Art Show

Brian and I hob-nobbed and rubbed shoulders with the upper crust of Sarasota at an art show on Thursday night. Well, okay... but we did go to an art show. Hayley's preschool had an art show and all the children had created their own "exhibit" to showcase their many artistic talents. We were thoroughly impressed with our little Picaso!

Hayley's exhibit (To be fair, the art show started at 6:30pm, which is the time that Hayley usually goes to bed. She was definitely ready for bed as our screaming, post-cookie, 7:15pm exit clearly proved.)





Of course I heard from two different preschool teachers about the difficulties they had trying to take Hayley's picture for her art board. They used those "fluffy" educational words, so as not to be derogatory, like "challenging," and "
"Hayley is our little wiggle worm." But me? I prefer to call a spade a spade and I know darn good and well that what they mean is that "Hayley is down right, ridiculously, IMPOSSIBLE to photograph. As preschool teachers, we have the patience of saints, but this is NOT what we signed up for." I don't think it's so much that Hayley dislikes having her picture taken, but rather that she doesn't like to be told what to do and telling her where to stand, to be still, to smile and say cheese is just far more bossing around then she's willing to accept.

But I do have one compliant child who thinks posing for the camera is the cat's meow. And while I was joking about his modeling portfolio awhile back, Todd actually got asked to model some baby clothing. I think it's gone to his head. I've already heard him babbbling something about "The Curse."


In just a few days, we will be off to spend a couple days at Disney World... the happiest place on earth. I'm nervous.

The Past Month

Gosh, it's been almost an entire month since my last blog post. I've got a good excuse though, kind of. I spent the last week of February down and out with the flu. Miserable. And of course a few days later, Hayley came down with the same said flu. Even more miserable. Wouldn't you know we both were infected just in time for a visit from my parents and Brian's brother's wedding! The morning of the wedding, I got up (at 2:45am, I'd like to add) to drive up to Tampa to participate in the Gasparilla Marathon with my fellow IronMommies. We ran the marathon relay where we divided into teams of 4 and each member ran a portion of the marathon course. As luck would have it, I was set to run the third leg, the longest leg with an 8 mile distance. Since we were the third leg, I had plenty of time to fret, pysche myself out, and completely lose confidence that I could survive 8 miles while still recovering from and fighting the plague. I also had plenty of time to watch as storm clouds, torrential rains, and high winds rolled into the bay area. Oh, it was a miserable run. And I'm pretty sure at about mile 6 I saw the grim reaper. But, thanks to the encouragement of my fellow IronMommies, I made it through the trecherous, soaking wet eight miles. I like to tell myself that it's the painful, tough runs that really build character and improve my running ability. Because the alternative belief is that I'm certifiably nuts and need to be locked up.

After the race, I drove back home to get myself, and my little angels ready for their big day. Hayley was the flower girl for the wedding and I was pretty nervous. Hayley has a mind of her own and I was concerned about what that mind would feel like it wanted to do walking down the wedding aisle. She pleasantly surprised me though and did a fantastic job sprinkling petals along the aisle. She still did not feel good though and I'm ashamed to admit that might have been part of her willingness to cooperate... she just didn't have the energy to be honery!

After the wedding, we had a wonderful week with my parents in town! Dad seems to be recovering well and even got to hit a few golf balls while he was here. At this point, he is electing not to do any Interferon (chemotherapy) treatment and will just be monitored like a hawk. Please, please continue to pray that cancer will stay away.

We've spent the last two weeks just trying to get back to a normal daily routine. Brian has a few weeks off from work (I'll explain more about that in another blog post) and we're enjoying some time with him.


Best Man and Flower Girl at the wedding
The Cousins
Todd's new favorite place to hangout
Cheering on the Baylor Basketball Team
Our first pool trip this year