busy weekend

I don't know where the weekend went, it seemed to fly by. My aunt and uncle from Michigan were visiting my mother so most of my weekend was spent over at my mom's house with them. Yesterday was a very busy day too. We went to first service at church and then we had a baby dedication meeting right after service. After church we had to head over to the shop and get prepared for the skate jam. Jeff had a skate jam from 1 to 5 in the parking lot. We had a really good turn out and the kids kept me busy all afternoon. After the skate jam we headed over to my mom's house for dinner with the family. We didn't get home until 8 o'clock. Lance did really well being away from home all day. The most exciting part of the day was discovering during dinner that Lance's teeth are coming in. I can't believe he is big enough for teeth! I love his toothless grin and I am sad that he is growing up so fast. I wasn't quite sure that what I felt and saw at dinner was really a tooth so after his bath I checked Lance's gums at home and sure enough, one corner of his bottom tooth is poking out and you can see the tops of both teeth there. My little man is getting teeth, I can't believe it! Today Lance is 5 months old, and he is already trying to figure out how to crawl. On Saturday he would get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth. Lance is growing up so fast, I can't get over it, I miss my little newborn, but not the lack of sleep. Happy 5th Month Birthday Lance!

we're not the biggest losers

Last night during Lance's bedtime feeding I was watching "The Biggest Loser" and it really inspired Jeff and I to get off our butts and exercise. I don't know why it was so inspiring, we don't need to lose any weight, we are already both skinny minis, but we are both out of shape from recovering from Lance's arrival. Jeff and I did some pushups, situps, squats, and wall sits. I was able to maintain a wall sit to the count of 60 and Jeff could only go for about 15 seconds. This morning to keep with the exercise Jeff rode his bike to work and I took a 2.5 mile brisk walk. I hope that we can continue to get stronger and get back into shape. It takes 21 days to make something a habit so we only have 20 more days!

me, the social butteryfly

I am proud of myself. Finally, after being invited 5 months ago made to a women's Bible study that meets Monday mornings from my church. It was very refreshing especially since I let the college students watch Lance so I could have a break for an hour. This is the first time that I have allowed anyone other than Jeff or our moms to care for Lance. We are also babysitting this afternoon for my friend's children. Tomorrow we are meeting up with Jamie and her little one and Thursday we are meeting up with some other moms at the park. Oh and I hopefully will be walking with Erica this week too. I am such an extremist socially, I go from only hanging out with Erica to spending time with 20 people, all in one week. Speaking of being social, I did realize, I do miss one thing about teaching: talking to about 100 people a day.

reflections from this week

First off, my husband is amazing. Yeah, everyone thinks their husband is amazing, but Jeff really amazes me. Sunday was the day of the annual Peaksview Mountain Bike Race and we always try to attend. We both competed two years ago and we just watched last year since I was suffering from all day sickness and we both were out of shape. This year Jeff decided two days before that he was going to compete which is a big deal since he has ridden his bike a handful of times since Lance came on the scene. I tried to get him to race novice since he hadn't ridden much, but he said that he had to race sport (sport does 2- 8 mile laps and novice only has to do one 8 mile lap). Jeff claimed once you are sport you can't suddenly move down to a beginner level. He said he wasn't planning on placing, he just wanted to finish. I honestly didn't think that Jeff would be able to finish at all. (Note: at this point we thought the course was the same as in the past and that he would be racing 12 miles, not the 16 he did.) Jeff not only completed the race, but he placed 13th in his age group, which is great for someone with little training and being the oldest in his age group (33 in the 18-33 age group). He also beat his brother which surprised me since his brother rides all the time. The amazement doesn't stop there, Jeff got home and worked on the roof, cut the grass, and grilled chicken on the grill for dinner. If I did 16 miles I would be dead to the world the rest of the afternoon, but he was quite productive. I suppose he was right, it is mind over matter. Good job Jeffrey!
Secondly, I thought that things were suppose to get easier with age when it comes to Lance. Just when I think I have mastered nursing, things go sour, well I should say sore. I don't know what he has done, but I am so sore especially on one side; it is almost as bad as it was in the beginning. This morning I pumped the bad side so I wouldn't have to endure any pain and hopefully heal faster. I am not going to give up, I have made it this far and it is so good for him. It was nice though giving him a bottle this morning, it makes me wonder if I like nursing, but then again, it shouldn't be all about what I like.
Thirdly, fake meat seems to be identical to real meat. I gave up red meat years ago, and Jeff doesn't eat it often since I don't, but he does miss tacos. So, to do something nice for him I bought the Morning Star Crumbles and made tacos. It looked so much like red meat it kind of grossed me out and I almost didn't try it, but I did and it was good. I can't say whether it tasted like red meat because I don't remember what red meat tastes like, but I would use it again.
I realized this week that I miss having mega cleaning sprees like I did before Lance. Before Lance I would spend the whole day cleaning and organizing the house. It is hard trying to get the basics done and there is so much more to do. Part of the difficulty lies in that I can only clean while Lance is asleep and the other is that we are sometimes working at the store during our long afternoon nap. It is also hard to make progress in some rooms like our bedroom when we have the futon mattress in there awaiting the room downstairs to be cleaned up and the ceiling repaired. I am able to keep the bed made, my bathroom clean, the living room picked up, and the kitchen in pretty good shape so it keeps me sane, but I keep thinking about how much I could get done and how nice everything would look if I could have one whole day to myself. Maybe in a few years.
It never ceases to amaze me how time can be wasted easily and without me realizing it. I will sit down for a second and the next thing I know an hour as passed and I have gotten nothing done. I need to get better at time management skills and I need to get up earlier, it is just so hard some days. Speaking of time, I need to get something done here.

we got a laugh

Up until this week Lance would not laugh. He makes all kinds of crazy noises and we joke about how we have a pig or a bird in the house, but we didn't get any laughs until Wednesday. I went over to my friend Erica's house and we went towards the backyard to say hello to her German shepherds. The dogs jumped up and put there front paws on the top of the fence and for some reason Lance decided that this was the funniest thing he had ever seen and laughed. He was so tickled, I couldn't get over it. I called Jeff and told him we needed to get a dog so Lance would laugh more, Jeff didn't jump on board, darn. I am very curious why Erica's dogs created laughter considering my mom's three legged Jack Russell had not spawned laughter nor my in-laws half golden retriever, half chow, a.k.a. large mass of hair looking like a lion, did not get a giggle out of him, but two huge, scary German shepherds got a giggle. Last night I also got him to laugh for my family. Lance loves my younger sister Amy which is funny because Amy isn't too thrilled about babies. I kept swinging Lance close to Amy and he began to giggle. It cracks me up how nuts he is over Amy. He can be upset and crying but he looks at her and just smiles, now laughs. So hopefully the laughter will continue because there is no better sound, well maybe I will take that back when he can say "mommy."

mixed emotions

Yesterday I found out that my grandparents' house caught on fire and is destroyed. We no longer own the house, my family sold it a month ago, but it is sad that the house is destroyed. I am angry at the new owners that they couldn't take care of this house that my grandparents loved and worked so hard on, my grandfather remodeled the upstairs himself. Gram (my grandma) has dementia and doesn't even know that we have sold the house and she would be devastated to know that it is gone. I also feel bad for the young couple because they just lost their house and all of their possessions and they were only there for one month. I am also very thankful that the fire occurred when we had already removed all the valuables and mementos. I am also thankful that if it was going to happen that it happened when someone else owned it because trying to deal with a fire from out of state would be very difficult and the insurance company would probably have problems since the house was sitting empty. I know that a house is just walls and a roof, but there are so many memories there and it is one less thing that reminds me of my grandparents. I really can't grasp the concept that their house caught on fire and will never be the same again. The next door neighbor told my mom that the house was completely engulfed in ten minutes. Ten minutes was all it took to destroy 57 years of life. I know it is just a house, but it is so much more, a symbol of my grandparents. It was hard a month ago to accept that someone else now owned their home and now this. I am just a mix of emotions when trying to understand what has happened.

saturday morning

Lance slept through the night, well, he woke up once, but I didn't have to feed him so that counts as sleeping through the night. This is so exciting, I hope that this will be a trend that will continue. Waking up this morning was so nice, it was bright and sunny which is the complete opposite of the last couple of rainy, cloudy mornings. The air is cool and everything looks so crisp. I can't wait for fall, this is so exciting! I wanna break out all my sweaters. My love for spring/ summer might be a changing to an all season kind of love. Right now I am so thankful for being able to not work full time and to be able to enjoy the fall instead of being upset that it is the end of the freedom of summer. It amazes me how like the Johnson and Johnson ad says, "having a baby changes everything." It really does.

can it rain any harder?

Another rainy day, but man do we need it. For the first time in forever I am not depressed that it is September and fall is coming. I am actually looking forward to the cooler temperatures and the leaves changing. I can't wait to go for walks with Lance in the afternoon and have it not be blazing hot. Today is another long day at the shop, Lance has been taking two hour naps in the afternoon before Jeff gets here and I don't want to try and transport him home in the middle of his nap. I have been getting some things organized and I am actually starting to like hanging out here. Well I have a few more things to organize and do before Lance wakes up so I better go. I sometimes wish we were at home so I could organize there, but I have tomorrow and Monday.