Ugh…

Well, this week started off promising enough.

After all, we finished up school last Friday, and the kids wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s to celebrate.  Of all the places.  I keep waiting for my almost-11-year-old, especially, to stop thinking that such a place is fun, but it hasn’t happened yet.  So, since we had nothing going on Monday and since everyone was else was still in school, I decided that was a good day to go.  All three kids had lots of fun, and I didn’t have as bad of a time as I usually do, so, all in all, it was a good time!

On Thursday night, I went out for a four-mile-run, the first two with Charlotte, and ended up running nine miles.  If you are a runner, you might understand this.  I was feeling great, the weather was perfect, and I needed this distance by the weekend.  Although I wasn’t carrying water or energy gummies or anything, really, except my phone, I decided to just keep running until I felt like stopping, which would hopefully be at nine miles!

Jeff called me when I was at seven-and-a-half miles to make sure that something bad hadn’t happened.  I told him my plan and asked if he could wait few minutes and then drive to Metamora to pick me up.  (Metamora is about six miles away from our village.  I didn’t think I could make it back.)  I hit the nine-mile mark just as it was getting too dark to be safe.  (I had also left the house in gray and black clothing and without my reflective vest.)  Jeff found me right after I quit running.

Mission accomplished…and I think that I probably had three or four more miles in me.  I wish that every run felt like that one!

On Friday, I finally had arranged Elijah’s promised fun day, something to which he had agreed in exchange for a party.  He could invite one friend over, and we could spend the day doing fun things that he wanted to do.  I had arranged to pick up his friend, who was riding to work with his dad, in Peoria at 8:45.

In between these arrangement and Friday, I had also agreed to watch a friend’s 13-year-old foster daughter for the day.  This young didn’t have school and could no longer go to daycare because of her age.  As she and I had always hit it off, I knew that she wouldn’t be any trouble for me.

But what this meant was that I got to experience what it was like to have five kids for a day.  And all I can say is that it made me very, very tired!

Our day started with bowling and mini golf and then continued to lunch at Steak’n’Shake.  The baby managed to fall down the steps to the bowling lanes, trip on the mini golf course and scrape his fingers, and my extra girl spilled an almost-full milkshake all over the place.  My own girl got frustrated that the day was all about Elijah and not her, and Elijah got frustrated that everyone kept kicking his golf ball.

Once we got home, the Nerf gun and water gun fights started, interspersed with Wii competitions.  We also squeezed in a trip to the park when the baby woke up from his nap.

By the time Jeff called to tell me he was coming home by about 3:30, I was so relieved that I could have cried.

But, then, the real fun started.  Jeff thought that Jeremy was looking a little peaked when it was time for him to eat and, within minutes, thick goop was pouring out of his eyes.  This all happed about 4:00, 30 minutes before my extra girl was to be picked up and 40 minutes before I was to take Elijah’s friend back into Peoria.  Furthermore, at 5:30, Elijah had a makeup baseball game, and I had to get to small group with food by 6:00.

AAAAAHHHHHHHH!

So, I left a message at the doctor’s office (45 minutes before it closed) and discovered that Jeremy was now running a fever.  When the nurse called back, she told me to take him to the After-Hours Pediatric Clinic in Peoria for the 7:15 appointment she made me.

So…our friend came to pick up his foster daughter, and Charlotte, Jeremy, and I hopped in the car to take Elijah’s friend back to his dad.  While we were gone, Jeff put the food for small group in the oven and took Elijah to the baseball game.  When I got home, I got the food and headed over to small group, where I dropped Charlotte and ate a quick bite before heading into Jeremy’s appointment.

The doctor, who looked about 16, diagnosed Jeremy with a virus and wrote a prescription for eye drops, although she recommended that I not use them unless his eyes got worse over the weekend.  So, I headed back to small group, where Jeff and Elijah joined us when the game finished.

We spent Saturday working around the house and getting some shopping done when the weather got bad.  One of the things we bought was one of those new-fangled thermometers that you merely run across the forehead to get a temperature, after we had to use a rectal one to get poor Jeremy’s on Friday.

With that contraption came the clincher of the week.  Jeff was taking everyone’s temperature because it’s so cool and easy, and, when he took mine, we discovered that I was running a low-grade fever.  And, as of today, I still am!

Needless to say, Jeremy and I stayed home from church today.  I don’t really feel bad, other than being more tired than usual, but, even with ibuprofen, I am running between a 99 and 100.5 degree temperature.  And, even better, Charlotte is also running a low-grade fever.

What a great Memorial Day weekend this is turning out to be!  Jeremy has decided to share his virus with anyone who will take it.  The bright side is that Jeff is off work, and we really don’t have much planned this week.  I’m just really hoping that we are all recovered before Jeff takes off for Thailand again!

I hope that things are good where you are.  Enjoy your long weekend!

Put a Fork in It

It’s 8:11 on  Monday morning, and Jeremy and I are the only ones up.  (Well, Jeff is also up and at work, but we won’t count him for these purposes!)  Yes, that means that the 2010-2011 school year is officially over in the Wilkes household!

We finished up this past Friday, which gets the kids a full free week before their friends are out of school.  They decided to start the week by sleeping in well  past their usual wake times.  Except for Jeremy, of course.  He wakes up before 7:00 a.m. no matter what day it is…unless it’s Sunday, and we have to be at church early.  On those days, he likes to sleep until 8:00.

He is something else.

In any case, we finished up the second year of a two-year cycle in American history, and we actually discussed major events up to the Persian Gulf War, which happened right before I graduated from high school.  World War II was the last event we studied in great detail, but we did hit the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, the Space Program, the Civil Rights Movement, Watergate, and the Reagan Era before ending with the first Middle East war.  It was kind of funny to remind the kids that we were speaking of the FIRST George Bush and that the war now was the SECOND one in that region with heavy US involvement.

Next year, for something completely different, we move on to the Eastern Hemisphere.  But, for now, we are done.  The kids will do math two days a week, but, beyond that, we will be doing summer.

Jeff arrived home from Thailand on Friday evening with a raging sinus infection, which has not been fun for him.  He is hoping to get in to see his doctor today or tomorrow.  His trip went well, and he will likely be heading back several times over the summer.

I ran eight miles on Saturday morning in preparation for a 15K for which I have signed up on June 18.  The weather has turned warm and humid here, so I’m adjusting to that.  I rushed home from running in time to watch Elijah play a practice baseball game against another team from 9:00 to 11:00.  We were very proud of how well he did.  The coach had him pitch one inning, and he managed to strike one person out!  He also got a couple of solid hits, although he never made it on base off of one.  His first real game is tonight, so we’ll see how that goes.

On Saturday afternoon, I went to the movies for the first time in forever.  Jane Eyre finally made it to a local theater, so I hit a late afternoon matinee.  As Jeff didn’t want to see it and Charlotte decided the preview looked too weird for her, I ended up going alone.  I was the youngest person in the theater, which was kind of funny.  It was as if 15 retired English teachers and their husbands decided to go see this movie.  I thought it was well done and enjoyed it, and, before we had gotten too far, I agreed that Charlotte would probably not have liked it much.  Really, there’s not a whole lot of action until late in the movie!

And that was our weekend!  Hope that yours was good, too!

In a Nutshell

Well, here we are, halfway through May already.  I thought I’d share some highlights of the past week or so.

1.  Jeff left for Thailand again this past Saturday.  For the second time in a row, his flight from Peoria to Chicago was cancelled the morning of departure.  What that meant this time around is that he had to rent a car and drive to Chicago to catch a flight leaving nine hours later and flying the opposite direction of his original flight.  Instead of connecting through Tokyo to Bangkok, he connected through London.  The guy at the boarding desk in London told him that he wasn’t supposed to be there (yet there he was indeed!) and couldn’t get on the plane, to which you can imagine how Jeff responded.  He did get on the plane and is now safely in Bangkok.  It’s always something!

2.  My mom came for a visit this past Friday and will be leaving tomorrow morning.  It’s been very nice having her here, especially with Jeff’s being gone.  Jeremy took to her almost immediately, and Charlotte and Elijah are also enjoying her visit.

3.  Soccer ended with a whimper this past Saturday, as the last games of the season were rained out.  I know that Elijah’s coach is not planning to make the game up, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen with Charlotte’s team.  Her age bracket was supposed to play the final “tournament” games, so there are some first, second, and third place trophies sitting in someone’s house just waiting for a bunch of fourth and fifth graders to take them home.  Hmmm.

4.  Elijah is rapidly rolling toward his first baseball game, which is supposed to be next Monday.  He’s had a couple of practices and is catching on well.  Team pictures are tonight, and the boys will be playing a practice game in their uniforms on Saturday morning.  Dairy Queen in the team sponsor, so the coaches have scheduled a couple of coaches’ treat DQ nights.  Elijah and ice cream…a match made in heaven! 

5.  And, finally, my heart got a little bit pierced yesterday when Charlotte brought home youth group information from church.  Yep!  On June 12, she begins transitioning to the junior high youth group, or the jrhi uthgroop, as I think it is better known.  David Bell, the person who works with this age group at both campuses, is fantastic and has been connecting with these upcoming sixth graders since we launched the East Campus in January, so Charlotte is excited.  I suppose that I am, too, although I am also bewildered as to how she is suddenly old enough to be in a youth group!  So, the time arrives when I will have one in the nursery, one in the children’s ministry, and one in the youth group.  What the hey?!

And that’s our life in a nutshell.  I tried to export my blog to Facebook, but I keep getting a message that something is not functioning correctly and that FB is working on it.  Maybe they’re just struggling to find time to get to it, what with the stealth attacks on Google.  If anyone has any suggestions, short of manually typing in the link each time, I’d be happy to hear them!

Happy Monday!

Food Fight Update

I know that you all have been on pins and needles wondering how my food experiments with Jeremy are going!

Just kidding. 

But, in case you are interested, please read on.

Jeremy is slowly overcoming his aversion to texture.  A wonderful lady from the home school co-op offered to lend me her baby food grinder for as long as I need it.  Her baby is 15, and all of her children had been asking when in the world she was finally going to get rid of that food grinder!  So, while she would like it back for potential future grandchildren, it is mine for the time being.  In addition to the blender, I’ve been able to try a lot of different things with Jeremy.

First, I have started buying a few items fresh that I can’t buy frozen, like sweet potatoes and different varieties of squash, as Jeremy likes both of these.  I’ve also bought apples to boil and blend with other fruits, since apples are so nutritious.

Second, I discovered that Jeremy really likes spaghetti with meat sauce.  It took him a couple of tries to get past the texture, but now he gobbles it down.  Yesterday morning, he asked for bites of my quiche, by pointing and then signing “please,” and, last night, he ate a bunch of refried beans.

So, I think that we are closer to table food than I might have originally thought!

We also discovered another funny food quirk with Jeremy.  I peeled and mashed an avocado for him to try on Sunday, which he spit out every single time I tried to put it in his mouth.  However, later on that evening, Jeff decided to give him some guacamole that I had made out of some other avocados, and, believe it or not, Jeremy gobbled it down!

I guess he likes hot sauce, lemon juice, and red onions.  Weird.

In any case, the food experiments are soldiering on.

Here is our little troublemaker.  A new favorite activity is helping to unload the dishwasher.  I can’t wait until I get too slow putting dishes away, and he pitches a plate into the floor!

And here lately, he’s also started posing for the camera.  It’s amazing how young kids start this!

Hope that everything is well where you are!

Two More Years

That would be until I turn 40.  Of course, one of my brothers thought that I was turning 39 this year, which is curious, because our ages are stair-stepped.  I asked him, “You’re turning 36 this year, right?  That means I’m only 38!”

Only 38.  Sigh.  This is the age that I can’t even PRETEND to be in my mid-30’s anymore.

Oh, well.  No reason to wallow in melancholy.  I’ll save that for when I turn 39.  Or 40.  Or maybe 70.  Wallowing is such a waste of time.

In any case, I had a lovely birthday.  It was sort of non-starter, as I was serving in children’s ministry that morning, and then we had a couple from church over for lunch.  I spent the afternoon preparing baby food for Jeremy (maybe I’ll post an update about that soon) and trying to ignore that my quads were in AGONY from the race the day before.

By late afternoon, Jeff decided that we should at least do something special for my birthday, so he put a bottle of real French champagne (one we brought back with us) in the freezer and went to the store for about 10 different appetizers.

So, that evening, we enjoyed a gut-busting, but very delicious meal of fried green beans, pizza rolls, mozzarella sticks, mini Philly cheese steaks, and about six other things.  Our nod to healthful was some homemade guacamole.  I realize that it’s not really healthful, but it surely had to be better than most of the stuff we were eating!

After supper, I opened gifts.  As I’m hoping to to train for a marathon this summer, Jeff and the kids outfitted me with some new summer running gear, namely a visor…

…a new shirt…

…a new pair of shorts…

…and some new socks.

As we jump from freezing temperatures to hot ones, I should be well prepared!

We spent the rest of the evening sitting outside and enjoying our new fire pit.

On Monday evening, we had the blowing-the-candles-out part of my birthday.  We were all feeling a little sick from too many appetizers the night before, but Monday was better!  The people that we had invited over for lunch on Sunday had brought an apple pie, which we never ate.  So, that became my birthday “cake.”

And that puts number 39 in the books.  And, as I told the kids this morning, “May the Fourth be with you” and “Cinco de Mayo” are also in the books, and May is steadily marching on.  Today was the last co-op for the year, and we should be done with school in the next few weeks…whew!  Where does the time go?

Have a good one!

Mission Accomplished!

As of April 30, I can officially say that I have achieved all of my 2011 resolutions.

Read through the Bible in 90 days?  Check.

Train for and run a half-marathon?  Check.

I think that it’s time for some new goals.

This weekend was a big one for me.  On Friday, I left for Champaign, Illinois, with my Women 2 Women group from church.  We had been training since January for the Illinois Half-Marathon, and it was finally race weekend!

Upon arrival at our hotel, we were greeted by clerks decked out in race-volunteer t-shirts, who, after ascertaining that we were running the next day, offered us bottles of water, boxes of raisins, and well wishes.  We dropped off our stuff and headed over to the University of Illinois campus to pick up our race packets.

Our timing chips were actually attached to our bibs for this race (a first for me), so we got them activated, grabbed our goody bag, which included a really nice pink tech t-shirt, and then headed into the expo center.  While I’m sure this expo was small compared, say, to the one offered at the Chicago marathon, it was offering some really nice running gear and lots of information about nearby future races.

I stopped at a Spibelt booth and found the running belt that I have been looking for without even knowing it for a very long time:  something that will hold a phone, a key, and perhaps a block of energy gummies, without bouncing around or also holding a water bottle.  For this half-marathon, I also needed the belt to hold my driver license, hotel room key, and credit card.  The Spibelt expands for holding many things and shrinks back for holding few things.

I love it!  Check out the website (www.spibelt.com) if you are in the market.  I think this is one of my favorite running products!  (And, no, they’re not paying me for this free advertisement.  But when I see a product I like, I feel the need to share!)

After the expo, we headed to the Olive Garden for some pre-race carbs for supper.  We ended up with a really bad waiter who thought he was being clever and cute when he basically told us upon seating that things were crazy that night and we shouldn’t have too high of expectations for service.  (Really?)  In spite of that, we had some good food.  And, being the wild and crazy ladies that we all are, we were back at our hotel by 9:00, ready for bed.

We were all up 5:00 the next morning.  Because our hotel was an official marathon partner hotel, it starting serving breakfast at 5:30, instead of the normal 7:00.  I grabbed a bagel and an apple, since I figured the biscuits and gravy might not settle well for the morning ahead, and then we headed back over to campus by 6:00.

The marathon started at 7:00; the 10K at 7:22; and the half-marathon at 7:30.  As soon as the 10kers took off, we moved to the staging area for our race.  We were hoping to finish somewhere between 2:15 and 2:20, so we found the sign for that time and hopped in the pack.

At 7:30, we shuffled forward toward the starting line.  We crossed it about three minutes after the race started, and we were officially on our way!

I couldn’t imagine a nicer day for a long run.  The temperatures were in the mid-fifties, and the skies were overcast for the entire time that we were running.  We ran through shaded neighborhoods lined with well-wishers and a couple of park trails.  Every so often, we passed on-course entertainment, including an Elvis impersonator, a Dixie band of senior citizens who played in front of their retirement village, and an interesting group called Shark Bandit who wore 80’s- style basketball uniforms complete with tight white shorts and knee-high tube socks and were singing “Ice, Ice, Baby” as we ran by.  It was a bit windy, but we only noticed it in the park, which featured Illinois prairie grass rather than wind-breaking trees.

There was a guy who started close to us who was pacing for a 2:18 finish, and we stuck pretty closely to him for about half the race.  But, then, we were all feeling so good that we decided to just press on at a faster pace, figuring that we could always slow down later if necessary.

The race ended at the 50-yard-line in the football stadium, which was really cool!  Cheering crowds lined both sides of the course during the last half mile as we ran from the street into the stadium.  More people were cheering in the stadium as runners came in, and the four of us finished together in 2:13:19, a couple minutes faster than we had hoped!

It was awesome!  And it was even better because I ran this with three friends.

Of course, I don’t have any pictures.  However, if you are on Facebook, I posted a picture that my friend and co-runner Ashley asked somebody to take after we finished the race.  (I’m wearing my nifty Spibelt in the picture.  However, I did NOT run with it on my front for the race!)

We ended our time on campus by grabbing some post-race food of pasta, fruit, and Papa John’s pizza.  Then, it was back to the hotel for quick showers and back home for the rest of our Saturday.  We were gone less than 24 hours, which seems pretty crazy!

And that’s my big race story.

As Sunday, May 1, was my birthday, my weekend was not quite over.  And I’ll tell you about that next time.

Have a good one!