tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62190022024-03-13T22:48:54.397-04:00Zookeeper UnleashedLife as a reformed Zookeeper. Now living a life as a working mother who dabbles in karate, scrapbooking, and Coors Light!crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.comBlogger1460125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-23921855856113237072010-06-23T10:44:00.001-04:002010-06-23T10:44:24.846-04:00Long Time.....I can't believe how long it goes between posts these days..... that's what happens when you're busy, I suppose....My life has largely revolved around Crossfit, running, Boy/Cub Scouts, camping, karate and family right now. I am spreading myself a bit thin... this I know.Crossfit: I've been going to a boot camp class twice a week for the past ten weeks now. I have hated and loved every minute crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-32450133775630757172010-05-21T15:25:00.001-04:002010-05-21T15:25:57.316-04:00Paradigm Shift.......my life is going through a change. Over the past year, I've been slowing down on karate, which I love. The reason this is happening, is because I slowly came to realize that I wasn't seeing my kids very much. Not kissing them goodnight. Most of the classes that I go to are during their bedtime. I can't keep doing that. Pretty soon, they won't care if I tuck them in at night, and go crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-7513205130352501312010-04-08T12:07:00.001-04:002010-04-08T12:07:48.962-04:00So Close to Adulthood, Still Stuck In ChildhoodCollin never ceases to amaze me with how grown up he looks and often acts. The transformation has happened in a few short years. He's often sarcastic and wickedly funny..... yet there are times when he shows that he's definitely still a child. Case in point. This past week has been Spring Break. While many of our friends have headed for warmer destinations, we don't have the time or money tocrazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-81873563175328005752010-04-02T12:38:00.001-04:002010-04-02T12:38:49.678-04:00Cub ScoutsSo, after much deliberation and soul-searching, I took it upon myself to fill the vacancy of Cubmaster for Griffin's Pack. If you're wondering how the Cubs Scouts work, there is a den, which is five to six boys that go through the ranks of Scouts together. Then you have the pack.... that's all the dens from every age group.... typically a whole elementary school. We've had the same Cubmaster crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-21746063461762899642010-04-01T10:25:00.001-04:002010-04-01T10:25:41.908-04:00I Survived!So I survived last night's stint at the dojo with my sanity in tact. I did have help, which was good. She just got her black belt and has been an assistant instructor for a long time now, so she helped me with the things that had changed or I'd forgotten in the three years or so since I was in some of these classes. We did have only one issue that I feel a bit badly about. A brown belt crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-27955600643641879382010-03-31T10:48:00.001-04:002010-03-31T10:48:12.715-04:00Teaching Karate...Today will be the first day that I've actually led the instruction at our dojo. While I'm ok with most of it, I'm still nervous. Usually I come in to help, but my Sensei does most of the instruction, and I help. We'll see how it goes. But I'm a bit on the nervous side.crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-85531528742041786912010-03-30T11:07:00.001-04:002010-03-30T11:07:14.909-04:00Crazy Busy....We've been quite busy Chez Byers.... Between all the kids being in scouts, karate, and school, it seems there is never a night at home. Most of the time it's ok, but lately it seems to be taking its toll. I can't wait for summer to be here so that life will calm down a little. I did my second 5K run, this past weekend. My time was 34 minutes, plus, but I had to walk and jog for the last mile crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-75144899550283124272010-03-04T09:13:00.002-05:002010-03-04T09:32:28.074-05:00Hello!......yes... I'm a neglectful blogger. I've been busier now than I ever have been in my life. It's both wonderful and crazy-hectic at the same time. Here's a bullet list of things going on:I've been crocheting anything that resembles yarn right now. I've made a ton of baby hats, two sweaters, and some kiddie purses. My first sweater is something that I'll really enjoy when I'm sixty, as it crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-83522162187045157682010-01-16T06:50:00.002-05:002010-01-16T06:58:45.758-05:00Ahhh, Weekend!....this weekend shall be fun, I hope. It had a good start. Aaron made us dinner last night, so I came home and ate a bit before heading out to sparring class. It was a good class, but I always feel like it could be longer. We worked some full-contact training. Not that we did a lot of contact, but I did get to hit Gary without feeling badly about it. He told me to! Of course, I'm sure mycrazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-68014402406410121582010-01-14T14:11:00.002-05:002010-01-14T14:20:14.506-05:00Busy.......so I think that I've told the blogging world about how busy I am right now. My friend Melissa always makes fun of me, and lets me know that I really need to learn the art of saying NO. Perhaps I do. So far, I not only work outside the house full time, but I also teach karate two nights a week, take karate a few nights a week, am Griff's assistant den leader for Cub Scouts, and am the Cookiecrazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-54390063311469598702010-01-09T13:01:00.004-05:002010-01-09T13:17:27.365-05:00Here We Go Again......so in part of my absence of blogging, pretty much the entire house got sick with something or other. We'd been doing so well. Griffin got up this morning, and was much cuddlier than usual. He's definitely the only one of my kids who will just cuddle up with me on the couch and snuggle. Collin's beyond it, and Erin does NOT sit still... I wind up with either her butt or one of her gangly crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-24736032716748634702010-01-07T19:07:00.006-05:002010-01-07T19:43:35.460-05:00Mixed Emotions.......So I've had a bit of a shitty day today, and my first thought is to just say... "If you can't say anything nice...." But I will instead redirect my shitty mood to positive things....So I suppose a few holidays have happened since I last bored you with my pratter.... And Christmas means one of my favorite things--Homemade Gift Exchange with my awesome crafty girlfriends. The first pic on this crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-35892474503759145952009-12-10T17:14:00.002-05:002009-12-10T17:20:56.672-05:00oh, hello!...I'm not much of an updater right now, am I? The Facebook vortex has sucked me in... *sigh*...we're doing much of the same around my house. And most of it has been illness after illness. Collin was the last man standing, and now he's been struck with pneumonia. Poor guy. I feel pretty badly for him. ...I've still not come back 100% from being sick. And I'm damn tired of it. My endurance crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-86825212149790349772009-11-23T19:22:00.003-05:002009-11-23T19:30:42.235-05:00Monday Mumbles......not that too many people read this anyway, but I'm feeling it, so here goes the jumble in my head.....besides... Facebook's down right now. *winks*....I'm back in the saddle of trying to exercise more... It's funny how cyclical this is for me. When I wasn't feeling well, I didn't work out very much, and I totally started to feel it after a bit. Not only was I not feeling energetic crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-4518341740039947292009-11-21T17:47:00.003-05:002009-11-21T18:19:50.981-05:00Life in The Fast Lane....So it's been a busy week. It didn't turn out exactly as planned, but I think it definitely turned out the way it should. A bullet list by day, because I do love order and clean lines:Sunday: I took the kids to Sunday School while Aaron slept in. I did a few errands and then picked the kids up. I put together a crock-pot meal for them to eat while I went downtown. I went downtown to the Amazing crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-67580110749717214702009-11-14T11:12:00.002-05:002009-11-14T11:30:01.681-05:00Almost Two Weeks?...has it really been that long? I shall give you a bullet list of things that went down while I was ignoring the blog.....I've attempted, unsuccessfully, thank goodness, to hack up a lung. I'm still occasionally working on this feat, and will let you know if I prove successful at any given moment. There really does seem to be no end in sight. Griffin spent a few days off school with a fever crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-74565064950322191452009-11-04T07:35:00.004-05:002009-11-04T07:54:55.239-05:00Fun Weekend For Which I'm Paying Dearly....We had a great time over Halloween weekend. The twins went trick-or-treating with their friends, and it was really funny how it all turned out. Griffin would be the shorter of the Clone Troopers. The tall one is his friend Jon, with whom he was stoked beyond belief to go around the neighborhood with. The other girls are Claire and Kate, with whom the twins are good friends, and with whose parentscrazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-36104124074462205412009-10-31T13:15:00.005-04:002009-10-31T13:26:04.437-04:00First 5K.........I can't believe that I ran 3.1 miles today. I know that doesn't sound like a lot. BUT... when you consider my lazy ass only walked the mile in high school to pass gym class, I think that it's a success! My friend Rebecca (who goes to my dojo and will be testing for her black belt next Friday!) and I have been running together for about two or so weeks now. On a fluke, we decided to sign up crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-21972265776840533132009-10-29T22:00:00.002-04:002009-10-29T22:13:19.951-04:00Evidence Of a Really Good Time.... .... so here is evidence of our quest for trying as many kinds of beer cheese brat soup as possible during our vacation in the Wisconsin Dells. I believe this one was my favorite of the two I tried. I didn't get to try the third soup, as Erin spiked a fever on the last night of our trip, and opted to stay at the condo with me than to go out. I can't say that I blame her. We snuggled up and crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-51258674112896895242009-10-28T11:21:00.003-04:002009-10-28T11:32:28.293-04:00A Fabulous Time......so we went at the end of last week with Judy and her family to Wisconsin Dells. None of us had ever vacationed with friends before, and didn't realize just how fun it could be. How Judy and the gang put up with us for four days solid is beyond me! But we all had a blast, and found a mission that we accepted wholeheartedly.... to try every beer cheese brat soup we could. I think I tried twocrazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-83837532361530856212009-10-20T13:13:00.003-04:002009-10-20T13:28:03.771-04:00Gearing Up For Vacations!!So I can't remember if I've told the blog-world about Collin's Fall Break vacation? You see, Collin's friend Noah's family has a tradition that their grandparents take them on a vacation of their choosing when they turn 13. And, since Noah doesn't have a cousin his age, as has typically happened in their past, he got to choose a friend to take. And he chose Collin. And they're going to crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-41342855077804607452009-10-19T11:05:00.002-04:002009-10-19T11:12:30.244-04:00Finding Out What Really Matters....So I really am trying to remain positive about life right now. So I will give you a list of positive things:I'm going on vacation on Wednesday (provided no one comes down ill with something)...Erin and Griffin finished up soccer this weekend. Erin scored a goal! (Griff scored one earlier in the season by total accident...) We got to hang out with my sister-in-law and niece and parents-in-law, crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-45167886718229836002009-10-15T10:49:00.003-04:002009-10-15T13:11:33.340-04:00Things Are Looking Up........so Tuesday found me at Best Buy getting a new camera. The high irony of this is that yesterday someone said "Just look online and see if there is some way that your $125 warranty will be valid." Not expecting to find out anything positive on a warranty from a store that went out of business last year, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my warranty is, indeed valid. Of course, that also crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-600066370214963622009-10-12T10:10:00.002-04:002009-10-12T10:16:27.805-04:00Uncle!!A nice neat bullet list of the disarray that is me right now:I smashed my finger in the shower door last week...it still hurts and is black and bluea bee crawled into my soda can while I was outside watching a soccer game on Saturday, and stung me... inside the mouth... it doesn't hurt anymore, though. Bonus!my camera broke... yes, I've been wanting to get a Canon Rebel for a long time, but I crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6219002.post-79933621546338393502009-09-29T11:54:00.002-04:002009-09-29T11:59:21.927-04:00Funny, Sweet Boy......so Griffin came up to me before his bath and gave me a hug and said "Mommy, I'd never trade you for anything." Oh, my goodness, did my heart just about burst with love for this child. What an awesome thing to say to your mother. After his bath, I told him again how awesome I thought he was and how I'd never trade him, either. And he said, "Well, it was for my homework." "What?" I asked crazed lunatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10624661697543973338noreply@blogger.com1