Lengthen your stride

As soon as the girls left for school this morning I called my friend Lisa--the all things running expert. "My ankles felt funny this morning," I announced. "I stretched like I usually do and did one of my regular routes, but my ankles felt strained." Her first question...how old were my shoes? When I announced their age...2 years... the little pause on the other end of the line told me what I needed to know. How often am I supposed to be replacing shoes? Do you ever realize mid-conversation that the more you talk the more you have firmly entrenched yourself in the beginner camp?

But, I can change the beginner status. I just started a training program to get ready for my first 10K. I want to run the Springdale Butch Cassidy 10K in November with my friends Lisa & Laura and I started training last week. I carefully assessed several different training methods, with lots of help from Lisa, of course. And then promptly decided on the easiest! After all it is my first 10K. And I should be race worthy about three weeks early so maybe I can actually run it decently instead of just to finish.

Anyway, this afternoon, I was laughing to myself as I drove home from Salt Lake Running. (A store I would highly recommend because their sales staff is so helpful and knowldegeable!) I started running to lose weight and because it was so much less expensive than joining the gym...but I just spent $100 on awesome shoes, I really need a treadmill, and I WANT WANT WANT a Garmin Forerunner. If I found a gently used treadmill than my monthly hobby budget might come in under $1000 for all three items. I think joining a gym might have been less expensive afterall, and if I divide the $1000 for every pound I've lost...oh...let's not do that math! AND on top of all that I would forever give up the right to give my husband grief for spending money on his hobbies. Clearly I need to deliberate a little more and assess the entire costs of my situation!

Back to School--Day 1

Today was the girls first day back to school--at least it was supposed to be. When Sadie wasn't feeling well yesterday I had my fingers crossed that it was a 24 hour flu. After all, you can't miss your first day back at school. Her excitement carried her through the first half hour of waking up this morning, but by the time we sat down to breakfast she was not feeling well again. This picture cracks me up, because it is pretty obvious something is wrong...

Emilee on the other hand was feeling a great. And at the end of the day she literally skipped off the bus and announced that she had "the best day ever!"

Hopefully tomorrow will be Sadie's first day, and her "first day picture" will look a little happier!

Yes...those were my kids

I remember as a new parent attending ward activities and watching children run wild and thinking..."I will NEVER be that kind of parent, I will NOT allow my children to behave that way!" Well...

Brian and I got called as the activities committee chairmen in our new ward and tonight was our ward bbq up AF canyon. My instructions to the girls this afternoon? "Tonight Mom and Dad are going to be busy, keep an eye on each other and check in with us every so often"...This is what I told my 4 year old!! What kind of parent am I turning out to be?...please...no comments needed on that rhetorical question.

The girls had fun and they even checked in a couple times, the first time soaking wet because they had found the sprinklers, and then a little while later because they were hungry. As we were driving home Sadie kept telling me her stomach hurt, upon questioning we determined that dinner for her consisted of a hot dog bun, because when she got close to the hot dogs they were all black. And she had some homemade root beer and a slushie...nice balanced diet.

As my kids get older I find there are lots of things that I promised myself I would never do as a mom that now just happen. When you only have one baby it's a lot easier to keep tabs on them then when you have 3 separate and very different little girls looking for an adventure. It makes me wonder about how my parenting philosophy will have changed again in another 5 years!

Summer of 100 Books

They did it! One of our summer activities this year was to read 100 books. And we made it.
Em was definently the team's heavy hitter contributing 35 of the total. She would have read more but a couple weeks ago she decided she wanted to read Harry Potter and those are big books! She is now on book 4 and quite proud of her accomplishment. This has also been good for me because it has forced me to unpack more boxes as I search for the rest of the series.
We are still discussing the big "prize", but the little prize was the music to High School Musical 2. The girls have kept me posted all week on the countdown to when the premiere was (tonight), and they have been listening almost non-stop to the new CD. They are thrilled to be attending a "premiere party" with their friends. I remember as a new mom swearing that my kids would not be pulled in to all the hype surrounding the latest/greatest new TV/movie and now...there just seem to be other important things to worry about, and at least they are reading in addition to watching TV! So when you see them congratulate them on their 100 books!

As...you...wish....

Today was my Dad's birthday and one particular item on his wish list caught my attention. He wanted "The Princess Bride" on DVD. Apparently, our old family VHS version, videotaped off the TV when I was probably 13, is no longer a satisfactory way to view this family classic. Also apparently I wasn't the only one paying attention to the birthday list, tonight, Dad opened 3 copies of "the Princess Bride". It was hilarious to sit there with my brothers and sisters and hear this movie quoted. As kids this was a movie that, along with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, we watched over and over and over. And we still remember it word for word. Many family quotes were drawn from this movie..."it's possible...pig", "did the word "THINK" just escape your lips?" and of course "as you wish". There are just some movies that never lose their magic or at least never fail to bring a smile.

What are your family classics?

First things first

When asked, I keep telling everyone that we are "still settling in" to the new house. But I realized yesterday after wasting countless hours that I might be settling in forever. Brian and I have yet to set up our own computers, we're still parking the cars in the driveway, and Brian's office looks like a bomb site to name just a few of our projects.

And yet I have found time to read Harry Potter (which I loved, my favorite of all) and several other books, I've had a "cupcake day" where I baked for an entire afternoon, I ran the Draper 5k, we've gone on several mini-vacations, hiked to Timpanogos Cave, and had lots of other summer adventures.

So, I grounded myself this morning from the computer and my book (of course, this was after my run... I could only give up so much) until the garage could be parked in. Then, I cleared the rubble in the office so Brian's computer could get set up and painted Brin's nails-2 coats.

It's all just a matter of priorities, right!?! Now I can be guiltless for another couple weeks and get back to my book...