Family fun and more

I traveled to Atlanta on Saturday to visit my cousin Cole, Carole, and the kids. I had a smooth ride down, no major traffic snafoos. I jammed out to some Rob Thomas on the way there and the weather was beautiful so it was all good. Trey had a soccer game that morning that I missed because I just couldn't bring myself to wake up early enough to drive down and get there by 10 am. But I was informed that he scored a goal so he obviously did fine without me being present. :-) I got there around 12:30 and we headed to O'Charley's for lunch and then made a quick stop for me and Carole at the scrap book store. I needed to look for paper for my upcoming calligraphy assignment. But, I had no luck, they didn't carry the paper size that I needed. After that we hung out at the house the rest of the day and enjoyed the beautiful weather. We played a little bit of soccer - Trey, Grace, and myself defeated Cole's solo team. That's right, it only took 3 of us to take him down. After that I played with Grace and William on the playground. William was scaling the playset like a pro so I mentioned to Grace that he was like a little monkey. Grace quickly corrected me stating SHE was the monkey. (Doh...how could I make such a careless mistake. She is all about the monkeys right now.) I asked what else we could call him and she answered with of course, the SLOTH. What? hahaha. I told her that he was cuter than a sloth, right!? She informed me that sloths have to climb a lot... and Willam does sleep all the time! Which makes complete sense. (She is gifted by the way. Yeah. Probably smarter than me.) I suggested a squirrel and she okayed that. :-) After a great day spending time with 5 of my favorite people in the world, I left about 7:30 to head home. I love those little boogers. The big ones to.

The sea monkeys that I gave Trey for Christmas. They are crazy looking little creatures!

Their dog, Colonel Buzz, who is obsessed with feet and latched on to mine as often as he could.

I haven't had the priveledge of spending as much time with little William as I did with Grace and Trey by the time they were his age, so I got to catch up and take him in while I was there. He's awesome. Of course.

Cute little William - probably on a pacifier high in this picture. (He loves his passies!)

See...holding on for dear life. :-)

Who couldn't adore this face??


He loves being flipped around like a little rag doll


More acrobatics with Daddy


Picture of mommy (Carole) taken by William (sort of...)


Picture of daddy (Cole), also taken by William (sort of...)



William's bedroom is a surfer theme and it is amazing. Here are a few pictures of the awesomness.

Grass roof window treatment and bamboo wall covering


Used surf boards gifted by one of their CA friends


Shelf with matching grass roof



I did get to spend time with Grace and Trey too. They are getting so big!

Monkey girl and Soccer star


Trey likes to wrestle with his dad too. He isn't defending himself very well here though.

Me and Grace

Me and Trey...he totally left me hanging. He was making a silly face too and turned before the picture was finished. Crazy kid. :-)

On Sunday after church I went over to my mom's to visit with her and my grandmother. As luck would have it, my aunt Jeannie and cousin, Joe came over too so I got some time with them as well. Yay! I was hoping to see Joe during my break so it worked out beautifully.

Me and my Nannie


To set up this next picture...I was having trouble (as usual) getting a good self pic with both me and mom in the frame. So she graciously took over to "help me out". This is what we got...

Yep. Much better.


Here's one that finally came out decent. It only took us about 15 tries.

Joe writing a scene for us to act out. He is seriously going to be the next Hollywood genious.

Joe and I with our matching smiles.

Today I went running/walking downtown with Dana. I have not been running since the beginning of February when I blogged it on here. Nor have I done any other exercise since then. Therefore, my workout session today was not as awesome as I had hoped. I don't know why I expected greatness when I have been non-active for the last month and a half, but I did. I was very disappointed at the overwhelming exhaustion that I felt after running for just a few minutes. Ugh. I need to get myself in gear and get in shape PRONTO! It was an absolutely gorgeous day though, so it was worth the pain. We did get A LOT of walking in so we still got a very good workout.

Before leaving for the big workout. Grrrr! (By the way...I should really reconsider wearing white until I actually have some color. Geez.)

After the workout. Zzzzzzzzz.......

Beautiful day and an iPod that won't play

Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful.
It is God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament. Welcome
it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here is what I am a fan of... Beautiful days with gorgeous skies and lots of sunshine, walking and running on the Riverwalk, and good music. Here is what I am NOT a fan of... Small bladders, broken iPods, and being out of shape. Just in case there is any confusion. :-) Anyway...
So my day has been okay today with a few bumps here and there. I went to bed way too late last night as a result of taking a long nap yesterday afternoon. That made it hard for me to get up this morning and I ended up not going to church. :-( I made a real effort, but the clothes beat me in the end. I need to do laundry in a bad way and I haven't put up the clothes from the last time, so basically...it was past time to go and I was having real issues with the clothing situation. So I accepted defeat and put pajamas back on. BUT, I had already made the decision to get out and run today so I did. The weather was incredible and I love being outside on days like today. And I love to run but haven't done it in ages. So yeah, I was pumped. I got dressed, drove downtown, and was ready to breathe the fresh air! I parked at UTC and got my iPod all set up and clipped on me. However, when I flipped the switch to ON and hit PLAY...it did not agree. Nothing happened. Nothing. I hit the button over and over, hoping it would figure out that it was Play time, but alas, still nothing. The light was green, it was fully charged, just broken. BOO! I cannot tell you how much I hate walking or running without music. Listening to my heavy breathing and sneakers hitting the pavement is not a good time. But I pressed on anyway. I'm so dedicated.
On top of the iPod issue, I was dealing with the very great need to find a restroom pronto. Even though I used the bathroom TWICE in a 15 minute period before I left my house (just in case), I STILL felt like the dam was about to burst as soon as I parked my car. What the... GEEZ! And of course I was parked in a fabulous in between spot so that either way I went it was about a mile to a restroom. So I was forced to walk the first mile to avoid any accidents on the sidewalk. Once I got that taken care of, I was off! I did better than expected for the first half mile, then I started to feel the lack of gym time I have put in lately. My hip joints started to feel stiff and so I switched to a boring walk again. Aparently God was really wanting me to slow down, enjoy this wonderful day, and not have any distractions. *sigh* Not that this is a bad thing, but I wanted a nice run with cool music flooding my ears. Oh well, it was still a great work out. I really do live for days like today.

Ahhh.. Refreshing!


I took this as a very good sign that it was time to quit for the day...


Mission Accomplished!

After the Riverwalk fun, I had to go to Walmart and grocery shop. Ugh. I HATE grocery shopping...especially at Walmart on a busy Sunday afternoon. But what are you gonna do. No food = No choice. So I battled the crowd and came out alive. Yay for that. I did however walk in the door and find this as soon as I got home...

Seriously?