Bath time and a new sweater

This weekend we took Vera to Wonderscope Children's Museum. She had a lot of fun and was a great age for it. We figure we better get out and about before Baby #2 arrives. 

Vera loves bath time. I got her some new bath letters and numbers and we tried them out this morning. She loved them. She wanted to take pictures of the numbers and letters. I snuck a few of her too though! She is really growing up!

She loves reading her "stories". She has a Jesus Storybook Bible that Grant reads to her every night, and recently she likes flipping through it on her own. The other day I gave it to her in her crib after nap, and she read for at least 15 minutes. It is a sweet routine they have, and it is fun to see her "enjoy" the book (assuming she enjoys it).

This is a serious face, but still a cute picture. Shows how much she is looking like a little girl. We're hoping to get a haircut/bang trim before baby sister arrives. Also, she loves her new sweater from her Grandma Linda. 

We're staying busy until Baby #2 arrives within a couple weeks. It is tough to think of having a newborn during the cold winter. Vera might get bored of being around the house. Hopefully cold/flu season will stay away and spring will come quickly!

Painting and Scotty Dogs

We're getting to the point where we're just waiting for Baby #2. Life with a 2 year old is fun, though, and we take lots of pictures, so I thought I'd share.

We went to the car wash and apparently it is scary to Vera. I had to hold her hand from the front seat. #noteasywhilepregnant 

Grant said he had to hold hands with her last time he went through as well.

Vera did a good job painting watercolors the other day. She looked really cute sitting at her little table. She's definitely gotten taller lately.

Vera took a photo of us.

We got a new dishwasher because the computer went out on our old one. It wouldn't stop running and didn't really finish cleaning. The new one really classes up the kitchen! 

And the final three pictures are Vera showing off her new outfit. We got it from some friends and hadn't found it in the hand-me-down pile until this week! Love the sweater dress + scotty dogs! :) Vera enjoyed posing and showing off her red shoes.

38 weeks pregnant tomorrow - definitely willing to wait until 40 weeks, but just need to prioritize sleeping (rather than the do anything and everything I can possibly think of to prepare) until this new baby changes everything! :)

New family pic & #letsgetpraisy competition

We celebrated Thanksgiving early with my family on Saturday. Good time for a family photo. Vera got a haircut last weekend and is looking so much older with her cute cut! Unfortunately, KSU lost their football game after this photo was taken, so our smiles were gone later that evening. Oh well, Grant is going to the Texas game and is looking forward to cheering the Cats on to a Big 12 Title and BCS bowl game! 

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And Grant is the creative genius who is competing in Jami Nato's #letsgetpraisy competition. Check out her blog for the details:  The Natos Blog 

Go there to vote for us! 

(Leave a comment on her blog voting for ours, it's #27. One comment per person!)

The idea is that the Gospel is everywhere, including lyrics of everyday songs. Here's a good one from the great band, WILCO. 

"You gotta learn how to die if you wanna wanna be alive"

WILCO and Jesus

Matthew 16:25

^{Matthew 16:25} For whoever would save his life^[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 

ESV

Kansas City Marathon 2012

As you may have seen on Twitter and/or Caroline's facebook, I finished the Kansas City marathon on Saturday.  My goal was to be under 4:00 and I did that - coming in at 3:43.  It was an absolutely gorgeous morning.  Beautiful sunrise, cool temps and bright fall colors.  It's too bad that I couldn't really enjoy it after about mile 15 or so.  Haha.

I had got derailed a little bit in my training and didn't get any really long runs in.  The longest training run I finished was 18 miles.  I probably should have run a little more.  I was super diligent on my weekday runs and cross training, and I think that paid off.  Odd things start to hurt when put through that kind of repition.  So, about mile 18, the toes on my left foot started hurting, then throbbing.  I knew there was nothing "structurally" (I mean come on, it's my freaking toes) wrong.  I think I tried to change my stride to accomodate and that caused my right calf and left hamstring to hurt a little bit.  Anyway - at that point, I knew that if I stopped, I would not start again and I also knew that it would still hurt walking, so I might as well keep running.  So, I didn't exactly finish strong, but I did finish.

After I finished, I popped off my shoes and my toes were a light shade of purple so I think I had cut off circulation.  I don't know if I had my shoes laced funny or what the deal was, but they sure hurt! 

The highlight of the race was seeing Caroline and Vera about mile 23.  Vera started screaming and pointing at me, which kept me going through the last 5k or so.

I think I had mentioend this before, but this was my best chance to run a marathon from a life timing perspecitve.  Caroline was kind and willing to get up with Vera on Saturdays while I ran and Vera is old enough that she doesn't require completely constant care anymore.  With baby #2 on the way and Lord willing subsequent children, I don't know when I'll be able to try another marathon.  I will keep runinng though.  5Ks, 10Ks and even half marathons don't take a ton of extra training when you have a pretty decent base.

I think I would like to try another marathon someday.  I think I'd try to run the first 13 a little faster - I actually run my first 5k at a 9:00 mile pace and finished the race with an overall pace of 8:31, so I could definitely go faster when I'm fresh off the start.  I think I could probably go under 3:30 with some strategy (and confidence that I can finish now that I've done one), and I'd like to try sometime, but probably not the 2013 KC marathon.

I referenced this above, but Caroline was super supportive.  For one, she is a sucker for human accomplishment type stories.  She loves watching the Biggest Loser and she claims watching the finish to the marathon is very inspiring - so I have that going for me.  She was very flexible with me about letting me train and picking up the parenting slack while I trained.  She was also my sports psychologist - telling me that I could finish and encouraging me.  So, thanks, Caroline - you're great.

Vera lately

Vera has been a lot of fun lately. She's almost 21 months old. She's super mobile, interested in the world around her, and somewhat talkative.

-#1 word is "oopsie", said more like "uppsie". It's really cute because I don't know where she heard it. Did she just figure out to add a little onto "oops"? I don't think I say "oopsie" usually :)
-Likes to direct others' behavior: "up", signs "please", "dog" (telling Nobie to be around us), "no", etc...
-LOVES music. Prefers to listen on CD (hopefully someday she'll understand the power of an iPod). We've narrowed it down so she can touch her 3 or 4 CDs, and we load it for her into the CD player. She gets nervous between songs that the music might have stopped. I've started just pressing the "repeat all" button so I don't have to deal with a melt-down every 30-45 minutes when the CD is done.
-Climbs up the slide on her play-set and goes down with ease.
-Goes up the stairs on two feet and is now pretty quiet on them - almost confusing me that it's an adult and not her.
-Loves to play with baby dolls.
-Is fairly good at stacking things, especially on the edge of the tub. Has Type A, particular tendencies. Things have their places and order, according to Vera.
-Runs, attempts to jump, likes to read books, and sort of counts from 1-3 with a generic "1, 2, 3, go"

It is fun to think how much more she'll grow before she turns 2 in December. We love her lots and can't wait to see her as a big sis around the first of February.

Marathon Training

So, I wanted to write a post titled "Do's and Don'ts of Marathon Training", but I couldn't figure out how to do strikethrough font in the title, so this is what you get instead.  Haven't had a lot of complete "do's".

So, I have missed the target on my last 2 long runs.  I missed running 14-16 in Scott City, America a couple weeks back due to time constraints (ran about 10) and I missed my 16-18 run this past weekend.  I started on the run and made it all about 13 miles in and then had to walk the last 4-5 miles home (embarassing and tiring!).

So, here are my "don'ts" so far:

1) run in the rain - especially a warm, sticky rain.  Your clothes will get wet and heavy (as will your shoes).  And the rain won't cool you off.

2) run when you're not sure if you're hydrated or not.  If you have to wonder, you're probably not

3) wait until 10 miles in to further hydrate (too late!)

4) try to run again after stopping (cramps)

5) attempt a long run after a week of not getting much sleep

6) attempt a long run after a week of not eating very well (5 and 6 seem to go together, don't they?)

7) attempt a long run after a week of not getting all my prescribed workouts in that week (5, 6 and 7 definitely go together)

8) be too proud to stop and ask someone to use their phone to call for a ride

So...the next couple weeks are big ones for this attempt at a marathon.  I have a down week this week, then 18-20 a week from Saturday, then another down week and then 20-22 the weekend following.  Then, it's downhill until the marathon.  I need to get these ones done to build confidence again as I'm kind of doubting my ability to finish this darn thing at the moment.

So, I kind of need to get this done (if I'm ever gonna do this) as 1) I'm not getting younger and 2) I will not (until I am probably too old to attempt) have enough time again to train.  So, hopefully I can get this train back on the track and get going again.

Feel free to send your sympathies to Caroline on having to put up with me attempting to train for this thing.  She's been very supportive, which I appreciate.  I think she knows if I get this done, I'll stop talking about it and I can be done with this sort of thing for the rest of my life!

Update from Charlotte

I just noticed it has been over a month since we've posted anything to our blog!

We'll likely have to wait for Caroline to get any pictures up, which is the best part of reading blogs, I know.

It's been a busy summer already.  Here's a rundown of some nuggets of interest.

Caroline already posted about our trip to Western Kansas.  Unfortunately, on the way back, the Town Car had a ball joint fail on I-70 in Salina, which caused a small fire in the ditch (since it was basically front suspension on asphalt for 50 yards or so) and meant the car got to stay in Salina for a few weeks being repaired.  Never fear - the Town Car is back and better than ever.  Holly's brother and sister in law got us from Salina to Manhattan, Holly took us from Manhattan to Topeka and Jack - Caroline's dad got us back to KC.  Jack even let me borrow his truck to drive while the Town Car was being repaired - which was super nice of him.

My mom has been staying with us this summer (minus her sweet trip to Prince Edward Island, Canada), which has been great.  She has been great with Vera and has really helped around our house - not that Caroline needs any help, but still nice.  We went back to Mayo clinic last week and she is doing much better and her doctors are very encouraged.

We went to visit Holly and Bryan in Manhattan for the 4th of July.  They are great hosts and always have good food as well.  Vera doesn't know how to show her appreciation for hospitality as she had a bad night sleeping in her test drive of Baby Elsey's crib.  Hopefully Holly and Bryan's son will make better use of that crib!

The Royals have been largely disappointing this year - as you are probably aware.  I really thought this was the season they would break through, but I should have known better with a patchwork (at best) starting rotation.  The MLB All Star game was here in KC this week, and Caroline and I got a chance to go to the Futures (top minor league players) game on Sunday.  The K looked great and we had a great time.  Billy Hamilton - in the Reds minor league system is amazingly fast and fun to watch and Wil Myers - the next great Royals prospect played well as well.  On Tuesday, we went to Crown Center (for a disappointing 1 inning) to the community watch party.  KC really did it up right for the All Star Game.  I guess when your baseball team is historically bad, your last Final Four game ever was in 1988 and your NFL team hasn't won a playoff game since I was in Middle School, you can get super excited for the MLB all star game as a community.

Jesse is still with us and is having a good summer.  She has enjoyed 2 weeks of art camp and a couple weeks of service camp.  She continues to be sweet to Vera.

And speaking of Vera - she can no longer be accurately described as Baby Vera.  She is quite the big girl these days.  She has really enjoyed her water table and the swimming pool.  We've been about 4 weekends in a row because of the nasty heat here in KC.  She has really had her personality come out, which is good and, well, not so good.  Her 3rd favorite word right now is "no".  (1st is uh-oh, and 2nd is momma).  She's also learning to share, which has been interesting.  You never know and don't have ultimate control, but we are hoping and praying she grows up to be a sweet girl who loves Jesus.

That's probably all for now.  Sorry we don't have pictures to share right now.  We'll post some soon!

Family Visit

Grant and me before going to a graduation ceremony. 

His "little brother" from Big Brothers, Big Sisters graduated high school! They've been matched 7 years. It has slowed down over the past couple years, but prior to that, they met every Tuesday night without fail! We are really proud of Patrick!

We went to Scott City over Memorial Weekend. Grant's Grandpa died last week in Meade, KS, so we attended his funeral and spent time with family, as well as got to visit his mom and siblings. 

Running in Scott City. "Dolly" gets to come too.

It was quite windy. This time we were walking to church.

We got Vera a little pool at the store in town, and she loved it after the water warmed up.

Vera and Aunt Holly, snuggling.
And Aunt Holly is pregnant with Vera's first baby boy cousin!

Vera wasn't so happy for this photo, but check out her curled tongue. 

On Memorial Day, we put flowers on Grandpa's grave. It was good to be able to go, but still very sad for all of us.

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And, Vera's favorite song is "Row, Row, Row your boat". Here she is singing and dancing a little bit. Sorry if my singing is a bit off key... :) Grant's the vocalist in the family (and apparently Vera). 

Vera loves water

Figured we need to post at least once in May! 

Here's an update:

 You mean I get to play with this, and it's full of water?!!!

Yes, Vera, it's just for you. And we'll fill it up everyday if you want!

I love it!!

Vera has played with this water table almost every day since I got it for her. It was an Aldi "special buy", so you can't pass those up! We went just for this, and it was well worth the money. She still usually needs her swimsuit on while she plays in it because she gets herself very wet! She likes to pour the water out and drink it too. As seen in this instagram photo:

We love Vera and are glad she's such a sweet girl! 

Mommy-hood

So this week, I thought I'd be all "awesome" and help Vera get into a new routine of not napping in the morning. Here are two pictures to show how well it did not go:

Today, she is having a morning nap. :) Last night, Grant even made a very good point that Vera almost likes her morning nap more than her afternoon nap. I thought go all in and just get Vera to only sleep in the afternoon. Now I know, if I've got the flexibility to be able to put her down for a morning nap, I need to. It's okay if she needs her sleep. I don't have to feel like she should already be the next stage. I have no need to hurry her into growing up.

I thought she just looked cute in this picture above. She loves her bunny. She is super particular and only sucks her thumb holding onto a specific leg of Ms. Bunny. Someday hopefully she'll get creative with names. For now we have "bunny" (X2), "baby", "dolly", etc... 

This picture above was also taken the day before she woke up from her nap with a fever. I mean, really?! It was pretty scary. One minute cute and happy, the next minute sweaty and sad. It took the whole weekend and missing two birthday parties, but she got past it! 

This is her new favorite toy. She knows just what to do with it. Mr. Vacuum even talks :)

Foster Care, 4 months in

Grant and I have been caring for our foster kids for 4 months now! Buzz: 4 months. Jesse: 2+ months.

This month has been a rollercoaster. We've had lots of fun and plenty of good days, but today, Buzz moves out. We are really sad to say good-bye but know that we can't safely care for him anymore. Our #1 job as foster parents is to keep him safe, and we've come to a point where our training is falling short toward that goal. He's moving to a home with foster parents who've had more training, and hopefully have good support to take care of higher-need kids.

Grant and I will probably process it over time and at different times. Grant has recently said its been the longest 4 months that he can remember. It does seem like Buzz has been in our lives longer than that. We will miss his smiles, hugs, and excitement. Jesse is staying with us, so we are glad that we get to still know how Buzz is doing through her. Our hope is that they get to return home to their parents soon, so that they can go on with their lives. They're just kids - they need a chance to grow up with their family.

Over the past month, we've been reminded that it takes work to be a foster parent. Ha! We should have known... And the biggest part of our success to this point still has been community. Not only do others help care for our kids (including Vera), they help care for Grant and me. Friends and family have encouraged us by helping, listening, re-focusing, and not judging. It's not easy to be vulnerable about our experience with fostering, as you never know who will have the "perfect solution" for us. We haven't had anyone try to tell us something we're trying is wrong, which is amazing. People have rallied around us and helped us where we needed.

We pray for Buzz and Jesse, that they may be safe and their hearts will be protected while they are in foster care.

We pray for Vera, that she enjoys her foster siblings, and that she will be protected while we care for other kids.

We pray for the kids' parents, that they may feel hopeful that their family will be reunited.

Thanks for going on this journey with us.

Vera Sliding

Vera is growing up fast! She is so cute - she can slide down her slide all by herself...but she only goes on her tummy. Enjoy the video:

More foster care news coming sometime this week. Buzz is moving out tomorrow afternoon. We are very sad to say good-bye, but he needs more highly trained foster parents. We hope his new family loves him and enjoys him as much as we have. Since his sister, Jesse is staying with us, we'll still be connected to him a little, which makes it slightly easier.

Visiting Cousins

Last week, Vera and I went to see her cousins. We had a lot of fun! She and Aya resemble each other, as you can see in this picture. Aya still has size on her, though. They enjoyed playing. There were some conflicts over toys, sippy cups, snacks, lunch...well just about everything, but really they get along, its just hard being 16 months and 23 months old. Aya has cool toys that Vera likes to get a head-start playing with. For example, Vera was super impressed with Aya's crib-turned-toddler-bed. Vera loved climbing in and out and then jumping on the bed. 

Vera also got to meet Mila for the first time. She really paid no attention to her. Looked at her and touched her once. Vera and Aya both more enjoyed Mila's bouncer seat - they liked practicing buckling the straps or putting their baby dolls in it.

The only picture I got of Mila, she slept a lot, at 3 weeks old!

Aya turns 2 this week, so we are going back to celebrate next Saturday.

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In other news, Nobie no longer likes us... she keeps breaking out of the yard. Today she ran away from our yard the first time we let her out in the morning. Really? Really, Nobie? You hate first thing in the morning? She was gone for about 2 hours this morning. Who knows where she went. Last week she was trying to break out, so I brought her up to the deck to contain her. The deck has gates at the stairs, so I thought she could just hang out on the deck.

Wrong:

That same day, I went outside and found the gate on the right. Broken. No dog in sight. Texted Grant, and luckily he said he'd gotten a call and would go get her from a local business on the next street over. When he picked her up, they said she'd been great. Sneaky dog...

The photo on the left is from another day. I locked the gate while Vera was playing, and Nobie decided she wanted back up. Crazy dog. She couldn't get in so I had to open the gate for her. 

Let's hope she calms down. It's kind of crazy-making always wondering if she's going to run off. We've secured the fence as much as we can, but I think she's possibly jumping over it now...

Changes

Last Wednesday was my last day at my job. I gave my notice at the beginning of March. I have an opportunity to do contract therapy work that will allow me a lot of flexibility! I now can choose how many clients I am working with, as well as where they are located. No more driving to Lansing or DeSoto for me! (Both about 30 minute drives)

It was sad to leave. I had been at my job for over 2 1/2 years. For me, that was a record! (only slightly embarrassing) I really enjoyed what I did and the families that I worked with. I know they will continue to receive excellent services, but my fond memories of them will always stay with me.

My life has changed drastically since I started that job... oh the memories! I pray that I will be able to still continue to work with at-risk families by providing family therapy for them. I also pray for opportunities to use my skills in other areas of my life (*alert* as a foster parent!). I am excited to see what the future holds.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! We enjoyed celebrating Jesus' resurrection today! Praise God for sending our Savior.

Life lately has been crazy! Three kids would probably be pretty busy no matter what, but make two of those foster kids and it's a bit unpredictable. Buzz has been having a lot of outbursts in his behavior. Prayers for him would be more than welcome! We pray he can be a good, positive member of society. Until then, we pray that he can enjoy his childhood by being a regular 'ole kid. Jesse has been doing well. She is a lot of fun when we're up for doing things, and otherwise a happy teenager to have around. Pray for her to continue to make good choices for her life.

Vera has been great. We love her more and more each day. She is becoming more independent. Today she was climbing on her outdoor toy and sliding down the slide all by herself. She's also walking a lot more and wanting to get places by herself. She likes to chat and will happily yell a lot of the time. My favorite time with her lately has been bedtime. She hasn't slept great the past week due to teething but snuggling her before bed has ben extra sweet. Last night, for the first time I can remember, she wrapped her leg around my waist when I was holding her on my chest. It was so c.u.t.e. I wanted a picture, but couldn't sacrifice her sleeping for that :) Tonight she snuggled up on my chest again. So sweet, reminding me of when she was a little baby.

Just another view of her going down the slide - backwards!

She got up in the dishwasher all on her own... uhoh!

And just 'cause we're not on here much, here's us!