A Dance, A Book, & Too Much Sugar

Yep folks, another boring ol' update. Here we go.

Last Monday....I tried to run. I had run 55 miles the week before and I was scheduled to run 8 on Monday. So I laced up my shoes and started to, very slowly, run. I lasted a whopping 3 miles before I thought my legs were going to break. So I walked for a good mile, tried running another 2...and then I was done. Seriously, I think my best pace in that entire run was a 9:45. It was a sad sad run. Oh well.
For Family Home Evening we put together all of our Valentine's. For friends, both at church and school. Sophie got really into it and made them for our babysitters, all her friends at church, and even grandpa. Still haven't sent the far away family ones. sorry!

Tuesday, I cleaned up the house, went for a good bike ride with Ben, and then had a meeting with the other Counselor (Michele) in Young Women's. We were planning the food for the upcoming tri-stake dance. Then we talked and talked the afternoon away. It was actually a really fun time. She is an amazing woman, and I'm lucky to get to work with her.

That night was a Relief Society activity. It was great. It was all about love. Love in your family, in your marriage, and then a little bit about natural health/healing. There is a lady in our ward who is an expert in essential oils. I was at the table smelling all of them and asked her what would take my pre-race nerves away. She pulled out a bottle had me sniff it and seriously the effect was immediate. It was crazy weird. Completely grounded me, all nerves, anxiousness, excitement, gone. Crazy. Then she had one that I couldn't put down. It cleared your sinuses completely, made breathing a beautiful thing. I should have brought it home to Ben, he has allergies like crazy right now. Anyways, it was a great activity & I always have fun hanging out with all my fave women.

Wednesday was a busy, but great day. Sophie was playing at a friends for the morning. So I had plans to go visit my friend, Jessica, who had just had a baby girl. She was my running buddy my first year here. Our daughters look like twins, so I was excited to see what this new baby girl looked like. Plus I love babies so dang much & birthing stories so I was dying to visit her. I had plans to go running after the visit and before I picked Sophs up, but that never happened.

I went to Jess' house and that baby is the most perfect cute thing you ever saw. Seriously, she is perfect. We had so much fun chatting and looking at the sweet babe that I stayed there all morning and missed my run. Oh well, running can always happen later...babies....they grow up. It was a great time. Once I got Sophie home, the boys were due home in 30 min. So I hopped on the treadmill. Did hill intervals for exactly 30 min. Got all 6 hills in, my legs didn't break, and finished right when the boys got home. Awesome.

Then it was straight off to scouts. James had scout early that day because they were doing a bike course and I said I'd help with it. James had a great time. They were supposed to do 10 laps around the parking lot. He did 30. He definitely was the most confident on a bike. That's what happens when you ride your bike to school every day for 2 years. He seems to really enjoy scouts. He is friends with all the boys there, and I am glad he gets to go. He is just about done with his Wolf. Just a few more things, which is good because he turns 9 in just a little over a month..yikes!

After scouts I hurried on home, made a bazillion cookies for YW. Strawberry cake cookies with M&Ms and white chocolate chips...they were a little too tasty and I might have eaten a whole lot of dough. dang it! Haha. I finished just in time to head over to the Church and was very grateful for Ben for picking up Subway for all of us.

YW was a lot of fun this week. I had 2 of the girls teach everyone different ways to do your hair, and take care of it and good products to help the frizz you get when living in humid FL. I was so impressed. They did such a great job. They did almost everyone's hair, they were very sweet, and we just had fun. It was a great activity.

After I got home, I made even more cookies for friends for Valentine's day, ate more dough...grrr! And got things ready for the fam for the Holiday. I always do a fun breakfast for the kids and have a few valentines out for them. I decorated the kitchen, set up the table, and finally got my butt in bed way too late. I was really excited for the kids to see what I'd done and thought they'd be excited too. nope. they weren't. They didn't really seem to care.

 butt. heads.

That's the last time I'm losing sleep over spoiling them. ha! Not one of them thanked me or anything. In fact they seemed to just be extra whiny all morning. No, I wasn't happy about that. After they left we cleaned things on up and Ben and I went to go play some tennis. We still aren't great, in fact I wouldn't even say we are good, but we are less horrible than we were when we started. That is for sure. We picked Sophie up from the gym daycare, where she had made us a really cute Valentine and had a fun time. She looked all cute. I had put her hair into fun braids, and she had on a new shirt & sparkly shoes...she was darling.

We came home and made notes for our friends and put cookies onto plates to take around. That was when Ben pulled out his gift for me.

A book. That he wrote, about me. "50 things I love About You" Not going to lie, I cried. It was the sweetest thing I have ever gotten. He started writing it a year ago and then had it printed off. So so so sweet. I then felt lame about the heart attack I had done for him and the smattering of peanut buttery treats. Not a whole lot of thought there. I'll have to think of something great for next year.

The boys got home, Harrison was very excited to tell me that when he got to school there was a heart full of treats on his desk waiting for him. James brought home his box of Valentines. He had made a star wars box with Darth Vaders face on the front that read "Will you be my Death-a-tine?" Not sure what that means exactly, but it made me laugh really hard.

We then went on our way to take plates of cookies to people. It took a couple hours, but we had a great time visiting with friends. We went to the Turpins and saw their sweet little baby. THe kids had never seen him yet. It was fun to show them who the baby was that they had been praying for for the past 3.5 months. And I of course got to snuggle another sweet baby. He is little just like Harrison and Sophie were and I love that. He is a super sweet thing and it was fun to visit with the fam while the kids ran off and played. Then at another house we took in cookies and came out with a giant bag of clothes for the kids. I think I am going to take cookies there more often. They have a girl just older than sophie, so they often pass clothes on down to her. Which I am so so so grateful for. Sophie was so excited and has been trying on all the clothes ever since. Thank You Rachel!!
Once we got home, we had our nacho dinner. Awesome cheese sauce and all, the kids loved it. We had a good evening.

Friday, I thought for about 2 seconds that I didn't have much going on...then I remembered that I was in charge of the food at the Tri-Stake Youth Dance Saturday night and that I needed to get shopping and prepping. So, I got my run in. My legs finally felt like themselves again. And I was off to Costco. I don't normally go there, it is pretty far away. But I really hate the wholesale store we live by and decided to just go to Costco. I love that place. I know, I'm weird, but I love that store. I spent way too much time there. I got everything I needed though and headed home. Once I got home, I realized I had forgotten a few things...grrrr...why do I always do that...and so headed back out the door to Target to get the last items. Once again, it was Subway for dinner. THose $5 footlongs have become our families best friend lately.

By the time I got kid stuff done, dinner eaten, shopping completed, it was pretty late and I was just starting with the many cookie bars I was baking. I got to bed somewhere around 1 am, got up at 5 am to go running so I could get it done before James' football game. Went straight to the game after I got home. It was a good game. The other team was undefeated, same as James' team, and we tied! James didn't score a touchdown this time, but he enjoyed the game anyway. They have a really good team, and coaches. It was so stinking cold though. Sophie and I stayed huddled up in a giant blanket. Harrison kept trying to take the blanket off of us because he was "too cold" But at the same time refused to wear his jacket because he didn't need it. Whatever child.

Once we got home I showered, took a quick nap and then it was time to make buckets of frosting, bags and bags of snack mix, and chop chop veggies. whew. It was a lot. But I got it all done, Thank you Ben for helping chop things and taking care of kids. Then it was off to the Stake Center to feed many dancing teens. It was actually a lot of fun. The Hillis' were there, Michele & her husband were there. And we had so much fun together. The men went out and got us all actual dinner food, while we got treats and everything served up. Once again, I feel so lucky to work with so many amazing people. By the time we got everything cleaned up though and I got home, it was past midnight. So tired. But a good tired.

So you can guess that today I spent as much time as possible being a lazy bum. haha. Our Stake had a special meeting today. They are reorganizing the entire Stake except our ward. I guess the other wards were all too small, so they consolidated them, made fewer, larger wards. And everyone in all other wards were released from their callings. crazy huh? They had baskets for everyone to turn in all their keys. But our ward is unaffected, we still have our same callings, same Stake, no changes.
Then today we made Chocolate ice cream, lazed around and did whatever we felt like doing. Which included a lot of sleeping. :) Then of course tonight was BYD, which was also a good time. I am getting to know the Youth more and enjoying my time with them. They really are a great group of kids.

So yes, another full week. I feel bad. As I look back I don't even know what all I did with the kids. Sophie is home with me every day, so she and I generally take plenty of time during the day to play Barbies or watch a show. We painted a lot this week actually. She loves painting, and she is pretty good at it.

Since I was gone most nights, Ben was the one to put the kids to Bed and read scriptures and all that with them. maybe we need to start having scripture study in the morning. But I am so so grateful for Ben and all that he does. He is so good about helping the kids finish up school projects, or reading with them, or helping James with his multiplication facts. He always gets them to bed on time and then even straightens up so when I get home that house is not trashed. He really is just the best. I am a lucky lucky girl.

Anyways, I wanted to post a couple things from the kids over the week. Here they are.


Kid stuff:

Sophie today was running around & around the house. And when she was all done she said "Dad, am I a really fast runner?" Yeah, You know that made my day. Cute girl.

James. Folded all the laundry for me this week. He is an angel sent from Heaven I tell you. I couldn't believe he did that for me, and it made me feel like the luckiest mom to have such a great kid.

Harrison. Made me several little hearts this week. Some with cute pictures, and some with little notes that said I love you. He is still my sweetie.

Oh and one more random thing. I made fish one night this week and was all ready for the kids to just hate it. They didn't. They ate and ate and ate. They loved it. I love it when kids like healthy things. James has started liking his sandwiches with lots of veggies in there too. gotta love that. Harrison...still just wants bread and plain cheese, nothing else.

So I think that is all for this last week. I have eaten waaaay too much sugar in the past 5 days and so made a deal with one of my friends that I have to pay her a dollar every time I have sugar. I need to get off the stuff...again. need to. it messes with me. And I have a marathon in 2 weeks, gotta be eating right.  So here's to no sugar...again..we'll see how long I last this time. ;) Hahaha.

James Scores a Touchdown, Sophie gets Sick, & Harrison tells me to Stop Talking to Him.

Well, that about sums up my week. ;) ;) Just kidding. I know I missed posting about the week before...it was insanely busy I'll tell you that. I ran 55 miles, I hosted a double baby shower..which meant I needed to get my front room put together, finally, (it looks good now, curtains, chairs, lamps & all)  and scrubbing walls, baseboards, cleaning carpets, and all that jazz. Then of course there was all the other usual stuff of kids projects, games, practices, school, YW activities & meetings. I swear I was so tired by Sunday I wanted to just sleep in and skip church altogether. But instead I got up, hurried to get the kids all ready and we were actually on time to Church. I was proud of myself. I will confess though that I forgot to eat bfast before church (I had run 30 miles that weekend) and halfway through church realized how dang hungry I was, so what did I do? I had a bag of peanut butter m&ms and ate almost the entire thing. Yes, it was a big bag....not the small ones. It was very tasty.

So, now onto this week. Gosh I can't even think what we did this week. How about I'll just p;ost about each person and that should cover everything.

James:  Man, that kids has been one of my biggest stresses lately. Not because he has been behaving poorly or anything. He is just really struggling in school and I have no idea why. He always gets mostly As and some Bs and this term he got Bs and Cs. He seems overwhelmed by all the homework and school work he has to do and his scores in everything are consistently dropping. I look at his work at the beginning of the year and it is far better than what he is doing now. Sometimes I think his brain fell out somewhere.

Anyways, for those of you that don't know. There is a test here in FL called the FCAT. Kids take it every year starting in 3rd grade and if you don't pass....you don't move on to the next grade. Also, schools are ranked by the avg of their FCAT scores. James and Harrison attend the #1 school. They are obsessed with getting the highest scores. Bleh. So, I guess they took some practice tests and James scored in the bottom 20 of everyone. Oh boy.  I got a letter from the school letting me know, emails, phone calls...love having everyone tell me how "smart" my kid is. Anyhoo, because of his scores he now has to attend tutoring 3 days a week after school until April. The only problem is that he already stays after for his science club which he loves. I wasn't about to take him out of that. So, we made arrangements with the science teacher and he and some other kids are meeting in the morning for science club and then he staying after for the tutoring. Poor kid, I hope he can hang in there for all this. That's a lot of time at school. I did make a deal with him that while he was doing all this he was off all chore duties at home...bed making, room cleaning..etc. He seemed pretty happy about that, so maybe that'll help.

Last month I signed James up for Football. It was a last minute decision and wasn't cheap. But I just felt like I needed to do it. I am so glad I did. With so much school work he gets hit with, I am so glad he has this fun thing to do on the weekends and during the week. He loves it. He loves it so much and he is good! He has had a couple games already and has done really well in both. In this weeks game he scored a touchdown on the very first play. It was awesome. He talks to me about football all the time and I love it. He and Ben go practice throwing the ball around and have a good time together. He is also on the same team with some friends from his old school and he seems to get along really well with all the boys on the team. Kind perfect for him right now.

He and I write notes to each other in a little notebook we pass back & forth. And it's been a lot of fun. But in one of his notes last week he wrote "mom, here is a secret, I have no friends at school". That broke my heart. I talked to him the next day about how I didn't have any friends until High School and kids teased me and even spat on me, but that I just decided to take charge and start being friendly to everyone. I said hi to most everyone I saw and eventually people started saying hi back. We talked for a bit about how he has friends at church and on the football team and that cheered him up. I've been meeting the boys for lunch every Thursday and he seemed much happier that day.

Harrison: Doesn't like me. If you think I am kidding I am not. The other day I said "Harrison, do you love me? You never tell me so I don't know." He rolled his eyes at me and said "I like you, I just don't like to talk to you." nice kid. real nice. Meh, He'll come around. He gets along with Ben so at least he likes someone right? No, he really is a sweetheart. But he's lazy and I am the mean one that doesn't let him get away with it...so yeah. When I was eating lunch with him this week he was making me laugh really hard. I can't even remember what we were talking about. But he was making the funniest faces while he was talking I was dying. He is funny little boy. He keeps us laughing in this house. Drives us crazy sometimes when we need him to be serious, but for the most part we just laugh.

 He seems to be doing much better in school. He rocks in math. Seriously. Every single math assignment and test he brings home is always 100% and he tells me he is always the first one done. It makes me happy to see him excel in something. He still has no idea what he is reading...zero comprehensions...and is in about 50 different intervention programs to get him up to speed at the school but he is rocking in the math dept. Gotta be proud of that!

He is still obsessed with kitties, it is what he does most of his day. Gathers all his stuffed animals/kittens and plays with Sophie. I do love that those two get along so well and can play together. Harrison is a perfect middle kid that way. He can play with Sophie just as well as he can play with James. It makes my heart happy.

Sophie: Was sick all week long. And is still sick. Poor girl. I went to go visit a friend at the Hospital this week (her daughter is there) and didn't get back until very late. I went to check on Sophie in her bed and she was burning hot. I took her temp and she was 103.7! yikes. Thank the heavens for tylenol and ibuprofen. She had that fever for a few days and then came down with a really crappy cough. Now her voice is all scraggly and she is pretty grouchy. But I've let her watch waaaaaaay more TV than I ever do, so she hasn't been too sad about being sick. I did spend one afternoon just holding her. She never lets me cuddle her anymore and I wasn't going to let that chance slip past me. So I scooped her up and just held her until the boys came home. Love that girl so stinking much.

 She kept me up most of the week. I would wake up in the middle of the night to her face right in mine. Usually scared me half to death at first. But then she would say something sweet like "mom, my throat is scratchy and I don't like all the boogers in my nose"  So I'd get her a tissue & a drink and tuck her back in. One night she woke up throwing a mighty fit and I could not calm her down for anything. She was suuuper sweaty (fever broke) So I changed her jammies, got her a drink and some meds, finally calmed her down and then suddenly she was out like a light. Completely asleep. The next morning she came to me crying about how she had lost her jammies (the ones I had taken off her) and she didn't know what had happened. She didn't remember anything of the night before. Funny baby. Can she just please stay my baby forever?

 Last night she was tired of staying down and we had a little tea party together. We made heart shaped sandwiches, pink frosted sugar cookies, and apple juice. We then pulled out the barbies and played dolls until bedtime. It was great fun. The boys even got involved with their stuffed animals and pretended to be monsters. It was a fun night. I hope she gets feeling better soon though.

Ben: Is working around the clock. Remember how I said they got their funding and all that. I spoke too soon. Long story and I don't even think I get it. But to sum up. They didn't get the funding and are starting back over trying to get investors. Oh man. So Ben is working around the clock trying to get some new features done that people are wanting. I really really hope they are able to find funding, not because I am worried about Ben's employment. (he has never had a hard time getting a job...ever) It would just suck to see this company go down. I know how much work they have all put into it, and it would be a bit heartbreaking to see it fail. I don't think it will, they are all pretty determined to make things happen. It'll be interesting to see how things shake out.

Me: Oh gosh, where to start? Running Running running. Not just for exercise. After kids, errands, cleaning house, making dinners. Fortunately I only have one more week of training and then maybe I will have a little more energy. maybe. Wait who am I kidding? Life is busy no matter what. Ha!

 This week was good. One of the main things I did was go to the Temple. I missed last month and I just felt like I neeeeeeeded to get my butt there. So I set a day apart to go, made arrangements and I swear everything that could go wrong went wrong. That was the night Sophie got sick. She kept me up most the night crying and not sleeping. Then I wondered about leaving her while she was sick...then my car was out of gas and I went to get it filled and for whatever reason my card wouldn't work for anything (turns out my card accidently got cancelled...what?) Fortunately we have a few different accounts so I paid a different way. Oh and we woke up late that morning, my friend that was going to come with me called and couldn't go last minute....it just seemed like I was NOT meant to go to the Temple. But I knew I needed to go, so I just went. So glad I did. Seriously. So glad. It was the ONE thing I needed to do this week. If nothing else worked out this week, I needed that trip. It was beautiful and cleared my mind and helped me refocus my brain to where it needed to be. I'm always so grateful that we have a place of peace that we can go to and feel of the spirit. It was wonderful. I came home ready to put my mom shoes back on and get to work.

For our YW activity this week we got all the girls registered online on lds.org so we can track their personal progress. I love that I can see where each of them are at now and can keep track of it all online. awesome!! They still have their books and are using those too, it is just nice to have both. In fact for New Beginnings I am sewing book holders for the girls. They are really cute and I am excited to give them to the girls.  But I'd better get cracking on them if I want them done on time. hehehe.


Family Things:
We had a great FHE where we talked about the Holy Ghost, then had some valentine's treats I had made. My kids are loving the jar of marshmallow hearts. Can't remember if I posted about that or not....everytime they show love for someone they get to have a heart shaped marshmallow. I have a big jar full of them. I have been getting a lot of love notes from my kids....I'm not complaining. :) We started that when we had a lesson about Jesus and his love for us.

We had our Friday Family Fun night. Our kids love that night most of all. We always have some sort of pizza, a kids movie and a family treat. This week we even had soda! They thought it was pretty awesome. Then I let them have a sleepover together in the boys room. Sophie always ends up on Harrison's bed and James and Harrison end up on James' bed together. They are cute all together.

WEll, I think that is about it. This week scares me. seriously. I'm in charge of another activity I need to get a bunch of stuff for,  it is my biggest week for training (almost 60 miles to run this week) One of the sisters I VT is starting Chemo and I neeeeed to visit her, I need to sew things for YW,  James' schedule is crazy for school tutoring, football and science. Ben doesn't have any extra time...just working every spare minute he can. Fortunately I am starting things ahead of the game. Laundry is all caught up. I have no problem with frozen meals for the week. and I am making a bunch of muffins and stuff for snacks for the week. And as far as cleaning goes...it just might have to wait until next week.