MS150 and the Blue Bell 5K all in one day!

This year I was not alone in the early morning drop off for the MS150 charity ride.  At 5:00 am we woke all the kids up for the exciting departure.  Not only was this Jacob's first year riding, but also Samantha's third, and I've lost count how many for Scott.  Exciting, but not the reason even Nathan was dragged out of bed.  It just so happened to be the same day as the Blue Bell Fun Run that I and the twins signed up for a few months ago.  That means since January our family has been biking, running and training for TODAY! 

Jacob, Scott, and Samantha

So far these tough bikers are only half way on their ride to Austin.  All three have been raising money for Multiple Sclerosis and have been riding almost every Saturday in preparation for this long ride.  They pulled into the camping spot close to 6 pm tonight.  Tired, but proud that they didn't SAG (not sure what it stands for, but it means give up and flag down the shuttle). 

BEFORE

Anyway after their early drop off.  We headed out on our own adventure for the day.  We were cutting it a little close and barely had time to put on our new tee-shirts and use the potty before we started our race.  Alex stayed back with my sister and her family who were participating but walking.  I strapped Nathan in the stroller and began our 5K (3.2mile) run along with 2,000 people.  It was a little crowded.  I feel bad that the only person I accidently ran over with the stroller was an really nice old man.  He just smiled but I was extra careful after that. 

Joshua

The only way I talked these boys into such torture was the promise of all you can eat ice-cream at the end.  That has been our goal for 3 months.  We put an 5K App on my phone called "Zombie Run."  Its been fun to add a little drama and element into our training.  I think it was hard to envision Zombies running after us today with the mass of people and flowers along the roads, but we have had a great imagination in the past.  Especially when we would run at night on deserted streets.  Nathan is actually really fast for such a little guy and has insisted on running with us, I felt bad I never let him out of the stroller today, but he will get his turn when he is older.  At least he got to wear my shirt and still got a medal for crossing the finish line with me.  I was crying at the finish line hugging my boys.  I'm sure they just wanted to know where the ice-cream was, but I was so proud of them for working so hard and pushing until the end. 

Next year Josh wants to do the 10 K and Matthew thinks he sign up for the 1 mile Family Run.  He loved everything about today except the running.  I have really pushed him when he only wanted to walk.  Opps-- My goal was to finish in 45 minutes.  Our pace was actually slower than that training with Nathan in tow, but Josh finished in 36 minutes and Matthew in 37!! I love how they wanted to wait around for the awards because after all it was a race, and they might have won their age category... Some boy named Nathan won the 10 & under age group and our little Nathan thought that was so cool. 

Joshua and Matthew

 

As for the all you can eat ice- cream.  It was great!!  We had ice-cream sandwiches, popsicles, fruit bars, ice-cream dipped bars... No limit.  After our runs, Matthew always goes to get a cold towel at home, so I thought it would be fun to bring him a cold towel for after his run.  It was a good idea, but that cooler came in handy when Matthew walked up with a box of ice-cream bars that someone said he could have when they were trying to clean up towards the end.  Now we have some of that all you can eat, saved for tomorrow.  :)

Angela and Eric came with their family. Angela walked with her 6 week old baby.  What a trooper!  They also watched Alex while we ran and I got to see Alex cross the finish line. He walked the whole way, so he earned his medal too.  He was so excited that he earned his ice-cream. 

 You would think that with a car full of ice-cream bars we would rush home, but we took our time and enjoyed the flowers.  We actually went back to a spot on the route where I wish I had taken pictures while we were running.  I had the boys change their shirts and then we were ready for a photo shoot.  Granted there wasn't a spare brush found in the car, and it was almost noon so we have some harsh shadows, but the flowers were spectacular. 

Just as Josh was asking if we were done, a guy invited us to come park on his drive way and come take picture in his field.  Way better than just on the side of the road, and safer too.  He really did have some beautiful flowers and Alex and Nathan happily chased butterflies and ran threw his field. 

After some time and some great pictures, a sweet lady came over and invited us to come look at her flowers next door.  The boys were interested so we walked down the dirt road to find her nice and spacious field.  She taught the boys how to look for poison ivy and let Nathan play with her dogs.  How lucky to live in the country. 

As long as I am adding details about the day, I should note that the boys wanted to finish the drive around the block to see where they had run.  We ended up stopping at a park for lunch, where we ate apples, and melted ice-cream (the ones that didn't fit in the cooler).  Then we started our long drive back home.  I just happened to pull in for gas around 2 pm, and right next to our Exxon was a Sonic.  We love Happy Hour!  Everyone was happy with their second lunch/early dinner. It was way past Nathan's nap time by the time we got home, which means he missed it again.  It literally has been a switch this week and he has stopped napping, not sure what that means for my night shifts if I don't have a napping buddy anymore. 

 

I took over 175 pictures in the flowers.  What a wonderful day! 

Ameila Bedila

Samantha had the funniest Amelia Bedila moment the other day. I know that when I was twelve I could work the microwave really well, but Samantha has gone above and beyond most expectations for any twelve year old. As part of her personal progress she planned our family meals for two weeks and then made them, mostly without my intervention. I loved it! Anytime we need brownies or cookies she is pretty independent following directions and producing the perfect deserts.

Anyway we had the missionaries over for dinner this week. Samantha was concerned that my menu lacked dessert. Luckily I had a boxed dessert hidden in the pantry. Something new and different. I didn’t think twice about giving Samantha the responsibility, and kept going with my plans. I heard Samantha say something about boiling water- we have instant hot water so that was easy. A few minutes later Scott looked over and a few red flags went up when she didn’t measure the water. So he asked her how much and she said it didn’t matter, more red flags as she is empting her first packed of chocolate into the water. Water and chocolate don’t seem to go together very well. Apparently the directions read, “Place the package of chocolate in a bowl of boiling water,” not empty the package into the water. Good thing we had a bag of chocolate chips that we melted and drizzled over our yummy dessert. The drama was over even before the missionaries knocked on the door, it was a good save.

Since the biking season is over,  and apparently 175 miles wasn’t a big enough challenge, Samantha convinced me she needed to join the swim team. I am sure that the fact that two of her really good friends on the team have nothing to do with it. I opened the door but starting a hypothetical question of how we could make it work two days ago, and today I at the pool signing everyone up but Nathan. The boys were more in favor of trying something like football or soccer, but since that wasn’t a choice and I offered to put a pause on piano practicing for a month they all eagerly agreed to join the team. Don’t worry they will have to swim and practice the piano once school gets out. It just didn’t seem to make sense to stay up late swimming and then expect them to get up earlyfor piano practice before school. We had our first sleep-in morning today and they were almost all late for school.

Jacob is continuing to grow and is taller than Samantha, I have a feeling she is never going to catch back up. He is only ten and he is already fighting acne, plus his PE coach told him it was time to wear deodorant. I hope the coach was talking to the class in general and didn’t really just single Jacob out.  :)  We don’t own any pets but he has a turtle down by the retention pond that he visits almost every day. I keep telling him to watch out for snakes, but that hasn’t stopped him from venturing into the big drain pipes and wading through the water.

He is getting ready for the science fair coming up in a couple of weeks. Samantha has taken 1st place for the last 2 years at the school so he has a lot to live up too. He is testing the best baking temperature for the highest quality cookie (aka the perfect cookie but that isn’t a scientific term). I really don’t like cookies that much but it will be hard to stay away from all the cookie dough once the project starts. We have already had a test run so I know it is going to smell good around here.

Joshua has had a few bad months with the camera but I think he is pulling out of it. When we went on our cruise in February he actually made one of the photographers crack up laughing because his smile was so comical. He was just trying a little to hard to the point that it looked painful. He hasn’t completely recovered but I have a few good pictures that show there is hope.

Every day when Josh gets home from school or early in the morning he wants to be the first to get Nathan up. He is such a good brother and talks to Nathan like they are having real conversations. I love how he always offers to take Nathan outside and play with him. Although we have had to talk about responsibility since Nathan has been found twice in the front yard by himself. Thankfully Nathan was more attracted to stuff in the garage then by those cool big cars that drive down the street.

Matthew is loving reading. I went to the library yesterday and picked up all the books he had requested from the library. A half hour after the boys had gotten home from school I actually found all three of them reading. It was hard to get mad but I had thought they were all working on homework.

I would also like to report to all our concerned neighbors and school bullies that he is no longer riding a girls bike. He has been saving his money for a new bike for quite awhile, and a few weeks ago I found a great deal on a nice bike at a garage sale. (Now that we have it, I know there are some problems) but at the time I was so excited. It was a name brand bike that looked well taken care of and looked brand new. I had the family hold it for me and took the boys back to see it and test it out, only to find out that the bike fit Jacob and Matthew was still too short for it. So Jacob now owes me a lot of money, Matthew is riding Jacob’s old bike, and Matthew is still rich.

Alex only has 5 days of preschool left. Technically I could still change my mind and keep him home one more year, but he is ready for kindergarten. When Nathan is sleeping, he gets so board when I try to get my stuff done. I used to make him do “quiet time” in his own room but he has learned if he is quiet he can go anywhere. So he is quiet! I am amazed at how long he will play by himself. Right now he is in a phase where he doesn’t want to watch a movie or play video games but he would rather sit on the couch next to me curled up with his blanket. Alex is ready for school, I just don’t think Nathan is ready to be alone. Nathan won’t go to school for 4 more years.

Alex has one week to learn to swim or they are going to kick him off the team. Originally that was my plan, let him try, but I really don’t want to be committed for that extra hour of practice. He wants to do it and is so excited that for his sake I hope he can swim across the pool next week. We tried swim lessons last year, and we worked really hard in January teaching him how to snorkel, so hopefully with some of the bases covered it will kick in. Post-update: I took Alex swimming Saturday night.  Once he had his fins, mask and his snorkle on, he had all the confidence in the world and just started swimming.  I was amazed.  I don't think fins and snorkles will be allowed at the meets, but the fact that he can do it might be enough to help him build his skills this week.  My schedule doesn't want him to make it across the pool this weekend, but he sure has the motivation. 

Nathan is now 18 months old. Last week at church we dropped him off in the Nursery class and he cried for a long time. When the leaders came to get me, I gave them his favorite blanket instead and that seemed to help him calm down enough to stay. Later I peeked in and he was playing and eating snacks. I actually got to sit in class until they had to bring him to me for a dirty diaper. When Nathan saw me in he let out the cutest giggle of relief- after that I just stayed in the room with him, we will try again next week. I knew he was going to have a hard time, but he is fine with babysitters so I knew it was more of a battle of the strongest. He knows I am close by. Post-up date: He hardly cried at all yesterday in Nursery.  It might have helped that he was too busy eating a sucker to cry, but he lasted the full two hours with out me and his blanket.  It is so silly that I have made it such a big deal, he is going to be just fine. 

His personality is really starting to come out. He loves to be outside, if we are ever having a rough day all I have to do take him for a walk and he immediately calms down. Overall he has been a tough baby, but now that he is becoming a toddler, I can see he is frustrated a lot. He is little, people knock him over, and he just wants to see what is going on. He wants me to hold him all the time, but carrying 28 pound around isn’t fun or practical.

Nathan is developing some new skills he can now climb up the bunk beds, unscrew lids, and ride a scooter. I love that he is in a very obedient phase, if I tell him stop he stops. I told the boys to turn off the TV and they all just sat there, but Nathan walked up and pushed the power button. We all started laughing. He has also become a very good parrot. You can’t really understand what he says but you can tell he is trying to copy what you said. Yesterday he said, “I love you” to me for the first time. Of course I had just said it to him, but it still counts. I love listening to his baby babble, I really need to get it on video just so I can sit and watch it over and over. My baby is growing up…

All the kids are growing up too fast.  I have been trying hard to keep pictures posted this year, so just in case you missed them check out Samantha in the MS150, Nathan in our Easter pictures, the boys school talent show in Kid Stuff, and Alex in our Camping Adventures. 

Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?

"Are you Smarter than a 5th grader?"

This is a little phrase that has been floating around in my mind on occasion this past year. I have never had the chance to play the game, but I would be afraid to find out. I think of all the time I spent in school growing up and wonder how much I really remember.

The nice thing about having a lot of kids is that I get to see some of those things that I once learned. Bit by bit I catch a glimps of what they are learning in school. Right now the math is easy, but when they get older I hope I will still be able to explain the complicated steps. As for the spelling, I admit that even this morning I had to check the list to make sure Jacob was spelling a word right.

Well Samantha is wrapping up her 5th grade year and leaving elementary school behind. She has had a busy year! She started out stretched a little thin, she was in choir, orchestra, piano lessons, dance lessons, the Nutcracker, plus church activities. She loved the days where she had nothing and could just come straight home and not worry about anything else. Over the course of the year she dropped a few activities and seems a little more balanced. I can trust her to get her homework done, and we never check out enough books from the library because she goes through them so fast.

She has really shined this last year. In December she was in the school Geography Bee and made it to the top 5. As Scott helped drill her in preparation I was humbled by the fact that she knew some of the answers that I didn't. We made a big deal about the Nutcracker knowing it was a one time thing, since it was too much of a commitment to ever do it again. I had fun watching her in her orchastra concert, in February but she never liked it as much as I did growing up.

For the past few weeks she has been giving a lot of thought to her science fair project, she came up with her own idea.  She wanted to see what kids of germs we come in contact with on everyday things we touch.  I am not sure how the school felt as we tested the doors, handles and drinking fountains, but it was fun to watch the bacteria grow. 

Well, today I had a fun day.  Scott and I got to go judge the science fair at the school.  I love to see the experiments and hear the kids present.  Samantha had a great project but I really feel like she put her poster together last minute.  Anyway I didn’t believe her when I picked her up from school that afternoon (because it was pouring rain) and she said she got 1^st place.  What?  It wasn’t until we were in the car and she pulled out her trophy.  I know she had a great project, but to win 1^st place two years in a row!!   What a lucky girl.  After being a judge I can appreciate how it all depends on what the judge thinks, what they like and what they decided to deduct points for.  She was really excited and I am really glad that she has done so well.  She really like her project and all week end long keeps coming up with ideas of what she will want to do for next year. 

I got to judge the classrooms so I started asking the boys about their classroom experiments and practicing presenting.  The next thing I knew we were recreating the experiments that their classes had done and other ones that they had heard about.  Looks like we have a family of scientists. 

Where are the memory collectors?

You hear of bill collectors but where are the memory collectors. I will admit that things in our house hold have been a bit chaotic since adding another baby to the family. I have had a few bills slip through the cracks but I am immediately aware of the problem. A water bill got sent to the tax collector (they have the same name-) and I knew something was up when we got a notice that our water was going to be turned off. I ignored the budget for a few months but then I was itemizing receipts in February from October; needless to say Christmas was long gone.


However since I got pregnant last year my precious productive time when Alex is napping from 1-3 pm disappeared as I joined him for the afternoon on the bed. I was shocked in mid June when I went to post ultrasound pictures on our family web page for 2010 was blank. I tried to fill the year up and make up for it, but I never got those 6 months updated. In fact in that period of time Jacob was baptized and the pictures were never uploaded to the computer, they were erased months later when we assumed that everything had been backed up. No one else took pictures that day. Here is a picture of Jacob 1 year later.

Everything else in my life has deadlines. Church stuff, money stuff, homework, but there is nothing sending red flags that our memories are being lost. I have spent the last few days busy driving, running errands, and cleaning. I was determined today to dedicate the day to the computer and mostly my kids pictures. This post are my meager results. My baby has been crying all day, my sister is in Japan in the middle of the earthquake, our credit card has been stolen… These are only adding to my list of fun things that happened yesterday and I never want to repeat the 24 hours before that.

Sometimes I think in Facebook mode- like "this would be a good status post…" but I rarely ever post because I don’t really want that much information public or but the time I think about posting 3 days later the moment is gone. In January I tried writing status posts in my journal. I really liked it, something to show for that day instead of a year of naps. I had to catch up every few days, but I kept it up. Then February happened, my status list is now on my fridge with short word reminders but if I don’t write down my thoughts soon those shorthand notes will mean nothing and the memories will be lost again.

So send me to the memory collection agency please. I need a few deadlines to put the journal writing, scrapbooking, blog posting, back on my priority list. I also think a daily dose of caffeine would help around lunch time, but for now we will just try a dose of motivation to not lose any more pictures.



Click Here for more pictures of Nathan's Blessing Day. Today was one step in the right direction, however I have stayed up way too late which means I am going to need a nap tomorrow.