Animal! Animal!

I loved watching the muppet show as a kid. We would get to stay up to watch it which was a lot of fun for us. My favorite muppet is Animal. We found this video on YouTube and I absolutely cracked up when Animal came on. Not so much because he himself was funny. I already know his schtick. But because he reminded me so much of Katherine, our own little Animal. Cute and adorable and very much her own wild person.

Today Katherine did something that strengthened my opinion that she and Animal are kindred spirits. She’d been standing at the top of the stairs calling to Alan to come pick her up because for some reason she just didn’t want to go down the stairs all on her own that time. He was ignoring her because his hands were full doing something else. She called out “daddy, daddy, uppy” a few times and then, being ignored, she called out with a much growlier and louder voice, not unlike Animal’s, “DADDY!! DADDY!! UPPY!!”

It cracked me up! I love that girl!

Anyway, enjoy the video. You may see some of Katherine in it.

What song is that?

Yesterday Gabby was playing on the piano the “Happy Birthday” song she’d just learned to play by ear. Alan and Katherine were also in the room.

Alan: “Katherine, do you know what song that is?”

Katherine: “Cake!!”

Yep, she knows what song that is. :)

Family Photos

We recently had our family photos taken. We missed them last year and so really needed to get them done this year! I have always loved the outdoor pictures and so we took our family outside for a photo shoot. Thanks to our friend Stefanie of SweetJoy Photography we got some great pictures!

Here are some of the ones I liked the best: (I really love the brick wall here. It was really awesome that that was there!)

Even Joseph is looking at the camera! And you will see Katherine’s dynamite personality all through these!

 

And Joseph is saying “hey, wha’s up man…”

I’m not sure which finish (filter?) I like the best:

 

This one captures Samantha’s personality as always the observer:

And below, Katherine’s as the little explorer/climber/run amoker. I just really love this picture because it shows Katherine’s dynamite, wants to do her own thing personality.

And this is just so funny! You think Katherine’s has had enough of the sitting still?

I like this one of us except Alan’s eye look closed and my glasses are crooked (I’m getting contacts before the next time!)

This is a good one too:

We had a lot of fun and will likely do this again!

I will be making prints of some of these. If any of our family wants copies please let me know which ones and what size.  These I think are the best ones but there are some others to look at too so let me know if you want to see the others.

What do you see here?

 

Do you see her? Samantha was just so cute with her stuffed animals piled on top of her that I had to grab the camera!

Beautiful Banister

Part of our project to paint the hall was also to remove and paint the banister and handrail since they were really grungy looking with the white paint wearing off. I love the look of wrought iron and black looks really good against my newly painted almond walls so I painted them black. Alan just put them back up this evening and I had to take a picture because they look so good! And to think I hated that banister so much before. Now I love it!

The stairs will hopefully be getting painted tonight. I’ll post another picture once it’s all done.

Halloween Parades

Both Gabby and Samantha had the privilege this year to show off their cool costumes at their schools’ Halloween parades.

Samantha had hers at preschool on Thursday. The kids marched into the room full of parents and grandparents and sang us songs, recited poetry and marched around the room to show us their cool costumes!

Samantha is a blue fairy. Her dress lights up which is really cool!

 

 

 

 

 

Katherine is Snow White which at the moment, thanks to a cheap non-Disney remake of Snow White, is Katherine’s favorite princess. I will have to show her the real Disney Snow White movie!

 

Katherine wanted to get in on the fun  and managed to escape in the middle of a song. I wasn’t about to run in front of the group and grab her while all the parents were trying to take pictures. But it was okay. Samantha didn’t seem to mind.

 

 

The kids were really cute even though you could barely hear them on the video you can tell they worked hard on their parts.

This is the 5 Little pumpkins poem. Gabby learned it in kindergarten and I thought it was so cute that I made little foam cutouts of pumpkins and put this poem on them and every year we hang them outside as Halloween decorations.

Here is the poem:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate;

The first one said, "Oh my it's getting late."

The second one said, "There are witches in the air."

The third one said, "But I don't care."

The fourth one said, "I'm ready for some fun!"

The fifth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

"Wooooooo" went the wind,

And out went the lights.

And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Gabby’s parade was on Friday. Her school had a major deal for their Halloween parade. I can remember at that age my school’s parade just being in the school and marching around the different class rooms. I don’t remember doing anything special for the parents or the community. That could just be poor memory on my part. But Gabby’s school had the high school marching band lead the way

 

and the Dare car that carried their enthusiastic principal. I’d be pretty enthusiastic riding in that too!

 

 

 

 

 

They had a lot of fun! There is a retirement home at the end of the road so the whole school marched down the road so that the residents there can see the great costumes! The 5th graders went inside and paraded for those who couldn’t come out. What a great idea and fun thing to do for the community!

Gabby dressed as a southern Belle. She wanted to be something pretty for Halloween and really enjoyed the fact that I let her wear some make-up with her costume!  

Her red lips and rosy cheeks!

We’re waiting for the parade to start. Samantha is doing her scary Halloween hands.

 

 

 

Alan and Katherine waiting for the parade.

Saturday Project

We are working on a room upstairs that will be a guest/craft room/office. If we can fit all that into there. Alan painted the walls in two shades of yellow for me. Thank you Alan!

Today I stenciled a pretty motif around where the two shades meet. I’d also found a stencil with some nice, uplifting words: believe, faith, joy, gratitude, dream, among others. I thought they’d be a nice part of the motif to help encourage some creativity and happy thoughts. Happy thoughts are always good. They are randomly spaced along the main motif. I really like how the white turned out because it looks lacy and elegant to me. Another color brought in might have been too much. I’d thought about doing the words in a teal green or black but I think I like this way better. It’s more subtle rather than in your face. I think it is looking really nice!

   

Happy Halloween!!

We hope you all had a

happy and safe Halloween!

 

Brain meltdown!

I have been so busy and so disorganized lately! Since school started my brain has been so full of things to do and remember that I have been on memory overload and just can't seem to get it all done. Is it me or is there just so much more to have to remember to do for third grade? Is there so much more that they are doing that I have to stay on top of and make sure it gets done? It feels like there is. The cycling classes: what days are what for special classes, when does she have speech, gym, strings etc? When is she supposed to turn in this project or that? Doh! That reminds me, she brought home a project last week that she needs to work on and I don't think she has yet!! (Better get on that!) It seems like between school and preschool, swimming, piano, PC, church, running, and the kids themselves there is just too much going on. Last week I couldn't get any housework done and my house just fell apart. It was really frustrating.

This week is starting off better though. I managed to clean the upstairs and my bedroom yesterday and prepare and give a FHE lesson - which, appropriately, was on keeping our home nice. We each set goals for this month that will help us do that. Yesterday was one of those miraculous doesn't-come-around-much get-a-lot-of-work-done days. Hopefully today can be like that too because this place needs it!

I am so behind on blogging too and have so much to post and pictures and videos to share. Hopefully I can start that in the next couple days. So, it's coming. Keep an eye out! :)

I hear the call of a little one. Time to get going again...

A “Wheel”-uva Day!

Arg! Yes I have to get that out. It was just a really “tired” out day!

Warning: quite long but you may find it funny. Go ahead and laugh. Or cry. Or laugh till you cry…

It all started, well, sometime last week when Alan noticed the tires on our van looking a little low. Just enough to notice but not enough to say whoa, we better look into that! But really, wouldn’t one look into that anyway?

We probably should have looked into it.

Today was not a day to have to deal with tire issues. Last night I received a last minute call from someone asking if I would teach the Beehives cake decorating at their activity the next day (which would be tonight). I thought about it and saw that yes indeed I was free and that I would love to. So I agreed.

Alan had already been to the store when I got the call so it was too late to ask him to pick up a few things that I needed. I figured it would be easy enough for me to run that errand today after dropping Samantha off at preschool. Then I would come home and make frosting and get everything together before picking her up from preschool at 3:00.

The other thing on the agenda for the day was a swimming lesson at 4:00 also for Samantha. I figured I would get home from that in time to make dinner, feed the baby and put him to bed before I left for the activity with my stuff already gathered and prepped and in the car ready to go.

Weeelll…the best laid plans…

I loaded up the three kiddos and headed out to preschool to have Samantha there by 12:30. We made it down the road as far as one (one) house when I realized I had a flat tire. I’m frustrated at this because, well, it’s frustrating, but also because we’d seen the tire mighty low when we were in Delaware on Sunday. We figured we’d fix it Monday evening. Somehow we forgot about it. Doh!

I unloaded the kids and we walked back home. Thank goodness we hadn’t gotten very far! I called Alan and he called AAA. They sent someone out to put the spare tire on for us. Somehow they’d gotten our address confused. They knocked on a neighbor’s door who didn’t know who’s van that was. So they called me and I came right out only to find the AAA guy had just discovered our other neighbor’s classic cars in his driveway and was drooling over them. Said neighbor was outside and they got to talking. Meanwhile I’m standing there with baby in arms clearing my throat. Um-hmm (cough), yeah, I’m right here…

No biggie though. I thought it was kind of funny actually. He did get right to work but once that spare tire came into view his “uh-oh” was not comforting. It turns out the spare tire was a previous balding FLAT tire. Doh! again!

So AAA had to call in a tow truck because the truck they sent was just a tool truck, not a tow truck. So they towed the car to Pep Boys which is only a mile from home so our tow was free. Yay! And I broke the news to a sad Samantha that she wouldn’t make it to preschool today. We had tears at first but then we had a very energetic Samantha all afternoon. I wonder what they are doing in preschool that makes her so energetic! She was very bouncy!

Thinking back on Sunday, we had also noticed the right front tire had some staples in it but it wasn’t going flat or so we thought. Now today, since we needed a new spare we had to buy two tires. So we asked Pep Boys to put the two new tires on the front and put the right front tire in place of the spare. Then we would remember that if we ever had to use the spare we would have to replace it quickly.  We’d hoped this would save us from having to buy three new tires today. We didn’t think we would need it right away. Famous last words.

We received word that the car would be done around 3:00. Thank goodness Mike was home so I donned my sneakers and put Joseph in the pouch so I could take him along thinking he’d really enjoy a walk. I was just about to head out the door when it dawned on me that Joseph would need his car seat for the ride back. Oh! Duh! And still wanting to take him with me I thought I could put him in his car seat and hook it into the stroller. But the stroller was in the back of the van! At Pep Boys! Doh! again!

So I left Joseph et. al. with Mike and walked the mile myself to get the van and got home just in time to rush us all out to Samantha’s swimming lesson. Coming out of the swimming lesson guess what we found! The left rear tire was flat! Oh maaannnnn…

Okay, so I’m stressing out! Katherine is screaming at me because she wanted to walk across the parking lot by herself and I wouldn’t let her and she wanted to sit in Joseph’s car seat and I wouldn’t let her and all this after having a temper tantrum in the Community House while Samantha was swimming. I’m worried about making it to the activity tonight because, you see, there was no time for me to go to the grocery store so I didn’t have my ingredients for frosting yet. I still had dinner to make and a baby to feed. Not to mention washing my tips off and making the frosting (for which I still needed ingredients…you get the idea) and the tire was flat and we were stranded and I had no cell phone and we would have to wait and it was already almost 5:00 and! and! and! URG!

Thankfully a woman coming out of the Community house lent me her phone and I called Alan and Alan called AAA again. They probably had a good laugh. They showed up, changed the tire and in the process broke one of the bolts. That alone was a $50 addition to the already high cost of this little adventure! Ug-guh! Of course I didn’t know that then. The AAA guy said they only cost like $5 or so. I was going to say labor is such a pain. Well, it is. (That could be taken differently. But anyway…) I guess those mechanics have to eat too. I hope they get a good chunk of that fee! Because if it goes to the company I might just have to jump over the counter at them and wring some necks! I didn’t even think to ask if the mechanic actually gets that money. Darn. I should have.

But back to the story. Alan went to the store for me and went home to get dinner made while Samantha, Katherine, Joe-boy and I waited at the Community House and then we were headed home by 5:30.

But, there’s more. That spare tire that we knew we were going to have to replace right away was now in place of the tire that just went flat. And guess what. Half-way home I noticed that our friendly little air pressure light came on again signaling an impending flat tire. At this point if I had a cell phone I would have called to cancel for tonight’s class that I was seriously doubting I’d make. And I prayed really hard that we would make it home before the tire went flat.

We did. Thank goodness! But I wasn’t about to take the van out anywhere again except straight back to Pep Boys. They were thankfully open until 9 so after Alan served dinner and while I made frosting and fed a baby (not at the same time mind you but that would have been great if it were possible!) Alan took the van and walked back in time for me to leave for the church. He even loaded my box in to the car for me.

The plan was for me to make it back home in time for Alan to walk over and get the van before the store closed. We figured that was the end of the adventure for the day. I was off to teach my cake decorating class and the van was getting two more shoes replaced. And Alan was home with the kids. All’s well that ends well.

I arrived at the church house all ready to teach my class and only a couple minutes late when lo and behold! Another tire went flat!!

No, just kidding! But almost as bad, it seemed, at this point. I’d left my tips and bags at home! Doh! (again) I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. I think I laughed. But I was thanking my lucky stars that my mom was there too and was able to run and get them for me while I started the class. And she even stayed to teach us how to make roses. Finally! The evening ended on a high note. It was a fun lesson and we discovered some hidden talent and I went off afterward to pay for the van so that Alan wouldn’t be rushed to walk over to get it before the store closed.

Of course they recognized me when I went in to pay for it and get the key. I’d only made it half-way across the store when the man at the counter says to me (half-way across the store): “Sienna?” ummm…yeah. “You’ve had a bad day haven’t you?” ummm…yeah.

And as I’m writing this I’d suddenly realized that I’d put the van key in my pocket instead of back on it’s chain when I drove the other car home and I’d forgotten to give it to Alan. I panicked when I thought maybe he’d left for the car by foot and without a key! I checked. He was still home. Whew!

I think I’m ready for bed and this day to be done!

Um…can I have a better day tomorrow?  I don’t think that will be difficult.

Running, running…

October 4 2009  

Weather: cloudy (actually pea soup fog)    Feeling: awesome!

2.23 mi @ 13:25/mi

This was my first 20 minute run without stopping to walk. Riverton hill. I made it through but it was a little scary. Panic poked at me but I managed to keep my breathing steady. Nearly puked right at the end (sorry for the image!). But once I hit my cool down that went away.

Tiger Woods must have been with me on my run because he told me I beat my personal best for the mile. :) haha! Actually that’s a feature built into my Nike+ sensor. That was fun.

October 5 2009

Weather: sunny   Feeling: awesome! (but sleepy)

2.07 mi @ 13:18/mi

This really is a mental game! I'm constantly fighting my fear when I'm running. This morning I read Gabby's homework and the definition of conquer struck me: when you conquer something, such as a problem or a fear, you win against it and over come it.

October 6 2009

Weather: sunny     Feeling: awesome! (still sleepy, I’ve GOT to get used to getting up in the morning!)

2.3 mi @ 13:16/mi (Look, I’m getting faster!! And this was big hill day!)

I hate the Riverton hill! But, I have to remember the great feeling of accomplishment when I do finally finish running up it. It's great training for those hilly races like the one coming up. I'd like to NOT finish last and that's why I do it.

I took Katherine to Children’s Hospital

Well, that got your attention. Don’t worry, no emergencies. She has had a little white bulb under her tongue since birth and in the past year it had gotten pretty large. It was really obvious whenever she opened her mouth to eat, talk, cry or whatever.  We worried about it growing and also simply by the fact that it had not gone away since she was born. So her pediatrician told us to go to CHOP to see about having it removed. We had to make the appointment two months in advance!! That appointment was finally this morning.

Wellll… after a crazy morning of getting everyone out the door – which we were about 15 minutes later than I’d wanted (that’s just a crazy yet typical story in itself but thank goodness I’d planned to leave early) and then going to the wrong area of the hospital – due to my being in a rush I didn’t read a posted sign very well, we finally made it in to see the doctor.

The nurse came in first, peered into her mouth and lo and behold there was nothing there! The thing had disappeared!! Gone, completely, not there. Nothing for the doctor to see. Go figure!

Well, it turns out it had been a mucus seal. The salivary gland under her tongue had been clogged and a cyst had developed under her tongue. There was just a little inflamation left where it had been but that was it.

She recently acquired a mechanical toothbrush and had been carrying it around playing with it. I think maybe that might have encouraged it to clear out.

Well thank goodness that’s gone and we’ll watch to see if it comes back. And thank goodness she didn’t have to go through any painful or uncomfortable procedure to have it cleared out.

I think that was just to funny. “No, really, I’m not lying to you. It really was there and it was pretty big to boot!” :D

Go West Young Woman!

Lately our minds have been on the possibility of moving. I’m not saying that we are moving or even have prospects, there’s no announcement here.  But it could very possibly be something we would do within a year or two. We are always looking for better things anyway.

Last night we talked a little bit about what we want in a place that we would live in: good schools, good support system – family and friends, cheaper cost of living (New Jersey just isn’t cutting it for us!), a closer temple, other members of the church nearby, lots of places to explore with the kids…

I was thinking more about it this afternoon and found a fun little quiz online which I took. Here are the results:

YOUR RESULT: Go West, Young (Wo)man!

Clean mountain air and vistas are what you choose for that momentous "Where should I live" decision. Perhaps you love nature, an active lifestyle or the beautiful countryside a mountainous region affords. Whether you live in a city close to the mountains or nestled in a small mountain village, you have some great opportunities at your fingertips. National Geographic's recommendations ("Best Places to Live and Play: Mountain Towns") are: Montpelier, Vermont; Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania; Boone, North Carolina; Hood River, Oregon; Wenatchee, Washington; Hanover, New Hampshire; Missoula, Montana; and Gunnison, Colorado.

I thought this was really interesting because lately I have been feeling like I want to move west. I want to take our family out where we can explore, hike, camp and see much of the West’s history. Plus both of us have extended family out west that I really would love to be closer to and get to know and have our kids get to know.

Right now my two top choices would be Utah or Colorado. Utah first because so much family lives there. Colorado because I lived there as a child and have many fond memories. I would love to go back. Unfortunately, I’m not sure there is work in either place for Alan. But maybe we’re not looking in the right places. (Anyone in Utah have any great ideas?)

I feel there is change in the air but who knows what that will be yet. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens. Until then we continue to enjoy our time here on the East coast with our family and friends we have here. :)

Running progress

I comment about my individual runs on the Nike website so I can mark my progress. I want to share those comments here too so I can come back and see them when I need a boost and see how far I’ve come.

September 5: (already 3 weeks into my couch to 5k program)

Feeling: so-so Weather: sunny   2.25 mi   15:31/mile

Hilly route. Went up Riverton Rd. halfway to the church house. Sun was already getting pretty hot and in my eyes for part of the time. But I did complete the C25K W3D3 workout and am happy about that!

September 8:

Feeling: so-so Weather: cloudy   2.63 mi    14:31/mi

Evening run from the church house. Felt so-so because my left leg was already sore to start with and had a pulled hamstring a little bit. Shins tired. But got through it and felt really good afterwards!

September 15:

Feeling: so-so Weather: sunny   2.22 mi     14:08/mi

this was hard both because it was a morning run and I'm still getting used to mornings and also because of the two five minute intervals. But I felt good afterwards and am happy I got up to run!

September 17:

Feeling: so-so  Weather: sunny  2.15 mi    13:56/mi

I can't wait to feel Awesome when I run! But so far it's only been so-so. But I know I'll get there. I do feel Awesome afterwards! :) Today my legs felt heavy and shins were achy. I hope it's not my shoes because I just got them!

September 19:

Feeling: Awesome!  Weather: sunny   2.21 mi   13:35/mi

Compared to how I'd been feeling before I went running I felt much better because I was running! That's awesome! Plus I beat my personal best for the mile too! Cool!

September 22:

Feeling: Awesome!   Weather: cloudy    2.39 mi   13:49/mi

I felt pretty good even though I was still sleepy from not being up for long. Was able to run my 5 minute runs all 3 of them! But it's becoming psychologically difficult. Have to move past the fear when my heart is pounding & my legs & lungs are burning.

September 29:

Feeling: awesome!   weather: sunny   2.25 mi   13:39/mi

Nice brisk morning for a run. Was to bed late last night but still got up thanks to Alan who told me it was a nice morning for a run. Did two 8 minute runs with a 5 minute walk in between. The 2nd 8 minute run was hard! 20 minute run next time.

And that was my September. I love that starting out I generally felt so-so but then changed to feeling awesome when I run. Not that it doesn’t hurt or doesn’t still scare me but I feel really great and that cancels out the fear and soreness. I also see that my first run this month is the same distance as my last one but my pace is nearly 2 minutes quicker! Of course that has a lot to do with the intervals changing but it also means I am running more than I am walking.

Bring it on October!

Joseph’s Blessing Day

Today Joseph received his name and blessing. We were all so excited!

He is named Joseph Aaron Taber (as is known but now that is officially how he will be known on the records of the church).

Some things from his blessing:

He will be able to love others and be loved by others. I saw a glimpse of that already when his Uncle John held him today. He was very peaceful and happy to be with his uncle.

He will be a great missionary. Mommy has sensed that since shortly after he was born. Following in his daddy’s footsteps.

He needs to be patient and learn how to use his body as he grows and in the meantime he is very frustrated to be squished into such a little body. The experience of Alan and his uncle John during his blessing is that there was a lot of energy coming from this little guy!

Something that was impressed on Alan but he didn’t say is he’s going to be a climber! Look out trees!! (Okay, that frightens me, I better get in shape so I can retrieve him! LOL! …hmmm, maybe we have a tree-house in our future?)

Here are some pictures back at home for our celebratory gathering and dinner:

I realized that I really enjoy having my living room full of good friends and family having a good time and visiting. All the chatter and good will and of course the celebrating give me joy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another realization is that babies seem to be really calm on their blessing day. At least mine have been.

 

Except for when they’ve had too much visiting and they’re HUNGRY!!

(Dad – this picture is great!!! haha!! Can’t believe I caught that!)

 

Pass the baby!

 

The blessing outfit: (he was having it by then!)

Potty Training!

Well, we have entered the land of potty training again! Katherine has been showing signs of being ready for a while but I wanted to wait until we were more adjusted to Joseph’s schedule. Plus I really hate potty training! So much work and mess and tears! Does anyone out there potty train professionally? Can I hire you?!?

Okay, back to reality. Yesterday was day one. I got out the little cotton training pants and stocked up on some m&ms, donned Katherine in potty pants and a t-shirt for the day and sat her on the potty.

She took to it pretty well. She’s not afraid of the toilet. That is a first for us and really wonderful! Plus she has wiping down which was a surprise to me but then again she’s followed her sisters to the bathroom enough to know how to do it!  In fact she really had fun with that part. “More toilet paper mommy!” wipe, toss it in the toilet, and again “More!” I had to learn to hide the t.p. and distract her.

So, no toilet fear and wiping already learned I’m thinking my job is not going to be too difficult this time.

Well…haha! Getting her thinking turned around may be. She doesn’t understand “Before”. As in tell me you have to go potty “BEFORE” you wet your pants. She did not use the toilet once yesterday (was I really expecting her to?). In fact she proved to have “AFTER” down pat. …Sigh, well it was only the first day after all! So we have many wet and soiled pants still in our future. Oh well.

At least this time I have a couple willing and eager helpers! As a reward to Katherine for at least sitting on the potty (I’m not punishing soiled pants – yet) she gets a few m&ms. If her sisters help her, take her to the potty with them, show her the ropes etc. they also get m&ms. Gabby and Samantha are really excited at this chance to earn m&ms and so they have been taking her often! I’m hoping these repeated trips to the potty will make it click and she decides to just do it on her own! (is that wishful thinking?)

Well, wish us luck! May this pass quickly!! (No pun intended…or was it? o.O)

Running Again!

Last year Alan and I trained for and ran our first race in June 2008. We really enjoyed it and it was a lot of fun to do together. But then we dropped running for the most part after that race. I think not having a new goal did us in.

Lately I have been itching for some good exercise and decided to set a new running goal. There is a 5k in Moorestown toward the end of October and so Alan and I decided we would run it.

I was nervous about how much progress I’d lost since that race having not run more than a handful of times since then and the last time being months ago. But I remember being told about this program online called “Couch to 5k” which will have a couch potato running a 5k in about 9 weeks. So I looked it up. The timing is really perfect and the program looks great.

The “C25K” program is based on running/walking intervals that become more challenging as the weeks go on until you are able to run at least 30 minutes at a time and can run a 5k at the end of 9 weeks. There are also a number of pod-casts that you can put on your mp3 player that will play music timed to the different intervals and have a transition in place so you know when to run and when to walk. I really love this because I didn’t know how I was going to handle looking at the watch constantly instead of the road.

So this past week I gave it a go. I set up my mp3 player and laced up my running shoes and went out the door. This was hard for me. For some reason I was afraid to even get started. In fact we’d set the goal to run this race before I’d remembered the c25k program. It took me a while to emotionally prepare for running again and it wasn’t until I’d sat down to find a running program online before I was finally motivated enough to start.

My first run, months and a baby after my last run, I was really excited to find that I hadn’t lost everything – I could still run some, at least for 60 seconds at a time (probably a little more even but I’m doing the program outright and didn’t test myself). This time was much better than where I’d been January of 2008 when running was so foreign to me and I could barely trot to the block. Yay, I’m not completely starting over!

I’ve completed week 1 and look forward to week 2 and really am looking forward to the race. We WILL set goals to run other races after this one and keep going.

I do like to call myself a runner. It’s fun to think that way! I have goals to step up my running and complete 8k, 10k, 1/2 marathon. And yes, someday I think I might even run a marathon.

And while I’m thinking big, hey why not, I even think that someday I might like to do a triathalon. Could I be a triathlete? I think I have it in me.

But, lets get the running down first!

I Can’t Wait!

Magic…

is sitting at water’s edge with a good friend or a good book while the sea breeze tickles your face, the sun warms your head and the ocean licks at your toes!

Joseph’s first bath

 Here is video of Joseph and his first bath taken last Saturday, July 18th. I was by myself so I am multi-tasking here – giving him his bath and recording it for posterity! :) But here he is! He does like the water.

New Additions

We have two other new additions to our home. Jessie and Zurg. They are two very adorable cats we have taken in from friends, the Naylors, who had to move to Germany and couldn’t take them along. They are brother and sister. Zurg is the big lovable black teddy bear and Jessie is the playful and explorative tortoise hair.

Here is Zurg enjoying a favorite perch doing his favorite thing. Napping. Or at least trying to but I interrupted his slumber to take his picture.

This is a funny thing Jessie did the other day when we’d left a trash bag on the floor while cleaning. She took immediate advantage of our leaving the bag unattended. She hopped right in! Silly cat!

 

We tried to pick her up by the bag handles but the bottom broke out probably from her clawing it. But I think if it hadn’t broken she would have just let us carry her around in it! She is a goof-ball!