Birthdays, Anniversaries and the End of the World

The boys, who usually fight like rabid dogs (no exaggeration there), played very well together last night for about 40 minutes. Gavin wanted to go to bed and we made him stay up later than usual because they were playing so nicely. I mean, they were running through the living room trying to smack each other with balls, but I guess that's what playing looks like when you have boys?

So anyway - boys playing well together means the end of the world must be near. Or hell is freezing over. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Trying to give you all a week in review on the regular since we up and moved. I've not been terribly successful, but I'll keep trying!

This weekend Sam had indoor soccer training and Gav had his state xc meet. Chad has a bum ankle so is taking some time off from running - which meant he got to take Sam to soccer and I went to a Zumba class at the Y. I have not been to Zumba in years and it was so much fun and such a great workout. 

It was beautiful weather here on Saturday and I think the kids spent at least 5 hours outside playing with all the kids in the neighborhood. I say it all the time but it's such a great little community here for the kids. 

Sunday we headed to Omaha for the Nebraska state xc meet, the last big race of Gav's season as we are not making the trip to a national competition this year. It was a little windy and chilly but much better than the nasty weather we had last year in Iowa for the meet. He was hoping for second, but got out a little slow and never could close the gap. He came in third with a time of 12:36 for a 3k. The two boys that beat him are 10 yr olds and they will be moving up an age group next year. Gav is positioned well to be the one to beat next year. 

Gav and I are going to do a turkey trot on Thanksgiving day, a 5k. I'm coming off down time due to a femor stress fracture, so it'll be interesting to see where my fitness is. We have a wager going - if Gav beats me by more than a minute, I owe him $20. The kid is fast, so it may be an easy win for him, but I am hoping all the marathon training that I put in, and the spinning and weight training I have done during this recovery phase have not shot my fitness all the hell. 

Friday we celebrated our 10 year anniversary, which is to say, we told each other "Happy Anniversary" and marveled at "holy crap, we are old". Today is Chad's birthday - but after hearing him analyze the pro's / cons of a Keurig coffee maker while looking at the Sunday ads yesterday, we brought his gifts out a day early. Including - you guessed it - a Keurig. He's turned into quite the coffee drinker these days. We are planning on hitting up a restaurant with the kids tonight for a birthday dinner.

Gavin starts chess club today. In Mexico there was a huge chess board by the pool and now the kids are obsessed with chess. So I bought a cheap $6 set at target and they are always wanting to play with Chad. But sometimes Sam steals the pieces and plays his own game "ultimate chess wrestling". Hysterical.

Aaaand....here are some really random pictures from earlier in the year that I don't think I have posted. These are all from May 2013.

The Baby-er Baby and Other News

November is always an emotional time for me, somehow most of the best and worst moments of my adult life are all wrapped up in November. It's the month we grieve losing Ella, wistfully wonder what life would have been had Gav been born on his 11/27 due date, remember his scary surgery, celebrate marriage, Chad's birthday and Gav's homecoming from the NICU. I can't believe it's been ten years that I have been on this journey - I feel like life as I know it started ten years ago at my wedding, when everything changed so suddenly just days after. Time doesn't heal all wounds, but it does make them less fresh. November used to have me on the brink of tears for a whole month, and now it's (almost) just another month. It is also prematurity awareness month. While I would never choose for things to go the way they did, I have to be grateful for the journey and how it has shaped me. I find myself oddly thankful for prematurity.

So there is my November thankful moment, since let's be honest this is likely the only post you'll get from me this month!

Life continues to be good for us here in Lincoln.

Outdoor soccer has wrapped and Gavin has been tearing it up on the local road racing scene, he even won a 5k in Beatrice a few weeks ago, as in was the first runner to cross the finish line, not just age group. His first youth cross country race was this last weekend where he took 3rd out of 8 kids in his division. We just got his report card and I am excited to start seeing 4's pop up - they use a 1-4 scale with 3 being on track for expectations and 4 being above. 2's need some work and you don't want to see a 1. He's been a solid 3 student, so seeing those 4's is a great accomplishment!

Sam is doing indoor soccer and continues to do well at pre-school. This kid's brain amazes me. His vocabulary is out of control, and he is getting into math, choosing to play flash card addition problems on his Kindle. He is also a major SASS.

Last night he told me "Mom, Gavin was a baby-er baby because he had a binky and I didn't, right?"

I said "yes, but you are definitely way naughtier"

In a reflective tone, he simply replied "yeah..."

Sam cracks me up on a daily basis, he is witty and smart and he knows it. Gavin is working hard at school and sport and becoming more and more responsible all the time. Weird how they have to grow up? I tried to pick him up this morning (just to see if I could) and it was not easy. One of these days I'll look down at him and realize he's no longer smaller than me!

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Mexico, in case I never get around to recapping it. Who wants to take bets on that?

Gav enjoying a bubble bath at the hotel

Beach bum

The parasail

The boys

The fam

 And a few pictures from our trip to the nearby Roca Berry Farms - pumpkin patch. This place had tons of things for the kids to do!

He's the King of the World Haypile

Sam's First Soccer Game

Both boys are playing soccer with Capital Soccer Association here in Lincoln. From what I can tell, it appears to be a pretty serious soccer league with well trained coaches. Gavin is about a month into his season while Sam just started.

The little guys just meet once a week on Sundays and practice for 45 minutes followed by a little scrimmage. Aren't their uniforms so cute??

It was 99 degrees out at the start of practice. His cheeks were red before they even started playing!

Gavin had a game in Omaha, so Chad took him there and I took Sam to his practice / game. Afterwards we each took the boys out 1:1 for dinner. It's really nice to spend that one on one time with them.

Sam handled practice and the heat like a champ and said he had a lot of fun, especially when he scored a goal. I was squirting water on his head during water breaks but by the end of practice the water was very warm! We stopped by the gas station to grab a cold drink and then headed to Red Robin for dinner.

Where he showed off his karate moves

And acted like a total goofball himself

I have to say, I love Red Robin! They have a salad I am obsessed with, plus it was way cheap to eat there. We started off with a little plate of fries, I had a salad, Sam had a corn dog kids meal with fruit and a drink, and we shared a dessert. All for $18! My budget loves it. 

And it wouldn't be a day with Sam without a hilarious tidbit coming out of his mouth.

Sam: Mom, what are you?
Me: ummm......a momma?
{shakes head}
Me: a girl?
{shakes head}
Me: well, what am I?
Sam: you are a WOMAN!!

Hey Mom....

I hear this from Sam at least 20 times a day.....more if we are in the car for any extended period of time.

Hey Mom.....(random fact)

Hey Mom, did you see (random thing out the window)

Hey Mom.....(random question)

Hey Mom.....(joke only funny to him)

Last week he had a pretty good one.

Hey Mom, Kelsey said she wants to be a police girl when she grows up. But I told her she has to be a policewoman. BECAUSE that doesn't make sense. It's a policeMAN, there is no policeBOY. Policegirl doesn't make sense, does it? Nope, she has to be a policewoman.

Pretty smart for a 4 yr old...

Gavin is NINE!

Oh my goodness....I was looking at old photo's and I don't even remember this little boy..

Gavin is growing up......like I wrote real words in his birthday card and he read them aloud and took them to heart..

He has had such a great year and we are so proud! He had a wonderful year in third grade and is doing awesome so far in 4th grade in Lincoln. He is out playing with neighborhood kids here, zipping around the neighborhood on his bike, or running laps and telling us about everything he sees in the neighborhood (a state trooper lives one street over!)

I can not believe this is the same kid that I was just hoping would breathe on his own nine years ago. 

He's not a perfect kid, we're not a perfect family - I hate blogs that are all roses, all the time. We are normal people that have our moments, and he can be stubborn and hot tempered and grumpy and mean to his brother. 

However, more often than not he is sweet, and kind hearted, and thankful. He works hard, he likes hugs, and would be so great to his little brother if little brother weren't always starting trouble  :)  He is funny, has a quirky sense of style, and wants to be an individual. 

Last night we celebrated with a dinner at home with all his favorites - steak and baked potatoes on the grill, roasted carrots, jello cake. He got some super cool DJ style headphones from us and has a couple more gifts coming in the mail this week - unfortunately I didn't get the order in on Amazon quick enough to make it yesterday! Just Dance 4 and his very own Garmin GPS running watch should be arriving soon.

I hate that the years seem to be flying by! This last year has been pretty amazing....it is so fun now that he is older and we can do more things together, skiing, running, kicking the soccer ball. 

After nine years of parenting, you learn that it's not slowing down any time soon.....so I'm just going to remind myself to stop and appreciate all the good moments. I am so thankful to have this child in my life!

I think we are going to like it here

Well, Gav survived his first day of school, timed math tests and all :)

After school we came back to my office for a bit and then to the hotel to hit the fitness center and pool. I wasn't feeling it so cut my work out short, postponing it to today and instead we went out for Cherry Berry! Good trade, don't you think?

Our house is right by a Super Target, which is super dangerous. We had a small list of things we needed (shower rod, curtain, rings, etc). We ended up with decorations for the kids room and a whole lot of other stuff as well. I never got around to decorating our house in Johnston, so it is kind of fun to decorate the kids bath with matching accessories, hang posters in the kids rooms, etc.

We got to the house and the new carpet that we installed on the first floor looks so good! Good thing we replaced it since the neighbor girl told Gav she saw the little kid that lived there pee on the floor one time. Gav was horrified. I spent some time scrubbing some schmutz off the fridge......I'm thinking I can never buy a used house again. I realize that makes me incredibly privileged (and I totally acknowledge that I am) - but other peoples dirt and residue totally skeeves me out!! There is definitely a cleaning list we will need to work through, windows, etc.

Gav went outside and played with the neighbor kids for a good hour while I worked on the house and dinner. He brought his buddy Cole in to show him around the house. I was so happy that the kids were so welcoming and friendly! There's just kids all over the place in this neighborhood. I didn't a chance to get outside and talk to parents, but hopefully tonight I can do that and get in on a carpool to school.

This morning when I dropped Gavin off at school, he didn't want me to walk him in. I just dropped him near the doors and he immediately saw a kid he knew and started talking and walking in with him.

So overall, things are going really well here and I am excited about how well Gavin is handling the transition. He seems to have a confidence that I didn't have til I was an adult - now I love walking into a situation where I don't know anyone and chatting up new people, but I don't remember that as a kid. I was shy about approaching people first, and Gavin just puts himself out there.

Now I just hope it goes as well for Sam once he gets here!

First Day of School!

Gavin and I are hotel living in Lincoln! We checked into the Holiday Inn yesterday and are living there for the week. We closed on our house last Friday but we won't have our stuff moved until next week. More importantly, we won't have internet til next week. That was the deciding factor  :)

After a rough first soccer practice with his new team last week, Gav had a GREAT practice last night. They play at a big sports complex, so I took the time to get a 5 mile run in. By the time I came back to watch practice, he was easily chatting with the other kids (and impressing them with his stomach roll parlor trick).

We stopped by Red Robin for a quick dinner, and then hit the hotel for bed.

Gavin woke up excited and not at all nervous about his first day of school. We parked on a side street and I walked him in - seems like a lot of people were walking to school or parking and walking (there is not a bus program in Lincoln). We found where the 4th graders were lining up and got him into his line. I tried to ask a couple parents about the pick up process, but they were either new as well, or walked. I'm afraid it feels a little disorganized, but we'll figure it out. The good thing is that there seem to be quite a few new kids in Gavin's class, so he is not the only one.

Another good thing I noticed is that the traffic doesn't seem to bad in the morning (at least in the south part where our house / school / office is).

Now I am counting down the hours until I get to go pick him up and hear all about his first day! On the agenda for tonight is getting signed up at the Y and making dinner at the new house (and then coming back to the hotel to sleep - good thing everything is close to each other!). 4 hours and 37 minutes.....this day is going fast!

John Wayne Bday Festival

It has been a LONG time since I posted, and hopefully one of these days I'll have time to catch you (yes you, all three people that read this!) of all that's been going on. The Sellers have been doing well, kids got through the end of the school year, Gavin and Chad are having amazing racing seasons, and we are exploring some exciting opportunities on the career / job fronts. I'm so grateful for our health and all the good things in our lives, because there are others I know that are fighting job loss, cancer, and other life altering events. Count your blessings people!

Sam went to grandma Betsy's for the weekend, so Chad and I went out to Winterset to run a small 5k that was part of a line up of events for the John Wayne celebration. Gavin came with us to cheer us on. The fitness sports website had 9:30 start time listed, so we went out there, registered by 8:30 and thought we had plenty of time to warm up. I went one way to warm up a couple miles and hit the restroom, Chad went another.

I got back to the van at 9:11 and Gavin told me the website was wrong, the race started at 9, and dad had been able to jump in the race. I have to admit I was really, really bummed. I was looking forward to it, my training has been going well, and with a small field I had a chance of taking the win for the women. But then I tried to remember the big picture and that this was not that big of deal. Stuff happens. Gav and I jogged up to watch the finishers come in and yell for Chad.

After the race, Chad was going to cool down with the guy that won, and another guy from Pioneer that came out and ran the race. He told me to join them, and it could at least be a decent tempo (close to race pace) run for me. Ha! Yes, Chad's easy cool down pace is my race pace. I kept up with them a good mile and a half and started fading. So we eased up a little, but still got a couple good faster (for me) miles in. Then we did another couple miles at my cool down pace. So, I didn't race, but I got in some good miles and ran with the Hubs.

Gavin really wanted to stay for the pie tasting, but it didn't start til 12:30 (it was 10 am still!). Our Pioneer friend hopped in our van and we took off to see the covered bridges. Along the way we passed a winery, with the tasting room open at 11, so after seeing a couple bridges, we stopped in the tasting room. Gavin drank a sprite while I sampled all their wines and the guys sampled the beer. Iowa wine has sure come a long way from the sickly sweet stuff they used to be!

Finally we made it back to Winterset for pie time. We also stopped into Mi Pueblito for lunch and it was amazing mexican food! They had this smoky, tasty hot sauce that I am now regretting not asking to buy a big cup of to bring home. If you happen to be in / near / driving through Winterset, you can not go wrong there, especially with their lunch specials ~ $5 a plate for a ton of food.

And now we are relaxing at home, we head to Cedar Rapids for a track meet tomorrow.

Ski Trip 2013 - 1st ski day

First day of skiing done and I am EXHAUSTED!!

The drive yesterday went very well, we made awesome time and the kids were as well behaved as could be expected. As soon as we hit the mountain we got into some weather, again, to be expected. Rain turned to snow turned to icy roads. But I'll take an hour of stressed out driving because it meant fresh powder!

We are staying at Cirque Lodge at Copper Mountain, on recommendation from a friend. It happened to be a fairly good deal too. We are in a two bedroom condo and it has an awesome deck, nice features, and we have a ski locker, gym, pool, hot tubs at our disposal. It's a bit of a walk to get to the lifts, certainly not bad if it were just me, but far for little kids. Copper Mountain does have these carts all over the place though, that you can use to haul your equipment (and children) around. Remind me to tell you how fun it is to pull a cart + 40 lb preschooler, plus our skis through fresh powder after a long day of skiing. Partially uphill. At least I am getting a full body workout.

View from our deck

Someone was excited to get here

Sam was signed up for ski and Gav and I skied together. Everything went very smooth at ski school drop off and Sam wasn't nervous at all. Gav and I headed for the ski lift - which wasn't very busy! I don't know if it's just like this on Sundays in general, but we were never waiting in lines.

Dropping Sam off

We sailed down some green runs and Gavin had no problem remembering how to ski. It was snowing pretty hard the first hour or so, and then the rest of the day it snowed on and off. It was nice at the base of the mountain, but really cold when we approached the top of a couple of the lifts.

We progressed to some blue runs and then tried to plan out a black. I do find the signage at Copper a little hard to follow. We had a hard time sticking to our planned route due to a trail cutting across a mountain and not being able to make it over there. In the end we only hit one or two black trails, they were really hard! And Gavin does not ski easy - he is really cautious and doesn't get out of control but he also doesn't stop til he gets all the way to the bottom. I love how cautious he is, but that means more turning (more work for the quads) and then not getting a rest break (Copper has really nice, long runs) was making me cramp up a bit. I was also diagnosed with iron deficiency Friday, so the fact that my muscles are not getting / storing / using oxygen as they should doesn't help. Constant lactic acid pain is not the most fun thing.

Last picture, he was getting tired, cold and kinda over it

Around 2:15 we headed back to the lodge where I would have to pick up Sam at 3. Gavin was done skiing, so I set him up with some hot chocolate while I carried his ski's back to our condo and got the ski harness for Sam in case he wanted to ski more.

I picked up Sam from ski school, and was a bit bummed with the results. He couldn't stop, could barely snow plow and could only turn right. Oof. We went into the lodge and met up with Gav and Chad and Sam promptly started melting down while simultaneously insisting he was ok to come on the ski lift and down the hill with me. Against my better judgment, we took off. He cheered up once he got the ski's back on.

We made it on and off the lift without consequence. Woohoo!

I started out trying the harness and he just fell backwards. We then did the Sam skiing between my legs while holding on to my poles, and it worked as long as it wasn't too steep. He was pretty tired by this point and just getting him to put his weight on his own legs (instead of leaning back on me) was nearly impossible. I think it took us about 45 minutes to make it down the run (remember what I said about the nice long runs? I take that back) and not only were my quads on fire but my lower back as well.

So I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to talk him into another ski lesson tomorrow, but I have reservations because I'm not sure he got a lot out of it today. I've heard good things about the harness, so I am now off to google You Tube videos on how to teach a 4 yr old to ski using one.

Wish me luck. And strong muscles. And patience.

Oh and the hubs? He dropped Sam off with us at ski school, helped Gav and I get our gear on, checked out the village, and did some snow shoeing!

I'll Love You For A Million and 71 Days

~ quote by Samson Sellers

Sam, as many 4 yr olds are, is a complete split personality.

On one hand, he is loving, sweet, sensitive and attentive.

The other side is devious, trouble making, mouthy, and temper tantrum-y.

Both happen in the extreme.

When he is in a loving mood, I get showered with lots of "I love you's" and smooches. He'll usually say something like "I love you for the WHOLE weekend, mama!"

A weekend seems like a pretty long time for a little kid after all! As we went back and forth with how long we'd love each other, he topped out at a million and seventy one days. Good enough for this mama.

Another great example of his caring spirit - my fellow preemie mom friend's daughter Daphne just had a kidney transplant last week. She's four, and recovery has been tough. She needs to start moving around more to aid in recovery, so I thought making some video of Sam dancing around would inspire her to move, shimmy and shake a bit, if nothing else, it might cheer her up. We made one Saturday and the next day he woke up and asked how "Daph-a-nee" was doing and if she was still in the hospital. When I told her that she was, he wanted to record another video for her. I have linked them below if you want to check out his moves!

A Boy and His Cat

Gavin loves this cat so much! For those that don't know the story, we picked out Meatball from the rescue league in January of 2007. He was already named Meatball. We knew he was the cat for us, and for Gavin as a pesky-to-animals two yr old when Gavin reached into his cage, picked up a little ball and chucked it right at the cat's head.

Meatball didn't even flinch, bite, or meow.

Ever since then it has been true love. 

Meatball really loves this. I promise.

Sam Has Big Goals

Saturday morning, Sam bounced out of the bathroom and announced:

"I'm going to wear my skeleton underwear ALL weekend!"

Shoot for the stars, kid  :)

Gavin can Hold a Ten Minute Plank

You are going to be getting some really random posts. I have lost the cord for my camera, so I can't get the pictures off of it until I get a new one. In the meantime, enjoy the randomness and camera pics.

One of the exercises we do during our core work out at track practice is the plank. We usually hold it for a minute, kids whining and complaining the whole way through.

The kids all seem to have abs and six packs on the brain, so they are starting to challenge each other. First, Gavin held the plank for 2 minutes.

Then a few days later he held it for 3 minutes.

Saturday morning after practice he held it for 3 min 10 sec.

Last night he held it for TEN minutes. He wasn't worn out from running before hand, but still. That is super ridiculous.

Sam's 4th Birthday Party!

Sam was supposed to celebrate his birthday last weekend, but an icy winter storm led to cancellation. We just didn't want to risk people getting hurt on the roads. So we picked up his Batman birthday cake and took it to Grandma Janet's.

The nice people at Monkey Joe's allowed us to reschedule at the last minute, so yesterday we were at Monkey Joe's with eight wild four year olds. The only casualty was a busted lip (Sam's).

I always hear about all these boys that Sam is friends with at school. His class is pretty much all boys except for one girl who is now his "girlfriend". Every day I hear the tales of their adventures playing Avengers. When I pick him up at school he is always playing and happy, but I have never really seen them in action.

Oh.my.goodness.

It is such a joy to see Sam with his buddies. They are a great little group of kids, and they just ran around the play place in a pack, switching off which kids were buddying up for different bounce houses. They were all just so happy and delighted and excited to be there together. I so much appreciated the sheer childish delight that I saw. It makes me so happy knowing that every day he goes to school he is spending time with kids he really enjoys. And a lot of them will be going to his same elementary school!

We made it through the party without incident. Only upset moment was when his friend who is our neighbor burst into tears. He was at a disadvantage not knowing the other kids besides Sam, so they turned on him as the "bad guy". After trying to get Sam to tell everyone he wasn't the bad guy (at that moment Sam was in tears about his busted lip) poor F broke down crying. I quickly made all the kids at the table tell him he wasn't the bad guy and the tears subsided. Whew. Crisis averted.

Happy Birthday, my Sam. You are such a crazy ray of sunshine, happiness and optimism. You balance out the rest of us in the family that may have a tendency to be a little darker, sensitive and dramatic. You live your life with a constant mischievous twinkle in your eye - and while this is sometimes leading to trouble, I wouldn't change you for anything!

A Letter to My Boys: On Diversity & Acceptance & Being an American

I don't write about myself too much here, but yesterday I encountered something that is weighing so heavy on my heart. I did use it to have a good discussion with Gavin, but my hope is that they can read back on this blog and see the person that I am, and who I hope they are growing up to be. This is such an important topic.

Yesterday a good friend - one of my best friends - told me she was drawing a line and only going to be spending time with similar minded people that she found common ground with. The basis for being similar minded was political views. She's always been very conservative. I've always been fairly liberal, but not outspoken. We've never discussed politics. It was a huge blow to me. This was my maid of honor. I think she might be listed as second in my will to look after my kids if for some reason my brother can't. Yeah, we were that tight.

To Sam & Gavin:

I am so proud to be an American. There are so many amazing things that this country stands for. We were founded on the ideals of being a democracy. People have the right to think for themselves, and we vote for the people that we believe will steer the country in a direction that we want to see it go.

We are a country founded on diversity. I have heard so many terms over the years "melting pot", "mixing bowl". All to say that we are all different - we come from different places, we have different beliefs, we have different ideas on how the country should be run.

These are such good things.

Sometimes there are more people that think differently than us than think the same. Sometimes we don't agree with the way the leaders of the country are doing things. The great thing is that, we can disagree. We can speak out, and we can voice our opinions, and exercise our right to influence the outcome by voting. It doesn't mean it always goes our way. That's ok because while we may not always agree with how things are being done, it doesn't mean that the other side is fundamentally wrong.

There is a difference between being firmly grounded in your beliefs and being divisive and narrow minded. Don't limit your relationships to people that think exactly the way you do. Celebrate your differences. Let them challenge your belief structure. Being a republican doesn't make someone a bad person any more than choosing to wear jeans while you prefer sweat pants makes someone a bad person.

Learn about your differences. We have an amazing opportunity to learn from each other - explore new religions, other cultural traditions. Understand that what your family and home structure looks like might be very different from someone elses.

We might not always understand, or even like, someone else's opinion. Don't allow your view of another human being to be limited to just one facet. We are so much more than "just" our religion/political affiliation/job/gender/ethnicity/sexual orientation. Surround yourselves with good and loving people, and accept that you won't see eye to eye on everything. Differences are not a reason to dismiss people. Tolerance and acceptance is about loving someone even when you think they are wrong.

When evaluating a relationship ask yourself: does this person treat others fairly? are they kind? If the answer to these questions is yes, none of the other stuff matters. If you have someone in your life that is a good person, that supports you, that you enjoy spending time with, none of the other stuff matters.

Some of my favorite people in my life have vastly different religious and political beliefs. I don't like them any less for it. I welcome discussion on those topics because I'm always curious to learn the reasons why people feel the way they do. But honestly, I don't even give it that much thought. We find common ground in working together, in our life history, in running, in being parents. Yeah, sometimes we may migrate towards people that think the same way we do, and that's ok too.

How boring would your world be if you surrounded yourself ONLY with people just like you?

I leave you with saying that I am so lucky for all my friends and family and the diversity that is represented amongst all of them. No one says it better than Ellen DeGeneres in her sign off -

Be Kind to One Another