Loving Life

I have a pile of pictures here for your viewing pleasure. Our life is still in busy season - which means a continual abundance of track talk going on in our house. :) We're still having lots of fun and taking time to have fun as a family when we can! Enjoy the photos!  Here, Abby had a lot of fun dressing Keilah in her own clothes. She found a pair of her shorts and put them on Keilah. They kept falling down, but Keilah didn't seem to mind modeling Abby's clothes for awhile. Abby also likes to wet down Keilah's hair and give her a mohawk. Keilah spends much time in front of the oven door talking to the "baby" that's there looking back at her.  We take David to the middle school a few times each week for band practice. On the nice days, we go for a walk and enjoy being outside. On extra special days, we go to the coffee house and get a treat for our walk. Cookies make everyone happy!  So do wide open spaces in which to run around.  Keilah...

Greetings! Things are going well over in Fleming Trackville. Our lives are revolving around track these days. Many conversations are centered on track as Aaron and I share with each other about our track teams. I'm often asking him for advice as he has way more experience in this than I do. David often chips in with his own track tales each day. The older two girls go to practice with me, so they have fun telling me about how they practiced doing the high jump or hurdles or just had fun running around. It's crazy busy, but also crazy fun! I'm still learning to time my meals right. I have a time cook function on my stove, so I try to time supper being ready soon after I get home. Defrosting dinner first is my challenge. I'm getting better and we are having fewer and fewer really late suppers. :) Keilah is the only one not involved in the track talk. She reminds us to continue to find pleasure in the small things in life - like hats. She loves wearing her hat around ...

I have a job now. It started on Monday. I'm a middle school girls track coach! I applied for the job on a complete whim and forgot to realize that there wouldn't be an overwhelming number of people jumping to get that job. A few hours after applying I found myself with the title of "Track Coach". Though I love running and am passionate about it, I have never coached it before in my life. Thankfully, I accepted the job on the condition that my old high school cross country coach also be a coach. He's amazing and was a super influential person in my life. His knowledge of all things running is vast. So though technically I'm the head 7th grade girls coach and he's the head 8th grade girls coach, I'm more of his assistant and help keep him organized and running smoothly while being a female coach in the midst of a sea of girls. So it's been going well and I'm having fun and hopefully I'll learn to be a good coach. With Aaron also coaching the...

A week ago today, my grandpa Cleo passed away. He was 91. I had the honor and privilege of giving a tribute at his funeral. Below is what I said. It's kind of long, but gives you a glimpse of the man who he was. I’ve spent the last week thinking about Grandpa and the man he was. He was such an important part of my life that it’s hard to imagine facing the remainder of my life without him in it. While he may be physically gone from us, I realized that the things he taught me through his life will continue to live on not only in me, but the rest of his family. Since top ten lists seem to be the cool thing to do, I thought that I would give you my top ten lessons that Grandpa taught me through his life. #1. He taught me to enjoy life and have fun. So many of my memories of him involve lots of laughter. He had a laugh that filled the house and invited you to join along with him. It didn’t take much at all to get a laugh out of him. He easily found the brighter side of life and...

Next week, Keilah will turn 15 months. How is that possible?!? She is in full stride of my very favorite little kid stage. I love the language acquisition stage where every thing you do is imitated by them. Keilah continues to delight us to no end. Here's a little peek into her life these days. Dog remains #1 in her heart. We have tried to integrate other stuffed dogs into her life to no avail. That all changed when we introduced Ana's Dog to her.   Ana's Dog is similar in color and is the only other animal that has successfully passed the ear flip test. Now we have a successful back up friend when Real Dog has to take his weekly bath. Some friends of ours have a little girl who calls Keilah "That Girl With The Dog." Yes, an accurate description since he rarely leaves her sight. Keilah is picking up new words all the time now and repeating just about everything we say. She has a good two dozen words or more now. My favorite is how she asks for food. She s...

Keilah doesn't like seafood. A friend of ours gave us a little snack mix to enjoy. Keilah would eat everything except for the whales and goldfish. I guess she's anti-seafood right now. She still refuses to eat them.   I need to start a file of random Ana reading pictures to go with David's. Why read in a normal sitting position when you can perch yourself on the back of the couch?  A snowman the girls made shortly before they attacked him with spears and swords. Notice the poor snowman does have a water gun for his defense.  This is how my floor looks these days. A very random assortment of clothing, toys, and food get spread throughout the house by a busy 14 month old.  The moment I get out the camera, she stops whatever it was she was doing to run towards me with a manic look on her face (I think it's her smiling pose). It's just a bit creepy.  David hard at work doing his math. Truthfully, I don't teach him math anymore. He teache...

I have somehow lost my camera. It's not like I take it anywhere and actually take pictures with it. But when I do want it, it is suddenly gone. Hopefully it turns up somewhere soon. In the meantime, I will share with you a little manifesto I wrote on the whiteboard this afternoon for my family after doing laundry. The Three Basic Laws of Getting Undressed*  ** Law #1 - When taking off socks, do not leave them partially wadded up and half inside out. I do not enjoy touching your dried up, crusty, smelly socks so that they can be unwadded to get properly washed and dried. Law #2 - It is, in fact, quite possible and also very desirable to take your clothes off in a manner that does not leave them inside out. I am available to give a brief tutorial on this method if you need help with this strange new idea. Law #3 - When wearing more than one layer of clothing (ie. pants and underwear), please take them off one at a time - or at least separate them after taking them off....