My mind's blank.

I am having this urge to write a little post, but unfortunately, my mind's blank. I can't think of any thing good or coherent to write about. So I figure I'd just start writing. Something is bound to come out of my babbling, right?

Oh. Well, Thanks to my awesome SIL Corie, I am now the somewhat permanent-until-she-wants-it-back owner of a treadmill. That, my friends, is something I have been wanting for a long time. With Dave mostly gone from 7 to about 630-ish each day (and this past week it's been until 10), finding a time to run has proved a bit difficult. My options are to a. run severely early in the morning which I really don't need to explain why I don't wanna do it or b. run when he gets home, after dinner, after bath and after bedtime which puts us at about 9 pm. Neither option seems good to me. Now however, I can run at nap! Since both kids take a nap at 2, this works out perfectly. So thank you to Corie, I am eternally grateful.

Following the next rabbit trail...Dave is in full swing football mode. "Football Season" really is a joke of a term, it fools you into thinking that it only takes time away during the actual season, August-November. Not so, my friends, not so. Coming from this football coaches wife herself, I'd say it starts way back in June and goes until December. I think even in springtime they have optional weight lifting too. So though we've been in football mode for a long time here at the Hocker house, things have actually really begun to pick up. The first game was last week. Dave is the JV head coach, but he also has to go to the Varsity games too. So that's two very late nights a week for him (and me). It takes a lot out of him, but is one of his biggest passions in life, so it is awesome to see him come alive every week when they turn on the lights. I am so very proud of him. That being said, it's very busy for us, and our lives sorta revolve around football. So keep us in your prayers, that we keep in all in balance.

Clara's on to solid foods and lately has been favoring vegetables. She'll tolerate applesauce and bananas, but give the girl carrots, sweet potatoes or broccoli and she'll chow down. I don't get it. It's fun to move into this stage of babyhood. She's also doing everything but crawling, and is really so close to putting it all together. She'll get on all fours, go to sitting, lunge forwards, pick up her hands, you name it. But crawling is still something to be mastered. And she still has no teeth. My sweet gummy little girl.

James continues to amaze me, make me laugh, and be my little buddy. I don't mean to sound lame or anything, but I do really like hanging out with him. Lately, he's just been a pretty captivating boy. His imagination is really coming alive right now and it is funny/amusing/interesting/weird to see where it will take him. I have been having lots of those sighing momma moments where your just look back in awe at these little people who have now taken over your lives. It's sometimes just downright amazing. It's also weird for me to think that just 2 1/2 years ago I didn't know him, and now I can't imagine my life without him.

I went to California too. Which was good. Good to see family, friends, and eat In-n-Out. My brother turned 30, graduated Law School, and took the Bar. I am oh so proud of him. He's such a grownup now. It was so good to see my other SIL, Karly. I am really starting to appreciate what a awesome woman and wife she is and really enjoy and cherish the few times I get to see her. It's times like this that I wished I lived closer to those people, but I wish they didn't live in California, because I don't want to live there. Does that make sense? Anyways, I saw my good close friends from college, Traci and Melissa. Those are special too. They are the type of girls who I can go out to dinner with and have some serious talk, but later go out for frozen yogurt and take silly goofy pictures like we were back in college. They really are one in a million. I miss you girls!

(Do you notice the guy totally photo bombing our picture in the background? Nice.)
I also saw Ashley, a good friend from college who despite moving 2,000 miles away from her, has kept in good contact with me. And that's always really important to me, so I really appreciate our time over coffee to catch up. There were a lotta other stuff I dealt with family-wise, but let's just say that's personal. :)

Whew. Well, I guess my mind really wasn't blank, was it?

Somerset Stampede

I did it! I ran (without crawling) the Somerset Stampede half marathon. It ended up being quite the good race. It was on an awesome course that was half paved, half dirt and ended on horse trails. (Well, that part wasn't fun. The horse trail was very sandy, and having run 12 miles, it's hard finishing that last mile in sand). It was perfect weather, and I would dare say almost cold when I started. I ended up running it in 2 hours and 11 minutes, which I think is okay. I finished third in my age category, but don't get too excited, there were a total of four women in it. I also had the best spectators too- Dave was such a good husband and I got to see him and the kids at about 5 different spots along the run. He 'raced' around the course in the Jeep to different mile points to offer me encouragement and the occasional bite of PowerBar. He's a good one. James helped me finish the race which made it all worthwhile! I am however just looking forward to running just to run, not running in preparation for a race.

Also, my kiddos were great for the entire day, walking up early and all. Thanks kids!


Getting on the road at 5 am


Arriving at the race, 6:30 am!


At the starting line...


Getting ready to go!


Mile 6 perhaps?


All done!



Here's the video of the finish. What a good racer my little buddy is!

Now I am just left with sore knees and bloody blisters on my toes. Nice, right?

Just keep runnin'

Tomorrow is my half marathon, eek!

I'm pretty excited. My one goal: finish. Even if I am crawling on the ground, I'll finish this sucker! I'll let ya'll know how it goes...for now, I have to go to bed. I have to wake up insanely early. That is the worst part of this whole ordeal- I don't mind the running 13 miles part, I hate the waking up at 4:45 part. Maybe 5. We'll see!

Packing up Again.

This Hocker Family has been very busy this summer.

So far,

-Dave's gone on a four day golfing trip somewhere up north. I never really grasped onto the detail where it actually was.

-We went out to Estes Park, CO for two weeks. It was such a beautiful place and such a wonderful vacation. I want to go back. Nay, I want to live there. Someone find my hubby a job there!

-And today we leave for the UP (Upper Peninsula for all my non-Michigander readers) for Dave's trail marathon. The marathon is actually on a island called Grand Island and he actually just runs around the island. Yep, get up and run around an island, that's what he's gonna do. Anyways, we are going through Mackinaw on our way...bring on the fudge! I've never been, so I am super excited.

And then in the later portion of this month I am going out to California for my brother's 30th (eek! old man!) birthday and to celebrate his hopefully passing the bar. I say hopefully because this week he is taking said test, and I don't know if he's past it yet. As I recall, it's a four day test. Gross. They make you work for it if you want to be a lawyer, I guess. But I know he'll pass. At least for my sister in law's sake I hope he does! She's been quite the little trooper and law school widow these past three years and I am sure probably glad they are at the end of the road. (The first day of the bar test was even on her birthday! ) Shout out to Karly!

So that's been our summer. For the few weeks that we've been home we've done a lot of grillin', going to the library, swimmin', and if I am honest, staying in side. It's been so frickin' hot!

Also, I am highly obsessed watching the Scrubs. How did I not watch this show earlier? Too bad Dave won't watch it with me. That means I have to sneak it in at nap times or when he's at football. But I love me some JD!

"They grow up so fast..."

It's true. I find myself saying that old adage quite frequently lately, especially in respects to my daughter, who is now four month old. Seriously, where did time go? Really? Really. She's four months old. Really. She can roll over. Really?!?! It's like I have a little Seth and Amy sitting on my shoulders saying "Really?!?!" every time I think of how old she is. I just can't believe that time has gone by that fast. Here we are in June. Really?!?

All "really's" aside, I did have her four month checkup today which went pretty well. She didn't like to lay on the crunchy white paper that they make you sit on when you are at the doctor's office, and I don't blame her. She's doing perfectly well and the doctor seemed pretty impressed that she can roll over both ways (that's my girl!). I thought up to this point she was pretty tiny, but it turns out she's just average. At three months she weighed 13.5 pounds. Today we got so more specific measurements:

Height: 24 3/4 in (67% percentile)
Weight: 14 lbs 10 oz. (71% percentile)
Head Circumference: 42 8/10 cm (90% percentile)

Apparently, Dave and I make big headed babies. That just means they are gonna be smart, right? Right?!?!

And for comparisons sake, James at this time weighed 16.7 lbs and was 25.5 inches long. So he's got his sister beat in both categories. But I want my boys to be bigger, so it works out. (Sidenote: his head was also measuring in the 98% percentile, so he had quite the noggin).

So she's doing great! And I couldn't have asked for a better baby girl. I love her so!