Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Memorial Weekend 2012

Headed to the beach…Justin decided he liked to eat sand (the same as Troy had done the last two years).

Oh yeah, I sure Di-uhd! I mean, this is my last pregnancy, I’m baring a big belly – why the heck not, right? Come on, we were at the beach. Ha!

 

e with boys in bikinij eating sandT and J at beach

The next morning we hung out and headed to Niceville’s splash park. Justin played in the water a tad (thanks Uncle Jeff)…

j at water parkjustin with jeff 2

but preferred to do this:

j with pinestraw feet 2j smiling

Cousins; and Troy acting like he loves his brother Smile

troy hugging justincousins at water park

Crawfish and crabs were had later that day (after a short outing without the kids)

crawfishbrian eating crawfish

Even Justin! Troy didn’t try them but sure did like playing with them. At first he wanted to call them spiders.

j eating crawfishtroy with crawfish

E with boysThen we went back to the beach for lunch while the boys got back in the ocean!

B and E with boys

Justin (initially) held on for dear life!

brian holding boys in waterB and jeff with cousinsgrandy and justinmemama and justin outsidet and j with memama and grandy

Monday, May 28, 2012

We be swangin’!

Our neighborhood has a pretty nice park for kids about a mile and a half from our home. Gave Brian a little while to get some yard work done and I took the kids to the park!

So I took these few photos….and left my camera! Didn’t realize it until I received an email from our neighborhood saying they found my camera. Luckily I had not erased my memory card and there was something with my name on it. In any event, I checked the card tonight and there were a few funny photos taken by and of some teenage boys. Since I don’t know them, I won’t post them. But, let’s just say they were funny.

And I’m grateful that my camera has been recovered! While it would be nice to get a new one, it isn’t a reason to file an insurance claim right now, right?!

I made these dino t-shirt transfer shirts with the silhouette. Aren’t they cute!

t and j swinging 2

Justin LOVES the swing!

j swinging smilingj swinging

Precious J

Justin is a special little boy….especially when he doesn’t want to take a nap. These days, he’s trying to drop one nap. If he misses one in the morning, he does great in the afternoon. On the other hand, if he naps in the morning, he won’t nap in the afternoon. One afternoon last weekend, I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with this sweet child.

He stood, bobbled his head (like he was dancing), laughed…and just plain enjoyed being outside with me.

justin in front yardj at potj eyes

Not much hair but it’s growing a little bit.

j hairj holding pot

He had a blast playing with pine straw….moving it from the flower bed onto the concrete, then back, then back again.

j with pine straw frontj with pine straw profile

His toes…the right one still crosses over a bit. But flattens out somewhat when he stands. Wonder if it will flatten out entirely?

j feet

Watermelon!

Summers as a child for me consisted of swimming, sun and watermelon. My wish is for my kids to experience the same thing. Justin tried watermelon for the first time….and loved it!

….and baby Blaine may have loved it, too Smile

e with boys and watermelonj eating first watermelonj with watermelon

Deliciousness….

j facej with watermelon in his moutht with watermelont and j watermelon

Monday, May 14, 2012

Canister Re-do

I find it very inspiring when I see people’s projects using current pieces from around the house and transforming things into new works of art. But, I have SUCH a hard time making changes to something I already have. Take these canisters – they were  a Christmas gift from my MIL several years ago; were placed in our home in Helena. And, hey, I really like them. Anyway, I saw a cute blog post from brown paper packages using the Silhouette so I decided I’d try it out.

Here they are before:

DSC_8519

And after…

photo

Used cream colored spray paint with black vinyl from the Silhouette. I love the way it looks in the kitchen now!

This is ME!

This year was the second year I’ve organized and planned a half marathon in Auburn. In fact, this year, we added a 10k. Don’t get me wrong, I have tons of help but it is a good bit of work. Or, a whole heck of a lot of work. Nights were long, going to bed around 1 every morning was the norm in the weeks leading up to the big day.

Then, the big morning came! Getting up at 4:30 a.m. to be ready for the race, the weather looked like it would cooperate and BAM, a Tornado Watch popped up for our area until after noon that day. Know what that meant? With a course that isn’t conducive to shelter 700+ people at once, we knew we had no other choice than to postpone the race until the next day. If you’re a runner, you know what this means – people weren’t happy. Fast forward one day, a few nasty emails and phone calls later, and the race went on without a hitch on Sunday. It was a huge success, we still had over 450 people run and donated $12,000 to The Cancer Center at our local hospital. For our small town, this was no small feat and I have to admit I was so, so happy that it worked out.

And, I had a little secret…..

About two weeks prior to the race, I was blessed with a huge burst of energy, my runs (albeit not fast) were faster than they had been in months! Honestly, I was getting excited because my thought were that I could finally lost that extra 5 pounds and be on my way to my pre-pregnancy size. But, I noticed that I had no pain – as in no arthritic pain (this was nice but abnormal), Justin, while still nursing, seemed disinterested. And, I had cravings for salty and lemony things. Uh oh, right?

I ordered a test on Amazon.com so Brian wouldn’t see the receipt. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not afraid of him but was taking precautions, just in case, so he wouldn’t be too surprised. And, remember that race? Well, I had a BUNCH to do for that race and needed to dedicate my time to planning the race. Oh, and my family totally was on the backburner at this time – something I’m not proud of at all. Okay, I digress. The test came in with a bunch of other packages that came in for the half marathon/10k. It was the middle of the day, I took the test and almost forgot about it. That is, until I walked back in the bathroom 2-3 hours later. OMG – it had two lines. What the hey! My heart started pounding, honestly I got a little light headed and realized I had no earthly idea how far along I could be. Not showing at all so I knew I couldn’t be that far along.

I kept my little secret just that – a secret. Called the doctor, they wanted to make the appointment the week right before the race. Uh….I just didn’t have time! So, I scheduled it for the Monday after the race. Everything seemed to be fine, I actually received an ultrasound since we didn’t know and was told I was 9 weeks and 3 days along. What!?!?! Now I needed to tell Brian.

Brian was out of town – of course. I couldn’t tell him over the phone. So, I waited until Tuesday. Then he invited his boss over for dinner. GREAT! Now I was wondering how I’d ever tell him. His boss left after dinner and while Brian was putting the boys to bed, I set up a video camera, got out a hamburger bun and was trying to get ready to tell him. Well, He came in the kitchen before I could put the bun in the oven. So I threw it in the pantry. Where does he go? Yep, dangit, he goes in the pantry, sees the bun and after questioning me, he throws it in the trash. When he walked away, I quickly put the bun in the oven and turned the camera on.

Needless to say, he was completely and utterly shocked. Shocked! Especially when I told him I was 9 1/2 weeks along. Then I told him to think it over for a couple of days and we could talk about what we should do. As in, do we sell the house? Do we stay? Do I continue to work? We had a good bit of praying, processing and celebrating to do….and we did just that!

So I feel awesome – and the reason I felt so good right before the race and had the bursts of energy was because I was pregnant. The arthritis is in remission. Sweet!

Then, at almost 24 weeks along, I was running and I fell. So I took these wonderfully flattering photos of myself.

photo(4)photo(6)

These were my knees the next day. The one on the left was pretty swollen. Totally innocent accident. As I was running along (slowly), I was paying attention to a white van about to make a turn instead of watching my step. Well, I should have been watching my step. My first reaction was to avoid falling on my stomach so that’s what I did. I dropped to my knees and rolled – it happened quite fast. As you may be able to tell, I hit my knees pretty hard. My shoulder and chin had a little impact but not bad. For the next few nights and days, I was quite sore but am TONS better now. It was definitely scary at the time but when I still felt Blaine, I knew it was going to be okay.

photo(5)

To Mamama’s I Went!

A few weekends ago, within one week, a precious person in my life was offended greater than I can imagine. My family rallied around it and tried to make the best of a difficult situation.

One day before I was to leave, without the boys, I tripped on a protruding piece of concrete, busted my knee, shoulder, hit my chin and rolled to the side of the sidewalk. Let’s just say that the bruising and feeling that I had been in a car accident made for a very slow-moving Elyse. I’m so glad I still made the trip; it was well worth it and I got more rest there than I would have at home with a 2 1/2 year old and a 14 month old wanting to hang all over me!

iPhone picture:

photo(2)

We had crawfish…Reagan scooped it out…

E and Eve with crawfishReagan

I met baby Evan for the first time (such a doll).

evan 3

Mamama and my mother; they had wine…

Mamama and momMom and Juju

Ryder ran around without clothes on!

ryder

It was fun, refreshing, relaxing, so worth it and so important to each and every one of us….