It's been one of those days

Today has been one of those days; those days that could have been really awful. Instead, it was one of those blessed, glorious days when I felt the presence of God with me from the very start of the day.

That start of the day happened to occur at 5:15 am. Ross was gone super early so baby and dog duty were on mama. I expected Mary Kate to go back to sleep but no can do. The dog was walking around, making noise, wanting to go out. I held firm and refused to attend to either of those fools until 6 am. I layed in bed, knowing I was flying solo today, and knowing how most days that start at 5:15 am pan out. But today, I tried something different. Instead of pulling my pillow over my head and cussing, I prayed. I prayed for an inordinant amount of patience. I prayed for joy to be in my heart today. I prayed not to resent my husband for the fun he'd have while I was working in the zoo starting at 5. I prayed that having a good attitude would change the expected trajectory of the day.

I let the dog out and went in to a royally pissed off little girl who continued to throw a fit for another 20 minutes. Finally she realized she needed to stop screaming in order to be fed and she calmed down. During said screaming, I remained uncharacteristically calm, feeling my favorite teammate next to me. I began to devise a much needed plan for our long day ahead. I texted a friend and told her that the pizza she ate last night was settling in her thighs. (there is an inside joke here. I'm not that big of a jerk.) She took my bait and met me at the gym. Mary Kate got to play for an hour and my friend and I took a very bad aerobics class. One of my favorite mops moms also walked into that very bad aerobics class. This helped calm my nerves about MK in the daycare, knowing my mops mom's kids were in there with her. After, she and I both realized we were single moms for the day and agreed to eat away any lingering husband resentment at chick-fil-a. MK took a catnap in the car, making her a surprisingly (more) pleasant lunch date. I actually think I can tell you a few of the thoughts Amber finished.

Throughout the morning, I was so struck by how God honored my request to have this be a joyous day. I could not believe how at peace I felt. The afternoon, however, threatened to destroy that peace. MK's little catnap killed much chance for any real afternoon nap and she cried for an hour. I kept reminding myself that God was still with me, helping me through this day, regardless of whether MK was happy or sad. When I finally got her up, she was in a FOUL mood. I came very close to cancelling our plans to go over to our neighbors to watch football but MK loves them and their dogs and I thought the change of scenery might be the attitude adjustment we both needed. And I am so glad I did.

Because, ladies and gentleman, at the ripe old age of 16 months and 3 days, THIS GIRL

FINALLY WALKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, after all the appropriate texts and phone calls to say that we may avoid the planned trip to the physical therapist, I stopped for a minute. I thanked God for answering the prayer I had prayed the night before and the one my sister-in-law, unknown to me, was praying after Communion, probably around that same time.

After a few little steps, she full fledged walked to me in Zach and Karen's kitchen. She was so proud of herself and was a total ham, acting like she hadn't spent the previous two hours making me bang my head against a wall.

I came home and rocked that moody little creature in our chair, saying our guardian angel prayer and thanking God for a day that could have been so rough. And while it wasn't perfect, it was one of those special days where I felt Him with me, walking through all the joys and all the stresses of parenting. It was one of those days where you feel, as we used to say in bible study, the spiritual warm fuzzies. God is there, every single day, warm fuzzies or no fuzzies. But oh how great it felt to really feel Him here today, especially when the other man in my life was off galavanting :)

thirteen (POINT ONE)

This weekend I did something I never, ever thought I would do. Had you asked me 6 months ago, I would have laughed at you and then resumed eating my little debbie cake. I had not run more than 3 miles since I was in high school and that was a one time 10 k on prom morning with Jamie Jue. But my best friend dangled lovely accomodations in my face and that last little bit of baby belly begged me to remove it from my body. So, I began training.

Y'all, for me, this process was hard. My first re-introduction to the treadmill yielded barely 2 miles and a child who screamed in the daycare room the whole time. I was not encouraged. But pretty soon I was cussing my way through four miles, and then sending Fr. Tim and my dad pictures of the treadmill showing 7.0 miles. And then my husband worked out of town for basically a month. Training came to a screeching halt.
Discouraged and back to square one, I finally accepted an invitation to run with some moms from mops. They met 100 yards from my house and I was hooked from my first run with them. The next time I find myself out of shape (because, let's be real, this girl loves some swiss cake rolls), I want to look back and see the lessons learned and see what worked. So, in no particular order- what motivated me from couch to half marathon.

• getting outside (yes Ross, I am forever sold on running outside. YOU. WERE.RIGHT.) Finding a beautiful place to run (along the Chattahoochee river) in the gorgeous Atlanta fall made it less tortuous in those beginning weeks.
• as I said, finding a group. Listening to these ladies (and eventually talking with them when I got in enough shape) talk about faith, family, races, dreams made those runs fly by.
• accountability. An email goes out the night before, you commit. Knowing myself, I purposely never got anyone's cell numbers so I wasn't even tempted to text a lame excuse when I wanted to sleep in. I knew they were there and I knew to be on time (those girls start running at 6 sharp and Lord knows I didn't have the ability to catch up with them!)
• prayer. I could write a whole post on this but this really was a spiritual experience for me. At night I prayed for endurance, perserverance, physical strength. And during the runs, I prayed not to throw up. He answered, every time. On race day, the prayers of friends truly propelled me forward. My friend Molly (a running coach in Athens) sent me this scripture "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to stand on the heights."
• Encouragement from others. From my husband's compliments on my physique and willingness to do morning baby duty, to support emails from my favorite Padre, to advice from friends who are "runners" to friends just asking how training is going to facebook messages on race day, I truly felt supported by so many people. I have been tempted to downplay this accomplishment (my best friend ran her 4th full that same day!!) but the reality is, it's a big danged deal. 13 is nothing to scoff at.
• thinking about the big picture. When Ross and I were first dating, he would take me to the river and I could not run the entire 5k loop. I couldn't run half of it. And now, to run alongside my husband and baby and dog, it makes me so happy. That is what I want for my family. I want Saturday morning runs. I want to run alongside a blonde haired fire-cracker on her bicycle one day. I want that blonde haired fire-cracker to see her mama get up early to take care of herself, to value her health (and sanity). Maybe one day we'll run alongside each other, enjoying nature and fitness (and a celebratory donut) together.
• setting a goal. I am not so much a goal setter. Don't get me wrong, I've set a few in my life. But I am not self-motivated. I don't compete with myself. If you tell me I need to give 70% of myself to something, I'll happily give 70% and use the last 30% of my effort on catching up on the dvr. That may be changing. It felt great to set a big, seemingly unattainable goal, and cross that finish line with as much happiness as I can remember (even if the firecracker was asleep on her daddy's shoulder instead of waving at mama!)
• faith. During each run, I was acutely aware that I was not running alone. I truly, truly felt God with me. I spent time during solo runs saying a rosary- admittedly as much to make the time go by as to make good use of my time sans baby. Praying through cramps and hurting knees seemed to really alleviate pain, or at least distract me from it.

I know I am bordering on melodramatic here but the more I wanted to down play this success, the more I thought back to the beginning. I looked at blogs written during those first runs and I realize that I did something I never thought I would. It's not a full marathon and it's certainly not world peace, but it's a girl trusting that God gave her a healthy body fully capable of meeting a big goal. It  was 13 (and as a I realized rounding that last corner, an excruciating last POINT ONE) miles. I am proud of this achy body and the girl who all too often tells herself " I can't."

I can't believe I'm posting this photo of my bff and I at 6:30 am on a FREEZING Savannah morning, but it is actually more flattering than the after pictures ! Thanks Katrina for motivating me to sign up and giving us a great weekend!

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Picture Man

Didn't you love the picture man in college? Oh the money I spent on photos and I couldn't tell you where they were now if my life depended on it. How does picture man make money now with everything digital? Anywho, I am the picture man in my house and since I haven't had much of a writing bug lately, here are some photos of Ninness life and my double chinned little Dorothy to make you smile today.

At trunk or treat with cousins Ashley and Alyse

this child loooves her some big kids!

a rare photo of mom and dad

yet another photo of Sister Brunetta and MK donning her pj's. Sister probably thinks we don't buy the child clothes.

bad glare but no denying the joy as the big girls walked her around to trick or treat. The big girls had clear instructions on what mommy Dorothy liked.

There was dj playing techno music. MK was ROCKING it out, waving her arms and bouncing. She gets her mad dancing skills from her daddy. This may help me in the "keep the boys away" quest.

Happy to walk hand in hand with dad. Solo, notsomuch. (can we please note the chubby legs!!)

And a last note to my daughter:
Dear precious, "do things on your own time child," after trunk or treat yesterday, I realized that mama's stash is severely compromised by your refusal  inability to walk. Can you please stop being stubborn for a half a millisecond and learn to walk so we can make it to more than two houses tonight. Thanks.
love mom.

15 things about 15 months

Miss Mary Kate Frances,

You are 15 months and one week old and since I am one of many who use this blog as a baby book, here are 15 things about your little fire-cracker self.

1. You are becoming more of a toddler each day. I ache at how big and old you look.
2. A part of this little pre-toddler phase is fit-throwing. It is pretty humorous (when we're at home.)
3. You love to take a phone and talk like the whole world knows what you are saying. You change your inflections, tilt your head and use your hands. I have absolutely no clue where you learned this.
4. You don't walk. I'd venture to say you are not even close, though you'll cruise along everything and stand up a few times without holding onto anything. You can crawl at the speed of light and see no reason to slow yourself down by using only two appendages.
5. You are very aware of what you want these days. Seeing as how all your babbling is indecipherable, this is posing some problems. Definitely going to work on teaching you some more signs this week.
6. You still hate the cotton picking carseat. That's all I will say about that.
7. (inserted by dad). You seek out mom and dad's love. Our love for you has been on display for 15 months (and before). But now we are starting to see that you love us back :) You now freely giving kisses. When I took you in to wake up your dad the other day, you leaned in and woke him up with a big kiss, totally unprompted. It was precious.
8. Dad says you miss your puppy Monty. You crawl to the edge of the bed and look for him. We met a new puppy today and you didn't miss a beat, petting him and loving him.
9. You still wake up at 6:30 each day, unless mom is on a run and dad is on morning duty. Then you sleep until 7. Good thing I love you!
10. You love to be outside. Anywhere, anytime, any temperature. I do not look forward to the winter time. Your cold hating mama might just have to take one for the team and bundle up. We are spending lots of qt at the Atlanta zoo, the duck pond behind the library and Taylor-Brawner park.
11. You are a H.A.M. For every bit of whining and fussy you give me, the minute we step into public, you smile and wave and laugh- willing someone to smile at you. It's very clearly an act but also very funny. And I love watching you make someone laugh by shooting a scrunchy nose smile their way.
12. You have not yet begun any major separation anxiety. Once you are in a new place for a few minutes, you are happy to let anyone hold you, tickle you and play with you. This brings indescribable joy to the Sisters, to your grandparents and babysitter.
13. Your favorite food is any kind of bean- black bean, kidney bean, navy bean. It is our only "go to" food. Other days you are exerting that lovely toddler behavior of loving a food one day only to toss it across the room the next.
14. Your favorite activity is to ride in your red push car. Your grandfather took you out in it so many times that you now push it to the door, put your seatbelt on and wave bye-bye at the door. We have to have grandparent detox whenever we leave one of those 4 wonderful people.
15. You love books and will sit in your little reading corner in your room for an hour, reading and taking books off your shelves. I hope this is a lifelong love!

Mary Kate, we could not be more in love with you. We could not be more thankful to God for trusting us with you. We could not be more proud of the little person you are.

I had no plans for you to have a morning nap. You had other ideas. You have NEVER fallen asleep on the floor  in your life.

Famous MK fit throwing

Your precious BFF, Joy

You LOVE the swing!

aforementioned black bean obsession

Help a girl out

Hey y'all,

If you are friends with me on facebook, I will send some ginger ale your way to handle the nausea I am causing you. So, here's the deal. Amidst training for this God-awful half-marathon, I have discovered that on some days of the week, I actually enjoy running. Well, let's clarify. I enjoy doing something I never imagined I could do. I enjoy talking about running to "runners" (not to be confused with me). I enjoy the comraderie of my running group. The actual "running" part, I can sometimes do without.

I can also do without MK's squaking during runs. About mile 2, she grows annoyed with our jogger and makes the rest of the run not so pleasant. We were gifted with a wonderful jogger used by a friend for her two growing kids. Between our two families and three kids, we have worn it slap out and it is admittedly not very comfortable anymore, reclines too far for my curious babe and doesn't have any of the bells and whistles that might make her chill the heck out. (one can hope)

Enter my friends at Just For Baby in Savannah. Life-long friends own this store and the whole family helps run it. I joke that I have either babysat for, dated, or gone to school with each of the Gaudry cousins. It is a wonderful gift of a store to Savannah's little ones and now they are giving a great gift away. On 10/29, they are giving away the GOLD CROWN of jog strollers. Those of you with a BOB will all attest to its overall awesomeness. Much to my husband's eternal appreciation, I am too cheap financially responsible to purchase one when we have a jogger, albeit one on its last tire :)

So Just For Baby is giving one away to the person whose recommendation on their facebook page gets the most "likes." Will you pretty, pretty please go to their facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Just-for-Baby-and-More/109330402438129 and on the right side is their recommendations. Scroll down to see mine and press the thumbs up button.

I am way out of my comfort zone asking for this but, as I said, have found that I really do enjoy getting out for a jog. If I don't win, we will happily and gratefully keep our old baby trend and MK can just learn to deal. I'll put the money I didn't spend on a BOB into better ear plugs :)

Thanks friends!

Help this be me (maybe the calves come with the stroller...)

                           

Abundance

Hello from the land of what the medical community calls N/V/D. It has been a nasty week at casa Ninness thanks to my husband's ill fated decision to drink after someone who had a "small stomach bug" a few days prior. My ill fated decision was blaming his nausea/vomiting/and as my friend Rachel put it, the d-word, on a slight over consumption of bourbon at a wedding this weekend. Well, karma took care of me. I quickly realized this was no hangover and pledged to be a much more compassionate nurse from here out. Thankfully, Ross knew the horrors of what I was going through and was kind and loving, taking the rest of the day off to care for Mary Kate and hand me pony-tail holders. We thought our girl escaped it but alas, R had a nice surprise awaiting him when he pulled the babe from her crib this morning. Round 3 for the Ninness family has been kinder and we are hoping MK just caught a tiny bit of it.

As we all attempted a bland breakfast this morning, we made note that God has been so good in this. We each got this heinous bug a half a day or so ahead of the other, giving one of us time to exit the restroom and disinfect it before the next person made camp there. We each had exactly the amount of energy needed as we recuperated to take care of the next victim. Instead of us all getting slammed at once, we were able to care for each other as a family. Again, God is good.

It made me think of times lately where we have had just enough goodness to keep the bad from pushing us down. Ross and I are new in our marriage and we each brought plenty of bags into this relationship. We are ever-changing, growing, hopefully evolving into better humans. But whew!  Is that process, um, refinining.  I'll keep the moments of refining to ourselves but cue you in on the moments of sunshine that seep in and remind us off the abundance of  good. This weekend, I made a last minute decision to go to a wedding with Ross in NC. There were some challenging moments for us. But at one point, we were dancing. Ross picked me up and spun me around, telling me "this version" of his wife as opposed to the buzz kill version he often gets, was his dream. I'll always remember the joy of being picked up and danced with so lovingly. And while that beautiful moment doesn't erase some of the not so beautiful moments we had that weekend, the bad moments also don't fade the memory of that joy. Again I tell ya, God is good.

I went to Mass Sunday morning at a precious oceanside church. The scripture was from Phillipians Chapter 4.

Brothers and sisters:
I know how to live in humble circumstances;
I know also how to live with abundance.
In every circumstance and in all things
I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of living in abundance and of being in need.
I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

I could write volumes on how I have seen this scripture play out in my life. I know that I can live in abundance and in want. But what I love about that great big ole God, is that in times of want, there is so often abundance, even if it's hiding somewhere. Abundance this week was the timing of each of our sicknesses. It wasn't a lack of sickness, but an ability to manage it. Other times it's a phone call from a friend or a perfectly timed letter of encouragement in the mail.

I am just feeling all sorts of thankfulness and awe in how God has sustained our marriage, our health and our families, in times of abundance and in want.

Coming up for air

This past week has been one of those weeks. One of those weeks where you don't realize how much you have piled onto your plate until it all needs attention in the same 7 day time span. One of those weeks where your husband is given a personal pan pizza for dinner and your child has had 3 over-priced, organic granola bars a day for meals because she can feed them to herself. One of those weeks where your head is just barely teetering above water.

I am not complaining because each of these commitments brings a lot to our lives.
Our days have been filled with preparing for our MOPS consignment sale, which is a BEAST to put on, but again, is a service to moms in our community and to moms who get to have adult conversations while our childcare workers take great care of our kids. I can absolutely wait until the spring sale and kind of dread the amount of time it requires, but my kid loves the kids there and I love the moms there. Plus, it wears MK out so much that she is asleep before she can tuck her precious little arms under her belly.

Our nights this week have begun with me angry at Ross for coming home late from work, just exhausted, tagging Ross while he takes over the baby and I leave for work. Despite my love-hate relationship with my job, Ross reminds me that while I may not be "serving" like I did as a social worker, I am serving our family by the few extra dollars it brings in. And I'm not going to lie. Seeing my husband happy at that meager paycheck's addition to our accounts makes the late nights worth it.

The early morning hours have included google searches for whether or not I should go into screaming baby's room and try to console her, or leave her to go back to sleep on her own (night one, I went in and gave motrin. night two, she cried it out, night three, she got enough motrin, orajel and vapor rub that I think she was in a little coma but it worked.) The pre-dawn hours have me running with some great ladies in what has become the best part of my day. If you know me and know how much I hate love running, this tells you what the rest of the days have been like!

Despite the craziness, we've found ways to get our heads above water. Friday, I played hookie for the late afternoon shift at the sale and met Ross at St. Angelo's for pizza. There was a band playing Johnny Cash songs and we took turns dancing with our daughter while we ate stromboli and gelato on the patio. After a week of literally passing in the night, it felt great to feel like a family and to really enjoy each other.

Today, we are home from early Mass where MK sat in the pew the ENTIRE TIME (reminder: we go to a church with a realllly long service.) She is asleep. The Sunday paper is strewn across the table with empty plates from a good breakfast at home. We are spending the afternoon going a Golden Retriever rescue event and someone slap me if we come home with a dog. But don't be surprised either. I am outnumbered in the "do we really need another dog so quickly" camp but am admittedly excited to go see the pups.

So, after a crazy full week (which started with our anniversary and will get its own post), we are coming up for air. And around me, I can now see such goodness. We are thankful for jobs in this awful economy and for ways to serve that also give us great friends. We are thankful for bodies that are healthy enough to exercise well and for a precious girl, no matter how much or how little she sleeps. We are thankful for family who leave message after un-returned message and friends who email us to encourage us in our runs, our family and our lives.

~~just some photos I've recently gotten back from a great photographer we got through groupon :)