Video frenzy

You'll notice many videos of the boys going up on my blog. Until my camera gets here, I am making use of my video camera and creating a mini reality series of James and Josh. Let me apologize in advance for my annoying voice. Do I really sound like that? Yikes...

Ok, no need to cry...

Yes, I just made an entire post dedicated to Erin (Please don't be jealous, Gia). In all fairness, I was chatting with her and asked, "What should I blog about?" and her response was, "Me!" My point is that she's not the only one I love and miss so don't hold it against me! :)

I know there are a lot of exciting things going on back home so it can be a challenge being on the other side of the world. I feel like I'm always missing out on something but I guess that's just the way it goes. Although, the distance has strengthened many of my relationships. I've learned to appreciate my family and friends more than I ever thought I could which is pretty unbelievable considering I was already so obsessed with them!

So, I'm sending lots of hugs and kisses from the land down under!

Long distance relationship

Skype sessions, phone calls, e-mails, Facebook chat and postcards are all part of the package when your loved ones are overseas. My best friend, Erin, and I are having a tough time being so far away from each other. If we had it our way, we would be living together in a one-bedroom apartment where we'd always have Larry's ice cream in the freezer and watch senior video every night before bed. We'd also prank call Andrea and Tyler quite often just for good measure.

Anyway, I'm going to shout it from the rooftops (I'll wear a sign on my chest) that I miss Erin Erin Gail Lail Kossowsky!!!

Happy Duck

Recently, James became hooked on the movie, Happy Feet, but because he thinks the penguins are ducks, he refers to it as Happy Duck. There's a lot of singing and dancing in the movie so he now does this dance all the time!

Poor Joshy

Sometimes it seems like Josh is so used to getting beat up that he's not even phased by it anymore.

Aww

Every Tuesday morning, I take the boys to play group at a church down the street. Usually, James keeps to himself while Josh makes friends with everyone. The ladies who run the group found a way to make James come out of his shell today when they put on music. He was showing the other kids some of his best moves. Being the gentleman that he is, he saved a dance for me and we spun around until we were about to fall over from being so dizzy.

Joshy is known to steal food and drinks from the other kids but that isn't very surprising. Luckily, he was just going after Jamesy's snack today. When he wasn't being a little garbage guts, he was playing with baby dolls, looking at books and trying to crawl on a very narrow windowsill.

Let it be known that I absolutely cherish these experiences with the boys. I love watching James in the pretend kitchen cooking me eggs (which were delicious by the way) and chase after Josh while he's crawling across the room with someone's banana. I feel like I'm constantly taking mental pictures (like Jim and Pam when they got married) so I don't forget all of the precious things the boys do. For instance, Joshy had trouble sleeping tonight so I went upstairs to check on him. The poor thing is teething and has a terrible rash on his bottom so he hasn't been a happy camper. I held him in my arms until he went back to sleep and the best part is that he fell asleep with his hand pressed up again my cheek. I know I sound nuts. I'm over the moon over Josh touching my face. But seriously, it was so sweet and I'll never forget it.

Later, I came downstairs to find James sitting in his pajamas looking through pictures, as he loves to do, and when he got to a picture that we all thought was cute, James turned to me with the biggest smile on his face and said, "awww!" Not only was I thrilled that he learned a new word (and sounded so cute saying it) but he learned one of my words!

I will be buying a new camera very soon so I can post pictures/videos of the boys because I'm sure my words are not doing their cute, day-to-day experiences must justice.

"You sound like you're from London"

Text from Marisa: I have a huge surprise for u!
Me (thinking): Yes, I hope we're going to Max Brenner!
Text to Marisa: Awesome! What is it?
Text from Marisa: Russell Brand tix thursday clear your schedule!
Me (thinking): Sweet! But can we go to Max Brenner too?

Marisa's co-worker had an emergency and couldn't use the Russell Brand tickets he won on the radio so he gave them to her at the last minute.

Before the show, we had dinner at McDonald's followed by pop tarts and a squeeze pop, both of which we found at some shop in Chinatown. We probably looked like we were high with all of the excitement we had when we discovered these delicious treats right in front of us. The night was definitely off to a good start.

We grabbed a couple drinks, headed to our seats and basically just entertained ourselves for an hour until the show started.

Since we found out about the show only a day in advance, we had no idea what it was about or what to expect. Russell Brand mimicked having sex with a chair on stage (for an uncomfortable amount of time), made fun of Americans, kissed random girls from the audience and tried to orchestrate a giant orgy. Naturally, I loved every second of it.

So, thank you Tommy from Ebay for winning tickets on the radio and being such a fabulous co-worker to Marisa.

For sale!

As I mentioned before,Dave and Jo bought a new house which means the house we live in is for sale.

If you're curious what the house looks like, here's the listing:

http://www.mcgrath.com.au/102786/?searchID=0

If you look at the picture of the front of the house, the two windows are from my room! The bedroom shown is Dave and Jo's room but my room is pretty similar.

And one last thing...look at the round ottoman in the living room, that's where James and I dance everyday. That kid is going to thank me when he's older for teaching him such awesome moves.

My babies

At some point of the day, I get alone time with James and Josh. While Josh takes his morning nap, James and I about an hour and together and when James goes down for his nap in the afternoon, Joshy and I have about a half hour together. I really appreciate the individual time I get with the boys.

When I'm with James, we play with Play Doh, dance around the living room, read books or practice counting to 10. He says, "1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10!" I usually fill in the numbers in between for good measure. After all of our running around, we sit down on the step in the living room and have morning tea (American translation: snack time). James likes to feed me because I pretend like I'm going to eat his fingers. He gets a kick out of it.

When Joshy and I are together, I try to spend as much time as possible cuddling and kissing him because he'll never stop me. He just smiles and starts making cute faces and baby noises. When I finally pry myself away from him, we practicing walking. I hold his hands and we walk up and down the hallway. He laughs the entire time. Although, I'm not sure if he's getting any closer to walking. He doesn't seem to have an interest in doing it on his own. That's ok though because he's more than welcome to hang off my hip.

That's my update for the day. I'm so in love with these boys. I love my job! :)

Training update

Clearly, I'm one for change these days so here's another one. My Friday nights have shifted from going out in the city, eating potato wedges and drinking to having a bowl of pasta and getting in bed early. Giving up my Friday night date with Marisa was no easy task. The reason for my grandma-like behavior is that I wake up every Saturday morning at 6am for a long run with my group. Now that I've completed my fifth week of training, you would think I've grown accustomed to this new schedule but you'd be wrong.

Every Saturday morning, my very loud alarm goes off and the flood of excuses begin to pour into my head of why I should shut off my alarm and go back to bed. Here are just a few...

-It's still dark outside
-It's raining
-It's too cold to be wearing shorts
-I forgot to wash my favorite running shirt
-I should be well rested if I want to run a marathon
-I'm sore from the gym
-I'll run on my own later
-I don't want to drive to the park
-I have a stuffy nose
-My throat hurts
-My finger hurts

Yep, without fail every single week I have this ongoing argument with myself to run or not to run. Curious how the argument ends? I pick my head off the pillow, turn the light on my nightstand on and tell myself to stop being a little baby because no reason is good enough to make me not want to give this training my all.

Of course, by 10am on Saturday morning after my run is completed and I've had a long, hot shower I'm thinking to myself, "Hey, you're awesome. You just ran ___ miles. Keep it up, hot shot." Don't worry, my ego doesn't stay that inflated for too long.

This weekend, I ran nine miles on a very challenging course that included many steep hills and about 12 flights of stairs. I wish I could report my time but my watch stopped working after 50 minutes. It's my own fault for playing with it during my run. Oh well. It was the first non-raining Saturday morning in a while though so I was in a great mood the entire time.

Since my last post of thanking those who have donated, let me add a few more to the list...

-Kim and Lisa Satterfield
-Jim Stewart
-Eddy Dere
-Chris Mercer

Thank you all so much for your generosity. I really appreciate it! :)

As far as fundraising goes, I have raised about $900 which is the the second highest in my group thus far. Clearly, I can't let some boy beat me so I'm asking you to please donate if you haven't. Go to http://www.cantoo.org.au/ and click "sponsor now" on the top, right-hand corner.

"The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong. You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy...It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed."
- Jacqueline Gareau, 1980 Boston Marathon champ