Pike Place

Kids say the darndest things

My kids are in a phase where they say the cutest things and I keep meaning to write everything down before I forget. Let's start with my boy child.

Daddy: Lucas, can you run downstairs and see what Mummy is doing?
Lucas: She isn't MY wife, she is YOUR wife!

Then there is the love theme:

Lucas to me: Mummy, I love you so much that my head sometimes flies off and bursts into fireworks!

My heart is so happy and loves you so much that it wants to cry.

I know he is just trying so hard to put the emotion of love into words and I personally think he does a beautiful job of it!

We have been talking about the whole "your body=nobody touches" thing for quite some time. Well one day as he was getting dressed we had a conversation:

Lucas: Mum, this is my body and nobody can touch it but me.
Me: That's right!
Lucas: well, I guess it is kind of your body too because you made it.

Now, onto the girl child. Since her speaking is not quite as eloquent as Lucas' yet, the cute things she says are more like little quirky things.

The newest one is that she tags "get it?" on to random sentences like it's a joke and then she repeats the main theme of the sentence. It is quite hilarious!

Ellie: I wore my sandals today Daddy! Get it? SANDALS!"

Everything is "very so" in Ellie's world. She always says things like "That was very so fun!" or "This cookie is very so delicious!"

She likes to separate the family into teams and her funniest one is that Lucas and I are on the "white" team and she and Daddy are on the "brown" team. She is obviously doing this by skin color which leads to some pretty hilarious discussion that sounds so horribly racist that I have to cringe! The kids will battle back and forth about how white is better, and how brown people are smarter etc. I think it's time to switch the teams to red and blue or something.......

Ellie definitely loves being a girl. She is a girly girl of the highest order. I have tried to impress on Lucas that he is always to be especially good to girls because they are special. Ellie overhears me and loves to exploit this at every chance:

Mummy, you better be nice to me because girls are very so special!

Long Weekend

We had plans to go somewhere this long weekend but everything just got put on the backburner and we decided to stay close to home and enjoy a little calmer pace. We went to Snoqualmie Falls yesterday and did the hike to the bottom of the falls with the kids. It was beautiful!

Running.....well, I made it 6 miles yesterday. The only bad news is that my hip flexors were really, REALLY sore afterwards and still this morning. I had problems with them in college too and had physical therapy which did not really help much. So I just had to stop running then and that is what worries me a little. I have done a lot of reading this morning already and it seems like this is not an injury to mess with. I don't think I am necessarily "injured" right now but I do think I am on my way.

I will probably ease back on the running this week and swim instead (gotta dust off the old swim suit and goggles!). I am going to ice as well. I just hope this is temporary or something that can be managed.

Men: Can't live with them, can't kill them legally.

Conversation with husband today on the phone.

6pm

Me: Hello?
Him: Hi
Me: Hi.
Him: I have tried calling you like 20 times today.
Me: On my cell?
Him: No, at home.
Me: Did you try my cell?
Him: No.
Me: Well why not?
Him: Because I was calling you at home.
Me: Well, I wasn't home.
Him: Oh
Me: When I am not home, you try my cell. That is what cell phones are for.

Silence

Him: Why don't you answer the phone?
Me: Because I wasn't here. ??????

Feel my pain!

My New Babies

Here is my little buddy that I received on Mother's Day:
It does everything for me while I run, except run :) I am enjoying it since it using GPS to measure my exact distance that I have run. It also measures my pace per mile, my speed in mph, my time, my calories, the grade of my run, and all sorts of other stuff. It even has a running partner that I can race against.

My other babies are my new shoes:
The buying of these shoes was interesting. They gave me some test shoes and watched me run. She asked me about aches and pains or any injuries I may have. Then she brought out 3 pairs of shoes for me to try. There was no selecting of colors or looking at shoes. They basically picked for me!

These ones felt the most comfortable so I went with them. I ran in them today and felt like I had springs on my feet!

Pictures!

The final photo class was on Saturday and it was definitely well worth it to take the class. I have improved and actually enjoy shooting in manual now! It forces you to be a lot more creative with your picture taking and challenges you to use your skill rather than just pointing and shooting.

There are still times when I use auto. For example, this shot:


One of things we learned as being the MOST important thing in photography is to get the shot. If it is a moment that you NEED to capture, put it on auto on shoot. Capturing the moment is a lot more important than how it looks. I didn't want to mess with settings while El was getting her ears pierced as I may have missed the moment.

My pictures for the last class were pretty good. I wasn't very confident going in but it turned out ok. We had to blow up 3 pictures to 8x10 size to display on the wall. A little mini exhibition. I chose these three:



He liked them all. He told me that the tart shot could be in Bon Appetit magazine :) And the one of little Shane (my friend Jessica's little boy) needs to go in my "portfolio". I better get on that!

Here's a couple of extra shots:



And one last one of Lucas' hip hop class:

Run Report

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mums that read this blog! I may not know some of you but the ones I do know are all wonderful and deserve a special day every day.

For Mother's Day, I treated myself to a 5 mile run, the longest run I have ever done. I made it in 39 mins and 20 seconds. The great part about it was that during the run, it became clear to me that I WILL survive the 11 k (6.8 miles) race that I have at the end of June. Yay!

It got me thinking back to my first day of the Couch to 5K program that I did. Doing the 60 seconds of running intervals just about put me in my grave. And here I am today running for almost 40 mins straight! In 4 short months.

I am always on the lookout for great songs to run to. I know some of you run or workout so I am going to share my favorites with you:

1) Shut Up and Let Me Go by The Ting Tings: This one is one of those catchy and quirky girly songs but the tune is so cute and fun. It's the song that is on the Apple Ipod commercials right now.

2) Eye of the Tiger by Survivor: This one is self explanatory. I put this one near the middle of my run because it gives me a great boost.

3) Feelin' So Good by Jennifer Lopez: The lyrics to this one are great to exercise to and it's a fun and upbeat song.

Those are my top 3 :)

My Friends

Today, I am feeling pretty blessed by the friends I have. I am very lucky to be literally surrounded by friends in all aspects of my life. I think every person in my life is in it for a reason and I cannot think of one reason that has gone unanswered.

I have a friend who would take my kids at the drop of a hat, no questions asked, and is always there when I need her help. She knows a lot about many things and cares very much about being a wonderful friend.

I have a friend who I know is always thinking of me, even if we don't see each other very often. I know that when I call and tell her I have had a bad day, that she is thinking about me long after the phone call has ended. I feel very loved by this one.

I have a friend who I know cares about me deeply and that I will be lifelong friends with. She is as crafty as I am and she knows all about the latest and greatest craft items and techniques. She also loves my children as her own and for that, I love her.

I have that one friend who I can tell all my deepest and darkest secrets to and she wouldn't even flinch. She has probably "been there, done that" so I feel a great level of acceptance and love from this friend.

I have a new friend who makes me feel a lot less like the mutant liberal in my circle of friends :) She has a lot of the same goals and dreams as I do, wants to make herself into the same type of person that I aspire to be. Even though she is a new friend, I think she will be a lifelong one. I look forward to being on the same wavelength with her for a long time.

And then there is one that, though our views could not be anymore different, I admire her because she is educated in her views and we can talk about things with a great deal of respect for each other. She is a "mom of boys" and a mom that I admire because she parents with a great amount of confidence and conviction. She also lets me enable her in scrapbooking a lot and I love to enable!

I have a friend who I feel is always ready to let me walk right through her door and stay for as long as I want to. She is also a creative gal and when I show her my scrapbook goodies, she oohs and ahhhs appropriately! I can talk makeup with her and I let her critique my makeup job :) She cares about my family deeply and I love her children as my own.

The next time I see you, tell me who you think you are so I can thank you :)

A Letter From Prisca

I received a letter from my sponsor child, Prisca, yesterday. She dictated a letter to an adult in her native language since she cannot write and then it was translated to English. It reads:

Dear Julie,

Prisca greets you and says "Shikamoo!" which is a greeting used by juniors to greet their seniors, and they answer "Marahaba!"

Prisca tells you: Thank you so much for choosing me to be your friend. I will be able to learn to read, have school costs and uniforms, get medical treatment and a lot of things which I could not get without you.

I am fine. I live with my aunt. My father died in November of 2007. My mother is sick so she has to stay away from me. My brother Christopher is 9 years old and I have a sister named Eliza who is 2 and Tansi is 1 1/2 years old. I am the second oldest.

I help my aunt in the evenings with chores. I also fetch water with a small container and buy things for our family at the local shop. I live in Myumba Ya Mungi at Chemchem street. It is very hot here!

I like to play cooking games with my friends. Last Saturday, I was able to go to the Compassion Center and we sang a song I really liked. It says "The grace has been revealed, as well as to the children". Do you know that song?

From your child,
Prisca (she wrote her own name)

There was also a drawing enclosed which had a caption in her native language which was not translated.
I feel pretty lucky today. Not just for what I have and where I live, but also because I get the chance to help such a special little girl.

Bad Blogger!

I am so sorry I have not put the pictures of the room up yet. Not that you are waiting and refreshing every minute! I will try and have them up this weekend.

I am signed up for an 11k race on June 29th. I am stepping up the training.