One resolution down…

aaand, so far it is the only one I have been able to keep.  I believe one of my others was blogging weekly, well, we all know how that is going.  So, on to the one I actually kept, running some sort of race.  Sunday was the Rock & Roll Half Marathon here in San Diego.  It was so much fun!  I was really nervous the days leading up to the race, as my mom and husband and kids can attest to, but now having done it I know what to expect next time, yes, next time!  I want to do this again and again.  There is such an energy when you run with a group of people, I just can’t explain it.  It pushed me to run further than I thought I could and do do so much better than I ever dreamed.  Just to break it down, when I signed up for this race in Feb. I figured I would walk most of it, I knew I could do that.   I had to put a finish time when I signed up, so I put 3.5 hours.  I figured that would give me plenty of time.  Well, as I trained more and more and started enjoying running I realized that I could probably run almost half, which was about 6 miles in my mind, walk a bit, then run the last mile or so.  Well, yesterday rolls around and I get going and there is this great energy going around me and before I know it I have run 9 miles!!!!  At that point my body was feeling it, mostly my right pinky toe and the horrible blister that was developing.  Ouch!  So, I walked for a bit, got hydrated, and ran the last two miles and crossed the finish line in less than 3 hours!!  I believe my time was 2.40.52.  So, well below my estimated goal and well beyond what I would have imagined myself accomplishing!  The most important part is that I had a good time, met some new friends, and truly enjoyed myself. 

It was a great day, I am very proud, but today it was back to reality.  There was laundry, bathrooms to clean, rugs to vacuum, and kids to take to and pick up from school, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  I am so thankful to my amazing family who put up with my running and crazy ideas like meeting them at the soccer fields on Saturday mornings and to my mom for coming out to not only help and spend time with the kids but to support me and cheer me on.  I know I was a bit of a pain this past week as I worked through my nerves.  Luckily I got a great night’s sleep on Saturday and was ready to go on Sunday morning at 6:15 (that is when the race officially started even though my group didn’t actually start until 7). 

Now we are in the home stretch for school to end and summer to begin. The boys will be doing a few day camps, we will spend some time in MN with my family, and this coming weekend we will be saying goodbye to Joe’s parent’s home in Bakersfield.  They are moving down this way to enjoy their retirement. 

Below are a few pics from the race.  Miraculously at about mile 9 Joe and I spotted each other and he got some great pics.  It didn’t work out for them to meet me at the finish, just too crazy, but we met up at the mall, had lunch, and all came home and took a nap!  Not a bad day if you ask me.  Enjoy!

National Kid Appreciation Day

Ok, so it isn’t a real holiday, but it should be.  We all love our kids and tell them we love them and show them we love them most everyday, but how often do we sit back and appreciate them?  I mean, of course I say please and thank you to my kids partly out of wanting to display good manners and partly to teach them to do the same.  And here is where the appreciation part comes in…they actually do it!!  So, in honor of the first ever National Kids Appreciation Day as declared by Emily Spinozzi I would like to list all of the things I appreciate about my children.

1.  They say please and thank you.
2.  They thank me for their meals (this is huge, they always say
“thanks mom” when I put their food in front of them)
3.  Anthony, I appreciate how you will apologize after throwing a fit
4.  Nicolas, I appreciate how you hand your trash to me in the car, or anywhere for that matter, rather than just throwing it on the floor or ground
5.  Dom, I appreciate that you still like to cuddle with me and whenever I am sitting on the couch or lying in bed and you find me you will curl up next to me
6.  I appreciate that the big boys can take showers and clean themselves now
7.  I appreciate that the potty trained ones in the family don’t leave the seat up
8.  I appreciate that all three kids remember to wash their hands after using the bathroom without being reminded
9.  I appreciate how helpful Anthony and Dom are with their little brother, and also with their younger cousins. 
10.  And most of all, I appreciate how wonderful they are as members of our family!! 

Give some appreciation to the kids in your life!!  It is one thing to love them, it is another to appreciate them.  Be sure to let them know you feel both. 

It’s about time!

I am struggling at the moment to remember all the wonderful things that have happened and been said since the last time I wrote.  I will do my best.  Now that all three kids are talking non-stop it is getting harder and harder to keep track of who said what! 

I will start things off with a prayer.  “Dear Jesus, thank you for my Jesus, thank you for my family, thank you for my friends.  Amen.”  That is the prayer Nico said last night before bed.  As if a three year old folding his hands and closing his eyes and praying isn’t cute enough, to hear him stay thank you to Jesus FOR Jesus, well, I get teary just thinking about it.  And as I remembered his prayer this morning I thought, you know what, we don’t say thanks FOR Jesus nearly enough.  Perhaps the little guy is clued into something far deeper than we think.  At any rate, it was sweet and heartfelt and it made this mommy’s heart leap with joy.  Now, let’s not forget that the same child is still potty training and isn’t making much progress.  On Saturday we decided to put him in underpants all day, no matter what happened.  He had been doing really well up until then, telling us when he had to go or going on his own!  Still no poop, but I will take what I can get.  So, we put him in underpants and not 20 minutes later he had an accident.  Ok, no big deal I thought, I hadn’t taken him potty after he woke up and he got distracted.  So, pair #2.  We got through the entire morning, including soccer for both boys and then we had accident #2.  I was not happy, but thought, ok, we had been out, he was wound up, I forgot to ask him if he needed to go.  So, on to pair #3.  Well, that didn’t end well.  Let’s just say a bath had to accompany the last accident and daddy was not happy.  We put Nico in time out and didn’t put clothes on him for a while.  At one point he asked if he could get up, we said no, you are still in trouble.  His response, “I don’t want to be in trouble, I want to be really, really happy.”  Hard to argue with that logic.  He stayed in trouble for a bit longer but now whenever he goes in the potty we tell him we are really, really happy!  He gets it now, I think.  No accidents the last couple days, but I am not braving underpants for a while. 

As some of you know Joe was out of town all of last week.  Luckily I had Janis here to help for a couple days which was so great!  And the boys were really, really good the entire time daddy was gone, I have to say.  However, upon his arrival home things started to get NUTS!  I know it was excitement from daddy being home after so long away, but it was like they had all taken speed and downed one of those HUGE straws filled with sugar.  They were out of control for most of the weekend.  On Sunday night we were eating dinner and it was a rare meal where we were all there, eating together.  Most days we eat in shifts since the boys are hungry long before daddy can get home.  So, this was a treat, at least for me, but they were not cooperating.  There was poop talk, spitting, falling off chairs, etc etc.  At one point daddy said, “why are you guys so bizarre?”  Dom chimes in “and stubborn!”  Well, yes, as a matter of fact.  Oh well, it was just nice to be all together. 

Today was kind of a fun day for nature sightings.  While waiting at a stop light Nico and I watched a hummingbird feed right next to the car window.  I have never seen one that close up for that long before.  It was really neat.  Later on while going to pick up Anthony there was a road runner in the road!  They do move fast, I will say that. 

I am running in my first race ever this Saturday.  It is only a 5k (3.1 miles) but it should be a good first race.  I am excited and nervous.  I know I can run it, but I don’t usually run WITH people, so that should be interesting.  I am not what you would call, swift, but I do my best.  I made a huge stride at the gym today, finishing 5 miles in less than an hour on the treadmill!  If you know how slow I run than  you know what a HUGE deal this is.  So, I am feeling very proud of myself and feel I will be more than ready for the 13 mile half marathon next month.  At that pace I will be able to finish well before the time I allotted myself.  I also crossed that hurdle of boredom, which comes on me right around 3.5 miles.  Today I could have easily kept going but needed to let someone else use the machine.  Remember, I HATED running when I started this process, hated it!  Now I actually like it.  I wouldn’t say love just yet, but I might get there and perhaps next year I will run the whole marathon!  Something to shoot for, right?

Well, May is going to be a busy month so I will do my best to keep up. 

Before you say anything…

let me say that I KNOW IT HAS BEEN MORE THAN A WEEK SINCE I WROTE LAST!  So, one of my new years resolutions is down the tubes.  I will blame it on me trying to keep another of my resolutions, running a half marathon.  Training has now become fun, but as my endurance goes up, so must my run time and length, which is hard to do in the gym with a 30 minute limit on cardio machines and even harder to do when your hubby doesn’t get home until dark.  So, I do what I can when I can, but I am running every day but Sundays.  And I must say, I finally like to run!  I have also learned what the hardest part of any run is for me and what I can and can’t eat before a run.  Unfortunately, the first mile is the toughest part for me, and this could be in part due to the fact that when I do my long run on Sat. the first mile is almost all uphill slightly, so I have come to loathe it, but then look forward to the rest of the run that is lovingly either downhill or flat, until of course the last mile, which is uphill again.  So, that answers that.  As for eating, I of course have started to eat carbs again since it is hard to train and NOT eat carbs.  My body was just too tired and run down.  So, I am learning which things are good to eat and which aren’t.  It is all a learning curve, but I am certainly enjoying pasta and bread again and enjoying even more so making bread again! 

Ok, enough about me.  Let’s move on to the real stars of the show, the kids.  Let’s see, the big boys have started league soccer and had their first game this Sat.  Joe is coaching Dom’s team and they won (even though they don’t keep score at the YMCA) and Dom scored 4 of the 5 goals.  Anthony’s team didn’t win but he did great as goalie, blocking several goals, and also on defense.  Perhaps he has found his niche.  They both had fun which is what it is all about at this point, so it was a great day.  Nicolas is our little comedian these days.  Now that he is talking and expressing himself better he just says the best stuff!  The other day he was making tooting noises with his mouth and I laughed a few times and then asked him to stop and he responded with “you’re just jealous of me.”  Perhaps he was right.  He is also the king of pretend play. Whether he is making his trains crash or breakdown or zooming his cars around a pretend track, he uses his imagination far more than his brothers ever did at this age.  It is so fun to see all three of them play together.  Like I have said before, they have built in play dates everyday!  We try to remind them often just how lucky they are to have brothers.  Those are the friends that you will have forever, so treat them well. 

Joe continues to have more work than they can handle at Cyth, which is a blessing and a curse.  His company fills an interesting niche in this economy.  As companies downsize they look for ways to continue output without having to hire as many people back, which is where Joe’s company comes in.  They allow companies to automate more of their manufacturing.  So, business continues to grow and we feel so blessed. 

I have been thinking and praying a lot lately about homeschooling the boys once Nico is in school full time.  I want him to experience some public school and feel like starting the older two in homeschool while he is in kindergarten might be the perfect transition time.  There is just no telling what is going to happen with education and judging by what has already happened and what will happen next year, at least in San Diego, it doesn’t look good.  So, I am researching and talking to friends who homeschool and am getting kind of excited!  It will allow for so much more exploring of our city and learning hands on  more than public education ever could.  I just feel like my kids deserve the best and while the public school system perhaps had the best intentions at one point, now it is getting the short end of the stick. 

The Birthday Boy!

So, Nico is going to be 3, 3!!!  Can anyone believe it?  I can’t.  I can’t believe that my youngest is getting so big.  Anyway, today I did a birthday boy photo shoot and these were some of my faves.  Those blue eyes, I tell ya, watch out, ladies.  Enjoy!

All in a day’s work

I am currently watching Oprah.  If you watch than you know who Nate is, if not, he is Oprah’s go-to guy for any type of decorating project.  On this show, however, Nate took over the life of a stay at home mom of three kids so mom could get a much needed break from her hectic life.  Nate is not married, has no children, and had no idea what he was in for.  It was actually really sweet.  It reminded me a lot of my days as she had three kids, two of which were in school, and one toddler who was home with her during the day.  Nate faced his day head on and as soon as mom left he was on his own to take kids to school, change diapers, pick up dry cleaning, make lunches and dinner, get haircuts, pick kids up, etc etc.  I watched and laughed.  For one thing, the two year old was absolutely adorable!  At one point Nate was asking him for directions back to the house and wouldn’t you know it, the little guy was right!!!  Just proves toddlers know more than you think.  But I also watched and wondered how Nate would feel at the end of the day and what, if anything, he might forget to do.  Well, he forgot a few things, like feeding the toddler lunch before he fell asleep, or “making” dinner rather than ordering out. 

Anyway, watching the show got me thinking how lucky I am.  At the end of the day Nate was tired, but he said he felt full, like this is what life is about.  I know I have my days and I complain more than I should, but at the end of the day, I feel so full.  I have my kids who make me laugh all day long.  Like yesterday when I asked Nicolas what he wanted for breakfast and he responded with “it is crunchy, you pour milk on it, and you eat it with a spoon!”  Or when the boys are up in their room reading and playing together and giggling the entire time.  I need to remember more often just how precious these moments are rather than worrying about the mess that might ensue or the next meal I have to make.  I am blessed to have a family to cook and clean for at all!  I am once again reminded of a little book I read a few years ago called “The Quotidian Mysteries” which was all about the mundane things we do in life, things like laundry and dishes and cooking, and how, if we look at them differently, they can become amazing moments of blessing.  For instance, I can pray for each child as I fold and put away their clothes, or pray for my family as I make dinner.  Since they are things I do daily, that is a lot of chances to pray for and bless my family!   What I would be missing if I didn’t have as much laundry to fold or as many meals to cook! 

So, I feel very lucky today.  I hope that while any of you fold laundry, make dinner, go to work,  or run yet another errand you remember that in doing those small, seemingly insignificant things you are actually blessing one or many people!  When you look at it that way it makes it all a little easier, doesn’t it? 

Oops

I missed a week.  Well, I am trying.  I feel like it has been years since I last wrote but it hasn’t.  It isn’t that a lot has happened but I guess when you have three kids and are training for a half marathon time gets away from you.  Oh, didn’t I tell you all?  Yep, I am training for a half marathon.  I am actually training to walk most of it, since I hate running, but it is kind of growing on me.  Not enough to ever want to run an full marathon, but since it is becoming easier each day to run a little further I feel really great about my efforts. 

Joe and I are still on our low carb diet, although I am not as strict as we were in the beginning.  Joe is still gung ho and doing so great!  I have mostly decided to eat as little refined sugar and processed food as I can but I am not going to kick myself if I cave and have a piece of homemade bread.  (It is so hard to resist it right out of the oven.)  I find we are eating less and eating better, which is a win win in my book.  Weight loss aside, we both feel better and I definitely have more energy. 

We are still struggling with potty training Nico.  It is going to come to the point where we just get rid of any kind of diaper or training pants.  He needs to be in a big boy bed and learn to go when he feels like it rather than us constantly reminding him.  As for poop, well, it might just take a few really crappy, pun intended, days to convince him the potty is a perfectly fine place to poop.  We shall see. 

The big boys are growing so fast.  I know all parents say that, but the amount of shoes and pants we go through is proof, they are actually growing so fast!  and forget about handing anything down to Nicolas.  Once Dom gets a hold of it it will either have holes in the knees or a big stain on the collar where he has chewed on it.  Although, right now Nicolas and Dom can wear the same shirts and almost the same pants.  For a while they were sharing shoes too, but Dom finally moved on to the next size.  I fear Nicolas will surpass them both in size and girth.  The kid is sturdy, that is for sure. 

Dom wanted me to tell you all that has finally learned how to whistle.  He is very excited. 

That about covers our lives right now.  Hope this post finds you all well.