More random thoughts

~ Sometimes the sunrise is the best part of the day. And then it all goes downhill from there. But at least the sunrise was good, right?

~ Sometimes, no matter how much I want to go do my twice-weekly 7 mile long walk/jog, I just can't do it and I have to quit after 3 miles. But it's ok. I'll live.

~ Sometimes it's necessary to weed out the flowerbed. Even if there are more important things that need to be done, sometimes the flowerbeds win.

~ Sometimes the oven really needs to be cleaned, but then the realization hits that there is no oven cleaner to be found in the house. Dump a box of baking soda all over the black nastiness on the bottom of the oven, spritz it with water every few hours, let it sit overnight (or longer if you happen to forget about it), and then wipe out the baking soda and all the black nastiness at one time. Really. Then revel in the fact that you don't have an Oven Cleaner Migraine.

~ Sometimes, despite my best efforts, I'll totally lose my temper with my kids. And I'll feel like crap about it. And I'll wish that I could do better with them.

~ Sometimes, more often than not, local meteorologists will get everyone in the state (and beyond) hyped up for "major storms" that are going to cause "significant damage" and nothing will happen. Nothing.

~ Sometimes, I can't even finish a blog post without having to run interference with my kids 17 times, so I decide to just post it and then if I have time, I'll finish my thoughts later.

:)

Another beautiful day for walking

I had some errands to run today, so I waited until the preschooler was on the bus and then the youngest and I took off for a couple of hours - with me on foot and him kicked back in the stroller. When it was all said and done, I believe we did close to 5 miles - and managed to sign some more paperwork at the dealership, stop at the convenience store for a snack, go to the library, and take a few pictures along the way.

Stopping to admire a little creek running through town

A bike with a weedeater motor - operated by a very cranky man.

The She-Beast, still sitting behind the dealership. She goes to the great garage in the sky this weekend. *sniffle*

Lilacs - one of the most incredible scents in the world

Skyscrapers, Kansas style

Trains at the grain elevators

Picking out some movies at the library - it's some serious business

Irises are getting ready to bloom!

Some little weeds mixed in with the neighbor's day lilies

Just random stuff.

You know, it's funny. I got this brand new (to me) beautiful van, and I walked all over town today to do my errands. Who does that?

I waited for my 5 year old to get on the bus, and then the youngest and I went walking. Well, he was in the stroller "reading" a book and I was walking. But anyway, we walked back down to the car dealership to give them the title for the She-Beast (which I searched high and low for all weekend long, only to find it on my desk beside my computer), then to the convenience store for a snack, then back to my insurance agent to take care of more new-van-paperwork, then to the bank, then to the grocery store, then home. By the time it was all said and done, we had put in something like 4.67 miles. I didn't even bother to time it because the stroller slows me down so much, but it felt so good to get back out there again.

Of course in this town, one thing that has to be dealt with whether you are walking, driving, or bicycling is the trains. They are a constant around here. I love to watch them, and so do my kids. They are so huge - something that I never really realized until I moved here and was exposed to them on a multiple-times-per-day basis.

He loves the trains - but the noise, not so much.


We actually didn't get stopped by a train this time, but if we had been 30 seconds later we would have while it went backwards and forwards a couple of times to switch tracks - or whatever it is that they do that holds up traffic for a few minutes at a time.

The rest of the day was spent doing the usual. Cleaning, laundry, changing beds, etc. A major high point though - when I weighed myself this morning, I found that I have lost another 5ish pounds since last week, which puts me within a pound of being back where I was when I posted the "32 down..." post a while back. Sadly, I gained weight again since then - but now I am focused again.

The half-marathon is in less than 3 weeks. I haven't been training like I should, so I am back on the wagon - I am going to get out and walk every day (barring nasty weather) and watch what I eat and do whatever I can to get ready for this thing. I am excited, yet terrified. I can't wait to post that I completed it.....*crossing fingers*

Anyway, nothing exciting going on. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something profound to say. Or not.

Easter eggs, Clydesdales, Playgrounds, and Poop

Talk about a busy day!

We were up early to get the older kids ready to go with their dad, and then the younger two and I were hanging out with no real plans. I got online and just happened to check the local newspaper at about 12:30, and found out that there was an Easter Egg hunt. Today. At 1:00.

"Boys! Get your shoes and get in the van! We're going on an Easter egg hunt!!!" They were stoked, to say the least.

There were way too many kids for the number of available eggs, and when the hunt was over (30 seconds after it started) my boys had a grand total of 2 eggs each. But, a friend from church was there and her boys gave my boys each another egg, so they were ok with their haul of three eggs each. We went back inside, had cookies and punch, and then left.

We drove around for a little bit (isn't that what you do when you get new wheels?) and I couldn't figure out why there was so much blasted traffic along the main drag through town. Then it suddenly dawned on me - the Budweiser Clydesdales were here! I had totally forgotten about it!

We have two Dillons stores here in town, and the team started at the store on the south end of town and went up the main drag to the north store. We live a block from the north store, so we went home, parked, and walked back to the store. There was also a fire truck there and the boys had fun exploring that as well as looking at the horses.

No, he didn't eat a Smurf. He had a blue coconut slush.

He almost couldn't hold the helmet up himself!

Beautiful boy, loaded up in the trailer and ready to go


After we got done with the horses and the fire truck, we went home and had a little supper, then we decided to go to a playground for a while. That trip didn't last long, as I realized that the 5 year old was toting around a load in his pants shortly after we got there.

So after a day of fun in the hot Kansas sun (it hit 90 degrees!) we came home, the boys got baths, I watched the end of the race, and the boys went to bed. I actually dozed off a little bit during the race - I think maybe I got too much sun today, but I loved every minute of it! I love hot weather, I love cold weather, I love it all - now, if I had just been prepared and worn sunscreen, I'd probably be a little more comfortable now. Oopsies.

Time to do some more laundry, clean up around the house, and get some sleep. Gotta' get up early for church tomorrow!

Fingerprint Friday ~ R.I.P. She-Beast

This is my second posting as part of Fingerprint Friday, something started by my friend Beki at the Rusted Chain - make sure you check out her blog!

Many of you know the trials and tribulations that I have gone through with my very beloved and often hated She-Beast - my 1991 Chevy Astro. I think I have spent more time under the hood of that thing than I have behind the wheel. But, it was a purchase made out of complete desperation at a time in my life when things were truly starting to fall apart. I had to have something to replace the van that was being repossessed within days as I was going through the separation from my husband.

I paid $650 for the She-Beast, thanks in part to a donation from a friend's church. I had to do some work to keep her running, but she's lasted just about a year. The past few months have been very touch and go, and it's been a challenge to keep her running.

A few weeks ago, I went to a local dealership to talk to them about getting a used minivan. At the time they didn't have anything that would work, but the guy there said that he would keep his eye out. I never expected to hear from him again.

This morning while I was at a playdate with my two youngest, he called and said that he thought he had the perfect vehicle for me. So I went, I drove, and I bought. I had to scrimp and scrounge to come up with the money for the down payment, but I somehow managed to pull it off. Things will be tight for the next few weeks, but they've been tighter than this before and we've made it through.

I am now the proud owner of a 2001 Oldsmobile Silhouette - I got a great deal on it and I really think that I'm going to like it. I do need to come up with a name for it though....

Those of you who know me well know what I've been through over the past few years. There have been times when I have wanted to just simply give up - but thanks to the love and support of those closest to me - not to mention a lot of soul searching and prayer, I didn't. I never thought that there would be a day when I could go to a dealership and just buy a vehicle - but I did it. And this time I did it without anyone's help. I can now say that I have a dependable vehicle that I can use to take care of my kids - and one that they won't be embarrassed to be seen in!

It's definitely been a good day.

Random Thought Thursday

~ It is Thursday, isn't it?

~ Staying up way too late talking to a friend on the phone makes for an extremely painful morning - although the conversation is always worth it.

~ Four out of five kids will be happy with the food that is available for breakfast. But the last one is the loudest.

~ Girls who can't seem to put their hairbrushes where they belong will always blame the mother for moving them.

~ One sister threatening to poke another sister with a thumbtack is akin to a death threat from the poker to the pokee.

~ When I have that fleeting thought to get gas in the She-Beast in the middle of the afternoon when it's warm and sunny, I should act on it then, rather than (1) realizing at 7am the next day that there is a lot less gas in the tank than originally thought (2) praying for extreme gas mileage on the 25 mile round trip to school (3) standing out in the cold, dreary, drizzly morning wearing shorts and a tshirt pumping $76.00 worth of gas into the tank, wishing that I had taken care of it the day before.

~ Always take that one extra step backwards before standing up from making the bottom bunk bed. The back of your skull will thank you.

~ While there are definite positives to being able to toss every piece of mail directly into the recycling bin on the way back into the house from the mailbox, it would be nice if at least one of the four pieces of financial information that I am waiting for would arrive sometime this year.

~ When spinning around in the computer chair to stand up and go down the hallway, make sure that you spin & land facing the proper direction. Doorframes are as unforgiving as bunk bed frames.

~ No matter how much time is spent cleaning the kitchen, it is never really *clean*.

~ The best time to mop the floor is when the preschooler is in school and the youngest is passed out for a nap. It does help to move him off of the aforementioned floor and onto the couch first though.

~ It never fails that just as I'm getting into something online, my phone starts ringing off the hook. And I can't be on the phone and online at the same time because I'm technologically impaired (aka too cheap to pay for "real" internet access).

~ I have no attention span today. None. Do I care? Not really. Am I still getting stuff done? Sort of.

A better day

Today was definitely a better day. I went to bed early last night and slept for 8 solid hours - something that I don't have the opportunity to do very often. It's not that I don't try to get sleep - I've just always been a nightowl, and with the amount of stuff that has to be done around here on a regular basis, I just don't have time to sleep.

So my day has been filled with the usual - taking care of the boys, doing laundry, cleaning...then I saw a post on facebook from our local homeless shelter indicating that they were in need of some items. I have been thinking about starting to get more involved with things like this, so I felt that it was the perfect opportunity. After the preschooler got on the bus, the youngest and I went to the grocery store to get some things on the shelter's list. We delivered the stuff to them, and it was so nice to know that I was helping people right here in our town - and considering the fact that we were so incredibly close to being homeless, it meant more to me to be able to help them.

After we came home and ate lunch, the youngest and I decided to go to the library. We walked up there (I walked, he rode in the stroller) and we hung out for a little bit while he picked out some movies and I got some books that I probably won't read. On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store (yes, again) to get stuff for the older kids' lunches, because of course we forgot that the first time around.

We hung out for a while he watched his movies and I did laundry and stuff. All of the kids got home from school, then it was time for supper (which we ate outside on our new and improved patio area) and then the older three went to church with their father.

Time for me to get the younger two ready for bed, clean up the place a little bit, and prepare for the older three to come back home - again.


Just some random shots from the day...new tulips are blooming!

Cute statue at the library

Redbuds are blooming!