Good, bad, good, bad, etc.

Today started out really well. We have 14 days until school starts, and these last two weeks, we are all out of programs. Akila slept until 9:50 this morning, it was great!!! She had a busy weekend. She woke up in a good mood, and was really good this morning. So at about 12:30, we decided to head to the health club to go swimming at the outdoor pool.

We have a mini-van, and Zeke use to sit in one of the middle seats next to Akila, until over spring break when she popped him and gave him a gusher of a bloody nose. He did not want to sit by her anymore. So the boys both sit in the back in booster seats, and Imani usually sits in between the boys. Some days, Imani wants more space, or wants to sit in the middle seat as it has a fan that blows directly on it. Today she sat down in this seat, which set Akila off big time. She went into full blown raging, and we had to pull over multiple times on the way to the health club.

Usually when she is raging in the car, she settles down by the time we get to Highway 100. This probably takes about 7 minutes or so, and that is a long time to be driving with a child raging. But pulling over and trying to wait her out has not proven successful. Anyway, today, it lasted the entire way to the health club, which took about 25 minutes. We got to the club, and she was fine. We swam for about 3 hours, and she was great. I knew we were close to hitting her limit, so I asked if she wanted to go into the child care center at the club which she loves and usually asks to go into when we are leaving the pool. She jumped at the chance. I checked her in and the kids finished up swimming, about another 45 minutes.

When I went to get her, one of the workers pulled me aside and said Akila had been really mean to a little girl, was calling her a loser and giving her the L sign on the forehead. She had been rude and disrespectful to the worker as well. She has never really had any issues at the health club, so this was a bummer. I went in to get her and she was being extremely rude. We got into the lobby area of the child care center where my other 3 kids were standing next to a growth chart seeing how tall they are, when Akila went up to them yelling that they were doing it wrong and pushed one of them, and they fell like domino's. Imani got up and lightly pushed Akila who barely even moved from the push.

Akila lost it. She went after Imani full force and I had to step in front of her. She kicked, hit me, and went nuts. I was holding her arms down, while she was trying to bite me, continued to kick me, slap my arms, etc. I sent the other 3 kids into the hallway, my back was to the check in desk where I'm sure the child care workers were staring at us. Nothing I could say to Akila was de-escalating her. She would not calm down. I finally grabbed the bags, held tightly to Akila's arm, and forcefully guided her out of the child care center. Imani had to walk behind us as Akila was still trying to get her.

The child care center is in the back of the club, so we had a long walk to get out of there. All the while, Akila is yelling, I mean yelling, hateful and mean things, and kicking and trying to bite me. I'm sure we gave some people lots to talk about at the dinner table tonight. Towards the exit, when passing the cafe, there were samples of ice tea they were handing out. This miraculously distracted Akila and she was fine the rest of the way out and through the parking lot.

Then in the van, she started raging that she was hungry, although we had been snacking all afternoon at the pool. I offered some more snacks, but she wanted to stop and buy some food. I said no. She then raged the entire ride home. As we were driving, my leg was stinging a bit, and when I looked at it, I saw a huge bump had risen on it. Very nice.

We got home, and thankfully Michael was home and out front with Hibeam. I told him to get her away from me as I needed space. It has been a rough night. 14 days, 9 hours and 41 minutes to go.

Triathlon

Oh yeah, I forgot to say my big news. I did a triathlon last Sunday. Yes, I am crazy as I trained for one week. Not the smartest move. I had been really good Jan-June at working out, and then summer hit, my stress level rose, and I stopped exercising. I so wish I were one of those people who exercise when I'm stressed. I eat.

My friend Juli and I talked in May about doing the Green Lake Triathlon in Spicer, right next to my hometown of Willmar. And talk was all we did. Then two weeks ago, Juli tells me that she signed up herself and Jade, her 14 year old for it. I decided to do it. Then I changed my mind. Then I decided to do it. Then I changed my mind. It was late Saturday night, one week before the tri, and if I waited any longer, the entry fee would have been $10 more. I clicked yes and signed up.

Then on Sunday, I began to train. I could run 1 1/2 miles without stopping. In May I could do 3. Ugh. The tri consisted of 1/4 mile swim (scary), 12 mile bike ride (ok), and a 3 mile run (not good). Needless to say, the swim was by far the hardest, and I did the breast stroke the majority of it. The bike ride was the easiest, although looking back I should have tried to go faster. I was just taking a nice bike ride and trying to recover from the swim. I could have pushed it more. The run was hard. I made it one block before I had to walk. And then I walked on and off the rest of the way.

I came in 272 out of 278 and I am glad for those 6 people that were behind me. :) It was the hardest thing I have ever done physically, and I think I will try it again next summer with a little more training- for the most part, I can only improve!!!

I'm ready

I added a countdown clock to my blog for the first day of school. I am so ready. I was at the school yesterday for a meeting, and the teachers all thought I was crazy as I told them there were 25 days left. Can't wait.

I have not been blogging much, as it has been nutso at our house. Not to mention that it is dance registration time so I am spending hours on the computer everyday and have no energy left to blog on the computer as well. Why didn't anyone tell me how much work puppies are? Hibeam is our first dog as adults for Michael and I, and we don't really remember many of the details of training them, since I"m sure our parents did the majority of it. Hibeam is doing well, and is adorable. And tiring me out. I honestly did not know that I had to get up in the middle of the night to let them go potty. Nice.

Akila has one more week of summer school and then we will have two full weeks of nothing. I am a little nervous for those two weeks. Hopefully it will be really nice out so we can be at the beach/pool a lot, or at some friend's cabins. Anyone out there??? :)

Akila has been going through a graffitti art stage that I am not really appreciating. Here are a few pictures:

This first one is a sewing table that was my mother-in-laws. She carved her initial in it. It is trully a family heirloom now. The kids don't even know there is a sewing machine in it, and I'm not going to tell them. I like them to sew with Grandma Kathy!!!

This is on our deck railing, Prince is the name of the dog that is in the yard the deck overlooks.


This is on the outside wall on the deck.

These are just a few lovely scratches on the stair railing going upstairs.

As I sit at the dining room table, I see some words carved in the side of the table as well. Too lazy to take pictures and post them also.

Akila turned 10 last week. We are going to have an overnight slumber party with a handul of girls next Friday night. The other 3 kids are going to Uncle Dan and Aunt Tara's for the night. And the best news, is that a group of teenage girls from the dance studio are coming to help, and I think they might stay over also. This is so cool, as I need my teenage fix! I love teenagers. I know that will change a bit when I have four of my own, but I have always loved teenagers. And these young ladies are really fun.