Breakfast

This was my breakfast this morning:Jealous?

Breakfast for my family has always been a big deal. My grandma has this saying on her fridge that goes something like: Eat Breakfast for a King, Lunch for a Duke, and Dinner for a Pauper. Even though I wouldn't say that she makes her dinners Pauper-ish, she does go all out for breakfast.

Whenever we would visit my grandma, one thing we looked forward to were her big breakfasts. We would awaken (in the dark room if we were lucky) to the smell of bacon frying upstairs. We would wander upstairs to see my grandpa on the right, cooking on the griddle that had a board on one side to slope the grease to the bottom, and my grandma on the right mixing and making everything else. We would have eggs, pancakes, bacon, peaches and cream, oranges, toast, orange juice, and mush (what we call hot oatmeal) all during the same meal. A start like that would make any one's day go great.

My mom would usually make great breakfasts. Besides the one time she burnt the mush the very first morning that Ben, my brother's friend, had come to live with us and even though we all refused to eat it, Ben finished his whopping bowl without cream nor sugar because he didn't want to offend my mom....ahhh the memories. My memories of breakfast are my mom cooking up a great meal, us kids all lined up at the counter, her on the other side of the counter eating her food, serving us, and trying to read some scriptural story. Unfortunately the last few years when I was living at home I didn't really participate in the first meal of the day because of 6 AM cheerleading practices.

The tradition now continues. Breakfast is a big deal in my home. We hardly ever have cold cereal for breakfast, except for on Sundays when Todd is in charge of feeding the children. Our breakfasts usually last more than an hour in length. The boys join me in the kitchen for the preparing of the food, we sing, talk, and dance. And when we are done, the boys clear their plates and cups into the sink then they unload the dishwasher while I clean up. I try to not go anywhere too early because I do not want interfering with this tradition that we have.

In all actuality I try to emphasize mealtime a lot with my kids. When Mikey was just starting to eat food, he would sit in his high chair for hours. He would sit there for so long that I would have a book to read while he ate. Then one day my mom mentioned how mealtimes is the most social time for children. I put my book away and tried to focus on having interactions during our mealtimes. Pretty soon I would spend most of this time singing Primary songs, for there's only so much you can "talk" about with your baby before you feel like an idiot.

As my kids have grown and I've had more kids, I have done less singing but more talking during mealtimes. Even though it's not always perfect and can be very hectic, I try to have mealtime being a huge socializing and connecting time for our family. For us, it has been such a blessing.

Our mealtime has been, what I would call, a preventive insurance. I focus on the kids and keep a lot of interacting with them during the meals. Afterwards they have their "fill" of attention. They go about with their playing and activities, then around lunch time they start coming around again for not just physical nourishment, but emotional nourishment. (Also, my kids rarely ever ask for a snack during the day) Now, I'm not saying that my kids will be perfect angels -with their hair neatly parted to the side- for the entire time or that I don't have any interaction with them besides mealtimes, for that is NOT true, but I have found that because of the extra attention that I spend with them during mealtimes, I will usually get better behavior and more independent children. I have found that the times I find myself talking on the phone or accomplishing some other task during mealtime, my kids are more difficult and demanding afterwards.

And Just FYI:
We had home-made wheat waffles - not only made from scratch, but I actually grounded up the wheat this morning,
topped with homemade jarred applesauce made from apples from my friend's apple tree,
buttermilk syrup - amazing - we never have maple syrup anymore, let me know if you want the recipe
and whipped cream - no, I didn't milk the cow for this one, this was store bought
It's no wonder why I love breakfast!
YUM

irunlikeagirl

A lady was holding up a sign that read, "You all are CRaZY!!". I have to say that I agree.

Yesterday Melissa and I ran the Akron Half Marathon. Now, let me remind you of some of my more recent runs:

Huron Half Marathon: May 2, 2009
Melissa and I just wanted to "see" if we could do it. I did it....barely. I had to walk the last two or three miles. But hey, with less than 50 people running in the entire race, I did finish third in my age division!!!

Ogden Utah Half Marathon: May 16, 2009
I was visiting my family in Utah. The night before I'm out to dinner with my family. My mom is planning on running the Ogden Marathon (the one I ran three years ago) the next morning. My sister-in-law turns to me and says "I'll run the half if you'll run it". So, being the crazy people we are, we ran it. Again I had a difficult time the last couple of miles and had to walk. I don't know what my time was....but I'm sure it was terrible!!!

North Coast Challenge 5 Mile Run: September 5, 2009
Ran the 5 mile race in under 45 minutes. Averaged less than a 9 minute mile. (This is awesome for me). Very good run except for the fact that my friend's husband broke his foot while I was running next to them and that I had worn Mikey's bib for the children's fun run instead of my own.

Melissa and I have been running together for the past couple of months. We run together only once a week and separately the rest. We both felt very prepared for this race, especially compared to our Huron experience. On our drive to Akron we were silently contemplating the task ahead....and trying to not talk so that we could have more to talk about during the race. That left poor Nate, Melissa's husband, to do all the talking, yep he had a great time.

I had never run in such a big race before. There were thousands of people. The start line was in the middle of downtown with music blaring, and announcer talking, and people all trying to stretch and warm up. The spirit of the race was awesome. The excitement was in the air. I felt unworthy to be within the crowd for all around us were men and women who had worked so hard to train for this run. You could feel and understand the sacrifices people had made and the enduring strength they had. Before we knew it, the time for the race to begin had come.

The run was great, I felt great. I felt light on my feet and very few aches throughout my body. Talking with Melissa was going very well. Our topics of conversation always differ, sometimes we'll talk about stupid nonessential things, then other times we talk about deep, meaningful things, sharing our testimonies with eachother. All this occurs during the same run, and the race was no different.

Around mile three I saw Todd on the side with the four boys. I knew he was coming, but knowing how difficult it is to get the kids ready and out I didn't know when he would make it. My boys are such a source of strength to me. I ran by them and waved to each of them. They all were so excited to see me and yell for me.

The night before I was putting the boys to bed and Roger had volunteered to say our family prayer. Without any prompting from me, he had said, "Bless Mommy in her long, long run and bless that we will drive home safely". It's no wonder I get strength from their pure faith.

The miles went by quickly as Melissa and I talked. Melissa has been having problems with her foot, fortunately it wasn't bothering her too much, unfortunately her back was.

Around mile 8 we saw Nate, Todd and the boys all together cheering us on. Fortunately for Todd he got connected with Nate who helped him with the boys. Again it was so awesome to see the boys. I stepped out for a moment to give each of my boys a kiss. They had the sweetest looks on their faces. They were all so excited for me and were cheering me on. After this I plugged in my headphones and started pounding along.

The end of the race led us downtown and into a stadium. The streets were lined with people yelling and cheering, which is so awesome and touching. Then I went down a ramp and into the stadium. The stadium was filled with people yelling and cheering and the finish line was only 100 meters away (versus the 300 meters that Huron had at the end). I picked up speed and sprinted to the finish. My time: 2:21 . I was thrilled, and really felt as though I could've run more. When I was picking up some snacks afterwards I had a lady comment that I didn't look like I just ran.
The weather, that had been threatening rain all morning, held off until just after Melissa and I finished, which we were grateful for.

Afterwards Todd told me, "I am so amazed by you". I was thinking that I was pretty amazed too at my run, and with how great I felt along with it but then he said, "It was so hard getting the boys up and ready and into the car.....I just don't know how you do it day after day". Ya, I guess that's pretty difficult, but I'm use to it now.

On the way home I remembered that it was Free Museum Day and that I had wanted to take the boys to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaur bones (they're a little obsessed with dinosaurs). So, after going home for a quick shower and bite of food, we went to the museum and met up with the Kirkhams there.

The kids loved the museum, and LOVED the dinosaur bones. I was really glad that we went.
I was really impressed with my recovery. I felt pretty good, and just like anytime I take my kids to a place like the museum I wanted to sit whenever I could. We even came home and had a great dinner that I prepared.

But just as I was finishing dinner I was feeling the pain. My dear husband told me to run upstairs to take a bath and get some rest before going to the Relief Society Broadcast. I did this, but unfortunately fell asleep until just after 8:00 PM. Oh well, good thing it was on the internet, I'm not superwoman, you know.

Trip to the Dentist

Because of the lack of dental insurance during med school, my kids have never been to the dentist. Now that Todd is in his Residency and we now have dental insurance, I took the kids in.

The dentist and hygienist were great, really know how to work with kids.The boys weren't too scared, and listened very well.

William was a little nervous at first, but once he got some shades on, he was fine.
Having a movie playing overhead helped.
Grant didn't get a check-up because Todd didn't put him on the dental insurance. He now has four teeth, so that will need to change.

Give me a break, Give me a break...

I needed to go grocery shopping. Going anywhere with 4 boys is an adventure, but add in the fact that I NEED to be somewhat productive - difficult.

Since the shopping cart only seats one, the remaining three children are left to walk along with me. I use this opportunity to have my children help me, so they hand me the items that I need. I will say to the boys, "We need 6 red milks and 2 pink milks." The boys will then race to put the eight gallons of milk onto the cart. This works for the first little bit as the boys are all excited, but soon all the bright packaging and signs get the better of them.

Yesterday I went shopping at Aldi's. (Don't you just LOVE that store?) Because it is a smaller store, I don't get too terribly upset when one of my boys runs off, I just patiently call him back. This time Roger and William were not so good at responding to my calls (surprise). After having to retrieve them several times, I finally thanked Mikey for staying with me and told him, while Roger and William were listening, that he would get a treat at the end of the shopping trip. I had hoped that this would motivate my dynamic duo to stick with me while behaving beautifully, but no such luck.

When we got to the cashier (the only one in the store), I had Mikey pick out a candy that he wanted. He picked out a Kit-Kat bar. Roger and William saw this and were terribly disappointed that they were not getting a candy. Roger sat and screamed for the entire time it took for me to get all my items onto the conveyor belt and pay for everything, but I held my ground. I will not reward bad behavior.

After I paid, I took my cart over to the bagging table so that I could bag my things. Mikey came up to me and asked me to open his candy bar, which I did.

The next thing I knew Mikey was breaking his bar into the four sticks that it is prepared to break into. He gave an entire stick to William, a stick to Roger, a stick for himself, and then turned to give me his remaining stick. I was so impressed, what a selfish act. My boys are lucky to have such a great brother.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

With tickets and hot dogs only being $1 each, we decided to go to the local minor league game. It is a nice stadium, and was a lot of fun. The boys did pretty good, but did start loosing interest as time went on.

The one boy that did not loose interest....Grant. He watched the game intensely, even the warm-up passes between innings. It was hilarious to see the look in his eyes. It was if he had discovered meaning in his life, a reason to it all.

You see Grant LOVES balls. He will go around the house all day just throwing balls. If he can't find a ball, he'll find the next best thing, and since I don't like the dents that blocks put into my walls, I try to keep plenty of balls available. Grant has a pretty good throwing arm also, he can throw balls right to me, or at me if' I'm not paying attention.
The boys loved the mascot.
Luckily the stands were quite empty because Mikey insisted on sitting on seat # 5, and Roger on #4. Mikey's favorite player was #5, and Roger's was #4 (because of their ages). Imagine the excitement when all the bases were loaded and player #5 hit a home run. Doesn't get better than that.

North Coast Challenge 5 Mile Race

My friend Vanessa had said that she was going to be running this. I knew that Todd was going to be working at the first aid station, so I thought I'd have to sit this one out.
When I took a quick vacation to Utah to pick Roger up, Vanessa watched my boys for a few hours until Todd got off work. When he arrived, he was invited to stay for dinner. During dinner they talked about the race and he said that he would make sure I could run it while Vanessa's husband offered to watch the boys during the run.
Day of the race I woke up late (too many kids had come into our bed during the night causing me to go into their bed and Todd had failed to wake me up until he was ready to go). I had to hurry and get the kids fed, dressed, and out the door. I felt badly about having Vanessa's husband watch the boys along with his own 3 children all by himself, so I decided to make a call to Saint Dorthy. I knew her husband was running in the race also and that she may be available to help, which of course she did.
Just in time I got all the kids settled, parked, and got in line to start the run. I found Vanessa just as they were singing the National Anthem. The run went very well. Saw several people I knew, many from my ward, almost felt like a church gathering.
During the race I saw a friend from the PTA. She was running with her husband, and I ran with them for a moment to talk. As we rounded a bend her husband sort of stumbled on something, nothing major, but it did slow him down so I went on ahead. Later I found out that he actually BROKE his ankle!! Todd helped him at the first aid station. I would say Poor Guy, but now my friend has to not only take care of their two boys, but mow the lawn and whatever else his broken ankle entails.
When I saw the finish line I realized that I was just under 44 minutes, and if I pushed myself I would definitely be under 45 minutes. I did it, I sprinted, and I cam in under 45 minutes - that's a 9 minute mile pace!!
Afterwards the kids participated in the Kid's Fun Run. Thanks again to Saint Dorthy for watching Grant during this. When I told the boys that they were going to run Mikey got upset and said, because of watching me run, that he didn't want to run on the road. Haha, very obedient boy.
I ran with the boys in their run. When the "race official" said, "on your mark, get set" William ran on ahead of me and crossed the starting line. After the start, all my boys ran near me, but then they soon were going at their own speeds.
William slowed down first, causing me to have to carry him. Roger then started whining, but I couldn't carry him also. I couldn't see where Mikey was, and for a moment was nervous. I was hoping that he continued running without us for he usually won't do anything without us around. As I was looking around for him, I spied him up ahead rounding a corner!!! I was so proud of him. After seeing him running, Roger picked up enthusiasm and started running himself. At the end Roger kept on insisting that he beat all of us to the finish line, but Mikey did understand and even told me privately that in reality he had beat us all.

Now if you go to the website to see the race results, you will not see my name. In all of the hustle and bustle to get out the door, I had accidentally put on Mikey's bib number for the Kid's Run. I didn't realize that my bib was different until it was time to put Mikey's on!! Whoops