Monday, February 4, 2013

Retirement Sweet Retirement


 This post is all about my mama.  After 27+ years of working at the post office (while juggling kids, a home, and many other responsibilities), she has retired.  Her last day was January 31st.  My dad changed his work schedule so that he could be her last customer.  He bought a book of forever stamps.    She certainly went out with a bang.  In addition to receiving numerous flower arrangements, cards, and boxes of candy, the editor of The Blackshear Times made mama the subject of his weekly editorial.  He praised her hard work, friendliness, and dedication to her work.  Everything he said was absolutely true, and these same sentiments were expressed by her co-workers at her retirement dinner on Saturday night.  Person after person recounted their experiences with Mama.  At the end of the evening, they presented her with a framed copy of her editorial and silver charm bracelet with an envelope charm that had the dates of her employment engraved on it.  I am so excited for mama to begin her retirement, and I look forward to daddy joining her in a few months.

The last time she'll ever punch a clock.







Sunday, February 3, 2013

Cookie Kick-off


In January, Olivia's girl scout troop joined a few other local troops for a cookie kick-off pajama party. During this event, the girls went to different stations and completed cookie-related activities.  I was a parent volunteer in the "fishing for cookie money" room.  Here, the girls learned to count money and give change.  I think it made them feel like grown-ups to be given this responsibility. Later in the evening, the girls were treated to popcorn and a 3-D movie.  Olivia had a great time and came home fired-up about selling cookies.  So far we have taken pre-orders for about 100 boxes.  We should be receiving the cookies in the next week or so.  There's no telling how many boxes we'll end up selling.  Olivia wants to go on the cookie incentive trip to Atlanta, so she is really motivated.    She is certainly enjoying her first year as a scout.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

One Last Hurrah




We have certainly enjoyed our season passes to Wild Adventures this year.  The kids and I went numerous times during the summer and had tons of fun in the park and adjacent waterpark.  Fun as the passes were, we have decided not to renew in 2013.  A big reason for this is that Owen now has tubes in his ears and can't get them wet- so we're going to try to do non-water based activities this summer (as mush as possible).  Since our 2012 passes are still good, we decided to have one last hurrah at the park this past week.  Of course the waterpark was closed, but we still had plenty to do.  We rode the rides, saw a show with a talking Christmas tree, and saw the animals.  The kids were happy to ride all of their favorite rides one last time.




Friday, December 28, 2012

Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon

 I ran the Jacksonville Bank Half Marathon on my birthday this year.  This marked the first race where I ran in my new age group (35-39).  I'm getting old. The race was pretty good and I ran okay.  I had hoped to PR, but that didn't happen.  I didn't get to train as much as I would have liked in the two weeks leading up to the race and it was warm and muggy on the morning of the event.  I ended up with a time of 2.04.03, which I'm okay with.  This race was the last in the Tri-2B-Tuff series, so I got a special medal for completing all three races.
Since this is my last race of 2012, I would like to take a moment to reflect on what a great year of running this has been.  I ended up completing ten 5Ks, three 10Ks, one 15K, a five-miler, four half marathons, one duathlon, and one mud run.  I PRd in the 10K and 15K distance.  Also, I won overall female in two different 5K events and placed in my age group in several others.  In April I bought a road bike and I've enjoyed learning to use it.  One of my favorite things that happened this year was that I found some new running buddies- including my sister Quincy, whose progress this year has been amazing.

I have begun to work on my running calendar for 2013, and it's shaping up to be a good year.  I have made the decision to run my first full marathon next year, so that should be exciting.  I'm also considering a triathlon, but I haven't decided for sure.  Other things on my "to do" list include more mud runs, spending more time on my bike, and trying to improve my 5K time.  As always, if anyone is interested in running with me, let me know.  It's always fun.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas Morning

I really had a hard time buying gifts for the kids this year.  They don't really need much, and they didn't ask for a whole lot either.  The one thing that they did want was a laptop.  The laptop ended up being the one "big" thing that Santa brought. This was really like a gift to Brian and myself.  Maybe now the kiddos will stay off of our computers.  In addition to the computer, Olivia and Owen also received clothes, art supplies, and various other goodies from Santa.

Our Christmas morning began around 7:30.  I'm so glad that the kids still sleep in on Christmas morning.  I remember that my siblings and I use to get up around 4 a.m.- which I thought was cool when I was younger (not anymore).  Anyway, the kids played with their Santa gifts for a few hours while I went to the church to see if I could help with the Christmas breakfast.  When I got back home it was time to open the gifts under the tree.  Brian and I gave Olivia a dollhouse for her Barbies, and we gave Owen some G.I. Joe toys.  The toys that ended up being the most popular were the Dream Light pillow thing that I picked up at the last minute.  That was the "one thing" that they both chose to take to Granny Buie's house for Christmas dinner.  Although it was a fun day, it was very tiring.  I had to come home after lunch to take a nap.  We ended the night by reading the Christmas story out of the Bible and talking about the true meaning of Christmas.  I know that it is easy to get swept up in all of the "stuff" that goes on at Christmas.  I think it's okay to participate in these festivities, but I also feel it's important for us to remember what it is we're truly celebrating.  I really tried to drive that point home with the kids this year, and I think that   they got it (as well as 4 and 6-year-olds can).











Christmas Eve

We kept with the tradition of spending Christmas Eve at my parents' house this year.  This is always such a fun time for everyone to be together.  We had our regular meal of spaghetti- and daddy even cooked a pot of chili this year.  After eating, it was time to open gifts.  We all received so many nice things.  Quincy and I got quilts from Aunt Connie (which we loved).  Sam was surprised to get a pack of crickets. It's been a long time since he's eaten those.  We were all so happy to spend this time together.
















Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Pickles

During the holiday season, we had a special visitor at our house.  This visitor's name was Pickles, and he is an Elf (on the shelf).  Each day Pickles would hang out somewhere in our house and watch to see if Owen and Olivia were being good or bad.  At night, Pickles gave Santa a report and found a new spot to stay for the next day.  Well, that's how it was suppose to go- but not always.  Pickles turned out to be quite a mischievous little elf, and sometimes he got into things while everyone was asleep.  He did things like take some of the kids' candy, read Olivia's book, and rearrange things in their rooms.  Once we found him hanging from the light fixture with Owen's blanket.  That did not go over well with Owen, and the blanket had to be rescued immediately.  Even though he caused some minor commotion, the kids loved having Pickles around.  The first thing that they did every morning was get up and look to see where Pickles was sitting (and what he had been up to).  We will definitely be looking forward to Pickles returning next year.