When a desk is a ladder

Sometimes you have to use a desk for something more than a desk. Sometimes a desk just has to be a ladder. How else would you reach the top of your toy shelf to throw all the toys out of the top bin onto the floor? Clever.

Ladies and gentlemen ... Leigh Jacobs

So Leigh emailed me a photo he took of his desk.

In case you can't tell, Wolverine is holding a sign that says "YOU WILL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE" so that the surfing chicken from "Surf's Up" can see it.

He is someone's dad.

Bananarama

Mia loves bananas. She loves to eat them all the time. She also loves to break them apart. She also loves to find an empty baby bottle, put half a banana in it, drop the banana out of it and then repeat 1,000 times. It is honestly the grossest thing ever. But when you're kid looks so determined to continue the banana-bottle cycle, I guess that's just what you have to let her do.

A running centennial

So I figured that the more people I told, the more likely I would be to actually complete my half-marathon.

So some friends of mine at work and I started a blog about our training and such leading up to the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.

It's a little over a month away.

This week I'm looking forward to an exciting milestone: 100 miles. At the beginning of this, I didn't think I could run down the block. Now I've got 100 miles of training behind me!

The ponytail

Some day, two things will happen:

1. Mia will not pull out her ponytail after 5 seconds.

2. Mia will love the ponytail. She will.

Resting with daddy

Someday I will stop taking photos of Mia and Leigh sleeping cutely. Today is not that day.

SpiderBaby

If the footholds would have been square, it would have been a totally different story for SpiderBaby.

Swinging and high fives

Thunder Up!

Thanks to our amazing friend Megan (Elliot) for inviting us along to watch the Thunder game with her! So much fun! We brought our other friend Megan (Schrader) because we like for all our Megans to be in the same place at the same time. While we were buying hot dogs and beer, who did we happen to see but one Elizabeth Taylor. (Not the actress who passed away - our friend Elizabeth Taylor, who was, thankfully, still alive and not working as an actress.)

Shake the bag

OK, so this is the ultimate mommy blog video. It's just Mia shaking a toy inside a bag. And it lasts 2 1/2 minutes. Edited down. ha So I just wanted to let you know ahead of time that there's no payoff. There's no hilarious ending. It's just Mia shaking a toy in a bag. To me, it's cute. To the rest of the world, it's probably boring. Oh well. I guess I have the right to be fascinated with my own kid. haha

Our own little Beulah

Growing up on Glenstone in Mountain Home, Ark., you knew Beulah. She lived catty-corner to us. She liked to sit in her living room with her chin on the back of her couch, looking through her picture window at all us neighbor kids causing a ruckus. We were terrified of her and pretty sure she would kidnap you and toss you in her basement if you put one toe into her yard. She sat on her front porch, swatting flies and giving all us kids the stink eye. If our kickball went into the ditch in her front yard, it was curtains. We usually traded off who was the one who had to go sprinting in there. Oh, and did I mention that she was always topless? Yeah, she was. Old-lady bras aside, Beulah was known around the block for her nosy nature. Leigh always calls me Beulah whenever I peek through the blinds to spy on the very few not-so-fantastic neighbors we have. Turns out, I might not be the only Beulah in our house:

At least she had a shirt on.

Pink eyes and a red dress

Want to see something adorable yet sad?

Mia has had pink eye, so obviously hasn't felt the best lately. Her antibiotic treatment has made her not contagious, but she still looks so sad. She did get to go to synagogue with Tiamo. Yahweh forgives pink eye. As long as you aren't contagious.

8K to save the day!

Today some friends and I ran an St. Paddy's Day Great Race of the Great Plains 8K! That's 5 miles, people! It was so exciting!

Here we are before the race, from left: Susanne Temple, Christy Watson, me and Megan Rolland.


Leigh and Mia came to the race to watch me, which was so motivational. Leigh snapped this picture at the very beginning. Look how full of hope I am! It was great to get out some race-day jitters; maybe I won't freak out for the half marathon.


Here's Megan, my defacto running coach and the education reporter at the paper. Look at her, kicking so much butt! The picture kind of makes it look like she's running from the police. Keep going, Megan! They'll never take you alive!


Here everyone is at the end of the race. Everyone waited an extra HALF HOUR for me to finish! It meant the world to me! They are all super fast, so it was such a great feeling to see the three of them, plus Leigh and Mia, waiting for me to cross the finish line. Awesome!


Here we are after the race. Mia didn't actually run the 8K, but she wanted to be in the picture. She was the least sweaty.

And seriously: God bless Leigh Jacobs for watching Mia for more than an hour while I plodded along.

Frogs are delicious

Get ready for some geeking out.

Because Leigh's drivers are awesome, one of his friends at work brought us back some gifts from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Leigh got a Gryffindor tie (!) and I got a Chocolate Frog (!). Leigh's tie is super cool. I finally, finally, finally opened up the chocolate frog. And, just like in the books, it came with a trading card! Helga Hufflepuff. We agreed that it wasn't as definitive as the sorting hat, so we weren't Hufflepuffs. Nevertheless, the chocolate is DELICIOUS and will take us about 10 years to eat. Our next step will be to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter ourselves.

The Big Texan

If you've driven across Oklahoma, odds are you've seen a sign advertising The Big Texan. If you can eat a 72-ounce steak in an hour, it's free. That's 4 1/2 pounds of meat. Mia said she wanted to give it a try, but then we reminded her that 72 ounces was about 1/5 of her body weight. Next time, Mia. We stopped off at the famous restaurant for Sunday dinner on our way home from New Mexico.


We didn't have to wait that long, so we entertained ourselves with all the various things you can take pictures with. Turns out, giant stuffed bears are scary to a toddler. Lesson learned.

The tiniest tagger

On the way back from New Mexico, we had to stop at Cadillac Ranch. Neither of us had been to Amarillo, so it was the perfect time to stop and check out a bunch of cars buried on some guy's farm. The bad news: we forgot to bring spray paint! Luckily, some sweet girls from Fort Worth gave us their green paint when they had finished. We then passed them on to another couple who showed up empty handed. Next time we'll bring paint and leave it there for someone else. It was fun painting our names, and Mia even learned to spray graffiti. Her first crime: so sweet.

Our tiny tagger was so sad when we had to leave.