{best} running formula

I found the best running recipe (for me). I have tried several different things, and this works the best by far. I've realized what I eat/drink either totally makes or breaks my run. I eat one of these granola bars about 15 minutes before I run in the morning & I drink no water before my run. I sure love my water, but on days I have tried running with drinking any sort of water before hand, I feel bogged down and get side aches. On days that I run later or eat something more filling-- same thing. My run is slower, I feel more tired, and I barely make it 30 minutes. These granola bars aren't even super healthy, but I guess they are just the right amount of food + whole grains + protein. When I do it this way, I feel super energized, lighter, faster, and I feel great even after running for 30 minutes, I can go for more, and sometimes do. Like 40, ha.

Also, the saying is so true "listen to your body." Even though I've never noticed my body telling me anything ever before, every time I get done running, I immediately drink a gigantic glass of water and then reach for fruit, and either string cheese, peanut butter, or eggs. I guess that would be my body telling me to refuel with protein & healthy carbs! Wow, what a concept.

Just thought I'd share.

p.s.

dear body, now if you can just "tell" me why I can't get pregnant...mmmm, that'd be great. k thanks.

lego submission

Kosty gets the Lego Club magazine in the mail and in every issue there are a handful of kids pictures and their creations. He asked me to take a picture and put it in the magazine, oh, I really hope they pick him. I hope it doesn't hurt his chances that he insisted on sitting in dead grass...

my boy scout

I wasn't super thrilled about Scouts, and I have no idea why. Maybe I was thinking about my lack of sewing abilities and all those lovely patches. Brayden LOVES going to Scouts. The same day he turned 8, I had two darling little boys at my door on their scooters asking to pick Brayden up for pack meeting. I was so happy to see little boys at my door again. They all ride their scooters together every Wednesday after school. Brayden is learning all kinds of good things; one of his acheivements was to make dinner and do the dishes. Um, awesome. He's picked up litter in the neighborhood, learned about tools, made a birdhouse on his own, planned healthy meals for a week, helped make his derby car, etc. What a fabulous thing to be a part of. He also tucks in his shirt and combs his hair right before every meeting. He says he is aiming for the "most groomed scout" award.

at sweeties with my sweeties

Over Christmas break, we made a visit to Sweetie's candy store in Chandler. It was awesome. Brayden chose jelly belly's and I was the lucky one to get just "2 or 3" of every single flavor they offered. Much trickier than it appears.

today I gave a lesson on 'preparing for your eternal companion'. Ironic to give, since I never prepared for mine. I wish I had. But, I wasn't even thinking about marriage when he came along. Having been inactive for so many years and dating boys that were no good, I found myself (young as I was) at a fork in the road: Jeremy had appeared at the same time I was contemplating my ex boyfriend. whoa, whoa, whoa. what my life would have been had I chose the other path. surely I would be divorced and miserable.

I know that Heavenly Father knew where he wanted me, and he knew what it would take to get me there. Soon after Jer and I started dating, he picked me up & took me to church. I had missed it. Now here we are married 10 years, sealed in the temple to our beautiful and wonderful little boys. I'm right where I need to be, and forever grateful for the man that took me in; seriously imperfect as I was. I remember one day about a year ago, I was sweeping the floor, and all of a sudden it just hit me like a ton of bricks: Heavenly Father's hand is guiding us through this life. His hand is in everything. He tries to reach out to us and steer us along. He wants us to make good choices. He wants whats best for us. He wants us to be happy, because he loves us.

I told the Beehives that picking your husband is the most important decision they will ever, ever make. I couldn't stress it enough. And I tell my boys that too. I surely hope when the time comes that they pick lovely, kind women with strong testimonies, and pure hearts. I want to protect them from every bad thing on this earth, and I know that who they marry can either make them or break them. What pressure! And the scary part it that we have no control over who our they will fall in love with. But I feel assured that as long as they are surrounding themselves with good people, and doing good things, they will make the right choice.

on another note: I'm so excited, I found two other ladies in my ward with kids that go to Brayden's school. I now only have to drive him one week out of every three. Kosty is also carpooling this week, and I am so happy that I do not have to even step foot inside my car if I don't want to. I really was starting to feel like 90% of my day is spent in my car. I have big plans of finishing my blurb book, organizing a few things, cleaning out my car, and getting dressed only if I feel like it. Happy Monday.

no jeans challenge

I can't remember where I saw it but someone posted about a no jeans for 2 weeks challenge...well I rely way too much on my jeans and I wanted to give it a try. Could I even last one week? I want to see. A good way to force me to be more creative. Plus, I fell and scraped up my knees pretty bad while running, and jeans HURT right now. So, I'll be taking {crappy} phone pics each day and maybe I'll post if I do in fact survive/succeed. Luckily, church counts as a day. There's 2. Sweet.

and, while we're on the subject, I intend to go most of this summer with very rare appearances made by the notorious Mormon shorts. Sorry. I know everyone wears them, me included, but I still dread them every summer.

rolls.

I can die happy.

One thing I have wanted to learn ever since we got married was to make yummy dinner rolls from scratch. I have attempted one or two recipes per year ever since (that's 10 years of seriously crappy rolls). Every time I ended up throwing the batch out and vowing that I would never attempt it again. Its such a waste of time & ingredients when yeast recipes don't turn out. Super frustrating too. So the last time I tried what I said would be my very last recipe ever. It looked promising and had great reviews. They never rose up big and fluffy and the real kicker was when my kids asked why I don't just make "Grandma's rolls" (She uses Rhodes). So, feeling defeated, I bought the biggest bag of Rhode's rolls at the grocery store and tried convincing myself to be content with those. They are easy & delicious, but I was super disappointed that I couldn't accomplish my goal. A few months later, I decided to try one last recipe.

...and they actually turned out. Big, moist, buttery, melt in your mouth...the most delicious rolls I have ever eaten! I had a grin ear to ear the rest of the day. Don't know why, but this was something I needed to learn, and it felt so good to learn it.

Click here for the recipe!

p.s. I used butter instead of margarine, let them rise for an hour instead of 30 minutes on the last raise, and increased the salt to 1 1/2 t. Also, when they come out of the oven, I brush the tops with melted butter. Oh, and I rolled them the Lion House way.

{my new ghetto back seat}.

i woke up to kosty shoving a dollar bill in my face and demanding that i take him to buy something. When I objected, he ripped my pillow out from under me, punched my arm a few times, pulled my covers off and screamed at me. I could tell it was going to be a terrible horrible no good very bad day....

since it was a day off from school, we had planned on doing something fun together. included in our plans: mattress shopping, not super exciting, but necessary, both of their mattresses are very old & shot. they were really excited to pick out the new ones. on the way there, kosty again asked if he could spend his dollar. i said it would depend on his behavior the rest of the day since he had started off super grumpy. he didn't appreciate my answer and began screaming and chucking his shoes at me from the back seat. then he actually ripped the back panel off of my seat! oh my, i was {thisclose} to punching his lights out. i immediately took away his stupid DS, grounded him from it, screamed at him, and grabbed his arm really hard...my teeth were clenched hard and i was absolutely livid and ready to attack. like out-of-control-mad.

once i calmed down, we arrived and picked out the mattresses. after i paid for them, kosty asked which one i got. when i showed it to him, he screamed, "I HATE THAT MATTRESS!!!!" he punched it a few times and then stormed out. what an ungrateful little brat. again, i wanted to smack him real hard. at this point, i was ready to call it a day and take him home and put him in time out for the rest of the day, but there was Brayden. and it was his day off too. and he was super excited to go to lunch and the park. at the park, kosty threw yet another fit. once that was over, he played a little and then we went home. the second we walked in the door, he started to scream/whine about watching tv. then he scream whined about a popsicle.

then we had to pick up jer, and he was playing with my phone. he got frustrated a few times and so i said that the next time he kicked my seat or whined, i would take it away. of course he whined again, and so i followed through and took it away. again, with a major fit. this time he actually leaned forward in his seat enough to grab the back of my neck and pinch it hard. then he took off his shoes and threw them at me again, and then he unbuckled his seat belt. i was more than ticked. i pulled over and got the seat belt handled, and he screamed bloody murder the whole way home. he also screamed that he wanted a different mommy a few times, and then he even screamed, "I HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!" that was a first for him. brayden was cringing in the seat next to him and plugging his ears. he screamed so much that he actually fell asleep right as we arrived. hallefreakinlujah. i brought him in carefully, and quietly started to put him in bed. of course he woke up and started screaming that he didn't want to go to bed yet. of course.

fast forward, he ate a ton of food for dinner, brushed his teeth and asked for jer to read him a story. he was SO past tired and he knew it. as i was walking past his room later, he called out to me. "Mommy? can you lay with me?" I did. And, as his eyes were closing, he wrapped both of his arms around me and fell asleep.

instantly, my heart was full of forgiveness and love for him. instantly, i forgot about how angry i had been, how frustrating the day had been, and how sad and hopeless i had felt.

I couldn't help but think of our Heavenly Father looking down on all of us. How sometimes our words and actions must really hurt him... But how if we will just put forth a little bit of effort, a little "I'm sorry"....he is ready to forgive us instantly.

and i'm so thankful for that.

tomorrow will be better. i know it can't be worse!

anniversary card

My mom watched the boys for us on our date night, and the boys made us cards over at her house. This seriously melted my heart!

Christmas morning

Christmas morning started at 6 am. (perfect. still dark, but not too early!) Brayden came in and told us Santa came. Kosty was still sleeping soundly, so I went out with Brayden to look at the tree. He was worried that Kosty would not get what he asked Santa for because he had a few naughty days before Christmas. I mean, he was really worried. So, he carefully examined the gifts and a big smile spread across his face when he told me that a certain present looked and felt like a Nintendo DS (what kosty asked Santa for). He was so relieved that Santa pulled through for Kosty! We started out having them open their gifts to each other. Kosty got Brayden a Mario blanket and a red Club penguin puffle. Brayden got Kosty a Lego construction truck. It was sweet to take them shopping for each other and see what they chose. Brayden got his DJ Hero Wii game from Santa, and he was thrilled. Kosty was thrilled to see that he got his green DS. We spent the next couple hours building Lego's and setting up games, and then we packed up and went to Jer's parents for Christmas breakfast. We spent a few hours there, everyone played DJ Hero, Uncle Mark helped Kosty build his intense lego alligator, I got a little nap, and then we headed to my Dad's house.

playing his new shiny green DS...

playing DJ Hero...it was the hit of Christmas. We brought it over to Jer's parents where everyone took turns playing.

Me on the turntables & brayden rapping, ha.

at my Dad's house. Kosty was SO excited that Nana & Pappy got him a Dippin Dots maker. They got Brayden Creationary and Great Nana got them both pillow pets :)

I feel like I totally failed at the picture taking this year :( I got the beginning & the end but nothing really in the middle. I usually over take pictures and I was trying not to, but I think I way under did it. I remember a few times I thought I should snap a few but then hated the thought of saying "everybody get together and smile!!" so next year I hope to take more pics of the in between stuff no matter if people are looking or not. I'm also hoping I have a better camera next year, mine had some major blurry moments and it will not take dark inside shots!

It was a wonderful Christmas!

christmas countdown

We spent Christmas Eve at my Mom's house eating potato soup & opening gifts. Then we went home, put cookies and milk out for Santa, sprinkled the reindeer food on the grass and read a Luke 2 and a Christmas book. I wanted to sip hot chocolate and go look at all the Christmas lights but both the kids begged us to just put them to bed! They were so excited for the next morning!

we enjoyed another year with "Elfie", our Elf on the Shelf. This is the best tradition and I'm so glad we started it a couple years ago! The kids run out of their room in the morning to see where he landed. Jer and I even get pretty attached and are always sad to see him leave on Christmas eve.

pizza mart & temple lights, so very crowded that night...

Kosty drew the top picture (him kicking brayden to the ground while brayden is saying "no!") and Brayden made a sad face when he realized what the picture entailed. A few minutes later, Kosty set another picture on his lap. This time they were holding hands and smiling with a darling heart above their heads. (I love when he draws hearts, don't know why but there is something so cute about it).

ah, the gingerbread house. Jer called me a scrooge when he found me standing over the garbage with it the very next day. I don't like this kind of clutter in the kitchen! But; it stayed until Christmas.

with Madison after the concert....aw, they are the cutest!

Kosty had a Christmas concert for his school. The first song was "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas." He started out with a bang, smiling, singing, doing all the hand motions, but that all came to a screeching halt when he realized how many people were watching. He got so embarrassed. It was so sad! He sang a few words from the next few songs, but with a very solemn face. We loved your singing, Kosty!

A few nights ago, jer and I put the boys to bed and then went in the family room to watch a show. We came into our room later that night, and here is what we found. Who sleeps in a perfectly straight line like that!? Gosh, he's cute.

time.

Time is something I used to think there was never enough of. Now, I have a lot more. And next year when Kosty goes to all day school, I will have even more. I constantly think about the best ways to use my time. Sometimes I think I fill it very well (running, mopping, laundry, and blurbing--wednesday). But then there was Tuesday: staying in my pajamas all day long with a heating pack on my cramps and a remote in my hand. Loser.

This year is great. I have 3 hours daily of alone time. Housework, running, volunteering, planning lessons, reading, grocery shopping, blogging, bill paying, etc etc etc--have kept me plenty busy.

Next year will be different. I will have 8-3 everyday to myself, not what I had pictured. My mind is heavy with ideas of whether I should get a part time job or go back to school. I feel like that is more than enough time to for the regular mom stuff and I will want to be more productive. I didn't plan on this free time coming to me so soon. I wish it didn't. I had 'planned' on spending at least 5 more years having kids and not worrying about what else to spend my time doing. I would so much rather be spending my time doing what I love the very most: raising babies. hmpf.

But, life is strange. I am on His timetable and goodness I don't understand it sometimes, but I have to keep the faith that He knows me best. He knows what I need best. He knows best.

So for now, I'm open to brilliant suggestions (in the job or school realm).

**don't get me wrong...I know so many of you are thinking how 'lucky' I am to have extra time. It definitely is something to look forward to when your last baby goes to school; when you are done with having babies.

kosty put his whole body into one of my pajama pant legs, and i laughed so hard. Check out that figure! I swear we feed him. I don't know where it goes, cause he is just skin and bones.

So many posts to catch up on and I haven't even downloaded one Christmas pic...good thing school starts this week, ok not really, the break has flown by and we haven't been bored once. sad to see it go...