Mid Summer Night's Update

I really had several things to say today, so instead of changing my Facebook status multiple times I decided to BLOG!!  I started a Twitter account yesterday and wanted to Tweet some things but no one is following me, so no one would hear what I have to say.  I surprisingly like Twitter.  However, I'm glad that I held off for as long as I did.  So, let the updates and randomness begin:
1.  Due to this article that Josh sent me:

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/training-day/201206/61-easy-ways-lose-weight  particularly 27. To burn more calories, stay upright. This means not sitting in front of a computer, TV, phone, etc., all day. Stand and you'll burn more and be more productive. This could even save your life. DiscoverWhy Your Office Chair is Killing You.  I decided to stand as much as I could today.  I think in my 10 hour work day, I stood about 5-6 hours today. 

2.  I wear flip flops around the office because I saw on the Today Show that heels are bad for the calves.  Today, I did wear my flip flops while I was standing and wore them home today!

3.  We did a fitness challenge at work and part of the challenge was to eat 5 servings of fruits or veggies for at least 5 days during the week.  I've realized that is hard to do.  You pretty much have to make one whole meal of fruits and/or veggies per day!!

4.  This time last year, I could hardly run 2 consecutive miles.  And I was running at a 10 min mile pace.  Yesterday I did 6 miles straight running at a 9 min mile pace!!  It's crazy.  I am thinking about doing a 1/2 marathon in November.

5.  In January, I tried to train for a 1/2 marathon but injured my hip.  I started doing hot yoga and I have not had any hip issues as long since, as I am consistent with hot yoga. 

6.  Cody has been working for mom this summer.  He has been spending a lot of time with her.  And Brayden has been going to stay with Grandma a couple of days a week.  I am glad that they are both getting this time with Grandma and GG. 

7.  Between the major, minors, Cody, and Brayden I think I will see about 50 baseball games this year.  WOW that's a TON of baseball...

8.  I like the symphony.

9.  I started listening to Symphony Hall XM station 76 and today when I got into the car after work, I smiled when symphony music played.  It's pleasant music.

10.  Even though it's pleasant, symphony music makes me think of psycho killer movies.  Like when the murderer or psycho is getting ready they typically play soothing symphony music.

11.  I used to blog about my dreams and I haven't lately, but the only recent dream that I can think of is this dream that I had last week that my grandma was pregnant!!!! 

12.  I'm in my Master's program now.  I've done 2 classes and I'm on a break for July.

13.  I need to start volunteering again.

Our Italian Holiday!

This week I will start posting about our trip.

Life Lessons

When the boys were small and they did something like throw a fit, I could just tell them to stop. If they did something "wrong" I could them it was wrong and to stop. It seemed like when the boys were smaller things were so black and white. They could or couldn't do things. Things were right or wrong. I could tell them to yes or no and that was it. If I wanted to tell them my thoughts I could and I did because they didn't know any different. BUT now that I have a teenager...I guess I have to filter. Cody doesn't love to listen to me when he is happy let alone when he is upset. So trying to get an effective message through in the heat of the moment can be challenging. Learning to be patient or bringing up topics at the "right" time can be tricky. And sometimes choosing to just NOT say anything at all is the most challenging.

Today, Cody was in a minor car accident. Basically Cody went to turn left, a car cut him off to turn left as well, he swerved around back to the right, there were girls walking on the street, he over corrected, swerved again, and landed in the ditch. He was ok and the girls were ok.

For the most part the car doesn't look too bad, but I haven't gotten the report from the body shop yet. Cody was obviously pretty shaken up. I could hear it in his voice when he called to tell me about it. I stayed surprisingly calm. One thing that I know about my boys (and most kids) is that they can be a bit emotional and the more calm that I stay the more calm they will stay. When I got to the "scene" Cody gave me a big hug and his scare turned into anger about the car that cut him off. The thing that Cody does not know is that as an adult, and an adult with a bit of road rage, I know how aggressive a driver can be when they have been cut off. Cody blamed the car that cut him off and wanted that car to the one at "fault." The police officer told Cody that it was the 2nd car's responsibility to be far enough behind the other car to be able to correct in enough time not to crash into anything or anyone else. That upset Cody (but better the cop than me) and he continued to try to tell me how he was not at fault. I really had to choose my words carefully. I did not want to make matters worse. The only thing that I could stress to Cody is that no matter whose fault it was his car was the car in the ditch. It was really hard not to lecture him at this point especially as he continued to try to act like he was driving perfectly. I did just mention to him that I have been driving long enough to know how accidents like this happen. And in the end, his car was in the ditch. I did not say too much more about the situation. I just told him that this is not a good situation but it's not as bad as it could have been and car accidents happen (in my mind I wanted to say so hopefully you won't continue to think you are a hot shot and drive so aggressively). I reassured him that it would be ok and that he would make it through this event. After his accident he hit his car and put a dent in the back door. The only snide comment that I made was to ask if that made things better by hitting his car, he said it did for that second but not now. My response was that he would have that dent in the door to remind him of that. Maybe I should have said more in the moment, but I think this lesson/conversation is not over...

Weekend Happenings

I actually spent a FULL weekend at home. And of course it was full of fun activities. We had a lot of good family time this weekend. We started the weekend by meeting Dusty (see Friends post) for dinner and then going to see the Marshfield/Hillcrest football game. The boys go to Nixa and we don't know anyone on either team. Why did we go to that game? For Hillcrest's number 5 Dorial Green-Beckham. I guess this kid is like the number 1 college draft pick in the nation. So, the fellas - Josh and Dusty wanted to see him play. When we left the score was like 40-something to 0. And apparently, Dorial put up some great stats that game.

Saturday we had some down time at the house. That was nice. I was preparing for an evening of sports. Josh wanted to watch the Notre Dame game (ha that rhymed:)) and of course Cody and I were going to be watching the Cardinals win game 3 of the World Series.
We did get out for some bowling. This was the first game's ending scores. The 2nd game, Josh won by a landslide. He got 3 strikes the last 3 frames. But since this game was so close, I posted these scores :)

Josh's girls were in Springvegas this weekend as well. So Sunday after lunch we met them and they spent the afternoon with us. We went to the pumpkin patch. And as all great family outings go, it started a little rough. There may have been some bad attitudes, fit throwing, and yelling then there were the kids... But we survived and ended the outing with smiles and ice cream.

Although, I am getting used to our two families hanging out, it sure is different. Doubling the number of kids in a matter of minutes takes some adjustment every time we get them all together. The biggest adjustment is adding girls to environment. It is an adjustment for all of us. However, our little families are blending nicely and I enjoy the times when we can all get together.

Josh, Brayden, Jill, and Elle carved their pumkins. This is Elle and Neo posing with the finished product. The others didn't really care to have another picture taken. I can always count on Elle for a picture :)

This Run's 4 Vaughn

This weekend I went to the big town of Dexter, MO to participate in an ALS 5k benefit run/walk. Shawn's (see Friends post) dad past away last year from ALS. I never got to meet him but I've become friends with his whole family (mom and brother). Although I did not meet Vaughn, he raised two great sons and this benefit run/walk will continue to help other families with ALS. My cousin's Grandfather on their moms side was recently diagnosed with ALS as well. I am happy to be able to help raise money and awareness to the disease that affects many lives.

Dexter is about 3 hours from where I live and has about 6000 people in it. We had 7 (8 including baby Kinley) of us from Springfield that went to support the Wright family. Shawn's brother and sister-in-law went and they are from Springfield as well. The organizers said that there were about 100 participants and I actually finished 3rd in the event. According to my iPhone/GPS the course was right at 3 miles. The 2 male organizers finished before me. This was my first 5k and I was able to run the whole thing. I finished route in 26 minutes, but I went a full 5k in about 28 mintues.

Words

When I was in school, I was not very good at spelling. I'm still not good at spelling. But in school, I didn't really care and I didn't like grammar either. Maybe I didn't like it because I wasn't good at it, maybe I wasn't good at it because Korean was my first language. I tried to blame the fact that I wasn't good at spelling on the fact that Korean was my first language, but I highly doubt that had anything to do with it. As I've gotten older, I've taken more of an interest in words. Maybe it is because I work at a University or maybe I just like words or maybe I care more. Anyway my interest in words are 2 fold. #1 I like pronouncing words correctly. The biggest one that I am known for at work is "verbiage". We use that word regularly, but most people pronounce it without the "i". The correct pronunciation includes the "i". However, my coworkers have called me out for "churching" up chosen words. They don't allow me to pronounce certain words differently just because it "sounds" better. Like envelope. I think it should be pronounced like "on"velope, the correct way is line "in"velope. But I like "on"velope better. For the sake of correctness, I will say "IN"velope.

#2 My 2nd interest about words is learning new words, using new words, and using words properly. Oddly enough (I know, I'm a nerd) my new favorite website seems to be dictionary.com. Here are some of my favorite words, try to use them today:

Kerfuffle - misunderstanding, or disagreement. A brouhaha
Brouhaha - see above :)
Kvetch - to habitually complain, a complaint, a habitual complainer
panache - grand or flamboyant manner, flair
verklempt - choked with emotion
Palpable (this one became a fave because it seemed to have been the buzz word a couple of years ago) - obvious, evident, capable of being touched, felt, or tangible.
Qi (thanks to words with friends) - chi
AND...
floccinaucinihilipilification - rare, yes this long huge word means RARE!

A Friend

I realized that in my last 3 posts, I have referred to "a friend". In an effort to avoid my friends and family thinking that I still have imaginary friends, I decided to name said friend. This is him. This is my friend Dusty Butler. Not only is he my friend he is my insurance agent. Cody prefers to refer to him as our insurance agent and not just my friend. Makes spending so much time with "our insurance" agent seem kind of creepy, but I don't care. I figured since I have referred to him recently, he deserves to be called by name from here on out. From this day forward he shall be know in this blog as Dusty.
I cannot have a blog post about friends without talking about my best friend Holly. Since I moved away from her, I don't get to have my weekly dinners with her, nor do I get to stop by whenever I want. For now we have to settle for lunch here and there and seeing each other whenever we can. Not only is she my best friend, her son Trevor is Brayden's best friend. They are a great family and I am lucky to have them in my life. We have enjoyed many sad and happy times together, and I cannot wait for more (happy times anyway).
AND this post needs to include my new besties Shawn and Morgan. Shawn and Morgan both work with me, so not only do I spend around 40 hours a week with them, I spend several hours outside of work with them, and take vacations with them. They are practically family. Morgan is definitely Aunt Mo to Brayden. Since Shawn and Morgan are about to have their first baby, I will be Aunt Kira to him or her. I will most definitely be spending lots of time with this baby so prepare for many post/pics. From this day forward that baby will be known in this blog as my little niece or nephew!