Dinner Up the Canyon with Friends

With temperatures in the 90s here in Utah, 

it was time to head up the canyon to enjoy the cooler temperatures.  Some old friends (one of my husband's best friends from before he can remember) were in town, so they joined us.  

Perfect, delightful evening.

Dentist husband and above mentioned best friend

Me with three of my four kids (Toothsome number one was off exploring).

Cute Dentist husband

20 Year Reunion

Last night was my husband's 20 year high school reunion.  He was senior class president and over a year ago, he and his VP from high school, started working on it.  They did most of the leg work for figuring out a location, the date, cost of the event, etc.  

It was quickly decided that a web-site needed to be created for the reunion and neither of them had the time to do it.  Enter, me, wife to Senior Class president, who realized that if a web-site was going to created, it was going to be done by me.  Besides this blog, which is pretty easy to create, I had no "create" web-site experience.   I love my husband and I wanted anything he was associated with to be a success, so I jumped into the project hoping I could pull it off.  

So, I learned how to create the web-site.  I learned how to set up a paypal account.  I started e-mailing the other student body officers.  I started leaving posts on facebook announcing the web site and reunion.  I reserved a pavilion for the "Family Night" event.  I was in daily e-mail communication with various graduates from my husband's high school.  I sent many e-mails telling people to buy tickets, what the dress "code" was, directions to the family event, defusing a few mean people who wanted to get their licks in about why the reunion location, cost, dress code, etc. were lame., etc.  

I learned a lot and it ended up being a really fun enjoyable experience.  I really got to know a ton about my husband and the people with whom he went to high school.  Fortunately, many people but mostly, the beautiful lady in the black dress, also did a ton of work and we pulled off the reunion last night and it was a WONDERFUL experience.    

Here is Dentist husband with two of the student body officers from high school.

Just before we left for the event.

Because my sister's read this, my outfit and shoes I wore.  One day, I gave myself 10 minutes on-line to buy something new (I'm not much of a clothes horse) and ended up with the above items.  Both are from Talbots but I ended up having to take the dress to a tailor to have it fit and kind of "redone".  (Again, I purchased it on-line, so I didn't get a chance to really try it on.)  I buy a lot of my clothes from Talbots (for a while when I was single, before kids, the ladies in the Denver store, knew my mom, me and sisters by name because we shopped there so often) and this dress originally had a tie waist which just wasn't working, so I had that removed and tailored to make it more fitted.  I was happy with it.    

Now, with Girl's Camp over (see previous post) and now this over, I feel like I have a ton of extra brain power available.  Maybe I'll start working on a PhD dissertation.  :) 

Girl's Camp

I got home yesterday after spending three and 1/2 days in the mountains with 20 young ladies from my church.  

Almost six month ago, I was asked to be an assistant Girls Camp director with the two ladies pictured above.  None of us had been to Girls Camp since we were teenagers ourselves and the whole prospect was more than a little overwhelming.  Particularly in the last two months, my mind as been preoccupied with planning, preparing and organizing things for this trip.  

We left Wednesday morning with cars full of girls and trailers full of supplies and drove an hour and 1/2 to our camp site.  The next three days were packed with wonderful activities: archery, hikes, zip lines, service projects, skits, canoeing, food preparation, smores eating, musical firesides, and long fun chats.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and immediately offered my services for next year.  It was a delightful way to feel "young again" as I got to know some amazing young woman in my area.  I am so grateful to my parents who came out to watch my kids and my husband who sent me off with his full blessing.  

I'm glad to home but I must admit, I do miss those girls.  I am so glad I was asked to be a part of it.  

MIA--Family in town, Girls Camp and chaos

I have been and will continue to be missing from this blog for the next few weeks.

Currently, I have my sister and three of her five boys staying in my basement. Dentist husband removed her 3rd son's wisdom teeth this past Friday. Tonight, her eldest son comes up from Provo to stay the night here and stay until Tuesday morning. The day he had his wisdom teeth removed, our street was closed for repaving, so we had to walk a very sedated nephew, through my neighbor's backyard, into our backyard to get him into my house. We made quite the sight.

Tomorrow, my parents arrive in preparations for them to watch my kids when I go out of town to trek in the mountains for 3 1/2 days for Girls Camp. They are here for a few days before and after my visit. I have to spend all day Tuesday giving them the lo-down on how to take care of my kids while I am gone.

Wednesday morning, my niece arrives to pick up her stuff from house that I have stored for six months while she was on a study abroad. She is spending the night on Wednesday. So, while I am gone, there will be at least three visitors staying in my house. If my sister decides to stay through Wednesday (which is likely) I will have seven visitors, while I am gone and Dentist husband is at work.

Currently, all of the bedrooms are being used, plus my front room has all of the Girls Camp stuff I am in charge of, plus the beginnings of the stuff I need to bring to Girls camp. I just got an e-mail saying the weather will dip below freezing at least one of the nights we are up there and the highs will only be in the 50s. Holy cold temps Bat Man!

Oh and on a lighter note, guess who went grocery shopping and left the keys in the car, with the car running the whole time she was inside the store. The windows were rolled down, my GPS was in full site. Yep, you guessed it, me. Thankfully, the car wasn't stolen. Oh and I forgot to drop off a meal to someone who had a baby last week. It looks like she will be getting a restaurant gift card and a long apology from me when I get back from Girls Camp. When the chaos stops, I will blog all about this with pictures and highlights. I love being busy but I have to admit, right now, it is a little overwhelming. See all of you in a few weeks.

Soapboxing--Swimming lessons

Again folks, this is a soapbox, so please click away if don't like this subject. I haven't soapboxed for a while, so hopefully, there won't be too many complaints.

Every summer, we buy a summer membership to our local rec center. It is very close to our house and they have great tennis and swim lessons.

Like many rec centers in the area, this rec center provides "Kids Camps" for children starting at the age of three where they have activities for the kids in the morning and then they go directly to swim lessons, where after the swim lessons, the parents pick their kids up.

These kids are young, ages 3-5 and often this is their first exposure to swim lessons and in many cases, it appears this is their first exposure to a swimming pool. Without fail, there is usually at least one child but often several more, who refuse to get into the water for swimming lessons. The kids are dropped off at the pool by the Kids Camp employees who leave the kids in the hands of the swim instructors. The swim instructors, who are excellent teachers, are then left to deal with crying, screaming kids who refuse to get into the water, while at the same time, trying to teach swim lessons to the other children. Parents are no where in sight. The Kids Camp directors are no where in sight, so it is often left to the life guards or other swim personal who are not in the water to look after these kids.

I do have issues with parents who drop their kids off at Kid camps for the summer (instead of taking care of them at home) but this is not about that issue per se. If you want to have someone watch your kids for a few hours a day during the summer, fine but to not even show up to make sure your child is fine in the water for their swim lessons is unconscionable. These darling little kids are scared. Many of them are just not ready to learn how to swim. (I had a very reluctant swimmer, who finally at age 6 felt he could handle it. Even with that, I had to stand on one end of the pool and whisper encouragement to him that he could do it when he made it to my end. He is now a great swimmer.) Many of them would do fine, if they knew their parents were there reassuring them that everything would be fine. But to drop your child off in the AM and come back at noon without even a look earlier to make sure everything is OK in the water is unacceptable.

Why am I writing about this today? Because today, I observed a cute little red headed boy, who couldn't have been more than four years old, who has refused to go in the water for the last two days. I watched as he started opening the swim employee's lockers to see what was in them to then be chastised by the teenage life guard on duty. He sat on the side of the pool, with his backpack on, waiting for someone to pick him up. Occasionally, an employee would go over and ask if he wanted to get in the water and he would say no. I sat there and wondered, "Where is this child's mother? Does she know this is going on? Is she going to yell at the teenage swim instructors when she discovers he can't swim? Will she discover he can't swim? Does he go from here to another day care? He looks tired. Will he get a nap today? Did anyone put sunscreen on him before he came outside? I honestly was on edge the whole time until end of swimming lessons and I saw him stand up and go over with the other kids while they waited for their parents to come.

Come on folks, be parents. Don't expect teenaged paid employees to do it for you.

Anyway, that is my soapbox. I need to go and take my kids grocery shopping.

Toothsome Family Treadmill 1/2 Marathon

Many of you, may or may not remember my post over a year ago, when I posted that before I die, I was going to run a 1/2 marathon. I then did this post, announcing that I had indeed picked a 1/2 marathon to run and was training for it.

As often happens with life, things got in the way. My husband's (who was his school's Senior class president), 20th reunion conflicted with the above mentioned 1/2 marathon. (We didn't know the exact date of the Slacker 1/2 marathon or he wouldn't have scheduled the reunion that day.) I found another 1/2 marathon here in Utah but it conflicted with my side of the family's annual family reunion. I did find another one that conflicted with another obligation I have this summer (Girl's Camp for you Mormon readers.) So, I gave up trying to find an organized 1/2 marathon date that would work with my schedule and decided to just run my own to prove to myself that I could indeed do it.

Because I have young kids and I don't like to leave them unnecessarily with babysitters or even at gym "kid care centers" ALL of my running has been on our treadmill in our family room--including my long runs. It has worked for me. My kids are in the room with me and with the exception of one time, when my then 5 and 3 year olds covered my kitchen table with blue painter's tape and I didn't know about it until after I got off the treadmill, there has been little to no drama. They play, we talk (they were talking to me the whole time they were covering the table in blue tape but because the treadmill noise is eerily similar to that of masking tape being taken off its roll, I didn't clue into what they were doing), and I run. I like how the treadmill keeps track of my pace, gives me calorie burn (albeit probably not super accurately) and I have a general sense of how I am progressing. My longest run before this was 8.5 miles at a 10 minute mile pace.

So, yesterday, I ran "The Toothsome Family (insert my real last name for those who know it), Treadmill 1/2 marathon." You should know, I was supposed to do it on Memorial Day but I had been up all night with a 3 year old with an ear infection, so we delayed it 6 days. Again, the life of a mother.) So, here are pictures to document it.

Before I started, I made various water bottles with gatorade and water in them and set them by the treadmill. I put in one of my favorite movies, "Dan in Real Life" and pushed the "start button" on the treadmill.

I told Dentist Husband, I was going to start at 8:00 am but was nervous and couldn't sleep, so I finally got up and started at 6:30 am (after eating a bowl of Mini Wheats at 6:00 am.) I had to take this self portrait since no one else was awake.

Shortly after I started, Dentist husband and Toothsome #2 woke up. They took the rest of the pictures. The banner says, "Happy 1/2 Marathon Day! Go Mom!"

During my first mile. Notice the dish rag I used as my sweat cloth.

10 miles left. I should mention, I am purposely wearing my husband's dental office t-shirt. I joked with him that "South Mountain Dental" sponsored the race. Which is completely true. South Mountain Dental (my husband's paychecks) bought the treadmill, the food I ate, the clothes I wore for the year plus of training. :) Never has a sponsor been more directly financially and emotionally involved then my husband, who is the sole owner, of South Mountain Dental.

1/2 way through

10 miles behind me. If anyone is curious, I set the treadmill for just over an 11 minute pace. I increased it slowly as I ran once I had a sense for what this race was going to require out of me.

One mile left. (Just so you know, I am a sweater, as in I sweat a lot, by biology. Yes, it is gross and it freaks some people out but "they" say it is good for you.)

Looking down as the final mile burns down.

Almost there.

Done.

The t-shirt (after it had been washed) designed by my kids and Dentist husband. (The paper is covering up our last name but it also has the stats written down by toothsome #2 while I was running. I finished in 2 hours and 25 minutes--an exact 11 minute pace. You can also see the blue medal Toothsome #2 made for me. It says "First Place" which is true, since I was the only one running this race. I burned 1238 calories.

All in all it was a success. I can say it was very fun to have my husband and kids all in the room with me while I was running. They all cheered at various milestones, handed me my water bottles, asked how I was feeling, etc.

When it was all done, I was surprised how good I felt. Yes, I had soreness but I never felt like I was getting too tired or that I just couldn't do it. (Which sometimes even during my short runs, when I was training, I felt like that.) So, all and all is was success. Do I plan on running an outdoor, competitive non-treadmill race? Likely. But really, I accomplished what I set out to do over a year ago and that is prove to myself that I could do it. And, I did.

First and Lasts Days of School 2009-2010

Kindergarten

Now onto first grade . . .

2nd and 4th graders

Now onto 5th and 3rd . . .

It has been a great year and now onto a fun summer.

This Past Week . . .

Dance recital. Two nights.

Full braces for toothsome #1

Going to the hanger to fly with Dentist husband and Grandpa (and see the cool engine in Grandpa's Lotus.)

School gets out later this week.