TGIF!

It's Friday -hooray! It's been a busy week with lots of fun!!! We started off the morning today with our daily trip to the Y for my workout, and then we met Jamie & her kids at the pool for some swimming fun! The boys had a ball (well, until Josiah announced he was so hungry and "laid out" in the sun for the rest of the time). Ryan got to wear goggles and a life jacket for the first time - he was so cute! If only my camera had a battery....(it's on the list of errands today!!) The boys (Mine, not Jamie's) were a little whiny (hungry + we had a late band practice last night and didn't get home until 9:30), but we still had lots of fun. Oh, and the water has started cooling down!!!

Gearing up for a long weekend. David's band has a gig every night this weekend through monday night, so I'm not quite looking forward to the long weekend like everyone else is. They are playing at the beach on Sat. & Mon. night, so we'll get to go see him and that will be fun. Can NOT believe that tomorrow is September!!!

Here's The Girls!!!

Here we are!! Almost all the girls from our small group (we missed you, Natalie!) Thanks to Sue, for taking the group picture! (Her little tripod was the cutest!) Anyways, we really did have a great time at lunch yesterday. I was telling David about it and how many people we had in our little house and he just thought it was hilarious!! 12 children, 7 ladies = FUN!!! Thanks again everyone!!!

Today should be a much quieter day than yesterday! :) We are sort of "stuck" at home today because we dropped off our van yesterday for it's tune-up. That meant no running this morning, no pool later today, etc. So it will be a home day - a good day to catch up on some things (of course, errands will have to wait another day). Anyways, looking forward to just a regular day with my kids!

A GREAT day!

What a fabulous day today was!!! I DID end up going running this morning - I didn't bail out on myself (which I very easily could have done), so Kelli you'd be proud! The 3 miles felt a lot longer this morning running on tired legs from staying up so late last night, but I felt great that I did it.

But what a GREAT time all of the women from our small group had today. We were missing Natalie, but other than that, everyone was there!!! It was just so nice to be able to all get together and just chat and catch up and have our kids play! The kids, by the way, did AWESOME!!! They had such fun playing together - everything was just so much fun!! I had hopes of having a craft or some activity to do (Heidi - you set the bar so high after our fun Valentine's Day party at your house), but gave up on that and decided just for food, fun and fellowship. I know I enjoyed myself! Ladies - I am so thankful for each of you and what you add to my life! Thanks for your friendship!!!

PS - You'll have to look on everyone else's blog for the pictures, of course. My battery is still dead! :(

I Can't Catch up!

So it's just been one of those weeks where I feel like I can not catch up!!! I think it's a combination of factors - David heading back to school this week, a few fun play dates this week, lots of errands that need to be done after being on hold while David was home, etc, etc. So here it is, just after midnight, and I had to take a blogging break. So much still to get done, and it's already Weds. morning (technically) and I still feel like I have so much left. We had a fab day this morning at the Botanical Gardens with Heather Judd & co., so I'll blog about that tomorrow.

Tomorrow, I am looking forward to having some of the moms and their kids over for a lunch and play date - sort of a last hoorah before several of them start their various preschools and school. Looking very forward to that, some yummy food, and great fellowship.

Until then, back to the kitchen and off to get some more things checked off my list. And trying VERY hard not to talk myself out of running in the morning!!!

My 8 Things (I hope I can think of that many...)

Okay, so Beth tagged me over a week ago, and I'm just now getting around to it!! She wants me to post 8 random things about myself that people may not know. I feel like my brain hasn't been still enough to even process this request, but I'll give it my best shot!!!

1. My full first name is just Katy. Not Kathy, not Katherine, just plain Katy. I am constantly being called Kathy, because most people think that's what it should be when they see it spelled with a "y" instead of "ie". Bizarre. And my maiden name was Maxfield, and I was constantly called "Maxwell". Annoying that people can't just say what they see!!!

2. I wear contacts and am practically blind without them. One day I'd love to do the lasik surgery and be done with it, but I may have to win the lottery first. When I first started wearing glasses in 4th grade, I had ugly brown ones (I'm sure I thought they were cute at the time). The next year I had to get new ones and I picked these bright red frames that I loved! My favorite show at the time was "Life Goes On" - does anyone remember that? I thought I looked like Kellie Martin on that show with her red glasses.

3. I didn't lose my first tooth until 5th grade - and then I only lose 2 teeth. The orthodontist/dentist had to pull the rest of them because they were taking forever and it was time for braces!!!

4. By age 19, I had finished my Bachelor's Degree and gotten married!! Crazy, isn't it? I met David my first semester of college (he was there in seminary) at Liberty and knew immediately that he was IT! I called my family and told them and of course they thought I was NUTS! From their perspective, I was 17 years old, away at college for a month and already talking about marriage. I would have a heart attack if Callie did that to me!

5. My oldest sister, Kim, used to pay me to let her do my hair. She LOVED playing with hair, and I was a willing participant!! She did my first perm too (did EVERYONE get a perm in 7th grade?)

6. I often punch the bed/pillows when I am dead asleep. I've done this since I was a child (no hidden trauma, just bizarro!), and warned David about when we got married. It's totally random and I still do it every now and then. David's Master's degree in Psychology has done him no good in figuring this one out. He keeps telling me he's going to send me to a sleep center to be analyzed!!!

7. Although I don't do it as much as I'd LIKE to, I LOVE to read - especially Christian fiction. My favorite author as of late is Karen Kingsbury - amazing books!!! If you've never read any of hers, pick up the Baxter series and you won't be sorry!!

8. For someone that loves food and loves to cook, I'm sort of a picky eater. My mom always tells me I should have been a caterer, but I don't like enough "gourmet"-type foods. I love everything about food - reading about it, watching it, cooking it, even shopping for it - but just have a bit of a texture hang-up about certain things (for example, don't like watermelon! It's practically just water - I know!)

Okay, so that's 8 things. Probably everyone already knew that, but it's all I could come up with today. So now I'm tagging Jayne Hoare, Courtney Cassada, and Jenn Gorrie! You're it!!

I'm Back (but no pictures)

Hello!! So it's been torture all weekend being able to read everyone's blogs but not send comments! My computer was acting up anytime I tried to do anything "secure" online, it would kick me off! So I just spent an hour on the phone with my closest friends at Microsoft and am back on track! I'll be catching up on my comments to you all later...

No pictures yet though - something weird is up with our camera battery, so they want me to send it in for them to fix. No pictures for a while.....booo!!!

David's first day of school today - welcome back kids!

Ran 3 miles again this morning (nothing compared to your 6 Courtney, I still can't believe you girl!). Felt really good - wondered if it was a fluke or if I'd ever be able to do it again, so I was glad to be successful. (Sorry to keep telling all of you about this, but it's sort of forced accountability).

Other than all that randomness, just doing errands today, laundry, boys got haircuts, etc. Off to rescue Callie - she's in the johnny jumpup and was a trooper while I was on the phone with my buddy at Microsoft!

Girl time!!!

After my big workout this morning (yea, me!!!), we had our friends Jake and Sadie come over to play. Jake and Josiah are about the same age, and Sadie is 1 1/2. Callie let out the biggest squeal when she saw Sadie - I think she was thrilled to see another little girl!! Sadie seemed to enjoy the baby too - I think she thought Callie was a baby doll!! We had a great time - I enjoyed catching up with Mandy a bit and keeping the kids out of too much trouble! :) Mandy took some pictures of the kids (they were all in costumes again!!), and said she'd send some to me. My camera battery finally refused to charge anymore, so I've got to buy another one. Until then, text only blogs for me, I guess!! Bummer!

I finally feel like we're getting back into our normal routine. Jacob asks where David is about 10 times a day - we get very used to have him home more with us during the summer, and Jacob is having a hard time adjusting to him being back at work. Other than that, we're getting back into our routine. Storytime and biblestudy starts back up in 2 weeks, which we're VERY excited about. So another successful morning! :)

38 Elephants!!!

(I'll preface this by saying that this post is mostly for Kelli!!!)

So some big milestones for me with my workouts this week! When I got the Y yesterday, I had a message from my trainer saying how proud he was of me for being so consistent these last 8 weeks, meeting my cardio goals and strength training goals, etc, etc. Then there was another message saying that I had lifted over 300,000 lbs to date - which is the equivalent of 38 elephants!! Isn't that hilarious!!!

Then today I finally got past the 3 mile mark!! I got really close on Monday and have been pushing towards it all week. Today I finally made it - I was so proud I thought I was going to scream out loud!! I did 3.17 to be exact!! I think I'm actually going to look at doing a 5K soon. Who'd have thunk it? Thanks Kelli, for not giving up on me. I think I'm actually almost a runner now! :)

Heaven on a Plate!

While I was folding laundry this afternoon, I watched an episode of Paula Deen - anyone that knows me knows that I LOVE this lady!!! Anyways, she did an episode all about cheese (I mean really!!!) and she made the most remarkable dish - deep fried macaroni and cheese!!! I know - doesn't seem to go hand in hand with my new workout routine, but I was dying!! It looked so good!! She took a recipe of macaroni and cheese from her restaurant, chilled it over night in the pan. Then she cut it into squares, wrapped the squares in bacon (!!!) and deep fried it!! Holy cow - does it get any better than that??? Now you all know my guilty pleasure!! If I ever were to pop up missing, I may be in Savannah, GA dining at the Lady & Sons restaurant eating deep fried macaroni!

An "Off" Day

We've started off today sort of "off". I was very much looking forward to starting our week getting back into our normal routine. David headed off to school again this morning and I was ready to go! Unfortunately, Callie woke up at 6:30 AM (who knows why!), and then Jacob woke up with a fever of 102!! Not sure where that came from, but my routine went right out the window!!! Couldn't go to the gym for my workout this morning, but we've adapted. Jacob ate a good breakfast and says nothing else hurts, but he definitely got more sluggish as the morning went on. Callie took a good first nap, but only had a catnap for her 2nd, so who knows what the afternoon will hold!! This is the first time either of the boys have been sick at all in the last year (they weren't even sick at all last winter!), so I'm very thankful for that!! We're just going to muddle through and try to enjoy the quiet day and get Jacob healthy!!! I'm hoping to try and get to the gym tonight once David gets home, so that will feel good. We'll wait and see though!!!

Success!!

What fun I had at the consignment sale on Wednesday morning!! I was able to leave all 3 kids at home with David and go shop in peace! It was fabulous!! I was able to find some clothes for Josiah for the fall - the big score was a few pairs of pants for that ever-growing boy's legs!!! Jacob & Callie were fine with clothes for the winter (thanks to sweet Mandy blessing me with some more of Sadie's clothes to borrow!) I was able to get some things to stash away for Christmas, which I was thrilled about (some new games & books). I got the boys each a new Rescue Hero (we LOVE these!) and then I found 2 new superhero costumes for them to play in. You ALL know how much they love to dress up and play superheros!!! They were adorable!!! I was very excited! I go to volunteer on Saturday morning and then I get to celebrate every one's joy as they checkout!! :)

We got to have Beth over for dinner last night. She's in town helping her sister Grace, who just had a baby girl yesterday (Savannah Grace). She and Jackson came to eat with us, and Jackson got in on the costume action!! What fun! We met them at the pool this morning to swim and it felt great!! We're back up close to 100 degrees again today, so the water was so refreshing!!!

I'm all a'twitter!!!

I'm so excited - my stomach is practically in knots!! Tomorrow I get to shop the big consignment sale!!! Most of you are in this with me, so you can understand my excitement! Twice a year, there is a huge, fabulous children's consignment sale that I am able to get great toys and clothes for the kids! I always consign & have started volunteering too, which allows me to shop early! So I dropped off all my stuff to consign today, and I get to go back tomorrow to shop! It opens to the public on Thursday at 10 AM. For those of you who'd like to check it out, it's at Ascension Catholic Church in VA Beach and is Cash only. It's incredible! I can hardly wait! I'll let you know how I do tomorrow! Yippee!

Cereal!!!!

Well, another milestone day for Miss Callie!! She had her first rice cereal tonight...and loved every bite of it!!! She ate it like she's been eating it all her life! The boys thought it was a RIOT that she could eat cereal, and Jacob LOVED feeding her!! I think it's hilarious that she's my smallest baby, yet is starting cereal earlier than either of the boys did!! She had been sleeping 10-12 hours at night for several months now and had started waking up around 4 -5 am in the last few weeks. She'd get herself back to sleep, but I knew that was a sign!! I half expected her to spit it out with her tongue, but she ate it like a champ. My little girl is growing up - she'll probably love food like the rest of the family! :)

Sunday at Busch Gardens

Late last week, we realized that summer was quickly coming to an end. This week is David's last week before heading back to school - it really is amazing how quickly the summer has gone by. We called my Mom on Saturday and asked if she wanted to meet us at Busch Gardens on Sunday afternoon for a day with the Schrodt clan! (Courtney, in response to your question, yes we had season tickets this year. They had a special in the spring for VA residents where you could get a "Fun pass" and pay for 1 day and the pass was good through Sept. 3). Mom was up for a quick "grandchildren fix" and met us at the park at 3 pm. It worked out great - the kids were able to take their naps, the weather was beautiful and cooled down even more as the afternoon went on. We had a blast! I loved being able to spend the day with my Mom - it was almost like if she lived here in town!

This was the boys running over to meet Tutu when they saw her at the entrance.

Tutu, Josiah, David, and Jacob in the teacups!!

David and Callie in the skyride (the buckets are one of Josiah's favorite). It's one of the few rides that Callie gets to do! :)

What a great ending to a great day! Callie fell asleep in Tutu's arms while we watched the "Kinetix" light and "extreme athleticism" show. Very cool - some neat acrobatics, lights, rock band, trampoline guys, jugglers - it was amazing!

Birthday Parties & Baseball Games

Saturday night was our last softball game of the season. The fun had to come to an end eventually!! Our men did great, the kids had a blast playing in the dirt each week, and we ladies enjoyed catching up a bit as well (in between cheering for the husbands and keeping tabs on the kids of course).

We were able to celebrate our friend Greyson's 6th birthday at Potts and Paints on Saturday morning. The boys had a blast painting their first pottery creation and loved all of the fire truck paraphenalia (Mr. Mann, Greyson's dad is our favorite fire fighter!) David and I were getting a kick out of how intent the table full of 12 little boys was - they were all so focused on their creations. It was a blast!!

Jacob Meets Gorilla Glue!

Okay, so I'll start off by saying that YES - I moved Josiah as soon as I saw him asleep that way (well, actually after I died laughing and went to show David and got my camera!) I KNOW he fell asleep about 2 minutes after he went to bed at 7 pm, so I really think it was some random dream or he woke up after a few hours or something. But YES, I moved him.

Okay, on to Jacob today. Both boys needed naps today, so I put Josiah in his bed and put Jacob in my room. Thought he would conk right out, and Callie was down for her nap, so I told David what was happening and went off to the gym for my workout. I didn't want to go to the gym and have to leave Callie in childcare with her having shots today. Anyways, I came home and went into my room to take a shower and discovered Jacob! He was standing on the toilet seat in our bathroom, painting his face with my mascara!!! (It gets worse). I looked on my bed (where he was supposed to be sleeping) and find David's and my glasses (mine were mangled) and with some kind of substance on it. At first I thought it was Aloe Vera, because that was on the counter in my bathroom. I take Jacob straight to the bathtub and as I'm trying to get him clean, David comes back in says "It's not Aloe - it's WAY too sticky". So I ask Jacob what he got into and he says "Glue!" Sure enough, he found the Gorilla Glue somewhere in our room and had it all over our glasses, his hands and feet. Thankfully, he didn't swallow any or get any in his hair or eyes. What a mess!! David LOVED his glasses and has only had them about a year (I needed new ones anyways), but neither of us were very happy! And of course he didn't take a nap.

We headed to the pool later (Jacob slept during the 7 minute care ride!) and enjoyed a brief break from the heat. Jacob's already asleep and Josiah is on his way! What a day!!!

Shots aren't fun for anyone!!

Well, Callie turned 4 months last week, and had her well-baby check up today. Everything is great, Dr. Gerbus was so proud of Callie and how great she is doing with nursing and sleeping and all her tricks in between! She's now 2 feet tall and is 12 lbs. 4 oz. She is looking to be a tall, slender girl!! Such a riot - such a difference from my chunky monkey boys when they were this age. She didn't care for the shots one bit (horrible screams that I NEVER hear come out of her), the boys had a terrible look on their face watching her cry like that, and of course the Mom NEVER likes it. But we made it and she's sound asleep now!!! It's another hot, humid day today, so we're hoping to make it to the pool later this afternoon and get her legs moving to help with the soreness!!

Sleeping Soundly?

So this is what I found when I went to check on the boys before going to bed last night!! I was pulling the covers up over Jacob and then stood up to check on Josiah when I found this!!! He had (for some reason) moved over to the side of his bunk bed and fallen asleep like that - with his head smashed up against the rails!! It was the funniest thing! I wonder if he was dreaming and wanted to look out of his bed for something?

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream!!!

Here's what was going to be dinner for the boys...


Do they look excited or what?


Mixing in our freshly, picked-by-hand strawberries!


Stirring it all up....


Yahoo - the finished project!!! (Right after this picture, Josiah declared he wanted a lick and stuck his tongue right in the bowl!)


So when David has an idea in his head, there is no stopping him!! Even with obstacles that come in his way, he sticks with it!! Today was a great example of that. He told me this afternoon that, after nap time, he wanted to make some homemade ice cream with the boys. We have several bags of strawberries in our freezer from when we went picking in the spring, so he was in the mood for some strawberry ice cream. The adventure began with him setting out for the store with the boys to get a few ingredients - we needed some more rock salt and some whipping cream. He came home with the rock salt and 2 of the biggest tubs of Cool Whip I've ever seen!!! I told him that "whipping cream" is NOT the same as "whipped cream". Poor guy!! He said "You should have told me before I left! Most women assume their husbands are idiots and would spell that out for them! Not me - I assume he knows what he's doing and most of the time, he does! Anyways, I told him I'd run up and return the Cool Whip and get the whipping cream while he started everything else. I threw a frozen pizza in the oven before I left and off I go. When I came home, he started on the rest of the recipe and I asked him where the pizza was. He gave me this blank stare and I opened the oven door and found it - the blackest pizza I've ever seen!! I asked him if he heard the timer (which he did, because he turned it off) and he said he thought it was just the oven finishing preheating. Hilarious! Anyways, the boys finished their ice cream project (the ice cream maker is a lot LOUDER than I remember) and the end result is delicious!!!! The boys were thrilled to get to stay up a bit later than normal to taste their creation!!! Talk about entertainment for the evening! :)

Saturdays...and Multitasking

It was a lovely Schrodt family Saturday today! It started off great for me - I got to get my haircut!! Always a lovely, relaxing hour for me without any children! I had to reschedule it from when David was out of town, so I'd been looking forward to it! When I got home, David and the boys took a trip to the dump and then finished "recovering" the lawn. It was sorely in need of "real" mowing and edging (of which I did NOT do while David was gone - duh!). They did a great job getting it back in tip-top shape!! Hopefully we've redeemed ourselves in the eyes of our neighbors. I was able to finish up cooking for one of my clients while the kids took naps and then we headed to the Y for a swim!! The other real reason is that they had a "Survivor Luau" tonight and so they fed us fried chicken and BBQ! What a great way to end a Saturday! David even got volunteered to play in a game (which of course his team won!), so it doesn't get any better!!! The only bummer of the day is that our softball game is at 9:00 pm tonight, so David didn't get to play again because he has another gig tonight at 10 pm. Playoffs next week though!!! Go team!

Okay, so now just a side note on the multitasking part. Has anyone else ever nursed a baby, helped a 2 year old wipe his bottom, and killed a fly with a flyswatter before? All simultaneously of course? I impressed even myself - and Callie never stopped nursing!! Hilarious. I've done it all now!

Callie sitting up?

So I was downloading pictures tonight to be able to update my blog, and lo and behold - here's this random picture! I did NOT take it - David must have - and I THINK he was trying to catch a picture of Callie trying to sit up? Her expression is hilarious - made me totally laugh out loud! Poor baby girl!

Friday Already?

What a great week it's been! Sorry I haven't posted this week - I was recovering from my two weeks of constant blogging while David was gone!! We have enjoyed a wonderful week of family time this week. The boys were just hanging all over David for the first two days - I didn't really get to have him to myself until Sunday night! Nothing monumental this week - just a lot of really fun family stuff. We went to Kangaroo Jacs (David's first exposure), lots of time at the pool, a day at Busch Gardens, and lots of silly time in the backyard with water guns and popsicles. It's been fabulous. I am so thankful for the husband that God has blessed me with, and for the three precious children that He has entrusted to my care for this season. David's back to work today, but what a fabulous week it's been!!!