The Armstrong 5

I'm pretty excited that I actually signed up to run a 5k. I am also, sometimes, totally out of my mind! ;) I have been "training" for it for a few months - nothing completely consistent until the last month tho. And let me tell you, I really stink at longer distances. I know, 3 miles hardly counts as a longer distance, but for me it does! Until college, I had never run further than a mile. And even the miles I had run, were just a few timed runs for school, not EVER on a regular basis. In college we did a lot of 20 min runs and it was rare that I made it the whole way without walking - maybe 50/50.

Some of you probably saw my post on FB about the run and in an effort to encourage me, my older sister said something like "if all else fails, run a 10 min mile." Problem is, I barely make it 1.5 miles running slower than that! I know, I told you, I really stink! But I am getting better and I hope to make the whole 3.12 miles without walking!! Eek!

So, this week, I'm running at least 4 days a week (compared to my regular 3) and I plan on trying to make it over 2 miles of solid running at least once this week. I also plan on driving the route of the actual race and possibly taking the boys on a run through part of the route, since it is within walking distance of my house.

I've really gone back and forth about if I want people to come and "watch" me run. I loved having people come and watch me long jump, high jump and hurdle, and if it was a good day, I didn't mind the audience for triple jump either. The 400m was never an event I trained for, but somehow, I got wrangled into running one for a relay a few times. My most embarrassing race ever was not actually the 100m hurdle race where I fell over the first hurdle, but actually my TERRIBLE 800m at the end of my heptathlon. I think mostly, these longer races really prove that I have no guts! When the rubber meets the road, I'm tired of hurting, tired of trying and would rather quit than get a bad time. Bummer. I hate admitting this about myself, but I'm trying to deal with it and I know this is an area of my life God desires me to have His victory in. I need to worry less about appearances, give my all, trust God will sustain me and let that be enough. I don't need to be better than someone else, even though it drives me and frankly, it's more fun! I just need to focus on working on the things God puts in front of me! This is so applicable in SOOOOO many areas of my life.

No sighing though! It's time I dealt with it!! So, my race is June 18th, here in McMinnville, starting at 9am. You can view the route of the race here. It's for the McMinnville Habitat for Humanity and I'm happy to be running for a cause that tangibly helps people. While I'm still not sure I can meet my goal, I'm becoming a bit more confident that I'm close. I think if I can get a 2.5 mile run in before the race I'll be a bit more determined :) And let's all pray that I have the guts to stay determined and push through in my last few weeks of training and during race-time. Depending on how this goes, I might also run this race - The Bowerman AC. If Tracy gets her butt in gear, her and Mark C. might run too!

Thanks for following my sparatic blog posts... maybe someday I'll be more diligent, but, not likely this month - well, maybe ;) You'll just have to check back to find out!

Last night, Mark and I had a fabulous time seeing Jimmy Eat World at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland. It was awesome! I've loved their music ever since Mark introduced me to them when we were first engaged. And now, I just love it even more! They had great stage presence, were not crazy wild but totally into their music, they sounded great live, the venue was awesome - definitely one of my favorite dates with Mark :)

Anyway, if you've never heard of Jimmy Eat World, I suggest you go and buy a couple of their CD's, if not all of them! Futures is one of my favorites. And Bleed American is definitely a classic, and I believe many of you know the song "The Middle" off of that album - it's in a lot of movies and shows.

So, here are a couple of videos I took of the concert - take a few minutes to watch/listen - you'll be glad you did! They are very talented and their music just moves me. Mark and I were close to the front, right behind a woman in a wheelchair so we had a great view of the concert. Enjoy!!

23 - off the album Futures - full song


Sweetness - off the album Bleed American - last minute of the song


Let it Happen - off the album Chase the Light - over a minute of the song

I'm learning a lot more about myself lately. Which is good and bad. Good because it ALWAYS leads to me realizing that I need God more than I think, and bad because, well, again, I realize I need God and see how lowly I really am.

One thing I'm seeing (and many of you probably already know this about me) is that I'm really bad at setting goals. I'm also really bad at following through on things I want to do. Yes, the two are DEFINITELY linked! I don't set goals b/c I am afraid of not meeting them. I'm afraid of telling anyone my goals b/c I don't want to be made fun of or questioned about my talents, desires, abilities, etc. And this is the big one, I'm really afraid of setting goals b/c I am afraid of the commitment it will take to achieve those, and I am always secretly wondering if I can really do it.

I also give up VERY easily. Ugh. See what I mean about learning about myself? I've only done 2 things for a semi-extended amount of time. Track and photography. And with track, when I wasn't in school, I went to practices on and off for a month the first year, and maybe 2 months the year after that. Not impressive. With photography, I did it for a while, but I never really sacrificed anything to be better at it or make myself "known" or excel in it. I did what most people would do and therefore, got where most people get... not anywhere too significant.

This has been weighing on me greatly. Mostly b/c I am training to compete in track and field next year. Probably just a few open meets. But I fear that I will chicken out during the summer, fall and winter, then come track season, I'll know that I'm not in great shape and therefore set no goals for myself, and will likely come up with some other excuse to just not do it. But then, I'll go to a few meets and mope about how good I was, how I threw it all away and just be down on myself. How do I break this cycle??

The truth is, I cannot break this cycle. This is human nature. God has to do something about it. But I also have to be brave and bold enough to ask God to help me. Which means not fearing man and only fearing myself stopping God through my own laziness and fears. Does this make sense? I like things to be easy - finding babysitting, taking time out of my day to train, making arrangements and planning in general... I get overwhelmed and frustrated at these things. But I'm learning that these things are just life! Life with a family, life with people and loved ones.

Overall, I need to relax and trust God for all the difficulties - whether physical or mentally conceived. I need to rely on God while just picking myself up and getting through it. I need help too. While I'm very scared of setting goals or putting my terrible long-distance runs on facebook, I need to be vulnerable and let other people push me towards using the gifts God has given me. Whether my gifting in track will be used for my own competition or just for coaching others using their gifts, it's about time I learn to let other people see my struggles and not to get down about it. God has redeemed me and if I truly believe this, it's enough to get me through anything! No matter how bad I jump or hurdle, no matter how hectic my days are, no matter how much pain or fatigue I am suffering from, God can totally handle it. And all these small physical struggles will be nothing compared to experiencing God's glory once I die.

All this to say, I hope you friends will help me out! You don't have to watch my kids (well, maybe once in a while) or cook me meals or go shopping for me. I just need you to encourage me to stay on the path I am choosing. I'm choosing it because I am so drawn to it and God has put the opportunity in front of me. I shouldn't expect life to be easy, but I'll never enjoy it to the extent God wants me to if I only do what's easy. My first goal is to run a 5k on June 18th. I want to run the whole thing (no stopping and walking) in under 12min/mile pace. Not ambitious on the time, but I'm a wuss and I ALWAYS stop and walk during my runs. Right now, I run about 5-7 minutes before I walk, then alternate every 3-5 min of walking and running... which is good training for someone out of shape and who stinks at endurance... but I need to step it up, push myself, and get to running longer stretches over the next few weeks.

As I come to mind, please pray for me! Pray that I just get up and put the work in, even when I don't feel like it or when it's inconvenient. Pray that mostly, God uses this time in my life to make Himself more known to me, to those around me and that it all glorifies Him. Sorry I hardly ever post, but hopefully you still love me just the same :) I'll keep you posted on how the training is going. Today's run was good, not amazing, but it was one of my longer runs without as much walking... making progress but more slowly than I want to be. Thanks for your support... I couldn't do anything without it!

So, since I had decided to no longer pursue a career as a portrait photographer (for the time being) I have HARDLY picked up my nice camera at all!! Shame on me! My boys are growing, I need pictures!

Today, my good friend Dar and I headed out to this old church in Dayton, OR to get some pics of the boys and let them run around the park. Fun times!! I love this photo location... I'm going to need to be careful not to overdo it there. The boys loved it! They are growing up very fast. Cole is adding words to his vocabulary every day and Asher is growing so much in his ability to understand the world around him. He's still such a concrete thinker - but is beginning to understand things a little more abstractly as time goes by. It's hard to explain - things like, I told him a few months ago that his number stamped washed off, then he asked to look in the sink and find the number... he didn't understand how ink washes off separately, not as a whole number. It was cute!

Anyway, I don't have the brain power to sit and write about everything the boys are doing - enjoy the pics!

So much has been going on, it's going to be so difficult to write just a bit without detailing everything!! These will not be in chronological order, just so you know ;)

Yesterday, Mark and Tracy Crocker came over to deliver the twin bed we had given Mark while he was still single. With the issues Asher has been having at night (coming out of his room 2-5 times and attempting to get into our bed) we thought him having his own bigger bed might help out. So, we set it up, re-arranged the room and since we were feeling ambitious, we put Cole in Asher's old toddler bed. Woohoo, both boys did WONDERFUL! Right now, Cole is sleeping in the toddler bed for nap with no problems!! What a praise! We'll see how tonight goes...

Asher has been saying the funniest things lately. Talking like crazy, sharing his thoughts, telling us things that happened and re-inacting them. Lately, we've been working on teaching him left from right. Then a few days ago, I had one shoe on and he brought me my other shoe saying "Mom, here's your left shoe!" and he was correct! So I smiled, laughed a little, then he smiled and laughed too. And here's what's really funny... a couple days later, I was reading something on facebook and laughed, he says "Who smiled at you?" Too cute!! Love the way his little thoughts are coming together. A few days after that, Ash was spacing off at lunch and Mark got his attention and asked what he was thinking about. He replies "Hmm, just thinking about mama." Talk about melting my heart!

Cole is also growing and learning like crazy. He can say all kinds of words - here's a small list - Papa, Mama, Milk, Cookie, No (of course), trucks, monsters (b/c of Monsters Inc.), cheese, don't know, bath, teeth, want some, what is (what is it), no thanks, thank you, pants, uh oh - poo poo (funny thing, he waits for us to repeat "uh oh" before saying the poo poo part), pants, shoes, walk, gum, grapes, raisins. There are lots of other words that aren't quite as formed yet. Like, balloon used to be "baboon" but now sounds more like "bougon" - not sure what happened there! He also sings "our town" from this song we listen to a lot... it's a song Asher constantly requests and they just really like the part that says "This is our town" - it's a random, secular band, not a kid song, but Asher really likes that style of music with lots of guitar and lively drums... Dashboard, Julianna Theory, Yellow Card... funny kid!

Cole is also getting a lot more physical skills. Like running, jumping and even catching a ball! Today, we played catch for 20 minutes straight! It was so fun, and he was such a doll. Cole's latest trick is sliding on his tummy off of the couch. He will also use my desk chair or Asher's tricycle to climb up and over the arms of the couch... he's so reckless it's amazing he hasn't hurt himself seriously yet! Once, while attempting to climb over the chair and the arm of the sofa, he fell off head first, with only a little crying. Sheesh, I'm sure we'll be taking him to the ER for a broken limb before kindergarden!

Asher is starting to have pretend conversations with his toys and one imaginary friend. Well, she's not TOTALLY imaginary, b/c it's the character Mini Muffin from the book "Under the Tagalong Tree" which we read together most nights. He just randomly pretends she is here with us. He also sometimes pretends papa is at the table when he is gone... funny to see the things Ash likes to do. He loves coming to track practice with me and always talks about all the coaches and athletes he knows, however, he will hardly say a word to any of them in person! He especially likes the hurdle coach (Coach Clarkson) but will barely even look him in the eye. At home once thoough, he kept talking about doing the hurdles with coach Clarkson, but again, then next day at practice just hid his face from him. It's a good growing experience for him and I know he's learning better and better how to deal with feeling uncomfortable with new people.

What else? The meet in Seattle was crazy. I'm not going to even get into it. For all you track people, just know that it took the official 4 hrs to complete the women's and men's long jump - less than 40 total jumpers. Ugh!! He was just slow!! The head field event official took over for triple jump and it went WAY faster :) Mark came with me since I had a hotel room to myself and his parents watched the boys Friday and Saturday for us. It was a much needed break, even if it was mostly standing in the cold and driving... we are still so grateful we got to go!

Well, I've got to do some other things. Tonight I am doing my first batch of dried blueberries and strawberries using my friend Bev's food dehydrator! So excited to see how things go!! Hope you have a great week... oh, one last thing. I know I haven't been posting much about what God's doing lately. That would take an eternity. Just know that I'm learning so much about what He is like and how He is working with me to teach me about Him. I'm constantly amazed and how often He goes out of His way to comfort me and set my emotions straight. I pray for many of you, that you experience Him more and more, and for some of you, that someday you'll know Him for the loving God He is. Enjoy the week!

So, I'm not even going to hassle with apologies or why I haven't written in forever... you're just going to have to live with it :)

Here are some cute photos from a week or so ago, while playing out on the walking path behind our house and in the backyard. These boys are keeping me busy but filling my heart. They say the darndest things every day and I just love how they both eat up the snuggles (for the time being). I try to take advantage of their cuddly times and the days where they just want to be with me, read books, help me with laundry... whatever! I'm really enjoying this stage of motherhood :)

Also, I do realize I haven't said a word about Asher's 3rd B-day or Tracy's wedding... maybe someday soon I will! Gotta keep you checking back for more!!

I've been saving up granola bar recipes thinking I'd need to try a lot, but the first one I tried I really liked! Plus, my boys DEVOUR them, so they must be great! It's a bit of a variation from the original but here it is... try it and let me know what you think! (Sorry, that second pic is too yellow, but alas, I'm too lazy & busy to fix it!)




Cranberry-Almond Granola Bars
2 cups rolled oats
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup craisins
3/4 cup sliced almonds
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup agave nectar (I replaced some of the honey and all the brown sugar with this, then lessened the oil slightly to make up for the difference).
1 egg
1/3 cup grapeseed oil (works well with canola or vegetable oil too)
2 tsp vanilla extract

1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease (I use a canola spray) a 9x13 inch baking pan.

2 - In a large bowl, mix together the oats, cinnamon, flours, craisins, almonds and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the honey, agave nectar, egg, oil and vanilla. Mix well. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared pan.

3 - Bake for 30-35 minutes in the preheated over until the bars begin to turn golden at the edges. Cool for 5 minutes, then cut bars while still warm. Do not allow the bars to cool completely before cutting, or they will be too hard to cut.

Note - I usually bake for 20 min, then check. I baked for 25 and they were a little tougher than I generally like. Do what you like best!

Enjoy!

Asher worked on this puzzle for a few days. No one else put together a single piece for him. 24 pieces, entirely on his own! Proud parents today... he's growing up!

Yep, busy, busy, busy! I've got Tracy's Bridal shower this weekend, Women's Retreat next weekend, 1st track meet & Tracy's Bachelorette party the following weekend, then Tracy's wedding after that, and then Asher's Birthday party and finally, track meets almost every Saturday until either the end of April or end of May... depending on how many athletes I have going to nationals! Craziness! I'm going to make sure and give Mark quite a few nights out with some guy friends to make up for all the kid-watching he's been doing and will be doing. It will sure be nice to have another paycheck for a bit tho!

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos to post :( You'll have to follow me on facebook to see most that I take these days. I haven't gotten my camera out for quite a while! But, once the weather is nicer and we are outside more, I think I'll pick it back up. Plus, I'm sure I'll take a bunch of my athletes during the season too. So, you'll just have to imagine our happy smiling faces :)))

Sorry it's a short update... hopefully you'll all give me some grace and still stay tuned in until more exciting things happen & until I have time to write about them!

Whoa, what a whirlwind! In case you didn't know, I have A LOT going on right now. Miraculously, God has provided me with what I need. Not always what I want, but what I need!

Track has been going incredibly well! While I feel pretty capable in the realm of knowing how to fix technique and help jumpers be better in general, much of the time I feel very incapable. I'm realizing that there is SO much more to learn about running form, muscles, training practices (mainly, knowing what intervals and training produces what effects) and muscle recovery... I feel like I am a little bit in over my head. But, I'm not feeling down really, just realizing that this season and during the break between seasons, I will be stuffing my head with lots of athletic and muscular knowledge. I'm looking forward to it tho!

The other thing about track that has been hard has been dealing with my regret. This is an issue I thought I had worked through a few years ago, and I knew going into this season that it would likely pop it's head up and require me to deal with it more fully. I was really good at this track thing. I'm naturally athletic and have amazing muscle recovery. I stink at running long distances, but I can jump all day long and not get tired. So, seeing some of my talented athletes has brought up this issue of competing again. It has been a bit more difficult to deal with b/c I am older, my back is still having weird things going on that are still un-diagnosed but for some reason, I still really want to be in shape and compete. This makes my head spin! For a number of reasons...

1 - is it what God wants? I mean, I had a choice, and years ago, I chose to be a slacker and do the easy thing... easy for me at least, cave into pursuing the typical American Christian life-style - not bad for everyone, but sometimes I wonder if it was the best idea.
2 - if I know that there are starving people across the globe that need to see God's love, can I really pursue competing whole-heartedly? I never think badly of those that do, but can I?
3 - physically, can I even do it? Obviously, if it's God's will and I follow through, yes, I can. But with my back falling apart and my fatigue getting the best of me many days... well, maybe it just isn't/wasn't meant to be?
4 - maybe I could have done it 7 years ago, but now I've missed the boat and this life is now a re-write... but let me say, I know that this is false... I think ;) God knew what I was going to do and what I am going to do, I don't have to let regret get the best of me b/c He doesn't have a plan B, just in case I don't end up doing what He would have preferred. If I trust that He is guiding me and I continue to pursue Him and His interests, I can trust that if I am never a track star, it wasn't meant to be. Yes? Yes, I will keep trying to tell myself yes.

Anyway, with being at practice and loving it so much, I'm just struggling with all of this. I'd like to think that my gifting glorifies God, I know it has in the past. And if I want to try again, I can try, trusting fully that God will accomplish His purpose through it, I just love it so much sometimes that it feels wrong to do it when I might serve the Lord elsewhere. Hmm. Well, now you know what goes through my head on and off. It's not resolved, and that drives me crazy! But more importantly, I must remember, that the most important thing has been resolved... Christ has conquered sin and death! I don't know if I will regret not using this gift or not... I already kinda do, but b/c of my own desires, or b/c of God's? Feel free to pray for me about this as much as you want :) I'll take any prayers I can get!!

With Tracy's wedding coming up (March 12th) I've been pretty busy testing out recipes for her bridal shower, designing invitations for the wedding and the bridal shower, finding/coordinating the right candlestick holders and testing out painting them, planning Asher's outfit for being the ring-bearer... you get the picture! Then, our Women's retreat is February 25th-27th and I'm doing a lot of design stuff for that plus operating the powerpoint during worship and possibly our sessions. I will also be helping with MC'ing a little so planning all that has really begun. Then, track meets start on March 5th (no meet March 12th thankfully) and we have a meet every Saturday until mid-May, but I am really looking forward to that part! And lastly, Mark's parents are having new counter-tops put into our kitchen upstairs this week... so no sink, counters, stove use-age until about Thursday... fun! Mark's parents will be helping us with dinners until then and I'll be doing who knows what about breakfasts and lunches... it's only 4 days tho, and I'm sure I'll survive. Plus, they are putting in a beautiful tile that is a through-body color, so the edges will be beautifully polished and shiny... and the glass accents that will be on the backsplash will look amazing... can't wait!

Okay, lastly, and update on Mark and the boys!

Cole - saying lots of words now! Shoes, read books, more, milk, all done, go, mama (still working on papa tho), bite, Asher, home, get it, poo poo, bum, ready, bath, bye, ball, fooball (football), fruit, waffle, fruit bar and then lots of gibberish that we have yet to figure out! He also says "eee" when we brush his teeth and will make the cutest, cheesiest grin ever when you smile really big at him. I need to capture it will my real camera someday, it's the most adorable thing I've ever seen. He got another haircut and screamed for the entire 5 mins. We took him to great clips since I couldn't see how Mark and I would hold him down while he was screaming and kicking and do the cutting at the same time... it was eventful enough while at the "haircut store" as Asher says.

Asher - talking in complete sentences all the time! He has phrases that crack me up b/c of when and how he says them like "But I really want to..." "what'd you say?" "Crackin' you up papa/mama." He also tells us about his dreams aka movies in his sleep. Today was a first... we were asking him about how time in the nursery was and finally he answered "I don't really want to talk about it." Sad!! I thought boys didn't clam up like that until school-age at least!! Oh well, at least I knew it was coming :) Asher has become a pro at navigating Netflix on my computer (always supervised of course). But he can click from the ending of one show, back to browsing, find another show he wants to watch and make it full screen using my wireless mouse... yeah, mini-Mark in the making. Ash has come with me to a couple practices so far and does really well. He usually kicks a ball around on the field or just plays on my phone and watches the jumpers do their thing... maybe next year Cole will be old enough to bring too!

Mark - they have gotten a pretty good response for their latest app "iamDrums." It's pretty awesome, so you need to go buy it and tell all your friends! They are getting close to releasing another app called "iamRingTones" where you use their loops to create your own ringtones!! It's something lots of people have requested - to be able to make a ringtone from their apps. I hope that it will be a huge hit and help these guys feel like their efforts are paying off. Well, they are paying anyway, but it's always great to see something you created be really popular! Besides work, Mark spends a lot of time helping me with the boys, watching them 2 of the days I am gone in the afternoon at track practice. I don't know what I would do without him! I do need to get better at giving Mark and break tho, he goes out in the evenings sometimes with Dave Barnhart, but who couldn't stand to go get away from responsibilities more often ;)

Well, if you made it this far in my post, I congratulate you! It was a long one, sorry!! But, now you know what's going on and I feel accomplished for actually blogging ;) One last update, we got approved for health insurance starting February 1st!! So thankful we can afford it (for the time being) and to have a plan for taking care of some medical things for all of us... including trips to the dentist which ought to be loads of fun!! Love you all, bye!

This is for all you women there who either are a mom of little ones or want to become a mom of little ones... especially little ones close in age :) Enjoy!!

My Day Today - 1/17/2011

5am - Asher climbs in bed with us.
5:15am - Asher wiggles, whines and settles.
5:30am - again with the wiggling and whimpering
6am - Both Mark and Asher are snoring - one slightly louder than the other... yes, I am awake still.
7am - Finally give up on sleep, look at my email, a chapter in Proverbs and FB on my phone and hustle into some clothes. Mark takes Asher into the kitchen to get some breakfast.
7:15am - Grab the laundry basket and start a load of laundry - I have to get my track clothes all dried before I leave at 2pm.
7:30am - check my recipe for tonights crock pot dinner and find that I need a few more canned items. Take the beef that was thawing in the fridge and put it in some water to thaw for the crock pot meal. Got out the crock pot and greased it.
8am - hmm, eating breakfast, monitoring Asher, getting the laundry switched out, start another load.
8:30am - Cole is STILL sleeping, but since I need to get going, I go and wake him up. He's soaking wet... peed through his night-time diaper and his fleece pj's. Change Cole, and pick out clothes for both boys for the day.
8:45am - finish getting them dressed, get Cole some breakfast, harass him about eating, let Asher play with his sticker book at the table.
9am - clean up Cole from b-fast, got Cole's shoes and jacket on, got my shoes and sweatshirt on, Asher decides he wants to go to the store with me instead of staying home with papa, put Asher's shoes and sweatshirt on.
9:10am - in the car, making a trip to wal-mart... both boys are happy!!
9:20am - at wal-mart, enjoying all the birds flying around on our walk in, grab a cart, let Asher walk...
- look for tank-tops - unsuccessful
- look for boys clothes on sale - unsuccessful (I did later find some $1 bins, but it was mostly pants and girl stuff and I didn't want to fight the crowd of women to dig, while carrying Cole and hoping Asher would obey).
- get the canned items I need plus some juice.
- put Asher in  the cart after 2 chances and him not obeying... the last one being a defiant stance and refusing to come to me.
- get to the checkout line, no debit card in my wallet, shoot! Left it in my jeans pocket at home!! thankfully, the cashier saved my transaction and the bag of items for me... back home we go... after stopping and getting a smiley face sticker of course!
9:45am - driving home to get debit card and ID
10:05am - back at Wal-mart, wait in line, purchase items!
10:15am - while walking through the parking lot, a small vehicle didn't look before backing out, but thankfully, both boys stopped when I told them to and we simply stood there and watched while the car slowly (thankfully) backed ENTIRELY out of it's spot before seeing us standing there, less than 5 feet away. Nice.
10:17am - headed back home! Listened to a voicemail reminding me I had a prescription to pick up at Albertson's.
10:30am - unload the kiddos, hang up jackets, take off shoes, switch out laundry again... Cole needs new sheets cleaned and dry before naptime!
Warning! This next hour was a bit of a blur :)
- open all the cans of stuff for crock pot meal, pour in and turn on high, clean out cans
- brown meat
- get boys a fruit bar for a morning snack
- pour Cole a cup of milk
- drain meat, add to soup, clean strainer and a few other dishes waiting to be cleaned.
- keep the boys from fighting over the puzzle
- discipline Cole 2 times for climbing into chair and turning lights on and off
- discipline Asher for disobeying when I told him to get off the back of the couch and then throwing a fit about it
- discipline Cole for climbing into my computer chair and starting my music on iTunes (yes, he did it, but it was already open and ready to go, pretty much)
- take Asher to the bathroom, monitor Cole while he climbs on the stool and tries to get into cupboards while Ash is taking his time on the pot.
11:30am - boys are whiny and crying, Mark comes downstairs and I realize it's time for lunch!
- make Asher a "meat sandwich" upon request
- make Cole a PBJ
- pour drinks, give chips (Mark did this) and put boys in chairs with a bib for Cole... add fruits and a random assortment of other food items as needed.
- make a sandwich for myself
- look up recipes for granola bars, prep ingredients, mix together, put in oven (whew, wasn't as bad as I thought)
- clean Asher and take down from chair, threat of discipline for not drinking juice - then I told him good job for obeying mama and tasted the juice... yuck!! It was gross... it was a sample thing and had that weird after-taste... worse than kool-aid! Then I told Ash REALLY good job for taking a drink even though it was gross ;)
- clean bowl from granola bars
- made tea, drank most of the tea
- Cole is shouting "Ah duh" aka "all done" so I clean him up and get him down.
- clean trays, plates and cups
12pm - go into the boys' room to play and put clean sheets on Cole's bed... ha.
- Changed Asher's sheets and pillows.
- Discipline Cole 2 times for getting onto Asher's bed after I told him no twice and tried to block him from climbing up while I was putting the new sheet on.
- Decided to take off Cole's crib bumper since I was working up a sweat trying to put a new sheet on and tuck that stinking mattress under the bumper... after much huffing and puffing, Mark came back down and watched the boys for 5 minutes while I finished taking off the old the bedding, took the granola bars out of the over, untied all the ties on Cole's bumper and cut my slightly warm granola bars.
12:30pm - played with the boys, cleaned up toys and watched a bit of Monster's Inc on Asher's phone (yes, that's correct.)
12:50pm - changed Cole's soggy diaper
12:55 - Cole poops
1pm - change Cole's poopy diaper, clean up toys and such in the boys' room
1:15pm - put Cole down for nap & turn crock pot to low.
1:20pm - I go to the bathroom and get dressed for track practice.
1:30pm - take Asher potty again, with much resistance, then put him to bed.
1:40pm - get my shoes on, purse loaded, papers packed, food ready, water ready, take a fresh granola bar to Mark upstairs and steal a kiss before I leave, and then I head out the door.
1:50pm - stop my Albertson's and pick up prescription.

Since I missed much of the afternoon with the boys, I'll just briefly say that I drove an hour to Corban University, went to a coaches meeting, a team meeting, then practiced with my incredible jumpers, filled up the van with gas, drove an hour home and greeted my family just before 7pm! Ate dinner, cleaned some dishes, played, gave kisses, dressed for bed, brushed their teeth, snuggled with Mark on the couch for a few while Cole snickered at us and Asher said "Papa's holdin' mama!", more kisses and stern warnings about staying in bed. Showered, shaved and now, here! Great day overall. I love having productive days like these (aside from the whole wal-mart, no money fiasco)... they are definitely busy, but fun :) Just a little more reading tonight and I am out for the count!!