the jane gang

November First

2009-11-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

Just holding my place.

I'm going to try to post everyday in the month of November.

More to follow...

The following is rated pg-13 for adult language

2009-08-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

I'm fully prepared to say right here and right now that I probably need glasses. And I'm pretty sure that I've admitted to seeing "animals" on and near the trail as I'm running. But today was a stellar day in the "holy shit! what is that?" department.

At about mile 2 or so, I look down the trail and what do I see but a komodo dragon! A fucking komodo dragon! (I'm sure this idea is in my head because of a story a co-worker was telling me yesterday about a giant lizard her son had as a pet. This lizard went on walks on a leash around the neighborhood. It was allowed to live in her house until it lunged at her husband and tried to eat him. Her husband, very wisely I believe, banished this monster from their home.) So I'm all, "Now why did I leave the pepper spray in the van? How did a komodo dragon get to suburban St. Louis? Can I outrun it? Wasn't there a Johnny Quest episode with a komodo dragon?" And by the time I've thought all of that, I'm close enough to see that it is, in fact, not a komodo dragon, but a largish log sitting on its 4 prongy leg-like limbs. Ah, the relief. Ah the laughter! Oh ho ho! Hoo boy! How silly of me to think that the log was a man-eating reptile!

I continue on, smiling at myself for being so unbelievably silly! When what shows up on the trail ahead of me but an armadillo! But this time I'm prepared. I tell myself that I need to make an appointment with the eye doctor as soon as I get home. But then I get distracted by the thought of having to wear glasses while I run and how obnoxious that would be. And did I want to try to put contacts in? I get all freaked out about putting stuff on my eyeball. Yeeeks! And while I'm busy thinking all this, I run right up on the armadillo. A real live, dinosaur-looking, freakazoid armadillo! It starts running, I start yelling. It was a laugh riot for those who may have been watching. Those things can run too. Don't think they can't.

Run report and confession

2009-08-06T06:38:00.000-07:00

Now some of you may be throwing your arms up in the air and yelling, "Good god, woman! No confessions! We don't want to know more than we already do!" Settle down there friends, it's a relatively, in the grand scheme of things, small confession. Here it is. Ready? I am pretty sure I will not be ready to run the half marathon in September. That sound you hear is me sighing dejectedly. And while this disappoints me to no end, I feel like it's better to be truthful with myself and face it and see where I can go from here.

Somewhere in the beginning of July, I fell off the training plan, hard. Hard enough to leave a mark, hard. But, I'm back at running, trying yet again. You haven't failed until you've given up completely. At least that's what I'm telling myself anyway. Forgive me, y'all.

And now, here is the report from today's steamy run:

There was no wildlife to be seen this morning. Unless insects count. About mile 2, when I thought it might just be more fun to sit down somewhere shady and have a nice glass of iced tea, a horsefly appeared. I believe that my friend Beth, with her amazing marathon running super-powers, sent it to get me to make sure I wouldn't stop running. That sumbitch chased me for a good half mile.

As there always is (and why don't I remember this on the days I don't want to run??), there was a gift from the Creator. In my ear, I hear a voice (yes, a voice. At least I'm not seeing things, sheesh) say, "Look to your left." So I turn my head and the voice says, "No you doofus, your other left!" (Sometimes the Almighty needs to call you a doofus, in an all-loving kind of way, of course.) And when I turn my head and look, this time to my actual left, there is a spider web. And not just your run-o-the-mill web either. It hung between two trees about 10 feet apart, and in the middle was a perfectly formed circle of web about 4 feet across. The filaments were so close together and the sun was hitting it perfectly and it shone like a jewel suspended there between the trees. A jewel or a cd. A giant, shiny cd hanging there. The king of all spiders must live in that palace of a web. Or queen. Magnificent. And I said, "Nicely done, Mr. Spider!" And then I said, "Thank you" to the Creator. You understand that I say these things to myself. I don't want to scare the regulars that share the trail with me.

Oh yeah, did I mention I did the trail backward today? Started at the finish and went to the start. It made everything look different.

That's enough outta you, jane.

Food, glorious food!

2009-06-28T11:35:00.000-07:00

I love food!

How cute is this heart-shaped goat cheese from a local cheesemaker?

Dinner last night was so good. We had tuna, marinated for a short time in lime juice and soy sauce (Mr. Bittman, you're a genius!) We then cooked it on the grill.

And then made a lovely pasta with these ingredients. The cheese and the whole wheat pasta were bought at the farmer's market yesterday morning. The woman selling the cheese happened to be right next to the pasta seller. She saw me buy the linguini and said that the chive chevre and some butter would make a wonderful sauce for it. Twist my arm! Butter and goat cheese? How could that be bad? I used about half of the cheese and about 3 TBS of butter. Salt and pepper finished it off.
Here is the finished dinner. It included these wonderful green beans, also bought at the farmer's market.

I didn't eat all of my tuna, which made my husband very happy. He gladly finished the rest!

Can't wait to eat the rest of my farmer's market finds!

Wildlife and pseudo-wildlife I saw on my run this morning

2009-06-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, in the real life wildlife category we have a lovely bluebird. Said bluebird followed me by hopping from fence post to fence post until he ran out of posts and flew up into the trees. He made me smile and did not poop on my head as I feared he might. He also made me say, "Thank you!" to the Creator. (Does that count as church?) Also real was the thing in the tall grass by the railroad tracks that I have no idea what it was. It was huge and flat and disappeared into the grass. A giant turtle? Perplexing! Lots of birds and squirrels and a rabbit also were around this morning.

Pseudo wildlife include sawhorses that I thought were deer, a log I thought was an armadillo, and a stick I thought was a snake. You might say I need glasses, I say it was freakin' early and the sweat was in my eyes! All in all a very good run!

2009

2009-01-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

Let's try this again, shall we?

Number 9. Number 9.

2008-06-12T12:32:00.001-07:00

What's that you say? Where in the h-e-double hockey sticks have I been? Recovering from the half marathon, obviously! Has it really taken me 2 MONTHS to recover? Nah, but I've been busy doing other stuff. And what if it did take me 2 months to recover? 13.1 is a long, long way to run! It's fa!

And now that I have recovered, the Southsiders have decided to train for the Lewis and Clark half marathon in September. Only this time we are walk/running it. The plan (as far as I know the plan. I just kind of follow along.) is to walk a mile, run a mile repeatedly until we've gone 13.1 miles. And I have to say that there was absolutely no alcohol involved in the decision to do this. But I may have been high on endorphins at the time! Anyway, we've started the training. We're running 2 mornings (soon to be 3 mornings) a week and doing a long run/walk on the weekends. The cussing has already begun, and it wasn't by me. I don't start cussing until mile 11 or so, and then I cuss like a sailor! It's good times! Go Southsiders!

And now, let's get to the real reason for this post (which I tried to write last week, and blogger had apparently lost it's mind and wouldn't let me. But I digress...). My Ike is 9 years old! He turned nine last week, and I just don't know where the time has gone! My little man who made such a dramatic entrance into the world is now 9 years old!

He is such a great kid! He loves to make people laugh and tell a story. He talks too much at school, but the teacher can't discipline him because, "what he says is just so interesting or funny that I find myself listening to what he says instead of telling him to be quiet." Thanks, Mrs. B! Just a reminder to Ike, your fourth grade teacher may not be quite so lenient. Just sayin'. And he's kind and loving too. What a great combination! He's a boy to be proud of, and we are!

Here is a picture of Ike on his birthday. Yes, he is decorating his own cake, with help from his big brother. He also helped make it! He loves to cook!

Grandmas and Grandpa came and there was good food and cake and LEGOS! And more LEGOS! All dedicated to Indiana Jones. It was a great birthday all around!

Ahoy mateys, you must see some photos from Pirate camp. Shiver me timbers, they had a great time! Thanks Captain Tomato Patch for such a fun week! AARGH!

And with that, my friends, I am outta here!

Mmmmwah! (Yes, she IS unbelievably cute!)

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

2008-03-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

Let's see,the holiest day of the year+ family+good friends+love+CANDY+good food+laughter+adorable children=one fantastic holiday!

Easter is my favorite church holiday. All the great music and pageantry, how can you not be moved by that? And all the beautiful little girls in their sherbet colored dresses and little boys dressed up in their ties and sport coats-how sweet!

And CANDY! Let's not forget the CANDY!

We enjoyed a great meal at my brother Steve's house. Where we had an outdoor Easter egg hunt in between snow squalls. Snow on Easter is just not right! Thank you, Global warming.

So, here are a few pictures from the day. Hope you enjoy them! Susan's braided bread. It was as delicious as it was beautiful! It looks like a playboy model just posin' there all seductive-like!

Here's a nice picture of my gang all dressed up for Easter. And we get the added bonus of having pretty little Ceecee in the picture with us. She took a shine to Russ after he taught her Sunday school class last week and wanted to be in the picture with us!

The following are Easter egg hunt pictures from Steve and Pattie's house. Look at that little girl on her first egg hunt!
And since we haven't been able to say this for the past 40 days,

Allelulia!!!!!

Warning! Parental bragging ahead!

2008-03-22T17:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a fews day without a post about my wonderful children, and I know you are just biting your fingernails down to the nubs in anticipation of a new one!

It just so happens that a piece of Ike's artwork was entered by his art teacher into the Mastadon Art and Science fair. (Sam's science project was not picked to go, but he was ROBBED, I tell ya!)

Anyway, we went as a family to view his artwork at the fair last Saturday. Here is a lovely shot his 3D cookie watch picture:

I have to tell you that the idea of a cookie watch is just brilliant! It tells the time and functions as a snack all in one. I suppose it wouldn't be very practical as it would be a one use item, but still, it's brilliant! (Hey, it's my kid, I'm supposed to use brilliant 3 times in 4 sentences when I talk about him!)

When we visited the art fair, the exhibits had not been judged. But on Thursday, in the parking lot of Shop n Save, we found out from Ms. Falconnier (the world's coolest art teacher) that Ike had gotten first place!

I'm pretty sure that Shop n Save is not an official location for the award ceremony of the Mastadon art fair, but since we had parked right next to Ms. Falconnier, and she had the awards in her car, we had the medal bestowing right there next to the cart corral!

Unfortunately, I was unprepared for the impromptu award ceremony and did not have my camera. But here is a picture of the proud young man and his blue ribbon at home:

Congratulations, Ike!

Super Sunday!

2008-03-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

No, this isn't another post about the Super Bowl. And I'm feeling chatty, so just settle in for a long post.

It's about the great day that was yesterday.

We celebrated Ike's first Holy Communion and finally had Sam's postponed birthday party.

It was one of those days that is stellar from beginning to end. Smiles all around and even a few tears of joy...

Here's a picture of the first Communicants:

I have to tell you that being able to celebrate this milestone with such a wonderful group of friends made the day even more special!

There was a cake at church after the service(were you able to get the cake Jacquie??):

And then we had a party for both boys at home.

This is a fantastic photo of Sam. He is getting ready to blow out his candles (really? That explains the cake with all the candles on it.), but under the table is a cell phone that he has used to dial our house phone which is why he is looking to his right, that is where the phone is.

I was rushing to the phone and he was getting a big kick out of tricking his mother. When you are 11, fooling your mother is just about the funniest thing ever! Anyway, I love the mischievious grin on his face that shows off his dimples.

Here's one more picture of Ike on his big day:

Isn't he the handsome young man? How can he be old enough for his first Communion?

It's a blessing that my boys are surrounded by family and friends that love and support them as they grow up!

In short (too late, Jane, too late), a good time was had by all.

On a scale of 1-10, he's 11!

2008-03-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

So I suck (children don't say suck, it's not a nice word) at the blog upkeep.

Sorry, sorry!

Several fun events have come and gone since the last post. See future posts for details. You all are patiently waiting, I'm sure.

Most important would be that my oldest son is now 11! How did that happen?

Here's a photo of his reaction to opening his favorite birthday gift-a chess set! But it's not just ANY chess set, it is a LEGO chess set (more LEGOs, just what our house needs!). You all are now swooning over the coolness of this present, I know.

Happy 11th birthday, young man! We love you!!

She's number 1! She's number 1!

2008-01-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, my pretty!

Yes, we had cake, and Riah LOVED it!

Here's the birthday princess working the tiara!

Here's the birthday girl on her actual birthday. She was quite happy to be having pancakes for dinner!

Gentlemen, start your engines

2008-01-14T19:21:00.000-08:00

Pinewood Derby cars

No, we didn't win. Not even one race. We suck at making fast cars apparently.

And even though Sam's car is emblazoned with the Cross, God was not showing any partiality at the races on Saturday. He got the award for Best Fuel Economy. That is the nice cub scout way of saying SLOWEST. He likes the trophy, so keep your pity!

Ike's car, as one of the other moms said, "shows he's a free spirit." Yeah, that's it.

At least our boys actually made their own cars. The winner of the most creative car came from a first grader whose car was a subway sandwich, complete with the curly lettuce leaves sticking out from the bun (which had tiny little seeds on it). This thing looked like a real subway sandwich. With wheels. Which is the only thing that would stop you from picking it up and trying to eat it. Going out on a limb here, but I'm pretty sure the 7 year old didn't carve the sandwich himself.

Zoom, zoom, zoom!

It is finished!!

2008-01-08T10:00:00.000-08:00

Here is the photographic evidence! The science fair project is completed!

praise the lard!

It's due when???

2008-01-03T17:40:00.000-08:00

Damn science fair projects to the deepest pit of hell!!!!

Stolen resolution

2008-01-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

Is it bad karma to steal a resolution?

I hope not, because I am doing it.

Here it is: Take at least one photo a day. Not that I will always subject you to them, but it seems like a fun way to document the year.

I'm stealing it from a poster on the Core board at weightwatchers.com and from another blogger here blogger.com.

Bad karma, I spit in your general direction!

Maybe I'll be back later with a photo...

Salutations!

It's a clean slate

2008-01-01T09:08:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Great party last night! Thanks to our friends Mike and Kathy for hosting again this year. And for letting our boys crash at their house until this morning! And there were PANCAKES for breakfast! Lots and lots of PANCAKES! this morning.

I'll be continuing on this Weight Watchers Core journey that I started in the summer. My one fitness related resolution is to exercise more consistently, with the hope of running another 5k race in the spring.

And my other resolution comes from Luther's explanation of the eighth commandment (2008, eighth commandment, Coincidence? I think not!) "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing…. Live in peace with each other…. Always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. If you want people to speak well of you, then begin by only speaking well of others. Put the best construction on everything. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Instead of telling of people’s faults and shortcomings, speak of their good points, their strengths, their likable qualities."

Amen

and Cheers!

The last day of the year

2007-12-31T11:23:00.001-08:00

The last day of 2007!

I've got no pithy sayings or resolutions for you. Just a whole bucket full of gratitude for all the blessings of the last year: Family, health, great friends, new babies, lots of laughs (lots and lots of laughs!), a great church to belong to.

Here's to a new year rich with good health, good friends and good times!

Tiger, we miss you!

Last Book of 2007

2007-12-30T10:41:00.000-08:00

World Without End by Ken Follett-If you liked Pillars of the Earth, you will like this one. It's not as good, but it is an interesting story.

Get over the fact that it's 1000 pages long, and that it sometimes reads like a television drama series (sometimes mindless TV is just what I need), and you will enjoy it too.

Hit the Target

2007-12-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

Children+Target gift cards=holes burning in pockets

According to Sam, we do NOT own every Star Wars lego set available. Ok, we own every Star Wars lego set available-at Target.

These lovely ladies also share our home

2007-12-28T19:12:00.000-08:00

New, never before seen

2007-12-28T14:29:00.000-08:00

Be gentle with me, it's my first time!

Here's the gang

2007-12-28T11:42:00.000-08:00