Paint

It seems that I cannot be satisfied with one color scheme for more than 2 years, so the entire house is getting repainted (again). This time we went with very light colors (glimmer, summer mist, and baking stone). Pictures will come eventually. While the house is torn up for the color change, I am taking advantage of the chaos and reorganizing everything and sending oodles of stuff to the nearest donation center. Entertaining Jolee has been challenging during this project. Jolee is so mobile and energy charged that having one room to play in is driving her crazy. She is now regularly taking two steps before she gets back down and crawls. Time to get back to painting so that she can be free to roam again.

Randy's NAU Graduation!

Randy waiting to graduate. I absolutely loved this outfit on him! Next graduation in this little family won't be for a while. Eventually we plan to go on and get our Master's degrees, but not yet.

Eric and JoAn Ellsworth. Thanks Mom and Dad for driving down for Randy's big day. It was great to see you. We love you uber d duber amounts! As you can see, it was a tiring  day for Jolee and she napped before and during the graduation ceremony.

Sandy, Mikal, and Misty Swann. They braved the long drive and each other's constant company to celebrate with us! We are so glad each of you came. I have the best in-laws ever!!! It was super great to see and play with you. We can't wait for Sandy to move down (July 20th is the date!!!).

Here is me with my parents and Jolee. I am so proud of Randy and the hard work he has done!

Kelly and LeAnn Ryan. Super big thanks to both of you for making the very very long drive down. We love you both so much and are so glad you could be here. Thanks Mom for giving Randy such a good beginning and helping him to be the person he is!

 If you open this picture you can see Randy on the big screen during the graduation talks. I cried when Randy walked. He has worked so hard; he definitely deserved this day of celebration.

Jolee was so snugly with Randy after graduation. I think she was proud of him too! And I think she is glad to have her daddy out of school so that he can spend more time with her and spoil her all summer!

Our little family. We have changed so much since my graduation. It is so wonderful to have Jolee as a part of our family. She brings so much joy to our lives. 

Jolee looking on while Daddy and Mommy have a celebration kiss! I am so happy for Randy! It was a great day for the Swann family!

The Ryan/Swann family with Randy and Jolee. Mom looks proud too!

Thanks again to all of our family who made out of state drives to come and celebrate Randy's graduation with us!!!

Updates

It seems that we have dropped off the face of the earth. Life has been quite busy with me finishing up school and job hunting. I have done it, that is finished school. Still working the job hunting. I graduated on the seventh of May. Sarah and I spent about a week in Pine enjoying some much needed R and R. It was quite nice to do absolutely nothing. The Monday before we came home we decided to go for a walk/run. We ran as long as we could, being quite hilly we did not run as far as we had planned, then we walked. We went and walked around Camp Lamia and then walked down town and looked through the few stores that were opened on a Monday. We were surprised at how many stores were only opened Tuesday through Saturday. Our final stop was at The Honey Stand. They had so many different types of honey and jams. They had many different flavors of honey and whipped honey. They also had different types of "butters", pumpkin, apple, and even rhubarb strawberry. After trying the different flavors of honey we walked back to the cabin. After driving our most of our route, we decided that we had walked/ran about six miles. We returned to The Honey Stand and bought a pecan honey, pumpkin butter, apple butter, and a peach whipped honey. So far we have tried everything but the apple b utter and have enjoyed them all.

We are continuing to train for our half marathon. We have not been able to follow the training program as closely as we should, but we are able to get at least two runs in a week, one short and one long. Yesterday we ran nine miles in two hours. If we are able to keep that pace when we run thirteen miles we will be able to complete our marathon in about three hours. YEA!! It is getting rather hot here in Arizona so we are having to run either at first sun or at the end of the day as the sun is going down. We have discovered a bike/walking path that leads into downtown tucson and have been using that for our runs. It is more enjoyable to run along that than along the busy streets of Tucson. I am sure that we will eventually be making the complete run into downtown Tucson before our marathon.

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I think I just might go CRAZY! I am just glad that this week is winding down. This was AIMS week. Many of you may know of or remember the agony of AIMS. For me this was my first taste of how it works. Fortunately, I was on the administering end and not the testee end. What? Are laughing at me? Lets see you sit in a room filled with students that have ADD or ADHD and keep them sitting in their seats without talking to the person across the room for more than an hour. I can remember how hard that it was for me during testing time to sit for hours on end. I was lucky enough to enjoy reading and read my book when/if I finished my test before the time was up. These students despise reading. It bores them, they rather talk to the person next to them or to their friend across the room. I did make an excellent observation yesterday. I have a couple students that have done some tagging in the past so I told them to draw my name "Mr. Swann" graffiti style and I would then decide who was the best one. The room was completely silent for at least an hour. Today I asked my cooperating teacher if students could work on homework or draw once everybody in the room was finished with their AIMS. She called the site testing coordinator who thankfully gave consent as long as the test were removed from the room prior to the students working on anything else. So we handed out blank paper and some students got homework out that needed completion. I was rather amazed that they were able to keep somewhat quiet for two consecutive days, especially after sitting through the hours of testing.

More about why we run

Here is a news report on the Susan Mortensen Turley Foundation and why it was set up.



http://www.azfamily.com/video/featured-videos/Run-to-benefit-89307987.html

To donate, please click on the link on the left side of this page.

Running Along

The past few weeks have been really busy. I have been working (as usual), Randy has been doing his last half of student teaching (graduation is in 6 weeks), we drove to and from Idaho, Jolee has been teething (all four front top teeth at the same time), oh, and we have been running.  I first realized that we are making the transformation into runners when we were in Idaho. We ran 3 of the 4 days we were there. The first day, about a mile into the run, I am wondering why I am starting to get short of breath. My muscles felt fine, but I felt like I couldn't get enough air. We realized that the area we were running in was more than double the elevation of Tucson. Oh my, oh my, does elevation make a huge difference for a runner. When we got home I was quick to look up the elevation for Seattle (about 2000 feet lower than Tucson). I am assuming that lower elevation will be easier to run in, any runners out there know if I am right or not? (please, oh please say that I am). The second day was during a snow storm.

You can't really tell in these pictures, but it is starting to snow. I can't believe Randy wore shorts, crazy guy. It was one of the hardest runs ever! Harder than our first couple of runs even. I think I might have cried a little. I know I whined. We could only do about 2 1/2 miles, there was no way I was going to be able to run 3. I now have a little more of an understanding of what Rachel (our Lemonade Maker team member) is having to train in. Rachel, you are one tough cookie! The stinging snow and freezing wind just about did me in.  The third day was the easiest. First of all, no snow. Second, Sandy, my sister-in-law, drove us 3 miles away and dropped us off so that we couldn't cheat and run less than our scheduled amount. Third, it was a beautiful day. Part of our run was past Napolean Dynamite's house (from the movie). Unfortunately I wasn't in the mood to carry a camera, so no pictures. It looks a lot different now than it did in the movie (no llama, etc.).  We did take pictures at Preston High, Napolean's and Randy's high school. Back to the run. As we were running, a dog was in the road (maybe 4 or 5 cars drove by for all 3 miles). I thought the dog would attack us because we were going by its house, but the opposite happened. The dog thought that we were chasing it and ran away every time we got close. So we ended up "chasing" it for about a mile, before it got off of the road and ran behind a house to hide. Another part of the run was up a very steep hill. We didn't realize how steep until we tried to climb it. It was difficult to even walk up it. I guess it is good training for Seattle.

Jolee snuggled with GrammS while Mom and Dad ran.

I am so glad that we are back in Tucson and training here. Idaho was 2 weeks ago. Last week was our first 4 mile run. For about 2-3 weeks, the couch to half training program has been having us run 3 mile runs. Sneaky. The 4th mile is so much easier than the 2nd and 3rd mile. I actually have been able to sprint the last 1/4th of a mile. From 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 miles is the hardest time for me. Once I get into the groove though, it is like I am flying.  I have learned to love to run!

We just got back from our first 5 mile run. Wow, I am just amazed at the progress that we have made since we first really started training in January. We did the run without walking at all! We are still slow with an average of 12-13 minute mile, but our distance is really improving. Today's run was really pleasant. We left just before dusk and so we got to enjoy the sunset (so beautiful) and we watched the moon come up. My favorite part was the smell of orange blossoms perfuming the air. We are really becoming runners, which I honestly thought was near impossible.

Ellsworth Grandparents Come for a Visit

We were so blessed to have Jolee's Grandpa and GrammE come all the way to Tucson to visit. They came in Sunday morning and went to church with us. Here is Grandpa lying on the floor. I gave him a back rub, and Jolee came to help. She looks so cute in her dress from Aunt Emily.

Grandpa loves his Jolee girl! She even got to be called "pumpkin," which is what Daddy called me as a little girl. Not spoiled at all, well maybe a little :)

Jolee had fun talking to everyone. She can be surprizindly loud for such a little person.

Yes, we are still running (more on that later, yes another dog and running story). Anyways, Randy and I took GrammE running with us Monday morning while Grandpa had the task of snuggling Jolee at home. They are so cute together. GrammE is training for her 1st mini-triathalon (not bad for someone who has already past her 25th anniversary of her 25th birthday), so she was a willing running partner. We ran 3 miles at about a 11 minute mile. Way to go all 3 of us. Here are GrammE, Mom, and Jolee.

My big plans for the day included going and getting a family pictures done, which didn't work out, bummer, so I had to just settle for pictures using my camera.

We then headed to the Pima Air and Space Museum. Grandpa is a huge airplane fan and he could tell us more about the planes than any of the signs did. Grandpa even flew in a plane (well kinda).

GrammE and Mom showed that they are actually weird enough to come from outer space.

Jolee enjoyed the trip because most of it was outside and she got to ride in her stroller.

By the end though she had had enough of the stroller and was ready for some good snuggle time with Daddy.

Thank-you Grandpa and GrammE for making the trip down to see us! We love you!

Grr

Stupid computer is acting slow! Grrrr! I just got a bunch of pictures on and it deleted them all. I am working on it. I might get some on, I might not, but I will try again.

I'm Done!!

Jolee loves to take a bath. We try to giver a bath each night, but it does not always work. She usually does not want to get out and screams and screams if you do take her out. I was giving her a bath last night, she was in there for maybe 5 minutes and then grabs the side of the tub, stands up, and starts to holler, "I'm done, I'm done, I'm done." I told her that she was not done, after all I had not actually bathed her yet. I had let her play first so that she did not try to drink the soapy, dirty water from the tub. Jolee proceeds to grab my arm, lift her leg on to the edge of the tub and kind of rolled the rest of the way out right into my lap. I guess she really was done! I put her back in the tub and quickly scrubbed her down before taking her out for good.

On Saturday night, Jolee was having so much fun in the tub. She grabbed the cup that we use to wet and rinse her head off. Filled it full of water and then held it over the edge. Just as she was about to let go, I grabbed it and put it back in the tub. She attempted to do this two or three times before I decided that she was done and quickly scrubbed her down. She actually screamed that night when I took her out.

Jolee Shorts (short stories that is)

Layout as follows: Picture and then story.

First up is ladybug pjs. Sears was having a super sale on kids clothing so we headed over and started to search through the clothing. We found the cutest ladybug pjs so we put them in the cart and continued looking, only to find another super cute ladybug pjs, but this one had little antenna on the ladybugs on the feet. I thought we had put one back, only to find out that Jolee now has two almost identical ladybug pjs. So if you see Jolee wearing what looks like the same outfit back to back, she isn't, the feet are different.

Early morning running is not the most fun thing to do, but it forces us run that day. So lately we have been getting up at 4:45am and running. Jolee generally sleeps through the entire run while riding in her stroller. After Randy and I run, Randy heads home to get ready for school, while Jolee and I walk with my friend, Aubrey. Here she is all bundled up after we got home. Oh and by the way, training is going well. We have had some set back with Randy and then Jolee being sick, but we are back to daily running. Actually, I need to hurry and finish typing so we can go run now.

So, onto our next story. Poor Jolee caught Randy's cold and ended up with a nasty cold and double ear infections. She is on antibiotics and is slowly starting to feel better. She is still super snuggly and wants lots of Mommy time, good thing I have been home the last few days. Oh and Randy ended up with double ear infections too and he is also on antibiotics.

Being a big girl. Jolee has decided that since she is now just three months away from her year mark (yikes it has gone by so quickly), that it is time for her to be allowed to help with whatever she wants. Lately, her goal is to help Mommy empty the dryer. Although most of the cloths end up on the floor is Jolee helps, I still love her wanting to be around me where ever I go and her non-stop curiosity.

There isn't really a story with this one, I just think she cute.

Peek-a-boo. Clearly Jolee has mastered the art of peek-a-boo. She will play this game over and over and over again. She especially loves it when she really "scares" Mommy. Her giggling is contangious and we usually end up playing for a half an hour before it is time for a new game. Also, this is her favorite game to play in the car on the way home from church. It definately helps when all she wants to do is get out of her car seat.

Real bananas. Jolee is starting to eat some real food instead of just baby food. Her favorite so far is bananas. If I am eating a banana, I have to hid if I don't want to share or Jolee will climb all over me to get a bite or two.

I made this play dress for Jolee one day because I was bored. It is from the legs of an old pair of capris. Not too bad for a quick sew job. I still need to hem the bottom and the sleeves, but I am nearly done.

We have learned that if we need Jolee distracted for a few minutes, a flashlight is the perfect tool. Not only does it glow, but it tastes good too!

Randy and I are book-a-holics. We love books. Our newest way to feed our addiction is to go to the Friends of the Library book sales. Since these sales, we have accumplated too many books for our bookcases to hold. We searched online and found and bought a pair of 7x3 foot bookcases. In thiis picture, Jolee is "guarding" a pile of books while we take out the old bookcases and put in the new. We really like the new bookcases. In fact, we have a few empty shelves that are just begging us to go to another sale and fill them.

 Looking cute for church: Pebbles hairstyle. Jolee's hair is longest right on the top of her head and I have been trying brush it and put clips in it, but she always seems to make a mess of her hair. So with the help of a baby pinner (Randy), I was able to have Jolee sit still enough for her little pony tail. Ohhh so cute!