So I am thankful that the year of no TV is technically over now. This past week two of my kids have had equally awful, yet oddly different, health situations going on. Kara has been unable to stop coughing for like ten days now and Aven had the cough, got over it, spent a fair amount of time puking and has just been doing his very best to keep me busy for the past week. His main means of doing so has been by puking in his sleep four out of the past five nights. He will be fine all day long and then go to sleep and puke all over his bed. The amount of time I have spent decontaminating this place has been excruciating. As a result, I have not been reading, writing, running or relaxing much; instead I've just been cleaning and then when I get done cleaning I start all over again. And anyone who knows me, or has seen my house or van, knows that I am not known for my cleaning talents. I do think that perhaps all of my effort has paid off as nobody else has started vomitting in their sleep and the cough has not been passed on to anyone else either. Although, ironically, now that Aven is past the forty eight hour mark for his puking, it seems he has started coughing again.
I just thought I'd let everyone know that we are still alive and hopefully some day soon I will actually get to leave my house and venture out into the world of the living! There are a couple of silver linings in this crappy situation and those are that I am still healthy and that I have made a ton of progress on my book since I have been stuck here at the house and that I can seriously only clean so much before I start to go bonkers. On the flip side, the kids have watched more television and movies in the past week than they have watched in the past fourteen months combined which stresses me out a little, but if I don't keep them entertained with the television it seems they create more messes. Sometimes I just can't win, but I never quit. That's one of my best qualities.
Vern Out
Smith Kids MSU Tailgate
Dominica, Veronica, Rebel and Miranda
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Quick update
Today is one of those days. I have a ton of stuff going on today and I don't have a clear idea as to what I am going to write about this morning. I guess what I should share with everyone is that I have watched quite a bit of television the last couple of days some of it was with good cause (educational in nature) and some of it was just to take my mind off things. I have a good friend who just found out some pretty scary medical stuff and it has really led me to get a bit too philosophical and emotional this week. Therefore, last night I spent about an hour watching silly sitcoms. I guess sometimes television is a good thing because for that hour I didn't think about all of the emotional stuff going on with my friend. Today I am hoping to work on my book some more although this book writing is much more grueling than I ever imagined.
Last weekend Jeff and I watched Hot Tub Time Machine and I will just say that that is ninety minutes of my life that I am not getting back and I am not happy about that. I was disappointed that John Cusack would do such a ridiculous movie. We still are working out long term television watching rules. Still during the day the kids and I do not watch any television other than the Letter Facory which is aired each day at four when Kara gets off the school bus. It teaches letters to preschoolers and my kids are learning a lot so I feel okay allowing this one. I still have not fit in Ellen. I keep meaning to watch it, but it just never works out.
Vern Out
Last weekend Jeff and I watched Hot Tub Time Machine and I will just say that that is ninety minutes of my life that I am not getting back and I am not happy about that. I was disappointed that John Cusack would do such a ridiculous movie. We still are working out long term television watching rules. Still during the day the kids and I do not watch any television other than the Letter Facory which is aired each day at four when Kara gets off the school bus. It teaches letters to preschoolers and my kids are learning a lot so I feel okay allowing this one. I still have not fit in Ellen. I keep meaning to watch it, but it just never works out.
Vern Out
Friday, February 3, 2012
Still reading, writing and relaxing
I am still reading (I'm on book number 5 for the year!), writing (I'm on Chapter 7 of my book) and lately relaxing (I've been in the jetted tub twice in the past week) too! But I haven't been running. Actually I have not run in the past 72 hours and it feels very strange to not be running. After 58 days of consecutive days spent running, this is very strange indeed. Yesterday, I did ride on a stationary bike at the Aquatic Center. This biking outing was immediatly following four hours of heavy duty house cleaning at the old house. I needed a break and that felt strange as well to ride a bike instead of run, but I am trying to give my legs a true break from running. Tomorrow morning I will be back at it running my first organized race since the marathon when I take on the Fremont Frostbite 10K. I can't wait to lace up and hit the road. And depending on how things go I might just start up another streak. We'll see.
Today we are working to clean house, hang pictures and otherwise prepare to watch the Super Bowl with friends at our place. The kids are also on a Dino-sports mission. There is a really cute series of Dino-Basketball, Dino-Soccer, Dino-Baseball, Dino-Hockey etc, etc books that we have checked out of the library. We read Dino-Baseball this morning which totally got me in the mood for some Tigers Baseball. Sometimes, even though I despise television, I wish for cable television just to watch their games. However, WLAV does a great job broadcasting them on the radio so I just listen instead.
Anyhow, not much else happening here. Hazel was singing Jesus Loves Me atop the table the other day while we were here (at the library) but today she is silenced by the babies that she is helping to use the potty. If only she would start using the potty more regularly, then we could be a diaper free zone!
Vern out
Today we are working to clean house, hang pictures and otherwise prepare to watch the Super Bowl with friends at our place. The kids are also on a Dino-sports mission. There is a really cute series of Dino-Basketball, Dino-Soccer, Dino-Baseball, Dino-Hockey etc, etc books that we have checked out of the library. We read Dino-Baseball this morning which totally got me in the mood for some Tigers Baseball. Sometimes, even though I despise television, I wish for cable television just to watch their games. However, WLAV does a great job broadcasting them on the radio so I just listen instead.
Anyhow, not much else happening here. Hazel was singing Jesus Loves Me atop the table the other day while we were here (at the library) but today she is silenced by the babies that she is helping to use the potty. If only she would start using the potty more regularly, then we could be a diaper free zone!
Vern out
Monday, January 30, 2012
I got a facelift!
Friday night I was worried that we might get bored over the weekend because we had our first weekend in a very long time with no plans at all. Nothing pLANneD and I was still planning to entertain without the use of the television. Jeff was going to be gone all weekend working on the old house. In short, there was a whole lot of weekend and I was not feeling particularly creative or energetic and I was worried.
Well we ended up having a super fun sleepover with our cousins. Who would have guessed that adding three kids to the mix would actually make my life easier? I managed to fit in a run each day although it did involve running in place and then around our house repeatedly one day in order to do so. The kids really thought I had lost it, but before they knew what hit them, I had recruited them, and trained them and we were all running around the house singing silly songs and dancing along the way! They all ran 1.25 miles that day too!
I have one confession to make. In order to make it, I did have to lower my standards. My new minimum is 1.25 miles so that helped me to keep up the streak and that is the distance I ran each day this weekend. I still think it is pretty good; I am up to 57 days. And considering I also danced like an out of control rock star on Friday at the cardio dance class and did like a million leg lifts thanks to our super ambitious instructor, I was actually fairly sore all weekend and needed a bit of a break.
Anyhow, I also created an impressive ice cream parlor and the kids loved it! We had eight flavors and seven toppings and I think they liked it better than TCBY. My kids had no idea what an ice cream parlor was until I showed them and then they were so impressed that they kept asking for an icecream parlor all weekend. This morning they wanted ice cream parlor for breakfast! Don't worry we had oatmeal parlor instead! It wasn't as successful, but they did each each two servings!
So in short, I did not get a traditional facelift this weekend, but I did make myself feel younger and more energetic. If you are feeling old and run down, then you may want to fire up a good old-fashioned game of hide and seek with a bunch of kids a fraction of your age in order to revitalize you. This weekend was better than a facelift at making me feel better, younger. Well to be completely honest, I have never had a facelift so I can't really compare the two fairly, but still I felt really young and vibrant all weekend and it has carried over into Monday. Forget the face creams and botox; a good hide and seek will do the trick. I felt like I was 15 for a few hours this weekend as we all ran around our house in the dark playing hide and seek. Actually I am still feeling fresh and young today so the affects may be long lasting! Besides that the recovery time is nothing from hide and seek and like you have banages all over your face from the real stuff. Plastic surgeons, Revlon and Covergirl better all watch out!
Vern Out
Well we ended up having a super fun sleepover with our cousins. Who would have guessed that adding three kids to the mix would actually make my life easier? I managed to fit in a run each day although it did involve running in place and then around our house repeatedly one day in order to do so. The kids really thought I had lost it, but before they knew what hit them, I had recruited them, and trained them and we were all running around the house singing silly songs and dancing along the way! They all ran 1.25 miles that day too!
I have one confession to make. In order to make it, I did have to lower my standards. My new minimum is 1.25 miles so that helped me to keep up the streak and that is the distance I ran each day this weekend. I still think it is pretty good; I am up to 57 days. And considering I also danced like an out of control rock star on Friday at the cardio dance class and did like a million leg lifts thanks to our super ambitious instructor, I was actually fairly sore all weekend and needed a bit of a break.
Anyhow, I also created an impressive ice cream parlor and the kids loved it! We had eight flavors and seven toppings and I think they liked it better than TCBY. My kids had no idea what an ice cream parlor was until I showed them and then they were so impressed that they kept asking for an icecream parlor all weekend. This morning they wanted ice cream parlor for breakfast! Don't worry we had oatmeal parlor instead! It wasn't as successful, but they did each each two servings!
So in short, I did not get a traditional facelift this weekend, but I did make myself feel younger and more energetic. If you are feeling old and run down, then you may want to fire up a good old-fashioned game of hide and seek with a bunch of kids a fraction of your age in order to revitalize you. This weekend was better than a facelift at making me feel better, younger. Well to be completely honest, I have never had a facelift so I can't really compare the two fairly, but still I felt really young and vibrant all weekend and it has carried over into Monday. Forget the face creams and botox; a good hide and seek will do the trick. I felt like I was 15 for a few hours this weekend as we all ran around our house in the dark playing hide and seek. Actually I am still feeling fresh and young today so the affects may be long lasting! Besides that the recovery time is nothing from hide and seek and like you have banages all over your face from the real stuff. Plastic surgeons, Revlon and Covergirl better all watch out!
Vern Out
Thursday, January 26, 2012
God is good
This is like three week old news. Not that I watch a lot of television, but I have seen those clever commercials where everyone's cell phones are competing to have the best, most instantaneous updates at the office. Well I lose out on that competition big time with the breaking of this news. My cell phone is not fast either because it doesn't even have internet capabilties. Anyhow, this is like so three weeks ago and here's the story...
I threw the portable DVD player into the massive dumpster that has been parked outside our new house for the past six months. I did this in dramatic fashion too after Aven had destroyed its power cord. I wrote about my concern for his temper over the DVD player awhile back. And it just kept getting worse so I had packed the DVD player away under the seat. We were no longer going to use it unless we were driving over two hours. In case you didn't read the prior post, he would become what I would describe as being violent or at the very least agitated if we arrived places and he could not finish watching a show he had started and it was becoming a major problem since a majority of the places we frequent are within a five mile radius.
Anyhow, he snuck and pulled the DVD player out and in the process tore the cord apart. I am not sure if it was done maliciously or not because I was not there at the time. But it doesn't really matter. I have been teaching my children that when things become broken, we throw them away. I am hoping this will lead to them taking better care of their stuff. Anyhow, when I saw the damage he had done, I decided that we were really done with DVD players at least for a few years and I threw the whole thing into the dumpster. Problem solved. No more car movies and best of all Mommy's happy.
I haven't watched Rocky yet, but one of my book club friends is going to loan it to me so I will be watching it sometime in February. I suspect this will likely be my anniversary entertainment since Jeff is not exactly the Casanova type. On a somewhat related note, I did run Rocky style today with Stan and I while I still can't handle dragging downed trees with me, I am getting faster out on the trail.
Now a little God is good note. I had a very busy day. I had to paint and work all day at our old house (we're getting it ready to be rented out) and I had to volunteer at Kara's classroom as well. I bought a coffee and super yummy EcoTrek Fitness bar on my way to her school because I had not eaten lunch yet and I needed some nutrition. And after the bar was finished I found myself saying "God, I wish I had some kind of chocolate to go with the rest of this coffee" and low and behold I found a mini payday in my purse a few minutes later; the best part of the story is that the payday came from the Evergreen Ministries Women's Retreat I attended a couple weeks ago. I had completely forgotten about the candy they gave us. God really does work in some pretty amazing ways. Today it's candy bars, tomorrow it could be something even bigger!
Vern Out
I threw the portable DVD player into the massive dumpster that has been parked outside our new house for the past six months. I did this in dramatic fashion too after Aven had destroyed its power cord. I wrote about my concern for his temper over the DVD player awhile back. And it just kept getting worse so I had packed the DVD player away under the seat. We were no longer going to use it unless we were driving over two hours. In case you didn't read the prior post, he would become what I would describe as being violent or at the very least agitated if we arrived places and he could not finish watching a show he had started and it was becoming a major problem since a majority of the places we frequent are within a five mile radius.
Anyhow, he snuck and pulled the DVD player out and in the process tore the cord apart. I am not sure if it was done maliciously or not because I was not there at the time. But it doesn't really matter. I have been teaching my children that when things become broken, we throw them away. I am hoping this will lead to them taking better care of their stuff. Anyhow, when I saw the damage he had done, I decided that we were really done with DVD players at least for a few years and I threw the whole thing into the dumpster. Problem solved. No more car movies and best of all Mommy's happy.
I haven't watched Rocky yet, but one of my book club friends is going to loan it to me so I will be watching it sometime in February. I suspect this will likely be my anniversary entertainment since Jeff is not exactly the Casanova type. On a somewhat related note, I did run Rocky style today with Stan and I while I still can't handle dragging downed trees with me, I am getting faster out on the trail.
Now a little God is good note. I had a very busy day. I had to paint and work all day at our old house (we're getting it ready to be rented out) and I had to volunteer at Kara's classroom as well. I bought a coffee and super yummy EcoTrek Fitness bar on my way to her school because I had not eaten lunch yet and I needed some nutrition. And after the bar was finished I found myself saying "God, I wish I had some kind of chocolate to go with the rest of this coffee" and low and behold I found a mini payday in my purse a few minutes later; the best part of the story is that the payday came from the Evergreen Ministries Women's Retreat I attended a couple weeks ago. I had completely forgotten about the candy they gave us. God really does work in some pretty amazing ways. Today it's candy bars, tomorrow it could be something even bigger!
Vern Out
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Relax Vern relax
I had good intentions. I really did. I had the detailed plan that would allow me to read, write, run and relax my way through the year. Well so far I have only been partly successful. I have been doing great with the first three items on my list. The relaxing, however, has been a dismal failure (so far anyways). I really should have expected this since I have a hard time sitting still for more than five minutes, but for some reason I thought it would just happen. What I have learned is that relaxation doesn't just happen. You have to make relaxation happen; just like a workout, training for a marathon or any other lofty goal, relaxing is hard work.
Tonight I decided to get serious about this whole relaxing thing. Enough of this pussy footing around; I was gonna RELAX. And I needed it. I had spent all day chasing kids (my own and my sister's) around the FFA 100 Year Celebration in Fremont. Prior to that I supervised a visit to my grand parent's house. This is always interesting and proved to be just that. Among other things it involved a small dog chasing balls all over the house, a seriously impressive block fortress, a highly detailed lumber yard production operation and a fist fight. Just kidding, but it did at one point actually involve my son punching my Grandma; it was not that hard, but still I was mortified. At about four, I decided I had had enough and I needed to head home to relax. We hit the road once the van was loaded and the kids enticed into the van with treats. Bribery is a beautiful thing!
I then headed home with every intention of relaxing as soon as I got there only to have my eldest child start puking all over the van about ten minutes from home. Why couldn't the puking have started eleven minutes later when we were home? This of course warranted a thorough cleaning of our van and two loads of laundry, a decontamination bath and cooking of Chicken Noodle Soup. Thank goodness for Campbells and Lysol.
Once things settled down, my mind of course returned to thoughts of soaking in my jetted bath tub after a quick run which I needed to do solely for the purpose of preserving the streak. Had it not been day 49, I totally would have dismissed the possibility of a run. Anyhow, as soon as the kids were tucked in, I ran about two miles through the snow with Stan and headed home to my tub. Relaxing was sure to follow. I did fill it with piping hot water and sat in it for about a half an hour with the jets on high before I decided to go all out and actually shave my legs!
When I got out I realized that even relaxing doesn't come free. My tub was a mess from all the leg hairs. I then spent several minutes in various awkward positions trying to cleanse and dry the tub and its surrounding area. Given the amount of acrobatic maneuvers required to properly clean my tub, I really felt like cleaning it was just another workout. It resembled yoga. And I was still naked at the time. Wrapped hastily in a towel, but naked nonetheless. What I really need is a young Latino to be my tub boy. That would be really cool; and that would really help to improve my relaxing goal for the year. I did have every intention to keep on relaxing until Kara just woke up with a night terror and now I am helping to soothe her while I try to type one handed. And she just started puking again. I better go. I have too much to do tonight. Looks like any further relaxing will have to wait until later. Relaxation is not in the cards for me tonight after all. At least I tried.
Vern Out
Tonight I decided to get serious about this whole relaxing thing. Enough of this pussy footing around; I was gonna RELAX. And I needed it. I had spent all day chasing kids (my own and my sister's) around the FFA 100 Year Celebration in Fremont. Prior to that I supervised a visit to my grand parent's house. This is always interesting and proved to be just that. Among other things it involved a small dog chasing balls all over the house, a seriously impressive block fortress, a highly detailed lumber yard production operation and a fist fight. Just kidding, but it did at one point actually involve my son punching my Grandma; it was not that hard, but still I was mortified. At about four, I decided I had had enough and I needed to head home to relax. We hit the road once the van was loaded and the kids enticed into the van with treats. Bribery is a beautiful thing!
I then headed home with every intention of relaxing as soon as I got there only to have my eldest child start puking all over the van about ten minutes from home. Why couldn't the puking have started eleven minutes later when we were home? This of course warranted a thorough cleaning of our van and two loads of laundry, a decontamination bath and cooking of Chicken Noodle Soup. Thank goodness for Campbells and Lysol.
Once things settled down, my mind of course returned to thoughts of soaking in my jetted bath tub after a quick run which I needed to do solely for the purpose of preserving the streak. Had it not been day 49, I totally would have dismissed the possibility of a run. Anyhow, as soon as the kids were tucked in, I ran about two miles through the snow with Stan and headed home to my tub. Relaxing was sure to follow. I did fill it with piping hot water and sat in it for about a half an hour with the jets on high before I decided to go all out and actually shave my legs!
When I got out I realized that even relaxing doesn't come free. My tub was a mess from all the leg hairs. I then spent several minutes in various awkward positions trying to cleanse and dry the tub and its surrounding area. Given the amount of acrobatic maneuvers required to properly clean my tub, I really felt like cleaning it was just another workout. It resembled yoga. And I was still naked at the time. Wrapped hastily in a towel, but naked nonetheless. What I really need is a young Latino to be my tub boy. That would be really cool; and that would really help to improve my relaxing goal for the year. I did have every intention to keep on relaxing until Kara just woke up with a night terror and now I am helping to soothe her while I try to type one handed. And she just started puking again. I better go. I have too much to do tonight. Looks like any further relaxing will have to wait until later. Relaxation is not in the cards for me tonight after all. At least I tried.
Vern Out
Friday, January 20, 2012
Rocky
Lately when I have been running out in this less than desirable winter weather, I have been seeing clips from Rocky playing in my head. It really pumps me up and makes me feel invinsible when I think that I am running through the rugged, snow covered woods just like Rocky did! If only I could figure out a way to stack some fallen trees on my shoulders while I run, then I would be really buff; then I'd be Rocky tough. I just keep waiting for The Eye of the Tiger to blast out over the winter wonderland filling the air with something other than bitter cold, but so far it hasn't happened. Maybe tomorrow. Anyhow, I have been running in the inclement weather often enough that I have gone and gotten myself in the mood to watch Rocky.
This is quite strange to me since I have never actually watched the entire movie, just bits and pieces here and there. I may just do it too; I might just sit and watch Rocky sometime soon. I bet I can even rent it from the library so Jeff won't complain about how much it costs! Praise God for this! For the most part, I still do not watch television and if I do happen to watch something our blog followers are the first to know. So if indulge and I do watch Rocky it will be a true treat and you will hear all about it! Maybe I can get some ideas of how to spice up my workout by watching it. I will consider it research.
Today we did a courses lunch. This means that I serve the kids little dabs of all the leftovers in the fridge to clear it out. In order to make the whole thing seem more exciting I label it a course meal; makes it seem fancier I guess because it works every time with my kids. They were so excited and ate so good that I treated them to a viewing of the alphabet video that Miranda passed on to me. It is a half hour show that helps the kids learn their letters and the sounds that each letter makes. And it works. Those songs sure are catchy; I've been singing G says guh, D says duh and P says puh for the past 15 minutes (among others).
This weekend the kids and I are heading to Fremont to spend some quality time with my family, visit my Grandparents and attend the FFA's 100 year celebration at the high school. I will likely find myself running through some more winter weather. While I run, I am sure I will either be singing the Rocky theme song or alphabet jingles. But I am not complaining. At least I am healthy enough to run and motivated enough to have run 48 consecutive days (and counting).
Vern out
This is quite strange to me since I have never actually watched the entire movie, just bits and pieces here and there. I may just do it too; I might just sit and watch Rocky sometime soon. I bet I can even rent it from the library so Jeff won't complain about how much it costs! Praise God for this! For the most part, I still do not watch television and if I do happen to watch something our blog followers are the first to know. So if indulge and I do watch Rocky it will be a true treat and you will hear all about it! Maybe I can get some ideas of how to spice up my workout by watching it. I will consider it research.
Today we did a courses lunch. This means that I serve the kids little dabs of all the leftovers in the fridge to clear it out. In order to make the whole thing seem more exciting I label it a course meal; makes it seem fancier I guess because it works every time with my kids. They were so excited and ate so good that I treated them to a viewing of the alphabet video that Miranda passed on to me. It is a half hour show that helps the kids learn their letters and the sounds that each letter makes. And it works. Those songs sure are catchy; I've been singing G says guh, D says duh and P says puh for the past 15 minutes (among others).
This weekend the kids and I are heading to Fremont to spend some quality time with my family, visit my Grandparents and attend the FFA's 100 year celebration at the high school. I will likely find myself running through some more winter weather. While I run, I am sure I will either be singing the Rocky theme song or alphabet jingles. But I am not complaining. At least I am healthy enough to run and motivated enough to have run 48 consecutive days (and counting).
Vern out
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