The Weeks Just Keep Getting Busier

So last Saturday was just a dreary day. Ellie was supposed to have ball practice but it was cancelled. So I finally let her get out her pottery kit she got for her birthday from Lissy. It took a while to get it going and Andrew even had to take her to the store to get some extra batteries. She kept working at it though and got it going. It was a huge mess though. She had to take a break for dinner but in the end she had some sort of bowl with her name in it. I think all of the clean up may make her hesitant to bring it out again though.

Andrew got creative and set up an area in the garage for the kids to practice hitting. He tied a big sheet to one of the garage door openers and would toss a ball to the kids to hit. He even made a tee out of cardboard that was in the garage for Lincoln to use.

Sunday morning Andrew took Jackson and Lincoln hunting. I was hoping to sleep in but after just getting back to sleep after they left around 6, the twins came into my room to let me know that Bennett had a bloody nose. It wasn’t too bad so we got it taken care of kind of quickly but then he let me know there was some upstairs too. So I cleaned up a spot on the carpet and a few on his bedspread and then got them set up with their breakfast.  After Andrew and the other boys got home, Molly came over to watch the kids for us so we could go on a bike ride. I wanted to try the hill by the Dining Lodge at 1000 Hills a few times to practice going up longer hills since I have four of them on the bike route of the TriZou.  So we rode out there and did the loop three times so we could do the hill three times. Andrew killed me every time. All of his miles he has been doing are really paying off for him. By the time we were done I had gone 26 miles which is my longest ride. Andrew headed out to Troy Mills to get a few extra miles in while headed home so that Molly could leave.

After the ride it was time for lunch and then Andrew and Jackson went to his ball practice. The other kids got to play outside except for the twins who had to take a nap. I continued working on trying to dig up some old bushes and was successful with one but Andrew had to help me with the second one when he got home. Planting the new bushes was the easy part. The kids played outside almost all day with a break for dinner. I did some grocery shopping that night and they were all ready for bed when I got home.

The sun was shining again Monday morning and it was supposed to be a little warmer so I decided we would get some more stuff done outside that afternoon. But while we waited for it to warm up the twins got out the Magformers and played with them and then did some painting while I did laundry, cleaned windows and some other fun stuff. I also had to get a picture of part of their lunch routine. I still have some chairs stacked in the corner for our breakfast table since the twins seem to get into more trouble when they are sitting out. So now they get them down themselves for lunch and it is all about teamwork :-).

Instead of working out I brought up patio furniture and stacked wood. Lincoln and the twins helped me with the wood and also helped clean up all the bark that was left over after stacking it. Then we cleaned off the patio and put the furniture out. We need some watering and trimming here and there until it was time for the twins to take a nap. The rest of the day pretty much consisted of all the kids playing outside, Andrew going for a bike ride, getting in a quick dinner (Jackson helped me make the pancakes) and then Ellie had ball practice. I finally had all the pieces in to fix our front door knob/handle and was able to get that done and then do some touch up paint.  As soon as Andrew got home, he and Jackson headed out back to practice some throwing and pitching until it got too dark. We also got to see Ellie’s judge critiques for her competition routine which was fun.  She was nervous about seeing them but then I think she felt better about all of it afterwards. They way they did it was they had three separate videos of her routine with the judges speaking their critique during the routine. They just had a few negative things to say about keeping her smiling, keeping her legs straight and pointing her toes. But then they were all really impressed with her flexibility. One judge said she was “just adorable” and they even complimented her on her purple shoes and her cute hair (go Mom J).

Even though our Tuesday day wasn’t too busy, things got busy that evening. Andrew was supposed to be home at five so I could drop Ellie off at dance a little early and get Lincoln to his Kindergarten Open House. But he was running late and I would have left the twins with Jackson for a bit but he was off playing with some friends. By the time we got him home, Andrew showed up too.  So off we went and when we got to the school there was a line to sign in. We did a few of the activities-walking through the library and one of the classrooms and then got a cookie and a carton chocolate milk in the cafeteria. I opened up his milk for him and then he asked me how he was supposed to drink it. It never occurred to me that he had never drunk out of an actual carton before.  I think he had them before at some restaurants but we always poured the milk into a cup. It was kind of funny.

After he had his snack, we went outside to check out the school bus and then headed home. He didn’t realize that he could have had items punched on his name tag so he could get a free t-shirt and I was thankful for that at the point since we didn’t have much time. Since we were running behind, I tried calling Andrew on the way home to see if he could finish up some stuff for dinner so he and Jackson could eat before they headed to practice. But he didn’t answer the first several times I tried I think because he was cleaning his bike. I eventually got a hold of him and he said he would put some stuff in the microwave for me but I got home not much later and he was cleaning up stuff from his bike clean and hadn’t been inside yet. So not all of dinner was ready and the rolls I had put in before we left (I set the oven to turn on a little later) had burned. Jackson and Andrew ate what was ready at that point, some beef and noodles and left for practice. I finished up the potatoes and got plates ready for the three youngest and none of them ate much of it. I didn’t feel like fighting it, plus we didn’t have much time before we needed to pick up Ellie so I just let it go. And while I was trying to feed them and clean up stuff, I decided to give Overstock a call. I had a bit of a dilemma. I have been wanting to get a new patio table and chairs so that the whole family could sit together outside. Andrew and I have gone back and forth a bit and finally settled on a set that was a price he was okay with and that I liked. I finally ordered it Saturday night from Overstock with a coupon plus I would get 5% cash back on my credit card. Then about 6:45 the next morning, my mom texted me to let me know the same set was going to be an Amazon Lightning Deal later that day. I checked with Overstock to see if it would be possible to cancel my order later that day if I wanted to. They said they would have to send it to their cancellation department but would probably be able to. So the lightning deal started later and it was cheaper than what it was on Overstock. I chatted with Overstock again and they said it could take 1-2 business days but that I should be able to cancel it. I hate to miss out on a deal so I decided to go ahead and order from Amazon with the thought that my Overstock order would be cancelled soon. What I forgot about at this point was the extra 5% cash back I was getting so the two sets were essentially the same price. Oh well. So over the next few days I chatted with Overstock several times to see if the order was cancelled and to express my urgency in needing it cancelled. They told me they were still waiting to hear from their cancellation department since it was an oversized item. I thought I should definitely be able to since I wasn’t supposed to get it for 1-4 weeks. But there was still no guarantee. So I contacted Amazon to see how late I could cancel their order. They said I had until Wednesday because it wouldn’t ship out until Friday. Well part way through the day on Tuesday I get a notification that the Amazon order has shipped and I still hadn’t heard from Overstock if that order was cancelled. I was a little anxious about all of it. So that is why I called them again Tuesday night and I received the same answer. But I didn’t have time to dwell on it because then we had to go pick up Ellie from dance.

After we got home, the kids played outside until it was time for Ellie to go to gymnastics. I was hoping Andrew would be back by then but he wasn’t, so I loaded them all up again and dropped Ellie off instead of staying with her. I got a call on our way from Andrew saying he was on his way home. So when we got back, he bathed the kids while I cleaned up and then it was time to pick Ellie up again. Whew, what a night.

The next morning I was checking my email in bed and was so relieved to see the email from Overstock that my order was indeed cancelled. I got up and got Lincoln and the twins breakfast and then headed out for a swim. I had perfect timing that morning. I was hoping to work on the snake-style swim that we would be doing for the triathlon and I ended up being the only one doing lap swimming so I had all four lanes to myself. Actually for a little bit, I was the only one in the pool. The snake swim is swimming to the end of one lane and then going under the lane line and swimming the next lap in the next lane and so forth. The pool at Mizzou has eight 50m lanes so we will start on one end of the pool and finish at the other, going under all the lane lines. So I got some great practice with it except for that the Aquatic Center is a 25m pool.

Andrew and the three older kids headed to school and work when I got home and then I finished up cleaning bathrooms while the twins played with the Magformers again. We have quite a collection now, so they were all over the family room floor. Before they went down for a nap we went outside for a while. I had to go to a couple houses and the twins enjoyed just being able to walk around with me instead of going in a stroller. Lincoln played most of the afternoon with Alex and Josh going from house to house. Since we were having our last official small group of the year that night, I made some cookies to give our sitters as a thank you. Other people in our group were making some too, so I got some treat bags ready along with thank you tags to put all the cookies in.

Andrew went for a bike ride after he brought the kids home from school since he wouldn’t have much time to get anymore done at the office since he had to be at Jackson’s scrimmage game at 5. Jackson had a book fair at school and he took some of his own money. It was a buy one, get one free so he was the sweet brother and got stuff for Ellie and Lincoln too. He got Ellie a Harry Potter book since she is also reading the series right now and got Lincoln a Minecraft poster. They were both very excited and I  love when Jackson does stuff for his siblings.

That evening, Andrew and Jackson went to his scrimmage while I stayed home for small group. Andrew made it back for the last few minutes. He said the game went pretty well. They got beat but they were playing an older team that has been together for years. So I think the coaches were pleased with how the boys played, especially with it being their first game of their first year together. Andrew had depositions all day Thursday so I was on kid drop off/pick up duty. The twins are always excited about that and we spent probably 20 minutes in Lincoln’s room when we dropped him off. Then we did our grocery shopping at Wal-Mart and Aldi. When I was unloading the groceries my friend, Andrea, was walking by so she stopped and we chatted for a bit. The twins just played around the yard and before I knew it we just had a few minutes to put all the groceries away and go pick up Lincoln. So I did that, switched the laundry real quick and we headed out. And we had a surprise for Lincoln afterwards. We planned to pick up some McDonalds and head to a playground with his friends Benson and Josh. We went to the playground at Rotary Park and they just played and played and it was a beautiful day outside.

When we got home, I did some work outside while the kids played. The twins found one more rocket for our little launcher and they eventually got it up on the roof-that was their goal. That is where they all ended up. I decided I would get up on the roof and look for them, but one I finally got the ladder in place and had to make the last step up to the roof, I decided it would probably be best if I didn’t do it. I could see two of the rockets in the corner of the gutter though. I just didn’t want them going down the gutter and getting stuck. So I moved the ladder over to the corner and tried to reach up to get them but I guess the wind had already blown them somewhere else. I tried using the video on my phone and held it above my head to see if I could see them up there but that failed too. So I just gave up and we went in for naps.

Jackson and Ellie had their last Little K of the year so we didn’t have to pick up the kids until later. But I wasn’t quite sure how we were going to pull it all off. Andrew had no idea when he would be done with depositions so I thought I was on my own for the night. But Lincoln had ball practice at 5 on one end of town and Jackson and Ellie needed to be picked up at the same time on the other end. I decided I would drop Lincoln off a little early and then be a little late picking up the other two. I knew they wouldn’t mind. But then Ellie had a 2^nd grade reading night at school she really wanted to go to at 5:30. So I had arranged to have Annie bring Lincoln home from practice since Josh was on his team and keep him until I got back from the reading night with Ellie and the twins. And Jackson was just going to stay at home while we were gone. But then Andrew called to let me know that he had a couple witnesses that didn’t show up so he was done early. Yay! So he took Lincoln to practice and helped out there while I picked up Jackson and Ellie from K-Life.  I brought Jackson home and he stayed there while I took Ellie and the twins back to Ellie’s school for the reading night. They had it in the grassy area behind the school and everyone was supposed to bring blankets or lawn chairs and some of your favorite books. The Truman football team was there and they handed out popcorn and would read a book to you or sit and listen to you read. We had a couple guys come read Bats at the Ballgame to us and the twins did well with it all-probably because they each got a bag of popcorn. We read a couple more books and then they played on the playground for a bit. We cut it a little short because we decided to meet up with Andrew, Lincoln and Jackson at La Fuente for dinner. Ellie didn’t mind that at all. J

When we got back from dinner Andrew rushed around to get the yard mowed. There were a ton of grass clippings so I worked on trying to clean some of that up and finished it up while he did baths. It was a full day, but a fun one. I spent the next day packing for our trip to St. Louis/Columbia. There was a lot going on for the weekend and I was just sure I would forget something. Between all of the kids but Jackson staying overnight in St. Louis with my parents, to my stuff for the triathlon (before, during and after), to the ball game and everything in between, it took me awhile to coordinate all the different bags and gear. Alex was at our house before eight and he and Lincoln went back and forth to each others’ houses during the morning. Jackson and Ellie got out of school at one so we got to pick them up. Andrew was able to get a bike ride in and then he took all the kids out to the ranch while I finished getting stuff ready and got a short bike ride in to practice my transitions. I also did some cleaning and then went to my parents for a quick dinner and to drop off the kids’ suitcases and sleeping bags and Brady’s gift since I didn’t want to mess with getting them out of the back of our car the next day when we had my bike on the back. I also made a stop at Wal-Mart for some last-minute stuff for the weekend.  Andrew and the kids put out some mineral and check the cows at the ranch. Then they went to his parents’ house along with Matthew’s family and had a fire and roasted hot dogs. They had a lot of fun and came home ready to go to bed.

With the sun coming up earlier, the twins seem to be getting up earlier too. I thought it would be nice to sleep in a bit longer but I could hear the twins up and about around 6:30. I laid around for a while though. Andrew stuck around too instead of going to the office. While I finished getting everything ready and got the kids ready, Andrew took Jackson to the ball park for a little practice since he was missing a practice game during the weekend. Our neighborhood was having a garage sale so Ellie and Lincoln went around to see what their friends had for sale. Ellie was determined to buy something and she ended up with a fuzzy blue pillow from the LaBeth’s. So we waited for Andrew and Jackson to get home and then we headed out to St. Louis. Our trip was pretty uneventful which was great. We got to the Sedlaks a little after they got home from Bella’s ball game. They ordered some pizza and we had a quick lunch before we (Andrew, Jackson and I) had to head to Columbia and they all went to watch Bella’s gymnastic performance. I guess the kids all got to play around on different things at the gym and loved it.

Then that evening they had Bella and Brady’s birthday party. So they all had a fun-filled day. I was so grateful my parents were able to keep Ellie, Lincoln and the twins. I thought Ellie may want to come to the triathlon but she really didn’t want to miss the birthday party so she stayed in St. Louis. Once we got to Columbia, we went straight to the Missouri Orthopedic Institute where they were having packet pick-up. Andrew just dropped me off and I got my bib, chip and t-shirt. When I went out to get in the car, he was talking to the guy we bought our bikes from, Tom. Tom’s shop, Cycle Extreme was providing bike service for the Trizou. After we left there, we drove the bike route and then went to Olive Garden for some dinner.  Then we ran by Play It Again Sports because Andrew was interested in looking for a new glove because his was breaking in a few spots. But he quickly decided that even the used gloves were out of his price range. Our next shopping stop was Target because I had to make some returns. The boys stocked up on some snacks for that night and the next day. Next we thought we would get Jackson some ice cream for being a good sport and coming with us but the first place we went, Andy’s, had a huge line because it was buy-one-get-one-free. So we were on our way to another place when we passed Dairy Queen and Jackson said that would be fine. So we did that and then it was time to head to the hotel. I went to check in and decided that maybe it wasn’t the best choice. It was kind of close to Cosmo Park and there were ball tournaments going on which meant a lot of noise. Once we parked the car and were getting everything out, another car with bikes pulled up and it was our friend, Danielle, with a couple of her friends. We had no idea we were staying in the same hotel. And then when we went inside to go to our room, the front desk let us know that it wasn’t ready yet, so we had to wait a while for them to clean it. We finally got in and I started getting everything ready for the next morning. I took half a Melatonin hoping it would help me sleep but I wasn’t very successful. It took a while to go to sleep and then I felt like I was awake most of the night but I did sleep some because I remember having a few dreams.

So 4:45 came early. We got ready and headed out. Andrew dropped me off close to the transition area and I rode my bike on over. I got there a little before six and got a decent spot to rack my bike and set up my transition area. Andrew and Jackson parked the car and came over and thankfully Andrew remembered to get the bike pump so he aired up my tires for me. After standing around for a while and watching everyone arriving, it was time to head to the pool. I was surprised that they had us start lining up soon after I got there. I thought I would be sitting for a while but my estimated 400 time put me towards the front of the group. I think with the DuZou, the TriZou and the Super Sprint Tri, they had around 800 participants. They had the Elite males and females start the swim first. It was a 400 meter swim in a 50 meter pool. The Elites got to swim in their own lane but the rest of us had to do the snake swim. Before I knew it, it was time to go. Danielle started before me and then five seconds later it was my turn to jump in. We had to step on a timing mat first, jump in from the side of the pool and then push off.

The swim went well. I didn’t pass anyone and didn’t get passed so that was good. My time was about what I thought it would be, around 7:42. The real time was a little more because we had to run a little way to get to the next timing mat. And then I had to run a little over half way around the track to get to my bike. My transition went smoothly and I was out a little quicker than I thought I would have been. It was nice being close to the “Bike Out” gate so I didn’t have to run my bike too far. I did have a little trouble getting clipped in at the start of the bike though. But after that, I was off and didn’t really have many issues. There were a few tight turns getting out to the main road but then things were fine. There were a couple longer, steep hills (we did the loop twice, so we had to do the hills twice) that I was intimidated by but I did okay on them. I actually passed several people going up the hills which really surprised me. I was also surprised as I was coming up the last hill of my first lap and I passed Danielle. I had no idea it was her until I was passing her. With one lap down, I knew I could handle to second lap. I ended up finishing the bike in 44:46 with an average speed of 18.8mph. That was the best I had ever done so I was really pleased with that.

I racked my bike, took off my helmet, changed my shoes and was off on the run. Again, I had to run over half of the track before my run even began. The first mile was hard. I looked down at my watch and thought I had to be getting close to a mile and was only at a half mile. Danielle caught up to me around mile 1 and she was off. I was at least able to keep sight of her though J. The run was hard but it was better after the first mile. Then when I could hear the music, I knew the finish line was near and I picked up the pace a bit. The run is supposed to be three miles but I think it is actually a little less.  I finished the run in 23:51 which gave me a pace of 7:57/mile which was great for me. So my overall time was 1:23:03. I was very happy with it since I was hoping to finish at 1:30. I ended up sixth out of 24 in my age group and was 24^th out of 203 females, just behind Danielle. I guess my age group is pretty competitive because I could have finished second in the two age groups below me with my time. Danielle did finish first in her age group which was awesome. Andrew and Jackson were a great support team. I saw them up in the stands for the beginning of the swim, then they were just off the track when I was running to my bike. I saw them on the bike course after my first lap and then towards the finish of the bike. Then they were waiting for me near the finish line. They were awesome.

We decided to go ahead and head back to the hotel to shower and change. I thought about coming back to the medal ceremony but figured my time wasn’t quite fast enough. So we just headed to St. Louis. We picked up some lunch on the way, stopped at Lissy’s apartment and put my bike inside, brought Lissy with us and headed to the ballpark. My parents were ahead of us a little bit with the twins, Ellie and Lincoln. We got to the ballpark as they were singing the Star Spangled Banner and found everyone else. Sara and her family and Kaitlin and her family were there along with my parents. Bennett was not a happy camper for some reason but didn’t want to come to me. He was with my parents for most of the game but eventually made his way to us. Miles was pretty good most of the game and was all smiles for pictures. Although the score was just 1-0 when we left in the bottom of the eighth, it was a fun game. The kids all did pretty well and had fun with it. Of course there were a few melt downs but overall I thought it was a success. It was the twins’ first game which was fun. The one run the Cardinals did make while we were there was a home run by Matt Carpenter so we got to experience that excitement and the fireworks. While we were walking to the car, the Pirates tied it up. We listened to the game while we ran back to Lissy’s house and moved all the car seats, luggage, etc. We got my bike and everyone went to the bathroom and then we were on our way. The kids fell asleep pretty quickly and we listened to the game until the Cardinals won in 14 innings. So we can officially say the Cardinals won the game we went to.

We got home about 7:15 and Andrew was anxious to get out on his bike after sitting a lot over the weekend. Plus there was a lot of rain in the forecast, so he quickly got ready and headed out. The kids played outside while I unloaded my bike, the hitch mount and all of our stuff from the weekend. Then it was bath time while I worked on unpacking. Andrew got back after it was already dark. We put a light on his bike but he said he probably wouldn’t do that again. I got everything unpacked and started laundry. I was so excited to go to bed though. I was exhausted. I thought I would sleep really well, but the soreness started setting in so it wasn’t the best sleep. So I was already looking forward to bed time Monday night. But overall it was a great weekend with some great memories.