A Month of Stealing

For those of you who don't know, we have just moved to Raymond.  I have been so excited to move back to Southern Ab, where the grass is greener, the air is sweeter, the people are nicer... 

Well I have been excited, but I'm starting to think that we are not wanted in this little Mormon town.

It all started two weeks ago, when we woke up to discover our van missing.  We drive a beautiful 2002 Pontiac Montana minivan.  Apparently exactly what small town thief's are looking for.

We found our van a few days later, parked in church parking lot.  I guess someone just needed a ride to the church in the middle of the night!?  Doesn't look like they caused any damage, but that was the first sign that maybe we should keep our eyes open, or at least keep our eyes on our stuff!

That same week, Chase brought his football to school.  Sure enough when he went to play with it at recess, it was gone.  He told the teacher, but she didn't do anything about it!  No announcement over the intercom, no posters were made - nothing!

Chase found the ball the next day, back on his shelf.  That was our second warning to get out!

Then just last night, the thieves followed me to HillSpring.  I went to my cousins baby shower, and had a great time.  We were the last to leave, and I went to put on my brown Old Navy Boots, only to discover them missing too!!!!  Someone stole my shoes!!!  In the middle of winter!!! 

In their place was a nice pair of brown UGGS.  We all know that the UGGS are a better boot, I'm sure that they cost a LOT more than my Old Navys.  What else could I do, than put them on and go home? 

 Some people might say that things are starting to look up for the Evans family.  But I think my dad said it best when he said, "Sure hope there's not Foot Rot in those boots..."

We should probably pack our bags right now, and move back to Blackfalds.

Making Buns

Today I needed something to do to entertain Marlie and Nixon while everyone else was at school.  I decided that it would be fun to make some buns with them.  It all started out great, until I turned my back to Nixon.  While I was distracted with something else, he decided to crack an egg, on Marlie's knee...

She really wasn't happy about it!

Nix thought it was great!

Halloween 2011

Thank goodness another Halloween has come and gone!

There was a LOT of debating as to what everyone would be!  I thought it would be a great idea for everyone to find something in the dress up box to put on, so that I wouldn't have to spend money on costumes that never get worn again.  But they all had other plans. 

Spencer just HAD to be a ninja!  He begged and pleaded for me to buy him a ninja costume.  I finally gave in.  Then he begged and pleaded for me to buy him a ninja double blade sword!  I told him no, and bought the dollar store sword.  He wore His costume to school, minus the sword, because "no weapons at school".  He then came home and took it off, and wore an old pumpkin costume trick-or-treating, because his ninja costume was annoying!!  There goes $15.00 down the drain!

Chase saw Spencer's ninja costume, and he HAD to be a ninja too.  And he told me that he would buy his own ninja double blade sword with his own money!  oh brother!  We went back to the store to buy another ninja costume, but they were sold out.  So I asked if he wanted to be a pirate again.  He agreed to when we found the beard and mustache, pirate hat, eye patch, and earring at the dollar store.  On the way to school the wind blew off his mustache and beard, never to be seen again!  He went trick-or-treating with a friend from school.  He thought it would be so great to go with a friend, I think he did have fun, but he also realized that it is fun to go with his dad too.  Matt takes trick-or-treating pretty serious!  Chase didn't get nearly as much candy as he normally does.  Not that I'm complaining about that!

Kadie really wanted to be Medusa this year for Halloween.  She has been talking about it for a couple weeks, so I decided to figure out how to make a Medusa costume.  I envisioned a crown of some sort with snakes sticking out everywhere, but the only snakes I could find were jelly ones at the dollarstore.  I tried to glue them to wire, to make them stick out, but the glue wouldnt stick to the snakes.  In the end we just tied floss around them and tied them to a big elastic, and they just hung down her hair.  Definatly not what we had in mind, but she agreed to it.  I also had to make her a dress of some sort.  We agreed to a toga type dress, modest of course with sleeves.  I hate sewing, and my mom was out of town, so unfortunatly I was on my own to figure out this costume.  I had one white sheet to work with.  I didnt want to make any mistakes, and ruin my one sheet, so I did what any normal parent would do, I made a practice outfit for Barbie.  It worked pretty good on Barbie, so I sewed up the same costume for Kadie.  She was happy with it, and she looked pretty cute!

I saw a gypsy costume online, and decided that Marlie would make a cute gypsy!  I was right, she looked so cute, and was proud as could be!  Matt took the kids out trick-or-treating, and then came home when Nixon was done.  A friend of mine had homemade doughnuts that she was passing out, so I took Mars, Spenc, and Chase over there.  We decided to do her whole street while we were there.  At the first house, Marlie started limping and saying, ouch ouch ouch.  I asked what was wrong with her feet, and saw that she wasnt wearing shoes!!!  What was she thinking?  I made her still walk to all the houses on her own.

Nixon did NOT want to dress up.  Here's me trying to get the pumpkin costume on him (yes this is the same costume that Spenc ended up wearing!) to go to the school costume parade, but he would NOT wear it!  I was really worried about later that night.  He did end up wearing his Knight costume that Gma Evans gave him for his b-day.  He looked cute, but I didnt get any pictures.

We all had a fun day.  For supper I made jell-o worms, and mummy dogs.  I figure that Halloween night is too crazy buisy and rushed to force my kids to eat something healthy!  The kids thought it was pretty fun!

Sunday Fun

Today our fun started when Matt spotted a frog in the grass.  He caught it, and showed the kids.  A couple minutes later we found another frog.  The kids were so excited, and wanted to find more, so we went to the pond by our house to catch frogs.

Here's Chase catching one.  There were soo many!

Everyone was on the lookout, and there were seriously, soo many! 

Spencer and Kadie were proud of their catches.  Spenc named his Likeable, because it didn't jump out of his hand.  You wouldn't believe how many frogs there were.

Nixon didn't like touching them, so he was given the job of holding the bucket.  He liked to watch them jump around in the bucket!

Here's our catch!  We didn't count, but I bet there were 40 frogs in there!  It was nasty!  But the kids loved every second of it!

After we let them all go.  It was a really fun Sunday activity!

Hiking and Stuff

Last weekend I took Kadie, Chase, and Marlie, hiking with the Darby's.  There aren't a lot of mountains close by, so it was quite a drive to get there.  Its been a long time since we have seen the Darby's, so the kids enjoyed every minute of the 2 1/2 hour drive together.

The hike wasn't your typical hike up a mountain, it was mostly a long walk, crossing the river about 35 times. 

It was a race to the paintbrush flowers.  The kids loved sucking the nectar out of the petals.

There were some really pretty mossy sections.  We decided that if we got stranded here overnight we would sleep on the soft moss.

Here is one of the many river crossings we tackled.  There weren't any bridges, so we had to make bridges with broken branches, or toss kids, and hope not to get wet.  its a really good thing Mark has long legs, and arms.

After the hike we had to do sleepovers.  The first night I took the boys, and Meg took the girls.  Then a couple days later I took the girls, and the boys went to Megs.  I just had to get a picture of Marlie and Chloe sleeping in the tent.  They are soo cute!

And one last picture of Nixon.  He found some lipchap...

First of July 2011

As you all know, the First of July is my favorite holiday of the year!  This year was no exception, even though it was different.  Matt's grandparents were being presented with an award in Raymond, so we went there the night before the first.  All of Matt's aunts, uncles, and cousins went to the town program, and sang a song for his grandparents. That night, we stayed in Raymond, and went to the parade the next day.  The parade was great, like usual.  After we had a picnic with all the Evans family.  Its fun to visit with all of Matt's cousins!

Needless to say, we missed a lot of the Hillspring fun!  But we were able to catch the rodeo.  My favorite thing is the greased pig chase. 

Spencer got to ride a sheep.  He had fun until he fell off, and the sheep stepped on his hand.

Of course I loved staying up late, and talking and laughing with my cousins.  I didn't take one picture, but I promise that a lot of fun was had. I look forward every year to the late nights with them!

After the cousins left, Tracie and I decided to take our kids to Sandpoint for the rest of the week. 

2 cars, 2 moms, and 11 kids...

They all had a blast together!  Except Nixon, Cash was really buggin him!

Brette came to join us for the weekend.  It was so hot there!  And so relaxing to just lay out while the kids played non-stop in the water!

Happy Sewing Birthdays!

This year, my mother-in-law announced, that for her daughters, and my birthday, we were going to make quilts.  She was going to buy the fabric and we would make this really cute quilt together.  We picked a date in June, and we all went to Sandpoint to sew for the weekend.  I know that may not sound like a fun-filled way to spend the weekend, but I have some pretty great in-laws, and it turned out to be pretty fun.

To start the weekend out, we got the sewing machines, iron, rotary cutters, and material out.  Phoebes top priority was wearing the ugliest sweater she could find, and assembling the TV, so we could watch Harry Potter.  And yes, we watched every single Harry Potter movie...

We had some super cute fabric to work with.

My first job was ironing.  Look how much fun I'm having!

Ali, was the super cutter.

and Joan was just happy to be there!

Well, that's all the pictures I have.  We sewed for 3 days straight!  I didn't finish my quilt, but I did get all my squared cut out, and some of them sewn together.  I'll take a picture of it when I get it done. 

Thanks Mother Evans for the quilt, and for the fun weekend!!

Fathers Day Tie

I love traditions!

One tradition that we have in our family, is to give Matt a tie for fathers day.  And not just any tie.  The kids pull out all their craft supplies, and we go crazy.  This years tie included: pom poms, googly eyes, pipe cleaner, fake flowers, sequins, and (my favourite) feathers.

The kids get so excited to give this precious gift to their dad, and hes such a great sport!  He wears it to church with pride.

Weekend Campout

Friday afternoon, Matt called me, and told me that he was going to take the kids camping.

I thought," what a great idea", and "what a great dad Matt is."

So when he got home from work, he parked the trailer in the empty lot across the street from our house.  Then we thought, "whats camping without a camp fire".  Last week we bought a portable fire pit.  So while Matt assembled it, I went looking for firewood (in dumpsters).

When I got back with the wood, this is what I saw...

Yes, this is our campsite.  Matt put the fire pit, on the side of the road, with lawn chairs around it.  I was just a "little" bit embarrassed.   It was pretty white trash!

We got a fire going, and while we were waiting for it to die down a bit, one of our neighbours drove by.  I told her, and her kids to come and join us for a campfire.  They came out, and we  had a great time!  After a little while another neighbour drove by, and they came out too.  Pretty soon, we had almost all of our neighbours, out on the street, for a fire.

It turned out to be a really fun night.  We put the kids to bed, in the trailer.  And the rest of us stayed up chatting.  It was really great getting to know our neighbours. I'm glad I live in a town, that doesn't frown upon little gatherings like that! I think we might have to make this a tradition!

Footstock 2011 Half Marathon Review

Its finally over!!!

My race was on Saturday.  I'm not going to lie, I have been soo nervous for this run.  Every time I would think about it, I got major butterflies.

I ran with my brother-in-law, Matt.  Before the race, we talked about our time goals.  We really would have liked to run it in under 2 hours.  Maybe in perfect conditions that would have been possible, but we woke up to rain.

I was kind of happy to have it rain, because it took a lot of the pressure off me.  If we did crappy, we could blame it on the weather!

The rain itself wasn't really that bad, but what really sucked, was that we ran the first quarter of the race on a shale path.  Every little pot hole on the trail, was filled with water.  So everyone was trying to dodge puddles.  We definitely didn't run in a straight line, we were swerving all over the path, running on uneven ground, and lots of times running off the path, just to avoid the puddles. I'm not really sure why we kept trying to keep out of the water, because at one point there was a HUGE pool of ankle deep water on the path, and no way to go around it!  So everyone just had to run right through it!  It was probably 8 steps long, so our shoes, socks, and legs were soaked.

Next there was a 3 mile hill.  I was really worried about this part of the race.  But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I did make Matt walk for a couple minutes of it.  Part of the way up the hill the sidewalk turned into a gravel road.  The road wasn't really gravely, mostly muddy.  Every step we took, we squished into the mud.  It wasn't very fun.  But let me tell you how good it felt to run down that hill, right when "Kickstart my Heart," came on my ipod.  I think we made up some time then.

When there was about 5 km left, I started to get really tired.  I'm happy Matt was with me, other wise I would have taken more walking breaks.  He really should have left me, but I'm happy that he didn't. 

This is us almost at the finish line.  We could not have been any wetter.  We were freezing, and our fingers were numb, but we did it!!  Our final time was 2:06:18.  We were 6 minutes over our goal time, but I still feel really good with how we did!  Over all we were 91 and 92 out of 206 runners, and in my age category (30-39), I was 14 out of 35. 

You might be wondering how my knee held up.  During the race I didn't feel a thing.  Taking the week before off, was a good idea.  After the run, we changed into some dry clothes, and tried to warm up.  We didn't stretch until we got back to Matt's parents house, and let me tell you, my knee has never hurt so bad!  I was limping around all day.  To put any pressure on it, made me want to burst into tears. 

The next morning, same thing!  It really hurt.  Luckily Joan came over that afternoon, and worked her magic on me.  Shes a massage therapist, and rubbed my leg for about 45 minutes, and afterwards it felt SO MUCH BETTER!  I was amazed!

Now my leg is still sore, and I'm limping a bit, and I think after a few more days break, I'll be able to run again.

All in all, I feel really good about this run.  Running the actual race was tiring, but not as bad as I thought it would be.  I'm really happy I stuck with my training schedule.  Ive always thought it would be a big accomplishment to do a half marathon, and I'm proud of myself for sticking to it, and finishing.  I have a few friends running another one in October, and yes, I am considering joining them!

Running Problems

So my run is on Saturday! 

Good news:  I have worked soo hard to get ready to run this race.  Ive ran most of the miles I need to run to train.  And I really do feel prepared.

Bad news:  Last week my right knee started bothering me.  Ive never had knee problems.  I just kept running, and every day it gets a little bit worse.  So after Fridays run, I decided I better take a break, so I don't hurt myself more.  I didn't run this weekend, or today, and I'm still limping around.

So, I need every ones advice.  I REALLY want to run this weekend.  So do I:

•  relax this week and not run till Saturday?
• Spend $100, and go see a physical therapist, and find out whats going on?
• Keep running through the pain.  (OK, I know this would be a dumb choice)

To some of you this might seem like a really lame problem, but I'm honestly stressing out.  If I don't run this week, I'm worried that I'll be out of shape, and not ready to run on Saturday.  But I know that if I keep running, I will hurt myself more.  And I also know, that no matter what, I won't do as well as I was hoping to do.

My very wise bro-in-law, gave me some very inspiring advice today (in our 28 min. conversation, when he should have been working).  What he does, when he feels any pain at all, is simply just popping a T3 or 2...  Great advice.  Thanks Steve!

So lets hear it.  What do I do?

Conversations

Marlie - Mom will you paint my toe nails?
Me - I will after I'm done vacuuming and mopping.

10 min later

Marlie - Mom can you paint my toe nails now?
Me - Its going to be a few more minutes.
Marlie - Can I call Dad?

Marlie phones Matt.

Marlie - Dad when you get home from work will you paint my toe nails?....  No, will you do it for me, shes busy?...  Will you paint them dad?... Thanks.

I promise I was giggling so hard at this phone call.  I can just imagine Matt, hammer in hand, talking to Marlie about fingernail polish!  Hes such a good dad.

Sleepovers

My kids are ALWAYS begging to have sleepovers.  Not just sleepovers with friends, but sleepovers in each others bedrooms.  Sometimes I don't care if they do it, but after a long weekend, with a lot of late nights, I just want them to go to bed and get a good nights sleep. 

Tonight they were quite disappointed when I told them they couldn't all pile into Chases room for a sleeping party.  And they were even more disappointed when I told them that they couldn't sleep in the hammock, or on the kitchen table.  But we came to a compromise.  We put everyones name in a hat, and whatever name you picked, you got to sleep in that persons bed.  No switching, or no complaining...

Chase picked first - Spencer's bed.  (they share a room)
Spencer picked - Marlie
Kadie picked - Kadie
Marlie picked - Chase

Surprisingly Kadie wasn't too upset.  I don't really think she was too excited about sleeping in her brothers bed.
Chase did NOT want Marlie sleeping in his bed, because she might play with his lamp...  So he switched (even tho the rule was clearly stated - no switching)
Marlie was REALLY nervous to sleep in Spencer's bed.  What if she got scared?  What if it got dark?  Could she play with Spencer's lamp?
Spencer was nervous too.

So we'll see how it goes tonight.  I guess switching beds isn't all its cracked up to be...

And for anyone who has been stressed out about my blister, I popped it, and it feels like a million bucks today!  Thank goodness!

Running update

I'm sure that everyone is sitting on the edge of their seats, wondering how my training is going.  Today was my long run.  11 miles!

There is a nice back road from Blackfalds to Red Deer.  I thought that would be a good route for my run.  I told myself that I would go for 5.5 miles, and turn around.  Little did I know that the road I was running on was only 3 miles!  It seems so much farther on my bike!  So I had to keep going and ran around Red Deer, which was totally fine.  Red Deer has great running paths.  Around mile 6 my left ankle really started hurting, so I stopped and streached it, and walked for a couple mins.  I told myself to just keep going, and hoped that the pain would go away. 

When I finished my run my ankle was killing.  I stretched and went home.  Then Matt made me do yard work all day.  Our front yard is all ready for sod now!!  I'm so excited.  Too bad the back yard needs so much work still!

Anyway, I finally had a shower, and took off my shoes and socks, only to see the biggest blister I have ever had in my life on my foot.  I'm sure that's why my ankle hurt so bad, I was compensating for that blister!!
All in all it was a good run.  That little road was so beautiful, with all the trees growing new leaves, the farmers crops were just starting to poke threw.  I love spring!

Distance:  10.83 miles (I'm honestly so ticked that I was .17 miles off my 11 mile mark.  If I had realized that I would have made up the difference.) 
Time:  1:36:28
Avg Pace:  8:55
Longest Mile:  Mile 6 - 9:53 min/mile
Shortest Mile:  Mile 10 - 7:32 min/mile

I got a new app on my phone that gives me all these great stats!

Chicken Pox

For some reason, we had the great idea not to vaccinate our kids for the chicken pox.  We knew they would eventually get it, and would survive.  What we didn't know, was that 4 of our 5 kids would get it at the same time...  Needless to say its been a LONG week.

Spencer got spots first, and we thought he looked soo bad.  Here he is at his worst.  I promise the pictures don't do it justice.

Marlie got spots next.  For about 3 days straight, my TV was on.  I'm talking 12 hours a day!  Marlie was pretty tuff.  Didn't complain too much.  Thank goodness for that thumb!

She got her spots the worst on her stomach.  I took off her shirt, and gagged.  She looked like she had a major skin disease.  It was soo nasty!

Kadie got the spots next.  She was doing really good, then woke up one morning to spots all over her face.  She looked like a hormonal teenager.  Shes sticking out her tongue here to show her pock on her tongue.  She even got them down her throat.

Chase was the lucky one, he had about 3 on his face, and 10 on his stomach.  it wasn't even worth taking a picture of.

My kids stayed home from school all week, and watched TV.  There were a lot of tears, and fighting.  I'm soo happy that last week is over!  Nixon never got it, but I expectt that a week from now, He'll start showing signs.

Here's my sick little kids: