Spring has Sprung, Let's Go Run!

 This morning I had a ten mile run to log. I could not have asked for a better morning, it was 55 degrees and misting. It was so refreshing! I was having such a good run I probably went a little too fast. My legs have been telling me that all day. This was my first ten miler of the year and I felt good the whole time. Good start with a half coming up in early April!

With all the rain we had today we also got a pretty great rainbow! My camera phone didn't do it justice.
It's been a pretty great weekend and all very unexpected. On a whim Kelly and I decided to go to the Big 12 Tournament championship game. Tickets got reasonable Saturday morning so we decided to just do it!
It was a lot of fun and I was so happy to see our boys cut down the nets. West Virginia gave them a good game but the Hawks came out on top! I'm looking forward to the Big Dance with this team. They are very special!

Our seats were pretty high up but we  found some closer seats for the trophy ceremony! 

Perry was the last one to cut down the net. We were all chanting his name! 

Just as exciting Friday night I finished sewing my Pajama pants! They are
sooooooooooo comfy! 

Teaching Stranger Danger

One of the perks of being a 4-H Agent's kid is you get to
go to a lot of 4-H meetings! 

We have really been enjoying the warmer weather by playing outside everyday! Daryl has been making obstacle courses for his bike and Alex has been swinging on the new swing set.
On Sunday Daryl had to go to two church services because Kelly sang at 8:30 but he was ringing bells at 11:00. Kelly took Daryl back to church and I stayed home with Alex.
I had some picking up to do inside the house so Alex went to the backyard to play by himself. I was keeping an eye on him and for the most part he was just swinging and the swing set is pretty close to the house.

At some of these meetings you get cool swag like fish
of Kansas trading cards!
PS-His fingernail is not black, I painted it.
He asked me to, and it's fun! 

I looked out again and he was chasing Purl and throwing leaves on her. She looked like she was enjoying the game so I didn't go outside. Alex went all the way to the edge of the yard to get more leaves and I noticed a walker with his dog in the cemetery behind our house. This is not unusual but Alex being out by the fence by himself was new. I moved to the sun room and kept watching. The man walked by and I don't think Alex even knew he was there.
I finished up what I was doing and then headed out to push Alex on the swings. I decided to have the "stranger" chat with him.

Me-Alex if a stranger tries to talk to you through the fence you need to run up to the house, ok?
Alex-What would the stranger say?
Me-I don't know they might just say hi or they might ask you to go with them to get ice cream.
Alex-Ice Cream! The stranger would take me to ice cream?!
Me-No Alex, they would just say that to get you away from mom and dad.
Alex-But then we would get Ice Cream!
Me-No Alex, there is no Ice Cream, they just want to take you.
Alex-Oh, Ok.
Me-So if a stranger tries to talk to you, run back up to the house, ok?
Alex-Ok, and you take me to Ice Cream.
Me-Let's just swing.
Alex-OK!
Also on Sunday Daryl and I took a run/ bike ride through the cemetery. I got in two miles and we had a very nice talk about Papa Daryl. If you don't know Daryl is names after my Dad who died when I was 20. The two never got to meet.
Daryl asked what he has is common with Papa Daryl. I gave him the following list:
You are both kind
You both laugh at funny things
You are both very good singers
and you are both very very smart
Daryl was pretty happy to know he is so like his namesake, made me pretty darn happy too!

I've made a parenting error, again.

A picture of the kid who is going to ruin Easter Bunny for everyone! 

So I don't feel great about lying to the boys, but we ALL DO IT. So we have Santa under control because he only brings one gift and it's always a very reasonable practical gift. Mom and Dad's gift is always the good gift. As it should be, Santa should not bring your kid an IPad while he only brings the neighbor kid a coloring book. (This post is not about that soap box that I do get on every December.)
Where I have really shot myself in the foot is with that da** Easter Bunny. Actually, this might be more Kelly's fault than mine, follow me here.
Two weeks ago Daryl was going to the store to spend his allowance. He had saved a few weeks so he had $15 bucks. Kelly felt bad for Alex because every time Daryl goes to spend his allowance Alex doesn't get anything. I am TOTALLY OK with that. Alex whines but he knows that Daryl does chores and the money he is spending is from working. When I take Daryl for this errand I usually con Daryl into getting some candy too that he can share with Alex in the car.
Done, Everyone is Happy, and I didn't have to Buy Anything!
Well Kelly had a different plan and without consulting with me he cleaned out Alex's piggy bank and came up with about twenty bucks so Alex could get a toy too.
Before you go congratulating Kelly on such a great idea think about how many times Alex gets money in his piggy bank. TWICE a year, money only gets into that little pig on his birthday and Christmas. Do you see the picture that is being painted here. Alex is so happy with his Legos for one day, he is three. That happened on a Saturday and Sunday Alex was crying to go back to the store. We told him he was out of money, crying continues because he wants more Legos.
The Candy strategy is now out the window, this kid only wants Legos. And before you think chores and allowances for Alex I've considered that.We only started doing allowance with Daryl when he turned 5 and Daryl's chores are not throw away jobs. They help me everyday as they are all things I would have to do if he wasn't doing them. I don't think Alex can do those types of things just yet and I don't want to pay him for nothing, that's not how the world works.
So in a moment of weakness I told him maybe the Easter Bunny would bring him some Legos. WHY DID I DO THAT! EASTER IS SO FAR AWAY! So now every day I get asked "Is it Easter? Did the Easter Bunny bring me Legos?"
Last night he was talking about the Easter Bunny bringing him three Legos sets and I had to lay down the law, "Alex, the Easter Bunny is not like winning the lottery. You are getting one toy, underwear and candy. And you know mom is going to eat half your candy."
Ugh, that still hasn't stopped the constant, "Is it Easter yet?" If we make it to Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, without me calling BS on the Easter Bunny it really will be a divine miracle.
I am not a strong person, these fictional characters that keep our kids kids, get harder and harder for me every year. I need a moment, or a beer. Scratch that. I need a moment and beer and hot tub!

After owning this thing for four years we finally turned it on! Kelly is still working on the chemical balance, hope to get in it tonight! 

House Projects!

First off, people it was 80 degrees today! It was amazing!! I got to do my long run outside around Lake Shawnee. Lake Shawnee is such a treasure for Topeka.  The trail all the way around is 6.75 miles. I know because I ran it today, I needed seven miles so I went a little bit over once around. I've never run all the way around the lake so I was pretty proud of myself.
Before my run Alex and I had a picnic in the backyard. Turns out you can have a picnic with leftover Chinese food and cheerios. We couldn't waste the day eating indoors.
While we were eating lunch outside we were also supervising the work being done on the new swing set. The boys got this set for Christmas but we were waiting for it to be nice to put it together. It wasn't going to get much nicer than today!
Alex was over the moon about it, he kept calling it a tree house but said over and over, "Dad I love my tree house!"





Kelly got a lot of projects done this week as he took a well deserved week off. We had originally planned on finishing the kitchen this week but the cabinets were not in. Kelly is not one to just hang out so he made another list he could knock out. He raked up all the leaves, painted the kitchen, did some drywall, got an oil change, hung some pictures and shuffled the boys wherever they needed to be. Good Job Kelly! I have put some photos in to show the progress in the Kitchen. Our freezer stopped working in November and that is when we found out it was six thousand dollars to replace.


That was JUST FOR THE FREEZER! So we decided to get a more traditional fridge and freezer but that left us with a big hole. So we are going to put two new cabinets in, one where the trash compactor was and a bottom cabinet for where the freezer was.
We are also planning on replacing the floor tile. At this point we are stuck until the cabinets come in. That date is March 6th, lets hope that happens so we can use spring break for the floors and cabinets!

Here is the closest thing I could find to a before picture with the old fridge and freezer. They had paneling on them so they looked like the cabinets. They were huge!

Here is the new fridge! Here it sits in the middle of where the old fridge and freezer was.

This is what it looks like behind the old fridge and freezer. Yuck! 

After a couple days of work Kelly has the drywall in and it is painted. Yay! This is not the finished picture, this is just the primer.  

4-H Club Days!

Today was our County Club Days. This event is where youth get to practice public performance and it is one of my favorite 4-H events. I liked public speaking when I was younger so I really like being able to recognize and build that skill in youth.
Daryl did Club Days last year as a Clover Bud but this year he was able to participate in many many different events as a 4-H'er; he could sing, he could act, he could read a poem, the sky was the limit! He did two events. :-)
He was the mayor in our 4-H club skit, he looked very much the part. He also did his first project talk on, "How to get your dog to sit." This is his first year in the dog project so that is really the only thing he knows how to do at this point.
He kept putting off working on his talk and finally on Wednesday I said you have to do this now because you signed up for it and I won't let you scratch out of the event. So he wrote it on Wednesday, practiced once on Thursday and once on Friday. You can have a poster with your project talk but we barely got the talk part done!
He did so good at home looking at us and ad libbing. Today was a different story. He was very quiet and would not look up from his paper. Oh well, you have to start somewhere! He got a red ribbon which means we have a lot of room for upper mobility!
It was a good day and a good event. I am glad that it is over for another year and hopefully I can talk Daryl into participating more next year!

Daryl's New Hobby

We have had a pretty good week at the Manor. After a year of watching YouTube videos of other kids playing with WWE action figures Daryl decided he could do that too. He now has three videos out there so feel free to subscribe to my channel where I post them. If he has his way he would make one every night so you will get regular content from this guy! 

The other fun thing that happened this week is Kelly and I got to go to the KU vs KSU Men's Basketball game. It was great! We haven't been to a game in five years so we decided to just go for it. Allen Fieldhouse was magical as always and the Jayhawks got the W. It can be hard for me to root for my team because I work for K-State, but keep in mind I like BOTH Universities! I just cheer for my alma mater in sports. ;-) 

We are looking forward to the Super Bowl on Sunday. Believe it or not but Daryl has been cheering for the Panthers all season so he is excited they made it to the big game. He plans to wear his lucky panthers hat!