Polar Express, Turkey Trot, CSI Games, Breakfast with Santa, Poke the Pup

Wow, what a fun Thanksgiving! Raleigh went to Utah with Grandma Ro,
Aunt Claire, and cousin Brayden to ride the Polar Express in
Heber. Stayed at Kelsy's, came back for Thanksgiving
dinner. Wednesday night Ty and I played some ball at the church
with Giff and lots of other people. Then I did the Turkey Trot 5K on
Thursday morning with cousins Gifford, Jordan, Mari, Brenner, and
Aunt Gail...and a lot of friends from high school. Helped a little
with dinner when I got back, but Kirby did the most and dad cooked
the turkey since mom was driving. It was delish.

Friday was the game at CSI vs. Casper College with a group of girls
from all over...I was so excited for the chance to play again, and
actually be in decent shape to do it. I didn't shoot well from
outside, but I felt a lot more comfortable in the second half and had
some success driving to the hole. Today we beat Yakima 87-78 and I
didn't shoot a single three but did a lot of driving because they
were pressuring us so much and didn't have good helpside.

Here is a picture of our team, minus Jo Williams from West J who
played on Friday but couldn't play today:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1180733&l=d3c0a&id=529612912

Here is a link to an article on the game(s) from today:
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2008/11/30/sports/local_state/doc493233243e61f979286734.txt

It was awesome to meet some new girls, and I also completely enjoyed
being coached by former CSI Coach Joel Bate. He has a great
knowledge of the game and I've always had a great deal of respect for
him. When I arrived at the gym yesterday he showed me where our
locker room was, and I saw the jerseys and said, "Merrilee (the CSI
assistant coach) said I could wear my old number." He said,
"22". Couldn't believe he could remember that, but he said he
remembered it from the scouting reports. That was ten years ago,
unbelievable. But like my dad says, he knows kids better than
anybody around.

I hadn't played in a college level basketball game for almost 8
years....so again, let me say, WHAT A TREAT! I felt like a kid in a
candy store shooting around in warm-ups. Shooting in a gym like that
versus a regular gym is like the difference between regular
television and high definition. Everything is sharper! I love
Skyline High School because I would say they have a "high definition"
gym for a high school, although I just LOVE the lighting at CSI.

Zetell Nelson, Farrah's mom, saw we were playing and came to watch
today. It was nice to see her and Farrah's brother Alex. (Farrah is
a good friend from high school and her mom is a sweetheart.)

Mom watched the girls both days, which was a HUGE help.

This morning, Ty and Mom and I took Raleigh and Kysa to the Teddy
Bear Breakfast at the Civic. THey got pictures with Santa and
enjoyed looking at all of the beautiful Christmas trees.

Grandma and Grandpa got a new 7 month old chocolate lab named Poke,
and between him, Nochie, Poot, and Max, the girls have been very
entertained. Shay is very bossy with Poke, and lets him know he
shouldn't mess with her. Kysa on the other hand, has gotten ran over
several times...she went outside this morning and came in crying, and
said, "Poke get me!" I asked her what happend to her big pink hair bow...then Andrew came in with it in his hand and informed us that the hair bow was in Poke's mouth. :)

ABC Duet

If you click on the video you can go to YouTube and select the "watch in high quality" option, (unless you are my parents who still have dial-up.)



I got a kick out of Raleigh tonight. He said, "Mom, do you think anybody would adopt Kysa and Shay?" I told him I didn't think they needed to be adopted since they had a family, and he said, "Well, I just get really tired of them sometimes." Ha!

I had enrichment at the church and thankfully they had a nursery. Raleigh went over to Skyline during Ty's last week of the 5th and 6th grade league. It was a VERY long day for him.

The weather has been so nice--look at the girls outside in their t-shirts! Yikes, that doesn't happen very often in November. The economy is looking bad but gas is down to below $2 for the first time today. I think it was $1.95 at Sam's Club.

Reading Together

I was reading the children’s book “A Dog Called Kitty” to Raleigh last night, embarrassed that I was fighting back tears.  Then Raleigh just started crying…and I joined him, struggling to maintain my composure enough to finish reading.  I’m sure Ty and the girls were wondering what was wrong with us.  Then we started laughing through our tears, because after all, it was just a dumb old book.  We went to the library today to get more books to read together.  Raleigh was hoping there would be a sequel, but there isn’t.  Kysa picked up a random book in the adult section and wouldn’t let go of it until we got up to the checkout counter…wouldn’t even let me look at the title.  Finally I convinced her to put it on the counter, and I had to laugh at the irony in the title:  “Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much”.  HMMMM, is somebody trying to tell me something?  Of all the books for her to grab!  Seriously.

 

I don’t do too much! I mean today, I didn’t do too much at all.  I just went to my marketing meeting at Snake River Landing, then took the kids to Apple so I could go to Bootcamp at noon, then went to Sam’s Club for diapers and groceries, then came home, put the girls down for their naps, and did the dishes before heading off to NAI for our strategy meeting at 3:30, then over to Snake River Landing to get some files for our YouTube video, then home to fix dinner, then off to the library with Shay and Raleigh…then off to my basketball game in Sugar City.  (I carpool with the girls on my team.)  I’m not doing too much, AM I?  Geez, it makes me tired just writing about it.

 

Ty was happy with his first day of practice following tryouts.  Feels like the kids are quite a bit ahead of where they were last year.  Tonight my team lost for the first time in the Sugar City League to Crystal Carpenter’s team.  It was a frustrating game…hopefully we get to play them again in the tournament.

Raleigh Wins Dribble Tag

Thursdays are long days with basketball clinics at Apple, but the kids are troopers. Raleigh goes to his clinic from 3:30 to 4, and then goes to a youth bootcamp class from 4:30 to 5:30. I’m coaching from 3:30 to 6. About winning the game of “dribble tag” as Coach E calls it, Raleigh informed Ty, “I won even though I had a big ball that didn’t bounce very good.”

Raleigh said something funny tonight. I was going to pop some popcorn in the microwave, and he said, “No, mom, we need to eat that popcorn we got from the SCAVENGERS!” He was referring to the popcorn tin we bought from some SCOUTS for their fundraiser. Scouts…Scavengers…same thing, right!

Here is a classic Shay tantrum from open gym at Skyline on Wednesday:

Every Second Counts, by Lance Armstrong

Just finished reading this book…picked it up for a couple of bucks at a library book sale.   

 

Just a couple thoughts I have. 

 

1.      We are capable of much more than we realize.

2.      Focused dedication is essential to pushing ourselves beyond our limits and reaching our goals.

3.      A team will help you achieve more than you could ever achieve on your own.

4.      Make sure you are focusing on what’s really important to you.

5.      It’s good to have a cause.

 

And here are some thoughts I have of introspection:

 

I ought to start looking at my day-to-day responsibilities as a mom and a wife as preparation for other challenges like marathons, triathlons, swimming races, etc….When I don’t feel like doing something (like sweeping the floor), I need  to do a better job of just DIGGING in and doing what needs to be done.  I think I can apply more HUSTLE and more focused dedication to cleaning my house.   I need to look at doing what can wear on me as mundane chores as opportunities to build my character and my mental toughness.  Why?  I can honestly say that I would rather go run 10 miles on the treadmill than do all of our laundry and put it away amidst the chaos of my ultra-energetic kids.  Not kidding.  It’s a welcome respite to be able to go to the gym and push myself.  Not that it’s a bad thing that I enjoy working out…but I think by shifting my paradigm a bit I can find more purpose in what I am doing to help contribute to an orderly home.

 

My friend Holly Haguewood did her first triathlon on Saturday.  She struggled with the swim but did awesome on the run and the bike.  (it was a reverse tri in Provo.)  She wants to do an ironman, once she gets the swimming part figured out.  Alice Schenk is doing an Ironman in Arizona in a couple of weeks.

 

For this year, my big goal is to complete a marathon (or two)  and the Spudman, and start a local open water swimming group so I can do a lot of river swims.  I don’t know what I think about getting serious about cycling.  I think for now I’ll just stick to my indoor cycling classes and see where that leads.  I’m not real crazy about the prospect of crashing on the bike…not with three very small kids. 

 

But I think I’d like to get into it, and do Lotoja for example, in a few years. 

 

The kids were really cute tonight.  Shay has started a habit of sneaking out of her room and falling asleep in the hallway, like she’s getting away with something.  Ty’s birthday was today and he got a pair of shoes, a pinochle party out at Shane’s last night, and Dance Dance Revolution, the Mario Version, from Raleigh.

Funny Kids

I had to laugh at Kysa's comment after I calmly cleaned up the hot chocolate Shay spilled on the counter, "Mom, Shay Shay spilled Shay Shay's milk all around. Mom, you need to be MAD!"

Another comment from earlier tonight...Kysa was trying to get her seatbelt on and it was already buckled...and in her frustration she said, "What the crap! What the crap, mom?" yikes, guess I need to be a little more careful about my slang.

Shay is SO full of it. She puts a lot of little sentences together, and says several words exactly like Kysa does. "Moy" for more, for example.

Kirby came to Idaho Falls yesterday to get supplies for a couple of events at the Aquatic Center, so we met up with her at Wal-Mart and Kysa said, "Where's Andrew?" Shay said, "Woof? Woof?", or in other words, "Where's Poot?" I got a kick out of that. Kysa LOVES her Kirby and didn't understand why she couldn't go in Kirby's car when it was time to leave.

Raleigh has enjoyed going to basketball and then a kids fitness boot camp for the last couple of Thursdays. He thought that boot camp was great and talked about it every day for a week. I buzzed his hair the other day and I think he looks so cute. Thank goodness I have his help, even if it's just laughing with me when the girls are out of control so I don't completely lose my mind. I am really thankful he is my son.

We picked up some clearance Halloween costumes this morning at Fred Meyer, so when we got home Raleigh dressed up as a Power Ranger, Kysa--SuperGirl, and Shay--Dora. It was cute watching them play together. Last night we watched Mari and Giff's 7 month old Nash while they went to the temple and it was a 3 ring circus because Kysa and Shay both wanted to hold him. shay was especially hard to handle. She kept throwing tantrums and scaring him with her loud crying. I watched him I should say, and then Ty watched him while i did a bball lesson with Cheyenne Olsen and Jesse Marbo over at Skyline...so it was even more of an adventure because it was 1 on 4 for each of us. We were just thankful that Nash is an easy baby.

Oh, Jeremy Kuns got his mission call to Munich, Germany.

10 Miler with Alice Schenk

It was about 10 minute/mile pace and I enjoyed Alice's company, advice, and
encouragement the whole way!