Patience, the NEW Endurance Sport!

I was going to say I'll trade you potty training for writing my dissertation, but I really don't think I want to! I worked at a day care for a couple summers, and I saw some of the grossest things I have ever seen! Good work today, but now you have me craving double cheeseburgers.

Hey- what is your dissertation on? Fun times! I keep trying to get my husband to do the potty training. no luck!

I am sorry about the DC burgers. I ADORE them, the cheap McDonalds ones. About once a month I just have to have one ;)

Marion, good to see that you showed those migraines :) Hmmm potty training it has been so long for me I don't know if I would remember any advise to give you. I sort of block out all the bad things in the past LOL Good miles... but they don't show up in the title thing.

Lori

Wow, great job today Marion!! Just spitting out 8 miles like nothing. Very good work.

I had a heck of a time potty training my middle son. I actually tried a total of 6 different times; and when I say tried, I mean really tried. Like I took off work, stayed home for 3-4 days, etc. and it never worked. So, I tried a new strategy that I heard about on the news one night and it actually worked. Granted I think he was ready at that poing (it was in Jan and he turned 3 in April), but I like the stategy and plan to use it with my baby when he potty trains. If you want tips, let me know and I will divulge. Have a great day Marion! YOu are awesome!!

You are so motivating, Marion, nice work! Eeek is right on the push-ups, but a necessary evil if you want to dress up like a volleyball player this Halloween! Have you tried the plank yoga pose instead? It gives you similar benefits than push-ups, but it's more doable, to me at least...

Marion --

Nice work today and so glad that the migraine is gone.

Man oh man ... every time I feel like my day is overwhelming I think ... atleast all my kids are out of diapers!! The twins and my middle child are only 1 year and 1 day diffence in age. 3 of them in diapers at once has brought on a diaper-changing allergy for me, seriously. When we got the twins diaper changing was the worst -- they both had malaria and a bad case of worms (they went through atleast a dozen diapers every day as they expelled the worms -- nasty). I refused to let anyone else change their diapers because I was paranoid about them not washing their hands well enough afterwards and passing the worm eggs around. Now, even the thought of it makes me sick!! Yikes!!

You are a maniac! Great work out! What is the OD course? Mostly downhill? I just got back from Pauls. They got the WII fit for him, and I did the fitness evaluation and it said I had a BMI of 25 and am overweight! Dang Wii!!! Truth hurts! So I am sitting here eating watermellon and dreaming of a cheeseburger!!!!

Kellie- yes- I would LOVE some help. Just before he turned 2 he was going poop on the toilet, but then he ad surgery and that WRECKED everything!! Help me!

Lucia- Yes- I spend a major portion of my yoga practice in plank nad four limb staff. I just really want to be able to pump out 10 guy pushups. Mostly just to show off! ;D

Teena- OOOoooooooo!!! YUCK! That is the WORST diaper story I have ever heard! The poor babies! How old were they and where were they from? How is Malaria treated? What happened to their parents? (Is this too many questions? You can answer the ones you would like to or ignore them all :)

Lesile- the Wii is fun but CRAP! I have seen you- you are in no way or form oerweight! You are one hot mama and that Wii is STUPID (but fun). SCREW the Wii!

The OD course is the onion days course. It is virtually FLAT! There is this little down hill that you can tell is down hill if you have a table and a ball. Very flat! :p

Enjoy the watermellon! It will be gone soon :(

Marion, I love talking about the twins. One of these days I will have to give you the whole long story. The short story is this: They are from Liberia, Africa. I have no information on the father and we adopting them their mother was deathly ill (along with the twins). Okay, I'm going to give you the medium story ... it's hard for me to cut things out.

Pretty much out of nowhere Ryan and I both had very strong impressions that we had children in Liberia. What are the chances of that (we had never discussed Liberia before except on a historical level). What are the chances that we would both have that impression. Problem was, NO adoption agencies would even touch Liberia due to the civil wars that were just ending there. We had almost given up hope when Ryan out of nowhere decided to call the Liberian Embassy here in D.C. When he told them why he was calling the lady who answered the phone said, "This is so ironic, an attorney is here right now who is trying to get permission, along with another lady, to start a children's rescue mission and orphanage in Liberia. Give me your number and I will have him call you." After talking to the attorney we decided to work them, knowing full well that it might not work out and that we'd lose all our money. Our twins were found on the side of a road while Patti, the woman the lawyer was working with, was on her way to visit some children at a make-shift hospital. The twins were covered in maggots and scabies and had chicken pecking at their sores. There was a hill right by where they were at, and over the hill there was a very old lady doing wash in a stream. The lady explained that she was the twins' great grandma and had been assigned to watch over them until they died. She could not carry the wash and the twins over the hill and so she left them there and was going to pick them back up when she completed the wash. Patti explained who she was, the great grandma tried to force the twins on the Patti. Of course she couldn't just take them, but after meeting their very ill mother decided to help. The mother turned the twins over to the orphanage after explaining her situation in the Liberian Court. It took about 3 months after that to get them to the United States, not because of the slowness of Liberia, but because of all the red-tape, INS, etc, here in the U.S. The twins were a little over one year old when they arrived but were extremely malnourished and tiny. At their first doctor's appt Oliver weighed only 8 1/2 pounds and Livvy weighed only 8 pounds. Neither could sit up or hold a bottle. So it feels like I have had them since they were newborns.

There is a lot more to the story, but I'll have to save that for another day. I do love talking about them though. I feel as if they are my angels (except when they are very naughty :) ).

Oh Marion, you are too funny. I am going to email you private so that I can spare the blog the details. Let me know if that is a problem. Talk to you soon!!

What an amazing story!!!! Keep writting more. I want to hear more details. What lucky little children, and how wonderful that must feel to nurish them back to health and give them such a wonderful life!!! I need to go look at your family picture again. Thanks for making my day, and putting things into perspective!

Thanks Marion! I am hell bent on having that Wii tell me I am normal though!!!

Kellie- yes email the dirty details! lol

Teena- what an amazing story! How blessed they are to have found you! Wow! The "very naughty" part is the best part, in retrospect ;)

Marion,

You definitely deserved your double cheeseburger. That's what I think running's for.

Teena,

You deserve at least a zillion cheeseburgers.

I agree! The best part of running is that you can eat things like double cheeseburgers after :) i really may go get one for dinner now just because i can!

THAT IS SO COOL TEENA!! Thanks for asking, Marion. I wanted to hear the story. Wow, I had goosebumps the entire time and even got a little teary! So very cool.

Great day Marion, I am glad your migraine has subsided. And what does EEK mean? Did you do any??

Thank you for the wonderful story about the twins, Teena, and for asking about it, Marion! I'm almost in tears here. I have an adopted older sister who was also not taken care of before my parents got her. It wasn't easy at times, as the scars from her abandonment came up sometimes and she was a troubled teenager, but now she has her own family and is doing amazingly well. I can't imagine growing up without my sister. Adoption is such a wonderful thing!

Yes, Teena, I loved your story!! It made me cry, covered me in goosebumps and made me appreciate the adoption process and the promptings we receive all the more. You are a god send and I am so happy that you have those babies!! You are a great family!!

Kelli- the EEK is for just the very thought of push-ups! :D

Kelsey- Enjoy your burger ;)

yes, thanks for the story about the twins. My friend has an adopted daughter after trying for years... she still is having trouble gaining weight- finally 18 lbs at 1 year, and not very good muscle tone. But she is beautiful and sweet. Thanks for sharing. Marion, you are so awesome. Seriously, you are rocking it!