Long weekend

We had a long, enjoyable weekend. On Saturday, Mikayla set up a lemonade stand at a friend's house (by request no less) as part of National Lemonade day. She didn't make much, but had a bunch of fun. Then on Sunday, she had her stand set up at HEB for two hours. She made a considerable amount of money there. Mikayla has decided to donate a portion of her proceeds to her Girl Scout troop and part to her school.

I'll be picking out new running shoes today so that I can start back running again. I've been out for a week, and I really miss it. I just hope the shoes solve the problem. You'd think a week with no running and sore knees would be feeling better. If shoes don't fix it, I'll have to make a doctor appointment and that's just no fun.

Running on hold

It seems my knees do not agree with my shoes. So, I've had to take a break to allow my knees to recover and to pick my new shoes. I go shopping tomorrow! I can't wait to get back to running. I was really enjoying that energy surge after the run.

Couch to 5k

It's been a very long time since I posted. I guess I need to be more on the ball with these things. Oh well, such is life. You can only keep trying.

My sister challenged me to run a 5k with her. If you know me, you know how funny it is to think of me running. Previously, I only ran if someone was chasing me with a knife or if my children were about to be run over/bitten/hurt. Very short sprints and then I thought I would die afterwards.

The Couch to 5k program is a wonderful thing for a person like me. You start very slow. You make slow improvements in stamina and speed along with distance. And at the end of 8 weeks, you're running a solid 30 minutes and building your way to a full 5k (that's 3 miles folks).

When Mikayla (now 8) heard me discussing the program with Brad, she decided she wanted to run as well. So, I have a local running partner. Someone to encourage me and help me through the tough parts. Or so I thought. The first two weeks were full of complaining and more complaining from her. After a quick chat about how staying positive makes it easier, she has turned the corner and is now a good little running partner.

I do have to be flexible with child care for the boys. They're too young to run the program with me, and I can't trust David (2.5) to stay on the playground while I run circles around the park. Thank goodness for neighbors, in-laws, and nephews! With Brad's night schedule, there is at least 1 day a week where Mikayla and I need to run, but Brad isn't here and available to watch the boys.

So far, thanks to wonderful neighbors and an encouraging sister and daughter, I've been able to keep up my every other day pace and work my way through the program. We completed Week 3 day 1 today. The workout is as follows: brisk walk 5 minutes, run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes, run 90 seconds, walk 90 seconds, run 3 minutes, walk 5 minutes. The last 30 seconds of the final 3 minute run were difficult, but I could have done another 30 seconds without dying. And I wasn't huffing and puffing for breath.

With the heat of summer upon us - even though it's only late April- I'm going to have to start getting more creative on my running times. Previously, it's worked out best to run right after cleaning up the kitchen from dinner. However, that's not much fun if it's 90+ outside. I think during the hottest parts of the summer, I'll be running either very early or very late to avoid the worst of the heat and I think I'll time my run so I end at the community pool and can jump in to cool off before walking home to shower!

The stats from today's run: 3,393 steps. 1.5 miles. 28:34 minutes. Average speed of 3.2 mph. Burned 113.3 calories.

Cocoa Snowflakes

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The story of how I named my babies

Mikayla. My first baby. I so very much wanted to name her Adeline Grace. Brad despised the name. After much debate, we finally decided on Mikayla. With an I not an A. And not Michaela either. But we could NOT decide on a middle name. Brad's step dad finally picked a winner for us. And Mikayla Paige was born at 37 weeks. She has so many nick names it's not even funny. From Kayla, to Mickey, to Crayola. Even Kayla Mae (from Grandpa).

A one month old Mikayla with her G-mom (great-great Grandmother)

Bryson. My first boy! And I so knew he was a boy from the beginning. We weren't really even discussing names seriously as I was only around 16 weeks, but I had the baby name books out and was thumbing through them. One evening while I was in the bathroom (bathing, not going!) I was making fun of the names. Telling Brad we should name our boy Napoleon or Chevy or after some Greek god. And then, I found it. BRYSON. staring at me from the baby book. I KNEW that was his name. And his middle name had to be Lee after his father, his grand mother and several great grandmothers as well. Bryson also has several wonderful nick names. The most interesting of which is Baby Bart.

Bryson in the potty...after attempting to climb it with the lid up!

And then there was David. Our surprise boy whom we were told was a girl. My mother in law had been re-diagnosed with cancer. We knew it would be her last fight. And my grandmother had recently passed away. I wanted to honor both of them in some way, but didn't want to name baby Sally or Lillian. So I worked with just the initials and came up with Lilah Shane. I loved it. My extended family loved it. My husband was coming around. And then, I gave birth to a boy! A at first very healthy little boy, but then a very very sick little boy in need of Life Flight. I was NOT having my unnamed baby fly away from me. I felt the push to give him a name before he flew away. Brad and I settled on David Shane. And even though I did not like David at the time and felt for the first year that David was not his name, he's settling into David nicely. I call him David Shane about 90% of the time. The kids call him David, and my dad, my dad calls him Virgil!

My almost two year old, mischievous David!

Just so you know...

Sometimes it is easier to bribe a 23 month old with cake at 8:30am that it is to pack him up to run the older kids to vacation Bible school.

Tempered glass WILL shatter into roughly a million tiny little pieces at the hands of a 23 month old.

Getting up at 5am leads to a cranky 7 year old around 5pm.

My niece is a LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY girl. She's leaving for a two week educational trip to AUSTRALIA tomorrow!

Sour cream also works as hair gel. See?


Four year old boys derive immense joy from sending themselves to the moon.


And even though she's seven and knows everything there ever was, is or will be to know.. she still plays with her food.

Black Friday Contests at Vanilla Joy

There are lots of Black Friday giveaways at Vanilla Joy. I get lots of extra entries for cool prizes when I do a blog post. Of course, I'm a sucker for all things free. So you get to read my "coming out of blogger blackhole" post about this free prize.

Vanilla Joy posts about topics like Craft Room Organization and Creative Date Ideas. She features Obaji Skin Care and Scrapbooking Furniture. She even talks about Teaching Baby Sign Language!

Vanilla Joy! Lots of cool ideas. Awesome Black Friday prizes!