September 15, 2017

Fun Surprises

Between school being back in session, cross country, baseball, and Jerry working every single day, we have been super busy the last few weeks! Coaching cross country has been a lot of fun this season--Renee and I have a great group of kids.

The girls on the team are especially motivated, and I love seeing them excited about running. When they run their distance laps (not speed work) the girls stay together in a pack and chat the whole time, which is exactly what I want them to do! Most of the boys still try to race each other, then get worn out and walk, and then try to climb trees or things like that.

The past couple of seasons, I was fairly passive as a coach; this year, I am not putting up with excuses. "This is cross country--not a walking club!" has been my motto, haha. The boys tend to get to a spot on the course (the path is 0.37 miles around) where Renee and I can't see them for a short distance because a hill is blocking our view, and they stop to walk or play around. Yesterday, I stood on top of the hill while they did their laps to make sure they were doing what they were supposed to (running).


Cross country and baseball practices are on the same nights--cross country is 5:30-6:30 and baseball is 6:00-8:00, so there is an overlap. Noah isn't doing cross country, so he can just walk to the baseball diamond from the track when we practice at the track; otherwise, when we practice at the park, I have to drive him (and Eli) there after cross country is over.

Our cross country meets are on Saturdays (and a couple are during the week) and the baseball games are on Sundays. It was quite the shock going from no plans in August to a full schedule! But it feels nice to stay busy.



In other news, I was offered a very cool opportunity from WebMD. I had a phone call this morning with a woman who is the content manager of a new series of blog posts called "My Experience". They are posts written by ordinary people who have experienced something unique or life changing in some way, and they share the experience from a first person view--not the usual WebMD fashion of research and facts from doctors, but real life people who have had these experiences.

Anyway, I spoke with the content manager this morning, because she asked if I would be interested in writing for the My Experience blog. After looking through the posts, I was very excited about the idea! I love reading real-life experiences from people; there was even one post about a man who was diagnosed with bipolar and it came as total shock to him. I could certainly relate to that.

She gave me some suggestions for topics, and I loved that they weren't the usual, "How I lost the weight" or other things that I am asked so frequently. It will be fun to write about something fresh! They are looking for more personal, emotional sorts of posts rather than "tips" or "how-to's". So, I'll be working on that and when it is up on their blog, I will share the link.



Jerry's birthday was yesterday, and I got him a VERY cool birthday present! I had been looking for one for months, and I tried one final time on Wednesday--and I found it. It should arrive next week, so I will tell you what it is then. He doesn't typically read my blog; but just in case, I don't want to ruin the surprise.

Meanwhile, I gave him something that he's been wanting for a while--new Rubbermaid storage containers! Hahaha. I'm not even kidding. Apparently, a guy that he works with has some storage containers that he brings his lunch in to work, and Jerry thinks they're awesome. They are pretty expensive, though, and since they aren't really a necessity right now (we have lots of containers), I didn't want to spend the money. But, considering it was his birthday, I forked over some of my allowance money to buy him three of the containers. So funny! (And so worth it, considering how excited he was.)

Look at that face--so happy!

Excitedly explaining to me why they are so great.

If you're curious, these are the ones he wanted: Rubbermaid Brilliance storage containers. (Now I wish I had checked Amazon first! They're cheaper. I don't know why I didn't think to do that.) I saw them on sale at Kroger (you had to buy each piece separately), so I picked up three of the 3.2-cup containers for (I think) $8 a piece.

He was pretty excited when he opened them, though--he said that they work really good because they don't leak at all. He likes to just throw his lunch into his bag and not have to be super careful to keep it from leaking.

"Even my soup won't leak!" he says. Hahaha

Giving him the containers reminds me of the story of the cereal storage containers he wanted for about 12 years. I could have SWORN I wrote about that on my blog, but I just searched and searched, and I guess I didn't...

Last year, for our 13-year wedding anniversary, I bought Jerry 13 gifts for 13 years. Three of them were Rubbermaid cereal storage containers, which ended up being his favorite gift. He said he always wanted those when he was a kid, but his mom never bought them. And then it became a joke between us for about a decade--whenever he'd see them somewhere, he would mention that we are deprived of  them, and I would always talk about how they're useless, because cereal can be stored in the box it comes in.

Anyway, this went on for most of our marriage, and then I finally surprised him by giving him the storage containers as one of our anniversary gifts. I felt bad I didn't do it 11 years before! It doesn't take much to make him happy (clearly) ;)



I'm excited for his real birthday gift to arrive next week--it's the best one yet!




5 comments:

  1. I totally read this post. ��
    I'm getting older each day, hats a literal statement. But you make me feel young and fun. You laugh at my silliness and my dad jokes. Here's to a million more laughs.

    Do you know how much a hipster weighs? An Instagram.

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  2. This totally reminds me of the one birthday where I was about 12 and I said I wanted a new toaster because ours had been broken for a while. I love PB toast in the morning ( to this day ) so it was a weird request by my family totally understood.

    Needless to say, a brand new white toaster was all mine that year. :D

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  3. Great idea on the gift a year! My husband is so difficult to get gifts for! I think I'm going to try and keep this in mind and get things when I see them all year long - next year is our 20th.

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  4. I bought cereal containers a few years ago when my son poured a bowl of cereal and (what I call a) thousand legger came out into the bowl. I guess I know it could've come from the factory, but I'm pretty sure it got in there in my house. Now, ALL of our cereal is in containers :-)

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  5. That is so awesome!! Holy cow I had no idea how expensive those things were. I found two of them at a yard sale this summer for a quarter each! Gold, absolute gold! Can't wait to hear what his present is. Thanks for sharing.

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