Go Mommy Go!

I am hooked, I love medals.  I definitely want to sign up to run the Dallas Half marathon again next year.  Anyone tempted to join me? Save the date, March  27, 2011.  There’s still over a year to train.

God Made Me Special

I wanted to share with you a story that I think is sweet.  I cry a little every time I tell it.  I love to tell this story, hey! That’s a song…

Lucas James Force, 4 yr old, can be a little testing to his parent’s patience.  This past weekend he lacked ability to maintain focus.  I don’t know whether it is because he is four or if perhaps he has slight ADD tendencies.  I’m not going to rush to diagnose the latter.  I hope this just works itself out in time.  His lack of focus and hyperactivity can be testing.  Over the weekend after several occurrences where Lucas lost focus on task, we devised a new arrangement where Lucas had three chances to do what he was told but on the fourth time he lost focus we were going to take one of his little cars and he had to give us one.  His infractions were small things, don’t throw things on the floor especially when we are all cleaning house, don’t run in the house, (our house doesn’t sound very fun, I promise we did fun stuff too) Oh here’s a more fun one, don’t ride your bike so far away that I can’t see you when you are crossing the street. See, we get out!

Anyway, at the end of the weekend, Lucas was really struggling to finish his dinner after he had been complaining that he was hungry for over an hour.  There were vegetables in there and he was sure he wouldn’t like it.  Kevin and I took turns urging him to just try a bite of zucchini or a bite of potato.  Finally he gave up completely.  He was so frustrated and defeated.  He said out loud, “I just can’t do it; I am just not a good boy”.  Addie let him have it then, “Lucas! Don’t say that. GOD made you special”.  I had never heard her be so emphatic.  It went on. Lucas, “Are you sure about me? Because I just can’t seem to do anything right.  What about when I jump on the bed and throw things on the floor?” to which Addie replied, “Yes, Lucas, even then.  God loves you just like you are.  You are special and I am special and Mommy is special and Daddy is special and Emaleigh is special too” And she had no idea how much of an impact she made on Lucas.  He finished up real quickly and got a bath and went to bed.  I was really proud.  Thank God for Ms. Bethany and Bible land.

<--That's Ms. Bethany right there.

The whole occurrence changed Kevin and me too.  We noticed that we had lectured our son right into believing he was bad.  So we eased up a lot, taking away all of the lecturing for a day anyway, but keeping the two cars rule.  He lost no cars yesterday.

Dress up Fairy Party!

This was the weekend I found out that Emaleigh is a cake hound.  If there is cake, she will find it and sneak many bites when you think you are watching but she knows better.  It's hard to keep two eyes on three kids and she's fast.

The kids were all happy to see Ms. Bethany there. Lucas was dressed as an Indian, I don't know maybe a lost boy, but he insisted that he wear his sweater.  My kids are all kindof attached to their jackts right now.  It reminds me of a story...
A short story about a parent who wanted their child to learn by natural consequences to eliminate the need for parenting nagging.  The child in this story forgot a coat one winter morning.  The natural consequence was that the child got sick.  The child never forgot the coat again all winter AND all summer long.  I hope my kids ditch the coats before we start hitting the waterpark at Seaworld.

Half Marathon, Rockin' Dallas

I don't know what could have happenned to make this past weekend better than it was.  I traveled up from San Antonio to Dallas on Saturday morning with my race buddies, Ray and Gabi.  We made the trip in just over 4 hours instead of the 5 we were planning for.  We parked for free at our hotel and were allowed to check in a whole three hours early before walking over to the race expo at the convention center one block away.  At the expo I got my race day singlet, pink, for raising over $500 for the Komen for the cure foundation. 

 (BTW, I am still raising money until April 14th if you were planning to pledge but weren't able to get around to it before race day.  You can visit my race and pledge page by clicking here: http://www.active.com/donate/RNRDallas/laurapforce )

After the expo, we had some time before our pasta party so we toured the JFK Museum which was pretty emotional.  I was happy to have the time to soak it all in.  The hotel itself was really rockin.  If you are ever in the Dallas downtown area I recommend the ALOFT hotel.  It was tres chique.  We hung out in the chill area downstairs with our friend Brice after dinner and then all headed up to bed for an early night before a big race.

In the morning I got all dressed and ready, watched the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders dance from my room.  They were at the start line.  Yeah, we were that close.  The race started at 8 am which is pretty much the time I lined up after one more run into the hotel for a potty stop.  Then we were off.  I ran with my friend Tom, the 59 yr old friend who I usually chase on training runs.  We ran together for 6 miles.  Ordinarily, I talk down to myself in my head for 3 miles so having Tom around kept my out of my head and into really enjoying the beautiful weather we were blessed with. Sunny and cool.

Kevin and the kids surprised me by driving up on the morning of the race and I got to stop for hugs.  This photo is as I was arriving for hug stop number 2.  Tom left me at this point and finished a few minutes ahead of me.  It had to be killing him to run that slow for 6 miles. Thanks Tom!

I convinced myself a step at a time to just keep running.  Dori from finding Nemo is one encouraging fish.  I finished up at Fair Park outside of the Cotton Bowl and was reunited with my family and Angie's family too.  Angie figured out that it has been 11 years since we have seen each other.  Another incredible reminder that life is sure flying. 

We decided real quickly that THAT will never happen again.  Maybe we will get together next month for some tubing on the Guadalupe. The trick is to go during the week so it's not so crowded. Hmm...I hope that works out.  Her oldest, Trinity, is almost 10.  And I'm pretty sure Elijah, the hip chic I am holding with the cool glasses, is 3. Emaleigh pretty much jumped right into Angie's arms.  I love it when families click like that.  I am assuming the feeling was mutual.

We spent a couple hours in the park right in front of the hotel.  Trinity took my picture.  Oh, if you could see that shot, you'd surely see one tired, but happy moma (with a camera ofcourse)

Kindness, Happy 311 Day!!

Yesterday I saw a sign that read,

"Kindness is the language that even the blind can see, even the deaf can hear"

I like it.

Happy 311 Day! Celerate the band that's been lifting positivity for many years so far and hopefully many more to come. 311 is playing today at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas up to 6 hours.  Does a fan going to this show have to train for the endurance it would take to shake it for that long?

To Be or not To Be Polite...

THAT is the question that keeps presenting itself to me so many times in the last month concerning my own actions or how I raise my children. I think I am going to spend some time this year pursuing this question. Perhaps there will be a resolution. Perhaps it will only lead to more questions. But either way I am sure there is something to be learned.


It has been several years since I was standing behind a lady in line at the Tampa airport while we were both waiting to go through security before we could board our separate flights. It was not too long after 9/11/01 and Tampa hadn't really streamlined the security process yet. I was granted the opportunity to listen to this woman bitch for over an hour about her unpleasant dealings with a lady in Louisiana over the phone. I can't remember as much exactly what her complaint was. I can remember pretty clearly how she made me feel. She was describing her frustration with the lady's politeness on the phone. I think there was an issue. The polite lady did not confront it immediately on the phone. The bitching woman was frustrated that the polite lady wasn't more direct. I suppose I can use nicknames from this point on. We will call them BW and PL.

It pissed me off. For one thing I am from Louisiana and in her rant she covered how she pretty much can't stand dealing with people from the south, particularly those from Louisiana, because they are too polite. I just stewed, thinking...that's probably exactly how I would have handled it. I am not prone to immediate confrontation. I need ample verification that I am justified in my confrontation before I unload on someone critically. I would have gotten off of the phone, researched the issue to see if I still felt like there was a need for confrontation and then dropped it and admit to myself in my internal argument that I was wrong or pursued it,if I were right, probably at least a couple of hours if not a day or two after the initial phone call. And still in other cases, if I found that raising the issue wouldn't help anything to change in a positive way or that it wasn't necessary for productivity, I would still drop it.

So, I was raised to be polite. Treat people how you would want to be treated. For me, I don't like to be confronted with less than full true facts. Give people the benefit of the doubt. Share your blessings, one day you may need someone to share with you. Don't lie, cheat or steal. Smile. Say please and thank you. I genuinely believe that these things are easy to do.

I stood behind BW in line thinking, well I ought to.....Something...I wanted to defend PL in the name of all the PLs out there who just don't speak up in the name of respect. And I didn't. And I supported her rant by not speaking up. And I laughed at myself for it. And decided I should not always bite my tongue.

Now I am not so sure it is better to be publicly right as it is to be kind and compassionate. But I am really struggling with this one. I have taught my oldest now to be just like me. I am overwhelmed with pride when we are commended on how polite, gentle and well behaved she is. But I am afraid now that I have led her to a place where she believes it is disrespectful to stick up for herself…

To be continued…email me your thoughts if you want. My comment capability here on blogger is broken.