New Picture

Okay so today while I was working on the computer, Dave came up behind me and informed me that I needed to change the picture that is on my blog. I promptly told him that I don't have any good pictures of me, so he proceeded to take several. So to make him happy I now have a new picture. I am not so sure it is any better, but it is new:).

London's Run

The morning started out early! Kourtney, Erryn & Yvette all came to our house so we could drive out together. It was fun to talk about how nervous we were and how each of us dealt with it. It really kills me that I get so nervous...I know that I am only racing against myself...so why do I worry? I was a little scatterbrained before we left, but we were able to pull it all together and we left home about 6:40am to get out to Queen Creek in time to get our packets and stretch & warm up. Well, it was a little hard to warm up because it was COLD. Not as cold as last year, but still nippy!

Of course we had to make the neccesary potty stop
before getting ready for our race.
We ended up going back to the car to warm up before the race started.

Dave always comes in much faster than me, so he is the designated camera guy! He always gets me coming down the stretch and crossing the finish line. Maybe someday we will be able to work something out so he can get his picture taken too!


I had set 3 goals for myself for fininshing times. My last 1/2 marathon I ran 10 minute miles, so I wanted to improve on that time. I wanted to shoot for 9 minute 15 second miles...that was my pie in the sky goal. My medium range goal was 9 minute 30 second miles and I made it! I ended up averaging 9 minute 28 second miles over the course of 13.1 miles coming in at 2 hours 4 minutes and 9 seconds (according to my watch...the offical time was 18 second, but it took a bit to cross the starting line). I was happy that I did pretty well! I shaved about 7 minutes off of my last 1/2 marathon time...yeah!

This is a picture of Dave with our friend Scott. They have carpooled together since 2001. There was a part of the race that we had to kind of double back on the route and so I watched for Dave and was able to see him. Scott was right behind him and I saw him putting his finger to his mouth doing the universal "sh" sign. He didn't want Dave to know that he was following him! It was funny! So now the relationship might move to the next level, not just carpooling buddies but running buddies too!


I got to see Lauie (she cheered me onto the finish line...THANKS LAURIE!). She ran the 10k with several of her kids. Her husband ran the 1/2 marathon with us and I saw him on the way too. It is so fun to see people you know and cheer each other on!


Most of us ended up getting a free massage at the end of the race and I think that really helped me not be quite so sore today.

Overall it was a great day and it was fun to share with friends!

Here is our group as we got ready to go home. l to r: Yvette, Erryn, Me, Dave & Kourtney.

Facebook

I have finally done it! I signed up for Facebook. First blogging and now Facebook. It is a little confusing to me still, but hopefully I will be able to figure it out. In my Sunday School class this past week we talked about knowing what our kids are up to and Facebook came into the conversation. Pretty soon my kids will be passing me up in the technology area (okay so they probably have already...must be in denial) and I figure I better do what I can to at least keep my head above water. Thanks to all of you who I found out there to lead the way!

Life at home:)

Well, apparently the honeymoon period with homeschooling has a few bumps but still is sweet. We have had some great weeks here at home. We work hard all morning while Lindsay & the rest are at the "brick & mortar" school (as opposed to the "virtual schooling" we are doing here at home...lots of stuff from the computer). When Lindsay gets home we take a break, eat lunch and the kids play together for a little while and then we work for another hour or two...depending on how Amber is feeling. We try to end with either Art or Music and Lindsay usually joins in on those subjects.

The hardest part right now is trying to "catch up". Since we started in the middle of the school year we have to try and go through material and determine what she knows. We are making excellent progress in Math & Language, but science and history are a little harder to move fast through because it is a different curriculum. What is fun is that the history and art overlap a lot, so often we get make something in art that we talked about in history. Overall I think all is going well. We have our ups and downs. Some days are great and some are not so great, but I don't regret doing this for one minute!

Saturday MADNESS!

Before Christmas I had the great idea that it was probably time to switch up the bedrooms. Kent (6) and Lindsay (5) have shared a room their whole life and I figured it was time that Lindsay roomed with a sister. I thought that maybe over the break we would tackle the project, but since Dave (my organizer & general stress manager) didn't have a lot of time off, we waited. Going over several different combinations and locations I finally decided that I would put Amber (9) and Lindsay together and Paige(11) and Samantha(14) together. It just seems logical because of their ages. However, Lindsay and Amber have similar personality traits that together might prove challenging. I guess we will face them as they come.

To start off the day, Dave and I ran 10 miles (training for our half marathon in three weeks) and then came home and tackled the project. We actually ran separately. Dave ran early because the YM were in charge of cleaning the church at 8am. I ran with Mary Ann, Erin (friend and running partner of Mary Ann) , Kourtney and my friend Yvette. It was a beautiful day and I was surprised and pleased to be pushed harder than I would normally have gone and talked most of the way. Okay I only talked a little (I still can't talk and run at the same time very well), but I enjoyed the company!

For our BIG project, our room became the "staging" area. Which means "junk storage" because ALL the junk (I am sure that my kids don't think it is junk and if I did too much thinking...bad idea...I am better off just thinking of it as junk when trying to clean out) needed a place to go in order to move beds, dressers, clean, sort and dejunk!

Dave in the midst of all the stuff!

We scrubed everything, walls, blinds, spots on the carpet, doors.
I probably should have done some touch up painting too,
but I didn't and I am okay with that!

Below is Amber with ONE of her piles. I thought she told me
that she had put everything of hers in the loft
only to discover later that she had a whole other
pile in our bedroom!

How many stuffed animals can one family have?
The end pile was actually bigger than this.

Tensions flared a little, but not as badly as I thought they would. It just was so overwhelming. Lindsay commented that the mess just got bigger the longer we worked. About 3 in the afternoon I felt the same way. I thought this project was out of control and that it would never end! The kids got a little bored and tried to help do some of the cleaning, but generally came and worked for a while then went and played for a while (that problably helped keep the tension down a bit). The biggest challenge came when we had to switch Samantha & Amber's things. They both have TONS of stuff (we ended up with a HUGE bag along with several other smaller bags of garbage and lots for a yard sale next week)! Next Christmas I think we will just go on a trip rather than get more STUFF!

The day did actually end. The floor of my bedroom is back to normal and my house (at least the bedrooms) are cleaner than they have been in years (since the last time we did this)!

Here are the rooms with their happy occupants!

WOW! I am so glad that we can say that we have accomplished the nearly impossible and won't have to do that again for a while. As Dave and I were going to sleep I remembered there were a few other rooms & areas in the house that could use the same through going over. Well there is always another day, but for now I am going to enjoy the fruits of our labor!

New Year and a new adventure!

Those of you who know me well have probably been involved in the drama in my life over the last 2 1/2 plus years. Most of that has surrounded one of my children who struggles in school. Since the end of 1st grade we (me, everyone who would listen to me, her teachers, her grandmothers (who are both retired teachers)) have tried to figure out how to help her to learn to read. At first it didn't seem like a very big deal, she was just a little immature (late birthday) and just needed some time. It became a very big deal and changed my whole outlook on life and the learning process and the role of school in our lives.

I have come to HATE letter grades (especially for 2nd graders) and where it used to mean something to me for my children to be getting A's & B's...now I have a healthier (to me at least) perspective on grades. They don't really mean success to me like they did in the past. I know there are different ways to measure success and one formula does not fit all! So to make a long story shorter than it could be. This daughter repeated 2nd grade after much prayer, fasting, consultation, a reading tutor and me kicking and screaming. She did much better the second time (in spite of all the stupid (I am not really showing my bias am I?) worksheets) and her reading was improving everyday. I thought we had made it through the worst and were going to be able to keep the status quo.

However, I must not have learned all I needed to or something, but this year in third grade she started slipping again. This time it is more emotional (not a surprise when she takes after me a lot), but getting distracting in the classroom and spilling over into her school work and every aspect of her life. Now the emotional part has always been there and we have tried to help her with that as well as the academic part, but I have to say that my focus was on the school part. I guess I felt like if we could help her find "success" there it would help with the emotional issues.

After more fasting, prayer, research, soul searching, more consulting I came to the conclusion (with Dave dragging his heels, but willing to support me) that I would pull her out of the traditional school and essentially home school her. In all my research I found an online school that is a charter school here in Arizona called the Arizona Virtual Academy. They provide a computer, all the curriculum, the support of a personal teacher and many other resources. So we did it and made the leap. We started on Monday and so far so good. Dave says this is our honeymoon period of time (which I totally agree that it is), but this way I can work with her one on one, and we can work on school, emotional issues (both of ours) and our relationship all at the same time!

I am really loving it right now...ask me in a couple of months if I still feel this way. I love the fact that we are busy, but I don't have to come up with all the things that we are doing...I just follow the plan! So far she is enjoying the school at home too. I know she is starting to miss her friends, so I will have to make more of an effort to invite her friends over after school. So here we go on our new adventure!

Christmas Season at the Garners

We started off the week of Christmas with the annual Garner Family (hosted by Dave's Parents) party. Every year we enjoy a feast and then a "Talent" show. We always do something silly as a family and thanks to our talented friends usually come up with something unusual with costumes to boot!

Even Kent and Lindsay are really starting to get into the spirit of
our silly performances and stole the show this year!

I won't go into details, but think loud, obnoxious scout skit
and you will have experienced a taste of our "talent".

We we went and visited the Temple lights on Christmas Eve as a family. It was not as cold as I seem to remember it being in the past!

We even brought our own missionaries with us!!
My parents who are currently serving a mission in Strawberry came down for a couple of days.
I can't believe their mission is almost over. They go home in January.

We had to get the traditional picture of the pajamas that were opened on Christmas Eve. Of course they are not really a surprise since we made them all, but it is still fun to open the presents, put them on and take pictures. It make it feel like Christmas is really here!

We joined the world of video games this year with
several Nintendo DS lite's and even a Wii for the family.

Christmas was a hit!

Though there never seems like there are enough presents to open (especially for Kent and Lindsay...they don't really care what they get...they just want to keep opening, and opening! Okay maybe they do care what it is in the present, but they still want more. Talk about entitlement! Maybe we will donate our Christmas next year...okay maybe not).