Running 16 miles in the rain

As my running partners and I were running our 16 miles yesterday in the 38 degree rain, the discussion came up about whether or not we can call ourselves runners now. I have always said I don't run I jog, but after yesterday I feel like I can officially call myself a runner. When I got out of bed at 6:15 a.m. and it was pouring rain, just like the weather predicted, running was the very last thing I wanted to do. Especially 16 miles, but my training schedule said I had to run 16 miles so I ate my oatmeal, layered on the clothes, put on my old running shoes, and headed out the door. The rain never let up, but with good company and good conversation it was actually quite fun. I didn't really notice how cold I was until I was finished and walking home and I tried to wave to a neighbor and my fingers wouldn't bend because they were so cold. My legs literally felt like frozen popsicles. I was moving them, but couldn't feel them, which was probably a good thing at the end of 16 miles. So after running on a day like yesterday I think I have earned the right to call myself a runner!!

Why I should learn to just stay out of the kitchen

No these are not chocolate cookies-they are snicker doodles after about an hour in the oven. We are lucky we still have a house.

I am the first to admit that I am not a wonderful cook. I have my basic things that I make and I stick to them because I don't like complicated recipes and I have a hard time cooking multiple things at once and I often get sidetracked and over cook the pasta or burn this, that or the other, but as far as baking is concerned I have always been pretty good at it and I have always enjoyed it. I mean how bad can you mess up a batch of cookies right? Well as you can see from the above picture you can really mess them up if you try hard enough.

As I said in my previous post we had beautiful 70 degree weather last weekend and the kids were all playing outside. When we go outside in our neighborhood the kids tend to flock to each other and they all ended up in our backyard, parents included. So everyone was outside enjoying the weather and the company and I was inside finishing up a batch of cookies to bring out and share with everyone. The timer went off and they weren't quite done so I left them in the oven without resetting the timer and that was the end of those cookies. Someone needed me outside and the cookies sat in the oven for about an hour. Our house smelled like burnt cookies for the next couple of days, but luckily that was the worst of it.

Our Last Snow Day-Hopefully

Don't get me wrong. I truly do love it when it snows in North Carolina, but for every day of school missed for snow the kids have to make it up. We already have two less days of spring break and two less days of summer vacation. If we have another snow day we will run into our Idaho vacation.

However, as far as snow days go this one was the best. On Monday March 2nd, we woke up to about 4 inches of snow. Enough to go sledding. Yeah!!! We started on our neighbors backyard hill, but that was not challenging enough so we headed off into a new area of our neighborhood where they have a huge hill. All of the girls, except Addie, went down it and loved it. Just watching them scared me to death. I was sure someone was going to get hurt. Eliza looked terrified going down, but kept begging to go so I guess it wasn't scary enough. Crazy, Crazy kids.

Not only did we miss school Monday, but they also called school off on Tuesday and had a two hour delay on Wednesday. Seriously people it's just snow. Then in true North Carolina fashion the weekend weather was in the high 70's. I guess you could say our March came in like a lion this year. Let's just hope it goes out like a lamb!!

Sleeping with Curlers

A while back I bought some of the sponge curlers like the ones I remember my mom making me sleep in on Saturday nights. I wanted to try them on my girls hair for Sundays. Ever since then Jaynie has asked me several times to put the curlers in her hair, but time has never permitted. Well last night we had some extra time after baths so I thought lets put in curlers. Let me tell you this is no easy task with four girls. Lillie and Eliza were not about to go to bed without curlers in their hair so I had to do every ones. Even Adeline had to have a curler. Jaynie's was pretty easy, but Lillie and Eliza both have shorter hair so it was a little more difficult to get the hair in. I also used all the bigger ones on Jaynie's head, so I was left with the littler ones for the younger two. We got it done though and they all went to bed with curlers in their hair. Amazingly they woke up with all of the curlers still in tact. With the exception of Adeline of course. Hers lasted about 30 seconds. Jaynies turned out great. I only had to do a little bit of touch up with the curling iron. Eliza and Lillie on the other hand were another story. Apparently the smaller the curler the tighter the curl so Lillie and Eliza both had these really tiny tight curls right next to their head. It took some major reconstructing, but I think the end result was pretty cute.

My Lovable Lillie

Lillie has been full of quotable quotes lately. I wanted to get some of them down before I forgot about them.

The other day Lillie was sitting at the table and coughed. Here is the conversation that followed. (Warning this is not for those with a weak stomach.)

Lillie: Mom I know why I cough sometimes.
Mom: Why do you cough Lillie?
Lillie: Because I like to eat my boogers and when they go in my throat they turn to slime and I have to cough them up.
Mom: Lillie that's gross. You shouldn't eat your boogers.
Lillie: But they taste good.

I warned you. Pretty disgusting, but pretty cute. Leave it to Lillie to not be bothered at all by boogers.

Then last Monday during FHE Lillie started crying. When I asked her what was wrong she said, "I don't want to grow up and not live with you anymore. I will miss you." I am not sure what brought it up, but it lead into a great discussion about Eternal Families. I didn't want her to be sad, but it was cute that she would miss me.

Finally here is Lillie performing a song that she learned at preschool. I hope you enjoyed getting a dose of my very lovable Lillie.