A week and a half to run...

I had signed up for this 5K (in a week and a half) months ago!  Literally months ago (sounds like my 10K), with the intent to run and run and run my heart out before the race.  Not that i have any intention of actually racing anyone, but i did want to finish before the 85 year olds this time around.  well, it looks like ol' Netty and i will be pulling up the rear once again.  I have run about four time total since i signed up for the race.  This morning, i set my alarm an hour earlier to go run... i snoozed once, then physically sat up to change the wake up time so i could sleep a little longer.  i just have no motivation.  i want to do it, and i want to do well, but i am too busy, and the times that do work for me to go out and get a run in equal the times of the sun in the highest point of the sky.  And, well, most of you know how well the heat and i pair. 


So, tomorrow, i plan to get up at 6:00 and run as much as i can before i need to get home, shower, and get myself and M ready for "work."  At least B is staying home with her daddy all day tomorrow.  She's been a trooper this week, but she needs a rest, and honestly, so do i.  Watching all the other kids on top of the baby is just plain insane!  


Hopefully tomorrow night i will at least be able to say that i got up and out early in the morning.  Hopefully i will have even run a bit!  We shall see!  

Soon to be FOUR!

So, today, when i looked at the calendar (somewhat randomly at that), i realized that my daughter's birthday is one month and one day away!?!  How on EARTH did this sneak up on me???  I have SO MUCH to plan and do!  Birthday parties can equal small weddings in the realm of celebrations for us.  And this year, all she has asked for is that she have a "surprise" party.  this makes things a bit trickier than normal.  because now i have to do everything behind the scenes!  my husband and i just spent the last hour brainstorming.  we've come up with some good thoughts.  now i just need to get on the ball and make my invitations (and an invite-list would help, too!), get them into the mail, and start creating!  
okay, deep breath in, deep breath out.  we can do this; we can do this; we can do this!  


And so, the onslaught of birthday/holiday mayhem begins!  God help us all!

Two Hundredth Post!

Ahhh, it feels like just yesterday that i was up all night with my daughters, watching diego till dawn, and starting my blog (well, two out of those three could have been just yesterday!)  But here i am- 200 posts wiser and stronger.  I was going to do a recap post, fill you in on all the ups and downs and ins and outs of the last 200 +/- days.  But, i did not go back through my old posts to see what could have been updated.  i did not do much research at all (in act, i just went to hit NEW POST and saw that i had 199 behind me... so, there wasn't much room for planning tonight.)


Instead, i will say one brief thing about my day.  it was great.  i loved working with the kids- so much so that i may have to re-explore teaching as a career when my kids get a bit older.  maybe preschool, maybe older.  i always thought i'd want to teach in a high-school, but after hanging with some awesome almost two and two year olds today, i may have changed my mind.  we'll see.  i definitely have a lot more time to worry about that.  


but, with the awesomeness of my day has come sheer exhaustion.  so i am going to bed.  good night and cheers to 200 nights that we've spent together!

Working Girl.

I have not worked (as in being employed) in over four years.  I can absolutely say with vigor that i have not missed it very much, either.  But tomorrow, come 9:00 a.m., i am going back to work.  Well, it's for a week... at my daughter's preschool... and my children are coming with me... BUT, it's an out of the house, hard work, paying job!  I am so excited!  I am logging off now, so i can get ready to go to bed, so that my body doesn't go into shock when the alarm goes off at 7:00 tomorrow morning!  
I will hopefully have wonderful things to write about tomorrow night!  Wish me luck!

Goodnight Irene!

As is usual with my life, i have a love/hate relationship with Hurricane Irene.  I am sitting here enjoying my patio with my husband in a sweatshirt and long pants, a situation almost unheard of here in the summer.  I am loving that Irene has brought us cooler weather and less humidity, with no rain or damage.  My flipside to this is that my entire family and my husband's entire family lay in the wake of the storm to come. Sometime between tonight and tomorrow the winds and rains will hit, with God knows what damage, and God knows what else.  I pray and i hope that it's just a bunch of branches in the roads.  
I will go back to enjoying my time with my husband, and i will continue to pray for the safety of our family.  and i will continue my love/hate relationship with the hurricane and almost everything else in my life.

All about B...

My youngest daughter has never ceased to amaze me.  Whether its her beautiful bright blue eyes that twinkle when she smiles, or her giggle that is absolutely contagious, she is a dazzling little girl.  She is as sweet as sweet can be- when she wants to be.  She is also unnaturally stubborn and headstrong, possibly more so than all of those stubborn and headstrong genes that have come before her.  I have come to realize at her very early age that i will probably have nothing to worry about with that little one as she takes on the world, except for maybe the world.


Today, as i tried to put her to bed for her first nap, she got frustrated when i took something away from her (i believe it was either glass or electronic, and definitely not something that could go in the crib with her... otherwise this would not have been a battle i would ever wage.)  Imagine for a second the old 60's era movies where the tough greaser guy grabs the nerdy wimpy guy by the collar, twists once and then pulls the wimp's face up to his own to convey a point.  Imagine my ten-month-old and me sitting in her rocking chair.  She actually grabbed my collar and twisted and pulled me into her face... Replay that 60's movie inserting me for the wimp and her for the greaser.  Actually, she'd make any real greaser  seem like the wimp.


But then tonight, we ventured out to see a movie in the park, which didn't even start until almost 9:00.  I had no idea what we were in store for.  Well, let me just say she probably had the most fun that she has had yet in her tiny life.  She danced, she sang, she ate, she jumped, she played, she watched more of the movie than a lot of the other kids... it was amazing!  She stayed wide-eyed and attentive (even, dare i say, happy!) until we left the park at 10:35p.m.  She was asleep within minutes and transferred well.  We'll see how the night progresses.  


I love that little girl so much.  I love that she keeps us on our toes.  I love that we never know what we're going to encounter with her (remind me that i love this the next time i'm banging my head against the wall!)  i love her laugh and smile and now- her dance!  she is so much more than the baby she really should be.  I am so blessed to have two absolutely amazing daughters- so different and yet somehow so much the same!  I never take for granted the two precious gifts that God has given me, and i look forward to each and every day that i can know them more and more!

Never too late...

Between last night and tonight, i have decided that i am putting my foot down, and i am instilling a bit more stringent bedtime rules.  and by a "bit more stringent," i mean rules at all.  we have tried many different approaches in the past, each with its own merit, but not one has seemed to work for us.  But after having no bed "time" this summer (usually having M running around like it's noon at ten o'clock at night), this summer-of-fun must end.  And i want to end it now, with a week to go before school starts. 


So, last night and tonight began the new bedtime rituals.  I put the baby to bed at 7:00 last night (out of sheer need, since she screamed from 6:00-7:00, and threw food at me if i tried to feed her.)  i then began M's bedtime at 8:15.  She fought it all the way and didn't fall asleep until close to ten.  But after putting the baby to bed at 7:45 tonight, and warning M that we were going to start bedtime at 8:15, she complied, sort of.  She's actually still whimpering in her room and it's 9:10, but we're getting there.  and the part that i wanted/needed is that my husband and i are sitting here on the couch instead of one of us laying in her room bargaining with her, or waiting for her to fall asleep, or even worse, falling asleep ourselves.  Maybe, by the time this summer-of-fun truly does come to an end, he and i will even be able to watch a movie together before midnight!  maybe!!!