Monster Jam 2010

Last year we went to Monster Jam and it was really fun.  So we were for sure going again this year.  Especially since Wyland would be a little older and would hopefully enjoy it more (although he liked it more than Jackson last year).  I purchased the same "perfect" seats as last year.  Perfect for me means that we get front row of the upper bowl.  This means I don't have to worry about the kids spilling things on the people in front of us.  They can stand up and not bother anybody. They're PERFECT.  We went with Mike, Amber and their kids.  But I'm disappointed to say it wasn't as fun as last year.  Jeramie is convinced that because we went on the second day of shows last year that it meant they could go "balls out" and not worry if they broke something because they would have a week to fix it before the next show. There were no motorcycles like the year before.  Oh well .. it was still fun.  The kids enjoyed it and that's what matters most.

Oh yeah .. and we rode Trax.

Wyland thought it was REALLY cool riding the train.

No turning back.

So today I officially registered for the Thanksgiving Point 5k.

April 30, 2011

Official Start Time 7:45am

I'm still loving my Couch to 5k training app on my iPod.  It's AWESOME.  This week I really thought it was going to kick my butt.  We're talking warm up 5 minutes and then run 5 mins, walk 90 seconds, run, walk, run, walk .. you get the picture.  This week was a LOT of running.  But I did it.  That's the beauty of this training app, even though I feel like I'm not sure I can do it when I look at it I always can.  So it works!  It's really training me.  The hardest part is squeezing the time in to do it.  See the minute I get home I either drive Robie home or Jeramie leaves the kids with me while he drives her home.  My typical Monday/Wednesday/Friday routine goes as follows:

5:15pm / 5:30pm I leave work.

5:45pm / 6:00pm I get home.

6:00pm I load all 4 kids into the car and drive Robie home.

6:45pm I get back home and unload the kids.

7:00pm Take some/all kids to basement and RUN.

7:40pm Head back upstairs, red faced and out of breath.

7:50pm Start Dinner

8:30pm (if we're lucky) Eat dinner, watch a show on the DVR.

10pm Take Oliver upstairs and get him to bed after which I go to bed.

Do you see a problem here?

Eating dinner at 8:30pm at night?

Only actually sitting down to relax for about an hour and a half if we're lucky?

Oh well .. it is what it is.  We're busy.

And all of that was assuming I leave work on time.

I love the weekends.

Forgive the blurry camera picture.
Here are my babies hanging out watching TV while I run.
Yep .. that's Oliver in the pile of blankets with a propped up bottle.

 Our exercise "corner".  Can you see how barely perfectly that treadmill fits?
Note the barely enough space to walk behind it when I have it unfolded.

This year 5k .. maybe next year half marathon.

Oliver - 6 week pictures

Precious Christmas baby.



Love these guys!

This post is so past due.  It actually dates back to Superbowl Sunday.  We headed up to my parents house.  The plan was that everyone would bring some snacks and we'd just snack through the whole game rather than have an actual meal.  These are some of everybodies favorite get togethers .. so delicious.  I didn't plan to skip them even though I've been doing really well on my diet.  My goal was to accept without guilt that I would not lose any weight this week. But as long as I consumed the naughty food within moderation then hopefully I wouldn't gain any weight.  In actual fact I lucked out and still lost almost 1.5 pounds the following Friday!  I was proud of myself though.  There was LOTS of really yummy snacks to partake in.  I had a full plate, but here's the thing ... see the old me would have kept eating just because it all tasted so delicious.  However, the new and improved me had a little bit of everything and then I STOPPED.  Sure I could have ate more, but I chose not to.  It was my first big test of will power and I declare it a WIN!

We were all (with the exception of Jeramie, because he always has to create opposition) were rooting for the Packers.  Rachel even showed up with her cheese head hat (which Jackson thought was super fun).  And then there is my brother Evan.  Never underestimate this kids desire to all things weird.  Awhile ago he was looking for a "bearded beenie" online.  He was prepared to pay $40 for one when my mum told him she could just knit him one herself.  My mother .. being who she is .. which is freakishly amazing really did it.  She got a pattern for the beenie itself and then freelanced on the beard. 

(1)  Who really wears these?  Apparently Evan.

Who also swears to not only wear it skiing but also to the bar.

Rachel is already embarrassed.

(2)  Now Jeramie wants one too.

** sigh **

Cheesehead and the weird bearded guy.

Jackson thought it was fun too.

So cute ..
Only a matter of time before Grandma is knitting one for Jackson too.

Wyland is sweet.

So I didn't have these pictures downloaded last night yet when I typed up my last post.  But I took a handful of pictures while we were at the doctors on Saturday.  As I mentioned I was fortunate enough to have Jonathan (Jeramie's oldest) at home to stay with the kids.  But I thought Wyland just might be a little too much for him so I brought him with me to the doctors.  He was really good.  When it was time for Oliver to have his nose sucked out (horrific experience) it really bothered Wyland to hear Oliver so upset.  While you may read this and think how awful that is, it actually was kind of heartwarming to me to see how much he already loved his brother.  Wyland climbed on my lap and held on to me for dear life.  He really is such a sweet little boy.  I love him to pieces for sure!!

Scary sucking machine.

I swear poor Oliver has seen machines that Baylee never did!!

 Looking a little worn out after his blood draw.

 Wyland comforting him after the ordeal was all over.

Make the SICK go away!

Well this weekend wasn't exactly everything I planned for.  Friday night Oliver was up crying pretty much every hour on the hour all night.  At the time he didn't have a fever, he just wouldn't eat and was really fussy.  So when I got up Saturday morning I checked his temperature again, it went from 99 to 100.5 between 8am and 10:30am.  I had called the pediatrician's office at 8:30am when they opened and ran through his symptoms with them. He was coughing a little and a tiny be stuffy, both Jackson and Wyland have had a nasty cough and cold they've been battling through.  It seemed inevitable that Oliver would get it too when he's home all day with Wyland.  First thing in the morning they told me that it wasn't really considered a fever until it hit 100.5 and at that point they would want to see him.  So at 10:30am I called them back and scheduled an appointment.  I was actually lucky that we had Jeramie's kids this weekend because it meant that I could leave Baylee and Jackson at home with Jonathan while I took Wyland with me.  So off we went.  Oliver weighed a whopping 10 lbs 9 ozs.  We saw the on call pediatrician who said that she is on the rather conservative side since she's worked at Primary Childrens.  She also talked to our regular pediatrician on the phone and they decided to suction him out and do some blood work.  He had double ear infections and they wanted to make sure that there wasn't anything more going on (which is why they did the blood work).  It was awful.  They shoved a tube up his nose about 6 inches and suctioned out all the mucus.  It sucked to watch them do that and they said it would be uncomfortable for him and make him feel like he couldn't catch his breath.  Then we were off to the lab to have blood drawn, yet another rather traumatic experience. They drew it from his arm like they would an adult.  This poor little guy has been poked and prodded so much in his short 2 months.  We waited for the early blood results which came back looking good as far as nothing extra weird going on.  So she prescriped antibiotics and told me she would call me with the RSV test results either Sunday or Monday. 

Needless to say Sunday morning she called to say he did indeed have RSV.  But they were treated it the same with the antibiotics.  She just stressed that if he got worse, seemed like he was having a hard time breathing or grunting alot, shrugging his shoulders a lot, pulling his ribcage in that we should take him back to instacare.  It's been a scary couple of days. 8 weeks old and he has double ear infections and RSV.  So sad.  Then poor Wyland coughs so much he makes himself throw up.  Like other people I'm done with sickness this Winter.  It's been so awful.  Now that Oliver has a couple days worth of antibiotics in him I'm really hoping he'll turn the corner on the nastiness he has and start to feel better.  It's so stressful having such a little guy so sick. 

Wyland enjoyed giving Oliver his bottle one day.

It's a glorious day!!

Today is a great day .. well it will be a great day.  After much debate and many visits to many stores I have decided on a treadmill.  We're spending more than we originally planned, but it's such a good deal that we've figured out how to justify it.  No more Black Friday Special for me .. I'm getting a grown up's treadmill. 

It's true!

She's going to look like this:

(the treadmill .. not me .. yet ..)

Wish me luck!

Jeramie is supposed to get off work early enough to drive over with the

truck to pick it up.  I'm so excited!

LifeSpan 1200i

That's her name and this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

2011 Fitness Goals - Update

I’ve been doing Weight Watchers for 5 weeks now.

I’ve lost 7.4 pounds.

That’s a 1.48 pounds per week average.

(That makes it sound better in my head.)

But yet I feel disappointed.

Like it isn’t happening quick enough.

Then I remind myself …

Slow and steady. That’s how it will stay off.

While I’ve convinced myself all along that I don’t have a goal weight in mind. I suppose I kind of do. With said goal weight in my head, at the rate I’m going that means that I should be there around the beginning of May.

12 more weeks!

Pro: That’s before summer.

Con: It’s so far away!

Slow and steady wins the race.

On an up note I’m doing good with my training for my 5k.

Note I didn’t say “training”, with the quotation marks? I decided that although for the half marathoners and avid runners a 5k is hardly worth “training” for and therefore can seem a rather inappropriate word to use. For ME I am training my body for the 5k. For ME it’s a big deal. I’m starting from scratch.

So I am training.

And proud to say I’m training. It’s going well. Despite the lack of a working treadmill in my basement.

We’re still working on rectifying that problem. Right now in the lead is the Golds Gym treadmill at Walmart. Perhaps it will find its way to my basement this week.

While I would love one of those $800 treadmills that are fancy. Not in the budget.

Exercise Gods are working against me!

So with my return to work this week I have also added exercise back into the day.  This last weekend Jeramie moved the treadmill from the garage back down to the basement.  I walked/ran on it yesterday and it felt good!  Then today when I was leaving work we were talking about exercise and I mentioned that I'm "training" for a 5k.  She mentioned this really cool app you can get on the smartphone.  So I found it and downloaded it.  She was right .. it's AWESOME!  Thanks Jessica!!!  So I was excited to go home and give it a try on the treadmill. I got all suited up headed downstairs and hopped on.  At first I thought I just needed to pay attention to what I was doing .. I felt like I tripped.  Then it kept happening .. not good.  Apparently the belt keeps sliding itself over and then getting caught, this then causes me to jerk. Not good, I practically fell off at one point.  My treadmill is no more.  I can't run on something that's going to make me fall over.  Just as I was getting started I hit this road bump .. I'm so mad.  For the time being I may have to resort to using the one at work after I get off, I am grateful that I at least have that option.  Then on the weekends I can use my parents (it's exactly the same as mine which could mean I break that one too).  But long term this is bad and we're going to have to figure something out.  The benefit to having the treadmill in the basement is that Baylee will ride her bike while I run on the treadmill which kills two birds with one stone.  So we're going to have to get a replacement.  Jackson sits down there pretending to time us, so when I run faster he encourages Baylee to "catch up" and she then pedals faster.  Anyone know where I can get a cheap treadmill??  Watch the ads for me!!

Sorry for the pictureless blog posts lately.  Here are a couple pictures just because I haven't posted them yet.  Jackson and Wyland love their new brother!

 Awe .. he's so cute!

 On one last note I have to say that I have the best team at work!!  They have done a couple really fun and nice things for me upon my return and I can't even say how much I appreciate it.  They're really such a great bunch of ladies to work with .. I'll tell you more about that later.

Remember .. we're looking for a cheap treadmill people .. let me know if you find anything.

P.S.  Dad - I'm accepting donations to the new treadmill fund .. remember this benefits Baylee because she rides her bike while I'm down there .. just think about it ....