Why I shouldn't be blogging right now...

It's 12:07 in the afternoon on Thursday and I have a few other more pressing issues that I should be doing right now..but just because I'm putting it off and looked at my site and realized it's been almost 3 months since I wrote on here...so, here goes.. ( you do remember I said I loved ellipses, right?)
I should be (not necessarily in order of importance): taking a shower (went to Y this morning. yay me!), going grocery shopping, cleaning the house, putting daughter down for a nap, (or better yet, teaching her how to write, read, playing with her, etc...*insert guilt here*), finish up planning halloween party for son's class and emailing parent volunteers...ok, now I'm overwhelmed. I think I'll stop here.
Let's see the last 3 months I (drum roll please), accomplished one of my New Year's resolutions: I "ran" the VA 10 Miler! I say ran but I did have to walk some of the last mile UP HILL. Yes, the race is a difficult one because of all the hills. (the last mile and a half is all up). But I did it in a bit slower time that I'd have liked (1:51:?) But, at least I did it.
What else..Well, it's mostly all 'normal' stuff I'm sure. OH -last weekend was homecoming at LU.. and a few girl friends came in town. That was tons of fun, hanging out with the girls (childless too!) Aaaand, tonight, I'm taking the kiddos 1 hr. away to see Disney on Ice! Princess Wishes. Is it bad that I'm a little excited for this too? I'm sure it'll be great. However, getting my son up for school tomorrow, not so much. It's going to be a late school night for us. Then, tomorrow, Em and I travel to Richmond for my cousin's baby shower on Saturday! Yay! I'll get to see lots of cousins and play games (the night before..like grown up games), and have all around good girl fun.
Ok..now off to do that list.Maybe I'll be back on here in a month or more?
-D

August 3, 2010
So, I'm averaging 1 post per 2 months...not bad, eh? (Actually, I'm too lazy to look back and see how long in between the previous posts.) *side note: I'm finding it difficult to actually type out whole words and capitalize. My constant texting and email writing is messing with my grammar!*
Really, a lot has happened since I last wrote. Mostly summertime fun and a 3 week vacation to good 'old Sterling Heights, MI. Leon stayed home to work and the kids and I had fun with my parents. They took us on all sorts of fun day activities. It's really like a break from parenting for me. I don't really worry about feeding the kids and they're always playing something with Grammy, swimming, or going to pick up a paper or get ice cream with Papa. (actually, it's frozen custard, not ice cream - WAY better and none to speak of in Lynchburg :(
Just thought I'd mention... (you know, for record's sake) Both my kids are great swimmers! Caleb took a few years (as in 4) before he really gave it his all, but now he's jumping/cannonballing/diving off the off the 3m and 1m springboard, doing the 'freestyle' with his face in the water, sinking to the bottom, etc. (all with his manditory goggles on though -just like my brother David did.) And little Em has no fear whatsoever! I took her arm floaties off at the beginning of June just to see what would happen, and she hasn't let me put them back on her since. She too will jump off the 1m springboard (not tall enough for the 3, but probably would if she was allowed to), doing a 1 legged cannonball (from their memorization of "The Sandlot"), doggy paddles from the diving board to the side of the pool without help and swims under water with her Little Mermaid goggles.
**Side note: Mommies, don't let your daughter's precious curly hair get destroyed by constantly ripping on and off the rubber-banded goggles. Instead, take off the rubber band and sew on a thick piece of elastic, sized to fit. I learned from experience.*** I think I could market these comfy goggles in the little kid boutiques around here, no? Watch, next May, I'll see them and kick myself for not having more of an 'entrepreneurial' spirit.
Currently in Hill house: Emory just set up a "tea party" with all her plastic cups and such and dragged Leon and Caleb out to have a party with her. Me - on computer, duh!, and I just made a fabulous dinner and I even improvised some, which made me feel very top-chefy. It consisted of: 3 Chicken breasts cooked in skillet with about 30 whole cloves of garlic. Add 1/4 c lite Cesar dressing, 3/4 c Chicken broth, and some capers I had sitting in the fridge forever. Cook chicken and garlic for 4 min (2 on ea. side), then add liquid ingredients and cook another 4 min or so until Chicken is done. Then add about 1/4 c Parmesan cheese and let sit a few min. The sauce will thicken up and the garlic will become sweet and succulent! Some chopped fresh basil (from backyard) on top for presentation :)
Made a side of sauteed veggies (used all the veggies I had that were about to go bad) - carrots, celery, onion - drizzled with evoo, some sea salt, and fresh basil. Then I used the 2 leftover hotdog buns that lasted unusually a long time (b/c they were wheat!) turned on the broiler and made some garlic bread (with evoo, garlic salt and shredded cheddar cheese). Now, what to make for dessert??
Well, perhaps I'll post again before school starts? (Aug 23)
-D

sweeping blisters

I decide the title for my blogs in about .2 seconds, so cut me some slack. I know..I haven't written in a really looong time. To my potentially 2 readers, I apologize (that one's for you Leon).
Today, my fam did some back breaking labor...we cleaned out 1600 pounds of stuff from our old house! (I know this because they weigh it at the dump so they know how much to charge you - roughly $32 in case you're wondering.) It took me several trips just to get organized as to what constitutes junk and what absolutely needs to be stored. So, after all this, today was the dump and sweep day...thus the two sweeping blisters on my hands. A bit more cleaning and shining and the old house should be all set for the new renters. It's so nice to have my brain storage empty (I had this to-do list in my head for weeks, and it's almost all checked off!). Know the feeling? Caleb helped with a lot of carrying of junk and was rewarded with a trip to the pool. This is his first day of "summer vacation" too. My little man is officially a first grader! Whew, time flies. (I say this, but yet can hardly remember his babyhood? It's hard to explain.)
My little almost 3 year old loved jumping off the diving board and sliding down the slide into the pool. She's so brave! She'll pretty much do any physical activity just to keep up with her brother. Then we came home and took a nap (Well, the kids did..I watched the Real Housewives of NY reunion on DVR. Great entertainment!!). Caleb said, "I'm not tired. I don't want to take a nap!" 1 minute later, I look in his room, and he's passed out on his bed draped over a toy. Mom's know best (well, you'd have to be pretty ignorant to not think a morning of physical labor and an afternoon of swimming wouldn't leave a 6 year old pooped.)
I figure it's easier to just explain a day's worth of activity instead of filling in the main happenings over the last month or so since my last entry. Si?
Currently at the Hill house: Caleb and Em watching ET, Leon watching "The West Wing" (his new bff) on his laptop with headphones and me sipping a Margarita (it's summer!) and catching up on FB (hello, we didn't have internet for 2 weeks?! Thanks VERIZON. you stink! Don't get me started...).
ahhhh. Life is good.
peace,
D

real quick...

I have a few minutes before I have to wake Em up to go read to Caleb's class...just thought I'd write this down because I thought it was cute and funny. Yesterday, I took the kids to Toys 'R' Us to to use some of their Christmas gift cards.. and Caleb and I were playing with this bouncy sky ball that doubled as a magic 8 ball. (you know, with that triangle thingy that gives answers). Well, I explained it to Caleb and told him to ask it a question. (Sorry dad, I know you never let us play with "magic" 8 balls growing up in the 80s.) Well, he was taking forever to think of a question, so I gave him an example - like "will I become an NBA player when I grown up?". But another minute went by and with such determination and a little shake, Caleb asks, "When I'm 17 will I have doodoo balls?" Now, to clarify what these are: They're little tiny dreads in black men's hair. balls. One of the high school basketball players that Leon coached told Caleb his hair was long enough for "doodoo balls" but Caleb's daddy said absolutely not - not until your 17!. This was like 6 months ago..and he's still thinking about it?! Crazy kid. Gotta love him.

" "

"Look, I'm being a Mommy" - Emory to me as she's brushing doll's hair and chewing gum she just took out of the garbage can (albeit an empty can).

"Bummer Dude, Bummer" - Emory replying to something Caleb said.

"Nice." - Emory after falling off my bed and hitting her head on the footboard.

and that's all I can think of right now...I MUST get better at writing the funny things my kids say and do.
oh..one more thing. Today, at the park, it was just me and the kids..so I'm up on top of the 'fort' where there's a bench and a steering wheel. And I'm pretending I'm flying a rocket with the kids. Apparently, I made it a little too real, because when I screamed that we were about to run into the the sun and burn up, Caleb forgot we were just pretending and screamed and fell off the bench! Ha. Lare. i. ous.

April 3 and 80 Degrees

Springtime is beginning to grow on me (da da dum). As a kid growing up in MI, spring was my least favorite season. Probably because it was still too cold to do anything fun and the blooms didn't impress me back then like they do now. And my birthday is in spring too?! Anyways, now that I'm so mature and experienced :P, I'm finding spring much more pleasurable. Lynchburg has tons of blooming trees and bushes, and it all starts so much earlier than in the north. So, this spring fever took me and the kids to Lynchburg Grows this morning. The first Saturday of the month is an open house and the kids and I had an awesome tour guide, Derek, who showed us the ins and outs of this non-profit farm in the middle of the city (right next to the city stadium and the humane society). The kids enjoyed feeding the fish in the hydropolic (sp?) tanks that they have to use the fish poop water for the plants. They also have chickens, roosters, a turkey, and a goat. I'm on the hunt for some baby bunnies/chicks/ducks to play with. I just now gotten a "lead" - at the Tractor Supply Store..We'll be visiting this place soon.
We bought some fresh free-range eggs that are currently baking in a lemon cheesecake that I'm taking to my mother-in-law's house tomorrow for Easter. I also bought a big bag of arugula lettuce.
Then we went to the Farmer's market and got some Mennonite bread and some more veggies. Maybe this can counteract the bucket of Easter junk food and candy the kids have already gotten and will be adding to tomorrow?
Is it bedtime yet? Currently in the Hill house: Kids are watching a movie, were just in a 'time-out' (don't get me started), I'm baking/vegging out and Leon is out watching the final March Madness basketball games.

Until next time, Happy Easter everyone (ok, you two).
HE is RISEN!!

6.2 aka 10K

Today I ran my first real race. the Ukrops Monument Ave. 10K in Richmond, VA. I'm pretty proud of myself, I gotta say. My goal was to run it without stopping to walk. Not so lofty, I admit..but I was starting from scratch. Well, sorta..not so scratch as in I work out maybe 2-3 days a week, but definitely wasn't doing any running. So, I ran it faster than I expected 1:01:40. That's just under a 10 min. mile. So, yay me! It was SOOO easy today! Boy, people weren't kidding when they said the "adrenaline" would carry me through. Although, I didn't feel any real "surge" of sorts (as in like bungee jumping adrenaline), it really was a piece of cake to run the 6.2 miles. I felt like I could have done another 2-3 miles. I type this into space to prove to myself come September that I am/should be able to run the VA 10-miler. (in Lynchburg- aka the HILL CITY). zoikes! That's the only part that scares me...the hills! Today's race was nice and flat. like me..haha!
Ok, I apoligize..I'm writing this 1 1/2 margarita's in. Yes, that's roughly 50 grams of sugar and I'm not sure how many calories. Hmm, I'm getting the feeling this post/blog is quasi Bridget's Jones Diary. (ie, keeping track of calories consumed, weight and cigarette's smoked) But without the cigarette's.
Meanwhile, at the Hill house, Caleb and Leon are watching March Madness bball (and have been for like 5 hours, Em is eating a slice of processed cheese while staying up way too late, and me doing (this), making drinks, making/eating junk food and cleaning random dishes thanks to my obsession with having no dirty dishes.
Dara oooouuut (think Ryan Seacrest seasons 2-8 or so of AI)

This picture is me and my cousin, Kelly, who ran the race with me and the 37,000 other people.