Cousins!!!!!!!!
11 years ago
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Half Marathon Training
My friends and I are training for a half marathon. Today I ran the furthest I have ever run in my life, nine miles. Ouch. But at the same time, it feels good. The race date is the end of June. I think I'll be ready. I also started the program from a trainer from the show "Biggest Loser" with some girls from Olympic Gym. It's a book by Jillian called "Making the Cut". It's a 30 day intense program of eating and working out. You can check out my progress at that blog - www.letsmakethecut.blogspot.com, or just follow the link on the right. I am trying to actually eat right so I can be lighter and run faster. Plus, I've been training for this half marathon since February and haven't lost any weight so I figured I'd better do something different.
Here come the clowns!
The spring carnival was a big success! Lots of people came and the kids all had fun. It was a carnival theme (my kids thought that was funny to have a carnival themed carnival). We had Cha-Cha the clown, a dunk tank, a cotton candy machine, a raffle and silent auction, and lots of food and games (which I was in charge of). I was also the mastermind behind the the circus decorations by the front doors and back doors. It was a lot of work and I'm glad it's over and hoping we brought in TONS of money for the school!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Double Baptism!
Elizabeth Ashleigh (above left) and Katheryn Bailey (above right) were baptized and confirmed on March 28th, 2009 by their Dad, Michael Allen Card.
The day went beautifully. We celebrated with friends and family after at TCBY.
Blue Sail, Soft Camel, and Tawny
Laid off from work, all three of my girls in school all day, I SHOULD have a perfectly clean house, hot meals on the table, laundry done, and steadily checking off projects from my to-do list. RIGHT??!!
Sigh....
I was whining about this to my sister Raychel as we sweated away on the treadmill. I feel like I should be getting more done! So I can (mostly) keep up on my house and meals and workouts, but beyond that, I certainly am not finding myself with hours to get caught up on the family albums, redecorate rooms, meticulously keep track of our finances, and re-landscape the front yard. You know those bigger projects that have consistently been on my long term list but never make it to the daily to-do today list.
I know, I know, I'm being too hard on myself. But this is blog entry is for those of you Moms who are just waiting for all your kids to be in school and imagining how much you can get done. I can still spend the whole day just "keeping up".
But, on to the good part.... once Raychel gave me hard time for whining (thanks, I needed that!), I decided to stop complaining and start working. I left the laundry undone and started tearing down the hideous bunny rabbit border in the master bathroom. Yes, I put up the hideous border myself 12 years ago. What was I thinking??? Liz came into the bathroom as I was in the midst of the enthusiastically ripping down those bunnies. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING????" she said. "Getting rid of this ugly border," I told her. "No! I liked those bunnies, don't take them down!" Too late. "But Mom...." Too late.... I wish I took a "before" picture, because along with the the ugly bunny border was an ugly bunny picture. Oh well, you'll have to use your imagination.
I then painted the bathroom "Tawny" - a nice medium khaki color. I added new art, dark plum towels to coordinate with my bedroom, and my Dad came and helped me install a medicine cabinet so we didn't have wire mesh baskets of toiletries with a radio balanced on top of the basket on the counter. Now the radio fits perfectly on top of the medicine cabinet. I am happy every time I walk into the bathroom. (unless the girls have used it and left towels, dirty clothes, and toothpaste everywhere - use your own bathroom!) Happiness for under $100.00.
I was on a roll. I liked my bubble-gum inspired bathroom downstairs, but felt the white wall were somewhat boring. So along comes Blue Sail and Soft Camel. The Soft Camel color was a little lighter than I wanted, but to me paint color is kind of like doing my girls' hair, once it's done, I'm not re-doing it. It's good enough even if it's not perfect and the pony tails are just a little bit crooked. The new thing in the downstairs bathroom is a magazine rack. The old one was a wooden one on the floor that the kids had scratched up the floor and wall dragging it towards them to get something to read as the sat on the toilet! This one matches the other brushed steel accessories.
What I've learned is that I can't have a perfectly clean house AND get some of these projects done. So I let things go a bit while I do the projects, or I stay up late.
What's next? The extension cord is marking my new layout for the front yard landscaping...
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
What's Obvious
Hi Friends!
I just wanted to share some thoughts...
The visiting teaching lesson this month was on "Standing strong and immovable in the Faith" Sis. Beck commented on how we need to do the most essential things first. (She had a list of eight things, see this month's VT message in the Ensign). One of them was family scripture and prayer. We used to be good at this. Every night, no matter what, even on vacation, we would have scripture and prayer. We've read through the Book of Mormon three times as a family. Lately I have gotten lazy and half the time we'll just have prayer, because by the time I "get around to it" it's "too late" or I'm "too tired" so I just have prayer with the girls and send them to bed.
Know what is essential to me? Doing the dishes after dinner. Because I can see them all messy sitting there. And the leftovers would spoil. And what if someone stops by and see my mess. And I don't want to have to deal with it in the morning. So I almost always rally the forces after dinner and we all spend 15-20 minutes doing the dishes and putting the food away.
So what is really more essential, dinner dishes or family scripture reading? Well, that's obvious.
So it occurred to me, what if someone could walk into my house and look around and say, "Wow, you haven't had scriptures tonight, have you? What a mess!" That certainly would motivate me to read the scriptures :) So my new strategy whenever I am tempted to send the kids to bed without our family reading (like tonight!) is to think about the dishes. I wouldn't leave my dishes all over the table, because it obviously needs to be done. How much more needed is our family scripture time, even though it's not so outwardly apparent. It is absolutely vital to my childrens' spiritual nourishment, and I (and Mike) are the only ones who can give this to them, they won't get it anywhere else. How vital is that!
Next I need to work on personal prayers with them. Should I still be helping kids at 7 (almost 8) and 10 say their prayers at night? I remind them now and then, but don't really follow up. I am hoping they follow my example, as they see me praying in the evening, but most of the time they are already in bed by the time I pray.
This parenting thing is exhausting!
Speaking of that, Katie and Liz are exhausting me with plans for the 8th birthday party. The theme keeps changing. Right now it's a music party where they play the piano and sing to their guests, LOL. And I'm making a butterfly and a ladybug cake, I've been informed.
I just wanted to share some thoughts...
The visiting teaching lesson this month was on "Standing strong and immovable in the Faith" Sis. Beck commented on how we need to do the most essential things first. (She had a list of eight things, see this month's VT message in the Ensign). One of them was family scripture and prayer. We used to be good at this. Every night, no matter what, even on vacation, we would have scripture and prayer. We've read through the Book of Mormon three times as a family. Lately I have gotten lazy and half the time we'll just have prayer, because by the time I "get around to it" it's "too late" or I'm "too tired" so I just have prayer with the girls and send them to bed.
Know what is essential to me? Doing the dishes after dinner. Because I can see them all messy sitting there. And the leftovers would spoil. And what if someone stops by and see my mess. And I don't want to have to deal with it in the morning. So I almost always rally the forces after dinner and we all spend 15-20 minutes doing the dishes and putting the food away.
So what is really more essential, dinner dishes or family scripture reading? Well, that's obvious.
So it occurred to me, what if someone could walk into my house and look around and say, "Wow, you haven't had scriptures tonight, have you? What a mess!" That certainly would motivate me to read the scriptures :) So my new strategy whenever I am tempted to send the kids to bed without our family reading (like tonight!) is to think about the dishes. I wouldn't leave my dishes all over the table, because it obviously needs to be done. How much more needed is our family scripture time, even though it's not so outwardly apparent. It is absolutely vital to my childrens' spiritual nourishment, and I (and Mike) are the only ones who can give this to them, they won't get it anywhere else. How vital is that!
Next I need to work on personal prayers with them. Should I still be helping kids at 7 (almost 8) and 10 say their prayers at night? I remind them now and then, but don't really follow up. I am hoping they follow my example, as they see me praying in the evening, but most of the time they are already in bed by the time I pray.
This parenting thing is exhausting!
Speaking of that, Katie and Liz are exhausting me with plans for the 8th birthday party. The theme keeps changing. Right now it's a music party where they play the piano and sing to their guests, LOL. And I'm making a butterfly and a ladybug cake, I've been informed.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Since I directed people on my Christmas letter to my blog - I figure I best get busy and update it!
The best part of Christmas this year was that it was WHITE! Big wet flakes fell from the sky on Christmas day for a few hours, carpeting the already white ground with another few inches of snow. Instead of playing with our Christmas toys, we went outside and played in our Christmas snow. The week before Christmas the kids only had one day of school due to the weather. This has been one LOOOOONG vacation!
Our snow angels!
Katie, Liz, and Ally
Scenes from around the neighborhood: some of these were taken the week before Christmas during our first snowfall(s), then others taken the week of Christmas when we got a lot more snow!
The favorite toys of the season: a remote control tarantula (Liz wanted a real one!), a pogo stick, a complete set of Warrior Books, a metal detector, a doctor kit, a phoenix bird toy, and Webkinz stuffed animals. I had fun making three online books, one for Jeanne and Frank, one for our Arizona Adventure Vacation, and one for Grandma's camp. I am really enjoying my new Settlers of Catan game and also my Romance DVD Collection that includes the long A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. I'm grateful for those snow days so I could have an excuse to watch it already!
Some of our family activities got canceled, like graham cracker house making with the Robrechts. We were sad, but made the best of it and took our candy and crackers over to Chris & Kirstin's house next door and put them to good use. And our Robrecht family Christmas Eve breakfast gathering turned into a slumber party! With lots of snow on the ground and more expected, many of us just decided to spend the night the day before. We had fun playing Settlers (it was so fun because I won!), watching movies, doing puzzles, and playing in the snow fort that Uncle Dan build in Em & Joe's front yard. Thank You so much Em & Joe for hosting the big crowd. Jeff and Janet even made it with their four little ones and a newborn in the falling snow that morning. We are so grateful for family and that we were actually able to get together.
The metal detector proved very useful. A few days after Christmas Frank (Mike's Dad) called me and said a lady was coming in to his doctor's office with "possibly" a needle in her foot. She had kicked something in her carpet the day before, felt a stabbing pain, but couldn't see anything sticking out of her foot. She found a part of a needle in her carpet. Frank didn't want to start digging around in her foot without knowing for sure something was in it, so he wondered if the metal detector could work to see if there was a needle in her foot. I wasn't sure, but drove to his office with the new toy. I turned it on and held it over the lady's foot and sure enough, it beeped, signifying that there was something metal in her foot! Who knew this little toy would prove useful in a real way! The girls are excited for the snow to melt and to go treasure hunting in our own backyard.
We loved hanging out with the Card family - Sterling and Arien arrived the day after Christmas and we spend a fun evening doing the nativity play and opening gifts, and then the next day we had an adventure getting our pictures taken in the snow and rain. Why did I even try to do my hair??? It was really fun to hang out as a family for three days in a row!
Attack of the Tarantula!
The best part of Christmas this year was that it was WHITE! Big wet flakes fell from the sky on Christmas day for a few hours, carpeting the already white ground with another few inches of snow. Instead of playing with our Christmas toys, we went outside and played in our Christmas snow. The week before Christmas the kids only had one day of school due to the weather. This has been one LOOOOONG vacation!
Our snow angels!
Katie, Liz, and Ally
Scenes from around the neighborhood: some of these were taken the week before Christmas during our first snowfall(s), then others taken the week of Christmas when we got a lot more snow!
The favorite toys of the season: a remote control tarantula (Liz wanted a real one!), a pogo stick, a complete set of Warrior Books, a metal detector, a doctor kit, a phoenix bird toy, and Webkinz stuffed animals. I had fun making three online books, one for Jeanne and Frank, one for our Arizona Adventure Vacation, and one for Grandma's camp. I am really enjoying my new Settlers of Catan game and also my Romance DVD Collection that includes the long A&E version of Pride and Prejudice. I'm grateful for those snow days so I could have an excuse to watch it already!
Some of our family activities got canceled, like graham cracker house making with the Robrechts. We were sad, but made the best of it and took our candy and crackers over to Chris & Kirstin's house next door and put them to good use. And our Robrecht family Christmas Eve breakfast gathering turned into a slumber party! With lots of snow on the ground and more expected, many of us just decided to spend the night the day before. We had fun playing Settlers (it was so fun because I won!), watching movies, doing puzzles, and playing in the snow fort that Uncle Dan build in Em & Joe's front yard. Thank You so much Em & Joe for hosting the big crowd. Jeff and Janet even made it with their four little ones and a newborn in the falling snow that morning. We are so grateful for family and that we were actually able to get together.
The metal detector proved very useful. A few days after Christmas Frank (Mike's Dad) called me and said a lady was coming in to his doctor's office with "possibly" a needle in her foot. She had kicked something in her carpet the day before, felt a stabbing pain, but couldn't see anything sticking out of her foot. She found a part of a needle in her carpet. Frank didn't want to start digging around in her foot without knowing for sure something was in it, so he wondered if the metal detector could work to see if there was a needle in her foot. I wasn't sure, but drove to his office with the new toy. I turned it on and held it over the lady's foot and sure enough, it beeped, signifying that there was something metal in her foot! Who knew this little toy would prove useful in a real way! The girls are excited for the snow to melt and to go treasure hunting in our own backyard.
We loved hanging out with the Card family - Sterling and Arien arrived the day after Christmas and we spend a fun evening doing the nativity play and opening gifts, and then the next day we had an adventure getting our pictures taken in the snow and rain. Why did I even try to do my hair??? It was really fun to hang out as a family for three days in a row!
Attack of the Tarantula!
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