Merry Sickness

It's not the holidays until someone spikes a fever, and another one has a sinus infection (John, it's a good thing it's not me :) if I were out of commission and John were in charge of packing for our trip, we'd all be in pj's, dirty socks and there wouldn't be a diaper to be found). We are getting on a flight tomorrow at noon, and I'm hoping for a healthy family as an early Christmas gift.

Perfect technique

Thus far, my kids eat almost anything put in front of them (finds nearest piece of wood and knocks on it). Curry...yup...wasabi peas....check, gyoza's....yes.....

 

 I don't think it's something particular that I've done or not done, but man alive am I grateful!

 

Here's Bram chowing down on some edamame at dinner tonight. Initially I was popping them out of the pod and into his mouth, but Mr. Independent wanted to do it himself, so I'd open the pod, and he'd take care of the rest. Ambrose is an edamame pro, and between the two of them they downed half a bag tonight at dinner.  

 

 

Random ramblings

At what age to kids gain control over their own snot? Apparently for Bram, it is most certainly NOT 20 months old. He currently always has a torrent of snot streaming from his nostrils, and while that awful sucking up snot sound is disgusting, it doesn't hold a candle to seeing snot streaming out the nose, over the paci and onto his chin. For the sake of those who read this blog and come over for play dates or dinner dates, I'll refrain from going into too much detail, but lets just say the snot doesn't always stay perfectly draped on his face either. I mean, have you seen what happens when a child sneezes AND has a snotty nose. I've affectionately called it a snotsplosion.

Speaking of Bram, he is a toddler now. A fun toddler. But also, unpredictable, all hands on deck, on the go and never in idle kind of toddler. He still sports facial injuries regularly and is just a rough and tumble kid with a will of total steel. And then, in what seems like a completely different kid  he can be so cuddly and loving, wanting to be held or carried around. Even after I get tired of holding him and try and put him down he still keeps his arms and legs wrapped around me trying with all this might to stay attached. This last year has been crazy hard for me, but man alive if we aren't in a completely amazing place with this little boy!!!

I haven't gotten back into running since my half, I've been taking some cardio and weight lifting classes that I really really like. However, nothing gets rid of the many cookies I snarf on a regular basis quite like running. However, I don't really like running ( those of you that enjoy running, does your spit not turn to a white pasty glue 3 minutes into your run!?). People often talk about a runners high and how it's a form of therapy and yada yada yada. Whatever, I  run because I like to eat food, and don't want to end up having to wear clothes with an elastic band for the rest of my adult life, end of story. The scale doesn't lie and it's time that the jogging stroller and I meet again because my classes aren't cutting it anymore.

John is about as amazing as they come, and while I know that, I want others to recognize and know that as well. A couples of months ago, he received public recognition for all his hard work at his job. After a competitive application process we found out that he was selected to attend Weapons School ( I tried to think of a short concise way of telling you what it is, but all I can come up with is that it's a special school for pilots to learn how to teach other pilots....it's a terrible explanation, but if I ask John for help he's going to ask me not to say anything on the blog, so there ya go. Sorry. if you're super interested you can always google it, but "special pilot school" sums it up) I am over the top excited and proud of him. Like everything, you take the "good with the bad", and the awesome school opportunity means that we'll be spending another 5+ months apart from one another.  We plan on making some visits out to see John as well as visits home to help pass the time, but keep us in your prayers all the same.

School program

Ambrose recently had his school program, and due to many conversations with him,  I had pretty low expectations of his performance. After asking repeatedly if  he was practicing any songs, shaking any bells, or singing on a stage at school,  he was always adamant that he was doing nothing of the sort. I knew that his class was doing all of the above, but clearly, my kid wasn't participating because he was clueless about it all.


Knowing that singing wasn't really his thing, I made sure to dress him cute so that he had at least something going for him up there.


As I suspected, there wasn't a ton of singing done on his part, but he made sure that he was front and center. Boy was I glad that I dressed him well :)

Here's the video. I had good intentions of going up to the front when Ambrose sang, but the minute I tried to leave my seat (or take Bram with me) he screamed blue murder, and totally turned me into that mom with  that kid, so I stayed in my seat, three rows from the back. p.s, Bram was "helping" me film, so take a heavy dose of Dramamine before you watch.

how I saved myself $700.00

I have been eyeing this mirror since we moved into this house. We have a large mantel above our fire place, and I went looking for something to hang above it. I found this mirror from Pottery Barn and totally fell in love, however, the size I needed was 700 dollars! YEEEIIIIKES! That doesn't even include the 70 dollar shipping and 60 dollar deliver surcharge. It goes without saying, that mirror was never going to hang in my house.

Fast forward to August, when I was searching for the end of Pinterest I found a DIY option for that beloved mirror. I looked at the instruction and it didn't seem all that hard, so I talked it over with my dad and he seemed to think it was totally doable ( this was when john was gone, so I'd be going it alone). Talking with my dad was as far as I made it. A few weeks passed and I came across the mirror on my friends blog. She had DIY'd it and it turned out fantastic. Around that time I also found out that my mom would be coming out for a visit. If you know my mom, you know she is the queen of all things DIY. She can literally do it all. She sews and quilts like nobodies business, she can make pottery, stained glass and lay tile. She can now add basic wood working and frame making to her list of skills because she did this entire project on her own. I wish she had a blog, because she's the one that really needs to be showing this puppy off. Any who, here it is. It measures about 45inches X 45 inches and is the perfect fit for my mantel. I absolutely LOVE it! Thanks mom for all your help and hard work. *you can't really tell in the pic, but each mirror has bevelled edges just like the pottery barn*

Hopefully I'll make it back with a better picture and the mantel decorated a bit for Christmas, but for now, this pic with a  bad crop job, the topiary off kilter and the sad fall pendent will have to do.  

Look (great) Grandma!

The jingle bell hat has been passed down (normally he doesn't wear sideways, but John put it on him) :)

 The other night one of our friends had the squadron over and we sat around the fire pit. It sounded nice and dare I say relaxing, until we got there. The fire pit was in the front yard ( I use the term "yard" very loosely because it was rocks and cactus, like all NM front yards) which was near the street. So, it meant that John or I spent the entire night saving Bram from falling into or diving into the fire, blocking him from bolting into the street or steering him clear of all the cactus waiting to skewer him. It was a great time, with great company, but after an hour my nerves and patience were shot.

Go grab a cup of coffee

and sit down, because this is going to be a long one ;)

Most importantly, after 130ish days, our family is whole again!

 Soccer season ended a while back, and whew, glad that's over! The season initially got off to a  slow start, and getting Ambrose on the field require a whole lot of threatening and bribing, which made me rethink my choice of enrolling him in soccer for another season. However, as the season went on, he did improve, and by the last game, he required no threatening and only the bribery of a medal and cupcake. Successful season indeed ;)

 While John is gone, life takes on a real life Groundhogs day like quality. I did the same thing over and over and my sole focus is to get out on the other side of the deployment with my sanity in tact and my two beautiful boys happy and healthy. So, for me, it's key to find some kind of structure to our day and ways to fill the time outside of our home (because while inside, we all go stir crazy).  So, we were outside a lot!

Here are a couple pics of our Halloween. Ambrose was an astronaut and Bram was a scarecrow.

Well, that's it for now, because my Internet is taking 20 minutes to upload each picture, and for Pete's sake, I can't sit here any longer.

nothing exciting

Passing time is the name of the game around here, and one of the easiest ways to do that, is a mid day bath. Bath time has always been part of our bed time routine with the boys, but when the day is dragging on, a sure fire way to pass some time is to throw the boys in the bath mid day. 

 They don't come any cuter that these two!

Ambrose still always wants to be the first person to go in and see Bram when he wakes up from his nap. Bram loves it just as much as Ambrose. 

 When you live in the desert, it goes without saying that rainy days are few and far between. When they do happen, watch out, because we drop everything and play in it (Bram was still napping or he would have been out there too!).

 Ambrose is in a building phase. Linking Logs and Legos are his tools of choice, but he's been known to use plastic cups, pasta boxes and rocks.

 I have to sweep a minimum of three times a day with these two around. However, I've found that picnics on the lawn cut down on the necessity to sweep so frequently, so we've been having many dinners on the lawn lately.

Sir Falls-A-Lot

This boy falls all.the.time. I don't think my parents believed me until they saw it in person (which does not bode well for me when I head for our next well baby visit), but Bram falls constantly. Most of the time, he narrowly avoids serious injury, but there are times when he's just not so lucky. Like last night for example...

He fell and hit his head on the edge of our airplane sim. Of course it couldn't happen mid day, Murphy's law states that not only it will happen, but it will happen at 7:50 so that you can't figure out if his tiredness is because it's past bedtime or if it's because he should be rushed to the ER with concussion symptoms. After a call to the on call doc and a picture sent to a friend, we decided to give him Motrin and just keep our eyes on him  ( and by "our eye" I mean my eye...because the other part of Murpy's law is that this must happen when John is gone) .

God knew Bram was going to be rough and tumble, and somehow included in his make up a super healing power. This morning, the bump looks nothing like the above picture, the swelling has gone down significantly and surprisingly the bruising is next to nothing. I'm sure he'll have another scar, but chicks dig scars right?

Thanks to the USO

A small, traveling Sesame Street Live show came to Alamogordo, and thanks to the USO, it was free for military members! As I suspected, Bram wanted to get up there and dance with all the other kids (one time having to be stopped by a Sesame Street Live volunteer because he was getting ready to rush the stage) and Ambrose hung back and made sure that the characters didn't get to close. Although they look alike, their personalities couldn't be more different most days. 

 

They handed out some Elmo flashlights and USO bandannas when we walked in. 

 

taking in the show

Friends

They say that due to the radar in the jet, that fighter pilots usually have girls,  as you can see, our squadron has debunked that idea. Each one of my  girlfriend heres has a set of boys. Here's 8 little boys ages  4 and under. 

I can check THAT off my list....

Train for a race. Check. 13.1 to be exact.

However, things didn't exactly get off to a smooth start for my first (and probably only) half marathon. The race was in a town about an hour outside of my hometown, and rather than drive up there at 330am, we decided to head up the night before and stay overnight in Spearfish. We get our things together, and in true Stephanie fashion I realize I forgot my race pants at John's families house.  (and on our way to retrieve the forgotten pants, I realize I forgot my wallet at my parents house....I'm a Disaster with a capital D folks). I gather said pants and wallet, and while on our way up there my dad 

(the half marathon pro) happens to read that we should pick up our race number/packet no later than 5pm Saturday night. The current time was 430pm Saturday night and it was an hour drive.... we weren't going to make it. We find out that no numbers will be given out on the morning of the race, so, we panic a touch. Lyndsey and I end up finding a phone number and contact on facebook of all places, and we are able to arrange to pick up our numbers. Crisis number 1 averted. 

EEEK, here it is. 

So after hunting down our race numbers we head to an Italian restaurant and pick up some carbs to go and head to the hotel room to put on sweats and relax. We go to bed early, and despite some air conditioning snafu where Lyndsey somehow turned down the AC to 59, I sleep pretty well. We wake up and head to what we think is the correct meeting place, at what we think is the correct time. Due to some awful grammar, we (and about 15 other women) are in the wrong place at the wrong time and the bus has already left. Yeesh. So, we scramble for directions and grab two other women who need a ride up the mountain. We make it in time, and crisis number 2 is avoided. 

Thank goodness, things begin to improve from there. We arrive near the starting area, where we talk to the two other ladies that rode with us,  (which did I say this race was ALL ladies....awesome awesome awesome! Not only was it less intimidating, the race shirt's were a woman's fitted t-shirt as opposed to small mans t-shirt that  only family would see in the early mornings after crawling out of bed)who happened to be sisters as well. We make our way out and take a last trip to the port-o-potties all the while trying to stay warm. The start of the race temp was something, like 44 degrees. That is approximately 30 degrees colder than anything my legs had endured in years. 

The race itself was... man, I don't even know how to describe it. Incredible doesn't do it justice. I was so tempted to take my phone out of my running belt and sacrifice some time on the clock, just to take pictures. It was just that picturesque. The scenery,  my music, the comradery of running with all these other women who had, in the previous months put their body through rigorous training ...it all made for a surreal experience. 

I didn't go in with a specific finishing time in mind,  more just a couple generic goals. Number 1, Finish. Somehow get my body across that finish line. Number 2, complete the race without walking. That was it. And I did it. Both of them! It was, just as I expected, physically exhausting. Nothing has quite pushed my body to it's physical brink like giving birth and running this race. During both of those physical trials repeating mantra's helped me a ton ( for those interested...labor: " I can do anything for 90 seconds" since most contractions last no longer than 90 seconds. 1/2 Marathon: " I am stronger than this challenge and this challenge is making me stronger"). I also thought about my boys numerous times as I ran. In a way, I felt that I owed it to them to perform well. They were my training partners over the course of 3 months. They ran with me on all but one training run, including those long weekend runs. I wanted to make sure the hours they spend in the stroller were be worth it. 

Although my boys were there day in and day out for my runs, there is no way I would have even run the race had Lyndsey not agreed to do it with me. Knowing that she was planning to run the race held me accountable during my training process and while we didn't run together, having her there running at the same time in the same race gave me an emotional comfort and peace during the race. 

 

*beginning of the race

 *in such good company!

 Due to the ridiculous o'clock start time, my parents were going to stay home with my boys and take them to church instead of schlepping them up into the hills to see us race. However, My dad and Ambrose surprised Lyndsey and I by coming up and meeting us at the finish line. It was an amazing sight to see my dad, but seeing Ambrose standing with him brought tears to my eyes.

 My parents worked with the boys on making a sign for Lyndsey and I :)

It was an amazing experience, and I literally haven't ran a mile since (but I'm not being a total slug, I've been trying a couple classes out at my gym....we'll see. I usually always go back to running).