Running against the Wind

I have a love-hate relationship with running. I have hated the idea of running, and found it painful when I did have to do it, all my life...until 4 months ago.

As a teen I hated running because I am a very busty girl and never had the right support. For PE we had to run the mile under a certain time in order to pass the course. So I ran the mile once a year and never any other time. I never played sports that required running so I was just not used to it. Plus running really hurts the lungs. I would give up and walk as soon as my lungs started to burn and then never run again until the next school year.

As an adult I got the support problem under control and tried a few different times to be a runner. Ryan is a big time runner and he was a good motivation, but it never really happened. I would get bad pain in my hip joints every time I ran, to the point where I couldn't walk well the next day. So I gave up on the whole idea.

Fast forward 7 years and 3 kids later. In January of this year I still had/have some Alana baby weight to lose and I was looking for some motivation. A good friend of mine emailed me about a charity race that was happening in a nearby town. All the proceeds went to a family that had medical bills to pay for their son who was recovering from cancer. That was the motivation I needed. Ryan needed some too, so we both decided to run that race. I wanted to work for the 5k (3.1 miles) and Ryan the 10k (6.2 miles). I had 3 months to be ready to run.

The first time I went out I couldn't even run around my apartment complex without stopping to walk. My lungs burned and I coughed and whined. The next time I set a goal to run the whole complex circle without stopping. I almost made it. Third time was the charm. I was proud to be seeing progress but knew I had along way to go. My complex circle is only 1/4 of a mile. I kept at it when ever I could. Finding time to run was really heard with Ryan's schedule but before I knew it I could run 2 miles without stopping.

The day of the race, March 28, 2010, I was nervous but excited. I told myself I would do my best and run at my own pace. I did just that, with a push from another runner who ran as slow

as I did. (I met her after and thanked her for keeping me going) I ran the whole thing in 37.20min. It was awesome, and now I'm hooked.

I am now trying to get my kids excited about running and being healthy. I don't want them to hate it like I did as a kid. I don't want them to avoid running sports like I did. So I asked McKenna if she wanted to do a 1 mile kids fun run that was being sponsored in April. She said yes, and was very excited for it.

On the morning of her race it had been raining for 2 days straight and it was 42 degrees outside with plenty of wind. I gave her the option to stay home or to run. She really wanted to run. So we bundled up and went out. She did so good. I ran it with her and talked her through the whole thing. After her first 1 mile run she still wants to do it again. We will keep at it.

I am hoping to do more races in the future.

Chores

I find it increasingly difficult to get enough done. I know that all mothers, wither they work or not, have the same frustrations. For me, it's finding time to shop and run errands.

I can only go running around between 8:30am and 10:30am. This is a very small window. The rest of my day is so booked with everyones else's needs that this 2 hours is all I get.

Alan takes a nap from 11:00am to 1:30pm. She can ONLY sleep while driving in the car or in her own bed. I have tried putting her down in the cart, with a pillow and blanket, but she wakes up the moment I move the cart. So shopping during nap time is out of the question.

I pick Evan up at 2:30pm and McKenna at 3:15pm. Evan is bussed to our local elementary school (his in Headstart), but I still have to drive to get him. Once we pick up McKenna we have to come home. That girl hates shopping after school. She really hates shopping at Walmart. (I have no idea why, but she does.) If we go do some running after school then she doesn't feel like she had enough time to play before homework, dinner and bed. I am sympathetic to her feeling that way so I try really hard not to.

Evenings are always busy with everything that has to be done. Sometimes I just go after I put the kids to bed and Ryan is home doing homework but, I really don't like to. By that time I am tired and I just want to veg and do something I want to do. (reading, TV, craft)

I know that one day when my kids are older I wont have these schedule problems, so for now I will just enjoy them being little and like Tim Gunn says I'll "Make it work".

Dear Drive-in, Let me count the ways....

Ryan and I have a new obsession - the drive-in. We could easily go there every weekend and love it. Just as good, our kids probably love it more than we do.

The evening carries on as so:

We check the web site and decide which movies to see. The drive-in is always a double header. Movies are matched up in various ways. It could be a kid movie then Mom/Dad movie, or two kid movies or two Mom/Dad movies. It's good fun just to see how the movies are going to be matched up each week. Once you pay to get in and you park there is no switching screens after the first movie. So, the hope is that they match up two movies that we want to see and that the second movie isn't lame.

We get dressed to go. We put the kids in their PJs and bundle them up. This time of year it gets down to 58 degrees at night. A bit cool, but still nice enough to be outside. We have them set for bed, because they always fall asleep in the car before the second movie is over. They also bring their pillows and blankets. So for them it feels like a fun sleepover.

We figure out the food. Depending on what time of the year it is the movie start times vary. Obviously the movie can't start until it is dark so every weekend the time is different. This time of the year the first movie is starting around 8:50pm. The drive in opens at 7:00pm. We like to have a late dinner there. Sometimes we bring a picnic and sometimes we grab fast food on the way there. They have a bunch of picnic tables set up by a park so they really make it easy. Yes, they have food to buy there. But, nothing that is any good.

We play at the park. For the kids, the best part of the night is playing at the park. The Drive-in has a large park for all ages. The last time we attended McKenna was playing on her favorite thing, the tire swing. A boy came over and we offered to let him jump on with her. I gave them a good full round push and let them go. He was a rather large boy and the weight ratio caused the tire swing to spin fast and McKenna didn't like that. She got off and we left. Not too much later a smaller boy ran over to me and asked if I would push him and his brother (the big boy). I said yes, and I pushed them around and left. They too spun like crazy and squeals of joy could be heard all over the park. During all this Ryan was in the bathroom with Evan and upon returning I innocently announced, "I just gave those two boys the ride of their lives". Ryan deadpanned in reply, "I don't ever want to hear those words come out of your mouth again". The couple at the table next to us was cracking up. Upon realizing my mistake, I started laughing pretty hard myself and then correctly said, "I gave those two boys the tire swing ride of their life." That seemed a bit more appropriate.

We set up for the movie. Thanks to the amazing generosity of my parents, we have a mini van. I LOVE my van. We turn it facing backwards to the screen. Pop up the hatch and put out our camping chairs underneath. The back speakers are in the hatch so we have the sound coming out right above our heads. It's perfect! Ryan likes the movie to be pretty loud, (he's slightly deaf in one ear) which is fine with me. It feels very much like a theater experience. But we don't have to worry about our kids being loud or moving around too much.

Time for the second movie. When the second movie is not appropriate for the kids we put them to bed. Last time we took out the middle seats and they slept really well on the van floor. If the movie is one they can watch then we'll let them lie down in the trunk area so they can see the screen. It's awesome! (please note the slight singing tone for the awesome)

The night is over. By the end of the second movie all the kids are sleeping and Ryan and I are relaxed. We really love watching movies. Before we had kids we went to the movies every single weekend. So for us, being able to take our loud wiggly kids to not one, but two movies without any worries is so great.

If anyone ever comes to visit during good weather, we will take you to a drive-in movie.

I have decided to blog about my Alana today. I have chosen to start with her because she is my last and they never get to go first.

Alana: Miss Priss, Sweetness, Tushes, My Littlest

The decision to get pregnant again (with Alana) was not an easy one. Ryan and I were not big fans of babies. We tolerated the baby stage just fine but realized, once McKenna and Evan were 5 and 3, that we liked having older kids. They are more independent and we can do a lot more things with them. So once Evan hit 3 we needed to decide, once and for all, if we were done or if we wanted more. Obviously we chose to have more but it took a lot of prayer to get there. I had a great pregnancy with Alana and I was overjoyed to find out that she was a girl. I really wanted another girl.

We really struggled to find a name for her. Nothing seemed right and we never found a name that we truly loved. To this day I can say that I don't LOVE the name Alana but we didn't hate it or find anything we liked better so that is what she ended up with. Finding the right name became so obsessive for me that I was still in "listen for good names"mode 2 months after she was born. Of course by that point she was named and that was that. But it took me a while to stop thinking about it. One thing that I did know for sure, is that her middle name would be Priscilla.

Priscilla was my Mother-in-law's name. I say "was" because she has passed away. Ryan lost his mother to cancer on February 14, 2006 (I know sucky day, right?). She was an amazing woman. She was extremely selfless and had more knowledge of the gospel then any woman I have ever met, to this day. She was alway good to me. She didn't understand me and I don't think she liked me at times but I know she loved me and she tried hard not to be "The Mother-in-Law". I would we thrilled if Alana carries any of the amazing traits that her namesake possessed. The name also turned out to be very appropriate since Alana looks very much like her Grandma Graham.

Miss Priss has been a joy since the moment she emerged into this world. Maybe because I have done the baby thing two times before, or she is just a better baby, but it was so much better this time around. She is the first baby that made me want to have more babies. (I don't know yet. So don't ask.) I finally got to see what I thought other mothers just lied about. A baby who slept. It was so delightful to be able to put her to bed and not have to listen to crying. She just went to sleep.

She is a Daddy's girl, and it goes both ways. Ryan is different with her than he was with the other two. Even he can't explain it. It helps that she wants him all the time, where the older ones only wanted me. But they have a connection that was there from the beginning. It brings me tremendous joy to watch them.

I have been having so much fun with her during the day. Both McKenna and Evan are at school now and I only have her around. I am really enjoying that. I brings me back to the days when I was a new mother with McKenna.

She is starting to walk and she says "mama". She loves to play with Evan and McKenna. When she and I go pick up Evan from school she squeals with joy when she sees him and lovingly slaps him on the face. She aways wants to be where they are and to play with them. It's really nice for me because I know she will be entertained when the older ones are home so I can work.

Her latest thing is sucking on her toes. She tries so hard to get her toes into her mouth, but then she gets mad that her toes won't stop wiggling. She'll pull them back and look at them and poke them with her finger. They aways end up back in her mouth wiggling away despite her efforts.

I love my sweet baby so much and I am so glad that we chose to have her. I am truly blessed!

Well everyone is back to being healthy and back to driving me crazy. Well, sometimes anyway. Alana had a very needy day. She always seems to be the most needy when I have things to get done and, well, that is pretty much all the time.

Despite that, today was a good day. I got everyone up and drove them to school. I talked to McKenna's teacher about one of her weekly spelling words being spelled wrong. The word was buoyant and they had it spelled boyant. (Ryan caught it, not me)

When I got home Alana and I went shopping. She is not a good shopper, but today she did well. I swiped a pack of saltines from the salad bar and she was happy. (Are those free or did I steal?)

Once we were home I put her down for a nap, and it was on! I got so much done. I won't bore you with the list but it was good.

After I got the older two from school, I juggled Alana while trying to get dinner done. Between holding her, helping Mckenna with her homework and seeing Evan's new block rockets every 10 min. It took me 2.5 hours to get dinner done. Lucky for me Ryan doesn't get home until 7:30pm on Thursday nights.

I love spending time with my kids. I also love putting them to bed at the end of the day. Here's to hoping tomorrow is as good as today was.

My First Post

I am nervous about this. I am not very good with words nor am I computer savvy. So on the surface taking on a blog seems like a dumb idea. However, I have been inspired by my Sister-in-law. I love reading about her and her family so I figured there might others who would like reading about mine. Ready or not here we go.....

I have spent the last several days taking care of sick kids. Mckenna spent Monday night puking every 20 minutes for 7 hours. It was awful. Her face was a yellow-gray color and there was nothing I could do for her. Alana has had diarrhea for 2 days. I'll take that over puke. But I could tell she wasn't feeling well. Evan, however, faked his sickness. I guess he thought McKenna had a good thing when she got to stay home and watch cartoons all day yesterday so this morning he told me his "tummy hurt like McKenna's". I let him stay home from school but it wasn't very long before it was clear he was not sick. I should put my foot down and take him in but I'm tired. I did, however, give him a firm talking too. He will not be watching cartoons today that is for sure.

Ryan is sick now. He has been sleeping for the last 14 hours. At least I don't have to clean up his puke.

I have no food in the house. Tired or not it's time to suck it up and go shopping.