Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for my health and the opportunity I have to do activities with my kids. Nick and I have been biking together a lot lately and we have started increasing the mileage. Although I am not in the best shape of my life, I am grateful that I am healthy and active enough to keep pace with my son. What a neat opportunity it is to set our goals for our rides, map out the mileage and route and accomplish it together. The first time we went on one of our rides he had to walk his bike up part of one of the hills we had to go on. But how neat it was a few days ago to glance behind me as we're trekking up a hill and see him pumping hard still on his bike and making it to the top. We both wahoo'd loudly at the accomplishment and went on to ride 13 1/2 miles and even had to come back to the same gully at the end of the ride and we made it up the other side of that darn hill together again. We woot wooted together and my heart swelled at the moment I got to share with my boy. I can tell he's on the verge of leaving me in the dust on these rides but I'm so grateful for the moments we can share like this.

It's also been awesome to be at the pool with the kids and walk up the million stairs to the big slide with them over and over...okay so they walk up those stairs way more than I do, and there's not quite a million, but I'm grateful for the opportunities to do that with them.

Brian's always been a great example to the rest of us for being active with all of his running and he has really inspired the kids. Hailey went on one of our rides with us that was about 8 miles and it really gave the kids an appreciation for how far that really is and they kept talking about how awesome it is that dad ran 26 miles while we were exhausted after biking 8. (But in our defense we live in a hilly area and it was a very hilly 8 miles...and Brian's marathon was downhill down a canyon so it's probably about equal...hahahahaha) :)

But I'm thankful for good enough health to do these things with my kids. I value everyone of these moments with them because they are growing up so fast and I'm not going to have these opportunities forever.

Extended Version of Thankful Thursday

Last Thursday was Nick's birthday and I am so thankful for this boy! He is such a blessing in my life and I am so thankful everyday that he is a part of our family. So in honor of his 12th birthday I will share 12 things about him:
1. He was born 9 weeks early and weighed 3 lbs 13 oz. He was so strong and healthy though that he came home 3 weeks after he was born instead of the 2 months they told us to expect.
2. He was NOT happy when Hailey was born and completely ignored her for her 1st few weeks home. He even broke out in hives from head to toe the day we brought her home from the hospital.
3. Only person on his t-ball team to catch a fly ball all season. (But hated playing and has refused to play baseball since.)
4. Loves to play basketball. He was even on the news last month for a basketball camp he attended this summer.
5. Loves to learn about science and do science experiments.
6. Loves animal planet and survival shows.
7. Has had 2 surgeries on his foot since he was born with his foot basically on backwards. His feet now are 2 different sizes...one is 2 sizes bigger than the other one.
8. Loves lighting fires (luckily they've all been in the fire pit or when we're camping. :) When he first got his flint & steel for scouts he practiced for hours out in our fire pit and lit about 100 newspapers on fire.
9. Took electric guitar lessons for 3 years and is starting a band with friends from the neighborhood.
10. Likes to help me cook.
11. Likes to work out in the yard...not necessarily the mowing part but likes to plant, water, and pick the vegetables from the garden, plant & take care of the flowers and bring in dirt, etc.
12. Has an entrepreneurial mind...bought a candy machine and stocked it with candy in our garage for his friends to buy. Also bought a snow cone maker to sell snow cones. He decided it was easier to figure out how to make his own money rather than ask us for money. :)

We certainly love this kid and appreciate his sweet personality!

Thankful Thursday

I just wanted to do a quick post to wish my boy a Happy 12th Birthday. We are leaving to go out of town in about an hour so I am going to do my extended version of my Thankful Thursday about him when we get back!

Thankful...(oops) Sunday

So I'm a little late this week for my Thankful Thursday...what's new right?! This week I'm thankful for music. It is amazing to me how different styles of music and different songs can affect me in such different ways. The right music can bring the right emotions to any situation...slide shows set to music, music in movies, hymns at church, and holiday music.

Yesterday I really realized the value of music while exercising. :) When I go to the gym I usually have a friend to chat with that makes the time on the treadmill go by faster and I'm done before I know it. But yesterday I thought I would go for a long bike ride by myself and thought I was ready for more of a challenging course to ride. My first mistake was to ask my marathon-running husband to map out a "somewhat challenging" course for me. About a third of the way through I realized that my idea of somewhat challenging and his were VERY different. As I came around a corner and saw the hills he was leading me to my first thought was "CRAP", and my second was "I need different music". Enough of that "feel good" music...I needed something with a lot of drums, bass & electric guitar and I needed it loud!! So I cranked it up and dug deep and made it up the first hill. Then I had a little reprieve to get my heart rate back to where I couldn't actually see it pounding out of my chest at heart attack rate. I was okay with the random music playing as I rode the flat surface and noticed that some of the songs that came on really made me appreciate the beauty around me. The best part was cruising down a long downhill part with a fun upbeat song playing in my ears. But about 45 minutes into the ride, legs are starting to get a little tired, I came around a corner and was facing about 1/2 mile (it seemed like about 10 miles) of a steady incline. I changed songs to one that would motivate and pound in my ears and tried to get up as much speed as I could. That "speed" lasted about 5 seconds into the climb and I slowly started shifting down, then down again, then down one more time to where my legs were having to pedal about 100 miles an hour just to be at a slow crawl up the hill. The music was loud and pounding and I was trying not to look up to see how far I still had to go but instead I focused on the pavement right in front of me. As soon as my great song ended the next song was a slow little fluffy song and I lost all momentum and realized I had come to a stop...realizing I was only about half way up. So I pretended I had to fix my sock, kept looking behind me like I was waiting for someone else to come around the corner and catch up with me and checked for texts on my cell phone that I brought with me while I figured out how to breathe again and get rid of the burning in my lungs. Once I did that I found the right song to get me through the rest of that climb and I made it...barely!

So I was very thankful for music that day and as I collapsed on the couch with my worried children wondering if I was going to live I decided I am determined to master that "somewhat challenging" course. :)

Growing up...

(...my pictures did not drop in the way I wanted them to and I can't get my text to copy and paste...sheesh)

I've been struggling lately with the fact that my children are growing up so fast. We were watching our old home movies the other day that I just put onto DVD's and on one hand it seems like forever ago that these kids were little babies and toddlers but on the other hand it seems like yesterday...where on earth did the time go?

But instead of dwelling on the fact that in a few short years my kids will be grown and gone and I will be curled up in a corner in the fetal position crying (lol), I'm going to focus on the positives of them getting older. The positive I'm focusing on this week is the fact that they are old enough to be EXTREMELY helpful around the house. Hailey asked me this week if I would teach her how to iron...ABSOLUTELY was my response. :) Once Brian caught wind that she was into ironing now he offered to pay her 50 cents a shirt to iron all his work/church shirts which she gladly did and did a great job!

So since Hailey was learning this new great skill I thought I should teach Nick a helpful skill as well so I taught him how to do LAUNDRY! He started off pretty excited to learn how to use the washer and dryer but then reality set in after he changed out the first load and he wasn't as thrilled with this lesson as I was. :)

It's Official...I'm a Control Freak

It's amazing what you learn about yourself when you examine intense feelings you are having and try to figure out why you are having them. Ever since getting our puppy I have been "on edge" most of the time and quick to jump all over the kids for not doing something I think they should be doing. I'm much more snippy than I normally am and I can't really relax...even though it looks like I am when I've got my feet up reading a book. :) The only time I feel truly relaxed with normal blood pressure is when the puppy is in his kennel quietly asleep. What REALLY causes my blood pressure to elevate is when he's out in the dog run outside (which we are trying to get him used to) and barking a high pitched bark for the entire 1/2 hour we have him in there. We're putting him in 2-3 times a day to try to acclimate him to it but he REALLY doesn't like it. I just keep feeling bad for my neighbors who are probably hearing what I'm hearing and probably getting really mad at us for getting a dog. :)

I didn't really put all this together until I went to run errands and tried to figure out why I was so happy to be out running errands and feeling an extreme need to get away from everything. I finally realized it's because I have no "control" over this puppy nor do I have any expertise or really even basic knowledge about dogs. I didn't have a dog growing up and my experience with dogs as an adult was having one for 1 week when I was single...then it threw up and pooped at the same time on my carpet and I found a nice family for it to go live with. Then we had Toby for 3 months a couple years ago. Now this little guy...who really is cute and really a good puppy as far as puppies go...but I just don't "know" puppies and I don't know how to make him do what I want him to do. It is taking me back to the potty training days with my kids...in my opinion the WORST phase of a child's life...when I couldn't "make" my kids go potty in the toilet if they didn't want to.

So what I'm gleaning from all of this self examination is that I like to have full knowledge and be in control of every situation and I get very anxious if I'm not. So any words of wisdom anyone can share with me would be much appreciated! :)

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for a good doctor...the kind of doctor who will listen to everything that's going on with you and not just try to get you out of his office as fast as he can with some sample medicine. As some of you know I have had stomach problems almost my whole life and lately it seems to be getting worse. I've been diagnosed with several different things throughout my life from ulcers to acid reflux to having my gallbladder removed, etc. But nothing they've tried from medicine to surgery has really stopped the pain. So this week I went to see a new doctor and he spent a lot of time listening then came up with a plan to start at the beginning to try to get to the root of the problem. So I'm keeping a log of food, symptoms, etc for the next 2 months to see if we can pinpoint triggers. I appreciate the fact that I came out of there with a plan to find out if a food group could be the culprit rather than an appointment at the hospital for scopes, xrays, etc. :) We may have to take those steps next but I appreciate that we are starting in a logical place.

Holiday Weekend

At different times in life it really hits you that your kids are growing up...whether it's comments they make about things you can't believe they know about...humorous things they say that shows how mature their humor is becoming...or the 4th of July when both parents sit back and watch the show without lighting one firework. Nick is our resident pyromaniac but the only time he gets to let out his "inner pyro" is when we're building a fire in the fire pit or now the 4th of July. His birthday is on the 23rd of this month and he said one of the things he would love for his birthday is a big pack of fireworks that would be his to light. :) So, we did just that. We ended up doing our fireworks on the 3rd though since we were going to the Bees Baseball game on the 4th. We also did them before it got completely dark because we didn't want Rocko to be in his kennel leading up to his bedtime so we did the fireworks earlier with him in his kennel then got him out for an hour or so before he was going back in to bed. Nick didn't mind at all doing them while it was still kind of light because it just meant that he got to light them earlier.

When we told him he could start getting everything ready he told us he would take care of everything and he would call us when it was ready. He set up a table to put his fireworks on...his "staging area" and then he got a big piece of plywood to actually set them on to light them. Then he pulled up chairs from the patio for us but Hailey opted to bring out her comfy chair from her bedroom that she got for her birthday. He also got a bucket out of the shed and put some water in it to put the used fireworks in afterwards. All we had to do is go out and enjoy the display. :) He was nice enough to let Hailey light a few as well. :)

This would be Brian burning an innocent little bug that happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...near Brian. :)

Thankful Thursday...actually on Thursday. :)

Today I am thankful for kids who take responsibility. Since getting our new puppy the kids have really tried hard to keep up their end of the bargain and keep all their promises they made as they were trying to talk us into getting him. They haven't always been happy about getting up earlier in the morning than they normally would, but they have worked out a system with each other to take turns with the mornings and other times that it's not the "funnest" to have a puppy. They did have a little lapse last Saturday where neither one of them wanted to do anything all day but after they each had to endure a chat with me and a reminder that someone has already offered to take him if it didn't work out here they really stepped it up again. :) Even to the point that Nick called from his friends house to make sure we were doing okay with the puppy and did he need to come home to help? He's even trained Rocko to sit & shake hands. :)

So, even though they are not perfect, they are really trying to be responsible for their little puppy. Reality has definitely sunk in for how much work puppies are but they love the little guy and are trying to do everything they can to make sure mom doesn't send him to live with another family. :)