Humbled Running

Saturday morning I was humbled. I have now realized that I am not 18 and can not go "sprint" 3 miles and feel ok. I have always said that if I can't just go run a 5k (without training) put me in the ground. That is overconfidence of a one-time decent runner who know has had 2 kids and hasn't run consistently since having children.

Our friends have a son you was diagnosed with SMA at the age of 3 months. He has defied odds and it still pushing on at 2 years old. He is precious and has the most amazing eyes. There was a 5k to support him and other SMA children. I thought, this would be a good cause and I would love to support however I could.

I thought, I do a bootcamp 3 mornings a week, sure I am not in "running" shape, but it is only 3 miles. So Saturday morning I woke early, picked up our friend Mike Zimmers (who was also running it) and we headed to the race. Now it was really cold and I had shorts on, I kept thinking surely it will be warm for the run. It wasn't.  Mike and I showed up to get our packets then proceeded to sit in the car with the heat on. We were making fun of those "over-serious" runners who were actually warming up for 3 miles. Seriously, their warm-up was longer than the race. We didn't need to do that, it was only 3 miles.

To spare all the details of the morning, it was cold, it was hilly, it was HARD. I thought surely we are running 8 - 8:30min miles because this hurts! Mike and I probably both had pride come into play, neither of us slowing for the other. So we ran hard, my stomach hurt, his lungs hurt, but we pushed forward and picked off runners one-by-one.

As we came to the final stretch of what was the longest 3 miles of my life, I saw the time. We finished right under 27 minutes, averaging a little less that 9 minute miles. Are you kidding me? I used to run 20 min 5k's in high school that didn't hurt as badly as this one. 

So I was humbled, I now see why people train even for a 5k. I now see why people warm up, even for a 5k. My body isn't that old, but it is getting older where I can't just be foolish anymore. It was a great morning though and a run for a great cause.

Here is the one picture we got with Tony and Kristen (in the blue shirts), Jon and Glynis (friends who ran as well) and Mike and myself with the man of the hour, Jadon all bundled up in his ride!

Hollywood

Since this is TEAM Southards and not ERIN Southards, I am here to share news about our Team Captain, Mr. Southards. For those of you who don't have hunters in your life, you might not completely get it, but if you are a hunting widow like myself, you will understand how excited I am that Steve killed his buck early in the season.  More family time. I am just so excited that he got this deer, read his story below.

I love it when a plan comes together.  This is exactly what happened last night.  Since July I had been seeing a deer I lovingly refer to as “Hollywood.”  He earned his name because of the several camera appearance he made from four different locations.   His tine length, split G2 and kicker on G3 made him the deer I was hoping to catch up with at some point this fall.  It happened last night at 7:30.  I was hunting a new stand on the far side of a soybean field.  I walked in a different path last night thinking a deer might come from my west.  Turns out “Hollywood” did just that.  He came to the field toward final shooting light and grazed his way to me, presenting a shot around 100 yards.  Although I knew he was a shooter, I wasn’t sure at the time it was “Hollywood.”  Realizing I was shaking like a leaf, I decided to take my eyes off of the antlers and focus on the shot.  Aiming through the nerves, the 50 cal powerbelt was sent, providing the glorious sounding “thud” of a hard hit.  As the smoked from my muzzleloader cleared, I could see him running a hard circle in the field and then crashing 60 yards from the field’s edge.  I gave him 15 minutes, but couldn’t wait to get my hands on the antlers that I had been looking at since July.  Turns out finding deer in soy beans is harder than it looks but it wasn’t long and the months of watching and waiting paid off in the moment my flashlight came across his white belly.  

For those interested, the rough score brought him in at 153 inches. 

Hard to describe the satisfying feeling when a plan comes together.  As we all know, sometimes it happens like that but truthfully, most of the time it doesn’t...at least for me.  But I guess that is what keeps me hungry for the hunt.

Here is to a great fall, moments with God in the woods, and stories that we will tell for years to come!

Steve

These are the pictures he got from his Trail camera - you can say he has been stalking this guy for awhile

Yes ladies and gentlemen, this bad boy will soon be hanging on our walls (in the man cave). Never did I think I would marry a hunter. I thought my husband would be toting his golf clubs, sporting his khaki's and a bring pink polo, instead I have a husband who has guns and makes camo look very hot! God's got jokes!

Loving Fall

We have been eating up this weather, spending as much time outside as we can. I understand better why when we lived in Florida, Steve missed fall.  This past weekend was so nice to be home.

We went and hiked, had a date night,  I had a girls breakfast out, such a pleasant weekend.

Sister wanted to be carried, we laughed because we can imagine Buster running away from us, not wanting to be held back, while sister wants to be nice and close.

Oh my first Pumpkin Spice Latte! I was giddy over the weather, time with family and my fall drink!

Our terrible attempt at a family pic :)

For date night, our sweet friends Dave and Amber watched the kiddos. Steve and I haven't had a date night in about 6 weeks (a really long time for us), since we have been traveling so much. We had a coupon (restaurant.com) where you had to spend a certain amount of money for your coupon to work. Needless to say, it was a lot more food than we needed, it was the family feast for 4-6 people.  I am still eating off some of the leftovers!

My girlfriend Brandie turned 30 last week, so we had a girl date out Saturday morning. We had breakfast and watched a movie. She is ready to have her #2 (a little boy) any day, so we so enjoyed the time away from our kiddos and before little man enters the world. 

Such a restful, family filled weekend!

Painting

So yesterday afternoon during my non-motivated day, the kids and I painted. Just some good old finger painting. 

Buster painted with pudding

The following pictures represent a biased mother who thinks her son is so stinkin cute that she couldn't decide which 1 picture to post, so they are all included :)

That is a face he must have learned from his sister

Speaking of sister, here I was running around the house chasing her as she told me NO she didn't want her picture taken

Happy Thursday all!

No motivation Day

Today is a day that I have no motivation. Sunday the kids I returned from traveling for the 4th weekend in a row. 3 out of 4 of the weekends were trips more than 4 hours long one way. I drove them myself this weekend to St. Louis to see "My Big Benny" (as sister refers to him as) watch football. We had a great weekend, all the traveling we had was wonderful. I knew that it would be a whirlwind month and it was. (Steve was in Nashville before the weekend and Florida for the 2nd half of the weekend, so he flew in and out of St. Louis, we were glad we got to see him in the week he was away).

Buster fell asleep and was warm under blankets in the stroller. It was a rainy, cool night for football and they won 49-6!

My in-laws :)

I am thankful to be home. I love coming home. I really love our house, our neighborhood, our friends, our church, our city. Since traveling so much everyone has been thrown off on sleep, and it has taken it's toll the most on little man. While traveling I was quick to jump to his cries in the night, and he often got the boob to keep him quiet and got to lay with me in my bed, since I didn't want to wake the whole house and we often all 4 slept in the same room so I didn't want to wake sister either. His sleep the last month has been terrible, and now that we are back home, my once great self-soother, has been screaming to go down for naps and night time. I do everything I know, and as soon as he is laid in that bed, he screams. Most nights he is up screaming multiple times as well.  I really think it is just readjusting to having to self soothe again or the fact that he has learned to stand in his crib and stands screaming, as soon as I put in down, he is up again. Boy am I tired. 

Back to my lack of motivation today, I have laundry piled up, mail piled up, emails piled up,  suitcases that still need to be unpacked, piles of all sorts of other things as well. Dirty bathrooms, dirty floors, dust covering my home, projects piled up that I want to finish, but I sit here with no motivation. 

Old picture I never shared. One of their first baths, now it is a regular thing.

Just one of those days, I know everything will get done eventually, it probably definitely won't be today. That is ok, I don't have it all together all the time, I am human. At least these 2 kids are fed and alive. Kinda fed, sister fought lunch (it was her dinner left over from last night she refused to eat), so really she might not be fed well, her choice though.

So to my husband who reads this blog and asked about clean underwear this morning, the house will be clean again, our life will be organized soon enough, and the good news is I used our Kohl's cash to buy your more underwear this morning :)

Buster @ 9 months

Buster Brown is 9 months old! 

Not only are we crawling, but we explore everywhere and everything

Like stairs, we worked on going down them on his belly, he just thought it was a fun game where he crawled up and I slid him down

He has 4 teeth right now, but I feel another one breaking through. He smiles all the time. He is very social and loves being around people. His crankiest times are when he is not getting attention.

Everything goes in the mouth. Luckily Payton doesn't have any toys that have small pieces, so I don't have to worry about that. I might put a ban on small pieced toys from entering our house.

He loves to eat all by himself. We are over baby food, little man likes his peas, avocados, black beans, peaches, bananas, cheerios, graham crackers, kidney beans, and bread.

He stands all the time, and is a determined little guy.

 

He has been waking again at night. I am not sure if it teeth or since we have traveled 4 weekends in a row I have had to go to him for every cry so he doesn't wake the house, I think he is getting used to the attention. We will have to work on that :) I love cuddling but not all night long, momma loves her sleep. He is still right under 20 pounds, average for the growth chart. 

Here is a picture of sister at 9 months (she did her nose wrinkle then too), I am bummed because I don't think Buster's hair is going to curl like sisters, you can tell the difference in texture.

Also, for you observant folks, you can see in the pictures above that I am in the middle of transforming our front formal dining/formal sitting area into a playroom for the kiddos. I have a few things to finish up and I will share once it is done. I am thinking about painting a jute rug, anyone done that before and have advice?

Look who is crawling

Buster is on the move. He has been crawling for about 2.5 weeks (at about 8.5 months, same as Sister) and he is in to everything. 

By the way, the mullet has been cut :)

One of his favorite toys

Life just got busier.

The good news is this stinker keeps an eye on him and reports everything he does

I often find them in her fort together

Back to baby-proofing the house again :)

Also, Happy Birthday to my momma! I am blessed beyond words to have you as a mother and role model. Thanks for not only being my mom, but my best friend in life.