Breakfast & Pizza

A has developed an interest in all things related to private parts. This afternoon this was our conversation:
A: (pointing to Princess Leia's chest) What are those?
Me: breasts
A: you have breaks (not a misspelling)?
Me: yes
A: I have breakfasts too.
Me: yes
A: Z doesn't have breakfasts.
Me: no
A: no Z has peanuts.

HA! HA! Yep it all comes back to peanuts and breakfast!

Family Sabbath

Today our church family celebrated Family Sabbath! We did this last year and it was an amazing experience (the only clincher was that I was "working") - this year I was there to be with my family and my God. I really can't express in words how much this day meant to me it was truly incredible and peaceful. To think that I actually thought about not going because my house is a disaster. I'm so very glad that I went!! I'm not sure what it was about today, the setting (a church camp), the canoes, the lake, the swimming pool, the lunch, the playground, the church family... all of these things made it wonderful but I think for me it was the time to love and spend time with the gifts that God has blessed my life with - BKZA.

It was a great day and guess what - I spent it enjoying, not photographing so no pictures this time.

A nice Thursday evening

Tonight was one of the few evenings that I don't have a workout planned and the kids don't have activities so I was home relatively early (I did swim right after school for about 45 minutes). We got home and I put Z&A's new sheets on their bed, made dinner on the grill while the kids played outside and then we had a picnic outside. Fun! It was a good night, fun bath time, book reading and then sweet hugs and happy smiles when they saw that I had put their new sheets on their beds.
Here are some sweet pictures of our evening:

The fearsome foursome picnicking at their teeny tiny picnic table
- shocked that it held up!

After all the outdoor fun - getting clean!

10 things - A

Here goes my 10 things for sweet baby girl.
I LOVE:

10 - the way she bosses B around.

9 - seeing her at school everyday, watching her with her friends
8 - watching her play dress up with all clothes (spider-man and princess dresses)
7 - the way she says "yellow" (lellow with her tongue sticking out at all over the place)
6 - her passion for water (bath, washing hands, swimming, water in a bucket)
5 - her still funky middle toe
4 - watching her play with her big sister and wanting to do what she does
3 - the way she says, "I love you Mommy."

2 - that she and Z are so opposite and so the same, and it drives her nuts

1 - her beautiful smile!

We run together!

May 2nd marked Z's first full day as a 5 year old and it also marked his first Fun Run. We had such a great day! I'm really excited that as I start training for 5K's and sprint tri's that I can share that time with my kids - A is well on her way to joining us. K&B - they ran the 5K with me, both of them beat me and had great races (all of us beating our Chapa 5K times).

B - came in second in his age group (11-19), great job!

Wow K - check out that stride!

It appears that she did a gazelle-like leap into the finish line! Impressive!

Here comes Mom - B ran the last bit with me
(he had rested for about 10 minutes before I got there!)
K left me in her dust!

Aw that is sweet!

K&B were supposed to run with Z - B took off and won the fun run.

Isn't this sweet how they took off holding hands?!

Z finished strong! So proud!

Sherry is a tri-athlete (again)

You may remember that a couple of years ago my eldest child talked me into this and because I was training for that my "friends" talked me into this.

Well I'm at it again! Since starting back to work I've had a LOT on my plate and one of the things that had fallen off and gotten thrown away with the dirty napkins was my commitment to myself and my health. Back in February I decided enough was enough and I needed to commit to myself again - since then I have run two 5K's, one duathlon and finally today my first tri (of this season). Tomorrow I will be running in another 5K. Sadly I'm not where I want to be physically yet but I know that this is the way to do it and I'm on my way. I already have a partner for the kid's tri this summer - sweet K (any suggestions on our team name?). So right now I'm trying to figure out if I can commit to doing a couple more tri's this season including... wait for it... gasp an open water tri! I'll keep you posted!
For now here is my story about today!

#1 I put myself too far back on the swim. When I saw people actually walking in the pool for part of their swim and I still had 30+ people in front of me I knew I had sold myself short. Alas what was done was done so I just had to make the best of it. I set my watch, jumped in and promptly stuck my head (without goggles) into the water! First cause of panic, I freaked! I grabbed my goggles got them on only to realize that they were full of water! Double panic. I finally got them on but couldn't shake the feeling and began to swim (or some semblance of swimming) and couldn't get my breath so I stopped to gather myself and realized that I couldn't touch - triple panic!!! Needless to say the swim wasn't good as a matter of fact I ranked 18th (out of 20) in my age group in the swim. Not a good showing!

#2 Bike - I love my bike! It's so pretty and fun and FAST! I love my bike. I zoomed through the course twice and would have preferred doing that one more time over running two miles. Oh well we can't always get what we want! My bike rank was 9th (out of those 2o lovely 35-39 year old ladies)! Whoop!

#3 I wogged! I started off running but quickly reverted to a walk and then kept trying to go back to running. After the one mile mark I did it! I jogged most of the last mile but my jogging is pretty slow because I ranked 20th (yea - same 20). See I should have biked that!

Here is the rest of the story - I did it!! I got out there and convinced myself that it is NOT about what my body looks like. It is about what my body can (and did) do! It swam, biked and jogged - I finished and for that I am proud of myself. The sad part was that my friend got messed up on the bike and only did the bike loop once (not the twice that was required). She finished ages before me, kind of funny but sad too. This was her first tri and she did a great job, considering how tricky the bike course was (lots of turns and corners - easy to get lost).

I swam, biked and jogged this race today on my son's 5th birthday and tomorrow he will be competing in his first fun run. My prayer and hope is that by being active I will be a good role model for my children so that they too can go out and do things that they never thought they would do.

10 things - Z

I've been going back and trying to copy all of my old blogs to make a "memory book." Scrapbooking is difficult to get to most of the time so I figured that since the blog is easily accessible and has LOTS of pictures and stories that I could create a book using that and then just keep adding to it. As I was going back I noticed that I had at one time written the 10 things that I loved about each of my children. Sadly I don't have the time, energy or brain power to do all four kids tonight so I'm going to do Z today (since it is his birthday!) and then hopefully you will come back to see the others later (not sure how much later)...

10. His amazing smile
9. His incredible amount of energy
8. He's a smart one!!
7. The way he sits in his seat sideways, he never pulls it fully out he just scoots it to the side and sits on the edge
6. The way he tenderly tries to get Hobbes to like him, he talks very softly and gently sits next to him... until he can't do either any longer and completely freaks Hobbes out
5. How he always smiles in surprise when he rounds the corner at school and sees me standing there - then waits patiently for me to come and give him a hug (he wouldn't dream of getting out of line)
4. He never wants what I'm making for breakfast, if I want to make eggs (his favorite) he always wants something else
3. I love the way he wants to help me start the washer and dryer
2. He's learning (from his older brother) how to hide his dirty socks in obscure places
1. He is silly and funny!