Kickin' It

Rylee goes to her Mother's Day Out Program on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Since it goes until 2pm, she usually does not get a nap.  Unfortunately, she needs a nap.  On the days she goes to MDO, I have to watch her closely and keep her distracted, or bad things happen.  What bad things, you ask?

This sort of bad thing happens.  Rylee will fall asleep in some interesting places and positions!  

Unfortunately, it will be at a time when it it too late for napping, and too early for bed. 

(And yes, she really is completely asleep here!)

Then one must decide if it will be a late nap which will be followed by a later bedtime, or try to make it an early bedtime and hope like heck that she stays asleep and in bed throughout the night.  Nope, never a dull moment around here!

And for a random segue....
The kids are doing really well in Karate.  I can see a huge difference in their movements and they are having a good time with it.

That's Callie in the yellow shirt.  Apparently she is left footed kicker and I couldn't get her to face me.  But she got some good height on her kicks. 

And I finally had a break in running kids so I could get a good clear picture of Marian.  What did she do?!!  Well, she didn't kick.  She leaped and swung.  Sigh.  She really did have some good kicks.

Halloween Shenanegins

I'm starting to think that Halloween is my least favorite holiday.  Why?  Late nights and too much candy.  The candy wouldn't be so bad if it were GOOD candy (and thus to be consumed by ME), but it is candy I have no desire to eat and it is everywhere.  Add in staying up too late and life is no longer a barrel of laughs. Saturday was our Ward Halloween Party.  I was grumpy that it started at 7pm (which is when we start our bedtime routine!), but we went and had a great time.  The kids didn't get to bed till 10pm and they begged for candy all Saturday. Saturday night was our block party.  We went and the kids had fun running around with their friends.  Fortunately, between the dark and the cold, it wasn't too hard to get them home at a reasonable hour and they were only slightly late to bed.  Hopefully we will be ready for Wednesday night's festivities and it won't be too bad.  And hopefully there will be enough good candy for me to paw through!

Scary Marian! 

Us at the Ward party.  I'm the scary cat lady.  The 3 older girls are cats and Rylee is a cowgirl.  Fun stuff!  (It took me 2 trips to the thrift store to find my dress!) 

The pumpkins we carved for the event.  You can barely tell that the one on the left is a ninja-like mummy.  Callie designed the one on the right.  She was quite pleased with herself. 

My Marian Kitty! 

Callie was not interested in a picture. 

The kids after the Trunk-or-Treat carnage. 

 I made "monster toes" for our block party.  Cool, aren't they?!!

We also brought "mummy-dogs" and we didn't have any leftovers to bring back home. 

Delaney was so sad at the start of the block party because she lost her tiger tail.  Isn't she pitiful?! 

Rylee had a magnificent time galloping around on her horse.  It was pretty chilly, but she was not going to put on a jacket.  I felt better knowing that her legs, at least were toasty.

A now-happy Delaney!  The neighbor let her borrow a tail, and she got her face painted.  Life is grand again!

Levi got in on the Halloween candy as well.  Or more accurately, he got INTO the candy.

Race Review

I am part of a fabulous running group of ladies called "The Stroller Warriors".  FYI, there are several chapters- I know there is one at Camp Lejune and one on Okinawa, if any of my friends in those areas need a running support group!  Some of the ladies in my group talked me into running in the Jazz 5k today.  I did not realize that I was the only one running the 5k and the rest of them were all doing the Half Marathon portion!  

This was my first real 5k.  MWR ones don't count, and I only did the one MRW one last year on my home turf.  This was a scary, pay real money, drive downtown, and run with lots and lots of other people race.  Yikes!  I was a bit stressed about it.  All my fears were for naught though and today was glorious!

I was up before 5 this morning to get ready and walk the dog so I could meet my friends at 5:30.  We were in downtown New Orleans parking just after 6 am.  I bid them all farewell as the half marathon started at 7.  Then I froze.  I know!  Its been barely below 70 at night right up till last night and it was 57 degrees this morning.  And windy.  I haven't been so cold since we moved here!  

The 5k started at 7:30 and it was wonderful.  Lonely, because I didn't know anyone else and I trotted along by myself, but awesome!   We ran through downtown New Orleans.  They closed off the road to traffic and the race was all on the road, and they had lots of police and volunteers.  It was really well run. (Hee hee hee I made a funny!  The race was "well run"!)   

I really liked that we got to run on the road itself because there was lots of room to run and I never felt crowded after the first quarter mile.  And I have suddenly found something I really like about this area.  They do it in style!  No need to have an excuse, people just dress up for everything!  Costumes galore today.  So fun!  And even if it weren't near Halloween, there still would have been tons of costumes.  I definitely need to get me a tutu for my next race!

Can you see the gal dressed as a bunny?  She even had a cotton tail on the back! 

Yeah, we got to run by some interesting stuff! 

This was the fastest woman.  Does anything here bother you? I could not believe it when I realized she was the fastest girl.  Think how much faster she'd be if she could control the heaving bosom! 

 Yep, I gotta get me a tutu! I'm not sure I could stand a headband, but what fun!

No way to get bored on this run.  So many great things to look at. 

Oh, you can barely see, but check out this blurry gladiator guy.  He has a shield in one hand and a sword in the other. Hmmm.... Dan might need one of these.....

Oooh, look!  Its me!  I'm in the blue, behind the lady in red. (And I passed both the lady in red and the lady in black because I was so motivated there!)  You can't tell, but I'm smiling from ear to ear.  This is where I came around that corner and saw Dan.  It was less than half a mile from the finish and I was feeling the burn from going faster than I usually do.  My goal today was to be under 30 minutes.

Oops, I should have changed the setting on the camera before I left.  This is the best picture of me that Dan took.  I know, I look amazing in blur. 

Here I am, posing with my shirt, by the Jazz sign and the Lafayette Square sign. Oh, and my shiny new medal!   It was a great race and a great day.  

How did I do, you ask?  Well, the kids asked if I won.  Ha ha ha... no.   But I did astonishingly well.  There were 456 people in the 5k.  I was 110 out of those 456.  There were 289 women running and I was 42 out of those 289.  I know, I'm looking pretty amazing right now, aren't I?! There were 93 women in my age category and I was 11th out of those 93.   My time was 28:50 and I averaged 8:51 for my pace.  For me, that is quite impressive, and I'm feeling quite pleased with myself.

Now I have grand designs to go and do more fun races.  And I'm going to need a tutu!

Kids are weird

Those of you who know our family may have noticed what an entertaining child Delaney can be.  I don't know if her fertile imagination has carried over into school and her friend's house, but it is full blown at home.  Lately she has been obsessed with her leg.  When she is home, she likes to wear a purple striped sock on one leg because she "can't move it".  She has some Delaney-logic about how when her arm was broken, her leg hurt too so now she can't move her leg.  She broke her arm back in April and has been out of a cast for over 6 months.  She is completely healthy and there is nothing wrong with her leg.  Or her arm.  Or anything else.  She has been saying her leg is injured, but it really isn't.

However, she has been walking without bending her leg for the last 3 days. It was sporadic for a bit before Sunday, but now she won't bend it at all, ever, that I can see.  It is getting a little weird. Seriously, she has been very consistent with her limp.  Enough that it has been causing issues with the "non-limp" leg. If I ask her about where and how and when her leg hurts, her answers are inconsistent, or make no sense at all.

I can't figure out if this kid is a crack-pot, or if she has a very vivid imagination, or if somehow she really does have a genuine hurt going on.

So do I play along?  Should I encourage her or discourage her?  Should I take her to the doctor?  She hasn't asked to go to the doctor, but this is kind of lingering. Maybe the head doctor.....

Neurotic Much?!

I occasionally run with a fabulous group of ladies called The Stroller Warriors.  These women talked me into registering for the Jazz 5k. I didn't realize till this week that everyone else but me and one other lady will be doing the half marathon.  I had signed up with visions of a girls day out with us all carpooling out and running and hanging out and being together.   Mind you, while I know these women by sight and visit with them and sometimes run with them, I would not say we are good friends.  Friends, yes.  Friends one step up from acquaintances, mostly.

So now I am really stressed out.  I tend to find the idea of things much more exciting than the actual doing of it.  I am suppose to run in my very first real 5k in a week and I'm already thinking of backing out.  There are so many things making me neurotic right now.  I had hoped to carpool out, because I detest driving into New Orleans and trying to find parking. I really wanted someone else to do that, not me!  I really wanted to run with a familiar face.  Now I have to figure out if I'm going to meet up with the one fellow 5k runner and do a much slower time than I could by myself, or deal with doing it all by myself.

And then, what do I bring?!  Being me, I like to be prepared for anything.  This means, I'd prefer to pack well, everything!  I'd bring lots of water, a snack, maybe my mp3 player, ID, a light jacket, cell phone.... and whatever else suddenly seemed important as I walked out the door.  However, this is New Orleans,  You do not want to be bringing stuff that will sit unattended.  Since there is no way I'm running with a backpack, this stresses me out.  What do people normally do with their stuff when they race?  I've gone with Dan to most of his races, so I know someone tends to hold it for him.  But if I go all by myself (or all the people I'm with are also running) then what do I do with my stuff?  Fanny pack?  Yikes, no!  If I drive myself and manage to not get lost and find a place to park my car, I can leave thing in it, but it would be a hike away, and I'd still need to carry things like keys and ID. 

I also worry about bathroom facilities.  I drink a lot of water.  On a normal running morning, I down 20 oz before I head out the door.  This works fine because it doesn't have time to travel down and cause problems and I sweat it out while I run.  I down another 20 oz when I get home.  But if I have to drive to a race?  Then what?  Well, I'm sure I'll have to go by the time I get there, won't I?!  That means I'll probably want to carry hand sanitizer as well.  Sigh.

Sure, It sounds so silly as I write it all down now, but these are very big issues in my neurotic little mind.  I'm sure I'll have a full report next Saturday on how it all went.

And now, something for Grandma to enjoy:

 

Rylee wanted a picture of her being silly.  That does tend to be most of the time!

Joshua had to get 2 immunizations.  I loved that they gave him Bugs Bunny Band aids, and he thought it would be great to pose with them.  That's my tough guy!

And here is my sweet, good natured dog, loved by all, tortured by all, and long suffering through it all!

Marian's Trip

 Dan took Marian on a little trip to Washington, D.C. just because we love her.  She got to spend the weekend with her very best friend and she had a great time.  As part of her make-up for missing 2 days of school, she had to make a power point about D.C., so Dan had to take her out to see some stuff for that.

Saying goodbye to my girl at the airport. 

Here she is with her dad, all ready to go!  She was so ready to go that she was wheeling her suitcase towards the door while I was hugging Dan goodbye!

Dan was pretty good about getting her picture taken with things around D.C. 

I especially love that she loosened up enough to pose with this one! 

 Of course they had to stop by the Iwo Jima Memorial.  Marian said this was her favorite.

They went to Arlington and got to see an awesome funeral procession.  

Dan had several pictures of it and they were all cool, but this was my favorite.  Nobody does pomp and circumstance like the military! 

Marian was so impressed with these blue chips at the USO in the airport that she had to have a picture of them!  She raved about how great they were.

They had a good trip.  Sadly, Marian ate too much junk at the USO and the angst of leaving Adrian, combined with travel, and the too-full tummy proved to be too much for her.  She made it all the way home before she threw up, which earned her another day off of school.  Her power point presentation went well.  I don't know if it was a success because of the information, or because Joshua had so much fun adding extra visual effects for her.

And now for some other children!

I have no idea who took this picture.  Probably Callie, but it just showed up on the Camera.  I love this girl!

Callie wanted to pose with the dog.  He is a really tolerant dog and was happy to let her position him where she wanted.

And Levi was so patient with Rylee.  They were having a very good time playing together and Levi was letting her sit on his head and bounce on him like a pony.  I think Rylee thinks he is her sibling and she treats him that way.  Thank goodness Levi is long-suffering and forgiving!

Growl!

My computer is excruciatingly slow right now.  I would blame the internet, and I know that is part of the problem, but my laptop is moving much faster.  I think it is time to clean up the Mac and see if that helps.  Sadly, I don't think anyone in this house knows how to clean up a computer.  We tend to wait for utter failure before acting on it.  Sigh.

The point of that is to explain why I have not posted.  I have lovely pictures, but I cannot get them to upload.  And the effort of putting them on a thumb drive and moving them to the laptop to share here is just not gonna happen. Well, it certainly won't happen until I'm completely convinced that the Mac is never going to upload them.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Not very Gruntled

I'm feeling grumpy tonight.  I'm not sure if I made poor choices today or not.  Someone is mad at me and I'm not sure they really should be, but maybe.....

Let me start at the beginning.  I was walking Delaney home from school, when 2 dogs came racing across the busy street.  They came to me when I called, and I took them home.  Neither had a collar.

These are the 2 cuties.  We put them in the yard, but they were happier in the house.  Levi was ballistic over having actual friends to play with. 

I took these pictures and posted them on the housing website.  I did say I'd keep them till tomorrow.  

It was an odd contrast.  They were both very friendly, very social, and very happy to put up with the 3 little girls fawning all over them.

See, totally sweet!  But check out the ribs.  You could count every one on this dog.  I put water out and they guzzled the entire dish.  I gave them food and the black dog ate it all in 2 minutes.  I put out more and he scarfed that down too. I put the boxer in the house and gave him a bowl of food, since the black dog was obviously not going to share. It vanished also.

See, all the water, and every rib. And no collar.

But check out the sweet face.  

So, I have 2 dogs now in my yard who are obviously hungry and thirsty, but also obviously comfortable with people and kids.  I realize Dan is coming home tonight and he is NOT going to take kindly to extra animals, and were they to be in the house, he might become apoplectic.  Plus, Levi has discovered that the black dog wants his toys and there is some growling going on.

I know I said I'd keep them till tomorrow before turning them over to animal control, but I realized there was no way I could keep them overnight.  I had assumed they could hang out in the yard, but when left there, they barked and barked. Reality set in and I made the decision to take them over to the local shelter now, rather than later.  What else was I to do with them?

Someone suggested dumping them in the dog park.  I didn't feel comfortable with that.  These dogs were hungry and thirsty and I didn't want to just release them into the dog park.  I had no way of knowing that anyone would get them or that they'd be taken care of at all.  So no, I didn't take them to the dog park and turn them loose.  I drove them to the shelter (which is a no-kill shelter, by the way) and turned them over.  Callie cried all the way home because she loved the dogs and missed them so badly.

So, I get home to a message on facebook that the dogs belong to a lady and she would like them back.  Oops, too late.  I responded that I had taken the dogs to the shelter.  She was not happy.  She is quite cross that it is my fault she has no dogs now and she has to tell her children their dogs are gone, and I should have notified housing (which I did) and I should have put them in the dog park (which I was not going to do at all).

Personally, I wanted to tell her it is her own fault for having dogs with no collars, and why the heck is her dog starving?  I am kind of glad they are at the shelter.  When I turned them in, they commented at the prominent ribs of the boxer.  I hope that they don't let her have the dogs back until she knows how to feed them properly.  My guess is that the black dog steals all the food and the boxer goes hungry.

So, my question is this,  what should I have done?  Based on the information I had, I do not feel bad.  I still do not feel bad.  The dogs had no collars and they were hungry and thirsty.  But this lady is not happy with me.  What would you have done?

Being Humbled

Today Delaney was having a hard time getting up and ready.  She dilly-dallied and screamed and cried when I encouraged her to get her shoes and socks on. Sadly, she was not ready to walk out the door at 7:45.  I sent the other kids on to school and told Delaney for the 5th time that her shoes were upstairs.  This time, instead of screaming "NO they are not!" she actually went up there and found them.  She was still too late to catch up to her siblings, so I had to walk her sad self to school.  Rylee was still in her jammies, and I just plopped her in the stroller with her blanket and off we went.  I was quite grumpy.

I was doubly grouchy because the crossing guards leave the crosswalk 5 minutes before school starts and I watched them walk away.  I was even more grouchy when I watched a man pull up and stop in the middle of the crosswalk, stopping traffic on the busy road so he could dump out 5 children.  Fine, I was a little happy that he had stopped traffic so I could cross the street, but I was still mad enough to shout at him that this was not the proper place to unload children.  I detest people who cannot follow the rules, being a neurotic rule-follower myself.  He looked at me and I shouted, "You can't drop kids off here!" and I'm sure I had the angry mom look in my eye.  He smiled and said, "Thank you."  Talk about deflated!

Then, I got Delaney to the school and she held my hand and looked at me and said, "I'm sorry Mom.  I'll get ready faster tomorrow"  And she smiled at me and she ran off to class.  So I felt pretty sheepish after all my anger.

And I learned something today!  If you are walking the dog up on the levee, and he drops his ball off the side and runs after it.  Do not follow him, thinking you are still young and fit and agile and that you'll just step down far enough to reach the ball.  Odds are pretty good you will embarrass yourself and slide all the way down and then you won't be able to climb back up it and you'll have to walk a ways at the bottom till you get to a road up.

iPad Dump

Dan unloaded the last few months of pictures from his iPad. This means when I went to see what pictures I wanted to share, all I saw were HIS photos.  So I am going to post those, rather than go back to see whatever else was worth sharing.  Yeah, I'm having a lazy day.  Not true, it has been a crazy, busy day and I'm really just tired!

 Dan got to go to Montana a few months ago. In addition to his work stuff, he managed some sight-seeing as well.  He stopped by the Billings Temple.

He also managed a detour through Idaho Falls. 

Which necessitated a trip to Rexburg and Big Judd's, where he has fond memories. 

 And Ricks. He had a good time visiting his old stomping grounds.

There are a bunch of these sort of pictures.  Why are they on the ipad?  Why didn't they get deleted?  Since I know Rylee loves this game, I bet she did this! 

This is a blurry record of the special moment when Joshua got his yellow belt in Karate.   He has moved up to the teen class and is really getting a workout each time he goes to class.  He enjoys it and it is so good for him!

Dan's favorite sign from Vicksburg.  If you look at the movie listings, it says, "Wimpy Kid hit and run campaign".  He found this quite amusing. 

Dan had the opportunity to go out to Braithwaite, where Hurricane Isaac was really damaging.  This is what he saw on the drive out.

Dan spent one Sunday helping to gut this flooded Baptist Church.  Check out all the debris they removed from it.

So I guess what we have here is Life, According to Dan.  Based on the pictures from his camera, I think we can tell a lot about him!