Things have been really crazy lately. Work is busy as usual but I have one particular case that has just blown up completely. It seems that the domestic violence situation that we suspected is much worse than we had even imagined. It's all out in the open now, but the the wife/mom has gone back to him and I am scared to death for her. It's a very difficult and time comsuming situation. Very hard for the children involved.

Then last week my mom had a arteriogram. It showed that she had a major artery that is 70% blocked. The Dr. doesn't exactly know how they are going to treat it. It is very close to her heart so that presents some issues for surgery. She went back to the Dr. today and it seems that what I feared the most is not their first suggestion, and that was bypass surgery. She goes for an echo cardiogram tomorrow that hopefully will reveal even more information in which they can finally make a decision about what to do.

In the mean time she is not allowed to watch the girls for two weeks. No lifting, no exertion of any kind for a couple of weeks. So, Fred's mom was so kind to come from Tulsa to help us out. She has been watching the girls here at the house. We are SO incredibly blessed to have such wonderful family to help us out.

I haven't been very good at keeping up with this blog lately. So much going on that when I get a free minute I'm sleeping! :)

Things have been going well, just busy. I had to take a week off running. I started having pain in my left knee about the 2 mile mark during my run. It seems it's due to ITB. I have been given some stretches to do and told to get some better shoes -- I think I'll do just that! :) I ran tonight and stopped twice to stretch. I hope it will get better as I keep working on it.

The girls are doing good with potty training. Rachel is done. She hasn't had an accident during the day in a long time. She had her first night accident in a while on Saturday night when it seems she woke up from a bad dream and was screaming. That, in turn, woke Bekah (who struggles at times with stopping what she is doing to use the potty) up with a start and she also wet the bed. So, at 3:20am Sunday morning I was up changing sheets, jammies, blankies and panties. By the time I got back in bed I was wide awake and never really got back to sleep before I had to get up for church. By the time we finished church I was about to fall over. I tried to take a nap when the girls did, but I must have just been over tired because I couldn't get to sleep then either! BAH!

Other than that there is not much going on. It's just been HOT! I am ready for Fall! It's not going to be under 100 this week. I need football and hot chocolate weather!

Date Night

It's been forever since Fred and I have gone on a date. Well, last night that all changed. We had one INCREDIBLE time! It was a GREAT concert! They played for over 3 hours and it was just them, no opening acts. Oh, you wanna know what concert it was??? Well, OK....
Singing Mississippi Girl... A cool one of the stage...you can see from my wide shot that we weren't all that close, but it didn't matter, sounded great and we could see them just fine. Faith looks really tiny in this one, HA! They both came in and out from the middle of the stage. The ever so pleasing to look at, Tim McGraw singing "Live like you were dying."
One of my favorites of them together (above). And one last one...

109

That was the high here yesterday. Humid and Hot. Not a good combination and no fun for running! It's been in the mid to high 90's even after 9pm. OY! We are getting a break today, though, it's only supposed to be 95! LOL! OH! And today, for the first time, I pushed past two miles. 2.25 - not much, but baby steps work. It will get me there eventually, right?

After my last potty training post the girls turned a corner overnight and are now doing fantastic! We even left the house in panties last night and not pull-ups! We went to eat and half way thru dinner I noticed Bekah squirming around. I asked her if she needed to go to the potty and she said, "Yes, I sure do, Mommy." Rachel said she needed to go too and so we all trotted of to the bathroom. Both of them went and then I had to go. While I was sitting there Bekah came over and grabbed both of my arms and was squeezing the heck out of them. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I'll hold you up, Mommy. Don't fall in!" HAHAHA! I was laughing so hard! Hopefully success will continue! Hooray!!!

Progress Report

Potty training did not go quite as well as I hoped it would. It has been a struggle, especially with Rachel. Bekah is doing very good, until she gets tired, then she has accidents. Today she only had 3 accidents all day, not bad! But dear Rachel has really had a hard time with this. She knows when she needs to go, and you can tell when she needs to, but she refuses to sit on the potty. She will just go wherever she is. Once I asked her why she didn't tell me so she could sit on the potty, her answer, "the potty hurts." Oh great! Just what I wanted to hear. She makes a tiny tiny bit of progress every day. Hopefully someday soon it will "click" and she will do it.

The first two nights she peed in her bed about 5 minutes after putting her down and me begging her to try to go on the potty. She would just scream like somebody was just hurting her. Last night I decided to try pull-ups at night and she absolutely threw a fit. She did NOT want to wear them, she wanted her "Cinderella panties", and for the first night didn't have any accidents. Tonight I did not have any clean panties for her so she had to wear a pull up and just did not like it at all. Poor baby. And then there is Bekah who does great with the potty, but begged to wear a pull up. OY! These girls! I just keep telling myself that one day this will all be over and they really will use the potty all the time.

Marathon....

Not the running sort, mind you, but something entirely of a foreign nature.

Today we said good-bye to diapers for what I hope will be forever. We are going cold turkey. We have been building up to this for a while it seems. When Rachel came to me this last week with a diaper in hand and said, "Mommy, I'm stinky again", I knew there was no denying that the time was upon us.

So, this weekend I will be pumping them full of liquids in hope that get them to the potty as much as possible. I know there will be accidents, but practice makes perfect - so my paino teacher always told me. :) For rewards they will be getting the much coveted, but never before tasted Hershey Kisses.

Bekah did actually go on the potty tonight and was SO proud of herself. She was nearly beside herself with excitement in picking out which kind of Hershey Kiss she wanted (after all I had to get 4 kinds, LOL - Caramel, dark chocolate, milk chocolate and the new peanut butter filled!). It was too cute!

29 and counting...

Sunday I celebrated my very last year in my 20's! It's hard to believe that next year when I celebrate, I won't be celebrating a 20-something year! Yikes!!! It was a great birthday celebrated with family and I did enjoy it! The girls blew out all my candles at least three times. I am reasonably sure they thought it was their birthday, HA!

In other news, last Thursday I came home to mail that was just for me! It's so much fun to get mail that's not bills or notices etc. Instead, it was 3 great editions of Runner's World from a really great lady who is my running inspiration! OK, so, there's one missing...it's upstairs by on my nightstand...I didn't feel like going up to get it :) Thank you, Ms. Nomer!!! I am really enjoying them and appreciate it so much!

I had not run since last Tuesday, my herniated disc in my lower back was really giving me fits last week, but as of tonight I am back in the saddle. It was not an easy run tonight, but I made it and for now, that's all it takes!

My Naked Chefs

They wanted to "cook" instead of taking a bath. Too cute not to share :)

I DID IT!!!!!

I can't believe it, but I really did it! I ran two whole miles this morning! No, stopping, no walking! I was tired, but excited. I can't believe I made it to this point. I would have never thought I would be able to, but HOORAY!!!! This is just really an incredible personal milestone for me.

I am off to sleep now. It stormed for about two hours last night with house-shaking thunder that kept me up for two hours and I am pretty exhausted. I wish it would just rain, that would be nice, but the thunder just gets to be too much when it's the middle of the night. Ah well, at least no threat of tornados.

Progress...

Measured in a minute. Maybe not much to most of you, but for me, I am very excited! I am finally starting to get into some major running minutes. Tonight I ran 8 mintes walked 5 and then ran 8 more. Next time I am supposed to do my warm up walk of 5 minutes and then run the whole 20, but I may repeat what I did tonight one more time. I also found out the route I have been running is two miles. That's good to know!

I have decided when I can run the whole twenty minutes I'll by myself some running shorts. So, if anyone has any suggestions let me know!

HOT! HOT! HOT!

Summer is here with a bang! It's been 100 or at least high 90's for the last 7 days at least. It doesn't look like it's going to end anytime soon. I went running last night at 8:30 and it was still in the 90's. I looked like I had taken a dip in the pool by the time I got back!

I took the girls out to my parent's house for a swim yesterday afternoon and they seemed to have more fun standing on the side of the pool throwing their Veggie Tales toys into the skimmer for Papaw to get out then actually being in the pool. Silly girls.

In other baby news (yes, I do know they are not really babies anymore, but indulge me for a moment) I have finally decided on a method for pottie training. We've tried a couple with no success and it was recommended to me that if you try something and it's not working you should stop and wait 30 days before trying something new. This site was recommended to me and I ordered the book. It's a very different concept in pottie training methods, but one that I have personal testimony from people who have tried it and been successful with it. Now, I just need three uninterupted days at home with them to do it!

We survived our first vacation with the girls. It was fun, but I will say it was definitely a challenge that at times we were wishing we had not taken up. There were little things along the way that weren't to bad, it was just the one day we really needed the girls to take a nap that was so horrid. It was the day we went to the Grand Ole Opry in the evening. We had toured the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Ryman Auditorium earlier in that day, then the very minute we got back in the van they were OUT! It took us 10 minutes to get back to our hotel and in then they woke up and absolutely refused to sleep again. We tried everything! Patted backs, laid down with them anything we could think of, but without success. So, that night at the Opry they were crazed little girls. Fred and I both missed the first 15 minutes of the concert and I missed a lot more. Oh well, at least my mom got to enjoy it and that's what we really wanted. The girls did, however, do great in the car. All that time in the van and they still beg to ride in it!

I have recovered from the tumble down the stairs and am doing good. I didn't get to run for a whole week and I could feel it. Last night I went running and just for the heck of it I tried to push myself just to see what I could do. I ran four minutes walked two for my 30 minutes and was suprised I could do it. It was not easy at the end though, but I am proud to say I did it!

Now, just for fun, here's a couple of pics of my cuties!

I am beginning to wonder if it might be getting time to shape up some girls hair a little. There's still not a whole lot of it, but it's starting to look pretty scraggley. Here is a picture of the girls walking down the stairs at the Ryman Auditorium.

Accidents Happen

This has just not been my week. For some reason my alarm did not go off this morning and I woke up 30 minutes late. So, i was running around trying to get showered, dressed and everything ready in 30 minutes. That, of course, meant that I was getting the girls up late. Both of them were sleepy mode this morning and didn't want to walk down the stairs. Trying to save time I picked up Rachel with my left arm and Bekah with my right. Off we went. Somewhere around the second or third step from the bottom my left foot slipped out from underneath me and down we all went. I instinctively held tight to the girls and somehow managed to fall backwards and hang on the both girls. Bekah slipped down on my side but didn't fall.

I have no idea what I landed on, just that I felt major pain in my neck and shoulders. I asked Bekah if she was alright and got, "I'm just a fine, Mommy." I was sitting on the last step trying to catch my breath, and Rachel said, "Mommy, hurt?" I told her that yes, mommy was hurting. So, Bekah leaned over and kissed my shoulder and said, "All better now, Mommy." It was very sweet. I do wish I could have fixed it all.

Unfortunately, after dropping the girls off getting into work I could barely move my head and neck. I told my supervisor what had happend and she told me to get to the doctor. I got my case that was going to court today ready in case I didn't make it back and headed out to my Chiropractor. The verdict was Whiplash. Not fun. She adjusted my neck and back and told me that I would really be sore tomorrow. I guess nothing I can do about it now.

Lesson learned: Taking one girl down that stairs at a time really doesn't take that much more time

What is that saying?

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Right? I am pretty sure I experienced this first hand yesterday in a courtroom. I got totally blasted by a judge yesterday for not only not having the most recent drug test of a mother and father on one of my cases (even tho I was told I did have them by the parents), but also because I did not test the mother for Methadone, which is a legal substance in Oklahoma. However, I am now under a court order to test her for this, which I am pretty sure violates her civil rights. Hmmm....but, nothing for me to do as I have NO power. C'est La Vie! I suppose... I am counting down the days until next week, vacation here I come!!!!!

Upping the Ante

This week I am going from a 20 minute interval run to 25 mintes. I also ran for 5 solid at the end, which was not easy. It had been a long day at work and I was tired, so that was a challenge for me. But I'll keep it up and do it again tomorrow!

A friend from church who is a foster -soon to be adoptive- parent and I are considering starting a small group at our church for those who are foster parents or who are considering being foster parents. We think that in a church of 10,000 there has to be something we can do to create support for foster parents and also to recruit those who might be considering becomeing foster parents. So, keep us in your prayers as we consider what we can do to help provide for these kids in need. Currently the state of Oklahoma has approximately 14,000 children in state custody and only 7,000 available placements. That means a lot of these kids have to stay in shelters, group homes and other various places that aren't exactly a warm and loving environment. These kids are in the system thru no fault of their own and deserve some love and stability, even for only a short time.

And 1 more makes 4!

Happy 4th Anniversary to my Fantastic, Helpful, Understanding husband! This is not the best picture I have of our wedding day, but it was the one most available, so it's the one you get tonight! :) It's hard to believe it's been 4 years. Really, that's such a short amount of time, but it feels much longer -- in a good way, though. So, SO much has happened in these last four years, I never would have guessed on this day four years ago that we would have: 1) Both made major career changes 2) struggled and beat the monster of infertility 3)expanded our family by 2 members 4) sold two houses and bought one 5) endured 12 of the most excruciating weeks of Hep C treatment for Fred, only to have it fail. It's really been something! And, while there have been times that have been very tough, I would not trade a minute of my years with my wonderful Fred! We have been so blessed!

Thank you, Fred, for being the wonderful man you are and being my rock of support. You make me smile and feel special every day! You are truly a gift from God! I love you!

A fried of ours who graduated seminary recently told us that it is not suggested that people make more than one major life change in a year's time. I can't think of a year when we had less than one major life change. We've made it thru and are more devoted to each other now than we were then. No matter how life changes, at least I know that as long as we are here on this earth my Fred will be right beside me.

Liar, Liar Pants on Fire

My sweet, tiny, demure little Bekah told me a big fib for the first time on Saturday. I had made sausage for breakfast at the request of said tiny one. She was the only one eating it, so I knew when I saw sausage on the floor by a little wooden rocking chair, where it came from. I said, "Who made this mess on the floor?" Big brown eyes looked up at me and said, "Elbis did it!" Hmm...last time I checked, Elvis, being a cat and all, didn't eat sausage. I explained to Bekah that Elvis didn't eat any of the sausage, only Bekah did. So, I asked my question again. The tiny little one looked at me and pointedly restated, "Mmmmoooommmeeee!!!!!!! Elbis DID it!!"

I hate to admit it, but I was fighting hard to keep from laughing on one hand, and crying on the other. I can't believe they have gotten to the point of understanding how to lie! AGH! Where are my litle girls going?! Bekah had to sit in the naughty chair for her deed, and after that fessed up to her doings. My work has only just begun.

2 Down - Countless days to go

I mentioned a while back that I had agreed to run a 5k in October. I started running Tuesday using this plan. The first day was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. Today was a little more difficult than I expected. HA! Things really never are what you expect. I have no idea why this would be, but no matter, I did it!

Tomorrow is my very last day of CORE training. That means next week I go to work in the "real world." I actually enjoyed being in class. It was kind of nice just go to class, yak with coworkers on break, think about what I was having for lunch. It was almost like being in highschool again, only not as much homework!

I did have to conduct a mock interview today on video. OY! I hate watching and hearing myself on video. I hope that I did OK with it. I have to say that after watching training videos of how interviews should go, my skills are rudimentary at best. I know it's something you learn over time and experience, but to think I will have to be doing this for real starting next week is more than nerver-wrecking!

I wish I had a fast forward button to skip the "learing process" at the beginning. But, even our very seasoned instructors say they still make mistakes in interviews. I guess the human factor means mistakes are always present, no matter how competant of an interviewer you are.

I just had to post that Bekah peed on the potty today! YAY! I know that's not a lot of excitement for most of you, but I am SO proud of her!

Rachel still has no interst, LOL. I am not worried yet. Now, if she turns 5 and is still saying, "No yike pee pee potty" then I'll be concerned. =)

My chicken turned out great! Thanks again to Earle-girl for the recipe!

Now, as promised, a real update!

Things are going very well here, just very busy. I have this week and next week left in training. Then, they cut me loose. I hope I can keep myself together, learn not to take things so personally where attorney's and judges are concerned, and find a medium between wanting to bring all these kids home with me or just run the other direction. The thought of holding the future of a family in my hands is an awesome responsibility that I am not sure I could ever really be prepared for.

I had planned to start my Couch to 5k running program yesterday, but, alas, my best made plans were laid to waste when I was released from class early only to find my car deader than a doornail! Luckily, a couple of girls helped me push it to a different spot (hooray for a standard) and gave me a jump. I made it to my parent's house to get the girls, and there my dad took over. He cleaned the battery cables, tested it, replaced the cables - all to determine it was "failing under load" - whatver that car speak means?! I am just thankful dad knows! =) Daddy's are great! So, off we went to get a new battery! It was about 8 when I made it home last night, and after all that excitement I just did my regular exercise. But, I will do it! OH! This week also marks a year since I reached my goal weight and celebrated a 65 pound weight loss! WOHOO!

In girl news, they had their first real word argument the other night. We were coming home from dinner with some friends when it just barely started to rain. Rachel said, "It's rainin'! Get umbredella (umbrella)". A couple of seconds later we hear Bekah quietly say, "It's not rainin'." Rachel reacted and responded, "It's rainin', Bekah!" "It's not rainin', Chachel!" "IT'S RAININ' BEKAH!!!!!!!" It was too funny!

P.S. Earle-girl, I am trying your chicken recipe tomorrow night! Hope it works out! =)