Not Me Monday...

You know the drill right?... So let's get to it (I'm all for saving everyone a little bit of time, so...)

1. I did not force the VBS staff to potty train my child this week. I mean I did not make the most sense that a child watching other children pee-pee on the potty would want to do the same, so I surely did not just go cold turkey and take him in underwear to VBS. Not me!

2. I did not eat lunch and dinner out every day this week. I mean who has time to cook, oh, I do of course! So when we were hot and tired from a morning of VBS, I did not go to McDonalds, Panera, Spangles, or Jason's Deli for lunch, and we did not have KFC, Pizza Hut, or Sonic for dinner...not us.

3. Finally, I will not ever confess to giving my children their evening bath in their baby pool... not me... I mean, I would never just carry Johnson's Baby Wash, clean PJ's, and diapers outside, suds my kiddos off, and then dress them to be carried into bed. Not me.

Ahh, the joys of being perfect, ha!

Guess Who...

... stayed in one pair of big boy underwear ALL DAY yesterday?

Yeah Cole!!!! Mommy and Daddy are soooooooo proud of you!

Redemption Race...

The Firecracker 4-Mile... July 4th... hopefully it won't be pouring.

Finished!

It is done. The first major "race" of my life is over... it will not be my last. I have to say it may take me a week or so to recover from it, but it was definetly a come to Jesus moment.

I started out by getting the worst night's sleep ever. We all tried to go to be early the night before so that we would feel rested for the early morning ahead. That idea worked for some (Brian), worked to the advantage of others (Just bring Cole to bed, so that he will go to sleep), and worked to my HUGE DISADVANTAGE. Lights out at 10:00, I finally fell asleep around 1, had to get up and pee twice because of all the water I drank in the evening, we got a prank phone call around 4:00, and the alarm finally went off around 5:45. I was never so glad for a night to be over just so I didn't have to worry about sleeping anymore, and I could move on.

I got up and around to a quiet house, to quickly notice it was raining, HARD. So I called the Y to make sure the race was still on, and runners much like golfers do it in anything... GAME ON.

We arrived at the Y 30 minutes before the race with cheering section in tow. (I am so lucky to have supportive friends and family.) My friend Sarah and I met up and did some pre-race pacing (aka: stretching and psyching yourself up to run 5 miles in the pouring rain).

As the rain continued to come down, we lined up, and the horn blew at 7:30 sharp. We took off. Now, please remember that I never claim to be a fast runner, so when everyone took off at a true runner's pace, I was screwed. It really wore me out in a hurry, so I had to drop off from Sarah and do this on my own. I trudged on through each mile, praying I would finish, wondering what to do if I didn't- not an option, and pushing, pushing, pushing.

At mile 3, a blister on my heal popped leaving exposed skin rubbing on my shoes, oh so painful, but the worst is my left big toe, it is black and blue, and disgusting. I am not sure how much running of any kind I will be doing this week.

So here I am, finishing the 8K (4.98 mile) race in 1:02:15. Not pumped about my time, in fact I have done it faster on the track, but I had to remind myself that on the track it was not hilly, and pouring.

In the end, I finished, with family and friends to greet me

and a smile on my face.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing this...

Tomorrow's The Big Day...

New running shoes... check.
IPod full of uplifting songs... check.
Driven the race route... check.
Outfit laid out, and gym bag packed... check.
Supportive friends getting extra sleep for an early morning with me... check.

Now off to bed for some good rest. I will post more tomorrow. Wish me luck.

So Busy

It seems like since summer hit we have just been so busy, but I don't want you to think I have given up on blogging, so I will try and do better. I am not going to go too far back... it would just be frustrating to think of how long it's been, but here are some highlights...

1. We celebrated Cole's Birthday at the ballpark. It was really a great time. I got all of the kiddos a baseball cap with their initial on it for their party favor. Here is a pic of the crew before we went into the game.

2. We had our annual garage sale. Although I always have this dread right before it starts that it won't be worth it, we made really good money again this year. Hopefully enough to get us through the summer and to redo our kitchen floors.

3. I have been training pretty hard for my race on Saturday. I am having terrible pain in my toenails of all things, so I went out and spent a pretty penny on real running shoes. I even went to a store where they professionally fitted me. The guy that did my fitting runs 6-8 miles per day... sounds qualified to me. I wore them yesterday for the first time and cut 2 minutes off of my mile. That's a lot! I hope I can hold a pace close to that for Saturday. I will be happy with any time under 1 hour.

4. Finally we have been swim, swim, swimming! We have been going to our friend K's house every day to swim for a couple of hours, and my do I have water bugs on my hands. Cole is able to walk in the shallow end, and he can paddle everywhere with a floaty. Carter slides in on his belly wherever he feels like it, and always trusts that someone is going to be there to catch him!

So there you have it, a quick recap of the last couple of weeks. Oh how I love summer.

"We're Going to Sing to My Candles!"

That's right today we sang "Happy Birthday" to Cole's 3 candles. What a fun day, and an amazing year with this little boy.

A quick recap of the day...

We started the morning with a little gift so he could understand that today was his birthday. Here he is opening "daddy shoes" aka: flip flops. Cole will be a man after any girls heart, because he LOVES trying on shoes, and he loves you even more when you buy him a pair. You will see later in the day he receives 2 more pairs of shoes, and he has worn all 3 pairs already.

We headed off to the Y, but stopped off a Krispy Kreme and picked up mini doughnuts for all of his friends in the Kid Zone... a better birthday breakfast than a Nutri Grain bar if I do say so myself.

After the Y, we headed to get professional birthday pictures taken. I am lucky to have a summer and a winter baby because it gives me an excuse to spend insane amounts to capture my kiddos faces in time. (Cole received his 2nd new pair of shoes here.) So the best I can say is, we survived the photos. I am glad they shoot so many because Carter would not sit still for a second. Cole on the other hand was quite cooperative. Since they took so many shots, we got some good ones, but by the looks of the pics, you would thing it was easy... IT WAS NOT!

Next we met daddy at a pizza buffet for lunch (as you can see health food was not a theme today) and we had a relaxing lunch, followed by a nap, and some quick errands.

Then, for dinner we had our little party at Red Robin. I love eating there... good food, frequent Birthday celebrations, and no one notices your children acting like maniacs. Perfect.

We ordered our dinner then opened a couple of gifts from mommy and daddy, and some good friends. Here is a gift recap:

A weedwacker that sprays water!

A baseball mitt with a baseball.

Pair of shoes #3, Crocs with Jibbitz.

We ended dinner with a yummy babycake and some singing, then headed home.

When we got home we went out back and tested the new toys (and shoes), and then ended the evening with a run to Sonic for a free Root beer Float. Yum!

(The first unorganized game of baseball in our backyard.)

My brain feels too fried tonight to recap the whole year, so I will try and do that soon, but for now...

Happy Birthday Cole Thane Anderson. Three years ago I could have never understood how a six pound baby boy could change our lives, but you have been nothing other than a blessing everyday. Daddy and I "love you the most"! Happy Birthday.