Welcome Spring...I think

Yesterday was such a beautiful day in the morning that Morgan & I went outside & started setting up the backyard for spring/summer.  We put together the offset umbrella with minor issues. (Morgan thought it was a fun idea to take the allen wrench that came with the umbrella kit & put it inside the hole of one of the bases so I couldn't find it & had to go get another one in the house.) She later told me what she had done.  When Braly got home from school he helped haul the tiles for the table out of the garage & put them in place.  We picked up trash that had blown into our yard (this happens ALL the time & I dislike it a lot) & we weeded a little bit. Just as we finished setting most of the stuff up the weather turned on us & had a cold wind. I thought we might actually get some rain but not yet. Guess we'll have to wait to enjoy the outdoors with nice weather sometime down the road.

Today Morgan & I plan to head to Menards & pick up a few things to help make the yard a little nicer looking.  We've discovered that the flowers on the side of the house don't survive the rain falling off the side of the house very well so I'm moving everything out of that flower bed & trying something different.  Something I hope to be easier to keep nice.  Since the soil doesn't seem to be very good for growing things either we're going to put rocks in that bed & just place some flower pots on the rocks for color.  really wish we could tear out the sidewalk along the side of the house & redo it.  It's broken up, sunken into the ground, & just horrible to walk on as well as shovel in the winter.  And then after we work outside for a bit I need to wash more of the walls in the living room.  It's coming along nice enough so far but it sure isn't very pleasing to the eyes.

Must head out soon. Morgan needs help getting dressed & then we can get some of the errands done.

April things...

Yesterday was my Grandpa Kenny's birthday & I didn't get the chance to call him & wish him a Happy Birthday. Good thing I'm planning to attend his birthday party on Sunday. I look forward to hugging him & getting another picture with him. He's such a fantastic and special man. Being with him warms my heart.

For the last few days the kids have been really missing their daddy. He's on a business trip to Traverse City and will finally be home this evening. We're all looking forward to his return as I know he is too. In his absence I have taken the opportunity to disassemble the living room ceiling so that we gained another foot and I've managed to tear almost all the wallpaper off the walls already. Next comes my least favorite part of the whole remodeling project and that happens to be washing the wallpaper goo off the walls. So time consuming & unfun. BUT it needs to be done and I am pleased that I am almost to that part in the process. I started this project just Sunday evening and in just a few days it is nearly ready to be patched & taped in preparation for texturizing and then painting. I look forward to having my new painting on display in the living room with warm colors all around rather than white/cream against the dark woodwork we have. And goodbye gross carpet full of 30 years of dirt that a good Dyson wasn't around to help keep it clean until we moved in a few years ago. Perhaps our allergies will improve again. I know I could use less allergy problems on a day to day level. AND Adam will have missed most of the mess that he hates, I had something to keep me busy while he was away, and the kids had fun coloring on the wallpaper & helping me tear it off after. I'd say this little venture worked out for all of us. Glad I had the idea to get working on it. :)

Morgie's New Milestone

This one has taken a long time to achieve BUT is well worth it. Morgan can finally lay in her bed and go to sleep on her own. I've probably explained before why she has never learned to fall asleep on her own until now when she's 3 1/2 but I'll explain again. Since she had so much trouble with breathing we never ever let her cry for long. It would just work her up & cause her more trouble breathing right from the day we got to bring her home. As she grew older she didn't have quite the same breathing trouble but developed Reactive Airway Disease. It's pretty much just shy of being bad enough to call it Asthma. Morgan seems to catch colds quite easily & then has to have breathing treatments twice a day for the duration of the cold to make sure it doesn't develop into something more like bronchitis or pneumonia. It seemed to me that just when she'd get better I'd start working with her to get her to try to stay in her bed & go to sleep & then she'd catch another cold & I'd have to hold her to do a breathing treatment at night & she'd fall asleep in my arms. Not helpful when trying to develop a new habit. She got quite used to falling asleep in my arms or next to me so she didn't know how to do it on her own. After some discussion with Adam, I decided that if Morgie got sick again I'd give breathing treatments earlier in the day & downstairs so that she would stop associating it with sleep and then maybe I could teach her a way to fall asleep on her own. At first the most difficult thing was to get her to stay in bed without me laying right next to her the whole time. I'd sing to her a little & that usually helped but as soon as I would leave the room she'd get out of bed to find me or go harass her brother who was usually already sleeping. (He's like his Papa Blaine & can fall asleep in literally 30 seconds after he decides he's going to sleep.) I had an idea...what always helps me to fall asleep at night besides praying? The answer is rubbing my feet together. I told Morgie to try it & she said she didn't know how. I showed her & I can't believe how well it works. She starts rubbing her feet, I often have to remind her, and after about a minute she starts yawning. Soon after that she's out for the night. I can't believe how well it works. It's almost like magic & I am so happy I thought of telling her to try it. Her future husband might not be as thrilled as I hear many people in my family rub their feet together & some of the spouses get annoyed with the sound of the rubbing feet. I find it humorous as both Gabby & Braly used to rub their feet together when they were babies. Makes me think it really could be a genetic trait. Hahaha LOL

I need your votes!

Good Morning Family & Friends,

I entered a contest to win some prints for pictures, photobooks, or 12x12 pages from a new place that I have quickly fallen in love with...Persnickety Prints. I had them print some of my 12x12 layouts as well as some 8 1/2 x 11 layouts & they did such a nice job with them. Now they have a contest to win $75 worth of prints from them & I'm in it! I am entry #28 and you can go over to their website & vote for my layout to help me win. You have to register in order to vote though. http://www.persnicketyprints.com/layout-contest Once you've registered, just sign in, find my layout of Morgan and click the 5 stars to vote. Not sure if it is only 1 vote or maybe its 1 vote per day. Thanks in advance for your time and your vote.

Valentine Run & Still training

On Sat Feb 6th I ran a 5K (which is 3.1 miles) in a Valentine Race down in Green Bay WI. It was about 18 F but with all the wind it put it down around 1 F. We had to wait around for the race to start which was a bit strange to me since when Allison & I run at 5:30 am we just hit the road right away. So waiting around for the race to start was cold & slightly annoying to me. There were over 1,400 people in the race which also threw me for a loop. I don't like being around that many strangers & it actually makes me a little nervous so I was really happy that I was with friends. When the race finally started it was crazy. There were many people that blew by us but Allison & I still had to weave back & forth through people until we found a spot that we could sort of maintain our space. It seemed that we still had our fair share of weaving though. There were more hills than we were used to but we did really great & out of the 900+ people that were running the 5K we placed somewhere in the 400's. I thought that was really cool & we also dropped our time from about 45 mins to something like 38mins. As you can tell I am NOT a number person (I leave that for Adam LOL). Near the end I could see 2 little kids & an adult from far away & was pretty sure it was my sister, nephew, & niece waiting to cheer me on. As I got closer I could tell for sure it was them & it gave me the goosebumps & the energy I needed to keep going to finish the race. I could hear the kids yelling, "Go Auntie Jet, Go!" It was a great feeling to have them cheering me on & put a HUGE smile on my face as I crossed the finish line with my friend. We received a waxed cheese mold & a candy bar as well as a long sleeve t-shirt for running the race. It was awesome to finish my first 5K with such improvements since I started this new journey just 6 weeks prior to the race. When I started I can honestly say that I had only run a 1 mile in high school & I barely was able to do that & that was when I was a lot thinner & in better shape than I am now. BUT with the encouragement of my family & friends, I was able to learn to breathe correctly & run almost the entire 3.1 miles. My friends have been trying to get me to commit to a half marathon but that isn't going to happen any time soon. I will run another 5K or even the 5 mile race in July so that's what I'm aiming for now. If I can make it 3.1 miles I figure I can make it 5 miles. And now my kids want to train with me when the weather gets nice so they can run too. Adam used to run cross-country in high school so I don't imagine getting him to run along with us would be hard. I think it would be neat to have that be one of our accomplishments as a family...to run a 5 mile race together. Such a great way to teach our children the importance of being healthy & making healthy choices in the things we eat & the activities we do. What a blessing this has been & continues to be.

Valentine Run 2

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My wonderful Mom

For my DYL assignment I was supposed to compare 2 people. I thought long & hard about who I should compare & felt that it should be my mom & me. Though I couldn't fit everything I had actually come up with on these 2 pages I feel that I compared enough & could always make another LO expressing the things I've learned from my mom & how we are so similar & yet so very different.

Mom, I love you with so much of my heart. Thank you for helping me grow into the person I am today. I know you aren't perfect & that you never claimed you were but you are a special woman in my eyes & I am proud to call you my mom. Heal quickly & know that God is taking you on the journey He wants you on right now. Allow Him to guide you along the way & your reward will be great! I love you!