Holy smokes, this may have been one of the most exhausting weekends ever! I thought it was going to start off well because Royal got home before 5 o’clock on Friday! But then we had dinner and Jayden thew up his entire dinner onto his plate. He wasn’t sick, he just didn’t want to eat the rest of his food, but he did want dessert, and to get dessert he had to have a few more bites. Well, he kept making himself gag because he’d put too big of a bite of food in his mouth trying to get it done fast, and eventually it all came back up. I started gagging (because I can’t stand puke, as anybody whose followed my blog for any amount of time will know), so I left to go start a bath for him. Royal, who has a stomach of steel, sat there and helped Jayden through it, while Willow cracked up in her seat. Sadly, even after that he still didn’t get dessert because I wanted to make sure he really wasn’t sick…and thankfully he wasn’t!

Saturday morning, we got up to go do a 5K race with my StrollerFit group. I pretty much kicked it’s tail. My knees felt real good and I managed to run 9 min/miles while pushing both kids in the stroller. Royal kept up real good for not having run outside of playing basketball. I like to think the only reason he could keep up with me is because I was pushing 60 pounds in a stroller, otherwise I would of smoked him! Although he does keep pointing out that he crossed the finish line first, but I like to tell him he’s just really lucky I like him and decided to not clip his ankles with the front wheel of the stroller.

Then we got home and I canned some peaches. We have this really great peach farm really close by, so I decided I would try to can them, because who doesn’t love peaches in the middle of winter? Not to mention I have all these empty jars from all the canned goods we’ve taken my Royal’s mom over the years, can’t just let those sit around and collect dust. This was the first time I’ve canned anything and I’ve got high standards to live up to as my mom and Royal’s mom are both big canners. But I’m hoping these turn out delish, but I guess if they don’t, well, at least I have some pretty jars in my pantry, right???

Then, I had to make some bread for sandwiches for the week.

Then, I decided to harvest the jungle of basil that I managed to grow in my garden this year. After I got it all cleaned up, it took me over an hour with Royal’s help, to pick all the leaves off. The smell of basil was so strong, it was making my eyes burn and water like an onion, so I took to being very picky about what leaves I tore off so it would go faster. ;) Check out the huge basil and this wasn’t even all of it, there was another little patch nearby.

After this, I was just too tired to do anything else….until today that is.
We got up this morning and went to church. And then after we went to go get a paper, came home, fixed lunch, and then made some basil pesto to stick in the freezer. Don’t worry, I didn’t use all of the basil. I’m going to attempt to dry some in my oven and then since I will still have a bunch left over, I’m going to give it to some of our neighbors on our street.

Then, we packed up the kids and went to a Piggies and Paws party. And then went to our small group. And now I am back at home, kids are asleep, and I’m finishing up getting ready to start doing some preschool stuff with Jayden tomorrow, and of course fillin’ ya in what we’ve been doing (sorry not many pictures of the kids, hope it didn’t make you too hungry). All of these activities were of course on top of everything I already would have done anyway on the weekend, kids, lunches, dinners, 5 loads of laundry, cleaning, etc… at least Royal was here to help! But, I’m tired.

Willow’s new favorite toy is the jumper! I’m so glad I still have Kaylee’s because that means I have two and I can have one downstairs and one upstairs! Comes in real handy when I am trying to get dinner done!

Spring Loaded…

Fly!

It is coming more obvious by the day who Jayden really wants to be like when he grows up. I’ll give you a hint, he’s big, kinda hairy, his name starts with an ‘R’ and ends with an ‘oyal’…

Willow’s crawling you ask? Silly, silly people. As I myself was not a crawler (according to my mom), I obviously am extremely inept at teaching my kids to crawl. Jayden didn’t crawl and it kinda looks like Willow is going to refuse to crawl too.

Let me show you what practicing crawling does for Willow.

It’s a lot of moving backwards and fake crying. And the truth is, I just can’t handle anymore whining or fake crying these days.

Here is how she has decided to get around, quite inventive if you ask me. And it keeps her at a nice slow pace, so she can’t be running off on me all the sudden and stuff. :)

I got to run in the Wichita half marathon today! This could be one of my last halfers for quite some time. My knees are not so good, they are very crunchy, and after any run over 5 miles or so, I have a very hard time going up and down stairs. And since I don’t want knee replacements anytime soon, I’m gonna try and pick up a different sport and see if I can burn out another part of my body. :) Since I knew this could be my last race, I had set some high expectations for myself. My goal was to finish under 2 hours, I’d come close a couple times, 2:08 was my fastest time, and I felt really good about this race and thought for sure I could do it. Plus this halfer was lucky #7, so I was sure that was gonna help out too! To do what I wanted meant that I had to run an average of 9:15 min/miles the whole time. Not so fast for all you people out there with bodies like greyhounds that just float down the road. 9:15 is a fast pace for me to maintain over 13 miles. While I trained for it, I was consistently running 9:15’s and unders. I thought for sure I was going to do it. Then my knees started getting really bad, bad to the point of I couldn’t bend them and do a quad stretch. It was really painful to get up and down stairs or get up off the floor. So, I made a deal with Royal that I would get my knee’s MRI’d after this race - there was no need for me to go to the doctor before hand because all they were going to tell me was stop running! :) And then I was on vacation in Washington for almost 2 months and well I didn’t get as much running in the last couple weeks as I wanted, not to mention I wasn’t working out with Tonya at StrollerFit everyday, so I could feel my 9:15 min/miles slipping on me. The fewer runs the past few weeks meant that my knees were feeling quite a bit better, but it also screwed with me mentally, making me feel like I wasn’t very prepared. But prepared or not, I got up this morning, nursed Willow, got dressed, put on my running shoes, strapped on my race number, and headed to the start line. The first 9 miles I did great, I was running the 9:15 min/miles that I wanted, but I was definitely starting to feel worn out. Here’s where you might want to stop reading if you don’t want TMI. Around mile 2, I had noticed that I had to go pee, but there was no way I was stopping for a bathroom break at mile 4 (where the bathrooms were) and it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve ran when I had to go. I was just gonna power through. Well, I was powering through just fine until around mile 8. And thanks to the fact that I’ve had 2 kids, I knew there was no way could hold it any longer and I about peed my pants. So at mile 9, knowing that in the end this could screw me, I had to make a pit stop. I timed myself and it was only 45 seconds, but that meant that I would have to now run 3 of my last 4 miles at 9 min/miles to make up the time. I came sprinting out of the bathroom, but I knew that me stopping had ruined me. One of the worst things you can do to yourself is bring yourself to a dead stop when you heart is pumping a million miles an hour. My knees had stopped moving and they didn’t want to start up again, my stomach had formed a huge knot that made me feel like I was going to puke. It took me about another half mile to feel like I was back under control. At the mile 10 water station I grabbed 2 cups of water, slowed my gait down and tried to rehydrate knowing that I was going to have to cruise the last 3 miles. Sadly, it didn’t happen. At mile 11, I checked my time and I was at 1:47. I knew there was no way I could run a 6:30 min/mile for that last 2 miles. I was totally bummed. Oh well…. So, I just continued to run, what else was I going to do…stop right there and throw a tantrum and walk off the course? While that would have provided great entertainment for the people running around me, I just decided to keep going and beat the lady ahead of me! :) I just cruised along and didn’t push myself like crazy that last 2 miles and I finished in 2:09, which I guess I’m kinda fine with. It makes me want to run just one more race….and there actually is another one in a few weeks….hmmmmm

Here are the kids waiting for me right before the finish line. Jayden refused to get his picture taken and is hiding under his shade. :)

Here I come running the last 200 meters! Notice the big 13 on the road!

Finished!

Puzzles are HUGE here at Royal’s parents house.  When we were first dating, I had to prove my worth by working on a million piece puzzle they had out, ok it wasn’t a million, but close.  This is one of the few times that I’ve been here that there hasn’t been a puzzle out to work on.  That was until this morning.  Jayden found a puzzle that his grandma had bought for him, and we sat down and low and behold he’s a puzzle genius.  He did the majority of the puzzle himself once I showed him what to do.  Yea, Jayden!

Can you believe I am still in Washington???  I can’t.  I feel like I’ve been banished and boy am I sick of wearing the same clothes all the time.  I am also really missing my double jogging stroller and of course Royal.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to field the question of when is dad coming back to get us?  We have about 11 days to go and a whole week before Royal comes.  Me and the kids are now down in Kelso, at Royal’s parent’s house, for the home stretch.  One of the main differences between my parent’s house and here, is that here there is always work to do.  My parents have the ultimate vacation home, big ole spacious house on the lake, it pretty much begs you to sit down, put your feet up, and stare at the trees and moutains and water surrounding you.  Royal’s parents house, while I could sit down and put my feet up, I’d be all alone and I don’t want that, so I join in on the work when I can, ya know with 2 small kids and all.  I should of been taking pictures of the bags (garbage bag sized) and bags of beans I’ve snapped for canning, the 100 lbs of tuna that was fileted and put in jars and canned, the amount of food that was brought here from Costco yesterday in preparation for the people coming in for Gabe’s wedding, but I didn’t take one picture.  My guess is it was because my hands were busy snapping the ends off of beans.  :)  However, today I felt guilty because it’d been like 3 days without me taking one picture of the kids, so I took my camera to the park today. 

It’s been a rough couple of days for the kids.  Yesterday, Jayden fell on the sidewalk outside and skinned up his knee and Willow took a header off the couch and caught herself with her forehead.  Bummer.  Then today, Jayden was outside walking with Great-grandma Mary and Grandpa Fireball and got startled by a bunch of barking dogs and fell yet again on the sidewalk and re-scraped up his already sore knee and it’s now a big, bloody, oozy, bruised up mess and while at the park Willow lost her balance going down a slide and gave herself a bloody lip - I know, where was her mother????  Lame.  We went home after that and called it a day.