i have a tooth that hurts and i'm scared to go find out why.

i have an eyeball that is always sore and i'm scared they will tell me years of serious contact abuse are now going to cause me to wear glasses forever.

i have a back and two hips that hurt so much it's hard to sleep and i'm afraid they will tell me to stop running.

i have so many weird looking freckles i'm afraid they will tell me to never go out in the sun again.

i have a toe with a blister on it the size of the toe and i'm afraid they will need to amputate to make it feel better.

i have no desire to face any of this. sigh.

instead, i will buy super cool mouthwash and hope that the stuff in it cures my tooth. i will start actually taking my contacts out at night. i will suck down ibuprofen like candy. i will wear really good sunscreen. i'll pop that blister and i'm sure it will go away soon.

it's what the cavemen had to do and they turned out just fine, right?

he he.

happy weekend!

here's the thing about running.

i'm not a runner. i'm really slow. it's really hard. but there is this huge sense of being able to accomplish something tough when you run through those mental walls. and the feeling you get when you are done. and the way your brain just lets go of everything and concentrates on breathing and the music and the sunshine (or rain).

i am not a runner, but i believe in the power of running. i have seen 8-year-old girls light up the world with smiles at the end of a 5K they didn't think they could finish. i have seen my own niece, who is 9-years-old, fly through a 5K in 24 minutes. she wants to run a 10K in 2 weeks with me, and i have no doubt she'll be waiting for me at the finish line.

yesterday, after Easter dinner, all the kids in the extended family decided to run a 5K to train for the cancer run we're all signing up for in a couple of weeks. we are running on behalf of my husband's sister, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last november. i think about 20 family members are going to participate. anyway, the kids wanted to practice, since most of them don't run. we had our doubts about some of them, so my sister-in-law and i drove the sag wagon and a few other people hopped on four-wheelers. my brother-in-law led 12 kids down the streets of our town. all of them made it. every single one of them. and not one of them complained about it--in fact, the determination they had to finish was motivating. NOW they are all talking about practicing for the next few weeks so they do even better.

who knew 7-year-old kids could run like that?

if you were a j boy, these are the things you would have been doing this week:

*if you were a big j, you would have played your recorder at a pork feed fundraiser for the school. if you've never heard 40 recorders playing "Hot Cross Buns" at the same time, you are seriously missing out. if you've never eaten school fundraiser pork sandwiches, you are also seriously missing out.

*if you were a little j, you would have completely thrown dog obedience class into a tailspin by throwing your toy football into the air during the "stay without a leash" portion of class.

*if you were a big j, you would have given a demonstration speech on the game of chess and gotten a 100%, because despite your shy nature, you somehow love giving speeches.

*if you were a little j, you would have won the Stanley Cup at your hockey practice. then, you would have crashed into the boards carrying the big, plastic Stanley Cup over your head and it would have broken. and your dad would fix the base of it by spray painting a plastic bowl silver and gluing it back on.

*if you were j boys, you would make your mom jump on the trampoline and tell her how awesome it is when she jumps because her weight makes you go really high.

*you would also jump on the trampoline for hours and not want to go to bed on a school night.

*if you were a little j, you would act really cool in front of your friends and play hard with boys older than you and not hug your mom at school...but you would still want to sleep with a stuffed pig and a bunny every night.

*if you were a big j, you would tell your dad you love him twice in one night, and then you would turn around and tell your cat the same thing.

*if you were j boys, you would have talked your mom into buying "oops all berries" captain crunch cereal and it would have turned the milk greenish blue and you would dare your mom to drink it.

and she would.

today's girls on the run lesson:

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Dr. Seuss

oh, the temptation.

as some of you know, karen is on vacation at the beach but she left some archived blog posts she wanted me to post on her site while she is gone. she also left me keys to her facebook page so i can link the post there for all her facebook friends.

you have no idea how tempting this is.

with access to her blog and her facebook account, do you realize the fun i could have?

i do.

i could post something about giving away all her shoes. or i could invite everyone over to here house for a 5-course meal. or i could tell them about the time...ah, never mind. anyway, i decided she must REALLY trust me to hand over all her passwords like that. i probably better stick to the script.

unless.

unless she actually secretly WANTED me to have a little fun with this. which, knowing karen, she would. i think she secretly wants me to write something on her blog. maybe an old story. something funny, but not too embarrassing. i think i know a few of those.

i mean, really. why else would she give me access?

he he he.

changing things up on a dreary monday. here is a list of my favorite "things," in no particular order. we're not talking things of substance here. otherwise, ya'll would be on the list.:)


1. Tostitos multigrain chips. Get them by the bushel and eat them with homemade pico de gallo. Yummy.
2. Windex "Crystal Rain" scented cleaning stuff. It really does smell good!
3. Woolite Pet Oxygen carpet cleaner. Again, it smells good. You'll probably like it even if you don't have pets.
4. Woodwick "Caramel" scented candles. Ok, yeah. They smell good. But the smell lasts forever, even after you blow the thing out. These candles were introduced to me by my good friend Sara, who runs a daycare in her house and uses them to cover up the smell of kid poop. They work.
5. Viva paper towels. Everything else feels like paper. These feel like towels. As far as I know, though, they don't smell like anything.
6. Gap brand sweatpants. They are fleecy and soft and long enough for long legs. They aren't too heavy or too light. Awesome "home" pants.
7. Under Armour t-shirts. The 100% cotton stuff doesn't even compare. These shirts feel good and they never ever get wrinkled.
8. Febreeze pumpkin spice spray. You have to buy this in the fall because it's a limited edition thing. I bought about 8 cans and I'm down to my last one, thanks to hockey bags that need sprayed about 10 times a day.
9. Bath and body lip stuff. I use it like crack cocaine.
10. Mtn. Dew. Straight up.

i have a good friend who always hosts me. she has this great kitchen where people gather around her center island, and then she just stands there pouring drinks and dishing out amazing food while my kids disappear downstairs, never to be seen or heard from again.

it's awesome.

tonite, i have decided to host her. i initially invited her over for "a beer" so she could check out my kitchen tile and we could talk about her upcoming tiling project. low key, no pressure. then she texted back "i will bring dip."

dip?

oh. right. we might want some food to go with that "a beer".

chips, dip and a beer. but what if she wants something sweet? i will make some cookies. what if she is on a diet? i will put out a veggie tray. what if she doesn't want beer? i will get a bottle of wine. maybe two kinds of beer--a light and a dark. and maybe bottled water. that should do it.

i will also make a cheese and a veggie pizza in case "a beer" turns into "a dinner."

and there is a chance her husband's baseball practice might be canceled since it is snowing out. that means he will come over too. i better get some more chips, he loves chips. and maybe some bread sticks. and more beer.

and both kids will come if there is no baseball, which means we have to stash all the pets since her son is very allergic. and i also better de-fuzz the house with a serious vacuuming and dusting. and they might want some different snacks to eat. better pick up some fun little treats.

i better get going. i have to get ready to have a beer with one of my very good friends tonite.

:)

i have been hit from several directions lately about building people up instead of ripping them down. about how very powerful words are. about how important it is to listen--really listen. yesterday one of the coaches at girls on the run told the girls they need to listen with their eyes, ears and hearts. meaning they need to actually CARE about what others are saying.

we did this exercise where one girl sat in the middle to tell the coach a story. she was telling about her weekend, and the coach began to look around and then she picked up a notebook and started writing and then she interrupted the girl and then she looked at her watch. it was amazing to watch the little girl. she started out really animated and excited, but she started stuttering and feeling very unsure of herself. she stopped talking several times and forgot what she was saying, and kept saying the same sentence over and over. you could see her deflate like a balloon.

then the coach had another little girl sit in the circle. she gave her full attention, nodded her head, laughed appropriately, asked key questions. this little girl felt good about her story and you could tell.

we talked about it at the end. the first girl said she felt "like the coach didn't care about me." and the second girl said she felt "like i mattered."

just something to think about, especially when it comes to kids. and husbands. and wives. and co-workers. and the sample lady at the grocery store...you know?

we just spent the weekend at the Schwan's SuperRink in Blaine, Minnesota. it's the nation's largest ice arena, with 8 rinks under one roof. when we walked up to the door, big j said, "i don't know about you guys, but i just got the chills." it was a pretty cool place for a kid to play hockey-the place is really fancy. little j played his first tourney with his AAA South Dakota team, four games. they won two and lost two, but all were very competitive. we kind of thought his team would get killed since it's a brand new program for South Dakota, but the kids looked like they belonged there. he did well--scored a couple of goals and had a nice assist. he also got to be part of a shoot-out and he scored on the goalie. mostly, i think he just had fun making new friends. i wish i had his friend-making skills. the kid can walk into a room and know everyone's name in five minutes. we are the only family from our town on the team, so we went into the weekend not knowing a soul. at least after this weekend we'll know if the people sitting around us are for our team or against us :)

i also got to see some of my old college friends while we were up there. shelly, jill, nancy and i got together at shelly's for a couple hours on saturday afternoon. it was great to see everyone, and some of the kids were there too. looking forward to our "real" girls weekend in june.

sorry about the boringness of this post. i am TIRED and need to get rolling on my day. and no, no pictures. i forgot my camera. i really need to buy a video cam, too. it would have been nice to get josh's shoot-out goal on video, his kids might want to see some of this stuff someday...

happy monday.

we're about to go wildly random here. hold on tight.

1. my laptop is 7 years old. the keyboard letters D F H L C B N M and A are all at least partially rubbed off. H, N and B are totally blank. thing about typing is, once you know where the letters are, you don't need them. the typing teacher who told me i would never amount to anything would be shocked to see that i type every day for a living, without even needing letters on the keys. take that, mrs. schneider.

2. rani got us a housewarming gift when we moved. it is a blanket we call mr. softie, and we fight over it all the time. the whole family. including the cat. i have been wanting to tell her how much that blanket means to us. that blanket is the only reason anyone ever wants to cuddle with me.

3. the hound had obedience class again last night. she was doing well, but big j still had a hard time pulling back on her leash when she decided she wanted to sniff a passing butt. the instructor had her wear The Gentle Leader, and poor crosby was a ball of shame. a very docile, obedient ball of shame, but a ball of shame nonetheless. a little background here. The Gentle Leader is a leash contraption that goes behind her ears and around her snout. instead of yanking on her neck, big j simply pulled her nose and she did whatever, immediately. karen uses The Gentle Leader on molly dog and i saw the same look of shameful acceptance on molly's face. (i might have taken molly for a walk and removed The Gentle Leader as soon as we were out of sight.) i felt bad for crosby the entire class, but i was also amazed at how quickly she settled down for big j. karen is probably right, but i still think other dogs make fun of dogs who wear TGL. it brings back flashbacks of me having to wear moon boots in seventh grade. i just can't do that to her.

4. the husband has this entire week off. i prepared a big "to do" list in anticipation. things like "organize basement" and "clean up yard" and "re-grout shower". it is wednesday. so far he has worked-out for about 10 hours, jumped on the trampoline, played baseball, gone swimming and hit hockey pucks in the driveway. he has been eyeballing the kayaks and fishing poles. sigh. i married the movie Big. i wish my mom would come back and whip this place into shape :)

5. on that note, i DID clean out the closets on sunday and i have 5 bags of clothing to take to the Goodwill. i hid them in the back of the explorer so the husband wouldn't have a chance to rescue his flannel from 1984 or his levi cut-off jean shorts from that same year. pretty sure he wore the same two items together on occasion. he discovered the bags last night and nearly started crying when i drove away without letting him look. i promised him that Woody and Buzz were not in the pile.

that's about it for my randomness. happy wednesday!

today in our area it is Random Acts of Kindness day, according to the Christian radio station i have on. people are paying for cars behind them in the drive-thru--i just heard that six cars in a row were lined up paying for people behind them.

i think Random Acts of Kindness Day is so much better than April Fools Day, don't you?

we had April Fools Day going on left and right around here this morning. big j told the husband there was dog poop all over the kitchen. little j told big j it was actually saturday. the husband told big j that germany really won world war II. little j walked around the house giggling all morning trying to think of good "tricks." i found a baby carrot in my shoe. the cat ended up in big j's backpack. you get the picture.

anywhoo. Random Acts of Kindness Day. on your marks, get set...go!