Running–dead snake-planting-kids-summer plans

I’m still trying to figure out the balance of blogging and dumping the pictures of our adventures on facebook. Here is what’s new/the same in our lives:

RUNNING

I’m going to do the Provo City Marathon on May 5th with my sister Bethany. Not the marathon, but the 1/2 marathon relay. That’s only 6.55 miles. I found out about 4 weeks before the race so I found a 6 week to 10k training program and have been doing the last 4 weeks of it. I haven’t run this much in so long. I had no idea how out of shape I was. Literally, my body shape has been changing. I haven’t lost ANY weight in the past 1.5 week running (23 miles total) but I feel and look different already. I usually run in the evenings after I put Annie to bed. I’ve been using a website to track my runs and I love it! It’s runkeeper.com. I give it two thumbs up! (By the way, it’s not just for running.)

 

DEAD SNAKE

We had a very strange thing happen Friday evening. A man knocked on the door and started out the conversation asking if we had been digging in the plantar area in our back patio. He hadn’t introduced himself or anything so Colin was pretty guarded and answered “no”, even though Jackson digs there almost everyday. He finally went on to say that he had buried a (what we heard) red boa constrictor in that area because he wanted it to decompose and do something with the skeleton. We said he could go dig it up. He didn’t have a shovel so he left to go see if his brother had one, before Colin could say that we had one. He never came back.

As you can imagine, this was pretty upsetting to know my children could have been exposed to a biohazard. Not to mention it’s just really really creepy. 

Saturday, it was bugging me enough, I went back there and picked a spot and dug a little hole to see if I would run into something. Call it luck or something else, I picked the right spot. About six inches down I ran into a plastic bag. The man said it was 18 inches down. I can’t believe Jackson hadn’t run into it before. He’s dug more than 6 inches down.

Colin came out and finished the job. It turned out to be a small snake that could fit in a grocery sack. It was wrapped in a couple of different bags so we never got a look at it. Colin removed all the dirt that was touching it and sprayed it down the area with Clorox water.

 

The back story to this is that there is a woman in the neighborhood I know and I remember her once saying that her ex-husband’s brother used to live in this apartment. If this all sounds crazy, keep in mind this man was kind of white-trash.

I am looking for the gospel analogy in all this. Let me know if you think of one.

 

PLANTING

With this warm spring, I’ve already done some planting. I didn’t do much last summer because of having a baby. This is the most I’ve done. I am most excited about my lupins. My sister Mandy brought back a pack of seeds from Prince Edward Island. I don’t fancy myself a green thumb. I find the analogy that “faith is like a seed” to be terribly ironic because I don’t have much faith that plants will grow for me. I haven’t ever started seeds before and I was more than surprised when it worked. I hope my lupins will grow and be as big and beautiful as they are supposed to be. I’ll keep you posted.

 

ANNIE

I feel like Annie is on the verge of some developmental milestones. She is close to walking. I’ve heard say “jackson” a couple of times. At church, she pointed to the picture on the wall and said “jesus”. She claps and shakes her head “no”, not that she knows what “no” means.

 

She is quite the eater. She likes to sit and work on food for a long time. Dinner can taker her a good 45 minutes until she wants out of her high chair. She is also not very picky and eats whatever I put in front of her, including taco meat. We had an incident where I let her eat a whole bunch of kidney beans because she was enjoying them so much. She ended up miserably constipated. No more beans for you Annie!

 

Months after making her cry it out, she is finally getting it. The last couple days she hasn’t cried  about being put into her crib. This is big news for me. In the next couple of months, I will wean her and hopefully that will take care of her night waking even more. I just might be able to go to girls camp after all.  

 

Annie is getting enough hair for me to need to do something with it. I need to go buy some supplies and start practicing.

 

 

JACKSON

Jackson has just been delightful. He is so curious and interested in so many things. He is very into dinosaurs, airplanes and Indiana jones right now. I am amazed at his creativity and problem solving skills already. He likes to plan trips and activities. He has a new interest in coloring and drawing. He is currently very afraid of not knowing where I am—not necessarily being alone, but he won’t go upstairs by himself. If I am going upstairs/downstairs, I have to tell him where I am going so he doesn't cry when he realizes I am gone. I say currently because his fears come and go. He is still afraid of the blender and howling wind.

Dinosaurs wearing masks

Jackson makes really good lego airplanes.

 

SUMMER PLANS

Girls camp definitely changes things. Colin has to take off quite a bit of work so I can go. That means we don’t have as much time off for other trips. For now, we have a weekend Yellowstone trip in the plans and a labor day trip to Mesa Verde. I’m hoping to get some camping trips in the mix too.