excited as well. She can't wait to see her friends and for recess, ha.

I am excited to start school too. I am taking psychology, math (intro to algebra, I'm dumb) and fitness for life, weee! Its one step closer to getting my prereq's done so I can take my fun stuff.

And only a few more weeks of work left, can't wait for that to be done too! Those of you that work and go to school amaze me, I can't imagine doing this all the time. If I do need to work while in school, I hope its a desk job, lol.

I can't wait for peaceful days again, two in school full time....woohoo!! I think Little Man is just as excited, he'll be in charge of which cartoon he gets to watch, no one to share his toys with, he can draw and color without worrying about being told he is doing it wrong :P. Good times.

Camping Pics

I know, its about time I showed some of the fun we had a week or so ago. Hopefully blogger will allow some pics today.

This is a pic of all three kids "waiting" for me to set up camp before they go hiking.



This is the only pic I got of the kids with their pirate bandana's. I'm such a loser! Its M by the way, participating in the "swash bucket" relay.



This is L (on the left), my niece and her friend hanging out. My niece is only 13, yikes my sister is in trouble :P



And this last one is of me and my dad cooking dinner. Sadly, its the best pic of me.



I may add some more on another post. I don't want to press my luck though, lol.

ETA: the pics are all messed up, sorry about that. I didn't tell it to publish them like that, sigh.

Feeling out of control

I'm a creature of habit. I don't enjoy stepping out of my comfort zone, I like my routines and rarely deviate from them. Getting a job this summer has been an experienc. First I had to interview for the job, which I haven't done in years! Then I had to meet all these new people. I get a supervisor position (unofficially, but still) and have to boss people around. That of course comes naturally since I'm bossy :P I start getting into a nice routine at work and then the cook quits so now I get to add grilling to my duties.

I love, love cooking, so I was actually happy to hear I got to cook. But my boss apparently loves to cook as well, so he pushes me aside when he feels like cooking and expects me to just find something else to do. Um...alright I guess. But that throws off my routine, doesn't he know how that affects the rest of my night? sheesh! So I try not to let it get to me, but really, it does! I don't enjoy feeling inadequate, uncapable, stupid. almost childlike, I always feel like he thinks I'm incapable of cooking for 300 people so I should just stand there and pretend to be busy.

Today we have a catered gathering of 600 people. I am supposed to cook for the party and for my regular duties, but I know I'll get pushed aside once again and the order I have created will be thrown out the window. At the end of the night my concession stand will be off an unacceptable amount of money, in part because my routine is gone. I have a hard time remembering what needs to be done if its not in a certain order. My fellow employees are young teenagers and need guidance. I don't want to hear about how easy my stand is to run, how the numbers should match up almost perfectly, how I was saved by the boss since he stepped in and dill "all" the cooking for me.

Then lets add the food challenges for Little Man. For 4 years I've been very diligent about what goes into his mouth. I have cooked from scratch, purchased food ony after speaking with the manufacturer about certain things listed on their ingredients list. I read labels before I buy them and often times before I serve them to Little Man. If we go to someones house for meals, I read the labels there, I ask questions about how it was prepared or if it touched something else he can't have. But he is almost 4.5 years old, its time to see if he has outgrown the allergies so he can lead a normal life, well as normal as he can with me as his mother ;)

Little man has passed his oats challenge and his corn challenge. I haven't tried apricots, soy (except for some derivatives) or shellfish yet because I need some semblence of normal at home right now. He doesn't know what he is missing, so he wont care ;)

Only a few weeks left of work and then I can focus on my school routine instead. I can do it :P

Umm....fun?

This is what we ran into on our way home from camping yesterday. A fire next to the freeway which stopped traffic. We sat there stuck for 45 minutes before the highway patrol decided to kick us all off and sent us around parts of Utah I haven't been to in a long time. About 25 extra miles but 2 extra hours to the trip, fun fun.

Ramble

Today is my birthday, I am officially in my 30's. Its weird, I wasn't really looking forward to my birthday, but now that its here its cool, lol. I don't feel old and I still feel like I wont be old until I hit my 70's, so why did turning 31 make me nervous? no idea.

We are heading down to southern utah tomorrow for my family reunion. We will be enjoying some nice hot and dry weather ;). I look forward to hanging out with family and watching them all get drunk, ha. Lots of activities planned to keep the kids busy and hopefully out of trouble. We'll be close to a lake for swimming and cooling off and I get to go arrowhead hunting, I absolutely love finding arrowheads :)

Our basement keeps flooding, stupid old house and pipes. Our landlords, are of course, out of town, so we have been dealing the best we can. We are supposed to go watch a movie tonight, without kids, but may forgo it in order to finish the clean up and packing. It is taking much longer than planned since I have to ration how much water goes down the drain :S

I am handling my vitamins well now that I eat a full meal when I take them. I was going to switch to nighttime since thats when I had to take my prenatals, but I don't go to bed at the same time and some nights I'm awake for hours and I know puking would commence. I'm feeling a bit more energized today so I hope I'll be back to my normal self next week, just in time for a long work week and M's 6th birthday.

School starts in 20 days, not that I'm counting down ;). And I'm very excited! Two in school full time and maybe preschool for little man, very cool.

Edited to add:



We started the corn food challenge on Sunday. This is Little Man eating his first popcorn, ever! I had to snap a pic and then make him eat it away from me. I felt so bad giving corn to him, it has been 4 years of fiercely watching everything he eats and here I am giving him something that would cause him so much pain if he was still allergic. So far so good though :) woohoo!!

I'll take being tired...

I am borderline anemic and have been very very tired lately. It doesn't matter how much I sleep, how well I eat or how much or little I do, I'm tired! So I decided to get a multi vitamin with iron to try and help out with the tiredness. I read that calcium can make it hard for iron to be absorbed by the body. So I decided to take it with breakfast this morning since I don't usually have milk with it. I took the vitamin while my bread was toasting and I wouldn't recommend that, lol.

I ended up puking in the kitchen garbage can just after buttering my toast :P

I'm thinking tomorrow I'll eat first or better yet, just sleep all day and let the kids trash the house and my hunny can clean it up while I sleep some more :P

Funny Kids

M and L were talking about food they like. L said she doesn't like pickles so M says "If you don't like pickles, I can't marry you." and L says "we can't get married anyway, you are my brother." and M says "I wouldn't because you don't like pickles." so there :p

Little man is really into super heros right now and decided that he has super powers. "mom, don't call me little man, call me BIRD NECK! I have super powers." Ok, bird neck.

L saw a commercial for the Benchwarmers DVD. "Dad, can we rent the benchwarmers when it comes out?" Stu says "what is it about?" and L says "its about these guys that warm benches and play baseball." ha, warm benches.

Update on the food challenge.

Little Man has passed the food challenge!!!! I am so excited, I don't know what to do with myself, haha. I think I'll make homemade granola again, woot!

I am working this week, so I decided to hold off on the apricot challenge until next week when I can actually function.

Happy Dancin' at my house!!

Could it be?

After 4 years of being very vigilant about what goes in Little Mans mouth, could he really be outgrowing all his allergies?

We did an oat food trial this weekend, no signs at all of any reactions! I'm going to give it a few more days, but I'm very optimistic. His reactions to oats before hit within a couple of hours, so going days is fantastic!

I plan on trying apricots this weekend and then we'll probably take a break for a week or so after that and try the big guns, soy and then corn. Frankly, I'm quite scared to try soy and corn, so I'll take the other challenges first.

So far he has outgrown his milk allergy, tried eggs for the first time at the age of 3.5 and we've tried fish this past year as well. His food options are getting so big, I may be able to actually cook a meal without reading the ingredients list first. I don't remember when I was able to do that before. I'm giddy :)

Bliss, pure bliss!!

Guess what I got today!! If I could post a giant smiley face, I would ;).

Our washing machine died over a week ago. The mountain of dirty laundry kept getting bigger and bigger, I think we ended up with a pretty impressive mountain range actually, hehe. To my utter amazement my father-in-law bought another front loader washer. He said the price was too good to be true so he couldn't pass it up. Luckily enough for us, Stu's siblings all had working washing machines so we got the "old" (less than 4 years old) front loader, woo-freaking-hoo!!!

Here is the beauty, isn't she gorgeous? :)

I have done almost every dirty article of clothing, sheets, towels and blankets in my entire house! I have two loads to go. Why is this so amazing? It should've taken me two days to do this much laundry since I was so far behind. I seriously sit and watch the washer spin, so relaxing and amazing to me, hehe.

I think I may actually do a happy dance once the laundry is all put away tonight. Woot!!

A heart wrenching story

I don't know if you have heard of "Team Hoyt" its a father/son team that enters triathlons (like the ironman) and marathons and the like. The dad does all the physical work but the son is the inspiration. Its truly amazing what these two accomplish.

This is a great tribute to them.

Makes me tear up anytime I read an article or see an interview with them.

I'll edit this post later if I can find the latest article that explains things better than I.

Blah's

It seems that I have nothing to blog about. I'm not a very good writer, so I can't turn day to day things into a funny post. So here I sit staring at the screen thinking I should blog, but coming up with nothing to say.

L wanted her hair cut yesterday, I made her wait the whole day incase she decided to change her mind. She didn't until after we were done, lol. Its really cute if I do say so myself, just a regular bob haircut.

Little man decided to fix his hair yesterday, went in the bathroom and got a brush wet (with water, phew, lol) and "spiked" his hair. Tried to get a pic, but he caught me, lol.

M saw me take a pic of little man and wanted a pic of himself cleaning his room. I guess he wants proof that he does listen from time to time ;).

See........nothing to really blog about. But I get a gold star for trying, right? ;)

Poor little M

M was sobbing laying on the couch, we all tried to figure out what was bothering him so much, with no luck. I finally got him to tell me what was wrong. "My Peter Rabbit toy doesn't work, I miss it!" I hold him and hug him for awhile, trying not to gigle the whole time. I'm not cruel, its just funny how randomly he'll be so upset over stuff like this.

The Peter Rabbit toys battery died over a year ago, ha!

4, 5 and 6 hours

Thats how much sleep I've had the last 3 nights. 3 days of work down 4 more to go. I'm so tired. I just sit here at my desk spacing out, accomplishing nothing. I've tried napping and just can't :(

I stupidly told L that I'd take her and her cousin swimming today because last week I wasn't able to. Now all I want to do is sleep, not spend my afternoon at the local pool with atleast 4 kids to watch, sigh.

I am reading everyones blogs still, but I'm too lazy to comment most of the time. I do have all of next week off, so watch out, lol.

Because I'm the Queen and I said so!

I made a joke yesterday about Daddy having to listen to me because I'm the Queen. Here is the following conversation that I had with M, my soon to be 6 year old.

M "You are the Queen? Then Daddy is the King and Kings rule the Kingdom."
Me "Nope, thats what they want you to think. But the Queen usually tells the King what to do."
M "Yeah because kings are usually old, fat and just sit on their throne. Queens are young, pretty and smart."
Me "Yep, thats right. But not all Kings because Daddy works hard and itsn't fat, right?"
M "YEAH!" hehe

Thats my boy :)

I got pulled over today, eek!

I was speeding, accidentally (mostly, hee). I usually got about 5 over the speedlimit, unless its a school zone, but I was going down a hill and went 33mph in a 25mph zone. I realized it and looked up to see a police officer, crap!

So he pulls me over, after doing a semi dangerous move, but I guess its ok since he's a cop ;). And asks about my license plate, phew! Our new license plates had yet to arrive and our windows are tinted so dark that he couldn't see the temporary tag. Luckily I'm a good driver, usually :P, so I had no tickets on my record or any warrants, hee! So he let me go and told me to call on my license plates.

I had dh call, he is awesome, and the plates were in. Now I'm totally legal and happy again :)

Is it back?

My motivation, that is.

I haven't worked out in a long time, running included. Which really just made me sad. I enjoy running and working out, but have not had the energy for it at all. I'm sure the last few weeks can be blamed on the new job but it began before that even. I don't know where my energy went, I have been desperately trying to find it.

Yesterday I needed to get some fresh fruit, I decided to go to SuperTarget so I could browse the clearance isles, hehe. I walked by the workout gear, which I have looked at many times before, and decided to bite the bullet and get an exercise ball. I just did all the exercises outlined in the little booklet the ball comes with plus two more I've done at the gym. I am beat but feel so great! Woohoo!!

I hope that tomorrow we can all go for a nice hike or walk or something as a family and get some more exercise in. I thought about going for a run, but we'll see what happens. I don't want to burn out too quickly this time.

Hee hee hee!

M and I set up our little pool today so the kids could go swimming. They had a great time this morning and got out for lunch and a break. M decided that it was time to swim again so they all race off to get their suits back on. Next thing I see is a naked 5 year old racing by with his suit in his hands....

M "I can't have my wet swimsuit on in the house"
Me "where are you going?"
M "I gotta get dressed outside, its wet!"
Me (trying not to giggle) "you can't go outside naked!"
M "Oh yeah (sheepish grin) I forgot"

So I turn around to giggle and he hurries and gets dressed then outside he goes.

Too bad I was too slow with the camera, that would've been a great scrapbooking page, haha.

Edited to add that boys are gross!

Little man farted in the pool and discovered that it makes bubbles. So now Mason yells across the yard to me "Little man tooted and it made bubbles!!" Little man, not to be outdone by M has to yell it too "I tooted and made bubbles!" so M is pushing as hard as he can to fart too. Nice!

I don't know how........

you working moms do it. I have worked 4 evenings this week so far and I'm exhausted! Seriously, fall down and sleep on the floor exhausted. That is if I could sleep :( I got home at 1:30 this morning, took atleast an hour to fall asleep and I was awake again 4 short hours later. Still tired but unable to sleep :(

I'm just glad that I only have 3 scheduled days next week and that tomorrow is my day off ;)

Hormones suck!

I want to know why people say "oh, you poor thing. It must be hard dealing with your wifes hormonal outbreaks." How about the wife? Its not fun being angry at the world when it didn't do anything to you, lol. Pissed off that the kids are having a great time playing nicely in the pool, just because. Or frustrated that the garbage can is full when you are the one that filled it up.

Or maybe we should talk about the tears....lets randomly cry because maybe your son smiled at you without being prompted. How about tearing up because your daughter decided to clean up after herself without being asked. She's 9 years old for crying out loud! It isn't like this is a rare occasion, well unless you are in the angry part of the hormones, then it never happens :P

I hate going through mood swings. I feel like some sort of crazed whack job that should be locked in a closet and only fed jello and pudding or other soft safe things ;)

I'm going to start saying to the husband of a hormal woman "suck it up, she's the one dealing with all the crap!" tee hee.

Nacho Libre was awesome!

I don't know if it was because I was really stressed and needed a break or if it really was that hillarious, lol. Everyone I have talked to about the movie really enjoyed it, so I say two thumbs up :)

We also got to visit with dh's little brother, which is nice. He lives so close to us but we rarely see him.

The guys at dh's work decided to dress up, they had a costume contest and a Luciador (can't spell that) contest. I was quite embarassed to walk with dh and his mask, lol. But there were many guys that had them on and that helped ;). Dh didn't win, the bosses 8 year old son was there and won the crowd over, he was cute.

I can't wait for next months movie night, we'll get a babysitter for sure!

The power of words....

Hearing "I can't find a sitter for tonight." Just ruins the whole day :( Especially after 5 days of no husband and very little help with the kidletts, not to mention very little sleep, lol.

Then hearing the magical words "sweetie, my dad is coming over to watch the kids." Just lifts the spirit and starts the body happy dancin'. Woot!! I get to go see Nacho Libre, for free, without kids!!!

I survived!

We got back at about 10pm last night. The drive home wasn't nearly as bad as I had imagined. I haven't slept much all week and was really worried about getting really tired while driving and dozing off. So I plugged in my iPod and listened to all my favorite songs and made sure to sing along, hehe.

It was really nice to see my parents and hang out with my sister. My other two sisters didn't visit much, but thats ok. I'm pretty used to it :P My parents are renting a home and have two cats and a dog, plus numerous other cats have lived there and Little Man's allergies have gone haywire, I'm hoping that just being home will help that calm down and I wont need to get him some medicine.

I drove to Vegas on Wednesday to visit two friends, that was a ton of fun! We swam for like 5 hours and have the sun burns to prove it, lol. I slathered sunscreen on Little Man twice and kept him in the shade as much as possible but he still got burned, of course he is a red head so I am not surprised. We will be looking into getting some of these for him.

I'm happy to be home and happy that dh is here too :). He went to eBay live in Vegas for work, worked hard and played hard, so he's happy to be home too, hehe.

Going on Vacation

My dh is going on a business trip for 5 days, so I decided to take the kids and head down to Southern Utah to visit my family :) We are leaving tomorrow morning and I wont be back until thursday night or friday morning.

I hope you all have a great week and don't miss me too much ;)

I got a job :)

Yay!! I'm excited. Its nothing exciting for most people, but it means having a little money and a break from the kids. I will be working at a baseball stadium grilling hamburgers and hotdogs, hehe. Part time and seasonal, it will end just after school starts, great timing!

My Life Monday

Coming soon. I'm having troubles with blogger and our a/c isn't that great so having the computer on just makes the house hotter. My house is cleaner, but I'm in withdrawls, lol.

Has it really been 10 years already?

Thursday Stu and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. I can't believe that it has been 10 years already, though when I think about it, I know it has been. We have three beautiful children, several different jobs, many moves, a ton of cars, and many fun stories because of those years.

We celebrated in February by going to Las Vegas without the kids, woot! So for the actual day, we said "Happy Anniversary" and that was that :), hehe.

I love you, my hunny, and can't wait to see what the next 10 years brings.

H.A.G.S.

Thats what my daughter put in her yearbook, hehe. I saw it and said "hags? what is a hag?" and she looked at me with that look, you know the one "come on mom, you are so dumb!" One that I'm sure I'll get to know well ;)

"Have A Great Summer!"

ha! Think she'll giggle when she sees that again when she's 30? hehe.

Our new car :)

Our Memorial Day weekend was pretty fun, I planted my garden finally! We hung out and I slept a ton, hehe. Then on Monday we bought a car!!!

Its a 2004 Chevy Impala, not my favorite car, but its bigger than our old one, newer and faster ;) I'm very excited because our Grand Am was dying and was too small.

I'll possibly post a pic later if I'm not too lazy ;)

In Memory Of....

I know I'm late, its pretty common for me ;)

I want to first thank all the soldiers, current and from the past. They have sacrificed so much for my freedom and my family. I am so greatful to live here in the U.S. in this time with so many comforts, freedoms and possibilities.

I would also like to talk about my Great Grandma, she was an awesome lady. So spunky, energetic and kind. She was the cookie lady of her neighborhood and loved having all the kids come visit her. She never stopped moving, always busy doing something. Stu and I were married in her backyard and she spent hours the day before making her yard beautiful! The neighbors came over to help out, because she just wouldn't stop, lol. She was 85, I think, at the time. She told me she was 87 several years in a row, lol, so I am not sure her current age when we got married ;)

My Great Grandpa died when I was 11 and I remember him being ill for many years before that. My Great Grandma willed him to live for quite awhile. One favorite story is when he was in the hospital and the drs said he wouldn't make it through the night. She sat on a chair rocking back and forth saying "you are going to make it, I'm not ready to lose you yet!" and "Heavenly Father, don't you dare take him yet, I still need him!" He made it for a few more years and they were a happy time.

She passed away when I was 22 years old. I loved that I was able to know her quite well, spend a lot of time with her and learning so much. She loved everyone and wasn't afraid to speak her mind, she was so great at doing it too. You never felt bad when you were reprimanded and she had everyone scared of her, even though she was maybe 100 pounds and about 4ft 8 inches tall, haha. She was the BYU basketball/football teams #1 fan and was so proud of her signed football and team photos with her in them. She barely reached the players waistes, but you bet they could hear her screaming her support. One day she even wrote one of the players, I forget which one, and told him that he was a role model for kids everywhere and that she saw/heard him swear on T.V. so he needed to be careful. She said "if you get upset just say peas and potatoes."

Thats my Great Grandma and I miss her :)

Not what I had in mind...

I have been trying to eat well and exercise hoping that I would lose a couple of pounds and hopefully some inches as well. After several months of being a good girl ;), I felt better and could feel some nice muscle tone, but no lost inches or pounds. I was a bit frustrated, but figured that muscle tone was better anyway, hehe.

Anyway, I had to have a root canal yesterday, no fun at all. And I still can't chew without lots of pain, so I get to eat lots of smoothies and stuff, which means I'll be losing a few pounds, ha! I'm sure it wont stay off, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts ;)

My Life Monday

My parents named me Meadow because they liked it.

No cool story, just "hey, Meadow thats a good one" "Ok, sounds good to me too" Though my dad likes to tell people that they named me Meadow because that is where I was concieved :P, sure dad....whatever *eyeroll* lol.

I love my name, though it can get frustrating when I tell someone what my name is "Metal? what?!" me "no, Meadow...M.e.a.d.o.w" "wow, oh thats beautiful" is the usual response, haha. But they somehow forget and call me Autumn, Summer or Misty for some reason. Telemarketers usually screw it up too, no idea why, maybe they think its my last name and they don't want to sound foolish? ha.

Oh and one favorite comment I get "Your name please..." me "Meadow" them "no, your first name" duh, like I can't see the form you are filling out and see that it says first name _______. "yes, that is my first name" them "Oh, I'm sorry, that is so pretty"

I thought that with all the more unique names out there now, I'd have it easier but no such luck. Oh well, atleast I don't run into someone with my same name often. One time in my life in fact ;)

My Life Monday

Sorry I'm so late, but it will be worth it, hopefully ;)

How I met my spouse...........

I always wanted to learn Karate, or really any form of Martial Arts and I finally got the chance when I was 17 and working a full-time job. There was a karate studio behind my place of employement (Arby's). I decided to check them out and signed up for a few months. I ended up moving into an apartment with my friends and my sister and her husband so I had to stop taking lessons for a few months. Upon my return I noticed this big, handsome man standing by the windows. My competetive self hoped that he wasn't a higher rank than me, tee hee. But I also wanted to get to know him.

I have to be honest here, I thought that the big, handsome man had a big neck, not something I enjoy. But the rest of him was fine, yum! So he goes and changes into his Gi, in the changing room, pervs. And comes out with a white belt, "phew, I am a higher rank" I thought. Until our sensei told him to go back and get his real belt. I learned later that Stu had gone to the Marine Corps boot camp and had missed a few months of lessons, he felt like he wasn't an orange belt anymore (a rank above my yellow belt, darn). So he wasn't lower than me, dang! And for the record, his neck was big because he was so buff, one bonus to boot camp ;)

We work out and I watch him as much as I can, yes I'm stealth, he had no idea :P. We became friends and hung out a bit after class, but nothing major. He ended up asking my friend out, so I figured he wasn't interested in me and I let my infatuation go. He did ask me out several times and I always turned him down, doh! Mainly because I felt like he was only asking me because his other friends couldn't go, but there was a time or two that I wanted to hang out but couldn't and was too shy to say so.

Stu was in a major motorcycle accident one day and upon hearing the news, I nearly freaked out. It was quite strange, how could I have such strong feelings for someone that I had never really known? I don't know, but I did. I ended up spending almost every day at the hospital with him (nearly 2 weeks) and then I saw him almost daily at his home as well. One of the nurses asked me questions about him because she thought I was his girlfriend, hehe.

Stu's accident was on November 21st, 1995 and we were married on June 1st, 1996. We like to move fairly fast I guess, hee! He is the best thing that ever happened to me! I can't imagine my life any different and nor do I want to. He makes me laugh daily and he is my biggest supporter, always there for me no matter what. He makes sure everyone treats me like the Queen that I am ;). He works so hard so that I can stay home with the kids and listens while I complain about staying home from time to time, tee hee.

Oh and no, his neck is no longer big. He is just right :).

I'm here, I'm melting, and I'm lazy!

Sorry for being MIA lately. I will do my life monday and post about the fun swimming the kids have been doing, tomorrow maybe.

Its freaking hot. My allergies suck. Insurance sucks. Medication freaking costs a ton. I'm freaking hot!

I went to the ENT on tuesday, she wants me to get a CT scan but it will cost atleast $600 so its not going to happen. We're trying allergy meds and nasal washing (sick, eh?) to clear up the chronic sinusitis, since antibiotics aren't doing any good. So we'll see if that works.

How was your Mothers Day?

I hope you all had a great day to enjoy your families. I ended up with a great day. But it started out fairly poorly. My children decided that fighting, crying, whining and general misbehaving was how they wanted me to know they loved me. I guess I'll pretend that it was just their way of getting my attention. Yesterday morning made me glad that I only had 3 children and that we are finished :P.

The afternoon was much better, little man decided he liked the world again and the other two kids decided that they didn't want to be in time out for the rest of their lives ;)

I am so happy to have my children. After yesterday I feel so blessed to have a wonderful husband to share the parenting with me. I don't think I could survive being a single mom. I would probably be running down the street from my home screaming "I can't take it anymore, someone save me!" after the first week, hehe.

M made me a cute plate at school and L made me a card and got me a little chocolate (that she wants me to share with her, lol) and little man gave me one of his toy guns, lol.

I'm thinking that these made up holiday's are more trouble than they are worth :P. Maybe I'll boycott them from now on and wont have to worry about the "gifts" my children decide to bestow upon me ;).

Such a boy!

Here is little man fast asleep on the couch. I walked by and saw how he was sleeping and of course had to snap a pic.

Blackmail photos :)

L and I decided that we needed to pamper ourselves. I have no shame, so these photos don't embarass me, but I'm sure L will hate them in another year or so, tee hee.

Oh and no comments on how my daughter is 9 and almost as tall as me :P



In this one we were supposed to be scary, but I guess L decided we meant we were supposed to look scared? ha!

My Life Monday

Thanks to Rachelle for starting this fun topic.

I have been thinking about this weeks topic "Week 1 topic - My Most Memorable Childhood Experience" and have had a hard time deciding what I wanted to post. I had a pretty normal childhood, nothing major happend to me. Hmm....I think that I'll tell about the time our family went deer hunting. I was about 10, I think, and it was a family tradition, to go hunting every year. We'd go camping for about a week or so and freeze most of the time :P

All of us older kids took turns hiking out with my dad to keep him company. Atleast thats what we thought, it was probably more of a break for my mom ;). We would pack up some hard candy to suck on and bundle up, then trudge off for a few hours until we were too cold or hungry and we'd head back to camp. I was sitting there next to my dad, trying to play quietly because I didn't want to scare the deer away. I found these cool little squishy rocks to stack, I thought it was great fun. Then my dad decided to spoil my fun and tell me that I was playing with deer poop, ewww!! Here I was out in the middle of nowhere, not anything to drink let alone to wash my hands, sick! I was about to get up disgusted and insist on returning to camp when my dad said "shh...there is a deer, don't move." I stood up slowly and quietly with him and took a step back so that I wouldn't be next to his loud gun. He took a shot and the deer ran a few feet then dropped to the ground. My dad instructed me to wait there incase the deer got back up, he would be in shock and might stomp me. Enough said, I wasn't moving ;) hehe.

My dad heads down to the deer and finds it dead, phew. So I go down to him and watch him gut the deer, fascinating actually, but quite stinky. I'm sure not as stinky as Emily's turkey farm, but stinky none-the-less. My dad had to go get help because the deer was much too heavy to drag away. He of course wants to make sure his deer isn't stolen, so I'm enlisted to sit there with dead thing and wait for him to come back. After what felt like an eternity, probably close to an hour, he came back with my mom and his friend with a truck. I was exhaused and stinky and wanted nothing to do with camping or hunting again. We went back to camp and had dinner, I felt good enough to stand next to "my" deer for a picture, so it couldn't have been that bad ;).

My dad called me his good luck charm from then on, I think thats why this experience is one of my favorite memories.

Now what?

I'm out of school for the summer, I am not training or running a marathon this year (though I am tempted). We are not moving any time soon. My kids will be out of school in a month, gasp. They are entertaining themselves as I type, digging holes in the field out back.

I do have a few sewing projects that I want to work on, but its a hard thing to do when the kids hear the sewing machine and think "yes, mom is preoccupied, lets go destroy something." I need something to do. I do plan on planting a garden in the next week or so, but that wont take much more than a couple of days.

Give me some ideas, besides housework ;). How about some wonderful products to sell on eBay that will help me become a millionaire? tee hee. Something like this perhaps? hee!

Remind me...

of this day if I decide to experiment again. I decided to see if drinking vanilla coke really does cause my migraines.



.....it does.

And so does stress, aparently. Found that out last week during finals week :P.

Atleast I know, right?

Happy Birthday, little man.

Its hard to admit that my youngest is now 4 years old! He is suffering from the "spoiled birthday kid" blues. I say blues because I'm getting tired of it :P


Here is the cake, its gorgeous :P. I ended up using a baggie and cutting the corner off. Next time
Amber will be hired or atleast consulted with. I think I'll have her on the phone the whole time if I have to do this again ;)


Little man blowing out the candles, too cute....



Here he is again, in his new clothes and on his new bike, he was mad that I wouldn't push him anymore, so he refused to look at the camera, lol.

Yay! Finals are over :)

My hardest final was last night and I think my brain is still mush :P. I'm just happy to be done, no more studying or anything until August, woohoo!!

Now to figure out how to make a cookie monster cake without a round cake pan or any decorating supplies, lol. I think I'll call my IL's and see if they have the cake pans and then just use my imagination when it comes to making the cake look like its furry, ha.

6 weird things about me....

Sabra tagged me. I am trying to think of 6 noteworthy things and am having a hard time. So I'm sure I'll change this post a few times, updating with good weird stuff :P

1. I have hitch hikers thumb, this pic isn't the best. I'm no photog.



2. I have to have my ankles crossed when I'm laying down, doesn't matter if I'm on my back, tummy or side. And I didn't realize that I did this until little man started doing it about 2 years ago, lol.

3. In 8th grade I was in the class spelling bee and ended up winning it. So I went on to the school spelling bee. Not weird you say? well, I still spell words in my head, like I'm practicing for some randomw spelling bee? no idea. And for the record, I missed the first word at the school spelling bee, ha.

4. I enjoy tomato and cheese sandwiches, yum! tomato in the center and two slices of cheese for the "bread" and thats it, so good. And my sister says that the fact that I enjoy radishes is weird :P

5. The arches of my feet are super high and my toes are super short. I have nice square feet :P

6. I think in a Southern accent, no idea why. I've lived in Utah all my life, except for a brief two year break to California. Its really bad and I start to speak the accent outloud when I hear someone with an accent. But I really suck at it if I try to do it on purpose, lol.

I can be a good mom...

from time to time ;)

I took the kids to a playground today.

M had a blast swinging.




L is a monkey



Little man is not, lol. He is saying "I scared" in that pic, tee hee.



Here is Little man trying to be a monkey, as you can see, he is barely off the ground, lol.



And because I am mean, here is M being scared too :P

Products that I love.

First, my Dyson, it is awesome! I love vacuuming and this just makes it that much more satisfying. I can see all the ick I'm sucking out of my carpet and couches. Makes me feel less dirty ;)

I also love Kaboom, this stuff rocks! It seriously cleans really well and doesn't smell like a cleaner, awesome!

My newest addition to my laundry routine includes Gain laundry detergent. I used to use Arm & Hammer, but the store was out so I chose Gain and haven't looked back :) Smells good, but not strong, cleans well and is pretty reasonably priced.

I'm also inlove with unscented dryer sheets, it used to be hard to find them. Bounce was the only one to make them, but now I can get the store brand that works well. Target is my store brand of choice :)

And last but not least, sidewalk chalk. I forgot I had some until yesterday, my kids have been drawing masterpieces outside for hours. Woot!

Little man funny.

Little man doesn't care much for chocolate. Maybe its because he couldn't have any for so long? no idea.

Anyway, my visiting teacher brought over some treats for Easter. Way cute cupcakes (I'll take a pic in a bit and update this post) with some green coconut and jelly beans on top. The boys were very excited and had to have one right this second. Fine by me, I wanted one too ;). So I get one for each of the boys and had to explain what the "gween guff is" several times.

Little man eats a jelly bean and says "mmmm...this is gweat!" Then he tastes the "gween guff" and says "ewww, gacks yucky" while running to spit it out in the garbage can. I say "its ok if you don't like the coconut, just take it off and throw it away." He looks at me and back at his cupcake, opens his mouth wide and takes a large bite right of the top. I was watching intently since he just stated that he didn't like the coconut and the cupcake is chocolate, lol. He gets this look on his face that was priceless, I wish I had my camera ready. It was like he had the most vile, disgusting thing ever known to man in his mouth. It was hilarious!! He ran and spit it out in the garbage and then walked over to me.....

"Nevermind, you have it." whilst handing me the cupcake, tee hee.

Migraines suck!

I think I have a sympathy migraine because of Sheri's return of migraines. Excedrine migraine usually works fairly well for me, for the pain anyway. But I was at the grocery store when this one hit and I had to wait bout 40 minutes before I was able to take any meds. They aren't really helping this time :(

I guess its time to go back to the doctor and ask for samples of meds again. I need to find one that works for me. If anyone has any nausea tips, I'd appreciate them. I don't usually throw up but I get super nauseus, which sucks.

There go my plans for doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom and writing a paper today, sigh.

I actually worked out today!

I have been really lazy lately. As soon as I decided against running a marathon this year, I stopped running. So today, after a two week layoff, I went running :). I made it about 2.5 miles in 30 minutes, way slow, but thats ok. I'm just glad that I got out there and got over my slump. Atleast I hope I'm over it. I also lifted some weights for my upper body, now my arms feel like they are going to fall off, hehe.

Little man was mad though, he wanted to go to the gym daycare and I let him down :P. I told him that I'd take him tomorrow so I can workout again, that seemed to appease him somewhat. I guess that will force me to workout again since he will not let me forget my promise, haha.

My finals are in two weeks, I feel like I have been sitting on my butt for way too long lately. I'm really looking forward to summer vacation, woohooo!

Little man is still allergic to corn :S

His reaction was less severe than the last time he was exposed to corn. So I suppose I should take comfort in that. But I'm still tired of dealing with food allergies as I'm sure he is as well.

Stu took Little man for their father/son day and they had a blast! But my hunny forgot that Little man can't have chicken nuggets since they always include corn and/or soy, both are part of his allergen list :P. He seems to be back to normal today, which is awesome! So maybe in another 6 months or so, we can try again and maybe, just maybe we can mark another allergen off the list.

Update: (monday April 10th) Little man is still having some intestinal issues today, but no rashes and his tummy doesn't seem to be hurting much, so the duration of his reaction is the same as usual, but the severity seems to have lessened :)

That was awesome!

I had the opportunity to help with the Deaf Conference at UVSC this week. I was part of the "security" team, which makes me laugh cause I am not very big or (hopefully) scary looking, haha. I just made sure that the conference goers were in the right rooms and gave them stickers for their interpreter credentials or whatever its called ;)

I love watching people use sign language. Its amazing to me that they can converse without any sounds (well, that they can hear). It can be so beautiful, funny, serious, somber, whatever that is needed. I learned that I know hardly any signs, lol. Everyone was so accepting, so understanding, just wonderful.

I can't wait for the next conference in 2008, hopefully by then I'll know enough signs that I wont have to stare at them blankly and say "sorry, I don't know", I can actually be helpful. Well, I did tell one person where a classroom was that he was looking for and another what time it was. So I wasn't a complete idiot ;)

Its April!

I don't want stupid snow in April! I want warm weather, cute flowers, green grass, no jackets! Yes, I know its Utah and I should be used to this. But I don't wanna, waaah!

I think I'll hibernate today :P

Finally!!

I started working on this shower curtain like 6 months ago, lol. I finally finished it whilst watching General Conference this past weekend. I love it!! Its not perfect, but I think its pretty and I made it all by myself. Well, my hunny helped me figure out how much material to get ;)

Now to work on my quilt I planned a year or so ago, tee hee.

I'm so lazy.

I have eaten so much junk food in the last 5 days, I could've started my own convenience store :S. And when I eat like crap, I feel like crap. When I feel like crap, I don't do anything. :( I did manage to clean off my desk and do some homework. Got a few things ready to list on eBay, but nothing like I usually do on the weekends. I feel like such a lump.

Now lets add the time change, I feel like I haven't really slept in the last two days. Rather than fold clothes and clean up my living room, I'm staring at my computer. Nothing to read or do, just spacing out. I decided to blog about it, so I could say I did accomplish something today :P

I suppose I should go make a salad, snap myself out of my gluttonous pit of junk. But that would require movement, not to mention the chewing. I guess its good I ate all the girl scout cookies, candy bars and just about everything else containing sugar in my house :P. I heard that eating a banana can help your mood. Maybe I'll go eat the last one ;)

So good at talking myself out of stuff.

I woke up this morning and thought "I should go workout at the gym today, it has been a few days since I've exercised." So I got up, went to the bathroom and thought "nah, I'll go shopping instead." Yep, I went shopping, lol. Thats exercise right? It sure felt like it with all the weaving through crowds of people at the store. Reaching through a couple that wouldn't move to get that self charging flashlight, score! Lugging a gallon of milk and my purchases up the stairs and into the house. Yeah, that counts ;)

I did rearrange my living room furniture yesterday, so that should count too. I'll be doing laundry today, up and down 14 stairs about 100 times will be a good workout too :P

Yeah, now I'm talking myself out of thinking I'm a big lazy lump on a log. Man....I'm good!

Little man brag.

Little man will be 4 in exactly one month! I can't believe it, I really can't. How can my youngest be 4? I'm freaking old!! Oh wait, this is a brag post.

I have been trying to get my kids to eat healthier, it has taken a long time of "just one taste" "one little bite" "no, you don't have to eat it all, but you have to try some atleast" Finally, we saw some positives when it comes to veggies. Little man loves salads, he almost ate my whole salad the other day rather than eating his jelly sandwich and chips. (yeah, I know that wasn't the healthiest lunch, but I needed to go grocery shopping and was desperate, lol.) I use very little dressing on my salads, I like something juicy on there in its place, like mandarin oranges or chunks of pineapple. So it was really a quite healthy lunch for my munchkin :)

Also, I have been working on having Little man lay in bed for some quiet time. He gave up naps over a year ago and some days he is just a beast! Quiet time usually helps him regroup and be a happier kid. We are up to 30 minutes a day now and he usually asks for quiet time, wohoo!! I get him about 5 books, right now Dr. Seuss is the bomb, and he will "read" to himself until the timer beeps. I'm thinking of working up to 45 minutes or so and calling that good rest time. Sure makes my computer time guilt free, tee hee.

Yay for spring!

Our landlords take care of our yard. We do no yardwork at all, so spoiled!! Anyway, they hired some landcapers to come and rip out all the evergreen bushes, woohoo!! I hate evergreen bushes, not even sure thats what they are called, lol. I'm so excited that I want to just sit out on the lawn and watch as those ugly things are ripped out of the earth and piled high waiting for carting off, far away from my house, wohoo!!

I am loving the sun we have this morning, the warming temps, no scraping of ice off our windshield. Flowers are starting to pop up, grass is trying to green up a bit. Just a happy day in Utah. Of course my backyard is a big mud pit because all of the rain and my boys will want to be out there playing, pure joy for kids...warm weather, sunshine and mud!

I can't wait to go running early tomorrow, I love running early when the sun is rising and very few people are out, such a renewal of my love for running :)

Re-evaluating

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately, about my life, my family, my priorities. I went through a "I need more me time" phase and kept trying to find more things for me to do that were soley for me. Running is one of them and so is school and hanging out with friends and/or people at church. It has all started to add up to a lot of "me time." And as the training ramps up for the marathon, even more time away from my family is required. I suppose I could get up early and go before anyone is awake, but then I'd be a zombie and wouldn't be able to focus on school as well.

I have decided that, for now, I will not be running any marathons. I think training for a half marathon is about as much as I can successfully juggle. Maybe once I am finished with school and the kids are a bit older I can start training again. But for now, its about priorities and a marathon isn't at the top of my list.

I'll still be running and working out, but not as many miles or hours spent away from my loved ones.

Oh to have the energy of a 3 year old.

I think I'd be able to run a marathon a day if I could just get back the energy I had as a preschooler. Little man is now sick with what M had this weekend, just worn out, fever, headache, blah. So I get Little man to rest for about 15 minutes and he's up and ready to go again, until he realizes that he is sick and needs to lay down a bit, lol.

I think I need to figure out how to turn those genes back on and then I can sell the secret and make billions of dollars. Not to mention all the running races I could win ;, kidding of course.

15 miles! and my week in training.

Yep, thats right, 15 miles is what I ran this morning. I am still surprised that I could actually go that far. Its amazing what the human body can do. I was really intimidated by this run, scared to even try it. I almost talked myself out of running at all, lol.

I have learned that I can do much more than I think I can. I can push myself harder than I ever imagined, just as long as I focus and don't let the negative comments that pop into my head win. I have to encourage myself, tell myself that I can do it, just keep going. It feels really good actually!

With a very tough last few days, I haven't been eating well or sleeping well. I have been stuck here on the computer trying to make sense of many things. I felt almost lost in a deep void. But with my faith, my family and my friends, I was able to press on and see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thank you everyone that has supported me and helped me along the way. I am becoming a much better person because of it.

Monday - 4 miles
Tuesday - 7.2 miles
Wednesday - 3.6 miles plus 20 minutes weight training
Thursday - rest day
Friday - nothing
Saturday - 15.5 miles

Total 30.3, all time high!!! woohoo :)

Running is my therapy...

I find that I can think through problems and emotions more rationally when I run. Somehow the energy that would've been spent on emotions is used up by my running, so I'm able to think things through. Find solutions or atleast come to terms with things happening in my life. I can almost take a step back and see things from a perspective I may not have seen before. Its rather refreshing.

Some days that means running my hardest, others it means just shuffling along deep in thought. Of course those runs are usually done on the treadmill so I don't accidentally go into traffic or something ;) The miles usually just fly by and its awesome!

I highly recommend some activity that helps you clear your mind. It doesn't necessarily have to be some intense form of exercise. I do enjoy gardening, hiking, swimming, going on leasurly walks. But the best form, for me, is to run and I'm so thankful that I can run and hope I can for many years to come.

Canyonlands Half Marathon Report - long

This will be really long. So I'll start with stats on how it went, feel free to skip the rest if you'd like :)

This was my second half marathon, my first didn't go so well. My time was 2:35:55 officially and I wanted to beat that. I had three goals 1. beat my PR. 2. Finish strong. 3. Break 2:20.

I finished in 2:22:42, but finished strong. I'm very satisfied with my time and performance. I feel I did the best I could do and for me it was great! :)

Saturday I woke up pretty well rested yet worried about the weather. The forcasters had predicted rain and thunderstorms. I like running in the rain, but haven't for a distance over 4 miles. I was worried about blisters and chafing. I went outside to check the weather so I could decide what to run in. It was gorgeous out! I should've taken a pic of the sunrise. Anyway, I decided to go with my skirt, a tanktop and my t-shirt over the top of that. I wanted to be able to take off my shirt if need be since I hadn't trained in any temp over 40 degrees or so in the last several months.

We head out (I was traveling with my friend Sheree) to the bus for our ride up the canyon. I gotta say, porta poties are nasty yet wonderful for those times that the need arises :P. Sometimes I wish I were a man and could just go pick a tree to pee on, tee hee.

Once up the canyon it was pretty chilly but not horrible. We wait in the giant pack of runners for the gun to sound. It was so exciting standing there with that many runners, my biggest race so far. Though thats not hard to do since it was only my 3rd race ever, lol.

The gun goes off and people start to cheer, we start moving and then stop again, lol. Finally we cross the start line. I kept telling myself to slow down, don't go out too fast. First mile was around 9:40, oops there goes my planned 11 minute mile, haha. The 2nd mile was slightly better at about 10 minutes even (yeah, I got a fancy watch that records split times but I can't figure out how to get the times off it, hahaha). So I settle down into a nice groove, I find a couple that look to be running pretty even times and try to keep them in my sights. I kept losing them at aid stations though, so I found a girl with a yellow tanktop and followed her. I felt really good until about mile 8, yikes nature is calling and not going to be ignored.

I find a port a potty at about mile 9 and try to make it quick so I don't lose much time. I lost my pacer and had to try and keep the pace on my own. I didn't mention the strong, strong winds that were in our face the whole time. I don't think we got a break for more than a few seconds or a minute at most, for the whole race.

At mile 10 a woman comes running up to me and we make small talk, her husband meets up with us a little after that and we make introductions. Her husband is a much faster runner than us but is injured so he couldn't run the whole race. He wanted to run with his wife for the last few miles to keep her company, how sweet! He asks me my time goal and I tell him, he could tell I was really struggling, this wind was taking a lot out of me. I guess the too fast miles at first could be getting me back too, hehe.

Jim, the one running with me and his wife, Donna. We so awesome supporting me and encouraging me. I don't think I could've kept going that fast without them. In the excitement of meeting new people, I forgot to take my Gu, so I'm sure that had something to do with my lack of energy as well. I realized it at about mile 11 and figured it was too late anyway, so I continued on the best I could.

We came out of the canyon and the winds were really bad, right at our faces, I had to bend over a bit to keep from flying backwards, fun fun. We got hit by a ton of sand at the 2nd to last turn. I remember thinking "do I really want to race or do I just want to finish? I can just walk, who cares if I don't meet my time goal?" then I snapped myself out of it and said "you can do it, get your butt moving!" A few volunteers yelled out "1/2 mile to go" I was so sad "what? I was hoping it was 1/4 mile, you are killing me" Donna laughed and said "the last is the worst". And luckily the next volunteer said "1/4 mile to go, you look great!"

We turned the last corner and I said "I can't do this anymore, I gotta get this overwith" Donna said "I'm going to jog it in, you go for it. You can do it!!" I smiled and said "thank you so much" her husband, Jim said "Meadow, you are so strong, you are doing great. Go Meadow, Go!" so I did. As fast as my beat up legs could go. I saw Sheree and contemplated stopping and cheering for everyone else instead of running another step, but decided that would be lame, lol. She ran ahead to get a picture of me and that made me laugh. I couldn't decide if I should slow down for a nice pic or just keep chugging along to get it done. I chose to get it done, luckily the pic looks good so its all good.

I finished in 2:22:42, an almost 13 minute PR. I'm proud of myself considering the challenges I met along the way. No running for 4 weeks and then only being back at it for 3 weeks when it came to race time. Even if training went perfectly, I would still be happy since I did better and felt much better after this race than I did after my last one. After a few minutes of stretching and resting I felt great!

I'm already planning next years race :)

Its getting close!!!

My half marathon is this Saturday! I'm getting really excited :). I can't wait to be surrounded by other runners. The excitement, adrenaline, shared enthusiasm. So many other people that love doing the same thing I do. We are all out there for different reasons, but the end goal is basically the same. Sure there will be those speedsters that will be running to win, but the rest of us will most likely be running to run.

I hope to beat my half marathon time from last year. I want to have a better experience and just enjoy myself. The forcast is for rain, so I'm a bit worried about that, but the temp should be pretty nice. And the scenery will be breathtaking as usual.

And my fabulous hunny will be staying at home with the kids so that I can get a good nights rest and prepare for a great race! He is so awesome and supportive of my crazy hobby. I love you, my hunny.

I think I better remember this post when I get to about mile 11 and start thinking "what am I doing out here, this is crazy!" hehe.

Two posts in one :)

First, my week in training.

Monday - 0, lazy butt
Tuesday - 2.5, super hard weight workout too, eek
Wednesday - 5.5 slow and steady
Thursday - 3, just walked, trying to work the soreness out
Friday - rest
Saturday - 9, freezing! and of course the sun is out now that I'm home :P

Total- 20 miles

And I had to share the true reason that I had kids. To kill spiders for me. I hate spiders, oh very much hate them. I can't stand to even watch them on TV, ick! I do have to say that I'm a pretty darn good actress ;). "Oh look Little man, there is a spider. Wanna get it?" Little man says "ok, I squish it" and I say "Good job buddy! put it in the garbage now" big smile on my face the whole time. While inside I'm trembling, hoping he chooses the kitchen garbage over the one next to me, lol.

Ouchie

I worked out with a trainer at the gym yesterday. I stupidly said "lets do legs and abs today" yeah, first day of the week for running and I want to kill myself before I even begin, ha.

So my legs were pretty much jello the whole day. It was quite humorous I'm sure. I had to take the elevator at Stu's office because I couldn't walk down the stairs without my legs buckling. They didn't hurt, just exhausted! So I wake up this morning to an entire body as sore as can be. "oh good, looks like the 5 miler I have scheduled will go well" I thought sarcastically.

But I did it, and I think I'm more proud of myself for sticking it out, albeit slowly, and getting it done. Rather than giving up and using all the excuses I gave myself this morning. I do feel a little better now too, so thats good.

I think I'll ask my hunny to give me a leg massage tonight :)

My week in review 2/27 - 3/4

So happy to be able to post this again :) we'll see how I feel when the mileage really gets high, lol.

Monday - 3 miles around the park while the kids played
Tuesday - weights, posted my whines about this earlier ;)
Wednesday - 6.2 on the treadmill, tiring but great too
Thursday - rest
Friday - 4.3 supposed to be marathon pace, but I'm still a bit slow from my lack of running, also did weights for abs and lower back.
Saturday - 12.15 tiring, but awesome! Not nearly as sore as last weeks 9 miler, woot!
Total = 25.6 miles running
1 hr of weight training

I just got back from the podiatrist too, all clear to keep running, wohoo!!! Bring on the half marathon, baby :)

Why did I want to get into shape?

I keep telling myself its so I can be toned and look good, feel good. But I think really, that its a form of torture. Maybe I have some deep hidden feelings that I deserve to suffer ;)

I was lifting weights on Tuesday when one of the trainers came over trying to get me to sign up and said I could have a free session to see if I would like working with a trainer. I said "sure, that sounds great!" of course he finds the biggest trainer they have, ha! So this big guy comes over and we decide to work on my biceps and back. I think half the time I was lifting weights more than half my weight. Um...yeah, I think I'll be sore for the rest of my life, lol.

Hi, I'm Meadow.....I can't straighten my arms completely or pick up my 3 year old without wincing. But yeah, I'll be toned and in good health soon, right? RIGHT?!?

9 miles, woohooo!!!

I was a bit nervous about this run. I haven't gone more than 5 miles in over a month. But I need to get these longer runs in since the half-marathon is getting close. I was tired, but not so bad that I couldn't keep going.

I'm feeling much better about life, now that I can get back into my routine again.

Oh and some woman tried to run me over today, that was nice :P. Who knew that a stop sign was only if you felt like stopping. Ya learn something new every day ;). I smacked her car with my hand and she drove by, haha.

My first run in almost a month!

It was great :). I am slower than I was, but I think I'll get some of the speed back fairly quickly. I ran 3 miles total, counting warm up/cool down. My foot feels fine and my legs are tired, woot! I did some ab/lower back work as well. So happy to get two days of working out in a row.

And the sun is out and shining!! such a great day :)

Wahooo!!!!!!

I got the go ahead to run again, yippee!!!! I am so excited I can't stand it :)

btw, a flexible cast is just my foot taped a bit differently than it has been for the past three weeks :P

Ahh...thats better :)

No, I didn't get to run, but I did get in a great workout this morning! So good that I had to rest for awhile after breakfast, lol. My cute cute kids decided that they wanted to workout, so they asked me to show them a few things to try. I tried doing jumping jacks (yeah, cheater version so I didn't hurt my foot ;) ), but my legs were beat. Kindof embarassing acutally :P

Little man is getting pretty good at pushups and he's only 3. M can do a few situps, but watch out for leg lifts, that boy is a natural ;). L is great at just about anything she tries. Too bad she doesn't feel the need to apply that talent to picking up after herself ;)

Off to watch some speed skating and the Super G at the Olympics!

Some good news!

I went to the podiatrist yesterday and mustered up the courage to ask when I might be able to run again. I told him that I'm trying to be good, but I'm really dying here, lol. He said next monday!!!! I'm so excited I can't stand it! He said he'll put me in a flexible cast, not sure what that is, but hopefully its not ugly ;) and then I can start running again.

I'm seriously giddy! I think its the best news I've had in quite awhile. Well, aside from Stu's big raise in November, hehe.

Oh and Little man is doing so well with the gym daycare, that I think I'll start running mid morning when everyone else is gone. That way I'm not missing any family time and Little man gets to socialize and play with new toys.

Still here

I'm a bit bummed about my foot. Its still a little tender and swollen, so its retaped and will most likely be taped again this week. I'm scared to ask when he thinks I'll be able to run again. I don't know if I want to know.

I think my salt lake marathon plans will be shut down :(. I'm pretty bummed about it actually. But not running consistently for 4 weeks isn't a great way to start training. I don't know what I'm going to do. Try for a later marathon? give up on marathoning and just stick with half's or shorter races? Maybe do sprint triathlons instead? Become a couch potato and give up on exercise entirely? ;). Gotta admit, the last one is tempting, though I think I'd go crazy and so would my family.

So for now, my blog will probably rambles from a wanna be runner :S

Injuries suck!

I started experiencing pain in my foot about 3 weeks ago. I figured that my old shoes were just too worn out, but I was planning on getting new ones so I just cut back my mileage a bit in hopes that nothing would get worse. Got my new shoes, woot! But the foot pain got much worse :(

Luckily my landlord/neighbor is a podiatrist. So I went to see him and he says my facia, or whatever the name of the tendon in my arch is called ;), was hurt. So he taped up my foot and said no running, waah. I am going on vacation (Vegas baby!) so I wont be able to see the dr again until friday, the 10th.

I'm pretty bummed out, but hope that a week or two off of running will take care of everything and I can jump back in to training and still get to run the planned marathon. I started taking a spinning class in hopes of keeping up my aerobic capacity.

In other words, blah blah blah, don't run and try not to go crazy in the meantime.

New Shoes!!!!

Oh how I love getting new shoes! I'm so excited to try them out. I already told Stu that I'm going for a short run (3 miles) after dinner, tee hee.

They are blue and white, mostly blue since I hate the dirty "white" look that takes over the first time you run in your new shoes. They are so comfy and feel great when I'm running! Nice and supported but not too stiff or hard. Not loose and wiggly like my last pair felt, even when my laces were tight.

Perfect timing since marathon training officially starts on Monday, woohoo!! Oh and "Hawk" the owner of Runner's Corner, gave me some tips on training for the Canyonlands half marathon. So I'm psyched up for that now too, yay!

Tag, I'm it!

Seven Things To Do Before I Die:
Run my first marathon
Beat my race times for the half marathon and 10k (the only races I've done thus far)
Own a home
Own a car that isn't about to die the moment we purchase it
Get my bachelors degree
Keep a clean house for more than 2 days in a row ;)
Finish raising my three wonderful kids, gotta make sure they survive childhood with me as their mother

Seven things I cannot do:
Squish spiders
Chew ice
Swim, unless you count doggy paddling ;)
Eat mushrooms
Sing
Stop eating junkfood
Get rid of this headache!

Things That Attract Me To My Spouse (In NO particular order):
His smile
His butt
His sense of humor
His generosity
He is always looking out for whats best for me first
His refusal to say my name ;), hehe kidding
How hard he works to provide for us

Seven Things That I Write (Or Say) Most Often:
Stop saying penis!
Don't bite!
Pick up this mess
No more fighting!
I love you
Please stop talking!
LOL!

Seven Movies I Could Watch Over And Over Again:
Titanic, aww
Transformers, not by choice, but I've got it memorized so it counts ;)
Umm..movies? hmm...I rarely watch movies so I'm cheating and switching it to tv shows :P
CSI
House
CSI New York
Survivor
The Biggest Loser

Seven People I Want To Join In:
Stu, my hunny :)
Why am I always picked last? everyone on my list has been chosen, dang!

Blah!

I am feeling blue this week. Or something. I've been having sinus headaches again, well sortof again since they never really stop. And that means that I don't sleep well, which means I don't work out, which means I am mean and grumpy.
Yeah, I'm a winner. I've logged 3 miles so far this week, to put that in a context, I should be at 10 miles thus far. Yeah, I suck.
Add the cloudy, bleck weathear that dumped 5 or so inches of snow last night. I'm no fun to be around. I think I need to take some meds and hit the hay a little early tonight. Maybe buy myself a treat ;)

Annoying Christmas presents...

I was trying to decide which Christmas presents were hits and which ones were annoying, ones that I wanted to get "lost". This year most of the gifts were winners, the kids love them and they aren't really annoying. Well, the light sabres aren't exactly quiet toys, but we can handle 'em.
Last year however, brought a toy that I think needs to be banned. My Mom bought them for the kids and I know that Grandparent's are supposed to buy loud, obnoxious toys that the kids love but the parents wish would die. My mom succeeded in her endevour, she got walkie talkies. Not any walkie talkie, they are scooby doo and she of course provided batteries. Gee, thanks mom! But whats worse? They have this wonderful little button that you can push for a S.O.S. sound. Do my kids know S.O.S? of course not, all they know is that you can hold this handy dandy little button down and a high pitched squeel is emitted from little Scooby that makes me want to jab screw drivers into my head. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! EEEEEEEEEE!!!

Yeah, they live in the top of the closet most days, but I do send them outside from time to time so the neighbors can enjoy the sounds of dying Scooby. We do, afterall, have many neighbors that are grandparents. I figured that their kids are thanking me for sharing in the pain that we endure with their gifts :)