Ballet away.

Took these girls to their first live performance of The Nutcracker.  

That was a really great idea!

Thank you UNC for bringing such beautiful performance right to my backyard.  

Tonight they were full of plans for tutus and dancing, just as I suspected they'd be.

Lovely.

Thankful indeed.

My blessings are too many to count.  

We had a great trip to VA/D.C. for Thanksgiving.

Darin is a great photographer.

It helps that he's working with such exceptional specimen.


The United States Botanic Garden is worth going to.  Especially for the Season's Greenings display.  


Even though when we told the children we were going there as our last activity before driving home, they responded:


"I thought you said we were going to do something fun?"

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, they can thank me later for this fabulous childhood!


It's never too late to a be grateful.

Mid-week, partial sister update.

This week is just passing me by!  I think we're all still trying to catch our breath a bit from the whirlwind of activities from last week.  Here is a glimpse from me, Rachel and Christine.  Maybe next week we'll get more participants.  We all need a week off here and there.

Annee:

Last Week:

• RAN A MARATHON!  It was my fifth marathon!  But my first one in four years.  In those four years, I mostly feel like I've gotten older and fatter.  I really didn't know what to expect from this "race".  As it turns out, it was either an extraordinarily good day for running, or maybe getting older isn't the worst thing that has ever happened to me.  I even feel like I'm recovering quicker.  Here it is Wednesday night, almost all my soreness is gone, and I most definitely feel like I could go for  a run in the morning.  (I won't though.  I'm taking at least one full week off before I lace up the shoes again!)
• It's been my goal since I started running marathons to run one under four hours.  It occurred to me when I hit the 20 mile marker that if I stayed on pace, I might actually come in UNDER four hours.  It was a big moment for me.  It was one of those moments you never turn back from.  I grabbed the idea, hung on to it with all my might, and generated a mantra.  That's what they say you should do when running long distances.  You should have a mantra that you repeat in your head.  Here was mine, "My finish time will start with a 3".  Repeated one million times in those last 6.2 miles.  To finish a marathon just barely under four hours is still a remarkably average accomplishment, but I just love those rare moments in life when the mind, spirit, and body get on the same page to accomplish something so meaningful to the soul.  Those moments are few and far between, so we have to celebrate when they happen.  I started crying as I crossed the finish line.  It was a beautiful thing.  
• The week prior to the marathon is all a bit of a blur.  There was the usual amount of subbing and kid shuttling.  There was piano and cooking, and laundry and cleaning.  But none of that was my priority.  Breaking in my new shoes and mentally gearing up for the big race, those were the focus of last week.
• The other highlight of the marathon weekend was the family gathering that occurred.  I am so grateful to be part of a family who seem to genuinely care to be together as often as it is possible.  It doesn't take much to call "family gathering".  And just like that, my dad was taking a taxi from the Richmond airport to the finish line of the marathon so that we could all spend two days together in downtown Richmond.  Those huge meals, and pool side chats are every bit as meaningful as the sub-4 finish.  It was the perfect weekend.

The Blurry Group Shot:

This Week:

• I committed to the elementary school P.E. teacher that I'd sub for her all day on the 17th and 18th.  But if I hadn't, I wouldn't have subbed at all this week.  I turned down jobs on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in order to recover.  What good does it do to run a marathon, if you don't even get to take a few days off afterwards?!  The rest and quiet days at home have been just what I needed.  The two loads of laundry that I cycled through the wash on Sunday night are still sitting unfolded in laundry baskets.  I am OFF duty this week.  
• I'll be the P.E. teacher for the rest of the week.  I'm fine with that.  I'll have all three of my elementary students in my class at one point on Friday.  That always makes it worth it.  The other great part about being the P.E. teacher is that she has her very own dress code!  She gets to wear whatever she wants, but mostly she wears track suits.  While I do not have the nerve to show up at the elementary school in a track suit, I do have the nerve to show up in jeans with my running shoes for those two days in a row!  Mark my words!  
• That's all I'm doing this week.  I think Saturday I've promised Jane and Ruby that I'll make them pioneer bonnets.  They are performing a play on Monday, wherein they should wear bonnets.  After sleeping in until 10am, I will rise from my bed and make bonnets.  That's my big goal for the week!  
• Of course Thanksgiving in VA is on the horizon.  And Christmas shopping is looming large in my mind.  But I'm really happy about taking things just one-day-at-a-time right now.

Rachel:

Last Week:

• Work work work.  
• Wednesday night I came home and pre-made dinner for Thursday night, made 2 different batches of apple pie filling and boiled down the turkey carcass to make stock.  The turkey stock was so so gross to deal with.  I haven't made anything with the resultant turkey stock (aka turkey jello basically) but it will have to be REALLY good to convince me to ever make stock from scratch like that again.  Gross.
• Thursday evening our friend and his baby came over for dinner.  I dropped the pie off at enrichment but skipped out on the craft.  
• Friday I slept in, did laundry, packed and left town for Richmond.
• Picked up our packet and t-shirts at the Richmond Expo.  Really wanted to buy a reflective t-shirt for the winter but didn't.  
• Met up with everyone for a pre-race pasta dinner at a local Richmond hot spot ;-)  Remember how the people next to us watched a show on their phone all through dinner without headphones??  So annoying.
• Ran the Richmond 1/2 Marathon!  Achieved my goal of finishing below 2:36:00.  It felt so good to do a big race again.  It reminds me why I like this whole crazy running thing to begin with.  It is fun to see everyone around you and feel such camaraderie.  It's amazing to feel so strong and capable and uplifted.  Thank you everyone for coming and participating!
• Circled back to watch Annee run her sub-4 marathon!  Amazing!!
• Exchanged gifts with Ken for Year 1: Paper.  
• Back to DC on Sunday.  Dinner at a friend's house on Sunday night.  Mom, Dad, CZ and Jon came over to our house afterwards.  It's fun to have family in our house!

Next Week:

• Meet our 4th grader names Flor for Everybody Wins DC on Monday during lunch.
• See mom & dad one last time before they leave town.  
• Bring cookies on Wednesday for a little fundraiser in the commons at work.  I've been wanting to make mint surprise cookies anyway.
• Run 4 miles on Saturday.  I'm still way too sore to run today or tomorrow, but by the end of the week I want to be back at it!
• Plan more races!  The fire has been stoked and we are really hoping to get more dates on the calendar.  I wish I could find another 1/2 marathon in Dec/Jan/Feb before work gets crazy again but there just aren't that many around, particularly due to the impending cooooolldddd.  But we're planning on at least a 10K Turkey Trot in Ashburn and a Hot Chocolate 15K the next weekend downtown.  
• Make a final list of all the skirts I want to re-hem longer.  Find a tailor who is good.
• Order the photos and envelopes for our Christmas cards.
• Finalize our Thanksgiving advent jar.  
• Pick up Ken's anniversary gift once it's done.  
• Never eat again.  

Christine:

Last Week:

- Continued to get used to the working schedule.  Didn't get to the office as early as I would like to each day, so I need to work on that.  The first couple weeks have been a little difficult knowing what I should be doing or who I should be reporting to since I haven't immediately been assigned to any client work.  I recognize that this is all just part of starting a new job and things will start picking up.  In the mean time I've been trying to make an effort going around and talking to people within my tax group to see if there's any work I can help with. 

- Started studying for the first part of the CPA exam which I'm scheduled to take on November 30.  It's hard studying now after being out of school for a little bit, I'm just not in that mindset anymore.  It's going to require a lot of focus and discipline to stay on track.  It'll be hard but I know I can do it.  

- Had dinner with Melissa Tuesday night.  It's always nice to see her and catch up, it's sad how little we're able to see each other even now that we're in the same city.  Life is busy. 

- Successfully brought a lunch with me to work Monday-Thursday.  I was pretty proud of that, need to keep that up.  

- Ran three miles on Monday, four miles on Wednesday, then successfully completed the Richmond 8k on Saturday, running it all.  

- Had a fantastic weekend in Richmond with the family.  It was so much fun and so great to have so many of us there, Zack and family were definitely missed.  I was happy Jon was able to come and join us on Saturday so that Sarah, mom, and dad could meet him.  I really enjoyed every moment of us all together as I always do.  

- Picked up my car Sunday night!  It is driving and seems to be working fine.  Hopefully it lasts more than a month before breaking down again.  

This week:

- Training at work Monday-Friday.  This entails sitting in a freezing hotel conference room for eight hours each day while we are instructed on a wide range of topics.  It'll likely be pretty slow and a little rough, but at least they're providing us with lunch each day.  And hopefully it'll be a useful crash course to help us get started on the job.  

- Continue to study.  I won't be able to study at work at all which I was lucky to be able to do last week, so I need to be very good about studying at home after work for at least a few hours.  

- Continue to find time for exercising.  

- Sleep as much as possible.  

- I can't think of anything else but I'm sure I'm missing something. 

Thanks for such a happy weekend last week family!  As always, I have to express my personal gratitude to Darin who helps me make my running dreams come true.  He acts as the best support crew a girl could ever ask for.  He was able to get the kids out on the course at various places, as well as having them all there at the finish line.  It means the world to me!  Until the next big race...

The events.

He turned 12.

It was a pretty simple occasion, per his request.  2-dozen chocolate chip cookie dough filled cupcakes, dinner at Chilli's, and cashing in about a year's worth of allowance to finally get an Xbox.  Those were the highlights.

Since his birthday was on a school day, and he wouldn't let me bring cupcakes to him at lunchtime, I decided he should at least wear all new clothes, head-to-toe, to school that day.  Even if no one else noticed, he'd feel celebrated. 

As it turned out, his new shoes were too hard NOT-to notice.  He got to tell lots of admiring 6th grade boys that his new shoes were for his birthday.  My plan worked!

We are so glad to have Henry in our family, taking us into this new and uncharted territory of parenthood.  I couldn't ask for a better middle-schooler.  At least for now, he's making my job pretty easy.  And now he's perfectly outfitted, and can't wait for his upcoming basketball season.  

Which leads nicely into talking about Halloween.

Speaking of basketball...

Henry was a basketball hoop for Halloween.  Which felt like a huge breakthrough in my opinion, since he's wanted to be a scary guy/zombie for the past four or five years in a row.  I liked that he was willing to "think outside the box" with me this year!  But I was kind of sad that he didn't want to trick-or-treat with the rest of the family.  He just felt like he was too old.  Sigh.  But it was nice to get to trick-or-treat knowing the our house was still being hospitable to our neighborhood trick-or-treaters.  

The rest of the crew...

Jane was Hermione, Ruby was a Witch Princess, and George was your grumpy grandpa.

He took his role very seriously, trick-or-treating in an old-guy voice all night long.  And he fun all weekend long trying out different old guy one-liners.  Good times.  Collectively, they brought home over 12 pounds of candy!  What in the world am I going to do about that?!

For a moment, I thought my heart was softening towards my least favorite holiday, when I felt compelled to decorate my front porch in a festive way.  

I'm still totally charmed by my black crow forest, but as soon as I had to stay up til 3am one night, sewing a witch princess costume, I remembered why I do not like this holiday, in general.  But we do it for the children!  I don't think they actually know that I don't like Halloween.  

While we were out trick-or-treating, Jane asked me what my favorite holiday was.  I said, "probably Christmas." She said, "Oh, I thought it would be Halloween, since you love going on family walks".  She was commenting upon the fact that we were all out together as a family (minus one brooding middle schooler), walking around our neighborhood, on a crisp autumn night.  Really, what's not to like about that?!

Waving the white flag of surrender.

Last blog post on Sunday October 16th, was the last time I felt calm, cool and collected.  Since the 16th it's been a steady onslaught of life.  Relentless and in-your-face.  No time to stop, blog or assess.  Finally, with this weekend coming to a close and November 1st on the near horizon, I feel like I can almost breath again.  Almost.

To be fair, the past two weeks have been full of momentous fun.  We visited the NC State Fair! Henry turned 12!  The little sisters came for a visit!  The Primary hosted the ward Trunk-or-Treat!  The kids celebrated Halloween at school! Throw in sewing a couple of costumes, having my last two very longest marathon training runs, a whole handful of subbing days, a book club, and I wondered, can life get any funner?!

Let's look back at the State Fair:

We missed the fair last year.  I have a sneaking suspicion that last October was almost as awesome as this October, and so I was eliminating non-essential events.  But this year, with Henry on the brink of his 12th birthday, he picked "State Fair" as his family birthday outing.  He had heard about the Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheese Burger, that he missed last year, and he was NOT going to miss it again for a second year in a row.  So we took him to the State Fair!

The Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheese Burger.

We bought one, and passed it around:

The verdict was that it was mysteriously delicious!  All encouraged me to partake.  Unfortunately, my very forceful aversion to hamburgers prepared in public place prohibited me from partaking.  But these pictures almost make me feel like I know what it tasted like, no?

Next up on our fried food agenda was to try the fried Twinkie:

Hopefully you know us better than to think that we stopped there. We still had the fried Oreos, fried cookie dough, and fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich (and of course corn dogs and cheese fries hardly count as special fair food, right?)...

Henry's 12-inches of fried cookie dough.  His special birthday treat selection.

Lest you think we only attended the Fair to eat fried stuff, Ruby's particular wish of seeing the pig races was also fulfilled,

And even somehow we convinced the girls that they should see the World's Smallest Woman.

Rounding out this amazing cultural event with a bit of cow milking and a sidewalk magic show.

Wrapping the evening up before anyone could even talk us into the Fried Kool Aid.

Henry's stomach was so upset the next morning that he needed a full day off of school to recover from his ordeal!  Leading me to wonder, if the NC State Fair will ever see us again?!

Long Live October!

Beauty.

Last week I finished another dress.  Dress details can be obtained HERE.  As a result, on this lovely fall afternoon I had my ladies in toe as we went to the edge of the forest to snap a few photos in the dwindling light of day.  When I got home and was looking through the assortment of images, I was struck with the beauty of it all.  

Hoping to remember that the real beauty is often found in the small and simple moments of life. 

In case you're wondering...

In case you are wondering what Darin gave me for my birthday, click on over to MOM and you can see for yourself...

P.S.  Thanks to everyone for all of the birthday well wishes.  I had a lovely time getting older.  All is well.  

Z Sisters

Annee:

Last Two Weeks-ish:

• Amber came to visit!  We haven't had a visit like that in ages.  We spent our days doing a morning workout, followed often by lunch and a bit of sight seeing or shopping.  We'd come home and help out around the house, then prepped-up for our night time activities of going to the movies, TV viewing, crafting, or more shopping.  It was delightful.  I'm so glad she came.  Not sure I've talked that much since, who knows when!  During conference Amber also baked us a small bakery worth of homemade goodness.  She is a bit of a whiz in the kitchen!  Her pumpkin cookies single handedly ruined all of my previous efforts at sliming and trimming, but what good is life if one cannot enjoy pumpkin cookies with frosting in October?!  
• Turned 34.  I think that's okay.  At least I'm not 35!  Yikes, that sounds totally old.  Totally.  
• Ran 18 miles on Saturday.  It was so much better than my 17 mile run.  I was so relieved.  After my 17 mile run I was worried that I wasn't a marathon runner anymore.  This one felt good, not great, but good.  I'll take that! 
• Substitute taught two days.  Volunteered at the book fair one day. Volunteered in Jane's class room one day. I think I was at the school everyday.  I'm happy about that.
• Finished a quilt!  It might be the sweetest quilt you've seen.  

This Week:

• Blog about my big birthday sewing room makeover.  Darin outdid himself.  It's amazing!!  
• Make something amazing come out of my new amazing sewing studio!  Amazing!
• Mail some stuff.  Why is this so hard for me to do?!
• Two days of subbing already on the agenda.  
• I need to re-listen to conference.  Turns out I was kind of sleepy last weekend.  Though we fully listened to a couple of the sessions, I can't really remember anything.  That means I wasn't really listening.  This time I'll listen during the day, while sewing stuff.  I can concentrate so much better that way!  Me, listening to conference on the couch= naptime.
• Get a massage on Tuesday.  I must do this!!  If not Tuesday, then Wednesday.  If not Wednesday, than Thursday.  You get the picture.  It must happen.
• Saturday, 20 mile long run!  Brace myself.  
• Probably a million other mom-related items should be on this agenda.  I just can't think of them all right now.  Maybe I should just have on my agenda, "be the world's best mom".  That should cover my bases, right?!

Ie Li:

Last Week:

• Fell in love with William.  I looked at his pictures over and over.  He is just the roundest, cutest baby!  Congrats to Ana and Zack!
• Went apple picking and to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum with Michi and all the kids on Wednesday.
• Ran three times, including a six-miler on Friday.
• Painted the kitchen mirror black.
• Left the kids at home with Michi and flew to LA with Steve on Saturday morning.  My dad picked us up and we met my mom at the temple to perform some family temple work.  We went straight to Will K.'s wedding after that.   It was a beautiful day and Will and Joanna made a very handsome couple.  Steve and I were two of eight guests that were not full Asian.  :)
• Finished The Good Earth. It's amazing what you can do on a five hour plane ride with no kids.  I read and slept. 
• On Sunday, we came home to our children, an apple pie, hand apple pies, applesauce, folded laundry, and a smiling Michiko!  Amazing.
• Said goodbye to Michiko and boys.  It was sad.

This Week:

• Run
• Wake up early everyday
• Host book club
• Stephen's pumpkin patch field trip
• Mei Li's school fall festival

Rachel:

Last Week

• Used a ton of farmer's market veggies to make beef stew, roasted vegetable pasta, cauliflower soup and pizza last week(s).  That's a lot of not eating out!  Go us.
• Took a pizza making kit and cupcakes to a family in our ward who needed it.  It was a fun project.
• My conference weekend was blown to pieces by a frustrating co-worker.  I found out Friday said co-worker is quitting after 10/15.  Wow!
• Got to talk to everyone on Mom's bady on a family conference call.
• Bought new tires for Ken's truck
• Steve Jobs died!  I was totally surprised and sad about it all.  He had a huge impact on our world and, in an interesting way, on the growth of the church.  Big deal.
• Went to the Everybody Wins info lunch and signed up.  
• JRCLS Religious Liberty dinner at Mayflower Hotel downtown on Thursday night.  I left the office at 5pm and we didn't get there until 7:40pm.  Terrible traffic.  
• We babysat our friend's baby on Friday while the friend interviewed at Deloitte. 
• Helped Ken apply to a great real estate consulting job at Jones Lang LaSalle.  Do you know anyone who works there?
• Spent Saturday working and sleeping and NOT apple picking like I wanted to.  That was sad.

This Week

• Last week of busy season.  I really don't want to work Saturday but I probably just shouldn't get my hopes up.
• For heaven sake we must finish our taxes.  What is wrong with me.  
• Finalize our photo outfits.  Photos are on Sunday afternoon in MD.
• Last week we were asked to do the decorations for the ward Halloween party on Oct 29.  Wow!  Big job.  I've got tons of ideas and I'm really excited.  (Actually, Ken was given the assignment through the Elder's quorum.  But seriously?  I think I'll take the lead on this one.)  What should Ken and I wear as a costume???
• Light the Night walk for Leukemia on Saturday evening.  Steve is the office rep so we gotta support.
• Bday party for a friend's 1 year old on Saturday in MD. Gift ideas?
• Get a manicure and eyebrows waxed.

Christine:

Last week:  

- Worked Monday-Thursday.  I guess a lot of people were sick or just not showing up and they kept calling me in to pick up shifts.  I was happy for the hours, but they weren't really the best hours.  Monday night I was there until 2am getting the store ready for a possible visit from some of the top guys in the company (which never happened) and then closed the other three nights as well.  

- Made a last minute trip to spend the weekend in Morgantown.  Got to finally experience some WVU football which was a lot of fun and have otherwise been enjoying the great fall weather and gorgeous fall foliage.  

- Worked more on getting settled into my bedroom.  I think I finally have everything organized and in its place, now maybe I get to move onto the fun part of decorating a little.  

- Didn't run, didn't study.  Total fails there.  

Next week: 

- Work Monday and Tuesday.  

- One of my best friends from home, Kim Chau is coming to visit me!  She gets in Tuesday night and leaves Friday early morning, so it's a quick trip, but I'm so excited and sure it'll be full of some great times.  

- Jon's coming to town for the weekend.  WVU football has a bye week, so it's an acceptable weekend for him to leave Morgantown for the weekend :) 

- Not a whole lot on the agenda for the week, but I'm sure it'll be a very full, busy, fun week!

Sarah:

Last week:

• Put on our last Rooftop Concert for the season. It was a little dicey there because of the weather, but we finally made the decision to move down to the lower level and it all worked out just fine. I was so convinced the weather would clear up so that was a little disappointing - and quite remarkable how totally accurate the forecast was this time. The Lower Lights played great as usual with some die hard fans coming in from Arizona, St George, and Seattle.
• Sewed curtains for the living room - I was totally going to hire someone to do it, but in the end ran out of time so it was fastest to just do it myself - and of course after doing it myself I thought that would have been pretty ridiculous to pay someone to sew those straight hems. I still want to add grommets to the top, but I'm pretty happy with how it's all turned out
• Hosted Webb & Laurel, and Stephanie, Peter & Tommy here for the weekend. The boys had such a great time riding bikes, playing, and just hanging out together - those experiences together are priceless. Webb, Laurel & Stephanie were super helpful watching the kids all day while Scott and I were busy setting up for the concert. It was a very low-key weekend but so great to spend time together.
• Pulled an all-nighter on Thursday on purpose to catch up on a work project. Pulled an all-nighter on Friday quite by mistake when Huck woke up ready to play at 2am when we were going to sleep after the concert.
• Let the fam in on our big news - we're having a baby in June. We're mostly scared and a little excited. Other than being extra hungry, I'm feeling totally fine.

Next week:

• Start Christmas shopping. Wouldn't that be nice? I really want to.
• Catch up on general mothering - laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning. Everything fell by the wayside last week
• More work catchup - hopefully doesn't have to be an all-nighter this time if I make good use of my days.
• Run & yoga a couple times
• Decide/purchase ticket for Richmond Nov 12
• Pull out fall decorations - do we have any?! Maybe we need to get some.