Mother Racer

Tuesday: I went out for about a 9 mile run in 105.12. Jeff joined me for most of my run. It was good because we picked up our pace to a 7 minute average. It felt good to pick up pace again. At home it was a day of trying to get ready for Christmas. I did go into work at the Clarion Gardens for a few hours. Extra cash is always nice!

These past few days we have had good friends and neighbors stop by with treats and little gifts! Pretty amazing people!!!

The girls built a fort in their room and they all slept together…

Yeah…. I had to take it down in the middle of the night… One of them hit their head or leg or whatever and was crying.

Wednesday: I went out on a 9 1/2 mile run in 1:10 this morning. It was pretty cold out. But it was a good run! The rest of Christmas Eve was preparing dinner… We always make Greek food every Christmas Eve.

We did have to sneak away to run to Wal-Mart :/… We had to pick up pass around gifts for tonight. I don’t know why we waited until today to get them. Corom hopped in the cart right away… Yep the girls got in with and I pushed.

We went right back to getting dinner ready… The food was good! Gyros with lamb, cheese puffs, grape leaves…

The Carter’s (Rick & Rebecca), Yolanda & her family and Sarah & Gary came over for dinner and then the pass around gift exchange.

Shortly after, they left, the girls went to bed and Corom and I got Christmas ready… Santa ate his cookies and drank his milk…

The gifts were put under the tree and the stockings were laid out. Thank goodness for grandparents and their gifts! We got the girls one gift and Santa brought 2. I’m excited for the morning…

We had one last thing that we had to put together…

I don’t know why we waited until tonight but when we blew up the swimming pool, there were at least 30-40 little holes we had to patch up. It took a long time. We are filling the pool with a ton of McDonald’s balls… Hopefully it will turn out with what I’m picturing! I’m going to bed so I too will be surprised in the morning… 🙂

I am going to be quick (hopefully) with my posts for the past few days!

Saturday: I did not get a run in this morning. Yes I am addicted! We had 15 extra people over for breakfast. It was a planning meeting for the youth, leaders & Bishopric for the next years activities. It was fun. Corom, the girls and I hung around all afternoon and did the “Saturday chores”. I received a text from Rebecca at the Clarion Gardens asking for my help with a wedding. It was just for a few hours during their dinner. My Aunt called (she lives an hour away) about 30 minutes after the text, saying she wants to come visit us at our new house because she was going to at a wedding near us. Anyway a long story short… I was working at the wedding she was going to because it was for my uncle’s granddaughter. I have never met this uncle and all my cousins and 2nd cousins so it really was fun being there!

My mom was adopted into the U.S. When she was 11 years old from Greece. She was adopted into a family with 9 older brothers… They were mostly all out of the house and there were so many of them that I feel bad to say but have never really gotten to know half of my mom’s family. Anyway… It was so neat. Aunt Georgia came over after I got off work. That, too, was nice!

Sunday: Christmas Sunday… We had a nice Christmas program for sacrament meeting which I was not able to pay too much attention to… My girls keep me busy! But they sure looked cute in their dresses my mom sent to them!

After church we went to my sister in law’s house for dinner. It was a nice evening.

Monday: I met up with Mac and Aubrey this morning and the rain. We went out for 1:01.37 minutes. It rained the whole time and I loved it! We went out to a late lunch with Corom’s family (mom & sister & cousins) for our annual Christmas dinner…

Corom’s mom took the girls back to her house and Corom and I went to another dinner. We were so full that we went to visit and be there for the guy that put this dinner on. We later put the girls to bed and then watched a movie. I’m tired!

Wednesday: I met up with Sierra (a girl I used to coach at the HS and now she is back from college), Rachelle, Amber & Megan. We went out for 103:28 (running about 8 miles). It was a nice run! I really enjoyed it. Once I got home, my day began with lots of babysitting (it began at 7:30 a.m. until 9:45 p.m.) with a total of 11 extra kids. Yep, it was busy but we did do organized games/crafts.

During lunch time, Corom and I (and the 2 extra kids I had at that time with my 2 younger ones) went to the school to help in the cafeteria. We had parents come take over all the classrooms, offices, etc so the teachers could have a nice catered Christmas lunch. As I just stated… Corom and I took care of the cafeteria craziness! It was fun, though!

Corom went back to work and worked his long day, while I went back home with/to a bunch of kids.

Thursday: I met up with Beth and Trish and went out for a 1:02.12 minute run. Another nice run with good company. We did run into Mac, Amber & Rachelle. Corom and I went into my oldest daughter’s class for a presentation. Corom talked about Costa Rica and their Christmas traditions and I talked about Greece and their Christmas traditions.

My youngest had her Polar Express party at her school…

And my 3rd daughter had her kindergarten Christmas program…

Busy morning… We were able to go home and get things cleaned up before I headed off for indoor track practice.

I sent them off on a run, then met up with Corom and the girls up at my mother in laws house. We were decorating ginger bread houses…

My oldest:

2nd child:

3rd child:

And 4th child:

The girls loved it!!! I had to leave for work shortly after (thank goodness I didn’t have to clean up ;)). I helped Rebecca at the Clarion Gardens for a Christmas dinner party…

I do enjoy working there… Nice to make some extra money and the food is excellent!!! I didn’t get home until late!

Friday: I met up with Amber, Rachelle, Megan, Melissa and Scott for my run. Amber and I took off from the group and would turn around and go back to them throughout the run. We ran for 1:04.24 today. The girls had an assembly at school today. All the grades sang different songs and then I arranged for a Santa to come in. My neighbor is awesome… Thanks Chris! He agreed to do it at 9:30 this morning. We thought we had a Santa lined up but realized late last night that we had no Santa… So Chris said he would do it!

It went well! The kids loved it. We had our annual adult Christmas party with the neighbors. We put our kids to bed around 7… They were asleep by 7:30. 8 everyone started to come. We ate, talked and did the white elephant gift exchange. It was funny!!!

It was fun to hang out with everyone. Corom and a few of the guys went out to pull a few pranks on a friend of there’s… Who knows what but I will find out in the morning.

Monday: I began my morning with a 56:31.58 easy 7.3 mile run. Yep I took a week off and now am ready to start running again. For the next month, it will be easy, fun runs. I am looking forward to that! During the day I helped at the school and cleaned house. At the school we began setting up for the reading carnival that is taking place tomorrow.

My 2nd daughter had a little situation at school today… Well it started this weekend. She has been so constipated (hurting not wanting to eat, not wanting to be touched or moved when the pooping urge came on, her stomach hurt, etc), so we loaded her up with miralax… On Monday morning I told her she didn’t have to go to school because I didn’t want her to be embarrassed if the miralax kicked in and she had an accident. She insisted on going… I did get a phone call after lunch from her saying she wasn’t feeling well. I picked her up and got it out of her that she “had a little accident”… She then told me that she clogged and flooded the school toilet with how much she got out. I smiled and said to her that her daddy would be proud! 🙂 I’m just glad she feels better! For family night tonight, we had the missionaries over with a couple of families. We ate scones and chocolate and then had a little Christmas/spiritual message.

A little while later, I went to bed and Corom stayed up real late…. Making his ugly sweater for his work party.

Tuesday: I went out for 58:43.66 minute run. I felt good. We had many dog encounters, though! At one point I had to pick up a rock and throw it at a dog. I missed but I wish I hadn’t. The rest of my day was extremely busy… I babysat for a few hours this morning (started at 7)… Corom finished his sweater so I had him model it before he left for work. (Some pictures were taken at the house and some at work. As you can see… He won the Ugliest Sweater Award.)

He is such a cheese ball!!! But that’s what I love. We had a carnival at the elementary school today. It went all day with each grade coming at a different time. I really enjoyed it! We have such a good group of ladies that help out each activity!

All the kids had a blast!!! So many games, crafts, activities, food… It was great. It was all based off of the kids reading (how many times they read throughout the week) and how many tickets they were rewarded.

The girls and I went straight to In-door track practice… It started today…

Here we go again… Cross country just ended & track begins. After practice we brought dinner to a friend that just had a baby and then Corom took out out 3rd daughter on their “date” (which he forgot to take pictures); and I took out our 4th daughter on our “date” when Corom returned. We both took each child out for ice cream (just for about 20-25 minutes).

I told my 4 year old daughter that I loved her so much. She then says… Well I love you more. Well not as much as I love Santa though. Ok… Do I tell her? 😉 Anyway… Corom went to scouts and my visiting teachers came over to well visit. 🙂 It has been a busy day… Now I’m in bed ready to go to sleep…

Well call me mother of the year… I finally had my 6 year olds birthday party… Yeah… Her birthday was over a month ago. We had about 25 kids over.

My friend Amy saved me… She came over and helped paint all the kids faces as I played games with the kids. Later that day, the girls and I began making cakes for our church dinner that will take place tomorrow evening. We did half of it tonight and the rest will be done tomorrow.

The kids went to bed and the Fullmer’s came over for a movie and treats. 🙂 I’ve been eating so much junk food and drinking so much soda this week!!! I’ve been going to bed way late… This is my week off of everything I guess. I’m not the healthiest anyway even when I am training but this week has been bad!

Saturday: Today was a day of ups and downs! We did our Saturday chores… I, then, finished the cakes and the girls played with our English Mastiff, Harley.

We are having to put Harley to sleep today… It has been so emotional all morning. We did run to the church to help set up for the dinner tonight.

We ran to our grocery store here in town to go see Santa Claus! The girls loved it!

Ok… So we loved it too!

Shortly after it was time to take Harley to the Vet. 😦 It was less than a 10 minute drive… Not long enough. I tried making excuses to not bring her in… It began to rain/snow so I said let’s do it a different day to make it easier to bury her… Well we both knew that this was the best thing for Harley. The kids, Mike Fullmer, Corom and I walked Harley in…

The Vet gave us a few minutes to be with her… As we began to walk her back a lady asked what was wrong with our dog. I turned to her and said we have to put her down. Right when I said that I began to cry… Now I was the one who always got annoyed with the dogs or mad at them. I was the one that kept saying we have to put her down (she was really old and in pain) without a second thought… But now I am the one who started crying first and was so sad about it!

The girls said their goodbyes (with my 2nd just balling). The girls and I got up to leave so the vet, Corom and Mike could do what they had to do. My youngest kept turning around and yelling I love you. The vet did tell us that Harley lived longer than the usual lifespan of a mastiff. It was a sad moment but I explained to the girls as we were out in the waiting room that it was the best thing we could do for Harley. Corom, Mike and my 2nd child went up to bury our dog. The other 3 girls and I went to our friends the Barney’s house to put together a 12 days of Christmas thing for a family in our neighborhood. It was fun to put everything together (even though the Barney’s did most the work). We will start today and end on Christmas Eve… For dinner we headed back to the church. (We went early to finish the last minute touches from this afternoon). We then helped tray the food and get everything organized. We had an excellent dinner with about 200 other ward members. Corom and I played Mary & Joseph for a little program, then we stayed for the cleanup when the dinner and program was over. My kids were big helpers today!!! It was nice to not have to raise my voice at them all the time. 🙂 Usually they are touching everything or getting into things but they helped with the setting up.

We came home and checked on Kittie (our other English Mastiff). I know she knew something was off today. 😦 She didn’t get up when we walked into the garage. It really was sad!

The kids went to bed and the Fullmer’s came back over for a movie. What a day!

Sunday: Church was really good today! Great speakers for sacrament meeting and great lessons in the 2 other classes! For our Christmas activity we (Corom, the girls and I) along with the Barney’s went to the Assisted Living Home (for old people) to visit and sing Christmas carols. We are not the best singers… But it was fun. 🙂

Our family headed up to the Fullmer’s for dinner. They gave us a beautiful picture of Harley. The girls loved it! We came home, the girls went to bed and so did I shortly after.