Ezra's Run

One of my typical New Years resolutions is to exercise more, but I always seem to fall short of the level I would like to be at. I also firmly believe that "what gets measured, gets done"... So if I could some how measure my progress and have all my friends bug me about keeping my goal, I will somehow succeed. Right?

And so I signed up for a half marathon.

Now how will I measure it? Click here. Each time I run, I'm going to log my time and miles in this handy little spreadsheet. Then I can easily compare that to the plan I found at some fanatical runners site selling spandex (not going to happen) and $200 shoes (Looking for the right excuse).

Occasionally, I'll publish a little graph, like the one below, showing how I'm doing.

The spreadsheet also shows the course I ran (find the web address to the right) and other bits and pieces of data that I'll collect along the way.

I expect to start slow...hey I just had surgery...and I doubt I'll ever hit the 25 miles per week, but at least I've committed to all my friends and the www that I'm going to finally get into shape...or kill myself running 13.1 miles.

Now, to make this work, I need everyone to bug me about it and I need your motivational support.

And how can I get people to help me?

If you leave a short motivational quote or comment, I'll write it on a white t-shirt that I'll wear on race day... Ok, that sounds kind of cheesy, but if you think its a good idea, let me know and I'll still think about it.

Either way ... help me! I need motivation!

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Endoscopic Nose Blah Blah Blah...

So Ezra had Endoscopic Nose Surgery on Thursday and is home recovering quite well. Lots of naps, tissues, and pain killer has kept him quite passive. The kids have been very patient and helpful. Look at the cute note Natalie made for him on the day he came home.
Click on it to see a larger picture.

Let me point out a few things...first he just finished reading the book "Ender's Shadow". Can you see the book and words in the lower left hand?

Second, Ezra works for an electric company that builds lots of power lines. Can you see the spelling of Electricity and the power lines?

Lastly, we were looking at stars last night as we drove around.

What a thoughtful kid!

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Bowling with Brendan

Tonight was "Mommy-Son" date night. Brendan and I went bowling. This was his first time and it had been many, many years since I had bowled, so it was an adventure for us both.

Have any of you been bowling lately? Bowling has changed since the 1990s at the Wilk. They have AUTOMATIC bumpers. They popped up for Brendan and went down when it was my turn. They also have fancy animated balls and pins acting out strike/spare/gutter/etc. on the overhead screen. But the rental shoes still stink.

I wish I had a picture so you could see Brendan in his little size 11 bowling shoes, hugging his six-pound bowling ball. He loved that ball. As soon as it came out of the machine, he grabbed it and held it until it was his turn. First he tried bowling the regular way, with one arm. Too heavy. Then he switched to the "granny", setting the ball on the ground and giving it a big underhanded push. That worked better, but the ball still rolled so slowly down the lane that he got bored waiting to see if it would hit anything.

Once as I was starting my steps towards the lane, he yelled "Go Lisa!" Hearing him call me Lisa caught me completely off guard. My ball went straight into the gutter.

One other new thing is a little light and buzzer that go on when you "scratch" or step over the line. Brendan thought that was pretty fun. When he didn't set it off as he rolled the ball, he would stomp on the line to set it off. He later described it as a "buzzer that doesn't shock you".

I'm proud to be able to say that even though I did not get to use bumpers, I still won. By an amazing score of 69 to 67. I taught Bren the meaning of "gutter ball", since I was the only one who had one (or maybe a few more than one).

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Richards Can Dance!!! (but not pregnant Richards)

Don't send a lame eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

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Fun in the Snow

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Flu

So Lisa has the flu and has been feeling miserable over the past few days. Carrying a baby and harboring the flu – What could be worse?

Will everyone please leave some encouraging words for her!

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Blog announcements

So Ezra and I love all the feedback we have gotten on the trampoline vs. play fort issue, and we'd like some more input from family and friends.

We have been wondering--what kinds of things are appropriate to announce on a blog? Can we tell everyone how silly and fun our kids are? Yes, we've certainly been doing that.
Can we tell about all our Oregon exploring that we have been doing? We've been doing a bit of that too. Can we tell a story about a rolling, spraying, exploding can of Sprite that covered our kitchen and how even though we have spent HOURS cleaning, the floor is STILL STICKY? Haven't told that one yet. What if we posted that we were expecting baby number four in July? Would that be okay to announce on a blog?

What do you think? What kinds of things can we announce on our blog?

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Please Help Us! Play Fort vs. Trampoline

So now that spring is just around the corner (and the backyard is finally finished), we are debating what we should put in our backyard for the kids to play on. The two big options are a Play Fort or a Trampoline. We can see different advantages to both, but we wonder which the kids would play on/with the most.

Does anyone have one or both and how do your kids do with either? Even if you don't have either, what would you do?

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JFK on Mormons

I thought this was interesting...

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Chubby Toes

What is it about babies' toes that is so . . . so . . . yummy? Amanda's are so chubby that they crowd each other out.

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Corish Gay Hens

In following my mom's tradition, every year for New Year's Eve, I try to make fancy foods that aren't anything like what we normally eat. I have a lot of fun doing it, even if the kids end up hungry because everything is too weird for them. Christmas dinner is already planned--the turkey we didn't eat on Thanksgiving. So I was thinking ahead for New Year's Eve. Today I asked the kids if they would rather have Little Smokies or Cornish Game Hens. I expected them to say Little Smokies, (oooo, tiny hot dogs on toothpicks!!) but I tried to sell them on the Cornish Game Hens--(wow, your very own little chicken!!). Natalie opted for Hornish Pens and Brendan opted for Corish Gay Hens. What a crack up. ;-)

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The Christmas Tree

So we drove out to a Christmas tree farm about 15 minutes from our house and chopped down our first real Christmas tree! This is a huge step for us, for the last 8 years we have used the same 4 foot tall, fake tree. So now we finally have the space to have a big tree, and wow did we get one!

We packed the kids into the car-complete with rubber galoshes (Lisa used her red polka dot boots) and loads of warm clothes. Of course, Brendan was worried we forgot the ax.

After too much debate over picking the best one, we finally decided on something too big and very wide. But heck it only cost $27!

As you can see, we picked a great one...

Now if we could only get the kids to stop rearranging the presents twice a day.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Checkers

So I don't claim to be any good at checkers, but I thought I could at least hold my own against a 6 year old. Today, Natalie jumped four of my pieces all with the same piece. I'll admit I set her up to jump two pieces, but I didn't see the other two. The little stinker then had to laugh and gloat about it. Lets just say I won the game.

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Natalie vs. Amanda

Lately Amanda has reminded us of Natalie at about the same age, so we decided to do a bit of comparison. The top 3 pictures are of Amanda and the bottom 3 are of Natalie.

The funny thing is that their personalities are exactly the opposite. Natalie couldn't hold still (and still can't). Amanda takes a few crawls away and then just stops...puts a finger in her mouth...thinks...goes back to where she came...thinks again.

And Brendan, well he's in a league of his own.

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Cocked and Loaded

Check out these two trigger happy little tykes.



So they were just paint ball guns, but the kids got pretty good at hitting something ...eventually.

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