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.