Shock and Awe

I did this last year for Merrick's 5th birthday, an interview of sorts, and really loved listening to his answers. So here we go again!

1. How old are you? Six.

2. Who is your best friend? Um, Landon, Walker, Ashlyn, Madi, Tirzah...and Jericho. Those are all my best friends. And even Daddy.

3. What is your favorite thing to do? Ummmmm...my favorite thing is to do is play with Spidey, and my Transformer. 

4. What is your favorite color? Black, and red, and white and blue. Because I use them alot, and suddenly I decided that I like them.

5. What is your favorite food? Pizza. Because I tried it, and it was so good. The cheese is good.

6. What do you like to do with your family? I like to ride bikes with them. I like to jump on the trampoline with. Because I love you guys, and that makes me want you guys to do stuff with me.

7. What is your favorite toy? Spiderman...because he shoots webs and saves people.

8. What do you want to be when you grow up? A bike racer...they ride bikes and whoever wins they probably get a trophy.

9. What makes you happy? What makes me happy is when you smile and you laugh, it makes me happy and it makes me laugh. (At this point you're totally thinking I told him to say this...nope. He's just the sweetest man alive.)

10. What makes you sad? Sometimes when I don't know people, it makes me sad. Getting hit in the eye with a ball, like a basketball, makes me sad. (Not sure this has ever happened, but who am I to give him the answers?)

11. What is your favorite show to watch? American Ninja Warrior, because I like the guy with the big mustache around his mouth who won. He almost slipped, and then he won. 

12. What is your favorite book? About dinosaurs and Spidey.

13. What do you love to learn about? I like learning about dinosaurs and about spiders and even spiderman, and even about what cows do. (Are you noticing this is the year of Spiderman?)

14. What was the best part of your birthday? I like eating cake, and getting new toys. That makes me happy. Oh, I mean, we aren't talking about happy...we are talking about birthday.

15. Where do you like to go? I like to go to the beach and to Chick-Fil-A, and I like going to another Chick-Fil-A, and I like going to a store like Chuck-e-Cheese's. 

16. Who is your teacher? You!

17. What is your favorite treat? Candy...an orange candy that got wrapped up into a paper, and I got it out and ate it. And I liked it very much. And I wanted it for halloween but it wasn't halloween. (Whaaa???)

18. What do you think about before you fall asleep? I think about that I caught a whale shark, and I looked at him and gave him a hug...and then I put him back in the ocean. (I think he's just making this stuff up, honestly.)

19. If you could meet someone who would it be? Spiderman. I would ask him 'do you shoot webs, and do you stick to stuff'? I'd ask him to have a sleepover at our house.

20. What was your favorite birthday present? The present that I liked is . At least he's grateful right? ;)

I don't even know what to say here...I'm so in shock that he turned 6 this year. I remember like it was yesterday, the sheer terror and heart-wrenching love that washed over me when I first held him in the hospital after those 20 hours of labor, and I realized I was responsible for keeping this person alive. It's like your whole world is suddenly, yet happily, centered on that brand new face. Sometimes today I look at him and cannot believe him. He catches me staring at him and says: "why are you staring at me, mom?" Oh, no reason, just I love you so much I can't handle it and hope you never grow up and go away and leave me for some silly girl who I'll have to like because ya know that's what mom is supposed to do. Oh, did I say that out loud? Ahem. Just don't grow up too fast, k? 

He changes a little more each day, needs me vitally a little less each day, looks a little less like my first-born baby boy each day. And it fills me with that same terror and heart-wrenching love when I let myself slow down and just see him. I hope that no matter how old he is, he will know that his daddy and I see him. The amazing soul he is, all he is capable of, all of his failures, all his hopes and dreams...we see him and love who we see. He doesn't have to do anything for us, be anything for us, prove anything to us. He owes us nothing...it's us who have been given a gift when God placed him in our arms and wrecked our hearts with a new understanding of His grace and love. Happy 6th birthday, Merrick Wilder. We love you so!

Fall Photo Fiasco

Well, the whole thing wasn't a fiasco...but as you can see from a few outtakes it was just typical day-in-the-life of a photog mom of three wild hooligans. Funny thing is I had just done a session with 3 kids...and no one tried to choke me, or each other, no one grabbed anyone by the front of their shirt or tried to run away dragging their little brother.

Thank you, King family, for not behaving like my children. They were awesome. They are a bit older than mine...so maybe there is hope? I guess that inspired me to take a few shots of my own. I get cocky sometimes, ya know? That's why God gives us children. To show us how ridiculous we are. "You think you're so tough? Here...I'll give you someone to puke on you several times a day." He probably doesn't say that, but I'd get it if He did. My kids have definitely reminded me of my own mortality, and removed all traces of my once-prized got-it-all-togetherness. There are people that I'd love to see end up with cuh-razy children just for the "haha it happened to you to!!!" factor. But that's probably not nice. Whatever.

I think I read somewhere once that children are cute, especially in the eyes of their own parents, as a defense mechanism so they survive to adulthood. It's totally the truth. I mean, these wild animals at least have their looks going for them. And the older two are getting really good at "fetching"...so there's that. I send them to get all kinds of things upstairs for me so I don't have to go up and down the stairs an extra 1,465,011 times per day...it's obviously done with their physical fitness in mind. Not like they need exercise though, honestly...they got plenty of it running from the camera during this session. ;)

Some Sessions on Sunday

This past weekend was really busy...between Tough Mudder on Saturday, and a full day of church and three sessions on Sunday. It was fun to have two of my sisters along to help also. We had planned for a lot of these sessions to happen last weekend, but then we had a monsoon and had to reschedule. It worked out to be a gorgeous day, though!

One of our sessions was with one of my coaches from last year when I was training for the Richmond Marathon...it was fun to hang out with her again and get to know her family a little bit. Such a good looking bunch. And I'm still a little in awe of how this lady can run marathons like a beast and wear those killer heals. (She's run at least 11 marathons I believe...wow!) How she got everyone to the session and wearing such perfectly coordinated outfits too I'll never understand. I'm lucky if all of my kids have on clothing when we leave the house.

One of our other sessions was with some of our good friends from our church. It was so fun to finally be able to take their pictures...we've been hoping to make that happen for a little while now. They are such an awesome family. We are really glad we've been able to get to know them, and love getting our energetic kiddos together whenever we get the chance. (Which isn't often enough...we need to hang out again soon guys!)

I mean, don't you want to eat this guy up? :) Too much. I hope there are many more opportunities to take this little guy's picture in the future...and hang out with his parents, too, of course. They're pretty good looking too.

Tough Mudder of 3

Finally! Billy and I can say we have done Tough Mudder. (After frustratingly having it cancelled back in June.) Admittedly, I didn't come up with that title myself, either. I saw it on the back of a lady's shirt, and we stopped to chat about our kids on the course. Really, moms love to talk about their babies. Even while doing a 12 mile obstacle course.

So, what is Tough Mudder, you say? Pretty much the toughest of the obstacle-style mud runs, where you run 10-12 miles and do up to 25 obstacles. (It's no girly race where your tutu stays clean...and yes you will break a nail, or your leg. Thankfully I bite my nails and God spared me any broken limbs.) But it was crazy tough. Not as tough as I expected...ok feared...but I am still achey all over and covered in bruises and scratches. My shins look like I played soccer without my shinguards, and my elbows/forearms are purple from army crawling through the mud.

I have enormous respect for my bro-in-law, who is in the military and had done this type of thing all while being chased by scary men and not given any food. The scariest man I saw was wearing shorts he shouldn't have been and wasn't chasing me, and I ate most of the banana supply along the course. So I have no excuse.

A few of the obstacles just required a lot of strength that I am made aware I do not have by the way I can't lift my arms over my head today, and some required a lot of crazy. Like Walk the Plank, where you jump about 25ft down into muddy 12ft deep water. Or Electroshock Therapy, where you are literally electrocuted when you run through the obstacle. (It didn't get Billy. It got me. I was suddenly knocked flat on my butt with one of the shocks. It hurt more than I was prepared for I think.) And then there is the Arctic Enema (sorry, mom...that's really its name) where you jump into a huge tub of ice water (so much ice they put it there with a front-end loader). I thought that being a runner who has taken ice baths would prepare me for this, but no. I was so cold I couldn't stop yelling. It wasn't cute I'm sure.

(Here are a few shots of the obstacles that I snatched from Tough Mudder's Facebook page...I didn't take a camera with me obviously.)

So if the "You Did What???" post didn't convince you that I'm a glutton for punishment (to quote my chiropractor) then maybe this will. I think I'm due for a little resting right about now too. But fortunately there are hooligans to chase. (Yes I said fortunately. Unfortunately I've used way too many parenthesis in the post.) No matter what crazy race I do, they're always my favorite way to be a glutton for punishment.

Merrick the Entertainer

Merrick has been really busy this week. Obviously, taking selfies on his LeapPad while he is supposed to be resting. This is a bit overprocessed for my tastes, but the subject is certainly handsome. ;)

He also has been busy entertaining now only himself, but other people. Such as the diners at Chipotle the other night. He was pouting, and decided he was going to sit at his own table. I said "help yourself, and maybe next time buy your own dinner while you're at it". Well, I might have just thought the part about buying his own dinner, but I did tell him with that attitude of his there probably wasn't room at the table for it to sit down. So mid-way through the meal I look over and he's climbed up the umbrella outside on the pavilion. He was in a much better mood, so maybe next time he's acting like a butt, I'll send him outside to climb....anything.

After we got back from dinner, a few of my sisters were over at my house. When one of them went into the other room Merrick hid around the corner (yes, in his underwear and his hat...he was fresh out of the bath) and told me he was hiding so he could "fight her" when she got back. Fight her he did...I think she lost.

We helped out some friends the other day by watching their youngest daughter/sister, and when Merrick first came out of his room that morning he was mortified that there was someone he didn't know in his house. (He's can be a little shy like his mama.) But as is typical of my hooligans, they warm up fast. He was soon very attached to our extra "hooligan", and felt the need to impress her with his typical stunts. I discouraged the repeating of this particular stunt, but was pretty impressed, as usual, at his balance. 

Merrick, the oldest of my wild animals, never ceases to keep me (and lots of other folks) entertained and laughing. He does also occasionally surprise me with his sweetness, too. The other night we were watching TV, and he started rubbing my feet out of nowhere. (Yeah, someday he's gonna make some girl, who I will try not to give too much grief, one heck of a hubby.) I never know where I'm going to find him next, or what he might say, or what stunt I will catch him trying. Speaking of...I should probably go get him off the kitchen counter.

How Many Barrons...

...can you fit on one couch? When there are little knees and elbows going every direction, as you can see from these pictures our kids don't know you're supposed to sit on your butt, it feels like there are a lot more people on the couch than there are.

This was last night, all snuggled up watching The Voice. We are newly obsessed with this show, and admittedly late to the party, but the hooligans watched it one night and now they ask me every day if The Voice is on tonight. Merrick's favorite part is when people hit their buttons...he doesn't understand why they occasionally choose not to. It sends him into a swirling pit of despair when this doesn't happen. Thankfully we've moved on to a round where button pushing is less of an issue. ;)

Jericho's belly...I just can't help myself. This has nothing to do with The Voice...but you're welcome anyway. Also he's wearing mittens...he brings them to me (along with his sister's minnie mouse slippers) and whines until I put them on him. I just...whatever.

I'm always grateful on nights I can say "yes The Voice is on", because it seems to be one of the only reasons they will sit on the couch for a minute. Even if it is in weird positions.

"I Only Believe in Science"

(I really don't, but name that movie and you get 10 points...you'll get the reference later.) I figured that discussing animals and the sounds they make constitutes as a science lesson right? RIGHT? I mean, made sense to me. And what good is homeschooling if you can't have fun?


I recently was made aware of this video. I cannot stop laughing. Admittedly it may be the fact that we are all stir crazy from this ridiculous rain, or it was a terrible horrible no good day yesterday and even the tiniest thing was a good distraction, or just the kids dancing to it and out of the blue being caught saying "what the fox say?"...but either way I can't stop. I get it's not everyone's type of funny...but coming from the girl who quotes movies like Nacho Libre ("Get that corn outta my face!") and The Other Guys ("Desk pop!") in casual conversation, it's just right. Happy weekend, people.

As I was Saying...

This week is absolutely flying by. I really don't have much to say other than things like: "stop biting your brother", "get out of the neighbors tree", "please don't push your brother off the porch", and I may have even been overheard saying "i hope he bites you". Not proud of that last one, but when Merrick decided to pester Jericho to tears, I didn't have much sympathy for the biting that was definitely likely to occur. I mean, everyone knows you DON'T stick your hand in a wild animals mouth. Duh.

So as I was saying, there isn't much room left in my busy schedule of 'what day is it again and someone make these kids stop fighting' for blog posting. I feel like that's ok, though. I do have other things going on, this just happens to be the one that gets nixed when the crazy is happening. Maybe I should just take up blogging when the kids graduate? By then it probably won't be cool to blog anymore though. So there's that...also I realize I've managed to make a whole blog post out of the fact that I don't have time to post a blog. I think that's probably some type of side effect of only speaking to people who don't listen all day. This blog HAS to listen, so by golly I'm gonna tell it what's up.

As bad as these babies are, they still are pretty cute. I like looking at pictures of them...I think mostly because in the pictures they can't talk. Pictures are silent. Silence is golden and also I'd probably give someone something golden for 2 minutes of said silence. But I know I would and will miss the noise one day. Maybe by the time they are gone they'll have done so much damage to my hearing I'll have the ringing in my ears to keep me busy. ;)

You did what???

That seems to be the general reaction when I tell people about what Billy and I did this past weekend. I think mostly people are confused, then when they get their questions answered they decide it's confirmed. Those Barrons are cuh-razy people. We ran a race called Ragnar this past weekend with some great new friends. Click on the link for more info...but the synopsis is: "You and 11 of your craziest friends pile into two vans and tag team running 200(ish) miles, day and night, relay-style. Only one runner hits the road at a time. Each participant runs three times, with each leg ranging between 3-8 miles and varying in difficulty." So, yeah, there you have it. Some call it crazy, but we called it lots of fun. (Here are a few shots of our decorated "van"...our team name was Tape a Cheetah to Her Back. Inspired by the AT&T commercial.)

Not gonna lie, there were painful moments. My total mileage ended up being a little over 22 miles for the race, Billy was about 16. (I ran two 9 milers, and then a 4 miler.) I don't think I really started to hurt until most of the way through my middle 9 miler. This one was a run with just under 1,000ft of elevation gain, done at about 4:15 am, through the dark woods. There were often other runners around me, or the vans of other teams passing by me, but several times I couldn't see anyone in front of me, or anyone behind me. And then there were those eyes in the woods. I tried to convince myself they weren't really eyes...but then they moved. *EEEEEK!* I knew I shouldn't have looked away from the trail. ;)

My teammates all did an awesome job of knocking out their individual parts of the race, some of them running up unbelievable hills at unbelievable speeds, and often in the middle of the night with nothing but a headlamp to light to way and cows mooing in the fields to keep you company. Some of the legs of the race our van would be able to come alongside and offer support or just yell at our runners for moral support. Runners love to be yelled at, just another little thing that makes them special, kind of like the guy running with his underwear overtop of his shorts, and the guy in the fairy wings. You never know what you might see at a race.

When we finally crossed the finish line, altogether as a team, it was an awesome feeling of accomplishment. We had run 200 miles, not stopping as a team, for about 29 hours worth of running. There was a lot of determination, planning, training, sweating, chocolate milk chugging and laughing that went into making that happen. I'm so glad we were able to be a part of it. We made some great new friends, have a great new story to share, a shiny new medal to hang up, and a little bit of swagger in our step...although that part might just be the sore legs talking. ;)