Lucas, the graduate!

My big little man graduated from preschool this morning! I seriously have not a clue as to where the better part of 6 years has gone! I still clearly remember my pregnancy, labor and delivery with him! How is this possible? He's such a smart little guy. I love his sense of humor, and the things he says and does that just warm my heart! He was so stinking excited to go to the graduation ceremony this morning...it was mostly because it wasn't just mom, dad and brother coming to see his performance, but it was also Grandpa and Grandma Coltrin. He did a fabulous job. And Conndra goes above and beyond to help commemorate the event. They take pictures all throughout the year, and then save certain projects and pictures, and make this big 3 ring binder that is presented to the parents on graduation day. And if that wasn't enough, she also put together a slide show, had it set to music, and made a copy for each child's parents. I almost cried watching it...I'm such a sentimental baby sometimes!! I can only imagine the emotional wreck that I'm going to be on the first day of kindergarten this fall. I've watched the dvd twice since I brought it home. Even for those parents that aren't diehard scrapbookers, they are such nice keepsakes to have. We celebrated with a trip to Target, and the purchase of a Cat in the Hat dvd. They also bought new cars with their allowance. Unfortunately for their dad, they are built like their mom in the money department. Why save it when you can spend it and have cool stuff NOW!?! I did do my community service project message, and preached saving their money to save up for something more expensive, bigger and cooler, but alas!! Then it was back to the real world, laundry and housework! Dinner, and bedtime for the kiddos. Caught up on the blog again, for 5 minutes! Just need to add pictures for the last few days worth of posts, but must get some shut eye first!!

Tuesday, May 23rd

A great start to my day with a trip to Starbucks! Another crappy day at work, another day where I just couldn't force myself to head out to zumba afterwards. I came home and sympathy stuffed my face with a ton of chips and salsa. I really needed zumba, but just couldn't force myself to do it. I felt guilty of course after the chips and salsa, and just had a bowl of cereal for dinner! The kids couldn't believe me! The only good thing about it...Biggest Loser finale! I was happy for Olivia that she pulled it off and won the whole thing, but she wasn't my favorite, not by far!!!!!!! She looked great though, as did her hubby! I am seriously done with Biggest Loser now though. I say that every season, and then I tune in just to see what the next season is looking like. But without Jillian, and it's 2 hours every week on sitting on my butt surfing the net while watching...I can do without! I figure I need to turn that in to an automatic 2 hours of scrapbooking every week! At least then I have something to show for it!

Monday, May 23rd

Dropped the boys off at preschool/daycare. Headed over to get the ol' allergy shots. Thankfully I remembered to take my allergy meds this time, because my allergies are so terrible that I was in desperate need of my shots! As I sat waiting for the nurse to come give me the shots I decided that today was the day, I needed an anaphylactic reaction so that I wouldn't have to be at work!! How terrible is that, that I'd rather have anaphylaxis than suffer through 8 hours of hell?!? Sad, but unfortunately true! I told Cassie what I was thinking, but she said she wasn't in the mood for anaphylaxis, so I wasn't allowed! And of course nothing happened!! The good news is that meant I got to have my massage! I told Maire about all of the tension in my shoulders, and the corresponding headaches I've been having lately. She talked me into trying the cupping technique. I was scared...it involves flames! But other than the big ol' hickies on my back, which my kids think are way cool, I wouldn't know she did it! It didn't hurt at all! And I think it really did work! Too bad for her that she sees me next the Monday after I run my half marathon! Maybe I won't be in as dire straits as I was this time! My calves were so stinking tight, and the tendons in my feet! The hubby treated me to Taco del Mar for lunch. I love their 320 calorie burrito, it puts me in the right frame of mind for a shift where I may or may not get to eat! Work was drama, drama, drama with all of the stupid cuts in tech hours, my most dreaded patient calling and telling me to screw myself, the old lady who you would've thought I was killing when she was just getting her blood pressure taken, the lady who was pissed because I couldn't tell her if we carried a product anymore...mind you she didn't even know what the freaking name of it was...and so on! And those were just the highlights! Couldn't sleep again for the life of me!

Sunday, May 22nd

A day that I showed myself that I really need to believe in myself, all the time! And that I can do what I set my mind to. Since I haven't been training near as much as I should be, I'm having to put in the mileage and not worry so much about the time, for this half marathon. The weather hasn't been cooperating, and I haven't been good about motivating myself to run on the treadmill, I get too bored and won't push myself on that darned thing! But today, I was going to run 10 miles come hell or high water! So as Casey left to drop the boys off at church with Grandma, I left to do this! I had my new socks and new tank top on, and new headphones on with music pumping away! I remembered to grab a bottle of water, knowing that I shouldn't be running for over 2 hours without any hydration. I walked down to Cloverdale to warm up, and started to run after I hit Cloverdale. NO GO...the media pocket in the back of the tank top wasn't snug enough, so the iphone flopped around on my back/butt like a dead fish. Had I been running 30 minutes/3 miles...I could've lived with that. But I knew there was no way I could stand it for over 2 hours/10 miles. Bad news though, the house was locked up tight, like Fort Knox. I had to sit in the front yard and wait for the hubby to get home to put my armband on and try again. Now it was after 11am, and I was worried that I wouldn't have the energy to finish since it had been so long since lunch. So while he went on his bike ride I decided to make a little trip over to Dick's to find a water bottle that has a strap to make it easier to hold while running. It wasn't a smart decision on his part to not accompany me to Dick's! $90 later, another new tank top, a new water bottle belt, GU energy pack, and new headbands...I was home and ready to do this!!!!! Now we understand why it is that I still have to work 2 days a week. I had some lunch, got everything ready, and sunscreened up. I thought I was going to die just over a mile into my run. My whole stomach was a giant cramp...I didn't wait long enough after eating! For the love of Pete!!! I focused on my breathing, hydrated, and pushed through the pain. I was going to walk it, if nothing else. I ran some, walked some, made excuses and did terrible for the first 3+ miles. Then I decided that I was going to pull through this, stop with the excuses and go! I ran almost the entire time, only walking to get a drink here and there from 4.5 miles until 9.8 (when I got home)!!! I tried the GU energy stuff, strawberry banana flavor for the first time ever. I had it at mile 5, and it made a HUGE difference! The GU is 100 calories, and is 25 grams of carbs (only 5 is simple sugar, the rest is the complex stuff so that your blood sugar doesn't spike and then crash), and has electrolytes to replace what you're sweating out! I loved how I felt afterwards! The packaging and the stuff I read online says to do it 15 minutes before the long run and every 45 minutes during the run. So for this coming weekend, I'm going to try just that and see how I do. I hope it will feel better than today did. My friend Sarah also sent me this link about hydrating before the long runs/race days and with info about eating for training/racing, so I'm reading it and going to try some of that advice as well. Who knows, maybe it will help the speed too if I'm feeling better! I had a chocolate protein shake as soon as I got home, after I guzzled a big ol' glass of water. My muscles were that 'holy crap I just got my butt kicked' sore, and I figured I'd be lucky if I could walk on Monday! After a nice hot shower I had just enough time for a quick cat nap before dinner! And I carb loaded at dinner again...LASAGNA!! : ) Of course Sunday evening was anything but lazy since laundry and housework were calling my name before work on Monday and Tuesday! Another fast, but great weekend!

Saturday, May 21st

The monster truck bounce house at the carnival

The petting zoo at the carnival

Lucas throwing the 'pie' in Tina's face

A very busy, but very fun family activity day! We started the day off with swimming at the 'big' pool. The boys call it the 'big' pool because the one that they are normally in for swim lessons every week is a small wave pool, and the one on Orchard is a full size pool. And since they had make up vouchers from a missed lesson, we decided to take the opportunity for a make up session. The email I got back from them said that our time was 10am, and when we got there it was really 9am...but they let us stay and swim since it was their mistake and not ours. The boys had a blast! They got in their noodles and swam all over the pool by themselves. Zach was jumping in from the wall, just like he'd been doing it forever. Lucas was still way too apprehensive to even think about jumping in! I'm not sure where this fear of the water is coming from, because he's been so good lately. Hoping it's short lived! Lucas did awesome putting his whole head under water to retrieve rings off the dock for his dad. It was a fun start to our day! We headed home and had some lunch. Then it was off to the school carnival at Summerwind. They invited all of the incoming kindergarteners and their families to attend. It was fun! The boys bounced in the monster truck bounce house, threw a pie in Tina's face, ate cotton candy, played on the equipment with other little kids (and played a game of tag with them), pet the animals, and enjoyed a sno cone. We all got a little more sun than I had bargained for...but being the group of butt white crackers that we are, I'm not all that surprised! It was a gorgeous afternoon for the carnival! Came home from the carnival and charged up the batteries for the RC car. Then we headed out to James and Julia's house in Nampa. They had a few friends over for a BBQ. It's cute because Lucas remembers very well, and very fondly the time we went out for the pumpkin party, 3 years ago, they had a bounce house and some of the bigger kids were jumping up and pulling the roof of the house in, and James yelled at them to stop it. And he also remembers racing dad's RC car out on James RC track. There wasn't a bounce house this time, but there were several little ones to play with, and a couple of older girls...my boys had more fun with the girls than anyone else! : ) Going to have my hands full here in a few years!! They got to race cars with James and Corey and dad. Then, as if they hadn't played hard enough that day they decided to literally run the track several times. The only bad thing about that for me...it's a dirt track! They were so filthy, but they were having fun, so what the heck!! They slept exceptionally well!! It was an awesome day!

Friday, May 20th

Started off a day of ugliness (since I had to go to work) with the presence of a beautiful butterfly! One of the caterpillars had emerged from it's chrysallis!!!! I knew that would happen though because I didn't have time to shred kleenex and soak it in the sugar water mixture, nor did I have time to go buy some carnations to put the sugar water mix on! But I made time, in the hopes that we'd have more by the time I got home from work! Hit up Starbucks on the way in to work (there's ALWAYS time for Starbucks!). It was another weird day. And our biggest asshole of a patient was in. I really don't know who he thinks he is, but he told me that I had it all wrong when I was discussing the size of the needle he needs for his testosterone. I'd be more than willing to have him drop his pants and let me shoot him in the ass...I'd make sure to show him that I know what I'm talking about, and that he is the one that is wrong. It seriously amazes me that these people a)think that their shit doesn't stink because they have money, and b)I'm going to be nicer to them and work harder for them when they treat me like shit! I was badly tempted to tell him to STFU, and not to let the door hit him in the ass on the way out the door to another pharmacy....but I'm sure it would spell disaster for my job, and that would upset the hubster! After my crappy day, I went and picked the boys up from daycare...they quickly brightened my mood! When we got home to see if we had more butterflies we discovered that 3 more had hatched, and that the cat can knock the butterfly house off the counter onto the floor rather easily! She must've saw something moving around up there and went to check it out, and thought it was a new toy for her. We have to put it up on top of the refrigerator now so she can't get to it! The hubby treated us to dinner at Buster's in Eagle! I LOVE their fish and chips...cannot seriously get enough! We came home and watched the movie Funny People after the boys went to bed. It was funny, and sad, and something think about! I really like Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen, so I was pretty sure I wouldn't be disappointed...and I wasn't!!

Thursday, May 19th

Back to work Thursday...cannot believe that an entire 8 days off just flew by like it was one or two! Took the boys to swim lessons this morning. They had a blast again, and just like everything else, this session is quickly coming to an end. In some ways I wish that I had kept them on for the summer session, because they are doing so well that I hate to lose ground with them! They did the noodle thing for quite awhile this morning, and even Zach can now navigate without assistance on his noodle! Home for a quick lunch and then dropped the bubbas off at daycare, and off to work I went! I tried really hard to have a positive attitude, but that darn place gets the best of me ever so quickly. And there is obviously a full moon lurking about...all of the extreme weirdos have crawled out from under their rocks! And we all know that my patience is nonexistant, but it's even more so when I have to deal with idiot after idiot! Ugh!!!!