Schoolwork

I have always liked American Sign Language (ASL), but do not really know all that many signs. At church I teach songs to the children (for I am incredibly musically inclined---sarcasm there if you didn't catch it) and have taken many occasions to research the signs for songs and teach them to the children. This past month the children have learned "I Love to See the Temple", a song that most LDS children know, so I taught it while teaching the signs.
The other day I was driving in the car and Mikey asked me how to do the sign language for "would". I had no clue and answered as such. Mikey then replied with this suggestion: "Well, you need to go back to your school".

Defiance

Choosing not to run or race on Sundays can be difficult here in Ohio. There are very,  very few races that take place on Saturdays. 

After having completed an Half-Ironman and a full Ironman, I wanted to try out a sprint triathlon (much shorter in distance). I was only able to find one that was somewhere in the area (it was a two hour drive from my house). The only problem was that it was the same weekend we had signed up for the family camp out through the recreation center. 

But once I talked to Todd, he encouraged me to do the triathlon. So, I spent the evening with him and the boys at the camp out, but did not stay the night with them.

The camp out was very well organized, except one thing, it had been raining that day. Not to be discouraged by a little moisture, we put up the tent and made the most of it.

 There was an animal show. It was great for there wasn't a whole lot of people there, so the boy got to touch all the animals and see them up close.

 Then, because of the rain, instead of watching a movie on a projector outside, we watched it on the floor in the gym.

 After that, I said goodnight and went home to sleep in my bed

 It ended up raining all night. I kept waiting to hear the door open to the house as Todd brought the kids home, but that never happened. The tent leaked really badly, so he ended up taking the boys and their damp sleeping bags into the recreation center where they slept on the floor. Not very fun if you ask me.
I got up early the next morning and drove out to Defiance, Ohio.

 I was excited to finally be able to do a sprint triathlon. And the people around me seemed really nice. The distances for this sprint was 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 3.1 mile (5K) run.

As it got to be time to get into the water, I got nervous. I always struggle in the water, but it did help that this distance wasn't as great. Still, I was nervous. It didn't help anything that the water was freezing.
The race started and sure enough, I had a hard time at the beginning. I even did a portion doing the back stroke, which I told myself I wasn't going to do in this race.  It wasn't until I was almost done with the swim that I started to feel comfortable. Then I was following this guy. I soon realized that I was holding myself back by following him, so I swam around him and got to the finish. I ran from the lake down to the transition area. I had done the swim portion in 21 minutes, and I found out later that they had accidentally put the buoys out too far and therefore had added on an extra 100 yards to the swim!
I tried to be as quick as I could in transition, especially that for the first time I didn't need to be all that comfortable. For my other triathlons, the distances were so long that I figured if I took an extra couple of minutes changing and getting ready, it was okay since I would be on the bike/run for several hours. I will need to practice the transition better, for it took me a minute and a half to go through it.
The bike course was nice. Back country roads. The hardest thing for me was figuring out how to pace myself. Again, this was not a long distance, but I still had the mindset of a long distance racer. It wasn't until a woman passed me that I realized that I could, and should, go faster. Too bad I didn't start pushing it until I was already 5 miles into the biking portion.
I got done with the biking portion in 38 minutes. I ran through transition, and was able to change my shoes and everything in just over 30 seconds. Then I started off on the run.
I gave myself permission to go easy on the run for the first half mile, to get my legs use to running. I stuck to that, but once I hit that first half mile, I started pushing it up. Kara, my running partner, and I had been doing some speed work sessions in which we would run three miles at a 7 minute mile pace. When the run started getting difficult, or when I wanted to stop or slow down, I just thought to myself that I was on the track with Kara...3 miles wasn't that long and I could push it the entire way. I finished the run in 22 minutes.
After the race I was talking to some of the other racers. A couple of guys came up to me and said, "Hey, you're that girl that was sprinting at the end of the run....I can't believe you were able to push it at that point of the race" I didn't have the heart to tell them that this race was a very short distance for me.
With a total finishing time of 1:24:11, I got fifth place female, in which I got prize money. I had a great time, and definitely want to do a sprint triathlon again.

DEFIANCE OPTIMIST SPRINT TRIATHLON
July 23, 2011
 1/2 Mile Swim * 12 Mile Bike * 5K Run

 all Rnk Name                     Sex Age  Swim   (rank)   Trans1 (rank)   Bike Time (avg mph/rank)   Trans2 (rank)   Run time    (pace/rank) FINAL TIME 

24   *  LONI ONEIL                 F 28   21:01.3 ( 37)   01:31.7 ( 39)   0:38:20.0 (18.8 mph/ 35)   00:33.6 ( 20)   0:22:45.0 (07:19.3/ 15)   1:24:11. 

Instructions on Destruction

"Hey Mom! I found the destruction manual!"
Maybe Todd and I don't enunciate our words very well.

Modesty Matters

One thing that I do not like about summer is the amount of skin that is exposed. It really does frustrate me. There are some people that just should not be flaunting their bodies, even though they make me feel better about mine. But I feel that I even get more frustrated with the people that look amazing wearing very little clothing. I do not appreciate the fact that they leave little to the imagination and that my husband and four sons have to be exposed to their almost-naked bodies. I feel that string bikinis can be the worse and that much nudity should only be seen by one's spouse.
I have been fortunate that without much emphasis by me, my boys recognize and dislike immodesty. William will always point out to me a person (whether on TV or in person) that is being immodest. Going through Dick's Sporting Good store with Mikey is a riot as he slaps away the pictures and advertisements of immodest pictures, most of which show girls wearing sports bras and running shorts.
The other day I pulled behind a small gang of motorcyclist. On the back of a few were some women wearing typical summer clothing. Roger saw this and exclaimed, "They're riding their motorcycles to the beach!" He had assumed that their clothing was actually swimwear. I just hope that my boys can keep up their determination of avoiding immodesty and keep their innocence.
What do you do to teach your children about modesty and to avoid looking at pictures or people that are not being modest?

Housework

You know that you've neglected your housework (but have done a great job teaching your kids Primary Songs) when you hear your 4 year-old sing:

"And ponder on the beauty of a house made clean again"

William, we will do a major cleaning day tomorrow

Happy Birthday Roger

Roger-dodger turned six, and what a great six year-old he is. He is sensitive and sweet, and still remains a lot of fun. In celebration of him, here are some things about Roger.
Roger just loves people and loves relationships. When I discipline Roger, I have found that it is more effective if I talk about how his actions make others feel. He does not like to see people sad, will try to cheer them up, and especially hates to find that he is the cause of such sadness.
He loves connecting with people. All of his brothers just adore him. Each one feels as though they are Roger's favorite brother for he is always looking out for them. He will sacrifice for them and fight for them. One time Mikey got yelled at by his out-of-line Karate instructor. The remainder of the class Roger tried his hardest to cheer Mikey up, making faces or talking to him. When I talked to Mikey about it afterwards, Roger was more upset about the kid yelling at Mikey than Mikey was.
Roger is very sensitive. Of course he's sensitive of his feelings as well as others' feelings. He does not like being called names or for anyone to display any form of actions that they do not like him. He will get physically hurt without any crying, but mention that you don't like him, and oh, boy.
Roger is quite the popular kid. Recently, my boys met some girls in the neighborhood. The girls now come over daily seeing if Roger can play with them. That is just how Roger is, kids like to interact with him, even those kids that are years older than him and those that are years younger than him.
Roger gets along with people of all ages. He will chat with adults and children. But I would have to say that I think that Roger likes babies most of all. He will make goofy faces at babies, play with them, or even just look at them. There have been countless times when I will be with a friend with a baby and the rest of the boys will be playing with her older children, while Roger will just sit and look at the baby.
 Roger is my little lover boy. Seriously, when he is a teenager I think I may just lock him away. He already is quite the ladies man, and it's not because he's trying to charm the girls, he is truly being sincere. While watching my friend's girls who had moved into the area a year ago, Roger asked me, "Do you remember what Chandra and Marissa were wearing the first time that we met them?….I do, it was…." and he proceeded to explain their outfits.
But as of now, I am Roger's girlfriend. He will play with my hair, give me kisses, shower me with compliments, sincere complements. "Mom, you're the most beautiful person", "You're the best cooker ever", "You are so wonderful Mom". Really, is it any wonder why I love having him around?
Organization comes very natural to Roger. If I want a job done neatly and things to be put in their places, Roger is the man. He makes sure that things go in their proper places, even calling me out when I put things in the wrong spot. He can be a really great cleaner, until he gets side tracked with playing.
We nick-name Roger "Bruce R. McRoger", for this man knows his stuff. He will pull up scripture stories like they were told to him yesterday.  He loves the Lord, tries to follow His will, and to me, he seems to understand God better than most people. He understands God's love, His expectations, His love. Roger probably understands God for he loves people like God has commanded us to love people, with pure intent.
I can go on and on about Roger, but as you can see, but as you can see, Roger is a pretty special boy. We love him so much.
Here's what we did for Roger's birthday:

Had the usual Big Birthday Breakfast, complete with whipped cream and candles.
Then we went to the park and played. While there my friend had called, wondering if I could watch her girls that afternoon. Usually, I would have instantly said yes, but with it being Roger's birthday, I needed to consult him. Birthdays in our home are huge, and not in the way that there are lots of gifts, but rather there is a lot of praise and celebration of the birthday boy.  When you have so many children (never really thought of 4 as a lot of kids, but I guess that is what it is), a birthday is an opportunity to give a lot of attention to one particular child. I did not want to mess with Roger's day, plus we had already planned on riding our bikes to get ice cream after lunch and watching the girls would not permit this.
I approached Roger and asked him if he would rather see his friends or go get ice cream. He chose ice cream, so I informed my friend that I couldn't watch her girls. About 15 minutes later, my friend still wasn't able to find someone to watch her girls, so I again approached Roger. I asked him if it would be alright if we didn't get ice cream, but rather have his friends come over. He looked at me, smiled and said, "If they need a babysitter, we should do that". I was so proud of him and the decision he made. I didn't even tell him that they needed to be watched, but he knew and understood and chose to serve.
The good news was that while we were waiting for the girls to come over, their dad called and told me that they had someone else volunteer to watch them. So we got our bikes out and rode the 2 miles to the ice cream shop.
The older two boys rode their bikes while I pulled the younger two. They all did so well, it was a long way and at points there were a lot of cars, but the boys knew to stop at every intersection and were mindful of the traffic around them.
While having Mitchell's Ice Cream, the boys drew pictures and pinned them up to the picture board.

Todd got home shortly after we did. We put some clothes into bags, got in the car and drove to Palmyra, New York.

Our church has a pageant presentation in Palmyra every summer. It happened to be going on the week of Roger's birthday, and Roger chose to go for his birthday to go and see a re-enactment of the Book of Mormon.

We drove the four hours, with Roger opening his gifts during the drive. But we were able to make it to Palmyra about 10 minutes before it started. The boys loved the show, and Roger was particularly interested in the performances.
While there we stayed with Todd's grandparents, Roger and Dianne. They are really wonderful people and were incredibly welcoming and loving to us. When Grandma Dianne found out that it was Roger's birthday and that he hadn't had a birthday cake since we had to leave for the weekend, she went and purchased him a cake, careful to choose a carrot cake since Roger loves vegetables.

 

The next week we had a birthday party with many, many friends...but hey, the more the merrier, right?

 Here's Roger's "R" cake I made. Pretty crafty, if you ask me

 Happy Birthday Boger!

Ironman Todd

Todd couldn't handle having me dominate him so badly, so he had decided that he was going to train and do an half-Ironman, also known as a Tinman. That is 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run - pretty impressive. Especially since he didn't have the time he wanted to train like he needed.
He chose to do the Ironman Muncie in Indiana.

I really wanted to do the Ironman with Todd, but also felt that he had supported me so much that it was my turn to support him. Plus, he had never done a race that the kids were watching, so I wanted to give him that.

Todd's dad, Mike, came with us as well. It was nice to have some help with the boys, and he enjoyed seeing how amazing his son is.

The start/finish and transition area was all on this beach on the river. It was perfect. We set up our pop up beach tent and let the kids play in the sand and water, they loved it.

 

The race started in waves of age groups. Since Todd's was one of the last age groups, he had to wait around with us for awhile. I encouraged him to take advantage of this time by sitting down in the shade.

Then his wave started

I was so nervous for Todd. I remembered my first experience in swimming during a race, in open water. Turns out Todd's a more experienced swimmer than I am and doesn't get nervous like I do. It was smooth for him. 

I was expecting Todd to do the swim in about an hour, but decided to go near the swim exit just a little sooner in case he came out early. I was watching the boys swim in the water as I kept a loose eye on the emerging swimmers. One swimmer caught my eye and I was surprised to realize that it was Todd. He finished the swim in 50:55 minutes!!!!

 

I ran along the spectator side of the ramp, cheering him on and shouting out his time. I was so proud of him and he was looking so strong. He went through transition pretty quickly and was soon out on his bike. 

After cheering him on for his bike start, I went back down to the beach with the kids. They had a great time.

 

After playing for awhile, Mike and I decided that we should go to a spot on the bike course and cheer Todd on. I remembered my experience on both the half and full Ironmans, the bike can be a long time alone and seeing your family can give you such a boost. 

We went on a back country road and found somewhere near mile 35-40. We sat on the grass and waited. I gave the boys food and tried reading to them, but they had such a good time just watching and cheering for the athletes that they didn't need any entertainment.

Thankfully Todd was wearing a bright yellow shirt, or we may have missed him. We hurried and put our "GO" sign up and shouted for him. Again he looked great.

We got in the car and went back to the transition area. 

There wasn't anywhere near the transition area to park, so we had to walk a long way from the car. Mike was getting a little tired and decided to sit farther from the transition area. The boys and I went and sat right at the transition beginning. 

It was great seeing all of the athletes coming to the end of their bike portion. Some came in with wheels screeching, throwing themselves off of the bike and running it into their spots whereas some came in and paused for a second at the line and very laborously pulled their leg from the bike and blew a sigh of relief as they knew they were done with their bike.

Again Todd came in sooner than expected, and looking great. The kids perked up to see him and the older ones ran alongside the coralls, cheering him on.

 

Todd biked the 56 miles in 3:37 hours!!!

Here he is changing into his running shirt

 The boys and I anxiously waited for Todd by the transition exit to cheer him on. Once he came through, the boys went crazy. They were so excited, and Todd looked great.

 Again the older boys tried to run alongside, but Todd smoked past them. They were proud of their papa.

 There was no way for us to access any point of the run. I was sad by this, but decided that it would all be okay. We stayed on the beach and let the kids play and play.

Unfortunately it was starting to get really hot and the sun was starting to burn. The kids were getting tired out. I wasn't sure about what time I should bring the kids over to the finish line, since it wasn't too terribly close to the beach and Todd had totally killed each of our estimates on both the swim and bike.

Not wanting to miss Todd, I brought the boys up a little too early. They stood around for a bit, with the sun scorching them, as I tried to shade them all with an umberela. They were getting tired and frustrated as was I.

 At one moment I looked at my kids and thought, "I'd rather be racing".

 I did feel bad. It seemed that nothing I did would console them. They had had it. Fortunately, a racer that had finished awhile ago saw them and brought them each a popsicle, which really helped calm them down. The only problem was that he had only brought over 3 popsicles, realizing his mistake he handed out the three and went to get one more. I was very grateful for him and his help. I was also grateful for Mikey, who recieved one of the original popsicles and gave it to his brother so that Mikey was the one who had to wait.

After what seemed like forever, Todd came running through. He had gone out too fast on the run to only make him pay for it on the last half. But he was able to talk with some other people around him and have a great time. He finished the run in 3:10 hours.

 With a finishing time of 7:49:40
Way to go babe! I really am so proud of him. He really has not been able to train very much, yet he pushed himself hard.
Needless to say, this was him when we got home. A little worn out.

Thumb Problems

Took the boys into the dentist for their bi-annual cleaning. I always get a little nervous for these appointments for even though I ensure that my boys brush their teeth, I feel like dentists want you to do better. And like everything else, the professional assumes that what they are telling you to do is of most importance, that it isn't that difficult to devote more time and energy to that which they are passionate about. Fortunately my kids' dentist is more laid back.
The dentist did have one concern...Grant's teeth. His thumb sucking has not helped his teeth at all. His top teeth poke out more than they should while his lower front teeth slant inward. The dentist stressed to me that Grant had to stop for it would ruin his jaw. Funny thing is that when I was younger I had the same problem.
I sucked my index and middle fingers. When I was three my mom told me if I quit sucking my fingers she would give me a Barbie, something that I was forbidden to get until I was 5 years old. I jumped at this opportunity and immediately quit and received my prized "Peaches 'n Cream" Barbie. A few short months later I was kicked by a horse, the trauma of which sent me back to sucking my fingers.
Some time after the accident my mom took me to a dentist to assess my dental injuries. Upon seeing me and my sucking on fingers habit, he told me that I was going to ruin my teeth if I didn't stop sucking my fingers. According to my mom, I immediately stopped.
Remembering how well it had worked on me, I asked the dentist to tell Grant that he needed to stop sucking his thumb. He didn't answer her one way or another, but afterwards we went and got the bitter nail polish and Grant was all on board.
Amazingly enough, Grant has quit sucking his thumb. This really is miraculous considering how much he use to have his thumb in his mouth. It would be like asking me to quit using my phone. At first he would forget, but once I said something he immediately removed his thumb. I have been so impressed with his self-control, I know it would be hard. One evening he was feeling sad and he expressed, "My thumb don't hurt" his way of saying that he wanted to suck his thumb. Since then he hasn't complained about not being able to suck his thumb. He really has done well. I am so proud of him. So glad that his braces will now only cost half of which they would've cost.

Orange Belt

Mikey and Roger have been taking Karate lessons from the local Rec center since January. They go twice a week in the evenings. Originally I signed them up thinking that I could have Todd take them to class while I prepared dinner, let me tell you how often that has actually happened. I did not realize how often Todd has to work in the evenings and that left me loading up four boys (sometimes in the snow) and trekking them off to lessons---not my idea of fun. But as the boys continued taking lessons, the more they loved it and the more I saw that it was teaching them respect, discipline, and listening skills.
Up to this point the boys have gone from a white belt, to a yellow belt, to an orange belt that they have just recently tested for. It's been fun to see them progress. I have never seen Mikey concentrate so hard on something. He is focused the entire class. Roger doesn't focus as well, but does pretty good.
During class William and Grant sit on the sides of the room with me, playing with whatever toy or activity that I brought them. I've actually been quite impressed with how well they have done during the class time. William will usually stand by me, performing the work out the class does for the first 15 minutes of class.
The instructor is a man named Randy, he does really well with the kids and even though he expects the children to show respect, he is more nice than anything. His assistant, a greasy-haired college aged kid, is a lot more strict. There have been many times that I wished the assistant was a little bit more gentle, seeing that he was on a power trip with a bunch of 7 year-olds. The assistant is also someone that I hope my kids don't necessarily follow his example, he's got shoulder length black hair and when he takes off his Karate uniform he wears emo clothes. I was quite happy last month when a new assistant came to class. I did note that the new assistant did seem very similar to the old assistant, but I did appreciate that this new assistant had shorter hair and a more pleasant disposition.
Last week I was talking with my friend Missy and she had pointed out that the assistant was acting a lot nicer. I made the comment that I liked the new assistant more than the previous assistant.
Missy looked at me, confused, and said, "Loni, it's the same guy, he just got a hair-cut!" No! I didn't believe her, I looked at the kid and after several minutes I surrendered to the fact that I was wrong and she was right, it was the same person. Can we say blond moment?
This last week the boys tested and broke boards to go up to Orange belts. Unfortunately Todd was working and unable to see it, but I was pretty proud and happy for what a good job they did.
Here's a video of them breaking their boards. Enjoy: