Time for an update

It's been way too long since I've updated this blog. All my blogging energy these past 3 months has been pretty much focused on my running blog. I'm so behind on this blog I don't even know where to start and what to update on.

Since I mentioned my running blog that you can visit here, I'll update on me first. Since August 1st I've been training for my first ever 1/2 marathon. 13.1 miles to be exact. I'm running in the Dallas WhiteRock Lake Marathon in exactly 4 weeks from today. In the beginning of my training I was running 4-5 times per week. Our schedules have gotten to hectic lately with Kris' work schedule and such that I've only been able to get out an run about 2 times a week. I have one 'long run' a week and I'm at about 10 miles on that run. Mid-week I'll run 4-6 miles and it's amazing to me that I can now say that running 4-6 miles isn't even hard for me anymore! This picture is a group of us from Team In Training that ran in the Heroes for Children 5K in September.

Kris is waiting tables at Rick's Chophouse. He works pretty much every night of the week except for Tuesdays and he's off on Sundays. So, those are basically the only times we see him now. He has a consulting job for Mineola Country Club, so he drives over there every Tuesday and spends the day there. He's working hard and a lot of hours. The work hours are tough because we never seem to see him anymore. The plus side of his hours is that he is able to stay at home with Maddox during the day. So, we're saving a ton of money of daycare.

The boys are as crazy as ever. Leyton is really thriving in 1st grade and doing very well with his reading. His teacher has put him in the accelerated reading program. That makes his mommy very proud, being the reader that I am. I hope he one day begins to enjoy reading like I do. Yesterday we finished up his first season of flag football. He really enjoyed playing football. I wasn't sure what to expect when we signed him up, but he turned out to be quite the football player. He said he liked playing because it's "like playing chase or tag". The coach either played him in QB or wingback position most the year and he was able to score 4 or 5 times this season. I'll scan his football picture and post that in another blog. He's quite photogenic (well, I'm a bit partial) as you'll see below:

Maddox is ornery! We got him pretty much potty-trained a few weeks before his 3rd birthday. We're still having some #2 issues that we're hoping he'll get over soon! As great as it is financially for us to have him stay at home with Kris, I'd really like to get him in a daycare after the first of the year. He's at a stage where he needs more structure & more discipline (from someone other than his parents). He's gotten quite the attitude and thinks he pretty much rules this house. A lot of it has to do with his personality. He's so different that Leyton ever was. He goes a mile a minute and has nothing on the Tazmanian Devel! During our recent photo shoot I took of the boys this picture was pretty much the only good one I got of him (and the lighting and focus could be much better). But, I'll take what I can with a 3 year old.

Celebrate Good Times! Come ON!

We had the big party yesterday at our house. This is the first birthday party I have ever thrown at our house. I much prefer to just rent someplace and not have to worry about cleaning, food, and oh, did I say cleaning! We had 16 kids at our place yesterday for the party. I don't think my living room has ever seen that many people before! My parents bought Maddox (and Leyton) a big inflatable waterslide for his birthday. We had planned on renting one, so this was perfect. Here's a few pictures from the party. Now....I'm off to clean!

Maddox birthday celebration(s) - Part 1

My baby boy Maddox turns 3 years old today. I can't believe how fast time has flown. He's now 95% pottytrained, which happened just a few weeks ago. We're having his big shindig tomorrow at our house, but I couldn't let his actual 'birth' day pass by without some sort of mini-celebration. I had to work at the daycare all day today and Kris was working tonight, so we took our homemade rainbow cake up to the daycare and shared our cake with the daycare kids today. Here's our cake:

Funny quiz

Thanks Chad...this quiz was fun so I had to copy! :-)

Created by The Oatmeal

New beginnings

Well, tomorrow I start my new job in Richardson working for Edward Jones. This has been 5 months in the waiting it seems like. I interviewed with 3 differents guys and finally landed this one. I'm nervous, excited, and thankful I am finally there. Wish me luck for my first day!!

Training for the marathon is going really well as well. I love seeing myself go further and further each day. I made it 1.8 miles today and really pushed myself. Now, if only I can start receiving some fundraising money. :( I sent out 89 emails and haven't received anything yet. I'm thinking all the emails must have went to everyone's spam or something. It's just hard to imagine that out of 89 emails I still haven't gotten any money. It will get there, right? Right!?!?

If you'd like to donate you can click my fundraising link on my training blog, www.trinitystraining.blogspot.com.

My new running blog

Come check it out. I wanted to blog daily about my daily training. I knew it would help keep me motivated to see my improvement each day and to see just how far I've come. I can't wait to look back on this in December to see just how far I've come.

http://trinitystraining.blogspot.com/

Totally motivated and maybe a little bit crazy!!!

Oh my word, what have I commited myself to??? Last Thursday evening some girlfriends and I attended a Team In Training meeting and signed up to run the Dallas White Rock Lake Marathon on Dec 13. These men and women are coaches for a reason...they are motivational, inspirational, and supportive. It was exilerating. We (my girls and I) went in with expectations to sign up for the relay team and each of us would train and run 5-6 miles of the marathon. By the end of the meeting 3 or 4 of us (including myself) were motivated and inspired enough to make our goal the Half Marathon (which is 13 miles)!

One of the many great things of joining up with Team In Training is that in training and running with them we raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Here is my webpage to help fundraise for the charity.

I went out this moring and did my first run and now I am scared! I put a training app on my phone and it coached me thru my run. It is an awesome app and was very helpful. But, let me tell you, now I am SCARED of what I've signed myself up for. I'll be brutally honest...I made it 1.2 miles and thought I would die. AND, I didn't even run all of that. The training is/way broken down into run 1 min, walk 1 min, run 1, walk 1, then it slowly goes up to run 2 min, walk 2. By the time I got to run 3 minutes I couldn't push myself to do it. I am going to need all the support I can get! I'll try to post back here often so we can see how far I've come with my training.

Check out this cake!

A friend of mine shared this website/blog of this cake she's going to try and make.

http://www.omnomicon.com/rainbowcake

I LOVE it and can't wait to have an occassion to try and make it too!

10-10-10

A friend of mine recently recommended the book, 10-10-10 by Suzy Welch, to me.

http://www.suzywelch101010.com/about_book.htm

It's a book about making tough decisions based on the 10-10-10 approach. The premise is about when your faced with a complex dilemma, stop and ask, "What will the consequences of my options be in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years?

Wow, I love the concept and it really has helped in trying to decide what step I should take if/when both job options are offered to me. In taking job #1 or #2, yes I know how it will effect me in 10 seconds, but how will my life be altered in 10 months and where do I see myself if I should stick with either for 10 years. In looking at job #1, I can truely see myself still working there in 10 years. I see myself being a successful administrator, making decent money for my family, and will have begun the set up to a great retirement fund for my family. In job #2, I'm not fully convinced I want to get my teacher certification and begin that profession. I love the profession, I think I would love doing it, but I'm not fully convinced.

Everyday my mind changes on what I want to do. One day I've fully convinced myself I should do job #1 and then I'll lay in bed and think about things and by the next day I've convinced myself it's job #2. I've changed my mind almost everyday. Who knows, maybe even after all this thought and stress about jobs one (or both for that matter) won't even be offered to me. I guess then I'll let fate take it's place.

I need someone to make the decision for me

As you know, I've been on the hunt for a full-time job for the past couple of months. I haven't really tried hard in finding a job because what I am doing now is going okay and I want to find the right fit for me. I've now potentially found 2 jobs that could come my way. They are completely opposite in fields and have totally different pros and cons. The pay is also WAY different. And, I have NO IDEA what to do. :(

Job #1 - better money, 45 minute commute, 2 man office and a lot of responsibilty, possibly a job I'll keep for many years. Did I say better money?? Yeah! Good benefits.

Job #2 - in the teaching field at my son's elementary school, pay is AWFUL. I'd be bringing in around the same amount of money I bring in now, would motivate me to possibly get my teacher certification and move forward with that dream. Insurance is paid 100% for me.

It's hard to get into specifics without going into more detail on what the jobs are and what I'd be doing, but I'd rather not delve into that right now. Neither job has been officially offered to me, but I have really good feelings on both them. Maybe in the end it will work itself out and maybe I won't get offered one of the jobs? If they both get offered then I've really got to decide where I want my future to be. Do I go with the money or do I go with something I love to do?

I know that honestly, as an outsider reading this it seems like a simple answer. Go with what you love. But, to me, it so much harder. I also love office admin type jobs as well and I know I'll be successful if I go that route too.

I guess I'll be back in a few weeks to post how it all goes.

Leyton's birthday celebration

This year my friend Jessica and I decided to do a shared birthday party for our boys. They both were turning 6 with a week and a half of each other. And what better way than to have an awesome party is to share the cost. We opted this year to use our neighborhood park and rent a bounce house and a face painter. The weather for the 2 weeks prior to the party was rainy, rainy, rainy. So, we did some hard praying that it wouldn't rain on our party. The rain stayed away! YAY!! It actually was perfect. Low 70's and not to windy. Perfect weather for a group of kiddos that have been cooped up inside because of all the yucky weather we'd been having.

Leyton and Grant had a blast at their party! It was such a great time and all the painted faces were adorable. Thank you to everyone that came and made our kids day extra special. Here's a link to more birthday party pictures if you want to check them out.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=93262&id=550201512&l=f7c68b2a38

My Prosper Predator

Here is Leyton's cute little U6 baseball team. Their team is currently in 1st place in our league. We have a great set of little players! I'm sad the season is almost over.

Mother's Day Tea

Today, in celebration of Mother's Day this Sunday, Maddox's class hosted a Mother's Day Tea. It was so adorable. I love going to the little parties that his teachers throw for the parents. Here is Maddox showing me the placemat he made for mommy. You can see on the right side where he drew his picture of mommy. The teachers said he did it all by himself too! Not bad for a 2 1/2 year old.

Next, was the prayer before the muffins and tea.

And, here is Maddox holding the present he was giving to mommy. It was a hand towel with his handprint and some other stamped designs he put on it.

Thank you Maddox! I love you sweetie!

Happy 6th Birthday Leyton!

Monday, May 4th was Leyton's 6th birthday. Leyton woke up at 6:15a and the first thing out of his mouth was "I can't believe I'm finally 6!" He was so excited for this special day. Later in the morning he was eating his breakfast and told me his arm was hurting. I said, "Well, it's probably from playing your new Wii this weekend". He said, "No, I think I'm having growing pains since today is my birthday." LOL, what a cutie!

My parents are going to be able to make it to his birthday party this weekend, so my mom decided to drive down for the day and surprise him with lunch at his school. He certainly was surprised to see grandma and so excited to see his big bouquet of balloons too! I think he mostly like all the attention he got from all his friends when they saw he had balloons.

He had a baseball game later that afternoon and then grandma took him to his favorite restaurant. You'd guess Chucky Cheese or Peter Piper Pizza. Nope. Macaroni Grill! That's my boy!

His party is this Saturday and we have our fingers, toes, and eyes crossed it doesn't rain! It's in our neighborhood park and we'll have a bounce house and a face painter!

Some fun giveaway contests I found

I am a big blog follower and love finding new blogs to add to my reader. I came across to great Mother's Day Giveaway contests that I thought I'd share on here as well!

The first contest I found is for a muslin swaddling wrap, made by Aden and Anais, http://www.adenandanais.com/index.html. It's a wonderfully soft swaddling blanket that gets softer and softer with each wash. Check out this blog to hear this mom's testimony. http://www.travelingthetightrope.com/ Leave her a comment and you'll be entered in the contest to win one of these cute blankets!

The other contest I found is for a new Kodak Digital Camera! What an awesome giveaway! Here's the link to this blog and how to easily enter that giveaway as well! http://www.5minutesformom.com/6032/mothers-day-giveaway-2009/

Daycare fun

Ever since Kris started working nights at the restaurant, unfornately, the boys have had to spend more time with me at the daycare. Thankfully, it's free for them to come and play while I'm working. Friday and Saturday nights are the hardest is the late nights because we close at 10p thru the week and midnight on weekends. So, as much as I need the hours for $$, I really pray parents will come early so I don't have to keep the boys there so late. So, far there's only be 1 Saturday night we've had to stay until midnight. There have been a handful of nights the boys are there until 10p with me, but we're making it work!

These are just a few fun pictures I've taken recently of the boys playing at the daycare. Leyton is mostly into the video games, but Maddox LOVES everything at the daycare. Both boys have made a ton of friends in the year and a half I've worked there too!

Apr 4 - Date Night with Leyton

So, last Saturday night I had a date night with my favorite soon to be 6 year old. We decided to hit up the local cinema to see the 3D version of Monsters-vs-Aliens. What a blast! This was Leyton's first time to see a 3D movie. As excited as he was to see the movie, he was also nervous too about seeing the 3D version for fear it would look like things were really going to hit him. Needless to say, he LOVED it (and so did I)! It was so fun watching it in 3D. Sorry for grainy quality of the photo, but of course it was very dark in the theater when I took this picture that I took with my phone. After the movie I promised him ice cream. I really wanted to take him to Ben & Jerry's, but they closed at 9p so we didn't get to make it there. So, we decided to go ahead and pick up Maddox from our friend's house and head to McD's for a hot fudge sundae. What a yummy $1 treat! He was pretty much over me taking his picture so he can see his nice 'fake' smile below.

Brett's Blessings

For those of you that follow my blog, I wanted to update you on the family that lost their son in that tragic car accident this past December.

Amber and Chris have started a new foundation called "Brett's Blessings". They are collecting new, unwrapped toys to donate to the ICU at Children's Hospital. Here's a blurb from Amber's blog:

Chris and I have started - well I guess you could say foundation, but it's not there yet. We have called this yearly annual toy donation Brett's Blessings. I racked my head for days on what to name "it" and Chris came up with this in a minute and what a perfect name it is. Brett was a blessing. What better way to honor my child than to make other children, of all ages happy? Brett's Blessings will help bring smiles to children in the ICU at Children's Hospital Dallas. My mission is to ask everyone that I know if they would be willing to donate a new, unwrapped toy for many children who are in the ICU. This year we have picked the ICU department specifically because this is where Brett spent his last few hours before passing away. I hope that next year I will be able to spread this toy drive to Children's Medical Center in Dallas as I have now been told by two people that they have nothing like this. Who knows, if this toy drive gets really big, I might just be able to do it this year. Wouldn't that be a blessing. Please spread the word.So today I leave you with this: Open your hearts. Give to those you don't know. Someday you might be in need of the same.
Amber

Adventure Kids and Stonebridge UMC are the 2 main drop-off points for the toys. I'm so happy to see the boxes at both location are filled to the top with toys! What a tremendous, caring community we live in!

This is just what 2 year old boys do...

There is no explanation needed for these photos. It's just what little boys do. ;-)

Yes, that's mud!

April 5 - PYSA Sports Festival

The Prosper Youth Sports Association hosted their 1st Annual Spring Sports Festival. It was a time for all the spring associated sports (volleyball, basketball, baseball) to showcase and introduce their teams. It was a chilly day, but all the boys really had fun 'parading' onto the football field and waving to the stands.

It's times like this that make me realize just how old Leyton is getting to be. Leyton's team name is the Prosper Predators and he has his first game this tonight. (April 7)

Sicko's

I'm so ready for my family to be nice and healthy. We've been going on a month now that someone in this house has been sick with something, and most of it is the same thing being spread back and forth.

A month ago, right before Spring Break I got a cold. I had the cold for almost 2 weeks. Well, I we got home from Spring Break and Kris caught my cold. Again, he held onto it for about a week and now Leyton has had it. Leyton's had this nasty stuffy nose and cough for 3-4 days now. Poor kid doesn't feel good at all and has napped almost everyday for about 2 hours at a time.

Now, Maddox, he never did really show signs of the cold, but lucky us he caught Hand/Foot/Mouth. They symptoms showed up yesterday afternoon with a few spots and by bathtime last night his bottom, hands, feet, and mouth were COVERED in the painful rash. Thankfully, it's going away about as quickly as it came on. Almost 24 hours later and most of the rash has started going away.

SICKNESS, BE GONE!

Spring is upon us

Tex-Ice - January 28

These are very late in sharing, but I just stumbled upon them and wanted to share.

My son got sent to the principal's office today...

Yep, that's twice this year he's been sent to the Principal's office. And, yes, my friends I am referring to Maddox. My 2.5 year old!

Apparently, today he decided he was going to try and sneak out of his classroom...4 TIMES! He was either trying to get something out of his cubby in the hallway, look in other cubby's, or go play with this big workshop toy that sits by his classroom. He'd get caught every time he's sneak out because he'd slam the door behind him.

This boy is going to be a handful growing up. I can already tell. He loves to push his boundaries to see how far he can push and see what he can get away with. But, how can you get mad at a face like this.

March 1 - A day with Papa Rick

Papa Rick came over to visit today. He took us to lunch, played Nintendo with Leyton, and let Maddox jump all over him. They love him so much and LOVE it when they get to see Papa Rick.

Neighborhood-lum's

This pair is quite the duo. They are literally inseperable on the weekends and over the summer. They've been bestbuds for a few years now. If Leyton's not hanging out at Brandon's house, then Brandon is over here. Brandon lives 2 doors down. Brandon's little brother Brian is now coming over and becoming buds with Maddox. Brian is a year older than Maddox (Brian will be 4 this summer). Next time he's over, I'll have to try and get a shot of the two of them together too. Here' s a few shots of them from last weekend.