And so it begins...

I love Pierce's face of pure delight as he sneakily reaches in for a fistful of hair right before the picture!

Allie was not amused.

Here's to years of playing together and lovingly annoying each other! =)

An Interesting Development...

Well, I know I told you about joining my wonderful gym back in January...

There's a new development to that situation. In two short weeks from Saturday, I'll be certified to TEACH Turbo Kick!

Yes, you can laugh. It won't hurt my feelings one bit. I'm laughing a bit too each time I think about it... laughing... then really really hoping I don't look like TOO much of an idiot (because, let's face it, I'm sure that it's inevitable that I'll look like an idiot at least a little bit).

It all started back when one of the instructors from the gym talked about how they go on "teaching vacations" for FREE to all inclusive resorts.. Naturally, my ears perked up at the idea of a free vacation. But, I quickly closed my mind to the idea, because after all, ME becoming an aerobics instructor!? Well, I then found out you only have to go to a one day 8 hour workshop to do this... hmm... and THEN, I found out that such a workshop was coming to OUR gym on April 9. It was tempting, but I had decided against doing it JUST for the sake of the free trip.

Then, someone from church suggested that I do it and help start an aerobics program at Faith. I realized that this would be a terrific ministry, because it has been such a WONDERFUL encouragement to me to have a Christian environment with women only where we can fellowship, workout, and pray for each other!

Well, I decided to look into it a bit more, and here we are. Starting in June, I'll be teaching Turbo Kick at Faith on Saturday mornings. There will also be a Pilates class offered on Tuesday mornings.

So, back to the part of that story where I said all you have to do is complete a one day, 8 hour workshop.... hmmm... I think that will be MUCH easier said than done. Here's to hoping my poor body will be able to handle 8 hours of Turbo Kick.

I'm gonna try to really kick it up a notch between now and then to hopefully be in as good of shape as possible!

My Best Friend's Wedding

We had a crazy, busy, fun, exciting, and very special week last week as we celebrated Steph and Stew's wedding! I've been dear friends with Stephanie since middle school, and it was so exciting to stand by her side on her special day! She even asked sweet Allie to be in the wedding!



I know I may be a little biased, but I mean, really, isn't she the cutest flower girl ever?!

And, lest you think that Pierce doesn't ever get any blog space (ahem, Cheryl...) he even got all spiffed up for the day! Isn't he a cutie?

meltdown

Today was one of those dreaded days when you are that mom. Picture yourself going for a peaceful shopping trip to Target, happily going about your business, looking at the wonderful summer clothes out and daydreaming about the hopefully soon-coming weather where you can wear them, when all of the sudden both kids decide at precisely the same moment that they want to go home - NOW.

Yes, if you were at Target today and heard two kids having an all out screaming at the top of their lungs meltdown and wondering from across the store, who is that woman that cannot keep her kids under control... it was me. And, when I say meltdown, I mean MELTDOWN... one that, for Allie, not even uncensored access to Cinderella lipgloss could fix (which, trust me, if you knew her, you would know that this is saying ALOT!)

I knew there was only one thing to do... RUN. No trying on clothes, no browsing, no stopping to go to the bathroom (which I DESPERATELY needed to do..) I barely had time to go through the checkout and pay for the lipgloss that we had already opened! (but, I figured we shouldn't repeat the hobby lobby shoplifting incident... which by the way, I have since resolved) You see, people already stare at me when we go out.... they see Allie in the front, then see an infant in the back in his carseat, and just simply think I am insane. And, that's when they're both being good. So, I decided I had better get out of there fast before people started just being downright nasty. The minute both kids were successfully loaded in the car, the crying subsided. Hmmm..

Upon getting in the car, I was flustered to say the least. But I was promptly reminded that if these sort of things are the worst "trials" that I am currently experiencing, then I am certainly blessed. Was reading this precious little girl's story this morning and with tears in my eyes was overwhelmed with gratitude for hectic days such as this one with my two precious healthy kids.

Vlogging...

I ran across a new term the other day... "vlogging". It means: video blogging. That's right... apparently it's the new thing to sit in front of your video camera and chat it up.. just like a blog post, except you're essentially just sitting there talking to yourself. Seems a bit weird to me. And, who knows, maybe some people could pull it off and not come across totally awkward, but I think that would probably be the rare exception. So, don't worry, I will not be giving vlogging a try, because I can say with strong confidence that I would look and sound very awkward and be completely unable to find any interesting to say in such a situation.

Yesterday, however, in my car the thought came to my mind to vlog. There I was riding happily along, listening to K-Love, hearing Allie in the back intermittently singing "Jesus Loves Me" and her own rendition of "Rella, Rella, Rella" (since, you know, she's on a nickname basis with Cinderella) at the top of her lungs, while Pierce, who is normally a happy camper in the car decided that yesterday he simply was not and screamed as loud as he could for a solid 20 minutes. I kept thinking, surely he will scream himself out. He didn't. So, yes, the thought crossed my mind, that if I wouldn't be a danger to everyone else on the road by pulling out my phone to capture this scene on video, that maybe it would be an interesting vlog titled: a day in our completely insane life.

It wasn't until I had 2 that I became one of those moms who is able to somehow tune the craziness out (at least sometimes). I had to laugh and think, if anyone else was in the car with us right now, they'd probably be about ready to go insane.