Day 4, June 13th 2011

Technical difficulties with the good mac and the inability to find a card reader or working usb chord means picture have to wait :(

We ran around the park again. There were more cars this time and this time we saw a train. It was very loud. I like running by the train tracks better than running in the forest. There are less bugs and sticks and more sidewalks. I got to play at the park when we were done. Daddy jumped off of a swing. So did I. After we ran we went to Moe's. I ate a taco.

Total Miles: 1
Total Time 11:47
Total Summer Miles: 7.4

Big Boy

Jonas has officially graduated from preschool, and all the other kid in the neighborhood are jealous because he is done with school and they still have 13 days.

He has 'short' summer break though. We are hoping he gets accepted into the year round school program at a school out of district. If he does, he will start July 19th. They don't let us know until after June 1st, which i think is stupid since we turned in the paper work at the beginning of April and registration for all schools was at the end of April. We took him to the registration at the school we want him to attend, we'll see. I just hate all the waiting. Here are a few pictures from Tuesday night. I'll post the some videos when Tom gets home tonight.

Hayley wanted to wear Jonas' hat too

are you ready to rumble?

Tom can officially check a half marathon trail run off his running to do list.

The trip to the Uwharrie Rumble wasn't quite as an adventure as the last uhwarrie run thankfully, we got there with a half hour to spare, just as planned!

It took us a about 5 minutes to hike to the campsite where the race start was. Not too bad, but it feels like a lot longer with 2 kids and all their gear to keep them entertained for the 2 hours daddy would be running.

waiting for daddy (8k finishers in the background)

two very spoiled children...

It was a nice day thankfully cool in the morning, though it did get warmer as the race went on.

After their snack, the kiddos had a whole lotta fun running around and playing in the old fire pit I accidentally put all our stuff next to, so they of course got good and dirty toward the

end.

3 juice boxes

2 bags of cheese cubesand

100 goldfish later

daddy crosses the 8 mile mark

He still had 5 to run after this! The kids started to get really anxious about this point, Jonas still a little jealous that he wasn't running, Hayley getting increasingly dirty, hot, and tired.But about 40ish minutes later..

the very very dirty miss hayley

what happens when a very sweaty sticky daddy gets hugged by the sooty 4 year

old

13.1 miles worth of trail and dust

13.1 miles of rocky, hilly, dusty, trail and all in 1:50:49

14th over all and 2nd in his age group

after her baby wipes bath

Hayley didn't even make it out of the campsite before she fell asleep.

Even though I'm not the one running (yet!) I enjoy trail running spectating more than road running spectating. Sure there is more to do when while waiting during the races that are in towns, but with trail running there is more to see. The kids get to play outside in the dirt and no one gives chastising looks to the mom who is letting her kids play in the dirt. The time in the outdoors is great. It's so much quieter and not nearly as competitive. Runners encourage each other as others pass them. It's all around a friendlier sport.

Back track to saturday..

Saturday, Tom and I celebrated our 6th anniversary. We didn't do too much, which was fine, we know sunday was going to be a very long day so we didn't want to do it over do it.

Tom worked on his wagoneer and thankfully he and our neighbor got the problems in it worked out, so we hope. The big test will be when tom attempts to start it tonight.

They had put in a new alternator but it still wasn't working, at it turns out the 'new' alternator they had picked up was just as bad as the old one. Then they fixed the 2 bad wires, hopefully this will keep the battery from draining and dying every day. They also noticed that it was missing it's choke, meaning no gas was getting to the carborater, so they put in a manual choke last night, and it started right up!

My jeep should be getting it new engine put in next week. Thank the Lord for neighbors that weld! Then if we can get the Chief figured out, we'll be sitting pretty.

For those that don't know, the Chief is our newly acquired '79 cherokee chief. Tom got it so that he could have a car that actually drove while they were figuring out the wagoneer's electrical problems, but now Chief is having problems.

But, I'm confident that Tom and Justin can figure out whats up.

yes, I am confident..

one of many: A Race Day Adventure

Last Saturday started of much earlier than any of us are used to. Tom was going to run is first trail race and it was about an hour away in the Uwharrie National Forest.

We got up a little before 6 and were ready to leave at 7.

A quick swing by starbucks and we were ready to be on our way.

The first hour of the trip was uneventful, Hayley and Jonas slept and Tom and I talked. Then we made a turn, that was in the directions, that we never should have taken. The race was to start at 9, so we still had time and so we stopped and asked for directions. The wom

en who gave us directions sent us to a neighborhood with the same name as the trail that the race was on. This neighborhood was in the opposite direction. Fun. So we turn around and I type into the trusty GPS the name of the road that we were supposed to turn on, the nonexistent Tower Rd. It took us down this dirt road that would have b

een much more suited for one of our 4 wheel drive jeeps, and not th

e buick century we were in. We get closer and closer to race time, and seemingly further and further into the wilderness, yet we have NO idea where the race actually is. We found a church with some men doing some lands

caping and asked them if they had any idea where the race was. They gave us simple directions and in 5 minutes we were there. We got there at 9am on the dot. There are still people walking around with their numbers pinned to them talking leisurely. I had prayed then entire time that maybe the start would be delayed and it indeed was. There was an accident

on the way to the race from Raleigh, that was holding up about 10 racers. We are fairly certain they were waiting on the team from Duke (ew) to get there. I felt a little bad that

I had prayed for a dela

y and there had been an accident though. Trail racing is much more laid back than road racing thankfully so them delaying the race 15 minutes is not a big to any of the runners. I was a little worried for Tom, he didn't really have time to eat his pre race waf

fles, or drink his cliff drink, plus he was getting over a cold.

Tom was an instant celebrity at the race because of his shoes. Honestly we thought there would be more people in the vibrams, but he was the only one, go figure.

Jonas was very upset that he could not run the race with daddy.

He had run the 2 races with Tom, But this race did not have a fun run for him to participate in.

He did eventually let Tom go so he could join the starting line.

I knew we would have at least an hour before he would cross the finish line, so the kids and i trekked back to the car. I got them a snack and they watched part of a movie. We head back to the 'camp site' since I wanted to see more than just Tom finish. The kids played around till the runners started to come in. Jonas wanted to go into the forest to look for lions and tigers. I told him that lions and tigers did not live in the forest. He assured me there were mountain lions and that we needed to find them. We didn't find any.

Tom Finished 11th overall. That seems pretty par for the course. If they had done the age groups in 5 year increments, like most races, instead of 10 he would have been 2nd in his group. The Duke Road Runners swept the 19-29 year group. Jonas even got a medal! He and Hayley were the only kids there, and when the director saw Jonas was so upset that he didn't get to run, at the end of the race he gave Jonas one of the leftover medals. It was very nice of him.

Jonas was very happy when daddy finished!

The trip home was a lot easier than the ride up. Apparently if we had not made just one turn. and stayed straight instead we would have never gotten lost. But now we know for the half marathon in May.

I couldn' t get the campfire smell out of my hair for 2 days. I do like the smell of campfire though, so it wasn't too bad. And even though we were only there for 3 hours, when we got home I felt as if I had gone camping the whole weekend.

It was a good and very busy weekend.

Saturday was a gorgeous day.

We went to coldstones and toted the ice cream to starbucks were we ate it while Tom and I shared a french press of coffee out on the patio.

Still very tired on Sunday

No rest for the weary.

I still had to do grocery shopping and a few other errands.

I got it all done, as tired and as sore as I was, I still got all my running around done.

I didn't want to by any means, but we needed food. Haha

Most unorganized of any of my grocery trips.

But I did still manage to save over 60 bucks!

YAY ME!

sorry to the 5 people that read this for the lack of post

we've all been feeling crummy on top of extra being busy

i'm also trying to revamp my blog

i promise a real post before the week is out

maybe even before the day is out!

ps

please remember continue to keep dave, jen and baby N in your prayers!

this was meant to be done earlier

weekly meals:

Sunday:

Ended up making pizza pockets, tom was to lazy to make his own food ;)

Monday:

MOES!

Tuesday:

Spinach and pasta bake with fresh mozzarella

Wednesday:

Greek Chicken, couscous, and fried potatoes

Thursday:

Pot Roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions in the crock pot

Friday:

Pizza and Movie night, maybe "Planet 51"?

Saturday:

Grocery day, so probably left overs

That all sounds good right?

every one is felling MUCH better. Wednesday, (after the snow tuesday night) Jonas and I both had a doctors appointment. I love that our doctor has no problem doing 1 appointment for 2 people, it really makes things easier.

Jonas and I both have ear infections and sinus infections, and Jonas (of course) had bronchitis again. He had been acting fine till wednesday, when his fever spiked to 104.6. I don't think he has ever had a fever that high. Tom stayed up with him all night, and took his temp every half hour and marked it on a piece of paper to make sure it kept going down with just tylenol. Thankfully, it did. Thursday Jonas pretty much just slept all day. He has to take a ton of medicine though

all that 2-4 times day. Thank God for insurance. We do have to pay a CoPays since we don't get our prescriptions filled on base. I'm pretty mad that my CoPay for my nose spray was 22 dollars (everything else was 3) and it can take 'up to' 2 weeks to work. She gave it to me to unstuff my ears, the congestion was (well is still) backed that far up. I still can't hear out of my right ear very well. Tom, the doc he saw never did tell him what he had, but they gave him some meds, and he thankfully is now mostly better as well Hayley, thank you Lord is still healthy!

Speaking of Hayley, she is having some teeth problems. More like a tooth problem really. One tooth is bad, and last night I noticed it was broken. I'm not sure what is going on. She brushes her teeth, drinks nursery water, we don't give her juice at bedtime and she rarely eats sugary stuff. What really baffles me, is it's just the one tooth. I've started using my toothpaste on her, very little of course. I don't think the training toothpaste really does anything. I've also stopped giving her juice. I don't want her other little teeth to get messed up.

We are tying to get a referral for her to get seen by a dentist. Our dental insurance doesn't cover her till she is 4 but they will make exceptions if needed. We just have to tell them what is going on and I guess they will send her to the dentist that we choose. I'm going to have to make some phone calls to see if the ones that take our insurance will even see kids under 2.

Her broken tooth doesn't seem to be bothering her at all though. She is eating normally. I'm just afraid that the problem will spread to the root or something. I know it just a baby tooth, but i don't know how it will affect her adult teeth.

Prayers for her little teefies please!

also

Prayers for Tom.

He test in 11 days! I thought he had one more month! It would be so great if he could make it first try!

everybody's doing it!

weekly meal planning!

Sunday: (yes i start on sunday. not monday)

It was supposed to be chicken and fried rice, but that seemed like too much work in my state so i made enchiladas instead

Monday:

welcome to moes!

Tuesday:

brinner, french toast, eggs, and bacon

Wednesday:

chicken and fried rice

Thursday:

twice baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli

Friday:

we did pizza and movie a week early, so maybe panera bread, i'm not seeing many leftovers being around.

the check out lady at harris teeter was very interested in the notebook carry with me every week.

it isn't a special notebook, just a spiral bound jonas brothers notebook.

it's jonas brothers because, jonas is convinced that they are his personal brothers and insist on buying things with their image on them. (thankfully so far its a lunch box, 2 notebooks, some pens and pencils he found at big lots and his yearly christmas ornament)

anyway, back to my notebook.

i love grocery shopping

i love coupon clipping

and i love list making.

so take a guess at what this notebook is for.

every friday night, i sit on the couch with this notebook, all my coupons and my mac with my coupons sites, the harris teeter sale ad, and various recipe site open.

i make a list of meals on the front of the paper on the back i again write out each meal, but i then write the items i need for each meal. i then make a 'general list' of things we regularly buy plus maybe a splurge, (like if ice cream is or pop is b1g1)

if i have a coupon for an item i mark it, if the coupon can be doubled i mark that too. and if the item is going to be free, well it gets a star!

i don't stick to brands on many things. bread frequently changes do to sales, my only stipulation is that the first ingredient is not 'bleached flour' which oddly is in many 'wheat' breads. salsa also changes with the sales. we only buy raw sugar, but again the brand changes. and our coffee..well we are coffee junkies so we are really picky about what we get, coffee is one thing i will splurge on (within reason of course!) some coffees are just better than others. we love caribou coffee, but right now we have dunkin donuts. why, caribou coffee was 11 dollars a pound, and dunkin donuts (with my coupon) was 5.

for the past 5 years, i have had an average savings of 60 dollars at each trip to the grocery store.

i tote my coupons everywhere

i even took them to disney with us. they cut our denny's bill in half, and the coupon mark found for the sizzler made our breakfast buffet less than 3 bucks a person.

i frequently spend less than 2 dollars, on 20 or more dollars of grocery's.

it always stuns the cashier and the person behind me in line or next to me at self check out.

now i didn't explain all this to the check out lady, i just told her it was the weekly meal list with the grocery and coupons to match. she just nodded and said "smart" when she was done ringing up my coupons and saw that my bill cut in half, she was more impressed.

i dont think i could do this with out my notebook. (i used to do it on the computer and print it off, oddly it was a little more difficult)

it keeps me organized and its the only thing i am good at organizing.

i am very good at saving my family money (especially through grocery shopping), i am proud of that.

i'm a stay at home mom, who stinks at cleaning! i'm good with the laundry, but everything else i'm pretty terrible at.

money is the one thing i am good with (yes mom and dad, it's my money now so i'm great with it!) so i manage it the best i can to make up for my lack in ability at that other thing... :(

tom is the opposite, he is great at the cleaning, but not so great with the money. he is not irresponsible by any means, but he always has to ask 'hey, do we have money for...' or 'oh no! did we pay...?!'

its just not his thing.

but it is my thing.

i'm glad i can contribute in some way! haha