Day 109

As soon as Girls on the Run was over tonight, I picked up LilCrockett from his after care and we headed for home.  There was a storm front approaching and I didn’t want to be out in it.  A few years ago I was driving GothGirl to swim practice when a big storm blew in and I was racing across town trying to find shelter.  Unfortunately the pool is located on the less desirable side of town and that’s where we were when it hit.  Though it wasn’t safe to be driving in those circumstances, I didn’t see anywhere safe to even pull over.  There were no public buildings except for bars and such.  I kept driving (dodging small branches and limbs in the road along the way) and we finally made it to the pool.  At about that time the storm stopped of course.  But GothGirl and I were sufficiently scared.  I certainly never want to experience that again. 

Tonight we had plenty of time to get home and we even started dinner.  The storm began to approach so we all headed to the basement mainly because it was looking really ugly outside.  Crockett would venture upstairs every so often in order to check on dinner.  Well at one point I looked over at LilCrockett, who was lying on the couch, and noticed that he was sound asleep despite the fact that it was only about 6:15pm.  By this time, dinner was ready and the storm had passed, but we let him sleep.  As we were finishing up, he ventured upstairs. 

You’d think that a nap would have done him good, but LilCrockett is not like other kids.  He wakes up cranky and out of sorts and goes immediately into meltdown mode.  I try to encourage him to just lay back down and wake up slowly, but by then he’s already in a funk.  It takes awhile, but eventually he snaps out of it.  Waking up is sure hard to do!  And it didn’t help that he is battling a sinus infection.  I gave him a bath, he ate his dinner, and then he crashed again on the couch.  Poor guy!

Day 108

Sarah at My Four Hens Photography issued her first photography challenge today and I couldn’t resist playing along.  The challenge is to enter a photograph based on the theme “Inspire”.  The “things” that inspire me most now are the spring flowers in my yard.  They symbolize new beginnings & hope, which we can all use.  I love these little beauties in the planter in my backyard and lucky for me the lighting was perfect today for a photo session. 

Edited in Photoshop CS4 using M4H Color Pop Pretties Action: Contrasty Color

Day 107

LilCrockett waited all day for the Easter egg hunt that was scheduled for this afternoon.  The time finally arrived and we climbed in the car for the 15 minute ride to a small neighboring town.  Once there, we scouted out where we needed to be.  Then they announced the start.  LilCrockett took off.  We had taught him the same strategy that we had taught GothGirl when she was young: head to the back of the area immediately and work back towards everyone else.  That way, you’re not fighting everyone around you for the same eggs.  It worked great, though he wasn’t nearly as speedy as GothGirl was at his age.  I think it might have had something to do with the fact that he had fallen asleep in the car on the way over and was not quite fully awake.

The eggs he found are in the basket.  Wish I’d gotten an inside shot.  Despite there being both blue and pink eggs on the course, he only picked up the blue ones.  After the hunt, the kids each got a raffle ticket as well as a cookie and a drink.  They were raffling off 50 baskets and it took awhile to get through the numbers.  LilCrockett was hanging out with a couple of boys from his class and they soon grew bored of paying attention and decided to attack a downed tree limb instead.  Unfortunately neither of our kids won a basket, so we went home empty handed.

After the hunt, the weather was so much better than yesterday that we spent the rest of the afternoon outside.  GothGirl had finished a school project the day before and I wanted to get a picture of it before she turned it in.  The 4th graders were tasked with making a historic 3-D transportation vehicle (canoe, boat, wagon, etc.) using natural (wood, cloth, or paper) materials.  She chose to do a flat bottom boat.  Crockett helped her construct it from popsicle sticks.  I think it turned out pretty good.

Day 106

Today’s weather (cold, super windy, & rainy) was so crummy that we spent most of the day inside.  I cleaned and did some organizing projects around the house.  Certainly nothing fun to photograph.  However, in the afternoon, the kids went over to our neighbors’ house to play.  We called over at dinnertime to have them come home to eat, but they were invited to eat there.  So Crockett and I took advantage of the situation and had a nice little mini date at home.  The meal (grilled mahi mahi and asparagus) was delicious and we paired it with some Moscato d’Asti.  Yum!  As good as the food was, I think I enjoyed the quietness and alone time with my hubby even more!  And how cute that the mahi mahi is heart-shaped…perfect for an impromptu romantic meal.

Day 105

For starting out kind of pourly, today turned out to be a really good day.  I headed in to work as normal. I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for 10:15, I wasn’t feeling that great, and it was my short day (normally off at 3pm), so I just decided to take the afternoon off.  The local Salvation Army, which is located near my doctor’s office, was having their annual book sale.  In about an hour, I walked out the door with 2 big bags filled with books.  I ended up with 31 books for under $14.  For this book lover, this was a great deal especially since the majority of the books were hardbacks.  Can’t wait to get started on these:

 

On my way home from the book sale, I took the back way into my neighborhood to check out the annual neighborhood garage sales.  The sale hadn’t officially started yet but there were quite a few houses open already.  A few hours later, I went home with quite a haul including some clothes for the kids.  LilCrockett was especially thrilled with his new duds and had to put them on immediately.  Everything he’s wearing was a garage sale find from today, including 3 shirt layers.  Soon after, he ran outside to play on our swing and I followed behind to get some shots, which turned out to be some of my favorites even though the colors in my photos look more vibrant than in this post.  The last one is my favorite! 

Next, I went inside to snap some photos of the flowers that my neighbors got me for my birthday.  I wanted to capture them at their peak.  The yellow of the flowers against my red wall was stunning.

Day 104

Today was my day to coach Girls on the Run, so I headed to the school after work.  We had a great lesson & workout as usual.  One of the best parts of coaching is getting to know the girls better.  They really brighten my day.  Here’s GothGirl in between laps.

We start and end our GOTR lessons in one of the coaches’ classrooms (she’s a teacher at the school).  The kindergarten classes have been incubating chicks and so I couldn’t resist taking a peek at the new babies after we finished our lesson.  Coach Kelly’s classroom only had 4 of their 15 eggs hatch, compared to LilCrockett’s class which had 11 hatch.  I think they are oh so cute! 

Next, we left the classroom and stopped by the after care to pick up LilCrockett, then the 3 of us drove to the high school which is in a neighboring town.  We were there to see our neighbor Ambo play soccer.  Though she only got to play for a little while, we enjoyed watching her.  We also stayed to watch the varsity game as my cousins’ 2 girls are on the team as well as a friends’ daughter.  We left before it was over though because it got really windy and cold.  My teeth were chattering by the time we left.  I failed to get a photo of Ambo while she was playing, but I managed to get her to pause for a minute afterwards so I could snap a photo with my phone. 

Day 103

Crockett left this morning for Kansas to do some turkey hunting, which meant that I had to take LilCrockett to t-ball practice.  Afterwards, he rode with a friends’ dad and 2 of his teammates to Culver’s for dinner & ice cream.  I had to pick up GothGirl from a friends’ house and then we met them there.  It was nice outside, so the boys ate their meal in the back of our friends’ pickup truck.  Here’s a photo taken with my iPhone: