Breakfast of Champions.

There are a few things that happen in our house--for sure.
Every day.
Rain or Shine.
In sickness and in health.
Till death do us part.

One of these is Mike's midnight snack.
He always has a midnight snack.
Always.
Whether it's a couple of cookies, a spoonful of peanut butter, a random treat,
a glass of milk, a bowl of cereal...
it's something.
Every night.

Another happening is Grant's early riser-ness.
Now, I do have high hopes that this is a phase.
A very long phase, but a phase all the same.
Regardless,
for the time being, he's up early.
And I do mean early.
Hello, 5 am!

In my perfect world he would just head on into the family room
and start himself a movie.
(Cuz, he can do that you know)
I don't live in that world.
I live in the world where he comes into my room to help me welcome in the new day.
Every. Day.

Last week I thought I had ventured into the other side of the looking glass.
I woke up at six.
Six!
On my own.
NO Grant assistance.
~Que Hallelujah choir~

What did I come out in the kitchen to find?
~cancel Hallelujah choir~
A little laziness on Mike's part
(not putting away the sugar after a midnight bowl of Chex)
and one very satisfied Mr. Grant D

That, my friends, is a cup FULL of sugar.
Bear in mind, the kid generally wakes up close to 5.
I came out just after 6.
We are talking about a good 40 minutes of a boy and his sugarcup.

I like to call this picture,
"Please...don't kill me Mom, it's all really my Dad's fault anyway."
I have to say, I can't really argue logic like that.

:o)
So go ahead, just give those kiddies a cup-o-sugar for breakfast.
Literally.
That's how we do it 'round here.

Casualties: 1

One of these piggies is not like the others.
Second toe. Left foot.
Poor toenail.
I don't think he's gonna make it.
Ragnar did him in.
Not gonna lie, I'm kinda proud.
Isn't that the sign of a real runner?

And now I have posted a picture of my feet.
Don't we all feel just a little bit closer?
It's so nice to tear down all these barriers.
Who says feet are ugly?

It could of been worse, I could of posted a picture of my other milestone
reminder...
stretch marks.
You can thank me later.

Just me and my Boy.

Grant and I are holding down the fort this afternoon. It is VERY rare for us not only to have our own crew running a muck, but we usually have at least a few extra friends after school.

I was sitting here at the computer just messing around, he was racing up and down the hall-sporting his Thomas undies and Double Diamond Dairy t-shirt- showing me his muscles and how fast he can run and as I watched him I was over come with how lucky I am to have him here.

That little stink really gave us a run for our money...one sick little bambino. I don't look at the pictures very often, but since I was sitting right here I pulled them up...

Six weeks old, he weighed only one ounce more than the day he was born. This picture was taken the day he was admitted into the hospital. He had already been under the lights for a few hours when this picture was taken. Pumpkin Boy was already pinking up, you can really see the difference around his eyes where his mask covered. The trouble was he had multiple symptoms. He was so jaundice, his levels were at an 18- should have been nonexistent or a 1 at six weeks. Compound that with his failure to thrive and that fact he puked up everything. He was a mess.

My momgut told me it was pyloric stynosis. Grandmagut confirmed- we have a family history. The doctor thought so too.

The test was negative. That night I spent in the hospital was horrifically long. Not knowing was the worst part. Thank the heavens above for my sweet nurse, Bobbi. We made it through the night together.

Grant's brilliant doctor ordered a different test, testing for the same thing the next day and sure enough...pyloric stynosis! One surgery later and we were one our way to a healthy boy. Never did figure out the multiple symptoms. But I have my boy, and that's good enough for me.

Three years later and I couldn't love him more.

Keeping the Flu at bay.

I'm pretty sure with hygiene standards as high as this...

(Sticky Fingers G. is what we like to call him)

we should have
no
worries of catching any sort of illness this season.

All for a Medal?!

Are you all ready for another Ragnar rundown?
Ohhhh, goody.
Cuz here it comes!!

If you ran the Wasatch Back and the Vegas Ragnar this year you got a special edition
Saints and Sinners medal.
Ten out of the twelve of our team members ran both,
hence the team name...
All for a Medal?!

We decided to decorate our vans accordingly.
Van #1 (my van) : Sinners
Van #2 : Saints
btw, that's Louie-short for Lucifer- on the grill of my van there, he was our mascot.


Jonathan started us off. Strong. Ya, he pretty much dusted the competition.
He is one fast hombre. That boy runs like the wind blows, I tell ya.


Here I am waiting to start my first run. All decked out in my devil horns.
Might I take a moment here to say something about Vegas...
It is freaking hot!
I know it's cooled down from the summer blast furnace, but Holy Hannah!!
With my own personal solar panel (black hair) I was a real live Hottie. ;o)


After we all got in our first run we went to hang out at the first major exchange while van #2 got a run under their belts.
Here's the thing, you are supposed to sleep at a major exchange.
It doesn't really work out that way so much.
Everyone lays out their blankets, you all lay down, you all close your eyes, you all pretend to sleep but, in the end you all give up the whole idea
and take '8 is enough' pictures instead.
This is a good time to introduce you to my van.
We have Jonathan(my brother), Me(farmgirl), My 27 chins(who need no introduction), Amanda(my sister), Tawna(amanda's friend), Dick(penny's dad) & Penny(amanda's friend and fellow prestonite and dixie johnson's little sister fyi for all my p.h.s. buddies).

Okey dokey, here's the part were I tell you about the night running.
No pictures, sorry.
Jonathan, Dick, Penny & Tawna all get their second run finished.
Tawna hands off to me, I take off for my 3.6 miles.
The plan was for my team to meet me at 1 mile to give me water.
I had gone about a half mile, I could see one runner a little way ahead of me and ahead of her I could see two people walking.
Bare in mind we are out in the middle of NO WHERE.
I was thinking maybe the two people were her team members.
She runs right past these two and they just keep walking.
I am came up to them and saw it is was just two guys, clearly no part of the race at all.
I was a little concerned, but by now my team van was in sight so I just ran past them.
Tawna gave me water and I took off again. We had decided for them to meet me at 2 miles.
Luckily, right as they were pulling away, they saw these two guys start to run towards me and felt just as uneasy as I did about them and decided to shadow me.
THANK YOU TEAM!!!
So the van and I played leap frog for next 1/2 mile until the two guys were no where in sight.
The rest of the run was great, I ran next to Lake Mead.
Moon over the lake...Be-A-U-ti-Ful!

Night run fiasco: phase two.
I passed off to Amanda.
She had two miles of trail running starting at 1 1/2 miles in. I got out to give her water and Jonathan yelled from the van, "Does she want someone to go with her?" She said yes.
I'm right there, it's only two miles, Jonathan was in the van with his shoes off so I decided to just go with her.
We started on a bike trail. After about a mile we veer onto a dirt road, after another two miles we were running next to some industrial plant of some sort. A couple of runners start running back towards us because they came to a locked gate.
Ugghhh, we were off the course!
So we turned around and started heading back. A security guard came along in his truck and took us all back, we weren't the first to make this mistake.
(note to Ragnar people--Mark the dang course!)
By this point I am exhausted.
Amanda made the comment she was surprised Jonathan hadn't come looking for us.
I kept telling Amanda to leave me, but I didn't have a vest or a head lamp so she stayed until we were back in sight of the road and we could see the vans, what a good little sister.
At that point she took off.
I made my way back to the van to find out that Jonathan had indeed gone looking for us.
We missed him coming the other direction and never crossed paths.
He ended up running almost back to the beginning of the trail before he realized we weren't there. He sprinted back to the van, got the full scoop and headed back out to finish Amanda's run with her.
Whew, what an adventure!!

Amanda handed off to van #2 and we headed out to our last major exchange.
Jonathan started running again at about 4:30 am.
p.s. once he put those running shoes on-he didn't take them off again the rest of the day.
He was prepared to run at a moments notice--
Have I mentioned he is a stinkin' fast runner?
He had told us that every leg of both Ragnar's he had 13 road kills (passed 13 people), but he wasn't so sure how this leg was going to be.
His finish was amazing.
He was coming at us fff-aaast, about 1/4 mile left to go.
He was going after runners that were a long way ahead of him.
We figured he was trying to get his 13 road kills.
He passed the last one 5 feet from the finish line,
ran through, raised his arms in the air and said,
"Fourteen!"
I know this is a crappy picture, but he was so awesome I had to post it any way.


Next up, Dick.
Dick's night adventure was that he forgot to change into his running shoes and ran in some old tennis shoes. So this morning run was mighty painful.
He was great. A lot of fun to have in the van.
He told us he wouldn't run again unless it was on a team with a bunch of old guys. :)
Don't worry, Jonathan ran Dick's last mile with him too.


Dick passed off to Penny.
Oh, I'm sorry. Did I fail to mention that Penny is 5+ months pregnant?
She is. And she is a machine. And that is one proud Daddy standing next to her.


From Penny to Tawna.
Tawna kept saying she wasn't much of a runner, but she did great and had some serious hills to climb in the heat.



Runner #5 coming atcha.
That would be me.
The running rock star.
I'd love to tell you that I looked even remotely like that during my 4.1 miles.
Unfortunately, it was only for the last 20 yards.



I handed off to Amanda.
Who is saying in this picture,
"Holy Crap! Did you see how I didn't let that dude beat me? How I raced him to the finish and won?"
Yes, My Dear, we did. And it was fantastic!
She handed off to van #2 and they brought it on home.


Here's the whole team at the finish line.
Jonathan, Penny, Me, Tawna, Amanda, Rocky, Derrik, Dick, Marcia, Mike, Dixie & Natalie
Just a bunch of Saints and Sinners.
Looking for a good time.
Crazy enough to run a combined 171 miles.

For me?
3.5 miles + 3.6 miles + 4.1 miles + 4 miles with Amanda = 15.2 miles
One 3 mile training run last week.
A cough that belongs to a chain smoker.
Total exhaustion yesterday.
Seriously sore muscles today....


All for a medal?!
You betcha!!!

Say what???

Alright friends, I may have had a temporary lapse of sanity.
Remember way back, way way back in June when I ran that crazy race the Wasatch Back?
It was so much fun!
LoVeD iT!!
At that point in time I had every intention of running the Vegas Ragnar in October.
(The Vegas Ragnar that is a mere 10 short days away, p.s.)
I discovered I had a conflict and I had to back out.
My spot was filled- I took a very long running hiatus and went on with my life minus a training schedule.
Side note: My conflict was rescheduled last week and next weekend is now open. No matter, my spot was filled months ago and I haven't trained any way, right? Wrong.
Fast forward to yesterday when Amanda called me to say that 2 spots had opened up in her van and she wanted Jonathan and I to run with her.
That's Jonathan, my brother.
Jonathan, my brother who just ran the Top of Utah marathon with a finishing time of 3:30.
And me.
Me, who has done NO RUNNING WHAT SO EVER IN MONTHS!!!!!
So what was my answer?
After a few moments of humming and hahhing
"I'm in."
I'm doing this.
It would appear that I have lost my freaking mind!

Okay, so here's the low down.
I am runner number five on a team of twelve.
I have three legs to run.
First leg: 3.5 miles
Second leg: 3.6 miles
Third leg: 3.9 miles
None of these are a crazy far distance. But, I will be running them all within about a 30someodd (or less?) hour time frame, ugh. There are some hills involved too. My last leg is a gradual uphill the whole way.
I'm not gonna lie.....I'm sceered.

The good news is that I ran this morning and it was purty durn good.
Remember, I'm normally a ten-minute mile kind of a gal...when I have been running-which I haven't.
This morning I did three miles in....are you ready?....are you really ready?
Drum roll please...
28:59!
High fives all around!

And now lets have a moment of silence to pray for my poor decrepit body.
Let us pray that my legs will not collapse.
Let us pray that my lungs will not wheeze their last breath.
Let us pray that my heart will not explode out of my chest.
Let us pray that my 7 day training program (that I have yet to figure out) will suffice.
And finally, let us pray that if I do indeed die on this race that my head stone will read,
"See, I told you I was out of shape!"

But, if I don't die...I will get an awesome Saints & Sinners medal for running both the Wasatch and the Vegas Ragnar in the same year.
And that will be pretty cool.
:o)


That and I will live to see my 35th birthday.

Grant D-lish Birthday Bash.

"Photo shoot"
(and I use the term loosely considering my photography abilities and camera quality)
with the Birthday Boy went something like this...

Me: Grant, come out side with me, I want to take your picture.
Grant: I'm playing with my train tracks.
Me: Pleeaaasssee.
Grant: Okay.

Me: Smile for me, Grant.
Grant: Okay.

And he gives me this.




Me: Grant, smile for me Buddy!
Grant: Okay.

And he gives me this.




Me: Okay, smile for me...
Grant: Okay.....I see you Mom!

And he gives me this.




Me: Hey, is it your birthday today?
Grant: YES!
Me: Show me your birthday smile.
Grant: Okay.

And he gives me this.
Fake smile phase, here we come.

What a goofball!
He is, how ever, just about the cutest goofball I've ever seen.
I do adore my little man.
He was a really good decision.

The Twenty Minute Parent.

Introducing the new twenty minute parenting tactic. Mike and I have finally figured out how to parent perfectly. Twenty minutes at a time. This works especially well on Sundays when neither one of us wants to pull out all the stops and do it like the parent rock stars that we really are.

How did this system come about, you ask? While waiting for the potatoes to cook for dinner after church I was completely disgusted by the state of my house. Nine o'clock church is a tough one on a good day, it's a killer on a day we are slow to get moving. Normally I don't leave my house a mess.

(I know I'm nuts, but the thought of coming home to find that someone has broken in and then needing to leave the crime scene as is while we wait for the cops then needing to explain to them that it was already a disaster is just horrifying to me. I know, I have some really weird issues. But, don't you all appreciate my honesty?)

So...in my efforts to assure a nap for myself (which I also don't do well with the house a mess) I asked Mike for some help in rounding up the troops for a clean up before dinner. He was none too excited. Just give me twenty minutes, I said. Twenty minutes of good, solid, helpful parenting.
Then, tonight for bed time stuff/scripture reading routine--that Sunday laziness struck again, we didn't want to spend the next hour trying to get it done. Once again we decided that in twenty minutes time --if we put our hearts in it--we could read, pray and have every one on their way to bed.

That's when we realized we really might be on to something.
We feel that giving it our all for just twenty minutes at a time may be the answer to all our parenting quandaries.
The twenty minute parenting tactic.
It's genius!
Twenty minutes to perfect parenting.
Just twenty minutes, that's all we ask.


*Yes, we are available for parenting counseling classes if anyone is interested. I'm sure they will be filling up fast so be sure to reserve your spot early.


Your welcome.
:o)

Dear Blog Fairy,

Remember how you so kindly gave my dear old blog a face lift a while back? And oh, how I love it! Well, BF (can I call you that? i feel a real connection and so close to you now--it's almost like we are neighbors) I am still just loving the new look. But, I do have a request.....I would like to make a small change. And unfortunately, I'm not savvy enough to pull it off on my lonesome. Help me?

The change.
I would like to rename my blog. 'The Farmgirl Life...' remains the same because, hello? that's what I'm living. The change comes after that. 'such as it is.' replaced with 'knee deep and lovin' it.' What do you think? Possibility?

Here's the thing. My life isn't such as it is--it's such as I make it.
Cuz, let's face it folks...it's a pretty durn good life.

First of all, I'm paired with Mikey. He's just not so bad in my book. Yah, I love him. I always tell him he's my favorite husband I have ever had (he follows that with a roll of the eyes and says he's the only husband i've ever had). Point well taken. But, he's still my favorite. We are a good match.

Yes, it's true my children do make me a little nuts from time to time. I have five of them--it was bound to happen. They bring me way more joy than insanity (I hope I'm not speaking prematurely here-I suppose I could still end up in the loony bin before the last curtain call).

The gospel. Yup, it's true. Learned a fair amount about from whence my strength flows recently too. I do my part -He does His. It's a pretty good system.

And I have all of you. My peeps.

It's a busy, crazy life. Things have changed a lot since we have been in business for ourselves. I have learned a lot. The most important thing I have learned is that being happy is a choice. No matter what else is going on, I get to choose. Isn't that fantastic!?!

Since I have the whole husband, five kids, dog, cat, day care, house keeper, business owner, church goer, neighbor, friend, sister thing going on--I'm knee deep whether I like it or not.

But, I'm lovin' it because I want to.

M.O.C.C

Mothers Of Challenging Children
That's my new support group.

When you are the mother of a challenging child, you already know it.
No one needs to tell you.
Here's the thing (and I think it's pretty true for any mother) whatever you have to tell them about their kid-good or bad- your not gonna shock 'em.
Mom's know their kids better than any one else.
All the good, fantastic qualities and the not so fantastic qualities.
So there is really no need to go out of your way to point out the negative.
Leave that up to the professionals.
I am already very aware, thanks all the same.

I'm doing my very best with what I was given.
I'll try and make my lemonade and you make yours.
And how about instead of pouring salt in the mix- some one could just lend me the sugar?

Is this too brutally honest?
Mom's have feelings too, ya know.

Let's all adopt Thumper's mothers mantra, shall we:
If you don't have anything nice to say,
don't say anything at all.
Good advice for children.

And adults too.



*Okay, I feel slightly better- just needed to vent a little. It's just that, doggone-it, I love my little twerp! I know they aren't perfect. Believe me, I KNOW. I love all the crazy stories people tell me about my kids, because they are crazy--crazy funny. And it's just those kinds of stories that make me think we are gonna get through all this. Encouragement. That's what I need. So, if you have something positive to say, by all means, bring it on. No need to relay to me a laundry list of negative things my child said. That is in no way helpful to me. In fact, it causes me to be up at 2:30 in the AM. And that is just sick and wrong.

And p.s. for the record---challenging children are chock full of spunk, life and personality.
This particular child is Ah-MaZ-iNg!!
I love them all! And I wouldn't trade in a one of them. :o)

This is Farmgirl signing off,
And I am
Lucky ~and happy~ to be the Mom.