It's official

It's official. I have paid my dues and am now registered for my first 5K race. I'm nervous to say the least! I have been working out consistently for 6 weeks now and would like to say that I can run 3.1 miles in twenty minutes or less. But, no. Try doubling that number. My friend Joanie convinced me to do it (easy for her to say she ran a marathon when her twins were 6 months old!) I figured it's now or never. And I really want to run a half-marathon before the year is over so I have to start somewhere. I do have a goal for myself: I have to finish in 45 minutes or less because Brayden wakes up at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast, which is me. Race starts at 7:00 a.m. Finish by 7:45 a.m. Rush home to nurse baby at 8:00 a.m. A mother's work is never done. I would like to have Adam there to watch me, but unless we can convince someone to watch our kids on a Saturday morning at 7 a.m. it's not happening. Who knows, maybe by the time I'm ready to try a half-Ironman my kids will be old enough to watch themselves and Adam can come cheer me on. One can always dream, right?

Other news: Brayden had his 6 month checkup two weeks ago. He is 19.5 pounds and 28 inches long. BIG KID!! We attended my mother's family's reunion (Sampson family) and compared him to my cousins children that were around the same age. He dwarfed them all. And not by a little bit, either. We are proud, but our arms are sore from hauling him around. Brayden has also discovered his voice and YELLS and SCREAMS a lot. It makes my throat sore just listening to him.

Sabrina is learning to read and write. My mom started us on the program that she teaches: The Writing Road to Reading. It's a phonics-based program which I'm totally impressed with. My little 4 year old can read simple books and is learning to identify more complex combined sounds and recite the rule for each one. I'm enrolling her in Pre-school this fall.

Moira is the great middle child. Happy, funny, sweet, content. She's delightful and wonderful. Currently she enjoys chasing Sabrina around the house and playing with Brayden. Her third birthday is coming up in August and as per our tradition we're going to do a huge party for her. She is so excited and talks about it constantly: "pink cake with pink fwosting and white letters and white frowers". Maybe she'll be an event planner someday. I'm thinking a super-hero theme, that would be fun! Then we could have a slip-n-slide in the backyard and have them practice their super hero flying on it! OOOOH, good idea!

Right now Adam and I are losing weight. I, because I burn a ton of calories every day through exercise and nursing and still eat light; Adam, because he eats watermelon for breakfast, cucumbers for lunch, sensible dinner, and no snacking after 8 o'clock. We both have goals that we're shooting for, he will probably meet his before I meet mine because he has less to lose AND men lose weight more easily than women. GRRRRR. But he's very encouraging, especially with my gym membership and getting out of bed in the morning at 6 a.m., which has proven to be more difficult than I thought. Will update the blog on this topic as noteworthy milestones are achieved.

What's in a name?

I have been teaching Moira her parents names in case of an emergency. Initially it was pretty rough going: "Damn Jay Bowers". But now she has Adam's name down: Adam Jay Bowers. My name has proved a little more difficult. Every time I ask her my name Moira says:

"Wendy Bowers Awesome."

No joke.

When she was learning and would say my name right I would respond with an enthusiastic "Awesome". Somehow she must have thought that I was correcting her rather than cheering her on. But since the name seems very appropriate to me (what mother wouldn't agree, I ask you!) I have allowed the name to stick!

Maybe by the time she starts school I'll fix it, until then I will enjoy my sweet toddler calling me awesome every time she says my name!

Grandma's visit

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Adam's mother came for a visit last weekend. We always enjoy having her and the kids LOVE it! They won't leave her alone. She told me she tried to escape to the guest room in the basement but they followed her downstairs anyway. On Saturday we all went to lunch at Chuck-a-rama for Father's day. Apparently it's the favorite lunch spot for the Senior community. All the grandmas and grandpas oohed and aahed over our kids. They are pretty charming. I'm sure Adam's mom was busting her buttons with pride. Afterwards we went to the Dinosaur Park in Ogden. Pretty cool! The kids loved the robotic T-rex battling with the Triceratops and her two babies. Sabrina wants to go back and see the "robot dinosaur with the spikes". (a.k.a. Triceratops) They also loved walking through the acres of park with the huge replicas of dinosaurs. Some were even fighting and killing and eating their prey. The sound effects creeped them out a little bit. I imagined myself experiencing the "Land of the Lost" as I wandered through the underbrush hearing dinosaur roars just over the next hill. Surreal! We had a lot of fun despite the mild heat exhaustion we experienced.

Camping trip

We went camping last weekend with our friends the Atkinsons up at her family's cabin. Very rustic conditions, no running water or heat. And it rained half the time. But the kids had a GREAT time! They loved it and begged us to come back soon. They even dealt with the outhouse situation OK. (And Moira is still potty-training, now that's miraculous!) The cabin is right next to a small river so Adam and Greg Atkinson went fly-fishing to their hearts content. They both caught fish, but Adam accidentally released Greg's fish and out of penance subsequently released his own because he felt so bad. Guys--sheesh.

Meantime the girls--Sabrina, Moira, and the Atkinsons two oldest girls went wandering around the property (a couple of heavily wooded fenced acres) and scared themselves by imagining a bear coming out of the trees. I had just walked out of the cabin to check on them when I heard them shrieking at the opposite side of a large grassy area. I saw Ellie (5) and Abby (3) running towards me and doing that make-believe screaming (any mom can tell the difference) followed by Sabrina (4) who was actually screaming. And trailing significantly was Moira (2) who by this time was screaming and crying in earnest, looking behind her and fully-expecting a bear to come lumbering out of the trees. The poor kid was hysterical! I was expecting one too based on their behavior and raced to get Moira. And as I was running back to the cabin carrying her I scolded the other three about leaving her in the dust while they ran for their lives. We all calmed down enough to realize that Ellie had been pretending and fueled by Abby and Sabrina had started running and screaming, thus creating a real crisis in everyone's mind. Hilarious. I'm just glad there wasn't a real bear. I'm not sure how I would have handled that one.

Gardening

We bought our house nearly 3 years ago at which time the flower beds were masses of grass and weeds and the lawn was the shade of ripe wheat--dead, dead, dead. Now, 3 years later, I am finally planting flowers everywhere. We went to the nursery today and filled our car with annuals and perenials. Sure love that "stimulus package" check.