The first cut is the deepest

The day that I knew would come finally arrived the night before last.  Gerrit was upset because I wouldn’t let him get dressed at bedtime.  I had tried to get him dressed earlier in the day but he said he wanted to stay in his pj’s all day.  I didn’t particularly care since we weren’t going anywhere and I said fine.  Well, 7:30 pm rolls around he decides now he would like to put the clothes on that I had picked out before.  Um, no.  We’re not going down this road.  I refuse to fight him everyday about wearing pj’s all day and clothes to bed.  So no.  He cried and cried and was SO mad about it.   He kept pleading with me and telling me ‘but I want to get dressed now’ ‘really really please??’.  Not gonna happen dude.

I was in his room, putting clothes in his drawers and as he sat down, he pulled his legs up to his chest and covered his face with his hands, sobbing he said

Whatever Martha!

Last night I was lying on the couch, flicking through the channels and not finding anything.  When there’s absolutely nothing on, I often find myself watching bizarre, obscure things.  It’s times like these when I end up watching the documentary channel or something else equally random.  This time, I stumbled across a show called Whatever Martha! on the Fine Living Network.  I pressed the Info button and read that it was about Domino Topping.  Hmmm… sounds completely inane.  I had to check it out. 

I flipped over and there were 2 women sitting at a table, watching Martha Stewart on a laptop.  Martha was showing how to glue seashells onto a picture frame and as the women watched and tried to copy, their commentary was funny.  They were ripping on Martha and the stupidity of this craft.  It was hilarious and I often found myself giggling out loud.  I watched for about a 1/2 hr before I had to go to bed but I resolved to find out more about this show in the morning. 

A little known fact about me would be my complete disdain for Martha Stewart.  It started

A huntin’ we will go

As I do every year, yesterday I joined all the other crazed shoppers for Black Friday savings.  I planned on going with Megan, Joy & Sandy to the various stores to claim our winnings.  The ads rolled out Thanksgiving day and we made our plan.  Megan & I decided that this year, we would have to play with the big dogs… Walmart.  They had their Leapsters for $30 and there was no way we could pass up that savings.  Add in the other steals and deals they were offering and we knew we had to brave it.  “We ran a half marathon, Megan.  We can do this!”  I assured her but I was nervous myself.  One of the Walmarts here in town made national news in ‘05 when a woman was trampled.  She ended up being ok thankfully but some othershave not been so lucky while shopping at Walmart the day after Thanksgiving. 

We decided that we would go to the one near Megan’s house even though that was a 28 mile drive for me instead of a 5 mile one.  We figured it would be worth it since the store was not in Grand Rapids, we would increase our chances of getting the coveted Leapsters.  Joy was going to spend the night at Megan’s house and I would make my drive out to pick them up early in the morning.  Sandy decided to brave one of the local Walmarts since they were the only ones carrying the TV on sale that she wanted.

3:15am arrived and I rolled out of bed. 

I won’t give up that ghost

Another end to a tired week.  This crazy new life I have wears me out.  Not only have I added all this new responsibility of watching babies but I’ve started volunteering at least once a week if not twice at Emma’s school.  I feel like I have a full time job.  My new found stress reliever, running, has been sidelined by my body turning against me and so I start to feel overwhelmed.  Add in a dash of PMS and I’ve just given you the recipe to become Lord of the Ultra B’s.  Poor Dan has been great and trying to help.  I feel bad for how much he gets it taken out on him.

The week before last was a real challenge.  I was able to run the Monday after the Bridge run but when Wednesday came for me to run again, my right knee and ankle were wonky.  I still don’t know what I did to them but they were punishing me greatly for whatever it was.  I wish I did know so I don’t do it again!  But I don’t so the odds are great, I will.  10 days went by with me not able to run and everyday that ticked by, I could almost feel my muscles atrophying.  All the progress I had made in the last 6 weeks of training, flushed down the toilet.  It’s frustrating to say the least.  I’ve been trying to do core work with the exercise ball since I couldn’t do anything aerobic.  But since it’s a no impact regimen, it’s not really good training for a half marathon.

Thursday, I felt good enough to give it a go.  While my desire to run further was high, I knew if I didn’t want to become a gimp again, I needed to take it easy.  I ran a lazy 1.5 miles nice and slow.  I can’t believe how much it hurt though!  Geez, it was like starting all over again.  All the fun was gone.

Today is Saturday and as always, our big runs.  We are starting to taper in our training for the big race in 2 weeks so it only called for 9 miles.  Megan, Cheri & I made plans to meet at Megan’s and run the trail out by her.  It’s flat and would probably be best for my jumping back into the game.  I was happy I was able to go but apprehensive about re-injuringmyself.  Would I be able to run that far?  Would I put myself out of commission again if I did run that far?

Here’s the dilemma…

Happiness and anger

School is coming up for us and I have been very excited for both the kids to start.  Emma will be going into an amazing Young 5’s program at a great Charter School.  (For those that have never heard about Charter schools, read here)  We had our new parent orientation last night and I was so impressed with so much about the school.  As they explained more and more about their policies and beliefs, I truly realized why there was such a demand to get into the school.  Emma had been fortunate and drawn #2 on the waiting list during the lottery this spring.  After a week, she had been accepted.  There are about 200 kids waiting to get into the school still! 

Her being accepted took a huge weight off my shoulders.  The public school that she would be attending here was not even an option.  While Dan & I attended school in the very same school district all of our lives, it was really different then.  The school district stood apart for trying to teach excellence to kids and a better than average education was expected.  Now, for what ever reasons, they have chosen to dumb it down.  The old days of ‘here is our rules and everyone is expected to follow them’ have been replaced with

The end of days

Amber

A little bit of sadness always envelops me the middle of August.  Summer is my favorite season for obvious reasons.  There’s so much to do and the warmth and sunshine just make me feel happy.  Even a nice rain or thunderstorm in the summer doesn’t seem so bad.

My nemesis is winter.  I hate the cold.  I hate the snow.  I live in a state where you just never know.  For six months, you have the possibility of wintry crap and I hate it.  I think I could learn to not mind the winter months if it promised to stay in it’s designated months but it refuses to play by those rules.  Every year, it likes to crash the fall party and then it lingers into spring like a hungover, stranger sleeping on your couch New Year’s Day.

I’m excited for our family trip to Ludington to come on Saturday but I’m also a little sad.  It will be an awesome time and a great vacation.  But I also know that it means the end of my glorious summer.  Emma starts school September 2 and Gerrit will start preschool on the 8th.  The weather will cool and soon the sky will be puking snow at me. ~sigh~

Until then, I’ll be living up the end of my summer days.  Hopefully, you are too

The sandbox

Earlier this summer, the kids were outside playing and I could watch them thru the bathroom window.  They were being adorable and it dawned on me that I could tape them without them knowing it for once!  I was excited at this new prospect and got the camera.  I started taping and only got 3sec of tape before I had to stop.  You’ll see why.

Almost Rosey

Post reading music.  Click play

Who knew that scheduling a simple family photo could create such drama?  Not me, that’s for sure.  Actually, it’s not all that much drama but who would have guessed that it would create any? 

I had called and made an appt for Dan, the kids & I to all get a picture taken on Saturday.  The last ‘family’ picture includes Emma but she was only 2 months old and so Gerrit isn’t even a glimmer in our eyes yet.  We are supposed to get big family pictures taken with both my family and Dan’s family, but they seem to keep getting postponed and I’m tired of waiting.  The last picture (nice picture) I have of Emma & Gerrit together, they are 3 & 2.  That’s absurd.  We are so far behind.

Anyways, I had made the decision and Dan agreed.  We were in desperate need of an updated picture.  Everything was fine until I tried to pick ‘outfits’ with Dan.  All the sudden, we’re arguing about what does and does not look stupid in a family photo.  I thought we all could wear the same color type of thing and he argued we’d all look like janitors.  His theory is that people that work at the same place all wear the same things (like Target, red shirt & khakis).  He tells me no one does that and I tell him, actually most people do that.  I decide that a compromise would be great and fine, we don’t all have to wear the same color but it can’t clash together.  He wants to wear this brown striped shirt that is nice but it doesn’t go with the dress that I had planned for Emma.  Or anyone’s clothes for that matter.  When I said that, he picks some t-shirts out of Gerrit’s room.  As if I would get his pictures done with some silly t-shirts.  It has to be a nice looking shirt at least!  He thinks I have a personal vendetta against the brown shirt and tells me that he doesn’t care.  He thinks I’m wrong but he’ll concede his opinion.  A win for me?  Yes?

NO… I’ll tell you why.