Training

So I have started training for the Columbus Half Marathon. I figured trying to do 1-2 half marathons a year would keep me in shape and the Columbus Half is close by, cheaper than Disney and most importantly FLAT, which is my number 1 requisite!

I am in week 1 of training using Hal Higdon's Intermediate Half Marathon Training Guide. Tomorrow will be 5 miles. Today I ran 3 in about 30 min. My goal in training for this marathon is only to beat my last time of 2:21:36.

If anyone is interested in joining me, let me know!

Ainsley's Birthday

I forgot to mention that while we were in Maine we celebrated Ainsley's 7th birthday! I can't believe she's already 7. Where does the time go?

We did a big family celebration and she had a great time with grammie's and grampie's, Aunts, Uncles and cousins! It doesn't happen very often that my girls get a family birthday party since we live so far away from family. Ainsley seems to be the one that gets it most often since Mackenzie and Ellie's birthdays fall in the winter and we don't travel to Maine in February!

She is going to have a couple of friends overnight here and then to Chuck E. Cheese when I can find the time to arrange it, but I wanted to post at least a couple of birthday pics!

I didn't get a good picture of Rian. At the party she was in her car seat sleeping and the pics didn't come out that clear. I have no idea how I didn't get another picture of her! Rian is around 3 months and is a cutie! Her cousin Jordis is around 6 months and adorable too!

All the kids together! You can't see Conner since he's hiding behind his sister Rian

Here's a picture of Conner kissing a fish. He taught Ainsley to do this too!

Cousins Conner and Lexie

Lexie :)

Ainsley with some of her birthday gifts...(she got mostly gift cards so that we wouldn't have to pack up a lot of stuff...)

The cake! I meant to have them write on it but well..it was a busy day! Ainsley didn't mind :)

Ice cream cake is yummy!

Ainsley's birthday hat that she got from Grammie I :) Too Cute!

A blog worth checking out

I love reading Perry Noble's blog. He is the pastor of Newspring in Greenville, SC.

He offers a lot of insight, encouragement and often a whack upside the head.

His blog is definitely worth checking out.

www.perrynoble.com

A post that he wrote yesterday entitled Why I Believe You Can Do Exactly What God Has Called You To Do spoke to me.

Here's a portion of it. If you want to read the rest, check out his blog.

Why I Believe You Can Do Exactly What God Has Called You To Do! July 28, 2010

I believe you can do exactly what God has called you to do!

We serve a God who is a MASTER at calling those who are not “qualified” to do things that seem “impossible!”

I believe that when a person becomes obsessed with the character of God by reading the Word of God and then gets empowered by the Spirit of God…that person is unstoppable and his/her potential is unlimited as long as they will dare to continually follow Jesus and refuse to play it safe! (See Zechariah 4:6-7)

(A quick note on this…you’ve GOT to make sure you’ve heard from God and are not simply getting ready to do something and then begging Him to work!)

I believe God puts dreams and visions in our hearts that are so HUGE that it causes great desperation for HIM and HIS power…thus leading to the world seeing what HE can do through us rather than what we can do “for Him!” (The bigger the revelation the greater the desperation!)

I believe we are all GIFTED....

Check out his blog for the rest of the post!

It spoke to me specifically because I am wrestling with what God wants of me right now.

I desire to be used by God in life changing ways. Life is WAY to short to waste time on things that don't really matter. It is just a matter of seeing what the next step is...I am glad I am not alone on this journey called life and that He is with me all the time.

Amazing!

Home, sweet home

We are home! Have I ever mentioned how much I love my bed? I do. I absolutely love my bed.

We had a great trip to Maine, had lots of fun times and made lots of great memories.

Now it is back to real life and getting the house back in order.

I have started the laundry, but desperately need to clean the house.

I am pretty sure that will have to wait for another day however as I need to work today.

Just wanted to post a few pictures of our adventures in Maine...

Tail end..

So we are on the tail end of vacation. Just another day left in Maine and then off to Boston tomorrow morning to hop on our plane back to our happy home in KY. While I am really looking forward to getting home and getting back to my own bed, we have thoroughly enjoyed our time with friends in family in Maine. I have LOTS of pictures to post once we get back and get them downloaded onto our computer.

We have had a ton of fun spent with Grammie and Grampie Moody, Grammie and Grampie I and Grammie and Grampie Miller. So much fun that I am not sure how on earth going back to KY will ever compare! I am pretty sure it might be a LONG week of transitioning back...

Parades, good food, swimming in multiples lakes, kayaking, fishing, 4-wheelering, jet-skiing, a trip to the ocean. Lots of amazing fun with family and friends! We have been very thankful for our vacation!

Can't believe that it is a little over 3 weeks before the kiddos start back to school!!! Yikes...not sure if I am ready for them to go back to school!

Happy Hills 2010

I arranged for both Mackenzie and Ainsley to go to camp together this year. They are usually separated by grades, but the week that Ainsley should have gone is when we are in Maine, so they made an exception. So I sent both Mackenzie and Ainsley off to camp at Happy Hills for the 3rd-4th grade camp last Tuesday night. They were scheduled to be there from Tues-Friday but alas I got a call Wednesday night saying Mackenzie was homesick! I think next year we won't send her as this seems to be a problem each year. This is the first year I have had to pick her up but last year she did call and say she was homesick. I thought having Ainsley with her would be helpful but apparently not helpful enough. So I picked Mackenzie up early on Wednesday night and thankfully Ainsley was a trooper and stayed the rest of the time alone without her sister. Mackenzie was really very sweet though. When her counselor called she said that Mackenzie was homesick and really wanted to come home but was very concerned that her sister might be scared at being left alone and wasn't sure she should come home. When I talked to her she said the same thing. She said she would check with Ainsley and see if Ainsley would be ok to stay alone. If not she would stay. Very sweet. But Ainsley said she was ok to stay and so I left her there. I was so proud of her as Ainsley is honestly our least independent girl. She usually needs friends and people she knows in order to feel comfortable staying in new places and doing new things.

I had a good couple of days with Ellie and Mackenzie before we headed back up on Friday to pick up Ainsley. She said she had a blast! I think Mackenzie was sad she didn't stay! She did say she cried a little bit after Mackenzie left because she missed her but then she was ok once they got busy...

She was pretty exhausted though. They keep them up till 10:30 so that when the kids go to bed, they are REALLY tired. She said she fell right to sleep:)

Jeff came home from China on Saturday afternoon laden with all sorts of cool gifts. The girls got new silk umbrellas and another tea set. I am now the proud owner of seasons 1-7 of NCIS, seasons 1-5 of House and P90X. Can't wait to try out P90X when we get back from Maine.

This summer for us is basically globe trotting. We have been very busy doing lots of travel it seems! We head to Maine tomorrow so today has been spent organizing, making lists and packing! Tomorrow at 3 we depart from Cincinnati to Boston, where we will spend 3 days doing lots of cool things. I can't wait! And we hopefully will get to hang out with Aaron and Christina. Then onto Lincoln for a week. We always plan this time to land over our town's homecoming festivities so we can see more people in one place. A week with Grammie and Grampie Moody, Grammie and Grampie I and lots of other family!

Then onto Southern Maine to visit Grammie and Grampie Miller before we head back home to Cincinnati Monday the 26th!

We will post all of our great adventures when we return along with hopefully some good photos...

Here is the boat they made in arts and crafts...

Ainsley next to her bunk. Mackenzie has already taken her stuff to the van...

Ellie next to Ainsley's bunk

Ellie and Mackenzie walking into the girls' cabins

South Carolina

We spent almost a week with my brother and sister-in-law and their family over the 4th and had a blast as usual. We drove down on the Wednesday before the 4th and had that evening through Saturday with everyone. Jeff had to fly out of Greenville early Sat afternoon for a business trip to China which was a bummer but the girls and I managed to still have a great time even while they were missing their daddy. We got to experience our first swim meet and had a lot of fun watching the kids compete. Their oldest four swim for their subdivision swim team and it is pretty competitive. They all did a fantastic job! It was especially great to see Jackson swim since he is the only boy in the family and is really into swimming. He did a great job! Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera and didn't get any pictures.

The kids as always had a great time hanging with their cousins. They worked on a play while we were there and performed it for us. It was a great job by all. I did take video but Ellie fussed and was distracting so I decided not to post it. Mark preached at their church on the Sunday we were there which was really cool. I hadn't heard him speak in years so it was especially cool for me. Apparently it had been 6 years since he last preached! Their church is very large and has 2 full-time teaching pastors so rarely does he preach. He did a fanstatic job and he seemed like a natural. I was glad I was able to be there to hear him!

We celebrated the 4th of July in our usual fashion. All the people in their cul-de-sac get together and buy separate fireworks and take turns shooting them off. Jackson LOVES fireworks and is getting old enough to set them off so he had a great time! I enjoyed watching them from the sidelines. Ellie did much better this year. They didn't seem to bother her at all but she did ask to go to bed somewhere around 10..:) It was a great time with the family and we are thankful we at least live close enough to drive to visit them a couple of times a year..

Here are some pics from the week..

Dinsmore Camp

The older two girls spent a week at the Dinsmore Homestead near us doing Pioneer Camp. They absolutely loved it! Mackenzie was sick one day and I had to pick her up early but other than that it was a great week. They did it a few weeks ago but I am just getting around to posting about it. They learned about the Oregon Trail, the Civil War, celebrated a 4th of July like it would have been celebrated many years ago, and many other things. They had so much fun and they learned lots of cool stuff too! We will definitely do it again next year. Next year Mackenzie also wants to go to the Young Ladies camp where they learn how to prepare tea and do all the things proper ladies did many many years ago. I think it would be a great idea and wanted her to go this year but you have to be 10 and she's only 9.

I didn't get many pictures but did take a couple on the last day.