13.1

I ran the Houston Half Marathon yesterday! I have to say…I felt like death when I crossed that finish line, but I am so proud of myself for doing it. I was really good up until about mile 10, and then I definitely hit a wall. I am glad that I have 76 more days to train for the Marathon. The half yesterday was a real eye opener-I cannot slack on my training anymore!

So I finished in just under 2 hours and 20 minutes, which is a 10:41 mile. My goal was under 2.5 hours, so I did it! There was a time in my life when I would have been embarassed at a 10:41 mile, but that was back in the days of running 1 or 2 miles. But for 13 miles, I am darn proud of that!

I can’t wait to see the race pictures, because I am sure I look like I got hit by a truck. But you better believe they will be posted on here as soon as they are ready!

So yesterday I was just wrecked and I went to bed at 8:30. Connor got to come tuck me in since he was still up. He was so cute! He did it just the way I do it, giving me 8, 3, and then 2 kisses since that is was the clock said. I said “I love you, Connor.”, and he replied, “No, mommy. I say it first!” So we did it the right way. When he got to my door he said “Sleep tight. I’ll see you in the morning. I love you!” So sweet.

I’m taking the boys to the pumpkin patch today, so I am sure there will be pictures galore of that! Connor is super excited, especially after watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”.

Since no post is complete without at least one picture, I will leave you with this super sweet gem.
My boys crack me up!

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You know how people come into your life and leave something behind forever? I realized the other day that one of my ACU roomates, Katie, had a great impact on my life in one area in particular. An area that I am all-to-familar with, and an area that is very useful. It’s practically a part of my every day life.

She changed the way I do laundry. Well, not do it…I still have a tendency to over stuff the washer and mix my whites with colors. I’m fairly certain Katie would recoil in horror at the thought of mixing colors and whites. But Katie changed how I fold my laundry, specifcally shirts.

We would do laundry together and I always admired the graceful way she folded her shirts, tucking in each sleeve and then folding the shirt into thirds, much like a store folds shirts. One day I realized that she was able to fit three rows of shirts in her dresser, while I could only fit two rows. So I asked for a lesson, she laughed, and taught me how to fold shirts.

That was 8 years ago, and I still fold my shirts the Katie way. The other night I was folding some laundry while Derek and I watched tv. I noticed Derek was staring at me, and he said in this really admiring voice, “you are so good at folding shirts. I could never do it as good as you.”

So, thanks Katie, for showing me how to fold shirts like a pro, which I’m pretty sure made Derek fall in love with me all over again.

In Honor of Patrick

September 209.jpgConnor has a new favorite tv show. Patrick, I think that you will really appreciate this. He has only started liking it in the past month or so, which I think is just about as long as you’ve been in China.

His new favorite show….

Sagwa

It’s about a Chinese Siamese cat, living in China. The music is all Chinese sounding. The theme song is sung mostly in Chinese with just one line in English: “Sagwa your my best friend.” The people cook fish and noodles.

The moment it comes on, he is running for the couch and glued to the tv, and he’s really not that big of a tv kid, so when he is glued I know he must really like it.

I think he just wants to connect with Uncle Patrick.

But when I asked him yesterday why he like Sagwa so much, he replied, “Because sometimes there are fireflies on it.”

Practically Christmas

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The excitement in our house this weekend rivaled that on Christmas morning. The air show came to town at the air field directly behind our house. Not so good for naps this weekend, but great in the world of Connor. Even Derek was like a little kid when the B-52’s (Derek’s note: they were F-16’s) turned and he could see the engines burning. I did get some pictures of the planes, too, but I think that pictures of my cute kid are way more interesting!

We visited that new church this morning and we are definitely going to go back. It was pretty exciting getting there, though. I knew we were running really low on gas, but I figured we had enough to get to church and get to the gas station. I figured wrong. We turned off our street and the van died. This is my first time ever to run out of gas. Derek had a little bit of gas leftover from dinner last night…I mean from gas for the lawnmower, so we tried to get enough in there to start the van. No such luck. 15 minutes later, the carseats were transferred to the other car, and we were on our way to church. Amazingly enough, we were only about 5 minutes late. And since it’s a smaller church, it wasn’t like going through airport security to get Logan into the nursery.

We met 5 people at church today, and not during the shake-your-neighbor’s-hands time, but these people actually came up to us afterwards to say hi. They invited us to the fall festival this weekend. I think I will actually remember their names. We know what they do and where they live and the names of their kids. I love that. I love going to a place where you just feel welcomed and at home right away. We will definitely go back there again, and we’ll see what happens. But I can tell you one thing for sure…mega-church is not for us. There are great, Godly, loving people at the mega-church, but it just isn’t cozy like a small church. I think it’s great that the mega-church is reaching so many un-churched people. But Derek and I have both come to the conclusion that it’s not the place for us.

I actually thought of 2 other things to blog about this weekend, so there should be some good blogging coming up this week!

It’s a California day

Not a cloud in the sky, temperature in the low 70s…just perfect and beautiful. Took the munchikins to our favorite park this morning. Connor calls it the exercise park because we go on Thursday nights so I can run with a friend and the boys get to play. I of course had my camera since the kids looked so cute decked out in their winter clothes. It was a really great morning. What a great start to the weekend! I hope the weather stays just like this.

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Rude Awakening

connor_1.jpgLast night, at 12:49 a.m., Connor crawled into our bed. I didn’t even realize that he had come in the room, much less crawled in between Derek and I until I felt my earring being nearly ripped out of my ear. Suddenly I am awake and frantic. “Derek! Help! Connor is stuck on my earring. I’m caught! OW. OW. OWWWWW!! Get him off, get him off!” I was way less than calm about the whole thing, which of course sent Connor into hysterics. And the more hysterical he got, the more he pulled on my poor ear, and the more hysterical I got. Finally I heard a rip, and my earlobe was on fire. I was sure he had just ripped my ear in half, but luckily it was just the night time causing me to be way over dramatic about the whole thing. But my ear is really sore today.

I calmed Connor down and walked him back to his room. I asked him why he got up.
“Mom, an airplane just landed on our sidewalk and it’s lights are on and I wanted you to see!”

I sure am glad that I nearly got my ear ripped in half so that I could be a part of Connor’s little delusion.

It could be the Paz Naz of Houston

When Derek I moved to California, we attended a church for about a year that was affectionately called Paz Naz. There were lots of great people at this church. There were things we really liked about it. But we never connected with it like family. And being all alone out there, we wanted a church family. Then I met Beth and everything changed. She was the nurse practioner at school, and when I called for an appointment, I happened to get scheduled with her. She happened to have two kids, and I loved kids. She just happened to see something in me and called me to baby-sit. She happened to live less than 10 minutes from me (which was 30 minutes away from school for both of us.) I started picking up her kids from school. Started staying over for dinner. She became my mom away from my mom. She was the second person I called when I found out I was pregnant with Connor, and she rushed right over with some pregnancy books, a big hug, and a prayer. She happened to go to this community church and invited us to go. That church just happened to become our family. I met my best friends there. And all of this just happened becuase I got scheduled with Beth at the school clinic.

Just happened? No way. I think there are times when we can look back and see whole series of events that are totally and comletely the hand of God. And while I know that God is working in everything I do, I really love when there is something that just totally stands out as providencial. The story of how we found our church in California is totally providencial to me.

On our second Sunday there, a family in the church hosted a newcomers dinner. It was a small church and they asked for a show of hands as to who was coming. Derek and I raised our hands, and unbeknowest to me, someone in the back saw me and thought “I could be friends with her.” That person, Beth (a different Beth…I know there are too many Beth’s…), became one of my very dearest friends. Totally providencial.

Anyway, the whole point of this post is not just to talk about how we were led to our church in California. But I think it’s a really great story. Another story is unfolding now, a story that may just turn out to be very similar.

We’ve been attending this pretty large mega-church for the past 7 months. We aren’t really connected in any way, and I’ve started thinking that it’s going to be the Paz Naz of Houston. Not that it’s not a great chruch, because it is. But I have only been once in the past month and honestly don’t have a huge yearning to go. I don’t feel stronger in my walk. It’s not family.

About a week ago, I drove past a church (no surprise since there are so many down here.) But for some reason, this time I thought to myself “Megan, you should find out more about that church.” Tonight I just remembered it, and searched for it on the internet. And as I was browsing the site I started having this God feeling about it. Like we are being led there. There are little things, like the service time. I am sure that every family has the perfect idea of a time for Sunday morning service. For us, that time is 9:30. Bingo. I was looking at the ministers, and first of all they have this hilarous picture of their pulpit minister from like 1982. Totally made me laugh. And in the blurb about him it said “he has no idea that this is his profile picture.” One of the music ministers graduated from ACU, just like Derek. Another minister graduated from Harding. Good schools there. I went on to read the history of the church. Turns out that it was a Church of Christ for about 40 years, and just in the past 10 years has made the change to an inter-demoninational community church. Cool. There is a preschool there. It’s less than 5 minutes from our house. It’s fairly small, I believe (only 1 service, compared to the 4 at the church we currently attend.) I like that. I showed Derek the site and he thought it was pretty crazy that I randomly decided to look this church up, and he agreed that we should definitely visit it. So we’ll see.

Sometimes I wish Derek were a minister just like Ryan so we wouldn’t have this find-a-church issue.

Anywho. All I know is that God is good.

And there are pictures coming back to my blog soon. It’s been too long since I posted pictures. Happy Thursday, everyone!

No excuse for my lame-o blogging

I think of things to blog about at the most random times, but then by the time I actually sit down to write the thought is gone forever. Maybe it’s time for a good old train of thought, random blog post.

The in-laws came for a visit this weekend, and we had a good time. The weather was absolutely beautiful on Friday, so they spent hours at the park with the boys while I went grocery shopping all alone. Grocery shopping alone is almost as exciting and wonderful as date night! I browsed up and down each and every aisle. Loved it. Saturday my mother-in-law and I hit some garage sales and found a few things for the boys, and a really nice, used-only-once waffle iron for her. I was really looking for a bike for Logan, but no such luck. Connor had a soccer game on Saturday, also. It was a proud moment for all of us-he only cried on the sideline for a few minutes, stayed near the pack of kids as long as he was holding daddy’s hand, and actually kicked the ball 3 times! We are halfway through the season and he has finally made contact with the ball in a game. He was SO excited about it, and we were all so proud!

This morning I woke up at 5:40 to squeeze in a 5 mile run before driving back north with my in-laws. I opened the door, let in another lizard (which has since disappeared…looking for my bed of course…), and heard the pitter-patter of rain. I stood outside for a few minutes debating how die-hard I would be about running. The pitter-patter turned into a down pour and I went back inside. Running in the dark, all alone, in the pouring rain while trying to get over a little cold…probably not a good idea. I have now missed my long runs for the past 2 weeks. No more. I’m hitting it hard this week. I will not even entertain the thought of giving up. In fact, I have actually missed my long runs. I just feel like I really accomplished something at the end of every long run. And the short runs are just plain enjoyable, especailly with the weather cooling off some.

(Um, this is a really long, rambly, quasi-boring post…and I won’t even have any pics to share because I don’t have my computer with me.)

So I headed back up with the in-laws to go to RyAnn’s baby shower. The shower was fun, and then I got to spend some time with Ry. We had some excitement involving a really slick driveway…I bet she will blog about it, but let’s just say I was ready to call an ambulance and/or delivery baby Braxton right there in the driveway! RyAnn has a way of keeping life really interesting. 🙂

So now, here I sit at my parents house sans children. It’s very peaceful and quiet. Almost boring. I will be happy to see their smiling faces tomorrow. Connor has been (knock on wood…) much better lately. I like my kid again! I had a revelation the other day. Actually, I think it’s been coming slowly for awhile. This revelation will make me a better parent and person. I’m too tired tonight, but soon I will share my lightbulb moment and the things I have learned about my son and myself in the past few weeks.

And on that note, I will end this blog post. I know my blogging will pick up again soon. It’s like ebb and flow, except I forget which one means what, just like I sometimes confuse sowing and reaping. And left and right. Just like how I was 22 years old before I realized that preface was pronounced prefus, not pre face.

Yup, I’m a dork. And proud of it.

Note To Self

Make sure the medicine cabinet is thoroughly stocked with Children’s Tylenol and Ibuprofen at all times. This will be the best way to avoid future 3 a.m. Wal-Mart runs.

And also make sure you child isn’t sick when you choose a night to lay down the law about middle of the night visits regarding knee pads, music volume, and toys. Poor C Man…his middle of the night visits have progressively come more frequently and for really rediculous reasons. So we decided it’s time to break this habit. It wasn’t until his third time in tonight when he whimpered “my face hurts” that I realized he had a fever. We had been less than patient with him his first two visits too us tonight, only to realize the poor kid is sick. Now, an hour and a half and one trip to walmart later, I think he is finally going back asleep. With daddy snuggled safely next to him…

Oh, the joys of parenthood, right?

For Noel

Connor is really into building things with legos, lincoln logs, blocks, playdoh…the list could seriously go on and on. Pretty much every day at his rest time he builds some kind of elaborate building or vehicle and tells me all about it. His imagination is crazy. Sometimes at rest time he is an astronaut going to the moon. Sometimes he is a fireman resucing people. Sometimes he is a construction man. His imagination is so much fun right now.

So last week he comes out of his room at three-zero-zero (aka 3:00), all excited about this creation.

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It’s a house. Come on, can’t you see it? There are several stories in his house. The bottom floor is where Connor and I live. The middle floor is where Logan and Daddy live. And the top floor…the penthouse…the floor with the big window to look out of is where Noel lives. I love it. Aren’t you happy that you are going to be a part of this family, Noel? Connor seriously loves you and talks about you all the time! So cute. Don’t tell the other aunts, but you might just be the favorite…

Hang in there Noel…only 114 days until you are Mrs. Vincent!

In other news, does it make be a bad wife that I didn’t shout out Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband yesterday? I hope not. Happy Birthday to the greatest man I know! I can’t imagine my life without you.