It is a beautiful, crisp, fall day here in San Antonio.

Just one of the many things I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Another, of course, being that I’ll be on this in 72 hours:

The kids officially know.

We gave them each an envelope. One had a picture of the cruise ship and the other had a picture of Mickey Mouse. We told them these were clues to how we would be spending the next week.

They are definitely excited but I think its mostly because I told them they didn’t have to go to school next week. O, well.

I’ve just about prepared everything for dinner tonight with our Air Force cadets. I’m hoping to catch at least 4 hours of sleep today before I need to get up and finish packing and making dinner.

And-as a side note-I’m totally bummed I’m not able to go shopping at 3am tomorrow.

That tradition is about as deep rooted in me as canned cranberries…it just doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving without it.

I’m secretly praying for a random sewage backup in the pharmacy today so that it has to be closed tonight and I don’t have to go in!!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving dear friends!

I love them.

But I’m learning more and more every year that it is truly a “love ‘em” or “hate ‘em” kind of deal.

Some of my favorite childhood memories are of Thanksgiving and more specifically-fighting over the end of the can of cranberries with my siblings. There was just something special (or so we believed) about the extra ridges in that slice.

It is a tradition that I have passed on to my kids.

X couldn’t wait to “fight” for the end of the can during our small group Thanksgiving dinner (it was such a proud moment for me…).

Meanwhile, however, certain friends (who I thought I knew) turned their nose up in disgust. It was a very sad moment in our friendship when we realized we didn’t share the same views on jellied cranberries.

Now that I know how strongly people can feel against them I feel compelled to apologize in advance to our Air Force Cadets in case they feel the same way. Not that it will stop me from eating them on Thanksgiving. I’m not sure anything will make that happen.

This is my work week.

Life is calm yet insane at the same time. Calm because there’s no school, no dance, no gymnastics, and no theater classes. Insane because there’s Thanksgiving to prepare for as well as our big vacation.

I got this in the mail today from Angela:

Totally made me smile.

I also got these today that I ordered from Etsy for X’s 8th birthday (I ordered 2 Xs though)! I cannot wait to give them to her!

My friend, Shanna, lent me this book and I’ve been immersing myself in it every free second I have away from the kids. I’m SO excited to go on my first cruise! Lots of little things to do but I’m hoping that once we tell the kids on Thursday that I’ll get it all done faster when I’m not doing it in secret!

More later….

Whoa. That was a spectacular 2 hours and 10 minutes.

After waiting almost a year to see this movie (I read New Moon between Christmas and New Years last year), finally the day had arrived.

Kara and I sported our new TEAM JACOB t-shirts and watched the 4:30 pm showing at the Palladium.

The crowd wasn’t insane just equally passionate about the books/movies.

We ate New Moon sweethearts during the movie.

And our verdict on the movie?

Absolutely positively exceeded all my expectations. In my opinion there was very little they could have done to make it better. They cut out the right amount of stuff and kept to the story line of the book pretty darn well. And the ending….well, (in case you haven’t seen it yet) let’s just say it made everyone scream in the movie theater we were in.

Can’t wait to see it again!

I loved how Mrs. KetchupJars made a post of iPhone photos. I have a bunch of randoms from the past couple weeks that I thought I’d share.

The iPhone doesn’t capture the beauty that E and I witnessed as the sun rose in the sky when we were flying into Houston.

This was the only place I could find a latte near my parents (this was before I discovered the local Bright coffee shop).

My sister, Lori, modeling my Mom’s new furniture.

E saying hello to Aunt Kara in the new pajamas she bought him for his birthday.

X was super excited about this outfit the other day. She came home saying that one of her friends said she looked “goth”. She had no clue what “goth” meant so had to explain it to her.

E has NOT been sleeping well lately. Every night he is up and ready to start his day at 3am. The other night it was exceptionally bad as he threw a fit (by himself) in the kitchen because he wanted french toast sticks and we wouldn’t get out of bed to get them for him. We had finally said he could sleep on our floor but his fits continued to the extent he hit himself at one point, then screamed some more about how he was hurt and we didn’t care enough to get out of bed to help him. He finally fell asleep (in my spot of the bed) after I got up to start getting X ready for school. (He’s naked because he tore his clothes off in anger!)

All I have to say is that 3 is the new 2.

I’ve been trying to take some more pictures of the small little thing in life (like I did last year with the 365 Project). These are a few things from this week.

My Esther bible study. I’m absolutely loving the study and loving the fact that I’m getting through it on a schedule thanks to my “Sweet Destiny” study buddies Kara and Maria.

I bought Ryan and entire CASE of this beer when I found it at Whole Foods. I have one happy husband.

After making at least 1 pot of coffee a day for the past 6 years our coffee pot kicked the bucket. We wasted no time in buying an identical new one.

Pulled one out of the archives this week to refresh my memory before Friday.

Ryan bought me this charm for my (just beginning) charm bracelet. All my current charms are from my dear friend Angela, so I’m thrilled to add one from my hubby.

Spent quite a bit of time preparing the menu for this week and next. Besides having two Thanksgiving dinners in the mix I had to ensure there weren’t too many leftovers because of our upcoming vacation.

Me. Listening to music, walking with stiff legs (still), and enjoying my souvenir marathon shirt.

We had E’s 3rd Birthday party at Pump It Up (back on 11/7/09).

The kids (and adults) had lots of fun.

I, on the other hand, realized I am too tall and uncoordinated to race against Kara in an inflatable obstacle course. My body got bent in directions it should have never bent.

After an hour and a half of bouncing around these kiddos were pooped and ready to eat.

They had some Papa Johns pizza, juice boxes, strawberries & grapes, go-gurts (because it was 10:45 am when we went to go eat-I wasn’t sure if they’d all want pizza), cheese sticks, and goldfish.

As it turns out they all wanted pizza and go-gurts.

E had been wanting this Thomas cake forever. There is one that sits on display at our grocery store and he insists on saying “Hi!” to Thomas every time we’re grocery shopping.

He wasn’t in the mood for pictures.

Ryan completely covered him in Thomas tattoos that morning.

Once he had his birthday cake he didn’t care too much if I was taking pictures of him.

You jut gotta love 3 year old boys.

Finally he got to open some of his “prizes”. Lots of CARS and Thomas stuff…imagine that!

And that’s Maren (who he just loves!) sitting with him in the birthday throne.

On Sunday morning I ran my second half marathon!!

this is the only picture Ryan got of me-I’m taking off my long sleeve shirt that was tied around my waist to hand to him.

I finished in 2:28:11.

Ironically, it is exactly 5 minutes longer than it took me 5 years ago.

It was tough but it was also wonderful. At one point I was sad that I only had my memory to capture certain “pictures” that I wanted to remember. I think I actually contemplated over mile 4 how I could bring a camera and take pictures while I ran.

All my memories revolve around songs that hit me at that moment-so bare with me as I document it all…..

My pace started off way too fast, as I feared it would. It’s really hard not to run with the crowd around you.

I saw Ryan and the kids at mile 2.5 near the Alamo. I had my iPod playing and I love that the song that was on when I saw them was Heart Songs by Weezer.  Thank you, Kara, for that song. It was perfectly motivating at that moment.

At mile 5 was the first “hill”. I saw it coming and was dreading it as my muscles were already screaming at me for not having ran in the previous 10 days. Joss Stone’s Snakes and Ladders was on and I totally felt called out when she sang, “99 and a half just won’t do…you gotta give me all of you”.

I spent a lot of time praying for strength. I had 12 people/things that I was planning to pray for during the course but I found myself getting too emotional and my breathing was getting thrown off so I had to keep my prayers short and sweet.

By mile 10 I was pooped. I was still running but I have no idea how fast because my GPS cut out on me around mile 4. The Cytomax drinks helped but my muscles were hurting!

I nearly laughed out loud when Breaking Benjamin’s Dear Agony came on around mile 11. I was in slight agony, moreover I was angry that it wasn’t going as easy as my long runs in training went.

It’s just hard to find your “happy place” with so many spectators and other runners all around you.

Finally around mile 12.5 I heard my first Eric Hutchinson song (which I had been kinda longing to hear). All I wanted to do was walk but I refused to let myself knowing full well I would regret it later.

The last 1/4 mile was a hill (which really angered me). I barely made it up without walking. At that point, however,  I could see the finish line and I was able to kick it up a notch. Not a lot…just a tiny notch.

When all was said and done I am super glad I did it and will absolutely do it again next year.

Thank you everyone for your support and motivation!

Here’s my last pictures from mine and E’s trip to Indiana to visit my family.

Excited doesn’t begin to describe E’s reaction to seeing Austin. He screamed his name and ran to him as fast as his little legs would take him.

The rest of that first night he wouldn’t let Austin go. Literally. He had a hand on him at all times. During dinner he was just rubbing Austin’s arm (stinkin’ adorable!)

Austin taught him about all kinds of new toys. Here he’s playing with Austin’s Nintendo DS. He also came home with a love for the Rubik’s Cube (which we had to out and buy).

On Thursday night everyone went out to dinner to celebrate Mom’s birthday.

Several things about this picture. First, my sister insisted that my Dad was close to breaking the dress of the restaurant (no shoes, no shirt…) because he insists on leaving his shirt half unbuttoned. Second, I learned I can’t keep my eyes behind the camera all the time when I have E by myself. As you can see, he had a steak knife held up in the air ready to fight someone.

After dinner we headed to my sisters for birthday cake.

There was a debate as to whether or not the flowers on the cake (from Sam’s Club, I believe) was edible. Lori was the only one brave enough to try it. She still couldn’t confirm whether what she ate was actually food.

So backing up to Thursday of last week…

We headed to my Dad’s work to let the boys ride on some equipment. E was most certainly not scared this time around.

Oh my, I do love my wide angle lens.

Not only did they drive it this time but they also got to play in the dirt.

I switched back and forth between my wide angle and my 50mm like a mad-woman. I couldn’t choose between the two so I figured, why not use both?

Austin does not like when Grandpa does this. I’m not sure the picture conveys the true “freaking out” that was going on. I-on the other hand, standing on solid ground-thought it was pretty awesome.

He really liked the idea he was driving this all on his own.

Next they got on the bobcat. Austin decided he would try to outrun them, which quickly became quite the little game.

I caught this as they were zooming past Austin.

They left Austin in the dust quite a bit – you can see his little spec in the back left corner.

Finally, all three of them got on the bulldozer.

Three boys having the time of their lives.