a little of this and that...

What a great weekend!  Dallas was supposed to be out of town all weekend but his plans changed, so we had him all to ourselves for Father's Day!  We celebrated in our own special way and had much fun staying low-key.  Dallas is the best dad I know!  I could not have picked a better father for my children, and I knew he would be a good dad when we were dating.  He was always so good with kids and loved his nephews to pieces....that's one of the things that made me fall in love with him!

In other news...I got a bib for the Chicago Marathon!!! AHHHHHH! If all of the details work out, that is.  I will have to run as 34-year old Laura Abbott, but hey, I don't think we have to be concerned about me forfeiting any medals or prize money due to the name on my bib.  I will be happy just to finish!  Saturday morning was my first runner's world training run and it was bliss!  I instantly connected with a few girls and we chatted it up the entire 7-1/2 miles.  It was so wonderful having people to push and pace me.  The best news is that there is another girl training for Chicago in my pace group!!!  I can't believe it.  This means I will have a running partner for the actual marathon!  I'm on team Dominator, so I will train with this group for the next 16 weeks.  So excited, I just hope I can take the heat!  

The boys are doing the summer reading program through our library.  They are really excited to get a giant pointless inflatable airplane and tickets to the aquarium when we complete 20 books.  Rhett could really care less, but his pass will get me into the aquarium, so for all intents and purposes HE CARES!

We have decided to forego soccer this year for Juder.  Instead we signed him up for a flag football team through Upward sports.  I think he will absolutely love it.  I plan to get a flag football set and start playing as a family so he can be ahead of the game come August.   

Rhett is a little parrot.  He repeats EVERYTHING we say, and everything everyone else says too.  He's very social these days too.  He's teething like a maniac now.  Up nights crying and suffering...poor baby!

He likes this cold teething ring...just bites right on!

Late nights make tired toddlers!  Have I mentioned how much he loves his babies?!

The boys and I will leave for Illinois (woot woot) this Thursday and we are all so excited!  I can't wait to be there and spend time with my family.  

I finally finished my plate wall a year later!  Thanks to Anthropologie I was able to get the missing pieces to pull it all together.

I don't really have anything else to report.  We are really enjoying summer and soaking it all in!  My kids are cute and I love them to tiny bits and pieces.  When Rhett runs his cheeks shake and I just want to pinch them right off for the sake of cuteness!  I'm trying to soak this all in because I know it's just a flitter of time and they will be big!  

26.2

I just signed up for the Route 66 half/full marathon training program through Runners World!  I'm REALLY excited to have some people to run with who are in my pace and distance range.  Slow and steady.  This program puts you in groups based on such factors.  I don't know that I'll do the Rt. 66 marathon, but it's my goal to do one in the next 10 months or so.  I really had my heart set on doing the Chi-town marathon this October, but when I went to register in mid-February it was already full!  Shipes....40,000 people, crazy talk!  I may still try to get a bib on craigslist or ebay or through some running friends my sister knows.  We shall see!  Hmmm, running down Michigan Ave in Chicago with lots of cool scenery versus running on the plains of Ok for 26.2 miles...no-brainer!

I miss my running buddy Sarah, SO SO much!  We would save all of our stories for our long runs so we could keep each other entertained.  She would even bring a cooler with water and gatorade for our drink stops.  She was wonderful and I miss our half marathon rendezvous in fun cities.  Maybe after baby 'W' arrives we will reunite for some long runs!

Speaking of running....I've got a new running buddy!  Jude biked 3.7 miles with me today while I ran.  I was so proud of him!  He was so excited and red-faced and just such a cute little kidlet!  I don't know what I'm going to do without him for 2-1/2 hours each day in the fall.

Rhett enjoyed his time dousing himself with water from my water bottle the entire time!  This little j-bird took a  run of his own later on...

I am so thankful my kids have always liked going on runs with me.  Sometimes Jude asks if we can go for a run.  It's a daily routine during the week and has been for his entire life.  I think he also enjoys the snacks and drinks he gets during our runs!

I'm especially thankful for B.O.B.!  My B.O.B. stroller has given me SO much freedom to run.  I recommend it to anyone who plans to run frequently with kids in tow. It's definitely not necessary and a bit pricey for someone just looking to walk or for regular stroller needs (the $100 joggers from babies r us are perfectly suitable for this), but as a runner it's worth the bucks!  It folds up relatively compact and will fit in the trunk of our sedan (we have the double).  It is lightweight and the front wheel swivel is smooth and it turns on a dime.  I use mine 5 days a week in running weather and the fabric and tires still look like new (over a year and a half old).  I also recommend the KoolStop runner if you don't plan to travel with your stroller, but it is not a good one for transport (hard to disassemble and BIG wheels...hence the smoothness).  It is probably the smoothest stroller I have EVER used!  You can trust me, I have owned nearly every stroller known to man:)!  Bobby is a keeper!

Happy Running!

Catch up...

It seems like I haven't posted in forever.  So much has happened in the past three weeks. Much of it I don't care to talk about, but here are the highlights...

1. My mom and stepdad came to visit over Memorial Day weekend, and it was SO wonderful to spend time with them.  The boys had so much fun playing and visiting!  My mom is so beautiful...inside and out! I cherish the time I get to spend with her in person as well as our many weekly conversations over the phone.  

2. Our neighborhood pool opened over Memorial Day, and I am like a kid in a candy store.  We literally go to the pool every.single.day, even if it's just for a 30 minute dip!  Jude is officially a brown berry!  I grew up on a lake with a pool and our summers were consumed with swimming and water activities.  What else is a kid to do in the heat?! I've also taken to swimming laps again this summer, we'll see how long that lasts.  

3. Jude is riding his bike like a pro now!  It took all of one afternoon for him to get the hang of it.   By the third day of being an official bike-rider, he was starting and stopping on his own.  He continues to be a quick learner in all of the areas I assumed would be challenging in raising a kiddo (potty training, swimming, writing his name, etc.).  Yay Jude!  

4.  Jude has officially been accepted into the preschool program we were hoping for!!!  It was a lottery this year  by random selection...some got in, some didn't.  He will start in August and will go Monday-Friday from 9-11:30.  I feel a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders to know where he will be going!  Now I can prepare him and start talking it up:).  

5.  When Jude grows up he would like to be Cat In The Hat!  He informed me of this last week, and he's brought it up a few more times.  I asked him why Cat in the Hat, and he said, "Connor wants to be a fire fighter and everybody else wants to be something else, but I bet nobody wants to be Cat in the hat!"  Sounds good to me!  At the pool today he said, "Moo Zow Bam Boozle, come on mom, my thingamajigger is waiting for us right over there!"  All said using his very best Martin Short Cat in the hat voice, of course.  I love that he is unique and doesn't want to be something that someone else has thought of.  I will soon encounter the day when I have to break it to him that growing up is not like Halloween, he will have to have a real job.  For now he can dream!  

6.  Jude hit a pole on his bike when my mom was here and cut his upper lip pretty bad.  We just noticed last night that one of his big front teeth is turning gray:(.  I'm just sick over it.  It is a baby tooth, but still.  I called the dentist today and they told me that it could just be bruised (who knew teeth got bruised?!), and that it could lighten up again.  I sure hope so!  

7.  Rhett is a fearless child!  At the beach and pool leading up to this weekend his only interest was playing with toys on the sidelines of the water.  Dallas called me from the pool on Saturday and asked me to bring a floaty because Rhett wouldn't get out of the water.  I took them yesterday, twice, and Rhett took a running start and leaped right into the water.  He sank to the bottom where he then put both of his arm straight out and casually floated to the surface.  I purposely observed, rather than panic, because I wanted to see his reaction.  I was, of course, an arms length away for rescuing purposes.  As I held him in the water he was constantly peeling my hands away from his body...wanting to swim all by himself like "Ju-Da".  Today was the same story, only he calmly walked over to the deep-end, sat on his bottom, turned around onto his tummy and lowered himself into the water...ugh!  I don't have enough eyes on my head to keep track of this one!  

8.  I recently started doing Billy Blanks Cardio Inferno video.  It was on an end-cap at Sam's for $8.88...who could refuse that?!  I've tried to hit the gym for bootcamp, but I am completely horrible about going (Sorry Megan!).  I don't care for the Jillian Michael's 30 day shred that I've done on and off, so I thought, why not!  In the video he talks about always exercising with purpose, to put your all into each workout and to not waste the opportunity to get all of your muscles working. I've been putting this to practice on my runs by contracting my abs and squeezing my glutes firm for the entire 3.2 miles.  I've also started doing random sprints throughout my run and for the last minute to the home-stretch.  Um yeah, this is hard!  I might even describe it as horrific, but I do think it's making a difference!  I'll keep you posted.  Oh, and if you happen to be driving through my neighborhood and see a crazy girl sprinting and looking constipated...no worries, that's me!  

9.  This stuff is unbelievable!  

I bought this last week for my bible study and just added some colorful peanut m&m's to the mix...it was a huge hit!  It has everything from corn nuts to sesame sticks, and a little sweet and heat too!  I ate nearly a 1/4 of the jar before anyone even got to my house...no worries... I will go run and squeeze my slightly larger glutes to remedy this situation:).  

9.  We are officially road warriors!  It seems like we have a bajillion trips in the works right now.  We were in Florida last month, Dallas is in Boston right now (I was supposed to be with him), I will head to IL with the boys for a few weeks at the end of June, Dallas will drive to Atlanta with his brother for a golf tournament while we are away, family vacation with the Hughes gang in July and our friend Kenny's wedding the first week of August in Minnesota.  We may try to slip in a trip to Austin to go to Schlitterbahn with the Wood's family in early July....we'll see!  I got exhausted just typing this!  

10.  There are a million random and unimportant things I could go on and on about, but I was reminded of something this week that really just put me in my place.  There are literarily tons of people hurting in this world.  People we don't know, but also those who we do know and we encounter every day.  People who are devastated, depressed, heart-broken, lost, searching, scared and broken.  People who need prayer and who need God.  A helping hand, a nice comment, a lunch invitation, a smile, a meal delivered to their house, financial help, a friend...sometimes the littlest things make the biggest difference.  God can use us in these little ways to bless others.  We don't have to go on far away mission trips to find the broken-hearted and people in need, they are all around us.  

A dear friend reminded me of this scripture recently and it just really resinated with me... 

Psalm 34:18 - You Lord, are close to the brokenhearted and save those who are crushed in spirit. 

I pray that God will use me to reach out to the brokenhearted all around me, to be a light in their darkenss!