Veni, Vidi, Vici

{I came, I saw, I conquered}

My race day started out bright and early this morning.  At 5:45 to be exact.  I got up and got the baby (he was already awake and crying) and I fed him quickly before getting myself dressed and ready to go.  Getting dressed was probably the most time consuming portion of my morning as I tried to decide what to wear to run in.  I knew it was going to be hot -- at least in the 80's by the time we would be running -- but I also knew that going with the coolest option of shorts and a tank top would quite possibly leave me feeling self-conscious and embarrassed by my "non-runner's-body-physique."  To be euphemistic.  Hahahaha.  There was quite a bit of deliberation involved, but in the end I decided I just needed to chuck my inhibitions and forget about it. 

Holding up my Race shirt -- which is actually REALLY nice. It's not just some t-shirt, but a "technical" shirt which apparently means it's made by Nike and is one of those Dri-Fit type shirts that wick moisture away from you as you sweat up a storm.

After finally choosing my outfit, I scarfed down a quick bagel breakfast and Scott dropped me off at the starting line, took a picture for me, and promised to be back later with all the kids at the finish line.  I wasn't super nervous about the race because I had already tricked my mind into thinking of it as just another long run day.  I hadn't been able to train as much as I wanted to for today {Jane's hospital trip and kids out of school have managed to derail some of my efforts} so I knew I wouldn't be able to run the whole entire distance and I was perfectly fine with that.  My only goal was to at least make it to the 3 mile mark before breaking down to walk for a bit.

Pre-Race

Body Glide -- anti-chafing, anti-irritation.  A newly discovered trick of the trade.  

The first couple of miles of the race were AWESOME.  Mostly because they were almost all downhill -- a nice gentle slope in a lot of places.  I was flying and making pretty good time.  Then around 2 1/2 miles that downhill switched gears and became a pretty fearsome uphill battle for a good half mile at least.  That just about killed me, but I managed to tough it out and reach that 3 mile goal.  From there on out I alternated my running with walking whenever I needed the break.  It didn't make for an awesome overall time, but I was totally fine with that.  I finished!  And that's all I was aiming for this morning.  It was awesome to see Scott and all the kids waiting for me as I crossed the finish line and it was even more awesome to get a free massage and stretching when I was done.  All in all it was a successful morning's work.

Waiting for mom.

She's almost here!

Approaching the finish line with a time of 1 hour and 12 minutes (and something seconds -- I can't really remember).  A post-Jane PR!  {And I have CLEARLY chucked all inhibitions seeing as to how I am actually posting this (unflattering) picture of me up on the world wide web.  Hahahaha.}

Lover Boy was so happy to see me he wouldn't let me out of his sight.  He was not happy when I passed him back off to Scott so I could go and get my message. 

Me and the kids.

And the whole fam!

After getting home I helped myself to my newest indulgence.  Waffles.  I kid you not that I daydream about these waffles all week long.  We've been doing a waffle night on Saturdays for dinner for the last little bit and I found a recipe online for whole grain waffles that I LOVE.  For the record, no one else seems to love them and in fact no one else even really eats them.  Except for Grace who so diplomatically tells me that she DOES like them, she just likes the other kind (from a Krusteaz brand mix) better.  Which is fine by me because then I can freeze the leftovers to pop in the toaster whenever the fancy strikes.  I modified them a bit to be fewer in points {for Weight Watchers} -- mostly so that I can splurge on the points in my choice of toppings.  Real butter and real maple syrup along with strawberries and blueberries.  Mmmmmmm.  WORTH EVERY POINT.  Hahaha.  Needless to say, this is only a Saturday indulgence.

{This is me in the middle of saying "These are SOOOO good!"}

Delicious.

Whole Grain Waffles (3 Points Plus per waffle)
1/4 c. applesauce
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. oats
1/4 c. wheat germ
4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 3/4 c. skim milk
1 large egg

 {They do tend to stick to the griddle, so I had to spray it with cooking spray}

And that was that.  Poor Scott was on his own while getting the house and car ready to go for our trip to Indiana this weekend while I sat and ate my 2nd breakfast at a leisurely pace.  After eating and showering I finally managed to kick it into gear and started to help with the preparation process.  I'd like to say that everything was smooth sailing from there on out but it wasn't.  Hahaha.  Our 4 1/2 hour car trip ended up taking a whole extra hour because of a traffic standstill about half-way through.  Not to mention we went a completely different route than we usually do because of a major mis-communication error on my part and Ethan and Alex were both kind of freaking out the whole time.  However, all is well that ends well and we are finally here and ready to celebrate the 4th of July with family!  I'm not sure if I'll be blogging again anytime soon, but once I'm back I'm SURE I'll have some stories to tell.  Hahahahahaha. 

Flashback Friday -- The Lover Boy

It's Alex's turn for the spotlight!  And a flashback.  ALL rolled into one!  Ten and half months ago this little lover boy entered our world. 

For the most part he has been exactly as I felt he would be -- happy, carefree, and busy.  Basically Sophie without all the issues.  {Hahahaha.}  He loves being around all the kids and he's usually pretty good about going with other people.  However, he has now reached the point in his young life where he has OPINIONS about stuff and he lets us know when things are not going the way he is envisioning them in his mind.  Hahahaha.  It's kind of hilarious even if I can't help but think that he's too young to  be throwing temper tantrums already!  The really funny thing is this {and here's where the flashback comes into play} -- he has the EXACT same mad face as he did when he was first born.  See that picture up there?  That's Alex, a few minutes old and so angry he was inconsolable.   I'll never forget seeing that little mouth wide open and wailing with his head thrown back and eyes squinched shut as I tried unsuccessfully to get him to calm down.  It was classic.  He may have been baby number 5 and I may have been taking care of kids pretty much my whole life, but there wasn't anything I could do to console my little love -- he was THAT mad. 

 {For the record, Sophie also has the EXACT same mad face that she did as a newborn.  These two have a lot of similarities.}

Luckily for us he is mostly a happy-go-lucky little lamb, but every time he throws a fit these days -- and they do happen regularly -- I'm reminded of that very first time.  He still throws his head back (rather dramatically I might add) and wails with his mouth WIDE open and his eyes squinched shut.  {It is equal parts adorable and pitiful.}  They don't happen all of the time (yet), but when they do, it usually involves something being taken from him that he really wants.  How those kids can take something from this cute little face I'll just never know.   Hahahaha.

 Cute little preshy presh. 

{The kids took this picture of Alex "riding" on the bouncy horse while I was inside and unaware one fine day.} 

Stay tuned for MY spotlight coming to you sometime tomorrow.  It should involve a 10K and possibly the greatest waffles I have ever had...

Jane in Real Life

Here is a sampling of a day in the life of the Jane-est of my Janes.  {We're best friends in case you didn't know.}

The newest "fun thing" to do in our house is mess up all the cushions on the couch -- and sometimes even chuck them off completely -- to create an indoor personal gymnasium.  Jane is especially fond of  doing gymnastics on the couch.  She could probably make it to the Olympics one day if I ever enrolled her in real classes.  For now, though, she's perfectly content to jump and do somersaults in the comfort of our own home. 

 

Preparing for take-off.

 A flying monkey...

...and a wide-angled shot to help you picture the set-up.  The "artwork" on the wall is an especially nice touch.  Grace and Sophie printed it out yesterday and I think it really helps to make the room look classy.

 "What the bunnysauce is she doing?"  is what Alex is indubitably thinking.

Followed with a quick "If you can't beat'em -- join'em!"

And there you have it.  A budding Nadia Comaneci.  Aside from the couch, Jane has also taken over this chair {formerly known as Scott's} and turned it into her throne.  Of the porcelain variety.  Hahahaha.  She has peed in this chair at least half a dozen times in just this last week alone.  Sometimes with a diaper ON, sometimes with a diaper OFF, and sometimes in just a swimmy diaper.  I'm seriously considering potty-training as soon as the 4th of July is over.  I'll let you know how that goes.

{I wish I could say I got a picture of the action, but what you're really looking at on the chair is the aftermath of half a bowl of applesauce that Jane left in Alex's reach.}

Wednesday's Child is Full of Woe

The following nursery rhyme makes me laugh every time I read it to Jane from her Mother Goose book {which is fairly often}.  I was already planning on posting about Sophie today (Ethan and Grace have already had a spotlight so far this week) and as I read the poem for the umpteenth time this morning, the description struck me as too ironic not to comment upon seeing as to how Sophie was in fact born on a Wednesday:

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,

Wednesday's child is full of woe,

Thursday's child has far to go,

Friday's child is loving and giving,

Saturday's child works hard for his living,

But the child who is born on the Sabbath day

Is bonny and blithe and good and gay. 

Full of woe indeed.  Especially this afternoon when I told her to get her chores done.  What followed then was about an hour long meltdown which was only exacerbated when I whipped out the camera and tried to document its progress.  She was NOT happy about that at all.  In fact, she expressly forbid me from putting these pictures up on the "internet."  Hahahaha.  Part of me feels a little guilty for going against her wishes.  But clearly only a very small part of me.

Every time I tried to capture her facial expression she turned in fury and buried her face in whatever was closest.

"Stop!!!!!" she screamed, "You're making me feel embarrassed!!!"

The good news is that Sophie is equal parts woe and wonder.  Because when she's in a happy mood, she is pretty much the most joyfully exuberant and wonderful child you will ever meet.  Fortunately for my frazzled nerves, all the chores managed to finally get done this evening and after dinner Sophie even pranced over to me, gave me a hug and a kiss, and proclaimed that I was the best mom in the whole entire world.  "Thank you," I replied {rather pointedly at the other 2 big kids}, "I'm so glad you realize that and appreciate it."  "That's because you had me onto this earth," was her explanation to which I  murmured "mmmhmmm" distractedly while wrestling a squirming Alex into his jammies.  Her next line had me laughing out loud, though, as she continued on to say, "and that's good because I wouldn't want to be born into outer space."  Hahahahaha.  That kid kills me.  Apparently I'm not the only one who feels that way.  When I went visiting teaching the other day, my friend said that during Primary when Sophie was up at the front, one of her little sunbeams leaned over and whispered, "Sophie is the funniest girl I know!"  Or something along those lines.  My memory is pretty faulty these days.  But not so faulty that I wasn't able to store THIS comment away from last week:

Me: {unsuccessfully trying to get water out of my ears from swimming earlier in the day.}
Sophie {after watching for a couple of minutes}: You could use a turkey baster.

What what say what???  Hahahaha.  Where does she come up with this stuff??  Everything is made all the funnier by her pronunciations.  Speech may have perfected her "F" sounds, but it didn't even attempt to tackle the "R's."

Despite her earlier resistance to cleaning today, she finished the night off strong by doing some cleaning in her room at bedtime.  When she came downstairs around 9:30 begging me to come and see her hard work I figured I better oblige.  It's a good thing I wasn't expecting much, because her idea of clean and my idea of clean do not exactly coincide.  Hahahaha.  She essentially made her bed and cleared off SOME of the junk that has been littering it up for the last few weeks.  The rest of the room, however, continues to remain one big mess away from a Hoarders episode.

But at least she's really cute.  Hahahaha.  

A Writer in our Midst

As I was begging, pleading, and cajoling Ethan last night to PLEASE just write something down for me to record for posterity about his current state of {birthday} being, Grace eagerly jumped into the conversation and said that she would write something about herself if I wanted her to.  I dismissed her offer without much thought and was confused for a split second this morning when she let me know that she had done "that assignment" in her journal last night.  Hahahaha.  After she retrieved it from her carefully hidden spot and opened it up to the right page, she nonchalantly decreed, "There -- now I don't have to do it when it's my birthday."  

So here you have it a few months early -- everything Grace wants the world to know about her right now at this very moment:

{My favorite part -- aside from the creative spelling -- is the very end when she says "And thats all I have to say."  Hahahahahaha.}

While we're on the subject of Grace, I re-discovered this picture on my dresser last night that Grace made a few months back.  I can't remember what the occasion was for such a gift, but it is heirloom worthy for sure. 

"Dear mom and dad thank you for all the things youv done for me"

Things I find particularly hilarious about this picture are:

1. The flower is made of those felt things you stick on the bottom of chairs.
2. She drew us kissing.  
3. She created the acronym M.A.D -- and then wrote in what it stands for underneath (mom and dad) just in case we couldn't figure it out.  {Which we probably wouldn't have.}  Hahahahaha.

Enjoy!

 Who knew we had such big, hot pink lips???  Hahahaha.

We Have a NINE Year Old

Nine years ago today I became a mother.  And because it was painful, traumatic, and difficult {still kind of is --  hahahaha.} I told Ethan he OWED me tonight.  I made him record everything he would like the world to know about him right now as a newly turned 9 year old.  And here it is:

My favorite color is Orange. I like playing on the Wii. My favirite food is Mac and chese.  I want a Kindle fire. I have 3 sisters and 1 brother. I am the oldest kid in my family.  my favirite treat is reces pieces cups.  I like to go swimming in the summer.  I like to ride my bike in the spring.  I like to go sledding in the winter.  And I like to Play inside in the fall.  I I like playing games on the computer.  my favirite series of movies is harry potter.  My favirite memory is mardi gras and aspen grove.

Apparently he's very seasonally oriented.  Hahahaha. And since it IS summer we celebrated his big day by going to the pool even though today is supposed to be Library day.  AND I didn't even make him do any chores {even though it caused an all-day long argument amongst the children over whether or not anyone else was able to get out of chores on their birthday -- the girls insisted they didn't and Ethan insisted they did}.  Since this is not a birthday party year -- key ages in our family for "friend parties" are 5, 8, 12, 16, and 18 -- we kept things fairly low key for his celebration today.  In addition to the swimming and no chores, we had a real meal for dinner and I picked up some cupcakes from Jilly's.  Overall I believe it was a success!  

I convinced Ethan that what he really wanted for dinner on his birthday was hamburgers, corn on the cob {which he loves}, and watermelon.  Thankfully he agreed to forego the Domino's pizza he initially wanted and switched gears without too much of a fight.  Mostly I think because of the promise of corn on the cob.  In case you didn't know, shucking the corn is a HIGHLY desired task in our house.  When I was on the phone with Scott as we were leaving the pool and going to get the cupcakes, I asked him if he would get dinner started if he beat us home and Ethan started screaming in the back ground,  "DON'T DO THE CORN!!!!"  Duly noted.  Once we were home Ethan went right to it and wouldn't let anyone else help him.  This caused a bit of a ruckus with Grace and Sophie.  But mostly with Grace.  Because as she pointed out there isn't ANY corn on the cob when it's time for her birthday and it isn't fair.  The injustices they find to complain about never cease to amaze me.  Hahaha.

Time for Dinner!

We finally managed to eat and then we finally got through a hastily thrown together Family Home Evening -- Grace basically called dibs on doing the lesson so we could get it over with quickly, because "we can just do it on obeying your parents" she declared -- and then we finally managed to divvy up the cupcakes for everyone to get a little sampling.  {Except for Sophie of course who just had fruit snacks which caused its own little riot when Jane and Grace both decided they wanted that instead.}  Ethan got his own WHOLE cupcake to himself  --  a "Reese's Chunkage" -- which he maybe ate 2 bites of.  (It was really rich).  And after a few more fights and meltdowns we finally herded everyone up to bed and ended this blessed day.  I think the swimming wore everyone out enough that no one has come down the stairs yet!   If it didn't wear ME out so much, I think we'd go to the pool every day.  Hahahaha.

Happy Birthday to Ethan!!!  I sure am grateful he's a part of our family!

Flashback Friday -- TP Time

Scott (to me this morning):  "I'm asking this only half-jokingly, but -- do you know how to replace that?"

Hahahahahaha.  Why yes.  Yes, I do.  I'm just lazy.  But his question did trigger a flashback for me that I'm pretty sure lives on in each and every one of my brother and sisters' memories.  When I was around 13 or 14 years old, my mom had gotten fed up with the laziness abounding in ALL of us Hansen sibs and came up with a genius little object lesson.  After rounding us all up and into our bathroom, she made us "practice" by exchanging out the toilet paper roll 3 times each.  The lesson stuck at the time, but perhaps it's time for a refresher course.  Hahahahaha.

Sophie is Money

Nothing says fun like going to Walmart with all 5 kids!  But when you're out of diapers, you're out of luck.  Especially if you're Ethan.  Hahahaha.  Ethan HATES having to run errands with everyone.  Like REALLY, REALLY hates it.  And believe me when I say he lets us ALL know it.  Unfortunately, he was out of luck this afternoon seeing as to how Jane was all out of diapers and Scott wasn't going to be home tonight until it was too late for me to run out on my own.  So, with Ethan whining and complaining {and demanding a Kindle Fire} in the background, I loaded everyone up and headed to the store.  

I'm pretty sure I spent almost twice as much as I was planning to spend simply because all 5 kids were with me.  Ethan {surprise!} was the first one to work me over -- after all it IS his birthday on Monday -- but pretty soon the rest of the kids worked their magic as well.  An hour and a half after our arrival we finally managed to get checked out and headed for home where Ethan badgered me into letting them stay up for a game night, too.  We had just bought UNO Attack {Ethan's early birthday present} and Headbanz, and I let him have this little victory because I knew they weren't going to go right to bed anyway and with Scott not here to help I wanted to make things as easy as possible for me.  Hahahahaha.  After discovering {with great dismay} that UNO Attack needed C batteries (which we didn't have) Ethan settled for Headbanz instead and we started in on our game night after putting the two little ones down for bed.  

{Not pictured is Grace's new Magic 8 Ball which she consulted all evening long about anything and everything -- Will I get a dog?  Should I eat dinner?  Is Alex the cutest baby in the world?  Will I get a dog? Will I get a dog?  Will I get a dog?  It should also be noted that she called it her Magic "Meatball" for most of the night.}

The game was pretty fun -- we play 20 Questions a lot, so the concept of how to play wasn't too difficult to figure out -- and for the first 15 minutes or so everything was hunky dory.  Things began to disintegrate rapidly, however, once they discovered they could look in the reflection on the fireplace screens and see what was on their head.  Since I don't play with cheaters we did not play for very much longer.  Hahaha. 

 {Hahahahahahaha.  Sophie is TOTALLY money.  Hahahaha.}

I managed to corral them all into bed about half an hour later where I then discovered that Jane had already woken up (or perhaps never went to sleep?) and was crying inside her room.  After yelling at the kids to get in bed and go to sleep before they woke up Alex, too, I went to rescue the little lamb and discovered her curled up on the floor next to the door completely in the nude.  Hahaha.  She is TOTALLY Grace 2.0 -- remember how we used to duct tape Grace into her diaper and jammies at night so she wouldn't strip down and pee all over her crib?  Well, apparently that might also be in order for Baby Gaga.  She had taken off her nightgown and diaper (which I still haven't been able to find) and peed all over her bed and blanket.  After trying {unsuccessfully} to get her to go back to sleep, I ended up bringing her down to give her a breathing treatment and read her the entire Mother Goose book.  Fortunately she went back to bed without too much of a problem and Scott got home not too long after that.  It's been a long day.  A long week really.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tonight we'll all get some sleep!

Cultural Arts

I found a story today that Ethan wrote during the school year for a Social Studies unit on "Culture."  Hahahaha.  Enjoy.

Title: The Suburban Kid and Rural Kid

 

 {Favorite part?  The caption saying "This is interesting!" Hahahahaha.}

{"Welcome to a suburban community"}

 {No -- Thank YOU.}

To end with, here are some of Grace's "Clay Creations" from summer school.

A monster.

 A turtle from earlier in the school year...

  ...and a pinch pot {filled with Squinkies} made last week.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Jane + Steroids = NUTS

Jane ended up spending one more night in the hospital.  No one was more unhappy about that than Jane.  I got a text from Scott around 9:30 or so last night saying Jane saw me in a video on the iPad and started to cry saying, "I want my mommy!  Her is my best friend!"  Talk about melt and break my heart at the same time.

Luckily, she was cleared to go this morning and by 11 o'clock we were on our way to pick up Alex from a friend's house and then the kids from summer school.  One thing we have discovered about Baby Gaga that differs from Sophie's response to asthma treatment is that albuterol and prednisone have a super intense effect.  When Jane is on the meds she is LITERALLY on steroids.  In every sense of the word.  She was bouncing off walls, floors, beds, ceilings, couches --you name it -- while we were still at the hospital this morning and it was almost impossible to concentrate on what the nurse was saying about her asthma plan and the discharge instructions.  When we were finally able to get out of there, Jane practically ran out of the hospital.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, but our evening has not really had a moment's peace due to Jane and her hopped-up-on-goofballs-ness.  It didn't help that she crashed hard for a nap during her 4 o'clock breathing treatment while watching iCarly.  Even though she was only out for 30-40 minutes it was just enough time and just LATE enough in the day to prevent her from going to sleep any time soon.  And I'm sure the steroids aren't helping.  Hahahaha.  Oh well!  We're very happy she's home  -- even if she hasn't stayed still or stopped talking for the last several hours.

 The Blur at bedtime.

Posing {for a nano-second} for a picture.