Happy 4th of July

God Bless America. We are so incredibly fortunate to live in such an amazing Country. I am so thankful to all of the wonderful citizens who have or are risking their lives on a daily basis to keep our Country Safe. We love you all.

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THESE

It is not often you find Luke asleep. This is one of my favorite captured moments.

The weekend is here and Blake and Luke are ready to celebrate the 4th of July in style. Our Summer has been spent playing at the pool or the gym. The boys are establishing quite a love hate relationship with one another but at the end of the day Luke begs to sleep with his big brother. Blake pretends like it is a bother but in secret he loves it. Here are a few updated photos of my handsome boys.

Luke's First Soccer Trophy

He is quite the player and he gleams when he scores a goal. And yes I am a SREAMING Mommy on the side line screaming for my boys in whatever sport they play!!!!

Sweet Male Rabbit needs a good home.

Around Easter I bought my boys a gorgeous brown rabbit because we were in Dyersburg and I stumbled upon these poor rabbits at the Tractor Supply of all places and I could not stand to leave them there to be sold to impulse buyers that would leave them outside or not care for them, which is usually what happens around Easter time. I took Stella home and Leslie, my sister, took Bella. Last week Leslie called and her girls are allergic to Bella so they are unable to keep her. We were going out of the Country so I took Stella to Dyersburg to reunite her with her sister so we could bring them both back here, and well- Bella is a Bart and my rabbit is probably pregnant and I can't keep both rabbits but I do not want to give him to the humane society to be put down within a week or two. Now- long story made shorter - he is a beautiful white rabbit and he is on his way to being litter trained. He likes to be rocked like a baby and he is about 4 months old and they live 5 to 10 years. We have had great success training Stella and she is extremely sweet. Now- in about 3 months I might be sending out a new e-mail with 10 more rabbits to give away thanks to my kind family that took care of my sweet girl and thought it would be funny for my kids to have baby rabbits.
Sorry about the long note but he has been well taken care of and he is sweet. He just needs to go to a loving family.

Cancun was a blast and so far no Swine. What luck- we book a trip to Mexico less than two weeks before the Swine outbreak. It was a very Happy 10 year Anniversary trip for Matthew and me. We loved the beach, the hotel, swimming with the fish and kissing a shark. But- boy are we glad to be back to the USA where the food is unbeatable. We appreciate our Country so much more today. We last went when we were 18 but I think the Tequilla made it seem much prettier on the outskirts of Mexico back then and I know it made the food seem a lot better. It was sad to see the poor citizens of that Country working so hard to sell things in the extreme heat with little bambinos strapped to their backs. We were so excited to see a Johnny Rockets when we hit the airport. A cheeseburger has never tasted so good. I am also so happy to be holding my bambinos. I missed them so much.

Can you believe it has almost been 10 years?

The Boys

Updated pictures of the boys. They melt my heart. But- Tuesday when school was called for a reported case of the Swine they were a bit on my nerves. Sibling rivalry to the EXTREME!!!! I had to breathe and relax ALOT!!!! But- boys will be boys and I am thankful for every second - the good and the ugly!

Ok- I last posted in December. We moved that month and it has taken me that long to get back into a new routine. I had to practically start over but I still kept roots in my beloved Spring Hill. I have the greatest friends there and I still teach two classes a week there. The boys have gotten so big here lately. Blake gets taller by the second and Luke is trying hard to catch up. I live in a land of boys and the grocery bill is growing by the second.
We love our new house. I am going to attach some recent photos of the house and the boys. I can't wait to start sharing funny stories on here again. We have a new addition to our family. Her name is Stella Bear. She is the sweetest rabbit in the world and she thinks she is human. Matthew is in love.
The Swine Flu has had the media in an uproar here lately and they even closed down Blake's school for a day.
To top it off Matthew and I booked a trip to Cancun 1 week before the Flu made the news. How is that for luck? For our 10 year anniversary we might catch a case of the Swine. We don't leave until the 25th and we will not leave our resort and we will wear our masks on the plane. I hope that is enough. Keep us in your prayers.

St. Jude Marathon - #2 down and no more to go! :-)

Well- It is over and we did it! There were 14,000 people entered in this race to find a cure. As you all know my life has been crazy with building, packing, selling, teaching classes at Group Fit, and life in general with two WONDERFUL kiddos and an amazing husband so I did not have a lot of time to train for this marathon. My longest run was 16 miles and I would run every now and then through out the week or sometimes every other week. Well- let me tell you LESSON has been learned. Training is a neccesity and I am not made of steel!!!! God, my angels and your prayers carried me through the last 10 miles. My right calf got tight at mile 13 and then both of my calves started seizing up at mile 16 but I kept praying and thinking of all of the people on my shirt who fought so hard to battle cancer and somewhere deep down inside I was given strength. I saw my sister three times and many other friends that helped to push me along the way. I have NEVER wanted to quit something so bad in my entire life. The pain was horrendous for the last 10 miles but at least I knew at the finish line my battle was over. By mile 25 I could hardly flex my feet to run and a sweet man told me to stretch and walk it in because I had come to far to give up. So I made myself walk, stretch, run, walk, stretch, run. And for those of you who know me you know how hard it was for me to walk but by golly it helped and God gave me a special boost at the end to finish strong. At the end I was so full of emotions that I collapsed into a ladies arms as her friend took off my time chip. I cried and cried and she asked me if this were my first marathon and I told her no that I was just crying for my grandmother and the angels that carried me through to the end. I am finally able to walk a little better. Matthew has been amazing and he has massaged my legs and taken over the household chores and boys. He has won father of the year in my book. Thank you Leslie, Rodney, Liz, Becky, and Andrew for helping me in the end when my legs finally gave out at the finish line. You were God sends and I will repay you one day. Nurse Leslie kicked in and took great care of me. You rock sis, and yes this is my LAST! I love you all! My final time was 3:55:23. Like I said before- my angels carried me those final miles. Now- I am going to limp around and pack up my house!!!! :-) Attached are some pre-race pics.

VEGAS BABY

We had a GREAT Time with Grandma and Grandpa Linder. Will catch you up on the trip later when I have more time. Here are my favorite pictures of the family fun.

Marathon Countdown- 4 days

I am absolutely OVERWHELMED so please pray for my family as we transition to a new home over the holidays and I run this marathon this weekend. I know my "gin-gin", Barbara Smith will carry me through the difficult untrained miles. She is with me always and I know she will be with me on that cold December day. I miss her so bad today. I miss the way we used to sit and talk on my back patio when I lived in Dyersburg. Like my mom, she would never stay long but we always had a good time when we were together. I loved to drink coffee with her and talk about flowers. She loved to do yard work and she would always pull my weeds and water my plants when she came over because I did not inherit that green thumb. I always think of her when I plant my flowers in the spring. After she passed I would find my self picking up the phone to dial her number. This is one of those moments that I just wish I had one more moment, one more cup of coffee and one more hug. My mom sounds like her and I inherited the same raspy voice at times. Sometimes when my mom speaks or laughs it reminds me so much of sweet Barbara. Life is so precious and each moment is so important. Right after she passed Blake threw a penny into the wishing well and when was about 4 and a half and he started jumping up and down and cheering and I was curious so I wandered over to see what he was so happy about and he said, "I did it. She is coming home. I did it! I made a wish and God is bringing Gin Gin back." Oh- if it were that easy. That was a hard thing to explain but in the end he was still young enough to take the news better than an older child would. But on the bright side, my grandmother is no longer battling Cancer and she is holding the son that she lost when he was just a little boy! It is now his turn to hug her and talk about flowers AND she is pain free! She and everyone who has, is or will fight Cancer WILL help me get through this race. Now- I am going to hug my kiddos and husband when he gets home and thank GOD for my blessings. I hope you are all having a BLESSED day! On this run I will be running with quite a few names on my shirt. My Cousin Cathy has two friends battling Cancer, my grandmother, Jason Myers, Jason Tarpley, and a few others. If you would like to put a name on the shirt it is not too late. I am making my shirt Thursday and I will take a picture and post it!!!! Please let me know. I want to hear the crowd yell the names of each and every person that has fought or is fighting this disease!!!! It is an amazing feeling to hear the crowd yell for not just you but for the ones you love!

Latest House Updates

The house is coming along but not fast enough! :-( We will no longer own the home we live in tommorrow night at 6:00. Jill and Will will take over ownership and we will rent from them for the next two weeks. We will lack one short week of making it a direct transition. The Homestead Suites in Franklin will be our place of residence for about a week until our home is complete. It is what it is and we are blessed to have a roof over our heads. The holiday season is busy and we are having a great and chaotic time getting things done. At first I hated cleaning up dry wall but now I am so excited because I know it is getting us one step closer to being finished. :-) The boys are being good helpers and good sports. Blake has claimed his room and he is excited to decorate. Luke is just sad they took the big sand pile away.

I love my bathtub in the above pics. Matthew picked out the tile. The picture of the connecting bathroom is Blake and Luke's jack and jill bathroom. They love it!

Lukes first Choir Concert

Since Luke is our attention getter I switched him from Veggie Connection to Choir on Wednesday night and he loves it. Sunday we had our first concert and he was a little unsure at first but he ended up loving it. I could not get him to perform both services but he did great in the first. He was a grumpy bug from lack of sleep and so we left because we had a busy day ahead of us. He was a champ and lasted the entire day without a nap. He was treated with Sushi at the end of the day. Yes- my children love Sushi!!!!