Bumpy Ride

I have a story to share with you. I looked back on my blog and couldn't find it anywhere else, so I must not have told you this one yet... it happened the same day as the butterfly hatching, which obviously took center stage over a bike ride story. So, without further adieu, here is the bike ride story that never got told.

October 2, 2011.

It was warm and sunny and beautiful. It was Sunday.

We decided to take a family bike ride. Usually we bike through the nature reserve area, but on this day, we decided to take a different route. So we headed to the park. It was quite a long ride... longer than we expected. But we did it. When we got there, the kids played for a bit...








...until someone had to go to the bathroom. Rather than riding through this big gigantic park to find the nearest open restroom, we decide to just head back home.

Now, this was not the first time we've been to this park. In fact, Sebastian's school field day had been held at this park at the end of his 4th grade year... so I KNEW there was a short cut that went from the park to the school grounds. Taking said shortcut would have cut off a good five minutes of riding time to get us back home.

So we headed in the direction of the shortcut. We crossed the railroad tracks, hauled our bikes through a bit of a tight path through the trees, and got to the fence that opens up onto school property... only to find the fence had been chained and padlocked. Ummmm.... not going that way anymore.

Plan B. or Plan C. ???

Plan B - We COULD go back the way we came. Back through the trail. Back through the park to the other end. Back on the bike path. We could.

or....

Plan C - We're right here on the tracks already. And we know where they'll come out. And it's a more direct route than back through the park. Maybe it will be faster?

Plan C.

Bad idea.

We started pedaling. To state the obvious, it was bumpy. We all bumped along and teetered and tottered on our bikes again, until we started to get a rhythm. Soon, Lucas was going strong, and Sebastian wasn't so far behind him. They took off down the track.

I was ready to follow right behind. BUT. Meagan was having difficulty. And Isaac was having a melt down. He was none too pleased with Plan C. Not at all. He was mad because, well, because of everything you can imagine... it was bumpy, it was hard, it hurt, it was hard, it was bumpy, he kept falling off, it was bumpy... you get the idea. Little man had himself a protest right there on the tracks. He hopped off of his bike and refused to ride it.


So he walked. And Meagan rode slowly. And I... well, I just laughed. I couldn't help myself. I tried to hold it in because I knew Isaac was so frustrated, but that made it even funnier. I started laughing. And I couldn't stop. I think I got as much of a work out from the laughing as I did from the bike ride. It was the funniest thing! I kept looking forward at Lucas and Sebastian, who were quickly shrinking into the distance. And at Meagan who would pedal three strokes and topple over. And at Isaac who was putting all of his effort into being mad. I don't even remember anymore who had to go to the bathroom, but at the pace we had going, I'm not sure how that person managed to hold it in til we got home!

Funny stuff!! I love those funny, unexpected moments in life that turn out to be favorite memories. This will always be one of my favorite memories with our kids. Because it was spontaneous. And different. And poorly thought out... which made us laugh (well, all except Isaac). And it will never happen again, so I guess you could call that a once-in-a-lifetime moment. I like that.

Well, this for sure is a story I want to have included in our album. When I look through the documentation of how we lived our lives, it would be a shame if I didn't find this story in there. So I did a quick page about it...



(Click here to view full credits)

I used a bunch of goodies from TLP's Something Old Something New sale (SOSN). Every Wednesday the designers select old or new items and put them on sale 50% off. You can check it out here: TLP Store

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right now: the 2/28 edition

random bits & pieces from right now...

right now i am sitting in the quiet living room in my pj's with my hoodie on and my hood up. random. but i'm a bit chilly. i can hear lucas down in the basement... he's playing online with his buddies. i like that.

right now there is a lacrosse stick and ball on our kitchen island, and a helmet and 2 bags of equipment in the floor. we found a second-hand sports shop not far from here, and saved about $45 by getting a few of the items used. nice. parents' meeting tomorrow. first practice on thursday.


today (although not RIGHT now, because he's sleeping) sebastian came home from school and told me he wants to play the cello. ummm... apparently they had instrument testing today at school, when the kids get to try out different instruments and see what they like. sebastian took a liking to he cello and has it totally set in his mind that he will be playing cello for music class next year. there's an informational meeting about 'strings' on thursday. after gymnastics. and after lacrosse. but before we ever get to sit down to eat dinner. ;)

right now meagan is reading at level I. seeing as she started at level C at the beginning of the year, this is a huge improvement. she has gained such confidence in the past few months with regards to reading aloud. it's great!!

right now i'm pondering whether i'll do anything eventful for leap day tomorrow. i doubt it. but it seems like we SHOULD do something for it... i mean, we've got a whole EXTRA day at our disposal... you would think we could do SOMETHING with that, right? maybe i'll try to make cupcakes or a fun snack for the kids for after school. we'll see.

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You Bring Happiness

A quick layout to share with you. I did this a few days ago, but just haven't had time to get it posted. These pictures were taken in Michigan, so they're a bit oldish.



(Click here to view full credits)

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schedule me this and schedule me that....

oh my word. i do honestly see now how i manage to get almost nothing done sometimes. i'm running running running ALL. THE. TIME. truly.

last night i got an email from isaac's lacrosse coach with the schedule. can i just say that i had to go over it three times before i felt like i wasn't going to have heart failure. aaack! i guess i did not realize it would be a 3 month season, or that there are so many double-headers involved in this sport. or that the equipment requires a second mortgage for purchase. *sigh* but he has been SUCH a champ for the past five months as i've drug him around from gymnastics practice to gymnastics meet and back to practice again. he doesn't complain. he's not crabby about it. he just does it. and so i am excited for him to finally be the one who gets to be DOING instead of sitting and waiting.

unfortunately, it will mean double driving duty for me, especially on days when lucas can't get home from work... which is often these days... but that's another topic altogether. isaac's practices will be on the same days as meagan's gymnastics practices - tuesday, thursday. thankfully, they are staggered JUST enough that i should be able to drop him off and get back to the gym to pick her up, and then get back to lacrosse to pick him up again. i'm not really sure where dinner fits into all of this yet, but i'm sure we'll manage to squeeze it in somewhere. we may very well be relying on canned soup and cold cuts for a few months. but it's doable.

on top of all of this, we DID decide to go ahead and sign meagan up for softball. i talked to her about it several times... even tried to nonforcefully talk her out of doing it (for my own sake, more than anything, as i'm not super excited about MORE driving). but she just very simply, and without whinng or anything (surprisingly), said 'i just want to TRY something new. i've never done any sport except gymnastics.' and she's right. and i want her to do gymnastics because she loves it and it's what she wants... otherwise we're paying a lot of time and money into something she's doing by default... which makes very little sense. so, softball it is. i think i shall need lots of bubble baths to get me through these next few months. :)

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Clean Sweep

Sebastian had his last meet of the season before State today, and it would suffice to say that he had a good day at the office. He had a fantastic meet and came away with seven gold medals!!! Yes, he won all 6 events and all-around! We are SO proud of him and the way he conducts himself!

Thought I would share a few of his routines with you...

Rings: 15.4


Vault: 14.9

Parallel Bars: 15.3


High Bar: 15.4


Floor: 15.5


Pommel Horse: 13.5

All-Around: 90.0

He has made it his personal goal to win parallel bars and high bar at State. He told me that one of his teammates explained to him that you only have to get first on one thing at state and they will have to call you 'state champion' for a year. *lol* I thought it was pretty funny that this little tidbit of information has motivated him the way it has! The state meet is the weekend of March 24th and 25th, so we'll see how it goes.

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sports nuts

We are going sports nuts around here! We're coming up on the end of the competitive season for gymnastics. Sebastian has a meet this weekend, and then we only have their State meets in March to contend with. I can see the light!!

Today I registered Isaac for lacrosse. I guess the season will be starting up just as gymnastics is winding down. And if that wasn't enough to add into the mix, Meagan is giving me pouty lips and puppy dog eyes, BEGGING me to let her play softball. Some of her friends at school are softball players, and she wants to see what it's all about. I get that. I talked to someone with the program this morning, and she said they usually have practice one day a week and games on Saturday. So maybe it could work, even with her gymnastics schedule. But there's no way to know for sure until we pay the registration fee and she gets put on a team. Hmmm... So we'll have to make a decision on that... registration ends Feb. 28th.

And speaking of sports, I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to scrapping my sports photos. I did one layout this week, and it happens to be of Isaac playing football. Here ya go...

journaling: the concept of getting low for blocking and tackling was tough to get at first, but once you got the hang of it, you loved it! tackling & blocking drills against coaches and teammates became highlights of practices. it was great o see you having so much fun!

(Click here to view full credits)

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Project Life 2012: Week 4

Finally!! Week 4 is in the books...litterally. It took forever! I had SO many pictures (from 2 gymnastics meets, plus every-day life), and most of them were dark and icky... meaning LOTS of photo editing. Blech.

But here it is...


Some close ups...

I love washi tape... can I just say that I have a small addiction to washi tape. Amazon has tons of it, and I sometimes will just go online and dream shop in my mind. *sigh*

This week I also decided to add an insert of additional 4x6 photos to capture a bit more of their meets so that I had plenty of room in the main pages to capture the rest of the week.



Left side (and 4x6 insert):


Right side (and 4x6 insert):


And since you really can't see all of the journaling to get the meaning behind most of the photos, here's a recap of the week:
- after being U-Verse customers for a few years, we had Dish Network installed this week. Tired of paying so much for tv
- Banana muffins and homemade fruit roll ups for snacks
- The kids got to eat giant cookies for breakfast Monday morning
- Meagan drug all her doll houses and little creatures up from the basement. That stuff takes over the world when it leaves the basement.
- A pig. Just one of the many random things you can hope to find floating around our house at any given time. Random.
- And of course, 2 gymnastics meets... one on Sunday, one the next Saturday.

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seriously.

Seriously.

Having a job with hours in the middle of the day has really thrown a kink in my routine. I've got to really work on rearranging the way I use the hours I have available so that I can get a few
more things accomplished... including blogging. But honestly, I don't know what I can blog about that would be all that interesting at the moment. So assume THIS for all the days I don't blog: I got up, got the kids off to school, ate breakfast, did a wee little bit around the house, went to work, picked the kids up from school, took someone to gymnastics, made dinner, got everyone through homework and showers, went to bed. That pretty much sums up daily life around here these days.

Even so, there ARE little things in each day that make that day special. Today's special little moments...

* Meagan learned to tie shoes! She had to get new shoes, due to the fact that her old tennis shoes were completely falling apart. She chose shoes with ties. I showed her once, and Sebastian showed her once. After 2 tries, she got it! Now she's a pro. Love that!
* Sebastian got his kip on high bar at practice today! For many of you, this will mean nothing, but trust me when I say that kips are some of the hardest things to learn at first, and they're a foundation for almost everything else on bars. So the fact that he got this is major big! His coach made him a bet, and Sebastian won $1.50 for making 3 kips in a row! Sweet!
* I epically failed at dinner tonight. We had Wendy's. It was not so good. And of course, it never fails that someone's order was screwed up. Tonight it was mine. I swear 'no mayonaise' translates to 'extra' sometimes. *sigh*
* We're reading the 3rd book of How to Train Your Dragon right now, so that was our bedtime story. We don't get to read every night, but the kids always love the nights that we do get to read a bit.
* The day off of school for President's Day. I started gutting our master closet so I can make an attempt to organize and arrange it better. Right now, it's just a mess.

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Time Marches On

One more layout to share with you. This one makes me a little sad. Maybe not sad... maybe reflective? No, a little sad.


Journaling: 2 different pictures... the 1st was taken in 2010 on our front porch in Michigan. The 2nd was taken in 2011 on our front porch in Indiana. Even though these pictures have so many similarities, I can't help thinking about all that has changed in the time that flew by in between these 2 photos. So much has changed, while less has stayed the same. I am reminded by these two captured moments that I must treasure each and every moment, taking nothing for granted because time goes by so very quickly.

(Click here to view full credits)

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February BYOC

I am SO late getting these layouts up to share with you. So I'm going with 'better late than never.' How's that? Again this month, the Lilypad's BYOC is GORGEOUS! And I didn't have nearly enough time to use all the amazing stuff I wanted to use! MUST find time to go back and use everything at least once because I love it all!

I did manage to get 2 layouts done with it...

The first is just an everyday page of Meagan and her Pet Shop toys. Everywhere. They take over the house. But she loves them.

Journaling: 'pet shop love is still going strong. she still loves to get her animals out and set up shop in the middle of the floor.'

(Click here to view full credits)


The second, I did for a Digi Dare... 29 (because this year is Leap Year, so Feb has 29 days) reasons I love my kiddo... he's a pretty cool kid!

Journaling: "29 of the ten billion reasons I love you...

1. Your heart for God is inspiring 2. You look past others' imperfections 3. You see the value in each individual 4. You are patient 5. You are humble 6. Your imagination is incredible 7. You have a great sense of humor 8. You are super smart 9. You are a loyal and faithful friend 10. You befriend the friendless 11. You will go out of your way to do what is good 12. You take correction with a good attitude 13. You encourage others 14. You are slow to get angry 15. You're passionate 16. You can laugh at yourself 17. You draw awesome comics 18. You are a very talented writer 19. I love to watch you do gymnastics 20. You don't try overly hard to impress others 21. Your self worth isn't wrapped up in what others think 22. You still come in and snuggle me in the mornings before school 23. You put others before yourself 24. You are unselfish...(most of the time) 25. You have a gentle spirit 26. You are generous 27. You dare to dream 28. You love to have fun 29. You make me happy"

(Click here to view full credits)

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weekend

So much has happened since last Tuesday... we've been on the go go go in quite the non-stop fashion, so I've not had time to sit and post anything.

Circle of Stars was this weekend. Friday I picked up trophies and dropped them off at the meet venue... then went straight to work... then went straight home to get Bas off the bus... then straight back to school to pick up Isaac and Meagan... then we had to go to the store to buy a birthday gift for Meagan's friend (party on Saturday), and then home for dinner, which I didn't get to eat because I didn't get it done in time before I left to take Sebastian to gymnastics. Then at 10:00 we (my mom and I) went back to the meet venue to help set up the awards stage. We were there until almost midnight. *sigh* It was quite the day.

Saturday was the 1st day of competition or Circle of Stars for the boys. 3 sessions. Long day. Very fun to watch the level 9 and 10 boys compete. Plus, I saw an old friend from childhood... a guy that I went to gymnastics with, grew up with, went to school with, etc. It was really REALLY odd running into anyone from my hometown HERE. But cool.

Sunday morning Sebastian competed. And did GREAT!! He ended up winning 1st on High Bar, Floor, and Parallel Bars, 2nd on Rings, 3rd on Pommel Horse, and 1st All Around!! Yea! He did fabulous! And I would share some of the videos with you, except I managed to lose my camera case at the meet, and thus the adapter that lets me transfer images from my camera to the computer. Boo. Not so happy about that.

We left Sebastian's meet and went straight to Meagan's meet. By the time we sat through his meet, though, she was wiped. She didn't feel great. She barely ate lunch (a few nibbles), then complained of a stomach ache and fell asleep in the van on the way to the meet. No bueno. She had a good meet actually, although you wouldn't know it by the scores or awards. But she had set 4 meet goals for herself, and she made 3 of them... 1) bridge kick-over on the floor, 2) body position on vault, 3) stay on the beam!! She scored an 8.7 on beam, and got an 11th place award, so at least she didn't walk away empty-handed... after her brothers morning of cleaning house in the medals department, I don't think that would have been too pretty for her to get nothing.

So yes, we had a LONG weekend. And I have a lot to get caught up on... not the least of which is sleep, or groceries, or laundry. I might see if I can get something accomplished before I have to leave for work. Laundry and grocery list maybe?

Oh, by the way, I've finished the 1st 2 books of the Hunger Games trilogy, and am dying to download the 3rd to finish! I am super surprised by how much I've enjoyed this story so far. So maybe I'll try to squish some reading time in there somewhere. I hope.

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Rookie

Day 2 on the job (yesterday) went well. I've had some funny - and some not-so-funny - experiences already. I've had girl drama to contend with; I've had a few heartbreaking moments that made me just want to hug and squeeze a few kids; and I've had this kid......

During the 2nd grade recess, a little boy came up to me. He said, "I've been watching you. You might be new, but you're GOOD." I smiled (trying not to laugh) and thanked him. Then he ran off and played. As they were all lined up and heading back inside, though, this little guy popped up again. He gave me a high five, and he called over his shoulder as he was walking inside, "Good job, Rookie!" I cracked up! What a character!

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Checking In

What a day this has been! A very good, very productive day! And a Friday too!! What more could I ask for?!

By 6:30 this morning, all three of my kids were awake. More than awake, they were UP and in motion! Very unusual, especially for Meagan. So we were done with breakfast by 6:45. By 7:10, lunches were packed, kids were dressed, teeth were brushed, and Sebastian was out the door and off to school. I started a load of laundry, and the kids did their 20-minute clean up. By 7:45, bedrooms were clean, their clean laundry was folded and putaway, and everyone was ready for the day. Wow!


Today Meagan's class had a class 'slumber party' at school. They had earned enough tickets to be rewarded with a party, so they decided on a slumber party. They all wore PJ's and slippers, and they took pillows, blankets, and books for quiet reading time. Beautiful! She was super excited about it, and loaded her backpack up with seven different books to make sure she had plenty of reading options.


I got a few more loads of laundry done, and a bit of other stuff done around the house. Then at 11:00 I checked in at the school for my first day on the job... I got a job at the school as a recess aid. It's a few hours a day, every school day. I love that! I get to keep my time at home so that I can do snacks, dinners, dr. appointments. Plus I get to see my kids at school each day. My evenings are still free to be available for the kids, and I'm making a few extra bucks each week! What a blessing! It was fun really. The weather was beautiful today, so that probably played a part in my enjoyment. The people were all very nice and super helpful, so I think I'll enjoy this all in all.

After school and homework, the boys played Dynasty Warriors on PS3 for a little while. Lilly waltz right up and made herself comfy. She didn't seem to be one bit concerned with Sebastian's comfort, OR his ability to play effectively. *lol* Spoiled cat.



This evening we are cleaning up the house a bit to get ready for the weekend. And tomorrow morning the kids and I are loading into the van and heading north to spend the day in Michigan! I'm not at all looking forward to the drive, but I am super excited to see some of our friends that we haven't seen for far too long! Wish me luck getting 3 kids up and out the door by 6:30... althought it worked today, so maybe if tomorrow morning goes like this morning did, we'll be alright!



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Project Life 2012: Week 3

Steadily getting caught up. Really, I don't think I'm too far behind at this point. I just have last week (week 4) to do. Can you believe we're already in week 5 of 2012?! This is nothing short of astonishing to me! I mean, Christmas feels like it was eons ago!

So, I managed to get my week 3 printed and put together. I'm still doing nothing fancy. My goal continues to be 'Get it done.' I want to have an album to look through, even if it's a plain one. The end.

Week 3 was lots of ever-day stuff as well as LOTS of time spent in downtown Indy. I had the pleasure - really truly, it was one of the most surprising perks of my week - to walk the path through White River State Park to get from the zoo parking lot (where I parked way cheaper than anywhere else during the week days) and the JW Marriott (the event venue). For starters, I didn't even know the zoo was part of a whole state park conglomerate. But it is. There's the zoo, an IMAX theater, a museum, a baseball field, an amphitheater, an NCAA Hall of Champions museum, and more! I was very pleasantly surprised by all of this. And there is a beautiful walkway that connects all of the attractions with sculptures and views that just brighten a person's day. So that's what a lot of the photos on this layout are from. I really enjoyed that walk. :)







So next week will be crammed full of photos from gymnastics meets... two meets in one 7-day span! Oy! I think I'll work on that a bit this morning and see if I can get caught up today!! Wish me luck!

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