Under His Wings You Will Find Refuge

Allie has some really awesome Sunday School teachers. I mean, they show up week after week with an  undimmed enthusiasm for containing/entertaining quite a few two-year-olds for at least an hour. They're awesome!

This week their lesson had a bird theme that Allie definitely enjoyed.















In addition to the cute plate art that now hangs in our kitchen, they also made something special for God's feathery friends.

It's full of yarn and strings and leftover Easter grass. We hung it in the tree outside the kitchen so that the birds can use it to make their nests. What a fun project and a way to reach our youngest Sunday Schoolers!

Elvis Has Left The Marathon

I forgot to say that even Elvis ran yesterday. I always knew he wasn't really dead.

Country Music Marathon Weekend: Race Report

I did not have the weekend I planned to have at the Nashville Marathon. I will admit that Nashville had me mentally intimidated long before I ever set foot in the city. I was mad about having to give up a marathon in my hometown, but I signed up anyway because I wanted a spring marathon. 

I picked up Anna in Chattanooga on Friday afternoon and we drove to Nashville. Her navigational prowess in Music City is second to none. Traffic was awful, as you can imagine when more than 28 thousand runners converge in a single spot. How we managed to get my race number and packet stuff picked up is beyond me. I had a mini meltdown, but Anna led the way and we got out of downtown as fast as we could. 

I slept great Friday night. Despite having been up for more than 20 hours on Friday, I really did feel rested. My amazing support team of Anna and my friend Sarah, who we stayed with, covered me in sunscreen and plied me with water and pep-talks. Thanks again to being with two ladies who know Nashville quite well, they dropped me as close to the start as was humanly possible. I walked around a bit to loosen my legs and then spent about 25 minutes in line for a porta-potty. The wait didn't really matter since I was in line right next to the starting corrals. 

I was slated to be in corral 12, but I managed to move up to corral 7. Unlike the Disney Marathon, no one was checking our bibs to make sure we were in the right one. I guess it was cheating, but since the race is chip timed, it really doesn't matter. I had just hoped to get a few more minutes of running in before it got too hot. 

I was pretty critical of this race. I paid a lot of money to run and didn't feel like I got what I paid for. The start was unexceptional. A so-so national anthem followed by a gun start that was very anti-climactic. 

The sun was on us almost immediately. The race doesn't start until 7 a.m. central time so the sun was well above the horizon and ready for battle. I was sweating profusely almost immediately. I always get warm when I run, it just never happens that fast. I'm not sure what the humidity was, but it had to be up there. I somehow missed the first mile marker which is not surprising considering the amount of people on the street. I hated not knowing exactly where I was.

The big selling point on this race is "A Band Every Mile." There were bands, but to be honest, they weren't that great. Spectator support was AMAZING though. They had funny signs (Worst. Parade. Ever. and "Do Epic Sh*t") and shouts of encouragement. Right around mile 4 I unexpectedly got to see my own support team!

That was a huge boost! We ran through the Belmont area which had some beautiful neighborhoods. All of the residents were out...some with suits and champagne...and some with garden hoses. I had to walk starting around mile 8. That's pretty unusual. I can usually go 12-14 miles without having to walk. It was just so hot and hilly. I was sucking wind pretty badly. I had to make the decision to switch to the half around mile 11. That's where the marathoners split off. The thought of being out in the heat and running/walking for two and a half more hours (or longer!) was completely overwhelming. People were being loaded into ambulances left and right. I saw runners on the sidewalk being attended to by medical personnel and this was only two hours into the morning! I was ashamed and embarrassed and let my shirt fall down and cover my running number. I was so out of it during the last mile. I couldn't even run the whole thing. 

If you are ever a marathon spectator...PLEASE do not offer course information to the runners. "You're almost there" and "This is the last hill!" sound like great things to shout, but if they are not true, they can be really demoralizing to runners, especially ones like me who aren't familiar with the course. 

I topped the hill before the bridge and did have enough steam to power across the river and down to the finish. I was wheezing pretty badly and I had a medic on my arm almost instantly. He held on to me until I had gotten my water and my ice towel. My breathing had evened out so he was satisfied I wasn't going to expire on the spot. 

I wove my way through the crowd to get a little bit of post-race food and then went to my designated meeting spot. Sarah and Anna had planned on me doing the half, but I knew the finish line would send them a text message saying I was done. Then I borrowed a cell phone from a complete stranger and called them. They were already on their way to find me. 

So the race is over and I learned a lot. I now have a new marathon rule. No Marathons between April 1 and October 1. At least not in the south. I'm very grateful for the support of my race team as well as all the support I received on Facebook and via text message. I feel kind of defeated and want to retreat to a cave and nurse my wounds. But I know that after a day of rest today, I'll be back out there running tomorrow.

April Book Update #3

I just finished my latest book. I opted for non-fiction this time. Partly because reading should not just be about escaping the world we live in to a place of imagination, but it should also be about enriching the knowledge we have of the real world. I also opted for non-fiction because my sister let me borrow the book and had been harassing me about actually reading it.

It's called Breach of Faith and is written by a newspaper reporter from New Orleans. It chronicles the events leading up to and following Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005. I vividly remember watching those events unfold on television here at home and at work. Bus loads of refugees showed up in our towns and we rushed to secure cots, food, and bottled water to ease their burden.

So yes, I knew the story of Katrina, or at the very least thought I did. Then I read Breach of Faith and realized I had absolutely no idea what had gone on in the Crescent City when that storm blew through. The writer interviewed dozens upon dozens of people to put together the book. Their stories are told throughout, tied together with the common thread of Katrina.

America knew this disaster happened. America could flip on CNN and see people being plucked from rooftops and waving their fists in the SuperDome at the help that was, ultimately, too little too late. Reading this book horrified me. It disgusted me that such atrocities were allowed to happen in my country in this new millennium. We have a tendency to relegate the awful disaster responses to third-world countries with corrupt governments and aging infrastructures. Places like Haiti. But the reality of it is, it happened here - and it begs the question not if it will happen again, but rather when and where. Could those things happen here if my community was faced with an epic natural or even man-made disaster?

The book explored everything from race to the levee failings. It looked at the science and sociology that played into the flooding of the city. But the stories of the people who were there, the ones who really lived (and died as the case may be) through Katrina kept my rapt attention. I cried at the end of the chapter about Charity hospital. Hundreds of staff and patients were trapped their, many in critical care before help finally came.

This was not a "feel-good" book. It was certainly not fun to read, but one I am glad I did. It's the story of a great American city that almost didn't survive. It's a story many of us would like to forget now that the beignets are cooking once again and the Mardis Gras parades are rolling back down Canal Street. But it's a story worth repeating and worth learning from.

A New Ride

Since May 2005 (when I was pregnant with Ainsley) our family's main vehicle has been a silver minivan. It has served us well, racking up more than 130K miles in its time with our clan. To give you an idea of its age, it came equipped with a VHS player. No, I did not mis-type. It came with a huge middle console that was home to an actual VHS player. In those early days, we used it a lot. And then at some point we joined the rest of the 21st century and routed a portable DVD player through the screen. Eventually though the screen quit working.

Last week as I sat in the car rider line at school, smoke began to pour out from under the hood. After a few days at the shop (and one botched repair attempt) it came to our attention that the van was no longer going to be our primary means of transportation.

We knew it wasn't going to be with us forever. Although we were sincerely hoping it would limp along to the end of the year. But the used car gods deemed it not so and thusly we spent our weekend procuring a new vehicle. We had done research in the past so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted/needed. We opted to shop at CarMax and we were not disappointed. It was a very painless (well..except for having to plunk down money on a vehicle we hadn't planned on buying) process.

We ended up purchasing a Saturn Vue. It's smaller than our van, but bigger than some of the sedans we looked at.

So now we have begun to make new memories with our new car. It will carry us to school, to work, and on vacations. It will take us to ballet practices and to the mountains. Hopefully we can be a little more kind to it than we were to our van....fewer Cheerios in its crevices and less grass clippings on its floorboards. But those are the trappings of live with a family of five and all those Cheerios, grass clipping, glitter, bits of paper, rocks and ordinary detritus will serve as the glue for our memories of our family's first car and all the wonderful places it took us.

P.S. If you see me wandering confused around a parking lot, please roll down your window and remind me that my car is now red, and not silver....

The Joke's On You

Ainsley: "What do you get when a dinosaur walks through a corn field?"
Me: "I don't know."
Ainsley: "Squash..."
Me: "Ha...that's pretty funny."
Ainsley: "Uh, wait...that's not right."
Me: Awaiting actual punchline....
Ainsley: "Oh I remember...CREAMED CORN. Hahahahaha."

April Book Update #2

After a disastrous March, I have finally gotten my reading back on track. I polished off my latest book in just over 24 hours. "This is Where I Leave You" by Jonathan Tropper was suggested by a coworker when I was looking for some new reads earlier in the year.

It was such a quick read and I really enjoyed it. The book spans one week as a family sits "shiva" following the death of their husband/father. It's a book about family and all the dysfunction that most of us have to deal with. It deals with the complicated relationships we have with our parents, siblings, and spouses. It's full of strong language (read: lots of "f" words) so if that sort of thing turns you off, then steer clear of this book. But I hope you'll give it a shot because it's a beautiful story that will make you laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page. Definitely one of the better books I've read so far in 2012.

Marathon Countdown

My next marathon is just about a week away. I must confess to being more nervous about this race than any other. It's in a city I am unfamiliar with so I'm stressed about packet pick-up and race day parking. I have no clue what the course is like. I'm worried about the weather being too warm and am honestly prepared to drop back to the half marathon if temperatures look to be in the 80's. I received my corral assignment and am not too pleased with that either. I'm told that I can move up to an earlier corral, but I don't know for sure.

But I've been training since January and I want to run next weekend. I am in good shape and am physically prepared for it, but clearly my mental training is lacking. I was going to share the tracking information so you could follow me online, but they CHARGE for that. Seriously? They charge people for that? Considering how much I am paying to run, the least they could do is send out some text alerts on my behalf.

While I am uneasy about a marathon in a new place, I'm not uneasy about the 26.2 miles. That part I know. I know what it's going to feel like at mile 20. I know how to eat and how to hydrate along the way. I know the stretch to do if my IT band flares up again. And that will have to be enough.


"The miracle isn't that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start."
-John Bingham


Photo Courtesy of Hope Photography.

April Book Update #1: Slacker Edition

I had a really good start on this whole reading thing in 2012. And then March happened. My grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and my kids were home on spring break for about 16 days. I was lucky to get dinner on the table, let alone read a book. Only yesterday did I finally finish a book I started last month.

It's a historical account of the Pilgrims coming to America. I enjoyed the book...for about 200 pages. Then I got really bogged down. I pretty much skimmed the last 75 pages or so. I knew that the account of the Pilgrims that we learn in elementary school is pretty inaccurate so I enjoyed learning the "real" story. I've never been a big fan of that time period, but I learned so much about that first winter and the settlers relationship with the natives already living in New England at the time.

The book includes photographs of actual Pilgrim artifacts as well as plenty of maps to show what the area looked like in the 1600's. I love a good map, so it helped me visualize where the Pilgrims set up their towns and where they lived in relation to the indians. Anyway....I finally finished it and picked up my next book. I must confess that it is a quick read and I've already blasted through more than 100 pages. Here's to actually reading more than one book this month!

Wordless Wednesday

Alex, I'll Take "Things Not to Tell the Doctor for $400" Please

I want to say up front that I hate those backyard trampolines. I know they're SO much fun if you're a kid, but from a safety standpoint and a turning my kids filthy standpoint...I don't really care for them.

That being said, when the girls begged to jump with the neighbors on their trampoline on Sunday, I relented. They needed a bath anyway, so who cares if they were completely covered in black? Plus, it was a LOVELY day and who was I to spoil their fun?

Everything was fine until Anastasia jumped and landed wrong on her ankle. It was so swollen Sunday night and looked even worse come Monday morning. So we spent the majority of yesterday at the doctor.

We saw one of my favorite physicians. He's been treating our kids since the day Anastasia was born. Yesterday he told her that he knew trampolines were fun, but they weren't really for two kids to jump on at the same time. "Oh there weren't two of us, Dr. T." Anastasia chimed in. "All four kids were jumping at the same time!" At this point I shot her a dirty look that said "Shut up before you make this worse!"

We had her ankle x-rayed and fortunately, there were no breaks or fractures. So for now it's just rest and ice. And no ballet or gym for at least a week.

Crime and Punishment

I just got home from a marathon day only to discover our beloved (read: stupid) cat had puked on the carpet...again. But this time I didn't even have to scold her. Allie did it for me.

"Hewen, dat is SO gross! Go time out right now!"

Photo by Anastasia

Summer Camp Round Up

Summer vacation is just about 6 weeks away. So this week, I've been working hard to round up all the information on local summer camps that I can find. I want my girls to have time to relax and goof off this summer, but I also want them to try new things, make new friends, and get messy!

In true me fashion, I made a spreadsheet with all our summer plans on it. I included our vacation and our week at VBS. Once I had those recorded, I added all the camps the girls would be eligible for. Last year Ainsley did an awesome ballet camp. Unfortunately that camp is being held while we are out of town this year, so Ainsley's looking for another fun activity. She's considering camp at the zoo or even the art museum. (Which is what Anastasia did last year.) Anastasia is leaning towards a drama camp where the kids learn acting techniques and then perform a show on the last day.

Both of my girls have expressed great interest in the summer track and field program. I must say that it makes this running mama's heart glad to hear her kids so excited about track and field. Plus...that camp is cheap...and it's in the evenings which makes logistics SO much easier. No matter what they choose, I know they'll have a good summer. And if you're interested in hanging out with my kids this summer, give me a heads up so I can check our spreadsheet to see if we're free.

We're at it Again

The thing about doing a major home renovation is that when you're finished, you see the rest of your house through a different lens. With our kitchen and basement updates, I began to get a hankerin' for changing other rooms too. So last week I got a bee in my bonnet and decided to update the upstairs bathroom. This is one one that all 5 of us use EVERY day.

It was a tired room. Old oaky looking cabinets that were nothing to write home about. Bland wall color that could be considered no color at all. And a dreadful mirror that was hung so high I can only see myself from the chin up and the kids cannot see themselves at all.

Here's the before....

And the after.

The before.....

And the after.....

Before....

And after....

It's like a whole new room. It's so much brighter and open in there now. In addition to the new paint, vanity, and wall cabinet, we also replaced the lighting and all the fixtures. The towel bars were a hideous gold color and now are a lovely chrome to match the faucet and light fixture. Oh...and the mirror is great. Kids can see themselves and I can see myself from the waist up!

We still need to replaced the toilet in there, but that is a project for another day!

Bathing Beauty

I know you're not supposed to post pictures of your kids in the bathtub on the internet, but I'm going to make an exception this once.

The girls spent the night with their grandparents over Easter weekend and that always means lots of fun activities....for example....taking a bath in the huge tub in the master bathroom...complete with "blasters." (Known to the rest of us as jets of water.)

I just love Allie's expression in these. I went black and white with them because that evening light pouring through the huge window behind her was simply perfect.

Overheard at Our House This Week

"Mom, why is my pee yellow sometimes but clear other times?"

The Force is Strong With This One

A letter to the kids at my daughter's school who told her the Star Wars shirt she wore this week was for boys.



Dear Kids-
I know it's not fair to be upset with you for telling my daughter that her shirt was a boys shirt. I realize it was green and had Yoda on it. It's not your fault that you've grown up in a world where girls bathrooms are pink and boys bathrooms are blue. You've been taught that boys are supposed to love trucks, tractors, and worms. Girls on the other hand should be braiding their doll's hair and pouring tea parties.

But here's the thing. You can do all that. It doesn't make you a boy or a girl. It makes you a human. The world is filled with so many cool people and places. If you decide to skip out on movies or other experiences because you think they aren't fit for your gender, you are going to miss out on SO much.

And in case you want to get all philosophical about it. Good 'ol Yoda said it best. “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” So stop hating on her t-shirt. Because I'm pretty sure you're just jealous the Easter Bunny didn't bring you one too.

Sincerely,
Mom to Three Star Wars Loving Girls

Instagram Magic

I love my new iPhone for lots of reasons, but one of the best parts of using it each day is the pictures I am able to take. And once I take those pictures...I get to use my favorite app...Instagram. I had it on my iPod but without a camera, Instagram was much harder to use on my images. Now it's a breeze!

Here are some of my favorites from the last few weeks.

Potty Training Update

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the major milestone that rolled through our house in the last few weeks. Allie is potty-trained. I mentioned a little while ago that I finally found the right tool to help encourage her at potty time. Well that worked...and then, she sort of demanded to start wearing panties instead of Pull-Ups. It was an overnight switch and she's been doing great ever since. We've done the zoo, an egg hunt, church (twice), meals out, and many other errands in panties.

She's so tiny that a lot of our panties fall off of her, but we made a trip to Babies R Us this week and were able to find some little undies that fit her better. She's not quite night-time trained just yet. That typically takes another month or so if I remember correctly. But I'm not sweating that. She's potty-trained and everyday life is so much easier. Even if it means stopping during a run on the greenway so she can pee in the woods. ("Daddy, I peed in the woods today!!!")

Wordless Wednesday

Visiting Mom at Work

When your mom works in TV, it's pretty exciting to go hang out at the station. My girls have been coming to see me at work for years. I have pictures of them on the various sets from the time they were babies.

With my current schedule and their school schedules, they rarely get to stop by the station any more, so last week's visit was a big treat!

They had such a good time and can't wait to come back and visit again soon!

Easter Weekend Pt. 2

Our Easter weekend continued into Sunday of course. The girls enjoyed the Easter baskets Jamie and I got for them. The Star Wars t-shirts were a huge hit! Not to mention the Reese Cups which Allie consumed five of upon opening. We got ready for church in record time.

We have so few pictures of the five of us, so yesterday...I set my camera up on the deck railing and set the self-timer. What resulted is perhaps one of our very best family photos ever.....

Sunday school and church were quite wonderful. I very much love our church family and being able to celebrate Easter with all of them was a true blessing. The choir even closed the service with the Halleluiah Chorus from Handel's Messiah...AMAZING.

After lunch and naps at home, we went to Nana and Granddad's for a special Easter dinner. It was so much fun to eat together as a family....and Nana even made a special dessert!

All in all it was a perfect Easter weekend. Filled with the things and people I love best.

Easter Weekend Pt. 1

I've been away from the blog for a few days, enjoying some much-needed family time. We had such a great Easter weekend. Jamie and the girls were all off on Good Friday so they picked me up from work and we all went to the zoo.

It was the perfect day to enjoy our zoo! We had such a wonderful time.

Including a fun picnic!

And look...a rare sighting of the writer of this blog!

(I'm the one on the left, by the way...)

After the zoo we went home for a while and then attended the Good Friday service at church. It was a special one aimed at families with young children and it was spot-on. It jump started some good Easter discussions for our family.

On Saturday morning we got up and went to our church's egg hunt at a local park. Again, the weather proved to be spectacular.

The girls hunted eggs with their friends and participated in the annual egg toss. (No clothes were harmed in the making of this egg toss...)

After the egg hunt we went home and dyed eggs.

Allie managed to spill the entire cup of blue dye....which turned our table and her hands a lovely shade of Smurf blue! Hopefully it will wear off by next Easter.

Favorite Things Pt. 5

Today's favorite thing....is my OtterBox.

Jamie even ordered me a blue one! With a toddler and two older kids who can't seem to keep their hands off my new iPhone, protecting it is a top priority. This case is perfect. I highly recommend it!!

A Disney Princess Helps at Dinnertime

We are in a recipe rut. We eat the same foods over and over and over again. So this week, I decided to try something new for dinner. It wasn't anything overly complicated, but it involved flavors unfamiliar to my children's palates. Introducing a new recipe to my kids often proves disastrous and exhausting. So before they could even protest, I told them that dinner was one of Princess Tiana's favorites.

I served up Jambalaya, complete with smoked sausage. Anastasia maintained that beignets were Tiana's favorite but I informed her that beignets were most decidedly not dinner fare. All in all it went over pretty well. Even Allie was eager to eat something that was associated with Princess Tiana. I think that's the trick to getting kids to try something new. Just find a way to make it less intimidating.

So I suppose I owe this week's mealtime success to Walt Disney and his creative folks. Now I need to figure out if Popeye will help sell them on spinach....

Overheard At Our House This Week

"I know another word for p-o-o-p. FECES!"

Favorite Things Pt. 4

I love jellybeans (yes...even the black ones!) so this time of year is a cornucopia of jellybean treats. Recently I discovered yet another variety that I love.

Meet the SweetTart Jellybean.

SO tasty....but good luck finding them. I plan to hit Target the day after Easter and snatch up whatever they have left!

A Holy Fish

I really love the school my girls attend. I love their teachers and I love their curriculum. Part of Ainsley's work each week in Kindergarten includes time to journal. The idea is to encourage the kids to write and express their feelings through that writing. Punctuation and spelling take a backseat to the writing process. I really like this approach because rather than berating a kid for incorrectly spelling surprise, it encourages her to talk about how that surprise made her feel.

Ainsley's journal from February came home last week. There are so many wonderful writing, including this one about a "God Fish" (a.k.a gold fish).

I have been putting these journals in her keepsake box because I know she is going to get a kick out of reading them somewhere down the road.

Favorite Things Pt. 3

One of my favorite places to eat in East Tennessee is The Tomato Head. I typically order the Tuscan Chicken sandwich there and it comes with blue corn chips. And lately, I've been on a blue corn chip kick. I really like the ones from Archer Farms that can be found at Target.

They're organic...and only have four ingredients. All of which I have heard of and can be found in nature. But what's a chip....without salsa? That brings me to another one of my favorite things....Herdez salsa.

Anna and Chris put us onto this salsa a while back and it is waaaaaay better than any other salsa I've found. Like the blue corn chips, this salsa only has a handful of ingredients, and unlike those other salsas (**cough**PACE**cough**) I can recognize them all. Tomatoes, onions, serrano peppers, salt, and cilantro. I prefer the Medium version of the Casera salsa. I not only use it for my chips, but also in several recipes as well. It used to be hard to come by, but you can find it pretty much anywhere now, including Kroger and Wal-Mart. It's usually in the taco aisle.