Fall is Upon Us and So are Long Sleeves

Fall is upon us.  At least I think it is.  I don't feel as guilty about turning my oven on.  Chocolate chip cookies and casseroles have returned.  My counter is overflowing with veggies from the garden.  I have so many cucumbers!  I need to remember to pack a light jacket for Cecilia at school.  We've had several days that a cool enough for long sleeves spotted between the still 85* days. 

Speaking of long sleeves, Lillian Jeanne is NOT a fan.  Its actually quite funny.  The first day it was cool enough that she really should have had sleeves on she freaked out!  She was pulling on the sleeves and crying and whining.  Poor thing, she was so confused.  She still isn't used to the idea.  I think its very funny though.  Both Jon and I were giggling so much at her.  It still makes me laugh.  

5k Number Two

Last Saturday I ran my second 5k.  It was the 9/11 Remembrance Run and the best part was that it took place in my own neighborhood.  It was the morning of the Harvest Festival Parade, and the runners kicked it off and ran through the parade route.  My cheerleaders were my girls and wonderful husband. Jon rode his bike with the girls in the trailer, so they were able to send me off at the start line, cheer me on twice durring the run, and meet me at the finish line.  I cut a significant amount of time off of my last race.  I did this one in 31:07, with an average pace of 10:01/mile.  Whoa!  For my next trick, I hope to head to Houston in November to visit my friend and run the Firefly race again with her there.

Stuck in a Hamster Ball

Have you ever had the feeling that you were trying so hard to accomplish something and you found yourself going nowhere fast?  The hamster ball.  There are so many analogies I could go into with this one.  I'll spare you though.

However, there are two things I'd like to mention.
1)  Jon and I have found ourselves in a hamster ball of life recently.  We have found ourselves in unfamiliar territory and are having to handle some changes with extended family that are really quite unpleasant.  I'm being vague for a reason.  I'm also telling you all this because I hope it will explain some of the sporadic blogging that is going on.  It has us really stressed out, more than I have ever been in my life.  So, if you are the praying type, we'd appreciate prayers.  If you are the happy thought type, those are appreciated too.  We will get through this, and some day, maybe, I'll elaborate.  It is times like this when we are so happy to have each other, and these smiling faces to give us perspective and keep us focused on the happy things in life.





2)  Last weekend Cecilia and I found ourselves in a hamster ball.  Literally.  On water even.  It was quite comical.  It was the Harvest Festival in Olde Town Arvada and we decided to check it out.  This was one of the attractions.  It was so hard!  I ran another 5K the day before (more on that later), and this was way harder, and I was sore for a few days.  It was totally fun though.  Cecilia had a ball!

Labor Day Weekend

We were able to get away to my parents house for the long weekend.  We enjoyed our time with time very much, and we are so blessed and lucky to have them in our lives.  Uncle Nick and Aunt Megan were up too for the first night and we had the first campfire all summer!  Cecilia got a bunch of little thorns in her jammies when she walked through a bush out to the fire.  Her Jessie doll got some too.  Jon and I spent a good five to ten minutes de-burring her.  Once we made it to the fire, it was so fun to roast marshmallows and make s'mores with the girls.  

Jon was also able to go for a hike and try to find some elk.  It was good for him to get away and find some clarity.  He took these amazing pictures.  

My mom and I tried to go for a run.  HA!  Let me tell you, my Mom, she is super woman.  What they say about altitude, its totally true.  I about died about six minutes into our run.  I had to walk by eight minutes.  I felt so pathetic!  It was like I was being bear hugged by an elephant.  I could not breathe it was like someone stole all of the oxygen.  And, not to mention all of the hills.  There really is no even terrain up there, so my cadence was always different to compensate for going up hill or down hill.  I think I'll stick to running in town and walking in the mountains.

Cecilia and Lilly had a great time playing at Mammaw & Pop's house, so did Stella.  We even celebrated Jon's birthday a little early with chocolate cake. We had a nice getaway, and are grateful to have my parents!

Back to School

Cecilia started back to school on Tuesday!  YIPEEEEE!  We did have a great summer, but I am so glad to be back to routine and to be able to give her the space to have her own thing to do.  It is good for all of us.  She has a new classroom this year, but the same teacher as last year- Ms. Stephanie.  We love Ms. Stephanie!  She also has a class pet this year, Roger, Roger the rabbit.

Here she is on the first day of school with her new backpack :)

F & W

Cecilia has been making so much progress in speech therapy.  Brianna, her therapist, has been working with her on the 'F', 'W' and 'K/G' sounds.  She is so close to mastering the 'F' sound; meaning she knows how to say it, and says it well with other sounds to complete words, but it is not quite automatic for her.  So, we have begun playing dumb with her to help her recognize the difference and start saying the 'f' automatically.  For example, she will say "uh-oh, shall boom!" instead of "uh-oh, fall boom!".  In this case we play dumb and ask her what "shall" is.  She is pretty quick to correct herself.  The "W' sound is coming along too.  We say "stick your lips out" a lot around here.   Here is a short video from therapy this week.  Brianna and I were cracking up, and trying not to Cecilia see us laughing.

As for the Child Find program through the school district, I am NOT in the least impressed.  We are STILL waiting for her to be evaluated.  We went back for what was supposed to be her evaluation in early August, but it turned out to be a pre-screening to see if she would qualify for the evaluation.  Guess what- she qualifies for an evaluation, duh!  When we first got pulled back they tried to do the hearing and vision screening again.  I sharply told the lady that we had already done this.  Then the pre-screening was done in the middle of an empty bank of cubes with construction going on around us and people coming in to start their work day.  Not exactly what I would call an environment conducive to evaluating a three year olds cognitive and verbal abilities.  When the lady came out with the results of the screening, I was biting my tongue so hard because everything she told me was written in the form they had me fill out back in May.  I was pretty livid when we left.  Supposedly she will have a full evaluation done on September 14.  That will be over four months from when I first called to have her evaluated.

Zoo Day

Admittedly, I'm not a zoo/museum kind of person.  Although, as I get older, I do find myself enjoying these activities more and more.  When a friend of mine, Melissa, and I made plans to get together on Monday, she suggested the zoo.  We haven't been in about two years, and Lilly has (obviously) never been.  So, I jumped at the chance to go.  It was the perfect day because it was the first day of school for the rest of of the schools that hadn't already started.  No one was there.  It was perfect!  It was a hot day, but the girls didn't seem to mind.

We saw lots of animals, and even a few baby animals.  The baby leopard and mama leopard were playing a ton.  The tigers were playing in their pool.  We saw the new elephant exhibit, which is really very beautiful, and even got to see the elephant show.  Bodie, the elephant, gave us a little more than just a show too.  Lots of poop, which Cecilia pointed out over and over again.  And lets just say that Bodie really enjoyed the dip in the pool at the end of the show, if you get what I mean.  There was also a baby chimp who's mother was just trying to get away from him.  (I could totally sympathize with her.)

 

 The girls loved it.  Cecilia had so much fun with Leah.  Leah is just a tad younger than C, but they have become fast friends, and loved to hold each others hands as they walked through the zoo.  So cute!  I also have to mention that Melissa went into labor that night and had her baby boy the next day.  I do take partial credit for her going into labor :)



It really was a fun day.  Perhaps a zoo membership is in our future??