Oktemberfest 5K

Bob and I finished the Oktemberfest 5K in Marshalltown yesterday in 33:48, so about 5 minutes faster than our first 5K on Labor Day. It was a lot flatter than the run around the lake, but we ran more too. Bob's sister Peggy started with us, but sent us ahead after a couple miles. I can't believe I'm saying that a 5K was really fun, but it was, even though we did get passed by the top 2 10K placewinners. Oh, well, I guess my next goal is to not get beat by the guys running twice as far as us!

We stayed in Marshalltown Friday night and the kids did fine without us so I think we're good to go to Vegas:)

The Beauty of Twins

Sometimes that fact that I have identical twins just amazes me. It seems like such a miracle that two little beings came from the same egg/sperm hookup. Yes, they are different in some ways. Claire smiles with her mouth, Delaney smiles with her eyes. Delaney has thicker hair, a little cafe au lait spot on her left forearm, a tiny notch in her ear cartilage, and will put her hand up to her mouth like "Oh! Oops!". Claire can scream like a horror movie star. Delaney is a little more laid back, Claire a bit more intense, but I couldn't say "Oh, that's Claire" or "Oh, that's Delaney" just based on behavior.

Sometimes, their sameness is almost comical. This morning, they fell asleep as we were out walking. They tend to fall asleep in exactly the same position- arms, legs, head, everything-and I was reminded of this picture from June when they fell asleep in their stroller as we walked around the loop.

Sometimes it's just the joy they seem to derive from having each other around. This afternoon, they were playing here in the office and pulled down their pajamas from the changing table shelf. They were just delighted with these new "toys" and put them over their heads and around their necks like the fanciest scarves, crawling around the house and giggling with each other. I grabbed a litle video and tried not to disturb the moment:)

Of course, 20 minutes after I took the video, they were tired and getting a little cranky. I had given Delaney the tiny piano toy and when Claire heard it, she high-tailed back over and tried to grab it away. Delaney put up a good fight, but Claire didn't earn the nickname "Pirate" without good reason. Delaney ended up in my lap getting a little snack. I'm not sure Claire was convinced she got the best deal when she saw that, but then they switched places and everyone seemed content in the end. I imagine it was a vision of the future.

A Kevin funny

This morning, we were driving out to my mom's house. She lives on a gravel road so there are just stop signs. Kevin just turned forward facing in his seat so he has a lot of questions like "Why isn't there a green light here?" so I've been telling him about red lights meaning stop, green mean go, and yellow mean watch out.
Since we were with my mom, I asked him to tell Grandma what red lights meant.
Kevin: "Stop!"
Me: "Green lights?"
Kevin:"Go!"
Me: "What about yellow lights?" thinking that he might not remember.
Kevin, without missing a beat: "GoGoGoGoGo!"

My mom about busted a gut laughing. I'm sure I've said "GoGoGoGoGo!" when I've come up to green lights turning yellow, but I had no idea he'd put two and two together!

November 16th

November 16th. That's the next day circled in red on the calendar. Bob and I are going to Las Vegas! Without kids!! I am positively giddy about this. I never traveled much before Bob, but he got me addicted to nice hotels, room service, and general sight seeing. We still travel with the kids, but it's just not the same and we haven't been away from home for more than one night since Kevin was born except for when I was in the hospital with the twins...which definitely did not count as a vacation. However, here's our chance to stay up late and not have to arise to the sound of "Mommmmmy, where aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrreeeeeeeee you?" or just "WAAAAAAAAAAH!" We're staying at the Mandalay Bay and I even went ahead and got tickets to KA. I.cannot.wait. I'm sure I'll miss my little sweeties some...okay, a lot...but I think we'll all be okay.

And what, you may ask, are we going to do with the kids? Mom and my aunt Marie have kindly agreed to take on the challenge of wrangling the bunch for 3 nights. We're doing a practice run on Friday night. Bob and I are going to go down to Marshalltown and staying over at Bob's sister's house so we can do the Oktemberfest 5K on Saturday morning. Hopefully the kidlets sleep through the night and don't scare off our good help!

We're going on vacation! Woohoo!

Goodness in the world

On another bright note, not all is horrible in the world. These kids in Nova Scotia deserve a huge pat on the back for sticking up for someone when they could have turned their backs. Their parents should be beaming with pride.

I’ve stood around too long’Central Kings students wear pink to send bullies a message
CAMBRIDGE — Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt.The Grade 9 student arrived for the first day of school last Wednesday and was set upon by a group of six to 10 older students who mocked him, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up.The next day, Grade 12 students David Shepherd and Travis Price decided something had to be done about bullying."It’s my last year. I’ve stood around too long and I wanted to do something," said David.They used the Internet to encourage people to wear pink and bought 75 pink tank tops for male students to wear. They handed out the shirts in the lobby before class last Friday — even the bullied student had one."I made sure there was a shirt for him," David said.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/Search/858884.html

Please remove all sharp objects from the area.

So I'm already slightly depressed by Iowa's loss to Iowa State on Saturday. Not that Iowa played so great that they deserved to win, but neither did Iowa State.

Anyway, what do I decide to do today? That's right, edit and burn DVDs. I hate doing this. No matter how carefully I think I'm doing it, something always goes wrong and it ends up taking about 50 hours longer than it's supposed to because every step takes forever and if (when) I screw up one little thing, I have to go back and start over. For example, I downloaded the footage, edited, put in titles, and saved it. Then I downloaded a trial for a burner because I still haven't found one I liked. Then I try to open my file. No go. Apparently I didn't say it as a wmv. file. Finally, I figure this out and spend an hour (yes, an 80 minute video takes 45 minutes to save) only to discover it's too long to fit on one DVD. So I try to edit it down. Apparently, that's impossible to do unless you have the tech skill of someone who has tech skills. I can look at each frame individually, but clipping them and moving them around takes a special gift. So I go back and do it on Windows and have to resave it- another 40 minutes. I put in the chapters and titles without much wailing and gnashing of teeth and now it's burning. 24 minutes in and it's 6% complete. I have another copy of this one to burn and two more discs to do. It's worse than baby books!
Edited to add: I did, however, discover that I have video of Claire and Delaney's first Easter. It may not be still pictures to put in their baby books, but at least I don't completely suck as a mom!

All I can say that it's been slightly more successful than trying to hide veggies in macaroni and cheese. Delaney can chew up the pasta around the veggies and then carefully spit them out once she's swallowed the pasta. Now that? That is talent. With genius like that, I'm going to be able to turn over video editing to her! Here's some more of Delaney's talent:

Guilty Pleasures

Wednesday is my TV night. Lately, Bob's been at the hospital most Wednesday night delivering some babies so I chuck the kids in bed and watch Bravo's Top Chef. I don't know how I got hooked on that show. I mean, I hardly ever watch a whole show start to finish anymore because someone always needs something or I get sucked back to the computer, but I love to watch Tom Colicchio make his "I'm sure this is going to be a horrible dish, but I'm let you hang yourself because I'm going to have to eat it anyway" face or listen to Anthony Bourdain, the funniest of the guest judges, tell some poor chef that he's eaten better food pulled out of a log under some beaver dam.

Of course, I'm not ever going to make anything that looks like anything anyone's ever made on that show. I generally hate fish, wine, olives, bleu cheese, honey, and all sorts of stuff that people seem to throw together in the name of "haute cuisine". I'm more of a Lean Cuisine type girl, although since LC is owned by Nestle, the evil purveyor of formula and opponent of breastfeeding, I should probably become a hippy, farmer's market type girl. Thank goodness Nestle didn't buy Ben and Jerry's. There's my reality show niche! I'd kick butt on a TV show about trying new ice cream flavors.

Gymnastics

Kevin had his first gymnastics class tonight. It's for 3-5 year olds so he's probably the youngest one in the group. I'm pretty sure he's the smallest too...like a head shorter than the next kid. He was very excited and had a bit of a time sticking with the group, preferring to go off and bounce around on his own instead of following in line, although he could do a mean somersault when he wanted. The teacher and her assistants had to go round him up a few times and he tried to come out into the lobby area a couple times, but when class was over, he came out and said, "Mom, that was fun! I had so much fun!" I guess we're going back next week:)

My little fashion victim

Kevin is walking around wearing a Diego t-shirt, navy shorts (his size 9 months ones), and, to complete the look, his new Columbia snow boots. He's taken quite a shine to them and has worn them for at least an hour a day since they arrived on Wednesday. Any guesses to how much he'll fuss when he actually has to put them on to wear out in the snow?

Baby books

Kevin's baby book is pretty complete. Claire and Delaney's (yes, they each have one) are somewhat less so. I've been writing in stuff as we go, but I need to copy a lot of stuff into both books, put pictures in, et cetera et cetera.... Why I didn't do this when I was in the hospital waiting for them, I don't know. Oh wait, it was because I couldn't lean over a desk or table because my belly full of babies was in the way!

Anyway, if any of my children complain because they feel their book is inadequate in any way, they're out of the will. Delaney and Claire may not have any pictures from their first Easter, but it's just because they insisted on being held the whole time and I couldn't get my camera out. So there!

Labor Day fun and games

Bob and I did the 5K "Partners in Spirit Around the Lake Fun Run" sponsored by St. Ed's this morning. We walked most of it except for a little jogging down the hills and in some of the shady spots. The mosquitos were out in full force, but it was nice and sunny and it always helps to have someone to visit with while walking. We finished just under 39 minutes, which was well ahead of my goal of around 41 minutes. My everyday 5 mile walks have been around 70 minutes- 14 min miles-but I'm slower when I walk with Bob because we talk so I was very happy when we finished the first mile in 13:36 and were at the second in 25:26. Bob admitted that he was surprised that I was doing it at all. Apparently last year I swore that I'd never be in any sort of shape to even walk it.

Last January, I tried to do a training program for a 5K but I think I was trying to go to fast and it was really hard on my knees and toes. Bob and I are going to try to do some jogging, but hopefully having him with me will help me pace myself a bit better. I'd like to eventually break 30 mins.

We've still got one 5K walk for sure next weekend- the Arthritis Foundation- where we'll be a part of "Team Austin" and we may go down to Marshalltown for their 5K on the 22nd. We'll see if we can round up a babysitter and Bob and I can sneak away the night before, otherwise getting up and leaving by 5am may be more than I'm willing to do.

Sports and such

Went to the Dayton Rodeo tonight. We took Kevin and he seemed to enjoy it. The more PC part- or maybe it's the mommy part- of me cringed during the calf roping events, but the bulls and broncs are pretty evenly matched with the cowboys.

Iowa beat No. Illinois. It might be a long season unless the offense and special teams find some consistency. At least we won, unlike Michigan. Michigan got beat by Appalachian St.- a I-AA team. I like college football so much better than the pro version. No, it's not pure as the driven snow, but every now and then there's a really good upset.