Hi there!

It's been forever since I blogged last! I'm not sitting in front of the computer every day so I don't think about it as much. Happy summer break! Mine started out busy with a couple of weeks of workshops at UNI. And a 20k. And a roof. No big deal. But now I'm officially ready to enjoy the sunshine!

I guess I'll blog a bit about each of those things, since clearly that's what we have been up to. The workshops were good...I am teaching a class called Cornerstone at UNI this fall. It's College Reading and Research and Oral Communication combined, along with civil awareness and study skills. It should be interesting! I will be curious to see how the students react. And how I react. It's worth 6 credits over the course of two semesters, and I have two sections of it, so it's quite a commitment. But to be honest, the English nerd in me is drooling a little bit.

The 20k was awesome. (That's 12.4 miles, in case you aren't British. Or whomever uses kilometers.) My summer goal was a 10k, which I will be running in Sept. This was a crazy whim. And it was great. Sooooo glad I did it. Our time was 2:10, and in the future (yes, I said future) I would like to be under 2. Josh has started running with me too, we just did 4 yesterday together. LOVE THAT!!!

We also roofed my grandma's house this past weekend. Oof. Nothing like pushing your body waaaaaay beyond what it's comfortable with two weekends in a row! And it was hot. 93. No shade. I was fine but both Josh and Jeff got sick from the heat. Oh yeah, we had Jeff, Mark, and our friend Luke helping too. (Sounds like a Biblical crowd, doesn't it?! We were just lacking a Matthew and a John.) :) Thank goodness, because there was no way we could have done that thing in 3 days without them!! It was kind of fun, in that torture type of way, but glad it's over!!

Grady and Kingsley have been so much fun already this summer. Having a 4 year old and a 2 year old is EASY compared to past summers! Kingsley is still in diapers (interested in potty training while I was in school...now that I'm home full time, can't get her to pee on that princess potty for nothing!) and she naps, but man. Life is good! This weekend we are taking them to Des Moines and doing the Science Center and the zoo, as well as hotel/pool stuff. I am leaving the pack and play at home. Might regret that one, hopefully not. :)

Currently I'm reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and near the end, so I'm going to go and try to finish that up. Then it's laundry, supper (grilled steak salads), sweeping, the usual. Have a great day! :)

Darn it, blogger.  What are you doing, switching your format?  (Who am I kidding, I didn't know how to work the old version very well...why should this be any different??)  :)  Anyway, yup, this post is coming to you at 3:45 am.  Grady has been UP since 2:30.  It's warm upstairs, he's been sleeping well lately, and I had a feeling that this night was coming.  My kids are generally really good about going to sleep, and both sleep 7 am to 7 pmish.  However, when they aren't that tired, they don't seem to the normal thing of not fall asleep right away.  No, they both tend to fall asleep at their normal time but then wake up in the middle of the night ready to go!  So...I am finding myself with some time on my hands.  (He's actually eating cereal and watching a Veggie Tales movie right now.  Happy as a clam.  But now I can't sleep, so here we are.)

Tomorrow is Miss Kingsley's 2nd birthday. Can anyone else believe that time has gone by so fast?!  I sure can't. That little girl is getting smarter and sweeter every day.  (That's not just my biased opinion either...she really is.)  :)  She speaks in full sentences and we can understand her almost all of the time.  She and Grady are getting along so well, able to play and entertain each other for hours.  I can almost put her hair up in a pony tail.  (Well, I can, but it is out on all side about 10 seconds later.)  :)  Kingsley loves her B's (her stuffed bears..yes, we bought two because I don't think she could sleep without it), babies, wearing my shoes, playing with Grady, coloring, reading, bath time, and playing outside. 

Tomorrow's plans include going to the local inflatable house for the kids to play for awhile, then out to dinner.  (Kingsley's fave spot...Wendy's!  Though Subway is a close second.  So we'll ask her tomorrow), then finally brownie sundaes at home with the grandparents.  Her gift?  We were kicking around the idea of getting her a kitty.  After much discussion...and me even putting a wanted ad on Craig's List, we decided to go with a FurReal FAKE kitty instead.  :-D  I will get her a cat someday...she's obsessed.  Maybe....maybe....maybe even a dog.  (Liz, if you are reading this, I just read your post about your new dog.  Less likely now.)  :)  They just sound like so much work!  Maybe I'll feel differently when I'm not still dealing with my kid's poop...I'll feel like I can take care of something else too.  :)  Anyway, we decided to wait until she would appreciate it more...maybe Christmas or her 3rd birthday.  We'll see. 

I am planning on playing dress up with her tomorrow.  I'll post pictures.  :)

Updates on my running...is has been going great!  I can't remember if I have blogged about my plans yet, but so far I have signed up for a 10k (my original goal--Park to Park) and a 20k (12.4 miles...Dam to Dam).  I just decided to switch the 10k registration to a half marathon.....and I'm going to add another long race to the mix as well.  (Des Moines Half?  Maybe Living History Day Farms race?)  I am trying to get my brother on board with running something with me.  He's open, so long as it's not a super hot day.  (DSM half is in October and Living History Days is November.)  It's so fun to have something to work for that's just for me and not kid, school, house, or hubs related.  (Not that those things aren't great, but this is just for me!)  And it's fun to do things that you never thought you would be able to do and have people be in awe of you a little bit.  What can I say?  I'm kind of a big deal. :)

Ok.  For real.  Back to bed so I'm conscious for Kings' 2nd bday.  (I still say Mom's should get a present every kid birthday.  They did the work!  The kid was just born!)  :)  I guess that's what Mother's Day is for....in some households.  ;)

Night!

Is it just me or....

Does it seem like a lot of people are going through a lot of "junk" in their lives lately? Job losses, cheating spouses, sick (I mean, really sick) babies, health concerns, accidents, death of family members......I saw someone from high school had a FB post that went something like this: "I'm going through some crap in my life right now. From other people's statuses, I know some of you guys are too. If you are, please comment with your name on my post and I will pray for you. In turn, please pray for all the names you see listed." I thought that was cool. And also sad. What's the world coming to?

I'm not trying to be mysterious. Things in the Heimann household are just fine. Wish that were true all over.

This and that...

Nothing too big to blog about tonight, but a few updates...

I am having a "surprise" 30th birthday party for Josh tomorrow night. He either knows or highly suspects but is kindly playing along. Can you tell I have no fear of him ever reading my blog?? Haha. Love that guy. 30! He was 20 when we started dating. Are we possibly getting old?? We are actually celebrating over the course of the whole weekend....party Fri, then kids are going to MeeMaw's Sat-Sun so we can go to a wedding. Should be soooo fun, can't wait.

Kingsley arm is doing much better, though she still cries when I get her dressed or take off or put on a coat. :( Still keeping an eye on this.

Her hair is getting longer every day. She looks a bit scruffy, to be honest. But man, those 30 minutes that she will tolerate her hair in pigtails?? She's SOOOO CUTE!!! The first time that Grady saw, he laughed and said, "Mommy! Why does sissy have antlers???" That made me laugh. Love seeing things through his eyes.

Speaking of little Grady, he has his first school field trip tomorrow. He will have so much fun but I'm apprehensive! I wish I could go along. :( He's super excited about the whole riding on the bus part. ;)

I am doing well! I ran 8 miles today....getting ready for Dam to Dam. (Yes, Liz...I'm gonna do it.) Feels great. And I just got this super tight dress to wear to the aforementioned wedding, so that 8 will help me feel confident in it...:)

I'm sooo tired! Miss Kingsley has been getting me up every night for the past several. She's even fussing every 15 minutes or so now in her sleep. Not sure if it's her cold, or teeth, or she just knows how to work me? (Maybe all of the above?) She loves to pick the times that I'm extra busy and then keep me up all the time......grrrr.

:)

Kingsley - Part II

I left you guys hanging, didn't I?? I will continue my story. (Sidenote: Clare, I laughed when I saw your post. I DID that with Miss Kingsley, with a Reeses mini cup this morning. I told her she could have it but only if she took it with the right hand. No go, lots of crying, that's when I scheduled the appt. in the first place. And gave her the Reeses, of course. I'm not a monster.)

The short version? It looks like it's just a sprain and some good bruising. She's still not using that arm but isn't holding it as gingerly as she was this morning. Read on if you want the longer version. :)

We took Miss Kingsley to the doctor today at 2:45. Josh, Grady, Kingsley and myself made it a family affair and went in. I knew we'd likely be there for awhile and brought lots of snacks, an orange pop, and suckers, not to mention toys and books. And I needed everything to keep those little ones entertained and not ripping the place apart. First we met with our regular family doc....he examined Miss Kingsley head to toe, and his concern landed on her right shoulder and elbow. (There was already bruising on her back, but that's to be expected.) She didn't want to use it, let him do some range of motion things but yelped when he bent the elbow downward and wouldn't lift it at all. He said he was hoping it was just a sprain/bruising but we would need XRays to be sure.

She was good in XRays. Until she had to be put on the table. That was NOT ok.

Our doc examined the XRays and said he thought things looked ok but a radiologist would still look them over and let us know if he caught something else. Also, he said that if she still wasn't using it in 2 or so days, we would to revisit. At that point, she would likely need some sort of immobilization to keep it still. I guess with this type of thing in this age, they do a thick plaster cast thing...it's not as heavy as a cast but it's something they actually put on so the child doesn't mess with it. That would be on a week or so. So we're not out of the woods yet. Kingsley keeps saying, "Mommy, I hurt." :( Hopefully she'll be like new in the morning! :)

I just read an old friend's blog post last night about her new daughter Lia, born March 26th, with two holes in her heart. :( I feel silly even updating this about Kingsley's little tumble. Hearing about other's misfortunes/illness/struggles certainly does put things into perspective, huh? So prayers for little Lia tonight and her Mommy and Daddy.

Poor Kings!

Poor Kings!! This morning we were in TJ Maxx and she was getting a nice little shopping cart ride. She stood up once and I told her to sit down, which she did. Little while later, she stood up again and went to sit on the side of the cart, missed and tumbled right out. :( She landed on her butt/back. I thought she was ok....bruised, sore, but overall ok but as the day has progressed, I have noticed her not using her right arm. I didn't even think that she fell on that? And she keeps saying, "Mommy, hurt." :( Poor little punkin. We're off to see our family doc this afternoon. Hopefully it's nothing but I want his stamp of approval. I will keep you posted!

Sweet Grady, Smelly Mommy

Ok. This is a little gross, but this happened over two weeks ago and I STILL giggle when I think of it. So I'm going to blog about it so I can reminice on it later as well. (I have the memory of a goldfish. This IS necessary!)

So the other day Josh, Grady and I were snuggling on the couch. I had to pass gas (sorry!) and did so, not really thinking about how my rear was near Grady's, well, face. Hahahaha I'm laughing right now. Anyway, he shoots straight up from his lounging position and has the worst look on his face and says, "whweohoiwthYUCK!!! MMMMommy! Something smells y--y--y--yucky!!" I fell off the couch laughing. He didn't really get it but was soon laughing with me anyway. Josh was looking at both of us like we were just crazy. :) Love it.