Goodies

-ruby and sol went back to swimming today after a 2 month hiatus and did quite well!  Sol had one freak out moment but that's not too bad considering he used to freak out the whole time.

-ruby is either ruby 1 or ruby 2. Have you ever heard the old rhyme "once there was a girl with a pretty little curl right in the middle of her fore head. And when she was good she was very very good, and when she was bad she was horrid."? It fits ruby to a tee. Today she was ruby 1 after a few days of being ruby 2. Yay!  Sweet sweet girl!

-ruby AND sol took at nap. I had an entire hour to myself so I watched project runway and folded laundry. I almost felt guilty for how much I enjoyed it.  Once sol got up he helped me pick raspberries, which we've gotten a lot of this year (yay for jam!) and tomatoes. After we came in he watched a show so I sat down and played the piano for 30 min. Playing the piano is therapy for me.  It felt great.

Just wanted to share those little goodies and this:

When we were visiting my parents in Laramie Sol and Ruby wanted to sleep in ruby's crib together and so I let them. After a few threats they  actually fell asleep.  The picture is upside down and kind of dark, but you get the picture.  My mommy heart melted.  :)

Lest you worry...

I've gotten some super sweet emails and texts from friends who read my last post and worried just a bit about me.  Maybe questioned my sanity.  Don't you worry!  I'm feeling very sane.  :)  I like to vent because it makes me feel better.  Watering my feelings down or making excuses for them kind of defeats the purpose.  So don't you fret - I'm feeling pretty great today!  I only beat my kids once today!   (Lest you worry, I'm kidding)

hugs and kisses,
Megan

Evening Mantra

I'm sitting outside because it's the perfect temperature and after an evening thunderstorm it's been raining off and on in light drizzels.  It smells heavenly. And clean. And I feel myself relax out here. I have been longing for simplicity for weeks. I have a hard time with the pace of life.  Am I just a lightweight? I love to be busy but I feel mentally and emotionally worn. I want to disappear by myself for a few weeks, until I can't stand it any more.   What's wrong with me, really. I'm a mom and I love my children more than anything but lately I've wanted to run and hide from the title.  A title I dreamed of having my whole life.  I think I'm normal. I think I'm burnt out. I've been on a high all spring and for much of the summer but I feel like a plane that runs out of fuel and skids to a stop in the dirt.

I'm tired.  I need to allow my heart it's weak moments. I need to acknowledge my dark times. I'm tired of telling myself to keep going, keep giving, keep pushing.  Stay strong for others. Stay strong for all the others. They all need your strength. God gave you strength so use it Megan.  Well tonight there is no stength.  Just existing. Just rest.  Just breathing.  The earth doesn't need me to live. It breathes without me.  It happens separate from me. It doesn't care if I live or die and tonight that is a relief.  I'm a human. I'm a spirit. And my trials are still new to me.  I will allow myself a few breaths...

cousins

cousins!

cousins, 10 years ago (aw, my boys! their so darn cute!)....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

special cousins.  (still my boys!)

Slip-n-slide

(kind of a weird shot with the water...)

Fun.

My Tri Try

I've shared bits and pieces or maybe chunks and parts of my "magical journey" (wink wink Dave) from major funkiness post Ruby's birth back to happy healthy Megan.

Quick recap of steps:
1.  Decide to be "healthy"
2.  Get Healthy physically
3.  Work out mental issues
4.  Get in shape
5.  Complete a triatholon

Thanks to encouragement from my sister and a good friend willing to train for and do the triathlon with me I found the courage to sign up for a the Women of Steel triathlon.  Its a women only sprint distance tri right in my back yard.  Literally, the course goes right around my neighborhood.

Training
Training was key.  In a triathlon you swim, bike, then run.  Running was my weakest point.  I HATED running.  My right leg is 1/2 and inch longer than my left because of scoliosis and so running has always hurt.  But I was tired of being afraid of it and I knew if I wanted to do the tri I had to overcome my running issues.  So I started running last fall.  It took me a couple months to get to where I could run a mile consistently.  Yep, just 1 mile.  I would get shin splints so badly that I'd have to stop for a week or two.  So it took a couple months for my leg muscles to get built up enough to run a mile a couple times a week.

Then I slowly added distance.  I'd run 1.5 miles for a month, then 2 miles, etc.  It took me nearly 6 months to build up to 3.5 miles.  But that was enough to get me through the race. 

Next I focused on swimming.  I knew how to swim but not how to swim fast.  In fact I've always been quite slow.  So I signed up for a swim class at the local rec center that met at 5:30 am.  Yep.  I just about died.  I'm so lucky my friend decided to take the class with me.  She was the reason I actually went, otherwise I'm sure I would have slept in more than half the time.  We'd get up at 5 to get to class by 5:30.  The rec center pool was in a giant bubble because it was still winter.  The first few times I went I felt like I was in some sort of nightmare.  I'm NOT a morning person.  And to get up at that unholy hour, in the cold, and go in this weird loud bubble into a sort of cold swimming pool just to swim for an hour solid was kind of a nightmare. 

But I loved the teacher and I had my friend to commiserate with.  And after a couple weeks it started to be kind of fun.  Lets not get crazy - it still was torture at times, but it was bearable.

Finally, I started biking when it warmed up enough and discovered that I love to road bike.  I love the speed and the distance you can cover.  I was riding Dave's bike and planned to ride it for the race.  But Dave and kids surprised me with my own road bike for mothers day.  And its even nicer than Daves!!!  I've since named her Penny, and together we can fly!  The biking has come easy, and for that I'm grateful as running and swimming did not.

The Race.
Was really fun.  The training sucked.  But because I trained the race was fun.  It was exhausting but I performed as I hoped I would.  The swim was slow and I probably could have gone faster but I got stuck behind a slow person.  The swim was in a pool so it was very difficult to pass.  I got 105th in the swim out of 160 in my age group.  The bike was so fun.  I passed people the whole way and got 42th in the bike portion.  The run went well.  I was hoping to finish it in 30 min when I basically did.  Overall I came in 84th.  Wahoo!!!

I was happy with that.  The feeling of completing a physical challenge like that is awesome.  Would I do it again?  Yep!  But I haven't wanted to jump right back into training.  I'm hoping to maybe do another in the fall.  

Here are a few pics:

Solomon becomes a "4 boy"!

Solomon has been anticipating, planning, counting down to, obsessing over his birthday since last August when Ruby turned one.  Having to witness, first hand, such spoiling of a sibling is difficult.  I think he channeled his feelings into obsessing over HIS birthday.  Which is a good choice, however its been a long 8 months, especially for a 3 year old!  

When the time finally came Sol planned a Thomas party with a few of his favorite pals.  And he had no hesitations in requesting an elaborate cake by his mother.  I don't know where we set the presidence that birthday cakes are fancy.  I'm no baker but I'm becoming pretty good at the "sheet cake with fancy top" cake.  Thanks to my sis, Michelle and her high school Baskin and Robins skills we whipped out a pretty sweet Thomas cake if I do say so myself. 

 We jumped through all the birthday party hoops.  We had games, which included throw the coal in the engines' baskets, "steamy thomas" (like hot potato) and "Thomas, Thomas, Diesel 10" (like Duck, Duck, Goose)  Super simple - I'm glad I didn't put much thought into these cause the kids were real happy with these simple games.  

 We did presents, colored pictures, and ate cake. 

Contrary to what I believed the last few birthdays, I've learned that less is more!  Especially with preschoolers. 

This was the best picture I got of Ruby.  She and Sol LOVE their uncle Matthew!  Can you see why?

The icing on the cake for Solomon has been his new "Lightening McQueen" bike!  G&G Whipple got him a really cool speedy red bike.  Sol has taken right to it and rides it so well!  

Sol has coined the term "4 boy".  Meaning he's 4 now so he gets to do new things.  Some things are good.  For example "4 boys eat potatoes, not 3 boys but 4 boys do." So he now eats potatoes.  Some times he uses it to get out of stuff.  "4 boys don't have to clean up the toy room."  And he also places other boys in their age cagetigories.  "5 boys go to Kindergarten." 

Solomon is truely a very special boy.  He is so funny.  He's not shy at all.  He talks everyone's ears off.  He assumes everyone loves him and he loves everyone.  Especially his Grandmas.  He is a happy soul, my little ray of sunshine, my sol!

a confession with a happy ending

Dating is sort of a farce, right?  No one lets their true blue bare selves hang out while the prospect still has a chance to bolt.  Us girls keep the 'crazy' at bay and you guys keep the immaturity and body function humor under wraps till the deal is did.  (the marriage deal that is)  Dave and I are no exception.  However, I maybe be guilty of portraying myself as something I really am not.  And this is an "outdoorsy girl".  

We all did things we're not proud of when we were in our twenties.  I can talk about it now because I'm in my 30s and have been for a whole 4 months.   When I was single and in college I soon figured out that outdoorsy girls caught the attention of certain boys.  I thought these boys were generally dreamy and so I started to play the part of the outdoorsy girl.  Since I was from Wyoming and most people think Wyoming is still the "wild west" circa 1898, they seemed to buy the story.  I did enough to get by and really started to believe myself to be an "outdoorsy" person.  All the while my parents were scratching their heads, going "Hmmmm..." 

Well Dave was no different.  He was wooed by my outdoorsy ways.  It wasn't till after we were married for probably about a year that Dave's dream (one that he thought had come true) of having backpacking, rock climbing, dirt loving, latrine digging, hiking, biking wife began to fall apart.  I actually have pretty significant anxiety about spending the night outside.  And backpacking - forget it.  Confession. We tried it once.  We hiked a mile in and camped.  I was a nervous wreck.  The next day we hiked out. 


Three words:  psychos, bears, bugs.  No thanks.

Okay, I can survive a few nights car camping so I'm not a total wuss, but with kids I am a total wuss.  Add "little to no sleep" to the list above and I'm out.  So we haven't done much camping (much to Dave's disappointment) since we had kids.  However, this last weekend we were going to do it. We had it all planned out and I was actually a little excited.  But then Ruby got sick.  She got Herpangina (hand foot and mouth) from the lovely germ fest at church and was miserable all weekend.  And so camping trip was cancelled. 

 Bummer.

Lucky for my kids Dave is a really cool Dad.  He decided to set the tent up in the back yard Saturday night and go camping with Sol.  Following his lead I decided we'd have a camp fire in the ole fire pit and roast hot dogs and mallows.  Family camping in the back yard!  Woohoo!

The kids loved it!!!
 

(P.S. That's our old dead Christmas tree)

Ruby hasn't yet developed a fear of fire so that made things interesting but we made it through the camp fire dinner with no injury's!  Sol loved roasting hot dogs and mallows.  He likes everything cold so his food was ready about the time he stuck it in the fire.  Lucky!
 
Ruby was just happy, which was a nice change from the sicky grumpy pants she'd been the last few days.

After the fire we sat in the tent and told stories.  When ever I said the word "stories" ruby would take this stance that kind of looked like she was getting ready to do a Spanish dance.  One fist in the air, the other hand flat  out it front of her like she wanted a five.  We figured out she was getting ready to sing and do the motions for "Book of Mormon Stories."  Its a fave.  So we sang it a few times.
 
Sol happily snuggled down into his sleeping bag and went to sleep after stories.  Ruby not so happily went to bed in her bed.  And I happily slept in my bed.  Yes, this was my kind of camping.  Fire, hot dogs, mallows, stories, tent time, MY bed.


Sol has been asking to go camping every night since.  He must not take after me.  :)

(I love this picture... I love seeing my boys have soo much fun together and I love how Ruby's just watching like "silly boys.")

Happy Easter!

Hoppy Easter! We had an fun sugar filled Easter with family and friends. Saturday we went up to Dave's parents house for a cousin Easter egg hunt. Good times!

Pinterest worthy decor by my mother in law...

Ruby snagging an egg

I love this action shot of Sol. Intensity.

Kidos in their Sunday best.

Happy Easters!

(wow my kids are looking so big. side note.)

Spontaneous Trip to SoCal

Hello friends! There's nothing like a spontaneous trip to southern California to bust those winter duldrums and get a little sunshine on our noses. Dave had a trip to LA for work and we all decided to come along. We got a great deal on airline tickets to Long Beach. Wahoo!

We were only there for four days. Naturally we spent two of those days in Disneyland. Naturally. We can confirm that Disneyland is, in fact, still the happiest place on earth, as evidenced below...
















One of the days we were there it was rainy, but that didn't bother us much. Sol loved to ride anything that resembled a train. Ruby loved riding on or in animals, like the Carousel or Dumbo's Flight, etc. Our top 3 rides were Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, and Winnie the Pooh.

We hadn't planned on taking our kids while they were this young but opportunity knocked, and we answered! We did a couple things that made the Disney craziness easier on our little tikes, probably common sense things. But the thing that made the biggest difference was making sleep a priority. We went home part way through the day and all took naps and we tried to keep our normal sleep schedule as best as possible. It really helped!

Sol was at the perfect age. It was all magical to him and he could have closed down the park every night. Ruby struggled a bit, especially with waiting in line.

Sol is at such a fun age. He says funny things all the time. Here a few funny observations he made during our trip:

- As we're landing in California he starts to cry. "I thought we were going to California!"
"We are Sol, we're here"
"But where is the beach! Where is Disneyland! Where are the sheep and cows?!"
Sol thought we'd actually be landing in Disneyland. And he has learned about California
from the movies Cars and Curious George 2. Reality can be harsh.

- "I was really brave about that, huh mom. I was really brave." - After riding Pinochio. I forgot how freaky that ride is. Oops!

- "We have to stay at another home in the jungle." Our hotel had a courtyard with palm trees and Sol thought it looked like the jungle.

That's all I can remember for now. In addition to Disneyland we also went to the beach a two times and went to an Aquarium. Good times! I'll blog about those soon.