We missed you Billie!

Well, trail run number one is under our belts. Courtney and I did our Rock/Creek River Gorge 6.5 mile run yesterday morning. Honestly I was kind of dreading it because it rained the ENTIRE drive to Chattanooga on Friday and I just knew the trails would be disgusting. I could just picture us busting it and coming back home all black, blue and sore. Well, we got up yesterday morning and it was still raining and that didn't help my usual pre-race jitters. We arrived just short of the start and got the "this trail is technical - it is easy to get lost and it is easy to fall - your shoes will be soaked so don't try to avoid it" speech. Great! Muddy, wet and dangerous run anyone? Where do we start?

The race started as a jumbled cluster because we started on an access road and then went straight into the woods on a single track trail so everyone kind of comes to a halt and then you start the "strategic passing" if you will. When you are on the side of the mountain in the rain on a muddy single track trail - passing isn't the easiest thing to do. Luckily our training runs (especially at the Pinnacles) prepared us for the inclines because once people started walking - I started passing. Getting into some open space and getting into my comfortable pace made a world of difference. Despite the rain and mud - the scenery was gorgeous. Lots of streams, some white water creeks, beautiful views of the mountain and trees for miles. Just us runners and a big ole' forest - really cool! Our feet definitely got wet - imagine! Who knew that when you had to run directly through streams your feet would be wet. Ha!

Don't you love that despite the mud I could still strike a foot-pose!

Ultimately I am proud and glad that we did it. It's nice to complete new and different challenges. We missed Billie but there will be more opportunity for this in the future. Girls - let's pick a different month. Rain + trails = muddy mess!

Official results aren't posted yet and neither are pictures but when they are I will be sure to share. I will say that a 10 year old placed in the event! Oh to have 0% body fat like that little girl! =)

My little girl isn't so little anymore

Today was Kennedy's 18 month check-up. I can't believe that even as I type it. 18 months old?!? Where did the time go. She amazes me every day wih her development, natural curiousity, happiness, and most of all her love of all things and all people! Anyhow - at her last few well-checks her percentiles have been nothing short of stunning. She was always way up in the high percentile for height and way down low for weight. I kept joking with the pediatrician that by the looks of her Daddy and I, those blessed percentiles couldn't possibly last. Today was the day they ended folks - we are now in the 18th percentile for height and the 45 percentile for weight. Now that is more like the Taylor build I had been expecting! Ha! Poor girl - there is no hope for tall and skinny in this family. She handled her shots like a trooper and the pediatrician was impressed with her speech development so we had a good visit.

The weather has been warming up around here and we have been able to get outside some. Here are some pictures.....

On the training front: I am doing a trail run tonight with Abby, Chelsea and Courtney. Unfortunately Billie will not be able to join us. Please be praying for she and her family. They had a horribly unexpected death in their family yesterday. Her brother in law passed away of a heart attack and leaves behind a wife and a baby. I just can't imagaine what they are going through. She is uncertain whether she will still plan to join us for our run this weekend in TN and we will for sure miss her if not.

Odds and Ends

I am actually getting to blog from home. I must admit - it is only because I am hacking off of someone's wireless. Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? I was uploading pictures and sending some email that really needed to be sent. Now that the pictures are on my computer I figured I would add some of them to my blog.

First, I talked about my incredible purse my friends gave me a few weeks ago and wanted to share those pictures with you guys. I have gotten A TON of compliments on this purse, so once again - if you want to check out their designs head on over to their website.

Don't you love it? You know you need one too! You can pick the bag style, size and fabric!

On the training front - Chelsea and I are still going strong in an effort to prepare for our minimarathon in April. We did 8 miles before my trip home and here is a picture of she, Billie and I after finishing.

Courtney, Billie and I run our trail run that we have been training for next weekend. I am sure there will be pictures to come. We ran the pinnacles today in Berea and oh my hills! I just hope I am not sore for our long run tomorrow because I haven't been that out of breath in forever - it was challenging.

To get to Berea today we went the backroads way and took the Valley View Ferry across the river - this was Kennedy's first Ferry Trip (thanks for taking the picture Billie).

It's just funny to see the river right outside her window!

There isn't a whole lot else to share right now. I can't believe our trail run is next weekend - it feels like just yesterday that we started talking about it. I can't believe we are so far into our 1/2 training schedule either. Where does the time go?

Our trip to Cypress Gardens and prayer request

I am still really enjoying being at home and am already sad that Friday is rapidly approaching. Friday will be the day we leave here and I am not sure when I will get to come back. Angel and I took the girls to Cypress Gardens yesterday. It was a really fun trip. Our goal was to take pictures of the girls together in their pretty dresses and to walk the trails in the hopes of some good calorie burn. We accomplished both and more. We went through the Butterfly House, Alligator viewing area, and "Swamparium" and Kennedy loved the Shish = fish. Both girls enjoyed themselves immensely. We capped the night off with some good ole' cheap Mexican food. What could be better?

Unfortunately the night ended with some bad news. My grandmother had a follow up Dr.s visit yesterday and the family has just received news that her cancer is back with a vengeance and there is nothing they can do to help her. They gave her a life expectancy but honestly - life expectancy doesn't stand a chance against my grandmothers stubborn personality. She is a fighter and I can only hope that their guesstimations are wrong. I am thankful that we have remained close and that she knows all her great grandchildren and she knows that we love her. I have been struggling with the news though - I just can't imagine life without her. I can't imagine the city of Huntsville without her and most of all I can't imagine my grandaddy without her. She planned to sit down with him last night and tell him "the news". You couldn't have paid me ANY amount of money to make me sit in on that conversation. I just can't imagine because he has Alzehiemer's and he is completely and totally dependent on her at this point. He is the kind of man who eats lunch and then says "whats for dinner Mama?" My heart just hurts for them and for us and for the great grandchildren who will most likely never really and truly know her and her heart. Anyhow - this isn't to depress anyone. Please pray for her, pray for my Grandaddy and pray for my mom and her sister who will have their work cut out for them for the upcoming months. I know the Lord has a perfect plan but having never dealt with loss of a family member I just dread what it's going to be like and how we are going to handle it.

Tomorrow my Mom is off and we girls are going to spend some quality time together.

Oh the "special" Mommy moments (Warning: if you are squeamish you may not want to read this posting)

Well, I am in Charleston and it feels good (hot.....but good). It's just nice to be home, you know? Kennedy did great on the trip yesterday, but boy did she have a rough night last night. I have always said the most frustrating thing about parenting is you never have answers. Answers to questions like: why won't she sleep, why won't she eat, why won't she sleep, why is she crying, did I say why won't she sleep yet? So...last night was one of those nights where she wouldn't sleep and I still don't really know why to be honest. One thing I do know - I was tired and frustrated!!! She did great on the trip down yesterday and was such a trooper all day but she napped short yesterday morning and was due another nap and it just so happens it occurred at the worst possible time (5:30'ish) which made for a difficult night. Because we stayed with Aunt Melissa who had to work this AM and Aunt Angel and Anne Hensley were trying to sleep as well - we watched movies as a means to not wake everyone in the house. We watched about 2 Praise Baby's, Potty Time with Elmo and Baby Einstein on repeat twice to be exact. I was delirious I was so tired and there she was in bed next to me wide eyed as anything. Ugh! It's so easy to get frustrated at times like that, but in my clear mind today I was able to be thankful for her little personality despite the non-sleeping last night. She was in the car for 7 hours yesterday!!!!!

Today started out well and we left Charlotte and she was asleep before I hit the interstate. I was actually jaded enough to think she might sleep for the entire trip to Charleston since she slept so little last night. WRONG! I got one hour out of her and then she wanted "EWMMO" as she calls it = Elmo. Again - although she didn't sleep as I had hoped, she stayed silent as a church mouse and happy as a lark.....until about 10 minutes from our destination. Once into town the plan was to go and eat lunch with my friend Allison. 10 minutes out she starts screaming and honestly I figured she was tired so I turned Elmo off an told her "night night" which typically puts her to sleep with in minutes (amazingly so). She wouldn't give it up - she just kept fussing and crying. She was getting more and more irritable and I started to get kind of worried. Luckily I have a little one who really doesn't get worked up about much and when she does get worked up it's typically short-lived. For whatever reason she was not happy today and I was frankly getting a little frazzled with it all. So...when we got to Allison's I went around to get her out of the car seat and when I did I realized her eyes were swollen, she was sweating and she wouldn't bend her legs. What in the world, I thought? I took her inside and tried to console her - NO GO. Finally I asked her if she wanted to go to the potty. I thought maybe she was constipated????? I put her on the potty and she immediately started pushing....pushing so hard that you could see her little toddler 6 pack. My goodness....she is constipated, what now? Here I am in my best friends house who hasn't seen Kennedy in like a year and she is screaming uncontrollably and I have no "remedies" to help her. Ugh! I was just about to get her off the potty and try to get her moving to hopefully work things out when I heard her making some kind of choking noise and before I knew it she was puking up her goldfish she had just finished in the car. The poor child pushed so hard she puked for pete's sake. I can officially claim mommyhood because I caught the vomit y'all - gross!!!! Almost simultaneously as she puked - she pooped. To avoid major TMI let's just say it was large and in charge and my poor baby was just hurting from being in that car seat and needing to get that out. She was an absolute peach the rest of the afternoon. Poor Allison watched this all unfold and then looked at me and was like "whew...wow....speechless". Ha! Oh the "special" Mommy moments!

The rest of our afternoon was spent playing on the swingset at Grandmommy and Big Jim's with Anne Hensley and playing with Charlie - Grandmommy's new great dane AKA "big doggie". It's going to be a fun week!

Busy, busy, busy

It has been a while since my last post and not really because I wanted it to be but life has just bee a little busy lately. Of course there is that whole - I don't have Internet at home thing too that kind of puts a kink in things. I worked today and then gave old Hampton a bath so while he dries I figured I would use the Internet while I had access to it.

Training updates: Chelsea ran her first seven miler last weekend and she did AMAZINGLY! Other than hills (which she hates) I heard no complaining. I am so impressed that she hasn't even been running an entire year yet and she did seven miles last weekend and we are scheduled to do 8 tomorrow. It's just awesome. Billie joined us for our 7 last weekend and Courtney and Billie will accompany us tomorrow. I love running even more when you do it with friends - it's becomes a social gathering rather than a calorie burning sweat session you know?

Billie and I did a trail run at Shaker Village on Sunday and although it was insanely hilly, it was beautiful and we plan to run there lots more in the future. We did accidentally get off our trail and end up on some old crazy dog breeders property (you had to be there) so chalk up one weird experience we have now had together. Ha!

Last training info (I promise): Chelsea and I did speed work this week - basically short sprints with lower than usual pace jogs in between. We did 7 400 meter sprints to be exact and we were whooped. We both pushed ourselves seriously hard and decided that Asbury Seminary keeps there gym way to flippin' hot up in there.

Other updates: Kennedy has decided that her favorite fashion statement as of late is her pull-ups with no pants and her snow boots with furry tops from her Nana. I just can't tell you how hilarious the combination of the two is. You really need the visual to grasp the hilarity of it all and unfortunately I can't download pics at work so I will have to share that with you later.

Lastly, I had my month long birthday celebration wrapped up on Sunday with a super sweet gathering of friends. Billie and Abby made dinner for myself, my hubby, their hubbys and my two other friends Janine and Chelsea on Sunday evening and the meal was TO DIE FOR. We had salad, spinach wrapped chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and a plethora of desserts. The food was so delicious but mostly I was just humbled that they would go to all that trouble for me. I just felt lucky to be surrounded by people who care about me and who I consider true friends. To cap of the evening they gave me a gift which I also can only do justice with a picture (coming soon). They custom made me a purse with a special pocket that mommy's need (a diaper and wipe pocket). I was going to buy the purse because I so love their creations, but they gave it to me instead and I was so super pumped. I have been rocking my purse every where I go and I have gotten lots of compliments. So...if you would like to see what the girls can do, check out their website at www.abbyandbilliedesigns.com.

So...this has been a hodge podge posting but it's because it's been too long. I am off tomorrow to go to Charleston. My friend Jennifer had a little boy yesterday and I can't wait to see him and hold him while I am home. My sister Angel and her daughter will be at home too so it will be fun to be with loved ones.

Until next time...