Not that kind of girl...

Before I go any further I just want all the people who may read this, and consider themselves lovers of the country, to understand that I do, for the most part, really love living out in the woods with no cell phone service and ticks...90% of the time. ;) There are, however, certain parts of country life I could do without. These guys, for example:

Those two chickens you see in the above picture? Yeah...not mine. They belong to my new neighbors...bless their hearts. They've been kind enough to share their chickens with me. Not sure if they know that I am the foster mother of their chickens. But who am I to complain? Cuz I totally wanted a new ditch beside my porch...and these are just the chickens for the job.

These clucking, hardworking chickens just keep on coming back for more of whatever creepy crawly thing *that I am going to pretend is not there* that they can't seem to find anywhere but right beside my walkway. I think my son doesn't mind...little redneck that he is *the kid said tractor before he said Mom.* but I'd rather these chickens find another yard to dig to China in.

I never really felt like a true country girl...even though I do love country music, fresh air and sunshine, and big muddy trucks. I guess I feel like you have to actually like things like camping and being outside where the bugs are to earn that title. So while I do like being outside...I don't like the creatures that also like to be outside. I am way too squeamish and squealy for that kind of thing. But I do my best out here in the woods. I just wish I could at least make a phone call when I have an emergency...ya know, like finding one of these in my yard:

That is Merrick's finger. Like I said...my little country boy doesn't even mind sticking his finger on a beetle that is the size of his finger and happens to be hissing at him and trying to bite him with who-knows-what kind of fangs or whatever it is beetles have. He got most of the "country" that's in him from his dad, who heroically rescued me from a roach on the treadmill at the Y this morning, before I even had a chance to cause a screaming scene. I feel like the foster chickens were bad, the gigantic man-eating beetle was worse, but a roach on my treadmill? That's just too much. I think that all my hopes of one day being a country girl just died along with that poor roach who just wanted to get a good workout.

I guess I'll have to just be happy with living the country life vicariously through Merrick...who's been riding a tractor since he could crawl and loves digging with the chickens in the back yard.

Mommy

*Now I know why all the trees change in the fall
I know you were on my side even when I was wrong
And I love you for giving me your eyes

Staying back and watching me shine

And I didn't know if you knew

So I'm taking this chance to say
That I had the best day with you today*

:: Taylor Swift, The Best Day

Her children rise up, and call her blessed;

her husband also, and he praises her.
:: Provers 31:28

Happy Mother's Day, Moms...you're irreplaceable!

This week at i♥faces the theme is "Mom"...check out their site for more shots honoring the Moms in our lives.

Screamo

We've been teaching Merrick to sing "Jesus Loves Me". His grandma's have both been doing a great job of keeping up the practice, and he loves it. He loves to sing songs, and has been doing really great at remembering the words to several songs. We should have known our little wild man would put his own spin on things, however:

We call this the screamo version of "Jesus Loves Me". Although it's not what the grandma's had in mind, I'm thinking it's still sounding great to Jesus. ;)

Friendly Competition

Growing up there was always a festival in the Spring in my home town. It was called the Heart of Virginia Festival. I have so many good memories of hanging out with friends, eating bad food, watching fireworks, etc. This year we made some new memories at the festival.

This year we got talked into running the 10K that is hosted by the festival. I've run 2 other 10K's, one of which was just recently with my husband. So we were both excited *yes, we are some of those crazies who like running, most of the time* to run this one with a bunch of friends/family and a little healthy competition.

We all talked plenty of trash before hand about how we were gonna beat so-in-so...but we really all knew the 2 top contenders were my younger sister, Amanda, and my other sister Anna's fiance. And yes, they both beat the rest of us...but I console myself with the fact that I could see my sister the whole time. Last race we ran together there was no seeing anything but a blur running into the distance.
This race was much more hilly than the race I ran last month, so I was really excited to beat my previous PR despite the hills and dodging a lady who was losing her breakfast because of said hills. *Last race was 47:55, this race was 47:38. I was paced to beat it by more, but I caved and walked up part of a hill. But it was a big hill, ok?*

We all finished and everyone was happy with their times. This is a shot of the whole group...even the hooligans who came out to watch mommy and daddy race. *This was the first time they'd watched us race...I was so excited for them to be there.* Several of us placed in our age groups *I got 2nd in mine...yay!* and all of us were within the top 4 in our age groups. We all were pretty proud of ourselves. And as is customary around here...

...you must have recovery Chick-Fil-A following a race. ;)


This week's theme at You Capture was *Spring...again :)* Check out the link for more shots and blogs!

Whatever You Do...

Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God.
:: 1 Corinthians 10:31

Not sure if that applies to picking your nose...you'll have to pray about that one. ;)