Birthday Girl!

Kendall is 1!! And, this post is a little overdue because she has now been 1 year old for a week and a half. Woops! 

Kendall's birthday is April 7, but we decided to celebrate a little early and had a party with family on Sunday, April 3. Kendall and Ella were very excited to have the majority of our family at our house - my Mom and Dad, Travis, Andrea, Mammaw (Debbie), Tara, Daniel, Hannah, Ross, Laura, Tim, Charlie, Peyton, Mark, and our neighbor Cheri were all able to celebrate with us. Cheri made an adorable ladybug cake and smash cake for Kendall. Check it out...

Kendall was nearly late for the show. She took a long nap and I finally had to wake her up because we were all just sitting around waiting for the guest of honor. She had a fantastic time at her party. She wasn't all that into opening presents, but of course big sister Ella was there to assist! She did, however, have a great time playing with her new toys after they were opened! Mammaw gave Kendall (and Ella!) a wagon, and they had a great time riding in it after the boys got it all put together! Mom and Dad gave her a toybox for her room. It has been great, and Kendall enjoys playing in her room a lot more now that all her toys are in the toybox. Kendall also received a ton of other toys, some cute clothes, and some money for her savings account. When it came time for cake I was very anxious to see how Kendall would react. Ella barely even touched her cake on her first birthday, but I thought our chunky monkey might go the other route. Though at the same time I wasn't sure because she is not into solid foods at all. Turns out she loved smashing the cake with her hands, and once she got a taste of it she was all over it!! It was pretty funny...and messy!

The birthday girl is awake and ready to party!

WKU Chick!

I want this big one!

Big sister is ready to help!

Where's the cake?

Happy Birthday to you!

Now I have the hang of it!

I'm done now!

 

Fun in the wagon!

The girls with Aunt Tara and Mammaw

The girls with Grandma and Grandpa

Thanks to our wonderful family who made Kendall's 1st Birthday super special!

The Greatest Show on Earth!

On Thursday night Ronnie and I had one of our most fun experiences as parents – we took Ella to the circus!! This was the first time for all three of us, and we had an absolute blast.

Ella was in desperate need for some Mommy & Daddy time without Kendall. She’s had a rough few weeks. Since Kendall was born she will occasionally go through stages of regression. I'm certain it is in response to the attention Kendall demands, but this has by far been the worst one. I try so hard to give Ella as much attention as I do Kendall, but it is extremely difficult to divide it evenly, as Kendall requires so much right now. I am hopeful that this will soon get better as Kendall is getting older (she will be 1 on Thursday!). I am finished breastfeeding (hallelujah!) thanks to some freezer-stored milk that will be used until she is completely on whole milk in about another week, so that in itself will allow me to have more Ella-time.

So anyway, I was so excited when I found out Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey was coming to the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville. We had never been to the circus, and I had also never been to the KFC Yum! Center and was really anxious to check it out. The Center is operated by the Fair Board, my former employer, and I did a lot of work involving the Center, so I was really anxious to see it! It was absolutely phenomenal. We are so lucky to have such an amazing facility in Louisville! There has been a lot of talk regarding an NBA team coming to the facility. I have no idea how much of that is true, but that Center could definitely support a team! If you haven’t seen it yet it is definitely worth a visit!

We left Kendall at home with Uncle Ross. She was not happy to see us leave without her, but she survived! As much as Ella needed time away from Kendall, Kendall needed time away from Mommy! She would disagree, but she definitely needed a reminder that people other than Mommy are perfectly capable of caring for her. :) It worked out perfect that the circus was on Thursday, because that is also “kids eat free” night at Ella’s favorite place to eat – Chick-Fil-A. When I ran the 5K a few weeks ago I got a coupon for a free sandwich, so we all ate for just the price of Ronnie’s meal. Sweet! We got to the circus early and found a nice, free parking spot on the street a few blocks away. The entire walk to the Center, Ella kept saying “Are we at the circus? Is this the circus? Are we there yet?” I’ve never seen her so excited about something! When we arrived we walked around a checked out the Center a little bit. I was pretty pumped to see Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen vendors, though I opted out of a $6 ice cream cone. Ouch. We wanted to get Ella a souvenier, but the last thing we need in our house is another stuffed animal, so we bought her a cute t-shirt. We found our seats, which were much better than I expected them to be. We were pretty close to the floor and had a great view…though I don’t think that arena has a bad view. When the circus finally began I thought Ella was going to lose it. I’ve never, ever seen her so excited. She kept clapping her hands and yelling “whooooo!!!!” Ronnie and I were cracking up watching her. It was so much fun to see her so excited! She kept leaning over and giving us hugs, saying “I love you Mommy! I love you Daddy!” Then she would say “Where are the elephants? Where are the tigers? Are the animals coming out now?”

The show was amazing. Ronnie and I were as mesmerized as Ella. During the intermission I took Ella for a potty break then let her pick out a snack. I thought she would go for popcorn…she loves popcorn, but the child sitting in front of us was eating a snowcone so she had her heart set on one. So she ended up with a $10 snowcone. But, it was in a really cool elephant souvenir bowl. After intermission the tigers came out. That part was really cool. Then nine elephants came out and they were awesome. I think that was probably Ella’s favorite.

After the circus ended we were walking back to the car and Ronnie asked Ella what her favorite part was. Without hesitation she said, “My favorite part was when the elephant pooped!!” Of course a three yar old's favorite part of the circus would have to involve poop!! Apparently one of the elephants dropped a bomb during their routine. I missed that, but it didn’t get past Ella! Ronnie saw it too, and didn’t know how I could have missed it. I sure hate that I did. ;)

We had a blast at the circus. It was so fun to see Ella so excited! Since it was the first circus for all of us, we were all pretty excited! It was great to have some time with our big girl and hopefully it made her feel pretty special. We certainly feel pretty special to be blessed with such a sweet, energetic and happy daughter!



Cookie Monster

Last night after I put Kendall down for bed I came downstairs to find Ella sitting at the kitchen table inhaling a box of thin mints. That's my girl! In 48 hours she and I destroyed a box of tagalongs and a box of thin mints.  We usually have a pretty strict limit on sweets - not that she pushes it that often because she's a great eater and would normally rather have fruits and veggies. But Girl Scout Cookies are different. Healthy? Nope. Deliciousness that only comes once a year? Absolutely! Ronnie's box of dulce de leche cookies has barely been touched. Weirdo. :)

Caught red handed!

10K Down!

This morning I completed the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown – the 10K. The 10K is twice the distance of the 5K (obviously) that I ran in 2 weeks ago – so today’s race was 6.2 miles. Well, 6.27 to be exact. I always thought it was just 6.2 but found out yesterday while looking at the route online that an official 10K is 6.27. So there ya go.


This race is the one I knew I would have the most trouble setting my goal time. I had a pretty good idea of how fast I could do a 5K and ended up beating my goal by about 8 seconds, so I was pretty close there. I already have a good idea of goal times for the 10 miler and Mini, but I just wasn’t sure how fast I could do 6.27 miles. So I “unofficially” set my goal time for 51 minutes, meaning that I only told my goal to Ashley and Ronnie because I was pretty sure I couldn’t run it in an 8:12 pace and I didn’t want to have to admit defeat. I guess I should start pushing myself a little harder, because I ended up running it in 50:17, an 8:05 pace, and I was disappointed in myself at the end because I knew I could have gone faster, and definitely could have broken 50 minutes. I paced myself too slowly in the beginning and by the time I realized it, it was too late to make up for it. Oh well. Now I know for next year! I was still thrilled to have run it as fast as I did!

It was a beautiful morning for a race. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze blowing. Can't get much better than that! It was a very scenic route and I found myself running through parts of Louisville that I’m not at all familiar with. The start and finish lines were several, several blocks away so after finding a great, free parking spot near the starting line we took advantage of the shuttle service and rode a yellow school bus back to the starting line. It worked out great and we were on the first bus back. And I can’t leave out my favorite part of the races…the free post-race food. Thank you, Panera Bread, for cinnamon crunch bagels. You truly make my race days.

I also need to throw a shout-out to my awesome mother who came up Friday after work and stayed until this afternoon so she could watch the girls this morning while I raced because Ronnie had to work today. You’re awesome, mom!!

Two weeks until the 10 miler! I ran 10 miles last week and it was pretty miserable, and I hear that the 10 miler is quite miserable since part of it is through the hilly Iroquois Park. My goal = 1 hr 25 minutes, an 8:30 pace. I’m just going to go on and throw it out there and make myself accountable!

God bless!

Ronnie has a job!

I wanted to think of a more creative title for this post, but I thought I'd just make it short and sweet. It’s official, Ronnie has his first post-residency job! After completing the last month of his Emergency Medicine residency in June, 2011, he will then become the newest ER doctor at Clark Memorial Hospital in Jeffersonville, Indiana!


To answer the most popular question we have received, no, we are not moving to Indiana! The first time Ronnie drove from our house to the hospital it took only 15 minutes. Sweet! We plan to stay in our house until we have at least made a huge dent in Ronnie’s massive medical school loans. (And of course payment on those begin literally the day he is out of residency.) And then if we decided to buy a different house it will more than likely be around the same area we are in now. We really love the area of town we live in and it is very close to the places we most frequent (church, gym, friends' houses, Target, etc...I have to be within a few minutes of Target, hehe)

We were beginning to worry that maybe it wasn’t going to work out for us to stay in Louisville. Let me explain. Most of the hospitals in Louisville don’t hire their ER doctors, they are hired through groups who place doctors at hospitals (aka, pimp groups). There has been some shakeup in Louisville with these groups and the hospitals they cover, so getting involved with some of these groups and hospitals seemed like a dangerous move. In fact, Ronnie was having serious talks with Norton Suburban (where the girls were born!) and it looked like things were hopeful, then one of the groups lost a hospital, several veteran ER doctors lost their jobs, and Suburban hired one of those doctors. It looked like this was going to be a problem everywhere. Ronnie pursued and was pursued by other groups who were very interested in hiring him, but most of those would have required us to move, and none of those locations were very appealing for us or areas where we wanted to raise our girls. So we kept praying about it and he kept trying to make connections. The hospital where he moonlights in Corydon, Indiana wanted to hire him on full time and we were keeping that as a back-up plan. It is a fantastic, new hospital and he really enjoys working there and the people there, but it is 40 minutes from our house and not really a place where we would want to move. That was really its only downfall. He kept it as a very serious option. Then, when we thought that was going to be the only option, Ronnie got a phone call!

The ER doctors at Clark Memorial are not run by one of those groups I was talking about before, they have their own group hired on through the hospital. Many of these ER doctors are Ronnie’s attendings at U of L, who have helped train Ronnie and pay very close attention to his work in the hospital, so he was very honored that they wanted to bring him to their group. We later found out that it has been a few years since they have even hired a new doctor, and only had a position open because several of their doctors want to cut back their hours, so Ronnie was very flattered and grateful that they wanted to hire him. He took a couple of weeks to make up his mind. He was still weighing the pros and cons with Harrison County Hospital in Corydon. One night one of his attendings was working at Clark and he decided to go shadow just to see how things run at the hospital. After spending just a couple of hours there he knew it was where he was supposed to be.

Ronnie has literally been in school or training for 24 years. He graduated from high school in 1999. He completed four years in undergraduate school at Georgetown College and graduated in 2003 with his Bachelors. He took one year off before Medical School (that’s when I came into the picture!!), then spent four year in Medical School and graduated in 2008. He then began his Emergency Medicine residency which he will complete June, 2011. Time for a break!! He plans to take a few weeks off before starting his job, and hopefully we can have a little mini-vacation for just the two of us to celebrate. Woo hoo! Ronnie has worked so hard…I wish I could put into words how hard he has worked because unless you witnessed it or went through it yourself you truly can’t understand the blood, sweat and tears (literally – all three of those), plus a bazillion hours, that he has sacrificed to be where he is today. I am so proud of him and thrilled that he can finally start doing the work he knows God has called him to do!!

3.1 down, 29.3 to go

Racing season began today! I have wanted to do the Triple Crown and MiniMarathon for several years now. After just “never getting around to it”, then having 2 pregnancies keep me from doing it, I was ready to run this year! Two years ago I watched the Mini on TV and was just kicking myself for not signing up, then last year I watched it with my 2 week old, obviously unable to run 13.1 miles. But I told myself that I would not back out in 2011! So I signed up a long time ago, I think it was in November, knowing that I would not back out if I had already invested money into it! I love running so I have thoroughly enjoyed training. But more than anything it's been nice to do something for myself. I love being mom and wife more than anything in the world, but since I'm at home with the girls and Ronnie has such a demanding job at times it feels like that is all I am. I sometimes feel like I've lost myself, so it's been nice to do something just for me. And thankfully Ronnie has been more than supportive and has happily watched the girls a lot lately during my runs...which has been great for the girls. They don't get a lot of Daddy time due to his work schedule, and rarely get Daddy time without Mommy. It's been a great situation for all of us! Though Ronnie, who also likes to run, has been a little jealous and would love to run with me! I think he's just jealous because I may be faster than him now. :)

I signed up for the Derby Festival MiniMarathon (13.1 miles) shortly before Christmas and then soon after signed up for the Triple Crown – 5K (3.1 miles), 10K (6.2 miles) & 10 miler. One of the main reasons I had never signed up is because I really hate racing. Don’t get me wrong, I love running and have been an avid runner since college, but races make me unbelievably stressed, nervous and nearly sick at my stomach. My friend Kebra joined a running group that is training for the Triple Crown and Mini and she encouraged me to join, too. I joined them for a run one Saturday and then decided to join. Aside from the running benefits and opportunity to run with other people, one of the main reasons I signed up was to get used to running at 8 a.m. on Saturdays with people. I hoped it would help calm my nerves and fortunately it seems to have helped a lot.

This morning was the first leg of the Triple Crown – the 5K. My last experience with a 5K was not good. In 2007 Ronnie and I ran the Health Care Classic 5K that the Med School hosts and it was a disaster. We trained hard in hopes of having fast times, but someone did a crappy job of measuring the distance of the race and it was actually 3.6 miles instead of 3.1. When you are running a 5K you are running fast, and an extra half mile makes a big difference! Ronnie had finished before me and was told what happened after his time was a lot slower than he expected. He met me at the finish line to tell me because he knew I might burst into tears when I saw that my time was about 4 minutes slower than what I was aiming for! So that was not so great.

The 5K this morning went great! The worst part was waking up at 6:30 a.m. Yuck. I met my friend Ashley at her house and we rode together, so it was very nice to be with a friend for the event! Ronnie was off work and able to stay at home with the girls. It was just too cold, and too crowded, to get them out for a short run like that. We figured out where to park and made our way to the starting line, with 10,000 other people. I desperately, desperately needed to use the restroom before the race started (if you know what I mean), but unfortunately the lines were so long that I would have probably missed the start of the race. And yes, I said 10,000 people ran the 5K! It was insane, and at times a bit frustrating. We got as close to the front as we could, which wasn’t very close at all. Once the race started it was actually 3 minutes 30 seconds before we even crossed the STARTING line. So obviously the time on the clock wasn’t anywhere near our actual times, but thankfully I had my GPS to watch my time. I don’t know how I ever ran without that thing. My goal going into it was 23 minutes – a 7:24 pace. Honestly though I thought 24 minutes was a more realistic goal. I was pleasantly surprised and ended up finishing in 22 minutes 52 seconds! I had an embarrassing moment after I crossed the finish line. There was a guy who looked like he was giving me a high five. I started at him for a few seconds and thought, “I don’t know him…why is he giving me a high five?” Then I realized that I probably looked absolutely exhausted, and a bit sick because during the last quarter mile I thought I might actually throw up, so maybe he thought I just needed a high five. Nice guy. All this actually crossed my mind in about 5 seconds. So I reached up to give him a high five, as his arm reached over my head to high five the guy behind me. Woops. We had an embarrassing three-person high five. So I just kept running like it never happened! Then came the best part – the free, post-race snacks. Thank you Panera Bread, for providing free cinnamon crunch bagels. I had never had one before, but I would call it a little piece of heaven in bagel form.

I'm also excited about the Mini for another reason. Several people from our church decided to sign up this year in honor of our Pastor's wife, Connie Towles, who passed away in December after a tough-fought battle with cancer. She was an avid runner and participant in the Mini and we are all excited to be running in her memory and will even wear matching t-shirts with a special Bible verse on the back. It makes running the race so much more meaningful!

I was really happy to get the races off to a good start and have a strong (for me!) first race. It makes me much more confident and less nervous going into the next races. Ella is pretty excited to get to go to the races, too. Today she kept saying, “Mommy I missed you soooooo much!” I said, “But I was with you all day!” Then she said, “No, but I missed you sooooo much when you were at your race!” Ronnie plans to bring them to the 10 miler and Mini so I’m excited to have my little support team there!

I need vacation help...

On July 1 Ronnie will officially be finished with residency…woo hoo!! It’s been a long road for him and I am so proud and excited that he has almost completed his training. He hopes to take a few weeks off before starting his next job and we are talking about taking a long-weekend vacation…just the two of us…sometime that month. We aren’t looking to go very far or spend a lot of money. The girls would be at my parent’s house in southern Kentucky, so we would like to stay within maybe 4-5 hours driving distance. It doesn’t have to be a place with lots of activities or people. We mostly just want to relax and enjoy ourselves for a few days. A lake would be nice. Romantic would be nice. We are going to Gatlinburg in October so we are not interested in traveling there.

If anyone has any ideas or recommendations please let me know!! Thanks!!