Pladsen Family

Nap time....

2012-02-02T14:17:00.000-06:00

Ahhh, it's nap time right now for the little one that I watch. My oldest is at school and my son is having some computer time. I am supposed to be working out, but have chosen The People's Court and a can of pop over that....for now.

Even though the weather has been very cooperative, I haven't gotten outside to run 3+ miles since around New Years. I have gotten back into the treadmill, but only 2-3 miles at a time. It's all I can muster to do in the basement. I feel good about the upcoming running season though and my races that I want to do.

So far on my "want to do" list is.....
- a 5k in May for "Get Your Rear in Gear" - a colon cancer coalition event.
"We are sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers and friends who have been affected by colon cancer and want to do something. Some of us are colon cancer survivors while others are those who work to honor those lost to this disease. We are a coalition that has formed 5K's and other events in cities across the country, working together with health care providers, corporations and the media, to encourage people to "Get Your Rear in Gear" and talk about colon cancer with their doctor, their loved ones and everyone they know. Together, we will positively impact this disease." A bunch of us are running in honor of a friend who passed away from this last year.

- a 10k the day BEFORE the above race. :) It'll just be a moving kind of weekend.

- possible a 5k in May for a fundraiser I did last year....they had a good t-shirt last year.

- the 5 mile race in July for Hopkins Raspberry Festival....IF the temperature is below 100 degrees....ok 90.....ok 85.

- a YWCA sprint triathlon......swimming/biking/running. Which one of those is the MOST dangerous? :) For me anyway.... But I can do it.

- and probably the Ragnar Relay. WHAT is that, you ask???

From their website......
"JOIN THE RAGNAR NATION: A 2 day party in a van with a side of running.
Ragnar Great River is a unique team event that combines running with a traveling party, scenic views, smelly vans, and lasting memories. Ragnar Great River is for everyone, from the novice runner to the 10x marathoner.
Starting in the beautiful river town of Winona, runners will encounter challenging terrain and beautiful scenery as they run ‘up river’ along the Mississippi, ending in Minneapolis with a finish line party worthy of 200 miles of stamina, courage and teamwork."

Basically a team of 12 take turns running legs of a 200 mile race from Winona to Minneapolis....through the day and night. You catch some shut eye in the van while you can. :) We are trying to get together an all female team. In theory it sounds like fun. Thankfully we have marathoners on our team who are already assigned the longest legs.

So that's that. Oh, and quite soon I plan to run outside.....one a beach.....next to crystal blue water.....in 70+ degree weather........

Friday Funny

2012-01-27T08:28:00.000-06:00

A house of patients....and patience

2012-01-26T09:16:00.000-06:00

Last week as Katie was sick, one member of our family was missing. Molly spent the night at the vet's office Wednesday night recovering from surgery. She had gotten spayed on Wednesday morning, and they kept her overnight. We picked her up Thursday around noon. Luckily, Katie was up for a ride to go get her. The vet's office had given me pain medication for her and informed me that they were unable to administer any to her because "Molly hated them." She always immediately tried to scratch and bite them anytime they came near her. It made me feel quite good that she did nothing like that to us when we got her home and she let me give her her medicine every time we needed to.

They also sent her home with a "cone of shame", which the kids thought was funny at first. But when they realized what a struggle it was for her to function with it on they felt quite sorry for her. She is supposed to wear the cone for 2 weeks to prevent her licking and biting at her stitches. At first I thought that 2 weeks was way too long, but it's been a week today....and I guess I'd rather keep it on as long as we have to so that we don't have to deal with re-stitching anything right before we leave for Florida. I can't have Molly here at the house alone unless she's cone-free and back to her old self. I do take it off once a day so that she can groom herself - it drives her nuts that she can't lick her paws and clean her face. When she has it on, she pretty much just stays put in 1 or 2 places all day long and all night. It's a chore just to make sure that she's eating and drinking.

The gang watching old Bug Bunny cartoons on You Tube.

Molly hung out in Katie's bed with her for most of the day on Thursday.

Katie is back to her old self, I would say. Will never really did get sick with anything. John had just a touch of it, but was more tired and wiped out than anything else. I'm glad that it seems to have gotten through us before our trip.

Oh our trip - it's coming up and I'm busy getting things straight in my head preparing for it. I think I have the packing some what organized out. Katie and Will should be able to share a carry-on for their clothes and things. My things should fit in the other carry-on and then we will check a bag with John's stuff and the kids' life jackets. Some things are already packed because I doubt we will need flip flops and shorts in Minnesota in January.

I've also got a few surprises for the kids for their bookbags that they'll take on the airplane filled with stuff to keep them busy. Ok, they won't be "filled"....afterall, I'm hoping to have room to bring things back with us. And traveling with a 4 year old and a 7 year old should be much easier than a 2 year old. Just looking out the window should be pretty exciting for the first 30 minutes, and there's always the ipad and ipod to keep them entertained. However - I have some surprise books and snacks that they haven't had before that I think will make the trip extra special. Oh, and I ordered some books for John and I too that I think will be good.

Nine Years Today....

2012-01-22T21:46:00.001-06:00

Today marks mine and John's 9th Anniversary. The years keep ticking by, as they do for everyone. We had planned on going out to dinner Saturday night to celebrate. I had a sitter lined up and ready to go, a gift card to use that we had been given at Christmas time, nothing could stand in out way.

Except a stomach virus.

I came down with it Monday night around 8 pm. Just all of a sudden didn't feel good and it kept getting worse. John checked on me before calling it a night on the couch downstairs, and I couldn't think of anything I needed. I'll spare you the details, but I will say that I didn't get any sleep that night and was getting sick in the bathroom every 10-15 minutes like clockwork. About 5 hours into it, I was losing my grip. I was a whiny mess! I just didn't want to be alone anymore - let alone be sick anymore, so I went downstairs and woke up John. He asked what was wrong and I think I just muttered something about being sick.

And you know what he did? He didn't complain about being awoken in the middle of the night, or tell me to stop crying. He just rubbed my back.

And at that moment it was just what I needed. Then he went to go get me water, and came back and sat with me for over half an hour. Not once did he suggest I go back to bed, not once did he mention how tired he was himself. I think if I hadn't left to go back upstairs, he'd have sat there with me til the sun came up.

And THAT was the most meaningful gift I could have ever gotten for our anniversary.

By the way - I was on the 10-15 minute schedule for about 9 hours. It wiped me out. Then, 2 days later, Katie got the same thing. She was sick for 9 hours - every 10-15 minutes. And you know what? She never cried, she never complained (except about wanting to drink more water), and she even kept apologizing to me because I stayed up with her, and she felt bad because I didn't get to sleep. What a trooper. I tell you - she's tougher than me by a landslide.

Friday Funny

2012-01-13T08:39:00.000-06:00

In honor of the weather finally turning over to winter....

Resolutions Review

2012-01-12T08:59:00.000-06:00

I didn't really make any "resolutions" this year - officially. I do have a "to-do" list for the year and I guess that's good enough. Most of it centers around races I would like to complete this summer. But I do remember that I made some LAST year and I thought it would be a good idea to take a look and see how I did on them.

1. Get paid regularly for something. I wanted to try to make an effort to add a bit of money to the monthly budget so that I could help in our efforts to save. Well, I've been getting paid for "Pebbles" since March and I think we've been able to do some family activities throughout the year that we normally wouldn't have done. Well - maybe we would have done them anyway.... Mark this one DONE!

2. Keep running and exercising. This time last year I wasn't able to run a mile. I had hurt my foot and had to start at the beginning of a running program. I couldn't imagine being able to run 3 miles. I kept at it pretty regularly, and was able to finish a 5 mile race and a duathlon. The last 2 months of the year, I kinda fell off the wagon - but the weather stayed nice and I was able to run outside every 2 weeks or so. Now I'm making a new promise to visit the treadmill over the next 2 months and run at least 2 miles twice a week. And do other workouts in the meantime. Once the weather gets warmer outside, and the sun rises before 7:30, I'll start increasing that again. Mark this one DONE!

3. Get more organized. Should have been more specific. How am I supposed to measure this?

4. Drink more water. Nope, sorry - I've sucked at this one. I'm not drinking as much water as I should....

5. Keep the family that I have. Done.

6. Be more accepting of change. I THINK I am. I realized that I can adapt to anything as long as I have 6-8 months to do so.

Upcoming vacation

2012-01-11T10:21:00.000-06:00

We've made plans to go to Florida this winter and I've been searching for deals and coupons the last few weeks to use while we are there. I've been able to find a coupon for $4 to save us on admission to the science museum for kids, and one for $8 to save us on admission to the aquarium and boat tours. It's better than nothing. I'm hoping to find a few for food as well. It's certainly a nice perk the Internet gives.

When we were planning the trip we initially tried to limit the amount of school that the kids would miss. We thought we were being "good" parents by planning our trip around a week that there was already a day off from school, and only doing something like a Wed-Sun trip. Quickly though, the trip evolved into more days off from school, but I took comfort in knowing that there was already a day off that week so they weren't missing too much.

I just realized that I was looking at the wrong calendar - Will has a day off from school that week, but Katie doesn't. So she will miss a whole week. Oooops. And you know what? I don't really care. :)

My dream....before I forget

2012-01-10T08:37:00.001-06:00

Geez, last night was a weird dream night. I'll share what I remember, and you tell me what the heck it means.

I was at a party at someone's house. No kids. In fact, I didn't even have kids of my own. There were lots of people there that I knew....from all areas of my life. Laurel was there from college, and we talked about her job at the hospital. John's work buddies were there haning out with John, etc. Oh, and John was there too - but he was dating someone (who appeared to be) 30-40 years his senior . It was like we had ended our relationship and he took up with this other person because there was still romantic tension between us. And it was clear that he was not happy about being involved with the "older" woman.
My friend Anne C. was there and she was fairly plastered. John kept asking me if I had given Anne's husband Mike a hug yet, and urging me to do so. Now, I really like Mike....but....not much of a "hugger". :)
(I had to mention this because I think it will make Anne laugh.)
My friend Vickie was there as well and she kept telling me to eat a piece of cake. When I did finally grab one, I spilled crumbs on the floor, which made the host of the party (the one person I did NOT know) angry that he had to clean it up. Seems everyone else could eat their cake without making a mess.

Finally the party seemed to be wrapping up - John was getting his coat on along with his "date's" (who couldn't get out of her chair) and I was so upset I ran out of the house and slept in a car, that I think was supposed to be mine.

There's always more that I forget, but that was the overall idea. Seems like there were so many little details this time.....and so many people involved. On another note - I'm really tired this morning.

Friday Funny

2012-01-06T12:39:00.001-06:00

We had to take Molly to the vet today for an exam and some shots. The vet said she is a very healthy, petite cat. She gets "fixed" in 2 weeks, and they wanted to run all these blood tests to make sure that she could handle the anesthesia. I refused all the tests and felt like a schmuck who doesn't love their cat. I actually said "There's always more where Molly came from." So in honor of cats everywhere.....

Iowa Christmas

2012-01-05T11:15:00.001-06:00

Katie got a ping pong set for Christmas, and so the kitchen table was set for

ping pong for most of the time we spent in IA. She really likes it and it works well on our table at home - even if it's a round table.

From about 1989 - 1996 my family ran "The Village Motel." We rocked so much that my parents ordered coats for each of us with our names on them....cool - I know.

We look like a retired gang back for one for one more hit.

Oddly enough, living at the "motel" was where I lived the longest while growing up. Those 6 years were spent learning how to do "motel corners" while making beds, folding towels, sheets, vacuuming and cleaning toilets. Actually, Dad was in charge of bathroom cleaning. He never trusted me to do it - he did trust my sister Janet a handful of times though.

Christmas summary

2012-01-04T10:19:00.000-06:00

I realized I never shared any of our Christmas "doings" - so I'll do that now. Once New Year's is over, Christmas seems like a LONG time ago! I'm ready to take the decorations off the tree soon....it'll get picked up on the curb next week.

Will was excited about the peanut butter cups in his stocking....

Katie was more excited about the toothpaste.

Will's gift from Santa - the Toy Story Landfill playset. Yes.....landfill.

Katie and her awesome hypotrochoid art set. It really is a lot of fun.

Even more fun: looking at the graphing animation and formulas of these online. (really!)

Will (as Iron Man) and his entourage of Green Lanterns.

The aftermath....

More to come....Christmas in Iowa.

We're back!

2012-01-02T13:57:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year everyone! The whirlwind of holiday activity is starting to settle down and a routine is looming ahead on the horizon again. We spent the New Year weekend at home and it was great. John had Friday through Monday off and we just hung out with the kids. He took them to the library, sledding (sort of....in 2 inches of snow), and today everyone went bowling.

I took a screen shot of my score because otherwise my mother and sister wouldn't have believed me.

5 strikes in a row, baby! 182....so close to breaking 200, which I have never done before!

Oh, and if you're keeping track of the frogs, we are down one. Three left. One of Katie's appears to have died of natural causes. She's taking it very well. It was floating and wouldn't move, despite my pencil poking. So I fished it out and threw it away....hoping to hell it doesn't hop back out of the garbage.

Molly and the frogs

2011-12-22T08:37:00.000-06:00

We had gotten the kids each two African Dwarf frogs for Christmas. Because they aren't sold during the colder months, I had to buy them just before Thanksgiving...and keep them hidden. It almost worked. But then Katie went looking for toilet paper and she found them in the closet. So we surprised Will, at least, with them on Tuesday night.

We had Will clsoe his eyes....then set the frog case in front of him....he opened his eyes and screamed as he ran away from the table.....

He came back pretty quickly, and then thought they were kinda cool. I was more worried about Molly and what she would do to the frogs. The first night I left them out on our dresser, she knocked one case over - spilling the frogs, water and rocks all over the floor. Luckily I scooped the frogs back into some water before they could hop to freedom, and it hasn't seemed to bother them. BUT I don't want to have to go through that again!

So I invested in some heavy duty Velcro and stuck both cases onto the bookshelves in the kid's rooms. They aren't going anywhere. :) And so far Molly has left them alone. But that first night she would not leave their side...first Will's room, then Katie's room, then back to Will's. I think she thought they were HER frogs.

Smile for the camera, Molly......what a ham!

She really wanted to play with those wiggly things.

I'm a glutton for punishment

2011-12-20T09:14:00.000-06:00

Can I tell you how I spent last Saturday?? The LAST Saturday before Christmas weekend? I decided the kids and I should go to the Mall of America.

So we left for the mall about 11. I wanted to pick up a couple gifts at the Apple store, and I had promised the kids we'd go see Santa. The local malls have instituted a new "no personal camera" policy which means starting this year, you can't take your own picture....you have to buy theirs. And the cheapest photo package runs $22. No thanks.

Rumor had it that the Mall of America was still letting people use their own cameras, and since Katie is in school during the week and I have "Pebbles" til 5:30 every night - that leaves the weekends. Traffic was NOT bad at all - I got into the parking garage and drove around for 20 minutes on the same level looking for a spot. I had TWO stolen right from under me. Remember that scene in Fried Green Tomatoes where Kathy Bates is sitting in her car with her blinker on, waiting for a car to pull out - they wave to her acknowledging that she is going to take their spot after they leave and WHOOSH....in swoops a fast little sports car. Yeah. That same exact scenario happened TWICE! Luckily I didn't go "Towanda" on their ass.

So then we drove around an outside lot looking, but after 10 minutes I felt it was hopeless even getting inside the door. So - we decided to go to Ridgedale Mall instead. It has an Apple store, and a Santa - I just wouldn't be able to take pictures. Ok.

So we get to the mall (much easier parking) and head straight for Santa. A lady at the entrance says that the line is closed. Santa takes a break from 1-2. It is now 12:25, but we can start lining up at 1:00 to see him at 2. I decide to get to the Apple store, pick up our things and see where that puts us. It didn't take too long in the Apple store - 20 minutes and we were done. I decided I didn't want to wait over an hour for Santa - so we'd head out to pick up my niece at the U of MN (who was babysitting that night for us) and think about the Eden Prairie Mall.

So I pick up Sarah....and head to our THIRD mall of the day. We get to Santa and of course he's on break from 1-2, but it's about 1:45 now and there's only 5 people in line. We decide to wait, which was the BEST decision because the line quickly grew to 30+. It still took another 15 minutes once Santa got there...but we accomplished the mission of visiting Santa without losing too much holiday spirit.

Next year, though - we'll plan a bit better.

Friday Funny

2011-12-16T11:00:00.000-06:00

....but first - we booked our tickets to Florida! I had been holding off because I was waiting for the rehearsal schedule for the play that Katie and I are in. Rehearsals start in January on Wednesdays and Sundays....but because they only work on 1-3 scenes, it may be scenes that we aren't in. So I was waiting to make sure that the dates didn't conflict.

I hadn't gotten the schedule yet, but this morning John and I just decided that we better book it, or we won't end up going. So I compromised and scheduled it so that we fly out on a Monday, back on a Saturday. That way, Katie won't miss any big Sunday practices....only a Wednesday night, maybe.

I swear....90 minutes after I book the tickets, I get the rehearsal schedule e-mailed to me. And of course, the one Wednesday night we're gone is the one Wednesday night I have practice - not Katie. Although, my part is small and we're practicing that scene 2 other dates as well....so I think I'll be ok, I just feel shitty about missing it. But I'll just have to let that go - and maybe the sunshine in Florida will bake away my guilt. :)

Also - John mentioned the other day that we should stay a couple days in a nicer resort - as opposed to all 5 nights in the cheap hotel. "Then you can get a massage."

I thought about it a second, and how nice that would be....and then realized that I would rather be able to sneak out for an hour and run along the beach. Isn't that just sick?

And the "funny" for you comes from Katie's part in "Annie". How do I explain to a 7 year old how to act "drunkenly"? :) This should be funny.....

Results are in....

2011-12-14T19:07:00.000-06:00

Got a call from Katie's new pediatrician this morning. He had read the results of Katie's blood test and everything looked good. There were no alarming results. Her ASO is still elevated, but it's 885....down from 2200, so that was fine.

Her knees are still swollen. At this point, it's an issue for a rheumatologist....if we decided to take it there, and we're not sure we want to do that. So, for now, we are just sitting tight. We'll keep our eye on them and as she grows over the next few months we'll see.

Friday Funny

2011-12-09T08:52:00.002-06:00

The tree is up!

2011-12-08T12:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we took Katie to have a final blood draw and meet a new pediatrician who, hopefully, we'll be a lot happier with. We discussed her case with him, and he gave the "ok" to have the blood tests that the specialist recommended. He seemed to know of the specialists that we'd seen, and mentioned that Dr. Baker - the pediatric cardiac specialist who had read Katie's heart echo was rated as one of the best in the country. We're very fortunate to have such specialists within driving distance, but it's a shame that it ended up being a waste of time.

Back in September we discovered that Katie's diagnosis of an "infection" in her knee was wrong. Incorrect information was passed from the clinic to Children's Hospital and the specialist at Children's misdiagnosed her based on false symptoms. Long story short - we should have never done 6 months of penicillin, and should have never done the heart echo. Many, many hundreds of dollars later, here we are.

So we wanted to do one final blood draw to make sure that the infection rates that WERE showing up in March are no longer at the levels they were. She DID have a past strep infection, but seems to have nothing to do with her knees. Come to find out, there may not be ANY problem with her knee swelling.

So Katie had to have blood drawn....not fun. She was ok with getting if over with, but we were requesting a lot of tests, so they needed a lot of blood. They couldn't get it all from one arm...so they had to stick the other one too. Lots of screams and tears later - they still didn't have enough, and wanted us to come back in a few days to fill the last tube. Ummm, nope. No thanks. Whatever the test was for that last tube, we said forget it. If the results for the other stuff comes back weird, we'll deal with it then....but if everything comes back normal for the tests you CAN do - then we'll assume everything else is fine too. It was NOT worth seeing Katie in pain. And she does have bruising on both arms from it - it wasn't just put the needle in, get the blood out...they kept having to move the needle around to (I assume) avoid immediate clots. So now we wait til next week for those results.

In the meantime, we wanted to cheer Katie up. The nurse felt so bad that she gave Katie 5 sticks of gum. :) I told her about a new Christmas dress I had just found for her, but the clincher was that John said we'd go pick out our Christmas tree right away. We found a great tree at the Lion's Club tree lot...they loaded up the kids with candy canes, coloring books, and even took our picture with the tree and e-mailed it to us. Which, turned out to be a sweet little picture that ended up making it onto our Christmas card. :) (And that says a heck of a lot because John and I haven't ever put our own picture on the card!)

Katie and Will loved decorating the tree....as you can see....

It's always pretty exciting to go through the ornaments, open them up like they are secret treasures. We're getting quite a collection now and it's fun to remember where/when we got each of them. Some were made just last year....some were bought when we got married or had kids...and some have been passed down from older generations.

Molly approves....

Saturday Silly

2011-12-03T11:02:00.000-06:00

Instead of a Friday Funny...would you take a Saturday Silly?

This actually happened last night....

We were playing Pictionary on our big dry erase easel. Everyone was coming up with great ideas and the kids were having a blast. Will has just been a riot lately with the things that are coming out of his mouth, and what he was drawing. He'd draw a straight line down, with a circle at the bottom and a scribble in it.....and that was, of course, a man with a hurt leg.

It was Katie's turn and she seemed to be drawing a boat/bath tub...with water around it and a person standing on the water.

John shouts out "Jesus!" I start laughing because it came out of nowhere - it wasn't the answer - and at first I thought he was actually swearing instead of guessing.

So then John, Katie and I all laugh together and Will has a glare on his face. All of a sudden he stands up and shouts "DON'T LAUGH AT JESUS! IT'S NOT FUNNY!"

So of course that makes up laugh even harder.....

Will runs over to our little wooden nativity scene that's actually more of a Christmas playhouse set than a decoration, grabs the little Jesus, runs back and continues to shout angrily..."STOP LAUGHING AT JESUS! HE'S JUST A TINY LITTLE BABY!"

Yeah, we lost it after that.

The results are in!!

2011-12-02T08:27:00.001-06:00

Last night just as I was getting into bed, I checked my e-mail one more time for the day....and there it was....the cast list for Annie.

They said that since they had so many wonderful kids try out, they doubled up the orphans with speaking parts. So since there are 4 performances, each cast of orphans will do 2 of them where they speak, but they will ALL be in ALL of the shows. Make sense?

So first I scrolled down to see my name....Mrs. Greer. I'm a house servant for Daddy Warbucks. Perfect, I think I can handle that. Maybe I can channel enough real life experience to pull THAT one off. :)
I think the line in the song is "Your bath is drawn by Mrs. Greer...." and then I pop on over and say "Soap.......no. Bubbles!"

Then I scrolled to find Katie's name....and there it was assigned to "Molly"......the exact part she was hoping for!! I really wanted to go wake her up and tell her, but I waited until this morning and she was pretty excited. I think she'll be more excited when I tell her she's got 23 lines and singing parts in 4 songs......
She is in the "Sunshine" cast - so Friday night and Saturday afternoon she will be "Molly"...Saturday night and Sunday afternoon she will be "orphan girl".

We start rehearsals the second week of January for performances the first weekend of March.

A reunion

2011-11-30T09:03:00.001-06:00

I forgot to mention that while we were back in IA over the holiday weekend, I attended my 15 year class reunion. It was....well....it was 15 years. Long enough to find it pleasant to talk with many people you've lost track of, not quite long enough for some.

I made John go with me....I wasn't sure what I'd be walking into and it's always better to face awkward situations with someone who is removed from it. He didn't know anyone there really, but said it was ok because he wasn't expected to know anyone's name or remember it, for that matter.

Oh, and the beer was $2.

I hunkered down with a good friend from high school and we basically just let people come to us. I later scoffed at the people that didn't talk to me, but then again...I didn't approach them either. But c'mon - it has to be their fault, right? It was really fun to talk with a few people who I wasn't that close to in school....or at all....and we find out now how much we have in common as we get older and have kids. Three of us have 4 year old boys who we're pretty certain would be best friends if they ever got together. They seem to be interested in exactly the same things.

I was unrecognizable to 2 people....1 of whom was a good friend years ago. I had to say my name for the light bulb to go off....I wore glasses in high school....now I have contacts....hair is lighter, etc. But I went to the last 2 reunions and saw them.....so I found it a bit funny.

Update

2011-11-28T21:03:00.000-06:00

I got an e-mail about the musical and casting for parts....the e-mail basically said you'd have to wait a little bit longer. So there you go. Look for an update on casting parts early December....maybe this weekend???

The e-mail did say that everyone who auditioned will be in at least 2 scenes, and have to learn at least 3 songs with choreography. I'll let you get a mental picture of me dancing up on stage. (Not THAT kind of dancing you readers with dirty minds! It's a church play for pete's sake.) So I think Katie will be tickled knowing that....

This past weekend was Thanksgiving and the weather was really quite nice, so it made a nice trip down to IA to visit family. John and I were talking though and we thought it might be nice to think about doing Thanksgiving at our own house next year - you know, do all the baking and cooking that goes along with the holiday. We haven't done that with the kids yet and I think we'd like to start. Neither side of our family has a big get together, and with Christmas just a few weeks after....it seems like a good one to have on our own.

Well I'm beat.....I was up to have "Pebbles" here this morning at a little past 5 am....and I'm NOT used to that. I fell asleep and missed the ending of the Grinch cartoon....I'm assuming his heart grew, presents were returned, yadda yadda yadda. So I'm off to bed after my bowl of cereal that sometimes gets yearned for at bedtime instead of in the morning.

Still waiting...

2011-11-22T13:29:00.000-06:00

No word yet on the musical parts. Still waiting for an e-mail announcing the cast list. Supposed to come sometime this week. I would think it would get sent out before Thursday. In high school it as always very dramatic when the lists were posted on the door of the music room. The lists were posted on a Friday and the choir director then proceeded to leave town for the whole weekend so that he wouldn't be bothered by people calling to complain about how unhappy they were with the part they were given. I guess he expected them to get it out of their system in 2 days.

I met my sister and her husband for supper this weekend. They traveled to my neck of the woods as part of a tour bus shopping trip that they've taken the last 2 years. One of the 2-3 times I visit the Mall of America all year.

On Sunday I went with friend, Shelley, and my niece, Sarah, to see the new Twilight movie - Breaking Dawn. As hoped, it was very satisfying. I don't read to many of the critic's reviews of those movies. I know they aren't up to par with what's out there already....and I don't try to defend most of the acting in it - sometimes it's quite laughable.....but it's still a fun movie to go to.

Hope you all have a good Thanksgiving.....when I get word on the musical parts, I'll share. :)

Friday Funny

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-06:00

Tradition.....

2011-11-17T08:48:00.000-06:00

I can't really call this 3 generations of tradition, because they're all in the same generation. BUT it's still really cute. In 2004 Katie was a cat for Halloween, then in 2007 Will had the honor of being the cat. NOW in 2011, my great-niece Breqlynn was the same kitty. :)

I honestly don't remember where I bought this....I don't believe it was new. I'm 90% sure it came in a box of clothes that I had gotten off eBay since that seems to be where I got most of our clothes the first 2 years. Katie liked being a kitty. (Born June that year.)

The date on this picture is September 24, 2007. We put this on Will 5 weeks early because we were certain that he wouldn't fit into it later. (Fat cat.....born July that year.)

And here's Breqlynn the youngest of the 3 while wearing the costume. She was born in August this year.

I think she still likes being a kitty.

Auditions

2011-11-15T21:11:00.000-06:00

This past Sunday Katie and I auditioned for our church's musical, Annie. Katie is excited to get back into the musical routine of Sunday and Wednesday night rehearsals. Last year we had 7 weeks worth of practices and Katie had to be at every one. She was the only actor required to be at every one because she was in every scene, except one. This year should be a bit of a lighter load.

The parts get assigned next week, so I'll let you know then, but Katie kicked some serious ass. She was in the first group of little girls trying out and they had to go up to the piano and sing warm-ups to have their ranges measured. Katie's range was crazy good.

Then, the woman running the auditions suggested that the girls all sing something together for their audition. (We were all supposed to have a little song prepared for the audition.) Katie spoke right up and said that she would rather sing by herself.

"Oh, that's wonderful, honey. Where would you like to stand to sing?"

Katie struts (yes, struts) over to the middle of the alter stage and says "Right here." She continues to belt out her tune and ends to a chorus of applause. :) I knew she must have been a little nervous, but she just beamed. She really enjoys herself up on stage.

Then it came turn for her to read her scene. The group she was in didn't get much of a chance to read through it because there were 1-2 girls in the group who didn't have the first clue about what was going on. The second group got to read it twice....so I hope she was still able to make an impression. It was also a little unfair at times because they let SOME kids practice their pieces before they videotaped them. (They videotaped all auditions so that they could go back over them later.) No big deal really - because this is intended to be a fun charity project to raise money...not a theater company looking to cultivate talent.

I need to remind myself of that because I really find myself getting emotional about this whole process. (Not in front of Katie, of course.) I tell Katie that whatever part she gets, she'll be wonderful, and will have SUCH a fun time - all true. And she WILL get a part, everyone does. I just REALLY want her to get the main little girl's part. Really really really bad. I've really become a closet stage mom because I will confess to you here, that she was BY FAR the best one there that day. And although there was one other day of auditions, I'm sure she would have been the best that day too. (I would never say that to anyone.....) But then it should come as no surprise....isn't that the opinion a mother SHOULD have? But I feel bad thinking that way because it's a church production and I don't know how people don't get competitive with this whole thing. Because I really don't see competition among the cast....it's really about having fun.

Oh yeah, and I did ok too - for me it was really more about DOING the audition. I've never sung in front of a group of people before! It was a rush, glad to do it, glad to be done with it. And it really will be fun doing this together.

Friday Funny

2011-11-11T08:00:00.001-06:00

A trip down memory lane

2011-11-10T09:36:00.000-06:00

So, since today is my birthday I thought I would be a little self-indulgent and post pictures of my much younger self.

(Ok, let's be honest....when is this blog NOT self indulgent?)

Anyway....

Here's me about.....oh, 7 I spose. Note the rockin' Smurf shirt.

My Grandma Hanson and I. I don't remember her because she passed away when I was 2.

I'm mainly posting this because you can see the light-up picture of Jesus on the wall behind us....see the cord running down??

And REALLY....who DOESN'T need a light-up picture of Jesus?

Here's me and my brother and sisters.

I'm only posting this because I look so darn cute....and my brother is in a powder blue suit....

One of my favorite pictures....I've probably posted this before.

My dog, Muskie and my cat, Gizmo.

The cat tormented that poor dog every day they were alive. :)

Ahhh, my favorite spot.

My parents still live in this house - but I can no longer sleep in the linen closet.

One for the bucket list

2011-11-06T21:48:00.001-06:00

I don't really have a bucket list of things I'd like to do before I die, or before I turn a certain age. Honestly, the thought scares me because if I say it's on my "list" - that means I have to try to do it, right? Or I at least have to make some sort of effort towards getting it done. Like running a marathon - would that make it onto my bucket list? Maybe....but the that would mean I have to commit a handful of months into getting it done. And I don't know if I'm that passionate about it.

But here's one for the list, and it's something I've always wanted to do.

Audition for a part in a musical.

I was active in the theater department in high school - but shied away from parts in the musical, choosing only to act in the non-musical plays. I did, however, play in the pit band my sophomore year. I had wonderful trumpet solos throughout the play, between scenes and at intermission. It was the only production my Aunt Carol was able to attend and one of two shows my dad came to. (The other was MASH. :) ) So that production held a special memory for me, and I remember it very vividly. The play was Annie.

Every year our church does a musical to raise money for their mission efforts. Remember Katie as Toto?? Well this year, they're doing Annie. Katie is auditioning for the part of "Molly" - the littlest orphan who has some REALLY cute parts of the play, as well as some solo singing. She has to have a script prepared as well as sing a song by herself. She's been working quite hard the past 2 weeks and (I think) is beyond talented and will most certainly get the part if the panel of judges has any intelligence at all.

But that could be the "mom" in me talking.

I got to thinking about how I always wondered what it would be like to audition for a part in a musical. I'm not much of a singer - meaning I've never sung by myself in front of other people. Not that I can't - I just don't know if I can. I know I can memorize lines and deliver them believably; I don't have stage fright. But what about singing.....
I kind of felt like this was my chance. It's a show that I know very well. It will be with a group of people that I've worked with on a musical before. I'm pretty sure they won't laugh at my attempts. After all, it's a church production and I think God tries to discourage behavior like that....even for us Lutherans. So why not? What's the WORST that could happen?

So next Sunday Katie and I will audition together, and I'm sure she'll get a bigger part than I will...but that's ok.

Happy Birthday Big Brother!

2011-11-04T08:45:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday today to my big brother, Jeff. We're both November babies...his is first. So...if I want him to remember mine, I have to remember his first. :)

Question for you folks....
Is it ok to say I hate a 5th grade girl? Ok - so "hate" isn't the right word. Let's see...I am STRONGLY annoyed with a 5th grade girl. She shares the bus stop with Katie and ugh....I can't wait til that relationship is over.
Last year when I saw that there was another girl waiting for the bus with Katie I was relieved. There's safety in numbers, right? (Even though I still wait with Katie every morning.) Immediately she came off so stuck up and snotty, I was shocked! She was very tall, so I assumed she was in 5th grade. (I mean, she's taller than I am and her voice is deeper than John's) Nope - she was in 4th grade last year, 5th grade this year. About 2 months in last year, Katie and I were standing there and this girl walks right over to Katie and shoves her down. I kind of lost it, and yelled at this girl that she's not allowed to treat other people like that. Since then, there hasn't been another incident, and oddly enough - she became almost friendly when I started showing up with "Pebbles" in the morning, but she totally lacks overall friendly social skills. She's an only child - and her mother only seems to communicate by screaming across the yard to her. (Mom doesn't come out to bus stop...in fact, I've never seen her.) I have met her father, and he seems really pleasant. Very social, nice neighbor.

And I could understand a child who doesn't talk to strangers, or neighbors they don't know well, a child who only stares at the ground when talking, a child who only mumbles, etc. I get all those traits, and would expect them. But a girl who tells me I "don't know anything" and a girl who tells me I "don't know what I'm talking about" in such a snooty tone, and rolls her eyes at me - and only looks up at the sky when talking to me (like she's upset we have to share the same air).....yeah, I don't have patience for her.

Hell, it's gonna be a long year. I dread crossing the street to wait with her, so I make Katie and Pebbles wait in the garage on our side until we see the bus and it's the last minute to cross. And I've defended her behavior in my head - explained it away as much I can....only child, maybe not many friends, parental issues, hormones, whatever. I don't care right now - I still have to deal with her. So that's my politically incorrect stand for today.

I gotta tell someone

2011-11-03T10:40:00.000-05:00

I feel the need to share my great deal idea...but if Katie reads this it;s going to spoil the surprise. So, I guess I'll just say I went to the "after Halloween" sale at Target and got a bunch of great deals on something we're giving to Katie and Will for Christmas. Doesn't quite fill my need to share, but it will have to do.

I also have a wonderful idea for another present for Katie and Will that I'm on a waiting list for - but have to clear it with John first.

And thanks to a super great one day sale at the cool toy store in town 2 weeks ago - I have another present for each of them set aside. I think Santa is the only one left that has to go shopping yet. :)

City Planners Meeting

2011-11-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended my first meeting at City Hall. The city planning commissioners were having a hearing about the possibility of WalMart building a new store in our town. When this news broke about a month ago, a group of people got together to work on making sure that didn't happen. And although I haven't volunteered with the group, I agree with their position - so I went to the hearing.

Basically the panel from Walmart (their architect, engineer, real estate agent, and 2 others) put forth a proposal to build in a site zoned for a much smaller commercial business. In order to get approval to start building the area would have to be re-zoned, and that's why they had to have approval from the city planning commissioners.

The site in question is currently zoned for a 60,000 square foot commercial building. WalMart wants to build a 120,000 square foot building. (A bit of an increase, don't you think?) Not only is this too much for the area...it's 3 blocks from our house. I am NONE too happy with the prospect of having a 24/7 WalMart that close to an area where I run, we all ride our bikes and take walks.

As the city staff discussed the proposal with the WalMart panel it was clear that the proposal fell WAY short of what the city required in order to re-zone the area. WalMart's building was not up to their code, it was (admittedly) endangering neighboring wetlands, and according to MNDOT (Minnesota Department of Transportation) the adjoining roads would have to be completely re-done before construction takes place - a cost that WalMart was NOT going to shoulder. At one point, one of the city commissioners questioned WalMart as to why they even brought this proposal forward? "If I was WalMart, I'd bring my "A" game...this isn't it. It seems you are doing nothing but wasting our time and yours." (Thunderous applause)

And then the public hearing opened and anyone who wanted to go on the record could step forward, address the council and speak their mind about why or why not our town should have a WalMart. And boy, was there a lot of public interested in the issue. Not only was the entire council room packed, 2 overflow rooms were full as well. I was in one of these rooms and we watched the proceedings on a giant video screen. Everyone that stood up to speak spoke about why they didn't want WalMart at that location or in our town at all. (All but 1....there WAS 1 guy who wanted WalMart....because he was the current leaseholder for their new optical store if this location got built.) A sweet moment came when an older gentleman approached the podium and everyone started clapping immediately in our room before he even spoke. He was the owner of ACE Hardware and had been in business in our town for 29 years. His dad had started the business 50 years ago, and he had plans in place for his son to take over next year...but wanted to be sure that he wouldn't be put out of business by a big box store.

The public statements were amazing. So emotional, so many different reasons for NOT wanting this to be built, etc. I was totally expecting to see Kevin Bacon walk to the podium, read from the Bible and explain why he just wanted to dance.

After 90 minutes of public pleas, the council voted unanimously to deny WalMart's claim for re-zoning. BUT it's not over....they also have a proposal with the city council at the end of November. And then, I guess they can keep submitting proposals forever if they choose to do so.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T07:52:00.000-05:00

Dorothy

...and of course Molly wanted in on the action.

Batman!!

Don't worry....it's Will!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T08:37:00.000-05:00

Ok - I'm a bad mom because I haven't taken a picture of my kids in their costume yet. Most of you would say - that's ok, tonight is Halloween. True....but they've had their costumes on for parties and other events 4 times already.

They each have their school parties today. I sent Katie off with her costume, hair in braids, and Halloween pencils to hand out to her class. Will goes to school in his costume with little dinosaurs to hand out to his class.

I don't have my extra 2 year old (Pebbles) today so I think Will and I plan on eating lunch with Katie at school. That will be my reward for heading out for a run while the kids are in school. It's just so cold!! BUT I have to do it because I don't get a lot of opportunities to run outside these days and I didn't do it this weekend.

This weekend John and I watched Paranormal Activity. It was streaming on Netflix, and we thought we should watch a scary movie since it was Halloween weekend. So, Saturday night we settled in to watch it.

Here's a summary of the story from IMDB.com:
After a young, middle class couple moves into a suburban 'starter' tract house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be somehow demonic but is certainly most active in the middle of the night. Especially when they sleep. Or try to.

And here's a clip....I did watch it...and then my computer froze....so I'm done now, thanks. And since John isn't here right now, I'm gonna go watch fluffy bunny cartoons or something.

Friday Funny

2011-10-28T10:18:00.002-05:00

Saying Goodbye

2011-10-27T11:02:00.000-05:00

This has been a week of goodbyes....

I had the Disabled American Vets come pick up a donation of clothes and household goods on Wednesday. John cleaned out his closet, as did I. I had also been sorting the kid's clothes for a while and donated ones that I didn't think would sell at a garage sale. Included in this pile was our high chair and their old convertible car seat.

Honestly, it took me a long time to be ok with letting these two items go. I knew we weren't going to be getting any use out of them and they have both been collecting dust for a while. So, I set everything out in the driveway and made peace with letting them go. I'm sure someone who needed them would find them.

That's why I was so surprised 2 hours later when I returned to find everything picked up, EXCEPT the high chair and car seat. Suddenly these sentimental items have now become annoying bulky space eaters!! How quickly things change. :) I don't know why they didn't get taken....I've donated car seats to them in the past. So, they'll get posted one last time on Freecycle, then I'll load them up and try Once Upon a Child. I can't really stomach throwing out the car seat. It's so ironic....the one item I spent hours researching, testing, to be sure it would keep my loved ones safe - is the one item that might have to be thrown away at the dump.

Also making it's way out of our house is Will's train table and train/track set. He picked out 2-3 trains that he didn't want to sell, but we posted the rest along with the table on Craigslist yesterday afternoon. By 5:00 I had 3 people wanting to come ASAP and pick it up. I notified the first responder and her husband just picked it up this morning. I bought the table and train/track set almost 2 1/2 years ago off Craigslist for $80. It was Will's 2 year old birthday present. We have video of him coming downstairs to find it, and it's just adorable.

So I thought I'd try to sell it for $80 and see if I could get my money back. Not only is it bittersweet to let it go, it's gut wrenching to know I could have probably gotten $100 for it. :) That's ok. Will is past the train stage....on to Superheroes.

Oh, and Will got $10 for selling it - after all, it WAS his table. He's got his eye on a Zurg toy from Toy Story.....

First of the Halloween parties....

2011-10-24T21:12:00.000-05:00

Today after school, Katie had a Halloween party at her dance class. Have I told you that Katie is in a dance class? Hmmm...maybe not. Ok - well, once a week for an hour...and they work on Jazz, Tap, and Ballet. The fall session is wrapping up and we need to decide if we are going to continue into the spring and be part of the recital....oh hell. I spose we will. She seems to be liking it more and more now that she is remembering some steps and can show us at home. If we continue though, I think I'm going to only do one dance type instead of a "combo" class.

Katie also has auditions coming up for our church's musical in March. This year, they are doing "Annie". How FUN will that be?!?!? So Katie is auditioning for the part of an orphan girl. She has 2 pages of script to work on and has to sing a song by herself. She can pick any song....so right now we're trying to think of a good, fun, easy one. The audition panel suggests "Do Re Mi" from The Sound of Music....that might work, if Katie can remember the words....but I'm open to suggestions.

Tomorrow we are trick-or-treating at one of the local grocery stores...the nice carpeted one. They always have a Halloween party and hand out yummy treats like juice boxes, cartons of milk, little packages of carrots, bunny crackers, decorated cookies, apples, etc. Then more Halloween parties on Saturday and Monday. Getting good use out of the costumes, that's for sure. :)

Friday Funny....on a Saturday

2011-10-22T09:02:00.002-05:00

Something to read....

2011-10-19T11:00:00.002-05:00

Thanks to my friend Shelley for sharing this....she oftentimes tells me what I should read. :)

For those of you who like to click....here's the link to a wonderful article from the Star Tribune on the upcoming marriage amendment. For those of you who don't like to click...here is the article.....

Minnesotans will be voting in the fall of 2012 on whether to ban marriage for same-sex couples in our state Constitution. This issue should not have been thrust upon us. But now that it has been, we have an opportunity to transform a shameful referendum on the lives and legal protections of our fellow citizens into a historic victory for families and respect for human dignity. I will be voting "no" -- against the amendment -- and I urge my friends and all Minnesota voters to do the same.

First of all, I oppose this marriage amendment as a Minnesotan. I have worked most of my 85 years to make this state a place where anyone who works hard and obeys the law can succeed. Individual merit does not depend on a person's race, religion, sex, or the gender of the person he or she loves and raises a family with. We Minnesotans have the chance to pass on a legacy worthy of our history. It is time we declare definitively that gay men and lesbians are a treasured part of our community. We can do that by voting "no" on the marriage amendment.
I am a lifelong Republican; the roots of my political life go back to 1940, when I was in the ninth grade at St. Cloud Junior High School. At a mock convention, I nominated Wendell Willkie for president against FDR. I have been a delegate to Republican conventions, from county conventions to the national convention. I was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in 1964 against Eugene McCarthy -- and for governor in 1982 against Rudy Perpich. I lost both of those elections, but I've never lost my desire for a strong national defense, a limit to spending, less government regulation, and the promotion of individual liberty.
Personal moral values and religious beliefs are appropriately taught in families and houses of worship. But in a free society we must allow others to live according to the dictates of their own consciences. There is nothing in my Republican value system that supports marriage bans in our Constitution, so I also oppose this amendment as a lifelong Republican.
I oppose the amendment as a businessperson. A key to fostering a strong economic climate is attracting and retaining the best talent. Period. Gay men and lesbians are among the most talented people out there. Needless and hurtful laws like the proposed marriage amendment drive them away. They also drive away innovative people of any sexual orientation who simply want to live in a place that respects and celebrates the diversity of life.
As a married man, I oppose this marriage amendment. My first marriage of almost 40 years ended with my wife's death from lung cancer. I am now married to the former chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Kathleen Blatz. Marriage is deeply important to me. I have lived long enough and have been married long enough to know that it is fulfilling, but not easy. Many things can undermine a marriage. But my happiness has never depended on depriving others of their happiness. My marriage has never needed the exclusion of others from marriage. I am not threatened by seeing others find love and celebrate it.
Finally, I have to add that I oppose this marriage amendment as a father and grandfather. One of my sons is gay, as is one of my grandchildren. I love them dearly. I want them to find love and peace in their lives, to have someone they can count on, and to be protected by the law. Far from defending families, this marriage amendment is an attack on my family. It is an attack on thousands of families across this state. I won't sit by and just let it happen.
So I oppose this amendment as a Minnesotan, as a Republican, as a businessperson, as a married man, and as a father and grandfather. The bad news is that we are going to have to spend the next year fighting a useless and hurtful constitutional amendment. The good news is that we have the chance to become the first state in the country to vote down such a proposal.
We need do nothing heroic to defeat the amendment. We need not change our fundamental beliefs or values. We need only be the best version of ourselves -- a people who don't slam the door on others, but instead bring them in from the cold.

Wheelock Whitney is a member of the Steering Committee of Minnesotans United for all Families.

Weekend visit to IA

2011-10-18T08:57:00.000-05:00

We traveled down to IA this weekend to visit family. First time back in about 2 months. We were able to give my niece from college a ride home too, so it felt like there was a double purpose. Since we were going to be back we planned a casual baby shower for my great niece as well....she's 2 months and way too cute for her own good. :) 2 months - 8 months is such a great baby age....they've gotten used to their surroundings, are able to allow themselves to be calmed down by other people, and able to just stay awake long enough to give smiles and interact without crawling or walking away from you.

Makes me think it would be fun to have another one....but then I realized I can go home and am pretty confident in saying that I'll be able to sleep through the night without having to wake up.....and that seems too good to give up.

I'm not posting pictures today because I don't have time - I have to get a shower in and then trot off to a meeting this morning. It's a week of meetings. I have another one tomorrow for the technology referendum they are trying to get passed for the school. I hope it goes through - it's very much needed and will benefit many students...including mine. :) Lots of stuff getting voted on this November...there's also that MN marriage amendment they are trying to push through. There are some wonderful editorials being written about that.....I will post 1 or 2 this week as well.

Oh, and stay tuned for pictures of some pumpkins we are making.....they are pretty darn cute. John is carving the big one this weekend....whether he knows it or not. :)

Friday Funny

2011-10-14T07:50:00.000-05:00

Getting caught up

2011-10-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's been such a busy fall! As each week begins I think to myself - ok, this week shouldn't be as busy as last week....but somehow it always ends up being crazy! There's always so much to do! And it isn't like we haven't been getting things done, new stuff keeps popping up too!

Maybe it'll make me feel better to make a list of all the things we have gotten done over the last 2-3 weeks:
-mowed lawn
-cleaned out garage
-cleaned out 1/4 of the basement
-sorted out my "counter 'o papers"
-kept up on laundry
-made it to school on time
-got Halloween decorations up

....ok those last 3 were just to make myself feel better

Things I want to get done:
-clean out Katie and Will's dressers, making room for cold weather clothing
-sort through toys in Katie's room
-sort through toys in Will's room
-clean out the other 3/4 of the basement
-paint the master bedroom
-make dentist appointments for the kids
-get Katie in for a blood draw
-make an appointment for insurance appraiser to take a look at our windows
-schedule a goodwill pickup
-get toys ready for the kids' garage sale October 21 at the rec center
-make cupcakes/salad for baby shower next weekend
-get new battery put in truck

I choose not to add all the daily crap to that list like sweeping, folding clothes, washing dishes....because that would just depress me. The list was long enough. I will try to cross of 2-3 things this weekend, but c'mon....that bedroom isn't getting painted just yet.

Ok...on to better things. Last weekend, instead of tackling anything on my to-do list, we all went to a local apple orchard and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Here are some great pictures from our outing.

Will's bag was by far, the heaviest.

"Daddy, can I PLEASE have an apple?"

It's so nice when they beg for things they can actually have!

Will wasn't going to let anyone carry his bag of apples.

2 posts today...can't forget a Friday Funny

2011-10-07T08:30:00.000-05:00

Thank you!

2011-10-07T08:29:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all your kind words about my race results! It was interesting to look at them afterwards. For the run times, I was in the top third....for the biking, I was in the bottom half. I guess you can tell which I had done more of. And would I do it again? Sure! It was a fun event and perfect weather. I'm trying to get my head around doing the YWCA triathlon that some friends of mine did this past August. I declined due to my lack of swimming skills, but I think I could do it....we'll see next spring. I like these "women only" events. I doubt I would ever do a co-ed multi-sport event.

So that's the end of this season....next year I'd like to do:
- 10k in the spring.....there's on in Chaska that I might do.
- triathlon - in August
- 10 miler?
A couple weeks ago while John was out of town on his company golfing trip, my niece Sarah and I took the kids to Como Zoo and Como Town. I had purchased Groupons for Como Town getting us unlimited ride bracelets and a couple water balloon games. I was trying to upload a movie of Sarah and Katie on a ride, but it isn't working. They went on this ride that went pretty high, pretty fast and I was surprised Katie wanted to go on it. Sure enough, 20 seconds into it, she was asking to get off, so they stopped the ride and let them off. The attendant thought that was a new record. :)

Here are some pictures from that day......

Friday Funny

2011-09-30T13:35:00.000-05:00

Race Summary

2011-09-26T10:48:00.001-05:00

My duathlon race was yesterday, and I thought I would summarize the whole thing while it's still fresh in my mind....sort of as a way of remembering things I want to remember. Before that though, I have to give a BIG thank you to my husband, John. He sacrificed basically his whole Saturday and most of his Sunday so that I could be out busy with other things. He took the kids to parks on Saturday, packed them up and got them to the race on Sunday, and took the BEST race pictures I've ever had! Thank you!

I was gone all day on Saturday for a workshop with a local non-profit group I volunteer with. I was there from 8:30 - 4:30...with an 1 1/2 break where I went to pick up my race day packet and attend a race talk where they go over tips and info about race day. So I was kind of beat come Saturday night and had no trouble falling asleep.

I woke up around 5:15 Sunday morning, dressed, had breakfast, and spent some time re-packing my bags to make sure I had everything. Here's what I brought along:

Transition Bag (Bag that stayed with my bike in transition area...had things I might need as I switch from run to bike to run)
- Towel to lay things on
- Banana
- Extra water bottle
- Extra nutrition bar
- bike helmet
- sunglasses

Extra bag I carried with me before race started....and then got stashed in the bushes with hopes it would still be there when I got back:
- sweatshirt I wore pre-race
- sweatpants I wore pre-race
- water bottle
- 2 nutrition bars (depending on what I felt like eating later)
- gloves
- $5.....again, just in case

I left the house, bike pre-loaded, at 5:50 am. I was able to eat breakfast, drink some orange juice, and didn't feel very nervous - just excited. That it, until I got to the parking garage near the race and saw the HUGE line of cars waiting to get in and park. Then I got nervous, and frustrated that I didn't leave the house earlier. Actually, it wasn't that bad, and I was parked and on my way to the race area by about 6:15, just as it started to RAIN. It was pitch black, so you couldn't tell if it was really cloudy or just a random shower. Soon enough it stopped, and I decided it was just Mother Nature's blessing of the event. I made it into the transition area and got my bike "racked" by 6:30. I was SO relieved to see both of my friends right away. One had her bike racked 6 rows away, and the other was right next to me. (It goes by your race number) Given that there were just under 1500 participants, I think I got very lucky!

So, it's just after 6:30....race starts at 7:30, and my wave started at 8:00. LOTS of time to stand around, visit the bathroom, etc. There were lots of porta-potties, but really long lines. We found a secret treasure of a bathroom....hardly any line....but no doors on the stalls....so, you just suck it up and get to know people real quick.

Soon enough it came time for my wave to start and again, I was lucky that my friend Anne was in my wave. Our friend Vickie, had already been sent off 10 minutes earlier. Anne and I paced ourselves pretty well for the first run section. It was 1 lap around the lake, which was 2 miles. We both knew we were running fast....but neither wanted to slow down. We were passing people left and right for a while. My time for the first 2 miles? 17:11.....that's about 8:35 per mile. I'm QUITE happy about that leg of the race!!!!!

Now on to the bike. First of all, I found my bike! Believe me, when you see a sea of 1500 bikes...you're a little unsure about whether you'll get turned around and lost or not. I ate 1/2 banana, drank some water, put on my helmet, sunglasses and got my bike unracked. And I jogged my bike out to the mounting area where we could get on our bikes. My transition time was 2:07....pretty good for a first timer. Honestly - I thought about just copping a squat for 15 minutes and then get going.... :)

On to the bike....it felt SO good to sit down after standing for almost 2 hours. My legs were tired from the run, but now there were doing something different so it wasn't too bad. It did take me 2-3 miles to really get into a nice groove. Remember all those people I was passing on the run? Well, they were passing me right back on the bike. It's funny because you realize there are "runners" who are doing a running/biking race...and "bikers" who are doing a biking/running race. :) There were TONS of fancy schmancy speed bikes....you know the kind where they're practically laying down flat and ZOOMING by you? I was just glad there was plenty of passing room, and I could just do my own thing. Don't get me wrong - I did pass people, but certainly was more of a passEE than a passER. I also enjoyed the Power Beans (jelly beans...with a kick) that I had stashed in my bike bag under my seat. I had 2-3 on each lap and it was just enough of a treat to keep me motivated.

So we had to do 2 laps of about 11-12 miles. There were lots of hills....some quite long and strung out...but it always helped when there was a group of people at the top yelling for you to "put the hammer down!" and "Get up here!" I did the first lap in about 52 minutes, and the second lap in about 53 minutes. Oddly enough, I thought that I really pushed harder the first time around, and took it easier the 2nd time around. Guess not! Total bike time - 1:45:07. There WAS a crash on the first lap that was really scary. When I got there - the ambulance was putting a girl on a board, with a neckbrace - her head was bleeding, but she was awake.

Got back to the transition area, racked my bike, drank some water, took my helmet off, took long-sleeve shirt off and tied it around my waist...and I was off. Transition time: 1:51.

On to the final 2 mile run. Just as I was heading out of transition area I saw John and the kids. SOOO happy to see them. I really did help push me along cuz I knew as soon as I was done with this last lap - I'd see them again. Remember all those people on bikes who were passing me?? Well, I passed them right back on the run..at least those who had passed me on the second lap. :) There were SOO many people walking! Honestly, my legs wouldn't let me walk...they wanted to keep moving. I couldn't do a normal stride, it was much shorter...but I kept it quick and moving. And it helped to pass SOO many people. :) Coming up on the finish line I passed a whole bunch of people because I really didn't want anyone directly in front of me when I crossed the finish line. :) My second run time: 19:51. I'm happy with that because I didn't want to go slower than a 10 minute mile.

Overall, my total race time was 2:26:07. When I was adding segments up in my head weeks before the race I thought - 20 minute first run, 2 hour bike, 20 minute last run. That'd be pretty average for me and put me at 2:40:00. Then as the race got closer, I started thinking about an "ideal goal" time and came up with 2:15:00. Sooooo, I ended up being closer to my goal time than my average time....and I'd call that a success.

Another positive would be that I'm not sore today. I don't feel any different than I would if I would have run 5-6 miles yesterday. My shoulders are a bit tired and sore from sitting in the bike position for so long, but they're always tired and sore. :) I was also supposed to go to our church picnic after the race and run their 3k race...but I was too late. It took forever to get out of the parking garage! So they had already sent the runners off when I got there. But that's ok. :) Knowing that I could have done it was good enough for me.

Active weeks!

2011-09-21T08:57:00.000-05:00

Boy, we've been pretty busy with things since school started. I'm still convinced I'll forget to take Will to school some morning. So far everyone is liking things, although Katie says that she doesn't like the bus this year because there's never a place to sit. Will has jumped right in and talks about friends he's made already. It's pretty cute. I drop him off, and he runs up to either Joshua or Will C. (my Will is Will P.) and says "Hi guys, what should we do today?"

We've also managed to go to the Hyland Park book festival (7th year in a row....thank you very much!), took my niece Sarah and the kids to Como Town/Zoo, went camping last weekend, and saw the Foo Fighters. Oh, and don't forget that I'm still training for the duathlon in....4 days.

Hmmm, where should I start. Well, I'll start with the simplest entry first. I have a movie to upload from Como and pictures from camping. And since I have to get Will to preschool in 20 minutes, and I have a meeting all morning today - you'll have to wait for those.

We've known the Foo Fighters were coming to St. Paul since May, I think. We didn't buy tickets right away because it was on a school night. Who would we get to babysit? All our babysitters were still in school and would have to get up early the next morning - probably wouldn't be able to babysit til midnight the night before. If only I knew someone who didn't have to be up early the next morning....

But wait! I do! My niece, Sarah would be a freshman at the U in September. So....I may have dropped some hints about trying to get a late class on Thursdays when she went to register. Luckily, she was all about late classes, so it wasn't a problem. I was able to pick her up the afternoon of concert day and she babysat the kids, put them to bed.

Ok - now for the concert....it was great! The opening band, Rise Against was a LITTLE to loud pounding for me. I think my chest rattled and shook for 10 minutes after they were done - great stage work, cool music, just too much bass. We had been sitting in different seats for the opener because we got there a little late and didn't want to make all the people in our row stand up just yet. But then the real owners of the seats showed up and we had to move. We got in our row and I said something to the woman sitting by us - who happened to be sitting in our seats - something like "Hey - we're 5 &6 but don't worry about it, we'll just scoot down for now." She gave me a dirty look and scooted herself and her husband down. Well.....obviously she misunderstood me and I'm thinking to myself, I'll have to apologize for the misunderstanding once this bass pounding roar is done with.

The opening act finished and everyone in our row got up and went upstairs - we followed. We wanted to look at t-shirts, go to the bathroom and find some drinks. We get back, the Foo start and they are beyond wonderful. We decided that this was the FOURTH time we were seeing them....but we may be forgetting one in there somewhere. My neighbor lady wasn't back yet so I could enjoy my elbow space. But she and her husband returned 3-4 songs in, stood for about 2 songs......AND THEN SAT THE REST OF THE FRICKING CONCERT! He stood for a few songs here and there and I could see out of the corner of my eye her pulling on his pants leg to sit down.

Now, let me take a moment to describe where our seats were at. We had fricking awesome seats. Fan seats - not just casual listener seats. We were on the side of the stage (not directly on the side, but towards the front a bit) and in the 10th row. Let's just say, I could see the sweat, and the sideburns. Knowing how much it probably pissed her off that EVERYONE was on their feet the whole show, I made an extra attempt to jump and dance as close to her as possible and scream as much as I could. :) You know, doing my little part to help her "enjoy" the show.

It reminded me of a Pearl Jam that my friend Shelley and I went to in July 2006. Again we had pretty good seats (fan club seats) - on the floor, row 29. Anyway - we were enjoying all the people around us - except this little blonde chippee directly in front of us. She was in her early 20's and there with her boyfriend. During Pearl Jam's set she constantly insisted on taking pictures....not of the band....but of her and her boyfriend. You know, when you hold the camera in front of you to get an off center picture of yourself? Well, he was NOT having it and getting annoyed because he wanted to enjoy the band, and she kept whining about how she wanted to take their picture. She easily took 15 pictures of the two of them....along with our angry faces in the background....getting blinded by the flash.

And....we did NOT go through her purse, laughing at how much make-up she brought to the concert, using her powder, etc. We did not. Nope, not us.

Friday Funny....among other things

2011-09-16T08:46:00.000-05:00

Want to hear something else funny? We're camping this weekend. Outside. In a tent. Any other time, that wouldn't be funny, but it's like 48 degrees here right now....with a high of only 60. :) So - I'm leaving the swimsuits at home and packing mittens and hats. And Katie hates wearing layers - so it should be REALLY enjoyable. ;)

However, the thought of everyone snuggled together in a tent with a ton of blankets, no bugs, and able to sleep late because it doesn't reach 75 by 6 am does sound kind of nice.

On the duathlon training front.....I was going to do a bike ride today with the 2 year old while my two were in school, however that's going to get nixed because I have to go to the store to get food and work on getting things packed. So, maybe I'll still get a 30 minute run in tomorrow, and I am FOR sure biking the entire race route on Sunday. That'll be my big ride before backing off for the rest of the week, and just work on hydrating and stretching.

Back to school

2011-09-14T08:02:00.000-05:00

But first.....a training update.

So I ran my 5 miles last Friday. (I had only run 3 miles in the last 10 days, and surprise, surprise - 5 miles was a bit tough!)
Then I had a pretty busy, active weekend - Monday came and I was beat, and it was windy and hot. Enough excuses for you?? So I ran 3 miles, and then biked 5 miles. I'm happy I did that because I discovered that the transition from running to biking isn't so bad. In fact, I didn't really have trouble with it at all. I was happy to get to sit down on a bike, and my legs were happy to try something new.

I also tried a Power Gel before getting on the bike. I'm experimenting with food that I'll be eating during the race. I'm going to need at least 1 thing to eat that will help replace lost electrolytes and energy...and also something that can kick in pretty quickly. So after the 3 miles, I opened up the Power Gel...and oh my Lord...I thought I was going to get sick. It did NOT taste like I was expecting and I had to wash it down with a crap load of water. That said, I felt so much better 15 minutes into the bike ride, and I really could have gone farther, but I had to get Will from preschool. So far, I will plan on eating breakfast before the race....but I may only get down toast. Then I'll eat a Kind bar (YUMMY!) 30 minutes before the race, if I feel like it....then 1/2 banana after the run....(I always have a banana after runs)....and something else midway through the bike....it may just be the Power Jelly Beans. Although they are really chewy, I can eat 1-2 at a time and they are easy to pop in.

Today, I was planning on taking the 2 year old out for a bike ride while my 2 are in school. We'll see....it's pretty darn chilly at 43 degrees.....but I'd like to get 10 miles in at least. Once I get moving, I know I'll be warm enough, but I'm more concerned about her riding in the trailer in a constant wind.

Now on to school.....we are in our 1st full week of school for everyone and so far - it's been a great year. :) Will LOVES his preschool and knows about 5 kids in his class. His teacher says he is being a good listener, which at this point is all I'm shooting for.
Katie really likes 2nd grade, even though there's more homework this year. She'll have 3-4 math assignments to do at home every week. And we also have spelling tests to get back into. So far, it's been pretty easy to get her to make time for it. She also started a dance class this week - and says it's lots of fun. Again, we'll see....

Remember that duathlon thingie? It's in 14 days!

2011-09-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

So I've been getting ready for this Iron Girl Duathlon....but it's kind of freaking me out that it's in 14 days! They have a "suggested" training schedule, and I'm not even close to following that because I just don't have the time to commit. So I've been doing what I can, when I can.

The race will be a 2 mile run, 22 mile bike ride, 2 mile run. It helps that I can run that distance already and I don't have to focus as hard on that as I would have had to last year. I'm still running, but not because I have to train - I just like to get out and run.

I do have to force myself to make time to bike. I've gotten some decent rides in - but have only been able to manage 1 longish ride a week. (10-13 miles) Last Thursday I didn't have my 2 year old babysitting child to watch so it was just Will and I. I threw him in the trailer (well, not really THREW)...and I tried to bike as long as he would let me. I was able to go about 7 miles before I felt like I was going to die. It had been a loooong time since I pulled him in the trailer! Then we stopped to play at the park, and I made it another 2 miles home. So.....can I double those 9 miles and count it as 18.....maybe 15???? C'mon....I'm pulling 60 pounds of kid and trailer!

Here's my training plan for the next two weeks.
9/9/ - 5 mile run while Katie and Will are in school (no 2 year old this day)
9/10-9/11 (weekend)- John is out of town so I am busy entertaining kids...have fun outdoor activities already planned.
9/12 - 5 mile run while Katie and Will are in school (no 2 year old this day)
9/14 - bike with 2 year old while K & W are in school....hope to go 12 miles
9/16 - bike with 2 year old while K & W are in school....hope to go 15 miles
9/17 - nice, easy 30-40 minute run
9/18 - bike duathlon route...22 miles
9/20 - practice transition from run to bike to run. Run .5 mile, bike 2-3 miles...repeat 4 times.
9/21 - shorter bike ride with 2 year old....5-8 miles ????
9/23 - shorter 2 mile run ???
9/24 - NO BEER :)
9/25 - RACE DAY

Anyway - that's my ideal 2 weeks....may not all happen, but it helps to get it all lined out. Must do's are the duathlon route and transition practice. Everything else will shake out and work in when I can. It will help if the weather stays as nice as it has been.

Friday Funny

2011-09-09T09:00:00.000-05:00

Here is a Friday Funny dedicated to my parents who celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary yesterday. :)

College Days

2011-09-08T16:44:00.000-05:00

Here is my niece, Sarah, and I at the Twins game this past Monday. She started classes at the University of MN this week, and has now been up here for 10 days. Do you remember going away to college? Being alone for an extended period of time for the first time in your life? She's handling it like a superstar, much better than I did.

I sort of remember the few weeks leading up to leaving for college...staying up as late as possible, spending every last second with old friends, promising that things wouldn't change.

And then you go your own way to a place where people don't know anything about you, and vice versa. In some ways it's wonderful, and in others, terrifying. Eventually things do change (thankfully) and you begin to shift worlds a bit. Suddenly your focus is more on college and less on hometown life. For some, this takes months, for others years. But it does happen. And hopefully you walk away with amazing friends from college and a few tried and true friends who stuck with you from high school.

I pulled out my diaries from college cuz I thought maybe there would be words of wisdom in there I could pass along. I kept a diary/journal for each year of college....I thought maybe there would be something in there about my first few weeks...but no, just mindless dribble about boys. Honestly - it was like Facebook on paper. I had quotes, song lyrics, movie lines, you name it....all having to do with adolescent boys. To read it now is like to bang your head against the wall, scream, and have an intense urge to shake the girl who wrote this crap until she realizes that life has a way of working itself out, if you allow it.

Note: The last diary is 100% about John...and is kind of entertaining to read....but he also makes random appearances throughout the other books too. :) I guess I always had my eye on him.

But college these days has changed SO much from when I was there just 11-14 years ago. (Oh, holy hell, has it been that long??) Anyway - in those days I didn't have a cell phone, no one had their own laptop, no wireless Internet, no skyping, no Facebook, heck - e-mail was just catching on! I was paying $.10 - $.15 a minute to call anyone. There was one month my phone bill was $300!

So hang in there freshman Sarah! Feel free to leave your own horror college freshman story to make my niece feel better!

Renaissance Festival

2011-09-07T09:13:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we went to the Renaissance Festival here in MN. You can imagine my SHOCK when John suggested it on Friday as something to do over the weekend. I've always wanted to try and get there, but never thought John would be up for it....let alone suggest it. :) So you better believe I wasn't gonna let him change his mind.

We left the house about 9:30 Sunday morning armed with sweatshirts, coats, etc. because we weren't exactly sure what the weather was going to do. The forecast called for sunny/partly cloudy skies...yet it started raining on the way there. It was a bit windy and chilly, but the sun came out later and it turned pretty nice.

We walked up to the front gates and it was really funny to watch the kid's faces as the people in their get-ups started yelling at everyone coming in, making fun of them, you name it. Their eyes got big, mouths open.... And I don't think they understood why a few were yelling "Save the children! For God's sake don't bring in the children!"

But as soon as we got in the gates, the kids were met by a woman in a very fancy dress, handing out "jewels"...made Katie's day. We watched a juggler attempting to juggling ping pong balls with his mouth and Katie and Will thought it was funny that he stole a guy's hat from the audience and he yelled at one little girl to "SHUT UP KID!" Then he went on to ask if her Daddy was here...she said no. He said "Good, then I won't get my butt kicked."

John did some archery, then I shot 3 arrows (only 1 hitting the target), and Katie shot 2...both hitting smack in the middle.

Here is "Legolas" showing off his skill. John shot probably 10 arrows...all hitting the target, most right between the eyes of the smiley face....poor little guy.

We played a couple games, the kids went through a maze, then we watched the "Puke & Snot" show - a comedic team of two guys trading insults and puns for 20 minutes. It's the longest running show at the Renaissance Festival and I had seen it 20 years ago when I was there the last time. The kids were too young (thankfully) to get many of the jokes, but they laugh at them all and Will liked the fact they were on a "pirate ship".

Then we went and watched the Armored Joust...was crowded, but we got good seats on the grass. That was pretty cool to watch, and I think the kids liked it too.

It wasn't "completely" fake....the jousting poles they used would snap and splinter from the blows, so it must have smarted a LITTLE bit. Then the joust turned into a sword fight.

Katie and Will shaking hands with our side's knight.

After that, we headed to a magic show at Katie's request. I found one listed, so we headed there to get seats. The fact that it was called "Pizpor Magic Show" didn't deter us.....maybe it should have. (Piss poor) :) Again - it was really funny, and most of the jokes were over the kids' heads, but they laughed at some of his bad tricks that they could tell weren't real.

But the best "bad parenting" event of the day was when we took the kids through "The King's Dungeon". A display of torture devices used throughout this time in history....complete with mannequins. It had a nice little description of each device and what it was used for, which Katie was nice enough to read to all of us. ;)

Will is not so sure what to think of the mannequins that appear to be screaming in pain....

It goes without saying that Will got freaked out....but wanted to immediately go back in once we were outside. What can I say....I guess we're all a little morbid.

This sign reads: "Men who repeatedly got drunk were locked in the dungeon overnight then stripped of their clothes and chained to an empty ale barrow and forced to walk the streets for three consecutive days."

See...we're teaching things that every kid should know.

We headed home about 3:30 or so... and covered in dust and dirt. :) But it was a great day, and we'll be sure to head back in 6-7 years when the kids understand more of the sex jokes.

Friday Funny

2011-09-02T07:34:00.000-05:00

Get you chemistry hats on.....

Meet my great-neice.

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

This is Breqlynn Lucille Mezera.

Not for the squeamish.....or my niece, Sarah.

2011-08-27T09:34:00.000-05:00

Here's who's renting space right outside our front door.....

The pictures don't do it justice....it's bigger than a quarter....and has the MASSIVE web that stretches from the roof and gutters down to our front bushes and over to our porch railing. We had storms and winds one night this week. I woke up, looked out side and didn't see the web or spider. By the following morning, everything was back. John says "she" has a big egg sac full of babies too....but I think he's just trying to freak me out. (And it's working.) Normally, I'd say the web and spider have to go - cuz the kids run all around and might run through the web, plus everyone that comes to our door sees it....and I'm NOT crazy about spiders.

But then again, these are the insects we deal with in MN.....

And anything that's gonna eat this.....I may have to consider a friend.

Note: All 3 pictures were taken within 15 minutes! One at the front door, one at the back! AND if you think that web in the front yard is something...we have a matching one in the back under the porch stretching almost the entire width of the porch....same kind of spider. Oh, and she DOES have an egg sac.

Now. Who's coming to visit!

Enough Funnies!

2011-08-25T22:25:00.000-05:00

Ok - so instead of a Friday Funny....it's a Friday Cutie.

We went to the state fair yesterday and in the Alphabet Forest/Family Park they had a cute activity where you use a swimming noodle and cut out letters to create a message and then they took your picture. I can't seem to copy and paste the picture, but here are links to the kids' pictures, if you want to take a peek.

Katie:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alphabetforest/6081587160/

Will:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alphabetforest/6081587206/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alphabetforest/6081587284/

And these are the only pics of the state fair you are getting because who's got two thumbs and left her camera at home??

THIS GIRL!

I'm a great-aunt!

2011-08-24T08:37:00.000-05:00

My sister is officialy a grandma today. In honor of the occassion, I'd been saving this for today.

Eeesh.....what have I done!?

2011-08-22T22:22:00.000-05:00

I just signed up for my first duathlon.

I can't swim well, so I can't do a threesome. (a.k.a. triathlon)

Some friends found this one and suggested it to me. It called the Athleta Iron Girl. Sounds cool, right? It's a 2 mile run, 22 mile bike, 2 mile run race at the end of September. I've got the running down, no problem there (well, not too much!). But here's my biking for the summer so far:

We biked as a family about 3.5 miles to Lake Ann.
We biked as a family about 5.5 miles to neighborhood parks.
I biked 2 miles with Katie for a quick spin in the trailer.
I biked 8 miles by myself.
I rode 8 miles on a stationary bike.

Notice anything? Yeah, that's right - no double digits. Also - I tried running after my little stretch on the stationary bike and I thought I was going to fall over. :) Let's just say, I've got some biking in my future if I want to be happy about my finishing time in the race. I read that they pull you off the course if you don't finish biking in 2 1/2 hours.....so I think I can make it under that. Also - my nether regions haven't hurt all that much after biking...yet.

So, we'll see what this whole tri/duathlon thing is about. Stay tuned.

Mid-week Funny

2011-08-17T15:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a Wednesday Funny. Why a Wednesday Funny, you ask?

Because it's my blog and I can do whatever then hell I want.

Plus....I'm busy, and have no energy for creating a more unique post. :)

Friday Funny

2011-08-12T08:00:00.000-05:00

Will's T-ball Team

2011-08-11T10:51:00.000-05:00

Will is finishing up his t-ball season, and it was as entertaining as we thought it would be. The ages of his teammates ranged from 4-6...but were mostly closer to the 4 end. No matter how far the ball was hit or how beautiful the day was, nothing was more exciting to the kids than the gravel on the field or the snack and juice that came at the end of practice.

At the beginning of T-ball, John offered to help coach because they were really hard up for help. He figured he'd just be a "helper", but he quickly turned into the only coach...with only 1 other dad helping occasionally.

Will's team....The Red Dragons. He's on the far right....and there's Katie hidden behind the fence.

Watching John work with the entire team - doing warm ups, stretching, working on catching, throwing, batting, etc. was such a treat for me. I guess once you get older, and especially after you've had kids - the things you find attractive in a partner change a little bit, or at least expand to include things you wouldn't have included 10 years ago.
For example....
John in a nice suit and tie = really attractive.
John washing dishes = just as attractive.

John playing with Katie and Will in the backyard = very cute.
John taking time to work with kids on Will's team = heartwarming AND cute.

(*Please note - I use the terms "cute" and "attractive" as opposed to "hot" and "sexy" because my mother-in-law reads this blog, and I'd like to still look her in the eye. But be advised they are totally interchangeable.) :)

Is there a doctor in the room?

2011-08-05T17:50:00.000-05:00

If you've read here before, you know that Katie has been fighting a strep infection that went untreated, and traveled to her knees. You can read more about it here if you have no idea what I'm talking about.

So we were told in March when her first diagnosis was made that she should have a heart ECHO after 4 months of penicillin. This pediatrician said that she had talked with the Pediatric Infectious Disease people at Children's Hospital and they said that it takes longer for the heart valves to be affected, if they are going to be....so that's why they wanted to wait 4 months, instead of doing it sooner and missing something later. They also said that we had to call their nurses to set it up through Children's so that both facilities would be involved.
Ok - so 4 months brings us to July. I'll admit - the 4th was busy, we were in IA for a long weekend, and I hadn't gotten around to calling to scheduling the ECHO yet. But let's go back for a minute.....

Katie was in for a checkup on June 17th with this pediatrician that we'd been seeing. We wanted to get a check of her knees and do another urinalysis to check kidney function. Since it took a long time the first go-around, I brought our urine specimen with me - (tip - Medela breast pump bottles work REALLY well for this....however, I did NOT get it given back to me!)
The pediatrician said they would call if there were any abnormal results. Let me repeat that. The pediatrician said they would CALL if there were ANY abnormal results.

2 weeks go by, and we hadn't heard anything. John mentioned maybe we should call to make sure, I said yeah, maybe....but we didn't. So - we dropped the ball too, but honestly, we weren't expecting to have to. Anyway - SIX weeks later, on June 28th - I get a letter showing Katie's test results with TWO items showing abnormal amounts. The pediatrician had HANDWRITTEN a note saying "We may check this again in the future." WTF? I don't rate a phone call?? A phone call telling me what these results mean?? So I call in to speak with the dr, and I am told that a message is sent into one of her nurses and they will call me back. This was on Wednesday, June 29th. I believe it was 2 days later when I heard from someone, and they were asking me what I wanted to do - did I want to do another urinalysis? If so - how long did I want to wait? Did I want more tests? etc. What the hell do I know? I'm NOT the dr! Shouldn't someone ELSE - say, someone who went to medical school be advising me on what to do? So I said I would talk it over with my husband and we'd call back. She said to call anytime and they'd squeeze us in.

I talked with John and we decided to re-test, of course. Then it was 4th of July....and then we were in Waukon til July 9th, etc. So I called July 13th to see if we could come in. I also wanted to schedule Katie's heart ECHO, and to see about getting a referral for a 2nd opinion. The receptionist said she would have a nurse call me back about the urinalysis, and another nurse call me back to schedule to heart ECHO. A nurse called on the 14th and asked why we feel we need to have a urinalysis done. I felt she honestly was treating me like an idiot. "Well, are there symptoms that would warrant such a test?" Ummm....gee, the fact that her pediatrician wants the test done? YES! So I spend another 15 minutes explaining our history since March that she hasn't taken the time to read. She said that she had to get a lab form signed by our pediatrician first - who happened to be out of town until July 19th. When I asked about the heart ECHO, this nurse said she had no idea what I was talking about.

They call on the afternoon of the 19th (Tuesday) and say everything is set to go. I can drop off the urine at the lab anytime, someone is there til about 7-8pm. I asked if I could drop if off the next day - sure. So after Will's t-ball, I swing over to the clinic with a specimen in a not-as-fancy container. I am greeted at the lab door by a tech who has NO lab paperwork and nothing to show what tests are to be done. Great. She asks that I write the name and DOB on the container and she'll try to figure it out Thursday. She'd give me a call back if there was a problem.

I hadn't heard anything, so I call the clinic the following week on July 27th - because by this time I don't trust them to get back to me at all. I ask about the urinalysis results as well as Katie's ECHO appointment that I had requested 14 days earlier. She makes a note requesting a nurse to call me back about the ECHO and sends me over to labs for results. They show -AGAIN- elevated abnormal results, which no dr has seen fit to call me back on. I thank the tech and hang up. The next day I get a letter from the lab, showing the results with a typed message from the ped (no signature) saying that we don't need to take another specimen, bring her back if symptoms re-develop. (Wellll.....the symptoms haven't gone away....soooo, thanks for checking in.) SIX days later, I get a phone message from the pediatrician informing me of the results from the urinalysis. When I asked her about the letter today....she had no knowledge of it being sent out. So WHO typed that message then???? The janitor???? Might as well have been.

That pretty much brings us to this week. I have called 2 times to try to get Katie's ECHO scheduled and to get a referral for a 2nd opinion - that would make 4 phone calls total since July 13th. When I called on August 2nd - I was told a nurse would get back to me and that they would do a 3-way type call with Children's to schedule the appointment. Today - still nothing, so I call again. This time I talk to a nurse (Amy) who was actually helpful. She said she saw no reason why I couldn't call Children's myself to schedule the ECHO. I about hit the floor - I told her about how I had been told for the past 4 months that it had to go through their clinic. She said if that was the case, Children's could call them after I make the appointment....FINALLY, she gave me a direct phone number (which I have called....left my info and have been told they'll call back....we'll see.)

Next, I tell Amy how frustrated I am because I feel like no one is suggesting anything to do next. Katie will be done with their recommended 6 months of penicillin on September 8th....then what??? Does ANYONE have a plan for what the hell to do then? Are we doing more tests to check to see if the infection is gone? Cuz her knee is still swollen.....do we just wait for the infection to rise up again, this time resilient to penicillin?? No one is telling me ANYTHING or calling me back. I want the name of another dr. She said to hold on - let her grab the pediatrician. She gets on the line and starts with "Ok, I feel like we should...." I interrupt and tell her that I have NO interest it what she feels we should do next, I want to go see someone else, and I want the names of the doctors she has been in contact with at Children's. I feel like she has no idea what to do next, and has not made any kind of effort to come up with a solution to Katie's symptoms.

"Now calm down, there's no need to get upset." she said. Well, that did it - and I started yelling (very loudly) about how I'm damn well going to get upset because I am getting the feeling that she doesn't give a damn about us or our children. She then goes on to say that she didn't feel the need to get in touch with me because she hadn't heard from me. WHAT THE HELL? I spout off dates and tests and phone calls and messages to her (all of which I've stated above). She says they are updating all their computer systems so info and messages are getting lost. I shout about how that is no excuse for compromising patients' health and maybe Park Nicollet shouldn't update anything because they are losing contact with the very people they are responsible for caring for. She starts giving me names of fellow Park Nicollet doctors and I make it VERY clear I want to have nothing to do with Park Nicollet - I want out. So she finally gives me the name of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist she'd been talking to at Children's.

I was shaking and felt empowered, but now I'm scared to contact this specialist cuz maybe the pediatrician will call her and I'll have a "mark" in my folder saying I'm such a bitch. You remember that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine couldn't get into see a doctor because of her file........

Friday Funny

2011-08-05T08:34:00.002-05:00

My husband would be so happy....this ALMOST makes me want one.....

Pool antics

2011-08-01T09:58:00.000-05:00

It's been HOT! So we've set up our backyard pool a few times. It's bigger and a bit more work than a "baby pool" and it needs to be taken down and cleaned if it's up for more than 3 days. Here's some shots from the 4th of July weekend. The kids had a lot of fun....well, for the most part.

It all starts innocently enough - as it always does - by playing a fun game of "Let's Fight Over the Elephant Watering Pitcher".

John attempts to diffuse the situation before it gets out of hand.

It doesn't work, and someone "wins" the watering can.

The plea for help.

The forfeiting of the watering can.....and a big sister hug.

Friday Funny

2011-07-29T08:06:00.000-05:00

Blue screen of death

2011-07-27T09:45:00.000-05:00

So last week my computer started acting all wacky and began going to blue screen and shutting down. It happened a dozen times before I just gave up and asked John to have his computer guy at work take a look at it. I grabbed my SD card for my camera out of the computer and he took it to work.

He brought it home that same night and said that it was fine - never shut down on the guy and he could find nothing wrong with it. Hmmmm.......

So last night I'm uploading pictures from my SD card (do you see where this is going??) and I get the blue shut down screen again. So it appears that my SD card....my wonderful 8GB SD card is shot. I'll have to pick up a new one before I dare take too many more pictures. Has this happened to anyone else?

In the meantime, enjoy these EXCITING pictures of our snail eggs. When we went camping in June Katie brought home two snails that she found and we put them in her bug house with dirt, sticks, strawberries, leaves, etc. Well, they loved it so much that they have laid eggs....a ton of eggs. In our research of snails, we read that some will hatch and eat the other eggs. Yummy. They do best in a humid environment and, lucky for them, that's all Minnesota is right now. It takes about 3 weeks to hatch and I think it's been a little over a week now. I'll keep you posted and hopefully they won't crawl out of the little air holes.....

Run like the wind....if the wind is blowing really slow.

2011-07-23T15:46:00.000-05:00

I had my first 5k of the summer today. You'll remember I had another race last weekend where the main focus was to just finish because the heat index was so high. Today, the race was at 8, and not near as humid. I had been running 2 times a week or so and have consistently gotten right around 30 minutes, and the last month I have been able to get 29 minutes and a little change....which made me VERY happy as this was a goal I had set for myself last year.

So I got a bit jazzed for today's race because I figured it would be the first "official" race where I break 30 minutes. I was getting passed in the beginning a bit, tried not to let it shake me. I'm not racing other people....I'm not running their race....I'm running my own and my competition is the clock. So did I win? Not quite. My time was 33:32. Almost my worst 5k race time ever.

I did my first 5k last August in IA, 2nd and 3rd in September in MN. Here are my times
1. 34:xx (walking & running)
2. 31:xx (walking & running)
3. 30:13 (walking & running)

I only remember the last time exactly because it got me really pumped and proved to me that I CAN break 30 minutes. But come on - I run the WHOLE three miles and I could have done better walking???

Today, my one mile time was 9:20......second mile was 19:30..........so then how the hell do I dump out a 14 minute mile at the end??? I didn't walk....I didn't feel like I slowed down. If anything, I pushed harder the last 1/4 mile.

The winner with the fastest overall time was an 18 year old guy with 18:23. That seemed slow to me too...I usually see winners with times in the 15-16's. Funny thing is, I finished 2nd in my female age group. Yeah, that's out of 6....but still. So I'm questioning the length of the race.....ya know, gotta find something to blame so I don't have to point the finger at myself.

There's another 5k next weekend.....but I think I'm going to skip that one and plan a longer run here at home instead. I've got another race August 20th, where it should work for John and the kids to come watch. And there may be another one yet in September.

So I'm bummed my numbers aren't going down. But as I was thinking about it, isn't that everyone's complaint? If you're trying to lose weight....don't you get frustrated every so often that the #'s aren't going down? Maybe even rising a bit? I'm not in it to lose weight, but I think performance is the same thing - sometimes #'s just don't go down and we should all just be happy that we are active and getting out there to DO it. Yeah, I'm trying....but tell that to my head.

Friday Funny

2011-07-22T08:56:00.000-05:00

A little lame....a little funny. :)

Will's birthday party

2011-07-21T07:00:00.000-05:00

Since we didn't win Will a fancy party at My Gym, he had to settle for ice cream with just family. I think he was ok with that.

We had ice cream cake from DQ. With all Will's candles on top is looks like a jumbled mess....but a yummy mess!

VERY happy to get his Batman underwear!

Will playing with Batman, Superman, and Metallo (I think)..

...which left Katie to enjoy Will's new racetrack.

Molly's new best friend

2011-07-20T08:18:00.000-05:00

We have a baby bunny that lives in our front yard and comes out to visit every morning. She sits under the front window and drives Molly NUTS! The bunny is so little and ridiculously tame. She actually lays down on her side and closes her eyes on our rocks. And when you go outside near it, it doesn't hop away. If anything, it tends to come closer. Poor thing better learn some "bunny skills" or it won't last long!

Gimmie a "K"!

2011-07-19T08:55:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago, Katie did a weeklong cheerleading camp. There were about 6 girls all together and it was a nice age range for her. This week wasn't hot at all....it was just perfect. In fact, 4 out of the 5 days, Katie took a sweater with her in the morning.

Sunday's Race

2011-07-17T22:22:00.001-05:00

I had my 8k race on Sunday....if you can call it a race. I don't think anyone was "racing"....it was more of a journey. Everyone was just trying to get to the end. My friends, Anne, Vickie, and Vickie's husband ran with me. Well, not WITH me. They rock. In fact, they rock AND roll. The women are training for a triathlon in August and it's obvious that the work they are putting into their training is really paying off!! They were awesome.

I ran the first mile, and although hot and sticky, wasn't too bad. Still, I started walking/jogging after a mile. The next mile and a half weren't too bad....spots of shade, lots of friendly neighbors sitting in their front yards with their sprinklers spraying on the runners. (Along with 3 fire trucks on the route.)

That leaves mile 2.5-5......all sun....no shade....and blacktop. It was along this section that two friends of mine were camped and ready with MUCH needed water. Thanks Ingrid and Katie, it was a perfect spot and we all agreed that it was a good thing you were there.

The last mile down mainstreet seemed to take forever! It helped that there was a crowd lined up for a parade that would start an hour later....but I still couldn't run the entire way. So, run a couple blocks, walk a block, etc. In the end, it was a good feeling to having "done" it. But I don't think I want to do much more than 5 miles for a while. :) My time?? 1:01:03. My "perfect" goal time would be 50 minutes, but the fact that I was only 10 minutes over that, in a 108 heat index is a pretty damn good thing.

Here is Anne and I towards the beginning of the race. If you look at Anne, it's obvious it's towards the beginning. Looking at me, however, you'd think we were on mile 4. :)

Sweet, sweet finish.

Friday Funny

2011-07-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

Thanks to my friend, Katie for sharing this!

Heat wave

2011-07-13T15:57:00.000-05:00

Boy it's nice out today...and yesterday was beautiful too! Tomorrow is supposed to rain, but still not get very hot. It's supposed to be 95 here on Sunday. Did I mention that I have a 5 mile race on Sunday? :)

I was supposed to get in a 4.5 run yesterday....but I didn't get on the treadmill at naptime and John golfed late so I didn't get one in last night. I was thinking about calling the neighbor girl to come over, but there was no answer when I called. So, I figured that I'd get up early and run this morning....but 6:10 rolled around and I could NOT yank my butt out of bed. The next thing I know, it's 6:32 and too late to run and make it back by 7 in time for when my "Pebbles" (1 1/2 year old) drops in. Luckily it's still nice out so I'm determined to get a run in tonight. Then, maybe a shorter run on Friday night.....then rest up for Sunday.

But, to be honest, I know I'm not going to be able to run the whole 5 miles when it's 95 degrees out. So I'm not as concerned with "training" for it at this point. I'll run a bit, walk a bit, yadda, yadda, yadda. I know I'll finish just fine - but not in 50 minutes like I wanted.

I don't know why the "time" I run is so important to me - just a trait I guess. I feel like I have to get faster....rather than just do it. I'm getting better at that...but timing myself is still on my mind. I think it's just proving to myself that I can do it. Breaking the 5k in 30 minute mark was a great feeling, and I've slacked off ever since. :) So maybe timing myself isn't the best idea.

Also - it's not that I like running. But I don't have a lot of free time in a day, and I can get a real sweat worked up in 25 minutes.....and it's free. So I feel like I get a big bang for my buck, so to speak. But I was thinking about when someone "becomes" a runner. Is everyone a "runner"? (Just non-practicing) :) If I run 50 feet am I a runner? If I run 50 feet every day, am I a runner? Do I have to be able to run a mile? Because when I started this last summer I sure didn't feel like a runner....could only run about 1/2 mile. Now I can run 3.1 miles or more....and I still feel like an impostor. :)

Happy Birthday Will!!!

2011-07-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

John William turns 4 today!!! Can you tell what kind of a party we are having???

Luckily, John, Katie and I don't have to dress up as villians.

The passage of the Will's........

A funny story....we ate supper at Noodles and Company Wednesday night. Will said he had to go to the bathroom, so I took him. As we were walking to the restrooms, he starts chanting "mens, mens, mens,mens..." I told him that we were actually going to go into the women's room. He stopped dead in his tracks and shouts "But, I'm a MAN!"

Happy Birthday to my favorite little man....

Friday Funny

2011-07-07T08:50:00.001-05:00

Will's favorite new ride....

2011-07-06T15:00:00.003-05:00

This is ONE of Will's new favorite toys. It was initially going to be saved for his birthday....but he found it/saw it....end of story. I'm kinda glad we gave it to him early because he's had SO much fun with it. He even rode it in the local Kiddie parade for the 4th of July. And it reminds me of my AWESOME Knight Rider big wheel.....ranks right up there with my banana seat bike. I LOVED going as fast as I could, then whipping around and skidding to a stop. And of course talking to "KITT".

And then the ducks came out to watch Will motor up and down the sidewalk.

Eat his dust.....

Stay tuned...this isn't Will's only new ride. He and Katie both got new bikes over the weekend that they are pretty darn excited about!

On vacation!

2011-07-05T22:34:00.000-05:00

Technically, now that I am getting paid for doing what I do everyday....I can also take a "vacation" where I just take care of 2 kids instead of 3. :) John took the rest of the week off and we are spending some family time together. Tomorrow we're heading to one of my favorite pools to go swimming and watersliding, and I think it's actually going to be nice out!

We went camping with some friends a couple weekends ago...you know, before the Minnesota government shut down and took the state parks with them. It was a FUN time with about 7 other families! Totally worth the mosquito bites.

I HAD to post this one....Angie was an innocent victim of the old marshmallow on the picnic table.

Will teaching Dad the finer art of roasting.

I "think" they were playing horseshoes.... :)

Waking up with smiles....

Friday Funny

2011-07-01T09:00:00.001-05:00

Let's see how many of you are over 25.....

Ugh....what have I done?

2011-06-30T10:52:00.000-05:00

Ok - that's a bit more melodramatic than it needs to be.

I am planning on participating in an 8k in a few weeks. That's a hair under 5 miles for you non-metric folks. For months - well, ever since I started running I said 5k was the longest I would ever go. And I've recently in the last 2 months been able to run the whole 5k without stopping to walk. So now at least 2 times a week I get in 3.1 miles with no problem. (Well, ok, it's not THAT easy....but totally doable.)

Some friends of mine are running in an upcoming 8k, and I was waffling about being able to do it. They basically said "Oh just shut up, you can do it!" Or maybe that was their exact words.....

Cue the rational side of my brain: I can do 3.1 miles in around 29 minutes.....basically average 10 minute miles. (My first mile is faster....and then I drop off.) So add another 2 miles on to that, it's another 20 minutes of running. If I work up to 4.5 miles before the race and just add chunks of 5 minutes to my current pace, I shouldn't have a problem getting there in 3 weeks. I'm not planning on running 5 miles for practice....I think getting up to 4.5 miles should be fine. So now my goal will be to do the 8k in under 50 minutes. A realistic goal, I think.

But boy, what a slippery slope this is.....if I can do an 8k.....a 10k isn't much more....just another mile. Now I'm up to 6.2 miles....a half marathon is 13 miles, right? Ok, I think I'm gonna set the ceiling at 10k. For now.

Oh, and the 8k is in the middle of the day.....in July.....let's pray for a cold spell to pass through the area!

Piano recital

2011-06-29T10:25:00.000-05:00

Last week Katie did a piano camp. 75 minute lessons for 5 days. Looking back, they really covered a lot. There were about 7 kids in the class, all about the same skill level. She learned all the notes on the staff, where the notes were on the piano, and songs to play with both hands. She also learned how to draw a treble clef.....I was easily 15 before I learned how to draw those things.

She got a piano book, and is very excited to come back and play on Grandma Mary's piano and Grandma Lyla's keyboard.....so be ready.

In the meantime, here's a clip of her piano recital she gave on the last day of class. Keep in mind, she's playing for the other 7 students, but also their parents and grandparents. I spose there was 20 people in the room, and she wasn't nervous at all!

Katie's Party

2011-06-28T15:41:00.000-05:00

I better get a post in on Katie's birthday party before it's time to post one about Will's! We had a party at home for Katie and her friends. About a month ago I was on the computer looking at party ideas, trying to come up with a craft or activity that would be good for a group of 7 year olds. I found some treasure hunt ideas and thought that sounded perfect! The treasure hunt I initially created at an online site had to be shortened and made just a bit easier so that the girls' heads wouldn't explode.

Overall, I think everyone liked it. Well - I KNOW 4 of the girls loved it....the other 2, not so much. But they sure perked up when the treasure chest was opened and they found their goodie bags filled with candy, pencils, paper, stickers, glow sticks, and bracelets.

The night before the party we celebrated as a family and Katie got to open presents from us. Her number #1 request was for a real pair of binoculars and a compass. John was able to spearhead that one....much easier shopping for him this year. :)

Opening the lock on the treasure chest.

The birthday group...all girls from Katie's 1st grade class this year.

Will stayed away.....pretty far away.

Now it's on to Will's birthday in 13 days. We WERE going to try to win him a birthday party at a local kid's gym. We were close....but I don't think we're going to win. Long story short - we're in 2nd place....a pretty far 2nd place. But that's ok - a family BBQ, campfire and sprinkler session sounds fun too.

As long as Batman is somehow involved.....

Weekend catch up

2011-06-27T13:39:00.000-05:00

Sheesh, going through my pictures and I have SOOO many posts to catch up on!

- Camping trip this weekend
- Katie's birthday party
- Will's early birthday present
- Our newly painted house
- Katie's piano camp
- and more!

I guess I'll just have to start somewhere. Since I missed a post for Friday Funnies last week cuz I was too darn busy getting ready to go camping, I'll start with some laughs. Saturday night John and I went to Treasure Island to see comedian Louis CK. Neither of us had been to a show there before and only John had even been there before. It took us a little longer than we anticipated to get there, but we were still in time for the show.

After finding a very short beer line, we settled down in our 9th row, center stage, seats. I had gotten the tickets from a woman on Craigslist who had to sell them because her grandfather was retiring and having his party that night. She only wanted face value for the tickets - so I was happy to find out they actually worked and weren't fakes.

The show was very funny - if you aren't familiar with Louis CK....here's a couple clips. WARNING: The first clip is pretty tame and funny....the second one has lots of swearing....so don't watch if you're easily offended. :)

2 mothers....one blog entry

2011-06-21T19:09:00.000-05:00

June is a month of birthdays in our family! I'd like to take time to send out Happy Birthday wishes to John's mom and my mom. John's mom celebrated her birthday on the 12th and my mom will celebrate hers on the 23rd. (I use the term "celebrate" pretty loosely.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Summer of Science

2011-06-21T19:06:00.000-05:00

Well....ok, 3 days. Then I got sick of cleaning up the mess. Katie got a science kit for Easter and we've done some magnet stuff and mixing colors. This time we got out the fun goo and made fake snow - interesting polymers for all you brainiacs out there.

Here's Katie blowing a bubble in our green goo.....

Happy Birthday to Katie!

2011-06-17T09:15:00.000-05:00

Katie turns 7 today!! Here's a blast from the past.....

I just like this picture because I love how Will is looking at Katie. Oh, how wonderful it would be to spend another day with them at this age....

And here is Katie upstaging the Wicked Witch of the West.

Friday Funny

2011-06-17T08:00:00.000-05:00

By OVERWHELMING demand, I have brought back Friday Funnies. (Ok, like 2 people mentioned that they liked it......2 people can still be overwhelming, right??)

So here you go, Anne.....this one's for you.

Maybe a little tom-boy....

2011-06-16T08:42:00.000-05:00

Katie shows she's not all princess tiaras and high heels....

Not a post for cynics....

2011-06-14T08:09:00.000-05:00

I got a call yesterday from our church. The woman on the other end told me that a group of women at church had made a "prayer shawl" for Katie. They had been told a few months ago of the troubles she's had with her knees and they made her a shawl.

Those of you unfamiliar with "prayer shawls" - they are shawl/blankets made by a group of volunteers who pray for a specific person while making them. They shawls are blessed and given to that person in hopes of providing comfort and good news.

I was genuinely shocked - I had mentioned Katie's dr appointments a few months ago when we were really unsure about what we were going to find out about her knees. And just this past week we had gotten some results back from another test that showed some questionable results, and we have to run those tests again next week. So this comes at a very welcoming time. On the other hand - our troubles and concerns seem minimal to others going through hard times right now and I feel greedy for taking the blanket when maybe they should have been praying for someone else.

In any case - even if you can't get behind the whole "pray while making a shawl" or "blessing" concept, you have to admit it's a nice thought to have a group of people volunteer their time to make you something where you know that they were thinking about your family and hoping for good results.

So stay tuned for a picture maybe later today.....

T-Ball time!

2011-06-09T09:50:00.000-05:00

Will started T-ball last week. This is his first "summer" activity of the year. He practices for 3 weeks (one morning a week) then in July he joins a little league for T-ball and has games 1 night a week for 6 weeks.

They worked on learning which base was 1st base...2nd base...and so on. They also learned how to put their batting helmets on, and to not smack each other with the metal bats. You know - the real technical stuff. :)

It was SO cute to watch and Will really had a good time. There was also a girl from his preschool class there that he knew.

Running the bases...there's Will right in front.

The bat is heavy!

Running home...

The team name: The Blue Trains

An update....

2011-06-05T21:10:00.000-05:00

If you haven't checked in with the McQuillen Caring Bridge lately, please do so. Sean lost his battle with cancer on Saturday. Obviously it isn't fair, but this seems grossly unfair because he was just diagnosed weeks ago and wasn't given the chance to really fight back. So please keep his family, wife Gina and their two beautiful little girls in your thoughts.

A new favorite

2011-05-27T08:32:00.000-05:00

I have a new favorite song that made it to my "running" playlist. I like to hear it while I'm running, but I especially like to hear it after I'm all done and stretching. Give it a read and a listen.....

Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise
by Avett Brothers

There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right
And it comes in black and it comes in white
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it

When nothing is owed or deserved or expected
And your life doesn’t change by the man that’s elected
If you’re loved by someone, you’re never rejected
Decide what to be and go be it

There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

There’s a darkness upon you that’s flooded in light
And in the fine print they tell you what’s wrong and what’s right
And it flies by day and it flies by night
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it

There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

There was a dream and one day I could see it
Like a bird in a cage I broke in and demanded that somebody free it
And there was a kid with a head full of doubt
So I’ll scream til I die and the last of those bad thoughts are finally out

There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
In the fine print they tell me what’s wrong and what’s right
There’s a darkness upon me that’s flooded in light
And I’m frightened by those that don’t see it

Oh, and another one that makes me feel warm and fuzzy after I've gotten myself all sweaty....

I Am Mine
By Pearl Jam

The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

The North is to South what the clock is to time
There's east and there's west and there's everywhere life
I know I was born and I know that I'll die
The in between is mine
I am mine

And the feeling, it gets left behind
All the innocence lost at one time
Significant, behind the eyes
There's no need to hide...
We're safe tonight

The ocean is full 'cause everyone's crying
The full moon is looking for friends at high tide
The sorrow grows bigger when the sorrow's denied
I only know my mind
I am mine

And the meaning, it gets left behind
All the innocents lost at one time
Significant, behind the eyes
There's no need to hide...
We're safe tonight

And the feelings that get left behind
All the innocents broken with lies
Significance, between the lines
(We may need to hide)

And the meanings that get left behind
All the innocents lost at one time
We're all different behind the eyes
There's no need to hide

A warning...

2011-05-23T08:00:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now and am finally sitting down to do it. I want to talk about dentists. You may remember me writing about taking the kids to the dentist...and if you don't re-read it here and here too.

To refresh, our old dentist kept pointing out these "cavities" that we couldn't see. Cavities that they'd only pick up on the x-ray. Cavities that would require "laughing gas" and Novocaine. I'd ask to see the x-ray and for some reason or another, I wasn't allowed/able to see. I also was never allowed to go back with the kids, unless I made a big fuss about it, which I usually did anyway.

Well, 2 years of this and I had pretty much had it. Crazy high bills ($274 for 2 cavities....that's AFTER insurance.), and just a condescending tone, you know? Last August the kids had their LAST check-up at this dentist. I was told that Katie had 3-4 cavities that again - I couldn't see. I was also told that Will had 2 cavities...one which I could see - a little spot on the outside lower molar. She said that this cavity required that Will be put "out" and the procedure done in an OR. Did you catch that? They wanted him unconscious!

I told them that this was OUT OF THE QUESTION and we would not be coming back. A few days later I got a call from the dentist and was told that she needed to read me a statement and that I had to give oral notification that I was read the statement. It was along the lines of "so you're gonna put your child's life in jeopardy because you don't love them like we do", etc.

It came time to find a new dentist...for myself as well because I didn't want to drive to Minnetonka anymore for myself - I wanted something closer. I hit the yellow pages called some that had evening and weekend appointments. Some I just got bad vibes from - one I did not. One receptionist was wonderful and friendly and sweet. The kids were able to get in right away for their check-up and I was only a couple weeks later. The staff insisted I come back with them....they got to watch cartoons on TVs during their check-up and loved the staff - many of whom were grandmas themselves. :)

I alerted the dentist beforehand that I was aware the kids had a lot of cavities. After their exam she had a talk with me about what she found. Katie had ONE tiny cavity (not 3-4) that she was certain she could fill without Novocaine...just 2-3 seconds of drilling. Will had ONE little cavity as well, (not 2) also not needing any Novocaine...just 3-5 seconds of drilling, and certainly did not need to be "put under". We have since gotten the bill for these 2 cavities as well.....$140 total. A HUGE difference from the last dentist, who I feel, took advantage of us as parents.

Sooo....for all you locals out there, I'm naming names......Dr. Angela Wandera and Associates in Eden Prairie. Stay away from them.

Friday Funny

2011-05-20T08:00:00.002-05:00

A little religion....a little laugh.

Comfy and cool

2011-05-19T09:37:00.001-05:00

Two weeks ago John and I were able to escape for 24 hours to head to a wedding in St. Cloud, MN. We left the kids with his mom who had driven up from IA for just the occasion. This was a co-worker of John's getting married...about the last guy in the office to do so.

Obviously we decided to stay overnight, but the REALLY nice touch that the bride and groom had added were shuttles to take guests back and forth between the hotels and reception/dance area. This allowed everyone to have a really good time and know that they'd be safe getting back to the hotel. Hmmm....maybe TOO good of a time.

The bride and groom also had a photo booth set up where piles of people could crowd in, take some pictures, and one set went in a book for the couple while the other set you got to keep. Talk about craziness. :) Throw in a mullet wig and you've really got a party.

As is becoming tradition, hot pizzas showed up about 10:30 or so just to give everyone the last burst of energy needed to get to midnight. Then we all piled into the shuttles and headed out. Oh, did I mention the hotel was connected to an Old Chicago? Perfect for one last nightcap...which was certainly not needed - however, a friend and I decided we'd have one more.

That brings up to the bathroom floor. It's been a long time since I've had so much to drink that I was sick all night. (Ok...so it's only been 2 years....thanks to Shelley's bottle of wine.) BUT in college it seemed to happen more often - as it was supposed to. The last 2 years of college I lived in a campus apartment with 5 other girls. We had 2 bathrooms. On nights where I had had a LOT of "fun" I wouldn't allow myself to get sick in these bathrooms because I didn't want to gross out my roomies. Sooo...I would go out in the hallway, around the corner and use the public lobby bathroom. I'd lock the door, hunker down with a blanket and just sleep there for the night so I wouldn't have to go back and forth. If the roommates couldn't find me...they knew I'd be in the lobby bathroom. Soo...the hotel bathroom also became my bed of choice that night. The cool floor, water availability and lights were necessary, believe me. It was nice to revisit the "younger" days....and now I think I'm good for at least another 5 years.

Made me feel young again....to a point. Until, of course, I came home to two kids. And sure enough, Katie picked that afternoon to get sick herself. So as I'm holding back her hair, I know just how she feels.

Lots to say....

2011-05-15T22:12:00.000-05:00

There are lots of things I should say today....

Happy Anniversary to my sister, Janet and her husband, Jeff.

Congratulations to my niece, Sarah for graduating from high school.

I should tell you about the Wizard Of Oz cast party we went to today.

I should update you on Katie's knees and condition. (All ok, go in for a checkup on Tuesday. There I did it.)

I should tell you about the wonderful wedding we went to last weekend and the VERY comfortable bathroom floor that the hotel gave me to sleep on. :) (Yeah, that one probably deserves it's own post.)

Instead.....I HAVE to tell you about my running today. Now, I know - some of you may be getting sick of hearing about the "running". But this one was big. I ran outside for the first time today in 7 months. I ran last October in a 5k...and for about 4 months I had been regularly running outside. Over the winter I had to make due with the treadmill in the basement.

It's HARD running on a treadmill - nothing to look at but #'s, no breeze, no sun, etc. Today I remembered why I love running outside so much. PLUS.....I ran my whole "loop" that I had planned out last summer. Did you catch that? I RAN the whole stinking thing! Not once did I stop to walk, like I have always done in the past - at least two stops to walk. That's 30 minutes of non stop running. Could I do that on the treadmill? No. So don't ask. Oh, and my pace was pretty much the same as the treadmill.

Remember my "training schedule" a few weeks back - they wanted me to run 20 minutes!! Those bastards.

I did it! So - I guess they did know what they were talking about.

Ok - enough running. Next post - hotel bathroom floor.

Another friend needs your throughts....

2011-05-11T08:19:00.000-05:00

I'm posting another link to a CaringBridge site. Please take some time to send them your thoughts, prayers, good vibes, etc. A good friend of mine recently found out that her husband has stage 4 colon cancer. He's young, strong and they are gonna kick this, but right now it's difficult since it's so early on and they're just trying to get everything figured out.

Some friends of ours have also set up a calendar for us to bring meals. I'm signing myself up so I need some thoughts from you all on healthy, whole grain meals that I could bring over.

Here's their CaringBridge link, and it will also be posted over on the right hand side of the blog.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/seanmcquillen

A Late Mother's Day cartoon

2011-05-09T15:18:00.000-05:00

I found it!

2011-05-04T09:58:00.000-05:00

I finally fount it! No, not the Christmas present I hid 2 years ago....a book!

Allow me to explain....when I was little I would spend a lot of time at my aunt Carol's house. She was a school teacher and had "older" books for children. I think the newest book she had was "Morris Goes to School" - published in 1983. (A great book, by the way!) Anyway, most of the books I remember very well, and have been able to find at library book sales.

However, there is one book that was my FAVORITE, but for the life of me I couldn't remember the title. I loved the pictures, loved the plot of the story - everything. Now, thanks to Google's amazing search techniques I was able to find the title.

I typed in "children's book invention kids run away from home live in houses they build". I searched through the first 10 or so results, and there it was "Andrew Henry's Meadow" by Doris Burn.

It said that the author, Doris Burn, had just recently passed away on March 11, 2011. She was 87 years old. When my aunt passed away she was 87 years old too.

I got chills and took this to mean that I needed to get a copy of this book. I want to share it with my kids, in the hopes they enjoy it like I did. Even if they didn't - I knew I would. I found a used copy on ebay for $8.00 and I scooped it up. It's not here yet....but soon....and I can't wait!

Basically it's about a boy whose family doesn't pay any attention to him so he runs away, builds his own home in the woods and lives in peace. As the story goes on, more neighborhood kids get the idea of running away and join him in the forest. They each have Andrew build them a unique forest home. And pretty soon the forest looks like a tiny little town. As a kid it made me want to imagine what MY forest house would look like and what kinds of things I'd want to have in it.

Supposedly there's a movie in the works based on the book......Ugh.