I hate being sick!

Everytime I'm sick it's such a long drawn out process. I can never just get sick and get better within a few days. Nope, not me. I've had a sore throat for 4 days and now I'm almost voiceless from the coughing that has accompanied the sore, itchy throat. Now add the stuffy nose and sneezing that started yesterday and it makes for one big miserable day today and possibly tomorrow and I stay sickish for like a week or two. Thank God the end of my pay period was 2 days ago and I can afford to take a couple of days off. Lucky for me I've got a doctor appointment today that was already scheduled to begin with for a recheck on my blood pressure. So now I'm really gonna put my dr to use today. I have no time to be sick. I had planned on taking our family picture tonight and I've now moved that to Sunday. Tomorrow we have 3 basketball games and I have barely made a dent in Christmas shopping. Every year at Christmas time for the past few years someone is sick. I just hope this year the kids can be illness free for Christmas. Last year Cassidy had an ear infection in both ears, Spencer had pneumonia and Brenden had croup. I'm gonna walk around here with a tool belt full of disinfectant wipes and sprays LOL!

UPDATE: I went to the dr and my blood pressure is doing great. I've also lost 6 pounds since last month when I was there and I've only run once since then so it's all due to the medicine. Also she wants me off my birth control pill because that is probably what caused the high blood pressure to begin with so once I'm off it (gotta look into some surgery options to not have more kiddos) my blood pressure may go down and I won't need that medicine anymore either. I've wondered why my weight has been so hard to lose after having Cassidy and I went to a different dr with her because my other one stopped delivering and he put me on a different pill after having her than the one I'd been on for years even before having Brenden. I don't think it's coincidental that after taking the medicine for only 1 month and doing nothing else that I've dropped 6 pounds, can't wait to get off the pill completely and see what happens. I'm ready to be old Julie size again.

Pictures of ballet class

Today was parent observation day at ballet class and it was one of the most precious things I've ever seen. When the music started ( it's the classical ballet music) and the girls started doing their moves on the bar my eyes teared up. They also did some solo work to show us parents what they've learned. She's so good! And such a beautiful ballerina! I am one proud mommy! I forwarded pictures to Richard as soon as I got home. Cassidy and I had a nice day after ballet doing some shopping for some boots for her and we found her another dress too. She's all about dresses. And shoes, loves shoes too. Hates pants. I love having a girly girl!

Mmmmm.......Thanksgiving!

I'm gearing up for my annual Thanksgiving feast. I've purchased a whopping two items so far, but they are the most important items, the turkey and the pumpkin pie! Gotta go to the grocery store tomorrow and get all the rest. Got lots to be thankful for this year. My job that keeps me home with Cassidy, Richard's new job (that he started in May) and the kids are all healthy (us parents too!). The boys had spectacular seasons in football, Cassidy is such a great and beautiful ballerina. It's the year of the boy with Daisy, Becky, Hollie and Angela all having boys (2 so far, 2 to go) and Jenny from Richard's side of the family is also expecting a boy in the spring so I'm thankful for the growing family. I'm thankful to have a great dad who will be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner again (our annual tradition) and that he has found someone who makes him happy and that she is so great to me and my family as well.

Gone are the days of spending Thanksgiving at Mamaw and Papaw Grooms' with all the family coming in but those memories live on in my heart and I always think of those times every Thanksgiving day. (I miss you Mamaw, Papaw, Jay and Marquita. Have a happy Thanksgiving together up there.) And a happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family!

Fall fun pictures

These were all taken yesterday afternoon. What a nice day it was. We had almost 70 degree weather on November 10!

The Championship Game

Sorry it took so long to update the blog. Most people know by now that they WON! final score 20-6. It was such an awesome night on the high school football field. They played the song "The Boys of Fall" for the kids while they were practicing on the field getting ready for the game to start. The Razorbacks are a great team. They all play so well together, no one ever tried to be the star of the show. Great group effort all year that got them to the championship. Great coaches as well. I truly hope Spencer will be a Razorback in 2 years. Brenden put his heart on that field and he's a great football player. I can't wait to see him in action on the high school football field again in high school. And yes, I'm that mom. The one who is yelling WOOO up in the stands and saying GO, GO, GO when they are running the ball for a touchdown. It shows I'm involved with the team and my own son and I'm very proud of them all. Especially Brenden! Great season Brenden. Keep up the good work in the years to come.

Championship Bound!

Brenden's team, the Rising Park Razorbacks, will be playing in the championship game tomorrow night at 7 pm on the high school football field! They are the #1 ranked team. This is the first time ever that a peewee football league game has been allowed to play on the high school field. The team, coaches and of course us parents are all so super excited. I'll post the results after game. GO RAZORBACKS! Bring home the big trophy boys!

Fair Pictures...finally

A day at the fair

We just got back from the fair. I'd post pictures but I can't feel my feet and I don't want to get up to load the pictures right now. We were there for 4 1/2 hours and Brenden is still there with friends. I have 1 picture of Brenden and his friend only because I spotted them on a ride and snuck over to take some pictures. I got one then got noticed and he ducked in every shot after that so I have an empty seat in pictures. So all the fair pictures are of Cassidy and Spencer. They rode the ponies and loved it. Cassidy can't stop talking about horses since July 4th when Holly said she has a horse and now Cassidy wants to ride it. So until we can get back down the West Union way, the pony ride had to do. We went through the barns and saw the big horses and clydesdales as well. We were looking for the sheep barn because a friend of Cassidy's from ballet has sheep there but they were all cleared out except for a few. Tomorrow is the last day so I guess a lot of people went ahead and left with their animals. They rode rides all afternoon, we had some corndogs and a funnel cake. Everyone can always tell when you've had a funnel cake because you get so much powdered sugar all over yourself. I'm so exhausted right now. I was going to come home and work but I've decided against that idea. I'll post pictures tomorrow probably.

More football news

Brenden's team won again Saturday 12-0. This makes it their ninth win, zero losses. They have one more regular season game tomorrow night at 7 and then playoffs begin in 2 weeks. Tomorrow's game makes it the 4th game in 8 days they will have played. Spencer's team won again 20-12 and they are also still undefeated.

How about something other than football for a change. Wanna hear some running news? As I've stated before my treadmill is on the outs and I've been running outside again lately with Cassidy following me in her barbie car. She didn't want to go on Friday and I really wanted to run so I thought you know what, I'm gonna take a look at the treadmill and see if I can run on it. The belt is slipping to one side and fraying on that side but as long as it doesn't abruptly stop or anything I figured I'll run on it. So I ran 2 miles and I'll just keep using it til the belt just completely unravels and I can't run on it anymore. I'm watching the belt closely though because I don't want to get hurt if it tangles up or something and when I can afford another treadmill I'll get one but Christmas is around the corner so kids come first. Well, it's a nice day outside, I was planning on working a little but there was nothing on the schedule for me to take so I think I'll run in a few while Cassidy naps and the boys are at friends' houses. I'm happy to see that the weather will be in the 60's for this week since it is our fair week and it sucks having to wear winter coats to the fair. Not so fair-ish feeling when it's freezing outside.

So exciting!

They did it again! This was by far their toughest game and the opposing team did an amazing job as well (Brenden's best friend is on the opposing team and he is a great player as well). Razorbacks won 26-19. Going into halftime the Cowboys were ahead 19-18 but after the half they were held back from scoring again and our team made another touchdown winning the game in the last 3 minutes of the game. So the team is still undefeated and their record is 8-0. It is predicted that the Razorbacks and Cowboys will meet again at the championship game and they'll just have to beat them again!!!! This game was so awesome and I lost my voice in the first quarter of the game. I can't wait til high school football. It is so exciting at this level I can't imagine how exciting high school football will be. Oh and I had 3 girls come and stand with me for a few minutes who were cheering for Brenden as well.

The picture above is right after the win and Brenden is coming off the field and the parent in the maroon shirt on the field is slapping his hand.
This is the huddle after the game and then the bottom picture is Cassidy hugging her big bubby congratulating him and Spencer is right there congratulating him too. Spencer cheered just as much and just as loud as we did. He told him he played awesome tonight after he came off the field. It's really cool to see him looking up to his big brother the way he does in sports. Makes a mom proud. If he thinks Brenden was wronged on the field, he's yelling like a dad on the sidelines.

Big Night for Brenden

Brenden has a big game tonight that is like the rivalry between OSU vs Michigan. Brenden's team is 7-0 and the only undefeated team in the league. They are going against a team that has lost only 1 game but is the other powerhouse in the league. It's gonna be a biggie. Last night at practice the coach gave such a great inspirational speech to the boys. As parents, we know what it feels like to win or want a team to win so bad. But the kids, well if they've never been in something like this before they don't really know the importance of it. They've got to want it with everything they've got. The coach said if they put their heart and soul, blood, sweet, and tears on that field then they will win as long as they give 100% of themselves on that field. We all believe in these kids. They are truly great. It's gonna be tough tonight, I'm sure. But I believe in these guys and Brenden and I know they can do it. Good Luck Razorbacks!

Loss of 2 family members

The Scarberry side of our family has taken a big hit over the last week and a half. Richard's cousin Kevin died a week ago and Kevin's mom Zorita (Richard's aunt) died today. I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my deepest sympathies to the Scarberry's in your time of such sadness and loss. Our prayers are with you.

Still undefeated

Brenden's team, the Rising Park Razorbacks, had another win last night of 31-7. It was an awesome game. They are the only undefeated team in the league and have 3 or 4 more games to go. The game was certainly eventful. The coach was taken away by ambulance during the third quater because his pacemaker shocked him. I believe he is doing ok because the assistant coach called him after the game with the kids in the huddle so the coach would know they won. One of the cheerleaders was so concerned and scared for him, she's such a sweetie. When she saw the coach sitting on the bench before it all happened she sat down with him and just sat with him talking to him making sure he was ok. Before it happened he hadn't been feeling well, I guess now we know why. I wonder why that happens? It's happened to him once before about 3 weeks ago during a game then too. Except that time he wasn't feeling bad, he just collapsed on the field when he got shocked. And then this morning I received an email from one cousin letting me know that our cousin Daisy had her baby boy yesterday as well. So congrats Daisy and I hope you and baby are doing well.

A working day off

I'm not working my insurance job today but I do have to clean the house and do laundry. Anyone wanna come do that for me? Just kidding....well, no I'm really not. The last thing anyone ever wants to do on their day off is work. I'm so busy through the week getting Brenden up at 6 and off to school by 7 then I have an hour before I have to get Spencer up and outta here by 8:30 and then Cassidy and I spend the mornings teaching her stuff, ballet on Tues, grocery shopping when needed and running/walking and then I work at noon every day. Followed by getting off at 4 and immediately starting supper to have it on the table by 5 and leaving for football practice by 5:30 and getting home after 8. And on Tuesdays both boys have practice! So you see I'm busy. I need to sweep, clean bathrooms, do laundry and mop today. Sounds fun doesn't it :( Cassidy likes to do the dusting so she's doing that for me. Well folks, I'm off to start my day o' cleaning.

another day, 2 more wins!

Both boys had shutouts again. Spencer's team won 7-0, Spencer being the one who scored the only touchdown and the extra point as well. And Brenden's team won 14-0. Brenden had pass plays again today where he could have made a touchdown if the pass had ever been completed. Neither Brenden nor the other tight end were ever able to catch the ball in the passes because the quarterback didn't quite make it to them. He overthrows the ball or passes it where no one is. Brenden is in maroon and he's the one getting ready to hit #27 in the above picture. Below you see the back of him maroon #89 and he's not letting his man past him. Very good at blocking.

Below Brenden is again blocking #27.

Below is Brenden standing getting ready for the whistle to blow and take his man down.

And now for Spencer, he's #23 in white jersey and above he's taking the flag of the kid in green which is like a tackle in flag football.

Below you see Spencer ducking and weaving and avoiding getting his flags taken which resulted in his touchdown.

Below is the touchdown!

And the above picture is Spencer scoring the extra point after the touchdown.

2 boys, 2 games, and 2 shutouts!

Both boys' teams won today! Spencer had his first game and Spencer scored the first touchdown of the game for his team. His team went on to win 18-0. Awesome for a team who had no plays planned out because the coach hadn't got that far yet. (In his defense, the coach was out 2 weeks with pneumonia for which he was hospitalized and the team only practices once a week) Spencer was so excited and proud of himself and of course we were too. His first ever touchdown, first time playing football, and he does it in the first game and early in the game. And Brenden's team won 25-0. Brenden is, as he calls himself, a beast on the field. He had lots of great blocks and on his pass play him and another teammate both went up in the air and caught the ball together and fell together but held on to the ball. It was a cool play and all the parents were cheering. There were a few other pass plays to him as well but the QB didn't quite hit the mark and threw too far above Brenden or off to the right of him. Brenden took it hard because he didn't want to miss those passes and the coach saw him clenching his fists and getting mad at himself and the coach told him it wasn't his fault, it was the QB for not getting the ball to him. So that was cool. And now of course we are home after a full day of watching both boys play football and what are we watching......FOOTBALL! Oy, me and Cassidy are gonna make some cookies in a few and then we are going upstairs to watch girl shows in mommy's room. I didn't even think to take the camera with me today but I will get pictures from both games next week and post them.

Happenings at our house

I've been so busy lately I don't always have time to update. So here's the latest news of the week. Some exciting news about Spencer, he's on student council. He loves it. His class voted for him as one of the two representatives from their class. First act of student council was pajama day today. If he keeps liking this (and I'm sure he will) maybe Spencer can be Tate's VP! (Tate is my cousin who plans on running for president in 2048) Second thing to mention is also about Spencer, he has whooping cough. He's been to the doctor 3 times in one month for the same cough and they blew it off the first two times and now that he's having difficulty breathing when he coughs they decided to test him for whooping cough. That was a very unpleasant test. Two swabs up the nose and down the throat. She felt confident in saying it is but has to wait for the test to come back to confirm but she is treating it as such and gave him meds and when the results come back confirming it she'll call in meds for everyone else. And Spencer has been vaccinated for whooping cough and the booster for it was just 2 years ago so vaccines aren't always 100% effective. Third, Cassidy loves ballet. She practices at home all week long. She is so excited about it and plays the teacher with the boys and makes them do ballet with her too. It's cute. And Brenden is at the age where he thinks it's cute too and does it to make her happy. And last, football is in full swing and we have 2 games on Saturdays. Brenden is doing well. He hurt his shoulder the other day but is plugging through it because it's football and these things happen. Spencer's first game is actually tomorrow and his coach really hasn't taught them any plays yet so we'll see how tomorrow goes for him. It's the coach's first year and he's taught them basics, just no plays. And I think that about wraps it all up.

How cute!

Cassidy started ballet today and loves it! She was singing a song about ballet on the way home and "I love, love, love, love (and it keeps going) ballet" were the words to the song. And of course I've got a picture of her in her ballet outfit to share. It was so fun to go to ballet after so many years of boy sports.

Brenden's first game

Brenden's team won their first game with a score of 12-0. Each time the kid on his team that kicks the field goal made the attempt, it never got high enough and kicked the kid in front of him directly in the butt. It was hilarious! I got soooo sunburned! It didn't even dawn on me to wear sunscreen and after 3 hours out in the blazing sun, my arms, neck and face are very red and hurting. The kids are fine, I'm just a dummy who forgot about sunscreen for me. Reminds me of what Richard does every vacation when he says "No I don't burn, I don't need sunscreen" and inevitably gets a bad burn on the first or second day on the beach all day. So anyway, no better way to start the season than with a win!

School starts this week

The summer break from school has come to an end. The boys start back to school on Wednesday and my day goes back to just me and Cassidy. Cassidy starts ballet class on Sept 1st in the morning and we'll have library day once a week too. She's really looking forward to ballet and the boys are excited about going back to school. Spencer found out who his teacher will be and who is in his class and Brenden had orientation last Wednesday afternoon and we toured the school and mapped out all his classes since he only has 3 minutes between classes to get from one to the other. He met his first period teacher and he didn't remember her name but Spencer does. Spencer has my memory skills:) Figuring out the locker combination proved to be quite the task for Brenden but he eventually got it. He's so super excited about starting junior high. His first football game of the season will be next weekend too. His team had a car wash today to raise funds for the team banquet at the end of the season. Spencer has yet to have a good practice with his team yet for football because his coach is in the hospital with pneumonia so his wife showed up last week and said "does anyone know anything about football?" Oh boy....so some assistant coaches from other teams practicing that day came over and helped out. I'm enjoying my weekend off this weekend. It's been a while since I haven't worked on the weekends for a few hours on one or both days. But my work has been going so well and I only worked 3 days this week and made my weekly goal already. I'm a 5 star agent which is the top amount of stars and I'm only 1.5% away from being in the top 10% of agents so I'm very happy with my progress the last few months. It truly has been a godsend to not have to leave home to work and I can still be here with the kids and be here for the last year before Cassidy starts school. And with her nap coinciding with my work schedule, she'll only have to play in her room by herself for 1 hour and then take her nap and when she wakes up if I'm not done working then Brenden will be home so it all works out quite nicely. That's all I've got for now. Gotta go make some Chef Boyardee pizzas...Yum, Yum!

Let there be cold air!

Our AC is fixed! The guy came today at 5pm and it turns out it was a small part that makes the motor turn on so we are all relieved to be not sitting in a hot house any longer. Three consecutive days of 90 degrees in the house made us realize how good we have it to have air and not everyone in the world has air conditioning. I took off work on Thursday and Friday so we could spend the days outside in the water and I had to work today, in my office, with the window closed because I can't have noises from outside, so I had two fans circulating hot air around my room while I was sweating for 6 hours and working and it sucked. But I made good money so no biggie. The kids played in the water all day again today. Our old dog is laying on the vent right now. Poor thing, he had to be so hot with all his hair. We left a fan downstairs blowing for the dogs at night to try to help them somewhat. So the AC drama is over and peace has returned to our house. Now maybe the quiet can too because the kids can play in their rooms again instead of being downstairs at all times:)

UGH!

So, it's still hot in our house. Turns out the AC wasn't just frozen, it's dead. So far we know it isn't the outside unit, it's working fine. It's inside the furnace. Richard is going to try to fix it himself because he thinks it may be the blower so we'll try that first before calling the expensive repairman who will charge us loads of money. And what perfect timing, right at back to school time when we are shelling out money for school clothes and supplies. Lucky for me I've already got some school clothes I just still have to buy the supplies. Our neighbors gave us a box fan to use so we've got three fans going and last night they offered us their spare bedrooms if we needed. That was so nice. But we stayed here and put two fans in the kids' room, we had them all sleep in Cassidy's room, and we put one in our window and we have a ceiling fan so we were just fine. The kids' room was so cool I almost wanted to sleep in their last night but once the fans got going in our room it was nice and cool in their too. This morning I even covered up with the comforter. So I'm off work again today to spend the day outside with the kids on the blow up water slide so they can be cool and Richard is going to try to take a 1/2 day of vacation time (yep, he was given vacation time right at his start date, how cool is that!) to come home and fix the furnace. But it could be worse. This could be happening in winter and we could be freezing right now and it certainly is easier to cool off than it is to warm up. I know, we've been through that too. 2 years ago something went bad on the furnace then too and a small part had to be replaced and we only spent one night freezing in the living room all in front of the fireplace. My house is only 13 years old, aren't these things supposed to last longer? Apparently not. I don't know really, never researched how long furnaces are good for. So wish us luck!

It's HOT!

Well the storms knocked out power in all of Lancaster yesterday except for my neighborhood. We lost power for only 20 minutes but since we are in the newest part of Lancaster we actually have a different electric carrier than the rest of town so all AEP customers lost power. So we got lucky there but last night we began to realize it was really hot in here and this morning Richard told me that our central air unit had frozen. So right now it is 90 degrees IN MY HOUSE! I went and bought another oscillating fan so now we have 2 fans going in the living room. I had to take the afternoon off of work because I don't even want to know how hot it is upstairs right now and that's where my office space is. When the kids and I left to go to Walmart to pick up the other fan we just sat in the car for a few minutes with the AC on full blast and we were loving it. I think before football practices tonight (both have practice tonight and poor Brenden has to be in full pads and helmet) we'll leave early and sit in the car for a while. Now I'm fully aware that back in the day people lived without AC but I've never had to and I don't like it! At least I've got the fans so it's manageable. I don't know how people could have possibly managed this kind of heat without fans.

5lbs lost in 3 days!

The good news is it's true! The bad news is that it didn't come off of my body, it was Brenden. He's been going through football conditioning this week 2 hours a night and last night when he weighed himself he'd dropped 5 lbs. So now I know what I'm doing wrong....I'm not playing football! The boy eats like crazy and dropped from 91 lbs to 86 lbs in only 3 days. I wonder if I can ask the coach to include me in on the conditioning for the next few weeks LOL! Or maybe if I run 2 hours a night that might help too, but 3 miles is hard enough and that takes me around 40 minutes so 2 hours oughta just about make me pass out on the roadside somewhere. Maybe I'll shoot for 1 hour (little over 4 miles) and go from there.

Nice day with the kids

I took the kids to see Cats and Dogs today at the movie theater. It was the first time Cassidy has been to the movies. She loved it! We stopped for pretzels in the mall after the movie and also did some back to school clothes shopping. Aeropostale is having a 2 for $15 shirt sale so I picked up a couple for Brenden. We also went to some other stores and found 2 shirts for Spencer that he wanted and another one for Brenden as well as football cleats for Brenden since his practice starts tonight. (I didn't schedule myself any work today so I could take them to the movie.) So now both boys are at friends' houses and Cassidy is still playing in that box. I have a little down time before I have to make supper and go to a 2 hour football practice. Today was so nice, makes me happy to be able to still be home with them.

2 things...

I wanted to share this morning that Cassidy has been playing in a big box for the last 2 days now. She has a room full of toys with a kitchen, a doll house, a tent and where has she been...in the box with her baby dolls. Richard's lawnmower gave up on him the other day and he had to buy another yesterday so she's been playing in it. Spencer is in there too. They both fit in together and close it up. Cassidy was even pulling Spencer around the house in it and he's 53 pounds! Spencer said she had pulled Brenden around in it yesterday too and he's 91 pounds! She's been eating her Wheaties LOL! She says it's because she's been doing her push ups and she's strong. That's the same thing she says to me at the grocery store when she wants to carry something instead of putting it in the cart. She carried her new booster seat all through the store and loved every minute of it.

And for number 2, boy is life about to get busy around here. Brenden has practice Monday through Thursday from 6-8 and Spencer's practice is on Tuesdays from 6:30-7:30 and they'll both have games on Saturdays. Brenden's games will last about 2 hours and Spencer's are just 1 hour. And I've been working from 12-4 so I'll have to make a quick dinner before taking them to practice and then I'm going to come home on some nights and run here or just run at the park where Brenden practices. I'll admit, since July 4th weekend I haven't run much. It's been humid and it's hard to run in that kind of weather and I just needed a break because I was up to 5 miles a day and worked myself really hard. So tomorrow or maybe even tonight I'll get back out there again.

the kid has lots of potential!

Football evaluations are going on right now to see what team Brenden will be drafted to. He had one team ask him yesterday if he'd mind playing quarterback for them and another team ask him how he felt about playing wide receiver for them. So that's awesome! He perfers wide receiver because he played that position before and there is a lot of pressure on quarterbacks and they have to remember all plays, who they are to throw to with what play and he'd rather do wide receiver. I'm just excited for him because those are two great positions. The draft is on Thursday so I'll update then and let you know what position and team he got. Next week starts practices Monday through Thursday for 2 hours a night for Brenden and Spencer will practice 1 hour on 1 night a week (he's playing flag football) and Cassidy is wanting to do gymnastics so I have to wait and see what night Spencer practices and see if it can work out during football season for her to get to do anything at all.

enjoying country life for a day

Yesterday we went to Josh and Jenny's for the day to celebrate Pam's birthday. We took our bonsai falls (blow up water slide), they jumped on the trampoline and played in the basement where they've put the video games, TV and loads and loads of toys. Cassidy loved the basement. Always does. I got to play with Viola who is 8 months old and crawling and is just so beautiful with her blonde hair and big blue eyes. And the best part was the evening when the sun finally gave in a little, a breeze came along and the grown ups could actually stand being outside again. Then Josh showed my kids what they've been missing. He brought out the 4 wheelers. He has a big one and a small one for the kids. So the boys were able to ride around for a couple of hours and Josh took them all around on the back of the big 4 wheeler on a wagon ride. The kids had so much fun. Richard was in heaven just sitting there enjoying the scenery of, well corn fields and woods. He wants to be in the country the next time we move, me....well, I'll put it this way, I get the pick of the house and he picks the land. I've never lived in the country in my entire life so I'm a bit on the iffy side. I don't like the complete darkness at night and I'm so used to the kids being able to just go around the corner to get to one of several friends houses and they always have someone to play with here in town. But I'm sure they'll be able to entertain themselves in the country somehow when the time comes.

Running with Brenden

Brenden went running with me last night for a 3 miler. When we started out he was trying to figure it out was playing around more than anything. I was telling him how to find his pace and be able to breathe and run at the same time and also working on his form because he was more stompy running than rolling off his foot. So when we were about 1/2 mile into the run, he'd been walking then running to catch up to me at this point, I told him to try to run to the stop sign at the end of the street. Now this is a long block which is a little less than 1/4 mile long. I saw him lifting his head up to the sky at one point like he was getting tired and I told him he could walk again if he needed to but he didn't. He made it to the end and from then on it was like it all made sense. No more stompy running and no more walking either. As a matter of fact, I walked some last night (supper was still just a sittin in my stomach making my stomach upset a little) and he kept running. He actually beat me home by 2-3 minutes. He has a longer stride than me too. And he never had a problem with his asthma last night either. He ran with his inhaler in his pocket. There are several small hills in our development and one monster one. Now I can run the small ones but I haven't even attempted the monster one, I still walk it. Not Brenden. He ran that big hill with ease. He was waiting on the other side for me just sitting on the curb. Last year when he ran with me when I first started out he thought running meant always sprinting and he couldn't run for long because he'd tire out. Now he's got it. It just clicked and I'm very proud of him. He'll probably do a race with me next year. Tonight I'll do just one mile and I told Cassidy and Spencer they can go with me for that one. Cassidy has been wanting to run with me so bad and Spencer just can't keep up on the 3 miler. Oh and Brenden was so sweet, I told him good job after I got home and he said hey good job to you too with a sincere look on his face like he was proud of his mom.

Picture Day again

Had a belated Easter and Mother's Day photo shoot this morning since I couldn't get them done earlier in April or May. And here they are.

This last photo was the last one she did and the kids loved piling on mommy. It was so fun!