Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
This is what you look like when you take out both of your top teeth in the same night!
Preston knocked out one tooth playing "rough" with his brother. Now I knew he had a loose tooth but did not realize it was the other center front top tooth. Imagine my surprise when he showed me the product of his fine dentistry skills as shown below. If I had known the teeth were next to each other...I may have discouraged pulling the second tooth 20 minutes after the first one came out. Oh well, he is a little lispy, and a little raw looking but soon he will have little buds growing there and it will look a little less painful. As for Preston...doesn't seem to be bothered by any of this a bit. The tooth fairy was generous so its all good!!
What a cute place!
It is MY birthday weekend so I get to choose the majority of our activities. So after I humored my family with a chicken wing lunch they humored me with a stop into a super cute, pink, shop called The Cupcake Spot. Totally my kind of place. It just reeks of girl and cute!! Pink walls, cute tables, cute decor..you get the picture. We decided to try out the goods though. We each, except for John because he does not have a sugar addiction, sampled a cupcake. The boys all fell prey to some form of chocolate. Me, I went outside of my own box and chose a strawberry cupcake with vanilla bean icing. I will say, the cupcakes were good but not anything I couldn't match in my own kitchen. Would mine be as pretty...probably not so much. I would have lots of extra help. But the atmosphere...that was worth it. I sat in girl heaven and enjoyed my pink cupcake looking at the pink decor!! We will probably visit the cupcake spot in the future!
Wings
One of the "blessings" of being the only female in an all male home is the overwhelming love of chicken wings by everyone but me!! When put to a vote wings is one of the favorites. I need to up my voting power in my home or I am going to be eating wings, burgers...you get the idea. Of course when it is my choice I choose places with great salads. This is only popular with me. Devin has an affinity with Ceasar salad...so he is kind of coming over to the dark side...but I have a long way to go to convince the others. Our one common ground is MEXICAN food. We all love this type of food so it is a common ground we all embrace. Below are some photos of our recent wing excursion to a place called Fergs....the "boys" all agreed this could be their favorite new wing place....I guess Fergs will be seeing more of The Radfords.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Happy Birthday to Me!
Well today I welcomed in the beginning of the last year of my 30's. That is a very scary thought in my own head. And sure, I know to be thankful for every day I have, and I know to remember how blessed I am...but 39 still is kind of a scary number...in my own head of course!!
As I went through my day I tried to stop and capture things in my mind that really make me happy. These are some of the things I came up with:
1) God gave me a beautiful weather day. It was sunny and mild. I do not know if I could have asked for a prettier day on which to celebrate.
2) My children...They allowed me the luxury of an 8:00 sleep in. At 8:00 I had four extra warm bodies in my bed handing me cards and gifts and wishing me a Happy Birthday. What a way to wake up :) I looked at each of their faces and just thought about what a treasure they are to me..from my thirteen year olds newly acquired braces to the sweet soft skin of my three year old. And both boys in the middle.
3) My husband...We both had great intentions of an earlier wake up call but as the alarm went off we mutually opted for another hour of sleep. For the man I know so well that words are not necessary much of the time..For the man who gives so much to give me and the boys so much ...for him my gratitude is immeasurable.
4) For my friends..like my boys, they were kind enough to wait until 8:00 and then the phone started ringing, texts started talking.. all sending birthday wishes in song and conversation. I am so thankful for all of my wonderful friends that bring so much joy and laughter to my life. They are truly the sisters I never had.
5)My family...I would be nowhere without them. They are my cheerleaders, my stability and my sounding board. I could not imagine life without them.
I would say this is my team. This is what makes me who I am. These are the things that come to mind when I think of happiness. There are activities and many things that make me happy as well but these are my constants. As I close out Jan 28th...thank you thank you Lord for blessing me so richly! I could not ask for anything more.
As I went through my day I tried to stop and capture things in my mind that really make me happy. These are some of the things I came up with:
1) God gave me a beautiful weather day. It was sunny and mild. I do not know if I could have asked for a prettier day on which to celebrate.
2) My children...They allowed me the luxury of an 8:00 sleep in. At 8:00 I had four extra warm bodies in my bed handing me cards and gifts and wishing me a Happy Birthday. What a way to wake up :) I looked at each of their faces and just thought about what a treasure they are to me..from my thirteen year olds newly acquired braces to the sweet soft skin of my three year old. And both boys in the middle.
3) My husband...We both had great intentions of an earlier wake up call but as the alarm went off we mutually opted for another hour of sleep. For the man I know so well that words are not necessary much of the time..For the man who gives so much to give me and the boys so much ...for him my gratitude is immeasurable.
4) For my friends..like my boys, they were kind enough to wait until 8:00 and then the phone started ringing, texts started talking.. all sending birthday wishes in song and conversation. I am so thankful for all of my wonderful friends that bring so much joy and laughter to my life. They are truly the sisters I never had.
5)My family...I would be nowhere without them. They are my cheerleaders, my stability and my sounding board. I could not imagine life without them.
I would say this is my team. This is what makes me who I am. These are the things that come to mind when I think of happiness. There are activities and many things that make me happy as well but these are my constants. As I close out Jan 28th...thank you thank you Lord for blessing me so richly! I could not ask for anything more.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Tri season is here!!
Well, it is back to training again and I must say I am sooo excited. I never really quit but it has been an easier schedule since Augusta to say the least. I am excited about this season because my goals have changed from surviving and finishing to seeing how much I can improve in speed in 2010. I am looking to take on three half ironman races this year. The first is in Rhode Island. This race should be a bit hillier than last year's and the bigger challenge is that not only is it a hilly bike BUT also a hilly run. I have never done a hilly run in general nonetheless after 56 miles of hilly bike. But I wanted a challenge and it looks like I may get just that in Rhode Island. My second race is back to Augusta. This race is all about vindication for me. I hope to have no "issues" this year and a much improved time. I am excited at the opportunity to go back and redo this race. Lastly, I will head down to South Florida and visit Miami for my final 70.3 of the season. I have been recently informed by a few people that this race is ALWAYS windy...so that will be my challenge in Miami. On the flip side...people always say the swim is beautiful in Miami so I guess that maybe balances out the wind??...I don't think so!! A little mental toughness will be needed on that windy day in November. I also plan to do a handful of short tris also this season to work on short distance speed. So it looks to be an exciting and fun season with lots of hard work and training to put in. I will say that I love the training and am looking forward to shooting at the goals I have set for myself and to see how close I can come to them or maybe even exceed them...who knows!! Only time will tell!! Until next time
Snow
Preston has been studying the biography of Wilson Bentley. We have been reading Snowflake Bentley to go along with our study. We have learned things about snowflakes, photography, Vermont, perseverance to name a few. We have very much enjoyed this study and will be starting another piece of literature this week to learn something totally new. In conjunction to Preston's unit, I decided to do a little unit with Nicholas. So we also did "snow." We read many books having to do with snow but I put a photo of probably our favorite book of the week below.
Today, we made snowball cookies. The boys had a fun time making them but would NOT eat them... and they even had yummy sweet frosting underneath the layer of coconut. Nobody likes coconut in this house except for me apparently! I certainly do not need to eat a bunch of cookies...so I guess mister trash bin will enjoy them. Well, maybe the next edible art project will be more popular...or maybe it is great that my children will say no to sugar when they don't like something about them instead of just eating it anyway. No sugar addicts here I guess!
Today, we made snowball cookies. The boys had a fun time making them but would NOT eat them... and they even had yummy sweet frosting underneath the layer of coconut. Nobody likes coconut in this house except for me apparently! I certainly do not need to eat a bunch of cookies...so I guess mister trash bin will enjoy them. Well, maybe the next edible art project will be more popular...or maybe it is great that my children will say no to sugar when they don't like something about them instead of just eating it anyway. No sugar addicts here I guess!
Friday, January 15, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Happy New Year
As we ushered in 2010 last evening I glanced around at my family and was just so thankful for all that I have been given. We spent the evening playing games with grandparents and genuinely enjoying each others company. There may have been flashier ways to bring in the new year; however, I would have done it no other way. Spending time with my husband, children and parents is about as good as it gets. Time just keeps on passing by and I can never get those moments back...so what better way than to spend them than with those I love most.
Today, I went to Barnes and Noble to purchase a calendar as I had scraps of paper with appointments written on them. As the pile has been growing I decided to take charge and actually organize myself. The great thing that I learned as I opened my calendar is that most of this month and next month and the next are blank. I do not have a million things to write down. I get to choose how I am going to spend our time together each and every day. Our day is not dictated by commitments and obligations to anyone or anything. We made a decision to do this and I am so thankful that we did. There is nothing I would rather do than spend tons of time with our children. All this to say that it was so exciting and invigorating to look at that mostly blank calendar and wonder what things we will do in 2010 to create memories in our family that will last a lifetime...that will let us look back with no regret. So here is to a wonderful 2010....
Today, I went to Barnes and Noble to purchase a calendar as I had scraps of paper with appointments written on them. As the pile has been growing I decided to take charge and actually organize myself. The great thing that I learned as I opened my calendar is that most of this month and next month and the next are blank. I do not have a million things to write down. I get to choose how I am going to spend our time together each and every day. Our day is not dictated by commitments and obligations to anyone or anything. We made a decision to do this and I am so thankful that we did. There is nothing I would rather do than spend tons of time with our children. All this to say that it was so exciting and invigorating to look at that mostly blank calendar and wonder what things we will do in 2010 to create memories in our family that will last a lifetime...that will let us look back with no regret. So here is to a wonderful 2010....
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