One Regret

I try to live life without any regrets.  That doesn't mean I don't make any bad choices.  There are a lot of situations that if I had that decision to make again I would do it differently.  I just know that I can't change the past and I am who I am today because of what I have experienced - the good and the bad.  So instead of stewing over things in the past that I can't change I try to make the best of what I have today.

Except one thing.  Remember when you were a kid and you hated piano lessons?  Maybe you didn't but I did!  I remember my mom saying what every mom says when I wanted to quit.  "You'll regret it."  And I do.

In spite of my pathetic ability to play the piano I have always wanted one.  Since Jason and I have moved roughly 5,000 miles since we were married, hauling a piano around the country really hasn't been very practical.  When we moved into this house for hopefully a more permanent stay, I thought I would finally get my piano.  Andrew has been asking to take piano lessons for a couple years and I keep telling him to wait a little longer until we could get a piano.  We had so many empty rooms that needed furniture that it just kept getting pushed back on my priority list.   I finally decided this spring (as I hinted in an earlier blog post) that I just needed to get one before it was too late for him to learn.

Here it is! I was going to buy and upright but my friends were moving to Arizona and didn't want to move this baby grand and I had the perfect place for it!  It is well used but the piano movers that moved it to our house said it would actually be quite valuable if we had it restored.  Maybe someday but I'll probably wait until my kids are older so they don't beat it up too much.  The boys start piano lessons next week and I'm hoping they are more motivated than I was!

Kaitlyn's 5!

Kaitlyn had a birthday party with some of her friends from the neighborhood Saturday.  It was so much fun to throw a princess party!  It was so different from the boy parties I am used to.  The girls loved coming dressed up as princesses!  Andrew and Jared dressed up as a prince and knight, not wanting to be left out. They played lots of fun princess games, made necklaces, hunted for the king's lost treasure, and got their faces painted. 

Sunday we celebrated all the family birthdays in May.  (There are a lot of them!)  Here are the May birthdays who made it to the party.

Kaitlyn's cousin Winston was turning two the day before Kaitlyn's birthday.  While the kids were impatiently waiting for pictures before digging into the cake Kaitlyn was teaching Winston how to dip his finger in the frosting.  She shocked all of us when she licked the frosting off his finger!

When she blew out her candles and we told her to make a wish she said out loud, "I wish to be a princess when I grow up!"

Every week when I go grocery shopping Kaitlyn grabs one of the balloons and I say to her, "You can't have that.  It's not your birthday."  Yesterday when we went to pick up some birthday treats for preschool she ran over to the balloons and said, "Mom!  It's my birthday!"  What could I say?  We came home with a balloon.  Jason took her out to lunch for her birthday and she came home with another balloon.  She was convinced they were giving out balloons to all the kids just for her birthday!

About a month ago we asked Kaitlyn what she wanted for her birthday.  She said she wanted a doll.  Jason said, "You have lots of dolls."  She said, "Not that kind of doll.  I want a doll like Grandma's dolls!"   I said, "You mean an American Girl Doll?"  She responded, "Yes!!"  Jason's moaned, "Oh no!"  It took a little convincing on Jason's part but she is our youngest and very spoiled.  Here is one happy little girl.

It is hard to believe my youngest is five!  She is changing from a preschooler to a big girl right before our eyes.  She lost her second baby tooth two days before her birthday and Jason told her she had to stop losing everything little about her.  Here's her birthday cake and she wished the same thing she wished for Sunday.  (No, I didn't spend much time on the cake, but she really didn't care.  She just wanted to eat it.)

Here's a look at Kaitlyn at five:
What she likes.  Princesses, dolls, barbies, dresses, new clothes, shopping with Mom at Children's Place, strawberries, cheese bagles, playing outside, playing with friends, dressing up, painting her nails, singing and running.
Things she doesn't like.  Being told no, time out, soda, sitting still to get her hair done, and being left out when her brothers go places.
Things I love about Kaitlyn.  Her smile, her outgoing personality, having a girl to do fun girl things with, her energy and enthusiasm, how happy she is, and having her to keep me company.  I don't know what I'm going to do when she goes to school next year!  Happy 5th birthday, Kaitlyn!

Shadow Valley 5K

Saturday was the annual 5K fundraiser for the elementary school.  Kaitlyn and Jared did the mile with Jason's mom while Jason's step dad, Jason, Andrew and I ran the 5K.  I've tried not to push running on my kids even though I love it so much.  I always appreciated that my parents let me do what I loved instead of what they wanted me to do.  Jared has never been too interested in running but this spring he asked to join the track club and was even excited for this race.  He finished the mile and told me he should have done the 5K because he wasn't tired at the end of the mile.  Kaitlyn loved running and her grandma kept having to tell her to stop and walk up the hills.  She thought it was so much fun running faster than other people and hated getting passed!  I love that attitude!  When they got to the parking lot where the finish area was her grandma let go of her hand and she took off!

In the 5K Andrew took another minute off his best time and finished in 22:20!  He was thrilled to place 2nd in his age group this year.  (It's not an easy age group with so many kids from the school running.)  Jason finished a little ahead of me in spite of trying to recover from a hip injury the last few weeks.  I think no matter how hard I train he'll always be a little faster than me.  The morning of the race I told Jason that I haven't run a 5K under 19 minutes since college and it would be really cool to run one that fast again.  I did a 21 mile run on Thursday afternoon and as soon as we headed up the hill at the start of the race I realized I was in trouble!  I was still feeling the effects of my long training run and it felt like I was just dragging my legs behind me.  The good thing is that once we got through a steep uphill the first half mile the rest of the course is flat and downhill.  They were giving away a pair of shoes to the winners and there was one girl ahead of me.  I really wanted the shoes and kept thinking maybe I could take advantage of the downhill.  I caught her at about half way but I could hear someone breathing behind me the rest of the way and figured it was her.  My legs were burning and all I could do was try to hold her off.  I crossed the finish line and turned around to find out it was a man and it wasn't even her.  It wasn't until then that I glanced down at my watch - 19:00.  My friends are convinced I am jinxed but at least I got the free shoes...

All That I Want

Friday Jason came home from work and saw the new running shoes I had bought and said, "Happy Mother's Day.  How am I supposed to get you anything when you just buy whatever you want?"  That's not really quite true but I'm probably not as easy to shop for as I used to be.  I told him to count the shoes (even though I used a gift certificate and didn't really buy them.)  After all, few things make me as happy as new shoes.  I know it is lame to take a picture of my new shoes but these ones are just so cool.  I have been running in Asics for over 10 years now and I think these trail shoes are the first ones I found in purple!  Anyway, back to the real story.  I told him he didn't need to buy me anything since I'm planning a major purchase soon anyway.  I remember when I was a kid and my mom told me the homemade gifts were better than gifts bought with money.  I thought there was no way she was telling the truth but now I know just what she meant.

I left Andrew babysitting one evening last week when I had to run with my coach and Jason hadn't made it home from work.  (I'm starting to do this occasionally and it's giving me a new sense of freedom yet at the same time it terrifies me!)  I got home and asked them what they had done and they all just smiled and wouldn't tell me.  I started to give them a lecture about responsibility and how I couldn't trust them if they couldn't tell me what they were doing when Jared, ready to burst into tears, said, "but it's for Mother's Day!"  They were super cute spending all week with their preparations.  They would sneak stuff home from school and up to their rooms.  I had to be careful not to accidentally find things when I was doing laundry.

Sunday morning I woke up and Jared was whispering trying to wake Jason up but not me.  Jason was sound asleep and it didn't work but they finally managed to drag him out of bed and told me to stay in bed.  I grabbed a book since I knew I wouldn't fall back asleep and the kids made breakfast almost all by themselves with no prompting from Jason.  They would have pulled it off without waking Jason up except Andrew couldn't find the pancake mix.  They made pancakes, orange juice, toast and fried eggs.  They were so excited to bring breakfast to me in bed!  As soon as I was done eating they ran to get all the gifts they had been hiding.

Here are a few of the things they came up with.  Kaitlyn drew the picture for me.  It's a picture of me (tiara shopping?)  Jared made a coupon book for me and Andrew drew a picture and put it in a frame he had painted.  I felt so loved and realized that I have everything I really want.  After all I have three of the most beautiful and thoughtful children in the world and no amount of money can buy that!

Update on Kaitlyn

I realized I probably left a lot of you hanging on Kaitlyn's story.  In this case lack of news is good news.  Her thumb is healing up really nicely.  After 5 days of IV antibiotics and two weeks of oral antibiotics there is no more sign of infection.  We were delighted to see a new fingernail growing in at the doctor's office this morning.  It is amazing to see how much it has healed the last few weeks and I'm so glad to see the worst behind us!

Goodbye is Never Easy

We've moved around a lot since we have been married.  While I have enjoyed the adventures that have come along with living all over the country I have grown tired of making good friends only to say goodbye.  We have lived in Ogden for 2 1/2 years now.  If we make it another year and a half it will be the longest we have lived anywhere!  I am fortunate to have lifetime friends here and if I have it my way we'll never move again.  Unfortunately that doesn't mean I never have to say goodbye.  Last week we had a farewell dinner for my good friend Kass that is moving to Phoenix this month.  She has a son Jared's age and a daughter Kaitlyn's age.  The other day after her kids had been over playing and we took him home I glanced over at Jared and saw tears streaming down his face.  He is so sad to see his friend leaving.  We shared some tears and he was shocked to find out that mom's have friends too and I am just as sad to see their sweet family leave.  She's one of those friends who is always there for you through good times and bad.  I know I am being selfish wanting to keep them here and the people they will meet in Arizona will be fortunate to have them.  Thanks for all the fun times, Kass, and best of luck in Phoenix!

Striders Winter Racing Circuit 2011

I run so many races that I figure it's probably not worth posting about all of them.  The Striders Winter Racing Circuit is a five race series so I figured it deserved a post.  This is by far the toughest series of races I have ever run.  Most race directors are looking for fast PR courses to attract runners.  This one takes the opposite approach.  They pride themselves on having a great training series to get runners ready for spring marathons.  I think they try to throw at us courses so hard that no matter what marathon you are training for it can't be as bad as the training series.  It consists of a 5K, 10K, 10 miler, half marathon, and 30 K all two to three weeks apart.  It goes from February to April so along with the tough courses the weather is usually terrible conditions to run in.  The first three races are run right in my neighborhood, which is convenient.  The only problem is I live in an extremely hilly part of town and all three courses go straight up the hills I usually try to avoid in my training runs.  The 10 miler has a climb of over 900 ft between mile 4 1/2 and 7 (straight up to the top of 36th and 46th streets for those of you familiar with Ogden!)  The last two races are in Ogden Valley so even though they are later in the year, they are at higher elevation and it's still really cold.  Last Saturday when the 30K started it was 25 degrees F.  I hate the courses and they make me feel horrible.  My times (like everyone else) are pathetically slow.  They have even caused me to suffer from a strained calf muscle three years in a row but for some reason I keep running them.  I'm really not sure why.  Maybe I just love pain or maybe it's because Jason's clinic sponsors the races and I'm too practical to turn down the comp spot I've been offered.  There were some amazingly fast runners in this year's series.  Other years I've been able to win some of the races but this year I had to settle for 4th or 5th in most of the races.  It is always a challenge to try to beat my times on the course from previous years (some I did, some I didn't.)  Luckily for me, some of the runners ahead of me missed one of the races.  Since you have to finish all five to be considered for the awards that put me in 2nd place and I even came home with a cash prize.  It wasn't a huge one and considering it was over 6 hours of running combined, not worth the time or effort, but I definitely wasn't going to turn it down.  I'd like to say I'll never run it again but I guess we'll just have to wait until next year and see...