I've Been Tagged!

I've been tagged by a fellow blogging friend. I now have to list 10 random facts, habits or strange things no ones else knows about me etc.... Then upon finishing I have to tag 5 more friends. (This should be interesting as I only know a handful of people to tag!) Here goes......
1. I love rutabagas, collard greens, brussels sprout and grits. I know what everyone is thinking too..... Yes I am from the South! I'm a GRITS girl..... Girl Raised In The South!
2. I love my kids feet and their toes. Especially when they were babies.
3. I cannot burp to save my life! It is something that has probably happened just a handful of times in my life. (I know...I'm weird!)
4. I recently discovered that I have an addiction to blogging. My husband thinks I need to go to therapy for this one! LOL
5. I love coffee..... any kind.... anytime! Especially espresso! I can make a mean espresso so if your ever in Orlando Fl stop in and have a latte with me!
6. I met my husband in a bar on St. Patricks Day, got SAVED (asked Jesus into my heart and decided to have a personal relationship with him) 2 months later and engaged 4 months after meeting him. I KNEW he was to be the man I would marry from the moment I met him.
7. When the back of my throat itches, I make a very strange sound with my throat and jiggle my ear to itch the "itch". My husband says he would have never married me if he saw me do this before we were married. LOL
8. I lived in a house in Highlands, NC that had no air/heat so I heated the house with a wood burning stove during the winter. To top it all off I had to wake up every 3 hrs to put a log on the fire to keep the fire burning....otherwise no heat! I was 20 and single at the time. Decided after a year that "mountain life" was NOT for me and moved back to the big city (Atlanta).
9. I like to eat macaroni-n-cheese doused with Italian salad dressing. Gross I know! Don't get to do it too often anymore since we don't eat that kind of food any longer.
10. I love to encourage others and pray for or with them. If you ever need a little encouragement or for someone to pray with I'm your girl!

Hope I did this all correctly. I'm sure if I called my husband in here he would be able to come up with so many odd things I do and random tales. So now it is time to tag some people....... HMMMMMM...... Let's see who is the next 5 lucky bloggers......
Meredith T., Sara, ADD Pastor, Pappy and Cougachick Let me know when you've completed the task on your blog and don't forget to "tag" 5 more people when your done.

Roller Skating Blues

Over Easter we attended an anniversary party at a roller skating rink. I didn't think too many of these still
existed but needless to say this place has been around for over 30 years. All I could think of was how many germs were floating around! The kids had a ball and that was most important. Andrew and Luke started out hanging onto the (germ infested) wall and built up their confidence to navigate towards the middle for safety. It wasn't much longer than maybe 5 seconds and they ended up wiping out. Through a few laughs and tears they both seemed to want to try it again. I had skates on myself so trying to balance them and myself was not going to be easy. In the end Luke decided it was much more fun to hold onto the wall as it didn't seem to move around so much like mommy. Andrew just kept going...and falling...and going.... As for myself, I made a few rounds on the rink and even remembered how to skate backwards! I really impressed my kids with that one! Jack wore his skates literally for 2 seconds and quickly decided it wasn't for him. He found much pleasure in playing on those nasty, germ infested video games that I think have been there as long as the skating rink. Note to myself: Buy stock in Purell and Anti-Bacterial wipes.

Tales On The Trail

We did it again, even though we knew we could run into a bit of rain. Today we rode another 10 great miles on the West Orange Trail. The exception this time was I was going to be pulling the boys in the bike trailer with my bike. Last time Steve did all that work......and let me tell you..... it was WORK! We figured I was pulling a total of about 100 lbs. Andrew and I biked 5 miles into Winter Garden and stopped at a park to play. Meanwhile Steve ran the 5 miles to meet up with us, then bike back 5 miles home. (Earlier in the day we parked Steve's bike at the park and chained for safe keeping) This journey started out around noon so by the time Steve met up with us the kids were pretty hungry! Before heading home we refueled ate at a local pizza joint and had some YUMMY New York style pizza. I must say.... THERE IS NOTHING LIKE NEW YORK STYLE PIZZA!! This is of course after I had the opportunity to eat authentic New York style pizza last spring in the Big Apple. This made the trek back home much easier. Andrew, who is my oldest, surprised us all and made it all the way home without any complaints. This was a bit of a surprise to Steve and I considering he almost gave out last week and had only 1 mile to go. I told him he is in "training" so he can run some more kid races and that seemed to put some spark in his pedaling. All in all it was another great day to be out on the trail and I may have to consider pulling the boys more often than Steve. That is a great workout especially if your training for a long run as I am. I highly recommend the Columbia Bike Trailer to anyone who has kids as it has been money well spent.

Happy Easter to all who are reading this...... come back again soon and leave a note.

Kissable Lips

Gotta love that face.....and those pouty lips to boot!! When I tell Jack "If you stick your lips out I'm going to kiss them" he gets even more angry!! Boys......

Weekend Rush

What a weekend I say! I need to go on vacation to relax from all the hussel and bussel. Friday night Steve took the boys out to dinner while I haded to Bunco. Saturday morning I treated Steve and I to a caramel latte. This was courtesy of my new espresso machine from Starbucks. YUMMO! And I actually managed to froth the milk correctly on the first try! If you love coffee and don't own your own espresso machine, then you must try out the on Starbucks sells by Saeco. LOVE IT!!! Then it was up and running to Luke's baseball game, and by the way, they won by a 12 point lead over the other team! Go Yankees! For the reminder of the afternoon Steve and I took the boys out on the West Orange Trail for a 10 mile bike ride. This was the first time we got to use our new bike trailer, the one the boys are sitting in behind Steve's bike. They really enjoyed the ride while the rest of us did all the work! The trail was absolutely gorgeous. Most of the trail was covered up in the shade under big canopy oak trees so staying cool was easy and not to mention the fact that it was quite windy too. Andrew got a bit tired towards the end, around the 9 mile mark, but was a trooper and stuck it out. Any takers on a 20 mile bike ride? Sunday morning was spent at church then it was time to rest and re-coup from all the happenings over the weekend. Time for an espresso break!

A Birthday Surprise!

Today I woke up to a Birthday Surprise! My darling boys decided to make a pact to "get along" today for the special occasion. This is a big feat for them considering they argue quite often! In honor of this "pact" the boys made I have decided that my birthday should be celebrated everyday! To heck with celebrating birthdays once a year!

Little Helper

Just when I thought I had cleaned the kitchen....... Luke (aka: Little Helper) found my pink dish washing gloves and decided that he needed to give them a try. He insisted that I didn't clean some of the dishes good enough so he needed to step in to show me how to properly get the job done. SUPER Luke to the rescue! I'm thinking this picture may come in handy in about 10 years!

OOPS!

Got a good laugh out of this one!! Noticed my spelling needed to be checked prior to posting! Now that won't happen again!

A Baseball Weekend

Andrew and Luke posing for a quick picture for mom and dad before opening game day ceramonies. Jack had to get in on some of the picture taking action too! Life for us has not been the same since baseball season started.

The Baseball Club

We have officially joined "The Baseball Club", exclusive to parents who have more than one child playing baseball. A requirment to being in this club is you have to be at the field at least 3 times a week for either games or practices, and serve your time in concessions. This year is new territory for us as we have Andrew and Luke both playing baseball. We decided to play with Dixie Youth League this year in hopes the load would be a bit lighter with a new league. BOY were we sadly mistaken!!! So far this league is turning out to be VERY competitive. Andrew and Luke both have two games and two practices per week! Between school, homework and after school activities I have hardly had a chance to post any recent pictures, much less the ones I have of opening day for baseball. I hope to get some of those up in a day or so. Andrew has been chosen to be his teams catcher. Andrew is really good at this and seems to be built for this position. Steve and I saw him in action on Monday night and I was amazed with his new found talent. He made me real proud! (sniff sniff) Luke on the other hand has just begun to get his feet wet. He is playing T-Ball and absoutley loves it. He knocked the ball off the tee at his last game and WOW'd the crowd! I fear what our schedule will be like when Jack gets in on the action. For us that is just around the corner! Until then we will have to surrender ourselves to baseball and many fast and quick meals on the go. Casseroles may soon become my best friend!

A New Journey....

Steve and I are taking our running to a new level. We are planning to run in the 2009 Disney Half Marathon, which will be held in January thank goodness! The way I see it we have 10 months to perepare for the long run. The longest race I personally have competed in is the Disney 10K Race For The Taste with a few other small ones in between. To get us started we have joined a running club at our church and will be competing in several races through out the coming year with a 10K, 15K and a nightime race to name a few. I have had a mild set back in my training as I am bouting another fight with pnemonia and such but plan to get back on the trail in a couple weeks. (If it was up to me it would be in several days!!) Steve had a personal best today in running 7 1/2 miles on the West Orange Trail, so he is off to a decent start! (Lucky duck!) Our prayer for the coming year is NO injuries, so let's hope we can keep out of the doctor's office. Anyone want to race? There is still time to sign up!