Thanksgiving Contribution

Well, we survived another Thanksgiving holiday with our family on the road.
I have come to the conclusion that holidays aren't supposed to relaxing or enjoyable, just memorable.
In our annual tradition we headed north to spend the weekend with my parents and siblings. We always hot the road Wednesday afternoon as soon as Luke's last kid is picked up. (Seems like there are always parents who forget their kid for a few hours. Free babysitting? I don't know.)
Anyways, our memorable weekend began when Tubbs needed to be picked up early on Wednesday. (Only my child would need to be picked up early on a minimum day.) He had a headache, so I put him in the bath tub and gave him Motrin. Shortly after he began vomiting. He said he felt much better and was hungry for lunch so I fed him Cheetos and a sandwich. We thought he was ok and maybe it was just the headache that caused him to get sick. A few hours after his initial vomit we packed up the car and picked up Luke from work, ready to hit the road for Roseville. In Luke's school parking lot Tubbs vomited again. It was a nice yellow from the Cheetos. I thought I was going to toss my cookies.
We texted my mom to let her know what was going on and asked her what we should do. We asked Tubbs if he wanted to go home or hit the road...and of course he was ready to go for it. So, he vomited in a large McDonald's cup inside of a plastic shopping bag for the next 320 miles.
Lovely.

The kids passed out after it got dark on the road
We stopped at one point so I could empty Tubbs' vomit cup and it spilled on my arm.
Again, I thought I was going to lose it.
I had to take a photo!


The next day was Thanksgiving and by the time our turkey dinner was on the table I was nauseous and couldn't eat one bite. BUMMER.
Luke was the next victim who began getting sick through the night.
By Saturday afternoon my 20 year old brother was vomiting and needed to be picked up early from work.
By the time we arrived back home Sunday afternoon we received a text that my brother's 2nd grader was vomiting.
And this morning on Facebook I read that my sister's 3 year old son began vomiting through the night.
So, we brought a nice little virus with us for Thanksgiving.
That was our family's contribution.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Sick Girl

So,Halloween night Petunia started getting red bumps around her mouth. By early the next morning they looked like blisters. Never seen it before so we thought it was from her pacifier. I took her to the baby sitter's and within an hour I receive I call: she has spots and blisters on her feet, booty and hands.
"ugh...."
and more "ugh!"
Poor little girl had "Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease." Bubba got this once before when he was 2 1/2 and went to pre-school. But this case was far worse. It wasn't pretty. I never knew you could get blisters on the outside of the mouth too.
I didn't bother taking her to the doctor since I knew what it was and unfortunately there isn't anything you can do for this nasty virus....except wait it out. So, we all took turns staying home with her during the week and giving her lots of TLC and attention.
I took her to the gym with me Friday and Saturday and I think this is where she might have picked it up. I know, I know...technically she could have picked it up anywhere BUT this was the only environment where she was exposed to other kids/toys. Who knows. But I am kind of skeptical about taking her back with me for a while. This virus has knocked us all out for a while.

She was cranky without her pacifier....so to make her happy we gave it to her. But we boiled lots of pacifiers over the week!


She didn't want to eat much so we bought lots of Popsicles and Go-Gurts.

She liked reorganizing my cupboards.

This was a cranky little bug by Day 3. Not a happy camper.


When the Tylenol kicked in (and she was rested) she was in a playful mood. I know she liked being home everyday and having lots of attention.
I was home with her Monday/Wednesday, Grandma took Tuesday, and Luke was home with her on his birthday (Thursday).
What a week! Thankfully, Petunia has recovered and living back in a bubble for a while.(I wish!) :)

Halloween 2010

Tubbs' pumpkin with his yellow crocs.

I am not sure who let this kid have a knife....

Petunia picked her pumpkin and waited patiently for daddy to carve hers.

This year Bubba wanted to be Harry Potter. Tubbs wanted to be Mario, but Party City was all out....so he settled for some scary thing from Harry Potter named "Dementor." I have never read the books or seen the movies so it was a mystery to me.

Dumbo's little sister, Jumbo. This was Bubba's first Halloween costume...so we recycled it.

Getting ready for Trunk or Treat Friday night. Its Harry Potter in crocs! :)


"Jumbo" was fascinated by Dementor and not scared at all. I thought it was hilarious.


Halloween night we wandered around the neighborhood with the Montana family for a bit. Then we headed back to the house and handed out candy until about 7:30. Fun evening...and luckily I was able to retrieve 2-3 Almond Joys from the kids' bags. :)

Petunia loves her babysitter...who was dressed up as a fairy.

Checking out their treasure.

First 10K Race

What can I say about my first 10K...besides I am glad its over! Its my third official race and I guess I decided to do the 10K instead of the 5K to push myself a little further. I have never ran 6.2 miles in one run before, so I actually woke up early this morning VERY nervous and unable to go back to sleep. Luke, in his usual supportive fashion, told me I would be fine and couldn't understand what I was worrying about. The competitive spirit in me didn't want to be "fine," I wanted to do well. What exactly "well" meant I didn't know. I wanted a miracle to happen....and come in first! :)


Well.... that didn't happen but I did finish the race with a time of 57:19.
I might have caught Valley Fever, but I finished!
Man alive, the last half of the race, the wind and dust kicked up TERRIBLE.
I was running into the wind and thinking to myself "If I would've just ran the 5K I would be done right now. I am an idiot." :)
The dirt was blowing so terrible when I wiped my mouth on my hand, my hand was smudged with mud. When I cleaned my ears out in the shower afterwards, my Q-Tips were black.
Ewwwwwwww.

The beginning of the race.

There were 250 people who ran the 5K and 150 people who ran the 10K. There were way more people today than in my first two races. This got me even more nervous.
Why?
I don't know.
I think part of my nervousness was the fact that I didn't know any of the runners. Originally there were a number of people I knew who were going to run. The guy at work who gave me the registration form bailed at the last moment as well, in order to play golf.
Go figure. Fun over exercise? And my best friend ended up not being able to run after being up all night sick.
So... I was on my own. Kind of.
Luke and the kids are great cheerleaders. They waved and cheered for me when the race started and were there for me at the finish line. Thinking of them kept me running the last 1-2 miles. I was very thankful to have them there for me. After the race was over I checked my phone and there was an e-mail that Luke sent to me about 30 minutes into the run. It was so inspiring me and it warmed my heart that he thought to do it. Another reason why I love my husband! :)

Bubba came running up to me as soon as I crossed the finished line.

My run as tracked by GPS. Its always interesting to see how I did.

I love nikerunning.com

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Every year we try to take the kids to the Banducci Pumpkin Patch,which is about a five minute drive from our house. Its close, its cute and the kids love to go there. This October I vowed to get there earlier in the month, before all the pumpkins were picked over.This pumpkin patch also provides a great opportunity to snap a few good pictures of the kids.
So, let me just say for the record, I made sure to bring my nice camera, because taking pictures of the kids was the main reason I really wanted to go.
Forget the pumpkins.
I am not a big fan of Halloween anyways, much less pumpkin "carving." I figured with the cooler weather and lingering clouds, it meant less squinting and sweat! You see where I am going with this? ITS ALL ABOUT GETTING A CUTE PICTURE OF THE KIDS TOGETHER!
Of course it's Murphy's law that when the opportunity arrives for a potentially cute picture, the subject(s) will somehow come up with some bump, bruise, scratch, or gash on their face.
EVERY.STINKIN.TIME.
This time was no exception. It always happens to Bubba. Are you surprised? :)
I never can figure out how it happens. This time it was a large scratch smack dab on Bubba's forehead.
(And I am not opposed to using make up on my boys. Seriously---I think the last time I took a picture of the kids together in the Spring, Bubba had BAD chapped lips. I used some of my tinted moisturize and covered that baby up! He doesn't know it was make up, but I guess he will one day when he reads this post! Ha Ha Ha.)

I can always count on Tubbs to have his "comfy" work out shorts on. Oh well.


I am not sure this girl can take a bad photo. Of course she hasn't hit her terrible twos yet....


Ok--I was wrong. Petunia does not want to be restrained...obviously.


Ok--I was wrong about the squinting too. Bubba has a limit on taking photos. I should post the 20 photos I took in a row, just to get this decent picture.


My special middle child. He really does listen so well and does whatever I ask of him. "Stand here. Smile like this. Turn this way."

Somehow, by the end of the pumpkin hunt, I got talked into taking the crew into the corn maze. Thankfully it only cost us $5 for the family.

Luke took Petunia's stroller 4-wheelin through the maze. Poor girl.


Bubba----my dirt kid. Nothing bothers this kid in the least. I don't know if I should be scared or proud.


Look at that scowl. Who did he get that from? Hahaha.

Hamster Hogue

My husband is the "hottest" hamster alive.

Literally.
On Friday, October 15th he wore a handmade hamster suit (assembled by the mother of one of his employees) and rolled around in a human size, inflatable, hamster ball--- all in the name of his students. It was 90 degrees outside and the inside of that ball was like a sauna.
(Hot hamster indeed!) :)

Every year at his school, the kids vote on a task for Luke to perform if they make their standardized testing goals for the year. Its a very tough thing to do in his school district and even statewide. Thankfully his school has made their scores every year since he has been Principal.-- Its something he and his teachers are very proud of.
This year his school was ranked 14th in the county (among public schools).


Petunia and I watched him on the morning news and then headed to his school to see the hamster in person. On our way, we stopped and picked up a Sonic beverage for the bug guy who was rather parched!
She liked sharing the soda with the hamster.

So proud of you and your wonderful teachers who actually HAVE to teach the kids.
Keep up the amazing work. XOXO

**News Article Link

2008 Stunt Link

Anniversary Getaway 2010

Eleven years with the same person!
What an accomplishment. Who does that anymore?! :)

I guess we are just "old fashioned."

This year I had grand plans for our anniversary. Petunia is almost 14 months and I thought she might be able to handle two nights away from us....and us from her. :)

I recruited Luke's mom and dad to babysit for us at our house while I surprised Luke with a two night getaway.

It was all going according to planned. (Not that I had anything planned--besides the idea of getting away for two nights with my husband.). I enlisted Luke's Assistant Principal back in August to help keep the Friday of our anniversary clear of meetings/activities so I could show up in the morning and kidnap him. I thought I was so clever until he came home one day and started talking about different activities.....one big one which happened to fall on our anniversary Friday. I slyly e-mailed his AP and asked what the heck was going on and she said she couldn't block out the day on her calendar because he looks at her calendar (so she had forgotten)....and I guess Luke has a bad habit of scheduling everything himself anyways. So, this kidnapping scheme was getting difficult to conceal.

Time to go to Plan B---which was break down and tell him.

I am glad I finally did because I couldn't decide where to go anyways. Somewhere warm, somewhere cool. Beach or no beach? Once I told him, we contemplated a few different destinations before finally choosing Indian Wells. We stayed at a resort there once before about five years ago and LOVED it. Its about 5-10 miles east of Palm Springs so its still nice and warm AND quiet.

We decided to try Priceline.com to make the sleeping accommadations because I have heard so much about the website lately. Let me just tell you that I will be using this website EVERY TIME I have to books a hotel from here on out. It was so easy. Basically I created my account, entered my destination and requested a resort for $100/night. I was so excited it accepted my offer the first time and it was for a resort that is normally around $300+/night. YAY!

A few minutes later we began to get a little greedy and wished we would of started our "bid" a little lower. Oh well, live and learn.

The resort was right across the street from the Miramonte resort we stayed at in 2005, so we knew exactly where we were going. We stayed at the Esmerelda Renaissance Resort and Spa.

I loved this hotel. We would definitely stay here again...and again...and again! It was also VERY family friendly. I bet we can get a smokin' hot deal here next summer for the family when its 110 degrees outside!

---------------------

We left the house Friday morning after the boys got on the bus and Petunia got situated with Grandma. Indian Wells is 231 miles so we were ready for the long drive.

We knew we wanted to go see a movie and decided to stop along the way in Old Pasadena to watch it and walk around for a bit. Luke was just there the day before to see an educational movie with a co-worker, so he was excited to show me a few places that were new to us.

We loved the movie: "Life As We Know It." Very cute/funnyand would watch it again.

After the movie we walked a few blocks to a cupcake shop. They had so many flavors to choose from AND they made mini versions too. That meant I could try almost every flavor without the guilt! :)

I think my favorites were the strawberry lemonade AND the caramel apple pie.

After cupcakes we headed to Indian Wells....and got stuck in traffic.

Dinner: Cheesecake Factory. Their Chicken Stuffed Tortillas and Raspberry Lemonade are my favorite things to eat!! I think we were both buzzed off the lemonade after two refills. I don't even want to know how much sugar was in there.....

Saturday morning! Up bright and early.

We went to the fitness room, which was PACKED.

Who works out on "vacation?" haha!

Then we showered and headed out to do some sightseeing, shopping, walking, eating, eating, eating, watch another movie, walking.....

Luke with his new BFF. He is a great listener.

After lunch at "Island Burgers" (which had a delicious turkey burger) we saw another movie: "Its Kind of a Funny Story."

Except for my popcorn smothered with milk duds, it kind of sucked. I would have fallen asleep if I could. A few laughs here and there but slow and depressing.

Saturday night out by the pool. HUGE pool area with two hot tubs.

Sweeeeet!

Sunday morning we stopped by a French restaurant/bakery on our way home.

We picked up two chocolate crossiants and they were A-MA-ZING! The best I have ever had. I guess it could of been because the owner was speaking French when we walked in. This is me saying "Merci beaucoup."

------

Eleven things that I love about my husband:

1. He can read my mind, 99% of the time

2. He knows when its time to stop and feed his wife....before someone comes up missing or hurt.

3. He thinks its hot when I talk "Jeeps"

4. He loves my curls even though I think straight hair would be more delicious

5. He gave me a little girl who looks JUST LIKE HIM, even though he prayed she wouldn't.

6. He never calls me by my name unless he's not happy with me

7. He sends me scriptures via e-mail

8. He says he is a simple man, but he is actually quite complex

9. When he lets out a good belly laugh, it makes me laugh like a school girl

10.When he tries to pull his wrestling moves from HS/college on me...and sometimes I can slip away.

11. He has given me three little awnery, yet good lookin' bugs....who take after their father.

Happy Anniversary Luke! XOXO

"Schilhabel Strong" 5K Race

My second 5K race was today and not only was I surrounded by good friends, but it was for a great cause. The race was organized as a fundraiser for Tyler, a 16 year old boy, who was paralyzed Labor Day weekend in an ATV accident.

I was super excited to be able to participate in this race, as well as get outdoors and do my second 5K. When I found out about this race for Tyler it was the day of my first 5K and I knew for sure I wanted to run it or help out in any way I could. I e-mailed the registration form to everyone I knew and made copies to take to work. I wanted everyone to participate if they could. Luckily I think I was able to recruit at least a few runners! :)

The race was held at Tyler's high school and the course was challenging for me since I normally train on the treadmill. There was grass, LOTS of dirt, cement, and pavement. It was fantastic!

The individuals who created the course did a great job.

---------

This morning started off with a nice, long soak in the tub. The HOT water really helps my pulled groin muscle to loosen up----(as well as the Tylenol and Naproxen I popped like candy) :)

While I soaked in the tub, ate breakfast and got ready to go, Luke took the kids with him to run errands. Which meant I was able to really REEEE-LAX in COMPLETE silence.

Sooooooo nice.

Crossing the finish line - 27:29

I was really surprised I was only over my last time by 7 seconds. Last night Petunia was up a few times through the night coughing and fussing.... so not only was my leg aching, but I was exhausted! When Petunia woke up at the crack of dawn, I rolled over and told Luke I didn't think I could run it today. He whispered in my ear and gave me a lil' pep talk, telling me I would regret it if I didn't do it.

He was right. I was not only glad to get another race under my belt, but blessed to partake in this worthy cause.

Two of my cheerleaders.

The boys were busy running around the bleachers with friends from church. I don't even think they realized I was running or what they were there for! :)

Friends! Cliff, Joy, Amanda .....and Johnson babies!

Luke and Luke :)

My Luke was so bummed when "movie-date Luke" moved his family to Colorado last year. He was happy to pal around for a lil' bit.

Friends! Amanda, Shawna and Joy.

This little girl was SPENT.

Between snotty noses, chest congestion, teething, sleep deprivation.....she was ready to call it a morning as soon as I finished. She snacked on a few orange wedges and bagels and began letting us all know how she was feeling.

A few of the friends who volunteered: Kristin, Kim and tired Baby Audrey.

What a blessing the volunteers and organizers are to the Schilhabel family. I only pray that the money raised today will be able to make a difference with Tyler's family and his medical expenses. I know its very much appreciated!

Placed 3rd in the female age group 30-39.

Nice surprise.

Schilhabel Strong!

Here's to you Tyler... and the fight you have ahead.

You can do it.