With, not For

Last summer before we went on vacation to my parents house I would have said that Austin was doing great adjusting since Chase was born. But then we got to Washington and my sister just doted on him day and night. She held him on her lap so he could eat, she took him down to the beach, watched shows with him, sang songs and pushed other cares aside to pay attention to him. And he LOVED it! When she wasn't there he asked, "Where's Aunt Devvie? (Debbie)?" or "When Aunt Devvie get here?"

It made me realize how my little Austin desperately needs my attention. Since Chase was born, Austin's needs seem to be pushed aside until the baby's needs are met. I have him in two days a week of preschool and most days he tells me he doesn't want to go, he just wants to stay home with me. This is especially true if we go do anything the mornings he has school. The days he is happiest is when we stay home in the morning and while Chase is down for his morning nap, Austin and I play together. He wants me to race cars, play with his little people, do puzzles, play catch, etc. He doesn't care what it is we are playing, just that I am playing With him.

And Austin isn't the only one. Bryce thinks I am the best Super Mario Galaxy player in the world (and really, I am). The other day he was playing the Wii and needed help passing a board, so he came to get me and he said, "Mom, I'm so sorry I always need help with Super Mario Galaxy." What he doesn't know is I'd rather play that with him than do just about anything else.

The events of my day pretty much revolve around doing things for my kids. It starts in the morning with making breakfast, packing lunches, helping them change, wiping bottoms and noses, being their chauffeur, preparing food, cleaning laundry, picking up toys, and the list goes on and on. I can easily fill my day with doing things for my kids.

And then there's Derek. He goes to work all day so he can provide a nice life for our family. It really isn't a stretch to say that one of the ways he shows his love for us is by going to work. But it takes him from us and the boys don't care what he does during the day, they just want him to play with them from the moment they pounce on him when he walks through the door until bed time.

Going to work, cleaning the house, doing laundry and making dinner are all things that have to happen. But I hate to find myself constantly telling my children I will play with them once I am done doing some task. Because they don't care if the house is clean or we have vegetables with our dinner, they just want me to show interest in them. And while providing clean socks is one way I say I love you to my children, they just don't hear it as loudly as they do when I chase them around the kitchen, or spin Bey Blades, or paint pictures with them. I don't want to be a mom who stands on the outskirts watching my children grow up while do things FOR them. I want to be a mom who is actively invovled playing WITH them. It's something I think of a lot as I go through my day, not to let the things I do For my family get in the way of being With my family.

Our Family Should Be Quarantined

Or at least that's the way it feels. Since November 19th, we have had the following:

3 cases of Strep Thoat

3 cases of stomach flu

1 Sinus Infection

1 cyst removed

2 Lipomas removed

5 plantar warts frozen

Because of all of this, we have had:

4 rounds of antibiotics

6 doctor appointments

2 immunizations

10 external stitches plus a few more internally

One dentist appointment we kept, and another was rescheduled to due said stomach flu.

I just love this time of year...

My husband, the Brand Manager

It's official - Derek has been promoted to Brand Manager at ConAgra Foods. We think this is a very big deal and are very excited about it.

Derek has been reflecting on what led him to this point in his career. It's interesting to look back and see what decisions 10 years ago led us here today.

Picture it, Provo, Utah Fall 2001. Derek was a senior Marketing Communications Major and was in an afternoon lecture class at BYU. One day a guy from Stephens Hot Chocolate came and told the class about his job doing marketing for Stephens. Derek thought it sounded cool. The next week another marketer from Rhodes rolls came and talked about his job as a marketer and Derek, once again, thought that sounded like what he'd like to do. So after class he asked the guy what path he needed to take to someday do that job. Keep in mind, at this point we still didn't know the term Brand Manager or CPG (consumer packaged goods). This guy told him he needed to work for 3-5 years after his undergrad, then apply to a good MBA program. Derek had always planned on getting a masters anyway, but that pretty much cemented the idea.



So in December of 2001 he graduated from BYU (don't we look ridiculously young):

and got a job in the Marketing, Sales, and Service Division of Ford Motor Company. We started out in Dallas and then were quickly transferred to Kansas City. Derek was the guy who sold the Ford cars to the Ford dealerships. You'd think that would be an easy sale... it wasn't always.

About 2 years after he started with Ford, Derek started making plans to go to a full-time MBA program. This was exciting and scary at the same time. Going to a full time program meant giving up his job and all the benefits (including awesome new trucks every 4 months), moving and trying to figure out a way to support our little family. We were accepted to BYU and Notre Dame before we even applied to UT. What can I say, I married a Texan at heart and as soon as he was accepted, I knew we were Austin bound.

Derek worked hard at the University of Texas...as shown here with his champion bowling nerds, I mean team...

During his intense first semester back at school he attended numerous informational meetings with recruits introducing their company and the types of employment they offered. One day he came home after attending a meeting from Frito Lay. He was so jazzed about what he'd heard from them. Honestly, that day, his purpose in going back to school clicked for him and he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to be a Consumer Packaged Goods Brand Manager. (I thought he was crazy - the man was talking about selling potato chips for a living, quite the step down from cars if you asked me. ;-) After that his course was clear. He was offered several internships for that summer and we took the one with ConAgra.

Derek was put on the Banquet team over Pot Pies. At the end of the summer they gave him a full time offer and we just couldn't turn it down.

So after he graduated in the spring of 2007 we moved to Omaha and he started working at ConAgra full time on the Healthy Choice team. He was on Healthy for 2 years and got to do a lot of fun things like trips to California to meet Julia Louis Dreyfus when she signed on as their spokesperson, or being the coordinator for the Healthy Choice Indy Car.

Then he was switched to the Banquet team, and while Banquet may not seem as cool (or as tasty) as Healthy, it's the largest brand ConAgra owns, worth almost a billion dollars, and Derek has been running the business for all the single serve entrees as well as the new dessert pot pies and several other items. And now he's been promoted. I couldn't be more proud of him!

So that's how a lecturer 10 years ago gave Derek a lead, a recruiting session 5 years ago lit the spark and here we are today.

Thanksgiving

I hosted my family for Thanksgiving this year. I had a K.I.S.S. motto this year - keep it simple, Sheri. I wanted the focus to be on the people, not the food. While that was a nice idea, it didn't really turn out that way, but at least I felt less stressed. Here's how the weekend went:

Everyone had leisure time which included a suprisingly successful craft table (yeah me!), watching football and all 6 of the little boys loved the remote control cars, The womenfolk slaved away in the kitchen (love these two ladies!).

My turkey turned out awesome,

but Kevin tried to show up my dead bird with two of his that he got that morning...

We ate tons of yummy food. Notice the drinks - cranberry slush and 7-up, a family tradition, made easier with my icecream maker.

While Kevin and Derek searched the ads, Chase convinced Uncle Bret to share his pie,

and cried when it was all gone (no joke).Derek got up at 4:45 for black Friday shopping. He and Kevin almost outdid themselves, and the capabilities of our poor little car. They tied the doors closed on accident and had to enter Dukes of Hazzard style.

We put Jennie's awesome hair cutting talent to work. She's WAY better than great clips. (I've tried cutting my boys hair myself - it's not a pretty picture.)

We took the kids to the zoo. There's a baby gorilla there that is the cutest, funniest thing. We love seeing him every time we go and here he was playing with Austin through the glass (they were smacking their hands together until mama gorilla got nervous and swept him away).

It was a great time together and while we still out did ourselves an food - both quantity and quality (why, oh why are we such good cooks!?!), it really was about being together as a family, not just the food.

Devil's Food Cake

This month was my month to host our book group and the book we read was Devil's Food Cake. While I don't know that I recommend the book (unless you like fluff, that is), the recipes inside make it worth buying. I, of course, had to make devil's food cake for dessert, and it was beautiful. It was the best chocolate cake I've ever made. It's also the only chocolate cake I've ever made that didn't come out of a box, so perhaps there's a lesson to be learned there. I am great when it comes to cooking, but not when it comes to baking. I don't think I'm precise or patient enough with it. So it's amazing this dessert turned out so well! My book club is great, an unexpected addition to my monthly calendar, and I look forward to it every month.

Some of the great books we've read or are reading: "The Help", "When Crickets Cry", "These is My Words" and "East".

Somebody's Watching You

Why?

What possessed Austin to put these in here?

Halloween, Revisited

We recycled several of our old costumes this year. There were a few new ones too. It was a fun Halloween with far too many excuses to get into costume!

Bryce Then:

Chase Now:

Austin Then: Chase Now:

Us Then (1999):

Us Now
Bryce Then:

Austin Now:
Bryce Now:

Austin Now:

You're Welcome, California

Windmills have taken over the I-80 corridor in Iowa. At night they have flashing red lights at the top, so the Iowa countryside slightly resembles a string of Christmas lights. There are hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS, of them for miles. And they are HUGE.

And the power they generate travels all the way to California. Amazing, isn't it.

Half Marathon

I am not a runner.

I think in order to qualify as "a runner" you actually need to enjoy running.

I do not.

But finishing... well, that's addictive.

Last weekend was the Des Moines Half Marathon and my beloved sister-in-law Jennie and I decided months ago to run it together. The first night I went running I wondered to myself why I was doing this to myself. Training for a race is so time consuming and it's hard to stay motivated. At the time I had a few extra baby pounds to loose, so that was my incentive, but those came off and I still had to run the darn thing.

I really had to ask myself why I was doing this. Why take the time away from my family, put the pounding on my body and force myself into this. Every now and then I enjoy running, but so often my runs are consumed by mental battles just to keep myself going. And during training it's just stressful about how and when I'm going to get my runs in, and having to put myself through what I like to call, "Death by Treadmill". About three weeks before the race I had the most awful "long run". I did 7 miles at about a 9 min. per mile pace. Instead of being proud of myself for running 7 miles, all I could do was berate myself for not going further and not going faster. But by the time I got home I was just disgusted with myself for another reason; because I couldn't even celebrate my accomplishments, I just had to rag on myself about what I didn't do. See what I mean, I'm a total mental patient when it comes to running. After that I made changes to my training and it went much smoother.

But here's what I figured out. I was doing this for several reasons. #1 - Because my previous race experience was so good. Not to be over dramatic, but running the Dam to Dam changed my life. #2 - I'd told Jennie I would, and I wasn't going to go back on it. #3 - I was doing it because it was hard. How many times do we do things that are really hard for us? Life is pretty cushy most of the time. Seldom do I have to go outside my comfort zone. When I sub for a step class, that is definitely out of my comfort zone, but I like it. When things are really hard, it's usually just easier to not do them, but if we never push ourselves how do we know what we like and what we don't? How do we learn what we are capable of, if we never give ourselves the opportunity to find out. The desire to do something that was HARD was a real motivating factor for me in this race.

And it was rough going. From the start I had problems. First of all, my best running buddy in the whole wide world, Lora, is very pregnant and couldn't run with me. Oh, how I missed her. Then, I battled ingrown toenails, sore knees, sciatic nerve trouble, and then 2 1/2 weeks before the race I got mastitis. For you lucky souls who've never had this, count your blessings. This is the 4th time I have had this and every time I am wiped out for a full 6 days. I NEVER want to have this EVER again. It was the sickest and most miserable I have ever been. By the time I was up for running again, the race was a week and a half away and my confidence in my ability to finish the race was shot. But my crazy-ultra-marathon-running-friend Ashley talked me down from my metaphorical ledge and got me to the start line.

So race morning was cold, 38 degrees, but gorgeous out the whole time. There were tons of people but we found our pace group (2:10) and waited for the gun. Having a pace group is awesome. You just follow someone holding a sign (the whole race!) with the time you want to finish in. Can you imagine running a marathon holding a sign up the whole way? I didn't have a goal time, so I thought I'd start with 2:10 and I might have to fall back to 2:20. I did 12.4 in 2:10, so I knew I'd be somewhere around there. But we stayed with our pace group pretty well.

I really appreciate the people who show up to cheer on the runners, and some of their signs were awesome. My favorites:

"Toenails are Overrated"

"Meth Kills, Use Speed"

"Your body is a liar, You can do this"

"26.2 because 26.3 would be crazy"

Jennie and I didn't stop running the entire race. I was very proud of us for that. We were almost done and came around the corner and someone said to us, "You've got about 3 more blocks to go" and I looked up and I could see the big FINISH sign. What a feeling! Then about a block before the finish line our kids and husbands were cheering us on. And ya know, months of stress and preparation and pain were suddenly all worth it.

Will I do it again? Yes, I will.

Right after the finish line was TONS and TONS of food. We loaded down our plates and our kids had a picnic in right there in downtown Des Moines.

And here is my cutie pie - I guess he wasn't too impressed.

My race stats: I finished in 2:11:34 which is a 10:03 per mile pace.

And here's something ironic. For weeks I've been irritated that all of my work outs have needed to be runs, and Monday I went into the gym and felt lost because I didn't know what to do. Ha!

Feed me Seymour

Why sit down to eat when kneeling is so much more effective?

MUST GET

FOOD!

Happy Fall!

"I carried a watermelon"

Quick, name the movie that line comes from.

(And the actress who said it, who she said it to, what song was playing and any other thing memorable about this scene. LOVE this movie. And Amy B. if you don't get this right I will forever question the very foundation of our childhood friendship. And that watermelon was from my garden, and it was delish!)

Don't do it Chase!

Dear Chase,

If I could, I would press the pause button on our lives right now. I can't believe you are already 6 months old. This is my favorite baby time because you are so happy and expressive, chubby and round, soft and sweet. But just because you are 6 months old doesn't mean you needed to crawl from room to room to get your toys or to find me. It also doesn't mean you need to eat 4 jars of baby food a day, and then still want what we are eating. And I promise I won't feed you anything you need teeth for, so you can stop growing them for awhile. I'm so sorry I accused you of being crabby instead of realizing you were teething, but I just wasn't expecting it so soon. But you can start sleeping through the night again. Remember when you were so little and did it so well? Now you think you need to eat twice during the night. You don't, you really don't. I know it looks like your brothers are having fun, but you don't really want to join them yet. It took me 9 emotionally unstable months to get you here, could you just stay my baby for at least that long? Please?

No?

I didn't think so.

Anticipation

I've had great success with my garden this year. And even though it's September, the produce keeps coming. Yum!

Basil is my favorite, I have 5 plants and want more next year.

I am my mother's daughter - I love raspberries. As soon as I come in from the garden Austin checks my bucket so he can have first dibs on the berries. He is his mother's son.

Bryce's favorite is the cantelope. A racoon ate all his corn.

Can you find the 2 new watermelons?

We took another one this size camping with us, and it was delicious. I think my nephew Keaton ate half all by himself.