Lewis and Clark

Finally caught a break

2012-01-08T09:35:00.000-06:00

After 19 1/2 years of marriage we finally caught a break. We FINALLY found an honest mechanic that actually cares about really fixing your vehicle.

Here's our story:

For years we have gone to all the big brand name shops to get our vehicles fixed,ie: Toyota, Chevy, Boubin, Linder (just to name a few). After almost every oil change we are given a list of "Needed repairs". Sound familiar? I'm sure you've been through this too if you have a vehicle older than 2 years. In January of 2011 we were told by Boubin that we needed around $1600 worth of repairs done, that these things couldn't wait. We believed them, but didn't have the money and this time we waited and hoped nothing would happen. In the early summer of this year I met a new friend who always takes her vehicles to "awesome mechanic". I listened to her stories of getting a great deal, but didn't go at first. Why, I don't know. Then after realizing that we really should get the repairs done that were on that list, I finally went to "awesome mechanic". I showed him the list of repairs that Boubin said we would need done.

He could have agreed with the list and scheduled all the repairs for we didn't know better. Instead he was honest, went through the list one by one and explained each thing, then would say things like this:

Oh this could wait another year, this doesn't need done at all, not sure why they checked this, this does need done, but you still have another 6 months, etc. through the list. NOT one thing needed done yet and this was 6 months after we had Boubin check it all out. The one thing that was super important was our Fuel Intake Gaskets. Those needed replaced for they were leaking.

Boubin's price to get just this repair done was $987.79

Our "awesome mechanic" said he could do the repair for less than $500 so we agreed that after saving up money that we really needed to get this done since it was now 1 year since Boubin said we needed to do this.

We scheduled the repair and at the same time also needed a passenger side outside mirror replaced that had been smashed out. Additionally, our inside panel of our passenger door was bent out and getting stuck so we couldn't open the door. It was because the clips on the inside of the panel were broken and it was next to impossible to open the passenger door.

After bringing our van to "awesome mechanic" he said that all three of those repairs would be $450

He had the van for just over a day because he said the repair of the intake gaskets would take a little while.

While he was working with our van he noticed a break light was out and fixed it, he also noticed our wiper blades were in much need of repair and he replaced them, he also noticed our tires needed rotated and he rotated them and he checked out a few other things that I asked him to check. He also did an oil change (because when you get the intake gaskets redone you have to have an oil change with it)

He still insisted on only $450 for this entire repair, even though he had done at least 3 extra things that had parts and labor.

I was in shock and couldn't believe how nice he was to not only do all these things, but to still charge the lower amount.

We saved at least $550 to $600 by going to him instead of a big brand name shop and "awesome mechanic" went above and beyond in his repair. When we picked up our van he explained everything he did, opened the engine and showed us everything, continued to explain everything so we understood all that he had worked on.

Even if you live far away from Iowa City, you should consider making the drive here the next time you need a massive repair done to go to our "awesome mechanic", because not only will you get to visit our family, but you will get the repair done by an honest person who is not trying to steal all your money away, and you will save hundreds maybe even thousands of dollars.

If you want his name and number send me a message.

Christmas Picture 2011

2011-12-25T17:02:00.003-06:00

back row Daniel, Caleb, Jared
front row Brenden, Scott, Alyssa

Cookie Walk

2011-12-03T22:54:00.001-06:00

Today was the most awesome event ever. There was a cookie walk at a local church here in Iowa City called Our Redeemer Lutheran Church. Every year on the first Saturday of December from 9-12 noon they do this event. My friend Brenda who takes my early morning body sculpt class told me about this and I knew from the second she told me about this that I wouldn't miss it.I took a bunch of pictures of this event today. I was amazed at all the different types of cookies. You selected either a small, medium or large box when you arrived and then got to pick as many cookies as you wanted. The cost was $6.00 per pound. Below are pictures. After the cookie walk Alyssa and I left for West Branch, Iowa, which is 10 minutes away so I could run a race. You can read about that HERE if you want.

Here is my friend Brenda bringing out more cookies for the walk of happiness!

Cookies!

Cookies and brownies!

A whole row of cookies and chocolate covered yummy things.

An entire room of cookies!

Pretty cookies!

Brenda and I.

Tasty cookies and candies!

More cookies!

Some of the cookies I selected.

Some of the cookies Alyssa selected.

Cookies that reminded me of my Grandma Mullin!

Even more to choose from!

Alyssa and I with our stash of cookies taking a picture of ourselves.

Alyssa with our boxes. Don't these look amazing? Right after the picture we both sampled them. Every single cookie I ate today was absolutely AWESOME and I'm not admitting how many I ate. Let's just say that I'm glad I had a race today so I could burn off a cookie or two.

2011 Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T09:32:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving day started out with everyone sleeping in except for me. I got up super early and ran a turkey trot. Go to this link if you want to read about it: Turkey

I came home and we headed out for Tracy's home in Williamsburg. I took a bunch of pictures, but missed a few that I thought I took of all the men and older boys watching football. The food was amazing. I'm so thankful we have great friends that invited us into their home to share this wonderful holiday. I also wanted to get a picture of Tracy's Mom Helen and her boyfriend Jim together. You won't see any pictures of Caleb because he was working. I think this was my first Thanksgiving without him. Jason was also there, but how he didn't appear in any pictures, I am not sure.

In the van on the way to Tracy's home. Brenden and Jared are in the back with Daniel who ducked down. Alyssa and Scott were in the middle.

One of Tracy's tables she had all pretty and set up.

My friend Tracy bringing out a hot dish. Dinner was almost ready.

A bunch of the cold food. We had cranberry bread, banana bread, celery, carrots and chips and crackers with dips, cranberry salsa, deviled eggs, pickle plate, cranberry sauce, two pumpkin pies, apple pie, chocolate cream pie, chips, mints, broccoli saled, pretzal salad. Then there was a hot table of food.

Tracy and her Mom Helen.

Me attempting to cut the turkey. Tracy had this fun electric knife, it was almost too much power for me.

Tracy's children Jakob and Erik, you can see the back of Dan's head, there is Steve (Tracy's husband in the background) and her Mom. You can also see Alyssa and Jared.

Another picture with the children. Alyssa is up front. Brenden and Daniel in the back. Jacob and Eric on the right.

Tracy and I in the kitchen.

A picture of our other food. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, potatoe/cheese casserole, broccoli and cheese casserole, Ham, Turkey, Brisket, rolls. I think I tried it all.

After dinner Tracy and I drove out to her house she is building. She let me drive her fun little car.

Jared wearing a mask so he could play with the air soft gun.

Don't mistake Brenden looking grumpy for being bored because he was having so much fun running around the property playing with the guns chasing his brothers.

Daniel and Jared.

Scott looking so cute. He ran around the property a bunch, chased Tracy's dogs and just had a great time.

Brenden wearing the mask so he could play with the guns.

Crazy Halloween week

2011-11-02T21:48:00.001-05:00

It was a great Halloween for 2011. Now that most of our children are older they aren't all into the dressing up scene so I had fun taking pictures of other children from church at our Trunk or treat party.

Alyssa dressed up as a nerd during her school party.

another view of Alyssa

A few fun costumes from the party. I love Rupunzel's hair.

Fancy Nancy

The triplets in their banana split costume. One of them has a chocolate scoop on, another has strawberry and then there is a vanilla scoop. I love their whipped topping hats with sprinkles!

Fancy Nancy's hair (so fancy)

Another view of the triplets in their costume. This time they each have a bib on because they were being fed dinner. They weren't very happy about being there, they were tired and hungry, but OHHHHH so cute.

Jason's costume. He was a Hawkeye fan. Ok, not really, he didn't dress up, he was too cool this year.

Scott dressed as a Packer's football player with a little girl who was a chicken. I loved her outfit the best. Check out her feet made from kitchen gloves. Double click on the picture to see it bigger.

The best costumes of the night go to Kernal Sanders, Kentucky Fried chicken worker and their baby the chicken. Take a look at the baby's feet.

The backs of their costumes. What a great idea.

night shot

Scott, Alyssa and Brenden all carved pumpkins

Jason carved this pumpkin at work.

Alyssa with all her loot. By the time I took this picture she had already given a bunch away.

New Job

2011-11-02T19:54:00.003-05:00

You may or may not know this, but after 6 weeks of my old job (Job 1) as listed below I was so completely miserable that I had to leave. I couldn't believe how unorganized that place was. Now to give them a little credit where credit is due, my immediate boss (my team lead) was amazing. I loved working with her during weeks 2-4 and then again in week 6 . At first I was on another team that had me in tears nightly and had me wishing I was anywhere but that job.

Then after week 1 of misery, I was switched to my new team with an amazing fun team lead (boss) that actually cared about the work I was doing and seemed to want me there. But after 3 weeks, upper management wanted me on another team, and so I was switched back to the original first team and was back to feeling unwanted, sad and couldn't wait to leave every day.

Then after a week and a half, I was switched again back to the amazing team. By this time however (the 4th switch of places) I had already looked into a couple new jobs and even though I didn't have an official new job yet, I quit Job 1. I didn't care if I ever went back as sad as that sounds. I desperately missed my 3 awesome co-workers who made me feel at home, and I enjoyed working with them and I missed my team lead (boss), and I missed a couple temps I had gotten to know, and the lady who worked the phones up front, but I didn't miss the job or company.

After being gone at my job only 1 day I was fortunate enough to get a new job (where I am now)that is awesome and more of what I expected my first job to be. I have listed out below what was going on at Job 1 and the differences in Job 2 (my new current job). I hope that my new job becomes permanent for I feel that it is the right fit for me. I have liked everyone I have met so far and I think they like having me around as well.

The differences between Job 1 and 2 are these:

JOB 1
1. Expected overtime but didn't let me know this until I was DENIED a raise at 30 days because I didn't do overtime. There wasn't any job expectations written down or rules about overtime written down or presented to me at any time. The first time I heard I should be working overtime was the day I was denied the raise. After that point I did work overtime whenever I had the chance.

2. this job didn't know where to put me and when I asked what team I'd be on, they didn't know.

3. no training in 6 weeks. Every couple of days I was doing something different, and it seemed like they really didn't know what to have me do in their company. No one was my official trainer, no offical training schedule.

4.Never met the boss in 6 weeks (knew who he was, but he never even said HI)

5. never knew the rules of the company or job or building.

6. never had a safety tour and didn't know the fire exits or where to even go in an emergency.

7. clock in badge was given to me after a couple hours, but not explained how or where to use it until several days later. Then it was only explained because I started asking questions.

8. Wasn't given a tour of the building until a couple weeks after I started and it was only a partial tour by someone who really didn't want to give the tour. She kept explaining how busy she was and didn't have time to give me a tour.

9. all kinds of vending machines for everything you need to eat that cost quite a bit per item.

10. Meeting never came with food unless you provided it.

11. bring your own tissues from home.

12. promised I'd be hired on at 3 months (found out it could be up to a year for that to really happen, as stated from other temps)

13. you are frowned upon if you don't stay late

14. in the bathrooms you had to pay for all personal supplies if you needed them out vending machines.

15. the job I ended up doing was one that I couldn't see myself doing in 3 months, 6 months or really ever. It was a miserable boring job. Almost everyone seemed unhappy and several told me they were seeking other work.

16. no computer or phone for over a week.

17. had to dress up at least once a week sometimes all 5 days if we had visitors.

18. only 1 half hour lunch per day, no breaks

19. starting wage OK

20. when you do get hired on, you only start with 1 week vacation, other benefits seemed very disappointing.

NEW JOB
1. Doesn't want me to work overtime, which is great because I can spend more time with my family!

2. This job knew exactly where I was to be on day 1.

3. Training schedule that is very detailed and was printed out for 3 weeks showing what I would be doing and who I would be training with.

4. My immediate boss was introduced to me on day one, by week two, I met my bosses' boss

5. I was explained the rules on day one.

6. Had a safety tour within the first couple hours on day 1.

7. Clock in badge was made within a minutes of me entering the building on day 1, and explained in detail how to enter the building with it and everywhere I need to use it.

8. Tour of the entire building, warehouse and outside grounds on day 2.

9. Free food all over the place put out almost every single day, and free food samples to take home almost daily.

10. Meetings come with food (every Thursday).

11. Free tissues--as much as you want.

12. Temps really get hired on after 2-3 months. Or so I've been told.

13. You are told to go home when your shift if over

14. Free personal supplies in the bathroom if you need them sitting in a box that has a sign that says to take some if needed.

15. Job I'm doing is one I could do for years and not be bored, so much to do, so much to learn, you can actually become a better person and be happy in your job and your brain is happy.

16. Computer and phone that were mine on day 3

17. Don't have to dress up EVER, can wear jeans, shorts, t-shirts, basically anything casual as long as you look nice and are modestly dressed.

18. Half hour lunch, and 2 15 minute breaks a day and you are encouraged to get up and stretch as often as you feel it is necessary for your well being.

19. Starting wage GREAT

20. When hired on you start with 2 weeks vacation and the benefits seem amazing.

As you can tell I'm already super impressed with this new job. I am happier every night and even though I'm still overwhelmed with the details of all the many jobs I am doing in my job and all the things I have to learn, there are so many people helping me learn my new responsibilities and I know up front what is expected of me.

My new job is for UNFI. United Natural Foods Inc. I am the administrative assistant to two buyers there. Here is their website: http://www.unfi.com I hope it ends up being amazing like it has started out to be.

A fun Saturday

2011-10-23T07:36:00.005-05:00

We had a great Saturday. It started out with a family race in Cedar Rapids, Iowa called Muddy Monster. I posted about that race and have lots of pictures to share on my other blog, just click on MUDDY MONSTER to read all about it. Then we came home and did a bunch of work around the house inside and out. We have a ton of leaves to get to the street so the street vacuums can suck them up Monday morning.

Then we left to go to a pumpkin farm. Jason remembered one South of town that we hadn't been to in years. I was pretty sure it was closed. It was closed. So we drove around looking for another one, then ended up at a local grocery store and bought pumpkins. Bummer.

After that we had the joy of watching my friend's 4 children. They have a four year old daughter and triplets age 16 months. Here are some pictures from our fun night.

They were so adorable eating their peas for dinner. The baby with the green sippy cup would smash each pea one at a time. The other two babies scooped up the peas as fast as they could shovel them in. Notice how they are all in a special triplet table. Their parents brought the table to our house to make it easier for us to feed them all at once. I thought it was funny that the triplets come with furniture when you get the oppportunity to watch them. But I admit that having that table made feeding them super easy and fun!

I noticed for most of the pictures, the little girl would lean in slightly as if she was posing for the picture. In this picture they had just had some pineapple and ham pizza. Between the three of them they ate over 2 cups of peas, a bunch of black olives, 1 apple, 1 banana, and 3 slices of pizza. Oh and a couple cookies that Alyssa made.

This is a picture of the triplets four year old sister. She is so smart and fun to be around. I love this picture because Jared loves these children as if they were his own siblings, and had to make a funny face and be in the picture also. She started laughing hysterically.

Here is a picture of just the older sister. She is a great eater of vegetables as well, she at an entire bowl of peas and then asked for more.

After dinner we all watched part of the kid's movie "Despicable Me" and the 4 year old got to go on a walk with our dog Abby with Jared and Brenden.

Scott was thrilled to have our friend's children here at our house because he asks me almost daily when they are coming over again so we can watch them. They would be so fun to have as neighbors next door.

Brenden's stitched up head

2011-10-19T15:50:00.000-05:00

Last week I received phone call from the West High health office saying, "We need you to come pick up Brenden, he fell and MAY need stitches."

Jason and I went to get him together, then Jason dropped me off at work and then Jason took him to the hospital to see one of his surgeon friends who said he'd stitch him up if needed.

When the doctor and Jason started looking at the wound they realized it was very deep. The cut was all the way to the skull. After the doctor cleaned the wound out for a very long time he began to stitch him up, but had to do a layer of stitches in the muscle layer underneath the skin since the wound was so deep. Then Brenden had stitches that you can see on top of his head, then staples. He was sore for a couple days. My pictures of his head aren't great because when I tried to get a close up, then it was blurry.

Just Smile

2011-10-10T22:24:00.003-05:00

I asked my children to each put a white shirt, go outside and then smile for a picture. I told them if they would just smile for the first picture I wouldn't take anymore. You can see how well that went.

It is beyond my comprehension why they can't just behave for 5 minutes? I guess when you have four almost five teens in the house you have complete craziness most of the time.

This is a great shot I got of just Alyssa, however her brothers were messing with her.

Two Democrats on an Escalator

2011-09-29T10:13:00.002-05:00

A very liberal friend of mine sent this to me to prove she had a sense of humor.

I laughed out loud and I hope you do to.

2011-09-23T13:21:00.002-05:00

We have some friends who have 4 young children - a four year old daughter and a set of 16 month old triplets. I was at their house for about an hour last night watching their children while they were out and went through their bedtime routine with them. Their oldest child told me what they did and helped me pull out the story pillows and little books for the triplets (or birds, as she calls them). I read them Goldilocks and then we said prayer and sang a primary song. It was obvious to me that this was a nightly routine in their family as it was followed without question. Granted, they are young which makes this infinately easier but it was none the less impressive that this little family was establishing such good routines so early. I thought to my own family and wished that we had done a little better job of establishing those habits. We are very good about family prayer and hold FHE as often as you can with all the school and work schedules of a house full of teenagers. Our family scripture study is not as regular as I wish it was - again the whole schedule thing. I have been tempted to have two rounds of scripture study a day - one with the seminary aged boys before they go off to seminary and the other with the ones who get to sleep in a bit. Again, this is a routine I should have established years ago when the resistance level was low. There are days when I am just thankful that they are going to seminary.

Believe it or not, I miss the days of scraped knees, tending children in the foyer, and cleaning barf off the floor - at least compared to what we are going through now. Teenagers are not that fun. Let's be honest with ourselves. They really aren't. They are mouthy, angry, and disrespectful. I am having a difficult time finding joy in parenthood. I often wonder if this is my fault. What if I had been stricter? What if I had been like a friend of mine who wakes his entire family up at 5 am to read scriptures? Would that have made a difference? Like every parent, I worry that my children will not make the correct decisions. I know they have been taught the correct principles but have I done enough with each of them to escape the condemnation of God that settles on the shoulders of parents who don't fulfill their duties?

Perhaps Caleb's decisions are a partial answer to that question. He recieved the Melchesidek Priesthood a couple of weeks ago and is set on serving a mission. He is making the right choices in his life. I just hope that his brothers follow his example. Although they won't believe me, a lot of unhappiness comes from disobedience.

Labor Day fun

2011-09-18T08:47:00.000-05:00

On Labor Day we were invited to my friend Tracy's home for a picnic and to just have fun on her new property that she is building a house on. She has a pond and a few acres so she told us to bring Abby as well so Abby could run with her parents. Jason decided to ride the 25 miles to her house on his bike and meet us there at Tracy's current home. He made it in under an hour. Then we all loaded up the food along with Tracy and her son, and her two dogs and went to her new property. Here are a few pictures from our fun day. I really should have taken 20 more pictures, because we did so many fun things and the food was amazing. Tracy brought chicken, cookies, chips and some other yummy things. I brought deviled eggs, sliced tomatoes and something else I can't remember.

First picture is me with Abby about to load the van.

When we arrived at Tracy's house we loaded up her two dogs, Seven (the dog seen here, Abby's Mom) and also had Tracy and her son in the van as well. It was a tight fit, but we made it the 3 miles to the new property.

This picture is with Luther (Abby's Dad in the van).

This is the only picture I have of Jason. This is everyone shoved in the van. Tracy and I were up front. Here in the back were Jared, Brenden, Daniel, Abby our dog, then Jason, Alyssa, Eric (Tracy's son), Scott, Luther (Abby's Dad) and Seven (Abby's Mom) Looking back I'm not sure how we all got in, but if you look at Eric's face you will see that the ride was not comfortable. I felt bad for anyone having to hold the dogs.

Another view of the van ride. Jason was squished to the side, Alyssa was sandwiched between Jason and Eric .You can see Seven (Abby's Mom) on the floor, barely, and there is Luther (Abby's Dad) sitting in a seat, or taking over a seat. Alyssa was trying to touch his tongue. My friend Tracy is in the front seat holding food.

Jared and Brenden in the Gator. They rode in this all day long.

Eric driving the Gator. Brenden in the front seat. Jared and Daniel riding on the back.

Here is a picture of Tracy's husband Steve, with Scott trying out the go-cart.

Alyssa trying out the go cart.

Daniel being silly acting like he was going to eat the frog he found.

A close up of the frog.

Even I tried out the go-cart.

A view of Tracy's pond. Out in the paddle boat were Scott, Alyssa and Daniel. Eventually all of us got in the pond. It was a little cold, but fun to swim in. Getting up on the floating dock was a bit difficult since there isn't stairs, but we all made it out there.

Half Marathon and 5K

2011-09-10T17:07:00.000-05:00

We completed our races today and did a great job. Read about the post here

2011 Park to Park 5K, 10K and Half Marathon

mini trip

2011-09-03T20:22:00.000-05:00

Jason and I snuck away for 24 hours for my birthday present. You can read about our mini trip here if you want.

Trip to Des Moines and Ames, Iowa

Brenden is 14!

2011-09-02T08:44:00.000-05:00

Brenden is 14 already. It is weird to me to think that 14 years have gone by since he was born.

Back in late July of 1997, Brenden tried to come into this world at 10 weeks early. I was dialated to a 3 and my doctor freaked out. He put me in the hospital and made me stay in the hospital for 4 weeks. The doctor was concerned for me having my baby too early because
1. I had 3 children already at home all under age 4.
2. My husband was working and going to graduate school so he couldn't be around to help me.
3. No parents or relatives of any kind around to help me.

So here I am in the hospital having a grand time knitting, cross-stitching, eating whatever I want and laying around for 4 weeks, while Jason is home tending to the rest of the children, still working and going to school. I felt so bad for him. Thank goodness our church stepped in during this time and watched the children, brought in meals almost daily, cleaned my house and visited me. I went home at 34 weeks along expecting to have Brenden at any moment since I was now dialated to a 4 and having pains every day. But I managed to go 2 more weeks and had Brenden the night my parents came to visit with my sister because they were taking her to college. My Mom got to see Brenden born.

Brenden is a great child. He loves to run and has ran several 5K races and placed in the top 5 in his age group every time he has raced. He loves to eat all kinds of foods and never ever complains when I make him something new. Brenden makes friends easily and is always being requested at our front door by someone. I'm glad he is in our family. Happy Birthday Brenden!

In our family you get to choose any type of dessert you want for your "birthday cake" Brenden chose a Peanut Butter/Chocolate pie. Great choice.

I chose this picture not because Brenden has a cute smile, but because I never seem to be able to get Caleb in pictures anymore smiling and he was being goofy and leaned into Brenden while I was snapping a picture so I had to add this.

Brenden asked for some interesting items, one thing being Flaming Hot Cheetos, so that's one of the gifts he received.

He also wanted games for his X box gaming system. It is so hard to find games that are not rated M. Here is one that was rated T that we thought he would enjoy.

A picture with his gifts. He seemed to be happy. I did follow the list!

Update on the Job

2011-08-31T04:47:00.001-05:00

My last update left off on Thursday, August 25th. So I was offered the job, but didn't know what to do and felt that I really needed some time to think and pray about this life changing decision.

Remember the offer for this job came while I was donating plasma. I was excited that I was offered the job, but because I was strapped down to a half bed with a needle in the arm I couldn't show much excitement or jump up and down, so I contained myself and did a little happy dance in my head. Plus doing a real dance isn't always a good thing since I did that once at home and broke a toe because of a twirl and a mini jump. (Years ago folks, don't ask.)

I was told I had to take a drug test so that's the first thing I did after donating plasma. I went into the temp agency who helped me find this job and I picked up the paperwork for the drug test. What I found funny was that I was told this, "You can wait a couple days before taking your test if you want."   Maybe other people do this if they have stuff in their system that they need to get out, but remember my last paragraph? I was just donating plasma and I obviously should be drug free if I'm giving my liquid insides to others and that's exactly what I am, so I just took the drug test immediately and got it over with. I have nothing to hide on the inside.

It was a urine drug test and super gross to watch them take your yellow stuff and pour it into other containers and then compliment you on having the right temperature urine. Then you sign a paper and the the tubes your urine is in basically saying or agreeing that this urine is indeed yours and only yours.

With that over with I still hadn't made the decision to take the job. I had a lot of things to think about, and the biggest thing was the shift I was being offered. Why would the shift matter? Because I'm having a hard enough time with the idea of leaving all day, and didn't want to leave the children any longer than necessary. I've been with the children since they were born almost every minute possible, except the times I did Pampered Chef parties or taught aerobics. I've always seen them off to school and always been home for them when they returned home from school.

I didn't know the shift.   No one at the temp agency knew the shift either. We were all waiting on the boss to make the decision on who gets what time slot. Remember a couple posts ago, there were 4 shifts that people were being hired for and I, if taking the job, could only take an early shift because I want to be there for my children as much as possible and taking a full time job is hard enough.

Friday came and went and still no answer from the new job. The boss was still deciding which teams to assign the new people to. Monday arrived, then went away and I still didn't know anything about my starting or ending time. What I did know was that my boss had said to the girls at the temp agency that she remembered me saying in my interview that I wanted to work as early as possible, so with that knowledge I didn't worry too much, because now I knew that they knew that I was only officially taking the job if I could start early.

Tuesday morning came and I decided that I would announce to my 8:30a.m. Zumba class that this would be my last Tuesday. I waited till the end of class for the announcement. I knew I'd tear up because teaching is so great and I love it. I'm so glad I don't have to give that up completely because I'd be really sad then. Sure enough I teared up and then lots of hugs came. Most of them gathered around me and asked questions about the job and gave me "Congrats".

I got in the car and my cell phone had a message that said, "Michelle, just wanted you to know that your new boss called and said that your shift will be 8a.m. to 4:30p.m." That was exactly what I needed to hear and I was then glad I had told my Tuesday class that I wouldn't be there next week.

What is this new job?

The job is RR Donnelley in Iowa City. It is a worldwide company that has been around almost 150 years that does printing of all sorts. My job is to be a Customer Service representative that would help out after the Sales representatives have already gone out to other companies and sold them our products. I would follow up and see if those other companies like what they have received, then I would try and sell them more items. I will have some Administrative Assistant type work, Customer service work, and presentations and much more. I start next Tuesday, September 6th and it is a Temp to Hire job meaning, after my 520 hours (3 months of full time work) I am guaranteed a spot at their company with benefits as long as they still like me and I still like them. From what I have read on their company I am liking what I hear and I'm excited to see what this will bring. I do hope I'll love the job. Their website is this   http://www.rrdonnelley.com/   if you want to know more.

Brenden

2011-08-30T13:21:00.002-05:00

Brenden is 14. It doesn't seem possible but it is reality. Happy birthday to a remarkable young man.

What's in store next?

2011-08-26T08:40:00.006-05:00

This last couple of weeks have been crazy so I'm going to catch you up a bit.

Last week on Monday we were in St.Louis, Missouri for our little family trip to see Grandma Clark, then on Tuesday it was back to our normal life for a little while.

Ok, we don't have a normal life right now, our lives have been crazy because I started that new temp job. The job I started was scheduled to be 4-5 weeks full time. I mainly took the job because my goal was to get a job at the University part time so I figured that taking a full time temp job at the University would be a great first step in the door there.

Let's go back to Tuesday, the 16th of August. I went to work and worked a full day then that night taught Zumba at Curves, then ran errands with the children for last minute school supplies we might have forgotten since school was starting in just 2 days. On Wednesday, the 17th I went to work and worked all day until 4:45p.m. I noticed on my silent cell phone sitting off to the side of me that a phone call was coming in. I didn't take the call since I was at work, but had the distinct feeling to check the message before I left work at 5p.m. So at around 4:55p.m. I checked the voicemail on my phone and the message said this:

"Hi Michelle, this is __________ from temp agency and I'm calling to let you know that your boss called and said that she received an e-mail from her supervisor that said they no longer need to do the project you are working on so the job ends today. Just call me tomorrow and we'll find you another job hopefully. "

I was in shock and a bit upset, but still finished up what I was working on and actually worked till 5:15p.m. (even though I only put 5p.m. on my time sheet since I was sure overtime wouldn't be a happy thing) so I didn't leave my folder unfinished. At 5:15 I gathered up my pictures I had posted in my cubicle, grabbed my candy dishes I had set out with candy for my co-workers and left. The bummer was that there was only one other person there still at this time and he was the only person I actually got to say goodbye to and the only person that knew I wouldn't be coming back the next day. I guess it's good that at least I got to tell someone.

So here I was jobless after only 6 days of work. The thing that made me the most upset about all this was that I had completely changed my life around to take a full time position. I subbed out all my morning Zumba classes for 4 weeks, I changed my Body Sculpt morning class to an EARLY morning class so I could still teach it and then I said goodbye to the little girl I've watched for 3 years and she started her day care full time instead of just the 3 days of week that she used to go there. So I wake up on Thursday, August 18th with NOTHING to do.

It was the first day of school so I did get to do the first day of picture taking of all my children and see them off to school, however I would have done that anyway. Then the saddest thing happened, none of my children wanted me to come to school with them. See in the past I've always gone to their schools (all except the high schoolers) and I've walked around with them and helped them settle in on their first day. Even my littlest one, Scott who is 9, didn't want me to come to school. He said, "Mom I'm big now"

So here I was, jobless, hopeless, sad, and now add LONELY. All my children were at school. My oldest son was at work and Jason, my husband, was at work as well. I'm home with nothing to do and began to cry and feel sorry for myself. I guess crying isn't bad when it only happens once in a while. Then I picked myself "off the floor" and decided to call the temp agency and see if they had work for me.

They mentioned that they had a job that wants to hold interviews for an opening and they would be holding interviews in the next day so they would try and get me a scheduled interview and send over my resume.

Hours went by and I still didn't feel good. I then went to McDonalds and emotionally ordered a large combo meal. (I never do this). I ate the entire meal, it must have been 1500 calories and then afterwards felt sick. Then I felt guilty that I
1. Hadn't worked out that day
2. Just ate a day or more worth of calories and it was just 11a.m.

So I then watched some TV, cried more and decided that this pity party was not good for anyone. I started the clean the house, it looked amazing.

Then at 1p.m. I decided to go on a long run. I ended up running for an hour and a half. I brought my cell phone with me in case someone needed me. I really wanted to feel needed by this point.

During my run on the way home, so I was about 5 miles into the run or more, I got a phone call from the temp agency. They were able to get me an interview at __________________!

I was excited for an interview. It was scheduled for the next day at 9a.m.

So Friday, August 19th came and I made myself look fabulous for my interview, practiced how I'd answer questions, prayed and left.

The interview went awesome. I didn't feel that I could have done any better. The questions they asked were just perfect, a couple threw me, but I was quick to give a great answer.

Then I left and came home and cleaned the house most of the day.

This week I decided I'd clean and organize my house to the point that if someone came to my home they could locate just about anything, and Goodwill would have a lot of new things to sell from me.

I was donating plasma yesterday when a call came in from the temp agency that said, "Michelle the company you interviewed for likes you and wants you to start working for them the day after Labor Day, do you want the job?" "Also you will need a drug test, so please come by and pick up your papers to go do that."

Wow was I blown away. I guess I assumed I did well on the interview, but deep down didn't have the confidence that I actually received the job and here I was trying to decide if I'd take it. Only issue is now is that the temp agency couldn't tell me which shift I was hired for.

I understand that there are 4 different shifts 8-4:30, 8:30-5:30, 9-6 and 9:30 to 6:30

I had mentioned in my interview that I wanted the earliest shift available. Then they had gone on to ask me if I'd work later than that ever and I said "If a project needed completed I could stay after once in a while to complete the job".

I do hope I received the earliest shift available. If so I'm 99% sure I'll take the job. I did go ahead yesterday and take that drug test so in case my answer is a yes then I'll be ready to start on September 6th.

However I'm sad that I wouldn't be able to teach my morning, Tuesday and Thursday Zumba classes anymore. I would have to say goodbye this next week to some fabulous people that I will greatly miss. I know I will regret not teaching them, so I'm torn on what to do.

Pros to take the job
as a family we need the income
the job sounds fun, exciting and just what my skills are ready for
after 3 months I'd have some benifits (not sure what yet)
We can pay back our student loans faster and be out of that debt.
We could pay the house down quicker and own it!
We could have savings.

Cons to not take the job
I will miss my Zumba people
We won't be able to pay all our bills
I won't be home right when the children are, they will miss me for an hour after school.
I'll be more tired
The house may suffer in cleanliness (hope not)
I won't get a nap in the middle of the day
I'll have to leave in the morning before Scott gets on the bus. :(

So there you have it. I'm not sure what's in store next, but we will see very soon.

First Day of School 2011

2011-08-23T15:44:00.002-05:00

As you will see from the pictures below. My children were super reluctant to get their pictures taken, but I made them do it! I'm glad I insisted on our tradition of first day pictures, even if they all look grumpy (well except for Scott).

First here is Daniel. He is a Junior this year in High school and is way too cool to get photographed. Seriously I'm not sure how I captured this moment.

Brenden is a Freshman in high school already. He seems way too young. At least he kinda smiled for the picture. You may think this is his smile, but this is his attempt to just make me happy by smirking. His smile is so much cuter.

Jared is a Sophmore in high school. He loves these shorts so you may see him sporting these shorts in many pictures in the future.

Three children together in the same picture. Now this doesn't happen often.

Alyssa was embarrassed that I was even at her bus stop and then to take a picture was just wrong. She is starting middle school this year in 7th grade.

Happy Scott. I think he always smiles. He is a 4th grader in Elementary school.

Lastly this is a picture of Daniel, Jared and Brenden walking away from the car to go into their high school. They had already met up with another friend.

I hope it's a great school year. I will miss them.

St. Louis trip and Caleb's birthday

2011-08-18T12:00:00.006-05:00

Before I get started with this LONG post, and it will be long because there are a lot of pictures, and I did this on purpose because each picture tells a story that I just couldn't leave out, I just want to say this, I love my family and I didn't realize how much really until this crazy trip was over. I'm glad we went, even though the beginning of the trip was a nightmare, as you will read about, and I'm glad I took a bunch of pictures so I could share with you this mini weekend we had.

Here is the story of the St.Louis trip:

A couple weeks ago I was on facebook and saw a post from my Mother-in-law (Grandma Clark) that said she was going to be in St.Louis for a conference on August 14th. Realizing that St.Louis is ONLY 4 hours away I had this grand thought, "Oh we could drive down with all the children and pick her up from the airport and spend time with Grandma, just our family." Then we could celebrate Caleb's birthday and do something fun as a family. The trip down to St.Louis wasn't fun at all. Why you ask? Imagine this: 6 older children shoved in the back of a mini van for 4 hours that doesn't have a working DVD player which means no movies. 5 of these children being boys who LOVE to wrestle around and fight. 4 of these children being teenagers. There was a lot of fighting, name calling, pushing, argueing, and much more on the way there.

First stop St.Louis airport to meet Grandma Clark

Before Grandma's plane arrived, the children were grumpy. Caleb was not in the mood to be photographed.

This is exactly what you want to see when you are picking someone up from the airport.

Grandma Clark with Caleb. Caleb hadn't seen her in almost 3 years.

Jared, Brenden and Daniel with Grandma Clark.

After picking up Grandma we went to the St .Louis, Missouri LDS (Mormon) temple

gorgeous flowers on the side of the temple.

I was trying to get pictures of everyone together, however Alyssa was not cooperating and kept taking off. Jason caught her and tickled her until she laughed.

Most of the Clark boys. Not sure where Scott was. Left to Right-Brenden, Jason, Daniel, Caleb and Jared.

Jared holding a gigantic leaf.

Finally a picture of Alyssa smiling.

A very ugly statue in St.Louis that we kept driving by. I swear we saw it at least 10 times in 2 days. We also drove by at least 20 Taylor Swift semi's since she was there for a concert, but I couldn't get my camera out in time to snap the picture.

Next stop the St.Louis arch. It was a gorgeous day and perfect for pictures of the arch.

Here I am under the arch taking a leap.

Inside the museum underneath the arch was this sign. I thought it was funny. So I guess messing with the fake animals in the museum is a No NO.

Since I'm a Lewis and Jason is a Clark we liked this sign and have to have a picture with it inside the arch museum.

I tried to write on this cake in gel icing for Caleb's birthday celebration.

We surprised him at the the hotel room door and sang Happy Birthday.

The next morning we went to Denny's restaurant for a big breakfast to start the day out right. Everyone seemed much happier in the morning.

another picture from breakfast

Scott being silly with Alyssa.

Next stop the St. Louis zoo. My children loved the mist machine.

One of my favorite animals of the day an orangutan because this one was super silly and kept flipping over and pressing himself against the window. Can you even tell that there is a windown between us?

My next favorite, the giraffe.

His head came super close to us. I think his head looks like a dinosaur head.

Jared at the zoo. He wanted this picture for his facebook profile. I think he looks especially handsome in this picture.

Awesome looking tiger.

We saw this car on the way out of the zoo. Too funny.

Next stop the Science Museum.

there was a scale in the space section that said if you stepped on it, it would tell you how much it would cost to send you into space. All three of us got on the scale at once.

At the end of our trip we decided to eat at Golden Corral. Here is everyone stuffing their faces.

At the dessert section of the restaurant there was cotten candy. Jared had like 5 of these. I couldn't believe he kept eating them.

Scott using the speed detector to check out the speeds of the cars going underneath the bridge we were on at the science museum.

There was a hole in the floor so I took a picture of a car going underneath our feet.

On the trip home everyone acted much nicer, but it amazed me that there was still goofy things going on in the back seat. Notice Brenden's head and Daniel's hand stretched across the back showing the "Nec" sign.

Overall a good trip. It didn't go as planned since we were going to go to Six Flags St.Louis for Caleb's birthday, however out of all the Six Flags in all of the United States this one closes during the week two weeks before August is over. It was a let down to not be able to go, but in the end it was great to do the things we did and I'm glad we made the effort for a family vacation this summer.

A very different life with a new job

2011-08-12T22:51:00.000-05:00

About a month ago I started looking for jobs.   Full time or part time, it didn't matter. I just wanted something steady with decent hours so that we could make our financial ends meet better than they have in a while.

August is hard on us every year financially with 3 birthdays (Alyssa's at the end of July, then Caleb and Brenden's birthday in August) then with school starting and all the school fees, school supplies and things you have to do for that. Then for some reason our car and van registration both hit us September 1st and that comes to around $350 together (we need to get that changed), then our van decided to have major work done to it and that is over $500. So all in all it's a super expensive month that doesn't want to let up and it seems worse this year. So anyway we decided that by me having a better paying job that has more hours would be better than having 4 part time jobs that I only work at occasionally.

I tweaked my resume, filled out applications at a nearby bank for data entry, receptionist and teller jobs, then filled out applications for the University of Iowa for any jobs that would come open and then I went to Kelly Services (a job placement service). I know two awesome ladies that work there at Kelly. I've done multiple Pampered Chef parties for them over the years and I consider them both good friends. A little over a week ago I filled out the Kelly Services application and took a typing test.    Would you believe that after all these years I got 70 W.P.M. with no errors on my typing test? According to them that was great. On Monday of this week Lennie (one of the ladies at Kelly Services) called me and offered me a Temp job at the University of Iowa. It's a 4-5 week full time job. After talking it over with Jason we decided that this was a doable thing and the income would be nice to help pay for the van and other August expenses.

So I started the job on Tuesday. I have now worked full time for the last 4 days for the first time in my entire life and I'm completely exhausted.   On top of this I have also managed to donate plasma twice, teach a few Zumba classes and run over 11 miles. I'm not sure where my energy is coming from, but somehow I'm managing to still teach and work. Meanwhile I've been to the store for some school shopping with Alyssa, been to the grocery store three times and other various errands. I fall into bed each night with complete exhaustion and I sleep amazingly well, better than I have in weeks!

Do I like the job? WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL   kinda. It's a Data entry job and that is boring, but I'm trying all kinds of ways to get super fast at it and making it fun. One of my co-workers Peggy and I shared a laugh today, she is nice and I'm sure we will get along great. Another co-worker (who's name escapes me) traded me fresh grown peppers in her garden for tomatoes from my garden. Another co-worker and I talked about running.

My boss is nice, her name is Katie and she seems to like me and tells me I'm doing great. So I'm going to believe that and hope I'm doing exactly what she wants and needs to be done.

I'm hoping that because I took this job that it will open doors for me to get another job at the University that is Part time with benefits and that the next job I find will be one I just love!

Until then I'll work my tail end off and deal with what I have for now. I'm grateful I found a job, even though it's temporary.

2011-08-07T20:03:00.002-05:00

I am so tired of being a parent. I know this is just a stage, and things will pass, and will get better, and blah, blah, blah. I know there is no such thing as a perfect family but is it too much to ask for a peaceful, fight-free Sunday (or Monday, Tuesday, etc...)? I know they have been taught better.

I finally really lost my temper tonight. Nobody is speaking to me right now because they are afraid that I will go off again. Unfortunately, they are probably right. Caleb is doing his best to calm things down by playing hymns on the piano in the other room but if Dan comes back up the stairs with one more stupid comment, I might just kick him out of the house.

I just want peace.

Alyssa's 12th Birthday

2011-08-04T12:54:00.002-05:00

I am shocked that Alyssa is 12 already. These years have gone so fast. I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. Then when she got baptized just 4 years ago. Life goes too fast. I also love that she is a great reader, loves the color pink, doing girly stuff like getting pedicures, and loves everyone. I'm glad she's in our family.

Here is Alyssa waiting for her presents. Abby managed to get on the couch and no one told her to get down. Then Abby chewed Alyssa's coat string the entire time.

A better picture of Abby.

Daniel trying to get in the picture.

It is a tradition in our family to let our children pick what type of cake, pie or other dessert they want on their birthday. Alyssa actually picked my favorite pie which is a Peanut Butter and Chocolate pie. It was super yummy.

Alyssa wanted a Gift Card to STUFF the very most over any gift. STUFF is a local consignment store that is super fun to shop at.

Another shirt she really liked.

Trips with the Clark family are always adventures.

2011-07-30T23:48:00.004-05:00

We recently went to Colorado. The trip there seemed to go pretty fast however the trip home (as all trips seem to do) dragged on and seemed longer than the 14 hours that it really was. I thought that a great thing to do to help time pass more quickly would be to count different types of trucks because on the way to Colorado we had counted the number of McDonalds we had spotted and the number of Fed Ex trucks since we kept seeing those. There were only 23 McDonalds that we could see from the freeway, on the way to Colorado Springs from Iowa City, however there were 63 Fed Ex trucks.

So anyway back to the way home. I started writing down the first 12 major company trucks that passed us on the other side of the freeway and then we all continued to count all the different types of trucks to see which trucking company would have the most trucks between Colorado Springs and Iowa City. Here is our report:
UPS trucks = 2
Fed Ex trucks = 46
Swift trucks = 74
Marten trucks = 25
Werner trucks = 36
England trucks = 86
Wal-Mart trucks = 14
Penske trucks = 35
Heartland Express trucks = 12
United Van Line trucks = 5
Allied trucks = 6

Trucks we kept seeing over and over that should have been counted so we could know the winner of the most trucks:
ABF, Covenant Transport, Budget, Prime, U-haul, and CRST

I personally think the contest would be between Prime and England trucks.

We also saw 9 police cars, which isn't bad for 847 miles. That's only about 1 car per 100 miles. Thank goodness none of those police cars saw us.

Strange city names along the way:

Lliff
Brush
Mingo
Colfax
Ogalala

We saw 29 of the 50 US state license plates.

Now if you EVER wonder why parents go half crazy when driving children across the country, take a look below at some of the phrases I heard while traveling. ( I decided to write them down and I'm glad I did because now I'm laughing hysterically.)

Funny and weird comments made in the car:
I'm hungry
Stop It
He elbowed me
Scott seriously stop it.
Don't lean on me.
His feet stink.
Please stop touching me.
You better stop touching me now or I'm going to hit you.
Who farted?
Get off of me now!
Don't punch me Jared.
I'm thirsty.
What's over there?
How much longer do we have?
Ow
What stinks?
Stop singing.
Be quiet
I told you to be quiet
I can hear your I-pod
Your earphones are too loud.
My blanket doesn't smell like me anymore.
I have to pee NOW!
Make Scott let go of my arm.
E (this was the name of a truck and everyone said the name outloud, it was funny when the E came out.)
My underpants are sticking to my butt.
Yea, I've always wanted a live stuffed animal (as he is leaning on his sister)
My armpits smell like catfood.
Are we to Iowa City yet? How about Iowa?
Throw up sounds (thank goodness nothing came out)
Stop singing
Scott must you talk every second you are awake
Who smells like sweat?
Don't do that.
Are we there YET?
There's a mosquito in the car, not sure if you know that.
Make him stop, seriously Mom, he just doesn't stop ever.
He's tickling me again.
Breathe to yourself.
Alyssa don't hit or pinch me.
Can mosquitoes bite through blankets?
Gary is a good name for a snail.
Ewe your hands stink.
Just be quiet already.
Can I play your gameboy? Can I borrow your I-pod? Can I read your book? Can I borrow your phone?
My hands stink because I've been putting them in my armpits because they are cold.
We have been driving forever.
This song is dedicated to you Dad
We aren't past Des Moines YET?
We aren't stopping again so you better hold it.
Scott lean on the window NOT on Alyssa.
Quit touching each other.
I think my teeth are floating.
Alyssa don't hit.
What's over there?
I've never seen that before.
Lean straight back, not on anyone but the back of the seat.
We are in Madison county, Let's go see the bridges.
I asked you NOT to sing that song.
If you're going to pull out in front of me, go faster.
Hands to yourself kids.
You will be grounded for an entire stinking week if you don't stop that.
and my personal favorite: When can I ask you when we are almost there?

Now for some pictures:

A picture of some gorgeous mountains in Colorado. I miss those already.

Jason with one of his nieces, this one is named Ella. Isn't she adorable?

I found a gym that teaches Zumba and had to have a picture. Now I'll know where to go when I visit again.

The night before we left we went to dinner at Chili's restaurant. Here is a picture of Gillian and Kevin Mohlman, and Lance and Nancy Clark.

Then the other end of the table had Lindsey Lokodi, but I'm not sure how she got cut out of the picture. The one time I don't check the picture so I can take another one. I'm so bummed out how she isn't in this picture, but her arm is there, check out her strawberry lemonaide. Pictured here is Dave and Tana Clark then Jason and Me!

Jason wasn't sure how to get back to Adrianne's home after the dinner so he actually stopped at a gas station to ask directions. I was completely in shock that he asked for directions so I took a picture of him doing that.

On the way home there were times of complete love between the children, here is one time they fell asleep on eachother.

Windmills from my car window driving by in Nebraska. There were hundreds of them.

Update

2011-07-20T15:32:00.000-05:00

I found Daniel's birth certificate, so now I have proved to him that I gave birth to him. He shouldn't have doubted me. Now we are off to finally get his driver's permit!

He did it

2011-07-17T07:13:00.002-05:00

Jason did his Olympic Distance Triathlon at Lake Geode State park yesterday. Read all about it here !

In the right place at the right time!

2011-07-14T16:55:00.001-05:00

Last night I just happened to be watching the 10p.m. News on Channel 2, which is our CBS channel here in Eastern Iowa. They said that in just a minute they would announce where in all of Eastern Iowa the $2.00 fuel would be. I perked up just a bit, but then figured it would be in Cedar Rapids like it had been previously. They do this EVERY Wednesday night.

Then the news man said, "Here we are at the Casey's gas station on Willow Creek Drive in Iowa City, come get your $2.00 fuel up to 20 gallons! The first 35 vehicles here will get this and other prizes!"

I couldn't believe my ears, but since I was dressed I quickly grabbed my keys to my fuel empty van and then found my purse and bolted out the door to the gas station. I left so fast and with such excitement that I was halfway to the gas station when I realized that I didn't have shoes on. I didn't care. I was determined to be one of the first 35 vehicles.

I made it there in record time and ended up being the 6th vehicle to arrive. I was greeted by a police officer that told me which pump I would be at next and then the Casey's manager that handed me the following:

My $2.00 per gallon voucher up to 20 gallons, a Free Large fountain drink that can be used anytime before the end of August, a Free Super size slice of Casey's Pizza (which is amazing by the way), then two tickets to Hawkeye Downs Speedway. Super awesome. I was filled with excitement that I made it there in time to achieve this.

So even though I was barefoot, I filled up my van with the full 20 gallons, thank goodness my tank was near empty when this deal was announced.

I have figured it out, since our fuel here in Iowa is $3.69 a gallon and I got it for just $2.00 this means I received $33.80 in FREE fuel!!!

He claims he's adopted

2011-07-13T16:35:00.000-05:00

Today Daniel studied up for his driver's permit and then took a few practice tests online.

Daniel and I left for the bank that has the safe deposit box so I could get his birth certificate and take it to the Department of Motor Vehicles to prove he is not only American but my child with a real birthdate, and so he could then take his driving test and get his permit.

While at the bank I searched my safe deposit box over and over. I found everyone's birth certificate except for Daniel's.

Then Daniel says to me, "I told you I was adopted."

So we come home and I search his photo album, thinking to myself that it has to be in there because where else would it be?

Never found it. I really don't know where else to look and I'm stumped. I'm also bummed out for Daniel because he really wants a permit so he can start learning to drive.

Sorry Dan.

Very first Triathlon

2011-07-10T14:51:00.002-05:00

I did my very first Triathlon this weekend, if you want to read about it, please go here.

The start of Brenden's trip East

2011-07-03T13:07:00.001-05:00

The day started with getting up at 4:10a.m. to leave for Dixon, Illinois so Brenden and I could run a race. Read about that HERE. The race was fabulous and afterwards we went to the Chicago, Midway airport so Brenden could hop on a plane to Columbus, Ohio for a few weeks to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa Lewis. While on the way we saw a fabulous looking Lamborghini and managed to get a picture of it as you will see below. Brenden was super excited to ride a plane for his first time. I hope he has a fabulous time in Ohio.

Brenden and I just before running the Reagan Run 5K race in Dixon, Illinois Saturday morning.

The awesome looking car that Brenden pointed out to me while I was driving to Chicago. I quickly grabbed my camera and Brenden snagged a picture. The guy in the car was looking at us strangely and tried to drive away fast.

If you even thought gas was expensive where you live, like me in little ole Iowa who has fuel at $3.55 a gallon and thought that was high, but was still grateful the price had come down .45 cents in the last 2 months. Check out these fuel prices in Chicago.

Alyssa and Brenden in the airport. Alyssa came with us to do two things. 1. Take pictures of Brenden and I while racing the 5K. 2. Keep me company on the drive home from Chicago so I wouldn't fall asleep.

The pilots on Brenden's flight. He rode on Southwest Airlines flight #3513. These two pilots were so nice that they let Brenden go into the cockpit, take pictures and explained the flight to him. Then they announced to the other passengers that Brenden needed a window seat since it was his first flight and asked someone to give up their seat for him. I'm am so impressed with Southwest Airlines.

Brenden and I with our race shirts on just before Brenden left on his flight. Both Alyssa and I were lucky enough to get Non-Passenger Escort passes so we could be with Brenden at the gate. It was awesome to be with him till the last second of him taking off. Thanks again to Southwest Airlines.

If you enlarge the picture a couple times by double clicking on the picture and then clicking on it again, you will see Brenden in the window waiving to me.

Brenden's plane preparing for takeoff.

Brenden's plane taking off.

Brenden's plane up high in the air. I just have to add that my Mom called not even an hour later and Brenden's plane had landed on time and she was also given a Non-passenger escort pass so she could meet Brenden at the gate in Columbus.

Before and After

2011-06-26T15:23:00.000-05:00

Jared was in desperate need of a haircut. He doesn't like to get it cut and tells me frequently that I should just let him grow it long. I told him he needed to get it cut and that he had either the choice of me cutting it or a professional. Last time he did choose me. His hair suffered greatly and it wasn't a good experience for either one of us. This time he choose wisely.

Another view of his long hair.

Jared with his new haircut. You can see from the confident pose that he actually did like it. I knew he would. I like that I didn't cut it.

He's such a good looking teen that I had to have another picture.

Jared's 15th Birthday 6-15-11

2011-06-17T12:30:00.001-05:00

Jared's birthday actually started last Friday night when my parents (that were in town for Caleb's graduation party) took Jared and the rest of us out to Ci Ci's pizza buffet. Super yummy and we all pigged out on pizza, brownies, salad, pasta, breadsticks, cinnamon rolls, dessert pizza and soda! I think we all rolled out of there.

Then on Tuesday, Jared asked if he could have a few friends over for his Golden Birthday. He ended up having about 12 teens here. I'm thankful to Little Caesar's pizza that has $5.00 Large pizzas so that we could get a bunch to satisfy the group. We also had a ton of leftover cupcakes, cookies, pop, water and juice from the graduation party so all of the teens were happy to finish off those things. Wednesday night (the night of his actual birthday) he didn't want the family celebration because he was being thrown a party at Scouts at church so he asked that we celebrate it last night. Last night (Thursday) we finally sang to him. So I guess you could say that Jared is officially 15 now.

Some interesting facts about Jared you may not know:

He loves to read and between him and Alyssa they are having a contest of who can read all 7 books of Harry Potter the fastest. Both of them have read the series before.

Jared tried out for show choir and will be in that for his Sophomore year.

Jared would love to grow his hair out long and has asked me several times to just let him do it. It usually comes down to me threatening to cut his hair or get a professional. One time he actually chose me to cut it (that was only one time).

Jared has about 5 girlfriends at once (he says he doesn't, but I'm constantly seeing him with another girl walking down the street. Every night different girls call for him.

Jared loves White Chocolate

Jared was born at 4:08 a.m. 5 weeks early, but was a strong enough baby to come home without a NICU stay.

Happy Birthday Jared, we love you and are glad you are in our family!

Jared holding his new Wii game that he picked out.

Being silly.

This looks like his pie is on fire due to our poor quality camera and the amount of candles on that pie.

Here is Jared's birthday pie. He wanted pie instead of cake. He picked out a Peanut Butter pie, which is actually my favorite pie, so I was very happy to eat it.

Caleb's Graduation Party

2011-06-12T15:37:00.002-05:00

The cake

Part of the spread of food. We had chips of all sorts, veges with dip, cup up mixed fruit, assorted cookies that either I had made or other friends had made and cut up cheese and summer sausage. My Dad bought some meatballs with Ragu sauce, those were super yummy. For drinks we had water and assorted sodas to choose from. The flowers were bought by my Mom, aren't they gorgeous?

Part of Caleb's Shrine. This posterboard had all the picture from his entire life with the ages printed above them. The framed picture to the left is the picture of Caleb's group from Philmont Boy Scout Camp, the bowl in front of that held the cards. Over to the right is the picture of Caleb as a Drum major with all the other drum majors with him. In front of the board is the school newspaper article that was written about Caleb and I put it in a sheet protector so everyone could read it. Then there was his Graduation program and his cap with the tassel.

This poster board had all the pictures that are Caleb's favorite pictures from high school. Then in front of that board were his National Director's award for Band and the National Director's award for Choir, his seminary graduation diploma, his Celebration Iowa program, the All State Award Certificate and the ISU Honor Choir certificate, on the wall are two band pictures from Freshman and Sophmore years and then an art project he did when he was little.

Caleb with Ryan Person, his Choir Director.

This picture shows tons of cupcakes I mad that I obviously shouldn't have since almost all of the 140 were left over today, so I brought an entire massive box to the church and let the youth group devour them.

A close up of the picture from his life.

I made this book for Caleb out of a composition notebook, this way his friends could sign it.

A Celebration Iowa poster that all his cast members signed that I framed.

One of Caleb's senior picture.

The entire spread as seen from the front room.

Caleb holding a gift his girlfriend Bryn made him.

A better picture of the gift Bryn made. I had just put it on the piano for everyone to enjoy.

Abby is already 15 weeks old, that went fast.

2011-06-05T13:33:00.002-05:00

Abby at 7 weeks old

Abby at 15 weeks 3 days old

Abby is adorable!

Caleb's High School Graduation

2011-05-29T16:37:00.001-05:00

Time goes by so quickly. I remember someone telling me at church years and years ago (when I was struggling with the boys in the hallway because they couldn't behave in the church service), that this time in my life would be just a blink of an eye and all these hard things would be just distant memories, to just keep plugging along and try to just be consistent about bringing the children each week to church because someday they would grow into fine young men. This week that day came. Caleb has made me a very proud Mom. He has had an exceptional year as a Senior in High School and has grown up so much. Thursday night was Caleb's High School Graduation and here are a few pictures from that night.

picture of the program

another picture of the program

part of the program that show the names of those in the Senior vocal ensemble

Caleb, Jason and I.

another picture with Caleb. I think this shirt I'm wearing makes me look 40 pounds heavier, definitely a shirt I'll donate soon.

Caleb with his girlfriend Bryn

The diploma

Caleb and I again. I insisted on lots of pictures.

James Caleb Clark

Can't believe Caleb is graduating from High School tonight

2011-05-26T09:18:00.002-05:00

Two nights ago I attended Caleb's Band concert. This was his last band concert of the year. It was an incredible concert, those students are so great. Near the end of the concert the band director got up to present a special award called the Director's award for Band. In Band they only award it to one person. The band director started going on and on about an individual he felt had grown over the 4 years that he's known him, who had shown the most Leadership, who had gone above and beyond anything he was expected. Then he announced this award goes to Caleb Clark. I couldn't believe I heard my son's name being called out. So incredibly awesome. I was just filled with happiness. Then last night I attended the last high school choir concert of the year. This concert was fabulous as well, so much talent displayed. Caleb, Daniel and Jared were all there singing in different choirs. My heart was filled with joy as I watched my sons all sing.

Near the end of the concert, Ryan Person, Caleb's Choral Director, got up to present some awards. He was giving out the Fred Waring Director's award for Chorus. Ryan then went on to say all these nice things and why he selected who he did. Then he called out the winner of the award and Caleb's name was called. I started to bawl. I just couldn't believe it. I am wowed that Caleb not only won a Director's award once, but then again. So awesome for him. Below are pictures of those awards, not his because his need engraved with his name.

Director's Award for Band

Fred Waring Director's Award for Chorus

Caleb Clark

An article was written about Caleb in the school paper. I'm retyping it for you all to read:

ON A MISSION

Graduate from high school. Go to College for four years, maybe grad school, then get a job. There's a fairly generic formula as to what to do beyond our high school years. Caleb Clark '11, however, is not following this in the least. Instead, the young man hopes to work for a year, go on a two-year long mission trip and proceed to major in theatrical lighting. Despite the fact that, surprisingly, one must pay around $10,000 to serve on a mission trip, Clark looks forward to the experience. "It's a cool opportunity to devote yourself to service," he said. Clark is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in which every "worthy" (determined by physical well-being and adherence to church rules) is requested to complete a mission trip. According to Clark, fellow seniors Brad Guymon and Ryan Stewart also plan to go on mission trips. Members of previous classes, such as Tyler Dawson '09 and Stephen Olson '09, are currently participating in mission trips, Dawson being stationed in Idaho and Olson in Uruguay. The members of the church have no choice in where they will be assigned (Clark himself hopes for somewhere warm), but regardless of the location, Clark hopes to help solve certain problems. "I think violence is an issue," he said. "It's around us so often we don't understand how it affects us."

After his mission trip, Clark plans to major in theater lighting, an unusual interest for a high school student. His fascination in the activity began when he helped out with the lighting for theater West as a junior. "It was love at first sight", he recalled. "Lighting can make people change their feelings about something without them noticing it . . . it is the ultimate manipulator." Since joining the theater at West, Clark has applied his lighting skills to numerous other events and activities, which has only deepened his love for the art. He also enjoys watching various productions to learn and appreciate various lighting techniques. "I just love seeing all the cool artistic things they can do", he said. "There's just so many cool things about lighting."

Truly, it is impossible to tell what the future holds. But one thing is for certain: the path Clark plans to take is definitely, the one less traveled by, and it is bound to make a difference.----article written by Garrett Anstreicher

Marion Arts Festival 5K, 2011

2011-05-21T13:54:00.002-05:00

Today was the Marion Arts Festival 5K Run or Walk Race. I was excited for this race since it is the first race I did last year. Also it ended up being one of the best 5K races of last year because of the food at the end, the chip timing, the low cost, getting a shirt and all the fun stuff you get in your packet. This year topped last year because I beat my time on the same course by a minute. I also won a $10.00 Gift Certificate to Running Wild (running store I love)!
Last year my time was 30:24 with a pace of 9:50 per mile.
This year my time was 29:21 with a pace of 9:29 per mile.

Jason's time was 29:18 so he beat me by 3 seconds. I was so sure I had beat him because he never passed me, however he started the race 14 seconds after me so he was literally behind me the entire race, but because he was catching up to me he actually beat me in the end. Too weird, but cool for him because now he gets to rub it in all day that he beat me by 3 seconds.

Alyssa's time was 38:29 with a pace of 12:31 mile. This is awesome considering it was only her second 5K and her first one was 6 1/2 minutes slower than this one. That's a ton of improvement in only 3 weeks.

Brenden's time was 23:33. His pace was a 7:36 mile. Super great. He placed 8th in his age group.

Here are a few pictures:

Picture of just us girls. From left to Right Stephany, Jennie, Me, Stephenie and Alyssa in front. We had just picked up our packets from the registration.

Timing chips on our shoes!

Group photo of all of us that rode together.
Left to Right: Stephany Coleman, Stephenie Hogan, Jennie McQueen, Me, Jason, Alyssa, Brenden

Alyssa sprinting to the finish. She beat her personal best time by 7 minutes!

Alyssa's tired look after the race.

An after race picture. Stephenie, Me, Stephany and Jennie. Notice in the background it is raining. I'm so glad that it didn't rain on us during the race, it was scheduled to be really bad thunderstorms, but the storm waiting for us to finish the race and get our food and results before it poured.

Jason getting a massage after the race. He said it was awesome!

Some of the post race food. I have to say that this race really does a fabulous job with post race food. They had the following items: Water, Pink Lemonade, Heed Electrolyte drink, many assorted cans of soda and regular lemonaide, oranges, bananas, watermelon, animal crackers, cookies of all sorts, donuts, pretzels, granola bars, and some assorted candy!!!

The front of the shirt we received.

The back of the shirt we received.

Items that were in our race packet.

Prom 2011

2011-05-19T14:43:00.000-05:00

Another year and another prom. Here is Caleb with his girlfriend Bryn Hedlund. They went as a group with 5 other couples. Some of the pictures only show 4 other couples, but that was because one couple was late for pictures.

Day out with Brenden

2011-05-14T17:23:00.006-05:00

A couple months ago Brenden was on the website called runningwall.com and he showed me a race he really wanted to do called the Mud Run. It is sponsored by the University of Iowa, but was two hours away in Des Moines, Iowa in Sleepy Hollow Park. If you are unfamiliar with a Mud Run, it goes like this: 1 Mile or 3.1 mile course through fields of high grass, loose terrain, rocks, ruts, water, sand, thick mud, pond, obstacles like hay bales to climb, huge tree stump to climb over, tunnels to crawl through, ropes to climb over and under, and a very large steep ski hill to climb. Originally we just signed up for the 5K (3.1 mile run) however Brenden and I both understood that the finisher medal went to everyone that raced, later we found out that we had read the registration wrong and that the finisher medal would only go to those who did the 1 mile fun run that wasn't timed. So we ended up doing both races. Only unfortunate things were these: I am still suffering from a very tight IT band so the last 2 miles of my race were painful and I walked more than I wanted to. Also the weather was only 50 degrees and a little breezy. Very chilly for a day running through water and mud. Great day overall. I now believe I can run in absolutely any weather condition and through any course.
Our stats are as follows:
Brenden's time was 29:25.6 He placed 12th in his age group out of 41 and 79th out of 598 total people.
My time was 41:41.5 I placed 14th in my age group out of 28 and 410th out of 598 total people.

We both might have been a little faster had we not just ran the 1 mile mud fun run that wasn't timed.

Here is our first picture of the day. Brenden and I before our Mudd Run race. We were in the car staying warm because it was only 50 degrees out.

This was in our race packet with a brochure on poison ivy and that's all that was in our packet, guess it was a warning of what might happen to us.

Our 5K race was chip timed, but these chips were in special bracelets you wear on your arms. We felt like power rangers!

Here is Brenden after the 1 mile race, he is proudly wearing his finishing medal and showing off his Mud Run towel. He doesn't appear too muddy, but we were loaded in mud up to our knees. Neither of us fell down so our mud stayed low on our bodies.

Not sure if you can tell but my shoes were super muddy. My pink socks were now brown. I should have had Brenden take a picture of my back because I had mud up my back.

close up of the shoes.

posing with our mud run towel. This picture was taken after our 5K race. Again, I don't look too muddy, but I walked a bunch in places that could have splashed me so that I would stay mostly clean. We had a long drive home so I didn't want mud all over me.

Here's a close up picture of me after the 5K race. I had quite a bit of mud on me.

After we both cleaned up a bit we went to Bass Pro Shops that is located in Des Moines. Brenden has always wanted to go there and since we hardly ever travel to Des Moines this was a great day to go.

Brenden standing in front of the 30,000 gallon aquarium inside Bass Pro Shops pointing to a massive catfish.

Brenden with a stuffed bear.

Brenden with a stuffed cougar.

Our Mud Run towel. Actually we both earned two of these each because we both did two races.

The finishing medal we both had to have. Sometimes it's just worth it to run 4 miles!!!

Our Mud Run shirt

Now for the best part. There was tons and tons and tons of food and the volunteers kept saying to everyone to come get more, so I took them up on that and kept getting in line. here is just a sampling of what we received. This picture is of the leftovers after we both had some bagels, chex mix and honey roasted peanuts.

Ohio Trip for Half Marathon and to see my new niece Laila!

2011-05-09T09:28:00.001-05:00

On Thursday, May 5th I left for Ohio with my two friends Tracy and Stephany. Our goal was to complete races we had worked super hard training for. Stephany's goal was to complete the 5K and to get a personal record (beat her time from previous 5K races) and Tracy's and my goal was to complete the half marathon race. Several months ago my goal was to complete my race with a time of 2 hours 13 minutes or better since my last half marathon's time was 2 hours 26 minutes. I figured with great training I could beat my time by 1 minute per mile. As the time drew closer I became injured. My IT band in my left leg was too tight and hurt when I ran. I have Iliotibial Band Syndrome, to see what that is click here: Iliotibial Band Syndrome

The IT band is a nick name for iliotibial band. To better describe it, it is a thick band of fibrous tissue that runs down the outside of the leg. The iliotibial band begins at the hip and extends to the outer side of the shin bone (tibia) just below the knee joint. The band functions in coordination with several of the thigh muscles to provide stability to the outside of the knee joint. I became stiff and hurt a lot. I began to see a physical therapist to help loosen up. I took almost 2 weeks off of running and felt amazing. I thought this injury might be gone. However I was wrong.

I started the race out great. The first 3 miles flew by and I had a time of 27 minutes, (9 minute miles) so I was doing good in my opinion and I felt amazing! The next mile came and I started feeling tightness of the IT band, so I went to the side of the road and began to do all my stretches that you do for IT bands, then I continued running. I made it to mile 6 and decided to stretch again since I was in extreme pain. While stretching on the side of the road I began to pray. I was hurting and unsure of whether I should continue or not. I stretched for what seemed like a while and up walked an angel on the side of the road. I was on the side of the road stretching (hoping to loosen everything up and continue the other 7 miles) and this lady comes up to me and said, "Are you okay?" I told her that my IT bands were hurting and getting super tight and this was the 2nd time I had stopped to stretch. She said, "I'm a massage therapist, do you mind if I touch you and help you?" I told her she could do whatever she wanted.

She then began doing all kinds of things to my legs with her hands to loosen them and I was able to run another 2 miles before needing to stretch again.

Mile 10, 11, and 12 were super hard, but in my mind I knew it was almost over and I could do it so I pushed myself on even though I was in severe pain.

At around mile 12 1/2 there was an Army service man running just up ahead from me with full gear on (backpacks weighing around 50 pounds) and the crowd was chanting USA, USA, USA over and over. I started to cry and knew that if he could continue to run that last half mile dressed in those hot clothes and with that full backpack on that I could finish as well in my pain. I cried harder, then composed myself and ran to the finish line with my arms up proudly! I wasn't sure I'd ever get there, so my finishing medal means so much to me. Below are some pictures.

Tracy, Stephany and I the night before our race.

After the race with our race medals on.

Mom, Dad and I after the race. It was great to have them there waiting for me.

Another picture with my parents. You can see that I have an ice pack on both knees. I was in a ton of pain and not walking correctly. I'm actually not sure how I finished this race.

my race number.

There were thousands of bagels. I had to have a picture. There was also pizza, pasta, chocolate, water, bananas, apples, gatorade, beer, champane, pink lemonade, and muscle milk.

This is the sign you want to see as soon as possible.

Or this flag.

Holding my new niece Laila for the first time. I was so excited that I had the opportunity to visit Adrianne and Mike while passing through Ohio on my way home on Sunday after the race.

Look at those tiny feet with such long toes. So adorable.

Mike, Adrianne and I. I think Adrianne looks amazing for just having a baby 6 days ago!

Laila Faith Richards

Pella

2011-05-05T10:55:00.007-05:00

So, have you ever wondered where the Pella Window company gets it's name? Me neither, however, just in case, Pella Windows is located in Pella, Iowa where we spent last evening at the Klompen Klassic 5K race. The Klompen Klassic is the official beginning of the Pella Tulip Fesival. Neither Michelle nor I ran the race but Scott ran the kid's race and both Alyssa and Brenden ran the 5K. Brenden finished in 22:25 and Alyssa (in her first 5K) finished in just over 43:00. There were over 2200 racers.

My body doesn't heal like it used to.

2011-04-29T12:09:00.002-05:00

I am dealing with my first knee injury. Apparently I have a small tear in my left medial meniscus. Wow, does it hurt sometimes. I saw a PT yesterday and he gave me some exercises for it. This is just going to take a lot of patience on my part.

Can't believe my baby is 9!

2011-04-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

Time sure has gone fast. I can't believe it's been 9 years since I was pregnant, but it has been. Scott's name was a hard one to come up with. Before him we had 4 boys and since I had picked out several girl names (thinking that I'd have all girls) I didn't have any names for this one. It took us a while to come up with his name, but then we decided on Scott Thomas Clark. He has Three last names. For some people these are three First names. For I know many people with the first name Scott, others with a first name of Thomas and I know a guy named Clark. Anyway Scott was named after Richard G. Scott, Thomas S. Monson and Clark because that just makes sense. Scott we are so glad to have you in our family. Your three last names mean that you are the last Clark child to be in our family. It's very special to be the baby!

Here is a very current picture of Scott taken this past Sunday before church.

Another picture. I asked him to smile naturally, this is what I got!

Scott asked for a Strawberry cake with vanilla icing with strawberries on top. This is what I came up with.

Another picture, this time with candles.

He is thrilled to have his birthday! For dinner the family went to Scott's pick of a restaurant, he picked Bennigans

Scott actually asked for clothes for this birthday. He likes this shirt.

Scott asked for LOTS OF LEGOS, so I bought him a few different sets. He was thrilled.

5th Annual Go the Distance for Crime Victims 5K Race

2011-04-17T09:52:00.001-05:00

Saturday, April 16, 2011 in Marion, Iowa didn't turn out to have nice weather as I had hoped for. In fact it was horrible weather for April. Stephany and I met at 7:30a.m. in North Liberty to go to our race. It was raining pretty steady. When we were 15 minutes into our drive the rain looked like snow. Sure enough what looked like snow was. It wouldn't have been so bad without the wind. However the wind was 20-25m.p.h. and the snow became larger and larger as the minutes drew on.

We arrived at our race at 8a.m. and by then it was snowing pretty heavy. We quickly picked up our packets (which had in them a couple pens, lip balm, granola bar, biofreeze sample, our shirt and some coupons) and then we headed for the car. We didn't want to take our Before pictures outside because it was THAT cold.

So here in the car we are taking our before pictures and we stayed in the car until 15 minutes before the race. Only then did we exit so we could find a bathroom and line up for the race.

Stephany and I in the car waiting for the race to begin.

Another before picture in the car, this time with our race numbers. Notice the car windows and how icy they appear. I should have taken a picture of the outside. There was at least 2 inches outside and the snow wasn't stopping.

After our race, sitting in the car once again. I had worn that green ugly poncho for the entire race, it was hard to run in, but kept me dry. I also wore an ear guard headband, a hat (shown above) and gloves.

Stephany and I again.

Here is a picture where the race started. This was taken a half hour after the race ended and the snow was already starting to melt fast. There had been so much more that covered the streets and grass.

Here is a picture of the shelter we were in, since there were no walls it was so cold and people just grabbed food and left. The race director announced before the race that it was too cold to hold awards after so he would mail them to everyone and to just get your post race food and leave.

Eventually while running I warmed up, but it took me about 2 miles before I took my gloves off. I never took my poncho, hat, or headband off, those stayed. I had stepped in several deep puddles so my shoes were soaked and the first mile my feet were freezing. I was thinking that I'd never warm up, but after about a mile my feet were warm the entire time.

Because of the severe wind, everyone seemed to be slower than normal. Both Stephany and I didn't have the greatest times, in fact my time was 4 minutes slower than last week's 5K race. My time was 31:13 when I crossed the finish, although the race report says my time was 31:15. Either way, I felt lucky to finish at all. I'm glad I did because I proved that I can run in anything now.

I was 34 out of 78 Female finishers, 83 out of 146 total finishers and 9th out of 32 in my age group. My age group of 30-39 was the largest age group to show up, so I feel great about being 9th place.

Funny thing, the person who placed 1st in my age group had a time of 27:10 That was my time last week, so if only I could have done that again then I would have placed in the top 3.

My next race is in two weeks and I'm praying for better weather with no snow or wind.

Music

2011-04-14T11:14:00.003-05:00

As I was listening to a choral piece by Eric Whitacre today at work, I was reminded of the power of music. Music has an indescribable influence on our thoughts and emotions. I have always loved music - particularly music with intricate rythms and complex harmonies. I unfortunately don't have the musicality of my sisters or the near-perfect pitch of my oldest son but I still like to sing. My classes at the gym can attest to that and are probably grateful when the vocal range of a song is too high for me because I stop singing. The piece I was listening to is called Sleep. It is a slow, classical piece that he wrote in 2000. The harmonies are beautiful and the song has a very ethereal feel to it. If art is about eliciting emotion than music is the highest form of art. What turned me on to this song was a TED talk given Eric Whitacre in which a described a social experiment that he did. He posted a video of him directing the music to each of the 8 parts. He than asked people to submit videos of themselves singing the parts. Once that was done, the audio of each video was spliced together. The resulting performance is particularly stunning in light of the fact that each performer was a stranger to the others. There were over 2000 voices from 53 countries. The music is beautiful and very peaceful. I haven't tried yet but I am sure you could find the performance I described on YouTube.

Live Healthy Linn 5K

2011-04-10T16:00:00.000-05:00

This was a great 5K race that I recommend everyone participate in. It was ONLY $10 to enter this race. It was chip timed so we knew our results immediately after the race. They had a microphone so EVERYONE could hear all announcements at all times. The post race food was plentiful. They had regular popcorn, carmel popcorn, fruit treats, granola bars, water, Gatorade, bagels of all kinds and bananas. We got a shirt and then there were numerous door prizes after the race.

The course had 3 hills, a small one, then medium and then a large hill. After you conquered the 3 hills the entire race was downhill for the last 1 1/2 miles of it and that was AWESOME because I felt that I was just being pulled to the finish. I was running next to a man aged 70 named Ron that helped me finish. I had run up next to him and we were next to each other for several blocks, and that was about 3/4's of a mile before the race ended. I started to breathe heavy and weird and he asked if I was okay. I told him my stomach hurt and that I felt like I was going to throw up. He then told me to do a body check. He said, "Are your feet feeling okay?" "Are your knees feeling okay?" "Are your hips okay?" I told him all those things felt great. I asked him how he was feeling and he said, "I'm okay." Then he said, "Just push past the pain you can beat this old man." At one point I started to walk for about 3-4 seconds and he said, "Oh no you don't, push through the pain." So I pushed and I gave it all I had. I pretended that someone was chasing me and because of that had my best race ever. Thank you Ron from Cedar Rapids!

I achieved a Personal Best time of 27:10 and this beats my last personal best by almost a whole minute. My last personal best time was 28:02 so this new time is incredible for me. I know it was because I was coached by Ron.

Here are all my official stats:

Time 27:10

Race pace 8:45 minute mile

I was 83 out of 191 total participants, 35 of 127 Women, and 13th place out of 63 in my age group of 30-39!

Stephany and I before our race began. It was a little cold out, but nice and not raining.

another after race picture

All the goodies in our packets!

More pictures of Abby.

2011-04-07T08:08:00.004-05:00

This is one of my favorite pictures so far.

We have now had her 6 days and she is officially 7 weeks old. She is growing a ton and soon will be a really big dog. Last night she actually slept for 6 hours straight. It was a miracle!

You can see the white on her belly.

Check out her left back paw, she has white fur there too.

Yes my kitchen floor needed cleaned badly.

We took a picture of ourselves! I had just taught Zumba so I look a little worn out. Look we both have hazel eyes. When you enlarge the pictures you can see my contacts on my eyes, weird.

Scott said, "When you lay on the floor the dog will lick you." I don't think he's laid on the floor since.

Princess Abby Buttercup

2011-04-04T11:02:00.002-05:00

I would have liked to call her Buttercup, after Princess Buttercup in Princess Bride. Not everyone agreed on that. The name Abby came up over and over and over. It was the only name EVERYONE thought sounded nice. My hangup with the name is that it is my niece's name. What we kept running into with names is Every name we picked was someone we know. It was either an old girlfriend of Caleb's, or an old girlfriend of Jason, or a name of a girl I didn't care for in High School. Or the name of my Dentist I just switched from because I don't like the way she does things. I could go on and on. Then I picked out two names I just loved which were Addaline and calling her Addi and Brindy and calling her Brin. Jason didn't like either of them. I pondered names of Stars in the heavens, to Queens in the Bible, to well behaved famous Women in history. Nothing was sticking. I did like Esther, but not everyone thought that matched her.

So here we are hours after picking up our darling puppy and no name for her.

Finally Jason says, "Let's just go with what everyone liked." I said, "The only name everyone likes is Abby." I just hope my beautiful niece of mine Abby isn't offended. Here are some pictures of our beautiful new addition.

This is one of her first pictures taken. She didn't have a name yet.

She sleeps a lot and doesn't seem to mind her kennel. Brenden insisted that she use one of his blankets.

Love this picture of her sleeping.

Half in-Half out.

Scott has many pictures with Abby, he insists on new pictures often.

Alyssa with Abby.

I just took this picture a few minutes ago, it's one of my favorites so far.

When no one is around and it's just me and her I call her Buttercup!

L.I.S. Panther Pride 5K Race

2011-04-02T20:42:00.001-05:00

Alyssa, Brenden and Scott being silly in the van.

Today we had a race in Williamsburg, Iowa called the L.I.S. Panther Pride 5K. This was a fundraiser race so this Lutheran school could get playground equipment. My friend Tracy lives in Williamsburg and today we were going to pick up our puppy from Tracy, so running a race was a great start to the day.

It was a gorgeous day of 54 degrees, bright and sunny. Perfect running weather. When we raced it was around 42 degrees so I still had cold weather running clothes on.

Only Alyssa, Scott and Brenden wanted to come along. We also picked up my friend Stephany on the way there so she could race too.

We don't have times for this race because there was a mess up with the way they did the times and no one will ever know what their time was. However even with that messed up, it was a Super organized race with lots of volunteers that were on every corner telling us where to turn and cheering us on. Also there was fabulous post race food and many door prizes. Each of us won a door prize. We do know however what place we were in, just not how fast. I placed 6th of 13 in my age group and Jason placed 4th in his age group.

Here is Stephany and Alyssa.

Tracy, Stephany and Me before the race.

Jason and I before the race. Jason got my lucky number 13. I had #12.

Tracy finishing her race

Alyssa took pictures of us running, here is Jason.

I'm in the background if you look hard. I'm running up the hill.

Me almost at the finish.

Jason, Me, Stephany and Tracy posing for a picture after our races were over.

All of us again

A great picture of Jason and I inside the gym waiting for our name to be called for door prizes. I actually won a $25 Gift card to Theisen's!

Taking a picture of ourselves!

Dan's 16th Birthday

2011-03-31T09:05:00.000-05:00

Daniel wanted a few friends over for his 16th Birthday.

I bought 7 pizzas. Between our family and all those teens it was gone by the next morning.

The Cake. No I didn't make that, but I'm thinking I could have done a better decorating job. I wasn't happy with the decorations especially since I paid a professional company to do it. However the cake was super tasty.

The mess I found when I came down the stairs. This mess was on every counter in the kitchen, it took over an hour to clean up.

Daniel opening his gifts. What I thought was hilarious is that he asked for a STUFF gift card. If you don't know what STUFF is, it's a consignment store nearby. Daniel loves to get brand name clothing there for cheap!

Daniel is super excited to be 16. First thing he said is, "Now I can date." yes now Daniel you can date.

Delusional ??? I think not.

2011-03-20T17:31:00.001-05:00

Three weeks ago I noticed our Left front hubcap was missing from our car. I was bummed out because now our car looks a bit odd and not as nice as it could. Also hubcaps have the purpose of preventing major amounts of dirt and rocks to get inside your tires so I really should get another one.

I figured I would never see the hubcap again and never looked for it because of the many miles I travel all over the city in a day who would think they could find a hubcap.

I went for a long run on Saturday since I'm training for a half marathon. I was scheduled to run 9.5 miles so I had become super anxious during the week. For some reason my last few long runs have caused some anxiety in me. I am fine emotionally once I get started, but leading up to it I'm over thinking about how hard it is to run that far. Maybe my emotions were wacky, I'm not sure. Just read on and you will understand.

So here I was on Melrose Ave. about 2 miles into my run and I was about to turn onto Camp Cardinal Blvd. when I thought I saw a shiny thing. Sure enough as I got closer it was a Toyota hubcap and I knew it was mine from a rectangle 1 inch scratch that I had put on it from running into a curb 3 years earlier when I slid around a corner on a very icy street. I had scratched up the hubcap and popped the tire.

When I was about 5.5 miles into my run I saw Jason. He had ridden his bike to find me, to make sure I was alright and encourage me along. I told him about finding the hubcap and I asked him to go get it. He said, "We will get it after your run is over and you can show me right where it is."

After the run I was exhausted, but determined to get my hubcap back. We traveled to the place on Melrose where I had seen the hubcap. He stopped the car and I got out. I walked up and down in the same area I had seen it. NO HUBCAP could be found. NOTHING. I was ticked. So I walked even further back in case I had forgotten where I really saw it and then walked all the way to the corner of Camp Cardinal Rd. and still no hubcap.

Jason said, "You must have been delusional and thought you saw it."

Really I dreamed that up. I think not, but one will never know.

HR = SS?

2011-03-16T12:34:00.002-05:00

Several years ago, SEIU tried to organize all the non-union professional and scientific staff members here at the University of Iowa. The attempt failed miserably because most of us are pretty happy with our jobs and don't feel the need to have union representation. One of the primary reasons I voted against the measure was that it was never made clear how the SEIU would be able to adequately represent the needs of a bench scientist and say, one of the law librarians at the same time. We have different needs professionally and it would be difficult if not impossible to meet both needs without having to make unreasonable demands. Times may be changing.

The Human Resources department has been growing disproportionately to the workforce and instead of being an intermediary between us and the administration, has become, in the eyes of many, the paramilitary arm of the administration. For several years there has been a low level battle raging between HR and the two big unions we have here on campus. HR pulls underhanded tricks to fire (largely unsuccessfully) people the administration considers to be problems. Sometimes the terminations are merited and the terminations are not disputed by the unions. Two of the people they have attempted to fire within the past year are the former and current president of one of the unions. One of the terminations was accomplished by HR simply reclassifying job titles and telling the individual that his job was no longer a position at the University and therefore his service was not needed. The current AFSCME president was also terminated by HR for a likewise ridiculous reason but due to union intervention had his job back within a week.

So here is what is bugging me. For the past year, HR as been undergoing a big reclassification process for all the Professional and Scientific staff. They claim that it is to more adequately represent the actual duties being performed by staff members and to help more closely align our salary structure with the market (which market? The academic or the biotech one? They won't answer that question.). I understand and even applaud their attempts. Currently there are three classifications in my job family which are very broad. The problem is that they are essentially demoting many researchers. People like me who are managing labs and taking on a lot of the day to day responsibility of running the lab, training everybody, ensuring that policies are being followed, etc... are being lumped with everyone else who may be doing the same type of science but don't have any management responsibilities. Personally, I don't care what my job title is but the problem is that the salary cap is going to be adjusted lower. This means that within a couple of years, I will most probably be at my salary cap. I cannot afford to be 45 and topped out. HR is giving individuals the opportunity to appeal their reclassification (I already have done so) but from what I understand, there is not a lot of hope that we will actually be bumped up where we should be. My point in all of this is that if HR simply rubber stamps denied on all the appeals, they are going to be looking at the currently unorganized staff standing up and joining a union which will in the long run cost the University more money. If the University really wants to save money, they need to stop rubber stamping longevity raises and stick to merit based raises. More importantly, the UI needs to stop building more buildings for which there really isn't a need. We are grateful to all of our donors but perhaps we need to say, "no, we can't afford to match your donation right now." Or perhaps we should ask our donors if they would be willing to use their donation to fund scholorships or endowments not just buildings.

I could rant on forever but this is much too long as it is. There are several additional issues involved here - one was reported on NPR yesterday - but I will save them for another day.

Gaelic Gallop Race--Dyersville, Iowa

2011-03-14T08:32:00.011-05:00

Friday was a gorgeous day in Iowa. Temps in the 50's. Then came Saturday. Saturday was miserable. Temps had dropped to the mid 30's. Winds picked up to 20 to 30 m.p.h. with wind gusts reported at 40 m.p.h. I was scheduled to run the 8K (5mile race) but when I stepped out of the van to the freezing temps and the wind smacked me in the face I quickly decided that 2 miles would be the furthest I would run in it. So the first thing I did was change my race with the registration guy. Brenden came along to take pictures, but seemed mad the entire morning that he wasn't running. He has chosen to take a break from running so his legs will feel better. Brenden did take a few pictures of us. Here is one of him throwing a baseball in the gym we were in.

Scott ran in the Leprechaun Leap race and placed 5th. That race was scheduled to start at 10:15a.m. and since the race people started the race early and I was in the bathroom, I missed him running completely, so there are no pictures of him running. I was ticked. Jason was with him thank goodness.

Alyssa, Jason and I all ran the 2 mile race. Here are our results:
Jason was 56th out of 274 total people racing.
35th of 91 Men. 4th of 10 Men in the 40-44 age group.
His time was 15:50 so that's a 7:55 minute mile!!

Alyssa was 262nd out of 274 total people.
26th of 27 girls in the 13 and Under age group.
She was 174 out of 183 females.
Her time was 24:59 so this means she ran a 12:29 minute mile. Not too shabby for a First ever 2 mile race. This is the furthest to date that Alyssa has ever ran.

My time was 17:42, so this means I had an 8:51 minute mile.
I was 123rd of 274 total people,
7th of 29 women in the 35-39 age group.
65th of 183 Women total!

Reasons to do this race next year:
The course was well marked.
There were police men to control traffic
Volunteers to tell you when to turn around
chip timed so race results are accurate

Reasons to NEVER do this race:
This race was so unorganized and you couldn't hear any announcements ever. No one knew what was going on, when the race was starting or anything.

Only 4 port-a-potties outdoors, and 3 bathrooms indoors total for 562 race participants, many others there for the children's race, supporters and volunteers. I would guess there were around 700 people there. That's 1 bathroom per 100 people=LONG LINES.

Food was minimal. Fruit that ran out before everyone had some. Thank goodness I was in the top third to get food. They had bottled apple juice, but again ran out halfway through the 2 mile finishers. So none of the 8K people received those. Then they had orange drink from McDonalds. EWE, really. How about Gatorade or something similar?

Two different racing start times for the children's races were printed between the website and the actual race brochure, and that caused confusion between volunteers running the race, and people in the race.

Race results took two days to post even though they were chip timed.

Shirts are SUPER UGLY, to see them closer double click on one of our pictures. I wouldn't wear this shirt as a nightshirt. I'm sure it will get donated for sure. Why anyone would design a shirt with a Jersey Shore guy is beyond me. This was a St.Patrick's Day race, there should have been either a Leprechaun or a Shamrock on the shirt, or even their Gaelic Gallop logo. And they chose bright neon orange for the shirt color. WHY?

No door prizes and I'm seriously not sure why. There were 29 race sponsors. I'm sure most of the sponsors MUST have just given money and the Race director must have pocketed it. Because the race director did absolutely nothing for all these race participants. When Jason put on that indoor triathlon he only had like 6 sponsors and had lots of prizes to go around.
The distance from Iowa City to this race was not worth it.

So as you can see a Race NOT WORTH DOING. The race director needs to seriously make some changes for the better.

Trying to push the puppy post off the top of the page.

2011-03-14T08:27:00.002-05:00

Saturday was my first race of the season. It was COLD! The air temp was about 30 but the wind was gusting to 30 and 40 mph. I haven't really been training like Michelle has so I only did the 2 mile race. My goal was simply to break 17 minutes (I am slow). I actually did better than I thought I would and finished in 56th place out of 200+ runners over all and took 4th in my age group with a time of 15:50. That's right all you young punks, this 40 year old ran at a sub 8 minute mile pace. I felt great when I finished and realized that I could have easily done a 5K (unfortunately, the only other option was an 8K and I am not ready to run that far). There is hope for me yet to break 25 minutes for a 5K. I am excited about the upcoming racing season. I have already signed up for a 5K in May and an olympic distance triathlon (The Lake Geode Challenge) in July. I will get a few more races sprinkled in there including another sprint triathlon and a couple more 5K's.

Michelle and Alyssa also ran the 2 mile race with me (I can't remember their details) and Scott ran a 400 M race in which he placed 5th.

I would really like to get a dog.

2011-03-13T17:12:00.010-05:00

My friend Tracy has two Labs. She decided to have them have puppies. The litter had 9 puppies and they are all adorable. Yesterday most of us had the opportunity to go see the puppies. There are 3 black, 1 chocolate, 1 tan, 3 cream and 1 white. Below is Jared with the Mom.

I would really like to have a dog. I have listed all the Pros and Cons and even after all of that I still feel having a Dog is a great decision. I just hope Jason says YES!

PROS
A running buddy
A companion when everyone else is at school or work
Someone who loves me unconditionally
Cute

Adorable

Cuddly
Teaches you to be more responsible
You can get new carpet and furniture!
Friend for LIFE!
You are able to give a great home to a wonderful pet so they don't go to a bad home.

You can get great exercise because you have to walk your dog.

You can tell your dog ANYTHING and they won't share it.

When your feet are cold they can lay on your feet to warm them.

You get to try out all kinds of air fresheners to help with the dog smell!

Cons
They make a lot of messes so you have a lot of work.
You will have to get up in the night to take care of them, let them outside to do their business.
It's like having a new baby all over again.
Sometimes your favorite items get chewed up
They can stain your carpet
They can ruin your furniture (that doesn't matter because all our furniture is old and UGLY anyway.)

Walking the dog in the rain or snow.

Vet bills

I don't care about all the cons in the world and I know there are many.

Here is my contract for all to see: I, Michelle, am willing to do WHATEVER it takes, WHENEVER is needed to raise a happy, loving, well trained dog so that this new addition is happy in our family. I do NOT expect anyone to do anything to take care of this NEW pet. I am taking 100% responsibility for Her, knowing that even though the children say they will take care of her, that they will most likely change their mind within a week or two, so I'm signing up for all of it.

many things going on

2011-03-10T10:54:00.003-06:00

This week has so much going on.

First the dreaded taxes. I have an appointment with the accountant tomorrow to get this done and over for the year.

Why I can't stand taxes:

a. It takes me forever to add all the receipts from my 3 different jobs (teaching aerobics, nanny, and Pampered Chef) and get it all categorized and organized. I need a computer program for this. I've been doing it by hand for 13 years.

b. It takes usually 2 hours for the appointment. I really don't want to give up two hours of my life unless I'm in a Spa.

c. The cost for the accountant seems to go up every year and that I'm never happy about. I know the costs for everything is rising, but we just don't have it, and it cuts into the amount you get back, so it bites. Wish I could do it myself and I would except it might cause me heart failure with how hard and stressful it would be. So I'm grateful for my accountant, just not his cost.

2. Caleb started Driver's Ed finally. This is great, except for the cost. It was $375 and to me that is outrageous. This is the main reason it's been this long getting Caleb into that. I have been saving up. I think driver's ed should be offered through the schools, but here in Iowa it's only done privately, you don't have a choice.

3. I'm running more and that's good. My knee was hurting last week, but this week seems to be a bit better. Each week I have a further distance to run to meet my goal for training. This week was 8.5 miles. I barely did it, it was super hard.

4. I love ice cream. The current flavor in the house in Mint Chocolate Chip. I could eat this stuff every day, but I'm not sure if my body would agree.

5. Jason, Scott, Alyssa and I are running in a race on Saturday. It's called the Gaelic Gallop and it's in Dyersville, Iowa. There is a 5 mile and a 2 mile race. Both are chip timed so we will all know our results quickly after running and they will be accurate results, as long as the chip on our shoe works. I am doing the 5 mile race. Jason and Alyssa are doing the 2 mile race. Scott is doing the Junior Leprechaun Leap (not sure of the distance on that). Brenden and Jared will be along for taking pictures and cheering us on. Brenden isn't running right now, he is on a break, I'll explain in the next paragraph why. After the race and the post race activities there is a St. Patrick's Day parade at 1:30, we will hopefully stick around for that.

6. Brenden is having growing pains. His legs hurt really bad when running. I cannot remember the technical name the doctor gave but the doctor told him to wear knee braces, take ibuprofen and back off on running for a while and do lots of stretching. Brenden hasn't ever liked to stretch much, so hopefully he will do more of that now to relieve some pain. Hopefully he will feel better soon so he can be back to running since he likes it so much, and he's great at it.

7. Jared has an infected toe, so it's back to the doctor today to get that taken care of. Our family seems to be prone to ingrown toenails and we've tried all kinds of things. I should buy Epsom salt in bulk from all the soaking we do.

8. Next week is Spring Break and I have only 5 classes instead of 14!!!

9. The weather is actually scheduled to be nice next week, like in the 50's and 60's. What a great week that will be.

10. Because Spring Break is next week I'm sure the children will all find tons of things to do, so I'll have plenty of posts next week!

Alyssa has as new blog

2011-03-01T13:23:00.000-06:00

Check it out here

www.alyssabob.blogspot.com

Freeze Fest 5K Race, Marion, Iowa

2011-02-27T07:38:00.031-06:00

Friday morning I woke up to this outside. I was a bit disappointed since we had a tease of Spring just a week earlier with temps in the 60's so having snow again isn't fun. Plus I knew I had a race the next day and didn't want to be too cold.

Saturday morning, February 26th, woke up to more snow and it was spitting snow outside so I was still a bit bummed out, but knew being February that I took that chance when I registered for this race.

The race is called Freeze Fest, so basically if you don't want to be freezing you shouldn't register for such race.

Brenden was super excited and asked me to sign him up also. My friend Stephany and my friend Tracy also both signed up so they were there too! We all rode together!

All of us together before the race. Tracy, Stephany, Brenden, and Me

Brenden and I getting ready for the race, just getting our race numbers on.

Tons and tons of COOKIES!!! I love cookies and there were all kinds. I was so looking forward to all of them!

Tracy, Stephany and me taking a picture of ourselves. We had such a great time and laughed a lot. We are looking forward to our trip to Columbus for our Half Marathon on May 7th together!

Brenden won 3rd place in his age group. I am so proud of him for finishing the race. At around 1 mile and a half, Brenden's calf in his left leg was hurting so he stopped along side of the road and he was so upset that it was hurting so bad that he starting crying and then he had an asthma attack, so he walked for a while. I came up beside him and walked with him for around 3-4 minutes. He finally told me to "Just go so I wouldn't lose the race." He did end up finishing the race and I'm glad he did. He told me it was hard to finish with his legs hurting, but he wanted to show he could still do it. At the end of the race they gave away some really awesome door prizes. Brenden won a $70 running jacket. He was thrilled.
Here's all of us at the end with our race shirts on that we were given. This race was neat because they did the race shirts in all kinds of different colors.

He's not the Daddy's boy he used to be.

2011-02-26T13:50:00.002-06:00

5 minutes after not getting what he wanted, Scott and I have the following exchange.

Scott: Dad, are you going to work today?

Me: No, its Saturday, I don't usually go to work on Saturday.

Scott: Well, you should.

Me: Why?

Scott: So you can earn more money and leave your kids alone.

What a little turkey!

New Beginnings

2011-02-25T07:46:00.011-06:00

Since Alyssa will be turning 12 this summer she was invited to the New Beginnings program on Wednesday night.

The theme was "We seek after these things" from 13th Article of Faith.

Each girl was asked to dress up like a Treasure Hunter. Most of the girls did not dress up, but Alyssa did and she looked adorable (I won't be able to call her that much longer.) Then they had to use their book of clues to find several items. The items ended up being charms for a key ring and each charm was a young women's value with a scripture so there was

Faith --Faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore, if ye have faith, ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true (Alma 32:21)

Individual Worth--Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of god (Doctrine and Covenants 18:10)

Divine Nature--Be partakers of the divine nature. . . Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity (2 Peter 1:4-7)

Good Works--Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven (3 Nephi 12:16)

Integrity--Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me (Job 27:5)

Knowledge--Seek learning, even by study and also by faith (Doctrine and Covenants 88:118)

Choice and Accountability--Choose you this day whom ye will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15)

Virtue--Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies (Proverbs 31:10).

Then at the end of finding all the charms for their key ring they came back to the Young Women's room that had the TREASURE.

Jason was making fun of me taking pictures, in fact he had just said "Really" you can see it on his face. Alyssa wasn't real thrilled about pictures either, but I told her I had to document this special night.

The Treasure

So this is what $2170.53 looks like

2011-02-24T07:59:00.012-06:00

I don't do Pampered Chef parties much anymore because I simply just don't enjoy it as much as I used to. In fact I don't call anyone to do parties, I let them call me. When my past hosts call and ask for a party I'm more than happy to schedule one for them.

A girl named Angie needed a Fundraiser for the T.T.T. Society. She is a super organized person so as such was a fabulous Chairperson for this fundraiser.

She asked for 50 catalogs and I thought that sounded like a bit much, but she worked her tail off to get orders.

Last week I turned it all in and the total came to $2170.53 I was shocked that the fundraiser did so well, but happy at the same time!

I told her that since she worked during the day and since there would be a massive amount of boxes arriving at her house that I would be happy to have it delivered to me and seperate it for her. I had forgotten how much Pampered Chef stuff over $2000 really is.

Above are the 8 boxes that first showed up on my doorstep. In my opinion it should have been 16 boxes. Whoever loaded these boxes loaded them so heavy that I struggled to get them in the house, they should have had half the stuff they actually had in them.

I didn't even unload the batter bowls because there were so many of them that they all fit in one box.

The top selling item Mix N' Chop

After 3 long hours I was finally done unpacking, sorting, labeling and ready for my host to pick it all up because I'm not delivering.

Day Out with Mom

2011-02-22T06:51:00.028-06:00

Yesterday was President's Day and my children were out of school. I asked them what they wanted to do. Alyssa and Scott said Ice Skating. Brenden and Scott said a movie, Jared said hang out at the mall and eat at the mall.

So we set out on our journey to Coralridge Mall in Coralville, IA which is only 4 miles from our house.

Here is Scott and Alyssa putting on their skates. They each have their own skates now which is very exciting to them.

Some skating pictures

Then I told them they could each pick their favorite place to eat at.

Jared and Brenden both picked Panda Express for the Orange chicken.

Scott picked pizza.

Alyssa loves Charley's Grilled Subs.

I didn't pick anything because I knew from all that food there would be left overs and sure enough both Jared and Brenden didn't want all their chow mein noodles so I got a fair helping of those.

Then we went to Target for some candy.

Then we went to a movie. The children picked Gnomeo and Juliet. It was a great movie for them. I thought it was just okay.

Overall, super fun day.

You may be wondering, where is Caleb and Daniel. Daniel had to work and Caleb had a huge research paper.

Brenden at his Indoor Triathlon

2011-02-21T06:45:00.012-06:00

Back on January 29, 2011 we had the opportunity to put on an Indoor Triathlon at North Dodge Athletic Club in Iowa City. My husband Jason was the race director and I helped with many of the tasks to pull off the event. We had 21 sign up to do the race.

In case you have no idea what a triathlon even is, you

SWIM, BIKE and then RUN for set amount of distances or times.

Because this was an indoor triathlon due to the temperatures outside. There were times set in order to complete your events. You had to swim for 10 minutes, then bike for 30 minutes and then run for 20 minutes.

Here Brenden is swimming. You could swim any way you wanted and your progress was recorded as the number of laps you completed. Some of the pictures are blurry that I took. I either need to get a better camera or get classes on how to take pictures. Jason's Mom takes great pictures, if only she could be our photographer for the next race.

Brenden wanted to do this, so I signed him up and talked him through all the events. He was super confident and ready to proceed. He would ask me almost daily how much longer it was until the triathlon.

I am so proud of him and what he accomplished. He was the youngest participant and he finished all the events. He even won a door prize for a Running Wild gift certificate at the end of the event. He can't wait to spend it.

Brenden never complained the entire race and you could tell he was super exhausted. Below he is holding his finishing certificate. He was glad to place 1st in his age group!

Immature mean and rude

2011-02-20T12:40:00.003-06:00

Sounds like I'm about to write about teenagers. Well after the morning I've had at church and my teenagers being less than respectful, this post could be about them.

I just don't understand why some people are so immature that when you put comments on their blog that is just your opinion and not hurtful in any way, that they delete them. If you can't handle other's opinions, then why have a comment feature on your blog at all?

I have tried to be nice to some people over and over and over and yet they just seem to keep trying to be mean or hurtful back. I just don't understand mean, rude and immature behavior. It needs to stop.

Grow up people, be nice, be loving, be kind! It's so much easier to just be nice.

Never mess with the power of Awesome

2011-02-19T12:59:00.002-06:00

Earlier this morning I went to this store that sells this fabulous hot sauce that Jason just loves. The hot sauce is called Blair's Death Sauce and you can get it at www.extremefood.com

It has been around for years and has many different levels of hotness. The names are things like: Sweet Death, Jalapeno Death, Golden Death, Original Death, Pure Death, Mega Death, Ultra Death, After Death, Sudden Death, Beyond Death

Today he tried a new one called Sudden Death sauce. He said it was one of the hottest things he's ever eaten. It had Habanero peppers, cayenne peppers and other things in it to make it burn you.

So that he could try this hot sauce properly I made him an omelet (which is one of his favorite breakfast foods) with jalapeno peppers in it. He was thrilled.

Now here's the real story:

While I was touching the jalapeño peppers or maybe it was while I touched a drop of this hot sauce to smell it, not sure which, I must have gotten some on my fingers. I also must have NOT washed it all off of me.

About an hour later, well after I had forgotten about any hot things that I had touched,

I touched my left eye.

Maybe you can just imagine what I went through next. Sudden burning death to the eye. I was rubbing my eye and screaming and forgot that I had contacts in. I was at the end of the hallway by the stairs burning in pain. I ran to the bathroom only to think my contacts were still in my eyes, not sure at this point. I washed my hands with much scrubbing and tons of soap and then proceeded to get my contacts out so I could just cry in pain without them in my eyes as well.

My right contact came out with ease, the left one no where to be seen. I searched the bathroom, nothing. I searched myself, nothing. I searched the hallway with a flashlight, nothing. I retraced my steps and then thought to myself that I was standing at the top of the stairs when I screamed and rubbed the hardest. So I went to the top stair with the flashlight, looked down and there was my tiny gas permeable contact all by it's lonesome staring at me begging for solution.

So there you have it. I am Awesome

Show Choir performance

2011-02-14T20:49:00.003-06:00

Below is a link to watch the entire Show Choir performance at Caleb's last competition he was in.

If you fast forward to 11:36 in the show you will see Caleb on the left hiking up his pants, then walking to the top of the bleachers and giving the Star Trek sign since he is playing a geek. Too funny. Enjoy the performance!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ3MLtAe0_8

February

2011-02-10T09:07:00.004-06:00

Many things have happened this month and it's only the 10th.

First at the beginning of the month our dryer broke AGAIN. I was super worried, because the last time our dryer broke we waited 3 days for the Sears man to get here, then he didn't have the part so he had to order it, so then we waited for the part, then we waited for him to come back then it finally got fixed after 3 weeks.

Well I was pretty sure the same thing was wrong this time since the same light came on and it wouldn't start.

I called Sears and to my surprise they had an opening that morning between 8-12. AND he showed up at 9:30, found the problem, had the part, and fixed it.

That was the quickest and best service call I have ever received and to top it off it was FREE because that dryer is still under warranty!! Lucky us.

Caleb, Daniel and Jared had a choir concert and it was super awesome. Caleb had a solo. So proud of him for he did a fabulous job. If only we had a video of that, but our software to our video camera is missing so we don't know how to get the video on the camera off the camera to take more video. Bummer.

On February 2nd we had the largest snowstorm since last winter. I would say we had been pretty spoiled with little snow all winter, so this was overdue. However it was so much snow that the city is just not doing well with clearing it. They are STILL NOT running the city buses on their regular routes, this creates many problems.

Zumba is going well for me. I have taken on another teaching position and I'm loving my classes! At some point check out www.zumba.com go to Find a Class and type in your zip code. You have to try this class out, it totally energizes you. All fitness levels can do this. At one place I teach most of the women are over 50 and seem to shake it well!

Valentines Day is coming up. I really like that holiday. I know it's just a Hallmark holiday, but I love it and hope it ends up special! hint hint Jason :) I have already done something nice for him!

I am far into my training for my next half marathon on May 7th. Last week I ran 5.2 and this week the plan is 6 miles or more. Each week I will try and increase by 1/2 mile and see how it all goes. I hope to beat my 13.1 mile time by at least 13 minutes, thus shaving off 1 minute per mile.

Brenden and I have registered for an upcoming race on February 26th called the Freeze Fest. I just hope it's warmer than my last race that had temps below zero.

Speaking of cold temps it is minus 11 today. I couldn't believe it, but it definitely feels that cold. All my joints hurt and my hands are so sore, time for more hand cream.

I'm happy to say my sister is Cancer FREE! She had a scare in December with finding a lump in her side and it was removed and declared as Leiomyosarcoma. After that she had a cat scan a month later and it was determined that all the cancer was gone. However she did go in for surgery this past Tuesday to have more of the area removed just to be safe. I'm so glad she's okay. She has to be checked every 6 months for the next 5 years. What a scary time for her and the rest of the family. Jan I'm so glad you are cancer free, love you!