And the Fastest Runner Is....

James. That's right folks, you read it here first. The fastest runner in the house is now James.

James ran the OV half on Sunday, March 25th. His official time was 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 19 seconds. This beats my previous year's finishing time of 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 59 seconds. The man is a full 40 seconds faster than I am.

Zack and I were at the end of the course to cheer James on as he passed by. Maybe we were the extra motivation that James needed to press on for that last .1 mile, and speed up to beat my time.
James for sure wins the award for the most handsome finisher. Gotta love that man!!!

He is My Son

Most of the time, I hear how much James and Zack look alike. Not only do they look alike, but Zack also has a rather laid back personality, just like his daddy. I'm ok with the fact that Zack seems to be a clone of James. After being pregnant for 9 months and that whole childbirth thing, I know that Zack is related to me, even if he looks and acts 100% like his father.

Today, however, I realized two ways in which it's very clear that he's my son.

1. He leaves lights on when he leaves the room. I do this all the time, and it makes James crazy.

2. He can't stand it when cabinets are left open in the kitchen. James often leaves cabinets open, which drives me crazy. Today, a cabinet was open, and Zack yelled door over and over and over again until I shut it.

Yup, he's my boy.

Run! Fast!!

That's what Zack tells me to do when he's in the jogging stroller. Just about every time I take a walk break (jogging strollers are heavy and I just need a break some times) he pipes up and tells me I need to run and I need to run fast!!

Someday he will make a great personal trainer. Or maybe he already is my personal trainer...

I love that kid.

Weekend Recap

What happens when your husband goes backpacking for the weekend, leaving you home with the little boy and the beagle? The kid eats paint, super glues himself to the kitchen floor, and tells his mama "NO!"

It was a great weekend, really, it was.

I decided to do some "extra" fun stuff with Zack, since we would be without James for a few days. We went and bought him a new truck (one of his loves), and got some supplies for an art project for daddy. For some reason I thought that a truck that came apart into 6 different pieces wouldn't frustrate Zack. I also thought that painting would be a good idea. I was slightly wrong on both accounts.

Every 2 minutes, Zack would have busted his truck into 6 different pieces, and unable to figure out how to get it back together again, he kept coming and asking me for help. So, to take his mind off the truck that keeps falling into pieces, I decide it's time to paint a picture frame for daddy.

We go from this:



To this:



Crayola paint does not taste good. While it's non-toxic, it still does unfortunate things to little boy's stomachs. Zack does not recommend licking it off the end of the paintbrush. It doesn't end well.

While Zack was napping I decided the best way to prevent his truck from breaking into 6 pieces causing great frustration was to superglue the pieces together. So I got out my gorilla glue, and glued away.

About 3 seconds after Zack woke up from his nap, he was asking to play with his new truck. So I give him this new truck that has been super glued back into one piece. Seven seconds later he has ripped it apart. Apparently the glue needed longer to dry. So, I quickly grab the truck pieces from him (which frustrated him even more) in the hopes that I could prevent him from getting his fingers stuck in the still wet glue. I get his hands washed, and my hands washed, and put him down to let him go get into trouble somewhere else. He heads back into the kitchen and on the way, inadvertently finds the super glue that was transferred from the truck to the tile floor. He tried to lift his foot, but his sock was stuck to the ground. Oops! So, I yank the sock of the super glue, and go to town with goo-gone to get the stick off.

I then decided it was best if we just left the house and avoided all things crafty for the remainder of the weekend.

The next morning I was doing my best to keep Zack happy while I got ready for church. I asked him if he wanted to play with his truck (that had been re-glued, and left to dry overnight, much more successful this way). He told me "NO!" This is new for Zack. Usually his form of no is any angry sounding grunt/whine, and shoving whatever it is away. Or shaking his head no. He hadn't actually said no to James or I. And so it begins......

Overall, we had very fun weekend, and we were quite glad to see James when he got back home. Zack proudly presented him with this picture frame.

Next time James wants to go on a backpacking trip I will remind him of the weekend Zack ate paint, super glued himself to the kitchen floor, and started saying no.

Doggie Rescue

Not only do I say hi to everyone I see while running, and wave at all the cars that pass by, but I've also started rescuing dogs on my runs. Apparently they are drawn to friendly runners like myself.

On Monday we rescued our second dog while running. This fuzzy little black friend ran right up to us. He would not have done well on his own out in the wild. James scooped him up, and did his best to hold the little wiggle worm still while I tried to read his tag to call his owner. We connected with his owner, and returned him to his very thankful mama. Walter was thrilled that we brought home dog smells.

In other running related news, I was going to go on a quick run last night while my boys played in the backyard and our dinner baked.

I told James there were only 24 minutes left on the timer, so I was just going to run 2 laps (booooooooring). His response, "you can't do that in 24 minutes." My response, "did you really have to challenge me to do that???" He just smiled.

So I set out to run my 2 laps under 24 minutes. I am happy to report that my 2 laps along with 1 quick calf stretch break, a short walk break, and a stand there and look at the javelina eating out of the trash can break in addition to a wait for them to get out of my way break, I returned home 22 minutes and 54 seconds later. I was huffing and puffing and wanted to barf, but I did it. Then we uploaded my run to the computer and compared it to the time he ran two laps in 21:17 and I really wanted to barf. And go out and run it again in less than 21:17.

I think it might be better for me to stick with rescuing dogs, James is getting too fast.

He Calls Me Mom

My sweetie pie Zacky boy, who is not yet two, is beginning to call me mom. I feel like I should still be mama! Or mommy, which he seems to be skipping right over!!! He's too little to be using such a grown up name for me! And, when he calls me mom, his voice seems much lower than it is when he's calling me mama. This has got to stop, he's growing to fast!

James, however, is still dada and Dadddddddieeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! Cutest thing ever. I just might have a crisis if this whole mom thing doesn't calm itself down. I would like to be mama for a little while longer. Thank you for your participation, Zackary.

Car Buying with a Toddler

We bought a new car. Well, a used car. But it's new to us.

James has been driving the same 1997 Nissan pickup truck that I started driving my senior year of high school, too and from work every day. It was a dandy little truck, and got the job done. It came in handy when we needed to buy a Christmas tree, and for hauling other miscellaneous stuff that doesn't fit in a trunk. But, after 15 years of loyal service, it was beginning to show it's old age.

Poor James was a victim of it's old age. One day, while whizzing down I-10 at 75mph, he overheated. Our trusty mechanic, Lenny, got the truck back working once again. For a day. And then James overheated again. James was actually able to get the truck working again. However, for fear of the truck breaking down and costing us more in repairs than it was actually worth, we decided it was time to bite the bullet, and buy another car.

We headed to the car dealership on a Friday, fully prepared to not buy a car that day. We were going to take all weekend to get the best deal possible. Since we didn't think we were going to buy a car that day, we took Zack with us.

Well, we ended up buying a car that day. This is how car buying happens when you have a one and half year old with you.

Zack runs in 832 circles around the dealership, yelling "car!!" "geen!!!!" and "truck!!!!!" every time he sees a car, a truck or anything that he interprets as being green.

Zack stands by the fountain out front of the dealership, getting the mist in his hair.

Zack runs in more circles, around the green car, exclaiming "car!!!!! GEENN!!!!"

Zack rearranges the furniture in the cube where James was negotiating.

Zack yells "car!!! Geennnn!!! TRUCK!!"

I tell James "I think we need to be done." The salesman doesn't want to lose a sale, and gets us a good deal.

We wait forever and a day to talk to the finance man.

Dinner break by the fountain.

Zack yells "CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!! GEEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNN!!!! TRUCK!!!!!!!!!!" and runs 18 more miles around the dealership.

We talk to the finance man. Zack sits still for 8 seconds.

Finance man busts out money to buy fruit snacks for Zack.

Zack eats 3-4 servings of fruit snacks.

Zack says "wow! Truck!!"

Zack declares the evening to be done, and stinks up the finance mans office with a dirty diaper.

Finance man gives us an even better deal.

So, after around 5 hours of "car, geen, truck!!", 20 miles of running around the car dealership, 1 large pack of fruit snacks, and 1 dirty diaper, we drove home with a red car.

We now own 2 Toyota Corollas. We have matching cars. One silver, one red. I feel so old.