January 1

Today I am thankful for the Word of God. We just got home from a 5 day amazing road trip. As we drove I finished up our reading for 2011. We stopped and bought our new chronological one year Bibles and started those today. Now John and I have matching bikes, cars and Bibles. Looking forward to a sweet year of fellowship.

Ahhh the boat ride HHI day 2

Most definitely not the best boat ride ever. I mean, that would mean topping a sunset cruise with 2 sunsets in one night with mo- town music playing and dancing in the floor board, or going super fast with my kids hair blowing in the breeze and ice cream stuck to their chins, or that first boat ride on the Lake of the summer. Or those awesome rides in the fishing boat that you got wet from the wake on a good turn! Even better at dawn in old wind breakers on the way to lake church. Yeah, those cannot be topped. This one was really great though. A first for me to be out in the intercoastal waterways like this. And wowie wow wow-- dolphins!!

such a surreal moment- a dolphin literally popping his head up, practically leaning against our boat and smiling at us, yes, smiling. a. maz. zing.

that is a picture of a boy happy with his father

and that is a boy happy to be let loose to climb all over a boat

(thank goodness I remember the life vests)

if L is ever having a bad hair day, she needs to head to the coast and get on a boat (this is not true of many of us) here she is checking out the mud minnow getting on the hook

the thought of this moment got J through a lot of days the last couple of weeks

ocean+ family+ Jesus loving captain+ fishing= happy day

great moment

wow, even i was on vacation if i let my kids drink coke, must be documented

what a smile

Ek found a right time and place to break it down a bit

awesome time with Capt Bill

yep, awesome

Finishing the race

I love the Road Race on Super Saturday here. J ran it our first year here, he ran the 5k. Dad came and mom was on Walk to Emmaus. L was in my belly. It was so terribly windy and cold. H and Ek were all bundled up in blankets in the stroller and were quite confused and a bit annoyed at the whole thing, it was cold. We hid behind Belk's to try to block some wind. Fast forward 4 years.

I picked up 7 race packets on Friday. 5 fun run entries and 2 10ks. 7 orange t-shirts. I don't think I have ever had an orange t-shirt in my life. I can pretty much guarantee J never has. We all 7 made the trip around the mall. Ek ran until her sweet face turned a beautiful pink but never once whined or asked to stop, I think every year she likes very much to run past all the older boys who sprint and stop, and we just cruise on by. We finished in 10:01. Wow! H and J finished about :30 later, no stopping either! Wow! L never stopped nor started. She was a bit intimidated and rode the whole way in either arms or shoulders. Precious thing. She was in very good company. J and I quickly made our way to the next start line and were very quickly off to the 10k. The weather was a warm 50+ with bright sunshine. We were very pleased with our times of 44 and change and I was just under 51. We think our whole running group set PRs in heart rates. The course had a turn around and I was so happy to see all of his running group staying so strong, oh and SP in the middle, I mean at the front of them. J said he was a bit light headed crossing the finish line and I am so sore today I could barely walk. And yet, still worth it. There is nothing quite like accomplishing a goal with people you love. And even though we all finished at different times, it all felt like we had crossed together. I think that is totally what Heaven will feel like. Without the soreness.

Wow what a morning.

While I was at the Nutcracker school performance, and L was at Mother's Morning out, H needed a gingerbread house decorating companion. J joyfully accepted the challenge. I think they enjoyed it, from the looks of the house, yes, enjoyed. J said they were the 2nd to last done. I could tell! I'd like to live here; its colorful, full decorated, has a delightful fire out front and even comes with a car. When they finished they got to go out and play football. J did not kick it over the fence, thank goodness, and it may have rivaled the fun they had eating endless amounts of candy. (I guess its appropriate that J also took H to the dentist 2 weeks later to have cavities filled!! hahaha) J said when he left even JP gave him a hug. Nothing like a Daddy at school morning. Way to go J.

Saturday between the hedges, well not us, but the players were

I realize they are my kids and my husband and I get to see them everyday, but somehow I just can't get enough of them. Saturday John and I were blessed to get to take Ek and H to a winning UGA game and really had fun. I love holding their little hands all the way there, sitting close to them and trying to explain college football, watching them take it in and try to stay entertained, watching them eat a bag of cotton candy as big as their head, listen to my boys eagerness to find some grass to play on, watching my girl desperately trying to find the mascots in the binoculars, and wondering what they were thinking when John and I shot up in excitement over a touchdown. It was really a nice day and I appreciate the Dawgs going ahead and winning it. Oh, and the weather was perfect. And L had a blast with her Mops and Pops. Oh and I didn't even mention J and my run through campus with more runners that I have even seen in my life, past the band warming up and past 100 tailgaters with the most delicious smells, and J wasn't 10 steps ahead this time, yeah!

Starry night

Ek has been asking for more than a year to set up the tent in the backyard and camp out. I'm not quite sure why it has been as difficult as it has to get it done but finally yesterday, while J was at a meeting, I decided that it was time to give it a try. I drug the tent to the yard, put those poles together, got out the directions and got the tent up. The kids were super impressed and I was very glad that I went for it-- those camping Y days had adequately prepared me for that moment!! When J got home, he was only happy to sleep in it if we all were, I think he was really hoping one would run for the house so he could follow. But when we got out there all tucked away in our sleeping bags and could look up at the stars surrounding the tall trees, we were quite in awe and happy. They also loved hearing all the night sounds. The kids settled into sleep about 30 minutes later and all slept through the night. There was a bit of a chill during the night, but I didn't hear a peep until this morning when L couldn't find her puppy, who was under J. Ek was just giddy that she got to finally sleep in a tent and couldn't wait to see the sunrise.

This morning, Ek and I got out her assignment sheet for the week and were going over her Bible verse, books of the Bible, spelling words and some math to get a good start on her week. Her Bible verse was "Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." Genesis 15:6. We got out the Bible to read the passage and what a perfect day it was to read that passage. Abram was concerned that he still didn't have an heir, so God took him out and told him to look at all the stars, so also shall his children be. How amazing to look at my girl and say, Abram slept in a tent just like we did last night and looked up at the same stars and look what God did for him. God always keeps his promises. Wow, that was some good timing.

the still resting this morning just before dawn... J is the blue lump in the middle, don't miss the little polka dotted thing next too him or the little head popping out of the G bag.

thank you b and m for this fun night!!

That was a great game.

We had a really great time at the Braves game in Cincinnati. We always like to look and see who will be playing anything professional when we travel, especially baseball. J has been know to even just drive by empty stadiums. Boy were we excited when we saw not only were the Reds going to be in town when we were going to be there, but that they were playing the Braves! Well that was just about too much. J booked those tickets within 30 minutes. Now we only needed to register for the meeting and hotel and figure out how to get there, but those we just details compared to where we were going to sit!!! Ek was a Brave this year and H got a jersey for his birthday and L was cute enough without either. We decided at the last minute to drive the 5 blocks to get there knowing for sure that the 5 of us would not walk home~ a few more years and we'll take that walk easy. Well it was one of those instances where lucky was better than good and J ended up in the best parking spot ever, we crossed the street, went up an escalator, and walked into the stadium. We walked around to our seats that we directly in front of the $1 concession stand, bathrooms and a playground. wow. Good seats, babe. J could recall all the details of the game but I'm sure you could find those on a sports blog- that's not what this is. The kids made 3 trips to the play ground, at hotdogs and sprite, L tasted a neighbors peanut and decided she must have some, played a great game of I spy, and sang "take me out to the ball game" with joy and gusto and they all ate their own bay of cotton candy- L finished hers first. We managed to even get one inning of free baseball to see them pull it out in the 10th. And we got post game fireworks. Did I mention it was amazing? It was. Perfect baseball weather, breeze off the Ohio river and in the shade. Really it was amazing. Good find babe, way to go!

35 miles of Acadia

Months and months ago, mom saw in Southern Living an article about a bike tour in West Virginia that she thought looked like something we would like to try. Then we started talking about taking a trip for our 10 anniversary and thought coming back to Maine would be fun. Like 9 months later, here we are!! I keep having to pinch myself. We arrived several days ago and it is stunning beautiful. We are staying right on the water and every time we look up, we see boats and lobster buoys and kayak's decorating the most beautiful blue ocean. Little uninhabited islands are bursting out of the water too with majestic rock and tree after tree. Yesterday we rode 35 very challenging miles of Acadia National Park. The car free roads were a gift from Rockefeller to the American people. The scenery is a gift from God. We climbed from along side crystal clear ponds to the top of 3 mountains. Lots of climbing. The roads are not paved but are kinda packed gravel. Most of it was actually pretty smooth but made for a challenging and nervous ride at times. I really did not get over the joy of the ride- seeing the most amazing views from every height of the trail, being so thankful for the gift of being healthy enough to ride that much, and being there with John. We saw many other riders, some hikers with dogs and 6 horseback riders. We saw one Clydesdale that was the biggest horse I've ever seen in my life, he was huge. I told John the ride and the views were breathtaking. This trip is an amazing gift.

Turtle Crawl

J and I did our first tri of the year. J had his eye on this one for several years and although it was a magnet weekend for activities, we decided to go for it anyway. I am so glad we did. We had a really great time. The nice thing about a tri at the beach is that we got to recover under palm trees with a sea breeze. I recommend. I realize that people read this and I would love if they would skip this one. I am not trying to brag, I want to remember what we did. The swim was awful, the ocean and current was not kind. I think I swam about a mile in a 600 yard race. bum-mer. It took me forever--should have taken less that 15 minutes, took 30. wow that was bad. BUT I felt like I got into a great rhythm in the water, so that is what I am taking away. The bike ride was so beautiful. I love most bike rides I'm on. I love to watch the scenery go by. We went past beatiful trees, marsh and of course, ocean. The run was on top of the dunes overlooking the ocean- can't beat that! I made myself enjoy where I was. I am so grateful for my health, my husband and my friends to spend time with. I consider that I put my time into the pool at 5am to get the opportunity to swim in the ocean. Our times- me swim 30, bike (15 miles) 48 min (18.1mph), and run 26:19. Over all women 28/124 age group 5/21. John's times- swim 27:27, bike 43:14, run 23:44. age group 5/25 overall men 35/132. I am what I am because of grace of God. I Co 15:10

Racing

We tried not to let the rain completely wash our day away Saturday. We had big plans to enjoy the Criterium events all day. The 5K was at 8:30. The forecast called for 100% chance of thunderstorms. J decided while eating his pancakes at 8:15 that he wanted to do it anyway. We ran out the door to start the race. He registered at 8:26, got to the start line at 8:29, found Ronda at the first turn after the 8:30 start and finished 21 minutes later. whew! I was so proud to see him come around the final turn to finish that fast. I was under the umbrella with 2 cups of Starbucks to give away when they caught their breath. J received a perfect prize of a can of coffee for his 3rd place age group finish and Ronda finished first in her age group. She gathered her prize while we held her bike at the start line of the bike ride to start 5 minutes later. We went home and gathered the kids and came back for their bike race. Ek won her heat!!! I couldn’t hold that in any longer. Ok, from the beginning. H had so much fun warming up on the course. It reminded me of a rollerskating rink. The kids were riding their bikes round and round the course. It started to rain as soon as the races started. Ek seemed a bit nervous, but dIdn’t want to make it worse by asking if she was. She was cold. H went first and rode great but did not finish first. It was not easy riding down hill and around the cones

in the rain! But he did great and was proud of himself. He was equally as proud to shake the ChickfilA cows hand while waiting for Ek to race! Ek took off down the hill quikly but not first, one little girl didn’t turn, another girl crashed and Ek methodically went around the cone to head up the hill in first place. She had the sweetest, happy little smile on her face as she knew she had won and peddled her way across the finish line. Oh we were so excited!! We were excited too to see them make the big loop in front of the crowd in the kids parade that night. Ek finished ahead of H. J was with H and declared while out of breath that they were much faster than last year! H was very proud of that. We hung around in the rain for a while under a huge tree that posed as our umbrella and watched some of the women’s race. It was raining so much thought, that we were cold and a bit unenthuased, so we left a bit early but full of fun memories of the day. Can’t wait for next year. Wait! One more thing, when we got to the car and buckled L in, she exclaimed, “hey! where’s my cow?!” The kids got ChickfilA cows when they crossed the finish line in the bike race. L suddenly realized she did not participate. Next year, L, next year.

Let the celebration begin!

Last night I got a gift. We began out celebration of our 10 year anniversary by taking pictures with our wedding photographer, ML, where we took our wedding pictures. It was so wonderful. My my my how 10 years have brought some big changes in our life. But amazingly, with all thanks to God, for all His provision and love, I was so so excited to take pictures with my J last night as a huge marker in our lives. It is a bit overwhelming to think about and I have months and months to think about the marker that it is, so I won't do it all tonight. But how awesome to return there with our 3 amazing children and each other, full of joy and life! Our photographer asked if it was more awkward to take on our wedding day or now that we had our children. I think I am so much more comfortable in my skin now than I was then especially when I am next to J. There were several comical moments. At one point we were taking pictures just the 2 of us and H comes running over begging us to pick him up because a dog had come along. ML told us to just keep smiling, he was laughing saying this was probably more what our life was like! I'm sure he had some real smiles out of us for those. H was fine, the dog was on a leash, once we told him that, he was happy again. Another time, he had us behind our children, he was trying to focus on them and have us kissing in the background. He told us to kiss and hold it, we got to giggling because he was taking forever, i peeked my eyes open, ML was looking at the images on his camera and the children had run away! I guess he only tells when to start kissing, not to stop! Oh we laughed! The kids were beyond hilarious. When they realized we were not taking stiff, sitting still pictures, they got happy, they continued to get happy until they reached delirium and went a bit beyond that. They laughed and smiled and played and jumped and bounced and climbed. Thankfully we were outside and not in a studio. We would have lasted in a studio for about 10 minutes. We played outside for hours. I cannot wait, cannot wait to see the images. I am soo sooo soooo thankful for my family. All of it. And am so grateful for the 4 I get to live with. Can't wait, too, to see what we look like in 10 more years!

2010 Leprechan RR

Wow what a weekend! It may take me weeks to recount all the fun we had. Where to begin? Where to begin? hmmmmmm. I think one of the biggest highlights was during Friday night dinner we saw an ole familiar car pull up and raced to the street to give hugs to our Pops and Mopsey. and the big times began. Mom commented on how H makes such a fast bee-line to Pops these days. Gotta love Pops!

Saturday morning was the race. I do love the race. It makes me so happy to see all those people, over 1000 this year, out running, walking, smiling, cheering and having a great time. I love it! Last year the big kids ran and L hung in the stroller. J was recovering and I ran the 10K. I had the most amazing cheering crowd that followed me all around the course. The kids ran the mile, without stopping, in about 11 minutes, I ran in a bit under an hour. On to this year-- the kids ran without stopping or asking to stop!! in a bit over 9 minutes and J finished a fast 46 minutes. His first 10K race, by the way. My knee kept me to the mile only, but it didn't hurt!! horray! I can get back at it now. Amazingly Ek's friend Leah finished with us just like she did last year. H's buddy JP finished about a minute quicker. I was amazed watching the racers come in, there were so many fast kids! and I can't wait to help mine run fast too! What a blast. I forgot my camera, but thanks to email and FB, I have these shots.

I love this picture! J is running so strong!

My fast runners after the finish line!
Ek and her 2nd cousins, who ran awesome! watching racers come in.

Good.

I'm having a hard time finding good news on my blog reading tonight, so I will only have good news here. good news. ready go.

1. My computer battery is replaced. free. I signed the receipt for 0.00. that was good. So I am back blogging.

2. I got to go to Macon 2 weekends in a row and get a few things we wanted, including spring clothes, bike gear and a fabulous build-a-bear bunny named "Funny Bunny" that is wearing silver jeweled flip flops. ya know? that deserved its own entry.

3. Ek got to go to a fabulous birthday party with her adorable friends and created her very own, one of a kind, spring bunny named "Funny Bunny" that is wearing the cutest pair of jeweled silver flip flops you have ever seen. Much better.

4. L is the cutest little shopper you have ever seen. One sales associate at the Gap did not fully appreciate her cuteness and took the handbag away from her that she was toting around. Wait a second! That is not good! But me finding her another one seconds later and letting her wear fancy bracelets around AT Loft is good and the smiles she gave the shoppers when she grinned ear to ear at them was very good. She even cheered up a 10 year old-ish boy who was sitting bored and waiting for his mother who was trying on a lot of clothes. All good. All fun.

5. Today the kids and I made cookies. Really good. I let them eat 4 each. good. I left the chocolate chips out for J and Ek, they loved that. Good. I didn't count how many I ate. Good, again.

6. The weather- oh the weather has not just been good but great!! We have played outside for hours and hours the last several days. Two play dates at the Chick yesterday and the park today.

7. J makes me laugh. He has just finished the hugest cup of coffee and cannot stop yawning. and laughing. He just asked if I bought decaf. Starbucks Kenyan? Uh, no.

8. Talked to my brother yesterday. Good good good. Love that he loves to read my blog. Loves that he misses it when I don't write. (Don't like to hear about his woods finding-- any insight? any more to report? that was not good- )

9. My knee is getting better. Not really any pain this week. Last rehab on Friday! Can't wait to run with the kids on Super Saturday. Can't wait for mom and dad to be here to cheer us on.

And 10. So grateful for my Tuesday mornings. Couldn't be more grateful for that amazing group of women to study with, pray with, listen to, and seek more of God with. Praying today with them to know the height and depth and width and breadth of Christ love that surpasses knowledge. Oh I would love to live in His amazing power continually! Eph 2

Gotta add 11. J got up this morning to encourage the kids in the Word while they ate their cereal and pray for their day. J was asking one of them to pray for Papa's colonoscopy today and L said, "I want to pray for Papa's tummy!" That was good. And the results- good. which is great. Hey that was 3 in one entry!

Yeah for good!!

Grateful

I am very grateful for what J does everyday. It still amazes me that God has given J the opportunity to help people in such a huge way. He tells me all the time how much his patients vision has improved and neither of us can get over it. What an amazing gift that God has allowed J to be a part of. He took care of a friend from church maybe a month ago that was so grateful, she made him a cake. We were quite surprised to see a cake like this, but we loved it! She was so tickled to be able to thank him in this way and we were so pleased to receive it, especially the kids. We are grateful that she was grateful and grateful to our God for the opportunity.

A picture says a 1000 words

Need I say more about the love these two have for each other. I almost didn't ask J to take a picture because he had just walked in and was quite tired from the day, but I think that shows even more how pleased he was with Ek's portrait of him that she had labored on all afternoon.

Shock

I have a moment I would like to remember. This is a moment of mine that I would like to keep and remind my self of one day. It was not an easy moment to come to! J said the other day that Saturday, I made him a perfect cup of coffee!!! Now I have made him many a cup of coffee and many times he heads back over to the creamer or sugar, quietly, and makes adjustments. He has even been known to not drink it at all after the first sip. So for him to say I had made a perfect cup, was, well, close to miracle. He even looked a bit shocked as he said it. I know my expression was pure shock. Ok so here is what happened. He went on a bike ride with Mike. It has been so cold. Like highs barely making 30s. Mike called to ask if he wanted to ride and I was thinking J would say no. Even J was thinking he could say no. But after talking to Mike and telling him no, J changed his mind. He put on every piece of exercise clothes he owns. Well maybe not every, but close, he was a grey marshmallow. They said they would ride an hour. After an hour and a half, I thought, J is going to be cold. It was close to dark, so I knew they would pull in any minute. So I put on a pot of coffee and found the heating pad. I turned the heating pad on high and put it on the couch for him to sit on when he got in. As soon as he walked in, I fixed him coffee, he wrapped his feet up in the heating pad and held the coffee cup in his bright red cold hands. He had a bit of a stare in his eyes, he was cccooollldddd. He didn't say it at the time, but the next day, he said it was the best cup of coffee he had ever had. He quickly went on to say, it wasn't just the coffee, but it was the arrangement. In other words, the creamer/sugar/coffee strength wasn't perfect, but the timing made up for it. Hey, I'll take it. And keep it forever.

Football Reminiscing

Eleven years ago, during half time of the Peach Bowl, J officially asked me to start dating him. He said he was serious though, and for me to say yes was with the intention that we were moving in a serious direction. When back at school, I felt like I was officially into his life when he was talking with some friends about coming over to watch the national championship football game and I asked him if he wanted me to come. "Of course," he said with a look that made me know that now where he was invited, I was too. "Lucky" for me, when J decides he likes something, he commits to it forever, football teams, coffee creamer, shoes, etc. So thankful the Lord brought us together. Just a little reminiscing with the game on Alabama/ Texas... And I will never be the same when I think about Texas... So thankful for that place and those people for pouring into J and my lives. And speaking of ole' Alabama, I'm sure glad Alabama didn't keep my J from coming to Augusta, but just held him off long enough for me to get to Augusta. Ok that's enough for one night. I'm just thankful for my guy.

Parties

J and I did some good partying this weekend. We had his office party Friday night and our church leadership Saturday night. We had wonderful food and wonderful fellowship. Friday night we did the same gift exchange that we do every year and every year it proves to be so much fun. We laughed and laughed. I had a bit of trouble wrapping my singing penguin for the exchange. My first attempt had to be immediately unwrapped. My second attempt had the help of H's boot box and it had the shape of a house. So I completely got carried away and used all colors of ribbons to turn it into a house including a chimney with a silver ribbon to be smoke. Really, K? Really. And it was the fourth present choose out of 29 with my other present being the second. silly me. I am so grateful that J has a amazing group of people to work with that genuinely seem to enjoy being together and I know their patients receive that kindness and joy that they share. Saturday night while all the championship football games were going on, we enjoyed time with dear friends from church. It was really nice to have some time out with J.

Glad to be Wrong

J and I received a very unexpected invitation Saturday morning while at mom and dad's. The guys were in the middle of the swing build and the girls were watching the kids play. J got a text asking if we wanted to go to the Tech game. Did we?!? yes. We fed, bathed and pajamaed the kids and left them in the care of their Pops and Mopsey and headed for ATL. I heard J say at least 5 times that he expected us to be down 35-0 at half. We weren't. I told J we had better hurry because the highlight might be the players running out onto the field. It wasn't. We had a blast. It was a bit strange to be yelling and cheering and look up to see no one else cheering. Our neighbors were not pleased that we had so much to cheer about. So glad we had a fun date night. If I had to be all alone in a rival crowd, it sure was fun to hold tight to him! What a game to see there!

Hot seat

Tonight I had dinner set at our usual places at the counter. The kids along the long side, J on my stool at the end, me standing up (we need one more short stool). The kids sat until J arrived from washing his hands, they all- within one minute- moved to the end to sit by Daddy. I miss him too during the day!

I took several pictures but this one made me laugh because L and Ek are making the same silly frowny face, by accident I'm sure.