Thankful For Mommy

I could just eat Booker up these days. He loves his mom. How much better can it get? Other than the fact he has been expressing how much he loves me.

Yesterday he picked up his room and then went downstairs while I vacuumed. When he came back up he went to his room and came out and said, "Mom, I just love you so much. The most in the whole world!" I asked him why and he said, "Because you cleaned my room just right."

This morning I made waffles for breakfast. He ate 5 of them and then said, "Mom, I love you, thank you for the best waffles." I said your welcome, and he said, "My pleasure."

I also love the fact that he will hug and kiss me in front of all his friends at school. Some days he even turns around when I'm leaving and yells across the room, "I LOVE YOU MOM." I dread the day when that isn't cool anymore because it just makes my heart sing!

It's Still Christmas

Tonight was Tots N Tales Christmas Program. It was dedicated to Regan, a little girl in Booker's class that turned 5 yesterday. A little girl that found out she has cancer 2 months ago. A little girl that has to go through 48 weeks of chemo and radiation. A sweet little girl of a mom and a dad. A big sister. A friend and classmate. And while her class sang their songs, she sat on the steps of the stage, and happily watched them. She was so precious, words can't even explain it. She was in her Christmas dress and her Santa hat, just watching. And then, at the end of the program, it was her turn. She got up on stage and asked if she could sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. And, with the mic in her hand, she did. And everyone joined her. And I cried. Because to that 5-year old little girl, it is still Christmas, and she is still going to celebrate. God Bless you Regan!

Mrs. Jada Feezell

I found out yesterday that Booker is going to marry Jada... and the conversation went like this:

Booker - "Mom, I'm going to marry Jada. You know, the girl from my class?"

Me (not having a clue who Jada is) - "Oh yeah, do you like her?"

Booker - "Yeah... I think. I danced with her."

Nuf said.

Tree Is Up!

Today at church Booker made this Christmas wreath and couldn't wait to get home and hang it on his door. I'm not quite sure why Bodey opted out of making one at church, but he wanted to make one as soon as we got home.

And here is Bodey's!

Then the boys were begging to put up the Christmas tree. I really wanted to also, but I needed Dusty's help getting everything down from the loft. And... he has pneumonia AGAIN so I didn't want to push him. Finally, after the Chiefs game (which they won!) and after dinner, we decorated the tree. Dusty's mom got him a Hallmark Christmas ornament every year while he was growing up and then gave them to us when we got together. We have decorated with them every year since. But, now that we have kids she has been getting the boys one each year, and so have I, so this year we decorated with all their ornaments.

Sleeping Innocence

Every night before bed, I sneak into each of the boys' rooms to just watch them sleep. It is my favorite part of the day... just staring at their precious little sleepy faces. I always go to bed with a smile on my face. I always wonder how long I'll continue this. I would prefer until the day they leave my house... but I guess it might be a little creepy to be checking on and watching an 18-year old sleep. Only time will tell.

Some nights when I stand there I am just amazed at how fast they are growing up. I can't believe how much of their beds they are taking up. I've glanced at them every night and have seen them go from barely making a dent in the crib to sprawled out in their big boy beds. And the sad thing is by looking at them every day, you don't even notice they've grown.



On Thanksgiving the boys spent the night at my parents' house. My dad checked on the boys while they were sleeping and noticed how differently they sleep. It always cracks me up too. Booker goes to bed and doesn't move one time until he wakes up in the morning. Bodey, on the other hand, touches every square inch of that bed, in every possible position. That would be the reason that Nana has finally put an end to them sleeping in her bed with her. Bodey is a little much to handle. He sleeps just fine, but no one else does.

Kerby's Pumpkin Patch (A Little Late)

This year Kerby's added a zipline. At first I wasn't sure if the boys were big enough, but they proved me wrong. At first the guy running it held them both all the way down. After a couple tries, they were on their own, even the dismount!

Bodey's classic "cheese" is getting a little old.

Ugh

I've ruined my blog background and hate Blogger's new (actually not that new but I've tried to avoid it) template thingy. I'm going to bed. Stupid thing.

My Little Basketball Star

We just finished our 3-week session of Bitty Basketball. Booker didn't really care much for practice. He always asked when we were going home and when basketball was going to be over. However, when it came to the games, it was his time to shine. He was on a mission. Get the ball. And he did, almost so much that I felt like he was a ball hog and the other parents probably hated us. But then I realized that Booker had no clue he was hogging the ball... and neither did any of the other kids. I laughed the entire time watching his games. In case you can't find him in the video, he's the little white kid with the bright orange shorts!

Creating Memories Through Shutterfly

Christmas is a very exciting time of year for my family. It always brings back memories from when I was little, and I try to carry some of my childhood traditions forward. I do have certain events around the holidays that I remember very vividly, but my other memories stem from the fact that we have pictures that captured those memories. The only thing that can freeze time and keep our children little is a picture.

I love pictures. Well, I love taking pictures, not necessarily being in them. My husband calls me a picture geek because I rarely leave home without my camera. But, there is a reason for my madness. It amazes me how fast my kids grow, right in front of me, but I don’t notice day to day. But I do notice when I look back at my blog and see how much they really have grown.

This year, Shutterfly is offering me 50 free Holiday cards (for promotion click here). In exchange, I am going to share a little about them on my blog. Christmas is pretty much the only time of the year that I pull out my address book and actually send a picture card to nearly every name in it. I love that Shutterfly allows me to do very little work, with very little creativity, and come out with an awesome, personalized Christmas card. On the other end of sending picture cards, I love to receive them from my friends. My refrigerator is covered with picture cards year round. I can’t wait to get my family pictures back so that I can go to Shutterfly’s website and start the process of creating the perfect Christmas 2010 memory.

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween we decided to go to Fam Fest at Westside. It was quite a production. They had a ton of blow up jumpy things, blow up slides, a few small carnival rides, a train ride, and much more. The boys had a blast. I was shocked that they both went down those huge slides by themselves. Even scaredy cat Bodey!

Bodey was a vampire, which he kept getting confused with a pirate. He told everyone he was going to be a pirate for Halloween. It wasn't that he wanted to be a pirate and got stuck with a vampire, he just honestly gets them confused. What do you think of a black-haired Bodey? Many trick-or-treaters asked him if he was Harry Potter... I guess because of the glasses?

I didn't get a picture of just my boys together, which I'm really bummed about, but here was our little group of trick-or-treaters. This year we went to Nana & Papa's neighborhood. It was awesome. So many people, so many houses, and so much candy!

We were well prepared for pokey Bodey to be about a mile behind speedy Booker. This was not the case at all though. Ada, Bodey and Booker all sprinted from door to door, and poor little PeyPey was the pokey one this year. Next year Peyton!

I was kind of embarrassed at the first few houses. I forgot to teach trick-or-treating etiquette, and Bodey just marched right up and would either state the number of pieces of candy he wanted, or just reach in the bowl and get it himself. Aye. As the night went on, he did get better.

Bitty Soccer Comes to an End

Both boys participated in the Y's bitty soccer. It lasted a whopping 3 weeks. Which is a good thing for Bodey, because he pretty much checked out after the first day. Booker really got in to it. All we had to tell him was get the ball and go that way, and he did! He almost scored about 7 times in three games. He thinks he did score because he took a shot and some of them even touched the net. After he would shoot he would run over to us for high-fives with a huge grin on his face. And the little bugger is quite fast too! Bodey, on the other hand, spent his time on the field running aimlessly around, with no idea where the ball was at any given time. It was pretty cute to watch, and he had fun, so that's all that matters. The last game Bodey bumped heads with another player and his glasses cut him around his eye. So, he sat out the rest of the game. When we were getting ready to leave he said, "Hey, we fordot to play our soccer dame." Nope, Bodey, you just had no clue it was going on! When the coach handed out their medals she had a nickname for all the kids. Booker was "Future Wizards Soccer Player" and Bodey was "Sometimes There, Sometimes Not."

Chicago Marathon 10-10-10

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I Now Pronounce Myself A Marathoner!

I have to be honest when I say that running a marathon was never on my bucket list. I couldn't believe that people could actually run that far. I was a sprinter in middle school and high school and my longest distance I would ever try is 400m and that was a very rare occasion because it was too far. A quarter of a mile. Granted, I have now slowed my pace drastically, but I conquered 26.2 miles. That is over 100 times what I could do when I was younger and in the best shape of my life. But, I was lacking the faith and the heart to run any further. Somewhere, in the last 16 weeks of my life, I dug deep enough to find both of those things.

This journey has never been easy. There are such busy schedules to juggle when still trying to train. There is pain, there are injuries, there are days you just don't feel like running, and many days you feel like giving up. There is no possible way on earth I could have done this without my loving and patient husband, and my running partners, Cori and Jen. Even though I told Jen on the morning of 10-10-10 that I wanted to punch her in the face because I really didn't want to do this, she is my biggest inspiration and I'm so thankful for that.

We started off our trip by leaving the kiddos at home and taking off to Chicago. We arrived at the lovely Howard Johnson Inn Downtown with a stellar view. But the hotel was the least of things on my mind. It had a bed and that's all that mattered.

Now we were of to the Expo to pick up our packets. This place was crazy! There were so many people and so many vendors that we really didn't have a chance to look at everything. But we did have a few photo opportunities.

Saturday night the guys went out on the town and Jen, Cori and I had a pow-wow in Cori's room. We discussed what to pack, the game plan for the next morning, and how nervous we truly were. Then I went back to my room, set all my gear out and hit the sack. I, of course, didn't really sleep, but that's ok.

I woke up at 5:45am on 10-10-10 to run my first marathon. I was sick. I was mad. I didn't want to finish the journey I had set out to finish. That changed when I lined up at the starting line. I was ready, game on.

We all had inspirational shirts made for the race. Our names were on the front of them, which was the best idea ever! No matter where we were we could hear, "Traci, Cori, Jen, you got this! Good job!" In the beginning I was telling them all thank you and high-fiving them. Towards the end, I couldn't even look up to see who was yelling.

The first half of our run was great. We felt awesome, we had high spirits, our pace was right on track, we were in the shade. It was so much fun. We were totally in the moment, taking in all the scenery and spectators. Then came the 2nd half, the 89 degree temperatures (which they said were probably 100 degrees on the pavement), and the direct sunlight sucking the life right out of us. We gradually slowed our pace just to survive. There were several times when we walked because one of the three of us was so nauseous. We each had weak moments, but were able to pick each other up and continue on. That is one of the best things about running with friends. I blocked several parts of the second half out. I couldn't look up, I just had to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. Our husbands were rockstars. They mapped out everything according to our pace, jumped on buses and subways, and walked a lot of ground to see us. I can't even explain how much I needed to see Dusty's face each of those times. It was a fresh breath of air that was much needed. Dusty was able to see me at mile 2, 8, 16, 22 and at the finish. As you can see by the next picture, our legs were barely leaving the ground anymore by the end. This picture was about mile 25.5 and we were toast.

I always imagined that crossing the finish line would be one of my best memories and I would have immediate satisfaction. This was not the case for me at all. I was in so much pain and giving my all, but it just dragged on. When we finally crossed it was just a blur. I hurt, I couldn't walk, I just wanted to cry, but not out of happiness, out of pain. I was hot, sunburned, my legs and feet didn't work anymore and I just wanted a seat in the shade. Jen and Cori felt the exact same way. We walked a few yards and received our medals. This was an awesome moment. I started crying when it was placed around my neck and looked at Jen and Cori and they were too. We all just hugged and cried. At this point in time we were all delirious. We spotted some wheelchairs at the podiatry med tent and immediately seeked shelter! We were hoping to score a wheelchair, but settled for a cot to sit on instead. We just kept thinking of things for them to "fix" on us, even though all of our symptoms were completely normal after running 26 miles. We left with Jen's blisters doctored up, Cori got some medical advice on her black toenail, and we suckered them out of bags of ice. With steps about an inch apart, and only our socks on our feet, we stumbled on to find our husbands. It took us at least 40 minutes to get from the finish line to where our husbands were. When I saw Dusty I just started crying because I hurt so bad. All I kept repeating was how badly it hurt, I hated it, and I never wanted to do it again. And I wanted him and everyone else that knows me to remind me of that. Shhhhh.... don't tell anyone that within 24 hours, I totally thought I could do it again. It's a sickness. It reminds me of child birth. Somehow, you forget the pain and think you need to do it all over again!

A very vivid memory for me was at mile 2 we saw the Chicago Theater and I was so excited. I have no idea why, but it was my favorite part of the route.

I just have to thank Dusty for making this long journey possible. There were many nights and mornings over the last 16 weeks that he was superdad while I was out training. He didn't complain one time. I also just can't even imagine doing this if I didn't get to share the experience with him. He immediately started putting positive thoughts in my head the morning I woke up to run. I really needed that, and especially from him.

Oh, yeah, and for the record, my Garmin read 27.17 miles from start to finish. We mainly ran on the right side of the road (which was the outside of the loop), and the marathon was measured from the inner most part of the route. Wowzers!

Why Me?

I've Been Dunked!

Some of you may know, some of you may not know, that I was baptized on September 5th at Westside's service at Shawnee Mission Park. There are many reasons that there are a list of you in the "some may not know" category. I have never been very forward and open with my faith. I have kept pretty quiet about it because I feel like it is a very personal thing. I also hate being judged because I always think waaaaay too much about what other people think of me. However, I had to put all of that aside and realize that it's not between me and all these other people/excuses in my life. It's between me and God, and together we came up with my next step in my faith of being baptized. Yes, yes, I was baptized as a toddler. But, I have since learned, realized and come to believe that baptism was more of a dedication; my parents' pledge to raise me with God. I thank them very much for that and think they did an amazing job following through with their word. But now it's about me and my decisions. And as an adult I have made the decision to be baptized. I'm now old enough to know and appreciate all that it encompasses. It doesn't trump my earlier baptism, it is just the icing on the cake. That day meant the world to me. There was so much thought, dedication and reflection going on within me. It was a pretty amazing day that will forever mark me.

Pastor Dan Chaverin getting me all pumped up!

I wish this man knew how much he has impacted my life. I was so nervous to go to church - any church. I just felt stupid, like I hadn't been in so long, didn't know anything about the Bible, I wasn't a "good" person, etc. Cori extended an invitation for me to try out Westside, which had been on my radar since it was so young and relaxed. I am forever thankful that I did. And I am forever thankful that this man, Pastor Dan Southerland, was the teaching pastor at my first attendance at Westside. His voice, his character, his "human-ness" all made me want to come back. I felt so welcome and so good. I just wanted to come back and hear more and learn more. So, I have, and I just feel like I owe it to this man.

And I can't leave out the atmosphere of Westside. They flat out get with it and ROCK. I've never felt comfortable singing at a church, but can't help it here. Sorry everyone that sits next to me! :)

I was hoping that during my baptism, the band would play "The Baptism Song." Band members at Westside wrote it and it is such a beautiful and powerful song. I couldn't stop smiling when I saw it on the service program for that day! They played it through the ENTIRE hour and half that they baptized people. Amazing.

Nasty Things

I hate ticks. Always have, always will. However, I've had to deal with them a bit more lately since they tend to love Booker's blood. In 4 1/2 years, Booker has had roughly 15 ticks. That's a lot... they love him. Last Wednesday night I pulled EIGHT ticks out of the poor kid. I'm still baffled on where he got them and how I hadn't seen them before. They were full of blood. I checked to make sure I got each of their tiny heads out, and did. Then two days ago (about 6 days after I pulled them) he started to get a circular rash around two of the bites. Dr. Google suggested Lyme Disease. Luckily, we have the all wonderful Dr. Yu for a pediatrician, and his wife happens to be one of the directors of Infectious Disease at Children's Mercy. He said it's not Lyme Disease, Kansas ticks don't carry it. I would have called boo-shay on him simply because I just find that really hard to believe, but who would know better? He said there are several Lyme-like diseases in KS and other diseases from ticks, but he really doubted that Booker had any of them because of the fact that he was still "Booker." No fever, no pain, no signs of illness at all, and apparently he would have been noticeably ill if he had something. So, the diagnosis? He believes that Booker had a reaction to the saliva the wonderful ticks leave in our bodies. YUCK! Either way, we left with an antibiotic, which is mommy's piece of mind, so hopefully all is good.

The Big 3!

Last weekend Bodey and I went to take his 3-year pictures in Parkville. I just love that town. It has so much character. Bodey is rarely without Booker, and quite a different person when they are separate. He acted so old, so mature, so quiet. It was an awesome day. Here are a few of my favorites... out of the 230 I took!