Follow Your Instincts

We had terrible storms in our area today. Strong winds...heavy flooding...just a lot of bad weather mojo out there. Anastasia's school was set to let out smack in the middle of the rain. My gut told me to go get her early. It was just about an hour early, but what a difference an hour makes. When we picked her up it was hardly raining despite some pretty ominous clouds rolling through.

Then, right about the time of school dismissal....our yard looked like this.

It rained and rained and rained. I'm so glad I scooped her up early so we didn't have to be out driving around in it!

Drive-In Theatre

Why bother sitting on a comfy sofa or in the lap of your sisters when you can watch TV from your very own car?

Bicycle Babes

Once again we have been blessed with a beautiful spring weekend. Sunshine, blue skies...warm breezes floating my curtains out from open windows. Truly a blessed weekend indeed. During my 12-mile run yesterday I had plenty of time for thinking and I thought that it was high time my girls learned to ride a bike without training wheels. They are both surely old enough for it, but like so many other things in life, it's been easier to say, "Oh we'll get to that eventually."

After lunch we grabbed the bike and helmet and headed for the greenway. Jamie did all the teaching. I will take no credit for that. He ran back and forth with each of them. Anastasia managed to get going without training wheels!

It wasn't for a mile or anything, but the important thing is she conquered her fear and did it!

Ainsley wasn't able to ride solo just yet, but she too conquered her "I can't!" demons and gave it a good try.

Allie and I watched it all from the shade. She threw rocks and sticks and dreamed of the day when she too can ride a bike. Just another wonderful Saturday at our house.....

Full Moon

Perhaps Allie's fall knocked something loose. Or perhaps it just augmented her already mischievous personality. Yesterday afternoon I put her down for a nap and then played some games with her sisters. As I left for work, I decided to peek through the crack in the door and make sure she was resting.

Resting she was not...for all I saw when I looked in her room...was butt cheeks. She was standing in her crib with nothing but her Mickey Mouse t-shirt on. Her diaper had been folded up (wet side in no less!) and tucked between the crib slats and the bumper. Her pants were on the floor. What am I going to do with her?

This is a picture from yesterday (pre-stripping) when we went to the mall to run around for a while.

End of an Era

For the last five years, Ainsley has received a book in the mail every month. It's thanks to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, a literacy program that gives every child in our county (and others around the nation) one book a month, every month from birth to age five. Well recently, Ainsley turned five...which means....she got her last Imagination Library book in the mail. "Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come!"

I didn't cry too much. Fortunately for me...Allie still has three and a half years of books ahead.

A Bumpy Ride

It's been a long day. It's just after nine and I'm ready for bed. We spent most of the day at the ER after Allie fell out of our bed and bumped her head on the hardwood floor. Right after she fell she threw up everywhere. I started calling the pediatrician's office, but they had just opened so I couldn't get through for about 15 minutes. They said since Allie was acting like herself and had only gotten sick the once we could just monitor her from home.

She did fine all morning but got sick again during lunch. I called the doctor back and they instructed us to go to Children's Hospital. Jamie met us there. It was PACKED. We waited for three hours before we saw a doctor. Jamie and Ainsley had to leave after about two hours to go pick up Anastasia.

Finally we got to go back to a room and the doctor saw us quickly.

She spent a lot of time assessing Allie. She had great bedside manner and was very thorough. She said that they used to CT every kind of injury like this. But now they know the risks of that level of radiation, especially on someone so small. She said that after her exam she didn't feel like the benefits of the scan outweighed the risks. She gave Allie some crackers since she hadn't eaten when she got sick around noon. After a while, the doctor came back in and said we were free to go home. She gave us some specific things to look for in case Allie worsens overnight. Right now the patient is sleeping and hopefully I will be soon.

Wordless Wednesday

First Grade Field Trip

Have I mentioned how much I love my new schedule? If not, this is me mentioning it: "I love my new schedule." Today Anastasia's class had a field trip. I was able to go with them without taking any vacation time. I love it!

We went to the beautiful Clayton Center for the Arts and saw "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale."

We had such a nice time. I forgot how much fun live theater is. It was such a fun little play!

Anastasia had a good time and so did her classmates. I can't wait for the next field trip!

Privacy Please

I've created a monster.

She may not look like a monster, but trust me, she will haunt your dreams tonight. She is a potty monster. I got out Allie's training potty on Monday. Now all she wants to do is sit on it. She's yet to do anything in it and I know it will be quite some time before she is potty trained, but she's been showing signs of being ready to start. We had to shut the bathroom door to keep her from hanging out in there all day. She sat against the closed door and sobbed. I can't stand to hear my kids cry, especially not the baby so I relented and opened the door. Maybe I should get her a magazine rack or something so she can keep herself entertained while she sits there.

Puppet Pals

Allie isn't a big fan of naps. She's too afraid she'll miss out on something. If I can actually get her to fall asleep...we're golden. She'll sleep for hours. It's just that whole "getting her to sleep" part that takes some work.

Last week I put her down for a nap. After 45 minutes it became obvious she wasn't going to sleep. I went in to get her. Look closely....at her hand....

Yup, that's a sock on her hand. She's taken to doing that these days. I think she's putting on puppet shows to avoid taking a snooze.

Meetings and Partings

"Life is made up of meetings and partings. That is the way of it." -The Muppets Christmas Carol

It may seem strange to quote the Muppets in a post about death and grief but those little furry puppets are on to something. Kermit the Frog says that line to his family after Tiny Tim dies in Scrooge's vision of Christmas Yet to Come.

I thought of that quote yesterday as I left the funeral of John Morris. He was a long-time family friend that died last week at the age of 27. It was sudden and unexpected which always seems to make partings worse. His funeral was held at our church and his casket rested just 10 feet from where we baptized Allie, by two of the same ministers participating in the funeral. That juxtaposition compounded my grief at a young man who will not grow to have a family of his own. Dad did the funeral and remembered John well. He was the youngest of four boys. I remember going often to their house while our fathers were penning a family hiking book. Their household was so different than ours. Football equipment was laying around haphazardly and dogs barked upon our arrival. We did canon balls in their pool. We grilled out. We cheered John and his brothers on as they played football for our middle school and then high school. But now the young man with beautiful eyes (as my father eulogized him) and a kind spirit is gone. We have parted with John for now, but I take great comfort in knowing we will meet again.

These daffodils were blooming in our yard yesterday when I got home from the funeral. A good reminder that winter's grip is relaxing and the resurrection of spring is on the horizon.

First Sleepover

That's my beautiful little (or not-so-little these days) firstborn child. She went to her first sleepover last night. She's hosted a sleepover before but has never done it on her own. At least not at a friend's house. She's stayed with family without us many times, but this is a big step.

I resisted the urge to remind her what to do in case she hears a smoke alarm in the middle of the night. I didn't remind her to use her best manners or buckle her seat belt. She'll be fine. It's me that had a hard time. This sleepover comes at the end of a long week that has left me emotionally fragile. Bad news about the health of a close friend combined with the death of a long-time family friend have taken their toll. Your instinct after events like this is to grab on to those closest to you and hold on for dear life. But instead, last night I did the opposite and let go. And I can't wait to hear all about it when she gets home.

Why I'll Never Run at Boston (and Why I'm OK with that)

This week the Boston Marathon announced new qualifying times that will go into effect next year. Currently I would have to complete a marathon in 3:40:59 or less in order to qualify for Boston. And starting in 2012 that qualifying time drops to 3:35:00. Unlike previous years, an additional 59 seconds will NOT be accepted for each age group time standard. As anyone who has run a race knows, every second counts so the fact that they are dropping those extra :59 is notable.

And while these new guidelines put Boston even further out of my reach, I'm actually OK with that. My PR is a 4:23:43, a number that I'm hoping to improve on April 3 in Knoxville. But even with an improvement, I'm never gonna see 3:35:00. Running is something I love, something that keeps me active and healthy. Running reduces my stress and makes me happy. But running isn't my life. It's a part of it. If I could run full-time, meaning - if running was my job - I'm sure I could chip away at my PR and make it to 'ol Beantown for that race. But running isn't my job. It's just one of the many parts of my life that make me who I am.

Not a Box

One of my favorite books for wee ones is called "Not A Box." It's about a little bunny who uses a cardboard box to do amazing things. I thought of it when Allie crawled in a box in the kitchen this week.

I'm not sure where she and Minnie Mouse were going, but they were having a heck of a time.

That definitely is not a box.....

February Picnic

Today is February 17 and my children played outside in their bare feet.

See? No shoes for us today. It is 73* this afternoon! Ainsley, Allie and I spent over an hour in the back yard around lunchtime. Allie ate her lunch at the picnic table while Ainsley played in the sandbox.

When Anastasia gets home we plan to spend more time outside.

This weather is too pretty to waste inside. Our windows have been flung open to let in the breeze. Winter will no doubt yank the rug out from under us in the not-too-distant future so we're going to soak up the sun while we can.

Wordless Wednesday

The Volunteer State

Anastasia had a project due this week about the state of Tennessee. She had to have the flag, state bird, state flower and state tree represented. In addition, she had to have two fun facts about our state and list two famous Tennesseans.

She worked so hard on the project and her teacher was thrilled with it!

Marathon Gives Back

Running a marathon in January can be a chilly prospect. We had good weather in Orlando this year, but it was still chilly at the start. I began both races dressed in more clothes than you see pictured above. But rather than carry those clothes with me when it was time to shed them...I tossed them along the side of the race course. Wasteful? Some might say yes, especially if they saw how nice the pants were that I chucked on Marathon Sunday. But the cool part is....those clothes aren't trashed. They are re-gifted. It's nice to know Disney goes the extra mile to collect all those clothes (25,000+ runner=a lot of discarded clothes) and make sure they fall into the right hands. You can read about where my clothes ended up here. Neato!

Boxes of Books

Gran and Pop arrived over the weekend with two huge boxes full of books. Gran did offer a courtesy phone call to make sure it was all right to bring so many in one trip. The majority of them are the Disney books Jamie had when he was a small boy. With Allie SO into Mickey Mouse, she felt this would be a great time to share the books with us.

While Allie has been excited to spot her favorite Mouse amongst the titles, it is her sisters who seem the most excited about the new arrivals on our bookshelves. This is the "path of books" they spread out on their floor Saturday morning. Looks like we can skip the library for a little while....

Let's Go Fly A Kite

We are being blessed with some pretty incredible weather for February. Sunday turned out to be even warmer than Saturday. There was also a wonderful breeze. And anytime there is a breath of wind, our girls beg to fly kites. Yesterday was no different. Jamie spent a good hour and a half (slight exaggeration) untangling the kites in the garage before we set out for the greenway. There is a huge open field that is one of the best kite-flying spots around.

It was such a warm, sunny afternoon. I can think of no place else I'd rather have been.

While it was quite windy, it wasn't the good steady wind required for kite flying. We promised the girls we would pack the kites on our beach trip. I told them that if the Outer Banks were good enough for Orville and Wilbur and their plane....surely it would suffice for our kites.

Sunshine Day

Maybe that Groundhog was right after all. Maybe winter really is on its way out. We had a wonderful visit with Gran and Pop this weekend that included lots of outside time on Saturday. The girls even managed to climb (with the help of Pop and Daddy) the dogwood in our yard.

Allie wasn't climbing trees just yet but I give her another few weeks until she figures it out.

It was a beautiful day and a good reminder that winter cannot last forever!

Saturday Sweets

We stopped by the South's Finest Chocolate Factory yesterday while we were downtown. I had really wanted some chocolate covered strawberries, but since they are so perishable they only make them on Feb. 13th and 14th. So today...I decided to make my own.

Not too shabby! They were easy to make and tasted SO good.

Field Trip Friday

Anastasia had the day off from school so we decided to take a field trip today. We loaded up, stopped to pick up Aunt Anna and then hit the Knoxville Museum of Art. It has free admission, which is AWESOME and perfect for a morning of fun. We hit the kids area first and spotted an amazing color wheel, which Anastasia has been learning about in art class.

The girls spent some time creating their own art before we headed upstairs to look at some of the galleries.

We really had a great time and learned a lot about paintings and the collections our museum houses.

After we left the museum we walked to the Sunsphere and rode up to the observation level. Its always fun to see the city from that vantage point. The kids enjoyed picking out our church and the stadium. They even managed to spot our van parked over by the museum!

It was a fun morning. We can't wait to go back once the weather warms up so we can play on the playgrounds!

Bath Crayons

Allie really enjoys bath time. In fact, "bath" was one of the first words she learned in sign language. I recently bought some bath crayons at Target. It took bath time up a few notches for Allie.

Her sisters love them too especially because they can write on Allie.

Allie just can't get enough.

"I LOVE these crayons!"

Wordless Wednesday

Vacation Countdown

The countdown to Vacation 2011 is on! After looking at no less than 4, 324 beach houses I was able to narrow the search to three houses. I sent the links to Jamie and together we picked the perfect one.

We're heading back to the Outer Banks. It's one of my favorite places and I can't wait to share that with the girls. We haven't been since 2008 and I've been missing its beaches and spectacular sites.

The beach house has bunk beds and a hot tub....so everyone in our family is happy! Now all we have to do is survive the winter!

Bunk Mates?

I always tuck the girls in each night after work and give them one last kiss even though they're sound asleep. Last night Anastasia rolled over and opened her eyes when I said goodnight. She had the sweetest smile on her face and she said, "I didn't know you slept up here with me!" I just patted her head and she went back to sleep. This morning I asked her if she remembered saying that and she said," Yeah, I really thought you were sleeping up there with me."

Bad to the Bone

Jamie has never been a shopper but recently we were at Babies R Us buying Allie's new stroller and he saw something he just had to have.

It's a skull-and-crossbones jacket for Allie. She adores it. As in, it has to be worn each time she spots it in the closet. And don't think she's not aware of who got it for her. I put it on her the other day and she said "Daddy coat." Yup, she knows which side her bread is buttered on and she plans to use that to her advantage for the rest of her life. Or at least until she gets the prom dress she wants.

Finally Furniture

After almost ten years of marriage, Jamie and I finally bought our first living room set. The company called to say our delivery window was 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Saturday so we joked that it would be delivered at 1:45 p.m. Imagine our surprise when it showed up 5 minutes early! I may or may not have squealed like a little kid.

We got a sofa, loveseat, two end tables, a TV stand (not pictured), two lamps and a coffee table. With our third child being....adventurous...we opted to leave the coffee table in the garage for now.

I'm so happy with how the room turned out. I bought some pillows on Saturday to complete the look.

I just can't believe we finally have real, grown-up living room set!

Pig in a Teacup

Ainsley had a great birthday this week. She got the beloved Teacup Piggy which made all of her wishes come true. I'm not sure why she was so obsessed with it, but it made her little five-year-old heart happy. Aunt Anna and Uncle Chris had to scour the state to find one when out Toys R Us stores were out of them.

She also got some cute new clothes.

And binoclears. I know that's not how you spell it, but that's how she says it.

It was a fun week celebrating with her. She will be able to continue the party next weekend when her Gran and Pop come!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Ainsley!

Happy Birthday Ainsley! We can't believe you're five today. We absolutely cannot wait for our next five years with you. If they are anything like your first five years...we have some wonderful adventures ahead!