Running

My cousin Kim has the coolest blog. I love it. Kim writes about her experiences with running, cooking, and with life in general. These are all things I can COMPLETELY RELATE TO, mainly the cooking and running parts. Cooking and running are both hobbies of mine. I am obviously much older than Kim and much less hip than she is, but reading Kim's blog has made me think about expanding the things that I write about here.

Sometimes when I am running I think about how I would write about the experience - if I were to blog about my running - on this page. I have come up with actual tag lines and story ideas before reminding myself that I don't blog about anything but the children. And then I think that maybe I should rethink that? As much as I love writing about Amelia and John - they are really the highlights of my whole existence - I could probably use another creative outlet for my energy with respect to other stuff that I enjoy. So I have decided to experiment with expanding my discussion here to other topics, mainly running and cooking, besides the kids of course, because that is what I am made of these days.

Today was about the seventh week of running in my training for a full marathon. After having run eight half marathons in the past three years, I have decided to try and push myself to run a full. Of course, many have done this successfully before me (My lovely cousins Kim and Kelly - you are my heroes for your wonderful story about running Erie last week!), but this is my first full-fledged attempt at running more than 13.2. I joined a local training group for the benefit of having support during Saturday long runs and during the week I train on my own. So far this has worked well. Today was another good group run.

We did 13 miles this morning, which was somewhat comfortable given my experience with half-marathon races. Not to say that it was easy - NO WAY, IT WAS STILL TOUGH! - but during every single minute I felt like I could finish and that the distance was an achievable goal. I actually am coming to enjoy how my legs ache and I feel tired several hours after finishing the Saturday long runs, strange as that sounds.I hope that I am this optimistic when we are running 18/20/22 miles on a given Saturday, which will happen in the next few weeks as we get into October. But for now, having finished 13 OK, when it is 75 degrees outside with 80 % humidity, I can take it. I can't wait for cooler weather - long-sleeves, what's that?!? - and I hope that my performance improves accordingly.

Fridays (day before long run) and Sundays (day after long run) are my off days, so I can look forward to sleeping in as long as my body will allow tomorrow. Historically, and sadly, this has been no more than 7 a.m. since having children and getting up early to run, but that's OK. Tomorrow promises a special treat, hopefully a call from John about the new baby. Laura is scheduled for a C-section early Sunday morning. Thoughts and prayers going out to her tonight! I can't wait to hear about my new niece/nephew in the morning!

Horseplay

I have a pair of goofy kids. Some of our best family moments occur when Amelia and John are playing nicely together, using their imaginations to come up with whatever games are amusing to them at the time. I don't have a benchmark for comparison with other siblings, but I would say that for the most part they play quite well together most of the time. Some of their games are a hoot to listen to, such as dog/master, teacher/student, and zookeepers. I enjoy overhearing their banter as I cook in the kitchen or get chores done around the house.

I tried to take photos during such playtime this weekend, but they didn't turn out as well as the game was played. Amelia and John spread a bunch of quilts all over the living room floor, and then arranged their stuffed animals strategically around them and pretended to play zookeeper. It was cute - they categorized the animals by type (as if in cages, I suppose), and took turns feeding them.

And then because there were quilts all across the wood floor, the game turned into a hyper-crazy wrestling match (which has nothing at all to do with zookeppers). This was cute for, oh - about a minute, until I interfered because I feared a forehead or other semi-delicate body part getting smashed against the hard floor. I tried to calm the kids down by taking pictures of them in goofy poses. Below you can see the excitement/crazy look all over Amelia's face as I tried to catch her in action.

Then I suggested that the kids sit together and mimic the pose in one of my favorite photos of all time (see below). This was taken in October 2007, when Amelia was 4 years, 3 months and John was 1 1/2 years old. I snapped it randomly one evening after the kids had their bath and were getting ready for bed.
Now of course the kids are too big to sit on the floor in front of the couch (as in the photo above) for me to capture the photo that way with the placement of the living room wall and the furniture, so I told them to sit in the same pose on the couch together. Of course, this led to extreme tickling and one jumping in the lap of the other, and well, you can just tell how successful my attempt was by checking out the shot below.


But at least they were smiling and having fun, which is what counts I suppose.

I had more success with John smiling later that evening as I captured him modeling some of his new fall clothes. I took the kids fall clothing shopping on Sunday afternoon (I was inspired by the 95 degree weather outside, ha ha) and ever since they have both been obsessed with wearing sweatshirts and sweaters around the house. It's crazy. Check out John's lovely furry crocs. He loves them. The pants are his lovely superhero pajamas and are not meant to be worn outside the house.

And last but not least, we all enjoyed a brief visit witih mom and dad as they stopped by for one night on their way home from Jackson. I made everyone pose in front of the Fit since their RV was parked in an area RV park. We all had fun visiting together, being entertained by the kids (of course), and we even made it over to SMU for awhile to watch the tailgating action before Saturday night's home game. Mom and dad enjoyed watching the SMU sorority girls parade around the boulevard in their sundresses and cowboy boots.

Mom and dad left Sunday morning and were planning to arrive back in Gainesville sometime Wednesday. Their goal was to arrive a few days before Friday, which is a big day for our family as we look forward to welcoming the new addition to John and Laura's family. I am so excited for John, Laura, and Jack and cannot wait to become an aunt again! Amelia suggested the names Lydia and Chris, and John suggested Ella or Max. We'll see!

Fun on the beach in South Carolina

We took a family vacation with Scott's parents and one of Scott's brothers to Garden City, South Carolina during the third week of August. This was the third year that we have all met in South Carolina and once again a good time was had by all. We enjoyed good weather and lots of lazy days on the beach. The sound of crashing waves is one I will never get tired of hearing, and each year this trip gets easier as the children enjoy the waves and water more and more independently. As much as I enjoy building sand castles with the kids, I also enjoy relaxing on my beach chair while watching them play in the surf.

I am going to let the photos speak for themselves this time around. The joy on Amelia and John's face is palpable - no description needed.

Funny stories by John

John created some pretty funny stories at school last week. John's teacher writes the story as each child describes it and then the children illustrate their stories.

I have to say, John's stories are both disturbing and hilarious at the same time. The stories are disturbing because they are all about destruction but they are hilarious because the tales are so outlandish. I was a bit concerned about the amount of violence in John's stories, but John's teacher reassured me that all of the boys had similar tales. She said that they listened to each other tell their stories so many of the ideas came from other children and were concocted from silliness.

I had to take pictures of John's books to document their craziness. The plot doesn't always make sense, but it must in John's mind because he thinks these stories are the best ever. Here is story number one.

Amelia thinks the part above about how a folder game squishes everything is the funniest thing ever. She squealed (imagine the high-pitched seven year-old squeal here), "John, what were you thinking?!? How could a folder squish everything? And what exactly is a folder game anyway?" John: "I don't know, but it IS pretty funny, Amelia!" And now for story number two:

You have to imagine how John acts when I read his stories aloud. He laughs and slaps his hand against his thigh, giggling and acting so excited to be sharing his creation. It's awesome to watch him like this.

First day of second grade

Amelia's first day of second grade was today. She was super excited about starting school again. Beginning last Friday night Amelia told me that she wished time could zoom ahead to Monday already because she couldn't wait to see her friends at school.
I know that in the above photo the bookbag looks about as big as Amelia,but I think it is just the angle. She refused to take it off for the photo, as she is so proud to have picked out this lovely pink and purple bag on her own.

I hesitate to include this last one because Amelia refused to look at me for the in the classroom photo. She was fine with me taking the picture at the house and another in front of her locker, but for some reason in the classroom all of a sudden Amelia got embarrased and didn't want me to take this.

Of course, I did anyway, despite her silent protest. Love the dimple on her right cheek! :-)

According to Amelia, she had a great first day of school. Tonight she exclaimed "I am so happy to be in second grade, mom, because it is a lot of fun!"

Awesome pool

The record-breaking heat wave continues here in Dallas. I think today was our ninth day in a row of temperatures greater than 100 degrees, with the heat index reaching between 105 and 110 degrees at the height of the day. Fun stuff, I tell you. On Saturday of this past weekend I took the kids to the SMU pools to cool off. On Sunday I wanted something a bit more creative so we tried a public pool in a neighboring community that we had not been to before.

And boy am I glad that we did! I had heard about this public pool in Plano from a friend at church who spoke fondly of the numerous amenities for families at this complex. I was completely impressed by the facilities and the children and I had a good time splashing, swimming, and sliding, despite the hot, hot burning sun.

Below is a partial shot of the outdoor pool. The entire pool was less than four feet deep, which made it perfect for less confident swimmers (like Amelia) but still deep enough for adults to enjoy as well. There were numerous splash areas, as well as three gigantic water slides.
Awesome slides! Poor John didn't meet the height requirement (though he was eager to try these slides!) so Amelia enjoyed riding by herself. I even took a turn with her. I went on the green slide and Amelia rode the blue - we raced - and Amelia won.

I only took photos in the outdoor portion, but the interior was just as grand. There were two indoor pools, one similar to the outside in terms of depth and activities for younger children, plus a deeper lap pool with some diving boards and a steep water slide. The inside pool had a rapidly-moving lazy river that we all thought was grand fun! It was nice to be able to come indoors to swim when we wanted to take a break from the heat.

John entertained himself by running down the stairs (above) and then seeing how far he could run in the shallow water before falling down to swim. Below the kids were splashing in another area for kids. When they pulled on the rope, like Amelia is doing, water poured out of a spicket above so it resembled a shower. The kids played so well together that this was a relaxing day for me to just watch and enjoy being with them.

We capped off the fun afternoon with treats from the snack bar before heating home. Amelia and I had old-fashioned cheap ice cream bars (Orange Dreamsicle!) and John opted for Skittles.

And a close-up below of Amelia with a beautiful smile on her face.

As much as I am proud of our own community pool this Plano pool completely puts ours to shame. I spent $12 on admission for all three of us, $3 for treats, and the kids acted as overjoyed and excited as if I had taken them to a fancy $30 per person water park. It was a fun afternoon for sure! And as an added bonus, they were so tired from playing at the pool that they were well-behaved in the evening and didn't protest going to be just before 8:00. Awesome.

Random fun

Here are some photos that I have taken over the past few weeks.

This first one is John the policeman wearing his Batman underoos giving me his "fierce" face. When I took the kids to the dollar store to select Amelia's birthday party favors, John pestered me like crazy to buy him the policeman gun holster and assorted accessories. I know that he doesn't need any more toy guns with the ones he recently acquired in Jackson Hole, but getting John off my back for a buck was worth it. The hat is left over from a Halloween costume.

One day shortly after we returned from Jackson the kids were playing hide and seek nicely together one afternoon. At one point, Amelia left John this note while she went to hide. Mind you, John can't read so I had to help him understand it, but I loved how obvious Amelia was in revealing where she was hiding. She actually was hiding behind the bed.

Here are a few photos from our recent weekend visit to a spray playground. Our record-breaking heat wave has left us with limited options for fun on the weekends, but Amelia and John had a good time on this afternoon. While the kids ran around in the water I sat there sweating in the sun wondering how long I could take the heat (answer: one hour).
Scott took a different approach on another warm day when he took the kids to a local version of a Chuck-E-Cheese pizza and game parlor. I had a long to-do list that day and since I am not a big fan of those types of places, I was happy to let Scott and the kids enjoy the afternon without me. Amelia selected these enormous sunglasses with tickets she won from the games she played. And John selected these lovely items from the prize bin. Very nice (sarcasm implied).


Last but not least, we took the kids to the circus last weekend. The floor is opened an hour before the show begins, where various circus performers demonstrate their moves. We went early specifically to observe these demonstrations, which was nice because Amelia and John could see up close how the performers do what they do during the performance.

This is the same high-wire troupe as in the pre-show doing their act during the circus performance.

I tried my best to get good shots of the children but my photos reveal that the circus is not the best venue for this.

However, I like the shot of John below. Scott allowed the children to select one treat each from the over-priced and ridiculous circus vendors, and John selected this sword. John LOVES his sword, as evidenced by the look on his face here.