27 minutes and counting....

...until we're off for vacation!!! We're heading to NC today to see Beth and the new baby (and of course Anthony & the boys, but you know where MY focus will be!). We'll leave VERY early tomorrow morning (3 AM) to drive down to Florida. The boys are SO very excited as are their parents!!! I'm not sure how much I'll be able to blog (or if I'll even want to), but I promise lots of pictures and fun stories when we return. I'll miss you, my blogging friends, but now I'm off to celebrate 10 years of bliss with the love of my life!!!

Things you should never say to a Mom...

This was published in the Tribune on Mother's Day. They cracked me up:

Sheila Vuckovich said "I am blessed with seven planned, prayer-for and adored children. For some reason, the size of my family makes people think they can ask the rudest questions." Here is my Top 5 questions you should never ask a Mom:

1. Yes, they all have the same father (25 years of marriage and he still digs me!)
2. Yes, I know what causes it.
3. Yes, I would like to have more.
4. Yes, we own a TV.
5. No, one of us is not going to get fixed! (We are not broken).

Also replying was Julie Adams, mother of 3 children under the age of 4 (this sounds VERY familiar!!!). She says that she hears almost daily "You have your hands full!". She said she is tempted to respond by saying "And you don't! So be a peach and hold the door.".

This cracked me up - especially the last part. I'm not kidding - I hear that comment almost daily. I know we are quite a sight to behold - me and the 3 of my kids and sometimes an extra kid or two with me at the grocery store, or at the gym, or anywhere for that matter. But STILL!!

Josiah plays T-Ball...in REAL life

Josiah is always so FOCUSED on what he's doing! His team is 4 & 5 year olds (the 6 & 7 year olds are on different teams), so it's fun for him to be on the older side. He KNOWS where to run, where to hit, all of that. The 4 year olds are hilarious - they are the ones that hit the ball (or mostly the tee actually) and then run the wrong way, or go GET the ball and bring it back to the coach!! He LOVED it though!
Josiah and Coach Scott...first at-bat!

Callie was happy to be walking around again after being in the stroller for alot of the time at the race...

Playing outfield...
Can you see her cute little barrette? We BOTH love it!!! :)

The game was very fun. The season was supposed to start back in May and run through the middle of June. It got pushed back because it coincided with another sport, and so this was the first week. The bummer of that is that Josiah will miss the next two weeks while we're in Florida, miss team pictures too. Oh well - I guess he doesn't know any better. He's been saying for the last two days that he plays a sport...he plays t-ball in REAL life!!! So fun!! After the t-ball game, we went STRAIGHT to a birthday party at the pool for Merideth Wiedmaier. The pool felt GREAT seeing as how we had the race and then the t-ball game. We finally made it back home at 3:30 pm (after leaving the house at 6:30 AM). Jacob & Callie fell asleep in the car. They're taking a nap now and then it's off to see David play softball! WHAT a day! We're not going to both games though - we'll go during the dinner break and then see some of the next game (perhaps!) We'll ALL sleep good tonight! Next week it's VBS and trip planning for Florida - yippee!!

The Schrodt Family RUNNERS!!!

Man oh man - look at my hottie husband!!! This was our before picture - right before the race! We were SO excited to get to run together...and we did stay together! :)
Here are the kids with Miss Lindsey - she watched the kids for us during our race. She was wonderful! She had the kids near the finish line watching for us - it was the best - and they were all so happy!
David attaching his timing chip...these chips were very frustrating!!! For my half-marathon, we had to cross OVER a pad at the start for the chip to activate. I assumed it was the same for this race. So they blew the horn, and the crowd started moving. We didn't start running because we were waiting to cross the start pad. Well, after walking for 3-4 minutes, we realized that there was NO start pad, and that we'd just wasted those minutes!! So annoying. My sister said that for some of these little races, they start the chips all at the same time when the gun goes off, rather than for each individual runner. Oh well. It threw us off because then our pace was off and we weren't totally sure of our time splits. Oh well.
Here's the happy, sweaty runners!! It really was a great race - nice and shady for a lot of the parts of it. I LOVED running it with David - this was my first little "local" race and it was so fun...David's first race at all, of course and he did great. We both felt good and had a good strong race. Our time was somewhere around 46 minutes. Again, annoyed about that, but nothing we could do. We were hoping to do it in 45 minutes. A great 5 mile run though!
Jacob enjoying the post-race snacks! I ate a piece of pizza too - it tasted so good! I realize that sounds weird to most of you - to eat pizza at 9 AM, but after you've run for an hour, you'd be surprised ! Jacob agreed - he ate the whole piece! Then it was time to get ready for the kids' 1 mile fun run!
David and Callie, waiting for the kids race to get started.

We saw the Maggiores there. Anna (on the left) is their own little CHKD miracle girl! We were happy to be able to support CHKD!
Here's the whole Maggiore family!
The Schrodt family runners!!!! Josiah ran most of the race. It was pretty hot, so every now and then, he said he wanted to stop and walk for a few seconds. Literally - he'd say "let's walk for 12 seconds," then he'd start counting down backwards from 12. When he got to 0, he started running again. He did great!!! Jacob declared this morning that he did not want to run - he only wanted to ride in the stroller fast!!! So David pushed Callie and Jacob!!!
Here's Callie clapping for the runners as they finished up - have I got her trained well or what?
The boys and their finisher medals! I was so proud of them!!! It was SUCH a fun morning!! Then it was OFF to Josiah's first T-Ball practice/game!!!

Three Firsts!!

First #1: Callie wore her first hair accessory last night!! Before we went to band practice for Kinetic, I put a little barrette in her hair and it was so cute! The boys got the biggest kick out of it - I think Callie even knew she was pretty!! They fought over who could pick which color of barrette she would wear this morning!! I'll have to take a picture. Maybe I'll have to actually go buy some bows now for the poor girl!

First #2: This is actually happening tomorrow, but David and I get to run our first race together! We're doing an 8K (5 miles) in the morning to benefit our children's hospital here. I say "together" rather loosely, because I'm not completely sure that David will stay with me...meaning he may leave me in the dust!! He has been doing so great with his training, and his speeds on his short runs have really picked up, so he may leave me behind!! I'm excited though! Our poor babysitter is having to meet us there at 7 AM...that's rough isn't it!

First #3: Josiah's first t-ball practice is tomorrow also. He's VERY excited - should be a fun season! Pictures to come, I'm sure!

Thursday

Sorry I don't have a more exciting title. Been a fun day today. Callie slept in until 8:30 this morning (bizarre...threw me totally off), so we went to the gym for my run a bit late. We were heading out afterwards to go to the beach and ran into Jamie and her clan, so we persuaded them to ditch the pool and come to the beach with us!!! We had a great time at the beach along with Sue and her kids (it was the FIRST time she took all 3 to the beach!!!) - it was so fun. I love days like that! Came home, got everyone cleaned up, boys had a great nap, Callie not so much (I'm sure the sand all over her kept her from sleeping past an hour)...hoping they make it through band practice tonight. But it's been a good day!!! After all, it was David's first day of summer vacation...and he spent it working! He's doing some painting for some friends of ours, and when we get back from our trip, he's going to work for a painter the rest of the summer. He's GREAT at it, and it allows him to have a bit of a break from the school stuff on his summer vacation (oh, and he's taking precalculus this summer to finish his minor in math)...

Turn Back the Clocks Night!

Here's our gang - Natalie and Jessica were the only ones paying attention, I think! :) Here's who came: Chris & Jessica Jackson with Cody, Chris' police partner Steve, Natalie & Kevin Mann with Greyson & Parker, Dave & Sue Ratz with Alexander, Hamilton, & Madeline, Craig Boyer with Bradley, and then us Schrodts! So fun!


Who doesn't love cotton candy?

Josiah and Alexander with Alexander's FREE sno-cone!! Alexander just got in line and the sno-cone lady gave it to him! Sue was SO proud! :)
Me and my boyfriend! :)
Jessica got to steal Madeline away for a little bit - I never did get my hands on her last night! Bummer ! :(

My boys shared some of their cotton candy with Cody - big hit!
Jacob - this kid cracks me up!
Highlight - at the end of the game, the let all the kids run the bases! Alexander & Bradley ran them too, but all the other pictures were fuzzy...I guess because our boys are such fast runners!!
I will say that I was relieved to collect them on the other side of the field!!!

What fun we had last night! Several other families joined us for what has become a Schrodt family tradition!! For as long as we've lived here, we love to go out to a baseball game for our AAA team - they feed into the Orioles, and it's always so fun to enjoy the game with the kids. Once a year, they have a special night called "Turn Back the Clocks" night - where all the hot dogs, sodas, and popcorn is only 25 cents!! (too bad tickets aren't "turned back" too!) So this year we told our small group and friends about it and several took us up on the offer. We had a great time - my boys were REALLY into the game this year, which was fun to see. We left Callie with my running partner and enjoyed the night with our "big" boys!

Quote from Dr. Seuss

My friend posted some great quotes on her blog, and this one was my favorite:

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened".

Talk about great perspective!!

Aaaahhhhhh....

It's been a good morning so far. David's almost done with school - the kids are all done, and the teachers are just tearing down their classrooms and finishing up paperwork now. My kids have SO enjoyed getting to see him for a little bit in the mornings - Callie actually cried when he left for work this morning!! I decided to postpone my run this morning and do it inside at the other Y. We were meeting several of our friends from small group at the "other" pool, so we went early and I did my 5 miles inside on the treadmill. I will say that it was a nice break from the heat outside. With it being so hot this last week, my runs have been so HARD - very draining and tired, which has been frustrating for me. So it was great to have a good, hard, FAST run today - it was my fastest time for 5 miles, so that was exciting! And I LOVE getting to jump in the pool after a good workout. The kids and I headed out to the pool and it was so refreshing!!! It's always sort of hard for me to have "play dates" at the pool - I never am able to sit and chat with the moms because I'm keeping up with my kids. But it's just nice to have little bits of conversation here and there, and see all the kids playing around and swimming together, so I'm thankful nonetheless. I really love going to the pool with my kids - I love playing with them, and seeing their faces when they accomplish new things and learn new tricks. I am so glad they love the water as much as I do!

We're making plans to go to the ballpark tonight. It's "Turn Back the Clocks" night there - all the hot dogs, soda, and popcorn (always STALE!) is only 25 cents! We go every year - sort of a tradition. Should be fun!!! The kids are all asleep now, the house is quiet....aaaahhhh....such a nice morning.

You know it's hot when...

* You're starting to sweat even BEFORE your run...
* When checking your kids into childwatch, the lady behind you says "i'm staying inside today because it's WAY too hot to run outside"...
* You don't see another single runner during your run, when normally you see 5-10 runners
* The FROZEN water bottle that you planted is completely MELTED and WARM by the time you get to it, at 3 miles into your run.

Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to do 5 miles outside again today...

I'm SO excited!!!!!

Happy Friday everyone!!! I'm so excited, I think my heart is going to burst!!! 2 weeks from today, David and I will be on vacation! Our 10th anniversary is coming up and my sister Kelli & her husband Scott agreed several months ago to watch our kids so we could get away. We've never lived with family in town, so we've NEVER been able to leave them and get away by ourselves. Plus, I'm usually pregnant or nursing someone I suppose! Anyways, our 10th anniversary lined up perfectly this summer - kids are at a good age, etc, so here we go!! We got a timeshare down in Delray Beach which is only about 30 minutes from where Kelli lives. We're going to have a week to ourselves while the kids have the time of their lives with Kelli & Scott (and their dog Chloe - boy are the kids excited about Chloe!) So I can't wait!!! We keep talking about how wonderful it will be to just be US - I'm sure we'll miss the kids and I'll probably be nervous a bit, but it will be such a nice recharging for me and my wonderful husband.

And then it gets better!!! The week after we get home, my oldest sister Kim, her husband, and their 4 kids are driving up (they live in Tampa) to DC to see my mom and spend the 4th of July up here. My youngest sister is going to fly up for the weekend, so we'll all have a party again!!! I LOVE it - I'm trying to convince Kim to let me bring her oldest daughter (Mary is 11) home with me when we drive back from FL. I would love to have her with me for a few days, so we'll see. I'm just so excited - I've never gotten to see my family this much because they live so far away, so I can't wait! Yippee!

My favorite day of the week!

Today is Thursday - my favorite day of the week!!! (of the workweek that is...) It's our one day of the week that we usually have no agenda - nothing scheduled in - so it's just fun with my kids. I love it! It's HOT here today, so we're going to head to either the pool or the beach - it's too hot to be outside unless you're in water, so we're going to head in some after Callie wakes up from her morning nap.

The kids were up a bit early this morning, so I was out for my morning run by 7:30 am. I was all excited because I knew it was going to be hot and humid, and thought getting started a bit early would help with the heat. I was wrong - it was still SO hot and muggy. By the end of my 6 miles, I was totally drenched with sweat. Yuck. I even ran with gatorade the whole way so I wouldn't pass out. I've just decided that I am not a hot weather runner - I enjoy running MUCH more when it's 30 degrees outside. Go figure. David, on the other hand, is doing great! Maybe it's all in what you train in when you start - I started in the fall with my training, he's starting his in the summer, so it's all he's known. He's doing great with his training. He's already faster than me (not a huge surprise, but annoying none the less!) and will be running his first 6 miles this weekend. I'm SO proud of him! We are running an 8K next weekend for CHKD, so that will be fun! Speaking of which, I've got to figure out a babysitter for that.....

Our Last Day with Grandmommy

Grandmommy has acrylic nails and was scratching the boys' backs - they thought it felt GREAT!
As I was fixing dinner, I heard a song being PLAYED on the HARMONICA - I about fell out! Who knew - Grandmommy knows how to actually play the harmonica! Callie was very impressed as well!

We took Grandmommy to the beach on Tuesday afternoon and has such a wonderful time there. It was the first time we took the boogie board with us, and the boys had a ball with that.
Grandmommy and Callie enjoyed some cheetos together! A big hit with both of them!
David and the boys dug an AMAZINGLY deep hole....the kids all fit inside it and you could barely see their little heads! We dug so deep we hit water!! It was very cool!

Here's the boys with their new shovels - just like the ones that our friends Alexander, Bradley, and Grayson have. Since we had to buy a beach umbrella for Grandmommy to sit under, I thought we probably needed a real shovel for David to "plant" it with...and of course I had to buy 2...one for each boy. They LOVED them of course.

David and his mom this morning - before he left for school. He really is her pride and joy - she just is so proud of him. We (the kids and I) drove her to the airport mid-morning and said goodbye. We had a wonderful visit and are so glad she could come see us! And now I'm sure she's glad to have some peace and quiet again!

More fun with Grandmommy

Totally cracks me up - my boys and their 74 year old grandmother eating popsicles outside together! LOVE it! (and yes, they are those nasty, push up, sugar water ones from the grocery store...i always make my own, and last week, Josiah thought it would be such a HUGE treat if we bought these nasty push up ones...apparently a neighbor had them last summer and the kids thought the pushing up was SO cool. Whatever...the little things right!)


Jacob, Grandmommy, and David playing "Walk the Dogs" before bed. We just love this game!
David and his mom played Scrabble together while I cooked for a client. I was not sad at all to miss out - I'm TERRIBLE at this game. They grew up playing it and totally love it. David actually beat his mom 296 to 280 - or something crazy. I probably have never even gotten 100 points..I'm terrible, really. Don't have the patience for it, I think.