Thanksgiving/Papa's Birthday

I realize Christmas is just 9 days away (yikes!) and I'm still posting about things that happened last month. My goal is to get caught up by the end of this week, so hang in there...

My dad's birthday is November 26th, so every few years his birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day, like this year. We spent the day at my parents' house so I could pretend to help my mom with the dinner preparations. She was really on top of things, so there wasn't much for me to do other than to help wash dishes and chop and stir a few things here and there. Dad and I always set the table together, and we did a little flower arranging, too. We had to get more creative with the seating arrangements this year because we had 13 people: Mom, Dad, Jonathan & Becki and their 3 kids, Becki's parents, and the four of us.

Here's what we ended up with:

Pieces of our flower arrangement As always, getting a photo of all four boys was a challenge. I mean, seriously, what is going on in the last picture?

Thanksgiving Feast

Once again I am far behind on my posting...

Tyler's Thanksgiving Feast for his preschool class was 3 weeks ago, just before Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun to join the kids in their classroom.

The kids all made little turkey masks. While we waited for all the parents to arrive, I took a couple photos with Tyler inspecting his turkey face.




They sang two songs for the parents--"Mr. Turkey" and "Five Little Monkeys" (see prior post). Well, actually their teacher Ms. Kerri sang the first song pretty much by herself. The kids were so bashful with all the parents pointing cameras and camcorders at them. I can't say I blame them.

Tyler has 12 kids in his class, but there are only 8 kids shown in these pictures because 3 were absent and one little boy just didn't want to sing.

The kids' stage fright did begin to subside once they started singing "Five Little Monkeys", a song that they love. Tyler spent the first verse or so scratching his nose so it looked like he was picking it. I kept mouthing to him, "put your hand down!" By the time they got to "three little monkeys" Tyler finally started doing some of the actions. The thing that cracks me up when I look at the next couple photos is that none of the kids are doing the same hand motions at the same time. They were all kind of doing their own thing. It was really cute.


After the kids sang their 2 songs, it was the parents' turn to sing a song that the kids sing at least once a week. It's called "Tooty Ta" and it involves putting your thumbs up, elbows back, feet apart, knees together, bottoms up, tongue out, eyes closed and turning around...all at the same time. I've heard Tyler singing it at home, but this was my first time hearing the whole thing, and obviously, doing all the motions.

Once we all sang our songs, it was time for eating the Thanksgiving feast. The parents brought food to share with everyone. Someone even brought Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, which were the biggest hit. The kids had made adorable turkey napkin holders and a placemat that listed the things they're thankful for. Tyler's placemat said, "I am thankful for: playing basketball and soccer. Also playing games, and of course Mommy and Daddy."

Tyler with his napkin holder and placement (held by Ms. Kerri off-camera)

That day I was particularly thankful for my sweet neighbor Michelle who kindly watched Nathan so I could attend the feast and focus my attention on my other little turkey.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We began Thanksgiving Day with a performance by Tyler, featuring Nathan as his backup dancer. These were songs that Tyler and classmates sang for their Thanksgiving feast earlier this week. (I'll post pictures from the preschool feast soon.)

Here are the lyrics to the first one:
Mr. Turkey, Mr. Turkey,
Run away! Run away!
If you are not careful
You will be a mouthful
Thanksgiving Day, Thanksgiving Day.

And the second song:
Five little monkeys swinging from a tree,
Teasing Mr. Alligator, "Can't catch me!"
Along came Mr. Alligator quiet as can be
And snapped that monkey right out of the tree!

The video is pretty long since the second song starts with 5 monkeys and counts down from there. It's pretty cute, though. I love how Tyler pronounces "along" and "quiet". And Nathan, well, he's just funny to watch.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours!

Half-marathon

I ran my first half-marathon on November 1st. Tim ran it, too. Below are some (more like a lot of) thoughts about my race:

• The temperature dropped about 10 degrees during the race, it rained almost the entire time, and it was very windy. I was comfortable at the start of the race in my racing singlet and shorts, but I was freezing by the end. The conditions were definitely not optimal.

• Tim told me before the race that the course was pretty flat. He did the full marathon the previous 2 years, but since he had his Ironman 70.3 World Championship 2 weeks after the race, he opted for the half-marathon this year. After the race he admitted that the course was actually pretty hilly. I agreed with his more recent assessment.

• Before the race I was worried I'd go out too hard since I've never raced this distance and I haven't exactly had a lot of race experience in the past 7 years (only 2 prior races since college). Somehow I missed the first 4 mile-markers, so I really didn't know what any of my splits were or what pace I was running. I think it worked out for the best because I just ran based on how I felt, rather than obsessing about a pace.

• I ran with different people for the first 10K, but after that I was pretty much on my own. The wind was ridiculous, and being stuck in no-mans-land, I took quite a beating.

• A couple people who have seen the results of the race asked if Tim and I ran the race together since we crossed the finish line within a second of each other. Well, that definitely was not the case...

Tim missed a turn about half-a-mile from the finish line. Apparently the wind blew down a sign pointing in the direction of the finish, and since he couldn’t see the next runner in front of him, he just kept going straight. Tim realized he must have missed a turn after running a couple minutes in the wrong direction because he knew he should have already reached the end. So, he turned around and retraced his steps. At this point he knew his race was over. He was just trying to get to the end to see me finish.

It just so happened that Tim arrived at the turn he initially missed at the exact time that I reached it. One of the other racers must have stopped to put the sign back up because it was in place when I got there. When I saw Tim running toward me, I assumed he had already finished and had looped back to come cheer me on to the finish. He started running next to me and I asked him how much further I had. He told me less than a half-mile. Then he told me he had missed the turn.

I told him he could go ahead, that he didn’t need to wait for me. But he didn’t take off from there, like he no doubt could have. Instead, he ran just a step or two ahead of me to help pull me to the finish, encouraging me the whole way with, “You’re doing awesome, Hon! “ and “You’re almost there, you can do it!”

When we reached the finishing stretch lined with spectators and other members of the running community, many of whom recognize Tim as the winner of the first City of Oaks Marathon two years ago, my husband shortened his stride to let me cross the line before him. (Yes, Tim racked up some brownie points that day.)

I know, I know. This is not a flattering photo. Rain-soaked running shorts are not a look that anyone should wear, but there wasn't much I could do about it.

• My goal was to break 1 hour and 30 minutes. My best case scenario goal was 1:27. I thought the weather alone would rule out a best case scenario, but somehow I ran 1:26:27, an average pace of 6:36/mile. I was ecstatic with my time and extremely surprised with my 9th place overall female. I won a nifty running vest for getting third in my age group and a local news channel showed footage of Tim and I crossing the finish line together. Even though I felt sick to my stomach for the rest of the day and my legs were very sore for a couple days, I had a lot of fun!

Fall Fun

Again, I'm so late in posting these, but here are some photos of the boys in their Halloween costumes. We went to 2 fall fairs this year: one at the church where Tyler attends preschool and one at our church.

Tyler was so excited about his costume. He was Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (For those of you who do not have little ones: Yes, TNMT are still around and quite popular.) If you ask him who he was for Halloween, Tyler will say, "Yeno-ardo". We're still having a hard time pronouncing "L". His costume was pretty big, but he didn't care.

Nathan was a lion, and a cute one at that. If you ask him what a lion says, he does the cutest little roar. We borrowed his costume from a friend. It was actually way too big, but it was still adorable. The only problem was that Halloween was unseasonably warm this year, so we didn't make him wear the full-body costume when we went to our church on Saturday. He would have been so hot and uncomfortable. We gave Tyler the option of taking off his costume, but of course he wanted to wear it.

Cooper (Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe) and Gabe (Thomas) were able to join us Friday evening at Tyler's preschool, so I got a few photos of them, as well.

Uncle Jon and the boys (Gabe is hiding behind the pumpkin bag)

Snake Eyes goes bowling

I wouldn't want to come across these two in a dark alley Don't you just want to pull that tail?Papa Rudy and Gabe Nice lion"Check out this cool move."Little lions can do cool moves, too.Nate was ready to take off his costume since it was so hot.Pony rides Blowing kisses

The boys didn't do any trick-or-treating around our neighborhood because we sent them home with Nana and Papa after the fall fair on Saturday. Since Tim and I ran a half-marathon the next morning, they were nice enough to take the boys for the night. The boys didn't know the difference, though. They were just excited to have the chance to dress up, play some games and ride some ponies. It doesn't get much better than that when you're 18 months and 3 years old.

Heart Surgery

Last month Tim had ablation surgery on his heart in Charleston, SC. He had a heart condition called supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) that caused his heart rate to go well over 200 bpm while training for and competing in his Ironman and half-Ironman triathlons. While most people would be lying on the floor if their heartrate jumped that high, Tim didn't really experience any other symptoms. He would just have to back off from running or biking for a few minutes so his heartrate could return to normal, and then he could continue.

After meeting with several different doctors earlier this year, he learned that he needed an ablation procedure to burn off the extra tissue in his heart that caused the arrythmias. (While there is medication that can treat arrythmias, they are considered banned substances by athletic governing bodies, so this wasn't an option for Tim.) Through a fellow triathlete he heard about a heart surgeon, Dr. Wharton, in South Carolina who is a highly sought-after specialist for this procedure.

Dr. Wharton and the nursing staff were nice enough to squeeze Tim into an already full schedule for Friday, October 16th. We didn't find out that he would be having the surgery until the day before, so it was kind of a mad rush to get the boys ready to spend a couple nights with my parents and then make the 4.5-hour drive to Charleston.

We checked into the hospital at 10:00 am and waited in pre-op until about 3:50 that afternoon. For Tim, the hardest part about waiting was that he couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight the night before. Because of his crazy high metabolism, 2 hours is a long time to go without food for Tim, so 15+ hours of just lying around without eating was almost painful. He just tried to sleep as much as he could so that he didn't have to think about it.

Pre-op

It was about 5 hours from the time that the nurse rolled Tim away to the operating room to the time I got to see him after the procedure. I had started reading a book as soon as we checked into pre-op, so I killed the time by reading, praying, visiting a nearby Starbucks, making a few quick calls (of course I had to check in on my boys), and praying some more.

One of the OR nurses, Barb, called my cell phone a few times to give me status updates on Tim. The first call was about an hour into the procedure. She told me Tim was doing well (neither Tim nor I knew that he would actually be awake throughout most of the surgery) and that the catheters were in place. They threaded 5 catheters to his heart: 2 in each side of his groin and 1 in his neck. The next time she called was about 1.5-hours later. She told me that they found the extra tissue, the cause of the arrythmia, and burned all around it. She said they would be "mapping" for the next hour or so. From my understanding, mapping basically involved pumping huge amounts of adrenaline into Tim to force his heartrate as high as they could. If they couldn't force an arrythmia, they would know they had done enough burning and the surgery was successful.

Tim's surgery was the last one of the day, so by 6:30, the waiting room in the cardiac wing was completely empty except for me. It was pretty lonely. The last 2 hours crept by without my fellow waiters. If it hadn't been for the Food Network on the TV, it would have been dead quiet. By the time I got my final call from Barb around 8:00 pm, I was pacing up and down the hall and around the waiting room while still reading my book. I had been so sedentary all day, I just felt the need to move around a bit.

I think it was about 8:20 when Dr. Wharton met me in the waiting room to let me know that the surgery was indeed a success. I finally got to see Tim about 20 minutes later, which was such a relief. He was definitely groggy, but he was awake. Even though ablation catheterization is usually an outpatient procedure, Tim was admitted overnight since his surgery ended so late in the day and he still had to lie flat on his back for an additional 4 hours. This was another long wait for Tim because he still couldn't eat and his back was very sore by the time he got to sit upright, which wasn't until about 12:30 am.

The nurse and I tried to take Tim for a walk down the hall, but he was pretty dizzy without any food in his system. Once he finally got to eat for the first time in over 24 hours, he started feeling better.

The entire time we were at the hospital, there was a monitor on Tim's heart. I know that's not surprising since he was there to have heart surgery, but it was kind of funny/annoying because Tim has an extremely low resting heartrate. While we were in pre-op, his heartrate kept dropping below 40 bpm since he was just lying there. Every time it went below 40, the machine would beep-beep-beep. After the surgery, the machine was set to beep every time his heartrate went below 50 bpm. Fortunately one of the technicians lowered the setting because I was having a hard time falling asleep on the pull-out couch with all the beeping.

We checked out of the hospital the following morning with simple instructions. Tim couldn't do any training for 7 days, and he couldn't lift anything heavier than 5 pounds for the same length of time. The restrictions had nothing to do with his heart and everything to do with giving his groin time to heal to prevent bleeding. Not being able to train was definitely hard on Tim, but not having his help with the boys for a week was really difficult for me. =) But, I have to say, it was a small price to pay to know Tim's heart is fixed. Praise the Lord!

Preschool Field Trip

We went to a nearby nature park for a field trip with Tyler's preschool class in October. I tried to take photos, but it was kind of difficult to capture memories while also attempting to make sure Tyler listened to the nature guide and Nathan stayed out of trouble. Tim was there, but since he'd just had heart surgery and wasn't allowed to pick up anything heavier than 5 pounds for about a week, there was only so much he could do to help with the boys.

Tyler and his little friend KigerAm I allowed to touch this? Making silly fish faces

The field trip began with an indoor lesson on how trees grow, a story about leaves, and pretending to be trees. At first Tyler's tree looked like it could use a little more water and/or sunlight. He was being shy, so his branches looked somewhat droopy.

Then he started participating a little more.

After the indoor activities we went outside to learn about different kinds of leaves: oak, maple, dogwood, pine and another one that we missed because Tyler needed a potty break.

Checking out different kinds of leaves

Once all the organized learning activities finished, everyone went to the playground so the kids could run off some energy before heading home. It was a fun little outing for the boys, but I have to admit that I was pretty exhausted by the end of it. Even so, I really enjoyed getting to watch Tyler with his classmates and his teachers, Miss Kerry and Miss Kay. Tyler is really blessed to have great teachers.

Time for the fun on the playground Coming out of the tunnel slide with lots of static

In the tunnel slide

Pumpkin Decorating

One Sunday afternoon in October, I gave Tyler some art supplies and he went to town decorating one of the pumpkins he picked out at the farmer's market. The only thing I did to help was put on the glue dots for the eyes and the pom-poms, but he told me exactly where he wanted me to place them.