A child of the 80s

Leigh's birthday is Saturday, but scheduling a party for him has been pretty much impossible. The city's big film festial is this weekend, and friends have scheduled events for next week. We were busy last weekend. It just wasn't going to work out, and Leigh was getting pretty bummed out about it. So I planned him a surprise party, even though he asks for a surprise party every single year. The theme: 1980s. Leigh was born in 1981, so we had a tribute to that child of the 80s.

Our friend invited us over for dinner as a decoy, and we showed up in regular clothes. I'd been to the thrift store to buy some amazing outfits for all three of us, so they were waiting in the trunk. Our friends Stacy and Andy opened the door, and Stacy was dressed completely 80s. She had a fabulous side ponytail and old Lemondheads shirt. Stacy is one of the most stylish people I know. She's always dressed to the nines, and I have literally never seen her in anything but a dress or skirt. I knew the surprise was blown as soon as I saw her.

Turns out, Leigh just thought Stacy was drunk.

Surprise still on!

We walked across their living room - where Leigh's presents were - and toward the kitchen, where our friends all shouted surprise. Leigh was, sadly, actually surprised. He will not be taking up a job as a detective any time soon.

Sadly, Mia was also surprised. She was not as excited.

I dashed out to the car and got our hilarious outfits. Here are some of the folks who dressed up:

And more party pictures:

This is my favorite picture. I'm guessing that Stacy labeled these drinks. "Sangria" and "Boring Juice."

Mia's first Hunker Down

Mia got her first introduction to Oklahoma weather today. A rash of horrible tornadoes struck the state, killing people throughout the city. I have to say, it was the most afraid I've been since living here. We left our house and stayed in Megan and Andrew's basement. It was Mia's first real hunker down, and she was great. I think she thought it was all a great game where all the adults got together to watch her run around. After it was all over, we were so grateful to be safe and have a home to go to. Mia, on the other hand, was exhausted from all the excitement:

A Run to Remember

I did it! I completed my first half marathon - 13.1 miles. I'm going to be honest. It was 45 degrees and rained the entire time. It. Was. Miserable. Miserable. After months of training, it was the worst payoff ever. But it was amazing! I did it!

Leigh snapped this picture at the midway point. No, I'm not in pain. I'm just complaining to him and our friend, Kay, that it was god-awful cold.


Here I am at about mile 9. This picture made me laugh out loud. Notice the guy passing me. He's walking and not even wearing running shoes. My speed is blinding.


Here I am at about mile 10. I ran for Vilakazi and for Chip Fields, the wife of a former coworker who died in the Oklahoma City bombing.


And the finish line! Hooray! I ran the whole 13.1 miles!


And here I am with my running buddies, Megan (in the red) and Darla (in the silver superhero cape like me). That's Megan's husband, Andrew. They stayed after they finished - waiting for two hours! - just to see me finish. I saw them at the finish line and got a little emotional. Our other running pal, Susanne, had to leave for the Thunder game. It was so great having them encouraging me the whole time. It meant the world.

My biggest encouragement came from Leigh. He's the one who watched Mia whenever I needed to go out on a training run. A faster wife would spent less time out of the house, but training took a long time. He always looked after Mia and took care of everything that needed to be done. And he was out there in the cold and the rain, cheering me on for miles. He's the best.

When toddlers run wild

Mia trying to use this as a purse. Thanks for capturing this moment at Megan and Andrew's cookout, Bryan Dean.

More from the Dean wedding

I snagged some photos from Deaner from his wedding day. Hooray!

Food? Charity? Yes.

I love helping charities. I also love eating. Every couple months, Sunbeam Family Services combines my two loves and gives me an excuse to go eat at S&B Burger Joint, which I'm pretty sure has no redeeming nutritional value. I took Megan with me because, honestly, where else would you have lunch with your running buddy?

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.)

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.

A happy Thankseating

We had two great Thanksgivings this year! First we had lunch with some friends of ours who are from far and wide. Here's a picture of everybody looking happy, except for Mia, who we think is forlorn because we couldn't let her have free reign with our friends' entertainment center. From left, it's Carrie (Arkansas), Darla (Connecticut), Justin (D.C. area), Leigh (South Africa), Megan (Colorado) and Andrew (Kansas City). So Mia is the only Oklahomans in this photo. It was so much fun and nice to celebrate the holiday with friends.

For supper, we cooked and hosted Leigh's mom and her friend. So it was some more eating. We realized it was Mia's first Thanksgiving meal. Last year she was breastfed and had no teeth. This year she's eating solids and has about one half of one tooth. So she got to indulge with us. Why don't we have Thanksgiving food all year long? I have no idea.

The P+D Pub Crawl

We had the BEST TIME last night with our friends at the Second Annual Pump and Dump Pub Crawl. The name wasn't exactly accurate this year, but it was too good to get rid of.

Trick or Treat or Terror

Today I volunteered in what might have been the most terrifying event of all time: kindergartners go trick-or-treating.

My friend Megan Rolland Schrader and I volunteered to take a group of kids from the school across the street through our office. They brought the whole kindergarten and split the kiddos into groups. This is Megan and me with our group:

Adorable, yes? And terrifying. I think I might have said "Only take one!" about 16,000 times. This one precious little girl immediately doted on Megan. She wanted to hold her hand and stay by her side. That left me with the other 78 kids. Or maybe, like, 10. Either way, it was a lot of kids. They were so hilarious. Every time we rode the elevator, they screamed at the top of their lungs and just laughed and laughed when we got off. They were so excited about the candy that they could hardly contain themselves. They wanted us to check out their haul in their bags after every floor. There was plenty of running and yelling and going out of turn, and when I got back to my desk, I was absolutely sweating. But it was so much fun! And no one was lost or injured. Hooray!