Weekend Recap

Friday the girls headed to Nanna's and Alec went camping with his friend. . .Mom over here was a little reluctant, but then when I decided to step back away from the control freak in me and realizing the family he was going with is a good family . . . they are the family that I'm always so grateful is going on the Route 56 church trips. . . so I relaxed then. . . putting to death the control freak in me is quite the task.

Meanwhile, Jon and I decided to have a night at home. He'd been out of town all week working on a house. . . I made turkey burgers stuffed with feta cheese (so yummy) and a salad. We sat down on (what my friend Faith refers to as) "The Big Comfy Couch" and watched a movie.

Saturday morning you'd think a monsoon had hit our area. Tiffani and I had planned on running in a race. That morning I got a text from her. Honestly I thought it was going to say something like "I love you, but I'm not running in this rain. Have fun without me." It didn't though, it said, "I'm in your driveway". That girl is quite the trooper. I do believe she is becoming a real runner **wink**wink**.

We actually were going to meet some of our old Dayspring friends there. Later we found out they did show up only to pick up their T-shirts and then go eat breakfast at Truitts. . . I informed them on Sunday that "real runners run in the rain". They didn't care what I had to say.

Despite the cold and rain. . .

Tiffani got her best race time yet. In this race there was no flat land. You were either going up hill or down hill.

I ran strong with this little kid. I kept telling him "Don't let me pass you." As I'd get up on his heels I could hear him speeding up. We would go back and forth passing one another. Then, finally, at the end, the crowd was cheering for him. I told him,"Little man, I'm not going to let you beat me. If you beat me, it'll be fair and square. You better run hard, 'cause I'm running hard". Sweet little thing beat me by 3 seconds. My time was 23:03.

Y'all the rain was awful. A friend of mine (a runner who wasn't running the race) let Tiffani and I use his umbrella. Tiffani was so sweet to wait around for me to get my age group award.

I won 1st place in my age group . . . I got a medal and a $20 gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods. Cha-Ching!!!

Man, if only I'd been a minute and a half faster and been the 1st woman to cross the finish line rather than the 3rd woman. . . I'd won a pair of tennis shoes and a $50 gift certificate to Dick's. A minute and a half doesn't sound like much. . . but in a 5K IT IS!!! It just gives me some motivation for next year, 'cause I'll definitely be running this race again!

I got home, dried off. Jon and I went and got a sub from the new "Firehouse Subs" in town (Yummy). When I got home I started to separate these. . .

These are all the homeschool books I needed to be pricing for the upcoming Homeschool Book Sale this Friday. . . however, instead of pricing, I plopped on "The Big Comfy Couch" next to Jon, took a nap, woke up. We watched a couple of movies. It was so nice to be at home and DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!

Sunday morning we got up and headed to Sunday School. We didn't stay for church because we had to meet my parents and get the girls (we got Alec at church) and head to celebrate . . .

This precious lady's 81st birthday. It was Grandmama's birthday.

When she blew out her candles she said, "I just wish your Papa was here. I really miss him." Just imagine he has celebrated her last 60 birthdays with her. This was her first birthday without him. I asked her what she missed most about him. . . his talking. He was a talker (see where I get it from?). She said sometimes he'd talk so much it would just drive her crazy (Grandmama is very quiet and reserved. Papa was quite the life of the party). She missed hearing him talk ALL THE TIME!!! I reminded her of how just about every time he'd see me he's say, "Shuggaah, the LORD gave you 2 ears and 1 mouth because you are to do twice as much listening as you do talking."

Everyone was there but my sister and her family and my cousin and his family. The girls played with my aunt's dog. My Aunt Wanda gets such a kick out of Ashley. She's always saying, "Michele, she is you made over!!!"

Gee whiz, when I saw this picture of me and Grandmama I felt like an Amazon woman.

I wanted to let my Grandmama know that her life still mattered and that God still has her here for a purpose. I don't want her to quit living because Papa is no longer here. We all miss him . My Dad still visits his grave ALL the time!!! I go through periods of missing him. Sometimes just little things will remind me of him. I'm just so very grateful he was here and he was mine!!!! I'm so grateful God blessed my life with a Papa like him. I'm so glad I have all the memories I do of him. I'm so glad he loved me and taught me about Jesus. I'm so glad he provided all of us with so much laughter.