Running Fools

Lately my husband has taken up a new hobby. Running. For years I have tried, begged and pleaded to get him to run with me. There is something that has been motivating him lately to get running, though. He is getting addicted to race competition. I've run a few races since I starting running, and the adrenaline and energy is definitely addicting. We've run 3 races together since I had Tirzah last summer.
Both of the previous races had been 5K's...both of which he soundly beat me. Last Saturday morning, though, we ran a local 10K together. I was pretty sure this race was going to have the same outcome. I am the tortoise. Well...I am not that slow, but I prefer long and slow runs to fast and short. Sprint really isn't in my vocab.
We were huddled together on the starting line, in the 30 degree weather. Our wave started and he took off. I thought I'd seen the last of him for the next 6.2 miles. I got about halfway through the race, though, and caught up to a familiar looking guy who had a really bad cramp. I mistook his "I have a cramp" face, for "I am not happy to see you" face. So I kept on running past him and his apparently cranky self.

We found each other, and figured out the facial expression misunderstanding, at the finish line. ;) He didn't end up finishing too far behind me, and had an awesome time for his first 6.2 miles ever. I'm so proud of him! *His time was 50:55. My time was 47:55, which was my fastest ever. So excited!* We are planning on running another race together *also a 10K* in about a month.

I'm glad that we are both enjoying this running thing together. I am hoping that it gets in his blood like mine, and we can keep it up until somebody's pushing somebody's wheelchair in a 10K. :)

This week You Capture theme was "feet". Check out the site for more feet shots!

Lunch Break

For the record...I don't usually stand on our table. But what the heck...it made them laugh. ;) Gotta keep things interesting. Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

Check out Communal Global for more shots of what "today" looks like.

My Corner Office

Even though sometimes I whine about how hard it is, being a SAHM does have it's perks. My bosses do not care if I wear my pajamas all day or forget to put on my make-up.

I know it's not what everyone wants to do, and years ago I would have said it definitely wasn't meant for me. But when I think about it...I'd rather spend the day with this guy than anywhere in the world. For some, the corner office is their happy place...for me it's the backyard. ;)

*A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.*

This week at i ♥ faces the theme is "Dramatic Black and White". Check out their site for some great shots!

The 11th Commandment

Sometimes blogging gets me into trouble. Not because I say things I shouldn't or anything. I don't think anyway. But mostly because when I attempt to do it while Merrick is still awake, and not strapped in to something, I end up with some kind of mess to clean up. Sometimes I just get an idea and don't want to let it float off into oblivion...but maybe I should just try leaving myself future blog post notes or something.

I thought that Merrick was occupied. Tirzah was happily rolling around on the floor. Rolling is her favorite means of transportation these days. Merrick was watching Jungle Book *for the 1,437,645th time* and eating cheez-its. I thought I had a few seconds to upload some pictures and write a little. The problem? I didn't think there was one until I went to run some bath water a while later.
I thought I had cheated the system this once. Blog post done, kids still alive, house not burned down, people happily eating formula and cheez-its...it's a good night. I knew Merrick was playing in my trunk of "clothes I don't really wear but keep cuz I feel bad getting rid of them". He plays in there alot. It keeps him busy, and keeps him out of greater evils...like the drawers where I keep my real clothes.

But I didn't realize he had relocated my ex-wardrobe to the bathtub. He did this right under my nose and I didn't even notice. Sneaky sneaky. Kind of embarrassing, too. Because I should learn my lesson by now:

Thou shalt not blog, or breathe, when Merrick is on the loose.

In the Moment

I feel like winter has finally moved on. We've been having awesome weather...in the 60's and 70's. *I know chilly temps will return, but at least there's hope.* The kind of weather that makes people come out of the cracks after the long winter. I always tell my husband they remind me of reverse termites...running for the light. ;)

One one really nice day last week *St. Patty's Day* me and then kids just hung out around the house with the windows open, and on the back porch dodging the rocks that Merrick will not stop throwing out of the driveway. We didn't go anywhere, or have anything in particular to do but wear green bibs. Well, Tirzah wore a green bib, I didn't. But with the mess she makes on me maybe I should reconsider. Bibs all around.

It was pretty relaxing as far as life with a 2 year old and an 8 month old goes. I am looking forward to more of this nice weather so that the yard can help me out with watching the kids, the one that climbs everything in particular. Trees were meant for climbing, my desk was not.

The lazy day I spent with the kids made me really appreciate the time we are going to have together this spring/summer now that I'm able to be home with them all week, which can at the same time make me insane if they play their cards right. ;)

No, I really am looking forward to it. I kind of missed last summer cuz I was so hugely pregnant with Tirzah. Glad that she is here now, and I'm sure my body temperature come August will be glad too.

Messes can be cute.

Miss Tirzah is now officially "eating" finger foods, eating being code for smearing them all over her body. Baby girl is getting so big. Before I know it I'll be leaving her in a dorm room somewhere. ;)

Ya see, Mom...

He spent all afternoon the other day, while we were out shopping, convincing me that he should be able to go play outside. ("Oh, Merrick go pay owsize.") Of course I don't mind...but we had to get home first. So once we finished up our shopping...I unleashed the beast. He wasted no time finding the largest mud puddle in the yard. Awesome.

I have been so glad for the better weather we've been having lately that I don't even mind that he seems magnetically drawn to dirt. Plus he's just so cute when he's trying to talk me into something, like how he needs to be in that mud puddle...darn those baby blues. ;)

This week at i ♥ faces the theme was "angels". Check out their site for more shots!

It's a Conspiracy.

I often hear that my little guy and my husband look a lot a like. You can't tell their baby pictures apart very easily. Earlier when they were making funny faces at themselves in the mirror and I was able to sneak a few shots of some Daddy & Merrick time.

I think my two guys are pretty handsome. Crazy, but handsome. ;)

I also should add that I always hear that my little girl looks just like her daddy, too. What do I have to do to get a kid that looks like me around here. I mean, it's not like I carried them around for 9 months each or anything. You'd think I'd have dibs. ;) They both even went so far as to have blue eyes like Billy...mine are green & brown. Maybe I'll get lucky and one of them will at least be a leftie like mom. Cuz I'm beginning to suspect a conspiracy.

Your Hands

I have unanswered prayers
I have trouble I wish wasn't there
And I have asked a thousand ways
That You would take my pain away

I am trying to understand
How to walk this weary land
Make straight the paths that crookedly lie
Oh Lord, before these feet of mine

When You walked upon the Earth
You healed the broken, lost, and hurt
I know You hate to see me cry
One day You will set all things right
Yea, one day You will set all things right

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave Your hands

Your hands
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still
Your hands that shape the world
Are holding me, they hold me still

When my world is shaking
Heaven stands
When my heart is breaking
I never leave...
I never leave Your hands
/ JJ Heller


This week's theme at You Capture was "Reaching". Check out the link for more photos and blogs.

Girl Time

Usually in the afternoon Tirzah wakes up from her nap before Merrick. This is kind of nice...it eases me back into the chaos of the hooligans one at a time.

We had a little girl time before Merrick woke up ready to take on the world. She's getting so big...sitting up so well...and making some of the cutest faces ever.
She is the little princess around here, and she knows it. She sometimes tries to be sneaky about it...acting like a little drama queen during the day, and smiling like a little angel when her daddy walks in the door at night. He totally falls for it. ;)
He is catching on though...because sometimes when she gives him that big grin he says "you must have been rotten today". ;)

You wouldn't know it from these pictures, though...all dimples and baby blues. Who me? Mom, I am never a drama queen. Now where is my dinner?

Chasing Daylight

Now that I've semi-recovered from the coveted-yet-lost hour of sleep, I'm so excited about there being more light to play in. We've been cooped up, bundled up, wrapped up and huddled up all winter, and are ready for Spring. Merrick went from hating this hat...to wanting to wear it even this past week, which was full of 60 degree weather. Oh well, who am I to tell a 2 year old what he should and shouldn't wear? Pardon me, sir. ;)

I plan on putting our extra hour of sunshine to good use. Hopefully this will make for worn out children when it finally does get dark. ;) Hope that everyone else gets a chance to get outside and enjoy the great weather, too.

This week at i ♥ faces the theme was "bundled up". Wouldn't ya know the warmest weather we've had in months happens to fall on this week...ironic. ;) Check out their site for more great shots and blogs!

True Love...

...is when your hubby will take you to see a Chick Flick without being nagged, or even asked for that matter. Yesterday Billy took me to see Remember Me. I'd been seeing the trailer on TV for a few days, and he must have noticed my ears perking up every time it came on. I usually watch TV out of the corner of my eye, doing something else. I can't really stand sitting still staring at it for that long. As much as I love American Idol...I rarely even watch that. I mostly just listen and yell out my expert opinion from other rooms of the house.

I've really enjoyed reading/watching the Twilight series and was interested to see how Robert Pattinson did in a movie where he wasn't trying to avoid eating his girlfriend. I think we were both pretty impressed with his acting skills...he was pretty funny in parts of this movie. *Other than some language and a few "skin scenes" as Billy dubs them we both really enjoyed it.* Don't wanna ruin the movie for anyone who may be going to see it...but the end was a total surprise. It took me about an hour to decide that I was ok with the ending...and that the writer didn't need my assistance to change it.

Billy, of course, loved the ending...and was ranting on and on about redemptive qualities. I said poo on redemptive qualities...I'm just a girl who likes a sappy happy love story. ;) Anyway...after seeing it I'm curious to know how people feel about the ending of a movie. So I'm putting up a little poll on the side of my blog. Check it out if you get a second...also if you've seen the movie let me know what you thought, too. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Stroller Derby

The weather this week has been wonderful. It seems even nicer I think after the piles of white stuff we've been buried under for months. I have had the windows open, in the house and the car, as much as possible. Much to Merrick's dismay...he hates the car windows open. It messes up his hair. It takes a lot of work to get that hair-do. ;)

I finally took the kids on a walk for the first time since it got too cold for the 3 of us. It had probably been since last fall sometime. Not much has changed except how big Tirzah has gotten. Merrick still treats a walk like an off-roading event...or the X-Games as you can see. Straps and buckles were made for this guy. But at the same time, straps just don't seem to cut it. The things he's gotten out of...

He kept himself busy telling me where I should drive the stroller, as you can see from the pointing going on in the above shot. Most of the routes he thought we should take involved muddy driveways that I don't live on, grassy shoulders that look like way more of a workout than I wanted, and rocks. (PLEASE, Mommy...drive through the rocks.)

When he wasn't being a backseat stroller-driver...he was making the above face at passing cars, and yelling "what's doing?!". I'm his mother, so I think it's cute. But, when I look at it in this picture? It's kind of scary. Kind of like he's thinking about eating our neighbors. I do hope they didn't get the wrong idea about us...we really are nice people. Pardon the child standing on his stroller seat grimacing, eh I mean smiling. ;)

Tirzah was just along for the ride. Only screamed at me a few times when her carseat hood was not in the appropriate spot to the queen's liking. Hoping for a few more days of this great weather...and a few more walks. Maybe I'll call the neighbors ahead of time to warn them. ;)

Before and Happily Ever After

My baby sister got married almost a week ago. It's hard to believe. I remember late nights when we used to be in high school/middle school, staying up late talking in the room that we shared. We actually slept in the same bed for awhile...which led to many middle-of-the-night kicking wars. She coughs in her sleep...I apparently punch people in my sleep. You get the picture.

I think it'll be nice to have a sibling who's married...so now my husband won't be the only one looking like a deer in the headlights on family vacations. Kidding...both of our husbands handle our family very well, considering it's made up mostly of loud, opinionated females.

Last week we had a "family day" getting the church all set up for her wedding. It was nice to hang out, joke around, and be as we have been for one more day. Things will be completely different, in a good got-a-new-brother-to-torture kind of way, when she gets back from her honeymoon this weekend. It was nice to be together before all the loud busy-ness of the actual wedding day. Wedding days are always a wonderful busy blur...so it was the calm before the storm. If anything my family does is calm, that is. ;)

I am so excited for her and Jonathan. I can't wait till they get back and we all get to hang out some more. Jonathan is totally a trooper when it comes to my family, and we all can't remember the two of them not together.

They'll be living not too far from us, so while Amanda and I won't be kicking and punching each other in our sleep anymore, we'll be close enough for hanging out. I am praying for the two of them...especially Jonathan, who is now the object of Amanda's sleep-kicking. ;)

This week's You Capture theme was "Quiet"...check out the link for more great shots and blogs!