When September Ends.....

Wow. I can't believe that in a few short days September is over. I feel like my life is happening in lightening speed fashion and I have zero brakes. I love it. Not the "zooming so fast" part, but all the activities which are keeping me from twiddling my thumbs. This month started off amazingly. Meaning. Shawn's first week of vacation. After sending all the kids to school, and dropping Landon off at preschool, we headed to the golf course. Presley in tow. We picked up sandwiches from Quiznos and took advantage of the few hours we had. I didn't really golf. Mainly because it was so beautiful I was content to sit in the cart and laugh at Shawn. His jokes I mean. Not at his golfing style. Okay. It was his golfing style. But it was all in good fun.

Presley liked to get out of the cart when we hit the green and just crawl around enjoying the sunshine. What a perfect day.

Landon (Iron Man) was given his first bike this same week. He was supposed to get it for his 3rd birthday, but his parents are slackers.

Presley turned 1. No party. Just cake. Actually, not even presents. She is obviously the 5th child. She loved the cake just the same. And is probably wondering why she hasn't been given anything so tasty since that day....

Soccer is in full swing. Jackson is playing in a competitive league this year which means practice two nights a week, and games on Saturday. The games are all in the city--about an hour away. It makes for some good family time. This whole "Jack in a competitive league" thing is funny to me. Jack has never played soccer before. He has the ability, when he feels like it. And you never know when he's going to feel like playing, or feel like just tackling the other players. Maybe he's in the wrong sport? His uniform sure does make him look official. I love this kid.

Presley is starting to toddle those little legs of hers. She can go from floor to free-standing without touching anything. Then she'll take a few steps. She likes to clap as she walks and that distracts her, causing her to fall. Maybe she just likes to celebrate her own milestones. Am I not doing my job?

Lately she's been sporting what appear to be antenna's from the top of her adorable head. I'm ready for her to have hair. Until her pigtails are long and flowy? We get antennas. Cute all the same. I'm making various hair paraphernalia to adorn her with. The joys of having a girl too young to care what you dress her in, and how you do her hair.

This is our backyard during a sunset:

We love the view. And we'll continue to enjoy it until we move into our own house. That we've found, and have a contract on. We won't be moving in until May. Logistical reasons. But we are excited. Life is good. And busy. My posts are getting far and few between. I feel like I run from sun-up until sun-down toting kids from location to location. I imagine it will get more chaotic the older they get. I'm up for the challenge.

Trudging.....

I tanked. I finished, but I tanked. And I'm pretty irritated about it. Running is such a mental game. Sure. It requires physical training. And I am physically in shape enough to run long distances without any problems. I've proven that time and time again while training for this half-marathon. But mentally. I'm a creature of habit. And I made it known to my running crew that I wasn't wearing, doing, eating, or trying anything different the day of the race. It would tax me too strongly mentally. 5 minutes before the race was to start I decided to hook up my ipod and get my running tunes ready. Only. My headphones were blaring nothing but what sounded like running water. Great. Beth's husband happened to be nearby and had a cell phone. I called Shawn and told him to have Kennedy meet me in our backyard with a new set of headphones. We would be passing that exact location at mile 2, and mile 6. Problem solved. The emcee of the race began introducing himself, so I found my group and we got in line. I turned on my garmin at this point so it could be locating satellites while he spoke. Only. He was too brief. After 10 seconds he shot the starting gun. I was still in a scramble trying to get my watch working. Throughout my training sessions I have my garmin set so the top tells me the time I've been running, the bottom left tells me my current pace, and the bottom right tells me my distance. My watch was somehow set to tell me distance and time, but no pace. And I couldn't finagle with it and run at the same time. Mental roadblock. It consumed me. I felt like we started off too fast. But I couldn't mentally back it up with my watch. We hit mile 2 and Kennedy passed me her headphones. Sweet blessing. It was fun to see my family cheering from our backyard.

This course was crazy. We ran past my house at mile 2, down a long road, and then turned around and ran back past my house at mile 6. I "gu"ed at the top of the ginormous hill because I saw Ethan holding a water bottle out for me to drink from. After 1 more mile I couldn't keep up the pace. My mental state was starting to beat out my physical state. So. It was mile 7 that I strayed from the group. The kept turning around to cheer me on, and I kept encouraging them to go forward. I didn't want to be the one to hold anyone back. For the last 6.1 miles it was me, my ipod, and those blasted hills. Whomever made the course obviously was looking at a terrain map. They chose the largest hills in all of the city and worked them in. The last turn before the finish line was even uphill. Ridiculous. But. I finished.

My little running group staggered their finish times. The 1st one of us through was only about 15 minutes ahead of me. The really irritating part? 2 weeks previous we all ran 13 miles. We did it 10 minutes faster than my race time. And. We enjoyed ourselves. This course diminished the love I had of the grand finish.

I think I'm holding back tears. It frustrated me to no end that I let my tiny mental roadblocks determine how I would run.

But I'm still glad I did it. I need to remember that not everyone will run 13.1 miles in one time frame.

My peeps: Michelle, Me, Sarah. Front---Julie and Beth. These girls make running truly enjoyable to me.

Julie is my 4:30 am wake up call. I actually miss the early morning runs. Not the actual getting out of bed that early. But the refreshing way to start my day.

Cassie is wearing the pink hat. She didn't train this year for the race, but she was the actual reason I ran. When I met her clear back in April she mentioned it to me. I pondered it. But figured it would never really happen. The day I was to run 10 miles she ran 6 of it with me. She carried water, gu, and kept me feeling like I was truly capable of this accomplishment. If it weren't for her I wouldn't have raced. And I wouldn't have become acquainted with the group of girls I run with. Thanks Cassie.

And thanks WOW girls. What a great group.

Christine made me this ginormous button to wear to church the following day. And I did. We figured sweatbands might be a tad bit inappropriate.

My little cheering crew. Shawn dragged them all out bed to meet me at the finish. Thanks babe.

I'm sad that this little race put a sour taste in my mouth. Honestly? I'm not really that proud of myself. Yes. I finished. But not like I'd hoped. And I'm not talking about my time either. It was never about the time. I want my mental self to finish strong. I'm going to keep doing this until I get it right.

Clarification....

I've had a few people ask about "my stalker". I'm actually not being stalked. I'm also not one to worry about being stalked. I don't think my life is exciting enough, or inviting enough, for someone to want to follow me around. Sure, I've heard stories before. But honestly. I'm of the "it will never happen to me" mentality. I live in the middle of nowhere Missouri. C'mon people. Then someone I recently met was stalked. And frightened for a time. Because of her blog. And then the icing on the cake. Another good friend went private. Her reason was because of her friend that posted this: http://brookemartin.blogspot.com/ Most people probably don't want to take the time to read what happened to this family, so I will sum it up. Some child pornography site stole pictures of her kids right off her blog. I've stolen pictures before and know how easy this task is. (Not for pornography, just for my own uses. I'm not deranged). After knowing this I am finally aware that maybe my kids are just cute enough to be viewed in ways that would make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. Even if the pictures I post are visually appropriate in every way. So. If you are reading my blog and I don't know about it, you aren't the reason I'm tightening ship. I actually love that virtual strangers have found some sort of solace in the words I write. And then I hear about it through the people who's blog connected them to mine. It makes me happy that there are those out there entertained by my existence. It saddens me that the world has become a place where we can't just be free to be without our babies precious little faces possibly becoming targets. Some of you are thinking "just go private already and quit talking about it". I know. Honestly, I just don't want to leave anyone out. And by blocking my blog I feel like I'm locking the gate. Which is good. And bad. All at the same time.

A Family Outing....

I'm training for a 1/2 marathon. It's two weeks away. I've found some fabulous girls to run with, and that makes training so much easier. We ran 13 miles on Saturday. Which actually is a 1/2 marathon. But not the real one. Only practice. I discovered that the practice is actually just as exhausting as the racing. Same distance, same muscles, same tired. But. The day was just beginning. Saturday was Shawn's first day of freedom. An entire week to soak up family for all we're worth. And we wanted to start it off right. Family adventure day is what we called it. And the kids had no idea what we had planned. Mainly because we like to change our minds frequently based on moods, behavior, and hunger levels. If the plan is laid out ahead of time, complaints are abundant when said plans are deviated from. If the plan is a secret, nobody can complain. In theory anyway. We started off by heading to IHOP. Who doesn't love a ginormous breakfast that will fill your bellies as well as your arteries?
We've gotten smart in our old age. While waiting outside we peruse the menu so as soon as we are seated we can get our order cooking. Necessary when there are so many empty bellies. Crayons and water can only get you so far.

I ordered an omelet. Running makes me crave salt. What I didn't anticipate was the omelet being made with what appeared to be a dozen eggs and a pound of cheese. Perfect. Plus it came with a side of chocolate chip pancakes. Just what I love best. Dessert after a full meal. And I enjoyed every calorie.

After breakfast we headed into "The City". That's what folks from our neck of the woods like to call it. I'd heard there was a cool Lego display that was only going to last another week. We headed in that direction. It was a small attraction, but worth the drive. There were all kinds of artistic displays made strictly out of Legos. This one was my favorite.

Isn't it awesome? The kids thought so too. But then we were at a loss. We'd never been to this particular area in the city before, and had no idea what else was around to entertain the peanut gallery. Nobody was complaining at this point, but if shopping was next on the agenda we were sure to have retaliation. Then. We found it. Kaleidoscope was it's name. A whimsical arts and crafts zone strictly for kids. Paper. Paint. Tape. Stickers. Even a room with a black light and glow in the dark melted crayons to paint with. Perfect. The kids thought we were the best parents ever. Thank goodness for our no-plans-plan.

We tired of the crafts. (We = the parents) We had passed a cool looking park on our way to our destination and decided we would stop on our way out. It was gorgeous outside. Unfortunately, the park looked better from a distance. As we approached on foot we quickly realized it was probably the park back in it's day. But gangs probably had overthrown it recently. Part was fenced off for repair. Repair that would probably never occur. But, we stayed. Only for exhaustion sake. This is what I did:

while the kids did this:


And Shawn did this:

It was so great to see Shawn doing something he used to love. Shoot. It was great just seeing Shawn. After the park our bellies started grumbling again. We were an hour from home, and 30 minutes from a Burger King play place. Guess who won out? Yep. BK.

While eating dinner we often like to go around the table telling our "highs and lows" of the day. The kids didn't really have any "lows". Fun to hear. Then came Shawn's turn. His high? Spending all day long with the whole family and not having to go to work. I then asked him what his low was. He gave me this look. And we both started laughing. Under his laughing breath he said exactly what I knew he was thinking. "Can my low be the same as my high?" Sure Shawn. Sure. It probably is easier to go to work all day than to hang out with this crew. But we definitely keep you on your toes. And we are much more fun.