Aloha 2013!

The day after Christmas, I quickly removed every bit of Christmas decor from the house, and started preparations for our Maui trip.  It was a good thing I got a head start because we all ended up being waylaid by a terrible virus/sickness.  I ended up with an ear infection, we all had fevers, and then the day before we left Carter got an ear infection as well.  We also dealt with an abundance of snow.

After packing up everything short of the kitchen sink, we made it to Oakland.  Interestingly enough, I thought we were traveling out of Sacramento until about 24 hours before we left, so it was a good thing I checked the itinerary.  Once we were about ready to hit the hay, I realized that I had left Carter's antibiotics for his ear infection in the fridge.  We were then set with the task of finding a pharmacy that was A:  open, and B: SAFE.  Bradley ended up in San Mateo, and received a toll violation.  With about six hours before our flight, we made it to sleep.  The next day was a bit rough, but these two are better travelers than most people I saw.

Immediately upon arriving at the hotel, we found the pirate ship pool, and some alcoholic beverages.  The next five days was full of sand, pool time, EXCELLENT food, runs on the beach, sunscreen, walks on the beach, and many wonderful beverages.  It was truly just what our family needed to say goodbye to 2012, and Aloha to 2013.  The trip back was not as wonderful and completely exhausting, but we made it (along with another toll violation).

The first week back at work was a bit hard on all of us.  The boys just wanted to be home, and I just wanted to have a bit more energy.  Plus, I think I was going through happy-hour withdrawls.  :)

Yesterday I took Carter up to Mt. Shasta Ski Park for a day on the slopes.  He had been last year, but still lacked muscle control.  With the help of the "edgie-wedgie" yesterday was a huge success.  We hopped right onto the chairlift, and made a grand total of two runs.  The first run he fell about 30 times, and the second only six.  By the last run of the day, which we were able to share with our good buddies, he only fell once.  However, six hours doing the "pizza pie" can be a little rough on a little guy's legs, and we ended the day with torturous screams in the parking lot back to the truck.  Next time, I will be bring the BOGS into the lodge.  This morning we have barely made it out of our PJs and Carter's legs are super sore, but he's ready to go again.

Deck the Halls - 2012

Amped to get going on the 2012 Holiday season, I really got the Isbell family going early.  In fact, we're still a week out from Christmas and have seen Santa at least three or four times, and the tree may or may not make it another seven days.

This weekend as Carter was putting the finishing touches on the nativity scene, Bradley entered the room and asked him what he was doing.  Carter said that he was, "setting up the manger, because you know dad, it's not just about presents.  .  .  It's also about baby June".  Alas, my heart leapt at the thought that I had indeed truly inspired the Christmas spirit in my son, only to be disappointed that Jesus was in fact June.  (For awhile we thought he said Baby Jew, which would have technically correct).

I have also recorded every possible Christmas movie possible on Disney Junior and Sprout, and Carter got to stay up late last week and watch my personal favorite, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  About three minutes in, I thought we had lost him, and am in fact a little embarrassed to admit that we let our three year old watch the movie.  However, tonight Carter informed me that I was the best mom in the world, (because we made our second batch of Christmas cookies today), but if he did need to choose a new mom it would be " the lady from the Christmas Vacation movie, from when the dad was dreaming about his pool".  Ah - ha !  He did take in the movie!



To recap this month, here's a list of accomplishments:

1 - Breakfast with Santa and crafts in Yreka (Will never repeat without help from another adult)
2 - Christmas cookie decorating with a group of Carter and his buddies
3 - Letters to Santa (I took pictures of the letter before we mailed it to prove to Carter that in fact, he did not add another four things to his list).
4 - Telegram from Santa
5 - Christmas tree-hunting, decorating
6 - Christmas tree decorating - carol singing at my mom's
7 - Christmas tree decorating, with Bradley's mom
8 - Christmas crafts, thumbprint Christmas lights
9 - Callahan Santa (he has a ponytail)
10 - Holiday Hustle 5K run, with Santa and hot cocoa (mom won with a 19:28 5K time)
11 - Three nights of Christmas light viewing (multi-state)
12 - A multitude of Christmas books read over and over and over again

I don't know who will expire before Christmas first, this mama or the tree!

Hallo-Giving FFWD to Christmas- Recap. . .

Wow!  I can't believe that I did not post once in October or November.  Let's recap:
October:  Pumpkin Patch(nearly sold out), bronchitis, flu, Halloween.

November:  NYC Marathon Trip of a Lifetime = In reality, 50 hours to get from Fort Jones to JFK and come home.  Turkey Trot (350+ people!), Thankful hearts on Thanksgiving.

October was very full every weekend with visitors to the pumpkin patch.  The season ended on the last Saturday, with me excusing myself from a customer to vomit all over the bathroom.  I started to feel better around two in the morning, when Bradley started upchucking.  THANK GOODNESS, we had made the decision to close for Sunday, prior to both of us being barely able to pick our heads up off of the cool bathroom floor.  Thank goodness also for wonderful grandparents!

This Halloween Carter was Captain Hook, Miles was Peter Pan, and I was Tinkerbell.  (Yes, 4th grade teachers get to dress up, and yes it took TWO adult tinkerbell costumes plus about eight yards of material to compose a tinkerbell costume presentable enough for an elementary Halloween parade.)  Carter was not only dressed to the nines, but also in full character as well.  Trick-or-Treating was a lot of fun, and we are still enjoying the last few pieces of candy.

November started off with recovering from the flu and bronchitis, only to have Hurricane Sandy hit, six days prior to the NYC Marathon.  Runners were  ENCOURAGED by Mayor Bloomberg and the race director to come, so I trudged on with my mom.  However, it was about an hour into the first plane ride (first class- thank you Mileage Plus), that I could tell I should not tell ANYONE I was running the marathon as it was a very controversial subject.  Upon landing at JFK, the devastation was immediately evident.  The airport was not running under normal conditions and instead of taking the AirTran I had to ride a bus to the other terminal, before I met up with mom.  As we waited for a taxi, I witnessed as many people being put into taxis as possible, not necessarily the number of seatbelts, due to the gas being rationed.  I literally had my hand on the taxi door, with the address on the tip of my tongue, when my phone buzzed.  It was Bradley calling to say his Grandma Ann ( who watches the news 24/7) saw that it was cancelled.  I decided to just come home.  A lot of people were surprised I went, and other surprised I just didn't make a weekend of it.  I still went because I was encouraged to go, and I just went home because I didn't feel that I needed to take any more resources away from the city than I needed to.  I did not want to boot someone who had lost their home out of the hotel room, and I didn't want to use the fuel to even get into the city.  I feel that if you weren't a resident of the city, you really didn't need to be there.  It was heartbreaking, but there is always next year.  Mom and I had a nice (read overpriced airport meal) dinner, drinks, and retired to our COLD cots in Terminal Two.  Rising early the next morning we traveled home.

Thankful for these kiddos and the wonderful play area my dad built!

The annual Turkey Trot that I organize was a huge success.  We had people as young as three and as "aged" as 94 run or walk, three or six miles.  Thanksgiving was held at my mother-in-law's home and was delicious, picturesque, just perfect.  My mom was there too and we all had a very nice meal.  Despite all of the loss we have endured this year, there is so much to be thankful for.  I am blessed to be married to a wonderful man and father, have two healthy and FUN kids, live near my mom and in-laws, have a great job that I enjoy, see my sister often, and the opportunity to make a difference every day in the world around me.

Someday they will be taller than these tomato plants their daddy grows.  .  .

I really enjoy the holiday season, but even more so when I am "ahead" of the game.  I nearly have all of my shopping done, the house is decorated (minus the tree which will be picked out tomorrow in the woods), the cards are ready to be mailed, and the kids are excited!  I know that it's not even the first of December yet, but I know this season only comes around once a year, and kids are only young for so long.

I'll close with Carter's list for Santa:

1.  Fireman dress-up costume
2. Batman Cave with "guys"
3.  Buzz Lightyear Car

Carter interpreted his brother's list, note the similarities:
1.  Policeman dress-up costume
2.  Batman elevator
3.  Buzz Lightyear Truck

The Simple Life

I know what you're thinking, oh a garbageman, a teacher, two kids, living in the country, growing pumpkins, rocking chairs on the front porch - the simple life right?  I think life has just gotten crazier and crazier since fall has begun.  Every night we are harvesting for tomorrow's customers, invoicing, caring for kids, TRAINING FOR THE NYC MARATHON WITH 40 MILE WEEKS, making meals, lunches, grading papers, or helping my mom with her projects.  Plus we have this little thing called a PUMPKIN PATCH to get ready for.  The pumpkins are beautiful, and we are ready, but there are just so many little simple details, to prepare for a monthlong extravaganza.

In an effort to simplify our budget we recently downsized from a fully-loaded Ford Explorer, to a base-model Honda Civic.  I decided to prep our children by explaining that our new car was a "simple car".  I told them that it had no DVD player, or heated seats, or sunroof, or "sniff-sniff" - backup beepers.  It was simple and FUN I told them.  Honestly, we got the new car because it gets a bad-ass 40MPG.  Anywho, at Eileen's Carter told Kacey and Eileen all about his new simple car.  Kacey asked him why it was simple and he said, "Well, because you can go a really long ways, on a little bit of gas, and that's.  .  . simple".  Honestly, the kids don't miss the DVD player and I haven't hit anything yet, so possibly, it is a simpler concept than I anticipated.

Miles is keeping it simple too.  His database of words has really expanded, but nothing more than two syllables.  He likes to keep a direct line of conversation, and honestly, all he needs are those baby blues and a little grin to get his message across.

Carter has also made our future plans simpler by hand selecting both his and his brother's future brides. It seems that Carter has chosen Macey for himself and Clara for his brother.  That makes life in the long-run simpler right?

Bradley made hunting season simple by shooting a massive 5x5 mountain buck (technically I was told you could hang a ring from a 6th, but he is modest), on the FIRST morning of rifle season.

As for me, I'm just simply tired.  Here are a few pics of our not-so-simple, but simply beautiful life.

Fear Factor - Isbell Style

Where has our summer gone?  I can't believe that school starts in two weeks and that I am starting to go into the classroom tomorrow.  It is all bittersweet!  I love, love, love, staying home with my kiddos and doing EVERYTHING with them, but I also adore my job and am excited for a new class of 4th graders!  Before I started this post I glanced through my summer photo album on my computer.  It has been a FULL summer.  Trip to Portland, race series (with Carter running too), more races, camping, fishing, berry picking, dinners with friends, swim lessons, gymnastics, harvesting produce of our own, running and/or bike riding daily with kids, fair, Farmers' Markets, dinners on the patio, trips to the river, just to name a few.

At this point, you're probably just wanting me to take the blog in the direction of the title.  I have actually never watched this show FEAR FACTOR, but I think I have the jist of it being a TV show where people are asked to do things normally not deemed appropriate.  Two of these incidents take place on our patio where we like to enjoy the majority of our dinners.  For one, Miles is super messy and it makes clean-up much easier, and two mommy and daddy like to enjoy their beverages as the kids run around on the lawn and play.  One evening we had gotten home from the Fort Jones Farmers' Market.  We had attended the market with both kids, and it was very hot.  As payment, Bradley bought the boys some ice cream and as we sat down on the patio and all enjoyed our treats.  Miles decided to go play on one of his Little Tikes cars.  All of the sudden we heard him screaming and witnessed hornets attacking his mouth.  The pictures below don't do him justice, but he had never gotten stung before and he swelled up quite nicely.  I decided to take him to the ER just because he had never been stung before.  I gave him some Benadryl before we left and it turned out he was just fine, but it was scary.  The car ended up in the dumpster, but no worries, there is another one.

About a week later we were enjoying some grilled meat and sticky rice on the patio.  As usual, Miles had a trail of food around him.  I watched him bend down to pick up some sticky rice (we do actually keep a very clean patio) and put it in his mouth.  I suddenly realized that what he had just ingested did not look like sticky rice.  I calmly chased him down, and did the finger swipe (which he adamantly tried to fight), only to swipe out a WHOLE FROG that was still alive.  The little bugger would have eaten the whole thing, had I not used my cat like reflexes to dissuade him.  GROSS!  The worst part is that we don't have a picture of the frog.

Another week later, I challenged my fear of heights to participate in the first annual Mt. Shasta Volcano Mud Run.  This was a 3.2 mile course that climbed over 1,600 feet in about .75 miles with 10 obstacles along the way.  I was extremely nervous at the start because I don't have the best coordination and I really have a fear of heights, but I ended up LOVING the race and placing 2nd woman overall out of about 150 or so women.  ( I honestly think I was first overall and that the 2nd heat timing system was screwy, as do others, but whatever).

I guess the moral of the story is that fear is individualized and defeatable.  Miles had no fear of eating a frog and Carter won't even try to touch one.  I had a fear of heights and conquered it with a competitive tone ringing in my ears.

Here's to the next two weeks of summer, may they continue to give us wonderful family memories.

July. . . Where did it go?

4th of July fun!

Where has the month gone?  4th of July, YMCA races, gymnastics, more swim lessons, Lake Siskiyou,  camping at Trinity, Mt. A 5K, 50 Shades of Grey Trilogy, berry patch picking, and an upcoming trip to Portland.  Plus the regular duties of yardwork, selling produce, keeping up with the weeds in the garden and the pumpkin patch, laundry, and feeding three HUNGRY men.  I guess it has been a busy month.

Enjoying some raspberries at the local berry patch.

Miles talks a lot right now, but seems to eat even more.  The good news is that there doesn't seem to be anything he won't eat, the bad news is that the cost of groceries continues to rise.  He has quite a sense of humor, but is also very stubborn.  We tried camping as a family for one night at Trinity and he did not enjoy being out of his normal crib routine, so he decided to piss off all of the campers in the campground by screaming all night.  Miles doesn't seem to mind watching his brother's various activities during the week.  I think his favorite is swim lessons because he gets to get wet too.

Carter really enjoyed his gymnastics class and has gained a lot more confidence in his second round of swim lessons.  He did the backfloat today totally solo for almost a minute!  He will jump into the water and swim back to the edge unattended, regardless of the depth.  Although I would like to think of him as the next Ryan Lochte or Michael Phelps in the presence of the upcoming Olympic Games, I do think   it has a heck of a lot to do with his amazing teacher Ms. Laura.  Another highlight for the month for Carter included running in a mile race with Nene and Miles.  I do a Tuesday night race series and Carter did the mile last year, and decided to do it again this year.  He took a few minutes off of last year's time.  He absolutely loves it!  Carter also loves Nene's jetski!  What fun he had at the lake riding with all of us!

Some of my favorite memories this month are those of the boys displaying their helpful nature.  One morning I told them I had to do the recycling.  I took both of them outside as well as the outside bin and  garage recycling bins.  Thinking I would have to make a few trips up to the barn, I was pleasantly surprised as Carter offered to carry one bin, and Miles took an empty CRV bottle from the other bin and they both headed up to the barn.  Another morning as we were harvesting from the garden, Carter jumped on his John Deere tractor, put some baskets in the back, and started helping me haul strawberries.  Just this last week, Carter was watching his dad unload some gravel by shovel to do some patch work in the driveway and he hurriedly ran away, coming back with his own shoveling and proclaiming, "Daddy, I want to help too!"

The YMCA race series.

In an age when technology and instant gratification, seem to outweigh common sense, it is my hope that I can raise two boys who are able to pursue whatever dreams their hearts desire, who know that their parents support them wholeheartedly.  I also hope to raise children who intrinsically desire to make the world around them a better place, and put service above self.

There's a FIRST time for everything!

Thanks to the Berenstain Bears, I was in the know of a seemingly simple, but genuinely complex principle of life at an early age: There's a first time for everything.  If you really think about this simplistic concept it gathers substance in application.  Just think - there was a FIRST time that someone ate a raisin, a FIRST time someone wrote a letter.  This weekend was a weekend of firsts in the Isbell household.

Those who know me know that I like to keep things clean and organized.  Carter is very similar to me.  He gets agitated when things are not put away and does not like his hands to be sticky.  Miles on the other hand.  .  .  not so much.  While I was frantically trying to finish up some ten-year reunion stuff on the computer before heading to the nearest (read 90 miles away) copy store, I noticed that Miles was super quiet.  Ignoring my inner good-mother telling me to simply turn around, I pushed forward in my task.  As I relished in the completed task I turned to find Miles headfirst in the garbage can, covered in a sticky mess of strawberries, strawberry yogurt, and coffee grounds.  Not only was he covered in them, but it was all in his mouth as well.  For the FIRST time, in my life when encountered by a mess, I did not hit it head on armed with cleaning solutions but instead I began to cry.  Lesson learned - finishing tasks in motherhood, is equivalent to the "haste makes waste" proverb.

Moving on with the day Bradley and I drove the boys up to Medford.  Our goal was to finish up some reunion errands, hit Costco, possibly Target, and find something for me to wear to our ten year reunion.  Those who know me well also know that I don't relish in my sense of fashion, and in fact REFUSE to buy anything retail that is not on sale.  (I do however often make exceptions in the realm of exercise apparel.)  I am not a fashionista - I am exceptionally challenged when it comes to doing my hair, but I can run pretty damn fast, so I tend to focus more on my running shorts.  That being said, I decided to up my game plan for my reunion.  Despite the fact I can still fit in it, I don't think people want to see me in the same outfit I wore to graduation.  Fighting my urge to scour the 70% off racks at Target for a dress, I headed into a boutique shop, lured there by huge SALE signs on the outside of the impressive facade.

Upon entering the store I was immediately intimidated by the very cute and put together sales clerk, who I know was eyeing me up and down and was not seemingly impressed by my clearance GAP chic outfit.  I held my head high and asked for her help in purchasing a dress to wear to our reunion.  She immediately wanted to know the venue, and I just couldn't bring myself to tell her it was on top of City Hall in a town with a population of less than 300 people.  I can't imagine what she should have brought out.  Instead I told her , "um indoors".  Now she thought of me as mentally and fashionally challenged. Regardless, I went forward with my "first" and began to try on dresses in the lavish rooms. After getting help from Bradley and the boys we decided on a nice number that was very flattering, but she suggested I try these things call "spanks" so that I didn't have lines.  SKIP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH IS YOU ARE EASILY EMBARRASSED.  Okay, so I try on a small pair (on top of my underwear), decided to go the next size, take those off, LOVE how I look in the second pair and am now feeling uber confident in my ability to seem fashionably savvy.  I take off the second pair - and suddenly realize that my "AUNT FLO" decided to make a visit while I was wearing these ridiculously expensive underwear.  Now not only did I have to buy BOTH pairs, but I also had to explain to the nosy clerk WHY I needed to buy both.  Too many firsts to list here, but you get the picture.  As I result, I ended up crying the rest of the way around Medford, fueled impart by embarrassment, hormones, and buyer's remorse.

The last first of the weekend occurred today during our family trip to Kangaroo Lake.  Carter caught his first fish!  He was so excited about catching the fish, but didn't want to touch it.  He decided to release it back into the lake.  A few moments later he had another first when he fell face first into the frigid mountain lake.  Fortunately, he had had a week of swim lessons under his belt and Bradley was right there.

Without firsts I guess there wouldn't be lasts.  Because I went into a chic store and surrendered my vulnerability towards high end fashion, I will NEVER try on expensive underwear again.  Because Carter fell into the lake for the first time, I will NEVER let him go fishing without a huge life jacket on until he is at least 19 years of age, no matter how shallow the water.  Total joke there, but some mother might go there, there's a first time for everything.  .  .