Done

It's done, Christmas is over. I can't believe my family managed to wrap it up in a just a few short days. That was awesome. Normally, Christmas is a 5-6 day ordeal spread out between going to in-laws and seperate parents, and other extended family celebrations. But this year was easy, a quick trip to the in laws on Friday night, and all day quiet and untraditional affair at our house Saturday, and a combined parent celebration Sunday. It was a good Christmas for all. And lots of mexican food for all. I thought I would never say this, but I don't want to look at mexican again for at least a week. We had mexican with the in laws Friday and then my Mom had a nice (mexican) lady make homemade tamales for our lunch Sunday. I still want to shout out random spanish terms for no reason, and take more tums.

Which all that food made me want to jump back into the training for the 1/2 marathon (thanks Karon for asking about it after I scarfed down my 4th tamale!). So I did, up and ran or almost ran all 3 1/2 miles today at lunch. So I'm back into it. Going to do it again tomorrow. Hope y'all's was a good one!!!

Gift Giving

All this shopping is driving me nuts. And none of it means as much to me as what my coworkers and I did this year for a coworkers daughter. This daughter is very young and was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year and nothing has gone right. NOTHING. She is still hanging on but has lost her job and is still facing more surgery. So this year, instead of gift giving to each other we pooled our money and sent it to her daughter. We recieved a letter of thanks yesterday from her daughter. It will bring you to tears when you read how her youngest son will still be able to 'believe' in Santa one more year. She had already told him that Santa may not come (because she couldn't afford the gifts -a bike- that he wanted). But now, she can buy him the bike and she is certain he will still believe. Who knows if she will be here next year, so it was a great feeling that we were a part of a very special Christmas for them. Now that is what Christmas is all about. :)

11 days??

Somehow Christmas has snuck up on me. 11 days, srsly?? I guess I need to get my stuff done!! I am actually excited this year that we won't be running all over creation. We don't have plans yet with Blake's family, but I am sure it will be low key. Then Mom and Dad have again combined our family Christmas, which makes it crazy insane when the gifts start to get opened but so much fun. And that's about it, no real plans for travel or anything else. Probably just a lot of sleeping in and trying to stay warm.

Update on the 1/2 marathon training. A slow week to work-out. I've been working extra at Children's and my partners in crime haven't been able to meet over here. I did the treadmill Sunday, but not very far. I am hoping to squeeze in some time at the gym tomorrow and Friday. Wish me luck, regardless if I have to be carried across the finish line I will be doing this race!!!

No thanks..

So we were going to walk outside today as part of our half-marathon training. It's 25 stinking degrees outside. Give the eskimo's my regards, but this girl will be inside on the treadmill.

Bah-humbug!

I just can't into the 'spirit' of Christmas just yet. I forced myself to do some shopping Friday, I got my Christmas cards done and addressed Saturday, and the tree up yesterday (don't ask if it's all decorated). But the motivation comes solely because there are kids present here. I don't want to run around and not be able to get them what they want by waiting till the last minute. So if yall know of any magical christmas juice I can drink to make my ass all jolly and bright just let me know.
Also, the update on training is this. Spent and hour at the gym yesterday. Completed 4 miles in 57:15. I think I can pull this off. I am taking today off but only cuz Melf and Lohan are coming to walk with me tomorrow.

Half-Marathon here I come

It's true. If you saw Mel's blog she named me as one of the followers that signed up to do the half marathon with her. I don't think I will be able to run the whole thing, but walking it is very realistic. I have had to put aside my hopes of beating my past time of 1:49 for all 13.1 miles. I think the fact that I signed up and know that I will be participating is exciting enough. Maybe next year I will be able to run it. So wish me luck. Stay tuned for more posts on our progress. We are Team Melf and I am looking for a spiffy t-shirt design if anyone has suggestions...:)

Nacho Daddy

So Connor is in ATL this week at Camp Jam. Great place and hopefully the best experience ever for him. Blake's cousin Christian lives there and told us about this place. They get there and tryout, get put in a 'band', get 4 hours of instructional music a day, and then perform a concert on Friday night. So far Connor has got to meet the drummer for Billy Joel's band, and he signed his guitar case. Then he got to listen to the vocalist for the Saturday Night Live band. Not bad for a 13 year old!! Tomorrow night is his concert and his group is performing 'Hit me with your best shot" by Pat Benatar. Fun fun!! Oh, and his group is called Nacho Daddy. I have already made t shirts.

My Mothers Day Poem

Rici wrote this in my Mothers Day card:

How do you find the energy,
To do all the things you did,
To be the teacher, nurse, and counselor
in the year I was your kid

How did you do it all,
Be a chauffeur, cook, and friend,
Yet find time to be a playmate,
I just can't comprehend.

I see now it was love and greatness,
That made you help whenever I'd call,
Your inexhaustible greatness
And I thank you for it all.

Mom's day

Happy Mothers Day to all my friends and family that are Mom's and someday will be Mom's. This day is just for you so take it and run with it. Me? I will be running from soccer field to soccer field in Memphis watching Casey play soccer, but that will make me happy. She loves to play and I love to watch her be happy. So here's to all you Mom's, have a great day and do what makes you happy. Even if that means leaving the family at home and doing something crazy. heeheee! Can't wait to hear what happens with that one!!!

I'm not old enough for this...

Rici had prom at Little Rock Christian this weekend. Doesn't she look great? She and her date looked great. I'm sure she had fun.......since she stayed out until 5 a.m. Yeah, I know you guys are chuckling over this one because you KNOW I would never let my children stay out until 5 freakin' a.m. and because I NEVER did anything like that in high school (stop laughing). See, it goes like this. Rici's date (actually his hostdad since neither of them can drive) said they would be home around 1:30, but if they couldn't bring them home he asked if they could call us for a ride. I said yes, and it was fine if they wanted to stay later and WE bring them home, they should text us and let us know. Off they went, to have a night of dinner, dancing, after-prom parties, and even a breakfast. Now, you ask, how did they do all that before 1:30? Well, they didn't. They did it until 5:20 in the morning. Yeah, and they didn't text us either. I wasn't worried about the company she kept, they played Justin Beiber over and over again at the dance (no explicit rap, etc. allowed at Little Rock Christian dances) so I knew she was safe. They rode with her dates hostsister and such. She didn't get off the hook lightly. We had to discuss understanding the curfew rules, which btw, this was her first date in the USA! But she had a blast and that's all that counts. And I say I'm not old enough for this because it really does seem like yesterday when my Mom and Dad said to be home at 2 on my prom night, and I thought they meant 2 p.m. the next day.

Weekend

I know your shocked that I'm posting, right?!?!?! We had a great weekend, a lot of sunshine, soccer, and clowning around. Haha! The pictures are of fearless Casey. She loved the Shriner clowns at the circus on Saturday. And her normal routine of playing girls 2 feet taller than her went as usual. They lost thier first game but tied the second one. Connor hung out. Not much to report there. Rici worked more on driving lessons and the weekend was a total success when she purchased her prom dress! Yay! I'll try not to be so much of a stranger around these here blogging parts of the computer.

I just have completely fallen off the blogging wagon. But don't worry about me, I still log on and enjoy everyone else's!! Happy blogging people.

Biggest Loser

So who watched it? Who's your fav? Who is the most obnoxious? There are a few of the women that seemed pretty strange, I'll have to watch it next week to make my determination of the most obnoxious. However, curly headed dude with his mom are pretty weird. Kinda like they want to be the next Danny and his mom. I think my favorite so far is the heaviest guy, 526 pounds! Wow.

I did manage to watch The Bachelor on Monday, Mel's blog was more descriptive of the bimbo's on that show. I think it has hit an all time low on gathering up the most desperate, skanky, mindless women on the planet to fight their way to love with a guy who can't honestly make a whole sentence by himself. It's actually going to be pretty amusing. Any other good or not so good shows we should be watching??

2010

Happy New Year everyone, well, all 3 of you that might still read my blog. Haha, I have gotten way lazy posting and I know it. Having our 'third' child is definitely more of a challenge when it comes to keeping it all together!!

This last year was a good year, I can't put a finger on anything that made it bad. Several really good things happened, and I hope they stay that way. Of course we welcomed Mr. Hop, the Hopster, or HipHop into the world in March. I wish he was 8 minutes away instead of 8 hours. Next, I can honestly say getting to know family that has been there for years, but never really knew, has been a great experience. Christian (Aunt Christian) is Blake's cousin that we have known for years but never really kept in close contact has become a really good friend to me and wonderful asset in the kids lives. Just a chance thing Connor went and saw her last Christmas with Pop and ever since it's been great. They love her so much, and since we brought Rici into our lives she has treated her like our own as well! Thanks Christian. You guys rock! Then, we welcomed Rici into our home in late August. Thanks to me n Mel hangin' out poolside when I got an email from Casey's swimteam coach. Apparently there is someone on the team connected with CCI, the organization we got Rici from. After looking at her profile for several hours I pursued taking the chance to get her placed in our home. She arrived August 22, 2009. It has been a great experience. Seriously, I know some kids are horrible that come over here but she must come from a great family that has raised her right. She has taught ALL of us things she will never know, but mostly we have been honored to show her how we live and what the great USA is all about. We rang in the new year last night. I felt bad we didn't have a 'traditional' party, but we took Rici on a new adventure. Rolling houses. Yep. Her Mom thinks everyone does this in America and the whole country is covered in toilet paper right now. Hmm, yeah, white lie on Rici's part. But pranking is totally USA stuff, right guys?? Here's some pics for your enjoyment. Happy 2010. I did not set any new goals or 'resolutions' this year. Did you??

Happy Turkey Day

As you can see Wilson is tickled to death over his pilgrim hat. Thank you Old Navy for coming out with that one. He actually likes to wear stuff so I am not completely torturing my dog. The picture above is our attempt to make pilgrim hat cookies. Dam those crafty magazines for making everything look so easy. It wasn't that bad but with 4 kids (Olivia helped too) in the kitchen doing all of it turned out a little messy. They aren't a total disaster. And they taste good so who cares how crappy they look? What's on your agenda for Thanksgiving? We're headin' over to Dad's this year, this is a first. We gotta show Rici what REAL country cookin' is all about. I'm sure G-K will do a great job! Then Saturday I head out to Dallas with Casey, Rici, and Rici's friend Marie for a trip to the Galleria. If Rici thinks shopping is good in Arkansas, she will flip at the Galleria!! Have a great turkey day!!

Casey and I are making a trip to the dentist this afternoon. Wish me luck that the same torture doesn't happen again like last time! :)

Halloween costumes

What are your Halloween plans? We'll be busy running up and down our street as usual. Connor has cotillion and we are co hosting the hayride for his group before it starts. Casey is going to be busy being the Kandy Korn witch. Rici is going as a Greek goddess. I'm the queen bee, Wilson is my little Bee and Coco is going to hangout and be a dog.

Gotcha

I bet you guys thought I was done with this thing?!?! Almost, just too much going on all the time. Ya'll know Casey turned 10 this month. We all survived my b-day party, and soccer pretty much rules any sortof schedule we may have going on. Thanks tho for keeping my updated on your end of the world!! Hopefully we look to slow down here shortly, but I'm sure that's going to trigger the holiday rush and all. Wow. Holidays. Right around the corner!

My children are missing.

Alert, if anyone has seen the real Connor and Casey would you please send them home? Since Rici (pronounced RICKY) arrived I have two aliens posing to be my children. First, the faux Connor talked in his manly voice for the first 12 hours he was around her. I think his throat start to hurt so it's only kinda manly right now. And then this faux Connor apologized for his sloppy handwriting when he was showing her some of his school work. See, this is how I know they aren't my children, Connor has for 12 years informed me that his handwriting doesn't suck. Yes it does son. And of all things, he has picked his room up almost daily.....without me asking. What tha? So then Casey, or the faux Casey, gets home from Memphis this weekend and meets Rici. She isn't so bad but I have to say that when she kept refilling Rici's water at the dinner table last night was a little strange (of course she was ignoring the rest of us). And I have been replaced by Rici to get weekly massages and pedicures. Which frankly, the coconut lotion Casey is using for massages was getting on my nerves. Hehe. This faux Casey also wanted to pass up a birthday party to spend more time at home. A birthday party? Where they will serve cake and stay up all night? Gasp. So it may be my real daughter here because she did decide to attend the birthday party. I may keep this faux Casey but if any of you see the real Connor Epps, send him home. I miss my messy, goofy son.

24 Days...

So since the rest of you are NOT participating in the '40 at 40' idea I thought I would share this one. Christian asked me today that since it's 24 days until my birthday to tell her about a time I stayed up for 24 hours or more. Honestly, even in my wildest days (and yes, there were plenty) I can't say I stayed up for 24 hours. Ummmm, maybe 22 but always got 2 hours of sleep before the next round of partying began. So do you know the time I can honestly say I was awake for 24 hours??? The birth of my son. I remember I was on call in cath lab and had gone in early that morning (it was a Sunday) and worked until my back started hurting me. I was tired so my friend took my call for me (her Mom was here helping paint my nursery) and I went home. Skipped a birthday party for a friend and tried to rest. Between going to the hot tub and back rubs I got NOOOO relief. I called Labor and Delivery asking if they could give me something for gas pains. They said, 'Sure, come on in!'. I realize now they must have been laughing their asses off because they do not administer pain medicine for gas. So Blake and I went in to get pain medicine. They said they need to check me to make sure everything was okay. I gladly agreed thinking my gas pain was an inch away from being gone. They checked and said they were going to give me some pain relief. In the form of an epidural. I was ready to deliver even though Connor wasn't due for another 3-4 weeks. So the epidural went in and 10 hours later Connor was here. Between the visitors and feedings I did not go to sleep until 7 or so that Monday night. So that is the only time I can honestly say I was awake for more than 24 hours.