Packing, 4th of July Celebrations & A New Career

Okay, So I am taking a break from life at the moment and instead of wasting time reading facebook I am updating the blog. It'll be boring, but at least some record of our life will be written down somewhere. ;)

All righty. I cannot believe that there is only one week left of July. This month passed me by before I even had time to blink!

Let's start with the 4th of July.

It was fabulous!

 okay I'm done.

just kidding. It was such a great day though. It was the first 4th that I have been away from my family, so that was a little different, but exciting too. We started it off by sleeping in. HA! that was smart of us. I have always gotten up early to go run some freedom run somewhere and I have always loved doing that, but I was tired this year and we just slept right on in. See what turning 30 did to us? We are getting lazy in our old age. ;)

We enjoyed the afternoon at a ward picnic, bbq & baseball game. It was so much fun. I just sat and chatted the entire time while Ben and the boys played ball, but it was a great time for all of us. Then we went to our community's celebration. Full of food, bounce houses, shops & all that. The kids were in heaven. The bounce houses were free & some were even water slides so that was super bonus. I think they would have spent all night playing there, but it was soon time to go & do our own fireworks at home. Which we did. We only bought a few, but the kids enjoyed them a bunch. The spinning eyeball ones are the best. Our neighborhood was having a block party so we actually got to watch fireworks from several different people. Then there was the main show (big ones in the sky) it was spectacular. And once that ended our neighbors had purchased a ton of huge ones themselves. It was just as great as the Avalon show, only we had front row seats! We loved it. Just sat on the grass, eating junk food and watching fireworks all around us. It was a kind of perfect night.

Several days later, as we were planning our week and kids go to what when and who could take them and this that and everything else.... we had the week planned. it was booked. We were then making a joke about how long we had been married and we both realized that our anniversary was in just a couple days. We had planned the entire week and had both completely forgotten about our anniversary. oh well. we still love each other. Actually, we're the happiest we've ever been so whatevs. We just laughed about it. We ended up all going out to dinner together and getting a "wedding cake" to eat with the kids. It was fun.

Oh yeah, at that dinner. as we were leaving Ben was carrying Sophie out through the restaurant and out of nowhere she points right at a rather large man and says loudly "fat man! fat man! fat man! fatty fatty!" Ben just about died of embarrassment. I truly don't know WHERE she got that from. I am thinking the boys, because my boys do like to stick out their tummies and call themselves fat. But holy crap, that was embarrassing. Oh and yes, we had a good long talk about calling people names of ANY SORT. Sheesh.

Moving on...

This year has brought on a slow bit of surprise for us. At the beginning of the year one of Ben's childhood friends (Levi Belnap) called him up, telling him about a business idea he had (he is currently in Harvard Business School) and wanted Ben's help with the technical side of it. Fast forward 7 months. They (Ben, Levi &  another guy I don't know) are all business partners, Ben has been working full time at his job here in Orlando, coming home and working several hours on this side business to get things up and running & they now have enough $$ for Ben to quit his job here and just give this (his) company his full attention. So, he gave his two weeks notice, his boss was very very sad and practically begged him not to leave, offered him a good raise, basically what can we do to make you stay, and Ben still quit. hahaha. No, it is good they like him so much. If this thing doesn't go through like they are hoping it will, his boss told him they will take him back anytime. So I'm not worried.  Anyways, starting next week he will be working from home, getting this product working, finished & polished & will be his own boss. I am really excited for him. He has always always wanted to have his own company, be an entrepreneur & he is finally doing it! He is loving this so much and is so happy.  I don't know if he'll ever go back to being just a programmer again. Our new home has a nice big office for him to work in, so that is perfect timing for him to be working from home. Life is full of surprises isn't it? I like this one.

With that, we are moving. So I have been trying to still have a summer vacation, a little bit of fun, started training for a marathon (on week 3 & @ 45 miles a week sheesh!) and triyng to get a little bit of packing done each day. Things are going pretty smoothly, but laundry and dinners just aren't happening. Where the world am I supposed to fit that one in? So, it is frozen dinners & wash clothes as you need them. HA! My house is currently halfway torn apart. Everything off the walls, closets emptied and boxed up. This week my friend Amy Hillis is coming over for a day to help me get everything else boxed up and ready for the truck. She is a good one that Amy Hillis. Love her.

Harrison is still playing Basketball &  is improving @ each game. He scored twice in yesterday's game and actually guarded his man. I was proud of him. James had a swim meet last week, it didn't go as well as his first but he still rocked. He had been swimming for 7 hrs the day before and was just plain exhausted by the time the meet came around. He took 2nd in most things, except the medley, which he took 3rd. It was a rough race, you could tell he was exhausted by the end, but he didn't give up and finished the thing well. I was proud of him.

Sophie is currently obsessed with Ballerinas and all she wants from Santa this year (yes my kids are always planning on what they are going to ask for and it changes throughout the year) is a pair of ballet slippers. I am planning on getting her a little ballet outfit and slippers, assuming she is still loving that in 6 months. My friend Amy has 3 daughters and they are all in dance. And have been since they were tiny. So that adds up to a lot of dance costumes. guess who got most of those costumes a few weeks ago? Yep, Me! Sophie has been in heaven ever since. She plays dress up al day long, looks in the mirror, dances around. I love it. Harrison likes them equally as well. He dresses up and dances around with her too. Funny little boy. James won't be caught dead in any of them.

I have also once again started training for another Marathon. It is in Savannah GA and is on a SATURDAY! That is a big deal here as ALL RACES are on Sundays. So glad to find one on a Saturday that is close enough to drive to. just 4 hrs away. This time around I am trying a new training program with a lot more miles in it. I am already putting in 40 miles a week and get up to 60 by the end. My legs feel good currently, but man, that humidity wears me out quick! I am always disgusted and amazed at just how much I sweat during each run. Seriously, my shoes get squishy/sloshy and it is all from me sweating right down into them. Bad huh? I only have another month or so of the really hot humid weather, so that is a good thing. Counting down to October for nice running weather again.

Anyways, I think that is all for now. pretty darn boring huh? With all that we have still been spending at least one full day a week at the beach, always with friends & it is always a great time. Harrison is now in love with body boarding and never gets out of the water. I love seeing my kids enjoy the beach so much. We went the other evening and it was beautiful. It was nice and cool, the kids built a sand castle, we walked along the beach for a while & just relaxed. That was a good beach visit.

Okay, my chores are calling to me. I must go get the boys room packed on up before they start unpacking things. sigh. I'll post again when I'm moved.

Oh one more thing, we went to the dentist today. NO CAVITIES FOR ANYONE!!! That is a pretty big deal at our house considering the first time we took James @ age 3 he had 11 cavities & needed 5 root canals. And has needed work done almost every time we go. Harrison has yet to have a cavity and this was Sophie's first visit. I told the boys that if they came out with no cavities I'd give them $20. As soon as the dentist told Harrison he was cavity free he said "mom, where's my 20 bucks?". I guess I gotta pay up. ;)