On the Farm

We spent last week at Todd's parents' house on a farm in Indiana. The first thing the boys wanted to do, of course, was ride on the machines! Above Luke and Payt are with Grandma & Grandpa in the Combine (Luke knows the difference between a Combine and a Tractor, and he WILL correct you when you refer to the Combine as a "tractor"). Below they are in the Tractor. Dream come true for two little boys!
Below is a picture of their house. It is a wonderful farmhouse built in the 1800s! You can't see the back, but it's actually quite a large house. Even though it was built so long ago, much of the inside has been updated without taking away from the character of the house. Sure, you might freeze to death on a cold Indiana night, but it's charming, isn't it?

Run, Forrest, Run!

I know, I know... it's been forever since I've blogged. I have a good excuse! I took a week off and headed to the farmlands of Indiana to visit Todd's family. I totally disconnected from email, blogs, internet in general (what did I do??? Oh yeah, I knit some scarves). Anyway, I'm back and have lots to talk about since my disconnect. I'll take it in pieces and spread it over several blog posts. This one is dedicated to Todd and Rusty.

Last Saturday we headed out to Tulsa after Luke's soccer game and met up with Rusty & the fam for dinner. Payt wanted to sit by Mitzi and Hope during dinner (poor Mitzi... I hope that pepperoni comes out of your jeans...). It was lots of fun, but we were all anxious to get back to our hotel rooms to watch the big OU game. Several hours and many angry words later we finally got the the boys to sleep, then I couldn't bare to watch the game anymore (your breakin' my heart, Sooners).

Bright and early Sunday morning we all met up at the race site downtown. It was so much fun to watch all the runners! We lost Todd and Rusty in the jumble of the starting line, but eventually found them and then we were able to go to one spot to see them run by. I was so impressed by how effortless they made running look- I thought I might just get up and join them, but then I remembered Phoebe in that episode of "Friends" where she is running with Rachel. I wasn't afraid I would look like her... I was afraid Rusty would start running that way to embarass me. :) Actually, I just remembered that I couldn't run a half-marathon.

We waited at the finish line and I got to see Todd finish! I was so excited for him to finish his first half-marathon, and he did it under his goal time of 2 hours- he made it in 1:55:something (see the picture). Rusty finished not too long after him and they both got cool medals, which the children immediately confiscated as their own.

Below is the after-running picture. Still alive and smiling! Now they are planning their next half-marathon. I'm hoping for California or Hawaii, but I don't think it's going to happen. Hey, a girl can dream, right???
Congrats guys, I'm proud of you!

Life in General

So, life has been a little crazy lately. I've had very little time to sit down and come up with a meaningful post. So, here's a collection of randomness about my life right now.

-I love that I can let my kids play in the back yard by themselves now. Sayonara kids, I've got TV to watch! (Just kidding! Well, a little.)

-If you leave Halloween candy sitting on the counter, I will eat it.

-OU Men's Basketball rocks. Season tickets rock. Sweet old people behind us rock. Crazy little girl in cheerleader outfit across the aisle does not rock.

-Christmas is coming soon. I have 7 Christmas parties to attend this year (so far). I love Christmas and I love parties.

-My hair bothers me. One day good, next day bad.

-I'm good at figuring out people's secrets. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

-I like to knit. There. I said it. I can't make anything other than hats and scarves, but I like to do it. I aspire to knit like Mitzi. I know, I'm a dork.

-It's nearly 80 degrees and it is November. It's just plain wrong.

-I have been married for almost 9 years now. Awesome!

-Life is going by crazy fast. Luke is almost 5, and Payt is almost 3. in some ways it downs't seem possible, in other ways I can hardly remember life without them (no, it's not old age).

-I hate whining.

And on that note, Payt is crying, I must go.

Booty Shakin' Santa

The 7 Days of Halloween

Well, it's official. I've never spent so much time celebrating Halloween. It all began last Wednesday when Payt had his FIRST class Halloween party at Mother's Day Out. That's right. The first. Thursday they had another one. That's right. The next day. Then, on Friday, Luke's class had a fieldtrip to the Pumpkin Patch (my baby's first field trip!). He and Whit had a grand old time running around together, jumping on hay, riding bikes and going through hay and corn mazes.
Next was the Fall Festival at church on Sunday night. what a great event Odra and the team put on! The boys loved the moon bounce, games, and trunk-or-treating. The picture at the top is of Luke and Hope at the festival. Just above is Payt and my mom (will the woman ever look at the camera?).
Monday Todd and I took both boys to the Pumpkin Patch since Payt had not gotten a chance to go yet. We went about 45 minutes before it closed, so we had to rush around. Payt was hilarious running after big brother and daddy in the corn maze.
Halloween day brought many more festivities. First was Luke's class party, which Todd and I got to go to. How fun to see him interact with his school buddies! Right ater the party was over, I got a phone call that my mom was being taken to the ER by an ambulance. She had some sort of super-dizzy spell at work and was unable to get off the floor. Luke and I spent the next 4 hours or so in the ER with my mom and dad (Todd and my brother were there for a while also). There was no shortage of "Oh, look at the cute little firefighter!" in the hospital. Apparently hospital workers dig the uni. Later, after my mom was admitted to a room and was doing a better, my dad took me and the boys to the place where he has physical therapy for his shoulder (recovering from rotator cuff surgery) because they were having a little carnival. It was pretty cool, actually, they played games, ate hotdogs and loaded up on even more candy!

We returned to the hospital for a few minutes, then home to get ready for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Luke and Payt had an awesometime walking the neighborhood for candy. Payt would say the following everytime somebody answered their door, "Trick-or-treat-or-treating!" Too cute. We finished up by trick-or-treating at Gramp's house. From there Gramps and I returned to the hospital for a while. I'm happy to report that mom is now out of the hospital (still no explanation of what happened) and doing better. I'm also happy to report that Halloween is OVER!!! Now, if only I could get rid of all of this candy!!!