First Day of Preschool - 2011-2012 School Year

Better late then never right?

September 9, 2011

Caleb, Daddy and Caden

Caden, Mommy and Caleb

Things sure have changed in a year!

Halloween & Christmas

The boys have already started asking for things for Christmas.

While I'm home working on a paper for graduate school today.  Hubby took the boys into town to run errands.

I received and email from hubby while I'm working away.

Subject: "This is what Caleb wants for Christmas."

Content:

A year ago this costume terrified both of those boys.  We were at a Halloween party last year that scared them so much we couldn't be in the same room as the werewolf at the part.  This year, they want to be the werewolf.  Time sure does change things!

Question from a 5 Year Old

Driving home tonight, Caden asks: "Daddy, how does God keep our eyes from slipping out?"

Pumpkins 2011

Caden drawing/tracing his happy face pumpkin.

Caleb drawing/tracing his scary faced pumpkin.

Caleb making the cut.

A happy pumpkin and a scary pumpkin.

'

Two very happy boys with their "lighted up" pumpkins.

It's a good thing we took pictures the day we carved them, because they are already rotting!

Spirit Day 5K

My employer sponsored a 5K today.

There were about 40 participants, and I finished second in my female age group.  I was 10-ish seconds behind the top finisher in our female age group, who happens to be a good friend of mine. 

I started out with a friend, that top finisher, who I knew would be faster. After roughly a half mile, I fell back a bit and ended up running with a new team members to our department.  We hung together really well through it. 

My first mile was at 8:44. 

My second mile was 10:00. 

My last 1.1 mile was 8:14.

And it was a personal record 5K time!

Marriage Lesson Learned

As I mentioned earlier, my hubby and I recently reach our second year of marriage. 

In those two years, we've learned about each other, our relationship and our family.

One things I've noticed is that over time, I spent less time calling home, aka mom and dad, to ask questions, get help, bounce ideas off.  I spent more time relying on my husband.

It wasn't an instant thing.  And don't get me wrong, I still ask my parents questions and they still help us out, but I always start with my husband now. 

We are a team, my husband and I, and our families, they support us.

That difference that I felt, when I've separated more from my parents and focused on my husband, I'm sure my parents felt it too. 

And that's the thing.  I want to remember how it felt when I realized my husband and I were making a family of our own, just like the family my parents built for my brother and I when we were kids. 

I want to remember this in 20+ years.  Because then, I'll be the mom, who's feeling her son pull away and build a family of his own.  I want to remember that it wasn't anything fault of my parents, that it is natural and a good thing that my boys build their own family.

2011 Akron Relay Recap

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I ran in the Akron Marathon Relay, and I loved it!

Our team's final time was 4:45:03.

I ran the second leg of the race, a distance of 5.7 miles.

My official time was 1 hour, 1 minute, 36 seconds.  This means I maintained miles under 11 minutes, which is awesome.

There were SO MANY RUNNERS!  I mean I expected that, but to see it, and to see the crowd, it was an amazing experience.

And the crowd, well, it rocked too.

There sense of support they provided for the friends and/or family that were running was wonderful.  I knew my family would be somewhere near the end of my leg of the race, and seeing so many kids cheering for their parents on the route, made me exicted to get to see my kids cheering too. 

Somewhere in the middle of my leg, I ran into a college friend of mine who was running it.  We ran together for a minute and chatted quickly before I headed off to finish my leg.  She was running the half marathon, and did pretty great!  We went to college over 2 hours away, but she was from the area orginally and had traveled back to visit family and run. 

This was by far the largest race I've ever participated in, and one I hope to participate in again in years to come.

Caden Helps Daddy with the Fish Tank

The week before the fish died, Caden started having interest in helping Daddy with the fish tank.

 

He was so proud of himself.

 

Daddy was one proud fellow too.

 

Putting the salt into the water.

 

Mixing the salt with the water.

 

I'm no pet sitter.

My husband had a trip for work over the summer.  So, while he was out of town, I was responsible for his share of the household duties, including his fish.  I've not been the biggest fan of his fish, and I haven't been shy about it. 

I headed downstairs the first night to feed the fish, look into the tank, and promptly have a sinking feeling in my stomach as I immediatly start calling my husband.

"Um, Keith, I think your fish are dead."

"Oh no, they just sleep and rest sometimes."

*awkward pause* "Do they sleep piled on top of each other laying flat on the sand?"

"Maybe you should send me pictures."

***WARNING***

**You are about to see dead fish.**

***WARNING***

He calls back and says I need to clean up the tank and get rid of the dead fish.  I have to do what!?

Then he thinks somemore and calls his brother, who is his partner is fish tank madness.  Next thing I know, at 6:00 on a Sunday evening my brother-in-law is driving an hour to come remove dead fish from the tank, clean it up, and make sure everything else is okay to turn around drive 60 minutes back home.  So thankful!

Nemo, our clown fish of course, surprisingly lived through the whole ordeal although he was certainly shocked.  When I found him he was leaning on the glass only moving a slight fin, and I swear if he had a tounge, it would have been hanging out of his mouth.

This whole time I'm feeling so guilty and terrible that only 12 hours after hubby left town, I'd killed the fish.  Fortunately, well at least for me anyway, it was determined that hubby had improprerly plugged in one of the units when he redid the electrical wiring.  There had been a storm the night before that caused our power to flash with electrocuted the fish.

However, my co-workers and hubby still tease me about killing his fish. 

Cutting Our Wedding Cake

Our second wedding anniversary came and went two weeks ago, but in that time I thought about a few things I want to capture before I forget them.

Our wedding day was certainly a special day.  I'm so glad we made the boys a part of our wedding.  I'm also so glad they remember it, and still talk about it occasioanlly almost two years later. 

Caden and Caleb were three years old on our wedding day.  They loved the fancy clothes and dancing.

Caden; however, was pretty excited about the cake. 

When it was time for us to cut the cake, Caden wasn't far away.  In fact, he was right at the table with us, because he wanted the first piece of cake. 

Photo by Laura @ Perception Studio

Look at the bottom left hand corner of this photo.  There he is.  Waiting for that first piece of cake!

He may have been slightly dissapointed when he had to wait for his cake, but luckily there were so many other distractions his dissapointement certainly didn't last long!

A Selfless Gift

It's that time of year where we've already started talking about what we want from Santa for Christmas this year. 

When we ask what they boys would like from Santa, we've gotten varied answers, but there's one that reoccurred several times now. 

The boys say they have rocking chairs, but that mommy and daddy don't have any.  So their going to ask Santa to bring some rocking chairs for mommy and daddy.

And my heart melts with pride for those two boys.

Should I wear make up?

Caleb and I were in the bathroom together today getting ready to leave.

He was washing his hands; I was combing my hair. I feel the need to clarify so that doesn't sound weird.

Caleb asked me, are you going to put make up on today?

I responded that I didn't know. I hasn't decided yet, then I asked if he thought I should.

His response, "um...yes."