Picking Up the Pace

These last two weeks have flown by and before I knew it, I hadn’t done anything with the blog. Let’s see what I can remember. We’ve had some really nice weather, so the kids have been outside playing a lot-riding bikes/scooters, jumping on pogo sticks, playing kickball and basketball, nerf gun battles and more.

While football continued for Jackson and Lincoln, we added club soccer to the mix the week before last. It has really grown this year. Ellie will only get to practice one night since she will have dance on the other night. And I’m still trying to decide if Lincoln will do both nights while he is also doing flag football. The twins had their Meet-the-Coach night, but since Matthew and Kristin are their coaches, we got to skip that.

Jackson started up small group again and since there is a group of them that go from school to football to small group, I had some pizza delivered to the K-Life house for them all to eat during small group. They also started Middle School Club, but Jackson ended up having me pick him up before then since he was pretty tired. It would be a long day if he stayed, getting home around 8:30 with homework still to do.

Lissy was in town, so one afternoon we went out for lunch with my parents and Molly. Then she wanted me to go get my nails done with her but I didn’t really feel like taking the time or money to do it. So we made a deal (a bad one for her) that if I did my nails, she would help me paint my bedroom. I got a pedicure and she got a manicure and then she paid for mine. Thanks to Venmo, I was able to pay her back. I got some paint that afternoon after trying several different samples over the last few days and then we got to work the next morning and were able to finish up that afternoon. Andrew picked up the kids from school, which helped a lot. Lissy said I was on my own doing the bathroom though. I finished that up the next day and was happy with the way it all turned out.

We had a fun surprise on Wednesday when we got to welcome our new niece, Sadie Joy. Kaitlin decided she was in labor early that afternoon and had her around 4:30 and everything went well. We had a bet going on sex, weight, day and time and Lissy and Amanda ended up having the best guesses, so we all had to pay them. Bennett was one of the only ones in our family who guessed girl, so he was excited. And I took advantage of the kids all being in school and drove up to Pella on Thursday to meet Miss Sadie. She was adorable and so sweet. I got to snuggle with her for a little bit and visit with Kaitlin, Zane, my mom and Lissy for a little while in the hospital. Then my mom, Lissy and I went for a late lunch before I headed back to Kirksville. My mom went back with me and I got back in time to get Ellie to her first swim team practice while Andrew and Lincoln went to flag football and we picked up Jackson on our way home.

I went for a run on Friday and when I scrolling through Facebook as I was stretching, I saw someone mention that Hobby Lobby was open. So, I texted my mom and we met up there later that morning. There were many happy people there. It had so many cute items, but I didn’t look around too long. I got some Christmas paper and a couple vases to try in the bedroom. Then I met up with Andrew and we got to celebrate our 16^th anniversary by having lunch at AJ’s since we had football that night. It was nice to have that option.  I gave him a torque wrench for the bikes and tickets to see Jim Gaffigan in December. Lincoln had flag football that night and we sat on the visitors’ side so we could see him a little better. He got to be in on a couple plays. He carried the ball once and got to throw a pass to end the game. It was fun to watch. And then we decided to stay for the varsity game since it was such a nice night. Jackson walked over after practice and we visited the Matthew and Kristin for a little bit until the concession stand opened and we got dinner. It was fun to experience the game atmosphere again with the band and the players running in. Andrew and I decided it was as good a place as any to celebrate our anniversary since it all began at the high school. After the game started, the kids abandoned us. We let the twins and Lincoln go to the hill to play and we were able to keep an eye on them from where we were sitting. Ellie ran around with her friends and Jackson hung out with some of his team. It was a different experience for us. We left a little before half time and went home to get ready to head to Pella the next morning.

Andrew took the kids out to the ranch early Saturday morning and then he stayed home while the rest of us went to Pella for the day so they could all meet Sadie. Andy and his family were there too, so the kids all had fun playing together. The dads took the kids to an observation tower at a local park while the girls went to browse around downtown at all the cute little shops. The kids also played at the neighborhood park off and on. Jackson held Sadie for just a minute while Ellie and Lincoln couldn’t get enough of her. I’m not sure if the twins even noticed her. We left around 6:30 to head home.

I had been fighting a cold for most of the week and was taking Zicam to try to help. I was still pretty tired though and ended up sleeping in on Sunday. So, we missed church but then I made my way to the store because we were going to the Behnen’s lake house later that day and I still needed to get food to make some stuff to take out. We headed out to Spring Lake around 2 and the kids immediately got on the boat to have their turns tubing and swam in the lake while they waited. All of the kids went tubing, but Ellie was the only one who went twice. They had fun, but weren’t sure about doing it a second time. They also used the kayak and paddle boat to go over to the swimming beach and play around there. Then we had a simple dinner and visited until around 7 when it was time to head home. It was a really nice time and nice to hang out with the Behnens and Seedorfs. And Ella got to have a sleepover with us that night. She and Ellie just slept downstairs and watched Beauty and the Beast.

Monday was Labor Day and the kids didn’t have school. We took advantage of the time off and washed all the bedding and cleaned bedrooms. I also vacuumed the whole house and cleaned floors. Then we went to my parents’ house for one last swim of the summer, but by the time we got there, a weird yellowish haze had taken over the sky and it cooled down. We found out that the haze was actually from the wildfires in Montana. The kids swam for a little bit and we had dinner over there.

Tuesday was back to school and the kids were tired. I also had my first women’s bible study of the school year. We just visited and discussed what study we wanted to do. Afterwards, I went back to Hobby Lobby to get my mom’s birthday present-some melamine serving dishes she liked from our last time there. As it was taper week before the NEMO, I wanted to take a short bike ride but ended up just riding my bike around the neighborhood to see if the seat and grip tape Andrew put on my aerobars were working fine. Then, after picking the kids up from school, I dropped them off with my mom so that Andrew and I could go to Jackson’s first football game in Moberly. The team did pretty well. It was back and forth with a lot of touchdowns scored. Jackson was on special teams, so he did kick-off and kick-off return and got a lot of time in that way. They didn’t really put him in otherwise until the third quarter. Andrew and I didn’t even notice him go in on Moberly’s 2-point conversion play and then we see number 8 coming from the middle to dive out and tackle the runner and keep them from scoring. We were so proud of him. After that, he did get to go in some on defense and his coach told him at practice the next day that he would get more playing time. Hopefully, that does happen. Moberly pretty much had one player that did everything for them and scored all of their touchdowns. Kirksville scored one last touchdown as the time clock expired, but they ended up losing 50-58.

We got back to Kirksville and picked up the kids around 9. And Jackson had a few plantar warts on his foot that had been bothering him, so my dad worked on freezing them off hoping that gave him the most time to recover before his next game even though he still had practice. I think it hurt, but they were already feeling better by the next day, so Jackson was thankful. 

Wednesday was my mom’s birthday and we got to celebrate with her by eating at AJ’s. Andrew picked up Jackson from practice and we headed to Macon as soon as he got changed. While we were there, there was an older man that kept motioning to Ellie and trying to get her to come to his table. Ellie was a little freaked out by it but then a little later, one of the ladies sitting at the table so he likes to give kids silver dollars. So, Ellie went over and he gave her a silver dollar for each kid 😊.

Thursday is again going to be a pretty busy day for us. Jackson had football after school, while Ellie and Lincoln had their first Little K of the school year. I picked the twins up from school and went home for a little bit. Josh came over and helped the twins do their “ninja scrolls” they had been wanting to make. They drew different ninja scenes and taped them together and rolled them up as a scroll and then had me tie them up with some yarn. They were so proud to take them to school the next day. We ate pizza early for dinner and packed some up to take to Ellie and Lincoln. We picked them up a little early from Little K so that Ellie could be at swim practice a little before 5 and then Lincoln had flag football at 5:15. Instead of going home and since it was such a nice evening, I took the twins to the playground at the YMCA and let them play while I read the first chapter for our new bible study. It worked out pretty well. They started practice at 6:15 with Matthew and Kristin as their coaches. They got started and then I was off to pick up Ellie from swim team and was waiting to hear if Jackson needed to be picked up from small group, which he went to after football. He ended up staying for club at K-Life, so Ellie and went back to the practice and she played with Ella at the playground while the boys finished up.

Friday was another beautiful day and I finished up my taper by doing short run around the loop after dropping the kids off at school. Lincoln had another flag football game that evening and it was even a tad bit warm. We rushed home afterwards to get things ready for a little cookout with Andrew’s family. I kept things simple and prepped most of the food earlier that day. So, I got all of that set out outside while Andrew got the grill going and Jackson worked on starting a fire in the fireplace. Andrew’s parents and Matthew and family came over after the game and we got all the food set out just before I had to go pick up Ellie from swim team. We had a nice evening eating outside, making some s’mores and letting the kids play out back.

Our Saturday was full of soccer. The twins had their first game of the season at 9 in the morning. They did pretty well…a little hesitant at first, but then got better as the game went on. Bennett was very excited when he scored a goal.

Back home, I started gathering everything for my race the next day while Andrew took Lincoln out to learn how to shoot. He was pretty excited to show off his target-a piece of paper towel 😊.

Ellie decided she wanted to do a third swim practice of the week, so I took her to that at 11 and then I took my bike by the Thompson Campus Center to have it and my helmet checked for triathlon and to pick up my race packet. Then Lincoln had his first soccer game for the soccer club’s intrascrimmage at 3. I took him and Andrew brought the rest of the kids a little later. Ellie wasn’t supposed to play until 4, but they asked if any U12 kids would want to scrimmage with the U14, so she joined in on that whenever she came with Andrew. I was glad I got to watch her play a little bit before I had to leave for my triathlon participant meeting. It didn’t take too long and I was able to get back to the games in decent time. Lincoln played again at 5 and we finished up a little before 6.

Back home, I made dinner using some spaghetti sauce I prepped the night before. Jackson went to the Vault Room with Zach and some of their friends for his birthday. Then Andrew took the kids to the office while I tried to work on my transitions. I had been meaning to do it all week and it never got done. It was not fun putting my wet suit on and off, but I glad I took the time to do it. Then I got everything packed up and ready to go for the next day. Of course, I didn’t sleep that well the night before and was up before my 5:15 alarm. I forced myself to eat some breakfast and had to ask Andrew to help me pump up my front tire since I was having trouble with the air pump. He wished me luck as I headed out to 1000 Hills around 6:20. I didn’t have to wait in line to get marked which was nice. Then I got my transition area all set up and met up with Danielle, who came in town for the race. Eventually it was time to get my wetsuit on and I spent the rest of the time pulling the neck out, hoping to stretch it out. Then it was time to get on the bus and head to the beach for the swim start. I didn’t feel like the swim went as well as I was hoping for, but I was just a tad bit faster than last year. Out of the water I feel like I was more tired than the year before. I spotted Andrew as I was running up to transition and then I spotted the kids off to the side.

My swim to bike transition wasn’t the best as it took a little longer to get my wetsuit off. Then I was off on the bike with my crew cheering me on. At first, I thought the bike was going to be disappointing, but my speed started picking up a bit and I was able to finish just a little bit faster than last year. My next transition went pretty smoothly and I was off on the run. I thought I was doing okay even as I struggled with what felt like never-ending elevation gain. The way back was much better with most of it downhill but I soon realized that I wasn’t going to make my goal time or even be as fast as I had the year before. I finished in 2:05, a minute off from last year. I was hoping to be between 2 and 2:02. Andrew reminded me that I should be pleased with my time since I hadn’t been feeling that great for a couple of weeks. But I’m hoping that I can get a faster time next year since I’ll have trained for my half Ironman by then. Andrew and the boys went home a little after I was done since the boys were done being there. Ellie stayed with me and helped me eat my post-race meal. Then we got all my gear back to the car and I decided to actually try the stretching offered by the med students. I think it helped somewhat, but we did have to cut it short since the awards ceremony was starting. I got first in my age group since I was the only one and ended up 5^th out of 25 in the overall womens. There were some super quick women there that got the top three spots and the first place woman was just a minute behind the overall men’s winner.

Back home, it was back to work. I got laundry going, put away my stuff, cleaned off my wetsuit, showered and picked up the house a bit before editing pictures from the race. I wanted to get some to Meghan Murphy since her husband and Chuck Lewellen raced in memory of Chuck’s son, Matt. Andrew spent some time at the office and the kids went between playing outside and running around crazy in our house. I finally kicked them back outside again. We just ordered out for dinner and spent some time outside before I did some grocery shopping and called it a night.