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!