The Scarberry 5

Cassidy's pictures

2011-08-02T09:35:00.003-04:00

I finally got around to getting Cassidy's 5 year old pictures taken yesterday and here they are!

Holy Haircut!

2011-07-13T07:35:00.002-04:00

After 4 years of his longer hair Brenden decided that he was ready to get his hair cut. It's football season again and he decided to go with the faux hawk cut. I think he looks great and I'm also having a hard time getting used to it LOL! He's had his great longer hair for so long it's strange to see his full face again!

Spencer's 8th Birthday

2011-05-03T09:53:00.003-04:00

Spencer turned on 8 on Sunday, May 1st and we had his birthday party that day at the YMCA Rec Plex. At the Rec Plex they have a basketball court, dodgeball court, air hockey, foosball table, pool tables, ping pong table, and video games. He had a great time! All he really wanted to do the whole time was play basketball, he loves basketball, and it was the theme of his party too. And he ended up getting 2 basktballs for his birthday as well! So, without further ado, I give you birthday pictures.

He was so exctied when he saw that this is the Lebron James Miami Heat Jersey he wanted so badly. And the picture below is one of the two basketballs he got. This one is actually from Brenden and Cassidy and is the Miami Heat colors.

Race Report

2011-04-30T14:18:00.004-04:00

Brenden and I ran a 5K this morning. It was my 3rd race ever and Brenden's first. Let me tell ya, Brenden is awesome. And I think he's hooked on racing! Brenden placed 62nd out of about 220 people in the race. He finished in 29:54 and was running a mile at a 9:37 pace. Freaking awesome! I'm so, so, so proud of him! Then there's me. I did well, not as good as Brenden but give a girl a break. He's younger, faster and much, much skinnier LOL! So I finished 114th and my time was 44:18 and my pace was 14:13 per mile. I had to stop twice to tie my shoe and I could've finished about a minute quicker if I hadn't had to do that :) Anyway, I am proud of myself too because my goal today was to finish this year better than last years time and I did because last year it was 47:26 and I finished 146th out of 216. It was a really great race day and now I need a nap. And here's some pictures from today to share with everyone

He pushed himself really hard at the end and had to lay down to avoid throwing up! I told him not to sprint that last block because this would happen but the people cheering really get you excited it's so hard not to sprint.

This was after we were done.

Another 5K coming up!

2011-04-21T15:59:00.003-04:00

I'll be running the Strides for Mental Health 5K in downtown Lancastesr, Ohio on Saturday April 30th. Brenden will be running it with me. After seeing me run it last year, both boys decided they wanted to start running with. However, only one can keep up. That's not entirely true, Brenden is faster than me! Spencer can't quite keep up, but he's 7. Brenden has been playing football for years and is 11 and he's just faster....all there is to it. He's hoping to finish in a good enough place to get a medal. I think it's the top 3 in his age group. His age group is 14 and under which could be sucky if there's a lot of kids older than him in the race. But with football on his side, he just very well may beat those other kids. I certainly hope so. I know I won't be getting any medals. My goal this year is to beat my time from last year. Last year this was the very first race I'd ever run and was proud of myself for finishing, but not proud of how undertrained I was. So this year I feel better prepared and I know how to stretch better too! Wish us luck!

Ballet pictures

2011-04-06T13:19:00.004-04:00

The boys get their time to shine here on my blog during football and basketball season. Today is Cassidy's turn. Parents don't get to sit and watch at ballet class every week, instead there are 2 times a year that she has parent observation week. Today was one of those days. And the recital will be in the end of May. So here are some pictures of our prima ballerina. She is really good and listens so well. She knows the routine without needing any help from the teacher. The purple outfit is the costume for the recital. Miss Susan had the girls try them on and run through the routine once in them. Then they changed back into their other dance outfits they came in today.

The weather outside's delightful

2011-03-18T23:23:00.002-04:00

These last 2 days have been beautiful outside! If it's nice again tomorrow Brenden and I are gonna run outside to get ourselves ready for our 5K on April 30. Running outside is way different from running on a treadmill so I have to start getting myself back in the swing of doing it all myself instead of relying on the treadmill to keep my legs going. Running outside leaves it all up to me, my willpower, and my brain that likes to tell me to stop because it's hard. I just have to learn to ignore that last part and keep going! I wanted to cook out on the grill this weekend too but Richard said he has to clean it before cooking on it again since it's sat all winter so it's a no go for burgers and dogs :( Aw well, plenty of time for grilling very soon!

Happy 5th Birthday Cassidy!

2011-03-09T12:37:00.005-05:00

Well, my baby is now 5. I took her to a children's play museum yesterday for a mommy daughter afternoon and then last night was her birthday party at the skating rink. She had a blast and we had a lot of guests there. So here are some pictures.

LIMBO TIME! How low can you go?

DO THE HOKEY POKEY!

These remaining pictures are from the AHA children's museum

Cassidy, I am so happy to be your mommy. You are such a wonderful little girl and I'm so happy I've been home with you every single day of your life to watch you learn and grow. I love you so much!

This week's running report

2011-02-11T12:34:00.003-05:00

This weeks' running went well. I ran 2 miles on Monday, 2 on Tuesday, 1.12 on Thursday and 2 today. So I didn't run on Wednesday due to Cassidy having a stomach bug but I did fit in a 25 minute Jillian Michaels workout and I did some kettlebell and weight exercises. I didn't want to run so I could be right there for her and be able to hear when she needed me, which was often and there was an morning of holding and rocking. Sorry running shoes, but I'll give you a day off any day to hold my kiddos while they are sick. Then on Thursday I thought I'd increase my speed by an extra 1 mph and as you see I only made it 1.12 miles that day. But I'm okay with that. The speed was great for my legs, no pain or anything. In fact, I loved going faster. However, the breathing just wasn't right. Going an entire 1 mph faster than my normal speed was a lot to get used to with my breathing. Instead of deep breaths I was only getting short chesty breaths and I ended up with a horrible throbbing pain on the ride side of my neck. So to be on the safe side, and you know, in an effort to not pass out from lack of oxygen, I called it a day at 1.12. Which then leads us to today, Friday, and I ran 2 miles again. Wanting to change things up a bit today so I compromised and upped it just .5 mph over my regular speed for the first mile and then for the second mile I went up 1.5 mph over my regular speed to do some speedwork sprints and I did this for 2 minutes, then slowed it back down to regular speed for 1 minute and then repeat. That was fun to do and I'm doing this to help get my lungs used to the faster speed and build up my lung capacity. It's amazing how good my legs feel running that faster speed. Now to get my lungs caught up and I'm good to go. Monday I jump up to 2.25 miles and I may take a 1-2 mile run outside if it's nice enough this weekend.

for my fellow runners

2011-02-03T16:01:00.003-05:00

I've been asked to post about the The Fresh Air Fund Half Marathon. I tried to copy and paste some info but couldn't get it to work. you can find out info about The Fresh Air Fund and the half marathon which benefits children at http://www.freshairmarathon.com/ If I lived in NYC or was ready for a half yet I'd be running this. I'm not quite there yet but a lot of my fellow runners are and since you love to run, why not run for a good cause.

A running road block

2011-02-03T09:11:00.002-05:00

I have made it to 2 miles (all running) and my knee has decided to hurt. I ran on Monday and it started hurting a bit then on Tuesday morning it was feeling worse than the day before but I ran anyway figuring I'd play it by ear when I got on the treadmill and if it hurt too bad I'd get off. Well it actually felt better running on it but then afterward it started throbbing again. I iced it which made it nice and numb but the pain returned when the numbness wore off. So I'm taking the rest of the week off of running so I don't hurt it so bad that I can't run for months. It's actually feeling just fine again now, no pain at all but I want to give it plenty of time to properly heal so I can go back full speed ahead on Monday. I'll pick back up at 2 miles and move right along. I have run when I'm extremely tired, through knee pain and through just not feeling like it but did it anyway. I'm liking the change in attitude I see in myself and the dedication and follow through. I truly enjoy running and can't wait to beat my time from last year in my 5K on April 30th.

Some basketball pictures

2011-01-29T18:53:00.005-05:00

Crap....the sickies return!

2011-01-25T16:14:00.002-05:00

So Cassidy is sick with runny nose, sneezing, coughing and fever and Spencer is sick with a stomach virus. I'd like to spray Lysol after everytime Cassidy sneezes or coughs but that would just be one big constant spray. I didn't work today because Spencer was throwing up this morning and I can't be on a call when he needs me as well as if Captain Coughs-a-lot needs me. I had to trek them to the store this morning for cough syrup which says it lasts for 12 hours but it's more like 2 and I got Cassidy her very own box of lotiony tissues because she was crying because her nose was burning. Please, Please, Please God don't let me get sick too! I've got several hours of work to still put in before the end of the payperiod. It's great to work from home but the downside is no pay for sick days :(

Brenden the business man

2011-01-21T12:09:00.002-05:00

I'm so proud of Brenden. We have 6 inches of snow and he's out shoveling other people's driveways for $5. Last night he came to us and asked if he could do that because he wants to earn some money to buy some video game things so we said yes, of course. I'm happy he's taking the iniative to earn money of his own. He's in for it now.....I see mowing in his near future!

I finished up my third week of running training with 1.5 miles every day totaling 7.5 miles for this week. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm really proud of myself for staying committed to it this time and I never want to stop. I've come very far by not letting myself stop when I get tired, or not even get on the treadmill when I'm tired, as well as running when maybe I have a bit of pain in my knee. That happened again today in the beginning of my run so I slow down my pace and go slower and it works itself out in a few minutes. The old Julie would have quit and said I have to rest my knee for like say a month LOL! I'm not saying I wanna run marathons right now but I would like to run a 1/2 marathon in a year or two. A 1/2 is 13 miles. I'm finding out about myself that what I set my mind to I can and WILL do! Go Me!

School Lunch anyone?

2011-01-18T13:20:00.003-05:00

Today was 2nd grade parents day to eat lunch with their kids at school so I packed a lunch for Cassidy and of course we went. I bought the school lunch which was chicken and noodles, mashed potatoes, peas and a roll. It was really good! Spencer however wanted to pack today. He's not one to try new foods. Spencer got to show us a powerpoint presentation that they created in computer lab. Cassidy like sitting in computer lab and Spencer showed it to her too and she liked eating lunch there too. I almost cried when I realized that she'll be eating lunch there in 8 months. As I look at her she just seems too small to be ready for kindergarten already. When each boy started school I still had someone at home with me. I don't think I'm ready for it yet. I'm gonna cherish these next 8 months that I have with her before she starts school. I'm guessing the dogs may welcome the break in harrasment as she sits here right now annoying Koda :)

Week 2 done

2011-01-15T09:08:00.002-05:00

So this week I ran 1.25 miles every day (M-F) for a total of 6.25 miles for the week. Next week I move on to 1.5 miles every day. And this is all running, no walking whatsoever. That's why I'm building slowly. I don't count my weight loss until Monday morning for the weight loss for the previous week but so far it's 2 pounds lost for this week. I don't run on the weekends and it's a nice little break so that I don't wear myself out completely or get injured. And this helps me to not give up on the weekdays as well if I have a break. Today we have 3 basketball games and I'm gonna work from 10-2. So I'm wrapping this up now so I can start some laundry and grab something to eat before working. Have a nice weekend!

One week, 3 pounds

2011-01-11T09:56:00.002-05:00

So last week I started running every day again and ran 1 mile each day. I lost 3 pounds last week as well. This week I'm running 1.25 miles and I'm 2 days into the week already and have 2.5 miles already ran for the week. I'm finding that as I build mileage gradually it really helps my endurance. Before running my races last year I was just running until I couldn't run anymore then walk and then run again but I want to be consistent and never have to walk. The old way would make my legs sore and the next day or two I'd not run and it just wasn't the right way to go about it. So I've now read alot about the right way to build mileage and also the importance of stretching. I used to not really stretch at all which is what would lead to the achy legs and when it hurts that just gave me an instant excuse to give up. Last week on day 3 my legs were sore but I ran anyway and felt so good about myself after my run. And yesterday my knee started hurting but I ran anyway and again felt proud to have not given up. Cassidy likes to get on the treadmill after me and last week she ran .13 of a mile and today she actually kept going for .25 of a mile! I'm very happy to be setting a good example for her and that she likes to run like mommy.

A brand new year....

2011-01-04T14:58:00.004-05:00

that will lead to a brand new me! My new year's resolution is to really dedicate myself to my running and stick with it. I want to be that girl running races and most importanly I want to be skinny Julie again. So I will be running Monday through Friday and concentrating for a while on running 3 miles a day. At this point I can run 2 straight through but I hit a mental block at 2 miles that tells me to stop and I have a panic attack and can't go past 2 miles. I have run 3 miles once, no walking at all, but it was the slowest pace known to man but I never walked. So today since I hadn't been on the treadmill in about 6 weeks I started off running 1 full mile which is easy for me and I'm starting off slow because I know tomorrow my legs may be achy and my mind will say "let's skip it today" but my mouth and my legs will say shut up and I'll get on the treadmill and run 1 mile again and a little more each day til I'm running 2 miles straight again and then just keep building that way til I'm at 3. My friend wrote a blog post that said "You've got to slow down if you want to win" and I'm using that motto to slow down back to 1 mile and build back up to my 2 and then on to 3 by increasing my speed. I was running 2 miles but not at a very fast pace. So this way I'll slowly increase my speed and mileage at the same time, all the while watching the pounds fall off. And I'm drinking protein shakes to help muscle recovery too so I'm not too sore and will be able to run daily. I have devoted the last 11.5 years to being a stay at home first and never do anything for myself and this is the year I do something for me!

I hate being sick!

2010-12-17T09:03:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-01T15:18:00.004-05:00

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!

2010-11-21T23:17:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-11T10:32:00.004-05:00

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

The Championship Game

2010-11-10T12:37:00.005-05:00

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!

2010-10-29T10:52:00.003-04:00

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

2010-10-22T18:40:00.005-04:00

A day at the fair

2010-10-15T17:44:00.002-04:00

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

2010-10-10T14:07:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-10-06T20:35:00.005-04:00

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

2010-10-06T08:15:00.002-04:00

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

2010-10-01T23:37:00.002-04:00

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

2010-09-30T09:45:00.002-04:00

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

2010-09-24T09:12:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-09-18T18:47:00.005-04:00

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!

2010-09-11T19:28:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-10T09:21:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-09-01T14:21:00.002-04:00

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

2010-08-29T12:08:00.002-04:00

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

2010-08-22T16:37:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-08-14T20:10:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-08-13T10:21:00.002-04:00

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!

2010-08-12T13:57:00.003-04:00

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!

2010-08-05T10:19:00.004-04:00

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

2010-08-02T15:28:00.003-04:00

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...

2010-08-01T10:04:00.004-04:00

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!

2010-07-27T09:34:00.003-04:00

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

2010-07-25T09:36:00.003-04:00

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

2010-07-22T10:46:00.002-04:00

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

2010-07-16T13:53:00.005-04:00

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!

and here it is

2010-07-14T17:47:00.004-04:00

Here's my Trailblazer. I took delivery of it yesterday and turned in my leased minivan. Wow, it's hard to believe that it has been 4 years since I got the minivan. I got it one month after Cassidy was born and thinking of the fact then that I'd have it for 4 years seemed like a long time. Time sure does fly. Anyway, I really love the Trailblazer and the kids do too. They like climbing to the 3rd row seat. Not much different from the van since it has 3 rows of seats too but it's just the difference in how you get there that the kids are intrigued by I guess. I had to wait so long to get it (9 days, but that includes the holiday weekend and last weekend and I did buy on a Friday) because the guy who fixes the dents in their vehicles was out and came back on Monday so he did it then.

So after I purchased this, Richard traded in the camaro the very next week for a 2007 Nissan Titan (it's a truck for us girls who wouldn't know that). It also has a back seat for the kids and they love it. We all couldn't fit in the camaro because it had bucket seats in the back and doesn't seat 5. He's been wanting to trade in the camaro for a bit now but of course with the job loss we had to wait. It was all so smooth and we weren't sure what to expect since the unemployment crisis that was June 2009-May 2010. Just goes to show the power of keeping your credit good. And a shout out to my dad for whom the good credit score wouldn't have been possible without his help :)

making the feet hit the pavement

2010-07-12T07:50:00.002-04:00

I took last week off from running because it was just too hot still in the evening to run. Tonight I resume running and I'm taking Brenden with me. He starts football practice on Aug 2 so he's going to run with me to get ready for that again. Spencer starts flag football practice soon too but we don't know when that is it. He has tried to run with me a few times and can't keep up and I don't like to walk when I don't need to so now when he goes he takes his bike. Hopefully Brenden can keep up. I may have to slow down a bit (is that even possible? I run at a turtle's pace already:) just until he can keep up or at least be right behind me. With Spencer I'd still run when he was walking but when I'd get to about 3 houses ahead I could tell he was a bit scared with me being ahead of him (I always turned around and made sure I could see him) and he'd run to me even if he was worn out so I'd stop running and walk with him til he could run a little bit again. He's so great wanting to run with me. Cassidy wants to run with me so badly so I'm going to take her with me for 1 mile run one time just to have fun with her. She just scares me because she wants to go so fast and I'm afraid she's going to wipe out on the sidewalk and get hurt. Brenden hasn't run with me in a while so we'll see how that goes tonight. I imagine it going something like this "Brenden, put your phone away and run. you can talk to your friends later". Seriously though it will be fine as long as he paces himself. He tends to run too fast in the beginning and then can't breathe and run so he has to stop for a few and then start again. I have to teach him to breathe properly and pace himself and he'll do great. So as long as this rain stops, I'll be able to run. Of course I have run in the rain before when I was training for my races. I put on a poncho and out in it I went. It was cold, my pants got waterlogged and heavy but I did it and it made me feel like a hard core runner.

It's Hot, Hot, Hot!

2010-07-07T17:26:00.002-04:00

My goodness it's hot outside! We set up bonsai falls (water slide with pool at bottom) on Monday and again today. Brenden had a friend over Monday and today we invited Spencer's best friend Zac and his sisters over. They moved 30 minutes away in May. Zac's mom Megan is who I ran the 5k with in May. We used to run around our neighborhood together before they moved. It was nice to sit and catch up with her for a few hours and for the kids to play. I got in the pool with the kids on Monday but not today. Our dog Dakoda spent way too much time outside with us on Monday and was very sick that night. I'm not sure if she got stung by a bee or if it was heat exhaustion but we had to give her a benadryl and it calmed her after about an hour of throwing up and not breathing properly. I kept her in today while we were outside. I haven't run this week because it's just been way too hot. That's ok though, I can take a little break from running for a week because I busted my butt running in the last 3 weeks. It's so hard to run in the high heat and humidity. Well, that's it for now. Hope everyone is staying cool.

July 4, 2010 Grooms family reunion

2010-07-05T08:47:00.002-04:00

This is Daisy's tattoo which I thought I'd share because it's awesome!
The top picture is of course all the families and the bottom is my dad, Julie and us.

We had a great day yesterday at our family reunion. This is my dad's side of the family. All the brothers and sisters were there and all their kids. There were some grandkids missing, Jeff's kids, Susie's son and Kenny's kids. Jay's kids were there whom I hadn't seen in 9 years. Daisy is all grown up and beautiful! She's also married and expecting a baby and Curtis is 18 and just got married as well. Their dad would be so proud of them. We've got 4 expecting babies all within a couple of months of each other and they are Daisy, Becky, Angela and Hollie. Cassidy and Olivia played so well together and it was so cute. Really all the kids got along so well. Brenden ate and ate and ate some more. I don't know where it all goes, look how skinny he is. The boys went to a friends house last night to swim some more and do some fireworks there and when I picked them up at 11 he was eating a bratwurst! I wish I had his metabolism! Spencer loved going down the water slide all day and he went off the diving board a few times too. It was so great having the whole family together just like when I was a kid and everyone would come to my grandparents house for Thanksgiving.

I got it!

2010-07-03T09:26:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got a white 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer LS EXT. It only has 61,812 miles on it. (Of course my minivan is also a 2006 and I've only put 30,414 on mine, but not everyone can be as awesome on mileage as me..ha ha!) The kids liked the third row seat and it seemed like it was easy enough for them to get in and out of. There was enough leg room in the back row and for growing kids that's good since Brenden will be a tall teen soon. Looked like a little more leg room than in the minivan actually. It's also wider than the minivan is. It's still at the dealership since they had just got it in and hadn't had time to clean it up or anything. I called them the day after they got it in and had them bring it up from the Athens dealership and it still even had personal effects on the inside that the owners forgot. So I should have it here in the next few days. We signed all the paperwork yesterday and they will be shampooing the carpets, detailing the inside, washing and waxing the outside and taking care of 2 problems on the outside. There is a little ding on the driver door and some scratches on the bumper so they are taking care of that before I take it. When I get it I'll post some pictures.

searching for a new vehicle

2010-07-01T10:10:00.004-04:00

Our lease is up on my minivan in mid July so we've been looking for an Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT. We're going to go look at a few tomorrow and see if it will work out with the kids before making a final decision on this truck. I'm not opposed to getting another minivan. This trailblazer model has a third row seat so I want to see how accesible it really is to get to and how the kids will actually go about getting to it. I'm not one to have them climbing over seats with dirty shoes. The dealership right in front of us is where we got our Uplander and they have a white one and a charcoal one that we'll be looking at tomorrow. There's a silver one down the road too that I really like but the mileage is a bit high, it's already at 91k miles. But the good thing is that I have had my minivan for 4 years and have only just 1 month ago got to 30k miles on it so if we go for a higher mileage one (because it's cheaper too) it won't be too bad for me since I clearly don't put a lot of miles on it. So if I get it, I'll put some pictures on here. The only reason we don't want to go ahead and keep the Uplander is because it has had some issues. Thank God for its warranty because it was in the shop 7 times! So we aren't interested in keeping something that has manufacturing issues.

I think I can.....

2010-06-29T13:20:00.002-04:00

I just found out that my online running mom group is going to get together May 1, 2011 for the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati. These women are coming from everywhere throughout the US. I would like to do the 1/2 marathon which is 13 miles. But I'm so intimidated by that distance. I mean for goodness sake I can only run 3 miles right now. So adding another 10 to that is, well, scary! So I'll set it to the back of my mind as a goal and I'll slowly up my mileage and see how it goes and decide after the first of the year if I think I can realistically do this. It's nice to have something to work for. And it's far enough away so I don't have to pressure myself either.

Brenden is 11

2010-06-24T09:56:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was Brenden's 11th birthday. We met Richard at work to have lunch with him and then got to look around in the Rocky Boots store for a few minutes. Earlier in the week Brenden had received cards from both my brother and Dad and Julie, brother's including a gift card to Target and Dad and Julie's containing money. I took Brenden out yesterday afternoon and let him buy some things with his money and he still has some left. He bought a $20 phone minute card, a monkey webkinz (it's a toy that they can play with online as well), some WWE trading cards and a WWE "Big Show" dog tag. Then after Richard got home we gave him his presents from us and Spencer and Cassidy. He's been asking for an ipod touch for a while (before Christmas) and said he'd like to have that for his birthday and he'd forego a birthday party and everything for it. So we got him that and an itunes card and Cassidy and Spencer got him some covers for it to protect it. He's going to have 3 friends over this weekend to spend the night and I'll get an ice cream cake and order pizza and they're going to watch a movie.

I've been biking and running lately. We have a recumbant bike. I've found that biking during the day actually has helped me get through my runs better. My legs don't get tired and I'm not walking the hills anymore, I'm running them! Before, my thighs would hurt so bad when I started up the hills but not anymore. The end of my run is nice because it's all downhill and feels good after a hard run. I won't lie, in my head I've got the Rocky movie theme song going on so I can make it up the hill and then when I get to the top there's a big sigh of relief and accomplishment. I go around my development which is 3 miles from one end then all the way to the back and then to the other end and home. I'd say the last 1/2 mile is the part that's all downhill and much appreciated. I don't want to reverse my run and start out on the hill quite yet because I'd be walking out my door and starting right out on a hill. The weight is coming off slowly but surely. I sure wish it come off a little quicker. I didn't have this much trouble losing weight after Brenden and Spencer were born. I've been stuck at Cassidy's delivery weight for 4 years! I guess what they say is true about after 30 your metabolism changes. Mine up and moved! I never was an exerciser like this before. I dieted and lost the weight after the boys without exercising. I've been dieting on and off for 4 years to no avail. So I'm so thankful that I love running and I'm starting to see my weight go down.

13 Years

2010-06-14T12:26:00.002-04:00

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. We will be celebrating by going bowling this weekend and going out to eat and we'll be going as a family. That's what happens when you don't have a babysitter. In a couple of years Brenden can watch his brother and sister for us for a few hours, but not yet. 13 years, wow. We've had 3 kids, lived in 4 places, had 3 dogs and 3 cats, and had ups and downs with work and family and through it all we've stayed strong. I'm very happy to have a strong marriage and I truly am married to my best friend. Happy Anniversary Richard!

I love you!

Eventful Sunday Morning

2010-06-06T11:30:00.002-04:00

We were woken up by the sounds of tornado sirens. I jumped up and said that's the tornado sirens and Richard grabbed Cassidy, Spencer met us in the hall telling us he heard the sirens too and we were telling Brenden to get up and lets go to the basement. Richard got Cassidy and Spencer downstairs and I was last one down right behind Brenden because he was woken up so abruptly and stood there for a minute listening to us but not comprehending what we were saying. The sirens went off for about 15 minutes then stopped and we came upstairs and turned on the news and then they started going off again. The sirens were sounding on and off for 45 minutes. Nothing touched down near us and I have no idea if anything touched down in our county at all, nothing has been reported on the news yet of any damages if any. But I do know that when I turned on the tv, 10tv was out. So that was our morning, I hope everyone else had a calmer morning than we did.

Picture day for Cassidy

2010-06-03T13:24:00.004-04:00

I got Cassidy's pictures taken yesterday. She did such an awesome job. Sometimes she gets ornery on picture day but not yesterday. And it was even a new photograper taking the pictures because our regular lady wasn't in. I really liked the new lady too. She was great with Cassidy. So here are the pictures. Sears has changed the way we can view the pictures on their site and now Sears has the trademark on the front of the picture and the photo would only upload this size. Hope you can see them ok.

5th graders with big hearts

2010-05-28T10:16:00.003-04:00

One of Brenden's fifth grade classrooms won 500 books in a contest. The class donated all 500 books to 4 different organizations because they wanted to help more than one organization. They donated to Lutheran Social Services, Job and Family Services, another local organization I can't remember then name of, and Children's Hospital in memory of their friend and classmate Paige Weaver who died in 2008 from a brain tumor and she spent a lot of time at Children's during her fight. Wow. I'm speechless and so proud of these guys. To remember and honor Paige that way is amazing. And to think of the kids in the community as well who can use these books...What a great bunch of 5th graders we have at Tarhe Elementary. I'm honored to be a parent of one of them.

The long awaited Spencer's birthday post

2010-05-25T12:16:00.004-04:00

This post just got away from me. Sorry 'bout that. I had to load the pictures on my computer which I just kept forgetting to do. So anyway, on May 2 we had Spencer's birthday party at the bowling alley. He turned 7 on May 1. He invited some friends from school and of course our nieces Haley, Hannah and Hope. Spencer loves WWE wrestling and his newest favorite wrestler is Shawn Michaels who recently retired. So for his birthday he requested the Shawn Michaels My Journey DVD and so we got that for him as well as a Shawn Michaels t-shirt. And it was time to upgrade bikes so we got him a new bike as well. He got some presents from some of the kids but mostly he got money and lots of it. In all, including gift cards, he made out with $90! He spent it so wisely too. I can't remember everything he bought with all his money but some include a WWE action figure, some WWE cards, and he bought the kids version of cornhole (the bean bag tossing game) for $20. He's so great with his money. He really thinks about everything for a while before he makes his final decision to purchase. That's so awesome. So here are some pictures of his funfilled day.

Here he is with his bike. We actually gave it to him the day before the party which was his actual birthday anyway. We couldn't figure out how to take the bike to the bowling alley. Miss grouchy pants. She wouldn't smile. In her defense, she was up late the night before watching a movie and she didn't have a nap on party day either since the party was at 3.

What an amazing race

2010-05-16T20:08:00.007-04:00

Yesterday I ran the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure. I finished it in 46:21. The time also includes about a 2 minute potty break at 1.5 miles. So I did beat my time from my first race just 3 weeks ago by 1 minute. Megan saw the time and asked what my time was at the last race and she saw we were cutting it close so we just started sprinting. After I crossed the finish line I had to sit on the curb quickly, I thought I was going to throw up. I pushed myself very hard in this race. The hills were no fun at all. I did have to walk some and I'm okay with that. There were other runners that were taking walk breaks too so I felt much better about myself seeing that. There were 50, 286 people at the race. It was amazing.

I was on Heather Pick and Stefanie Spielman's team. They are both prominent women from Columbus who have passed away in the last 1 1/2 years. Both were young, I believe Heather was 37 and Stefanie was 42. Both leaving young children behind and husbands. Heather started the pink wig tradition and it is carried on. There were several times I cried before the race began. They had 2 trolly's full of women currently undergoing treatments for breast cancer and when I saw this one woman crying and waving I started crying. When Maria Durant, a local newscaster who is a breast cancer survivor herself, started crying, I cried then too. The moment of silence for all who've lost their battles, cried again. It was a very emotional day. There were families running with their survivor, husbands wearing pink wigs, a woman being pushed in a wheelchair, it was just a great show of support. I wore an in celebration tag for my aunt Jane who is a breast cancer survivor and an in memory tag for my cousin Marquita who passed away just a few years ago from her battle with breast cancer. When I was writing those tags was the first time I cried that day. I was so proud to be running in honor of them. At the last mile there is something called thunder tunnel where motorcyclists line up along both sides of the street and rev up for us in support and that was so cool. So many people were out all over the place clapping and cheering everyone on. It was just the most wonderful race experience I could have asked for.

This is the picture of Heather and Stefanie's team. Me and Megan are way in the back.

These are my tags honoring my aunt and cousin.

This is Me and Megan.

My next 5K

2010-05-14T16:10:00.003-04:00

My next 5k is tomorrow. I'll be running the Race for the Cure Columus to fight breast cancer. I'm on Heather Pick and Stefanie Spielman's team. Heather is a local newscaster who lost her battle with cancer about a year and 1/2 ago and Stefanie lost her battle in November. Everyone on their team will be wearing pink wigs in memory of them. I will also be wearing an in memory tag for my cousin Marquita who passed away a few years from breast cancer and an in celebration of badge for my aunt Jane who won her battle 17 years ago. I'm very excited to be running this race. It will be an emotional race. Details to come in a few days. Wish me luck!

Please vote

2010-05-10T20:29:00.005-04:00

I'm asking my readers to consider voting for Katelin and Phil for a 60K dream wedding at http://www.elevenelevenwedding.com/. Kaetlin is the daughter of a lady who works for the same company as me. All of us girls know that if we would have had the chance for a paid dream wedding we would have wanted it. Let's give this young couple a chance. They are one of 10 finalists. Thanks!

My Mother's Day

2010-05-09T11:31:00.006-04:00

I know I still have to get Spencer's birthday post done, but I wanted to post really quickly about Mother's Day. I've been working so hard this past week and running everyday and I just haven't had the time to do my blog this week. So anyway, this morning Richard got up with the kids and they made me breakfast in bed. I had french toast, hashbrowns and chocolate milk. Yummy! Each kid carried something into the room and Cassidy said Happy Valentines Day then corrected herself and said I mean Happy Mother's Day. So sweet. And Cassidy had in her hands a picture frame with a picture that Richard took of the kids yesterday with them holding up the words Happy Mothers Day. (see above picture) That's so sweet! So I ate my breakfast, Richard brought up the paper and the kids left me alone. I came dowstairs about 1/2 hour later and the boys gave me cards they made at school and Cassidy gave me one she colored for me this morning. (Brenden's card stated that he wouldn't fight with Spencer for 1 day...if he meant that to be today, he's already broken that one!) Then the kids gave me a card they bought for me and gave me some gifts. The gifts were 3 running shirts, a visor to wear while running and Cassidy's pick was a box of chocolates. So I guess my theme here is I will run for chocolate LOL! And now Richard is doing some cleaning, the dogs are outside, Cassidy is watching Spongebob and the boys are playing video games in their rooms. Now I just need to teach the boys to do laundry which is something they both had in their mother's day cards that they will do and it just turns out there's a weeks worth of laundry just waiting for them. Lucky them....Lucky me! Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Birthday pics coming soon

2010-05-04T19:02:00.002-04:00

Spencer turned 7 on Saturday May 1. We had a birthday party for him at the bowling alley on Sunday. I'm on a quick break from working so I'll post more in a few days as well as pictures. Got to go downstairs and grab something to eat and back on the phones.

Wanna hear about my first 5K?

2010-04-24T19:32:00.008-04:00

The top picture is me coming up to the finish line and the bottom is just after I crossed it and I'm running down the roped off section to get to Richard and the kids. And I'm running so Richard could get another running picture too, ha, ha!

The picture above is Natalie and I after the race resting. And of course the bottom is me and my support group!

I tried to sleep last night, to no avail. I went to bed at 10:00, Cassidy decided to be scared of the dark last night (there's a night light in her room and the hallway) so I let her lay in bed with me for a little bit and then I took her back to her room and tucked her in. By this time I wasn't as sleepy as I originally was when I went to bed so I laid awake for a while. I fell asleep but woke up a lot through the night. I woke up at 6:50, Natalie picked me up at 7:20 and off to the race we went. The race started at 8:00. There were around 250 people there, some running and some walking. We started in the middle of the pack of runners. I believe my time ended up being 47-48 minutes. The times haven't been posted yet but when I got to Richard and the kids I looked at my pedometer and it was at 48 so I may have crossed the finish line at 47 something. I ran about 2.25 miles of it and walked .75 of a mile. It kicked my butt! The flat part of the course was fine. I run on flat surfaces here in my housing development. The part around the lake which is hilly is the part that kicked my butt. My calves started hurting and I wondered what exactly I had gotten myself into. But I kept trucking on walked some of the hilly portions around the lake and when I got back to flat I took off again. It was a great experience and I totally loved it. Brenden's friend Micah was walking it with his mom and her sisters and when I passed him (the course was a loop around so you go to a point and turn around and go back the same way you came from) he put his hand out and high fived me and his mom and sisters were clapping for me and cheering. Lucky for me I was running past them so they were cheering for me as I ran. And another of Angie's sisters ran the race and when she passed me heading back she gave me words of encouragement as well and she finished before me and was on the side cheering for me as well. That was a cool feeling. As I got to the finish line the people who had already finished were cheering for everyone else as well. It was so cool. And as I got closer to the finish line there was Richard taking pictures of me and the kids were cheering for me too. I could see them about two blocks before I got to the finish line and it was so great to have them there cheering me on. Richard gave me a big hug and told me good job. I had a great time in my first race and now I'll always have a time to beat. No one ever goes into their first race being at the top of their game so I now have a personal time to beat of my own and I look very much forward to doing so. My next race is May 15 and even if I beat myself by just 1 minute it will be an accomplishment. Shoot, today was an accomplishment just for being out there and competing in a race and I'm very proud of myself.

UPDATE: it's Sunday morning and the results are posted on the website and my time was 47:26. I thought it might have been just under 48. Yay me! And I wasn't the last place runner either. There were runners behind me which makes me feel great about my first race. This is a picture the race officials took of me as I crossed the finish line and the bottom picture is the start of the race. If you look straight down the middle of the picture you'll see me. Look behind the man in the front row in the red shirt and I'm in the 4th row straight behind him. You may be able to click on the picture to make it bigger.

2 days to go!

2010-04-22T12:28:00.003-04:00

2 days til race day! I picked up my race day packet this morning with my number, I'm number 3, and my race day shirt and a little box of wheaties fuel. I'm very excited. I'm going to start in the back end of the runners so I don't get trampled and that way I won't feel like a big dummy when I have to walk some since I'll be just in front of the walkers. Anyway, just wanted to share my excitement. I worked from 8pm to midnight last night so I'm exhausted and I'm gonna rest before I work again today.

6 days til my first race

2010-04-18T16:33:00.002-04:00

Saturday April 24th is my first 5K. I've been able to get more running time in now it is warmer outside and I'm not scheduling any work hours in the morning. I had to put my running back as a priority and myself as a priority and schedule myself in to my own stinking schedule. I run on M-W-F at 9:30am with my friend and yesterday I ran at the boys' school for 1.25 miles. I was planning on running 2 miles but at the 1.25 lap around I came up to Spencer telling me Brenden was hurt so after checking on him we decided to head home. Brenden was on the playground and was jumping up to a part of the jungle gym and didn't clear the bar above his head and he hit the back of his neck. We didn't want to take any chances with that kind of injury so we came on home. Back to the race....I don't know if I'll be able to run the entire 3 miles without walking some of it but I will give it my best shot. But by the May 15 Race for the Cure I hope to be able to run that entire race. It's nice to be back to consistently running. With the treadmill broken I was unable to run until it got warmer and it's so great to be back outside running as well. And I love running in the morning, it curbs my apetite the rest of the day and gives me a lot of energy. So that's it for now. Check back next weekend for pictures of me at my first race!

Spring Break Adventures

2010-04-12T18:03:00.003-04:00

Spring break was last week for the boys. We went to my dad's on Tuesday and I worked the rest of the week and on Saturday we went on a hike in the woods. Spencer put a Spencer size hole in my dad's screen door on Tuesday. I was cutting strawberries, my dad and Richard ran to the store for ice cream, Cassidy was in the kitchen with me and the boys were playing. I saw Brenden come across the window on the outside and the next thing I hear is a loud crashing sound and I thought he ran into the patio chair. Nope. Spencer was still in the house and saw Brenden outside and apparently ran to go to the back door and outside and ran right through the screen door. Needless to say I wasn't too happy at that point. Now what comes next truly proves that saying right that grandparents aren't as hard on grandkids as they are on us when we were kids because my dad laughed about it.

On Saturday we took a hike through the woods in Logan on the property of Richard's ex-brother in law and that was fun. Well, the walking into the woods was, out of it was all uphill and not nearly as fun! We went back to where Richard's nephew and a few friends have tree stands and the boys got up in one and Richard took Cassidy up in it too. I started the climb up and chickened out and came back down. But in my defense, it was only because I was wearing Brenden's boots and I didn't feel safe climbing in unfamiliar shoes. Lame I know, but true. When one of the groves slid on one rung of the ladder I freaked and back down I came. After leaving the woods we stopped by the park for a bit and then at 6 Brenden had his end of season basketball banquet.

I worked on Sunday to make up for not working on Tuesday and made nice money that day so I was happy. The job is going well and I'm really liking it. As I've built up my performance I'm seeing a lot more call volume and that's good. But with all sales jobs, you never know what the call volume will be so I'm thankful that it's been busy right now. Hoping it doesn't die off in the summer though I fear it could.

It's 2 weeks until my first 5k and Natalie and I walked this morning for 3.14 miles and will run on Wednesday and Friday. Neither of us has run in 2 weeks so we decided to walk this morning so as not to hurt ourselves and be sore the rest of the week. And we were busy talking! So that's it for now. Enjoy the nice weather we are having!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-04T12:49:00.006-04:00

I hope everyone is having a happy Easter. Yesterday we went to Richard's sister Pam's for dinner with all her kids and grandkids. I thought I'd go ahead and put some pictures on here for everyone to see from this morning and yesterday at Pam's for the Easter egg hunt. We had another Easter egg hunt this morning at our house. Right now my kids are sugaring up and playing. And I'm tired and it's only 1:12pm. They had us up at 7:23am!

The one above is the "running for the baskets" after coming downstairs this morning.

The picture above is Spencer and Cassidy looking outside trying to find where the Easter Bunny hid eggs in the backyard. It was so sweet. And the bottom picture is all the kids at Pam's.

Are you watching American Idol?

2010-04-01T11:31:00.003-04:00

Last night one of my favorites went home, Didi Benami. Richard says Didi reminds him of Edie Brickell. I really liked her and I do believe that someone will be offering her a recording contract. My other favorites are Siobhan Magnus, Crystal Bowersox (from here in Ohio), "Big Mike"Michael Lynche, and Andrew Garcia. I'm hoping these guys and girls will be the top 4. Clearly I was hoping that Didi would be with them for the top 5. It's really good this year with a lot of great and very different talent. Lily Scott was voted off a few weeks ago and she was very jazzy and good too. I have to watch their performances the next day online because American Idol performance night is on on the same night as Biggest Loser and Lost and we can only DVR one show while watching another. Sorry American Idol, Biggest Loser trumps you on that night. And well, no one can compete with LOST. And while I'm on the American Idol topic, sometimes there are performances on that show that leave an impression. For me that was Season 1 contestant Tamyra Grey singing "A House is not a Home". That night I really thought she would win the show. I was in tears. No one has ever topped that performance, in my eyes, on American Idol yet. I don't know how to put the video of that performance on here but if you want to hear it follow this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wN4wGxPvpw.

My boy is growing up....

2010-03-27T15:13:00.003-04:00

Ahh the things boys will do for girls. Today was the cheerleading exhibition and Brenden wanted to go so we went. He had a couple of friends go too and they sat nowhere near me of course. I didn't care about that, I just didn't want to leave them there since it's not a basketball game where they can wander around freely. Brenden's friend Camry is a cheerleader and she asked him to come. That's just so cute! And when it was time for our school to cheer, I could hear Brenden cheering for them. He sat just a few rows up from the girls and I saw Camry come up and talk to him. Of course I was watching (and smiling) from afar. Elementary school crushes...aren't they cute. The boys even commented in the car afterward how our cheerleaders were so much better than the other schools. And they really were. Our girls have it together. And the fact that I've known them all since kindergarten doesn't make me the least bit biased LOL!

First time at the YMCA

2010-03-22T10:28:00.002-04:00

Today was my first time ever going to the YMCA. I ran and walked the track with my friend Natalie. We ran/walked 3miles. Both of us have only ever ran a little over 2 miles at one time so we did have to do some walking today. But it was great! The track goes in front of all the people working out though. So I am running past all the people lifting weights in front of the mirrors, walking and running on treadmills, etc. I was a little self conscious about it at first but I got over it pretty quick when I realized they are not watching me, they are there for themselves. So we are running together on Monday and Wednesday every week and after Easter we'll add Friday. So for now on Fridays I'll run around our neighborhood with Cassidy in the barbie car. On warm days we may move our running to the track at the fairgrounds or a local park or something. I'm looking forward to the 5k which is only a month away. I may not be able to run the entire 3 miles by then but I'd like to be able to run the entire 3 miles by the May 15 race. So that's my goal. And since I can run 2 miles now, 3 will hopefully be no problem by May. Wish me luck!

Back to running

2010-03-17T12:23:00.004-04:00

I've been super busy lately and wasn't able to focus on my running. Well spring is here and there's no more excuses! Cassidy and I went for a run this morning. Cassidy took one trip on her bike and one trip in her Barbie car. We totaled 1.21 miles going around the block to my friends house and back twice. Her legs were tired by the time we got to Kendra's on the first trip so I was pushing her with one hand a little on the way back to help her out with the pedaling and on the second trip we picked up the Barbie car. I didn't walk any of it which surprised me because I haven't been able to run in the past 3 months much at all. I had a quick 2 min break while we switched from bike to car but that was it. The rest was all running non-stop and I'm proud of myself because my first 5k is April 24th so I've got to get back into the swing of things. i was doing fine until December and then I was working a lot and then came January and training with the new company and February studying for the insurance exams. So now life is feeling a bit back to normal where I have time again to do some things and that will include running. The YMCA here offers its track free of charge to runners through a commit to be fit type of program so I'm going to do that with my friend Natalie who is running the 5k's with me. Yep, the first one is April 24th and the second 5k is May 15. It felt great to be out there running this morning. When the boys come home I may just do another mile.

Birthday Pictures

2010-03-11T14:37:00.005-05:00

These first two are Cassidy having fun at Burger King where we held her birthday party.

Blowing out the candles.

Cassidy's new big girl bike! It's the Barbie bike that she said she wanted.

12 kids at her 4th birthday party!

Although this looks like she's getting ready to cry, she's actually saying Aww because she loved it. It's a bath time toy and she asked all day if it was bathtime so she could play with it. She did play with this all day before getting in the tub too.

Mermaid Barbie dress up skirt, which she's had on every day since her birthday.

Easter Dress from Uncle Kent. Uncle Kent always gets the best clothes.

So these are just a few of Cassidy's birthday pictures. She had a great time on Sunday at Burger King. On Monday which is her actual birthday she wanted us to put her #4 candle in the leftover cake so she could blow it out again. And so we did, and we sang too! And of course I taped it the second time too.

Happy 4th Birthday Cassidy!

2010-03-08T20:14:00.003-05:00

Cassidy is 4 today! I'm happy and sad. It seems like yesterday that I was in labor and rushing to the hospital at midnight, dropping off the boys at Aunt Pam's and arriving at the hospital already dialated to 4 cm. Yeah, too much information there, sorry about that. Cassidy arrived at 8:44 am on Wednesday March 8, 2006. She was such an easygoing baby and was always happy and content. She started going to her brothers' sporting events at 4 months old, which was football season for Brenden. She walked on April Fools day after spending the entire day at Becky's baby shower crawling and walking with help and then decided to come home and walk on her own rather than show off her new skill just a few hours earlier to everyone. She was wearing dress up heels by 18 months old and loves those shoes so much she still wears them constantly. She's a diva and a sweet princess all in one. She has a mind of her own and isn't afraid to express her opinion. She is also terribly sweet. She melts your heart when she sees the smallest thing and says in her sweet voice "Aw, how beautiful!". She has such an imagination and uses it daily. She can make up stories about anything. She is also very loving. She'll just come up to you randomly and hug and kiss you and tell you she loves you. She loves her brothers. She plays wrestling with her brothers and loves when they don't have to go to school so they can stay home and play with her. She follows them everywhere, even when there is a bunch of 10 year olds here, she's right in there with them and they include her too. I have to admit I'm a bit sad today. It's sad to see another year arrive and feel like the time has gone so fast. Sad because I know she's my baby and I wish there were more than 24 hours in a day sometimes. But I'm happy also because we've raised a great little girl. She's smart, sweet, ornery, and beautiful. I'm so happy to be her mother.

I'll put the pictures from the party on here in a few days and I'll tell about the party then. Right now I'm fighting back tears so I need to wrap this up.

I'm officially an agent

2010-03-03T10:59:00.002-05:00

I received my license today in the state of Ohio to sell Life Insurance, Accident and Health Insurance and Variable Annuities. Yay me! Can't wait to get started selling.

A lot is going on here getting ready for Cassidy's birthday, Spencer has pink eye and Brenden has croup again. Hoping everyone will be feeling better for Cassidy's party. We'll have 12 kids there. She's getting excited. 4, geesh, that came faster than I expected. I'll post about her party next week and I'll post pictures too.

I Passed!

2010-02-25T15:21:00.003-05:00

I passed the state Life and Variable Products and Accident and Health Insurance licensing exams today! I submitted my application to the state of Ohio insurance department and will receive my license in about a week. I'm so proud. The lady that graded my exam said I got a 94% on the Life exam and she said that was great for my first time taking the test. She said there is about a 50% failure rate. It feels good to have something that I worked so hard for. I've had a very busy January and February with training for the business I'm affiliated with to sell insurance and also with taking the online insurance course and studying for that exam and for the state exam. So thanks to everyone who was cheering me on through all of this.

Part 1...Complete

2010-02-23T16:24:00.002-05:00

I have officially finished the licensing course and received my certificate of completion. I passed both tests this afternoon. I have already scheduled my state exam for Thursday afternoon. That's it for now, just wanted to give a quick update. Gotta get ready for Spencer's basketball practice. Wish me luck on Thursday!

Ugh...studying is hard

2010-02-21T17:44:00.002-05:00

I haven't studied this much possibly ever! I think it's harder taking classes online because there is no classroom instruction for examples and further information. With online, what I read is what I get. And if I don't understand it, well, I google it. My test at the school to show completion of the online insurance course is coming up and I've been taking practice tests. There are 100 questions for each Life and Health. There is just so much to learn. A passing grade is a 70% but I obviously want higher than that. So I keep taking practice tests and checking on what I've missed. I've got a lot more studying to do before my actual test. But it will all be worth it.

The sign says it all!

2010-02-16T08:44:00.004-05:00

HILARIOUS! This is on a church sign featured on our news last night. Says it all doesn't it as I sit here getting further snowed in. We are getting 8+ more inches total for yesterday and today.

I signed up for....

2010-02-12T13:52:00.002-05:00

my first 5K! It will be April 24th here in Lancaster. It is the 5K run/walk for Strides for Mental Health. I just saw this online when looking for local races and wanted to do this one since it will be smaller than the 5K Race for the Cure in Columubs May 15 that I'm also doing. Doing this smaller one will be less intimidating for me and will help me feel more confident when I head to the bigger one. My friend Natalie is running both of them with me. I am very excited about the fact that I just signed up for my first race.

Got Snow?

2010-02-11T15:12:00.003-05:00

I know all of us in Ohio do. The only person in my family who doesn't have snow is my brother in Florida. The boys had the last 2 days off of school. We built a fort in the front yard. By we I mean Richard. But I did shovel some snow into the cooler to make one load for the fort. I got hit in the face with an ice snowball. Thanks for that Spencer. The left side of my face was red and swollen for a day and then I had a mark on my face that looked like a burn. It was mostly gone by the next day. Games were cancelled last Friday due to the Friday and Saturday storm we got. Friday the kids got sent home early from school for that storm. I'm going to be taking my exam at the college next Thursday to receive my certificate of completion of the insurance course and then I take the state exam for my Life and Health Insurance license. Very excited to get this done and nervous to take the tests. Now that I'm almost done with the insurance course online I can devote time to running again. You'll notice on my daily mile ticker that I've done 5 miles so far this week. 2 on Monday and 3 on Tuesday. Didn't get a chance to run yesterday but will get on treadmill tonight. Have to prepare for the 5K in May. Have a happy valentine's day everyone!

Spelling Bee update

2010-02-05T11:07:00.004-05:00

We just got back from the spelling bee. Brenden made it three rounds finishing in 7th place out of 19 students in the spelling bee composed of 4th and 5th graders. The word that got him out was beige, which I must add was not on the list of words the principal gave the kids to study. None of the words he gave were on the list so I'm not sure what list the principal was looking at. So Brenden did great for not ever seeing these words before that he spelled today. He was one of nine 5th graders in the spelling bee, so out of @80 5th graders he's in the top of the class for spelling. He did a great job. I'm actually upset because of the whole list issue. I don't think that was very fair at all. He's been working on those words since last week making sure he got everything right. He had big words like consonant, straightforward, celebration, etc that were on the list that he mastered and then to get one that wasn't on the list.....not cool Mr. Knight. So, Brenden, great job bud. We are so proud of you. And I didn't take pictures so I wouldn't make him nervous. Your welcome Brenden!

Spelling Bee

2010-02-01T11:55:00.003-05:00

Brenden is in the spelling bee! There are 3 from his class and he is one of them. The preliminary spelling bee is this Friday during the school day at the school and then if he advances he goes on to the county spelling bee, I believe, and then state from there. He was a backup last year if one of the 3 from his class last year was sick then he would have been in it. So wish him luck! We are very proud of him. And the spelling bee starts from grade 4 so Spencer isn't eligible to be in it for a few years.

Did you see them?

2010-01-26T09:18:00.004-05:00

OMG! I think I called everyone I knew last night! They were on TV! Brenden, Spencer and Richard were on screen all night long! They were right there everytime they showed the wrestlers with the crowd in the background. It was so freaking exciting! I called my Dad, he called Julie, I called my mom, my brother, Josh and Jenny and 2 of Brenden's closest friends to tell them he was on TV. That was one of the most exciting nights of my life. Such a proud mom moment watching your kids on tv. I know they weren't on there for something they were doing rather at an event, but still they were shown all night long! And today they have a 2 hour delay so they were able to get some sleep since they didn't get home until 12:05 and got to bed at 12:30. What a memorable night for them. And they'll have a dvd as proof they were there for the rest of their life, so when the memory fades in 20 years they'll have something to watch to remember. I showed them the beginning of the show before they went to bed and we are going to watch it today after school. Thanks to everyone who took my crazy sounding calls. I don't think my dad has ever heard that screachy pitch in my voice ever in his life. That high pitched screech stayed with me all night. I was flipping the dog out with all my cheering. And Cassidy stayed up with me to watch it all too. Richard said it was so cool to watch how excited the boys were and I told him it was so exciting for me to watch them all night from here. It would have sucked for me though if they hadn't been on tv. What great tickets I bought. Couldn't have been a better spot!

Edit: 4:30pm boys are home from school. Brenden said everyone in his class saw him on tv last night and so many kids are coming up to him at school saying they saw him on tv last night. Spencer said a lot of kids in his class said they saw him. They are like celebrities in their school right now. How cool for them!

The boys are at....

2010-01-25T20:03:00.002-05:00

WWE's Monday Night Raw! They were so excited before they left. Spencer is wearing his wristbands, hat, chain and shirt and Brenden is wearing his hat, shirt and chain. They both made signs to hold up and Richard did too. The dvr is set to record the show so the boys can see if they are shown on tv. I can't wait to hear their stories when they get home.

Meanwhile, I'm watching the Bachelor for now, but I'll be changing it at 9 to watch wrestling so I can see if I see the boys. Cassidy and I cleaned her room, scratch that, I cleaned Cassidy's room, while wondering why in the world it is necessary for her to dump everything she owns and play with it all at one time and then just leave it. She tries to clean it up but really she just pushes her mess to the side of the room. And when she does pick it up she combines dress up with barbies and ponies with the food for the kitchen, etc. I mean really, how hard is it to put the things back, together with like items, in the container they came out of instead of mixing and matching! But I give her credit for trying. It was completely overwhelming sitting on the floor in her room (which I had to find first to make a spot to sit) amongst my little ponies, dress up clothes, baby dolls, doll house and doll house accessories, barbies and food from the play kitchen all over the place. And of course the typical mom statement came out of my mouth, you know the one, "If I ever see this room like this again I'm going to sell it all!" which of course I won't but I say it to make a point. So, we'll see how that works out. I think all mom's know how that works out.....we see it messy again, we clean it, threaten again, and the drama contines. All part of being a mom.

Oh my goodnes....

2010-01-24T17:07:00.003-05:00

I'm taking a quick break between chapters of studying for my licensing test. I'm now learning about annuities, variable and taxes. Holy Crap! I'm already mathematically challenged and then you throw in annuities and equations. So you see why the break was needed. Got to clear my head and be ready to concentrate. I say I'm mathematically challenged but I do our taxes every year and have forever. So I guess math is just one of those things I get worked up over nothing about. But it is one of the subjects I must concentrate on to get it, you know. I never had to work hard at learning any other subjects except math. Kara, you know this because you tutored me in math in high school. So, stand by your phone Kara in case I need to call you with questions! Just kidding. Wish me luck. Gonna grab a snack and back to the books!

so how about an update

2010-01-22T17:32:00.004-05:00

Ok, so the daily mile tracker isn't showing any miles. Wondering why? First the treadmill needed fixed because the tread went off track and was shredding on one side. I noticed it after getting off of it one day when I was folding it back up so Richard fixed it. And secondly, I've been super busy! So I mentioned the business and now I'm taking online classes from Hondros College for my Life and Health Insurance License. I'll be taking an exam at the college in a few weeks to pass the course followed by the state exam after that for my license. So, I've just finished Chapter 4 of 12 chapters and that one chapter has taken me 4-5 hours to complete. I'm going to finish for the day and then I have to work tonight from 8-10. So as you can see, I'm not lying when I say I haven't had time to run. However, I do know that it is important to make the time to run. So I think I'll make a schedule for myself and schedule in running.

Cassidy is entered in a contest!

2010-01-18T10:58:00.003-05:00

This is the picture I used to enter Cassidy in the Beautiful Baby contest on Live with Regis and Kelly. Yes, I'm aware that she's no longer a baby but the contest is open to kids up to 48 months old and since she doesn't turn 4 until March, she is eligible. I entered her this morning and will update you all when her picture shows on their site. And then if she's one of the 10 finalists I'll need everyone's help voting for her. The voting begins on March 1 and her birthday is March 8 so wouldn't that be the greatest birthday present for her to win the week of her birthday! The grand prize is her appearing on the cover of Parents magazine and 125K scholorship. Isn't that great! So wish her luck!

And I made $35 yesterday working only 2 1/2 hours at my new job. Isn't that awesome!

My Home Business!

2010-01-12T18:00:00.002-05:00

No, I'm not soliciting any of you for anything, don't worry. I am an independent contractor for a virtual call center. Just finished certifying myself today. There are several clients I have opted to take calls for and can't wait to get started. I don't know if I'm allowed to say names of clients on my blog or the name of the company for privacy reasons so I won't. Some of the calls could be from customers calling in after seeing a commercial, others are just order taking and also for donation calls. I get paid per talk time and the amount varies per client. And there is also a client who needs licensed insurance agents and I'm going to get my license for Life and Health. Anyone who knows me personally knows that insurance was my only job before having Brenden and leaving the workforce so that would be wonderful to get back into. If I can't do my first choice job as an attorney (too many more years of college needed for that...not gonna happen!) then why not go with the second that is second nature to me, selling insurance. I'm going to wait until after taxes come back and see if I can get licensed then. I could make more money with my license and working for that company. This is exciting! With all the stress we've gone through over the past 7 months, it sure is nice to have some good news!

Ready for some Christmas Pictures?

2010-01-10T22:17:00.006-05:00

For the 1st picture we have Cassidy opening her life size baby doll.

Picture 2 is the boys just after they've opened their tickets to the WWE match.
Picture 3 is Spencer playing Big Buck Hunter. Picture 4 is Cassidy playing with some of her new toys.
Picture 5 is Brenden texting his friends on his new phone.
This is our kids and Haley, Hannah and Hope. They are Josh and Jenny's kids, cousins to ours.
This is Melinda's first child. Her name is Viola (named after Richard's mom, Melinda's grandma). She was born in November.
And our kids with Viola. She was just watching everything Brenden was saying. He has always been so good with babies. And no, we won't be adding another baby to our house so get that thought out of your heads! Even though they all look so natural with a baby, Viola is as close as they are getting. Spencer later held her too, that's why he has he pillows there ready beside him.

The ear infection that won't go away!

2010-01-07T18:13:00.003-05:00

Spencer had a re-check doctor appt yesterday to make sure the pneumonia had cleared out. He has a little residual coughing left but his lungs are clear so he's all good. Cassidy had been running a low grade fever since Monday and saying her ear hurt so I had her checked again too and low and behold she has an ear infection in the other ear now. She's feeling awful. She slept from 9:30 last night until 9 this morning and then took a 4 hour nap from 1:30 to 5:30. She's been sitting on my lap all day. And to top it off, her tummy is very upset. Side effect of the medicine. Christmas Eve is was in the right ear now it's in the left. So it left one to go to the other instead of clearing up. The Dr put her on a different medicine this time to see if it works better for her. Something the Dr did tell me is that people who had H1N1 have been getting a plethera of other illnesses this season.

How about this snow? Richard has shoveled 4 inches off the driveway today and that is on top of the snow we already had. And it's still coming down. The kids were dismissed at 3pm today, a whopping 30 minutes early. But that was to allow plenty of time for them to get the high schoolers and middle schoolers home safely and come back for the grade school kids. So I understand that completely. I'm guessing there will be no school tomorrow but you never can tell the way the School Board will see things in the morning. Everyone stay safe over the next few days driving in the snow.

And you may notice on my mile tracker I haven't run in the last 2 days. Hard to do with a 3 year old attached to you. Kids come first. I'll run tomorrow.

What's been happening here

2010-01-04T10:34:00.003-05:00

The boys went back to school today. Everyone is feeling better now. It's snowing and we are expecting 2 inches today and it is freezing outside! Brenden has safety patrol duty this week so I made him wear a hoodie under his coat so he'd be extra warm standing outside for 20 minutes. And like a typical boy he tried to get away with wearing just his hood and I made him wear a tobogan. I've got lots of cleaning to do today. I seem to have taken Christmas break off too. My bedroom moved to tornado alley for about 2 weeks. I've still got wrapping paper and boxes to get out of there and stuff to put away. Oh, and laundry to do. And then I have to run 2 miles. You'll notice the mile tracker I added to my page to keep track of my mileage. The goal is 2 miles a day for now, I'll up it to 3 probably next month if I can. I have to be doing 3 for the 5k.

My dad and his girlfriend Julie came up yesterday with Julie's 2 grandkids Dane and Kiley. They are the same ages as Spencer and Cassidy. Dane is 6, Kiley is 3. They all got along so well, it was very nice. Kiley walked in the door asking where Cassidy is. That was so cute. Then the girls went upstairs and played. And Dane is very much like Spencer. He's quiet, polite and seems a little reserved like Spencer too. With 5 kids in here is was remarkably tame. They were all quiet and calm. It was awesome. Nothing like when Brenden's friends come over and they are all over the place and loud. Julie was great. They look great together and looked very happy too. I think they like seeing the kids all get along so well too. And Julie likes taking pictures and showed me some of the kids she took and she's so like me....takes several shots to get the perfect shot. We got along great. Ok, well, I have to go run now. I've procrastinated enough. I'll put the miles on my mile tracker later after I've actually ran them. I'm going to be honest about it and not put them on there til they are done.

Top Ten Memories from 2009

2010-01-01T10:33:00.007-05:00

I thought I'd share the top ten memories of 2009, the good and the bad.

1. Cassidy's stitches. That was the scariest day I've ever had as a parent so far. And I hope it will be the last (knock on wood). One little scuff of the foot on flat carpet at mom's place made her just fall right over and hit her head on the windowsill beside the elevator, splitting it wide open and covering her in blood.

2. Vacation. Once again we returned to OuterBanks for our vacation. Love that place.
3. Not so happy memory, right after returning from above said vacation Richard lost his job.

4. Spencer started 1st grade, Brenden started 5th grade. Brenden is in his last year of
elementary school in our school system. Next year is junior high. He also started the
year with a girlfriend, the prettiest girl in 5th grade I might add!

5. H1N1. Yep, we got it. 4 out of 5 of us did. Brenden got it first (his teacher had it, so that's where it started from), then Spencer, Cassidy and finally me. I trained for my job with a 102 fever. Now that's dedication.

6. I got a seasonal job for 1800Flowers.com which started in November and ended Dec. 21.
Was a neat experience having an honest to goodness work at home job.

7. Every kid sick at Christmas. That's never happened before. Actually, it usually ends up being me that is sick at Christmas. 2 years ago Cassidy was sick at Christmas but no one else has ever been sick at Christmas before. This year we were greeted with pneumonia, croup and an ear infection for Christmas.

8. A memorable Christmas. Despite the year we've had, we were still able to pull off an awesome Christmas for the kids. Thanks to some early bird Black Friday shopping and also getting things a few at a time since the layoff. The kids couldn't get a new game system that they wanted but I think the WWE tickets more than made up for that. And their reaction when they opened them will never be forgotten. It was just one of those moments that you end up talking about for years to come.

9. No list would be complete without mentioning my running. I plan on running a 5K in May. I've come to really love running. I did get a running shirt for Christmas that says "Running won't kill you, you'll pass out first" which is becoming my motto for myself when I'm running to keep me pushing myself.

10. And finally the addition of Dakoda. She is our 1 year old Belgian Shepherd. When we got her she was a hyper nutcase. Now she's just a part of the family. She loves the kids to death and plays with them like she is a kid. She is 55 pounds and yet manages to climb up on our laps like she is a 10 pound lap dog. But if we say the word she will attack any threat to her family. Also on the dog note, Bob, our other dog, was diagnosed with a tumor in May. He's still doing well, but the tumor is still growing. (Dakoda is on the left, Bob on right)

So there you have it. I hope 2010 treats us better than 2009 did.

Fun in the first snow of winter 2009/2010

2009-12-29T11:46:00.003-05:00

I thought I'd share some fun in the snow pictures. I like the one where Cassidy is telling on Brenden and pointing to where he hit her at. And the first picture was just too good not to share. I took it on the day we were doing our family picture for the Christmas card.

Christmas with pneumonia, croup and an ear infection

2009-12-27T10:47:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! We certainly did. Even though each kid was sick with something different, they still were able to enjoy Christmas morning. Spencer has pneumonia, Brenden has croup and Cassidy has an ear infection. I had Bren and Cass at the Dr on Christmas Eve to get medicine. Cassidy was really feeling awful for a few days and luckily the meds were making her feel much better by the next morning. And now I have pink eye. I'll upload some pics later this week to share from Christmas morning. Brenden said this was the best Christmas he ever had. (Which given the last 6 months we've had, feels great to hear) The boys are big into WWE wrestling so they both got 4 action figures, 2 shirts each of their favorite wrestler, a hat, a pendant, a book, a DS game and Wii game about wrestling (my brother got them each the DS game), a wrestling ring to fight their action figures in, and to top it all off we got them tickets to go see Monday Night Raw when they come to Columbus on Janauary 25. That was the kicker that got the big reaction. They were screaming and jumping, it was great. Brenden got a new phone since I washed the other one by accident and Spencer got a kid digital camera because he's been wanting one for like 2 years now. (Gee wonder where he gets his love of taking pictures from?) As for Cassidy, she got a life size doll she has named Renna. She is 36" tall and comes up to her chin. She also got 4 different barbies, a small doll house, a horse and carriage for barbies, a stroller and swing and hight chair set for her baby dolls, tinkerbell dress up, tinkerbell dolls (brother sent one for her too) and my little pony toy set. Everything she opened she had something nice to say about it. It was either oh how cute, or how pretty and she hugged a lot of it too. She was also so good and patient. She would sit and watch the boys open theirs and when it was her turn again we'd say go ahead Cassidy and she'd make sure and say my turn now or I can open now. Close to the end of opening everything she was feeling kinda miserable and wanted to sit on my lap to finish up. Christmas really was wonderful, sickness and all. I hope you all enjoyed yours as well.

My sick boy

2009-12-20T09:47:00.002-05:00

Thursday after school Spencer just wasn't himself. He had a sore throat so we gave him tylenol and took his temp. It was at 99.0 so not much higher than normal. He's been coughing all week and we figured the sore throat was because of that. I was giving him Robitussin since Tuesday and his throat was only hurting after he'd been coughing a lot he said. I gave him Robitussin before school, checked temp and he said he didn't have a sore throat. So when he came home from school he said he felt awful all day at school and we're not sure why he didn't tell his teacher he needed to go to the nurse. We assured him he can always tell the teacher when he feels bad and she'll let him go to the nurse. I was working and Richard came in at 6;42 and said Spencer's fever was now at 104.6 and that he'd gone up and went to bed soon after getting home from school. So I immediately asked my supervisor if I could leave and we got him in a cool bath. In the tub his fever went down to 102.2 and as soon as he was out and dried off it was going back up and was now at 102.7. He looked like he was about to pass out. I called his Dr and she has late hours on Thursdays so she got him right in. When we got to the Dr for his appt at 7:30 his fever was already back up to 104.2. The nurse left the room and came right back in with Motrin for him to get the fever down. The Dr came in and listened to him and heard wheezing in his chest and crackling in his lungs so she had him to a breathing treatment with a machine for about 10 minutes. She also had blood drawn to test his white blood cell count. He was freaking out and crying because he was so scared with all this stuff happening to him. He's getting a breathing treatment and getting blood taken from his finger all at the same time. I was sitting there with him trying to help him calm down but of course nothing worked until he was off that machine. Well, when the Dr came back in she took him off the machine and listened to his lungs again and the crackling was still there and that with the fact that his white blood cell count was high told her he had pneumonia. He is taking medicine for 10 days and he was given an inhaler to do at least 3 times a day and can be used every 4 hours if needed. She told us what to watch out for as the signs of worsening and needing to go to hospital. So he's doing ok now but when he coughs it freaks us out. The cough is just so bad. I have to take him back in 2-3 weeks to be seen again to make sure it all cleared out of his lungs. I'll probably take him before they head back to school from Christmas break. Well, that's it for now. Have a good week everyone!

It's Santa Time!

2009-12-15T22:58:00.001-05:00

We did pictures with Santa on Monday night. No line at all. Santa was waving at the kids when he saw us coming from several stores down. Spencer was waving back in awe. He was so cute. He's never done that before. He talked about Santa the rest of the night. It was so sweeet. As you can see, Cassidy still is not so fond of the big guy. She wouldn't sit on his lap, stand beside him, sit in the big teddy bear on the floor in front of him or sit on the rocking horse. The only comfortable place for her was on Brenden's lap. This is the second time Brenden has held her for pictures with Santa. Last year she sat on Santa's lap but not the year before that when she was 1 1/2. Last year though Santa kept talking to her and asking her lots of questions and made her comfortable with him. He was a good Santa. And Brenden is great for going along with everything, you know holding Cassidy and everything. Wink, Wink! Really though, Cassidy feels safe with her bubby and that's such a wonderful feeling for us to have. Ok, starting work in a few minutes so I've gotta go.