Thirsty?

Rock Star with a Bib

Waterpark and Baseball

The boys are at a fun age! Monday we spent the day at Cherry Hill riding the slides and swimming. We packed a cooler full of goodies and made a day of it. Crew was able to stay home with Grandma and while we did miss him it sure was nice to be able to spend some "quality" time with the older boys. They really needed it.

We topped off the night with a Bee's game. Who would've known that we would become so sports driven. My sister, Sheri, said "You're such a TRADITIONAL family". Um.... that's okay with me;)

Oh, today I ran my first double digit training run.... TEN MILES! I used the Power gels for the first time and after I took my second one I got a side ache. I ran through it and it went away. I had some chafing so I will need to look into getting different clothes or trying Bodyglide. I'm loving it!

Flowers at the swings

In honor of Evan Kamida's life... I'm posting these pictures of the flowers at the swings.

Vicki- thanks for sharing your little boy with us. While I wasn't able to meet him in person I feel like I know him and my life has been enriched because of it. Wishing you and your family peace and comfort at this time.

For more pictures visit FlickR

The inspiration for this gesture comes from a piece that Evan's mother, Vicki Foreman, wrote called Mother at the Swings which was published in the on-line literary magazine, Literary Mama.

Small town stuff

The last three days was spent hanging with family. I was lucky enough to have 5 of my 6 siblings all together with their children and grandpa and grandma. (Sorry, pics are in no particular order)

We celebrated the state holiday with a small town parade, fireman's foam, fireworks and good food.

I took my boys to the cannery on Friday and we helped my brother and his girls. We did carrots, onions, powdered milk, and potato flakes.

Saturday was the family swim day at the pool. Ah, I have cute nieces and nephews- don't I!

The DAM Race

I went ahead with my plans to run the Dam Race last Saturday. Thanks to those of you who have expressed interest in hearing more about it. S decided the night before to run it with me. He had never ran more than a 5K but I figured he could run the first 3 miles and then walk/run the last 1.7 if he needed to. Unfortunately, he was having trouble with the first 1.5 miles and we stopped to walk for about 20 seconds two or three different times. He was really tough about it though because I know his shins were bothering him. Surprisingly, I felt really good throughout the whole run. At the 3 mile mark I left S alone because I figured I could see him come around the lake and he would be okay. I really wanted to see what I could do as far as time goes. It was a really good run for me and I was able to finish and run back a couple blocks to run S into the finish. Overall, he only ended up being a couple minutes behind me and he finished strong. As we were waiting for the awards and prizes I ran into an old friend from my college days and we had a great time visiting. We weren't ever really close friends but she is someone who made a huge difference in my life by her example. I was able to share my thoughts with her and express my appreciation which made her cry. It's a long story worth blogging about at a later time:)

After running the race I was too lazy to walk the block back to my van to get the camera and so S and I don't have any pictures this time. Just a picture of the shirt, "I survived the DAM race". I love it!

That evening we went back to enjoy fireworks and I snapped a couple photos of my boys with their glow sticks. I don't know why the green glow stick looks like it is 3 feet long.... just another great feature of my $100 cheapo camera.






















Oh, and for strictly journaling purposes I ran the 4.7 miles in approximately 42 minutes and S came in at 45 minutes. S received a medal for placing 1st in his age group... shocked the pants off both of us and made it well worth the pain;)

Botox again

Crew had his annual hip x-ray and everything still looks good. We followed it with another round of Botox. I'm not sure if he got 8 or 10 shots this time because I was busy giving him a love hug, He received injections in his hamstrings, gastrocs, and adductors. It's been almost 5 months since his last Botox. We decided to go ahead and schedule him for another round in November.

I've been running on my broken toe since this happened. Earlier this week I was giving Crew a ride on the scooter and in my attempt to balance to two of us I must've put too much pressure on my knee... it's been bothering me since. My plans to run the "Dam Race" aren't looking too good. I went out for a test run this morning to see how my knee would feel and it didn't really bother me during the run but my ankle did. Hmpfhh! Maybe my ankle is over compensating for the toe and my knee. However, I've decided to run it anyway. Tomorrow is my first ever non-road race. I'm excited!

100 Loaves of Bread

I'm not the owner of an IPOD or an MP3 player and so when I go out jogging its just me and my thoughts. I started singing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" in the van the other day while we traveled to swimming lessons.
The boys asked me what in the world I was talking about and I found out they have never heard the song. LOL. We use to sing it on the school bus. I explained to them the advantages of singing that song in my head while running because you almost never make it all the way down to ONE.

They were very disturbed about the "beer" part of the song. I don't drink... in fact, I've never even tasted alcohol! So then we changed the words to "100 bottles of lemonade" and they felt a lot better about that;)

Today I baked my 100th loaf of wheat bread this year. I wasn't really counting... don't worry I'm not that anal:) It's just that I purchased 100 bread bags and I made it to the bottom of the pile. The neighbor boys mom makes her kids hot PB&Honey sandwiches in the sandwich maker. Isn't she cool! Sometimes it's PB&Marshmallows. I'm thinking PB&chocolate chips sounds like a good treat. Next time I go running I'm going to think about this post but for now..... time for a slice!

All-Stars Tournament

I'm sad that our Baseball season has ended. The All-Stars was a good experience for S. His team played hard, they were competitive, they had fun! The coaches were very knowledgeable which was what S needed. They battled hard and came away with 2nd Place.

Saturday at the game Crew fell out of his walker and face planted in the gravel. I was right there but I couldn't save him this time. He came out of it with a hamburger chin, one cut finger, and a bruised elbow. When he falls I feel like its all my fault. It's hard finding a balance between giving him some freedom and making sure he's safe. Usually, I have my finger hooked in the collar of his shirt just in case he stumbles but not this time... unfortunately. I try to tell myself that most kids his age (developmentally) are getting their fair share of bumps and bruises too.

Love this book!

Ah, I've heard a lot about this book and finally got to experience reading it myself. I really don't find a lot of time to read but I do enjoy it and I loved every page of this one. In fact, I think I liked "The Host" more than the vampire series and thats really saying something.

I'm so amazed at the talent many of these writers have. How impressive that Stephenie Meyer is able to come up with such a great story line and put it into words. She is truly a gifted writer and I can't wait to read more:)

Big Boy Tricycle

Crew tried out the Rifton Rustler tricycle for the first time and LOVED it! He is making great progress with the pedaling... we will work on steering it later;)

Seriously, I am thrilled with how well he is doing on it and hearing him giggle with each push of the pedal is enough to convince me that we will do whatever it takes to get him one.

Every kid deserves a bike, Yes?

Independence Day

Apparently I was too busy having fun to get the camera out and document our 4th of July holiday. S and I woke up early and ran a 5K. I wasn't really feeling my running groove but we were both still able to get a PR. I ran it in 26:03 (40 seconds faster than last time) and S beat me again (time unknown, probably about 20 seconds ahead of me). I'm really going to have to bump up my speed to keep up with him in the future... As you can see, he is catching me in height and his body is built for running, long legs and no body fat:) However, I think the real key is his motivation. Oh, I'll never keep up.

I was finally able to convince my family to join us for our community parade and skydivers. Grandpa and Grandma, Nate and Andrea, Ken and Kristin, and cousins too! I hope they enjoyed hanging out as much as we loved having them here. We came back to my place and had a barbecue, watched the toddlers swim in our little pool and visited. The guys found themselves at the golfing range.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to convince them all to stay for our neighborhood fireworks. The neighbors spend tons of money every year and are generous enough to share the fun with us. Crew loved watching and he gets a huge kick out of the really LOUD ones. It was fun watching him clap and kiss after all the big ones.

On Friday we found ourselves at the pool. It's our third year to take advantage of the Saturday FREE swim for families of those with disabilities. We even brought our friends with us and they all had fun. Crew LOVES the water! He kicks his little legs and smiles a lot. We had a little lunch at the park afterwards and spent the rest of our cash at the batting cages. We all had tons of fun and the best part is that Crew fell asleep on the way home which never happens.

Eyes and Ears update.

Our Ophthalmology appointment today went quite well. I remembered to walk the halls with Crew instead of sitting in the waiting room (which he hates) and surprisingly he was still happy when we got into our room. The Dr. said he had never seen him so happy and I explained the waiting room drama.

Dr. reported that he will look out of his right eye if his left eye is covered but as soon as he uncovers the left his righty turns in. Crew will be having eye surgery again in another month. He also mentioned that if he needed tubes in his ears we could schedule that for the same time eliminating a second sedation.

We called ENT and they were able to squeeze us in at that time. Seeing ENT at the Childrens Hospital is a first for us but it will be worth it. Sure enough the ENT confirmed that he does need to get another set of tubes so we will be doing that at the same time as the eye surgery.

I asked about getting an ABR at the same time and so that is scheduled as well. The last ABR showed an increased hearing loss. We are curious as to whether that will be the trend or if the progressive hearing loss was a one time thing.

Until then, I'm hoping to squeeze in some fun this next month. I still have not taken my kids to the pool, gone hiking, camping, the zoo... NATTA!