Do You Run?

I ran six miles the other day!  And in a fairly decent time as well.  Was feeling pretty good about myself I must say.Ü  Until.....  I went to a Famous store that sells Footwear to buy a new pair of running shoes.  Buying new shoes is always a stressful thing.  You can't really know if you are going to like them until you actually run in them and then it's too late to return them if you don't.  Well, I was minding my own business when the worker girl came over and asked if I needed anything.  First let me just say, if I need something I will come ask you!!  No, I'm fine.  But you gotta kind of tell them what your doing as they hover over you.  When I mentioned something about running, don't even know what I said, but her reaction I cannot forget.  She says to me "Do you run?"  with her eyebrows raised.  Uh, yes?  Now I'm feeling like a turd on a rock in the bright sunshine.  I reply something like this "yes, well sort of.. I mean... I used to run a lot better, but I got hurt, so I'm not that good.. I guess I really don't need that good of shoes..."  I left... with no shoes.

I went somewhere else where the employees were not rude and insulting and bought myself a new pair of shoes.  I know I'm old, and overweight and do not LOOK like a runner.  I wouldn't even go so far as to call myself a runner, but I DO run.  Maybe in the future, Miss Rudebottom, you should humor me and act like I look exactly like a runner and maybe I would have bought some shoes from you.  And I wouldn't have felt like a schmuck all day.

Literal

We have a new "policy" in our family.  We have never really let our kids leave church to go to the bathroom or get a drink.  Just opens a door to a lot of chaos.  Now that we have church at noon, it's been a little harder to enforce that rule.  First, Katy has some potty issues so I hate to not let her go if she says she needs to and second, who knows what they've had to drink all morning that's finally ran through them.  It started to be an issue so I told them both that if they left to go potty, they would have a 5 minute timeout when we get home.  Today, before it started, I asked them both to go potty and reminded them of our new policy.  They both said they were good.

Well we weren't but half way in when Katy says she needs to go.  I tell her fine, but she has a timeout.  She starts to cry.  I shush her and remind her of our agreement and that I asked her to go 20 min beforehand.  She didn't want to go because she didn't want a timeout, but decided it was worth it so she went.  As soon as she got back, she asked if she still had a timeout.  I told her she did and she began to cry again.

Much later, Bo says he has to go.  I also remind him of the new policy and he says that's fine.  He stays gone for a really long time.  Longer than it takes to go potty.  I assumed he had to.. ya know.. #2 since he'd been gone so long and then understood why he was willing to take the timeout.  When he finally got back, I asked why he had taken so long.  He looked at me a bit surprised and said "because you said I had to have a 5 minute timeout.  I counted to 60 five times!".  I have to give him Kudos for being obedient, but I'm not really thinking an extra 5 minutes NOT in church counts as a punishment.

Pre Halloween

On Tuesday, we went to Grandma's house to rummage through our Halloween stuff.  I can't believe how many costumes we have!  When the kids were little, she made so many things.  Now they are bigger, there aren't as many options, but still stuff to be able to put something together.  I think everyone left with something to wear or at least enough pieces to make a costume.  We had mac and cheese and spent some good time with Grandma.

Jenny and I decided to get pedicures this week.  Normally I'm a pink girl.  I've tried other colors, but I just really like pink!  But this month I can get out of my box to do something fun like this.  I love how it turned out!!  The eyes are little red sparkles.  Even the lady who did them asked if she could take a picture, too funny.  It's been lots of fun to have these little guys go everywhere with me. Ü

Caramel Corn

 I had really been craving movie popcorn and unfortunately, there has been nothing good at the theater.  I posted on FB about my desires and a day or so later, Whitley came home from the PAC with this garbage bag of popcorn.  They had had a fall break camp that week and this was left over from their movie day. Molly had seen my post so she told Whitley to bring it home to me.  We ate it and ate it and ate it.  My kids were almost as happy as I was.  After about a week, I decided to get creative.  I was going to make caramel corn.  I have never done it so I was a little nervous about giving it a try.

It was so easy!!  I made 3 batches over the course of the week.  I had to bring Molly a small sampling so I could return the favor.  Now we are out of popcorn altogether.  What to do???  

Employment

My boys finally got jobs!!  It took many trips around the shopping plaza and a lot of pushing at home, but they finally did it!!  Stephen had two interviews at Chick fil A and we really thought that would be where he ended up.  On a whim, he went into Rosati's pizza because they had a "now hiring" sign outside.  10 min later he was a hired man.  Weird.  The very next day, Nick got a call from McDonalds asking for an interview in 2 hours.  We rushed home, cleaned him up and before he left the building, he was also a hired man!  So happy!!  That would be me, so happy!  These two are too big to be sitting around my house wasting their lives away.  It was really starting to get on my nerves.

Stephen has worked for two weeks now and seems to be enjoying it. At first he was answering phones and now he has stepped in as Pizza Maker.  His boss called him a "good rookie" and they are totally willing to let him have Sundays off.  Nick was supposed to go to his first training on Tuesday, but they postponed it a week.  He should get started this week.  They also said he didn't have to work Sundays.  Let's hope all this good fortune lasts. Ü

Marathon Saturday

5:10 Brooklyn and Rhett get up to get ready for their events.  Rhett had a race and Brooklyn had a Temple walk.  The Young Women in our ward hiked from the San Tan mountains to the new Temple in Gilbert, roughly 13.2 miles.  Good thing she has been training in cross country!  She did really well and made it the whole way.  I believe they got there right around noon.

5:45 get out of bed to get ready for Rhett's race in Glendale.  That's over an hour away.. a really long way for a 20 min race, but he's worth it!  I rode with Mom and we used GPS to get us there, only it took us 8 miles farther than we needed to go so we almost missed the start of the race.  We got there just in time to let him know we were there.  He wasn't feeling well the night before so I wanted to see how he was this morning.  Said he felt mostly good.  This wasn't a race you could see them along the path so we pretty much just had to wait at the finish line to see how he did.  Because the same kids race most the time, you kinda know when to expect him to come in.  The last time he ran this course, he came in 30th with a 23 something time.  Today he was 20th with a PR of 21:25.  Awesome!!  I hate that the finish is so anticlimactic. He is among the first 3 of his team to finish so there isn't anyone really to welcome him in.  Then we always have to leave right away because he has to get to play practice.  Kinda sad for him, BUT the price you pay for being so multi talented.

7:00 Stephen and Nick leave to go support the YW on their walk. They made signs of encouragement and helped to provide them with snacks and drinks along the way.

8:30 Bo and Dalin leave for Glee rehearsal

9:15 heading home from the race, pick up Nick and Stephen to get them to their next event.

10:15 drop Nick off at the kids school to help Glade with the Spinny Thing.  Bo's class had a booth for the carnival but they cancelled on them 2 days before so we offered to let them use the Spinny Thing as their booth.  Glade and Nick spent the next 3 hours spinning it.  Katy got to go with them since there was no one left at home to watch her.  She spent the whole day outside at the carnival and has the sunburn to prove it.

10:30 Start Glee rehearsal with my groups.  Dalin and  Bo still had practice in another room and  Rhett and  Stephen both had Mermaid practice from 11 - 2.  We ended at noon so I took Dalin and Bo to grab a pizza and some cupcakes (supposed to be donuts but Glade forgot to bring them home) to give to Katy's class for their cake walk and then off to the carnival.  I went to give the cupcakes to her teacher but the teacher said they had an overload but I could just leave them in her room.  I told her I would like to keep them since I was also asked to bring a treat to a baptism later that day as well and hadn't had time to make anything.  Worked out perfect! I checked on Glade and Nick, divvied up game tickets and headed back to pick up Stephen and Rhett.

1:45 Brought Rhett and Stephen to the carnival and spent the next hour and a half chilling there.  The kids had a great time and Nick and Glade got some relief from Stephen and our great friend Jake who both came to help spin.  While at the carnival, I bought 10 raffle tickets for $5 and put them in a few jars of some things I wouldn't mind winning.  I'm always suckered in to the "maybe I'll actually be the winner this time!".  Glade had to leave at 3 to get ready for the baptism he was speaking at and I left about 20 minutes later taking all my sticky, sweaty kids home.  Nick and Jake stayed to Spin.  Stephen left with Glade since he had to work at 4.

2:00 Brooklyn calls and says she's home from the walk and had an awesome time but that it was hard and she was really tired.

3:45 Had enough time at home to clean up, put on a dress and head to the baptism.  Took my Hello Kitty cupcakes with me and enjoyed a very beautiful occasion for a woman who works with some friends of ours. So happy for her.  Glade did an awesome job with his talk and it was nice to just sit in the cool, quiet church for an hour.

4:45 Checked my phone, which had been on silent and saw that I had 4 missed calls.  I didn't recognize one of the numbers and it had called 3 times.  I called it back and it was a woman from the school telling me I had won a few things in the raffle!  She didn't remember what but said she left me messages.  I called them and found out I had won a $45 gift card to a salon/spa and 4 entries to this fall festival thing. I actually think I won 2 sets of those, but my messages were a little garbled so I won't know till Monday when I go pick it all up. I never win!!!  This was a crazy fun thing to actually be the winner. ♥

5:20 Ran home just long enough to change back into street clothes, say "hey" to the kids who were crashed all over my living room, notice the pile of feathers from my now dead chicken and head back out for a dinner date with friends.  First we had to go pick up the Spinny Thing (which is no small ordeal) and then went to a friends fundraiser dinner to enjoy scones with some of our bestest friends.  I love that it doesn't matter what we do, but that it's always a great time when we get together.

8:00 Rhett leaves for his costume themed Stake Dance with our neighbors

9:00 Arrived home after getting ice cream with our friends, tucked in my exhausted little ones and fell into my waiting bed.

9:45 Get phone call saying Stephen is ready to be picked up, thank goodness for Glade!

10:45 get woken up by Rhett ringing the doorbell because we forgot he was gone and locked him out of the house.  Decided in a groggy, half asleep state of mind that we must have had too many children since I can't even remember where they all happen to be.

You may have noticed no report of Whitley here.  Well, she spent the day in her dating bliss hanging out with her boyfriend.  I guess that's just the way of it these days.

My main goal on days like these is to try to enjoy the thing I'm doing and not just stress through each thing worrying about the next thing on the list. I think I did pretty good. Ü  Funny how so many things can get scheduled on the same day.  Lots of good things and some pretty good memories, can't complain about that.

Cross Country Update

 Last Saturday Rhett and Brooklyn ran their first actual "cross country" meet.  By that I mean, it was on really rough terrain with a lot of ups and downs.  It was really challenging.

The Start Line.  We warned Rhett not to worry about his time because it definitely wouldn't be his fastest with all the hills and terrain.  He can get discouraged easily and this was his first run since the Twilight race where he ran his 21 something.

 This is one of the hills, and not even the worst.  See the people down there?  There was one spot where it was pretty steep and super loose gravel.  I felt bad for them.

 First lap around, 16th place

 
 Coming down the homestretch.  Because of the steepness of the hill at the finish line, they had to put up barriers to slow them down.

 Done!  He finished 18th, and had his second best time!  Whoa, I couldn't hardly believe it.  He said his calves were killing him, thought he pulled a muscle. I assured him it was the hills making them hurt.  He killed it.

 Brooklyn at the start line

 I had to leave to get Rhett to play practice so I didn't get to see Brooklyn run.  Good 'ole Grandma got some pictures though.  I was really worried about her because she struggles to finish on a flat surface, this was going to be really tough for her.

 She did it!!  It wasn't fast and there were two girls behind her, but she finished.  I was very proud of her!

See our good friends there cheering her on?  I love our friends!!

A Bright Spot

With as "unhappy" as I've been with a few of my children lately, I always seem to have this little cutie as a bright spot.  She's still sweet and hardly ever is sassy or non compliant.  My mornings are free to take care of business while she is at school being the perfect student (she tells me that every day).  Then I get to spend the rest of the afternoon with her.  We often times go to lunch or run errands or sometimes just chill at home (not her favorite thing to do).  Yesterday we met Chelsey for lunch and I knew it might get a little hairy cuz she had been up since about 5 am.  She still naps everyday without fail, except Sundays.  This day she made mention that she asked EVERY kid in her class if they still took naps and she said she was the ONLY one who had to take a nap.  I asked if her naps made her feel good and she said "yes".  So I explained that it didn't really matter if the kids in her class did, it makes us happy so we do it!  This was her ten minutes later. Practically Perfect in Every Way♥

Mommy Tantrum

I'm totally guilty.  Yelling, slamming, crying on my bed... I did it all.  But in my defense, THEY made me do it!  Most days I'm patient and in control.  Ok, well sort of.  Anyway, the last two days have put me over the edge.  In a nutshell, here's what THEY did:

-Every kid but Katy got a D on their report card
-made me drive 50 miles roundtrip just to FAIL a foodhandlers test. Nope, no studying "thought it would all be common sense".
-made me drive a really long ways as part of an organized "play date" for teenagers and then didn't bother to come home when agreed upon, 2 hours late actually.
-2 got kicked off the bus for a day because they're idiots.  They will be walking.
-turned two of my family activities into screaming, crying events.
-made some really rash decisions that make NO sense
-have I mentioned the constant punching?
-leaving serious bite marks on another child's arm. No, there are no babies in this house.
-popcorn and gogurt wrappers everywhere.  Apparently we have a maid that will come and take care of all their garbage.
-coming seriously close to being kicked out of my van 15 miles from home.  I would have done it.

the REAL Smith Family

This is just over a TWO day period.  Somewhere I have failed miserably.  What I know for sure is that even a Mom isn't above a little tantrum now and again.  It's all THEIR fault.

Fall Break at the Cabin

We had very last minute and tentative plans to trip up to Utah for conference, but it just wasn't meant to be.  But now my mind was in gear for getting out of this hot hellish place for the week.  I was determined to go to Utah for the week anyway.  Then Stephen got a job interview for Wednesday so now there wasn't time to get that far.  Camping??  I must go somewhere!!  I had a fleeting thought about the cabin we went to a few years ago.. the snowed in with no water or electricity cabin.  I had Chelsey make a call, it's her friends cabin, and sure enough..available.  Only for two nights though and one was Sunday.  Jenny agreed to come with me so we decided to leave after dinner Sunday.  The ride up was uneventful and the kids were all crazy when we first got there.  Bo somehow turned on the heater so we were trying to get that off ASAP.  The cabin has 4 bedrooms so pretty much everyone got a bed of some kind.  

The following two days we hiked a little, got some runs in and of course the boys explored the forest around us.  We played board games, watched a few movies, went to the park in town and ate TONS of crap. The weather was beautiful and the nights were quite cool.  Everyone got a long really well and we managed to get through with no serious injuries.  That's quite an accomplishment if you were to have witnessed the rock hills, knife throwing, stair sliding, etc that goes on when there's a house full of boys!

We stayed till about dinner time on Tuesday then headed to Payson for some Taco Bell.  All seemed to be well at this point.  I guess it was a rough trip through the mountains cuz shortly before coming into town.  Tessa told us she needed to throw up.  She used a Kohl's bag we had laying around.  Poor thing.  Then Bo said he was going to puke, then Dalin and Katy followed with their threats.  Dalin actually followed through and we were able to get him a bag in time.  Katy just cried saying her throat hurt.  By now it smelled awful and everyone was freaking out.  There's wasn't anything I could do until we got to town.  There's a CVS right as you come past Ussery so we pulled into the parking lot and everyone bailed.  As Dalin was getting out, he discovered his bag had a hole in it and it was leaking.  In his panic, he swung it around a bit and now it was all over Kimball's leg and lots of the bedding.  Oh the smell.

I ran in and bought wipes and gum while Jenny frantically tried to save what she could.  I'm sure we were a sight.  I do NOT clean up puke so she, unfortunately, got that job.  My shame was not enough to overpower my gag reflex.  After cleaning up what we could, we got everyone back in, tried to spray some scented stuff and rode with the windows down for a while.  Quite a memorable ending to our little vacay.

Brooklyn's a Teenager

Brooklyn turned thirteen a couple of weeks ago.  It was a Sunday, so she didn't get to go to school and get fussed over by all her friends.  Hopefully we will get a party planned sometime soon.  We had a big breakfast and then let her open her gifts.  

 Katy made her this picture of a cat and then wrapped it for her.

Normally we have family over for dinner but everyone had conflicts this week so we invited friends over instead.  We served the Bryants famous BBQ pork and made her a birthday brownie/cookie cake.  We all gathered to sing to her and then she made her wish and blew!

 Apparently there were trick candles mixed in with the normal ones.  I didn't  even know we had any trick candles, but when those couple lit back up, it was a big surprise to all of us.

 Waiting... waiting... waiting...I guess we're good this time...

 NOT!!  she blew on those couple of candles like six times and finally we all got tired of waiting for the cake so we just took them out.  Fun times!