The Dicks Family's Blog

Why I have a dog

2010-06-14T21:07:00.005-04:00

This is our dog, Lyra:

I am not a dog person. Dogs have smelly breath, and they pant in your face with it, and they drool, and they jump on you - especially when their paws are muddy. And if they're small enough to fit in your lap, they're yippy. And if they're large enough to not be yippy, they're big enough to knock you down if they jump on you...I could go on and on.

No offense to my friends who are dog people. I know a lot of you aren't cat people, and, even though I'm a cat person, I think we can still love each other despite our differences. Actually, to be more accurate, until I had Elizabeth, I was a cat person. Now, I'm afraid to admit, but I'm not currently really any kind of animal person - except maybe a stuffed animal person. Right now, I just don't see a need to have anything else that requires a single moment of my already over-stretched time.

But, back to the dog thing. A major change in our household happened at the beginning of 2006. Through a strange chain of events, we got a dog. Not just any dog. I have to admit, she really is (99% of the time) about the best behaved dog that you ever will meet. But, she is also a dog with really long white hair - that no matter what we do seems to spread itself across every inch of our house, especially when it blows out in chunks twice a year. A dog that barks for up to 30 minutes straight when the garage door goes down and I'm alone in the house trying to work. A dog that throws up (or worse) every time there's a thunderstorm and we're not home. A dog that has scratched my new hardwood floors and ruined my carpet.

Why, you ask, did I get this dog that I so obviously can't stand? I got this dog, not because I'm a dog person (as previously explained), but because I am a "Jonathan" person. Jonathan is my 16yo stepson. But, I just can't seem to call him that. To me, he's just my son. I'm not trying to take the place of his mother, who he still loves and sees as much as he can, but I also don't feel like "stepson" adequately sums up the feelings I have for him.

Jonathan has lived with me (and his father, of course) full-time, except for school holidays and occasional weekends, since he was 10 years old. When I married his father, I committed to love the TWO of them - through the good times and the bad times. And, as anyone who has a teenage son knows, there are plenty of both to go around. I have to admit, it can be a struggle every time we have to repeat the monotonous conversation about making sure his homework is turned in on time. And, he probably doesn't realize it, but grounding him is often more of a punishment for us than for him. But, fortunately, there are many other things about him that make him easy to love - like when I see what a wonderful sense of humor he has developed, how incredible he is with his younger sister, or how thoughtful and generous he has become. I'm blessed to be allowed to spend so much time with him and have him as part of my family. His father and I are both very proud of his accomplishments and the young man he has become - and we look forward to watching him truly claim all of his potential and become the man God intended him to be as he continues to grow and mature.

It would be an understatement to tell you that Jonathan is a person of very few words. As one of his teachers once told us, he acts like words are in short commodity, and tries to use as few of them as possible (at least with adults). Sometimes (ok, all the time), this can make conversations difficult. It can be unnerving to try to start conversations, only to get such short, brief, seemingly uninterested answers. But, I have decided that this is just a communication barrier that exists between us. One that I hope will someday disappear, as he feels more comfortable opening up to and talking to me, but one that is still there right now. So, while it's difficult for me to tell him how I feel about him, due to our extreme differences in conversation styles, I have decided to show him in the only concrete way I have found so far. I have a dog. Not because I love dogs. Not because I even like dogs. But, because I love my son Jonathan. More than I have the courage to tell him. But, if he ever wonders how I feel about him, he just has to look into those two big eyes of that adorable pooch, and know that my actions are speaking louder than my words ever could. Jonathan, I love you. And, that is why I have a dog.

Because, sometimes being a mother (or stepmother) means that a smile on your child's face is worth infinitely more than a smile on your own.

The color of friendship

2010-05-05T20:48:00.018-04:00

I recently finished reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I really enjoyed the book, and it left me with two thoughts. First, I really wished I could have given this book to my grandmother, Mother Dot, to read. I think she would have enjoyed remembering the time period in which it was written, plus it reminded me a lot of her favorite book of all time, "To Kill a Mockingbird," which she read about once a month up until the time she died at age 98.

But, most of all, it made me thankful that I did not grow up in a time period, region, or most of all, family, that taught me that people were inferior because their skin color was different than mine. As parents, we are the most influential people in our childrens' lives. And what we say and do is watched, learned, and imitated by our children even when we don't realize it.

While reading this book, I realized that my parents were raised in roughly the same time period as I was reading about. They both spent all or portions of their childhood in southern states. Yet, they both managed to learn, and teach to their children, that a person's skin color does not determine their worth. I am thankful to my parents for this.

To be honest, I can never remember my parents having a conversation with me about how I should treat people that have a different skin color than mine. In our household, it was just expected that you treated everyone the same - black, white, or green, it didn't matter. My parents never had to sit down and tell me this, because that's how they acted to everyone around them. Unlike many of the people around them, my parents had no problem sending their children to an inner city school. And, that is something I am very thankful for. Because while attending that school, I learned that there are nice people, and not so nice people, in every so-called category (geeks, preps, jocks, rich, poor, whites, blacks, etc.). And that knowledge encouraged me to seek out friendships in places I might have been hesitant to do so otherwise.

Which leads me to another lesson on this subject that I have learned recently - not from my parents, but from my daughter. My daughter's best friend, Anna, lives around the corner from us. The two girls love each other so much, and it's so sweet to watch them together. Ever since Elizabeth was barely able to walk, as soon as these two girls saw each other, they would start running toward each other and hug and jump around together - and they still do. Anna is the sweetest girl you will ever meet, with a beautiful smile that lights up a room. And, she is black.

Here are pictures of the two girls from September 2008:

And again two years later at Elizabeth's 5th birthday party:

A while back, after playing with Anna, Elizabeth came to me looking very sad. I asked her what was wrong, and she said, "Mommy, Anna looks very different than me." My heart sank a little bit hearing those words. I was worried that she had somehow picked up on the world's view of their "differences" and it would taint the beauty of their friendship. But, I put on a smile, and asked her, "Oh, yeah? What do you think is different?" And then she sighed, as if it was hard to have such a dunce for a parent (come to think of it, it was very similar to the sigh I often get from my teenager!). She shrugged her shoulders, and in a voice that portrayed this was the most obvious thing in the world, she said, "Haven't you noticed? Anna's hair is curly, and my hair is straight!" I laughed out loud in relief when she said this. Then, explained to her that God makes hair in all different colors and textures, and everyone's hair is beautiful in its own special way.

To this day, Elizabeth has never once mentioned the fact that Anna has a different skin color than her. Instead, when she looks at Anna, she doesn't notice if she's black or white. She just sees her best friend.

Recently, Elizabeth and I were playing a game where I would say a feeling or thing, and she would tell me what color it reminded her of. Some of the answers were easy for her (i.e., blue = sad), while others were harder (i.e., proud). One in particular that stumped her was the word, "friend." (She ended up picking pink, because it's her favorite color.) But, later, when I thought about it, I realized that there is a better answer for the word "friend." To me, the color of true friendship is "clear." With a true friend, you don't have to paint yourself a certain color - they see you exactly the way you are, and love you anyway. I've had to learn this lesson the hard way in life on a few occasions, when I've found out that people I thought were friends really were not. But, it's amazing to me that my young daughter is the one who has demonstrated this principle for me most vividly. When she looks at her best friend, she doesn't see her as "black" or "white" - just as "Anna." And, that's exactly the way it should be.

5th birthday letter

2010-05-04T21:12:00.003-04:00

Dear Elizabeth,

When you were about to turn 1 year old, I decided I would write you a letter for each of your birthdays, so some day you could go back and read about what you were like at that age, and be reminded of how much I’ve always loved you. I can’t believe it’s already time to sit down and write Version 5 of the birthday letters, but it’s true – your 5th birthday is only 2 days away.

This year has been such a wonderful year with you. You’re about to graduate from preschool, and are so excited to be signed up to start kindergarten in August. In fact, you were so disappointed that you couldn’t start the day we signed you up! Your only consolation was the knowledge that your cousin Brooke had to wait to start kindergarten too. (Yes, you’ve inherited our family’s competitive gene as well.) I, on the other hand, find it very bittersweet to think of that day rapidly approaching. I know you will run into the school, excited about all the possibilities, while I will wave goodbye and try not to cry, wondering how my baby girl could be so big and grown up already.

But, in fact, there is very little about you that is “babyish” anymore. Of all your baby talk, the only word that you still use is “butcept” (instead of except), and I can’t bear to tell you the real word, because then all of your baby ways will be completely gone.

Sometimes, I find it hard to believe that you are my daughter. I was always such a shy child, while you’re eager to go to the park and play with any new friend you meet that day. I was a tomboy, while you are such a girly-girl. In fact, you are now giving me fashion advice, and even making sure my shoes and necklaces match my outfits before I leave the house. For you, the highlight of turning 5 has been getting your ears pierced and showing off your new sparkly pink earrings, while I still have yet to get my ears pierced, even as an adult. But, even with those differences, we are still very alike in other ways. I still refer to you as my “mini-me,” because there is such an unmistakable family resemblance. You even got your hair cut like mine earlier this year, because you wanted to be “just like Mommy.” And, we both love to read, sing, act goofy, and just spend time with each other. I’m pleased to know that I’m still your favorite playmate, and try to cherish the time we spend together, because I know your opinion of me may change drastically in just a few short years. I still have to be away from you more than I want to because of work, but I hope you will remember the many fun times we have together - shopping trips, makeovers, cooking, games, etc. – instead of the times I was away.

This year, your empathy and compassion have grown even more than your physical stature. You have learned how to relate to other people, and your sensitive nature shines through in your relationships. You have cried the hardest this year on the few occasions when you realized you had unintentionally hurt someone else’s feelings. I am so proud of you for already having learned the lesson that your words and actions can cause great joy or great sorrow, and your sweet nature makes you strive to bring joy to those around you.

It has also brought me great joy this year to watch you learn more about Jesus Christ – and fall in love with him. You have openly invited him to live in your heart, and at any time during the day, you will ask us to stop and pray with you. I know God smiles at your sweet prayers just as much as I do. Every day, you remind me of God’s miracles all around us. And the excitement you experience as you learn about Jesus is a good reminder to me of the excitement I need to have for our Savior as well. Even before you were born, your father and I were praying that you would love Jesus. And it is so exciting for us to be able to witness that prayer being answered.

You are my precious baby girl. (And I’m the only one you still let call you that. To everyone else, you are a BIG girl…) I love you so much. Thank you for letting me see the world through your eyes, and making me a better person because of it.

Happy Birthday, Libby Lou. I love you!

Mommy

Winter fun

2010-01-07T19:42:00.013-05:00

All of Lexington has been excited this week because a "winter storm" was predicted for today. The schools were closed today, before even a single snowflake had fallen. The snow started falling lightly this morning - right in the middle of my run, of course - and really didn't stop for the rest of the day. All told, it looks like we got about 3 inches of snow at our house - which isn't too shabby for Kentucky, but a far cry from the dire predictions they were throwing around at the beginning of the week.

Elizabeth spent a good portion of the morning staring out our front window, waiting for there to be enough snow to go sledding.

In the afternoon, we finally decided there was enough snow on the ground to tackle Stonewall Hill, the very large hill at our local elementary school. One of the perks of me working from home was that I got to take a late lunch and tag along on the sledding expedition.

We have a new sled this year, which is super fast and fortunately evened out all the bumps and dips in the big hill - something David and I quickly realized as soon as we went down on our older, less shock-absorbent sled, which quickly reminded me that I am getting very old. The sledding was really great! There was just enough snow falling to keep the hill from being too crowded, and to keep the runs super slick. Elizabeth loved sledding, and took several turns going down with each of us. She still wasn't quite brave enough to go down on her own yet - mainly due to the combination of the creek at the bottom of the hill and the swiftness of the sled. Several times she had David go to the bottom of the hill to catch her, only to chicken out at the last minute and have me slide down with her. She ultimately decided that she would tackle the hill by herself next year. And, David and I successfully managed to keep us all out of the creek, even though it meant slamming on the brakes or bailing out of the sled at the last minute on a few occasions.

Elizabeth even managed to sucker David into pulling her UP the hill several times. But, for some reason, he never would do that for me...

The fun of the day was rounded out with a few snowball fights:

Elizabeth was also excited to get to catch the snowflakes in her mouth as they were falling:

There's a lot more snow on the ground now, so I'm sure she'll have even more fun playing in it tomorrow.

After the sledding fun, we all had the requisite hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows. Then, tonight, we made "snow ice cream." Elizabeth's preschool teacher had told them about making snow ice cream in class, and she wanted to try some.

Fortunately, the bowl we placed outside had collected quite a bit of snow, so we got to try several colors. Elizabeth insisted on making yellow snow for herself (even after I told her what yellow snow usually signifies).

David wanted his to be "natural" color. Of course, he didn't realize that when you add vanilla to the mix, that makes it brown. I guess there is something worse than yellow snow!

I chose to honor the amazing 2009-2010 as-yet undefeated UK basketball team with beautiful blue:

Now that looks like the color of champions to me!

Caution: Hang at your own risk

2009-12-02T06:56:00.015-05:00

Fellow citizens of Christmastreetown,

It is with a sad heart that we must report to you that several vicious assaults have occurred on our citizens as they hung out in the below-the-tree (BTT) area of town. So far, all of the attacks have occurred late at night, when the local policemen have been off-duty. Upon returning to the area, the police have found once proud citizens injured and lying on the streets.

Here are some sample photos of one of our dear citizens both before and after the brutal attacks:

While none of the injuries have been life-threatening to-date, the psychological harm inflicted upon our citizens by these attacks may last through many Christmas seasons to come. Even our own treasured king and queen have fallen prey:

We have noticed a marked decrease in the number of citizens willing to venture into the BTT area. At this point, we think such caution is definitely warranted. Recently, a few brave citizens were interviewed as they swung through the area:

Mr. Barney, a fine citizen of our town since 2006, provided the following quote to our reporter: "Sure, I'm scared. But, what can I do? This is my job. How am I going to provide for my family if I don't come to work?" His companion, Mr. Starfish, who moved to Christmastreetown following a family cruise in 2007, offered: "Man, Christmas is all about the kids. If we all scampered to the top of the tree, the kids couldn't even see us. I'm willing to risk my life for the happiness I can bring to the little ones." Christmastreetown is honored to have such a brave and courageous citizen in our midsts.

A suspect in these assaults has been identified. The suspect was captured in these rare photos:

As you can see, the suspect is a very large female with short orange and white hair. She is known to travel silently on her own four legs. She has the ability to move very quickly and will pounce with no provocation. One of her pseudonyms is "Mittens." Be forewarned - do not attempt to capture the suspect on your own as she is considered highly dangerous. Until the suspect is apprehended, it is advised that no citizen enter the BTT area unless absolutely necessary.

She's dreaming of a pink Christmas

2009-12-01T20:13:00.006-05:00

This year, we bought a small, very pink Christmas tree to put up in Elizabeth's room. She was so excited. She even got to pick out all the ornaments (pink, of course) and the star for the top (again, pink, of course).

If you ask Elizabeth, she'll tell you it's the most beautiful Christmas tree she's ever seen. If you ask me, it's pretty tacky. But, the smile it brings to my daughter's face is the most beautiful smile I've ever seen.

Picture proofs

2009-09-28T21:00:00.004-04:00

They put the proofs for our family photos up on the website.

I think you can see them by going to this link: http://www.walzstudio.com/photocart/index.php?login=y

Then, use my e-mail address (kate_dicks@yahoo.com) with the password "david".

Overall, I was very pleased with them, especially since Elizabeth is so bad at staying still and looking at the camera for pictures. But, he managed to still get some good pictures of her - much better than any of our previous attempts.

Now the hard part - deciding which ones to order!

Ain't nothing like the real thing, baby

2009-08-22T20:31:00.010-04:00

Elizabeth absolutely loves cats. She has since she was a baby:

Although my old cat, Scarlet, was never that fond of her:

That may be why Scarlet ran away about 2 years ago.

I was really saddened by Scarlet's sudden departure, however we quickly realized it was one less thing to worry about (and clean up after) in our very busy household. So, David and I decided we didn't want to get another indoor cat to replace her. Instead, we kept our outdoor cat, Scar, and even picked up another stray outdoor cat, Smokey, hoping it would satisfy Elizabeth's yearning for the feline species.

It didn't work. Elizabeth sleeps with her favorite stuffed animals, or "friends" every night. And that collection has slowly grown to a pile of stuffed cats (and a few dogs) that is bigger than she is. Here's a picture of the current gang:

And, though she loves her stuffed cat friends, they still haven't successfully substituted for the real thing. Elizabeth has kept asking for an indoor cat for some time. This week, David and I each confided to each other that Elizabeth had sweetly, and sadly, told us that she wished one of her stuffed cats, Mittens, was real. I have to admit, I caved first. I reminded David that Jonathan has his own indoor pet (our dog, Lyra), and suggested that perhaps if we caved on the indoor cat desire, she might drop the other one she occasionally mentions as well (a sister, which is NOT going to happen).

So, this morning, we told her we were going to take her to look for a kitten. I have to tell you, the excitement on that little girl's face was absolutely priceless. After breakfast, we headed to the Humane Society's adoption center at our local mega pet store, and she immediately latched onto a sweet little orange and white kitten, who does bear a striking resemblance to Mittens, her stuffed cat. In keeping with our family tradition of unimaginative names, our new real live, indoor kitten's name is....you got it...Mittens.

Here are some pictures:

And, of course, Mittens with her namesake:

The surprising part of the day is that Jonathan also seems to be really enjoying having the new kitten in the house. In fact, he actually got out of bed before noon on a Saturday to meet her. And, the kitten is now down watching Jonathan play videogames while Elizabeth sleeps. Shhh...don't tell Elizabeth!

The first step to recovery

2009-07-31T21:19:00.006-04:00

I've just ventured into our attic for a few things, and it's time for me to face the facts. I have an addiction. It's something I keep fairly well hidden, and my wonderful husband humors it, but it's still an addiction nonetheless. So, here's my dirty little confession: I am addicted to buying books for Elizabeth. Her bookshelf in her room attests to the fact. And, almost all of those many books I have given to her were specifically purchased because I remembered loving each story myself.

But, my addiction is so strong that keeping her currently stocked with books is not enough. I have boxes of brand new books up in our attic, just waiting for her to get old enough to read them. I mean, seriously. Why on earth did I feel the need to go ahead and buy Charlotte's Web, A Wrinkle in Time, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Encyclopedia Brown, Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, and oh so many other books for much older children when my daughter is still so young? I know exactly why. Because each of those books was a treasure that I can still remember opening for the first time. Each holds an old friend that I'm looking forward to introducing her to. And the excitement I feel at just the thought of the future introduction makes me go ahead and purchase yet another book for my attic library each time I run across an old favorite.

I was addicted to reading when I was a child. It started when I was 4 years old. I still remember the afternoon I learned to read very clearly. My older sister came home from 1st grade and taunted me because she had learned to read and I couldn't. That afternoon, I pulled out The Cat in the Hat and slowly and methodically taught myself to read. My mother will attest to the fact, as she was the one who spent the afternoon answering questions like, "Mommy, what does C-A-T spell?" From that point on, there was no turning back. I read everything I could get my hands on.

My mother continued to support my addiction throughout my childhood, by taking me on countless trips to the library and bookstores (both used and new). She even sent me new books in my care packages at camp, because she knew I would have already finished the stack of books I took with me. But, I'm not sure even she ever understood the extent of my addiction. I don't think she knew how many sleepless nights I spent reading books under my covers with a flashlight, or how when I wasn't reading, I spent a lot of the time just daydreaming about the story that had been interrupted by the other more mundane things in life. I can even remember feigning illness at summer camp so I could spend a few hours in the infirmary poring over a book that was too good to wait until the next rest hour. I was always a very fast student, so I quickly learned to bring books to school to me to read during class when I had finished my schoolwork. That was back in the days when we still had the old-style desks with openings in them, and the teachers still let us face the openings toward us, so I could easily hide a book in there and read most of the day. And, my summer reading lists were always finished in the first week after school was out. In fact, I remember in the summer before my 11th grade year, our teacher sent us a list of almost 20 books (wonderful old classics!) and asked us each to pick 2 to read that summer. I read them all before we started class in August. (Of course, I never told anyone, because that was just a little too nerdy, don't you think?)

Why do I think I loved reading so much? As I was growing up, I might have told you that it was because a good book could transport me to a different time and place. It put me right into the mind and story of someone else - often in a time when I desperately wanted to be anywhere else than where I was. Let's face it, I spent most of my childhood as an awkward, nerdy girl who didn't have many friends and who lived with an older sister who hated me and a household that was too often full of fighting. Reading was a excellent distraction from my real life.

But, now I'll tell you that wasn't all of it. Because I'm now a confident, mature (most of the time) adult, who truly loves the life God has blessed me with. And, I still love to read a good book - even if I don't have nearly as much time to do it now as I would like. But, part of the answer is still the same - a good book can transport you. It can make you experience feelings you've never had and immerse yourself in the fascinating stories of places, people, and things you'll never have the chance to know in real life. Reading truly opens all sorts of new worlds to you.

So, that is why on every gift-giving occasion, I scour through the large stash of books waiting in my attic to find all the ones I think Elizabeth is ready for. And, I love watching her eyes as I read them to her for the first time. Because it reminds me of how I felt the first time I "met" the character and heard their story for the first time.

And, now, Elizabeth is starting to ask us to teach her how to read. Before we know it, she'll be able to experience all those new worlds on her own. I have to admit I'm a little sad that I won't be able to continue on the journey with her, as I have up to this point.

So, now you know my dirty little secret. They say the first step to recovery is admitting that you have no power over your addiction. So, I'm at the first step. And, that's probably where I'll stay. I have no desire to recover from this addiction. I want to expose Elizabeth to every character I fell in love with. I guess I secretly hope she'll love the same ones I do (and I'm already excited every time she does!). But, more than that, I hope she'll learn to love reading. To experience the exhiliration that comes from reading a good book, getting lost in the story and becoming unable to put it down. And, based on her reaction so far, I may have to start stocking up on batteries for her flashlight soon.

Video killed the radio star

2009-07-19T21:22:00.010-04:00

Yes, our blog is getting more and more neglected lately. There is a distinct reason for that - I joined Facebook in January, and it's just a lot easier to post things on there. Especially since almost all my loyal blog readers are also on Facebook. The blog took another big hit today, when my best friend Carolyn finally joined the FB trend and got an account there. Now, I think it's just my Dad and Pat left out in the dark. So, I'll blog as the urge hits. But, if you really want an up to the minute fix on cute pictures of Elizabeth (which I realize is the main reason people read this blog), I suggest you friend me on Facebook. (Yes, this is a not-so-subtle hint, Dad...)

But, for old times sake, I decided to blog about the fun-filled weekend we just had. We spent yesterday morning trading out beds in Elizabeth's room. She had finally outgrown her toddler bed, so we set up a twin bed in her room. That, along with the more grown-up bedding and moving some of her toys downstairs to make room for the new bed makes her room look like she's so much older now. Sigh...I still get a little sad when I look in there!

The Bluegrass fair was a big hit with Elizabeth. We've taken her every year, but she really hasn't gotten into it that much until this year. Now, she is a fearless 4-year-old, and she wanted to go on every ride she was tall enough to qualify for - more than once! She spent hours sliding, getting twisted and turned, and going on the mini-roller coasters. She just kept begging for more. I never would have believed that our timid little girl would turn into such a thrill-seeker, but it was great! We even topped the night off with a delicious funnel cake, complete with powdered sugar and chocolate and caramel sauce. All that, plus a ferris wheel and some live baby pig racing made it a perfect trip to the fair!

Then, today, we had the kick-off party for our vacation bible school at church. David valiantly volunteered for a stint in the dunking booth. It wouldn't have been so bad, except we had a cold snap this weekend, so it was a little chilly out and the water was freezing. Plus, he got the very first turn in the booth, so the kids were all a little over-anxious to dunk him. Those who didn't succeed by throwing often ran up to just hit the target, so he went in a bunch. Not to mention the fact that SOMEONE donated enough money for the kids to get unlimited turns....I'm not sure who that could have been, of course...

The kids lined up:

Before:

During:

After:

And Elizabeth's reaction - hysterical laughter:

Add in a big inflatable bouncyhouse and obstacle course, Sno-Cones, and popcorn, and a fun time was had by all!

Hiking

2009-07-11T15:23:00.006-04:00

David and I took Elizabeth and Mary Grace (a friend from church) hiking today. We went to the Tom Dorman Nature Preserve, which overlooks the Palisades at the Kentucky River. It was a fun 2-mile hike (other than the steep hill with lots and lots of stairs...) and a great way to spend the morning!

We were also glad to get a little more use out of our hiking backpack. As you can see, Elizabeth has grown a little bit since we first got it:

We figure she'll still be under the maximum weight restriction (40 pounds) for about 4 more years, but her height will probably outgrow it much sooner than that!

Slip sliding away

2009-06-26T20:36:00.014-04:00

I took today off work to spend some time with Elizabeth while David is out of town. We had a really fun day together. This afternoon, I introduced her to a staple of childhood - the slip 'n' slide.

Those who know Elizabeth will know what a monumental task this was for me. Elizabeth is not the adventurous type, plus she *hates* to get water in her face. But, when we were at the store last weekend, she saw the "water slide" and decided she just had to have it. So, I figured we'd give it a whirl.

I didn't realize the inherent problem with my plan until this afternoon, after she and I had pulled it out of the box and set it up in the backyard. Elizabeth had never seen anyone use a slip 'n' slide before (at least that she could remember). That meant she needed someone to demonstrate it for her. I quickly regretted the decision to try this childhood lesson while both David and Jonathan were out of town. I also started wondering if any of my friends would let me rent their older children for the afternoon.

But, with nobody else readily available, I assumed the task. I have to say, the design of the slide has improved dramatically since our childhood. The slide stays a lot wetter,and there's a pool of water to splash in at the end. Plus, the top end of the slide is now held in place with circular plastic stakes (instead of the large metal staples our old one used, which I recall contributing greatly to my sister's broken wrist one summer...) And, I think I did pretty well, if I do say so myself. Especially since it had been 20+ years since I'd tried it before. I was just glad it was a work day, so most of my neighbors were gone!

After my inaugural slide, Elizabeth was geared up and ready to give it a whirl. She lined up, yelled "On your mark, get set, go!" and proceeded to run onto the slide and fall on her bottom. We were not off to a good start. But, it was so hilarious, I ran to the house to grab the camera. (Yes, a little twisted, but I figured the world needed to see it.)

So, I demonstrated again, gave her a few pointers, then off she went to try to slide again. Here's what the second try looked like:

Notice how crisp and clear that action shot is? That's because she wasn't moving. She just sat down at the top of the slide and expected to end up at the bottom. Once I stopped howling with laughter, I realized that video would be required to properly demonstrate to everyone the hilarity of the afternoon.

Here's the next attempt:

But, I have to say, she was persistent. And, as the afternoon went on, her technique did improve. Especially considering she weighs less than 30 pounds, so she doesn't have a lot of mass to help with momentum. Here she is with improved form:

And, this was about as good as she got:

In case you couldn't understand it, at the end of that clip, she's telling me I won't be able to take a picture of her because she was going too fast. Yeah, right! :)

As I said before, Elizabeth has always hated to get water in her face. So, she insisted that all of her initial slides be done with the water off, and just re-wetting the plastic after each attempt. But, to my amazement, she later decided she wanted to turn the water back on, which resulted in streams of water falling onto the slide as she want down. And she LOVED it! By the end of the day, she was running through the water to get to the top of the slide, then splashing her way down the slide to the splash pool at the bottom:

(Not to mention having me pull her down the slide about 50 times.)

So, we had a great time, and Elizabeth ended up getting over her fear of water on her face. Yeah! The only downside is my back is killing me now, from pulling a 30 pound sack of potatoes halfway down the slide about 50 times. But, that's a small price to pay for an afternoon of fun with my little girl!

Surviving

2009-06-23T20:15:00.002-04:00

I'm now officially halfway through David's weeklong absence, and I'm....surviving. Until I went to work today, I would have told you it was going really well. Elizabeth and I had a great 3-day weekend together. We had fun, shopped, cooked, played, laughed, and did all sorts of other great mother-daughter things together. She really acted like an angel most of the time, and she even slept through the first 2 nights without waking me up. I was thinking we had it made.

Until...I had to work today. Elizabeth must have sensed it, because she was pretty much awake from 3am to 5am last night with "bad dreams" (aka "I can't sleep, but I'll tell you it's a bad dream so you won't get mad.") That meant I started the day exhausted, and she slept late this morning (at least for her), so we really had to rush around to get her to school on time. Then, I rushed to the office to work for a few hours, before it was time to pick her up from school and take her to Gran's house. Then, back home to work some more, until Gran brought her back over in the evening. Throw in a few annoying work issues, and it was a very stressful and not very productive day for me. Before I knew it, it was time to heat up something for dinner (yes, I only had energy for leftovers at that point), take the dog for a walk, play for a little while, then snack, bath, and bed. I also got 2 loads of laundry done somewhere in there. Whew. I'm exhausted! How on earth do people stay on top of everything and keep their sanity without one person home everyday? Hats off to all you single parents and dual working parent households out there!

I truly don't know how I would make it without David around to do everything he does for us on a daily basis. I am spoiled rotten. He cleans the house, does the laundry, runs the errands, takes care of the kids and the animals, cooks dinner, does the lawn...the list is endless. As I've said before, leaving for a week is the best thing he could do to truly make me appreciate him.

It really has made me appreciate having my mom around as well. Unfortunately for her (in some ways), she got laid off a few months ago. But, it has been such a blessing for us. This week, she's watching Elizabeth each of the 3 afternoons I'll be working. They had a great time this afternoon - making milkshakes, watching a movie, reading books, and playing games. Tomorrow, they're going to make jam together. I'm so thankful that Elizabeth gets to experience all of that with her. I know they are making wonderful memories that she'll cherish forever.

I'm also thankful that Gran is so terribly understanding of my little momma's girl. That when I came up from work tonight, she didn't take it personally when Elizabeth looked at her and told her she was ready for her to go. After all, she'd had Mommy non-stop, all to herself, for 3 days in a row before today, then I was gone for the entire day.

David and his team are having a wonderful week in Arizona. I'm so thankful that he's able to go and get the break he needs from his hectic life that centers around taking care of us. It's also awesome to see how God uses him and the other volunteers in the Apache community. But, I'm also thankful that he'll be home on Saturday. I can't keep doing it without him for long!

Happy Father's Day - Take 2

2009-06-21T16:01:00.010-04:00

David left early yesterday morning for his Arizona mission trip. It's the second time he's gone on this trip, and I know he'll have a great time, he'll be a great influence on the Apache people he works with, and it will be a truly awesome experience. He'll be gone for 8 days, during which I get to play "single mom" - trying to take care of the house, the kid, and get some work done in the process. I found out last year that this is the best thing he could possibly do to make sure I truly appreciate him and everything he does for me on Father's Day. :)

He got his "real" Father's Day present a few weeks ago - a big, new flat screen TV. But, Elizabeth and I worked up this little tribute for him today.

It's a repeat from last year's present. I thought it would be fun for him to see how much his little girl has grown in the last year. Of course, she's never been one to sit and smile for the camera, so I guess cheesy smiles are as good as he can expect.

Happy Father's Day, sweetheart! Thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father!

The magic of Disney

2009-06-13T19:15:00.051-04:00

David, Elizabeth, and I just returned from a week at Disney World. It was such an awesome vacation - everything about it was perfect from beginning to end. We took advantage of the deals Disney was offering to upgrade to a one bedroom apartment at one of their luxury resorts. The accomodations were absolutely incredible, and I'm afraid we've now been spoiled for all future vacations. Plus, staying on the Disney property gave us quick access to all of the parks. We were able to peruse the parks at our leisure during the day, then still have time to swim and relax back at the hotel in the late afternoon and evening.

Elizabeth has recently become obsessed with all of the Disney princesses, so it was a perfect time for her to go to Disney World. One of our favorite parts was just watching how excited she got over everything. Her very favorite place at Disney World was Cinderella's Castle.

This was how she looked when she first saw it:

Then, she spent several minutes just standing and staring at it:

Her obsession with the castle continued throughout the entire week. Anytime she saw it, she would yell out, "There's Cinderella's castle!" If you've ever been to the Magic Kingdom, you can probably understand that we heard that A LOT, because the castle is in the middle of everything and you can see it from almost everywhere. In the evenings, the castle also changed colors, and she thought that was just spectacular, especially when it was PINK.

She also loved the rides. She wanted to ride everything she could, and was quite disappointed whenever we told her she wasn't tall enough to ride one. She fell in love with the one rollercoaster she was tall enough to ride (the Barnstormer), and we ended up riding it about a half dozen times throughout the week. That was funny in itself, because she'd spend the whole ride telling us it was going too fast, then as soon as it was over, she would beg to ride it again!

Other favorite rides of hers were the Snow White ride, the Peter Pan ride, and It's a Small World. That's another ride that we probably rode a half dozen times, and I think David and I will be singing the song for quite a while:

Before we left, my dad asked us to take a picture of Elizabeth with the "pink elephant." I tried to tell him that the elephants on the Dumbo ride were gray, but he insisted that he remembered a pink elephant. When we saw this in the It's a Small World ride, we had to take a picture of it, just to show Dad that he may not be entirely senile yet!

The Tea Cup ride was also another one of Elizabeth's favorites:

Unfortunately for David, that ride makes me sick, so he got to ride it with her every time!

Elizabeth also asked to ride the Dumbo ride several times:

But, we finally figured out that was mainly because of the great view it gave her of Cinderella's Castle:

All of the rides were so much fun that we actually had to coax her on her typical favorite - the carousel:

One of the rides that was an unexpected hit with both Elizabeth and David was the Toy Story Midway game, which used 3D graphics and let you pretend to play all the carnival games:

Elizabeth also enjoyed playing on some of the very cleverly designed playgrounds throughout the parks:

It came as a surprise to David and me, but even more than the rides, the highlights of Elizabeth's week were getting to meet some of her favorite Disney characters. Fortunately, we had scheduled several character meals, so we got to sit in the air conditioning and wait for a lot of them to come to us. Here is the Disney menagerie that she encountered at meals throughout the week:

June and Leo from The Little Einsteins:

Along with Goliath the lion (from the JoJo show, which none of us was familiar with):

We also got to eat with Mickey and his crew:

As well as the Pooh characters:

Her absolute favorite meal was the lunch we got to eat inside Cinderella's Castle. Beforehand, she got to meet Cinderella's Fairy Godmother:

Then, we all met Cinderella:

Then, throughout the course of the meal, which was set in a neat castle setting:

She met Snow White:

Sleeping Beauty:

Belle:

And, her favorite princess - Ariel (as a human):

To wrap up the show, they gave all the "little princesses" present, their own "Wishing Star" and wand, and helped them all make a wish. Elizabeth took it very seriously:

She was very disappointed when her wish did not come true!

As a testament to the inexplicable appeal of the characters, Elizabeth also chose to stand in line for quite a while to meet her favorites, including Ariel (as a mermaid):

And Tinkerbell and her friends:

She would have waited to meet even more characters if we had let her. But, by the end of the week, David and I were just happy to not have to hug anyone in the middle of a meal or wait in the heat for any longer than necessary, so we started to quickly shuffle her by anyone we saw in costume. (Although, Dick Vitale was also staying at our hotel, and I think David would have stopped and hugged him if given the chance...)

And, with the weather so hot, she also got to enjoy a lot of yummy cold treats:

We also took advantage of some of the shows to sit in air conditioning for a while and relax. She absolutely loved the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Lion King shows. I think we have another future Broadway fan on our hands!

By the end of a day at the parks, we were all exhausted:

So, we spent a lot of time cooling down and relaxing at the hotel pools in the afternoons:

Elizabeth's swimming skills and confidence actually improved very dramatically over the course of the week, so David's going to continue to take her to the pool throughout the rest of the summer just to get her even more used to the water.

We all had a fabulous time. It's going to be hard going back to reality!

Strawberry fields

2009-05-30T16:04:00.012-04:00

We went to Boyd's Orchard to pick strawberries last night. The strawberry crop this year was fantastic. We came home with a ton of strawberries, which we've been pigging out on all day. Yum!

Jonathan and Elizabeth also had a lot of fun playing at the playground. Elizabeth is getting braver all the time. She's been too scared to try it before, but she absolutely loved the bouncy train last night. And, she even tried out the smaller of the two big slides!

Today, David took Jonathan and a few friends to Louisville to play paintball. It was an end of the year celebration for him. His school year ends on Thursday and he's leaving for Alabama on Friday, where he'll spend the summer with his mom. Elizabeth and I have had a fun girl's day today while the boys were gone. This morning, I took her to get her hair cut, then we did some shopping and went to the mall for lunch and to play on the playground there. The rest of the day we've spent cooking food for our church potluck tomorrow, swimming in the wading pool, and watching Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. (No wonder I'm tired!)

Moving on up

2009-05-28T20:03:00.003-04:00

Elizabeth had her graduation for her 3-year-old preschool class tonight. It seems a little over the top to "graduate" from preschool, but it was still a cute little ceremony - short and sweet, with all the kids singing several songs together. Elizabeth did really well. She knew at least as many words as the rest of the kids, and sang enthusiastically and made most of the hand gestures. All in all, a very good showing for her. Especially considering the last time she was supposed to sing with her preschool choir at church she just burst into tears!

Since none of the pictures of her from the graduation ceremony really came out, I finally got around to scanning in her adorable school picture from this year, which is shown above, in honor of the occasion.

She also recently had her 4-year-old checkup. She handled the shots bravely, with only minimal tears that subsided when she got to pick out her bandaids and a popsicle. She now weighs 29 pounds and is 38 inches tall, which is 6th percentile for weight and 15th percentile for height. That's actually quite a jump for her, so she must have had a big growth spurt. Still, we anticipate her baby cousin William (who is now 6 months old) passing her up soon in both categories. Based on her growth curve, the doctor estimated she would weigh 102 pounds and be 5'1" when she's full-grown. She recommended we sign her up for cheerleading or gymnastics. It doesn't look like there will be much serious basketball playing in her future, that's for sure!

We've got an exciting summer planned for her. Next Saturday, we leave for a week's vacation at Disney World. After we get back, she'll still be going to her Mother's (Daddy's) Morning Out program 2 days a week and she'll be taking a soccer class and swim lessons. Plus, David is planning to spend a lot of time outdoors and at the pool with her. In between everything, we'll also be spending some more time at Camp Crestridge for the 55th reunion. It will be a fun and busy summer!

Maintain the Memories 2009

2009-05-26T19:22:00.021-04:00

We had a really great time at Maintain the Memories last weekend (the annual work weekend at Camp Crestridge). I got to catch up with a lot of old friends and their families, we all helped to get a lot of work accomplished, Elizabeth had a fun time playing around camp, and we even got to eat S'Mores. What a great time!

Here is Elizabeth playing on the Chip/Chick playground:

She was also really excited that her arms are now long enough for her to play on the tire swings:

She made it look like so much fun that David even took a turn:

Elizabeth also enjoyed a favorite camp pasttime - playing in the creeks and lake:

At first, she was hesitant about meeting the new bears on the bench that was installed at the beautiful new Bear Trap that day, but she warmed up to them quickly. I think she even gave them their first kiss:

As usual, Jonathan spent most of his free time playing 4-square:

And, in between all the fun, we managed to get some work done. Jonathan, Elizabeth and I helped mulch, and David spent the day painting, mulching and raking.

After a hard day of work and fun, it was nice to sit and relax:

And eat S-mores, of course!

After all the Crestridge fun, we stopped in Pigeon Forge on the way home. On Sunday, we had a great meal at the Apple Barn restaurant, then David and Jonathan had fun in the indoor skydiving place:

After that, we spent the night at a new indoor water park hotel, which was very relaxing and a lot of fun:

Here's a comparison shot from July 2005, so you can see how much our kids have grown in the last 4 years:

The time sure has flown by! In just that short time span again, Elizabeth will be starting camp. That's hard to believe!

Spring cleaning

2009-05-17T14:50:00.008-04:00

Yesterday, we were planning to go to the orchard to pick strawberries. But, it has rained so much lately, they were not letting anyone out into their fields until they dried out. It was also threatening rain for most of the day, so we really couldn't plan anything also outdoors. So, David and I decided to spend the day getting some things done around the house.

Elizabeth is always eager to help, so she thought it was a great idea. First, she helped David plant some new flowers by the mailbox:

Then, David put mulch out in the front yard while Elizabeth and I cleaned the insides of the windows and blinds:

Jonathan even got involved by mowing the lawn and David finished out the work day by cleaning the outsides of the windows. We were really glad to get those chores out of the way. I just wish I could make myself enjoy the work as much as Elizabeth does!

The best birthday ever

2009-05-16T16:37:00.014-04:00

Yesterday was my 35th birthday, and David made it a wonderful day for me. I was working at home, so David fixed us a special brunch. When I came up, I found the kitchen filled with balloons, presents, and a dozen beautiful roses.

The meal was delicious - fancy french toast/cream cheese sandwiches, cut fruit and cheese, and bacon. Yum!

There was even a small cake to finish everything off. (Pat is making my real cake on Monday.)

Elizabeth tried to help my blow out the sparkler candles, but they proved too much for us.

I got a bunch of very nice cards and presents - including a new laptop backpack, several running outfits, and a candle. Elizabeth helped me open all of them, of course. She also had a lot of fun playing with all the balloons!

Last night, David had arranged a surprise for me. He took care of everything, including getting Gran to watch Elizabeth. Then, he drove me downtown to a mystery dinner theatre. We had a great time watching the show and eating the good food. It was wonderful, especially because David had gone to all the trouble to coordinate everything and kept it a surprise for me!

All in all, it was a wonderful day, thanks to my fabulous husband. Thanks, sweetie! You're the best!

I'm a little worried about David...

2009-05-09T20:41:00.004-04:00

Here are two sides of him we hadn't seen until Elizabeth's birthday party today:

Elizabeth's 4th birthday party

2009-05-09T19:27:00.011-04:00

Elizabeth had a very fun birthday party this afternoon. It was pretty laidback - just 4 friends and their parents, plus a few grandparents. That was plenty of excitement and fun for everyone.

We invited Elizabeth's friend from down the street, Anna, then 4 of my friends from high school (or soon after) and their children. That left us with a good age range for the kids - an extremely cute and snuggly 6 week old, one 3yo, one 4yo, one 5yo, and 2 8yos. They all had a good time playing together, and the weather even cooperated to allow them some fun outdoor playtime. The adults also got to enjoy some time hanging out - and passing the baby - while the kids played. Elizabeth really enjoyed it and was spoiled rotten with a bunch of nice presents.

Waiting for her friends to arrive:

Opening presents:

The cake:

Playing with presents:

And, here are the comparison balloon shots from this year and the previous 3 years -

This year:

2008:

2007:

And 2006:

The finished product

2009-05-08T21:50:00.007-04:00

They came to hang our new curtains today and our kitchen is finally completely finished. The renovation process was a pain, but the finished product is amazing. It really changes the whole look and feel of the house and makes it so much more functional!

Here are the pics. (I forgot to move the computer desk back under the window where it belongs - it looks a little out of place in the pictures.)

It's finished just in time for Elizabeth's birthday party tomorrow. For the party, we've invited Elizabeth's friend from down the street (Anna) along with four of my best girlfriends and their kids. Add an Ariel cake to the mix, and it should be a lot of fun!

Fun with birthday presents

2009-05-07T18:29:00.005-04:00

Birthday girl

2009-05-06T21:50:00.008-04:00

Elizabeth celebrated her 4th birthday today. She got to experience the highlight of every preschooler's year - taking birthday cupcakes to her classmates. Her teacher even has a "birthday bear" that gives out kisses. So, needless to say, it was a very fun day for her.

Gran came over this afternoon and Elizabeth got to open her family presents. (Other than the ones from Aunt Erin and Aunt Amy, which she opened earlier this week and has already had a lot of fun playing with.) She was really happy with all of her gifts, including an Ariel playset, a "video game" (aka Leapster), a cool Dora scooter from Gran and a Dora activity kit and tracing book from Aunt Beth.

Her official birthday party will be on Saturday, so there's still more birthday fun to come!

Mixing it up

2009-05-02T18:41:00.005-04:00

In case you didn't pick it up from my sappy birthday letter in the previous post, Elizabeth rarely plays with her toys the way they were intended. Instead, she chooses to use them as props in her endless imagination games.

Today, because she was still feeling bad and we wanted a distraction for her, we let her open her birthday present from Aunt Amy. It was a really neat set of plastic pieces that could be used to make all sorts of jewelry. Elizabeth was so excited with her new present, and even said, "This is exactly what I wanted!"

I asked her if she wanted to make some jewelry with her new present. But, no, she had other ideas. First she wanted a spoon and a bowl so she could use her new "cake mix" to bake a strawberry cake:

After we had our fill of cake (including licking a lot of pretend icing off the spoon), Elizabeth discovered that some of the jewelry pieces looked like keys, so I spent a while pretending to be locked in my bedroom while Elizabeth came and rescued me.

Later, she asked me to help her put a bunch of the jewelry pieces together in a circle. After we were done, I asked her if she wanted to wear her necklace, which is when she informed me that it was not a necklace, it was a swimming pool! Then, we spent a while letting the rest of the beads go swimming. We even had lifeguard beads that made sure the kids didn't run around the pool and blew their whistles for adult swim.

So, Aunt Amy - the good news is that she loves her present. But, I hope you weren't expecting her to make you a necklace out of them when you come to visit!

Birthday letter, v. 4

2009-05-02T15:32:00.003-04:00

Elizabeth is on Day 8 of a nasty virus. It started out as queasiness and general lethargy, and morphed into a wicked sore throat and horrible congestion. In deference to the latest news stories, I've nicknamed it the "whine flu."

Elizabeth's 4th birthday is this week (May 6). So, I thought I'd take advantage of her nap this afternoon (definite proof that she's feeling very bad) to write Birthday Letter #4.

Dear Elizabeth,

Here you are, about to turn 4 years old. The last 4 years have flown by! Even though you've been forcing us to call you a "big girl" for some time, you really are one now. I'm amazed everytime I look at you - especially when you sleep. Every night after you fall asleep at bedtime, I gaze at you for a few seconds and am amazed at how big and beautiful you have become. And, every night I selfishly ask God to protect you and watch over you, because I can't imagine my life without you.

I absolutely love everything about this age with you. You have the biggest imagination of anyone I've ever met. You keep us busy with all of your "pretend" games. As soon as I'm home, you enlist me to help you act out movies, shows, or stories you've seen or heard. And, your very best friend in the world, your stuffed cat Shazam, usually figures prominently in everything we do. He's had 3 successful "surgeries" so far to repair holes and torn seams. I hope he makes it through the next ones that I'm sure will come! Although your toys are rarely used as the manufacturers intended them to be, I'm always amazed to see what your mind can turn them into. The possibilities are endless - anything could be turned into snacks for your students, cookies baking in the oven, medicine for a sick toy, etc.

You always make us smile and laugh so much. Our house would be a dreary place without you. We can always count on you to keep us entertained throughout dinner, or in the car - even when you're not trying to. One of the amazing things about you is your constant thirst for knowledge. Just trying to come up with answers to all the questions you ask is a full-time job. I can almost see the wheels spinning in your brain as you try to figure out everything about this wonderful world we live in. It makes me see the world differently too.

I'm kind of scared to have you grow up anymore, because I'm afraid of the days when you won't need me or want me around as much. I love it when you dance around in front of me asking, "Mommy, will you play with me? Will ya? Will ya?" And, your daddy and I cherish all the sweet hugs, kisses, and lovepats you give out so freely. But, I also am looking forward to watching you continue to grow and flourish. You are a very special girl.

Happy Birthday, Libby Lou! I love you!

The Derby half marathon report

2009-04-25T16:45:00.005-04:00

The name of the race I ran in this morning is officially titled the "Derby minimarathon." However, based on the way my whole body feels right now, I refuse to call it that, because there was nothing "mini" about it. This past January, from the comfort of my couch, running 13.1 miles in a half marathon seemed like a good idea. Several of my online friends had recently completed half (and full) marathons and kept raving about them, and I did want to get serious about my running. (Plus the idea of a weekend alone was very appealing.) So, I signed up. I then downloaded a training schedule for beginner runners, and modified it to fit my own schedule. The schedule basically increased my running distance from a 3 mile run to a 13 mile run in 12 weeks. I stuck to it, ran a whole bunch of miles, and eventually worked up to the full distance.

I have to admit that even though I ran several long runs during the training (10, 11, 12, and even 13 miles each), I never really enjoyed them. I enjoyed being able to say I had run them afterwards and knowing my hard work was paying off with increased mileage, but around 8 miles into each run, I started really asking myself why I was doing it. But, I pressed on, mainly because I'm very stubborn and didn't want to quit in the middle.

I was also a little nervous when we got a freak heat wave and the weather forecast said it was going to be 70 degrees for the race, instead of the normal 50 degrees.

My 3 hard months of training all culminated at 6am this morning as I lined up outside my hotel, which was at the finish line, to catch a bus to the starting line. The foolishness of my plan hit me smack in the face as I rode on the bus....for 15 MINUTES to the starting line. It suddenly dawned on me that 13 miles is a VERY LONG WAY. But, then it was time to run, and off I went.

The first 6 miles of the course was very hilly. It went through Iroquois Park, which is a beautiful wooded park with gently rolling hills. That is, if you're driving in a car. If you're running, it is a beautiful wooded park with incredibly steep MOUNTAINS. But, fortunately, all of my training loops have big hills in them, so I fared pretty well through that park. The hardest part of the hills was actually avoiding the other runners who would just decide to stop running and walk in the middle of the hill, while forgetting to look behind them to see if someone was about to run into them as they slowed down.

My downfall came between mile markers 7 and 8. At that point, I again started asking myself why on earth I had voluntarily signed up for this torture. It was around that point that I realized why they close the road to traffic - because there's a good chance I would have jumped in front of a car if one had been driving next to me. Fortunately, right after Mile 8, we turned into Churchill Downs. We actually got to run around the infield, which was really cool, especially since several horses were warming up around us, so that took my mind off of the pain for a little while.

Then, it was on to Miles 9 through 11. At that point, I had decided that I was legally insane for participating in the race and I promised myself then and there that I would never again run further than 6 miles if I could just finish.

Fortunately, I passed the point of mental breakdown after Mile Marker 11, at which point I convinced myself that I only had 2 miles to run, and I could either run them slowly and prolong the torture or pick up the pace and get to the finish quicker. So, I ran the rest of the race out and smiled broadly as I crossed the finish line.

Long story short, I made it. I finished in 2 hours, 18 minutes, which is a 10:34 minute/mile pace. I definitely didn't break any speed records, but given the extra heat we had to deal with, I thought it was a good showing. My goal for the race was 2:20, so I was happy to make it in under that. There were some foolish minutes during the park hills at the beginning of the race when I actually thought I'd make 2:10, but if you average in the minutes between Miles 9 to 11 when I wasn't sure I was going to make it through at all, the final time seems like a good compromise.

After the race, I could barely move my legs - literally. I had to sit down for several minutes just to get the strength to hobble up to my hotel room, where I collapsed on the bed for about an hour. But, now I've had a hot shower, a good meal, and even done some shopping, and I'm enjoying the rest of my "alone" time. My husband was concerned when I told him my running watch tells me I burn about 1200 calories when I run 13 miles, so I picked up a big piece of chocolate cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory to alleviate his worry, which I'm eating right now. (I think I've already taken back in the 1200 calories and then some.)

And, the strangest thing just happened, while I was sitting here, relaxing, surfing the Internet - I found that I'd somehow made it to the website for the Indianapolis half marathon, which is scheduled for October of this year. And, I'm actually considering signing up for it. Yes, mark me down as officially insane.

Fun at the zoo

2009-04-17T20:50:00.006-04:00

Today was a gorgeous day - sunny and in the low 70s. And, since I've been working so much lately, including a planned trip to eastern Kentucky tomorrow, I decided to take the day off and spend it with David and Elizabeth. (Of course, I still ended up working half the day, but it was still a good break from normal.)

We had to take my mom to the airport in Louisville this morning, so we decided to go to the Louisville Zoo after that. It was a really great day to go - as the other half million people that were there, not to mention the numerous school field trip groups, can attest to as well. But, even with the crowds, we still had a great time.

Elizabeth really enjoyed seeing all of the animals. Her favorite was the jaguar, because it reminded her of Diego. She even chose to ride on the jaguar on the carousel. And, she was introduced to a very special treat today - an Icee. Her life may never be the same again!

(Notice her blue teeth and lips in the picture!)

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T16:34:00.006-04:00

The Easter Bunny made a stop by our house last night. This morning, Elizabeth was excited by all of the goodies in her Easter basket - especially her new Bolt DVD and a new cat and dog book.

She also did a great job finding all of our decorated eggs that the Easter bunny hid in the house.

Elizabeth was a tad bit grumpy as we were getting ready for church, so this was the best I could do for a picture of her in her Easter outfit (she was intentionally frowning in all the other pictures).

We had a wonderful Easter service this morning at church, including a full Easter cantata. Then, we had a very nice Easter brunch with Granddad, Granny Pat, and Gran, and now we're enjoying a beautiful afternoon at home. It's been a wonderful Easter day. Hope everyone else has enjoyed it!

Baskets of Easter eggs

2009-04-11T21:18:00.014-04:00

Since I was going out of town this week for work, and didn't get back until this evening, I missed our Easter egg hunt at church today. To make up for it, Elizabeth and I spent most of last weekend practicing for the big event by hiding and finding our own eggs:

My plan was actually twofold. Sure, it was fun to still get to share part of the experience with her. But, I actually wanted to make sure we didn't have a repeat of last year - when she practically refused to pick up any eggs because she thought they were "dirty." And, both plans seemed to work, because this morning at the actual Easter egg hunt she ran right out and collected eggs like a pro.

You'll notice from her clothes that it was actually much warmer last weekend than this weekend. That's April in the Bluegrass for you! (I'm trying not to gloat about the beautiful weather we had in Florida this past week, since the weather was pretty nasty in Kentucky while I was gone...)

Then, after I finally made it home tonight, we dyed our Easter eggs.

Of course, no Easter eggs are complete without tiaras and princess egg holders:

- at least in the eyes of our little Princess!

Hope everyone has a very Happy Easter!

Our future Ramblin' Wreck

2009-04-09T21:43:00.004-04:00

I'm working in Florida again this week. The weather has been beautiful, but the work is very tiring and I really miss my family. So, I'm glad I'll be going home soon!

Elizabeth has decided she wants to be an engineer and work with me when she grows up. I think that's more because she misses her mommy right now than anything. :( But, in preparation for her chosen career, I helped her build a city last week, complete with skyscrapers and roads.

Here is the final product and a picture of our future engineer hard at work:

Now I just need to teach her the Georgia Tech fight song, and I think she's ready to be a Ramblin' Wreck!

A Bug's Life - enough already!

2009-03-30T22:00:00.006-04:00

Elizabeth's obsession for the week is the movie A Bug's Life. She's had the movie for some time and a friend of ours gave her a series of books based on the movie a while back. But, it wasn't until this past week when her cousin Brooke was here and they both watched the movie (many times) and read the books (even more times) together that Elizabeth's obsession started. I always know when a movie obsession is here, because it means she wants me to pretend to act out the movie with her...over and over and over and over again. And, this movie obsession is even worse than the others she's had - mainly because she's starting to remember more of the scenes, which means it takes a lot longer to act it out. Not to mention the fact that the movie has a ton of characters, and there are only 2 of us, so each of us has to pretend to be about a dozen different bugs throughout the course of the movie. It's mind-numbing and exhausting, all at once.

On Sunday afternoon, after the 3rd round of the Bug's Life reenactment, I had reached my limit. I was lamenting the fact that the weather was nasty and we couldn't play outside. But, then, I stumbled upon a moment of pure parenting genius. I brought up one of the big boxes that our furniture had come in. I told her we could turn it into a house...or a ship...or anything we could think of. The possibilities were endless.

She was really excited:

And, I was too...until she told me what the box was going to be...the ant colony...and it was time for the Bug's Life game to start all over again...sigh...somebody please squish me and put me out of my misery.

Cousin Week, Part 2

2009-03-28T16:13:00.021-04:00

All the cousins went home today, and our house is eerily quiet. David even took Elizabeth with him when he went to drop Jonathan off at the airport, so I got some much-needed time to catch up on work stuff while they were gone.

Here are some pictures from the 2nd half of the week:

On Wednesday, Gran and I took Elizabeth to her ballet class. She fell asleep in the car, so she was pretty tired at first:

But, she eventually woke up and enjoyed it - especially when it was her turn to be a ladybug!

That night, we all had fun making and decorating cookies at Gran's house:

Granddad and Granny Pat came over to play also, and the kids all enjoyed hearing Granddad read them stories:

Bridger continued to enjoy playing with the girls' things, including a pretty pink raincoat:

William still enjoyed watching the bigger kids, but his Mommy still seems to be his favorite thing in the world (except when he's hungry, of course...):

His paci also ranks right up there:

He's still not sure about the jumperoo, but he's willing to try it now and again:

All the kids were very happy to see their Daddies at the end of the week:

and so were the Mommies! The boys had a great time on their trip to Washington, D.C. We've decided their trip can be a bi-annual trip. And on the other years, the Mommies are going to go away - without any kids. That means next year is our turn!

Cousin week

2009-03-24T20:34:00.017-04:00

This week, all of the Waggener girls and babies are in Lexington while Neal, David, Jack, and Jonathan are off exploring Washington, D.C. The kids are having so much fun together! As you can imagine, our houses have been pure chaos with them running around, but we've all really enjoyed it. Fortunately, we've had beautiful weather the past few days, so they have spent a lot of time playing outside.

The girls are having a great time playing together. It's been a lot of fun to watch them really start to interact with each other. We've had a few times when they've acted like true siblings (reminding us a lot of me and Amy when we were kids), but for the most part they're getting along great.

Here are some pictures of the dynamic duo:

Brooke and Elizabeth in their matching Kentucky outfits:

Playing together on the swingset:

Having a tea party (or should I say a bean party?):

Feeding the ducks:

Reading with Gran:

Playing dress-up after bathtime:

Bridger is also having a great time. He is full of energy, and loves to chase after balls, the cat and the dog (or the "oof oof", as he calls all dogs).

Tonight, he wanted his own turn at dress-up:

But, even though he does succumb to the temptation of a pink tutu and princess wand every once in a while, he's definitely all rough and tumble boy. Here's a picture of him mowing the lawn:

Baby William really enjoys watching the big kids run around, but his true loves seem to be his Mommy and eating (not necessarily in that order...). Feeding him has become a group effort:

He doesn't seem to care who holds the spoon - as long as it goes in his mouth!

I also have a blackmail picture of him too, wearing Elizabeth's pink sunhat:

These poor boys - they didn't know what they were getting into when they joined the Waggener family!

Preschool art

2009-03-13T20:43:00.005-04:00

Elizabeth brings home something that she's made at school everyday. We call these things "crafts" because, while they're cute, they usually don't involve much more on her part than gluing or coloring. Until now, I haven't considered much of what she does "art", because there wasn't any creativity involved. But, recently, she's started to actually draw a lot more on her own.

Here's a picture she drew on her Etch-a-sketch recently:

You probably won't recognize it on your own, but this is a picture of King Triton from the Little Mermaid:

I thought this was a pretty good representation - she got his crown, beard, and scepter. She told me his tail would have been better, but she ran out of room. I think it's safe to say her artistic ability has now surpassed mine!

By the way, "The Little Mermaid" has recently become one of her favorite movies. She's even currently saying she wants an Ariel birthday cake - which means Ariel has replaced Dora as the character of choice (at least for the time being). She even told us tonight that she wants to add an Ariel doll to her birthday list.

Catching up

2009-03-01T18:28:00.015-05:00

I've been way too busy at work the last few weeks to post anything. But, I'm finally caught up enough at work to catch up on the blog. So, here we go!

Last Saturday, we had the tile backsplash installed in our kitchen. It looks great! We also picked out our new light fixture, since our furniture is supposed to come in sometime this week. David is now done painting the walls (and has admitted he LOVES the new color).

Here's a picture of Elizabeth helping him paint:

I'll post a final update picture once the furniture and lights are in.

Last Saturday, we took Elizabeth to Winterfest, which is the winter carnival at Stonewall Elementary (the elementary school she will attend). She had a lot of fun playing all the games:

But, I'm pretty sure her favorite part was the cotton candy!

Pat fixed David a wonderful birthday dinner last weekend, and Elizabeth helped him blow out the candles on his cake:

Of course, she was also more than happy to help him lick the frosting off the candles too!

Then, she spent a long time playing with the birthday balloons:

She came up with a "new" game - trying to keep the balloons up in the air without letting them fall onto the ground. She didn't seem to believe me when I told her that her aunts and I used to play the same game when we were little!

Quotes from Elizabeth

2009-02-22T17:59:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't blogged much lately. It's been a combination of 2 things - 1) nothing much has really been going on and 2) Facebook (the ultimate timewaster).

So, since I still have the problem of #1, I thought I'd try to fulfill my blog quota by posting random quotes from Elizabeth.

Earlier today, I caught Elizabeth blowing kisses at the ceiling. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was "sending kisses up to God". How precious. I think I need to do more of that myself.

Elizabeth caught David off-guard earlier this week by running up and giving him a big hug and telling him, "Daddy, when I grow up, I want to marry a man who treats me just like you do." (Yes, Mommy has been telling her she should do that for a while now, but it was her idea to share it with Daddy!) It was extra sweet, because we had friends over who got to hear it (and see David about to cry).

Elizabeth has been very adamant lately that she wants to have a baby girl when she grows up (must run in the family, huh, Aunt Amy?). When I told her that God gets to choose what kind of baby she had, she said that was alright, "as long as God chooses a girl!"

Speaking of babies, a few weeks ago, Gran was here and was telling Elizabeth about another little girl who was about to become a big sister. Elizabeth's eyes got really wide, then she tiptoed over, put her hand on my belly and told me that she wanted to be a big sister too. Since that's not in the plans for our family, I had to think fast. So, I appealed to her darker side - I told her that if we had a baby, she would have to share all of her toys. Plus, I would be busy taking care of the baby and wouldn't be able to play with her as much. So, she quickly decided we didn't need a baby after all. (Thank goodness!)

We have a winner!

2009-02-10T21:05:00.007-05:00

After lots of discussions and poring over the color catalog, we have agreed on a paint color. Actually, David hated the color at first, but I think I harassed him enough that he has finally given in. He should know by now that he is no match for my stubbornness. :) Whatever it takes, you know!

David affectionately calls it "orange", but the actual color is "ginger bite." It's hard to describe - kind of a peachy brown. It's a few shades lighter than the glaze on the cabinets and the floor color. I think it will look very nice. I was especially excited to see that Erin (the color expert) picked it out as a good choice before she even knew that was what I was considering.

Here's the color swatch, although it looks a little different on the walls:

And, here are a few patches of it on the walls (it's the lighter of the two colors - I actually really liked the brown also, but was afraid it would be too dark when it was on all the walls):

Now, on to the tile selection...

I wish we could skip this part

2009-02-07T22:32:00.005-05:00

This afternoon, I took Elizabeth to a birthday party for a girl in her preschool class. She was so excited about the party that she literally asked about it at least once every 5 minutes from 7am until 1:30pm - the time we had to leave the house for the party. (It was a loooooong morning!)

The party was held in a gymnastics center, with tons of things to play with and do. It was quite an experience! Elizabeth had a fantastic time, and managed to wear herself out so much that she even took a nap this afternoon.

But, I noticed that Elizabeth was just playing by herself most of the time. Now, of course, most of that is because she's still not very adventurous and a lot of the other kids were rough and tumble, so she seemed to feel safer playing away from them. But, when I asked her if she wanted to go play with a little girl that was in her preschool class, she got a sad look on her face and told me, "She doesn't like me very much. I like her, but she doesn't like me."

With those words, all of a sudden, the horrible, painful memories of my own childhood social situations came rushing back to me, and it just broke my heart. I guess I always assumed Elizabeth would be the most popular, sought-after girl around. I mean, how on earth could anyone not like my sweet little girl? Don't they see how absolutely precious she is? Or maybe I just hoped that she would not be shy and ill at ease around other children like I was. I guess I was forgetting that she really is my mini-me - in more than just looks. Ugh! How is it that this awful social stuff can start when she's only 3 years old? They're too young for this!

Now that I'm grown, I realize that those popular little twits aren't important. Inside, they're just as insecure as everyone else. There are lots of other nice little girls that will love to have my nice little girl as a friend. She shouldn't even think twice about it - it's their loss, not hers. But, I wonder if I'll be able to convince her of that. After all, I remember my own mother saying those very same things to me...and I never quite believed her. At least, not until I was over the age of 20 or so... I pray that Elizabeth will be a quicker social learner than I was.

Another kitchen update

2009-02-06T19:26:00.009-05:00

It's been a busy week at our house. In the course of a week, we had our kitchen cabinets, appliances, and granite countertop installed. And, most importantly, we even had the new kitchen sink installed and hooked up. Yeah for running water!

Plus, the contractor finished the kitchen floor and stairs. Only a few more hours of work, and we should be able to say goodbye to that contractor altogether (YEAH!). Now, we just have to wait for our new kitchen furniture to arrive, pick out the tile backsplash and have it installed, and choose a paint color. Pretty exciting!

Here are the latest pictures:

Tonight, David made us a wonderful homemade dinner, and even bought me flowers to celebrate. Isn't he sweet?

Now, we need some help. Any suggestions for paint colors? Here are some pictures of the granite, cabinets, and floor:

All suggestions welcome!

Kitchen Update

2009-01-31T19:49:00.008-05:00

Today was an exciting day in our household - our new kitchen cabinets got installed!

Here are some more update pictures. Forgive the mess - I was taking a break from unpacking boxes.

Old cabinets:

New cabinets:

Old wall:

New pantry cabinets with wall removed:

The cabinets are off-white with a cocoa glaze. They look great with the new floor. Here are some close-ups:

Old stairs:

New stairs (he still hasn't put in the new newel posts, which are very pretty):

We're finally starting to see a light at the end of our home renovation tunnel. On Monday, the contractor is coming back to finish up the kitchen floor (and hopefully the stair railings and several other small tasks), plus they're coming to measure everything out for our new granite countertop. Then, on Tuesday, we're getting our new appliances delivered. After that, a trip from the plumber and another trip from the electrician. Then, we just have to wait until the granite can be installed (the official estimate is a week, but we've been told there's a chance it might be as early as Thursday). So (dare I type it?) there's actually a chance the kitchen will be in a usable condition within the next week. That's pretty darn exciting when you've been living in the midst of chaos for over a month! We'll still have to wait for our new furniture to arrive. Then, we have to get the tilework done for the backsplash and pick out a paint color, and we'll be set!

The aftermath of the storm

2009-01-28T14:22:00.019-05:00

Well, the 2009 Ice/Snow Storm is officially over for us. The skies have cleared, the kids have come out to play, and the adults have come out to inspect the damages. At least it ended with a few good inches of snow, so the kids finally had something to play in!

Here's how everything looked at our house after the snow:

And some of the casualties around our neighborhood:

Once again, we're really glad we got rid of all of our Bradford Pear trees!

Elizabeth had a great time playing in the snow. Here she is all bundled up:

David pulled her sled around the block, and she thought that was an awesome ride! Of course, he had to pull her in the middle of the street, because we weren't sure all the tree limbs had finished falling.

Then, she got to play in the backyard (away from all the icy trees):

Her favorite part was knocking down all the icicles, of which there were many!

We even made a pathetic attempt at a snowman, however the snow wasn't sticky at all, so that was pretty much a bust!

All in all, we fared pretty well - especially since a lot of our friends are still without power! Now, we just have to wait for everything to thaw out, which might take a while based on the current forecast.

Ice storm update

2009-01-28T09:52:00.007-05:00

The final depth of ice at our house seems to be around 1/2-inch. We were helped a little bit by a slight warming trend, that turned some of the freezing rain to just rain. But, it was still enough ice to cause major tree limbs to fall throughout the night, and they're continuing to fall this morning. Fortunately, we haven't lost power at our house, although several of our friends across town have.

Here are some updated pictures:

Now, heavy snow has started to fall, which is supposed to be the last leg of the storm. We should have about 2-inches of snow on top of the ice before it stops this afternoon.

Why I love my husband

2009-01-27T19:02:00.005-05:00

I love my husband for many reasons. Any man that will allow his 3-year-old daughter to do this:

just to give his wife a few minutes of peace and quiet has to be the best husband and father in the whole world!

No wonder that little girl loves her daddy so much!

A few nights ago, she told him that when she grows up she wants to marry a man just like her daddy. I really hope she does.

Winter wonderland

2009-01-27T10:48:00.005-05:00

The Bluegrass is a winter wonderland today. The current winter storm deposited about an inch of snow last night before it turned to freezing rain. So far, we have about 1/4-inch of ice on the trees and about 1/2-inch of ice on our deck.

The ice is beautiful, but very treacherous. So, we're all staying inside today. I wish it were just snow, because then we could have fun in it! They're predicting freezing rain for most of the rest of the day, so the ice could build up a lot more before it's all over. The power lines seem to be holding up pretty well so far. Let's hope that continues!

Not really so "mini" marathon

2009-01-22T20:37:00.003-05:00

I just signed up to run the "mini Marathon" for the Kentucky Derby at the end of April. I think "mini" sounds a whole lot better than 13.1 miles! Yikes! I've never run over 6 miles at one time before now, so I've got a lot of training to do.

So why, you ask, have I decided to torture myself in this fashion? There are many reasons I could give you. They would include really good ones, such as: My body is a temple. I need to keep it in the best shape I can. Or: I'm not getting any younger, and if I ever want to run one of these races, I'd better start working on it now. Or, even less righteous ones, such as: It will be a great way to get in shape before Graeters starts their Strawberry Chip ice cream season (check previous post). But, I will confess the true reason that I did this:

A friend of mine, who has a son the same age as Elizabeth and another son even younger, just flew to Phoenix (all by herself!) to run in a marathon there. Now, I must confess that the idea of the race wasn't what appealed to me. It was the idea of a legitimate reason to travel somewhere ALL BY MYSELF. Is that totally selfish or what? But, I mentioned it to David and, as always, he was very supportive of the idea.

So, I'm not crazy enough to sign up for a full marathon, but I found out that Louisville has a half marathon as part of the Pre-Derby festivities. The course even goes through Churchill Downs, which sounds pretty cool. And, you have to be there at 6:30am, so I absolutely must go up the night before. David encouraged me to sign up as soon as I told him about it, even recognizing that it would be a good opportunity for me to spend a night alone before the race. That's when I dropped the bombshell - of course I'll need another night alone after the race to recover! (Hee, hee, hee!)

I've found a training schedule that should bring me up to speed in 10 weeks. Since the race is 13 weeks away, that gives me a little leeway, but not much. Wish me luck as I see if I can really pull this off!

16 Random Things About Me

2009-01-21T16:47:00.002-05:00

I recently succumbed to Facebook, and over there I've been tagged several times by friends that want to know random things about me. The first tags asked for 16 things. I procrastinated on that because it sounded like too much effort. But then the later tags asked for 25 things, which made the 16 look pretty good. Before the number gets raised even higher, here I go with the original 16:

1. I fell in love with UK basketball when Kenny Walker was playing and no other player will live up to him in my eyes.
2. My tape collection from Junior High School is hidden in my attic. I'm too embarassed to throw them away because I'm afraid the garbage man will laugh. (Seriously - Madonna? Tiffany? Gag!)
3. There are pictures floating around of me somewhere in cyberspace that I hope nobody ever finds.
4. I absolutely love my job and I absolutely love my family, but I really struggle with finding balance between work and home. Most of the time, I feel like I'm not giving enough to either one.
5. Electric Company was way cooler than Sesame Street. And, Mr. Rogers was only good during the Neighborhood of Make Believe.
6. I failed my first driver's test. But, I still blame my dad, because he made me take it in a car I'd never driven before.
7. I'm addicted to Strawberry Chip ice cream from Graeters. My addiction is so strong that we went there with Elizabeth on the day she came home from the hospital. Fortunately, they only sell it a few months out of the year.
8. I started running at age 26 and love it, mainly because it helps me hide my addiction from #7. I'm going to try to train for a half-marathon this year.
9. Before I married David Dicks, I dated someone with the last name of Cox. Hmmmm...
10. I skipped the 7th grade. As far as I can tell, the only things I really missed were dissecting frogs and geography. I hate frogs and slimy things, so that's a plus for me, but I'm still bad at geography.
11. I tend to be very blunt, but I'm fairly good at holding my tongue. So, if you don't want to know what I think, don't ask.
12. I have the best husband in the whole world. I don't think I'm as good a spouse as my husband is to me. I don't deserve him, but I thank God every day for him.
13. I have trouble making good friends, but I truly cherish the ones that I have - even if I don't write or call very often.
14. I've made some really bad choices in my life, and I pray my children won't make the same ones. But, I also pray they won't make different bad choices either.
15. I used to be terrified of having children, but now I actually think I'm a pretty good mother.
16. I fell in love with Jesus at age 28. Those who knew me before that will know that you've never strayed too far to find Him!

Sorry if you asked for 25 and got shorted! I'm posting this on the blog instead of Facebook, because David hasn't fallen into the evil trap of Facebook yet, and I don't want him to feel left out. Plus, I just set up my Facebook account to import my blog posts and I want to see if it works.

For Laura

2009-01-17T14:19:00.004-05:00

A while back, my friend Laura posted an old photo of her on her blog. It was the classic "little girl from the 70s gets a new bike" photo. Here's the link to Laura's post.

While I was recently working on the photo book extravaganza, I came upon my own version of this photograph:

I am still totally jealous of Laura's bike horn, but I may have beat her in style with the tube socks/sandals combination.

Watching the manatees

2009-01-17T14:07:00.006-05:00

It was still chilly this morning, so we went to a local park that is next to a canal where manatees like to swim when it is cold. The water was filled with manatees this morning, so we had a lot of fun watching them swim around and come up for air. Elizabeth was particularly impressed with them because they had "mermaid tails."

The park also had two different playgrounds. But, Elizabeth spent most of her time just playing on the bridges that led to each one.

Now, David is braving the 70-degree weather to take Elizabeth swimming in the pool while I relax in the hotel room. Isn't he the best?

We head back to cold, cold Kentucky tomorrow. Hopefully, our contractor has made some progress on the house while we've been gone. We'll keep you posted!

Update from Naples, FL

2009-01-16T21:30:00.012-05:00

It turned cold here in Naples at the end of this week. Cold for Naples, that is, which meant high temperatures of around 65 degreesF. Since the highs in Lexington for the same days have been about 11 degreesF, we still think we got the better end of that deal.

David and Elizabeth spent a few days hanging out at local playgrounds, the mall, and other various tourist attractions. Plus, the hotel pool is heated, so Elizabeth has still been able to swim in it. Then, we all got to go to the zoo and on a nature walk through a swamp today.

Here are some more pics from the week:

It's been a good week. The Florida district manager for my company has really been working hard to convince me to move to Florida. I have to admit that I've been a tad bit tempted, particularly with the temperature differential between here and home!

Working in Florida

2009-01-13T21:17:00.004-05:00

Last week, someone from work called me and asked if I could come to Naples, Florida, this week to help out with a project. When they called, I happened to be sitting in very cold rain/snow in Lexington, and Florida sounded like a pretty good idea to me. So, I rearranged a few work things and agreed to go. Then, I convinced David to bring Elizabeth and come with me. That wasn't very hard, seeing as the high in Lexington on one of the days we were going to be gone was forecasted as 19 degrees F. Brrrrr. Plus, it meant he could get out of our half-finished kitchen, and away from the contractor who is currently giving us nightmares.

We're staying in a really nice hotel that's close to the beach and has a heated outdoor pool. So, while I've seen my fill of condo windows while working the last 2 days, David and Elizabeth have been enjoying the beach and the pool. It's been nice to see them when I've gotten off work each evening, and we had a really nice seafood dinner tonight. There's a rumor that my job might finish up a little early this week, so we might be able to all hang out together for a day or two at the end of the week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Here are a few pictures of Elizabeth at the beach:

Remodel Update

2009-01-07T20:49:00.003-05:00

We just wound down day 10 of our remodel. As expected, we have had a few issues to work through but we are plodding along. The floor is almost complete, the drywall work is done except a few minor touch ups, and the stairs are in but we can't stain and poly them until our new newel post arrive next week (hopefully). As you can see from the pictures, everything is a mess. But, we can see progress. Elizabeth and I have spent a lot of time in her room or downstairs as the work has been going on. She told me in her dramatic fashion today, "Daddy we're going to be stuck in here [her room] forever!" I sort of feel the same way. Here a are few pictures:

Picture pages

2009-01-05T20:31:00.007-05:00

The special Christmas project that I mentioned working on this year was a scrapbook of photographs for my Mom and Dad that included photos of myself and my 2 sisters from birth through our own children. It turned out to be a lot more work than I thought it would be at first, and I ended up scanning over 300 pictures in the process, but I was really pleased with the final product.

There is a way for you to view the photo album online, but it opens up some of my personal information, which I'm not ready to publish for the world to see. So, e-mail me if you want the link.

And, Amy, your copy will be in the mail to you shortly!

Feeling fancy

2009-01-04T19:35:00.003-05:00

For Christmas, Elizabeth got a Fancy Nancy book. It's a cute story about a little girl that likes to be fancy. In the story, she teaches her parents and younger sister how to be fancy, then they all go out for ice cream. Unfortunately, poor Nancy trips and falls, spilling the ice cream, and then says, "I don't feel fancy anymore." Elizabeth likes the book, and has asked to have it read to her many times.

On a seemingly unrelated note, yesterday, David and I took Elizabeth shopping for ballet clothes, as she is going to start taking ballet lessons at the YMCA this week. When I first mentioned them to her, she was very excited. Then, she started telling me that she didn't need dance lessons, because she already knew how to dance. (Anyone who has seen her attempts at dancing would probably disagree with that...) Finally, she started telling us that she didn't want dance lessons at all. Nothing I said would dissuade her. Until, of course, she saw the dance clothes. She quickly picked out a leotard that was pink AND shiny, then informed us that she must have ballet shoes to go with them. That's our girly girl for you!

Here she is all decked out in her outfit:

She insisted on putting it on as soon as we got home, then wore it for the rest of the day.

She never mentioned a word about the Fancy Nancy book while she had it on, but after she took it off at bathtime, she got a real sad face and said, "I don't feel fancy anymore." She's our own little Fancy Nancy!

Family resemblance

2009-01-03T19:20:00.003-05:00

Whenever a baby is born, people immediately start telling you which parent they think the baby looks like. In my experience, people who are closer to the father think the baby looks like the father, and vice versa with the mother. I always found it ironic that friends of my father would tell me I looked just like him, when I actually have a much stronger resemblance to my mother (at least as an adult).

My sister Amy has an almost 8-week-old baby boy, who we visited with in Arkansas last week. We had to admit that Baby William does look a lot like his father. However, I told Amy that he also reminded me a lot of Elizabeth at that age. Since Amy and I look a lot alike and Elizabeth is my mini-me, that makes me think that William may actually resemble his mother as well.

Here's a recent picture of William smiling that Amy posted on her blog:

And, here's one of Elizabeth at almost the same age:

Although William is not sporting the classy spiked hair look, he would definitely pass for Elizabeth's "little brother," as she now claims he is!

The madness has begun

2009-01-02T21:40:00.022-05:00

Since we had the great idea of letting our kitchen wall removal and hardwood floor installation take place while we were in Arkansas this week, we were pretty busy last Saturday. Before we left, we had to completely remove everything from the wall cabinets in our kitchen and make sure everything but the furniture had been removed from the kitchen, dining room, living room, and basement foyer. After this was all done, we had to pack our suitcases and pick Jonathan up at the Louisville airport. As you can imagine, this made for one crazy, hectic day.

But, everything's good now, we finished everything in time to still have a great trip to Arkansas.

I managed to snap a few pictures of the old nasty carpet and kitchen before we left. It was hard to get any good shots because the kitchen and dining room were pretty small, but here are a few "before" shots:

As expected, the contractor was a tad bit optimistic on how much he could get done while we were gone. But, they did manage to get the kitchen wall, wall cabinets, and soffit removed. Plus, they installed most of the new treads and risers on the stairs and most of the flooring in the living room and hall. It already looks so much better. We can see enough to know that it's going to look really awesome when it's done. Hopefully, that will be enough to sustain us as we live through another few weeks of our house being torn apart.

Here's what it looked like when we got home yesterday:

And, look what we found behind the grape wallpaper:

Proof that the wallpaper in the kitchen used to be even more hideous! Aaaagh!

Visit to Arkansas

2008-12-31T14:11:00.007-05:00

We're having a great time in Arkansas! Baby William is absolutely adorable. Elizabeth has declared herself his "Big Sister" while she's here. She's been very busy helping us take care of him!

Jack and Jonathan have also discovered they are kindred spirits. They've locked themselves in Jack's room for most of the week playing video games, except for the occasional foraging expeditions for Hot Pockets, of course!

Here are some pictures:

Falling down on the job

2008-12-27T07:37:00.010-05:00

BOTH of my sisters have updated their blogs with pictures from Christmas Day before we've gotten ours up. Oh, the pressure!

We had a wonderful Christmas day. This was by far my favorite Christmas with Elizabeth, because she was so excited about everything. Since she can't remember anything from last Christmas, it was all brand new to her again. And, her eyes just sparkled as she took it all in. It was very special.

Elizabeth also must have been a very good girl, because Santa was very good to her.

Opening her stocking:

Laying out all her new Dora underwear from Santa (yes, this was actually one of her favorite presents!):

Excited about her Santa presents:

With her pink spotted elephant and Rudolph:

Santa didn't know it when he procured this gift, but Rudolph sang the Rudolph song VERY loudly when you pressed a switch on his ear. Elizabeth was absolutely enamored with this feature. In fact, she even brought a bunch of her other stuffed animals down to watch Rudolph put on a concert:

I don't even have an estimate of how many times Rudolph sang his song on Christmas Day, but it was a bunch. So much, in fact, that the switch broke and the song now only plays very intermittently. (And now Mommy and Daddy are singing the Hallelujah Chorus!)

Another popular gift of the day was a very pretty dress from Aunt Erin. As soon as Elizabeth opened it, she labeled it her "Princess Dress" and went in search of her princess crown and shoes as accessories:

And, in true 3-year-old fashion, one of the most popular gifts of all wasn't even intended to be a gift. It was the top of one of the candy tubes from Elizabeth's stocking. Turns out the cute kitty on top of the tube also plays a song and walks. So, bypassing the expensive learning toys we purchased, Elizabeth just wanted to play with the $1 kitty toy:

After present opening time, we went to Dad and Pat's house for brunch, which was absolutely delicious. Then, we got to open even more presents and listen to Dad play some Christmas songs on the piano. That afternoon, Mom came over to visit for a while. Then, we got busy putting Christmas decorations away.

Yesterday, we took some time out to go to the Newport Aquarium to visit with a friend of mine from our online Mommy group and her family. Then, we had a wonderful dinner with some more friends and got to play a few games with them before Elizabeth let it be known that she was definitely ready for bed.

Now, today, we're in full packing mode. We have to pack up all our wall cabinets in the kitchen today. Then, we have to pack our suitcases to get ready for our trip to Arkansas tomorrow.

Kitchen renovation

2008-12-24T19:29:00.004-05:00

For a while now, David and I have talked about wanting to remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room in our house to make a larger kitchen. We only have room for a small 4-person table in our kitchen now, so we really want a larger kitchen so we can get a larger table and be more comfortable when we have other people over. In addition, we really wanted to put in hardwood floors in the house. The carpet we have is just awful - no matter we do, the day after we clean it, it's filthy again.

So, we finally decided to bite the bullet and get some bids to start on the first part of the renovation. We were originally planning to just have the wall taken out and the hardwood floors put in, then wait until we could save some more money for the rest of the kitchen renovation, including cabinets, appliances, lights, etc. But, the kind people at the Fed decided to lower the interest rates so much that it made sense to refinance our mortgage. So, we decided to take some of our equity out during that process and just go ahead with the whole project now.

The first stage of work will take place next week while we're in Arkansas visiting the Tates. The plan is for them to come take our wall cabinets down, remove the soffits above them, take the texture off the ceiling, install recessed lights above the existing counters, tear down the wall, and install hardwood floors throughout the kitchen, living room, upper hall, stairway, and the basement entry while we're gone. Yes, that's an ambitious plan, considering we're only going to be gone for 4 days. We're trying to prepare ourselves to come home to find them still in the middle of everything, even though the contractor has promised us that the house will be "livable" when we return. I'm just worried that his definition of "livable" and my definition may not necessarily be the same!

After that stage of the work is done, we have to wait a few weeks for the cabinets to be finished. One of our friends hooked us up with a fantastic cabinetmaker who is customizing the cabinets for us. He's going to rework the cabinets so we can fit a regular range in the kitchen (as opposed to the mini-oven we have now). And, he's building a full wall pantry to more than make up for the loss of cabinet space. Once the cabinets are in, they'll install granite countertops, new appliances, and the rest of the lights. Oh - and the hideous grape wallpaper is going to go too. The finished product should look great!

So, in the next few days before we leave, we have to put away all the Christmas decorations, move everything but the big furniture out of the rooms that are getting new floors, and clear out all the kitchen wall cabinets. Should be a busy few days!

I'll be sure to post pics for you during the process.

The madness begins

2008-12-24T19:16:00.004-05:00

After attending our Christmas Eve service at church tonight and reading the Christmas story, we let Elizabeth open one present. It was a great start to her gift-opening joy - finger puppets from Peru and her very own pink laptop from Aunt Beth. She loved them!

When she had to put the laptop away at bedtime, she gave it the highest compliment she knows, "That is so cool!" Thanks so much, Aunt Beth!

She was excited to get to bed tonight because she knew Santa was coming. On the way home from church, she even asked David to drive faster, so we could make sure we got home before Santa arrived. Since it was only 6pm then, we assured her we had plenty of time.

Of course, we're enjoying the Santa game while we still can. I don't think it will take her very long to catch on to the ruse. A few weeks ago, we went through her room for a toy drive at our church. I told her that we were giving toys away to kids who couldn't afford them so they would get presents at Christmas too. She was very generous and picked out a bunch of toys she doesn't play with anymore to give away. But, this week after thinking about it some more, she asked me why Santa wasn't bringing those kids presents. She's already getting too smart for me!

Cookies for Santa

2008-12-23T21:49:00.005-05:00

We pulled out our special sugar cookie recipe today to get cookies ready for Santa.

Making the cookies:

Decorating:

The special 2 cookies that Elizabeth decorated especially for Santa:

We also made a pecan pie for our Christmas dinner. I'm used to Mom's pretty pecan pies, with the pecans all perfectly arranged on the top. However, I quickly realized that a 3-year-old has never helped her make those. Here was Elizabeth's version:

Our pie didn't turn out as pretty as Mom's, but she sure had fun helping!

Christmas scenes

2008-12-19T21:47:00.008-05:00

Here are a few Christmas scenes from our family from the past week:

I did some baking last weekend and Elizabeth helped. She's getting really good at stirring - and even better at telling us how good she is at stirring! :) She especially likes to help with the clean-up - at least if it means licking the spoons:

We also went to Elizabeth's class this week to watch their Christmas program. The kids wore some cute hats, the class sang a few songs together, and then we all had some snacks.

Granddad and Granny Pat came to watch, and they were rewarded by actually getting to see Elizabeth sing this time - unlike the last time they came to watch her.

We also continued our Christmas tradition of making graham cracker houses this week:

Elizabeth also decided at the last minute that in addition to a "pink spotted elephant" she had one more request for Santa - a "pink ball you can bounce on that has a handle". She even insisted on writing Santa a letter so she could make sure he got the request.

I wrote the letters in pencil then she traced over them, because she insisted in doing it all by herself (another common theme in our household these days). She also drew a picture of the bouncy ball and had Daddy draw a picture of the elephant for her.

There's only one problem - those jumping balls are a seasonal item and I couldn't find a store in town that had them in stock. Plus, I was too cheap to pay the exorbitant shipping prices that every store was charging to ensure it got here by Christmas at this late date. So, I cheated - I ordered one online and Santa is going to write her a letter explaining that it will be a few days late. This Santa stuff is hard work!

Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are!

Early Christmas present

2008-12-19T21:46:00.002-05:00

I got a wonderful early Christmas present today - a benign result on my biopsy. Thank God! Thank you very much for all the prayers that were sent up for us!

Lumps and bumps

2008-12-12T21:48:00.004-05:00

It's been kind of a stressful week around our house. On Sunday night, my mother came over and told me that a lump had been found in her breast during an examination. My mom's grandmother, mother and sister had breast cancer, so our family is considered to have a very strong genetic risk. (Fortunately, my aunt is a breast cancer survivor!) We all know that we're at risk, and we all take it very seriously. My mother and I are even in a high risk clinic that gives us extra screening throughout the year, and that's where this lump was discovered.

However, while it's one thing to know your family is at risk for breast cancer, it's quite another to hear Your.Mother.Found.A.Lump. Just the news of that made my heart stop. To be perfectly honest, I haven't been able to blog this week because I wasn't willing to put that into writing. Putting it on the blog just made it seem too real. And, if it was real, I had to actually think about what that might mean. And thinking about what that might mean was just too scary.

This past week has made me really feel for my mom. My grandmother died from breast cancer when I was 10 years old. That means my mom was around 37. That's only 3 years older than I am now. It wasn't until this week that I realized how truly unfair that was for my mother. I can tell you for certain that at this point in my life, I need my mother around. I need her to be here to watch my little girl grow up. I need her to help me continue to grow up. I can't even begin to imagine my life without her. I've cried many tears this week just thinking about it.

Fortunately, yesterday my mother had a mammogram and ultrasound that showed that her breasts are all clear. No cancer. Everything's good. I thank God for that. And, I thank Him for reminding me how precious our lives and the lives of those we love are, and that we should never take them for granted.

I also found out this week that I myself have to go in for another breast biopsy. I had a breast MRI done last month, and they saw some suspicious tissue near my previous biopsy site. While I was terrified the last time I had to go for a biopsy, I've been so worried about my mother this week, that I really haven't worried much about me. It's funny how that works. I actually have a higher BIRADS score this time and they didn't even give me the option of whether I wanted the biopsy or not, just told me I had to come in for it. But, this time, I'm not nearly as nervous about it. Of course, I've also convinced myself that they're just seeing scar tissue from the previous biopsy. I just hope I'm not wrong!

My biopsy is set for this Tuesday. Please send extra prayers up for us.

I think she's figured it out

2008-12-12T21:07:00.005-05:00

We took Elizabeth to visit Santa for the first time in 2006, when she was 1-1/2 years old. She was terrified, and judging from the picture, I think Santa was too:

Last year, Elizabeth went to visit Santa again. She sat on his lap that time, because she really wanted a dollhouse, but she was still very hesitant, again as the picture shows:

I think this year's picture doesn't need much of an explanation:

She knows who to suck up to now, don't you think? :)

She only wanted one thing from Santa this year - a "pink spotted elephant." It's actually the polka-dotted elephant from the Island of Misfit Toys on the Rudolph Christmas special:

There's a picture of the elephant in one of her books, and she decided a few weeks ago that the ONLY thing she wants for Christmas from Santa is that elephant.

Fortunately, Mrs. Claus knows about eBay, seeing as the elephants haven't actually been made for the last few years. I emphasize the word "fortunately," because today Santa told her that his elves would make one for her and put it on his sleigh for her. Now, how crazy is that? There are going to be some parents coming around to shoot Santa if he's promising to bring everything that's asked for. That's kind of scary!

But, Elizabeth took it to heart, because tonight while I was reading her Rudolph book to her at bedtime, as soon as she saw the picture of the elephant, she stopped me and yelled, "Mommy! Santa and his elves are making that for me RIGHT NOW!!!!" Ah....the magic of Christmas!

Thanksgiving in Mississippi

2008-12-08T06:36:00.008-05:00

Yes, I know this post is a little late. But, I've been working diligently on a top-secret Christmas present. And, you'll have to wait until Christmas to find out what it is (haha). Now that it's finished, time to catch up on the blog!

We had a great trip to Mississippi to see David's family over Thanksgiving. The trip was very pleasant and uneventful - just the way we like it! Elizabeth is now a champ at traveling. She slept well every night in the hotel and was very good in the car. She did comment that it was a long way from Kentucky to Mississippi, which I had to agree with!

David's mom (BB) cooked a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. And, of course, Elizabeth was a great helper:

She also really enjoyed helping BB decorate her Christmas tree:

But, the excitement of the weekend centered around Papa Al's birds. This was the first time we had met them - 2 big Macaws and 2 smaller exotic birds (parrots maybe? Sorry - I'm not well versed in birds). Elizabeth was scared of them at first, but did warm up to them over the weekend.

Here's a picture of Al with the Macaws:

The Macaws close up:

Al with the other two birds:

And, Elizabeth and BB watching the birds:

That was high entertainment for them!

Camping (sort of)

2008-11-25T20:34:00.003-05:00

This past weekend, Kate went on a high school youth retreat to a nice conference center run by the same folks that run Crestridge. We told Elizabeth all week long that mommy was going camping, even though I am not sure it truly qualifies for camping. So, I decided to go camping with Elizabeth in the basement. We set up her tent, sleeping bag, and pillow. Big fun. We even lit the gas fireplace so we could have a campfire. I put a few marshmallows, M&M's, and graham crackers on a plate and called them smores. Pathetic I know but I forgot to buy Hershey bars and Elizabeth didn't seem to mind. She did fall asleep in her tent which was a surprise but I relocated her to bed when I went to bed. I really didn't want to sleep on the basement floor.

Christmas decorations

2008-11-24T20:32:00.006-05:00

It has become our family tradition to start decorating for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. As many of you know, we have a LOT of Christmas decorations, so it usually takes us all of that weekend (and then some) to put them out. This year, we're going to Mississippi to see David's family for Thanksgiving. Although we're excited to see them, this puts a kink in our decorating schedule. So, I had a tough decision to make this past weekend - keep with the steadfast tradition of not decorating for Christmas until Thanksgiving was over, or be stressed about getting everything done when we got home. I chose the stress-free solution. So, I apologize to our neighbors, but we started putting everything out yesterday. (Now, we don't actually have any of the exterior lights turned on yet, so hopefully that counts for something!)

Elizabeth is now 3-1/2 years old, and it is so neat to see her experience the magic of Christmas. She oohed, aahed, and even laughed out loud each time we pulled something else out of the boxes. And, she's having a lot of fun with all of the Christmas toys and books that have been up in the attic all year.

Tonight, she got to help me with our less-liked, but necessary, Christmas tradition of changing out all the dead lightbulbs in our pre-lit tree. It's weird - we made sure they were all working before we put the tree away last year, but still about 50 of them were dead when we put it back up. After that was done, she got to help with the tree decorating. She was very insistent that she could do it all by herself, and very proud of herself for all the decorations she put on.

Now, just to remind you, I am a control freak and a Type Triple A personality. And, we were raised in a household where it was taught very early that there is a Right way and a Wrong way to decorate your Christmas tree. You have to make sure you spread the ornaments out, separate the various sizes, etc., until all that hard work culminates in a beautiful tree.

I can guarantee you that this is not the way a tree was intended to be decorated:

But, I was able to just smile and enjoy watching my daughter have fun decorating our tree by reminding myself of 2 things: 1)Elizabeth was learning to experience the joy of Christmas and making memories that would last a lifetime, and 2) She goes to sleep before I do, so I would have plenty of time to fix it!

Welcome, baby William!

2008-11-11T17:24:00.004-05:00

My sister Amy's baby boy, William Glenn, was born this afternoon. Both Mommy and baby are doing well.

Here's a picture:

Welcome to the family, sweet William!

Champs

2008-11-03T19:38:00.004-05:00

Those of you who grew up in Lexington may be surprised to hear that Champs (the old skating rink) is still in business. The location has moved, but it actually still looks eerily the same on the interior. Although, I do think it smells a little bit better. And, they still have the old roller skate car parked out front. But, I have to say I was pretty insulted to see an antique license plate on the front of it!

I know all of this because we went roller skating with our church youth group last night. Elizabeth was especially excited, not only because she got to go roller skating for the first time, but because she got to do it with Jonathan's friends!

She actually did pretty well, considering it was her first time, and she's not known for her physical coordination.

She even got enough courage to go slowly around the rink with David:

Of course, Jonathan was much faster - but in all fairness, he has had a lot more practice!

Jack-o-lanterns

2008-10-30T19:05:00.006-04:00

We carved our pumpkin tonight. It's actually the first time we made a jack-o-lantern with Elizabeth. We figured she was too young to enjoy it before now, so why bother with all that mess and goo? So, we had a great time starting the tradition tonight.

First, Elizabeth told David how to draw the face. They both took it very seriously - almost like they were drawing out a mug shot:

Then, Elizabeth took a few stabs at helping clean out the pumpkin guts, but quickly turned that slimy task over to David. A girl after my own heart!

Then, David cut out the face while Elizabeth painted a face on her little pumpkin.

At least, that was the plan. But, once she got started, she had so much fun painting, she kept at it until the whole pumpkin was painted. Here are the final products:

And, after they were done, Elizabeth still wanted to paint some more pumpkins, so we improvized:

Happy Halloween!

Little Goblins

2008-10-26T13:58:00.007-04:00

Elizabeth and I had a lot of fun yesterday at the Little Goblins Galore halloween carnival put on by LFUCG. (Poor David was in Morehead at his Saturday class.) They had carnival games, a petting zoo, and a trick-or-treat trail. We went with several other friends, and Elizabeth tried really hard to keep up with the older girls!

Here are some pictures:

And, even with all the candy around, she decided to eat an apple while on the Trick-or-Treat trail:

Little black kitties

2008-10-24T20:45:00.005-04:00

Elizabeth absolutely loves cats. She's going to be a black cat for Halloween (or a "black titty" for those who don't understand her Pre-schoolese). And, until now, her favorite stuffed animal was a little black and white "kitten" (I actually think it's a baby tiger) named Shazam. Last week, she got to take a stuffed animal to school, and she was so excited that Shazam got to go with her.

But, this week, I think poor Shazam has met his match. Last night, my friend Carolyn came over and gave Elizabeth a treat - a little black and white Beanie Baby kitten. I don't think she had any idea how well that was going to go over with Elizabeth, but she struck gold.

After much discussion, Elizabeth decided to name her new kitten "Oreo." Oreo has been the focus of all of her activities today and she has taken Oreo and Shazam with her everywhere she's gone. She claims the two kittens are best friends, but she also says that she's their Mommy, which means they are brother and sister. I have a feeling there's going to be some pretty bad sibling rivalry going on here pretty soon. Because, although Elizabeth loves both her babies, she's been showing a little preferential treatment toward Oreo. After all, this is how I found her sleeping in bed last night:

Yes, that's little Oreo tucked under her arm so sweetly. And, if you look closely, you can see one of Shazam's paws in the upper corner of the picture piled on top of all her other stuffed kitties.

Speaking from one younger sibling to another, I think poor Oreo better watch her back....

October traditions

2008-10-19T15:47:00.010-04:00

One of Erin's best friends got married in Lexington this past weekend, so she and the kids came up on Tuesday to spend the week. As always, the girls had a lot of fun playing with each other. And, Bridger has graduated from the happiest baby ever to the happiest toddler ever. You do have to watch him carefully, though, because he is FAST and things he shouldn't have seem to magically appear in his hands! He loved watching the girls play and seemed quite upset that he couldn't quite keep up with them yet. I imagine that won't last for long!

He also is turning into a budding musician, and was very cute to watch singing and playing Elizabeth's piano.

We took the kids on our annual trip to the pumpkin farm on Friday. It was very crowded, since we managed to show up during several school field trips, but they still had a fun time.

Here are some comparison shots from past pumpkin farm visits:

October 2008:

October 2007:

October 2006:

Elizabeth in October 2005:

The endless summer

2008-10-11T14:07:00.010-04:00

Although the calendar says October, we're still experiencing summerlike days in the Bluegrass. We're also in the middle of a moderate drought. That means we've had gorgeous blue skies and sunny days for almost 3 weeks straight. As someone who works outside most of the time, I'm definitely not complaining! So, although it looks like fall outside (the trees seem to have given up on waiting for cool temperatures and have started to change anyway), it feels like gorgeous summer weather. Today was again unseasonably warm (~85 degrees), clear and sunny, so we decided to take advantage of it.

This morning, David washed and cleaned both of our cars. Elizabeth helped for a little bit:

Here's an action shot:

Now, I figure she's trained to participate in pretty much any extracurricular activity, as she'll be able to work the mandatory fund-raising carwash event.

After that, we headed to McConnell Springs. It is speculated that the settlers of the city decided on the name of "Lexington" while sitting around one of the springs here in June 1775. As someone who was born and raised in Lexington, it's kind of surprising that I'd never been there before. They had some really nice, short trails to walk along, and we had a great time exploring and seeing lots of neat bugs and trees - including a huge, old Bur Oak tree. The water in the Springs were down (thanks to the aforementioned drought), so although it was still pretty, we decided we'll have to go back sometime when the water is up because I'm sure it will be really neat to see then.

Here are some pictures we took of the beautiful scenery:

(That one's pretty fuzzy, but you can see how big the tree was!)

Elizabeth is still getting over the croup/cold she's been fighting for a couple of weeks now, plus she got up in the middle of the night and then again early this morning. So, she fell asleep in the car and spent most of the time at McConnell Springs sleeping in her stroller:

But, she did wake up in time to see part of it and enjoy a picnic lunch!

Elizabeth's choir debut

2008-10-09T18:43:00.005-04:00

Elizabeth has joined the Cherub Choir, which is for 3 and 4 year olds, at our church. They practice every Sunday morning, and for the past few months, Elizabeth has been singing songs to us that she's learned in choir.

Last night, the Cherub Choir sang in church for the first time since Elizabeth has been a member. Granddad, Granny Pat, and Mamaw Helene came to watch her choir debut. Unfortunately, Elizabeth managed to fall asleep in the car on the way to church, so she was pretty grumpy when we woke her up to eat dinner.

Then, when it was time for the Cherub Choir to go up to the front of the sanctuary, she got major stage fright. She stopped in the middle of the aisle and refused to budge. Fortunately, I have strongly developed negotiation skills, so I quickly bribed her with a small bag of Skittles if she would go up there. Of course, then she just stood up there through the entire song, chewing on her nails. She finally got over her stage fright when everyone started clapping after the song was over - she liked that part! So, while she technically has now debuted with the choir, she still has yet to sing a single note!

Here's a picture of Elizabeth sitting on the floor of the sanctuary waiting her turn:

Here she is after she finally agreed to stand up with her friends (that's not really a smile - she was just about to put her fingers in her mouth):

And, here's what she looked like for the rest of the song:

We did take a video of it, but there's really no need to post it - she literally stood like that the entire time! Oh well, maybe she'll decide to actually try to sing next time!

Kentucky corn maze

2008-10-04T16:18:00.006-04:00

This afternoon, we went with some friends from church to a local corn maze. It was designed by the same company that designed Uncle Shuck's maze, which we went to when we were visiting the Hobbs family in Georgia last October. The maze was a very elaborate portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. You can see a picture of it on the Kelley Farms website.

The weather was beautiful, the corn was a-maze-ing (groan....), and we all had a lot of fun!

The Greatest Show on Earth

2008-09-28T20:30:00.007-04:00

David and I took Elizabeth to see her first circus today. And not just any circus - the one and only Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus, aka "The Greatest Show on Earth." She had a fabulous time. We had great seats, and it was really neat to see her eyes get wide as she was taking it all in.

She loved all the animal acts - particularly the cute little trained dogs, but also the tigers and the elephants.

She also liked the clowns. But, she could have done without the "people" acts like the trapeze artists, gymnastics, etc. - although David and I both liked those.

We asked her what her favorite part of the circus was as we were leaving...she quickly responded, "The cotton candy."

Oh well....I guess some things never change!

Gasp...gasp....

2008-09-23T22:34:00.004-04:00

That's me. Gasping for breath while I am sinking under an enormous pile of work projects. Have I ever mentioned that storms provide job security for me? Hurricanes, on the other hand, provide overwhelming, mind-numbing, cardiac-event-producing chaos. Particularly hurricanes that have the audacity to produce tropical storm-force winds all the way up in Kentucky! The only good thing about that is it has bought me a little bit more time at home in Kentucky before I have to head to Texas/Louisiana - of course, I know that won't last forever!

Of mice and children....

2008-09-20T16:31:00.005-04:00

Elizabeth has definitely decided she is a morning person. So much so, that she is now typically getting up at 6:30 every morning. Doesn't matter what time she goes to bed - she's always up early.

We were making due with it until she developed another nasty habit - getting up in the middle of the night. There were several reasons - she had a bad dream, she thought it was time to get up, she wanted to see us, etc. But, the result was two very tired and grumpy parents - along with the bright-eyed 3-year-old at 6:30 the next morning.

David and I were suffering together and taking turns with Elizabeth in the middle of the night - until he left last Friday night for Promise Keepers. Then, it was just me. And, Elizabeth set a record - she got up at 4am, 5am, and 6:30am. So, I was pretty much up from 4am on. It was then that clarity hit me - something had to be done!

So, I implemented the "Sleep Chart." This form of bribery worked for potty training, so I figured it was worth a try to see if it would get me a tad bit more sleep. So, Elizabeth helped me make the chart, and then was informed she would get a Mickey Mouse treat if she filled all of the squares on the chart. How could she do that? It was easy. Just stay in her room until 7am every morning. It didn't take long for her to catch on. Now, she's not getting up in the middle of the night, and when she wakes up in the morning, she's playing quietly in her room until 7am. (It also had the unplanned advantage of starting to teach her how to tell time.)

So, here's the blessed Sleep Chart:

(Notice I taped it to the back of her door so she would see it if she got up and was tempted to come wake us up.)

And, here's the smart little sleep-trained girl with her new friend:

As you see, she'll no longer have to substitute Elmo for Mickey. I think it might be the best $3 I've ever spent!

M-I-C-K-E-Y

2008-09-14T14:36:00.007-04:00

Elizabeth's latest cartoon obsession is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Now, this is not to be confused with the old black and white Mickey Mouse Show - it's a new cartoon show geared toward preschoolers on the Disney Channel that has all the traditional Disney cartoon characters (Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, etc.). Here's a video of her singing the song that's at the end of every show:

She runs around singing the entire song all the time, but as usual, she got stagefright when I pulled out the camera.

She also loves to act out all of the stories from the different episodes, and David and I are often recruited to serve as actors. And yes, I've again been cast as an undesirable sidekick - Goofy. Unfortunately, when BB and Al visited a few weeks ago, the current favorite show involved Goofy being sick, so there was a lot of fake sneezing going on at our house!

As part of this latest obsession, combined with her overactive imagination, Elizabeth has renamed 2 of her stuffed animals "Mickey" and "Goofy". Here's a picture of her with them:

In case you don't recognize them, "Goofy" is the larger one and "Mickey" is the smaller one. Elizabeth has been taking "Mickey" and "Goofy" with her almost everywhere we go this weekend. So, you can imagine the strange looks we've gotten when people keep asking her, "Do you like Elmo?" and she responds, "NO" - she can't understand why people would ask her that when she's got Mickey Mouse and Goofy in her hands!

School's in session

2008-09-12T04:24:00.002-04:00

Elizabeth has spent most of the week pretending all of her stuffed animals are going to "school" - with Ms. Elizabeth as the teacher, of course! She runs them all through a typical preschool day, which seems to focus mainly on snack/lunch and rest time. As shown in the picture, everyone gets to lie on a special "mat" (aka used coloring pages) at rest time, and she doles out the "food" (aka marbles and crayons) to each one. If they're good, they also get to hear a story. It's really neat to watch her imagination grow, and to have her be able to entertain herself more and more. But, this new game does tend to get a little messy if we leave her alone for TOO long, as she tends to want to pull out everything in her room for the students to play with!

Deep thoughts

2008-09-09T21:36:00.005-04:00

An online friend of mine recently asked how I became a Christian. While thinking about that whole process, and the awesome changes it has made in my life, the one thing that really struck me was how I am especially glad to have the hope and faith of eternal life through Jesus now that I am a mother.

This past Sunday, Elizabeth spent the day with Gran (my mother) while David and I went to see the Cincinnati Reds baseball game. That evening, as I was helping Elizabeth get ready for bed, she said, "Mommy, Gran showed me a picture today of another Gran. But she died." I assumed she was talking about MY Gran - my mother's mother. So, I responded, "Yes. That person was my Gran. Her name was Libby Lou." Elizabeth then said, "Hey! You call ME Libby Lou!" (That's my nickname for her.) I said, "Yes. I loved my Gran so much that I named my precious little girl after her." The conversation then went something like this:

E: "Why did she die?"
Me: "She got very sick and she died when I was a little girl."
E: "Where is she?"
Me: "She's in heaven with Jesus."
E: "Will you see her again?"
Me: "Yes. Someday, I will go to heaven too, and I will see her again."
E: "Can you give her a hug now?"
Me: "I can't hug her right now. But I know she's watching us and she sees you and it makes her happy."
E: "Who else lives in heaven?"
Me: "Everyone who loves Jesus gets to live in heaven."
E: "Will I go to heaven? I love Jesus!"
Me: "Yes. You love Jesus, so you will go to heaven too. And Mommy, Daddy, and Jonathan will be there too."
E: "Mommy, I want you to live *forever*."
Me: "When people go to heaven, they do live forever. So, no matter what happens, I will always be with you."

Yes, I was almost in tears by the end of the conversation. But, I can't imagine the hopelessness I would have felt if I couldn't tell Elizabeth that we would always be together forever with Jesus, and truly mean it. Life is tough. Who would want to live it without that promise?

Oh, and thanks for the warning, Mom! Whatever happened to reading "The Three Little Kittens"? :)

The big 1-5

2008-09-06T18:25:00.009-04:00

Jonathan's 15th birthday is on Tuesday. Since there's a good chance I'll be out of town for work, we decided to celebrate today. He didn't want a party this year, so it was just the 4 of us. Jonathan picked out dinner (Tuna Helper and crescent rolls). Then, we had Jonathan's traditional birthday ice cream cake, with tons of gel icing added by him and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth helped him blow out the candles:

Then, he opened his birthday card:

We didn't tell him that we had his present hidden in the other room, so he spent some extra time looking for it:

Then, we brought it out for him to open. Of course, Elizabeth wanted to help him open it!

Jonathan was really excited when he saw his present - a new laptop!

These days, you can tell your teenager is excited about a present when he immediately starts texting his friends about it:

Of course, he was a little less excited when we told him it was also his Christmas present. But, I imagine he'll get over it!

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Mission trip to McKee

2008-09-02T18:09:00.002-04:00

Jonathan went on a mission trip to McKee, Kentucky, with our church youth group earlier this month.

Here's a link to a slideshow with some pictures from the trip that one of the chaperones put together: McKee pictures

I post the link because there are actually several good pictures of Jonathan - which is pretty rare because he's gotten really good at hiding from the camera lately!

Our son, the sea mammal

2008-08-30T16:33:00.003-04:00

Elizabeth started talking very early and has always been pretty advanced verbally. However, she still struggles with enunciation and pronunciation, as 3-year-olds often do. David and I usually have no trouble understanding her, but that's because we're so used to listening to her talk. We're trying to work with her to get to say some of her consonants better, but I have to admit that some words we just haven't really wanted to correct, because the way she says them is so incredibly cute, and it would seem like she was all grown-up if she started pronouncing them correctly (for example, I got a little sad when she stopped substituting "bama" for "bottom" - it was just so darned cute!).

When Elizabeth first started referring to her brother Jonathan, it sounded like she was saying "dolphin." Jonathan took it good naturedly, as the awesome big brother he is. Since then, she's graduated to a "J" sound at the beginning of his name, but it still sounds like "Jolphin." And, his new name was sealed when she brought home her first preschool project this week. It was an "All About Me" poster, on which she drew a self portrait, which looks a lot like modern contemporary art, and answered several questions, which the teacher wrote down for her. Since this was completed on the first day of school, the teacher had no time to learn to decipher Elizabeth's specific preschool-ese language before completing this project, but I'm sure she tried her best.

On the poster, the members of Elizabeth's family are listed as : Daddy, Mommy, Josh, Jolphin, and Star. Since we don't know of a long-lost son named Josh, we assume that she stammered while trying to say "Jolphin", making the teacher think her brother's name was Josh, and maybe she had a pet named Jolphin. And, of course, the Star is actually for Scar, our cat.

She also had to list 3 "super-cool" facts about herself on the poster, which were as follows:

1) "I like to go to Wal-Mart." (We knew this, since "Wal-Mart" was one of her first words, which she started saying to us when she was about 15 months old if we told her that something was "All gone.")

2) "I can get some yummy food at the Pez Restaurant." (We were stumped on this one, until I asked her what restaurant she liked to go to, and figured out she was actually saying "PIG" restaurant - which is what she calls Corky's.)

3) "I don't have sisters, but I have one brother named Josh." (Again, this one is news to us. I'm trying to convince David to come clean and tell me about his other son, but so far, no luck...)

But, speaking of our actual son (Jolphin), check out this picture David took last Sunday before church:

Those who know Jolphin well will marvel at the fact that he is wearing anything other than his standard "uniform" - a white t-shirt and jeans, which is what he wears 7 days/week. But, what you might not be able to see is that he's actually wearing a flamboyant gold WOMEN'S sweater. This was apparently a dare from the high school girls who went with him and our church youth group on a mini-mission trip last week. Oh, what power the members of the opposite sex can have on a high school lad! But, on the other hand, as the teacher of those high school's girls' Sunday School class, I can confirm that they were truly impressed and actually SQUEALED when they saw he was wearing it. So, I think he actually won out in that situation.

It's raining, it's pouring...

2008-08-25T20:48:00.003-04:00

We haven't been able to sing that song very much in Kentucky this summer. In fact, before today, we had only received 0.39 inches of precipitation in the month of August - when the average is usually over 3 inches.

So, when we got a nice soaking today, we were excited. You could literally see our dry, parched lawn turning green as the rain fell. We can thank the remnants of Tropical Storm Fay for today's (and probably tomorrow's) rain - too bad she had to create such havoc before she did anything good!

Playing with friends

2008-08-24T20:22:00.007-04:00

This afternoon, Elizabeth walked around the block with me to her little friend's house. This friend is about a year older than Elizabeth, and the two girls have loved each other from the first time they met. It's so cute to watch them run up and hug each other everytime we meet while walking around the block. But, today was a momentous occasion, because we went to ask if the little girl could come to our house and play. Not babysitting, not because their parents needed a break or wanted to spend time together, but because the 2 girls simply wanted to play together as friends. Sigh...our little girl is really growing up...

The girls had a great time together. They jumped in the leaves in the front yard (no, it's not really Autumn here - we just have a tree that likes to jump the gun every year), played out back on the swingset and in the sandbox, and played inside with all of Elizabeth's toys. It was very sweet to see them playing together. I'm sure it will be the first of many, many times! And, we're really glad about that, because this little girl is about the sweetest girl we've ever met.

Almost ready for Chip 8

2008-08-18T20:41:00.003-04:00

I shamelessly bribed Elizabeth to get this on camera tonight:

That's "Kitty Kitty Wash Wash" from Camp Crestridge, for those who don't know/recognize it. She insists that I sing that song to her every night at bedtime. She needs to work on the pronunciation a little bit, especially the last line which she usually pronounces "too-dah-lee" (instead of "true to thee"), but she still has a few more years to get it perfected before she heads to Starter Camp!

Bridger's finished cross-stitch

2008-08-15T10:15:00.002-04:00

In March 2005, I received news that devastated my Type-AAA personality. I was sentenced to strict bedrest for the remainder of my pregnancy, which was scheduled to last until June 1. I remember breaking into tears as I told people the news. How on earth was I going to sit in bed for up to 2 months with nothing to do? I'm the person who has to have something to do every single minute of the day, or I go stark-raving mad.

Well, I learned a few things about myself during the (what ultimately turned out to be) 6-week bedrest process. Most importantly, that there was something much more important than me and my wants - that little baby growing inside of me. My doctor told me that every day I survived on bedrest could possibly keep the baby out of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for 2 days. So, I was very lucky to survive on bedrest as long as I did because, although she was still born 4 weeks early, Elizabeth didn't have to spend a single night in NICU. And, according to his equation, if Elizabeth had succeeded in arriving when my pre-term labor started, she could have been in the hospital for several weeks, or even months.

The day after my initial devastation, I started to get industrious. I wasn't allowed to move, but there was no way I was going to waste away in absolute boredom for several weeks. I don't watch TV - especially brain-sucking daytime TV - unless, of course, UK basketball (or the Olympics, as I've been watching this week) is on, so I needed other options. Fortunately, I could do a lot of my work from home, so the weekdays went by relatively quickly. But, to combat boredom, I also decided to pick up a long-lost hobby - cross-stitching. I chose something to cross-stitch for my baby, and for good measure, also offered to make one for my newborn niece as well.

Fortunately, I haven't been restricted to bed for some time. But, I've continued with the cross-stitching, since I've found it keeps my mind and hands busy while I sit and watch TV with David in the evenings. Since my work schedule gets so hectic, I don't have a lot of time to devote to it, but slowly I've been able to continue. This past year, I've been working on a piece for Bridger, my nephew who was born last September. It was very elaborate, but I was determined to get it finished by his first birthday. Here's the final product, which we gave to Erin and Brad as an early Christmas present this past weekend:

The verse from Psalms is the life verse they chose for him at his baby dedication. It's very appropriate, since the heritage of his name can be traced to the mountaineer, Jim Bridger, who spent a lot of time in the "hills."

Now, I'm on to my next project - another baby cross-stitch for Amy's baby boy, due in November!

Mini-family reunion

2008-08-10T20:36:00.022-04:00

We had a fun time at Calk Lake this weekend for our mini-family reunion. My dad and Pat, Mom, Amy, and Erin and her family were there with us. We stayed at Pat's family's lodge, which was right on the lake. The lake was absolutely beautiful and the weather cooperated very nicely by cooling down some just in time for the weekend.

Jonathan with the lake behind him:

Gran holding Baby Bridger (aka Moose):

Opening presents in advance for Bridger's 1st birthday (which is actually about a month away):

The girls playing with Bridger's presents:

Bridger sneaking a chance to play with them himself:

The mist rising off the lake water in the morning:

The kids playing in the wading pool:

Jonathan and David playing with the volleyball:

Swimming in the lake:

The girls playing in the hammock:

Making ice cream (the old-fashioned way):

Playing outside:

David and Amy (with Baby William aka Little Burp in residence) waiting for dinner:

Dad's 60th birthday cake:

The girls helping him blow his candles out:

Opening presents:

The icing on Elizabeth's face verifies the cake was good (and you can all see how great Amy is looking!):

Jonathan fishing:

Ready for Calk Lake

2008-08-02T16:40:00.007-04:00

In preparation for our trip to Calk Lake next week, David bought Elizabeth a mini-fishing pole and has been teaching her how to use it this afternoon.

It came with a little plastic fish to be used for practice. She's gotten pretty good at reeling it in, but we still weren't quite brave enough to let her try casting yet!

An added benefit was watching Scar stalk the fish as it hopped through the front yard!

As you can see, Scar's not looking very well at the moment. In addition to her normal hideous appearance (with one ear missing and a huge scab on the top of her head), she's had a big sore open up on top of her head and she's starting to lose huge clumps of hair and is getting very skinny. Poor thing!

Elizabeth also spent some time hanging out in the tree in our front yard this afternoon:

(Don't call the authorities - David was hiding behind the tree and standing next to her.)

BB's wedding

2008-07-22T18:48:00.013-04:00

We're back from our trip to Mississippi for BB's wedding. The wedding was very nice, we had a great time visiting with family, and (dare I say it?) we absolutely love Al - BB's new husband. He's going to be a great addition to the family!

Here are a few pictures, of course:

Elizabeth visiting with Papa Joe before the wedding. As always, Joe's eyes really lit up when he saw Elizabeth.

David practicing on his flute before the wedding. He played the Wedding March on it, and it was absolutely beautiful.

The candles melting (before they were lit). Did I mention the wedding was outside...in July...in Mississippi?

Al about 45 minutes before the wedding. (Yes, he did manage to change and look presentable before it started.)

Jonathan lighting the candles at the beginning of the ceremony:

Elizabeth as the flower girl and David's cousin's son (Brody) as the ringbearer. He ran down the aisle, so this was as close as I could get to a shot of them together.

Elizabeth taking her time going down the aisle. (She literally stopped to pull out one petal at a time. It was very cute.)

The wedding party (including Betty's sister, Aunt Donnette, Betty's father, and David's youngest brother, Scott).

BB and Jonathan after the ceremony:

David toasting the happy couple:

Elizabeth and Jonathan dancing:

Whew! It's been a busy month! We're now officially tired of traveling. Unfortunately, I have to do even more of it this week for work. Oh well...that's how it goes!

A quick smile

2008-07-18T15:43:00.004-04:00

This picture is noteworthy because it was the first (and so far only) time in her life that Elizabeth: 1) asked me to take her picture, 2) stood still long enough for me to take it, and 3) actually smiled for the camera.

After 3 years of cajoling, pleading, begging and usually downright failing to get good smiling pictures of Elizabeth, I considered that a breakthrough. Of course, you'll have to ignore the Cheetos all over her face - beggars can't be choosers!

We're in Mississippi this weekend because BB (David's mom) is getting married. Elizabeth is supposed to be the flower girl. We'll let you know how that goes!