Eleven thingsEleven things

This will be a mash up post of lots of things happening around the Zeigler household.  Be ready.  We’re making frequent stops today.

First:  The baby has delighted me lately with his mastery of backing down from furniture.  Sounds like a small thing, but this is really huge.  You see, we have a climber on our hands.  That would make 3-for-3 as far as the boys and their propensity to climb.  Jace can (almost) effortlessly climb on top of our kitchen table within seconds.  He mounts the kitchen chairs – even when they are pushed into the table as far as they can be – and then it’s a quick climb on top of the kitchen table, and he acts like he is the king of the world.  HUGE smile!  The only time I don’t appreciate this skill so much is in the morning when he’s nursing in our bed, abruptly decides he’s done and backs down from the bed to be on his merry way.

Second: Wednesday, Jace’s actual birthday, we had a play date with friends in the morning and went to a neighboring town’s aquatic center in the afternoon with my mother-in-law who was on vacation for the week.  It was such a fun time.  I wish she never had to work so we could do things like that all of the time.  I simply couldn’t have done it without her keeping an eye on at least one of the kids for me.  Plus, it was her idea.  How cool is that?  During her vacation, she wanted to spend time with us!  Then, that night, my parents, Dylan and Emily came out to our house and bought us supper.  I was pretty amazed that knowing they would see the kids Friday, Saturday and Sunday – they still wanted to come out to our house on Wednesday to see their baby grandson ON his birthday.  Not only that, but they brought lots of gifts, not only for Jace but for the older boys as they are starting school.  We are so, so, so blessed!  I was kind of overwhelmed by our many blessings that day, in particular.  I thought I was going to have a hard day with the baby turning one and everything, but it was just the opposite.

Third: Thursday night we went to Jude’s kindergarten open house.  It went so, so well, which was a relief on my part.  My boy even held eye contact with his teacher when he met her for the first time.  I was so impressed with his teacher; I believe wonderful things are in store for the school year.  We recognized just a few students from his class, but it’s fun to think about the relationships that will start in that classroom and go on throughout school and life, perhaps!  Tomorrow is the first day of school!

Fourth: My mom and dad had our kids over the weekend so that we could attend Josh’s 10-year class reunion on Saturday.  As an added benefit, my mom and I met Friday afternoon to exchange vehicles: she got my car full of kids and an overnight bag, I got her empty car!  It was a good trade for me… and she’d probably say it was a good trade for her, too.  I immediately drove to the grocery store to go shopping by myself.  It went pretty much like this: me traipsing down the aisles singing loudly and kicking my heels together, lots of spinning and twirling, daintily bowing to the friendly faces I met.  Or at least my spirit felt like that.  It’s awesome how much faster and easier it is getting groceries without three kids in and around the cart.

Fifth:  As soon as I put the groceries away, I went to pick up Josh from work and we hit up Fong’s Pizza, Josh’s new most favorite place.   It’s such a relaxed atmosphere and there are some pretty great people we’ve met hanging out there.  And their pizza is phenom.  Friday night was a sort of going away party for Josh’s cousin Missy and her boyfriend Travis (Mandatory Reporter) (as seen in the comment section of this blog from time to time) who are moving out of the area.  They were the ones to reveal the greatness of Fong’s to us and were quite the Friday night regulars there.  We will miss them GREATLY!!  But since we are family, they are stuck with us for good, no matter where they move.  They even got us to go dancing – if that’s what you would even call it – after Fong’s at a pretentious and virtually empty bar about a block away.  Oh boy!  We ARE cool!

Sixth: I was anxious to get home somewhat early Friday night because I ran in my first 5k race Saturday morning.  It was our town’s annual Sweet Corn Festival, which the 5k run is a part of.  My running buddy Shanlyn and I have been training for the half-marathon that will be taking place in Des Moines in October, so we’re quite used to running 3 miles.  Actually, 3 miles is the fewest number of miles we run at one time.   As we are going through the training program, our miles increase and right now we’re running about 20-25 miles a week.  I’m pretty new to running, but we can tell that the training program is actually helping us get better and faster.  So, back to the 5k race, we ran it with a goal of getting under 30 minutes and much to our surprise finished at 26:41!  I was very happy with that time, and truth be told, I think the course was short of a true 5k by about a tenth of a mile, but I’ll take it.  The course had to be re-routed due to flooding.  It was a great experience!

Seventh:  I walked home from the 5k race, showered, and headed out the door again, this time to Josh’s 10-year class reunion.  It was not so well attended, but I think that’s pretty typical for such events.  The reunion was held at a park just blocks from our house, and children were welcome.  But just knowing what typical August days are like, we didn’t want the kids to get too hot and overheated on the playground equipment or outdoors in general (in Jace’s case) for the duration of the get together; plus, it wouldn’t have been very easy to catch up with his classmates while chasing three kids around.  So, we opted for the no-kid route (which is a frequent route for us) and were glad we did.  The great thing about the reunion was, in addition to the delicious food, of course, the people who did come were people we liked talking to and wanted to see.  In that way, I consider it a success!

Eighth:  Saturday evening Josh and I went down to the Sweet Corn Festival street dance.  We’ve gone almost every year in the past but Josh wasn’t that eager about going this year.  However, at about 7 pm that night, I was faced with the decision to either cook or go and find some delicious food from a street vendor.  I talked him into going.   We met up with some friends and saw lots of people we know.  It was fun, as always.  This time it was Josh who was anxious to get home early because…

Ninth:  Josh has been slappin’ the bass – or just playing the bass guitar – at our church the past several weeks.  He’s been doing a great job.  For as much as Josh loves music, he really didn’t have the opportunity to play with other people or even on a regular basis by himself.  Josh bought his bass many, many years ago but never played it.  That’s the thing about the bass – you don’t really play it if you’re not playing with someone else.  Our church has a great worship band made up of many rotating members.  The guy that has been playing the bass for as long as we’ve been going to church there, is in college and can’t come back every Sunday, so it was time for them to find another person to rotate in on the bass.  Enter Josh.  He really didn’t have much experience playing, but he’s picked it up quickly.  Josh plays the acoustic guitar, too, so he knew the basics going in.  No stage antics to report just yet, but he may just be warming up.

Tenth:  We had Jace’s birthday party yesterday at my in-laws’ house right after church.  It deserves a separate post, which will be coming soon.

Eleventh:  My brother Jacob wasn’t able to make it to the birthday party so he and his girlfriend came out to our house yesterday evening.  We ate BLTs and had a great time catching up with each other.  I’m pretty lucky to have an awesome family on all sides.  All sides.