stop the insanity

Stone Mountain June 5th

2010-07-24T01:22:00.070-04:00

One of our favorite places to go in Georgia is Stone Mountain. We've bought a year's pass twice. We decided to take advantage of the summer and went several times before we moved. This was our last visit there. We did several things we hadn't done before.

Antebellum Plantation

There are several things to do at the plantation: petting zoo, gardens, and several buildings to tour.

Riverboat Ride

The Scarlett O'Hara was a fun, peaceful ride. Except for when they blew the horn. They gave you less than a second's warning before they blew it. Not cool.

Confederate Hall

We walked down the mountain (you would've thought we were walking up by the way the kids were complaining. At the bottom is Confederate Hall. You can watch a movie on the battle in the area and they have displays on the battle and also on the geology of the mountain.

Memorial Hall

We did Memorial Hall the visit before, but this was Perry's first visit. There are displays of the history of the area (Native Americans), as well as the history of the carving and recreational use of the mountain.

This is the Antebellum Plantation:

The petting zoo:

Mid-90's with Georgia's summer humidity and you'd look like this, too.

Pigs are Joshua's favorite animals, after bunnies and chickens.

Some flowers on the grounds:

We went to the garden. This is one of the carrots that had been pulled up that morning. It reminds me of the mandrakes in Harry Potter.

The gardener let the kids each pull up their own carrot.

An artichoke plant.

Mischa loves the magnolias.

This was a schoolhouse.

When I asked the kids if they'd like this as their schoolhouse.

The piano in the schoolhouse. Mischa loves old pianos.

The Scarlett O'Hara.

The wheelhouse.

Ready for the trip!

732-bell carillon donated by Coke after the 1964 World's Fair in New York.

A rock outcrop in the parking lot:

One of the favorite things for people to do was pose in Blackjack's mouth. Blackjack was Jefferson Davis' horse. There is a life-size replica of the carving in Memorial Hall.

In Confederate Hall.

After walking down the mountain, we walked back to the mall. These are some pictures from the walk back.

Waiting for the laser show to begin.

Broken Collarbone

2010-07-23T23:52:00.004-04:00

On April 21st, we went to a new park in Norcross. It was a really neat park, next to some train tracks (next to rivers and lakes, trains are Liesie's favorite things). After being there for about 30 minutes, I heard Liesie crying. I was talking to a friend, so my back was to her. I turned around and she was lying on the ground next to a stand-up spinning thing (I'm really good with descriptions, lol). She wasn't crying hard, and she got up when I walked over. She became really clingy, though, and when I told her that we'd have to leave if she didn't stop, she asked if we could go to the doctor. Very un-Liesie like. She was complaining about her arm, so I asked her to raise it and squeeze my hand. She did both, but didn't like to. She didn't complain much when I felt around, but she just wouldn't stop crying. My friend's son had broken his elbow about a week before, and he had complained the first day, but not how you'd think if something was broken. She told me that she knew something was wrong when she was driving and whenever he braced himself on a curve, he'd cry out. It was noon (what is it with kids getting sick/hurt during non-office hours?), and there was a children's urgent care just past my house. I figured that if she settled down during the ride, we'd just go home and she'd take a nap. She started to complain about bees stinging her elbow (while she was holding her shoulder) whenever I hit some bumpy road, so I knew something was up.

I love Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. We've been several times (asthma x-rays for Caleb, stitches for Joshua, suspected broken wrist for Caleb (thankfully just sprained), and now for Liesie. We've never had to wait more than 10 minutes, and you're in and out. Liesie had calmed down by the time we got there, so I was half thinking of just going home. The nurse came and did her assessment and gave Liesie some Motrin for the pain. The doctor came in and had her do the same things I did at the park. She did those pretty well, and by now I'm sure they were thinking I was just one of those overprotective mothers. Still, they decided to x-ray her just to make sure. Back in the room, the doctor came in and said she did have a minor collarbone fracture. They discussed what kind of splint they wanted for her, and decided on just splinting and wrapping, instead of the foam harness I had when I fell out of bed (also at age 5) and broke my collarbone.

Liesie took it all in stride (the extra attention didn't hurt any). It didn't slow her down any, either. She was climbing all over the place and running around the next day.

When the kids came home from school, she was showered with more attention and accessorized with a flower and a yard flag:

She was supposed to stay wrapped up for 3 weeks. After the first week, she started unwrapping herself after she went to bed. Then she started unwrapping herself during the day when I wasn't looking. She swears that unwrapping healed her. I kept her from using it as much as I could, and she's as good as new.

The Fun of Moving

2010-07-23T23:35:00.002-04:00

As far as the actual moving went, we couldn't have asked for anything better. We travelled through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansa, Oklahoma (my first time there), New Mexico, then finally Arizona. Nothing that we've seen has been broken (though I'm missing a shelf for the cabinet of my computer desk, cleaning supplies, hot pads, and junk drawer contents still). I'm almost all unpacked inside the house (the garage is kind of scary, but I'll worry about that next week). I think the only room that still needs some unpacking is the playroom/loft. I still need to organize what I've unpacked (my poor pantry looks like a grocery store exploded), and I'm dying to paint (four kids are murder on flat white paint, but we'll have to wait for the Georgia house to sell first), but we've settled in nicely.

The kids are missing their friends, but tonight I was told we have the best McDonald's that they've ever been to, they love the waterpark and parks here, and Arizona is very pretty.

I have been taking at least a picture a day since we've moved, but my laptop (where we download the pictures) hasn't been hooked up to the internet until last night. I think I'm going to do separate picture posts for main events (like going to the International Wildlife Museum), and one or two comprehensive picture posts. Events will be out of order for awhile. Once I get caught up with that, doing one post a day should be easy, since the kids will all be in school (I can already imagine the quiet, lol!).

Well, the screaming has started upstairs.

Six Flags

2010-06-29T01:00:00.015-04:00

Every year the kids earn a free Six Flags ticket by reading 300 minutes. This year we had to wait until the 21st to go, but we got it in before we moved to Arizona. It was just about as empty as it could be. On some of the Looney Tune land rides, my kids were the only ones on them. Perry and I both got onto Batman Returns and walked right onto the front car.

I've discovered the theme of goofy faces.

The flying boats were one of Liesie's favourites.

Gotta have Sylvester and Tweety in there somewhere : )

After going on Thunder River 3 times. We had a total wait time of less than 15 minutes.

We've Arrived!

2010-06-28T19:54:00.006-04:00

(this has been sitting in my drafts for awhile, when I was delusional enough to think that I would be catching up on posts and be able to post them in order- the heat must've already gotten to me)

Today was our first full day in Tucson. I registered the kids for school and they had their first Eegee's for lunch. We then went back to tour the school. Liesie and Josh will be in their own buildings, and Mischa and Caleb are in the same building. The choir room and the band room are HUGE! After we toured the school, we came back and swam at the hotel pool for an hour or so. We have one more day of sitting and doing nothing, then the movers will arrive Wednesday morning. Looking forward to getting into a routine again. Although not having to cook and do dishes has been pretty nice.

Hello little forgotten blog!

2010-06-11T16:47:00.003-04:00

I really haven't forgotten you, oh sweet little blog. It has been a crazy few months around here. Cakes, Caleb's 5th grade graduation, Perry getting a promotion that will move us to Arizona, getting the house on the market, all of the "little" projects that take forever when you're by yourself with 4 kids, posting little blurbs is easier on Facebook, posting pictures is soooooo much easier on Facebook, etc. I am planning a post/picture a day once we move, so maybe that'll be the easing back into it I need before I start the catch up once the kids start school.

Cake Teaser

2009-11-24T18:05:00.002-05:00

A cute baby's turning one cake on my cake blog.

Gold T-Shirt

2009-11-24T18:03:00.002-05:00

Joshua won the coveted gold t-shirt for Northwood. His teacher nominated him for being such a good student (mainly his ability to "block out every noise and work" -his words).

Carnations

2009-09-02T12:28:00.003-04:00

Just a teaser for my latest cake : )

New Posts Over On My Cake Blog

2009-08-17T15:53:00.003-04:00

Finally had half a second between two wedding cakes, several birthday cakes, a weeklong cruise to the Bahamas and school starting (all of this in a 3 week span of time) to update the cake blog. Now I need to pay attention to my house before the laundry walks itself to the washing machine, lol!

Pinewood Derby 2009

2009-06-26T15:10:00.003-04:00

This is Caleb's last Pinewood Derby car. Off to 11-year-old Scouts!

Keeping Myself Busy

2009-06-26T14:55:00.009-04:00

Here's some non-cake stuff I've been working on in the past few months.

A totebag for Joshua's teacher:

A sewing machine cover for my stepmother's birthday. She loves to quilt. Picking out the fabrics was a little too stressful to me to think I'd enjoy it:

Necklaces we gave away at our Girl Scout father/daughter dance:

Mother's Day shirt:

Totebag for Caleb's teacher:

Little Glimpses

2009-06-26T13:50:00.003-04:00

Head over to my cake blog to see my newest cakes!

A Few New Cakes

2009-05-25T12:50:00.004-04:00

Life is starting to settle a bit. Everything I'm involved in starts and ends at the same time, so May and August are crazy for me. I hope to return to blogging sometime this week, but I thought I'd pop up a few of the cakes that I did this weekend (just to add to the craziness).

See more at http://www.jamiescakes.blogspot.com

Farmhouse in the City

2009-03-17T17:39:00.014-04:00

Alana and I took our girls to the grand opening of a new business in our town, Farmhouse in the City. It's a little place that has small animals and arts and crafts. The girls had fun and Liesie really loved the ferrets (good girl).

Making a windsock

Chickens

Bunny love

Checking out the magic wands

Loving the boas!

A shot of the fairy party room

A cool giraffe carving

Ferrets!

Recent Cakes

2009-03-16T12:55:00.002-04:00

I have more pictures of these cakes here and here. They were both fondant, which I really don't do a lot of, so it was fun to get out of the buttercream rut for a little bit.

Restart

2009-03-12T11:23:00.002-04:00

This morning was not a good morning. I lost it big time with the kids, so I decided that even though my feet hurt, I was going to try to run again. I walked .25 mile, ran (stopping every so often to stretch my back which was really hurting for some reason) 1 mile, then walked .75 mile to finish up at 30:30. My feet and back are not happy. I really need to call a podiatrist to see what I can do with the calluses on the balls of my feet (I've never had problems before I ran), but that involves 3 of my biggest dislikes 1.) calling people, 2.) the doctor, and 3.) people touching my feet. I might have to bite the bullet, though. I couldn't participate in our Brownie Ballerina Try-It with my troop on Tuesday. Don't even want to think about hiking and camping.

Rock Star

2009-03-06T10:16:00.009-05:00

Joshua was chosen as one of the Blue Team's rock stars at the team meeting. The school is split into two teams (my boys are blue and Mischa is red). There are 3 team meetings a year and at every meeting they choose 3 rock stars- kids that try hard, do well, and are good examples. Mischa got one last year- luckily I happened to be there since Caleb was on the other team. Josh's teacher let me know earlier in the week- which was good since it was my turn to go to Mischa's meeting. I'm going to apologize in advance for the shaky video- Anneliese kept wanting up and pulled on my arm constantly.

Josh's introduction

A bonus was that 4th grade was singing a song a few of the students wrote.

Inuit Living
to the beat of Kung Fu Fighting

Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-h0-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-ho
Oh-ho-ho-ho

Chorus:
The Inuits were living in Alaska
Keeping warm was a big disaster
So they made clothes from animal skin
and built igloos to sleep in.

They were funky Eskimo men
From Alaska and Greenland
The men bartered for steel
and the women cooked a good meal.
The kids had a strong heart
Everybody knew their part
From shooting a bow and arrow
To playing tic-tac-toe.

Chorus

They invented the kayak that would always flip back
Hunting was a pain so the kids would play a game.
They carved knives from ivory tusk
and prepared their meal at dusk.
They loved their husky dogs
who pulled their sleds through thick fogs.

Chorus

Oh-ho-ho-ho-ha! CUT!
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ha! FISH!
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ha! GOT ONE!
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ha! LET'S EAT!

Chorus

Oh-ho-ho-ho ha section

Creating

2009-03-04T17:22:00.006-05:00

Clothes- I'm making each of the kids a fleece hoodie/pants outfit. I'm 3/4 of the way done now!

Cards- for a teacher's birthday

Cake- for Achievement Days at Church.

Lunch With A New Kindergartener

2009-02-19T19:00:00.006-05:00

I think Liesie misses having her brother home all day. And on a completely unrelated note, the frozen peaches in that plastic cup are soooooooooooooooo good.

Little Froggie

2009-02-19T18:57:00.002-05:00

This little tree frog was found at my dad's house.

Because Embarrassing Your Kids Never Gets Old

2009-02-19T18:54:00.003-05:00

Things I Learn at School

2009-02-19T18:51:00.005-05:00

All of these were taken in the hallways of my kids' school.

Eat your veggies

Water conservation is important for women

Almost as important as wearing a good, supportive bra.

Car Wreck Pictures Finally Downloaded

2009-02-19T18:46:00.004-05:00

Perry bought a new camcorder as our family gift for Christmas and now I can use it to download pictures from my cell phone.

Here is the damage from my car wreck almost 1 year ago:

This wreck killed the car. Something inside punctured the radiator. The headlight came out cleanly, just popped right out.

100 Days of School

2009-01-28T14:22:00.005-05:00

Kindergarten is always celebrating something, and the 100 days of school celebration is always my favourite.

On the 101st day

Rockin' the high waisted look

Cute old man

Funky Food

2009-01-28T14:12:00.003-05:00

Just a few fun food fotos:

Get Out the Bubble Wrap

2009-01-28T13:51:00.003-05:00

On Sunday, January 18th, we were all rushing around, getting ready for Church. All except for Joshua, who was playing with the dog. He was standing at the top of the stairs and threw Shadow's doughnut down the stairs. Shadow bumped into him as he ran down, knocking Joshua into the wall backwards (luckily it wasn't down the stairs). He started crying and Caleb went over to comfort him. I heard a "Um, mom, I think you need to come here" and opened the door. I saw a little bit of blood on Caleb's hand and went to inspect the damage. His hand wasn't very bloody, so I wasn't expecting much. I asked Joshua to show me where it hurt (he is waaaaaaay overdue for a haircut). As I started to look through the hair in the general area that he pointed, a drop of blood fell onto his neck, followed by another. I stopped looking and opened the linen closet (luckily it was right next to us) and grabbed our red washcloth (luckily I procrastinated putting it back into the first aid kit, which we keep downstairs). I pressed it onto his head for a few seconds, then went back to looking. The second I saw the gash, I yelled for Perry that a trip to the ER was going to be coming. Thankfully I remembered that the urgent care center run by the children's hospital was open- it's about a mile down the street and the co-pay was $70 less than the ER. Perry took him while I finished getting the kids ready for church. Six stitches and an hour later, they were home.

Just a Little Excited for Christmas

2009-01-06T20:13:00.003-05:00

Strike!

2009-01-06T19:46:00.014-05:00

A few months ago Perry and I went bowling on a date. We hadn't been since we were first married. We had forgotten how fun it was! We went again at the beginning of December with Caleb, when he was too old for the childcare at our Young Women sponsored shopping night, and started working on his Bowling belt loop for Cub Scouts. We decided to take the whole family during the Christmas break when Perry was emailed a coupon (we ended up spending $30 for 2 hours of bowling for all 6 of us- including shoe rental!).

Yes, I know you are all loving the form.

Caleb had a good game- even had a few strikes.

Mischa would've been a serious contender if she got a little more power behind her.

Josh loved it!

Sorry, hon, couldn't resist.

Anneliese decided at the end that she wanted no help from dad whatsoever.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T19:31:00.006-05:00

We had a really nice New Year's Eve. We went to our friends house and had pizza, tons of snacks, and lots of fun. The kids played XBox and various board games and had a dance party. The adults enjoyed the kid-free time to play Yahtzee. My visiting teacher from Church sent some fireworks over for the kids to enjoy. The only thing that I would've changed is it was so freaking cold! A cold front decided to come through that day and it was close to 20 at midnight.

We started setting off the top half at 10. When we finished that, we went inside to warm up. We started the second half at midnight, but we still have a few left over for July.

25 seconds to go....

Midnight!

New Year, New Look

2009-01-06T19:27:00.003-05:00

I finally got bored waiting for my hair to grow another 2 or 3 inches to be donated.

Here I am in November in Chattanooga:

Here I am now:

Mischa's Recital

2008-12-20T21:56:00.004-05:00

Mischa had her 2nd winter recital today. She did a duet with her piano teacher on Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and did Nuttin' for Christmas. She did really well.

Caleb's First Concert

2008-12-20T21:51:00.003-05:00

Caleb started playing clarinet this year. He's really enjoying it. The 4th and 5th graders had their winter concert at the beginning of December. 4th grade did really well doing songs using only 3 or 4 notes, and the 5th grade band was very good. It's amazing what a year can do!

Visiting the North Pole

2008-12-20T21:42:00.004-05:00

We go to Santa's North Georgia Embassy before Christmas every year (this is our 3rd year). He and Mrs. Claus go all out in decorating their yard and house. My favourite room is their bedroom. All of the decorations there are nativities. They have a huge yard size nativity in the corner.

Caleb asked for an I-Coaster roller coaster set (and I guess the I-pod to go with it).Mischa wants silly putty.

Joshua is fixated on a wireless Wii nunchuck.Liesie was too shy again to sit on his lap. But she wasn't shy enough to accept a candy cane from him. She wants a Barbie.

After we saw Santa, I put her down to give my arm a rest. She started to throw a fit and we told her it wasn't a good idea to be bad this close to Santa (we had received a call from him the night before for setting off his naughty radar). Joshua chimed in "Yeah, you'll receive a lump of coffee!"

Not Quite As Creative As Kris

2008-12-20T21:30:00.002-05:00

My sister-in-law, Kristine, is the card master. I'm not that great at paper layering- I have no sense of colour combinations- so I stick with the simpler stuff. But, Joshua's teacher still loved the card.

Just For Mom

2008-12-09T21:22:00.001-05:00

The dog does exist-

Great Site

2008-12-02T09:43:00.003-05:00

Found this today through a link from da Momma: Moosebutter. If you like Weird Al, you won't be disappointed

My Tears Weren't Because He Was Getting Older

2008-11-28T22:27:00.006-05:00

Josh's sixth birthday will be talked about several generations from now. I'm still not in the laughing about it stage, but I'm no longer crying. Let's see what this is about, shall we?

It all starts out with Joshua's theme for his cake. He wanted a Ben 10 character, like Caleb had (but not the same alien), then decided to go for a Teletubbies cake. That really didn't fly with us, so I came up with Bumblebee from the Transformers, Joshua's favourite. I was going to do the car, but when I went to get the cake pan, I realized I didn't have any rectangular cake boards. It's Black Friday, and I'm not going anywhere near Wal-mart or Michael's. I did have round boards, so I had to modify the design some. The car was gone, and I chose the Autobot logo instead.

I did keep the cake in Bumblebee's colours, though. I've been trying to liven up my borders some.

I was just sitting down at the computer, all done with the cake, when I heard the dog drinking in the kitchen. Then I realized he wasn't drinking. As I run to the kitchen in slow motion, the scene from A Christmas Story flashes in front of me- the dogs eating the turkey. Yep, life is imitating art right in my own home. Lucky me!!

Ooh, pretty bad, huh? Wait, it get's worse....

Um, it wouldn't be the back that's destroyed would it? Oh no, front and center baby!

Perry and the kids convinced me that they would still eat the cake if I cut off the destroyed parts (we'll eat from the back to the front). I had used all of my white to make the black, so my shells are different in the fixed part, but overall it isn't too bad.

The dog is really bad about trying to steal food, so I'm making it my mission this coming week to break him of that.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-28T22:24:00.003-05:00

This is the cake I did for Perry's potluck at work:

Marathon Day

2008-11-10T15:43:00.010-05:00

Race Day

Before the race. Josh is crying because I hurt his feelings when I said he looked like an Oompaloompa.

At the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor's Center during the race:

Victorious!

Worn out

Ruby Falls Photocap

2008-11-10T15:31:00.009-05:00

The waterfall

All together at the waterfall

A bad picture of us, but you can see the waterfall this time

Downtown Chattanooga

The kids really enjoyed Ruby Falls. As far as caves go, I think Carlsbad Caverns has better formations, but the waterfall was really neat.

Tennessee Aquarium Part 2

2008-11-10T15:19:00.012-05:00

Photocap of the Tennessee Aquarium Part 1

2008-11-10T15:01:00.014-05:00

Since we were all traveling for Perry's marathon, we decided to go up a day and a half early to get some sightseeing in. The travel through the North Georgia mountains was beautiful. We've decided to go on a day trip here next fall. On Friday, we hit both the Tennessee Aquarium and Ruby Falls. Here's some photos of the day:

A brave turtle

Halloween 2008

2008-11-10T14:41:00.010-05:00

We had a good Halloween this year and the kids decided to make it a little easier on mom this year in the costume department (well, most of them did).

Caleb continuing his Ben 10 theme from his birthday.

Mischa was the robot from last year and she wants to go as the tin woodsman next year. This costume definately paid off the time I put into it.

Here's my exception. Joshua told me he wanted to be an alien dog.

Anneliese, the sparkling princess.

With very tricked out Tinkerbell hair.

Imagination to Reality

2008-10-23T13:55:00.011-04:00

October's theme in Cub Scouts was Adventures in Books. We had a really fun pack meeting, with our Cubmaster coming up with a fantastic mystery over missing awards. I volunteered to do the cake, since I had a book pan. I had no idea at the start of the month what I was going to do, but that's what Perry's for.

I finally had an idea of scenes from books, but I had no clue what to use. Perry gave me some ideas of what captured boys' interests and I went to work. I asked Mischa what page number to put on the book, and she suggested our pack number. Perry then came home, saw the cake, and said it would be cool to have put a smooth brown border around the bottom of the cake (instead of the white shells here) to make it look like a book cover. I scraped off the stars and followed his suggestion. It turned out really cute.

My favourite part of this cake was the rough sketch. I haven't ever drawn a rough idea for my cakes before, and I don't think I've picked up a pencil to draw in 10 years (and I used to love to draw in high school). I changed some things around, mainly not liking the title look, moving the pirate flag/map down so I didn't have 2 black scenes next to each other, and I decided to ditch the Gryffindor crest for the golden snitch (I figured boys would like the sports in Harry Potter, and it was also a good reason to buy the gold dusting powder I've been wanting). I used silver dusting powder on the spaceship and the wings of the snitch and dragon.

(the black squiggle next to the space scene is what happens when you leave a pen and paper within reach of a certain 3 year old girl in our family)

Gap

2008-10-23T13:50:00.003-04:00

Mischa lost her first top tooth on Friday. By Saturday (when this picture was taken), you could see the new one poking through. When Caleb lost this same tooth, his tooth didn't start poking through for 6 months! She has always (okay, for the only 3 teeth she has lost) been very fast to get her new ones. I think her first adult tooth was almost in a week after she lost the baby tooth.

Poor Blog

2008-10-16T11:19:00.002-04:00

Poor poor ignored blog. It's been a bit of a whirlwind around here. It started at the end of September, when my grandmother passed away. She was 94 and it was her birthday. My other grandmother was 95 1/5 when she passed, so my kids will never be rid of me, bwahaha! I've also been in charge of Cub Scouts this month and had a quick bout of sickness. I haven't had time to run at all, which I'm wanting to get back to mainly because I'm almost at 100 miles. We also got a new puppy, so it's been crazy but fun here. Maybe once I get back on top of the laundry I'll find the time to blog.

6 Miles

2008-09-27T18:34:00.002-04:00

Did my first non-stop 6 miler today. I did a 6 mile run about a month ago, but stopped after 4 miles because it was getting dark, drove home, and finished on the treadmill. I averaged 13:00/mile. I'm at my highest mileage/week yet, at 12 miles. I felt pretty good, considering I ran for 1 hour and 18 minutes.

Back on the Horse

2008-09-22T13:06:00.003-04:00

After taking last week off after racing, I'm back to running again. I did 3 miles on the demoralizing treadmill (it says 13:00/mile and I cranked it up a few times vs. the walking some of the 5K faster pace) and it wasn't too bad. I stopped about halfway through for water, but my legs felt pretty good.

Monday I Learned...

2008-09-16T08:41:00.002-04:00

That baked potato guts aren't as hard to clean up as I thought they would be on Sunday, when I decided to procrastinate the task.

Sunday I Learned...

2008-09-16T08:40:00.001-04:00

That baked potatoes will explode in your oven.

The Race

2008-09-13T12:19:00.002-04:00

The cool morning Perry had said would be here didn't materialize, thanks to Ike. Still, I got up at 5, extremely thankful that the migraine I had been plagued with the past few days decided to let up. I was a little nervous when we got there, mainly because I didn't know the race course and there's a loooooong hill close to the park. The race started about 7:30. Thankfully, the course didn't go close to the scary hill. It did start out on a hill, followed by a downhill which I knew would be there for me at the end. Unfortunately, the course took us through Old Town Suwanee, known now to me as Hills from Hades. Holy cow! About halfway up the first hill, I quit running. I would've walked the hill, but I found that it was a little easier to go forward when I was jogging. We got to the top of that hill and the road turned a corner, up a longer, though less steep, hill. I kept looking for water, knowing that it should be around the 1 mile spot. Looking at my watch, and even accounting for the walking I did, I knew I should be somewhere close to the mark, but there was nothing. No water, no sign. We went through a new subdivision, and at the end of the subdivision was the water. I was a little panicked here, because I was now thinking I was off on my time/mileage estimation. There would be no way for me to finish this in less than an hour if this was Mile 1! I pushed on a bit and rounded a corner. From there, I could see the downhill I went down at the start of the race, so I knew I was a lot closer to the end than I thought. I developed a stitch in my side at this point, so I was walking a little slower here. Perry says I crested the hill at 35:00, which is where I wanted to finish the race. Thanks to a downhill into the park, I finished the race at 36:03. Not quite the time I wanted, but after those hills and the walking I did, not bad. I did come in 2nd in the women't 55-59 age group, and would've taken the 60 and up, lol. The overall women's winner came in at 20:46, and my age group was won at 22:59.
I'm not as sold on racing as I thought I would be, and it might've had something to do with the hills. I'll see if I can find a flatter course and see how I do.

Decade

2008-09-11T10:19:00.001-04:00

10 years ago I became a mom. Man, that sentence makes me feel old! I'll have to go upstairs and hunt down some baby pictures of Caleb to scan in. Happy birthday Caleb!

Fantasy Vs. Real Life

2008-09-11T10:18:00.001-04:00

On the way back from the school bus this morning I asked Liesie if she was a princess. She said, "No, I'm a person!". Apparently in her little mind, princesses aren't real people, just cartoons.

Cake Blog

2008-09-06T19:55:00.001-04:00

Whew! I finally finished posting all of my cakes. Now to go through and tag them all!

New Header

2008-09-04T14:22:00.002-04:00

Marchet made a header for my cake blog. Now to finish Midnight Sun so I can give some attention to the blog!

Now I Have to Get Busy Uploading Cake Pictures

2008-09-04T13:49:00.002-04:00

A while back, my friend Marchet (the one that did those awesome pictures of my kids) did a photo shoot for some business cards for my cake decorating business. She has some pictures up here. I'm so excited I can barely sit still!

Overheard

2008-09-04T08:35:00.003-04:00

Dora (yes, the Explorer) asked what everyone wanted to be when they grew up.

Anneliese: A sparkling princess!

Making Me Laugh Today

2008-09-04T08:17:00.001-04:00

I found these today- I will never look at the song "I'm So Glad When Daddy Gets Home" from the kids' perspective again.

I found this a few days ago- and I'm still laughing.

Overheard

2008-09-03T07:52:00.002-04:00

To Anneliese, as we were walking back from the bus stop this morning:

Me: I'm going to suck your nose off.

L: Nooooo.

Me: Please?

L: Noooo.

We then go through a round of pretty please with sugar on tops and when that doesn't work, I pull out her patented "because I waaaant to!"s. I finally ask why not.

L: Cause I got glue on my nose.

Neighbourhood Course Take 2

2008-09-02T21:48:00.002-04:00

Perry and I went out and did a little run through the neighbourhood, which turns out to be 3.1 miles (how convenient!). I wasn't too happy with the 37:39 time which worked out to 12:09/mile- I want a 35:00 5K. Of course, at the beginning of the summer, I just wanted to finish before an hour, lol, so any improvement is an improvement. I was kind of bummed, since my last Greenway time was a 34:00 3 miler (11:24/mile). Of course, the Greenway is flat and my neighbourhood definately isn't (my fastest mile was on the flat Wetlands part of the course). I asked to stop for water once. We stopped 2 more times (to look at some flowers and field a phone call from the kids) and I grabbed water then. I didn't walk at all, even on the hills. I did this course (and a little extra for a total of 3.4 miles) at the beginning of June. I thought I was going to die and even took a 6 minute sit down break while Perry ran around a loop without me. I ended up with a 51:57 time (15:15/mile). Definately improving, so I'm happy.

T Minus 15 Days

2008-08-28T10:17:00.002-04:00

Just over 2 weeks until my first race. Now it's getting to be crunch time into training my body to do what it needs (I want it) to do. My main goals are being able to go 1 mile before I get water and to do this under 35 minutes. It's hard to judge running on the treadmill where I'm at speedwise. I did a 3k today in 38:17. The last quarter mile was almost a sprint. My training log says I averaged 12:21 a mile. When I did my 4 mile run last Saturday, I averaged 11:24 with no sprinting. My 3 mile time was 34:00, and that last .1 mile did not take 4:17 today, lol, so I think if I keep up this pace, I should be safely under the 35 minute goal I've set for myself.
The water thing is going to be a little harder. I think I do okay when I'm outside going a mile without water. Inside it's another story. It might be because it's way hotter in the house, or it might be because I'm going faster than I am outside, but I can rarely get to half a mile without stopping for water. Today my goal was 1 mile, and I made it through my warm up jog mile (yay!). After that break, I kicked the speed up a touch, and made it through that mile (it was a little harder, though). The 3rd mile kicked me. I willed myself to get to the half mile mark. I'm scheduled for 7 miles this Saturday (ha ha ha). The thought of my running almost 2 hours straight has never, ever, ever crossed my mind. A little disheartening thought is that the men's Olympic marathon winner ran 26 miles in 2 hours 6:32. And they didn't even get a water station until 3 miles in.

Whew!

2008-08-25T08:34:00.027-04:00

In the past three weeks, I've:

Been to the beach at Ocean Isle, North Carolina (thanks Dave and family!)

Seen Caleb get his Purple belt

Been the playmate for a superhero

Sent children off to school

Josh really wasn't sad about going to school- his leg hurt after sleeping on the couch

This so didnt look blurry to me when I took it- welcome to my mornings

2/3 of my kids came home that day- hey, it's more than half, right?

School was so fun he wanted to go back the next day

Baking up a storm

Where the Wild Things Are cakes for a boy's 2nd birthday. The above cake was his personal smash cake and would have a cutout of Max and his boat on it.

A baby shower cake

A House of Blues birthday cake

A friend's birthday cake

I've also been really busy with PTA (this time of year I gather all of the volunteer interest sheets the parents bring in and I put them into a spreadsheet to send out to all of the chairs of activities). Good thing I love data entry!
I'm also lead Room Mom for Joshua's class and co-Room Mom for Mischa.
For Cubs I haven't done too much except for a planning meeting. We're Webelos this year, so I've got to get on that! Caleb is on track to finish his Bear in this week.
Girl Scouts has kept me hopping! Tons of training (at least one a month), getting our troop calendar organized and getting ready for a camping trip next month, stepping up as a co-Service Unit director (I'm the middle man between the troops in our area and our Council), and troop organizer for our school (we gather the interested girls' names (did I mention how much I love data entry?) and try to get troops started from that).

Over the year, these things ought to spread out some and be easy to keep up with, but the start up and organizing all at one time is quite crazy. I think I'll join Liesie for a little nap-

Tradition

2008-08-12T08:59:00.003-04:00

I've got quite a few things to blog about, but they all involve downloading pictures from the camera- so it might be this weekend by the time I get around to it.

One thing I don't need pictures for is Mischa's first day of school tradition. In first grade, she fell asleep on the bus ride home and was found after the last drop off. Last year, she fell asleep again (Caleb had gotten sick the first day and went home early) and wasn't found until the bus was to start its middle school drop off run. This year, my friend joked about how many kids would be getting off of the bus. Josh ran off, all smiles. Caleb ran up and gave me a hug. And....no Mischa. One of the girls at the stop ran back on to see if she was asleep. Nope. I came back inside expecting a message from the school saying she had missed the bus. Nope. What I did get was a message from my Brownie co-leader that she had her. An assistant had put the wrong bus sticker on her. Luckily my co-leader is the last stop and her girls know Mischa. The poor girl was in tears for thirty more minutes after she got home. It's almost become funny to us, but Mischa sure wouldn't mind it if this year was the last for this tradition.

Wiped Out

2008-07-26T19:23:00.003-04:00

Today was my first 4 mile run, and it looks like I'll really be feeling it tomorrow, if I have right now as any indicator. After my 3 mile I felt pretty good. It's 7:30 and I'm ready for bed.

I figured that if I was bored on my 3 mile run last week, I would die of boredom before I finished today's run if I did it on the treadmill. After Perry got back from his run, I took the car and ran for the first time on the Alpharetta Greenway. It was really beautiful, and I learned that when I'm thirsty, grabbing a blackberry off the trail isn't the best thing to do (my salivary glands HURT with that anticipation of tartness). Even though it was later in the morning (11), the greenway was pretty well shaded and not too hot. It wasn't too crowded and I didn't feel like a complete beginner way out of my comfort zone. I learned that The Mighty Mighty Bosstones will last 2 miles and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat will last me longer.

I was a little disappointed in my run, in that there was more walking involved than I would have liked in the first 3 miles. My fourth mile I kind of expected a bit of walking, but not so much in the first 3 miles (okay, maybe the amount I walked in the 3rd mile was kind of expected, but I couldn't even go half a mile without walking in the first 2 miles).

That being said, timewise I rocked. I felt like I was going way slower than what I do on the treadmill, so I was really worried at every mile. I was very pleasantly surprised:

Last Week This Week
Mile 1 13:22 11:14
Mile 2 13:22 12:42
Mile 3 13:22 13:04
Mile 4 --- 13:40
Total 40:06 50:40
Avg Pace 13:22 12:40

The pace I ran at today felt more like the 4.0 (15:00 mile) pace on the treadmill, so hopefully I'm gaining cardio and stamina faster than I'm sacrificing my times to an inaccurate treadmill.

I'm more than a little scared for next week's 5 mile run- I'm going to have to do it on Friday, since we're leaving for Myrtle Beach on Saturday, which means the treadmill : ( and the length worries me, too.

Gaining Confidence

2008-07-23T11:04:00.002-04:00

Well, Perry interrupted me with a phone call just as I finished my warmup and was about to kick up the speed on the treadmill to tell me that I am officially registered in my first race. I don't know if the motivation I needed or changing it up to run by music by a few favourite artists instead of watching it on TV, but I made it through my second 3 miler intact. I ran for 2 miles nonstop, stopped for some water and to change the album on the MP3 player, then ran for another 1/2 mile, water, and finished the last 1/2 mile, all on a 4.5. Saturday's 3 miler was a mile at 4.0, then up to 4.2 for about a half mile, then fluctuating between 4.2 and 4.5 till the end. Still looking at Saturday's 4 mile run warily, though.

Kidisms

2008-07-22T10:47:00.002-04:00

I was in my room last week and Joshua comes up to me to tattle on his siblings. I guess Caleb and Mischa were fighting over something and Josh got in the middle of it to protect his sister, when Caleb kicked him in the "peanuts".

Last night before dinner, Perry asked Liesie to do something. It was very minor- I can't even remember what it was. She sits at the table and announces that her "heart is broken" because Perry and I are mad at her- I hadn't even talked to her during the request, and Perry politely asked her, so I have no idea where the mad part came in, but her pout when she told us was priceless.

A Little Better

2008-07-21T12:02:00.002-04:00

I did my 2 miler for the week, and I've been having a goal of going just a little further everytime without stopping. On Thursday, it was 1.25 miles, and Saturday I went 1.35 miles. Today I went 1.5 miles, and I only stopped to grab some water because my mouth was turning into cotton.
I've also noticed that my first .25 mile is my hardest. It seems like my body fights the running really hard. Today it lasted almost a half mile, but at the 1 mile mark I was feeling a lot better than I ever had. When I stopped for water at 1.5 miles, I was still feeling great energy-wise. I kept a 13:16/mile pace. Now watch the 3 miler on Wednesday see me going only half a mile before dying, lol.

What Did I Sign Up For Again?

2008-07-20T13:44:00.003-04:00

Yesterday was the first "big" change in my training schedule for my race- I ran 3 miles instead of my usual 2. I was nowhere near as impressive as Perry's 14 miler (I'm bopping along with Aunt Flo and Grandma Bessie, remember). I looked at my schedule for this week- Monday, 2 miles; Wednesday, 3 miles-whoa what happened to the 2 I've been running the past two weeks?; Saturday, 4 miles- WHOA! I scan the weeks ahead 2,3,5; 2,3,6; now they're throwing in extra days where I'm running faster! I guess I've just learned my lesson on reading the fine print, lol.

Прогресс

2008-07-17T12:32:00.004-04:00

I've been suffering lately with what I call Russian syndrome with my running. When I was in college, I needed a foreign language to graduate. I had had four years of French in high school and was bored with that, the Spanish labs took hours to get into for your oral tests so that was out of the question, so I decided to go more exotic. My first choice was Greek, since I had a Greek friend in high school and Greek food and I are having a torrid love affair, lol, but I was looking to start in the Spring and first semester Greek was only taught in the Fall. So I decided to go more family heritage and take German. No classes when I could take them. So I decided on Russian. I registered for the class, went to the bookstore to get my books, which were a sealed 3 pack. I was so excited when I got to my dorm that the package was open as soon as I walked into the door. I opened the first book. No English. At all. Hmmm. I opened the the second book. No English. Oh. Crud. I opened the third book. Look- English! But it was describing the rules of grammer, which are extensive in Russian, so it might as well have been in Russian, lol. My eyes filled with tears- I was going to fail this class and fail hard. I couldn't even read the alphabet to sound out the words. After a while, the sobs subsided enough that I could hear a little whisper of common sense- no one taking this class was going to know more than me at that first class. I decided to give it a try, and lo and behold, my little whispering voice knew what it was talking about! I ended up acing the four semesters I took, and would probably have taken further semesters if I had the time.

My running has been like this. I've been reading Perry's Runners magazine, which has been a mistake. I was reading an article about taking a beginner to a half marathon in 10 weeks. For her beginning, easy, runs, they had her running at a pace of 12:00-12:30 miles. I was instantly transported to that dorm room 15 years ago. I've been running a few weeks now three times a week, and I was pushing it to get to go 13:31/mile today, which is the best I've done. Perry says our treadmill is miscalibrated, but not a minute off to be close to comparing. I lost it. I've lost one pound since starting the running in June. I was dying and hopelessly slow. I'm going to be running in the back of the pack at my race with Aunt Bertha and Grandma Bessie, picking up knitting tips.

Then, while I was running, I started thinking (which I normally don't do, because I'm pretty boring inside my head). For fun, I decided to see if I could speed walk at 4.5 (14:30/mile). And I could! I didn't want to keep it up for a sustained period of time, but it made me think back to when I started walking. I warmed up at a 3.0 and booked it at a 3.5. I could get up to a 3.7, but a 4.0 was always at a jog. Now I'm warming up at 3.5, sometimes at 4.0 (at a walk), and a 4.5 is a jog. So while I'm not 100% convinced I'm not going to come out of this race with some new best friends and a new hobby, my voice is telling me there is a little glimmer of English in my pack of books, and even if I don't understand a thing it means, it's still English in a sea of Russian.

Day Camp Wonders

2008-07-12T20:42:00.006-04:00

The little nest of birds on the light right above our site

A box turtle laying her eggs

A little cute tree frog

A cool tree trunk seen on our hike

Our Fourth of July

2008-07-12T20:13:00.017-04:00

The Fourth of July has historically been fairly memorable for our family. Usually it's because it rains like crazy on us, although the year Mischa got sick minutes before the fireworks started gave us a little variety one year. Roswell has a really great show a few miles down the road from our house. We park some chairs on the grass by the road and watch the show. Anneliese was really excited about fireworks this year. She gave several standing ovations.

Everyone gave it two thumbs up:

Or fingers

Six Flags

2008-07-12T19:17:00.017-04:00

While Mom was here, we all headed down to Six Flags. I hadn't been to an amusement park since our honeymoon almost 14 years ago and Perry has only been able to go on the rides the kids have been able to go on for the past two years. We all had a great time. Mom went on the Georgia Scorcher and Mindbender, Caleb was able to go on the Ninja and Cyclone, and Josh loved the Wile E. Coyote Canyon Blaster, but he wasn't too thrilled with the Mindbender. Liesie loved the boat swings and the train. The Hanson Cars were a HUGE hit with the kids. We were there all day and the crowds were really mild. I think there was a longer ride for the Canyon Blaster than for Thunder River. For the Cyclone, Caleb and I had to wait for two cars, but that was only because he wanted to sit in the very front. He and Perry went on the Ninja twice in a row while Mom and I did a couple of kiddie rides with the other three.

Grandma never turns down a hug from a man in tights

Couldn't leave Six Flags without this one (Tweety is my nickname)

Thomas Town was a mixed bag- Liesie liked the playground better than the ride on Thomas, who really couldn't compare with the real train

Caleb (in center of picture) realizes he's going straight for the waterfall

Truckers-in-training

Dad gets in on the action, too

All Aboard! Mom, Mischa, and I were in the car behind

Caleb and Liesie flying

The beloved boat swings

First sighting of the Ninja

We could not get Mischa out of this sprinkler

I Guess It Could Be Worse

2008-07-11T14:33:00.003-04:00

I'm sitting here at the computer, kind of zoning out while it boots up, when a sting from my toes jolts me back into reality. Ouch! There it is again! I look down to find Anneliese trying to pull the little hairs off of my toes. I ask her what she's doing, to which she replies, "There's hairs on yours toes". Yeah, and they're blonde and only a few and can you please leave them alone! No is the answer I get. After she tries to get a few more, she pull my other foot out from under me to inspect it. That foot passed inspection, so I guess I should be thankful that I'm not an old man with hairy ears, lol.

September 13

2008-07-11T12:45:00.001-04:00

Perry thinks I'll be ready, so I'm going to go ahead and register for my first 5K at Suwanee Day 2008 tonight.

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-07-05T20:01:00.003-04:00

My birthday this year started out pretty low key. The kids and I had our last day of Girl Scout day camp. I was helping with the preschoolers, so I had Josh and Liesie with me, while the older kids had their own groups. We went straight from day camp to Mischa's piano lesson. I was thinking we might have time to take Caleb to karate, but Perry said that he would be coming home early so that we could go out to dinner at a decent hour (especially important since my birthday was on a Friday this year).
I came home and jumped through the shower really quick to rinse off since day camp was 100% outside and we had our hike and hay ride that day. I asked Perry what I should wear, and he suggested something a little nicer (nice capris and nice shirt) instead of my normal jean capris and t-shirt since it was my birthday.
We loaded the kids in the car, and I did think it a little strange that Perry didn't ask me where I wanted to go, but I figured after almost 14 years together, he's realized I will never have an answer to that question, lol. He turned left out of our subdivision, which was another weird thing, since most of the restaurants we go to are to the right. After he passed the main road to the mall, I realized there was really nothing up the road we were on except eventually my friend's house. The thought flashed through my mind that perhaps he had set something up with her, but I dismissed it because I knew that her father-in-law was in town. When we turned down her street, I got really confused. We pulled in front of her house, and by now I was intrigued. Perry had never done anything like this before. We ended up dropping the kids off with her (her husband and father-in-law were having a boys' night out) and we headed off to a movie. We saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (it was an okay movie-it was too heavy on computer effects for an Indiana Jones movie and the ending was too hokey). We then went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I had received some gift cards as a thank you from my Brownie troop this year and Perry snuck them out of my pile and had them ready to go. Oh. My. Goodness. I had only eaten at the Cheesecake Factory once before for a Girls' Night Out and had gotten a Caesar salad and chocolate cake (both of which were good), but I was excited to try a more substantial meal. We chose the potstickers to start with. I had never had potstickers before our Cub Scout Blue and Gold in March. They were so good I decided to try them again. I think if it wasn't my birthday, Perry and I would've been in a fight to the death over the last one, lol. They were sooooo good. We dipped our bread in the sauce to get every last drop. I couldn't decide between steak or shrimp so I got both the steak Diane and shrimp scampi. The portions were huge! The scampi was favourite. The sauce wasn't the butter sauce I was used to, but more of a cream sauce. It was very good with the mashed potatoes served with the steak. The steak was very good, too, and I loved the mushrooms in it. I couldn't decide between the lemon torte cake or the chocolate cake, but ended up choosing the chocolate cake. Very yummy.
I hadn't had a call all day from my dad, and by the time dinner was over, I decided to give him a little memory nudge, lol. Before we went into the restaurant, I had noticed the back cover of my phone wasn't on straight, so Perry fixed it for me. Unfortunately, we hadn't noticed that the phone had turned off when we did this. We walked out of the restaurant and I flipped my phone open. I saw that I had a voice mail and was surprised to hear that I had two messages. When my dad turned out to be the first message, I couldn't figure out who the second message could be from, since everyone I expected to hear from that had my cell number had already called me. When I heard my friend's voice, there was a loud crying in the background. All she said was that she had a little boy on her lap with a bleeding head wound. He had been jumping on the bed and hit the dresser and he was crying and all 7 of the other kids were crying and freaking out because of the blood. She had called her husband, who was at the store down the street, to come help, but she thought it might need stitches. We were about the same distance away as her husband and she ended up calling only five minutes before we left the restaurant, so she didn't have too long without help. Her husband had just opened the popsicle box to give one to Josh (I had figured it was him since he's my big bed jumper). Poor Caleb was having the hardest time- he blamed himself for not being there to help protect Josh. The gash wasn't as bad as I had expected, but it was definately calling for a trip to the ER. Perry took off with him and I put the kids to bed. He left for the ER around 10:00 (the pediatric urgent care less than a mile from our house closed at 9-grr). I spent my time reading my birthday present- a book on doing genealogy research on the internet. Perry called every so often to update, but around 2:00 a.m. I gave up and went to bed. They pulled in at 4:00. Josh ended up with 4 stitches. Both he and Perry didn't wake up until almost noon.
I'm just about to swear off on holidays and birthdays. Between my accident on Perry's birthday, a truck backing up on Perry's car a few days before Mother's Day, then this, I was afraid to see what Father's Day had to hold. Caleb reminded me that I should've expected something, since my birthday was on Friday the 13th.
Here is Josh's present to me, a few days after the accident:

Whew!

2008-06-24T12:38:00.002-04:00

15 minute mile, non-stop! Probably 6 or 7 minutes slower than Perry's warm-up, but I'll claim it.

Anneliese John Look-alike Meter

2008-06-22T14:48:00.001-04:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Joshua John Look-alike Meter

2008-06-22T14:46:00.001-04:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Michaela John Look-alike Meter

2008-06-22T14:42:00.001-04:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Ancestory - Vintage pics

Caleb John Look-alike Meter

2008-06-22T14:37:00.002-04:00

Perry by only 5% is quite the shocker!

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Free genealogy - Genealogy search

Mischa

2008-06-16T15:33:00.007-04:00

Caleb

2008-06-16T15:06:00.009-04:00

More of Marchet's work:

Best Friends

2008-06-16T14:55:00.003-04:00

Marchet captured the protective feeling Caleb has towards Joshua (stay tuned for my upcoming birthday post).

Joshua

2008-06-16T14:42:00.006-04:00

Anneliese

2008-06-16T14:38:00.004-04:00

Here are some of Marchet's pictures of Liesie

Girls Just Gotta Have Fun

2008-06-16T14:27:00.011-04:00

A friend of mine has a photography business and took some pictures of my kids. She does great work and if you're lucky enough to live in the Roswell/Alpharetta area, check her out at http://www.butlerfamilyphotography.blogspot.com/.

Secrets

200 Haves and Have Nots

2008-06-08T14:32:00.005-04:00

My sister-in-law has this up at her blog. Here are my answers- let me know yours!

(haves are larger and bolded, comments in italics)

200 Have and Have nots!
1. Touched an iceberg
2. Slept under the stars
3. Been a part of a hockey fight
4. Changed a baby's diaper
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Swam with wild dolphins
8. Climbed a mountain (depends on the definition of mountain- does Squaw Peak count?)
9. Held a tarantula
10. Said "I love you" and meant it
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long and watched the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
19. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
20. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Bet on a winning horse
23. Taken a sick day when you're not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (just touched one at a petting zoo)
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Taken an ice cold bath
28. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Ridden a roller coaster
31. Hit a home run
32. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
33. Adopted an accent for fun
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Felt very happy about your life, even for just a moment
36. Loved your job 90% of the time
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Watched wild whales
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Gone on a midnight walk on the beach
41. Gone sky diving
42. Visited Ireland
43. Ever bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited India
45. Bench-pressed your own weight
46. Milked a cow
47. Alphabetized your personal files
48. Ever worn a superhero costume
49. Sung karaoke
50. Lounged around in bed all day
51. Gone scuba diving (snorkeling is as close as I've gotten)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Done something you should regret, but don't
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Been in a movie
60. Gone without food for 3 days
61. Made cookies from scratch
62. Won first prize in a costume contest
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Been in a combat zone
65. Spoken more than one language fluently
66. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
67. Bounced a check
68. Read - and understood - your credit report
69. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
70. Found out something significant that your ancestors did
71. Called or written your Congress person
72. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
73. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
74. Helped an animal give birth
75. Been fired or laid off from a job
76. Won money
77. Broken a bone
78. Ridden a motorcycle
79. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
80. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
81. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
82. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
83. Eaten sushi
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read The Bible cover to cover
86. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
87. Gotten someone fired for their actions
88. Gone back to school
89. Changed your name
90. Caught a fly in the air with your bare hands
91. Eaten fried green tomatoes
92. Read The Iliad
93. Taught yourself an art from scratch
94. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
95. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
96. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
97. Been elected to public office
98. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
99. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
100. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
101. Had a booth at a street fair
102. Dyed your hair
103. Been a DJ
104. Rocked a baby to sleep
105. Ever dropped a cat from a high place to see if it really lands on all four
106. Raked your carpet
107. Brought out the best in people
108. Brought out the worst in people
109. Worn a mood ring
110. Ridden a horse
111. Carved an animal from a piece of wood or bar of soap
112. Cooked a dish where four people asked for the recipe
113. Buried a child
114. Gone to a Broadway (or equivalent to your country) play
115. Been inside the pyramids
116. Shot a basketball into a basket
117. Danced at a disco
118. Played in a band
119. Shot a bird
120. Gone to an arboretum
121. Tutored someone
122. Ridden a train
123. Brought an old fad back into style (my clothes coming back into style probably don't count, lol)
124. Eaten caviar
125. Let a salesman talk you into something you didn’t need
126. Ridden a giraffe or elephant
127. Published a book
128. Pieced a quilt (I've only done one square)
129. Lived in an historic place
130. Acted in a play or performed on a stage
131. Asked for a raise
132. Made a hole-in-one (putt putt countrs, right?)
133. Gone deep sea fishing
134. Gone roller skating
135. Run a marathon
136. Learned to surf
137. Invented something
138. Flown first class
139. Spent the night in a 5-star luxury suite
140. Flown in a helicopter
141. Visited Africa
142. Sang a solo (if no other altos showing up in choir on a song where the altos have a solo line counts)
143. Gone spelunking
144. Learned how to take a compliment
145. Written a love-story
146. Seen Michelangelo’s David
147. Had your portrait painted
148. Written a fan letter
149. Spent the night in something haunted
150. Owned a St. Bernard or Great Dane
151. Ran away
152. Learned to juggle
153. Been a boss
154. Sat on a jury
155. Lied about your weight
156. Gone on a diet
157. Found an arrowhead or a gold nugget
158. Written a poem
159. Carried your lunch in a lunchbox
160. Gotten food poisoning
161. Gone on a service, humanitarian or religious mission
162. Hiked the Grand Canyon (just around the rim)
163. Sat on a park bench and fed the ducks
164. Gone to the opera
165. Gotten a letter from someone famous
166. Worn knickers
167. Ridden in a limousine
168. Attended the Olympics
169. Can hula or waltz (I probably still can, even though I learned in school)
170. Read a half dozen Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books
171. Been stuck in an elevator
172. Had a revelatory dream
173. Thought you might crash in an airplane
174. Had a song dedicated to you on the radio or at a concert
175. Saved someone’s life
176. Eaten raw whale
177. Know how to tat, smock or do needlepoint
178. Laughed till your side hurt
179. Straddled the equator
180. Taken a photograph of something other than people that is worth framing
181. Gone to a Shakespeare Festival
182. Sent a message in a bottle
183. Spent the night in a hostel
184. Been a cashier
85. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
186. Joined a union
187. Donated blood or plasma
188. Built a campfire
189. Kept a blog
190. Had hives
191. Worn custom made shoes or boots
192. Made a PowerPoint presentation
193. Taken a Hunter’s Safety Course
194. Served at a soup kitchen
195. Conquered the Rubik’s cube
196. Know CPR
197. Ridden in or owned a convertible
198. Found a long lost friend
199. Helped solve a crime
200. Responded to a NJP newsletter

Another Day, Another Mile

2008-06-05T18:25:00.003-04:00

Well, by upping my cool down pace a little, I shaved a minute off of my PR- now I'm at 22 minutes for my mile and a half! Woo hoo! The only thing I'm really excited about is that I actually ran 1/2 mile nonstop- so I only stopped for water and a quick stretch twice instead of 3 times. I thought it was going to kill me, but I did it.

Wheat Bread

2008-06-04T14:08:00.003-04:00

I've never been a fan of whole wheat bread- I'm a nutritionless white bread girl all the way. Even if I go "upscale" and have a deli type sandwich, give me the white hoagie any day (which is weird, because I love whole wheat pizza crust and the homemade crust I make is half and half). When my roommate posted her recipe, I was intrigued. When Janalee made it and gave it great reviews, I decided to bite the bullet and try it. Very yummy, but it seems to fall apart when I cut it. Of course, it is probably just me, though, and the fact that I used all purpose flour instead of bread flour for the gluten flour. Darn my lack of a Martha Stewart gene to not have bread flour in my pantry just because!

Bit of a Brag

2008-06-03T21:25:00.009-04:00

I did a cake for our Girl Scout Service Unit's bridging ceremony and it turned out really well. It looks like it took a while, but the Thomas the Tank Engine I did the same weekend actually took longer. It goes from the Daisy petals to Brownie Try-Its to Junior badges to the Senior/Ambassador/Cadette badges.

The First Mile

2008-06-03T18:03:00.002-04:00

Well, Perry has officially talked me into trying running. I went and got a few outfits two weeks ago and on Saturday I bought the shoes, so now I figure I'm in it for at least a few hundred miles, lol.
With Perry gone and the fear of public humiliation beyond compare a very real possibility, I'm starting out on my treadmill. I'm nowhere near as impressive as Perry, and I truly think he could beat my mile time walking on his hands, but hey, I ran a mile (we'll keep it between us that I stopped every quarter mile to drink half a glass of water). It took me 23:00 to do my quarter mile warm up at 3.5, 1 mile at 4.5 (fairly nice slow jog), and a quarter mile at 3.0 to cool down. My hips are a little sore, and the balls of my feet aren't quite sure what hit them several hundred times, but I'm alive. I flipped our treadmill around to watch T.V., but nothing was really on, so I flipped between the 80's and 90's music channels, so that kept me from staring at the display on the treadmill, willing the distance to pass faster.
I've never been a runner, so I don't know if I'll ever improve on my time, or even if I'll be able to make it downstairs in the morning, but there's the report on my first (and hopefully not last) mile.

Balloons in Church

2008-06-03T08:49:00.002-04:00

This last Sunday, we couldn't find Anneliese's regular white shoes for church and she chose her clear sandals- with very hard soles that make such a wonderful "hey, look who's unsuccessfully trying to sneak into the back of church!" sound. Little did I know that that would be the least of the "3 guesses where the John's are sitting and the first two don't count" moments that hour. The funniest involved a balloon Liesie had grabbed from the car. She would get mad whenever Perry blew it up and started to tie it. She would pretzel her arms while telling him not to tie it. What really made our neighbours behind us laugh was when, being the obedient dad and not tying the balloon, Perry handed the balloon to Liesie. It promptly deflated, causing her to tell him to "not turn it off! Turn it on!"

Everyone Celebrates the End of the Year

2008-05-27T15:37:00.006-04:00

Liesie and Josh have been dragged to more class parties over the past few years. They were really excited when Caleb's class went outside to do some games- that meant jungle gym time!

All of that playing makes you really hungry.

Anytime Is Naptime

2008-05-14T14:37:00.000-04:00

Dinner Entertainment

2008-05-14T14:20:00.005-04:00

Hi! I would like to invite you all over for dinner. Mom's a great cook, but you won't remember what you had nearly as much as you will the dinner table entertainment!

Mischa has a chipmunk mentality when it comes to food

Creative Minds Needed

2008-05-13T20:51:00.002-04:00

In an effort to get any sort of commenting going on my blog, I am starting a new blog and need your help naming it. I lack any sort of creative talent and anything is better than Jamie's Cakes.

Where There's a Will

2008-05-13T20:46:00.002-04:00

I was really getting frustrated that my all-in-one printer's manufacturer wasn't updating the drivers for the scanner portion so that I could use it with my Vista OS. So, thanks to Google for finding the tech message boards and a few minutes of reading, I found a backdoor way to scan. This will come in really handy for my new blog (more about that later), but also to try to once again entice my sister into at least registering to comment. I was going to wait until her birthday to post this, but I can't wait until July.

Love ya sis!

Fair Warning

2008-05-03T19:12:00.001-04:00

Just a note to my sister- I'm looking for access to a colour scanner. Be afraid, be very afraid.

The First Step

2008-04-30T11:51:00.002-04:00

I signed Josh up for Kindergarten today. He had been excited up until the other day. He's been telling me that he wants to stay home with me and not go. I think he thought he was going today, not in 4 months. It will be really weird to only have one at home again.