The Cat in the Hat

I read this at least three times a day...I have the first 10 pages completely memorized...just wanted to let you know...

Rock n' Roll Half Marathon

On Sunday, October 5th, Missie and I participated in the Rock n' Roll half marathon in San Jose. Here is a minute by minute breakdown of our experience. Much of it may be made up. Or not. I can't really remember because I was pretty tired.
6:30am - I awaken to my lovely wife's happy face smiling way bigger than anyone should be smiling at 6:30am. She is obviously much more excited about this race than I am. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I have run a total of 6 miles in the last, oh, 6 months and she's been training three days a week for ever. A half marathon is... let me check... 13.1 miles long. Red flag.
6:45am - Missie introduces me to a product called 'Glide' which looks like deodorant but is actually a lubricant that is designed to keep your rubbing places from chafing. I take the 'more is better approach' and apply it liberally to my whole body. You never know what's gonna chafe.
6:46am - I can't get out of the bathroom because my hand keeps slipping on the door knob. This glide stuff really works.
7:00am - Missie frees me from my bathroom prison. We ceremoniously eat a spoonful of peanut butter for breakfast. Missie swears that tons of runners eat this stuff as fuel before a race. I think it's just an excuse to eat peanut butter.
7:03am - Missie turns her back and I shovel a bunch more peanut butter in before she can catch me. I hope she doesn't read this blog.
8:00am - We're lining up for our race, and I find out that I'm not supposed to be in the same coral as Miss. Apparently they assumed that since I'm a boy, I'm probably faster than Missie. Sexist pigs.
8:01am - Ok, I am faster than Miss. but today I'm running at her pace so I bend the rules and start in her coral. A guy close to us is wearing a prison jumpsuit and a mullet wig. Apparently we picked the PARTY coral! I'm wishing I wore my 'Mr. Tumnus' costume.
8:05am - We start running.
8:35am - We're still running.
8:45am - The running continues.
9:00am - You're probably thankful at this point that I'm not doing a true 'minute by minute' rundown of our experience. Let's just stick to the highlights.
9:07am - We are thankful for roadside port-a-potties. I'll spare you the details.
9:15am - We pass a cover band playing 50's bee-bop rock. The Rock n' Roll half marathon is unique because several bands are placed throughout the race to encourage and inspire the runners. Many of the runners raise their hands up and cheer for the band. I hope we get some 'Eye of the Tiger' at some point.
9:25am - The sun is starting to come up and I am sweating gratuitously. My wife is glistening. Gratuitously. I'm pretty happy with my decision NOT to wear the Mr. Tumnus costume about now.
9:38am - Every couple of miles there are tables set up with water and Cytomax (Gatorade competitor). It's pretty fun drinking your fill and then just chucking the cup on the ground. I feel like a rebel. Missie is fighting the urge to pick up every cup and make sure it finds it's way into the trash.
9:51am - We've been running since 8:00am. That's almost two hours, or more than I have run in the last three months combined. What am I doing out here? I pass a guy who's wearing a t-shirt that just about sums up my experience: "Our sport is what your sport does for punishment". That's seems about right.
9:55am - We come up on another re-hydrating station. In addition to my free Cytomax, a volunteer hands me a protein gel packet. I tear it open and squeeze some into my mouth. Apparently I got the 'Bitter dirt' flavored protein gel. I litter the packet and then run back to the table for more Cytomax.
10:03am - We're getting tired, so we start to play a game were we pick out a person in front of us and try to catch up to them. It motivates us, and keeps our mind off the fact that we could be doing anything other than running on this beautiful Sunday morning.
10:15am - "Hey Miss, you see that tall guy in the red..." "THE GAME IS OVER. I DON'T WANT TO PLAY ANYMORE." Wow. I guess that's just Missie's 'competitive streak' coming out. Or maybe she didn't use enough Glide. That's some good stuff right there.
10:20am - We spot the donkey lady ahead of us. The donkey lady is a supremely pleasant gal in her mid fifties who is wearing a pair of stylish donkey ears that set her apart from the pack. Something else that sets her apart from the pack is the fact that she is speed walking, and faster than a bunch of us who are running. We are determined to finish ahead of her.
10:24am - Donkey lady is faster than we thought.
10:30am - We are officially not going to make it in our goal time of 2.5 hours. But by golly, we will not be beaten by a senior citizen wearing Donkey ears.
10:32am - As we climb a subtle grade, a young woman beside us is struggling. Her friends, who are obviously more athletic and better prepared than her, give some cheerful encouragement - "You can do it, pump your arms." "I'M PUMPING ALREADY!!!", she replies, obviously tired of hearing encouragements from people who do not feel her pain. 80 percent of the other runners around her immediately cheer her frustrated response, she has said what most of the people in our pace group want to say but don't have the energy to.
10:34am - Those donkey ears are taunting us, gently bobbing up and down at a brisk rate as we scrape together the last bit of energy we have. I bet you Missie is wishing she shoveled in a little more peanut butter this morning. She hits the 'power song' button on her i-pod and we make our final push.
10:38am - I give donkey lady props as we PASS her, just minutes before the finish line. Ok, so how lame am I that I'm proud I defeated a speed walking grandma in a half-marathon. Regardless, we're almost there. I think I hear 'We've Come So Far' from the Hairspray Soundtrack playing from Missie's earphones.
10:40am - IT'S OVER!!! We cross the line and are immediately greeted by volunteers holding cold wet towels, chilled water bottles and signs that encourage us for working so hard. That refreshing towel makes the whole thing worth it. Oh wait, no it doesn't. But seeing the joy in Missie's face that I was willing to share this experience with her DOES make it worth it. I'm really proud of her, and I'm grateful that I'll always be a big part of her memory of this day. Ok Miss, I ran a half marathon with you, now you get to enter a jiu-jitsu tournament with me, right?

Lions and tigers and bears...

...but no elephants or penguins. Sad.
Adam and Sam took their first trip to the zoo! We went with my mom, sisters, aunt Wendy, cousins, and my cousin Lauren and her kids.

We saw this scary monkey.

Adam and Cade were in heaven.

Adam's first push-pop. This was my favorite as a kid from the ice cream truck!

It was a long day...

6 years of wedded bliss!

Our anniversary started with Nick handing me a post-it note when we woke up. He had hidden 12 more around the house. It took me a week to find all those little love notes everywhere from the toilet paper roll to inside the microwave. If only every girl was as blessed as I am! Thank you, Lord, for choosing me to be Nick's wife. And thank you, Nick for 6 years!

The Circus! Featurning Adam's new obsession with Dumbo.

I ordered Dumbo on Netflix about a month ago, foolishly thinking we would keep it for a couple days then send it back for the next movie. But oh, no. I was wrong. Adam has watched Dumbo daily- at least once a day- for the past month. He quotes the lines, sings the songs, and jumps up and down with pure excitement every time that elephant starts to fly. That's why, when my friend Alisha sent out an email for free tickets to the circus, we couldn't resist.
We counted down the days and last night we got to see Dumbo! (Don't you dare tell him that it really wasn't a big Dumbo.) It was perfect. Not too big or overwhelming. We sat right in front of the center ring and this is pretty much what heaven must be like for two year olds. He rode a pony, rode an elephant (who we renamed Dumbo), fed llamas and he-haws (aka: donkeys), met clowns, ate popcorn that I responsibly brought from home, ate cotton candy that his dad bought for him there, saw motorcyles, hula hoops, and slid down a gigantic inflatable slide. It brought so much joy to Nick and I to be able to give this gift to our son. We had such a great time! "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11)

The comb-over is over!

It's a little bit harder for me to do the "growing up" things with Sam. The boys are 19 months apart so I was pregnant when Adam was doing the "firsts". It was easier for me to let go of my baby when another was on the way. Well, not pregnant and not really planning on it for a couple years. Alas, my baby for now is growing up.

Sam did so good sitting there while Nick took the clippers to his baby fine locks. I saved up and just got my Nikon D40 camera last week and the pictures turn out so wonderful- especially of moments like this. It was a sad moment but I'm over it now and he looks great. He's turning into a little boy!

The Human Race

So I have about 5 and a half months until my marathon, but I need little milestones to hit along the way. I am running in the Rock 'n Roll half marathon (13 miles) on October 5 and I convinced Nick, who does not run regularly, to do it with me. I run 2 days during the week and do a long run on the weekends. I'm now up to 11 miles!

Nick bought me the Nike+ that plugs into my ipod and tracks my runs. It lets me know my pace, mileage, minutes, calories, and all sorts of fun stuff. My favorite part about it though, is when I do a longer run than I ever have before. A voice comes on at the end of every run to let me know my stats but when I do the longest, either Paula Radcliffe or Lance Armstrong comes on to say, "Wow! That was your farthest workout so far. Good job!" I will gladly run for 2 hours to get that reward. Isn't that weird? But I need motivation like that.

Anyway, Nike+ put on the first global 10k (6 miles) so you just run wherever you are and download your information to their website and they know who all ran. So Nick and I set out to run on a Sunday evening our 10k. Nick was pushing Adam and Sam in the double stroller when about 2 miles into the run, one of the tires went flat. He was such a trooper and continued the whole run pushing about 80 pounds on a blown out tire. I asked if he wanted me to take a turn pushing but his pride wouldn't let him be seen running next to a girl pushing a stroller.

Potty Training Part 1

There are some who may read this who do not have children so I will spare you the details. Let's just say Adam did great for a week and then he got sick. I reevaluated and decided we need another month before he totally grasps the concept. Strike one. We'll let you know when we have another go at it. I'll have to invest in some more jelly beans...

Nick's Tournament

Nick has been training in jiu-jitsu for about a year now. He decided to enter the Gracie Open tournament and Adam and I went out to support him in the 90 degree gym. Sorry if the video is a little wobbly- Adam kept pulling on me and saying, "Look, Mommy! Daddy tackle!!"

And then there were 15...

Reunion. That word conjures up some image of distant relatives who fly to some remote location to see people that they are apparently related to and only see once every five years. But that is what we called this long weekend at my parents' house. I am number four of six children. Six seems like such a huge number but then you have to account for the parents, spouses, and children and suddenly it becomes 15! How did that happen?! And that's only my immediate family and I love it.

So we retreated to Somerset, the closest recognizable city being Placerville, 40 miles away. We played in the pool, played games, watched movies, ate pizza, took pictures, laughed at the kids, celebrated birthdays, and just enjoyed each other. One day, my parents treated us all to a whitewater rafting trip on the middle fork of the American River. It was so great- and thank the Lord for my grandparents and aunt Wendy who took on our 4 extra kids under the age of 3. We all survived the trip and only managed to lose Trevor and his wife Amber into the freezing rapids for a minute or two. And yes, if you can see from the pictures, that is my leg up in the air as I prepared to be the 3rd casualty of the river. My dad pulled me back in but pretty much all the pictures are of me upside down.

"Jesus gives us the power to" survive VBS

After about six months of planning, hours of preparing, and even permanently inscribing a huge "Power Lab" logo on our dining room table (ouch!), we have survived Vacation Bible School! It was my first year as a director, and as it almost sucked the very life out of me, I loved almost every minute. I had great volunteers and such a supportive congregation. The Lord was so merciful to me: there were many areas that I dropped the ball on but He definitely pulled it off. What a blessing. I'm already thinking about next year.
And as a thank you for all my hard work, I was slimed from head to toe at the end of the last day. We had our annual VBS penny drive to raise money for missions- boys versus girls. Out of over 23,000 pennies raised, the boys won by less than $4, and I had green slime stuck in my hair for a week.

Swimming 101

Scoops and kicks - two essential movements that a two year old must master if he wants to learn how to swim. But while the other kids in Adam's intro to swimming class were wiggling their legs and perfecting their doggy paddles, all my boy wanted to do was yell "Gabio!" and jump off the side into my arms. He's a bit of a daredevil. I think he gets it from his mom. ; ) Adam spent a little time scooping but he really just wanted to jump off the side and push away on his own. Not the safest strategy, but I've got to say, the kid's courageous.

And a little note from mom in response: I'm pretty sure I'm not the one who goes cliff diving and jumps over rocks with reckless abandon! :) Adam did end up pretty well- he can swim to the wall if we push him towards it, and he can climb out all by himself!