Saturday, September 29, 2007

when will I sleep in?

When is it that children make the switch to sleeping in on the weekends? Today was a perfect fall morning for sleeping in, nice cool breeze coming in the window, snuggled up cozy in my bed and by 6:30 I had two kids in the play room fighting over the t.v. and one in my bed watching teletubbies.

Now 1 hour later, the little one is in the playroom watching Shrek and the older 2 are having wrestlemania27 in my bed. And when I scolded them to say that someone could get hurt by being thrown off the bed and that I could hear that Sammy had already been hurt, Timmy says, i only accidentally kicked him in the mouth. Exactly.

Rich is crazy enough to be out for a bike ride in this chilly weather... although as I type that, would I trade a cool morning run for referee'ing? Even though I hate running in the cold, I just might trade it for the quiet :)

Friday, September 28, 2007

brain...is...full...

I spent the entire day (ok, most of it) in presentations of technical stuff that I work with and now my brain is full. I am so glad that it is Friday because the weekend is here. Although the weekend is really full right now!

Tomorrow we have soccer and then I am going to take the boys to WPI since it is homecoming and my friend Cindy and her little girl will probably be there. Then there is a dinner party at my co-workers house. It is pretty much my group plus a couple people who used to be in my group :) Should be a lot of fun!

Sunday is sort of quiet except Rich has a cross-race and then I am supposed to go to my daycares house for a get together of parents who want to talk about where to send their kids to school. But I procrastinated on getting a sitter, so I may end up canceling or maybe I'll go late when Rich gets home. We'll see.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

where does time go?

I really don't know how it can have been 4 days since I last posted! It pretty much means that things have been crazy. Monday night was class, Tuesday night I went out to dinner with my 2 sisters in law. That was really nice, we don't often get to socialize and just be friends because whenever we get together we are normally chasing the kids around.

Last night Rich had class and I spent 2 hours working on homework. I totally need to spend more time reading, but I guess that will be the plan for tomorrow night. Tonight is soccer, so I won't be home until late.

So my funny story from last night though is this. I was wrestling with the boys, which I have to say, I am not likely to be able to do on my own for much longer! Well, Sammy figured it would be funny to take off his stinky socks and make me smell them. Well, then Max gets a hold of one and covers my eyes. Then Sammy grabs his stuffed dog and puts it on my face and says, "its farting on your face, mom!!" and makes fart noises. So Max then takes the sock and puts it on my head and says, "sock fart your head, mommy." And makes fart noises. Sammy and Timmy and I thought that was hysterical and started cracking up. Have I mentioned that I live with boys?

Monday, September 24, 2007

I'm not driving anymore

So, it is break during class and I'm still angry with myself, so I'm starting my post for today. The reason for my title... I was backing out of my spot at work to come here and backed into someone trying to drive by.

Now, I looked both ways and even in my rear view mirror as I was going, but then my car beeped (to tell me I was out of gas) so I looked down and then Thump! I hit someone, but in my defense, she commented that she "almost made it around" me. SO she saw me backing up and instead of honking or stopping, she just tried to beat me. So I really think that we are both at fault!! I'm so mad at myself! As usual Rich is being good about it, but still. It must have something to do with this car!

back to class! more in a bit!

Home now and waiting to go pick up dinner! So in any case, I really do think that it has a lot to do with my car and me not being good at its dimensions and such. I am just going to have to figure it out though! Arg!!

Time to eat!

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Gorgeous summer end/fall beginning day

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day weather wise. We had soccer this morning which was fun, but I had to run an errand before that. Last night I dropped a bunch of stuff off at a tag sale which was a fundraiser. Well, before I left I ended up buying one of those electronic ride-on toys for the boys. We got it home and it didn't work, so we charged it. This morning it didn't work either, so I brought it back in the hopes that I could either trade it, or find out how to work it. Luckily, long story short, I was able to trade it for the other one.

Well, the boys absolutely love riding around the yard on it. Even Max!! Maybe I'll post some pictures tomorrow :)

So after soccer they played outside riding the toy and running around. We had lunch, nap, and then Rich took Tim and Sam for individual bike rides. The rest of us played outside with the next door neighbors. I got to hold little Emily and she is so darn cute. But no, I am not having anymore!!

Then this evening, my in-laws came over to see the boys and so Rich and I went to dinner at the Olive Garden. Food was delicious, but there was too much of it. I totally need to run tomorrow!

Wicked busy day tomorrow, but it is supposed to be really nice out, so it should be fun!!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Allowed to re-use titles???

Because if I am allowed to re-use them in the blogging world, I would again title this one, Um...ouch!!

Let me just tell you how much my butt hurts! Ok, maybe you don't want to know, all of my muscles are screaming right now. I have not done any strength training in probably a year and yesterday I decided to try to get back into it with a muscle conditioning class at lunch. Well, the instructor said it was gorgeous out, so she took us outside and we did lots of different exercises, including running around the parking garage and going up and down the stairs a couple of times. I totally felt like I was on the show, The Biggest Loser. Well, by the time the class was over, my legs already felt like jello.

Well, then I went and played soccer last night, so I was kind of just adding insult to injury with the legs. And today, I had to park on the third level of the garage and use the stairs. I had to let people pass me I was so slow!

Ok, break over, time to work!
Elana

Thursday, September 20, 2007

freakishly tall

OK, so this is mostly for the people that I work with, but even for my family, Rich's bike is freakishly tall. As reference, he had a cyclocross bike made to fit him. This is a bike meant to off-road as well as cover whatever terrain the course throws at them. Well, the cool thing about this bike is that it was made specifically for Rich. So the high is perfect for him. This is what makes it freakishly tall. As a reference, I am 5 foot 5. Here is a picture of me and Max and the bike:

Monday, September 17, 2007

Reach the Beach recap

Ok, so I've got a few minutes, so I'll give my recap of the race. All in all, I really had a good time. Even with the total lack of sleep (total about 1.5 hours) I remained in good spirits and ran every single step of my 15 miles! Here is a little more detail:

We started off for NH at about 7:15 Friday morning and got to Cannon Mtn. (the start) in plenty of time to register decorate the vans and get runner 1 off. Then we got gas and headed to Lower Falls to wait for our turn to run. Now, I LOVE lower falls, this will always be my most favorite spot from vacationing as a kid and even now my husband thinks I act like a kid when I get there. We hung out there (yes I did put my legs in the water for a while and had I brought my suit, I would have swum). Then we dropped Lisa back at her transition and waited for her to come in. She came in smiling and we were off. We moved to the next transition of HAM arena to wait for Maureen. We then moved on along 113 picking up finished runners and starting new ones. My husband started his leg at Madison Elementary school and off we went to the Brass Heart Inn so that I could wait my turn. I was extremely anxious knowing that I had a huge uphill start, but it was downhill for a while before I hit the next big hill. I was feeling pretty good until I hit a pothole and fell, but I jumped up and figured, it wouldn't be a race if one of the Person family didn't come back bloodied. I finished at White Lake park and off we went for pizza.

We went to rest and wait for our next set of legs to start and of course at midnight when Lisa was about to start, the rain came in. My leg didn't come until almost 5 am that morning and was another 5.5 miles. I still felt good and managed to frog leap with another guy having some calf issues. It was nice to have something to entertain you when you are running for an hour, in he dark, at 5 am, in the drizzle. The highlight of this leg though was sprinting to the finish because the guy behind me was egging me on. And we were off for breakfast!!

While we were in Dunkin Donuts, this guy came up and was asking to cut in line. Well we turn around and basically he was in the middle of running his leg and decided that an iced coffee would be good. We let him cut us and about a mile down the road we saw him running with his coffee and a big smile on his face. Crazy!!

We got to Chester College and finally were able to take a nice long nap. I really only got about a total of 1.5 hours, but it still helped. We finally made the hand off and the final legs were upon us (well most of us) Rich and Lisa still had 2 more legs to run. So we followed Lisa to the next transition and handed off. I finally ran my final 4 mile leg at about 1 or so. And I must say that although running every step of it through Exeter, NH, I could not catch the old guy up ahead of me. I tried with all my might to make my legs move faster, but I just couldn't do it. Maybe if I ever decide to do this again, I'll pass someone. But since this was my first, I'm happy that I ran every step and finished it. And I'm even able to walk today.

Thanks again to my parents, I'm not sure if I would have been able to take care of my kids when I got home that night. I was exhausted and ready to just crash, so it really was a humongous favor for my parents to take them for the night! We really appreciated the time to recuperate!!

So I started this earlier today and just finished it, but the race was fun and now I'm trying to decide if I should keep training and aim for a half marathon or just stick with 10K (6.2) milers.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Um....ouch!

Well, I'll certainly give the blow by painful blow of the Reach the Beach relay that Rich and I did this weekend, but for now, I'm gonna sit and not move. I took a really long hot shower and ate half a calzone and after Rich showers, we're in bed. Thank god for my parents... they took the kids to their house overnight. They have no idea how absolutely lifesaving that is. Long story short... I'm had 1 and a half hours of sleep since yesterday at 5:30 A.M. And have run 15 miles in there and my legs are toast! Thanks Mom and Dad!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

busy week

Well, work and school are typical, but I am still getting into the swing of things! (and so are the boys).

School is going well, but apparently Sammy had to turn his card for the first time. This is what happens after they have been warned that they need to change their behavior. Apparently, he and 2 other boys weren't settling during rest time, so they had to change their cards. At least he told us about it, but this is what I expect him to learn in kindergarten.

Tonight I am trying to do about a million things. I am packing for my run, and trying to get everything ready for my friend to watch the boys. So as much as I wish I had a good story for you all, I don't.

Although Tim did get his brace off so his finger is all healed!

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Officially a soccer mom...

So although I had always been a soccer mom in the sense that I was the one who played soccer, today it turned around. Tim and Sam started soccer today. They are in separate groups and they are both enjoying it! But it is pure mayhem and chaos there while they are practicing.

Imagine a baseball field, just big enough for a high school to play on, then put 140 kids from ages 5-7, plus at least 1 parent per child (we have to stay), plus a soccer ball per child, plus enough 'fields' for sammy's age to play 3 v 3 and Timmy's age to 6 v 6.

Sammy was quick and worked on kicking the ball in the right direction, but there was one kid on the other team who was really good even for 5 years old! Timmy on the other hand was an old pro and scored his first time down the field. In fact he and another boy from his school scored three times in as row and the coached had to pull them back to defense to give the other team a chance :) Here are some pics:

Sammy waiting to start:


Sammy in action:


Timmy and Andrew waiting their turn:


Timmy celebrating after his first goal:

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Max the hambone

We call Max a Hambone so often that he calls himself that. he also knows that he is funny, so he plays it up!!

Tonight we were reading the 'F' book. This is a series of books with Sesame Street characters where there is 1 book for each letter. So the F book is about 'F'riends. It starts out talking about how Friends have Feathers and fur, some friends fly and others float. Then goes into how some friends are fit and then it shows a pictures of Cookie Monster surrounded by food. The line is supposed to be, 'Some friends are fat - and like it like that.' Well, we get to that page and I read, "some friends are..." and Max says, hungry! Then we all laugh and we start to read it again and he says, "Some friends are fat and hungry." It was so darn cute. And of course he did it over and over again because it made us laugh!

First Day of school

SO, yes it's been a long few days since daycare was closed, but finally the first day of school is here and daycare was back open. Woo hoo! However, Timmy got up at 5:55 and then came in my room EVERY minute to check the time to see if he could get up yet. Then he was dressed by 6:10! I wish I could get him to do that every day from now on!

So we took some pictures and off we went to school. Sammy was so darn cute. My funny story, which if any of you see him, you can not retell to him, is that he was cold before we left so he put on his uniform sweater which has SMS on it. He said, "Oh, I see, St. Micheal Sweater" It was so cute, but I laughed and he was not happy about it!

Here are a few pictures:


Sunday, September 2, 2007

Taking the plunge...

We did it!! My friend Ellen and I went skydiving yesterday! It was completely awesome and you can not imagine how crazy it is to be falling at 120 miles an hour! Here's the play by play!

2:00 Ellen and I arrive
When we got there we watched our 25 minute video telling us that we were essentially signing away any rights we had to sue them for pretty much anything, including slipping and falling on a banana peel in the parking lot to even if they do something incredibly stupid and we get hurt. We also find out that they are on a weather wait since it was really freaking windy yesterday.

3:00 we get some food at the local pizzeria and wait for Rich and the boys to come by. They have a great waiting area with lots of stuff for kids to play with.

4:30 they start calling experienced jumpers to see if they can get a plane up and test out the wind. So we watch about a dozen people go up in the plane. However, at this point Rich is getting a little wary because they plan started to tip and looked like a wing might hit the ground, but it was fine. Of course then Rich said, "After a year like we've had, so you really want to tempt fate on a windy day?" Yeah, not feeling great about this at that point.

5:00 They call us to the hangar to start getting ready for our jump at about 5:30. Woo Hoo!

5:25 we head for the plane. At this point I still don't feel nervous, but once we were on the plane and taking off the jumpers were chatting with each other about little mishaps, I told them I was going to stick my fingers in my ears and go "la la la" until they pushed me out of the plane :) But I was joking!




5:30 or so and 14, 000 ft. I jumped out of the plane attached to Dalton! At this point we are moving at about 120 mph in the freezing cold and I can hardly breathe. I remembered to arch my back, bend my knees and put my arms where they are supposed to go. Although I think I still had a bunch of stuff in my sinuses because I got an instant headache and my ears were totally clogged. But the view and the rush was amazing!

Then Dalton pulled the chute and we were gracefully floating down to earth. I was yelling and waving at Ellen (although she couldn't hear me, she did see me wave.) We did some spins and just kind of hung out up in the air, it was so peaceful up there!



My parachute was pink and purple. Ellen's was Yellow, purple, and pink (She is the one to the far left of the photo)

Then as we were coming down I yelled to the boys and Rich got some video of me landing. All in all, it was a blast although I think a little tainted by the sinuses thing. (My headache was still there this morning). So I think I would do it again as long as I were wearing long sleeves and was certain my head was clear.



It really really was a lot of fun! Then since it was so late we took the boys to McDonalds and went home to pass out. If anyone wants to go again, let me know I'm sure RIch would jump if I didn't :)