Parkrun 5k with Liam (12.28.24)

Liam and I ran our first 5k together. Liam did run/walk even though he initially said he wanted to run the entire thing. It was very rainy. 

Before we started, Liam made friends with all the dogs. He said hi to all of them while on course. He got high 5s 

I wish I got more pictures of the dogs. Also at the race, I remember all the dog names but now I don't.

Since it was Liam's first 5k, he got to ring the bell. But he also did really well. The last .25 or so he really slowed down but I'm impressed. 

This was NRC but I guess maybe I started it late or maybe it auto paused. I'm not sure how it's under 50 minutes. 

He played on the swing after. 

I hit lap each time we ran and each time we walked so I could update it to see how long he walked. 

IT was pretty fun to look at the official stats compared to the watch run and walking stats. 

Liam was really interested in doing more 5k. There was one on January 1 but I talked him out of going because I was just so tired and I had run so much the previous week and my knees were bothering me. 

I was disappointed there was no official race photographer. There usually is but it's all volunteers so they just didn't happen to have one. 

Beach

We have been going to the beach a lot this summer but this was our first trip to a much closer beach. I compiled a quick video.  Overall the sand area was super small but Liam still had fun and managed. 

Dealing with 3 kids with 3 different swim abilities is not easy with just 1 adult. 

The beach has lifeguards and also life vests you can borrow until 6 pm and then you are on your own. 

Wild Waves

I've taken the kids to the water park and theme park a few times.  I compiled videos twice but we went more than twice. Here we went on 7/12 and 7/16. 

 I made a short on youtube so I can't embed that here very well. 

I took 3 kids so we didn't go in the pool and then I took 2 kids while Liam was at preschool and we only swam. Traffic was really bad so we took more time driving to and from than we got to spend there in order to get home in time to get Liam from preschool. 

A day in the life ... (1/31/23)

It's been about 5 years since I did a day in the life post. I randomly thought about how I should type today.  Google paid storage is too full so I don't have photos backed up so this will be without photos. 

7:20 alarm went off and I hit snooze. 

7:50-8:30 Got dressed and getting the kids ready for school. 

Photobooked until Liam woke up (20 min or so)

Got Liam ready for school

Grocery store

Dropped Liam off at school.  (~10:30) 

Drove home forget what I did 

Left for Trader Joe's

Got home, unpacked, groceries, immediately headed to a meeting. 

Meeting location had to change on the fly since the Library isn't open. 

Meeting until 12:45. 

Drove home, wiped off the counters, put a frozen meal in the microwave and did follow-up to the meeting. 

Ate and did follow-up to meeting.

Drove to where I pick up the kids. Ran. Had to cut the run short since I didn't have enough time. 

Picked up the kids, listened to some jokes from Ella, took a shower, did some dental insurance stuff, emptied garbages, went and got Liam. Then I put in laundry since he had an accident during nap at school. 

Dinner prep, dinner, photobooked while delaying going downstairs for Liam's bedtime. The kids complained about dinner but did better eating compared to normal. Also before dinner was ready, I gave them fruit and they ate 1.5 containers of strawberries that I just bought today. Had issues with photoboking and it took longer. I finished February 2020 in my photobooking.

Got Liam ready for bed but he's awake and I typed this at 10 pm.  He will probably go to sleep by 11 pm and I realize I have to do 1 more workout to hit my January goal so I guess after he's asleep that's what I'm doing. 

I feel like I had no time but old Day in the life posts were worse since I can sleep almost 8 hours and before I couldn't.  (I try all the time to photobook and usually photobook twice a month but I managed to do a little 2 days in a row.) 

New Shelves (2022)

In September and October, we built shelves. It way longer than I expected. It was hard with all the kid interruptions. 

Now it's been done for 2 months and I still barely have containers in there. The little support blocks actually make it more difficult to put containers in and out. Also it's pretty deep so other things fit.  It's so hot in there or humid so all the taped on labels or sticker labels have fallen off so it makes it fun to try to find what I need. I think I'll do what Beth told me she did and just write with sharpie on the lid on the few things that will always be in the containers.

I actually had 18 minutes of video so I trimmed a bunch to include just different steps. 

I took notes every step of the way with what time we did things or stopped for the day. I didn't look at it when recording voice over and I still haven't looked at it since the day I wrote it. I should take pics of it though.

2022 Week 1/52 photo

Every weekend, I do laundry. I do a ton and separate it by person and then also towels. I find it easier to sort first then just fold each person separately. Liam likes to hang out in bed and watch TV while I do it. He always climbs under the covers when he does it. 

Note those little laundry baskets are perfect to have each kid have one. 

Photo Taken January 9.

2021 Week 52/52 photo

Liam sees me stretching after my runs os much he went to stretch. I thought it was cute. 

Photo Taken December 31.

9/16/22 instastories

I recently worked on my 2021 photobooking and I loved the photos I had put captions on for instastories so I knew the story and it was already typed so I decided to post some instastories even though I hadn't in so long. 

The painter came to finish. Liam watched his iPad while I photobooked. We went for a run. Liam fell asleep in the stroller. Dave worked on woodworking after work. And so much more.

Liam Drew (8.31.22)

Liam decided to draw Pap-Pap some pictures for his birthday. Then he wanted to mail them so we did.  I should have been cleaning but he was just too cute. 

Snow (4.3.21)

I kept trying to go to the snow but Dave didn't want to go. I decided it was the last weekend to try to go so we would go. I would go without Dave and take all 3 kids. At the last minute Dave decided to go so we all went.  We went to Arnold. It was so warm and there wasn't a lot of snow.   Dave did our taxes on his laptop in the car. 

We left a bit later than I wanted. We had to have bathroom breaks and one added 20 minutes since there wasn't anywhere to go.  We arrived at a lookout at 12:45 and walked and played until 2:45. Miles had the most fun. Ella might have had more fun if she put on her snow pants. I wished I had snow pants since it was so wet sledding.

We drove a little further out to see what Bear Valley was.  It wasn't even that much further. 

By 3:30 PM all the kids were asleep. Two woke up when Dave needed a bathroom break. Then the third woke up at the next bathroom break. 

Near 6 PM we stopped for ice cream. Now it was cold and the kids wore the winter coats that they didn't wear in the snow. Liam liked the ice cream. He also would eat the cone. The other 2 kids won't.

I finally got Dave to drive so he drove the last 30 minutes home. It was so much more pleasant being the passenger. On the way home the kids were asking to go to snow tomorrow.

(I wrote this entire post over a year ago but didn't add the pictures!)

I took some videos but either never compiled it or didn't upload it to youtube but you can see the videos on the google album. 

Memories Together

Google sometimes creates slide shows of some theme with a collage at the end. They never save. It always fails. I think my google hates me. It's always so close to full and I'm always deleting. Auto backup won't upload.  But sometimes I can share the collage with someone else. Today I shared it with myself, then tried to save it. That still failed. But then I logged into to my other account I shared it with, and I was able to save it from there.   So here you go "Memories together" is a bunch of family pictures.... mostly before Liam. 

The top row is new born photos, 6 mo photos, and 1 year photos for Miles. Most I don't easily know off the top of my head. 

Google had the dates so I typed them below. 

1. September 17, 2016
2. March 25, 2017
3. August 26, 2017
4. Oct 7, 2017 - Idlewild
5. Nov 4, 2017
6. Nov 26 2017 - Christmas card photos
7. March 24, 2018 - protest 
8. August 5, 2018 - Cooking 
9. Dec 1, 2018 
10. Dec 25, 2018
11. March 3, 2019 - Pregnancy photos 
12. May 5, 2019
13. Oct 22, 2020
14. Dec 13, 2020 - Christmas Card photos
15. May 15, 2021

Down By the Bay Tot Trot (2022)

Miles and Liam ran a tot trot. Miles ran up ahead by himself.  Liam ran holding my hand. Liam ran the entire way. On the hills he kept saying "I love running up hills." I can't believe Liam ran the entire thing except one spot when he asked for water. I'm so glad I had water in my pocket. Miles asked for water last time mid race but I didn't think about it prior.  

Dave almost made us late. Then they started late. So it was hard to get good pictures.  I didn't pay to have Ella run it since she'd be the oldest in the age rage and a big kid and already doesn't love running. I'm not sure how happy or mad she was about it. I mean sometimes she was happy and sometimes upset she wasn't running it. 


I kept seeing race photographers but mostly they weren't taking pictures so that bummed me out. 

There are a few videos that you can see in my google photos album. The race had a photo album but we weren't in any.

Wild Waves (8/2/22)

We went to Wild Waves for the third time. This time it was just 3 kids and me. Since there were not 2 adults, I said we were not going to go into the swimming area at all. We spent almost 5 hours there and didn't even go on every ride. A few key main rides were closed! 

The day mostly went OK except when I was on the Ferris Wheel with Liam and Ella and Miles started fighting after they got off. I was about to get off and was close and yelling at them to break it up. They didn't stop. Another mom had to leave line to yell at them. 

It was warmer than I thought. In the morning it was cool. The park has a severe lack of water fountains. They don't allow you to take in water bottles. They claim to take in empty ones but it's so hard to fill and refill them. 

Liam's favorite ride is the Ferris Wheel. It's definitely my least favorite. 

7.14.22 Park

We often leave the house and go to 3 different parks before returning home. I often take 0-2 pictures at the park. I decided to shoot some videos and compile them since I don't capture nearly as much as much as I used to. 

I compiled all videos and it was 8 minutes so I trimmed some stuff out and it's still 4 minutes. 

Kids Say ... (May and June 2020)

 More quotes and I apparently note to see pic which results in me digging for pictures. 

---------

Miles - "Mommy do you want to join me over here?"

On walk. 

“Are we going to keep doing this all day?”
Because this is my third walk in front of a propped camera to try to get framing. The camera fell over the 2nd time. 

5/7/20

---------

Miles "What about your phone?"

"You can't just leave it there"

-- what happens when you try to prop your phone to get video. (The walk is on and off sprinkling. They loved using umbrellas.

5/12

---------

Miles: Mommy can you see yourself

Me. No. Well I can’t see my face but can see my legs. I need a mirror to see myself. 

Miles: I’ll go get a mirror. 

He runs to get one from the desk in his room where Ella has it. 

Me looking in mirror: OK Miles what did you want me to see
Miles: I wanted you to see how pretty and beautiful you are. 

Then Miles takes mirror and says “I’ll go put it back now.” 

5-15

---------

Miles just came over to me while I'm eating asking “don't you need to go upstairs and check on the baby?!”

Me: Miles, the baby is down here 

Miles: no he's not 

Mw pointing: see

Miles: oh he is. 

5/19

---------

---

Ella just made Miles come over to her and looked at him. and said "see boys have eyelashes. why don't boys have eyelashes on this show?"  it's a cartoon. the girl has major eyelashes and boy doesn't

6/2/20

---------

Yesterday I was playing Mario Kart with Miles.  He was behind but then you could see a couple people ahead of him in his screen. So I told him to try to pass them and get a better place. He then said come on mommy it's just for fun.  He didn't want me to be telling him stuff to do to make it better and just let him play nice.   I'm half asleep so doing a bad job explaining.  

But 12 or 1st he doesn't care. He has fun playing.

Said on 6/4

---------

Almost every night Miles tells me “I hope you have a good night's sleep”

---------

Earlier I went to the bathroom and left Liam with Dave on the bed. I didn't even take long but I hate Liam crawling up to and around the toilet. 

Well I came back. He was so happy. He hugged me so tight.

6/6

---------

Ella: sometimes when I watch this show I cry

Me: Why

Ella: because I think about what if daddy dies

Creative galaxy. 

6/10/20

---------

After seeing pic of end of preschool that Ella wanted to be a teacher when she really up 

I just asked her.

"Ella what do you want to be when you grow up?

Ella said "nothing. Just a mom working at home"

6/11/20

1SE January 2022

 Here's 1 Second Everyday for January 2022. I took fewer videos than I thought. 

1SE 2020

I went back to 2020 and put a second video on all the dates that only had one. I also finished November and December. The video is kind of long. I think it might be more fun to watch only 1 month at a time so you don't lose interest by the end. But anyway here it is. It was very time consuming to do. 

1SE 2021

Apparently I used to do monthly posts with 1SE but here is all of 2021. The app was horrible for awhile for awhile and it'd take me 1-3 minutes just to get a video for 1 day.   For 2021 I went with vertical instead of horizontal. 

Ella's Fun Race (9.26.21)

Ella decided to organize a fun run. She changed the name to fun race. She made race medals. She tried to organize teams. She made invites. She even made instructions for me that called me a judge and also said to take photos. There were a few races! We kept it small because of COVID.   It didn't go as well as planned since Ella got mad when she didn't win. She quit in the middle the one time.  Dave did a lap too.  We tried to do a shorter race for the 2 year olds but then they didn't come back and continued to do the big loop. 

Dave was sore for a couple days after.