hallelujah! i love him so

i've made a ton of mistakes in my life. in fact, i choose the wrong a lot. lucky for me, i chose to marry thomas. that was one of the best decisions i've ever made. my dad made it pretty clear from the first time he met thomas that i was to "not mess this up."

at our wedding luncheon(one of the other really good decisions i've ever made was to have our wedding luncheon before we got married. we all had nice full tummies at the temple.)

coming out of the temple(with full stomachs)

“There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young [men and women] who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and [beautiful] wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear the divorce courts are jammed. …

“Anyone who imagines that bliss [in marriage] is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.

“[The fact is] most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …

“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.

“The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride” Jenkins Lloyd Jones

mutual toleration has been key for our marriage. just this past christmas thomas suggested that he get me a "flatulence blanket" implying that i have some sort of problem. it took a lot of toleration to not smack him in the face. at the same time, i know he tolerates plenty of well-intended but annoying things i do. i'm sure there is a list somewhere. i've never seen it.

and then we have our super-in-love times too. this is one of my favorite pictures. thomas and i both got as sick as chihuahuas during a trip to mexico. i was about 13 weeks pregnant with scarlett and montezuma had gotten his revenge on me(best diet of my life). poor thomas had gotten pretty sick too. the two of us were pretty pathetic pair. but betweeen bouts of unconciousness and him holding my hair back numerous times a day, i had the best time with him. few things a more romantic that swigs of pepto bismol and watching mexican telenovelas. to paraphrase the immortal words of saint tom cruise, "he completes me."

and this is what i sound like when i sing to thomas:



from this to this

in a week we went from this:

 buzz lightyear biking around our neighborhood skate park.

to this:

thanks to christmas break, snow cancellations and martin luther king holiday, the our district has been out of session for 26 of the last 31 days. AWESOME! the kids couldn't be happier, my naturally good attitude was strained and even thomas had to work from home two days this week. newsflash! there are NO snowplows in south carolina. or there may be A snowplow somewhere, but it was sure as heck nowhere near us. we just had to wait for the sun to melt our little region. just like the pioneers! and we were so depleted of groceries that i even resorted to MAKING my own syrup on the stove. you can start calling thomas, uncle jemima.

and the kids loved playing in the snow. it was baffling. i even threw snow in their mittens and at their necks so they would want to come inside and they still persisted in rolling around.

in other news:

my goal for the last couple of years is to always be ready to run a half-marathon. i told thomas about 2 weeks ago that i was interested in running a half-marathon. on january 8th. even though i had let my training was sketchy. but i persisted and tried to throw in a few long runs in that 2 week period. the most important part of my preparation or non-training was downloading a bunch of new music, none of which popped up on shuffle during the duration of the run. of course. my only goal was to finish and to never stop running. even if it got super ugly. and it did. frozen snot kind of ugly. 25 degrees at the start of the race. i had to run with a jacket on the whole time(which i really loathe) but i finished. and i finished strong. my time was 2:07 something. unfortunately, there was only lemon lime gatorade at the finish line. which is a slap in the face if you ask me. but i placed 3rd in my age group. and if i had stuck around for the awards ceremony, i would have gotten a little trophy. and if i had picked up that little trophy, i would have welded it to the hood of my car and driven around to everyone that i know and i would have parked in their driveways and laid on the horn until everyone would have noticed my little trophy. instead, the whole fam damily and i went to chipotle and got burrito bowls. with no cheese they are only 640 calories. which isn't that great, but i had just run a half-marathon.

i did get a medal. boom.