best turkey trot ever

We do the Turkey Trot in Austin every year... and that's been a tradition for like six or so years now.  Anyway, I have been known to either 1- walk, 2- cheat, 3- quit or 4- be pregnant during each trot... so of all six, I think I have actually only finished TWO successfully.  But after this year I can add another to that list.  :)

I was pretty proud of myself... I averaged an 8:40 pace, finishing the 5 miles in 44 minutes almost exactly, which is still only a trot, but it was still faster than I've ever ran it before (even six years ago when I was 22), and I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed myself while running.  So that was nice.

If you don't like me bragging about how super-awesomely not fast I am, I can make you feel better by letting you know that (besides when I've been pregnant), I also weighed (weigh) more during this year's turkey trot than I have weighed in any previous turkey trot ever... or pretty much in life ever.  Extra poundage got nothing on my time, peeps!  Haha.

Also, I had an awesome plan to write about some stuff I was thankful for last week, but that got away from me.  I am, however, very thankful for many things.  Much love!

Here we are post race.  No, Matt didn't push the double... you almost thought he was superman, didn't you?

confessions 11.27.12

Confessions.

Last night I made Paleo Pumpkin bread... yes, I used almond flour and coconut flour and honey, etc.  But it was a fail with Henry, unfortunately.  So you know what I did tonight?  I thawed those bananas in my freezer that had been there since JUNE (as mentioned in a previous confession), and I used some applesauce that had been sitting in fridge since we were in our previous house, and I made that kid some banana bread, flour and all.  Here's to hoping he doesn't come down with food poisoning after breakfast in the morning.

I have a bad, BAD habit of buying things for my house before I know if they will work/fit or not.  What I mean is that it would be really easy for me to get out the tape measure, and figure out if a picture will fit in a certain area, or figure out what size rug I will need in my living room, etc.  But I don't like to measure, so I just buy rugs and pictures, and then I hope for the best... this means a lot of returns and a lot of re-selling things that I have bought... aka lost money.  Probably should stop that.

Did I mention that I have not 1, not 2, not 4, but FIVE half gallons of ice cream in my freezer?  (Now, not exactly half gallons since most of them are at least halfway eaten.)  I'm not quite sure how it happened, but I have some ice cream that needs a home.  Any takers?


I really need to get working on some of my 30 before 30 items.  Mainly the consecutive pushups... I can't even remember how many I am supposed to be accomplishing, but I can tell you that the number I can do now is nowhere near the number I have set for myself.  Oh well.

And lastly, I haven't been blogging - but you already knew that!

7 out of 30

Please forgive me for my bad attitude about the neighbors' kids. Ha. Maybe a little bit of an overreaction?  With that I present to you...

I ran a half marathon!  As you can see, I placed very high. (Joking.)

There were 16488 competitors overall (it was extremely crowded, dodging people the whole time).  There were 1588 competitors in my division, and there were 10,110 females.  Apparently women are way more into running half marathons than men.

I ran the whole time minus to stop for water.  I was happy with that.  It was fun to spend the weekend with my pal and training buddy, Becky, my sis in law Mary, and my brother David - all who finished the race strong!

And now I'm glad it's over.  I celebrated by getting 2 out of 4 of the seasonal Blue Bell flavors.

Till next time blog friends.

Best part of the race was seeing my little cheerleaders along the side of the road!

happy Veteran's Day to you too

It's veterans day, which means my neighbor's kids don't have school. Which means they are outside screaming.  Which means my child who FINALLY went down for a nap 30 minutes ago after fighting it for a good while just got woken up and is screaming bloody murder.  Which means I may not be getting anything done today. Awesome.

I'm giving myself an award. Haha.

Okay, so both of my friends, Amanda and Courtney, were nominated for this awesome blog award call the Liebster Award.  They were supposed to tag like 11 friends to win the award too, but neither of them obliged, and both of them offered that any of their readers could participate.  So besides the fact that "Liebster" sounds similar to a nickname "Leebers" my mom had for me as a young child, I most definitely want something other than my weekly confessions to write about, and with that I present to myself...

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers, and nominated by fellow bloggers. Liebster is a German word meaning sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing and welcome.

(Haha. Up and coming guys, watch out.)

Thank you to myself!! (Guys, I realize how lame this is.)  And also thank you to Amanda and Courtney, who both didn't actually tag me, but whose blogs you should definitely frequent.  They are hilarious and fun!  (Of course, they are also Chi Omegas. Hoot hoot.)

So one of the first things I am supposed to do is list 11 facts about myself. I can do this.
1. My mom called me Leebers as a child. 2. I have lived in Austin since 1990, minus 3.5 years of college. 3. I went to Texas A&M 4. I was a Chi Omega. 5. I was a bad Chi Omega. 6. I'm in desperate need of an eyebrow wax. 7. I used to tweeze my own brows, but that is like torture for me now. 8. In March I will have been married for SEVEN years. 9. I have two kids. 10. I'm running a half marathon on Sunday.

Then I am supposed to answer questions she (the girl who tagged Courtney) asked! So here goes...  (ALSO, the formatting got off somewhere along the line and I didn't fix it.  Please forgive.)

1. What is something you've always wanted to do but never have? Why not?
Unfortunately, I'm kind of boring and my dreams are pretty small - and if not small, then they're changing - so I can't really think of ONE thing I've ALWAYS wanted to do.  Except, MAYBE... go to Hawaii.  Now, it's not like I'm just dying to go to Hawaii or I would have made it happen - the thing is though, I love beaches.  How can a true beach lover NOT want to go to Hawaii? So there it is.

2. Fill in the blanks. People sometimes think I'm ___ but really, I'm ___.
Haha. I have the potential to be totally narcissistic and completely OFF on my guess of this, but I'm gonna give it a shot anyway.  People sometimes think I am unfriendly but really I'm just shy/intimidated.  I'm not even going to analyze.  This may be way off.

3. What are your favorite kinds of gifts to receive?
Thoughtful ones.  Although I'm completely hypocritical in saying that bc I'm queen of giving gift cards to people. Haha. BUT, if it's not thoughtful then I'd be very happy with useful.  A starbucks gift card would be both thoughtful AND useful.

4. What is something someone has done for you that really touched you?
Wowzers. Going deep over here.  How about anyone who has ever forgiven me?  That would definitely be the most "touching" thing someone can do for me.  Like, I know that I let Matt down and let my friends down and I neeeeeed their forgiveness.  The well-being of our relationship hinges on their willingness to forgive me, even though I am not deserving (point of forgiveness).  There may even be people who I hurt in the past whose path doesn't cross mine anymore, but if they forgive me, I consider that a huge gift.

5. What are three things you really like about yourself?
Haha. 1) I like that I'm funny. Not gonna lie.

2) I like that I am a deep thinker.  Not because I think I am the most profound person on the planet, but deep thinking has caused me to seek for answers in Jesus and in the Bible.

3) I like that I am hilarious. Haha dang it! I couldn't help myself.

6. If you have kids, what are three attributes you hope to instill in them?
Off the cuff
1- I want them to seek to know and love Truth. Capital T.

2- I want their worlds to be bigger than themselves - like lets extinguish narcissism - God is too big for us to be stuck on ourselves.
3- I want them to love Jesus and others.  
7. What is something you struggle with?
Umm. Pride.  Thinking I'm awesome and that I know every.thing. 
8. What are you really good at?
I don't know if I'm really good at anything.  I'm a decent writer, hence the blog and the 5th grade D.A.R.E. essay award I won (but only for my class, not the whole 5th grade, which is why I give it the word "decent" verses "really good"). 
9. What do you wish you could be better at?
Hmm, this might just be circumstantial but TODAY... I wish I could be better at loving people who are suffering or in crisis situations.  I STINK at this, and I usually feel awkward when I try to love or reach out to someone who is suffering.


10. Tell a funny joke.
Yo mama.


11. How many hours do you sleep per night, on average?
I have no idea, really. I'm afraid if I counted it could depress me. I'm gonna guess around seven hours a night. Not bad.

weekly confessions

Sam is almost out of formula, and he's also almost 11 months old.  Secretly, I just want to give him milk and be done with it.  Also, I'm tired of bottles.  We'll just start milk from a sippy cup one month early? No harm in that, is there?

In the same way, Henry is almost out of diapers.  I may be motivated to potty train him based purely on the fact that I don't want to go buy more.  Unfortunately this weekend is inconvenient because of my half marathon... so diapers it is.  Looks like I'll have to wait till the next time we run out...

There are like 10 ripe bananas in my freezer because I've been meaning to make banana bread since, oh... June.  I finally got three of them them out today, and I think I will be making some banana, prune, zucchini bread concoction so that I can feel good about giving my kids refined carbs- and so the food won't go bad..

On that note, I haven't made any kind of bread for months.  I was, for awhile, baking a breakfast bread weekly.

On that note, last year when I was pregnant, I went pumpkin-crazy.  I got all pumpkin-ed out, and apparently that lasted over a year because I'm still not interested in making, baking, eating anything pumpkin.

Henry had a fever last week, and he voluntarily laid himself down on the couch to watch movies.  The confession is that, while I really felt terrible that he was so miserable, it actually made my life easier.  No, I'm not secretly wishing he was sick more often...

This morning the extra hour somehow left us with TWO FREE hours before it was time to take Henry to school.  Everyone was fed and dressed and we still had two hours till school time.  SO, I decided to take the boys running in the double stroller.  I was going to take them for 5 miles.  On my route almost the entire first mile is a gradual incline.  And Henry was not just politely asking, but WHINING, "Faaaaaaster! Faaaaaaaaaster Mommy, I want to go faster!"  Like in the most whiny, high-pitched voice ever... and I could not have ignored it if I wanted to.  After yelling at him (confession 1) while running uphill with double stroller, I was out of energy and my 5 miles turned into 2 (confession 2).  Poor child is so spoiled because his daddy actually runs fast.  No more running with the double unless I have some music to tune out the kids.

And that's my last confession - I washed my ipod and it is no longer...

Till next time.

Happy November! (Recent Pics and an Update)

Hello. It's been awhile since I logged what my kids are doing for the world to see, and well, since their lives are basically passing by before my eyes, I figured it was about time to make sure I remember something.  Don't worry, I decided to upload some pictures to make it more entertaining for those of you who happen to be interested in how many teeth my children have.

Mommy and Hen at TacoDeli.  He was determined to make sure his food was showing.  Such a boy in so many ways.

Henry is an excellent conversationalist and has pretty legit verbal skills if I might say so. He has started asking intelligent questions. Like, for instance, we were practicing some memory verses, one of which used the term "atoning sacrifice." "What's that?" Henry asks. "Well, Hen, it's what Jesus did. He died for our sin so we could be with God." "Oh really? Where's God?" And on and on the conversation went.

Another sweet conversation we had the other day when I was sick went something like this.  "Henry, I'm sorry mommy's sick.  I'm sorry I can't take care of you."  "Can I take care of you, Mommy?"

We are so thankful to have a duck pond nearby our new house.  Matt had a lot of memories with Hen at a duckpond near our old house, so this is really fun.  Henry is excited about dandelions.  He did get confused at first and asked me if he could blow "the lion kings."

It's tough to get a picture these days that doesn't have at least one blurry section.  Here's Frosty the Snowman and Super Sam the pumpkin on Halloween.  I was determined to make them get in their costumes even though both Henry and I were sick.

Sam, as you know, is a little bit wild! The kid just wants to move, and I think we are entering into a can't go anywhere stage because he is always miserable if he's not down on the floor walking. And yes, I think we can officially say that he walks (or tries to walk) more than he crawls now!  I have some footage, but I've never been good about uploading videos to the blog, so no promises.

OH! And this is big news, but Sam officially says "Mama," and I think we can call it his first word.  Sad, I can't remember Henry's first word, but I think it was Dada.  Odd though, because H is a major mama's boy still, and Sammy LOVES his daddy.

Blurry blurry Sam.

This is typical - Henry sitting down like he's supposed to.  Sam trying to climb, crawl, move, go...  One of the days we were quarantined we went to ride the train at the Domain.  Check your ego at the door and do it... worth every penny when you need something to do!

I have no clue where this was, but I will say that about the only time Sam is content to sit is when he is in the stroller.  (Or watching a movie in his carseat.  The kid literally turns his head around in his carseat to see the screen in the car.  It's sad.)

Daddy carved a pumpkin!  Aren't my boys cute??

Henry and Sam together is also pretty entertaining. First you have Henry who is definitely the big brother and will tell Sam, "No Sam, you can't have that." Most of the time, it's just because Henry would rather be playing with whatever it is, but occasionally Henry has really been helpful in keeping Sam out of trouble -- you know like keeping him away from outlets and the stairs, for instance. 

Sammy has a temper! To be honest, I've known this for awhile. Like, since the day he was born and he would scream at me to feed him. Even as a newborn, it was much different than the very polite way that Henry would notify me that it was time to eat.  So when Henry takes toys away from Sam, Sam gets SO MAD. He clenches his fists and his whole body tenses up and then he SCA-REAMS!  Trust me, all.day.long. it's really fun. No, I definitely don't have wisdom for how to teach your kids to share/care about each other more than they care about themselves.

Kid shovels food into his mouth like nobody's business.

I love this one, even if it's blurry.  He's always on the move.

My three longhorns.  Ask me about the lady at TacoDeli who thought I was trying to "hide" the fact that I was an Aggie.  I'll blog about that later.  Here's a perfect example of Sam being extremely unhappy because he is forced to sit still.

He saw his big brother doing it. I'm telling you, he is so active.

Sweet Henry put himself down on the couch the other day when he wasn't feeling well.

Have I mentioned I don't want to cut his hair?  He's still seems like such a baby to me!  It's long, but I just want it to stay baby-ish for now!

Henry is doing awesome at preschool and at his CBS class. His teachers tell me that he always cleans up after himself between activities. And I think he has some other weird things that he "always" does like he HAS to put his water cup into his lunchbox after lunch, etc. This behavior most certainly comes from his dad, who eats the same lunch everyday and has an exact routine in the shower. TMI? My shower "routine" is more like doing whatever feels right and then I ask, "Did I shampoo? I can't remember, I'll just do it again to make sure..." Anyway, Henry definitely likes to be clean, too. Should be good for potty training which I am still putting off.

And these last two pictures are just for fun courtesy of Pinterest.  They made me laugh.

Happy Novemeber! I am looking forward to the holiday season!