Noodles!!!

Maybe it will make me look really grimy to display my little girl with such a mess all over her.

But.
Could you imagine if we looked like this after eating food?

I mean, how does she get the noodles in her hair?

Pioneer Day

Today we set of to St. Johns for Pioneer day celebrations. Pioneer day celebrates the pioneers trek to the west. Lakeside and St. Johns were settled by Mormon Pioneers. We headed out to St. Johns to see my Winters cousins. We watched the amazing parade. This float actually had live action as Abraham Lincoln stood up and sat down!
Then off to Rachel's Parent's house for some yummy sloppy joes. We were there with our friend Merika Whatcot and her kids from Lakeside.
THEN...we hit up the rodeo. I should have taken pictures. It was pretty fun. Jake was decked out in his cowboy boots and shorts. It seems like that is normal atire as other little boys were in cowboy boots and shorts and Rachel's youngest brother (a teenager) was wearing his cowboy boots with shorts.

On the note of cow boy boots. We just ordered Maesyn a real fancy pair for her horseback riding lessons. REAL cowboy boots. I learned about them when I went to the boot barn, but was not willing to pay $60+ for a pair of shoes for my kid. Thanks e-bay for the huge discount on a pair of very fancy boots that someone bought for a photo shoot!

Sometimes I can't help but think about what it would be like if I worked full time. Have I mentioned this before? We would have a lot less student loans to pay back. We'd probably have a down payment saved up already. I would have my blendtek or vitamix blender as well. Oh, and this year for our anniversary. We would have a much fancier celebration- do I hear cruise? (totally coveting the upcoming, and well deserved, cruise my sister in law and husband will take at the end of this year!- naughty naughty me.)

However, I need to put it all into perspective. I am so blessed. With just Nate working we are able to meet all of our needs and a lot of our wants (hello- we were able to get a wii this year, and although a lot of research went into Nate's computer purchase-we could do that too.) And those are just the material things...the things that will fade away- as are the above things that I think about on occasion.

Because I did not work full time and we worked so that I could eventually stay home full time I have all of these precious moments with my children. (I know I've written this before, I guess I just need to tell myself about it again).

Those student loans will get paid off. It will take a little longer to save for a down payment, but we will save it up. Eventually I'll get my dream blender (and a pressure cooker...and food dehydrator...and garmin watch). All of that will be gotten to and taken care of....but had I not been here with my kids these past 6 years it would all be lost. You cannot get around to seeing them grow up! You cannot say we will do it when we have more time or money. I can get my "things" and vacations when we have more time and money. We will loyally make that student loan payment and adjust the budget to provide for that. And I will use this time, the only time I get, to be a mother to my children.
They need me.

The garden and the Pond

THE GARDEN

Our first garden has been doing very well. I am learning a lot and have exciting ideas for next year.

I think that it is just pretty to look at, but because the garden is in a place where a flower garden used to be I am running into a few problems (well one problem) that I would not have if I had used a new space. There are tiny little bulbs in there that produce these little clover plants- and they cover the whole thing. I have to pull them daily!

Little tomatoes

peas. the kids are excited about these. We will plant tons more next year.

The side garden with the squash.

I would like Nate to build me some planter boxes next year. We probably won't have a home of our own that we own so again it will be a lot of work for a temporary garden- but hopefully our next rental will be for a few years.

THE POND
Over the 4th of July Nate fixed up the pond. When we looked at the place to rent it I was not thrilled about the pond. Open body of water+very big worrier of a mom= insaine anxiety envisioning a drowning or near drowning of a child that slipped off the walk way into the pond.

Somehow, as the pond dried up, I had forgotten the anxiety and dislike and told Jake that we could have the pond if Nate fixed the pump. For some reason I was just thinking about mosquitos that would love to breed in the still water of the pond. A fixed pump was necessary and it was up to Nate.

Nate and his brother and dad cleaned out the pond, bought a new pump and some fish (they would eat mosquito larva). Then they started to fill it up...and I saw the water....and my anxiety flooded back! I expressed my fears and made fencing suggestions. . As I sat fretting, not so helpful comments from less anxious family members came in such as "Your child could drown in the bath tub." In which I responded "My child could be hit with a metor as well, and that is why I choose to never go outside!" I know that I do have pretty high anxiety- and it can annoy people- but I do not think it is excessive to want to have some sort of barrier between open water in your yard, especially when I have a child that does not swim and the potential for a fall. I do understand that my worry is excessive. The first solution is to always be outside with the kids, but the joy of having a yard in a safe neighborhood is to send the older kids out to play out there while I do dishes, make dinner, fold laundry inside.
I am happy to have a husband that, although he does not worry as much as I do, understands that I am worried and is willing to work with me rather than make me feel silly or ridiculous (I do a good enough job of beating myself up on my own).

Because we rent the house, we decided that investing in a fence would be pretty expensive and the best solution was to drain the pond. I felt bad after all the work and stupid for having forgotten about my water fears. I sat a while and thought.... Monsoon season was coming. The little water that was in the pond before was from recent rain and the garden sprinkelers. If we drained the pond the water would come back...it just takes a little water to drown and a little water to attract mosquitos. The pond was going to stay. We would install the pump rather than return it and I had a brilliant solution.

Cattle fence.
As we began laying it out another not so helpful comment chimed in on how ugly it was and we should just drain it (to which I explained the rain water collection- and Nate simply explained that it was our house and we could do what we wanted- thanks Nate.)
All in all I think it looks pretty good for a make shift, very secure barrier. I think that even the comment on it being ugly could be retracted - at least replaced with "it does not look that bad." It is not beautiful by any means, but i've seen a lot worse in people's yards. More rocks or vegetation around the edges could cover the edges a little better, but all in all it is safe!

Nate really wanted to get some snakes for it, but we did not have to try. One came the next week and it may have eaten a lot of our fish!

4th of July in Pinetop/Lakeside

For some reason this is the only picture I have from our 4th of July weekend. But what says 4th of July better than water melon?

We had 9 additional people in our home over the weekend. And it was a blast. I started out the morning with a 12 mile run and then we headed out to the parade in Show low, where we got mild sunburns.

We headed back home to feel out what local festivities from here to Snowflake that we would be attending and just opted to stay in our beautiful back yard and relax!

Nate and his dad and brother and Jake worked on the pond, Pam and I worked in the garden and we all enjoyed the day.

In the evening we saw the fireworks in show low.

Sunday we went to church, which had doubled in size due to all of the "flatlanders" (i just learned that local lingo for people from the valley). After dinner we went for a little hike on the ice cave trail.

It seems like almost every weekend we have visitors or we are gone. From the fun snow of the winter to the cooler summer- people want to be up here!

On a side note this little toad is getting too big too fast! Because we don't have AC it gets a bit warm in our house- (but cools down with the afternoon rain and in the evening). So the toad is just going at it in her diaper. I do dress her when we go out.

hmmmm. that was the second post on the race. i need to get better organized. I knew I was behind, but it turns out i posted about the race prior to mexico posts. what a mess. i'll keep this one up though.

Pinedale Run to the Bridge. June 22nd

The kids and I signed up for some races in Pinedale. I'm pretty sure it will be an annual thing. There were shorter races for the kids and I ran the 10K. I had just run 8 miles the morning before so it was not a great race for me. However, the kids did great.

Jake was all over it. He was excited about his shirt and his race number. Maesyn was really hesitant and when she finally decided to run, she wanted Nate to run with her. She had already run the .6 miles home before, and this was only a .25 mile race, but she was still nervous.
Once they said "Go" she was off. There were only 4 runners, and 3 of them were ours! Then there was a 10 year old boy that told us he looked like Ralphie from The Christmas Story. Maes just booked it.

When I got back from my 10K she was already finished. I got a PR for my time, but Maes and Jake were standing there with their medals. I thought that maybe they had given them to all the little runners, but No. Maes had come in 1st place and Jake 3rd. Ralphie came in 2nd.

A few day later there was a huge picture of her in the local paper.
Here is me finishing my 1oK.

Bird's Nest

When we dropped Christy Garner off at her apartment in Tucson after our Mexico trip we found these bird's nests in the parking lot.


It is amazing how they make their nests and use the things that they find. There is the obvious sticks and twigs, but notice the blue yarn!

new computer

I got a new computer. Well, not really. Nate did, so I get to call the old laptop mine. Not that I need my own computer. It will be fun to have the computer cleaned off of music recording stuff and just store photos and fun on here.

He got a mac book pro and it came with an ipod touch and a free printer. He updgraded the ipod touch to the max storage space.
I never really cared to have one until I saw how much fun my kids were having playing with it with my sister in law... but pay that much for a toy? NO. I am having fun with it. It has an alarm and I can us wifi with it and i have a whole page of games for the kids. they probably use it more than I do. But some of the games are educational and Jake is loving writing his letters and numbers on it.

Nate go the lap top so that he could do his UOP job more efficiently. However, his current class will just pay for his computer and then the rest of the classes he teaches will pay for Christmas and help us with a down payment on a house.

Speaking of houses.
It looks like we are going to be renters for another few years. I called the banks and we need to come up with 10% down on a loan, while we do have money in the bank, I don't have that much right now. That will take a while (and we are going to review our budget to see how we can make that happen sooner). We already have an FHA loan on the condo and could refinance if it appraised 25% higher than what we owe (which is not much, but things are crazy now). A refinance would be nice because we could lower the interest rate too.
Nate and I have not had much time to talk about it, but I feel OK with that. We are going to save for a few years for that down payment, but I feel a bit less anxious now. Granted, we will have to find another rental as our landlord will put this home up for sale in April 2011- if only he would keep it as a rental for 2 more years. I'll ask him. But I should not just settle. We ought to look for a nice place more in town, but knowing that the house is just temporary puts less pressure on me. It does not have to have all the stuff I want to have, it just has to be something I could live in for a few years.

Run like a Mother

My friend Amy is reading a book called "Run like a Mother." I need to pick that one up . And put in the the pile of other running books I want to read! I was thinking about how being a mother shapes the way I run. Currently it means running at 5 and 6 am so it does not interfere with the kids. I hate when I try to hit the tread mill later in the day and put my kids off and get in a stressed out bad mood.
I know about jogging strollers and love the two that I have- but I am sad that the double jogger is not used for running any longer (nor the single) as it is pretty difficult to push it on the cinder roads and there are too many turns and hills to make it enjoyable.
I have so many pictures of my little ones in the jogger. Maesyn would go to the jogger if I gave her a piece of bread as that was our ritual to take a piece of bread to eat during a run. She would even run next to me when I was pregnant and slow. i'm glad that they see it is a big part of my life. My friends kids seem proud of their mom for all of her running. I wonder how my kids feel.
Annoyed?

Our Church Calling.

Nate and I were able to have a member of our ward over for dinner tonight to work on Family History. We really don't know much. We were able to get him onto NewFamilySeach and to ask for his submission made previously to show up as his on his New Family Search log in (or what ever it is). Also, we realized that his disk from PAF was read only and Nate went to his house to try to fix it on his computer so that he can clean up what he has on his PAF (eventually we will take all of it to New Family Search). Also, Nate is going to see if he has a USB port on his computer so that we can just give him an USB drive to work from. Hopefully he does.

We need to make sure that we are working on our stuff once a week- I want to move our day that we set aside to a different day. We will learn more. But as we help other's we will learn more as well.

For now, I have a little girl that needs to be snuggled.
Good night.