Whatever you do.....

Kern kids:

"Whatever you do, do not, I repeat, DO NOT take the band off the giant container of grapes or Mom and Dad will think we have been snitching them."

I have been giggling about this for a few days. I really don't care if they want to eat all the grapes, even in one sitting. It is just comical that they don't think to, you know, OPEN THE PACKAGE or, heaven forbid, WASH THEM. It is much more fun to be sneaky! Silly kids!

A Day in the Life of Me....(aka my sorry excuse for not blogging)

I have sure been MIA lately. Every now and then I check my blog and think, "Geez, I am so sick of seeing her wicked weekend, when is she going to change it up, already?!?!" and then I remember that it is me and try hard not to cry. So.....I have a few blog ideas that I am actually kind of excited about, (and you might be too! :)) so hang in there with me. Unfortunately for some of you, you are going to have to sit through another update blog before I can get to the real fun, but it is coming...Maybe even as soon as tomorrow! (There is, after all, no school tomorrow!)


And now for my sorry excuse.


I present to you......A Day in the Life of ME. Starring me, of course.


I'll set the stage: Ben is in Las Vegas til Wednesday when he will then be in Kansas City until late Friday Night. I am enjoying a blissful 4 hours of sleep because of a lovely chat with my dear friend Gina, whom I haven't seen in years.


4 :30 am Jeff wakes up screaming. He can't find his dang binkie. So, I find it for him and lay him back down till he starts screaming again at...

4:48 am Once again, the binkie is lost, it is actually right by his cheek, but he was too sleepy to help himself. I have already pushed snooze, so I guess it is officially time to wake up. I get ready for spinning at the gym, taking my time in case Jeff is going to wake up again. He doesn't, so at...

5:16 am, I leave for the gym and enjoy a sweaty, stinky hour of one of my favorite things in the world.

6:30 am I come home and make sure Jess is up and at 'em. She isn't, so I get her out of bed and go out and sit on the couch for "just a minute" and I proceed to fall asleep until it is just time to take her to her 0 hour Jazz Band. At...

6:55 am, I wake up all the kids and we take Jessica to school. We come home and finish up the homework that didn't get finished with FHE last night. As I am sitting at the table listening to reading and questions about input and output boxes, I doze off, so this homework session lasts A LOT longer than it should have. I race up the stairs at...

7:50 am with strict instructions for the kids to put homework folders in backpacks and to get dressed while I go take a quick shower. At...

8:10 am I finish my quick shower. Yes, I know that 20 minutes is not a quick shower, that is one of my faults. I recycle, I can make a tank of gas last a whole month, my one environmental splurge is my "quick" showers. Oh, and my six kids. Just think of how big my carbon footprint must be. HA! At...

8:12 am I am dressed and have my hair wrapped in a towel. I race downstairs to make lunches and breakfast and get kids out the door. I do this in record time and with a surprisingly little amount of yelling, until...

8:28 am when I am yelling at Reese. "Where are your glasses? Go get them NOW! We have to go!!!" He comes back downstairs and it is then that I realize that he is wearing the EXACT same outfit he was wearing yesterday. (I set clothes out for him) "Go upstairs and change your shirt!! HURRY!!!" As we walk out the door, I realize that I still have my hair wrapped in a towel, and since I am also in sweats, decide that one humiliating mother factor is enough for one day and take the towel off. We get to school at...

8:30 am and that was that. Now on to chores. I was a laundry slacker yesterday, so I had a whole weekend plus a day to catch up on. That would be 8 loads of laundry. Yuck. Beds made, dishes done, laundry everywhere. YUCK. We finish up the twins homework, eat lunch, and get them off to school at...

11:15 am. Since I noticed that I was completely out of diapers and had to resort to my emergency glove compartment diaper, Jeff and I were off to Costco for a few essentials. At...

12:00, I go to drop Jeff off at my friends house so she can babysit while I go help at school and while I am waiting for her to get back from dropping off her Kindergartener, I notice all my gray hairs shining in the sun. It was not lovely. I am pretty sure I am due for a color.

12:15ish, I get to the school to read with 1st graders. Lots of fun.

1:00 pm, I am off to 3rd grade to do SRA (reading comprehension) with Anna and her class.

1:30pm, time to go help with the last of Native American day in Kindergarten, and at...

2:30 pm I pick up Jeff. I go home with really good intentions of changing out of my sweats, but run out of time as I was busy swapping laundry, changing diaper, putting away groceries, and hiding some Christmas presents before the snoops....er....kids get home from school. So, alas, at...

3:10 pm (Well, that would have been ideal, as this is the time school gets out, but I'm not going to lie...I was late.)

REVISED 3:17 pm I am still in my sweatpants picking up my kids and heading over to the Junior High for Jessica's Basketball game. They lost, Jessica didn't play much today (which I am SURE is the reason they lost). Her knee is hurting her and is swollen. We had the doctor look at it, but she was sure it was just that she is growing. Does swelling and horrendous pain usually accompany growing? I don't know. I'm not very tall.

4:30 pm we are done and heading home. Thank goodness for freezer meals, because it was nearly done by the time we got home! At...

5:15 pm I start requesting that the table be set as dinner is just about on. No one listens, so I ask again. And again. And again. Nothing. SOOOOO....in the world of mean mothers, this is what we call a natural consequence.
I have had to do this once before and it worked wonders. It has been several months since I have had to resort to this. No plates, no utensils, and if I was crazy enough to want to do some serious floor mopping, no cups. Oh wait. There are still no cups. They just have to be thirsty.
As you may imagine, there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth, mostly from Reese. He was NOT going to eat food that was just "plopped right onto the table. I PROMISE!!!" Right Reese, he would eat gum off the street if I didn't stop him, I am sure. So there I sit (and doze) until...
6:15 pm when everyone has finally finished their dinner and I can clean the table and start dishes and do more laundry before...

7:00 pm when we have to be at Achievement Day/Young Womens/Karate.

8:00 pm we gather the kids and head home for a night of no-school-tomorrow fun. Oh shoot. Reese and Anna are beating eachother up in the car, so...

8:45 pm.... it is off to bed for them. I swap laundry one more time, only seven loads have been washed today. One more tomorrow, plus what we used today and I will be done. We start Mary Poppins for the little girls and Jessica puts the trash cans out....


And here I am.


THIS, my friends, is where I have been. This is why I have such a tremendous amount of gray hair. This is why I often wonder if I will make it through another day.


But then, I go in and check on my sleeping little angels, and remember that it is all worth it. I will go to bed soon and fall asleep hard and fast and wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.

And I will love it.
Mostly.

I may even put on some real pants.

My Wicked Weekend

You may recall that a couple months ago my sweet, yet forgetful husband failed to remember a certain special day commemorating the blessed day of my birth. It happens, I know. He has a lot on his mind. I now know that I may need to email him some important dates so they can be plugged into his Outlook Calendar and be more easily remembered. Anyhoo, I made out like a bandit! I got a nice romantic dinner out of it, an Aerosmith guitar hero game, and last but not least, a romantic weekend away with my man. (It looks like he made out pretty well too!)

He bought 2nd row tickets to see Wicked at the Orpheum in San Fransisco and we spent a quiet night at the Hilton with a lovely view of a fog draped Golden Gate Bridge. The play was spectacular! We could see all of the facial expressions AND the spit that occasionally flew out of the actors mouths! I loved it! I am already planning to take my girls to see it later this summer! We had a great time eating out, have you ever had Dim Sum? Have you ever eaten it in China Town? Fun Stuff!

I think he has paid up now, so I will let him off the hook for his oversight. I love you, Ben!

Sara!! You outdid yourself once again!

I love my in-laws. They are all so wonderful! I also love that my sister-in-law Sara has my password to my blogger account and makes such pretty backgrounds for me! As it is nearly June, the Happy Holidays background was probably a little outdated, but since it was halfway back to that most wonderful time of the year, I thought I would just leave it! What a nice surprise to find. Doesn't she do good work?

Such a handsome BOY

The other night at the gym, I was putting away my gear when I noticed a cute little girl in the play area looking through the window and smiling at me. I smiled back at this cute little button-nosed girl and realized that it was not, in fact, a girl, but my own sweet baby boy. Time for a haircut.

He didn't seem to mind at first, he sat there playing with the soft little hairs on the stool.

I kind of look like I know what I am doing, but don't be fooled. I've messed up a head of hair or two in my day.

The clippers were a little much for him, but now he really does look like a boy. No more baby mullet. I am kind of sad right now. This was my last first baby haircut. Sigh.

Happy Mother's Day!

I look at this picture and smile. Can you believe all these kids came out of me!!! I really am amazing! I am so happy to be a mother and wife! My Heavenly Father has blessed me with 6 beautiful children and 1 fabulous husband. I am grateful they are mine. I love the handmade and hand-me-down gifts and the special balloon and flowers! I hope your Mother's Day was as relaxing and rewarding as mine, and as a special gift to you, I actually did 2 posts today!!!

I'm Not So Good With Lyrics

This morning in Spin Class, a certain song came on. I started to laugh a little to myself because this is one of those songs whose lyrics have confused me for a long time now. It wasn't until I was singing it on Guitar Hero a few weeks ago that I realized what the real words were, and that they were nothing like what I have been singing for years. If this were an isolated incident, I wouldn't think too much of it, but lyrics are not my thing. I am not blessed with the ability to hear a song once or twice and be able to sing along. I have to go to elyrics, one of my favorite sites, and read along as I hear the song, then I do a little better from there on out. There have been a few times, however, that after reading the lyrics, I have had to stop listening to the song all together. For instance, there is a great song by Maroon 5 called "Makes Me Wonder" that I absolutely love(d). After listening to it so often I actually could sing along I thought I would go check it out and see if I was missing something. Well, I was. Turns out the F-bomb is dropped a few times and I didn't even notice, I just sang right along, not even realizing what I was singing. Oops. Delete.
I thought I would humor you with a few of my favorite lyrical blunders. Ben loves them and more often than I like, looks over at me with a huge smile on his face and says "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?!?!"
Here goes.
This morning's song:

Emily Lyrics:
Hey little thing let me light your candle cause I'm sure the handyman, gets around.

Actual Lyrics:
Hey little thing let me light your candle cause I'm sure hard to handle, now, yes I am. (Black Crowes-Hard to Handle, the name should have been a clue for me, but those are also tricky for me.)

Emily Lyrics:
(Inaudible humming with an occasional syllable or two), then something about a carpet knife.

Actual Lyrics:
You're one of those guys who likes to shine his machine
You make me take off my shoes before you let me get in
I can't believe you kiss your car goodnight.
(Shania Twain- That Don't Impress Me Much)

And last but not least, my favorite. This song, THIS VERSE actually, has two blunders so silly, we still sing them like this, just because!

Emily Lyrics:
Well I hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won. (Not bad so far)
Then you flew your pigeon up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun. (Really? A Pigeon?!)
(More inaudible humming/singing along) and when you're not you're with some (humming) or the wife of the postman, wife of the postman....

Actual Lyrics:
Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga, and your horse naturally won.
Then you flew your LEARJET (learjet...pigeon...close, right?) up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun.
Well, you're where you should be all the time,
and when you're not, you're with some underworld spy
or the wife of a close friend, wife of a close friend.....
(Carly Simon, You're So Vain)


There are so many more, I hope I haven't ruined any of your favorites for you! Do you have any of your own?

p.s. Do you know who is singing back-up for Carly? I do know that!

How's This For Random?

The gym I go to shares space at a strip mall with stores such as "Body By Design", a health food store, "Picturesque", photography services, and "F.Y.E.", movies and game store. There are also a few restaurants like Mariachis, which has great Mexican food, Little Caesars, which has great cheap pizza, and Sunshine Donuts, which apparently has great donuts. I say this because when I leave the gym at 6:30 every morning, there is quite a crew of old men in there enjoying their morning coffee and donuts, along with what I am sure is very stimulating conversation. So here is the random part. Yesterday as I was leaving the gym, one of the old men came out of the donut shop carrying his donut pillow. It's probably pretty juvenile of me, but I got a little chuckle out of it and wished I had thought to bring my camera.

I just don't know what to say. I read blogs and really enjoy them, everyone has such interesting and witty things to say! My life, while rich and full, is pretty much the same day in and day out.


Get up, gym, kids up and ready for school, off to school, chores, pick up kid, lunch, chores, don't sit down in the afternoon or I will fall asleep, kids home from school, "can I call so-and-so to play," "is your homework done?", "Do your homework." "What's for dinner?" "I don't know." dinner, karate/young women's/ Relief Society etc., pajamas, family prayer, kids to bed, chores, bed.

I spice things up with things like friends, preschool, volunteering at school, extra classes at the gym, choir, a little shopping every now and again, facebook... you know...fun stuff.


I love my life and am happy that it is mine, but I worry that people really won't want to read about the everyday things. Then I think of my husband who is often gone and really would like to see what we do everyday, I think of my mother-in-law who loves reading about her grandkids and seeing them grow up, even if it is just in pictures, and then I feel bad that I am not finding and sharing the joy that I could be in the small everyday things like a) happy, healthy, hilarious (although sometimes a little bit naughty) kids, b) a routine c) a truly blessed life.


So I apologize for my slacking. I will be better, even if it is just for me. I can use this blog to my advantage if I want to.

Among other things, I can:

* Journal funny things. A friend of mine told me once that if you will be able to laugh about it later, you might as well now. I need to be better about that.

* I can pat myself on the back for my own little successes and triumphs.

* I can vent to an understanding group of fellow mothers of young children, and reap wisdom from mothers who have more experience than I do.

* express my thoughts and random musings on things. I do think about things, I am just not very good at expressing them (obviously...). It just comes out boring. I think I need to read more. I see other people do it on their blogs and I am usually highly entertained by those posts, so maybe it won't be so bad.


So here you go. I am turning over a new leaf. I will be posting a lot more regularly, even the mundane. You may see pictures of my laundry and dirty dishes. You will definitely see my kids without their hair brushed, probably dirty, etc. But that is us.


If you have read this far, I applaud you. And now, without further ado, I present our life the last two months.....


Ok...I am just going to start uploading pictures. I don't know if they will be in forward or reverse order, so we'll see!

The kids were off track the whole month of February. Last year, the weather was absolutely beautiful the whole month. We go to enjoy it from the couch, as I had just had a baby. This year, it rained the entire month. I am grateful for the rain, we live in a big agricultural area, and it is a blessing, but it did get really old.

Jessica and her friend Jessica out playing in the rain.


Ben got a new toy. He told me we were going to Costco to pick up his contacts. The truck seemed to magically make its way to all the motorcycle shops in Modesto, finally deciding that the Yamaha Dealership was the place to be. Happy Valentines Day, Ben! This is a happy guy! He works hard all week and really looks forward to some manly time.


On Presidents Day, Ben went out for his first ride. He hit a sweet jump wrong and had a little bit of a crash. His ankle is still swollen. He didn't seem to mind too much, and has gotten back on the bike, so it must not have phased him too badly.


Anna turned 8!!! We had a little party with a few or her friends and went to go see the Jonas Brothers' tour movie.

We followed the movie with pizza, cake and ice cream. She is such a beautiful girl! I am more and more impressed with her everyday! She loves to learn and can be the sweetest thing ever!! I can't seem to find her baptism pictures right now, so I will post them a little later. We had a great time and are so glad to have this little angel in our family!

After quite a dry spell in the visitor department, we had our first set of guests in March! Josie and Blake brought their kids to visit on their way to Disneyland. We had a wonderful time with them and took them to one of our favorite places, Monterey. We went to the aquarium and spent about 10 freezing cold minutes on the beach...plenty of time for all the kids to play in the water and get drenched! They are crazy! The kids had a great time with their cousins and I was happy as can be to have them all here!


The next set of guests came about a week later, and I had no idea they were coming at all!!! My sweet sisters knew how much I miss my family, and surprised me with a visit!!! I am going to just send you on over to Libbie's post on the surprise, I loved it so much and am looking forward to seeing what they have up their sleeves next!!! I love you guys!

http://localib.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html

Next on the list of activities was my birthday! Yay for me!! I am 33! My sweet friends surprised me with a beautifully decorated bike at spinning! I usually am one of the first people there, but that day I accidentally overslept until 5:14 and was a little late. It was so pretty, complete with a flag, streamers, and a pretty little basket filled with some of my favorite things!

Sorry about the sideways video, I don't know how to fix that. Lucky for me, my kids messed up the resolution on the monitor, so while every other picture makes me look especially wide and squatty, this video makes me look so long and lean. So humor me and mess yours up too!

My friends Deanna and Sally also had birthdays within a few days of mine, so we gathered up a group of all the coolest ladies and headed out for a night on the town. Dinner consisted of a whole smorgasbord of appetizers. We thought it was such a fun idea, til we were all so sickened by all the fattiness, we had all wished we had ordered a salad. The company was great!

I went ahead and told my kids it was my birthday, even if it meant that I might possibly have to make myself a cake, but I didn't have to! Good friends brought me some delicious cheesecake to share with the kids! They know I am not such a fan of cake, especially when I have to make it myself! I am really glad I have such wonderful friends who know how to treat a girl right on her birthday because my husband forgot all about it. Dang guy. He's lucky I love him. He was feeling really bad about it and is going to be treating me soon to a weekend in SF where we will stay in a nice hotel...no kids!!!!!.... and hopefully see Wicked. I am really looking forward to it!

Last but not least, we had a beautiful and quiet little Easter at home. Ben and I made Leg of Lamb, roasted new potatoes, grilled asparagus with Hollandaise (homemade...thank you Martha Stewart!), Fresh Lemonade, and Chocolate covered strawberries for dessert. It was delicious!!! We enjoyed eating outside in the yard that we have been working so hard in and are really starting to love!!!

The kids are all getting so big! I love this picture, and with a little photoshop, I think we can get them all looking at the camera!!! Aren't they such cuties? I love them all so much!

Thanks for being patient with me. Hope it wasn't to long and boring! Now, the time is 1:23am, and I am bushed. I have to wake up in about 3.5 hours so this is going to have to do!

Ohhh, its gonna be a big one!!!

Well, lookey, lookey! Its little ol' me with a bit of a teaser! I haven't posted in an absurd amount of time, I am feeling a little guilty. I have had A LOT to blog about, but more pressing issues like exercising and Twilight have won over. Oh, and I am wondering if anyone even reads this anymore becuase I have been such a slacker. SOOO, I'll tell you what. If I get 5 comments telling me things like "oh, I have missed you and your posts" on here before 8 o'clock tonight, I will put Edward and the DVRd Housewives of NYC off for a while and spend the evening catching up with you all. If I don't get 5, sorry, it'll just have to wait!

Comfort and Compassion Kid Style

We were at Costco AGAIN yesterday. I practically live there, and why shouldn't I? That place has it all. I was going through the aisles with 5 of the kids, telling them MANY O' TIME not to walk right in front of the cart "I can't see you", "I might not be paying close enough attention to you to stop in time...I am on a mission", "You're going to get smashed" etc. I think these are all very convincing reasons to steer clear of the front of the cart, but that's me. My kids like to walk on the wild side, they laugh at danger. Today, though, I think they might have learned a little something about velocity and getting in its way.
Here's the scene: We were walking with our ginormous cart back out to the car. It is starting to rain a little so I am walking a little faster than I would on, say, a sunny day. The parking lot is sloping gradually towards a drain. All of these factors contributed to what happened next, but none were as much to blame as Mr. Reese and his chosen path. It wasn't a gradual veer that led him to that treacherous place, but a sudden 90 degree left turn right in front of the cart. AND....he's down, SCREAMING as only Reese can. I pull the giant pack of toilet paper off of him and help him up. "Are you okay?" But, being the mean mother that I am, that was about as far as the compassion went. " Do you see why you shouldn't walk in front of the cart?!?!" and all of the reasons mentioned above were restated, along with the whole speed+intersecting vectors= no good quickie physics lesson. We got everyone and everything into the car and headed home, Reese still crying in the backseat.
Sometimes people give me a hard time for having so many kids. I loved growing up in a big family and am happy to raise my own kids in a not quite as big a family for many reasons, one of them being that there is always someone there to help you feel better. On this day, a little extra compassion was what was needed, and it came in the form of Maya.

Reese: "Whaaaaaaaaaaa!
Maya: "Weese, why don'tt you justt stop thinking aboutt yo owie, and then itt won'tt hutt anymo." (Her t's are always very crisp and enunciated.)
Reese: "WHAAAA! I can't stop thinking about it, it hurts so bad!"
Maya: "Well, why don'tt you think aboutt Gwamma wewing yo undowew and then you won'tt think aboutt yo toe anymo."

What a sweetheart.

My Baby is One!!!

Look at this handsome young man!

This was my first look at my 6th and last little baby. I have loved every minute of having him here in our family, he is such a sweet little guy!

G" border=0>Ok, I baked the cake and as it was cooling I thought I would go ahead and shower, since it was about 6 o'clock and I still had my exercise sweat on. Yuck, I know, but hey, it was a busy day! As I am showering, Anna, Reese, Maya, and Bella decided to help themselves to the frosting. I came back downstairs to half of the container in their bellies. So, being the mean mother that I am, they had to have plain cake. Guess what? No complaints. I think they maaayyyy be learning. Here's to hoping.

Jeff has recently found his nostrils. If it weren't so cute, I would be grossed out.

Jeff loved his birthday dinner of sloppy joes, tater tots, cake and ice cream!


What I Love about Jeff!
*I love how he smiles so sweetly when he wakes up.
*I love how he walks with his arms raised up above his head.
*I love how much he loves milk and vegetables.
*I love how much he LOVES Jessica.
*I love it when he pats me on the back.
*I love it when he reaches for Ben.
*I love it when he hugs Madge (the dog).
*I love it when he helps me put the clothes in the washer
and then stands there and watches it go around.
*I love how he thinks he is so funny and laughs at himself.
*I love that he loves his bubby, he is definitely my baby!
* I love how he loves to take naps in his bed.
*I love how he sings little tunes while he is waiting for his food. It is so sweet!
*I love how he tries to communicate with us with little hissing sounds.
*I love it when I hear him out playing with his brothers and sisters. He is so comfortable and secure with his family.

I could go on and on...
So I'll tell you a funny story.

Yesterday I took the kids to Costco for grocery shopping. It was crazy busy, but we managed. The kids were generally well behaved and were rewarded with plenty of free samples. As I was putting the groceries on the conveyor belt and keeping the kids in order, Jeff was playing happily in the cart. After a few minutes I noticed that he was playing in my purse and had thrown my sunglasses out onto the floor. Oh dear, I better get them. As I am picking up the sunglasses...oh no! I see the wrapper from my emergency purse tampon on the floor under my cart. Oh dear, dear, dear...under the cart of the people behind us is the plunger of the applicator...I am panicking....please no more! But yes! Out in the middle of the two lines is the top part of the applicator...I race to grab it....BUT WHERE IS THE TAMPON?!?!?! I look at my sweet little baby, sitting so contently in the cart... and there it is. HE IS SUCKING ON IT! AAAAAA!!!! I turn around to see if anyone has noticed this disgustingness....THEY HAVE!!! There's a nice middle-aged couple behind us with huge smiles/laughs on their faces. To the very nice woman I say (trying really hard to not laugh my head off) "WHY DIDN"T YOU SAY SOMETHING?!?! I THOUGHT WE WOMEN WERE SUPPOSED TO STICK TOGETHER!!!" She just laughed and her sweet husband replied, "It was way too entertaining! Look how happy he is!"

I love Jeff.
Happy Birthday!

Poor toes

You all really pulled through on the comments, and for that I thank you. I feel a special closeness with you, my blogging friends, so I feel like I can share with you a little bit of a sad story.
As you know from my last triumphant post, I have had a really sore hip. Almost a week later, I am still struggling with it, but it is on the mend. I can now walk up the stairs with alternating steps instead of the crawl I used at the beginning of the week. It has been really painful, but still worth it, in my opinion.
Now for the sad part. Ben was in Kansas City this week, so someone still had to take care of the kids. I was making dinner one night and thought I would save myself a few excruciating steps and just separate the packages of chicken where I was standing at the freezer. I dropped one of the pounds of frozen chicken, and because I couldn't move my leg out of the way fast enough, the package dropped right on my poor little pinky toe. I didn't cry through the whole hip ordeal, but I did cry about the toe.
It does feel a little better with a fresh pedicure and coat of nail polish.

Accountability Update aka YAY ME!!!

I think it was back in August that I told you all that I was going to run a 1/2 marathon in hopes of motivating myself to get into shape. Well, this was the weekend, and guess what....I DID IT!!!! I am so proud of me! We met up with Ben's sisters, aunt, cousins and grandma in St. George, Utah for the race. We had so much fun! I love my in-laws, they are all THEE BEST!
So, here is the rundown of what I have been doing.
I joined the gym. Best thing ever. I love going to the group classes. I know me and this is what motivates me. Here's my schedule:
Mondays and Fridays: 5:30 power up (kind of a cardio/fat burning weights class)
Tuesdays, Wednesdays (@ 8:30) and Thursdays: 5:30 spinning--my gosh--after your bum gets used to the seat wedged into it, this class is so much fun! Thursdays I also go back at 9:15 for Butts and Guts. Soon we will have another core class to fill in on Wednesday mornings.
I also try to get back and do more cardio on the elliptical or go out running 4-5 miles. I like the elliptical because it doesn't kill my knees.
I also said in my previous post that I wasn't going to weigh or measure myself, and for the most part I haven't. I didn't want to discourage myself. I am nursing Jeff still and my body still wants to hold onto fat, but I finally did weigh myself and I have lost about 10 pounds! Even better than that, though, is that instead of buying XL pants and shirts, I am feeling very comfortable in a Medium!
I don't usually make a habit of taking before and after shots so I don't have much for concrete evidence. I was looking through pictures and found this one. Now don't barf......

My tummy (among other things) is so gooshy!
Here I am at the end of the race with my SILs and CIL (that is cousin in law). Thank you (marathon running) Kristi for hanging back with me! You saved the day. It was my goal not to walk at all. I did let myself have a little rest at the water stops, just enough to drink my water without sloshing it all over myself, but at mile 6 my hip started to really bother me. I tried to stretch it out, but at mile 10 I couldn't handle the pain anymore. I had to walk. DANG IT! I was able to pull it together and run most of the last mile, but I was absolutely dying! I have had a really hard time walking the last couple of days, but it was worth it to be able to finish a goal I had set for myself. I am pleased, however, that the rest of me is doing great! For the most part, besides my hip, I don't have any other sore muscles, and my heart rate and recovery were in tip-top shape! I feel really good about the lifestyle changes I have made and am going to keep everything up. I set out with this race as motivation, but now have other goals for myself.

Last but not least, I LOVE THIS GUY! He has been so supportive and kind. I am really looking forward to him running it with me next year!

OK, that's about it. It sure is a narcissistic post, but guess what, this is my blog. Now, I am expecting a lot of comments containing phrases such as "Oh my gosh! You look so good!" and "Way to go, Emily! You are truly amazing!" and maybe even "Six Kids Later is HOT!" Any of those will do, or any other for that matter!

Why?

It was clean yesterday. This is what I find today. Why do I even bother? Today the story is that they were making tattoos. What this has to do with toilet paper shredded all over the floor is beyond me. I think, to their credit, that they may have been trying to clean up the make-up smeared all over the counter, that may have something to do with the empty Clorox wipe containers smashed on the floor. I hate to admit that tooth brushing is already a privilege that must be earned daily and supervised by a competent adult (this is because I was tired of tubes of toothpaste being squeezed out almost daily and spread out on counters, door knobs and pillows--you know, funny pranks like that). I am considering making usage of the bathroom for whatever reason a privilege also. Why are my kids so destructive? What have I done wrong? ARRRR!!!!!

Movie Review

Ben and I went to see Valkyrie last night. I LOVED IT! It definitely was not a make you feel good movie, but I went in there knowing what was going to happen and it was still exciting. We had seen a documentary on the real Valkyrie plan on the History Channel a few days ago and it really gave me an appreciation for what these brave men and women knew they had to do. It was touching to see the children of those involved speak so proudly of what their fathers had done for Germany and all of the world. I have seen reviews of this movie and have been reminded of how ridiculous Hollywood is. Many reviews were based on Tom Cruise, not the movie. I liked them both. The only bad thing about the movie was that right in front of us, a family had brought their LITTLE kids. They were banging their heads on the back of the seat and into my leg for awhile (until I told them to knock it off), and giggling the whole way through the movie, until the end ***SPOILER ALERT*** when they quieted down and sat still through all the suicides and executions. That is what I call responsible parenting. Idiots!
We also went and took the kids to see Marley and Me when we went to Tahoe last week. We were really looking forward to seeing it so we braved the casino and the singing Elvis we had to walk through to get to the theater. I think it had a lot of potential, but our kids started asking too many questions like "Why did she say there is a naked lady in their bed?", and "What is a _______?" so I guess I will have to wait for the DVD to find out on my own how that one ended. Oh well. Have you seen any movies lately?