16 Hours to Go!

In about 16 hours

Jim & Cole will be crossing the start line

to begin the 2011 Half-Marathon.

Cole and I went to the Expo

to pick up their packets today.

Cole was pretty excited.

It was fun to hear some of the marathon veterans

talk to him and offer advice to our rookie.

It's kind of like a cool kids club that you get to be a part of

when you're walking around with your bag slung over your shoulder.

Cole is both excited and nervous about his first Half.

Jim has been battling a cold all week

and he woke up this morning with a pretty bad ear ache.

After much debate, he decided he better go see a Doctor

just so he could get through this thing.

Turns out he has a pretty nasty ear infection

so he has a variety of pills that he's taking

and should be fine by race-time.

He did manage to nap while Cole and I were at the Expo.

And reports that he's feeling a bit better than he was when we left.

Wish our fellas luck as they take on the course tomorrow morning!

Waiting in the Car is Boring!

Stella is a very good traveler.

She enjoys the toys on her car seat

and in fact has played the music on one of her toys so much

that the battery needs to be replaced!

She does not, however, like to be kept waiting.

Sometimes when we pick up Cole from school we have to wait for him.

If she's sleeping, it's fine.

But when she's awake....

She is not interested in sitting in the seat while we wait for him.

So rather than listen to her cry,

I just take her out and we play.

or we work on her sitting skills

Looks like maybe she's going to request front seat riding from now on.

Yesterday I thought maybe I could get some cute pictures of the two of us.

Stella just wanted to eat the camera.

Get in my mouth!

And then she just wanted to smooch her Mommy!

I like the slobbery smooches!

MacGyver Mom

When we started cloth diapering

one of my fears was that I would run out of diapers

and be left with nothing to catch the various things that come out of our girl.

Because of this (or in the case of a poop-tastrophe)

I try to keep a small pack of

disposable diapers on hand.

I don't like to use disposable diapers because they don't

contain the messes quite as well.

But sometimes they're necessary.

Well,

Our busy weekend caught up with me yesterday.

I realized when I changed Stella's mega-poo diaper

that I only had one clean diaper left.

No matter, I thought, because she had just poo'd

so I would have plenty of time to toss the others into the wash

before she would need another diaper change.

So I started the wash, and then I sat down to feed her.

Silly Mommy!

Stella had other plans for this day.

And so she proceeded to poo again.

Uh, now what?

Well, I guess we'll just have to use a disposable diaper until the others finish in the wash.

Silly Mommy!

I must have used up the last disposable that we had on hand.

Uh, now what?

Jim & Cole just left for a 2 hour run,

and I'm not about to strap Stella with her diaper full of poo into the carseat

to run out to the store.

MacGyver Mommy to the rescue!

Here is our girl

laying on her play mat

on a towel

with microfiber diaper inserts underneath.

Covering her precious bum is 2 Gerber burp cloths.

At first I just sort of wrapped the burp cloths around her

but she kept wiggling and coming uncovered

so I snapped her onesie to keep them on

until I could get a diaper cover washed.

She spent about 30 minutes like this

and yes, she did wet.

But it didn't go any farther than the towel.

I guess it's a good thing that she likes to lay on her back

and that she was feeling content to play on her play mat.

At least I know now that in a pinch, I can handle running out of diapers.

Marathon Training Update

We are T-Minus 6 days and counting until the Lincoln Marathon

The guys have done a wonderful job with their training

and we are on a carb-load menu this week.

Not sure what that will do to my waist-line, but it's for a good cause!

The most they have run in their training.is 11 miles,

and they feel well-prepared to run the extra 2.1 on Sunday.

Jim is battling a nasty cold that came on over the weekend

so he's been pumping in the Vitamin C and fluids

trying to get himself healthy before Sunday.

*Photo Note- this pic was taken during the packing up phase of our move.
I packed all of our hats and gloves, not expecting more cold weather

so Cole is wearing socks on his hands and a t-shirt on his head in lieu of gloves and a hat.

You gotta be creative when you're a marathoner!

Is Chocolate Ok for Squirrels?

What a wonderful Easter weekend we had!

We got to see almost all of both of our families.

That almost never happens!

On Saturday my family got together to cebrate

my niece Kyley's first birthday.

Here is the birthday girl enjoying her party!

We got to spend quite a bit of time with Calyn this weekend too!

Cole enjoyed the party :)

And so did Stella.

Stella has added another member to her "Favorite Guy" list.

She sure did enjoy spending time with her Uncle Greg!

He makes her giggle.

We also got to spend time with Jim's family this weekend.

Stella is becoming quite the social girl.

She sure enjoyed hanging out with her cousin Nicole.

Cole enjoyed his Easter Basket.

And so did Stella.

Looks like the Easter Bunny brought all the right things.

And even if you're 14, you're just not too old for a good old fashioned

Easter Egg Hunt.

Stella and I hid the eggs all over our backyard while Jim & Cole were out on a run.

Well, mostly I hid eggs.

Stella was too busy bouncing.

There was probably an hour between the time that we hid the eggs

and when Cole was able to get home and find them.

Unfortunately, it looks like maybe someone else found at least one of the eggs

before Cole got to it.

This is not quite what this egg looked like when I hid it.

Looks like our friendly neighborhood squirrel

enjoyed a little Easter Egg Hunt of his own.

At least he left one of the candies.

Too bad he didn't pick up his trash.

Happy Wednesday

Stella Says....

Happy Wednesday to you!

Weekend O' Fun

Stella and I took our first big road trip this weekend.

We went to Wichita for the March of Dimes Walk.

We were so excited to see everyone.

And Stella was especially excited to get re-acquainted with her cousins

Calyn & Kyley.

Stella thought Calyn was hilarious!

She laughed and giggled at just about everything that Calyn did.

Here are all 3 girls playing together.

We decided that we needed to try to get another picture of the 3 girls laying on the floor.

Here is the picture that we took about 5 1/2 months ago.

And this is the best we could do now.

We had a little trouble getting them to be still.

3 busy girls don't want to hold still for Mommies who want photos.

Yeah, this is pretty much what most of the pitures looked like.

As you can see, Calyn wanted no part of it,

Kyley wanted to play with her feet

And Stella just wanted to lay on her side and chew on her hands.

We finally gave up...

We had to bundle up in the morning for the walk.

It was a bit chilly to start off with.

The girls weren't too happy about being awake and out for a morning walk.

But once we got going they were happier.

Calyn finally woke up and showed off her cool new walking skills.

Afterward we went out for lunch.

Stella and Calyn were pretty interested in getting ahold of one another.

And then Calyn munched on Stella's arm  :)

It's Track Time

Saturday was Cole's first track meet of the season.

There he is in the middle- #20.

Lining up to cheer on the other runners.

Ok, it's race time.

Cole ran the mile and the 800 (half-mile).

And he's off.

I like the action shots.

Looks like he's hanging in there.

Keep on running!

Looking good!

And the finish- he finished the mile with a 6:30 time!

A personal best, and about 20 seconds faster than last year!

It was Stella's first track meet.

She had fun watching all of the kids!

And she got to spend the morning outside.