Untraining the untrainable.

I admit, I have done things I'm not proud of to 'just get by' when it comes to managing my three little people in public.


I have used food and treats (gummies to be more specific) to..ahem.. bribe my kids into behaving. 


I already admitted my lack of pride for my behavior. But I bet that you'd do the same thing...and some of you, probably DO! It's ok, I get it. I'm there with you. 3 little copy cats...bad behavior is more prevalent than good behavior!


However, I have created 3 Pavlov children using 'destinations' as a trigger for needing food. Not 4 kids because bless his heart, A-Dog has already been trained and untrained.


Arrive at Target? They are all 3 hungry.


Arrive to Church? They are all 3 hungry.


Zoo, grocery store, Grandma and Grandpa's house? Yup, you got it - they are HUNGRY!


I'm sure you are thinking to yourself. "Why don't you just feed them before you go somewhere". I assure you, that is not the problem. 


This week, I have begun the untraining. Trust me when I say, I will be the one paying the price! (I will be needing a reload on my Starbucks card...or is that just another Pavlov issue?)


Before we left the house Tuesday, I warn them all "you JUST ate, I am NOT bringing any snacks. If you need a drink, get it now". 


What do you think they said when we got to Target? 


"I'm HUNGRY".


I quickly told them that I didn't bring anything.  Monkey says "not even GUMMIES???". No Monkey, nothing. AT ALL. I didn't even look them in the eye - I could hear the disbelief as they looked at each other and sighed.


Today we went to the grocery store. Agent P says "I'm thirsty". Making no eye contact again, I just reminded him that there was no water and quickly shuffled them out of the van.


It's not summer here, so I am OK with them being without water for 1 hour. 


They say it takes 3 weeks to break a habit.


I am on day 5. Wish me luck :)

Where do I start...

Today A-Dog and I ran a 5k. Let's start there with the basic story. (I could say "then end", but how boring would that be?)

Never mind the fact that it was 38 degrees when we left the house.

Because it did warm up. To something else...but I left my weather station at home.

Let me tell you the whole story without leaving out the best parts. You know how I love to drag a story out and get side tracked as often as possible.  I just never want you to leave here feeling like you just haven't gotten the whole story..and then some. You're welcome.

I finally committed to the 5k about 9 days ago. I have had it on the calendar, but until you register and spend the money - you are NOT committed. At all. Unless of course  you've told people that you are running - then you either run the race or deal with the questions as to WHY you didn't.

So I did. Commit and run.

A-Dog conveniently decided he was going to do it the day after the rates went up by $2. Don't worry, I didn't charge him for it :). I easily could have tho.

Today I opted to not have my Smart-phone with me as I ran. I have a really great running program on my phone that tracks my pace and distance (along with many other items, but you really don't need to know about my calories burned right?). 

I often obsess with my pace when I'm running and knowing how much farther I have can have devastating effects on my stamina. I'm sure you can understand when you think you are near the end and you then realize you still have 3k to go :). I don't know why I told you all that, but I did. It's an illness I'm afraid.

Ok, back to today.  Today A-Dog and I ran a 5K. Did I say that already? I know, I need to focus, or go to bed. Either way...

Obviously pre-run, I'm smiling :)

It was a really good run - I had to take 3 breaks. A break consisted of us walking for about 7 seconds.

Very refreshing.

As a side note, our 5k had mile markers at 1 mile and 2 miles. Explain that one.

I could see the last turn and knew we were in the home stretch. I was conflicted as to which way to turn - right to the end, left to McDonald's. I eventually went right. I told A-Dog - "go ahead son, be amazing and finish strong".

He totally left me. Not even a second thought.

That's ok, I'm pretty sure there was about 15 other times he debated it and only stayed with me for fear of a wrong turn I might make and head out for breakfast without him. Once we turned that corner, he knew I had no where else to go.

I have to say, I was so proud of that boy - he really dug in and picked up the pace for the last 1/2k. I was doing really good. I could see the end and I was still going.

A-Dog at the finish!

Then something devastating happened.

Really bad.

I got passed.

By an elderly gentleman.

There was nothing I could do about it. No way I had anything else in me to pass him or ahem, race him to the end.

So I let him beat me. What else could I do?

I looked up the unofficial results online, here they are:

A-Dog: Finished #100 of 198, in his age group (ages 10-19) he finished 15th. 30 minutes 12 seconds.

Me: Finished #111 of 198, in my age group (30-39) I finished 11th (seriously RIGHT? 11th??? ALMOST in the top 10!) 31 minutes 10 seconds. My best time yet.

The sweet old guy who passed and finished ahead of me? #110? Finished 5th in his age group (70-99). It does post our actual ages (mortifying I know) he was 70. I'm pretty sure I'm totally proud of that guy.

Next time, I'm going to keep a better eye on who is behind me....

An evolution of a tradition.

Once upon a time, a family started a Tradition. (No, it wasn't to over tinsel the tree or dress their kids in funky clothing). It was to gather on Christmas Eve. To celebrate the birth of Our Savior with the ones we love. And take a photo of the Grandkids by the over tinseled tree.

Christmas Eve 1974

Thanks to these people...


Christmas Eve 2002 (these are the people responsible for dressing the children in the previous photo)

The tradition was never lost. Like clockwork, we ALL go to Aunt Doris' house every year. No matter where she has lived (except didn't she live out of state one year? What did we do that year?). We have been known to cram ourselves into various rooms of a small condo, just to be together.

Our traditions have grown and changed over the years.

It used to be a time of little kids exchanging gifts and getting home to wait for Santa!

Then it became a time of drinking games and going to church at 11pm (there were gifts, but it seemed to be gift card exchanging).

We cousins all saw life changing when someone introduced the first of the next generation to the mix and many, many more have been added since.  


Great Grandma with the ones she loved most!

 Now, we go to church at 5pm, have only 1 or 2 shots (well, some of us...) and let our kids dress themselves.


The cousins 2011 - minus 4

We still exchange gifts, but we added a new twist...Adult White Elephant (and this year Teenager White Elephant)

A very excited 2010 recipient of the injured gingerbread men cookie cutters - with "blood" frosting

 To be a part of this amazing Tradition is as precious as the gift of the Birth of Christ. I am eternally grateful that my family gathers each year for this celebration! 

I am beside myself BLESSED for these two extremely amazing people, who once led this amazing family and actually still do....but from Heaven.



Christmas Eve 2000


Grandpa and Grandma - thank you for what you gave us. Thank you for loving your Kids, Grand Kids and Great Grand Kids (the ones you knew and the ones you are watching over)! I think of you each every. single. day. Without fail. Love you both for eternity!

I went to the grocery store...

I got what I needed.

It all went smoothly.

The End.



I WISH.

For the love of food I wish.

Hindsight screams "you should have JUST gotten the napkins and yogurt and LEFT"!!!!!

But I didn't.

I went through nearly the whole store.

Because I like to torture myself. And we did need veggies, fruit and flour.

I feel sorry for each and every on looker that had to endure Mini P crying with all she had for half the store. Big tears, sad looks. Pathetic.

Doesn't work on me.

I am immune to her ways.

Mostly.

To make matters worse, I am certain that Starbucks' recent announcement about their new label has made all their current products collectors items that justified increasing their prices or something.

I tried to buy some sanity Mocha Frappuccino 4-packs. They were $7.69. REALLY??? Since I paid $4.99 just two weeks ago. I bought ZERO.

Needless to say, I left the store without my sanity.

The real question is - what isle did I leave it on??? Probably on the floor next to the Frappuccinos.

We interrupt this regularly scheduled program....

to provide you with useless information muling around here.

1. Christmas decorations are now put away. Back in the garage. I am so thankful. Seriously. I love Christmas and I love the decorations...I do NOT really love it when the little people that live here stick random nuts up in the ceramic houses that were living under the tree. The nuts are now a permanent fixture in those because I could not get them out. That is just one of the many incidents that occurred. Others incidents include ornaments, snow globes and glitter. I'm sure you can think of something outrageous that could have happened and you probably wouldn't be far off.


Seriously. Can someone tell my why this keeps posting my pictures the wrong direction?

2. New Years Resolutions. I have none. I am resolute to have no resolutions.  It's been proven more than once I am a procrastinator so having some sort of resolution system would be an exercise in futility. (Pun intended, did you like that? Exercise...get it?).  Truthfully, I figure that if I haven't solved anything by now, it probably won't be solved/changed/resoluted anytime soon.

3. I have been overly enjoying my Panini Press that I got for Christmas. Lame, totally lame I realize. I should be saying that "I am LOVING my in home spa!!!" But truly, what a dreamy invention! Don't ask me why I haven't owned one before now, since most of my life revolves around making and eating food! It is a genius device! Crunchy on the outside. Ooey and gooey on the inside! It is a delight!

4. My mom called today and asked what was for lunch, when I hesitated to ponder an answer (because I just didn't know - probably a panini truth be told).. I could have sworn that she was about to say she was going to bring me something yummy. She wasn't.

5. My daughter got hair extensions. While she has beautiful hair, her sweet cousin got her a small addition to her beauty! Life will never be the same.

6.  Hank has a boo-boo on his paw. Again. For the 783rd time. I don't know what it is about this dog, but he is always limping on one foot or another. There is always an ouchie on one of his paws. He lays around licking it all day because for the love of dogs, leaving it alone might actually allow it to heal.  Many a visitor has felt sorry for this dog and gave him a nice pat on the head. We don't take him to the vet for it because frankly, we aren't really certain there is a boo-boo. He is not cooperative, all 110 pounds of him.

7. I refuse to run when it is freezing cold out. We had a cold snap here and I realized that running when it was in the 40s was not for me.  Monday was warmer - 50s - and I was a much happier runner. Tomorrow is a run day - and it should be near 60 - even better!

8. I am in charge of games for our Youth Group at church. 15 teenagers. 12, 13 and 14 year olds. They are a tough crowd. I do their team building/ice breaking games before they do their group study. I really enjoy these kids and I have done a few games that they love. In the end, I always make sure I bring a wonderful snack for them and it all works out!

I will end it at 8 because today is Youth Group and I need to come up with a game AND a snack for tonight, on top of putting together something for dinner.

Like Panini's.
 

Parade of Lights

It seems like all of the sudden our opportunities for spending time building holiday memories snuck up on us and they all happened at once!

I guess life is like that tho - I mean, just because I needed a break in the schedule doesn't mean that the Lights Parade downtown would change their schedule. Hmmmf.

I could have asked...but I didn't. We could have skipped it - I mean, who would have really known???

This guy of course. He knows everything.

I will just document one event at a time, just to keep you on the edge of your seat in
anticipation! We had a busy few weeks starting with the Lights Parade. They let nearly anyone in this parade.

I think I can mark this down as our cultural event for the year as well.

Because not only did the parade include an array of city vehicles doused with Christmas lights...

There were these guys...

I mean, Star Wars action figures and Christmas Parade go hand in hand right?

Entries that didn't make it into the camera (due to the small people in my party choosing to take pictures of this instead)

were the Ghostbusters clan, as well as these freaky clown guys on bikes. Seriously, their paper mache heads were like bobble head dolls and they were on bikes. Truly, very scary.

There were actually some really neat entries...

But this guy...

must be in several peoples camera.

We even got a family photo by a nice lady sitting on the side of the road with us (and she didn't run off with my camera. I'm afraid that must speak volumes to the quality camera that I currently own...)

And the fact that I have edited this photo 3 times, 3 different ways and it STILL uploads sideways speaks volumes as to the quality of the editing software that I own and the fact that this blogger uploader is angry with me and keeps uploading it sideways.

Sorry y'all have to strain to see the photo properly.

Go ahead, file a complaint. I'm sure that will help. :)

Next up? Glad you asked.

It will be our adventure at the miniature train museum!

Caught in the act...

My sweet husband told Agent P recently that I had eyes in the back of my head. Agent P actually almost believes that I do because I often know what he is doing without even looking.

More often than not, he is doing something he shouldn't be. Even though I told him not to. 17 times. In one day.

And then another 32 times the next.

(waving from stage)

He can't help it.

It is who he is.

So, look very closely at this very blurry photo. Look where he is going and the awesome expression on his face.

Yup, that is a microphone.

And yes. He is on stage.

With 120 other kindergartners.

With all their parents and siblings watching.

Tip toeing 3 steps to the microphone and say "hi". About 4 different times.

What can he say, he does live every moment to it's fullest. He makes no excuses and no justifications for his acts.

Truth be told, I would have NEVER placed him smack dab in front of a microphone. :)

But his teachers will have to learn the hard way :)