Visit from my BFF

Having lived overseas for 3 years, I understand the importance and the need for getting to see friends when the opportunity arises whether I was coming to the states or now, someone who is coming from overseas!  So when my best friend, Steph, told me she was flying to the USA in March I just knew we had to get together.  Our initial plan was to meet up the night she flew in since Brooklyn and I were already in Houston for her tests, but some of Steph's out of town family was visiting Houston and it just would have been easier on everyone to try another time.  BUT, Borger is a long drive from Houston and we were heading back within a few days of her arrival so, Steph, being the best friend that she is..... worked it out with Micah to get a plane ticket for her from Dallas (where she was visiting other friends) to Borger and I gladly jumped at the chance for her to come and visit us a few weeks later!!  

I picked her up at the airport and after hugging her neck, I reached for Jake and saw he was wearing a shirt that said, "Big Brother"... I screamed right then and there in the airport pick up line!  I had kinda been waiting for them to announce something, but also wasn't sure it would be then!  So it was a great, fun surprise!!    We had dinner that night at the house and just caught up on all of lifes happenings.  My kids were beyond happy to have their Aunt Steph and Jake at their house and we let them play til pretty late!! 

The next day I took Miles to school, but kept Brooklyn with us to let her and Jake have some time together.  After running a few errands, we took the little ones to lunch at our local Pizza place that allows has jump houses.  Since it was a school day, we were the only ones there with kids so they had the place to themselves!  Those two ran around squealing, laughing, chasing each other, and having tons of fun jumping on the bounce houses.  At some point both Steph and I were in the jump house with them, and began throwing them around!  They had a blast!!  

The rest of our time together was spent playing at the house, outside and just being together.  We miss them so much and miss seeing them on a daily basis.  Life sure has changed for us after living together for 7 years and now just getting to Facetime and have occasional visits.  Can't wait for their day when they move back to the USA!!

Baseball

This spring, Gavin had the opportunity to play tee- ball and Brooks was the assistant coach.  Their team  practiced a couple of times and then had 16 games in a matter of a few weeks.   Whew!  This meant for at least 3 nights a week our family was at the baseball fields.  Gavin picked right up where he left off last year playing in Saudi and had some great technique and skills!  We were pretty impressed!  For the most part, Gavin played at the pitchers position or first base.  He even got to play short stop and third a few times and did extremely well fielding the ball!!  It was fun to watch him improve over time and continue gaining a better understanding of how the game fully works.  The teams didn't play with strikes and balls since it was tee ball and depending on the opponents team, sometimes you could get out, and sometimes you could stay on base.  No matter what though, if you were your teams last batter then you automatically could run all the bases!  Hmmm...  We did have a great team and everyone played their hearts out-- wait, who am I kidding... Brooks and the other coach were constantly telling kids to stand up, quit playing in the dirt, watch the ball, ignore the train passing by, etc, etc...  but the kids still had fun!  Gavin was a little more serious about playing when he was on the field so they were rarely having to get him to focus!  

Eventually, Miles was tired of sitting on the bleachers and wanted in the dugout.  Before we knew it, he was standing in the field behind Brooks, then tried fielding some balls and making a few plays.  By the last 4 or 5 games Miles got to be bat and run the bases!  We always got permission from the other teams coach and their players were good sports to cheer Miles on and not get him out!  Then... Brooklyn decided she wanted in the dugout with all the players and not sit on the bleachers anymore, but that's as far as we let her get!!  Maybe a few more years!

Gavin loved baseball and missed it on his days off!  The kids play ball every single day in our back yard and know the fundamentals of baseball so well, they all correct each other and motivate each other to try again!!  

OKC Marathon

Back in January some friends were talking about how they were planning on a running a Marathon Relay Race in April and a few girls who originally planned to be apart of the team ended up having to back out.  At some point, someone turned and looked at me and said, "Hey Lindsey, would you want to run with us?"  I kinda laughed and was thinking are you kidding?  I'm not a runner.  Never had been,  Never planned on becoming one.  But, I decided hey, why not give it a try.  After learning a few more details about what I would be entailed to do... I said yes!  If anything it meant I at least got a girls weekend with some friends!  

It snowed and was freezing in January and part of February but I slowly started training and building up my stamina to run.  I was running one of the two 5k legs of our race and knew I could build up to 3.2 miles in a matter of a few months.  I decided to invest into some serious running shoes after two weeks of running with my workout shoes just wasn't making the cut!

There's a store in Amarillo that fits you to shoes based on your walk, balance, etc and I can honestly say without ANY exaggeration AT ALL my feet have never hurt once while running with these BROOKS shoes!  Love them!  Best investment into running and probably a reason I wasn't discouraged because my feet never hurt!  

Next I had to update my music playlists.  I realized real quick that I need music when running and searched for upbeat fun songs that got me through my runs!  

For Valentines day Brooks got me some sweet headphones that fit in ears and stay in while running!  Another bonus!  

In the beginning, I just ran.  Then, I started learning my pace and figured out what pace allowed me to 

go further without tiring.  I built up my endurance, too.  I followed Couch to 5K for a little while but then got bored with it and felt like I could do more faster.  

Then, I started watching what I was eating.  I realized if I was eating junk or having a coke during the day it really did affect my ability to push through while running.  I made small changes here and there.  Some days I didn't run, but eventually it became something I looked forward to and couldn't wait to do.

As the race got closer I found myself getting more serious about wanting to make sure I could run the full 3.2 miles without stopping and then run a little more just incase. Brooks came and ran with me a few times and that made a huge difference in having someone push me, to keep me company, and just show me that I could do it!  

Our relay team consisted of 5 girls.. 2 of us ran 3.2 miles, 2 girls ran 6.2 miles, and 1 girl ran a 7.5 mile leg!  Together, we equaled the distance of a full marathon race!  

We all rode to Oklahoma City together the day before the race and decided to do some shopping and eat out at some GREAT restaurants.  We knew we had an early morning to get to the race and ended up leaving our hotel before 5:30am.  There were weather reports of rain, thunderstorms, etc coming and  within in minutes of driving to the race it started raining.  Thankfully, we got a parking spot EXTREMELY close by the starting line and could listen to announcements for the start of the race.  Slowly, the race time was being delayed by 20 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 45 minutes, then people were told to seek shelter... SCARY.... we hung out in the car and just waited it out.  

Within minutes of the entire race being cancelled due to passing city limit time and what not, we got the go ahead that the race was on!  We all dispersed to the various bus stops that were taking each one of us to our portion of the race and then WAITED!!  Based on each one of our personal times we kinda had an idea of how long it would take before it was our turn.  For me, it meant I waited through 3 girls runs... about 2 1/2 hours!  It was cold while we were waiting and they ended up passing out foil lined blankets so I curled up in one of those to stay warm.  Most people didn't know anyone with them so we were all kinda standing around trying to find anyone who would visit and help pass the time.  Us girls all had our phones with us so we were texting back and forth while waiting and also sending messages like, "Just finished... Katies running now" It helped give everyone an idea on where we were in the race.  

About an hour and half into the race... the sun came out and the skies cleared and it was HOT!!  That helped a ton with just moods and everyone feeling good instead of glumy!  Eventually, runners from the previous leg started making their way to our starting line, so I started getting prepped to meet my teammate!  It was mad choas with all my leg of runners waiting for their runners to come!  They did have speakers with announcers notifying team numbers who were turning the corner so you at least had some heads up it was your turn.  Once Haylee crossed the line, we passed each other our rain gear and the timer and off I went!  I was so nervous and just wanted to finish strong!  

A few days before the race I started thinking of ways that I could stay focused and really thinking what could I do to keep me motivated and not to stop running! So... I decided that I was going to spend each mile praying for someone/ something specifically.  Days before the race, Brooks' brother, Brandon and his wife, Kate, flew to Uganda on a mission trip so my first mile was dedicated to them, their time there, their trip, the lives of those they would come in contact with, that because of them and their team people would come to know Jesus, their health-- which then led me to praying for Bran's continued health, that his cancer would NEVER come back and just proclaiming life for him!!  My second mile was split between praying for both our families.. our parents, our siblings, their families, all the kids, our grandparents, relationships, health, future, etc.  My 3rd mile was devoted to Brooks and I.  Our relationship, our goals, our future.  I prayed for direction with our life, our ministry and that we'll constantly be focused on what God is calling us to.  The last few minutes I prayed for our kids.... Gavin, Miles, and Brooklyn.  I prayed for their hearts that they would come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  I prayed we would develop and help them utilize each of their gifts and talents.  I prayed for their relationships with one another and that as siblings they would care and respect one another for years to come and genuinely love one another.  I finished the race praying for health for all 3 of our kids and praising God for the healing that had already been given to Miles and Brooklyn the month before!!

Needless to say the praying worked.  I never stopped running and wasn't even distracted or thought to stop.  It was a great way to be motivated to keep running and finish strong!  Eventually I saw crowds were beginning to form and knew I was close to the switch!  There were soooo many people it was hard to find my teammate, but eventually she popped through the crowd; I passed along the timer to her, grabbed her stuff and off she went.  I quickly found the buses that were taking people to the finish lines across town so that I could meet up with the rest of my teammates and wait for Stacia, our last runner to near the finish.  Since we were running the RELAY marathon, we had the option of crossing the finish line all together and that was something we were all looking forward to doing!  We knew Stacia could run her 6 miles in an hour so it was important that I get on a bus quick and take the 15 minute ride and then I figured from the drop off point to where I needed to go was going to take a 15 minute walk... so I was hurrying!

I was able to find my teammates and only had to wait another 10-15 minutes before we saw Stacia running up to the finish line.  We caught up to her and ran down together.  We had a few mishaps and a small interruption before we made it to the finish line, but we eventually did and it felt great!  What a huge accomplishment for all of us!!

I'm so thankful I was asked to be apart of this team of sweet friends and I'm so grateful for a supportive husband who was my cheerleader for months encouraging me to keep pushing myself!  It was an amazing experience and has even opened my eyes to maybe training more for a bigger race and/or to even look for other things I've never tried in my life before and give them a shot!  

#teamborger

Easter Celebrations

Easter week was a special time for us and we spent time really focused on teaching the kids what Easter was all about.... Jesus dying on the cross and his resurrection!  Our church held Easter festivities throughout the week including a Maundy Thursday service.  I had the priveilege of being a part of the service and by God's grace, had my sweet husband and his creative brother, Bran who helped write, develop, and create the material I performed for our church.  I was approached 2 weeks prior to the service to see if I could perform a type of spoken word poem, I agreed, and then anxiously began studying what spoken word poems were, how to perform then, and after a week of not finding any SWP regarding the two subjects they wanted, we set out on writing our own.  It was a neat process and extremely humbling to express thoughts of Judas betraying Jesus and what Jesus endured during the days leading to his death.  I share one of the two videos with all of you and in a very vulnerable way... but pray that the words penetrate ones heart, even after the Easter season!  For some reason my youtube video won't pull up, so you'll have to click on the link below.

http://youtu.be/qFFBrzEID6c    

We were fortunate to get to spend another holiday with family, something we weren't able to do much while living in Saudi.  A few weeks before Easter while talking to my parents I offered to them to come spend some time at our house and they agreed!  We decided to plan a few things to do together and first on our list was to go to Cadillac Ranch- its a place where there are 10 Cadillacs that were buried into the ground and instantly became a tourist attraction.  People from all over are encouraged to bring spray paint cans and "decorate" the cars, which we did!!!  

The kids loved, loved, loved getting to do this.  Thankfully, I thought to bring a paint holder gun to make it easier for the kids to use and it came in handy!  Miles was beside himself by the fact that he could actually spray the car and laughed hysterically while he did it!  Gavin thought it was the coolest thing ever and was very interested in figuring out how the cars were standing up.  Brooklyn, well she was precious walking from car to car trying to turn the wheels and not get sprayed by the paint.  

 

 We found this sign that was the hood of one of the cars and it was so appropriate for Easter weekend!

My parents helped the kids paint and were just as amazed as we were with all the cars!

Since it was Easter, we took time to do normal activities like dying Easter Eggs.  The kids were amazed how the eggs changed colors and had fun mixing different colors together.  A constant and I mean constant game the kids played with my mom was "hiding" eggs in the backyard and finding them.  They did this 10 times a day and it never got old to them!

Easter morning was a little hectic.  Between cooking and prepping lunch, making breakfast, giving the kids their baskets, opening and playing with all the new goodies, and then getting to church early, our morning was a little hectic, but still fun!  The kids were so excited to get new swimsuits and a few new toys.  Their favorite might have been the chocolate bunnies!

Our church had 2 services for Easter (and I was asked to perform the spoken word poetry again, and ended up combining bit and pieces of the two poems and shared it in between songs in the Easter service-- talk about being nervous, but all went well!) Between the services, they had a massive Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids.  Each age group had their own area around the church to search and the kids had a blast!  They were so excited for eggs and kept opening each one to see what was inside.  My favorite item they received.... free sno cone certificates at a local shop in town!!

 

After church and eating lunch at home, we spent the afternoon playing!  The kids hunted for more eggs, played pac an egg, and Gavin was in for a BIG surprise during egg toss when an egg thrown to him cracked!  He was shocked and decided it'd be a great idea to throw it at his dad! We laughed all afternoon and goofed off with the kids!

It was great having my parents come for a visit and getting to spend time together.  The kids always love when any of their grandparents are around and they get that special attention!  What a great Easter week to celebrate Jesus resurrection!!  

Easter Parties

Miles and Brooklyn's mothers day out program had an Easter celebration, which I had the privilege of heading it up and it was so much fun!   We made each child their own personalized bucket and did a MASSIVE Easter Egg Hunt at the church.  The kids were ecstatic and had a blast running around to get as many eggs as they could!  After the egg hunt, several parents made sweet treats and fixed up a big table for the kids and it was perfect for the kids.    

Miles' other school had a smaller Easter Party that parents were invited to.  They searched for eggs, had snacks, and played special games.  It was really cute to watch all of them together!