Long overdue

I hated high school. I couldn't wait for it to be over when I was there. And looking back now I still think it was pretty freaking pointless. The ONLY thing that kept me sane growing up in a small town with nothing to do was my very best friend in the whole wide world, Sandra. We met in 8th grade. She had just come into the public school system after being homeschooled. I was in an advanced program with a bunch of people who were absolutely NOTHING like me. We did pretty much everything together. Band geeks. "Whos Line is it" marathons. Our graduation party.

17 years later, we are still friends. We haven't kept in touch like we should have. And we haven't seen each other in 5 years. But she was my maid of honor at my wedding. She'll always be my best friend. The person who made high school livable. One of the few people in our little podunk town who understood me. One of the few people who still does (although thankfully that list of people who really get me has gotten slightly longer).

She's having her first baby. I'm so stinking excited for her I can hardly contain myself. If ever there was someone who would make a fabulous mother its Sandra. Her babyshower was this weekend and for the first time EVER, I left behind Brad AND the kids and went on a trip. That in and of itself was long overdue. I love my family dearly but it was so nice to get away. But I still can't believe it has been FIVE YEARS since Sandra and I have seen one another. We added it up, we've been friend for 17 years. That is a LONG time. When in the heck did I get old enough to have done ANYTHING for 17 years?? Then again, Brad and I are coming up on 10 years of marraige. Sooo . . .
(A note on the picture to the left. I've always wanted to do a picture like this. Sandra's cute belly + red shirt made it perfect!! Add in Ricky's tats for a little character and it turned out awesome!)

We really didn't do anything other than hang out, catch up, and shop for baby stuff. It was exactly the break from the craziness that I needed. Oh, and we went to see the Hunger Games too. The baby shower was all kinds of cuteness, Sandra's mom Mary did a great job.


Sandra and her fiancee Ricky. Aren't they cute?? :-)
Some of the yummys. Mmmm, fondue!
I can't even remember the last time the four of us (Sandra, me, her mom and my mom) were all together. It was probably at our high school graduation.
Time passes and things always change. People move in and out of your life. But there are certain people who will always be a part of it. I'm so glad I got to go and share in the excitement of this little baby, see my friend and meet her guy. My husband is wonderful for taking a few days off and holding our house together so I could get away.

March In Review (and February too I suppose)

I can not seem to get caught up this year. Maybe its just the craziness of getting Garrett to and from school, getting workouts in, feeding everyone, keeping summer occupied, working, and just generally surviving from one day to the next. Our days have been filled with lots of fun, but I haven't really taken that many pictures. Trying to be in the moment with the kids, but I KNOW I'm going to miss having this to look back on down the line.

Let's see . . .
We had a cold snap. Haylee must be getting old (which she really is, she turned 10 in March, which is CRAZY to me) because all she did was bury under the blankets and refuse to move.

Aspen, on the other hand, chose to attempt to swim in the lake during one of our coldest days. Rotten dog.

Nana and Papa came for a visit. I'm sad to say this is the ONLY picture I took with my camera while they were here. Garrett and Summer loved having them here to play with.


Valentines day.
We made darling super hero valentines. Garrett got a kick out of making them.

He also made lots of sweet little art work. This was my favorite though, made with the bottom of a celery stalk as a stamp.

My dad came for a visit. We hit the beach and went to the Everglades. Its been a while since he's seen the kids. Everyone had a blast of course.

We did fun things like make robots out of toilet paper roles. Don't ask about Garrett's face here . . . .I think he was acting like the robot.

I ran my first half marathon on March 4th. I'm so annoyed that I haven't managed to post about THAT in the past month. It was an epic weekend, my friend Amanda from TooTallFritz came for the race. As I mentioned before, we've been online friends forever but have never met in person, and she was one of the people I could always ask for help when I got stuck on my running journey. It was so fabulous to meet her and her mom--they were kind enough to let me hang out with them the night before the race to save on some serious pre-race jitters!
Not to mention a beautiful evening on the beach:

Brad stayed home with the kids so I'm sadly lacking in pictures of the actual race. But we had so very much fun! I finished in 2:49, which was under the goal I had set for myself. Next time I hope to run the whole thing, I ran faster than I should have in the beginning and had to do intervals the last half. It was so incredible though.
And I can't forget the sweet good luck flowers Brad got me before the race :-)

Spring Break was fabulously busy . . .

We used the awesome pop bottle science kit Leanne got Garrett over Christmas to do some fun experiments over spring break. We made a volcano.

We also blew up balloons using the reaction of baking soda and vinegar. We have a long standing tradition of making faces on our balloons--Summer did such an awesome job on hers (with NO help) that I had to take a picture.

We went to the Childrens Museum with the Falconer clan. The kids had a blast--Summer and Ava hadn't played together in a while. The Pirate Island Exhibit there is amazing and the kids loved it. Garrett had also been wanting to try the rock climbing wall there for a while, but we always kept forgetting socks and close-toed shoes. He had an AWESOME time climbing the wall. If there is one thing I love more than anything else about the way we live our lives, its that living an active lifestyle has given this boy the idea that he can conquer anything. I love that he doesn't blink at physical challenges that would have made me, as an adult, cringe in the past.

Silly girls!

We played in the mud on the last day of spring break, just because getting dirty is so much fun.

Somewhere in there was Dr. Seuss's Birthday. We had tears on this day, ACTUAL TEARS, because Garrett's school told them they could wear Dr. Seuss shirts and I could not find one. As he's crying because he is worried he will be the only one without a Dr. Seuss shirt, I decided to be creative. The result turned out pretty darn cute, and he loved it. Saved by the Sharpie Markers and the stash of plain shirts sent to us by Grandma Sherry.




St. Patricks Day cuteness:
At the end of March we received news that Garrett was admitted into the charter school down the road from our house. I struggled for the entire week (we had to decide by March 31st if we wanted to enroll him) with what we should do. I really like the school we are currently at--the principal and staff are amazing, and it is such a small school that you can't help but feel at home. But in the end, an established Math/Science program and the ability to bike/walk to school won out over everything else, and we'll be switching schools at the end of the year. Hoping that it will make our lives simpler and that it will be a good fit for my crazy boy.

And, last but not least . . . a picture of Summer at the beginning of April 2011. I can't get over how much she has grown. She has been driving me bonkers lately--she is truly not an easy child and STILL isn't fully potty trained (we've been to the Dr. more times than I care to count in the past couple months, trying to sort her out). But she is growing up so fast and really becoming a big girl.

Why January 2012 wasn't awesome and the rest of the year is going to ROCK.

Okay, so catch up time. I may never post Christmas pictures. And I haven't taken that many pictures so far this year. A run down of the not-so-wonderful January we've had, in 100 words (I hope) or less:

My mom came for a visit, had to be admitted to the hospital next day with chest pains. No heart attack, but diabetes. No big shock, but hopefully motivation for a change for her.

It occurred to me (with some prompting from my best bud Allison) that things were not as they should be with Summer. Her sleep pattern was too erratic and she still wasn't potty trained--after some serious thinking, some time with the doctor and six vials of blood, and a two week test period of a gluten free diet, we reached the following conclusions: We needed to move up her bedtime, she DOESN'T have Celiac disease, but she does seem to have very strong gluten sensitivity. As in any form of gluten upsets her stomach so much that she complains of a tummy ache and then loses control of her bowels. Don't I feel like mother of the year for not picking up on THAT sooner.

So we've spent the first bit of February adjusting to the whole idea of having a child with food sensitivity in the house. Its so, so very weird for us--we usually eat well and clean, but we make a lot of our own baked goods and do eat a lot of wheat. So its been an adjustment. Its hard to eat gluten free on a budget, so we're adjusting there too. Summer has to adjust to not eating some of the things she loves, and we have to adjust by FINDING a way to substitute the things she loves with something similar.

We've been blessed with family coming to visit--first my mom, now Brad's grandparents, and my dad is coming on Saturday.

But here's a list of why the rest of the year is going to rock.
Now that we have a handle on her stuff, Summer is acting much more like the brilliant little girl we know she is and hopefully we REALLY WILL be done with potty training too.

I'm running my first half marathon on March 4th. Not only will my friend and neighbor Jess be joining me, but so will my long, long time internet bud Amanda. Amanda and I have known each other since my pre-kid days. We both have weims. She always let me pick her brain when I started running--she is a freaking amazing endurance athlete. So to have her down here for my first half makes me excited beyond words. She's been on my top 5 people-to-meet list for quite some time.

April includes a trip to Maryland to see my very best high school bud, Sandra. For a baby shower no less. We haven't seen each other in 5-ish years, but Sandra kept me sane through the disaster that was high school. I'm so excited for her to embark on the journey of motherhood, there aren't even words for it :-) On top of that little bundle, who's ETA is June, my best bud Allison has a bundle with an ETA of July. Babies, babies, everywhere! A summer-long trip to the Northeast may be in order . . .

May brings a surprise from Hubby--tickets to Nickelback's Here and Now Tour. They will be playing with Seether, My Darkest Days, and Bush. I had no clue Bush was still around, but the other 3 are absolutely off the hook rock bands that I love. And listen to on an almost daily basis while I work out. Then my big boy will be turning 6. And then the summer baby boom discussed above.

So, January was terribly stressful. But I can't wait to see what the rest of the year brings. Probably less blogging from me, since time is always in short supply. But I'll still try to bring the highlights. HOPEFULLY!!

Busy Weekend-Halloween Prep and the Spooky Symphony

I had a TON of work to do this weekend, but we still managed to squeeze in a bunch of fun things, as well as prep for Halloween.

We took the kids to Lowes on Saturday morning to build Monster Trucks. Our schedules haven't really allowed us to do their workshops in a while. It was CRAZY, we had to stand in line for 20 minutes to get them. We brought them home to build them, but the kids had such a good time. They were so proud of them that they were able to be nice to each other long enough for me to get this shot:

Since they cooperated, I indulged them with a silly face session. It looks like Summer is going to take a bite of Garrett's arm . . .

but these are always the funniest photos!


While at Lowes, we bought a pumpkin. After much debate we decided to just get one and make it family pumpkin. I suspect this is the last year that is going to work. Garrett drew the face ALL by himself. He drew it on paper then I cute it out and transferred it to the pumpkin.

We took turns cutting it out (Summer obviously needed a lot of help there)

and the kids had a BLAST scooping out the guts.


Finished product.
Why is it so much to ask for EVERYONE to have a nice face?? :-)

Brad took the kids to see a "giant" model airplane show, the three of them had a blast. The weather is absolutely glorious here, its nearly impossible to focus on anything because it was so beautiful outside. But alas, I stayed home and worked.

On Sunday, Garrett and I trekked downtown for the "Spooky Symphony" put on by the Greater Miami Youth Symphony. I love orchestral music and thought this might be something Garrett would enjoy. We met up with some old friends, Jon and Bryland, and had an excellent time. Here they are pretending to be a train on the way to the theater.

Random pictures since school began

I have been absolutely terrible about keeping up with the blog. No free time. Potty training (STILL). Work. Kids. House. Produce. Working out. Blah, blah, blah!

Daddy and Summer being silly and "napping" in the hall.
Garrett with one of his many creations
And a robot he wants to enter in the Lego Club Jr. Contest this month.
Being silly with the cute hat they made at school for Patriot's Day.
Dress up one day shortly before school started.

Other random bits:
So ready for the fall TV season lineup to start. We booted netflix for their price hike. On our lineup for the fall--Castle, Bones, Psych, Survivor.

I finished reading Harry Potter series. Brad's started the books too. Garrett's last book was Goblet of Fire, I want him to wait a while to read the last three because are so much darker and take on more grown-up stuff than the earlier books. We're watching them.

The new trailer for Breaking Dawn is out and I'm so excited in the worst nerdy way. Only 2 months left to wait! I think I'll be re-reading the books again.

I FINALLY entered my first half marathon. Will be running the Miami Beach 13.1 in April. So stoked, but have a long way to go since I haven't been running much because of the heat.

Garrett is entered in flag football, which starts on Saturday. It should be fun. Brad is coaching his team. It may be interesting--its 5 players for team and the age range is from 5-7 years. Garrett is by far the youngest on his team and the oldest player will be 8 (!!) in November.

Summer is THREE on Sunday, which I can't believe. Grandma and Grandpa Compton are coming this afternoon, so we're looking forward to that.

I'm going to start prepping for the GRE so that I can test sometime either this fall or in the spring. We have a great tuition remission program through school, so once both kids are in school I'm going to work on a Masters degree--something I've wanted to do for a long time but have had to put off for obvious reasons.