Drama, Drama, Drama

Everything right now is dramatic in her life.  I’m talking about my little Jaidy.  When anything goes wrong in school, it usually ends in tears and a lot of explaining and details when she gets home.  I love that Jaidyn tells me EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING that goes on in her life.  I sure hope and pray that doesn’t change.  She really lets me know all her feelings and worries and just wants a listening ear. 

This note was from awhile back, but I wanted to post it showing a little of the drama.  Yesterday was one of those days filled with tears as Jaidyn laid on the couch with me, telling me, IN DETAIL, that he said this, and she said this, and I had my feelings hurt, and I don’t know why he did that, but then this happened, but it’s cause of this, and school is hard, and I feel like I’ll never finish my book report, and he’s mean, and she feels the same way, I’m nervous about my gymnastics competition coming up, what if I don’t do good, and on, and on, and on.  These are some of her concerns right now.  And though these concerns seem petty, they sure aren’t petty to a 10 year old. 

Jaidyn is very sensitive. 

But would I change any of this?  No way!  Even though sometimes I feel like just laughing at her, and sometimes I do, I’m glad she tells me all of it.  Her tears end in laughter and she walks away saying she feels much better. 

I hope I can continue to talk things out with her and make things better.

40 Happy Faces

Usually the kids are excited to pick the reward of staying up an hour past bedtime on a school night when they fill their happy face chart, but this time, I added a little date time with Mommy as an option and Kallie jumped all over that.  We didn’t spend much $, just hung out together.  We took a Saturday and started it out at McDonalds and made it 2 minutes before breakfast was over.  We were very excited to get eggs and bacon.  After some play time there, we went over to Payless and bought Kallie two pairs of very needed shoes for school and church.  We then went to Walmart, and she got to choose what candy bar and soda she’d like.  Next, we took ourselves to Petco and played with the animals there.  Kallie was very excited to see that it was adoption day, so there were a bunch of black lab puppies.  The last place we went to was Barnes and Noble, where we just hung out and read books together.

Kallie was needing this one on one attention pretty badly.  We had been butting heads a lot lately and it wasn’t pleasant.  Kallie likes to play tough girl and fights me anytime I want to hug or cuddle with her.  This “alone” time with her, seemed to make all the difference in the world.  Sometimes, that’s all kids need.  I am torn in all directions when the kids get home from school and I try my very best to give that attention each of my kids need, but sometimes it’s not enough, and all that’s needed is that special time, away from the other crazy siblings, where her thoughts and her words are not interrupted by the others.  So glad I made the time.

Kallie is my motherly one.  She will help get Dagen ready without me asking her.  She will make sure Dagen’s church bag is filled with toys, crayons, and paper, without me asking her to.  She just takes it upon herself to help me out anytime.  She is a sweet girl.  She loves to clean up her room.  Don’t get me wrong, her room can be a mess at times, but most of the time, she’ll hang up all the clothes… and Dagen’s clothes, and organize her special toys in the tupperware under her bed.  She gets right to homework when she gets home and is a wiz at it.  She lives to please.  She is very thoughtful and loves to help Mommy in the kitchen.  Her gymnastics is improving.  She loves to show off her cartwheels and handstands, which at times, look crazy and awkward, but she is so proud of them and keeps practicing all day.  She is the one that melts my heart when she looks at me.  She is so gorgeous.  Her eyes are so pretty.   Wouldn’t you agree?  She loves playing Polly Pockets and usually will include Dagen in playtime, if I ask her, but her preference would be to play Polly’s alone. 

Love this girl of mine.

Family Time

Our family spends a lot of time together…. ‘cause, that’s what families SHOULD do.  Even though there is fighting, teasing, screaming, crying, and complaining, there are also funny phrases said by the younger ones that make you laugh, kind deeds done without the kids being told, moments you just don’t ever want to forget, and then there’s bonding with the ones you love most.  I love how excited the kids get over some simple plans to climb the mountain behind our house followed by a picnic.  I love how proud the kids get at the end when they look at how high they’ve climbed.  I love when the kids thank us in the end without being told and how they throw in “I love you Mommy and Daddy.”  I love that they would much rather spend a night of games at home with us than spend time playing with a sitter.  Don’t get me wrong… Mike and I DO get sitters so that we can get that bonding time we need between him and I, but it makes me feel good when the kids are rushing at my side trying to get that one last kiss and hug in before walking out the door on our date.  I’m enjoying the simple moments that I have been so very blessed with.  I am grateful for those moments I don’t ever want to forget.

Sewing on Patches?

Ok.  I’m blown away that I’m old enough to have a boy, old enough, to be in scouts!  Sewing on the few patches onto Isaac’s brand new shirt made it all real.  Isaac just had his first pinewood derby and rocked the house.  Most of the time he either took 1st or 2nd place.  Good job Isaac and Daddy.  His car happened to weigh the lightest compared to the rest when they first weighed them.  So the bottom had quite a few washers to weigh it down.

176 is a very special number in my family.  It was my Grandpa’s (my Dad’s dad) favorite number.  For some reason every time something good happened that number would pop up somewhere.  I’ll have to ask my Dad to refresh my memory with some of the stories and then write them in another post.  We thought we’d try the number out for good luck.  It worked!  And that’s just what Isaac said when the races were over.  “Mommy, 176 worked!”

 

RAGNAR DEL SOL 2011

Ok… so if we look tired in most of these pics…. it’s ‘cause we were. 

MAMAS RUN WILD

12 mommies.....12 great husbands who watched 39 of our sweet kiddos......197 miles in 24 hours.

So happy we kicked butt!

I was in Van 2 this year, which makes for a different run schedule than last year.  We did a lot of waiting and I thoroughly enjoyed being in Van 1 better.  It just seemed to drag on that much longer having to wait for Van 1 to finish before we could start.  I felt like we were running for a straight week!

How the Ragnar works:  2 vans, 6 people in each one.  Each person runs three legs.  Once Van 1 is done with their first legs, then Van 2 takes over, and continues that way until both vans have finished off all three legs.

Shani who drives the van-e

I was runner 7, therefore the first runner in our van. 

“I passed up 10 people!!”

Here I am turning the corner to barf.  Becky was helping the situation by sharing gross past stories to speed up the barfing process a little.  That’s what happens when you don’t eat anything but a banana all day long, barely drink water, and run like a mad dog.  I know.  Just smack me already.

Don’t you just love all these awesome sunset pics!

It was a bit chilly.

I must say, the robe idea was just genius of me.  Genius.

While we were waiting for Angi to finish up her leg, I thought it’d be funny to run down the cheering crowd in my robe pretending I’d just finished MY leg. 

What sweet husbands there were to show up in the middle of the night to cheer their wives on! 

A free tooty.  hee hee.

We were all starving, REALLY starving!  Most of us had only a banana, trail mix, and some granola bars.  The food seemed to take FOREVER though!  Afterwards we tried sleeping in the van. 

No bueno.

THIS was my meal.  I think I got a little carried away.

There is no shame among fellow van runners.  Here is Becky trickling pee by our van.  No shame.  I’m sure she’ll appreciate me putting this on my blog.

 

We had a couple hours to kill before our last legs, so we took ourselves over to my place for some R and R.  Shani had had enough.  The last words that came out of her mouth were, “No, I’m not tired at all yet.”  But… give the girl some massagers and she’s gone in seconds.  Half of us slept, the other half sat staring at the tv like zombies.  I was one of the zombies.  We all had anxiety waiting for our last leg to be done.

 

I ran my last leg HARD!  I had killer hills, but I did it.  And I did it fast as fast can be!  My cute family was there to give me hugs and high fives for running all three of my legs!!!!

It was Anika’s birthday, so we took some permanent marker and told everyone.

Ok.  So here was a reinactment of one of the funniest moments of many, from the night before.  We were all doing our 2nd legs in the dark. While waiting for a team runner to come through, most would take a potty break, but the lines to the bathrooms were crazy long.  And crazy dark.  Did I mention dark?  Without a head lamp, you were in trouble.  Well, Anika and I were waiting in line and she went into one of the port o potties, I continued to wait in line and chatted with some guys who were standing behind me.  Then one said, “That one is open.”  So I looked over and there was one that said open.  So I opened it to find, Anika wide-eyed (deer in headlights look) staring back at me with my headlamp pointing right at her tooty, squatting, taking a pee. 

I screamed… she screamed… the guys behind me in line screamed! 

I had forgotten which one Anika had gone into of the long row of port o potties... and just flashed her to everyone!   

The exchange, Becky finished up at, was gorgeous!  And Tay and the kids came to congratulate her.

We were finally done!  It was time to meet up with Van 2 and wait for Angi to finish up.  All the cute hubbies were there, some with flowers, all waiting to support their tired wives. 

Go Angiiii!  She was our last runner for Mama’s Run Wild! 

Dagen was being a little difficult… as usual. 

I’m thinking she’ll mellow out in a few years.  Ya think?

Now, you may ask… Will Mel be doing this again next year?  Well… last year, I said I wouldn’t ever do the Ragnar again, but you see proof in all these pictures that I seemed to have changed my mind or lost my mind, not sure which. 

Let me just say, the entire time doing this, the entire van of ladies are all saying, “I would NEVER, EVER do this again!”  It is literally, pure torture on the body and mind to not have sleep or proper food and to have that much anxiety dragged on for that much time. 

… But, you may ask… Will Mel be doing this again next year? 

No. 

Maybe. 

No, absolutely not. 

We’ll see. 

Why would I? 

1.  The awesome medal.

2.  If it were not for an upcoming race, I’d never exercise.

3.  It’s quite an accomplishment, in my book, to run this crazy race.

4.  For all the hilarious memories.