Company Cleaning

I currently have me a list of things to do. We have company coming this weekend and I have the desire to get this place straightened out. My house really isn't that bad. I do a decent job of keeping up with the day to day messiness that is a family of five. The deep cleaning, however, tends to be forgotten or "I'll get to that later". So this is how my week looks.

Clean office (someone might be sleeping in there)
Clean carpets (it's really embarrassing)
Organize hall closet
Mail off 3 different packages
Get rid of TV (currently sitting in the living room)
Clean van
Put family pictures on the wall
Scrub Kitchen chairs (also rather embarrassing)
PLUS
Dentist Appt
Doctor Appt
Play group
Work out MWF
and everything else I do

It doesn't look to bad by it's self but some how I don't think it's going to be so easy to complete. As of last week Alana has decided that she will no longer take a nap (at least not everyday). This is really messing with my day. Before she always fell asleep in the car at 12:00pm when I was on the way home from picking Evan up from pre-school. She slept snug in her bed until it was time to go pickup McKenna from school at 2:45pm. I had that time all to myself so I could clean, blog or play with Evan. Losing that time has really been a bummer because Alana does not leave me alone to get anything done.

Currently she is crying in her bed. I am making her take a nap because she is being so rotten and I need a break. Unfortunately IF she does fall asleep I will have to get her up in one hour to go get McKenna and then she will still be cranky. I really hate having to schedule life around nap time.

Well I better go scrub some chairs while I can.

First Lesson In Potty Training

DON'T LEAVE HER ALONE!!

My Commitment Update

When I announced my new commitment in October I made some bold statements. Let's recap.

I said I would:

 - workout 3 times a week for two hours

 - write down what I eat

 - lose 15-20lbs

 - get a fancy heart rate monitor 

I have only achieved one of those goals but the rest are in progress.

I am very proud to say that I have been working out three times a week since I made my commitment. I go Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9am-11am. I do a combination of classes and running on the treadmill. I started going to a spinning class on Wednesdays but after giving it an honest effort for two months I decided that I really don't care for it. I don't want to have to drag myself to the gym. So I am going to find something else that I like during that time. I love going to spinning with Ryan but he can't do it with me at all this semester so maybe I will try it again in the summer.

I did write down what I ate for a while and it really helped. But, then I started to forget. I need to start again...we'll see. I am pretty good at making smart food choices. I'm by no means psycho about it but I try to be reasonable.

I am very excited to announce that I have lost 5lbs (10lbs to go). I am on my way to my goal. But, my goal has been adjusted. I no longer want to lose 20lbs. That just seems crazy. I don't think I would look bad at that size but I also don't think I am willing to put in the work to get there or stay there. If it should happen on it's own while I am working on other goals, GREAT! But I am not going to make myself a slave to the scale and make that my focus. Instead my focus is going to be my running. Because, believe it or not, I love to run. Never in my whole life would I have thought I would utter those words let alone think them. But it's true. I love to run.

I have decided that I am going to run a 10k in March. There is a race in Midland, TX and a friend asked me if I wanted to do it with her. She is running the 5k but I think I am ready to challenge up so I am going to try the 10k and see how I manage. I haven't run that far before but I frequently run 3-4 miles at the gym so I think I could last a couple more. I pretty excited!

I still don't have a fancy heart rate monitor. I really want one but they're over $100 and that is just not in my budget. So, I am managing without one for now and we will see what the next few months brings.

I feel amazing! I am so proud of the things I can do now that I have never been able to do before. It's exciting to see my body changing and getting stronger. I have been this weight before many many times but I have never been this fit. It just feels better. 

The "Primal" Mistake

McKenna is a very smart girl. I have said this in the past, but it always amazes me how much smarter she is than Ryan or I ever were at this age. She is also eager to achieve. She wants to try everything that her new school has to offer. Sending her to Ramirez has opened the world to her and she is gobbling up everything she can. I love that about her.

Her latest adventure was the Spelling Bee. Before Christmas the kids were told that the spelling bee would be at the beginning of January. If they wanted to participate then they could get a list of words to study over the break. She was very excited about this and she got the list. It was a list of 50 medium hard words that were given to the 2nd-5th graders. The first level of competition would be in the classrooms. The top two from each class would go to the school wide tournament. 

McKenna won the class bee with flying colors.

They sent home the official 2011 National Spelling Bee booklet for the winners to study for the school wide competition. We didn't have to study all of them - only about 200. It was a bit daunting but we did our best. They covered Latin, Old English, New World, Dutch and Spanish words. I couldn't spell most of these words (but she is smarter than me) so I didn't know what to expect.

We studied for a week and a half, a little bit everyday. I wanted to keep it fresh and on her brain but didn't want to stress her out either.  When the morning of the Spelling Bee came she was nervous but also very excited. We gave her the "we are so proud of you no matter how far you make it" speech and sent her off.

Alana and I went to watch McKenna (I really didn't want to bring her but it worked out that I had to). When the kids were presented I was kind of sad to see that McKenna was the only kid that dressed up. What are parents thinking these days! So, of course she was the cutest kid up there. :)

Then it was her turn.

She very confidently stood up to the mike.

The announcer said the word....Primal. (OH, crap! I don't think we covered this one!)

Then McKenna spelt, P-R-I-M-L-E. 

They rang the bell (meaning she was out) and she left the stage. 

Of course it was one of the words we never got to studying! 

She took it really well. I was afraid she would cry. She is really hard on herself at times. But she was perfect. I think she just chalked it up to another new experience and moved on. I hope she tries again next year. It will be good training for Speech and Debate in high school.

P.S. Alana started screaming while one of the other kids was spelling their word. All four judges turned around at the same time and gave me evil looks. I will not bring her next year.

Tuppence A Bag

My baby sister Elizabeth came to visit me this last weekend. It was a wonderful surprise and so much fun to have her here. She brought along my niece Aspen (Rose's daughter) so she could see McKenna. They are very best friends. It was thrilling to see McKenna and Evan's reaction when Aspen showed up at the door. I didn't tell them that she was coming. It was priceless!

One of the things that I wanted to do with all the kids while we had company here was feed the ducks. The very first winter that we spent down here in Texas I commented to Ryan that the birds seem to hang around. They didn't fly South for the winter. Then it occurred to me that we are South. This is where the birds fly to. So every winter we like to go to the ponds around town and feed the ducks and geese. We have a bread outlet store in town that will sell a garbage bag full of old loaves for $2.50. Our bag contained 12 loaves of bread. 

We started out on the sunny side of the pond. Once we started throwing bread in the water the birds soon came over. They know the drill.

 

Evan was our one casualty. We were only there for 15 minutes before he managed to slip off the edge into the water. Thankfully he landed on his feet and the water wasn't very deep. He screamed like crazy until Boo pulled him up the bank. He was so sure that the geese were on their way to eat him. I was very nervous about Alana but she was pretty scared too and stayed clear of the edge all on her own.

There was a group of five very large geese that came over to us from across the pond. They were very aggressive and all the other birds cleared out of the way and stayed back until these geese had their fill. They were not scared of us at all and gladly ate out of our hands.

Alana enjoyed breaking up the bread and throwing it. She couldn't throw very far and usually managed to miss the water altogether. She didn't seem to care.

We managed to lose a pair of sunglasses, a bag of bread, and a toy baby bottle into the water. We recovered the glasses and bread but the toy floated away.

                               

After a while we moved over to the shady side of the pond. We decided that the birds over there looked hungry as well. They didn't disappoint. We found one bird that was missing all his wing feathers. We felt so bad for him that he got extra helpings.

We worked through all twelve loaves of bread and the kids really had a blast. I thought they would get bored but it really was fun watching the ducks fight over the bread.

As I was typing this up I realized that this is one more thing that I am really going to miss when we move away from here. The next year-and-a-half will go by fast (as time does) and it's getting harder to think about leaving. Still exciting, but I'm getting pretty attached to this place and all it has to offer.

Great Trip - Part 4

This is going to be a quick wrap up of the trip because I am ready to move on to other things. But I feel that I must finish. I kind of hinted about the car problem and it wouldn't be very nice of me not to ease the terrible amount of suspense you must be feeling. Let me reassure you that it all turned out great. It just took a bit of $$$ to make the problem go away.

Two days before we left Craig, Ryan and my father changed the spark plugs in the van. I had been getting really, really bad gas mileage and we needed to remedy that. We did all we knew how to do. We got new tires, changed the air filter and looked at changing the spark plugs but realized that we needed a lift to do that. My Dad (being a mechanic and having his own shop) had the tools and equipment Ryan needed to get the job done. So we planned on him doing that while we were visiting over Christmas.

Ryan braved the freezing cold (no heater in the shop) and after much straining, the job was done. He ended up having to change the back three spark plugs while laying on the ground under the van and reaching up around the engine. It was all done by feel. It really sucked. The van worked great afterward. We took it on a test drive and it felt like it drove smoother than it had before. I was very grateful for the effort my husband and father put forth and looked forward to better gas mileage.

When we left my parents house to head down to my sister's place, Ryan drove. About halfway we switched out and I had a turn. I noticed right away that something was wrong. There was almost no power and when I was stopped the engine made a putt putt noise. Something broke along the way. We were still good enough to continue but I called my sister and asked her to find us a mechanic that could look at the van when we got there. I didn't want to get stuck in Colorado longer than we could afford. Kids needed to be back to school and we were on a schedule.

She had a guy who said he could look at it the next day and he was good to his word. Turns out that one of the spark plugs in the back was either bad to begin with or got dirty when it was installed. Either way it wasn't firing. He replaced the plug and had the van back to us that evening. It all worked out. For a good amount of $$$ that is.

We spent a couple of days in the Springs and really enjoyed spending time with my sisters. We took all the kids rollerskating. They had a blast. We stayed up late on New Years and talked about random stuff.  Just spent good time together. I loved it.

I also loved getting home at the end of it all. Thanks to everyone who made this vacation possible and so much fun!! Love YOU.

Great Trip - Part 3

Upon leaving Wyoming we headed into Colorado. It was a quick 2.5 hour drive (I slept, Ryan drove) and before I knew it we were at my parents' house. It worked out with everyone's schedules for us all to meet there the day after Christmas. This year was especially magical. It was the first time we were all together for Christmas in about six years. This was our first Christmas with all the bro-in-laws in the picture and everyone's kids were healthy. 

The tree at Grandma's house is always fully loaded. The Jones family tradition for gift buying goes as follows: 1. the 5 sisters rotate buying for each other, 2. all aunts buy for all the nieces and nephews, and 3. Mom and Dad buy for everyone. So the kids come away feeling pretty good.

Mom passed out presents this year. She tries to keep it even and dishes out the gifts one or two at a time. I love going slow - it really makes the whole thing last longer.   I see what everyone gets, and I see the reactions from the kids. Watching the kids open presents is the best part.

Ryan and I got emergency preparedness stuff from my parents this year. We got a hand crank flashlight, a 100 hour candle, a hand crank radio and a case of food storage. My big, unexpected surprise was a quilt that my mother made. It is really beautiful. I am excited to have a guest room to put it in some day. I don't trust my kids not to destroy it, even if it was on my own bed.

We spent two days together as a family, playing lots of cards and eating lots of food. Two sisters and their families had to leave on Tuesday. Ryan and I wanted to stay with my parents until Thursday but a nasty storm had us leaving on Wednesday instead. It is a good thing we left when we did because Northern Colorado got 6-12 inches of snow. We would have been (happily) stuck for an extra day. But I promised my baby sister that I would spend New Years Eve with her so we left early. 

The trip to Colorado Springs was interesting. We had to call Rose halfway and have her find us a mechanic. Our van was not working properly. Tune in for Part 4.

Great Trip - Part 2

We spent a few days in Rock Springs with my amazing sister-in-law, Stephanie, and her family. She is a mother of five beautiful girls. She is always saying on her blog that her house is too small and falling apart. So, we feel even more grateful that she graciously cleared out a portion of her basement for us to stay with her. We even had our own bathroom!

Our kids had so much fun. All the cousins got along great. McKenna was glued to Lizzy's side. Lizzy is 10-years-old so, just old enough to seem totally cool and still young enough to want to have a 7-year-old tagging along. It was a perfect combination.

Evan, at one point, around the dinner table with all the other kids announced, "I'm surrounded by girls!"  He did really good though. He got some great "boy" stuff for Christmas and all his uncles enjoyed playing with him. He also became Scarlett's "prince" when he danced with her. She is two and spends her days twirling around the house in her dance dresses. At some point Evan picked her up and spun her around like a ballerina. She was his for the rest of the visit.

Alana was surprisingly well behaved. I don't think she ate anything but rolls for four days but she was nice to Scarlett and that's all I care about. Alana can be a bit of a bully. She is truly a youngest child and for some reason feels that she has to fight for everything she wants. She takes what she wants from other kids and is not afraid to hit, scratch and bite her way to victory. We are working with her and it is getting better but I didn't know how she would be at someone else's house with another girl her age. Turns out I didn't need to worry (but it's what I do). She got along great with Scarlett and all the other girls. The only altercation came on the last night when Scarlett wanted to play with Alana's new baby doll. I figure one fight in five days is pretty good. The babies were so cute together and I am very happy that Alana has another cousin her age.

The adults had a blast! It was a whirlwind of games, food and conversation, between taking care of kids, of course. Ryan stayed up really late every night playing and he even got to go sledding with his dad and some of the siblings. Stephanie had huge amounts of amazing food for everyone. There was always tons of leftovers and I commented that she probably bought food thinking that my children ate like normal kids. It's amazing that they grow because they hardly ever eat. Stephanie introduced us to crepes and homemade shrimp scampi. We had the most amazing turkey for Christmas dinner. This is making me hungry so I am going to move on.

Christmas morning was a whirl of squeals and paper. All the kids got exactly what they wanted for Christmas and everyone was happy. Santa brought Evan some new underwear and he got embarrassed. Santa will know better for next year. I guess he is growing up. McKenna beamed over all her Taylor Swift stuff. She is a bit obsessed right now. Alana just wanted to tear paper; she didn't care what was underneath.

Christmas eve at my Father-in-law's

The Santa loot

McKenna visiting her Grandma's grave

The trip to Rock Springs was so worth it! Everyone was so great to us and Stephanie went above and beyond to make us comfortable and welcome.I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Great Trip - Part 1

We had a wonderful vacation. Everyone was happy, healthy and got along great. What more could a mother ask for?

We began our trip at 1:00am. Ryan wanted to drive through the night and arrive at my sister's house in time for the kids to wake up and play all day. It worked out great. I certainly loved sleeping the drive away. It was the night of the eclipse and we did get to see some of it before the clouds came over.

We spent a day with my sister Rose in Colorado Springs and then headed for Wyoming the next morning. We were a bit concerned about the weather. There was a big storm predicted, but it turned out the be the most beautiful day to drive. The sun was out and the roads were clear. We stopped in Laramie and had lunch. We showed Evan the hospital he was born in. He was very excited. He is very proud to be born in Wyoming, which makes Ryan and I happy.

The drive from Laramie to Rock Springs was beautiful. The sky was so blue and the ground was so white with snow, I just marveled. I took a bunch of pictures through my window. I just couldn't get over how blue the sky was. We may live on the 'giant side of Texas', with a whole lot of sky to look at, but that's because that's all there is to look at. Even so, the sky in Wyoming that day beat anything Texas has to offer. It made me very homesick. I need to live in the mountains again.

We arrived at my Sister-in-law Stephanie's house without incident - unless you count all the whining and screaming coming from the backseat. Alana doesn't travel well. There is a good reason why, if possible, we travel through the night and not in the middle of the day.

She is getting better. We set up the DVD player in the middle of the van on top of the cooler. McKenna sat next to it and managed all the movie changes (I love having older kids!) Alana liked watching movies. It didn't keep her attention for long but it was something. I am enjoying my baby while she is still a baby, but I will not be sad when she is old enough to behave on a car trip. I see many, many more of them in our future.