R & R

Bear with me, my posts are a little out of order.


Brian came home for his mid-tour leave in May. He was home for 2 weeks. It was so great to have him here after 7 1/2 months of missing him. We took one quick trip to Kansas City for a Royal's Game and a stay at Great Wolf Lodge. The rest of the time we spent just being at home together.
He surprised the girls at school. They all shed a few tears.


Brianna and Brian in the lazy river.


Brian so proud of Vanessa for catching a delicious bass.
We are looking forward to this fall when he will be home to stay!

Marathon #4

In April my friend Amy and I ran the Nashville Marathon. It was a much needed break for me. As I look back on it the whole training process was a blessing to help me through the first leg of Brian's deployment. Instead of counting down days until I could be with Brian again I was focused on how many weeks I had left to train for the marathon. Like other marathons I've run it's not so much about the event as it is the 4 months that lead up to it. I learned a lot about myself and gained a new friend for life. You can't spend hours and hundreds of miles running together through blistering head/humidity and freezing sub zero temperatures and not become friends. Thanks Amy. - and Cori and Sarah too for inspiring me to even begin this insane addiction.

At the Expo the night before I thought it would be a lot of fun if Amy and I got matching temporary tattoos. I look tough right? Okay, maybe not but it was pretty funny...until the next day. I neglected to use sunscreen so today (2 months later) I still have a now white 26.2 burned into my skin. Hmmm, I think I'll rethink that next time.
Speaking of the heat...the day of the marathon was record setting temps with the heat index being 100 in some places on the course. Needless to say my performance wasn't great, but a good memory anyway.

My partner in insanity and me in Nashville. I was almost as excited to buy a hat as I was to run the marathon.
I get the question a lot lately "so what's your next marathon?" To answer...it will be a different kind of marathon - birth. Yea, We're expecting baby #4 in February.

DAD OF THE YEAR

WHEN GOD MADE FATHERS.

When the good Lord was creating Fathers, He started with a tall frame. An angel nearby said, "What kind of a Father is that? If you're going to make children so close to the ground, why have you put the Father up so high? He won't be able to shoot marbles without kneeling, play pretend drinking tea, and kiss dolly goodnight, tuck a child in bed without bending, or even kiss a child without stooping?" God smiled and said, "Yes, but if I make him child size, who would children have to look up to?"

And when God made a Father's hands, they were large. The angel said, "Large hands can't manage diaper pins, small buttons, rubber bands on pony tails, or even remove splinters caused from baseball bats." Again God smiled and said, "I know, but they're large enough to hold everything a small boy empties from his pockets and a little girls paper dolls and jump rope, and to teach her to turn cartwheels, yet small enough to cup a child's face in them."

Then God molded long slim legs and broad shoulders, "Do you realize you just made a Father without a lap?" the angel chuckled. God said, "A Mother needs a lap. A Father needs strong shoulders to pull a wagon, to balance a bicycle, or to hold a sleepy head on the way home from the circus."

When God was in the middle of creating the biggest body any one had ever seen, the angel said, "That's not fair. Do you honestly think that form is going to get out of bed early in the morning when the baby cries, or walk through a birthday party without crushing one or two of the guests?" God again smiled and said, "It will work. You will see. It will support a small child who wants to ride to Banbury Cross or scare mice away from a summer cabin , or walk in shoes that will be a challenge to fill."

God worked throughout the night, giving the Father few words, but a firm authoritative voice; eyes that see everything, but remain calm and tolerant. Finally, almost as an afterthought, He added tears. Then he turned to the angel and said, "Now are you satisfied he can love as much as a Mother can?"
The angel said nothing more.

~~By Erma Bombeck.~~

Happy Easter

"Rain, rain, go away come again another day." The Easter Bunny just left the baskets on the porch. I guess he didn't want to be out in the rain.

I didn't have enough time before church to get pictures of the girls. As luck would have it it rained HARD as we were leaving the Gardner's Home where we enjoyed a yummy dinner. So, just imagine fresh curls and clean faces.




This picture was fun to take. I had it on the timer, the dog was curious and kept getting in front of the shot. It's not a great picture, but we're all looking and the camera and Havana got out of the way.

Heart Attack!

The Young Women in our ward are SO awesome! A couple of weeks ago I was having an exceptionally bad day. Just as I was beginning the long and dreaded process of getting the kids to bed there was a knock at the door and this is what we found.

I think there were over 200 hearts.

THANK YOU GIRLS!

Brianna

Brianna has glasses! She has been so grown up about the responsibility of wearing glasses, she also "gets" to wear a patch for 4 hours each day. We should know in a couple of weeks if the her weaker eye is making any progress.
The day I took these pictures Brianna had an appointment at the mall to have her pictures taken. Due to an unexpected power outage that lasted most of the day her appointment was canceled. Brianna was all dressed up with nowhere to go, so we snapped a couple of pics in the parking lot.

Some of Everything

We had lots of visitors in January, and we LOVED it! Dad patched bike tires, hung shelves, repaired furniture, and even repaired an airplane. It's always great to have your Mom around.


This is Vanessa and Mrs Lowman, her 3rd grade teacher, at the Northview Spelling Bee.


We had a first this month. Amelia was our 1st to get stitches. When all was said and done it wasn't too bad, only 2 stitches. She slipped and fell on the metal slide during lunch recess. Poor little Millie, she was so brave though. As you can see she was less than excited for me to take this picture of her.


Mmm, mmm, mmm! I miss this guy so much. We tease Brian that he's really not deployed, he's just taking a year long vacation at a desert resort. All the pictures we've seen of him recently are of him running 5k's with palm trees in the background or holding one of these GIGANTIC fish he pulls out of the lake there. Really though, we're glad he's found a little fun while in Iraq.

30 Years Wise

Thanks Anna for making my birthday GREAT!

A few months ago a cute little Girl Scout and her older brother came by selling cookies (of course I bought several boxes). We were chatting as I was filling out the order form. I asked her brother if he went to the middle school. He looked at me with a 'you've got to be joking' look and said, "umm...(eye roll)I'm a senior". Well....so he looked about 10ish years younger than me. Wouldn't that make him 13? Oh, I guess not. Oh well, I'm getting use to the big 3-0, it would help if people would stop calling me ma'am though.

"Dear Santa..."

These pictures were taken at our church Christmas party. On the way home the girls concluded that it was NOT the real Santa and was just one of his helpers. Hmmm, maybe Santa's beard falling off had something to do with that.

She Did It!

I love this little girl! So, this is kind of old news, but I had to let it be known that Amelia is a big girl too.