My Village

In this month of Thanksgiving and reading daily Facebook posts about what we are all thankful for, it's time for me to share my thoughts.

I recently read a friend's post about how her friends got together without her knowing to set up a schedule to help her out over the Thanksgiving break. She is a single working mom and expressed how this time of year can stress her out finding ways to make juggling everything even more difficult. And to her surprise, her amazing friends took care of it for her by organizing who could help out when with her kids so she could enjoy and have a less stressful holiday. Truly amazing.

It seems like daily that I get asked "4 kids? How do you do it?!" And quietly, to myself, I often think, how do YOU do it? How do any of us do it? The answer is always the same, we just do it. Single moms/dads, working moms, stay at home moms, moms of special needs kids, etc., we all do what we have to. BUT, none of us, and I really mean NONE OF US, does it alone. We've all heard the saying it takes a village. Well, after reflecting on my friend, her amazing friends, the constant question of how do you do it, this year I would like to give thanks to My Village.

My Village consists of so many that I'm sure I'll forget more than one, but I hope that everyone understands whether I mention you or not, you are important to me and you are the reason I can do it.

My family 

Immediate or extended you give me help and support daily. From Rylan giving me my morning motivation to go workout, Brenden out of the blue with a hug or I love you, Jake getting Miles up and fed in the morning, Chris arranging his schedule to be home so I can coach, my mom and Chris's parents coming to stay when I or Chris need an extra hand, or my brother keeping my kids fully outfitted in Michigan gear, this is what keeps me (relatively) sane day in and day out. Without my amazing and often under appreciated family, I don't know where I would be. Most likely I'd be completely lost and in search of myself.

My friends

Near or far you remind me who I was, who I am, and who I am capable of being. You are the ones that I know I can turn to whenever I need to laugh, cry, scream, vent, or be silly. And more importantly, you know and understand that even if I haven't talked to you for a year that doesn't matter. I know you will be there for me and I will be there for you whenever the moment calls and that's what true friendship is about.

My Diving World

Current or former divers, coaches, and families you have allowed me to follow my passion for the sport that I have been around for over 30 years. And I know that I will continue to be around it for many more to come because of the wonderful people that have pushed, supported, and loved me in the various capacities I have been apart in the diving community. 

And all of the other people that come and go - teachers, babysitters, athletes, coworkers, therapists, random acts of kindness people, etc. I may not know you well, or at all, or you may have been around for years, you fill in the gaps. Whether we know it or not, all of us make this work. I know I fill in the gaps for other people when I smile and say thank you or volunteer to help at school or whatever. So even though we may not exist in everyone's everyday life we are all part of other peoples villages whether we know it or not. We have all helped to do this.

So Thank You to My Village, I am truly thankful to you and all you do.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We Have a Walker!

Well, we sort of have a walker :) Miles has been cruising around the furniture and anything he can get his hands on for the past few months, so I have been trying to encourage him to learn to walk. The boy is so darn big I'd love to have him walking sooner than later, my arms in particular would like this. He didn't show much interest - why would he? He is a super fast crawler and can get anywhere he needs to on all fours. Well, a little over a week ago he started to give the whole walking thing a little more consideration. If I was within a few steps he started to try and got some quick success. And over the weekend he took it to the next level. If he was up and where he wanted to go was under five steps away he would walk every time. He is also willing to get up in the middle of a room without anything around him and try a few steps. Wooo Hooo! We are all very excited and Jake and Brenden have had fun trying to lure Miles to them :) I don't think it'll be too much longer before he's racing around after his big brothers and sister!

Here's a quick video I got of him going from the ottoman to the sofa :)

Halloween

Halloween is not high on my list of holidays. In the midst of crazy falls it always seems to sneak up on me and makes me feel even more crazed. Well, this year Chris took the lead and I have to say I like it a lot more that way! Chris took the boys shopping for costumes and handled the trick or treating duties. We both slacked on getting pumpkins, but no one complained too much. Jake finally decided to be a skeleton. Brenden wanted to be the soccer player Leo Messi, but couldn't find his jersey so settled on being Ronaldinho with and afro wig. And Rylan was, of course, a princess. If you're wondering about Miles, well I don't dress up babies. Kids get costumes in my house when they are big enough to ask for a costume :)

Due to some weather concerns trick or treating got delayed in Anderson by a day. Even though the kids were a bummed they had to wait another day for candy, it ended up working out great. The weather was perfect and we ALL had a great night.

Chris took Jake, Brenden, and Rylan to Leo's house (one of Jake's best friends) for a neighborhood parade for the kids to show off their costumes and the parents could get pictures. They then proceeded out in Eagle's Watch for about 2 hours. I met up with them about half way through with Miles in tow after I got back from coaching. Once the boys had gotten enough candy, we all headed back to Leo's where all of the neighbors gathered in the cul-de-sac for adult beverages, candy gorging, and some music. I was only able to stay until about 9p when Rylan and Miles had had enough, but Chris and the older boys stayed until 11pm and we all had a great time.

You be the Judge

So a week or so ago I put up Brenden's 3rd grade school picture and got quite a few comments about how much he looks like me. So I got to looking through some old photos and had an "Oh My God" moment when I came across this picture of me:

So what do you think? Does he look like me? :)  - we even have the same haircut, thanks again for that Mom!

Has it really been 2 months????

2 months since my last post......where has the time gone????? Between school starting, soccer, coaching, work, traveling, etc, etc, etc, my fall is nearly over! It's been a wild and crazy fall. I'm not sure I would say I always handled the challenges the best, but somehow I managed to make it through and  in as close to one piece as was possible.

Let's go one at a time for a recap.

Jake - This fall Jake moved into 3rd grade at Wilson. He is getting a taste of what school is going to become as he continues on. After a couple of weeks of telling me he didn't have any homework he came home one day with a D on a test he took. He found out really fast that studying for tests and the information they are covering in class IS his homework. Since this incident he has been coming home with steady A's and giving me much less grief about studying his flash cards and study guides.

Jake has continued to show a love of reading. He has slowed down on the Harry Potter series, he is still on the 5th book and has started the Percy Jackson series. The series has 5 books and he is on book 4. He reads almost every night and is usually bummed out if we don't let him read before bed each night, but he's learning to get his bedtime routine taken care of quickly so he can read for at least 15 minutes, definitely takes after his dad with his love of books!

This fall also brought select soccer and playing for Cincinnati United. The season had quite a few ups and downs and Jake is learning that it takes dedication in order to be the best. They practiced twice a week and had games nearly every Sunday. Most of the boys on Jake's team had played Select before so he had some catching up to do. He has been praised by his coaches at practices and there has been a very visible improvement in his playing skills. My offensively minded boy has become quite the good defender and his ball handling/dribbling skills blow me away at times. He has worked hard to become one of the best players on his team. They ended their season with a victory despite a very difficult season and he's hoping to play futsal this winter to continue to work on his ball handling skills. And in the spring he will continue with the same team.

Brenden - This fall brought 1st grade and one more year with Mrs. Yeatts. We were all very excited when we found out that Brenden's kindergarten teacher would be moving to 1st grade and Brenden would have her for one more year. Brenden continues to excel with her encouragement and has become quite the reader and seems to be really enjoying math as he has mastered his addition basics and is doing great on subtraction now.

Brenden played on his same soccer team this fall. The Cheetahs had another fantastic season winning nearly all of their games. Brenden continues to be a defensive minded kid, but when he gets a break away he is almost always sure to score. He got the MVP Dribbler award for his team even though all of the players thought for sure he would be the defensive MVP, apparently there was quite the uproar at their pizza party when another kid was named best defender :)

Earlier in the fall Brenden, out of no where, proclaimed he wanted to play tennis. Well, I work at a tennis facility so it was easy enough to get him signed up. He had his first lesson tonight and seemed to enjoy it. The lessons last 10 weeks so we'll have to see how it goes before we sign him up for the next session. I'm excited that he wants to try something new and something that he doesn't have to compete with Jake, it'll be interesting to see how he does without that constant competition with his big brother.

Rylan - It was finally time for Rylan to give school a try! We started her at the Village Preschool. She seems to enjoy it despite her initial pleadings that she start Kindergarten and ride the bus with the boys :) The Village is strictly preschool, it does not do childcare like a lot of preschools. She goes M-W for 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon. We carpool with our neighbors which she loves, quite frankly she gets a little mad some days when I tell her that I am taking her and Avery since she would rather have Stephanie drive her :) She has been doing well, but she did pull some Rylan stubbornness in the beginning by refusing to do her projects. However, once she got daddy to ask her to do her projects she seems to have come around. She's been talking about the friends she plays with and singing some of her songs to us from school at home. I think it has all been very good for her....and for me!

Miles - My little Smiley Miley Man isn't so little anymore! At his 9 month appointment he was nearly 22 lbs! He was around the 75th percentile for height and weight, my biggest kid. He is a silly boy and thinks he's hysterical as he loves to laugh at just about anything. He's still cruising around, but no walking without holding onto to anything yet. Today I did see him twice take a step without holding onto to anything, but it was only to grab onto the next thing. I'm hoping he'll start walking soon because he is seriously heavy! Its no surprise how big he's getting when you see him eat. He can eat as much as the other kids and seems to want food nonstop. I would say 9 times out of 10 if he's grumpy about something its because he's hungry. He's officially done with baby food and loving just about anything I give him.

Chris - Chris has been quite busy with work as the fall is usually a busy time with the change of seasons and sales meetings. Despite his busy schedule, I think this has been the most he has been home in the month of October for a few years. Generally I can count on him being gone nearly every week in October. And although he did have to travel a lot, he only had to be gone one week and we even got him home on his birthday this year. One of the perks of moving here has been less overnight trips which has been great for all of us. And if he hadn't been here as much as he was I don't know how many games and practices Jake and Brenden would have had to have missed or not had a parent there to watch. He continues to amaze me with all he does for our family and what a great dad he is to our kids.

Me - I'm a crazy mess. This fall I took over operations of the diving team I have been coaching by starting my own LLC so I now own the team. This was something I thought I would do eventually and it has been quite the process. I have a lot of respect for those that own their own business, there is a lot more to it than I had realized. We got everything finalized last week when I was able to open a business checking account and receiving my final LLC paperwork. Its still a little unreal to me.

I have obviously been coaching, but I also went to Tucson in September to get my FINA judging certification. It was a very interesting process and I'm not sure how much I will use the certification, but I figured if nothing else it makes me a better judge which can only help my coaching. For those of you that don't know, FINA is our international governing body and having the certification makes me eligible to judge international competitions as well as other National and Collegiate competitions in the states.

Along with my coaching and running kids around to practices, school, and games I have managed to continue my workout regimen in an attempt to regain my pre-pregnancy body. After nearly 9 months of workouts, I am currently 132 lbs and fitting into all of my clothes - YAY! I continue to run and take fitness classes and have also added Yoga to my weekly routine. I ran my longest straight run of 5 miles a few weeks ago and I find myself feeling like I'm slacking off if my run/walk workouts are less than 5 miles total. I definitely feel like I'm getting super close to my final goal and I'm doing my best not to focus on my weight, but rather how I look and feel. I'm also contemplating training for a half marathon since I seem to be doing alright at this whole running thing, we'll see how I feel after the holiday and birthday craze that's about to start :)

So that's about it, at least that's all I can manage for now. Sorry its been so long, hopefully I'll be able to get a routine going again to keep all of my fans informed on our crazy lives! :)

And here are some pics from our crazy fall, I seemed to have done a much better job of taking pictures of the little ones, Sorry Jake and Bren!

An apology

This an apology on behalf of all moms. I know I shouldn't speak for all of us, but I also know that we are all thinking/feeling the same thing. I've heard it a million times and felt it far more.

I apologize for snapping at you. I apologize for not having enough time for you. I apologize for being tired. I apologize for not noticing. I apologize for not getting it done. I apologize for not helping you. I apologize for not knowing the answer. I apologize for forgetting. I apologize for not anticipating it. I apologize for not being there.

I apologize for not being able to do it all.

I know that my friends/kids/husband/co-workers/family/everyone knows this, but I apologize just the same. I can't do it all. And when I am up all hours of the night with a sick baby and I snap at you the next day, I hope you hear I'm sorry and not what is actually coming out of my mouth. And when I zone out when you're trying to tell me how your day was, I hope you hear I'm sorry instead of can you tell me again. And when I say I'm too tired to play, I hope you hear I'm sorry. And when I just can't anymore, I hope you hear I'm sorry.

Because every time, I truly am.

Being a mom/wife/friend/daughter/coach/employee can be the most rewarding and most exhausting job. I love all of you and I want time for all of you, but sometimes I don't know how to do it. I want to do it and I'm trying to figure out how to do it, but I'm still learning and I'm far from perfect so it usually doesn't work.

So I say I'm sorry and I love you. I hope that can be good enough because that is all I have to offer until I do figure out how to do it all.

Rylan is 3!

Or as Rylan says "I'm not 2 any more." Over the past year she has told me that she is 6 and 7. And when she asked me how old she was one day, my answer of 2 was met with "Still?!" So she has been looking forward to not being 2 anymore for about the entire year :)

Rylan's birthday fell on our final day of vacation that consisted mainly of being stuck in the car driving for nearly 8 hours. Since we knew this would be the case, we decided to celebrate a day early with cake and presents on Lake Michigan. It was just our family and my mom, but I think she had a blast. Her birthday celebration consisted of purple cupcakes, our traditional cake, playing on the beach, a family dinner, and presents that included Sofia the 1st toys, a purple jump rope, and a calculator - just exactly what she wanted!

Rylan continues to be my most challenging kid, but one thing I know from my daily struggles with her is that I will never have to worry about her. She is a strong willed and determined child that will not let anyone push her around. She will fight tooth and nail to get just what she wants, when she wants it. But no matter how frustrated she can make me, she can make me laugh and smile even more :) She is as goofy as she is stubborn which makes life quite interesting. It has been an exciting 3 years since she joined our family and over the next year I look forward to watching her start preschool and learn how to be a big sister as Miles gets bigger and starts to challenge her as she challenged Jake and Brenden!

Weekly Weigh In: Week 26......at least I think it is....

So I started this journey about 6 months ago where my goal was to lose 24 pounds in 24 weeks. Well, I didn't reach my goal, but I do think I was very successful.

I'm at about 135lbs (I do fluctuate a few pounds, but 135 seems to be the average) which is a total loss of roughly 17lbs. Even though I still have 5-10 lbs to lose until I will be satisfied with my weight, I am VERY satisfied with my fitness level. Regardless of what I weigh now and what I have weighed over these past 8+ years of having kids, I KNOW I am in the best shape I have been in since being an actual athlete. I haven't worked out in 3 weeks and still managed to get on the treadmill today and knock out 7+ miles AND felt great at the end. I was also able to run up this sand dune 4 times and 2 of those times carrying Rylan and I wasn't sore the next day. And finally, you can see my six pack abs again. I still may have some love handles, jiggly butt, and some extra on the thighs that I want gone, but I have no complaints about my stomach! I had six pack abs all growing up and now after 4 kids to see them again I KNOW I'm doing something right :)

So I may not be the weight I want, but I can run and jump and play which means I can run and jump and play with my kids! And I'm teaching them the importance of being able to run and jump and play at any age which is a much better outcome from this journey than I could have expected!

6 months old!

  

My baby is 6 months! And not much of a baby anymore, at least by size. We got official confirmation yesterday that Miles is by far our biggest baby. He had his 6 month check up yesterday and weighed in just over 19 lbs. No wonder my arms are in such good shape!! My other kids have NEVER been over about the 40th percentile for their weight and then Miles comes in at nearly the 90th percentile. Now he's not my longest, Brenden still holds that title. Miles measured at 27 inches (80th percentile) and when Brenden was a baby he consistently was 90-95 percentile for height. And Miles actually has the smallest head, it measured at the 70th percentile yesterday, and the other three all had giant melons well over 90th percentile. Miles is the first, because of all of his weight, to be proportionate though, so he's got that going for him :)

Enough about stats and percentiles though, Miles is my sweet boy. He's (obviously) a good eater. He's still enjoying his bouncer, we literally can leave him in it for two hours and he'll bounce and bounce and bounce..... He crawled for the first time yesterday on all fours while at his doctors appointment - big show off :) He is capable of sleeping through the night, but growth spurts and teething have him quite uncomfortable at night :( And he wants to reach and grab for EVERYTHING. And just like every other baby, he has an unexpectedly loooong reach, the other kids are finding that out now :) 

We just love this kid, but we're hoping he won't eat us out of house and home for a little while longer :)

Weekly Weigh In: Weeks 16-19

Weeks 16-19

Weight: 134.5 - 139.2

Overall loss: ????? It depends on the day! Anywhere from 12-17 lbs

Yeah, yeah, yeah......I've been a slacker. But seriously, have you read about the month I had!? Anyway, excuses aside, although I didn't get my "regular" weigh ins done, I was hopping on the scale here and there to see my weight yo-yo down to 134.5 and back up to 139.2. This is not too shocking considering I took about 2 weeks off from the end of our Jamaica trip (I did actually workout out on vacation) until after I got Miles on his new schedule and sleeping through the night. So last week was my first true week back working out on a schedule. I'm hoping to keep it up, but I'm off again on the 5th for 5 days for a dive meet so things won't be completely regulated again until I get back from that trip. With all of that being said, I do feel good about where I am. Although I still have 5-10 lbs left to lose I am in much better shape, and ultimately, isn't that really the goal? So once again I'll just keep at it and try to enjoy the journey as much as I can :)

The Kids - What this blog is really supposed to be about :)

With the insane month of June we had there was little time to update everyone on the happenings of Jake, Brenden, Rylan, and Miles. So here it is!

The Bigs - Jake and Brenden

I believe in one of my previous posts I left off talking about tryouts for select soccer for Jake with Cincinnati United. Well, he made a team! However, when we first got the word Jake was still a little hesitant as to what he wanted to do and he found out he had made one of the B teams which competed at a lower division. Although he was listed on the B team there was a chance he would move up to an A team since he was also listed as the 1st alternate to make the 3rd A team. The kids have 24 hours to make a decision and less than a week from that they would have to be fully committed by turning in all the paperwork and money (which isn't cheap). So we talked everything through and Jake decided he was ready for the challenge so we let the team coordinator know. We got word back that one boy had elected to play up an age group so Jake would be on the 3rd A team, the CUSE Fire. He was thrilled, as were we. I was especially happy because I think being on the A team and more competitive division will really open Jake's eyes to the level of competition that is out there. He has always been the best player on his team and now he is playing with kids that have been playing select soccer for at least a season so he'll have to really work at his skills if he wants to be one of the best players again, a challenge I think he's ready for and I think he will enjoy (at least I hope). So the team has gotten together once to do some drills and conditioning and Jake seemed to like the players, coaches, and everything they worked on. He was also happy to discover that he's the fastest player on the team :) They will continue to have a few more training sessions this summer and 2 practices a week will start in late August along with games and tournaments on the weekend - I guess I will officially be a soccer mom starting this fall!

Also in the world of soccer, the boys attended their first camp - Soccer camp! We got word from one of Brenden's coaches that there was a good day camp nearby and it was also reasonably priced. I checked out the website and asked the boys if they wanted to give it a try. At first they were unsure, but when I told them they wouldn't have to go with me to the gym while I taught swim lessons and/or worked out, they were all in :) Brenden was also excited that his buddy, Lance, from his soccer team would be there. Camp was 9am-12pm Monday - Friday at a local park and was run by the former Xavier soccer coach. They spent their time learning new drills/skills and then putting those skills to practice in a week long tournament. Both boys seemed to enjoy it a lot. Brenden was a bit shy at first, but quickly got into it and made some new friends and had lots of fun. One of Jake's friends from school happened to be there too so that made Jake happy from the start. Brenden's team won their tournament and Jake's team lost in the finals on the last day (big bummer for Jake). I would say overall it was a very good experience. They got to learn, make new friends, and deal with some adversity (some of the players were more aggressive than both boys were ready for).

The boys will get their second run at a camp experience next week. Chris's parents offered to take Jake and Brenden for a week. And after looking at their schedules, Ginger suggested that the boys do a day camp at Gilmour Academy (Chris's High School). She thought this would keep the boys from getting bored during the day when Pete would be working and she had other commitments to attend to. We all thought this would be a great idea. The camp looks awesome - swimming, ice skating, tie-dye, games, etc. So I sent the boys off to Cleveland on Friday with Pete. I was a little sad to say goodbye and Jake couldn't get out of here fast enough. I'm really excited to hear how it goes, I'm sure they will have a blast. I also think it's great that they get to spend some time away from home even though we will miss them.

And even though it is summer, there has been homework. We are attempting to be good parents and keeping the boys reading and working on their math skills throughout the summer :) Brenden has been a reading champ. He has gotten through all of our level 1 &2 books and his well through the level 3 books and reading a lot of the toddler/baby books to Miles at bedtime. Jake is almost done with his second Harry Potter book and ready to start the 3rd. I gave him the goal of finishing the 2nd book by the end of June and the 3rd book by the end of July, and he's right on track. I have also had the boys doing math on the iPad with a few different math apps. Jake's not too keen on doing math, but Brenden has been very excited about learning how to add. Regardless, both boys are doing great in their progress and should hopefully avoid a summer slide.

The Littles - Rylan and Miles

There's not too much to report on Rylan. She continues to be our most challenging of the four, but she's also pretty awesome. I have to admit that I am not worried about her getting pushed around when she's older. That girl knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it, a frustrating trait for us now but it will serve her well throughout life :) She is enjoying having the boys gone although she has said Jake (not Brenden) can come back. She is soaking up all of the extra attention she can get. I'm pretty sure she would be more than happy if she were an only child :)

Miles on the other hand has had quite the month! At the end of May he hit a massive growth spurt. I'm quite curious to see just how big he has gotten at his 6 month check up on July 10th - when we left for Jamaica he was on his tip toes of the lowest setting of his exersaucer and is now on the middle setting with his feet nearly flat. During his growth spurt he had a few days of eating over 40 oz of formula/breast milk. He weaned himself because I simply could not produce enough milk to keep up with his hunger. As a result, we started him on solids a full month earlier than I did with the other kids. I now have him on the eating schedule that the others had at 9 months - 3 meals and 3 bottles a day. He has been a great eater, he favors the fruits, but more than willing to eat the veggies too. He is by far my biggest baby. 

In this past month he has also started to reveal his crazy :) He is no longer content to just sit back and take it all in. He is rolling from front to back and back to front. He's on his way to crawling, he can get from point A to B just not on all fours yet, but it won't be long - he is able to rock back and forth on all fours. He's reaching and grabbing for anything he can get his hands on. And he has quickly learned that in order to get attention in this family you have to make some noise :) Although he does like having the attention of his siblings, he often is happy to jump (and jump and jump and jump and jump....) in his bouncer. He is also able to sleep through the night, although he still has nights he wakes for short periods because of teething or other ailments, but that's to be expected at this point. 

So there you have it, Jake, Brenden, and Rylan are great and Miles has officially joined the crazy!