a life beyond running shoes.

the boys kept working and got the second bed finished on sat. sunday they planted broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce in egg cartons to germinate inside. i think we get to plant them in the yard in just over a week or until there is no risk of frost. they marked off two by two foot plots that we are going to seeds this coming weekend. we have planned for some herbs but also beets, carrots, summer squash, zucchini, beans, and sugar snap peas. of course, i hold this all very loosely as i don't really have a green thumb. but the boys have really enjoyed playing in the dirt with dad. on our first day of the week by ourselves, the boys and i played hide and seek, trains, and toss the sock (bean-bags) while sweet pea slept the entire time while in the room with us...getting a great nap with lots of noise and no swaddle. go figure.

on our family garden..... the boys started yesterday. we started with a consultation from a friend who has spent some time working on organic farms in virginia. she helped us think through what to plant, where, how, etc. we needed help getting started....and have some friends in the neighborhood who are going to help out along the way. saturday morning they started out and visited the local nursery. they got compost, starter plants (thyme, parsley, mint, and forgot the basil). then they hit lowes for wood and seeds. we have some friends that are going to share their worms to help us get our own compost going..... it will certainly be an adventure to see if this really works or if i can manage to green up my black thumb since i can't really even keep a house plant alive. we'll keep you posted as we build the second bed and start to get seeds and starters going. fun, fun!

hubbie and i got to get away for the afternoon while his mom was here and opted to see a movie. while i stood for half of it to keep sweet pea quiet, it was nice to be out with him and have conversation over a cup of coffee. it was slightly reminiscent of when we only had one child and would tool around town and see movies and talk over coffee...... ah, the days. now, we steal away when we can. the last movie we saw was over xmas in flordia.... and before that september when kind friends took our boys for the afternoon. BUT, i can remember the three movies that we saw during the first few months of peanut's life - fever pitch, cinderella man, and star wars.... all with baby in tow. anyway, onto this movie. i'm so glad i saw it. it is not an easy movie to see though, even though it has such a delightfully good ending. it is a rough reality of the slums in india. but the boys were endearing and the story compelling. worth my time & money! and we actually made it for the ...

my mother-in-law left today. i did not cry. i got pulled over for talking on my cell phone... which in case you were wondering, talking using the speaker phone does not qualify as "hand-free" and thus warrants a ticket. i did cry..... a week's food budget given to the city of new york. yipee! the boys are very sad g'ma is gone.... but mimi comes back in a week.

it is not because i am cool, but that i know cool people.... this is my husband's cousin who has been a miami fan forever... she started blogging a long time ago and it just got picked up by nbc sports. you should check it out... it is very funny, witty, and insightful.... as far as sports stuff goes. www.nbcmiami.com you should follow her blog. she posts twice a day and i am continually impressed with how she comes up with stuff to write about. so, i tip my hat to you ms. janie!

we made it a two full weeks as a family of five. wednesday was a bit hairy, but we survived. i had a very kind friend come over yesterday morning to help me get the boys to their "tumbling/movement" class..... in my head i had thought i could do it myself and gave daddy the morning to work on his sermon.... WHAT WAS I THINKING?! if my friend had not come with us, it would have been melt down zone. i ended up nursing sweet pea for the duration of tumbling class, so my friend got "participate" (more like help direct and instruct my kids) in her first toddler "managed chaos" class. i was very thankful! AND, hubbie and i actually went to a party last night - well, we made an appearance.....i only last about an hour and a half before i was running on fumes. we did take sweet pea who slept the entire time and disappointed more than a few friends who wanted to hold her. back-up comes tomorrow for a whole five days and nights. phew!!! and thankfully, friends...

when my first two children got their first bath.... it was traumatic. screaming, crying, fits of rage from our precious newborn. as a new mom i thought i was torturing them..... my heart clenched with guilt. it took three adults to manage both boys first bath time. this bring us to child #3. this baby... while beginning to be trouble at night - did not make a peep. we did not utilize the third adult (mimi) before she left and had quite the audience of little people that thought they were being helpful. she grunts and groans all night long making sleep a bit elusive, but while getting her first bath..... she tolerated the whole thing. we also have a new cousin (born on tuesday)......welcome to the world baby luke. she will always have a playmate when we visit florida.... cousin #11 is due in three weeks. i am sure that one day we will call them the three musketeers....

mimi left yesterday. here she is with her babies. i am sure that she had a nice quiet night sleep last night.... no midnight wake up calls. how could she resist.... and it wasn't always baby sister. today was our first day by ourselves, so we headed to the playground. (little bit is in the background coming off the slide while sweet pea sleeps soundly) it was semi-warm.... 50 degrees. we survived!!! (of course dad was still home today). tomorrow will be the real test..... can we survive?! g'ma comes in a week.... we can make it.

we went to pediatrician on tuesday for her newborn check-up. she is perfect.... gained half a pound. rock on baby girl!!! i think she looks like a doll....with a tiny little gas smirk. yesterday my mom and husband worked on a yummy breakfast for this tired mommy..... eggs benedict. so yummy!!! i have only been craving this for about two months.... it was worth the wait. it is so nice having my mom here to help get some food in our bellies. but then again, hubbie is on task as well and doing a stand-up job!!!

kathryn michelle (kate) sweet was born on friday, march 6 at 11:16pm. i had been to the hospital that morning for a non-stress test because my amniotic fluids were borderline low. they wanted to be cautious. i was told to go home but that i could go at anytime..... i was 3.5 cm and 50% effaced. i went home and had 4 ounces of castor oil. labor started for real 2 hours later...... we got to the hospital around 8 and were admitted. i started pushing around 10:50 and 25 minutes later she was out. it was hard and i asked for my epidural too late. whoops. we got to come home yesterday afternoon and start acclimating to life as a family of five. my mom flew in yesterday and is on boy duty. she has already done bath time, played hide and go seek, brushed teeth and changed diapers. sweet potato actually let me get a couple of straight hours of sleep last night and is doing great. they boys and mimi are off to the grocery to get us some food for the week. i am glad to be home!

we are heading to the hospital..... :)

it is my due date..... we have come to one conclusion: we will not be naming baby girl ADA. it was top of the list until yesterday.... when one friend thought, "um.... i ate a sweet." really....it never once crossed our minds. i am bummed. i loved the name and thought it sounded lovely. no more. here are some fun that the boys have been up to: making music making homemade brownies with chocolate peanut butter crisp topping and marshmallows. yum!! i could have eaten the whole pan! seriously. finally getting to the children's museum

we got about 6 inches of snow last night. there was a break and then it started again. this is the first real snow day we have had AND it is daddy's day off!!! fun in the snow. little bit only lasted about 10 minutes.... the bigger boys were out there for close to an hour. shoveling, building, and sliding. we are supposed to get between 8 - 10 inches. this could be interesting to get to the hospital.... of course at this moment that is not necessary. we still wait but try and have fun in this holding pattern.

okay....so it was NOT complete misery. let us now praise famous men. this is one of those books that shows up on lists of influential books of the twentieth century. so, my book club decided to give it a try. also, one of our members is going to be teaching a course this fall on the depression & post-depression era. she had a list of books that she is trying to get through before solidifying her syllabus and we thought we would help her out. we all choose this one as it sounded interesting. i almost gave up around page 20 BUT then i got a character name around page 50..... but then finally gave up around page 130. i only made it a quarter of the way through the book. no one finished. **i feel as if i need to clarify though. it is not that it is not a good book or worth reading..... it is just a tough writing style and was not what we were expecting. it is the story of three tenant farmers & their families..... i expected their story. not really so much plot.... again, i...

i am 4 days from my due date. i thought i would go early..... i have not so far. i realized around 4:00pm on friday that i had not thought through my dinner menu past thursday. i just assumed that i would be in hospital having baby girl..... we decide to go out for dinner. celebrate our family of four before we get to celebrate becoming a family of five. that is a strange thought - a family of five which means that we have three kids. that sounds strange to my ears. i am excited to meet this little lady that is joining our family. i can't wait to see the ways that she makes our family more complete... the ways that god will bless us because she is becoming part of "us." i am excited to see how the boys grow and change with a little sister.... i am excited to see how my husband is a different kind of dad with a little girl.... how i am changed as a mom.... but for one night, we ate as a family of four in our favorite restaurant and enjoyed the ease of just being with ...

what i thought was going to be a rough day ended up being so much harder than just rough. my husband had an early meeting so i was on breakfast duty...no biggie. i can give up an extra half hour of sleep. honest i can! while the boys watched their tv time, i made homemade blueberry muffins. YUM! i figured out that my littlest does not like actual blueberries, so i thought i would be a genius and hide them in yummy muffins with a bit of banana and lemon zest. survey says: neither boys liked them. dandy. proceed with day....head upstairs to get clothes on. peanut locks the bathroom door just as i am about to shower locking us all out of brushing hair, teeth, or using the potty. wonderful. husband is still in meeting so we have to wait about 45 minutes to reach him to figure out how to get the door unlocked from the outside. thankfully, no one was locked on the inside! door unlocked! mommy gets a shower....just as water heats up, little bit clocks the snot out of peanut....te...

just in case you got all excited that i had delivered.... or got angry that you had not heard the news.... good friends of our had their baby 10 days ago.... i am 8 days from due date. we took the boys over to greet her to the world and see what they would be like around a baby. these are some of our closest friends and so it was a both boys wanted to hold her and didn't want to give her back even when she started to cry. i'll take it as a good sign that maybe there wont' be any biting of the baby for at least the first few hours she comes home from the hospital. for those interested, i have had a few contractions - in the middle of the night - but nothing to wake anyone else up. it will be a long week trying to find things to be creative with the boys especially since it looks like a cold week. thursday and friday look warmer but with rain. we'll keep you posted!!!

in my attempts to become more of a lover of my home...... as i have been venturing over the past couple of years in learning how to cook seasonally, bake, and take care of my home.... i have come to a new depth. i tried to make my own bread. i have many friends who do this and have done this for years. for me this was scary, uncharted territory from my grandmother's generation. well, it is a work in progress but one that i think i enjoy. i'll keep you posted.

i in fact finished this 700 page book in less than the time allowed by my local library. when i was checking it out i thought to myself.... i will never be able to finish this. i was completely forgetting that it is juvenile literature, that half of the week i spend at least a couple of hours awake in the middle of the night, and that i have very little else going on as i wait for baby #3.... and i always enjoy a good adventure story no matter how tedious and long winded i think his battle scenes can get. also, some of the "history" in this episode got a bit... whatever... having to do with the dragons power tied in with the elves history and blah, blah, blah. it is a good thing that i don't feel compelled to run out and finish up this series because the fourth installation is not out yet. of course, i will read it when i does come out.... but i can wait. and just to clarify....it does make for good middle of the night reading!

today we adventured our way to the brooklyn botanic gardens. i'm not sure we really saw anything since spring is far from springing..... forecast was a high of 44 but we never really got there while we were outside in the weeds and bamboo trees...especially since we had spotty sun with mostly clouds. of course, i don't think the boys really minded since little bit never once put his gloves on. we did venture into the green houses today..... which i had never been in since we usually go when the weather is warm and sunny and who wants to go inside on those days. i wanted to go inside today!!! the boys could have cared less! we saw banana trees, mango trees, the desert oasis, and lots of folks doing water colors. then we had a total melt down getting off the bus and walking the one block home. ah.... can anyone say naptime!!!