It's Flooding Around Here!! But We Are OKAY

This is a picture of the bridge that leads to our walking track. It was completely covered with water and flowing debris. If you look closely you can see the benches almost covered with water.

The bathroom at the track was dry, but all around it was covered.

This picture is of the drag strip that is 1/4 mile from our house. It appears to have a total of 10 feet of water covering the track.

This field (yes, it used to be a field) was planted last month and little plants were showing through yesterday.

A whole row of power poles were knocked down at First Monday yesterday in the tornado that touched down in Ripley.

These buildings were also knocked over yesterday during the storm.

This picture shows how high the water was in Ripley at their walking track. I estimate it to be at least 6 feet high.

This roof was taken off a building in Ripley and landed in the parking lot of Mi Pueblo.

Coca-Cola 10K in Corinth, Mississippi

What a yucky day for a race! It started out storming and rainy and under a tornado watch, but the weather conditions were fair during the race.

Alec, Parker, and Carson get ready to run their first 10K ever.

Noelle, Tyler, Alec, and Brandon are excited for the race to begin. Preston wasn't too sure about this picture. Ms. Heather and her Blue Mountain team and some of the Spartan team are talking race strategy right on the starting line. And they're off with the Kenyans taking the early lead and never relinquishing the lead. It was fun to see them run. They were running a sub 5 minute pace all the way to the 5 mile mark. The leader finished somewhere around 31 minutes. I have never run a 5K under that time, let alone a 10K.

This is the winner of the race! He was super fast and finished with a time of 31:20.

Brandon blew our expectations out of the water and finished 54th overall (out of 714 runners) in 46:10 on his first 10K ever. He maintained a 7:27 pace throughout the race. He had never run the full distance before today, but that did not slow him down any.

Alec did not walk one step the whole race. We are so proud of him. He had only run 4 miles before and did not know what to expect about the 6.2 mile distance. He finished at 57:49 and was 239th out of 714 runners. He maintained a 9:20 mile.

Kirsten and Alec pose with this "cool" Coca-Cola truck. Kirsten has not run much since she broke her arm, and we did not want this distance to be her first race back.

Brandon receiving his first place trophy in the 5-9 male category.

Oh So Cute!

I took this picture at Tippah Lake yesterday of this family of geese. It was two adult geese with five little goslings staying right with them. It was so cute. Those little goslings were swimming for all they were worth to keep up with the adults. The adults were a little agitated because of some ducks that were nearby.

Spartan Practice

These are just a few pictures from practice on Tuesday.

Paint Ball War

At our church we have a morning service, lunch, and then an afternoon service. Most Sundays after all the services are over, the men and boys get together to play paint ball. This was Alec's first time ever to shoot a paint ball gun.

He was a casualty of this battle, but he had more opportunities to shoot.

In between battles, they have to reload the guns.

Getting strategies together.

Some of these guys take things very seriously.

Alec shows off his many hits.

Luke looked so funny that I had to take a picture.

Mansion 5K Race

The 5K race this morning was to raise money for the Children's Mansion in Tupelo. It was a beautiful morning for a race, but it started OH SO EARLY! We left our house at 5:30 to arrive early for the race which started at 7:00.

There was a good turnout this morning and it was a great race. Alec finished his race in 25:09 (official time) which was 10 seconds slower than his goal time. He wanted to finish in the 24s (I had told him that if he finished any time with a 24 at the beginning that I would take him to Shoney's to eat breakfast). He was a little disappointed that he did not make it, but he was happy with his time.

Some of the Spartans waiting for the awards and the door prizes. We won lots of trophies amongst our little group and there was lots of cheering for the winners.

We Have a New Toy!!

Mitch bought a new gas powered RC car yesterday. We got to run it a little today. It is awesome!

This car can run up to between 50-60 miles per hour.

Mitch and Alec work on the car to get it ready to go.

Kirsten and Alec join Mitch as the car gets going.

Alec gets his turn at driving the car.

Now Kirsten gets a turn to drive.

It is fun to drive this car!

Easter Egg Hunt

We always have an Easter egg hunt at my mother's house sometime the week after Easter. There are two reasons for this: 1) not all of my siblings and their kids are here for Easter Sunday, 2) candy is a whole lot cheaper if you buy it after Easter. We invited our pastor's kids to come hunt eggs with us, so we had a total of 13 kids to hunt eggs.

The kids cannot wait very long, so we had to take a picture and take it QUICKLY!

On your mark, get set, go HUNT EGGS!

Alec has to stretch high for this one.

Kirsten gets in on the hunting action.

Alec found this toad while hunting eggs and thought he was pretty special.

Counting their loot - money and candy.

The boys are counting their eggs also.

Easter Egg Hunting on Saturday

The Saturday before Easter we went to Mitch's side of the family's Easter gathering. We always go to his Dad's house for all holidays. It is always fun to see the whole family and to visit and eat lots of good food.

Alec, Kirsten and Wesley always have fun hunting eggs.

Happy Easter

May you all have a blessed and wonderful Easter!

This Is Not Humorous!

While I was at work today, Kirsten was playing on the tire swing and the whole swing came crashing down with her on it. My Mom called me at work and told me that I might want to come home and see it. I am not one who gets concerned about bumps and scrapes very easily, but I came home anyway. I first took her to my chiropractor who x-rayed and said that her humerus bone was indeed fractured.

He suggested that we go to the orthopaedic doctor just to be on the safe side. He was pretty sure that the growth plate was not involved but wanted a second opinion. The second doctor agreed with the first one and Kirsten will be in a sling for at least three weeks and will not be allowed to run or to train or compete in any of the upcoming athletic events that we had been planning on. But she is a real trooper and is being a good patient. I asked her if breaking her humerus bone was humorous, but I did not get much of a laugh out of her.

Pontotoc Lions 5K Race

It was a beautiful, yet cool and windy, morning to run this morning. There was a decent turnout for this race in Pontotoc, MS.

The runners are waiting for the gun to go off.

Martha started this season almost where she finished last season -- a very fast 22:16 -- a speed that won her the award of 1st female overall. One of Ms. Heather's runners from Blue Mountain College, Tuesdae, came in 2nd female overall (1st in her age group);and Catherine came in 3rd female overall (1st in her age group). Alec had a very fast first race of the season (especially good for this hilly course) with a time under 26:00. I do not have his official time yet and someone was blocking the clock in the picture I took, but I found out later that it was 25:55. Macain and Brandon finished 1st and 2nd in their age group and were only seconds apart at the finish. Brandon's time was 23:13 and Macain was a little ahead of him. Josh finished third in his age group and was super fast today. It was fun to watch all of our runners today.

Kirsten finished with a respectable time of 28:22. We expect good things out of her this season.

The kids were all waiting on the awards and the door prizes.

Austin -- another of Ms. Heather's BMC runners -- won 1st place overall with a super fast time of 16:43. This was not his personal best, but he said he was pleased as this course is difficult.

Ms. Heather was well represented by her college runners and her homeschooled runners. We missed her today as she was running a race in Memphis.

This is a picture of Martha with her 1st female overall trophy.