a special friend...

When I moved to North Carolina 5 and 1/2 years ago I didn't know a soul.  I'll be honest, it was really hard to be so far away from my family, friends, and basically everything that I know. But, eight months after I moved here I had the opportunity to become roommates with Alison...see one of my favorite pictures of her below :)

It was really a "God" thing because, even though we hardly knew each other when I moved in, finding a friend like her is rare.  She has been a very special part of my life.  We have gone through a lot in life together- shedding tears together after dating the wrong people, meeting/dating our husbands (the right people!), getting engaged 3 weeks apart, and getting married 3 weeks apart.  But, honestly, it all seems like it happened yesterday.  And now, I am so excited for her and Paul, because in 5 months they are going to bring a precious baby boy into this world!  Gray Christopher is going to be one lucky little boy to have parents like you.  Please please please let his "aunt" Abbie spoil him a little bit :)

I'm so happy for you Al and I love that sweet little boy already!

Florida 2012

Disclaimer:  This blog post is quite long.  If you don't make it through, I competely understand.  If you do, well, bless you.

I've been meaning to blog about our trip to Florida before this but I've been reading The Hunger Games trilogy.  Enough said.

Sooo, for the past year or so my family has been planning a trip to Orlando.  Our reason for going was to run the Disney World Half Marathon.  This was a very special race for my family and me.  First of all, my dad asked that our family run it in celebration of his 60th birthday (on the 21st).  Let me just say how incredibly proud I am to have a father that runs almost every single day (and way farther than I can imagine running on a daily basis!).  It's no wonder I went into the field of Exercise Science, it's been modeled to me my whole life.  But I digress.  The second reason for running this race was to celebrate something else.  One year ago (on the 28th) my father had a major sugery to remove his prostate and beat cancer.  So, I think even more than a 60th birthday, we celebrated health and life!  But, more about the race later.

We decided a few months ago that we would take the boys to Florida with us.  Believe me, this wasn't without some serious deliberation.  We had no idea how two little boys would handle a 10 hour drive each way.  But, they did fabulous.  They had their moments (like any kids would) but, for the most part, they entertained themselves with their trucks, "computers", and with the help of Chris' DVD player (if I never see Cars 2 again, it will be too soon!).

We started out for our trip on Sunday, Jan 1st.  We stayed the night in Jacksonville and then finished the drive on Monday morning.  My parents flight got delayed so we didn't meet up with them until about 2pm.  We had a late lunch and then made our way to the condo and settled in for the day.

On Tuesday we ventured to Magic Kindgom.  It it worth noting that Florida was having a bit of a cold spell and the high that day was only around 50 degrees.  So, as much as we wanted to complain about being cold, we really couldn't because it kept the crowds down.  We only had to wait in line for one ride.  We did learn that one of the boys is terrified of the dark.  Have you ever heard a child scream through the Peter Pan ride?  Or Winnie the Pooh? Well, we have.  The boys favorite ride was the go-karts in Tomorrow Land that they could actually drive.  Well sort of drive, their feet didn't reach the pedals.  So, they steered, we did the accelerating.  The boys were doing so well that we decided to stay for the fireworks and I am SO glad we did.  The castle was beautiful and the fireworks were great!

Wednesday and Thursday we spent at Sea World.  The boys really enjoyed it, they love animals!  My favorite part of it was "petting" the dolphins.  You really just stick your hand in the water and hope that one comes to you.  A few came our way but I think only Chris actually touched one.  The boys loved the cat and dog show.  I mean, come on, who doesn't love animals doing silly tricks?  Sea World also has a whole section of kids rides with no lines (again, it was a bit chilly) so we spent quite a bit of time there.  We had a really great two days.

On Friday we went over to ESPN's Wide World of Sports to pick up all our race info and then spent the rest of the day lounging around the pool.  It warmed up substantially for the last few days so we actually got some sun.  I think the boys favorite part of the entire trip was playing in the pool!  They loved it and had absolutely no fear when it comes to water (even though they can't swim...I was a nervous wreck!).

Saturday was race day.  We had to be at the starting line by 5am so we got up at 3:45 and were in the car just after 4am.  My mom was a mess that morning (sorry Mom but it's true).  She had never run a half marathon before and really wasn't sure how she was going to fare.  I made the really hard decision to run on my own instead of with my parents (I'm a bit too competitive with myself).  My dad so graciously stayed with my mom the entire race even though it wasn't his first go around with a half.

Anyways, the race turned out great.  It is a flat race which is always nice and the weather was pretty perfect.  I finished in 2:06.  I'm pretty sure this is my slowest half time ever but I was pleased with it since I really didn't have time to train now that I'm playing "mommy"!  I found my way to the grandstands to watch for my parents.  My mom wanted to run it in under than 3:00 so I was ecstatic when they came across the line at 2:51.  Way to go Mom!!!  She ran almost the entire race.  She had never ran more than 8 miles so I was SO proud of her.  She has the bug now and can't wait to run another!  Let's get a race on the calendar Mom!

We had a fabulous trip and it was really really hard to leave my parents on Sunday.  It just warmed my heart to see them with the boys.  I already knew that parents were fantastic grandparents (the best really).  And even those these boys are not technically their grandchildren, they treated them with nothing but love and spoiled them rotten.  I'm pretty sure that the tears that were shed when we left by my parents were more for those two little boys than for Chris and me.  But, I'm ok with that.  My parents have huge hearts and I'm so thankful.  I love you both!

I'm already looking forward to our next vacation!

In case you're wondering...

In case you're wondering...long hair and remote control cars don't mix.  Let me put this into context.  On Monday night, I was on the phone with my mom and Chris was making dinner.  In other words, the boys weren't getting much attention.  So, I guess to get my attention, one of them took his Lightning McQueen remote control car, put it on my head, and turned it on.  The combination of spinning tires and free-flowing hair was not pretty (I do not have any pictures...that was not my main concern at the time). Chris and I spent at least 15 minutes trying to free my mane from the tire but it was no use.  In the end, we had to cut the chunk out of the tire.  Let's just say I now have some bangs where I didn't before.  Ok, it's really not that noticeable but at the time I was convinced I was going to look like this kid:

 

So, if you have a child who owns a remote control car, please, for your own sake, keep it away from your hair!

wedding/baby shower cake

I made this cake more than a week ago but we have been out of town so my blogging has been limited.  I will blog about our Florida vacation in a few days but for now I'll just post a few pictures of this cake.  A friend of mine asked me to make a cake for her cousin who got married and then had a baby boy...but she lives in Hawaii so they were throwing her a shower for both while she was home.  So, I had to be a bit creative in getting both themes on the cake.  I was happy with the final product...here it is!

Inspired...

I've had a lot of time on my hands this week. Four whole days off with no kids.  I've cleaned, I've organized, I've de-cluttered.  But, I've also watched far too much tv.  Oh well, it's vacation.  I've learned there's not too much on tv during the middle of the day but CMT is notorious for having marathons of "Extreme Makeover Home Edition".  That show is a real tear-jerker.  Yesterday, Ty and his crew built a house for the Beach Family.  They were a family of 15 all living in a trailer because their home had been destroyed by Hurrican Ike.  The thing that really got me was that 9 of their 13 children had been adopted out of the foster care system.  They were only 40 years old and had already fostered 85 children!  So, in true Extreme Makeover fashion, they built them a gigantic house (around 5500 square feet) in a week while they sent the family away to Disney World.  Sometimes I  think this show is a little over the top.  I mean, who really needs a house that big and fancy? But, I think this family deserved it.  One of the designers on the show described the family as something "out of a fairy tale".  That made me chuckle.  I am 100 percent sure that their life has not been a fairy tale.  I'm sure it's been hard.  I'm sure it's been heartbreaking.  I'm sure there kids have whined and yelled and come from really bad backgrounds.  But the inspiring thing is, even though it's nowhere close to being a fairy tale, the Beach family keeps loving on kids.  In fact, I Googled the family after the show was over and found that they had adopted 4 more special needs kids after the show aired because now they had all that space!  I couldn't help but be inspired by this family. Chris and I have learned so much in 5 months of doing foster care but we know we have so much more to learn.  We look forward to providing many children with homes and maybe adopting a few ourselves (but we will not be adopting 13...I can tell you that right now...unless of course Ty Pennington wants to build us a mansion too!).

Oh, one other thing that inspired me about the show.  You may know that we are taking the boys to DisneyWorld next week.  Well, we figure if the Beach family can handle it with 13 kids, we can handle it with 2?  Ok, well you still may want to say a prayer for us...

whoopie!

Well, seeing how it's the holiday season and my family is 1000 miles away, we have been getting a lot of packages in the mail.  Each one is exciting but most of the gifts are still wrapped and under the tree.  But, a few days ago we received a box from my aunt and uncle that I could not resist opening!  The box had an "Isamax" tag on it.  If you're not from Maine and have no idea what this means, check it out here.  In the box were 6 Wicked Whoopies, all different flavors- red velvet (which you'll notice is missing in the picture below because it was devoured right when the box was open), black forest, raspberry and cream, peanut butter, pumpkin, and (of course) a classic whoopie pie.  Oh. My. Gosh. 

These things are a little taste of heaven.  They are a staple at our family gatherings.  We even had a special extra large whoopie pie made as the cake for my grandmother's 70th birthday last summer.  So, while I may not get the pleasure of being with my family on Christmas, I can still eat our favorite tasty treat and know that they are probably eating one too!!

PS- If you're a native Southerner and have never tried a whoopie pie, please promise me you will.  Believe me, you won't regret it!

'Tis The Season...

I have always loved this time of year. I love Christmas music, shopping, wrapping. I love the excitement surrounding the holidays. But I'll be honest, this year has been incredibly stressful. Maybe it's the two kids living in our house, maybe it's the fact that I had 30 cakes to make in the month of December, maybe it's that I hand-made my Christmas cards (thanks for the inspiration Pinterest, they took way too long). Or maybe it's that I'm just trying to do too much. We want this to be a good Christmas for the boys, one that they will remember. I'll be honest, I have gone way overboard with gifts for the boys...I just can't help myself! But more than the gifts, we want them to remember the the love they are shown, they joy that comes with Christmas, and of course, why we even celebrate Christmas. And honestly, with all the hustle and bustle, sometimes I forget what Christmas is all about. It's not about buying the perfect gift or wrapping it up in a pretty bow. It's not about the food or even about family (thought it's certainly nice to have someone to spend Christmas with). But, it's all about celebrating the birth of Jesus! I am so glad that Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. What a better way to spend Christmas morning with the boys than at church!

So, despite the stress and craziness of this year, it really has been a memorable Christmas season already. I am so excited for Christmas morning and seeing the joy on the boys' faces!

At the beginning of this post are some pictures of the cakes I made this month (blogger was being funny and wouldn't let me put them at the end of the past). I delivered 26 to a Christmas party yesterday and failed to take any pictures...so I apologize for that...honestly, after working on cakes for 10 hours straight, the last thing I thought about was taking pictures!