What’s Up? The September edition (an epic tale)

 

Here are (more than) a few thoughts on the month of September. If you don’t want to read everything, the pictures do a great job of summing everything up.

 

Jared …

• still loves his pet frog Pacman. We found a place to buy bigger crickets but they die a lot faster.
• is still happy & smiling a lot. He had to get four teeth pulled – all on the same day. The roots were very long & not going anywhere soon. His bottom teeth are very crowded so it had to be done. He had happy gas & when we driving home he said, “That felt funny! It was like Tom & Jerry were REAL!” It reminded me of  the youtube video of David at the dentist.
• is very thoughtful about the hows and whys of everything. I will add an example if I can think of one…
• involved in Cub Scouts at church. He loves completing the requirements & his friends.
• taking piano lessons & gaining finger strength when he remembers to practice. He loves music & singing. His favorite songs are popular songs that he hears from his brothers.
• playing baseball on a fall ball team. (Fall ball is a more relaxed version – they don’t officially keep score (thankfully!), only one practice & game a week, more instructional & less competitive.) Jared is much, much better since spring. He likes to play catcher & hits the ball pretty well most of the time.

  

 

  Ryan …

• is so good with little kids! I gave my friend’s kids a ride to church one Sunday & they asked him to come sit in the back seat by them. He played & colored & was their friend. It made my heart happy.
• plays baseball for a travel ball team. He has been very blessed & is able to only play on Saturdays! (Travel ball is a more competitive level & usually means two games Saturday & two games Sunday.) Today, while up to bat in the top of the last inning, he was hit by a crazy pitch in the chest. He has two practices per week & then games on a few Saturdays of each month.
• is the deacon’s quorum president at church & working on his scouting requirements. He loved scout camp this summer & earned seven merit badges in a week.
• takes piano lessons & is starting to sound really good. (The hoe-down song is getting a little old though!)
• works hard when he wants something. He wanted a little electronic gadget & saved & saved for over a year to get it.
• loves to run. He is participating in the running club at his middle school. One day each week they run around the track for thirty minutes. He currently holds the record for running around the track the most times in fifteen minutes. (9.75 times – only whole numbers count – so 9) He is hoping to run at the kids’ marathon at the end of October but has developed knee pain in the last week or two. :(
• has a goal to get all A’s for the year. He is great about getting his homework done, pacing out assignments, and turning things in. Last week, he was accused of not turning something in & I knew for sure that the teacher had forgotten that he had turned it in.

 

 

Chris …

• has two college classes in addition to his high school classes this semester – world history and college algebra. The reading list for world history gave me nightmares for a week! He attends a very small high school (under 450 students) but is given great opportunities.
• is on the varsity cross-country team. He can pretty much run forever. Today, he decided to run twelve miles & ran around the neighborhoods until he was finished. After running nine miles last weekend, he shaved 30 seconds off his best time this year. Last week, he was the fastest runner for his school.
• loves the social life (=girls) on the cross-country team and high school in general.
• loves to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. He frequently has opportunities in his high school classes to explain what he believes and why. He is not ashamed to speak up & tell people what he believes.
• has recently discovered the joys of text-messaging.
• gets up at 5:30 a.m. every morning, showers & gets breakfast, makes his lunch, and goes to early morning seminary.(starts at 6:30 a.m.) He does this cheerfully & willingly every single day.
• loves to help people – either with their homework or their running. Sometimes, he slows down during a race to help someone who is truly injured. (I feel bad telling him to not stop to help – but it’s a race!!!)
• is down to the fine-tuning part of his braces. He will have a retainer for a few years & then get implants where he has a peg lateral & a missing tooth before his mission.
• does not really hop into photographs very often… or else he’s just not home much. I will take more pictures in October!  (And just added the post-priesthood-session photo!)

   

Scott  …

• had his birthday at the end of August. The number may be getting bigger but he is still as fun & energetic as the day we met. He loves to play & run & makes life fun.
• is running & training for the Greenville marathon at the end of this month. Some runs are good & some are not. Today was 21-miles & a great run! He ran negative splits – he got faster as he went along.
• works hard every day. Business is slow right now, but his job should be fine.
• helps Ryan’s baseball team as the first base coach or whatever the coach asks him to do.
• still on the high council with YSA, seminary, & institute responsibilities. Next weekend is the HUGE YSA conference & he’s doing the activities on Saturday afternoon.
• I do not know how he manages to get everything done that he does in a given day!!! He works circles around me & smiles almost all the time.
• runs with me (much slower than his pace) & encourages me along the way.
• takes me out on a date every single week.

Jenna …

• drives and drives and drives and drives. Three kids, three schools, three teams, cub scouts, boys scouts, and piano. Have I forgotten anything?
• is eating healthier and exercising a lot. I started working with a  personal trainer back in June. I say he is the real deal. I write down everything I eat, record it in LoseIt! and then take the print-outs to DJ to look at. I stand on the scale & then we work out for an hour while he teaches me whatever I need to know. I had Ryan take my picture last week with the sign at the grocery store because my trainer says, “You have some sweet tooth!!!” (Um, yeah, we were going to buy ice cream for family night!!!) I still have more weight to lose but I am making steady progress.
• is running more. Last Saturday Scott & I ran downtown for over seven miles. Then I went back on Thursday and ran nine miles. I am training to do the half marathon at the end of October. I am hoping to break 2:30 but I am not going to hold my breath. My toenails are very battered, bruised, and oozing.
• loves Spinning! It is a cycling class at the gym, can burn >600 calories per hour, & is just fun.
• is still amazed that I have such a nice husband, good kids, & a great life! My life feels mostly out-of-control and chaotic every day & I am behind on almost everything (except the mortgage payment) but it is still pretty great.

OK, thanks for sticking with me. Hopefully I can shorten this next month (if anyone still reads my blog by then).

9.0 miles – first time!

Today I went running at the park downtown. Unlike most mornings, there were very few other runners out on the paths today. Maybe running is designated as a Monday, Wednesday, Friday sport. I was nervous & decided to go run the streets of Greenville. I hated waiting for traffic, but it was nice to see things from foot rather than by car.  Good times - glad it's over!

I purposefully got lost so that I would have to keep running & running & running. It worked.

Frog and Toad Together

 

Last night at youth night at church, the boys caught a toad & asked if he could come home with us. Being the great mom that I am (and being far too busy talking to realize that the toad was large enough to be a challenge for Pacman), I said, “Yes. Go right ahead!” After finally rounding up the boys & driving home, we all bounded upstairs to video the adventure. As Ryan opened the lid of the cup, the toad escaped onto the floor.

Link to video --> The toad tries to escape. You can see the frog’s leg about 4 o’clock on the cup.

Please try not to notice that Ryan & Jared do not believe in picking up their laundry off the floor. We talk about it frequently & eventually (hopefully) it will get better. Maybe knowing that everyone is seeing their skivvies on the floor will be enough to inspire them to clean up.

The next video shows Pacman chomping on the toad. I quit videoing & lost my appetite for an entire day. (I didn’t say that I didn’t eat. I am just saying that anytime I thought of food, I thought of frog & toad...) It really is one of those things that I really wanted to see, but I didn’t really want to see what I thought I wanted to see. (That’s a quote from Kay Montgomery – it applies to car accidents as well as animal encounters.) Pacman is buried in the moss just behind the toad’s left rear leg.

Link to video –> Pacman captures the toad.

Pacman

My kids have been begging me for pets FOREVER. We had a few beta fish. (I took a picture once but I can’t find it right now.) They have loved everyone else’s bunnies, dogs, cats, horses, goats & more. One of my kids even asked me if I was allergic to fish because they were desperate for a pet. The fish weren’t too bad – except Freddie smelled really, really bad after he slowly sunk to the bottom of the tank. (I will amend the post if I find the picture.)

 

Fast forward to the year 2010 & Jared’s 8th birthday. His cousin Spencer & his wife Zoe showed up at our house with Pacman, the frog.  Jared was DELIGHTED! I was unsure but willing to go along for the good of my little boy’s joy and happiness. Just know that I was never born to be the mother of a reptile. Pacman likes to eat – a lot! (And I have a family of hungry boys – I know hungry!!!)  He has eaten a mouse, two lizards, and a gazillion crickets. He stalks his prey – too funny to watch. I now go to PetSmart & buy crickets & pinkies (little dead frozen mice – ew!)

To learn more about Pacman, you can check this article out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratophrys

 

It will all be fun & games until someone has to clean out the cage. Pacman has lunged at some of my boys. I am not crazy enough to put my hand inside.

Labor Day Beach Trip

We drove down to our favorite beach on Friday night so that we could spend the entire day Saturday playing in the sand & the surf. All that our kids require are a few boogie boards & a shovel. We stayed in our favorite condo – the water is just beyond the palm tree over Chris’ right shoulder. The room that we stayed in was officially adorable. The kids were totally freaked out by the stuffed cat – they thought that the owners had stuffed the family pet.  I went running on the beach – and Christopher totally saved the day by bringing me Gatorade & almonds & a granola bar. After I got back, we ate, slathered on sunscreen, packed up the car, & went down to play on the beach. Our best friends (the Barlows) & their family came & joined us on the beach. The sky was a bit overcast so we were able to stay out forever & no one was sunburned. (Hooray!)

Long Runs

I have signed up for the Spinx Half Marathon in Greenville in late October. I have run/walked a few half marathons before but I have never seriously put in the training necessary. While I was talking to my trainer the other day, he asked me what I was doing to prepare. … I was thinking about the possibility of maybe putting some miles in. I have printed out the running schedules. But I haven’t really put in the miles because of injuries. Last Saturday I ran 5.0 miles at the beach – 2.0 miles of running & then 3.0 miles of misery back to the hotel because of an improper breakfast & the heat & water.

Today, I had no motivation for a long run. I think I was scheduled for 9.0 miles but I am behind & decided 7.0 was better than 0.0! I had no motivation as I changed into my t-shirt & shorts. I had no desire to run as I put on two watched (the HRM & the Garmin). I had no desire as I laced up my favorite Asics over my favorite Asics socks. I sat down & ate a snack (a string cheese & half an apple). I walked out the door & still did not feel like running. I walked down the hill & out to the street & started to run.

I decided to stay in the neighborhoods because of the lack of shoulders & sidewalks out in the real world. And fast cars & dogs & no bathrooms & … I just liked staying close to home. I ran in & out of culdesacs, past a lunch following a funeral, and into the rain. I mostly ran, but when my heart-rate would reach 165-167, I would stop & walk for a little bit. I have been doing a lot of spinning classes, tried Body Jam, and did a little yoga. My endurance is much better now that I have thrown off the 20-pound jacket of fat that I wore everywhere I went. The misty rain made everything look lush & green & manicured. I mostly enjoyed the first 2.5 miles.

I crossed into the neighborhood across the street & said hello to Jared’s friend playing with some neighborhood kids. And I just kept going. I had talked to Scott about running for a while on the streets & then going home to finish out on the treadmill. At about 3.5 miles, I decided to just keep going. I thought about a quote by an ultramarathon runner (over 26 miles, sometimes over 100 miles at a time – crazy!).  “Run when you can, walk when you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.” I don’t think I was into crawling – I don’t like scraped knees – but when I was tired I slowed down & walked for a while. I had to add culdesacs to my path (sometimes long, hilly ones unfortunately). When I finally reached our house, the watch read 6.97 miles so I had to run back down the hill, down the block a few houses & back before the Garmin chirped a jubilant hallelujah at the 7.00 mark. I did not run one more step after the mile marker was reached.

In the end, I feel accomplished. Some people can go knock out 14 or 15 or 20 miles with the same amount of effort & time that I finished 7 – maybe someday my body will allow me the same privilege. But I am happy that I went out, stuck through the chafing, the hills, & the monotony to be able to say I DID IT! I still LOVE My shoes & my inserts & my socks & Glide.

I wish I would have taken a picture, but I was too tired & sore & disoriented to do anything like that. Instead, I took a nap!  It is pretty angry right now. I have tried ice, ibuprofen, rest, physical therapy, massage, and stretching. Next week? 9 – but I am in search of a flatter place to run & happiness for my hamstring.

Happy running! Thanks for reading my ramblings.

My Aching Back!

 

A few months ago I started working out with a personal trainer, eating much healthier, and losing weight. MFT (my favorite trainer) prescribed four days of cardio with my heart rate in the 140’s for 55 minutes plus strength training (mostly weights) on two days in the week. OK. I started going to classes, eating clean, going to more classes, & even running. My speed was getting faster. My endurance was getting better. I could even go to the hard classes at the gym & mostly kinda keep up. I loved spinning! And the best part of all was that I had lost over 15 pounds in two months.

Last last Monday while doing an Intense Body class, I bent over to do frogs (sort of a leap frog in place) & my back started hurting A LOT. When I got home, I limped to the computer and emailed MFPT (my favorite physical therapist) & he quickly emailed me back to let me know that I had probably tweaked my sacroiliac joint. I earned a referral & have been going to physical therapy since. And I have been feeling much better.

But I am on restriction. I feel like a kid who has been grounded from recess – exercise was really my best stress reliever. My workouts went from daily intense pushes (running, intense body, spinning, the reformer) to two yoga classes & a 20” walk in the park (literally) last week & yoga once this week. I am grouchy grouchy grouchy. So if I snap & bark when you walk by, please know that I am on the road to recovery. My back is mostly better & my right hip is trying to conform to MFPT’s regimen of stretching & stuff. I even get to go try Spinning tomorrow – cross your fingers!

A kind older gentleman (much older!) told me yesterday that I should stick to swimming & yoga. I just can’t do it. I like the wind in my face, plus I really, really, really like to eat my exercise calories & the 127 calories that I earn in one hour of yoga just don’t quite take the cake. Maybe yoga takes the omelet.

OMELET – pour 1/2-3/4 cups egg beaters into hot omelet pan, move stuff over to allow uncooked parts to get to the hot pan, allow to set a little, top with the good stuff.

Toppings: sautéed mushrooms & onions, tomatoes, spinach & probably artichoke hearts.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my omelet pan. It was a special purchase deal @ Bed Bath & Beyond & has the perfect finish & shape for making awesome omelets every time.

Time for School! Time for School! Time for School!

Last Monday Chris started school but this morning was the first day of seminary. This picture is from some time before 6 a.m. He really wasn’t as unpleasant as the picture might suggest. He has a busy schedule that will hopefully change just a little bit today – he will have college world history, math 110 (college algebra), English, chemistry, … and some other stuff. They have eight classes per week – MW, TTh, & then an alternating Friday schedule. We are happy that he is able to attend a charter school & take college classes while in high school. After school he is running cross-country & runs some super killer workouts every day. We can’t wait for the meets to start.

Today was the first day of school for Ryan & Jared. Ryan is in 7th grade & Jared is in 3rd grade. They are both most excited to see their friends.

So now the craziness will begin. Three kids, four schools. Two kids playing baseball. One kid running cross country. Plus piano and scouts and cub scouts.

Only 179 school days until summer vacation.

Eight is GREAT!

 

Yeah! Hooray! Jared’s eight.

He had a super fun day. He proclaimed several times, “This is the best birthday ever!” His cousins gave him a frog. This is not just any frog though, it is a Pacman frog a.k.a. an ornate horned frog. The crazy frog will even eat MICE! The kids spend time every day catching grasshoppers & crickets & putting them in his cage. He was baptized (related post below). He went to lunch at Moe’s & dinner at Lieu’s. And he had a friend party. Jared invited several friends over to come swim in our neighborhood pool. As luck would have it, it was cloudy & overcast so we had the pool to ourselves!!! Perfect.

 

 

Jared’s Baptism

On Monday, Jared turned eight! He was excited for lots of reasons – one of them being that he was able to get baptized into our church. Before he was baptized, he had to talk to the bishop. Jared was so excited! Scott’s brother & family came up from Florida to help share in this special day with us. 

We had lots of friends who came, too. At one point, I wanted to turn around & take a picture of everyone who came. I hemmed & hawed & then didn’t. Now, I wish that I had pictures of everyone – I was so touched that people took the time to support our family on this very special day that I had many, many tears streaming down my face for much of the day.

Chris gave the talk on baptism. Mikan gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Brother Waddell talked to Jared specifically about what a special day this was & how to always remember it.

We had fruit in the gym for a snack after.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the baptism, we went to Moe’s as a big family to eat lunch & to celebrate Jared’s birthday. Uncle Bret & Aunt JeaNette gave Jared a fun baptism-related present with a backpack, a light, and a cuddly blanket.

The food was yummy! Moe’s is always good. And Jared’s cake was also WONDERFUL – I don’t think I could even accurately write down how I made it, but it was very chocolaty & decadent. Basically, I followed the Perfect Birthday Cake recipe in the Chocolate Cake Mix Doctor with a vanilla cake mix but added 1 square of melted bitter chocolate and some Ghiradelli ground sweet chocolate (1/4 cup?). For the frosting, we used 1/2 cup butter, 3.5 ounces of Ghiradelli melting chocolate, 1.5 ounces of milk chocolate chips, 1/2 cup milk, & 2.5 cups powdered sugar – melted together & then whipped. … I made Scott take it to work the next day because I would have eaten every single leftover piece (before breakfast).