Monday, August 27, 2007

It's the most wonderful time of the year....




Well it is official! They are both in school. Hunter woke up this morning and was ready to go by 7:15. That boy wanted to get back to normal! Jorden on the other hand got up and had a little bit of a hard time getting moving. We made it though, tomorrow could be interesting.


As you can see Hunter has finally gotten a little bit taller than his little sister this summer. He has grown a ton!


He also has grown an opinion about what his hair should look like so this week
we are spiking it. :)


Here is my 'big' girl who isn't so big. We did manage to get out the door this morning without any melt downs over clothes or hair or shoes! I swear she has already hit the preteen phase. FUN :)

Hunter hoped right into class ahead of us and couldn't even slow down to say bye. Did I mention he was excited about being back at school?

Almost every other kid in her class had tears but not Jorden. She was more interested in the play dough sitting in front of her. I think she was irritated that I wanted to say bye to her - I was taking up play time.

No tears this year ~ not even mom. I am looking forward to picking them up and getting the update on everything that happened today!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

A new year a new start....

I know it isn't 2008 yet but we are starting a new school year in a few hours which has caused some re-evaluation to go on around here. Some new goals.... some old goals become new again :) Every minute of this summer I have been so excited that Jorden was finally going to school, until tonight as I sat with her in a mountain of ribbon cutting orders listening to her chat my ear off about anything that crossed her mind I realized i am going to miss my crazy woman. Her hysterical little comments through out the day.... the roller blades running over my toes..... the insanely complicated art projects and the 5 thousand "mom can I go to lizzie's?" Tonight my baby became a big girl. The walk home from school in the morning is going to be hard.


On to other fun things of the past week....
Bart got a new toy this week....

More posting in the morning... first day of school pics :)

Monday, August 20, 2007

Breaking through the 6 mile wall...

After getting home this morning from and 8 and a half mile exhausting run I picked up my runners world from last month to re-read my favorite article out of it. It is such a perfect one page article that i thought I would share it with the rest of you.... maybe it will inspire some of your to come join me one morning... or maybe just to find your own thing :)



Pretty Strong ~ by Kristin Armstrong



A few months ago on a school morning, as I attempted to etch a straight midline part on the back of my wiggling daughter's soon-to-be-pony tailed blond head, I reminded her that it was chilly outside and needed to grab a sweater.

"No mama."

"Excuse me?"

"No, I don't want to wear that sweater it makes me look fat."

"What?!" My comb clattered to the bathroom floor. "Fat?! What do you know about fat? You're 5 years old! You are definitely not fat. God made you just right. Now get your sweater."

She scampered off, and I wearily leaned against the counter and let out a long, sad sigh. It has begun. I thought I had a few more years before my twin daughters picked up the modern day f-word. I have admittedly had my own seasons of unwarranted, psychotic Slim-Fasting and have looked erroneously to the scale to give me a measurement of myself. But these departures from my character were in my 20s, before the balancing hand of motherhood met the grounding grip of running. Once I learned what it meant to push myself, I lost all taste for depriving myself. I want to grow into more of a woman, not find ways to whittle myself down to less.

The way I see it, the only way to run counter to our toxic image-centric society is to literally run by example. I can't tell my daughters that beauty is an incidental side effect of living your passion rather than an adherence to socially prescribed standards. I can't tell my son how to recognize and appreciate this kind of beauty in a woman. I have to show them, over and over again, mile after mile, until they feel the power of their own legs beneath them and catch the rhythm of their own strides.

Which is why my parents wake my kids early on race-day mornings. It matters to me that my children see me out there, slogging through difficult miles. I want my girls to grow up recognizing the beauty of strength, the exuberance of endurance, and the core confidence residing in a well-tended body and spirit. I want them to be more interested in what they are doing than how they look doing it. I want them to enjoy food that is delicious, feed their bodies with wisdom and intent, and give themselves the freedom to indulge. I want them to compete in healthy ways that honor the cultivation of skill, the expenditure of effort, and the courage of the attempt.

Grace and Bella will you have any idea how lovely you are when you try?

Recently we ran the Chuy's Hot to Trot Kids K together as a family in Austin, and I ran the 5-K immediately afterward. Post-race, my kids asked me where my medal was. I explained that not everyone gets a medal, so they must have run really well

9all kids got a medal, shhh!). As I picked up Grace, she said, "You are so sweaty Mommy, all wet." Luke smiled and said, "Mommy's sweaty 'cause she's fast. And she looks pretty. All clean."

My PRs will never garner attention or generate awards. But when I run, I am 100 percent me- my strengths and weaknesses play out like a cracked-open diary, my emotions often as raw as the chafing from my jog bra. In my ultimate moments of vulnerability. I am twice the woman I was when I thought I was meant to look pretty on the sidelines. Sweaty and smiling, breathless and beautiful: Running helps us all shine. A lesson worth passing along.~




So for Hunter and Jorden I run~ I run strong and for right now I will continue to run long!

Monday, August 13, 2007

14 days and counting....


14 days and counting until school starts! Not that anyone here is counting or anything. So since we only have fourteen days we are cleaning out the caves upstairs that Hunter and Jorden call their rooms. For several days now I have asked them to clean up their rooms and when Jorden came down and said she was done I almost fell over laughing at what her version of clean is... ral days now I have asked them to clean up their rooms and when Jorden came down and said she was done i almost fell over laughing at what her version of clean is...
I think we have a little work to do with her. Stay posted for what it looks like when I am done with it! :)

14 days until school starts mean only 21 days till the Disney Land Half! I am stuck at 6 and a half miles and can't break past that.... even with the fancy new shoes! Had to get 2 pairs to break in for the walk in 11 weeks. I am starting to get stuff together now because we are sneaking into our absolute crazy season with the ribbon! This year it is creeping up a little earlier than last which is great so I have big plans to stay more on top of things with both kids in school all day :) (Bart says 'yea right') We will see...


The kids have finally learned how to swim! Mom is very happy to be able to go to the pool without having to take life jackets and towels and toys and snacks and everything else Jorden lays eyes on before she gets to the car..... now we get to go with everything minus the life jackets. It really does make a difference I promise...



Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Welcome... enter if you dare!

Welcome to the insane world of the Bailey family! Too many of you want regular updates on what we are doing and we at this house have no time to keep everyone up to date! I wish we could but we are up to our necks (literally in some rooms) in ribbon, or trying to catch a flight to the next business meeting, being run over by some skinny little legs with big roller blades at the bottom or possibly we are just having our ear talked off by the chatty patty that lives here!

So to catch everyone up I do ribbon all the time.... when I sleep I dream of it when I am awake I am cutting or rolling or shipping it. I have discovered that I love to run and have a fabulous group of girlfriends I run with several times a week. We are gearing up for our girls trip to run The Disneyland Half Marathon over labor day weekend. I don't know just how ready I will be due to the four screws that I had put in my shoulder 8 weeks ago. It is getting better I just still can't lift anything over 2-3 pounds or get it to bend anywhere near my back :( My physical therapist (Eric) says I am right where I should be but I am having a hard time with my restrictions.




For those of you that don't know about the little injury, I tore my labrum 40% of the way around doing a side plank in yoga in March of 2006. My hand was numb for a year and my whole right arm and shoulder hurt for a year while doing rehab to fix something that my doctor told me was nothing. Well the Orthopedic guy I finally went to see in May said otherwise and worked his magic and hopefully has fixed it! I am still about a month away from being allowed to go back to yoga, but yes i am going back.

Bart, after quiting his job in February did some consulting for a few months. But at the end of May was given a great job offer and took it! He is enjoying it and it is keeping him very very busy. It also is taking him all over the place. All ready he has been to the Dominican Republic and managed to not catch anything :) When he's not at work he is at work for me. He is looking forward to his week of fishing up in Wyoming this September.

Hunter is going into second grade this year. He has become a reading machine! He likes to read to Jorden and she is quite happy to let him. He is looking forward to soccer starting again and loves to roller blade, ride his Heely's and his bike.



Jorden is only 26 days away from being in all day kindergarden and she would be much happier if she was 0 days away. She is our little social bug and is going to make us all crazy with all of the 'can i go play with Lizzy' questions. She spends her days lately dressing Ellie (her American girls bitty baby) or wiggiling her loose tooth.