Quick Update

Went to do the triathlon. It was so cold that morning and I was a little sick to my stomach (nerves, I thought). But it was way better than I had thought. The training, even though it wasn't much, really paid off. I was able to complete it, and have a lot of fun with my sister.
I was feeling really proud when I woke up the next morning also feeling sick, and every morning since, that I did my first triathlon while carrying our 8 child! So glad I didn't chicken out when I saw the cold lake, because I don't know if I'll take the opportunity to do it again!
Yes, we are expecting #8 in April. Don't know gender yet, but everyone is hoping for another girl, so it will probably be a boy! No idea what we will name the baby yet, the kids really think Luke for a boy, Leah for a girl. Can't imagine where they came up with that! If we don't think of something soon, we may just go with it. I have put my foot down at middle name "Skywalker".
Schools in, 4 go, 3 stay home. 5 are in soccer on 4 different teams. It's almost over and we are excited to have some down time for a while. I just got put in nursery. I can't imagine a better place for me! I love it.

IRS

Thank you to the IRS for causing me to blog today. I needed to call the IRS to change a payment that I made for our business, and they said that it would be a 15 minute wait. They don't do the call back option, so here I am, waiting. It has now been 28 minutes. This isn't something that they allow to be done online and I'm leaving to go out of town in 2 days, today is the day that I have (or had) time to sit on the phone waiting to talk to someone.
Don't mean to complain. It is a good excuse to sit and stalk a few people on Facebook, reconcile my bank statements, buy a few things on ebay, and of course now, blog. Wow! My priorities are really messed up. I should have blogged first, but then again, it wouldn't have been so interesting.
Maybe I should tell Brad that I need to be paid by the hour. Or maybe that I should be paid at all! :)
Okay, there they are! Hooray, only 34 minutes of waiting. I've learned my lesson. I will never make a mistake on our taxes again!

Swimming, biking, running...

My sister talked me in to doing a triathlon with her this summer. Now she's thinking of backing out. I have injured myself a couple times this summer, and questioned my own abilities to keep training, but have managed to muddle through. To be honest, I really don't care if I do a triathlon or not. I am less and less competitive as I get older. But, what I have loved about this is that it has motivated me to push my body in different ways. I came to the point where I actually enjoyed going jogging a few years back. I thought I would enjoy swimming, but I feel like I am running sprints in the pool and while I am enjoying the workout for my arms, and love the cool of the water, I just can't say I love it yet. Biking isn't something I've done since college and even then, I didn't do much more than just own a bike. This has been a real challenge, using yet another set of muscles. If I could figure out a good way to bike without feeling bruised on my bottom, I may start to enjoy it.
Long story short, I don't know if I will do the triathlon, but I am so glad that I have taken the time to try some new things. So often I forget that pushing myself to do something new is very empowering and makes me feel good. I don't have any ambition to win any races, but I am learning to love the race!

I'm back...

Well, don't count on it. I just had to go private and hide in shame for a while. We'll see if anyone checks me out anymore. I'll try to be better.
Don't worry, the kids are still cute, talented, and smart and Brad and I are still amazing in every way! So, you really haven't missed out on anything!

Christmas and all the fun

Thanksgiving/Black Friday

This year I talked Brad out of spending Thanksgiving with his family and we headed north for some Gilman Family time. Okay, it was just one other Gilman, but it was way worth it! We made it to Denver Wednesday night and then the eating began. We ate, and ate and ate.
All fueled up, my sis and I woke up at 3:00AM and headed off to do some Black Friday shopping. We stayed up until midnight planning our morning and I am proud to say that although I only got 2-3 hours of sleep, CHRISTMAS IS DONE!! I've done Black Friday before, by myself, and have always pooped out after a couple of stores. It was great to have a partner who also knew what I wanted and was willing to fight for it! Luckily, we didn't have to do any fighting. People were very friendly and it was fun to be out!
I did have one mishap at the first store, that almost ruined the rest of the day for me... After waiting in line for too long, we finally got to the check out. I swiped my debit card and quickly entered my pin. The machine didn't pick up all the numbers in my pin and so the cashier offered to run it as a credit card to be faster. I thought that would be fine, until my "credit" card was denied. I couldn't hardly bear the embarrassment! She ran it again as a debit, but it was too late, the bank had put a hold on my card. Again, a good reason to bring a partner... my sis handed them her credit card and we were on our way.
Finally after spending 30 minutes on the phone at 5:00 AM my bank cleared my card for use once again. Apparently, the large dollar amount, out of state, middle of the night spending was suspicious to my bank and when I didn't get the pin right they shut me down. I am grateful that they are paying attention to these things, but this almost ruined my Christmas! Not really, but it would have been very sad to me that I got up so early, just to leave it all behind!
Here are some pics from Thanksgiving. Great times! Love spending time with family (mine especially!)

More Birthdays...

My two 3 year olds, for just one day! And, yes, we did get sucked in... those are Pillow Pets!

Celebrating at the Zoo playground. With shadows, we are all 9 in the picture! Lovely warm day at the end of November!

The "Pokemon Battle Cake"---Someone needs to break this Pokemon Cake Cycle! Eric is next and I'm not holding my breath. Maybe Brad will request something different! Oh well, they are easy to make!


Stephen and Samuel turned 4 and 3 this weekend. When I asked them what they wanted to do for their birthdays they told me that they wanted to go to China and get the "Hippo Hippo" Game (Hungry Hungry Hippos}. We discussed that it would be difficult to go to China for their Birthdays so we settled for a Chinese Buffet and "Kung Foo Panda". It was a fabulous weekend and I can't believe how big they have gotten.