Doomed...

Where on earth do my children come up with this stuff?? Oh yes, from me. I used to dream of long luxurious hair when I was little. Instead I had a fro that was truly scary...so I would place long shirts on my head and pretend it was hair. Then there was the times where my sisters and I would wear our shirts with our legs through the arm holes and let the body of the shirt hang between our legs. We called ourselves monkeys because that makes total sense, right? 

Yep, my kids are doomed...

Invaluable...

About a year ago I had a conversation with my dad that kind of stuck with me. I was asking him about my grandparents, his parents, and he told me that one thing he really appreciated about his dad is that he always gave him the opportunity to earn money. My grandfather owned a small grocery store and from what I understand, was the epitome of a hard worker. After hearing this, I have tried really hard to allow the boys the opportunity to earn money for themselves. I've got Austin mowing my lawn once a week and he is thrilled to be able to earn some cash of his own. He's learning the value of hard work. And to Austin...this is an invaluable lesson that will help him succeed as an adult. I'll go for that.

Boys II men...

Remember that group? Gosh, I liked them. Every year that the boys grow older I am amazed at how much they change. There is by far more of a change (physically) in my boys than I ever saw with halee. Their voices change, they begin to out grow me in height (luckily Connor is not quite there yet.) they are strong physically. 

there's a comfort in having boys. I feel safe if the boys are home when Chris is not. They are my protectors. I'm so proud of them working so hard in scouts. They are by far (and this includes all my children) better in all areas than I ever was at their age. 

Easter 2014...

At what point do you tell your kids that they are too old for Easter eggs? I have an almost 16 year old and I admit...she looks like an adult searching for eggs. So I figured it out, how long do you wait before you pull the plug? Forever. At least until they leave the house, that is. Yes I know, I am a bit ridiculous. They are just growing up way too fast and I am more than happy to allow them to look for eggs as long as they want to.

We spent Easter weekend with my mom and dad. I love spending time with my parents and being able to see them as often as possible. I am so lucky to live close enough that My kids can know their grandparents, at least on my side. I wish we could see Chris's family more. But the point is, with his family and my family combined, we have a whole lot of love.

Boyscouts...

What would I do without husband???? I have been feeling incredibly overwhelmed with this whole boyscout thing, not to mention the daunting thought that I have THREE boys to get through this program. Scouting is hard for me because it's just so dang complicating for me personally. I fell into boyscout despair the other night and my knight in shining armour has vowed to take the reigns and help the boys as much as possible. They worked on it for a good hour today and I'm already feeling a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

The bright side of life...

Whenever that time of the month approaches, I tend to get just a little bit weepy. This time has been worse than normal, crying over the dumbest silliest things you could ever imagine. Yesterday Chris asked me what was wrong, and I told and I was just so devastated because all the kids were growing up too fast. I think he was baffled due to the fact that we still have six kids under one roof.

Today when I picked Scarlett up from school, I took her on a walk. It just so happens that one of my least favorite weeds in the entire universe are the dreaded dandelion. But as we walked I noticed her picking them every chance she got. She finally had a handful and gave them to me, as she always does when she picks flowers. Wow. Talk about seeing life thru rose colored glasses. It reminded me to slow down and find the good. To not waste time on worry...and most of all on things that I cannot control.

Who knew that a five year old could share her wisdom just by living in joy.

Rocking San Francisco...

I like running, I like racing, but do I like Hills? No ma'am, I do not. That's one reason I have been dreading this race ever since the course map was published on the rock 'n roll website. However by the time I realized how hilly it was going to be it was too late and I had already signed up.

The race started at 6:30 AM, so we woke ourselves up at 4 AM feeling very tired, yet full of adrenaline and excitement. And feeling COLD. We got shuttled to the start of the race and had to wait out in the cold for about an hour. We each stopped at the Porta potties about five different times with nervous jitters. So when it was time to start, we were ready to warm up our bodies and I no longer cared about the hills. I just didn't want to be cold anymore.

The first hills came at mile one and lasted about 2 miles. It wasn't pretty, but it also wasn't as ugly as we had anticipated. (That came later) when we reached the golden gate bridge, everybody seemed to become packed like sardines. By now the sun was up and I have to say it was totally awesome running over the Golden gate Bridge. I just kept thinking "I can't believe I'm doing this." Miles 5 through 10 1/2 felt great for me. This is where I was able to speed up and make up some time lost. But toward mile 11 that's where it got ugly, uglier and ugliest. We had three or four very steep uphill climbs, and every time you turned the corner you would hope that that was the last, but no such luck. By the last hill I thought I was going to die, and just wanted to walk. But I knew if I did I would never start back up again. I willed myself to continue going. It was a mental battle for sure. But at last, at the top of the last hill I saw a downhill stretch straight into the finish line. I sprinted as fast as my wobbly legs could go and made it to the end. This wasn't a PR race for me, but overcoming those hills was a lesson in patience for me. Running isn't always about being fast. Sometimes it needs to be about focus, patience, endurance, and most of all fun. I finished at 2:02:01.

When we finished, I gave Tammy the biggest hug I think I have ever given her. We weren't running together the entire time, it was really hard to stay together with 15,000 runners weaving in and out trying to get around people. And being that she is my running partner and best friend, not having her there during those mental struggles was really hard. I remember thinking several times "I wish Tammy were here." Giving her that hug at the end was like coming home.

I'm thankful I did this race, and look forward to more in the future. 

San Fran...

Visiting places I've never been is something I find fascinating. Four of my girlfriends and I planned a trip around 9 months ago to do the rock 'n' roll half marathon (which I will blog about separately.) We stayed downtown so were surrounded by the true city life. We didn't even rent a car, so this gave us an opportunity to see the good the bad and ugly of San Francisco.

We took in a hockey game the first night, and it ended so late that we missed the last means of transportation to our hotel which was 40 minutes away. It was pretty hilarious/pathetic to see five women running around San Francisco desperately trying to find a way to get back home. Luckily we ran into a few different people who had the same problem we did, so we all stuck together and finally found a bus that would head back our way.

We also got to see the "full house" house up close and personal...gosh I loved that show. In fact, one of the girls on our trip is named Kim so we called her Kimmy Gibler most of the time. We also got to see the home that Mrs. Doubtfire was filmed him.

We had the opportunity to go to Alcatraz, and that for me was one of the major highlights of the trip. Learning the history there was completely amazing.

Other highlights were staying up late and getting up early… Which is usually how it goes on girls weekend. We are supposed to go and relax and we all end up killing ourselves by the end of it all, but it's worth it!

I am most of all thankful that we all have husbands who supported us in this endeavor. Until next year!