The A-Team

I came to this realization this morning while working out with my little munchkin playing away in his corral. I have a vice, I must watch TV while exercising in the basement. No way around it. I can’t stare at walls and be motivated. 24 has been my latest obsession. LOVE that series! Anyway, so I am watching the show, giggling at taters now and again and I realize that they NEVER smile or laugh in that show! I know it is a serious kinda show but NEVER smile or laugh? Really? I just burst out laughing at the sheer thought of me even applying for such a job! I am, by nature, a GOOFBALL. I would never make it and you know what….THAT IS OKAY BY ME! I love to laugh and smile and just plain enjoy every single day (even when it rains and rains and rains and the sun decides NOT to say hello).  I just thought I would share that bit of hilarious randomness from my brain! (of course it was hilarious to me and well, taters cuz he laughed with me!)

On another note, cloth diapering is AWESOME!!! Once you let go of a couple reservations, life is SO much easier! The only regret I have is NOT DOING IT SOONER! AAARRGGHH!  I got a Rumparooz and Bumgenius 4.0 pocket diaper in the mail today! Washed them, dried them and can’t wait to test them out tomorrow! For those of you who do CD, have you noticed it can be a bit of an obsession? All the different brands, different styles, etc…I sometimes just want to buy them all!!! Then of course that would negate my savings from disposables…ah, I digress.

My kiddos are about the most precious things EVER. Of course, we feel that way about our own children. I have done quite a bit of soul-searching over the past few days and really feel that God has been calling me to step back into my role as a homemaker. I felt pulled to help out at church, attend BSF, get all of our shopping accomplished, get the kids to the library once or twice a week, run here, run there…it was just getting crazy! School went to the back burner not to mention my house and everyone in it. I missed playing with my boys and just being home. It worked out that we all started feeling kinda puny on Monday and we have been home ALL week (except for a small trip today to the library and bank). It has been awesome! I have made meals INCLUDING homemade breads, played with my boys, cleaned until my heart could clean no more, kept up on my email, read countless stories to the boys, actually did SCHOOL work, read my OWN book, exercised twice so far, have the laundry COMPLETELY caught up, the list could go on! I am really excited about this! But you want to know what the absolute BEST part of all of this has been? Abraham and Abel’s reaction. They are randomly coming up and hugging on me, blowing me kisses from afar, bringing me a book or two for a quick read, playing wonderfully during independent play time, helping me COOK, just all around MUCH happier and better behaved kids. It is pretty amazing. I feel bad that I have been so distant/torn/run ragged that I have missed this. I am thankful that God moved my heart and helped me to find this. It is truly making our life so much more worth living!

Hi there. Just a quick post to show off something I came up with recently. I was reading a blog post of Blaine Moore’s about the dangers of running on the road. Should you be injured so badly that you lose consciousness or become delirious, if you’re like me and don’t carry a phone or any form of ID when you’re running, it is possible you could become another John Doe at the hospital. Blaine recommends RoadID, which is really neat, but out of the price range I’m looking to spend on an easy, unobtrusive, lightweight form of ID for exercising.

So here’s my solution: military dog tags, modified in a way that is meaningful for me as a runner. I found a place called DogTagsOnline that will make you a pair of custom dogs tags complete with silicone silencers for $6.99 + shipping. They can stamp up to fifteen characters per line, up to five lines per tag. You can choose from eight colors of silencers. I opted for high visibility colors to make it easier for an EMT or Paramedic to find them. Here is a photo of the tag up close:

I blacked out most of the info from you guys for privacy concerns, this being on the InterWeb and all.You could of course customize such a tag in anyway you see fit. For starters here is what I put and still made the fifteen character limit per line:

1. First Name M.I. Last Name
2. City, ST, USA
3. Wife: 10-digit phone #
4. Dad: 10-digit phone #
5. Blood type, NO PEN, DOB

That is a ton of information on such a small tag in my opinion. And the price is right. After the blood type, I put my drug allergy information. Should you not have any I still suggest you could put “NKA” if you have none as it would help them know that you have none instead of being a mystery. This tag provides first responders two means of contacting people I know well, and critical, personal-identifying information that is unique to me when combined such as my name, date of birth, blood type, city/st so that no matter where I am in the world people should be able to locate my loved ones and let them know to come get me if I am injured or God forbid dead. I know it is morbid but it happens every day; someone dies naturally while running or is killed by a vehicular accident. Notice I left out an exact address. That is not important really, first responders would have enough to go off of to get the word out and yet I am still able to maintain some privacy.

Moving on, the installation was easy with only a small modification needed. When I went to lace the dog tags through my laces, the hole in the tag was too small. Out came the power drill, and I opened it up one bit size at a time until the laces snugly fit through. Snug was important to me as I didn’t want them to slide around. I used a file on a set of nail clippers to remove the few barbs of metal left by the drill bit so my shoe laces don’t get shredded over time.

Last but not least, here is the finished product. I’ve been using them for the last 50 miles or so and don’t even know that they are there. They are not going to rust, break, or blow away and I can keep them until the info on them changes. Notice I put one on each shoe…you never know. I could get hit by a Mack truck so hard that only one foot is found or still attached. The old adage applies: “two is one, and one is none.” I interwove them as you can see so they don’t flop around. I thought this might also be good for those of you who go hiking/backpacking too. Happy trails!