HELLO...back at it...

catch up from August...

School has been going great for all the kiddos! Kindergarten has been an adjustment for Jordan now that we are getting homework so I am still trying to figure out how to tackle three homeworks sessions after school. We are getting the hang of it now. 

Charlie's aunt Marilyn had passed away from breast cancer in September and and Charlie was able to get out and see her the day before she passed. She was a very special lady and his dad's sister. She had battled for a few years with it and was strong. She was at peace when she passed.

Baseball...Braedyn had a wonderful fall season and great coaches! They had a great run and a ton of fun together. These group of boys are awesome!! 

Hockey...has started and we are in the thick of it now with Jordan and Cooper. It has been so much fun to see Cooper out there smiling again and loving the game!! That's what it is all about! Then there is Jordan who is out there looking so intense and tough. He is definately the youngest sibling taking on kids twice his size! 

We took a trip to the mountains over fall break to Tennessee to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. It was a fun and busy trip and then from there we had went to Knoxville for the Gator/Vols football game. It was fun and I'll post that on a different blog post with some fun pictures.

We had a few scary things happen in September/October as well that I will also post about.

Fall is here and the cold weather had come. The pool is closed and Halloween was last weekend. 

Now we are heading into November and can't believe Christmas is not that far away!

Process of Getting Healthy after Essure

There is life after Essure and after a hysterectomy to remove the evil device!

So after my six week recovery period I was jumping at the chance to get out for a run. I finally was able to do that and I started back slowly. I was having trouble though with my GI track and side stitches... I suffered from IBS after surgery and think that I still had some air bubbles left after the surgery.

I was still having some issue with the itchy autoimmune response my body had from the essure. It had come back. I was starting to worry. I then decided I needed to make sure anything left over in my body from that device and from the surgery, I needed to get the toxins pulled from my body that were lingering. I did a 3 day whole body cleanse. It really wasn't as bad as I had thought it was going to be. 

I had ordered it and started it on a friday when my husband was gone for an entire weekend. It would be easier if he wasn't here I figured because I wouldn't be tempted to have a cocktail or cheat and eat something. You are not allowed to eat or drink anything else but the liquid in the cleanse. It was six bottles for 3 days of different tasting drinks. They were as bad as I had thought they were going to be. The only hard part was the caffiene withdrawal on day one and two. By day three I didn't need my coffee and I wasn't craving stuff. The not eating was hard when the boys and I went to Wendy's for lunch one day but other than that, that was the easy part. My headaches from caffiene withdrawal were AWFUL! I have to say I was really proud of myself for doing it because to be quiet honest I didn't know if I would after that first day of headaches. I knew I had to follow it if I wanted to get rid of those toxins. It was a spiritual expereince.

It worked. I did not have any more issues with feeling like bugs were crawling on my skin and the inflammation and my joints had subsided. I believe it was from doing the cleanse. Plus being on all of those drugs after surgery it helped rid the kidneys and organs from those toxins as well.

I would recommend it to someone who is looking for a cleanse...it was a three day suero cleasnse. 

And yes of course I am back to drinking coffee but I am more aware of what I eat and take in as far as processed foods and chemicals. I have been focused more on eating healthier and more balanced diet with fruits and veggies and healthier snacks.

I have not blogged for quite awhile. I did the cleanse back in September and I can say I have been feeling great and I am back to running 5-6 miles and feeling back to my old self again!

Screw you Bayer!

Fall Baseball Tryouts

Braedyn had tryouts again for the fall for his travel baseball team which is now the U11 Elite Hawks. There were a lot of kids that showed up. The original 10 showed up plus probably 10-15 new kids.

I was probably more nervous for him then he was. He did great and we prayed he would make the team...

He has been working hard on his hitting and it paid off. He made the team!

Here's to another fun baseball season. Short fall season.

PROUD OF YOU BUDDY!

Cousin Fun

My brother and nephew came to visit...He has never been here so we were excited for them to visit. Jordan will have a little buddy here for a long weekend since they are the same age! We have been here for six years and it's their first visit!

Fun with Uncle Dom

Buds!

Our Favorite Dinner Place!

A Couple Little Attorneys

They were to dress up for school as a character from a book. I'm not sure where Cooper got the idea for a lawyer but that's what he said he wanted to be and so then Jordan did too...

They were so darn adorable! Makes daddy proud...they want to be just like dad!

He looks like he is on his lunch break! A business lunch!

Pretty Rainbow

A faint double rainbow 

White Cross FUN in the Country! The Tractor Pull!

A Pretty View!

Go Jordan!

Go Braedyn

Go Cooper!

They both got second place!

Jordan and his best friend G! Love these two ! So darn Cute!

Alyson and Jordan going for a tractor ride!

A Boy and His Frogs

BOYS and TOADS...

Cooper loves toad hunting...

Summer Basketball

Braedyn's summer basketball league in Hillsborough and daddy was asst coach. He loves basketball if only he could be tall...but he's quick!

Our Friday Treats

OUR AFTER SCHOOL TREATS WE MAKE SOME STOPS AT THE ICE CREAM SHOP OR FROZEN YOUGURT SHOP ON FRIDAYS!

Cooper's Birthday celebration

A Big 8 Year Old Today. I love you! Here is your birthday brownies you requested !

Blowing out the candles! Make a Wish!

He chose Red Lotus for a family dinner on his birthday. A nice Chinese place in town.

I hope you had a wonderful day buddy!!

We love you!

Getting Back

I haven't kept up my promise to myself of keeping with this blog. 

Just when I think I will have time to sit down for myself something else comes up.

It's amazing how my days get filled up even while they are all at school.

Before I know it, it is time to pick them all up from school.

Also it is almost time for break again and they will be out for three weeks. Then I get nothing done and will enjoy the time with them. They have two weeks left.

I have been catching up on stuff around the house, fitting in time for friends I haven't been able to visit with, some runs with friends, and cleaning the house which also has been put off for way to long.

Also I have been trying to enjoy the last month or so of this nice weather by the pool by myself when I can. The days will be limited come the end of September to October. 

I also signed up for a 5K which is also in a couple weeks so I have been training for that since I haven't really ran in six months and a 5K which used to be my warm up is now my first racing goal.

It should be a fun race at PNC arena with the Carolina Hurricanes and the money goes to the Kids and Community fund they are a part of. The boys were also going to do the kids dash.

I will take this weekend to try to get up to date on this and hopefully be able to get back to it on a regular basis.

I have quite a bit to talk about and get up to speed on....

Saturday Morning Music

A little music to my ears this morning...

He has been picking up the guitars a lot more lately and practicing.

There's hope in sight. I haven't been bugging him about it so it's on his own time I guess.

He loves music and I figured one day he will start picking it up again.

And my ears aren't ringing! It actually was nice to listen to!

Rainy Day

Woke up to a rainy gray day. 

These are the days I really miss my lil man who would quietly come downstairs and crawl into bed with me and snuggle up under the covers. 

He would quietly find the TV remote and turn on the Disney Channel and curl up next to me with his stuffed Curious George. 

The other two boys would be off to school in our carpool.

He would just lay here and let me rest and I loved the snuggle time.

Today was different. I had to get up and get everyone's lunches packed, make breakfast, get them dressed, and be out the door on time. I dropped them off at school and headed back home. 

I crawled into my unmade bed and pulled up the covers. I usually don't do this because I wasn't quite ready to face that "lonliness". I had kept busy with errands or catching up with friends. I thought I could crawl back into bed this morning but it still a little depressing to me to do this alone. 

I am going to try to take a nap and clean this house today. Since my surgery I haven't been able to clean at all and I saw some cobwebs accumulating around different areas of the house. I also think the boys sheets are turning 50 shades of gray!

Usually my rainy days were filled with cartoons, snuggles, coloring, play-doh, baking and indoor crafts. 

Now it's naps and cleaning. I guess that is a good thing but I need to get used of it. Some habits are hard to break so I might just make Cooper's birthday cupcakes today!

So on the weekends when ALL of them come down and shimmy in the middle of us and snuggle with Disney channel playing in the background I will treasure it and let them do it as along as they want! 

There's a Billy Dean song that I absolutely love and rings so true to me these days!!

Let Them Be Little:

http://youtu.be/XwCZzIyCf3Q

Let em sleep in the middle!!!

My First New Venture

Now that I will be hitting the trails and roads alone with all the kids in school, I thought why not start a running group for moms at the school after morning dropoff...

So this is my first new venture...

My plan behind it, is to inspire other moms to get out there and get moving. They can start by walking if they have to. We will meet at the school track after they drop off their child and stretch and then head out. I have put together some routes and other locations we can meet. We will meet twice a week. If I wasn't doing it a group I would be doing it alone. We have some beautiful places and trails to run but it can be scary to do it by yourself...I always am prepared and carry my pepper spray or I have Jake with me. 

It will be a great way to meet other stay home moms at the the boys school and have those discussions with other moms that we so need. It is also boring to run alone and safer to run in a group.

I created a facebook group that will be the place where we will list information for the group such as tips, cancels, and routes races, and nutrition, etc. My plan is to start this in September. I will be released to run in a couple weeks and then see how it goes on my own for awhile. I am going to have to ease back into it slowly.

I have reached out to some other moms and they are very excited to get started. I called it Hillsborough Elementary Running Group because we don't want to exclude dads if they want to join us. I had thought about calling it Moms On The Run...but I didn't want to shy away anyone by the title.

Hopefully it will be a success and we can inspire others to get out there and hit the road. 

Fitness is important to me and my family and it should be a priority to better yourself not only for yourself but for you family!

My goal by the end of the year would be to see a lot of our running group members participate in one of the local runs in Hillsborough and prove to themselves they CAN do more than they thought they could! 

Stay Calm and Go Run! 

Happy 8th Birthday to our Goofball!

The many faces of the middle child! He is our comedian and marches to his own beat and doesn't care what anyone thinks! Silly boy...

Always pushing the limit since he was born two weeks early at 10 pounds! 

You may be as stubborn as a mule, strong as an ox but you are my little kind hearted teddy bear!

You are a passionate, driven, and determined child. I am so proud of the boy you are growing up to be. 

You amazed us at birth and still amaze and never cease to surprise us to this day! 

I love you to the moon and back! 

Bookworm

My little studious bug! 

Thankful and blessed! 

A Famous Norwegian

My oldest had to pick an early explorer but he wanted something no one else would have picked because everyone was picking Christopher Columbus or Marco Polo. If you had the same as someone else you could pair up as a group. He said he did not want to pair up with anyone. He gets that from his mom ~I hated group projects because we don't like to leave things up to other people and I guess Braedyn feels the same way. He had a similar experience to mine where someone took all the credit. He doesn't really like the "group" projects.  The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

So I asked him if he had heard of Leif Ericson and of course he had not but he may have if we were still in Minnesota! There is even a statue of him in near the capitol. I told him him he should research that explorer because our families heritage is Norwegian and he was a famous Norse Explorer. He was intrigued. So we got home and he went into his room to start his research. I was proud of him he was learning not only of just any early explorer but someone from history and his heritage. These days things like this are lost. He thought the coolest part was that he was a viking and he came to America before Christopher Columbus!

I was proud of him and he is going to tell his teacher today who he picked and I am anxious to hear what she says...and if she had heard of him. 

We were discussing how we are Norwegian because Grandpa Jacobson's parents came to the United States from Norway and there is still family there and my relatives were also Norwegian. At our breakfast table this is what happens every day I am just used of it~A simple discussion turns into a competition...

He says, "Well I am more Norwegian than you because I have blue eyes and blonde hair and I play hockey"... That kid! Everything has to be a competition or an argument.  Hmmm I wonder where he gets this from!

So I replied, "Cooper you may look like you are Norwegian but your brothers are too and you are also German and French.

So we had a little history lesson at the breakfast table this morning before heading out the door...

It's always nice to know where you come from and kids are most curious about this I am learning as they get older. I remember when I was in elementary school I found a family tree book at my Grandma Nelson's. I found it very interesting to page through it all the way back to the ships that came to America. Knowing where we came from gives us an identity. I guess this is my job because unfortunately they don't get to go and spend all summer hanging at grandma and grandpa's house sitting on the porch chatting away the day or digging through old picture/story books. Those were summer's I treasure and I still remember. These days families are spread out more and moving around and away from each other. We move to where the best opportunity is for the family. We don't love each other any less and we have to make that effort to keep the families close. It is a part of who we are...

 

A Dinner Coversation For Only Boys

The boys were having spelling duals at the dinner table last night but not your typical dinner table conversation or spelling test...

What words can be spelled backwards and still spell a word!

The giggling was priceless!

Only Boys...

What is poop spelled backwards?

What is boob spelled backwards?

What is peed spelled backwards?

What is star spelled backwards?

What is Mom and Dad spelled backwards?

silly boys...

Hours of fun with paper...who knew

The boys new favorite thing! Paper airplanes... 

They have even searched you tube on how to make "cool" ones! 

Hey it's great cheap entertainment! But of course it turns into a competition of who's flies the fastest, straightest, or farthest! 

This is what my floor looked like this morning! 

Favorite Wall Display

We took these pictures on the beach celebrating Jordan's first birthday and they are my favorite family pictures! 

I really need to update since he is 5 now :)

 Just wanted to share an pinterest inspired idea...

I am not sure if the company exists anymore but it was called At Home America is where that wall display came from...

Innocently Spoken -out of the mouth of babes

I had to type this before I forget because it was so innocent and cute...

I was walking Jordan into school yesterday and this little girl waved to Jordan and said Hi to him.

We continued our walk to his room and I asked him who that little Chinese girl with the glasses was that said hi to him was and he replied, 

"She's not Chinese she speaks English!"

Just like the time Braedyn was in Kindergarten and made a friend named, Keshawn. I asked him if he was black like his friend Luther..he was confused and said what do you mean Luther is brown. So then we talked about how some people call African Americans, black people and we are White.

and he said so innocently...

"but mommy we aren't white, we are peach"

Now if everyone just thought of each other like kids think of colors like the colors in the boxes of crayons like the story the boys have that everyone is equal...

wouldn't the world be a more friendly place...

As I was telling another mom that story we both chuckled as we wondered what if on an application for race we can put Peach or Nude :)! 

Thrifty Thursday

I found a really cute straw beach hat and I have been wanting a cute country hat so I countrified this beach hat with a little sewing job and a bone necklace...

2$ at thrift store.

Here is a dressy outfit I picked up...

Dress I got at the Thrift store for 5$ and sandals I had gotten on sale at a boutique for 15$ and a silpada necklace I got on sale for 20$.

Total outfit $40!

A Letter To My Boys 2014

I had to wait to write this after the first week of school or I couldn't see passed the tears!

To my dear sweet boys as you start school this year and leave momma all alone during the day for the first time in 10 years, I pray that God watches over you and keeps you safe. I wish that you all have a wonderful year in Elementary school!  It is your first and your last and you have only a couple more left! Enjoy this year together because it is the only year that all of you will all be in the same school together! 

It warms my heart as you all entered the building together hand in hand on the very first day and it makes me get teary eyed every time I look at it. This is a picture I have to treasure forever!

I know that you will take good care of each other and watch out for each other like brothers do. You will now be with your teachers longer than you are with me. That is going to take awhile for your mom to get used to! So don't be alarmed if out of the blue I start giving you hugs, kisses and public displays of affection before I leave in the morning or even at home out of the blue, just because I missed you! Here are a few things I want you to remember while you are at school:

I want you to stand up for each other if you see one of your brother's is being bullied by another child because I have taught you that and even if it isn't your brother you know to do that!

I want you to cheer each other on during recess and kickball games because that is what we do in this family. We are a team.

I want you study hard and get good grades because you know that is what we expect from you and if you need help your mom and dad are always here to help...go to your dad for Math! Your older siblings have been through it and can teach you the solutions. Inorder for them to have learned it they must be able to show you how to do it as well or they didn't learn it as well as they thought they did. You will quickly find out, Mom isn't always up on the way they do things in school these days. When you look back at this on your graduation day sometime maybe Common Core won't exist anymore!

I know you will have good days and bad days just like we all do but you have to learn how to get through them on your own and I will be here at the end of your day and always listen.

If you see your brother, please acknowledge him because that is probably the highlight of your little brother's day! He looks up to you so much. You are never too cool! You know how it feels to be left out and that's not cool.

If it storms and you are at school, I know you will be scared and I am not there-your teachers have prepared you in the best way possible and even though they say prayer is not allowed in school I'm telling you it is okay. You can say your prayers just like we do at home.

If I need to come and get you, I am a phone call away! But I will be getting all of you because I am not driving that far again at 2:30!  So don't be surprised one day if I come and get you in the middle of the day without any warning.

I hope you know how much I love you all. You each have a piece of my heart with you wherever you are and in whatever you do. I wish I could be a little fly on the wall in your classrooms and watch you learn and grow as I have done all the years that we have had since you were a baby. I now give that baton to your teacher during the day.

I have made a promise to myself that after school I will be a more patient mom because I will get my things done before you come home because you deserve my attention after being in school all day and every day. I will try to do your homework with you and it's ok if it has to wait for daddy's help. I will play catch and play ball with you, swim or play board games with you. The one reason I am present because I missed you all day. I want to be present in your young life. This is important to me.

Time does fly by and I can't believe all of you are in school together. I used to dream of that day and think it was so far away but now that it is here it is really hard to believe. Mom is getting older and I just want you to know I don't want to miss anything, I want to enjoy all of our days because one day you will all be gone and off to college. Now that seems far away but it really isn't because this week came entirely too fast. 

I know you will have a wonderful year and so will your mom. 

I will always be your first teacher!

I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK!

time ticks away 

and one day

you look up 

to a young man 

who once was this little boy

who used to ask to sit on 

your lap 

or get on the floor with his toys

used to rock you to sleep on 

my shoulder

and sit with you for hours

where I knew you were safe

and here you are so much older

Waves

Now being alone

the emotions can

come over me in waves

because they are just at the surface

sometimes a nudge and I can get past it

or forceful by pushing me along to get by

or there's the little ripples all together

brushing me lightly every once in awhile

and I am left on the shore 

staring out to the distance

 

What shall I do today!

My Old Rocking Chair

working on a little something....

As he took off 

I watched the gravel dust

kicked up 

from his dad's old truck

I remember when he gave him the keys

and he promised me 

he would never leave

the dust 

faded off into the air

watching from my old rocking chair

I've seen alot from there.

Reports From the First Week of School

The first week of school of 2014-15 is in the books! 

They all like their teachers and classes so far!

It was a great first week. 

I loved hearing them talk in the car on the drive home about how and when they would see each other and Braedyn and Cooper even get to have recess together and play kickball.

Jordan's lunch overlaps with Braedyn's so it was cute a story he told...

Jordan's class came in for lunch and he sat down with his lunch box and wanted to milk. So he butted his way up to get a milk and grabbed it and headed back to table when his teacher told him you have to go pay for that on your account. He did.

He then sat across the lunchroom from Braedyn and his friend Colby who also had a milk. Jordan then raised his milk carton to cheers Colby from across the room and he raised his back...so cute!

They watch out for each other for sure and that warms my heart!

A Fun Tournament Day with Friends

Braedyn had an opportunity to play a fun tournament with friends and some teammates from his spring team. It was an extremely hot weekend near the 100's. They had so much fun and took home the first place trophy!

My Special Last Day With My Baby

Since we had one more last day together before school really started for Jordan I wanted a special day with him. I didn't get that before because I was still recovering from surgery! 

We had a fun day as we went "junking" to see what kind of treasure we could find. He is so fun to take to the thrift store! He came across cassette tapes and said, "Hey mom, these are cool but what are they? Songs or something? How does it work? That was funny...I suppose not even the older two have seen a cassette tape before!

We had a special lunch date and still had time to kill before picking up the other two so we played at the park and got an ice cream treat!

I think he will remember that we did that! A day all about Jordan!

I treasured it!