Archives for 2010

Jul 03 2010

Swimming

Now that I am free to be me!!!

I just had to say that, sorry…on with my blog. 🙂

Anyway, now that I am no longer under restriction, I have taken up swimming to try and get my body back into shape. And IT IS H A R D! But I'm doing it. I started out swimming in my friend's pool, but then my children wanted to join in and swim in the mornings, so I bought a punch pass for our new local pool and went to it! I have swam every day for the past six days! I'm losing weight and I'm sure inches.

I love this pool for so many reasons:

1) They let kids swim laps in the mornings. The other pools only allow adults to swim during lap time. My kids are old enough to swim laps and not bother others, so I like having them. Plus, they encourage me!

2) They have swim toys. OK, they're not really toys, but they have swim weights and those flat float things that help me to last longer.

3) They're pretty nice…and it's not crowded at all.

4) It's indoor, which means I can keep doing this all year!

I started out with a goal to swim for 30 straight minutes, making sure to do water exercises, too. When I moved to the competition pool, I realized it would be harder…because you have to be able to swim ALL the way across and back. I do get tired, but I made it all the way up to 600 yards today, plus a bunch of exercises, crunches, stretches, etc! I told hubby,

"I swam six football fields today!"

Along with exercising, I'm finding that I'm working on making choices to not eat or drink certain things. For instance, I've also had no coffee in over a week! And, the exercising is giving me back my energy, so I'm up early waiting to get my swim in.

Tomorrow we're having a bbq. My friend is making dessert. I told her that if I am going to ruin my diet, it'd better be worth it, especially since I won't be swimming tomorrow!

Jul 02 2010

It just HAS to be a Vivas Thing!

Wednesday evening we were hanging out with the family for my brother-in-law's birthday. Now, when we get together, there is usually something bound to happen. Honestly, we have well grounded, well behaved children….until they come together. (I personally am thinking that is really does come from the Vivas side of the family, because the genetic link is my hubby and his sister. Don't you think that makes sense? My brother-in-law thought it did!) The thing is, these cousins BEG to be together. I'm not exaggerating, they will BEG us, please, please, please???

Anyway, you can kind of see where this is leading up to, just by looking a t a few pictures from the other night. Notice how these two think they have everything under control. (BTW..that was an amazing fruit by made by none other than one of our favorite non-Vivas family members.)

You can see where things start to turn around. These two have a lot in common…I'll explain later.

Ok, I had to put this one in, because, well, they're my boys….and also, to show how calm they look. They try to avoid trouble now that their all grown up. Please note that I said, try. (And notice how the Good Looking One is smiling..that's because he knows I will continue to take pictures if he doesn't, so he tries to get it right the first time. Obviously, hubby and the Talented One don't have it quite down yet, the smiling thing.)

So anyway, we had a nice little time of chatting while eating cake and fruit pie. We even had time to take family pictures, but I was in the pictures so didn't get them on my camera. That probably should have been the first warning signal. Trying to force our tweens to take family pictures. Of course, as soon as they were done, they ran to escape any more torture upstairs.

Warning to all parents: If you torture your children, they will find a way to torture you back.

We remained downstairs trying to have a nice, relaxing chat.

By the way, screaming from upstairs when you are relaxing downstairs is usually not a good sign. You probably should check on things. We did.

I'll admit it, I didn't literally expect a tornado. In the brief moments that they were upstairs alone together, all of the mattresses on the two beds managed to come off, have their sheets torn off, and the room looked like a tornado had come through just the boys room. There was obvious jumping going on, only the response was,

"It wasn't me!"

"I wasn't jumping, I was just watching."

"I didn't want to."

Um, all of your faces are red and you are dripping sweat. Children also apparently have this gift of not realizing that WE KNOW WHAT YOU WERE DOING!

Because see, when my hubby was younger, he had this thing for mattresses. He liked to put his sister (the one with the knife) under them and jump on her. I never did that.

I did lame things like stick my older brother's finger in warm water to see if it really made you wet your pants. (It didn't. I tried his toes, too, but that didn't work.)

After the yelling to put the room back together NOW began, my oldest son quickly gathered my two teens and they rushed out the door. See, they've been on that side and know the wrath of mom….and Tia. They know when the party has come to an end.

Hubby was next to leave, taking the Princess (not tonight) and Chicken Noodle Butt with him.This is after he found his sock and shoes even though he didn't want to do any of it.

My non-Vivas family member then volunteered to take the Drama Queen and I home. We got her together and left after explaining to her that no indeed, they would not be doing any overnights tonight!

This is the part I was going to explain, remember? Tia was the one that was left behind as a child. We usually hear this story at family gatherings; how the whole family (HUGE family) left the park and each thought the other had her and well, 2 hours later, they found her at the park with a nice lady sitting with her, while she waited for someone to come back and pick her up. That's Tia, the one hold the knife in the picture above. She's also the one who was smashed under mattresses by my hubby.

So, as we are driving down the road, headed home, my phone rings. It's Tia.

"Hello?"

"Um, hello. Your forgot a child?" followed by laughter.

"Oh, which one did we forget?"

That would be the Smart One…whom, I will admit, has been forgotten left behind, on more than one occasion. (Please note that he's always been left in an air conditioned home, not at a park with strangers.) Apparently moments after we left, he came sauntering down the stairs. He was informed that we'd left without him. He said he was used to it and that he'd walk home. (Seriously, we live close by each other.) Tia said she knew how he felt (they have that special left-behind-bond), and had her birthday boy husband give him a ride home.

Jun 30 2010

It’s been an Honor to know you, my friend

Today's Just for the Joy of It is a bit different then my others. I say this, because though my heart is saddened, I will have joy.

A very dear friend of our family is in his final stages of living here on earth and on his way to be with our Maker. And as I sit here, wondering if the call will come soon, I smile as I remember his smile, and what he has meant to our family.

We met Vern and Lois many years ago. I honestly don't know how long, but we were immediately drawn to them. They have that wonderful sense of humor that doesn't come along too often. Vern is known for wearing his silly t-shirts with saying on them that are meant to make you laugh. I remember when my hubby turned 40, I wanted to get him some t-shirts like our *old geezer* friend. I call them the Vern t-shirts! To make hubby's celebration even better, it was Vern that lent his wheelchair to us so that we could wheel my *Over the Hill* husband into his home. These days, I wear my husband's t-shirts a lot…and I always think of our old geezer friend when going to put one on. (He even has Geezer 1 on his license plate.)

Things about Vern that have brought us joy:

The way his face lights up when he sees us. Seriously, nothing makes you feel better than knowing that someone is thrilled to see you.

The way he could talk your ear off.

Knowing that he adored my kids as much as they adored him.

As we pray for Vern during these last hours, we rejoice that He will be free from his pain and dancing at the feet of Jesus. I came across this song tonight. I've never heard it before, but it touched my heart. I hope it brings you joy.

About an hour after I posted this, Vern went to meet his Maker. You were loved, and we'll miss you much.

Jun 29 2010

Laughable Moment #28

I'm sitting here talking to the Smart One. He's had a rough day. Jumped off his sister's loft bed, hit his cousin's bed below and then his feet flipped backwards, leaving him to land on his face, but he used his hands to block….and whalla!

We left urgent care with a splint from his fingers to his shoulder. Looks like it is a fracture of the growth plate in his elbow. We see the orthopedic surgeon tomorrow morning.

So, as we're sitting here discussing the fact that he leaves for camp on Sunday morning for a week…and he may have a full cast…I wonder about his hair; who's going to wash it, how will he shower, what will he do at the beach….

And he bursts out, "That's not what I am worried about, mom!"

Oh?

He's worried about the fact that he'll have one arm darker than the other!

And for all the guy readers out there…he states it was a cool fall, just in case his mom is making him look not so smart after all.

Jun 28 2010

Life

Life has certainly been busy this past week! However, a blog is in order because I promised the Twin, so here goes!

For those of you who don't know, the Twin is the Talented One's best friend. They bowl together every Saturday morning.They've been friends for years. The Twin is like one of my own and has even been mistaken for mine. His mom is a very special friend to me. 🙂

Anyway, Saturday he came home with us after bowling to help the Talented One babysit, only hubby's meeting fell through, so it didn't happen. And the Talented One crashed fell asleep on him. That left him with two choices: watch Nacho Libre with the Smart One and hubby, or go with B-boo and I to her dance car wash fundraiser. He went with us…and spent three hours as the only guy washing cars/trucks for a girls dance team! That's just the kind of friend that he is.

And a funny one at that. Some of those trucks were big…and being short not very tall, we had to be smarter than the vehicle. We laughed as we told him to climb up on the tires and he looked at us as if we were crazy. And we applauded when he finally made it up. 🙂 And washed those windshields.

And after all was said and done, we headed back to his house, to find his poor mom standing outside with a sick little girl and a ton of wet towels. I asked her, "Are those all from vomit?"

Nope. They were from trying to dry the house out after a pipe burst and flooded it.

More water for the Twin? Perhaps.

And on Sunday morning at church, he came up to me laughing. Someone had asked him if he was the Talented One. Nope.

"Oh, well, are you a Vivas?"

Yah, we think so!

For other blogs on the Twin, see below:

Happy Birthday, Twin!

Twins!

Teens are fun, too!

Willing to do anything!