Fight or Flight?!?

WARNING:  If you visit my blog for pics, this post contains NONE!  You are free to quit reading.  

After moving out of the apartment (June28), I became lax in my running.  Okay, I just quit all together!  It was harder to motivate and time and summer and house stuff...I could keep going with excuses.  July 12 we moved into our house!  Everything unloaded and in it's spot for most part in the same day.  Including the treadmill...hidden nicely in the corner of our bedroom.  In fact you can enter the room and never know it's there!  My excuse now?  I want to get a pad to go under the treadmill so it doesn't damage the hardwood floors! 

Last Monday (Aug 13), I put on my running shoes and hit the pavement!  Scared I wouldn't make it, I only did 2 miles.  It felt great!  Tuesday, I went for three... a little harder, but I attribute some of that to the downpour that came halfway through my run!  Something about soaking wet shoes that make them SO heavy.  I finished the week proud of myself for running M-F!  And this week I've even made it four miles two times!

I know you are starting to wonder about my title...I'm getting there!

I'm normally a treadmill girl with my TV on CC and tunes blasting.  Who knew how enjoyable an outside run could be by yourself!?!  That's always been my excuse (I can find one for anything):  I wanted someone to run with if I was gonna run outside.  But I have throughly enjoyed my tunes and God's creation.  I have found I AM running with someone:  My Heavenly Father is right there beside me.  Cheering me on, encouraging me not to give up and just given me sweet revelation of Him with me.

I have loved seeing all the little things I would have missed on the treadmill!  The bunnies are so adorable, the butterflies and dragonflies are brilliantly colored, and even the creepy crawly things that come out after/during the rain seem so meaningful.  Then there are the smells!  It takes everything I have not to stop and try the honeysuckle!  And there is one spot that every time I close my eyes and am immediately transported to my childhood neighborhood.  I can remember the smells as I would walk down the street to play with the "older" girls!  So very thankful for this new found joy in running with Jesus!

Okay, if you are still reading you are my real friend and I can share openly with you!  Yesterday, I helped out at K's school so my morning run didn't happen.  After spending three hours sorting papers (that's a whole other post), I came home for lunch and devoured more than my fair share of potato chips.  So after the kids were tucked in bed and the hubs was busy in the garage I decided to go for an evening run.

Because of the time I thought I should only do two miles.  Well, at my mile mark I looked at my time, I was doing good so I thought I'd press on.  As I crossed to the other side of the street to run towards traffic, I noticed 4 deer in the thicket area; three does and one small buck.  (This is a regular occurrence since we are so close to Berry College.)  It's normal to see them in the back yard grazing or along the side of the road.  But I'd never come up on them while running...I must say I was a little excited.  Then I noticed the one closest to me was no longer grazing but headed towards me...

Fight or flight?  Well, I wasn't sticking around to see which she was gonna choose, I chose flight!  I turned right around and decided I stick to my two mile plan!  I was pretty sure she could outrun me and I was NOT about to find out for sure.  And I did not want to make headline news: Runner Attacked by Deer!  Google it, it can happen people!

The life of a 5 year old!

 WOW!  Mark always says "Five is the best age to be!"  And I'm starting to believe he is right! ;o)

Kate the great is really starting to shine.  I love her to pieces.  We (I) am finally coming to terms with the fact that we are SO much alike.  

Both kids went in for teeth cleaning in July.  Blake had a perfect report of excellent work keeping his teeth clean and no cavities.  Kate was informed she had two on the verge of wiggling!  (We won't talk about the three cavities.)

So ever since our dentist appointment we have been in the wiggling mode.  Every moment she had a finger or tongue free to wiggle she was!  So much fun seeing her this new experience through her eyes.

Just in the past month so many "firsts" have happened for Kate!  She is now the proud rider of a two wheel bike.  (This was a much harder sale than I thought.)  She is doing great minus getting started...still haven't quite gotten that down yet.

Kindergarten of course!  She has amazed me with her bravery & her memory.  She had her lunch number memorized before the first day of school.  Today she told me she went to the office all by herself before class to look for a lost bow from yesterday!  WOW, she is growing up fast.

Last Saturday, we had a pool party with some co-workers of Mark.  What a blast!  The kids were in the pool from 2 until we dragged them out around 9 with only a momentary stop for dinner!  They even skipped dessert to get back in the pool.  (No worries they found their way to the cookies in between cannon balls!)  There was however a minor accident.  Kate's goggles came apart and she asked me to put them back together...no problem.  Then she proceeded to throw them to me...problem!  They swung right back around and cut her directly under her right eye.  I wasn't sure if it would ever stop bleeding.

Well, with all the swimming she was out cold on the way home.  Apparently so out, that in the middle of the night she rolled OFF her bed and hit her night stand....yep you guessed it:  right eye!

Our first shinner at 5!  She's actually doing better than Blake...(uh, Grandma?)!  lol

It's looking better and should be gone by fall pictures on Aug 22...pray tell how is that fall pictures?!?  More like late summer pics...I digress.

Another first!  Kate received her first American Girl doll from Lolly & Pop.  (This may well be her only!)  It was perfect!  McKenna is the 2012 girl of the year.  A gymnast (I'm sure b/c of the Olympics) and she looks just like Kate!  Kate of course has been begging for nothing else but gymnastics classes since we moved to GA.  (We will be signing up next week....I wanted to see how wiped out she might be from school first.)

SO we come full circle...

All she wants for her birthday are her two front teeth! ;o)

(I'm sure she'll have by Christmas so I had to modify!)  

They both came out tonight.  I was showing her how loose they were and encouraging her to go ahead and pull them when the dental floss got hung on it and twisted it.  Daddy to the rescue pulled the first and the second after much convincing.  It was barely hanging on...I was really afraid she'd swallow it in the night!  Good thing the tooth fairy is prepared! ;o)

Oh, to be 5 again!

First Day of School

08-08-2012

The best birthday present ever?  Sending both my children to school!  ;o)

The first day of school for Blake and Kate was my birthday...Seems so EARLY!

They were all smiles...though I know both of them were full of anxiety!  Kate the good kind...she could not be more excited.  Blake was not looking forward to another NEW school.  He is a great kid and makes friends easily, but change is still change!

Since we were unsure if we would be able to go to the county schools, I did not buy school supplies until the day before school!  (If you are reading this, you know me well and know that I was NOT comfortable with this!)

 They are at separate campuses, so we headed to the Elementary campus first (third - fifth grade).  So the good news is that every third grader there is learning the campus not just Blake!  ;o)

Blake and his home room teacher, Mrs. T; she teaches reading, spelling & language arts.  Mr. F is his switch teacher for math, science & social studies.

She was just beside herself!  I don't think we could get to the Primary campus quick enough!  ;o)

She was leading the way!  Mind you she's only step foot in the building two times and the first time we didn't go 100 feet past the front doors!  

Mrs. M and Kate the great!  Can you believe she's been teaching K here for 20 years?!?  And her parapro has been with her for 16 of those!  It's gonna be a great year.

Still smiling, though I think she was a little tired!  So proud of her.

The greatest answer to prayer!  See that smile?  He LOVES school.  This is a huge thing.  I am beyond words at how our God loves us so much that He takes care of the smallest of details in our lives!  Praising Jesus for carrying my children through this transition.

A huge shout out to my amazing husband who surprised me and stayed home to help see the kids off and spend the day with me celebrating!  Another way I know my Jesus loves me.

What's one more project?!?

So we got that phone call today...the one you never expect nor want to get:

"The fire department was at your house today."

We are praising Jesus that He was in control!  No one was hurt and as far as we can tell thus far we have lost nothing.  (The stuff in the far right corner is all we have there.)

This is the corner the fire started in.  According to what we have learned, it started in one of our trash cans that was in this front corner.  The blob in the driveway between my car and the garage is our two garbage cans.  Not looking forward to calling the city tomorrow for more garbage cans!  Again, praising Jesus that the lawn care guys at our neighbors house noticed it and took action! 

These are the windows from our garage door.  

I'm thinking maybe I can start a new trend with these blinds! lol

Needless to say we are so very blessed and thankful for God's timing and protection.

Proud Homeowners Again!

Another Post with tons of pictures!

So many of you have asked about seeing more pics of the house we have purchased here in Rome.  I walked through it on Wednesday...some of the work had already started, but these will be good before and after pics!

Here is the view from the front door. 

To your left is the formal dinning area and straight ahead is the formal living area.

This is the fixture in the foyer as you walk in.  Not sure if I love it yet or not...but it will stick around for a while...much more important things that need to be done before I start being knit picky! ;o)

This is the formal dinning area.  I love this chandelier minus the shades!

There is a small hallway to the right just past the front foyer.  It includes our master suite, linen closet and this power room.  As you can see I will be in the market for a mirror! ;o)

This is the the master suite from the entry.

The view out of the master into the back yard/ deck area.

Master bath and closet through the double doors.

These counters are SO low and not sure what they were thinking when they put in wood counter tops in the bathroom!?!  Another project we will take on later down the road!

The tub and shower.  Again not sure what they were thinking with a large CLEAR window right above the tub?!?  We will frost that before I'll taking any baths!

I like this little opening from the upstairs foyer.  I foresee it helping us to "keep on eye" on things going on upstairs!  The doorway on the left goes into the breakfast nook/kitchen/den area.

This is the view from that doorway.  The guys are ready for our table to get in; so they will quit hitting their heads on the low chandelier!

I love this fireplace in the den!

We got a great deal on a fridge that will match the finishes in the house!

One of the guest rooms down stairs the door is the Jack and Jill bath.

The Jack and Jill bath.

The other guest bedroom downstairs.  Kate may be in this room for a bit while we get her room upstairs livable!  ;o) 

Finally a sink in my washroom!  Never mind it's the size of a large dog bowl!  Another project down the road.

The stairwell...nicely hidden!  I liked that!

The view from the top of the stairs looking into the upstairs foyer. 

From the foyer Blake's room on the right.  Bathroom straight ahead and someday Kate's room to the left.

Blake's room, which is already a darling indigo.  (that's the name of the color!)

Upstairs bath.

Kate's dream room!

It will be a fun room...just not sure if it will be able to function as a bedroom.  We'll try!

That's all folks!

Running Overtime

Warning: WAY more pics than you probably want to look at!  The next few posts will probably be out of order...starting with now and working backwards until I catch up.

Papaw came to Rome and everyone was ALL smiles!

Our first adventure began Friday morning...We headed to the Atlanta area to the highly recommended Stone Mountain.  I was skeptical, but what a blast we had!  We didn't even get to do it all and we shut down the place!  ;o)

The first attraction was the Sky Hike.  Kate rocked the course!  She was blasting through the balance beams and ropes like she did this everyday!  We all did the first level and I was proud of Blake for pushing through.  So I didn't pressure him into going to the second level with the rest of us.  Secretly I'm glad because Papaw was then able to get some great pics of Kate!

It wasn't like she was always taking the easy option, like her momma was! ;o)  Daddy was great at the course too, always taking the harder course and helping out his little dare devil.  I cannot tell you how many times I had to close my eyes because she was so brave!

Blake did enjoy the course that was closer to the ground and he did an awesome job on the zip line!  I think that was a favorite for him!

After being extremely disappointed that the duck rides were cancelled due to ramp damage, we head to the skyline ride to take us to the top of Stone Mountain!  That's 825 feet people!  Papaw got the below shot of the monument on the way to the top.

Thank you Papaw for the great family pic on top of Stone Mountain!

A certain little boy who will remain unnamed decided to walk down the mountain.  People I love my Sperry's but they were NOT meant for hiking down 825 feet of a mountain side!  I survived. And we still made it for the Laser show spectacular on the side of the mountain.  Looking forward to our next visit.

DAY TWO:

We hit the road again; this time North to Chattanooga.  Our first stop was the Children's museum.  Another highly recommended attraction.  The kids loved it...could have spent more time there.  I will say however, they did not stick together...so it was nice to have a few adults to go separate ways with them.

Even Daddy found some fun things to do; engineering minds never stop turning the wheels!

The water works station was a big hit with them both!

After splitting up for Kate to participate in an art project.  She found the face paints!  Not sure if it's the Cherokee blood in her or the clown characteristics from her birth order.  :o)

Center of attention: definitely birth order!   

Finally caught up together again for a puppet show.  Praying they find real paying jobs one day!

After Discovery Museum we headed to find the Chattanooga ducks!  Success!  We had 30 minutes to grab a bite to eat and hit the road. We had an awesome guide, which must be a requirement for these things!  He let the kids drive when we got down to the water.  Blake was having a blast!

If you ever are looking for the Chattanooga ducks, you can find them behind Chattanooga Cupcakes!  Both of which I would recommend.  YUM!

Next stop:  Tennessee Aquarium.  Yes, we have been there and done that...but it is that good! 

 We were so late getting to the Aquarium, it was like we had the place to ourselves!  We all got to pet the sting rays.  They were very playful.

I just loved this picture of the sea turtle!

After closing down the Aquarium we killed some time in the water area in the plaza.  The kids loved it even though it had to be COLD!  

Final stop the IMAX!

 This time we saw Tornado Alley, amazing and scary all at the same time.

 We enjoyed our last few days with Papaw around town.  Showing him the sights we enjoy regularly. The Clock Tower is a favorite stop for the kids.  

We always seem to be downtown without our suits when the fountain is on.  But today since our pool was under maintenance all day, we mad a special trip just for the fountain.

 It didn't take much to persuade Papaw to join in the fun.  It was a little warm just sitting on the bench watching!  A great way to end a special visit.  The kids are already making their list for the next time Papaw comes to down!  Thank you Papaw for a great week of memories!