Howdy folks!

This is Beg Tex here and welcome to the Texas state fair! If you have experienced the Texas state fair, then you can imagine the heavy Texas accent that accompanies this phrase!


We made our annual trip to the Texas state fair on Sunday. And this year our trip was a success on many fronts. One, our timing was perfect to avoid peak crowds. We arrived at 10:00 when the gates opened and we went on a Sunday which I think helped. Two, the weather was awesome. Full sun and temperatures in the 60s. What a lovely day to be outdoors! Three, we took the DART train to the fair so no major driving delays or parking hassles, plus the kids thought riding the train was fun. And last, the kids were very cooperative and didn't complain about having to walk far. Phew.

I am also grateful to Scott for being nice for allowing us to see other aspects of the fair before going to the midway rides. Bless his heart because if Scott had his way I think that is where we would spend all of our time. But I wanted to see a few other things and he didn't grumble about this much. We ran through the children's petting zoo quickly, and since we were there early enough in the day the animals were actually interested in eating and were not sitting around overstuffed and disinterested in the children.

We also saw a dog trick show, where the acts included dogs jumping into the air to catch frisbees, dogs catching objects above a big pool (splash!) and jack russell terrier (I think) racing. The kids thought this was fun and I was glad to delay getting to the midway. Pig racing was my first choice for a show but unfortunately it was only offered in the evening (bummer, I know). AND we got to see the awesome carved butter figure. I had heard about this (so many marvelous displays at the fair) but was still amazed to see it in person. It was huge, I would guess that each figure was taller than normal human size. See the Sooner player hitting the Longhorn player in the gut, just as OU did the day before to UT in the game.

We also got our corn dog fix before going to the Midway. As you may know, the corn dog was invented at the Texas state fair and is a classic. While we get a lot of press for the annual fried food contest (this year's winner was deep fried Texas Frito pie, which beat out deep fried beer - who would ruin beer like that? - and lots of other fried items), the Wilsons prefer to stick to the classic corn dog. I will only touch a corn dog once a year, and this is it. There I am below enjoying my corny dog, with Big Tex's behind in the background.

And why am I actually in a photo for a change? Well, that would be because I neglected to charge my camera battery and thus was bummed to discover upon our arrival at the fair that I could not photograph the day. Instead I bugged Scott as often as I thought I could get away with to please take photos with his blackberry. The Big Tex shot way above is courtesy of google images and the rest are courtesy of Scott.

And I took this one while Scott was waiting in line for our corn dogs. Don't these children look cute? They were waiting in anticipation of their deliciously healthy fried lunch, which they both heartily polished off quickly.

Bike rodeo

Amelia's elementary school held their annual bike rodeo last Friday. This is a fun day for the children where they get to participate in several bike-related activities. Children are encouraged to ride a bicycle or scooter to school and they later they ride through obstacle courses on the street. The children also watch a bike stunt show, which I hear is wildly popular. I have never stayed for the show, but am imagining bikers flipping through the air, bikers jumping their bikes over people, etc. The kids all hear many lessons about bike safety and they have a blast doing it.

Since I work so close to Amelia's school it is easy for me to pop over for 20 minutes while her class is on the obstacle course. Below Amelia is getting ready to ride.
Here she has finished the course (the balloons at the end mark the turnaround) and she is heading back to the start line once again. This year the course featured weaving through cones, going up and down a small ramp, and riding over bubble paper.

Afterwards the kids get time to run on the playground and have a snack with their classmates. Of course the moms want the kids to pose for photos too. Here is Amelia with a few classmates, where they are all excited because they have just finished the course. Fridays are spirit days and Amelia was so happy that every kid remembered to wear a school shirt that day. Each class that has 100% spirit participation gets their photo taken with the UP Panther mascot, which flashes on the television screen during the morning announcements.

Amelia got a larger bicycle for Christmas last year but was not confident using it until just recently. We practiced several times last week in preparation for the rodeo and she did a great job on Friday!

Music time

Since it rained most of the day on Saturday we found ways to amuse ourselves indoors. Rather, the kids amused themselves and I tried to play with them some while getting chores done at the same time.

I think that one of John's talents is his mechanical-oriented mind. I sometimes catch him looking at how objects are constructed or trying to figure out how the parts fit together. I think this is pretty cool but I don't know how to foster it well given his short attention span. So I decided to try Tinker Toys on Saturday, where we constructed a guitar for John out various pieces. The photo is on the can and we got pretty darn close to the design. John thought it was cool for about 10 minutes before destructing the guitar into dozens of pieces.

Meanwhile Amelia played drums with the Tinker Toy can.
Later on in the day once the rain had stopped I decided to go to the grocery store. And since Scott was out on an errand I took the children with me. Reason #410 why I should never take the kids with me to the grocery store is that I end up coming home with more items than planned (reasons #1-409 have to do with my frustration wtih their behavior in the store at times, which is another story altogether). I was an especially big sucker on Saturday because I let Amelia and John select fruit roll-ups as an addition to the cart. Gross.

And for added fun, I later discovered that these are roll-ups that double as stickers. Stickers that children stick to their SKIN before eating them. This is so unappealing to me that I am actually having trouble typing the words out. But apparently (as Amelia later told me because of course I didn't take the time to research this before plunking them in our grocery cart) is that each roll-up wrapper has a dare printed on it, and the eater has to perform the dare with their roll-up stickers. One of the kids' dares was to decorate their body with the pieces, which explains the photos below.

The marketers are genius, getting kids to want to eat this stuff. And I am just a big sucker for peace in the middle of the grocery store (and a little fun, kid-style too).

The big 4-0

This is my one hundredth post on this blog! I feel like that is somehow a milestone that should be celebrated, given the nice round number of 100.

However, this is about the number 40. No, not my age (3.5 years to go until then!), but I am referencing the fact that I finally ran greater than 40 miles last week. During non-training times I usually get about 20-25 miles in and training for a half will usually bring the mileage somewhere near 30. I am proud that I finally made it past 40 in one week!

I have heard from other veteran marathon runners that a good target for serious marathon training is somewhere between 40 and 60 miles a week. That seemed completely outrageous to me when I first heard it. The schedule that I am loosely following is based on timed runs during the week (e.g., one hour) and then a distance run on the weekends. I try to get close to the time prescribed during the week and then am sure to get the long run in at exactly the right distance. Since the mid-week training is time-based and you can vary your time by how fast you run (or by the fact that you have a family and full-time job to juggle and so you just can't run every day of the week), I do the best I can and hope I am doing enough. Last week went like this:

Monday - 8 miles, including a few short interval spurts (mixed treadmill and outside)
Tuesday - 8 miles, all outside
Wednesday - 7 miles, including 5 sets of yassos (treadmill)
Thursday - 2.5 miles, plus gravity strength class
Friday - off
Saturday - 15 miles (treadmill!!!)
Sunday - off

The story to the 40 has to do with Saturday. I was planning to meet my group for our scheduled long run (14 miles) Saturday morning, which would have put me at 39.5 total for the week (side note: I had planned to get the last .5 in on Thursday but was late getting to the gym for my lunchtime gravity class, and even running like a mad woman on the treadmill before class only got me to 2.5. I figured I would just wait to hit 40 next week). Anyway, I woke up at 5:15 on Saturday to get ready and heard the thunder outside. There was a 30% chance of rain predicted for the morning when I checked the night before, but I optimistically got out of bed since no rain had fallen yet. I went downstairs and was midway through my cup of coffee (and about 10 minutes from leaving) when the rain started. Big fat rain, with thunder and lightning in the distance. Not being someone who enjoys running in the rain and wondering whether any crazies would show up with the lightning punctuating the sky, I went back and forth in my mind about going and decided against it. Good thing I did because the rain fell continuously and intently until almost noon. And due to the fact that the rain never let up, I was forced to wait until the gym opened at 8 and do the long run by myself on the treadmill. I had church obligations planned for Sunday morning so I couldn't put it off a day, and I really didn't want to since I had mentally committed to the long run on Saturday. But even for someone like me who doesn't mind the occasional hour on the treadmill, having 14 looming ahead of you felt like torture.

So I went and did it and it wasn't as bad as I thought. I got bored of course, but tried to amuse myself by watching the tvs mounted to the wall and getting into my music (even though I have heard the songs on my ipod a zillion times during training). I saw one episode of Sportscenter, one of Game Day, and a bit more of the second round of Game day before finally hitting the end. Two hours and about eleven minutes of pure fun. At least I was able to carry conversation with Scott on Saturday about which team was playing who and who was predicted to win!

The run felt OK enough that towards the end I decided that if I had to do 14 according to my training schedule, and getting 14.5 would get me to the elusive total of 40 for the week, then why not just pump it out and get a nice round even 15 in? It's amazing the mental games you can play with yourself after having run for two hours like a hamster on a wheel, round and round!

So as a reward to myself I came home and registered for not only my marathon race (which I had been putting off for unknown reasons, fear of comittment maybe?), but also a half marathon this spring in Indiana! I am so excited to get to run in Indianapolis with my awesome marathon veteran cousins Kim, Kelly, and Jon! Woo hoo! We are planning to make this a family long weekend away and I am so excited about combining my interest in running with an excuse to see much missed family. Running in Indy will be my first out-of-town race experience and my first race to run with people I care about, which all sounds wonderful.

So here's to 40, and many more weeks where I am sure I will get to 40 again!

SMU football

We went to SMU's second home football game on Saturday. SMU's team is in a rebuilding phase, where they are playing better after many years of not doing well. The school hired a big-name coach a few years ago (June Jones) and the athletic department has worked hard to increase school spirit and student support of the football program.

Despite not having a good team for many years, one of the things that SMU students know how to do well is tailgate. A large area centered around the main drive through campus is roped off on game day, and student and academic organizations set up tailgating tents for a giant pre-game party. Students and fans throw elaborate parties with lots of food and drinks, and the people watching is bunches of fun. The students get dressed up for games (think cowboy boots and sundresses) and it's fun to watch all of the little kids wearing SMU gear and throwing footballs on the lawn. The business school sponsors its own tailgate, which we have attended for years.

About a half hour before game time the band and cheerleaders march in a parade towards the stadium (see below). You can barely make out a few tailgating tents behind the band. Yesterday's parade featured a few excited fans. I called these guys the blue crazies.

Yesterday' was John's first experience attending a live football game (Amelia went to a high school game with friends last fall). Every time we drive past SMU's stadium John asks when can we go to a game, so he was excited about going. The only bad part was the fact that the heat index was about 100 degrees yesterday and there was absolutely zero breeze inside the stadium. While tailgating under the large oak trees wasn't too bad because of the shade and slight breeze, being in the stadium was like baking in a giant oven. No shade, no breeze, just the hot sun baking down on the bleacher seats. I can only imagine how hot it was on the field. The kids were good sports about it, but after about a half hour we went home because they had had enough.

John figured out the pony cheer on his own (see right hand below). We sat in the back of the student section and I guess he imitated the gestures the students were making during the first touchdown drive. Love John's outfit of all blue and red, which John proudly put on in preparation for the game when I told him those were the school colors.

The first SMU drive we saw resulted in a touchdown, which was exciting for the kids to see. When we left the score was tied at 7-7, but SMU ultimately ended up winning the game.

We decided that we will probably go back to a game as the kids seemed to enjoy it, though we will wait for cooler weather.

Running

My cousin Kim has the coolest blog. I love it. Kim writes about her experiences with running, cooking, and with life in general. These are all things I can COMPLETELY RELATE TO, mainly the cooking and running parts. Cooking and running are both hobbies of mine. I am obviously much older than Kim and much less hip than she is, but reading Kim's blog has made me think about expanding the things that I write about here.

Sometimes when I am running I think about how I would write about the experience - if I were to blog about my running - on this page. I have come up with actual tag lines and story ideas before reminding myself that I don't blog about anything but the children. And then I think that maybe I should rethink that? As much as I love writing about Amelia and John - they are really the highlights of my whole existence - I could probably use another creative outlet for my energy with respect to other stuff that I enjoy. So I have decided to experiment with expanding my discussion here to other topics, mainly running and cooking, besides the kids of course, because that is what I am made of these days.

Today was about the seventh week of running in my training for a full marathon. After having run eight half marathons in the past three years, I have decided to try and push myself to run a full. Of course, many have done this successfully before me (My lovely cousins Kim and Kelly - you are my heroes for your wonderful story about running Erie last week!), but this is my first full-fledged attempt at running more than 13.2. I joined a local training group for the benefit of having support during Saturday long runs and during the week I train on my own. So far this has worked well. Today was another good group run.

We did 13 miles this morning, which was somewhat comfortable given my experience with half-marathon races. Not to say that it was easy - NO WAY, IT WAS STILL TOUGH! - but during every single minute I felt like I could finish and that the distance was an achievable goal. I actually am coming to enjoy how my legs ache and I feel tired several hours after finishing the Saturday long runs, strange as that sounds.I hope that I am this optimistic when we are running 18/20/22 miles on a given Saturday, which will happen in the next few weeks as we get into October. But for now, having finished 13 OK, when it is 75 degrees outside with 80 % humidity, I can take it. I can't wait for cooler weather - long-sleeves, what's that?!? - and I hope that my performance improves accordingly.

Fridays (day before long run) and Sundays (day after long run) are my off days, so I can look forward to sleeping in as long as my body will allow tomorrow. Historically, and sadly, this has been no more than 7 a.m. since having children and getting up early to run, but that's OK. Tomorrow promises a special treat, hopefully a call from John about the new baby. Laura is scheduled for a C-section early Sunday morning. Thoughts and prayers going out to her tonight! I can't wait to hear about my new niece/nephew in the morning!

Horseplay

I have a pair of goofy kids. Some of our best family moments occur when Amelia and John are playing nicely together, using their imaginations to come up with whatever games are amusing to them at the time. I don't have a benchmark for comparison with other siblings, but I would say that for the most part they play quite well together most of the time. Some of their games are a hoot to listen to, such as dog/master, teacher/student, and zookeepers. I enjoy overhearing their banter as I cook in the kitchen or get chores done around the house.

I tried to take photos during such playtime this weekend, but they didn't turn out as well as the game was played. Amelia and John spread a bunch of quilts all over the living room floor, and then arranged their stuffed animals strategically around them and pretended to play zookeeper. It was cute - they categorized the animals by type (as if in cages, I suppose), and took turns feeding them.

And then because there were quilts all across the wood floor, the game turned into a hyper-crazy wrestling match (which has nothing at all to do with zookeppers). This was cute for, oh - about a minute, until I interfered because I feared a forehead or other semi-delicate body part getting smashed against the hard floor. I tried to calm the kids down by taking pictures of them in goofy poses. Below you can see the excitement/crazy look all over Amelia's face as I tried to catch her in action.

Then I suggested that the kids sit together and mimic the pose in one of my favorite photos of all time (see below). This was taken in October 2007, when Amelia was 4 years, 3 months and John was 1 1/2 years old. I snapped it randomly one evening after the kids had their bath and were getting ready for bed.
Now of course the kids are too big to sit on the floor in front of the couch (as in the photo above) for me to capture the photo that way with the placement of the living room wall and the furniture, so I told them to sit in the same pose on the couch together. Of course, this led to extreme tickling and one jumping in the lap of the other, and well, you can just tell how successful my attempt was by checking out the shot below.


But at least they were smiling and having fun, which is what counts I suppose.

I had more success with John smiling later that evening as I captured him modeling some of his new fall clothes. I took the kids fall clothing shopping on Sunday afternoon (I was inspired by the 95 degree weather outside, ha ha) and ever since they have both been obsessed with wearing sweatshirts and sweaters around the house. It's crazy. Check out John's lovely furry crocs. He loves them. The pants are his lovely superhero pajamas and are not meant to be worn outside the house.

And last but not least, we all enjoyed a brief visit witih mom and dad as they stopped by for one night on their way home from Jackson. I made everyone pose in front of the Fit since their RV was parked in an area RV park. We all had fun visiting together, being entertained by the kids (of course), and we even made it over to SMU for awhile to watch the tailgating action before Saturday night's home game. Mom and dad enjoyed watching the SMU sorority girls parade around the boulevard in their sundresses and cowboy boots.

Mom and dad left Sunday morning and were planning to arrive back in Gainesville sometime Wednesday. Their goal was to arrive a few days before Friday, which is a big day for our family as we look forward to welcoming the new addition to John and Laura's family. I am so excited for John, Laura, and Jack and cannot wait to become an aunt again! Amelia suggested the names Lydia and Chris, and John suggested Ella or Max. We'll see!