Feeling Obsessed

Not sure if it's a good or bad thing. I want to be running just about every minute of the day. (except when I just finished..lol) It's all I can do to do all the things I need to do instead of go run. Every time I eat, I think...you better go work that off! Luckily I don't have the time or opportunity to follow through with this, but it's very distracting!

End of the Season

We'll start with Chelsey. Last night she competed in a city meet and came in first place in JV. She sometimes vaults varsity, but she really isn't good enough, but she is all they have. They had her do JV last night because they knew she would do better there. After a season of frustration, she finally made 8 feet!! Unfortunately, I wasn't there to see her and neither was her coach. Luckily her grandma showed up and got to support her on her triumph. She has one more meet next week and then she is done. She got a first place medal and title of City champ for last nights meet. Yeehaw Chelsey!

Stephen had his championship game tonight. He started at third base and played the whole game there. His first at bat he got a hit but wasn't fast enough to not get thrown out at first. He struck out his next two at bats. He pulled his head like crazy! I kept my camera out trying to get a great action shot, but there wasn't a whole lot of that. He made an amazing catch at third. I couldn't have captured it if I had tried. Line drive and he jumped up, stuck his glove out and got it. He admits there was a lot of luck involved, but he caught it and it was very exciting. They were tied going in to the 9th inning. The other team scored one and then we didn't. Bummer. It was a great game though, the perfect way to go out. His coach got thrown out of the game. He almost gets thrown out every game. I really don't care for him. Terrible example. Not to mention, he is the teacher that "dismissed" me when I was having the issue with Dalin. But whatever, the season is over and they took second place. Stephen is pretty much a shoo in as a starter next season. Great job Stephen!





This is the trophy they DIDN'T win.

Someone caught a fly then threw to third for the double play.

I challenge you...

OK, I've been doing most of Bob's challenges and it's not been so bad. Today, however, I thought I might die. Do you know what a burpee is? You can 'youtube' it, but basically you squat down and put your hands down, kick your legs back into pushup position, (optional: do a pushup), then bring them back in and jump straight up. The challenge was for beginners to do 50. I don't really consider myself a beginner, but holy crap!! The first 10 weren't awful, but from then on.....HOLY CRAP! I would take a break between 10's, I mean 7's, no 5's. It got so hard! I'm just curious if I am as big of a wimp as these make me out to be or are they really hard? C'mon, for me....DO IT! Let me know...I'll be dying to here...maybe literally if I do 10 more!! Good Luck...I mean that.

Bo turned 4!!

Today is Bo's fourth birthday! I love planning parties for the little ones. Some simple cupcakes and frozen pizza, a day out in the water and they are thrilled. When planning for his party, I only planned for the 8 children we invited. Duh. I completely forgot the sibling of those 8 children, which were officially invited and of course, my OWN 2 kids. This morning I made a panic run to Wal Mart to get all the things I forgot or didn't think of. The party went really well. Alicen let us borrow her little blow up pool and Grandma and Grandpa Whitley got Bo a slip and slide for his birthday. They loved it! After a while in the sun, we brought them in for pizza and the opening of gifts. All the kids put their gift to him right on or in front of him and I think even helped open some of them. It was shear chaos. I'm pretty sure his favorite gift of the day was the six pack of Bakugan, which was also from G +G Whitley. I almost couldn't get him back outside after that one. Most of the Moms stayed and visited which always makes a party more fun! They also helped put everything back together, not a bad thing there either! I think it was a grand time and he was completely satisfied with his party!

I wouldn't normally do the candles outside, but their towels were all wet and we could barely get them out of the pool again anyway.

Bo and Katy. He is finding it funny to eat Diego's head.

Saydie

Katelyn

Jason and Bo

Little Lainey

Braydon

Kylie and Katy

Lainey and Braydon

This was Katy in the beginning. Not too thrilled about getting wet.

Bo opening his slip and slide

This was the beginning of opening up presents.


This is how it ended. I gave up.


Bo admiring his new pack of Bakugan. Birthday complete!

"Four-Mom" night

Tuesday is always crazy, but some are worse than others. I started out with a trip to the gym. Got home in time to get stuff all ready for the Pack Meeting that night. I was very productive and prepared. I wasn't feeling stressed at all about Pack Meeting. UNTIL.....my guest speaker called and cancelled. I had asked a Police Officer in our ward to come talk to the boys. How fun is that for a young boy?? Just so happens he is a member of the SWAT team and got called out to raid a house. Just my luck. Picked the kids up from school and the fun began!

Had to take Stephen to his game, pick Chelsey up from Track, take Brooklyn and Rhett to scouts, take Chelsey home and get back to the church to set up for pack meeting. So:

Mom #1 (that would be me) - had pack meeting at 6 pm and a Mother's Day dinner with Chelsey at 6:30. Had to be late due to pack meeting, which I run. Pack meeting seemed to flop. I even tried lots of cheers, but it was just dead. I guess you just keep trying and eventually it will turn out well.

Mom #2 (my mom) - Had to pick up Brooklyn and Rhett from scouts and take them to their school concert. She was sweet to pick up a pizza so they could eat before the concert which was also at 6:30.

Mom #3 (Chelsey) - Had to do all the driving. Brought Nick and Dalin to scouts at 5:30, then headed to pick Stephen up at his ball game. He got done around 6. He got to start and played almost the whole game! He was so excited and of course I wasn't there. I think Glade showed up for a little bit of it. Glade had his own scouts that he left for at 5:30. After she took Stephen home, she headed to the dinner without me.

Mom #4 (Whitley) - She was the stay-at-home mom. She showered all the little ones before they left and took care of Bo and Katy while we were all gone. She made dinner and cleaned it all up.

I got home by about 8:45 from the dinner with Chelsey, which was very nice. They served dinner and dessert and sent us home with a rose. The kids headed to bed and I headed for the TV. Biggest Loser night. Thank goodness for DVR. So sad for Filipe. They all did so great this week! I just don't like Ron...grrrr. Two more weeks and then I will be on my own again. Whatever will I do?

Monday night Yoga

I can't remember much about Monday, that was a long time ago! I know we had FHE after a fantastic dinner of Penne Spaghetti. Our Family Home Evening was about making the home more like a temple. Gotta keep trying, right?

Earlier, Heather had invited me to go to a yoga class at 8 pm. I'm not much of a nighttime exerciser, but I wrapped things up at home and decided to give it a try. I thought we were warming up, but that never stopped. Yoga is a bunch of warming up. It wasn't as hard as I had thought and it was harder than I thought. Make sense? I didn't sweat or anything, but the poses were a little challenging sometimes. At one point I kept falling and looked at Heather kind of giggling and the instructor caught me. She says in her little microphone "Did you know laughing in yoga is allowed? It is. It's ok to laugh!" Good thing for me! I also would need to become familiar with the names of the poses. She would call out the new pose and I would have to wait, look around at what every one else was doing and then copy. I will say, I am sore now. It was a little hard to drive this morning. Picking my foot up from pedal to pedal took some concentration. I would probably go back, I liked the instructor and that always helps.

Oh Miley....

Dear Miley,
I was so disappointed to see you come out and openly support gay marriage. Either your young mind is oh-so-naive, or you don't really understand your religion. I have to agree with you 100% that God loves us all. We are all His children and we are all created equally. He does want us all to be happy, you're right about that.

What you don't seem to understand sweet Miley, is that God loves us, not sin. He did not put us here with scriptures and commandments for us to ignore them and live our lives as we please thinking that sin does not matter because He 'loves us'. You have chosen to stay abstinent from sex until marriage. Why? If God loves us no matter what, why would He care if you chose to go ahead and have sex?

We are told to love our neighbors and not judge. However, no where in the scriptures or anywhere else God has given instruction does it tell us that we may pervert the ways of the Lord and it's all good. We are still required to love all those around us, but we do not have to accept the sin. There are always consequences for our actions, good or bad. God destroyed an entire city because of the sin of homosexuality. The scriptures are clear that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. He has not changed His mind on this matter.

Of all the things the press has criticized you for, I'm shocked that this one wasn't on the front page. I think you have been a great role model and we have thoroughly enjoy watching you entertain us. I must say though, I'm uncomfortable letting my children look to a young woman who professes to be a devout Christian and yet encourages blatant sin. I'm hoping this lapse of judgement comes from your youth and exposure to a world where Christian values have been distorted and thrown by the wayside. Sin is sin and no unclean thing will enter into His Kingdom. I encourage you to pray for real understanding.

With love and concern,
Laurie

Chelsey's Prom #1 2009

I call it Prom #1 because she is going to another prom in two weeks. Because the school's proms are soooo expensive ($80 tickets), our Stake (church) decided to throw a prom of their own. They did it up really nice and tickets were only $5 and that included pictures! So I'm guessing the school prom was a little empty because there are a lot of LDS kids choosing this over that. Chelsey was asked by a boy named Vance, who she only met a short time ago. I had brought home two dresses from the Kammerers and she decided she wanted to wear them both. That works! She chose the white one for last night. She didn't get off work till 4 pm, went straight to Julia's house to get her hair and makeup done, then home by 5:24. He picked her up at 5:30. I felt bad for her that everything was so rushed. She didn't have time to primp or "last minute" anything. Pictures were a little awkward cuz she was still running at full blast and they don't know each other that well so they weren't real cozy or anything. I had made some inconvenient trips to get a boutonniere and then while I was trying to put it on him, I snapped it in half. Nice. Sorry Chelsey! They went to dinner, then to the dance and were home by 10:30. We were pleasantly surprised that she was home so early since she had had such a busy day and 8 am church in the morning. The dance ended at 10 and he hadn't planned for anything afterward. Works for me! She had a lot of fun though.

Chelsey and Vance Prom 2009

an unexpected trip

Saturday rolled around and we all had different directions to go as usual. Glade, Stephen and Rhett all went to scout day camp, Chelsey had a meeting, then work, then prom, and we were supposed to help with an eagle project, but didn't make it. Because we had just gotten Chelsey's dresses the night before, we needed to get them to fit a little better, so my trusty mom grabbed her sewing machine and headed over. Chelsey had just enough time between meeting and work to be sized, shower and gather her things. I realized that today would be my only opportunity to go get Bo's birthday presents for Wednesday without him and Katy being with me. After I got my mom settled, I headed out to get his gifts.

I had gotten a $10 Kohl's card in the mail and wanted to go get another shirt like one I already had but in a different color. I headed there first and ended up being there for an hour or so. It was actually really fun! There were so many pretty colors and styles to choose from. I haven't done a lot of shopping since I very first lost some of my weight. I took armfuls into the dressing room just wondering what would fit and what would look decent. Many things didn't, but some did! Mom and I hadn't gone and done my birthday shopping yet since I didn't really need anything at the time. I called her and asked if she was ready....lol! I picked out what I wanted and she came and paid for them. They weren't things I would normally choose, but it was fun to branch out a little bit. The best part of the shopping was that I didn't bring home anything that had an "X" on it. Wooohooo!

After I finished and ran to Target for Bo's stuff, mom and I went to lunch. It was a grand lunch that included way too many calories, but the company and the weather were fabulous! I got home just in time to have a quick nap then start getting ready for our games night and ward rodeo. Glade took the kids to the rodeo so I could stay and help Chelsey get ready. I'm sure I missed many photo ops there since they were chasing chickens and pigs and riding horses and bulls. Yes, they rode an actual bull and most of them have the bruises to prove it!

Games night was enjoyable as always. We met for dinner and planned to go goofy golfing, but stayed and chatted too long. It was getting late and I was tired and still needed to get ready for Sunday so we just headed home. I think the rest went bowling. It was a long, but great day.

The hunt, the spud and the laughter

I'm not sure if I have mentioned that on Monday, Chelsey was asked to a different Prom than the one I previously posted about. She was very excited, but extremely stressed because this one is today. She only had 5 days notice and she was busy every night this week. She didn't even do anything cute to answer him. She just called and said she was trying to work it out. She was scheduled for an 11 hour shift at work today. She was able to get a kid to work the last part of it, but she has to work right up until "go time". We haven't had any time to look for a dress so Thursday, her friend gave her one to borrow, but she doesn't love it. Last night, we went on a frantic search to find something a little more desirable but came up empty. Most places weren't even carrying them anymore and the one that did, was very expensive. Luckily I have great friends. A friend from my last ward made a few phone calls and hooked me up with another friend from that ward who had several to choose from. Right size and everything! After our date night, we went over and looked at them. Chelsey was at work, so she didn't even get to be a part of any of it. I brought two that were so pretty home for her to choose from. She is still asleep so I don't even know what she thought of them. My great mom reminded me of the boutonniere, which I had to pay a fortune for, since we waited till the last minute. Hopefully we got all the bases covered and she will have a great time.

Yesterday I was craving meat and potatoes. For our date night, two couples and us, went to Joe's BBQ for a giant potato topped with a big scoop of BBQed meat. Mmmmmm! Really hit the spot. After, we went to see 17 Again. Yes, are husbands were good sports to go. Actually, it was really funny! Even the guys said it was better than they expected. We almost took Whitley with us, but I'm glad we didn't. It's definitely not Disney! You have to let "troy" go, cuz he would never say or do some of the things his new character does. I wouldn't call it bad or inappropriate, just more mature. Not sure my girls will go. It really was funny though. I would certainly not want to be 17 again!

Will these grow?

You just never know what goes through the mind of a child. Today Bo woke up from his nap and came to ask for a snack. As I was getting it for him, he lifts up his shirt, points to his ..(sorry, can't say the word) and says "Are these gonna grow on me?" I told him "no" with a puzzled tone in my voice. Then he says "Brooklyn's are." Yikes! I hadn't noticed that, but maybe I will have to check. I assured him that his wouldn't and he walked off eating his fruit rollup. Beautiful.

all things brighter in the morning

It's seems obvious that the morning is brighter because the sun comes up. But, why is it that worries and anxieties seem less in the morning than when you go to bed? The past two nights I have spent worrying and trying to solve some minor crisis going on around here and then when I wake up, it doesn't seem as dire as it did at 2 am. Strange how that works. I'm hoping we are dealing with just a slight case of "braindead" and that she will snap out of it. Always has in the past, so I'm fairly confident this time around. Although, with a teenager, you just never know!

I rocked at Bunko last night!! I know that's funny since it's a total game of luck, but I did! I got two bunkos, I can't even remember the last time I had one. I had high score and most wins. Unfortunately, the gifts of the night weren't right up my alley so I just took home my own Chick Fil A gift card. Shocking, huh? We love chick fil a! The night was good, but I was really tired. I agreed to babysit for a girl all through nap time. Another shocker, I just don't do that. But I was being nice so I did and her baby screamed most of the entire 3 hours she was here. It was only supposed to be for an hour and a half, but it kinda stretched a little. I can't say I was super pleased with the whole situation so I'm totally sure it was service with no rewards. I got no points in Heaven for that one!

Today I wanted to go to the mall to get some walking in. I just washed my hair, so I don't want to really sweat, but I should do something to burn a few calories after all I ate at Bunko! I just can't seem to find the energy for that. Staying home in my PJ's seems much more enticing. Even if it means I have to do laundry! I'm kind of sore from yesterday anyway. Today's challenge from Bob is 300 crunches by the end of the day. I did crunches yesterday so my tummy is already sore, but I'm going to do it anyway. Can't really hurt worse, right?

Today Katy is going to eat her email while she watches the yogurts play in the field.
Actually, Katy is going to eat her oatmeal while she watches the goats play in the field. It's hard to correct them when they are so dang cute!

Fat Vs. Thin

Some days I'm fat Laurie and others thin Laurie. Some days I'm even both. Lately there has been a raging battle going on that I would really like to end! When I'm fat Laurie, I quit or don't even start doing the things I know I should. I say things like "tomorrow I'll be good" or "just for tonight I won't worry about it". When I'm thin Laurie I get up and get to the gym first thing, I resist food temptations and feel good about doing it. The worst is days when I'm both. We will take the last few days for example.

Eating: Thin Laurie orders a sensible meal and feels full afterwards. Fat Laurie comes along and starts gobbling up the things the children didn't finish. Thin Laurie goes to Taco Bell and only orders a bean burrito, after, of course, arguing with fat Laurie about getting a taco to go with it. Thin Laurie is so proud she didn't do it. Then when she gets home, fat Laurie eats some of the dinner left out on the counter.

Exercising: Thin Laurie loves it! Fat Laurie doesn't hate it, but wants it to be minimal. These two always argue on the treadmill. Keep running - no stop - no go - it's too hard - your strong - I don't want to - you can beat this - we've gone far enough - no one more......I think you get the point.

Why can't fat Laurie be squelched forever?? How will I ever keep the weight off if fat Laurie still lives inside me? It's very frustrating. It's much easier to keep fat Laurie under control when the weight is coming off so I'm hoping that the more that happens, the stronger thin Laurie will become and she will conquer fat Laurie once and for all. Down with fat Laurie!!

Why?

Is it ever OK to judge people? I'm not even sure judging is the right word. How about shake your head at them and wonder "why?". My first real interest in an occupation was being a psychologist. It stemmed from always being curious about why people do the things they do. I would even venture to say that I spend way too much time dwelling on the "why"s even when I know I will never know the answer.

I try really hard to look for the "good why"s for why people do what they do. You know, like when they drive stupid. First I am frustrated, then I tell myself 'maybe they are late for an important meeting' or something like that. I especially don't like to judge at the gym. You just have no idea where people are on their journey. However, there are exceptions. There are just a few things at the gym that make me think "WHY?" Yesterday I was running along on the treadmill which causes me to breath hard. The only way to control your breathing is to breathe deeply. A girl came and got on the one next to me. I saw her from my peripheral vision, but I smelled her a mile away. Seriously! Here comes the why - WHY do you bathe yourself in perfume before you come to work out? My nose was burning. I couldn't help but look over at her and then came the other why, WHY do put on full stage makeup to come work out? She also had a white towel with her that I couldn't wait to see her use. No luck, it never left the machine. That would be because she never sweated. Now, I'm not judging her really. Anyone who goes to the gym is there to be healthier and look better. Great. I just wonder WHY?? The gym should be a smell free zone. No body odor, no cigarette smell, no smelly lotions. Just use deodorant and leave the rest behind. My nose would be oh so grateful!

If I seem grouchy or overly sensitive, I just might be. I have done so good this last week and I can't get my dang scale to budge. I'm one pound away from dropping to a new set of tens and a set of tens I haven't been in since pretty much before I started having kids. Come on already!

Happy Birthday to Stephen

I officially have four teenagers now. Woo hoo!! Stephen's birthday was Sunday and not very eventful. He had a campout over the weekend and this week is totally busy. We have no idea when or if there will be time for a party. He is pretty bummed about that and Sunday wasn't looking like much of a celebration either. While I was laying down for my afternoon nap, I was racking my brain with what I could do to make the day good. This is what I came up with:

Always have posterboard and balloons on hand!

Not to mention cake mix! I have to say that I intentionally spelled his name wrong. Right after I did the S I knew there wouldn't be enough room, so I put an apostrophe where the E was supposed to be. Totally lame cake, but better than none at all!

I remembered there was a bottle of silly string in my closet that we thought was colored hair spray at Halloween. I dug that out for a bit of "surprise". Oh yeah, he had choir practice, so when he was gone, we put all this together and surprised him when he got home. Whitley blindfolded him and brought him down and when she removed it, Glade nailed him with the silly string.

Then he turned on the other kids. Katy was NOT happy. She whined for an hour "no spray me!"

What was his reaction?? "That stuff stinks!"

He only asked for one thing. He said he really could not think of anything he wanted. I had already gotten him that one thing and so it wasn't really very exciting. Soooo, we made up a little treasure hunt to get him to his gifts. It started with a little box of candy with a note in it, wrapped in Disney princess paper.

The kids followed him around trying really hard to not give away the clues.

His clues led him upstairs, then we brought his gifts out to the living room. Pretty original.

He had asked for the rest of the Fablehaven series. We had the first and the last, but not the middle two. I also threw in a D-backs hat. That day he had told me all he really wanted was his map fixed. Katy had torn his prized world map off his wall and ripped a piece off. He cried about that one! I assured him I could fix it, I just hadn't yet. So I did and now his map looks like his face, a big scar on it!

We had homemade pizza for dinner and then proceeded with the traditional blowing out of the candles. I think in the end it was a just fine birthday. I'm glad my brain works fast and we have lots of kids to make it look like a party! He is a great kid and I love him completely!

After the birthday celebration, we all snuggled up on pillows and blankets and watched the movie "The Ultimate Gift". Thanks Julia, I really will get it back to you. My kids did really well and stuck with it. Nick even asked if we could download it to his MP3. I love having the whole family over for Sunday dinner, but sometimes a nice quiet evening at home with all my kids is really really enjoyable.

Beauty and the Beast

Whitley has been diligently fine tuning her "fork" appeal. She was part of the enchanted dancers AKA silverwear, napkins, plates, etc. She did great and only tripped once! This is the first play that she was the only one in our family participating. She always makes great friends and has wonderful memories of her time spent at the PAC. We love you Whitley, you make an amazing fork!

It's been .......a day.

This is how my DAY started. Actually it was about 2:30 this morning when Katy came in to my room barking like a seal. This lasted about 2 hours. I have a breathing machine, but didn't think I had any medicine for it. I was wrong, but didn't find that out till this afternoon. Then at 5:45 Glade's alarm went off....grrr. No biggie, I had to be at the church at 7:15 to get to Leader Specific training. Just what I wanted to spend my Saturday doing. Three long treacherous hours to get that stupid patch. But now I'm done!! I came home, grabbed some lunch and laid down for a nap.

First Rhett came in 2 times wanting to know if he could play with this friend or that. Then Stephen called and said he would be home in 10 minutes and needed $3 to give his friend. Then Katy woke up and started the barking all over again. I called my trusted friend Julia and she said I could have some of her viles for the machine. I asked Chelsey to drive over and get them still having some hope of a nap. Nope. Chelsey came back in: "mom, I need help!" Our driveway has a very steep drop off on our neighbors side. She drove off of that and couldn't get the car back on so she decided to 3 point turn and just drive through the neighbor's yard and over their burm. No biggie. Except that their burm IS a biggie. The car just sort of teetered on the top of the burm with none of the wheels touching. Glade wasn't home, but on his way. Luckily our neighbor happened to walk by and decided he could help. He brought a big strap and hooked it to the back. When Glade got home, they tried pushing it backwards, but the wheels weren't touching so it wouldn't move. Finally Glade just backed his truck up to it, hooked the strap to his hitch and pulled her backward. What a mess. The scraping and grinding that were going on were stomach churning. She eventually got out and we checked the car over not finding any serious damage. Sigh. I guess it could have been much worse.

No nap, I'm so tired and I really just wanted to go run all morning. It's all I could think about. I decided to have a nap then run, but now I'm just too tired. Tonight is Whitley's play performance so we are going to that. Right now I would just like this day to end. Preferably with me tucked snugly in bed and off to dreamland. So many hours left!!!

Oh yeah, Chelsey got asked to Spring Formal last night....twice. Since the Prom is so expensive, our stake (church) is putting on a formal dance. It's only $5 per person and that includes pictures. NICE! Chelsey has been on the planning committee so she has had a say in what it would be and decorations and such. Really fun for her. She had heard that a boy was going to ask her, but really wanted a different boy to so I think somehow she got that message across because he invited one of her friends instead. Then another boy at school told her he was going to ask. He is a little on the special needs side so she wasn't really sure he even knew what he was talking about. Then yesterday afternoon, one of her friends came and put a banner on the side of the house asking her to go with him. Later that night, another boy brought her a t-shirt that had a cute little thing asking her to go with him. What to do??? It's rough when you're so sweet and well liked!

I almost didn't take pictures, but I just couldn't let it go undocumented.