Relay for Life

Our town held our annual Relay for Life tonight. Because of weather, it was moved from the school track field to our local armory.

And the night was filled with great and wonderful things.

There were smiles everywhere you looked.

The air smelled wonderfully of grilled meats.

You could hear talking and laughter all over the place.

Kids were outside playing on the inflatable play-things with smiles and laughter.

Families were enjoying time together.

Friends were able to visit for a few minutes.

Teenagers were flirting in a way that made me remember those fun butterfly feelings I once knew a long time ago.

I even had a few people, during conversation, reference or bring up my blogs, which is one of my favorite things ever because I love to know who reads me and it's just awesome anytime I find out someone that reads that I didn't know did!

But that wasn't my favorite thing of the evening.

Nor was seeing Ty with the Williams girls, who were being so great with him and so sweet to keep taking him through the inflatable!

Normally my favorite thing of every day is something to do with my son, but as much as I love and enjoy him, he took a second place tonight.

My favorite thing tonight were purple shirts.

And I'm not a big fan of purple.

But the most amazing thing I saw tonight were people walking around in purple shirts with the word "Survivor" across the back.

And that was my very favorite thing because it is just amazed me to see these wonderful people who have endured such a terrifying and heartbreaking experience. It was my favorite thing in the world tonight to see smiles on the faces of every one of these individuals there who wore their purple shirts as a very much deserved badge of honor.

For the Love of Eve

I stumbled upon a blog today titled "For the Love of Eve" and I couldn't agree more with what it says so I decided to repost that blog here, although, if you would like, you can find the original post here.
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SIT ON THE TOILET. SIT. ON IT. PUT YOUR BUTT ON THE TOILET SEAT.

I work at a public college, and the bathroom nearest my office is cleaned four times a day. Four times.

Sit on the toilet.

Even if your workplace doesn’t clean the restrooms four times a day, I bet you have custodial services in there either before or after work, once a day, minimum.

Sit on the toilet.

Unless you have oozing, suppurating, open wounds on the backs of your thighs, it is safe to sit your bare-naked-self on a public toilet seat.

Sit on the toilet.

You cannot get STDs from a toilet seat.

Sit on the toilet.

Your skin is a flexible, water-proof, germ-resistant barrier. You probably bathe regularly, too, so that anything that shouldn’t be there will be washed off in short order.

Sit on the toilet.

Urine is sterile.

Sit on the toilet.

If you sit on the toilet, whatever comes out of you will land IN the toilet, not on the toilet.

Sit on the toilet.

If you are so squeamish that the thought your bare bum might touch porcelain that has touched another bare bum makes you pee-shy, put down some TP, and then?

Sit on the toilet.

You have far more germs on your hands, your telephone, your computer keyboard than you have on a public toilet seat.

Sit on the toilet.

Please, please, please, my fellow women, do you part for womanity and Sit. On. The Toilet.

And for maude’s sake, wash your hands!

A simple request

Just so you know, after my jog (which I was certain would lead to cardiac arrest) and then a dive into a cold pool which lead to at least temporary oxygen deprivation, I made 3 requests to a few friends in the event of my untimely demise.

Two of which, I regret to inform you, I probably shouldn't share publicly. Actually, all 3 I probably shouldn't make internationally available, but hey, modesty is just a thing, right?

So the one request that I will post......make sure they bury me in a push up bra, please?

Silly, yes, I know. But just on the off-chance that we're stuck the way we end, I want to at least be able to spend eternity with a little bit of perk, ya know?

They call it progress....

Soooooooooo.....

Tonight I started Week Three of my Couch to 5k program.

And survived.

I just knew I was going to die before I even started because I went from jogging 90 seconds and then walking 2 minutes to jogging 90, walking 90, jogging THREE MINUTES, walking three minutes, and then repeating.

I didn't expect to survive the first three-minute jog, let alone both of them.

But I did. Not easily, but I did.

And afterwards I went to the back of my parents house (I was jogging at their house again) and donned my swimsuit and dove in.

It was there that I really could have died.

The water was SO.COLD that it took the air out of me, which makes the body involuntarily gasp for air. Fortunately just as I realized I was about to try to breate underwater my survival process went "Ummm....Ash, this might be a bad idea."

So I struggled the surface and when I was able to resume breathing again I gasped for all the warm air I could take in.

And then I was done.

D.O.N.E.

Talk about a quick cool down!

I'll measure and weigh in the morning (I typically do it in the mornings so it's consistent), but I'm not looking for any chance since last time since it's not even been a week.

Hope you all have a great evening. I'm off to watch Grey's!

Row, row, row your boat

Holy Moses, the sk......why am I having trouble spelling skies this morning....it is skies, right? Cause the pathetic little spell checker is saying skies is wrong, but I'm not quite tired enough to think that skys is right. For the record there are red squiggly lines below both.

Anyway, the skies opened up and haven't stopped emptying the contents of its soul onto us.

I let Ty sleep in my bed again last night cause, well, let's face it, if he gets in a habit it's not like he's coming between any intimacy that me and my invisible husband might share. And if I ever meet a Mr. Right or Mr. Good Enough, I won't ever get the chance to do this with subsequent kids because it will interfere in that relationship. So I figure, what's it hurting, all the normal rules don't seem to apply here (and if you think they do, here's where you get to exercise self-restraint in forcing your opinion on me).

So, he slept in my bed last night and all was well. He was actually somewhat on his side of the bed and only one foot was uncomfortably in my back.

But then my phone rang.

Not my cell phone which was within arm distance.

My home phone.

It rang.

At shortly before MIDNIGHT.

And I wasn't all that happy about it.

So I get up expecting it to be a wrong number, when I answer all huffy-like and I hear a click that signifies that a computer is answering and my emotions flash to livid and I'm about to give someone an earful for calling my house to solicit something at almost MIDNIGHT when I'm on the do not call registry.

And then I'm informed that it's a call from a Weather Alert my family is signed up for. And that we're under a tornado warning and that our area is in imminent danger and that we need to seek shelter and go to our safe place immediately.

Honestly, they made it sound that dire.

Oh, and can we add that of the few things I'm absolutely terrified of.....tornadoes rank up there in the vicinity of orphaning my child or worse, losing my child. So went from level-headed but irritated with the phone waking me up to full-blown panic in like zero point no seconds. I hung the phone up mid-message, scattered to Ty's room and grabbed the pillows off his bed and threw them into the bottom of the bathtub, went to my room, scooped Ty up and laid him in the bathtub (still asleep) and then went to check the weather conditions outside, which was eerie because it would go from thunderous and windy to this sudden quiet, eerie still, and minutes later it would be right back to gusting winds and continuous, rolling thunder. Totally weirded me out even more than I already was.

So my family and I are texting and my sister calls and offers to come get us because Ty and I don't have an inner room, which is why we were uncomfortably cramped into the bathtub together. I appreciated her thoughts, but I was quite content to stay in our bathtub huddled down with the boy, than to chance going out in the weather. So there we stayed while I called the Sheriff's Office and tried to remember how I programmed the phone system. Twice I made it to my own voice mail and finally on the third time I was able to reach a living person, although it wasn't the party I was looking for. Anyway, they were able to at least comfort me with the fact that nothing had been spotted and we would only be under warning for about 15-20 more minutes. Finally the weather seemed to have subsided for long enough that I was able to calm down and unfold myself out of the tub and check outside again. From there I glued to the TV until our county changed from Red to....yellow, I think.

So that was our main adventure. After we were out from under the warning, I emptied the bathtub and placed my bedding back onto the beds it belonged on and Ty and I went back to my bed where he drifted off almost immediately back to sleep. I finally made it back to sleep but woke up every time a train came through town and had to listen until I was positive it was a train and not a tornado.

But fortunately, no tornado made its way to our house.

Thank goodness!

Ty did tell me this morning, though, that he wanted to see the tornado and that only one thing could kill the tornado. I asked him what that was and he said "I think my sword, I think my Captain Hook sword can kill it!"

Too cute!

So now we just have today and 4 more days of storms to get through!

Couch to 5k: Progress So Far

Okay, Ladies and Gentlemen....I've had some questions about what kind of progress I've seen so far with my Couch-to-5k jogging.

As you know, I am documenting weight, and inches of four body areas that I felt I would see the most changes (be it that area growing or shrinking).

During the first week of jogging I dropped 3 lbs after the first and second workout. My waist, butt, thighs, and calves all remained unchanged.

At the beginning of Week 2, still weighing in at 3 lbs lighter than when I started, my only change was that my calves were a half inch smaller.

Currently, upon ending week 2, I'm still weighing the same 3 lbs lighter, my waist is 3/4" smaller than when I started, my butt is a 1/2" bigger (not what I wanted to see necessarily.....) my thighs are approximately 7/8" smaller (not really enough to constitute a change, to me, but it's been consistent. And my calves, which had lost 1/2" had now gained it back and are firmer than before, so I'm pretty sure that what I lost I ended up getting back in muscle gain, so that's good!

As far as other changes, I have noticed an increased energy level, now if I don't get a nap on the weekends, I tend to be okay with it. I'm sleeping much better and sounder, and although my coworkers might disagree with me, I at least feel like I'm in a better mood these days.

So I'm sticking with it and I'm looking forward to more positive changes as a result!

Everything Lies on Hope Now...

So I have Addison Road's "Hope Now" stuck in my head and it's my mom's fault because she recommended it as a song to sing in church.

But it's not a bad thing because I rather like the message.

So, I have a few things to talk about today, including my progress on Couch-to-5k training.

But first, to something said in my dream last night that's been bothering me. Basically, to sum up my dream, I was the leading lady in a chick flick. I was working some sort of job assisting a 50-something Italian man who was loaded and he decides out of the blue that I'm "The One" for his son, who I'd never met before but turned out to be this attractive looking jerk that I had problems with. Except the jerk wasn't as opposed to the idea of marrying me as I was him because he trusted his dad's judgment. His dad didn't seem to grasp the concept that I wasn't agreeable with the arrangement, nor did he give me the first chance to voice my opposition before he made a public announcement of our engagement. (Told you this is what chick flicks are made of).

Anyway, so some arguing ensued between me and The Spineless One where I argued that I believe in marriage and I believe that marriage is forever and that because of that, and because of my son and the necessity that I consider what's best for me AND him, I couldn't marry a man simply because his Daddy thought it was a good idea.

His words stuck in my head. Which is crazy because it's my dream and thus the words of my subconscious.

"I believe in marriage, too, and I believe in forever. It's too bad you're too stuck on being broken to give yourself a chance at it, though."

Anyway, long story short, I disagreed with the whole thing and resisted the whole idea until the moment he kissed me and the whole world disappeared.

But I've been stuck on what this figment of my imagination told me in my dream because, well, no one knows me better than me and I think my subconscious might have been trying to tell me something.

"It's too bad you're too stuck on being broken to give yourself a chance at it, though."

I guess you just have to be able to see inside my head and heart to see why that struck such a tremendous chord with me.

Moving on.

Saturday morning I got Week Two, Workout Two done. I decided that no matter what week I'm on, I'm just going to have to put myself through the last part of the jogging. I think that's the purpose of it, push yourself for a week, and then when you get where you don't have to push yourself, you up your jogging time so that you're still pushing yourself instead of coasting for a day or two.

But that's okay, that's how it's meant to work.

Tonight I did Week Two, Workout Three.

There was a field full of teenage boys at the track field and I didn't think it would be fair to Ty to go to the exercise room at the Civic Center where he would want to get on the equipment, but wouldn't be able to. So we went to my parents house and used their driveway while they weren't home.

And I think that'll be where we go from now on, too!

It'll be perfect, especially when it gets warmer and I'll be able to follow up my jog with a dip in the pool to cool off. And there's more for Ty to do because he's got several rideable toys there, too.

The weather tonight was perfect for a jog, too. Except the humidity. I'm a bit of a frizz ball now because of it. But the temperature was wonderful and kept me from getting hot or too winded.

Oh, and last but not least. I just had something delicious for the first time ever!

Ty wanted hotdogs tonight and I wasn't too set on plain ol hotdogs, so I took some bacon and wrapped it around the hotdogs and grilled it. It was wonderful!! Let me tell you, it's something everyone should try at least once! Delicious, so next time you start to grill out, give it a try!

Alright, I'm out. Hope you all have wonderful weeks!!

Week Two, Workout One

Guess what this blog is about?

Wow! You're good! You guessed it! My Couch-to-5k workouts!

Today I did my first workout for week one. It was 5 minutes of walking followed by alternating 90 seconds of jogging and 2 minutes of walking for 20 (or technically 21) minutes.

Believe it or not, the further into the exercise, the better I did! When I started out I could really tell that my hip, butt, and leg muscles are learning new tricks and getting used to the exercise because I could feel...well, I don't know how to explain it, but it felt kinda like an alertness in my muscles, so that was pretty cool.

When I started jogging, I caught myself checking my watch at about 45 seconds into the jog. As I went along I was able to jog more than 60 seconds or before I felt that "When does this end?" frenzy come over me! So that's progress, right?

So the workout went well and I really am feeling like, while I'm not necessarily seeing the progress I'd like to see immediately, I am still feeling progress within my body and that's great, too!

Not only will I rest better tonight, but I'll wake up with an extra burst of energy in the morning that will carry me through the day and that's the biggest reason why I need to be doing this!

Week One, Workout Three

Sooooooo.....today I finally got to do Workout Three of my first week!

Yeeeesssss.....I should have done workout one of week two today, but if you caught my previous blog, you saw how very busy I was over the weekend!

So after work tonight I hit the track in my new running shoes....



I cranked up my .mp3 player and jogged and walked through my jogging playlist. Upon songs like Taylor Swift's "Should've Said No" and upbeat songs like "Brown Eyed Girl" I found myself wishing I could actually dance. But I kept my focus on my current exercise and the timing of the lap I was on.

Because I didn't do my workouts as closely together as I should have, I felt like I didn't do as well as I might otherwise would have, but it was still a good workout and I doubt I let 3 days pass between workouts again.

Consider that a lesson learned.

I'm planning, with any luck, to tackle Week 1 Day 1 on Wednesday, possibly at lunch, that way I can get Day 2 in on Thursday evening, maybe. It's ideal to have at least 36 hours between workouts, but maybe 30 will work this one time.

I can tell that I'm exercising my calves, they are extremely tight and the muscles are a touch achy, but considering all the walking I did this weekend, too, that's to be expected!

I'm waiting on my fingernails to dry or I would go get my measurements and weight, however, I'm doubting any change for this week, especially considering the festival concessions that were consumed. Besides, my goal is more energy and firmer, more toned abs, tushie, and thighs. While the energy seems to have happened overnight, the others will not.

Speaking of night....I have a boy in my bed....for the third night in a row. I guess I'm going to let him crash with me while he actually wants to, he hasnt' wanted to so much as nap with me for months!! So, I'll give this another night but if I don't get a little better sleep tonight (in other words....if someone wiggles and bed-hogs as much as he has the past two nights) then he might find himself back into his wagon bed tomorrow night!

A long, long time ago....

Okay, how many of you, with that simple little title just heard Don McLean singing in your head?

Cause I totally did and the title was actually referencing how long it's been since I opened this window to type this entry, and how much time has passed since then, but instead I find myself singing about the day the music died.

So, on to the weekend and our adventures!

Oh my! We had the BEST weekend!!! Absolutely WONDERFUL!!

And I have to go all the way back to Thursday to begin the adventures because that's the night it all started.

Just to let you know how many pictures I'm wading through to bring you this....it's taken 53 minutes to pull them all off my camera. Fair warning, if you don't want to see a million and one pictures of some cute boys having a great time, just go ahead and stop here. (Seriously.....I have over 150 images.....I'm not kidding. But they're all cute, I promise!!)

But if you do, grab your coat and hold onto your hat! Actually, leave your coat, because it was an absolutely beautiful weekend and the weather couldn't have been more perfect!! So you might grab your sunglasses instead.

Okay......just don't say I didn't warn you! (FYI: I've inserted Horizontal Rules (like below) between the "Adventures" or days, so that you can see where one stops and another begins. It's easy to get lost in the pictures and not pay attention to the captions, so hopefully those will help break them up for you).

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So our adventures started on Thursday morning when I went and registered Ty for Pre-K next year!!

He was ready to spend the day and find his "Sunday Class"!! Mama is totally not ready for that, though! I need the whole summer just to prep myself!

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But the fun wasn't over there! That evening we went to the local festival, Fordyce on the Cotton Belt.

It was armband night, so the boys both got to ride rides to their heart's content!

(Not sure why the guy put Ty in backwards on the ladybug ride....)

Caden watching Cousin on the rides.

He doesn't really show it, but Ty loved the Train Ride!!

The boys also rode together.

Caden kept waving at us whenever they went around!

The Train Ride (just some random shots I felt like getting....)

Then PaPaw strapped the boys onto the Motorcycle Ride!

Caden wasn't so sure about the Bear Ride, though.....

Some of the Amusements

Then the boys got on the cars.

Love how it looks like Caden is glaring at Ty in this one!!

Ty rocketing down the Sinking Ship Slide!!

Caden with his gun from the $5 duck pull.

I had to help him get off the roundabout, he got on it and couldn't get off!

Running into an "Invisible Wall" in the Fun House!

But he was a champ about it.

He didn't want to escort Cousin back on the train ride at first.

But he got over it.

I love how Caden's all leaned over the arm.

Our courthouse behind some of the rides.

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Alright.....from here, our adventure takes us to FRIDAY!!! Which took FOREVER to drag on and on and on and on!!

But finally it ended and the boys were off to PaPaw and Nana's house where they played in the sprinkler!

Caden trying to make off with Cousin's shoes!!

Just to throw this into the middle before we move on to Saturday's adventures......

This is the horse I grew up riding.

Mr. Bo Jangles.

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Now our adventures take us to 11 AM Saturday morning with the 29th Annual Fordyce on the Cotton Belt Parade.

Caden spotted his Mama.

Some of the men in the parade in Civil War Era Costumes.

Ty holding his ears when the muskets went off!

Our local Fire Chief, Roy Wayne Moseley.

And one of our Fire Trucks, driven by our fearless and marvelous Volunteer Firemen.

Uh oh, he spotted his Mama again.

Double Uh oh! This one lost his balloon!

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After the parade, we headed back down to the festival for some food. Then we went home, got a nap and came back for more rides!!

Ty in the bouncing thing!

My gosh he's getting too big!!

Colton was willing to show Ty not to get stressed over the tunnel.

I don't think Ty got a good look at his technique though.

And in the end we had to stop the tunnel because our bottom lip was weighing us down too much!

Ty with his PaPaw and Nana.

Ever had one of those moments where your heart fills so full with pride that you just don't think you could be any more happy/joyful/content/proud etc..... This is one of those moments for me.

Some of Fordyce's Finest even got onto the rides, uniform and all!!

And how bout some more random shots of the rides?

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Alright. Now our final adventure takes place in Little Rock on Sunday where the family loaded up to go see Disney on Ice!!

I'm just going to post these with no or few captions. It was kinda hard to get good pictures due to the light, fog, and how quickly the actors/skaters moved around on the ice! But, overall, I'm happy with the pictures and THRILLED with the whole experience! We all, adulst and kids, had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed the experience!!!

So, here are the pictures!

Ty and his Peter Pan Sword and his Flounder Hat on!

And all that fun is bound to wear a boy out! Good thing he has Flounder to rest his head on!

Oh, and for those of you who haven't heard.......my brother-in-law had the misfortune of coming home with this.

I'm sure you feel as sorry for him as I did! But he didn't seem to mind too much. Actually, with that ear-to-ear grin, I'm not sure he minded at all!

Hope you all had WONDERFUL weekends and enjoyed them as much as me and my family enjoyed ours!