things that make my day

after bathing, lotion, brushing, dressing and kissing the kids, i left them upstairs to play while i started yet another load of laundry. well, as a mom's life goes, i got distracted with another chore and then another. i was quickly brought back to reality as i heard the best sounds coming from upstairs. georgia was shrieking with delight and giggling so hard i started laughing and andrew was having giggle fit after giggle fit. so, realizing i must be missing something absolutely amazing, i rushed upstairs to see what the fuss was all about. i walked into where the sounds were coming from and watched my kids piling up every pillow we own in the middle of my king sized bed and then, before they noticed i was standing there, andrew hurled himself into the middle of the pile with tiny little georgia following suit. i don't know if there is anything better than watching your kids without them knowing it, you can catch them in absolute blissful unspoiled moments having the time of their lives - with each other. i was able to catch a few "moves" (as andrew says) on camera before i had to break up the fun due to lunch and naps. have i mentioned how much i love my kids? because i love them like crazy.

mile marker

throughout my whole life i have been the "not so active" poster child. and, granted, it wasn't all my fault, i had mono, epstein barr, and some serious growth spurts that put me into an eternal spiral of napping. i remember waking up, tired, going to school, tired, coming home from school, tired, sleeping, doing homework, tired, sleeping, eating, tired, and then going to bed. not so fun, especially for a teenager. i also remember being woken up on saturday late mornings to my friend's dog licking my face. i never understood why my mom allowed this but i guess she found it amusing. hmmm, i didn't! (thanks becky) so, with this background of never having gym classes, never exerting myself physically too much, and when i did, living with the overwhelming exhaustion after doing normal teenage activities like skiing, i just resigned myself to living the life of someone who wasn't supposed to be very active. so, skip forward two children and another 50 lb. weight gain (yes, 50 lbs with each pregnancy) i needed to do something! so, i started asking my stick thin "i had a baby two weeks ago" friends what they were doing. the overwhelming response was running. i was stumped, i couldn't run a mile in junior high, what made me think i could run a mile now with all this extra weight? with all this self doubt i decided it was worth a shot so i pretended to run... for all of you active people, running is not easy to just decide to do one day! :) and, i signed up for a 5k run with some friends of mine. well, i didn't lose much weight and i for sure didn't run the whole 5k but i had chosen to be active and this really helped the way i was thinking of my post baby body. skip forward another 5 months, i was able to finish a 5k in about 31 minutes, and i got this crazy idea that i might like to finish a half marathon. let's just blame it on the adrenaline rush and lack of oxygen to my brain. and, until this last week i wasn't sure if i could handle it. but once again i've pushed the self doubt away and have been dutifully waking up early, running at least 3 times a week and have slowly added to my long run. i hit a huge goal this week that has boosted my confidence 10 fold. i am now looking forward to my half marathon instead of looking at it with dread and remorse for committing to run. it's amazing to me how with persistence we can change so much about ourselves and i am talking physically but i know this can be applied to spiritual and mental challenges as well. so, in about a month, i'll let you know how my first half marathon went and if i would ever do it again! yikes! that thought is just shy of frightening!

18 months old

georgia kate is officially 18 months old. she is sugar and spice and everything nice. she's my little shadow and keeps me in earshot. if i haven't seen her for some time i hear a 'momma' coming from wherever she is playing and it doesn't stop until i have found her. she is full of fire and ready to run. in true girl style she throws a pretty fierce tantrum and has earned the nickname the princess and the pea. she knows when the littlest thing is not quite right and she has to fix it...right now! every scrap of paper must be thrown in the trash can, the bottom two pantry shelves have to be organized by her, just right, and the tuperware cabinet is definitely her domain. for her sense of well being everything must be closed. the trash can, the cupboard doors (unless she opens them, of course), the bathroom door, the bedroom door, the drawers in my bathroom and the toilet lid. she will systematically shut every door where she is playing and then call me to come save her from the room she has trapped herself in! she loves her bubba and imitates him constantly. unfortunately, andrew has caught on to this and loves to have her stand up, sit down a thousand times in a row, drink her cup of water at dinner before she eats, and run around in circles chasing him. well, i guess there could be worse things, right? we love our little georgia and how she is opening up to the world. i wish i could have a window into her thoughts and how her mind works. i am constantly amazed at what makes her eyes get so big and her sounds so excited. she loves birds, airplanes and the chipmunk who sits on our back wall. she loves to hear dogs bark as long as she's in momma's arms and gets so excited to swing at the park (very slowly that is). she loves to sing, especially with her brother, and talks up a storm in her do-do-do and ba-ba-ba dialects. her pink girl toys can keep her entertained for a minute as long as someone is in the room with her and her favorite thing to eat, chocolate. we love our little girl and couldn't imagine life without her. she brings a spice and a twinkle into our home that was never here before she came. my favorite sound she makes is her giggle. it's infectious and she usually gets us all laughing with her. i sometimes wish i could trade places with her, just to catch the wonder of life's little moments again. i guess that's one reason we have children, to slow our pace and inspect every blade of grass, rock and flower. happy 18 months georgia!

driving to pahrump

andrew in a joshua tree
georgia playing in the fine sand and rocks
georgia and andrew exploring
look how strong i am!
andrew and his bowling pin

have you ever been to pahrump? well, the whole marshall crew now has. eric needed to deliver some documents to the courthouse so we all jumped into the car, put in a dvd and drove over the bump to pahrump. the reward to our uneventful trip to the courthouse and mcdonalds in pahrump was a small, very steep, very water carved dirt road in lovell canyon. eric said the car needed to get back to its roots and that it was tired of driving on pavement. well, we sure showed it a good time! it was gorgeous, unfortunately my camera didn't pick up on the subtle variations of spring green, purple shadows and countless shades of gray in the river bed. but, it did pick up on the spontaneous fun we had searching for and shattering the unbroken clay pigeons, searching for a perfect rock to add to the garden and the other surprises we collected along our way. it's amazing what you can find in a dry riverbed like, for instance, a bowling pin. go figure it would be andrew who found it. he is the one who sees things no one else seems to be able to spot. and yes, we did bring it home. not sure what to do with it, i'd love to put it in our garden with the rock we found but i think the hoa would be after us! (not to mention eric would be after me!) we stayed our hour and made it up the hill just in time to witness the most beautiful sunset. oranges, purples, fluorescent green and blue. breathtaking, really. i have a friend who has started a journal labeled 'have you seen the hand of god in your life today?' i think my answer would be absolutely! it always surprises me how the most unplanned outings turn into the best memories. thanks for hauling us over the hump to pahrump dad!

more nascar anyone?

the family at the las vegas motor speedway, watching #7 mike wallace go by, hanging with tony stewart's crew, andrew with carl edward's crew, a shot from our suite.



here are a few more shots of nascar!

nascar

top to bottom: dale earnhardt jr., grandpa and andrew checking out tonly stewart's #20, dad, grandpa and andrew checking out the cars, georgia telling me she's ready for a nap, jeff gordon by the #48

so how do you prepare for a weekend of nascar? well, we watch lightning mcqueen race after that piston cup, we race our cars on our slot race track (which happens to be in the shape of the racetrack today), we catch up on all the driver's names, and we get fully geared up. i'm talking about shirts, cars, stickers, you name it, we've got it!

we had a blast at the race on friday, thanks david! we had awesome suite tickets also known as "full access" and the "blackjack suite." we arrived to the races early, parked on the infield and proceeded to check out the neon garage where we saw all the cars and several famous race car drivers. andrew immediately went into his quiet place, which only happens when he is way too excited. what more could a boy of five want? well, surrounded by his mom, sister, dad and grandpa, his only voiced want was that his nana could have been there too.

the highlights were definitely the full access tickets to the pits, garage and the all you could eat buffet, a birds eye view into the pits, all the fantastic crashes (thank goodness no one was hurt), and meeting a pit crew member for andrew's favorite racer, tony stewart, who gave him his old spice racing cap. andrew was also given a lug nut off of car #60, carl edwards car, and a matchbox car from the edward's pit crew, and we had his new hat signed by another racer, steve wallace #66.

the only disappointments we had were when tony stewart crashed and when we left. amazingly enough, georgia loved every minute of the race, she loved the restarts when the cars revved their engines, the noise made her eyes get very large and very round!