Long overdue

It’s amazing how fast 3+ weeks can go by.  It should be no surprise for the 5 of you around this blog to know posts will be that far between.  It has honestly been crazy around here … to show that I’m not ignoring you on purpose, here is the past week…

Monday – normal work day … up at 5:20am and home around 5pm after stopping by a rental house I’m trying to sell.  Yes, it is absolutely the wrong time to sell houses.  My mind knows that.  However, we’ve been invited by God to get out of debt to do bigger and better things for Him and His Kingdom.  I would prefer to hold onto the properties but that’s not His course.  So, we are “strategically” trying to sell a couple properties … strategically meaning trying not to lose our shirts. 

After I got home, we went to pick up our vehicle that was getting serviced and then go meet tenants of a rental house that are trying to buy the house from me.  That meeting went three times longer than I thought it would.  Home after 7pm and hang out with Silas and Amber for about 15 minutes and then go put Silas to bed.  Now, it’s around 8pm and still haven’t eaten.  However, still need to run because of the crazy week ahead of me.  I can’t eat before running … it isn’t pretty with stomach cramps, etc. so I decide to forego eating and go run around 4.5 miles.  Get home, shower, do some work, bed around 11:30.

Tuesday – normal work day.  Then go pick up Silas at our babysitter after work.  We had plans to go to Korah Night that Project 61 was hosting so I hurry up and get him changed into his pj’s, get dinner for him (easy since Amber fixed a crock-pot meal), eat, and then Amber gets home and eats herself.  We drive up to our friends who were going to watch Silas and then off to Korah Night.  Amazing night, got to see our friends Pat & Jody again, and got a letter from our sponsored boy!  That’s right, we have a boy from Korah that I will have to write about soon … total God story there…night ends, pick up Silas, get home after 10pm and in bed around 11:30 again.

Wednesday – again, normal work day.  Home for about 15 minutes before having to leave to go to an event for The 1:27 Call.  We were invited to a local church to set up a table to let their members learn more about our ministry.  Every couple/few months, in lieu of Wednesday night church, they invite ministries to come out they have a little ministry ‘fair’.  I love that idea … the church living outside their 4 walls.

During the morning, Amber took Silas to his first program at a local wilderness station today ... It’s pretty cool that they do programs throughout the week and the wilderness station is literally down our road.   Amber said he liked it pretty good and it was going well ... Amber met another mom who had adopted from Vietnam so they chatted it up.  During that chat, she turned around to check on Silas and she caught him tap, tap, tapping another mom's prosthetic leg...gotta love the curiosity of a 22 month old!

Thursday – same work routine.  Pick Silas up from the babysitter’s, get home, change him out of his play clothes and go pick up Amber from her work.  We were going to the MTSU opening football game with our church.  It was a great game … although you learn quickly that you don’t get to watch much of a game with a toddler.  We left a little after 9pm … in the 4th quarter .… tied ballgame … as Silas was running on fumes.  As we left the stadium, Silas spotted a fire truck sitting outside the stadium. We go up to it so Silas can check it out and Silas says 'Ride, ride, ride..." ... and the gracious firefighter let him sit inside ... Silas thought he was the biggest man on campus!  He was all about giving the firefighter a high-five after he got out of the truck.

Friday – Same work, different day.  Got home around 4:30 and being I had not ran since Monday, I had to get out there.  Not really what I wanted to do after a l.o.n.g week but needed to be done.  Run about 5 miles and get home a few minutes before Amber’s mom got here.  She came to visit over the holiday weekend.  We eat supper and just hang out rest of the night.

Saturday – So Silas LOVES trains … it doesn’t have to be Thomas just trains in general.  And real-life sized ones are even better.  He loves my parents’ house in Illinois because they live about 50 yards from train tracks and multiple trains go by a day.  Well, Thomas was coming to the Train Museum in Nashville and we debated on going or not.  The tickets were expensive for seeing Thomas and getting to ride in a train car but we decided to go.  Silas loved seeing the trains and riding in the train operated by Thomas.  Our train ride was at 11pm and lasted 25 minutes or so.  It was overdramatic as we probably went 5 mph in one direction, stopped, and then went back to the station.  I don’t think we even left the train yard.  But, Silas liked it and that’s what matters.  By the end, it was definitely nap time so we left around noon.  We came home, ate lunch, Silas napped, and we went to church, to eat at Chuy’s, and ran to a couple stores to let the women shop … Silas and I had fun running through the stores :)

Sunday – I usually do my long runs on Saturdays but due to the crazy schedule this week, I moved it to Sunday.  I ran 7 miles yesterday and felt ‘ok’ (legs are sore today)… I did learn not to eat tex-mex (Chuy’s) the night before a long run … I’ll just leave it at that.  I average about 10 minute miles which I am totally fine with.  My breathing at that pace is usually ok but my legs aren’t usually as happy.  And running (well, jogging or scooting … depending on your perspective) is such a mental thing.  About 3 miles in, my mind starts telling my body that we’ve done enough.  It is a mental battle to continue.  When that happens, I try to focus on Ethiopia, our daughter, the invitation God has me on vs. all the other mental games that can go on.  So that means I’m thinking about our daughter and Ethiopia alot.  And now that I’m running longer, I gotta add some music to my ipod playlist as I’m getting through the whole thing now … seems odd to run for over an hour’s worth of music.

I am signed up for a 10k in our town next Saturday … I figured I better do some sort of a race before the 1/2 marathon.  I’m kinda excited for it but at the same time the unknown of how I’ll do when someone is officially keeping time is a little unnerving … plus, not looking forward to getting up all early on a Saturday to run nonetheless..

I’ve also been praying that God would open an invitation to marry the skills He’s given me with the passion He’s put in my heart.  Well, an idea got planted in my heart in the last couple months which does exactly what I’ve been asking.  It’s alot of work that has to happen in my ‘free’ time so please don’t get any hopes of alot of posts here soon … just sayin’. :)  … as it’s appropriate, I will definitely fill you in on this endeavor.

OK, I know … here’s what you’ve been waiting for…some pictures over the past couple weeks…

Silas climbing on a train at a county fair … told you the boy loves trains

Silas on his first carney ride … kid loves steering wheels too so having 2 of them was pure joy for him.

Silas shaving with daddy

We got to welcome the Bonners home at the airport and Silas LOVED riding the pedway or whatever they’re called.  We had to take a couple laps and he still wasn’t happy when we left…

Last Saturday, we met up with some of my college friends that I haven’t seen in about 8 years.  We went down to the Wildhorse Saloon for lunch … Silas thought the horses were pretty cool.

At our church’s tailgate party before the MTSU football game. 

Silas loves his sunglasses … unfortunately I broke them today :( … he was wearing them because the stadium lights were ‘bright’.  And then he saw I had mine on my hat so he had to put his on his head too.

Silas and I riding the little train in the parking lot when we went to go see Thomas

 

Mama and Silas going down the big slide

Cool kid after going down the slide.

Mama, Mammaw, and Silas as we wait in line to get on our train car.

Silas intensely looking out the window of the train car

THOMAS!

The line to get your picture ‘with’ Thomas was so long … we just decided to take one kinda in front of it.  As you can see, it was meltdown stage and Silas was ready to go.

It’s been SO nice the past couple of days that it was perfect to sit on the deck for dinner on Sunday night.  You can see that we don’t have a patio table but the fold-up table worked just fine.  We’re in the midst of the cheesecake dessert that Amber made that was so right it was wrong.

Silas looking like he hasn’t brushed his teeth … ever.

Hanging out and just having fun after dessert

Giving Mammaw hugs as she left today…

And kisses…

And smiles!

OK, hope that catches you up for the next couple weeks :)