Playin' with Dominoes

I know ya'll have been missin' me. It's been like 3 days since I last posted... :) I've been trying to get some stuff up for the last day, but I have been busy.

Yesterday Ben & Carly came over while Ryan worked, and Jennifer recovered from working :) (she works nights :) ) We had big plans to go to the park and I would run/walk while Ben & Carly rode their scooters. Well, unfortunately, the sidewalks leading to the park are rather rough, so Ben managed to fall pretty hard on the way there...so we went back home.

When we got there we all had bagels (that makes everything better) and Ben fell asleep on the couch while Carly and I played with Dominoes.

This is what Carly said was 'Queen Carly'. I have no idea...

Ben woke up and started his own Dominoes project. He was getting pretty frustrated, because he kept knocking them down accidently.

And what, you may ask, was Eli doing through all of this? Why, playing with the Dominoes container, of course!

Below are a bunch of videos we took. The first two were ones I did. I tried and tried to spell out Carly's name, but, like Ben, kept knocking them over. I don't have the patience Ben has, because I gave up...The videos are really short-like 2 seconds...so enjoy :)

BEN

ELI

This was Carly's. Hilarious.

Okay...these last two are my favorite. The first one is the begining of Ben's, then I caught the rest of it in the second video.

...it gets better...

I was laughing pretty hard by the end. Apparently we all have some work to do on our Domino creating techniques...

We had a fun afternoon of dominoes, making chicken noodle soup (Carly helped me make the 'made from scratch' noodles....YUM!) coloring, and watching some TV.

Ryan got back around 4:30, and offered to wait while I got the rental car. It worked out great, because I ended up running to the rental place-which, come to find out, was only 1 mile away. I didn't realize it was quite that close. I was a little disapointed that morning when I didn't get my walk/run in (can't wait until I can just write RUN instead of walk/run) so this worked out perfect. I ran .92 miles (wish I would have realized I was that close to a mile). I could have run the whole way there (2 more blocks) but I didn't want to be gasping for air when I got there.

I picked up my very red rental car and headed home. The car is okay. When I got in the seat was adjusted so low that I could barely see over the wheel. I was a little concerned...then Edgar informed me you can adjust that :) Now I can see perfectly.

I got home and ATE the soup we made (SO good!) and we played with Eli. After he went to bed I headed to the copy place and made 1400 copies. Literally. I had a bunch of stuff (0bviously) to copy for my classes that I teach. The stupid part of it all, was that I needed it all 3-hole punched...and...well...I was too scared to ask them for pre-3-hole punched paper...which they have...at no additional cost. They were really busy, and I didn't want to be a bother...so when I got home, I sat on the floor with my brand new 3-hole punch and punched paper for the rest of the evening. Fun times.

Today has been busy-I had my classes this morning, which makes the day so much busier it seems, but I think I'm done with all the 'busyness' of the day, and can just hang out with Eli (once he wakes up) and eat leftover chicken noodle soup for dinner.

And that is the end of my crazy long post. Hope your day is swell.

Just a quick running update!

This isn't going to be all that interesting of a post :) Just keeping y'all updated on my ever so slow running progress. I walked/ran my normal route and cut another minute off my time-so I'm now at 47 minutes 38 seconds for 3.4 miles. I walked 5 minutes, ran 3, walked 5, ran 3, etc., like yesterday. Today I really tried to focus on keeping my pace up while I walked, and I did pretty good. I only slowed down once, when I ran into a teacher I used to teach with 5 years ago. We walked and talked for about 5 minutes, so that little 5 minute stretch was a bit slower, but oh well.

My goals for next week:

Monday: Increase my running time to 4 minutes with 5 minute walk breaks...and not crazy slow walk breaks :) Ben and Carly will be with me on Monday, so hopefully they can 'scooter' with me :)

Tuesday: Off...I'm teaching :)

Wednesday: Run 4 minutes, walk 4 minutes

Thursday: Off (teaching again)

Friday: Run 4, walk 3

Saturday: Run 5, walk 3...we'll see :) My main goal for Saturday is to run 5 minute stretches...the walking might be longer than 3 minutes :)

This is all on using my 3.42 mile route.

Okay, so now you know :) Hopefully all will go well! I'm pretty proud of my very slow progress...every morning I wake up looking for an excuse not to go...and every morning I actually go. Registering for that race has been my motivation :) Well...and the fact that I've now not been pregnant longer than I have been pregnant, and still can't fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes :( Pretty tired of the 5 outfits that fit me...

Eating, Playing, Running

Yesterday I had to teach...and since I'm without a car, Jennifer came to my house to watch Eli so I could use her car. I'm sure my students were thrilled that they didn't get the day off because of my accident :) Carly came over with Jennifer and helped her watch Eli. Carly got to give him breakfast, got him dressed, and changed his diaper. Nice work!

Eli looks thrilled...nothin' like some multi-grain cereal to help your day start out right :)

Yesterday afternoon Eli was playing with his blocks and being SO cute! He played with them for about a half an hour...and I took a zillion pictures :)

The blue and the red one have bells inside (the yellow one has a mirror...hence the very focused look in the picture above this one...) so he was shaking them to hear it. He was so fun to watch. (Side note...notice the disaster he is sitting in. That's pretty much what the living room looks like until about 5:00...right before Edgar gets home. Shhhhh! Don't tell!)

I've been playing around with Photoshop, trying to learn new stuff...these next pictures are a coupe of edits I've done in the last couple of days. I have loads to learn, but I am getting better at it!Which on is bigger? :)

Those crazy eyes....

'I can hear the ocean!'

In other un-photographed news, I ran/walked today. I haven't had the chance to go since Monday because of my classes, and...well...a car accident (though I will admit, I wasn't planning on going on Wednesday anyway...I'm gonna use the car accident excuse as much as I can for as long as I can, though...). We went our usual route, and got home a minute and a half faster, so that's good. I walked for 10 minutes, and then ran 3/walked 5 the rest of the time. You would think with running for longer (3 min. instead of 2) I would have gotten home faster, but I'm pretty sure at the end I was walking faster than I was running...oh well. Tomorrow Edgar is coming with us, and he always makes me work harder :)

It's been a fairly eventful morning...not even noon yet, and I have edited photos, gone for a walk, given Eli breakfast and a bath, took a shower, put Eli to bed (and rescued his leg from the side bars...first time he's gotten stuck, and BOY was he mad!) read my Bible (Thought it was funny how 'The Lord APPOINTED a great fish to swallow Jonah...(Jonah 1:17) Not just a random swallowing...I don't know why that struck me this morning...) and updated my blog. Now if the next 10 hours of my day goes that well, I'll be thrilled :)

A New 'First' for Eli...

Well, today Eli had the unfortunate experience of being in his first car accident :( He wasn't alone in the car, of course :) I was driving with Eli, Ben & Carly and we were heading for the park for a fun day of playing in water and swinging. We were coming from Einsteins (more pictures from that later in the post...), buckled in nice and tight, when a giant Ford SUV ran a stop sign. I saw it coming, and tried to stop, but I couldn't. Fortunately no one was hurt...at all. Not even Carly, who was sitting closest to the impact-though her cute pink outfit is probably ruined from some chocolate milk...It all happened so fast! I'm sure anyone that's been in an accident knows that weird, time slowing down feeling. The 'bracing yourself for impact' feeling. The 'oh my word! I hope no one gets hurt' feeling...As soon as it was over, I turned around and just started yelling 'Are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay?' Okay...so the yelling probably didn't help...but I can't do anything about all that adrenaline running through me :) Carly said she was okay, so I jumped out and ran around to the back to check on Eli. He was crying, but seemed to be okay, so I went ahead and pulled him out of his car seat. He was crying, but didn't really cry very long. I called Edgar (my hands were shaking so bad!) and just said 'We got in an accident. We're fine. Can you come NOW?' He, of course, came right away. I really couldn't believe how fast he got there...I have yet to ask him how fast he went. Don't want to know...Ryan was also nearby at a teacher in service, so he came and got the kids. The paramedics came and checked everybody out, and they said everyone looked fine. We didn't go to the hospital or anything, so all in all, we are VERY thankful.

This is our car... I can't help but think that if we were a couple of feet farther ahead, that SUV would have hit right on Carly's door, and this would be a very different blog post...Amazingly enough, with 4 people in the car, we got hit where no one was sitting...

One of the things that was so neat to me was how perfect strangers came to help. I'm pretty sure when someone sees an accident and three kids pile out of the car that causes them to volunteer help more readily, but there were so many people around. I don't even know who drove my car out of the street onto the grass. I was holding Eli and couldn't do it. There was quite the crowd around Carly, checking to make sure she was okay. One lady ran across the street just to get Carly a cup of water. Ben was pretty cute...I heard him say 'Thank you for thinking about getting some water for my sister'. It was so sweet. I don't know if the lady heard him, but I did :) It's good to know that there are people out there that want to help, and really want nothing in return.

Edgar got there and so did Ryan. Edgar cleaned out the car (completely. Seriously...I thought he was going to get the spare tire, just to be thorough. There wasn't a thing left in the car. I love my husband :) ) As you can see, everyone is fine. We headed home, and Edgar spent the rest of the afternoon dealing with the insurance. Now the real fun begins, right?! We'll find out in a couple of days if the damage was enough to total the car or not. We might be car shopping this weekend...we'll see.

Eli is COMPLETELY fine, and has been laughing and talking all afternoon. I think he's been enjoying the extra attention he's gotten-daddy's been home...on a Wednesday!

We're so thankful for God's protection. I know that sounds cliche, or incredibly obvious, but it's so true. The fact that we all walked away and are FINE is amazing. I've been thinking today a lot about how we don't deserve all the good that God keeps giving us...yet he showers His love on us daily. On days like today I really remember that...I need to remember that every day...

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We did have some fun today before all of this :)

We went to Einstein's and got brunch. This was our attempt to get a 'cousin' picture...notice Carly's hands, trying to turn Eli's head :) Silly cousin, don't you know that if there are puffs on the table Eli will only pay attention to THAT?
We went to the Einstein's I used to work at-which definitely has its perks. Yve, a friend of mine that still works there, kept bringing us free stuff. Below, Eli is holding a container of 'Bagel Bites', which are like donut holes...only bagels. Yve brought us 2 containers...which we ate in addition to our bagel and smear.

This is Yve. She's such a sweet person! I love getting a chance to go see her.

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One last thing, then I'm done...well, I think I'm done :) Yesterday Abuela got to watch Eli for the first time :) I started teaching my classes yesterday, and mom had the day off, so she came over and watched him. She took him for a walk, gave him breakfast, gave him a bath, played with him, and put him down for a nap. I think I need her to come over every day... :) Eli didn't cry at all while I was gone-he was completely entertained by his Abuela!

She did snag my camera and took some cute pictures and videos of him. The picture below made me laugh :)

Okay...this is the end of my crazy long post. I think I'm going to head to bed early tonight...I'm starting to get pretty stiff...tomorrow should be fun. If only insurance covered a massage...

Yup, I walked today...

...and I can't believe I did. I was looking for every excuse possible when I woke up, but I couldn't find one...BUT, I did it :) In fact, I did more than just walk-I started the long road towards running. I started off by walking for 10 minutes, then I ran for 2, walked for 4, ran for 1, walked for 6 (hey...there was a BIG hill) ran for 2, walked for 4 ran for 2, walked for 5, ran for 2, then walked the rest of the way home. Okay...at least I think that's what I did :) All in all I did my 3.42 mile route and it took me 50 min. 42 sec.-almost 10 minutes less than last time doing the same route. I was pretty pleased, and very hot and sweaty when it was done. Eli did pretty good-he fell asleep for the last 10 minutes, but seemed to enjoy the fresh air. I am really looking forward to going to Michigan in a couple of weeks so I can run in the cool air up there!

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In other news...have you brushed your teeth today? Well...I hope so :) Eli has been 'brushing' his teeth for about a month now...and he LOVES it!

I brush his 6 little teeth for him, and then let him play with his brush while I brush mine.

He does pretty good!

He does get mad when I take it away, though. Must get that from his oral hygiene lovin' dad...

Eli has also attached himself to his bottle of lotion. He gets so squirmy while I change his diaper, that I started handing him his lotion to distract him...well...he loves his bottle of lotion, and tends to keep it with him after diaper changing is done :) He cries when it's taken away too :)

We're trying a new schedule today. I'm still trying to figure out how to best work this new 'nursing 3 times a day' schedule. SO, today we cut out the morning nap...he did pretty good, but didn't make it to 2:00 when his normal afternoon nap is. We ate lunch at 11:30 and then he nursed at 12:45. He fell asleep while nursing, and is out now. Hopefully he will take a nice long nap this afternoon. We'll see how it goes with him not nursing again until 7:30...we may or may not make it :)

I have a bunch of stuff to do because tomorrow is my first day back to teaching. Fortunately my mother-in-law is coming with me tomorrow to watch Eli then we are going to go look at some houses. I can't believe it is time for school to start...

Alright...I have stuff to do!!

Happy Birthday Uncle Eric!

Today the family got together to celebrate Eric's birthday party. His big, bad 30th birthday isn't for a couple of days, but we got together a couple days early to celebrate. Leilani made a great meal-the chicken was amazing! She used a bunch of herbs and seasonings from Israel-delicious! We had a great time hanging out and talking...and eating...

Eli and Katie thoroughly enjoyed Eric & Leilani's giant bean bag. It can actually expand to a queen size! It was so comfy!

Pretty sure Eli wanted to take his nap right there!

Birthday boy! (Side note-that's the cake I made. I cut it into a '30'. It was a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. It tasted good, but holy cow was it rich! I totally cheated on the icing, though. I just bought vanilla icing and put some peanut butter in it. It's the first time I've bought icing in quite a while...no homemade butter cream icing this time...but it did taste good!)

The happy brothers. I love getting together with all the brothers and hearing stories about the things they did as kids. They seem to love to tell on each other :)

Mommy and daddy :) They are expecting their first baby in December. Leilani looks so cute pregnant! You can't really tell in this picture...but she is showing. They have their nursery done and it's super cute. Leilani painted a couple of pictures for it-they are adorable! Only 17 weeks left until Eli has another cousin!

We had a great time today. They day just flew by-suddenly it was after 7 and we had to head home to put Eli to bed. Pretty sure we're heading to bed soon too...mommy and daddy are tired! In fact, Edgar is sitting here on the couch next to me sound asleep...I suppose I should sign off early and get to bed :)

Ahhhh...Saturday!

Today has been a good day so far. I love Saturdays. I love how Edgar is home, and we can have a nice, family day. Today we got up (Edgar got up at 6 and had to work from home for a bit...after he was done, he said he was going to have a lazy day-which is equivalent to me having a busy day...) and went for a walk. Eli and I took off at 8:50, and Edgar caught up to us which was nice. Edgar thought he was going to have to work during the walk, so we headed out and then he ran to catch us. Anyway, we walked 3.42 miles in 59 min, 58 sec. I know, I know, why don't I just say an hour...but hey, now I can say I did it in under an hour. I take what I can get...Eli decided today was the day to take a nap while we walked-way to make a liar out of me! He slept for about 1/2 hour of it, so that was his morning nap. (I just put him down at 2, and boy was he tired!) He was also pretty sweaty when we got back...so much for him not sleeping and not sweating while I walk...oh well.

We got back and got cleaned up and headed for the grocery store. We went to ALDI yesterday, but I can never get everything I need there, so we went to Publix today...and we're going to Sam's tomorrow. Hopefully we won't have to shop again for a while...Anyway, we put the groceries away and made pancakes for lunch. Eli thoroughly enjoyed them :) Then I made a cake for Uncle Eric's birthday party tomorrow. If it turns out cute, I'll post pictures...but I make no promises. It's a chocolate cake, and I haven't made chocolate in a LONG time, so hopefully I can get the frosting to cover okay.

Edgar has to work tonight (like I said...nice lazy day) so Eli and I are going to hang out...who knows, maybe we'll go welcome Jenny & the kids home tonight :) I haven't seen her cats in two days either...I wonder if they miss me...

I am currently attempting to upload a video of Eli playing...with a box :) It's really his new favorite toy. It works well-I play with the Little People toys that the box holds, and he plays with the box. We've got a good system goin' on.