OK, so sometimes things just don't go as you planned. I uploaded a few pictures a couple days ago and just now sat down to do some journaling on them. I had gotten to the last picture, was writing my last line, and somehow deleted the entire entry. Seriously???? I think I am being told it is time to go bed. I'll try again later.

A Big Week!!!!

Everyone always says, "it goes by so fast...." and as much as I hate to be cliche, it is so true. Halie had her last day of Preschool yesterday and I can't believe that it is done. I have a sweet little girl who is starting Kindergarten next fall, wow.... I still remember when she was just a little baby and Paul got accepted to law school. We would talk about how when he graduated that Halie would be 5 and starting school. At that time it seemed so far away, but now, here we are! The following pictures were from her graduation program at school last week. She had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Stirman, who she absolutely loves. Mrs. Stirman lives on a farm and has many different animals, some got to come visit the kids at school over the year.

Halie with Mrs. B, the teacher assistant in her class.

Halie with Mrs. Stirman!

Later that night we had Daddy's graduation party!!! The celebration of the culmination of four years of very hard work on his part! I am so proud of him. He has had so much on his plate, but does such a good job of keeping me and the family as a priority for his time. In all his decisions about how to spend his time, he very rarely ever made a decision without running it by me first, which I really appreciate. So we had the party at Nana and Papa's new, partly renovated historic home. The original idea was to have the party outside in their very large, shaded yard, but the weather had other plans for us. It had not rained in weeks, until the day of his party. So we moved the party inside and Nana did an incredible job of taking a partially renovated house and turning it into a beautiful party! We had a great turnout and more fajitas than an army could have eaten! If anyone ever orders bulk fajitas, talk to me first, I learned some very important lessons!! Here are a few pics from the party. I am so sad to say that I did not get any pics of the guest of honor. I took a few at the beginning and then got side tracked and forgot to take anymore, sorry Paul!

Saturday, May 15, 2010 - Graduation Day

Way to go babe!!!! I have to brag, he graduated Cum Lade, in the top 1/3 of his class! I was a bit startled when I first saw him try on his cap and gown, I had never seen a doctorate uniform before. I couldn't tell if he looked like a baker or a smurf! It looked less funny with a few hundred other people wearing them! Not to repeat myself, but I can't believe he is done. While it seemed to take a long time during the last four years, it is hard to believe that this chapter is over. Now, onto the next chapter...summer vacation! Note the black eye in the pics, it was a basketball injury...at least that's what we're telling people :)

Wednesday, May 19

Awanas Awards Night

As I have mentioned before, I helped teach Halie's Awanas class this year. I really had a good time getting to know the kids. They are all so different and so much fun! On this night, the kids got their awards for memorizing their verses. Halie started complaining about a sore throat on Tuesday night, but didn't have a fever and wasn't acting sick. By Wednesday night, before we left for church she started acting a little sicker, by the time we walked across the stage she was shivering and in tears. I was completely unprepared for a fever and feel like a little bit of a heel of a mom, now looking back. She had a 102.6 fever when we got home and her only request at church was, "Can I go home and go strait to bed??!!" So that is what we did.

Now, here we are 3 days later and the fever and sore throat are gone! We got to go have a little tea party at tea room this morning with some girls from church. She had a great time!

My Dishwasher Works!!!

I have an incredible new appreciation for my dishwasher today. It is running right now, a loud sound that a few weeks ago would have made me crazy (it's really loud), and I have not heard a sweeter sound in a while. It is the sweet sound of me not doing the dishes. It broke a few weeks ago after a power surge and finally, today it is fixed. Mike the repair guy has been to our house about 4 times now in the last few weeks. I'm not sure if he is going to be able to function normally now that he does not have to come back to visit us any more - hopefully.....

Here are some pics of the kids at the Dallas Arboretum last week. We have gone at least once a year with Rebecca and Jaxson since the kids were babies. The kids weren't being to cooperative with the picture taking this day, so there are only a few.

We were at the park this morning and there were 2 girls Halie's age there playing together. Halie asked them if she could play with them and they said "no". It was so sad, she was really hurt by it. It made me really sad to see, but unfortunately it's life and there are always going to be mean girls. A few minutes later another sweet little girl came to the park and Halie happily played with her for the rest of the time. I'm glad I could be there with her for one of the first rejections and we could have a good teachable moment about it. She left the park happy, so I was happy!

Austin had a pretty bad diaper rash the other day, so I decided to let him go diaper less for a few minutes after his bath. He was in Halie's room for less than a minute and managed to pee and poop on the floor and then step in it. I learned that he does not like to have poop on his foot, he cries until it is cleaned off.

Hermann Memorial Half Ironman

Here we are, we both made it through the race!!! 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run. It was by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life! I was a nervous wreck the whole morning, but it was amazing how once I jumped into the water to start the swim, the anxiety just went away. The water was really rough, but this leg of the race felt good and I felt pretty strong. God answered my prayer, the one about being so completely anxious out there in the ocean during that swim, because it was the easiest part of the whole race! Then came the bike......just a little 56 mile sunday ride. It was ok until about the 40 mile mark, then I just wanted it to be over, it was becoming painful. It felt so great to get off that bike, but then came the run. I can't really call it a run, it was more of a wog (walk-jog), but again, it was painful, my legs actually went numb at mile 11, I really couldn't feel them (i'm not sure if that is healthy or not). The finish line was a welcomed site. 6hr 49min later, I was done. My awesome husband was there at the finish line with my #1 fan (my dad) cheering for me. I was so focused on finishing I didn't even hear them cheering for me. Paul did awesome, set his new PR, 5hr 39 min - GO PAUL!!! 2 liters of IV fluid later, we were ready to head back to Dallas. A girl I ran with for a little while made an analogy, she said "it's kind of like having a baby, horrible right now, but tomorrow you will be happy you did it." She was right.

April 23, 2010

We made it down to Galveston tonight. It is finally here, the half ironman I have been training for, looking forward to, dreading, for months. But here we are and there is no going back. To say I am nervous is an understatement…. Tomorrow is check-in and we are going to do a practice swim . Hopefully I’ll feel better after that. The kids are at home for this trip. Halie is spending some much needed girl time with her cousin Samantha. I so appreciate my sister in law, Davelyn for letting her come and be a part of their family for the weekend. Austin and Chewy are staying with Grandpa and Grandma.

There were a few things the kids had done over the last week that I wanted to get written down before I forgot them. Halie spent the day on Thursday with Nana. They went down to the clinic to visit Papa at work. She saw her first surgery on a dog. I guess Dr. Radasch had a dog lying on the table with its entire stomach opened up and some organs were out. A little much for a first surgery observation for a four year old! Later that day she told me very emphatically “Mommy, I do not want to be a veterinarian when I grow up!”. On that same day she asked me, “Mommy, why do the call the person with the ring a ring bear?” We had to clarify the difference between a bearer and a bear!

Austin has started saying new words, “bubble” and “apple”. He is trying to imitate a lot of the words we say. He started shaking his head “no” yesterday. I asked him if he was ready for bed and he very clearly told me no! He discovered his shadow yesterday. We were walking at the park and he looked over at his shadow, pointed at it and said “Daddy!”