Turkey Trot

I ran my first ever Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. I can't believe I have never done it before! There couldn't be a better way to show my gratitude to Heavenly Father for my healthy body than by running, just before cooking all day and then shoving it with tons of delicious food. Yes, I am grateful for food and health this season.

I'm also grateful for my 5K PR!!!
My time: 25:18 (Sixth in my age group). I think this is a 6-minute PR!
I ran with my sister, who came in at 25:45 (seventh in our age group). Very cool!

I loved it, and I think I'll finally join the masses and make this part of my Thanksgiving traditions.

Sunday Afternoon Agenda

Today was a long Sunday, with Spiff at work all day. The Sundays Spiff is working seem to drag on forever, and I have a hard time figuring out what to do to entertain my kids when going to a park or a store is out of the question. I got lucky today, though. I had a really awesome kid to keep me company. Here's how we spent the afternoon.

• I started to play the piano, and immediately had two boys wanting to play along.
• Then Gunner wanted to dance to the piano music, so he danced. Then he wanted me to dance with him.
• Dancing led to him getting his dancing dress-up on (which is a "pretty dress" that is really just one of my old shirts).
• It also led to me turning on some old clips of Dancing With the Stars dances, me "lifting" him gracefully off the couch (this kid has got some moves, let me tell you!), and him putting on his Robin (Batman's sidekick) suit on, so he could look like Helio Castroneves in a suit.
• Dressing up as Robin led him to dressing up as Batman himself, which led to him driving a Batmobile he created from a diaper box.
• Then he dressed up as a Super Fireman, which is a Fireman who sports a Red cape. He saved Hobbes and me from many a fire.
• But then there was the fire he couldn't save me from, and I got "sick". He made me lie down on the floor so he could nurse me back to health He was the sweetest care-taker. He gave me shots, medicine, and all of his most special toys to help me feel better. He also came to the hospital as a visitor to help me not be lonely.
• Having me sick on the floor led to him getting out all of the pillows in our house so that I would be comfortable. (Hobbes liked that one. He rolled around on the pillows laughing, like he was a millionaire rolling around on a pile of money.)
• When he helped me feel better, he got "sick" himself, and I was instructed to "feel him better." Good thing I had a great care-taker to teach me how to take of a sick person.

And that's how we spent our afternoon. He's a fun little kid to play with. Hobbes spent the day following him around, and there were some times when the two of them were both rolling on the floor laughing together. Goodness, I love seeing his imagination develop, and watching the relationship between these little brothers grow.

This is what I call Joy.

Fix-It Christmas

Okay, so I'm skipping the Thanksgiving post for now, and heading right on to Christmas. If you refuse to acknowledge Christmas until Thanksgiving is over, then I'll see you next week.

I will first admit that I'm not looking forward to buying gifts for my loved ones this year because I (once again) do not have any great ideas for any of them. I feel like this always sneaks up on me, and I always end up procrastinating it until I end up spending too much money on shipping right before Christmas. Either that or getting into a losing battle with a post office worker. Gift buying ends up being a big stressor for me. I don't know how to quickly come up with something great, that doesn't seem chintzy on a small budget. I'd love to get awesome things for the people I love, or do something lovely, heartfelt and homemade. But I don't have the time, money or talent to pull off anything great like that. Sigh. I guess I'll be praying for some inspiration.

Second, Spiff and I have decided not really to buy each other gifts this year. With a move coming up in June, and in an effort to keep the cost down and the level of "stuff" in our house to a minimum, we have come up with what we are calling "The Fix-It Christmas."

Instead of buying new things, we are spending any money we would spend on gifts fixing things that have been on a To-Fix list for months/years. We are upgrading things. And we are replacing things.

It's not elaborate. Little things, like my watch battery that hasn't worked for about a year and half. Spiff's heart-rate monitor battery that needs to be sent out to a special place to be replaced. New running shoes that I need for my upcoming marathon. Parts for the Yakima rack that we'll need for the move. Etc.

It sort of takes the surprise out of the gift-giving and receiving side of things, and it does seem sort of lame to get/give a watch battery for Christmas. But I feel a whole lot of peace with our little plan, knowing what's coming up in our lives, and knowing that we did something to minimize the chaos in our home. Besides that all of it will be done with money that we will need to spend anyway, so we might as well wrap it up and put a bow on it. Don't you think?

My Shadow

I have a permanent shadow these days that follows me around all day, in sunshine and rain. It is about three feet tall, talks constantly, and is named Gunner.

Seriously, I don't know what it is about this phase of his life, but he cannot seem to be more than two feet away from me at all times. If I am sitting on the couch, he is sitting next to me, asking me to read to him. If I am looking at the computer, he is on my lap asking me what I'm looking at. If I am making dinner, he is playing on the kitchen floor. If I am folding laundry, he is sitting on my bed. If I am interacting with Hobbes in any way, he is right there next to me, getting involved. If I am not carrying Hobbes, he wants me to carry him.

The funniest part is when I am doing chores and am moving from room to room. He sits at my feet on the bathroom rug while I do my hair. Then when I go downstairs to do some laundry, I hear, "MOM?! Where are you?!" I call back, "I'm downstairs," and the next thing I know, my shadow has found me and is resuming his game, again at my feet. We repeat this situation in every room all day long.

It is cute, albeit exhausting having him constantly under my feet. He has to win me up the stairs. He has to get to the door and open it before I do. He has climb out my car door and pop the trunk whenever we go anywhere. And did I mention the constant talking? This boy does not know how to be quiet. He has a constant stream of words, dictating the narrative of his life. Even the rare occasion of him "quietly reading a book to himself" is narrated. No wonder sitting quietly in church is such a struggle for him!

I keep wondering when he will get more independent, and if I will miss the days of my little talking shadow. I probably will.

...But not much. :)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

We had a great trip to California. I loved seeing our friends, although seeing them makes me freshly miss them all over again. They are such good friends, and I love seeing our children together. Gunner played guns and wrestled with their 5-year-old the entire time we were there. He loved it. He also hugged their two girls any chance he got. I went running with my old running partner, we made cookies, took the kids trick or treating, carved pumpkins, played games, ate BBQ Ribs, and we even went on a date. Awesome. And totally worth the hours and hours of traveling and whining kids.

We have enjoyed the rest of Spiff's vacation week at home. He has gone mountain biking and skating, like he wanted. We have watched a lot of TV. We have relaxed, and I feel 100% refreshed, but somehow completely NOT ready for him to go back to work.

In other news:

We have experiences three seasons in one week. We have played in the Pacific Ocean and the beach, played in Fall leaves, and played in snow. Gunner has loved it. And so have I.

We came home from our trip to find that The Neighbors have moved. I guess I can check that one off the list of things to worry about.

I signed up for my first full marathon, coming up in May 2012. I'm excited to take my running to the next level, but I am also terrified! I don't know how I'm going to find the time to train, what with taking care of my kids and Spiff's busy schedule. But the good news is that my new running partner neighbor also signed up, so we'll be able to train together and support each other with our kids. So it's on to a Winter of cross-training, leading up to full-marathon training in the Spring! Wowzah!

Hobbes figured out how to sleep through the night, for approximately a week and half. He slept all night long during our entire trip! It was glorious! And now that we're home, we're sort of back to square one. Hopefully he'll remember quickly. He has learned how to pull himself up on things, to cruise around furniture, and he is getting so much more comfortable getting himself up and down and all around. It's super fun to see him be such a busy little guy.