Becoming the perfect foursome

We all know how much my husband loves golf. I mean, other than the fact he worked as a golf professional for eleven years, he began playing the game when he was Luke’s age. And while I didn’t start playing until my early teens, I truly enjoy the game and still get a euphoric high whenever I crush a drive. It’s fun. So when I suggested we all go play a few holes on Mother’s Day afternoon, everyone was all over it.

And then the next week our country club hosted a Symetra Tour event, which is the tour below the LPGA. Chris was in charge of organizing caddies for the event, and we even broughtTaylor to an associated kid clinic where a few of the professional players gave her tips on putting and driving. She was in awe.

The first day of the tournament, I brought my girl out to sit and watch some of the women play. It was amazing how well these athletes performed. And it was perfect for Taylor to watch them, empowering her and showing her powerful females that didn’t wear princess crowns.

And we got to hang out with Chris for a minute.

And the golf enthusiasm is staying with us. Chris rounded up a pair of junior clubs and some pretty colorful golf balls for us to practice with at home. We are one step closer to becoming the perfect foursome.

Shaking the dust off

After taking a bit of a winter break from running, I got a new pair of Nike Lunar Glides for my birthday and started to hit the pavement again. They are bright blue. Neon blueberry. Super obnoxious, but feel like I’m running on clouds.

Last December I had been convinced to sign up for a local 15k race, which was basically forever ago. I kept denying it was steadily approaching, until at the beginning of the month I flipped through my calendar and saw that third Sunday circled in red marker. 9.3 miles through the Biltmore Estate.

I was good with five miles. I could run a fast five in my sleep at that point, but 9.3 was a bit daunting. But I was told the course was relatively easy, with both big climbs within the first four miles, so I kept up with my training runs and felt strong going into the race weekend.

My friend, Jen, picked me up before six that rainy Sunday morning, both of us waiting for our coffee to kick in and hoping that once the sun came up the rain would stop. It wasn’t pouring, merely drizzling, but still wet enough that I had to wrap my iPod Nano into my running pants and trust that my mix was good enough to not need manual flipping. We weaved our way up to the front of the starting group, hoping that would avoid us having to leapfrog past all the slower runners. But when the marshal came out to welcome us and give us last minute notes on the course, I realized how many runners were behind me. And then right before he blew the horn, he eyed the ones in the front and said, I trust all of you are less than seven-minute milers, right? And then he pressed down his thumb and BAM! the race was underway.

And then I started moving my legs. Fast. And then the true less-than-seven-minute-milers nearly trampled me. Good Lord! Those people were so fast. It almost felt like that scene from The Lion King when the stampede of wildebeests took out Mufasa.

But instead of climbing up a tree and throwing rocks at the fast runners passing me, I kept up my slower pace and pushed up the first hill. And then the second. Jen was totally out of my sights at this point, so I dialed into my breath and my playlist and let my mind and my legs do the work.

I had never run the course before, and when I was passing mile markers I was unaware of how fast I was going because my iPod/watch was snug in my waistband. I didn’t really have a finish-time goal, but wanted to end at less than a ten-minute mile pace. And while the first three miles felt strong, the last three miles felt awful. I had to stop and walk a few times, which always makes me feel defeated. It was just wooded turn after wooded turn for the last mile, and then once I heard the cheering of the finish line I picked up my pace for the final hill.

I finished in 1:25:34, which was a 9:11-mile pace, and 17^th in my age group. And considering how lame I felt the last third of the race, I was thrilled with that time. In fact, I felt pretty awesome.

May: The month of the sprinkler

April was the month of bubbles on the porch. This month we have found a new favorite outside activity... The sprinkler!

A boy and his blankie

When the kids and I were visiting my sister in Birmingham recently, Luke accidentally drug his beloved blankie through a pile of pine straw while we were hopping around town. And while I usually can just brush and fluff the debris off his blankie, this mess was dirty and deep and required a quick wash and dry the following morning. And for those two hours where my son’s hands were not directly touching his worn blue Little Giraffe wonder, he was a crazy mess, wandering aimlessly around Libba’s house and crying out in pain and suffering. He was in misery. But my sister and I thought it was HILARIOUS. Seriously... Loosing your mind because you can’t touch your blanket for a mere two hours in a three to four-week span is pretty ridiculous. Two year old problems! I could write a book.

Or make a movie! Because the other day, after I smelled his blanket across the room, I snuck it away from him before he ate breakfast and I threw it in the wash. And because I’m a crazy, tortuous mother, I took a video of the meltdown:

THE HORROR!

I mean. That’s FUNNY. All because I washed his blanket.

Discovering spring in our new yard

Because we bought our house at the end of last summer, it has been lots of fun watching all the new plants and bushes and blooms popping up and coming to life in our still-new-to-us yard. Around the time of Birthday Week last month, we were overloaded with daffodils and tulips. I didn't get many good pictures of the beautiful blossoms, but here is one of our Flower Princess proudly pointing to the prettiest pink tulip in the garden.

And while we are still slaving and stressing over trying to sell our old house, our new yard is being very much neglected. It has a lot of potential, and I can't wait to get my hands dirty and start cleaning out the weeds and such this summer. And I'm really looking forward to my parents visit this month so that my green-thumbed mother can help me decipher what's good and what's junk. Because right now, it all looks bright and pretty to me. Even the thistles and weeds. Hey, it's all nature, right?

And because today is Friday and Taylor's day off from preschool, we decided to take a quick tour of what is currently abloom in our yard. Come along for the journey.

Our crabapple tree in the side-yard is abloom with pale pink buds and flowers.

Right now Luke is saying, OH NO! because he picked off a handful of future crabapples. 

My models posing next to a big white azalea bush, and in front of a small pink azalea bush, in the front of the house.

We've got hostas!

Another beautiful azalea bush, surrounded in what I'm guessing are lots of weeds.

I don't know what this tree in the front of our house is, but I'm in love with it.

For the past week it has been teasing me as the buds have swelled and started to open, revealing glimpses of bright pink underneath.

Here are what the fully opened buds look like on the top of the plant. Stunning. 

This is where the daffodils and tulips used to live. And now it's just weedy and confusing.

But look what popped up in the gardens lining the driveway last week... IRISES.

And I was so convinced they were weeds before I saw them in bloom. So it's a good thing I'm too lazy to clean out the flower beds.

I LOVE THEM! And there's a reason I didn't get a picture of the kids in front of them, as I didn't want little picking fingers too close to these gorgeous blooms.

The Japanese Maple and other big Maple in the side yard are fully flourished and almost growing into one another, creating a shady area underneath that a big black bear used as a napping hangout earlier this week. 

I don't know what this is, but it's pretty. And it's on the other side of the creek, so it might not even be ours. But I like it anyway.

We lost the big weeping willow in our side yard this winter during a wind storm, but it looks like we've got another one growing in the corner of our property. I'll have to flag this one to stay out the path of Chris's chainsaw.

Just finishing up our yard-seeing adventure.

Pookie loves being outside. And putting his hands in his pockets.

Right now Taylor is begging me to go inside to get a drink of water. Being a model is so strenuous. 

So there you go, Bloggers. I hope you enjoyed the tour. If you have any gardening tips, suggestions, critiques, what-have-you, please share. 

Our trip to see Beeba, Budgie and Birmingham

After spending a mere 18-hours with my sister and her sweet baby Parker this past March on our way to the beach, it was immediately decided that the kids and I needed to make a trip down to Birmingham for a long weekend. My adorable niece is getting so big, and at nearly six months, she’s at that precious, giggly baby age that she melts your heart whenever you look at her. So last weekend, I loaded up the kids and all of our gear and headed down south to soak up some family time.

However. We only got about 45 minutes down the road when my car’s transmission started jumping. So I called Chris at work and he immediately hopped in his Envoy and drove to Travelers Rest to switch cars with us. Because not going was not an option. And because of the delay, we ended up hitting Atlanta at 4.00, meaning we got stuck in traffic for about an hour. Ugh.

Did I mention that the air conditioning in Chris’s car fades in and out? Double Ugh. So Hot-lanta was pretty miserable. Especially with leather seats and screaming kids and two rather sketchy bathroom pit-stops. Needless to say, when we finally did pull into Lib’s driveway late that afternoon, I was ready for a drink. Or five. And my kids were thrilled to be out of their carseats and able to smother Parker with lots of cousin love. Unfortunately, it was sweet Budgie’s bedtime.

But the next morning we woke up to smiles, sunshine and cereal.

It was beautiful Friday, and we were excited to take Sweet P on her very first zoo adventure.

Lib was trying to get a good picture of this peacock, and it almost charged us. I’m still laughing when I think about how fast we ran away from it.

And after our visit to the Birmingham Zoo last fall, Taylor was looking forward to feeding the giraffes again. And she did awesome.

Parker was over it:

Taylor and her best flamingo pose:

We pretty much covered the whole zoo in a few hours, then loaded up all our gear in Lib's car and got take-out for lunch and brought it over to my Aunt Jane’s house to eat. And after the kids got their belly’s full of food, they were all happy again.

That night, Libba’s bestie, Mary Claire, was sweet enough to invite our circus over for dinner at her new, fancy house. I can see why my sister loves her so much, as she’s just an awesome friend and mother. And I was so very grateful for her generosity of feeding us and letting my kids play with all their toys.

The rest of the weekend was spent eating cookies, playing at the park and watching Luke suck down his first ever Shirley Temple.

Libba was kind enough to point her camera at both Taylor and Luke on separate photo shoots. Oh my. My sister is so talented. Check out the results on her blog: Taylor here, and Luke here. Lots and lots of framers from those sessions.

We spent some time with my beloved Granddaddy:

And the last night we were there, three-fifths of my dear Graffeo family came over for dinner, where Luke and Matt had some Blackwell Boy time:

And then it was over. And as awful as the drive down was, the trek back north to Asheville was totally uneventful. Well, other than Pookie running away from me at the McDonald’s Play Yard in North Atlanta.

Really, Atlanta? What have I ever done to you? Why do you hate me so much?

It was a great trip, and I was ever thankful to my sister and Dirk for opening their home to us. I hope I didn’t scare them too much into what life is like with older children, but at least they’ll cuddle their sweet non-moving, non-talking and non-tantrum-throwing Budgie a little tighter and cherish every moment with her. She’s just so precious, and my sister is an amazing mother. And I can’t wait to see them all again.