The “X pic of the day”.

I took advantage of my “random Monday morning home during my work week” (I took a vacation day last night) by straightening her hair. We had to get up at 5:45am to have enough time.

Funny. She admitted to being tired (multiple times). She never admits to this anymore (since the summer drama). I enjoyed it.

The best part of the weekend and today is the temperature here in San Antonio. Ryan and I were actually able to play with the kids outside all morning on Saturday and Sunday. It’s been months since we’ve been able to spend any length of time outside. 100 degrees is just too unbearable.

And this morning I went running in 78 degrees! It was so super I added an extra mile to my route in honor of the beautiful weather.

I took this picture on our walk down the street to the bus stop.

Speaking of running….

My long time running-buddy, Randy-who lives next door, leaves today to serve 6 months in Afghanistan.

He insists he will continue his running while he’s there. I’d like to think I will continue running as well but I’ve been struggling to see how I’ll get up at 5am without knowing someone is waiting on me outside.

So….with his encouragement and my determination to honor my promise to keep running (while he’s risking his life serving our country), I have committed to running the San Antonio Half Marathon on November 15th.

It has been 5 years since I ran my first half marathon in Houston. It’s about time I do another and this is just the motivation I need to keep running without him.

The coolest part is that X will be participating in the Kids Rock Marathon. The school gave us a “running schedule” that breaks up the 26.2 miles over the course of 10 weeks. So I’ll have to add some evening runs into our schedule…but should be a fun way for us to share the experience.

The newest fun thing to do in the Newcom house is “make coffee”.

The kids get out all of there kitchen stuff and (with water) pretend to make and serve us coffee.

X even made a sign for her coffee shop:

Appropriately named: Xochybucks

Most of the water ends up on the table and floor after a while.

X tells me “that’s just how it is in a coffee shop”.

I’m thinking that I’ll start an “X pic of the day”.

Mainly because I can’t stop taking pictures of her every morning!  (I didn’t get one yesterday because I was still at work when she went to school.)

Her and I have had a good time picking out outfits for school. She has been adamant that her jewelery matches and that we’ve explored every possible accessory to complete the ensemble.

I think this is why she always looks cute. She wants and loves to dress like this therefore she carries herself like a model rather than a normal 7 year old.

Today Ryan had to go to court to testify for Kate & Krys (our former foster-daughters for anyone who is new to our story).

There was a relative who wanted custody of both girls and had actually passed the home study to get them. We (along with Mary & Thomas, Krys’s new foster/adopt parents) were petrified this would be allowed to happen.

Ryan did his research and was fully prepared to testify that the girls could never be placed back together. Luckily, the judge did her homework as well and did not need anyone to testify to that fact.

The judge granted the relative custody of Kate (who has been living in a group home) and ordered Krys to remain (and be adopted) by Mary & Thomas.

At last, a good CPS decision. We couldn’t be happier for Mary & Thomas. The 3 of them are such a happy family…it couldn’t have worked out any better.

At for good times sake…here’s a picture of Krys:

I just wanted to post a couple more pictures from the second day of school.

I had dreams of better lighting but they really didn’t come true.

Either way…these kiddos of mine are stinkin’ cute.

E so desperately wants to get on the yellow bus. I tell him he gets to ride “Mommy’s bus” but (somehow) it’s just not good enough.

Outfit: sweater and tank: Justice, capri pants: The Children’s Place, necklace: Libby Lu, earrings: Claires

I’ve decided to count my calories. I guess you could call it going on a “diet”….but frankly, I don’t like the word “diet”.

I’m not sure why the sudden inspiration to do this (possibly the cruise in November, perhaps the fact I’ll be turning 31 soon, or maybe just that I don’t want my bum getting any bigger).

So based on my height, age, the length of my hair, and the car I drive…I should be about 13 pounds lighter.

My daily calorie intake (for weight loss) should be around 1500.

Let me just say that it is ridiculously hard to only consume 1500 calories per day.

Last night I downloaded an iPhone App to track my calories, fat, carbs, and protein. It works pretty good. Maybe too good because I’m realizing how ridiculously hard it is to consume 1500 calories per day!

Here’s what I had today (I  ended up working last night so I’m having to really cut back during the day today to make up for my 3am meal):

at 3 am:

PB & J: 280 cal

Yoplait Light vanilla yogurt: 110 cal

5 strawberries: 25 cal

10 blueberries: 5 cal

1 apple: 53 cal

at 9 am:

3 egg whites scrambled: 51 cal

Quaker Instant App/Cinn Oatmeal: 130 cal

Coffee with  Fat Free French vanilla creamer: 150 cal (I’m coming to realize that a lot of my daily calories comes from how much creamer I use in my coffee)

at 1 pm:

Chicken veggie Burger: 80 cal  with Fat-free American Cheese slice: 25 cal and Ketchup: 15 cal

Total so far today (before dinner) is 879 calories (14 g of Fat, 146.4 g of Carbs, 45 g of Protein).

(my breakfast)

And by the way…. I’m starving. Did I mention how ridiculously hard it is to consume 1500 calories per day?

Saturday night we had a play-date with our small group at Jarrett & Lacey’s.

Lacey worked hard preparing cookies for the kids to cut out and decorate.

E lost his shirt early in the evening when he somehow covered the entire front with ketchup.

The process was actually going quite well. Lots of the cookies were super thick because they weren’t rolling the dough out but at least the boys understood the idea.

X is showing off her broken heart cookie.

E lost his pants and big-boy undies a little while after dinner when he had a potty accident (first one in 2 weeks…I think he was too busy having fun to stop and go).

Flour was everywhere by the end of it.

The boys needed a good wash down so we stripped off there clothes and headed to the shower.

Ryan had to yell “No sword fighting” at them because they were having a little too much fun showering together.

These two are something else.

We had to pry them apart because they were so hyped up from being together for the past 3 hours.

It took even more work to coerce them back into clothing. What is it with boys and running around naked?

Once clothed they all decorated and ate cookies.

Promptly making another big mess.

X:“Mommy! Can you bring me some slices of cucumber for my eyes?”

What? Jeesh.

OK. Fine. So she’s watched too much High School Musical.

But then as E is eating his cereal this morning he pulls out a dried strawberry (Special K red berry cereal) and tells me it looks like an “ABC”.

I look at it and tell him it looks like a “Q”.

He (in thinking that “Q” sounds a lot like “cucumber”) proceeds to put it on his eye and tell me he’s just like Sissy.

Nice.

And for the record: I  did not give X the cucumbers she asked for. (Or the “seaweed mask” she asked for after I declined the cucumbers.)

At last.

Second Grade.

The morning went pretty smoothly.

X’s hair was an absolute mess when she woke up (she said she had trouble sleeping because she was so excited/nervous). So we had to spend some extra time on that leaving teeth brushing and picture taking in a bit of a rush.

My pictures disappointed me a bit. Not because they were rushed, but because it was still dark outside.

Last year the bus came at 7:04 am. This year it comes at 6:53 am!

That’s an extra 10 minutes of daylight that I lost. I don’t mind missing 10 minutes of sleep….but losing 10 minutes of quality lighting for first day of school pictures about ruined my day.

All of the pictures at the house turned out crappy.

Luckily, the bus provided a perfect backdrop for a last few shots before she got on (plus I gained at least 4 minutes of daylight since the house pictures were taken).

Outfit: dress-Justice shoes-Converse All-Star (Nordstrom) black biker shorts-Target earrings-Claire’s

Breakfast: Coco-Puffs

Lunch: 1/2 Bologna sandwich, 1/2 apple, Ritz crackers, Capri Sun (I may find this interesting years from now.)

The best part of the morning: X said that when she couldn’t fall asleep she got out her daily devotional book and prayed for kindness and honesty.

We have been going swimming at Lifetime fitness all summer long.

Every time we go E says, “I want to go on the slide like Sissy.” And every time I have to tell him he can’t go because he’s not big enough.

So I decided we would make our own waterslide for him consisting of the jungle gym slide and our kiddie pool.

This is how excited he was. (I wasn’t exaggerating about it being the “naked E show” around here!)

Ryan finally coaxed him into putting swim trunks on.

He absolutely loved the water slide.

X finally put her suit on after seeing E having so much fun. (I think at first she thought she was too good for it since she gets to ride the big Lifetime slides.)

For someone who acted too cool for school she sure does look a bit terrified.

And once again, I about ruined my camera standing too close.

They got the brilliant idea to try and climb up the slide.

I pretty much knew the outcome of this venture. Instead of stopping them I decided to capture and enjoy it instead.

Really, I was too busy laughing to get better shots.

Then X sang the “I’m bringing home a baby bumble-bee” song till I couldn’t stand it any longer and told her to shut up (in a nice way).

The pool was getting super full. The bottom of the slide was under about 6 inches of water.

Ahhh. It felt good to have one of my “fun” plans turn out perfect.