our mornings...

So, every morning since school began a month and 1/2 ago, I have walked the kids to school. OK...not every SINGLE morning, but pretty darn close. My plan was to drop them off then continue around the neighborhoods with Molly and Margaret. My friend Melissa lent us her jogger which has been a life saver! Shout out to Melissa. :) Anyhow, pretty early into my new fitness routine, we bumped into Michelle and Gavin. They decided to come walking with us. YAY! They now go with us daily except for Tuesdays and rainy days. I love it. I really do. I love Michelle anyhow, but now we have a whole hour together every morning. We can laugh, chat, even gossip if we want...which we don't. I can ask her advice on anything, and she'll give it to me. The kids are great, just don't ask about today. Maybe you were fortunate enough to pass us on the road, me carrying Margaret and Michelle carrying Gavin...mid-tantrum.

This is what Molly and Gavin like to do while we walk. OK, so this one was posed, but the first few times they did it weren't. Michelle and I were near tears from the cuteness. We stop every 20 yards or so for a blanket readjustment, water or cereal breaks, to pick up toys. Interestingly enough though...I'm losing weight. This coupled with my "no eating after 7" rule has led to 5 lbs melting away. I am by no means thin...but I'll get there. Just you wait!

Thank goodness Fridays only come once a week. Those are the days that we make a pit stop at the local gas station and come out with slushees and doughnuts. And you know how I love my doughnuts. We generally pass our friend Shennon (our skinny friend Shennon) just after we shove doughnuts in our faces. Last time, we hid all our treats under our blankets. She'll never know, right?

Sometimes we pick up extra kids along the way. Like Sophie. Sometimes we hang out in my driveway afterwards and let the kids get smeared in sidewalk chalk. It's starting to get ALMOST too cold to walk. Too cold and too dark. We'll have to make new arrangements.

This is Michelle and her baby girl. It's the best she'd let me do. :)

*On a side-note...let me just tell you that walking this morning was a triumph for me. It rained last night, and rain = worms. I had the kids do a worm check in the driveway before we left. They actually picked them up for me and put them in the grass. I can't handle them. The kids just don't get it. They try to explain that the worms won't bite. I realize that, but they WILL get stepped on and get squished into the treads of my sneakers. If that were to happen, I may accidentally bring them into my house, grind them into my carpet. Oh my word. Ew. It was totally mind over matter this morning. I tried really hard to focus on the road WAY ahead. Even then, I still caught a glimpse of quite a few. I just had to turn away really fast.Yuck. Sick. Gross. BLECH.