We did it!

Two of my sisters and I ran in the Birch Bay Road Race today, and...we finished! Yahoo! We all did the 5K race (about 3.2 miles, so I'm told), and while none of us came in even close to first, none of us came in last, either! It took a lot of self-motivation to get ourselves out the door of the house this morning in the first place...we had to get up early, and it was raining/hailing (hard) as we left and for the whole drive there. Like to the point where I had a hard time seeing the road in front of me. But by the time we arrived at Birch Bay it had stopped raining, and the cold was actually nice after we started running. It was a bit intimidating when we arrived because it seemed like everyone was wearing all this specialized running clothing (you know, those super short shorts that men wear and the full-body spandex that women wear). This was serious business! Oh, and people were already running, like to warm up, except at a faster pace than I have ever run in my life. Then again, there were quite a few walkers, and even this cute little old man who was hobbling along, giving it his all. Anyway, I'm glad we did it. Next goal.... the 10K race in June (Sound to Narrows). I'm sure I will be very slow, but today gave me hope that I can at least finish respectably.

Yeah for us!!

You will die laughing..

Okay, so when my mom was here this last weekend, she showed us this video that seriously cracked us up. I have watched it at least 20 times, and I don't know what it is, but it gets funnier every time! I do apologize for the not-so-innocent view in the background...it's not even that or the passing-gas that makes me laugh, but the lady's reaction. Watch it without laughing, I dare you!
P.S. Before you hit the play button, stop the music on my playlist down below.

Easter fun

Our Easter celebration began on Saturday when we went down to Littlerock to visit my grandparents (aka Granny and Grandpa Goose). More of my extended family was there, as well, including lots of kids, and we had lots of fun. When it came time for the Easter egg hunt, we may have helped Travis a bit too much because he had more eggs than anyone, though I'm not sure he would have found more than two without any help! Oh well...next year he's on his own!

My mom was here for the weekend, which was a treat, and my sister Bonnie came down for the afternoon on Sunday, and we had a gourmet meal cooked by yours truly...okay, just kidding. About the gourmet part, that is. I just got one of those precooked/flavored hams...I love shortcuts in cooking! It was fun to dress the kids up, color eggs, and have the egg hunt for Travis, even if it did have to be indoors. Our Easter service was a great one, particularly the worship (for me, anyway).

I remember as a kid I didn't much care for Easter. I'm not sure exactly why, other than that I didn't especially like to get all dolled up, or sitting through what seemed to be a longer service than usual. And I think that as a kid, the idea of someone dying on the cross for you so you can have eternal life is a pretty abstract one. But as I've grown and come to more appreciate the significance of the holiday, I love it more every year. It is hard to comprehend the depth of love required for God to make such a sacrifice.

As much as I truly love being a part of our church's worship team, this was the first time in years that I haven't played piano/horn/whatever, and it was nice to have a break from it. When you are part of easter services, it makes for a REALLY long day, and it was nice just to be with my family this time around.

Soap, please

A while back, when Travis moved out of the nursery at church and in to an actual classroom, we began asking him what he learned in church that day. The first time we asked him turned into a conversation I'll never forget. Very short and simple, but I pray it was the beginning of a deep faith. It went something like this:

Me: Travis, what did you learn in church today?
T: Mmmm, Jesus.
Me: Oh, what about Jesus?
T: (very seriously) Follow Jesus.

This obviously made us smile, and yes, I got a little teary-eyed, I'll admit. We try to ask him questions like this regularly, and the answer is almost always "Jesus", with not much elaboration.

So yesterday, we're in the car and having our little conversation with him..here's an excerpt:

Steve: And who washes our sins away? (expecting the usual response...)
Travis: (again, very seriously) Uuuum...soap.

Makes sense in a 2-year-old mind!

Babies galore!

Here's a picture of all the babies in our Bible study group. All but Jayna are 4 months or younger (which explains why she is twice the size of the rest of them!). That's a lot of babies for a group with only 6 couples! Plus, there's another one on the way (no, I'm not pregnant, it's someone else!). And these babies are in addition to another 9 kids in the group. It's a miracle we actually are able to accomplish meaningful discussion! It is so much fun to have other kids to grow along with your own, and to grow to love them, as well.

And here are a couple of recent pictures of the kids, just for the fun of it.

Some favorite things

This is kind of random but I thought I'd share with you some products that I just love these days.
4) Yoplait key lime pie flavored yogurt. Mmmm. Love the other flavors, too, but I just discovered this one.
3) Our electric blanket. I'm telling you, the first few minutes after I get into bed are probably my favorite minutes of the day. We don't sleep with the electric blanket on, but we like to turn it on 10 minutes before we get into bed, and then it's nice and toasty when we get in. That, combined with our flannel sheets, make for some heavenly sleep!
2) My Chris Rice Peace Like A River CD. It is SO good! Very simple arrangements of hymns (and a couple of spirituals), contemporary with piano accompaniment, his James Taylor-ish voice...love it. If I'm the slightest bit frazzled, I turn it on and immediately can feel myself breathe again. So for all my fellow hymn-lovers, this CD is a must-have!
1) My newest favorite product that I will now be faithful to for life....my Clorox toilet wand system!!! Yahoo! I don't know how you all clean your toilets...some people actually reach in there and scrub (the thought gives me the creeps), some use a brush (as I did). Well, I didn't like using a brush because the idea of all those germs hiding on it is just disgusting. But with this wand, you just click on a new brush every time you clean, then click it off into the garbage. You don't get your hands dirty at all! Each sponge has a ton of cleaner in it, and it made my toilets so shiny and white! This may sound a little pathetic, but when I used it for the first time yesterday, and it just about made my day. Like I said...I'm sold!

The naughty crayon

It's always interesting as a parent to watch Travis and, through his words/play/pretending, etc., to see how he interprets my actions and words toward him. Today, I set up his Little Tikes slide in the living room. Jayna was sitting playing with some toys, I was picking stuff up, and Travis had five big crayons that he was first setting on top of the slide, then once they were all laying side by side, he would push them down the slide all together. Occasionally, however, one crayon would slide down by itself, before Travis was ready. And then, watch out! Travis would look sternly at the crayon and say "No, no! Don't do dat, otay?!" (Long and drawn out on the "otay"). Then he would proceed to take the crayon over to the stair (this is where he has his time-outs), and say "time-out". He'd give the crayon a few minutes, then go over, sit down next to it, and in a much sweeter voice say something like, "Be nice" or, "do dat again?" (while shaking his head). And then he would go along his merry way.

As you can imagine, I was cracking up. He was just so serious through it all. What was most interesting was seeing MY facial expressions on HIS face, and him using my tone of voice. Very funny.

I must say, it does feel like we're turning a corner with Travis. It seems like for a REALLY long time (as in many months), getting Travis to obey has taken a ton of patience, energy, distraction, and even some manipulation. But we're just noticing that he finally seems to be understanding that if he doesn't obey, there are consequences. Obviously, there will always be a need for discipline, and there will be many struggles to come, and we will never have a perfect or even near-perfect child, because we are all sinners. But what I'm saying is that I think he is finally realizing that he is not the one in charge. Teaching that lesson to your child has got to be one of the biggest (and first) parenting hurdles for all of us to jump.

So what to make of "The Naughty Crayon" episode? Well, I'm not really one to read into things too deeply. If anything, it did confirm my observation that Travis responds positively to time-outs. He responds well to spankings, too, but we try to really save those, especially since time-outs work for him. Anyway, Travis was still playing his little game when Steve got home, so Steve got his laugh for the day, as well.