Dance Recital

Katie's dance recital was last night, and I am so glad that it's over and done. Last week was a crazy week in the Thompson household. Katie not only had soccer practice Monday night and her children's choir party on Wednesday but she also had dance rehearsal for 2 hours Monday, Tuesday and Thursday night. Well, last night was the big event and she danced beautifully.

One of the wonderful ministries of our church is the Circle of Praise dance group. Katie has taken ballet and tap at church for the past 3 years. I never have to worry about what type of music she's dancing to or what type of dances she may be learning. The teachers that she has have taught her that she can use dance as a way to worship Jesus. Here are some of the pictures from the dance recital.

Jeremy wasn't able to make it to the dance rectial because his grandfather passed away on Wednesday morning. Before the recital Katie told me that she was going to be dancing for Jesus and for great granddad. I'm sure God let him look down from heaven to see his great granddaughter dance.

Squirrels Are Proud of Their Nuts

We have two squirrels that live in one of the trees right outside of our family room. They are constantly chasing each other from tree to tree. I think the male squirrel is looking for a little tail. After all, it is springtime.

These two squirrels are the only two squirrels that we have ever seen eat hanging upside down. I think the male squirrel is just trying to impress her with his nuts.

The male squirrel proudly displaying his "tenders".

Easter Pictures

Here are just a few pictures from Easter.

Dyeing Easter Eggs.....

I'm not even going to comment on this one.

Katie in one of the services leading up to Easter. One of her dance teachers asked her to be one of the children dancing in the streets.

Resurrection Cookies

Katie and I decided to take Angela's challenge and come up with something special to do for Easter. We have dyed Easter eggs for the past several years, and this year I decided to do something a little different with Katie. I wanted it to be something special where we could talk about the Easter story as we worked together on a project. So, we decided to make some Resurrection cookies.

First I had Katie beat some pecans with a wooden spoon. We talked about how Jesus was arrested and beaten by the soldiers.
Here Katie is smelling the vinegar. The vinegar represents what Jesus was given to drink as he was dying on the cross.

Next, we added some egg whites to the vinegar. The eggs represnt life, and we talked about how Jesus gave His life for us.

I then sprinkled some salt into Katie's hand and let her taste it. She didn't think it tasted very good. But the salt represents the salty tears that were shed by Jesus' followers.

We then added a cup of sugar to our unappetizing concoction. We talked about how the sweetest part of the whole story is that Jesus loved us so much that He died on the cross for our sins.

Here Katie is beating all of the ingredients together. We then talked about how the color white represents purity, and that Jesus forgives us of all our sins and washes us white as snow.

Next, we added the pecans.

We dropped the "cookies" onto a cookie sheet. Each mound represents the tomb where Jesus' body was laid.

We then sealed the "tomb".

The next morning this is what we had.....

We broke the cookies open, and they were hollow inside. We talked about how Jesus' body was placed in the tomb, but 3 days later he rose from the dead. The cookies represent the empty tomb.

Thanks for the challenge Angela. Katie, Jeremy and I had fun making our resurrection cookies. It was a good learning/teaching experience for Katie. The cookies are edible, but I wouldn't want to eat more than a couple of bites of one. They are pretty sweet.

A Special Thanks

I just want to say thank you to all my family and friends who prayed for me on Sunday. I couldn't have run the marathon without your prayers--especially with the weather conditions the way they were. I give all the glory and honor to God. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could run the marathon as fast as I did.

There were several times I cried out to Jesus to help me make it. The wind was so strong and it was so chilly. I hit the "wall" at mile 21, and if I wasn't as determined as I am I may very well have started walking. But I kept on going....by mile 23 I knew I was going to make it....and at mile 25 I got my second wind and flew up Dickson and back up onto the square. When I turned that corner on the square and saw the clock ticking at 3:52 I nearly lost it. I had no idea how long I had been running. I didn't check my time throughout the race because I didn't want to get discouraged if I wasn't doing as well as I thought I should be. I flew the rest of the way to the finish line. It was one of the most exhilirating experiences of my life. And, yes there is such a thing as a runner's "high." Unless you love to run there's no way to describe the feeling of euphoria that I felt after the race was over. It's indescribable.

Thank you to Jill, my girl, who showed up about halfway through the race to help cheer me on. She even brought me Starburst jellybeans--which I absolutely LOVE. And Jeremy and Katie were absolutely amazing throughout the race. I think I've made them proud. On Sunday after we got home Katie came up to me and gave me a big hug and said, "Mommy, I'm so proud of you. You were awesome today." I'm hoping someday we may be able to run a race together.

I don't know when the next race will be, but I'm certain I will do another marathon. Are there any runners out there who want to join me?????

KICKIN' BOOTIE AND TAKIN' NAMES

Greetings from a special guest blooger. The pleasure is all yours.

For those of you who know my wife, you already understand that she likes to run. When I say "likes to run," I don't mean just taking a nice leisurely jog on a sunny day, I mean crazy-long-death-march-type distance running that any normal person would classify as insane. She is quite infatuated with it. Thanks to some other freaks at her office, she became interested in marathons several years ago. 2 years ago, she ran the Hogeye half marathon and did quite well. Last year, she planned to run the full Hogeye marathon but ended up getting injured and couldn't run the race. So, most of 2009 she's been training for the Hogeye marathon in the spring.

Well, today was the big day. A perfect day for a nice run in hilly Fayetteville: cloudy, 40 degrees, 25 mph wind gusts, and a 7:30 AM starting time. Why on earth don't more people have running outdoors as a hobby? To give you an idea of how jacked up Michelle was about the race, she peed a total of 6 times in the hour and a half before the race. 5 of these times were in actual restroom facilities - trust me, you don't want to hear any details about the 6th...

Katie and I were there at the start of the race to see Michelle off on her journey. As soon as she ran past us, we elbowed our way past a few of the marthon stragglers and hurried to the car. There were 2 main reasons for this: (1) it was freaking cold out there and only a full retard would be taking part in anything that required them to be outdoors and (2) Katie and I were headed to the donut shop. You know what they say, "If you can't beat them, join...." no, that doesn't apply. Anyway, I was hungry.

Several pounds of dough later, Katie and I drove to our first predetermined "cheer and refueling" location. My wonderful wife had been kind enough to tell me exact locations on the route to meet her with exact snacks. I had a list of snacks with corresponding locations marked on a map. Outstanding.

Now, I knew that during Michelle's training she had averaged about 10 minute miles, so I planned to meet her a little early at the 9 mile mark (or, as I like to call it, "Nav Point Alpha"). Well, Michelle was really getting after it and we ended up driving past her on our way to Nav Point Alpha. ABORT MISSION!! ABORT MISSION!! One illegal U-turn, several disgruntled marathon runners, and many single-finger salutes later, Katie and I popped green smoke at Nav-Point-Delta, our back-up rendezvous point for the first cheering and refueling operation.

After this initial mishap, Katie and I got our act together and completed several more cheering and refueling operations along the route.

Here are a few recon photos from the successful mission:

Michelle about to insult this dude's manhood when she passes him.

Michelle getting after it.

Michelle about to cross the finish line.

Did I mention the race was in Fayetteville?

Today, Michelle ran the Hogeye Marathon (26.2 miles) in 3 hours, 53 minutes, and 7 seconds. For all of you non-engineers who can't do the math in your head, she was running each mile in an average of 8.9 minutes. This really is an impressive pace and a terrific time. She finished 2nd overall among the women in her first ever marathon.

Baby, you're awesome and I'm so proud of you. Congratulations on the completion of one of your dreams. You didn't just finish a marathon or just run a marathon, you were kickin' bootie and takin' names. I love you and thank you for not making me run it with you.

Tomorrow's The Big Day

Race day.....tomorrow....7:30 a.m. Weather right now is looking like it's going to be somewhere between 35 to 45 degrees with gusty winds. The temperature is okay.....wind gusts, not so good. I'm praying for God to calm those winds until after I'm done running the marathon. He's done it before, and I know He can do it again if He wants to.

I'm nervous, excited, and ready to get going. I've got my ipod loaded, and my running shoes ready. The only thing I have left to do is pack some snacks to have Jeremy and Katie hand off to me at various points through the race so I can keep my energy up.

I can't believe the race is tomorrow. It's finally crept up on me. I was devastated last year when I wasn't able to run the marathon after I injured my IT band. But I must say I was partly to blame for that. It started bothering me about 2 miles into a 16 mile run. Did I listen to my body and stop.....NO. Me, having that OCD personality that I do, I ran the entire 16 miles in excruciating pain which resulted in me having to make several trips to the chiropractor and my wonderful sports massage therapist. And I couldn't run for about 6 weeks....not good. So, I was a lot more careful training this time around. I have suffered through major chafing of various areas of my body, losing a toenail to runner's toe, sore feet and back pain at times but other than that it's been a pretty easy time of training.

We'll see if the training has paid off tomorrow. I couldn't have done it without Jeremy and Katie's support. They've cheered me on and encouraged me the whole time. My wonderful husband has given me so many foot rubs and back rubs in the last two months. Hopefully, tomorrow he'll make it to the finish line in time to see me accomplish one of my dreams. When I ran the half marathon I ran it a lot faster than expected. He didn't make it to the finish line until about 10 minutes after I'd crossed. I hope he's there this time.....I love you, sweetie.