So, this week...

...has been busy!  Work has been very busy and rewarding.  Nonstop.  I pray for a lot of people lately--a lot of people going through some extremely hard times and I feel like all I can do is smile with them and pray for them.  I also just feel extremely humbled and blessed for my own family and their good health.  I also pray that everyone in my family stays safe, especially Patrick.  Most of all, I pray for strength.

Kellen is wonderful!!  The week before last, Patrick and I were out from work all week with the "flu-like".  I call it the flu-like, because both Patrick and I got tested and it was negative.  But we BOTH felt like major crap--body aches that were HORRIBLE, painful sore throat, headache.  Last Sunday, I decided we should both go to the doctor, so we went to this "First Choice Emergency Room" place here in Plano.  It's like an urgent care emergency room--they charge ER copays.  They were wonderful.  They took care of us together and got us out of there pretty quickly.  The doctor gave me a nebulizer treatment and prescribed an inhaler--I've been wheezing with this.  He also gave me a course of azithromycin; which TOTALLY helped.  Patrick wasn't as bad, thankfully.  They tested us for the flu, and you should have SEEN Patrick almost jump across the room when the Doc shoved the Q-tip up his nose--it was HILARIOUS!!  Patrick would NOT make a good patient...I can tell!!!

Luckily Kellen hasn't gotten the flu-like!  He's been busy producing lots of clear snot, as usual.  He DOES have a junky sounding cough, but no fever and he's otherwise fine.  He's had diarrhea on and off, so I've basically stopped giving him Whole Milk.  I give him Vanilla Silk and he loves it.  I don't know if he's sensitive to milk, but it's just easier giving him the Silk.

He's so much fun as usual.  I'm trying to teach him as much as I can, labeling everything I see, and I'll ask him, "Where's the yellow ball?"  He won't answer, but I'll say, "HERE'S the yellow ball!"  He does say "Ball".  He points at everything and wants to touch and hold EVERYTHING!  I call him "My Mad Scientist"--because he wants to touch, feel, taste everything and if I don't let him...he gets really MAD!  I try to let him touch and experience as much as possible without letting him hurt himself.  He LOVES to take stuff out and put stuff into...  If he's in the tub...most of his tub toys end up getting thrown onto the bathroom floor, after which he usually says "Uh-Oh!"

My favorite trick of his lately is blowing kisses, giving kisses, and letting you kiss him on the cheek.  I love how he opens his mouth and just basically eats my face.  (And gets snot on me...YUM)

At home, he's pretty clingy to me...which makes it SO hard to do anything.  I try to play with him as much as I can; or he's at the Montessori school so I can get things done.  Thank GOD we can do that.

Patrick is pretty busy working Super Bowl detail in downtown Dallas at the "NFL Experience" at the Dallas Convention Center.  He gets to wear a really cool "All Access Pass" thing that, if he loses, will cause our nation's threat level to go up to Red.  This Super Bowl business is a big deal, apparently...  Who is everyone rooting for??  I'm rooting for the Steelers, because my bud Corie's husband is a HUGE (understatement) Steelers fan, so I just have to, for him.

After my flu-like, I am back in training for my half-marathon, which is in 9 weeks.  I ran 4 miles today and I'm running a long run on Sunday for an hour, I believe.  I switched to a training plan that has you running for set times and set pace (individualized to my ability), I wonder if that is going to work for me. We shall see.  Today, I had an average 11 min pace--BUT, that was with stopping or slowing every 4-5 minutes when my music just stopped suddenly--weird.  I'm using this new training app on my iPhone and I'm getting used to it.  So, all in all, I think I did excellent considering that!  My goal is to run at a 10-11 minute/mile pace for the half-marathon.  If I could finish in 2 and 1/2 hours or less, that would be AWESOME.

Well, time to go pick Kellen up from "school".  I'm also going to head over to Plano's "Muehlenbeck" Center, which is like a really nice YMCA.  I'm gonna see how much it costs to go there so I can do some cross-training, specifically swimming....  Go ME!

Please PRAY...

I was just crying so hard, praying to God.  A little boy who is the son of a friend of Matt's (my cousin) is sick and I just want everyone to pray for the little boy and their family.  He had a heart transplant at days old and is now 3 and 1/2.  His life has been very challenging, but he is an amazing little boy and if you'd like to read about him, I have a link to his blog on my blog.

I'd like to write more about today...but I'm going to do that in a separate post.  This one deserves it's own place and space.