Yeah...

This whole blogging thing has gone on the back burner.

Our days are mostly filled with regular life. Nothing overly exciting to blog about.

Although, last week we did buy a new car. That's pretty exciting.

Our 2004 Sienna was just having lots of issues. The front end sounded like it was going to fall off every time I drove it. I had not had a good feeling about that car for the past year, but kept fighting it off. But when I got back from Durham last month and drove it... well, let's just say that the sounds coming from the front end worried me.

So last week we traded it in on a 2011 Honda Odyssey.

And I'm in love. Truly.

It holds Kira's car seat in the middle of the second row. And there's plenty of space for all the boys.

It has leather, DVD player, sunroof, the works!

Here's what it looks like (same color and options, too):


I'm looking forward to driving this car for a LONG time!

More Braces

Zach got his bottom braces today. When he had the top ones put on, they said it would take about two hours, but it only took one. I figured it might be about the same situation today...

No.

He was back there for two full hours. He is much much less miserable today than he was when he got the top braces on, so that's nice.

His next appointment is on November 9th. I'll be taking Jacob on that day for his consultation. I've been saving for Jacob's braces. I don't know when they'd want to start Jacob with braces...

All I can say is "Thank goodness for the dental school prices!"

Do you know I'm working again???

I've kind of avoided telling lots of people about this because I almost feel like I'm stupid for choosing to go back when I've stressed out so much over this place in the past.

But to tell you the truth, I like working. I like seeing my little Social Security mail each year and seeing that I'll have benefits one day (if SS doesn't go belly up).

So I'm a telecommuting bookkeeper. So far it seems to be working. I flew to Durham last month for a few days and will do the same each month for the foreseeable future.

The pay is good and the hours are flexible. As a stay at home mom, it's the ideal job. So I'm happy with the arrangement and hope it continues to be a good thing for both me and them.

Edit: Okay. So this came across a little strong. :) I think I was just trying to say that with five kids, two of whom are homeschooled, and one of whom is not quite 2, I'm not sure I really thought about whether or not I could handle this job with it's stress load. But so far it seems to be going well. I'm enjoying it. It's nice to feel needed and wanted outside my immediate family.

Yum

Chicken Stew with Biscuit Topping

This is one of my favorite dinners. It's Zach's "official" favorite dinner (meaning he asks for it for his birthday).

I make it on rare occasions. It requires dirtying just about every mixing bowl, pot, and measuring device in the kitchen. You cook the chicken, chop it, and put it in the baking dish. You cook the veggies separately in broth, then you remove them and pour the broth into another pot where you've started a rue to thicken the broth. Then you make the biscuits. I should have doubled the biscuits (well... this is doubled... I should have doubled the double) because it's just about our favorite part.

I'm looking forward to digging into this dinner in a little while. It is the very definition of comfort food.

City Chase Dallas

We're so naive. (And look, Kristin, your shirt is cream, too!)

On Saturday, Kristin and I participated in the Dallas City Chase event (it might technically have been a race, but we weren't racing, so we'll call it an "event"). It's sort of an Amazing Race, but in one city for one day. It took place in and around downtown Dallas. The only way you were allowed to travel was by public transportation and by foot. (And let me just say that we did a lot by foot. A LOT.)

I will say this now: If you don't know that this is right up mine and Kristin's alley, then clearly you need to spend more time around us. :)

Before you could start, you had to complete a small, quick scavenger hunt (mostly questions about sponsors that were in the parking lot, some other weird things too) in order to get a clue sheet that tells you where the 30 "stations" are.

So we sat down with our clue sheet to start figuring things out. One clue was:

a Great way foR u to get fit and burn off the summer calories youve been consuminG. you'll be workinG hard aS a PAir with the otheR so you won't leave kicKing and fuming.

This was a bit obvious, but the event was at GRIGGS PARK and it would involve lots of exercise.

There were a few required stations and them some you could pick and choose. The idea was to complete 10 of the 30 available stations and then go back to the start. The first team to do this would be the winners and would win a trip to Orlando for the National Championships in October.

Yeah... like I said, Kristin and I weren't "in it to win it". We were in it to have a fun day.

So we started out by hitting the Parkour station. We climbed walls, jumped off walls, scaled a fence, and Kristin had the misfortune of having to carry me piggie back through a few trees. Probably not our favorite station. Kristin got some nasty bruises getting off the first wall. Ouch. We were glad we got that one out of the way early.

Me after Parkour, "What are we thinking???"

Kristin after Parkour... she's a super-trooper!

Ouch!!!

Our second station was in a rooftop infinity pool. We were supposed to do a bit of a simulated rescue. Kristin got in a kayak and held a second kayak at about a 45 degree angle. I laid on my back in the pool and had to work my way into the empty kayak and get upright with Kristin's help without dunking the kayak (or Kristin!). Kristin had watched the pair before us do it successfully, so we did it on our first try. Sweet.

Then we hopped on a train and went to a very wealthy shopping area in Uptown. I'm sure all the ladies who were there shopping were thrilled to see all of us idiots running around. This station consisted of Kristin texting me a series of questions or tasks that I would text back to her. We were pretty fast.

Next we walked over to the Gladiator station. A mini-boot camp type thing. Yikes. It was okay, but ugh. Nothing fun and exciting about that one, that's for sure!

Next we walked, and we walked, and we walked some more to the nearest trail station. We rode it 8 blocks (it was SO worth it) to our next station. This one was held in the old Red Courthouse right in the middle of downtown. Not far from where Kennedy was shot. We were given a camera and had to complete five out of the seven tasks. One of us had to kiss a complete stranger. Easy. I just kissed a guy from another team who came in with us to the station. Weird, but one down. Then we had to get people who weren't participating in the race to do things while you took pictures or videos with your phone. This was harder for me. I didn't really want to go up to random people. But while I was struggling with the very idea, Kristin already had a woman agreeing to hop on Kristin's back so I could take a picture. Then she found a group of apparently fun loving people who were willing to stand and clap for 15 seconds while Kristin video taped me doing cartwheels. And I video taped while Kristin did a cheer with them. Which included a lift, kick, and a jump! :) They were great sports and made our task easy. The last thing we needed was a picture with someone in Cowboy apparel. I was thinking "Dallas Cowboys", but we walked outside and there was a real cowboy man. Hat, belt with big, shiny buckle, and Wranglers. It doesn't get much more Cowboy than that! We were like, "Hey." and he interrupted us saying, "Come on, I've been doing this all day." :) This was Kristin's favorite station. I enjoyed it, too.

Oh... and after we finished this station, we were sitting on the steps outside the courthouse looking at our maps when two teams came by asking if we would do the kissing thing. Sure. Why not. So I kissed two more guys. One of them was kind-a cute. :) The third one really went for it with his kiss. But I think he was really nervous. Kinda funny.

Then guess what we did? We walked some more. Ugh, ugh, and triple ugh.

We went down to the SPCA station and "shed a tear for the animals". You probably don't want to know what we did to make ourselves tear up. It involved fingers and tonsils.

For our last station, we walked a block or so down to Fuel City. There we had to "brand" cattle. They gave us a dust mop with about a two to three foot handle and put us in the pasture with the cows. The cows were all the way down at the end of the pasture, just past all the mud puddles (we had flooding earlier in the week). Fortunately, the cowboys hopped on their trusty horses and tried rounding them up for us. It didn't work so hot, but one cow got close enough that I just threw my mop at him and hit him on the butt. I looked at the "City Chase Official" who was sitting on the fence and yelled, "Does that count?" "NO!", he yelled. :) Fortunately, though, a few cows had gone into a small shed, so after another team went in and tagged one as two of them ran out of the shed. I was able to go in and face down a big longhorn (I think there's a reason he didn't run out when the other lady was in there... he wasn't skeered) and brand him with my mop and the one who ran out behind him. They don't give bonus points, though.

And even though we hadn't completed 10 stations, we were shot and it was 3:00. (You had to be checked in at the finish by 4:30.) So we headed back (we were pretty close to the finish) and were lucky enough to catch a bus for part of the ride back. We checked in, sat down for a few minutes, then realized we cared nothing about the ending ceremony or the free beer, so we left and caught the train back up to Plano.

Kristin at the finish line!

Really fun day. The next day... not so much from all the sore muscles, but Saturday was a blast. I think my favorite was the cow branding. Followed closely by the kayak. I hope we can do it again next year. Now that we know what to expect, I think we could do better. Not that we care so much, but we definitely want to decrease the walking and increase the number of challenges. :)

Me at the finish line... Kristin's better at smiling through the agony. :)

Home Alone

**This message is brought to you by a gesture from the Mike South kindness foundation.**

Well. Here I am. Alone in my house. Mike left with all the kids about an hour ago. I've got three and a half days all to myself.

Being home alone is just about my favorite thing in the whole world. Especially when I have a little one. It's how I recharge my batteries.

I've cleaned the living room since they left and got started upstairs. I want to try to have things all clean by tomorrow night so I can enjoy the remaining two days of alone-ness in a house that's clean (and stays that way!).

So now I will go vacuum the concrete floor and run a load of dishes and a load of laundry. Then I'll kick back and watch a movie upstairs. I haven't watched Gladiator in a year or two. I believe some Russell Crowe time is in order. Plus it's the movie with all the quotes that come to my mind at random times:

"Am I not merciful!?!"
"As you wept for your Father?"
"Are you ready to do your duty for Rome?"
"At my signal, unleash hell."
"He was a soldier of Rome. Honor him."
"I've been alone all my life. Except with you."
"But not yet. Not yet."

Oooo... I'm really excited about the movie now!

**Edit: How could I have forgotten to mention this one:

"What we do in life echos in eternity."

Great movie!!!

Couch to 5K

I re-started the Couch to 5K program that I began just before our vacation (that was brilliant). I've done four of the 27 workouts designed to help you be able to run a 5K race by the end. I'm doing alright so far.

The first three days were 60 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds, eight or nine times, for a total of 20 minutes. (Five minute warm up and cool down for a grand total of 30 minutes.)

Yesterday's workout was 90 seconds of running followed by two minutes of walking. Also 20 minutes plus the warm up/cool down.

I tend to do much better towards the end of the 30 minutes than I do in the beginning. That's a good thing and something I learned about my body during my yoga days. Yoga classes were an hour and a half. I would struggle bad during the first 30 minutes, but by the time it was over, I felt like I had just hit my stride.

So I'm feeling good about the program and hope that it will continue to be a good thing for me. Next week I plan to add some weightlifting on the days that I don't do the running.

Part of my goal is to lose the 10 pounds I have put on this year (ugh) and part of my goal is to just do something good for my body to help me feel better. I've been sluggish lately and am ready to make some changes in my routine.

Now I just need to convince my taste buds that they really don't want all the sweets they think they do!