Making Friends

For anyone whose kids have 'started school' you know that it's like putting a piece of your own heart out there. You want them to be liked, to have friends, to not have their feelings hurt for any reason, etc... Well all of that is part of life, the good and the bad. Jack started at new school this year so he's having to make new friends...

The first days of school we would ask him about kids in his class, who he sits by and who he plays with at recess...all subtly encouraging him to make new friends and not rely on his two little girl friends from church who are in the other class. Some days he plays with the girls and some days he said he played by himself.

Let me just tell you about last week.

When I picked Jack up on Wednesday, he had the biggest smile on his face and came running over to me.

"Mom, I played with one of the boys in my class at recess today! His name is Toby and he had a football and asked me to play catch with him...and mom, I asked him if he wanted to come over to our house sometime." My heart about melted on the spot! It was so stinkin' sweet. Thank you Jesus for giving us friends. 

To top that, after school we dropped Jack at a birthday party with a bunch of kids he went to school with last year. Upon seeing him everyone came running over to give him big hugs and tell him they missed him this year. 

That's all for now. 

More Max

Per a few requests, here are a few recent pictures of Max. He is constantly changing from day to day and is not yet slowing down in size. I weighed him last Thursday when I was at the docs for Jack and he turned in at 13 pounds. I'll be careful not to blink or he might not fit in any of the 3-6 month clothes either...

Max started smiling a bit early last week. I took this picture on Saturday...his first 'captured' smile.

Last weekend Josh and I took our small group to the lake. It  was great to have so many willing arms to hold max but also just to cuddle him myself. As kiddo #3 I don't get much time to snuggle him. After feeding he's usually quickly back to a bouncy seat or swing so I can tend to other things. I know you're jealous, he's a pretty good snuggler :)

First day of Preschool

We hadn't decided until just a few weeks ago to put Ellie into preschool. Jack did not go when he was 3 but after having Max and realizing just how itchy Ellie was to get out, we went ahead with it. She has the same teachers Jack did last year and so he has spent the first half of the week prepping E for all she's going to do and learn not to mention all the rules.

I was a little nervous how she would since she cried twice going into church last week.

No worries. She was awesome and didn't look back.

When I picked her up and asked her to tell me about it, 

she said "can I just tell you later Mom? I'm tired." 

Within moments of leaving the parking lot she was asleep...on our way to pick up Jack.

When taking her picture E insisted on only putting her bag on one shoulder.

She is so stinkin' stubborn

...and goofy

very excited for her Cinderella folder...

What part of move the folder down don't you understand?

Reeds Lake Triathlon - XY Edition

The past few years I have fallen in love with triathlons! 

This would have been my 3rd year racing, but you can see how Maxwell created a problem for that.

Josh has been running long distance races and talked about doing the tri sometime...

I told him well this is the year cause I'm back at it next time and with 3 kids in tow we both can't train.

So here it is, Josh and my brother - the XY edition...I'll let him tell his story:

This was my year for the triathlon and I was pretty excited to do it.  My brother in law, Dan, and I swam together twice a week for the last 10 weeks, we ran 2-3 times per week, biked 1-2 times per week, and generally exercised like mad men.  Going into the race, I felt supremely confident in the swim and the run, concerned with the bike (probably my least-trained on activity).  Enter: Saturday morning...

Hello humble pie!  My confidence in the swim was drowned (almost literally) within 5 seconds of the start of the race.  I was expecting to be able to get into a rhythm, let a few people get past me and then settle into my freestyle stroke with my face in the water.  I think some combination of nervousness, the sheer amount of humanity closing in on me, the chill of the water, and the fact that I could die if I got pushed under the water led me to have what felt like a panic attack.  I was unable to breathe comfortably, couldn't get my face in the water, and became the most-hydrated racer in the field (wave after wave washed over me...all, incidentally, during the exact moments I was attempting to breathe in).  My 10 weeks of training went out the window and I swam a combination of breast stroke and floating on my back and kicking my legs.  What I expected to swim in 14 or 15 minutes ended up taking me 22 minutes.  My self-speak in the water involved a number of expletives and wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into.    The good news about a triathlon is that it doesn't end with a swim.  When my interminable water adventure ended, I got to the boat ramp and was running like an angry man on a mission.  

I made my way to my bike, took my GU, took a sip of water and took off to attack the bike...except a freaking race official asked me to stop moving and buckle my helmet.  If I could have punched him in the face and finished the race, I probably would have.  Regardless, my transition was pretty quick and I ended up getting on the bike and pumping like I have never pumped before.  I found myself with a group of guys in my heat (hard to believe I was with guys in my heat after that swim), these guys were fit and bikers, I was a little intimidated...until I realized that I was as fast as them.  I ended up staying with and passing (and being passed back) by these guys for the duration of the ride.  I had no idea how long it was taking me (thanks to my swim nervousness, I forgot to start my watch), but felt like I was moving pretty good.  My strength was in the uphills (thank you 3 mile and Knapp) and I ended up finishing the bike in 51 minutes (about 5-6 minutes faster than I expected).  

After another quick transition, the run was on.  This ended up being easier than I thought and I enjoyed the camaraderie of the runs through the neighborhoods and all of the encouragement from the volunteers.  As runners passed me and I passed runners, there were many words of encouragement shared.  When I hit 2 miles to go, I had quite a bit in the tank and turned it up a little bit.  I hoped for an 8:15-8:30 mile pace and ended up around 7:55/mile.  

It was great to have tons of support at the finish and the adrenaline carried me for at least 2 more hours, until I crashed in a nap around 1:30 and then woke up to aches and pains everywhere.  Would I do it again?  Yes.  Would I do anything differently? Only if I could convince 15 angry men to try to drown me as I swam across a lake instead of training in a pool.  Do I respect my wife for her performance in her triathlons?  Definitely.  She is the queen.  

My final stats:  

1/2 mile swim - 21:35

17 mile bike - 51:25

4.9 mile run - 38:46

final time (with transitions) - 1:56:58

pre swim

post swim

transition to bike

finish time

Dan, cousin marie, and Josh...If you finish with a smile it's not all bad

I had a lot of fun watching, but it doesn't beat racing!

Until next year,

Jodi

Senior Night 2022

This is one of those pictures we're going to see in 12 years 

in the slide show for senior night at church...

Annalie, Rose, and Jack  - great friends on the first day of school

Kindergarten

Jack did awesome for his first day of Kindergarten yesterday. He was a totally different boy than he was starting pre-school last year. He was full of excitement, eagerness, and a little anxiety. Half days, school starts at noon and so even though we had all morning to prepare, we are not used to eating a full lunch at 11am. It's 11:15 and we were rushing to get food down and outside to take some pictures.

Eleanor doesn't start pre-school until next week but wanted to be in on the pictures too...bad idea since she leads the goofy train! No chance I was getting them to be serious. 

Turned out pretty cute though!

A friend of mine whose son also started Kindergarten this year shared a verse on her blog that she was praying for her son as he also ventured into this big world. As I read it, I was reminded of how important it is to be praying God's word back to him and lifting our kids into his hands. (Thanks Bekah!)

Lord, turn Jack's ear toward wisdom and his heart toward understanding. Give him a teachable spirit, one that calls out for insight and searches for it as for hidden treasure. (Proverbs 2:2-4) I love this kid so much and I'm so grateful for you to entrust him to us.

Innocent Revenge

This weekend our neighbors at the lake (high school or college kids) are having a big camp out with friends...all fun and games until they're up until 3am playing beer pong or something and keeping everyone in our house awake...

Fast forward eight hours. 

Kids jumping on the trampoline, neighbors no doubt still sleeping in tents.

My Aunt Cindy, 'Grams' not so subtly encouraged the kids to scream as loud as they could

The kids had no idea what we were really encouraging, but thought it hilarious anyway.

okay, loving Ellie's static hair too!

Three's a Crowd

Love these kids...

And I thought my lap was crowded with two. 

It's feels good to be loved and wanted, but maybe we could spread out at least enough to turn the pages.

Ellie gets distracted easily especially with longer books. She couldn't resist making faces at Daddy with the camera.

1 month

I've been doing my best to not fall prey to the 'second/third child syndrome' and I've purposefully been making sure I take a good amount of pictures of Max. Max is now one month old and is by far my biggest baby yet. Eleanor was always tiny, and Jack was never above the 25%. Maxwell went to the Dr. yesterday and weighed in at 11lbs. 3oz (85%) and 22.5in. My cousin gave me the idea to take the same picture each month for the first year. It's pretty cool to then put them all together at the end to see how they've grown. So here he is at 1 month! 

Could I really say no?

Along with starting Kindergarten comes all the fun school supplies, accessories, etc... One thing Jack is required to have is a pair of tennis shoes to leave at school for gym class. Last week I took him shopping...

 We found a good pair at Kohls, but silly me thought we should look at Target anyway.

Before I was a mom I always made comments about how dorky those shoes with lights were and I there's no way in the world I would ever buy them for my kids...

I should've known better!

The look on Jack's face when he saw these Spiderman kicks was priceless...It was almost like he was looking to me for permission to 'like' them...and the way he kicks his leg to make them light...

How could I possibly say no?

Off to kindergarten on Tuesday. I love you Jack, and your Spiderman shoes too.

Back to the Lake

After a 6 week leave from the cottage because of Maxwell's arrival we finally made it back last weekend. I was just itching to do some sort of water activity after not doing anything all summer. I am still healing, so a sea-doo ride was about all i could do, but Ellie was thrilled for me to take her out instead of Daddy.

Max is cashed out under the dash while anchored at the state park

First boat ride

napping with Dad out of the sun