Let the Countdown Begin!

That’s right, only 1 year, 2 weeks and 1 day until the 112th running of the Boston Marathon. Why not countdown to the 111th Boston Marathon (2 weeks and 1 day away)? Well, I don’t have a ticket to run this year. That’s right folks, I am in!!! If you are not aware, this is one of the hottest tickets going. There are a few ways to get tickets to run. There is the legitimate (but impossible) way, actually qualifying for the event. I am about 1 hour and 40 minutes away from making that qualifying time. You can also run for a recognized charity, but that involves raising over $20,000 big ones. A less expensive route is to run for the Boston Police. This requires volunteering for one of their events and coming up with about $500 bones. But this also comes with the distinctive perk of being shuttled around in a deluxe bus (which is non small thing when you consider the crowds). There is also a lesser-known backdoor method. This requires knowing the right people. This is kinda like the mafia, but with really fit people instead of Italians. One of the guys I swim with has “connections”. I am not sure what this means, but he told me that if I did the training, he would get me the ticket. After a little asking around, I found out that he somehow he gets tickets from people who legitimately qualify but for some reason can’t run (injury, illness, delirium). I am not sure how he gets all of these tickets, it is kind of a don’t ask don’t tell situation. But the advantage is that you are seeded earlier in the race, and thus get a head start (but at the rate I run, I am afraid I would be trampled). Fortunately for me there was another option, Andy called me with the good news that she has 2 tickets to the 112th running of the Boston Marathon! Before getting too excited, I made sure that one of the tickets belongs to me (one more thing to cross of the old dream list, if you know what I mean). Turns out HH (her Hunky Husband) is providing thermometers for the first aid stations along the route and thus scored 2 tickets! I am pumped. Not that I am in any condition to run a marathon. In fact, after I got the news I decided that I better get going on the training, even though I am expecting a baby in August (let the excuses begin), so I left the elliptical and hit the treadmill. The good news is that I didn’t die from boredom on it; the bad news is that it took me 20 minutes to walk a mile. I am posting a recent pic of Andy and me. As our conditioning improves, I will be posting more revealing pics. Stay tuned; I may post down to our necks next time…

The Stealth Snuggler

Superkid is the best snuggler around. It truly is his X-Man power. He loves to snuggle and he loves to be snuggled. Sometimes I wake up in the morning to find him spooned up next to me. I'll ask Pops, "When did Superkid sneak in last night?" and he has no idea. When naptime rolls around he will say to me, "Mom, let's snuggle" and we curl up together and take a snooze. I hope he does not grow out of this one soon!

The Routine

After a few years of being married, Pops came up with a cute little name for my nightly ritual of getting ready for bed. He calls it "The Routine" It didn't take him long to learn that just because I say that I am exhausted and just want to fall into bed, he still has about a half an hour of T.V. time or web surfing before I am ready to hit the sheets. “The Routine” goes like this: First I floss and brush my teeth (this part is not optional), next I wash my face and apply moisturizer (this part is optional). And then there is my secret pull faces in the mirror time. Now, you may wonder why this could take up to 30 minutes. I have a great Aunt Beatie who used to take me out to the Sizzler for my birthday. She would ALWAYS turn around to the customers behind her (a captive audience) and say, "See these teeth (then she would tap on her teeth with her finger), I am 90 years old and they are all mine!). Her audience was undoubtedly impressed then she would go on to tell them about her “Routine”, which included flossing brushing with soda, toothpaste and mouthwash. She would do this every morning, night, and after every meal. I would like to have all of my teeth when I am 90 too, so it is worth the time investment to me. I am proud to say that I am passing the legacy on to my anxious daughter. As soon as she hears me step into the bathroom and open the medicine cabinet I hear her little thumping footsteps and she climbs up on the toilet, posturing herself for "The Routine". I hand her a little piece of floss that she rubs across her teeth for about 10 seconds (probably not long enough for Aunt Beatie standards) she can't stand to floss longer than this because for her the best part is stepping on the pedal for the garbage can and throwing the floss away. She then asks for her Barbie toothbrush she says, "TEEEETH!" We then brush our teeth; she does a real nice job, especially with the spitting portion of the program. She then asks for her cup, "cup, cup, cup." Now this is not part of "The Routine", Abizella is taking some creative license here, but she is determined and won't move on without it. After a thorough rinsing she hops off the toilet to blow her nose, once again the best part is disposing the toilet paper, this time in the toilet. We then wash our face; she sticks out her hand to ask for soap, "hand, hand, hand." After rubbing the soap around she pats water on her face. We finish off with a little moisturizer. Then the best part. Abizella can pull some fabulous faces, the best being rolling her tongue up and sticking it out. She does a mean happy and sad face as well. My Grandma Smith used to practice smiling in her powder puff mirror. Abizella and I like to practice all of the faces, especially the goofy ones. I once mentioned "The Routine" to our Cousin Andy; she laughed and asked if we ended with Jazz hands. We have incorporated her suggestion and flash some Jazz hands before dismounting (5,6,7,8).

The Results Are In!

Last Saturday, March 24th was Feed The Need's 5th annual 5K/10K run, and easily our most successful yet. We had over 200 runners, and collected over 8,800 cans of food! This doubles our usual haul. It was a gorgeous spring day. No, it was a miraculous spring day. The day before was beautiful, but everyday before that was super cold, and it even snowed that night. It was the perfect window. We donated the food to two local food pantries that were thrilled with the haul. I got involved with Feed the Need after the first race in 2003. My Friend Jenn organized a race with the Relief Society where participants pay with canned goods instead of money. Participants are thrilled knowing that their entire entry fee is going directly to hungry people in their community, and often they and the volunteers bring more food than was asked. Anyway, after that first race Jenn asked me if I would like to be a board member, she was creating a non-profit organization. The board now consists of 8 members (four of us are R.S. ladies, the rest are talented concerned members from the community that we have met along the way). We have three more FTN events (and possibly four) planned for the year, one this weekend in Connecticut. You can check out more about FTN at our website www.feedtheneed.org

You can take the Mormon out of Utah, but you can't take the Utah out of the Mormon

That's right folks, this is how we will be spending conference weekend...only Pops will be snuggling with us in bed instead of taking pictures of us. Can you believe that there are actually people who still go to the ward building to listen to conference? At least that is what I hear, I have never seen it myself. No self-respecting Utah Mormon could tether themselves in church clothes and sit in a pew all weekend when you can access conference by other means! We are forever greatful to Al Gore for inventing the internet so we don't have to spend 10 hours at the ward building this weekend. Infact, items on the agenda for the weekend (once we roll out of bed) are: making sweet rolls, organizing the basement, finishing the molding in our kitchen, getting my haircut, teaching a math class, going for a long walk, doing the laundry to pack for our trip, cleaning the house...and oh yes, listening to conference. For some reason, even though there is technically 3 times as much church this weekend I always have more optomistic expectations than the average weekend. In reality, we will probably spend most of the time as pictured above. Happy Conference Everyone!

This is why I wore piggy tails until I was in 4th grade!

The Kid Who Can't Be Bought

Pops began his formal tutoring of young Superkid today on the way home from church. Pops was having a political conversation with a friend that Superkid overheard. One the way home, Pops started the brain-washing. "Superkid, Democrats are bad, Republicans are good" Superkid, "Democrats give babies and kids hugs." Pops (with a look of horror on his face), "No, repeat after me, Democrats are bad and Republicans are good!" At this point we were passing a very large and expensive home being built in Hingham. Super kid said, "Dad, that is a Democrat house." Poor Pops was ringing his hands in disgust, "No Superkid, Republicans live in big expensive houses, not Democrats" (You can see how Superkid could be confused because we live in the opposite of a big expensive house, but Pops insisted we are Republicans). So then Pops changed tactics and tried to make Republicans look sexy to a 3 year old, "Republicans have all the guns. Democrats don't have any guns." Superkid retorted, "I don't like guns Daddy." Which was perhaps the most shocking thing Superkid said at all, considering he spends half of his waking hours shooting people with his finger. The only thing left for poor Pops was to bribe, "Superkid, if you say, 'Democrats are bad and Republicans are good' I will give you some candy". I was sure Pops had bought him out with this but all there was from the back seat was stoney cold silence.

Guinea Pigs

This week preschool was at our house and we talked about weather. One of the activites was to choose an exciting mystery bag, be blindfolded and have the other kids dress you up for some kind of weather. Well, Superkid didn't want to be blindfolded so he came up with the idea of dressing up the little kids instead. The other older kids thought this was a grand idea as well, and Abizella and her best friend AK liked to be included with the big kids. I was blown away. The same kids who throws a fit if I try to dress her sat like a docile angel while the preschoool kids had at her. The more I think about it I have realized one of the great advantages of being one of the older kids is that you have an anxious source of guinea pigs who are happy to play along. Mindurs and Cintcha-Ann were my earliest projects. We liked to dress mostly like dancers, although Cintch-Ann was not open to taking a lot of dressing tips from me. Nerseyfers was probably one of all of our favs to dress up. She is a born actor, so she loves to get into costume and ham it up. Even Dixie succombed to be my guinea pig. Actually that is giving myself too much credit. I remember one family road trip where Dixie begged us to braid his hair in tiny little braids all over his head and then draw all over his body with marker. I wish I had the picture to post! But probably the best was our little cupid B-teedles. Jamos gets credit for that brain child. I guess the moral of the story is, if there is something I absolutly want Abizella to wear, I should put Superkid up to dressing her!

"YANKEES SUCK!"

Misseltoes: I don't know how to add to the blog but one of my favorite memories of last year was the day we went to Rhode Island with Superkid. During our entire stay whenever we entered a shop or business near Boston we saw the same t-shirt "My two favorite teams are the Red Sox and who ever beats the Yankees". After traveling most of the day in the rain we arrived in Rhode Island and the first shop we saw had the t-shirt "My two favorite teams are the Yankees and who ever beats the Red Sox". Superkid and Abizella were asleep in the back of the van and I wasn't speaking loudly when I read the slogan. However when I said Yankees a very sleepy yet determined voice came from the back of the van saying "YANKEES SUCK"! I was really proud to see that you and Pops are training my grand children while there young in the important lessons in life. I hope your training of "BYU bad Uof U good!!! and Republicans bad and Democrats good!!! is working as well. Love Dad

Let the Name Wars Begin!

It's a boy!!! Yep. We took a poll before we went to the ultrasound Wednesday and it was 4-0 boy. It is nice to be right, although since there was no one opposing there is no one to say, "I told you so" to. It was a pretty good show. The little guy has spunk. He never gave us a good profile shot (thus I will spare you the alien baby shots) but he did show us the money shot. So, unlike his his sister's pregnancy we can get a little shopping done with confidence.

Superkid came to the show with us. He was pretty cute, but if you ask him the best part was the chocolate donut afterwards (a post-doctor tradition). He kept saying, "I see the baby!" Up to this point whenever I talk about a baby being in my tummy he says that he has a baby in his tummy too and then he will say (with some urgency) "The baby is coming out!"

So far we are hard pressed for a boy name that we can all agree on. So if you have any ideas please post them below. I am also open for nick names for the little guy to use on the blog.

"The Hole"

When we were little kids, Nerseyfers had a place that we affectionatly reffered to as "The Hole". It was a space less than 2 feet wide created by pulling the head of the bunk bed away from the wall.When you couldn't find Ners eventually she would turn up in "The Hole" hanging out with her best pal "Outside". I was much older and wiser and thought she was looney to spend so much time crammed in a cluttered little space in a cranny of our bedroom and until now I thought she was probably mental. Those of us who lack imagination can't imagine what in the world you would do in such a small space for such a long time. Well, "The Hole" gene must lie dormant in me, but somehow got passed on to both Superkid and Abizella. Abizella has recently set up residence under our kitchen sink. She doesn't just hang out there for long periods of time like Ners did, she is constantly busy packing her little home. Last night she was busy as a squirrel packing nuts for the winter. After nearly an hour of grabbing armfuls of carefully selected toys and trotting into the kitchen Pops and I went into the kitchen to see what was going on. She was crammed in the cupbaord with baby, legos, Mr. Potato Head and a pillow for creature comfort. I thought it was pretty odd behavior until just now when I was organizing old pics and came across a couple of Superkid chillin' in our closet at our last apartment and our house. I had forgotten that he went through a period last year where he only wanted to nap in our closet (but if he turns up having lead poisening from the paint peeling off in there I will deny it). I guess what it all boils down to is that we all need a happy place. A place that we can call our own and curl up in and forget about the world. Maybe those of us who don't have one are the loonies afterall.

Questioning Authority

One of Abizella's first words is "Why?" I didn't believe it at first. But everytime I ask her to do something that she doesn't want to do she responds, "Why?". "Abizella, don't jump up and down on the chair." "Why?" "Abizella, time to get in the car." "Why?" "Abizella, come out of the bathroom." "Why?" And those of you with kids know what happens when you respond with a logical answer, "if you jump on the chair, you will fall." "Why?" "because of gravity" "Why?" She just won't be satisfied. Now, I know it is not uncommon for a child to use the question. But she is 18 months old!!!! I am just wondering how she picked up a questioning word before common nouns like water, milk, or her own name. She obviously either finds it a good means of having the world explained to her or has found it to be a good diversion tactic. Look out for this one when she becomes a teen! P.S. I no longer have say as to what she wears either...

Monkey See Monkey Do

Superkid is the best teacher for young Abizella. After months of witnessing Superkid position himself on a stepstool in front of the toilet to pee-pee, Abizella made her mount last night. Pops stripped Abizella down to change her into her jammies. When she was in half naked she took her nightly streak through the house only this time ended up standing on the stepstool in front of the toilet. She is an observant pupil. She scooted close to the toilet, lifted her shirt, held her breath and to her satisfaction, peed on her feet. I just have to wonder why after months of her perching herself on the baby potty across from me everytime I have to go and ripping toilet paper off and stuffing it into the baby potty, she chose Superkid's stance to mimic when she did the real deed. We have been having mother daughter discussions about how we are girls all day. We'll see if it sinks in...

Naming of the Toads

I am trying to come up with nick names for everyone to protect the innocent. Anyone have ideas? So far I have come up with Superkid, Abizella, and Pops and Missletoe. I really am open to comments on this one. I will be using these names until further inspiration strikes.