5Ks and Grey's

I found the magic :) I like running when there is a distraction. Running with friends was great, but I can't talk when I run; therefore I really couldn't socialize that way. I prefer to socialize with food ;) But I can run while watching Grey's Anatomy! I can run one at 5mph in almost the exact time it takes to watch one episode. Life is complete haha!

I don't think I had ever run more than 1.5 miles at a time in my entire life. Literally. Never. I ran an 11 min mile in Jr. High and hated it. I don't remember running more than a mile at a time ever after that. I danced, which was probably equivalent in cardio, but I focused on the dance. It was the distraction. Aaaand then I stopped. Everything. I haven't done much of anything since sophomore year of high school. I was super out of shape. Like-dying-climbing-a-flight-of-stairs out of shape. And now I can run a 5K. Woo hoo! I think that's saying somethin' for this girl who has been sitting on a couch for 8 years ;)

I'm super grateful to my girls for getting me running in the first place *Thanks, Hillary and Holly!! But I'm a pansy when it comes to running outside. Never really been an outside person. Sad :( So I joined a gym. My office pays for half a membership if we go 12 times a month. Can you say 'motivation'?? It's working! And I'm loving it! I just need them to get a yoga class now...

Anyway, after building my cardio back up after a short break with being sick and busy and whatnot, I ran my first 5K *ever* Tuesday night. And then I threw up (just in case you wanted to know ;) Note to self: Run in the morning, not an hour after dinner. But I ran one again this morning, and it was great! Stick me on a treadmill with some headphones and Netflix, and I'm set! Rainy days don't get in the way; no uncertain terrain and tripping over garbage cans *sigh... Now if I could just get the healthy eating thing down... I think I've pretty much just had sugar the last three days :/ No bueno.

Baby steps... Getting healthy and fit! Next step: 10K

Well, I Called It A Vacation ;)

Men and women are very different when it comes to vacationing. When a family goes on "vacation" or anywhere away from home, women must plan as many activities as possible into the time to make it super worth while. Men don't. Men, in general of course (but definitely in my man), would rather just relax, watch some type of sport on Tv, and just sit around. It's not a bad thing at all... I just figure I can relax as well, or perhaps even better, just by sitting at home. If I could just sit and watch someone clean my house, then I would call it a vacation ;) But, alas, I am a woman. And when we go somewhere, we've gotta go go go! So we went went went! We went to Utah for a few days this weekend and we hit up Hogle Zoo, This Is The Place Heritage Park, Marcos and Amber's house warming party, Utah Costcos, breakfast with my cousins, lunch with Amber and Marcos, The Living Planet Aquarium, and then fishing with Grandpa Billy at Devil's Creek! It was definitely a female-concoted, action-packed weekend trip! Sorry, honey :/

We got home and were definitely all exhausted, but I felt like I slept well Sat night and am not too tired for the week ahead! Not from the trip, anyway... It is almost 2 am, and I can't sleep, so that may take it's toll tomorrow, but a little weekend getaway was just what I needed to get some distance from the daily stresses, changes at work, cleaning the house (I cleaned before hand and it was great to come home to a clean house!!). It was great to just shake things up a bit and do so many fun things! We got a lot of sun which felt great, too! AND Lucas only had 1 accident the entire time! Go, Little Man!!

All the pictures are on Facebook, but here are a few of my favorites :)

I think it was around 4 pm and Via hadn't really had a nap yet... And she's teething. She was such a trooper, though, and did great at almost every place we went, especially if she was in her stroller. 

Panning for gold at Heritage Park

Dad! It's a frog!!

She was tired here, too. Poor girl. This was even after a nap!

Well, amidst our work schedules that almost never line up since awesome hubby works most weekends, we were both happy to get some good quality family time in (I promise Levi had fun most of the time! ;) Hopefully it's a good omen of things to come!

Ten Mintues

Another post instead of mopping my floors? Sure!!

I'm sitting here watching my kids do "yoga." We were doing a bit earlier since Lucas got my mats out. Now he is rolling Via up like a hot dog. And we're done with that.

Lucas is now vacuuming, and Via is grabbing wet wipes and cleaning the Tv stand. And she's trying to put them back after she's done.

Now they each have one and are wiping off the Tv stand. It took us a while to get them to not clean the Tv with... never mind. They just tried to clean the Tv with the wipes again.

"Okay, are we all done cleaning?" Lucas replies, "Nope. Guys cleaning more."

Still cleaning the Tv stand... And pulling out more wipes. And some more.

Now throwing the wipes up in the air to see where they land.

Finding colored pencils behind the couch pillows. After a minute or so: "Lucas, what are you doing?" "Um, color this." "What are you coloring?" "Red."

And we're back to vacuuming. Welcome to ten minutes at our house :)

Not always exciting, but definitely eventful. I wish I had the energy to make it exciting today. I did change out of pajamas today about an hour ago (it's 3:30pm) but only to put them in the wash. Then I put on new pajamas. I have a feeling this won't be an especially productive weekend. At least it's a nice long one :)

Remembering those who have served and are serving our country so I can sit here and watch my kids try to do downward dog pose with a smile on my face. I'm not strong enough to be a military wife. I adore those who are. I salute those women along with their men. Thank you for all your sacrifice! Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day remembering why we are free to swim and BBQ!

No More Diapers!! (at least for Lucas... during the day)

Almost a month since I blogged last... again *sigh.* Life gets crazy.... especially with potty training. Oh, boy. We were told by daycare that Lucas was going on the potty there. They asked how it was going at home "uhm... not." I was really putting it off. He's not even three yet! I figured I had a few good months to procrastinate ;)

Well, I figured if they had started at daycare, we had better get on the ball as well. I really didn't think he was interested at all. I guess all I had to do was put him in some underwear, though! We started him in underwear last weekend, and it went really well! I was so shocked! I thought I would be cleaning up urine all day at home, just like I do at work (and at least I get paid to do it at work haha!) ;) Apparently I just don't know my son. We only had one or two accidents the first day, and our second day (Saturday) we went shopping and out to eat, where he used the public potty twice and didn't have an accident at all! Success!!

Going #2 on the potty was a different story, however. Saturday afternoon and Sunday (diaper at church), I realized the actual use for our handheld shower head. Glad we got that a few weeks prior! He also tends to sit on the potty and pee through his underwear lately. We still give him a Swedish fish for it since he realized he needed to go, but that doesn't help the underwear laundry :/ So today, I finally couldn't keep up with the clean underwear, and we've ran out. So he's naked. And it's working well! He went poo on the potty this morning! (He's gone a few times in the potty, but more often than not it's in his underwear :/) Maybe we'll just keep him un-underweared when we're at home!

We're trying to slowly get Via used to it, too. Girls train around two years, right? She's 18 months now. I figure if she can see Lucas doing it we could start the idea now. We may actually be out of diapers before we have the next kid haha! If all goes according to plan we should actually be out for about a year before the next one shows up. At any rate, our diaper bill is now cut in half!! No more diapers for Lucas! He does use one at night, but that's only one a day compared to 6ish. And he has quite a few left from our last $80 diaper excursion.

We also moved both kids to a toddler bed. We just took the side down on Via's crib. Lucas had an actual toddler bed waiting for him, so we took his crib down a few weeks ago. Via does great at night! Lucas. does. not. I'm not sure what else to try. I lay down with him, and he just wiggles. Then I get so frustrated. Last night I had to literally pin him down to keep him in bed. He just fights me. He wants Dad. Then Dad goes in and he wants Mom. He's not napping during the day when he's at home ( I think he still does at daycare). We've tried taking away privileges, Benadryl, wearing him out during the day, letting him read in bed while it's still light out... I don't know what else to do! I'm losing my mind every night I have to put him to bed. I don't want to put him back in the crib because I think that would inhibit the potty training by making him feel like a baby again. But this kid was up 'til 2:30 in the morning the other night! He just won't go to sleep. Do we just lock him in his room?? I have no idea... So that's the bedtime scoop. I'm losing it haha!

All these changes actually gave poor Lucas stress hives for a few days :( He's doing much better now. They haven't come back since I posted it on Facebook lol! I guess that was the cure. Things will get better with time, right?? These kids will be grown before I even realize it. I just have to remind myself of that sometimes! It's just so much easier to cherish the moments when they're sleeping in my arms instead of screaming in my ear ;) Love those cuties. At least I get paid in kisses when I have to clean up urine (and more) at home!

Reading and Singing

FINALLY finished Harry Potter!! It felt like forever when I was trying to get through them - really not long... a month and a half - but now I'm pretty sad that I'm done. I'm kind of having withdrawals. I can't wait to start the series again while reading it to the kids :) Is three too young?? And why did I wait so stinking long to finish the series??? Books 4 and 5 let me down so I just never got around to reading the last two. But they are fabulous! Love. HP.

I started reading Les Mis. I'm trying to decide if I want to keep reading it... It's not the abridged version. And I'm afraid I'm a little to dense to understand it. I'm not quite sure what's going on yet... and I've seen the movie ha! We'll see what happens with May's reading...

As for singing... Lucas has started singing. I love it. My mom and grandma used to sing 'The Cherry Song' to me as a kid. That's what we call it anyway. It's an old riddle song:

I gave my love a cherry that had no stone
I gave my love a chicken that had no bone
I gave my love a ring that had no end
I gave my love a baby with no crying

How can there be a cherry, etc...

A cherry that's bloomin', it has no stone
A chicken when it's pippin', it has no bone
A ring when it's rollin', it has no end
And a baby when he's sleeping has no crying

Levi thinks it's a weird song. He's right. But I still love it :) And apparently Lucas loves it, too! (I recorded on my phone in his dark room... the video really is black, you just need the sound, though, so no worries.)

My grandma met the kids and me in Idaho Falls this weekend, and she tried to sing this song to Lucas in the car. My poor grandma. Lucas's reply was "No. Mommy sing." Lil' stinker!

These kids are growing up way too fast already. I tried to tell them they aren't allowed, but they don't listen :( Right now there are a few really bad days, but most are good days. I love these ages and their age gap. People usually think I just go crazy all the time, and sometimes I do, but most of the time I love it. They play great together. The moments where Levi and I are like "yeah, we should have more" are definitely outweighing the "my heavens, we're crazy!" moments lately ;)

...So I Run Now

If you're read through my new year's goals, you know that I've tried for a few months now to get my life in a healthier place, especially physically. And, as I've said before, I always get those comments: "But you're already so skinny!" "Don't tell me you're on a diet!" Well, I went to a CMA conference this weekend and learned that even skinny people get Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, and as a result of their body weight, they are usually the ones that get skipped with the diagnosis. This will be me in 20 years if I don't do something. I'm sure of it. I love sugar. I love soda. I love fast food, especially Baconators right now :/ I love the unhealthy. The skinnies are the ones that get overlooked when it comes to health. "Oh, you're cholesterol is a little high, but don't worry, you're skinny." This Dr. at the conference said these are the ones that drop dead at 45 from a heart attack. I may have come into the world with a heart problem, but that's not how I'm going out! Especially at 45... so I run now. 

I also got a bit of good news as I asked my OB (the one who gave me the green light to have more kids) in passing what my chances would be to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarian) would be, assuming the next kid is in the right position. He told me 80%. I like those odds :) I would absolutely love to try for a VBAC! I won't get into the opinions and risks and whatever... that's an entirely different post altogether. The main reason for my previous c-sections with Lucas and Via were that they were both frank breech because of the septum (or wall) in my baby maker. They just grew that way. If you've read the previous post, you know the plan is to remove the septum, making it possible (hopefully) for the next kiddos to grow well and position the right way. We shall see. The runner-up reason for the c-sections was my heart. The cardiologists just figured it might be safer to do a c-secion. Did I agree with them? Yes. Was I in shape at all then? No. If I get in shape and am able to run a 5K or whatever, would I still agree? Probably not. We will see how it all works out of course, but at least if I get in shape I can use that as my pro-VBAC argument... so I run now ;)

Special thanks to the ladies that get me up and running 3 times a week now!

Magical March

I know. It's April. It's even the middle of April, and I haven't blogged in over a month. I was trying to get through all of the Harry Potter books for my "magical March" reading :) Cheesy?? I don't care haha! I didn't start until the 13th or so, and I still have the last one to read. I will try to get through that one by the end of this month and then go from there. Maybe Les Mis May? No, I've never read that one either. I had to read Walden in high school instead of Les Mis. Don't ask me why *serious eye rolling*

I started reading Harry Potter when they were first coming out when I was younger, but I stopped after 5. And after reading through them all again, I remembered why. 4 and 5 were definitely not my faves. Love the series, though, love her writing, love the movies. I also hadn't seen the last 4 movies, which I watched the weekend prior to delving into the books. This drives some people crazy! Seeing the movie before reading the book... but I love it! I don't have that great of an imagination. My thoughts when reading aren't very detailed and they're kind of "blurry" if that helps explain it at all ha! The movies are so much better than what I picture in my head most of the time! And if they're not, then I'm usually more disappointed if I read the book first. Like Twilight. We won't even go there.

The picture in my head is always, always different (understandably) than the actual motion picture (yup. dug that word out of the 1950s or whatever). I hate reading the book first and then seeing the movie in a completely different way. It's just frustrating to me for some reason. I usually pay attention to moves better, too. My mind likes to skip the sentences where people aren't speaking. Then I have to go back :/ Reading comprehension was never one of my best skills haha!

Anyway, if you haven't yet read the Harry Potter series because you are a decade behind like me, I suggest you do :) I know my grandma doesn't want to read the rest because she knows what happens (she's so cute) but the books explain sooo much more! And I just love the way J. K. Rowling writes. She's fantastic. I borrowed most of the books from my fabulous midwife Patty (thank you!), since the books that I read when I was younger are my mom's of course. I have the first two, and now I just need to work on getting the rest so that my kids can read them when they get older :)

Well, not much of a review since I'm sure most of England, America and other various countries has already read the series... But, there ya go! If you haven't read them, take on your own month of Magical May ;)