Betrayal

Every sane person who lives within driving distance of a Chik-fil-A restaurant knows that it is truly a superb fast-food chicken spot. I've recently started the dreaded task of calorie counting, etc. in an effort to loose 21 pounds by mid September (this is the amount that sparkpeople.com says I should lose to get to my healthy weight). This feels fairly daunting, but I know I need to commit to it and stay committed. However, today I was looking on the Chik-fil-A website to see what whether the chicken salad sandwich and small coleslaw that I brought home for dinner tonight would send me into the red. I know you're all probably saying, "Seriously, Adrienne? You brought home the chicken salad sandwich and you're trying to count calories. OK, maybe not my brightest moment today. Yes, I know it has mayo in it. Fortunately I looked before I ate the whole sandwich. I had already downed the coleslaw (too hungry to wait and see how damaging it would be), but I'd only eaten half the sandwich. Good thing since the sandwich is 500 calories and 20 fat grams, so I've put the other half in the frig and hopefully Stan will play disposal later so it won't tempt me. I ate the coleslaw knowing it wasn't going to be really low in calories, but I thought it wouldn't be too bad. Wrong. 370 calories in that stupid small coleslaw and 32, let me say it again, 32 fat grams in that tiny little cup. Are you kidding me CFA??? You remember that old song from the nineties "Killing me Softly"? That's what I felt like singing in dramatic fashion after this bitter discovery. So, what has been learned from this incident? You cut me deep, Chik-fil-A. You cut me deep. I feel betrayed, but I know I've only betrayed myself with remaining ignorant to these harsh truths. But no more. Innocence is lost. I've exceeded my caloric intake goal for the day by 90 something calories, but I did run 2 miles and walk 2 miles, so I'm hopeful that will help. Chik-fil-A, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Our Triathlete!

On Saturday Olivia participated in the Splash Pedal Dash. It was a fun mini/pseudo triathalon for kids. They started by climbing a 20 foot water slide and sliding down into water sprayers and then they had to get their shoes on and helmet and then they biked for 1/2 a mile and then they ran for 1/4 a mile. Quite a feat for a girl who's not quite five years old! We were so proud of her. She went down the slide without an ounce of fear, and then Stan ran with her during the 1/2 mile bike ride and then I ran with her for the 1/4 mile foot race. Her finish time was 9:58, and she was beaming when she finished---and huffing pretty heavily, too! She had a few moments while biking and running when she was discouraged, but she never gave up and she just kept going. This was a really neat event, and if you're local, check this event out next year for your kids. It's sponsored by the rec department and Camden Bicycle Shop. Really neat, and honestly ridiculously cute. Here are some pictures.

A Spontaneous Trip to the Beach

We sometimes miss seeing large open rolling fields, farm country, mountains, any kind of hills for that matter, Buuuuuuuut, we LUUUUUUUV being so close to the beach! Yesterday afternoon when Stan came home from work at 4:20 Olivia said, "We wanna go to the beach!" and Stan sweetly said, "Sure! Let's do it!" So we quickly made a picnic dinner, got dressed, piled into Jo-Jo, put the top down and headed south on 17 to Fernandina Beach. It was an absolutely glorious late afternoon visit to the beach. Just perfect! I said to Stan as we ate ice cream at Dairy Queen after we left the beach, "I feel like I've been on a little vacation." That's the great thing about the beach being so close. We do feel like we can slip away on a little mini vacay whenever we have a free morning or afternoon. Stan and I first ate at that Dairy Queen in the May of 1992 when I was 15 and he was 16. His sister, Karen, who was a couple years older, was staying at a condo on S. Fletcher (A1A) on the beach front with several other friends since it was Prom weekend. We were both too young to go to the Junior/Senior Prom, so we were hanging out at the beach instead. I remember walking out on the pier by the condos overlooking the ocean with him in the moonlight, and I don't remember a lot of the details of that conversation, but that was the night that I really remember falling for him. I had had a crush on Stan since I was in 7th grade, but there was something significant about the intimacies shared that night that changed my feelings from just a crush to admiration and respect. Somehow it was a turning point, and I'll never forget that night--at least in fuzzy details with a warm glow around it--even the trip to the DQ to get blizzards! :)

Benjamin turned 2!

It hardly seems possible that it has been 2 years since we brought Benjamin home from the hospital. These days have flown past and it makes me want to do a better job at cherishing the present moments. His birthday was April 9th, so we had a small family celebration on the official date, and then when we went to Mom and Dad's for Stan's spring break we had a shared birthday part with his cousin Jonathan, or BoBo as Benjamin often likes to call him, much to Jonathan's chagrin ("Me no Bobo!") Jonathan turned 3 on April 20th, so we partied together to celebrate them both. It was a fun time. One funny experience I had with Benjamin while we were at Mom and Dad's was when he looked up at a picture on the bathroom wall and pointed at it and said, "Bobo!" I looked up and there was a picture of an angel cherub with curly golden/brown hair. Jonathan has curly hair just like that angel cherub, and I smiled and said, "Yeah, that does look like Bobo, doesn't it?" Then Benjamin laughed and pointed again and said, "Bobo's hiney!" The cherub, as most cherubs are, was barely dressed at all and just had a silk scarf only partly covering up his hiney cheeks, and Benjamin thought it was hysterical that Nonny and Cocky had a picture of Bobo with his hiney showing! :) How funny. :)

Easter Weekend '09

We had a wonderfully full Easter weekend complete with two egg hunts, sunrise service on the St. Mary's River and Easter celebration services at church. My favorite part of the weekend was the sunrise service. I woke the kids up at 5:45, bundled them in sweatshirts and pants and drove to St. Marys where we had the service at the waterfront park. I haven't been to a sunrise service since before Olivia was born, and it has always been one of my favorite parts of Easter, so it was great to finally go back to this special tradition. We set out a blanket and Stan and I set up chairs. The kids rolled around on the blanket through much of the service and periodically climbed into our laps to get warmed up under blankets, but it wasn't that cold and the sunrise was lovely. There were sand gnats there, of course. It is St. Marys, and where there is marsh, there are sand gnats. But it felt like it had been ages since I got to sit with my whole family during a worship service and I just enjoyed the intimacy of that--sharing in that time or worship together as participants rather than leaders. Some one played a bell solo, never one of my favorite things exactly, but he did a wonderful job, nonetheless. I just always feel like Easter morning needs brass. The bell solo of Christ the Lord is Risen Today just didn't pack the punch I was anticipating, but we were jubilant in spirit, regardless and we enjoyed the service together. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Zoo trip with Noah's Ark

Every spring we take a trip to the Jacksonville Zoo with Olivia's preschool class, and the Friday in April we went for the morning, and it was a perfect day for the zoo. Sweet Miss Tracy, her teacher, walked around the zoo with us and we all talked about each animal we saw. I think the most interesting thing we saw was the new exhibit with the Komodo dragons--renamed by us "The biggest lizards we've ever seen!". We enjoyed a picnic lunch with classmates and other mommies and then we headed home. It was a fun morning. The Jacksonville Zoo never disappoints.

A Weekend with the Atkinson Family

The last weekend in March was Stan's 8th grade band trip to Orlando, but in Stan's absence, I had the wonderful privilege of keeping my nephews, David and Jonathan, for the night while their mom and dad had a night away! Then on Saturday, they returned and stayed with us through Sunday. It was a fun time. It would've been an amazingly fun time if it weren't for the fact that Olivia and I were both a bit sicky. Carrie Beth and Brad saved me on Saturday and Sunday. It would've been an extremely difficult weekend without them there to help out. I was very grateful for them. Sunday morning, I had to lead worship since Stan was out of town, and with Olivia having flu-like symptoms and Benjamin still not well from his strep throat, it would've been really hard with out them. We had fun inspite of the sickness, and the Atkinsons were real troopers putting up with all of us sickies. Here are some pics from our fun weekend. We went to Lowes on Saturday to participate in the kids workshop, and sweet Aunt CB had brought stuff for the kids to dye eggs.