Ready ready ready ready, ready to Run

Running has become my exercise of choice lately.  I have run a good amount in my life, but for the first time, I love it.  Not just how I feel afterward, but during even.  The only thing I don't love is trying to push to improve my time and my endurance, but I don't even mind that too much.
I have only recently begun to run seriously, but it is here to stay.  I think it is because I love the route that I do.  I run straight up 209th until I reach the top of Grabhorn and slap the blue sign (according to Peter, you must do this).  I am literally climbing a mountain!  This isn't a novel thing, Peter and his running partner have been running up there forever. Here are my running factoids:

• Climbing a mountain is deeply metaphorical for me.  I can do anything if I can do that.  Bring it.
• I may yell about it sometimes when I reach the top, "I did it!",  "Take that mountain!" "I own you!" "I am the king of the world!", etc.  Blame it on the runners high.
• I may also yell orders at my body to "keep moving" and "you can do it" as I push for that last bit of elevation.  Good thing there isn't anyone around cause it works.
• This is one of the hardest workouts I have ever done, which is also why it feels so awesome.
• I feel pretty safe running by myself because it is along a busy road. 
• The downside is breathing in all the toxic emissions.
• I enjoy it, but don't love it when I just run it. However, I LOVE LOVE LOVE it when I blast my playlist on my iPod.  Its like I have my own theme music.
• My mind becomes so clear and sharp as I think about life. Nothing seems so hard anymore.
• My favorite is when I get completely lost in thought and come back to myself a mile later.
• I may be heard singing between gulps of air about dancing anyway and brass monkeys when I feel like no one can hear. It must be horrible sounding, but I can't hear myself.
• Don't really care if  anyone hears me.  It makes me feel good. 
• I get WAYhayhay better time when I am frustrated or stressed out. Like I knock a minute off my mile average. 
• I don't always reach the top, bummer.
• Hydration is really important with such an intense workout.
• It is 4 miles to the top and back to my house.
• I don't think I will ever plataue on this run, I will always have to push myself hard.
• I like to say that "I climbed a mountain and turned around" afterward.
• I have convinced myself that each time I do this workout = losing 1/2 lb (500 cal burned+afterburn+gaining muscle to burn more over time).  No scientific basis, but it gets me out the door and keeps me going.
• Running is good for my spirit.
• Running is good for my body.  I love really tuning in to what my body is feeling when I run.
• Running is good for my mind.
• Running is good for my mood. I feel happier when I do it. Endorphins are real.
• My legs and bum get really sore...good.
• Nearly impossible to do after eating a 5 Guys burger.  If I could vomit on command I would have. 
• Side aches can really mess up my time.

Realy, the three main keys that have given me a will to run are the music, feeling safe on the run, and conquering the mountain.  These inspire me.
I am finally really getting serious about losing baby weight.  I just haven't been able to focus on it despite wanting to and being hard on myself for it.  Life has been overwhelming and I could not get a grasp on it.  Luke is sleeping a solid 12 hours at night now so I am feeling more rested and healthy mentally and physically.  I wanted it sooner, as I always do, but for me now is the time.  I have been exercising and eating okay,  but I wasn't really ready to do what it takes until now.

I wish I could go back and give my first time mom self this advice on the subject:
It is true what they say about 9 months to put it on, 9 months to take it off.  Don't fight it.  The idea of bouncing back in 30 days is not reality.  Especially with subsequent age and pregnancies. Take care of your health and love and hold your baby like he is your last. This is important and you won't get ever get this precious time back.  After 6 or 7 months you will be ready for the last 10 lbs project.  No pressure until then, relax.  You won't be ready mentally, physically, or spiritually to take it on until then no matter how much you want to.  Just save yourself a lot of anguish and pressure and wait it until then .

It helps to have a partner on the journey.  My partner happens to have come from the same gene pool, had a baby at the same time,  weigh the same as me and feel just as motivated,  so it is kinda perfect. We have our dangling carrots in place and talk on the phone multiple times a day with lots of encouraging words.

I don't admit it much, but I am sick.  I have struggled for years to fix my physical problems like pieces to a puzzle with much confusion and frustration. I know I will one day be grateful for my illnesses because I must take good care of my body in order to function.  I want to feel good again, so I will run and I will feed my body real food.  I want that much more than losing weight.  My life is everything I ever wanted but I need to be well enough to enjoy every moment and be what my kids need in a mom. 

As for the running though I am looking forward to this:

This:

and then this:

With them: 

Running has become a family sport.

Laugh

This is a great way to start the day.

Veggies

You know what happens when you have a baby and never get around to harvesting your root vegetables?  This:

 I really blew it by not putting anything in this picture for perspective.  This beet is as big as a softball and I could not wrap my hand around the big carrots.  With the weather warming up, the kids have been spending a lot of time in the yard. We were all out on Sunday and thought, I better get those veggies up before spring comes and they rot.  I really thought that they would be fine through the winter "stored" in the ground, but we were all shocked to see they they had continued to grow.  Dallin and Eden quickly took over the harvesting in all the excitement.  You would have thought it was Christmas morning.  We cut up that big carrot and had him for dinner.  It was delicious and the kids loved eating something from the garden. We were tryting to think of a Family Home Evening activity the other night and we decided to make Luke the activity.  We started off with a loud round of Luke tag.  I loved how Luke would shake his legs and giggle.  Then we moved on to coaxing him to crawl.  It was great fun.

I met up with my sisters for a McDonalds play date the other day.  We sure love play places in our family.  We recently discovered Out of This World Pizza and have been twice.  The kids will play infinitely and never leave if they had a choice about it.

Things they say

Eden and Tanner were arguing about something that happened. They were each insisting that it had happened  differently.  Finally in frustration, Eden yelled, "Tanner, you have a bad renemory!"

Tanner was making a sour face because he didn't want to get up for school.  I sang, "If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay.  Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away!"  He just looked at me like I was crazy and said, without smiling, "I don't get it."

I had Relief Society the other night so I had put some Costco freezer pizza in the oven.  Tanner came up to me and expressed that he was really hungry. I told him, "Good timing." and opened the oven door to take the pizza out.  His eyes got really big and he said, "Wow Mom, you are really good and making food!"  I just laughed.

Lily has been making attempts on the potty and afterward she says, "I can't peep!" or "I peeped!"

I was watching a workout video tutorial when the kids were supposed to be in be and Tanner and Dallin came down for a minute and started watching.  Dallin said, "Mom, do you want to be that skinny?"  I didn't know what to say and Tanner piped in, "Dallin, Mom IS that skinny!"  I just smiled and sent them on their way. I knew I liked that kid.


 Just a funny thought:
 I had an interesting realization today.  I don't usually make pasta for lunch, but we were out of bread and pretty much all the other easy choices so I got out a 1 lb. package of whole wheat spaghetti and boiled some water.  Since only half of us are home for lunch, I had to guess how much of the noodles to cook.  I realized that I haven't had to do that in a long time.  When I cook for the family, I use the whole package and sometimes two if we are very hungry and I want leftovers.  It brought to recollection a time when I always had open half used packages of noodles in my pantry.

A Marathon Post

The last month or so has been eventful.  I could probably make 50 posts. Instead I am making a mega-post so I can just be caught up on our life journal and move forward.  I collected and edited all of the camera/ipod pictures.  I know ther is much more to report but here's what I can remember:


Valentines day dinner and party at Peter's parents: 

We are still slowly pulling fun activities out that we have had since Christmas. It is nice to make new discoveries from some of the stuff we shelved for later.  This is a Dinosaur dig kit.  It kept these kids totally busy for 2 hours!  Like enthralled.  They were so cute.  The red layer made a HUGE mess!  I wasn't quite prepared for that red chalky stuff to be all over their bodies, clothes, the table and the floor.
















When the kids had a day off of school, Dallin headed up project build a city.  They made roads with paper taped down, and built all kinds of structures with duplos and train tracks.



I didn't get a picture of the finished product before the "tornado" hit.  They actually cleaned all of this up and put it away when I told them to, it was amazing.



St. Patricks day.  



I absolutely fell in love with this drawing I found from Tanner to Eden.  Especially the caption! Pardon the food stain, we're keeping it real.

Our one snow day.  I couldn't believe the big kids still had school.  That was un-Oregonian!

Little ones in snow bibs make my heart happy.








Carter finished his potty chart! He was so proud.
The kids sure love their baby.

Good/Bad Spiderman.  The kids are always asking me to take pictures of their creations.  I can't turn them down.

Spring break was super busy.  One night we had a Dickinson cousin sleepover in the playhouse.  It was a blast.  Dallin and Spencer spent some time trading coins.



Cousin Vivian and Luke

Daddy brought home bunny donuts from Krispie Cream.

No picture interruption:Conference weekend went really well for us.  We have never successfully kept the kids interested so I was determined to put more effort into it.  I scoured the Internet and found lots of ideas.  Here is what we did: I put up white streamers across the living room and made a sign that said "Quiet Zone" and a few more that said, "Shhhhhh".  Then I set out little tables around the room with quiet activities, like coloring, new puzzles, marshmallow and toothpicks, busy bags, white board easel.  Then I bought some buckets and treats and labeled them with key words for the kids to listen for. They could get a treat when they heard it.  It worked!  The kids stayed around for the whole thing.  We all felt the spirit and enjoyed being together as a family. Nobody wandered off so I feel like that is progress.  I was hoping to be able to sit and take notes as well, but I found that I needed to help these kiddos learn to keep quietly busy and listen instead(mostly the toddlers).  Oh well, some day.  I was just delighted that we had a good day.  I hope that next time when I tell them it is conference weekend they will be excited and look forward to it instead of groaning about it. We spend Sunday with family and enjoyed those sessions too. After a conference session, Dallin and I started looking at old blog pictures and videos. Before long everyone was gathered around enjoying the memories.  They were so little!

My naked fireman.  I have one from behind with his nakie bum that is super cute, but for my eyes only.

Easter Eggs.  I love dying easter eggs.  It is one of my fondest traditions growing up.  The smell of vineger in the dye, the colored fingertips,eating hard boiled eggs for days, it's all just great.  Its old school, but it is my favorite Easter fun.









.  Dallin made a chalk road that spanned all over our street.  It had many stops including a dump, grocery store, car repair shop, a bank, a coin shop, and finally Great Wolf Lodge and Disneyland.





I figured this must be Tanner's addition to the chalk art for sure:

Luke was thoroughly entertained by this mirror.  He kept trying to eat it.


For FHE we took the older kids to see Star Wars in 3D.  It was fun, but not as exciting as we hoped.  We came out with much lighter wallets anyway.


Carter and Tanner often take pictures with my iPod.  I find many interesting things later.  Here are some cute ones they took of Luke:





We went to see Wicked!!! It was amazing. 





We met up at a chinese restaurant for Grandpa H's 97th birthday.  Ironic that he is sitting on a high chair.  The little kids went to my sister's house and I gave the big kids the option of coming or not.  I was proud of them for deciding to come because they know it is important to support Grandpa even though they wanted to go play with their cousins.  We didn't know that Larry's kids would be there when they were deciding. 

The kids drew lots of love notes and pictures for Grandpa and he even joined them.  He is so cool.

The Saturday before Easter we went to an Egg hunt party down the street at a community church.  We love it because it is fun, and easy.  There were plenty of eggs for all, free lunch and bounce houses.














Easter Sunday Dallin, Eden and I got to sit in the stand and sing in the choir for the whole meeting.  It was a neat experience for me.  I love singing and it was fun to share that with my kids now that they are old enough. After church we went to Peter's parents for a yummy ham dinner and another super fun egg hunt in the yard.  Good family fun.





After the hunt, the kids hung out here to go through all their treasures.  Lori has a lot of experience under her belt so she is an egg hunt expert.  The eggs were stuff full of fun things and even taped shut so they wouldn't come open. Every kid was allowed to collect a certain number so it would be even.  The dad's did a great job hiding them too. These kids are so lucky to have so many cousins (and aunts and uncles)!




Other cool things: Luke is crawling all over now. On our way to the in-law's on Sunday Eden said, " I am really glad that dad is our dad because if he wasn't Grandma and Grandpa wouldn't be our Grandma and Grandpa and I really like them." Dallin says really sweet prayers.  I wasn't there but he said the closing prayer in primary and 3 different people told me what a great job he did.  I assume he was praying about the real meaning of Easter.   We had an Easter based talent show at the Easter dinner as well and so our family sang the first verse of "He is Risen".  It was great, but the best part was practicing whenever we were in the car for a couple of weeks.  It gave us many chances to discuss the atonement and the Resurrection. More than ever I think our kids really understood what this day is really about.