October 9, 2012-My Published Family!!

     It’s time to reveal a bit more about myself to my blog followers (most of you already know this, but for those who don’t know me personally and only through the blog, you may learn something new about me today). For years, I have been writing children’s picture books, building stories around things my boys have said and done that were too cute to not record in some fantastic, creative way.  I have sent many a query letter to book publishers, trying to convince them to publish these books, but I’ve yet to have a bite. So, when I was teaching at the elementary school back in the 2009-2010 school year, I had an idea. I would self-publish the books while I could afford it, and if I never sold more than enough books to simply break even, that would be okay because I would have a family heirloom to treasure forever.  Well, the only problem was that I am not much of an artist, and these are books written for preschoolers, so it is essential they have great, big colorful illustrations to go with the stories I had written.  My children were no longer preschoolers at the time, but they were both very interested in and good at drawing, so I asked them if they would want to illustrate some of my books that I had written about them.  They agreed and chose two of their favorites to illustrate individually.  It took about 2 years to complete all the illustrations and then about a year to make it through the self-publishing process, but as of this fall, you can find 2 of my children’s books on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble online, Books-A-Million, etc…and through my very own author’s websites created by Dog Ear Publishing! So, what’s the new information I am going to share as I’m sure I have written to you all about writing children’s books before?  I am going to reveal my name (or at least my author’s name-which is my maiden name) and my book titles on this blog. I have always keep names out of this very public and open blog forum because I simply felt more comfortable with sharing in that way since this type of journaling is very, very personal, but I am too proud of a momma to not let everyone know where they can find these books, so I cannot keep my name a secret anymore.  I would love for you all to check them out and let me know what you think.  If you go to Amazon, you will find them under “Alligators Coming!” and “Gotta See Nathan!” by Susannah Gray. The alligators book was illustrated by my oldest son, and the other book was illustrated by my youngest. You can also find them at AlligatorsComing.com and GottaSeeNathan.com.  I’m so proud of what my babies have done, and so excited to finally accomplish something I’ve wanted to do all my life.  Can’t wait to hear from you all when you have a chance to look them up!!

October 8, 2012-My First Quarter Marathon…

     When I was in high school, I ran Cross Country and a little track, mostly hurdles.  Our Cross Country meets mainly consisted of 2 miles runs every weekend through a wooded area around my hometown in Alabama during the season.  Two to three miles is good by me.  I can do that, even now, but more than that, I’m not usually that interested in.  I know people on the island who run marathons and talk about regularly running 20 miles around our 3 mile long, ½ mile wide piece of coral, and I cannot imagine that, and I will probably never achieve such a distance in my own running experiences. I admire those who do, and I have always enjoying running to a certain extent, just not that extent. J  At any rate, until today, I have never run farther than a 5 K, which is 3.1miles, and that was when I was in high school, and my running buddies and I entered the Monte Sano Mountain 5 K run up one of our local “hills,” as nothing in the valley where I grew up is tall enough to be considered an actual mountain. Today, I ran (and I use the term ran very, very loosely-it’s more like using the running motion, but only going the pace of a brisk walker) 6.52 miles in the Columbus Day Runabout ¼ Marathon. You could also choose a length of a ½ marathon (13.2 miles), but I thought for me, that might be a bit much (ha, like I could even survive that at this point in my life).  Anyway, I decided to start out in a jog and figured when I got tired, I would stop running and walk until I felt like running again. I knew I could easily jog ½ the distance, but never thought I would job the entire 6+ miles.  My oldest son helped out with the water stations as part of his Boy Scout troop, and at some point, I decided that I’ve run this far, I might as well at least run until I reach the 2^nd and last water station where my son was waiting with a cold cup of water for me…then maybe I’d walk the rest of the way. Well, the second water station was right about the 5-mile mark, so why stop at all now!  I basically finished last behind the 2 men who were walking/jogging the entire race in front of me, and beating the times only of the other ladies in our age category who walked the entire race, but that’s okay. I am proud to have finished it, and to even be able to do it at all cold turkey like that. I didn’t train for it, and really haven’t even been able to make time to go out an run regularly lately, so it was an accomplishment for me, and maybe it will even motivate me to get out there more often and do so physical training, so I can improve upon my time next year, that is if my first ¼ marathon doesn’t also end up being my last. J    

July 20-Now (October 7, 2012)-The First Three Months of Married Life

     Looking back at my blog today, I realized that August and September escaped  without my written notice. Sorry about that for those of you who check in at my blog now and again to see if I’m still around. J  I’m alive and well, praise the Lord, but it’s definitely been a very exciting three months starting with my children almost leaving to go live with their dad and step-mom in Alabama and eventually working something out with my ex, so that they all stayed, at least for another school year, I think. Then with the start up of school, busy days at work, volunteer duties picking back up (yes, I’m still teaching Sunday School, serving on the board of the PTO, and helping out with 4-H clubs here on island), I don’t really even remember September, although I will say the honeymoon continues.  My husband and I are transitioning from being weekend warriors, so to speak, to being together 24 /7, but we couldn’t be happier to just be on the same island and in the same household, finally!!  We’ve been through so much as a couple and a family already, that it only seemed natural to unite our lives even more fully to tackle the challenges and experience the joy of living in this world together for the rest of our lives. Unfortunately, we haven’t had a chance to go on that honeymoon yet, although just living in the same house often feels like a honeymoon to me. Previously, we only got to be together every day when we were on vacations, so I guess you could say, we have remained in a mini-vacation mode the past 3 months. During that time, we’ve cleaned out and reorganized the house, making room for my husband’s stuff due to arrive on the barge from his island any day now, we hope, and we’ve attempted to begin figuring out a family budget, particularly in the area of food purchases. My magnificent chef of a husband has worked hard on a rotating menu plan, which cut our grocery bills by at least a fourth. Knowing what exactly to buy, according to the menu for the week, and not overbuying on things we end up not eating before they go bad made a bigger difference than I ever realized it could.  As we all learn and grow together as a family, life moves on. The boys both have birthdays coming up soon, and they will be 9 and 11. I can’t believe it. The summer itself has shown how much they’ve grown in maturity, not needing my help as much with school work and being old enough and responsible enough to hang out around the island with friends and needing minimal adult supervision.  Most importantly, they are both healthy and happy, which is a very big deal, considering all they have been through the past several years.  One thing I have learned through it all is to take it one day at a time and enjoy every moment possible in the now, not worrying about the future until it comes. I’ve said this before in my blog, knowing it was right, but allowing myself to worry anyway, so now I am learning to really let go of that worry and fear about what might happen in the future because when I think I know what’s next, everything changes, and that’s okay…God’s in charge, keeping His children’s best interest always at heart.  

Evening of July 7th-July 19, 2012-The First 12 Days…

     Just like waiting for Christmas morning or gearing up for vacation, once the big day arrives, it always goes by too quickly, and you’re left with simply the clean-up before life moves on.  The big day has come and gone, and it was more than I ever could have expected because of the hard work and generosity of our family and friends. Thanks are definitely in order for all of those in the family who helped fix up their places for the occasion so that they looked more beautiful than ever.  Without a wedding coordinator, the matron of honor, my now husband, and his wonderful family divided up and took on all the tough tasks of putting together everything from the rehearsal dinner to setting up the sound system, making the centerpieces and setting the tables for the reception, putting the coolers together, and so much more! While my best friend and matron of honor assisted me with my hair and make-up back at her hotel room, my sweetheart and his family made sure everything was taken care of back at the wedding and reception venues.  The ceremony and reception itself was beautiful and went by without a hitch. Of course, there are always those little things behind the scenes that come up last minute, but thanks to our fabulous “venue crews,” the guests never knew the difference.  It was an honor to have my cousin officiate and to have a whole table of Kwajalein residents at both the wedding and reception.  We feel so blessed to have such a supportive base of friends and family from around the world really. My family traveled from North Carolina, Missouri, Alabama, and Texas while many of our friends and my husband’s family traveled from as far away as Kwajalein and as close as various spots throughout Oregon for a total of around 40 guests on that sunny, warm evening. Yes, the worries about rainy weather were unnecessary. In fact, we delayed the ceremony and such because the sun was so bright, and it was so warm that we needed to push back the time in order to make it more comfortable for everyone and allow the sun to set a little further behind our archway where the ceremony took place.  J   

       Since that lovely day and our wedding weekend at the Holiday Inn in Albany, it’s been a whirlwind of activity for our first 12 days a married couple.  It started with a day trip to Newport with the family and friends who were able to stick around for an extra day or two, and then a longer road trip to various spots throughout Oregon including McMinnville to see the Spruce Goose (www.evergreenmuseum.org) and have some fun at a water park and to Seaside and Cannon Beach to enjoy another quaint coastal town and the amazing sight of Haystack Rock. (http://ci.cannon-beach.or.us/~Natural/hrap.html). We spent the night in Seaside, so the boys started their day dipping their toes into the icy cold waters of Cannon Beach and ended it throwing snowballs at each other on Mt. Hood at the historic and absolutely breathtaking Timberline Lodge (http://www.timberlinelodge.com).  Another honeymoon treat we were blessed to receive occurred when my parents offered to treat us to a night at the lodge, so we returned the favor and treated them to a gourmet dinner at the Cascade Dining Room within the lodge itself.  It was one of those surreal moments when you are taken back in time to the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt who provided the work force for the handmade wood lodge through his Works Progress Administration program (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fdr-creates-the-wpa ). The next morning it was off to the High Dessert Museum (http://www.highdesertmuseum.org) near Bend, Oregon for a fun and educational end to our 3 day road trip. 

      The remaining 6 days were spent relaxing with family back at the Oregon homestead, going to the dirt track races, supporting the family by attending the 4-H County Fair, and taking care of business, such as starting the long process of changing my name on everything from my social security number to bank accounts and so much more.  I wish we had more time to just be with everyone and catch up because once a year is never enough and with preparing for and executing all the wedding events, we had less time than usual to devote to all those important people in our lives and especially those who were visiting us from afar. 

     Now that we are headed back home, I have very mixed feelings about leaving. Oregon is becoming my home, and I look forward to having a chance to be a more permanent resident there some day.  Sitting at the airport, typing this, I am missing everyone already. It’s been a wonderful wedding adventure, and I can’t wait to see what the rest of our lives have in store!!