5K and Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I was supposed to do a 5K on Oct 26, Nov 6th and today. I had to skip out on the previous 2 - but I did make it today. So that is *multiple* 5K's under my belt!
Bill and Miriam froze and manned the Weight Watchers table while Toni and I ran.


This was the Weight Watchers group before the race began. Maybe about half of us. At least I hope the other 30 were there!

I wasn't able to train for this one AT ALL, seeing as I've been sick most of the month. And there is less light, and I can't drag myselft out of bed early in the morning. It was a good run though.

Final time: 35min 42second

1200 people at this one! A different experiance from my first!

Another year down

Only 16 more to go.

As I've been packing up stuff in our home AND as Miriam continues to make leaps and bounds forward, I've been taken back to this time in the last year.

Almost exactly a year ago from the time I am starting this draft (September 4) Miriam decided to crawl and a week later decided it was time to walk. We were staying with the Ostroms and September was a major adjustment month for me as I learned to deal with a newly mobile child who loved to go up and down three different sets of stairs. I was getting ready for Miriam's first Halloween.

Also, Miriam was still waking up once or more a night, and I was beginning to wonder if she would ever ever ever sleep through the entire night. Last night, as I crept into her room to deposit an item into her drawers, I paused and watched her sleep for a while, knowing that night wakings would (most likely) not be on the agenda tonight. I smiled as I thought about myself one year ago, wishing desperately for more uninterupted sleep. And then I shuddered at the thought of having a newborn. Still, I know from firsthand experience now that, as hard as it is while you are working at it, babies do eventually learn how to sleep. The frustrating things do pass and make way for other frustrating things :)

In another year will I still working toword potty use? Will she be sleeping in her crib? Will we have managed to get her to give up her bink? Or will these be things that (like the sleeping and mobility) I can heave an experianced sigh of relief about? Will I be hitching up my belt and preparing for MORE kiddos (oh wait that would mean I'd be switching my belt for my stretchy pants, that's right)?

Well I'm looking forward to expanding my experiance to include the raising of a 2 year old. At least, I think I am.

*I had saved this post in drafts and forgot to put it out. I decided I wanted to post today but had nothing to SAY, so I decided to finish this one up and blog it!

Birthday Sniffes

It's my birthday and I've got the sniffles. Thats not going to stop me from checking out my cake pops!

"Turn, turn, turn"

I bet it'll be even neater if I climb on top!

Musical tiger, what could be better?

Before and After version 3

Before:

After (which is really just new carpet and our stuff is there):

Before: (You really can't tell how awful the paint and carpet were before, but they were nasty!)

Miriam's room just needs to have her ceiling light replaced (and some lingering tape removed).

Miri helped me put up a bunch of her Hello Kitty decals. She was so excited to help.

It's TRUE we still don't have real curtains in most of our rooms. But it's coming -someday.

BOGO and DIY

Okay, so there isn't any Buy One Get One on here, but lots of other FREE and CHEAPNESS going on:

I need this on my blog so I don't forget about it. And all you mom's out there may want to check this out: FREE PHOTO CARDS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Also, I invite you to join me in a digital scrapbooking adventure at JessicaSprague.com (Assuming I clean up around here in time for me to pay attention to this class)

The latest in frugal living (I'm trying this after our next payday) DIY laundry soap

And anyone that wants to join me figuring out coupons is totally welcome. (Crystal? Where are you on this?)

OH! And anyone with a Wii/Wii Fit that has their Wii hooked up to the internet and wants to join me in my healthy living quest :) just let me know :)

Two...and counting

I loved having a one year old! Now I am going to try and love having a two year old! She is so happy and likes to learn and explore. We are so lucky to have Miriam in our family!

Here are some things she is doing:

Wants to do things like mommy is doing.

Loves to sing songs. She will sing along at church or to anything else that is playing music. She got two musical books for her birthday. One plays Old McDonald had a Farm. I wish I could load the video on here. It's hilarious. Cow, cow, this is cow, oink, oink, this is cow. It's hard to describe.

After a month and a half of watching me stand on one leg and go "see? this is how you pump your legs - out and in!" has figured out how to do that on a swing. I realized she could do it today, when I found her sitting on her chair in the kitchen saying "out. in. out. in." and swinging her legs.

Loves bubbles and water. Used to love helping me do dishes, but seems to be bored with that lately. I am bummed. We've only been doing that for a couple weeks.

Repeats as many of your words as she can. Pretty fun - unless you say something you shouldn't!

Likes to bounce on the bed, the couch, her ball - anything.

Recognizes numbers 1-5 and 8 and 9. Most of the time.

Birthday Prep

This is the piece of cake I kept and decorated in case my cake-pop attempt was a total flop. I had to borrow M&M's from the potty training jar.

There are at least this many cakepops at this stage still in the fridge. I am considering wrapping them in plastic wrap and freezing them for later. Like Miriam's 8th birthday.

Should have maybe spent the money for the white chocolate chips. But I didn't want to! And these worked out okay.

Coated with the candy coating. The sprinkle placing was easily my least favorite part of the whole thing.

Ah done. All for the little girl who turns 2 in 12 hours. Hopefully she at least recognizes they are CATS.

Pumpkin Doughnuts

Because we are unable to make our regular trip to Greenbluff this year, we've been having a serious hankering for some Apple Cider and Pumpkin doughnuts. I bought some Archer Farms Pumpkin pancake and waffle mix on impulse that maybe I could figure out how to make doughnuts out of them.

Halloween is past so I decided it was past time to break out the dough. Missionaries were supposed to come eat them, but the cancelled on us again so, instead, they went to our SCA friends. Lucky people. Sorry, I've got no pictures of the steps, my camera had a dead battery. But here it goes.

Pumpkin Doughnuts

2 cups Archer Farms pumpkin pancake mix + some extra for dusting counter
abt 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg

Mix until combined. Dough will not be smooth and elastic. Dough will be fairly wet and sticky. Heat crisco (or other desired frying oil substance) in skillet to 365 degrees (I used my 11in electric skillet. You should know, I had to use 3/4 large can crisco. At least it's good for something). Oil should fill up skillet about 2/3 of the way.
Dust extra pancake mix on the counter (or on wax paper on the counter for easier cleanup. I did not remember this). Scoop 1/4 cup-fuls onto counter at a time. Coat outside, both sides, with pancake mix for easier handling. In fact, remember that your extra pancake mix is the key to moving/shaping these. Roughly shape dough into an oval. Gently press hole into center. Use a spatula to pick up the doughnut and lower into oil. Cook up to 1 minute on each side. Remove from crisco. Drain. Coat with cinnamon sugar.

These were so good!

For more fun Archer Farms also makes the following pancake mixes:
Caramel Apple
Gingerbread
Banana Chocolate Chip
Chocolate Raspberry
Apple Streusel
I am going to be making SO MANY doughnuts this holiday season!

Fall Festival

Man, I'd been itching to do something fall related (Something to replace the very lonely feeling I was getting from NOT being able to go with my friends to Greenbluff). I found a neat farm out here BUT it cost $12/adult to get in and AT that particular time I did not have $24 bucks to spare on such a thing (+who knows what else once I got in the door). So instead we went to a small local pumpkin patch and to a Fall Festival at a county park.
The Fall Festival, while cute, wasn't THAT fabulous. Maybe due to being rained out 30 minutes into our arrival. But I enjoyed watching the local square dancing club and looking at the little booths. Easily the highlight was the three huge bouncy toys/slides/rock climbing wall. It made for a good 30 minutes.