10 on the 10th

You know when every single room in your house is a mess, and you feel so totally overwhelmed you just don't know where to start? So sometimes you just leave it all a mess for awhile.. . that is until you gear yourself up and talk yourself into tackling it just like a coach would do before a big game? That is how I feel about blogging right now. Since scrapbooking and I are no longer apart of one another's lives, this blog serves as a scrapbook for me. It is very important to me that I document our lives in the pictorial sense. So, in an effort to try and get caught up on blogging, and in honor of Meredith's 10 on the 10th, I've combined 10 blog posts into one.

It will take much dedication and tenacity to make it through this post. Just warning you. So, if you're ready. . . on your mark, get set, GO!!!


1. WHAT PART OF NO DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?

As we were helping my parents move this weekend, the girls wanted to spend the night. There was nowhere for them to sleep. Mama was trying to work it out so they'd be happy. I just kept telling them no. Finally, I'd heard enough of their whining. I looked at Hanna and in a frustrated tone said, "I said no. What part of no don't you understand?"

Her response, "The N and the O."

I laughed so hard I could hardly stand it. There went my frustration out the door.


2. SOUTH CAROLINA ZOO

A little over a month ago the kiddos and I took a trip to visit my sister, Melissa. We are all so excited that they've moved to Columbia, SC. It's so much closer than Dallas, TX. We all took a trip to the zoo.

Hanna cracked me up with this mail. You'd think she was "Dora the Explorer." That show hasn't graced our TV in years. Every time we would leave an exhibit, she'd pull out her map and look to see where we should go next.

The gorilla was really cool. Only this piece of thick plexy glass separated us from him. It was really neat to see his fingers, toes, and the kids got a good giggle out of seeing his booty.

The girls wanted to bring their purses with them. We told them THEY had to carry them. Guess who ended up with them?

Sweet cousins!

3. SO EVERYONE WOULD FEEL AT HOME

Last Monday my friend Jennifer called to say she would not be at Bible study. As we were talking I told her I had piles of laundry so high that I wouldn't have time to fold before everyone got there. She told me, "Just leave it. That way everyone would feel at home." I listened to her. Guess what? They did feel at home.

4. SPRING SPRINT

"Faithful Feet's" 2nd 5K together. Along with my family 2 other families were participating. Poor Faith, she was really looking forward to this race. She'd gotten some new shoes that I know made her super fast. Plus, I told her a creme-filled donut would be waiting for her at the finish line. The day before the race her daughter broke her arm. We had her oldest 2 kiddos with us so they could run the race. We missed Faith, Steven, KJ, and "Flash", but Jennifer, Jon, and I and all the kiddos had a GREAT race!

There are 2 kids in this picture that are not in Faithful Feet. They play soccer with us, but we didn't want to exclude them from the picture.

Me and my girls.

Alec had an awesome race. He came in 1st in his age group. I was so proud of him.

Noah did a great job too!

Here are Hanna and I coming up for a strong finish. This was her 1st 5K so I ran with her. She finished in 34:09. Bless her heart, about mile 2, she kept asking me, "Is it almost over?"

Ashley was DYNAMITE!!! She was the first overall lady to cross the finish line and won her age group.

Hanna came in 3rd in her age group

Alec is going to be a close competitor with me. He won his age group and was 4th or 5th overall crossing the finish line.

All these boys did a terrific job.

5. HOMESCHOOL BOOKSALE

It's that time of year again. . . we love the homeschool book sale. This year I sold A LOT of my curriculum. I'm revamping all of my curriculum. In order to pay for the new stuff I needed to sale the old stuff. This year was much more overwhelming for me. I really didn't buy as much as I had planned. There were just SO MANY PEOPLE and SO MANY BOOKS!!!

One cool thing I found those is amongst the thousands of books there I saw this book called, "The Mystery of the Boston Marathon." This fall my friends and I are going to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I took me finding this book as a sign that we'd all qualify. Ha!Ha!

During the used book sale Alec hung out with his buddies Noah and Griffin. I'm so glad these boys have one another! Their families are a big blessing to our family.

6. EASTER

Honestly, Easter was quite a blur this year. The day before we'd run our Ultra Marathon (I promise a post is coming soon). We did make it to church that Sunday. I think we actually did our egg hunt on Monday. I rationalized in my head that hunting eggs was actually a pagan tradition (this is really true) so it was no big deal that we didn't do it on Easter. I didn't even have baskets for the kids. We used plastic sacks. . .

By the looks of everyone's faces I think Hanna and Cookie enjoyed it the most.

Ash always gets mad and pouts if she doesn't get the prize egg. I think there is a pouter in every family, whether or not people chose to admit it or not.

7. DAUSET TRAILS

We headed to Dauset Trails and enjoyed a day with our friends. We looked at the animals. The kids got to hang out with their friends and the parents got to hang out with our friends. We all had a picnic together. It was such a beautiful day.

8. CHILDREN SINGING

I'm so thankful I almost always have my camera with me. One Sunday night the kids were singing, and I didn't even realize it. I always love it when I see my babies up in front of the church singing. Just warms this Mama's heart. Thank goodness they were dressed halfway decent that night.

9. PARENT'S WATCH WEEK

The studio where Hanna takes ballet has a couple of times a year "Parent's Watch Week". It is really a big deal to the ballerinas and their parents. Hanna was so excited and kept asking, "Is Daddy going to make it to Parent's Watch Week?" (he was working out of town a lot at the time)

Splits . . .

10. STONE MOUNTAIN HIKE

Our homeschool group went on a hike to Stone Mountain. For those of us who tend to run late we were told, "We're hiking at 10:00". Unfortunately we weren't told there was more than one parking lot. We got there at 9:38. I was so proud of us for being early. My friend Jennifer G was already there, so we hung out with her crew. Then Jennifer B. drove up. She was there before 10:00 too (I was super proud of her). It got to be almost 10:00, then I received a text from Tiffani letting us know there was a different parking lot.

Thing is, they weren't kidding. They started hiking at 10:00, so we were a little behind. My feathers were a little ruffled that we weren't told there was a separate parking lot and we were left, but I calmed down and no one (other than Jon) knew I was peeved. I was glad to be with the 2 Jennifers. We all eventually got caught up with one another.

Hanna was one serious hiker, and she was cute as a button too!

Alec was a hoot. He packed his ruck sack, making sure it weighed 25 lbs. He's really into Navy Seals right now. So I'm sure all of this had to do with all this Navy Seal stuff in his head.

A hiking we will go. . .

At the top. See how hard they worked. They're all sweaty!

The kid crew. . . minus Hanna. She was being a booger, and I wasn't up for arguing with her not being in the group picture.

Our family

The moms

After our hike we headed to the picnic area and had a picnic. Jon was jealous of Steve. Steve had white bread, non-natural peanut butter, jelly, and a soda. Jon had wheat bread, natural peanut butter, jelly, and vitamin water. It was like he was 8 years old again in the cafeteria at school wanting the other kids' lunch. They kids all played, while the grownups all talked. We had a great day with our friends. I also loved that several of the Dads made it and got to fellowship with one another.

If you made it through the longest blog post in the history of blogging, you deserve a round of applause, a cookie, a donut, and a cup of coffee!!! CONGRATULATIONS