Let's see if this works...

I'm trying to put my running route on my blog. I am trying to put it in my post, but it might end up on the side. Let's see... We only did 12 today. Next week... 18 miles!! Holy cow, that's a lot of miles.

Anyway, it's cold out there! When I got up weather.com said it was 41 but felt like 35!! I layered up... I ended up quite comfortable and was down to just my t-shirt by the end!! This will work, but give it a second to go from the US view to the view of today's run. I guess you don't get the option of zooming in. But we went from the Y, past the airport, down Harbor, to the beach (pit stop!!) and then up Venice Ave to Jacarada, across Jacaranda to Center and then back to the Y. It was kinda windy, so we didn't have very good time!

Not Me! Monday

Here it is... Not Me! Monday. A blog "carnival" started by McMamma at MyCharmingKids.net This is like free therapy - a chance to deny everything you did this week. Then hop over to her blog and see lists of what other bloggers didn't do this week... It's addicting... like Facebook... Which gets me thinking...

I am not totally addicted to Facebook! I do not check it all the time and find out what people are up to. I am not frustrated that an application I added to my page isn't working right. I do not want the whole world to know what my running routes are. I do not want to the world to know how excited I am about running.

Speaking of running, I did not call my running partner before I hit the "submit" button to sign up for my first marathon. I did not need that extra boost of confidence. I did not sign up for a marathon in Tennessee - who would want to run 26 miles on purpose in one day? Not me. Speaking of running, I did not only get three miles done this morning. I was not feeling yucky!

I am not excited that I listed a pair of Mephisto clogs on Ebay and not even 12 hours later I have a bid! I am not listing 20 things this week - half of which are not for a friend. I did not ignore the world yesterday to do all that stuff.

I am not at work stressing about all I have to do today. I am not freaked out by the list of meetings to attend. I do not hate meetings. I do not have trouble sitting still while people argue about stupid things. I am not updating my blog when I should be working on FCAT data and a flipchart on strong vs. weak arguements. I am not so hungry that I've already eaten breakfast - and lunch. And it is only 7:08 am...

I do not feel that my "nots" aren't too exciting this week. I'm afraid I've been a good girl. But I do not have any pictures to go with this blog. All I can not give you is this picture of me not stuffing my face with Chili... By the way, I am not wearing the dress that some guy at Lowes (you know, the hardware store) told me I looked like a hundred bucks in. I was not later disappointed that all that running and I only look like a hundred bucks. I was not relieved when my husband told me at least I don't look like a dime. But not back to the picture - I do not look kinda guilty - or at least freakish...

Gulp! A marathon!!??

Well kids, I did it!  I just paid an amazing amount of money to torture myself for the next 4 months and 14 days.  Yep.  I just signed up for the Country Music Marathon.  26.2 miles.  Before I hit "submit" I called my running partner to ask if she thought I could do it.  See, it's a mind game.  Truly, it is!!  Sure you have to train, but the miles aren't so bad - it's the little engine that could mentality.  Or the thought behind this riddle: How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  How do you run a marathon?  One 2-1 interval at a time.

Today I ran 16 miles in 2-1 intervals (that's two minutes run, one minute walk).  I did it and I could have done more.  Sure my legs are sore, but my spirit is excited.  I can do this, I really can!  I just have to keep this positive attitude - which is tough for me!!

So does anyone want to join me?  Just think how many calories you burn when you jog/walk for several hours.  Think how great your legs will look.  I'll get a better picture of my legs.  Cause, they are my favorite body part.  You see, I've done lots of miles and calf raises to get these babies.  You might not be impressed, but I am - I've always been the chubby girl.  While I'm not svelte YET, I do have some nice calves/shins!!  My toes are cute too.  But you'll have to wait to see those.  By the way, how do you turn the picture?  I tried editing it and it looked good on the photo editing program?

Conversations with Zach

Let me start this post with this: I am not complaining that Zach can talk.  I will not tell Zach to stop talking - this speech has cost many people lots of time, effort, angst and most importantly - prayer.  However, I am asking that y'all start praying really hard that Zach gets some variety in his speech.  I thought, however, that it would be pretty entertaining to blog a few conversations...

Z: Where's daddy?

K: He went back to work.

Z: Why?

K: Because he has to let some people into the hanger.

Z: Why?

K: Because they want to use it.

Z:  Why?

I don't respond.

Z: Where's daddy?

K: At work

Z:  Why?

No response from me so the above continues for a few minutes.  Then Zach does a change up...

Z: Is daddy on the bus?

K: No. He's at work.

Z: Why

K: To let people into the hanger.

Z: Why.  He watch Car movie (comes out as Car boobie)

No response from me...  So Zach climbs on the window sill.

Z:  Mamma, mamma

K: What, baby?

Z:  Where's daddy?  

Then he finds something to play with.

Z:  Mamma, mamma

K: Yes honey.

Z:  What's this? (shows the object)

K: It's part of the blinds.

Z: Why?

Another frequent conversation...  This one just happened in the car as I was bribing him to come to the store with me.  I made the mistake of bribing him with M & M's.

Z: I want M&M's (pronounced nm n nms)

K: Ok, we'll get them at Walgreens.

Z: Ryan wants nm n nms

K: Ok, we'll get him some too.

Z: Daddy wants nm n nms

K: No, daddy wants Neco wafers.

Z: Why?

K: Because that's what he asked for.

Z: Why?

I don't answer...

Z: Mamma, mamma [taps on the shoulder]

K: What Zach?

Z: I want nm n nm

K: I know

Then this conversation cycles until I pick up a box of snacks for Ryan's class.

Z:  I want Nemo (he's on the box)

K: It's for Ryan at school.

Z: Why?

K: Because he needs a snack

Z: Why?

This cycles for awhile until we get back onto the nm n nm topic

[I thought this picture was Zach holding up Car's movie.  Nope, it's him holding up a package of underwear...  Same idea though...]

other popular topics that follow the same repetition:

* watching Cars

* Riding the bus

* Santa Claus and Baby Jesus

* Seeing Dana (his teacher)

* Playing baseball (but he actually means basketball)

* Dora, Diego and Nick Jr.

* Playground

* Christmas tree goes right here (and he points with his foot)

SO PLEASE!! PRAY FOR A VARIETY OF SPEECH FOR ZACHARY!!  I'M GOING CRAZY!!!!!

New Year's NOT Resolutions

So this year I've decided to make a list of NOT resolutions or NOT to-do's...  I included some pictures - not necessarily because they match the resolution (because they don't match), but because you guys don't care about my words - you just want pictures.  

Here is to 2009...  May it be full of faith, friends, and health!  These are the things I am NOT going to do this year:

I will not let circumstances or people cause me to doubt myself as a beloved child of God, a capable mother of two high-maintenance children, and wife to a loving husband.

I will not forget to let Mark know how much I appreciate him and how he holds his cool in the "clutch" of life - when I need it the most.

I will not forget to play with our dog, Troy.  (This isn't Troy, but this picture reminded me of Troy's "neglect")  

I will not undermine my faith with worry.

I will not forget that life is a precious gift and even when the children are making me pull my hair out, I will remember that I have been trusted with their lives!!

I will not question my ability to run/walk a marathon in April.  I can do it!

I will not forget to celebrate the achievements of my children - how big or small they might be.

I will not worrya bout other people's perception of my children or their lack of understanding about what makes my kids who they are.  God created them with a purpose and not everyone gets that.  I won't let them get in my way or make me cry!

I will not shy away from family pictures.  And I will not put on the 50 pounds I lost.

I will not forget my camera for fun events.  I will not forget to blog with pictures!!

I will not forget to drink from the golden cup.  (How cheesy is that??)

I will not forget to put God first in my life.

I will not let Ryan drink Easter Egg dye.

I will not over-burden Mark with home improvement projects.  Mark, I did not say you won't get any, I just won't over-burden you with them.  

And, I will not let Mark determine what "over-burdened" is.
I will not compare my children to "normal".  This only makes me get upset.  I will not get involved in mompetitions.

I will not bore my husband on our Thursday night date night.

I will not forget to be intentional about spending time with my family and friends.
I will not get too busy to play with my children or help them with learning stuff.  (I'm a teacher, "stuff" is a highly technical term.)

Last of all, I will not let what happened last fall at my children's school continue to upset me.  I will keep taking it to God until I can accept and forgive - without "taking it back" from God.

Hmmm, tall order - some easier than others.  As the kids are screaming, crying and wrestling because I'm blogging, I should add... I will not get too busy on the computer that I ignore my children, then get mad at them for wrestling and whinning.  But I won't add that because I will be breaking the NOT resolution as I type...

K

Not Me Monday

Not Me! Monday is a blog “carnival” started by MyCharmingKids.net and McMamma uses this as a chance to deny things that happened over the week.  Go over to her blog (or click on the link on the left) and see the entire rules and hundreds of other people who play along…  [update: She is not doing the Not Me! Monday this week because her baby is pretty sick.  Please lift a prayer for baby Stellan.  You can the details at her blog...]

But my game shall go on...  A whole week off of work and spent with 2 children that I love dearly…  Go grab a cup of Chai tea and settle in for awhile.  This is a long list…

I did {not} almost pee my pants when Mark told me about a recent trip to the playground.  The boys were playing with this other boy and Mark asked Ryan if he wanted to go down the big slide.  Ryan answered, “No.” in his usual way.  This other boy said, “I’m surprised he said ‘No’ to you.  I wouldn’t say ‘No’ to you, you’re scary looking!”  And Mark, a.k.a, Scar Head thought he left that reputation behind when he left his job in Corrections. 

I did {not} find my children’s main Christmas gift at Goodwill for $2.  I did {not} buy a similar toy at Toys R Us for $49.  Mark and I did {not} decide which one to give them until we opened the box of the new one.  We did {not} see 10,000 pieces and decide that the Goodwill toy is the one they get.  I did {not} have to search everywhere for the receipt of the expensive one.  I am {not} excited about the fact that I totally cheaped out on two gift giving occasions in a row – Ryan’s birthday and Christmas.

I did {not} drag a feverish child to 4 stores in search of Mark’s Christmas present - the day before Christmas.  I was {not} thankful that Ryan was sick because he was so mellow.  Shopping with a mellow 4 year old is {not} my idea of the way to shop.  Zach does {not} feed off Ryan and if Ryan is well behaved so is Zach.

I did {not} have to take Ryan for stitches on Monday.  Ryan did {not} get a big gash under his eye and a purple shiner.  I was {not} a freak at the hospital because I was upset that Ryan needs stitches.  I was {not} more upset about sending Ryan back to school with an injury than the fact that he was hurt.  I was {not} mildly concerned that Ryan wanted to be held the entire time; I am {not} used to him running around like a maniac in the ER.  I was {not} excited that we were in and out of there in record time – like an hour and a half.  I did {not} have as my only goal for this break to send Ryan back to school injury free.  If I had been able to do that then I guess pigs could fly…  I was {not} frustrated when he scraped the other eye at Mayakka River State Park.  I was {not} relieved that he spent an entire day playing – sometimes near sharp corners, hot grills, and other hazards - and only scraped his eye.

As a result of the stitches, I did {not} have to take Ryan to Zach’s autism appointment.  I am {not} frustrated that medical professionals don’t seem to see the signs of autism in Zach.  I am {not} frustrated that it is only parents or teachers of autistic children that see it.  Ryan was {not} a horrible little urchin at this appointment.  He did {not} rip a certificate off the wall of the doctor’s office.  He did {not} grind pretzels into his carpet.  I was {not} completely horrified.  And thankfully, the doctor was {not} a saint and completely patient.  We did {not} later send Ryan to the waiting room to play.  He was {not} perfectly behaved until Dr. Kadison was around.  I think Ryan was {not} showing off for him!  I’m serious, every time Dr. Kadison was around, Ryan was a stinker.  Dr. Kadison would go away, Ryan would settle down…

I am {not} in a total clean out mode, again. I did {not} get rid of any Christmas ornament that I’m not emotionally attached to.  I do not get emotionally attached to objects, so I did not only get rid of 7 ornaments.  (We do {not} throw our old tree in the wooded lot next to our house.  We do {not} justify it by saying we are creating a habitat for squirrels and birds.)  I did {not} make Mark spend a good chunk of Saturday afternoon putting up a cabinet in our laundry room.  He did {not} use his drill as a stud finder.  We do {not} have about 30 little holes all over the wall.  They are {not} in plain view.  We do {not} have to go back and repaint and patch that wall.  A free cabinet has {not} turned into a painting project.  When we put the cabinet up, we did {not} accidentally remove the washing machine hose from the drain.  When I did laundry on Sunday, water was {not} spilling out of the washing machine.  It was {not} at least 3 minutes before we realized this.  I did {not} have a wading pool in my laundry room.  I did {not} have to move my appliances to clean.  I did {not} find gobs of dog food under both appliances that have now expanded into dog mush.  I was {not} thoroughly grossed out.  Moving the dryer did {not} prompt Mark to clean the lint out of the dryer vent.  This did {not} further cause him to go get a new attachment that has {not} made our dryer more efficient.  We did {not} make at least 4 trips to a home improvement store in the last two days!  When we bought the paint for the laundry room, I did {not} find out that the stuff we are using for our closet re-do is on sale!!  Mark is {not} dreading the size of his honey-do list.  Speaking of {not} redoing our closet…  I am {not} excited about little bins, drawers and baskets.  I am {not} thankful that I have most of that stuff anyway, it’s just a matter of getting rid of junk!  I could have a garage sale, but the last one only lasted 2 hours…

I am {not} frustrated that Mark has lost our only garage door opener.  We do {not} have to spend $70 for new ones because our garage door is {not} some fancy-shmancy type…  I do {not} think we even need a garage door opener – have you seen our garage??  I do {not} want a basement to store all this stuff.  Hmmm… junk?  Garage sale?  Good idea…  Oh wait – too much work for 2 hours!  Anyone having a garage sale out there?

I did {not} have 3 hours Saturday of uninterrupted think time as I ran 14 miles without my iPod or running partner.  I did {not} have a chance to really think about what I could do to be a better wife and mom.  I am {not} excited about some of the ideas God put on my heart.  I did {not} choose to play Dominoes with Zach over cleaning my house.  I do {not} think that is the best use of my time anyway…  I am {not} making my “Not To Do list for 2009”.  (Please note that this list is breaking from the style of Not Me Mondays.  These are things I really won’t do in 2009).  I will {not} post it on my blog when I’m finished.

So how about you, what did you {not} do this week?

Merry Christmas!

My prayer is that you and your family are having a very blessed Christmas.  I also pray that you are able to find the best gift under all the wrapping and bows.  The gift of Baby Jesus and all the peace He brings.

On a more secular note...  I thought I would share some pictures from our morning.  I was slightly worried that my holiday-homesickness would be tenfold today.  But as of 1:31pm, I'm still smiling.  We have been blessed with tons of toys from the grandparents and aunts and uncles.  The boys got a few things from us.  Perhaps my favorite is the Shake-n-Race set.  Let me tell you the story...  I bought it at Toys-R-Us on Monday.  Later in the day, I was Goodwill's Bargin Barn (gee surprise?) and I found the earlier ve

rsion with 4 cars for $2!!  Last night we were deciding which one to keep.  The expensive one had a few features we thought were pretty cool -mainly a big jump and a tunnel.  We figured we would give the boys the cool one and I would sell the other one on Ebay (gee, Surprise??).  But after opening the box, we saw 10,000 pieces and decided that we would keep the simple one.  Fortunately, I found the receipt.  So managed to spend a grand total of about $90 on the boy's gifts.  Thank you Goodwill!!  I love being cheap...  Needless to say, the boys LOVE their $2 toy...  I think the pictures will speak for themselves about how much they have enjoyed their gifts.  It took us only 4 hours to open everything.  I'm bles

sed with the kids that appreciate the little things and want to play with something as soon as they open it.  That works for me...

These are a few highlights of our Christmas.  They pictures are in reverse chronological order and I'm too lazy to fix that.  I figure at some point, Mark will "bust me" for spending too much time on the computer...

The shiner doesn't look too bad in this picture...  Tryst me though, it's about a hundred times worse in real life.  I told some lady in the story the other day that she should see the 4 year he was fighting with...  At first she thought I was serious, so I had to add something about a bar fight over the honor of Ryan's girlfriend...

I don't think you can read what Ryan's pajamas say... "I Do My Own Stunts".  Too bad Ryan can't wear that on his first day back to school.

Zach plays basketball for Special Olympics.  We also received a hand-me down toy net and hoops.  So when he opened this from Aunt Carla and Uncle Doug (who I inadvertantly may have referred to them as "freaks" in my Christmas letter.  They are NOT freaks - I meant the other people in Key West.) he wanted to play immediately - even though it wasn't bath time.

The boys (including Mark) got Nerf toys for Christmas.  I didn't realize how hard it would be to shoot them, so I was helping Zach.  I should have bought extra darts, a few them are already lost!

Ryan had a blast with the tunnel that Meg got them.  I mentioned this in a run awhile ago, and she remembered!  

Nice shiner, huh?  Ryan wasn't all that into opening presents.  It might be his fever or cold that made him less "fun".  You can slightly see the gap fromhis missing tooth.  I told you - lovely pictures, huh??

Mark got juggling balls in his stocking.  Zach got bouncing balls and wanted to try juggling too.

See, they had fun with their $2 toy.  If I take pictures of Ryan from this angle, you can't see the eye or tooth.

When Zach saw what Santa brought, he was initially upset because he didn't get his Cars movie.  That's really all he wanted.  He opened the movie a bit later.  I don't know if you can see his pout.  

Cindy, Missy and me after church on Christmas Eve.  We are headed to Missy's Dad's house for a get away in February.  It ought to be fun!!

I love the candles when we sing Silent Night.  Zach had one too, but he just wanted to blow it out.  I thought he was going to set someone on fire...  When he couldn't blow mine out, he was going to lick it - fortunately, I saw it coming and moved it out of the way!

Mark is wearing Ryan's costume for the Paper Bag Pagent that was part of the service.  The kids each got a bag with a costume in it.  When their part was called, they open their bag and head to the stage.  

Here are the kids gathering around the stage.  Can you see Ryan's swollen, purple eye?  I thought the purple/red was a festive touch that showed up on the 24th.  Please pray that it goes away before he goes back to school!!

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!