A Beautiful Sunday Afternoon

Sunday afternoon, after church and after naps, we headed out to the new Ruteledge-Wilson Farm. We hadn't been out there before and we were impressed with all the things to do. They have lots of farm animals to look at including two HUGE pigs and some roosters and chickens. Hannah was a fan of all the animals especially the rooster. She started to get a little too close to the fence and I was afraid she might get pecked at and then she and the rooster would no longer be friends, luckily that didn't happen. Sydney was very proud of the frame she made with the fall flowers glued to it. We then headed to the play ground and let the girls run around for a while. The only problem with the afternoon was that I think everyone else in Springfield had the same idea as us and the place was very crowded, we will pick another day and try to go back again hopefully when everyone else doesn't have the same idea.

Dressin' up in Mommy's shoes

Sydney has already started teaching Hannah the fun of playing dress up. Saturday morning, before they were out of their PJ's, Hannah and Syd decided to walk around in my shoes after breakfast. Considering both pair have a heel, I was impressed with their struts and turns. Lookout catwalk...here they come.

What a fun weekend!

Saturday morning started with Sydney's soccer game after my run. Aunt Missy was in town so she and Hannah got to watch the game from the sidelines with Grandma and Papa. After the game Corey and Hannah went home for a nap and Sydney and I went to Michael's to make a free jeweled American Girl t-shirt for her American Girl doll. Saturday night was the big event, Sydney and I went to see High School Musical at the Springfield Little Theatre. I'm always impressed with the productions they have there. We really enjoyed ourselves and the show. I think the most memorable part of the show was when a little girl in front of us, probably around 5, farted around an unusually quite time in the show. I think everyone in the balcony heard it. Sydney looked at me and smiled, but we had a good laugh about it when we got in the car after the show.

Sunday after church we went to Grandma and Papa's for lunch before Mis left and after lunch we went down to the dock at the lake to feed the fish. That's always fun, there are these HUGE fish, maybe Carp, and there are so many of them and they are so big and they create a layer of sucking lips across the top of the water that ducks can walk across. It's really pretty weird looking and I do have fear of falling into the water and being sucked to my death.

I think the running bug is back.

I'm training for the Bass Pro Half Marathon Nov. 2nd but I must say I'm very behind right now. My heart just hasn't been in it and guess I forgot what I like about it until Saturday morning. After I ran the Chicago Marathon in '05 I didn't do much running after that, a few 5Ks here and there but nothing regular (I did have a baby in there somewhere so I'll use that as part of my excuse). I think the build up and actually running in the Chicago Marathon was so much work and then such a high to finish, I didn't want to go back to the build up of anything again, I didn't think anything could live up to that race. But on Saturday morning I remembered why I like to run. It's such a great reflective time for me. I like using the time to pray and be thankful and just to think. I like the challenge of my mind pushing my body when my body says stop.

I had a God thing moment on Saturday, as I was driving up to the park where I run, I prayed that I would run into Corey. He had a 22 miler that morning getting ready for Chicago and had left over an hour before I did. I was thinking that he could probably use a running partner for a couple miles to take his mind of the distance he had to go and I thought I could use the challenge of running faster than I would by myself. As soon as I started on the course, I looked up and saw him coming right toward me...the timing couldn't have been better. I must say my body is letting me know that I was not prepared to run as fast as I did for the first 2 miles, but you know what they say... No Pain, No Gain.

Oh those special sisterly moments

Hannah just loves to read and be read to. She will pick up a book and start flipping through the pages and makes her voice go up and down like she's reading the most interesting book and then when she gets to the last page she will she "De en". Sydney has always loved to read and be read to as well. It's just amazing how much they learn when the start school and reading is her best and favorite subject so far. I wanted to try to capture one of the times Sydney was reading to her little sister. Hannah sat still long enough for the picture but as you can see from the sub-second video...she turns into Hurricane Hannah rather quickly when she decides reading time is over.

2nd grade, here she comes...

Here are a few pics of the first day of 2nd grade for Sydney. She was very excited to start back to school again. We were a little sad that all 4 of her close friends from last year were all separated into different classes this year. Maybe they were trying to tell us something. :) Hannah was excited about Sydney's first day of school too.

On the Eve of the day that changed us all...

I was thinking tonight, as Sydney is doing her homework, 7 years ago tonight, I had put her to bed probably right about this time. She was 6 weeks old to the day. We had moved back to Springfield from St Louis just that weekend, so I'm sure I had spent part of the day unpacking boxes and probably even more time just staring at my newborn baby girl. I went to bed at a decent time that night, because I had an interview the next morning. I woke up before Corey the next day and turned on the Today show while I was getting ready. The first plane had already hit the World Trade Center and they were still trying to make sense of what had happened...a lost commuter plane, a plane with engine trouble...no one could even have comprehended at that point that this was deliberate. I remember sitting there watching the TV when the second plane hit. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and when they slowed down the footage to show that huge airliner flying straight into the other Tower, it's a sight I will never be able to forget. I was consumed for the next week watching only coverage of the terrorist attacks, a lot of the time watching with my newborn daughter in my arms and looking at her wondering what kind of world she would grow up in.

I pray that we will never have another attack like 9/11, I pray for the troops who continue to fight to keep us save and I pray for those who were directly affected by the loss of a friend or loved one on that horrible day. We will never forget.

Another milestone

Sydney turned 7 on July 30th. She had a mask making art party at the Y with friends, grandparents, (excluding Papa, Sydney really caused a problem being born during the week of the fair) even Uncle Travis and Cara got to come and make some masks. The big event happened that evening though, when her good girlfriends from 1st grade got to come over for Sydney's first sleepover. We had pizza, watched the Hannah Montana 3D concert and had peppermint pedicures...and that was just what mom got to participate in. The girls had lots of fun playing in the basement too from the squeals and laughs Corey and I heard upstairs.

What a wonderful little young lady she is growing up to be. Just tonight I came across an assignment she had completed at the beginning of the year during Martin Luther King Jr week at school. The top of the paper reads Dr King had a dream. My dream is... Sydney wrote: I have a dream that evrey wun will be nis to echuther. The end. What a wonderful world it would be if we could all just be nice to each other.

Finally! Some vacation pictures...

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to Destin this past June. It's hard to believe Sydney missed her very last day of school so we could hit the road and start our vacation and now summer is over and she is already 2 weeks into the 2nd grade. Is it just me or is it the older you get the faster life goes by. The first picture here is the first official picture of vacation. The car and girls were all loaded up and I took this as we were leaving our house. The first line of Sydney's journal she's holding reads, "We are getting set". I wish we had been better about helping her keep that up, but you know how it gets when you're on vacation, too much going on, too much fun and if you do stop to slow down, you'll probably fall asleep, it's hard to find the time to write. She did manage to log our first evening when we stopped in Hattiesburg, MS for the night about Hannah throwing up in the car in Arkansas. Note to self: A full sippy of milk, followed by a 1/2 sippy of chocolate milk, followed by curvy Arkansas roads leads to at least 4 sippy cups worth of curdled milk all over Hannah and her car seat. Luckily that was the worst thing that happened the entire trip so we couldn't complain.

Yes! It's an update!

Ok, I realize I have been horrible about keeping this updated and I hate for my first post in months to be picture less but I wanted to post a quick funny story from the other day while it was on my mind.

The other night Corey was carrying Hannah to bed and he took her hair tie out that was holding the top part of her hair out of her eyes right on top of her head. The hair pretty much stayed in place and just fanned out a little bit over her head. Sydney was looking at her while this was going on and said, "Ha! Hannah has 80's hair!". Corey and I both cracked up. How did she even know what 80's hair was, but sure enough that's how I would have described it too if I was picking a decade. Apparently Hannah Montana has been to an 80's party on the show...