Workout Changes/ Kiddo Updates

Well the musical is over..gone and done. However, my kiddos are still singing " A blessing on your head, mazel tov, mazel tov"...."matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match" and our favorite " If I were a rich  man, dieele, diddle, dee di di dium".......OVER AND OVER. I have to laugh though at the though that its a true sign that your kids attend a classical school when they know all the musical songs and know about the Tailor Motel KomZoil :). We loved every bit of Fiddler but now we are moving on to Gallery Night and winding down the school year.

This was before the stones were complete on the left but I love the angled windows-I was trying to create a "marc chagall" style...and the dried herbs are fantastic too!

One of the first scenes looking into Tevyes home!

Side panels of Anatevka

Love the lighting during "Tradition"

The Inn Scene was a hit for everyone. The boards were stained all different colors and with different lighting looked awesome!

LOVE IT

The blessing in Motel ComZoil's tailor shop. Ribbit, Goober and I painted that old dresser to look like a sewing table with a folk art design. It was blue and thrown out on the side of the road.

More of the Tailor Motel ComZoil's shop...do you see the peeling plaster on the walls and thread racks?

See all that stone work on Tevye's chimney? All FOAM!

A closer look at the exterior of Motel's tailor shop!

Another great thing about joining our gym has been the ability to incorporate swimming into our workouts. WE LOVE TO SWIM..in fact, Goober just made the swim team and is really loving it. I like that he is meeting friends outside of school and church and that is PHYSICALLY wears him out. I know from personal experience that if you are wrestling with anxiety that a good hard swim can destress you. As I watching the kiddos take swim lessons I became interested in swimming more and now I swim in the lane beside them during the lesson. Goober and I even go up some mornings and do swimming workouts on our own, practicing the different strokes, entry and exits and how to flip to start a new lap. I am a really bad swimmer as far as holding my breath goes so I am really proud of my 3 for tackling it!

I taught Goober how to pump gas one day including how to pay for it. HE HAS OWNED IT SINCE! He doesn't want any help!

Some recent favorites-Roasted Cauliflower with Smoked Paprika. A grassfed burger topped with onions and tomatoes cooked in balsamic vinegar!

This is pretty much a heap of everything left in the fridge but was good....Tuna, cucumbers, pickles, cilantro, onions, pickled beets and some spicy brown mustard! YUM!

We have had a lot of fun making puppets for American Heritage Girls lately....Ribbit had to make 3 different kinds-finger, sock and marionette. The girls all worked very hard and are looking forward to putting on their puppet shows. We also have our lock in tomorrow night and Ribbit is busting at the seams to go play and be a part of the Talent Show!

We went to see Beauty and the Beast with our good friend Kason...they love watching a movie and eating dinner at the same time!

You may have seen the videos of my 7 and 5 year old scaling these rock walls like a beast....THEY AREN'T SCARED OF ANYTHING! Goober was at the batting cages with Adam.

We got an awesome Easter box from Aunt Robin and Uncle Carl yesterday. The kids loved it. Goober said "Aunt Robin is the best great aunt!, Little Man said " those easter snack cakes are awesome" and Ribbit loved the snugglies and said "that is a lot of candy!"

Speaking of Ribbit she got Daniel of the Month again for March..she is such a sweet obedient child and I am so thankful that she wants to do everything to show her love for God. She is so tenderhearted and always points out the good in everyone. I really am proud of her!

She is just as beautiful inside as she is on the outside!

One proud little girl!

Dallas Rock N Roll 1/2

I recieved my pictures from the Dallas half this morning and I wanted to write down my thoughts before I forget everything about this race.

Sent this to Adam to let them know I was about to start..Reunion Tower in the background...it was the inspiration behind the medal!

I will say that this was a mental race for sure. Not having a girlfriend to talk to made it a very lonely race and listening to music was a good distraction but not anything close to replacing one of my running buddies.

The only positive thing about running solo was that I KILLED it. I did my own pace for the whole trek (besides getting behind some people who decided to walk mid race and not follow race etiquette of moving to the edges...hhmmm) and finished with a killer time of 1:53...a PR for me..I think :). I told myself that if I got a SUB 2 time then I would head to Roots to celebrate. Roots is a local coffee shop that makes a killer Carrot/raisin/walnut/cinnamon muffin that is to die for..but since its made with regular flour I allow myself these awesome HUGE muffins as a treat! I also got a honey latte...OH YUM!!! Anyways, in order to not drive myself insane I made a plan. I set my Garmin when I first crossed the starting line and made myself not look at my splits  until mile 12. I figured if I was on track to run a SUB 2 then I would know my mile 12. At mile 12 I realized that I was KILLING it and decided to give all I had for the last 1.1 miles and get a great time!!!

Started in Corral 5...my time could have put me in 4 but I was pleased to start this close to the front!

Some memories from the run are.....

DANG THE HILLS. I never knew Dallas was so hilly but my thighs and hips were burning as we went up and down. We even ran up an exit ramp...OUCH!!!

The bridges....AHHHHHH. My worst memory from the Tour De Fleurs race was the awful bridges. You don't feel it when you are in a car but when you are on foot you feel every little bounce in that bridge and to make things worse the WIND...it feels like you can't get your bearings and lots of other runners felt it too as I saw many put out their arms in an attempt to balance themselves. We did however run over the new suspension bridge in Dallas...that was the only picture I took on my phone...it was a neat view. The other views were nice but not worth wrestling with my headphones, turning off my music, etc, etc.

The only picture I took during the race...coming up to the suspension bridge!

The homeless people. I hurt for them. They lined the first mile heckling us, reaching out for us, laughing at us, grabbing at us. They were almost like animals and laughed like hyenas. It was sad. The Dallas police did a good job standing watch but I was jittery and screamed when a mom stepped out into the race to get a picture of her daughter...They were everywhere as we ran through Deep Ellum and the way they acted was really hard to watch.

From the race photographers....I look like I was struggling :)

The Dallas police...with all they have been through over the last year, they were out there smiling the whole time. Many people wore shirts or made signs thanking them and almost every runner told each one thank you as we ran past them.

The Michelob inflatable sign .....it deflated as I was running under it. Hehe, the generator was lifting off the ground and two men ran to sit on it. I just kept running, when I looked back it was touching the ground.

CHUGGING water after..I wouldn't even stop for the photographer :)

The weather..it was hot. Many people dressed like they lived somewhere other than TX and I saw A TON of sweat pouring off of people who were in long sleeves and full pants. I on the other  hand wore my Team Collins tank top and shorts that I had planned to run in for the Disney Marathon (until that blizzard happenend :)).

I loved running through a lot of historic Dallas and the spot where Kennedy was shot it. I defintely looked up into the red  building as I ran, not sure why but I did as I hit the grassy knoll.

My favorite moment was running past a JACKED up dude. He had more muscles than I had ever seen and was running without a shirt on. I just flew past and mentally high fived myself.

FINISHED!!!! I was super happy to reach this line!

Overall I was soooo happy with myself after the run. I did get a pounding dehydration headache later in the day (even though I drank tons) and had to cancel movie plans but I took a pill of pepperint and frankincense oil and it was gone after I had a full meal of sausage, turnip greens and cabbage...YUM!!!

I had a chest cold that morning but put breathe on my chest and feet and felt fine. I did cough a little during the race but nothing uncontrollable.

My stats were #834 out of 8,312 runners.
I was #35 out of 749 female runners in my age division.
I was #213 out of the 4,821 females who ran.
My fastest mile was mile 11 at 8:11 and my slowest was 9:43 in mile 1-of course,  I jostled around walkers and ran from homeless people!!

My final times were an 8:35 minute mile...THATS so great...i can normally only keep that pace for 5-7 miles..I really think mentally telling myself to push was what helped me get my time of 1:53...you will notice I ran farther than 13.1...i always jostle to get in front of people and it adds on distance :).

Last 1/2 of Spring Break

We are one day away from being done with our Spring Break. We got back from camping yesterday morning and spent the rest of the day upacking, cleaning up our camping supplies and doing laundry.....oh and we also went down to Deep Ellum for lunch and to the Dallas Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon Expo for 4 hours...what were we thinking? We were totally exhausted from camping but sucked it up and had a great time walking downtown and getting my gear for tomorrrow's race.

This half feels so much different from the Disney Full...just a little over 2 months ago. The biggest is that my girlfriend works for the Dallas Athletic Comission and got me a FREE BIB! and even better a FREE PARKING SPOT AT THE RACE START LINE!!! WHOOP. I am so not stressed about this race...everything is laid out, bib attached, shoe tag on, fuel in my belt, spotify downloaded and I'm ready to run. Its nice to be ready to run a half at a week's notice and not feel like I couldn't do it .....and do it in Dallas, get to see so many of the buildings up close and personal that I am constantly whizzing past!!!

Goober's cheer for me tomorrow!

Little Man's BIG handwriting to cheer me on!

Ribbit now calls me by my first name apparently...HA

I am also doing it alone. My girlfriend is in a corral far behind me and has no intentions of staying with me. I have no fans to cheer me on and I will be taking lots of selfies. I am TOTALLY ok with this. I am going to listen to a podcast that I have been wanting to hear on "Function over Form-how to talk to your children about food and exercise" and I have also got a Spotify running list that should keep me cruising. I NEVER wear headphones, i always talk so this will be new and I think maybe refreshing for me. I will also get to enjoy the post race festivities instead of having to jump on an airplane or dodge kiddos who are trying to grab my medal off of my neck :)...and oh yeah, the parking spot....YEEESSSSS!!!!

So back to our camping. We headed down to Dino Valley and camped with 2 of our bestest family friends. Between the 3 families we had 6 kiddos, ages 4-12. We also had 4 tents as the two older boys wanted to camp together in our little 2 man tent and then our friends 7 year old wanted to try to camp on his own in his little vintage tent. It was precious. We had a fort for sure as we also had 2 picnic tables and a gazebo to cover our grill and fire pit. We looked LEGIT.

We got there in plenty of time to set up camp, make dinner and hang out some...the adults favorite part of the trip!

Later that night we went bouldering...the kids LOVED this..they asked to go back several time..more like every 5 mintues but the parents had several mini heart attacks the first time and we couldn't take it a second time.

My kiddos are like little billy goats!!!

No fear at all!

Wanted to climb all night long!!

Every camping night has to end with smores. Or if you are with the Winsteads you get SMOREOS...or with the Hoppers Campfire pudding cups....fortunately we were with both :)

From my first morning run...REALLY fast which surprised me since I wasn't feeling that great...look at my views though!

These two stayed in their own 2 person tent and had the best time together, as usual!

My people, I love these fellow mommas, teachers and running buddies. We are a village and I love them dearly!

He is a STRONG man!

We have been wanting to take the kids to Dinosaur Valley State Park ever since we moved here. Its so stinking neat as you can walk inside of dinosaur foot prints and see human foot prints right beside them. We saw several prints and got excited over each one....we didn't care that it was FREEZING water, we took off our socks and shoes and made sure we got down and dirty!!! I love that we had the fabulous Archeaologist Adam with us as well to remind us the creation story, the flood, the new creation and how dinosaurs fit into all of that as well as a new earth timeline. The dinosaur footprints alone SELL me on a new earth but hearing my hubby preach it made it come alive.

HA!

Mr. Archaeology here found the first mark...from then on we were practically sprinting up and down this river bed!!!

TELL ME THAT IS NOT THE COOLEST THING YOU HAVE EVER SEEN!

Mom of the year....sure kids, take off your shoes and socks and step into FREEZING water even though you are already coughing and snotty...ha!

See the footprint underneath?

Talking to the whole group about "Genesis".

See the larger tracks in the background? It was really was fascinating. I want to go back already!

The first one, well after me to jump in was my little explorer. Look at how little she is compared to that track! My foot is in the human foot print right beside it.

I mean I could not have been more excited. You see how there is no one else in that water but me...haha. I was ready to dive in...see the human foot print to my left, your right?

3 families loving life on Spring Break!!!

I was worried that this trip may not happen as I had a crown replaced and 3 fillings redone on Wendesday morning...total of 11 shots...YUP...I couldn't feel anything right down to my toes...in fact it felt kinda good ;). BUT, i was hungry but couldn't chew or swallow. Then I got a sore throat and runny nose and was ready to cancel it all. I am grateful we didn't but boy did our family go through some oils those 3 days. By night 2 we were all so tired that we fell asleep fast and not one of us coughed or got up to blow our noses! In fact us 3 ladies felt so great that we got out and ran both mornings....10.5 miles total ...not including all of our hiking! To say that my legs felt like jelly this morning was an understatement....so I DID NOT RUN TODAY..just some weights and a FULL HOUR OF HOT YOGA>>>>>>my new favorite!!!....OUCH!

After all that we asked the kiddos what their favorite part of all of our Spring Break was and here is what they said ...

Of course she had to have this Anklosauras hat...and for $4 , why not? She helped me make campfire pancakes one morning. 

These sweet friends all crammed into Jesses's tent to play around while we packed up the site on Friday morning. We could hear them laughing and talking the whole time!

After all that we asked the kiddos what their favorite part of all of our Spring Break was and here is what they said ...

Goober-feeding Levi his bottle at the art musuem in Arkansas
Ribbit-holding Baby Levi
Little Man-Bouldering at the camp site
Adam-having Levi at Crystal Bridges
Me-getting to sing Levi to sleep ...and I'm thinking my 1/2 tomorrow will be awesome too.