C25K

For those of you that might not know this acronym is, let me clue you in... it stands for couch potato (ME) to 5K.  I got this app for my phone that times my runs, and is supposed to take me from a non-runner state to running a 5K without stopping... in 9 weeks!  I read over the schedule, and it definitely starts you out slowly.  I'm on week 3 and I can now run for 3 minutes without stopping, which really is quite the feat for my feet.  I invested in these amazing shoes that feel like baby pillows (until I start running.)  I'm hopeful that I will continue my progression.  If you see me, ask me about my running...if I give you a vacant stare or some lame excuse, punch my throat and tell me to keep running.

Want us to rent your house?

So we are hoping to have our house sold and taken care of in the next few months... so we will be looking for a place to rent.  I'm putting this out for everyone who knows anyone renting a property out.  We will be amazing renters; we are crazy clean, James can fix most things himself and we will be very kind to their home.  What we need is a 2/3 bedroom, 2/3 bath, SAFE, not too far from MCC, far away from train tracks.  That's it, nothing crazy... oh yeah, and a reasonable price.  Don't you want us to rent your house?

Year #2

We decided to do an overnighter again with the girls.  It was a fun, sleepless weekend; which included swimming pool politics, cannonball contests, a 4lb. ice cream sundae, and a bit of toilet papering, and best of all Lenor came as a surprise to all of us.  It wouldn't have been the same without Lenor, so happy she tricked us all. Good times.

So, awesome

I just love it when at 1 a.m. I get woken by a sweet, precious sound.... some crazy drunk lady pounding on my door and windows of my house.  It really is so adorable, when I get woken from sleep to this craziness.  I get to call my best friends, the police and they get to come and arrest the crazy lady.  It is such a special time for us, we love it.

For reals, we want to move.  Last night solidified that feeling for me. I do NOT want this to be Gus' neighborhood while he grows up.  I do not want any more "funny" stories about the wild things that happen in my neighborhood.  I want to complain about peoples overgrown lawns, not about how their drug deals are keeping me up at night.  I need some ideas, any real estate gems out there?  How can we get out of our completely upside down house, I'm serious, share your wisdom with me.... please.

Back talk

James was having a talk with Gus because he was being a stinker.  James held him on his lap.  "Gus what you're doing is back talk, and it's not appropriate." Gus replies " No dad this isn't back talk, it's front talk."  Opening his eyes large so that James could clearly see his front.  It was so hilarious, I could not control my laughter. 

What would you do??

So lets maybe start a little debate, I'm just curious about peoples point of view on this:


Lets say you are injured at a friends house, random accident... what are your thoughts about going after the home owners insurance??  What do you think?

Chi Chi

Our foster care experience was far different then I had imagined it would be.  To be honest, I don't think I really knew what to expect.  When we agreed on fostering, I was very plain about ensuring that we only took children that were ready to be adopted.  I expressed that in every way possible to the people who trained us, but they want you to foster... they push it.  They want you to adopt to, but they all say you foster to adopt.  So we agreed to foster and hoped and prayed we would be able to adopt.  The calls started coming, so many kids needing a safe home to go to.  We would pray, and nothing felt right.  Then we got the call for Chi, it felt good.  Four hours later he was in our home.  It was bizarre, we weren't prepared for a 10 month old baby.  I ran to the store, set up the crib, tried to think of everything, and my dear friends helped fill in the gaps with bags full of necessities.  It took Chi about two minutes to get comfortable, he just wanted to be held and loved.  He was an amazingly sweet boy, he adapted to our schedule like a champ.  The more information I got about Chi the more I started to care.  His history, his life... it had been hard.  I wanted to invest all my love and attention into him, but I was also very guarded.  I did not want to care so much and then have to send him back to that life.  My emotions were torn, I opted for babysitter mode.  It was all I could do to protect my emotions from getting to attached and having my heart ache for him.  The onslaught of extra "help" in my life was daunting as well.  I have never felt more on display and judged in my whole life.  People were calling and dropping in to check, assess, drive Chi to appointments, and check on my emotional state.  The ball dropped on a day when I was having a crap mom moment.  Gus had been in time out about 5 times by 10:00am, he didn't enjoy Chi, he didn't like sharing mom with him  (standard kid procedure.)  I started to resent the whole situation, my son wasn't happy, Chi was having to deal with that unhappiness and I was so worn out trying to make sure everyone had their needs met.  I was visited by a case worker... awesome timing.  I broke down, I told her I was really struggling.  James and I had long talks and days of back and forth.  Why had we felt so inspired to do this, and had we gotten it wrong?  I prayed to understand what I needed to do, suck it up and tough it out, learn some lesson and make life changes...what?  Even though Chi wasn't "ours" it was one of the hardest things I had to do to call and tell them we needed to move him to another home.  I was heartbroken and felt like such a failure, like I had failed that sweet boy who needed so much love.  We learned so much from the experience, so many things we need to improve and change.  I think it was such a blessing to our family, and hopefully we made some small impression on Chi.  I still miss him, and oddly Gus still talks about baby Chi.  It's interesting the way our Heavenly Father teaches us things, he made some of my greatest weaknesses known to me so that I can work on making them strengths.  So, although it didn't work out we are grateful for the experience and pray that we grow from all that we learned.