Since we moved to Tennessee in September of 2010, I have been in a bit of fog. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with having a second child, or maybe it was the deep cleaning and organizing and listing AND selling our home and packing my family up and moving when that second child was only two months old on just three week's notice, and then moving again from our cramped townhouse to our beautiful house in just six months. Regardless of the reason, I've sort of fallen off the wagon of many of the things I used to do.

I don't cook nearly as elegantly as I used to. My reading has dropped off considerably (probably due to me still not having a library card here). I haven't been entertaining like I did in Missouri. I'm haven't taken many photos on my Nikon in a good long while (the iphone has a pretty decent camera and it's handy). And I haven't blogged much.


So what is new?

Well, Silas is three, and in one word, he's brilliant. He recognized most letters of the alphabet and could sing the song when he was 18 months old. By the time he was two, he definitely recognized every letter of the alphabet, knew all of his colors, knew some shapes, and could count to 20. Now that he's three, his vocabulary is quite developed and we can have sophisticated conversations about different topics. He is interested in science and how things work. He can count to fifty. He knows what sounds all of the letters make. He knows his way around town and will frequently try to direct me from the back the seat. Just today, I told him we were going to Target. He scolded me for making a wrong turn and told me I was going the wrong way. I explained to him that we weren't going to our Target in Spring Hill, but rather, the one in Franklin, and he was satisfied with this answer because we were indeed heading toward Franklin. His favorite toys are his tricycle and his trains and Matchbox cars. He is an excellent helper when asked to assist in any chore, and he is now "on commission" for doing chores like wiping the table after meals and making his bed. The concept of sharing has recently clicked for him, and he has been very generous in sharing his snacks with his little sister without being prompted to at all. He is also doing a much better job of waiting patiently for his turn to play with toys that are being played with by someone else, and he offers to trade toys with kids if he wants to play with something they have, rather than just taking it. He is very compassionate towards others who are sad or sick. When I was sick with pregnancy-related things, Silas would often hug me and tell me he hoped I would feel better. When Hannah is upset, he often pats her and tells her "it will be okay." My recent favorite Silas quotes: "I'm hungry. I need some food to make the baby feel better. There's a baby growing in my tummy."

Hannah at 21 months is a handful. She's energy squared. She's going to be my child that frequently gets stitches and casts. She has no fear, and she constantly wants to climb, jump, run, and spin. She's into absolutely everything! While I pick up the trash she has emptied from the trash can, she's emptying a book shelf in the next room. While I pick up the books, she's emptying out the dresser drawers within he reach, and then pulling whatever object she thinks will double as a step stool over to said dresser so she can empty out the drawers she couldn't reach before. Despite all of her energy, she still really enjoys reading books. I think she uses books as a pleasant diversion while she refuels for later exploits. She will put her books in a circle around her and "read" her books aloud to herself. Other times she'll one by one bring books to me for me to read to her while she runs around playing with her toys. Her favorite toys are pretty much anything that Silas is playing with. She has baby dolls, and will on occasion carry one under her arm while she plays with trains and cars. She loves to run around the back yard and dig in dirt. She does a have bit of a girly side, though. Without any encouragement from me, she is really into clothes and shoes. She is able to put pants on by herself, so many times after she's emptied out a dresser drawer, she will pull on some of her pj pants over whatever she is wearing, and attempt to put multiple shirts on (she hasn't learned how to put a shirt on by herself yet). She loves to wear my shoes, but those are about the only shoes she's interested in wearing as any that go onto her feet are promptly removed by her. She picks up items like a small calculator and the Wii remotes and puts them into her purse and carries it around the the house over her shoulder. Like her big brother, she is very intelligent too. She can count to 15 and she can sing the alphabet. She recognizes a few letters of the alphabet, and knows the colors yellow and pink. She has known the color pink since before Christmas. She loves music and loves to sing. Her favorite song is "Worthy is Your Name", which she calls "Je-dus Lamb o'Dod", and she sings it all the time. She actually carries a tune pretty well, for just being 21 months old.


Dan is training for the Country Music Half Marathon and hopes to finish in under three hours. He still enjoys his job. He tilled a garden spot a couple of weeks ago and has been germinating seeds in the garage. He's also working on his own side business when he has time to. He's a very busy man!

I'm staying busy with growing our third baby, keeping up the house, chasing after the kids, and my job. I've been feeling pretty puney for about three months now. Although the nausea has passed, I'm quite exhausted most days and I just never quite have enough sleep. Aside from punies, though, life is wonderful and I'm very blessed.

Speaking of punies and exhaustion... I'm so there right now! I ready to head upstairs and hopefully get a good night of rest. Maybe I'll update again in the near future. Is anyone even reading this anyway? :-)

and it was awesome!

We nearly overslept on Saturday. The race was in Murfreesboro, TN, which is far enough away that we knew we wouldn't get enough sleep if we didn't spend the night there, so we stayed in the Doubletree in Murfreesboro on Friday night. Dan's parents came down from Chicago and watched the kids at our house. The bed in the hotel was very comfy, and it was only the second night in three years that I've had a full night of sleep. Dan set an alarm for 0300 for us to wake up to eat a snack, and then another one for 0545 for us to get up for the race on his iPad. He set a back alarm for 0550 on his phone. Apparently the volume was still turned down from work on the iPad because neither of us heard the alarm for the snack wake up or for wake up. Luckily, the back up alarm on the phone woke us up. We quickly dressed in our running clothes and drove to the MTSU campus. We managed to drink some yogurt with granola in the car on the way there, and then we snagged the last parking spot in the lot. I shoveled down a couple of slices of white bread too and got Dan to eat one as well. Then I swallowed an anti-diarrhea pill, because I had read about and had experienced on our 10 mile run the infamous "runs" that accompany many runners on long distance runs and didn't want to have it happen again during the race and have to waste precious time in a porta-potty along the course.

The mood was festive and the sunrise was beautiful. A local radio station was blasting music and one of the DJs was MC-ing. We ran into a couple of Dan's co-workers who were also running the race. Then we lined up according to how long we predicted it would take us to run and the starting gun was fired at 0700. We had been running about a mile when I noticed that the pack seemed pretty thin. I thought we must have been pretty slow if it was already that thin, and I knew we weren't way ahead of everyone because I hadn't passed many people. About half a mile later, I heard the police scanner on one of the motorcycle policemen behind me and they were saying, "Send them down Fairview..." I didn't know what was going on and then suddenly around the corner there were a couple thousand people running. It was all the fast elite people. Apparently somebody wasn't doing their job right, so when the fast people can to one of the intersections, they were directed the wrong way, and they had to run an extra 0.5 miles in order to get back on course. I felt bad for all those people that were directed the wrong way because not only did they have to run an extra half mile, but it also negatively affected their time as well.

I felt like a rock star. There were cheerleaders along the way and lots of bystanders cheering the crowd. One part of the race had us running up the driveway of an authentic antebellum house, complete with Confederate soldiers in uniform and women in huge hoop skirts on the porch to greet us as we ran past. One nice man had attached his garden hose to his mailbox with the nozzle turned onto mist so we could be misted as we ran past. He sat on his porch and waved as we passed by. When we ran the town square by the courthouse, we were greeted by more cheerleaders and a high school drumline playing cadences. I didn't start to feel tired much at all until about the sixth or seventh mile. I walked through each aid station and drank a cup of water from each one. At mile 9, we were greeted by people with fresh orange slices. Those were yummy. The Marines manned the station at mile 10, and they yelled things like, "Stay strong!" and "Semper Fi!" as we passed them by. They also kept a very clean aid station, but no surprise there. Some obnoxious little middle school cross country punks held up bratty signs somewhere between 10 and 11, but then some nice college aged girls held up signs about half a mile or so down the road from the punks that said, "Your feet hurt because you're kicking butt!" and, "In our eyes you're all Kenyans!". I was so thankful for those signs at that point because I was getting so tired and sore.

Then around mile 11.5, I hit the infamous wall. I can only equate it to transition in labor, but times about ten. In transition in labor, there's at least the logic that the baby will actually be out soon and it will all be over with, and quitting really isn't an option. When you hit the wall, though, there's really nothing there that says you can't just go curl up on the side of the road in the fetal position and cry, because that's what you want to do. Every step I took was painful. Every muscle from the waist down was on fire. Dan was my hero and he kept me going, because I really didn't know how I was going to do it. He kept encouraging me and telling me I could do it, and he kept playing upbeat songs for me on his phone. Finally, I saw the finish line, and it was like I got a shot of adrenaline. I could hear the music and there were people and police lining the sidewalk cheering. We ran into the sports complex and onto the track. The soft spongy track felt good after spending two hours and 45 minutes pounding the pavement. Then the announcer called Dan's name first, then mine. We held hands and crossed the finish line with a time of 2:48 and some odd seconds.

It felt amazing! A medal was placed on each of our necks and then we were handed wet towels. Dan's parents and the babies were there at the finish line and we were shortly greeted by them. After grabbing some food from runner's tent, we sat down for the first time in several hours. Sitting down never felt so good, and the smoked turkey sandwich I ate was the most delicious thing in the world to me. I got some good stretching in after eating my snack, and have felt great every since. Dan, on the other hand, hasn't felt as good as me. Though he didn't hit the wall or experience much pain during the race, he's been a lot more stiff and sore than me today. I feel like I had an intense workout, but otherwise I'm great. I saw people stretching at the aid stations along the way, and thought about doing it, but didn't because I didn't want to lose momentum. I think I only walked about a total of five minutes the entire race, but I think next time I'll do better at the end if I stretch as I go.

So October 15, 2011 marked the six year anniversary since Dan proposed to me. I was about forty pounds heavier then and I never would have believed that six years later I'd run 13.1 miles. Holding hands and crossing that finish line together was the perfect way, to me, for us to have spent the six year anniversary of our engagement.

Aaaannnndddd..... we've moved.

We have a contract on a house! We had the termite inspection yesterday and the whole house inspection today, and so far so good! Closing is on April 15- tax day. We're very excited!

If you ever find yourself in the Nashville area and need a place to stay, come on over. We'd love to have you!

Hmmm.... what is newsworthy?

Hannah is cutting her first tooth. She's been chewing and drooling for about a month now, but just yesterday as she was chewing on my finger, I noticed a sharp little point in the bottom right side of her gums. Dan helped me investigate (since she wiggles and chews so much!) and sure enough, there's a little white point coming up through the gum. It might still go back down again before completely cutting through. I hope it comes through soon, though, because it really has been giving her a lot of pain. She's been getting extra nursing and cuddling as needed.

She also started rolling last week. She has always hated tummy time, and I have never made a big deal out of. I would just put her on her tummy from time to time while I folded laundry next to her or something. Well, last week she got frustrated, as usual, but she rolled herself over. I flipped her back onto her tummy to make sure she had really done it, since Silas was lying next to her on the floor and I didn't know for sure if she had done it, or if he had helped her. She rolled over again. I tried it again later that day and she rolled over again. Then she did it again. I took video on my phone of her rolling and Silas laughing hysterically at her when she would roll, but unfortunately, I can't get it to upload. Now she doesn't seem to mind tummy time because she either rolls over or she just hangs out on the blanket and puts it in her mouth to chew on.

I'm still trying to adjust to this move. We lived in our house in Columbia for 3.5 years, so everything pretty much had a place where it lived. Since we've downsized, there are still a lot of things that have no place and it's sort of driving me a little crazy.

That's about it for now. Have a great day!