Passed Us By.

Did you know the VMA's were on Sunday night? Yep. They were.

Sunday was a hard night for me. I've been watching the VMA's for over half my life.

(sorry, mom. i know wasn't supposed to watch MTV when i was 12, but, well, sorry.)

And this year it came as a total shock to me they were even on.

Actually, first it came as a total shock to me that we even get MTV here in the great state of Louisiana. Then it came as a shock to me that the DVR wasn't set. Then, like any good student of pop culture, we plopped on the couch ready to feast our eyes on one of the most outrageous nights of the year.

And then 3o minutes later we turned them off.

Who are these people?

No. Literally. Who are they? I've never heard of them. Or seen them.

Britney Spears got a lifetime acheivment award. Wasn't she shaving her head and chasing papparazi like last summer? Sure, Beyonce and Jay-Z were there. But who were all the other people.

Seriously. Can someone tell me who they are?

Oh never mind. Who am I kidding.

Pop culture passed us by.

Jump Around.

What you see here is a picture of Blake in a very rare moment. Why is rare? It's rare because she's sitting still. This very rare moment lasted approximately one second.

This picture is far more accurate.

Or these.

Yes. These are much more accurate. Blake is rarely still. One day when she's 13 and won't clean her room because she wants to lay on the couch I'm going to show her these pictures. It probably won't be enough to ply her off the couch, but it may just make us laugh.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering
Yes, trampolines are ALWAYS fun. Yep. If you're two or twenty-nine plus two! Super fun. Especially if you add a sprinkler.

Today.

The following is a list of animals that are hiding in Blake's room, therefore making it impossible for her to fetch her pink blanket on her own. Those of you who know B personally know how important the pink blanket is to a lovely and peaceful day.

mouse

cat

furry monster

rooster

If any of you have any tips or tricks for eradicating these pesky creatures please let me know. I keep putting them in the backyard, but somehow they keep sneaking back in.

Things I Miss About Texas.

Tex-Mex.

(In fact, the first person to deliver Maudie's to my door wins my eternal love and devotion.)

note: eternal means forever.

Jax.

(People, there no words.)

Maddie Pie and Tee Poo.

(Never, ever a dull moment.)

Sweetwater Nails.

HEB.

My family.

My friends who may as well be family.

A general working knowledge of where things are as well as the best and most direct way to get there.

whaaaaaaa.

We're Not in Texas Anymore.

We're in Louisiana.

And when you're in Louisiana

You eat beignets.

So we did.

one time thing.

Per the usual we all packed up at the end of June and headed up to Colorado for the 4th of July. This has been the norm for a while now, but the new norm is that some of the kids now have kids of their own.

This is our kid.

She's real cute.

And before I tell you the story I'm about to tell you there are few things about this kid you should know. She is sweet and precious and lovely. She almost always says please and thank you. She loves to give hugs and kisses. She also knows exactly what she wants, and like many other toddlers, would like you to satisfy those wants in a timely fashion. Failure to do so may result in whining and/or crying. Perhaps even the occasional flailing of arms and/or legs.

Now, generally the whining and/or crying and/or flailing doesn't phase me. It's a tough life out there. We've all got to learn to roll with the punches.

Except this one time. When I let myself get talked into riding up on a chair lift with her.

Please take a minute and notice the vice like grip I have on the side of the chair lift. And also on my daughter. Did I mention heights aren't my thing? It's one of the reasons (there are several) why I'm allergic to skiing.

Sooo...here's what happens. B wants to go alpine sliding. She is granted this request, and subsequently loves it. She wants to alpine sliding with me. I politely decline and point her to one of the other adults who are willing and able to take her. Griff tells me to put my big kid pants on and take her. I give him a dirty look. While walking to get in line.

Don't mess with me.

We get on the chair lift where I put a proceed to firmly hold the side of the lift with one arm and my child with the other.

In this particular photo things are chugging along just fine. I'm inwardly congratulating myself for checking my silly fear of heights at the door and having a moment with my daughter. Life is just swell.

And then there's this photo. We're a little higher now. And I just remembered that it's okay to be afraid of a few things. Like snakes. And lightning. And chair lifts with toddlers. Unfortunately, at this point, there is simply no where to go but up.

So up we went.

And really, it was fine. Fine.

Until Blake decided she didn't want to sit in my lap anymore. And then things got, shall we say, interesting.

There was whining. There was crying. There was arm flailing. There was leg flailing.

There was also begging and pleading on my part. I promised ponies. Ice cream for breakfast. Every day. Until she went to college.

She wasn't having it.

And right about the time I was calculating the distance between us and the ground, and debating how many bones would be broken, we got to the top. And I kissed the ground. And vowed never again to check my fear of heights anywhere.

And then we slid down.

And everyone lived, bones intact, happily ever after.

The end.

The Space Between

I may not have been blogging the past few weeks, but I have taken plenty of pictures. These are some of my favorites.

In Summary.

I'm not making excuses. Really. I'm not. I suppose that had I tried really hard I could have posted something between 22 March 2011 and 18 July 2011. But I didn't. The following are not excuses as to why I didn't try harder. They are simple facts. And facts, my friends, are not excuses.

You see between the days of 22 March 2011 and 18 July 2011 the following things happened:

B turned 2.

We decided to move to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

My sister and her husband had a perfect baby boy named Jax.

Jax took a big gulp of meconium prior to being born and spent many long weeks in the NICU.

We sold our house.

We bought a house.

We packed our house.

We went out of town.

We came home and moved out of our house the next day.

We moved to Austin for a few weeks.

We decided that since we were moving out of Texas it would be super fun to drive all over it one weekend.

Jax got to come home!

I spent every possible second holding Jax.

We drove from Austin to Louisiana.

We flew from Louisiana to Colorado for the 4th of July.

We flew back to Louisiana.

Which brings me to today. Today we're settling into our new normal in our new home in our new town. We are excited and thankful to be here.

I'm also a bit tired. So I'll save the picture posting for tomorrow.

By Pink I Mean Red.

Today I bought Blake pink bubbles. Clearly this bubble maker never learned the difference between pink and red.

Where I come from that color is called red.

So this is what happens when you give an almost two year old red bubbles.

It began as a totally manageable mess.

It didn't quite end that way.

But we sure had fun!

There Was Snow.

B and I jumped ship last week. We packed up and headed north to Colorado. Griff couldn't make it, which was sad. But there were cousins, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, and uncles, which was most definitely not sad.

There was also snow. Blake experienced an unfortunate side effect of living in Houston...a slight aversion to snow. Luckily it only took a day or two for that to wear off.

When we weren't playing in the white stuff we managed to paint a plate. Plate painting is serious business.

Seriously.

And we rode the gondola.

Riding the gondola with Blake is mildly terrifying. For two days she was terrified of snow, but thought trying to get the gondola to rock back and fourth was the best thing ever. Totally normal.

And then there were the puppies. Have I mentioned before that Blake loves and adores all members of the k-9 family? This is a point I cannot stress enough.

So here's what happened. My in-laws heard about a place where you could go dog sledding. Unfortunately participants need be three years or older, which ruled B out. Not to be thwarted we (or was it Teve?) decided it would be just as fun to go and have a look at the puppies.

(Note: by puppies I obviously mean Huskies)

Let me take a minute and say that I have never in my life seen dogs this beautiful. I don't know if it's their eyes, or that they let toddlers rub their ears, or their fur, or something else entirely. But they are beautiful.

And Blake loved them. She really, really loved them. She told them they were georgous. She laughed and shrieked. She jumped up and down. She loved them so much that when they ran off she absoutley fell apart.

But then we had a sucker. And all was well with the world.

And a good time was had by all.

The Thing About Us

If you've ever spent any amount of time with Griff or me then you may, just may, have picked up on the fact that we are people who get quite a kick out of hanging out at home.

Sound sad? Or boring? I beg to differ.

If you take into consideration that Griff is always reading at least 15 books at time, or that Blake is easily entertained, or that I could spend all eternity in my kitchen, then it might make more sense. Never mind the fact that Dakota has a severe personality disorder and teeters on the edge of a complete nervous breakdown if we're gone for more than 97 minutes.

As it turns out the fact that we're homebodies works in our favor.

And so today and tonight we did what we do best. Hung out at home. We played inside. We played outside. I made these and drank this. Griff read 15 books. At once. While raking leaves. And Blake did what she does best which is to never, ever, under any circumstance be still for more than 7 seconds.

And now here we sit. In a row on the couch watching various dinosaurs sing.

Oh, and maybe I also made these. Any maybe I'm about to throw some strawberries and softly whipped cream on top. And maybe I'm about to be the happiest girl in town.

Scratch that. I'm definitely about to be the happiest girl in town.

Accidentally.

I woke up to the sound of my sneezing this morning. It didn't take me long to decide that the cough coming from the room over combined with my inability to utter anything other than a-choo meant Blake and I needed to cancel any and all typical Sunday morning activities.

We managed to drag ourselves out of bed, scrambled to get our respective morning doses of calcium and caffeine, and settled in for a morning of cartoons and tea parties.

Somewhere in the middle of talking trains and science kids we decided it was time to rally. Out of pajamas, into real clothes, and off to the store we went.

It appears Blake and I both have short attention spans because we never made it pass the hot breakfast tacos.

Before I knew it we had pulled up a table outside, were debating the merits of salsa, and laughing hysterically every single time water from the fountain blew our way. We had no where to be but there. Eating breakfast tacos. Letting water dampen the hair we'd never bothered to fix. Doing something we'd never planned on.

And so there you have it. Completely on accident, by way of sneezing and coughing, Blake and I had a perfectly delightful Sunday morning.

These are the moments I never ever want to forget. The ones that happen by accident. That could be mistaken for annoyance if we aren't paying attention. The ones that remind me how simple it all really is. Or better yet, how simple it all should be.

Stating the Obvious.

Let me go ahead and state the obvious: I love this child.

She brings me unspeakable joy every single day.

She is creative.

And delightfully messy.

She is very fashion forward.

And she is always up for an adventure.

She is as good as it gets.

I Can Do It.

So here I sit, with 26.2 miles squarely behind me, feeling more than an ounce of relief that I don't have to worry about braving the howling winds and freezing temperatures that blew in this morning. I already did my long run. It's time to rest a bit before setting out again.

But I will set out again. Just give me a few days.

I've been racking my brain to try and put some words to it and the bottom line is I can't. It was one of the best experiences of my life, and there are no words to describe it.

Grueling? Yes.

Exhausting? Of course.

Exhilarating? You have no idea.

I firmly believe it's important to try and tackle some hard things every now and then, if for no other reason than to remind yourself that you can. That you are strong. And capable. And determined. It's bound to be handy information to have at your disposal. You know, on the days when you feel less than strong, capable, and determined.

For the last chunk of the run I keep telling myself something B tells me all the time,"I can do it, Mommy!" She generally chooses to tell me this while using her very best "outside voice" and giving me a look that says something along the lines of, "I dare you to tell me I can't."

And while there are days when I wonder how in the world we are ever going to keep this child of ours in line, it was her voice in my head saying over and over, "I can do it, and I dare anyone to tell me I can't" that got me across that finish line. I wonder what lines it will get her across.

That's what a lot of the past six months have been about for me. And that's what Sunday was about. A reminder that I can do it.

Whatever "it" may be.

And I dare anyone to tell me I can't.

Run For Your Life.

On Sunday I'm running my first marathon. Currently, this fact takes up a lot of head space.

There's a lot of anticipation and excitement swirling around Sunday. It's the day. The one I've been thinking about, and working for.

But today I realized what a friend told me several months ago....it's not about Sunday. It's about all the other days. The Saturday's when I got out of bed at 5, even when I didn't want to. The weekdays where I planned errands and to-do lists around runs. The days when it was raining, or cold, or so hot and humid it felt like running in a sauna. It's about how good it felt to finish a run. It's about the commitment I made to myself to do this thing.

So Sunday is no different than any other day. Just another long run. Except that instead of running alone I'll be running with 22,000 other people. As Cankle (who will be there completing her own long run!) says, it's just exercise day. With 22,ooo of our closest friends.

At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Big News!

No. Not that. So, relatively speaking it's big news.

We got internet service! That's right, people. No more bootlegging from the neighbors. No more sitting on the edge of the brown chair that's directly under the window. With the computer titled just so on the right arm. Unless it's overly cloudy. Or windy. Or not cloudy enough. Or not windy enough. You think I'm kidding? I wish.

But now? I can be anywhere. The kitchen! The couch! The living room!

Welcome to the 21st century, me. It's about freaking time.

So just because I can, here are some more recent pictures.

My niece and nephew!

And this is a picture of my favorite Christmas tradition...B's advent calendar. Filled with notes from Griff and me detailing different things we loved about her. And a piece of chocolate candy. Can you guess which one was her favorite?

And finally, B got dancing shoes for Christmas. She loves to dance. Homes are so much more fun when there is dancing. And dancing is so much more fun when you have sparkly shoes.

And blogging is so much more fun when your home isn't a dead zone!