Friday, May 28, 2010

power of prayer

My baby is sick.. again.


He started getting sick on Sunday night. Then again on monday, Tuesday night when he didn't eat all of his dinner and then threw up the little bit of food he ate I freaked out! I took him to the vet Wednesday afternoon and a LARGE fortune later they tell me there is nothing wrong with him. I am probably to obsessed with my dog (in fact the vet called him a mommas boy and I was actually proud) but I know when something is wrong and there is something wrong when my little fattie-bo-battie won't eat all of his food. So after we bring him home and Kelly has a minor flip out about the amount we spent on the dog we could have bought a gun, we feed him and he gets sick again.

Same story yesterday. By this point I call back the vet very upset we paid them a ton of $$ and they don't know what is wrong, so they basically tell me to give it longer and see. Well my dad was not having that so he called his good friend that is a vet, Vaughan. Vaughan told me to bring him in right away and he wanted to look at him.
I take him in and Vaughan decided he wants to deworm him just to be safe. I give him the worm meds and he ends up getting sick 3 more times.
Our normal vet calls this morning and asks how callaway is doing.. i tell them he got sick 3 more times yesterday. They then tell me they want me to bring him in for another test. This one is where they put dye in his food and watch what it does (just a mere 300 bucks). Vaughan was wondering if they did x-rays they should have been able to see it the first time. So Vaughan is having him come back in this afternoon to do another look.

Please pray for my dog, I am super upset.

Ok sorry for the debbie downer, but I am so sad!
 
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Thursday, May 27, 2010

nights with the round table

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

I don't know if you actually remember that Kelly and I started refinishing a table like 2 years ago (actually it was like 2 months ago) but whatever. I have refinished a night stand before and that literally took a day and a half. It was a much smaller project I know, but still you get the idea.


We got the table at the Habitat for Humanity store for cheap. It was an all wood table that had been painted black.

It was not the easiest project, but it really wasn't that bad. I think the worst part was Kelly started it and was all excited about it, then after the stripping the top he was kind of bored with the project and on to something new (this happens more often than I would like in the carlson house). I'll give you a basic tutorial.

1. Clean table with a damp cloth

2. Strip it (no not this strip) We used Citrus it worked pretty good, but for best results I would say you need to leave it on for several hours. Then use a metal scrapper to get the paint off.

3. After all paint is off use sandpaper (we have a sander which made it much easier for us)

4. Wipe down the entire table again.

After about a week of just the top being stripped I started on the legs and they were a giant pain in the rear!

5. Then pull out your handy dandy stain and stain away. There are some conditioners that you can put on the wood to make sure it doesn't suck up the stain to much, but the stain we got was an all in one.

6. After the satin is dry I put on a coat of polyurethane

7. Wait for it to dry then with 220 grain sandpaper sand it down again..

8. Apply on last coat of polyurethane and let dry
***AND HERE IT IS*****




Now I am on a mission to find shabby chic type chairs. I want 4 completely different chairs to go around the table.. no matching at all.

Please let me know if you see just a single chair.. I will need you to pick it up for me!

Here is the first one I bought that I am planning on recovering!
Now for those of you who know my hubs.. I am taking bets on the exact reaction I will get from him when I roll in the house with this chair.
My vote is,
"Seriously? Seriously? That thing is hideous."

Now, I need all of your help.. all 25 of you that "read" my blog..
Whatcha think? Do I sand and re-stain the chair? Or do I leave the random rooster and just get some new fun fabric?
COMMENTS PLEASE?
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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

your molehill IS my mountain

Friday after work I went and saw my sassy Grandma. Love that woman!

After I left there Kelly & I were supposed to do a couple of things, but after staying up late on Thursday and Kelly had a bunch of homework, we he suggested we just stay in I took him up on it.

Saturday Kelly & I decided to head to Slaughter Pen trail in bentonville to do some legit mountain biking. Now, when I say legit.. I mean, I have had a mountain bike for a year and I ride it often, but I have only ridden it on the road never an actual mountains. So Kelly packs up the bikes and we head out. We started off on the easy ones, which build up my confidence and I begin to think in my head.. this is not so hard and I am kind of a rock star. BAM! yep hit a tree.

Let me clarify though, this was not some huge 40 year old Oak tree and I am just a idiot that can't see. There were 2 trees next to each other and the left a very narrow opening for me to fit my bike through so I hit one.. pretty hard too. After riding the easy trails for about an hour Kelly feels that we are ready to take on a harder feat. We sort of fell in to a routine of Kelly riding ahead of me and then waiting on me to catch up. I must admit, I am a wuss. I get to going really fast down a mountain and I stress out.

Some how we got on to some of the hard trails.. they resembled something like this



It was really cool to be up in the mountains and despite a small tantrum that I threw (I was alone and had no one prevy to my stompping) I had a lot of fun. It didn't hurt that my husband told me how thankful he was to have me as a wife and how proud of me he was.. I think he even used the "I have the coolest wife," phrase.


I will also say this, I can see how mountain biking can be just as hard, if not harder than running. Using different muscles and going up some monster hills.
Kelly took pictures of how nasty messy we were when we were done.


WOW.. hello cortney, meet my friend THE SUN



Saturday we came home, made some Chinese food and watched Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (insanely cheesy girl movie where Matthew Mcconaughey looks amazing and makes you forget how cheesy the movie actually is)


I also got Kelly a boy movie to keep him entertained while I went over to my sweet friend Amanda's house for a low-key girls night. Amanda is so cute and such a good host. She already had a veggie plate with dip, some FABULOUS smoked gouda cheese, with my favorite crackers. She also made the crazy good desert, which I probablly don't want the recipe since I think I heard somthing about a pound of butter in it.

Sunday morning was the Crawfish boil at my BFF Kathryn Ann's house..


 Kathryn Ann and I

Dave, RT, & Kelly

Pool time


Dave, RT, & Eric


Love you!

Dave& Kelly in their cute matching suits!


Scotty B & I


the point of going over there was for a crawfish boil. kathryn ann's brother trae is a chef in some super fancy restaurant in NYC and he is an amazing cook. Well they have done the boil for the past 9 years. The last couple of years trae has been making this crazy good gumbo and this year I was very excited to eat some more. In all 9 years I have never ever tried a crawfish and after sitting there watching my hubs and dave (kathryn ann's hubs) demonstrate to her on just the perfect technique to suck a tail and eat a head.. or whatever it is that you do, I vowed again to refuse to even try it. If my mind wasn't made up enough..Did you know that these kids are alive up until right before they get dropped in to a pot of boiling water? Well trae and the boys decided to keep one for a pet and even freed willy in to the bottom of the pool. Awesome. Willy crawled around there for the remainder of the party, which made for an interesting time when we tried to go swimming later and forgot that willy was inhabiting the pool.

When we got home Sunday night I had a full on freak out. Kelly was in bed and I come out on the bedroom towel around my head pjs on and see the front door wide open. I run in to the bedroom, get super close to kelly's face and shake him.


"I need you to get up and check the house. The front door is wide open."

"Huh What?" As he jumps out of bed so fast he stumbles in to the wall, grabbing the 9 iron that is next to the bed (He wants a gun, I say it is not in the budget) and heads for the front door. He walks to the door, shuts it, locks it, and then turns around to go back to bed.

"WWAAIITT," I cry in a desperate voice, "You have to secure the rest of the premises!"

He then amuses me by rounding each corner James Bond style and confirming that there is in fact no one in our house.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep soundly on Sunday night.

Must be time to break down and bear arms.


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Friday, May 21, 2010

repeat after me.. you are no longer in college

So yesterday Jlove and I left work and headed straight for abuelo's for our girls night dinner. I haven't been to abuelos much and was looking forward to trying some yummy Mexican food.. ok so the truth.. didn't love it. Don't get me wrong it wasn't horrible or anything, but not my fav. The salsa wasn't the best to me nor was the cheese dip.. Kerri got the trio of dip and I will say the guacamole dip was fabulous! I got a 7 layer type thing and it was pretty good, but for me when the salsa is less than desirable and the cheese dip was subpar--you loose major points.


So yesterday Jlove and I left work and headed straight for abuelo's for our girls night dinner. I haven't been to abuelos much and was looking forward to trying some yummy Mexican food.. ok so the truth.. didn't love it. Don't get me wrong it wasn't horrible or anything, but not my fav. The salsa wasn't the best to me nor was the cheese dip.. Kerri got the trio of dip and I will say the guacamole dip was fabulous! I got a 7 layer type thing and it was pretty good, but for me when the salsa is less than desirable and the cheese dip was subpar--you loose major points.

I had a blast hanging out with the girl from work and I was really glad I was able to go to dinner and then to KQ. I was supposed to go to a movie with them after dinner, but since I was wanting to both they let me bow out of the movie with out to much of a guilt trip. HA! Who am I kidding I felt like a giant jerk, and the gave me a crazy hard time about it, but in the end I paid them off and we are still friends.

I headed over to Rachel's house after dinner.. hum.. ok actually my "skankopotomus" friend amanda told me it was at Amy's house, so i roll up to the house only to realize it is a rachel's, thankfully they are two house away from each other. I felt horrible rolling in late, but thankfully Rachel had sangria there and no one was worried about much.

They had a cute theme, cookies. The whole idea was to have everyone make cookie and then each person take a different kind home.. Well I came late so I wasn't planning on being able to participate, so when Tara handed me a bag to fill up I passed it on the next girl. Now, these cookie looked amazing, but since this kid can't run for 4 weeks, i had to just say no and walk away. ( the running guru at rush running diagnosed me.. nope not a Dr but they might was well be.. told me that it could be a stress fracture. I could go to the Dr and they can't really see that stuff on the X-ray and they will tell you to take 4 weeks off take, lots of calcium, and to call them in the morning. So me being me, I decide to follow this advice first prior to dropping a down payment on a car Dr visit to hear the same thing.


So since I am on injured reserve I am much more aware of what I am eating... hence a bag full of cookie's wonldn't be the best thing for me right now.

So we hang out with Rachel and the rest of the girls for a while longer until amanda gets this great idea that we should go see Holly/Jcrew. Well since crew was at a movie her sweet hubs Matt let us crash on their backporch. We talked to matt about the earthquake that happened in Bentonville last night.. CRAZY! I can't belive we have had 2 in the past month. After we had more than wore out our welcome we headed home. I got home around midnight.. way past bedtime and much to close to the turning in to a pumpkin hour.


When I pull in to the driveway I see my friend Marcus across the street him and his brother are having a garage sale tomorrow. We got to talking and he reminded me how much we use to hang out. Marcus was our realtor and we have been friends since high school. He jokes that I am HSM (high school marcus) and he is HSC (high school cortney). In high school I was the more wild child and he was the church boy, now we have reversed roles and he thinks this is quite funny. So last night at 1230am we came to the realization that Kelly & I would be a good influence on him. So we decided Team Carlson and Marcus and his wife needed to hang out tonight.
Needless to say when the alarm went off at 6am this morning I wanted to punch myself in the face rather than get up and go to work...

So tonight we are hanging out with HSC & his wife and maybe going to Pel's Pals whole hog roast. Then tomorrow Kelly and I are going on a day hike to lake fort smith. We had a big group that was going camping this weekend, but all the campsites were full so no go.. My own little Bear Grylls is taking me on an adventure instead.

Saturday night I will be sitting by the phone holding my breathe for my friend amanda to call and give us the all clear to come over and hang out. Sunday my bff kathryn ann is having their annual crwfish boil. It is usually on Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, but this year since Trae her brother is in NYC he has to work and can't get back next week.



I hope you all have a wonderful weekend..

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Thursday, May 20, 2010

You are the wind beneath my wings..

First up.. CHECK IT... This girl has a signature.. You know that part on the movie Baby Mama.. where amy pohler is on the ball and she is Whooting in the baby class..

That is about how happy I am right now!! I love you JWOW! You are on the top of my list today. So I was talking to her this morning about wanting a signature for my blog...
She told me about photobucket and gave me some really good tips and now if you will please take note of the fabulous signature below!

Next on my list..
Sewing... last night I worked on it again. Kelly was working on school work and went to the office and shut the door. I then had full reign of the remote, I became enthralled in Mission Impossible II, so I decided to get the machine and bring it in to the kitchen at the bar area. I figured out if I only sit with half of my butt on the stools I can reach the foot pedal and I am able to sew with out looking like the hunchback of Notre-Dame.
I made another burp cloth and this one looked much better. I am still having a hard time sewing in a straight line, but this one was leaps and bounds better than yesterday. While I was finishing up the burp cloth The Wedding Date came on and I got hooked on that.

I do like this movie.. It does make me sick to my stomach every time though.. evil Amy Adams.
Well I know there was no way I could focus on the movie and sewing straight so I had to find something else that would entertain me while I was watching it. I started practicing with "monogramming" since I don't have an actual monogramming machine I was going to take jlo's idea and trace the letter on to the solid fabric, cut that out, sew it on the the pattern print, and it could be almost as cute right? Well I decided I would do an M for Emmys son Miles... Then I wanted to get fancy and use a zig zag stitch. Well the first line turned out great and I think I got a little cocky, cause after that the twisting and turning got the stitch a little crooked.  It is a work in progress.. So I take it in to show the hubs, and I get a, "wow, I hope you are not actually planning on giving this to them." Ouch! I work so hard and try to get it just perfect and then... POP! That was my little bubble of happiness being BURST. He then says.. you show me these because you want me to critique it right.. "UMM NO babe," I reply, "I show you these cause I am excited at what I made, I already know what is wrong with them! "
"Oh! Sorry, I thought you wanted me to help."
Bless his heart...

Reading....
I love to read, and I always have. I also have a small case of ADHD, so I sometimes get sidetracked on the books I want to read. I get enticed by the covers or the talk of others about how good a book is and I have a compelling desire to read those books too. Which is why my reading list is CRAZY long right now..
I am reading:

Karen Kingsbury
The above the line series.

My SIL Kaylee gave me the first one this past weekend when we were in Searcy and I love it.. There are 3 more in the series.. lets keep count shall we? (3)

James Patterson, my boss let me borrow The Quickie, and book 8 in the Women's murder club series. The JP also has 2 new ones out that I really really want to read:

"When 50-year-old ad man Mitch McKinley loses his job, it seems like the end of the world. Before long, however, Mitch has decided to cut his losses and pursue his lifelong ambition to become a professional golfer. Rising to fame and fortune on the Senior Tour, Mitch is at last able to make his dreams come true -- albeit at expense of his wife and family, whom he sorely neglects on the road back to life. "

**ps.. while  I was searching for info on 17th green.. i was clued in to the fact that it was in fact published in '96 and they made a movie of it.. ** BUT. Target had it on the new books stand.. I guess if you change the cover you get to consider it a "new" book. Sneaky! **

It seems a young serial killing couple is traveling all over Europe. In each of the countries they visit, they kill a young couple. The murders are bloody and brutal, and after they have killed, the murderers take photos of the dead victims. The photos are sent as postcards to newspaper reporters. The killers want publicity and soon get it. In the media they are nicknamed the Postcard Killers.

(count- 5)

Densie at work gave me a book the other day that she had finished and thought was really good..

"Twenty-eight years ago, a North Carolina governor's young, pregnant wife was kidnapped. Now, her remains have been found and a man charged with her murder. Only one person-CeeCee Wilkes-can refute the charges against him. But CeeCee disappeared years ago. . . "
(6)

The Last song Nicolas Sparks

"Seventeen year-old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alienated from her parents, especially her father… until her mother decides it would be in everyone’s best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie’s father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church. The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story about love in its myriad forms – first love, the love between parents and children – that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that deeply felt relationships can break our hearts… and heal them."

The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan


"Newspaper columnist Corrigan was a happily married mother of two young daughters when she discovered a cancerous lump in her breast. She was still undergoing treatment when she learned that her beloved father, who’d already survived prostate cancer, now had bladder cancer. Corrigan’s story could have been unbearably depressing had she not made it clear from the start that she came from sturdy stock. Growing up, she loved hearing her father boom out his morning HELLO WORLD dialogue with the universe, so his kids would feel like the world wasn’t just a safe place but was even rooting for you. As Corrigan reports on her cancer treatment—the chemo, the surgery, the radiation—she weaves in the story of how it felt growing up in a big, suburban Philadelphia family with her larger-than-life father and her steady-loving mother and brothers. She tells how she met her husband, how she gave birth to her daughters. All these stories lead up to where she is now, in that middle place, being someone’s child, but also having children of her own. Those learning to accept their own adulthood might find strength—and humor—in Corrigan’s feisty memoir. "



With our count toping out at 8 books by the night stand.. Esh!
Not to mention these others that are on my list:
Jane Austen ruined my life by Beth Pattillo


Thanks for the memories by Cecelia Arhen

Where the God of love hangs out by Amy Bloom

True Colors by Kristen Hannah

Bound South by Susan Rebecca White

The pretend Wife by Bridget Asher

Perfect fifths Megan McCafferty

Western Skies by Nora Roberts

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

The Friday night knitting club by Kate Jacobs

Hidden Riches by Nora Roberts

The Art of racing in the rain by Garth Stein

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell
 
 
Last... I double booked for tonight.. I would like to say that I don't have this problem often, but the truth is.. I do. Now, it is not like I am to cool for school and have so many parties so little time type of a thing.. It just never fails when I have something that I am excited about I have something else the same flippin night.
EX: Race for the Cure.. is every 2nd Tuesday, young wives  2nd Tuesday,  Make-A-Wish 2nd Tuesday..
 
It always seems like no one wants to schedule on Monday since you are just coming off the weekend, Wednesday is church and Tuesday & Thursday seem to be the days everyone tries to schedule.
 
So tonight I have KQ & Lindsey at work's Birthday dinner.. I am attempting to go to both tonight.. I will let you know how it goes!

 
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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

needing a little self validation

So I kind of feel like kelly and I are fun. I also feel like funny things happen to us that maybe don't happen to everyone else. Kelly often likes to refer to our marriage as Team Carlson. We are suppose to be a united front and take on all things together.. sort of there is no "I" in team mentality.

He uses this analogy often, especially when he is trying to make a point. For example when I am doing something he is not so fond of. " You are on team Pangle(my maiden name), and off of Team Carlson." or, "Where are you and why aren't you on Team Carlson?" and Now I say this and also put the caveat out there that he is just playing around with me and not being a jerk, since not all of you have been fortunate enough to meet my darling hubs. I use this saying as well when the situation is reversed and he is having a selfish moment.

Well when we first started running we were Team Carlson and we always tried to stay together and do it as a team. Well when we did our first half marathon it was all about TC. As we are walking up to the start line Kelly turns to me and says, "would you like me to stay with you?" PS. Kelly is faster than me, but he is not the best on sticking to the training plan. He was also traveling for 2 weeks before the race for weddings and bachelor parties, so he wasn't in the best shape for running it.


So I honestly tell him no it doesn't bother me, because you will always wonder how good you could have done. When that gun went off he took off. I fell in pace with a guy that had a garmin watch (kelly wears the garmin, not me. If you know anyone at garmin tell them there is a sad girl in arkansas that is running barefoot in overalls and would love one!)
 



I found out he wanted a 950 pace to put him finishing at 2:10. Well at mile 7 Bart Yasso (famous runner- who shot the gun) catches up with me and I fall instride next to him. Then I realize the figure ahead of me that looks like it is about to collapse is my husband. So I slow down and get next to him. This I can tell has crushed his little running spirit and he is distraught that I had caught up to him. He then began to hit the prevebial wall. He started talking about not being able to finish and how he couldn't go on.. I am normally the cheerleader and non-confrantational. I ask with a please and I use honey to catch my flies... I flipped the switch and might as well have become the hulk or that mean old coach from varsity blues.


I started running next to him and telling him to suck it up and come on... This went on for a minute or two until he looked at me and said the code word..


Side note-- We have a code word, whenever the other one is getting out of line, taking a joke a little to far, or the other one really needs something. I blogged about the code word before, but it was like a year ago. SO here is your recap. Don't ask about the code word, it is a word we haven't told anyone hence why it is our code word. We may use it the next time we are at your house when we really want to leave and can't come out and say it.

Well he used the all powerful code word which meant he was pretty serious and strugglin so I slowed down and ran with him until mile 11 or so and he told me to go on he could finish on his own.
Needless to say we both finished and trained much better for the next race..




So a few weeks ago we were hanging out with our friends Amanda & Chad and we got to talking to them about it and it has been on my mind. Does anyone else do this or are we the only crazies?

What about when you and hubs are ready to leave? How do you give the lets roll signal?
Also on my mind if my complete and utter failure last night. I tried to sew again... alone.. and it was an awful experience.

It started when Kelly and I tried to go for a run. My shins are still hurting and as soon as we took off I felt like I was running in place. It was like I wasn't even moving! Each step made me almost limp. By the time I hit mile 1 I was hobbeling and super upset. I love running and when things like this get in the way it really really bothers me. So please keep me and my shin's in your prayers.
I really think I was distraught about the shin thing and not really focusing on what I was doing, but I knew that I wanted to stop thinking about it, so I thought I would give sewing a chance to take my mind off of it. Well I was out of it and completley forgot all the things Jdawg taught us about sewing.

First off I couldn't get my lines straight. (anyone out there that sews.. how do you make sure the lines you are tracing are straight and not slanted up or down?) Then instead of leaving an inch or so around the lines to be able to have room to sew.. I just went ahead and cut on the lines. My burp cloth has now turned in to a wash cloth.

I go in to where my sewing machine is and try to start stitching my little wash cloth back together again. Then I realize I don't have a desk or table for me to sew on. Our Dinning room table is a bar height table and I can't reach the foot peddle if I sit there..Our desk has the computer on it, and our kitchen table is still in the process of being refinished. (oh and anyone that knows where I can find fun and funky chairs for my kitchen table let me know I want a hodge podge of chairs) So in order to satisfy my craving for being able to do at least one thing productive last night I decide to make due and use the dresser! wow.

this is how I looked hunched over my dresser.

So then to top it all off I was still in my own little zone and realized I never put the foot down on the sewing machine. So there I was "sewing" away and I wasn't even making lines! When I walked out off the bedroom Kelly was like let me see what you made.. I proceeded to act like a 2 year old and threw it on the ground. I think I even stomped whined something about being horrible, but I can't be sure.

So much for my self validating project

Monday, May 17, 2010

you don't deserve a trophy


This weekend felt like it flew by! Friday night was pretty low-key Kelly had home-work, I had to pack for searcy. I think we were in bed by 1030.

We did however make one of my FAVORITE treats on Friday night! Emmy & I use to make it all the time in college and I loved it. Once I got married though I never really had it cause Kelly isn’t a fan of the two main ingredients. Well a few months ago Emmy sent me a message and told me she changed the recipe up a little bit. Here is how it goes:

Pop one bag of Popcorn- we use the smart pop and feel skinnier eating it!
Then microwave half the bag of marshmallows for about 15-20 seconds in a big microwave safe bowl.

In a separate bowl melt a few blocks of chocolate almond bark. This use to be M&M’s, but since Em called and told me about almond bark we have never looked back. I think that is the reason that Kelly likes it so much more now.. it has a stronger sweet taste.

For the final touch I add some peanut butter, because, well we all know that I am obsessed with peanut butter. I add it to the hot almond bark so it melts in with the chocolate
Don't judge on the picture.. this fat kid was excited to eat this and wanted to be done taking pictures ASAP!

Then.. enjoy the goodness..


Saturday morning we decided to do the Bison Stampede 5k for the Associated Women of Harding foundation. I believe all the money goes to scholarship’s for the university.


We got up Saturday and we were both a little tired and grumpy. I got a loud and angry lecture about slamming the door; once we got out of the car Kelly even “lovingly” demonstrated for me how to shut a door properly. Eeesh. Needless to say we both wanted to punch each other before the race started.

The race was at Lake Atalanta, if you have never been there let me just tell you—there are a lot of hills in that little course. I would say at least 5 good size hills in the 3.2 mile course and if you are looking to set some type of a speed record don’t do this one!

So when I started off I was at the front next to these 2, 14(ish) year old girls. They were just talking away.. boys, school, notes being passed.. are ya kidding? I was huffing and puffing up these hills and there these 8% body fat girls are talking about study hall and breathing just fine. I stayed with them pretty much all of the race and I really wanted to be able to pass them as I got closer, but one of them picked up the pace a little more and left her friend in the dust. As I was approaching the finish I wasn’t as strong as I would have liked to have been and could have thrown my sprint in a little sooner, but as I saw this girl about to go down the finish line tunnel I thought.. Am I really going to feel good about myself sprinting past this girl, crushing her sprit in order to win this? Not to mention this is a Christian race, how Christ like am I if I sprint past this girl at the very end. So I finished like 10 seconds behind her. Kelly was annoyed and thought I should have thrown in a sprint and flew past her at the last second.

Then they had the awards ceremony and at the time I am thinking.. Alright I got 3rd place. I am going to get me a little trophy and be ok with it. Then they hand the trophies out. PS! You don’t get one for 3rd in this race!! SERIOUSLY? I was so sad, but they called my name for a door prize so I got excited when I saw the blender on the table. I wanted it for our smoothies, yes we have a blender and it works just fine, but it is pretty big and fancy and I thought this smaller one would be perfect for our spinach smoothies. Well as I am walking up to the table this 8 year old kid gets there first and grabs my blender.. SERIOUSLY? You are 8 and probably aren’t even allowed to make toast let alone use a machine that could cut off a digit! So I walk up to the table dejected and take a mini water bottle. A blender, really what could he possibly need the blender for?

So on the way back to the car Kelly starts asking about if I had it let in me to be able to beat the girl. When I told him probably, but what kind of a person am I to do that to the girl. He stopped mid step turned to me and said, “you don’t even deserve a trophy then!”

So after the race we shower, pack up and headed to searcy to see my SIL Kaylee off. She is going to Zambia for school and will be gone for 8 weeks.



Then we found our bricks..


A few years ago HU did a pave the way fundraiser.. You could buy a brick with your name on it and the $$ would go to scholarships. So we bought one!

We had a great weekend and I am so glad we went. I am also very thankful that my mom dogsat for her sweet grand-dog so we didn't have to send him to boarding!
I feel very blessed to have such great family.

Thank you to my fabulous in-laws
& my momma