time's a wastin'

tomorrow's the big day. the girls and i are leavin' on a jet plane for utah to visit family. they're pretty excited:

hazel even went tanning:

but since she's part albino, it didn't take. it's likely that i won't be blogging while i'm on my va-ca so here are some more pictures to tide y'all over:

last week, hazel took her bug collecting kit outside (she got it from her very awesome sunbeam teachers). to prevent fights, i gave lucy bubbles to cling to (she surprised me by actually blowing bubbles several times). lucy used her expressive eyebrows to great advantage:

and did that thing she does best: wandering off:

hazel had lots of fun picking flowers:

good-bye for now. i hope you don't shrivel up in despair during this brief hiatus. maybe if you're reallllllly lucky, grant will do that frog post i told you about..............................you'd probably have to be this lucky though.

the [not-so] little engine that could

i did it. my very first 5k. and it was fun. wow. running = fun?! who'd've thought i'd ever say that and mean it? not me, that's for sure. even in my soccer days, distance running was a chore. well, i've conquered the beast. i can run 3.1 miles non-stop. this is nothing to some of you who read this blog, but it's huge for me. and i'm just going to keep going. anyway, back to today. i had signed up, with amanda, to run rice's flying owls 5k back in january. i used this training program to teach my body to run. i followed it pretty closely in the beginning but skipped ahead when it didn't feel like enough of a challenge. i got to the final week and that's when the most amazing thing happened. grant and i were running together one saturday and since i wasn't on a treadmill i was using my phone to keep track of how long i'd been running. about 5 songs in on my ipod, i was getting tired and wanted to see how much longer i had to run so i grabbed my phone, saw that i'd missed a call, tried to clear the alert and ended up clearing off my timer (still mad about that, amy. just so you know). i was so frustrated. i had no idea how long i had run and i wanted to stop but i wasn't sure if i'd done my time or if i was just giving in to my weak, burning calves. so i kept going.......and going......and then i saw that i was almost finished with the loop (we were running the memorial park loop) so i went for it. i almost cried when i finished. it felt awesome. three days later, i did another, slightly faster, 3 miles. i was feeling pretty cool. then three days after that, i barely managed a mile and a half. it was so depressing. five days passed with no attempt to run. finally, last sunday, amanda and i went for a 'practice' run. instead of running the actual course, we ran the outer gravel loop that surrounds the campus. it was a good run. we walked a couple times but ran most of it. encouraged, i looked forward to running again. but due to grant's unbelievable work load this week, i didn't get to run until thursday. oh boy, that was a great run. the first two miles were easy, i mean i was red-faced and sweaty but i was so energized. the last mile i really pushed myself and ran all out for as long as i could. it was a good stress relieving run, just what i needed. that brings us to yesterday, (sorry this is going on and on but this blog is how i keep track of things and this is my 'adult interaction' for the afternoon so bear with me. thanks.) yesterday amanda and i picked up our packets. i had a bit of a shock when i got my number:

i got a good laugh out of it. nerves weren't too much of a problem up until then. i had felt sick when i signed up in january and the feeling returned. i tried to pep talk it away and that kind of worked. this morning i woke up bright and early, ate a small bowl of raisin bran, guzzled some water and tried to ignore the butterflies. we left a tad later than i'd wanted, which made me crazy. i got upset with grant for trying to cheer me up and sat quietly sulking in the passenger seat wishing he'd drive faster. finally, we pulled into the parking lot where the race was to begin. i had ten minutes to spare. i quickly found amanda and checked in. pictures were taken:

and then we rushed to the end of the line mere moments before the fog horn sounded and the race began:

as soon as we started, the nerves disappeared and i had fun:

amanda and i did great for first timers. we walked a couple times, mostly because our poor legs weren't used to running on pavement, but ran at least 96.782351% of it. grant took pictures of the girls while he waited with matt and amanda's sister and husband. he got some good ones, as usual:

and then, finally, there we were:

al.....most.......there......

ta-daaa! we did it. amanda and i tied: our offical time 38:55. i am so proud of myself:

i thought i could. i'll be signing up for a couple more 5k's in the next month and i can't wait.

**update: grant just returned home from a school related conference with flowers and a card for me. he's been so encouraging of my transition from couch potato to psuedo-runner. he is so great. love you, muffin!

fashion! turn to the right...

très chic, non ?

adventuring

last wednesday evening, grant thought it would be fun to take the girls back to the houston arboretum and nature center. it's been a while since we've gone so we doused our skin in bug repellent and headed out. on the drive over, i pointed out the dark clouds heading our way. grant poo-pooed it saying we'd beat the storm. i rolled my eyes and had smug thoughts about the umbrella i'd packed. once there, hazel pondered the road not taken:

lucy practiced her jultagi:

and made like a mole:

grant and hazel kept watch in the crow's nest:

then journeyed to far and distant lands:

drinking the nectar from flowers:

finally joined by lucy, who came to higher ground looking for protection from the storm:

and when lucy saw the chance, she mutinied:

hazel puts the 'p' in park

last wednesday was playgroup. we went to a new (for us anyway) park. hazel was really excited to see this park because it has an old firetruck as part of the playground. so we drove out there, it was about a 15 minute drive, and once the beasts were unleashed, they bolted for their various areas of interest: hazel to find the firetruck and lucy to find something with which to endanger her life. obviously, i followed my daredevil around. at first she was interested in the noisy construction across the street:

a couple minutes later, a friend brought hazel over to me. she (hazel) had stopped playing and told juliet that she needed to use the potty. sadly she had already gone. sigh.....of course this caught me unprepared: no change of clothes, not even a diaper. thankfully another friend gave me a diaper and hazel continued to play:

the rest of the time was spent accident-free, despite lucy's best efforts:

she found an old bubble-blowing wand and maintained a death-grip on it:

 hazel spent nearly all of her time on the firetruck. driving:

and tightening the lug nuts on the wheel:

she became quite the clown while i was taking pictures:

eventually she got bored of the face-making and decided to just show her enthusiasm for the firetruck:

hazel then left the firetruck and found the "beach":

lucy ended the visit playing on the bike rack:

the end.

mornings with lucy

yesterday morning lucy was being such a ham. i love this sweet little psycho to pieces.

easter-ness

i've been too lazy to post about our easter until now. it was nice. saturday night i finally did the resurrection eggs lesson for the girls. lucy enjoyed grabbing and opening as many eggs as possible. hazel listened pretty well but didn't seem to really get it. after going over the main points several more times, grant and i finished with at-least-we-tried sighs. lucy and hazel quickly ran off to play. a moment later, hazel returned with a potato head and excitedly told us, "guess what?! and all the potato heads will be awive and get resurrected wike jesus! isn't that great?!"

easter morning came and hazel found that the easter bunny had left her and lucy some surprises:

i made the girls some stuffed easter eggs. they were pretty easy and i did most of the work on saturday (grant helped me by stuffing them while i sewed them close). they turned out cute:

they also got a little chick sitting in it's half shell:

we went easy on the treats since they'd already had an easter egg hunt. grandma sent some beatrix potter books for the girls and grant read them all to hazel while i finished making breakfast (and lucy tore things apart):

for breakfast we ate hot cross buns:

lucy enjoyed hers:

twice:

hazel just picked at the icing, surprise. you can see the poorly grown grass here. i guess i shouldn't say 'poorly grown' since it did grow well, i just didn't plant enough seed:

(the third from left was mauled by lucy) i was a little sad it didn't turn out quite as i expected. still, i got over it. after breakfast, grant went to get the stroller from the car to run the girls to a park but came back almost immediately to show us what he found on the stair railing:

maybe the easter bunny is really a frog? grant said that he'd do the post about that cute little guy so i'll probably do it tomorrow.... anyway, we had our good friends, amanda and matt, come to dinner:

[you should check out amanda's blog. she is posting a picture every day for a year with monthly themes. she takes gorgeous photos (like ours for our christmas letter) and even posted pictures of the girls not too long ago: lucy & hazel]. back to easter dinner: i made the most delicious italian drip beef sandwiches. i used my crock pot but otherwise followed the recipe. y.u.m. for dessert i made these flower pot things (if you've been clicking on the links [and i hope you are. it takes time, people, and i do it for you!] you'll have noticed that all of the recipes came from the dear pioneer woman. don't worry, i'm not a fan.....like, at all.):

hazel was really excited but didn't eat more than a couple spoonfuls. weird. we were all trying to talk her into eating more, maybe we were over selling it? lucy, on the other hand (i think i use that phrase a lot....but she and hazel really are complete opposites), waisted little time admiring the pretty flower:

and dug right in:

she enjoyed every last drop or at least every drop that wasn't lost on her lap/her face/the tray/the wall:

and the sugar didn't affect her in the slightest: