Hammy

I have nothing to say to this.

He kills me.

 

Kinda reminds me of this though:

Two

 

As if it weren’t bad enough that Berry Boy won’t stop growing up, Berry Baby is rapidly become less “baby” and more “boy” every day.

And he’s destroying me with his cuteness.

He blew out his candles…

 

and tucked into his cake

just like his mother would…

It’s good to see that some of my traits have been passed on to my boys…

namely, food enjoyment.

Six

We’ve finally rounded the corner from Birthday Week – Berry Boy had a birthday last Monday, followed by Berry Baby on Saturday, and Berry Guy the following Monday.  In related news, I will be breaking out my maternity pants to accommodate my expanding hips and waistline.  And I’m not pregnant.

Anyway.  Somehow, Berry Boy has managed to get increasingly taller and older, in spite of numerous orders to stop growing already accompanied by many warnings as to what his getting older and bigger is going to do to his poor mother’s heart.

Kids these days.  They just don’t listen.

I find it remarkable that he can look so much older in one moment, and then still seem so small and cute the next.  When I watch him playing with his friends or his little brother, he seems so big.  And then I see him in his helmet and goggles on his little dirt bike, and he seems so little again.  I’m not so sure I’m going to survive this whole motherhood thing.

Berry Boy really wanted a Transformers birthday party, so we invited some friends over and played party games like Stomp The Balloon, and Transformer Tag…

Then he opened his gifts…

and ate his Transformers ice cream cake (because I was too lazy to figure out how to decorate a Transformers birthday cake, and let’s face it, there’s nothing like ice cream cake…)

   

I think a good time was had by all.  And the ice cream cake sure helps to ease the mother’s pain.

Sure isn’t helping my jeans fit though…

Post-Turkey

In honor of Thanksgiving and stuffing smothered in gravy and pumpkin pie and whipped cream and chocolate cheesecake, I have not done a single run.  I wanted all that Thanksgiving deliciousness to settle appropriately on my butt and thighs.

I managed a stress-reducing 7mile long run in between phone calls from my siblings on Sunday, but then did not manage to get in my recovery run on Monday.  It’s my new *thing* that I’m trying – taking off the day before the long run, doing the long run, and then the day after doing an easy paced recovery run.  Apparently, it’s supposed to help recovery/muscle soreness/etc.  I’m game.  But it didn’t happen last week or this week, so back on the wagon for this week I guess.

Anyway, I was going to run last night, but was just too tired after being in a seminar all day long, then trying to work out travel details all evening (to go see my Dad).  Sounds like I will fly out on Friday and be back home on Monday, when I will only have to (1) immediately celebrate in some way Berry Boy’s 6th birthday; (2) take off to the church to speak at a bridal shower; (3) then plan Berry Boy’s “friend” Transformer Birthday Party, Berry Baby’s 2nd birthday party, and Berry Guy’s 40-somethingish birthday party.  I’m already exhausted.

So it was back on the treadmill this morning to burn off a bit of the stress – short notice travel, leaving the boys for 4 days, letting Berry Guy be in charge – I hammered out some 800m repeats this morning and it did the job.  I feel better.

Before that though, I spent a little time with my Bible, and that added much peace to my spirit.  I may need to do more of both by the end of the day…

Thankful, Health Edition

23. Today, I am thankful that my Dad made it through the night.  We got a call from my brother yesterday morning that Dad had been taken to the hospital Saturday night for stroke-like symptoms, and then another call Sunday after church that things were going very poorly.  24. I am thankful that the risky treatment that they gave was effective and didn’t cause a more massive stroke, 25. I am thankful that my oldest brother lives close to my parents and was therefore able to be with my Mom the whole time at the hospital, and 26. I’m thankful that Dad can kind of talk today and respond to the people around him.

27.  On a lighter note, I’m thankful for Pumpkin Pie

28.  And Saskatoon Berry Pie

29.  And stuffing

30.  And turkey

31.  And mashed potatoes

32.  And gravy

33.  And a clean house

34.  And the husband who has helped to clean it, and to keep it clean

35.  But mostly I’m thankful for my family – my husband, my boys, my siblings, my parents, my in-laws, and all the friends around us who feel like family.

Thankful – creepy noise edition

22. For Prairie Chick, who is coming to spend the evening with me helping me eat Lemon Sugar Cookies, drink coffee and/or Pepsi, consume large quantities of Peanut Butter Popcorn, and watch “Hello Dolly!”, which is only one of the best musicals of all time.  I just love Barbara, that’s all I have to say.  I am especially thankful for this because Berry Guy is off to watch a football game in Regina, which is fine, except I hate being at home alone at night, and I just heard the strangest and creepiest *animal* noise, which wasn’t quite as creepy as the time I heard the cougar close to our yard, but was still sufficiently creepy enough to make me lock my doors.  Because that really helps keep the creepy animals at bay.  What with their opposable thumbs and all.

Thankful, with a rant

So I went to the city today for my pre-Thanksgiving shopping spree and finally remembered to bring in the two pairs of pants that I wanted to get altered. These are pants that fit perfectly out of the wash, but as soon as you sit down in them they bag out uncontrollably. I was hoping that if I got them taken in at the waist a little they would wear better.

Anyway, I took them to the lady in the Mall that I always take stuff to, and she measured me and told me how skinny I was for having had a baby (who is 2...but I wasn't going to argue with blatant flattery), marked off my pants and wrote up the bill.

When I went to the counter to pre-pay for the pants, her assistant punched in the total on the debit machine and handed it to me. At which point I almost dropped the debit machine in shock and horror.

She was going to charge me $49.80 to nip in the waist of two pairs of my pants. Seriously? That's more than I paid for both pants combined. One pair I picked up at The Gap on sale, and the other were from Superstore (don't judge - they're the most awesome pair of plaid casual-dress pants ever).

After I stopped hyperventilating I handed the debit machine back to the lady and told her that it was way too much and thank you anyway and I would just take the pants somewhere else. And by somewhere else, I meant home.

For $49.80, I will just buy new pants. Or a belt.

Besides, it's Thanksgiving this weekend, and by *this* weekend I mean *all* weekend, and I just made a large batch of those Crack Cocaine cookies that I mentioned yesterday, so by Tuesday those pants should be just about perfect.

Speaking of cookies, so far this afternoon I have eaten 4* of those babies, and not 4 small cookies but 4 pumpkin-shaped cookies, which would equal about 8 of the smaller ones...the first 2 were just because I wanted them, and the second two I'm going to call "fuelling up for my run" *cough cough*.

(*this total does not include the cookies that I ate for breakfast...)

and on to the list...

18. For pants that are too big

19. For my Quad Grande Americano Misto that I enjoyed during my surprisingly stress-free** time at the mall this morning

(**excluding, obviously, the panic attack at the seamstress shop)

20. For good advice from good friends - Chris, I *do* believe we have solved the computer-after-school issue, and you, my friend, are a genius, and I'm not just saying that.

21. For the start of Small Group last night, and getting together with good friends who care for us and who we care for, and for visiting and laughing and telling stories and sharing and eating really deadly chocolate/caramel cookies and chips with fresh salsa

Thankful, Pictorial Edition

15. For 2-yr olds…

to whom a hockey stick is an obvious choice for a gun…

(and yes, I am aware that his pants are undone.  I have no idea what’s going on there…)

16. For the first fire of the season in the wood stove…

and the warmth that it brings.

17. For kittens…

and the 6-yr old who loves them, and that as yet I have not run over any of them with my car (although we all know this is more than likely going to happen…)

18. For Chris’s Crack Cocaine Lemon Sugar Cookies…

which I am going to be ever so thankfully making today (because I’ve been craving them since August) and which helped me through many a stressful spot on the 4x4 adventure (because nothing soothes stress like Lemon Sugar Cookies and a cup of fresh coffee).

17. and mostly today, I am thankful that both of Berry Baby’s puking incidents yesterday occurred when I was not present but Berry Guy was.  Not because I want him to have to clean up puke, but absolutely because I don’t want to have to clean up puke.

Thankful

 

5. Sooooo thankful that so far this morning Berry Baby has only barfed once, and that he did it before the neurotic Berry Boy woke up, and that Berry Boy therefore made it to school without freaking out about The Puke.

6. For Mennonite Girls Can Cook, and the roast chicken recipe that involved laying bacon on top of the seasoned bird (have mercy)…it was the BEST roast chicken I have ever made, and those drippings made the BEST gravy, and I will totally be using that strategy on my Turkey for Monday…

7. For work, and work-from-home, and the additional money it brings in.

8. For cream cheese

9. And whipping cream.

10. For my treadmill, which allows me to run year-round, and helps me push myself, and staves off the effects of the aforementioned cream cheese and whipping cream.

11. For the rare but lovely mornings when I get to doze off and on for an hour before getting out of bed.

12. For the rare but lovely mornings when I get out of bed to hot coffee lovingly prepared for me by Berry Guy.

13. For patience in playing Lego.

14. For espresso, and that lovely crema foam on the surface of the espresso that tells you that you just made a really really good shot.

Trouble

That little one, he’s definitely trouble.

The older one, he gives me trouble, but that little one, he embodies trouble.

Fortunately, they’re both ridiculously cute.

So it’s seven days until Thanksgiving, where we will enter that wonderful state of turkey-and-pumpkin-pie-induced-stupor, and when I break out the maternity pants so that I have enough room to shovel in as much turkey, stuffing, gravy and mashed potatoes as possible.

Just kidding.  I’ll wear normal stretchy pants.

I love holidays that involve turkey.  I plan to ramp up my running mileage this week to prepare for the gluttony.

I was also thinking that I would prepare for Thanksgiving by counting off the things I’m thankful for.  Because I’m 35 this year, I think I will count off 35 things that I am thankful for.

So, to start, (in no particular order of significance) I am so thankful for:

1. Coffee.  Whole coffee beans that are fresh and a little oily, that give off that amazing aroma as you grind them, and then get transformed into this nectar of blissfulness.  Ahhhh.  I love how coffee can make a bad day good, and a good day better.

2. Those two trouble makers.  They’re absolutely gorgeous and they fill my heart to bursting.  They are incredibly irritating and incredibly sweet.

3. Their father.  Because he is the best father to those two boys, because he calls me “precious” and not in a mocking way but also not in an icky way, because he thinks I’m beautiful even when it’s first thing in the morning and my hair is sticking up in ways that no one should ever have to see, and because he loves me even when I sometimes can’t quite figure out why.

4. For Fall.  For the crisp air, the color on the trees, the wonderfully musty smell of decay as plants and leaves die, for being able to clean up my flower beds, for being able to watch the combines and swathers on the fields, for cooler weather running, and for lighting the wood stove for the first time of the season.