The Doors of Philley

I had an idea...wouldn't it be fun to make a print of all the doors that Ron and I have lived behind. It's like the "Doors of Auburn" or "Doors of Alabama"... So after 5 months of planning and working on it, I finally got pictures of ALL of the places we have lived. From Monroe, to Pelham, to Mobile, to Huntsville, to Birmingham... I tackled all the cities but Mobile. Thank you Turnbulls and Ladners for taking those pics for me. ☺
Here they are:

7/99 - 10/99 1619 N. 3rd Street

10/99 - 4/00 4 Stubbs Ave

4/00 - 6/01 307 1/2 Roselawn Ave

6/01 - 6/02 115 Hidden Creek Cove

6/02 - 8/03 3700 Carlyle Close

8/03 - 9/04 423 Carondolet Court

9/04 - 1/07 2606 Little Cove Rd

1/07 - 3/07 2708 Regency Plc

3/07 - 6/08 1503 Governors Dr

6/08 - 11/08 5007 Montauk

11/08 - 8/10 7075 Jacks Creek Ln

8/10 - ... 2715 Lakeland Trl

And we finally feel like we are home!

Mercedes Marathon Weekend

The weekend started with Sam finishing his marathon. He trained 4 months prior to the kids marathon, running 25.2 miles. On Saturday, he got to run his last mile with all of the other kids who participated. He was so excited!His plan was to have his daddy run the last mile with him. When he found out he could get in the front of the line if he ran without a parent he decided he was up for the challenge. Ron said he felt a tear in his eye when Sam proclaimed he wanted to do it by himself.

And he's off...
They were greeted at the finish line by cows, an elephant, a dog, Captain America, and more. He was LOVING it!

Thanks to Pops, we got a nice family picture afterwards.

And the boys got to meet Spiderman when we went into the BJCC to warm up.
By eveningtime, cousin Jackson and parents had arrived to spend the night. They hung out with Ronzo after their baths for a little TV time.
Uncle Big Mac ran the half marathon the next day and did great! We have since found out that he has a stress fracture, so his running is on hold.
Ron ran the marathon in 2 hours, 52 minutes...it was quite a disappointment for him. He had trained and was prepared to run sub 2:40. Little did we know that the weather had different plans for him. Hypothermia began to set in during the last 5 miles and we spent a good 2 hours after the race trying to warm him up. The nice medics on duty ended up wheeling him off to the ambulance. I was scared. He was talking nonsense. But he was taken care of and got "released" to go home. At least he looked good crossing the finish line. ☺
And so, even after my brother-in-law is diagnosed with a stress fracture and my husband endurred hypothermia, I'm still training for my first marathon. We'll see how it all goes down in October.

a typical day for Laney

loving popcorn and sliding at the local playground

she has to cuddle with her daddy and all three of her babies

a little dressing up never hurts...

Sam's Bird Report

Sam's teacher and I have discovered that Sam needs to be kept busy. So she is giving him extra work at school periodically. His latest "enrichment" work was a bird project. He went to Pops' house and saw several different species of birds...

The boys with Santa

While we were in Destin over Thanksgiving we visited Santa at the Bass Pro Shops. Laney would have nothing to do with him. The boys, on the other hand, couldn't wait to climb in his lap and fill him in on what they wanted for Christmas. They sat up there quite a while since there wasn't a line, and sweet Luke couldn't resist Santa's buckle. His hand was on there the entire time. We have about 7 pictures between me and Christine, and Luke's holding on to that buckle in every shot.

candy land

this was one SERIOUS game of candy land!

Am I Crazy!?!?

I signed up for the Chicago Marathon today!

Yikes... There are several motivating factors; I may (or may not) share them some day. I'm mostly looking forward to an activity that Ron and I can enjoy together. He's running the marathon as well. Ok, I may not enjoy it, but you know what I mean...

In-depth training begins at the end of March. Please keep me in your prayers...seriously.
I took a picture of the computer screen congratulating me on registering. Just in case I never do a marathon again, I'll have this picture to remind me that at least the computer was glad I signed up. :)

a weekend in January

January 6-9 were busy. Ron left the afternoon of the 5th to fly down to Tampa, Florida. He and 5 other guys were running in the Ragnar Relays from Miami to Key West. 199 miles. 6 guys. It took them just under 22 hours. They averaged 6:37 per mile! wow...

In the meantime, I had some plans to redecorate our bedroom and surprise him when he came home. What was to be a small project for my step-dad (installing new closet doors), we ran into a few snags and took two days to complete. The opening was 1 1/2 inches off, so he had to tear down the trim, pull out some boards to open the space up, hang the doors, buy new trim with new measurements, and install. He also put a new ceiling fan in for me. He was going to help me by fixing our bathroom ceiling which had started peeling, but that project also ended up being more extensive, so we decided to put that off for another day.

The fun thing about all this is that he found the original boards used to build the house. Looks like our home was built in June of '63.

I also decided to cut about 10 inches off of my hair. Ron found out about it, even though it was supposed to be a surprise, and asked for pictures. I like it because I can go straight or curly depending on my mood. Both pictures were taken on my phone. The first one was taken by me while I was driving the car in Hoover. Big mistake!

My birthday was coming up on Monday, and Chuy's was having a birthday bash for Elvis on Sunday. So me and the kiddos went to an early dinner before heading to Sunday night church. They love Chuy's because they get a push-pop after their meal.

We decided to go see Ron at the airport Monday morning. He was flying in and going straight to work. We wanted to get a quick visit in instead of having to wait until the end of the day. Laney took a rest on the bench.

The kids were overjoyed when they saw their Daddy. (I was too...)

Here's a picture of Ron and his teammates. I've watched a few videos of their weekend together. A couple of these guys are crazy!

We had a nice evening at home that night. I got to open my birthday gift, which was a wooden bowl made by a friend. I love it!

cleaning up

it was time to clean up some Christmas decorations and laney wanted to help. I just love this picture because of her sweet face. i was standing on the ladder putting things in the attic; she was helping hand them to me.

iPhone images

i guess i'll start off the new year with some pictures from my camera. here's laney, wearing her boots and loving them.

sam and luke went to the barber shop for hair cuts. (we love the characters at plaza barber shop in cahaba heights.)

sam is multi-tasking. he wanted me to send this pic to ron to show off his hair cut, mcdonalds toy, and the hot wheels car that the guys at the barber shop gave him. definitely our "type-a" boy. :)

mustaches from their kids' meal

manners? who needs 'em...

awww!! this girl LOVES her daddy.

we got home from church and she put on one of luke's shoes and one of sam's. she has her own style for sure.