Musings of a Slacker

So once again, it's been weeks since my last post. Just face it -I have -I am a bad blogger! I'm sure I have tons of excuses for slacking on my blog but we'll just skip all that.

So here's what we've been up to over the past 3 weeks:

• Ironman Challenge - I finished! I took me 11 days and I loved doing it. I love having a purpose to my workouts. I don't hope to see a stationary bike again for a while. I was only able to do one outside ride, so the other 89 miles were done at the gym. BORING!!! But the one outside ride was my favorite workout for the challenge. My friends Marilee, Jenni, and I did a 25-mile ride one Saturday morning and it was fantastic. I LOVE fall, it's my favorite season, so be outside in that crisp morning air and bike in beautiful Colorado with great company, well it just doesn't get any better than that!

Jenni, Marilee and me overlooking Chatfield at the top of our bike ride.

• New Challenge - I was pretty sad when my Ironman Challenge was over. It just really helped motivate me and bring purpose to my workouts. So, I decided I needed a new challenge - just nothing involving the bike because I still can't bear to get on a stationary bike. My trainer, Kim, suggested doing something with stairs so here's the new challenge. Two weeks to run 26.2 miles, swim 3 (212 pool lengths) and step 26.2 miles on the Stairmaster Stepmill. For those of you not familiar with the stairmill, it's basically a modern torture device. It is tough! And my rule is NO HANDS! Monday I did a little over 5 miles in just under an hour. It didn't seem so bad. By Wednesday, my legs were just so tired that it was really miserable. I keep getting slower so it's going to be rough!
• Europe - Jeramy is gone again. Don't worry, no more big, whiny posts with me spilling my sob-story all over my blog. He's been gone nearly 2 weeks and gets home TODAY!!! He's been in the Netherlands and London. First he was in The Hague speaking at a conference, then on to Amsterdam then London. I've missed him like crazy but this trip, for whatever reason, we were able to manage without any major meltdowns - me or Ella :) A large part of it is I just tried to stay really busy.

• Church calling - A few months back I got called to be the Stake Primary Secretary. So last night we had our first Stake Primary Leadership Meeting. I've been really busy the past 3-4 weeks making 170 invitations, doing a newsletter, tracking people down and taking their picture for the newsletter, Stake rosters, etc. Anyway, our meeting went great and now I'm done that for another 6 months. Yeah!

• Curtains - I'm in the process of making new curtains for my house. I previously had a chocolate brown twill but I decided they were just too dark and gloomy and they made me kind of sad. It took me forever to figure out what to replace them with but I finally decided to use a fabric I already had. So, then after deciding what fabric to use I had to figure out how to make them. I decided I wanted rings, because in front of my sliding glass door, I needed to be able to slide the curtains out of the way easily. However, I did not want to use ring clips. Even though I have them on a few windows in my house, I just decided I wanted to try something new and I didn't want to be able to see the clips from the front. So after messing around with them, researching online, going to every fabric and craft store in town to find drapery hooks, I FINALLY found the right drapery hooks and just got them in the mail last week. So, next week it's all about the curtains!

My curtain fabric.

• Cute kids! The past 2 weeks what I've mostly been up to is taking care of my cute munchkins. Often when Jeramy leaves, Ella can be really tough because she really misses him and tends to have a lot of melt downs. This time around she has been amazing! She has been so sweet and helpful. In her prayers the other night she prayed that she would be able to "help Mommy while daddy was gone." She has been surprising me with little helpful things around the house, making her bed without being asked, unloading the dishwasher without being asked, and has been really helpful with Finn. She is just at a really fun age, too. She's so grown up. She went to a birthday party yesterday and got there an hour late because she had music class. This morning she was telling me she didn't get any donuts and said "but I was okay with that!" And little Finn is suddenly obsessed with trains, Thomas in particular. He will get his Thomas book, go climb in the rocking chair in his room and just sit and look at the book, saying "choo choo, choo choo" over and over again for 10-15 minutes at a time. Which is amazing for him to sit in one place that long! Anyway, I've really enjoyed my kids lately. Being with them on my own for so long hasn't really seemed like such the chore or burden that it sometimes can. I truly have had fun being with them so much and feel so blessed for my little ones!
  

They don't look so joyful here, but I love how much spunk and energy my kids have. I love experiencing life through their bright eyes and little minds and take so much pleasure in seeing the joy that they find in so many simple, little things!