When We Last Left Off...

Seems to have been awhile since I last posted!  Dang, time flies when you have to work for a living!

Since the camping and back to school updates, we've been busy getting back into a groove of school, getting up at 6am(ish), homework, packing lunches, paying  for schools fees, paying lunches, girl scouts, after school art and choir programs, homecoming coming up (Mason is actually going he says!), soccer...ya know.

First, running:  I've really been hurting and not running much.  I pulled my hamstring back in (Aug?) and it's been hurting since.  I've done a few fun runs and they have been fine.  I'm worried about the Half in October but know I can finish...but it may take awhile to recover.  I really want to finish it though because Alison will be at Mile 13 as a Children's Champion! It's very important for me to make it to the end AND still have enough strength and energy to hang out and have fun with her there!
In August, 12 of us girls did the Tap N Run and we were the Blue Mooners.  We had a TON of fun running in our tutus and buttocks!

Strides for Hope is the Ovarian Cancer run and has become one that I really enjoy running with my friend Heather, who lost her mom to ovarian cancer 2 years ago.  Our team is Carla's Rum Runners and the rum and coke toast after at 10:30am has nothing to do with why I run it!

We are back in the soccer groove too...this year is a little different.  Ella has gone up a league.  Justin is no longer coaching her.  She's playing for Coach Sam, who coached her indoor league.  It's been a bit of an adjustment but she is loving it!

 Daddy and toothless Si watching one of Ella's games.

Justin IS coaching Si's team again this year but he's the assistant.  It's been hard for him to give up a little control over "strategy" and how to coach the kids but it's been great because he's not doing the organizing for snacks, trophies, etc.

And this look on his face is one we see often.  I love it.

And for your amusement - go back and look at this post of Silas and his soccer arms/face :)



Oh, and I got my hair cut!!  First time in a LONG time that I've chopped it off...but it was time!!  I don't think I had my hair out of a ponytail in 2 years and I was sick of it.  This is quick and easy, I like that I can do something with it when I'm so inclined (like going to a concert!) but can still get it into a (albeit, the teeniest ever) ponytail!

Last weekend, Justin and I went to Put-in-Bay with 4 other couples.  MY FIRST TIME THERE!  We had so much fun!!
We got there on Friday, early evening.  Caught the Jet Express by the skin of our teeth at 5:45pm.

We milled around the island, had a little dinner and drinks and then chilled and got ready for our Saturday morning PIB 5K!  After a very soggy Friday night, we had incredible weather for the morning run.

 

Doug and his babes had a great run!

We spent the rest of Saturday watching the Buckeyes game and bar hopping.  We found a super fun band that night and got to dance and have a great time.

We're really looking forward to doing it again next year.

The last but definitely not least update is our progress on the house (a YOSP update the I've failed to do lately!).
So, one of the things that we really wanted was to convert the 1st floor laundry into a mudroom. Justin put a laundry area in the newly finished basement and that allowed for the laundry room by the kitchen to be turned into a mudroom.

It was a big project and the first portion (tear out and tiling the floor) went pretty smoothly.
Building the cubbies went fairly smoothly too.  The problem really started when trying to get the cubbies INTO the space.  That wasn't as smooth!

And then TA DA!  It all worked out and I have my mud room!!

It is such an awesome space.  The baskets at the bottom hold shoes, the ones above can be used for gloves, hats, etc. Papers will go in there, hooks for book bags, jackets, hats, umbrellas...
Top shelf holds lunch boxes and other odds and ends. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!


It's been a fun and productive month!  Much more to do in October!!

A Week in the Life

It seems like things have been very chaotic lately...or maybe it's just me that's chaotic.  Last week we had a big ice storm that closed down the schools for 2 days. It was just crazy slippery out - it was hard to even walk out to get the mail and I watched several neighbors struggle to just pull up into their driveways...and then slide back down once they managed to make it up. I was very happy to send the kids back to school on Thursday!

On Friday, Silas had crazy hair day at school.  We had just gotten his hair cut earlier in the week, so making it stick up funny wasn't really happening.  I went to Drug Mart and got him some spray color :)  He LOVED it!  He was jumping around like a maniac once we sprayed a blue stripe down the middle of his head.

We had another really productive weekend of basement cleaning.  We are definitely kicking butt in that area, though a stranger would still be shocked at the amount of stuff that we still have left down there!

On Monday, I got a call from the school in the afternoon that Ella was sick.  I had just gotten to the grocery store and had to turn around and go pick her up. She was sick as a dog.  She couldn't keep anything down on Monday and early Tuesday.  By Tuesday evening she was feeling somewhat better and I sent her back to school today. Now I'm hoping and praying that the rest of us don't get it too, but I think that might be unrealistic...

Jaws...

Well, it looks like with kid#3 we have a biter - Si really wanted a toy that his sister was playing with yesterday and decided to go after her and take a bite out of her arm. He knew immediately that he was in major trouble. He hid his face and then went straight into timeout without any argument at all.

Even with any injury, Ella had a good soccer game yesterday and even scored 2 goals :)

And look at this - Mason got a haircut! I was so impressed when the boys came home this evening and Mason had decided to go shorter - it's a bad quality picture but he looks so handsome!

We leave for our Yankees stadium trip Wednesday morning - I'm so excited! All of Justin's siblings will be there!! Two of the cousins (Hudson and James) the kids haven't even met yet so we are so, so excited to hang out and play together for a couple days!! There will be plenty to blog about when we get back!!

Back to the Grind...and Opening Day - woo hoo!

or I should say, Wahoo!The Indians had opening day in Cleveland. Great game and Casey Blake was the man - we beat the Chi White Sox 10-8 (but I have to admit it was great to see Thome - even if he did get a home run - man I miss him!). Silly, but it makes me giddy that it's baseball season again! It's my version of reality TV.

Speaking of baseball, we are going on a family trip to see the Indians vs. Yankees in May - at YANKEE stadium! This is the last year at the stadium and Justin really wants the kids to experience it - as he remembers doing as a kid growing up in NY. So we'll be packing up the minivan and heading to the Bronx for a 5-day trip. I really wish Joe Torre was still coaching for the last year there...it would have been cool to have him finish out the stadium.
Today was also back to school, work, sitter, etc. It was nice to get back into the groove of things but I really could have taken another week of just doing whatever. Though it was nice to have Si taking a nap again. He's a bear to get down for a nap at home. Last Tuesday or so, we told him

"nap time, Si"
"no nap" he says
"when will you be ready for a nap?" - dumb parent asks.
"when I go to Kelly's" he replies.

We batted around a .500 for naptime - great if we were still talking baseball - but not so great for nap stats!

Mason has to take some baby pics into school tomorrow for one of his classes. Here are a few we dug up:

This one looks SO much like Silas

A fall Upstate NY trip
Love the dimple :)
Many of you will remember BATMAN!
First Day of Preschool
By the way, Mason DID get a haircut tonight - still longer than his norm but looks MUCH better!