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

family update

sick

this word describes 3 of the 4 people in our house hold.

hayley God bless her, is the only one that's not sick. she doesn't even have a runny nose. and i pray every night it stays that way

jonas is getting over his monthly bought of bronchitis. im thinking of asking our doctor to prescribe him an inhaler or a nebulizer to take home since this is a monthly thing and not just an occasional illness.

tom came home thursday with a fever. he was nauseous achey and all that great stuff. he spent most of friday in bed. we swapped off taking naps because...

last wednesday i started feeling crummy. i chalked it up to sinus drainage. thursday i was felling worse, but again i thought it was just my sinuses. plus being an adult, and a mommy, taking a break and resting, really isn't too much of an option, so i thought i was just not getting the needed rest to feel better.

friday i took jo to school while tom slept (tom sleeping till 8 is sleeping in 2 1/2 hours!). being the great wife that i am, i stopped by starbucks to get him some chai. when the time came i picked jonas up, took him to lunch and to petsmart and walmart, giving tom two more hours to sleep. when i came home i made him get up so i could crash haha.

saturday was more running around unfortunately. you see, saturdays are our running day. we start off with breakfast at starbucks, (i am proud to say, jonas noticed they had fruit salad and ask if he and hayley could share one! so they each had that and part of a donut). after starbucks we do other various errands and end with grocery shopping. it was a fairly busy day.

sunday morning started off busy and by around noon i was really feeling awful. my ear wouldn't pop. i told tom i hadn't been in such pain since hayley was born!

yes it was that bad.

today is monday, and i'm still felling bad. my loving husband stayed home today to help with the kids so i can get the rest i need. (right now he is playing. madden, his skins are having a terrible 4th season) my ear is still stuffy but thankfully doesn't hurt. tom woke me up this morning with suddafed, aleve and orange juice.

hayley is not taking her morning nap

maybe is has something to do with the fact that she bogarted my iced vanilla latte tom brought me home (i'm so lucky! yesterday it was chocolate covered banana chips and today it was starbucks!)

not so special update

hayley was sick yesterday

like very sick

thankfully i had some disposable diapers and wipes on hand or i would have been washing diapers all day.

she's much better day thankfully.

tom stayed home today to help out. i'm thankful that tom has a job, where he can not only take off when he needs to, but taking off does not affect his paycheck at all.

i wanted hayley to be able to rest all day, which wouldn't have been possible if tom didn't stay home. he took jonas to school and picked him up. then he watched the kids while i ran the few errands i had planned for the day.

harris teeter is running super double coupons.

i was able to stock up on salsa, juice, cat/dog treats, yogurt, cereal, starbucks bottle fraps, and school snacks for jonas.

i spent around 8 buckish..i cant get to the receipt right now.

i got raisin bran crunch for 34 cents. jonas' school snacks were all free, as were the cat treats, my fraps were 69 cents.

they only let you use 20 coupons at a time so i will use more when i do weekly shopping saturday, and hit it up one more time before tuesday.

we got our new washing machine last saturday. i love it! i no longer have to shop vac out a drip pan every 2 loads! it's sooo much nicer and worth the money that was spent.

colt is doing great. he has come out of his shell so much the past 3 weeks. he is still very skittish around other dogs (even little dogs) and people. he's good with kids from the start and he gets ok with adults after they pet him. puppy training courses at petsmart are in the near future. he's smart, he's learning all the commands we are teaching him, but he needs to work on his anxiety issues.

so far, weekly grocery shopping is much easier than bi monthly. staying in town to do the shopping is nice. we are staying right on budget if not way under. i've also started paying for groceries with cash and saving all our dollar bills and change. we've been doing that for years, but when you mainly use debit cards there isn't much change.

i've been trying to sneak little ways of saving money into our lives, like withdrawing an extra 20 with the grocery money and putting it in the kids bank. and when i transfer jonas' school tuition and our rent into its account, i've been adding an extra 25. not sure what the money will be used for.

last year we used all the extra cash for christmas so thats probably what will happen this year too.

not much else to report

the kids are sleeping and tom and i are watching the olympics.

men's halfpipe finals coming up

then 500m short track and 1500m relay in speed skating

i think shaun white could play tommy in a 'tommy' remake ('tommy' being the who rock opera for those who don't know)

lets go ohno!

and white!

and vito!

and bretz!

and lago!

davis already pulled gold for us in 1000m speed skating.

and von got gold for women's downhill

too bad our girls lost in curling...

i like curling

first off, totally excited for dave and jen
not as excited as they are i'm sure, but pretty dang excited!

lets start with friday
tom took the day off so he stayed with hayley while i took jonas to school, and while i went to a parents meeting. nothing really interesting to report there haha. jo and i headed to walmart to pick up a few 'supplies' before they were all gone, we had afternoon plans so i wasn't going to go grocery shopping till that evening, and i was sure, milk and bread would be gone by then, cuz you know, the sky was going to fall that night. after picking him up a happy meal we came home and left to go to an animal shelter, where we got..
COLT!

he is a 6 month old chocolate lab/aussie mix
his first night he didn't leave his bed at all.
its now monday, and he still hasn't ventured past the dinning room table
he's a sweetie, good with the kids, playful, (once he is outside), and hasn't messed with the cats, who thankfully couldn't careless that he is here
friday night of course, you would have thought the world was coming to an end
tom went to a local high school to hear a lecture from, chris mcdougall, barefoot running activist.
tom got to met him and got his copy of "Born to Run" signed.
yes tom does run "barefoot", barefoot in quote because he does wear these and has for about a year.
seriously, they are the most comfortable shoes ever. i don't like shoes, (ok i lie i LOVE shoes as a fashion accessory), i don't wear shoes in the house, and weather permitting, i tend to wear flops. my feet never feel right in shoes. anyways..
Saturday aka, the day the earth stood still
really folks, its just snow
i grew up in the midwest and lived in iceland, this is nothing. i understand that people here 'aren't used to it' and can't drive it it. but no one can drive on ice without chains or snow tires or spikes. so just stay home and off the roads. we don't need dummies that "aren't used to" snow driving in it and causing accidents, of which we had plenty.
jonas had a blast in the snow. hayley, i'm sure she remembered her faceplant in ohio and wouldn't walk in it or leave the sidewalk. colt loved it

Sunday:
Jonas went sledding with a the neighbor kids
he loves sledding, last years snow 'storm' he used our old body board, and all the kids at boxed and lids and stuff, this year kids at actual sleds. haha. jonas started out on a sled, but its really too fast for him, so he switched to a rubbermaid lid



Today, we took advantage of daddy's delay and got breakfast at starbucks
when we got home i let jonas sled a for a little bit. i figured the snow isn't going to last long so we grabbed a rubbermaid lid and i let him go at it for almost an hour. he took hayley down once.
she is not a fan of sledding.

we didn't do much else till right before tom came home. jonas wanted to wait for him outside so we did.

hayley and colt (and jonas of course!) were very happy that daddy was home.