Milestones

as Madison's birthday approached, I found myself thinking about the milestones she has reached and the ones ahead.  As parents, we track those first year milestones and celebrate them with the whole family.  After that first year, new milestones are being reached but just not as celebrated.

For instance, jumping is a big deal but not always celebrated.  Kids don't just start jumping.  They have to learn how and it takes practice.  It's a big deal to master that skill.  Madison learned to jump right on pace with the other kiddos at daycare.  In fact, this kid hasn't stopped jumping since!  You may think I'm joking but I'm not.  Just watch her waiting for her turn at gymnastics.  She'll just bounce in place with a big smile while she waits.  It's no wonder she doesn't weigh a lot, she doesn't stop moving.

Dan and Madison at the pool last summer.  She's jumping! Imagine that.

As she gets older there will be more milestones to celebrate and some that will just occur without notice.  I know I'm looking forward to each one.  It's reassurance that I'm doing my job as a parent because my child is developing like a little kid should.  It is also lots of fun because some of them mean that I get to do more activities and experience more with Madison.  I remember Mom telling me that she has always enjoyed spending time with me but as I got older (teen years) she really had a lot more fun because we could do more and relate to each other more.  I knew what she meant then, but now I really 'get it.'

-LeAnn

Oklahoma City Memorial 5K

Sunday morning was the 13th Annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.  Dan and I signed up for the 5K portion of the events.  I'm so glad I didn't know how big the event really was when I first suggested the run to Dan.  I may have skipped it this year because we are such newbies to running.  This was an exciting event and the number of people involved just elevated the experience.   The announcer at the run said that they had over 25,000 participating that morning.  Holy cow!

On Friday I went with our friend Lisa Sein to pick up our bibs and t-shirts.  Lisa was running the half-marathon and had heard that one of the vendors would be selling red socks.   All 3 of us wanted to do something to show support for Boston, and wearing socks sounded like a fun way to do it.  I don't know how many socks were ordered they were sold out by 2 o'clock when we got to the convention center.  Bummer.  As we were about to go get our t-shirts and leave, we noticed a lady with a shirt supporting Boston.  We headed over to the stand with those shirts and found one for each of us.  With our Boston shirts in tow, we picked up our marathon t-shirts and headed home.

Saturday night I found myself getting very excited about the run.  I have never participated in something so big.  OK.  Correction.  My Mom drove me and my cousin to Little Rock to be in Hands Across America.  I know that was way more people but they weren't all packed in a two block radius.  Dan and I got our gear out so we could just get up, get dressed and go.  Trust me this amount of prep was needed.  At the time we were getting up, thought processes would not be functioning well.

Sunday, 4:30 am.  Yep.  We were up before the crack of dawn.  UGH!  Once we were dressed, we picked up Lisa and headed to downtown OKC.  By this time all three of us were hyped.  The exit we took for downtown was packed with other runners.  People were all over the place as we looked for a parking spot. You would have thought it was late night with the amount of traffic downtown instead of 5 in the morning.  We parked and headed up to the race area.

Due to heightened security, helicopters with spotlights were flying over head.  Cops were everywhere.  It was surreal.  Lisa headed up to her corral and Dan and I looked for a way to get over to our corral.  It didn't happen.  We were on the wrong side of the marathon/half-marathon line up area.  We weren't trying to cross that madness.  Once we found an entrance to where we would actually start the race, we stood off to the side and did a little people watching.

At 6:30 the marathon and half-marathon started.  We were back by the 10 minute mile corral.  I could see the starting line but I couldn't see the end of the massive amount of people waiting to start the run.  It took 20 minutes to clear everyone participating in the half and full runs.  WOW!!  Once the end of the marathoners cleared our spot we entered the running area and walked down to where the 5K corral was located.  Shortly after 6:50 they counted down and our run started.

This was taken just after we entered the run area.  Look at the sea of people ahead of us.  

 I was determined to slow down and not burn out fast like I did in the 5K we ran last fall.  Dan wanted to keep a slower start to conserve energy so he ran with me for the first mile.   I had a rough training since January.  A round of the flu in March set me back much more than I thought it would and I had also just got over a respiratory virus that caused an asthma flare up.  I knew I would walk part of the run, but I wanted to run as much as I could.  My goal was to run at least 2 to 2.5 miles.

The run took us through downtown and into Bricktown.  I really liked the atmosphere of running by those tall buildings with people lining the streets.  It was fun to see all of the different types of people running.  Old and young.  Running and walking.  Decked out with cool running gear and tutus with funny shirts.  Grumpy cat even made an appearance.  Someone printed a poster of that cat that said 'I saw someone running once.  It looked awful!' Everyone that saw it cracked up.  We saw this in the first few blocks of the run so we still had our breath and a sense of humor.

The first hill of the race was a pickle.  It was a steep climb and I heard many around me exclaim "Oh no" when they saw it.  I was happy that I wasn't the only one who was surprised and alarmed by the hill.  Yea for those of us who were unprepared and didn't check out the course ahead of time.  Oh well.  Live and learn.  The rest of the run took us under 235 and up another hill by OU Medical Center.  The 5K group broke off on 10th and headed back to downtown.  The finish line was loud and exhilarating.  I found Dan at the finish line and we got in line to get our medals.

Both of us were very please with our runs. Dan's time was just over the last 5K we ran but this course was much harder.  His tracking app messed up during the first part of the run so we aren't exactly sure of what his time was.  We did a little guess work to come up with the time we think he had.  I had a personal best 1st mile and a personal best overall minute per mile.  Overall we were very happy with our results for our second run.  I wish I could explain how amazing the whole experience was. I know I'd like to do it again next year and maybe try the relay later on.  Baby steps.  We have the mud run coming up in June.  Let's see how that goes first!  :-)

Finished!  

Beautiful Medals

Creative Plant Protection From Freezes & Frost

I looked at the calendar last week and determined that since it's getting close to May, it's safe to go ahead and plant flowers.  Last Friday, I took Madison to the nursery to pick out flowers for the flowerbed.  She wanted to buy everything she saw.  I picked a few plants that I've had great success with the past few years. I'd let Madison pick out the exact plants we would buy.  When we checked out I realized that our cart was filled almost entirely with purple flowers.  Hmm...I wonder who's favorite color is purple.  Here's a hint, she's almost 39" tall and cute as a button.

I spent Saturday morning planting flowers and was pleased with the results.  Now all I needed to do was periodically weed the garden and things should be fine.  I'm not a big gardener so low maintenance is my thing.  I knew we had been getting a good amount of rain with more in the forecast.   No worries about drought yet.  I thought the temps are warmer now.  It can't possibly get below freezing again this far into Spring. Everything should grow well till July when it just gets crazy hot and some plants just don't make it.

I THOUGHT WRONG!

We had storms move in Monday night into Tuesday morning.  Our beautiful high 70's temps were rudely shoved out of the state and replaced with temps in the 30's and winds 20 - 30 mph.  It was a misty, gray and windy morning Tuesday.  Our high that day was 38!  I felt like checking the calendar to make sure it didn't suddenly say February.  Depending on what news station you watched, the low was predicted to be from 28-34 degrees Wednesday morning.  That meant that I needed to cover up my plants or I'd be digging them up and replanting new ones soon.  I wasn't going to waste that time and money.

After work Tuesday evening, I took a roll of fabric stuff (not sure the technical term) that is used to prevent weeds from growing in your garden.  Then Dan and I started raiding the garage for things to hold the fabric tarp stuff down since the winds were screaming at that time.  Let's just say we got creative.  We grabbed all kinds of stuff; a bocce ball and horseshoe set, 2 rolls of soaker hose, two flower pots, a brick from my flower bed border, 2 bags of potting soil, 2 cans of fence stain and one box from Dan's washers game set.  Oh and I also used to Rubbermaid bowls to cover flowers that we couldn't cover with tarp.  Yep.  Bowls from the kitchen.  Our plant protection just reached or dropped (depending on your opinion) to a new level.  Check out the pic of one of the flower beds to see the pitiful looking creative solution we came up with.

Don't the plastic bowls ad a touch of class to the flowerbed?

My Mom and Aunt Mary gave me a few tips for the next time we have to cover our plants.  They said to use  sticks to prop up the tarp.  They said that if the plant touches some coverings during a frost or freeze, that it will still kill the plant. It looked like our tarp worked the first night, but I thought that a little extra care wouldn't hurt if we had to cover them again.  If.... I should thought when not if.

We got a frost warning for Wednesday night.  So that meant covering them up again.  If you know Central Oklahoma, you know trees are not in great abundance in some places.  In other words, we don't exactly have a lot of sticks around here.  How would I prop up the tarp off of the plants????

 

Skewer sticks!!!!  Yep. I used a bag of wooden skewer sticks we've had for ever.  You can just make out the sticks on either side of the plant in the above picture.  Just when I thought our plant protection couldn't get anymore white trash creative, we reach a new level.

The great news is that I haven't lost a single plant.  We are in the clear on freezing temps for the next 7 days. I watched the forecast today and it looks like another cold front is moving in mid-week next week.  Guess I will keep my protection kit sitting out in the garage and wait till July to put everything up.  I think I'll be in the clear at that point.  I think I'll cross my fingers just in case.

Is Throwing Up An Option?

Yesterday Dan and I went to Nunus Mediterannean Cafe on Memorial for lunch.  We had talked about trying this place for a few weeks.  It's always busy and has excellent reviews.  I don't try a lot of new foods, but I like some greek food so I was interested in checking this place out.

I ordered their version of a chicken salad sandwich. It had roasted tomatoes, olives and a basil pesto mayonnaise.  I'm not a regular mayonnaise fan but I do like some variations of it.  I really like the looks of the sandwich when it arrived.  I think it was a good lunch choice.  The flavor was subtle but the olives really added something to it when you bit into one of them.  I was excited. We were off to a good start.

Sampler Platter

Dan ordered a sampler platter so the two of us could try several things on the menu.  When the platter arrived, I started with tabouli. I had tried it when I was in high school.  I didn't like it then but my tastes have changed.  I thought it looked great but it still just wasn't something I liked.  Dan loved it.  The hummus was a little bland but good.  Then I tried the rice.  I don't know what kind of rice it was.  It reminded me of long grain and wild rice when I saw it.  I took a bite and honestly I came close to loosing what I had eaten right then at the table.  OH GOODNESS!!  I have not tasted something that bad ever.  It was horrible.  I choked it down.  I do mean choke because I quit trying to chew it for fear of throwing up.  Once I swallowed the bite, I guzzled a ton of water trying to wash the taste out of my mouth.  That helped but not enough.  Dan was trying not to laugh at me while I was chewing the bite.  He knew it wasn't going over well from my expression. He liked the rice and couldn't believe I had such a different reaction.

I felt sick after that but managed to eat a little bit more.  I tried a bite of the chicken on his plate.  It tasted a little like rice so that was the end of me trying anything else on his plate.  He still had a meat and a cabbage roll left to try.  There was now way I was tasting either of those.

I thought the place was great for atmosphere.  The employees were so nice and they checked on us to see what we thought.  I didn't mention my distaste for the rice.  It's not their fault it didn't sit well with me.  We will go back.  I really liked what I ordered. I just won't be trying the rice again. :-)

Once I got home, I had to drink tea to settle down my stomach.  I could't believe it affected me like that.  Oh well.  As I told Dan, that's the risk you take when you try new things.

What was that?!?!?!?!

What a way to start a birthday!  Just before 2 am I was kind of awake.  Let's just say that kinda status was removed quickly when I heard a incredible noise.  In a matter of seconds my thoughts ran through a serious of possible causes.  These thoughts included a massive thunderclap, tornado, someone kicking in one of our doors, someone ran into the house.....  I got my wits about me enough to grab my glasses and head down the hall to look at the front and back door.  Once I realized that the noise was starting to subside and that no one was at our door, it dawned on me.  Earthquake.
HOLY COW!  That was scary!!!  Sleep was not happening for awhile so I did what any other person awake in the middle of the night after any crazy event occurs.  I got on Facebook.  It lit up like a switchboard. Our neighborhood was a buzz.  The whole city was posting on a local news station's page.  My cousin in Tulsa felt one of them.
After a glass of milk and two hours playing on my phone, I finally relaxed enough to sleep.  Then an hour later a second one hit and woke me up again.  Once it was all said and done, for now, we had 5 earthquakes.  How in the world are we experiencing 5 in 4 hours?  The strongest one was 4.3.  We felt that one and another one that was 4.2.
I can't help thinking when is the next one. Now I sound like a Discovery Channel documentary.

This is a screen shot of the USGS' Earthquake page.
I put dots next to the ones felt in Oklahoma last night.

It Has Been Awhile

I have been meaning to post something for a long time, but I simply kept getting side-tracked.  When I thought about what I should post, I decided to put up a few pictures and comments from 2013.

From Christmas thru New Year's Day, it was so cold in Oklahoma City.  The holiday week began with blizzard warnings in the state on Christmas Day.  The cold continued into the new year where the highs (if you want to call them that) were in the low 30's.  By New Year's Day, all three of us were battling a serious case of cabin fever.  I did a little research and we took Madison to GattiTown.  It was half-price Tuesday and they opened at 10.  We were there by 10:15.  We left and practically dragged Madison out of there at 1.  She was so tired but was having a blast. It was a lot of fun for all three of us and a great reprieve from being stick in the house.

GattiTown had a kids bowling  alley that was a big hit with Madison.  

The toddler area was perfect for her.  It had a lot of things she could ride.
The biggest hit were the go carts.  You can see the track behind her in this pic.
Dan drove Madison and they raced me.  She had a blast passing Mommy.

Late January/early February brought a beautiful weekend.  We took advantage and took Madison to the park.

Cheese girl on the slide.

Happy to enjoy the beautiful day.

I think the slightly warmer weather was a way to get us ready for snow in OKC. THREE WEEKS IN A ROW!  How does that happen?  The third week had everyone ready for another round of blizzard like conditions.  Thankfully that didn't happen here.  It was too warm (36 degrees!) for the cold stuff to wreck havoc.  The good thing from all of the snow was that the roads stayed pretty good and there was enough snow for the kiddos to play in.  Madison has seen snow (not that she will remember it) every year of her life. This is the first year that she was excited to play in it.  We had a great time making a snow man and throwing snow balls.

Our teeny snowman.  The next day I could watch it melt outside my office window.
I called Dan to announce the head fell off. 

Cuite pie.

Once the February and the snow moved on, we were ready to bring on Spring.  March brought the flu instead.  Madison and I decided to trade illnesses.  She had pink eye first.  On a side note, I think pink eye is a pain in the behind.  Keeping a kid home when they feel great, but they can't play with their pals is just torture.  I know that it is very contagious and it is important to protect everyone else, I'm just saying that entertaining a kid that can't go play outside when it is warming up is just a beating challenge.

After we got Madison's pink eye issues cleared up, it was my turn.  I had the flu.  I started feeling bad at Madison's gymnastics class but thought it was just the metal chairs causing my body to ache.  Friday I didn't feel good but managed to get through work.  Saturday I had a mani/pedi appointment and really tried to go.  I made it through a shower.  10 minutes after the shower I was in bed and that is where you would find me the rest of the weekend.  I felt awful.  I hurt.  I didn't even care to watch TV in bed.  I just laid there.  UGH!

That weekend was Sesame Street Live in OKC.  I couldn't go.  We were able to grab our nephew Davyn and he was happy to tag along with Dan and Madison.  The kiddos had fun together.  Dan survived on his own.  He was played for cotton candy and souvenir toys for both.  (I love it!)

Fun with Sesame Street.

After I got better, I flew to San Antonio for work.  While there, Dan called to say that he had just talked to daycare.  Madison was running a fever.  Uh oh!  Yep.  The next day we took her to the doctor and they confirmed she had the flu.  THANKS MOM!  To round out the fun.  I had a crazy allergic reaction to something in San Antonio.  By the time I got home and we took Madison to the doctor, I had a massive eye infection.  The next morning, and another doctor's appointment, confirmed pink eye for me.  Thankfully, Dan managed to stay healthy.  No flu or pink eye for him.

Easter weekend was a great one for our family.  We went to church on Saturday evening.  What a great service it was. Very moving.  After church Dan, Madison and I had dinner together.  I was so happy when she let me take pics of her in her Easter dress.  She is not a fan of getting her picture taken. We had a great weekend with family at our house.  I could not have asked for a better weekend.

Love this kid!

Serious work going on.

Happy Spring Everyone!  

LeAnn

A Look Back At Our Summer: Part 1

As I start this post, it is 65° outside, and I have the windows open in the house.  It's chilly and I love it.  I am so happy to have this break from the crazy heat we've had over the last 3 months.  I'm not ready for winter, but I am looking forward to fall weather.  

We have had a lot going on this summer and I meant to post about different activities.  It obviously didn't happen so I think I'll just do a review of summer in multiple parts. 

Part 1! 

The official kickoff to summer always starts with Memorial Weekend.  We met my friend Ashley and her family in a small town called Mulhall.  This is where her Dad grew up, and the town has a big festival called "Mulhall Days" that everyone attends.  We had a lot of fun.  Well, we had a shaky start, then it got to be a lot of fun.  Madison had been battling a lot of congestion and just as we got on the road, she was nibbling on apples.  Combine that with drainage and we had a throwing up incident to start the road trip.  Thankfully we had her daycare backpack with us which is always stocked with two changes of clothes.  Dan and I performed a quick clean-up/wardrobe change and off we went!



The town has two beautiful schuptures of longhorn cattle. 
Madison had fun taking pictures on them although this one was a bit tough to sit on.


My in-laws, sister-in-law and nephew came over to hang out with us and do a little grilling.  I bought a slip and slide for Madison and our nephew Davyn to play on.  They had a blast running more than sliding down the mat and then jumping into the puddle of water at the end.  We had a great time and the food was tasty!



Our sweet nephew and Madison.  They have been 'best buds' since she could
walk well enough to keep up with him.  Just too cute!


We were so spoilied in Lewisville because there were 3 very nice parks within blocks of our home.  We do have a tiny play area in our neighborhood (more to come hopefully), so we have enjoyed searching for the best park in Oklahoma City and Edmond.  There is one smaller park on the north side of Lake Hefner that is really nice.  It is new and very shaded so that is nice when the sun is blazing at 10 am.  Madison and I made a break for the park when Dan started mowing the lawn.  The we closed out the afternoon with our first visit to the neighborhood pool.  Let's just say this was the first visit of many during the summer.  It's a great place for the kiddos and we took full advantage of it.



Notice the odd things sticking to her legs and arms.  My daughter has an absolute fondness for stickers.  These were stickers off of pool noodles and a boogie board I purchased that morning at Wal-Mart.  She felt they would be more fun on her than the noodles.   




My cutie pie!




Sweet heaven for me.  Madison woke up early from her nap and wanted to snuggle with Momma. 
I didn't mind at all.

Pool fun.  Looks like a rough life for her doesn't it?

 Later in June, Bank of Oklahoma held a Family Picnic Day at Orr Family Farm in South Oklahoma City.  I had read about this place but I had never been there.  Madison was in heaven.  She got to ride a merry-g-round, feed animials, ride a pony and a train, and jump on a huge 'pillow.'  It was a blast.  We didn't want to leave but nap-time was calling. 

I can't wait to go back this fall for their holiday activities.  They have a lot of events till Christmas.  What a fun place. 

We had our neice and nephew out for a sleep over and had a great time.  While Davyn and Madison played together, Sierra and I painted our toes and cought up on reality shows that we both like.  We loved having them out and I can't wait to have them visit again.

Madison and Davyn made a fort in the living room.  Unfortnatly, it didn't hold up well.  I walked in to find them huddled in the fort, playing her MobiGo.  Just too cute!

Our sweet niece.

Just a few more pictures to finish this post. 

If there is a bounce house near, she will find it.  This kid never stops jumping.

She got bath bubbles for her birthday.  They are a hit!

We took advantage of the windy day to fly her kite.