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

Gavinisms & Samversations

Hello friends, long time, no post. It's been a crazy month - traveling to NM for Cross Country Nationals, a re-org at work (resulting in more work for me, a new boss, and no more compensation), the Sandy Hook shootings, and the holidays - well, it's been a seriously emotionally draining month for me. It's hard for me to put words on a page when I get in a funk like this. My life is good. I have nothing to complain about, especially not at a time when so many are mourning the loss of their sweet children. It's doesn't seem appropriate to talk about how national tragedies affect me - even though it affects us all, it doesn't come close to how it affects those directly impacted.

And you certainly don't need another post about how lucky and grateful I am - I've written plenty of those, and I still feel lucky and grateful. So, it's hard to write.


I'll finish recapping NM and the holidays another time, instead I'll leave you with the latest funny from the kids.

Gavin was at my office yesterday morning. We've replaced paper coffee cups with re-usable mugs, and there are red mugs in the break room for guests. Employees have green mugs that we are responsible for keeping track of. I gave Gav a mug of hot chocolate, and as we were standing around with our coffee mugs, chatting with my (former) boss, Gavin said:

"I feel like a real businessperson with this mug!"

Sam woke up Christmas morning with a story on his mind. As soon as he woke up he said:

"Mom, you know about the Angels that have to guard the garden?? There was a sneaky snake that poisoned the apple. And they weren't supposed to eat it, but Eve gave it to Adam, and he ate it - and that's how they got in trouble with God! And now the Angels have to watch over the garden."

I posted this on FB tagging his teacher, who was so proud that he pays attention at "Jesus time"!

Sitting on the couch, right next to me, playing on his new Kindle Fire:

"Mom, I just feel alone right now. I feel really, really alone."

Heartbroken to hear this, I prod him on how he could possibly feel alone when I was right next to him. He felt alone that I wasn't playing his game with him!

Telling me about his day yesterday:

"Mom, it was a bad day for the Avengers today. There were so many bad guys, and not many good guys at school today!"

He and his buddies play Avengers all the time at school. They all are a character and from the stories I hear, these are very elaborate games that they come up with. Hopefully good will prevail.

"Avengers - assemble!!"

We Made it To New Mexico!

This morning we had a very uneventful plane trip to New Mexico via Denver. Only hiccup was a little bit of a delay getting out of Denver and it was minor. When we landed in Albuquerque, we got our rental car and went stratight to the cross country field where Gavin and I ran the course and practiced a fast finish. It's a nice flat course, and hopefully the elevation won't bother him too much! He drew a really good starting box slot, so he should have the best possible conditions for a great race.

The house Chad rented is awesome, and he is the official travel planner of the family now. It's a nice big place in a newish development.



Not the house that you can see in the pic, but the one right next to it is for sale for just $400k if you are interested  :)

We are off to the grocery store and to grab dinner. Trying to be a better blogger, so look for mini updates throughout our trip!