MOM: Maddie, what would you like to do today after church?
Maddie: I want to go swimming!
MOM: well, we might not be able to swim today, it might be to cold, what else would you like to do?
Maddie: Go christmas carolling!
MOM: IT is a little early for christmas carols. We could go christmas caroling on thanksgiving. That would be a fun activity.
Maddie:NO! We can't do that because then we would just sing "Turkey Turkey Turkey" because it is Turkey day.
When we got home from church we filled up our little wading pool. Then we let the kids swim and run through the sprinkler. What else can you do on a 70 degree sunday in November when it is too early to sing christmas carols? There wasn't much swimming, but everyone got wet and Caleb and Maddie both wore their swim suits. I brought out the hammock and relaxed with Reed. Such beautiful weather. Everyday really is beautiful in its own way. If you live locally don't be surprised if you get some early carollers soon. It is supposed to get back to normal temperatures by the middle of next week. I love my life.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
giant pile of leaves
Saturday Morning the city decided to collect the leaves on our street. The sweeper truck piled them all up in front of our house! The larger truck came to collect them later in the day, but for several hours we had a massive pile of leaves! It was fun.Maddie's hair blends in with the leaves. She likes us to pretend that we can't see her because of her hair
Caleb liked to cover himself up with leaves and then pop out of the pile.
What a great unexpected activity for a november saturday!
It was very warm saturday, so after playing in the leaves we all went for a hike at Natural Bridge state park.
An archeological dig at this site in 1957 found firewood that was 12,000 years old. Evidence of ancient inhabitatation. These paleoindians were living in the time of mastadons and mammoths. This part of Wisconsin was not glaciated- the southwest corner of wiconsin was not covered by the glacier that covered the rest of the state during the last iceage- so the land is a lot rougher and older structures like this are preserved.
I am very glad that my kids enjoy these sorts of outings. Hopefully they will always be excited about nature and geology.
I like this park because it is pretty fun but also very safe. The trail is a loop, with all of the trees bare you can see everyone all the time. There is nowhere to fall or get wet. We had a fun hike and a great day. Now we are ready for the long cold winter.
Friday, November 6, 2009
fun
We went to the zoo.
we saw the giraffe.
Reed seemed entertained. He probably just enjoyed watching all of the kids and people.
we saw the giraffe.
Reed seemed entertained. He probably just enjoyed watching all of the kids and people.Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween
Reed
carried around, did not dress up. was not really scared of any costumes. Did not like the cold wind at the trunk or treat.
Caleb
First a bat, then a lemur, then a Bat again. Only 1 melt down during Trick or treating. Enjoyed acting out his costumes and pretending. Really loves all of the candy everywhere, doesn't enjoy not eating all of his candy all of the time.
Maddie
planned on being a bat, then found her Lemur suit from last year. Wore the suit All day friday, slept init friday night and wore it all day Saturday including her acting class. This suit includes a 4 ft long tail. Was very disappointed to learn that she is actually a lot larger than a rela lemur. She also acted out her costume, making Lemur beds out of boxes and pretending to eat tamarind, which consists of up to 50% of the diet of some wild lemurs. Trick of treating and playing with friends went great. This is truly Maddie's favorite holiday.
Martin
Martin dressed up as the wizard Howl from Howl's moving castle. He decided not to trick or treat at all this year! We wanted to do trick or treat for unicef, but in the end we just collected our spare change. Martin is a great kid.
Ben and Valerie
We did not dress up, which is incredibly sad. I deeply regret this and next year I am definately dressing up. We did watch the WSU cougars play Notre Dame on Halloween night. The cougars lost, but they played alright. I love my team. GO COUGS!
carried around, did not dress up. was not really scared of any costumes. Did not like the cold wind at the trunk or treat.
Caleb
First a bat, then a lemur, then a Bat again. Only 1 melt down during Trick or treating. Enjoyed acting out his costumes and pretending. Really loves all of the candy everywhere, doesn't enjoy not eating all of his candy all of the time.
Maddie
planned on being a bat, then found her Lemur suit from last year. Wore the suit All day friday, slept init friday night and wore it all day Saturday including her acting class. This suit includes a 4 ft long tail. Was very disappointed to learn that she is actually a lot larger than a rela lemur. She also acted out her costume, making Lemur beds out of boxes and pretending to eat tamarind, which consists of up to 50% of the diet of some wild lemurs. Trick of treating and playing with friends went great. This is truly Maddie's favorite holiday.
Martin
Martin dressed up as the wizard Howl from Howl's moving castle. He decided not to trick or treat at all this year! We wanted to do trick or treat for unicef, but in the end we just collected our spare change. Martin is a great kid.
Ben and Valerie
We did not dress up, which is incredibly sad. I deeply regret this and next year I am definately dressing up. We did watch the WSU cougars play Notre Dame on Halloween night. The cougars lost, but they played alright. I love my team. GO COUGS!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Stop TALKING about YOURSELF all the time!!!!
show off?
Am I a show off? There are two schools of thought on this topic....
Yes you are, but we love you anyways.-(sister/mom)
and
yes you are, knock it off.-(brother)
I believe I fall in between the two. I may have an anxiety disorder, which leads to excessive narccicistic tendencies. (say that three times fast)
Ofcourse most mental illness is not a great excuse for antisocial behavior, so I need to reform. Hear is an overview of the problem. A list of my recent "bragging" activities;
1. Sewing 10 bat costumes and making an elaborate birthday party for 6yr old girl and all of her friends. I also regularly updated everyone I knew/saw/talked with on the status of the preparations and all of the great awesome things I had planned. I realized that this was not of the general interest, and a conversation about the weather or the status of the local corn crop would have been less braggy, but I was genuinely excited and really wanted to talk about it.
2. Running a speedy half marathon while pushing a baby in a stroller. Lots of fellow runners and spectators congratulated me on my great wonderful accomplishment, and looked on admiringly. I didn't mean to attract so much attention, so I (here it is, my one non-self promoting act all week) I put away my stroller as soon as I possible so people would not recognize me as the "lady who ran with her jogging stroller". I thoroughly enjoyed all of the admiring questions and accolades. I really like attention. Is that so wrong?--not wrong, but it is unfortunate. No one likes a bragger.
3. I go to the Running group Tuesday evenings at Mov'n Shoes in Downtown Madison. I went for a few weeks this summer, then I came back recently and have been attending regularly for three weeks now. The first night I was there I told someone that I ran ultramarathons. Then they told someone else, and now everyone knows. I am not that fast yet, so I wanted to establish my "running credentials" lest anyone think I was a (gasp) beginner. Bragging at running group is not so awful. If there were an arena for bragging it would be at a running group, or previous to another sporting event. The problem is, that I tell people about my running all of the time. I am always thinking about it becaus I am usually sore from a workout, dreading a workout, or wishing I was working out. It really is something I do all the time. perhaps in this arena I could just limit my running talk to fellow runners who are better than me, while running.
Taken as a group these little self promoting transgressions are not too awful. I just need to find a way to keep a lower profile. I met someone who ran a marathon and didn't tell anyone about it. I admire her humility. I told everyone about my silly first marathon weeks before I did it. I was genuinely scared, and was talking about it all of the time because I was scared to death. Unfortunatley bragging, even when it is to assuage the fear of death, is still bragging.
CONCLUSION
My bragging is not awful, but I could stand to keep a lower profile. I will be more likeable when I am more interested in others and stop talking about myself all of the time.
So this week I will do something that is totally incredibly awesome and not tell anyone about it. When people ask about my week I will say "oh no, I haven't done anything awesome at all". I am sure (in a very narcisssistic way), that I have a wide readership. None of you will ever know what awesome, great, crazily creative thing I am doing this week. If you knew you would all be brought to shame by your own lack of ingenuity. You would fall to the ground groveling in your own egergious ignorance of all things awesome. Then praise my pristine perfection as a prime example of a pretty great person.
but that won't happen, because I am not bragging about it.
Am I a show off? There are two schools of thought on this topic....
Yes you are, but we love you anyways.-(sister/mom)
and
yes you are, knock it off.-(brother)
I believe I fall in between the two. I may have an anxiety disorder, which leads to excessive narccicistic tendencies. (say that three times fast)
Ofcourse most mental illness is not a great excuse for antisocial behavior, so I need to reform. Hear is an overview of the problem. A list of my recent "bragging" activities;
1. Sewing 10 bat costumes and making an elaborate birthday party for 6yr old girl and all of her friends. I also regularly updated everyone I knew/saw/talked with on the status of the preparations and all of the great awesome things I had planned. I realized that this was not of the general interest, and a conversation about the weather or the status of the local corn crop would have been less braggy, but I was genuinely excited and really wanted to talk about it.
2. Running a speedy half marathon while pushing a baby in a stroller. Lots of fellow runners and spectators congratulated me on my great wonderful accomplishment, and looked on admiringly. I didn't mean to attract so much attention, so I (here it is, my one non-self promoting act all week) I put away my stroller as soon as I possible so people would not recognize me as the "lady who ran with her jogging stroller". I thoroughly enjoyed all of the admiring questions and accolades. I really like attention. Is that so wrong?--not wrong, but it is unfortunate. No one likes a bragger.
3. I go to the Running group Tuesday evenings at Mov'n Shoes in Downtown Madison. I went for a few weeks this summer, then I came back recently and have been attending regularly for three weeks now. The first night I was there I told someone that I ran ultramarathons. Then they told someone else, and now everyone knows. I am not that fast yet, so I wanted to establish my "running credentials" lest anyone think I was a (gasp) beginner. Bragging at running group is not so awful. If there were an arena for bragging it would be at a running group, or previous to another sporting event. The problem is, that I tell people about my running all of the time. I am always thinking about it becaus I am usually sore from a workout, dreading a workout, or wishing I was working out. It really is something I do all the time. perhaps in this arena I could just limit my running talk to fellow runners who are better than me, while running.
Taken as a group these little self promoting transgressions are not too awful. I just need to find a way to keep a lower profile. I met someone who ran a marathon and didn't tell anyone about it. I admire her humility. I told everyone about my silly first marathon weeks before I did it. I was genuinely scared, and was talking about it all of the time because I was scared to death. Unfortunatley bragging, even when it is to assuage the fear of death, is still bragging.
CONCLUSION
My bragging is not awful, but I could stand to keep a lower profile. I will be more likeable when I am more interested in others and stop talking about myself all of the time.
So this week I will do something that is totally incredibly awesome and not tell anyone about it. When people ask about my week I will say "oh no, I haven't done anything awesome at all". I am sure (in a very narcisssistic way), that I have a wide readership. None of you will ever know what awesome, great, crazily creative thing I am doing this week. If you knew you would all be brought to shame by your own lack of ingenuity. You would fall to the ground groveling in your own egergious ignorance of all things awesome. Then praise my pristine perfection as a prime example of a pretty great person.
but that won't happen, because I am not bragging about it.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
half marathon
What is a superwoman?
Is is someone who can run a half marathon in 2:02 while pushing her 4 month old baby in a jogging stroller?
Well, then I guess that's me.
Mauston pumpkin dash 2009 was pretty fun. I hadn't planned on taking Reed along at first, but Benjamin had the other kids and they had soccer and classes, so we decided that If I took Reed his morning would be a whole lot easier. I took my large Burley double jogging stroller. It is covered and stays pretty warm. I put a pillow next to Reed because he is not so good at sitting up yet. He was dressed warmly and had blanket around him. I originally planned to stop during the race and feed or change Reed, but as it happened he was pretty happy and slept through most of it. I wouldn't take a baby along again, but I definately would consider taking an older kid. Especially if they could cheer me on or intimidate my opponents.
Is is someone who can run a half marathon in 2:02 while pushing her 4 month old baby in a jogging stroller?
Well, then I guess that's me.
Mauston pumpkin dash 2009 was pretty fun. I hadn't planned on taking Reed along at first, but Benjamin had the other kids and they had soccer and classes, so we decided that If I took Reed his morning would be a whole lot easier. I took my large Burley double jogging stroller. It is covered and stays pretty warm. I put a pillow next to Reed because he is not so good at sitting up yet. He was dressed warmly and had blanket around him. I originally planned to stop during the race and feed or change Reed, but as it happened he was pretty happy and slept through most of it. I wouldn't take a baby along again, but I definately would consider taking an older kid. Especially if they could cheer me on or intimidate my opponents.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
walk through Indian hills park
Sunday we walked through Indian Hills Park. The leaves are turning colors and it is beautiful. Martin and Maddie ran down the trail. They enjoy 'exploring'. Martin and Maddie call bumpy trails that go up and down a "roller coaster" and they like to run on the down hills. Caleb keeps up with them pretty well. He fell a few times but it was so fine that he got right back up and kept running along.
All of the kids climbed the tree. I should dress them all up as monkeys.. oh wait we did that last year.
Reed enjoyed the view from his carrier.
Maddie and Caleb both fit into the hollow tree trunk!
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