Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Friends (Page 6 of 7)

Double Date and a review

March 28, 2008 / / 5 Comments

Last night we had a wonderful date night planned. We had procured some tickets to the Salt Lake premier of 21, and I invited our friends Tess and David to come with us. We were actually all meeting at Jordon Commons at around 6 to pick up our tickets, get some food and watch a movie. Well, shortly after I left the house, I got a call from Ryan telling me that he was there trying to pick up our tickets, and they had just “sold out”. Ugh. I’m getting tired of these movie premiers where you have to get there more than an hour and a half early just to get a ticket. So, there we were, out for a movie with nothing to see. We couldn’t find one other movie now playing that we wanted to see, so Tess suggested we go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Anything involving cheesecake sounds good to me, so off we went.

So, here’s my review of the Cheesecake Factory (having never been before, I figured I was about as impartial as I could be, although I’ve heard wonderful things about it, so I was excited to try it out).

**The Wait. We waited over an hour. On a Thursday night. Now when we went to check in they told us it would be 35-40 minutes, which didn’t sound THAT long, but we should have gotten a clue from the fact that they didn’t even have any pagers to give out. The nice hostess told us to come back in about 10 minutes just to get a pager, which we would hold on to for the next 3/4 of an hour waiting for it to light up. I don’t think the wait was totally unreasonable, but if it’s going to be an hour, why don’t you just tell me it’s going to be an hour. Then I can jump over to the mall over there and go shop for some new sunglasses or something fun. Don’t lie to me with a smile on your face and say it’s going to be 35 minutes when you know darn well it’s NOT. But, since we were waiting, it gave us time to chat with our friends, play “let’s pick what David’s going to order for dinner”, and run into old friends that we haven’t seen in at least two years. And we didn’t have any kids with us. That’s the kicker. Because I can wait in line, but trying to entertain my hungry, annoyed (or annoying) children for an hour is NOT fun. Although I didn’t know if Tess was going to make it. She needed a diet coke and she needed it soon.

**The Menu. Wow! It’s like a small novel. With advertising. Can you really order that diamond ring that you see on the page opposite the appetizers? It’s a bit overwhelming to have a menu that huge, but I guess then everyone can find something they will like. But advertising? I find that a bit tacky. And for people who have a hard time making decisions, that’s just too many options.

**The waitress. I think our waitress was attentive. She was there right after we were seated and she brought those diet cokes with good speed (and she kept them coming). She quickly brought bread and took our order, and I don’t think we really had to wait that long for our food. We were laughing and talking, so I guess I wasn’t really paying much attention to the clock and how long it took.

**The Food. I ordered a small meal of a 1/2 sandwich, salad and soup. I couldn’t finish it. Really. I ate the rest of the sandwich and salad for lunch today, it was that big. The soup was delicious and the sandwich and salad were also great. Ryan had a teriaki chicken, which was also yummy. I wondered why they put all the teriaki flavor on the chicken skin -ew-, instead of using a skinless chicken breast, but I think he enjoyed his meal. Even though it was huge, he managed to finish it. Tess got the same as me, and she really liked it. David, after all his studying of the menu, ended up ordering one of the “specials” the waitress told us about, which if I recall was fish with a whole bunch of broccoli. Knowing my fondness for broccoli, I hardly looked at his plate, except to say, “Wow, that’s a lot of broccoli.” Overall, I think the food is good. They serve very large portions, but they charge a lot for it. I mean, when they charge $7 for a grilled cheese sandwich, I think that’s a bit pricey, don’t you?

**The desserts. This is the reason you go there, right? Doesn’t matter how full you are, you ARE ordering dessert if you are at the cheesecake factory. So, I ordered a pecan turtle cheesecake, and I was not disappointed. It was so yummy! But I think that the mud pie was actually better. Dark rich chocolate brownie with ice cream and hot fudge. Yummmm-o! Both Ryan and Tess ordered the carrot cake. It looked beautiful! But I must say, as far as carrot cakes go, we were not impressed. Although it was moist, it wasn’t really flavorful. Not enough spice, and definitely not enough cream cheese frosting. Really. We were quite disappointed in the carrot cake. Especially at $6-$7 a piece, you expect it to be, well, to die for. It wasn’t. But I wouldn’t mind going back to sample each and every one of those desserts to give you my honest opinion of them all. Would someone like to finance that venture for me?

**The price. For a “free movie date”, this ended up being quite expensive. But I’m glad we went. We had a fabulous time, the place was beautiful, the food was great, and the company was wonderful. Would I take my family there? A big fat NO. Not a place to bring your kids, unless maybe it’s their birthday or some special occasion, or you just have too much money and you don’t know what to do with it. I would classify this as pricey, and not someplace I will go very often. Maybe if it’s just me meeting some girl friends for lunch or dinner, it would be a nice splurge, but we’re certainly not going to make a habit of going there.

So, if I were a restaurant critic (which I’m not, darn), I would give this place four out of five stars. Or golden forks, or whatever my little rating system was. It was a nice place, and they took good care of us. And I think I’m going to go and eat the rest of my cheesecake that’s in the fridge. And no, I won’t share it with you.

It’s like bargain shopping without the shopping!

February 8, 2008 / / 5 Comments

On Tuesday my good friend Tess and I were talking, and she asked if I was going to go to the Mervyn’s huge clearance sale, where if you buy ONE clearance item, you get TWO free. Oh, no! I couldn’t go because I had signed up to work at the book fair at the elementary school for the whole time that John would be at preschool, and then it was parent teacher conference, and then I had to take the girls to dance, and then I had rehearsal. So, I wouldn’t be able to get to Mervyn’s on Wednesday, and it was only a one day sale.

So, I told her to call me from Mervyn’s, and just buy some things for me, if she didn’t mind.

And shop she did! She called me from the store to ask me a few questions, and I told her to err on the side of “just buy it” and if I didn’t like it I could always return it.

We ended up with:
2 Sweaters for the girls
1 Dress for Natalie or Megan
1 Jacket for John
5 long sleeved shirts for John
3 shirts for Cole
and a partridge in a pear tree! Ok, no pear tree, but we got all that for……
$27.77
Wow! I spent almost that much on just two dresses for the girls earlier this week!

So, Tess did my bargain shopping FOR me! So, it’s just like the bargain shopping, only without the shopping part!
Thanks, Tess!

Mormons cancel church?

February 3, 2008 / / 10 Comments

We awoke to about a foot of new snow outside (have I mentioned that I’m tired of winter already? Well, I AM!), and later got a phone call that church had been canceled for today. Wow! I only remember church being canceled one other time, and that was when we were newly married and living in Provo. I think we actually went to church and there was nobody there. This time we must be more loved, because we got about 4 phone calls to let us know that there would be no church. So we can shovel out. Our snowblower died an early death this year, so we have been at the mercy of our neighbors to help us clear our many feet of snow this winter. Thankfully, our neighbor to the north has a four wheeler with a plow, and he frequently plows our driveway, and our neighbor to the south just bought himself a new snowblower, and he’s cleared our front walk a few times. I doubt we’ll be that lucky today. Ugh. We’ll wait for the snowplows to come and stay safely inside.

For our “church”, we’ve stayed in and watched the rebroadcast of President Hinckley’s funeral. It was a beautiful funeral and there have been many wonderful tribute programs on this past week. It’s a nice substitute for church.

Last night we went to see the Blue Man Group. It was GREAT! Although this isn’t video from this exact concert, we saw something like this

Although the band that was with them was good, I thought they drowned out the percussion of the Blue Man Group, and wished there was less band and less singing. It was a fun date for us, and I’d pay that much for tickets again anytime!

Yesterday we celebrated Jenna’s birthday. It was a fun little party, even though only 3 of her friends came. I guess we should have invited more than 8 people. It was a fairy party, and we had wings for all the girls (and the boy) who came. We made butterflies, , had a treasure hunt, and even painted fairy fingernails and toenails. I had a few games planned that we didn’t do because there were only a few kids, but we watched Fairytopia and had the ever popular whacking of the pinata. And with pinatas being the cheap things that they are, the handle quickly broke off, and we had to call in the pinata repair man to rig up the pinata.

I had the idea to make a forest of toadstools for the cake. I seem to always overestimate my abilities when it comes to cake decorating, and this was no exception. What began as “good idea” quickly turned frustrating, but I just went with it. It’s a good think I was going for the mushroomy look, because the little toadstools were less than pretty. Jenna did all the decorations on the top with “fairy dust” and she thought they were pretty, so I guess it was a success. Once we put on the fairies, I thought it actually looked cute.
cake

Here’s one of the fairies close up.

The girls got to take their fairies home, along with lots of candy from the pinata. I’m glad that it turned out well, and Jenna had a fun party. And I’m glad it’s over.

So, that’s a weekend update for you. I hope that wherever you are, you are warm and dry inside. And could we please stop it with the snowing?

Is it pretentious to plan your own birthday party?

December 30, 2007 / / 9 Comments

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me! birthday
Happy Birthday to me-eeee,
Happy Birthday to me.

Is it a bad thing to plan your own birthday party? I’ve had several people question why I’m planning my own birthday party, and really the reason is… because I want it to get done, and I can’t really just ask someone to plan it for me, now can I? My husband is a dear soul, and I love him very much, but when it comes to birthdays (mine, in particular), he’s hit and miss. Some years he really surprises me (like a couple of years ago when he got me a new fridge), but some years he completely drops the ball. Yes, I realize it’s hard to remember to buy a birthday present AND a Christmas present, and I do understand that having a birthday just four days after Christmas is quite inconvenient, so that’s why I didn’t want to burden him (or anyone else) and ask them to plan my party. And really, there wasn’t all that much planning involved. Since the nice couple in our neighborhood who has a wonderful cabin agreed to let me have my party there (provided there were no kids), I didn’t even have to clean my house! I just made up some invitations, sent them out with the Christmas cards and gifts, ordered some balloons and way too much food, and that was about it.

And it turned out wonderfully! It was the most perfect birthday I remember in quite some time. party
In the morning, John came into our room like he usually does. He even told me happy birthday, with a little coaching from Dad. “Where are the presents?” John asked. I told him there were probably some presents down under the tree, and if he wanted to, he could go and get them. “No,” he said, “I want to give you a present from me!” I told him to talk to Dad about that, since I didn’t buy myself my own presents this year. Dad didn’t have any for him, and he was disappointed. Since I had recently stopped by the clearance sale at Bath and Body Works, I told him to pick any item out of the bag on the floor, and he could wrap it up for a present to mommy. He picked something, and was happy to wrap it up. Someone must have helped with with the wrapping, because it wasn’t bad!

balloonsFriends call on your birthday! I got phone calls, emails, and cards from friends! It was so much fun! We then had a family Christmas party with Ryan’s family. Robin and family came, too, and we had a fun time, although we ate way too much food. Cinnamon rolls the size of my face, people. And I ate the whole thing. Crazy.

After that party, Robin took the kids sledding again! Bless you, my friend! They had such a fun time sledding, and I didn’t have to go out in the cold and take them (I’m such a whimp, I know!). While they were gone, I got things ready, cooked up some meatballs, wrapped a few presents for door prizes, and got changed and made up. Since it was my party, I had to at least looked like I tried, right?

At about 6:00 we started to take things over to the cabin. Of course we forgot some things, but Ryan and Robin got those while I set things up for the party. It’s a beautiful place, with lots of room for guests to eat and mingle. But while I was setting things up, I got a phone call from a distressed child, telling me that her bird was acting sick, and she didn’t know what to do. I told her to hold the poor little parakeet and just pet it and comfort it and that was about all she could do. I got another call in a few more minutes asking if they could call Cole’s friend’s mom, who used to be a vet. Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to call her, but I didn’t know what she would be able to do. This sweet friend came over, put the bird under the heat lamp, even gave him a shot of something (but she admits that she thinks he might have been dead by the time she gave him the shot), but he didn’t pull through. Another death of a pet, and mom and dad weren’t even there to comfort them. Kind of a sad thing to happen on a birthday, don’t you think?

But we had a party to attend to, so attend we did. It was a wonderful time with friends and family! I had people sign my little birthday book, and they also entered their names for the door prizes when they came in. I had friends from high school, friends from college, friends from my old ward in Lehi, even my old boss from when I worked at BYU stopped by. My parents and my sister came, along with a few aunts and uncles. Ryan’s parents and sisters came, and it was really so much fun! Some people brought food, some brought gifts, my good friend Melinda even gave me a beautiful plant! It was such a wonderful birthday! It’s worth it to turn 40 if you can have so much fun doing it!

Like I said before, there was way too much food. My friend Serena brought a huge Costco cake, and we barely even cut into it! I had to bring it all home. The kids happily ate some cake today, but it will take a while before that cake is gone. And crackers, and cheese ball, and meatballs, and mozzerella sticks, and…. let’s just say no one was very hungry for more sweet food, after the Christmas holiday. But even with NO Food, it would have been a fun party–for me, at least. I got to talk to friend after friend after friend. It was a lovely day, and I will not soon forget it. Well, who knows, I am 40 now, I may forget really soon, I guess. But when I do, I guess you can all just direct me bag to this blog post and I’ll be reminded of what a wonderful and fun birthday it really was.

Brrrr, it’s cold out there, baby

December 28, 2007 / / 2 Comments

We’re busy enjoying our Christmas break around here. Robin and her kids made the trek up from Arizona, and arrived on the 26th. Luckily, there have been no more instances of sickness around here, so that’s a happy thing. The kids (all 7 of them) were perfectly happy to play outside in the snow for hours, as long as there was hot chocolate waiting. And thanks to my lovely new Mocha Latte machine, we can keep the hot chocolate flowing. hot chocolate
That Wii has also kept them entertained! I finally got a turn to bowl last night, and that is really fun. I’m glad we splurged on it for Christmas.

Last night we went out to dinner at the Spaghetti factory, and I think my jeans have reached the maximum amount of stretch that they can accommodate. If I gain one more ounce I’ll have to live out the rest of my days in sweats and yoga pants.

Today Robin (brave soul that she is) is taking the older kids sledding. I scrounged around and found 5 sleds, and they hopefully all have gloves (there’s been a small glove crisis, but I think we worked through it) and snow pants. They just left in a puff of snow. I’m hoping that they can actually have some fun on the hill and they won’t all start complaining that they are cold 5 minutes after they get started. That’s why I’m not going. I would be the one whining and complaining, for sure. Because I really don’t like to be cold, and I don’t even have snow gear. So, I’m going to restock some food with a run to the store while they are gone.

And, don’t forget…it’s my birthday party tomorrow. Yes, I’ll officially be old, and I’m throwing myself a b-day party. You are all invited! I hope you can come! A couple of my friends have questioned my logic at throwing my own party, but really, it’s better this way. I hinted and hinted to my dear husband that when I turned, well, OLD, he should throw me a big surprise party. But then, I realized that, wonderful as he is, parties are not really his speciality, and therefore I should just organize it myself. That way I get the party I want, and I won’t be mad at him. Win-win, if you ask me. So, I’ve invited all my friends, and if I missed you, then come anyway. I’m buying food, bringing some games, and I’m hoping that my guests will be entertaining enough! I’m quite excited–not about being old, but about having a party. There may even be door prizes, we’ll see.

So, that’s what we’re up to around here. And from the great lack in comments lately, I’m assuming that all of you are also busy enjoying your post Christmas slumber.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

December 14, 2007 / / 3 Comments

One of our favorite family Christmas traditions here is to pick an unsuspecting family and do a “twelve days of Christmas” for them. Every day (or night) for 12 days we deliver silly gifts to them, trying to stay out of sight so they won’t know who we are until the last day. Sometimes the family finds out who we are, like the time we asked one of the kids’ friends to just deliver it and not say who it’s from, and I guess she just walked over there, knocked, and said, “this is from the Ericksons.” NO!!! That’s NOT how you do it.

Any-who.
This year I’ve got a lot of the days all planned out, and I’ll share with your our favorites.
1-A partridge and some pears (Megan drew a picture of a partridge and we gave them a can of pears)
2- Two turtles and a dove (Two bags of Turtles and a Dove bar)
3-Three French fries (I mailed them a Wendy’s gift card, which they can use on fries or anything else. I mailed it yesterday, and it’s supposed to get there tomorrow. I hope I timed it right)
4-For calling birds (we have some little plastic whistles shaped like birds. I have also given calling cards and said “for calling birds or other friends.”)
5-Five golden fish (5 snack sized packages of goldfish crackers)
6-I don’t know yet what we’ll do for 6 geese a laying. any idea? Maybe a dozen eggs or something egg related.
7-Seven Swanson dinners is one of my favorites. (I also got some little plastic swans that hold candy. If I cheap out, I’ll fill the little swans with candy.)
8-Probably a gallon of milk or eggnog with a note that says, it took all 8 maids to get this for you.
9-Nine ladies? Hmmm. I don’t know what we’re doing for that one yet. In the past I’ve made paper dolls, all connected. Any ideas? Maybe a movie with people dancing–Oh, High School Musical 2 would be fun, wouldn’t it?
10-10 Frogs a leaping. I have 10 little squirty frogs.
11-Pipers Piping. Again, I’m not sure what this one will be. A package of pipe cleaners, maybe.
12-This is the day we reveal ourselves, and we take a plate of cookies and go and ring the doorbell, and hum “we wish you a merry Christmas”. Then we are Hummers Humming. There aren’t 12 of us, but sometimes we use puppets to increase our numbers.

Speaking of the 12 days of Christmas, the Tabernacle Choir is doing the most elaborate and unique version of the 12 days I have ever seen! We had our first concert last night, and after a 2 hour rehearsal we were all happy to just get started. It went beautifully, I must say. The King’s Singers are fantastic, the set is beautiful, the costumes are absolutely amazing (especially those 6 geese!) and the bells of course are there to do our little part to help the concert sparkle. Natalie and Ryan went last night and they really enjoyed it. Natalie’s favorite song was the 12 days of Christmas, as I’m sure it was for most of the kids. After it’s over I’ll have to post some pictures.

So, if you have any great ideas for days 6, 9 or 11, be sure to let me know.

Blessings

November 21, 2007 / / 3 Comments

I found this in my in-box today, with the message “maybe someone in your life needs you today”. Since this touched my heart, and since it is Thanksgiving season, I’ve decided to post in here. I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family and friends, and remember to thank your Father in Heaven for all that he has blessed you with. ( I don’t know what’s up wtih the funky fonts, sorry.)

***

In 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket. Their father was gone. The boys ranged from 3 months to 7 years; their sister was 2. Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared. Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds.

He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries. Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.

If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it. I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old ‘51 Chevy and drove off to find a job. The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town. No luck. The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince whomever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job. Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop. It was called the Big Wheel. An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids. She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until 7 in the morning. She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.

I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people. I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night. She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep. This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.

That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.

When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money — fully half of what I averaged every night. As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.

The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home. One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires! There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires. Had angels taken up residence in Indiana, I wondered? I made a deal with the local service station. In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office. I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.

I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn’t enough. Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids. I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning. Clothes were a worry, too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.

On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. These were the truckers, Les, Frank and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe. A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine. The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.

When it was time for me to go home at 7 on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes. I quickly opened the driver’s side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat. Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box. Inside was a whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10! I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans. Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes. There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was a whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items. And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.

As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude. And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.

Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.


My kind of day

November 10, 2007 / / 9 Comments

I’ve had a few difficult days this week, but Friday…Friday just about made up for it. First of all, Ryan took the day off, so he was here doing projects around the house and yard. It’s just nice to know if John is outside playing, then there’s someone else who might be watching over him. Since Dad was here, I was able to go and workout after the kids left for school, and stay longer than 30 minutes. That was nice.

John actually went to school happily, and while he was gone, I did my errand running. I stopped by Toys R Us to see if they had a certain item (they did not), and picked up a baby gift for a friend, some games for birthday and/or Christmas presents and a couple of other things. At the checkout, I used my gift card from way back when I won a gift card to Toys R Us in the amount of about $1000.  I’ve been using it for almost two years, and while it’s been a great thing, it’s almost gone.  But yesterday’s purchases were still free, and I think I have about $14 remaining.  So,that was a successful errand, don’t you think?

Then I stopped by Mimi’s Cafe, where I had spoken with the manager a few days ago and he told me that he would give me free kids meals certificates for EVERY CHILD who entered reflections.  Woo-Hoo! The manager did indeed give me enough certificates for 200 free kids meals.  Isn’t that nice?

The weather outside has been absolutely glorious this week, so that even running errands the clear blue sky just makes me happy.  I stopped by the mall to go into Bath and Body Works, since I had a coupon and no kids with me.  I got two things at 50% off, two things at 75% off, and one for free.  Then, since I spent $30, I got a free $10 gift card.  Score.

My last pick up was at Hale Center Theater, where they gave me 50 free tickets for my reflections winners.  I also picked up the ticket packet for the Jr. High, since theirs hadn’t been picked up yet.  When I called that lady and told her she didn’t have to make a special trip to Orem to pick up her tickets, she was very grateful, so I’m glad I could help.

On the way home I decided to stop by Macey’s and get some hamburger, and was greeted by a nice smiling lady who invited me in to their store’s holiday open house.  All the employees were dressed nicely, wearing skirts or ties, and there were samples and drawings throughout the score.  That’s one way to make grocery shopping more pleasant!

We ended out the day by having a girls night out with me and my three girls and my friend Lisa and her three girls.  We all went to go and see Anne of Green Gables, playing at the Grand Theater at SLCC (of course they were free, and yes, I did win them.  It was the consolation prize I got when I didn’t win the pink jeep).  Although a bit too long, it was a very nice production, and the girls all had a good time.  The girl who played Anne was very talented and we all loved Matthew Cuthbert.

So, yes, that was a NICE day.  Even though my house is a mess and I didn’t get  a whole lot of things done, it was a good day.  Today?  Well, there’s traffic school, but other than that I think it will be a good day, too. I’ve got to take advantage of the last of the wonderful weather and get my tulips planted.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend as well.

Wow, I did it!

October 28, 2007 / / 6 Comments

Yesterday I did my very first 5K! Shocker, I know. But I wasn’t in there for the competition of the thing, but simply to prove to myself that I could actually do it. It started back when I walked four miles to my friend’s house and back, and my friend Lisa saw me as I was coming home. She suggested this Halloween 5K, and that wouldn’t it be fun to get a group of us together and enter this race. Well, fun was not the word I would have used, but she did get me thinking. So I’ve been trying to include 2-3 mile walks in my routine, and this past week I was hoping to do 3 miles three times. I actually didn’t reach that goal, but I did 2 1/2 miles on the treadmill on Monday, and then 3 miles on Wednesday. So I knew I could physically walk that far (3.2 miles or something like that), but I don’t go fast at all.

So we went over to the rec center last night, donned in my workout gear. We picked up our t-shirts, pinned on our numbers and got our free glowey necklaces. No costume for me, although I did wear a blinky LED necklace, and a blinking hat to be festive. One of my friends showed up in a purple wig, and the other was wearing a cute little witch costume over her clothes. Some of the people there were REALLY dressed up! There was a member of the band Kiss (he looked just like the one on the right, only skinnier), complete with tight black pants, white makeup, long black hair and major platform shoes. I don’t know how he did the race in those shoes, but I guess he did.

There were two guys dressed as “snorkelers”. They had on full body wetsuits, masks and snorkel gear, and both were holding inflated innner tubes. I asked one of them if he had run the whole race with that snorkel tube in his mouth and he said he did. He said the hardest part was that the mask kept fogging up and he couldn’t see where he was going in the dark. He just followed the glow necklace of the person in front of him.

I had already been assured by one of my neighbors that she was NOT running, and she wanted to make sure she’d have someone to walk with and not be left in the dust by our running friends. I agreed to walk with her, since I wouldn’t be doing any running, either. But this friend walks 3 and a half miles every morning with her dog. What was I thinking? As we started out, we did actually jog for a while, but that was mainly so we wouldn’t be run over by the throngs of people behind us. After everyone spread out we slowed to a brisk walk. Her brisk walk is about my fastest walk possible, with a few paces of jogging thrown in every once in a while to keep up.

I’m sure I was not the most pleasant walking partner (she’s used to the company of her dog, after all), but we talked the whole time, and she got a good laugh when we went through the cemetary and a very very tall man crept up on us to scare us. I kept asking her if she thought we were almost done, and when the people directing us said we were just over 1/2 way, I said a little too loudly “You have GOT to be kidding!” But I made it. I did the whole thing, and came in under 50 minutes. My friends were there cheering at the finish line, and it made me feel good. I had not tripped, passed out or gotten lost along the way. Oh, and I came in #245, if that means anything. 245 out of what, I do not know, but I know there WERE people behind me, so I wasn’t dead last, at least.
When it was over, we went back into the building to find some water and eat a banana. We also picked up our little goodie bags with raffle tickets in them and then went to see if our ticket matched any on the prizes. Oh, Goodie!, I thought–contests! Yes, I won……a water bottle. Wow. Since there weren’t many people left, they let us pick a second goodie bag and see if that had a winning ticket, so I picked another one. Sure enough, I won another water bottle, so I gave it to a friend. DaNae, who had been one of the ones pushing us to do this, WON first place in her age category (which was also my age category, and I looked to be about 17th, by the way). She was very excited about this win, and assured us she was going to mount this ribbon and frame it.

So, overall it was a good experience. I would probably do it again, if pressed upon to do so. I’m proud of myself that I could actually do something like this. So, if I, an almost 40 year old overweight, out of shape mother of 5 can do it, you could do it, too.

Weekend Highlights

September 4, 2007 / / 2 Comments

First, I’d like to thank Ryan for posting that picture on Saturday.  And then if you wanted, you could look at all 100 pictures we took that day.  I can’t believe we took that many pictures!  Well, we did give Cole the camera during the present opening, so we did get some pictures like this:

  We’d like to thank Julene for making that fun fire hydrant cake!  I was looking at it and I said, “you forgot a letter.”  “What?”  She thought I was kidding, but sure enough, if you look closely, you’ll see:

that we’re wishing him a Happy Birtday.  No worries, he’s four.  Julene could not believe that, and started thinking she could take some of the white frosting and squish an h in there, but we wouldn’t let her.  This is her first ever lettering mistake, after all.  So, yes, we have to embarrass her and point it out.  Cause we’re so nice that way.  Anyway, all the kids wanted fire hydrant pieces (made from twinkies!) and loved the cake.

We really enjoyed the fire station mini tour for the kids.  John even got to sit up in the drivers seat.   And Cole got to try on the suit.  He didn’t really want to, but we made him.  Because we’re such good and loving parents. All the kids, even the big ones, seemed to really think those fire trucks were cool.  And it was free!  I did take a giant cookie and a thank you note, which they seemed to appreciate, but they didn’t charge me anything for the tour.

   They also enjoyed the pinata.  But what group of boys (or girls for that matter) doesn’t enjoy hitting things with a stick with the intention of breaking it to get candy out of it.  Whoever invented the pinata was really brilliant.   

I also just have to tell you a little bit about the skit we did for school on Friday.  I had to do a little introduction to the Reflections contest for the school, and I decided to just have Megan and her friends do it for me.  When I was trying to write it (last Monday–yes, I plan ahead), I was just having a mental block, so I started thinking about what costumes I actually have.  Well, we have a huge Nemo costume, and everyone has one or two witch costumes, right?  So, I wrote the skit around that.   Four witches and a fish.

They did such a great job!  I may never have to be in my own skit again!

 

And we had a bunch of parties/dinners this weekend, too.  Friday night I got together with my dear friends for dinner; always fun!  Saturday night we had my cousin and her husband over for dinner, then Monday we went over to our friend Tess’s house for a wonderful barbeque.  We tried our hand at making homemade ice cream.  Even though we didn’t have quite enough ice (the grocery store was out, can you believe it?) it turned out yummy.

But the festivities end today.  Ryan will be out of town for the next week and I will be singlehandedly managing the household.  And lucky me–this week we have two soccer games, two soccer practices, two dance lessons, only one piano lesson, four days of early morning band or orchestra, scouts, and a ward party.  So far.  Wish me luck.

« Older posts Newer posts »

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

© 2024 Superpaige's Pad

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑