HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

And Happy 200th to us! This marks the 200th post on our blog. I knew I wanted to do something big to highlight such a monumental event in the Kyle and Michelle Woodbury family history. As soon as I saw this picture posted on my parents' blog, I knew I had to share it with the rest of the world. Hope you don't mind, Mom and Pops!

This is not what they look like on your average day. In fact, I've never known my dad to ever have so much hair! My parents are dressed up as nerds for a Halloween costume party and even even won a prize for their hilarious attire and wigs. Mom, I think your glasses chains were a very nice touch.

My parents are closet comedians and I've managed to dig up some stuff from my archives to prove it.

Do your parents know how to pogo stick? Mine do!

Here is my Dad setting the bar for our pogo stick competition:

This past Easter my sister and I decided to do an egg hunt for my parents. We were pleasantly surprised how into they got. Mom, I never knew you were so competitive!

Hope this brought a smile to your day. We'll most more pictures of our Halloween festivities later!

Is race an issue in the election?

I haven't posted much about the election because I don't want to believe what is happening. Actually, I wasn't even a John McCain supporter so I don't know who to support whole-heartedly, and trying to hybrid Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani's policies and stances is an utter waste of time anyways.

One thing that has recently caught my attention is the overwhelming majority of racial support for Obama. According to the different polls that I have seen today it seems as though race is playing a significant part of the election. Obama is currently enjoying 90% support from African Americans compared to 5% support for McCain. (not even Romney received that kind of support in Utah) In my opinion, that fact alone makes evident that policies, platforms, and voting history in office are NOT playing a role in their decision on which candidate to vote for. The topic of race in this election was discussed in an article written by Ricky Hampton in the Flint Journal. I posted some key points from his article below with my response in red.

Are you voting for Barack Obama because he is black? Many people are. If you don't think so watch/listen the video at the bottom.

It's a question some African-Americans find offensive because it is a question hardly ever asked to a white person about a white candidate. Because in this case white people aren't voting for a candidate based on race...look at the polls. And if they are, that is racism!

That said, Obama's ethnicity is certainly a big role in why he is doing so well among African-American voters, where he enjoys more than 90 percent voter support. So, in part, the answer to the question is yes. You are right about that.

However, to think Obama's race is the only reason African-Americans vote for him is naive. Obama's overwhelming support is about the same as Bill Clinton and Al Gore received from African-Americans. Incorrect, look at the graph below and you will see that even Hillary Clinton, a democrat, received a mere 15% from the black vote when running against Obama.

In summary, I think that Obama is receiving support from people solely based on race and not on the key issues at hand. I have friends and relatives who support Obama and I enjoy having intelligent discussions/banter with them regarding their reasoning. I respect anyone and everyone's choice in candidate, even when it is contrary to my personal choice, IF and when that support is given because that canditate supports the key issues of that person. Unfortunately, in this case I think Obama is supported by blind followers, and it may cost us an election and a decent future for Americans. It's a tragedy.

our little princess *Updated with Videos*

**update**Thinking about my kids got me thinking about all these little video clips I have of them that prove all the points I was making, so I decided to share some....enjoy!

Six of six Tag! To clarify, this picture is the 6th picture of our sixth folder, NOT our sixth of six children. That would be a huge feat for me to make it to six! It's a silly picture of Savannah, but telling as well. Even in the tub before she had turned the ripe age of 1 she liked her bows. Now she actually takes off her bow to eat, nap, and bathe --- oh, and she does it when she is mad at me-- like she's proving a point that she is in charge. She is getting pretty good at picking out a bow that matches her clothes for the day (or she probably just gets lucky). It's a lot of fun having one of each (meaning a boy and a girl) and seeing how inate the gender differences in them are.

When I was pregnant with Cade I swore he was going to be a little girl. We didn't find out what we were having, so I didn't know for sure. But I thought I did. And when my little boy was born, I was so confused. I had numerous dreams about a dark haired little girl who could talk (Spanish even! she said, "perro"). And thinking back, perhaps they switched places at the last minute (or maybe there is no such thing as maternal inspiration!) and decided it would be best to have my sweet, calm little boy when I was in the middle of my undergrad. That way I could ease into Savannah in my post-student years. Thank heavens I had Cade first. I love Savvy, yes I do, but she is what her nursery teacher calls a "hustle bubble" -- she doesn't sit still for a second, unless, of course, you scratch her back! This is a video we took of her enjoying my scratching her back. As soon as I stop, she decides she's ready to go...until I start scratching again. We think it's pretty funny, but then, even when she says "Hello" we think it's hilarious...

From the get go, Cade has had a fascination with balls and cars. He would play in our little basement apartment forever rolling balls back and forth in the kitchen. He has always entertained himself with anything that had wheels, too.

I now understand when people say kids will do things at their own pace. No matter how hard we try to teach, beg, plead, prod (BRIBE), it is their choice. Cade was a lump of jiggly baby fat who didn't really have much of a desire to move until 9 months. At 10months, he decided he would start crawling (because Kyle bribed him!) and then out of the blue decided to walk one day at a neighbors house a week after his first birthday. We were floored. Savannah crawled at 6 months (much to my dismay and pleading not to) and ran at a year. We didn't try to teach either one to walk, they just did it by choice, and they both did it at the same time even though they had completely different personalities and surroundings. Ironically, their first words were the same, too. it's a toss up for both of them with "ball" and "dog." They are two peas in a pod and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it when they play cute together.

I haven't purchased many new toys for Savvy, so she gets on the floor and plays cars with Cade. Cade's game of choice, as much as he loves his cars, is to take her baby doll and make her chase after him for it. They fight back and forth and kiss and make up seconds later. They have conversations that blow me away. At 21 months Savvy is pretty chatty--- compared to Cade anyway. She pulls out sentences and words I didn't know she knew. of course only I can interpret them, but it still blows me away.

Today she was in the high chair and said she was stinky and wanted to go potty. Okay? So I got her out, took off her diaper (which had some poop in it, ew!) and let her finish the job over the toilet. Of course she didn't think what she did was such a big deal, she just kept telling me to wipe her bum. Ha! I think Cade was 100 times more estatic than she was over going to the bathroom on the big girl toilet. So, I guess I'm going to the store to get a potty for her. We'll see where this takes us..... Perhaps this is another one of those examples when children will do what they want to when they want to. Hopefully she is lots sooner and easier than Cade was-- though I have to give credit to Kyle for sealing the deal with Cade and being the one to potty train him for good.

Devils Lake and the Two-Man Tent Experience

These are pictures taken a couple of weeks ago at Devils Lake. The Spencer family and friends take a yearly trip to the lake and they invited us to come along. I guess it is a close to camping as we can get here in Chicago.

It was Savvy's first time camping and she did great except for the sleeping part. It probably wasn't all her fault though since I didn't/forgot to bring a tent big enough for the entire family. I was thinking that Michelle and Sav would take the easy way out and room with Alicia Spencer at one of the local motels. (In fact, I could have sworn that was the plan.) As it turns out, Michelle and Savvy decided to stay with Cade and me which created a big problem...we had a two-man tent! I know, I know, Savvy and Cade are small so that shouldn't create a problem. Wrong!

It is a well-known fact that tentmakers are fairly optimistic when sizing tents. For example, when a tent box claims to be three-man tent, it is in fact a two-man tent (assuming the both people are on relatively good terms). And when it says a tent is a two-man tent, it really means it is a one-man tent, and that is where the problem occurred. It is my personal belief that you can take the stated tent size and divide by 1.5, and then round down to the nearest whole number. Well, we placed Cade at our feet, Savvy at our head and we slept at a diagonal. I slept pretty well but Michelle didn't and relayed to me that Savvy didn't either. In fact, she relayed the message to me over and over again the following couple of days. The whole fiasco in the tent kind of reminded me of a story that Patrick MacManus wrote called "Two-Man Tent Fever". You can read it here.

This One's For the Grandmas!

I am exercising my right as a free American to designate today as "Grandma's Day." My children are blessed to have such wonderful Grandmothers in their lives. They spoil them with thoughtful gifts, quality time, and most importantly, lots of love.

First, I want to give Grandma Henriksen a HAPPY BIRTHDAY shout out!! (I am 0-4 now with sending birthday greetings on time. Jake, Lesley, Rebecca, and now Grandma --so sorry!) We love you!!! Since Alabama is faring pretty well this football season, I wanted to make sure we sent you a shot of Cade sporting the jacket gifted to him when he was born. Gma had great foresight because it fits him perfectly in the season they are winning (Well, they always do well, but this is a particularly good season) so Cade can be extra proud of his Alabama roots! Thank you, Grams! We sure miss you and hope to be able to make a visit to the South soon. Our Grandma Henriksen is so great at remembering everyone's birthday, which just adds insult to injury when I don't celebrate her in a timely manner. Fortunately she still loves us anyway! WE LOVE YOU, GRAMS!

This past June my parents came out and we had a great time. My mom is such a wonderful Grandma and never ceases to amaze me with her energy around the kids. She sat in the back seat of our Subaru (by choice, I swear. Yes, I think she suffers from dementia a wee bit) between the kids in their car seats and kept them happy for the entire trip to Nauvoo-- or as Cade calls it, "Au-voo". While there, Cade developed a minor obsession with Joseph Smith and his martyrdom, trying to wrap his head around the idea of men killing a prophet, which as you can guess is nigh impossible considering he doesn't quite understand death. After the trip, Mom went home to Utah and found Cade two books about Joseph Smith, which has helped him tremendously in satisfying his huge appetite for knowledge about the great man.

Gramma Sheppard also loves to gift my kids with cute things. Cade got this jacket (for his birthday I think?) and he is proud to show off that he knows how to zip it up all by himself!

This darling hat ("darling" can be refuted by my sis Rebecca) was given to Savvy for Easter. While she was born a bow fanatic, she has been slow to pick up on wearing hats---until now! She LOVES this one and it's finally starting to fit her! I always crack up when the hat falls over her eyes and she runs around blindly without a care that she can't see.

In July we were treated with a trip from Great Grandma Sheppard. She was so great with Cade and let him take her all around the house and get the official Woodbury House Tour, complete with instructions on the whereabouts of silverware, socks and bathroom cleaner. She took the kids shopping to the toy store where Cade indulged himself on a remote control car and Savannah came home with a purse, which she prefers to go nowhere without. And, if it couldn't get any better-- I was treated with a nap while she played Candyland with the Cadester. We had a wonderful visit and I got to record her sharing some wonderful stories of her life. She is a strong woman and her making the big trip out here really meant a lot to us.

Later in July we went to Boise for Kyle's class reunion and the kids were treated to special "Gramma Berry" time while I spent the day with Kyle celebrating my big 26th ( side note-- I had to ask Kyle how old I turned-- I totally forgot. I had a brief moment of sadness when I realized I am on the other side of 25 now. Yikes). They had a ball playing with the sidewalk chalk, jumping on the tramp and running through the sprinkler. Cade took advantage of Gramma Berry's soft heart and conned at least a dozen ice cream bars out of her in a span of 36 hours. Gramma Berry truly inspired me on this trip; she was about to undergo surgery to remove her breast cancer and despite the fear and anxiety that she was facing, she still lived in the moment with her grandchildren, and that visit will be one Cade will never forget. Fortunately we have some fun pics so if Savvy was too young to remember, these can refresh her memory!

Look out! GOOSE IS 21!!

Drop Box

CAN'T BELIEVE IT, LITTLE SIS!!

I swear it was just yesterday that Grandma Henriksen woke me up from my slumber and told me that you were born. Even then I hated waking up in the morning and thought Grams was tricking me into getting me out of bed. Sure enough, you really were born on the day I went to the pumpkin patch with my kindergarten class. I couldn't wait to show you off to my new friends at school and I was anticipating the week that my class was learning about the letter "R" so I could bring in you, RRRRRebecca, to show and tell. As fate would have it, I was sick on show and tell day and couldn't bring you in. Fortunately the next week I got clever and decided "S" for " sister" would suffice. Showing you off to all my friends and my teachers at school was the most exciting thing for me ever.

And look at you, now! You are a woman. Such fond memories I have of growing up with you... you certainly were a patient little sis. I put you through a lot of grief--- making you repent for breaking the law of jinx has to be one of my favorite memories. And you teaching me "Sweet Hour of Prayer" is also in my Top 10. Boobytrap Christmases (like the one where we made you climb over the booby trap rather than go through the window ---oh what idiots we were!) are up there, and all the fun little notes you used to leave me when you were younger I will forever cherish (invites to sleepovers with your stuffed animals, a pedicure party) Oh, and remember when you massaged my back for an entire hour when I cleaned your room? That was great. Even though we are 5 years apart, I have always cherished our relationship and have never felt the years between us.

I'll never forget going to BYU and saying goodbye to you for the "last" time before I was on my own. I was at Melody's apt and we hugged and said goodbye. As you walked down the parking lot and got in the car with mom and dad, I cried like a baby. You had become my best friend.

Despite the miles between us, you remain my dear sister and friend and look forward to many more memories to come!!!

I LOVE YOU!

ps if you can't view the slide show, click here:

Last Weekend

Last weekend Cade decided to take Savvy on a little golf outing in between conference sessions. Here Cade is figuring out his next shot after hitting it in the hazard:

Savannah, impatient with Cade's indeciveness grabbed the putter out of his hand, with the intent on showing him how it was done. Unfortunately, she herself landed in the hazard...

...and she wasn't too happy about it

After Cade fell in, they both decided they were done with the game, and decided to hang out until Dad was ready to leave.

The walk back to the car....

Taking a rest:

Savannah in her state of hysteria over having to leave the beautiful outdoors to come inside for Session 2 of conference:

*Editor's note: In all actuality, these pictures are of Cade and Savvy accompanying Daddy on a fishing trip to a pond by our house. Savannah was dead set on bringing the golf putter with her so she could go fishing with it, too. Before long, Kyle had made his way around to the other side of the pond, and the kids wanted to stay put where they were, so their bored mom took a billion shots and decided to write a fake photo essay of what the kids were doing....

I was PUNK'D

Many of you may know that we have our home up for sale. Well, it's just on Forsalebyowner.com and we have a sign up, so that's as "For Sale" as it has been. Kyle and I have been debating for months where to go from there, but that's for another blog. If we're still married. (kidding, kidding....sort of)

Anyhow, I was outside with the kids looking at today's mail when Kyle hollered something to me from neighbor Barb's front yard (he was putting together her new leaf-picker-upper. Yes, isn't he sweet? Nothing so sweet as alterior motives. If he puts it together, then we can use it, too.). He came a little closer and repeated, "Someone wants to take a look at the house,"

My breathing quickened, my heart began to race. CRUD! What I had spent every spare moment cleaning today?

The garage.

Yeah, so NOT important when someone wants to look at the house. Of course I flooded Kyle with questions, none of which he could answer. All he told me is that this woman was wanting her daughter to see the house, and her daughter got off work in 30 minutes. I began calculating in my head.... If said woman does in fact get in touch with daughter, hopefully daughter will want to eat, change clothes, and that she lived at least 3 or 4 miles away. So I had about a minimum of 47 minutes. I immediately put him in charge of the kids and ran over to the house to assess the situation.

The garage hadn't been "put back together again" --- everything was piled in the driveway or on the floor of the garage from being pulled off the shelves. I had to harness my feelings of rage...er, disappointment. I was SO in the mood to get rid of Kyle's junk in the garage---but alas had to save that fun for another day and put everything back in the garage. I was literally running back and forth from the driveway. I looked ridiculous. Once the garage was done, I ran inside to see what state the house was in.

The entryway still had remnants of yestersday's Costco run-- boxes of diapers, a 2-pack of syrup, wipes, pull-ups.....ah! In a flash I had to switch to my right brain and play tetris with our storage. Then I ran from room to room to calculate how many minutes I could spend in each room before destiny showed up. THANK heavens I had decided to do dishes while the kids were eating lunch. I frantically ran around putting things away, dusting, vaccuming, scrubbing, and in the mean time calling Kyle twice to find out the ETA.

"Still haven't heard from her. I'll let you know when I do." Great.

I was like a human tornado flying through the house, but a good one of course, because I was putting everything in it's rightful place and condition.

Finally, I heard the door open. I threw the paper towel in my hand in the garbage and wiped the sweat off my forehead and took a deep breath. Then I heard the screaming of little children.

It was Kyle and the kids.

"Guess she's not coming. I even called her twice and got no answer."

What? You mean I forwent the opportunity to empty the garage of all of that useless junk so I could put laundry away, scrub light switches, turn on relaxing music, sparkle sink fixtures, and clean EVERY SINGLE ROOM IN THE HOUSE??!?!??!?!?!?!

I swear Kyle just wanted to get out of putting his laundry away. That and for me to leave his hiking boots, tents and firestarting supplies alone.

I totally feel punk'd.

On the bright side the house is clean, and if someone comes tomorrow, I could probably show it with 11.5 minutes notice this time....

And now I shall sleep.....sleep, glorious sleep!

Mah Qwerks

---> Back in the day when I was such a forward thing!

My sister tagged me with this one, and I had a lot of time today while raking leaves (hint, that's an inserted bragline so you all know that I am such a do-it-yer-selfer and keep up my own yard rather than do the snobby thing and hire out...eh, even though I threaten to do it on a weekly basis) to actually come up with My Official 8 Quirks, or more aptly titled,

My Quirks I am Not Ashamed to Admit:

I'm a pile girl. I sweep piles and leave them. It started when I was pregnant with Cade and couldn't bend over to sweep the crud in the dustpans, so that became Kyle's job. 4 years later, currently not pregnant, and I still haven't broken the habit of sweeping crumbs into piles and leaving them for someone else to come get. I was reeeeally tempted to leave all the leaves in their piles today after raking, but I decided I was turning over a new leaf (love the pun, don't you?) and committed to trying harder with the whole laziness with piles thing. Success! Every single pile (I made about 12 big ones) made it onto the tarp and to the back yard. However, I think I did myself a disservice because without all those piles, how is Kyle to notice how hard I worked? Those dang leaves just keep falling.

Sporadic Nibbler. The way I eat apples and corn on the cob is very non-systematic. I take a nibble here, another there. I don't work in a line, or on a particular side. I just randomly bite until I've decided I've had enough.

Consistently inconsistent. I have a series of phases, and have yet to be consistent at anything I desire to do or be. I have my clean-freak phase when I keep my home meticulous and stay on top of the laundry and dishes. That lasts for like a day and a half and I phase out when I remember I have a yard to take care of and phase into that. Then I remember I have children I should be enjoying and forget about the house and the yard and exert my energy in playing in the yard, jumping on the tramp, going to the park, the library, etc. Then I go into my calling phase make a zillion phone calls, send a zillion e-mails, pay a zillion (okay exaggerating a bit) visits, and drag my kids with me everywhere. The house is a disaster, my family goes hungry, but hey! I've been serving.:) Such irony in that statement. I also have a reading phase and I plow through a several books in a week's time, a blogging phase (currently there, it seems), a letter writing phase, a journaling phase, and a try-a-new-dessert-recipe phase. And you all have heard about my cooking phase, my running phase..... Alas. One day I shall find balance in all things......hmmm, sure.

Reverse psychology. Whenever I have to put the car in reverse, even if it's to back up just a few feet, I always look behind me over a dozen times and hit the break at least 4 or 5 times and move verrrry slowly. This stems from a bad parking lot experience in High School-- I was backing up the van out of my spot and I hit James Buchanan (to this day, I maintain my position as faultless because James was speeding, but of course we had to pay like $800 to fix his car. Grrrrr). The sound of the crunch terrifies me to this day, so I always back up with caution.

Priorities. According to Kyle, I have funny priorities. With my food consumption for instance: I prefer to drink skim or 1% milk so I can "save" my fat calories (but really, who's counting?) for a row of Oreos. Kyle, however, thinks Whole milk is better than anything that can be eaten and could drink his entire daily recommended fat consumption in a couple glasses of that stuff. Ew. I think that's a quirk. Or a crime.

Taken for Granted: My Cell Phone. I know how wonderful she is, bless her heart, but sometimes, I just don't really care about her. I can go for a couple of days without charging her up after the battery died and not think about it. I'll forget I put her on silence and muse, "hmm, it's been quiet lately. Wonder why???" when I haven't heard my phone ring in a week. And yet, when I need her, I am all about loving her and caring for her. I'll check my messages, charge her up, text and phone others until she is out of juice. I'm surprised she hasn't left me, seeing as how the relationship is so one-sided.

Funny fingers. I use the mouse (not the mouse, but you know, the place where you hover your fingers over to get the arrow to move? what's it called???) on our laptop with two hands. I know real techno-hip people do it with one. They scroll and click using their preferred hand of choice. But I'm telling you, once you try scrolling with your right index finger and clicking with your left index finger, you'll never go back. You're saving at least 2 miliseconds with each scroll-click cycle. Surfing the net on a laptop just got easier. And faster. And Cade has picked up on it, too. Observant that boy is!

Driving like Miss Daisy. When I have people in the car with me, I drive reaaal slow. I don't mean to, it's just that I have difficulty maintaining a conversation and the speed limit simultaneously. I think this stems from my teenage years--- my mom didn't let me drive other people in the car (unless it was my sister) when I got my license. When I theoretically could have driven a vehicle with friends in it, I didn't have a car (college). I didn't drive a car on a regular basis until I got married, and if both of us was going somewhere, Kyle drove. I also rode the bus quite a bit, too, as those were the free bus pass days at the Y....So, that has given me pretty much zero experience with maintaining a conversation while driving with others in my car.

And there you have it. Now it's your turn to shed some layers and expose the quirky side of you: Sheryl, Marcy, Texas Tony (I know, it's going to be hard not writing about politics OR religion, but I am sure you can weasle them in somehow), Lenee, Emily S. and California Emily. :) And anyone else who is brave enough. (Dad and Goose, can't wait to read yours!)

So, why do I blog?

I am getting the feeling I may wax a bit philosphic on this post. If you're not in the mood to read my potentially boring musings , feel free to stop now, skip it, and wait for some pictures to be uploaded from our Conference Weekend. You may have to be patient. This could be months, as the pictures of the weekend are on Kyle's camera and I have to get a special pass from the hall monitor in order to use it.

I have been thinking a lot about blogging, or better said, writing, and the culture I live in-- be it the LDS culture, the American middle-class culture, the SAHM culture, the business-owning culture....

I suppose the first of these thoughts came to fruition last Christmas when I sent out our family Christmas letter. I thought I would write a parody and dictate what a "perfectly" perfect year we had. I exaggerated Cade's accomplishments, my nonexestent talents, Kyle's booming business, and my perfect pregnancy with Savannah, and what a darling perfect child she was. On the flip side of the Christmas letter, I wrote a dose of our reality.

So often we get those Christmas cards dripping with perfection. The family photo is perfect, the children are excelling perfectly, all aspects in life are humming along perfectly...... those cards make you want to vomit. (I know you've read them). But on the flip side, perhaps there is another side of the story that we don't know about. And I guess that's where my thoughts have taken me over the last several months. I'm quite curious about the pyschology behind writing and blogging.

Why do I write? Why do I blog? Why do other people blog? What purpose are we fulfilling with our blogs? Or are we not quite sure of the "why" ---- we're just simply doing it because it's "the thing to do"? Or.....do we feel our blog is:

A Form of Journaling. "Form of" is the key, because I would not say a blog (unless totally private)is bonefied journal. Rarely do we ever write those things which are most sacred, if we know other's eyes are going to read them. However, I will be the first to say I completely count my posts on this blog as doing my family history. (I'm serious). So, while blogging is definitely an account of one's experiences, it may not be the most true to form journal. Because we can have feedback from others and others read what we write, it provides us with a source of motivation to continue writing.

A Dose of Self-worth. One may blog because it makes her feel better about her/himself. We may blog to fulfill a need to publish our accomplishments, be it potty training a toddler, landing a job, or cooking a meal. But if we publish a good day, a cute picture of the kids, a finished project does it mean we are insecure? If a considerable amount of time lapses between posts, does it mean we are going through a dark period? Do we have something to hide? Or does it mean we are too busy to make an account of our lives? There could be some of us who blog regularly to keep us sane, to help us see the sunshine in the shadows, because we are going through dark times......

Inexpensive Therapy. The therapy behind writing has truly intrigued me the last while. I myself have basked in the therapeutic catharsis of unloading emotionally my day in the written word. I have also been touched by the real and personal blogs of others who share their pain, their struggles, laughs and triumphs. I like to think I've kept my posts real, down to earth, and have recently re-committed myself to the "realness" in life that seems to have evaded much of the blogworld these days, hence the new title (you may not have noticed. It's okay) I don't pretend that my deepest, truest feelings, I save for my private journal, my husband, my mom, sisters, and close friends.

On an almost unrelated, but totally related, I have found myself laughing outloud at several posts on this blog. The witty-ness, originality (yet not, because we can all find so much of ourselves in her) and satirical nature of the blog has reminded me (and so many I am sure) to not take myself so seriously.

What can other's written word tell us?

Should we take the writing at face value or dig deeper because those writing may want us to reach out to them? Do they want to stay in hiding behind the smiling life? Are those struggling simply making the attempt to find joy and so they blog only about joys? Or are there some who are struggling and don't even know it? Denial perhaps? Does any of this even matter? Should we even care? Is the idea of hiding behind words creating an unnecessary paranoia that we are all creating a fantasy life out of our blogs?

I don't mean to obsess over the idea that everyone is harboring a struggle they want to shield from the world. There were many talks given in conference which addressed that many are struggling today, and there was also counsel given to reach out. What can be plainly seen in front of us, could also be an alternate reality that we may need to step into to help someone....

And so, why do I blog? Is it my alternate reality?

Well......I blog to help me find the funnies in the not-so-funny moments. I blog to get things out of my system and off my (nonexistent) chest. I blog to remind myself how blessed I am. I blog to keep me humble. I blog to document the cherished miracles in life that seems to be fleeting. I blog to vent. I blog to remember. I blog to appear better than I am. I blog to enjoy a writing assignment. I blog to keep my family and friends up-to-date on our lives. And for so many other reasons, I blog.

Why do you blog?

No Excuses

After a knee injury prior to the Richmond Marathon that never came to fruition (bad wording, the Marathon went on, even though I couldn't run it. Rude of those marathon event planners to go one without me, I know...), I gave up running for a while. For 11 months. Ironically, my running-despising husband picked it up the day I stopped . The same man who thought I was insane for running a few miles at a time to blow off stress will now go out for 10 mile runs "for fun." For the last several weeks he's been saying the worst combination of 4 words possible,

"You. Should. Go. Run."

Echhhhh.

It's a phrase which has taken me back to my high school years when my mom would nag (love you, Mom!) me to run. The phrase makes my skin crawl.

Well dangit, I'll run when I feel like it! I loathe when I am told to do something that I may otherwise do except when others suggest it, I don't want to because it feels like it is taking my freedom to choose away. So I choose not to do it. My excuse to Kyle was always the same. Lame, but always the same. At least I was consistent:

"I need new running shoes."

K: Then go get some.

M: I don't have time.

K: Uh, I take the kids to the gym for two hours almost every day....you could go then.

M: But that's when I get everything else done!

K: I'm just saying...

So I did it. I was terrified. Being out of the running world frightened me. I didn't remember what a good running shoe felt like. Light? Cushiony? Supportive? Uhhh.... I went anyway. I tried on a shoe, liked what I felt, but wasn't sure if there was better out there. So I tried on more, and more, and more and more.... and didn't like any of the others. So I went back to buy the first pair. But my size was gone (of course), so I opted for the free shipping delivery to my front door.

Yesterday, I was at the bathroom sink looking in the mirror putting on mascara when sweet Cade came to me bearing the most beautiful sight I have ever seen (besides my children sleeping):

And now I have no excuse. Time to get running (And don't tell me to do it.)

Got any good running music?

Two little Monkeys ...

This is Savvy getting Cade back for that choke hold earlier:





No more monkeys jumping on the bed!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love bed time?