Thankful Thursday

Things I am thankful for this week:


* Sweet gap-toothed grins from my little monkey (even if they are at 5:45 a.m.)
* Four-day weekends with the Daddy home
* Safety of all of my family and friends this week during the storms - many were not so lucky
* A running buddy who is persistent in getting me out the door to run
* Early bedtimes!  Goodnight!!!

Thankful Thursday (on Friday)

In keeping with my theme of doing EVERYTHING late, I'm joining my friend AM in doing Thankful Thursdays. Here's an excerpt from her blog, explaining what it's about:


"Every day there are obvious things to be thankful for, but I want to increasingly note the small, seemingly minuscule, gifts of each day. And then work to make a habit of writing a few down each day in my journal. Beginning and ending the day with my heart and mind focused on thankfulness, and what I do have vs. what I don't. I love this quote from one of my favorite bible study books: "Two women looked through prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars". What a difference our perspective makes!"


Each Thursday she's going to post some of the things she's been thankful for that day/week and she's invited us to join in.  So I'm going to!  It's really amazing what an attitude shift you can have by being thankful, even when it doesn't appear at first glance that there's anything to be thankful for.  Example: These days I am frequently aggravated about having to get out of the house so it can be shown, and having to take Milo and Kona with me and go drive around or impose on friends for hours at a time.  The other day as I was sitting in the car with a screaming baby and a crying dog I was just about at the end of my rope and thought hey, I am thankful I have a house at all.  I am thankful that we have a dog that keeps us company and entertains us.  I am thankful that we have this sweet baby boy because look how much more wonderful our lives are since we've had him.  After this particular exercise I was much more calm and had a different perspective on the situation.  I'm not saying it was permanent - but it's a start!  So I'm going to join in on Thursdays (or whatever day I get around to it) and post something(s) I'm thankful for!

• My handsome husband of FOUR YEARS
• Yummy pizza and apple pie for anniversary dinner
• 20 whole minutes to sit on the couch with my beloved and talk before we were interrupted by a teething baby (I've discovered time to have an adult conversation without yelling over a boisterous 10 month old is rare)

Happy Anniversary!

Four years ago today I married this guy:

Best. Decision. Ever.  I mean look, he can make a perfect ice cream cone, 

he puts the dog in his coat to keep him warm: 

he takes me to concerts even when I think he'd rather be at home (that pic was taken the day before we found out for sure I was pregnant!):

he still loves to play with Legos:

he goes on vacation with my entire family FOR A WHOLE WEEK:

And he's the best Daddy too!  

The last four years haven't always been easy, but he's always been there with a joke or a tickle to make me laugh, a kind word even when I didn't deserve kindness, hugs when I'm hurting, and more patience than anyone I've ever met.  I definitely got the better end of this deal.  I don't think he reads this but Happy Anniversary to my sweet husband!

 Photo by Audrey Loney

 Photo by Audrey Loney

Photo by Audrey Loney 

Photo by Frankie Allen

Nursery pics

A couple of weeks ago my lovely and talented middle sister came over to do my hair and take some pics of Milo in his nursery before we (hopefully) move (hair AND photography - I told you she was talented!).  Here are the pics - SO sweet!  Thanks Aud!

10 Months!

Lord have mercy - how do I get so far behind???  Nearly two weeks ago Milo turned 10 months old.  I'm really not sure what all he's started doing since he turned 9 months - I'm really terrible at this recording his childhood business.  He's started consistently waving (and sometimes saying) bye bye, he still does the army crawl but is VERY fast (he's trying to chase Kona now and it won't be long before he can catch him!), he still plays peek-a-boo (by placing a blanket, burp rag, etc. over his head and then flailing his arms and legs as fast as they'll go while we say "Where's Milo" and then pulling the cloth off of his head), and we started a mom and tot swim class with some friends to get him used to the water and he seems to really enjoy it (most nights).  He nearly weighs 20 lbs now - he's quite a hefty smurf!  He continues to be a happy baby most of the time, exceptions being when his teeth are hurting, and when Daddy leaves in the morning.  He LOOOOOOVES his Daddy.

I think that's about it - I've attached some pics from our 10 month photo shoot, as well as some pics from swim class.  Hard to believe we're about to celebrate his first birthday! 

Easter

It just occurred to me that I never posted Easter pics! So here we go.

On Saturday morning Nathan made waffles and we had friends over for breakfast and egg dyeing. Milo was a big helper:

The finished product:

Saturday night we had a talent show at church. Milo wore his "My First Easter" shirt:

Sunday morning we got up and Milo had goodies from the Easter Bunny! He got a new toy, some new pacifiers, some lotion for his sensitive skin, and a new hat for the beach this summer!

Then it was off to church. We got a pic of Milo with his buddies that were born near the same time as him (one a couple months before, one a couple months after) - aren't they sweet!

Then it was back home for a "photo shoot" with mom and dad - this first one pretty much says it all "seriously mom, what are you guys doing???":

Sadly, the only family pic we took was with my phone and the quality is awful. We did take one at church so I'm hoping it turned out...I'll post it later if I can get it!

As Grandpa would have said...HAPPY EASTER EGGS!

OKC Memorial Marathon

This past Sunday was the OKC Memorial Marathon. (In the interest of full disclosure, I did not run the actual full marathon, only the half.) This race is held each year to remember those individuals lost in the bombing of the OKC Federal Building on April 19, 1995.

It's one of those "I remember where I was" events - I was a senior in high school and was actually in OKC that morning for an orthodontist appt. I got to drive (with mom riding with me) so I got to choose the radio station and of course I chose The KATT. I still remember a guy interrupting the broadcast, he was one of their employees and happened to be downtown doing something and called in to say there seemed to have been some sort of explosion. We listened to things unfold as we were driving home and when I got there we flipped on the TV and continued to watch the coverage. It was an awful event. This was when "the Oklahoma Standard" was seen on the national stage. People helping complete strangers, jumping in and doing whatever it took to clean up, etc.

I believe it was five years after the actual event before the marathon was started, but this race is the main source of funding for the OKC National Memorial. I will DEFINITELY be participating in this one again. There were around 25,000 people running in the full marathon, half marathon, marathon relay, 5k, or kids marathon. The weather was atrocious - for the first time in race history they actually had to delay the start because of lightning on the course. It was supposed to start at 6:30 - you'll see in the first pic below that the clock says 6:00. We had actually already been downtown once, heard about the delayed start, and come back home because of the rain (and the fact that we are only minutes from the start line). We settled in to watch the weather and at 6:40 headed back downtown. We got there and Nathan dropped off me and one of our friends and he and Milo headed back home to stay warm and dry!

This is a pic of the TV screen - how Nathan and Milo "watched" me (I can assure you I was nowhere NEAR the front of this mass of people - I was in back with the slow folks). You can see from the pic though that the weather was horrid - raining and the temp was around 50 degrees, with winds 10-20 mph I believe. The temperature only dropped throughout the morning so that by the time I was done it was 45 degrees.

Nathan and Milo watching the race on TV:

I finished in 3:00:26 - a full 18 minutes faster than my time at the A2A half marathon! I don't know if anyone that reads this blog was a volunteer or knows a volunteer, but I need to say a HUGE THANK YOU to those folks. They were out there in gross weather cheering and directing traffic and handing out water and oranges and Powerade and pretzels and all manner of things and they were probably the only reason this girl finished! Between mile 11 and 13, the race course goes ONE BLOCK from our house and let me tell you, after more than 2.5 hours of being alone and seeing no one that I knew, I was over it. But I passed a course marshal who saw my OSU hat and said (as I was walking for a second before my final run to the finish line) "Cowboys don't walk! Cowboys don't walk!" and I took off and that's really probably the only reason I finished at 3 hours even! Seriously though, the volunteers and the people who were just out cheering even if they didn't know anyone were a HUGE help!

Me after N picked me up - you can see it's still raining:

N wanted to take this downtown "around all the people" but I couldn't feel my fingers or toes at this point and just wanted to go home so we took my "after" pic on the front porch:

If you're ever looking for a race of any distance, this one has them all and it's probably the best one I've ever participated in, and that's something considering the conditions this year! I had a great time, the other runners were great, and it was for a great cause!