A New Name for Mama 26.2

I might have to change the name of my blog.

This morning, I set out to run 10.5 miles in preparation for the marathon this September. Right at the end of mile 7, I had a knife-stabbing pain along the outside of my left knee. I stopped, stretched, walked, stretched, and started again for about 10 seconds when the tortuous pain returned. I ended up hobbling home. Luckily, it was only a mile from home.

I was making pretty decent time on the run, and feeling good. The weather was awesome - upper 50's, sunny. I was carrying my Gatorade, listening to some pretty good tunes, and felt great until the knee episode.

Hopefully this will be a minor setback. Maybe some new shoes will prevent this from occurring again, and I'll be back on track. If not...well, how does MamaFast5K sound?

Way too nice outside

It was way too nice today to be up in the attic or in front of the washer & dryer, so we took advantage and had fun outside! It's a little bright for Case!

Here, Haley helps Dad with putting up the new fence along the side of the house.

Here's the finished product from the neighbor's yard. Dan also planted seven of those cool looking trees. Looks good, huh? Last year at this time, there was a nearly 200 year old oak tree where that concrete is behind the fence.

Brooke's ready to drive...so she wishes!

Celebration of 16 years

Brooke stayed up pretty late last night "cross-stitching" this anniversary note, which reads, "Happy 16 Anivercity." Very cute!

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She was so excited. I think more than we were. We are tired. Dan's been working long hours at work and then long hours on the attic renovation. I'm tired because this 7-month-old still is not sleeping through the night. I'm finishing up school work and trying to get marathon training in, too.

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However, we did go out to a nice restaurant here in town, a Thai place - good food. It was nice.

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I heard this quote recently about happy marriages and I thought it was very fitting:

"To stay happily married requires a person to fall in love many times...with the same person."

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I second that motion. There's no other man on earth I'd like to fall in love with over and over again than Dan.

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16 years. 3 houses. 3 full-term pregnancies. 4 kids. Priceless.

And the winner is...

It's down to the two Davids! These girls are not David Archiletta fans, so they've joined their mother in her support of David Cook. Go David go!

Great Website

I was trying to think of something to add to my blog today. Frankly, sometimes my day is just as normal as it was the day before, even if I do manage to get in a great run.

So today I don't have any great words of wisdom, and I haven't run across any deep quotes to think on....

But! I did find a cool website called, "Ology" today. It's sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History and it's very good! We explored the Archeology - Tools of the Trade area and it was like a game. I learned about a new instrument archeologists use called a "total station" that helps them plot out their site. It's way more advanced than the old way I learned, which involved a lot of graph paper, pencils and erasers. Anyways, there's more to this website than just the Archeology area. I recommend you take your kids there and explore it. Or let them explore it on their own. They're sure to learn something new.

So here's the website address: http://www.amnh.org/ology/archaeology#channel

Have fun!

Eric at Work

This is a picture of my brother (left) that was taken recently. Cool, huh?

Regretful Words

I said something today that I regretted saying immediately.

So, for the record, I really really REALLY love having four children! It's an incredible experience, and I know there's more experiences in store in the future.

It's also a relief to know that God has things under control, isn't it? And that he's the reason for the age differences in the kids. How great it is to have older and younger ones spread apart by a decade. The built-in babysitters come in handy, but from Case's perspective, it's nice to have so many loving people around all the time!

Of course, if you ask Brooke, she'd say she doesn't get to do everything her sisters do. She is right, but there is a 28-month age difference there, too, so she'll have to wait. Patience is a virtue, right? I'll have to try to explain that to her again.

Needless to say, this motherhood thing is going pretty well. Yeah, many times I feel completely overwhelmed, out of control (that's an issue I'm working on...trying to give up control, that is), and totally unqualified. I'm thankful for the examples of truly great mothers for me to look to for advice. What's scary, though, is when someone else asks ME for advice! Didn't I already say I was unqualified?

So in the spirit of Mother's Day, I embrace motherhood - the sleepless nights, the diapers, the training, the listening, the referreeing, the talks, the books - oh the books I've read, the cleaning, the cooking, the laundry -- and a Happy Mother's Day to all!