What's your dream?

I had a great day today! And even though it was 80 degrees outside I had to get some errands done. So, I did something, sadly, not normal. I took a shower. Well, I mean I took a shower before the kids got up and was completely ready when they popped their sweet little heads out of bead at 7:01am. I know, shocking. But it felt great because then when Alena, Titus and I dropped the boys off at school we just headed out on our errands. All of this is beside the point I am going to make in this blog, but I decided this was the perfect place to brag about my new way to start the day.

To get on with the point....We ran some books to a friend of mine for book club, we went to a thrift store, we took Titus to get a haircut (!!), we went to Walmart and then we went to Lollipop Lemondrop. Now, you might think this is a candy store or a toy store or maybe even a grocery mart, but it's not. It is a clothing consignment shop. Lollipop Lemondrop is out "North" but that's where I was and I have been wanting to visit this store for a long time. Why, you ask, have I been wanting to visit this store? Well, simply because an old friend of mine opened this store in March and I wanted to check it out in person.

The store was A-MAZ-ING.

Before I get into how awesome it was let me take you on a little walk through my experiences with second hand stores. I like to shop second hand BUT used-clothing stores usually have a distinctive smell and often times I find myself rummaging through tons of clothes to find 3-4 items which then I inspect very closely and by the end I am walking out of the store with 1-2 items because everything else was stained or marked impossibly high...Reality check, when I can get a new shirt for my kid at Wally World for $3, it better be super nice and super cute for me to buy it second hand for $8. You know what I mean? Also, often times the ladies that work in these stores are not the friendliest. I mean at least make me want to buy something from YOU, if not from the stinky, "piled up clothes" store atmosphere. And finally, if you are going to sell women's clothes as well, why do they all have to be maternity? And where are the dressing rooms? I don't really want to try on clothes in the semi-nasty restroom, especially if I AM buying maternity clothes. That's enough ranting...

Lollipop Lemondrop gave me HOPE for the future! It is SO cute inside. I mean chic-decor and the cutest rugs ever. The clothes are all on hangers! And they are hanging with space to move them around and actually look at it without everything on the rack ending up on the floor. Also, in Lollipop Lemondrop there are some vendors that bring in new things, really cute clothes for kids, jewelry, lotions, etc. And the Women's Section.....oh the WOMENS section!!! Finally a place to find some designer clothes and some not designer but CUTE clothes that are reasonably priced. Today I found a cute dress to wear over my swimsuit - $6. A win! Did I mention there is a fun kids play area? Yes! A place where my littles can watch a Disney movie and read a book or play with a ball for a few precious moments while I look without their help. Awesome. To cap it all off the dressing rooms were wonderful! Alena even said the hanger hooks were so cute, which they were; pink flowers, adorable. AND...did I mention that there are ...duh, du, da DA....LOLLIPOPS! Alena chose watermelon. It was a great experience for all and it got me to thinking....

My friend, she's probably 34 years old. She had a dream. She spent 10 years selling clothes out of her home and trading and upgrading and selling on Ebay and Facebook and all those places...And then she decided to open a store. Her boys are both in school and she's going for it. She admitted today that the change to working outside the home has not been easy, but she's doing it! And it was a dream and she pursued it and now she has the cutest little store. She has bigger dreams for it too! But I was just so impressed by her go-for-it attitude and that she thought of ALL the little details to make the store excellent and ...she's doing it! The theme of what I am trying to say is (I know Nike said it first) JUST DO IT!!

So, what's your dream??

This year Ben asked me to write down my goals for the year and my dreams for our life at the beginning of 2012. Even though things like that are sometimes cheesy to me, this year I was struck by how important it is to do. To look at it monthly and ask myself if I am doing the things I wanted to do. Am I taking purposeful steps towards my goals and dreams? Are you?

So inspired today and so proud to be the old-friend-of-the-owner of Lollipop Lemondrop! :)

Ode to Otter Pops

Oh Otter Pops
Blue, orange, green, pink and red
Cool and refreshing
You are the treat that never flops

My kids love you too
Morning, afternoon and evening
Caleb, Nathan, Alena and Titus 
Each could eat 100 of you

We love you Otter Pops!
Even the generic kind
They are so good to the tummy
Our love for you never stops!

His first Otter Pop

Love!

Orange is not my favorite so I am trying to get T to like them :)

It was 84 degrees here today, such a wonderful day. I love the sun and I love treats! Cheers!

Flowers, Jewelry, Chocolate and Kisses

I love being a mom. I love being celebrated. And quite honestly I love a day that I don't have to cook, do dishes, clean, change diapers, etc etc... So I just have a feeling that today is going to be a great day!

I have already been given a few special gifts....

#1 - FLOWERS

Hand picked by Nathan, Caleb and Alena

#2 - JEWELRY

Made by 8-yr old boys

#3 - CHOCOLATE

**Sorry there is no picture for this one, but a cute story... Alena was given a chocolate Hershey kiss and she brought it to me and said, "A kiss for you." Then she sooo sweetly kissed me on the cheek and unwrapped my candy and popped it into my mouth. I devoured the whole thing before a picture could be taken ;)

#4 - KISSES

Titus has started kissing us. Sometimes mouth wide open, sometimes with his lips pressed together to make a smacking noise. Is there a better gift?

Happy Mother's Day!

Spring is here!

Spring in Spokane is really wonderful. I forgot how sunny it is and how it doesn't HAVE to rain everyday for the May flowers to begin to bloom. The tulips and daffodils are going crazy around here and it is amazing what COLOR can do for your spirit. In Spokane everything dies over the winter, it gets too cold and snowy (in Tacoma lots of things stay green year round because it's so wet) and so the blooming of color is a wonderful thing to see.

It has been warm enough for the kids to run through the sprinkler twice now and we've definitely started applying our sunscreen on soccer Saturdays. Even morning runs have begun to be slightly more pleasant - but this could very well be that my lungs have finally realized I am serious about losing this baby weight! When I shove the boys out the door saying I shouldn't drive in my slippers they don't seem to mind as much and walks home from school are enjoyable, Titus in the backpack enjoying his dose of sunshine.

Spring is a wonderful time! It always comes in perfect timing and cheers up the world it seems. Enjoy some pictures of our fun in the sun and Happy Mother's Day to all my mama friends out there!

Alena, Nathan, Titus and Caleb

Could this picture be more perfect??!

Sweet littles

PS - Bonus: It was crazy hair day at school and here's a funny picture of my crazy eight year olds! I love school spirit!! :)

Bloomsday 2012

I thought it was a good idea to post the date in the title because I plan to have this blog for a long time and I also plan to run a lot more races and so I just want to start out by specifying the date. Now that I have that all explained....

YES! We did Bloomsday!! Ben and Nathan and Caleb and I. It was fun! Well, it was nostalgic and memory making ... I am not sure if my kid-running-partner would say it was fun. Some history: I used to run Bloomsday, like back in junior high. It was fun then. Ben has never run a race...can you believe it? How COOL that this was his first race, first race t-shirt, first water station break, first finish line. COOL!! Caleb and Nathan did Bloomsday training at school. Yes, in Spokane (for those of you that are not natives to this crazy running land), they have BD training at the elementary schools for all the little kids to get ready for the big race. It's pretty neat. So every Tuesday and Thursday the boys would stay for BD training (AKA, after school sports...AGGGGHHH, my babies are growing up!!!).  Anyway they were all trained up for the big race. I on the other hand had run a few three milers here and there and thought that would be pretty good. Think about it though - 50,000 runners, it's not like I'm going out to win the thing.

So Ben and I decided that with so many people we better pick a kid-partner and stick with that kiddo for the race and not worry as much about the 4 of us staying together. Caleb was my partner and he jogged like a champ for the first mile. Of course at mile marker ONE, I had to get all excited, "Caleb, wow, we did a mile! This is great, you are doing awesome. Woo Hoo!!" And he looks up at me and says, "So, we have like (pause here for a little mental math) SIX miles left to go???" "Yeah honey, isn't this awesome? So many people, beautiful weather, this is so fun, here we GO!" "Uh mom, can we walk?" Sweet boy just couldn't fathom another 6 of those. He complained pretty much constantly until mile 4-ish. Which was fine, he wasn't dying so we kept going. Although he did ask me once, "Mom, are we finishing no matter what?" Honestly, I think I might have ignored that question and asked him if he wanted to stop at the aid station for some sunscreen. DISTRACTION is a great parenting/running tool! :)

Anyway, about mile 4 we caught back up to Nathan and Ben and guess who was with them? Lisa and Isaiah Cantillana! Oh yeah!! Friends! Found in 50,000 people, a HUGE win and a great tool to motivate all the little boys. Lisa and I admitted we were being pushed by our eight year olds, what a great feeling! ha! So we ran and ran and walked and walked and ran through sprinklers and drank some water and after 7.45 miles we FINISHED!!! It took us just under two hours and we were SO proud of the boys! They were stars!! They did it!! And although they said they may not want to do it again next year... I think it might be like having a baby... and maybe a year from now they WILL want a new t-shirt. Maybe they will want to get out there and kick it with mom and dad again. Caleb's ambition about the race showed up in a restaurant just 30 minutes after finishing... we were sitting eating lunch and a nice older lady came up to us, "Wow, did you little guys walk the whole thing?" Caleb looks at her and says, "Well, we jogged and ran and walked." Clarify the effort that went into that 7.45! Here are some picture memories! Enjoy!

Waiting for the race to start!

My hot hubby and proof we found the Cantillanas

Almost there!!

Finished!!!!!!

C&N - I love you boys like crazy and I am so proud of you for not giving up!!
Ben - I loved running Bloomsday with you but more so I enjoy running life's race with you daily!
xoxo - C
PS - Thanks mom and dad for watching the littles for us. Couldn't have done this without your help.

Tea

For Mother's Day at Alena's preschool they do a Mother's Day Tea. So cute.

Well little Miss Alena was extremely excited about this. She would humm the songs and then ask me if I'd heard her...she didn't want to give away any of the surprises. She was so sweet about the whole thing. She kept asking me to make sure I knew what time to come and where to go. She also wanted to wear her pretty dress from Christmas and curl her hair for the big day.

When I arrived she made sure I had a place to sit and she got up onto the risers to sing her heart out and she even winked at me a few times while she was singing! Melt my heart.

Then after singing she headed back to her classroom and I got to follow. There she had made me a flower picture and a tea cup that had a tea bag in it. She had also dipped strawberries in chocolate and set a spot right next to her at the table.

Curlers!

CURLS!

Getting ready to sing her heart out!

Sweet, tired princess

The whole thing was just adorable! I love you princess Alena, you capture my heart daily. Love, Mama