Monthly Archives: September 2013

Quick Update

We are finally in a house! No more homelessness or couch surfing! Am I really excited? Not so much… I miss being on the road and quit honestly do not enjoy cooking inside.

We found a nice little place that fits us perfectly. The kids love the yard and I love having a “school room” for homework and homeschooling Tay. I’m not too keen on large houses and this one may be pushing it a little for me. I prefer small spaces, less to clean and keeps us all closer. Oh well, just more work for me!

The Plan-

Seth has them Monday/Wednesday and I have them Tuesday/Thursday. On Wednesdays I will come in for a couple of hours to work a little more intensely with Tay on school work and try to get caught up on wherever we need to. The plan is on your day you come in for the morning and start making breakfast. Whoever was here the day before gets up and takes the big ones on a quick run, then everyone eats together. If you are leaving for the day you drive the big ones to school and then have the day to yourself. Because we have crazy running schedules and are out-of-town often, Friday-Sunday is going to work on a who is available basis.

I am super neurotic about organizing and cleaning so we are in full crazy mode with me trying to get everything in the right place. Unfortunately any crazy adventures will have to wait, but we do have something big coming soon! Miss Teagan has decided she wants to run the Javelina Jundred (100k) and get herself a belt buckle! With how well she did at SOB 50k, and the true determination this girl has I think she has this! Seth and I are careful about the races we let the kids do and try to set them up for success. We don’t want to throw them into something that could potential have a bad outcome not to say we don’t let them fail in other areas but obviously we want them to stay safe in a race setting. So Tea has four 25k loops that she has plenty of time to sleep after the 3rd and then finish the 4th early the next morning. I will be running this with her and couldn’t be more excited!

So that’s what we have coming up, just some fun training to get a little lady through 100k as happily as possible so she can reach that buckle.

Any questions on our crazy life? I’m in need of some inspiration for future posts and would love to fill in some details about things you may want to know. Ask away, thanks!

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Road-trippin

Sometimes things are interesting but you have to make them just a little more interesting. We were couch surfing  still and Seth had a pre planned 7 day vacation/Running Cascade Crest 100 so he headed off and I began scratching my head. What do you do with 5 kids in Phoenix that long? Well clearly not stay in phoenix…

Friday I picked up the kids from school at 2 and off we headed to Silverton, CO. I basically love this place and the kids as well were super excited to see there friends and be back in the mountains. Its a 8-9 hour drive so I planned a car dinner for them and then for them to all pass out while I continued to drive.

It all worked perfectly and we ended up in Silverton after midnight and I parked in our old go to spot from earlier in the summer and got some sleep before we were all up for the morning. We spent the day playing and helping out at the Silverton Alpine Marathon & 50K. The kids loved helping at the race and were excited to see some of their friends they hadn’t seen since we left Silverton. They found worms, slugs, and made a new dog friend. It’s so nice to be able to let your children run free, to not have to keep them in sight all the time, to just let them play! They had an awesome day even with some rain. We spent the night a little up the road on a pull off with an amazing view to wake up to.

The next day Tea got some miles in on the Silverton course and I attempted to keep up! We played and hung out eventually grabbing dinner at Avalanche and then starting our return trip. That’s right, we arrived in Silverton in the wee hours of Saturday morning and left at 5:30 on Sunday night. The kids had school on Monday and I had a parents coffee, we had to get back. The amazing thing about driving at night is the silence! The kids all pass out pretty much right away and I get to listen to whatever music I want.

A few potty breaks for myself, lots of caffeine, and I made it to just about an hour outside of Phoenix. I rested for a couple hours at a rest stop then drove in to phoenix, grabbed some fruit for breakfast, and headed off to school! It was a crazy quick trip but so worth it! The kids and I had a blast and I felt pretty amazing for doing it all on my own!

I took 5 children on a crazy turn around trip 9 hours away all by myself, what’s your excuse?

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Broken Baby

Drunk Frat Boy strikes again-

Poor little guy just has to keep this Momma on her toes! Ugh…

Seth had the kids for the day and I had dinner with my Dad and Sis and was on the phone with my Mom making movie plans when I got a call from Seth. He had already call once right as we were leaving dinner and I hadn’t been able to answer so I decided I had to take this one.

“So, we might have an issue with Tru..”

Ugh… Every Mother’s worst nightmare… He goes on to explain the bigger boys were wrestling and Tajh possibly pushed Tay who then fell into Tru. Tru wouldn’t stand and didn’t want to be touched but was fine laying on the bed, flat, not moving, alone.

“Call my Mom to come watch the others and meet me at Phoenix Children’s”

I had my Sis drop me off at the hospital and my +1 finished up his run for the evening and met me there.

When Seth pulled in I went to get Tru out of his seat and I knew something was terribly wrong. I was able to get his left arm out of his seat, but his right had a death grip on the fabric. Seth at this point informed me that Tru bit him when he was putting him in his seat, my poor baby had something really wrong with him…

I held him while we waited and he was fine, but any attempt for me to sit was met with terrible screams. We placed him on the baby scale and he death gripped both sides, that boy didn’t want to be moved at all. The nurses looked at each other trying to decide if they should bump him up to the front of the line, I kindly piped in that that would probably be best and we were moved into a room right away.

A world wind happened of doctors and nurses coming and going. Once they had an IV they gave him morphine which shockingly did not do much. He still seemed to be in pain and didn’t just fall asleep as we had thought even though it was well past his bedtime. Eventually we got an X-ray and made it back to the room to be informed he was being admitted and had a broken femur…. Yup, of course he does.

My poor sad drugged baby...

My poor sad drugged baby…

So after a night in the hospital my little buddy got himself a fancy going away present, a SPICA cast for the next 8 weeks. It’s hot, smelly, hard to change his diaper in, and makes it hard for him to play. I feel terrible for him but luckily he seems to be taking it in stride. He doesn’t seem to be upset about it (probably just happy his poor leg doesn’t hurt anymore) and just wants to be held which I am totally ok with!  Slowly we are learning was he can play, sit up, and be a little more “normal”. Yup, keeping things interesting one hospital visit at a time…

Food and a stuffed friend make the world better!

Food and a stuffed friend make the world better!

 

A little video time with Tea.

A little video time with Tea.

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To the kind young man at the park…

I met Seth at the big kids school today, said bye to the big ones, and started on a big adventure with my little 3. I put Tru in a Mei Tai on my stomach, had my large backpack that I am currently living out of on my back, and a whole foods bag with the kids stuff over my shoulder. I was weighed down and had 2 little peoples hands, we were ready!

We walked a little to the bus stop and hopped on. Apparently I really don’t know what I’m doing and that one only took us about a mile before we needed to get off. We hopped on another and were on our way again! Tru loved watching the world go by and Tay was happy trying to figure out how everything works. Ten loved sitting alone and trying to hold on so she wouldn’t fall! We got off the bus at the perfect spot to walk through the park on our way to Lala’s house. Easy, right?

Tenny apparently felt a tantrum when we were walking next to the lake was really the best approach. Ugh.. thanks Ten. Wearing a toddler in a ridiculous cast isn’t very fun either. (Have I not explained my little Tru is now in a SPICA cast which covers almost his entire lower body? Oh I will soon enough!) My hip bones were being crushed and his cast was rubbing on my leg raw, not to mention the sweat I was accumulating between us.  With Tru’s weight, my backpack, and their bag of stuff my shoulders were also on fire… but Tay and I were happily talking about everything he saw, the pain was worth it.

Eventually we passed a youngish man, maybe his late teens early 20’s. He had earbuds in and looked like he was just out for a walk, maybe a walk/run. As soon as he passed I turned to look at Tenny who was sitting on the ground in a “no I’m not going to listen to you mommy” way. The guy was also in that direction so I saw him walking away from me for a minute before he turned and started walking straight toward me. Im usually very uncomfortable with strangers and his eyes were locked on me. I tried to move out of his was but he kept coming toward me which made me start holding my breath. We he got to me he held out a stack of money with a “here, for you”. I immediately got even more uncomfortable and repeated “Oh no no thank you but no I don’t need that” and whatever else I rattled off as I tried to take some steps back.  He clearly wasn’t hearing it and slipped the money in my bag with a ” I appreciate what you are doing” and walked off. I was stunned. Honestly when you have a lot of kids people offer you money a lot, but never a young man like that.

We made it to Lala’s safely and now I sit here wondering what to do with the money. How do I “pay it forward” like this kind young man did? I don’t know if it looked like i needed it, if he was on a mission to give something, or what his reason was. To the kind young man that made some crazy lady with too man kids day, thank you. Thank you for being you. Thank you for reminding me there are good people in the world. Thank you for for appreciating what this Mom does for her kids even when you didn’t have to.

To the kind young man at the park, Thank you.

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