Hello Kitty

Wanna Wrestle

Fall Fest

Even though it was hot as all get out today, we celebrated Fall at the local Fall Fest. Grammy, Gramper, Ben, Evie and I loaded up and drove an hour to a big farm with a 6 acre corn maze and an hayride, petting zoo, corn box, corn cannon, hay jump, kid train, duck race, etc. We stopped at a gas station on our way and Ben bought lotto scratch off tickets for all of us. I won $30!! I never win anything when I do lotto tickets so I am super excited about my win. =)

I'll let the pictures illustrate our day.

First we hung out at the house and played. This is Evie in Ben's glasses.


Here's Evie playing at Grammy's house.


Here's us measuring up at the Fall Fest.





Evie enjoyed checking out the fallen scarecrow and the baby pumpkins.



Here's Evie hanging out at the corn box.



Here's Evie riding with Gramper on the Cow Train.


I sat in front of them.


Evelyn LOVED playing with the ducks at the duck race.





And here's Ben making a face and me.


Overall the day was really fun. The heat was kind of a bummer. But we plan on going back when the weather turns cooler. So what did you do to celebrate Fall this weekend?

a little proud

Friday Sept 21
Swim 400 meters
Bike 13 miles

Sunday Sept 23
Bike 13 miles
Run 3 miles

Triathlon here I come =)

Jen is Coming Home!!

My truly bestest, most longest friend ever is coming back to the mainland!! She has been living in Hawaii for the last 2 years and I have missed her terribly!! She will be moving back to the Southeast in November and I am thrilled! The last time I saw her was almost a year ago. Evie was about 4 months old. Jen and her rockin parents are the people that gave Evie her lion. She absolutely loves that lion and she sleeps with it in her crib. I am so stoked!!

Here's Evie and Jen last year.



Here's Evie and her lion last year.

Tri Training

Because of various circumstances I haven't been training at all in the last 1.5 weeks. BUT, I will be doing the triathlon in October, come hell or high water. I am committed to finishing this, even if I have to crawl to the finish line. I don't think I will crawl, but I may walk, we'll see.

In other news, I got a fabulous pair of new running shoes. I have decided to train for a half marathon in December. As a reward to myself and out of necessity I had to buy new running shoes to train for the half marathon. I got a pair of these. Mine are cuter, they have pink and yellow and gray. I got them for $50 instead of $85, so I feel good about that. Nike has this new thing you can get to put in your shoe and it will send your pace/distance/rate running info to your ipod nano. Once the info is in you ipod you can upload it to your own nike ticker. It looks really cool, and I am pretty sure that my friend Rich is utilizing this technology. I am toying with the idea of doing this but it costs $29.00 to get the sensor thingy that goes in your shoe. We'll see. =)

This Train Has Only 1 Stop...

Cuteness!









On a side note. Thank you to everyone for so much support and good advice about talking with my Mom. You all pretty much said the same thing and that made it clear to me what I should do. I am gonna write her a letter. I'll just open the door on my side and we'll see what happens.

A Much Needed Vacation

I got a wonderful and much needed 1.5 day vacation this week. My BFF Angie and a bunch of her folks were staying at a condo on Hilton Head Island this week. They were gracious enough to invite me up for a night of board games, poker and shopping. Let me tell you, it was exactly what I needed! I had a wonderful time and I LOVED catching up with my girl Angie! Much silliness and debauchery was had =)



We are Carahzy!


And uncooridinated, lol!


Oh, and did I mention I got to go to the beach!!!! For the first time in years!! I <3 the beach!






Check out this crab just chillin.


It was so awesome, I feel rejuvinated from the experience. The only thing that would have made it better is having Ben and Evie there too. Ben had to work and I wasn't gonna take her on a 3.5 hour car ride each way by myself.

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Evie Ready for School

Here are some pics of Evie before I took her to school yesterday. She looks so good in purple! =)

Evie Caught Her First Lion

Who is This All About?

Oh Yeah, it's All About Evie!

We Are Alive - 7

Hi,

We are alive, we aren't all healthy though. Evie and I have been fighting off a head cold for a week and now Ben and Grammy and Gramper are getting it. So we are not a very exciting bunch today. I do have news. Good news, exciting news.

1. Triathlon training is going really well! Dad and I are really getting better at all the events. Yesterday we tried to do 2 events back to back for the first time. It was a very very hard task. We swam 400 yds and then ran 3 miles. It was about 87 degrees outside and sunny. I nearly passed out from heat exhaustion but I finished. Dad totally kicked my butt. Overall we feel like it was a success. We are both hoping that on race day it will be much cooler.

2. Evelyn had her 1st day of "baby school" last Thursday. She did well considering the newness of the whole thing. I dropped her off at 8AM and picked her up at 145PM. She ate solids with the other kids and even napped. She was totally exhausted when I picked her up but she perked up after another nap at home. We are happy with the Montessori school so far. We aren't taking her tomorrow because she is sick and we don't want her to get worse or pass the sickness to other kids.

3. Shadowing Aidan at school was very challenging the first week of school. The first few days I didn't know how to keep him in line AND keep the peace in the classroom. Aidan's mom talked to me on Wed. of last week and said to do whatever it took to keep Aidan on task. She told me not to worry about Aidan bothering the class unless the teacher mentioned it to me. So I started disciplining Aidan in the classroom and he responded really well. He didn't like being made to do his work and act correctly in class, but he complied. And this week he is just doing fantastically! I am really proud of him. My job is easier when he is on task and not testing me. So hopefully he will continue to follow directions and rules and make my job even easier. In other work related news I am going to be working less starting in October. I won't be staying with Aidan after school at all by October. I am just too exhausted and worn out after being at school with him for 5 hours. So they will be hiring a new person to take over those hours and possibly to go to school with Aidan on Fridays. So the schedule will be Mon-Thurs 8:30AM-1:30PM if everything goes according to plan. I hope so!

3. House building and all things related to it are on hold at the moment. I'm not sure where we are in the process. But I do know that Ben and Vanessa are working on it.

4. Labor Day weekend was very nice for all of us here at the farm. Ben and I hosted a BBQ/Pool Party for Ben's old boss and his wife and Aidan's family. I wanted to get to know the Aidan family better and Ben and I both wanted to catch up with our old friends. It was super fun! We all got wrapped in conversation and before we knew it 6 hours had passed.

5. Next week Ben is going to visit his best friend on the West Coast and all of us left here at the farm are going to visit BigBro and DocRom. I am super excited about seeing them again! We are all running in a 5K race. BigBro and DocRom are training for the triathlon too. Grammy is going to push Evie in the stroller for a 1K family run/walk. It should be super fun. I wish Ben were going to be with us but I know he'll be having a big old time with his best friend.

6. In other news, I will hopefully be visiting my good friend Angie in the next few weeks when she comes down to my neck of the woods for a vacation. I sure hope it all works out! She and her hubs are both in the process of changing jobs and moving so her plans may change. Either way I think she is the COOLEST and I am wishing her all the good luck vibes I've got. =)

7. I am just in shock at how different my life is right now. Working is really wonderful, I love making money and having a new challenging career opportunity. I am now thinking seriously about getting a grad degree. Financially we can't really afford for me to go back to school but maybe a year from now. I hope so. I hope by next year I'll still love working with Aidan and I'll be going to school to get a degree in special ed. or psychology specializing in autism. We'll see.

Thanks for reading still, sorry I am a such a bad blogger lately.
Jen =)

Grandpop Visits

Evelyn's Grandpop came to visit this weekend!! He was so much fun and Evelyn really enjoyed hanging out with him. We all really missed Mimi but she couldn't make it because of work. We can't wait to see her whenever she can make it here! Grandpop is Ben's Dad and as you will see in the pictures, they look like twins. Since Evie was born everyone has said she looks like Ben's side of the family. So I will ask you, Dear Readers, do you think Evie looks like Ben or me? Or is she turning out to be an even mix of the two of us? You be the judge.

Evie Might Be Going to School

Ben and I are going to be working full time starting next week. Grammy is going to watch Evelyn for us while we work. She has offered to watch Evie full time, 5 days a week 8AM-2/4PM. She is really awesome. She is going to take Evelyn to baby gym classes and take her to playgroups, etc. It is super sweet of her and very reassuring to Ben and I. But we feel like Grammy needs a break during the week. At least one day a week when she can get her farm stuff done or just sit on the couch and eat bon bons and watch Netflix. So today Ben and I are going to look at a Montessori Day School by where I am going to be working. The plan is for me to take Evie to the day school one day a week on my way to work and pick her up when I am done with work. She will be there from 8AM-2PM. It is scary for Ben and I because we want her to be happy and healthy and safe. But this school has a really great reputation and I have only heard great things about it. So today we will go see the school together and make our final decision. If we aren't comfortable with it then we will keep Evie with Grammy and wait for the local Catholic school to have an opening in their Mother's Day Out program. The Catholic school also has a really good reputation, but they are full in the toddler class until mid September.

Camel Baby

Back on Track

We ran today for the first time in 2 weeks. Yes, I have been totally slacking on triathlon training. And Gramper has been travelling, so today we finally ran together. I missed our bike ride yesterday. But it felt really good to run today. I like being physically active and healthy. And for the first time in a long time it wasn't oppressively hot outside! Praise the weather God!



Ben and I went on a date for the first time in a few weeks Saturday night. It was really fun! We went to a delicious pizza place and had some slices and shared 2 pitchers of cheap beer. It was exactly what I wanted. We were supposed to see Bourne Ultimatum but because of the beer and fun at the pizza place we missed our movie. So we ended up seeing Rush Hour 3. I have never seen any Rush Hour movies until this one. I have to say, even with 2 pitchers of beer in us, the movie kinda stunk. Maybe if we had had 2 pitchers of vodka the movie would have been funny. But despite the bad movie the date was wonderful and just what we both needed after a long week. Thank you Grammy and Gramper for babysitting Evie for us!!

Grammy is going to babysit Evie for us when Ben goes back to work after Labor Day. In anticipation of her new "job" Grammy has been researching info about 13 month old babies and what developmental toys and activities they should be doing. It is very sweet and just makes me feel so lucky that:

a. she wants to and is going to watch Evelyn for 30 hours a week for us for free.
b. she wants to teach Evelyn appropriate cool stuff and not just eat bon bons
while Evelyn runs a muck.

I couldn't have better family, I am truly so lucky. And Evelyn, well she is just in heaven. Grammy and Gramper went to Toys R Us yesterday and bought toys and puzzles, and activities and a slide for Evelyn's "school". Grammy has cleared out half her living room to make into Evie "school". It is super cool and so sweet. And Evelyn LOVES it! Oh and I ordered 5 DVDs and matching books from scholastic yesterday. The titles include Curious George, Good Night Gorilla, Corduroy, Giggle Giggle Quack, Tikki Tikki Tembo, and The Wheels on the Bus. I know she is too young to really read the books but she loves when we read books to her and let her turn the pages and by having the books and DVDs I think it will be really cool for her. I am excited because the books are so nostalgic and the DVDs should be a new fun element for us and her.



Oh and in other Evie news, we turned her car seat around to face forward. I haven't really been paying attention to her weight and age in that context. But in Grammy's research I read that at 20lbs and 1 year you can turn your kid around. Well, Evie is about 27 lbs and 13 months so I felt comfortable turning her around. It is so exciting! She'll have a whole new view of the world. I haven't driven her anywhere yet but I am really looking forward to today when I drive her to playgroup.



p.s. Sorry the photos are so small. I am trying a new image hosting site because photobucket is down right now. If you click on the images you can see them a little bit bigger.