remember this post from almost a year ago? well i jumped the gun just a little. the truth is when Sam walked in his graduation he was two classes away from actually graduating. two classes that he could test out of though so i thought he was close enough that i would go ahead and do the graduation post here on the blog. little did i know at the time that he would procrastinate until the last possible moment to take those last two tests. but today he did it. he passed the final test of the final class needed to officially graduate with a bachelors of finance! good job Sammy! I'm going to need at least two year before i hear the word masters.

any way, here are the pictures one more time now that it's official.

I'm a winner!

remember this post? well... i totally won!! i loved the Happy Talk dress, but as it turns out i get to choose between like 30 beautiful dresses. i chose this one. i'm sooo, sooo excited. i love pretty dresses. so any who, thank you Mamarazzi at Dandelion Wishes and Shabby Apple for the super awesome giveaway. i can't wait to get my new dress!

in other news...actually i don't really have any other news. hummm, let's see. nope, nothing. well happy thursday!!

school's out for summer!

Today is the last day of school and Nate's last day of Elementary school ever! He has been at RRE for 7 years, yet somehow it was only yesterday that I took him to his first day of Kindergarten. He is so excited to be done and I am excited for him to move on and have new experiences in middle school.

We left school today with mixed emotions. The kids really like school and have had phenomenal teachers that we will miss not seeing everyday, but I for one am ready to sleep in tomorrow, and the next day and the next day.

So, I just need to wright down some thoughts and feelings. I just had to have a conversation with my kids that no parent should ever have to have. Two kids from our elementary school were found dead in their home this morning after their mother called 911 and said that she had attempted to commit suicide. The mother was taken to the hospital with injuries to her wrists and has now been arrested and charged with first degree murder. I feel relieved that my kids didn't know either of the kids in this tragedy, so they don't seem to be too deeply affected by the news. But I have friends who have children who were in the same classes as the little Kindergartner and 3rd grader and they will no doubt be devastated by this loss. I would have gladly shielded my kids from this news altogether, except that tomorrow, their last day of school before summer vacation, which should be nothing but a celebration, there will be grief councilors on hand at the school and of course other kids will be talking about what happened. So today I had to set down with my kids and explain to them that two kids from their school have died and it was their own mom who caused it. And whether we know these kids personally or not it is completely heart breaking, and I am so unbelievably sad today to live in a world where things like this happen. It's particularly upsetting when it happens so close to home. Any way, if you're reading this if you could say a prayer for the family and friends of these sweet kids. I can't begin to imagine the pain they are in right now.

a boring post about the weather

Everyone is posting on Face Book about the weather so I thought I'd be super original and post about it on my blog. Today we have had rain, fog, thunder, hail and snow. The temperatures are somewhere in the 30s and I am so very much not happy about it. Last week we got back to Castle Rock after Gracie's field trip and there was a least 6 inches of snow on the ground. We were all stepping off of the bus bundled up in winter coats and boats and gloves and scarfs and the bus driver said "have a good summer vacation" I almost cried. I need sunshine! I want my summer vacation to be filled with slip and slides and Popsicles and grilling and lazy days laying by the pool. Instead today we made a large pot of hot cocoa and changed into fleece pjs as soon as we got home from school. I'm grateful for the moisture because it's been so dry and we really need it, but I would like to decide when it comes and how. Like how about rain all night followed by warm sunny days or even a nice warm downpour in the late afternoon. I'm just tired of all of the grayness and coldness. It's depressing.

Highline Canal 5K 2011

in May of 2010 we ran this race for the first time and finished it in 41min 38 sec. We just ran it again today in 33 min and 41 sec.!!! That's almost an 8 minute improvement!!This year our friend Krisi joined us and also set her personal best time.

Way to go Krisi!!!

So I had this moment while running along the canal where I saw a shadow of my previous self running in that same spot just one year ago, nearly in tears because it hurt so bad. Complaining every step of the way and wanting so badly to quit. Luckily I have a great running buddy who hooked her arm through mine in those moments and pulled me along never letting me give up. We have come really far in the past year and I am sooooo proud of us.

Love you Heather!!

Shabby Apple Giveaway from Mamarazzi

Mamarazzi over at Dandelion Wishes is giving away this great dress from Shabby Apple. And I want to win!

You can enter to win it too. Just head over to Mamarazzi's blog to find out how.

the U word

funny story, it happened a couple of weeks ago. McKay was asking question about how babies get out of their mommy's tummys. I gave the same answer that I've given my other kids at this age. It's something like, "Well, when the baby is big enough to come out of the mommy's tummy, the mommy goes to the hospital and the doctor takes the baby out." this answer would usually be followed by an, "oh" then some other random question or comment like, "Can I have a snack?" and we would move on. Not with McKay, he had follow up question which he wanted specific answers to, starting with, "Does the doctor cut the mommy's tummy open?" I said sometimes the doctor has to cut the mommy's tummy open. Then he asked, "Did the doctor have to cut your yummy open to get me out of it?" I said "nope, he didn't." hoping that would be the end, but of course it wasn't. He asked more questions and I gave more answers, truthful but as age appropriate as possible. Then Bryce and Abby came into the room and McKay took the opportunity to share with them, in detail, his new found knowledge. At some point it was mentioned that sometimes the baby has to be cut out of the mom's stomach. Then someone chimed in that the baby isn't actually in the moms stomach. So I explained that the baby is in a part of the mom's body called the uterus which is by her stomach. Abby who had not been enjoying any part of this conversation finally spoke up. With her eyes stuck in half-roll she said in her most mono-tone, you've-got-to-be-kidding-me, voice, "Could you please never say the word u-terus again? It's disgusting."
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So, speaking of Uterus'. Every time I hear that word I think of the video we watched in probably 5th grade about our "changing bodies". There is a scene in the video where the parent, I hope it was a mom, but for some reason I think it might have been the dad, which only makes it more disturbing, any way, the parent was making pancakes and the girl asks a question about her body or something and the parent starts giving an explanation while making an illustration with the pancake batter, including ovaries and fallopian tubes and of course a uterus. I remember thinking that the pancake looked more like a bull with long horns, but what ever. Why would a loving parent want to ruin the joy of eating pancakes for their child by doing something like that. Crazy people.
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So it seems I am not the only one who the pancake uterus made an impression on. I thought I would try googling "pancake uterus" and see if I could find the video. I didn't find the video but I did find a few references to the video and according to them the the girl was at a sleepover and it was the friend's mom who made the pancake uterus. One of the references said that after the anatomy lesson the dad ate the uterus, I mean pancake. I don't remember that part, but ewww.

Jamaica

When we got off of the boat in Falmouth Jamaica we were taken by bus one hour to Dunn's River Falls and to Dolphin Cove near Ocho Rios. First we stopped at Dunn's River falls. The pictures we took there are on a disposable water camera so to give an idea of what it's like I found these two pictures on the web. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. When you get there you walk down a bunch of steps to the beach then you join hands with your group and your guide and you walk up the water fall. It was so amazing and so much fun. After that we were off to Dolphin Cove to swim with the dolphins. They are so cute. The pictures are pretty self explanatory. We got to pet them and kiss them and be pulled by them. It was a really fun experience. I would love to do it again some time with my kids. After that we had lunch on the beach then headed back to the boat. It was probably my favorite day of the trip.