Andrea's Homework Slippers

Have you ever heard the phrase,"My dog ate my homework." Well how is she going to tell her teacher that she made princess slippers out of them?

Webelos Badge, Pinewood Derby and More!

Junior Jazz Basketball

Miracles Do Happen!

I do believe in miracles. This one especially. The miracle is Carson is sleeping in his own bed. Now, before any of you start to draw any conclusions right away let me tell you that I don't believe in getting in the habit of kids sleeping in your bed. In fact, I never let any of my other kids sleep with me. Greg will tell you that he used to come home late from work and find me in the crib with Chalisse. (I had to do this to get her to sleep).

Here is the story: On 7/7/07 our family decided to celebrate the date. If you know my family, you will know that we will do about anything to find a reason to celebrate. After talking with my Aunt Lark and Uncle Dave, we decided to go wave running up at Pineview Reservoir. Well, Uncle Dave has a totally awesome wave runner and Jensen and I both like to go really fast. Yep! You guessed it. He flipped me off the wave runner and then landed on top of me.

To make a long story short. He displaced one of my ribs. For two weeks I couldn't even lay down. I had to sleep in a chair. So Greg, my wonderful husband, decided that he would watch the baby. Greg's idea of watching the baby was putting him in bed with him so he wouldn't have to get up at night. (Greg said he did this so he could hear the baby when he was crying) A- Ha! You see where I'm going with this. So Carson got in the habit of sleeping in our bed and over time developed this habit. I knew it would be an easy one to break, but I was trying to pick the week of no sleep.

Well, my sister Liz saw these Thomas the Tank Engine sheets at Target and thought that if Carson had his own sheets, maybe he would sleep in his own bed. So she purchased them for him. (Spoiling him rotten I might add). And for the last week, I have done the no sleep thing.

However, Greg came in one night when I was typing on the computer and said that Carson had put himself to bed. I couldn't believe it. I ran in and checked. Sure enough he was sound asleep. I have the picture to prove it.

10 Miles The NordicTrack Way

Today was my first long run day of my marathon training. For a change of scenery, I ran on my parent's treadmill instead of mine since it was to cold outside. These are my baseline stats:

Mile	Heart Rate	Pace	Incline
1	80	N/A	0
2	143	11:06	0
3	152	10:42	0
4	150	10:42	0
5	151	10:42	0
6	153	10:42	0
7	157	10:42	2
8	146	10:31	2
9	150	10:31	2
10	154	10:31	2
10.5	104	17:08	Cool Down

Overall it was a good run. I maintained a comfortable pace(one that I could talk through and take it easy on the ankle). Gatorade and GU after mile 5.
-- Something to think about-- I wonder if around mile 8 the GU kicked in due to the decrease in heart rate?

Marathon Training Again

No, I'm not crazy! I just really enjoy running. Why? Because I can. I can also reduce stress, and I enjoy the benefits that come with exercise. There are soooo many things that I can't do, but I can run. My only competition is myself. That said, I am pleased to tell you that today I started my first day of training. My goal is the Ogden Marathon in May. My brother Teep said a couple of months ago, "Ya, know Cheryl if you plan this right, maybe you can do another marathon in July and then one in the fall." Hmm! That sounds fun.

Am I a Bad Mom?

I tried really hard today. I honestly did. But let me tell you one thing. Never fight with a two year old because you'll never win. I wanted to have the perfect, clean house today with happy children. It didn't happen. I need to realize that we all have our free agency to choose how we want to act, but this is so hard since I am a perfectionist.
I got up and did the usual which includes making breakfast, reading and going over math facts with Andrea, getting the kids on the bus, and exercising. When I came upstairs to get Carson dressed and ready for the day, The terrible two's hit big time. Carson refused to get out of his "Thomas" pajamas. He was so mad at me that he took the pillows off my bed and sat on top of them bawling his head off. After a serious talk with this two year old, I decided that he was not going to give in and my only hopes for a happy child would be to compromise. We decided that if Mom let him stay in his "Thomas" pajamas, then mom could have her pillows back on the bed. Kids are so forgiving. However, I hope all the adults are as forgiving. Like when I had to pick Jensen up at Young Astronauts and when I had to take the girls to dancing lessons. I wonder if they're thinking, "This mom has done nothing today." Or, "This kid is still in their pajamas, what type of a mom is she?"

Not The Smartest Thing I've Done!

So let me explain a little. What do all three of these have in common?
All three of these should have been replaced three months ago.
1. My hair dryer went on the blink and only blows out cold air and therefore takes forever to blow dry my hair. So either I stand in front of the mirror for hours or I wash my hair the night before and go to bed with wet hair. Luckily Santa gave me a hair dryer for Christmas. Problem #1 solved.

2. My glasses are missing one piece of the frame. Carson got a hold of these and I think and he must have snapped off one of the sides. Well I didn't want to fork out more money this time of year. So I still wear them even though they sit sideways on my face and fall off if I lean over. Mostly though I wear my contacts during the day, so I only have to worry about this problem at night.

3. My favorite running shoes reached over 500 miles at least three months ago. I was trying to lengthen their life expectancy and buy a new pair in January when I started training for my next marathon. But on Christmas Eve I decided to do a tempo run and work on my speed.
Well, I was able to increase my speed by three minutes, but I severely injured my ankle/heel. I'm sure it was because of my shoes-- because if you have worn off the black soles and can see the next color, they are probably not giving you any support.--

I rested for 5 days and still the pain did not let up so I went to see Dr. Lyons. He thinks I may have a stress fracture of my Talus bone in my ankle. I still cannot run until 01/05/09 and then we will go from there. The good thing is that I can still exercise. He recommended that I swim or bike to keep my endurance up. That means swimming in the cold or riding the Mayflower.
I call it the Mayflower, because it came over on the Mayflower. It used to belong to Greg's Grandma Blythe who died ten years ago.
Anyway Dr. Lyon's suggested I might want to upgrade. So, because I have the most wonderful husband, he went out and bought a new exercise bike. It looks like this. And yesterday, I went shopping for the most beautiful pair of shoes, and I got them. This is a picture off the Nike site. I can't wait to start to run. I'm going crazy!
Well enough of this. The moral of this blog is that sometimes you just have to go out and get what you need or you will spend more money in the long run.