Babbling Brooke

Phil was Right.....

2012-02-06T15:18:00.006-06:00

Six more weeks of winter indeed....

Yes, you're looking at over a foot of snow there, folks. After months of what I had anointed as "The Best Winter EVER", the time to pay the piper finally arrived and mother nature dumped all the snow she had been saving up all these months in one 24 hour period. Below is a picture of poor Greg trying to muscle through the mess. I think this storm may have changed his feelings about buying a snow-blower. Oh, who am I kidding. We'll be shoveling for the rest of our lives.

Ben and I decided to make the most of all this white stuff, but it was kind of difficult for the little guy to get around...

Yes, there was a lot of falling down going on. But what do you expect when you're wading around in snow that covers a third of your body?!? He also would stop and yell "Help....stuck!" Poor kid. He seemed to have fun regardless. I think he may have eaten his weight in snow.

See what I mean? I have approximately 12 more pictures just like this, but I think you get the idea. The kid loves to eat snow. But how can you argue with a smile like this....

Then we came inside for some hot cocoa with marshmallows. This was Ben's first experience with hot cocoa and he was VERY excited. Here he is patiently waiting for it to be ready....

I guess snow isn't that bad after all :-)

Brooke

Now...Where Were We??

2012-01-19T09:32:00.006-06:00

Oh yes, I was playing the part of the blogging slacker and you were the annoyed reader :-)

Hope you all had a great holiday season. Ours was great. Actually, it was one of the best we've had in a while. I'm not even sure why, I just felt so relaxed and calm and happy during all of it....and I can't even remember the last time I felt that way during the holidays. Usually I'm completely stressed out. It was so nice to really enjoy it this year. It probably also helps that the weather this winter has been AMAZING!!! I know it's supposedly global warming and that's a bad thing blah, blah, blah. But when the average temps this time of year are normally around freezing and this year the entire month of January has been between 45 and 60 (until today....it's currently 7...I'm wearing my coat and scarf right now...in the house.) it's pretty hard to complain.

Here is a nice little family pic from Christmas..

Hmm, let's see, what else is new. Oh, we have a new niece!! Greg's brother Matt and our sister-in-law Kelly had their second child in late December. Her name is Mallory (love that name). We were hoping Kelly would have her when we were home visiting, but we just missed it by a few days. I can't wait to meet her. The pictures of her are so precious!!

The whole new year's resolution hoopla has begun around here. I have several resolutions, some of which I'm doing well on and others not so much. I decided to give up all soft drinks...even diet. I used to drink 1-2 Coke Zeros a day, so I've started brewing a pitcher of green tea every couple of days and just drink iced green tea instead of soda. I've done fairly well. I've cheated a couple of times, but for the most part, I'm off the sauce (cola).

I'm also cooking a lot more....meaning I don't just microwave things or get them out of a can :-) This one I go in waves on. I'll cook up a storm for a few days in a row, but then I just get so tired of it. When I'm on a cooking spree, I wind up feeing like my whole existence is spent cooking or cleaning up the mess I made from cooking. I bought a grain mill too, so I've been grinding my own wheat flour. I made blueberry pancakes from scratch last weekend with my freshly milled wheat flour. The pancakes were delicious if I do say so myself :-) I've also been making daily smoothies. I have an app on my phone with a bunch of healthy smoothie recipies. Very yummy. Ben loves them too.

My other main resolution is to get back to attending church on a regular basis again. We went a long period of time where we just weren't going at all. This is partially due to getting a new pastor (we loved our old pastor) and partly because Ben would throw such a fit in his Sunday school class that it became super stressful to go. Anyway, we need to start going again.

Ben turned 3 last month!!! I can't believe he is 3. He is really growing and developing so quickly now. He has made leaps and bounds with his speech and is really becoming a big boy. His speech therapist is thrilled with how much he is progressing. Also, he can go to the bathroom all by himself now (except #2...we're still struggling a bit with that). He goes to daycare once a week and doesn't even cry when I drop him off anymore. We also have a weekly playdate with a couple of ladies from my MOPS group. So things are really going well with Mr. Ben.

I'll be doing the Lincoln half-marathon again this year. I'm excited because I didn't get to do it last year because I was out of town. The race keeps getting bigger and bigger every year. The first year I did it, the cap was 6500 runners, then they raised it to 8,000, then to 10,000 and it kept selling out every year. This year, it sold out within a couple of weeks. Crazy!!! I'm glad I signed up right away! It looks like they will have to raise the cap again next year. I love how active this community is. Lincoln only has a population of 250,000 and the fact that the marathon consistently sells out says a lot.

And last but certainly not least.....My brother came home from Afghanistan in September!!!!!! We went back for his welcome home celebration and it was wonderful. We are all so incredibly proud of him and grateful for service to our country. But most of all, we are so glad he is finally home!!! Love you Jimmy!

Brooke

Road Trip

2011-08-26T13:33:00.004-05:00

Hello! Well, we survived a fairly lengthy trip back to good old Illinois to visit both our families. We've actually been back for over a week now, but it has taken us awhile to get back into the swing of things. We were gone for 8 days (that is counting travel days...we drove), which I think was about 3 days too many for Ben. His mood steadily declined over the last few days of the trip and hadn't improved much since we'd been home.....until today. Today he is at least becoming recognizable as the child I know. I love him with all my heart but the last several days have been very, very rough. Hopefully we've turned a corner and Ben will be back to his old self soon. Although stress-inducing at times, it was soooo nice to be back home. We were able to enjoy the company of family and friends which is always a blessing!

Here are some pics:

I love this picture of Ben and his cousin, Ava....

Ava, My Sis-in-Law Nathalie, Me and Ben....and a deer head:

Ava and Ben celebrating Ava's 5th birthday:

Another pic of us with Nat and Ava:

I love this one of Ben. He looks so grown up!

Another one of the four of us....plus Greg:

Ben with cousin Reagan:

And my personal favorite....Ben swimming at Grandma and Grandpa Reynolds' house. He LOVED it even though the water was freezing (only 78 degrees at one point). His little mouth was chattering like crazy, but he still had a great time.

In other news, we celebrated the one year anniversary of the day Ben's adoption became 100% complete. We bought him a little play kitchen as a gift to celebrate the day. Whenever he goes to the speech pathologist, he always plays with the toy kitchen they have, so I figured he would enjoy one here at home. It was a BIG hit. Poor Greg had to assemble it though. I had no idea it would be in so many tiny pieces. It took him a couple of hours to get it together, but I know Ben appreciates it :-)

It is finally cooler around here today. The weather in Illinois was nice and cool the entire time we were there, so I was hopeful that when we returned to Nebraska, it would be the same way. I was wrong. It has been wretchedly humid and still above normal temps for the past week. Today, however, has been beautiful!! We went to the outdoor mall this morning and it was in the mid-70's!!! I actually wore jeans. It was magical. Although the days have been hot (with the exception of today), the evening temps are starting to back off a little and I can even detect the tiniest hint of fall in the evening air. I love when that starts to happen. The "creeping in" of fall is one of my favorite things about living in the midwest. For me, fall has always stirred up something in me that makes me feel like anything is possible. I know it's weird, but it happens every year. I think it's because this is the time of year that school starts and I was always one of those kids who looked forward to a new school year; a new year of adventures and endless possibilities. I guess this time of year just takes me back there for awhile. It's a nice feeling.

I hope, wherever you are, you're feeling nice too :-)

Brooke

Fridays are for Lists

2011-08-05T13:50:00.002-05:00

I read several different blogs a few times a week and it seems like the majority of them do some kind of list on Friday. I enjoy those lists, so I think I'll do my own today. And if you know me at all, you will not be surprised that this list is going to be completely random and probably weird....

1) I miss running outside. I hate that if I attempt an outdoor run these days, I'll either drop dead from heat stroke or just spontaneously combust. Neither sounds pleasant. So I run on the "dreadmill". Blech! I think I'm ready for fall....and it's only early August.

2) Greg claims he saw Adam Levine from Maroon 5 at the golf course last Friday. I kind of believe him because A) One of the other members of the group is from Lincoln and B) Greg is really good at spotting celebrities. All of the celebrity sightings we've had in Vegas have happened because Greg has pointed them out (except for one....I believe it was either me or Mike that spotted Loni Anderson...and she looked exactly the same as she did on WKRP in Cinncinati).

Apparently, Greg and his buddy, Rick, were at the course's snack cart ordering a hot dog when Rick's cell phone started ringing. His ring tone is "You're the Best Around" from The Karate Kid (awesome, by the way) and the alleged Mr. Levine thought it was funny....that is how he caught Greg's attention. And since he and Greg both ordered a hot dog, Greg now likes to refer to the time "when he had a hot dog with Adam Levine from Maroon 5".

3) I'm so stinking ready for my brother to be back from Afghanistan. I miss him. Less than two more months to go....thank God!!

4) The SuperTarget we shop at is right by our church. I took Ben this morning so we could get some grocery shopping done and he started crying when we pulled into the Target parking lot. Apparently, he thought we were going to church (VBS was last week). Hopefully his new found love of church carries through to this weekend when we attempt to go as a family again...fingers crossed.

5) I had jury duty early this week. It was my first time ever serving. DUI case. Some of it was interesting and some of it was mind-numbingly boring. I took some political science classes in college for the fun of it (my major was psychology, but I found poli sci very interesting). At the time, I thought being a trial lawyer would be fun. Let's just say I no longer feel that way after completing jury duty.

6) I recently discovered why I had such a hard time with algebra but such an easy time with geometry in high school. I was reading something (can't remember where or what) that said algebra and geometry require the use of opposite hemispheres of the brain. I did a little more research on it because I am a nerd.....according to Google, algebra is a "left-brained" activity (the left hemisphere of the brain directs the cognitive processes of logic, symbols and language) while geometry is a "right-brained" activity (the right hemisphere deals with creative, spatial and musical processing). I am definitely more of a "right-brained" gal....thus, much better at geometry. Kind of interesting. Or not.

7) I love puppy chow. Not the dog food, but the snack food. I normally don't crave sweets. As far as chocolate or candy or cake or other sweets are concerned....I can take them or leave them. I prefer salt to sweets. Except for the darn puppy chow. I seriously crave the stuff. And if I make it, I'll eat it until I feel sick. I don't get it. Is it because of the presence of the peanut butter?? I adore peanut butter. Greg's brother Mike thinks it's the combination of sweet and a little salty (from the rice chex) that makes it irresistible. I think he may be on to something.

8) I really want to do a marathon. A full one. My original goal was to do this in 2012 but I don't think it's going to happen. It takes an enormous amount of time to train and I don't want to be away from Greg and Ben that much. Maybe when Ben starts pre-school in a couple of years.....

9) My dad bought me a couple of tomato plants while Greg and I were in Vegas and he and my mom were here watching Ben. Can I just say that I am PUMPED about these things!?! I check them every day and so far, there are 2 growing on one plant and 1 on the other. Both of them have several blooms though, so hopefully there will be more coming. I love tomatoes. LOVE them. I would love to have a full blown garden, but our yard is way too small for that. Maybe some day!!

10) I think I'm too wordy for lists.

Have a great weekend!

Brooke

A Hodgepodge, If You Will....

2011-07-26T12:55:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! Long time, no post..... I know. I can't believe it's almost August. As usual, summer is flying by. The past few weeks have basically been spent trying to find things to do that don't involve baking my 2 year old in the stifling heat. We've been going on a 3 mile walk (Ben rides in his stroller) in the early mornings before it gets too hot. Unfortunately, our definition "too hot" has been pushing some serious limits lately. When it's already 88 degrees at 8:00am, it doesn't leave a whole lot of time to do much of anything outside, so we've been spending a lot of time at the children's museum.

Ben and I have also been going to VBS at our church the past couple of nights. I'll admit I was very nervous how it would play out. The last few group activities I have tried with Ben have not gone well, but it appears we have turned a corner! I'm sure it helped that I was volunteering in his room, but Ben had a GREAT time! When we got to the toddler room, he took off and immediately started playing right along with the other kids. And it is all he has been talking about at home. I am beyond thrilled that he is finally getting comfortable in big group settings.

There was only one problem the first night with a little girl who basically "attacked" Ben. I sensed something was going on when I passed by the area where she and Ben were playing and I thought I saw her push him down and then he stood up and said "No, no!!", but I didn't say anything....just figured it was normal toddler stuff. Then a few minutes later, she was ramming his head into the wall. By the time I got over there to break it up, Ben was sobbing and just starting to get his footing when she pushed him HARD into a big pile of toys. I know kids get into little scuffles at this age...and I know it often gets physical (trust me, Ben has his done his fair share of hitting), but this was ridiculous. So, I picked him up and told her "we don't push our friends and we need to keep our hands to ourselves". She redeemed herself last night though when she walked up to Ben and gave him a big hug and a kiss. As soon as she did that, Ben looked at her with this hilarious, confused expression like "Make up your mind, girl!". Toddlers are a fickle bunch, aren't they? :-)

Ben has also been seeing a private speech pathologist lately. The last couple of SP's we consulted were through the public school system and both said they had no concerns with this speech and were sure he would be speaking in phrases "any day now". Well, after waiting several months for this to happen, we finally decided it was time to see a private SP. When she first evaluated him, she said she never had a case like Ben's before. His vocabulary is actually quite large and she was impressed by some of the words he was using. He just isn't putting them together in phrases yet. He will say a few two-word phrases, but not many. And we usually have to prompt him to do it. She said she definitely didn't see it as a long-lasting language delay, but rather a little "bump in the road" he needs help getting over. She is really good with Ben, and he just loves her. He is already making some progress, so hopefully this is what he needs to move forward.

Other than that, not much going on around here. Just trying to beat the heat like everyone else. We had that stellar week of temps right around 100 with the crazy 110-115 degree heat indexes. Now we've been back in the mid-90's (close to normal for this time of year around here) and it looks like we'll stay there for at least another week or so. You know it's been hot when the 90's feel cool. I went on a run outside a couple of nights ago for the first time in a while. It was 93 out and I couldn't believe how nice it felt. Pitiful.

Anyway, here are some pics of what Ben has been doing to keep it cool....

He's trying to drink the water from his sprinkler in the pic above :-)

And one last shot with his potty in the background :-). By the way, potty training has been going really well. We still don't have #2 down, but he goes several days in a row without having any accidents with #1. He'll have the occasional accident, but they are becoming fewer and farther between. Yay, Ben!!!

Have a great rest of the week!!

Brooke

Two Words: Potty. Training.

2011-06-28T14:49:00.004-05:00

Greetings from the trenches. Yes, we are in the midst of serious potty training. And all I have to say is Oh. My. Word. We started exactly one week ago and I have never felt so exhausted by the end of the day as I have this past week. I feel like I'm either helping Ben get on the potty, asking him if he needs to go to the potty or cleaning up "potty" at all times. To be fair, he has done really well. He was already familiar with the potty because we've been having him go every morning and evening on it for a few months now. I wanted to wait to start serious training once he turned 2 1/2 though.

He actually had a completely accident-free day just a couple of days ago. But, today.....oh today.....he pooped on the floor. Thank the Lord it was on the wood floor in our kitchen. I'm not even going to try to explain the sequence of events that lead up to this. It would take too long. Let's just hope it never happens again. Because if it does, I may be throwing in the towel on potty training for awhile. The funny thing is, if we're out and about, he is able to hold it and not have an accident (within a reasonable amount of time of course). But if we're at home, I swear he has to go every 10 minutes. Actually, all but one of his accidents have been while we're at home. So, my goal now is to get him fed shortly after he wakes up and then quickly get out of the house!!! Too bad we've had waaaay too many of these lately.....

That is a picture of one SERIOUS thunderstorm we had a few days ago. That is what the sky right above our house looked like at approximately 6:00pm. Not friendly. It has been thunderstorm central around here lately. That definitely puts a damper on getting out of the house. We've had a couple of sunny days in row now though so hopefully we'll get a few more.

Also, I totally meant to do a Father's Day post several days ago, but I didn't get it started fast enough and then there was ALL THE POTTYING to contend with and here we are still with no Father's Day post. So, I thought I'd include some pics of the day. Greg decided he wanted us to take Ben to the zoo on Father's Day (such a selfless daddy!) We got there right when it opened and there was hardly anyone there so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Ben trying to determine just how close he would like to get to the peacocks....

Peacocks kind of freak me out. I don't want to make Ben scared of them, but I feel like they would be totally down with pecking Ben in the face if he got too close. I think this stems from my fear of turkeys. I can remember when my parents would take my brother and I to the zoo and they actually had a sign on the turkey cage that read "We Bite Fingers" (I'm not sure which is more pitiful, that sign or the fact that the zoo actually included turkeys as an attraction). Also, it seems like every time I catch an episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos", there is a clip of some kid getting pecked in the face by some blood-thirsty turkey. Peck me once, shame on you, peck me twice shame on me....or something like that. Anywhoo, here are some more pics of our turkey-free day.....

Posing with the stuffed bear in the "Bug Hut". Ben loves the "Bug Hut" because it is teeming with all manner of bees, spiders, hissing cockroaches and other specimen that typically send me running in the opposite direction....

Daddy and Ben posing on the caterpillar outside the butterfly building...

A series of photos showing our big boy climbing from the bottom of the spider web all the way to the top...

Feeding the goats....

And finally, the little man in his new big boy undies....

Right now we have him in training underwear which is severely lacking in style. I can't wait until he gets to wear true big boy undies that have all the fun characters on them. Grandma Reynolds sent him some adorable Thomas the Train undies awhile back and I can't wait for him to be able to wear them!!

Well, that has pretty much been our life over the past couple of weeks. Truly thrilling, I know. Hopefully my next post will not have to include a sentence that has anything to do with poop on the floor.

Have a great day!

Brooke

What Happens in Vegas....

2011-06-14T14:14:00.006-05:00

Happy Father's Day weekend to all you dads out there! Hope you get to spend some quality time with your loved ones!

We returned last Sunday from a week-long trip to Vegas. This was the first time Greg and I had both been away from Ben overnight at the same time. I was really nervous to leave him, even though I knew he would have a great time with my mom and dad. Well, everything went wonderfully, as expected, and Greg and I had a nice, relaxing vacation. We stayed at The Palazzo this time. We've been to Vegas many, many times and have stayed at several hotels on the strip and The Palazzo is hands down the best one we've been to yet. I've stayed at the Bellagio a couple of times and really, really liked it, but it was the room situation at The Palazzo that won me over. Take a look....

The rooms are enormous!! You should see the bathroom! And even though it isn't centrally located on the strip, it is at least on the "nicer" end....although the new City Center at the other end is pretty impressive and has added some much needed shopping options to that end. Greg's brother, Mike, went also and brought a couple of friends, Greg and Kelly. I think we were all in agreement that it's going to be hard to stay elsewhere next time we're in town. Guess we better start saving now....

A pic of Greg and I on our first night there.....

On the balcony of the Fontana Bar in the Bellagio......

I really like the balcony seating at the Fontana. We had to wait a bit to be seated, but it gives you an awesome front row seat to the fountain show. The only downside this time was that the wind was blowing towards us, so we got pretty wet a couple of times. Still worth it though.

Below is a pic of Greg and I outside a restaurant inside the Paris hotel. We all met Greg and Mike's aunt Cindy and uncle Dick and cousin Katie and her adorable daughter, Gianna for dinner after Greg's conferment ceremony (the reason we were in Vegas to begin with). I can't remember the name of the restaurant, but it was a sports bar-type place. Mike's friend Greg ordered a burger and fries and at the bottom of the basket it was served in was a plastic name tag. I'm gonna have to bust out a good old 80's style "grody to the max" on that one. At least he got a free meal....

Greg's aunt Carol and uncle Tom live in Vegas, and they had us all over for a delicious meal one night. We always have such a great time over there. Tom is a great prankster and story-teller and Carol is hilarious. Good times were had by all. I was not very good at taking pictures while we were there though. Here are a few....

Greg and I....
Greg's cousin, Katie, her hubs Brian and daughter, Gianna....

Greg and Mike....
Even though we go to Vegas at least once a year, I rarely gamble. Call me crazy, but it just isn't fun for me to lose $20 in 5 minutes. I spent my time laying out at the pool, people watching, shopping (bought several things at Zara...the only time I get to shop there is when we're in Vegas), eating and sleeping (although we were up almost every morning by 7:00 or 7:30am...what can I say, Ben has us trained well). Greg likes to play poker and black jack, but he really didn't gamble much this time. He even went shopping with me and we picked out a cute pair of Crocs for Ben (he loves shoes). And we got a few Jibbitz to go on them (Boots and Backpack from the show "Dora the Explorer", Nemo the fish, one of the cars from the movie "Cars" and the T-Rex from the movie "Toy Story"). Talk about the hit of the century. Ben LOVES them. He always wants to put them on. When we got back from the trip and gave him the shoes, he ran up and gave hugs and kisses. So sweet. Here are a few pics we took right after we got home....

Ben with Gigi and Grampy. Thanks so much to them for coming here to watch Ben. He had a great time.
Our family of three....

Me, mom (Gigi) and Ben....

Oh, and this is totally unrelated, but Ben has taught himself to do somersaults. And he does them PERFECTLY. We were watching "So You Think You Can Dance" the other night and one of the dancers did a somersault-type move and a few seconds later, Ben was doing them over and over and over. And this morning, he did one off the couch (which about gave me a heart-attack, by the way). The child is fearless....and also quite nimble :-)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Brooke

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2011-06-04T12:53:00.007-05:00

So, I ran a race this morning. The Havelock Charity 10k. It didn't go so well. I had been trying to prepare myself for the probability that I was going to be a bit slower than usual due to the fact that I just haven't been running a whole lot lately. I'm not one of those "natural" runners. I have to work hard at it....and when I don't, it's rough. Today was ROUGH!!! I couldn't blame it on the weather because it was only 70 degrees for most of the race and it wasn't particularly windy. A little humid, but not horrible. Today was the first race I've run where I felt pretty craptastic about how I performed (Hmmmm, I wonder why spell-check is flagging "craptastic".......you mean that's not a word??? :-)) I'll get over it, though. I'm just grateful God has given me health and the ability to run!! Here is a pic taken right before I left for the race. The smile of optimism.....

Here are my stats: Finished 10k (6.2 miles) in 52:19. An 8:26 pace. Placed 336 of 866 overall and 93 of 441 for females. They didn't break it down by age group in this race. I know this doesn't sound particularly bad....and it really isn't. I think my discouragement stems from the way I felt through the entire race....like a big piece of poop. I usually have a lot more energy. I wanted to just give up about 57 times. I walked twice...through the water stations...because I haven't yet mastered the art of drinking from a Dixie cup while running. It always goes straight up my nose. The good part though....I felt GREAT about 10 minutes after the race. Ahhh, the runner's high. It happens whether you do great or not!! Here is a pic taken right after I got home. Greg and Ben were standing at the door to greet me when I walked in. Love my guys!!

Ok, no more obnoxious whining about my race. Summer is in full swing here and we've been outside pretty much ALL day, EVERY day unless it's raining. Ben and I usually hit the park first, then we get out his water table and pool until nap-time. And then it's right back outside to the pool. He LOVES to be in the water. We also go on the occasional bike ride (he rides in the bike trailer). And we've been to the children's zoo 3 times already (we bought a membership, so you can bet we're going to get our money's worth!!) Love, love, love summer!!!!

Oh, and here is some AWESOME news. Ben has officially "graduated" from having to see the endocrinologist. For those who don't know or have forgotten, Ben was born with transient congential hypothyroidism. His birth mom had a thyroid condition that she took meds for. The meds temporarily altered the functioning of Ben's thyroid, so he was on daily medication to balance it out. Well, he has been off the meds for 4 months now. He has been having periodic blood tests in those 4 months to check his thyroid and it has been perfectly normal every time!! So, no more meds and no more endocrinologist!! God is good!!

Finally, I thought I'd include a pic of Ben's fresh haircut courtesy of moi. I was going to show you a before and after, but the "before" is so embarrassing that I can't bring myself to put it on here. At the time, I don't think I realized how long it had gotten but now that it's short again, I can't believe how bad it was. Yikes!! Anyway, it looks better now. When Greg got home, he thought I had taken him to a "professional", so I gave myself a little pat on the back. Yay for free haircuts!!

Happy Saturday!

Brooke

Tales From the Farm, Part 4: In the Name of Love and Popularity

2011-05-20T10:12:00.005-05:00

Well folks, this is it. The last edition of Tales From the Farm. I'm sure you're really disappointed about that ;-) I had fully intended to write about my childhood dog, Pip, in this one....but then I changed my mind and decided to write about some of the unique "challenges" one has to deal with on the farm. Since I'm not writing about Pip, you'll just have to trust me that Pip was A LEGEND. By now, you understand how much crazy went down on our farm. But Pip really upped the ante. I'm sure he's up in canine heaven right now with his wet, stinky, muddy fur, chasing down happy, squealing children and "love-mauling" them. Quite a specimen. Moving on....

In childhood, growing up on a farm is just flat-out fun. I've stated this multiple times. But, as a teenager, things start to get a little tricky. You realize that most other kids didn't grow up like you did and there are times when you feel kind of like a weirdo (which, in my case, is completely accurate). Although I can look back now and get a good laugh at some of the situations I found myself in as a teenager, back then it just wasn't funny....AT. ALL. Allow me to illustrate...

I think it was the summer after my freshman year of high school...so I would have been 15. A girlfriend of mine (my age) and a guy friend of ours (a couple of years older and therefore much cooler) were coming over to pick me up to go to a movie or something. I decided to sit out on our screened-in porch to wait for them. After just a few seconds, I noticed a HORRIFIC stench. I immediately knew it was a dead animal (a well-honed skill from growing up on the farm....impressive, I know) but could not figure out where it was coming from. I went outside and walked around the perimeter of the house, but I didn't see anything. When I went back inside the porch area, however, the smell was noticeably stronger. So, I started looking under and behind all the furniture on the porch but didn't see anything....until I got to a little storage bench that doubled as a seat. There was a suspicious-looking, wadded-up cloth sitting on top of it and it appeared to be moving. When I got up close, I noticed there tiny, white worms crawling on top of it. Some people call those maggots.

I immediately starting freaking out not only because there were maggots....MAGGOTS on our porch, but my friends were going to be there any second and believe me, it was going to be a frosty day in Hades before I was going to let them witness that. I didn't bother to look at what was in the cloth because there was NO WAY I was going to get that close to the maggots. I just needed to get it out of there ASAP. My parents weren't home and my brother was out running around in the woods somewhere with a friend of his, so I was on my own. I decided the only way to get the dead animal off the porch without getting maggots on myself was to drag the entire piece of furniture to the dumpster that was about a tenth of a mile away. And I had to do it FAST.

So, I put on some oven mitts to ensure my skin would never make contact with the maggots and I dragged that bench all the way to the dumpster. Then I ran back to the house as fast as I could to spray air freshener on the porch and perfume on myself. And when my friends showed up, I high-tailed it out to the car before they could even get out. Crisis averted. Barely. Later that night, when I was explaining to my family why the bench was missing, my brother said "Oh yeah, that was a bird that Joey and I shot with my BB gun. I forgot I put it there, sorry." How one forgets where they left their dead animal is beyond me, but then again...I'm not an 11 year old boy.

A few short years later, I met the love of my life (yes, Greg) during the second semester of my sophomore year of college. After the semester ended, I moved back to my mom and dad's house for the summer. Greg lived about an hour away, so we were still able to hang out over the summer. One evening, he was coming over to my mom and dad's house for the first time so I was making sure the house was spotless and that everything looked "normal". After all, we were in a very delicate stage of our relationship. We had been dating for about 6 months, so he knew a lot about me and where/how I grew up, but he hadn't yet experienced the true "crazy" of the farm. Just when I thought the house was acceptable for Greg's viewing, I remembered it.....Kyle the Pig.

Kyle was a concrete statue of a pig that was there to greet visitors at the front door. I could elaborate on why we had such a thing, but really, what's the point? I hated that thing. And don't ask why we named it Kyle, because I have no idea. I begged my parents to move Kyle into the barn so Greg wouldn't see it, but they refused. So I said "Fine, I'll move it myself." They kind of snickered and said "Go ahead", knowing I wouldn't be able to since it was concrete and all. But, folks, where there's a will there's a way. I ROLLED that concrete pig across the yard, all the way to the back of the barn where it couldn't be seen. I was not going to allow my love life to be jeopardized by a concrete pig. End of story. Yes, eventually, Greg was introduced to Kyle and now, after almost 13 years of marriage, he is fully aware of ALL THE CRAZY. I would even say it has rubbed off on him a bit. God bless him.

I have several other stories like these, but the time has come for Tales from the Farm to mosey off into the sunset. It has been fun for me to share these stories with you. I was very blessed to have the childhood I did. And it has been nice to go back there for a while. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did :-)

Have a great week!

Brooke

One Mother of a Weekend

2011-05-09T14:15:00.010-05:00

Hey there! Hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend! Mine was so much fun!! We had beautiful weather all weekend, so we spent most of it outside. Ben was on cloud nine to have both mommy AND daddy playing outside with him at the same time.

On Saturday, we walked to our neighborhood park and spent an hour or so. Then, we came home and Greg did some yard work while Ben "helped". This is code for: Ben put on Greg's gardening gloves and played in the mulch with some digging tools.....and then kept trying to run into the water from the hose when Greg was watering the plants.

Then we brought out the water table which always provides endless entertainment (thanks Gigi and Grampy)....

We decided to have my Mother's Day meal on Saturday night since we knew everything on Sunday would be a mad house. We decided on Chili's (of course). Very delish. Then, I went for an evening run and was quickly reminded that running in 50-something degree weather and 80-something degree weather are NOT the same. I was drenched! But, a run is a run and it felt good!

On Sunday we went back to the park, only we decided to go to a different park that required us to bike there. I have the bike trailer on my bike since I'm the one who uses it with Ben during the day in the spring/summer months. Greg always feels embarrassed when we bike somewhere as a family and I'm the one pulling Ben in the trailer, but it's a hassle to keep changing it back and forth. He got over it real quick when we went out and there were close to 30 mph winds with gusts close to 40. UGH!! The bike trailer acts like parachute of sorts because the front is mesh. Not pleasant. But we had a GREAT time at the park, so it was worth it :-)

Ben and Daddy swinging....

Cooperating with Mom and taking a break to pose for a pic...

Daddy and Ben.....

Going down the twisty "big boy" slide....

Ben growing increasing annoyed with pictures.....

Playing in the tunnel....

It was such a fun weekend. I can't even begin to tell you how blessed I feel to be Ben's mom. And how blessed I am to have such a wonderful mom myself!! AND how blessed I am to have such a loving husband who made sure I had a special Mother's Day!! God is good!!

Here are just a couple more pics of the fun Ben and I have during the day. This first one was a morning where we were just taking a bunch of silly pics. I kept making faces in the pictures and when I would show them to Ben, he would CRACK UP!! I love this one because of his great smile...

And this one was taken after Ben insisted that I wear this "hat" (not really a hat, obviously, but he thinks it is....it's actually a neck massager..) and his spider-man sunglasses. He always gets a kick out of this...

Have a great week everyone! I think I'll be doing my fourth and final installment of "Tales From the Farm" soon. Then I'll have to start thinking of a different fun "series" to do. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat ;-)

Love,

Brooke

Change... Just not the kind I was expecting.....

2011-05-06T13:35:00.008-05:00

Hey all! Hope you're having a wonderful Saturday!!

First of all, I have to talk briefly about my trip to NYC with my best college girlfriends. It was fantastic. I've never been to NYC before and expected to be a little intimidated since it's the biggest city in the U.S. and all, but when I got there, I felt quite comfortable. And after all the sight-seeing we did, I would even go so far as to say I loved it and would totally live there for a couple of years if I could go back in time and do it B.C. (before child). Of course, there's the fact that I would probably have to tie Greg up to get him there and sedate him so he would be unaware of his surroundings for a couple of years. Oh, and I'd also have to be rich because I would prefer to live in Greenwich Village and eat out nightly at the magnificent restaurants they have all over the city. Ummm, and I'd also have to make sure I had proper transportation because me no likey the subway. But other than that, I could TOTALLY live in New York. Did I mention I had a good time? :-) It's actually impossible NOT to have a good time with those girls. Love them. Here are a couple of pics taken at the top of the Empire State Building:

Erin and I....

Emilie and I....

Next topic......change. And this is going to get a little heavy, so be forewarned. If you're looking for a light-hearted, humorous post...you might want to skip this one. It seems like there are two kinds of people in this world: those who are averse to change and those who are addicted to it. I am in the camp of the latter. I love change. I get bored without it. After going through several moves as a result of Greg's job that has taken us literally from one coast to the other and a couple of states in between, I've grown to rely on change. When things become lackluster; when I start to get that uncomfortable itch to just pack up and run....change is there to take my hand and lead me to the next shiny, new destination where a fresh start awaits. Our moves have kept us in one location for only 2 to 3 years tops. Just long enough to start to get the itch. That is, until now. We've been in Lincoln, NE for just over 4 years now and I'm feeling it. Big time.

It's not that I don't love Lincoln because, surprisingly, I do. Greg and I both do. But that pesky "change bug" has gotten the best of me over the last year or so. And I've kind of allowed it to keep me from living life. You see, a few months after Ben joined our family, I started to build this "perfect world" in my mind where we would move back to Bloomington, IL......where many of our family and friends either reside or live within a 75 mile radius of. I envisioned get-togethers with family and friends, play-dates, driving down to my parents house in the middle of the week just to have lunch and chat, having many available baby-sitters ;-) And just when this perfect scenario seemed to be the only thing that would allow me to be "happy", Greg got an interview....in Bloomington. The timing was perfect. I thought, "this has God's hands all over it!". And I knew he would get the job. Except that he didn't. We were both disappointed, but hoped and prayed that another opportunity would present itself. In the meantime, I have been pouring over real estate sites and day-dreaming about the day we will move there and all the fun that will be had.

In recent days, however, I have become bombarded with messages about "living in the present". The message has come through the radio, on blogs I follow, in a daily devotional I read, on T.V. Seriously...it has become a little much. Only now do I finally realize I've been ignoring all the gifts God has given me and, instead, focusing all my time and energy on my idea of what life "should" be. Ignoring that I have our God-given family of three, this beautiful home we live in, this lovely community we are a part of, the fact that I GET to stay home and raise our son, this beautiful LIFE that God has blessed me with. I have stopped living life in the present and opted to resume living again when I get my perfect world scenario. Oh, yeah, I need change. Just not the kind I was hoping for. The change needs to happen in my heart...in my perspective. I am blessed with more than any one person should have. And it's time I started embracing it. Whew, it's nice to say that!

I decided to write about this because I think it's something we all do from time to time. We get it in our heads that we NEED a certain circumstance, or material object or what have you to be happy. And in doing this, we miss out on life. God-given life filled with precious moments we won't ever get back. Let's stop cheating ourselves. We were created to live an abundant life. To slow down and enjoy each moment as it happens. So let's do it!! Who's with me??

Hope you all have a great, fun-filled weekend! And don't worry....my next post will return to it's regularly-scheduled light-heartedness :-)

Brooke

A Very Easter Weekend

2011-04-24T12:37:00.006-05:00

Happy Easter everyone!! I hope you all are having a wonderful day celebrating with family! He is Risen!!!!!! AMEN!!! We have had a fun weekend, even in the midst of all this uber-dreary weather that won't seem to take a hint and a hike.

Yesterday, we went to an Easter party at the home of one of Greg's co-workers. There were a few families there....and all of them had boys. No girls, only boys. I think there were 7 or 8 boys total. Ben was mesmerized by watching all of the "big boys" running around. We were surprised when we showed up to the party to see that they had rented a huge "bouncy house". The boys were having a BLAST as I'm sure you can imagine. They all cleared out of there a couple of times so Ben could go in with Greg and I. Ben wasn't completely sold on it the first time around, but the second time he was just laughing and laughing. Here is a good pic of the action.....

And, of course, no Easter party is complete without an Easter egg hunt. Here is a pic of all the boys (and me) getting ready to find their treasure....

Ben went to one corner where there were several eggs hidden amongst the landscaping. Almost all the eggs he found had a piece of candy AND a quarter!! Greg was pretty excited about the quarters, but I reminded him that they would be placed in Ben's piggy bank and NOT Greg's "slush fund" (aka--Vegas) account. A pic below of Ben examining the loot.

Having fun finding eggs....

"I found one!".....

Quick funny story about the bouncy house....they deflated it half-way through the party (as you can see in the pic below) and Ben stood in front of it, held his hand out at it and said "3-2-1 GO!" like he was trying to re-inflate it. Hilarious.

Mommy and Ben....

And a good one with Daddy.....

This morning was interesting. Ben is still having A LOT of trouble with separation anxiety, so I went to the first morning church service and Greg went to the mid-morning service after I came home. I'm really looking forward to the day when we can start going to church together again. Even so, it was a nice service and I'm glad I got to go.

In non-Easter related news, Ben has pee-peed on the potty a handful of times and is always very excited and proud of himself (as are we) each time he goes. Hopefully he'll start going more and more on the potty so we can bid adios to the diapers.

Also, I have my girls trip to NYC coming up next weekend. I am sooo excited. I'm not so sure Greg is though :-) He's a little nervous about having Ben for 3 days without any help. But I know he'll do great.

Have a blessed Easter everyone!

Love,

Brooke

Tales From the Farm, Part 3: The Contraption

2011-04-13T12:46:00.011-05:00

Thank you for joining me in the third installment of Tales From the Farm. As I mentioned previously, this one won't involve any gruesome goat or cat deaths so please feel free to read further without experiencing nightmares.

Although the farm can provide children with hours of entertainment, there are days when said children get bored and are forced to tap deep into the recesses of their imaginations. What resides in those recesses is usually best left alone. To bring them to the surface and act upon them almost always ends in disaster....as is the case in today's story.

It was summer....the primary season in which childhood boredom reaches a fever pitch. My brother's friend, Chris, was over at our house and the two of them were playing outside. I was sprawled out on the couch watching re-runs of The Monkees (don't judge), when they burst into the house and started pulling my dad's hunting attire and other winter gear out of the closet. I asked what they were doing and they excitedly shared their plan for the day. There was a bee hive across the street in a tree in our aunt and uncle's yard. And apparently, that bee hive needed to be destroyed. So, they hatched a plan to put on layers and layers of winter clothing (complete with boots, gloves and ski masks) and use baseball bats to eradicate the intolerable hive.

I must interject that I am a major animal lover (although I'm not a vegetarian....I know, I'm a hypocrite...so be it). This includes insects...even insects I am terrified of. This is best demonstrated by the time I used a mere newspaper to carry a wolf spider the size of my hand from our bathtub to our yard. I am TERRIFIED of spiders. And that wolf spider could have jumped from that newspaper to my face in about .7 seconds. But I knew that leaving him there would mean certain death so I did what was necessary to spare his measly spider existence. Oh, and my brother and I named him Willis....because every creature deserves a name. I wish I was joking. So, given my love of God's creatures, I was somewhat appalled at the idea of Operation Bee Removal. But I was also strangely intrigued when Jimmy and Chris mentioned they would need a safe place to escape to between hive attacks. Amongst this discussion, the contraption was born.

The contraption was brilliantly simple....Three open umbrellas hooked together at the handles and fanned out to create a shield just large enough for three small bodies: Jimmy, Chris and.....me. Yes, I was put in charge of the contraption (and we actually did name it "the contraption"...that isn't just a catchy title for this post). I took my job very seriously. Just like Jimmy and Chris, I donned layers of winter clothing in the sweltering July heat. I positioned myself on the downward slope of the side of my aunt and uncle's yard....and I waited. The first couple of blows went according to plan. The contraption seemed to be doing its job. And then, it all went horribly, horribly wrong (I know, shocking, right?) First, Chris was hit....a sting right between the eyes. And then, the bees were onto us. They found the contraption and they were NOT happy. We all scattered.

I am as scared of bees as I am of spiders, probably even more so. I was stung numerous times as a kid and I knew how badly it hurt. So, I ran. I ran so fast I felt dizzy. My first hiding place was behind a tree on the other side of the yard. But I could still hear the menacing sound in my ears...BZZZZZZZ. So I took off running again. This time I took refuge in a nearby tractor shed. Again....BZZZZZZZ. And then behind a propane tank....BZZZZZZ. I probably hid in 5 different locations and I was chased by the bees EVERY SINGLE TIME. Finally, I made it back to our house (not sure why I didn't go there to begin with). I no longer heard the buzzing sound, so I felt it was safe to shed the winter clothing and pretend like none of this ever happened. Just as I re-claimed my spot on the couch, I heard it....BZZZZZZZ. One lone bee had managed to follow me into the house and he was banging into the nearby window. I did not feel bad when I put him out of his misery....or rather, my misery.

I'm sure the three of us had a "debriefing" session at some point in which it was decided that Operation Bee Removal was an embarrassing and mildly life-threatening failure. Although we all had regrets, I think we bonded that day. We had set out on a dangerous mission and we had survived. And we learned an important lesson: Don't tangle with bees because they will MESS YOU UP. You won't learn that watching The Monkees.

Toodles,

Brooke

I'm Still Alive....I Think

2011-04-11T16:40:00.004-05:00

Yes, I am a major blogging slacker. Here is my excuse....Greg has been gone for approximately 2.5 weeks on different business and non-business related trips. When Greg is gone, I don't sleep. I have trouble with insomnia when he IS here. But when he's not here, it goes to a whole new level. I have serious trouble falling asleep...and when I finally do, I usually wake up at least once an hour, leaving me with about 4 to 5 hours of broken sleep a night. Over the course of a couple of weeks, it definitely takes its toll. I would make a HORRIBLE single parent. Thank goodness my Mom came to help out last week. She was a Godsend!! Thanks Mom!!

I would love to update you on what we've been doing the past couple of weeks, but I can't really remember as my main goal has simply been to not fall asleep while watching Ben or driving. Oh wait, I do remember one thing. I took Ben to be evaluated by Early Intervention for his speech. I took him once before because he wasn't saying many words yet. Now he says pretty much any single word we give him, but he still isn't putting together two-word phrases. So, I took him back and speech pathologist was actually thrilled at how well he is doing. She had no concerns and said she expects him to start his phrases any day now. I'll take him back if he still hasn't started in a few months. I always have to remind myself that he spent the first year of his life hearing Korean, so speech delays are just going to be a reality and I need to CHILL!

I was also supposed to run a 10k race this past weekend but woke up with a migraine the morning of the race and continued to fight the stupid thing all weekend. I finally got rid of it mid-morning today. Nothing like a 2 1/2 day migraine to spice up your weekend. I was completely worthless. So, needless to say, I did not run my race. I haven't had a migraine in months, so I guess I was due for one. I just wish it would have chosen a different weekend to rumble. I have another 10k this coming weekend. And, wouldn't you know it, it's supposed to SNOW the night before the race. And it's supposed to be 29 degrees the morning of the race. Umm, I'm sorry, I thought this was APRIL not JANUARY!!! Darn you Midwest.....DARN YOU!!!!!

Since a truly have nothing to tell you, I'm going to leave you with a few pictures.....

Ben doing his monster impression because he's wearing monster jammies:

Doing the hand gesture he always does when he says "cheese"...

Me and my boy....

And again....
I promise I'll have more to tell you next time. Sorry for the lame post.

Brooke

It's a Love-Hate Relationship a.k.a My Race Re-cap

2011-03-26T20:13:00.004-05:00

Well, I did indeed run my race today. I know I've mentioned a few times that the weather forecast was miserable and let me tell you...it did not disappoint. It pretty much did exactly what the meteorologists said it would. Why does it seem like they only get the forecast correct when the weather is going to be horrible?? To tell you the truth, as the forecast grew worse and worse with each passing day, I finally got so angry that I told myself I was going to run this race NO MATTER WHAT. A little wind, snow and sub-freezing temps were not going to deter me.

So, I woke up this morning, ate my pre-run breakfast of peanut butter toast and bananas and got all my "gear" on. With each race I run, it seems like I have more and more "stuff". All the clothing, my iPod, my Garmin (watch), my Road ID bracelet (in case I pass out or get trampled by other runners), my sunglasses, my GU (electrolyte gels for long races), a recovery bar for the drive home, a bottle of water, oh and my race bib. Kind of ridiculous, really. In fact, I was so pre-occupied with making sure I had everything I needed that I forgot my phone and my wallet (which contains my license). Nice. Runners are a needy bunch, what can I say.

And speaking of my race bib...this year they put our timing chips on the bibs themselves instead of the usual chip you attach to your shoes. I was kind of excited about this because the shoe chips are a hassle. That is, until I read the dissertation on what you must and must NOT do to ensure the bib chip works appropriately. Such as, make sure the bib chip is not over/under/beside any zippers or other metals. Ummm, do you know any winter racing gear that DOESN'T have a zipper?? I sure don't. Whatever. I tried to keep mine as far away from the THREE zippers that were on my pullover as possible and hoped I wouldn't blow up from all the dangerous zipper/bib chip interaction.....drama.

Here is a pic taken right before I left. No, that is not a spaceship that landed on my chest. Those are the reflectors on my pull-over.....

I'll stop rambling now and get to the actual race. It was FREEZING. I actually kept my winter coat on until the start of the race and then put it on some random bench neaby and hoped it would still be there when I got back (thankfully, it was). There was a small area inside the State Farm building (SF sponsored the race) that they opened up to the runners. People were crammed in there like sardines trying to keep warm. Once the race got started and I was moving, it wasn't so bad.

Luckily, the freezing cold temps had made what would have been mud into nice, hard, dry ground. Otherwise, it would have been a mess. And with almost 800 people packed onto the narrow trail we were on, that would have been a nightmare. The race was pretty uneventful to tell you the truth (I'm sure that is becoming obvious from my incessant blabber about nothing).....until we hit the final 3/4 mile. It was almost all uphill, much of it was into the wind, and the light snow that had been falling for most of the race was now coming down pretty hard and in the form of HUGE flakes that kept falling in my eyes. I had to run a good chunk of the final mile with my eyes closed. I was so glad when it was over.

Ok, time to toot my own horn. I showed that race who was boss. I wanted to finish in 1:25:00 or under (an 8:30 min/mile pace or better). I finished in 1:23:06 (an 8:19 per mile pace). I still can't believe it. I think I just wanted to get out of the cold :-) I placed 249 out of 794 overall, 67 out of 429 females and 8 out of 64 in my age division. Yee haw!!! This is why running is so darn addicting.....there is always room to improve. You can always get faster and gain more endurance. And when you have races where you feel like you really are getting faster....the hook goes in that much deeper. Love it.

My boys had some quality daddy-son time while momma was away. And a mini-photo shoot ensued. Here are a couple of pics.

Doesn't he have the best smile? He has gorgeous teeth. Strangers have actually commented about how pretty his teeth are.

Ok, that's all. Sorry to put you through my tedious running stories. I promise I won't talk about it anymore for awhile. Well, at least until my next race in two weeks :-)

Brooke

Crib Jumper

2011-03-24T08:54:00.003-05:00

Hey there peeps! Ben and I just returned from a wonderful 4 day trip to MTZ/Peoria to visit my family. My brother is on a 2 week leave from Afghanistan and it was beyond great to see him! Now he just has 6 more months to go and he is back for good!!! Praise God!! And my parents had just returned from a 10 day trip to Israel. I loved hearing about the amazing places they saw. The pictures they took were incredible! My mom re-affirmed her baptism in the Jordan River. Wow!!

Ok, so I'm sure you're wondering about the title of this post. Here goes...My parents have a crib at their house that we use for Ben when we visit. This time around, however, Ben went into an absolute panic when I tried to lay him down in it. He simply would NOT calm down. So, I let him sleep in the "big" bed with me. The first night we did this it worked fine, but the next night, he just wouldn't sleep. After about an hour and a half of him climbing all over me and talking, I'd had enough (it was about 10:30pm at this point) and put him back in the crib and left the room. As expected, he went into a huge fit. But after about 10 minutes of him crying, it got very quiet. I figured he just cried himself to sleep. Then, about 5 minutes later, I heard something banging on the bedroom door and then more crying. I went to open the door and there he was....standing at the door. He had managed to get out of the crib.

When we returned home from our trip, I was nervous that he would now start climbing out of his own crib (which is in our bedroom). However, I held on to the hope that he feels comfortable and safe in his own crib and all would be fine. When I laid him down in his crib for the night, he freaked out just like he did at my parents house. I should mention that once Ben gets a taste of sleeping in a "big" bed with us, it is very difficult to break him of it. We've been through this many, many times. Even if we let him in bed with us for just ONE night, it will take darn near a week to get him to sleep back in his own bed without him waking up multiple times a night and screaming at the top of his lungs for upwards of an hour at a time. Anyway, we let him cry it out for awhile and he finally went to sleep. When I went to bed that night, I went to tuck him in like I always do....but he wasn't in his crib!!! I immediately panicked and thought he may have fallen out of the crib and hurt himself, so I turned on the lights and there he was.....under the covers, sound asleep....IN OUR BED.

When Greg came in to observe my discovery, we started laughing hysterically. So now the time has finally come....we have to move Ben to his own room with a big boy bed. This is very bittersweet. It will be nice to have our room to ourselves again, but it was a joy to wake up to his little, smiling face right next to our bed every morning. The time has come though. We'll be converting his crib to a toddler bed this weekend and we'll move him up to his room. It's going to be rough around the Reynolds homestead for awhile folks....ROUGH!!! Here are some pics of our little crib jumper......

Sometimes the cuteness is just too much for me to handle. Don't you just want kiss that sweet little face?

In other news, my 10 mile race is supposed to be this weekend. And just like every other year, the weather is not looking good. And by "not looking good", I mean it will be below freezing with a rain/snow mix. With each passing day, the forecast is getting worse and worse. It is also supposed to rain tonight AND tomorrow which means the trail we are running on is going to be a muddy mess. Really, mother nature??? REALLY?? It was 81 degrees here two days ago. Seriously. The winter to spring transition in the midwest is just RUDE. I don't even know if I'm really going to run it. I'll feel like a wimp if I drop out but I don't care. I'm going to see if I can just drop down to the 5k. Then I'll only feel like a partial wimp. Lincoln has a very large running community and they are hard core. They don't drop out of races for weather...they just don't. I guess we'll see if I can suck it up and get the job done. Wish me luck :-)

Brooke

A Boy and His Vacuum

2011-03-13T12:39:00.005-05:00

Good afternoon everyone! Once again, I apologize for being a blog-slacker lately. I really have no excuse other than the fact that the only time I can really blog is when Ben is napping....which happens to be the only time I can do A LOT of things. So, I guess the "other things" have been winning out lately.

Not a whole lot has been going on here lately. The weather has finally taken a turn toward the spring-like, which has been quite refreshing and glorious. And now that daylight savings has come and gone, I'm looking forward to running outside in the evenings instead of on the dreadmill. Woo hoo! Speaking of which, this past Saturday, I decided to do a "trial run" on the trail I'll be racing on in a couple of weeks. The trail is in a rural area with lines of trees on both sides and then open meadows beyond the trees. Every mile or so you cross a country road with a couple of houses, but other than that, it's pretty isolated. Pretty much a serial killer's dream come true. Which is why I don't run on it very often....and when I do, I make sure it's on a Saturday afternoon when I know several other people will be on it. Oh, and I run with my car keys in prime stabbing position. I'm sure I look very menacing.

Anywhoo.....this past Saturday I was enjoying the beauty of the trail when I noticed a large pile of horse poo (the trail is also a horse trail) which I quickly dodged, then a few seconds later I was passed by an oncoming elderly cyclist wearing a short-sleeved, button-down plaid shirt, polyester knee-length shorts, black socks pulled up to his knees and shoes that I'm pretty sure should never be worn while bicycling (I should mention it was 45 degrees out). Then, a few seconds after that, I passed a tractor-crossing sign (how a tractor could get through all those trees is beyond me, but whatever). Does that all scream "I live in Nebraska" or what?? Maybe you had to be there, but those events in close sequence of one another made me chuckle.....as if I'm some sort of "city-slicker" myself.

In Ben news, he has discovered the joy of vacuuming in recent weeks. He loves our daily vacuum time and does a good job of helping me out. The problem is, he usually throws a big, ol fit when I put it away. Soooo, I decided to buy him his own toy vacuum so he can have all the vacuuming fun he wants without me having to do the work :-) The only problem is, I looked EVERYWHERE and couldn't find one.....except at Wal-mart. The catch? It's pepto-bismol pink. Do you think that stopped me from buying it?? Ummm, no. Greg was thrilled as you can imagine. In fact, he made me promise I wouldn't post a picture of it on here. Ben doesn't care what color it is though. And that's good enough for me. Below is a picture of him with one of our real vacuums.....

Taking a break from all the hard work....

Ben has also been struggling with his two-year molars recently. I feel like these things have been trying to come in for FOREVER!!! Now, I can finally see the two bottom ones poking through. Once those babies are in, he is done teething until he is 6!! In the meantime, the pain makes him a bit crabby from time to time as I'm sure you can imagine. I was taking his picture a few days ago and he was getting mad at me because I wouldn't let him hold the camera and I captured this beauty.....

Is that a face or what?? The best part is, when I showed him this picture of himself, he started laughing hysterically. It was sooo funny.

And below is a sweet picture of him hugging his cobra.....

And a picture of him looking very grown-up. I just love how he holds his hands in front of his body when he poses for a picture....

That's all I have for today. I'm cooking up another "Tales From the Farm" post. I'm sure you're thrilled. The good news is, there will be no stories of dying animals in the final posts. And I'm only planning on doing two more as I fear I might be giving you all nightmares. Have a happy Monday!!!

Love,

Brooke

Cuteness Personified

2011-03-01T14:08:00.005-06:00

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been lagging a bit behind with my posts lately. Greg was gone on a business trip all last week and by the time Friday rolled around, I was literally praying to God that I could stay awake until Ben's nap-time. I basically spent the weekend "recovering". Seriously, I don't know how single mothers do it!!

Ok, enough small talk. I'm going to just jump right into the goods.... First, a few cute "Ben" things. The last time we went to the children's museum, he was very much into their "space" display. There is a "space shuttle" there that the kids can get into and crawl around in. And there is a button they can push for the countdown to "lift-off". Once they push the button, a woman's voice comes on and counts "3-2-1-liftoff" and then there are all these exciting sounds and such. Well, ever since then, Ben constantly counts "3-2-1" and then says "woooo!!" It is so funny. Speaking of counting, he can count to five. He doesn't do it very often, but given the right circumstances, he will do it. He can also identify several letters of the alphabet. Which leads me to the next cute Ben thing.....

He is OBSESSED with Wheel of Fortune. He asks for "Wheel" several times a day. We have actually DVR'd a couple of episodes so I can play one during the day if I need to. We usually just watch it together as a family at night though. When it first comes on and you hear the people saying "wheel-of-fortune" Ben does this pulling-down motion with his arm and says "wheel of" along with them but then stops because he can't say fortune yet. He loves to repeat the letters when they are called by Pat and the contestants. Who knew good old "Wheel of Fortune" would be such a hit with the toddler circuit!?! Greg and I always like to reminisce about the days when WOF had that revolving platform that displayed a bunch of random prizes on it that the contestants could "buy" with their winnings after each round. Remember that?? And some of the prizes were really bad. Like horrible art pieces and stuff that nobody would ever buy. And when the contestants got close to the end of their cash supply, they would have to buy the lamps or the crappy art or the exotic animal statue......Ha! Good times!

The third and final Ben activity that has been cracking me up is his dancing. He has become very adept at jumping. And jumping has become his primary dance move. He usually adds some arms movements and spinning in there too, but jumping is really his favorite. He used to just bob up and down when he "danced", but now he is all over the place. And he doesn't like to dance alone. He always wants us to join in with him. The other day, I was busy with something in the kitchen and he was dancing to a song on T.V. and he kept saying "mommy" and "up" which was his way of getting me in there to dance with him. So, I cut a rug with him for awhile and afterwards, he hugged my leg, patted it and said "awwww, mommy". Such a little sweetheart. He also tries to sing along with songs on T.V. or on the radio. It is adorable.

Time for some pictures.....

This was taken right before we were heading out to go somewhere. I thought his choice of companions was kind of funny, so that's why I included this pic. He has Barney (of course) and..... his cobra snake. He always takes things with him in the car and this particular combo just made me laugh. He tries to share his food and drink with both his cobra and Barney on many occasions. He gives them lots of kisses too. I'm a little nervous about what he might do if he ever runs into a real snake.....

Here he is playing with a toy we recently got.

Playing with toys is serious business....

Other than all the Ben cuteness, I'm looking forward to my annual "girls trip" with some of my college girlfriends. We didn't get to do it last year, so I'm really excited for this year's trip. We're going to NYC this year!!! We'll be there the last weekend in April. Can't wait!! Also, we have a Vegas trip coming up in June for Greg's CLU conferment (CLU is an insurance designation). We'll be staying at the Palazzo. We've never stayed there before, but I know it's very nice. And the fact that it's FOC is even better!!!

And finally.....running. My first race of the season is at the end of the month (the 26th) and I'm starting to get nervous. It seems like every time we get the snow melted away...it just comes right back with a vengeance a few days later. The trail I'll be racing on is mostly in a rural setting, so there are a lot of trees on both sides. This means that it takes FOREVER for the snow to melt because of the lack of sunlight due to the trees. If it keeps snowing, there won't be enough time for it to melt and I'll be racing this 10 miler in 5 inches of snow. Also, the weekend of this particular race has historically BAD weather. I ran this race the last 2 years (although I did the 5k and not the 10 miler) and both times almost skipped it because of how bad the weather was. I can deal with 20-something temperatures and high winds for a 5k, but for 10 miles?? No thank you. So if you could send some good weather vibes our way, I'd appreciate it.

Have a great day!

Brooke

Tales From the Farm, Part 2: Mystery in the Grass

2011-02-21T10:48:00.010-06:00

In the story of Fancy, I mentioned that one learns some hard lessons early-on in life when one grows up on a farm. And many of these lessons centered around our animal friends. Although we had many different kinds of animals, we had more cats than anything. I think most "farm people" have a lot of cats (not indoor cats, but outdoor cats). Most of the time, this is an involuntary thing. We had more than our fair share of cats that would just show up and make themselves at home on our property. Then those cats would make kitty magic with other cats and voila....more cats. And thus the cycle begins and never ends. Luckily, we lived near a highway which acted as kitty "population control" if you catch my drift. We mourned many a wayward cat that saw its final moments in the headlights of an oncoming car.

So, I think it's fair to say that I have had a lot of experience with the complexities of the feline persona. I've heard their sweet purrs as I rubbed their bellies, laughed at them as they played with a dead shrew, and ooohed and ahhhed over them when they were kittens. I have also been scratched by them, bitten by them, and have watched them give birth....which was horrifying, by the way. We had one cat named "Mama Puss" who demonstrated the cat version of multiple personalities disorder by rubbing against our leg and purring one minute and then whacking us with a sharply clawed paw the next. We had another cat named "Maxine" who survived being hit by a car, as well as a serious brawl with a raccoon. She walked with a permanent limp...but she lived to be 23 years old. I kid you not. And we had a cat that was named "Pim-Wee", but my friend Stephanie thought it was "Pinwheel" because, well, Pinwheel makes more sense. And I didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise. We also had a cat named "Nate the Nightclub Owner". I won't go on.

You're probably thinking to yourself, "Oh, poor thing...she doesn't realize how crazy this all sounds". Um, yes I do. I realize I am uncovering at least 23 varieties of crazy by writing this series of posts. So, now that we've cleared that up, lets move on shall we??....

All of this has really just been the set-up for a story I am going to share that is what one might consider to be a traumatic childhood event. Now, I love animals. I really do. And for the most part, I like cats. But I have to admit, they have some fairly vile tendencies. For example, they tend to kill a variety of different rodents and leave them on your doorstep as "presents". And there is the whole "going to the bathroom in your house" thing too (well, indoor cats anyway). But perhaps the worst thing of all is a dark, dark secret of the cat world.....

One day, my brother and I were outside playing when we heard what sounded like a kitten meowing in some tall grass nearby. We started looking around to try to find it. Finally, we came across a kitten that was lying a few feet from its mother and three other kittens. But something wasn't quite right. After inspecting all angles of the kitten, we came to the conclusion that its body had been buried underground and just its head was exposed. Alarmed at such a sight, we immediately took action to try to dig the poor kitten out of the ground. In the midst of all the digging, I touched the kitten's head and, to our intense horror, the head rolled a few inches. And there was no body attached. It was just a cat head. Which subsequently exposed the dark secret of the cat world....cats sometimes eat their young.

I don't remember all the details following our appalling discovery. I'm pretty certain we ran screaming from the scene to tell my mom...who explained the whole "cats eat their young" phenomenon. Why cats do this is anyone's guess. Perhaps after giving birth they are too famished to wait for a proper meal or maybe they just decide they can only mother 3 kittens instead of 4, or they just get so fed up with the "trouble-maker" of the bunch that they simply can't tolerate its presence any longer. Who knows?!?

I understand that this disgusting activity is not limited to just cats. I know other animals do this too. But unless I see it first-hand, I'm going to pretend it's only cats. It just makes the world an easier place to live in. I'm sure you understand.

I apologize to all of you cat-owners out there. I know it will be difficult to see your cat in the same light after this story. But please don't be alarmed. As far as I know, they only eat their own young. So you and your children should be safe. But I wouldn't recommend going into the cat breeding business.

Love,

Brooke

Smile for the Camera....or Not

2011-02-16T11:59:00.006-06:00

Since yesterday was my birthday, Greg (being the wonderful husband that he is) decided to take the day off work so he could spend it with Ben and I. And he let me choose the day's activities. It was one of the best birthdays I've had. We started the day off by going to breakfast at Village Inn where I got the delicious strawberry crepe platter. YUM! While at the restaurant, Ben said "Hi" approximately 271 times to our waitress and neighboring customers. A shy one, he is not.

After breakfast, we made a quick pit-stop at home where I Skyped with my brother and then we headed downtown to the children's museum where we took about a gazillion pictures. Ben was into all the picture-taking for about the first two and then, he wasn't having it anymore....

A good one with Daddy....

"Driving" the tractor......

And then he refused to look at the camera the rest of the time....

Playing with the train set.....

Avoiding the camera like the plague....

Again....

And again....

I guess we were both avoiding this one....

Almost....but not quite.....

Aaaaaand no......

Even though Ben was a bit camera shy, we still had a great time at the museum. After that, we headed down the street to Five Guys for some burgers. I know that Five Guys is rated one of the top burger joints in the country, but I'm going to have to go on the record as saying I don't get it. The burgers are good and all, but nothing spectacular. And believe me, I know my burgers. I think In-and-Out and even Steak-n-Shake easily have Five Guys beat. Just sayin'.

Then we went home for some naps. I took a good 30 minute nap and then got up to go for a run. It was the PERFECT running day. It was in the upper 50's, light breeze and nothin' but sunshine. I did 7 miles, but it was one of those days where I felt like I could have run forever. Then I came home, got cleaned up, Skyped with my Mom and Dad and spent a relaxing evening at home. Yep, pretty much the perfect day! Thanks to family and friends for the many happy birthday emails, FB messages, cards, gifts, etc. I feel very blessed and loved :-)

Now I'll leave you with some pics of Ben on a day when he was actually looking at the camera:-)

Hanging out with his favorite purple dinosaur, Barney....

Chasing me because I'm holding the camera.....

Wrapping himself in the "no-slip" padding from under the rug....it's the little things that entertain him the most!!

Have a great rest of the week everyone!

Love, Brooke

Tales From the Farm, Part 1: A Goat Named Fancy

2011-02-10T13:53:00.023-06:00

As a kid growing up on a farm, my brother and I had the opportunity to experience childhood in a way that many have not. When you have access to a pond, a creek, old silos and sheds, farm equipment, meadows, fields and woods, there are endless possibilities. It is a childhood wonderland, if you will. There is freedom to explore, a never-ending fuel supply for the imagination and, for better or for worse....the ability to house many different kinds of animals without breaking some sort of city ordinance.

And that is where today's story takes us.

I'm not sure how old I was when she came into our lives. I'm guessing around second grade, maybe. "She" was just a baby goat. A baby nubian goat to be exact. Nubians have floppy ears and resemble puppies when they are little. Very cute. I don't really know what prompted our family to get a goat. We weren't planning on drinking goat's milk or making goat cheese (although maybe we should have...mmmm, goat cheese...). Maybe it was just a natural progression of life....live on a farm, get a goat, live happily ever after. I'm pretty sure, however, that we got her for two plain and simple reasons: 1) We could and 2) Why NOT??

I believe my mom was responsible for the name "Fancy". I don't exactly know what the goat did that was, you know, "fancy"....but I do know that she was quite a specimen of delightfulness. And isn't that enough?? I remember that she seemed small to even my second-grade self, so she must have been pretty tiny. We would feed her milk from an empty two-liter with a rubber nipple attached to the top. And she would get down on her little goat knees to suck from the bottle. My parents actually have this on home video somewhere. And, as you can imagine, it is nothing short of AWESOME. We would bring her in the house from time to time. Because, again, why NOT?!? My brother and I thought it was the coolest thing EVER!! I remember one time Fancy managed to jump up on top of our early-80's style television with the decorative wood casing all around it. Quite the nimble one, our Fancy.

Greg takes great pleasure in telling people that Fancy lived in our house with us. In fact, if there is anyway he can work the topic into conversation, he will. One would be amazed at just how many times he has managed to weasel this tidbit into seemingly unrelated conversation. Especially with his co-workers. He is shameless, I tell you, SHAMELESS!! And apparently some sort of conversational wizard. I can only imagine what his co-workers think of me.....not to mention what they think of Greg for marrying me. For the record: Fancy DID NOT live in our house. She had her own special abode in one of our OUTDOOR sheds.

Other than the occasional indoor visit, Fancy led a pretty typical goat existence. Grazed in the yard, hung out in her pen, etc. But, folks, I'm sorry to say... all good things must come to an end. You learn some hard lessons growing up on the farm. And one of those lessons is: survival of the fittest. There is some pretty hard core stuff that goes down on the farm. Oh yes, indeed. Our dear, sweet, Fancy met her untimely demise when wild dogs took her to meet her maker. Yes, I know, I said wild dogs. Not coyotes, not wolves.....wild dogs. The only other time in my life that I have witnessed the existence of wild dogs was when I was driving the southern route (through Missouri) from Illinois to Nebraska and literally watched a pack of them cross the road together....little ones, big ones, medium-sized ones...it was crazy. Let me tell you something about wild dogs. They are M-E-A-N. And they don't even care. They will TAKE YOU DOWN and not think twice about it. Fancy knows this all too well. God rest her soul.

So now you know there was a goat named Fancy, and that she saved me....in all the ways a person can be saved...Oh wait, that's a line from Titanic. Sorry. Ahem, I hope you enjoyed the story of Fancy. Hopefully, it taught you some valuable lessons. Such as, stay away from wild dogs AT ALL COSTS!!. And I'm sure you will be happy to know there are many more stories where this one came from. Until next time, my friends.

Decisions, Decisions

2011-02-07T14:30:00.005-06:00

Happy Monday! I hope everyone has recovered from any super-bowl festivities you may have partaken in. We stayed at home and flipped between the super-bowl and some other show that seemed very interesting at the time, but now I can't even remotely remember what it was about.....

I have mentioned that our little Ben is going through a bit of a rough patch with separation anxiety. So, I decided to start volunteering in the toddler room at our church. I'm hoping that will eventually help him get used to being in a large group of kids and then at some point I'll start leaving the class halfway through and then hopefully we'll get to a point where he is no longer like this......

But A LOT more like this.....

We went to church as a family yesterday for the first time in a loooooong time. Greg went to "big church" while Ben and I went to Sunday school in the toddler room. As predicted, it was rough until he realized I wasn't leaving him. Then he calmed down and played with some toys. He did pretty well. I'm hoping it will get better and better each time. One thing that cracked me up was how willing he was to help me put away the toys at the end so we could go "bye-bye". All I had to do was tell him once that if he helped me put away the toys, we would go "bye-bye" and he was ON IT.....putting toys in any bin he could find!!!

At home, he is becoming more and more independent. I love this stage because I can give him choices and he makes his own decisions. And he LOVES it. I ask him questions and he can tell me "Yes" and "No". He has certain things that he prefers to wear. For instance, he has a pair of pajamas with dogs on them that he wants to wear EVERY NIGHT. After a couple of nights, we have to hide them so he can't find them in the drawer. He is also fascinated with snakes and has a shirt that Aunt Heather and Uncle Rob gave him that has a rattlesnake on it. He ADORES it and will stick his chest out and hiss at us when he has it on. It is the only item of clothing, other than the dog pajamas, that he will willingly put on. It's so amusing to watch him moving from baby to little person. I know a lot of parents get a little sad during this stage because the baby phase is ending. I have those moments too...especially when I see his little clothes from last year. But, for the most part, this new stage is soooo much fun. Even if it is more challenging.

Ben says, "Yeah, I've got a rooster on my shirt and 50's style "greaser" jeans on....you wanna make something of it??"

We had a minor "carrot up the nose" incident during lunch today. I cut his carrots up very small so he can't choke on them, but he tends to inhale his food sometimes and I think something went down the wrong pipe because he started coughing like crazy. I think all the coughing caused a piece of carrot to get into his nasal passage. He started pointing at his nose and then wanted me to pick him up. That is when I got the up-close view of a rather large piece of carrot blocking his nostril. I used tweezers to get it out and I thought that was the end of it until I looked up further into his nose and there was more carrot. Ugh. The tweezers couldn't safely reach up that far so I held his other nostril closed and told him to blow out (I demonstrated for him). I was afraid he wasn't going to understand how to do it until, all of a sudden, more carrot went flying across the room. Mission accomplished. I know, I lead a very glamorous life. Please don't be jealous.

I'm tossing around the idea of starting a series of posts on my blog entitled, "Tales from the Farm". As many of you know, I grew up on a farm. Growing up on a farm is, um, different. In a good way though. Lets just say I have a lot of stories from my childhood that are......unusual. I will still give weekly updates and pictures of Ben of course. That won't change. This is just something extra I might be doing in an effort to provide some laughs. The first title will likely be "A Goat Named Fancy". What did I tell you??? Unusual indeed ;-)

Love,

Brooke

Beware, Chickens....Beware!

2011-01-27T12:43:00.005-06:00

Howdy everyone! We are having ourselves a fabulous Thursday. Hope you all are too :-) This morning, we went to the grocery store to pick up a few items. Unfortunately, the store is in the middle of a re-model so I couldn't find anything since most of the items I was there to get had been moved to some random location. Not to mention, I think there may have been a power failure at some point because the seafood section stunk to high heavens. It was bad, folks. I had to hold my breath to make it through the store. I was not in the best of moods by the time we were ready to leave. That is, until I walked out the door and discovered that in the 45 minutes I had spent in the store, the sun had come out and it was now in the low-40's. It was magical, I tell you, MAGICAL.

Soooo, I high-tailed it home and Ben and I went outside for about an hour or so. He loves being outside, but it has been so cold and snowy lately that the yard and sidewalks are basically an ice-skating rink which makes it too dangerous to take him out. He was so pumped to FINALLY be outside.....

Notice the snow already starting to melt???......ahhhhhh!!!!! I am not a fan of winter but I will say this.....it certainly makes you appreciate the nice-weather days that much more!!

After being out for awhile, Ben found our (empty) watering can in the garage and decided the plants needed some "watering". Well, they do look a bit brown.....

Another funny "Ben" thing I have been meaning to tell you all about is the strange thing he does with his chicken nuggets. He knows that chickens make a "bock bock" sound. And anytime he sees a chicken, he says "bock bock". Well, for awhile now he has been saying "bock bock" at his chicken nuggets. Funny, yes... But the kicker is, in the last couple of weeks he has been looking at his chicken nuggets, saying "bock, bock", hugging them, saying "awww" and then promptly stuffing them in his mouth and eating them. I don't quite know what to make of this. It is hilarious, if not somewhat disturbing.

He also brought his Barney doll to breakfast this morning and tried to give him some of his milk. It was so sweet, but given the chicken nugget incident, I half-expected him to then bite off one of Barney's limbs. Much to my relief....he did not.

In less interesting news, I decided to switch training plans to prepare for my upcoming races. I have always used the Hal Higdon training plans to prepare for races, but I wanted to try something a little more challenging to see if I can really improve my times this year. The new plan I'm using is called the FIRST plan. The awesome part is that instead of running 5 days a week, I will only be running 3. This will give me more time to fit in cross-training. The not-so-awesome part is that the sessions are longer and A LOT harder. I have a somewhat scary 6 mile tempo run planned for tonight. I won't bore you further with the particulars of a tempo run....it's basically running at an uncomfortable speed for anywhere from 3-10 miles (depending on what you're training for) to help make you faster. Well, would you look at that, I guess I DID bore you further with the particulars :-)

I'm looking forward to getting outside for my long run this weekend. I have HAD IT with the "dreadmill". We're supposed to have another 40-something degree day tomorrow so hopefully the snow will be almost gone by Saturday.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

A Day in the Life

2011-01-21T08:50:00.006-06:00

Happy Frosty Friday everyone!

Well, we had a rough day yesterday. Ben's separation anxiety has become intense over the last month or so. I honestly can't even use the bathroom without him pounding on the door and crying to get in. UGH.

Yesterday, MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) started up again after the holiday break. We go every other Thursday for 2 hours and it is my rare opportunity to spend some time with an awesome group of ladies and just eat and laugh and RELAX. It is held at a local church and they provide childcare while we have our meeting. When I dropped Ben off at his room, he cried as usual, but I figured he would calm down after awhile. Ten short minutes into our meeting, another mom came up to me and asked if I was Ben's mom and told me he was still screaming bloody murder and the ladies in the nursery wanted me to come get him. Great. Sooooo, I quickly went downstairs and could hear him clear across the building. He was SCREAMING and yelling mommy and bye-bye. Knife to the heart.

I picked him up and he immediately calmed down. But then I had to bring him to the MOPS meeting with me. If you know Ben, you know that just DID. NOT. WORK. I mean, sitting quietly for the average two-year old boy is A LOT to ask. Asking that of the super-energetic Ben is just impossible. I tried, but alas, we just had to pack up and go home.... Which was a 30 minute process of me, hands completely full, trying to corral Ben to the door while he held on to the water fountain yelling "NO!".

When dinner rolled around, I was not up for our meal-time battle of trying to get Ben to sit in his booster to eat. He usually refuses to sit in his booster seat (meaning, we cannot physically get him in the chair), so we've been letting him sit at the table without it. However, he frequently crawls up on the table and we have to re-sit him in the chair approximately 80 times during each meal. Anyway....I was not up to all that after the day we had, so I let him do this....

Yes, that is indeed my child sitting on the coffee table, eating chicken nuggets from a paper plate, with milk in hand, watching television. I know. You can nominate me for mother-of-the-year anytime you want. I'm not proud of this moment, but folks, there are just times when you are DONE for the day.

In other Ben news, we are going to be starting the potty training process in the next month or two. We bought him a little seat that fits over the big potty seat. He sits on it from time to time just to get acquainted with it. During that time, he usually tries to flush the toilet or shred the toilet paper. He also does a lot hissing as there is a snake (along with several other characters) on his potty seat. He does a lot of talking about "pee-pees and poopies" too, although he has yet to "produce". It's all pretty humorous.

Ben says, "Cheese"......

Sorry for making you read all my challenges of motherhood. Sometimes you just need to get it off your chest. :-) Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Cooking Myself into an Early Grave

2011-01-17T15:02:00.014-06:00

Hello all! Before I get into the particulars of this post, I'm going to give everyone their Ben fix first. Below are some recent pictures chronicling Ben's new-found love of play-dough. One thing he LOVES to do is watch me press the play-dough through one of the little "shape-makers" that came in the kit. When the play-dough comes through, it looks like snakes, so Ben makes his "hissing" sound every time the dough comes out. Very funny. He also hisses when he wants me to get the play-dough out. He goes into the dining room and opens the drawer that has the table cloth in it (which we use only when coloring or playing with play-dough) and hisses relentlessly. It is impossible to say no to that :-)

A play-dough session is not complete until you have made play-dough noses.

Now, on to the main subject of this post. I've been trying to be better about including more veggies in my diet recently. When I get ready for "running/racing" season, I try to step the nutrition up a notch because it's important to give my body what it needs if I'm going to be running 5 days a week. Soooo, to get more veggies in, I've been roasting a variety of them for lunch...as a side dish, not as my entire meal! (I can just hear my mom..." you ONLY ate VEGETABLES for LUNCH....you need MORE than THAT!!!") I had chili too. Roasted veggies are so delish and Ben gobbles them right up. However, the process is somewhat labor-intensive and I have incurred not one, but two injuries as a result.

So, the first injury came when I was trying to keep Ben away from the oven while simultaneously sliding the dish of veggies in there. I accidentally brushed the top of my arm across the top rack of the 400 degree oven. Result below.....

It looks worse than it feels. Actually, it didn't hurt all that bad when it happened and I didn't even notice that it left such a nasty mark until I got in the shower later that night and felt a pain when the hot water hit my arm. Takes me back to high school when I dropped a hot iron on the inside of my wrist and it left a mark that looked like I tried to slit my wrist. Nice. I was always self-conscious about it and thought people were always staring at it. I still have the scar. I digress....

My second accident occurred while preparing a butternut squash for roasting. My goodness...I was not prepared for the effort involved in cutting up a butternut squash. That thing was a beast. I think what I really needed was a hacksaw to get through the darn thing. But then I would have ended up with a stump for an arm as opposed to this......

Yes, this is a very blurry picture of a poorly wrapped fingertip. All I can say is, I took approximately 47 pictures of my hand trying to get one that actually resembled a hand. This is the best I could do. All the other pictures looked like a white blob.

While cutting the squash with a very, very large knife, I slipped and cut my finger pretty badly. And it HURT like a "you know what". With all the nerve endings and such in that region, it's quite the sensitive area. Once I finished cleaning and wrapping it, our poor bathroom looked like a murder scene. Never a dull moment :-) I think I'll stick to eating salads to fulfill my veggie servings for awhile. Or better yet, maybe I'll just drink V-8 juice (no chance of injury there....knock on wood).

On the running front, things are progressing nicely. My endurance is starting to come back and I'm hoping my speed will get back to normal as well. I can't wait for some warmer days (and by warmer, I mean anything above freezing) so I can run outside. I'm not a fan of the treadmill. Plus, ours is permanently stuck at a 1.5% incline (it will raise, but it won't lower) so I'm always going uphill. Granted, it's not a large incline, but you start to feel it after 5 miles, trust me. I'm looking forward to the State Farm 10 miler coming up on March 26th. I'm really hoping to finish in a time of 1:25:00 or better. I guess we'll see!

OK, that's all I have for today. Have a nice evening everyone!

Life Changers

2011-01-11T14:26:00.011-06:00

Greetings from the frozen tundra!! Today, the high was a balmy 8. However, with the wind chill, it was like 10 below. Lovely. Yesterday we had about 7 inches of snow to boot. Normally I would be all out of sorts about it, but the weather folk had forecast anywhere from 7 to 10 inches in our area...so I'm good with the 7. It wasn't as cold yesterday, so Ben and I bundled up in our winter gear and headed outside for about 30 minutes or so......

It seemed like an occasion for the fur hat to come out. It is a rugged, manly contradiction to the more feminine, powder blue snowsuit.

Poor kid could barely walk because the snow came up to his knees in the back yard. I think he had fun though. At least, as much fun as one can have when they have snow in their gloves and can barely move :-)

Switching gears. In keeping with the whole "beginning of a new year" hoopla, I figured I'd throw out a few fun, random suggestions you might want to give a whirl in 2011. You never know, one of these could change your life.....

READ THIS: I recently finished a book my mom gave me for Christmas. It is called The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven (title is self-explanatory). It is written by Kevin and Alex Malarkey. It is INCREDIBLE. Although I absolutely believe we go to either heaven or hell when we pass, I have always been skeptical of stories from people who said they died and came back. This story is, without a doubt, the real deal. There were parts of the book that completely overwhelmed me. It is just an amazing story that shows what an awesome God we serve!! Read it...you'll be glad you did.

DO THIS: Try a new form of exercise! Perhaps running!! Since I took up running a couple of years ago, I can't say enough about what it has done for me mentally and physically. It is almost like free therapy. Seriously. And anyone can do it....ANYONE!! (Unless you're injured or your doctor says don't do it, of course).

I know it is difficult to get started. When I first started, I thought I was going to die after the first couple of minutes. No joke. But I took baby steps to improve. First, a quarter mile without stopping, then a half mile and so on. Before I knew it, I was up to three miles and it just kept building from there. And the sense of accomplishment that comes with meeting each of those goals is thrilling. Also, if you're looking to lose a few lbs in the new year, there are few activities that burn more calories than running. Not to mention what it does for your health. So, give it a try. A real try. If you hate it, fine. But, you just may love it!!!

LISTEN TO THIS: At the start of the year, the Christian radio station I listen to threw out a challenge to only listen to Christian music for an entire month and see what it does for you. I started listening to Christian music about 3 years ago. Before that, I listened mostly to top 40 music and I had the (false) impression that Christian music was boring and dorky. Then, I found a contemporary Christian station I love (KLOVE) and now I listen to it every day. The positivity and hope that comes from the music and conversations on that station is such an important part of my daily life now. I can be having a horrible day and I will ALWAYS feel better after listening to it. I don't necessarily love every song they play, of course, and I still listen to top 40 every now and then. But if you're looking for an encouraging, clean, kid-friendly radio station, I would recommend giving Christian radio a try. If you want to go all out and give the "one month challenge" a try, by all means...do it! Here are some songs I LOVE....

Get Your Own Free Hypster.com Playlist.

RELAX WITH THIS: More often than not, I am a big, old, ball-o-stress. I think I was born stressed-out. It's something I've been trying to get a better handle on over the last few years because it has really started to affect my sleep. A few years ago, a doctor recommended progressive muscle relaxation as a way to lessen my stress and anxiety. She gave me a 30 minute CD that guides me through the process. Sweet mercy, that thing has been a life saver!! It basically works by guiding your body through a series of tightening and releasing the major muscle groups. The idea is that your body will become more aware of the difference between tension and relaxation so you can better recognize when your are becoming tense and can nip it in the bud before it gets out of control. I don't know about all that, but I do know that I feel like a wet noodle when I get done with it....and then I sleep like a baby. I'm sure there are many other CDs, books, etc. on this method. If you are a stress ball like I am, try it out!!

I could throw out some more brilliant "ideas", but this dissertation would then become a novel. So I won't. I just wanted to share some things that have had a positive impact on my life. Hopefully at least one of them will do the same for you :-)

Have a great evening!!

Things...and also, Stuff

2011-01-05T09:26:00.004-06:00

Those of you who have met Ben know that he is very, um, energetic. He is always going...unless he is sleeping, which is becoming a rarity these days. Well, within 15 minutes of waking up this morning, he apparently was ready to go shopping. Personally, I think he should do something with that hair first :-)

When I try to get ready in the mornings, he loves to get in the closet and play dress up. His favorite accessories are mommy's boots and the occasional headband.

Today, one of my tote bags caught his eye....it does compliment the boots nicely.

After "shopping" it was onto Ben's latest addiction. And I'm very,very sorry to say that addiction is Barney. Barney is threatening to take over our television and our lives. Ben doesn't want to watch anything else. If I let him, he would watch the same Barney video over and over, all day, every day. As a result of his addiction, Ben is also becoming agoraphobic....he doesn't even want to leave the house. And when we do leave the house, he just talks about "T.T." non-stop ("T.T."is Ben's version of "T.V."). We will be staging an intervention in the very near future.

Below is a picture of the offender. Sure, he looks innocent enough, but he has big plans, people, BIG PLANS! And those plans are evil.

Below is a picture of Ben eating a snack while watching Barney. In case you are wondering, we do NOT allow him to eat his main meals while watching T.V. But he eats most of his snacks at his picnic table and, yes, Barney is usually on during this time.

Ok, on to more shocking news....I have been cooking lately!! I know....I told you it was shocking. It's no secret that Greg and I are not the best cooks in the world. Now, to be fair to myself, I do "make" all of Ben 's meals. He rarely eats take-out, unless it's pizza....he LOVES pizza. However making meals for a toddler doesn't exactly count as "cooking" in my book. It basically consists of a lot of fruit, vegetables, mac-n-cheese, bologna, yogurt, eggs, etc. I also make my own meals during the day...again, simple stuff...grilled cheese, grilled peanut butter, tuna, chips, salad, fruit, etc. When it comes to dinner, however, Greg frequently brings home take-out for he and I.

Lately though, I have been cooking. Greg adores chicken and noodles, so I found a recipe that seemed easy enough and sounded pretty decent and guess what.....he (cue the singing angels) LOVED it!!!! AND I made garlic mashed potatoes (a Wheeler family favorite) and those were delish as well. The only draw-back is that the whole process took about 2 hours and that isn't counting the clean-up time. This reminded me why I rarely cook. It is not easy to keep a toddler occupied (code for "out of trouble") for a lengthly period of time. I guess I just need to find more recipes that don't take so long. I'm thinking more crockpot dishes would be good. I think I'll be making turkey chili tonight. That one isn't new though...I've made it quite a few times. Very simple, pretty tasty and very healthy to boot!

If you are still reading this post, bless your heart. I know this isn't very interesting stuff but tis the life of a stay-at-home mom.

Just one more topic to cover. And it's one you'll likely be hearing a lot about in the coming months. Running. I'm officially "in training" for the spring racing season. And oh my sweet goodness do I hurt!!! I ran a few times last week and felt better and better with each run. And then I decided it was time to add weights back into the equation. Like a moron, I decided to do 2 of my P90X videos in one day. Actually, it was one and a half, but if you ask my body it will tell you I did 7. I am not even exaggerating when I say I feel like I was hit by a truck. And not one of those dinky pick-ups. I'm talking a semi. Every single muscle in my body hurts. Note to self: No more two month hiatuses from working out. It only results in PAIN!!!!!

Alright, I'm pretty certain no one is still reading this post at this point (and I don't blame you), so I'm calling it a day. Make it a great one, folks!!!

Later,

Brooke

And a Happy New Year!!

2011-01-02T13:14:00.006-06:00

Ok, so I promised in my last post that I would include some photos from Christmas. I don't have many, unfortunately, but here ya go.....

Our niece, Reagan on Christmas day.....she just turned six at the end of December and during her party, she broke her leg. Poor thing!!!! Sending out prayers for a quick recovery!!!

Ben with Uncle Mike.....

My cousin, Kelsey, helping Ben with his new favorite hobby...trying on adult boots.

Greg, Ben and I at my Uncle John and Aunt Sandy's on Christmas Eve....

My cousin, Sara, her hubby, Patrick and their girls, Savanna and Lorelei (Rory).

Kelsey with the kiddos.....

Christmas cuteness.....

At my mom and dad's house (look at Ben's hands.....when he says "cheese" for a picture, he almost always includes this hand gesture and facial expression that reads "why am I saying cheese?"...it's hilarious.)

Ben says...Happy New Year!!!

Wish I had more pics to share, but I was too busy having fun with family :-) Hope you all have a happy and blessed 2011!!!

Love, Greg, Brooke and Ben

Running Into the New Year

2010-12-29T20:05:00.004-06:00

Hello all! Hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did. We went home for what can only be described as a "whirlwind" trip. We drove to good old MTZ the day before Christmas Eve, spent Christmas Eve with my family, then drove to Bloomington on Christmas morning and spent the day with Greg's family. Then drove back to Lincoln the next day. Whew! We had a great time though. I took a few pictures but I haven't moved them from my camera to my computer yet and I'm too lazy to do it right now so I'll have to include them in my next post. Sorry!

It snowed about 6 or so inches in Bloomington on Christmas Eve through Christmas morning which made for an interesting drive. The roads actually turned out better than we thought they would be, so that was a relief. I was BEYOND thrilled to find that Lincoln received NO SNOW AT ALL!!! Based on the never-ending blizzard that was winter last year, it is nothing short of a miracle that we received no snow in this most recent storm. I don't want to be a grinch, but since Christmas is over, I'm going briefly embrace my grinchitude :-) I can't stand snow. The only thing I even remotely like about it is that it looks pretty when it's falling and I'm inside, warm and cozy under a blanket, preferably with a cup of hot cocoa in hand. I don't like walking in it, driving in it, touching it, and don't even get me started on what happens when it melts. So, long story short, I am happy as a clam to be back in snow-free Lincoln.

In other news....I decided that my lengthy hiatus from all things exercise had to come to an end. I'm not going to say how long it has been since I have run, but let's just say I had to thoroughly inspect my running shoes this evening to make sure spiders hadn't taken up residence in them. After ensuring they were indeed spider-free, I hopped on the treadmill to attempt a 3 mile run. Yowza!!! I decided going at what I thought was a "slow" pace would be a good way to ease into things. After all, I was running about 15 miles a week at a pretty decent pace not too long ago. Surely my body could handle my new slower pace without a problem. Ummm....no dice. After about 2.1 miles, I had to walk the rest of the way. And when I got done...I was COUGHING like I had developed a black lung or something. What the heck happened??? I almost feel like I'm starting completely over with running again. I'm running in the State Farm 10 miler in March so I really need to get my behind in gear.

I also decided that I'm going to do one more half-marathon in 2011 and then I'm going to do a full marathon in 2012. It actually makes me nervous just typing that. In both of the half-marathons I have run, I distinctly remember reaching the mark where the marathoners and half-marathoners split from one another (at around the 13 mile mark) and thanking my dear, sweet heavens that I did not sign up for the marathon because there was just no way....

Well, folks, there is going to have to be a way because I'm gonna do it!!! If anyone out there wants to do it with me, just let me know!

Ok, well I'm going to throw in the towel on what has become a post quite worthy of the the blog title Babbling Brooke :-) Hope you all have a fantastic evening. I promise to post some Christmas pics in the next post.

Ben's Birthday and Other Random Topics

2010-12-18T14:18:00.006-06:00

Ben's 2nd birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I still can't believe how fast the last year has gone by. Doesn't seem possible. Actually, looking at the bags under my eyes, you would think 5 years have gone by. Seriously though, it's so much fun to look back at videos and pictures of when Ben first joined our family. He has changed so much.

He really seemed to enjoy his birthday. I think he understood that it was a special day for him. He definitely understood how much fun it was to get a whole bunch of new toys in one day :-) Here are some pics from the day....

He really tore into his cake. He ate almost an entire piece!

Gigi came to visit for the weekend. Below she and Ben are displaying one of his gifts....a tent from my Aunt Jill and Uncle Mike.

Below: Me helping Ben open his new Zhu Zhu pet. He lost his old one a while back, so he was excited to see the new one.

It was a great day celebrating Ben's second year of life. We are so blessed!!!!

Another topic I would like to briefly discuss concerns Ben's stroller. The main reason I'm bringing this up is we're going home for Christmas this year and I'm sure Greg will be broadcasting it to everyone so I'm just going to get it out in the open. Here goes....a few weeks ago, I almost backed over Ben's stroller in the Hy-Vee parking lot. The only reason I didn't actually run over it was a kind bystander decided to risk her life and stand behind my car, waving her hands like she was on fire. Bless her heart.

And to make matters worse, I also left it in the Kohl's parking lot a few days ago.....and didn't even realize it until two days later when I was at Von Maur with Ben. I opened the back of the CRV and SURPRISE!!! It was gone. Luckily, I still have a few brain cells left in the midst of all this holiday madness and I immediately knew where I had left it. Thank God!!!

I really have no defense except the fact that I have been moderately sleep-deprived lately and in the short period of time it takes me to transfer Ben from the stroller to the car-seat, I apparently develop a mild form of Alzheimer's and forget that I even had a stroller in the first place. The poor stroller. Let's hope I can make it through the rest of this year without inadvertently setting it on fire or dropping it off a bridge or something.

Well, that's all I got. I doubt I'll be blogging again before Christmas, so I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. For those of you whom we'll be spending Christmas with....can't wait to see you soon!!!

Love, Brooke, Greg and Ben

It's About Time

2010-11-29T11:04:00.012-06:00

Cue the white noise and creepy "Poltergeist" music....WE'RE BAAA-AAAAACK!!!! Yes, after a year-long hiatus, the Reynolds' family blog is back. I'm sure by now there is no one reading this anymore, but that's ok. I've been wanting to start it up again for a really long time, but our old computer just made it impossible. So, now that we have a NEW computer (I heart you MAC), I can finally tend to the blog again.

It's the understatement of the century to say that we've had a lot going on over the last year. Those of you who used to read the blog know that we adopted our super-cute, mega-energetic, sweet-hearted son Ben from Korea last year (Nov. 23rd to be exact). After he joined our family we pretty much went into "survival mode" for a few months. I knew it was going to be challenging to instantly become the mom of a one-year-old but no one can ever prepare you for it. Greg and I lived in a fog of sleepless bewilderment for what seemed like forever. And then....things clicked. We got it. All of a sudden, Ben felt like our son and not just a child we were taking care of for awhile. Now it's like he has been with us all along. We are soooo blessed!!

Speaking of Ben, he was recently a ring-bearer for Greg's sister Heather and her now-hubby Rob at their wedding in Florida last month. While he didn't quite make it down the aisle, he did look ridiculously cute in his tux....

See what I mean??

The wedding was gorgeous and soooo much fun. Here are some more pics....

Above: Heather, me and Kelly at the lovely rehearsal dinner.

Above: Reagan and I. Reagan was a beautiful flower girl as you'll see in the next photo. She did a great job!

Above: Heather and Reagan. Aren't they gorgeous??? Heather's dress was TO DIE FOR!! She was stunning!

And a few more pics....

Above: The Reynolds siblings: Matt, Heather, Mike and Greg...and an orb on Greg's shoulder...possibly a spirit of someone who has passed...I'm thinking maybe Mutt...

Above: Our attempt at a nice family photo. Too bad Ben looks like he's trying to escape :-)

Above: Greg, Peggy, Me and Ben. Peggy's dress was beautiful too!! I wish I had a full-length picture of it.

Above: Heather and Jerry during the Father-Daughter dance.

Above: The happy couple the day after the wedding.

We had such a great time and wish Heather and Rob all the happiness in the world!!

Later--Brooke

Under Re-Construction

2010-11-27T20:50:00.001-06:00

The Reynolds' Family blog is returning soon. More to come......

The Nose

2009-10-24T13:43:00.008-05:00

Hello? Hello? Is anyone still out there?

I know. I KNOW!! I haven't blogged in FOR-E-VER, FOR-E-VER, FOR-E-VER (just a little reference to the movie The Sandlot...sorry if you haven't seen it). Really, the only excuse that I have is it just takes too darn long to create a post if I want to include pictures. And we all know that I like me some pictures in my posts. Honestly, and I'm totally not exaggerating here, if I want to post more than 3 pictures, I can pretty much guarantee myself about 2 hours waiting for everything to upload. It is ridiculous. So, I just end up neglecting my blog. Which stinks, because I truly do enjoy writing it. I finally made the decision that I'm just going to have to be super picky about what pictures I post and to keep them to a minimum...even though that isn't as much fun...but, whatever.

Ok, on to the good stuff. A Ben update! We are in the very final stages of waiting. We could get "the call" next week....or 6 weeks from now. I'm thinking it's probably closer to the 6 weeks though. The waiting is starting to become pretty difficult now because his room is very close to being finished and we have quite a few baby "items" thanks to a couple of wonderful baby showers that my mom had for us. Not only that, but Greg's co-workers are throwing us a shower next weekend and Greg's brother, Mike, is throwing us one the weekend after that, AND some friends of ours from church are throwing us one after that! We are so incredibly blessed to have such caring, supportive friends and family in our lives who share in our excitement and anticipation of Ben's arrival.

We received his most recent medical check up results via email yesterday. Looks like we're going to have a short little chunker on our hands :-) He is in the 75th percentile for weight (22.9 lbs) and between the 10th and 25th percentiles for height (28.2 inches). He is doing really well developmentally. Not walking yet, but he is pulling up to a standing position, so I'm sure walking is just around the corner. He just turned 10 months old earlier this month so he seems to be right on target, especially given the fact that he was born prematurely. Here is a pic from when he was 8 months old...

Now, you're probably wondering what the title of this post has to do with Ben. The answer to that is...nothing. The title was inspired by an event that occurred on a recent trip to Colorado. Greg and I went on a 5 day trip to Denver last month. One of the days we were there, we decided to visit the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. It was breathtakingly beautiful and we decided to be "at one" with nature by going on a hike. We were about half way through our hike when Greg noticed a pile of poop that he swore was left by a mountain lion. I disagreed. An argument ensued. It went something like this.....

Greg: Brooke, come look at this, I'm pretty sure it's mountain lion scat.

Brooke: That is NOT mountain lion scat. It just looks like dog poop. Mountain lion poop would be huge.

Greg (grabbing a stick and poking at the pile of poop): NO, this is NOT dog poop. Dogs don't eat rocks. Look at that, there are rocks in there.

Brooke: Those rocks are probably from the ground. And why would a mountain lion eat rocks???

Greg: Oh my Gosh. There's a NOSE in there. It's a DOG nose!!! Look at that!!! Now do you think it's dog poop??

Brooke (getting uncomfortably close to the pile of poop): Holy crap! That IS a dog nose!! I can't believe it.

Brooke: Give me that stick!

I then proceed to poke around at the "nose" to completely separate it from the poop (there's a sentence I never thought I'd type), only to turn the "nose" over and see that it had a plastic piece on the back that is commonly used to sew on to a stuffed animal. Yes, it was a stuffed animal nose. And we were looking at dog poop. Or, if you are Greg, you are convinced it was the poop of a mountain lion who ate a child AND his stuffed animal.

What can I say, we live exciting lives.

Love,
Brooke

Drumroll please.....

2009-08-27T19:11:00.005-05:00

If you're on Facebook, then you probably saw these last night or sometime today. For those of you who haven't seen these yet....here is our son, Ben. Quite the handsome one if I do say so myself. The first pic was taken when he was 6 months old and the second when he was 8 months old. As you can imagine, we can't wait to get him home. He should be here in another 2 to 3 months.

And I also really wanted to post this song video. I hear this song a lot on the Christian radio channel I listen to and I just love it. Once you listen to it, I recommend looking up the lyrics online and then listen to it again. It's such a beautiful song. And so, so true. One thing though...before you play the video, you'll need to click the pause button on the music that automatically plays on my blog. Otherwise, both will play at once and you'll want to poke your eyeballs out.

Love,
Brooke

It's a Boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-08-03T12:21:00.003-05:00

Yep, that's right. We have a son!! I wish I could post his pics on here, but I'm still unclear on whether or not it's okay for me to do that. I promise I will post pics if it's okay with our agency.

Before I give you the details on Ben (we are naming him Benjamin), I need to give you a little background on how this all came about. When we first began the adoption process last October, we chose Nepal as the country we wanted to adopt from. Then, that kind of fell through because of political instability in that country, so our agency let us switch to Thailand. However, they also let us put our names on the "waiting child" list in South Korea at the same time. Then, whichever country matched us with a child first would be the country we would adopt from.

The waiting child program in Korea is for children who aren't completely healthy when they are born. South Korea is extremely picky on what they consider completely healthy. If a child had low birth weight or was premature but otherwise healthy, they would go on Korea's "waiting child" list as opposed to their standard program. The good thing about the waiting child program is that prospective adoptive parents can choose exactly what conditions we are open to. We marked what conditions we would be open to on their form and really didn't think much of it after that. We weren't open to much. Just a few minor/correctable conditions. So, we really didn't think we'd ever be matched with a watiting child from Korea before we heard from Thailand.

Boy, we were wrong. Just 3-4 short months after we put our name on the list, we were contacted by our agency on June 12 and asked if we would review the file of a 6 month old baby boy from South Korea. After they told us a little about his medical "conditions" we agreed to look at his file. They emailed us a couple of pictures, along with a detailed doctor report for every month of his life after he was born.

We had a pediatrician in Omaha (who specializes in children that are adopted internationally) look at his file to get his opinion on his condition. The doctor had very positive things to say. Although Ben was born prematurely and had low birth weight, he has grown extremely well in the past few months and is currently in the 25-50 percentile in height & weight and was at a 5-6 month developmental level at is 6 month doctor visit. Wonderful news! Also, he has a minor thyroid condition that he is currently on medicine for, but the doctor said the condition he has is almost always temporary and most babies are completely weaned off the medication by the age of 1 year. Even if it turns out to be a life long condition (which is highly unlikely) he would just have to continue to take medication. No biggie. Well, after the doctor gave us his opinion, we quickly contacted our agency and said "YES"!!!!

We've had to wait to post this news until we had Ben's legal papers in hand. That is the point at which it's basically considered a "sure thing". Now, we just have to wait another 4 to 6 months and he will be home!! South Korea gives the option to either travel there or have an escort bring him over. We flip-flopped many times and it was a VERY difficult decision, but we decided to go the escort route. We would have loved to go to South Korea and meet Ben's foster parents (babies in South Korea don't live in orphanages, they live in foster homes). However, with all the instability with North Korea in recent months, we decided it best to have the escort bring Ben here.

So, that's the big news! We couldn't be more thrilled. I still don't think it has completely sunken in for either of us. It just doesn't seem real. We praise God for getting us through all these challenging years of trying to have kids. We prayed that He would join us with the child He has chosen for us and we are so thankful for His answered prayers. Also, we are so thankful for all of you...our family and friends...for supporting us and being there for us over the years. We are truly, truly blessed! We can't wait for Ben to come home and to introduce him to all of you!

I'll keep you updated as we know more.

Love,
Greg and Brooke

On a Mission

2009-07-20T18:13:00.007-05:00

Yes, I'm still alive. I know I've been falling behind in my blogging duties lately but the summer season usually equals busy, busy, busy for the Reynolds household.

Over the last few weeks we've spent time preparing for and going on a missions trip to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Our small group from church coordinated the trip for ourselves and several high school students that also go to our church. There were 8 adults and 11 youth total. The Rosebud reservation is a large reservation in the southern part of South Dakota. We stayed and worked specifically in the town of Parmelee for the whole 5 days we were there. And it was quite an eye opener to say the least. This is going to be a long post, but I really want to share our experience.....

Parmelee is a very, very poor community. The entire town consists of about two streets and has a population of around 700. It is quite common for them to have 15-20 people living in the same house together. And the houses are small. Most of them have no air conditioning and some don't even have running water. It was hard to believe we were still in the United States. The town looked like part of third world country. We stayed in a run-down community center that had no air conditioning. Luckily, they had two working bathrooms and each one had a shower. That was a relief! Our purpose for going was to put on a vacation bible school for the kids in the community. Beyond that, we were there to just hang out with them and help out with whatever we could such as fixing things around the community center.

When we first got there, kids from the community ran over immediately. Several groups visit the reservation each year, so they know that when vans or large vehicles pulling trailers show up at the community center, people are there to play with them. And they get soooo excited! It was shocking how young some the kids were that would just wander over by themselves. There were a couple of three year olds and a few four year olds that came every day. Their parents never escorted them anywhere. Unfortunately, that's how it is there. Many of the adults in the community have alcohol problems and a few of the kids told us that their parents would hit them. It was very sad. Many of the children showed up in the same clothes day after day. One little boy wore the same outfit the whole time we were there....even though he had vomited on his clothes one evening after dinner. On our last day there, we decided enough was enough. A few of the guys from our group washed him and we found some donated clothes in the community center for him.

The kids from the community were just amazing. Most of them were so sweet and just wanted someone to give them love. They would run up and give hugs and kisses and would hold our hands. They just wanted to spend time with us. They seemed to really enjoy the vacation bible school activities too. On our final day there, they kept requesting to sing more and more worship songs. On the first day, we sang 3 and on the last day, we ended up singing 10!! They just loved it. It was a joy to watch them sing about Jesus and dance around with huge smiles on their faces.

One morning, we decided to take a break for a couple of hours and venture outside of Parmelee to check out some other places on the reservation. We went to an Indian artifact museum and, while we were there, we were invited to attend a nearby pow wow. We were a little apprehensive about going because we weren't sure if we'd be welcomed or not, but we decided to go anyway. We were so glad we did. They couldn't have been more welcoming. A few guys came up to our group and introduced themselves and one of them asked if we'd like to participate in "grand entry" part of the pow wow. The grand entry involved several adults and children from the community dressed in their native clothing. They entered the main circle two by two and made their way around the entire circle while performing native dances. We got to walk in behind them and make our way around the circle as well (we didn't dance though). It was incredibly cool. A great experience!

Something else we got to do that was unexpected was attend a church service in Parmelee. One of the older kids that had been coming to the community center every day invited us to come with him to church. Several of the kids came with us. It was a tiny little church and we were crammed in like sardines but it was wonderful. I don't get "choked up" over a lot of things, but I was just overcome with emotion at the church service and had to fight back the tears. I was just so happy to be there in that moment. That may have been one of my favorite parts of the trip.

When it came time to leave it was extremely difficult. All of us had formed bonds with the children that none of us had expected. The youth from our church had the hardest time with it. They were all bawling when we had to leave. It was so hard knowing what kind of an environment we were leaving them in. And the looks on their faces when we told them we had to go was heart-breaking. One little boy I had hung out with quite a bit asked me to play a game with him a few minutes before we were leaving. I had to tell him "no" because we had to leave but that if he asked one of the other kids to play, I'm sure they would. He just looked up at me with the saddest face and said "but I want to play with you". Ugh....I felt TERRIBLE!!!

Before we headed back to Lincoln, we spent a night in Sparks, Nebraska where we did a debriefing session. We also had some fun time and went tubing down the Niobrara River. That was a riot. A couple of the high school boys from our group decided they were "pirates" and jumped into the river and ambushed many of us on our rafts. It was pretty funny. I'm not so sure the high school girls found it as funny though.

Whew, so that was our first experience with mission work. It was emotionally and physically draining, but it was so worth it. We feel so blessed that we were given the opportunity to go to Parmelee and spend time with the children there. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera on the trip so I don't have any pictures that I can post on here, but if you're on Facebook there are a few pictures that some of the others from our group shared with me that you can see in my Facebook photos. Our group plans to go back to Parmelee. We would love to go with them, but it will all depend on where we're at with the adoption.

Speaking of the adoption....we have some news, but can't quite share it yet. I know, you probably want to hit me for leaving you hanging like that, but check back in a week or so and we'll have the details!

Love,
Brooke

Viva Las Vegas

2009-06-13T19:19:00.023-05:00

Hey there. Sorry I haven’t blogged in so long, but I have been ultra busy over the last month and it takes a sweet eternity to upload pictures onto this blog, so I had to wait for a time when I had more than 30 minutes to spare.

Anyhoo...we recently returned from yet another trip to Vegas. I know, I know…we go there a lot (this is our 3rd time in the last 10 months…it’s possible we may have a problem). As usual, a good time was had by all (at least, I hope). This time, the party crew included Matt & Kelly Reynolds, Michael and Keri Roper , Heather Reynolds and her boyfriend, Rob, Mike Reynolds, Greg’s cousin Katie and her hubby Brian, and Greg’s uncle Dick and aunt Cindy. Oh yes, it was quite a crew.

We stayed at the Flamingo this time and I’ll admit I was a little wary of it at first because of the outside appearance. However, I was pleasantly surprised by our room (you’ll see pics in a minute). Plus, the location on the strip was great and the pool was pretty decent. And the price was unbeatable.

Here are some pics of our room:

Our bed....

The very large T.V....

And quite possibly the coolest part of the room, the bathroom. Notice the T.V. in the bathroom mirror. Pretty cool, huh?

Our first day there, several of us went to the pool despite some rather chilly temps (under 80 degrees…chilly for Vegas) and soaked up some sun while catching up with everyone. Later in the afternoon, we went over to Greg’s uncle Tom and aunt Carol’s house for a night of delicious dinner, hilarious conversation and, of course, pranks. Here are some pics of the evening.

Greg and I......

Under the "archway" of hollyhocks....

Matt and Kelly.....

Heather and Rob......

Kelly, me, Heather.....

Katie and Brian.....

Dick, Brian, Katie and Cindy.....

Rob and Brian each got to experience the decades-old Reynolds family traditions of the “ferret/chuckwalla” and “funnel” pranks. They can now consider themselves “initiated”. I have never had the pleasure of experiencing the funnel prank, but I did fall victim to the ferret/chuckwalla prank about 12 years ago.

I must say, Tom has the chuckwalla prank down to an art. He builds his victim up for an hour or two, talking about how the chuckwalla gets all “stirred up” around large crowds and how we have to let him settle down for awhile before he lets him out. Then, when the time is right, he puts on this heavy duty glove and takes the caged chuckwalla out into the grassy area of the back yard. The victim steps closer to the cage as Tom slowly opens it. Then, a stuffed monkey that makes a crazy monkey noise comes flying out of the cage directly at the vicitm who usually either screams or jumps back in horror. Rob is a pretty laid back guy so he just took a couple of steps back. It was still pretty funny though.

Below is a picture of Rob experiencing the chuckwalla for the first time.

Greg's dad has the exact same chuckwalla trap/cage at his house. When Greg and I first began dating, I fell victim to the prank as well. Only back then it was supposed to be a ferret in the cage and the thing that came flying out at me looked like an old, ratty raccoon tail.

Brian was the victim of the good old "funnel" prank. It started with Greg challenging Brian to see who could roll a quarter down their nose and into a funnel that was strategically placed in the waistband of their pants. Then, when they started rolling the quarter, Tom poured a cup of warm water into the funnel in Brian's pants. I couldn't get a picture of that one because I was too close to where Brian was standing and I was afraid of giving away the prank. It was really funny though and Brian was a really good sport about the whole thing. Good times.

Here is a picture of the whole crew at Tom and Carol's house....

And everyone saying "chuckwalla"....

Our second night there, we ate dinner at "Nine Fine Irishmen" at New York, New York. Here we are after dinner.....

Greg and I....

Then we went to see dueling pianos at a little bar in New York, New York. If you like music at all, then it's pretty much impossible not to have a good time watching dueling pianos. And these guys were great! The highlight was when all four performers of the night joined together to do "Bohemian Rhapsody". My favorite part was the a cappella section at the beginning of the song. The guys did a great job with it. Here's a good pic of them performing the song.....

One other thing you can always count on while watching dueling pianos is the fact that one or more individuals in the audience will make fools out of themselves to the benefit of everyone else. On this particular night, a couple of those people happened to be a 60-something year old lady and a 20-something year old guy who took turns giving each other lap dances to the song "You Can Leave Your Hat On". In their defense, the piano guys asked for two volunteers to do this. These two really took it seriously though. And, man, was it funny-slash-disturbing. Here is the evidence below....

Oh no she di'int. Oh yes, she did!

Our last night was pretty low key. We went to dinner at the Bellagio buffet and then Matt, Kelly, Keri and Michael went downtown while me, Greg, Mike, Heather and Rob looked around at Planet Hollywood for a bit and then went back to the Flamingo to do some gamblin'. All in all, it was a really fun trip. Can't wait to do it again!

And, apparently, we weren't the only ones who had fun. After I picked Jackson up from the kennel, he was so exhausted that I caught him sleeping while sitting up! And he was sporting a new, edgy scarf with blue and yellow "flame" pattern. Very hip.

And finally, an update on the adoption process. We finally turned in our dossier (i.e. heaps of paperwork) and it is currently in Thailand so we are officially on the waiting list. Woo hoo! That's a huge step and we are thrilled. Now all we do is wait....and wait....and wait :-)

Love to all,

Brooke

The Half-Marathon Experience

2009-05-05T17:07:00.014-05:00

Well, I did it people. I ran the Lincoln half-marathon and I finished. And I didn't walk at all. Ran the whole flippin way. And it was painful. But, man was it exhilarating. Word of warning: this is a long post, but I want to document all the details for my own memories :-)

I have to admit, I was really nervous the morning of the race. Which is just stupid because it wasn't like I was off to perform brain surgery or something. All I had to do was put on my Ipod and run for a while with 6,499 other masochists. Big whoop, right? Well, although I had been training for several weeks, I hadn't really been following the training plan as closely as I should have. The longest run I had ever completed was the weekend prior to the half-marathon and that was 10 miles. I was pretty scared I wouldn't be able to squeeze an extra 3.1 miles out of myself on race day. Here I am before we left for the race....

So here is how the day played out....

The race started and ended on UNL's campus in front of the football stadium. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was a cool 55 degrees at the start and around 60 or so by finish. All runners (marathoners and half-marathoners) had to line up according to "projected pace" by 6:45am. Apparently this was a record-setting year for number of participants. It was sheer craziness.

So, I lined up at the end of the 8 minute / beginning of 9 minute pace area and said a quick prayer....please, God, don't let me be "that guy". You know, the one who collapses and winds up on the 6:00 news. Oh and by the way, my wonderful hubby not only got up super early on a Sunday to drive me to the race and see me off, but he stayed for the entire race and took pictures. And ate his weight in the various breakfast items that were offered there.
Here I am on my way to line up...

At 7:10, the race began. It took an entire 6 minutes for me to even get to the start line. Then, we were off. There were people lined up all over town to cheer us on. I gotta say, that was so cool. It was a great energy booster. People had signs and noise makers and dressed up in costumes. There was some random old dude playing the bagpipes and some other people brought their speakers out of their houses and blasted music for us. So cool.

I felt really good for the majority of the run. There were some people who looked like they were struggling by, like, mile 3. I felt bad for them because, man, they had a loooong couple of hours ahead of them. But also, I had to pass the strugglers as quickly as possible because I knew that I too was going to look like that in a few miles and I really didn't want to think about it.

It was around mile 11 that I hit my "wall". I have a runner's watch that allows me to set an alarm if my pace dips below a certain mark and I felt like throwing that stupid thing on the side of the road during the last 2 miles because it kept going off every minute or so. I remember at one point I was going up a hill and had resorted to doing the "old man shuffle-run". You know what I'm talking about. It probably would have been faster to just walk up the hill, but I knew if I started walking, I wouldn't be able to start running again.

So, to make this very long story short... I was able to run the full 13.1 miles and finished 1639th out of 4812 runners in the half marathon. I met my time goal of finishing in under 2 hours...barely. And I mean barely. My time was 1:59:21. My pace was 9:07/mile. I was a little disappointed in my pace because I know I'm capable of running a better pace than that, but that's my own fault for not training like I should have. Here I am approaching the final loop (I'm in the hot pink shorts)....

Me and some girl passing me. Whatever.

And on my way to the finish line....

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention...there were two guys who ran the half-marathon who decided it was wise to dress up as Darth Vader and a storm trooper, complete with masks. They ran in full costume the whole way. And they still beat me. Show offs. Greg snapped a shot of them below sans masks.....

And here I am after finishing. The minute I stopped running, I got this shooting pain in my left knee that eventually went away by the end of the day, thank goodness. I was a little sore in the hamstrings on Monday but really the only bothersome pain I had was sore lungs of all things. I mean I guess it makes sense and all but it was a weird feeling. I'm all better today though.

If you ever find yourself toying with the idea of running a half-marathon, I say DO IT!!! If I can do it, anyone can. Seriously, I'm not just saying that. I have NEVER been a good runner. Ever. Heck, there was a time not too long ago when running 3 miles seemed impossible to me. It's amazing what you can train your body to do. Just give yourself time and it will happen. Plus, and excuse me for saying this, if there is ever a time in my life where I felt like a bad-ass...this was it...totally worth it!! And now, I am officially addicted to running.

Love,

Brooke

Stalker at the Race

2009-04-19T16:24:00.005-05:00

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you've all had a great weekend so far.

Yesterday, I participated in a local 10k race. A 10k is 6.2 miles so I was a little nervous since I'm pretty new to this whole running thing. It had been raining pretty steadily right up until the start of the race but we lucked out because it stopped just before the race began. The 10k race usually brings out a lot of competitive runners, so my goal was just to finish in the upper half. I was very pleased when I came in 195th out of 470 runners. My time was 53:22 for an average pace of 8:36 per mile. This pace was even better than my 5k time from a couple of weeks ago, so I was really proud of myself. I will admit though that I am feeling it today. Here is a pic Greg took of me right before the race. You will notice that Jackson always manages to make his way into my running photos.

At the race, I noticed a woman there who lives in our neighborhood. Not only does she live in our neighborhood, but she also goes to the same gym as me and we have taken a few of the same classes there as well. I've never met her before, but since I see her everywhere and since she appears to be around my age, I figured I'd introduce myself after the race. Unfortunately, the conversation didn't quite play out as I had hoped. Here is how it went....

Me: Hi, I just thought I'd introduce myself because I think we live in the same neighborhood and go to the same gym. Do you live in Parker's Landing?

Neighbor lady (smiling): Yes, I do! I live on 79th and Hunter's Ridge.

Me: Yeah, I know. I live on Nob Hill. My name is Brooke.

Neighbor lady: I'm neighbor lady, nice to meet you. So, do you know Chris & Jessica Such and Such?

Me: Uh, no.

Neighbor lady: How about Rick and Christy So and So?

Me: Hmm. No, I don't think so.

***About this time, neighbor lady's friend, who is standing right beside her, asks "Where exactly on Nob Hill do you live?" Only, she didn't say it in a manner of curiosity, but more like she didn't believe me.***

Me (nervously): Ummm, well, it's at the end of one of the cul-de sacs (note: there are about 5 cul-de-sacs on Nob Hill) but I can't remember the name of the cul-de-sac. Actually, you and I have the exact same house but yours is made of stucco and mine is made of brick (just as those words leave me lips, I think..too much, Brooke, too much).

***about this time, neighbor lady is looking at me like I just might be a crazy person who is planning to break into her house and kill her***

Neighbor lady: Oh, okay. Well, um, maybe we can go running together sometime.

Me: Yeah, definitely. Well, anyways, I just wanted to say hi so.....it was nice meeting you.

Neighbor lady(looking sideways at her friend and smirking): Uh huh.

Ok, so that was my version of the conversation. I'm sure neighbor lady's version of the conversation included me saying "Hi, I'm Brooke. Nice to stalk you."

After the conversation I walked slowly away with a "deer in headlights" look thinking "what just happened???" Then I ambled over to the food area for no apparent reason, at which point I decided... Time. To. Go.

As I started the long walk to back to my car, all I could do was replay in my mind one of the famous Chris Farley skits from Saturday Night Live..."Dangit...That sounded so stupid!!". About that time, I saw someone running at me, pretending like they were some sort of "bird of prey". It was Greg. He had come to watch me cross the finish line. And although the eagle/falcon/hawk scene would have been embarassing under normal circumstances, I was just too shaken up to care.

So, I proceed to share with Greg that I introduced myself to neighbor lady. He says, "that's great...I'm proud of you". I was starting to feel better about myself, like maybe it wasn't so bad after all. That is, until I re-enacted the conversation to Greg, at which point he lets out a muffled laugh and says "Okay, stalker".

Great. Guess I'll be finding a new place to walk the dog.

Brooke

Spring has Sprung

2009-04-15T18:50:00.007-05:00

Why are the subjects of this photo so happy? Because spring is here!! The grass is starting to green up and flowers are starting to peek up from their winter hiding places. In the words and tone of Will Ferrell a la "Old School"....it's glorious!! I just love this time of year. There is that collective feeling of giddiness among everyone as they start working on their lawns and going for bike rides and runs, etc. LOVE. IT.

Below is a picture of our magnolia bush that is situated by our front door. I had to take a picture because the flowers don't last long. One good thunderstorm and those babies are long gone. They're so pretty while they last though!

This next photo is my very favorite. I was on my way to work this morning and just as I rounded a corner in our neighborhood, this is what I saw......

It was sooo beautiful and HUGE that I think I audibly gasped. Then I turned around, went home, and grabbed my camera. What a great way to start the day!

Hope you all had a great Easter last weekend. Greg and I stayed around here this year, so we just went to church and then Greg had to drive back to Bloomington for a class this week. The Easter sermon was really good. We hadn't been to church for a few weeks so it was nice to be back.

I'm supposed to run in a 10k race on Saturday, but they're predicting thunderstorms starting Friday night and lasting through Saturday....of course. Running in the cold is one thing but running 6 miles in a torrential downpour is where I draw the line. We'll see what happens I guess.

Have a good one!

Brooke

Panthers and Gators and Lizards, Oh My!

2009-04-10T18:47:00.021-05:00

Ok, so the title of this post is kind of a tease. Last week, we made our way down to warm, sunny Estero, Fl to visit Greg's mom, dad, and sister, Heather. Greg's brother, Mike, joined us all down there as well. No, we didn't actually see a panther (although we did hear some stories about panther sightings in the area) but Greg saw a gator and I saw multiple lizards....so there.

We had such a wonderful, relaxing time. We spent our days hot tubbing.......

Sleeping.......

Swimming.......

Molesting statues of alligators. I mean......gambling at a local casino.......

Channeling John Candy in the movie "Summer Rental"........

And many other things. Greg spent a lot of time golfing, but I don't have any pictures of that. He did want me to mention, however, that he golfed well enough that if Matt had been there, Greg would have beat him. I don't know...that sounds like a challenge to me, Matt!

Ok, enough talk. Just enjoy the pics.....

Thanks to Jerry and Peggy for such a wonderful time. We can't wait to visit again!!

Love,

Greg and Brooke

The Early Bird....Gets Frostbite

2009-03-28T14:04:00.006-05:00

Hey there everyone!

Well, this morning I decided to participate in the State Farm 5K run. I'm pretty sure I got the bright idea to sign up for it during one of the beautiful, sunny, 70 degree days we had a few weeks ago. Needless to say, I was none too happy when I finally realized that I would have to run the race in "less than favorable" conditions.

I must say that we are extremely lucky that we haven't been hit with the ridiculous snow storm that has recently plagued the Dakotas and Kansas (those states are our neighbors to the immediate north and south in case you're not up on your Nebraska geography). However, we did not escape the bitter cold and wind. This morning, at the time of the race, it was 25 degrees with 20 mph winds (it felt like 12 degrees with that wind...at least that's what the weather channel told me). Ok, now that is COLD, people. And I don't do cold. In fact, I'm pretty sure the last time I ran in the cold it was the winter of 1995 and I was running with my friends from our sorority house to whatever frat house was having a party that night.

But, I decided to suck it up and run the race. And, given the fact that it was insanely cold, windy and I was weighed down with about 5 extra layers of clothes, I didn't do as badly as I thought I would. I'm not positive of my exact time, but I think it was somewhere between 27:10 and 27:15 for an average pace of 8:47 per mile (UPDATE: I just got my official time and it was actually 26:52 for an average pace of 8:39 per mile.. WOO HOO!!!) . That may sound slow to some of you who are runners, but I probably should have prefaced this whole story with the fact that I have always been a very bad runner. I'm good at most forms of exercise, but definitely not running. So I was pretty happy with my time.

My next race is the Novartis 10K on April 18th and after that, I'm doing the Lincoln Half-Marathon in early May. Yes, I just may be off my rocker.

Here are some humorous photos taken this morning right before I left for the race:

Above: Rocky Balboa??

Nope, just some crazy lady dressed like a fool. I also have to point out that I am indeed wearing my AXO windbreaker that I purchased in 1994 when I first joined the sorority. It very well could be the best purchase I've ever made. I have worn the heck out of that thing. And it has served me well!

For some reason, Greg felt it necessary to get a close up. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Ok, so that's all about my race. Topic switch...my brother's episode of the Price is Right was aired this past Thursday. It was so funny to see him on there. One of his friends posted it on Facebook. I'll try to get the clip posted on here sometime in the coming weeks.

And finally, tomorrow we leave on a week long vacation to visit Greg's family in sunny southern Florida. I am pumped. We both could use a vacation like no ones business. I'll be sure to post lots of pics when we get back.

Later,

Brooke

March Madness

2009-03-15T13:29:00.005-05:00

Hello!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful month of March. I, for one, am thrilled to be done with February for two main reasons: First, February is my birthday month and I no longer enjoy getting older (I must point out that although I don't like growing older, I DID have a wonderful birthday so I really shouldn't complain). Second, now that we're in March, the long stretches of frigid temps should be behind us. Yipppeeee!!!

I got a chance to go home and visit my family back in Illinois a couple of weekends ago, which was so nice. We spent a lot of quality time together and had a lot of fun. Oh, and while I'm on the topic of family, I'm happy to report that my dad just had an appendectomy, hernia surgery and removal of a portion of his colon (this was all done in one surgery) and he came through it with flying colors. He only had to stay in the hospital for the minimum amount of days (3) and is now at home and continuing to heal. Praise God!!

Last weekend, I got together with my best friends from college and we went to Vegas. I always look so forward to our weekends together because they only happen once a year. We all live in different parts of the country, so getting together once a year is about all we can do, but we always have such a good time.

This time around, we may have had a little TOO much fun. Let's just say that Vegas reminded us in a not so subtle manner that we are no longer 21 years old. We decided that we were going to "re-live" our spring break 1997 trip. Ummm, let's just say we did that...and then some. For spring break 1997, we decided we were going to be more awesome than all other spring breakers from Millikin and go to Vegas instead of the usual Florida or S. Padre Island, TX. And not only did we go to Vegas...we totally road-tripped it mini-van style. No planes for us...we were too cool back then (aka.. broke). I think it took us like 24 hours to get there. We drove straight through.

Most of our friends were VERY jealous back then and thought we were pretty awesome too. I can guarantee that NO ONE thought we were awesome this weekend. Not even us. But, we had a good time, so that's what's important.

Here are a couple of pics from the weekend:

Below from left: Dusty, Emilie, Me, Erin. Eating at Buchon in the Venetian. GREAT restaurant. The food was outstanding and our waiter was hilarious. I would definitely recommend eating there.

Below: Our first (and most physically damaging) night there. I think we had been awake for almost 24 hours straight at this point. We were at Harrah's watching the dueling pianists. That place is so much fun!! Some really drunk guy decided to get up on one of the pianos and moon the audience while attempting to dance. Gotta love a multi-tasker.

Girls, I had such a great time with you, as always. Can't wait to do it again next year :-)

Love to all,

Brooke

Come on Down

2009-02-20T18:15:00.012-06:00

Ok, so I have a couple of topics to discuss in this post so just try to stick with me. First of all, I'd like to point out that I'm home alone on a Friday night with a nice cold beer in hand and LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT. Does this make me a loser? Maybe. But I don't care.

The first item of business is regarding the adoption process. In my last post, I voiced some frustration with how things were going. I've done a lot of praying about it and finally got to the point where I just had to ask God for a clear sign. I normally don't ask for "signs", but I was just SOOOO confused on how things were (or were NOT) progressing. I was starting to feel very uneasy about Nepal but we just couldn't see any other options that felt "right".

Well, about 2 days after praying for said "sign", we got a phone call from our social worker who, interestingly, voiced the adoption agency's growing concerns with the stability of the Nepal program. She said it was up to us if we wanted to continue with it, but thought we should consider some other options. Then she proceeded to lay out what options they felt might be in our best interest. One of these options was the Thailand program. Now, as far as we knew, our agency was not taking applications for the Thailand program because of a severe backlog of families still waiting for a referral. However, our social worker said the backlog is starting to thin out, so they would allow us in the program if we were interested. Clear sign? In my opinion....yes! I had always been interested in Thailand, but didn't know it was an option until now.

Now, does this mean we expect the Thailand program to be smooth sailing? Nope. But we DO feel much more comfortable and at peace with our decision to move to the Thailand program. Unfortunately, the timeline there is very lengthy. Once we get our dossier in (hopefully in the next 2 months), we're looking at about another 2 years until we get to bring our child home. It's a stable program though and I feel good about it. More to come on that.

Next item on the agenda: Another notch on my brother's "brush with fame" belt. I'm sure most of you already know what I'm talking about. Yes my friends, COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE THE NEXT CONTESTANT ON THE PRICE IT RIGHT!!!

Let me elaborate for those of you not "in the know". My brother, Jimmy, was in L.A. last week visiting some friends. The first day there, they decided to try to get on the Price is Right. They waited in line all day, but ended up victorious.....they got in! But wait, it gets better. Who do they choose as one of the contestants?? That's right...my brother! And who makes it all the way to the SHOWCASE SHOWDOWN??? Yep....my brother!! Unfortunately, he didn't win the showdown, but still.....the showcase showdown, people!!!! How cool is that??

He called to tell me about it just as they were leaving the building. What was the first question I asked him? Not, "Was Drew Carey nice?", or "What game did you play?". No. After repeating the phrase "shut up", "shut up" about a thousand times, I asked him if it was "hard to spin the wheel?" Come on, you know you've always wondered that too! When I watched TPIR as a kid I always thought it looked hard to spin the wheel and envisioned myself somehow getting dragged under it if I ever made it on the show. Yes, I've always been neurotic.

I also have to point out that this sort of thing happens to my brother ALL THE TIME. If I had a dime for every time I got a phone call from Jimmy that started with the phrase "You'll never guess who I just met", I'd be a...well...I'd have about 70 cents or so. He has met so many famous people and has gotten to do so many cool things it is borderline bizarre. Talking with Ben Affleck at a bar in Georgia, dancing with Gary Senise and his wife in Belize (I think it was Belize anyway), having some beers with the members of Velvet Revolver backstage....the list goes on and on.

And, yes, I am jealous. Oh, and my brother's episode airs on March 26th. Set your DVRs!!

Much Love,

Brooke

Updates and Daydreams

2009-01-27T17:28:00.010-06:00

I'm just gonna come out and say it. This is how the adoption process is starting to make me feel....

Yep.....beat!!! I felt like I had been doing a pretty good job of just rolling with the punches. I'm an impatient perfectionist by nature (I know...not the best characteristics of someone who has to weather years..yep, years..of the roller coaster that is international adoption) so I knew this would be very challenging for me. I had actually been really calm about the whole thing up until the last few weeks when Nepal announced that it would only be placing 10 children per agency for the year 2009......yes, 10.
Well, thank God our agency only took 28 applications and stopped because as it stands now we will NOT be included in the 2009 group and maybe not even in the 2010 group (it all depends on when we get our dossier done). The worst case scenario is that we will be in the 2011 group, which would mean we would probably have our child home sometime in 2012. I know, it's enough to make a person scream and believe me, I have.
This is basically the universal state of international adoption right now. Lots of unknowns and extremely lengthly wait times. There is only one thing that keeps me sane in this process and that is knowing that this is in God's hands. He is orchestrating this whole thing so we are joined with the child that He has chosen for us. That child may or may not be in Nepal. We just don't know. We just have to trust Him and let Him work it all out. In the words of a Steven Curtis Chapman song..."to Him the future is history". He already knows how this will play out and that is truly a comfort because like it says in Romans 8:28 "All things work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose". It doesn't get any better than that :-)
At this point, we are very close to having our dossier done which is a HUGE relief!! Even though we'll likely have to re-do most of it (because it all has to be renewed after a year), it will be one enormous hurdle behind us! Yipppeeee!!!

So there ya go...the first big adoption update in awhile!

As you've probably already figured out, I LOVE to include photos in my posts. Since we don't have any interesting ones that are recent, and since it has been sooo ridiculously cold over the last few days, I thought it would be fun to share some sunny photos from one of the best vacations we have ever been on.

These were taken 2 summers ago when Greg's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Claude graciously invited us to join them on their GORGEOUS yacht for a week long trip to the Bahamas. We're not talkin' the "touristy" part of the Bahamas, we're talkin' the parts that pretty much only people with yachts get to see. So kick back, relax, and soak up some sunshiny goodness..........

Above: Uncle Claude, me, Aunt Debbie, Greg enjoying a beautiful sunset at one of the marinas.

Doesn't this pic just make you sigh? Good gracious it's gorgeous there.

That beautiful blue water.

My very favorite island....Harbor Island. There are no cars on the island (only golf carts) and to get there you have to fly into the tiny airport and then take a taxi to get to the place where you have to take a water taxi to get there. You can't tell in this pic, but the sand there is light pink because of a certain kind of coral that lives off the shore. And notice how empty the beach is? It's a hidden treasure. Paradise people, pure paradise!!!!!

Dinner on the balcony of the Rock House on Harbor Island. Rock House is a boutique hotel with only like 10 rooms. They also have an amazing restaurant with a beautiful view of the ocean. Food was to die for!!! I would love to go back someday and stay in the hotel.

Sunset on the balcony of Rock House.

Hope these pics left you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside.

Love to all,

Brooke

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T18:17:00.013-06:00

Christmas 2008 was fairly uneventful at the Reynolds' house. We had to stay here in Lincoln because I had surgery the day after Christmas. Not the best way to spend the holiday, but it was nice to get the surgery over with before the end of the year. We had a nice, relaxing Christmas here at home...just the three of us (I'm counting Jackson). Here are some pics of our holiday.
Above is a picture of our main family room all decorated for the Christmas season.

Above: Proof that Santa exists...one of his reindeer was left behind.

This delicious container of cookies was Jackson's main gift for Christmas. Don't they look yummy? Hard to believe they are dog cookies!!

Dig the tee shirt we bought for Jackson. I couldn't help myself. Just too funny!!!

Above: Me showing off some of my gifts. A Banana Republic gift card (thank you Jerry and Peggy!!!) and DVDs Superbad and Under the Tuscan Sun (thanks Mike!!)

Above: Greg opening his new wallet (thanks mom and dad!!)

Me sporting my new Ugg earmuffs. Talk about super soft and comfy! Thanks again, Mike!!

Greg posing with his new Cubby ornament. Thanks again mom and dad!

We couldn't figure out how the timer worked on our camera so above is our poor attempt at trying to get ourselves in the same photo.

Me holding my furry little son.

That's all folks! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Brooke

Thanksgiving

2008-12-07T18:48:00.014-06:00

Hello everyone! Okay, so I meant to post this right after Thanksgiving. I'm a little late...sorry about that! I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day. We sure did! We went back home to Illinois for the extended weekend and it was a great time. Here are some pics...

Above: Cousins Jimmy, Brooke, Kelsey, Justin and Sara. My mom and dad hosted Thanksgiving for my mom's side of the family this year. We always have so much fun when we get together. Lots of laughs for sure!!

Above: Me and my brother, Jimmy. Isn't he such a good dresser? He picks out all his own clothes too. I'm so proud!

Above: Mom, me, Jimmy and Dad. Oh, and Pepper the "devil dog" in the left hand corner. She is actually the sweetest dog in the world but she looks like a crazed beast in this picture!

Above we have Rory on vocals and Savanna on guitar. We spent A LOT of time playing Rock Star Hero (at least, I think that's what it's called). My mom's side of the family is pretty musically inclined so this was right up our alley. SO MUCH FUN!!

Yes folks, that is Mr. Greg Reynolds on drums. He was very into it! So much so that he dressed up for the occasion. Awesome.

Above: The Wheeler clan.

We had a little surprise birthday party for Carlie on Thanksgiving. She was so excited when she walked in the door and we all started singing "Happy Birthday". She had this huge smile on her face. Such a little cutie!!

Above: The Rade clan. We got together with my dad's side of the family the day after Thanksgiving. It was really nice to see everyone and spend some time catching up. We don't get a chance to get together very often and it's so nice when we do! We had a great time!

And last but not least....Greg and I.

Yesterday and today, Greg and I finally broke down and did some Christmas decorating. I can't believe how fast Christmas is sneaking up on us this year. I didn't feel ready for it at all until we put up the tree and played some Christmas music....that got us more in the mood for the season.

I also wanted to point out a blog that I added to my list of blogs that I follow. It's called Bring the Rain and it's written by a woman named Angie Smith. Her husband is a singer in a band called Selah. She originally started the blog when she and her husband found out that the daughter she was pregnant with would not be able to survive after she was born. Although the circumstances under which the blog was created are horribly sad, it's so inspiring to hear Angie's testimony of faith as she and her family work through the sometimes heart-breaking and, more often, joy-filled journey called life. I would recommend starting with some of her first few posts so you understand the situation she's coming from. After that, you'll probably want to read ALL of her posts. She's an incredibly talented writer. Some of my favorite posts that I highly recommend checking out are: "The Chicken" (it's hilarious), "Blink", and my very favorite, "Ransomed".

Hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Love,

Brooke

Hair-u-mentary

2008-11-16T13:49:00.008-06:00

Here it is ladies and gentleman....a documentary of my hairstyles throughout the years. Not that any of you cared what my hair looked like growing up, but I thought it would be fun to provide you some laughter at my expense :-) So, sit back, laugh and enjoy....
NOTE: I recommend double-clicking on the photos to enlarge them. That way, you get the full effect.

The year was 1978 and I was 2 years old. This is a little bit longer version of the Dorothy Hamill cut that most girls in the late 1970's/early 80's sported. My mom kept me in this cut for years to come.

Yep, still the same hair cut. I'm 5 years old here and I still had this cut for another year before letting it grow out. Dig the 70's-style jogging suit....sweet! Here I am in 3rd grade. I was a big fan of pig-tails in those years. I had pretty long hair then, so it was a good way to keep it out of my face while I was playing. This was the last of my non-awkward years for a long, long time. Poor kid, I had no idea what was coming.

Oh yeah...the "Annie" cut....awesome. When I went to get my first perm, I wanted to keep my long hair and just put waves in it. This was the result. I was so upset that I bawled in front of the hair dresser responsible for this monstrosity. I mark this as the beginning of my downward spiral into full on awkwardness. Check out my necklace too. Remember those? They were those ugly plastic necklaces that you put a bunch of different plastic charms on. I remember one of the charms I had was a toilet. Classy.

Two words folks...Rug Rat!! I have no idea what I'm wearing but, whatever it is, there is no excuse for it. This was taken at my grandma and grandpa's church camp. They had one of those huge slides that they have at the fair. We spent hours on that thing. I was in fourth grade here.

Houston, we have a problem. Seriously, I don't know how I didn't get beat up or at least picked on as a kid. There are just so many things wrong with this picture I don't know where to begin. I don't know which is worse, the mullet or the teeth. I'm going to go with the mullet because it was actually a choice. As far as the teeth are concerned, all I have to say is thank god for dentists, and braces, and retainers, and crowns....

Ok, on to junior high where I'm sorry to say things on the hair front were still looking pretty bleak. I believe I was trying to grow out a perm here. My hair looked and felt like a perpetual rat's nest. The best I could do was pull the sides back into the mini side-ponytail and leave it at that.

This picture shows just how fried my hair was at this point. I was in eighth grade here and my hair was literally orange because we had well water and the iron would build up in my hair over time. I used to have to get my hair stripped of the iron every 6 months or so before we got city water where we lived. Frizzy, orange hair aside...this picture was taken in D.C. at the "tomb of the unknown soldier". Me and 3 other classmates got to participate in the wreath laying ceremony. It was really cool.

Ok, on to high school. I had finally rid myself of the frizzines but still held on to the big bangs of the 80's. It took a while to let the 80's hair go as you'll see in these next few photos.

I was a sophomore here. It was prom 1992 and I still had a firm grasp on the 80's hair and attire. It's funny because my "every day" hair all through high school was long and straight. However, anytime I had to dress up for any reason, I broke out the hot rollers and went full on 80's.

This was my class picture from my sophomore year. I'm proud of myself for attempting the no bangs look. Now if only I could pry my little fingers off the hot rollers!!

Nope, no such luck. This is my senior prom 1994 and the hot rollers were alive and well. I loved that dress.

On to college. This is the typical sorority mug shot. Velvet, off the shoulder drape, pearls and slightly tilted head. Barf. This was my freshman year.

Sing it with me folks "I'll be there for yoouuu". The year was 1996 and it was time for the "Rachel" cut. For those of you who were living under a rock in 1996, the "Rachel" was a ridiculously popular hairstyle in the mid-90's. It was the haircut of Jennifer Aniston's character "Rachel" on the show "Friends". The true embarassment in this picture, however, is the mop in Greg's head. Hee, hee. Hilarious!!

This is me on our honeymoon in 1998. I hated my hair like this and it's a shame that all of my wedding pictures are graced with this haircut that made me look like a 12 year old.

I think this was taken in 2002. It's hard to see my hair here, but it was a cute, short little flippy type haircut that I sported for about a year until I got sick of not being able to wear it in a ponytail.

And here is where we are today.

Hope you all got a good laugh. Nothing really new to report. The adoption process is still moving right along. We'll be starting the homestudy as soon as we get our medical check-ups completed. My next blog will probably be after Thanksgiving.

Love ya,

Brooke

Reunited and it Feels so Good!

2008-10-14T17:39:00.004-05:00

This past weekend was my 10 year college reunion. This means one thing....I am OLD!! I had been debating on whether or not to go back and was leaning towards not going until I got connected with some girls from my sorority over Facebook a couple of weeks ago. When I found out they were going, I decided to go ahead and go. I'm so glad I did. We all picked up right where we left off. I hadn't seen any of them since we graduated but it almost felt like no time had passed at all! Everyone looked so good. I couldn't believe how much everyone either looked the same or better than they did 10 years ago! Here are some pics of our weekend...
From left to right: Becky, Erika, me, Jen and Susan. Hanging out at Block's Brewery.

Above: On the stairs at Alpha Chi Omega (our sorority). We always used to have our pictures taken on the stairs during college so we thought it would be a nice throw-back to the good old days.

Above: Becky showing off a sign that we stole from a bar. She had been talking about taking it all night and finally, Rebecca ripped it off the wall and stuffed it into my gigantic purse. Mission accomplished!

The Alpha Chi house. My happy home for 5 semesters.

At the Winery. From left: Erika, Susan , me, Becky, Jen, Sarah, and Rebecca. The Winery was an old hang out of ours. It's a dumpy little dive bar just off campus with the cheapest beer and burgers on the planet! The place hadn't changed a bit except that it is now non-smoking.

I also got a chance to spend some quality time with family over the weekend. My mom and dad had the family over to their house for a weenie roast. It was so nice to see everyone! It's always a good time when our family gets together. Here are some pics:

Above, the designated weenie-roasters.

Me and my brother, Jimmy.

Savanna and Carly take a break from playing soccer.

My uncle John gets a make-over from Carly, Savanna, and Rory.

Above: Some of the cousins...me, Sara, Jimmy, Justin and Kelsey.

It was a fabulous weekend! One I'll remember for a very long time!

Love,

Brooke

Back in Business

2008-09-29T17:09:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone!

Yes, it's true, I have been a bad, bad blogger. I got a little side-tracked for about a month, but now I'm back!! A couple of my friends have been trying to get me to join Facebook and I finally broke down and did it. That's part of the reason I've been neglecting the blog....Facebook is seriously addicting! I had no idea so many old friends were on it. It has been really fun getting back in contact with people I haven't spoken to in years. Honestly, there hasn't been a whole lot going on here lately so I really haven't had a lot to blog about anyway.

On the adoption front, we finally turned in our application and have attended some classes that are required by the agency. We also turned in our first stack of forms and documents that are needed before we can begin the homestudy. We have officially decided to adopt from Nepal. The adoption timeline for that country is shorter than most and we will likely be matched with a child under the age of 2, which is what we were really hoping for. Those were the two main reasons for choosing Nepal. We'll keep you updated as things progress.

My parents came to visit over the weekend and we had a great time. We took them to the Omaha zoo on Saturday. Omaha has a surprisingly good zoo. It consistently ranks in the top 5 in the country. Here are some pics from our weekend:

Above: Greg, Me, and Dad posing in front of the indoor "rain forest".

This sun bear was soooo funny. He had climbed to the tippy top of a very high tree in his cage and was literally posing for all the people with cameras. He was just fascinated by everyone and was totally hamming it up. So cute!!!!! I was so nervous he was going to fall though.

Me in front of the waterfall in the rain forest display.

Monkeys napping in a tree.

The penguin display. The penguins were a riot. These three in the front were clearly the "guards". They kept their position the entire time while the rest of the penguins played.

Dad, me and mom in front of the penguin display.

That's pretty much it for now. I promise not to go another month before my next post. I think I'll be doing my hair-u-mentary sometime in the near future. Prepare yourselves.....

Love,

Brooke

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-01T17:46:00.008-05:00

Hey there!
Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend! Ours was a lot of fun!! We started off the weekend with dinner and a movie on Friday night. We saw "The House Bunny" and it was really funny, but you'd be better off waiting for it to come out on DVD if you're considering going to see it. On Saturday, we went to our first Husker football game......
Above: Greg and I excited for the game! We were expecting extreme craziness from what everyone here says, but honestly it was just like any other college football game. The only weird part was that there weren't any good places to tailgate. Unlike most college stadiums, there aren't any big parking lots outside the stadium because it's located in the middle of the downtown area. So they block off some of the streets downtown and there are tons of food and drink vendors amidst a sea of red. You would NOT want to be separated from the rest of your group there. Everyone is dressed the same and it's soooo crowded!

Here I am sporting my Nebraska gear for the game. I had a good time at the game but I must admit it seemed to go on forever. I've never really been much of a "sports" girl. Nebraska won pretty easily against Western Michigan. The game was completely sold out for the 290th consecutive time.....crazy!!!

And here is Greg sporting his gear. Out of approximately 85,000 people in the stadium, Greg was chosen to go on the field and play this game where there were three helmets and one had a pizza under it and Greg had to watch as they switched the helmets all around and then guess which one the pizza was under. All of this was on the jumbo screen for all to see! He didn't get it right, but he got a $50 gift card for a local pizza place and our whole row got a free slice of pizza. It was pretty funny!

Greg and I finally decided to break down and buy some bikes this weekend. I was soooo excited because I've been trying to convince Greg that we need bikes for years now. Above is Greg showing off his new bike. Doesn't he look enthused?

Here I am showing off mine. It's a very girly bike which wasn't what I originally had in mind when we went to the bike shop, but when I saw it and gave it a spin...I loved it. It's robin egg blue with brown leather handle bars and seat.

We went biking for about a half hour yesterday and quickly discovered how out of shape we are. One of the bike trails is fairly close to our house, but we have to go through a couple of neighborhoods to get there and there are some nasty hills. That was rough. Today, we went on a short ride together and then I continued on by myself for awhile. Before we actually rode the bikes, I was strongly considering riding mine to work. However, after I realized how disgustingly sweaty I am after riding, I no longer think that's such a good idea.

Well, that was pretty much our weekend. For the most part it was nice and relaxing. A great way to end the summer. I'm so ready for fall now. It's my favorite season. I love the crisp smell in the air, the changing leaves, bonfires, the clothes, etc. Welcome back fall, I've missed you!

That's all for now! Hope you all had a great weekend!

Love,

Brooke

A visit from Matt....and the Owl

2008-08-27T15:49:00.004-05:00

Hola everyone!

Things at the Reynolds' house have been busy. Fun, but busy. It took awhile to get caught up with work after being on vacation but things are looking better now.
Greg's brother, Matt, came to visit for a few days. It was really fun having him here. Greg had been looking forward to it for a while. He got in Thursday around dinner time, so we took him to dinner at Lazlo's (a local restaurant) and then watched some T.V. at home and called it a night. Greg and Matt played golf on Friday (Greg uncharacteristically got KILLED by a whopping 8 strokes!!) and then later in the afternoon they went to Omaha to play a little poker, or Pai Gow or something like that. On Saturday, we all went to see the movie "Tropic Thunder" which was hilarious and then we went to a cookout at a friend's house where everyone was THRILLED to hear that Greg got beat by someone in golf!! Thanks for coming to visit, Matt. We had a good time!

I forgot to take a picture while Matt was here, so above is a repeat picture from an earlier post. For those of you who don't know...Matt and Greg are identical twins. Can you tell which one is Greg??

Ok, I know the above picture is really dark, but if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you'll notice two glowing eyes and a faint outline of what looks like a small child. That is our neighborhood owl!! When we first moved here, we were warned by a neighbor that a very large owl lives in the area and has actually carried off a couple of pets!!! It wasn't long after that when we started hearing him hooting in the middle of the night. Then, all of a sudden, he disappeared and we didn't see/hear him for months. We thought he died. Not so...he showed up again a little over a week ago. This is the first time we have been able to capture him on film. He kept switching houses before we could snap his picture, but we finally got him!! He's HUGE!!!

And, here is the requisite picture of Jackson. I just took it a little while ago. When I walked in the door from work...this is what I saw on the couch. Quite an interesting little pose, huh? Yep, he's got a rough life...can't you tell??

No updates on the adoption process. We're still working on getting our application submitted. After that, the ball should start rolling and we'll have more info for you.

Love,

Brooke

Adoption!

2008-08-11T17:25:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone!

Greg and I have some exciting news. We've made the decision to start the adoption process. We were going to wait and post this until after we decided on an agency and a country, but who knows how long that will be, so we decided to go ahead and post it! Some of you were already aware that we had started fertility treatments a couple of months ago. We quickly found out that it wasn't going to work out for us because after the first round of treatment, the condition I have that makes it very difficult for me to have children was made worse by the treatment. We knew that could happen, but it wasn't supposed to happen after just one round of treatment. It's ok though. God has a different plan for our lives and His plan is ALWAYS better!!

We've always had adoption in the back of our minds and we're so excited about it! We know we are going to adopt internationally. We've looked into domestic adoption and there are just too many things about it that make it more of a risk than we're willing to accept. We think we've narrowed our country choice down to two: Russia or the Philippines. We keep going back and forth between the two. Either way, it's going to be a VERY long process. Depending on the country, it will likely be a minimum of 2 years to a maximum of 4 years. YIKES!! We would like to adopt a child as young as possible, which means the child would likely be around the age of 2 by the time he/she would come home. We don't have a gender preference. We're also considering being open to adopting a young sibling group of two (under the age of 5), but that is only if we decide to go with the Philippines (we can't afford it in Russia).

Whew, so there it is. That's our big news. We'll keep you updated as things develop. If you would, please keep us in your prayers.

Ok, in other news, Matt Reynolds has specifically requested an updated picture of our yard since we have been experiencing a shortage of rain recently. So, here you go, Matt. Still lush and beautiful!! You'll get to see the proof in person when you're out here in a couple of weeks!

And finally, here is another picture of Jackson. Nothing says pure bliss like being fat and lazy and getting a belly rub.

My next post will have our pictures from Vegas!! We leave on Thursday and get back next Monday!

Love,

Brooke

Busy Little Bees!!

2008-07-28T16:49:00.011-05:00

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I've been slacking on my blogging duties lately! I've been sooo busy the past couple of weeks. Last week, I helped out with vacation bible school at our church so my days were filled with work, followed by church....not much time for anything else! I helped out in one of the craft rooms for elementary aged kids. It was mass chaos, but the kids had a good time. Here are a couple of pictures from the night the kids made crosses filled with sand (noooo, that wasn't messy at all!!!).

This past weekend, we went out and got a new printer/scanner/copier. We needed one desperately. We had been without a printer since we got our new computer a year ago and it was getting pretty annoying. I'm excited to use the scanner too!! After we went and got a printer, we decided to go see "The Dark Knight". It definitely lives up to the hype! Great movie...go see it!! We also rented the movie "21" over the weekend (yes, we like movies!) We had already seen it at the theater, but we're going to Vegas in a little over a week so we decided to get ourselves psyched up for it by watching the movie. It's a really good movie too.

Four out of the five people in the picture above are going to Vegas.....Greg, me, Andrea (my sister-in-law) and my brother, Jimmy. We've never gone on a vacation as just the four of us before so we're really looking forward to it. And what better place to go than Vegas? It's been a couple of years since I've been there.....I LOVE VEGAS!!! The best things always happen when we're there. For example, one year I won $1200 (yes, that's twelve hundred!!) playing bingo with Greg's grandma. Then, another year, me, Greg's sister Heather and his brother Mike were all laying out at the pool at Bally's and this lady from VH-1 asked if we wanted to see a free Goo-Goo Dolls concert. They were looking for young adults to put in the front rows of the crowd because they were taping for some show. We got to sit in the front row!! I wonder what will happen this time around?

This is a picture I took last week of the "Jack-hole". This is pretty much what he does every morning while we get ready for work. Most of the time, we have to physically remove him from the bed to get him to go potty because all he wants to do is sleep. It's like we have a teenager in the house!!

I've been thinking of another fun post I can do and I think I'm going to do a "Hair-u-mentary". Kind of a documentary of my hairstyles over the years. I've seen it done on another blog I read and it is HILARIOUS!! I had some pretty bad hairstyles growing up....I mean, I grew up in the 80's/90's so bad hair is kind of a given. Not to mention, I definitely had some "awkward" years so it should be pretty funny! Not sure when I'm going to do it, but I'm looking forward to it. If you can't laugh at yourself, then what can you laugh at, right?

Well, that's it for now. I promise to post more often than I have been. Now that VBS is over, things should starting slowing down a bit!

Later--

Brooke

This and That

2008-07-20T16:40:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!
Not too much going on at the Reynolds house, but I decided to go ahead and put up a post anyway. This was a pretty low key week/weekend. Work was busy as heck but that always makes the day go by fast, right?

Greg and I stayed in on Saturday and had some Chinese food and then we ordered a movie called "Untraceable". Diane Lane is the main character. It's pretty creepy. Typical serial killer movie.... I was afraid to be by myself afterwards. We had originally wanted to go see "The Dark Knight" but it's opening weekend so we decided to wait a week or two.

Today we just went to church and then did some yard work. It was scorching hot today. I think the high was supposed to be 98!! Don't know if it actually got there, but it sure felt like it. We were both drenched after about an hour of work. Gross.

Tonight there's this reality show on called "High School Musical". Similar to American Idol where they go across the country and audition kids. Anyway, I'm watching it because a girl that I was in show choir with at Millikin is one of the three or four people who decides who makes it. I think she will also be one of the vocal coaches or something. Her name is Jen Malenke. I've seen her in several of the commercials promoting the show. She's an AMAZING singer.

That's pretty much it. Hopefully my next post will be more exciting. Hope all is well with everyone!

Love ya,
Brooke

Dog-Mate of the Year

2008-07-14T18:29:00.017-05:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to my (Greg wanted to make sure I put MY and not OUR) long-awaited post....Dog-Mate of the Year. I've been noticing lately how many funny pictures we have of Jackson. It's a little ridiculous really, but hey, he's our only child. You can decide for yourself which "centerfold" is most deserving of "Dog-Mate of the Year". NOTE: The following information is utter nonsense. I promise the next post will be an update on Greg and I (not that our lives are very exciting as is evident in the babble to follow).

Mr. January:
Mr. January enjoys long walks and creating yellow snow. In this picture he is modeling the winter season's hottest dog-cessory...the human stocking hat.

Mr. February:

Mr. February enjoys the feel of a bear-skin on his fur (ok, so it's a faux fur blanket...just go with it). He considers himself to be the sexiest centerfold of the bunch.

Mr. March:

Mr. March is a handsome devil. Simple yet sophisticated, he considers good grooming to be of the utmost importance. He also considers himself to be a connoseuir of hamburgers with squeakers in them (such as the one laying at his feet).

Mr. April:

Mr. April counts Hugh Hefner as one of his greatest influences. With his seductive stare and silky fur, few can resist his charms.

Mr. May:

Mr. May is a very passionate dog. He may have a quick temper and razor-sharp teeth, but he can melt his mother's heart with just one look.

Mr. June:

Mr. June loves a good glass of wine. He describes himself as the life of the party, but most of his friends just consider him a drunk. Here he is "sleeping it off".

Mr. July:

Mr. July is an all-American dog. Right down to red, white and blue bow on his collar. Although he considers himself to be highly patriotic, few are convinced given his violent outbursts in response to fireworks.

Mr. August:

Mr. August is the rugged, outdoorsy type. He is an avid hunter of dirty laundry. Above he barks with victory while standing over the carcus of his latest prey.

Mr. September:

Mr. September enjoys sun-bathing and star-gazing. A self-described "typical Pisces", he is highly emotional and strong-willed, but also considers himself to be a sympathetic dreamer.

Mr. October:

Mr. October has somewhat of an identity crisis. Although he is an extraordinarily handsome dog, he believes that he is actually an owl. He has been atop many a roof in the neighborhood consorting with owls of all walks. Very strange.

Mr. November:

Mr. November likes a good meal but is also a bit of a glutton. After years of gorging himself on treats and "pigars" (pigars are a real thing by the way...it's a pig ear shaped into a cigar), he can barely even roll over. Rumor has it there is an upcoming special on Montel Williams where Mr. November will be rescued from his home by a crane.

Mr. December:

Mr. December also goes by the nickname "Obiwon". Enough said.

Love to all,

Brooke

4th of July Weekend--Part Deux

2008-07-10T18:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here is the second round of pics from our 4th of July weekend in B-town. During our trip, Greg, Heather, and I went over to the Michaels' homestead to visit Jon and Tiff and meet the quads for the first time. It was so fun!! Not only did we get to hold the babies, but we got to feed them too! It was so great to see Jon and Tiff. They were so relaxed...like a couple of pros. The babies are completely adorable. Just take a look for yourself......

Here is Greg holding Maggie. She was in great spirits the whole time and was just STARING at Greg. It was so funny.

See what I mean?? She just kept looking at him the whole time. It was so cute! She smiled a couple of times too. Jon thought it was probably gas though...

Here is Heather holding Reese. I have to say a big thank you to Heather for taking pretty much all the photos (except for this one of course). She did a great job! We have all kinds of cute photos of the babies thanks to her!

This is me feeding Reese. She ended up falling asleep multiple times while she was eating. It was like the minute that bottle hit her mouth, her eyes would close. She ended up eating almost her entire bottle though!

Here is Jon feeding Lauren. She was such a good little eater while we were there. She finished her own bottle, Maggie's leftovers, and some of Gavin's leftovers. She is determined to be just as big as her sisters and brother. Eating like that, it won't be long!

Jon showing Cubby support while feeding Lauren.

Here is Tiff feeding Gavin and me feeding Reese. Gavin looks so much like Jon! And, I have to say, Tiff looks AMAZING!! I don't know how she has managed to look like that so soon after having QUADRUPLETS. Kind of sickening, really :-)

Awww....I love this picture of Tiff and Gavin!

A picture of the boys: Jon, Gavin and Greg. I have no idea why Greg's head looks so enormous in this picture!?!

Well, that all for the 4th of July post. We had a fantastic time! It was so great to see everyone. Hopefully we'll make it to B-town again soon!

Love,

Brooke

4th of July Weekend--Part One

2008-07-07T15:59:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a GREAT 4th of July weekend! I know we did! As many of you already know (because you were with us), we went home to good old Illinois to celebrate our country's Independence Day. I decided to split this weekend into 2 separate posts because we have a lot of great pictures to share!

We made the 7 hour drive to Bloomington on Wednesday evening after work. Then, on Thursday, I drove to my parent's house in Mt. Zion and spent the day with them. Unfortunately, the weather was not great, but we still got to hang out and visit which is always the most fun part for me anyway. Here are some pics:

This is me with Pepper. My dad brought her home from the "adoption agency" back in 1994 when she was just a puppy. She'll be 14 this year, but she's still going strong! She is hands down the sweetest dog in the world!

Here is mom and me. Mom was complaining about her hair that day, but I think it looks fine and I thought this was a really good picture so, Mom.... I hope you don't mind that I posted it :-)

This is a hilarious picture of my brother's dog, Lillian. My mom and dad were "dog-sitting" over the weekend and Lillian just decided she was going to hang out on the couch like a human. You can't really tell in the picture, but she had her entire weight leaning up against the back of the couch just like a person. She is too funny!!!

Here is dad and me. I have another really funny picture of Lillian jumping on us, but my dad looks really ticked in the picture, so I opted for the happy photo instead!

A great picture of dad and mom.

This is a really cute picture of our niece, Reagan. Greg and I were so excited to see her. We hadn't seen her in about 6 months and she has really grown. Isn't her dress adorable?

I wish this picture was a close-up because the goggles were pushing Reagan's nose up like a little pig. It was so funny. If you click on the photo, you might be able to see it full size so it will show it better. I must say, she is an excellent swimmer. She's only 3 1/2 and is pretty fearless in the water. She was jumping off the diving board too! I know I sure wasn't doing that at 3 years old!

This is another picture that I wish was closer. Reagan and I were playing a game she had called "Pretty, Pretty Princess". It's this cute little game where you get to wear a bunch of "princess" jewelry. We both had on several items of jewelry, but I got to wear the crown because Reagan said I was the Queen :-)

This is one of a few pictures taken where the subjects of my photo requested that they not be posted on the blog. Normally, I would abide by their request, but this is such a good picture that I couldn't help myself. Sorry guys :-) This is Reagan and her parents Kelly and Matt (Greg's identical twin brother). Aren't they such a cute family?

This is another picture where I received the request not to post. But, again, it's such a great picture, I just had to post it!! This is Greg's mom and dad, Jerry and Peggy. We stayed at their house over the weekend and, as always, they were wonderful hosts! A huge thanks to them!!

This is Greg's brother Mike and sister, Heather. I took this right before we left to go see the fireworks at Lakeside Country Club (I use the words "country club" loosely..hee, hee...sorry, Matt, I had to throw that in there!). Actually, the fireworks were great! We thought for sure we were seeing the grand finale several times but the fireworks just kept coming! After that, we went back to Jerry & Peggy's to set off our own fireworks that Greg and I had picked up in Missouri. Those were surprisingly good too!

I love this picture of Greg and Matt. The look on Greg's face is priceless.

Awwww....brotherly love! Aren't they cute??

This is one of my favorite pictures of the weekend. I wish I had gotten one of the whole family together! This is Greg, Reagan, Matt, and Heather.

Well, that's all for this post. The next post will have pictures of our visit to the Michael's homestead where we got to see Jon and Tiff and feed the quads! Also, don't worry, I'm still going to do a post on Dog-mate of the Year. It is just being postponed. So much to blog about, so little time!

Brooke

Greg vs. The Lawn (Round 5)

2008-06-29T18:29:00.000-05:00

As most of you know, Greg and I aren't "yard people". We basically do the bare minimum so we don't get the cops called on us for having foot high weeds. Greg has always mowed the lawn like a good neighbor should and I have historically been the weed puller. It has been a long running joke among the Reynolds' clan that our yard is never quite up to par. Above is what our current yard looked like when we moved in (granted, it was early spring, so the grass hadn't greened up yet). The house had been built over a year before we bought it and no one was tending to the yard much so, again, we figured we had an uphill battle on our hands. We've lived in 5 houses over the past 10 years and we have always had one of the worst yards in the neighborhood. Until now..........

This is the current state of our yard. It is Greg's pride and joy. In fact, he has been wanting me to email pictures of our yard to Matt and Jon (his greatest lawn critics) for about a month now. I figured I would go all out and devote a post to document Greg's triumph over the beast (lawn). Above you can see our lovely hydrangeas surrounded by lush, carpet-like grass.

This is me showing my love and appreciation for our lovely yard. It has been a long time coming. I used to beg Greg to hire a lawn care company to come and fix our yards of times past, but now Greg has come through. It was Round 5, he was on the ropes, and he came out victorious!!!

Here is Greg. Doesn't he look like a man who has tasted victory?? In this picture, he is standing proudly by his most recent accomplishment, the rock garden. I have to interject here that I was completely against the rock garden. Every time he described it to me, I just couldn't imagine anything even remotely attractive. But I must say, it turned out much better than I thought. The reason for the rock garden was not aesthetics, but rather to keep the stream of water that would always form in that area during a rainstorm from washing away our mulch. I am happy to report that it has done the trick and it really doesn't look all that bad. We will probably add some larger boulders around the area just to tie it in a little more.

I believe that the true test of a good lawn is if you can comfortably pencil roll on it. Here I am demonstrating that our yard is indeed pencil roll-worthy. I am also demonstrating that I am in desperate need of a tan. Yikes!!!

Well folks, that's all for today. As you can probably tell by the subject matter of this post...we don't get out much :-) Please stay tuned for our next post entitled "Dog-Mate of the Year". Doesn't that just put you on the edge of your seat?

Love you all,

Brooke

Me Gusta Puerto Vallarta!

2008-06-27T18:49:00.000-05:00

For our upcoming 10 year anniversary, Greg and I took a vacation to BEAUTIFUL Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in late May/early June. We had such an amazing time!! Neither of us had ever been there before and we were pleasantly surprised! If you ever get the chance, I definitely recommend going. The resort we stayed at was Dreams Resort & Spa and it was so nice. It was an all-inclusive place, which I normally don't like because it makes it seem more "touristy"(I know, I'm weird), but Greg wanted an all-inclusive resort so we went with Dreams. I'm so glad we did!! We really couldn't have asked for a better place. It's located south of downtown and is pretty secluded. The picture above was the view from our balcony. Does is get any better???

There were a couple of weddings on the beach while we were there. You can see the white tables set up in the picture. The wedding was under a white tent and then all the guests went over to the tables for the reception. They had a dance area that was lit by candlelight. It was so beautiful. We were totally spying on them the whole time, wishing we were invited. We should have just crashed, but I think they would have noticed considering it was such a small wedding.

Here is Greg being a trooper on the beach. Doesn't he look thrilled?? Greg HATES laying out on the beach!! Poor guy. I made him buy a couple of books before the trip so it wouldn't be so boring for him. Truthfully, he was really sick when I took this picture. Shortly after, he had to go back to the room to get sick. Lucky for him, it was our last day there. I have to say though...he didn't complain even once. Every morning, we made sure to secure our places under one of the "huts" on the beach so we'd have some shade. It's a good thing we did because the sun is incredibly intense down there and Greg and I both burn fairly easily. Don't worry, we stocked up on our SPF 30/45.....no melanoma for us!!

Ahhhh....relaxing on the beach, in the morning, with a full tummy and a good book. Life is good!

This was taken at our favorite restaurant on the resort, the "Seaside Grill". As you'll see in the next couple of photos, the view was breathtaking! Behind Greg, to the right, you'll see a little mini-cliff. They let people try their hand at rock-climbing on it (supervised, of course). We saw a couple of people "trying" to climb it one afternoon. They didn't do so well.

See what I mean....WHAT A VIEW!!! And the sunsets.....WOW!!

Again....gorgeous, beautiful, wish I was back there right now!

No folks, do not adjust your screen. Objects in this photo are as they appear. Hee hee...just kidding. I'm thinking Greg probably wouldn't be thrilled to know I posted this photo but I couldn't help myself. This was the jacuzzi on our balcony! Pretty cool, huh? This is where we spied on that wedding I was talking about earlier. We both grabbed a beer, fired up the jacuzzi and stared at the strangers enjoying their lovely wedding. A little sad and creepy, but fun nonetheless!

I'm completely bummed that I don't have any pictures to post of the best part of our whole trip. We went on an all day excursion into the "jungle" where we did all kinds of zip-lining and rappelling!!! I've always wanted to do the zip-line thing. Have you ever seen it on the travel channel? It's where you get in this harness and you "zip" from one tree to another on a very sturdy (or at least you hope it is) cable. I can't even begin to tell you how glad we were that we decided to do that. The cruddy part was that they don't let you bring a camera because you get soaking wet. One of the rappels was down a waterfall! Plus, with the gear they put on you, there really isn't a good place to put a camera. They do, however, offer pictures that were taken by the company that offers the tour. They show you all the pictures at the end. They were really expensive, so we only bought two. I guess I could scan them on here, but I already have them in frames and I'm lazy.

If you ever go to Puerto Vallarta....DEFINITELY go on the Outdoor Adventure tour through Vallarta Adventures. That's who we went through and it's very safe and the instructors were so fun!!

Adios amigos!!

Brooke

New to this....

2008-06-26T20:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I decided to start this blog without really knowing what I'm going to write about. I really just wanted an easy way to let friends and family know what's going on in our lives since they all live hundreds of miles away. Right now I'm just getting all set up, so bear with me. More to come.........