National Coffee Day

Today is National Coffee Day. I usually don’t worry too much about all the different “celebrations” of food. It seems like every day is National Something Day. But coffee and I have a special relationship. Therefore, I must recognize it as a legitimate holiday.

Did you know Brent proposed to me in a Starbucks?

I also went into labor with Mason at a Starbucks.

One of those is a lie.

But really I just am a coffee-aholic. I’ve already had one today and I wouldn’t doubt that I will have another before the day is through. We are on vacation after all.

My drink of choice? Starbucks venti iced coffee, sweet with cream. Sometimes, I get a trenta. Actually, I’ve only done that a couple of times. I feel really ridiculous carrying that thing around.

I’m sure many of you are celebrating with one of those pumpkin spice things. Yuck. Pumpkin will be the death of me.

 

Go out and celebrate or enjoy a nice cup at home!

 

 

Half Crazy

My first half marathon. (That’s 13.1 miles, in case you weren’t sure.)  I did it. I have no idea what got into me to decide to take on such a task, but I’m glad the running spirits possessed me.

I wasn’t super fast (2:31), but I finished and that was my main goal. I also had some semi- better pictures this time around. It costs like $60 to download them, so you guys are out of luck to see those. 🙂

I was doing pretty okay until about mile 11. I told Brent that I pretty much just prayed for the entire 11th mile. I was pretty beat and my feet and my knees were really starting to hurt. I just didn’t want to have to walk the last couple of  miles- I wanted to run through the finish line. I pretty much just prayed that God would make my legs keep moving.

And, they did. In fact, those were my fastest miles. God is awesome like that.

They only thing that was sore the next day was my neck. I have NO idea how my neck is sore from running. I can hardly even turn it. I feel like I need a neck brace on. It started hurting before I went to bed, so I don’t think I slept on it wrong or anything. Anyone else ever have this problem?

Also, I’m pretty sure that under my pretty pink polish, my toenail is dead. …yuck…

On a more serious note- I’m not sure I’ve ever been so proud of myself. I actually stuck with my training and accomplished my goal. I don’t even feel like I have many long term goals lately. I mostly just have the goal of making it through each day without completely screwing up my son. So, it was nice to do something for myself. I’ve also inspired some fellow runners and that makes me even more excited. I need some running buddies! Hopefully, they won’t get faster than me. 🙂

In the end, I got a bling-in’ medal and am now a complete addict.

When’s the next race?!

Runner’s High

I’m still alive! In all fairness, I warned you that I won’t be posting as much. 🙂

Last Monday, I ran my first 5k race. I am SO proud of myself. I ran it in 31:40, which is ah-maz-ing for me. I’ve never been even close to that fast in any of my practice runs.

Anyway, I really wanted to share this picture of me running the race. I’ve laughed at myself for at least 30 minutes over it.

Some thoughts on this picture:

1. My outfit is so cute. 🙂 I’m a recent running skirt convert and I’m obsessed. It makes being sweaty nice and girly. Just the way I like it.

2. Everyone else’s pictures are so lovely looking. They have these beautiful strides and are hovering above the ground. They have looks of determination or are smiling and waving. I look like I’m just trying not to die. haha!

I wasn’t going to show this picture to anyone, but I wanted everyone else to have a good laugh. You’re welcome.

 

Another personal accomplishment in the past week- I did my 12 mile training run on Saturday! I didn’t even die while I was doing it.  I wasn’t worth much for the rest of the day, but that’s really Brent’s problem, not mine. 🙂

I can’t wait for my half marathon on the 22nd!  Hopefully, someone will get a better picture this time around. If not, I’ll just have to laugh at myself again.

What a day

The behavior of my child today has driven me to, among other things, write this blog post.

Mason has not been the sweet little boy that he usually is today. In fact, he hasn’t been that sweet for a while now and my patience is wearing thin.

It’s in moments like this that I start thinking about the kind of parent I am. I start to question myself as a parent- something I wouldn’t normally do. I think I’m a pretty good parent. I mean, he’s still alive, right? 🙂

Today, as I was contemplating locking myself in my room, I wondered why I was questioning myself. Why am I so unsure about every little decision I am making today? And, most of all, why am I worried about what other parents will think about me if I let my child throw a tantrum in public and ignore him, or if I spank him, or whatever I decide to do?

Then, the answer came to me…

There about 597,862,186,324 articles out there that tell moms how to be, well, moms. They tell us how to deal with our kids and how to discipline (or not discipline) them. It’s kind of silly. I feel like there are so many blog posts and articles and books out there telling me everything that I do wrong as a mother- where are the articles telling me that I ROCK!

I really think every mom needs to hear that she is great sometimes. And not always when their child is sitting perfectly in church (although that’s nice too). We need to hear that we rock for sticking to the rules we have created for our kids and having consequences for not following those rules. We need to hear that we rock for grooming our infants and toddlers NOT to be those kids and even adults that lack any discipline or any comprehension of what an authority figure is.

So, here it is- Moms of the world- YOU ROCK! Only YOU know what is best for your child. At the end of the day, the only article I need to figure out how to train up my child is the one that God wrote (aka- the Bible). 🙂 As a fellow mom, I pledge to support the decisions you make for your child, to not judge your style of parenting and to always have an open ear and an open mind when you need me.

I feel much better now. And I need to go find out what my child is up to.

Run for your life…

Some days I feel like it must already be lunchtime and when I check the clock, it’s only 9. That’s probably because I get up at the crack of dawn (aka 6:30) to go run most mornings.

Many of you know that I have taken up running. This is hysterical to me. I couldn’t run more than about 3 feet before without getting tired. I’m just not a runner.

I guess I am now. I love it. I get an hour to myself (or longer). I get to find all the houses I find acceptable to live in (Brent loves that). I get to people watch (one of my top 5 favorite things to do). I get to eat more carbs than I should (duh!). And I suppose the best part is that I get to fit into a bunch of my old clothes… or buy new ones. 🙂

One of the reasons that I really love running is that it gives me some other identity besides “Mason’s mom” or “Brent’s wife”. I think a lot of stay-at-home mommies struggle with losing their sense of identity. I know that I struggle with it sometimes. It’s nice to have goals, to reach them and have that feeling of accomplishment when you get home.

Plus… who wouldn’t want an excuse to buy new clothes…

Lunch munch

Lately, Mason has decided that he needs to eat at the dinner table, sitting in one of the regular chairs. You can put him in his high chair, but he really won’t eat. I’m not sure what brought on the change, but I have to say, lunch has become one of my favorite times. I used to use Mason’s lunch time to accomplish things around the house since he was strapped in and couldn’t run around behind me and undo anything.

Now, though, I have to sit at the table with him to make sure that he doesn’t kill himself. So, everyday we sit together and eat our lunch and talk about things. It has been great.

My white chair cushions aren’t enjoying it so much, though. 🙂

Happy Birthday, America!

Happy Fourth to everyone!

I hope you are getting to spend it with friends and family. The McPherson 3 are headed to swim and eat with some friends.

I wish I had a picture of some delicious Fourth of July treats that I made, but I didn’t do any this year.

Here’s a picture from last year:

Here I go again on my own…

Man, I love 80’s music.

Anyway, I’ve been debating for a few weeks about whether to just shut down this blog or attempt to keep it going. Honestly, I really love to blog. It makes me feel like I actually have a brain and I feel like people (my mom) enjoy reading it. So, I have decided to keep blogging, but I’m not going to stress out about my frequency of posts. There will be times when I have a lot of posts and times when I don’t have as much to say. That’s called having a crazy 15 month old.

So, what is new?

-Our house renovations are mostly done. I posted pictures on Facebook.

-Mason has started a Mother’s Day Out program on Tuesdays. It’s the best money I’ve ever spent. 🙂 I get a few hours to run errands and go to yoga. That’s code for, “get a mani/pedi”.

-Speaking of Mason, he is wild. I’m not sure I’ve ever been more happy and exhausted in my life. Pure. exhaustion.  BUT also extreme happiness.

-I also just fixed my Keurig machine. It has been broken since Brent and I moved. This has been a source of great sadness for us. It’s fixed now, though. I’m a genius. Make sure you tell Brent.

-Mason slept from 4pm yesterday until 6:45am today. Needless to say, there is no nap in our foreseeable future.

-I feel like I need to say something that is new with Brent, but I don’t have anything to tell you. He’s always working and he really isn’t that exciting. 🙂

 

Until next time…

Life is a highway

Sometimes life is hard.

The past couple of weeks have been.. hard.

I don’t really want to sit here and be a debbie downer- so I’m not. I just find it interesting that when life really seems to be horrible, God tends to remind us that it could always be worse. At the end of the day, I have a roof over my head, food in my refrigerator (even though I have no kitchen), and a ton of people that love me. That’s all I really need.

That’s it for today. Go give someone a hug. 🙂

It’s finally here!

It’s finally here- time to move!

We will be moving into our new house on Friday! I am so excited!! Needless to say, it has been a little crazy around here this week.  I’m pretty sure Mason loves all the boxes that keep popping up everywhere.

He’s the only one. 🙂

In other news- my little brother is engaged!! I can’t believe it.

They are so cute.

 

Mom, Mason and I went to Henderson this weekend. So, he is completely spoiled. He’s always so good whenever other people are around and then when it is just the two of us at home, he acts like a crazy man. He also loves to do the opposite of whatever I tell someone he will do. He loves to make mommy a liar. All weekend, I would say, “Oh, Mason love to eat that” and he wouldn’t touch it.

He’s crazy. But we all knew that.