A really cute little girl who keeps herself (and me) entertained on a walk.
Some rose leaves turning from red to green.
A little boy who likes to race on his trike.
We walked to the school again Friday before lunch to check out the PTA closet and deliver checks to the treasurer.
When we got home I cleaned up the toys, vacuumed, swept, unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded the dishwasher, mopped, put away laundry, and made pizza dough. Then I finally showered after the girls got home from school. Busy, busy, but now our house is clean and fresh and I burned a bunch of calories doing it so I can REALLY enjoy my pizza tonight.
Last night I ran/walked a tiny bit more than a 5K in about 40 minutes. I did four laps around our neighboring school and walked most of the last two, so I know I can do better than that. Still, I'm feeling good and confident about this challenge I've given myself. I have a little more than three weeks to train before the first 5K.
This morning Vincent's preschool group went on a tour of the fire station. Here's our big group.
It was a bit bigger than normal because one friend brought kids from two other families and because younger siblings could come.
The firefighter showed one of the smaller hoses that they use for littler fires, like cars or garbage cans.
Vincent and Abby aren't very shy. I'm fairly certain we don't make shy kids over here...
Even Abby had a turn checking out the water gun to see how heavy it was.
Abby decided that she was tired of standing and sat right on the dirty ground to listen. It was easier to keep track of her, but the other firemen there were all worried about her getting too dirty and gave me some wipes to clean her hands.
Vincent "driving" the fire truck.
They moved over to an ambulance and showed them the machine they use on cardic patients. The little finger thing took Vincent's pulse.
As if that wasn't enough excitement, after naps for the three of us, when the girls got home from school, they headed over to play at our neighbor's house with her daughter. My neighbor texted me to see if Elizabeth and Olivia could stay for hot dogs. Then Elizabeth came home to get our hot dogs because they had run out unexpectedly. Luckily, I had some. They roasted them over the fire pit in their backyard.
I asked my neighbor to take a few pictures for me. She sent six. Awesome. Olivia made that rock fire ring.
My girls roasting some hot dogs.
This is probably the one that fell off and the dogs ate.
Roasting hot dogs with Haley.
Planting flowers in old tires to accessorize the fort.
When Vincent finally woke up from his nap (he had a mandatory nap because he got into things he wasn't supposed to), the rest of us headed over there too (since they were our hot dogs anyway, I figured it wasn't really inviting ourselves, right?)
I roasted one for Abby. She doesn't like to eat much bread so we skipped her bun.
Vincent had the works and finished it all.
Working in the backyard to get some wildflowers moved to places they can grow.
Digging up some more wildflowers.
Olivia was cleaning her hands which turned into a face washing too. It was bath night, so I didn't care one bit. It's good to play. Just look at that smile!
They moved Haley's fort to the middle of the fence instead of the corner and started decorating it.
Then Andy got home from work and took Elizabeth to jujitsu and now I'm going on a little run/walk.
Good thing I'm signing up for four 5K's and not three...
Yeah, that's right. FOUR!
The annual Clot Trot. This is a fun run for hemophilia awareness. Andy's boss's son has hemophilia (blood clotting disease-as in if he gets a cut, he has to take special medicine to make it clot so he doesn't die.) His son is still very active and ran cross country and track in school and is currently serving a mission for the church. For every other Clot Trot, we just (barely) manage the one mile. This time I'm going for the 5K. I have a few friends doing it with me and Elizabeth and Olivia. Clot Trots of the past: 2009201020112012. Apparently we didn't go in 2008 or I didn't take pictures. We probably didn't go because Vincent was a baby....Not sure. (Maybe my husband's boss will read this and let me know if we were at the very first one.)
Color Vibe and Run or Dye don't have a real date yet, but if enough people preregister they'll set a date in Tri-Cities, probably in the summer.
The Glow Run is at night and the friends I saw who did it last year had a great time. I think I'll take at least Elizabeth with me, and maybe Olivia depending on how she does at the Clot Trot. I haven't signed up yet because I'm not sure who I'm taking, but this one is in May.
Tuesday night I asked a friend if she wanted to come over after Elizabeth was done at Jujitsu to do some run/walking with me. She brought her two kids over because her husband was working late and Andy watched them while she and I went a few laps around the school that's nearby. Olivia wanted to come too and got all dressed up after her bath and was stoked to join us (luckily she hasn't hit the smelly after running stage yet.) We started out walking and then ran when we got to the corner by the school. Olivia is fast and teased us saying, "I thought you said you were going to run! That is jogging!" She may have just the thing a drill instructor needs. We ran/jogged for a little ways before walking again and repeated that a few times. We only managed two laps around the school and I probably could have done more, but every little bit helps. I'm probably more likely to keep up the training if I'm not sore for days afterwards...
We'll need some more work to get into better shape, but really the running I did is SO much better than I would have been able to do a year ago, I feel great about it and almost certain that I won't be the last one over the finish line, but even if I am, I will have finished and that's something! These runs are all just for fun anyway.
A few bonus items of humor (to me):
On Monday Vincent rode his trike to the school Elizabeth and Olivia attend almost a mile away with me pushing Abby in the stroller. He said he was going so fast, he was "like Francesco Bernoulli" from Cars 2. Whenever he'd beat Abby and I to a corner (where he'd STOP!), Abby would clap and cheer him on, "Yea, broder!! Yea!" Sometimes we even raced him to the corner and at least once Abby and I won, but only because he let us. His little legs were pedaling super fast. (Yes, I did gather bikes last fall, but they aren't quite ready yet--very soon they will be!)
Tuesday night Elizabeth showed us her newest Jujitsu move. I videoed it. Jujitsu is all about defensive tactics and tricks anyone can use to get out of any hold from any person of any size. Watch and see:
Pretty good, right? Useful skills and dang she's strong! She did say that she would NOT be able to do that if she was being tickled at the same time. Ha.
Wednesday morning as we drove home from dropping Elizabeth and Olivia off at school, we heard a Prince song on the radio and Vincent spent a portion of the day singing one line, "You don't have to be rich to be my girl!" He even had a very Princelike falsetto.
Not so funny, but still awesome:
1. Switched our health insurance over to a new plan that will cost less. Yea!
2. Because of our mortgage refinancing last month (Quicken loans is awesome BTW!), our former mortgage company sent us a substantial check from escrow reserves that was just for us. I suppose we could have used it to throw back into our house, but we'll use it to finish paying our dental bill and to pay off Abby completely.
3. Speaking of paying off Abby, Tuesday afternoon I got a call from the hospital asking if I wanted to set up a new payment plan for Abby. (Yes, she's two and we still owe on her---crummy insurance and other bills...) I told the lady on the phone (yes, she called me!!!) that we planned on paying off the whole balance with our next payment and she said that they have discounts if you do that, like a FIFTY PERCENT OFF discount! We are totally taking advantage of that!
4. After work Tuesday Andy stopped by his aunt and uncle's house to fix their computer. They insisted on paying him a bit, even though he made them make it a little less.
We are so very blessed and well aware of where all blessings come from. We attribute it to paying our tithing and doing our best to do what is right. Andy calls it "clean living". The timing of these blessings could not come at a better time. We have progress to make on other bills and these all really help to lighten the load. I don't usually share so much financial stuff, but felt I should.
Sunday was a great day. We went to our stake conference (and even sat in soft seats in the Relief Society room), had some lunch, napped (well, Abby and I did), dinner, bedtime reading, and then we watched "The Hobbit" with some snacks.
Abby really enjoyed her snack. Can you tell?
I used up the last of our chocolate frosting from Andy's birthday cupcakes on some graham cracker sandwiches. Delicious.
Just in case you'd like a close up of that chocolate goatee, here it is and she's even smiling.
You may think that I am camera crazy, but this time it wasn't me. Andy decided that we needed this picture enough to go in the other room and get the camera.
"The Hobbit" was beautiful and so exciting to watch since I read the book a few years ago with a book group and Andy has read it with Elizabeth and Olivia several times. Andy took Elizabeth and Olivia to the theater when it came out to watch it, but this was my first time. Abby and Vincent watched for an hour before they went to bed (luckily for them it ended at a good stopping spot 1:22:22 when the excitement slowed down for a minute and they were all safe.)
Hope your Sunday night was just as great as ours!
Before I explain my obscure sounding title, I'll talk about this first picture. Our girls were both invited to one of Olivia's classmate's birthday party/sleepover. She's one of their "Sewing Club" friends. I thought it was nice of her to invite both of them. They really wanted to pack everything days ahead of the sleepover, but I made them wait until Friday after school. Olivia walked around carrying all of that for an hour before it was time to take them. They were just a little bit excited.
Vincent wanted to be in the picture too.
Our kids don't normally sleep at anyone else's house unless we are on vacation or occasionally during the summer with the grandparents or rarely when we have a baby. This was their first real sleepover.
I dropped them off at dinnertime and they ate dinner there, played, crafted, and played some more. Olivia went to sleep about 10:30. Their friend's mom called about 10pm and told me she had a little bit of a hard time at one point but didn't want to call me because she was afraid I'd make her come home. She cried and then decided she was just hot and hungry, so the mom gave her a snack and she went to sleep. Elizabeth on the other hand stayed up until 2:30am with one of the other friends who was there. Oh dear! Apparently they all woke up at 6:30am too. That's way earlier than our girls usually wake up. I don't think they'll be invited again, which is totally understandable and alright with me. I picked them up just after 9am and the mom was already drinking an energy drink. I hope she has a nap today!
The girls put their stuff away and then Elizabeth went out to clean up some leaves in our backyard. Then she came with me on a hike. Some friends of ours who used to be in our ward said they were hiking at 11:30 today, which is a great, reasonable time to hike for me. They hiked up Badger Mountain which is a three mile (round trip) hike up steep dirt.
I have lived in our area for a very long time, but this is only the third time I've been on Badger Mountain.
The first time was Labor Day and a friend of mine was turning thirty and wanted to hike there really early in the morning, so we did. Kind of. I didn't quite make it all the way to the top. I was NOT in good shape and I'd been up super late with Vincent (he was 1 1/2), so I was exhausted.
The second time was just last May. My walking buddy, her visiting best friend, and I went with our combined five kids under four on a windy, chilly day. We made it about halfway up and then the kids had had it. I was carrying Abby on my back too.
This time I was in much better shape.
Just to compare, here are the side by side pictures of what I looked like on each hike:
Although I felt better than the first two times, I still had a hard time climbing. My legs will be sore tomorrow!
Plus, I had to keep up with this cute little energizer bunny! We were about halfway here, which is where I made it with Vincent and Abby.
Elizabeth was a good hiking companion. We met up with our friends when we were nearly at the top.
I wasn't sure if by 11:30 they meant we're going to be there right then and go or if I needed to wait and I didn't have their cell phone number to call them, so we just started and then their two teenagers (who used to be my cub scouts) ran past us so we slowed down a little to wait for their parents and sister.
Here I am with Elizabeth (and some random person) at the TOP of Badger Mountain.
One and a half miles of climbing and then one and a half miles of holding yourself back from rolling down the mountain.
I have friends who run up and down this mountain several times a week and plenty who hike it often, but I'm still pretty proud of myself for making it to the top.
See our pretty area? We love it here.
On to the rest of the day! Relaxing until our stake conference adult session.
For a portion of the day Thursday the weather was sunny. Thursday it was also rainy, cloudy, windy, hailed, AND snowed a tiny bit! Mother Nature's having some serious reservations about spring around here!
The portion it was sunny (although still a bit chilly), the kids wanted to play outside. When our four kids play outside it kind of turns into the whole neighborhood of kids outside. Luckily, that's only about ten kids in our quiet (other than us!) block.
I sat near the edge of our grass to keep Abby away from the road for awhile, after sitting right next to the window inside reading a book just wasn't cutting it. She just thinks she's big. She stays out of the road when I tell her no (and the other kids aren't playing in the road either!)
Abby hardly stops outside. She is so busy. So busy that this picture was blurry. I tried to fix it a little by making it look vintage just because I like how she's running, but I don't know if I like it. Do you?
And they all ran down the little hill the kids go to a friend's yard to play with a few more kids who are too small to leave their yard.
I followed them down the hill because Abby's just too small still and it was 5pm, which is pretty busy on our road. Vincent and one other boy are greatly outnumbered, but oh so organized with all these girls around. ;)
Another Abby running blurry picture. Awesome. =(
Things are budding out around here. My roses have plenty of leaves now and my lilacs are getting their leaves. The tree this branch was on was going to get some good leaves. It's been windy. This branch was in our not very green lawn.
Since my last post, Andy had another overnight work trip to Portland Tuesday night. He came home Wednesday night after his training with gifts from Ikea. I love my new rainbow plastic plates.
Elizabeth and I walked to the library Monday night and made excellent time. I like walking with her. She's fast and talkative. (I don't know where she gets that...)
Monday I watched four extra kids. Two were from a friend who hurt her back two weeks ago and they were just here through lunch and the other two were from another friend who hurt her back just a day or two before I watched them. They were supposed to come all day, but her husband didn't drop them off until lunchtime, so I fed six kids lunch. Vincent and Abby each had two friends their age, so it was almost like two sets of triplets for lunch, but they all ate and then Abby and a friend had naps. Elizabeth and Olivia came home from school (still parent teacher conferences with early release), so I took two friends home while Elizabeth managed the house for 15 minutes. I did take Vincent with me because he and Elizabeth butt heads a lot and I didn't want them waking up the two babies. Anyway, it all worked out. Everyone played nicely and had a good time and the sleeping babies slept for four hours each!
Tuesday I was being lazy and hanging out in my pajamas all morning when my buddy Ally called me to see if Rory could come and play. I invited them over for lunch and then Rory stayed until it was time for Olivia's ballet. We walked Elizabeth to jujitsu, walked home, and then walked back to pick her up. Then everyone was nicely tired and went right to sleep. I like nights like that.
Wednesday Vincent had preschool so Abby and I went to visit my Grandma Zora for a bit. When we got there and knocked, she didn't answer, so I called planning to leave a message and heard her phone ringing, but she didn't pick up and there wasn't an answering machine, so we went downstairs to see if she was checked out and she wasn't, so I texted my aunt to see if Grandma had an appointment or something. She said she didn't and then she was worried too. One of the ladies who work at the assisted living facility asked if I needed help and I told her what was going on so she went to unlock the door and Grandma was there tying her shoes, doing just fine without her hearing aids in. She hadn't heard the door or the really loud phone and had just woken up from a nap, no doubt BY the loud phone! We had a good visit, as always and I'm so glad she wasn't hurt or anything! It made me nervous!
I have another blog about Grandma's stories coming soon. She had a few good ones.
Our area has a Leprechaun Dash that is put on by a local running store and running club for area school to compete to win money for their school's P.E. by running a one mile race. The top three schools all split up $4,000.00 (not evenly). While I'm fairly certain our school was hardly competitive in that area, we did find a friend or two. Other schools had their PTA's all set up with refreshments for before and after the race and big huge signs. We hadn't done this before so I had no idea it was so well attended. I think that's great. There was a 5K and 10K going on right after the kids were done (that I didn't know about or maybe I'd think about it...)
It was windy and chilly (not that bad, but 50 degrees in the wind is a bit much.)
Here are my two little leprechauns.
My girls with one of Elizabeth's classmates.
Olivia dancing to the music. She's so full of energy and has always had a beat!
We showed up an hour early to the race so we could sign in (it was a free registration unless you bought a shirt). Then we hung out for the rest of the time visiting with people around us and a classmate or two. The girls were playing rock-paper-scissors for awhile. They didn't really want parents to run unless their kids really needed them, so I decided not to.
An actual leprechaun came to entertain (or something.) He had bottles of green sprinkles that he sprinkled on the runners when they were done. I think he may have run one of the other real races afterwards.
And finally, they are off! Can you see Elizabeth and Olivia holding hands on the right side of the picture? Their friend was looking back for another friend who didn't get out of the crowd quite so fast.
Olivia finished BEFORE Elizabeth. I was very surprised. I added her name next to her on the picture below. 13:56 is pretty great time for a 7 1/2 year old to do a mile! A few kids finished in 6 minutes.
I was starting to worry that I had missed Elizabeth finishing with so many people around. Then she finally showed up at 17:14. The crowd went through the finish line, but then didn't keep moving so it was like herding cattle through. The girls each got a green finisher ribbon.
Here's what the girls told me happened: Olivia said she was holding Elizabeth's hand and she was going too slow for her, so she told Elizabeth, "You're going too slow!" and ran off. Elizabeth said that Olivia said, "I hate you!" and ran off. I tend to believe Olivia's story more...
I took the girls with me to Kohl's (yeah, I know I was going to stay away from there...) because I had a $10 off that I got in my email, a $10 off $25 children's apparel purchase, AND a 20% off card that could all combine. Theoretically, I could have spent $5 for more than $25 worth of clothes (and even more than that because I only shop clearance.) We couldn't find much in the girl's department, so I went to look for some things Vincent needs and found a nice, thick winter coat for him for $18 (originally $90!), a nice polo shirt for $4, Mario shirt with a tiny skateboard for $6, and then we managed to find a few things for the girls. Elizabeth said she'd pay me back for a Pet Shop set and Olivia found a red sweater dress with a necklace that was less than $5, so I ended up spending $15 total. Pretty good, I think.
We went home and ate some leftovers for lunch and then Olivia had a birthday party to go to for a friend in her class at school. She wanted to wear her new red dress to skate in.
I went grocery shopping (all alone!) while she was there (after passing on my contact information and seeing other moms I knew and letting them know and all of that) and came back to get her a little while before she was done. She had a great time.
I posted some things on my NEW Nifty NaDell crafting blog last night. I made these fun spring aprons this week for Easter. They are reversible and oh so cute. My models are adorable too, I think.
And time for the rest of our evening. Another birthday party combined with a house warming should be fun.
Before you start thinking my kids cut their own hair, I'll let you know it wasn't them.
Olivia's been begging for months to take her to a hair dresser and donate her hair to help make wigs for sick kids. It's been long enough, just not in our normal budget to pay for haircuts, so we've been putting it off.
Thursday night Olivia came out of the bath with a huge tangle in her hair (really big, like golf ball size in the middle of the back of her head!) Once we got that out, I asked her if she'd like me to cut her hair. She asked if I could and I said sure I can.
Here are the before and after pictures. Her hair was nearly to her waist! What do you think?
Her short hair will be nice for playing outside when it's hot, swimming in the summer, and her favorite cartwheeling all over the place. She doesn't even have to stop now to get her hair out of her face and did ten cartwheels in a circle last night because she was so excited.
The girls and I all donated our hair three years ago. Elizabeth donated her hair again last summer. If you are interested, make sure to check out the requirements and how to do it on the Locks of Love website.
I took a picture of myself (using the camera timer) Thursday morning because I tried on some old capris that haven't fit me for years and they fit! I'm so excited! Down to the single digit sizes! Hooray!
I went through my closet and took a lot of clothes out that don't fit, aren't flattering, and that I don't wear to donate and even grabbed a few of the shirts Andy used to wear but hasn't for several years and donated them. Two boxes full.
13 more pounds to lose to be at my goal and I'm feeling very confident that I'll get there!
Andy's home from Chicago now. We picked him up at the airport Thursday afternoon. He has now started a beard so he'll have one for the pioneer trek we are going on this summer. He wants to be more authentic.
This week the weather has been beautiful around here.
Monday the kids and I walked to the library (2 miles away) after dinner. Vincent complained the whole way there saying, "It's noooo use! I'll never make it!" but he was perfectly fine on the way home, which makes no sense because there's a big hill to climb on the way home and it was after walking there and hanging out in the library for the second time that day. I think what helped him is that we came across some little flies on our walk and so Abby and Vincent and I "raced" them. They were going the same direction as us and were right with us most of the way home (which is kind of gross and I wanted them away from poor Abby in the stroller). I guess I just made the walk home more fun. I need to work on that more. And according to my cool Nike+ pace/calorie counter, I burned 522 calories. I'll take it!
I signed Vincent up for kindergarten starting this fall on Monday too.
Tuesday Vincent, Abby, and I went to visit my Grandma Zora for a little bit. She's doing pretty well right now and says she feels like she's all healed up from her latest vertebrate break. (I'm making sure to take my calcium every day so I have less chance of getting osteoporosis!) It was great to visit with her, as always.
Tuesday afternoon, we picked up a few friends to play with while Abby napped. Ally needed a rest in the afternoon because she's getting over Mastitis and it's much easier to rest without a four year old bugging you (I should know. Ally helps me all the time when I have a baby---and even when I don't.) Another friend hurt her back on Friday morning, right after she taught a class on Thursday night for our Stake Relief Society meeting. She was kneeling down to pray and her back wouldn't work to get up. She sat there for an hour before calling her kids to help her and they called her husband and then had an ambulance ride and all day visit in the ER. Poor girl! She has six kids and homeschools, but we just borrowed the fifth one while the sixth one napped and the other four are all older and don't need quite as much assistance. She was able to rest. It was fun for Vincent to play with friends.
After dropping Rory off, we picked up the girls and took Olivia to ballet. She had class pictures there. We came home, ate some dinner, and then walked Elizabeth to Jujitsu. Olivia, Vincent, Abby, and I dropped a few things off that needed to be delivered while we were at it. It feels great to get out and enjoy the nice weather.
Wednesday after dropping the girls off at school, the younger two and I went to Kohl's (no more for a bit! Gotta restart my Kohl's fast!) I found some dress shoes for Olivia and Vincent which they've been needing and used a $10 Kohl's Cash that I got last week, along with a 30% off coupon, and they were on clearance for $11.99 each. Pretty decent. Then we went and visited a second cousin of mine who lives in Pasco to deliver her baby cross stitch. I'm done with all of the ones I'm doing for 2012 at this point. I just can't make them for everyone, which makes me kind of sad, but it's just not possible.
The girls were out of school early for parent teacher conferences starting Wednesday, so we made sure we were home in time to meet them. We had just an hour or so before it was time to wake Abby up and go to the conferences for Elizabeth and Olivia. Elizabeth came with me for her conference and the rest of the kids went to Ally's house for a bit. They played outside and Ally said they were good.
She took this cute picture of Olivia and Rory all dressed up. Rory asks Ally often if she can join our family because we have so many kids. She's so sweet.
The girls are both doing awesome in their classes and are both excelling in math especially. Of course there are some things to work on, so we'll ramp that up to prepare them for life and the rest of schooling. Mostly the teachers just said to keep up the good work.
The day was gorgeous again and for some reason the kids didn't want to play inside. Who can blame them? The trees were calling their names.
Vincent and Olivia are both getting better at climbing.
Olivia changed into a different dress to climb.
Vincent cracks me up. He's so much fun.
I like this picture a lot. It's not the best of either of them, but it sure makes me smile. (Olivia is wearing shorts under her skirt. Man, those things have come in handy over the last three years---it's nice that she hasn't grown that much other than taller!)
Elizabeth climbed higher than ever in the bigger of the two trees in our front yard. You can see our neighbor's roofs at the bottom of the picture.
She went even higher than this a little later, but I was making dinner between checking on them.
A neighbor came over to play for a little while before dinner with the kids outside. I love the happy sounds of kids playing in the springtime (the crying and arguing, not so much!)
We ate dinner early, had baths/shower and then we had a pajama "Wreck it Ralph" movie and popcorn night. It was a fun little movie.
Andy gets home from Chicago tomorrow. We are excited to see him again. I drove him to the airport early Sunday morning and then came back home to sleep a little more before church.
I'm sure he'll have pictures and stories to share in a few days. I can handle being independent when he's out of town, but it sure is nice to have him here so we can double-team the kids and I can run errands without everyone, and we really love him too!
