karaspeak

Mimi and Paa came to town this weekend, which was GREAT fun since Nathan and I had not seen them since Christmas and the kids hadn't seen them since the weekend we were in Phoenix. We all were in need of a little family time. It lets everyone get some "fun" on and gives Nathan and I at least one solid night of great rest - both of which are wins for us! Some good date night fun was had as well!

Friday night Nathan and I went to grab Chinese and enjoyed a nice time catching up after our week. Saturday I went to Spin in the morning then we went all around town running errands for the fam, had lunch at McAlister's and then went to grab some things for Teagan's birthday party next month. That night, NT and I hit up Franklin Mercantile for their winter special before heading over to hang out with some of his colleagues. A nice casual, fun weekend. We all spent Sunday at our usual Panera and said sad goodbyes to Mimi and Paa as they went home to K-ville. Hoping we can one day be closer, for sure! We miss them so much when they are away.

Sunday it was actually beautiful outside so we spent a lot of the day playing outside with the kids and they had a blast...and took GREAT naps! :) Fun!! We deserve a bit of a break from this nasty weather, so the warm sun was nice for a change.  Aiden and I made cookies for his class for V-day. He did such a good job and was so great at helping decorate and stir. He's getting so big. This makes me very sad. But he is also so much fun and such a joy. I can't wait to see him grow into a three year old.

Monday was Valentine's Day and I got the kids shirts to wear with their names on them. Both big enough to wear for this year and next year (hopefully!). Aiden had a V-day party at school, so he was excited about that and Teagan had a day full of cookies and candy here at home. Nathan sent me flowers. Mom and Dad sent us cookies. Our house was FULL of treats. NT came home early from work and whipped up a phenomenal dinner for me and we enjoyed that and a movie for a spectacular date night in. I am so very blessed. And even though every day around here is filled with love, it's amazing to realize how much love there is and how very lucky we are to have so much of it given and to give. I am thrilled with my life, my family, my loves, my everything, and am so thankful God allows me to wake up every day and enjoy it.

This week was the week from down under at our house. After a great week with Aunt Kiki visiting, we were preparing for a weekend in Birmingham until little dude came down with a naaaasty ear infection out of the clear blue sky. Not sure where it came from, but he didn't have hardly any symptoms other than a "leaky" eye for a day. Go figure. I had a feeling my little petrie dishes of kids were in for a fun weekend and week ahead. And boy, was I right! But this time they let the whole family in on the fun!

After taking Aiden to the pediatrician on Thursday and getting the ear diagnosis, Teagan woke up the next day with a leaky eye and runny nose. Awesome! Fun! Yeah! Not.  Obviously we were not going anywhere but to sick town for the weekend. By Sunday, Aiden was feeling a little better, but Teagan was in full swing with whatever he'd had and just miserable. Sunday night, Nathan began feeling ill, but the kind of ill that meant he'd be spending all night praying to the porcelain throne in one way or the other. Sure enough, Super Bowl Sunday he spend hugging that seat all night. So far so good with Mom being healthy...until 5 am Monday morning when Teagan got up to eat. I went up to feed her and spent the whole time planning my strategy for how to handle her while I casually made my way to their toilet to take care of business. Luckily I was able to feed her, get her back down to bed, and make it back downstairs with no event. I told Nathan I was sick and he was obviously thrilled. :) Looked like a fun day.

So I was able to get back to sleep for a short time, but when Aiden woke up at 7, just an hour after I'd fallen asleep, I knew I had to make it fast to my own porcelain throne or else our white carpet was going to be in for it. If you've ever been "that" kind of sick, you know how purely awful it is. AWFUL. I had the lucky fortune of being struck with the feeling of having to pass out amidst my affair and did my very best to make it to the floor so I wouldn't get hurt...I tried banging on the wall to NT who was upstairs managing the kids but it was too late. I woke up on the floor in a sweat with a bloody head. Awesome way to start the week. Happy Monday. I spent the next 12 hours sick as a dog and not able to keep down even ice chips. This is the worst kind of sick. The worst.  But in 12 hours, almost on the dot, I was able to think about eating some saltines, and they stayed down. PRAISE!

The funny part about being "throw up sick" is that during those 12 - 24 hours, you wonder how and if you will ever eat again. You vow to never eat again. And while I will say that for at least the 24-48 hours following, I was very scared to eat again, it's amazing how quickly you begin to introduce yourself to food and food that actually stays put where it's supposed to. It is the oddest thing to deal with. But I will also say, that a huge kudos to my main man, hubby, and rock on daddy for taking care of me, my two sick kids, our house, and his job all in one day. Having just had the sickies himself, I know he didn't have energy or stamina to do it, so I am so incredibly blessed and thankful he made the strides and picked up my slack. He is amazing and I am so very grateful someone was able to take care of everyone enough for me to not worry.

We spent Tuesday bleaching everything, disinfecting everything, and downright resting and made it out of the woods with the sickies on their way out. By today, we are drying up the noses, and clean inside and out (house AND body!) and hoping for NO MORE sickness the rest of this season and maybe a while longer. We have stayed out of the woods of sickness for so long and I think this was payback in one short week of awful-ness. VERY glad it's over and gone. On to a new start....

(P.S. I will spare you any pictures of how awful we all looked this week. Just take my word for it and be grateful.)

It's February 1. Where did January go? Wherever it went, one thing I know....First Birthday preparations are in full swing.  Outfits to be ordered. Gifts to be bought. Cakes to make. Fun times to be had. And we are all very excited (and at the same time very sad) that our baby Teagan is turning ONE.

I just booked little miss with her one year session pictures, and that alone is enough to make me sad. But, there is so much fun to be discovered as she learns to speak, walk, run, and engage as she learns what's new with being one. Should be a fun year for us all with a blooming one year old and a soon to be three year old, who knows what fun we'll be having.

This week we got to have "Aunt" Kiki come stay with us for a few days and play. It was so fun to have her here and we had a blast ordering things for the birthday and just catching up. I wish we lived closer, but an so grateful for the ability to see her often since we do live relatively close. Aiden loves it when she comes because she always brings treats. This time it was cookies! And yummy cookies they were.

It was a great first week to the month of love...more fun and love to come...I hear the little one waking up as I speak.

So I did it. It's done. Second half marathon is in the books!

Nathan and I flew out to Arizona on Thursday afternoon to prepare for the Rock n' Roll Series Arizona Half/Full Marathon. Needless to say, the week we left Nashville, school had been out all week due to snow, ice, and other winter weather and we were MORE than excited to see some sun and spend some time outdoors in 70+ degree weather rather than 20 degree weather. A very welcome change indeed. We landed that afternoon after a long flight and it was so warm when we stepped out of the airport. I believe it was 5 pm and it was still 70 degrees. A-mazing, to say the least. We headed to dinner at one of our favorite local joints, Stax, and then did a must stop at Sprinkles for a nice half dozen lovely treats! Man, I love that place. We headed out to the house we were staying at in Troon, which is North North Scottsdale and a great area set up a little higher than the cities below. It makes for some spectacular views!

This is Pinnacle Peak. It's about 2 miles from the house we stayed in.

The Ward's House. Lots of cactus!

The back deck - where we spent all our time!

The sky at dusk. So beautiful!

We were sad to be away from the kids, but knew they were in good hands with Mimi, so we slept great after a long day of traveling and woke up to do an easy four mile run together to Pinnacle Peak and back that Friday. It was awesome not being cold or having to wear 10 layers to go run! What an awesome thing in the middle of winter! Afterwards we headed to lunch and then downtown to the convention center Expo to pick up my race packet, shirt, and information for race day. Wow, what a huge event this is! It was so awesome to walk around and see all the vendors - from food, to shoes, to sunglasses, to beer. So much stuff! It was a great Expo and provided some fun entertainment. We tried on a pair of Newtons and just might throw down on a pair for ourselves when our current shoes need replacing. I think I'm sold after running/walking around in these things for a while.

Took it easy Friday night and tried my best to stay off my feet all day Saturday, but man, my nerves were working overtime in preparation for Sunday's race. I mean, when you know there's going to be at least one Olympian (read: Kara Goucher) in the race you are running, it kind of intimidates the crap out of you even if you know you don't stand a chance of even running with her for a second.

Arrive at Sunday morning...and I felt like I was going to throw up! The good kind of throw up, that is, the kind that means you're so excited you can hardly take a step or breathe. It's the best kind. Nathan and I headed down to the race area and by the grace of God found a purple bracelet on the street that allowed me access to a heated tent with food, stretching areas, and porta potties that were not only clean, but had toilet paper! All the ones on the street for common use were spent and had NO toilet paper. (So, lesson learned for next time is bring my own!) After watching the marathon kick off, we headed over to the half starting area and I got warm while NT took pictures of the other Kara!

The Marathon start line.

Kara Goucher stretching. (I think she was on to Nate spying on her)

My corral. Kara G was in E! I was only one behind.

Starting line.

Before I knew it, the gun was going off. Since we were in corral two, they held us back for a minute or two before letting us start our race to give the Elite runners some space to work out their legs and get their distance. The first half of the race felt great and I was kicking out 7 minute miles pretty consistently, but around mile 8 my knee started to bother me, so I slowed about 15 or 20 seconds to give myself some room to work it out. So my second half was slower than my first half and I didn't finish in 1:30 or under like I'd hoped, but I did beat my other time by nearly 4 minutes, finishing at 1:36. It was a good run and I will definitely seek to improve upon that time and be back next year to see if I can't do it here if not before. I felt really good about the race other than the aches and pains, and was fully recovered in just a few minutes. It was truly awe-inspiring to be in the presence of so many runners. So many that love it, so many that do it well, and so many that just have fun. It was a fun, fun time.  My little cheerleader, Nathan waited for me and gave me lots of kudos afterwards despite my disappointment. There is always room to improve!  So the rest of that day we just hung around Scottsdale, ate some dinner, sat by the pool, and then I got a fabulous 90 minute massage to work out all my kinks. It was a fun and full day filled with amazing memories.





We headed to The Fairmont where we stayed for our last night and enjoyed a nice evening and day at the resort before heading to the airport to see our kids (and embrace the cold weather) back in Nashville. I wasn't looking forward to the weather, but I was so excited to see my babies.

It was a super fun long weekend and one I hope to re-live again sooner than one year from now. After returning from the race and running again, it feels strangely peculiar to be running without something to train for...without a goal. So where that leaves me I'm not quite sure, but I'm eyeing some races in the near future, I just need to figure out what distance I want to do now that my legs are tired. Give me a week and maybe I'll say I'm ready for another half. Maybe not, but just maybe. What I do know it that it won't be nearly as fun as running in 70 degree weather in January! That beats it all! :)

Well the new year has come and gone and taken with it any hope of warm days here in Tennessee. That said, it's been an attitude adjustment to determine to be happy despite the gloomy, snowy, icy weather that has become our "normal" here in Nashville. It's a normal we don't like but one we have to accept for a time, or so it would appear. So our welcome to the new year has been plagued with ice and snow and temperatures below freezing. Not ideal for a girl (me) who is training for a half marathon in a climate that promises to be around 70 degrees on race day. If you don't believe me, too bad, but Phoenix is the hope of my new year! :) It's 16 days away and my nerves are already on edge as I line up mentally in my head each day for my training runs in bitter cold and wind. Hopefully the finish line will be worth the pain.

The other fun way to start out the new year was with work. (And by fun I mean awful.) After a low-key last few weeks of 2010 with lots of PTO, baking, eating, and family time, heading back to work wasn't on my fun list anyway, but January 3 all that was confirmed. I got a lovely phone call from my manager who let me know my employment was out of compliance with a policy and somehow I had been overlooked in the program process. I am 6 months in to an 18-month role. Anyway, it's too much to go into here, but basically I show up at work on day one of 2011 only to find out I'm days away from being job-less, when I thought I was months away. Eleven months to be exact. Not the way I was looking forward to starting the new year.

So all these "bad" things can leave one feeling pretty hopeless and full of self-doubt and other emotions, but I've had to rely solely on my Father to pick me up, change my attitude, and remind me of all the times in my past when He has come to my rescue. And believe me, it's been a lot! Each and every time He came, not with warning, but with provision. Not in my timing, but in His. So my hope, my rest, must come from the history WE have together, just me and Him. I'm confident He will supply all my needs and fulfill all my hopes and dreams in the meantime. It's just what that looks like that's scary. And by scary I mean exciting. :) So, here's to a frightful and eye-opening year. My prayer is all of you have HOPE in more than just what we see every day but also what we don't as it's hope that gets us through and hope that makes us stronger. "Be strong and take heart, all you HOPE in the Lord." (Ps. 31:24)

This year we introduced Aiden to the joy and fun that is "Elf on the Shelf" - he was beyond thrilled to have something new to keep him entertained and I'm sure even more thrilled that someone else (besides mom, dad, Taylor, and Teagan) were keeping their eyes on him to make sure he was being a "sweet boy." We, well, he actually, named him Dax. Whether or not he'll remember this for twelve months and name him the same thing again next year remains to be seen. But the funny part of this is he also dubbed the movie ELF, DAX, not ELF.  So far, that is still sticking.

It was exciting to watch the anticipation of Christmas bloom over the course of the week building up to Saturday. We had a great time wrapping presents, baking, playing, and gearing up for the weekend visit with my family. Our newest family tradition, pajamas for the family, was enhanced this year by monograms on each with our kid-given names (Daddy, Mommy, Mimi, Paaa, Uncle B, etc.). So that was a fun treat. We opened those on Christmas Eve so we could all be in matching like fashion for the big day. And the big day was fun. Opening presents with kids is the best....it lasted almost the whole day! To see bright eyes, excitement, wonder, curiosity, and so much joy exude from their little bodies is so much fun to watch. The very best part of Christmas for sure. We had a great brunch - cinnamon rolls, egg casserole, fruit, yogurt, and homemade granola parfaits, and of course, LOTS of coffee. :)

All in all this was my most favorite Christmas yet. Not because of what I got, which may or may not have included the bomb Kate Spade bag from my hubs!!!!, but because of what we were able to see from our parent's eye view. What a truly amazing gift it is. I love my kids and can't wait for them to explore the true meaning of Christmas each and every year.

Well, Poage, actually, but Down sounded better. After a whirlwind of a November, we had another few busy weeks ahead culminating in a trip to Texas for my cousin's wedding, followed by Christmas.  We haven't flown with both kids yet and were nervous about the outcome given all the "possibilities" for failure when it comes to the three A's: airports, airplanes, altitude. Needless to say, no one needed to give us any convincing it would be a challenge, so we prepared ourselves accordingly. To be honest, the worst part (being on the other side) is the packing...I mean kids need a lot of things and the things they MIGHT need are what really get you when you're packing for a trip away. After the bags were packed, I think I was wiped enough. Regardless, we actually made it to the airport way on time, which is a huge feat when Nathan's driving. We made it through security...baby food, too! We boarded in early fashion (one great perk of traveling with kids)...and headed up and away for our Texas adventure. And the kids did amazing. Aiden didn't fuss once, but was thoroughly entertained by the games and movies on the iPad...and the people he met, of course. And Teagan did superb, only making a slight peep when her ears began to pop. Amazing kids, my two. I have to say I was a proud mom. Proud to not be "that family" on the plane with "those kids" making everyone else sigh and hate the day they were born. Plus, plus!

After barely surviving Houston traffic to get to our hotel, we bedded the kids for their naps and got ready for the rehearsal dinner that night. It was great catching up with family and we had some amazing food and excellent cake of Oscar, a huge dog my cousin Carter has (but will not have after he gets married!).

The next day was December 18 - not only the day Carter was getting married, but the day my baby girl turned 9 months old. Where the time went I still don't know, but gone, gone it is. No longer are her baby hands so tiny it's hard to believe they're real. No longer is her hair barely there. No longer does she need me at every breath. While it is such a gift to watch them grow up, it is such a torture to watch it as well.  How little they are and how big they become. And the bigger they are, the more of our hearts they take with them. Oh, I dread the day she gets married. And the same for Aiden, too. How I hope I have the heart to handle it. Even being at Carter's wedding I found myself crying at every interval. I can only imagine what that will be like when it is my own flesh and blood I am giving away to do this life thing with someone else. I wait in joyous anticipation, but also anxious abandon.

My dad and I went running in Memorial Park. It was a great day for it - sunny, mild, no humidity, and people bustling about the park in every fashion imaginable. It was fun and a great day. Then off to the wedding. It was a quick ceremony and light reception. The kids were the hit of the party!

Teagan my little princess!

Me with my precious grandparents.

My blue-lipped stud (guess who raided the candy!)

We enjoyed the "candy bar" and then headed off to put the wiped kiddos in bed. Nathan and I went and walked around the Galleria for a while and had a fun time people watching and just spending some quality time together in another city. It's always fun.

On the way home!

After a quick breakfast with everyone on Sunday, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, eating yummy Mexican and stuffing our faces with Sprinkles cupcakes before we packed up to do the flight thing all over again on Monday.

Finally back in TN, it's now time to get unpacked (my LEAST favorite part of any trip!) and get ready for Christmas in a few days! Can't wait to see my kids faces.

Tired boy chillin with Paaa.