It’s so embarrassing that the last time I posted it was April.  There’s been a lot going on, but nothing major going on.  Audi was working really hard in May to get a project completed - we’re all so proud of him.  Now that he’s done, we decided it was the perfect time for me to get my Master’s (before the kids are in school) so for the last four weeks, I’ve been researching and conversing with many resources to plan out my graduate program of study.  It looks great so far.  I’ve got everything worked out and will be done with all major classes in the spring.  I’ll do my Internship in the summer and take an exit course in the fall.  When I’m finished, I’ll have a Master’s in Education - Classroom Teacher: Library/Media and a Multi-Age Library Media License pending results of my Praxis II: Library Media.  It’ll be nice to have that out of the way in a year and just take enough classes to maintain my licenses.  I’m really excited and really nervous!

In other news, we had the big community garage sale last Saturday.  We had great weather and a big turnout.  I love garage sales.  I love organizing it the most.  Secondly, I love running it.  Some people have a hard time with haggling.  I enjoy it.  I mean, I don’t want this stuff anyway so why not ask me for a better price?  We got rid of most of the big stuff:  old sink vanity and medicine cabinet, baby toys and supplies, strollers, car seats, bouncy seats - gone!  My mom, sister and friend all put stuff in the garage sale this year, and they each made a good chuck of change.  I was pleased with the result.  It’s definitely worth all the planning to hold one.  Audi even let me get away for a few minutes to hunt down a breadmaker.  It was the only thing I wanted to look for that day and I said, “If I’m going to find a breadmaker, I’m going to find it on Ironwood.”  So Gwen drove down a block to Ironwood and parked the car about halfway down the street.  We walked down one side and went to a few sales then crossed over and sitting out on the driveway was a very nice looking breadmaker.  I asked the woman working if it worked and she said everything had been donated since it was a church fundraising garage sale so she wasn’t sure, but everything was now 1/2 off because it was around 3 pm and the garage sales were over at 5 pm.  I looked at the sticker - $3.  So, I got a breadmaker for $1.50.  I haven’t had time to test it out yet, but I imagine it works just fine since the outside looks like it was taken care of well.  I even found the manual for the make and model online so I know how to use it.  Sweet!  Did I mention I love garage sales?

As for the kids, Jayden is getting taller and Josie is getting more verbose.  It’s amazing how much they grow up in such a small amount of time.  They’re such sweet kids.  Josie has learned how to crawl out of her crib, but she’s so good about staying in bed until the morning.  This morning was the first time in about a month that she came in before 6 am.  I think it was 5 am today, and I said, “Honey, it’s too early.  Let’s go back to bed.”  She let me pick her up, and I carried her back to bed and laid her down, covered her up, and rubbed her back for awhile until she went back to sleep.  She came back in around 7 am.  :)  Jayden is doing very well with his routine also.  He fills up his sticker chart for sleeping all night in his own room very quickly now.  The bedtime routine is still a little time consuming, but worth it if he’s going to sleep all night in his own room.

Audi and I leave for Colorado in two weeks.  We’re very excited.  It’ll be nice to see Cory and hang out and have fun without having to worry about the kids.  It’ll be an actual vacation!  The night before we fly out, Audi and I are running a 5K here at Tawawa Park in Sidney.  Audi had found a program to go from couch to 5k in 6 weeks so we’ve been following that plan.  You focus solely on time and ignore the distance to just train your body to run for a certain amount of time.  Audi had to run 25 minutes today and actually ran a full 5K in that amount of time.  We go to mapmyrun.com to check our distance after we’ve run for our alloted time that day.  I’m up to 20 minutes so far and run at a pace of about 12 minute miles.  Not to shabby for me considering my best run ever was at Basic Training, and I ran about 8 minute miles.  I’ve really enjoyed running and having a goal in mind that Audi and I share.  It’s been awesome. Well, I think that gets you up to speed here at the Scarpella household.  I’m off to cook dinner!

Last night as we were closing the blinds to get ready for the bedtime routine, I spotted three little bunnies in our back yard.  I called Audi and the kids over to come look.  All three bunnies were playing and chasing each other not ten feet from our window.  It was so cool.  We watched for a few minutes then Audi spotted another rabbit behind the fence of our neighbor.  He came to play too.  Then we saw another one!  They were all playing around our next door neighbor’s crab apple tree.  As we stood at the window in amazement, one little bunny came over to the tree line at the back of our property and started scratching his ear with his foot.   Audi began narrating his thoughts.

“Eeewww.  My foot stinks!”  The bunny then put it down and picked up his other foot to scratch his other ear.

“Whew!  This foot stinks too.  No wonder the other bunnies don’t want to play with me.”  The bunny timidly started to hop towards the rest of the gang.

“Hey, guys!  Do you want to smell my feet?  They stick really bad.”

“No way!” the other bunnies yelled.  ”Get away!  That’s gross!”

“Aw, come on!” said the bunny with stinky feet as he started to chase the other four through the yard, around the tree, and under the fence.

It was a lot of fun hearing Audi make up dialouge like that, and Jayden loved it.  I can’t remember ever seeing anything like that even when I was little and lived at the cemetary house, which would have been the best chance I had at seeing a group of rabbits at play.  It was really neat.

I went off to get the kid’s rooms ready for bedtime, and Audi said two more rabbits came to play for a total of seven.  I have a feeling we’ll be seeing more of them soon, and it’s nice to know that this is a great neighborhood for kids of all species to play!

What a month it’s been.  Early March Audi and I started watching our calories, and me - being the book worm I am - got online and requested half a dozen books from the library that dealt with metabolism and weight loss.  One book really caught my eye.  ”The One Day Fast Track Detox Diet” by Ann Louise Gittleman.  What an interesting read.  Summary:  The liver and colon are overworked by you eating junk.  Feed them foods that help them do their job and get rid of excess waste and toxins fast.  Sounds good to me.

It was a lot of preparation: getting rid of almost everything in the pantry because it was off-limits during the detox, which was NOT one day by the way.  It was seven days of prepping your liver and colon for a one day fast (only drinking a special kind of juice we had to make from scratch) and then three days of building up your body’s natural antioxidants and good bacteria (aka: eat lots of yogurt).  So anyway, we suffered through the first four days and by day five were smooth sailing.  We got used to eating broccoli and asparagus every meal and were dealing with the loss of all refined sugars and starches.  At the end of the eleven days, Audi had lost 7 1/2 pounds and I had lost 7.  We’re doing really well continueing to eat healthy, well-proportioned meals.  We’ve switched to whole-grain in all the foods we still eat like pasta, bread, and tortillas.  I used some of my amazon gift certificates to get some new workout videos from “The Biggest Loser” trainers.  Audi and I do Bob’s workout together, and I do Jillian’s 30 day shred by myself, plus my Sara Ivanhoe Yoga DVD’s.  It’s nice because when Audi and I can work out together, we’re both doing something we like and getting a longer workout (60 min.), while when I work out by myself, my yoga DVD’s and Jillian’s circuits are only 2o minutes long, but I still get the benefit of a longer workout because she kicks my butt!  TV’s toughest trainer indeed!  It’s been nice.  April 1st was our first day with “real” food, and we’ve kept the weight off for two weeks.  I’ve dropped another two pounds, and I think Audi’s dropped at least one.

Jayden’s been really cool about the whole thing.  I talked to him about it before we started and explained that Mommy and Daddy were going to start eating healthier so we have more energy and can do more things easily.  The other week when he went with Audi to Kroger to pick up a few things, they went down the cracker/cookie aisle, and Jayden turned to Audi pointing to the cookies and said, “Daddy, that’s a fat food.  You should only have it sometimes.”  Awesome.  :)  He’s tried several foods and found out that he likes carrots (with a bit of ranch) and celery (with peanut butter).  He also LOVES the trail mix I made with Multi-Grain Cherrios, peanuts, cashews, raisins, and M&M’s.  Guess which ingredient is his favorite?  But, hey, he eats all of it.  What do I care if he eats the M&M’s first?  Personally, I save mine for last.

It happened on a quiet Saturday afternoon in an ironic fashion (as these things always seem to do) in that we were just discussing how long the object had been around.

It began it’s life on November 1, 2008.  Audi gave it the breath of life a few hours before Josie’s party was to start that afternoon.  Just a standard pearlized white balloon bought at Walmart.  The cheapest set they had, after all, they were only balloons and were meant to be enjoyed and destroyed by the young guests that day only.  But no, not this balloon.  It took on a life of it’s own - determinded to leave it’s mark in our lives.

It hung around for a few weeks with some of it’s brothers and sisters.  But soon, it was alone.  However, the holidays were coming shortly.  Another chance to celebrate.  Thanksgiving came and so did Cory.  That night a friend joined us for some Euchre.  We were all sitting around the table:  Audi and I, AJ and Brittany, Cory, and Jared.  AJ casually looked up and said, “Hey, there’s a ballon up in the corner.”  It was written on, rubbed with static, and hidden in the alcove earlier that day.  (I saw it all go down because Cory asked me for a marker.)  AJ got up from his seat, grabbed it, and read it’s message out loud: “You smell.  Love, Cory”.  Of all the people to find that balloon, it was perfect that it was AJ.  We laughed hysterically.  Christmas came and went.  New Years came and went.  Valentines Day came and the “You smell” balloon was still wandering around the house.  Then, on that fateful afternoon of February 14th, 2009, the infamous pearlized white balloon went *pop*.  It said goodbye gracefully fulfilling it’s purpose by being enjoyed by a four year old.  It was fifteen weeks old and will be missed.

This Wednesday Jayden picked out a movie.  He wanted to do one of my yoga videos.  Okay, that’s cool.  I’m up for that.  So we got out the mat and took off our shoes and socks and popped it in.  It was awesome!  It’s a great video - only 20 minutes, but full of moves that challange and strenghten.  Why didn’t I already know this?  Let’s start at the beginning.  

Well, you see, I had wanted these videos for over two years.  It’s a boxed set of 5 videos - 2o minutes each that focus on certain areas of fitness.  They are taught by a favorite instructor of mine, Sara Ivanhoe.  I already had one of her videos, but at 50 minutes long, I could never find time in the day to do it.  I found this set online at Amazon and left it in my cart for over two years.  Amazing, huh?  Anyway, right after we moved to Sidney, I was asked to join an online community and as incentive for my feedback, I receive $10 Gift Certificates to Amazon.com every month.  Six months later I had enough gift certificates to buy the DVD set and a yoga mat.  Sweet!  I got them in the mail the same day, did one video twice that week and haven’t opened one since.  I found myself not doing it because even 20 minutes seemed like a long time with two kids hanging on me.  I’m in Downward Dog and Josie is crawling under me.  I’m trying to focus on my breathing and Jayden is screaming because Josie is on his mat.  Not the calming bliss I had in mind.

The last two days we’ve done a different video, and it hasn’t been that bad.  Jayden has been really into it.  He likes that he can do what she’s doing on the screen and likes doing it with Mommy.  Josie still tries to play airplane when I’m tring to stay in Boat Pose, but it’s not that big of deal, and I’m still strengthening my stomack muscles with her hanging on my legs.

So Jayden has become my new personal trainer.  At 3 o’clock he picks out a new video and when we’re done we put a sticker on the exercise sticker chart.  Hey, whatever works, right?

Jayden and Josie got a package in the mail last week from Uncle Cory.  Inside was a letter and two sticker activity books.  Jayden’s was “Speed Racer,” and Josie’s was “Pooh & Friends.”  My favortie was his post script copied below word for word.

P.S. These books are only “suggested” areas to place the stickers.  Really, you could stick them anywhere!  For example, stick them on furniture or Daddy’s car.

Nice.  Of course, it makes me smile to read it again because, you see, I don’t mind if they stick them on furniture - nothing the kids can reach in this house is valuable, and we plan to repaint someday.  As for Daddy’s car, that’s a no-no, but it’s not hard to keep the activity books in the house.  So enjoy the pictures.  I sure am enjoying a more decorative wall!

(I know it’s way past Thursday.  A lot of stuff was going on this past week so I’ll start with our anniversary.)

Yes, you read that right.  It’s been seven years since Audi and I tied the knot.  Weird.  It all went so fast, and I can definitely say that this past year was a great one for us.  We were open to change both in our personal lives and in our relationship, which always works in your favor if you embrace it.  As of today we are on Day 35 of “The Love Dare,” which is an amazing book featured in the movie “Fireproof” and a Christmas gift I requested from Tod.  It’s actually been really easy for us, but we’ve gotten some good pointers along the way and feel it’s brought us closer together.

On the sixteenth, my friend Gwen was able to watch the kids so I picked Audi up at work, and we went to Applebee’s for lunch.  We had a nice, relaxing time enjoying a hassle-free meal until the waitress came back with our gift card saying the computer didn’t recognize any cash left on the card.  We both looked at her puzzled because we got the card for Christmas and had used it on Audi’s birthday to order out.  I had written in marker on the back $50   38.42.  We knew there was money left on it.  After explaining the situation and seeing the look on our faces, the waitress immediately said not to worry.  The manager had taken care of our bill and to enjoy the rest of our day.  She also suggested we call the number on the back to resolve the issue.   I nodded.  We said thank you, left a cash tip, and went to the car.  I called the number right away and found out we had $38.42 left on the card.  I then talked to Erma who said if it happens again, the magnetic strip is probably bad, and the waitress should manually type the card number into the computer for payment.

So for our anniversary we received a complimentary meal at Applebee’s due to a gift card malfunction.  I guess we’ll have to go out again to spend the $38.42 left on the card!

 So today was Jayden’s first big day for Taekwondo. He’s really enjoyed his classes, and is even starting to figure out what standing in line means. Tonight was the third time they’ve practiced their forms (a series of moves based on rank) in class and he’s really starting to pick it up. With only a couple of practice rounds tonight he was able to complete the first half of his form by himself, earning his first belt. To say he was beaming when the instructor called him up front and gave him his belt would be an understatement. The little guy worked really hard at it, and I couldn’t be more proud of him. Now we’ve just got to finish off the other half of the form to move up to a full yellow belt. He’s pretty stoked about it, so hopefully we’ll have an update soon! Here’s a video of him doing his form after showing mom his new belt.

The other day I needed to clean up the living room and didn’t feel like it so I slumped down in the computer chair to take a look at the task before me.  Then, Jayden came in and handed me a walkie-talkie.  He wanted to play.  ”Why not?” I thought.  ”At least I don’t have to move.”  We started communicating back and forth, and I got the greatest idea.  

“Jayden, come in, Jayden.  We have reports of a Buzz Lightyear on the living room floor.  Can you confirm that report?  Repeat, do you see a Buzz Lightyear?  Over.”

“Sure, mommy!  I see him.  Over.”

“Great, Jayden!    Send him home, buddy - please put him in the toy tub.  Over.”

“Jayden, come in, Jayden.  We have another report coming in.  It says there is an Optimus Prime Transformer on the living room floor.  Can you confirm that report?  Repeat, do you see an Optimus Prime Transformer?  Over.”

It only lasted about five minutes, but he did put all his toys away, and my job became a little less tedious.  So thanks, Uncle Cory, for the awesome Christmas present.  Walkie-Talkies are cool.

I was sitting in front of the computer finishing up two very tasty enchiladas and got to thinking how much I like this recipe.  It has everything I think a chicken enchilada should have - chicken, cheese, enchilada sauce, and a tortilla, and it’s a-w-e-s-o-m-e.  Then, I thought about other foods I like that are plain.  Take pancakes for instance.  Give me basic pancakes with maple syrup any day.  Audi makes fun of me - like I’m missing out for liking something so basic.  ”Why not throw some chocolate chips in there?”  Gross.  Sorry, honey.  I don’t care how many times you tell me.  Chocolate chip pancakes taste nothing like a cookie.  Get over it.  I put them in yours - be happy.  And it’s not like I never eat “fun pancakes”.  I can handle some strawberry pancakes every once in awhile - like twice a year.  They’re hardly considered a breakfast food.  They’re layer upon layer of plain pancake covered in a sweet gelationous goo and doused with whipped cream.  I guess it’s a matter of I want what I want and nothing else.  If I want pancakes, I want to taste pancakes.  If I want a donut (we’ll stick with breakfast since I’m on a roll), I want to taste a donut, not a fried biscuit topped with tons of icing and sprinkles and filled with jelly.  Don’t get creative with food.  Orange mashed potatoes and green ketchup is just not right, and I’m not eating it.  Audi’s holiday pumpkin roll?  Forget it.  I’m a no fluff kinda girl.  

I think it comes from my desire for order and purpose.  I like things that are easy to understand.  I think that comes from my desire to teach.  I want things to be easy for Jayden to do on his own; therefore, I like things to be that way for me.  With Jayden, we set up his room so he can play with what he wants, when he wants, and is able to put things away when he’s done.  Cars go in the cars tub, dinosaurs go in the animals tub, guitar goes in the music tub, which again goes hand in hand with my desire for order.  I also think being a teacher makes me want to learn all I can.  Or maybe it’s the other way around.  Because I love to learn all I can, I’m a good teacher.  I just have no patience for organizations, companies, schools or teachers that give me fluff.  It’s like wasted time in my opinion.  Yes, I will wear the macaroni necklace Josie brings home from kindergarten because that is a skill she should be working on.  Will I keep it forever?  Hell, no.  But I’ll wear it with a smile until she forgets about it.  Will I be perturbed when Jayden brings home the same thing when he’s in third grade?  You betcha.  Fluff.  All fluff.  If Jayden’s teacher wants to get rid of some macaroni, she can have them (insert Science Standard for Third Grade here).  Even when I was researching taekwondo, it took me four emails and a visit to learn the basic information I was looking for from an organization.  This place is looking for business and the brochure is nothing but fluff.  It didn’t tell me what taekwondo is, what form they teach, when classes are held, how much classes are, how many students are typically in each class, why it’s a good idea to enroll my child, how the organization is run, nothing!  How can I make a decision if I can’t get the information I need to make an informed one?  I digress…

So anyway, if I ever ask you something, remember, I want a direct answer.  When I want something, that’s what I want - no frills, no fluff.  Just keep it simple, sweetie!