Grandma and Grandpa's visit...plus Anutie Nat

To see some the fun pics of the bike riding excursion to Harrison you can check out this blog and this one...in the meantime, here are some fun shots of the visit...from my lens. The same lens that forgot to accompany us on the bike ride. But was lucky enough to capture...

Grandpa trying out the wet slide...

Grandma Toting around the Poppy Princess...

And two soggy bottoms.

It was so fun having the family around. It makes me miss all of the fun times that families have that live a bit closer. But as they always say...it's Quality, not quantity that counts.
Thanks G&G+N for coming to visit. We miss having your fun faces around.

Wow...an update!

So dear non-readers if you are still out there. I have been on quite the hiatus since last posting. Things have slowed down quite a bit. I'm pregnant and expecting a baby next spring.
With this comes all of the first trimester of no-so-good feelings. This summer has been really laid back in the excercise world.
I have cut back to one spinning class a week. My church group class is on hiatus until September and running has almost been non-existent.
Such a drastic difference from last year at this time when we had finished a marathon and we were training for another.
I haven't really minded the slowing down bit. I feel like I have invested a lot more time doing other things this summer besides training.
We have been doing most of our in-town commuting on bikes and Oscar has sprouted even bigger bike wings! last week he did two 22 miler rides and one 33 miler. I am amazed at his ability you ride. As a parent, or course i couldn't be prouder.
Things are good and I hope to amp back up to my normal exercise schedule come the second trimester when i get a little bit of my energy back.
In the meantime this blog will be a fairly low-key place.
Although, deep in the back of my head still lingers the anticipation of a possible marathon in another year from now...we shall see.

Oh, so good...and Oh, so bad

When Pregnant I develop this strange relationship with food. At first I hate ALL of it. Nothing is good everything is bad, and if I'm not careful the food may remain on the Black list for a very long, long time...
I then seem to go into transition where food becomes something of a obsession...In fact I clearly remember (and Ricky does too) that when I was pregnant with Oscar we went on a date to a Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant (a buffet, salad bar type joint). You take a plate and fill it with whatever you like and then take a seat and eat.
After getting my food and sitting down to the table Rick looked at me, looked at the plate, and said "Are you really going to eat all of that?"
At that very moment I had no clue that my plate was actually THAT full. In fact if I recall, I remember eating ALL of it and then going to the little dessert bar for some tasty ice cream. I was in my second trimester, when I start to feel alive again and food tastes like you have never had good food before.
Shortly after this "date", my Doctor informed me that I had gained 9 lbs in ONE month. He said I should probrably watch what I was eating a little closer...

I share this experience, not so much to illustrate my complete loss of self control, but to put down on blog, a very important truth...Food never tastes SO good, and SO bad as when I am pregnant.
Case in point...Yesterday while at the Farmer's market, we collected our fresh veggies and proceeded to ride our bikes home.
Rick had picked up a few danishes to eat at a stopping point on the way home. For the entire 10 miles to that stopping point my mind wandered through various types of food I would have very much liked to have been shoving down my face at that very moment...Patty's kitchen tamales, burritos, the danish sitting in the trailer in front of me...the list goes on and on.
It was as though My mind was in a constant state of food lust.
When we finally stopped to enjoy the treat I was completely in foodie heaven...Never had I tasted a danish that was so delicious! It was light, fluffy with tart cherries and some heavenly creamy cheese middle. In fact as I sit here typing this, I find myself wishing it were not Sunday, and that I could venture over to Moscow to find another.
I may find myself at the Wheatberry bakery tomorrow after spin class, and I may also gain 10 lbs this month, but wow....they are delicious.

Next up is the delicious dinner we had last night. Ricky took me out to Swilly's (a local favorite) for our 8 yr anniversary (I'll post on that tomorrow).
For dinner I ordered come green curried trout, with a tomato-coconut curry sauce, placed over jasmine rice and green peas. Once again I ate every bite with a renewed love of fish and all things curry! Food was suddenly my best friend and I relished in every bite.

Yesterday was a good day...not too sick and overall wonderful. Had it not been each of those items could very well have ended up on my black list...

I'm sure it has something to do with teh old addage that "you have to have somthing bitter so that you can taste the sweet" that makes the whole fenomenon occur. In the mean time I'm really looking forward to briding the second trimester mark, where I'm past that nausea and all food tastes good, nearly every day...
Oh, and I'm certain to be craving those danishes for the next 6 months!!!

1 car, 6 bikes, two stroller/trailers

This past week We said goodbye to our sweet little Honda...
And our Not-so-cute Mini-van...
All in order to say hello to our family's newest addition....
Our newish mini-mini van, the Mazda 5. I am amazed at how small it looks in our garage. We now have room for all of our bikes! We currently have 6 bikes and two Trailer/joggers. lately they have certainly been getting much more use than our vehicles, so we thought it only perfect to downsize to one car.
Oscar thinks it is great that he can park his bike on the whole second half of the garage. Also, the new mini takes up a lot less space than either of the other two cars, but still seats 6 people!
To acquire our new addition we drove to Boise to make the deal with another couple who were selling it. It also made it so that we could swap our van over to my sister, it's new owner. It took 26 hours for the entire trip in which we drove for about 11 of those hours.
We stayed at my cousin Tammy's house and got to see my brother and his wife (who I haven't seen in almost 2 years) and a bunch of my cousins.
We also stopped by the World birds of prey Museum to kill a bit of time before picking up our car.

Oscar loved seeing all of the birds, alive and stuffed...
Poppy was like a little hawk...On the journey home we stopped by Payette Lake in McCall ID. It was really pretty and the water wasn't too bad (although, I only went in up to my knees). The kids and Dad had a great time on a little island rock, while dad searched for crawdads.
In the end it was a nice little adventure and we are getting back to normal. I have a ton of things to post and I never manage to get it on here.
Soon to come is my Cherry canning, and the current visit of Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Natalie. Things are going well and we are so happy to have family in town.

Warm Lemonade

Have I ever mentioned that Poppy loves warm drinks? Even if it is 100 degrees outside (not that we would know since we have only been up to the mid nineties this summer) she will beg for me to warm up her lemonade. I try to give her the room temperature variety and although she may drink it (because she is thirsty) she will stop mid drink and ask me to warm it up until I have procrastinated long enough that she has finished off.

Oscar went through a phase of always having to have warm milk...In fact I recall one time leaving his sippy cup on the dashboard of the car during a road trip just trying to get it warm enough that he would consume it.

Where do these kids come from??? It always seems amazing to me all of the little quirks and tendencies that seem to be nature rather than nurture.

For about the past three weeks I have been experiencing the more unpleasant physical changes that take place when a little tiny baby begins to develop in my uterus and rake havoc on the rest of my physical being. I'm appalled and amazed that something so tiny can make such a HUGE difference.

I tend to be like cool lemonade...full of energy and direction. Zesty, sweet, and full of refreshing goodness. Alas, I'm now about as dull as warm lemonade. All of the wonderful thigns I live to eat have suddenly hit the black list of nausea and the food on teh good list is the worst food you can think of. In fact, this veggitarian has found herself on more tahn one occasion, devouring a bag of jerky, crackers, ect... before she even makes it to the checkstand. Toast is my bitter/sweet companion. Bitter becasue I hate, hate shocving it down my throat, but love that it seems to magically subdue the nausea.

I suppose the point of this whole post isn't just to complain about the whole pregnancy process (which I'm sure I will do more of), but to ackowledge all of those women who have large families in spite of morning sickness!!! How in the world do they do it? I only have two kids and there are seriously days where they seems like a dozen.

I know I'm whimpy...but seriously to all of those amazing moms out there I have to say "Way to GO"!!

One of the big things that I have noticed about this pregnancy is the return of anticipation. Anticipation of the day when my illness subsides. Anticipation of a new little baby to snuggle, squeeze and enjoy. Anticipation of the day when I can excercise at a normal capacity. Anticipation of seeing my two kids sweetly geeting a new baby into our family. And lastly the great anticipation of seeing my great husband holding a coddling an infant. He does it so well and it melts my heart to think of it.

I'm very excited to have a new baby and it was even more exciting to hear it's sweet little heartbeat this past week. There is just somethign about that racing heartbeat that reassures me that truly THIS is what life is all about. Soon, the illness will end (I'm curretnly considering accupuncture) and soon there will be a new baby and soon my kids will have grown and my life will be routine (becasue I love a good routine) and I will be grateful that I had this oppertunity to assist God in a beautiful creation.

For now, I will be warm lemonade, and that is ok. I will wake up each morning and be the best mom I can be and will be eternally grateful for my good kids, my amazingly helpful hubby and a suport group who truly care.

Catching up...

The Fix...Poppy's new cut reminds me of the lovely 70's haircuts. It does blend a bit better but knowing her Edge family hair genetics...I'm afraid it will be quite some time before we see the sight of golden locks. On a side note, I"m not really surprised that she cut her hair. Evey time we cut Oscars hair she says she wants to buzz her's off too. Crazy girl.

In Spokane last Saturday while at the Riverfront park, Poppy was giving Rick and i some big fish stories...this is her in action. She is so animated!
Big Boy news in the edge house: Oscar earned his new bike! It even has gears!!! I am constantly amazed at how far and fast this boy can ride. Monday when riding to meet Rick from work (6mi round trip) he says "Mom but I wanted to go for a real LONG ride..."

He seems to never tire...he even can climb our entire hill (which is no easy feat) and has mastered going to and from our house to school...for those of you who have been here, you know what kind of hills he has to climb to get there.

I love that he loves his bike so much. The only hard part is that he wants to do it every waking minute. Here he is just before the purchase...can you see the look of anticipation and annoyance at his mother trying to get the last shot of him on the green fire bike?

Lastly (but certainly not a comprehensive catch up) we got our first tomatoes from the garden this past week. Ummmm....nothing quite like a fresh homegrown tomato.
Other things harvested: Beets, Basil, lettuce, spinach, and strawberries.

Right of passage...

Pick your own flower farm venture...notice the sweet little girl with pretty flowing hair...

She must have decided she wants to look a bit more like Vanilla Ice! The very next morning...The unfixable...I guess we will just have to endure a few months of re-growing... short of buzzing her hair.