The Big Three Five

I turned thirty five on the seventh.........Thirty. Five. Mid. Thirties. Remember when you would say when describing someone, "Oh, you know she's older, like mid thirties." And now mid thrities doesn't feel old, and yet-you say it outloud and it's like "Whoa Mama". I'm not going to lie, I felt a wee bit (maybe a wee bit more than wee) depressed over the whole thing. And to be honest this is the first time I havefelt that way about getting a year older. I guess it's because I pictured myself to be in a different place in life than I am now. I was pretty bummed during the week leading up-I know, why am I being super dramatic? I have no idea. Because honestly, it was one of the best birthdays I have ever had. It was a packed full weekend, and it wore me out, but I loved every. single. second.

I decided that 35 would be great and I want to do things that are hard for me. Some would say they are easy peasy, but like I said, this isn't about other people-this is about me. That is one of the reasons I started training for Ragnar. More on that later. I found a 5k called Color Me Rad and wanted to run it for fun, and it also happened to be the day before my birthday-you know, the one where I would turn 3-5. I asked my sister and two of my cousins to run with me....and we did. One of them drove down from Ohio so we could run.

Rewind many years back-to elementary school, fifth grade-ish. My sister and I spent the Summers in Ohio with my Grandparents and played with two of our cousins at least every other day it seemed. What do four girls do wen they get together at that age? Make a girl band of course! Complete with matching outfits bought at Meijer (think hot pink and black biker shorts) and dance routines. As you know, every good band has a name, and so did we. That is when CS4 was born (Cousins, Sisters, 4 of us) and we have referred to it ever since. When we all got married, our husbands got to be our "groupies", I know how it sounds, but I don't care. It is one of those fond memories fom childhood that we will remember forever (yes, we did performances). So what better shirts could we make to run through color in?





(C-S-4 exclamation point)

That's right, complete with 90's back to back pose. We have a picture

of us when we were little, in the exact same pose. Every time we
get together, my Aunt has a pose like this. On a random note, the only
part of this picture that is posed, is the "back to back" part, that being
said, isn't it funny how the sisters are posing the same.

How motivating are these cuties?

After showers, we went to Painting With a Twist. You pick out a painting and the instructor teaches you how to paint it, and you interpret what she teaches. It's really laid back, and you can bring snacks, drinks, etc. It was SO much fun! After we got in touch with our artistic side, the four of us went to dinner and came home to a wonderful surprise.....

Kris and the kids made this sunflower cake for me. He asked Lisa to bring the icing and he did some research and found the idea. I almost cried. Kris is not a fan of doing "creative" things with the kids. He doesn't like the stress, the mess, etc. Knowing this, made the cake even more special. He is pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

 

To top of the best weekend ever, it was also General Conference that weekend. Thanks to my trusty DVR, Sunday we watched it in our jammies, ate potato soup and did nothing else all day. A dear friend of mine brought me some delicious pumpkin cookies and promised not to look at me or my house (that's how "relaxed" we were being). It was an incredibly perfect weekend. I have decided that 35 is going to be amazing!



Busy Bees

We have been a little busy as of late. Summarized version? Okay, well this started up on Saturdays...

This is the only picture I have gotten so far. Mostly because I am yelling the whole time. Abram has gotten pretty good this season. His team is good, depending on the Saturday. Also depending on the team their playing- I swear, the other week the other team had a five year old that slide tackled-you could tell he from a long line of soccer players. Abram has scored in every game except the one where they played professional five and six year olds, he came SO close in that one. I can't hold and aim a camera while I am jumping up and down cheering for him, it's impossible.

 

Kris started back to school this semester. He's working full time and going to school three nights a week.

 

Reese and I joined a co-op preschool with some awesome ladies from church. Reese was on a waiting list for preschool and a couple weeks into September he got in...

he wasn't too thrilled at first for the first couple of weeks but now he likes it. And today, Reese demonstrated some sweet "yoga moves" he learned during circle time.

 

We also had family move here. It has been really fun getting together....(hilarious video will not not load-ugh). 

 

I am still working with the youth at Church, still awesome.

 

Kris and I have been training for RAGNAR.

 

And I turned 35, but more on that later......

 



 

 

Boy Heaven

Looking at tadpoles......

We went to Ijams today with some friends. It was pretty much, as close to boy heaven as I can imagine with all of the dirt, bugs, and frogs. I have only been there twice now (in the past 10ish years-embarassing, I know) so I didn't even know they have a play area. On the website it looks like a "fairy land" type place-but to me, as a "Boy Mom" I saw it as an Ewok Village/where the lost boys from Peter Pan live. The boys had a blast and we'll be going again soon!

First Day of School-Kindergarten

I knew it was coming. I mean, we've been talking it up all Summer. However, as Summer days started to dwindle-the word "Kindergarten" would bring tears to my eyes almost imediately. It was a little embarassing-I could get about 2 sentences out and then needed to change the subject. I don't know if it was Abram going out into the big, wide, world without me. Maybe it's the "all day" thing. I just got use to the idea of half day Kindergarten, telling myself it would be like everyday preschool-and preschool I could handle. That day, no joke, my friend who teaches fifth grade sends me a text that she had heard next year would be all day. My baby, overnight had turned into a five year old and he was going to be in school all day.

The first day was this past Friday and I was a little worried I would give Abram and anxiety disorder because every five seconds "THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST DAY EVER! YOU ARE SO BIG!" came out of my mouth. Now I know, those words were being said to comfort myself as much as they were to comfort him. And just as we were walking up to the school, a girl from church who is a fifth grader walked up to us and smiled warmly at Abram, took his hand and followed us into the building. It was so sweet and perfect, just the calming we all needed and they were able to chat until they had to seperate so she could go to her hallway. We walked to his classroom and I could tell he was nervous, but he smiled and hung up his things.




Funny that I got this picture of how he may have felt.....

But he put on a brave face......

He was happy to be there and we left, and I didn't cry. I think it's because I was there to walk him in and make sure he got to his seat. I will be able to walk him in again, on his next staggered day. It'll be the day when I drop him off and watch him walk into the building on his own that I will lose it. I can feel it coming.

He liked school, but was worried he "disappointed his teacher" because she looked like she had a "disappointed face" when he was having trouble following directions. Abram kept saying, "Mom, I really didn't know what I was doing! I really didn't!" I felt he was being genuine, and I started to worry. Upon lengthy, dragging out the whole story, while wondering if the first email needed to be sent, he explained. His version is this, he was supposed to color and picture, then draw himself.....and he didn't. He colored the apple, but didn't draw himself. I held back the laughter. "Sooooo, it sounds like you were having trouble following directions." I said, then asked, "You know how you can fix that?" He looked at me wide eyed like I was about to give him the world's biggest secret to success. "Do what your teacher asks."

Here's to hoping that he isn't already labeled, and that this won't be a long year.

12 Years

We celebrated our 12th anniversary this past weekend. Friday night we had a date night, courtesy of Aunt Natalie (thanks for watching the kiddos!) and Saturday we headed out to Cades Cove. It has been WAY TOO long since I have been there. I didn't want to promise the kids we would see animals, so we just called it our "Adventure Day" and let what happen, happen.

We saw horses....

We walked up to see cabins.....

And checked out their "backyards"...

and realized that when you decide to leave late, and are on adventure during naptime you get pictures like this...

and this (Reese covering his face screaming, "No! I won't smile ever again!)....

(I promise, we did really have fun!)

We decided some swinging was in order to get rid of the grumps....

We will do this soon Abram, just for you.....

We had only seen horses and one deer by this point, and started to get a little sad, so someone decided a joke was in order....

(Get it? Hardy har har) We took a break and climbed a tree..

Just when we thought we wouldn't see any other animals,

Kris spotted this....

Sometimes he has a tough time focusing the camera, but in this case I liked it because it looks like one of those "Bigfoot" pictures. Luckily this fella was going the same direction as we were and needed to cross the road...

But our car was in the way, he thought about turning around....



 We moved instead, and let him cross. This bear was probably 6 feet from our car.

Did I mention I love Tennessee? Because I do.

Are you looking at me?

It was a fantastic day, ending with a trip to Subway and a country store for some treats and apple butter. 12 down, forever to go...

Metcalf Bottoms

My friend Lori is awesome. She has a fun blog, makes cool things, makes fun movies, can talk you into just about anything, and has awesome ideas like going to Metcalf Bottoms. It's a swimming hole sort of place, in the mountains. It was the. Best. Day. Ever. It was one of those "Bucket List" kinda of days. Play in the mountain water with the kiddos-check. Catch crawdads with the boys-check. Float on tubes with the boys-check. Jump off rocks into the water with Abram-check. Leave your camera so you don't get any pictures-check. Luckily, my friend Brianna is an amazing photographer and always has her handy dandy camera with her, she got some great candid photos.

The water was a wee bit chilly (as demonstrated by Kris).....

But not too cold for crawdad huntin.......

We caught, maybe 15 ish??? Reese kept asking to put one in the bucket. I said, "Sure" thinking he would touch it and freak. Nope, he followed directions perfectly and proceeded to put several more in after they were caught. That kid never ceases to amaze me.

It also wasn't too chilly for walking down the trail to jump off rocks.....

or if you're nervous at first, there will be someone to throw you....

There was a 50% chance of rain. And it did, right as it was time to go anyway. The rain POURED DOWN! And we looked at each other and laughed...until we realized all of our stuff was a little ways up the trail! So we ran through the mud filled trail-it was hysterical! And even in the pouring rain, sopping wet, we laughed as we loaded up our wet kiddos full of those droopy eyed smiles-you know the kind-where they are so tired from playing so hard, but have had so much fun they don't even care. The boys have already been asking when we can go back.

Goodbye to Tybee

I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to go back to reality. I wanted to continue taking turns making dinner, shared effort in cleaning up, taking turns entertaining each others children, going to the beach whenever we wanted, laughing at Kris's zebra striped sunburn that he threatened me not to take a picture of. Goobye running on the beach, goodbye boogie boards, goodbye watching "The Ring" for the 100th time and making fun of Lisa because she still gets as scared as the first time, goodbye relaxing while the storm moves in....

Goodbye fireball contests (and whooping the competition)......





Goodbye big house that wasn't really big enough for the people we crammed in........



Goodbye beach (photo by Abram)....



Goodbye....until next year???