First Day of Break

Well, actually, I'll start with last night. After a relaxing Sunday, we loaded everyone up to go pack up donuts to deliver to our friends in the ward. Didn't start well because the van was leaking all over the garage floor. Glade added water and we headed out. It was a little late to start, but we rushed and packed them all up (about 40 boxes) and headed back home. We didn't even get started delivering until 8:40, not good. The van was overheating as well, another not good. We tried to hit all the areas where there were multiple homes so we could get as much done as possible in a short amount of time. The kids were mostly cooperative, except Katy, she just wanted to go to sleep. It went well and we delivered our last box at 10 pm and decided it was too late to go anywhere else. Even the last ones we did, I texted first to make sure they were awake. So, we didn't hit everyone we wanted to, we still had 10 boxes left in the back so we may try again another night to get the rest, we'll see.

This morning I found myself still in bed after 8 am. NICE! Some of the kids were up, but stayed upstairs playing with a magic kit Dalin got at our family Christmas. I got right into my running clothes so I could get on the treadmill, which I did not do until after 11 am. I did it though and made it completely through my schedule. Yeah me! Spent most of the morning trying to find Chelsey a new cell phone. Her's was stolen this week at school, so she got a new one on Friday. On Sunday, she dropped it in the toilet. Now it doesn't work right. Brand spankin new and she ruined it. That girl.

Glade took the van to work so he could fix the water pump. The kids played outside almost the entire day, it was very quiet in here. After naps, I headed out to get my nails done and get stuff to do gingerbread houses in the morning. Since the kids had been home all day, and I didn't have time to make dinner at this point, I told them to get dressed, they were coming to Costco with me. We only had Glade's truck so the 8 of us (two big girls elsewhere) loaded into the truck and headed out. We were scrunched, but all buckled. It was mostly a pleasant trip and I didn't feel like my blood pressure was skyrocketing or anything. We sat and ate pizza and churros and then headed home. We were singing on the way home and decided to stop by where Whitley was babysitting and carol to her. That was fun and I think she liked it too. Once we unloaded groceries, we started the fireplace and settled down to watch Arthur's Perfect Christmas. I love that movie! It turned out to be a great Family Away Evening!

No Idea

I have no idea where I have left off blogging and don't have time to go back and read it all. This week was as crazy as all the rest. Partly because my husband had a crazy project at work, so I hardly saw him all week. Thursday I got to go help with Bo's Christmas party at preschool, that was fun and Katy loved being able to tag along. Thursday night I did some shopping by myself to use a few coupons I still had. Found the perfect ornament for Glade and got all the 'stocking stuff'.

Friday morning, we went to Grandma's house because she, along with Glade, also deserted me this week and we missed her as well. Whitley made a really yummy dessert that we gobbled up and then it was time to go get the kids - half day! I hate half days. But anyway, uneventful afternoon and then I took off for my date with Glade. We had dinner at TexasRoadhouse and then went to my mom's to wrap all the presents. Lots of years we do this on Christmas Eve, but she lives farther away now, so we do it early. Now we can just go pick everything up and Christmas Eve doesn't end up late and stressful. We spent almost 4 hours getting it all done. I was tired and my back hurt. But, it was nice spending time with my two favorite people.

Somewhere along the line, we got 3 new chickens. They were a really good deal, but they are rotten. They keep torturing the other 3 chickens, not good. We'll see if they can all learn to get along. Now, we're off to the family Christmas party, pictures later!

My New Treadmill (and chickens)

My super great friend Dacia was letting me use her treadmill to see if I would really use it at home before I invested in one. I loved being able to get on it whenever it was convenient and cutting out the hour of travel/prep time it took to go to the gym. The only problem was that her treadmill wasn't quite strong enough to handle a lot of running. I finally convinced Glade that it would be cheaper to just buy one and cancel our gym membership. Yeah!! There was one at Costco that had really good ratings via the Treadmill Doctor. The only problem was that they were selling out of them and only had the display left and it was pretty beat up. They told him where else he could find one and when he got there, there was only the display left there as well. The good news is that this one was in good shape, plus $150 off. Yippee! It totally rocks. I mean that literally too. The sound system is amazing. We have both run on it and it appears that it is pretty smooth and is going to be ok. The great thing about buying it at Costco is that if we decide we hate it, they will take it back. Gotta love Costco!

So Glade set me up on that training program which I have no good excuse to not stick to now that I have a really good treadmill. Today was the 7 mile run. I have only ever run that far once and it was actually 9 miles on a whim. I made it and only 30 seconds past my allotted time! I'm pretty sure I'll be sore tomorrow but I don't run again till Saturday and that's a 10 miler. I just need to get my confidence up and tell myself I can do this!

On to the chickens. My friend called and said she found 3 month old chickens for $10. I said "I'm in!" Turns out they were from a girl we knew that moved a while ago. She got me three of them and we should have eggs by spring. That, of course, is dependant upon them surviving that long. We will be "eating" our rather large chickens by the end of the year. Such fun!

10 Days till Christmas

How did it almost get here already. I have had the bulk of my shopping done for some time now, so I could just enjoy the month with relaxing fun activities. Hasn't happened yet. I don't feel like there are enough Monday nights to do all the activities I have planned, books, movies, projects, outings....I haven't even watched hardly any of my traditional movies yet. Can you be stressed from NOT doing Christmas stuff?

Monday we were supposed to do Gingerbread houses, but I couldn't pull it all together by then, so we read a story and wrapped presents for a family we are helping out for Christmas. Other than being a little chaotic, that was fun. We listened to Christmas music and tried to get everything wrapped with the right names on it. We had a fun dessert that we don't normally have,with a promise of gingerbread houses soon. The kids were all really good sports about it.

Tonight was pack meeting. That was part of the reason I couldn't get it together Monday, procrastination of scouts. It was lucky for me that Glade stayed home from work yesterday so I was able to go get all the errands run without any little ones. Very productive. Pack Meeting was Ok, and now I get a day of rest. Sort of. My mother in law is in charge of our Christmas program and she asked me to play the flute for our party on Saturday. I haven't played since 9th grade. Whitley's flute was broken so I had to borrow one (Thanks Valeen!). To my surprise, it did come back pretty easily. My mouth muscles got really tired really fast and that was weird. I need to spend a lot more time on the fluidity and timing of it, but at least I remembered the notes and positions.

I also started my training schedule for running this week. I'm very frustrated with that. It seems like everyone around me starts out, gets better and flies right by me. Why can't I improve like that. I know I don't push myself super hard, but it has never gotten easier. I keep waiting for what I'm doing to feel easier and it never does, so I don't push harder. It's very discouraging. Tomorrow I have to go 7 miles. The pace is pretty slow, but I've only ever gone more than 6 once. I just want it to not feel so crappy every time I run. In between runs I'm doing my BL videos. Hopefully I can see some progress soon. I probably should stop eating so much chocolate, but I decided that I wouldn't stress myself out about it too much till after the first of the year. I officially signed up and paid for the half marathon at the end of January, so I need to not cop out anymore with my training. Right now it feels impossible, but I'm going to give it a try anyway. Wish me luck!

Couple of funnies for the day. I bought Dalin a gift with Bo and Katy with me. I explained that they couldn't tell or say anything about it. It was a secret and he needed to be surprised. The minute Katy saw Dalin, she spilled the beans. Bo ratted her out and as soon as she heard him tell me, she turned to Dalin and as an after thought, tells him "it's a secret!" I guess I should have explained what a secret is.

As I was sitting down to check my email, I hear a yell from upstairs, not something I have ever heard before. It went something like this " I got toothpaste on my butt!!" Not even gonna ask.

Parties

Friday night was our ward Christmas party. We had soup and rolls and then went caroling on a hayrack ride. It was cold, but lots of fun. The kids had a great time, even in the cold. When we got back to the church, there were cookies and hot chocolate waiting for us. Then there was a little program in which Glade and John Clayton sang as well as another guy and then our Bishop read a story to all the children. It was really nice and casual so it wasn't as stressful trying to keep my kids in control.

Saturday morning I got up bright and early to go shopping with my mom to finish up the things she wanted to get for my kids. We were pretty successful and I was able to get myself a few cute things at Ross as well. Once she and I had lunch and I took her home, I had to make the very long trip to the scout store. I always feel like it's my first time there and I have to ask a million questions. I totally wanted to do a little more shopping, but my time was running out and I needed to head home.

Got home just in time to shower and get ready for a dinner we were invited to for a group of people from Haiti that were celebrating some of the women of their church for their amazing community service. While at Ross, I bought myself a dress. I have not worn an actual dress in YEARS. The dinner was formal so I figured my normal skirt and shirt wouldn't be quite right. We took a picture by the tree just to document the occasion. This was always a tradition for my mom and her ex-husband. They would always get dressed up to go to their work party and take a picture in front of the tree. So here is ours:

Soooo, the dinner....what an experience. If you took anything from the previous info, you would conclude that we were in the minority there. We were two of about 13 white people in a room of 250 or so black people. I'm sure they wondered why we were there! Glade does business with the pastor of the church. The dinner was nice and the program was very.....interesting.....they are very different from us and their culture just has different qualities. It was weird because I had just finished reading To Kill a Mockingbird so I felt like I was back in the book. Anyway, it was a good night. Funny of the night: I talked myself in to (or mom did) wearing a "sucker-inner" under my dress. I'm not sure how much of a difference it made, but once we were standing and sitting, up and down, it started to need adjusting. It was awkward and I felt like it was starting to be really noticeable and too frequent. Finally I made the decision. Some janitorial person probably got a nice laugh out of finding a "sucker-inner" in the sanitary box in the stall of the women's bathroom. Ahhhhh, the relief!

I could write a whole post on all the strange things they said, but I don't have the energy for that. Let me just finish by saying that it was preached that Great Women deserve great things like diamonds and furs and that fancy cars were not meant for the world, but for the Great people of God. (this all professed by a women wearing a big fur lined hat with a sparkly suit and fingernails about 2 inches long). According to her, if you were a follower of God, you were entitled to all the finer things of life. Hmmmm, I must be doing it all wrong.

Bunko and Sniffles

Yesterday was a stay-at-home-in-your-pjs day. Some days like that are so great. I procrastinated too many of the things I needed to do for Bunko so I was improvising a little toward the end. For Christmas Bunko, we always have a big ham dinner with a little nicer gifts. I love this one. It was a little sad because our group has dwindled in the last month or so so our numbers are a little low. Hopefully we will take care of that in the next few months. I really enjoy the women we do have. I feel very blessed to be a part of such a great group of sisters. Enough with the sappy, I got 3 Bunkos! I might not get three bunkos in a whole year, much less three in the first few rounds. Anyway, it was nice and it was extra nice that it wasn't stressful for me. Glade took all the kids shopping to get them out of the house. That was very brave of him.

Rhett had another track meet and this time he came in 5th. Now, two of the kids that normally beat him didn't run today, but it's still a bigger jump than just that. I'm so proud of him and he is really getting driven now. He wants to go the the park where they run and practice over Christmas break.

This morning I woke up with a terrible case of the sniffles. It feels different than allergies and that doesn't make me happy. I don't have time or patience for illness. Today is another down day. I love not having a ton of things on my plate. Not saying I'm not busy this time of year, but it's mostly evening stuff. Tonight three of my kids have choir concerts and it's supposed to be my enrichment night, but I wont' be making that. Tomorrow is ward Christmas party and Saturday is some party invite from someone Glade works with. Not sure if I'm looking forward to that. Party party party!!!

Holy Spaghetti Arms

Yesterday while at Costco, I picked up a few of the BL workout DVDs. I have wanted some for some time, but never want to pay for them. Costco has them for $6. This morning I decided to give one a try. I hate Jillian. I was dying on the very first exercise AND it was the beginner one! First jumping jacks, which I hate and often make me need to change my underwear, not good for women who have had babies. Then straight to push ups. I can't do push ups. Luckily she let you do cheater ones, but they still killed. Not too far into it, Glade came and joined me. I thought I wouldn't enjoy that because I'm kind of a loner exerciser, but I liked it. He was huffing and puffing just as much as I was. I even used 5lb weights and normally I use 8 or 10. I know I'm going to be sore all over tomorrow. Washing my hair in the shower was torture. My arms are just noodles. I know I haven't been diligent in awhile, but holy cow. Between my new videos and my training for the Ragnar, I'm hoping to find a new desire to keep moving. I think I'm burned out on the running so maybe this will be good. I even got the yoga one...hehe...yoga always makes me giggle. Can't wait to see the Finale tonight. They always drag it out a little too much for my taste, but still love it.