Fly On the Wall---A Sunday

Again, I've realized there is no such thing as typical.  Life just happens.  So here is a glimpse at Sunday life at the Finlay's house.


Sunday, September 23, 2012

5AM-Brielle Crawls in our Bed
Brielle was sick and was sleeping in a bed made up on the floor next to us.  But she wanted to be even closer.

6AM-Playing Musical Beds
Ethan came in about 5:30 also wanting to climb in bed with us.  I decided to go with him to his bed to see if I could get him to sleep longer and left James and Brielle sleeping together.

7AM-Making Breakfast
James is still trying to sleep.  The kids are 'helping' me make Sunday Breakfast.  Ethan loves cracking eggs.

8AM-Eating Breakfast as a Family
Sunday's we switch off between Cinnamon Cake (a breakfast/coffee cake) or Cinnamon Rolls.  This morning was a Cinnamon Cake day.  We have scrambled eggs and strawberries to go with it.

9AM-Going Through my Young Women's Bag
I'm watching kids in the bath.  James is working on his lesson.  I'm going through my bag to pull out old garbage and make sure I have everything organized for the day.

10AM-At Ward Council
James is home with the kids.  They are watching 'Joseph, King of Dreams' (one of our only Sunday movies choices) for what seems like the hundredth time.

11AM-Ward Council is Wrapping Up
Still at church meeting.  Brought YW stuff to leave for my counselor who is teaching and will take charge today while I stay home with Brielle.

12PM-Play Marble Tracks with Kids
James had a meeting before church, so left as soon as I got home from Ward Council.  I found out the nursery leader wasn't going to be there today, so decided I better keep Ethan home with Brielle and I.

1PM-Watching Ethan Dance
Brielle is not feeling good and isn't participating, but Ethan is showing us some GREAT moves!

2PM-Teaching Church Lessons
Went through our Family Home Evening Lesson Box and let the kids choose what they wanted a lesson about today.  We're learning about Ammon and making a sheep out of paper plates and cotton balls.

3PM-Reading Stories
We have gone through a lot of books this weekend with Brielle being sick.  She and I both like to read. Ethan tolerates holding still for story time as long as the book interests him.

4PM-Playing Uno
Brielle wanted to take another bath (feels good when she is sick.) Ethan and I are playing a game of Uno, and James is just walking in the door from church.

5PM-Making Dinner
Most Sundays we have family dinner with the extended Finlay group.  Today is different with Brad and Margaret's neighborhood having their annual block party for dinner.  With Brielle being sick, we've decided to have dinner on our own tonight.

6PM-On Phone with Nurse
I was just thinking Brielle seemed to be acting and looking better and could go to school tomorrow when her eyes started gooping up and running.  Decided to call the nurse and see if others have had this strange cold (sore throat, fever, throwing up, and now the eyes). She said we should see the doctor tomorrow.

7PM-On Way to Fireside
James is staying home with kids to get them in bed so I can go to our adult fireside and the church.

8PM-At the Fireside
It is about music in the home and the influence that music can have on your thoughts and actions.  I got a prize for being able to write down the most hymns in 2 minutes.  Yummy Dove chocolates.

9PM-Writing Family Journal
Every Sunday night I write what our family did that week and send it to my Mom.  She compiles all the siblings and sends it out so we can read what everyone in the family is up to each week.  My Mom has always kept a family journal, but the kids contributing and having it e-mailed back to us started the year I went to college when my 3 older siblings got married 13 years ago.

10PM-Putting Away Kibaki
Just fed Kibaki.  She was hungry tonight and ate all 3 mice I offered her right away.

11PM-In Bed Reading
I keep reading bits and pieces of Daughter in my Kingdom, but am trying to make it cover to cover.  Made it a goal for my Personal Progress.

11PM-Should Be Sleeping
Finished the book!  Going to sleep for a new day to start tomorrow.

Ragnar-Napa Valley

We witnessed The Big Kahuna's first Ragnar 3 years ago, when the team ran the Wasatch Back in Utah.  (James and I were in process of moving from Michigan to California at the time and happened to be in Utah at the same time as the race.  I ran the next 2 Ragnar Relays with the team while James did support (watching kids or biking along the runners.)

But this time, was a big deal.  This was the first Ragnar James ever ran.  He was not a runner, but said he thought running would be easier than being on kid duty for the 2 day event.

Running 194 miles through Northern California in about 31 hours.  Sounds fun, right?


Van 1(Craig, Laura, Allison, Jeannie, Erin, Gwen)


Van 2 (Annie, Ian, Megan, James, Christopher, Donna)
The Van is decorated and we are all fresh, still smelling clean and excited to go start running.

We met up with Van 1 at exchange 6 along with Brad, Margaret, Evan and Aunt Helen who were all in charge of the exchange as the Ragnar SWAT team.

We have a love/hate relationship with this sign.  The last mile can often seem to last forever, but knowing there is only 1 mile left is a relief.  One of the favorite memories for many on the trip was when James was running his middle of the night leg.  Our Van happened to pass him as he ran passed his 1 mile marker and we witnessed as he bent down and kissed the sign.

These roads seemed to stretch on forever and ever.  I thought it was just because I was running, but on the way home as we drove back the same route I realized it really was a LONG way to run.

James was very excited that he was the one to run the highest peak of the race.  It just happened that at this point the neighborhood was called the Summit.  The night-time run was really foggy, and you couldn't see very far in front of you.  During this run James almost got hit by a deer.  He said he heard the deer come running down the hill towards him.  When James turned his headlight at the deer, the deer stopped and ran back the other way.

Running in Napa Valley, we saw a lot of vineyards.  Miles and miles of grapes growing.  Some looked so good you wanted to touch them to make sure they weren't plastic.

We made it to the finish!

What a fun way to spend a date weekend getaway with your spouse.  Hanging out with your stinky friends in a stinky van and getting no sleep and then running.  Builds ultimate bonding.


We brought home our medals as a treat for out kids.  They love them.

Made it this far through the post and still want more details?  I will continue.  But, if you're good without the details, you can stop reading now.

James was runner #8 and ran a total of almost 12 miles.  His first run was 5.1 miles in the afternoon sun going up a steep hill.  His second run was 4.4 miles in the middle of the night cold fog.  His final run was Saturday mid morning right before the sun broke through the fog.  He ended this 2 miles run in a vineyard.

I was runner #10 and ran almost 23 miles total.  My first run was 6.6 miles steep hills and hot sun.  The second run was 8.3 miles, it was cold enough I saw my breath cloud up in front of me as I ran.  Last run was 7.8 miles as it was reaching the low 90s on Saturday afternoon.

We flew up Thursday night and had a hotel room for all 6 of us in Van 2 to share.  Ian and Annie took the floor with their blow up mats.

Our Van started running at exchange 6 at around 11am Friday morning and finished up about 5pm.  We got some dinner and then went to exchange 12 to wait for our turn to run again.  There were some soccer fields to sleep on.  However, since we all flew and tried to pack lightly, we didn't have great sleeping gear.  We had 2 blankets to share with 6 people.  Christopher and Donna stayed in the car with  James, Ian, Annie and myself tried to get some sleep on the grass. That wasn't very successful.

It was our turn to run again at about 11pm.  We ran in the cold through the night in the fog finishing at about 5:30am.   At this point we had a hotel we could go to.  Van 1 had gone to get sleep while we were running our middle of the night runs.  We went to the hotel, the guys got in the hot tub while the girls showered.   We got laundry done and had breakfast.  We had time for a very short nap before we had to hurry over to the exchange to start running our last legs.

After we celebrated our finish, we re-distributed everyone in different vehicles and went our separate ways.  James and I stayed in Van 2.  We stopped at Fenton's for dinner, dropped off Donna and Christopher at the airport, then settled in for the drive home.  Brad was driving and Margaret and Evan were also with us.  I had the back seat to myself for the drive home, so I had a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep.

And the kids during all this? We left them in Duarte with their Aunt Megan.  She had 4 kids in addition to being pregnant, and her husband was out of town on business for 3 weeks.  She is the one that deserves the medal.  When we went to pick the kids up Sunday morning, they wanted to stay and keep playing with their cousins...because a 3 night sleepover is apparently not long enough when you're having that much fun.

Monrovia Canyon Falls Hike

On Sunday before labor day there was a big fire that started up the canyon from our house.  This is the view from our bedroom window.

We drove over to Monrovia to go for a hike Monday morning.  It was away from the fire, but you could still smell the smoke in the air.  We joined Ian and Annie at Monrovia Canyon Park to hike to the falls.

It was a beautiful hike.  It was almost all shaded.  We all put on sunscreen as it was a really hot day, but found we were in the protection of the trees almost the entire hike.

It was a pretty set of falls.  Others said they are much bigger in the spring, but they was still a pretty good flow for it being so late in the summer.

We were impressed with kids being able to hike the entire way.  We did close to 5 miles.  Brielle was starting to complain on the way back, but the promise of an otter pop after we got home encourage both the kids to finish the hike on their own.  

C is for Cooking

The kids always love to help in the kitchen, so I knew they'd enjoy a whole week focused on the chance to do so.

 

I put the kids in charge of making their own lunches everyday.  They loved being in charge.  I taught them to spread, cut, stir, etc. 

We looked at the cookbooks and talked about recipes.  They kids designed their own recipes for chocolate chip cookies.  

 

We made some Cat Cookies

practiced writing 'c' in the shaving cream  (that shape is a hard one to master.)

We toured the kitchen and explored all the kitchen gadgets and talked about what they are used for.

we then used them for painting.  Which may not be their intended use, but they have some very fun designs.

and we figured out ways to make almost all of our food into the shape of a letter C

B is for Boat

 B is also for a lot of other things.

The older kids were having a Bear week at school.  So we did boat activities as planned for the first couple days, and then added some Bear activities as well.

A couple pictures from the week...

Playing boat games

The kids created their own house boats.  I gave them the boxes to use as boats, but apparently they needed a yacht.

We made banana boats for a snack.  We also made zucchini boats to float.  I had planned to make dinner zucchini boats as well, but we didn't get a chance that week.

Ethan loves puzzles.  He was very excited about finding all the letters and that he could point out the 'b'.  He still gets the 'b' and 'd' confused however.

A is for Apple

With the big kids starting school, I just have Ethan and Elise for preschool time.  I'm working out a new routine and adjusting to the difference.  These kids loved having more attention and projects that were more focused on their level.
I am planning to go through the alphabet with a theme for each week.  The first week was all about Apples.

We started with identifying the letter A.  They found and circled the 'A's in their names.

One of the favorite books was Ten Red Apples.  We counted apples as we acted out the book over, and over and over again (by request of the kids).

We explored apples as we cut them open and counted the seeds.

We ate all kinds of apples.  Dried apples and pretend (we made apples using crackers, frosting and chocolate chips for the seeds)

The kids helped in making food with apples.  Apple Muffins and apple pie bars.

This is our coconut tree (from the book Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom)

 Books

Hollywood Bowl

We had a chance to go to the Hollywood Bowl with the extended Finlay group to see a Tchaikovsky performance.  We had a fun picnic with everyone at the park before hand.

 The Los Angeles Philharmonic performed pieces from the Nutcracker Suite, Swan Lake, and the 1812 Overture.  There were dancers from the American Theatre Ballet Company performing while the orchestra played, and during the 1812 overture the USC marching band joined as they did a major display of fireworks.

I always laugh at the fact that Ethan does not like loud noises.  He is the noisiest kid ever, he is even loud when he is eating, but any loud noise scares him and he plugs his ears.  

Fly On The Wall--A Saturday

We've done Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  This Saturday was the last before school starts.  Saturdays can vary a lot, so I don't know if there is a 'typical' but it at least shows an example of our life

Saturday, August 25, 2012

6AM-James getting up to Bike
I got my long run in yesterday, since we wouldn't have time for it today.  James is headed out to bike with Ian, Annie and Brad to the beach.

7AM-Kids Cuddling with me in Bed
Both kids climbed into my bed this morning.  We are taking turns scratching each other's backs.  The kids don't rub or scratch hard enough on my back to make it effective, but it is sweet.

8AM-Getting Kids Dressed and Ready
Got us all breakfast.  Saturday is supposed to be pancakes, but the kids wanted oatmeal instead.

9AM-At the Store
Needed to get ice to take to the beach, so figured I'd get all the grocery shopping done at the same time.  I don't like going to the store more than once a week.

10AM-Driving to the Beach
We are going to meet up with James and all the Finlay crew at the beach.

11AM-Playing in the Sand
James called and said he was almost to us.  The biking group did about 45 miles.  We are getting tables, chairs and food set up while kids play in the sand.

12PM-Eating Lunch
Megan pre-cooked hotdogs and kept them warm.  I'm not a huge hotdog fan, but these were good.  Something about eating on the beach.  Fruit, chips, cookies and water while watching the ocean waves.  A fantastic day.

1PM-James Boogie Boarding with Kids
I am enjoying watching while James helps the kids catch the waves.  They are loving it.  Until they tumble off in the waves, but then get up and go again.

2PM-Leaving the Beach
Got to get home in time for James to go to priesthood session of stake conference.

3PM-Unloading Car
Pulling out all the beach stuff while James hurries to shower.  Also starting cinnamon roll dough to make for breakfast tomorrow.

4PM-Running on Treadmill
It is HOT in the garage.  Wishing I would have just gone this morning before James left for the bike ride.  Kids are watching a show so I can get a run in.  Luckily I'm only doing 30 minutes today.

5PM-Cleaning House with Kids
We implemented new job charts recently.  It works well for Brielle.  (Ethan has a mind of his own, so he helps when he wants to, but when he doesn't feel like it, it is hard to get him to do anything but cause more trouble...we're still working on that.)

6PM-Feeding Kids Dinner
James and I are planning to go out for a late dinner after conference.  I'm eating a peach and feeing kids cheese bagels, broccoli and peaches.

7PM-At Stake Conference
Uncle Danny came over to watch kids.  James came back from Priesthood meeting to pick me up and get back to the Stake Center.

8PM-At Stake Conference
The women is talking about happiness and optimism in a crying voice.  Makes me wonder what kind of challenges she has had in her life.  Wish I knew her better.  Loving the Conference.

9PM-Leaving Conference
Heading to In 'n Out for dinner with James.  Love having a chance to date!

10PM-Cleaning Up House
Getting stuff ready for tomorrow and then heading to bed to read before sleep.  My friend loaned me a book I want to start.