Gritty Goddess

Every January, I make the same New Year's Resolution as most of the country:  this is going to be the year that I get healthier and make lifestyle changes so that I don't die of a heart attack when I'm 50 and/or end up an old lady taking 22 different medications a day in a vain attempt to correct all of the damage I did to my body during the first 3/4 of my life.  12 years as an ER nurse has taught me a lot about how I want to grow old. 

This past year, I decided to take a slightly different approach.  The health of your physical body is a gift from God.  Along with the other blessings in our life, our physical well being is a gift of itself.  Ask anyone who spends life from a wheelchair.  This year, I made New Year's Resolutions about stewardship.  I became determined to be a better steward of the physical health I have been blessed with.  Brandon and I started eating a LOT better, and spent the first half of this year changing a lot of our eating habits all at once.  Gone were the sodas, sweets, snacks, fast food, and basically anything we enjoyed eating, replaced instead with LOTS of fresh fruits and vegetables and protein.  Over the last few months, we have settled into more practical eating habits, but we are still eating heathier than we used to. 

Apparently, someone a few years ago decided exercise was healthy.  I want to shoot that person.  So I, who for years said I would only run if a big dog was chasing me, decided to slowly start a running program.  At the end of July I began a Couch-to-5k running program, designed to take non-runners and have them running a 5k by the end of 9 weeks.  Well.  Five months later, I have finally finished that 9-week running program.  And last month, some friends and I ran (okay, fine, we walked most of it) my first 5k!

The Gritty Goddess was so much fun!  It was in Galveston on a Saturday morning, so the girls and I decided we needed a prep-day for what was sure to be a very taxing run, so we got there Friday evening and stayed at a lovely hotel after enjoying Mexican food and mommy beverages the night before.  Which is what all the serious runners do, fill up on heavy junk food the night before the run, right?

The run was un-timed, and very casual.  At some point, it was decided that we would walk most of the run, because with obstacles every quarter mile, it was difficult to get in a good rhythm to run.  Or something like that.  And it's hard to take cute pictures when you're running.  Like this one at Mile 1:

Don't we look cute?  We were so tired and needing refreshment by this point, so we were very happy to see the "recharge station" passing out water and chocolate chip cookies.  In the middle of the race.  Right next to the ocean and these comfy chairs:

If I had to design a run, there would absolutely be a nice man passing out cookies right in the middle of it.

Mile 2:

And taking a little time-out:

Did I mention the obstacles?  Throughout the run, we made time to climb over, under, and through lots of things, (one of our "obstacles" was walking through part of the Lazy River at Schlitterbahn...a bit chilly in November) and even slid down a tube into a vat of mud.  Very gritty indeed.

I don't know how many times I have washed these tennis shoes, but I still have sand between my toes after I run.  Cannot get it out.

The final "obstacle":

And...finished!  In an impressively slow time due to all the walking and picture-taking. 

And while I did all of my "couch-to-5k" training, Brandon has an actual marathon in his sights for 2013.  Ummm, I'll just stick to the 5ks, thanks.  And I can ever be expected to run a whole 5 kilometers without a prep day with the girls at a hotel beforehand ;)

What I Can Remember About Our Summer So Far

Well.  I took a bit of a summer break.  For basically the entire summer.  Somewhere in between the daily loads of laundry and all of the four children running around and the working I decided an extended blog break would be a good thing.  And it was.  Back to try to remember if there has been anything memorable happening in the last 8 weeks, and as it turns out, when I don't write it down, I don't remember things as well.  Hmmm.  Funny how that happens. 

I was going to do a "June Recap" post, but it turns out that June is but a distant memory at this point.  Emerson had her preschool graduation, which I only remember because I found a handful of pictures on my camera from it.  

I had worked a nightshift the night before, rolled out of bed, and managed to make it to the school for the early afternoon graduation ceremony.  

So please excuse my bad hair and pillowcreased face.  Aidan and I snuck in late, just in time to see Emerson recieve the "Hardest Worker" award from her teacher.

Of course my super-smart China Doll got the "Hardest Worker" award.

I took this picture to document a version of what Harper has looked like basically every day this summer.  

Dress, sunglasses, purse, hat, bracelet.  Usually she will change from the dress into a swimsuit or nightgown a couple of times a day.  Which makes for cute-sy posed pictures for Harper-girl, and a laundry nightmare for her mother.  By the way, Harper introduced herself to someone as "Harper-Lo" the other day.  And it's becoming increasingly obvious to us how weird it is that we call her "Harper-Lo" or, more often than not, "LoLo".

Speaking of Harper-Lo, after months of her taking a LONG time to fall asleep past bedtime (think 10pm), then waking up at all hours of the night, we eliminated naptime in early July. 

And now, a moment of silence for naptime.  We mourn her absence, and miss her daily presence in our lives.

We may bring an early, brief naptime back, after frequently finding this by mid afternoon:

Girlfriend was too tired to climb all the way down the stairs, so she just passed out on a step.  We also find her on the couch, floor, rug, and in her bed sometimes.  And forget about taking her anywhere in the car by mid afternoon.  She passes out in her carseat after just a few minutes.

Early in July we celebrated the end of another successful swim season with a banquet for our little swimmers.

My most vivid memory of swim team banquet?  A certain conversation we had with Emerson while Brandon and I were getting ready in the bathroom beforehand:

Emerson:  Wow!  You look so pretty!

Me (blow-drying and fluffing my hair):  Thank you sweet girl!

Emerson:  I was talking to Daddy.

Of course you were.

Our little first-year splasher (it's too much of a stretch to call her a swimmer) got her first swimming trophy

And her freshly-mohawked brother accepted one as well.

And then struck a fierce pose...

And Dane-o added 3 trophies, a handful of ribbons, and a bunch of hardware around his neck to his collection.  One participation trophy, another for qualifying for Invitationals, and another for being point leader in his age group.  Boy is a mean backstroker.

This picture makes it easy to see what Harper will look like 5 years from now.  My genetic contribution to the family.

We've spent a lot of time at the neighborhood pool this summer, many Lego communities have been built and destroyed, and we are burning through coloring books like there is no tomorrow.  Dane, Aidan, and Emmy are working through grade-level workbooks, and do 4 or 5 pages most days.  3 or 4 board games are played every day, and TV and video games have taken a backseat this summer, much to my childrens' chagrin :)  I've learned to reinterpret "Mom, I'm bored!" to either "Mom, please find me something to clean" or "Mom, if you let me be bored for just a few more minutes, I will find something fun to do with my brothers and sisters that may, or may not involve completely destroying the upstairs part of the house."  It just depends on my mood what "Mom, I'm bored" means.  Today I went upstairs to find all four kids playing quietly in the upstairs playroom, on a palate made of all of the sheets, blankets, and pillows off of their beds, with all of Aidan's nearly 100 stuffed animals, and every article of clothing from the girls' pajama drawers and the boys' underwear drawer.  I think Harper was responsible for providing the pajamas and undies.  Never a dull moment!

We're (okay, I'm) counting down the days till school starts, but still lots left to do on the Summer Bucket List!

Pickin'

Strawberries!

My favorite strawberry-picking farm is closed. FOREVER. They lost their land lease, and I was so sad to learn that we would never get to take the kids there again to enjoy strawberry-picking or their sub-par pumpkin patch. Last week we met up with some of our littler friends to help relieve some nice people of their juicier berries.

Some little girls did some sampling.

And some little girls did some smiling.

How is it possible that a little girl who will eat lamb curry, sushi, and grilled vegetables with gusto doesn't like strawberries?

Weekend Recap

Well. Monday has been eventful enough to get its own recap, so for now I'll just backtrack a couple of days to last weekend.

Friday kicked off with the much anticipated girls night out to see the new Twilight movie. 12 friends, all but one of us way too old to be watching teenage vampire romances, opening night. And it did not disappoint. Sometimes, no matter what you do, a night that was supposed to be fun, just isn't. And sometimes, nights that sound like they might be fun, just fall into place perfectly and are so. stinkin'. fun.

Silly, unintentionally matching t-shirts certainly help.

Telling funny stories while standing in line outside the theater, surrounded by Twilight-obsessed high school girls an hour before the movie is never what I would plan to do for entertainment, but it was so, so entertaining.

And RUNNING to the theater, smokin' past the gaggle of Twilight-obsessed high school girls so we could try to find 12 seats together, made my night.

There's a rumor floating around that pubescent manager at the theater wearing a vest and bow tie may have threatened to kick us out for running and a brief near-tackling episode. Don't believe everything you hear. We did NOT knock that 15 year old down.

After Twilight-appoluza, Saturday morning came much too early. Especially since we had to be at the parade site at 8:30am, looking cute and happy and ready to wave our pageant wave and smile "till our gums hurt", according to Dane.

We were asked to ride on a float for a local pregnancy center who advocates for adoption. Since we're pretty big fans of adoption, and have the requisite token adopted kid, we agreed. We met in a church parking lot, and were subsequently greeted by this sign:

Of course.

Now, let's have a little 4th grade math review.

We were asked to be at the parade site at 8:30 in the morning.

For a parade that was scheduled from 10am till 12 noon.

And we were riding float #116 out of about 130 floats, with horses, football teams, marching bands, and the like interspersed throughout.

If you've done the math, you'll quickly realize that Brandon and I, and the four children, were to sit on a float for about 4 hours. 3 1/2 of which would be basically parked, waiting for our turn in line. Outside of a donut shop, which is just torture for a float full of children on a Saturday morning. Speaking of torture, the music playing out of the back of the truck that pulled our float was "Greatest Hits From A Mississippi Children's Choir That You've Never Heard Of".

Which my daughters were not afraid to dance to.

Harper-lo found someone to walk her around for most of the morning.

If I had a bucket list, and it had "be in a parade" on it, I could check it off. It was a different experience for our family, something we don't normally do on a Saturday morning, and I'm glad we got an opportunity to participate. We did get some significant bonding time (4 hours of bonding time) with several other adoptive families, which was pretty neat. The kids loved the actual "parade" part of the morning, waving and holding their signs.

Saturday wrapped up with a blissfully unscheduled remainder of the day, gearing ourselves up for yet another very busy Sunday. After church Sunday morning, I loaded up the kids before 3rd service and headed home to get Harper down for a nap before a 2pm birthday party that she was invited to. It was a party at one of those "paint the piece of pottery" places, and we decorated a purple Tinkerbell that, according to Harper was "just so beautiful". (This is one of Harper's favorite phrases currently, and she is just so cute when she says it). This is the first time we have been to a birthday party for one of Harper's friends, and to her credit, Harper only once tried to strip off all of her clothes and try on some of the birthday girl's new outfits from her grandparents.

Sunday evening found me wishing that I had not left my camera at home. Brandon had a high school Pilgrim Night, complete with high schoolers Turkey Bowling. What is Turkey Bowling, you ask? Officially? My absolute favorite Thanksgiving-themed contest involving frozen poultry and baby oil. A quick how-to, so your family can enjoy this friendly family competition on Turkey Day:

Participants: 2 frozen turkeys, large tarp, 12 2-liter sodas, lots of baby oil. And an iron stomach.

1. Set up soda bottles at one end of tarp to resemble 2 bowling-pin formations, side by side.

2. Pour 1-2 large bottles of baby oil all over tarp.

3. Form 2 teams of bowlers, and, using the (packaged) turkey as a ball, see which team can be the first to score 10 spares or strikes. Don't worry, the turkey wrapper will only last a few throws, you will soon be bowling with a naked, raw bird, legs flapping with each toss, gravel embedded in the slimy skin from the over-enthusiastic throws of competitive teenagers.

4. Do not put your hands in your mouth until after you have washed all of the raw turkey nastiness off of them.

5. Just throw away the tarp. It's not worth cleaning off.

You're welcome in advance for introducing your family in what will become your most beloved Thanksgiving tradition. I promise you will enjoy this more than you like that yucky cranberry sauce with the "can imprints" on it.

I for one am looking forward to a week of Thanksgiving, spending time with family, and a little black Friday shopping. I love the predictability of Thanksgiving, especially after a few days of anything-but-routine events!

Pumpkin "Patch" 2011

Got another one checked off the Fall Bucket List!

Friday evening we grabbed a couple of buddies and headed out to one of our favorite spring-time haunts to check out their first ever pumpkin patch. I have been wanting my place to have a pumpkin patch for several years, so we would have another reason to visit besides picking strawberries.

Well, um, they may need a couple more years to perfect their pumpkin patch. It wasn't really a "patch" per se, more of a "dig through all of the shipping crates and pick through 14 tons (yes, 14 tons) of pumpkins to find the one you're looking for."

The good news is, it wasn't crowded.

I don't think they have quite figured out that most people go to a pumpkin patch to take cute pictures of their kids sitting amongst the pumpkins. If I just wanted to purchase a pumpkin, pretty sure I would just go down the street to the Kroger and get one there, instead of driving 45 minutes away to the advertised "pumpkin patch".

Undeterred, we selected our pumpkins, grabbed a couple of wagons, and enjoyed a perfect evening at the beautiful farm with our two little buddies. We tried our best for a couple of cute pictures of the group,

but Harper was having NONE of it.

I just love these pictures. I think I love them more than if they had turned out absolutely perfect, each child perfectly posed and smiling at the camera.

Imagine Christmas trees instead of pumpkins, and that's pretty much what our Christmas card pictures will look like this year.

Dane perfectly posed. Aidan's face completely revealing his mood at the moment. Emerson a bit distractible. Harper throwing a wall-eyed, completely irrational fit because clearly we are torturing her with all the sibling coordinated outfits and seasonal props. Life is hard when you're two.

Behind us is the corn maze, which we chose not to spend $64 for our group to walk through.

Instead, we enjoyed a picnic lunch (complete with cute little miniature orange sodas bought just for this occasion) and the kids played a few rounds of hide and go seek amongst the pumpkin crates.

We (might) see you next year, Not-Quite-A-Pumpkin-Patch!

If Harper Blogged...

Hi everyone! (And by "everyone", I mean Pappy and 3 other people). Mommy said if I went a whole morning without stripping my diaper off smearing poo on my hands and running naked through the living room, she would let me blog on her computer.

You'll never guess what we did last week. I'll give you a hint. It's March. We go here every year in March. My mommy has to figure out what to do with 13 pounds of strawberries afterwards.

We took some of my friends along with us to King's Orchard last week, and boy did we have fun! Mommy took a picture of some of us before started. I don't always like to look at the camera.

This was the first time my sister Emerson has ever been strawberry-pickin, so I showed her how it's done.

Emmy's favorite part was getting to carry the little box. She kept putting strawberries in the box and saying "Emerson's!".

I think she would have loved it even more if she liked strawberries.

Not that I know anything about loving strawberries. Because I would never dream of eating strawberries as I picked them, before they were rightfully paid for and properly disinfected.

I would never teach my friend Reed how to eat strawberries in the field.

I would never try to figure out how to sneak freshly picked strawberries under my shirt.

The little kid catches the blame for everything! If you tell me not to eat the strawberries, Mommy, I will not eat them. How dare you accuse me!

After picking almost 5 pounds of strawberries per box, the mommies attempted the impossible: a picture with all of the children (except little baby Lori):

Silly mommies. They should know by now that I'm not going to sit for a picture when there's strawberries to eat and dirt to play in and shoes to take off!

When we were done, we all had a little lunch. Mommy kept trying to get me to eat the yogurt and peanut butter and the other food that she had brought for me, but I was very busy digging in my friends' lunch bags, scavenging for chips and goldfish and sneaking sips of sprite. I was quite a mess after lunch, given the dirt and strawberry juice and peanut butter and yogurt encrusted in my hair and under my fingernails. Mommy got pretty tickled when she saw this sign over the bathroom sink, and realized that I must not have been the only strawberry-covered little girl to ever leave King's Orchard!

And, frankly, she briefly considered using the hose outside on me.

I had so much fun picking all the strawberries (I have a confession to make: I ate a few in the field), and I hope we can go back again soon!

Love, Harper