Rine and Shise!

So have you ever had a goal in mind that you really felt you wanted to accomplish, but then as soon as that tiny flame of ambiton begins to flicker and you really commit yourself to taking the steps towards accomplishing it, heaven and earth and all things that ever were and ever will be combine against you to thwart that ambition? That happened to me last night...or this morning...or whatever time it is. (okay, maybe I'm being a little over dramatic, but here's how it went down)
A friend of mine got me thinking about running a 1/2 marathon in February. I REALLY want to do it, for several reasons, but I keep finding several more reasons (like not enough sleep, for one) to put off the training. Well, yesterday another friend and I decided to heck with it all and we were going to start in the morning no matter what. So I set the alarm for 5:28 am (just enough time to feed the baby, blow my nose, and get my shoes on by 6:00 and not a minute more). But of course, my sweet baby who has been sleeping great up until this point decides that this is the night to wake up at 3:30am and not go back to sleep. Joel, being the supportive man that he is, offered to take her off my hands around 4:30am so I could go back to sleep. But you know when you're trying too hard to fall asleep, you become oversensitive to noise. So then the neighborhood cats who think our backyard is the community litter box (UGH! I'll save the details about my raging hatred over these disgusting cats for another post) started meowing and I know they're digging up my newly planted garden, then as soon as Joel hits the pillow, he's out cold and starts snoring, and my legs are tearing up the sheets because I haven't shaved in I won't tell you how long...
Anyways, to the point of this post: I never did get back to sleep. But I got up and went running anyways. On a normal day I would have allowed last night's happenings to excuse another day of procrastination. But the friend who planted this crazy 1/2 marathon idea in my head to begin with gave me this quote that got my tush out of bed this morning:

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired in the morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired."
George S. Patton, U.S. Army General, 1912 Olympian

Amen brother!

Wow, sorry for the blogging hiatus! I wish I had some amazing stories to tell and funny anticdotes to offer as excuses for my absense, but 15 year old computer (which I've decided to name "Old Boy"), new baby, and no sleep is all I got. If anyone has the time and mental energy to come up with a gripping, adventurous story peppered with humor and life lessons of what I was doing with my life instead of blogging , feel free to post it. In the meantime, to tide you over here are a few posts of what we've really been doing. And, hopefully there will be more posts to come soon (pending the cooperation of Old Boy). Enjoy!

Snuggling with Shae

Mom & Shae

Jo & Shae

Hailey & Shae

Shae Margaret's Blessing Day

Shae Margaret Wagenman

(named after her 2 Great-Grandmas:

Margaret Murdock and Margaret Roberts)

A shout out to my mom for making the dress, my cousin Kara who made the bow, my sis-in-law Lucinda who made the bracelet, and friend Debbie who made the booties (oh, ya - and to me, for the cute baby :)). Whew - if that's not a loving network of resorceful, talented Mormon women,

I don't know what is!

The Wagenmans

The Merrells

Fun with MUD

So what happens when you spend 30 min. feeding a new born 8-12 times a day? Your other kids find their own ways to entertain themselves. I sent

H & J outside to jump on the trampoline with the sprinklers on in the grass, but after 20 min. or so, I realized it was way too quite outside, so when I went to check on them, this is what I found...

Claire Bear

Did I tell you I have the cutest neice ever!? This is Cindy's little girl, Claire.

"We represent the Lullaby League..." (remember that from Wizard of Oz?)

Claire and Shae

My sister Megan with Claire

Men At Work

This is Joel's real job. Talk about a succesful career! Joel is an awesome dad and our girls are crazy about him.
Nothin like a hard day's work!

Hailey's First Day of Kindergarten!

Can you just see the dreamy image going through her mind about the fun day ahead of her and how she's definately going to be the cutest girl in the whole school?
Hailey was SSOOO excited for her 1st day of school! JoLynn and I miss her wile she's gone all day, but she has lots to share with us when she gets home. She told me about one week into it that she already had a boyfriend. WHAT!? I immediately launched into a parental lecture about the fleeting inocence of childhood and how she's too young for that and yadda, yadda, and she told me, "Mom, a boyfriend is not like a husband. It's just a boy that's my friend." Oh,...okay.