It's family picture time again. These are a combination of pictures that Chris snatched and that Steve Wagner took. We haven't seen many of the ones that Steve took, so I will post more when he sends them to us. We are so lucky to be able to switch with the wagners. Nicole is a big time makeup artist in Portland, so she was so nice to do my makeup for the day. Now if only I could ever figure out how to do that on my own.....
I blame my lame blogging skills on the fact that I am just now getting my camera back (but now I have to find the battery). Life has been pretty crazy, but here are some highlights from the last month and what we are up to:
The kids and I headed to Virginia to see my sister Kim. I will post pictures when Kim sends them to me. Besides adjusting to the Eastern Time Zone and the kids getting sick one night... Virginia was great. We hung out a lot, went swimming, boating, and kayaking (mellow versions with wee ones :). Kim and I went to Williambsburg one day, and the kids loved playing with their cousin Jackson. It was so nice to bond with Jackson more since we don't get to see him enough. He is such a cutie. While Virgnia was fun... the flights... oh mercy that is a different story. Some ugly/pitiful sides of Kara came out during the flights. Sofia was literally comforting me as I cried at 3:00 in the morning, because my kids would not sleep on the red eye flight and I was crazed and delirious (as were they as you can only imagine). I am very glad that we made the trip, but I am quite confident that I will not attempt flying with the kids alone for a very long time ( at least cross country).
-For those of you who don't know, we sold our townhouse, and we are now living in an apartment. We have a house that we are hoping to buy in the next few weeks if all guys well (so far the process is going well). We will give more updates on that after the appraisal!
Now for the kiddo updates:
Sofia: Sofia is definitely my daughter. Lately, she is all about trying to be funny. The majority of the time, her jokes really aren't that funny, but the effort sure is cute. After doing something silly, she always asks,"Was that funny?" She cracks herself up, and that is all that matters. I tend to also crack myself up when no one else around me seems to think that my jokes are that funny, so perhaps one day Sofia and I will bond in our unfunniness, and we will both have someone to laugh at our jokes :). Sofia is going to start a little OSU gymnastics class in a couple of weeks, so that should be fun for her. We opted to hold off on preschool for now, so the kids and I will also be taking a creative development class together where we will do art projects and play with other moms and kids. Fall is my favorite season, so I am excited to just enjoy and play a lot!
Gabe: Although Gabe is doing adorable things all of the time, I am so exhausted by this kid's poor sleep. No matter what time we put Gabe to sleep, he is usually waking up between 6:00 and 6:30 at the latest (oh... and he gets out of bed at least 10 times before he will fall asleep). Too early folks. We usually try to ignore him for awhile and encourage him to either lay with us or look at books on the floor. He almost never falls back asleep, and once he says the word "cereal" or "I hungry," we know there is not even an ounce of hope of getting him asleep. I really dislike the word "cereal" now, because that means that I have to face my day really early again. You think that I would just get used to it and jump out of bed and try to be peppy, but every morning I find myself so tired, because I don't go to bed early enough. I am going to work on the peppy factor, but oh I miss our crib days. Gabe is not ready to be in a bed yet at all, but because of his extremeness, the crib was not a safe place for him to be anymore. Oh well. I'll keep him, because he sure is cute.
Well folks that about wraps it up. I need to go to bed, because 6:00 is creeping closer and closer. Buenas Noches.
Don't you hate it when you take your toddler into the bathroom stall at Target and he figures out how to open the door immediately. As you are sitting and peeing... you are whisper yelling "Gabe.... shut the door" over and over again while he swings the door open and shut. And what else can you do... really? Few times in life have I felt so powerless.
This is a late post, but last weekend, I participated in the Hood to Coast Relay. I think that the relay is almost 200 miles, starting at Mt Hood and ending in Seaside, with 12 participants on each team. I have been so busy this summer, so I was really worried about how I would do since I knew that I wouldn't be in great shape for it.
Here are some highlights from the race:
*The ladies on my team were so great, and it was so nice to get to know them all better. Most of the ladies were from Corvallis, but there was one lady who came up from San Diego.
*My first leg was a 6.5 mile leg running through a trail in Gresham. I surprised myself and did better than I thought in this leg.
*Leg #2 (where my journey ended :(). My next leg was running 7 miles at 3 in the morning in the pitch black forest (except for an occasional runner passing). Yes folks... 3 in the morning. The first 1.5 miles were all uphill (which I suck at hills in general), so I was very happy that the remainder was downhill. With about 2 miles left, a car came towards me with its' brights on. I was running pretty fast down the hill, so with the light and momentum of going down the hill, I totally biffed it down the hill trying to get over to the shoulder as the car passed. I fell and couldn't get up at first. Two ladies passed, and after trying to reassure them that I would be okay, they left me. As I was trying to stand up, Peter from Lake Oswego passed. He asked if he could help, and I tried to reassure him that I was fine, although it was very obvious that I probably wasn't. He told me that if his wife were in this situation, he would hope that someone would help her, and he insisted that he wasn't going to leave me. Then nice old Peter, stayed with me to help me gain my balance, start walking, and eventually run again. After 10 minutes of running with me on a sprained ankle, I insisted that he go ahead of me and finish. Peter from Lake Oswego, seriously saved the day. If he would not have stayed to help distract me from the pain in my ankle, I don't think I would have been able to finish. It is so nice to see that there are Good Samaritan's out there still who care more about helping someone than the race. I was really touched by his kindness.
*So, the end of my second leg ended my hood to coast career (at least for the year). There is no way that I could have run my last leg (the easiest leg... dang it). The ladies on my team all did so well, and I hope that I will be able to do the race again someday!
