A typical day for Asher

Today he...

• Lit a stick on fire in our garage
  
• Decided to take the plunge and do a #2 in the backyard--just peeing has become too commonplace, I suppose
• Announced, while holding a kitchen knife, "I'm not a kid anymore!"
• Peed in the middle of the field during Eli's football practice

But he also...

• Took turns nicely with Mommy during a game of Animal Bingo
• Worked steadily and put every wooden bead on two shoestrings, then successfully tied the two strings together to make a long, beaded masterpiece
• Didn't overflow the kitchen sink, barely.
• Didn't pour the ENTIRE bottle of dishsoap into the afore mentioned sink
• Threw away one of Finley's dirty diapers for Mommy
• Saved Mommy the trouble of putting the soap in the dishwasher the next time it's ready to be run
• Slept in until 8:30am
• Complemented his brother on his Lego creation, "That's really cool, Brandt."
  

Getting there...

A little workout update--
I've been running 50 min to an hour Monday, Wed, and Friday, then doing a longer (60-80 min) run on Saturdays. I ride the stationary bike Tuesday and Thursday for 50-60 minutes and do weights. I have been recording my workouts--but just on a piece of cardstock. Maybe I'll scan it so I have a digital record.
Today I had a little personal victory. I didn't get speedwork in last week (Jessica, my running partner, and I have been doing it on Fridays, but we did a killer hill workout instead), and this morning I got started a little later and was alone AND the temperature was perfect--I think about 55 degrees--so I decided to do a tempo run. I jogged a 10 minute warm up, then I pushed the pace for 24:40. I wanted to end at an exact spot (hence the reason I ended 20 seconds shy of 25:00) so I could map it afterward, because I didn't wear my Garmin. I went 3.48 miles in that amount of time--a 7:05 pace. I'm planning to run in the Vulcan 10k in November. Training runs like this one give me hope of a good performance at that!

Growing Finley

She had her one month check-up yesterday and has gained 2 lbs since birth. She is now 9 lb 9 oz and 21 inches long. Still a tiny woman, though.

Sweat Ride

If you step outside right now in Alabama, you drip sweat. If you are moving while outside, you gush sweat. Such was the story of our outing this morning to the sports complex to ride bikes. I pushed Finley in the stroller for a while, just walking. Thankfully, I already ran this morning. But my shirt was still very wet just from a leisurely stroll in this humidity. Finley's hair was in cute little wet curls, and the boys were drenched. They biked for an hour.
I fed Finley under a pavilion while they were riding, and I loved watching them ride. Eli likes to try out all the little places he can jump and go down something steep. Brandt just consistently cruises around. He still has training wheels on his bike, but doesn't need them. They are so bent upward, that the only time they touch is when he takes a sharp turn. Asher thinks he is on some big, full-suspension bmx or something, and I have to remind him to brake and not try out the same things Eli does. Look at his little facial expression in the pictures; this is how he looks when he is flying down a slope or between bleachers--cute and kinda unnerving to a momma.

Karate Baby

Eric thought Finley looked like a little baby black belt when he came home to find her looking like this, so he took pictures. Her little hair band's bow had moved to the back of her head, which added to her 80's aerobics-instructor look.

Life Cereal Energy Bars

Mix these together in a large bowl:
3 cups Life Cereal (Publix now has an a generic for Life)
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1 cup raisins
2 cups chopped peanuts

On the stove in a medium saucepan, heat the following on medium, stirring until smooth:

3/4 cup peanut butter
3/4 cup Agave Nectar (or light corn syrup)
1/2 cup brown sugar

Remove from heat. Add 1 tsp. vanilla. Pour over dry mixture and stir until evenly coated. Press firmly into 9x13 dish and let cool 1 hour. Cut into bars and wrap tightly with plastic wrap to store.

Internet TV!!

So, a few weeks ago we cancelled our dish service. Eric hooked a computer up to the tv we watch most in the house and put a bunch of our kids' movies on the hard drive (he used a shrinking software called Handbrake, if you're interested). It's SO nice to just open a folder and choose a movie for the kids instead of taking dvd's in and out of a player. But, the only "tv" we have to watch now is what is available on the internet. Though I miss a few things about satellite, I have found some new shows, thanks to Hulu, that I like enough to recommend.

Burn Notice--Freelance spies who don't have the government's blessing, but can't say no to someone in trouble or to the chance to use a trunkfull of C-4 to scare away bad guys. And as viewers we learn a few tricks we can store away for our futures in covert ops.

Lie to Me--British wit (think House minus cynicism and drugs) + the brilliant ability to "read" a person's intentions based on facial expression and body language. All of this is, of course, used to solve or prevent crimes.

White Collar--I have only watched 3 episodes of this one, but can't wait for more. Team one of the best con-men around (who is still on probation, complete with an ankle-band tracker) with the FBI agent who caught him to track and stop white collar heists. The con-man, Neal Caffrey (played by Matt Bomer) is easy on the eyes, which is a bonus in this already smart, original storyline.

I've watched my fair share of Matlock, CSI, and Law & Order-type shows. They are all entertaining, but none is really original. They start with a crime (usually murder), and the balance of the show is spent solving the crime. With these three shows, each episode has a new fresh order to how the plot unfolds. The only real uniformity is that they are solving a problem each time--but without that element, who would watch? And every one of these shows is laugh-out-loud funny. I love "24" as much as anyone, but it lacks the humor element, for sure. These shows don't. So pop some corn, fire up the 'puter, and enjoy!