Thursday, January 29, 2015

Mr. December

Remember way back in March or April when Reed was a winner in the Texas beaches art contest?
One of his prizes was that his picture would be in the Texas General Land Office calendar.
 
 
Reed kept asking me about the calendar and why we hadn't gotten one.  I told him they must not have forwarded it to our new address. (We were still in the rent house when he won.)
 
 
I got an email from the TX Land Office the other day saying that Reed's calendar had been returned, and they'd like to get it to us.
 
 
Within a day or two they delivered 10 of them to me!
(Reed's kindergarten teacher emailed me and said they had sent her 10 too.)
 
 
Since there were 40 winners, not every kid got to have their picture as the main monthly picture, most pictures were just featured in little squares alongside the date boxes.
 
 
When I got the calendar I kept looking and looking for Reed's. I finally found him...I'm calling him Mr. December since he got the prime December spot!
 
 
(I know it's hard to see, it says "Reed Ingersoll, Age 6" in yellow under his picture.)

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Not a Blizzard

Supposedly there is a blizzard (or a blizzard didn't show up) in the Northeast.
 
You wouldn't know that kind of weather even exists from the temperature here.
I picked up 3 stinky, sweaty children wearing t-shrits and shorts from school today.
 
 
That's right, sweaty (which makes them stinky). 

Monday, January 26, 2015

Not Exactly How You Do It

We took the boys to the Houston Safari Club Convention on Saturday.
You're supposed to walk around and look at all the hunting stuff and hunting trips they have offered.
You also have lots of people to talk to since Grandpa Gary knows everybody.
 
I'm not sure Kyle and Reed got that memo.
 
Kyle made himself at home with the only stuffed animal in the place.
 
 
And Reed was only interested in the art.
 
Not very Ingersoll-y at all on their parts.

Friday, January 23, 2015

How Could I be Embarrassing?!

Not running everyday frees up a lot of time.
A lot.
 
The last time I ran (before the marathon) was last Wednesday, and in that time I've had lunch or breakfast with my mom and dad (twice), Allison, JD and my kids.
 
 
Kyle asked me to have lunch with him last Friday.
He wouldn't let Reed sit with us, and also asked to take a selfie of us together.
 
 
I had lunch with Reed today. He held my hand as we walked in the cafeteria. (melt my heart)
He didn't want a selfie, but did want a picture with his friend.
 
On the flip side, JR made me promise not to come anywhere near his lunch, and told me he'd die of embarrassment if he saw me.
 

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Trouble with a Capital T

JR gave us exactly 2 weeks off from Annie before he auditioned for another show.
He auditioned for The Music Man and I had him all prepared that he wasn't going to the lead, but instead get the part of Marcellus (Harold Hill's friend played by Buddy Hackett in the 1962 movie).
 
 
And wouldn't you know it, JR proved me wrong and was cast as Harold Hill (the music man).
 
 
Of course we are thrilled for him, but the songs in The Music Man are hard! I'm so glad we have until May to practice.
 
 
If you ask JR what he wants to be when he grows up he'll tell you an actor. And then he has 3 actors he wants to be like: Johnny Depp, Matthew McConaughey (he might say that one just cause his mom is such a fan), and Hugh Jackman (Musical theatre and Wolverine...JR thinks he hung the moon). 
 
 
So when I found Hugh Jackman talking about The Music Man being his first musical when he was 14 I couldn't believe it.

Monday, January 19, 2015

26.2 Toots of my own Horn



So....I ran the Chevron Houston Marathon yesterday.
 
In a moment of weakness last spring, I put my name in the lottery (I'm not fast enough to just "get in") and my name got picked. I found out in June I got in, and I've been training since August. 
 
I'm not going to bore you with a play-by-play, but here's the gist of my day:
 
 I teared up when I crossed the starting line (I crossed around 23 minutes after the gun).  I think I was proud I was doing it, scared to be doing it, happy I was able to do it, and thinking of all the work that had gone in to it. I was also scared that maybe I wouldn't finish. The Houston Marathon has a time limit. If you don't finish in 6 hours they take you off the course, and you don't get the medal, t-shirt, or glass. (No t-shirt!)
 
Starting line selfie

 
 
I ran the whole time until mile 20. (I stopped each time to give my "cheering section" hugs, and I also walked through all the Gatorade/water station). 
If you're trying to read my hand it says "One day you will not be able to do this. Today is not that day."
 
 
I also stopped to see one of my former students. He's in a band called, Brent and Kate, and they were playing around mile 7. (There's entertainment all along the route.) I ran up to give him a hug and he announced over the microphone that I was his 7th grade science teacher.
 
 
 
Saying "hi" to my cheering section at mile 15.
Not as smiley.
 
I finished in 5:04:54 which is an overall 11:26 pace.
That means I ran 26.2 miles at an average of 5.25 miles an hour. I'm good with that.
 
 
Right after I got my medal...about to go get my t-shirt!
 
So here's my take away:
1. The Houston Marathon is an amazing race. It's the nicest race I've ever been in. Snacks, tons to drink, lots of police, aid stations (which I've never seen on a course), and according to the news...250,000 spectators to cheer.
2. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
3. I will never run another marathon by myself. If somebody (who is a non-runner, not somebody fast who would just leave me at the starting line) wanted me to do it with them, I would. But that's the only way I'd ever do it again.
4. My entire body hurts.
 
 
Most importantly, there are some special thank yous that I must give out:
 
-Thank you Lord that the day was gorgeous, my body is/was healthy, and most of all...that I didn't have to use any of the port-a-potties!
 
-Thank you Jason for organizing 3 kids and 3 grandparents to come cheer me on. I know how hard it was with all the street closures.  It really made me happy to have you all there.
Jason even brought the bikes and he and the boys rode their bikes to Kyle's teacher's house (she came out to see me too) because they couldn't get there with the car.
It was a lot of work and I really appreciate it.
  (Here we are at 5:15 in the morning as we are about to leave for Jason to drop me off. You can see he has his trusty street closures map in his hand.)
 
 
-Thank you Granny Sherry for babysitting when I needed to run, driving my parents around race day, making sure the kids were fed yesterday after the soreness set in, and for entertaining them today while I recover.
 
 
-Thank you to my parents who left in the middle of the night to be at the race. Thank you also for telling every person you've come in contact with this last month that I was running the Houston marathon.
 
 
-Thank you Allison (and Geoff and Gwen) for letting my family take over your home so they could have a prime spot to see me run by. It was great seeing y'all!
 
 
-Thank you to my boys who made the cutest signs. As you can see, Reed has a little more faith in my running ability than JR.

 
 
- And, of course, thank you so much to Caroline.  Caroline had the worst job of all since she's had to listen to me talk about running this thing since June.  As we all know, nobody wants to listen to other people's work-out stories. Thank you so much for your encouragement and listening ear!


So that's it.  I can officially say I've run a marathon.
 

Saturday, January 17, 2015

The Wait is Over

Kyle's teeth have been falling out since he was four.
Poor Reed was about to turn seven and had lost none.

The last night he was six, his bottom tooth came out.
And then he pulled the other last night.

Finally.


Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Smart Choice

Kyle certainly knew what he was doing when he turned down a trip to the deer lease.
He told me he wanted to go to Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw's, and it's safe to say, he wasn't disappointed with his decision.
 
 
He took selfies on the car ride up.


 Got a birthday cake all to himself.
 
 
Held animals that didn't really want to be held.
 
 
 
Ate ice cream after going to the movies.
 
 
Then found himself in the toy department at Target...with gummy bears.
 
I texted this picture to Jason and said "Only grandchildren ride in the basket covered in presents eating gummy bears."
 
His response back? "That's ridiculous."

Monday, January 12, 2015

Fun for Boys

Jason, JR, and Reed went to Jason's deer lease in Ozona, TX this weekend. They hadn't been to the deer lease all season because we always had something going on (and when I say "we" I pretty much mean "JR" since he's the busy one).
 
 
This was the last weekend, and was only open to youth. 
 The plan was to take JR and Kyle (Jason said he couldn't handle all 3) because Kyle seems to be more interested in hunting than Reed. 
But Kyle said if he couldn't shoot (he's not old enough to shoot yet) he didn't want to go.  So it was JR and Reed off to Ozona...and no, I have no idea where Ozona is. I think it is south and west and about a million miles from Houston.
 
 
Here they are sitting in the deer blind.
From my understanding this is considered "fun".
 
 
As you can see, it was a successful hunt. When JR called me he said, "I shot my first American animal!" 


 
 
And if you need more proof that they had a good time, here's Reed coming home yesterday.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Oil Pastels

I didn't even know what oil pastels were, but Reed kept asking for them for Christmas.
In fact, it was the number one thing on his list, and he'll tell you it was his favorite thing Santa Claus brought him.
 
He learned from the drawing videos he watches online that he needed oil pastels to be able to blend colors.  I thought they were just going to make a huge mess, but here's what he brought me his first time using them.
 
"See how I can blend my colors, mom.  You can blend crayons."
 
What can I say, he was right.  He needed those oil pastels.
 
Then to show me how he's been needing them all along, he brought me two pictures to compare.
Sonic in crayon at the top. Oil pastels at the bottom.
 
But he did learn that you can't oil pastel everything.
 
Here's his Elsa he did with crayons and a sharpie.
 
Now, I saw his Anna when it was just in pencil, and I actually thought it was better than his Elsa.
After he oil pasteled it...not so much.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

7 on the 7th

So I do believe the birthday celebrations have drawn to a close...until the end of the month when we get around to having their birthday party.
 

Granny Sherry took them to Benihana's for lunch on Sunday. Jason gobbled up their leftovers before anybody else (as in me) could even get a bite.



Decorated door + Captain America party masks + candle "crown" from school + swords from the dollar aisle at Target as presents = happy birthday boys.



 Last night Grandpa Gary and Granny Buffie took us to eat Mexican food.
They were excited to get to wear the birthday sombreros.

 
They finished off the evening with the clown cones at Baskin Robbins.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Back at It

As you can clearly see, 2 of the 3 were not so excited to be headed back to school today after Christmas break.
 
 

Monday, January 5, 2015

Better Than Getting Nothing

I feel so sorry for anybody who has a birthday that falls from Thanksgiving until the end of January.
That time frame includes 3/5 of our family: Jason at Thanksgiving and Kyle and Reed on January 7th.
 
(JR and I hit the "6 months away from Christmas" birthday jackpot.)
 
We were trying to move to Houston during Kyle and Reed's birthday last year, so, not only was Jason not able to go to their party, we didn't even get them anything.
It wasn't like we purposely didn't get them anything, we told them we'd get them an archery set once we moved...and then we never did.
 
 
Buying them "stuff" is out of the question since Christmas was just two weeks ago, so this year we took them to Monster Jam.
 Because how can you go wrong with monster trucks and almost 7 year olds? You can't.
 
 
We even had pit passes so the kids could go "on the field" before the show.


Reed writing his name on one of the cars to be smashed.


 The wheels are kinda big on these things.





Not monster trucks

 
 
JR was super excited about seeing a Taco Bell hot sauce walking around.
 
 
This is Grave Digger.  It won the race.


This is Monster Mutt. It won the free-style.
 


 View from our seats.

By the end of the show almost all the trucks were upside down and wrecked. 
But I think that's the point.