I wrote this little post back in November or December. NO clue why it never got posted, but here you go...
Actual dinner conversation:
Seth: Mom, did Jesus have a family?
Me: He had Mary and Joseph, but no wife or kids.
Seth: HUH? Why would he marry Joseph. They're both boys.
Me: No, MARY, his mom. Joseph was his earthly father.
Seth: No, mom. Jacob was the father. [Yes, their Bible stories have been about Joseph.]
.....
A few minutes later, the Casting Crowns song "East to West" came on the radio. I love all things Casting Crowns so the boys hear the songs a lot.
Seth: Mom, is this song about Christopher Columbus?
Me: No, why do you ask?
Seth: Because it says he knew how far the east was from the west. He had to know that, right?
A month or two ago I picked Seth up from school and he told me that there was a mayor who got shot. I was thinking, 'should I have had the news on? How does my 5 year old know this? What's happening?' Then he followed it up with, "and then Obama became mayor." We chatted a little while longer and the first 'mayor' was shot at a theatre. Ahhh, now I get it. I just think we missed a *few* years between there.
[Side note: Seth refused to go into the movie theater (after we bought the movie tickets and tried to surprise him with them). I thought this was bizarre. My dad pointed out that the 'mayor' was shot in a theater.]
A few days ago Seth said, "I can't wait to get to Heaven." Now, I know this should be all of our attitudes, but I will admit that sometimes I struggle with hearing Seth say that. Totally selfish on my part. I am always supportive of this conversation, but my mind wanders. Anyway, I asked why. He usually answers because he wants to see Jesus. This time, "I can't wait to meet Abraham Lincoln." mm'kay.
I think I have a BIG thinker on my hands. I'm guessing about two more months of kindergarten and his thoughts will be over my head!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Rookie Run 2012
I exercise to feel stronger and healthier and to set an example for my boys. I hope they will just always be active and not have to struggle with weight or body image, etc. Dave has lost a lot of weight and is exercising also - setting a great example for them!
At the mini marathon expo there was a place to register your kiddos for the Rookie Run. For a small fee they got a race bib, t-shirt, and a sweat band, and then upon completion of the "race" they got a medal. They both think my medal is pretty neat so I figured that, for a medal, they would do it. Seth went back and forth about doing it but finally decided it would be fun. His cousin was doing it too and for a few months they are the same age so they were able to start together and I think that was a pretty big selling point too.
The race was short. A block or so for the older kids and a little less for Luke's age. I wouldn't even call it "organized" chaos - mostly just chaos. All of the 4 year olds lined up, with a parent, and then they would just take a handful of them at a time, warm them up, tell them go, and then they ran. Luke did go on his own, where some of the parents were having to run with other 4 year olds. And they did have them pinned in and you had to have a little tear off piece of their bib to prove they belonged to you before you could take them away, so that was a little organized I guess.
All in all, the boys had a great time and Seth can't wait to do it again next year! Luke might feel the same way but he doesn't express himself in quite the same manner.
And here are some pictures to recap the day:
My smallest guy was too young to race, but not too young to sport some fine sunglasses!
Luke, running in his sweatband and race t. He meant business!
So proud of his medal, and tiny bottle of water.
Seth racing. He was SO funny. I was telling him what an awesome job he did when he finished and he said, "Uh, mom, I stopped and walked a bit." Uh, Seth, so do I! He knows that I don't ever dream of racing to win, just to finish, and I hope that helped him not feel bad about walking a bit.
My boys and their cousin, with their medals. That's a fine looking group of finishers!
At the mini marathon expo there was a place to register your kiddos for the Rookie Run. For a small fee they got a race bib, t-shirt, and a sweat band, and then upon completion of the "race" they got a medal. They both think my medal is pretty neat so I figured that, for a medal, they would do it. Seth went back and forth about doing it but finally decided it would be fun. His cousin was doing it too and for a few months they are the same age so they were able to start together and I think that was a pretty big selling point too.
The race was short. A block or so for the older kids and a little less for Luke's age. I wouldn't even call it "organized" chaos - mostly just chaos. All of the 4 year olds lined up, with a parent, and then they would just take a handful of them at a time, warm them up, tell them go, and then they ran. Luke did go on his own, where some of the parents were having to run with other 4 year olds. And they did have them pinned in and you had to have a little tear off piece of their bib to prove they belonged to you before you could take them away, so that was a little organized I guess.
All in all, the boys had a great time and Seth can't wait to do it again next year! Luke might feel the same way but he doesn't express himself in quite the same manner.
And here are some pictures to recap the day:
Luke, running in his sweatband and race t. He meant business!
So proud of his medal, and tiny bottle of water. 
Seth's turn - getting his game face on.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Sweets for my sweets...
Y'all know that I LOVE a party - the planning, the decorations, the menu. But, I do find the cleaning to be a real drain on the fun! So, because I hate to clean, and because all three boys have birthdays within about three months of each other, we decided to have one big party for all three boys. We also decided rather spur of the moment on the date - which happened to be not quite two weeks away by the time we chose it. So, I hightailed into party mode and we were off.
We decided a dessert bar would be fun. We went really low key on the dinner menu and then I had some fun with the sweets menu. It all came together pretty well - of course, about midnight the night before my husband, who was a huge (!) help actually said to me, "I didn't know you were going all out." Umm, then honey, you don't know me! Ha ha!!
I settled on red and white with a bit of turquoise as our theme colors. My cricut and I had not been getting along very well but I pulled the equivalent of "turn it off and back on" by disassembling and reassembling and it worked fine. This left me free to create the fun little banner above. We went with "celebrate" as it wasn't actually anyone's birthday that particular day.
The six year old and some party balloons. 
I also spray painted scraps of wood with chalkboard paint and then wrapped them in ribbon, with just one spot of hot glue so that they could be reused in the future by just swapping out ribbon. I used chalk and wrote what each dessert was. I love to label the food because then I don't have to stand around by the food all night and repeat what it all is.
We also made cake pops that we attempted to shape like gum drops and coat in sugar. We had a dipping party the Thursday before the actual party. My mom and sister came over to help me dip chocolate cookies, pretzels, and cake pops. Dave helped out too.
And for party favors, I put out ziploc bags and begged our guests to take food home with them. We also had a jar of toothbrushes - don't blame me for your cavities, peeps!
THE mini
I don't have a 'bucket list.' You can either believe that's because I live such an exciting life that I just embrace things and do them as they come along, or you can assume that it's because I'm too busy trying to keep up with my life to sit around and daydream about other things I could do. At any rate, IF I had a 'bucket list,' one of the top five items would be "complete THE mini." Not just any mini (since I already finished one in September), but the 500 festival mini. I have wanted to do this for a very long time but always had an excuse (some better than others). Law school while working full-time didn't leave me a lot of time for training. Having 3 spring'ish birthday babies didn't really lend itself to training. But this year - no excuses!
Having finished a half marathon in September, we (my sister and I) needed another event to keep us going. Or at least I did. I won't speak for her. The September half was hot hot hot, so we were looking forward to a nice cool early May half marathon. HA HA HA. This was the e-mail we got a few days before the race:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION—PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
But, first, I'll back up just a tiny bit. My hips have been hurting. I assume it's because I'm older and overweight. They've been hurting for months, maybe longer. At first it was just one and then it progressed to both. I've lost a few pounds and they still hurt (maybe even worse). And the more we tried to run the more they hurt. For the most part, it's just an annoyance and doesn't really stop me from doing anything that I want to do. But, a couple of weeks ago on a Monday night Gretch and I were out wogging/jalking (whatever combo of the words 'walk' and 'jog' you prefer), and we were running and my right hip hurt so bad that we had to head home. That was a first - pain so bad that I had to stop. I tried to put socks on later that night and I couldn't lift my foot to put the socks on without sitting down it hurt so bad. Gretchen forbid me to wog on Wednesday and that was birthday party week so I actually ended up resting it for a week or more. Then we went on our 10 mile training walk (no jogging whatsoever) and it felt okay - just the normal pain. That walk was a week before the mini. We only walked once the following week and we just did that at the gym and kept a nice steady pace. I know I should go to the doctor (and will now that the mini is over) but I was so worried she would tell me that I coudn't do the mini that I didn't want to go before. Okay, enough about that. Really, I think I just shared that so you could feel sorry for Gretch having to hang out with her old fat sister during the mini!
Friday was a good busy day - a PTF-type meeting at the school and then an awesome tea hosted by the kindergarten class for their moms. My sweet boy giving me a sweet smelling flower.
Then I headed home to finish a little laundry, pack my bag, and await my ride (my mama and Gretch) downtown. Gretchen's aunt-in-law, Patty, was doing the mini too, doesn't live in Indy, got a hotel room, and invited us to stay downtown with her so we didn't have to worry about parking Saturday morning. So, mom dropped us off at the hotel, we dropped off our stuff, grabbed Patty, and headed over to the expo for some packet pickup and shopping. I really was SO excited to be picking up my packet for THE mini. I know it sounds silly to most, but I really was so excited to be doing this. We had a good time wandering around, looking at all of the gear and supplies, and merchandise.
After a couple hours there we headed back to our hotel for the restaurant's carb loading special of salad and pasta. Unfortunately, the service was dreadful (we kept wondering if they had missed the memo about the 35,000 people registered for the race in the morning), but all in all it was a nice dinner where I ate hot food and didn't have to prepare anyone else's meal. Score-score!
So, the experience:
There was a ridiculous amount of people. It sells out every year. It's the largest half marathon in the country, I believe. They stop taking entrants at 35,000 people. I am not fast, but it was a pain to navigate around people to pass them. I told Gretch that I thought we might walk 15 miles before we were done because of all the weaving to get around.
These three were all pre race photos. I felt like a cow, herded into my corral and numbered.
I'd heard that walking the track is painful. Not ouch painful, but a long walk painful. I was really looking forward to that part. I mean, it's the IMS! I was warned (thank you) that there would already be people finishing their lap on the track when I started mine. Very true. Walking under the bridge was pretty neat.
Walking the track didn't really seem like it was any different than walking on the streets. We did hit the halfway mark at the track so that was nice. They kept telling us that there would be no hydration stations on the track, etc. and then there was at least one that I remember, maybe even two. Because it was hot.
Soon after we left the track it seemed like every medic station was occupied. Because it was hot. Not that I needed a medic but it messed with the mental attitude a bit to see so many people needing hydration or whatever they were needing. Because it was hot.
There was a lot of entertainment along the route. Mostly intentional - bands, DJs, etc. Some not so intentional - the line at the portable toilets made me laugh often. I just kept thinking, clearly these people need some young kids for this training - I can go all day without stopping! Nevermind that I'm pretty sure that if I had stopped walking I never would have started again!
I know Gretch had planned to run more than we got to. My hip was really hurting. I told her it was fine to leave me. Sweetly, she said she wanted to finish the mini with me.
Even so, we managed to finish about 5 minutes faster than our first half marathon. We finished, got our medals, bananas, chocolate milk (Can I tell you how much I was looking forward to the chocolate milk?), found our mom and Matt and Delaney and Carson (my boys had swim lessons at the time we were finishing) and I felt very thankful to be done! I kept getting these waves of feeling super crummy and finally sat down (although I was worried I wouldn't be able to get back up, Mom and Matt assisted me). Then I figured out that everytime I drank the milk I felt crummy so I switched to water and that made a huge difference!
Gretch and her family stayed downtown and my momma was my ride home (thanks Mom!). The boys welcomed me with lots of flowers and hugs. Except for Max, who refused to speak to me and actually swatted me away while yelling, "no" because I had left him overnight.
All in all, I am SO glad that I did it; that I finished it; that I finished stronger than my first half marathon; that I finished it with my sister. But, I'm really not sure I will do this one again. It was so crowded and there's not much scenic about the neighborhoods on the way to and from the track. We are registered for the Indy Women's Half again in September and provided I get my hips figured out (I actually made a doctor's appointment!), I'm excited to try to be faster at that one.
Having finished a half marathon in September, we (my sister and I) needed another event to keep us going. Or at least I did. I won't speak for her. The September half was hot hot hot, so we were looking forward to a nice cool early May half marathon. HA HA HA. This was the e-mail we got a few days before the race:
IMPORTANT INFORMATION—PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
High temperatures and humidity are predicted for Saturday. These conditions put runners at increased risk for heat-related problems. Please remember to stay well-hydrated and monitor yourself. You may need to slow your pace and/or take other suitable precautions to minimize the risk of heat-related problems.
But, first, I'll back up just a tiny bit. My hips have been hurting. I assume it's because I'm older and overweight. They've been hurting for months, maybe longer. At first it was just one and then it progressed to both. I've lost a few pounds and they still hurt (maybe even worse). And the more we tried to run the more they hurt. For the most part, it's just an annoyance and doesn't really stop me from doing anything that I want to do. But, a couple of weeks ago on a Monday night Gretch and I were out wogging/jalking (whatever combo of the words 'walk' and 'jog' you prefer), and we were running and my right hip hurt so bad that we had to head home. That was a first - pain so bad that I had to stop. I tried to put socks on later that night and I couldn't lift my foot to put the socks on without sitting down it hurt so bad. Gretchen forbid me to wog on Wednesday and that was birthday party week so I actually ended up resting it for a week or more. Then we went on our 10 mile training walk (no jogging whatsoever) and it felt okay - just the normal pain. That walk was a week before the mini. We only walked once the following week and we just did that at the gym and kept a nice steady pace. I know I should go to the doctor (and will now that the mini is over) but I was so worried she would tell me that I coudn't do the mini that I didn't want to go before. Okay, enough about that. Really, I think I just shared that so you could feel sorry for Gretch having to hang out with her old fat sister during the mini!
Friday was a good busy day - a PTF-type meeting at the school and then an awesome tea hosted by the kindergarten class for their moms. My sweet boy giving me a sweet smelling flower.
Then I headed home to finish a little laundry, pack my bag, and await my ride (my mama and Gretch) downtown. Gretchen's aunt-in-law, Patty, was doing the mini too, doesn't live in Indy, got a hotel room, and invited us to stay downtown with her so we didn't have to worry about parking Saturday morning. So, mom dropped us off at the hotel, we dropped off our stuff, grabbed Patty, and headed over to the expo for some packet pickup and shopping. I really was SO excited to be picking up my packet for THE mini. I know it sounds silly to most, but I really was so excited to be doing this. We had a good time wandering around, looking at all of the gear and supplies, and merchandise.
After a couple hours there we headed back to our hotel for the restaurant's carb loading special of salad and pasta. Unfortunately, the service was dreadful (we kept wondering if they had missed the memo about the 35,000 people registered for the race in the morning), but all in all it was a nice dinner where I ate hot food and didn't have to prepare anyone else's meal. Score-score!
So, the experience:
There was a ridiculous amount of people. It sells out every year. It's the largest half marathon in the country, I believe. They stop taking entrants at 35,000 people. I am not fast, but it was a pain to navigate around people to pass them. I told Gretch that I thought we might walk 15 miles before we were done because of all the weaving to get around. These three were all pre race photos. I felt like a cow, herded into my corral and numbered.
I'd heard that walking the track is painful. Not ouch painful, but a long walk painful. I was really looking forward to that part. I mean, it's the IMS! I was warned (thank you) that there would already be people finishing their lap on the track when I started mine. Very true. Walking under the bridge was pretty neat.
Walking the track didn't really seem like it was any different than walking on the streets. We did hit the halfway mark at the track so that was nice. They kept telling us that there would be no hydration stations on the track, etc. and then there was at least one that I remember, maybe even two. Because it was hot.
Soon after we left the track it seemed like every medic station was occupied. Because it was hot. Not that I needed a medic but it messed with the mental attitude a bit to see so many people needing hydration or whatever they were needing. Because it was hot. There was a lot of entertainment along the route. Mostly intentional - bands, DJs, etc. Some not so intentional - the line at the portable toilets made me laugh often. I just kept thinking, clearly these people need some young kids for this training - I can go all day without stopping! Nevermind that I'm pretty sure that if I had stopped walking I never would have started again!
I know Gretch had planned to run more than we got to. My hip was really hurting. I told her it was fine to leave me. Sweetly, she said she wanted to finish the mini with me.
Even so, we managed to finish about 5 minutes faster than our first half marathon. We finished, got our medals, bananas, chocolate milk (Can I tell you how much I was looking forward to the chocolate milk?), found our mom and Matt and Delaney and Carson (my boys had swim lessons at the time we were finishing) and I felt very thankful to be done! I kept getting these waves of feeling super crummy and finally sat down (although I was worried I wouldn't be able to get back up, Mom and Matt assisted me). Then I figured out that everytime I drank the milk I felt crummy so I switched to water and that made a huge difference!
Gretch and her family stayed downtown and my momma was my ride home (thanks Mom!). The boys welcomed me with lots of flowers and hugs. Except for Max, who refused to speak to me and actually swatted me away while yelling, "no" because I had left him overnight.
All in all, I am SO glad that I did it; that I finished it; that I finished stronger than my first half marathon; that I finished it with my sister. But, I'm really not sure I will do this one again. It was so crowded and there's not much scenic about the neighborhoods on the way to and from the track. We are registered for the Indy Women's Half again in September and provided I get my hips figured out (I actually made a doctor's appointment!), I'm excited to try to be faster at that one.
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