If I could choose one more talent...

OK, so this picture I am including has really nothing to do with the post, but I thought it was cute.  I know, I'm a bad mother for allowing him to put the glasses BACK on after he should have gotten in trouble for getting into them in the first place.  But he was just so dang cute I had to capture the moment and then take them away.  Anywho....

So I went to my friend Lara's concert tonight.  She has a beautiful operatic voice and looked so beautiful in her new gown.  It got me thinking...I have always thought that if I could choose just one more talent...it would be singing.  I can't draw and I don't much care about that.  I don't really much care that I'm not really athletic (although I would love to be skinnier....)  But if I could just sing....

Although I do enjoy opera, I don't even want to be able to sing opera.  I'd just like to have a nice voice to sing Michael McLean songs or something.  Whenever I say this people tell me "You can sing" but that's only because I DO sing in choirs and stuff.  I can do that much, but I don't have a very good range and I have no power to support any type of solo venture.  However, that being said I don't feel like a very good steward over the talents I do possess.  Piano for instance.  I LOVE playing the piano.  Seriously...I love to sit down for three hours and just play...start with a few scales, move on to real music, reworking a hard section over and over until I get it right.  I love it.  But do I EVER play?  Not unless I have a piano calling.  I know it's really a different season for me right now, but I wish I had the discipline to give up something else for that.  

Anyway, Joey has the washer torn apart in the hallway and has requested assistance.  So that's all for tonight.

Thirty two point five

I did my ten mile bike in 32 minutes and 30 seconds tonight.  Could have possibly pushed harder, but I knew I was running after and didn't feel like driving myself totally into the ground.  I'm happy with that though.  The run is going to kill me though, I know it.  I only ran one mile after the bike tonight.  Just couldn't bring myself to go farther...and I had to get home so Joey could go play basketball ;)

Feeling strong, but still SLOW

OK so the "training" is going quite well.  Every time I get in the pool I feel like She Ra!  Ok, so I'm still not that great, but I've been really happy with my progress.  The first time I swam it took me 40 minute to swim 8 laps.  I had to rest in between every lap.  Tonight was my fourth or fifth swim and I swam all 8 laps in a row in 15 minutes!!!!  This was after we had already run 3 miles tonight.  That took me 35 minutes (down from 45-50 the first run).  I've only timed my biking once so we'll update on that later.  Running makes me feel very weak.  I get so beat and can only run 2 or 3 minutes at a time, then have to walk for 2 minutes again.  This is good for me though.  I feel stronger almost every time I do something.  But I still haven't lost ANY weight, which is totally depressing.  My own fault though...haven't changed my eating habits...anyway...big Yeah! for me.  I'm still going to be the last person coming in...pretty sure of that.  But the margin should be less than it otherwise would be.

We survived...barely!

Ok, so it wasn't as bad as all that...but what a morning!  Tyler woke up at 2 AM this morning having peed his bed...a lot...he actually has not done that since we've had him sleeping in his unders.  And he was REALLY upset.  So I changed him, made him go potty and put him in bed with us.  Then around 6 AM Kelley came into our room complaining she didn't feel good (I think...I really don't remember very well).  But something she said made me have compassion on her and let her climb into our already crowded bed.  I usually send her back to her own because Tyler usually ends up in ours and that's about all the room we have...anywho...so about 6:30 I hear this coughing/vomiting sound and sure enough:  Kelley threw up all over our bed.  This is including the comforter that we JUST barely had cleaned (for $25!) after the cat peed on it...after we'd slept in it for 3 DAYS!  (That was actually back in January I think...but it's hard to choke down a dry cleaning bill like that every month!  For me anyway...)

Joey doesn't dare let me just throw it in the washer for fear I'll ruin it.  Wimp ;)  Anyway, he's probably right on that one....

OK so then we got Kelley cleaned up and her and I went out onto the couch, because Joey didn't want to get up and change the bed sheets, and my side was covered in vomit.  Good thing he didn't though because about 7 or 8 AM Tyler peed all over our bed.  Kelley threw up one more time, but we were prepared this time with a tupperware bowl!

On top of all this our furnace wasn't working this AM.  The same thing happened last year.  It will turn on in the garage, but won't blow air in the house.  We had a technician come out and he told us what was wrong and how he fixed it...do you think we paid attention????  Not enough because we can't figure it out this time either.  Luckily for us we have our gas fireplace and a space heater that have been able to do OK for today.  It's just hard to get the house evenly warm.  The front room and one room with the space heater are fine, but everywhere else is cold.  But I'm still feeling surprisingly optimistic.  I'm trying as hard as I can tonight to plow through my taxes...I know...it's Sunday...but I have my appointment tomorrow and have to get theses done...no choice!!!

Well the good news is the kids stayed home from church with Joey, but seem to be feeling better, except my husband just informed me that Tyler has peed his bed again (yes...I took everything off and did a million loads of laundry all day!)  Tomorrow can only be better right?

Family Portrait, by Tyler

Tyler drew his first family picture this morning.  I've noticed once or twice where he's tried to draw things, but they've only been simple circles with nothing else.  This is only a little more complicated, but I was so impressed.

 Kelley is the first one he drew farthest on the side (towards the middle of the board).  He yells out "Kelley come here, I drew you".  Then he drew himself next to her.  Then a "chicken", then I think it was a mess up because he didn't really identify it and it's not as defined as the others.  Below the mess up is Joey, then me, then "a giant tinkerbell."  

This one by itself if "daddy, with ears".  

Change is a comin....I hope!

But before we get to that:  some more random pics to make up for my lack for my lack of them in January:

Tyler's most recent funny saying is "I softing the kitty".  Today a little puppy came over and he asked if he could "softing the puppy".  Pretty funny...he's starting to get quite attached to our kitty.

The kids found this in the dress ups one day and dressed up my boy.  He loves this thing now and plays with it every chance he gets.

OK. so Kelley has seen those commercials for the "Snuggie" and she's convinced she has to have one.  I gave her my robe to keep her warm this day, but this is her "Please can I have a snuggie?" face.  She truly believes she really needs one for all the reasons they list on the commercials...one reason why I hate TV, but it is pretty funny.

Another picture to illustrate my kids obsession with puppies.  When we want everyone to do something at the daycare, we just play puppies.  We have them roll over (see above), sit, play dead, pick up a toy, etc. etc.

My husband will probably heckle me when he sees this background...but it IS February...so I'm going to put hearts on my blog!

So I feel kind of lucky...when I start to exercise my cravings change a little.  Tonight I was wanting something...ice cream?  No.  Cheese Tortilla?  Kind of, but not enough to justify it.  Cottage Cheese!  That's it.  I've been so excited this week.  I am getting in the groove with this Triathalon goal and am feeling a little more healthy.  I hope it stays this way.  I have been feeling REALLY unhealthy for umm...about the past 2 years really :).  I'm starting to get old and my metabolism isn't quite a quick as it used to be.  Also with two kids and all the changes we've had (moving, new jobs, starting the daycare, trying to get a routine in the daycare...etc...) it's been hard to get into a good rhythm.  But for those of you that aren't connected on facebook...I worked out 5 times this week!!!! So anyway...just wanted you all to know, I'm feeling really proud of myself right about now.

We're BAAACK...

Is it just me or has it gotten really busy lately? I guess I had this expectation that things would be calmer after the holidays...but not so. Nothing out of the ordinary mind you...I just am a mess as usual and have too much to do! It may not get better for the rest of this month either. I don't think I've mentioned yet, but our brand new computer crashed two weeks after we got it taking 6 months of business finances with it. Take into account this is the computer we bought because we were afraid our laptop was on it's last leg. That was November...laptop is still working... Well, now it's tax time...but I don't have until April to reconstruct everything...I have until the end of this month to get it done! I'm really dreading it and keep putting it off. So if you don't hear from me again soon...I'm hopefully working on taxes :) Otherwise we are doing well. I have insanely agreed to participate in a mini triathalon in 4 weeks. 1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3 mile run. I think I might die in the process, but hopefully it will be good for me. I've worked out every day this week and since I'm now announcing this publicly...more motivation to follow through!!!! Wish me luck!

Joe is still enjoying work...and happy to still have a job. Budget cuts go deep. Funny enough enrollment at SUU has continued to grow (I think it was at 6% last accounting). But somehow they think the solution is to bite the hand that feeds you. What can you do though? Everyone is hurting. No fear for now though...I am pretty sure his job is safe.

Kelley is great. She loves school and is still just a sweetheart. She loves to have me document everything she does...block towers, pictures, cute things Tyler does. Tyler is sick again...not sure what it is this time, but he's been wheezing for the past week and it's only getting worse as we try to do more and more breathing treatments. The question is do we go back to the doctor and have him tell us to do the same thing? He is getting a fever again though...can't wait for spring!

OK, so I'm attaching a few cute pictures. We finally found the missing camera cord. Wahoo!

During the hospital stay: on the way to the X Ray room

The little mother saying goodnight....
New Years at my Parents house
Little mother again helping him out.  I know we are terrible, but when I have snow pants that fit him, it's hard to justify buying more...so he goes out in Pink every once in a while...

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Kristy is away from her blog at this moment, please leave a comment and she will reply as soon as she can. Thank you.

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