Halloween!

Last night we went to (and organized) the Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Feed. It was our last activity we were in charge of being the Co-Chairs of the Activities Committee. Brian was called a few weeks ago to be the Ward Clerk and so they needed to release him from the calling. They prayerfully decided that I would be released and be called to be a primary worker. I am now teaching Quianna's class, ages 10-12.

For Halloween night I made apple crisp and we watched The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, an old Don Knotts movie that I use to watch when I was a kid. It was a lot of fun. Then we went around the block for Trick-or-Treating. We didn't stay out too long since it was Sunday and Elijah already had a lot of candy from the night before.

Here are the pictures of our costumes!

The McCann Wizard of Oz

 Alex (Quianna's Brother) joined us for the night and he was the gorilla. We said that he was the ground forces for the Flying Monkey army.

Quianna's the "wicked" witch

Brian's the Cowardly Lion... betcha you couldn't guess that!

Elijah's a Flying Monkey

And I was Dorothy. 

 We had a lot of fun having a family theme. At the beginning of October, we watched the Wizard of Oz and then I gave the kids options of what they could be. Thursday night I went shopping and then was creating every chance I had to get all four done before Saturday at 3:30pm. I did it, with a few minutes to spare!
Luckily I had my dress and Quianna's shirt and skirt made from High School so I just had to worry about our accessories. Otherwise I don't think I could have done it in time.

There was another family that had a theme. The Dad was Bowser but you can't see his shell in this shot, but it was really cool!

Next year for us is hopefully Mary Poppins and Bert. Quianna and Elijah have been wanting to do Mario and  Princess Peach but they might do Michael and Jane from Marry Poppins with us. It depends on what they want to do. Quianna wants to do another family theme but she's torn between the Mary Poppins or doing something with Elijah. Maybe next year we'll all do Mary Poppins (I was thinking they could be penguins hehe...) and then in a few years we'll do Princess Peach, Mario, Luigi, and Princess Daisy (since Mario was just done this year by someone else). Next year... no matter what we decide... I am going to start WAY earlier than October. 

Green Bluff ...

...and lots of pictures that are long over due
first we have Brian's Birthday

I don't like German Chocolate Frosting (the coconut) so Brian told me to do half and half.... Look at all those candles!

Elijah's first day of 3rd Grade

Our Colts Cookies

 Next is Elijah's Cross Country Race

Last minute advice from Dad.

There he goes!

 Spider and Ghost Cookies

For the last few years Barb and Dan have come up and we all head to Green Bluff. We always end up in the same spot, Knapps Family Farm. They have tons of pumpkin patches to sort through, a hay maze, goats and ponies to pet, AND a  pumpkin cannon! It's lots of fun!

Time to Carve!

ok... I think that's enough pictures... for now... I can't find the finished products of the pumpkins so I will post them tomorrow when I can take a picture in the daylight.

Here they are!

Quianna's

Brian's and Mine

Elijah's
I feel bad that I can't find the original picture because now that it's been a week the dragon's head is kinda off.

Oh... Boys...

How many times must a boy get hurt before he learns he shouldn't try and stand up on chairs to leave the table, or he shouldn't do somersaults on the banana rocking chair, or be rocking back and forth and twisting on a dining room chair that isn't suppose to rock?
I am trying a new loving tactic this week (yes all of these incidents have happened in the last week- in fact, the last couple days). When Elijah gets hurt(physically or emotionally) I usually give him a lecture on why he shouldn't do that something. Last week was a rough one for him and Brian gave me some insight that made me look at everything in a new light. So this week I am trying to extend my patience and love first and foremost without a lecture. So when something happens I have had to bite my tongue and think about my actions instead of reacting in my normal way.
For the times that he has hit his head and he's down on the ground I go up to him and rub his back and say "I'm sorry you got hurt" to let him know that I love him. But today when I saw him standing up on the side edge of the chair to apparently leave the table- after we had just had the conversation about one of the reasons why we treat furniture right is so we don't get hurt- I had a hard time biting my tongue... in fact I didn't really bite it. BECAUSE I was washing the dishes and I turned to see him standing on the chair. The following phrase (which I never thought I would hear myself say) came out of my mouth "Elijah what are you thin- (crash he goes down hard) ...king". I had such a hard time finding compassion to hold my actions so my instinct came out and I lectured him... it was a short lecture... but of course he wanted to argue so I decided to drop it and just said, "I'm sorry you got hurt but... yeah, I'm sorry." I paused because I wanted to say "but I have a hard time finding sympathy for someone who wasn't thinking about what he was doing. ESPECIALLY when we just had a talk about treating furniture right". BUT that was when I gained control and held my tongue and just said, "I'm sorry." and went back to do the dishes.

The point of telling this is not to "tell on" Elijah. He's a boy and he's 8. Things like this are going to happen. The point of this is to say... I held my tongue! In the hardest moment I pulled myself together and didn't lecture...well... too much.

October!

Wow! It really is October! This week started the cold weather here in Spokane!
At the end of September my back started giving me problems and I had to put a hold on my training for the 5K. A week and a half ago I started seeing a chiropractor and it has been helping a lot. I have been able to start back up but now i'm backtracking because I took so long off that I have to start again but try and build up quickly in time for the Thanksgiving run. Brian on the other hand has been training and doing really well.
Last month we decorated our master bedroom and I love it! It's so wonderful to have a nice place to retreat. A place that is *ours*.
Elijah has done Cross Country with the school. He made 21st place. He was first from his school in his grade.
Quianna is playing violin again this year. She sounds great- a more mature tone than last year.
Brian and I went to That's Italian on Saturday. It was a fun date night. We also watched Iron Man 2 the night before. That was also a fun night.

It's Autumn Time

I started school this week. I can't believe it's the middle of September. The summer just flew by! Elijah is doing Cross Country after school. Quianna is playing the violin again in orchestra. Brian and I started the couch to 5k program a week ago and are going to sign up to run the Turkey Trot in Kennewick on Thanksgiving morning. We are also participating in the Diabetes Walk on October 3rd with my parents. We are suppose to be raising money for sponsorships but I haven't started that yet. (if you'd like to donate money to our cause, click here....) I am excited for that. I have never really done anything for the diabetes but I have became more active this year with going to regular doctors appointments, attending Diabetes Day with Brian, and now this! I'm excited to give something to help the research for my condition move along.
We recently had a stray cat somewhat adopt us. It was insanely skinny and the same spot sides were shaved- the back part of the stomach to right in front of it's legs- which made it look even skinnier. We kept giving it some milk for a few days and we were going to take it to a vet that goes to our church but the night we were going to take it the kids found out it had died. It was really sad for all of us, but it looked miserable and like it was in pain. The kids now want to get a new cat- luckily we have the excuse that we didn't find that cat, it found us. We aren't allowed animals in the house (or else we would probably have a dog once I am out of school)
That's what's new with us.

Journaling

To keep this blog clean of random things of my day I am going to have my journaling on my personal blog kimberlysjourneythroughlife
Pictures of Elijah's Baptism will be coming soon on this blog!

Journal #1

So far today I have said my morning prayers (2 points), exercised for 45 min (20 points) ate 5 fruits/vegetables (10 points), had 7 hours of consecutive sleep last night (5 points) and had 5 glasses of water(1 point each) and now I am writing in my "journal"- which is 2 points. Tonight I will say my prayers (2 points) and read my scriptures for 5 points.

I am doing a "competition" thing with some girls at church. It's called "A New You" and is to help with establishing healthy and spiritual habits. For everything you do on the list you get a certain amount of points and we are divided up into teams. The team with the most points at the end of the 6 weeks wins. We are ending our 6 week program with a celebration and a 5k.

It has given me great motivation today to get out and exercise, to eat so many fruits/vegetables, and to drink so much water. Although after exercising it wasn't so hard to drink a bottle of water.
There is an option between tracking weight loss (1 pound lost= 10 points/week 1/2 pound lost= 5 points/week) or Journal writing. Since I am not trying to lose weight particularly, just trying to get fit I am doing the Journal writing. I am excited because one of my goals has been to do better at keeping this blog going and so this will be good motivation.

In doing all this today I have thought about goals that I want to accomplish- especially in the area of exercise:

• I want to be able to run a mile. I have NEVER been able to do this. I have always had a problem with breathing every time I run- no matter how short of distance. Even walking fast makes me short of breath so my goal is to be able to run a mile and not have my chest pound and feel like I am going to die.
• I want to be able to touch my toes without bending my legs. Again, I have NEVER been able to do this- maybe when I was two, but since I can remember I have always struggled with this. The "sit and reach test" in elementary P.E was always my nemesis. Ok, so not that I rocked at Pull-ups or running the mile but you would think "sit and reach" would be the easiest of the tests.
• I would like to build up my back, core, and arm muscles. I haven't figured out a measurable goal on this except for keeping track at how many inches in my arms I gain but hopefully by building up my core muscles it will help my back gain strength back from my many car accidents.
• This is not on the point system, but I would like to start taking multi-vitamins every day. I'm hoping that getting the vitamins that I need it will help with my breathing problems I have been having.

These are my goals so far. Also in the point system you chose a goal at the beginning of the program- something you want to accomplish each week- and then you receive 15 points for every week that you accomplish it. One of the examples is to organize a room each week in your home. Almost everything on my summer's ToDo list is organizing a room of the house- including the garage, so I though that my personal goal is to cross off one thing on my Summer ToDo List each week.

This week since it is only Friday-Sunday (we started this last night) I am choosing something off of my to do list that is easy- clean our bedroom. I figured organizing it isn't a priority right now because it's already pretty well organized and as the rest of the to do list (like organize closet, office, and turn office into closet) our bedroom will become reorganized.

So I just have to say that I am really excited for this program. Not only for the points and doing it as a team but for the habits I will establish in the next 6 weeks.




Extra note: I am done with school for the year! After my last final on Wednesday I had an appointment with my endocrinologist. I was really worried because I hadn't been logging my blood sugars and carb/insulin intakes in my book since my last appointment. I thought that I would be getting a scolding from my doctor because of my lack of records.... but it was the opposite! I passed my diabetes final for the quarter! He told me that he wanted me to leave the appointment feeling that I have my diabetes well controlled. He then told me that my A1c was 6.7! In the beginning when I first started my appointments in January my A1C was 8.0 and now it is 6.7! I was so excited I had to give a "WooHoo!" right there in the middle of my appointment. I then couldn't stops smiling. Yeah me!

Elijah's Birthday

Happy Birthday Elijah!

I am finally out of school for the summer and can now do an update of the last two weeks.
Elijah had a friend birthday party on Saturday and then Grandma and Papa McCann and Aunt Kylee and Uncle Jay came up on Sunday for his actual birthday.
One of his big presents was a bike from Grandma and Grandpa. I fortunately caught this wonderful smile when he finally found it in the garage.

We forgot to tell him that there were hand breaks and how they work before he went down the driveway and towards the fence. Just as were clenching our teeth and gasping our breath we hear a loud screech and he turned and missed the fence. I love his relieved face in the above picture.

Quianna and Brian got their bikes out for a little bit and rode around the blocks a couple of times.

Eljiah asked for a carrot cake for his birthday. I didn't want to mess with trying to decorate with soft cream cheese frosting, or of how I should decorate it so I decided to create a bike with candy. It was really good and the kids had fun munching on the bike after eating their cake.

During the festivities we had games set up outside. We all played croquet while Quianna and Barb played with a splash ball and "rackets" that Jay and Kylee got Elijah.

Brian and Jason got into it with this kind of tether ball game that we have. It was pretty fun to take pictures of it all. It lasted for hours!

I love this picture of Brian's face.

Happy Birthday Elijah! I hope it was a good one!