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Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I got High School tagged by my good friend from High School, Sheri! I've been thinking a lot lately about my High School Days, since my 10 year reunion is coming up on Friday! Here's a walk down memory lane:
1. Did you date someone from your school? Umm. Yeah. Kind of one of those regrets. We dated all through High School, and through my first year of college. I wish I'd have kept my options more open, but I'm glad it all turned out well in the end. I dumped him when he was a Missionary when I met Vince. Definitely made the right choice there! :0)
2. What kind of car did you drive? When I needed to, my Sr year, I drove the teenager car. It was an old Honda Accord named Arthur.
3. Were you a party animal? Me? No. Not even close.
4. Were you considered a flirt? Not really. I liked boys though! ;0)
5. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir was the best part of High School for me. That's where my closest friends were. They had the best choir program at our school. I was in Concert Choir and the smaller group, called Trouveres. (I was the Trouvere Pres.)
6. Were you a nerd? Yeah, I kind of was a nerd.
7. Were you on any varsity teams? Nope. Didn't do sports in HS. Wish I had now that I know what I was missing!
8. Did you get suspended/expelled? Never. I was a good girl!
9. Can you still sing the fight song? "We are marching, we are marching, we are marching on to vict'ry every day..." The chorus, at least!
10. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr D (choir) Mrs Moos (sewing)
11. Where did you sit during lunch? In the Hall (who ate in the lunch room?) And I have to brag that I NEVER ONCE ate school lunch all 4 years of HS. I took a sack lunch every day.
12. What was your school's full name? PHS :0)
13. School mascot? Lion
14. If you could go back and do it again, would you? As fun as it was, I really have no desire to do it again. I'm really glad I'm past all of that now. Life's so much better now!
15. What do you remember most about graduation? That I was happy, and anxious to move on to bigger and better things
16. Where did you go senior skip day? I honestly do not even remember Sr Skip day! No clue if I did anything at all!
17. Were you in any clubs? Honor Society...can't remember anything else right now.
18. Have you gained some weight since then? Yes, and lost it. I actually weigh about 20 pounds LESS now than I did in HS! (I love running!)
19. Who was your prom date? My HS boyfriend, Ben. We went to prom together here and also flew to TX and went to his prom there (he moved to TX his Sr year of HS). That was kind of fun to go to two proms in just a few weeks! (And I got to have my first Texas steak!)
20. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Yup. Friday night. I'll be there!
I tagging my other friends from HS: Sarah, Melissa, Michelle.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

My Baby is in Kindergarten!!

It seems odd to be the mother of TWO elementary school children. It feels even more odd to not have ANY preschoolers/babies at home in the mornings. But after two days, I've concluded that this might just be a good thing! Some alone time in the morning is nice. I certainly wouldn't want it for very long, though.

Evan was not at ALL worried about going back to school. Or at least if he was nervous, he didn't show it. I woke the kids up early on Monday so we could be sure we had enough time to get ready. I started our Children's Miracle Music CD, and let the "wake up" music start playing. I then gently stroked Evan's arms and legs to get him to wake up. Nothing. He was still dreaming. So in my sweetest voice I said, "Good Morning!" Evan rubbed his little eyes vigorously. I told him to just let himself wake up, that he didn't have to get up till this song was over and it was time to make his bed, but he sat right up and said, "No! I'm awake! I'm awake!" He was very excited to start Kindergarten this morning! And he didn't want to be late and miss it!

Here he is, all ready to head to the bus:


How did they get so big??

I LOVE that the bus stop is at the park right across the street. There are lots of kids at that stop. Here they are waiting for the bus:
And waiting with Evan's best friend (whom he's decided he will marry some day):

Getting on the bus:

After I put Evan on the bus, I drove down to the school to make sure he got to the right place! The kids played for a minute, and the bell rang, and they all lined up. (Do I sense just a hint of nervousness in this face?)
Then they waved goodbye: And walked through the door. (Mrs Bryson is the blonde with a blue shirt. We LOVE her!)
I then took the long walk to the car all alone. There were several parents walking that direction, and the school principle walked the other way. He must've seen our sad faces, because he called out, "It's okay, Parents! Don't be sad. We will love them!" He's such a good man. He knew just what we were feeling. I got in the car, and just cried a little bit! I remember when Brooke went to Kindergarten that first day, Evan and I BOTH cried the whole way home! I'm actually excited to have a few hours alone during the day. I think the one problem with a milestone like this one, is this really is the day I realize that my children DO grow up. :( As much as I wish I could bottle up their cute little baby selves, and save them to peek at on a hard day, I know it is inevitable. I do miss my babies, I just have to learn how to cherish the NEW milestones and focus on those. They won't be babies forever. But they will always be MY babies!


Monday, August 25, 2008

Hobble Creek Half Marathon

Saturday was my very first Half Marathon. You may think I'm a little odd, and backwards, to run 2 full marathons before I ran my first half, but what can I say? I don't always like doing things the right way. :0) My friend, Leslie, is related to the race organizers/directors of the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. She convinced me to run it with her this year. And I now fully agree with her: this is the best half marathon to run!

The course starts about 12 miles up Hobble Creek Canyon. And then you get to wind down the canyon. There are just a few, very short uphill sections, and all the rest down to the finish line are downhill--elevation loss of about 1200 feet! It was fantastic! Since we started up the canyon, my handy GPS watch had a hard time keeping up with the satellite signal. By the end I was off by about 1.5 miles! But I kept track of my time and used the mile markers along the way to figure out my pace. I can't believe how fast the first half flew by! I was cranking out 9-9:15 min miles for most of that! I was very delighted! I started having stomach cramps after about 8 miles, and had to push myself more and rest just a bit towards the end. But I finished in fairly good time, especially all things considered!

The final results were that I ran through the finish line in 2:03:55 (according to my watch)! I was optimistically hoping for 2 hours, but my goal was under 2:05, so I was right where I wanted to be. My overall average pace was 9:28 min/mile for those 13.1 miles.

Now after completing 2 full and 1 half marathons, the only question on my mind is...What's next?

Monday, August 18, 2008

First Day of 2nd Grade

Man, oh, man, does time fly by, or what?? Here it is, middle of August already, and Summer Break is over and School has begun! Today was Brooke's first day of 2nd Grade. I still can't get over the fact that I have a 2nd Grader! Woo. Every year she likes me to put her hair in sponge curlers the night before. I remember doing that when I was her age. I ALWAYS wanted curly, curly hair. Alas, mine has been straight as straight for as long as I can remember. Brooke, on the other hand, had gorgeous curls until she was about 3 or 4 when she got her first haircut. And we cut the curls all off. *Sigh* Maybe they'll come back as she gets older. But at least for now her hair holds the curl really well. Much better than mine. I remember spending an hour curling it and within a half hour it was a little wavy at best. But when I put curlers in Brookie's hair, she looks just like Shirley Temple! I love it! She's been boing, boing, boinging around all day.

I'm so glad my kids love learning and love school. Well, Brooke does. Evan will find out next Monday when the Kindergarteners start. But from how excited he is now waiting around for it to start, I'm pretty sure he'll be a great student too!

And, as a side note, I just had to show you how lovely their room got. I didn't take before pictures (thank Heavens!) but you can see how wonderfully sparkling clean the kids room was while they were playing with Grandma and Grandpa Hogge. It took me 3 days (several hours each day) to fully organize, de-junk, and shine up their room. But it was worth it!

And organized bins in the closet. Ahhh. It feels good.
And the pictures are to remind me (and my two messy monkeys) of the room's potential. I just wish it could stay like this forever. No...I take that back. I'm sure in 20 years when there's no one around to make the messes, I'll be wishing they were messy again.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Family Pictures

First of all, I want to thank my sister, Mary, for taking these wonderful pictures of our family. She's so very talented with a camera (and talented in a very many other things as well). But now the only problem is she took so many great pictures that I can't decide which I like the best. So I need your help. I want you to pick your top picture (or two if you need) for both my family and also for the pictures of me and Vince. I've numbered them so they're easy to keep track of. Then post in my comments section, and say which one you like best for my family picture, and for our couple picture. Thanks for the help! (Don't I have a gorgeous family, if I do say so myself. And I do! :0)

Family:

#1


#2
#3
#4
#5
#6

#7
#8
#9

Couple:

#1 #2
#3
#4
#5

#6

Thanks again for your help!

Skiing Pictures

Lest you think I'm not having any fun while my children are away, I thought I'd give you a taste of what I'm spending my time doing...

My little brother and sister, Joseph & Debbie on the tube:


My little brother, Peter had never gotten up on skis before. He'd tried, but never successfully skied. He just needed a good teacher! Vince is the best. Peter popped right up the very first time, and went forever! He crossed both wakes over and over. I love the grin, especially. He looked like a natural. I guess it really is in our genes!


But you'd better watch out, Pete. Once you've been skiing once, it's in your blood, and you'll never be the same again!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Childless Today

I'm feeling a little sad, and a little lonely today. My wonderful Mother-in-law took BOTH our kids up to MT to visit them this week. Which means I'm childless for the next 4 days! It's been very quiet around here. I've been looking forward to this for weeks, and yet when it was time to say goodbye, I still shed a few tears! They were fine, but I was sad because I knew how much I'd miss them. I'm sure they won't even have time to miss me; Grandma is way too fun for that!

The good news is that I've got all this free time to get my projects done that have been on my list all Summer! Today I'm tackling their room, since they won't be around to cry when I throw away their favorite trinket they got in a kid's meal 2 years ago! I LOVE it when I get in the "toss-it" mood and just want to chuck every little piece of junk. Good thing they're gone and they won't know what's missing!

The other nice thing is that Vince's parents also let us have the use of their boat for the week!! So, does anybody want to come skiing with us?!!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

My car turns 100000!

I have to preface this by saying, lest you think I've gone and lost my ever-lovin' mind, that I have distinct memories of doing this as a child. I know my dear husband thinks I'm a little silly for making this into such a big deal, but I have fond memories of piling into our old vehicle (now, was it the van or the station wagon, that I can't remember) with my piano teacher's children, and Mom driving around the parking lot until the odometer turned on our car. Now back in the good old days, you know, before we went digital, it was much easier to anticipate. The numbers were dial numbers that slowly turned until it flipped over to the next number. It's much less cool these days, and if you blink, you miss it, but alas, I thought it a big milestone for our poor old Toyota. So I savored the moment on my little camera so you could all enjoy it right along with me. That is, unless you, like Vince, think I'm just insane! :0)

Yay! 100,000 miles!