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Bitty Painting

1 comments Posted by Gina at 1:14 PM



At breakfast this morning, Bitty looked at me and said, "Who painted me?"   Hmmmm.  "What do you mean?" I reply.  I am not sure what he is asking.  He points to his left arm (where his birthmark is located) and says, "Who painted me?"   Who indeed.   My answer.  "God painted you."  And AI have never seen a more beautiful painting.   It is a wonder my heart doesn't burst with all the love I feel for this little guy.


 

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Midweek Marathon Musings

0 comments Posted by Gina at 2:15 PM

I did it!   Today, I was able to walk the whole 13.1 miles.    Thank you for your prayers and good thoughts.  My asthma was well controlled during the entire run.  My time was 4 hours and 10 minutes.  It is just over 2 weeks until the race and I am starting to get more excited.



FYI:  I finished my miles before 7AM this morning.   I got up way too early, but it was worth it.

 

War Eagle Weekend Part 1

0 comments Posted by Gina at 4:17 PM

Homecoming for the Auburn Tigers was a few weekends ago.  We plan a trip with a group of college friends for this weekend each year.  Now, there are seven of us with six children between us. We had a great time as usual. We always love spending time with old friends. 

The Homewood Suites in Montgomery was our home base for the weekend.  I recommend traveling this way when you have a group of friends and are traveling with children. We rented one 2 bedroom unit and a 1 bedroom unit.  We had enough room to hang out and the kids had enough room to play.  

Since Friday was a travel day, we decided on a nice family friendly place to eat - Chappy's Deli. They treated us so well and it is a bargain when you have kids in your group. There were 13 of us on Friday night including 6 kids between 18months and 5 years.  Best thing is kids under 6 eat FREE with a paid adult meal. The food was wonderful and we saved enough that we didn't feel guilty having dessert. ( I had the cheesecake and it was so delicious. Jason raved about the red velvet cake.)  Chappy's is such a great deli that we ate dinner there again on Saturday night.  
 Just an FYI the cheesecake was just as delicious on Saturday. :)

We said our good byes on Sunday. It was so much fun hanging out. Talking. Getting to watch as our kiddos played together.  Next year. Same time. Same place.

 

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MondayMarathon Musings

0 comments Posted by Gina at 8:05 AM

Week 29


Last Week:  couldn't breath
This week: 24
Miles Completed: 370 miles
Pounds Lost:  Why should we even bother?

This week has found me trying to redo last week miles.  I am still shaky in the breathing area, but am much better.  All the prayers being said on my behalf are working.  I have to wear a headband around my mouth in order to breathe, but if that allows me to reach this milestone, it is the least of my concerns.  

Trick is how to finish my half-marathon practice run this week with Jason in New Orleans.   I am best in the morning.  So, I can get up early...around 2AM to get it done before getting The Boy ready for school.  OR I can wait until after I drop him off.   2AM until 6:30AM.  OR  8AM until noon.  You would think that it would be an easy decision.  However, it isn't easy to spend 4 hours on a treadmill while you are supposed to be caring for a 2 year old.    I have to make the decision this afternoon, so I can get the kids and I in bed early.

Wish me luck!   Pray for my breathing.

 

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Marathon Update

0 comments Posted by Gina at 2:51 PM

Just an FYI for those out there who are following. It is not possible to run, walk, or even crawl a half-marathon when you can not breathe. I did not get far today. I took 3 shots of emergency inhaler in the first hour of my run. I had to stop or die. :) On a related note, I went to the doctor this morning. I had a chest x-ray, got a steroid shot, and spent $100 on medicines to get me breathing again. Hopefully, I will have better luck tomorrow. Still, I think I will save the long run until next week. :)

 

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War Eagle Weekend Part 2

0 comments Posted by Gina at 10:42 AM

This weekend was homecoming for the Auburn Tigers. For a few years, this has been the weekend that a group of college friends get together to hang out and have a good time. There are seven of us now and between us we have six children. We have a good time and are slowly learning what works with these get-togethers.

We stayed in Montgomery instead of actually in Auburn. Mainly because you really can't afford to stay in Auburn on game weekends. Another good reason is because restaurants and such are less crowded. Plus, one of the families lives just outside Montgomery, so it makes it convenient for them to travel to and from our get-togethers rather easily. The rest of us stay at the Homewood Suites. We take up a 2 bedroom unit and a 1 bedroom unit.

We got to Auburn early to let the kids play and enjoy the benefit of the Alumni Association's food tent. There are big inflatables set up in front of the Coliseum for the home games. The kids love going from one to another of these. Best thing is that they are FREE. We walked up to the food tent. The kid's especially love this. The menu is hot dogs, bagged chips, and bagged cookies. They always have a variety of sodas and bottled water to choose from. On a sad note, this year kid's over 3 had to pay $5 to get in and guests had to pay $10. Luckily, we only have 2 kids that are over 3, so still $5 for a family of 4 to eat at the game is not too bad.

This year, we decided not to buy tickets beforehand. Only a couple of us really cared about going to the game and we figured we could find cheap tickets when we got there. The day we left, my mother in law gave us her tickets. We figured that the men could go while the ladies hung out with the kids. While we were eating a nice woman gave us 3 tickets, this was helpful because the two older boys by this time wanted to go to the game . So, we had nine people and five tickets. We decided to try and buy the other 4 tickets really cheap. Within minutes, two different people GAVE us two tickets. We got all nine tickets for FREE. This in nice because when the kids get tired of being at the game before half-time, you don't feel so bad about leaving. We stayed as long as the kids wanted without the guilt of wasting money on tickets. It was perfection.
Then we toured and hung out at the new student union. We went shopping at the AU Bookstore. It was a fun day. We parked in the perfect spot. We rode the transit bus to and from our cars, so traffic wasn't even too bad.

Here are a few things that I have learned.

1)Don't bring camp chairs because you won't want to lug them across campus (they never left our trunk.)
2) Don't bring a huge quilt. See above about lugging it around. Bring plastic tablecloths or something easily folded to a size that will go into a backpack.

3) Bring a Frisbee and a couple balls. (We remembered the balls, but not the Frisbee.)














 

Monday Marathon Musings

0 comments Posted by Gina at 10:36 AM

Week 28

Last Week's Miles: 21
This Week's Miles: 24.1
Miles Completed: 363
Pounds Lost: 3

We are getting closer to the big event. I have my outfit ready. I have my iPod ready. I have everything ready. This week I will be doing a test run on Thursday. I will do 13.1 miles. I will let you know how it goes. There is one thing that I haven't figured out how to carry. I need to carry my asthma emergency inhaler. But where to carry it? I don't want to carry a fanny pack. I may have to change my jacket to one with a zipper pocket. I am sure that I will need my inhaler during the run.

 

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7 Random Things About Me

6 comments Posted by Gina at 3:53 AM

Lisa over at Books. Lists. Life. tagged me for a fun meme. It seems like a fun way for everyone to get to know me. So, here we go.

1) I plan our family's meals monthly. I do one big grocery shopping trip a month. It makes for a long day, around 4 hours. I have been doing this since The Boy was born. We usually eat lunch at the deli or the restaurant located in our store. We fill up one buggy, eat lunch, and then go back to fill up a second buggy. I like doing it this way, but my friends think I am crazy.

2) I love going to the movies. If Jason and I are given an entire date day, then we will probably choose to watch a matinee, eat lunch, watch a late matinee, get take-out back to the house, and enjoy the sounds of the childless house. In fact, this is exactly what we did a few weeks ago. We saw Eagle Eye, ate lunch at Five Guys , saw Fireproof, got Italian take-out and went home. Oh, yeah, we shopped at Target before the first movie and after lunch. We are just that wild and crazy.

3) I dislike wearing shoes and to some degree socks, but mostly shoes. I never wear shoes in my house. More often than not, I am barefoot.

4) I love cute socks. With cute goldfish. Or stripes. Or polka dots. I love to wear interesting socks. (I know. Weird. It is a contradiction to number 3.)

5) I watched soap operas all of my life through college. I have at one time or another watched close to 10 different soap operas. Since I graduated college, I haven't watched one. I don't miss them.

6) I met my husband and my best friends at boarding school. I am still very close to eight of my friends from those last two years of high school.

7) I do not pop my knuckles. I don't like it when other people try to pop my knuckles. It is disgusting.

So, while I try to find someone to tag for this meme, why don't y'all tell me something random about yourself?

 

Book Carnival Giveaway!

0 comments Posted by Gina at 5:48 AM

Head on over to Books. Lists. Life. for a chance to win a $15 gift card to your favorite bookstore. I know you could use more books. No one ever has enough books.

 

Happy Halloween

0 comments Posted by Gina at 7:24 PM


A friend of mine once said, "A good blogger posts about her kids' Halloween costume. A GREAT blogger thinks to take pictures early so she can share them ON Halloween." (OK, she said in on Friday.)


I guess that would make me what....a mediocre blogger since I am posting about their costumes with pictures, but three days late.



I can live with that.


This year both of my boys had very distinct feelings as to what costume they wanted. It was interesting to hear them tell me ages ago and to keep with it through the hub bub of the Halloween season. The Boy wanted to be Bumblebee. No, not A bumblebee. But Bumblebee the Transformer. He was so excited and loved his costume so much. It made it worth the fact that I had to buy the most expensive Transformer costume in town because the cheaper versions ran small.
Bitty wanted to be a Blue Power Ranger. This is funny. The Boy loves the Red Ranger. He has a Red Ranger costume. He has Red Ranger action figures (leftovers from his Uncle Bubba). We don't have a single Blue Ranger item in the house. We don't have the movies. We don't watch the shows. When they go to their NeeNee Ma and Papa's house, they watch Uncle Bubba's old Power Ranger movie. But this is not a common occurrence. So, while Power Ranger play is big in our house, it never involves the Blue one. So it gave me pause when he was specific in his wants. That is our Bitty though, he knows what he wants. He is almost never indecisive.
The jack-o-lanterns were designed by both Bitty and the Boy. We let the boys draw the faces on the pumpkins with crayons. Then, Jason and I carved the pumpkins according to the drawings. Jason let The Boy help with some of the less complicated, less sharp knife-work. Bitty watched and stabbed his pumpkin with a butter knife a few times. The Boy's pumpkin is on the left. (The Boy's pumpkin had an accident on the way home from the pumpkin patch. someone who loaded or unloaded it from the bus dropped it and it had a small crack that grew and grew until it caved. It was still very scary.) Bitty's is on the right.


 

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