A sweet treat

I am the only one in our family who eats tomatoes. It is a real shame. They are healthy AND delicious. I love the crunchy little grape tomatoes. As I was snacking on a few the other day, Drew cleverly pointed out the confusing label. Are they really tomatoes or are they cheeries or berries or even grapes? Hmmm. Whatever they are, I love them. I often feel guilty buying them because they are a bit pricey and I know no one else will eat them.

On a different note...
Monday afternoon, we went to the park. The boys got out of school at noon because it was report card day. Drew decided that he liked the baby swing. He found out the hard way that he is way too big for that swing. You'll have to excuse his hat! We are praying that he will see the light soon. He picked out the hat as a reward for a perfect score on the TAKS test. He would choose any team that we were not fans of just to be different. Lindsay enjoyed playing with the boys at the park. They had a great time playing hide and seek. The boys loved counting to 20-10 which is Lindsay's 30.

My group

This is my group from Remuda. We really bonded in the day and a half we were together. What we had in common was a desire to help these troubled girls. Two of these ladies have battled Eating Disorders themselves. They were the lucky ones who were able to recover without inpatient therapy. Their parents are lucky too because they didn't have to figure out how they were going to come up with $127,000 to pay for the treatment. This disease is horrific and very expensive to treat. It tears families apart. Even after inpatient treatment, these girls have to continue with outpatient therapy for years. Until now, Waco has not had much nutrition support for this problem. Recovery involves a multidisciplinary treatment team consisting of a psychotherapist, psychiatrist, physician, dietitian and sometimes a dentist. I know this is more than anyone reading this blog wants to know but this is where my mind always seems to drift these days. There are way too many people dying from this disease because many are too shameful to admit they are having a problem. All you have to do is look around campus at Baylor or down any high school hallway and you will find someone who is literally skin and bones. Someone described what it was like seeing the beautiful teenage girls at the Ranch with feeding tubes in their noses and flung behind their ears as "silencing." I think that captures it. It almost takes your breath away.

Funny

Funny story

That is all.

Ahhh...Relaxation!

I'm back from sunny Arizona. The trip was fabulous! I learned so much and met some wonderful professionals from all over the country (and Canada too)! Our group was really diverse. There were people from California, Idaho, Minnesota, Illinois, Tennesse, Alabama and Texas. I think I had more to learn than anyone else there. They were talking in acronymns and vocabulary that is still so new to me. I've been a dietitian for almost 13 years now but I still feel like a newbie when it comes to this specialty area. The Ranch was beautiful and so relaxing. You can tell that the staff really enjoy what they do.Besides the professional visit, the benefits were overwhelming. We were given top notch treatment by Ranch hostess, Linda Christ. The meals were wonderful and the hotel rooms were comfy and QUIET! I mean QUIET! The first night I just sat... and enjoyed the peace and quiet. The second night, we stayed at the Hilton in Phoenix. Most of our group met for dinner and enjoyed recapping the highlights of our trip. I read a book written by one of our group members called Living with Ed. It was so good. The last time I read a whole book of MY choice was sometime before the turn of the century. I even started a second book called Intuitive Eating which is amazingly good. Saturday morning, I ordered room service and hung out in bed as long as possible. I had to savor each moment of this delightful trip. Opportunities like this don't happen very often to a mom of three young kids. I came home in a state of euphoria. I was glad to be home. I missed Mark and the kids. It didn't take long though to remember why moms need a break.

Arizona

I'm off to Arizona. The funniest thing is that I am flying to Houston with two of Drew's teachers. Waco is such a small community. Please pray for Mark and the kids. I know they will do great but there is just so much to do. Of course, school pictures are tomorrow, that figures. Hope they look decent.
I am excited to be going on this professional visit. I am not going to know what to do when I don't have to feed anyone, take anyone to the bathroom or get anyone ready for bed. I think I am going to enjoy this break!

Miracles do happen!

I never thought it would happen. We prayed it would and it finally did. Lindsay ate veggies without even being asked. She has existed on plain pasta (of every variety) sprinkled with parmesan cheese for four years. She discovered that she likes celery while we were in Dallas. Last night at dinner, she picked up a piece of raw broccoli and began nibbling on it. That was shocking in itself but the kicker was this morning when she asked for broccoli, celery and carrots for breakfast. I think she realized that she may be missing out on some good food. What if she had never tried cotton candy? She wanted "flat cheese on white bread" like she had at church with her veggies. This is a breakthrough as well because she used to only eat grated cheese. It's enough to make a mommy dietitian cry!!!

Spring... Break?

Evan had blood drawn at Providence. I promised him donuts and he got to ride in the golf cart twice which seemed to be enough of a reward that he didn't shed a tear. The phlebotimist was not the best. She had to wiggle the needle around a bunch as she struggled to find a good vein. He is a brave kid!
Spring Break started Friday. The weather was beautiful in Waco so the kids and I went to the zoo then met Mark for a swim at the Center. Mark ran in a 10 mile run through Cameron Park and then we went to Dallas for the Women's Big 12 Championship Game.
The girls did not do so well but we had a great time. There was little to cheer for during the game. Sophia was covered like Brittney Spears on a trip to the store with her unbuckled baby. Courtney Paris, OUs center, looks big on TV but she is gargantuan in person. Like my sports commentary?
The kids had fun dressing up for the event. Drew even wore a Baylor shirt. He wanted to wear a baylor tattoo on his chin to have a goatee. I'm afraid this boy is going to be all about facial hair, if he ever gets any. Evan was a big hit again with his green wig and fancy moves.
Meme (Mark's mom) took Drew back to Waco on her way to Salado Sunday. Drew was invited to a slumber party at the Rockin' H Ranch. This worked out extremely well since we had a doctor's appt for Evan on Monday. So with just two kids in tow, we decided to visit the Dallas World Aquarium. Lindsay and Evan were both tired and whiny. They needed a nap but we knew if we took them back to the hotel they wouldn't sleep and we'd be stuck there with nothing to do.They loved the penguins. Evan loved the sharks and stingrays. Lindsay loved the jaguar. Both kids wanted to be carried and were begging to go back to the hotel. So much for thinking two kids would be easier then three!
Evan didn't cheer up until he saw the whipped cream that topped our dessert at The Cheesecake Factory.
Lindsay said her favorite part was the hotel. The weather was perfect for swimming. The kids were all over the continental breakfast. They were in heaven with the Belgian waffles and unlimited cereal, pastries, et al. All day Sunday, they planned for breakfast Monday. We left early Monday for Medical City, Plano for an EEG. More to follow with results.

Growing the Church

This looks like a great game for those not satisfied with the size of their current church. Maybe my friends on CABC's pastor search committee can get all the pastoral candidate finalists to play this game and anoint the winner as our new pastor....

Mega Church Game

(It's just a joke, by the way. It's not a real game. They'll have to pick a pastor the old-fashioned way. They'll draw a name out of a hat.)

And while we're on the topic of church. You know those ads that CABC runs on the radio with the angelic voices of Brett and Ronda. Maybe we need to spice them up a bit. You know- something like this- to draw in the "monster truck crowd," whoever that might be.

While that ad was made for fun and hasn't actually run on the air, it might. The same guy made a funny airline ad.

(When you saw the title of this post, you thought you might read something profound and informative about church growth, didn't you? I leave the profound to Regina. I stick with inane and satirical.)

Bearathon

I ran the "Bearathon" yesterday. It's a half-marathon put on by Baylor's Student Foundation. I don't know that I would have run it 2 weeks from the marathon, but there aren't a whole lot of races that are longer than 5k's in Waco, so I decided to go ahead and run. Also, as students at Baylor, Regina and I were members of Student Foundation. It's a neat organization and the money raised goes towards funding scholarships for current students.

It was my best half-marathon time of the "season" - 1:46:45. (If you look at the results, you've got to search- I couldn't figure out how to link directly to my results.

It's a tough course, as it goes through Cameron Park and its challenging hills. It had to changed in the last few days due to a sinkhole that developed on University Parks in the rain last weekend. (Sorry, I couldn't find an article with a picture.) Instead, it was routed across the Washington Ave. bridge, along the new river trail on the MLK side of the river and back across the Herring bridge. If you look at the course map, though, they forgot the key point that when you travel across the bridge, you actually do go across the river...

Anyway, it was nice running through a town that I knew and on streets that I recognized. Regina and the kids didn't make it to the start, but they made their way to find me several times. I think Regina appreciated the much smaller crowd (340 runners, as opposed to close to 10,000) and streets that she knew, as well. It was fun seeing all four of them 5 or 6 times as I ran. Regina forgot the camera, though, so no pics. Sorry!

I ran a good deal of the time with a local celebrity, Stuart Smith. He has the distinction of being the first American to complete the Adventure Grand Slam. Needless to say, he's an interesting man to talk to. He had more in the tank and left me behind with about a mile and a half left and finished about a minute ahead of me.

Anyway, I was pleased with how even my splits were. The three slow ones in the middle were the toughest of the hills in the park-

Mile 1- 7:56
Mile 2- 7:59
Mile 3- 7:52
Mile 4- 8:01
Mile 5- 8:01
Mile 6- 8:36
Mile 7- 8:40
Mile 8- 8:30
Mile 9- 8:00
Mile 10- 7:57
Mile 11- 8:00
Mile 12&13- 16:21 (forgot to hit my split timer, but there was a stiff head wind for the last 3 miles or so. It really started to wear on me at the end.)
last .1- 0:49

Next Saturday, I'll run the Waco 1-0. It's a 10 miler on the trails of Cameron Park (I'll leave the 50 km race to others), so it will be much different than the road races I've done, but I'm looking forward to it. After that, I'll take a break (and give Regina a break) from the race scene. I'll keep running, though, if anyone wants to join me!

A Hair Raising Experience

Drew and Evan went to the Mayborn Museum for CASPER's Physics Circus today. They had a lot of fun and learned a thing or two about science. Evan volunteered during the program and got to help play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star using palm pipes. He looked so little next to the other kids. Drew liked the hands on activities. He was voted "Best Hair" for the Van de Graaff activity. I've been trying to tell him his hair is way too long. Now we could see exactly how long it really is.Evan had to leave the fieldtrip early because he began to feel bad again. We had to pick Lindsay up and have lunch with a friend so he tagged along. He slept on their couch while the girls played. As we were pulling into the driveway, I got a call from school that Drew got hurt and I needed to pick him up. I am always amazed at how much can happen to one family. When we finally got home, Evan slept for hours. I took his temp when he woke up and it was 103.6! YIKES!

As Usual...It's never boring!

Life is crazy right now. I'm trying to get the lastest scoop on eating disorders, make travel plans, figure out what to do with kids while I'm gone, drive for fieldtrips, take care of sick kids, make dinner. All the usual stuff plus more! Lindsay had her 4 year old check up today. She did GREAT! She was nervous about getting 4 shots but she was a trooper. She didn't cry until the 4th shot! Evan gave her the idea to hide from the nurse. Isn't that what big brothers are for?Speaking of Evan, you may be wondering why he was with us? He came home from school yesterday with fever and feeling nauseated. A friend of Lindsay's who was with us narrowly escaped the contents of Evan's stomach as we were driving him home. One of those quick thinking Mommy moments came upon me and I was able to dump all the newly purchased french fries out on the seat next to me and hand Evan the bag just in the nick of time. This picture of him taken today at lunch reveals a much happier and healthier boy. (As long as he has a dose of Tylenol in him)

Lindsay was on stage for the first time Friday night! She was so excited. Her class led the Pledge and sang two songs at The Taste of Honey (school fundraiser). That girl was in HEAVEN!
I neglected to mention that Mark was a great sport at the Upward Basketball Ceremony. His team loudly volunteered him to assist the Unicyclist do a few tricks. He was 2 days post Marathon and still very sore. Can't you just see the strain in those thigh muscles? Must not have been too bad 'cause Mark is signed up to do a 1/2 marathon on Saturday.

Cheney's Gotta Gun

Regina sent me this. I'm not sure why she didn't think is "blogworthy," but I certainly do. It's a Dick Cheney parody to the tune of Aerosmith's Janie's Gotta Gun.

I don't really blame Cheney all that much. Hunting accidents happen and I have to (or, at least would like to) believe that this was truly just a horrible accident. But it doesn't mean we can't poke fun at him...