Jacob Alexander

Tricia delivered our nephew last night at 5:59 p.m.
We're so thankful for his safe arrival.

Something to Read

Every once in a while you find a blog that grips you. A friend told me about this one. I smiled, I prayed, I cried.

I wanted to tell you about it too.

5:40 a.m.

It used to be my favorite part of the day. I was single, living alone, and had nothing better to do so I was in the workout room in the early morning hours with a good friend, a few old men, and the rest of the day ahead of me.

I recently committed myself to running the mini-marathon. I want to do well. It's been six years since I've trained seriously for a race so I'm trying the ol' early morning workout again. It feels good. It feels good to have accomplished something by 6:30 a.m. It feels good to use weights again. It feels good to know that I'm doing something for myself.

I dream of running another marathon next year. We'll see how this goes...

Lydia Ray

Lydia turned 18 months on Saturday. She is definitely not a baby anymore. Here's the latest:

- She loves to climb. She likes to climb on the toilet with the seat down and dance around in a circle. She likes to climb on the coffee table and dance around in a circle. She likes to climb on the kid table in our playroom and dance around in a circle. She's attempted to climb on the top of the dining room table (to dance around in a circle, no doubt) before I intervened.

- She speaks in vowels. Besides "mama" and "dada," every person, place, and thing is a vowel sound.

- She giggles when Mike walks through the door. She adores her daddy.

- She loves to play dress-up. She'll point to a coat in the closet that she wants to wear. If I ignore her, she'll stand at the closet door and SCREAM. She can often be seen wearing Jonah's fireman raincoat or Mike's fleece vests. She also loves to try on every shoe in the house. We have shoes scattered everywhere!

- She's currently obsessed with toilet paper.

- She loves to play hide and seek. She even covers her eyes. She hasn't quite mastered the concept of HIDING.

- I used to think that she was going to be a quiet, sweet, gentle-natured girl. I don't really think that anymore! She definitely has some spunk.

Obsession

The truth must be told. I've slacked on housework. I've slacked on blogging. I've slacked on emailing. I've slacked on organizing.

I've become obsessed with scrapbooking again. A friend introduced me to Heritage Makers, an online sight that allows me to make "storybooks." It's really just like walking into a scrapbook store and having every piece of paper, sticker, ribbon, brad, corner rounder, tag, marker, stencil, etc. available to me. I've had so much fun creating a book for Jonah. You pay per month to have full access to the site so I have a deadline-- the end of this month.

Pardon me, I must get back to work!

Disgusting

I recently drove past the house where I was raised. It made me sick to my stomach. My parents moved out of the house in 2000. A young family from an unpleasant part of Columbus bought it, and I remember my parents being excited for them to have a nice home in a nice neighborhood.

It's arguably the nastiest house in the neighborhood now.

Can you believe it?


The best part? They removed the landscaping around the front door and windows and replaced it with a doghouse... dirt and a doghouse. Lovely.

Wedding

After an event filled Christmas vacation, we just returned to our home, refreshed and thankful for such wonderful family and friends.

Mike and I travelled to Virginia for my friend's wedding. Jana was a beautiful bride. She was relaxed, organized, and SO HAPPY! It was a wonderful celebration. We laughed, we danced, and we ate...then we laughed some more and ate some more. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

Song of the Day