The week of sickness

Well, the week started out with Andrew being sick.  He had a fever and a cough.  No big deal really.  Clayton desperately wanted to be sick.  Desperately.  He really wanted to stay home from school.  He was unsuccessful all week.  However, Wednesday morning was a crazy morning. 

Andrew, Clayton and I headed out around 6:45 am to take Clayton to school.  Before we backed out of the driveway I heard Andrew gagging in the back seat (b/c of this cough he has).  In an effort to not have...well, you know...all in my car, I threw the car in park, opened the door and told him to please get sick outside.  In an attempt to lean out of the car I guess momentum carried him out of the car...head first...face plant...on to the driveway.  Awesome.  I should have known.  I should have just gone back in and headed back to bed.  Instead we drove on.  I was headed across town and wanted to avoid traffic.  Just when I was patting myself on the back at our quick/early escape my phone rang.  It was Fred.  Jack was now running a fever.  Andrew and I turned around to get him, but by the time we met up with Fred traffic had picked up.  I didn't make it to Germantown until 8:30 (it was going to be 7:45 am).  Luckily, he was able to stay with Mawmaw and rest up while I worked. 
Wednesday night I was starting a Bible study at church.  I had everything prepared and ready.  Long story short, about 15 minutes in to the Bible study, my computer crashed.  As in it just quit and went black.  No response.  I had no written notes.  Nothing.  It was traumatic.  I tried unsuccessfully to revive the computer and later found myself at Best Buy that evening.  The Geek Squad pronounced my lap top dead.  Dead.  Mercy.  I told you I should have gone back to bed.  Oh, and sweet Jack?  When both of your parents are working at church and you are sick, what do you do?  You sit in your dad's office until church is over.  Bless his heart. 

It was P week at Andrew's preschool last Thursday so he got to wear Pppppajamas and eat pppppizza. It was a good day.  He asked me several times if I was SURE everyone else would be there in their pajamas.  He did not want to be the only person in pajamas.  He's shares Fred's disdain for pajamas in public apparently. 

While Andrew was at school (and his brothers too) I shopped for a new computer, along with various other errands.  As the day went on though, I progressively felt worse. By the time I finished running around I finally sat and took my temperature.  Yes, I was the third victim.  Great.  Fred took all "kid duties" for the evening and I pretty much stayed in bed.  At this point I was pretty much done with the week.  Done. 

All in all after all the sickness seems to have passed we've had a good weekend.  (No, Clayton never got sick...much to his dismay.) We had ballgames all morning Saturday.  We celebrated the birthday of a sweet friend at Pyro's.  Then we came home for a relaxing evening.  I call that a success.

This week

After several months of being off running I think I'm back.  I ran 5 miles this week in freezing rain, sleet and snow.  I even got to run with new shoes.  It was really fun.  While we aren't training for it yet, Fred and I are signed up to run a relay race called Ragnar in October.  We, along with 10 other people, will run from Chattanooga to Nashville in 36 hours.  I think it's going to be a memorable experience.  It will be loads of fun, right?!?

I ran a few errands with a friend on Friday.  These almonds were 3 for $5.  I grabbed them up.  Later that day I was going to indulge in them.  When I took the lid off they were opened already.  I was so disappointed...and grossed out.  I just threw them away.  When relaying the tragedy to Renee, Fred piped up with, "Oh, it was me.  I opened them."  Needless to say I got them out of the trash.  

 While we were running errands I saw these Red Velvet mini donuts.  I was intrigued to say the least.  I really wanted to buy them, but refrained.  The funny thing was that when I saw them I thought it looked like something my father in law would like.  Well...guess what I saw on the counter as soon as I walked in to the Shackelford house?!?  I doubled over laughing.

My nephews were both baptized this weekend in Murfreesboro.  I knew we had to go.  So, the boys and I headed out Saturday afternoon after basketball games.  We made it to the boro Saturday night in time to eat dinner and for the boys to play.  

Sunday morning I got to be there for their church service as both my nephews became my brothers in Christ.  It was just wonderful to be there!

 After church we enjoyed a delicious meal at Wendy's.  Then I attempted to get a picture of these five all together.  Ladies and gentlemen...this is as good as it gets...yes, it is!

Andrew was just not himself all weekend.  Even my brother commented on his whineyness (is that a word?).  We pulled in to the driveway in time for me to change my clothes.  Andrew still just was not himself.  Sweet Clayton suggested that we take his temperature.  Low and behold he was running a fever.  Bummer.  Sick again.

January, how I love thee

January is always a slow month for us.  And that's a good thing since it gets dark so early.  I'm ready to go to bed by 7:00 pm...I kid...really about 5:30 pm.  I usually push forward, but typically January finds the Shackelfords all tucked in by 8:45 pm.  I'm not even kidding.

We use January to get ready for the year.  So, several things are in the planning stages: a children's Valentine's party, Kids Beach Club, children's camp, women's Bible study, VBS, an Easter egg hunt, spring sport league sign ups, etc.  Not much is on the schedule, but much is being planned.  I am so excited about the Valentine's party we have coming up.  We are having the children at our church while their parents leave on #EPICEBCDATENIGHT.  It's going to be awesome or should I say epic.  
We are in full swing with basketball season and with three boys at three different locations Saturday mornings do not disappoint.  I had training Saturday for a program we started this week through church so Mimi and Tee came in for kid duty.  I think they were excited and exhausted.  After all the games we took my dad to Slider Inn for his birthday and then had cake afterwards.  We have no pictures of this event.  Boo...everyone involved was too busy.  Happy Birthday to my dad!  Sonic celebrated his birthday all over the country with 50 cent corn dogs.  I told him he was a lucky guy to have 50 cent corn dogs all day on his birthday...lucky indeed.

Friday night before all the basketball festivities Mimi and Tee took the boys to the mall for dinner and trampoline jumping.  They had dinner, but unfortunately the person running the trampoline station never showed up.  Bummer.  My mother offered to take the boys for us so we could go on a date night.  Before she had the words out of her mouth we were out the door.  Ha!

Friday morning I run with a friend.  If you know me well you know that I am not flexible at all.  (Figuratively and literally speaking...but more literally.)  I talked my friend in to going to a yoga class with me at the gym.  It was comical to say the least.  The girl leading the class literally started speaking another language "to heighten our yoga experience".  What?!?  I'm not even kidding.  At one point I was trying so hard not to laugh I'm pretty sure I snorted.  If you've ever been to yoga, you know it's not the snorting kind of environment.  Anyway...
While Fred and I were on our date I sent my friend the picture below.  I told her after my one class Fred and I were planning on ending our date like this...

Actually, I kid.  After an hour long class I still can not touch my toes.  Seriously.

Friday before my parents got here I took the boys to get hair cuts.  Clayton mentioned to me that he'd like to get his hair cut short.  If you don't know he's been wearing it longer.  I choose not to say anything about his hair.  I try not to major on minor things.  Having said that...when he mentioned that he might cut it short I was all.over.it.  Doesn't he look sweet?!?

Speaking of Clayton...he has two projects at school right now: a science fair project and a book report.  There ought to be a law against being able to assign two project at a time to a sixth grader.  There also ought to be a law against science fair projects, but I digress.  He has had one project all year and here we are with two in one month.  What in the world?  

My mother in law was out of town with Fred's brother.  Before she came back she asked me if I would clean her house since my father in law had been there alone for 10 days.  Sure.  I actually love this kind of thing.  I took Dash with me so he could play with Honey.  Dash loves Honey.  However, Dash does not like the car that much.  This is how he rode most of the way.  

 When we got to her house Dash was not very nice.  He took poor Honey's bone and would not give it back.  I think it was a real test of the friendship.  Silly dogs.

Sweet Jack has made some friends in the neighborhood (Yeah!).  It is so sweet to see them all playing outside together after school and on the weekends.  Jack loves being outside and he loves a buddy.  So win, win for him.  

Fred and I have had the same mattress since we got married.  It's been a good mattress.  Really good. But it's almost 15 years old and it's starting to show a little wear.  We need to buy a new one, but unlike when we got married, Fred and I now have different opinions about what kind of mattress we need.  I made an appointment with him on Friday to go look at mattresses.  When he saw it on our calendar (Yes, our calendars are synced.  Yes, we are nerds.) he laughed.  Why did he laugh?  If this mattress works out like the first one we will have it for 15 years.  By the time we get rid of this next mattress Clayton will be 26, Jack will be 23 and Andrew will be 19.  (I'd prefer not to think about how old I'll be!) It will definitely be a different day.  Let's not talk about it right now.  

Not much going on. It's actually nice.

We have settled back into a routine.  Christmas break is a distant memory.  Ahhh...the lazy days of Christmas break.
Clayton came home from school Tuesday with two (big) assignments:  a paper on the History of Pi and a book report in a bag.  Good times.  The paper was due Friday.  The book report is due February 5th.  Thankfully we have a little more time for that one.  One night this week he worked on homework until 7:00 pm (He gets home from school at 2:15 pm.), with an hour break for supper.  Ridiculous really, but that's a different post all together.  Here he is Friday afternoon.  I took a picture because "we made it".  Whew...welcome back.

Andrew is working on writing his name and "reading".  Here's his name.  He's so proud.

Here's a clip of him "reading".  Sweet boy.




The boys are all playing basketball.  That means Saturdays have three different games, at three different times, in three different locations.  Wow.

Saturday started at Bartlett Hills at 8:15 with Clayton.  The big boys and I came to this game.

 Fred and Andrew were at Ellendale because Andrew played at 9:00.  When Clayton's game was over we all headed to Ellendale.  Once it was over we went home for about 30 minutes.

 Then we headed to Jack's 11:15 game at New Hope.

When Jack's game was over we went to Sam's to get new tires for Fred's car.  While there we had lunch.  We finally got home around 2:00 pm.  Andrew took a nap and the rest of us relaxed around the house.

Some of our sweet friends from Paris came in town and we were able to meet them for dinner Saturday night at Central BBQ.  We had the best time visiting with them.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of us all together.  We were too busy visiting.

Happening around here

I cannot believe it's 2015.  I remember as a child calculating how old I would be in 2000.  It seemed so far off and now here we are 15 years in to the millennium.  It's crazy.
We thoroughly enjoyed our break from school and regular responsibilities.  Monday (the 5th) was our last day of break.  Clayton came in the kitchen and asked me if we could have donuts for our last day.  Of course!  I jumped in the car with my pajamas and slippers on intending to zip through the drive thru at the nearest donut shop.  (I could see my mother shaking her head no...not a good idea.)  Well, I went to three different shops and they were all closed.  By this point I was determined to find donuts for my boys.  I ventured on to a fourth donut shop and much to my dismay they did not have a drive thru window.  Shoot.  I waited for the shop to clear out and when the coast was cleared I slipped in with my head held high and ordered my donuts.  Goodness...I was cringing on the inside, but honestly I couldn't disappoint my fellas.  They wanted donuts and I was going to deliver...even if it meant wearing my slippers and pajamas in public.

 Look at those smiles.  Totally worth it!!

 I should also mention that it is really just not my week.  This happened Monday, but Sunday I found myself in a similar situation.  On Sunday mornings before Fred preaches I usually pray with him.  Sometimes the service will start before I get in.  I just wait at the door until Fred prays during the service and then I slip in.  I do this almost every week.  No big deal...except that I was in a robe when I walked in the choir loft and no one else was wearing a robe.  And I was in front of the entire church.  All I could do was laugh.  And put my robe up.  And sit in the balcony.  Oh well...

Speaking of church...maybe our kids do listen after all.  One day this week Fred looked over at me and said something like I love you the most.  Andrew from the backseat of the van, without looking up from his Kindle said, "Don't you mean you love God the most?"  Nice.  Schooled about Jesus
by a five year old.

After our feast of donuts we went to the mall to meet Liz and Zachary to play a little.  The little boys played in the play area and the big boys went to Game Stop.  Then we had lunch and jumped on the trampolines.  Remember when riding the escalators was our entertainment?

Spring Break, circa 2010.  They were THRILLED!  Really.

 I had to set this for the first time since December 19th.  Yuck,  I'm not saying I wasn't ever up early, but there's just something about HAVING to get up.  Boo for break being over.

I came out of my bedroom to this sweet, sick fella.  He has a cough and is running a fever.  Bummer.  I'm closely monitoring his temperature.  If it gets to high we are off for a flu test (Our buddy from church tested positive yesterday for the flu.), but if not we are staying away from the clinic and all it's germs.  No need to expose anyone unnecessarily.

Andrew seems like such a big boy to me these days, until I look at this picture.  He looks so little.  I would never tell him this, but this picture reminds me of how little he still is.  I treasure each day.  I try to soak up each moment.  I am so grateful to my heavenly father for this day.  This morning when he said, "Mom, I don't feel good.  Will you sit by me?"  You better believe I parked it right on the couch right beside him...and canceled all plans that I had for today.  Yes, I did.  

New Year's Eve

We woke up on New Year's Eve full of excitement.  2014 was a good year.  We had highs.  We had lows.  We made mistakes.  We had victories.  We are still on a journey with a loving God learning more about Him each day.  Each year I reflect on the year that has passed.  2014 was a good year.

New Year's Eve started off like any other day.  We ate breakfast.  I went to the grocery. (Actually I went to Walmart.  I am vowing not to go in 2015, but that's a different post.)  We did laundry.  We ate lunch.  You know, just regular stuff.  Sometime that afternoon Fred went on a run.  About 20 minutes after he left he called me.  He had stepped in a leaf pile and twisted his ankle.  Oh dear.  He asked me to come pick him up, but then called back and said he could make it home.  By the time he got home he had a softball like knot on the side of his foot.  Oh goodness.   Sometime during the day I started feeling queasy.  Yuck.  We were scheduled to go to dinner with a sweet group of friends at the Butcher Shop.  We had reservations at 7:30 pm. By 8:20 pm we still had not been seated.  Fred and I looked at the clock and realized we wouldn't be back in time to get the kiddos.  The boys were happily playing at a freind's house.  I'm sure they would have been fine, but me feeling queasy, plus not getting our kiddos on time made us decide to leave.  Bummer.  New Year's Eve did not quite turn out like we expected, but oh well...that's life.

2015 is going to be a great year!  Today is a new day, a new year, a new start.  But really if we walk with Christ, is that not the story of every day?

The Lord's loving kindness indeed never ceases, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness.  Lamentations 2:22-23...Now that's a reason to say Happy New Year!  Here's to walking with him every day in 2015!