Last Week

Here's a few things I forgot to tell you/show you:

- We are spending the Holidays as a separated military family...I know, feel bad for us. Long story made short, it was looking like Cameron would not be home for Christmas. He didn't want Malone and I to sit by ourselves at home on Christmas and due to recent events in my family, we decided it would be best if I go to Alabama (to my parents') for Christmas. When all is said and done we will not have seen one another for about a month. Boo!

- We went to have a sushi lunch for Cameron's birthday. He was in sushi heaven. Then he saw it. Tempura fried Oreos. Many of you might not know, but Cameron has an unnatural love for Oreos. And this just threw him over the edge. I could only eat about one before I felt sick, but he loved them.

- Malone's hair is getting way long. And she is no longer a fan of the bows. My heart is a little sad.- Malone has gotten so smart!!!! We were Skyping (video chatting) with my sister, Lydia and Malone went crazy. Not only did she take 8 steps trying to get to Lydia on the computer, but she was really trying to find Lydia. She couldn't understand how she could see Lyddie on the computer, but when she looked behind the computer screen she was gone. How funny?!


- Cameron and I went to his squad's Christmas party on Saturday. It was so fun to get dressed up, and get out of the house. Our good friends Marc and Beth were very kind and watched Malolo. Here we are all dressed up. Sorry for the bad photo. Our camera was having issues. We look pretty smokin' though, right?- Malone looks so cute in her little winter, puffy vest. Plus, here she's standing.- I love Malone.
Tomorrow, I'll update you on our first meeting with Santa. Apparently, he comes early to military bases.

Drowned Rat

Yesterday did not start off as the best day. I had a doctor's appointment to go to in the morning. I managed to take a shower, straighten my hair (I mention this because it takes time and it may seem trivial, but important to the story later on), got dressed, fed Malone breakfast, got her cleaned up and dressed, and out the door we went. One little thing I should mention. Surprise, surprise! It was raining and pretty cold.

We arrived at the clinic and I was starting to execute my detailed plan to get myself, Malone, the stroller, and all our stuff out of the car and into the building with as little rain damage as possible. All was going well until.... I accidentally locked Malone in the car......and the award for Mother of The Year goes to......Me!!!! I kinda freaked out a little, tapping on random people's windows in the parking lot (in the pouring rain) asking to use their cell phones. Luckily, I had popped the trunk to get the stroller out and some nice Air Force gentleman crawled into my trunk, somehow got part of my backseat open and reached to unlock my door. Malone was relatively unscathed, all nice and warm in the car. I, on the other hand, was not so lucky. By the time I made it into the clinic, I had been standing in the FREEZING RAIN for 15-20 minutes. I was soaked from top to bottom (and my nicely straightened hair was no longer so straight), including my new wool/polyester coat that apparently smells like poop when it gets wet. Note to self!

I looked and smelled like a drowned rat walking in the clinic. I received a wide range of stares, stares of pity, stares of confusion, stares of judgment...I got them all! Anyways, after a quick doctor visit, we waited 45 minutes to get my medicine. Lets just say, by the time we got back in the car Malone was ready for a nap. So much action really took it out of her. Here she is when we got home.
Here was my hair a couple hours after we got home. By then, I looked significantly better and was significantly warmer.

Thank you very much for my Mother of The Year award. I will dust it occasionally and try not to lock it in the car.

She's the best

And she stands

We have a "Look, mom, no hands" standing baby!! Yay!

And she can even walk with her little walker. Our friends, Stephanie and Andrew lent us this great little walker for her to try out. She loves it!

Thanksgiving weekend

Wow, what a couple of weeks. Thanksgiving was great! So much to be grateful for, but I will write about that later. Here's the wrap-up:

- I woke up early on Thursday morning, got Malone ready, tried to eat a healthy breakfast (what do you eat for a death race?) and put on my running shoes. As we drove through Tacoma, going up hills...high hills, my stomach sank. I kept on telling people beforehand that I will be lucky if I finished, but really didn't believe I was that bad of a runner. UNTIL, we started going up the hills. I got nervous. I met my amazing friend, Melanie and we picked up our numbers. Number 771. That was my number. Here's Melanie and I getting ready.

We stood in line in the freezing cold (yeah, 38 degrees is awesome for my asthma and arthritis building up in my decrepit knee, should I keep the excuses coming?). We were still chatting away when I thought we were getting shot at...No, it was just the start gun. I'm not going to lie, I had flashes of Compton and drive-by shootings going through my mind and my racing heart. We started running. Look how excited I am? Its nervous energy. Oh and this was right before someone bumped into me, knocked my iPod off of my arm, someone else stepped on it and I ran to its safety, only to just about cause the largest human running accident in history. No worries, the iPod is fine.

I finished. No tears. No drama. I just finished. As I was running up the last hill (did I mention the hills were a little more than I bargained for?), I saw the three mile marker. Oh sweet relief!! The last little bit was downhill and I was able to run the fastest across the finish line...except for the lady dragging herself across the finish line right in front of me, walking. How did she finish ahead of me? Here's the crowd on the hill coming toward the finish line.
Here I am running the last few feet. I don't look very victorious. I look like I'm saying, "hey, babe" or "hi mom".

Malone fell asleep while Cameron was waiting for me to finish. Oh yes, and my finishing time was 34.40 minutes. Nothing spectacular. I guess I can only get better from here, right?

We spent the rest of Thursday just relaxing. We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday when our friends

James and Sara Martin arrived from Colorado. We had such a wonderful weekend with them. Malone, of course, fell in love with Sara and when she had to say goodbye to Sara, I just about cried.

Here's a few highlights of the weekend.