Jazzie and Tahlia

Backyard Play

Jazzie had a good time playing on the swingset last night...

Tahlia the giraffe AND interior designer

Tahlia's class put on a small play yesterday. It was all but 6 minutes long and Tahlia had one line, but she sure did make for a cute giraffe!

Two days before the play she decided she really wanted a costume, so we bought a very inexpensive yellow t-shirt, glued spots cut from brown felt on it and wrapped brown and yellow pipecleaners around some reindeer antlers that we found in the dress-up box...

For the past several weeks Tahlia has been begging me to change around the furniture in her room. I kept telling her that I didn't think that how she wanted to put things was going to work. Her room is not that big and I just thought the layout would be wrong on many levels. Then the other day she came down with a piece of paper. She had drawn a layout of her room with the furniture placed where she wanted it. 

I thought it was so cute, so I agreed to change her furniture around really expecting it not to fit right, but wouldn't you know it - it actually did and looks good! Tahlia was thrilled.

Who knows? Maybe she'll have a future in interior design ;-)

10 years of Forever Family Days

This past Friday we celebrated the fact that Jazzie and her friend K. have been home for 10 years. The girls have been friends ever since we came home from China and every year our families get together to celebrate.

And from years past (I'm missing a couple of years):

Forever Family Day

10 years ago on this date in China, a very quiet and curious little girl was placed in our arms...

It's hard to believe that it has been that long, but I remember like it was yesterday. SARS was in full swing, but we did not care! We had our little girl...

10 years later we have a beautiful daughter who is still curious, but also bright, funny, determined and SUPER focused.

I always try to make the girls' Forever Family Days special for them. Jazzie asked me if I could bring her Panera Bread for lunch at school and of course I was happy to oblige!

Then after a visit to the dentist (no cavities!), Jazzie chose to have Chipotle for dinner. Earlier in the week Jazzie mentioned she wanted to make a rainbow cake for her Forever Family Day. And why not? Jazzie did it all by herself. She was so proud ;-)

Happy Forever Family Day, Jazzie. We love you so much!

Smartie Pants

The other day Jazzie and I were sending silly texts back and forth. I was at gymnastics with Tahlia and she was at home with Matt. At one point I sent her a picture of myself with the caption "Smokin' Mother". I misspelled it, however. So being the smartie pants that she is, Jazzie sent this back:

Hilarious.

Jasmine

A.k.a. Jazzie.

A.k.a. Jazz, Jazzie Jay, JJ, Jazzercise, Jazzematazz, Jazzers, Skinny Jasminny ;-)

Beautiful, smart, tenacious, stubborn, focused, funny, determined and a deep, deep thinker.

Lover of Harry Potter, board games, noodles, pyjama days, writing, and math.

Hater of music, summer, cochlear implant mappings, shopping, sparkly clothes, showers, and bean sprouts.

Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon

Yesterday I participated in the 15th annual Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon. It is always such a fun event. The course is challenging with some major hills, but the spectators are AWESOME and I am proud to have been a part of my hometown race once again. 

Matt was out there on the course cheering me and 34,000 other runners on with these signs:

At the start of the race, a rainbow appeared in the sky behind us. And how appropriate that it was pink!

One of my training buddies and I at the start:

I felt strong during the entire race. The first 5 miles were flat, but the next 3 miles were all uphill. I was never so happy to have done all that hill training, since I made it to the top without any struggles. Seeing Matt halfway up the hill was awesome and encouraging :-)

You may have seen pictures of the custodian at Jazzie and Tahlia's school (who happens to be an Elvis impersonator) singing during lunch, but he was also one of the many entertainers along the marathon course.

(Flying Pig Photograph)

Here I am at mile 7, smiling towards my cheerleader Matt...

The weather was good and it didn't start raining until I got to mile 10. I finished strong and beat my own personal time. A successful race and I cannot wait to do it again! 

My neighbor trained with me and finished her first half marathon. I am super proud of her!

Next on my radar: The Columbus Full Marathon in October.

And just because I think this picture is cute, here are Tahlia, my grand baby and I at a local pizza place the night before the race.

Thanks for helping me carb load, cuties!

New York, New York

Matt and I took a trip to New York City last week for our 15th wedding anniversary. The girls stayed with my wonderful friend Katie and were well taken care off while Matt and I enjoyed four fabulous days in the city...

We spent hours upon hours just walking around all the different neighborhoods and took in all the sights. I think my favorite day was Thursday when we took the subway to lower Manhattan. We visited the 911 Memorial, Wall Street and then made our way back to our hotel in Midtown by way of Chinatown (we had a wonderful lunch there!), Soho, Tribeca, Greenwich Village and Chelsea (my favorite!). I think we walked about 10 hours that day... 

We strolled in Central Park, people watched in Times Square, saw Wicked on Broadway, took a cruise around Manhattan and just enjoyed being together and all that the city has to offer. It was a fabulous, wonderful trip...

The Today Show. I saw Hoda and Kathie Lee :-)

St. Patrick's Cathedral. Beautiful...

All the flowering trees were in bloom in Central Park and it was just beautiful!

911 Memorial. It was so overwhelming to be there. Just seeing all the names of those that died inscribed in the fountains, seeing and hearing all the construction that's going on to rebuild the buildings that got destroyed, seeing the beauty of the city around this place where such horrible things happened, was almost numbing and all the emotions from that day came back: Why did this happen? Why, why, why? The memorial itself is beautiful and very nicely done. I am so glad I got to see it.

View from the top of the Empire State Building:

Our hotel was close to the garment district and as a Project Runway fan, I simply had to visit Mood. Thank you, Mood! 

And as a Sex and the City fan, I was excited to walk by Carrie's apartment :-)

The USS Intrepid. My father-in-law served on this ship.