Feb. 2009 - D-Day

This last week I signed up for a half marathon. It's not something that I would have ever pictured myself doing - ever. I've never liked running. Even in Junior High I was on the "alternate" cross-country team - like even under J.V. They didn't expect us to do well. We were just on the team to promote good health and exercise - the 'who cares when they cross the finish line' part of the team who didn't even get a team shirt. But it was the sense of accomplishment when I crossed that finish line, every joint and ligament throbbing in my body as my chest heaved with exhaustion, that kept me going.

Flash forward to today - education done, married, two toddlers and slightly bigger hips. Running, to me, has changed. I go to the gym in the mornings when most people are still asleep to work out and run. That has become the one thing I can do for myself that makes me feel good, healthy, and fit. At times, yes, I do obsess about how thin I am (or not), or how many calories I'm consuming in a given day to offset the ones I've burned that morning, or even how many miles I can get in during a given time. But running is freeing. I can think, pray, even just BE while my body just keeps plodding on.

It's not the most comfortable thing to do. At times I've had to quit because of knee or back pain (makes me feel old) or foot pain at times (and that's only running 8 miles). But I haven't given up - I don't want to give up.
So this week after contemplating it for months and training with an idea that "I'm trying to see if I can actually do it," I stopped being a what-if-er and entered my name into the starting lineup to run 13.1 miles on Feb 1, 2009. It's not going to be about finishing first, or even how fast I do it. For me, it's about accomplishing something that a year or even a few months ago would have seemed impossible for me. It's about finishing something that I can be proud of and training to do it well. God give me the strength and the endurance to take on this challenge.

Z's Party

I've been struggling lately. With several things, but one thing in particular is a two year old named Austin. He has decided that he has a will, and he will exercise that will whenever he feels like it. The last few weeks have been spent placing this child in time-outs, spankings, and priviledges being taken away. But the other morning something reminded me of why I decided to take on the tast of mothering in the first place. The love and pure joy it is of having children. The boys and I were just hanging out on my bed looking at books, getting into my drawers (not so fun), and coloring with pens (on paper of course....or at least I think) and my little guys started giggling. I actually got a picture of it and this just says it all. Joy - even in the challenging times of our lives. Thank you, God, for my children's laughter.

He's even got the hand going to his chest - it's SOOO funny. Ha ha!!

My friend Sonja's son turned 3 last week. We went to his costume-themed party and had some fun. Notice that both my boys are wearing basketball uniforms (a daily costume) because neither one wanted to even ATTEMPT to dress up. There were some serious wailings and tears when I tried to get Austin's frog costume on. You'd think I was asking him to eat mushrooms or something.... Ethan loved the crafts and had a lot of fun with the stickers.

Blowing the birthday candles out. Sonja made these cute cupcakes decorated as Frankenstein and pumpkins. It was fun to meet a lot of her friends and see their kids. Happy Birthday Zechariah!

I was not surprised to see this happen. The son who is a LOT like me chowing down on his cupcake. We love our sweets!!! Yesterday when we were making cookies with my cousin, Cheryl all three of us were eating the dough. Ethan and Bryan could care less, but there's Austin, Cheryl and me helping ourselves to the YUMMY dough. Martha Stewart makes a mean chocolate chip cookie recipe!!!

I can tell when he gets older, that we'll be stubborn together, too. We sometimes clash wills like siblings do (of course me trying to be the mom and the grown up in the situation...which doesn't always happen).

Pumpkin Patch

It's just not the same as living in the country and going to pick your own, but my kids won't know any difference at this point in their lives I guess. Getting off of a freeway exit and entering into a 1/2 acre of slides, a petting zoo, and games with a smattering of pumpkins artfully arranged in heaps on the concrete doesn't scream "pumpkin patch" to me but what can I expect in Southern California? We finally made our way to the "patch" and Ethan was beyond excited. He'd seen the lights for days off the freeway, and begged to go there and ride the horses. Of course that excitement wore off when the horses were "resting," (I'd have to too if I had kids constantly on my back) but we managed to find something else that got him excited. These really nice people just handed me 4 tickets that they weren't going to use (it's hard for me to thank people enough when they do acts of kindness like that) so we let Ethan go on a colossal slide...yes, folks...all by himself!!!

Here he is coming down the slide (I know, it's blurry, but you get the idea). Now what you DON'T see in pictures is yours truly going down WITH him. Ok I didn't see the sign plastered all over the front of the entrance that adults are not allowed to go on the inflatable "rides." Neither, I guess, did the teenage worker. He took my ticket and ALLOWED me to go up the slide with Ethan. It was so steep that my knees just about touched my nose as I walked up. I got to the top and put Ethan between my legs. Then I came down. What I THOUGHT was plastic burn (you know....the slip and slide??) was really a gash that went about 5 inches long on my rear end and thigh. I don't know what I hit, but there was something sticking up on that slide and I was wearing shorts. It didn't break skin, but it took several layers off. Could it have been the weight, perhaps? No adults on the slides because they come down too hard and fast? Bryan did take a video so it's burned forever in my memory. All Ethan did was laugh. Probably because I was laughing in pain.

My youngest....eating (or trying to) again. He tried to bite into every small pumpkin he picked up. No, Austin, it's not an apple. **sigh** This kid has to taste everything....and still puts things in his mouth. Just yesterday he destroyed two of my magnets (that I made in A Mother's Place) by chewing on them. Thankfully he didn't swallow the magnets, but he did ruin them and sucked all the glue off. I didn't realize that Tacky Glue breaks down with saliva. Good to know.

Actually a family picture??? Bryan took this with his long arms. Quite a talent!

I had to post this one because it made me laugh. It took several tries to get this, but by the end, you can tell that Bryan is annoyed with Austin since he wouldn't sit still and look at me (and he was acting two), and Ethan just has this deer-in-the-headlights look on his face. Didn't we just LOVE the pumpkin patch?? All I can say is toddlers equal drama. Every day of my life.

Birthday Boy!

What better way to celebrate my 4 year old's birthday than a trip to Bass Pro Shops and eating lunch in their restaurant? I mean it's a dream come true!!!! It's better than Disneyland!! Well, not for me, but for my kids, seriously. And it's cheaper, right? Bryan took the day off and we all made our way to BPS for lunch and to walk around and see all the fishies including the shark that's their favorite over by the salt water paraphenalia.

This is just a weird picture of Austin. The funniest thing that happened with him was I took him into the bathroom with me after lunch and he brought in his drink. While he was waiting for me to finish going potty, he walked over to the wall, started sipping his straw, leaned on the wall with the other hand and crossed his ankle over his knee while standing up. I just about died laughing. He was trying to act like some cool dude. He did it several times because I was laughing so hard. A small part of me wishes I had it on video, but I'm not into taping something in a bathroom while on the toilet. Bummer, huh?

Who's the 4 year old??? That's right - ETHAN!! He celebrated with corn dogs and fries, while mommy and daddy split an Ahi Tuna steak and a catfish sandwich. MMMmmmm.

Yes, they have a shooting range there. Don't worry - it's all digital. Like an arcade game. I'm pretty good at it - if I close one eye. I hear that's not the way to shoot a gun, but it makes my aim better. Ethan and Austin like helping us shoot the targets and when you shoot, it makes cool things happen.

On to Ethan's party. My mom got me an adorable cake pan with individual car molds in it. They were so cute and I let each kid get one to decorate. We had gummy savers, chocolate chips, frosting, Reeses, and sour belts to decorate with. Here's a close-up of my "Candy Corvette." Not like the kids even WANTED an example, but I did one anyways.

My friend Wendy helping the kids decorate. Notice in the foreground Austin pigging down his car cake before even decorating it. That's my boy! He didn't want all the other stuff...just get it down as fast as possible. When I was saying goodbye to one of my friends, he snuck the wheels off my car that was sitting on the table. He got three of them before I caught him. Food is at the top of his brain....except at dinner time. Hmmmm... We had homemade pizza for lunch since that's one of Ethan's favorites.

Ethan with his birthday candles. I can't believe my baby is getting so big. He's so kind-hearted and caring about other people. Such a sensitive soul. Happy Birthday to my big boy and thank you to his friends that came to celebrate!

BEES???...And Liquid Gold...

It's not what you think. The liquid gold is NOT honey. Why? Because the poor bee hunters could NOT find a hive in our house. Yes, the bees were carrying pollen, yes, they were swarming for about 2 - 3 weeks, yes they were going in and our of our attic, but there was NO hive to be found. This was established after poisoning inside the attic, removing a 2x2 foot section of roof, drilling into our wall from the outside in several places, and combing the attic for traces of honey. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. 2 hours later, the guys patch everything up and take off. I'm thankful for the no hive thing, but it leaves me wondering....what were the bees DOING up there? **sigh**

This ladder just made me nervous. They drilled holes all up in the wall and removed a section of roof above our bedroom on the left. This company was awesome, though. Honesty is a quality I admire in a company and they had it! It's nice to know there's quality businessmen out there!!

Ok so on to the liquid gold. We have a pomegranate tree. After having this tree for a few years, I've asked myself, why did I plant this tree in the first place? They're messy, they're hard to eat, and they STAIN. They also aren't used for a whole lot of things...except the juice, which is extremely hard to get (liquid gold). So, in a no-brainer moment, I decided this year to do Pomegranate Jelly. I always tell myself after straining seeds of any kind, "I'll never do THIS again." But I do. Probably because I forget how time consuming it was LAST time. Well I've never exactly MADE Pomegranate Jelly but once Bryan picked the fruit, it had to be done that day. Yikes. I didn't know what I was in for. The picture above just makes me itch. And that picture was taken after extracting seeds out of 10 pomegranates....which took about 2 hours or more. Then comes the boiling, then the straining. I mean the fruit IS the seed. WHY, Cara, WHY???? OH and THEN it overflows during its boiling point while in the last stages of making the jam. I could just HEAR the mess being made.

Ta dahhhhh!!! Liquid gold in a jar. I worked from 2 till 9pm on this stuff (with a dinner break in between). Talk about time in a bottle. You don't get much from a whole lotta work, but when you see the finished product, it's pretty fulfilling. It's not bad, either. Just a whole bunch of sugar and some pomegranate juice (which needs a lot of sugar to taste half-way decent in a glass as we found out). Bryan helped me seed 2 pomegranates - thanks babe!!

LOTS of catching up...hold on!!

So, again, since I've been a slacker in posting, this will be a menagerie of all that has been happening lately in the Hill household (and beyond). My friend, Sonja, decided that it would be really cool to make "ghoulish" houses for the fall and so we each went to Michaels and bought a gingerbread kit. When we made the orange frosting, it turned out like toothpaste (which is a good thing), but the green - not so much. It was more like goo. So my house was the house built on the rock (with orange toothpaste) and hers was the one built on the sand (with the green goo) so you can guess what her house looked like after it was assembled. Yes, it went "splat." Poor thing. We had to do some serious damage control. (notice how gooey the green is on my roof below)

Here was our intact house. Ethan was very meticulous as he put on the "ball" shingles. He gets very focused and into it.

As Austin, when we're not looking, sneaks pieces of candy off of the roof. All those candy corns in the top picture?...well they disappeared quickly once candy hands got ahold of them. It doesn't surprise me in the least. Here was his look when I asked him what he was doing. SO Austin.

My Aunt Nancy and Uncle Gary came to visit and the boys were in heaven! Uncle Gary built a marble coaster with them and took them on the Carl's Jr. play gym after dinner. We had so much fun and Ethan still plays with his stretchy lizard and frog that he got from them for his birthday. Thank you for taking the time to spend with us! We loved having you here.

AHHH... Big Bear. What's better than a women's church leadership team meeting in the mountains in the fall? To top it off, it snowed the first night we were there. I say "snow" but it wasn't THAT thick. It was almost icy and didn't disappear for almost the whole day on the table on the patio. Not to mention, it was 38 degrees in the afternoon up there. BRRRrr. What a cozy time we had with our fireplaces and slippers. We were able to spend our time in the Word, socializing, and talking about our expectations for this year in our leadership positions. I had such a fun time!!


Me and Lori (our leader in charge of A Mother's Place). She is a wonderful Christian woman who really has been a mentor for me as I serve in this ministry. This is the only picture I got of myself from this weekend, and I really only took a few pictures. We were all enjoying our Mexican lunch in town.

On to Tyler's birthday party. You GO Riva!! Bryan's pretty impressed. At this time of year, it's birthday, birthday, birthday!! Bryan's is late September, then Ethan's on Oct. 13 and Tyler on Oct. 14. What can I say, but PARTY!!?!! We enjoyed our time with Chuck E. Cheese (even though Ethan is beyond scared of the actual mouse (or rat??) in the suit). He also shares his mother's fear of animated life-size "living" things. We celebrated in style with Chuck E. plates, cups and tokens. I must say that with kids, anywhere that keeps them even mildly entertained is a BIG success. Thanks, Lees for all the goodies.

Will, Tyler and Riva with Tyler's cake. Riva, you weren't the only one who had two pieces. As I'm downing the leftover one, Will asks me if I'd like to lick the cardboard. Don't tempt me!!!! That was good cake. What's with me craving sugar lately?? But ya, WELL worth the money! Happy Birthday Tyler!!

Here's our whole gang in the "video." Ethan spent most of his time over in this area watching himself on screen. I guess it was really entertaining. Doesn't this shot look like a "boy band" video? No? Ya, maybe I'm stretching it a little. Maybe a Barney video. **shiver** No, our kids don't over-act THAT much, right Riv? HA HA!! This was the hit of the night by far!

Oak Glen...and Bees

Ever have one of those days where you just need a whiff of cinnamon and a good dose of country cheer? Well Saturday was one of them for me. (I've already taken out my fall candles and burned them tons!!) Thanks to my wonderful hubby (who does NOT like this sort of excursion too well) our family drove up to Oak Glen to walk around, experience apple paradise and sample various food items. I love it up there and the weather on Saturday was absolutely perfect. It was overcast and sort of foggy - the perfect fall weather where you can just smell the harvest spices and feel the dampness on your skin. MMmmm....

I thought this just SAID country harvest. In one of the shops there was a whole tasting of cheeses, salsas, candy, meats and jams. I could have had a whole meal in there if you let me. We almost walked out with some Blackberry Raspberry jam, but we realized it'd be a while before we got to it with my plum jam and my parents' blackberry jam that they just made waiting in my pantry. Maybe next year... The candy store has a REALLY good peanut butter bar, too. I got one last year. They combine peanut butter and butterscotch to make this YUMMY treat. Since I'm always on a peanut kick, it satisfied that craving. We were good this year and just looked....ok, and sampled a few various things. You've GOT to!

At the top of this hill (or is it a mountain?? - considering how steep it is) there's a petting and feeding area for deer. There was a little candy dispenser with corn in it that you could pay to get a handful of corn from. Being the cheapskates that we are, we scrounged the corn off the ground to give to the boys to feed the deer. What?... It's not like there weren't several 100 uneaten corn pieces laying around. Besides, if they aren't fed to the deer, it's wasteful. hee hee. What made me laugh was you could HEAR the crunching of the corn pieces in the deers' teeth. Ugh. You'd think that'd hurt it was so loud. Actually, it was pretty haughty...right, Riv?

This precious lady offered to take our picture after seeing us try and fail miserably. She even gave each of the boys one of her sausages from her breakfast that she'd just bought. Sometimes I'm amazed at the kindness of strangers. It gives me hope that there are still nice people out there. She got a good picture even while holding her breakfast!

There it is - the gleaming beacon of copper/orange light in the parking lot. Now do you still wonder why I picked this color? Look at how it is illuminated!! Ya, needless to say we didn't have a hard time seeing our car in the parking lot. I LOVE it and I'm still so happy with it!

And then we have more on the joys of home ownership. Some local bees have decided that they'd like to move into the small space in the roof above our bedroom. They've been swarming there for about a week or two, and even though Bryan shot water up there, they didn't leave. So this weekend he bought poison and shot the heck out of the hole. Bees were dropping everywhere and Bryan was running away at times. Poor guy. About two weeks ago he just annihilated a wasp nest that was being built in one of our birdhouses. So far the bees are trying to find a way back in (since it's soaked in poison), but we're hoping they'll move on. Maybe we can patch that hole and leave the rest without food....but does Bryan risk it? That morning he had gone up in the attic and shone a light on the hive - the bees were not happy about that and went to charge him. I guess they're not morning risers...

Toys, Trash Cans and Toes

Ethan's 4th birthday is coming up. I don't think I could POSSIBLY forget that fact since I'm reminded pretty much every day by none other than the birthday boy himself. And as he says he'll be 4, he holds up his 5 fingers. Oh well - he's not in Kindergarten yet (even though that's another issue in itself) I'll give him a break. GG and Granddad sent some money for him to buy what he wanted from Toy's R Us. We thought he would really enjoy this marble coaster because he was watching something similar in the store for quite a while. Well, it was a hit. We bought Austin a vacuum (as a present from us since we really hadn't gotten him something for his birthday) and he loves the thing. For some reason he likes it, even though he's deathly afraid of the real thing and asks me to put it away if it looms on the floor waiting to be used.

Now this is the design from the package (for the marble coaster). Much against my personality, I actually sat down for at least 1 1/2 hours the other day and made one myself (and it didn't use all the pieces either). No sooner had I started making dinner, but Austin pulls out a chair to bring to the kitchen and I hear a CRASH!!! Ya, ALL that work....in a heap on the tile floor. Nothing more needs to be said. Then Bryan comes home that night, and while I'm grocery shopping for a 1/2 hour, assembles a coaster that not only uses all the pieces, but it works through all the pieces. We all have our strengths I guess.....

My mom will be proud of me for this one. Yes, I GARDENED!!!! This is a miracle since I absolutely do NOT like doing this chore. Now I have to inform you that I STUFFED this trash can with all the gardening I did. It's one of those HUGE cans so that's a feat in itself. There was no more room in this baby when I was done with it. And I did it at 8 am folks!!! I was done by 9, wondering why it wasn't noon yet. It felt like I was laboring all day. Back-breaking I tell you.

No, your eyes are not fooling you. The shoes ARE on the wrong toes. This is how Austin puts his shoes on by himself. I don't have the heart to fix it ALL the time. I do, occasionally, inform him that he might want to switch it around but it's too cute to watch him walk around like this. I'd think it would be uncomfortable, but obviously it doesn't bother him any. That's my do-it-yourself-er!