Close Encounters of the Skunk Kind

Today has been a busy day for me... work, yoga, home- fix dinner, and finally, around 9:50 pm my friend Jennifer and I went out to do our 4 mile training walk (for the 3-Day). I don't usually like to go walking after dark, but I had Jennifer with me and we were going walking in my neighborhood- which is out in the country, but it's a neighborhood nonetheless. Anyway, we got a ways into the neighborhood when, in the pitch black, I saw the slightest movement next to the road. I abruptly stopped and told Jennifer to stop. Just then a big, fluffly, nasty skunk walked onto the road. As we backed off, keeping our eyes on him, he crossed back over again... to his other nasty skunk friend. Needless to say, we high-tailed it outta there. Our 4 mile walk quickly became a 1.5 mile walk, and you know what? I'm okay with that. I'll make that sarifice in order to be free of skunk stench.

In other news, I am completely addicted to games on Facebook.

42

...That's the approximate number of hours my family and I spent in the car over the last 10 or 11 days. That's an entire week's worth of work hours for some people... and we spent ALL THAT TIME in a car (well, the Rav, but close enough). We have a DVD player in the new vehicle, but it's a little harder for the boys to see, and to be honest, they had gotten used to not being able to watch movies in the car, so they played together, picked on each other, laughed, picked on each other... but mostly they were pretty good, considering. We took off from OK to Indiana, then from Indiana to Arkansas, and all the day trips between.
While in Indiana, the whole family took part in the storied "Hog Jog," a run/walk near Todd's hometown. This was my first Hog Jog and I was very excited because I really, really wanted a Hog Jog shirt of my very own... now I have one! I did the 2 mile walk as a continuation of my 3-Day training, Todd did the 10K (and came in 16th place overall!!!), and Luke & Payt did the Runt Jog- a 1/4 mile jog that they both ran and did great in! This was Payt's first race, and he was very excited to hang out with "Sunny" the local radio station mascot who was there.
Oh, the cornfields outside Grandma & Grandpa's house...
Luke is normally not so fond of dogs, but he took a liking to Grandma & Grandpa's dog, Grace.
We broke up the trip from Indiana to Arkansas with a stop at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis, which was awesome! They had exhibits on comic books and characters, dinosaurs, Curious George, trains, animation, and plenty of other things... the boys had a grand ol' time!

Once in Arkansas, we got to see loads of family, which was really nice. It's been a while since we made it out to Pocahontas, so it was nice to be there. We went to my family reunion on Saturday for my dad's side of the family. My granny was there, with her 4 living brothers. They are all that remain of 16 children!

All in all, it was a great trip. We really enjoyed seeing family on both my side and Todd's. Next time, though, I don't think we'll do it all in 10 days!!!

Yada Yada Yada

News from the house:

Payt is completely potty trained!!! I'm sure not so exciting to you all, but extremely exciting to me. I will never buy diapers again. Woohoo!

I am now the VBS director for my church. Yikes. I need help. You want to help, right???

I pimped my ride. That's right. Long story, but here's the gist: When we bought our new Rav4, part of our deal with the dealership was that they would put XM radio in our vehicle. It was listed as an available option both online and in the book for the car. Anyway, days go by, they take my new car, give me a crappy rental while they are supposedly installing the XM, only to call and say it can't be done- all they will do is put an aftermarket radio on my dash. I. Was. Not. Happy. And I let them know. After many phone calls and a face-to-face visit, they said go to Audio Extreme and we'll pay for them to put an XM radio in. So I did, and now I have a completely new radio installed in the dash to look like it was made to be there. It is a nice touchscreen radio that my iPod plugs into from inside the console, plays XM, plays DVDs, and everything is accessed by easy touchscreen menu options. I can even plug stuff in via a USB cable. It's awesome. Thank goodness for mistakes...

I went to my very first yoga class this week. Didn't think I'd care for it very much, but I really liked it. (Yeah, Joan!)

This weekend I went on my annual pilgrimage to Plano, TX for the North Texas Race for the Cure. I went with Charlotte, Tracy, and Cindy. We had the best time! This was my 3rd year to go and do the RFC- what an awesome experience. We had loads of fun shopping, eating, eating, walking, and shopping. I can't tell you what a great feeling it is to participate in the RFC. Thousands and thousands of people were there, all united for one cause. How amazing is that??? It is such a vibrant, emotional event, and I love it. I highly recommend you take part in one near you.

That about sums up what's been going on in my life since I last posted. Interesting, I know...

"X" Marks the Spot and Other Happenings

Yesterday we took a trip down to Lake Lawtonka to go out on my dad's boat with him and my mom. My personal philosophy is, "I go where the boat goes." I LOVE being on the water and my boys have apparently adopted the philosophy as their own. It was a beautful day... 97 degrees of clear blue skies and open water. Which, of course, means I came home with a mother of a sunburn (yes... I do know what sunblock is and if anybody else asks... you probably don't want to know what will happen). I was wearing my swimsuit with a tank top and shorts. Unfortunately the tank top didn't cover as much of my back as I thought and I now have a sunburn around where the straps of my swimsuit were- making a big "X" on my back. Everyone had a great time with this at church today as I was sporting my lovely sunburn in a cotton dress that showed it off pretty well. Why would I wear this dress displaying my "X," you ask? Because it hurts to wear anything over it! Ouch! And if you touch me, there's gonna be trouble.

On to other happenings... Payt has now been wearing big-boy underwear since Thursday! I am so excited!!! Of course, he's had a few accidents, but it is now bedtime and we have been completely accident-free today! He has even been sleeping in underwear and has not had a single accident overnight or in the morning. His teachers will be so surprised when he shows up to his little "school" tomorrow in underwear and pretty much potty trained- it's only been a week since he was last there!

Life group tonight was hilarious. Todd and Rusty watched the kids outside and when LG was over we all made our way out there. I was talking to Charlotte as we were both watching Todd and some younger boys playing catch with a football. Todd turned to catch the ball and Charlotte and I noticed at the same time that Todd had just ripped his jean shorts clear down his hindquarters- we're talking like an 8 inch rip, here. And it's hilarious because I've been all over Todd to buy some new clothes lately because all of his newer stuff is too big, so he's gone back to wearing his super-old clothes, which clearly have passed their prime. I went up and kindly told Todd he was showing his boxers off to the world, so would he please walk backwards to the car and get in? It wasn't a big secret though, I think pretty much everybody saw what happened. He was a good sport, though, and not easily embarrassed, so all is well and now it's a funny story.

Good times.